(BwJ} Craig Kominiak’s Focaccia

Baking bread makes the kitchen smell so cozy and homey. I love making bread. It is just so relaxing. Baking this Craig’s focaccia was no diffrent. While it took two days the recipe resulted in a lovely silky dough, enough for three loaves, and a nice chewy flatbread.

Focaccia is always fun to make. This one was different than what I am used to. While most Focaccia is dimpled Craig’s is slashed…

..which means lots of places to catch the olive oil and mixed herbs.

If you want to try Craig’s Focaccia you can visit Sharmini of Wandering Through for the recipe and a lovely picture of her Focaccia.

The recipe is also on page 43 of Baking with Julia

If you want to join us just visit for the rules.

 

{SRC} Sustained by Stephanie

Today is the First Monday in February. That means it is time for Secret Recipe Club! Once a month we cook from our ‘assigned’ foodie blog and post out goodies. It is always the first Monday.

This month I was fortunate enough to meet STEPHANIE ofSustainable Cooking For One. She lives in Upstate New York and is gluten free and vegetarian. That made it interesting for me as I am not either and some kind of meat is always on our table. There are a lot of tasty recipes on her site made for gluten free so I picked a couple that I could easily adapt. Lots of good veggies, too.

For Breakfast we had…

…Pumpkin Waffles

{Yes, I know, there is no waffle. I know I took pics but they are not to be found – sorry!!}
Sunday is usually our day for pancakes or waffles so this was a good time to try out these pumpkin waffles. With all the spice in the waffles they were packed with flavor and didn’t need very much else, but we did use a little Maple Syrup on top. I added pecans to mine and loved the extra crunch they added (in addition to the flax seed)

This makes a lot, but they are well worth freezing. Expect 12-14 full sized waffles, fewer Belgian waffles.

1 c pumpkin, mashed or canned
6 eggs, separated
2 T sugar or maple syrup
3 c milk or your fake milk of choice
1/4 c oil (use a light olive oil or canola oil)
1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 c ground flaxseed
2 t baking powder
1 TBL Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 TBL chopped pecans

{RED is my subs}

Stir together the egg yolks, pumpkin, sugar, oil, and milk. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, spices, pecans,and flaxseed. Start whisking the egg whites. Whisk (or beat with a mixer) until they are stiff. Meanwhile, heat the waffles iron.

Stir the dry ingredient into the pumpkin mixture. When the dry ingredients are dampened, fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter. When mixed, gently fold the remaining egg white in.

Bake according to the directions of your waffle iron. Don’t try to remove them too soon! One key is to watch the steam coming from the iron. When it decreases significantly, that’s a sign they are close to done.

To freeze, cool completely on cooling racks and pack into freezer bags. Reheat in a hot oven (~400 F) for 5-10 minutes.

Here is Stephanie’s Original Recipe

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Dessert was simple. Simple doesn’t mean something not so good. In this case it was

Maple Crusted Baked Apples.

Stephanie said that baked apples are underappreciated. She’s right. But here they make fairly regular appearances. They are so easy to put together and so good to eat. Hers are ‘stuffed’ with raisins and pecans. I added a dried fruit mix of cranberries, dried cherries, pineapple, raisins, etc.

1 medium apple
Pinch of any or all: cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
4 Tbl Dried Fruit Mix
2 T chopped raw pecans
1 T maple syrup (real, preferably grade B)

Peel one circle around the middle of the apple, and a little off the top of the apple. Remove the core. Peel all or part of the apple.{While Stephanie typically cuts deep circles into the apple from top and bottom with a paring knife I peeled most of the apple.} Place the apple in a small baking dish or oven-safe bowl. Mix together the spices and roll the apple in them. Mix any remaining spices with the raisins, and add about 1/3 of the pecans. Stuff that mixture into the center of the apple. Pour the maple syrup over the apple, and top with the remaining pecans. Bake until soft. Spoon the syrup/juice blend over the apple before serving.

Sorry to say that these two treats were all I had time for this month. It has been crazy around here lately. But I pinned a few other recipes of Stephanie’s I want to try – Corn Gratin, Spinach-Mushroom Quesidilla, not to mention a new recipe on a new post – Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Cookies. And if you visit with Stephanie be sure and read some of her articles which are very informative – like the one on Food Variety. Thanks, Stephanie, for the recipes and the wonderful articles. I will be visiting again!

And visit the other members of SRC

 

{MKMW} Danish Aebelskivers

Aebelskivers!

…are traditional Danish pancakes in a distinctive shape of a sphere. Somewhat similar in texture to American pancakes crossed with a popover, æbleskiver are solid like a pancake but light and fluffy like a popover.

