Homemade Lemon Curd

Part I (which is actually Part II): 

I've made this twice now, and the second time without butter - yeilding a brighter, even more lemon flavor! Nom! I even made it without the recipe the second time, so it's pretty darn easy.

3 large lemons (organic preferred, well washed either way)
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c (or whatever the lemons yield) lemon juice (my lemons gave up about 3/4 cup)
4 - 5 large eggs

Wash lemons. Cut the rind off of all three lemons with a sharp knife - if you get the pith/thicker slice of rind, your curd will be more bitter, like a marmalade. (then juice the lemons. add lemon juice up to 1/2 or 3/4 cup.) You'll end up with about 1 1/2 cups of rind. Place rinds and blend in processor or blender with sugar, until rind and sugar are well incorporated, and rind is is teeny tiny bits. Unless you like chomping on pieces of rind.

With processor whirring happily away, pour (steady stream. not dumping) in lemon juice, and add eggs in one at a time until the entire kit n' kaboodle is well incorporated and smooth.

Now: this is the hard part.

Remember this: LOW AND SLOW. Got it? Low, and slow. If you disobey this advice you will end up with lemony scrambled eggs. I'm serious.

Pour the mixture into a 2 qt saucepan. On a low setting, start stirring. Stir for about 10 minutes (if you have a candy thermometer, you can have a guide of hitting about 170F - this is where it will turn the corner to custard). Stir continually. Low and slow.

When the curd sticks to the back of your spatula or spoon, take it off the heat. Spoon into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (to keep it from forming a skin) and place in the fridge to cool. Keep refrigerated, and use in place of marmalade or jelly on toast - and if you want to get super crazy, click here for my recipe to make Lemon Meringue French Toast. Oh, if the entire week were made purely of Sunday mornings...


Part II (which is actually Part I, but... whatever)

Lemon curd made today - DH has made it before, using Alton Brown's recipe, but frankly, I read it and thought, "Gah! I can't do that!"

Luckily I found a recipe by The Barefoot Contessa*, and while it was still sort of precision oriented, it seemed easier in the execution. So I gave it a try, and oh, man. This stuff is good. It never did make it up to 170F, but it seems to have set up nicely - I cooked it on low for about 20 minutes, so I suspect that I should have turned up the heat just a tad and then I might have hit the 170F/10 minute mark more efficiently.

At any rate, it turned out well, with a lovely lemon flavor. Delicious!

* (and a note, although not called for in the recipe, I made certain to use organic lemons, since it calls for a fair amount of the zest)

Cheaterdoodles and Kitchen Sink Cuffins

Yes, I'm speaking English. No, I haven't been drinking. Tonight is Wednesday - baking therapy. Good thing I have neighbors willing to eat the results of my weekly *breakthroughs*, or I'd be ginormous from eating 24 cupcakes over the course of a week.

I was looking forward to baking ever since last night, when I perused the latest Martha Stewart (well, latest for me - it's the February issue with cupcakes on the front). Wow. Cupcake ecstasy in that issue... I stayed up til 12:30 am absorbing the photographs, looking at the frostings, dissecting the recipes... All I could think of was that I wanted to make all of those cupcakes, and I wanted to do it *now*!

Instead, I turned off the light, and had a dream that I used the nasty Pilsbury Sugar Cookie dough with fantastic results by cutting a heart out of the middle of the dough disc, and filling it with raspberry jam. I know there are cookies like these - I've seen them. I've *had* them! They're like those little cookies in the Pepperidge Farm box... What do they call them, stained glass cookies? There's also the Thumbprint cookies, I think, that have the little dent (aha, thumbprint) for the jam on the top...

But that's not what I ended up with this evening.

I mixed up about 1/8 cup (or a few tablespoons?) of cinnamon with about 1/4 cup sugar, added about 1/2 teaspoon each of vanilla, rum, maple and almond extract, and chopped it all in together til it was kind of sandy in consistency... Then I dipped each side of the cookie dough discs in the sugar mix, and baked them in the oven according to the directions (you know, the standard 350F for 10 - 12 minutes?)...

