Storybook Woods

Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-Thon: The-Sweet-And-Savory-Of-Yummy

 

This week on Gracious Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-Thon the theme is The-Sweet-And-Savory-Of-Yummy. Share you favorites tea time recipe for sweet or savory. This is actually new recipe I created for the blog-a-thon. Spiced chocolate scones with a strusel topping. It is a soft chocolate flavor with pronounced spice flavors. If you perfer it more chocolaty, cut back on the spices and added chopped chocolate to the dough. Enjoy !!!

Well I dropped my lap-top and have to send into the fix-my-lap-top-and-give-me-back-my-life hospital. It will be a good week and half till I get my lap-top back. We do have a computer but I have to mud wrestle the girls to use it. So my "access" to the computer is limited. As seems to be the way things are going, my posts will be scattered. If I do not come by your blog and say hello or I am late in getting back to an e-mail, that is why. 

 

 

Spiced Chocolate Scones

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup coco powder
1/3 cup evaporated cane or sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground dried ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled, cubed butter
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup toasted pecans (does not need to be chopped processor will do it)
1/4 cup rapadura or brown sugar
3 TBL. white flour
2 TBL cubed, cold butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground dried ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg 


Pre-heat oven 375.

Mix dry ingredient in a food processor and add butter. Pulse till butter is the size of small peas. Put dried ingredients in bowl, add wet and mix. Dough should be a shaggy, wet and you should see bits of butter throughout the dough (see picture above).

For streusel put sugar, butter, flour and spices to in food processor you just used and process till crumbly. Then added nuts and process for 30 seconds.

Grease a cookie sheet or large baking pan. Spoon dough on cookie sheet and pat into a circle about an inch or so thick (you can use with wet hands). Sprinkle strudel topping on top (see picture abouve). Bake 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes clean. Cool five minutes and then cut into 8 wedges.

This book Wiil Change Your Life

 

If you have made no-kneed bread, if you want to make artisans bread but do not know how, if you want lovely bread but do not want to work too hard at it and if you love the idea of having dough all ready, on-hand whenever you want, keep on reading !!!

 

Because of my champagne taste and beer budget, I make all my own bread. But I am already cooking so much I try to make it as easy as I can. I have been making the no-kneed bread for a while and love it. But there is still planning to it and there was the problem of not having bread when I wanted it. Then I read Artisan Breads In 5 Minutes A Day By Jeff Hertzberg. Now I tell you I really do not buy a lot of cookbooks. I read a lot of them but do not actually own a lot. This book is one I would love to buy for all my friends. It is sooo simple and the bread is amazing. It only takes five minutes to make the dough (no kneading), two hours to let it sit, refridge overnight and then you have enough dough for four loves of bread. You can keep the dough in the fridge for 5 days and pull of a ball of dough as needed. Rise, bake, cool and in 2 hours, wha-la bread.

Do not worry if you do not know much about making bread. In some ways you will do better then a long-time baker, because this method is almost counter-intuitive. The lovely thing is Jeff Hertzberg has several master recipes all based on the same method and then lots of version of those recipes. One of my friends was looking at the book and said she really liked how it was written. Very clear instructions and helpful information. You can read more at the Blog. I have made the Rye bred recipe and it is wonderful as you can see above !!!

PS. I realized that I did not mention, there is a few loaf recipes and those take more time to rise. About an hour and half. But most of the recipes do not.

Girly Christmas Tea

 

 

 

Well here is my girly tea table. Lately on days were we are home it usually go like this: in the morning after work is done, we mix up something yummy for the freezer, bake off some for us, work on a craft and then have an afternoon tea party. This is my idea of heaven, especially on a cold, blustery days. A full wood stove to keep me warm, something yummy and a craft to keep my hands (and brain) busy.

Another new cookie we have made this year, Rose Walnut Cookies. I took another recipe using orange water and changed it all around. I can never leave well enough alone. I made it with some brown rice flour. Which we like but it does have a bit of a sandy texture. It is important to let these cookies fully cool before eating them. The rose taste is very delicate and will be lost in the heat.

Since it is hard to find recipes using the rose syrup, I made a list on the side of recipes I have using the rose syrup. If you have a recipe to share, I would be glad to add it to my list.

Rose Walnut Cookies

3/4 cup walnuts
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  (I used1 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup brown rice flour)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp. rose water or rose syrup
1/2 tsp.vanilla extract

Rose syrup or rose water 
confectioners sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Toast the walnuts until golden brown and fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool, then chop about half of the nuts and pulse the remaining nuts in the food processor until finely ground.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and nuts together in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, egg yolk, rose syrup and vanilla extract together in a mixer on medium-high speed until the mixture gets light and fluffy.