They can be savory or sweet. I didn’t know which ones to make so I did both. The first ones were filled with cheese.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 large eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons (112 stick) unsalted butter. melted
1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 48 small pieces

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth, then whisk in the buttermilk until well blended. In another large bowl, whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks
form.
Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture just until blended. Do not over mix. Fold the egg whites into the batter until almost no white streaks remain.
Heat an ableskiver pan over medium heat. Lightly brush the inside of each well of the pan with the melted butter. Working in batches, spoon 1 rounded tablespoon of batter into each well, drop a piece of cheese in the batter, and top with a little more batter.
Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the top of the batter becomes very bubbly. Flip the
ableskivers using a metal skewer, {I used chopsticks} and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, until browned.
Using the metal skewer , transfer the ableskivers to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain briefly. Repeat with the remaining batter, brushing the pan with butter between each batch. Serve warm.
SERVES 6 TO 8

Using the same recipe but without the cheese I made a plain batch and bathed them in a simple syrup.

One recipe two snacks! Cannot beat that.

The recipe is barely adapted from Molly O’Neill’s One Big Table on page 9.

Come on over toto see what else is on the Smörgåsbord.

 

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

I know what you are thinking. Pumpkin season is OVER! Maybe! Or Maybe not when you find a recipe you want to try. I was supposed to make these for my Mom for Christmas, but she got sick, the weather was bad, and she didn’t come for the holidays. Since I am going to see her this week I decided it wasn’t too late to make them.

Mom sent me the recipe from her local newspaper.

i cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3 Tbl unsulfured molasses
1/4 cup apple sauce (or canola oil)
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 gup unsalted raw pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cookign spray (I used paper cups.)
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices
In a larger bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, applesauce, and eggs until combined. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla.
Add in the flour in two batches alernating with the buttermilk until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared muffin pan filling 2/3 full {Mine were full and gave a nice mound top}. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.
Tap the pan on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
Bake 20 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool on rack 15 minutes.
12 muffins {I got 13 full muffins.}

Make sure you don’t over bake or they will be dry. The buttermilk keeps them moist. And delicious. Just enough spices for good pumpkin flavor.

 

{FFwD} long and slow apples

Tonite I needed a simple, somewhat healthy way to end the evening. Dorie’s baked apples fit the bill.

This is not your typical baked apple which is cored, filled with goodies and popped in the oven for oven. Dorie has us slicing the apples thinly and then layering the slices with spiced sugar, orange zest, and butter. One Gala apple filled one cup just right. And then they cooked down quite a bit…

which means I ended up with only about 1/2 a cup full of apple. Good thing I could fill up the emptyness with some lightly sweetened whipped cream.

This one is definitely a keeper and so easy to put together it would be a crime NOT to fix it again, and again, and…

You can find the recipe on page 390 of Dorie’s around my french table. Please click on over to French Fridays with Dorie and drool over the other members’ apples.

{Dorie also said these could be baked for 10 hours in a low oven. I think I might try the ramekins in a slow cooker.}

 

{BwJ} Pizza with Onion Confit

There are several not so healthy foods I really enjoy – but only occassionally. One of them is PIZZA! Yes, we are talking about the regular cheesy, tomatoey, mushroom and sausage pizza. We have a couple of GOOD places here in town but I also like to make my own. Again – not very often because I like LOTS of goodies on mine. ‘Specially cheese. When I was reading this month’s choices for Baking with Julia all I saw was one word – PIZZA! It wasn’t until I really started looking at the recipe that I realized just how different this pizza was going to be.

Pizza with Onion Confit

This was a pizza with not tomato sauce, no thick layers of cheese, no meat. Yes, it was definitely different.

I was afraid I would not like it – onions caramelized in red wine and red wine vinegar. EWWW!! But – wait – new horizons, out of the box! Different but GOOD!!!!

I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I would be the only one in the entire household (two of us) who would even think of trying this one (and I wasn’t sure about me….) so I made the whole recipe of pizza dough (can always use THAT) and 1/3 of the Confit. I used 1/3 of the dough and made one 7″ pizza with the confit, olives, and shredded Parmesan cheese. Good choice! I liked the flavor of the whole pizza but it not something I would eat every day.

Our host this week is Paul of The Boy Can Bake and he has on his blog.

 

{TWD2} Chestnuts roasting on an open fire….