They're delicious! Even I think so - and even though I only ate about 1/2 of a cookie, it's cause I really just can't be bothered with eating cookies. There's no pleasure there for me. Not enough purpose to eating a cookie. But I digress. These were a hit with the fam, and I walked a plate down to the neighbors for poker night. (Which ended up being No-Poker-Cause-We're-Watching-The-Blazers Night, but they were happy none the less.)

So then, I still had about 1/4 cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture left, and decided to make some breakfast muffins for the kids and me. I started with a French Vanilla Cupcake mix, and added a whole bunch of stuff to it. In retrospect, I would not have used the extra sugar in the recipe if I hadn't already had it to use - the muffins would be plenty sweet without it... But they ended up great, and despite all the extra stuff (hazelnuts, cranberries, lingonberry jam, oatmeal, flaxseed meal) they have a really lovely texture and are quite tasty.

This recipe for Cupcake + Muffin + Everything in the cupboard = Kitchen Sink Cuffins yields 24 delicious tasties for breakfast, or if you were doing a brunch, they would hold their own against/with a fluffy cream cheese frosting. That would be delicious. (I list the recipe as if I were making it from the beginning, *not* with the cinnamon sugar from the Cheaterdoodles.)

1 box Bettty Crocker French Vanilla Cupcake Mix
1/4 c cinnamon
1 c oatmeal
2/3 c plain, shelled hazelnuts (ours were from Trader Joes)
1 c dried cranberries (or you could use chopped dried fruit of any sort)
1/4 c flaxseed meal
1/4 tsp each rum, vanilla, almond and maple extracts... or use 1 tsp of vanilla if you only have it
2 eggs
1/3 c lingonberry jam (ours from Ikea)
1/3 c flaxseed oil (only cause I have some in the fridge - it is kind of spendy to cook with - use canola instead)
1 c water

Mix dry ingredients until blended, add wet ingredients and fold together until incorporated.
Spoon into muffin papers, bake at 350F until done through... I didn't really time this, but I'm guessing the finish line will be between 19 and 22 minutes.

Et, Voila. You know what would be really good? A combo like Seville Orange Marmalade and dried apricots in place of the lingonberry jam and cranberries... Or raspberry jam and raspberries/blackberries... Yum. Like I said, this was pretty much whatever I could find in the kitchen, and it turned out delicious!


**** so after a bit of research and some mathematics, I worked out the calorie content, fat grams, and carbs for each of these little suckers. I was sure they'd be out of sight on the calories with all the extra stuff, but lo and behold, they weren't *that* bad!

Kitchen Sink Cuffins: 159 cal, 6 g fat (don't forget, this is mostly from the flaxseed oil and meal, which is tremendous) and 28 g carbs... So I maintain that without the added sugar, and all the fiber, they're not a bad way to get started in the morning!

Dinner Experiment... 5 1/2 thumbs up!

When the wee girl from down the street comes for dinner, there's two of us vegetarians. I like the nights when she comes, when the table is full of children, and we have a busy house. Tonight, after last night's fish taco debacle (James adamantly refused my suggestion of Fish Tacos for dinner), I was on the lookout for something new and exciting, something tasty, that we would all enjoy. My criteria were: Flavorful, vegetarian, small (cause kids like things that are tiny), and easy to make.

I ended up inventing Tofu Enchilada Cups, and they were quite tasty.

2 cups (about 1/2 of a 16 oz pkg) firm tofu, cut into bits
1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped
2 tbs Taco seasoning
1 can diced chiles
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped
4 rolls Pilsbury Crescent Dough
Cheddar cheese (to top Enchilada Cups, shredded or sliced is fine)
Sour Cream
Cilantro
Enchilada Sauce

Filling:
Saute the yellow onion with a pat of butter until almost translucent. Sprinkle with taco seasoning. Fold the tofu into the onions and taco seasoning. Fold in the chiles, beans, corn and spinach. Turn the heat down to simmer and warm the filling while you prep the crusts.

Crusts:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray the muffin tins with Pam cooking spray. If you are making a whole batch, you will fill 24 muffin tin cups.

One roll at a time, unfold the crescent dough from the package and lay flat on a cutting board. Each roll of dough has 8 triangles, but if you leave the dough intact and cut it into 6 squares, they come out evenly and just the right size to place into muffin tins.