Add the flour mixture to make a crumbly dough. 

With a tablespoon, scoop out 1-inch pieces of dough and roll into balls. Place the cookies on greased baking sheets. Bake until the cookies set and start to brown, about 12 minutes.

Remove cookies from the oven and immediately brush them with rose syrup and dust with powdered sugar. Let cool and enjoy

                                                          

                                          

  PS. Do you like my blinged-out deer. I bought him silver but added crystal glitter and vintage flowers. I showed him to my husband, who is a deer hunter. He looked at me and said "You know he is a buck, not a doe" I said "Yeah and your point". He just walked off shaking his head and brushing glitter off his shoes ;-)

Saint Nicholas Day

 

I am so sorry I am behind on posting pictures of my house. I am so busy with having Christmas fun, I have no time to post. The only thing I do not like about Christmas, is trying to cram this much fun and joy in only four weeks !!!!

Last Saturday we celebrated Saint Nicholas Day. The girls left their shoes under the tree and Santa left vintage goodies (I think Santa shops at the Christmas House too, such a smart man ;-) and homemade fudge. My mother came for a tea party (I will show my girly tea table and blinged out deer soon). We made the best cookies, spoon cookies, Lasikkaleivat. But they should really be called browned-butter cookies, because you brown the butter and this is what gives it this deep carmelly taste. Please watch the video, because there is a little trick to shaping the cookies. But these will be made again in our family. Also in my opinion (you know how I have opinions about cooking and recipes) should be made with peach jam, because peach jam will go so well with that browned-butter, carmelly taste.

We also had so much making Feather Your Nest's mittens. Thank you Dawn for the wonderful idea and your inspiring blog. I wish we lived closer and I could bring you some cookies xoxoxoxo

Pumpkin Tiramisu

 

Well we had a lovely and yummy Thanksgiving. I have to say it all went smooth, no drama (which is always welcomed). Everything was sooo delicious. My sisters marsela wild mushroom soup was perfection. The farro stuffing was a lot like a wild rice stuffing and it is long gone. I really loved Aubern'es chocolate pecan pie. I do not like turkey, so I could not say a lot about it. But it was very moist. My favorite dish of all was my mothers Caesar salad with polenta croutons. I could have ate all of it. I especially loved the dressing, it is very lemony and garlic. We did not fry the croutons but baked them, and they were perfect.

Baked Polenta Crouton

Pre-heat oven 450

Cube polenta and coat each cube in olive oil. Set on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes, till bottom is crisped. Let croutons cool 20 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. You could makes these a couple of hours before. I will be making this salad a lot. 

The pumpkin tiramasiu was wonderful. I keep the coffee a bit light because I still wanted to pumpkin to come through. Now you should make this dish with marscapone and heavy cream, but with my budget I had to chose between either marscapone or the amarettini cookies. So this is what I did. I put my money into the cookies and made cream fraiche instead and whipped it into cream cheese. Both marscapone and cream fraiche have a tang to them. So I was able to get a similar flavor. But if I was making this and had the money I would use the marscapone instead. The lovely thing is the cream fraiche is made a day or two before. Feel free to e-mail me if I am not making sense. Also thank you Janet for the acorns, they were perfect with my brown and red table xoxoxox

                                        

Pumpkin Tiramisu

1 1/2 cup cream fraiche
3/4 cup sugar
1 8-ounce cream cheese, a room temperature
2 cups puree pumpkin
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tap. vanilla
1 package of 24 ladyfingers
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup water
1 tsp espresso powder
crushed amarettini cookies

In a mixer cream, cream cheese and sugar together. Add pumpkin, spices, salt, vanilla and beat just until is smooth. Put in a large bowl and wash and clean mixing. Whip cream fresh, till firm peeks. Then gently fold cream fresh into pumpkin mixture.

Bring water to a boil and add, rum and espresso powder. Dip each ladyfinger in rum mixture and fill first layer if dish. Then spread half of pumpkin mixture, then cover with amarettini cookies.
Repeat with second layer ladyfingers, spread rest of pumpkin mixture and cover top with cookies. Wrap tightly in plastic, then foil. Chill overnight.

Bake Sale

I thought I would share what I made for my sisters bake sale. I had a lot of fun packing. The banana bread is the same as the these muffins.
Also for the apple crisp I used this topping.

Sorry I am not ready to share the recipes for the cookie. I  copied old walper and used this tag.

Pumpkin-Pie Bars

We made a yummy treat the other day, Pumpkin-Pie bars. If you love pumpkin pie, you will love these. It is a crispy crust with a deep pumpkin filling, just like the pie. Enjoy !!!!!