Jack Frost nipping on your nose,
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,
And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

Okay!
First of all I bought the Chestnuts already roasted.
Jack Frost won’t be in the Deep South until about mid-January on a regular basis.
And if you dress up like an Eskimo now you will suffer from Heat Stroke.

But we are enjoying Chestnuts In Dorie’s…

Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake

This cake has been described as EPIC by some of my Twitter buddies. Luxurious! Interesting! Expensive! {Chestnuts are not cheap!!} But worth it. Here in Podunk one does not find chestnuts – of any kind – so I had to order. When I ordered, I ordered Chestnut Puree instead of Chestnut spread, but thanks to About.com French Food I was able to make my own. Whew!

The cake is a lovely triple layer cake with milk chocolate/bittersweet chocolate ganache for filling and a bittersweet chocolate glaze. Between the layers are chopped chestnuts. And many bakers followed Dorie’s suggestion and frosted the chestnuts on top with gold dust. I ended up using pecans rather than the Chestnuts I bought. They weren’t good. So I used chopped pecans between the layers.

This cake was wonderful. The chestnut flavor of the cake with the textures of the filling and ganache. The chopped pecans between the layers. KEEPER!!

This cake was chosen by Katya of Second Dinner for the bakers on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. and you can find the recipe on her blog.

NOW I am done with the TWD Catch-up!! Thanks, Dorie!!

And so I’m offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although its been said many times, many ways,
Merry Christmas to you
 

Dan Lepard’s Sour Cream Bread

About two years ago, Nancy shared a bread recipe with us. It was one of Dan Lepard’s that she made quite often. I made it once and then completely forgot about it. Until I was looking through all the bread recipes again. Since then it has become my ‘go-to’ bread for B’s sandwiches.

For a long time I made it just as Dan wrote it, but over the years I have changed it around til it is just the perfect bread for us.

This is the recipe as Dan wrote it:

125g cold sour cream
2 tsp salt
2 tsp caster sugar
1 sachet fast-action yeast
550g strong white flour (bread), plus extra for shaping
Oil, for kneading

In a large bowl, mix the cream with 150ml cold water and 100ml boiling water, add the salt, sugar and yeast, then mix in the flour until it forms a rough ball. Cover and leave to sit for 10 minutes.

Lightly oil a patch of worktop and gently knead the dough on it for 10 seconds. Return the dough to the bowl, leave it to sit for another 10 minutes, repeat the quick knead two more times at 10-minute intervals, then leave for an hour.

Butter the base and sides of a large, deep, 19cm-Iong loaf tin or similar and line the base with nonstick baking paper. Pat out the dough to about 2cm thick, roll it up tightly like a scroll and squish it seam-edge down into the tin. Leave to rise for 60-90 minutes,

dust the top with flour and bake at 200C (180C fan-assisted)/390F/gas mark 6 for about 45 minutes.

The first change I made was to sub out some of the bread flour for White Whole Wheat. It gave it a nice nutty flavor. Plain Whole Wheat worked even better.

One day I discovered I didn’t have any sour cream. I used yogurt. Worked just fine.

Today I was short on time so I threw the ingredients in a bread machine and let it ‘work’ the dough while I was on the road. I did not bake it in the machine, though.

Worked out just great. Then this morning, since I had workmen in the kitchen I put the whole thing in the bread machine and let the machine make the bread.

Again – perfect bread!!

I have also made the bread with all AP flour!! No matter what changes I made the bread always came out perfectly. So if you need a good, never fail bread, this is the one you need.

 

{Di’s Virtual Cookie Swap} Annual Cookie Exchange – something old, something new.

Welcome to…

.

It is a virtual exhcange. All we really exchange are the recipes. But it is fun to see what all the others are making for their Christmas Cookie Trays.

This year I made some of my standbys and added in a couple of new cookies. I am trying very hard NOT to eat all of them. Just a few of each.

There are a couple of cookies I make every year:

These are the Graham Cracker Pralines which I made for Di’s First Exchange. They became so popular with friends and family I now have to make them every year.

And the Spritz cookies are always fun.

My new ones this year included…

Brown Sugar Toffee Rounds

1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 7 1/2-ounce package (1% cups) almond toffee pieces

BEAT butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; beat
till combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, and almond extract till combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in almond toffee pieces and remaining flour with a wooden spoon. SHAPE dough into two l Ovmch-long rolls. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper; chill in refrigerator for 4 to 24 hours or till firm enough to slice. CUT rolls into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place slices 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 oven about 9 minutes or till edges are firm. Transfer to wire racks and cool. Makes about 36.

We really liked these. The little toffee pieces add a little crunch to the soft, moist cookies. The recipe came from BHG Christmas Cookies (2000).