Lay one square each of dough in muffin tins until all are lined with dough. Spoon filling into dough cups until filling reaches just over the top of the cup.

Bake for 7 - 10 minutes, then top with 1 slice Cheddar Cheese, and return to oven until cheese is melted and crust is browned (about 15 minutes baking total).

To Serve:
Use a large spoon to lever the enchilada cups out onto a large platter. Each person at my house used their own combo of cilantro, green and/or red enchilada sauce, and sour cream...



These were really good, and even the meat eater man exclaimed that they were good, and that he didn't miss the meat at all! Wahoo! My tiny steak-eater is the only one who gave it a neutral thumb when asked if they would like to have it for dinner again. Everyone else (including the wee neighbor) voted it "likely to be eaten if showing up on the dinner table in the future."

Swedish Sweet Bread

Swedish Sweet Bread (Rolls or Braids)

(this recipe yields about 3 good size loaves of bread, or 24 rolls for brunch, but you can do 1/3 recipe for 1 loaf if you like)

3 cups milk
3 packets yeast
1 cup brown sugar (or raw sugar if you have it)

3 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla
1 stick butter (room temperature - NOT melted!)

10 cups flour (8 for dough, 2 reserved for kneading in)

Mix the milk and the sugar in a microwaveable bowl, microwave on high for 2 minutes or until warm to the touch. Add in yeast, stir, and set aside.

In a large bowl or mixing bowl (like Kitchenaid) beat eggs, salt, vanilla, and butter. The butter should be in small bits. (The reason you want the butter in bits and not melted is because the space of the butter helps to form the texture of the bread.)

Pour in the yeast, milk & sugar mixture, blending with the eggs and butter. At this point you could add 2 tsp of orange extract OR 2 tsp of maple extract if you like to make a different taste.

When all ingredients are well mixed (it should look murky and like the butter is clumpy), begin to add in flour one cup at a time, still mixing. I like to use my Kitchenaid mixer for this because the constant working of the dough forms better gluten strings and the bread has a nicer texture. You can also do this by hand, but be sure to either stand on a stool to gain some height on your dough, or work on a lower surface.

Add in about 8 - 9 cups of flour total. At this point, the dough should still be sticky to the touch.

Grease a LARGE bowl, and turn the sticky dough into the greased bowl. sprinkle a generous amount of flour on the top of the dough, and cover with plastic wrap. Lay a clean kitchen towel over the bowl, and leave to rise in a warm spot for about 1 - 2 hours.

When the dough is about double in size, PUNCH it down into the bowl using the heel of your hand or a tight fist. Leave it to rise a little more while you prepare your pans for baking. This dough is really versatile, so you can either section it out for braids, loaves, or buns/rolls. I have also made circular loaves with this.

I have recently begun to turn my dough out onto a floured, rimmed cookie sheet - I find that it keeps the flour from flying all over my counters as I knead it.

Preheat your oven to 350F. If you have convection, it makes a nice crust on the bread. Otherwise, regular baking setting is just fine.

Work the dough by kneading it and alternating it, folding it back into itself, and adding flour until it becomes velvety and is no longer sticky to the touch. This may end up being about a cup to two additional.

When your dough is ready, Grease tins, bread pans, or cookie sheets depending on what shape you'd like your bread to be.

Divide dough equally and allow to bake until golden brown on top - rolls are around 20 minutes, loaves are about 40 minutes, and braids are about 35 minutes. KEEP CHECKING.

When done, remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack OUT of the tins. Otherwise, as they cool, they will sweat and get a little soggy.

A really good icing for the bread is about 1 cup of confectioners sugar and 1 tsp cardamom (or if you don't like cardamom, use 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg) with a little water dribbled in to make a tasty topping. I usually use about 1 tsp water to begin, and add water by drops until I get the consistency right.

Allow the bread to cool completely, then ice. This bread is also REALLY great sliced and toasted for breakfast with butter and icing.

Enjoy!

Cribbage Fuel. Hot Buttered Rum. The good stuff.