Pumpkin-Pie Bars

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup spelt or whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup of rapadura or brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (one teaspoon for crust, one for batter)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin 
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350. In mixing bowl, combine flours, nuts, sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Add butter, mix until crumbly. Reserve 1/3 of the mixture. Pat remaining mixture on bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan (you can use a bit smaller pan, it will just be a deeper bar and cook a bit longer)

Meanwhile, in large mixing bowl combine pumpkin, heavy cream, eggs, cinnamon, spices, maple, vanilla and salt. Mix well. Pour evenly over crust ad sprinkle reserved crust over pumpkin mixture.

Bake 40-50 minutes or until set.

Harvest Moon

Chloe and I yesterday had a harvest moon day. We made Turkey Feather's yummy harvest moon cookies. I found this vintage harvest moon image (click on image to enlarge). Printed it up on card stock,  glittered him and glued a Popsicle stick on the back. I hope you are enjoy the season. 

 

My Over-night Maple Rolls

My good friend Susan, shared her grandmother's version of over-night dough, that can be made into cinnamon rolls. Thank you Susan. I love overnight things, so I do not have to cook as much in the morning ;-) I changed Susan's recipe a bit because I wanted make a maple version. I added maple syrup to the dough and made a maple glaze. I also added toasted pecans, because I think they go so well with maple. But feel free to play with what you like. I listed my ingredients and Susan's, so you can see both and see what you would like best.

I did want to say I changed the baking time. I baked mine at 325% for 5-10 minutes longer and found the rolls cooked without the edges burning and I did not need to cover with foil. So as I have said before, everybody's oven is different, but try baking these at 325 instead of 350 and hopefully that will work better for you.

PS. Look at these baby shoes filled with baby tears plan. I saw at the fair and I thought these were so sweet. What a wonderful way to use those outgrown baby shoes !!!!!

My Over-night Maple Rolls

2 cups water

1 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup butter, 1 stick

1 tsp. salt

1 pkg. yeast

2 eggs, well beaten

3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3-5 cup all-purpose white flour

Spread dough with 1/4 cup soft butter, 2 cups chopped, toasted pecans, 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.

Follow directions below to make and bake dough. This make two rolls, eight pieces each. I cooked one roll and put one roll in the freezer. I just set the frozen rolls in a pan about 5 at night and they were ready in the morning to bake.

Maple Glaze

Drizzle maple syrup in 1 cup confectioner sugar until you get desired consistency.

Susan's Overnight Rolls
4 c. water
2 c. sugar
1 c. shortening (butter)
1 T. salt
1 cake or 2 pkgs. Yeast
4 eggs, well-beaten
12-15 c. flour

Boil water and sugar 5 minutes. Add shortening (butter). Remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm (you can hurry this by placing in the fridge, but don't let it *overcool*). Stir in salt, yeast, eggs. Add flour a cup or two at a time, slowing down when dough approaches a nice soft (not sticky) * dough texture. You may not need to use all of the flour (don't get to the point where the dough is heavy). Knead.
Make dough at 2 p.m. Let rise, covered, in a large, clean, oiled bowl til 5 p.m. You can use two bowls if you don't have a large bread bowl. Gently knead down. Let rise again, covered, til 8 or 9 p.m. Shape into buns. Place in greased pans. Let rest on counter overnight. Bake in morning at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes. ( You may need to cover with foil partway through baking if rolls are browning quickly).

I simply spread butter over the rectangle of dough and sprinkle liberally with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon (I don’t add soaked raisins or nuts, but you could). Roll up the rectangle. Seal the end. Slice into rolls a good two inches wide (high). Place them an inch or so apart on cookie sheets or in pans (metal works best). In the morning, bakes as directed above, but make sure they’ve cooked long enough to be done. You really don’t want them *too* done—they’re just so soft and moist and delicious when done right. Mix a glaze (almost a frosting) with some butter and powdered sugar and enough milk to make it between pourable and spreadable (oh, and add some vanilla, too). I glop some of this on each roll, spreading with the back of the spoon so that it touches the entire exposed surface of the roll. Use plenty (this is not a health food!). It runs all down through the spirals of the rolls

* I noticed this recipe says to not have sticky dough but with adding the maple syrup instead of sugar the dough will be sticky. I also leave my doughs on the wetter side, because as they rise they loose the stickiness and make a moister bread.

Chocolate, Chocolate Zucchine Loaf Cake

       

It is that time of year, when one is blessed with a large, over-grown zucchini from a friends garden. What is one to do with it, well a cake is a perfect way to use zucchini. I was given a huge zucchini last week and decided to make some muffins and a cake. Now I use the same recipe to filled muffin tins and froze them for future baking and made a large loaf cake. You could also bake this in a round cake pan. If your loaf pans are small, then this recipe will make two small loaves. But freeze one loaf, unbaked in pan and the next week you can bake it (do not defrost). It will only take 5 minutes more to bake.

