Raspberry Scones
One of the great pleasures of life is a hot-out-of-the-oven scone with a freshly-brewed cup of coffee.
Welcome to another Sunday at our house.
Scones really are one of the easiest things one can throw together on a Sunday morn - a few basic ingredients and 18 minutes in the oven is all it takes.
This recipe started out years ago as a stuffed scone, but I've adapted it a bazillion times as my mood and tastes shifted. The main secret is using a cup of heavy cream as the liquid. In basic baking, fat and sugar are used for tenderness, eggs and flour are used for structure. This recipe doesn't have eggs - and the end result is a light-as-a-feather scone just waiting to be bitten into!
Raspberry Scones
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- raspberry jam
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Add butter, rubbing in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Gradually add 1 cup cream and vanilla. With a light hand, mix until dough comes together. Pat to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut scones into wedges.
Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Create an indentation at the wide end of each scone and fill with 1 teaspoon jam.
Bake scones until brown, about 18 minutes. Serve warm.
Served with a cup of Old City Coffee Viennese Roast Sumatra.
It just does not suck to be at our house, right now...
Kolaches
We caught an episode of Cooks Country on PBS a couple of weeks ago. It's a variation of America's Test Kitchen, because... why have one PBS cooking show when you can have two?
But that's neither here nor there...
The program showed the making of a Czech pastry called a Kolache. The dough intrigued me, because I've made a lot of sweet doughs in my time, but this one really was put together a bit differently.
I have to admit that far too many Cooks Country/Illustrated recipes are just too convoluted. They often take a simple, innocuous dish and rework it into something totally different with little resemblance to the dish they were recreating - with an additional 25 steps just for grins and giggles.
Seeing something that looked pretty straightforward was refreshing - and it sounded really good.
While I had lots of practice with Danish Pastry in my early years, I really wasn't introduced to sweet dough until my Navy days... When I was finally assigned to the USS Ranger (CVA-61) I was put right into the bake shop because I had that baking background. The ship was in dry dock at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco and all of our baked goods were bought locally. My biggest job was portioning - cutting the pies and cakes into 8 slices, placing them on plates on sheet pans, and putting the sheet pans on rolling carts to wheel over to the chow line. For this I had been sent to Commissaryman Class "A" School. But... It beat actually having to work.
The day we came out of drydock, we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean for 24 hours to see how things were working. There was a Chief Petty Officer named Brown who was overseeing the bake shops - when the ship was underway, there were two of them - one forward and one aft. The forward bakeshop was the bread bakeshop and was still closed at this point. Old Brown had about 3 months until retirement and just didn't give a shit for nothin' - except he like fresh-baked sweet rolls. He decided we were going to make sweet rolls for the crew for breakfast the following morning. Did I mention I was the only person assigned to the bakeshop at that time?
Brown said he would help me make these and to work we (I) went. The Armed Forces Recipe Card Service is a collection of maybe a couple thousand recipes all scaled to 100 portions. It's simple math to multiply or divide any recipe for any quantity you need. This is early 1972. Pre-computer. There were actual index boxes of recipe cards all scaled at 100 portions. I think we needed to make something like a thousand cinnamon rolls - so it was going to be two batches of 5 times the base recipe. I made the first batch of dough under Brown's supervision and let it start rising while I made the second batch.
This is an online version of a recipe - updated for the 21st century. We didn't have frozen eggs... I had to crack them. Times five. Twice.
In the meantime, another lifer buddy of Brown's came in with a bottle of cheap whiskey and the two of them had a few shots. And then a few more. And then Brown decided I could finish and he staggered off to bed.
I had two batches of dough proofing all over hell and back, a wall of 27 ovens that didn't work right - some heated top only, some bottom only, some along the sides, some down the middle... not one of them worked correctly - and never did the entire time I was on that ship. Over time, we learned which ones did what and just did a sheet pan ballet moving them around to bake things off with relatively little effort.
But on that first night, this not-even-20-year-old had no idea what was working and what wasn't - and I had never made a thousand of anything before in my life. I had been bouncing around San Diego waiting for orders, so I really wasn't doing anything other than serving on a chow line now and again. I sure as hell wasn't making a bazillion cinnamon rolls. Dough was proofing, over-proofing... I'd punch it down, get a batch rolled out and onto sheet pans - and watch it over-proof before I could get another one into the non-working ovens.
