Mar 13, 2013 | Recipes, Sides & Salads
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| Biscuits with Honey and Petit Jean Bacon |
It’s been said that I can make a mean biscuit…
Making biscuits is one of those things that isn’t hard,
but that people tend to overthink and overwork.
Some secrets?
REAL SALTED BUTTER
CAST IRON SKILLET
When I make it gluten free I add a bit more milk because the gluten free flour seems drier.
Best Southern Biscuits
It's been said that I can make a mean biscuit…Making biscuits is one of those things that isn't hard, but that people tend to overthink and overwork. Some secrets? Use real salted butter, a hot cast iron pan, and a hot oven.
- 4 cups Organic unbleached flour
- 2 tablespoon Baking powder
- 4 tablespoon Sugar (unbleached granulated)
- 1 teaspoon Cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Butter (<em>you can also substitute butter with coconut oil to equal 1 cup.</em>)
- 1 1/3 cup Milk (<em>possibly more depending on humidity.</em>)
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Preheat oven to 450.
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Put about a tablespoon or two of oil in skillet and place in oven.
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In bowl stir together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or hands until it resembles coarse crumbs or peas. Add milk and stir until dough just clings together. You may have to add more if dough is too dry. You want it to be moist but not mushy.
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On floured surface, knead dough GENTLY for 10 strokes. Pat into a rectangle shape gently and then roll to about 1/2 inch thickness. Fold in half and repeat twice.
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Dip a glass in flour and cut into biscuits.
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Transfer to hot skillet and bake about 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Nov 1, 2012 | Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
For Halloween I wanted to try a pumpkin muffin.
Now, muffins are something of a hit and miss at my house.
None of the five of us like the same kind so usually the chickens end up
with a few.
Not with this recipe!
Cinnamon-Sugar Pumpkin Muffins
Easy pumpkin muffins that are sure to be a hit!
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or Apple Pie Spice)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil (we like sunflower oil)
- 2 large fresh eggs
Topping
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Line muffin tins with paper liners (or grease well.)
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Mix dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
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Mix pumpkin and the rest of the wet ingredients together in another bowl.
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Combine wet and dry ingredients until just incorporated.
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Fill muffin tins with batter (I use a small ladle to fill.)
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Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar topping.
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Bake until puffy and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into middle of the muffin, which is about 25 minutes depending on your oven.
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Cool in pan until you can touch, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
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Enjoy!
Sep 23, 2012 | Recipes, Sweets
Weekend Sweet Rolls for my Sweeties…
Tweaking recipes over the years this is what I now do:
Sweet Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Vanilla Glaze
5 cups flour
add 1/2 stick of butter (melted) and put in mixer with dough hook
On stove warm 2 cups milk
(You want it to be warm, but cool enough to stick your finger in and not be burned if you count to 10)
To this add 3 1/4 teaspoons of yeast and about 1/4 cup of sugar (I use Mexican cane sugar instead of white sugar in everything.)
In a small cup beat 2 eggs
Add milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture and blend.
If dough is really sticky add enough flour to make it still moist but where you can touch it and
not have sticky fingers (it’s okay if it’s more on the sticky side now because you can add flour later when your knead.)
Let rise about 15 minutes (would be better to let rise til double, but we are impatient.)
Knead dough on floured surface. Add flour to make a nice dough if it’s sticky. Knead until you have a pretty, soft dough.
Roll out into a large rectangle (about 18 x 20)
Brush with melted butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (you can add nuts or chocolate chips or raisins if you want to.)
Roll up from long side pressing as you go.
Cut into about 1 inch pieces and place cut side down in a greased baking dish.
Let rise at least another 15 minutes (or ideally until doubled.)
Bake at 350 until light golden brown.
Pour or brush glaze over rolls while warm.
Glaze
About 1/4 cup of melted butter (more or less)
Add powdered sugar (1-2 cups, again more or less)
thin with orange juice and add about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
Sep 18, 2012 | Sweets, Uncategorized
This weekend we celebrated my grandpa’s 95th birthday!
My Popie is an amazing guy. Smart, funny, and kind.
It was great to get some of the family together- we don’t do it enough it seems.
We had a red, white, and blue themed BBQ lunch. Mom used baskets and apple crates from her house for decoration and storage. We bought yellow mums, red peppers, and black-eyed susans in pots to use as flowers so we wouldn’t waste anything. Mom had a ton of red white and blue fabric she’d bought to make a quilt and we used that on serving tables and just brown craft paper from the hardware store on the tables. Turned out really cute! We made banners out of twine and strips of torn fabric which were adorable.
I’d made ten dozen cupcakes! Vanilla Bean, Lemon-Lime, Chocolate Caramel, S’mores, and Coconut! Look for more pictures and recipes soon on the cooking blog.
Of course my camera decided to protests AND my phone’s memory was full so I couldn’t take any pictures. The ones above my ten year old took with his camera!
May 18, 2012 | Recipes, Sweets
My daughter wanted me to make cookies for her biology class party and this is what we came up with…
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| DNA Cookies |
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I used this same recipe for sugar cookies. (I used unbleached cane sugar instead of white sugar in the cookies.) I ended up making royal icing because I was afraid a regular soft icing would not last in the heat and transport. Hope they like them!
Feb 4, 2012 | Recipes, Sweets
I made up a recipe for sweet rolls today because my impatient husband and son wanted sweet rolls “NOW!” I didn’t want to make the short cut recipe I usually do when we want sweet rolls quickly- so I improvised by using the ratios I use on my pizza crust. They ended up being better than almost all the other recipes we usually use! After breakfast I had 4 left out of a pan of 15…
(It also made a small pan with 6 small ones in it that I’ll freeze.)
The results…..
What I did:
Sweet Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Vanilla Glaze
5 cups flour
add 1/2 stick of butter (melted) and put in mixer with dough hook
On stove warm 2 cups milk
(You want it to be warm, but cool enough to stick your finger in and not be burned if you count to 10)
To this add 3 1/4 teaspoons of yeast and about 1/4 cup of sugar (I use Mexican cane sugar instead of white sugar in everything.)
In a small cup beat 2 eggs
Add milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture and blend.
If dough is really sticky add enough flour to make it still moist but where you can touch it and
not have sticky fingers (it’s okay if it’s more on the sticky side now because you can add flour later when your knead.)
Let rise about 15 minutes (would be better to let rise til double, but we are impatient.)
Knead dough on floured surface. Add flour to make a nice dough if it’s sticky. Knead until you have a pretty, soft dough.
Roll out into a large rectangle (about 18 x 20)
Brush with melted butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (you can add nuts or chocolate chips or raisins if you want to.)
Roll up from long side pressing as you go.
Cut into about 1 inch pieces and place cut side down in a greased baking dish.
Let rise at least another 15 minutes (or ideally until doubled.)
Bake at 350 until light golden brown.
Pour or brush glaze over rolls while warm.
Glaze
About 1/4 cup of melted butter (more or less)
Add powdered sugar (1-2 cups, again more or less)
thin with orange juice and add about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