About the recipe, I decided having both coco powder and chopped chocolate would add a more complex flavor. Plus with the week I have had, I needed all the chocolate I could get ;-) Also as with a lot of my recipes I use both melted butter and oil. I do this because the butter adds flavor and the oil adds moister. My big pet-peeve usually about this type of cake it they are too sweet and too dry. So the oil helps keep it moist. I also use buttermilk for a tender crumb. I added a small amount of instant espresso because I thought it would boost the rich chocolate flavor I wanted.

Lastly I bake it at 325, not 350. Most recipes for this type of cake call for 350 but that is too high (well in my humble opinion it is). This is a big loaf cake and it will take a while to bake.  At 350 the outside will be done long before the inside, thus giving you a dry cake with overcooked edges. I will say that everyones oven is different and you need to work with your oven. But I would suggest try baking this at a lower temp and see how it does. I am much happier with my cake when I do. Also start checking it at 40 minutes, as soon as the center come clean when you insert a skewer, pull it from the oven. Do not bake it any longer, the when center is cooked.

Chocolate, Chocolate Zucchini Loaf Cake

Wet ingredients:

1 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane)

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup melted butter, 1 stick

1/3 cup oil (I use mild flavored olive oil)

3 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 TBL. vanilla

2 cups shredded zucchini (I run it through the food processor)

Dry ingredients :

1 1/2 cups flour (I used half white/half whole wheat pastry)

1/2 cup coco powder

1 TBL. instant espresso powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips

Pre-heat oven 325%. Grease a large loaf pan or cake pan.

In  large bowl mix wet ingredients. Then sift together dry ingredients and stir into wet. Add chocolate chips and pour batter into greased pan.

Bake 325% for 45-55 minutes, or till center is cooked.

Let cook 15 minutes before pulling the cake out of the pan.

Raspberry Galette

        

We have moved on from strawberry heaven (I have 70 pounds in my freezer) to raspberry heaven. I am busy putting raspberries into lots of things. This raspberry galette was a big hit. It is sooooooo easy to make.  But there is just a few things I want to say about the recipe. Of course!!! I am so sorry my recipes posts are always so long but there is a lot I want to say about the recipes. I really want you readers to understand what I am doing and why. I get a lot of questions about recipes and the thing I see over and over again is that people do not understand what they are doing. It is sort of like math. You can do the equation but you do not get why or what you are doing. I think if everyone understood cooking better they would feel more confident.

So first of all a galette is a French term for a cake or tart, often filled. What I made is also called a free-form tart because I just slap a piece of dough on the parchment paper, filled it with filling and pull up the sides. It is not precise or perfect, as you can see with mine.

It is usually made with a pie crust but mine is made with puff-pastry. And there is a good reason why. Puff-pastry cooks faster and that is important in this recipe because we are using fresh raspberries. You do not want these raspberries to cook long. You do want them to cook but still mainten some shape. So puff-pastry is perfect for berries or fruit that really does not need a long time cooking. Like peaches and plums.

The other thing is use only fresh berries, not frozen. The fresh berries extract a bit of juice but frozen ones, would extract a LOT and this crust can not hold a lot of juice. It would be running all over the place. so no frozen.   

 

1: Roll out a defrosted sheet of puff-pastry to size you want. Do not worry about the shape. Put pastry on a sheet of parchment paper (it will make life so much easier to get the pastry of the sheet after you bake it). Set in the center enough fresh berries but keep a good 2 inches around side clear. I use about 2 pints here.

 

2: Just fold edge over berries and sprinkle with sugar. I also sprinkled the bottom of the crust with sugar before I set the berries on it. Put galette on a cookie sheet or flat pan and set in fridge for 1/2 hour to let the dough rehard. Then it will puff better. While galette is in fridge Pre-heat oven.

 

3: Bake as package directs. Mine was 400 for 20 minutes. Pull out and cool. Serve with a generous dollop of homemade whipped cream and more fresh berries. I really like having the contrast of the cooked berries and the fresh berries with the yummy whipped cream (with a dash of cassis in the cream. Framboise would also be good but I did not have any) sandwhiched in between the berries. Some grated chocolate over the top when it first came out of the oven would be lovely too !!!