Oh yes. It's that time again. Jim's auntie flew in from Boston this evening, after a harrowing and long journey that included a night in the airport and several delays in Seattle... But she finally made it! And to celebrate, we had drinks ready. Earlier today we made a jaunt to the liquor store. I can't say that I've *never* been in one before, but I honestly cannot remember the last time I went in to buy something for my own consumption. I'm not a big boozer, and aside from the occasional beer (Belgian or Stout, please) or glass of red wine (the deeper and chompier the better), I usually stick to tea and waters.

Today on our outing about town, we went to Trader Joes looking for maitai mix (helps when it's Trader Vic's - not Trader Joes) and to Safeway, and then to the Liquor Store where we wandered around and talked to the manager/owner/dude and asked lots of random questions and learned about rum (the cheap stuff is no good, for a reason) and vodka (Grey Goose was bought out!) and local distilleries (I remembered Clear Creek, and bought some of their Apple Brandy for a Christmas evening treat).

We ended up with Drambuie, Apple Brandy, Wild Turkey Rare Breed, Bombay Sapphire, some golden (gold? not white) rum, and a couple of other things that I cannot remember. But the rum was the whole point of the outing. Because Auntie wanted maitais, and I wanted Hot Buttered Rums. She ended up drinking a Gin and Tonic, though. Soooooo, it was really me who needed the rum, I guess...

When I was young, my parents would play cribbage by the fire and drink Hot Buttered Rum. To me, that's the quintessential winter past time. I was always allowed a "virgin" HBR, but the disappointment lay in the lack of flavour! The distinct depth that the rum gave to the drink was always (sadly) missing in the virgin version... So as an adult, I strove to develop an HBR recipe that was not only of enough volume to share with family and friends as a gift, but also one that the kids could theoretically share in, and tasty enough for adults who didn't wish to imbibe...

Here it is! (this is the first time I think I've ever *officially* written down the recipe)

Enjoy!




Super Cribbage Fuel HBRs

2 tsp maple extract
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbs vanilla extract
1 gal vanilla bean ice cream
2 sticks butter
3 cups brown sugar

Mix it all up in mixer, spoon into containers (I like the "entree" size of Gladware) and refreeze.

To mix for a drink, spoon about four heaping spoonfuls into bottom of cup, add approx 1 oz rum, and pour boiling water over top.

Not low cal. Not low fat. But really, really delicious.

Pepparkakor and Cardamom. It's Swedish Christmas!

Each year, between help from my dad or my mom, I make and receive and dole out several loaves of Swedish Cardamom bread. Cardamom seems to be something that people either love or hate. I personally love it. I put it in hot milk with sugar free vanilla syrup for a bedtime calmer. Meanwhile, you may be thinking what the hell is Swedish Bread? Is that like Rye Crisp? That crazy Wasa bread cracker thing? No. Oh no, my friends. It's formed into a braid, like Jewish Challah bread. Swedish Cardamom bread is the next best thing to homemade wheat bread with butter. Ok, well, maybe a dead even tie. Cardamom has a slightly peppery taste, like a cross between cinnamon and pepper... And it is delicious with the sweetness of an egg bread with sugar on top. Mmmm. It's super good as breakfast, all toasty and delectable...

In the morning when I get up I'll be preparing the cookie dough and the bread dough ahead of time in an effort to save mixing time and increase visiting time, because tomorrow is baking day at Dad's!

The following recipes are directly from Mike Swanson's blog. I don't have ANY idea where my own recipe is for Cardamom bread, but this looks pretty close. Cause it's late, and I've no clue as to where all my recipes went...

Cardamom Bread

Original Recipe
¾ cup milk
¼ cup butter
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1½ - 2 teaspoons cardamom
(3 teaspoons if using powder)

1. Microwave milk and butter for approximately 50 seconds
2. Make dough using all ingredients (manually or with bread machine on "dough" mode)
3. Divide into 3 rolled strips, cover with cloth, and allow to rest for 10 minutes
4. Braid dough and top with light sugar coating (not included in above ingredients)
5. Allow to rise for 40-50 minutes under plastic wrap
6. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes
7. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack

I (Emily) like to make this bread and finish with Royal Icing (just powdered sugar and cardamom with water mixed to a nice icing consistency) drizzled over the top.

