Monday In Michigan – 5 Of My Childhood Favorites

02 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by Tracey Somos-Gehring in Monday in Michigan

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childhood, favorite things, Life, Monday In Michigan

This list all started because I was hunting for my lip balm. Instead of the one I was after, I found Harry’s Cherry Chapstick, and used that. And it’s amazing how that iconic flavor of that lip balm took me back to being a kid! They have all kinds of flavors now from cake to fruit punch, but when I was kid, Cherry was as good as it got, and I loved it! Granted, through the years it’s lost a lot of it’s “waxy” taste, I’m sure because ingredients and flavorings have improved through the years, but it still – smelled and tasted like childhood to me!

So, on that note, here are 5 of my childhood favorites:

1. Cherry Chapstick: This was my favorite Chapstick lip balm, I mean, if I used it I’d be just like Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee right? 😉

2. Suave Strawberry Shampoo: I think I may I tried to eat this stuff once because it smelled so good! 😀 It was my favorite shampoo as a child, it’s unfortunate that now Suave Shampoo and I don’t get along very well, my hair now seems to hate it, lol.

3. Love’s Baby Soft and Love’s Lemon cologne: I loved both of these! I even had that promotional t-shirt that came out as well that proudly proclaimed in big letters across my non-existent bosom at the time – “I’m Baby Soft!”. Oh my. I went on though to love the Lemon scent even more. I see you can purchase it on Amazon, I may have to try it, although some of the reviews say not to bother as it doesn’t smell like it used to.

4. Tickle Deodorant: It was my first every deodorant. Ever. And I’m sure the draw was the cute packaging and pretty colors. I have no idea anymore if it even worked, lol.

5. Avon Perfume Pins: I still have most of my collection, usually holiday themed if I recall correctly (I’ll have to go dig them out now that I’ve remembered them!), and the funny thing is the fragrance balm is still intact in them, lol. I never cared for the fragrances, I just loved the little pins! It helped that our next-door neighbor was an Avon Lady, lol. Avon Calling! 😉

There were also a lot of memorable products, but not for good reasons, lol. QT anyone? Or how about Sun-In???

What products and so forth do you remember fondly from childhood or the teen years??

Mix It Up Friday – Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

29 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by Tracey Somos-Gehring in Food Friday, Mix It Up Friday

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baking, cinnamon, cookies, dessert, easy, King Arthur Flour, King Arthur Flour baking mix, molasses, muffins, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, snack

from Tracey G.

Nearing the end of September, I’m still thinking apples, but also starting to think pumpkin! So, when I saw the King Arthur Flour mix for Pumpkindoodle Cookies, I decided I needed to try them! I love Snickerdoodles, and in my opinion the addition of pumpkin and spices could only add to them – and I was correct!

This mix was super easy to pull together, all it required of me, by way of ingredients, was a stick of butter and one egg. That’s it! The cinnamon-sugar to roll them in before baking is provided for you, which was a really nice inclusion.

You blend the mix along with the butter and egg, and it does come together quickly. Once you have a smooth dough, you scoop by the tablespoonful and roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mix. I used my cookie dough scoop to make them, and it was super easy to get them from the bowl, to the cinnamon-sugar and onto the baking sheet – and lastly, into a 350° F oven for about 13-15 minutes. When the cookies come out of the oven, they cool on the cookie sheets for 15 minutes. I then transferred mine to a rack to finish cooling.

We all enjoyed these immensely – both Harry and Jeremy have pretty much demolished the whole batch between the two of them, I think I’ve had maybe at the very most, 3 out of the 22 I got out of it. It says it makes 20, so I was pretty close – I guess I got a couple bonus cookies, lol. They are reminiscent of a molasses cookie with the addition of pumpkin, plus pumpkin pie spices, and then the coating they received of cinnamon-sugar gave them the Snickerdoodle trait. They were not dry at all, but moist and chewy and have kept their chewy texture. I absolutely loved this Pumpkindoodle Cookie Mix – it’s simple, easy to prepare and yummy to eat, what’s not to love?

from Kris B.

I am not one of those people who is beating down the door at Starbcucks when the Pumpkin Spice Lattes return each fall. Yes, I do like pumpkin spice…a lot, but I much prefer it in baked goods rather than coffee. Cinnamon, cloves, allspice…those are the flavors of fall to me. Admittedly, my favorite baked pumpkin spice recipe is one for pumpkin bread given to me by my mom, but I was willing to give King Arthur Flour’s Pumpkin and Spice Muffin Mix a try.

Despite that this mix says right on the box “Do not eat raw mix, dough, or batter,” I ate a spoonful of the batter as I scraped the bowl. I was surprised by a heavy molasses taste. It wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t what I was expecting. The flavor is somewhere between traditional pumpkin bread flavors and gingerbread, leaning more towards the gingerbread. In very small, faint, vertical text, King Arthur does say next to the name on the box that molasses is a signature ingredient in these muffins. Once you know to expect molasses rather than cinnamon and allspice, the muffins tasty.

Requiring only the addition of three eggs, a cup of water, and 1/3 of a cup of oil, to the contents of mix, the batter for the muffins comes together quickly. It can either be made into a loaf or muffins. The instructions say that the box makes a dozen muffins. I got fourteen standard muffins. As with Tracey and her cookies, this was bonus week!

These muffins are great with coffee and fruit for breakfast, as a sweet treat after lunch, or as a snack any time of day. Like the traditional “pumpkin pie” spices, molasses too is one of those flavors that, to me, says fall. Being that fall is my favorite season of the year, I am for anything that reminds me of cooler temperatures and the colors of the changing leaves.

Happy fall, everyone!

Pumpkin and Spice Muffin Mix

Food Friday – Let’s Get Sconed!

22 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday

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baking, cinnamon, cranberry, dried cranberries, easy, King Arthur Flour, orange, pecans, scones, white whole wheat flour

Something you may not know about me (or if you know me, believe about me) is that I am a rule follower. This probably stems from growing up as an only child in a military family. I always followed the established rules and did what I was told to do by my parents and other adults because I am also “a pleaser.” Though I am now a mature adult, at least numerically, and don’t have to follow all the rules set by others, old behaviors die hard. When it comes to making something from a recipe written by someone else, I feel an obligation to follow their instructions…sometimes to a fault. There are times where my instinct tells me that something is not right with a recipe, but I am hesitant to trust that instinct, wondering if it is my ego that is taking over, something I seriously don’t want to happen Another thing you may not know about me is that people with inflated egos really rub me the wrong way!

That all sets the stage for my experience making this week’s recipe, Cinnamon-Cappuccino-Pecan Scones.