I was up most of the night, but I did it - they weren't the most beautiful things in the world, but they were military-edible.
And in a few short weeks I was really honing the production baking skills. That first night really was a disaster, but I learned a hellava lot.
One thing I learned was I didn't want to be a production baker when I grew up. When I baked after Uncle Sam's Yacht Club, it was going to be just for fun.
And that leads us up to today.
Watching cooking shows is fun. Deciding whether to make something is fun. If it ain't gonna be fun, I ain't gonna do it. I've reached the age where I don't have to.
I followed the recipe pretty closely - except I proofed my yeast in the milk because I rarely have rapid rise/instant yeast. And while I really had no reference point for these things, they were really really easy to make - and they taste even better. A hellava lot better than those cinnamon rolls of yesteryear.
Extremely easy to make. Maybe three hours start-to-finish, but most of the time was letting the dough rise. I was out planting in the garden between steps.
If you like to bake, this is one I really do recommend.
Kolaches
INGREDIENTS
DOUGH
- 1 cup whole milk
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 large egg plus 2 large yolks
- 3 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (2 ounces) sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
CHEESE FILLING
- 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 6 ounces (3/4 cup) whole-milk or part-skim ricotta cheese
STREUSEL
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
INSTRUCTIONS
1. FOR THE DOUGH: Grease large bowl. Whisk milk, melted butter, and egg and yolks together in 2-cup liquid measuring cup (butter will form clumps). Whisk flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together in bowl of stand mixer. Fit stand mixer with dough hook, add milk mixture to flour mixture, and knead on low speed until no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough clears sides of bowl but still sticks to bottom, 8 to 12 minutes.
2. Transfer dough to greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Place dough on lower-middle rack and place loaf pan on bottom of oven. Pour 3 cups boiling water into loaf pan, close oven door, and let dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. FOR THE CHEESE FILLING: Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and lemon zest on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add ricotta and beat until just combined, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl, cover with plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.
4. FOR THE STREUSEL: Combine flour, sugar, and butter in bowl and rub between fingers until mixture resembles wet sand. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Punch down dough and place on lightly floured counter. Divide into quarters and cut each quarter into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into rough ball by pulling dough edges underneath so top is smooth. On unfloured counter, cup each ball in your palm and roll into smooth, tight ball. Arrange 8 balls on each prepared sheet and cover loosely with plastic. Place sheets on oven racks. Replace water in loaf pan with 3 cups boiling water, close oven door, and let dough rise until doubled, about 90 minutes.
6. Remove sheets and loaf pan from oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bottom of 1/3-cup measure (or 2 1/4-inch-diameter drinking glass). Make deep indentation in center of each dough ball by slowly pressing until cup touches sheet. (Perimeter of balls may deflate slightly.)
7. Gently brush kolaches all over with egg-milk mixture. Divide filling evenly among kolaches (about 1½ tablespoons per kolache) and smooth with back of spoon. Sprinkle streusel over kolaches, avoiding filling. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let kolaches cool on pans for 20 minutes. Serve warm.
They are light, they are rich, and you're going to want to eat several at one sitting. And making 16 of them is so much easier than making a thousand...
And I froze half of them...
Colds, Crackers, and Chicken Soup
It's official. We all have colds.
I'm not sure where it started - it could have been me bringing it home from work or Nonna could have been Typhoid Mary picking it up from her great-grandchildren the other day. But assessing blame for a cold is rather pointless. It's a cold. It sucks. Life generally goes on.
Yes, there are times when you lay there and pray for death as you become a living snot factory and there's a jack-hammer going off in your head, but that's only setting the stage for when the coughing starts and your lungs turn inside out. It all makes you wish for a simple sneeze that merely makes your head explode while seeing stars.
The common cold is a multi-billion dollar spending frenzy on mostly-worthless OTC medications, so don't plan on seeing a cure any time soon.
But while there may not be a cure and most OTC medications don't do much better than placebos, there are a couple of things you can do to lessen the pain - flushing the nasal passages with a simple saline solution, a hot, steamy bath or shower, and chicken soup.
Yes, the old adage about chicken soup - Jewish Penicillin - is really true.
It seems that besides the obvious nutrition in all of the vegetables and helping to keep us hydrated, research is showing chicken soup can slow the movement of common white blood cells called neutrophils - which then minimizes inflammation. Medical magic that tastes good!
I have a pot simmering on the stove right now.