Pepparkakor Cookies

Mike says "Done properly, pepparkakor cookies (a Swedish twist on ginger cookies) are relatively thin and crisp. "

1 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
2 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons molasses (I prefer the “Dark Full Flavor” kind)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Cream butter with sugar
2. Add egg, milk, and molasses
3. Mix everything else in
4. Refrigerate the dough overnight
5. Roll dough onto flowered surface until approximately 1/8" thick, and cut into shapes
6. Bake at 350 degrees until done (approximately 8 minutes)

Vanilla Bean Shortbread Cookies, Yum.

It's Wednesday. Wednesday means that I need to bake. Baking means I need a recipe... Ergo, the newest development from my baking brain...

Vanilla Bean Shortbread Cookies

3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup (3 sticks) butter

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Sift flour, baking powder, granulated sugar and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat again, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl once or twice as you are mixing. Beat in the vanilla extract. If you have a vanilla bean slit it open along its entire length, scrape out the vanilla bean paste from the interior of the bean, and add this to the mixer as well. Add the flour mixture in two additions. Stir until everything comes together into a thick dough.

Turn the dough out onto a countertop and divide into two pieces. Press each piece of dough out into a long cylinder (about the size of an orange juice can). Wrap each piece in plastic and chill completely in the refrigerator - about thirty minutes. When the dough is chilled, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out 1/4-1/2-inch thick. Cut the dough into desired shapes using cookie cutters or a knife and place on a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are barely golden.

We shall see how these turn out, and photos will be posted this evening upon their completion.

I think I'll let the kids help frost these, I'll make the cookies ahead of time and have different frostings and sprinkles available.


Icing

4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

Sammy Sosas. Samosas. Golden deliciousness.

It's SAMOSAS!

This was insane. James and the oldest boy were hard at work in the kitchen this evening while I tried to nap on the couch. Things smelled too good. I wandered in, curious about the state of the kitchen from the peculiar sounds and the smell of the hot oil.

They had already crafted the filling (delicious on its own, for sure) and were experimenting with the ways in which they might envelop it in wonton (wanton) wrappers and deep fry it in canola oil.


Only one injury later (James suffered an oil burn on the tip of his finger) a pile of golden samosas lay steaming on the stovetop.

Small and large, young and old alike chowed down on these for dinner. James asked, "Are we making anything else for dinner?" I nodded mid-chew to the potato stuffed pyramids and said, "Mmph. Why would we when we can eat samosas and Italian wedding cookies?"

(Behold! the genius of sharing samosas with neighbors, as you get wedding cookies in return!)

Ah, yes. Deliciousness abounds.

The boy gets kudos for helping out in a very brilliant way, and James gets kudos for successfully creating samosas (not easy!) on his first attempt!

I love people who cook. I love to eat.

I love samosas. This will be done again.

It's raining bananas, Hallelujah, it's raining bananas...

Ok, well, maybe the song that I refer to said "It's raining men, Hallelujah, it's raining men," but there are two problems - one, you can't bake Manbread, and two, last I checked, you couldn't buy men in bulk at Costco. I have a point - keep reading.

Costco is good for many things. Not for me, but James loves it. I get a wild hair here and there to go see what's going on at Costco, but most times, I'm content to let others go while I stay home and vacuum. Or bake.

I went to Costco last week. And as part of my "I'm trying to eat healthy" kick (Shut up. I know it's happened before. I can't say no to the pasta.) we got a cart load of fruits and veggies. And bananas. Now, listen, I don't exactly know why I went bananas, so to speak - I just know that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I even carefully selected a greener bunch so that they wouldn't end up rotten.

We went through the celery. We ripped right through that 100 pound bag of baby carrots. (Have you noticed that Costco keeps that refrigerated area where the veggies are so damn cold? By the time you circle through, your produce seems like a gold medal in withstanding frigid temperatures?) Hell, we even got through some apples! Woo hooo!

But today, when I returned home from work, the bag of bananas was beckoning me - calling to me with sugary brown speckles... Mocking my choice of green bananas in the now leopard like cloak that each monkey fruit wore.

Damn those bananas. I had to make banana bread.