A Highland Toffee Hello

                  

Hello ladies, you are all so kind and left such encouraging words. I really appreciated and quite frankly was able to enjoy my little break, since you gave me permission to do it. Thank you xoxoxox

Well I played a lot. Medieval fair, grilled oysters on the water, practice my calligraphy, did a collage, dear hubby has perfected his smoked ribs, had a surprise Hawaiian birthday party for a friend, baked, ect. We finally seem to be bonding with Mayra, the new bunny. She does not like our woods floors. She only hangs out in her cage or the large towel we set in front of it. So I do not (at this point) have to worry about her getting into things around my house. Also isn't my first Abraham Darby rose of the season just dreamy !!!!!

I made a new yummy bars, my family is loving. I saw the recipe for these Highland Toffee bars. But I wanted to make them a bit healthier. Here are the changes I made and the recipe.

thick rolled oats V. instant oats

rice syrup V. corn syrup (rice syrup is a great sweetener. It has a slight malty flavoring, so it adds to the toffee flavor. Here are two links talking about rice syrup)

bittersweet chocolate V. semisweet

virgin olive oil  V. vegetable oil (I buy the oil at Costco and it really does not have much flavor and use it for all my baking. Then I use the extra virgin olive oil for my cooking)

Evaporated cane and 1 TBL. of molasses V. brown sugar

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My Highland Toffee Bars

2 cups rolled oats

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup evaporated cane

1 TBL. molasses

1/4 cup rice syrup

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts, I like sliced almonds and pecans

1 cup chopped or chips, bittersweet chocolate

Grease a square baking pan.

Pre-heat oven 350. Set nuts on a cookie sheet and toast them. It is important to toast the nuts or you bars will not have as yummy a flavor. While nuts are toasting, put in a sauce pan oil, sugar, molasses, rice syrup, vanilla and salt. Set over medium heat till all is melted and blended. Then add oats and toasted nuts. Pour oats into pre-pared pan and smooth out. Sprinkle chips on top.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Pull out to cool. I did not smooth out the chocolate but just let it be chips in the top. Let cool at lest a half hour and then cut into bars.

This is very easy and quick. Enjoy. 

One of my baking secrets

 

As I have said I am on a tight food budget. So I am always looking for way to make my recipes a bit more, without breaking the bank. I do this is by looking for new ways to use inexpensive ingredients. Semolina flour is one of my favorite tricks. It adds a softer texture then cornmeal or polenta but a bit more then white flour. I use it a lot in my baking.

Pound cake is one of my favorite cakes. I love a dense but moist, fine crumb cake. I am a lazy cook and baking has been good for me because it has made me slow down and not take shortcuts. I have found some rules are really important.

First soften the butter. I mean really soft. It will in the long run save you a lot of work. You are going to be scraping down the sides of the bowl. The softer the butter, the easier it is to do. You will not be fighting your batter so much.

Second really let your mixer do your work for you. You want to cream that butter and sugar, so it is all nice and fluffy. This will make a big difference in you crumb. So let the mixer go the full 3 minutes (instead of for a minute on as high and say that is good enough, like I use to do  :)                                                                                     

Lastly about scraping down the bowl, I know it is a hassle but you really want all that butter well incorporated into your batter. So just do it. You will be glad you did. I promise.

Pound cake is really easy, just a lot of little steps. Once you have done it, it will not be a big deal. Remember it is better to have a small slice of something amazing, then a whole lot of nothing.

Semolina Pound Cake with Dried Cherries

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup semolina flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 pound (two sticks) of softened butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

zest of a small lemon

1 tsp. of vanilla extract

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup yogurt

1/2 cup dried cherries or any dried fruit

Pre-heat oven to 325. Butter and flour bunt or loaf pan.

Sift together flours, soda and salt and set aside.

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium.

Add zest and vanilla.

Add eggs, one at a time, and scrape down the sides of the bowl with each egg.

On low speed, mix in one-third of the flour mixture until flour is just incorporated. Mix in half of the yogurt. Repeat, ending with last third of the flour until just incorporated.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes until the top is light golden brown. Cool for 30 minutes in pan and then turn out onto a cooling rack.

This is perfect for tea, dessert, breakfast or just because.

Three Citrus Cookies

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I thought I should make something that did not have chocolate in, although I am not sure why :)

These three citrus cookies are divine and refreshing, especially this time of year. They are basically a sugar cookie with the zest of lemon, lime and orange. If you already have a sugar cookie recipe you love just add the zest to it. I roll the dough into logs, freeze the dough and slice off cookies to bake. As with the other recipes  I have been sharing, do not thaw. I find inserting the dough wrapped in a piece of wax paper into a paper towel tube, helps me to roll the dough. The dough is soft and easy to roll.

A couple of tips.

1 I use a fair amount of zest because remember when you freeze items they loose their flavor a bit and you want to keep that punch.