I usually think of a crusty loaf of bread to go with soup, but today I thought I might try something different - crackers. Crackers are not something I have made very often but I figured I had the time, so what the hell.
The photo-storage cloud that is my mind pictured the Nabisco tin my grandmother kept her Premium Saltine Crackers in.
I had that tin for years - no idea what ever happened to it.
But I digress... Saltines were what I wanted.
I did a quick Google search and found a recipe that looked promising at Restless Chipotle. As I was reading the recipe I flashed on the fact that my grandparents always called saltines "soda crackers" and the recipe was calling for baking powder. But the pictures looked promising, so I went for it.
Besides... I had all the ingredients.
First thing to note is it is a very dry dough. I made it by hand and probably should have used the mixer.
I kneaded the hell out of it but it never really formed that cohesive ball I was looking for.
I started rolling them out right away but the dough was really tough and hard to work. I decided to let it rest for about 30 minutes.
It rolled out easier after resting, but it still was a workout.
I cut them into little squares, brushed them with egg yolk and water, placed them on a pan, and sprinkled them with salt.
I used Maldon Sea Salt for some and San Francisco Bay salt for others, because... well... I have 15 different salts in the cupboard. But I'm not pretentious or anything. Really.
Into the oven they went and in a mere 20 minutes they were done!
They came out really good for being so basic! Nice crunch with just the right amount of salt.
I think I would probably like them just a tad thinner, but I'm not complaining. Next batch will be made in the mixer to see if I can get things blended better. And I may switch to simple baking soda. We shall see.
In the meantime, we have crackers for our soup - and that's the important part.
Saltine Crackers
adapted from Restless Chipotle
- 4 cups flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/3 cup whole milk
- salt for sprinkling
- 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water for egg wash.
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Mix together the flour and baking powder.
Cut butter into flour mixture until it forms coarse crumbs. Add the milk and knead to form a ball.
Divide into 4 parts and roll out paper thin on a floured surface. The thinner they are the crisper they will be.
Cut the dough into squares, place on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick all over with a fork.
Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with salt - use a coarse salt, if possible - not table salt.
Bake about 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned. Thinner cookies take less time.
Pear Upside Down Cake
I've been whining about Bon Appetit for months (years)... I get that I'm not the demographic and I get that they're chasing after Saveur magazine with their unflattering photos, but it doesn't make it any easier when I'm looking through the mag... There's a lot about the magazine I just don't care for - their lack of page numbers and ugly pictures to name but two - but the (not flattering) cover photo of a Spiced Pear Upside Down Cake on the October issue did catch my attention - mainly because I wanted to know why they put a picture of a burnt-looking cake on their cover. I had picked up a bag of different pears the other day and needed a way to make them fattening.
You will note, if you click on the link above, what I mean about a not-flattering photo - the cake really does look burnt. But with a couple of minor tweaks, it came out stellar!
I switched out the walnuts for pistachios, to begin with. I was going to use walnuts, but I put them in the oven to toast and toasted them just a tad too long. Oh, well. And you really do need the pomegranate molasses! It adds a really great sweet/tart flavor to the cake. I didn't drizzle more on the cake for serving tonight, but probably will tomorrow. I had a couple of jars in the cabinet, but if you can't find it at your local store, it's pretty easy to make. Here's my recipe. I went through a phase where I was using it all the time in a lot of different recipes. I've slowed down a bit, but still keep it on hand.
So... Bon Appetit finally came through with a decent recipe! It really is a great cake with a great texture and really really good flavor. A coupe of caveats... You definitely need a 10" pan for this and you definitely want to put it on a baking sheet in the oven - it did spill over just a tad. But it's worth the time.
Give it a try!
Cinnamon Rolls
Hot, fresh, light-as-a-feather cinnamon rolls for breakfast. What could be better?!?
Many moons ago - as in living-in-Tahoe-in-the-'70s-many-moons-ago - I had a sweet dough recipe that was pretty fool-proof. Granted, this was Tahoe in the '70s and we were smoking so much pot that any recollections can be viewed as suspect, but I did make some good cinnamon rolls back then. Actually, cinnamon raisin rolls... It's slowly coming back to me... I remember making them once in a while as a breakfast special at The Old Post Office when I cooked there - and they were an inevitable part of our fabulous Sunday Brunches at home.
That recipe faded away and over the years I tended to go back to my earliest days of baking and make convoluted 196-step-all-day-in-the-kitchen Danish. They are absolutely fabulous and are worth every step and moment it takes to make them - but sometimes I just want something a bit simpler.