Tracey and I schedule each week’s recipe offering long in advance. Often when a choose the recipe that I will make, I am “judging a book by its cover.” That was the case with this one. The title drew me in. How can you go wrong with cinnamon, cappuccino, and pecans? I was pretty excited when it came time to make these scones. It was not until then, that I sat down and read the recipe in its entirety. When I did that, a few things caught my attention, not necessarily in a good way. They were: 1. The recipe only uses 1/4 cup of sugar. 2. The recipe calls for the addition of 4-5 TBS of water. No baked good uses water except for bread. Because these things were a little concerning to me, I read the comments on the King Arthur website about these scones. The reviews were “aces and spaces,” either the bakers thought they were fabulous or terrible. In some ways, that is not surprising. Differing opinions always exist. The thing that caught my attention was that several of the comments mentioned flavored chips. The recipe, as posted here, does not include baking chips of any kind. Looking a little more closely, I noticed that the most recent comment was from 2013. Something was not right here.

But, because I am a rule follower, I set about following the posted recipe for Cinnamon-Cappuccino-Pecan Scones exactly as it is written.

I should have trusted my instinct. They were terrible! The texture was not right and they were flavorless. I would go as far as to call this initial attempt a major fail.

I am also one who perseveres, often against the odds. So, I went back to my thoughts about the issues with the recipe as posted and began to make new rules, my own rules.

Here are the changes that I made:

I reduced the baking powder from two teaspoons to one
I used 1/2 cup of sugar rather than a 1/4 cup
I doubled the amount of cinnamon from one teaspoon to two teaspoons
The ingredient list that reads, ” 1/3 cup pecans, processed or blended until very finely ground” proved a bit ambiguous to me. Is it 1/3 cup of pecans that are then processed, which will yield much less than 1/3 cup of finely processed pecans. I used 1/3 cup of finely processed pecans, but, honestly, I don’t think the amount used matters one way or the other in this instance.
I doubled (and then maybe added a little more) the espresso powder
I used 3/4 cup of full-fat plain yogurt.
I omitted the water entirely.
I added an egg.
I added 1/2 cup of caramel chips. (I would have prefered a dark chocolate but my husband won’t eat chocolate in baked goods. Weirdo!)

Other than those changes, I followed the instructions exactly! 🙂

The result?

The overall flavor was 100 times better. The scones were still a little dry for my personal taste, but they are edible, especially with a nice cup of dark roast coffee, something that the first batch was not. I may give this recipe another try. If i do, I will probably double the amount of butter from a half a cup to a full cup. Don’t judge! In case you didn’t know, scones are all about the fat. Don’t think about that, just enjoy!

Back to being a rule follower and perhaps a little TMI…

I’ll take full responsibility for this week’s post title. It’s a bit of a personal joke. A couple of weeks a go, I was in Denver where both getting sconed and getting stoned are legal. Despite having had many opportunities in college, I have always chosen flour over weed. Before we left for Colorado, I told Weber that I had added something to my bucket list. Being one who had crossed that one off of his list a long time ago, he told me to go for it. Damn being a rule follower, I couldn’t do it. It is however, still on the list. Maybe another time. I might be able to break this rule following habit yet! 🙂

from Tracey G

First let me preface my part of this post by saying, I fully approve that title! LOL!!! 😀 And I absolutely love my blog partner!! <3

When I chose this recipe for Cranberry-Orange Scones this week – I chose it because it happens to be one of my favorite flavors of scones and muffins, and to be honest, I didn’t really read the recipe at first. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it used white whole wheat flour when I did finally read through it! I just happened to have some King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour in my cupboard, so that made me even happier, although they do say you can use regular all-purpose flour, so if you don’t have any around you’re still good to go.

I decided to make 2 batches, one with the White Whole Wheat, and another with the AP flour, that way I could attest to each variation, and let me say I loved them both. I ended up making another batch of the white whole wheat ones because the first batch ended up being eaten before making it to photos… But that also speaks to how easily they come together. It’s a very simple recipe and technique, not to mention a fairly quick bake time. You can have these mixed, shaped and baking quickly, and be munching on them with tea or coffee in no time flat!

The recipe uses the basics: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, half and half, butter and an egg. The extras that make them what flavor they are include orange juice, orange zest, dried cranberries and optional allspice. I added the allspice to both flour versions, and I loved the background taste it gave it – it blended well with the orange/cranberry tastes.

After you mix your dry ingredients in a bowl, you cut in your butter, then toss your dried cranberries in. Now you blend the half and half with the egg, orange juice and orange zest in another small bowl, then stir this into the dry ingredients mixing just until it comes together. It’s at this point it gets turned out onto a floured surface for a couple kneads and shaping into about an 8-inch circle, about 1/2 in thick, transfer to your baking pan. Brush with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired. I used the KAF Coarse Sparkling Sugar for 2 batches, and regular granulated sugar for one. Now, here’s where I deviated a bit – the recipe states to cut into 10 wedges, well, I went with 8 wedges instead, just because I wanted to. Bake for about 15 minutes in a 425° F oven, or until they are golden brown. They recommend serving immediately and I found they’re still good even a few days later. I would like to see how they freeze next time I make them.

I couldn’t have asked for a better or easier recipe for my favorite flavored scones – it’s a recipe I know I’ll be turning to quite often!! I can highly recommend King Arthur Flour’s Cranberry-Orange Scones, made with either White Whole Wheat Flour or AP Flour. Both are equally good, and I really enjoy knowing it’s a way to sneak some whole grains in, in a very tasty way!

Food Friday – King Arthur Flour September 2017 Bakealong Challenge: Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread

16 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday, King Arthur Flour Bakealong

≈ 4 Comments

from Kris B.

Making the King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge each month accentuates how quickly time flies. It seems like just last week that we were making the Golden Focaccia that was August’s Bakealong Challenge! And here it is, the middle of September already! The signature ingredients in this month’s challenge, Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread, scream fall to me. The apple bins filling up at the grocery store mean it’s almost time to make homemade applesauce. And, I love the smell of the cinnamon infused pine cones that line the entrance to our grocery store in the fall. Once these are in place, it definitely feels, or at least smells, like fall to me. Now, if we could just convince the Texas weather that 95 degrees is not an acceptable fall temperature!!!

On to the September 2017 Bakealong Challenge, the Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread…

This is by far is my favorite Bakealong Challenge thus far! The bread is moist with just a slight sweetness to it and the texture is not too heavy and not too light.. The cinnamon apple filling is just the right proportion of fruit and spice. I feel like Goldilocks in my descriptions here. 🙂 The best part about this recipe is that though its twist makes it look a bit fancy, it is super easy to make. And, it doesn’t require any “out of the ordinary” ingredients.

Due to poor planning on my part, I started making this bread at 9 pm at night. It was nearly midnight at the point the bread had been through its initial resting phase, first rise, and I had made the filling and shaped the twist. It needed another hour and a half rise and then to be baked for 30-40 minutes. My day had begun at 4:45 am and completing the bread at this point was going to keep me up until 2am or better. My body said, not so nicely, think again. In the tips included with this recipe, it said that the bread could be worked to the point of the last rise, exactly where I was, and then be put in the refrigerator overnight. It could then be taken from the fridge, allowed its last rise, and be made and served fresh and warm in the morning. It was a sign. My job was to test this variation to the recipe.