Herein, the industrial like recipe for four loaves (yes, FOUR) of banana bread.

5 ripe bananas
3 c brown sugar
5 eggs
1 T and 1 tsp baking soda
1 T baking powder
1 c european style yogurt
1 T cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp banana extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c butter, cut into small bits and tossed in
7 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F. (Must we say it? If you have convection, please select.)

Mix all but the flour until well blended, bananas mashed, etc.

At the last minute, after the pans are greased (remember, you gotta get 4 out and spray 'em with PAM) mix in the flour. And, according to Neighbor Liz, we must mix the flour in just until it all comes together. Don't over mix or it'll end up thick and gummy (watch Alton Brown, you'll see).

Bake for about an hour forty-five minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes clean.

Mmmmm. I think this would freeze pretty well, in the event that you have no friends or neighbors who would like to cannibalize it - otherwise, share. SHARE. (you know hoarding banana bread goes against what you and your therapist have been chatting about.)

So, if you go to Costco, eat the bananas before you turn up with a bag of squishy fruit. For the love of Pete, please eat the fruit with the peel partway on. (I can't stand it when people peel the whole thing and palm the bare naked fruit. It makes me cringe.)

Unless you like banana bread better than the fruit. Like me. Then, you can have this recipe, and be happy. Brown spots and all.

*We just dove into this bread, and it is hands down the best banana bread ever. I'm not kidding, and even though I may have an opportunity for bias, I am totally honest about my baking. I love this one. I celebrate the genius baker that is me. (For now. Until I make something totally gross and have to throw it out. Like that last batch of zucchini muffins.)

Starbucks-esque Vanilla Scones

I love Starbucks' mini vanilla scones. (I'm not the only one - I found this other post on them, and snagged the picture, so thank you, Jennifer at Food Pursuit...) They are delicious. I found myself routing back towards work in a different fashion from dropping the small person at preschool just so I could go to Starbucks twice this week.

I admit it. I have a problem. I love the sturdy little scones, with their vanilla bean flecks, their tasty frosting. They're not good for me, but they're not evil... But why pay $1.95 for the equivalent of a normal size scone when I can make them at home? I needed to get into rehab for my growing addiction, and fast. I can't blow $5.60 a day on scones and a Venti-Sugar-Free-Vanilla-Latte...

My mission? Create a Starbucks like home-version. This morning I made whole wheat scones (which ended up like brown sugar scones) and this afternoon, after James brought home some white flour, the mission for perfection continued.

I actually ended up eating these for dinner. They are sweet, and delicious! Like my friends at Starbucks, I finished them off with a vanilla bean and powdered sugar glaze. I'm sure they're around 180 calories each, but who cares? We're not still on that low-fat no-carb thing, are we?? I'm certainly not, and currently enjoying it... (remember? Swedish Mountain Goat? I'm stout. Hardy. I won't blow over in a strong wind. I'm good for the Oregon Coast... But that's another post.)

I digress.
Starbucks-esque Vanilla Bean Scones
(if you make them mini you have to call them Mini-Vanilli Scones, after Rob and Fabrice)

makes 10 - 12 regular people sized scones

dry ingredients
3 c white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled (I like to grate it with the cheese grater - it's simpler than cutting in)

wet ingredients
1 c plain Nancy's Yogurt (or Trader Joe's NF Mediterranean yogurt)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp sugar free vanilla syrup (like Torani)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 inch worth of squeezed out vanilla bean (you can just add an extra tsp of extract if you don't have bean)

glaze ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
water, as needed

If you are making these at holiday time, you can use the popular Swedish spice cardamom, and add that into the glaze - I'd use about 1/4 tsp for the whole batch of glaze.

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
• Cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until flour resembles coarse meal.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg and almond and vanilla extract (and vanilla beans) until blended.
• Add this to the flour-butter mixture and stir with a fork until dough forms a cohesive ball. You may need to knead it around in the bowl a little to get it all together.
• Place the sticky dough onto a round, un-greased cookie sheet and pat flat until it is about 1 inch high.
• Cut the dough into wedges. Keep them close together (like how you bake baking powder biscuits).
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

GLAZE:
Place powdered sugar in a medium bowl, (or in a mini-processor if you have one) add vanilla extract, and then water one teaspoon at a time, mixing vigorously until smooth. I like my glaze so that it just barely starts to drip off the fork. I used a silicone pastry brush to apply glaze over the hot scones.

