Category Archives: Baking

Homemade Corn Bread & Chili

06 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by in Baking, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Savory Breads

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

I won’t bore you with the details of my chili recipe… well, mainly because there isn’t one. My chili is often different every time it is made. I don’t really use a recipe, just kind of pick and pour… anyway, that’s not what this post is for.

Where I’m from, cornbread is often a staple with chili – that or corn chips, or both… Usually I go the easy way – and use a box or pre-mix corn bread base, but tonight I decided I would make a scratch recipe. I had just bought a new can of corn meal – which I like to use on pans for pizza crust… and there was a recipe on the back. I thought, why not… Ok, well the recipe was very good; cake-like and far from dry and crumbly. My husband just raved over it. This recipe is nothing fancy, nothing bursting from the likes of Iron Chef, but a simple delicious cornbread that comes together very easily. Here’s the recipe:

Easy Corn Bread

from the back of the Quaker Corn Meal Can

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup enriched corn meal
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan.

Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing  just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 20 – 25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm. Makes 9 servings.

You can also make into muffins – 12 regular size muffins, baking 15 – 30 minutes.

Pound Cake with KA Cake Flour

03 Wednesday Nov 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cakes & Pies, Dessert, Recipes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

 

 

My go-to recipe for Sour Cream Pound Cake has always been a sensation. Whether drizzled with fresh strawberries, layered with butter cream or “eau natural” you won’t go wrong preparing this delicacy.

Last week my husband embarked on another decade and we celebrated with this, one of his favorites. To enhance the flavor and texture of the recipe, I used a higher grade butter and flour. Money isn’t an issue when you roll into another year is it?

These two changes rendered what my husband said was the best cake yet; moist with a tight crumb. King Arthur definitely lived up to his name in this cake, well worth the extra dollar :) .

Here’s the recipe again:

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, room temp (I used Grade A Irish Butter)
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 3 cups all purpose flour (I used KA Unbleached Cake Flour)
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond or lemon extract
  • 8 oz. sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat desired pans with baking spray. (1 Bundt pan, 3 (8″) round pans, 2 (9″) round pans, or loaf pans)

In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda and salt, set aside. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and lemon extract. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately ending with flour. Spoon batter into pans. Bake loaf and round pans 45 – 60 minutes,  and bundt pan 60 to 75 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. For loafs you may add 3 -5 cups of chopped pecans.

For Frosted Layer Cakes - Note: I doubled for this cake

Buttercream Frosting:

  • ½ cup softened butter (Irish, grade A)
  • ½ cup butter flavor shortening
  • 16 oz. powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 -3 Tbls milk

Cream butter, Crisco until smooth, slowly add powdered sugar, add vanilla and milk to desired consistency.

*I frosted the inner layers with strawberry buttercream frosting and a layer of fresh strawberry preserves.

Blueberry Muffins for Breakfast

17 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by in Baking, Breakfast, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I have a few recipes for Blueberry Muffins, one of my favorites made with oatmeal and orange juice in the ingredient list, this one though makes nice moist puffy muffins that hold up well. Not a lot of introduction needed for this recipe, other than try it, soon.
Blueberry Muffins

Recipe Originating at Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms

Ingredients:  

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups blueberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Prepare the muffin pans with cup cake liners.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the oil, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and mix on low to medium speed until blended. Fold in the blueberries carefully. Fill 15 muffin cups evenly.

Bake for 18 – 21 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out dry.

Makes 15 muffins.

 

Back and full of Spice!

05 Sunday Sep 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cookies, Dessert, Recipes

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

I have been anxious to get back to baking, however spare time has been sparse. This week though I got a new camera, and decided no matter what, that I would set aside some time this weekend to bake and take (photos that is). With literally millions of options on the WWFB (world-wide food blogs) I came across this recipe on one of my favorites, Get Off Your Butt & Bake. This is an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, but it is put together in a way I haven’t seen before. That is you boil the raisins and the flour is added with the butter and sugar prior to adding the soda and salt… The aroma of the spices in there was tantalizing and made the house small like Christmas… which by the way is coming sooner than you would believe.