The shaped bread was in the refrigerator for about eight hours. I took it out first thing in the morning, allowed it to rise for an hour and a half, and then baked it for 35 minutes, splitting the difference in the generous 30-40 minute range for baking. Once coming out of the oven, the bread had to cool completely before the final step of adding the glaze could be completed. So, it was three hours more the next morning before the bread was ready to be eaten. If you choose to make the Cinnamon-Apple Twist the day before and intend to serve it fresh the next day, I’d suggest brunch instead of breakfast. Or, plan on getting up several hours before your scheduled breakfast hour!

However and whenever you make the Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread, know that in the end, it is worth every minute of your time whether late at night or early in the morning. And, if you are concerned with such things, it is also worth every calorie ingested when you eat way more of it than you should!

From Tracey G.

As Kris said, I can’t believe it’s the KAF September Bakealong Challenge already! Time does indeed fly by these days, Harry’s in back in school and that makes me even more aware of where we are at any given point during the year! Those lazy days of summer vacation are long gone and feel like a distant memory already – and it’s only been 2 weeks!

This month’s KAF Bakealong Challenge, Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread (here’s a link right to the KAF Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread Walk-Through) is absolutely wonderful. I can tell you without a doubt, that I will make this again. The bread reminds me of a yeast doughnut-type taste and texture, and it’s another one of those things I find myself actually saying out loud: “I can’t believe I made this, THIS came out of MY kitchen!”. I love it when I feel that way about something. This rivals any bakery treat in presentation – it looks beautiful. I still look at the photos now (as the bread has been LONG gone for awhile now, Jeremy and I between the 2 of us, had them gone in probably 2 days!), I’m still shaking my head in wonder – I did that. Me. Little old me! Wow!

It is very easy to do. But, as Kris said, we discovered it’s one of those things that while easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, it does take some time. Now, that’s not to say it’s time that you’re spending working with them, nope, it’s rest, rise and bake time. So, while it’s doing it’s thing resting, rising and baking – you can be doing your thing!

After initially mixing the dough, you let it rest for about 30 minutes, then do the kneading, I use my stand mixer for the kneading. It now moves onto a rising phase, which, for me it took closer to the 2 hour mark of the 1 1/2 to 2 hours suggest rising time. While it’s doing that you make your filling.

For the filling it’s grated apple, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and thickener of choice. They give directions for either corn starch or Instant ClearJel as the thickener. I used the Instant ClearJel (which, by the way is one of my FAVORITE pantry items!) and it was a snap to throw the stuff together. Just mix in your Instant ClearJel with your sugar and cinnamon, then toss with the apples/lemon juice mixture. It thickens with no cooking. If you choose the cornstarch route, it involves a small amount of cooking – certainly NOT a deal breaker when making this bread by any means.

Once your bread is ready to be shaped, you divide it, and set one piece aside to work with one at a time. You roll out your dough to approximately a 10×12-in rectangle. The dough is a dream to work with. Initially it kept snapping and shrinking back, but that didn’t last long and it then behaved and rolled out wonderfully. Once it’s rolled, you spread with half of the filling. Yep, the filling is minimal, so no worries there. It’s a pretty thin layer – but let me say that’s all you need, it’s perfect as is! Roll up starting with the long side as if you were making cinnamon rolls (and there is a variation for this recipe to make them into rolls if you wish in the Tips section at the end of it!). Once it’s rolled and the seams are sealed, you slice it down the length to make two pieces. Transfer one piece to your parchment lined pan, with the filling side up. Now, they give you a couple different ways you can achieve the twist, for both of mine, I slightly crossed the second piece atop the first and I worked from the center to one end, “braiding” them together, keeping the exposed filling side up at all times. Then I went back to center and repeated going the other way – it’s absolutely laughably easy!! Really!! Now, repeat with your remaining dough. I baked each of mine on separate pans, but you could do both on one. Their Apple-Cinnamon Twist Bread Bakealong Challenge Walk-Through shows you just how easy the shaping is!

The Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread right after being shaped, before 2nd rising.

The bread twists now have another rising time, about another 1-2 hours, which once again, mine was closer to the 2 hour mark. Then you bake them in a 350° F, for 30-40 minutes. They direct you to check after 20 to see if they are browning up too fast, and if so, to tent them lightly with foil for the rest of their baking until done. I did have to do this with mine as my ends were browning quickly. When they come out, you allow at least an hour to cool, then glaze! Done!

One of the Cinnamon-Apple Twist Breads right out of the oven

I’d thought the Golden Focaccia was my favorite Bakealong Challenge, but it’s been replaced with this one, the KAF Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread September 2017 Bakealong Challenge!! This is so far, by far my favorite one. I still love the Golden Focaccia, don’t get me wrong, but this one is something I have plans for – it will make a fabulous holiday food gift! It’s so pretty, it makes you look like a pro!!! I’ll take that! And I look forward to my next favorite King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge! Bake on everyone! 😉

Food Friday – Pie for Dinner or Dessert!

08 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

apple, apple pear pie, baking, dessert, double crust pie, easy, ham, King Arthur Flour, pastry, pear, pie, quiche, savory, spinach

from Tracey G.

I love apples. I love pears. It’s a toss-up for me as which I like better, and I honestly don’t think I could choose!! I saw this recipe for Apple-Pear Pie from King Arthur Flour and, unfiltered first thought was “why didn’t I ever think of that combination?”! I don’t even think I got any further in my recipe search for this week’s Pies, Tarts & Turnovers category! I saw this one and it was an immediate “this one!!” sentiment.

It’s a really easy recipe – nothing fancy, just a straight-forward fruit pie. You have your choice as to what double crust pie pastry recipe you use, if you have a favorite use that. If you don’t here’s the one I used with great success, it’s KAF’s Classic Double Pie Crust recipe, and it hasn’t failed me yet. I’ve used it whenever I need a pie pastry recipe, as it’s easy and it’s always been a joy to work with. I’ve made it with all-purpose flour and with KAF’s Pastry Flour Blend and it’s worked beautifully with either.

The longest and most “work/effort” of this recipe is the readying of the pears and apples! I did it all by hand instead of getting out the peeler-corer-slicer thingy, and it did take a bit of time to do.

Your apples and pears are then tossed with the dry mixture of seasonings, sugar and thickener. The dry mixture is a combination of cinnamon (I didn’t have the Madagascar Cinnamon they call for, but used instead the Vietnamese Cinnamon I have on hand), ginger, sugar, salt and Instant ClearJel. I did look up on their Pie Thickener Chart that in the case of apples, and it looks like cornstarch can be use measure for measure in substitution of the Instant ClearJel if you don’t have it. I used the Instant ClearJel, so I can’t say if I had good luck with anything else for this particular recipe.