AND…

Cranberry Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
3 tablespoons skim milk
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coarsely chopped cranberries, drained
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Cream sugar, butter and coconut flavoring until fluffy. Add milk, mixing well. Sift
together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to sugar mixture. Fold cranberries into batter. Divide dough in half. Roll each half coconut. Chill 8 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice cookie logs thin. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 12 to 15 minutes.
Makes 4 1/2 dozen.

The sour cranberries worked really well with the sweet cookie. The only problem was that they were difficult to slice. Don’t slice them too thin or they will crumble. (Home Cooking Cookies, Brownies & Bars Fall 2005)

This is really the only time of the year I make cookies. They are entirely too easy to grab and go. Several times!!!

Di will have a round-up of all the cookies on her site – Di’s Kitchen Notebook real soon.

 

{TWD2} Thanks, Dorie, for a wonderful FIVE years!!

So, here I am. The last post for TWD, the first TWD which started in January 2008. It took me a full year to catch up and complete all the recipes I missed. 67 to be exact! And six of them in December. So here we go:

2 December 2008 Hosted by Noskos of Living the Life the bakers made:

Linzer Sables

I had never made sables before. They are a lovely butter cookie that is filled with a jam or other treat. I used Cherry jam and instead of almonds, walnuts, or hazelnuts, I used pecans. Lots of pecans here in the south. They were perfect with a nice subtle nutty taste. And the cherry jam fit well with the pecans. You can find the recipe on her blog or on page 134 of BFMHTY.

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December is a popular month for cookies. On December 16, 2008 we followed up with

Buttery Jam Cookies.

While the sables had the jam between the cookies these had the jam IN the cookie. And since I had the Cherry jam that is what I used in these tasty, biscuity cookies. There were little chunks of jam all through the cookie giving little surprises with every bite!

Thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for this sweet little treat. The recipe is on her blog. It’s also on page 80 of Dorie’s book.

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December also brought two tarts into the kitchen. On 6 December 2012 we made a

Honey-Almond Fig Tart It was delicious. A sweet honey-almond custard paired with ripe juicy figs. {From my friend’s tree!} I made the full recipe of custard but only two 6″ tarts. Usually I make less custard but past experience has taught me that more IS better! The tart was hosted by my friend, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table. The recipe is on her blog, or will be because Kayte is on hiatus right now and her blog is in hibernation. You can find it on page 373 of BFMHTY.

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The other tart (12 December 2011) was the…

Puffed Double Plum Tart

And please forgive the photography. There was no way this was going to be pretty. {Or at least mine wasn’t!!} I used a regular black plum slice and prunes that had been poached in black tea with cinnamon rather than wine, orange juice, zest and anise. And while not pretty it was definitely yummy! 1/8 of a recipe gave me one small tart just for me. I knew no one else would even touch it! This was chosen by Julie of Someones in the Kitchen (or page 378 of Dorie’s book).

{Hang in there, almost done. I have to do all six today because the next available Tuesday is Christmas!}

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We eat ice cream all year round. Which is a good thing because on December 13, 2011, TWD bakers pulled out their churns and made:

Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Ice Cream

I have to admit. I was a little iffy about this one. Chocolate and BLUEBERRIES!! No way that was going to be good. I. Was. Wrong! It was delicious. I know – Trust Dorie, Trust Dorie!! Story is, she didn’t care for the combo either when she was young, but like me, she has since come to her senses!! Yay! Dorie!!

Thanks to Lauri of Slush for hosting this week’s TWD choice.>

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Last (well almost) but not least –

REAL Butterscotch Pudding

And by real I mean REAL Scotch in the pudding! Really? Yes, Really! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any scotch. Fortunately, my VGF did! A tiny bottle of Chivas Regal in her Hub’s underware drawer (Yes, Really!) which she gifted me {Prolly to her Hub’s chagrin!} and there was just enough to make 6 little pudding treats.

One word – GOOD!! Topped with a little whipped cream infused with just a tad of Scotch! BETTER!! And Donna, of Spatulas, Corkscrews and Suitcases, our host for this week, made her pudding into a PIE! What a GREAT idea! Next time!! Now that I know how easy pudding is to make from scratch. The reicpe is on Donna’s site and on page 386 of BFMHTY!

Okay. That’s it, that’s all… Okay, not quite. I still have one more cake to make. It has been the hardest to find the ingredients for. But I found what I needed and so….. but that’s another post!!

Thanks TWD for a wonderful five years of baking, learning, eating, gifting, and friend gathering. I will never forget anything!!