Harvest Houses

We made harvest houses today in celebration of the Autumnal Equinox.  Who said gingerbread houses were only for Christmas?  I started by making this gingerbread cookie recipe. While the dough was chilling I drafted a simple house template out of cardstock.  Here is one I found online if you just want to print it out and use it.  Using the cardstock template cut out two of each piece. 

Carefully place the house pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown around the edges...11-15 minutes. 

Next use the remaining dough to cut out the accent pieces...having fall themed cookie cutters really helps out with this:)

Bake the accent pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet 8-11 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.  Let all the cookie pieces cool and harden for 24 hours before beginning house construction.  To construct the house first select a base; we used watercolored cardboard but really anything sturdy will do.  Next mix up the house cement...AKA Royal Icing.  I used Alton's recipe and it was perfect.  I did add food color to achieve this awesome orange color:)  Place the icing in a pastry bag and prepare for piping!  Liberally pipe the icing on the back sides of the front house piece and attach a wall segment to each side.  Let this harden and then attach the back house piece using the same technique.  Let this set for at least 20 minutes before attaching the roof.  Next liberally pipe each house peak with icing and carefully attach the roof pieces.  Let house sit for at least 1 hour before attaching the remaining decorations. 

After 1 hour, I filled two pastry bags with the remaining frosting and let the kids go wild piping and decorating their houses.  These are the end results.

Happy Fall everyone...now go make a house:)

A Taste of Sunshine

The children and I made some very simple and delicious orange popsicles the other day.  I first saw this on the Childhood Magic blog.  The children have been bugging me for ages to make popsicles at home...the only problem is I can't find BPA free popsicle molds.   This simple recipe solved that problem!  To make these delicious treats first cut each orange in half and juice it.  Once you have juiced all your oranges, pour the juice back into the orange halves.  Place filled orange halves on a baking sheet and freeze until hard, about three hours.  Remove, lick, and enjoy! 

Death by Sconing

Whew! Sorry for the long overdue posting but I have been baking my tail off! This week alone I have baked 250 scones and 12 cakes. During the spring and summer I am the pastry chef for a local coffee shop...I bake from home and deliver my wares weekly. This is a great set-up...until you try and bake three weeks of inventory in one week. We will be taking a long overdue vacation next week for 10 days(Yay!), but this means I must bake in advance, hence my absence from the blogosphere. Thanks for not giving up on me:) Here is my go to scone recipe in case you need to bake up some of your own tasty scones.

Cream Scones with Dried Cranberries
adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe

The most traditional sweet biscuit–like texture is obtained by using both butter and heavy cream. The easiest and most reliable approach to mixing the butter into the dry ingredients is to use a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Resist the urge to eat the scones hot out of the oven. Letting them cool for at least 10 minutes firms them up and improves their texture.

Ingredients:
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a lower-protein brand, such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 cup heavy cream; plus 1/2 Tbsp
1 Tbsp. coarse sanding sugar

Instructions:
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
2. Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Whisk together or process with six 1-second pulses.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. If using a food processor, remove the cover and distribute the butter evenly over the dry ingredients. Cover and process with twelve 1-second pulses. Add the currants and quickly mix in or pulse one more time. Transfer the dough to a large bowl.
4. Stir in the heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer the dough and all dry flour bits to a countertop and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Press the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface. With a pastry brush gently brush the top of the dough with  reamining heavy cream and then evenly sprinkle the sanding sugar over top. With a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet. (The baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 hours before baking.)
6. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Yield: Makes 8

It's beginning to look a lot like....

SUMMER!

Today was a glorious day filled with the sights, sounds, and flavors of summer.  We are all antsy for summer vacation and this weekend was a sweet (and sour) taste of things to come.

Blueberry Lemonade

1 cute assistant

1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 cup water (for the simple syrup)

1 cup lemon juice

3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

1 Tbsp. frozen wild blueberries per serving

Method

1. Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3. Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

4. Pour over ice and garnish with 1 tablespoon frozen wild blueberries. 

Peeping into My Culinary Past

While visiting my Grandmother's house this weekend I uncovered her recipe book. I gleefully skimmed through the splattered and stained pages. It was like finding buried treasure, each recipe beckoning to be rediscovered and savoured. I marveled over the handwritten family recipes, and circa 1950's clippings. The women of my family left their legacy in these pages: Mama's crab cakes, Mamie's cobbler, Julia's pound cake. Over the coming weeks I plan on celebrating these women and their culinary arts. I will be recreating these treasured recipes and posting them on the blog for us all to enjoy.....Here's to a future full of the past!

Memory Monday

This weeks memory is not really just one memory, it more of a collection.

A Baker's Dozen

I really enjoy baking, quite frankly it's a passion of mine. Every December my home is filled with the smells of fresh baked goodies and confections. There is always gingerbread, chocolate chip cookies, snicker doodles, Mexican wedding cookies, chocolate truffles, caramels, linzer torte and of course the buche de noel. But Christmas would not be Christmas without mini-cheesecakes and peanut butter balls. Every year for as long as I can remember my mother has made these two delicious treats. All year we wait for these delights.....they just taste like Christmas. I now make these for my own children. This year I'm sharing with you all these secret family recipes. Enjoy!