After the fruit has been tossed with this mixture, you add lemon juice and vanilla to the bowl, mixing them in well. In a saucepan, you melt 4 tbsp butter and add the fruit filling mixture to the pan to cook for about 10-20 minutes until the apples and pears start to soften and their juices start to thicken up. This then gets cooled completely.

Once it’s cooled, into your prepared pie pan it goes, placing the top crust however you desire (I did a lattice-style top crust), brushing with milk and sprinkling with Coarse White Sparkling Sugar OR, regular granulated sugar like I did, because the boys don’t care for the crunch of the big sugar crystals. Once you have that done – it’s into the freezer with the unbaked pie! I’ve never frozen a pie partially before baking it, but as the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything! You pop it into the freezer for 15-30 min until firm. Now, after this bit of freezing time, it gets baked. The temperature starts off at 425° F for the first 15 minutes, then it’s turned down to 375° F for an additional 50-60 minutes. All that’s left is to allow it cool completely before serving – then eat!

I absolutely loved this pie – not only is it two of my favorite fruits, but the combination of ginger, cinnamon and vanilla are wonderful. I’m pleased to have this Apple-Pear Pie recipe to add to my pie recipe collection – it was a great combination of flavors all the way around. Only thing that would maybe make it better – eating it warmed up with vanilla ice cream!

from Kris B.

Food processor blade – 1: Me – 0.

I chose this week’s offering of Hearty Ham and Spinach Quiche because I was short on time this week and needed my recipe to serve as both a meal for my familyand a subject for my post. Also, I was intrigued by this pie’s crust because it requires no rolling!!!

Little did I know that the most difficult part of the recipe, at least for me, would be washing the food processor blade before I even started baking. My daughter had used it the night before, so the blade was is the dishwasher dirty. I pulled it out of the dishwasher without incident, but I was not so lucky once I got it the sink and added soap. Yep. It slipped and sliced the top of my finger. Upon hearing my explicative that rang out from the kitchen, Weber’s first words were, “Does it need stitches?” Sharp instruments and I have a dicey reputation in the kitchen. (Pun intended.). I am happy to report that I did not need stitches, only multiple layers of pressure wrap were necessary.

My daughter was kind enough to finish washing the blade. 🙂

Once I got my finger wrapped and found some food service gloves, I continued on with the making my pie. From this point on, it was smooth sailing. No choppy seas! Lol!

As I said, the crust for this pie is made completely in a food processor. The ingredients are mixed, rolled into a log that will fit through the food processor’s feed tube, and then chilled overnight. When you are ready to make the actual crust, the dough is fed into the food processor’s feed tube and grated using the coarse grate blade. To assemble the pie, the grated dough is pressed into a nine inch pie plate. Super easy! I am all for a pie crust that does not require rolling…if it tastes good, which this one did!

The filling, minus the ham and sour cream, is also mixed using the food processor. The ham is layered in the bottom of the pie plate, followed by the spinach mixture, and then topped with a thin layer of sour cream. I have to say that I was not so sure about this sour cream layer when I was assembling the pie, but once it is cooked and all of the flavors meld together, the whole is much more impressive than the sum of the parts.

This pie can also be made ahead of time or even frozen and reheated.

I suspect that the crust recipe used here could be used with almost any of your favorite pies. I am excited about the idea of a crust that I don’t have to roll! Give it a try!

Food Friday – Cookie Time!

01 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday

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baking, Chocolate, cookies, dessert, easy, King Arthur Flour, King Arthur Self-Rising Flour, snack

from Kris B.

I am quickly approaching fifty-six years of life. During those years, I have experienced many changes and much growth, but with some things, not much is different at all. My preferred dress is still jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. I still like to read, write, and draw in my “down” time. And I still pack my lunch everyday to go to school. My favorite lunchbox lunch has not changed over all these years either. PB&J, carrots and celery, sliced apples, and cookies…I am never disappointed to find these things when I sit down and zip open my lunch bag! The one small change from my lunches as a child to those of today is that I do almost always have homemade cookies rather than store-bought. In those occaisional instances where the homemade isn’t happening, the one supermarket cookie that I do still love is Oreos. When I take these iconic cookies apart and eat the creme filling first, I feel like I am about eight years old.

In most things, I am a purist. That is true with my Oreos. These days, Nabisco has been experimenting too much, in my opinion, with this classic cookie…Cotton Candy, Red Velvet, Root Beer, Key-Lime Pie, Blueberry Pie; these are not Oreos!!! They may be tasty cookies, but they are not Oreos. Having said that, I do make an exception for the limited edition Pumpkin Spice Oreos in the fall and the new Dunkin Donuts Mocha Oreos that were released over the summer. My all-time favorite “non-traditional” Oreo,however, was the Uh-Oh Oreo, an Oreo that flip-flopped the traditional flavors using a vanilla cookie with chocolate creme filling. Being that my favorite kind of cake is also yellow cake with chocolate frosting, the “backwards” Oreos were a an acceptable alteration to the classic Oreo cookie. Unfortunately, the Uh-Oh Oreos found themselves on the discontinued food list back in 2011. They were, however, the catalyst for Nabisco using cookies other than chocolate in the Oreo family of cookies. You can easily find Golden Oreos, vanilla cookies with the traditional white creme, on grocery store shelves. Somehow, this just is not the same.

All that to say that I was super excited to find King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Reverse Faux-Reos, vanilla cookies with chocolate cream filling!!!

The cookie in King Arthur’s recipe is a simple sugar cookie-like recipe consisting of flour, sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and baker’s ammonia. Baker’s ammonia? Why is there always one elusive ingredient??? The King Arthur recipe did say that baking powder could be substituted as the leavening agent in these cookies, but that the substitution would create a cookie with a different texture. Because inquiring minds want to know, I had to do some research on baker’s ammonia, an ingredient that I have not previously encountered in a recipe. I found the following in an article by Cook’s Illustrated:

Baker’s ammonia, also known as ammonium bicarbonate (and often sold as ammonium carbonate), was the primary leavening agent used by bakers before the advent of baking soda and baking powder in the 19th century. In fact, certain recipes for European and Middle Eastern cookies and crackers still call for it today. When we purchased the powder from a mail-order source (it can also be found at some Greek and Middle Eastern markets), we quickly discovered its biggest drawback: an extremely potent smell. (In fact, it turns out baker’s ammonia is the stuff that was passed under Victorian ladies’ noses to revive them when they swooned.) Because of its noxious scent, it is used to leaven only low-moisture baked goods like crisp cookies and crackers that thoroughly dry out during baking, lest the ammonia linger.

When we tried trading baker’s ammonia for baking powder in a recipe for crisp sugar cookies, we found that not only can the two products be used interchangeably, but the baker’s ammonia produced a lighter, crunchier crumb. This is because when its tiny crystals decompose in the heat of the oven, they leave minuscule air cells in their wake from which moisture easily escapes. Furthermore, this leavener leaves none of the soapy-tasting residue of baking powder or baking soda. It works so well, we’d be tempted to use it for crisp baked goods all the time if it were more readily available.