And last night on Facebook, Ruth posted a recipe that could well have been that recipe from 1976.
I didn't quite realize it at the time that it would be so similar - I was caught up with the fact she had said the dough came together easily and rolled out like a dream. And, that she was switching them out to make a savory garlic and sun-dried tomato version. I like that kind of versatility! But biting into one this morning brought back a lot of fond, mimosa-addled memories. Tahoe in the '70s. Ya should have been there...
The basic recipe is easy and quick to put together. It's a single-rise dough, so depending upon your weather and temperature, you can have fresh danish in a couple of hours - or, in 30 minutes if you make the dough before you go to bed.
The recipe Ruth found from Sally's Baking Addiction calls for rapid-rise yeast. I generally avoid the rapid-rise because I like a slower, more complex rise for my baked goods. It's a personal preference - nothing more. Basic active dry yeast requires liquid to activate it - the 'proofing' step - while rapid-rise can be mixed straight into the dry ingredients.
Cinnamon Rolls
Dough
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 envelope active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 large egg
Cinnamon Sugar
- 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup sugar
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp milk
Directions:
Mix yeast and sugar in mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup warm water (110°). Allow to proof while getting other ingredients together.
Melt milk and butter together and cool to no more than 110°.
Add flour, salt, milk mixture, and egg to mixing bowl. Blend on low speed until flour is incorporated. Knead about 4 minutes. Cover bowl and let dough rest for 10 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and allows the flour to fully-incorporate the liquid.
On a lightly-floured counter, roll the dough to an 8" x 14" rectangle. Spread with the soft butter and then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. (Add chopped walnuts and/or plumped raisins, if desired.) Tightly roll and slice into 12 rolls.
Place in greased 9" pan and allow to rise until doubled - about 90 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°. Place pan in oven and bake about 30-35 minutes, or until nicely-browned.
Allow to cool slightly and then apply glaze.
To make glaze:
Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Drizzle over warm rolls.
Right out of the oven before the glaze.
I made these in a 10" springform pan. I rolled them out, formed them, and placed them in the pan and then covered it with a kitchen towel before heading off to bed.
This morning I preheated the oven and baked them off. The recipe called for a 375° oven but without thinking, I preheated to 350°. I think my old Tahoe recipe was 350° and I just went on auto-pilot. They came out perfect at that temperature without having to worry about over-browning.
They are feathery-light and can definitely be reworked to suit your gastronomic desires. I'll be adding plumped raisins, for sure, next time around - and probably walnuts.
So thank you, Ruth, for yet another fantastic culinary idea. Think of the fun we could have if we did this for a living...
Sunday Scones
Scones. There are probably more variations on this Scottish quickbread than there are Scots to bake them. They are round, square, rectangular or wedge-shaped - not to mention heart-shaped on Valentine's Day. They are sweet, savory, filled, topped, studded with dried fruit or nuts, drizzled with icing, or served plain with butter, jams, and clotted cream. They can be light as a feather or dense like a shortbread. They're all scones. And they're all good.
In the US, scones are pretty much always sweet, although, as with every other variation imaginable, the degree of sweetness can vary greatly. My first choice is usually a less-sweet light-biscuity style as these are. I don't really care that much for the overly-iced sweet things sold at the coffee chains.
We have a throw-together recipe that can be tweaked countless ways to make countless variations. It's pretty no-fail. The only caveat is to have a light hand as you would making biscuits.
Basic Scones
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 sticks butter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400°. Line cookie sheet with parchment or very lightly grease.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk and stir in until moistened.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Form dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet a couple inches apart.
Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Today, Victor added about a cup of dried cranberries and sprinkled the top with sugar before baking.
It's a gray, dreary, wet day here in Pennsylvania and the dough was a tad more sticky than usual. It was a bit more difficult to work with, but he wisely resisted adding more flour and cut 6 not-so-even wedges instead of the usual 8.
The end result was an airy light-as-a-feather scone that brought a smile to my face with every bite. What they lacked in uniformity they more than made up for in flavor and texture.
I think it's time for another...
Apple Cranberry Crostata
Who says you can't have a fabulous dessert in minutes?
Well... it's minutes if your frozen puff pastry is already thawed, otherwise you do have to plan a bit.
I planned a bit.
But it really was simple and came together in minutes.