2 Make sure you really get your butter and egg mixture all mixed because when you add the flour, you want to just barely mix it till it comes together. So feel free to really mix the butter and scrap the bowl and get all those bits, so you are ready for the flour.

3 If you do not want to freeze the dough at lest chill it an hour. You want that butter to re-harden.

4 After the cookie dough has frozen make sure you wrap the dough well and always keep frozen.

5 Keep roll on flat surface till frozen, so it will freeze flat (I made this mistake !!)

6 Here is a tag (just click on it to make it bigger) for you to save in your pictures and print up. If you give a roll to a needy friend you can add the tag. Enjoy !!!

Three Citrus Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup whole what pastry flour

1 1/4 cup all-purpose white flour (or all white flour)

1/2 cup sugar, I used evaporated cane

3 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

zest of a lime

zest of a lemon

zest of 1/2 a orange

In mixer cream together butter and sugar until creamy. Add zests, yolks and vanilla. Mix, scrap down bowl and mix again. Add flour and salt and mix till it just comes together. 

Divide dough in half. Roll  into 12 inch long logs. Wrap in wax paper and freeze on cookie sheets. When frozen cut logs in half and wrap in wax paper again. Then set rolls into freezer baggie.   

To bake, pre-heat oven 350. Slice cookies, set on greased cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until cookies start to turn golden on the edges.

   

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Chocolate Granola

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Lets have breakfast. I have never made this before and I have to say it is a big hit. We call it healthy coco puffs, because it turns the milk all chocolaty. Now you will have to bare with me a minute. I can go on and on about food, but I will try not to. When I was deciding what nuts and fruits to use, I thought about a Pinot Noir. A good red wine and chocolate have a lot in common. There is the woody oak and tannins, to me hazelnuts have the same qualities. Then there is the fruit. Figs, cherries, strawberries. Also sometimes coconut, herbs, lavender. I tried to match some of those flavors in this granola. So that is why I chose the nuts and fruits I did, but any will do. Use what you love. Some versions I am planning on making are ginger or orange. If you are using nuts you should toasted them before you make granola. It will add sooo much more flavor. If you do not know how to toasted and peel hazelnuts, here is how . I keep my granola in an old glass peanut butter jar. Just pick a container that is tight.

Chocolate Granola

1 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped

1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup raw sunflower seed

1/3 cup wheat germ

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut

3 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder

2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup oil (I use mild flavor olive oil)

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup dried figs, cubed

1/2 cup dried currents

1/2 cup dried cherries, cut in half

Pre-heat over 300

Put in a big bowl nuts, germ, coconut, oats and coco. In a small bowl mix oil, honey, maple and salt. Pour liquid over oats and mix. If all oats do not look coated add a bit more oil, till all coated.

Spread oats on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 40-60 till oats dried. turn oats over every 15 minuets to ensure even toasting. Allow to cool before storing in container.

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Biscuits

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One thing I try to always have in my freezer are biscuits. We are big tea drinkers (12 pds a year) and I like to be able to at lest have some biscuits with our tea. They are great for desserts too. Add some sliced bananas and nutella. Of course fresh fruit and whip cream, or just jam and butter. My favorite is a piece of chocolate (dark of course :) with orange marmalade !!!

You will see this recipe (click above) uses buttermilk. I use a high fat buttermilk. Fat makes perfect biscuit. I know, I know fat. But it is better to have one small perfect thing, then a whole lots of nothing.

Also I say in the recipe to kneed 6 times. What I mean is to fold over the dough six time. You press the dough into a rectangle, fold over, turn the dough. Basically do this pattern 6 times. This will help create a flaky biscuits. It is not hard, just press gently.

Lastly I think baking biscuits frozen makes a better biscuit. Now I am not an a pastry chef and do not know a ton about the science of baking. I can not prove this but I think the texture and moistness of a biscuit that was baked off frozen is better then chilled. So I always freeze my biscuits. Boy that does not sound good does it ;)

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3 Ginger Banana Muffins

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My freezer is full of unbaked muffins !!! I do not like to bake muffins and then freeze them, they just are not as good. So I started playing around with how to freeze them unbaked. I have been doing this for several years and love it. It really only adds a few minutes to the cooking time. Evey once in a while I will get a one weird muffin that does not cook like the rest. But that has happened maybe 6 times.

This is what I do, I make my batter, then I set paper cups in muffin tins and fill the cups to the top. I set the tin in the freezer and when the muffins freeze I pull them out of the tins and put the muffins in freezer baggie. I like that I can pull out only as many muffins as I want to bake. I just set the frozen muffin in the muffin tin and bake. Easy, easy.