I used baking powder.

Having never used baker’s ammonia, I have no means for comparison as to the cookies’ texture. All I can say is that they taste just fine to me.

Once the cookie dough is mixed, it is scooped by teaspoonful onto a parchment-lined baking pan and then flattened to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Using a cookie stamp to flatten your cookies would make for a pretty final product. Unfortunately, I could not find my small cookie stamps so my cookies are just pure and simple flattened sugar cookies. Looks aren’t everything and the taste is not affected at all, so I’m good with my plain-Jane looking cookies. Lol!

Real Oreo creme has a unique texture. My biggest curiosity about this recipe was whether or not the chocolate creme used in the Reverse Faux-Reos would be close enough to my beloved Uh-Oh Oreos.

The chocolate creme filling consists of semi-sweet chocolate chips, corn syrup, vanilla, espresso powder (a definite bonus!), heavy cream, and confectioner’s sugar. The first five ingredients are heated together and then the confectioner’s sugar is beat into it. At this point in the process, I was a bit concerned about what the texture of the filling would be like as it was fairly runny while still hot. I let it cool for several minutes before beginning the cookie assembly.

The chocolate filling began to stiffen after several minutes of cooling. With half of the cookies placed with their flat sides up, I used a small scoop (about a TBS) to place a dollop of chocolate in the middle of each cookie. The top cookie of the “sandwich” is then placed on top. Gently pressing on it pushes the filling out to the edges of the cookies, creating the classic sandwich cookie look. The filling continued to cool and harden and after several hours, it had the exact same consistency as the Oreo creme filling. Score!!!

I am one happy ~~kid~~ fifty-five year old grown woman. 🙂

from Tracey G.

I know I’ve said it a million times, and just to give you all fair warning, I’ll probably say it a million times more – but I love finding uses for my KAF Self-Rising Flour! This has got to be one of the neatest products in my opinion and I am having great fun finding ways to use it! I ran across this recipe when I was on the hunt for my cookie recipe offering this week: Self-Rising Crunchy Sugar Cookies.

Sugar cookies are loved around here – me, I prefer to do a rolled out fancy (or not so fancy) cut-out cookie. But, the oldest “boy” around here, a.k.a. Jeremy, loves plain, old fashioned rolled/dipped in sugar, sugar cookies. The kind Grandma used to make. Which, unfortunately are the kind I never think to make! This recipe was perfect – his favorite cookie and so simple, it’s criminal!

This recipe involves five ingredients. Six, if you include the extra garnish of sugar to roll them in. That’s it. It’s self-rising flour, shortening (or butter), sugar, vanilla and an egg. It’s a basic cookie recipe, you mix it in the usual way – cream shortening (or butter), vanilla and sugar until fluffy, then beat in your egg, and lastly add in your flour. You scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix until thoroughly combined. After you have it mixed, you chill the dough for at least 30 minutes – this step makes it easy to work with.

To bake, you can either grease or line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place your garnishing sugar in a bowl to dip the cookies it before baking. Make 1 to 1.5-inch balls and dip them in the sugar before placing them, sugar side up, on the prepared cookie/baking sheet. Bake them 8-10 minutes in a 375° F oven.

They do puff as they bake, but once you remove them from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing them to a rack to completely cool, they fall and start to crisp up.

They were a big hit around here, both for eating and with me for how easy they were! This would be an ideal recipe if you need something in a hurry – either last minute class treat or bake sale treat etc. I’ve not tried to freeze them, but they do say that they are freezable.

Self-Rising Crunchy Sugar Cookies from King Arthur Flour are another wonderfully tasty and easy recipe to add to your recipe collection when you need a nice old-fashioned style sugar cookie!

Mix It Up Friday – It’s Lemony Love!

25 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by Tracey Somos-Gehring in Mix It Up Friday

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baking, cookies, dessert, easy, King Arthur Flour, King Arthur Flour Essential Goodness Lemon Bar Mix, King Arthur Flour Essential Goodness mix, King Arthur Flour Mix, King Arthur Lemon Coffee House Cookie Mix, lemon, lemon bars, mix, snack

from Tracey G

As Kris and I have said numerous times, it’s fun and rewarding to bake from scratch, but there are times when that’s not possible or you just don’t have the energy to – but yet, you still want a treat or you have company coming, or you need a quick donation to the school/church/club bake-sale etc. That’s where mixes can save the day – and if it’s a good one, you can feel confident using one! And if it’s really good, they may never even know it came from a mix!!!

This mix from King Arthur Flour, the Essential Goodness Lemon Bar Mix is one of those really good mixes. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to detect that they were from a mix! Which is great, because I know not everyone is like me – I have to have fresh lemons around at all times, I go into a panic if I don’t have at least 4 in the fridge, lol, and having this mix around – you don’t need to have fresh, but it sure tastes like you did!!

Which, as just a tidbit here, I’d done some research a long time ago and read an article on how to keep lemons fresh longer, and it said to put them in a zip top bag and then in the fridge – so I tried it, and it worked. Now that’s where they go immediately when I get home from the store with them. I usually write the date on the bag, and let me say I know I’ve kept some for at least a month, and in great shape!

To make the Essential Goodness Lemon Bars, the only ingredients you provide are butter, eggs and water, plus some powdered sugar to dust them with for garnish/decoration etc. The mix does the rest.

The butter gets mixed with the crust ingredients, pressed in the pan and then baked for 20-26 minutes. While it’s baking, you mix the filling ingredients together, which is where your eggs and water provide their service. When you pull the crust out, you pour the filling over the hot crust and pop it back into the oven to bake for about another 20-22 minutes. When they come out, you allow them to cool at room temperature for an hour, then you have to cool them for at least an hour in the refrigerator (or overnight) before cutting them. You can dust them with powdered sugar right before serving them if you like!

When we got to taste-test them, the “these-taste-like-homemade” sentiment was unanimous. They were extremely yummy and it’s a mix I plan on keeping on hand for whenever a treat is needed – either for fun or for necessity! And, for some extra fun, they also provide some other twists for using the mix to make other treats!

Here are some helpful links:

Essential Goodness Lemon Bar Mix Catalog Page

Essential Goodness Lemon Bar Mix Product Page

Essential Goodness Lemon Bar Mix – Easy Lemon Meringue Bars

Essential Goodness Lemon Bar Mix – Zesty Lemon Coconut Bars

from Kris B,

As Tracey and I were looking at our calendars and making our weekly schedule, I was elated to see that Mix It Up Friday fell during my first week back school. Re-entry into the new school year was particularly difficult this year because for the first time in many years, I did not teach summer school. I was completely free for three months. I discovered during that time that I could probably adjust to that lifestyle twelve months out of the year without too much effort. 🙂

My time management skills were somewhat lacking this week, so I didn’t get to make these cookies until Thursday afternoon, after having seen 5am four days in a row for the first time since May. Needless to say, I was a little tired, but also excited to try the King Arthur Mix fro Lemon Coffee House Cookies. There is something about lemon that seems energizing and invigorating. Or maybe that’s the way I think about all cookies…

Whipping up these cookies is a short, sweet, and to the point process. Place a stick of butter and half of the cookie mix in a bowl and mix on high for two minutes. Add an egg, two tablespoons of milk, and the remaining cookie mix to the bowl, mixing until all of the ingredients are combined. I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer so I didn’t even expend any energy controlling the mixer during the mixing process.