Once the pastry is thawed, preheat oven to 400°.
Lay out pastry on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Spread a layer of cranberry sauce to within an inch of the edges. Into a bowl, mix 2 sliced apples - I used a granny smith and a cortland - with 2 tbsp melted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 2 tbsp flour - and some nutmeg and cinnamon.
Pile into the center of the pastry and fold the sides up, pinching the pastry here and there to keep it over the filling. Place into the hot oven and bake about 30 minutes.
Cool and enjoy.
The beauty of crostatas is they're supposed to be rustic. They're hand-formed and can take on any shape you want - they are not perfect round machine-made-mass-produced.
And regardless of shape - they are delicious
I had leftover homemade cranberry sauce but any would work - and any apple that will hold its shape would work, as well. I didn't peel them because I was feeling lazy. Your call.
Have fun with it - and remember that the beauty is in the eating!
Banana Upside Down Cake
I came home to several rapidly-blackening bananas. It seems Nonna just hasn't been in a banana mood this week.
Having an 87 year old living with you is not unlike having a youngster living with you, at times. Tastes change and what was yummy and a necessary food one week is ignored the next. The main difference, though, is I have no qualms about telling a youngster to eat it or go hungry. I don't have the same feelings with an 87 year old. At that age, they've earned the right to like and dislike things - even if the likes and dislikes change on a regular basis.
I used to work in nutrition and dietetics. I understand that taste buds diminish as we age. And with that in mind,. I try to make sure the foods I cook have enough going on to keep her interest. But a week of not eating bananas is a new one - for years she was almost eating a banana a day.
But her loss is our gain. Banana Cake!
With 6 bananas to use up, I needed more than a banana bread. I like it but I, too, needed a change. An upside down cake would use up a lot of bananas...
With a thank you to Epicurious, I found a recipe that worked just fine. I tweaked it - of course - but still follwed the original intent of the recipe.
Banana Upside Down Cake
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 - 3 ripe bananas, sliced
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 ttsp salt
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp dark rum
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup butter
- 2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350°.
For topping: Cream brown sugar and butter until well mixed. Spread brown sugar mixture over bottom of 9" -10" springform pan. Arrange banana slices atop brown sugar mixture, covering completely. Set cake pan aside.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix mashed bananas, buttermilk and rum in a measuring cup.
Cream 1 1/4 cups sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients alternatively with buttermilk mixture, mixing until just combined. Pour batter over bananas in pan. Bake until cake pulls away from sides of pan and toothpick comes out clean, about an hour. Transfer to rack and cool.
The topping was nice and caramelly... slightly different than melting the butter and sugar the way I usually do. It was a really nice way to use up bananas .
Nonna probably won't have any because she watches her sugar - sometimes. Besides, Victor just made her a batch of sugar-free biscotti - her favorite.
That's okay - more for us.
And you can be assured that next week when I don't bring home any bananas, they will be the first thing she asks for! And that's okay.
Apple Cake
Victor has been charged with making his Apple Cake for great-nephew Miles' Christening.
This is one of those perfect foods - it works for any meal from breakfast to late-night noshing. It is a lush dessert or a simple coffee cake - simply by changing the time it is served. You can't beat that kind of flexibility.
You also can't beat the flavor. This is one good cake.
Victor made one to bring to the Christening and then decided we needed one, too! Two cakes in one day. See my tummy smile!
Naturally, in order to make a good apple cake, you need good apples. He used a combination of granny smith and honeycrisp apples for these. Not all apples are created equal when it comes to baking. Any apple will make a good cake but granny smith and another flavorful apple suitable for cooking will always make a great one!
Apple Cake
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup oil
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 4 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 5 large apples
Preheat oven to 350°. Peel and cut apples into small chunks. Add 4 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and stir together.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and set aside.
Beat together eggs, OJ & vanilla. Add oil, mix in flour mixture.
In a well-greased tube pan, pour alternate layers of batter and apples. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.
Bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.
Cool before slicing.
Don't try and cut back on the oil. It's a full cup for a reason. Eat small pieces. It's cake - not health food. It's not supposed to be eaten in large quantities. It's c-a-k-e.
Yummy cake.
Peppers
The peppers are suddenly multiplying, outside. What started off as a pretty dismal season has finally turned fruitful. I had enough to can and Victor had enough to make pepper bread.