One problem I have had with freezing muffins, is if the recipe has a lot of sugar it does not fully freeze. I did use several different flours because I think it is healthy to eat different types of grains. But you can make this with all white, all wheat or half wheat/half white.

Another thing, I used both oil and butter in most muffins I make. Oil adds moister to the muffins but I love the taste of butter. So I use both. I know there seems like a long list of ingredients but it is all those layers that add more depth of flavor. Also when you freeze things the spices sort of lose their pow. So when I made these muffins I upped the ginger and cinnamon a bit. I think that is it. If I think of more I can come back and re-edit :-)

3 Ginger Banana Muffins

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup sugar (I used evaporated cane sugar)

1/4 oil, I use mild flavored olive oil

1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

1 tsp. vanilla ect.

3 TBLS. finely chopped candied ginger

1 TBL. fresh grated ginger

1 tsp. powdered ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/2 cup oat flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup buttermilk

Pre-heat oven 350

In a bowl mash bananas with a potato masher, then add eggs, butter, oil, and vanilla. Add rest and mix again, till just mixed. Do not over mix. Fill muffin cups to top and bake 20-30 minutes. Till center is done (remember do not over bake !) Makes about 16 muffins.

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Soda Bread with Candied Oranges and Dark Chocolate

 

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Okay this is another one of those brilliant recipes that always turns out and always impresses. The yummy soad bread with just a hint of chocolate and orange is amazing !!!!

It makes a large loaf. What I do is make a double batch and then make four small loafs. I make the dough and set each round in one corner of a cookie sheet. I then set the cookie sheet in the freezer uncovered. When the dough freezes, I wrap each loaf individually in foil and put it in a freezer baggies. Then when wanting a loaf you unwrap it and bake frozen. It will only add 5-10 minutes more to cooking. There are 2 reasons I do this. First the original loaf is pretty big to bake off frozen. Second I am trying to controle what we eat. If I bake a lot, we eat a lot. A small loaf make 4 nice size wedges. Just perfect for my family.

Without going on and on, one of the problems with baking is there are lots of different versions of things. Soda bread can be like that. It can be very dry and bread like, it can be very moist and biscuit like. I would say this recipe is similar to a scone batter (well to what I call a scone. Again different people have different versions). One person mentioned their scones never turn out. Well without me being there I am not sure why. It could be a bad recipe. Sadly to say, there are more bad recipes out there then good ones. But here are some tricks that work for me when making things like scones, biscuits and this recipe.

1. Keep butter in the size of small peas. You do not want it blended too much. You want to feel rough pieces of butter. As you bake, those bigger pieces of butter will help create a flaky texture.

2. Make sure the butter is very cold before you bake. Let say you are making this recipe and want to bake it then. At least set your soad bread back in the fridge or freezer for 1/2 hour to rechill the butter. Cold is your friend.

3.Do NOT over mix. This is not bread dough, you do not want to knead. Use a light hand when working. When mixing wet with dry mix till it just comes together, then stop. Even when using a recipe for biscuits that calls for kneading, go very lightly.

4. Do not OVERbake. A lot of baked items I have had over the years were baked way to long. You bake till the center is done. If it is cookies you bake even less but that is another post. Do not worry about if the outside looks brown enough, just cook this soad bread till it is cooked in the center. Not a minute more. With this recipe, at 40 minutes I would start keeping an eye on it.

5. Lastly, this is not a trick but I find baked items like this cooked with buttermilk seem to be tender. So the buttermilk in the recipe will help. Get the best richest buttermilk you can get.

I hope this helps. I am no expert, just a homemaker. But over the years of me cooking, helping other, teaching my girls and friends these are things I have learned. I know with this long post it sounds hard, but it really is not. After a couple of times it will seem like old hat.

Soda Bread with Candied Oranges and Dark Chocolate

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or use all white flour)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup bittersweet , cut into 1/3-inch pieces or chips
1/4 cup candied orange peel, diced or zest from 2 oranges
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg

Preheat to 350°F. Grease baking sheet. Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Add butter, rub in with fingertips or mix in a food processor until butter is the size of small peas. Stir in chocolate and orange peel. Add buttermilk and egg in medium bowl until just incorporated.  Do not over mix.

Scoop dough onto cookie sheet. Form dough into about 6-inch-diameter round, about 2 inches high. Using sharp knife, cut 1-inch-deep x on top of bread.

Bake bread about 50-65 minutes (35-45 for small loaf) till center comes clean when inserted with a skewer. Transfer bread to rack.
Makes 1 large round loaf

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My no-bake cookies

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My freezer is looking pretty empty and that always makes me nervous. I love to see my basement full of rolls of toilet-paper, plenty of light bulbs, extra laundry soap and a full freezer. I want back up, extra, just in case. I am not sure what I think is going to happen but just in case. I am blessed with a 1000 square foot basement, so I can indulge this quirk.