Once mixed, the dough is scooped out by tablespoonful onto waiting parchment lined baking sheets and then placed in the oven, which was preheated to 375 degrees, and baked for 12-16 minutes and the edges are a golden brown.

Once out of the oven and completely cooled, the cookies are iced using the included icing mix. The icing mix requires the addition of a 1/2 stick of butter and a tablespoon of milk. As with the cookie dough, the icing is mixed with an electric mixer. I simply spread the icing on each of the 20 cookies using a spatula. If you want to be fancy, you could pipe it on. I did add a bit of lemon zest atop the icing because I had the lemons with which to do that. Is it necessary? Nope. These cookies have a full and refreshing lemon flavor that comes from both the cookie itself and the icing.

I tried to photograph the cookies Thursday evening. By that point in the day/week, I had run out of light, energy, and enthusiasm for the project. Though I used artificial lights for this somewhat feeble attempt, the photos I took did not do the cookies justice. The mission was scrubbed and I decided I would try again this morning. The biggest negative of this scenario was that the one cookie that we split right after they were iced was the only one that could be eaten until I re-shot the images of the cookies.

Let me just say that all of the waistlines at my house were better off when the cookies were off-limits! Once I had a photo I could live with and released the cookies to the masses, half of them disappeared almost immediately. Yes. I am just as guilty as my husband and my daughter in helping them disappear!

As Tracey said, we do like to bake from scratch, but when that isn’t convenient, having a tasty made-from-scratch tasting mix on hand can save the day. The Lemon Coffee House Cookie Mix definitely fits that bill!!

Food Friday – August 2017 King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge – Golden Focaccia

19 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday, King Arthur Flour Bakealong

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

appetizer, baking, bread, easy, focaccia, gluten free, gluten free baking, gluten free focaccia, King Arthur Flour, King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge, savory, snack

from Kris B.

It’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong week again already! This month’s challenge is Golden Focaccia. In all of my bread baking experience, I have never made focaccia. I always enjoy trying something new so was excited for this challenge.

As I read through the recipe for the Golden Focaccia the first time, I was surprised at how simple this bread really is. The dough calls for minimal ingredients – flour, yeast, olive oil, water, and salt. Like the Classic Baguette that was the June Bakealong Challenge, the Golden Focaccia demands a little bit of forethought in that it uses an overnight starter. This consists of only flour, yeast, and water and can be put together quickly.

I had a plan. My day was scheduled such that I could make the focaccia, homemade spaghetti sauce, and put together a nice salad using ingredients from our garden. I’d photograph the focaccia and then we would sit down to a nice dinner. Note: I had to buy the tomatoes for the spaghetti sauce because all of the beautiful tomatoes that I grew were “claimed” by our resident squirrels just before they were ripe enough to be picked. That aside, my plan was perfect and I even had plenty of time with which to execute it.

We all know what happens when we think that we have fail proof plans…

Let’s just say that I am vying for the job of cook on Noah’s ark because I seem to be, on a regular basis, making recipes for these blog posts two times!

Even having to use canned tomato sauce, the spaghetti sauce was delicious. It’s almost impossible to make a bad green salad so there were no problems there. That leaves the focaccia…It was terrible! Despite cooking it the minimum time suggested by the recipe, my focaccia was way overdone, having a texture more like that of dry toast than the moist chewy consistency that I expected. In trying to troubleshoot, the two things I knew would result in this kind of failure were overcooking and too much flour. My oven cooks “cool.” Most of the time when a range is given for cooking time, I have to leave things in the maximum time and sometimes then some. If the focaccia was overcooked, which it seemed to be, I have to think that was an inaccuracy in the recipe in some way.

With regard to the problem being the use of too much flour, I weigh my flour rather than measuring by volume because this gives a more accurate amount. And, no extra flour is necessary to knead this dough, so I was fairly sure that too much flour wasn’t the issue. Solving my problem was going to take some more thought.

Dinner that night consisted of pasta and salad…no bread!

Not to be defeated, I tried again with the recipe for Golden Focaccia. On my second attempt, I made two changes: I used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour and I cooked the bread only fifteen minutes. Bread flour has a higher protein content and generally yields a higher rise and less crumb. Success! This time was much better! I suspect the reduction in cooking time made the real difference. I probably could have left the focaccia in the oven another minute or two and it would have perhaps gotten a little more crispy, but under no circumstances would I leave it in the oven for the 20-25 minutes as indicated in the recipe!

One other “substitution” that I made to the recipe as written is rather than using dried rosemary, in combination with salt in pepper, to season the focaccia, I used King Arthur Flour’s Pizza Seasoning. Yum!

I’m glad that I gave this recipe a second chance. It is a tasty bread that makes an excellent side to your favorite Italian dish. As we discovered with my second batch, it also makes the perfect snack as the bread disappeared slice by slice from the counter once it was photographed. It would also make great sandwich bread if you are looking for a change.

Speaking of photographing the Golden Focaccia…This was challenging also!

Tracey and I have a running joke about brown food and how much of it there is and how difficult it is to photograph said brown food such that it looks appetizing. Don’t let the name Golden Focaccia fool you. It is brown food! The challenge in photographing it comes in trying to plate the food in such a way that it remains the definite subject of the photo, but the overall photo is not boring. Yes, you can add all kind of props to liven up an image. Often though, in the end the viewer’s eye is drawn to the pretty bowl or vase of flowers rather than the food item itself.

I will be the first to say that my photo of the Golden Focaccia is rather boring. I will also admit that I struggled with exactly how to photograph it. Perhaps I could have used a colored basket liner rather than white. But, had I done that, the image would have been more clearly bisected. I think that might have been distracting. Maybe I would have been better off using a bottle of olive oil in the background instead of the remaining uncut bread. Or maybe some nice green herbs in some water. Here’s the deal…olive oil is also brown(ish). If you happen to have one of those colorful display bottles for your olive oil, it will definitely add a pop of color to your photo…and likely will pull the viewer’s eye away from the bread. The same would be true of green herbs. So there’s the dilemma. And unlike many other photo subjects, food photography cannot really be “saved” with processing. It must look real. It must look edible. Obviously I came up with no real solution to this whole issue with my photo this week, but this second batch tasted delicious!

from Tracey G

I have truly come to love the King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge that they present every month. I’m also extremely happy to see that they are continuing it – I was afraid it would only last a year. This month marks the start of a new year of Bakealong Challenges, hard to believe we’ve done it for a year already! It has challenged me and stretched my knowledge and abilities more than I expected! Plus, it’s just downright fun! Yes, there have been frustrations along the way, the first one, off the top of my head, was the Berry Blitz Torte. That one pushed my perfectionist buttons to the breaking point, when in the end, I ended up deciding that the weather was just working too much against me, and it will be one I revisit in the winter, by golly, because I will get it the way I want it! LOL

This month’s KAF Bakealong Challenge, Golden Focaccia is super easy. But it also was a bit of challenge to get “right”. I know that makes it sound ominous, and it’s really not, lol. It IS easy. I just had issues when it came to baking it off. 🙂 There’s also a gluten-free version of the recipe, and I’ll include a link to it at the end of the post!