Serve, eat, enjoy. Perfect with a tall glass of cold milk, or coffee! The glaze will harden up nicely on the top of the scones. Store cooled scones in an airtight container.

Stacy's Special Request Zucchini Bread

For Stacy, because you asked so nicely...

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup applesauce
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups zucchini, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Cream butter, applesauce and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix flour, baking soda and cinnamon together and add to creamed mixture. Beat well. Stir in chocolate chips and shredded zucchini.
4. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan, or a loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. You can add cream cheese frosting to the top of this as a cake and it is really yummy!
   

Good Bread

I was going to call it Honey Flax Oat or Wheat Flax or Lots of Good Stuff bread. But really? It's just a darn tasty wheat bread.

(this makes 4 loaves)

3 pkts yeast
1/4 c. dry milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups warm milk
3 tsp salt
1 cup oats
1/2 cup flax meal
2 sticks butter, softened
4 eggs
7 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour (set aside for kneading)

Dissolve yeast, powdered milk, and sugar in warm milk. Let stand.

Combine salt, oats, flax meal, and half of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and two sticks of softened butter and stir into a slurry.

Pour milk mixture into bowl, and continue adding the flour in half cup increments until well combined into a ball.

Knead dough by hand for 10 minutes, place the dough in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or waxed paper, and let rise for 45 minutes (or until doubled).

Punch down. Sprinkle surface with some of the flour set aside, and knead until all of the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour is incorporated.

Divide dough into four equal portions, form loaves, and drop into greased bread pans. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Slice when cooled and serve with butter. Yum, yum.

Happy Birthday Pokerman!

There's a birthday tonight at the weekly poker event, so instead of muffins, I decided to make an actual chocolate cake. James stood at the bartop in the kitchen and remarked that it was unusual for me to be making a cake from scratch (at which point I figured, either he doesn't really pay attention to where his baked goods come from, or he has a different view of what "from scratch" means)... I told him to get out of the kitchen, and proceeded to create this:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate (I used the Trader Joe's dark chocolate in the huge block)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup Nancy's plain yogurt (or the Trader Joe's Mediterranean Yogurt)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon water
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degree F . As usual I like to use the convection setting. Grease a medium sized springform pan. Chop up the chocolate. In a small saucepan, boil the milk and chocolate until mixture forms a thick liquid. Remove from heat and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and yogurt to the creamed mixture. Dissolve the baking soda in water, and add to the creamed mixture. Add the flour, and mix thoroughly. Add the chocolate mixture and beat well. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 36 minutes or until the knife comes clean.

I topped mine with coconut pecan frosting... I suppose that cream cheese frosting would be nice on this one too!

Yum!

Rainbow Muffins

Rainbow Muffins

1 c chopped bing cherries
1 medium carrot, shredded
1 mango, pulsed
1 medium zucchini, shredded
1 1/2 c blueberries
1 c dried cranberries
2 eggs
1/2 c brown sugar
2 T vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 c white flour
1 c wheat flour

Threw all the wet ingredients into the bowl, and stirred them all up. At the advice of Liz (the neighbor who can make anything, beautifully, and it looks and tastes professional), I only mixed the ingredients together with the dry for a moment - the last muffins I sent down were a little rubbery, she said, and offered the advice to just mix until the ingredients came together.

This recipe only yields about 18 muffins, so I also tried a different trick of putting water in the empty tins. I didn't like that trick so well, since some of the water splashed into the muffins next door and they ended up flat... But mixing them briefly kept the glutens from getting too rubbery, and these muffins ended up really moist and delicious. I put them in for about 22 minutes at 375F on convection setting.

The rainbow of fruits and veggies in this muffin ends up tasting a little like a bran muffin. I'm pretty sure they'll be as healthy as a bran muffin too, and because of that Jim wanted me to call them "Gurgle" Muffins. However, I think these are really good for the morning... A quick breakfast!