But I digress. I did change-up a few small items, but otherwise stuck to the original recipe. My husband and youngest daughter were my taste testers. After the first bite, my husband had this like “pregnant pause”, which alarmed me. Then he stated, “Those are good, really good!” My daughter said the same and didn’t even complain about the raisins (which she swears she hates).

So here is the recipe and some practice photos taken with the new Rebel T2i (which so far is amazing).

Mom’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Slightly adapted from Get Off Your Butt & Bake

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 3/4 cup softened butter, cubed*
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 eggs*
  • 2 cups original oats
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips (or nuts)
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp each: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom
  • Sea salt to top if desired

Begin by combing the raisins and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer on low for 15 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely. Once cool, pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the raisin mixture with the butter, sugar, eggs, oatmeal,  flour and chocolate chips (or nuts) and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon and/or your hands. Add the remaining ingredients until well blended and drop by tablespoons onto parchment or non stick pan, sprinkle some sea salt on cookie tops if desired. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest on baking sheet just long enough to not fall apart 1 – 2 minutes.

*Note: in halving the recipe I had to use 1 1/2 eggs. I used my kitchen scale, but you could just open one egg, beat it lightly, and use half of it.

My changes in the cookies were:

  1. I halved the recipe and mixed it with my hands, not a mixer
  2. I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening because I ran out of butter!
  3. I used chocolate chips instead of nuts
  4. I didn’t have allspice, so I used cardamom

Coconut Cake with Raspberry Filling

25 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cakes & Pies, Dessert, Recipes

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Preface: Before you look at the list of ingredients in this cake stop. The cake is really, really easy to prepare. Use whatever frosting you’d like, but try the cake…

After a weekend of being shut in with sick kids, the stir crazy feeling was overwhelming, so why not bake? I have been actively searching for coconut cake recipes to prepare for a friends upcoming birthday, and I am not brave enough to prepare a “first time” cake to be served publicly… score family.

 We don’t do coconut very often, yet no one, even the kids, will turn it down. The cake recipe is from one source, and the frosting from another with a little tweeking. Note, the cake batter uses powdered sugar. I have never seen this in a cake before, and was leery about it, but it was fantastic.

 Speaking of frosting. I had a very hard time deciding the best type of frosting. Supposedly the “classic southern” coconut cake uses a whipped/meringue type frosting, verses a buttercream, but I grew up southern and buttercream was on every cake I’ve ever eaten. Anyway, this recipe intrigued me and settled my frosting dilemma.

Final thoughts? The cake is a keeper. Big time! The frosting was interesting. The original recipe was good, but not very “sweet” so I added some powdered sugar. I think it helped also to thicken the frosting slightly. I will definitely put the cake in my top favorites list, but will probably do a buttercream frosting next time. I just really want to find the “perfect” combination.

Has anyone tried the 7 minute frosting method? What did you think? Was it meringue like?

  

 Coconut Cake with Raspberry Filling

 Cake Ingredients:
  •  3 cups (297g) sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)
  •  2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 pound (450g) powdered sugar
  • 4 egg yolks, well beaten *Beat until well combined, about 1 minute
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract (or coconut)
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • 4 egg whites, well beaten

Cake Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 – 9″ round cake pans with baking spray.

Combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Sift these ingredients 3 times. In a mixing bowl, cream butter thoroughly; add sugar gradually. Continue creaming until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in coconut and vanilla. Fold in egg whites gently until well combined.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Makes two 9-inch layers, or three 8-inch layers. (The original recipe link states to make it in 8″ pans, I used 9″ pans and sliced the layers in half.)

Frosting Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Milk
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp coconut extract
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • Raspberry Preserves (at least 1 cup) *choose a good quality
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut

Frosting Directions:

In a saucepan, use a whisk to blend 1 cup milk into 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat, and cook and stir two minutes more. Remove from heat. Cover the surface with plastic wrap. Cool to room temperature without stirring.
In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and extracts until light and fluffy. Add cooled milk mixture to butter mixture a quarter cup at a time, beating on low-speed after each addition until smooth. **Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well afterward. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar if necessary to desired thickness.
Final Preparation:
Slice each layer in half. Spread a thin layer of preserves between the sliced layers*. Alternate preserves and frosting between the layers then frost the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle coconut on top and sides of the frosted cake. Slice and serve!
*Note, on the layers that I placed the preserves, I also added a thin layer of coconut.