As Kris stated, the ingredients are simple: flour, yeast, water, salt and olive oil, plus herbs of choice for seasoning it before baking. There is only the one part that makes it something you need to plan ahead for – the overnight starter. It helps jump-start your yeast AND it helps flavor the dough a bit. But it does need to sit for about 14 hours, so plan accordingly.

After you get it all mixed up, there’s a rising time in a bowl for about 30 min. Then, you prepare whatever pan you’ve decided to use, they do list a regular sheet pan, 9×13″ sheet pans or even round cake pans as options. I chose two 9×13″ sheet pans. There are a couple of rising times after you get the dough onto the pan, first one is 30 minutes, second rise is approximately 1 hour. To prepare it to bake, you spritz it with warm water, then drizzle with olive oil. I too chose to use the KAF Pizza Seasoning on one, and the other was the traditional rosemary, salt and pepper.

After it was all spritzed, oiled and seasoned, into the oven it went. And out of the oven it came like a really tasty, light as air – crouton. I overbaked it. It was still lovely, and Jeremy and I pretty much ate both of the breads quickly despite the crunchy texture. I knew then, that it was something I’d likely make quite often, just to have it to nibble on. So, I decided to make it again, and adjust the baking time to see what I ended up with. Second batch was just as tasty, but, I experimented with the baking times – one pan I baked 17 minutes, and the other was 20-21 minutes. I preferred the 20-21 minute version – it had the perfect crunch and chewy texture. But, the bright side of the slightly under-done 17 minute version, is, that it crisps up nicely when reheated in the toaster oven!

All in all, I am so glad for this month’s Bakealong Recipe for Golden Focaccia, it’s something I too have never ever made in my own kitchen, and I am pleased to know how easy it is now to do it. It just seems to be one that you have to mess around with once or twice to get it the way YOU want it to be. And in all honesty, it’s so easy and inexpensive to make that’s not a problem at all, it’s an easy thing to whip up! Just don’t overbake it… LOL

Here’s a link right to the recipe: Golden Focaccia

And if you’re baking gluten-free, they’ve got you covered with a gluten-free version: Gluten Free Focaccia

Food Friday – Let’s Eat Cake!

11 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday

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baking, blueberries, Bundt, Bundt cake, cake, easy, King Arthur Flour

from Kris B.

Have you ever thought about how your food choices, both what you like to eat and what you like to prepare, reflect your personality? Over the almost three years that Tracey and I have been choosing recipes to write about, I have noticed a distinct pattern in my selections. I am a down to earth, simple, no frills kind of girl. In the kitchen, that translates into my preferences are really for home cooking and comfort food kinds of things. That becomes blatantly obvious in my cake choice for this week’s post.

Though the Scandinavian Gold Cake has kind of a fancy sounding name, it really is a fairly basic cake, almost poundcake-like. It uses the usual cast of characters – flour, sugar, butter, lots of eggs (6), salt and baking powder. This cake gets its flavor from almond extract and King Arthur Flour’s Princess Cake and Cookie Flavoring. Use of this specialty flavoring is not necessary; vanilla extract can be substituted. I wanted to give it a try because the King Arthur Animal Cookies recipe that a made awhile back called for it. At that time I didn’t have it and did use the vanilla substitution. I absolutely loved the animal cookies and wanted to make them again, so I ordered the Princess Cake and Cookie Flavoring to get the “full effect” of that recipe. The flavoring adds a bit of citrus overtone to the vanilla flavor. In my opinion, it is a worthy purchase.

The one “secret ingredient” called for in the Scandinavian Gold Cake is a cup of toasted almond flour used in addition to the all-purpose flour. King Arthur Flour does sell Toasted Almond Flour, but I didn’t have any. (There’s always one ingredient!) I had only regular almond flour. What’s a girl to do? Toast her own! Spread the almond flour on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake it at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes. You will see the flour start to toast and you will smell the nutty aroma. I toasted mine for the full ten minutes.

The making of the cake is super easy. Cream butter and add sugar. Mix in the salt, soda and flavorings. Then add the flours, followed by the eggs, one at a time. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 10″ bundt pan and bake for an hour at 325 degrees. Cool the cake in the pan for fifteen minutes and then turn it out of the pan to continue cooling on a baking rack.

Confession time: I actually had to make this cake twice because of the last step – the turning out of the pan part. With my first attempt, I used a fancy “cathedral-shaped” bundt pan. Apparently I did not get all of the nooks and crannies greased and floured well enough and the cake stuck. It tasted great, but was not photo worthy. Lol! Perhaps my failure with the fancy pan goes back to what I said at the beginning of this post about being a simple kind of girl. With my second attempt, I used a regular bundt pan and made sure no surface was left un-greased. This cake turned out of the pan perfectly. All that said, my family was perfectly happy to eat the first cake that was served in “chunks” rather than slices.

The Scandinavian Gold Cake recipe includes a glaze that further amplifies the cake’s flavors by using both the almond extract and the Princess Cake and Cookie Flavoring that were used in the cake itself. Because I am not an icing fan, I did not make the glaze. I simply dusted the cake with powdered sugar before serving. For me, this was just enough sweetness. If, however, you are an icing person, I have no doubt that the glaze would be a nice addition to the cake itself.

The Scandinavian Gold Cake has a satisfying flavor on its own, but it is not overpowering or overwhelming. The cake could also be served with fruit or with ice cream. If you are looking for a quick and simple summer dessert for a get together or a treat for yourself and your family, give this cake a try. Its flexibility with toppings and garnishes make it easy to accomodate everyone’s likes.

from Tracey G

Before I get into my offering this week, reading the about the trouble Kris had with the cake sticking reminded me of an excellent article on the King Arthur Flour blog, Flourish. It’s an article devoted to preventing your Bundt cakes from sticking! Lots of handy tips, like using sugar instead of flour for the greasing/flouring step. It’s definitely worth a look! Here’s the link: How To Prevent Bundt Cakes From Sticking: 10 Simple Tips

And now onto my recipe of the week!