Pepper Bread. It's one of those things that is just fantastic in its simplicity. It bursts with flavor - and the spicier the peppers, the better the bread. Even Nonna likes it.
Pepper Bread
- 2 cups peppers
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Slice peppers lengthwise and fry in olive oil until limp. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside and cool.
Mix yeast and water in mixing bowl. Add flour, salt, and olive oil and mix about 3 minutes.
Scrape down bowl and mix, adding the last 1/2 cup flour, as necessary, until dough is smooth and silken.
Roll into a ball and let rest 10 minutes.
Roll into a rectangle about 15" x 8". Spread cooled peppers on dough.
Roll tightly and place on sheet pan.
Bake at 400° about 25-30 minutes.
And while that was cooling, I cut peppers.
Hot Pickled Peppers
- 6 lbs hot peppers
- 6 cups distilled white vinegar
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 4 tsp kosher salt
Wash and cut peppers to desired size. (I made rings. )
Pack peppers into mason jars leaving about 1/2″ headroom.
Combine and heat sugar, salt, vinegar, and water. Bring to boil and then simmer about 5-6 minutes.
Pour over peppers, leaving the same 1/2″ headroom.
Wipe rims of jars, top with lids and rings.
Process in a boiling water bath about 10 minutes.
And, because we needed something to eat with the pepper bread, I made soup.
Beef, spicy andouille sausage, lots of veggies and elbow macaroni.
We're eating good.
Peach Strudel
Peaches. Did I mention we had a lot of them? We still do - but they've been re-purposed!
I came upon this concept from Saveur. They made it with plum jam and ground walnuts. I made a fresh peach filling and used chopped walnuts. It really was quick and easy, although the dough does need to sit in the fridge for a good hour.
Peach Strudel
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup walnuts
- 6 peaches
- 1/3 cup sugar
INST RUCTIONS
Process peaches and 1/3 cup sugar in food processor. Place in medium saucepan and cook until thick, stirring and making sure it doesn't scorch.
Process flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until pea-size crumbles form. Add 2 eggs and 1/4 cup ice-cold water; pulse until dough forms. Form into a disk; wrap, and chill for 1 hour.
Heat oven to 37 5°. Cut dough into thirds; roll each into an 11″ × 7 ″ rectangle; line an 11″ × 7 ″ baking dish with a rectangle. Spread over half the apricot spread; sprinkle with one-third walnuts. Top with second rectangle; spread over remaining preserves and half remaining walnuts. Top with last rectangle, and prick with tines of a fork. Brush with remaining egg; sprinkle with remaining walnuts.
Bake until golden, 25–30 minutes.
The peaches will get nice and thick - just like jam.
And then you cut them into little squares. And eat a lot of them!
Sesame Crackers
Victor decided to make some homemade cheese today. Naturally, a homemade cheese calls for a homemade cracker, right?!? I mean, you can't just put a luscious, creamy, bursting-with-flavor cheese on a Hi-Ho! There are standards one must uphold!
I went searching around for a cracker recipe - I wanted something simple but not entirely plain - and found something in an old Saveur that looked promising. It was a flax cracker, so I reworked it a bit and made it sesame.
And it worked!
This one is really easy to make and comes together really quickly.
Sesame Crackers
adapted from Saveur Magazine
- 1 1⁄2 cups flour
- 1⁄2 cup sesame seeds
- 1⁄2 tsp garlic powder
- 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
- 1⁄2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp butter, softened
- 1⁄2 cup milk
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1⁄2 tsp coarse salt
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Combine flour, sesame seeds, garlic powder, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Work butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles cornmeal. Gradually add milk, stirring until a crumbly dough forms (dough will be on the dry side but moist enough to hold together). Shape dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and transfer to the refrigerator to let relax for 10–15 minutes.
2. Divide dough in half. Roll first piece on a lightly floured surface to a 1⁄8"-thick rectangle, about 10"× 12". Brush dough with half the oil and sprinkle with half the salt. Cut dough into rectangles. Using a thin metal spatula, transfer dough rectangles to a parchment paper–lined baking sheet about 1⁄2" apart and set aside. Repeat process with remaining dough, oil, and salt.
3. Bake crackers until golden brown, about 12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time.
I used Maldon Salt from England to top the crackers because, well... I have a box. I think I'm up to about a dozen different salts, all of a sudden. Don't ask me how it happens. It just does.
They rolled out really easily. I wasn't concerned with making them all the same size, but I did trim the sides to make them all even.