As much as I love to cook, as I always say I am a lazy cook. For me it is just as easy to make a triple batch, as a single batch. Then I have extras for down the road. I decided this coming week to focus on baking and desserts. All week I will be posting recipes for baked items to fill your freezer and easy quick desserts.

My plan is each morning for the up coming week to make one item. Hopefully at the end of the week I will have plenty of muffins, scones, soda bread, cookies, etc. Not just for my family over the next few months but also for friends in need, unexpected guests. It is  lovely to be able to whip out some scones for impromptu tea parties as needed. If you are interested in doing some baking, here is a wonderful post from Dawn.  Hopefully it will help get you motivated, it did me !!

Now the first recipe I am posting is not a recipe were you make plenty and have extra to fill your freezer with. But this is an easy, quick no-bake cookie. It is perfect for those days when you have a house full of children (or even discriminating adults, like me :) and you want something yummy and fast. There is a ton of versions of no-bake cookies out there. This is different for a few reasons. First this version has no peanut butter. I use coconut oil (you can use butter) instead of peanut butter. Also there are a lot of versions with coco powder, like this one but I added chocolate too. I also cut the sugar way back. The a lot recipe call for 2 cups. Lastly you can use quick, regular or thick rolled oats. It is just what you like.

My version of No-Bake cookies

1/3 cup of coconut oil (this is the coconut oil I use. It has a nice coconut flavor. They do not all have a coconut flavor) or butter

1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar or sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup coco powder

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cup rolled oats

1/2 chopped toasted pecans

In a sauce pan bring to a boil coconut oil, sugar, milk, coco powder, salt. Boil 2-4 minutes till starts to thicken. Pull off heat add chocolate and sir till melted. Add nuts and oats. Scoop small balls with two spoons onto wax paper and let sit till firmer, about an hour.

They are stick because I cut back on the sugar and a bit cocnutty, yummm.

Art by Steff Green

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Violet shortbreads

 

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Well with all the questions on how to use the violet sugar, I thought I would create a recipe using the sugar. These are shortbread cookies that are rolled out and cut. Similar to a sugar cookie but a bit firmer which will make them easier to dip in the violet scented chocolate. I sprinkled the cookies with the sugar and then after they are baked dip half the cookie in the chocolate. I think these would be adorable cut with a heart shaped cookie cutter. If you make these I would love to hear if you liked or hated them. Enjoy 

Violet Shortbreads

2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/2 cup powder sugar

violet sugar for top of cookie

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Chocolate dipping sauce

1/2 cup dark chocolate chopped or chips

3 TBL. violet sugar

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Pre-heat 350

In mixer cream butter and sugar till fluffy. About 2 minutes. Add salt and flour. Mix till dough comes together. But do not over-mix. Chill dough 2 hours in fridge till firm. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Place cookies on greased cookie-sheet. Sprinkle top of each cookie with violet sugar.  Place cookie-sheet in fridge for 15 minutes to firm dough up again. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes till edges just start to turn golden.

When cookies cool dip half of cookies in chocolate sauce and set on rack till chocolate firmed

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Chocolate Sauce

in a double boiler slowly melt chocolate and sugar

Painting by Painted Ladies

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Cranberry Muffins

 

For Thanksgiving breakfast we are having cranberry muffins. I wanted to share that (as you know) I am big for having food in the freezer, to save me time and money. Well I keep unbaked muffins in the freezer. This is how I do it. I set paper cups in muffin tins, fill each cup with batter. Set pans in freezer. When batter is frozen, I transfer the muffins to freezer baggies. Then I pull out what I want to bake. I DO NOT defrost muffins. I just set the cup frozen in the muffin tin and bake. It will take the muffins maybe 5 minutes longer. Not much. It is soo easy and then you have fresh baked muffins any time you want. This recipe is a page from a cookbook I am making for each of the girls. It make 4-5 dozen muffins.

 

Kristin asked about roasting pumpkin, if it tasted better. I do think it does taste better, but it is not a big difference. The big reason I roast the pumpkins is because it is so darn easy. I cut pumpkins in half, scoop out seeds. I use a jelly roll pan (but any pan with sides). Put a 1/2 inch water and set pumpkins in pan. Bake uncovered 350 till pumpkin tender and can easily be pierced with knife. Do not worry about water cooking away, do not add more water. Let pumpkin cool and scoop flesh into processor an throw away skin. Process pumpkin till smooth. I freeze cup-fulls in baggies. This is so much easier then cubing, peeling and steaming (The way I use to do it). Thank you Angie for teaching me this easy way, you are the best !!