Mini Cheesecakes makes 48
9 oz room temperature cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
5 room temperature large eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 teasp. vanilla extract
1 pt. fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using mini-muffin tins line for 48 cheesecakes. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment cream together 1 cup of sugar and all of the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Next add the eggs and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Fill each muffin cup with one tablespoon batter. Bake for 15 minutes. While baking combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla with the sour cream. Remove cheesecakes from oven and let rest 5 minutes. Top each cheesecake with 1 teaspoon sour cream mixture and one blueberry. Place bake in oven and bake for five minutes more. Let cool completely before removing from tins and refrigerate. These may be frozen for storage, or will keep for 1 week in refrigerator.

Peanut Butter Balls makes a lot:)
18 0z natural peanut butter
1 lb. confectioners sugar
1/4 lb room temperature unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal (rice crispies)
2 bags ghardelli bittersweet chocolate chips

Combine peanut butter, butter and confectioners sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low until fully incorporated. Add the rice cereal and mix on low until combined. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls and place in freezer until fully chilled. Meanwhile place a large mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt chocolate chips. Place frozen balls one at a time into chocolate mixture and roll to coat. Place each coated ball onto a waxed paper lined cookie sheet and refrigerate after all have been dipped. Store in refrigerator for up to one month.

Waffle Pillows

This is how T described my waffles today "Mom they are like waffle pillows". I took this as a recipe success...little did he know they were whole grain and dairy free. The secret is to separate the eggs and whip the whites until fluffy, folding them back into the batter at the last minute.

Dairy Free Whole Grain Waffles

1 1/2 cup AP flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp. ground flax seeds

2 Tbsp. sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs separated

1 3/4 dairy alternative (milk can also be used)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat waffle iron. Separate eggs and whip whites in a stand mixer until fluffy. Meanwhile in a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine egg yolk, dairy alternative and oil, whisk until fully incorporated. Create a well in your dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir until just smooth, there should still be small lumps. Finally fold in egg whites until batter is uniform. Pour on to hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown. Eat, smile, and be happy!

Back to basics.....

"If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens" Robert Browning

To say my family loves bread would be an understatement. My son will choose a good crusty piece of french bread over a cookie any day. I am the primary baker for our local coffee shop so our house is always teeming with muffins, scones, cookies and cakes. Prior to having children I regularly baked elaborate artisan breads. Sadly baking bread had slipped to the wayside......until last week. I have resurrected my long lost love of bread baking in an attempt to live even more frugally. While grocery shopping last week on a very short budget I decide to "swear-off" any pre-made baked goods. I have gone straight to the source and the results are astounding! Some easy recipes to start with are pizza dough, whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat pitas, these homemade "breads" will blow away their store bought counterparts. All of this baking has also afforded me with a wonderful opportunity to share the art of bread making with my children. Baking is a wonderful source for teaching living math we can cover fractions, percentages, volume, degrees, area, and time all in one loaf of bread. So please do yourself a favor and try some of these easy and delicious recipes...you won't be disappointed!

Ghoulish Delights

The little monsters and I cooked up some hauntingly delicious treats this week. We started with butter cookies....best cookies ever......they are egg free so you can eat all the raw dough you want.

Next we made breadstick bones with a side of bloody marinara. We used this breadstick recipe. The kids were amazed by the bread making process. It also provided and opportunity to talk about micro-organisms. We had a great discussion about yeast and it's role in making leavened bread. To form the bones roll dough into 12-15 inch long sticks, next snip the ends of each stick down the middle into two equal pieces 1-2 inches long. Next, roll the snips down towards the long side of the bone. Bake as directed. Finally we made ghostly grilled muenster cheese sandwiches.

I'm not sure who had more fun...but I'd be willing to bet it was probably me;) I love Halloween!

Can You Smell It.....

This weekend fall was in the air and I had to have something warm and spicy immediately...luckily I have the perfect dairy free pumpkin muffin recipe....25 minutes later I was one happy woman.

Dairy Free Pumpkin Muffins

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/3 cup of water

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 3/4 cup of AP flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 12 cup muffin tin. In a medium size bowl combine the wet ingredients plus the sugar and mix until evenly distributed. In a large bowl whisk together the remaining dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients and quickly mix until just incorporated, do not over mix. Dish into muffin tin and bake 25 min or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into center of muffin.

For the dairy eating part of the fam I whipped up my world famous scones...this version was chocolate chip. Personally, I prefer blueberry lemon scones but shock and awe....my children wanted the chocolate ones.....Hmmmmm

I am an avid baker and having to go dairy free is really putting a damper on things for me..oh well my thighs aren't complaining:) I wonder if I can find a dairy free pumpkin cheesecake recipe for Thanksgiving...I can't skip this tradition, the family might revolt.

Dutch Baby Pancakes.....

So it's another morning with Dutch baby pancakes. This is the third time this week we have had them for breakfast...I am so addicted. Here is the recipe:
2 large Eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. butter

Preheat oven and a 9 inch deep dish pie plate to 425. Once preheated add the butter and let it melt. Mix all the other ingredients together and add to hot pan and melted butter. Bake 12-15 minutes until puffy and golden brown. Top with powdered sugar and cinnamon or fresh fruit. The possibilities are endless.

The kids love them, they are super easy and not to bad for you. Gotta love happy kids in the morning.