Ever since I was a little kid, blueberries have been one of my favorite things – in pies, desserts, muffins etc. And it’s funny because Harry is the same way – only he’ll not even wait for them to be made into anything, he loves just grabbing a bowl of frozen blueberries to eat as-is, lol! August here, as I’ve said before, is prime-time blueberry season for us, lots of local places to pick your own if you’re so inclined. Me, I prefer to send Jeremy and Harry to pick, then I’ll process them! They are also something I always have in my freezer, and again that actually goes back to when Harry was a baby, I made all his baby food, so frozen fruits – namely blueberries were a staple. And still are.

I was pleased to find another recipe to utilize them in, in the form of Blueberry Ricotta Cake on the King Arthur Flour website, in their recipe collection. Funnily enough, this is similar to last week’s Blueberry Breakfast Cake, but this is more “cakey”, lol. I’ve no other way to describe it! But it’s equally delicious!

The recipe is also very simple as well as delicious, which is always a good thing in book! It’s done in a few steps, but it’s super easy stuff. The batter ingredients include: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, shortening, egg and vanilla. Once you get the batter mixed, you pour it into your prepared pan and then layer the blueberries on top of the batter. Next, you make a “topping”. The ingredients for it include: eggs, ricotta cheese, sugar and vanilla. That gets mixed together, then poured over top the blueberry “layer”. It then gets baked at 350° F for about 55-60 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

You can eat it as soon as it’s cooled to lukewarm, and I did. Let me say it’s become a favorite of mine – I will make this again! You can, once again, use fresh or frozen blueberries, and I imagine you could experiment with other berries as well. I think raspberry would be a nice variation. This cake also keeps well, you can keep it in the refrigerator up to 5 days – and let me say it just gets better as it ages, in my opinion!

To sum it up, if you’re looking for a recipe to use up some of your bountiful blueberries or just in the mood for something with blueberries – this recipe for Blueberry Ricotta Cake is one to try!

Food Friday – Start the Day Off Right with Cookies And Cake!

04 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by Kris Baker in Food Friday

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baking, blueberries, breakfast, cookies, easy, King Arthur Flour

Two words…breakfast and cookies…that when combined scream “you must try this” to me! Breakfast is hands down my favorite meal of the day and when forced to play favorites with baked goods, cookies will always take the cake! 🙂 That said, sweet is not usually my norm for the first meal of the day. Not because I don’t like sweets (obviously), but because if I start the day with sweets, I crave them all day long. That said, I had to give the Breakfast Cookies from King Arthur Flour a try.

The base of these breakfast cookies is much like any cookie – flour, butter, eggs, milk (both liquid and powdered), vanilla, brown sugar, peanut butter, and a touch of cinnamon; it’s what’s added to these basic ingredients that gives these breakfast cookies their unique character. The only ingredient called for that is out of the ordinary is Hi-maize Fiber. Derived from corn, this dietary fiber acts as a resistant starch and aids in digestive health. Hi-maize fiber can be ordered from King Arthur Flour. A 12oz bag is $7.95. This recipe uses 1/3 of a cup. Once you’ve addressed this one not-so-mainstream ingredient, then the fun with making this recipe begins!

After you make this base, you add 4 1/2 cups of “add-ins.” What are add-ins? Almost anything that you like – seeds, dried fruits, nuts, grains, baking chips of any flavor, granola… There is no specific ratio of types of ingredients suggested, only the 4 1/2 cup measurement. Therefore, these breakfast cookies can be “customized” for you and your family. In the batch that I made, I added oatmeal, coconut, dried cranberries, greek yogurt flavored chips, almonds, and some dates. The recipe instructions warn you to not overbake these cookies as they will become dry and crumbly. One of the reasons that I used the dates (3/4 cup), was to help retain some moisture.

When I make a recipe for the first time, I usually follow the instructions exactly as given. That said however, after reading the comments about this recipe on the King Arthur website, I did make one adjustment. The original recipe does not call for any leavening agents. A number of people found this problematic and recommended adding a 1/2 tsp. of both baking powder and baking soda. I did do that.

These Breakfast Cookies are hearty dense cookies. The recipe suggest 1/4 cup of batter for each cookie, yielding 18-20 cookies. Mine were a little smaller because I got 27 cookies. Despite that, even for this cookie monster, one cookie is quite filling. I ate a cookie and a banana (with my requisite big cup of coffee) at 7:30 in the morning and that was enough to hold me until after 1 pm. Based on that, I think these will be a good breakfast for me once I go back to school and teach a six-hour stretch from 7:30-1:30. 🙁

This first time, I did bake off the whole batch and froze the already baked cookies I think, however, that you could also freeze the pre-portioned but unbaked dough and pull it out in the morning and pop it in the toaster oven for a “fresh-baked” breakfast on those mornings when you may not be feeling totally fresh yourself. Yes. That is personal experience speaking! 🙂

I hope you will give the King Arthur Flour Breakfast Cookies a try. If you do, please share your customized “add-ins” combinations with us!

When wondering what to do for our Breakfast offering for this week, I decided to flop around and see what recipes King Arthur Flour had using blueberries since August, here, is when they seem to really come out. That, and I was looking for a recipe that a I could also utilize frozen berries in, so it could be a recipe I could make year-round with fresh if I wanted or frozen, if that’s all I had. And that is how I discovered the Blueberry Breakfast Cake. (Here’s also a blog post on this recipe too from KAF’s blog, Flourish – Breakfast Blueberry Cake Flourish Post)

And it really is super easy to put together, and very yummy to eat! It uses basic ingredients that I normally have on hand, well, except for one. I just happened to have some ricotta on hand from another recipe, so this was a great way to use that up – no waste, but it’s not the norm for me to have it in the fridge, but after this recipe – maybe it will be!

The ingredients involved are: eggs, sugar, butter, small-curd cottage cheese OR ricotta, sour cream, Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor (you can find this on the KAF website if you want it) or vanilla (I used vanilla), flour, salt, baking powder, fresh or frozen blueberries and cinnamon sugar for topping.

Once you get everything thing all mixed up, you pour the batter into a lightly greased 8-inch cake pan – with sides at least 2 inches tall, or you can use either a 8-inch square pan or a 9-inch round pan. You then bake it for about 50 minutes in a 350° F oven, until a tester comes out clean. Cool for about 30 minutes then serve. It’s just that easy! I might also add here that while it’s excellent warm, it’s good out of the fridge cold – plus the in between of out-of-the-fridge-and-warmed-back-up is fine too!! Once it was cooled in the fridge it almost reminded me of slightly aerated sort of cheese cake-like texture, it’s hard to explain! But it’s good to eat!

So, if you you’re looking for a different kind of breakfast fare, instead of muffins, quick breads etc, do give the Blueberry Breakfast Cake a try – it’s cake! For breakfast! Yay!

Sifted Together

~ Two friends, two cameras, two kitchens

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Food Friday – August 2017 King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge – Golden Focaccia

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Food Friday – Start the Day Off Right with Cookies And Cake!