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Marvelous Molasses Cookies

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A little spicy and a lot of flavor.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

¾ teaspoons ground cardamom

½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 large egg

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup molasses

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

Decorative sugar for rolling

 

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and salt in a small bowl.

Whisk egg, butter, sugar, molasses, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in dry ingredients until just mixed. Chill dough for 20 minutes. Place decorative sugar in a bowl. Scoop out tablespoon sized balls of dough and roll into tighter balls. Roll ball in sugar and place on cookie sheet.

Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes.

 

 

I worked with this recipe.

High School Muffins

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For my son’s first day of High School, I made these muffins using fresh raspberries and my pineapple jam from yesterday. They have nothing to do with High School but it calmed me down. #BakingTherapy

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

6 tbsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup pineapple jam

1 cup raspberries

1/4 cup sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter and flour muffin tin.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Stir in wet ingredients. Do not over mix.

Fold in pineapple jam and raspberries.

Scoop into muffin tin and top with sliced almonds.

Bake for approx. 20-22 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool muffins on rack outside of muffin tin so they don’t get soggy.

 

 

Pineapple Jam

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What do you make when life hands you a crappy pineapple?  You make jam.  And then I made my Coco Pazzo Bread to put it on. Oh, and don’t forget the butter. Never forget the butter.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups fresh pineapple (mashed in blender)

1 cup water

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium high heat until it is a thick syrup that wrinkles across a plate when pulled with your finger. Takes about an hour. Check to see if it is done by putting a plate in the refrigerator to chill.  Take it out, put a teaspoon of jam on plate and put in freezer for approx 2 minutes.  If you drag your finger through it and it wrinkles on the sides then it is done.  Carefully put it into jar and seal.

 

 

 

 

Sottosopra Ananas

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Happy Birthday to Juliette.  I had to make something American into something Italian in her honor.

INGREDIENTS

For topping:

½ medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored

¾ stick unsalted butter

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

For batter:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon dark rum

½ cup milk

¼ pulverized pineapple

 

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make topping:

Cut pineapple crosswise into 1/2” thick pieces. Melt butter in skillet. Add brown sugar and cook over low hear for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar overlapping pieces slightly.

Make batter:

Sift together flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in milk, then add remaining flour mixture. Beat until blended but don’t overmix. Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake cake for approximately 45 minutes until golden and a tester comes out clean. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes. Invert a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). Let cool.

I worked with this recipe.

 

Hot Honey Biscuits

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IMG_1017Hot honey biscuits on a Friday morning.  I’m just gonna keep perfecting these.  Self-rising flour is the way to go for sure.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons sugar

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen and grated/chopped + 2 tablespoons for topping

Scant cup of cold butter milk

2 tablespoons honey

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Chopped or grate frozen butter and put back in freezer until ready to use. Whisk flour, salt, sugar, in a bowl.

Pour in buttermilk and mix gently with your hands to form a soft dough.

Turn dough onto floured surface, and gently form a square 1 inch thick.

Trim edges, and cut into 12 equal squares. Place 2″ apart in baking sheet.

Freeze for 10 minutes. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of honey and brush on top before baking.  Bake for approximately 25 minutes.  Brush more honey and butter on top when cooling.

 

 

Sticky Fingers Banana Bread

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Salted Caramel and Banana Bread. It’s like peanut butter and jelly, strawberries and chocolate, Brad and Angelina…

INGREDIENTS

½ cup butter, melted

1 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. kosher salt

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup buttermilk

¼ cup yogurt or sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

2 large eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

Caramel

1 cup sugar

6 Tablespoons butter

½ heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

Make Caramel:

Have the butter and cream ready to go next to the stove. Melt the sugar on medium heat in heavy saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stire vigourously with a whisk. As the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. Let it turn amber and then add the butter and whisk. Once butter is melted, take off the heat and slowly add the cream. Bea careful. It is extremely hot.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour a 9-x-5″ loaf pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

In another large bowl, combine sugar, butter, buttermilk, vanilla, egg and egg yolk until smooth. Pour wet ingredients over dry and stir until combined, then fold in mashed bananas and ½ the caramel.

Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan. Bake until deeply golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 60 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving. Drizzle with caramel.

I worked with this recipe.

Espresso and Chocolate Loaf

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Chocolate and espresso are a perfect marriage.

INGREDIENTS

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ cup sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon finely ground espresso

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups cake flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Coffee Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ tablespoons of milk (one at a time)

1 teaspoon finely ground espresso

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and lightly flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

Cream the butter until smooth with electric mixer. Add the sugars and beat for about 3 minutes, until fluffy. Add the egg and beat well, then the buttermilk and vanilla.

Sift the flour, cocoa, espresso, baking soda, baking powder and salt together right into your wet ingredients. Stir together with a spoon until well-blended but do not overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 to 15 minutes, at which point you can cool it the rest of the way out of the pan.

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, espresso, and milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until spreadable.

Drizzle over cooled loaf.

I worked with this recipe.

Susman Honey Biscuits

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Biscuits sweet with honey and a touch of salt. The Susman family stopped by last night with some delicious treatsbfrom a local restaurant to see if I could recreate them.  These are close.  I am going to play with this recipe a bit.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

Dash of salt

5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter

2 Tbsp honey

1 cup cold buttermilk

Little more flour for kneading surface

Topping

3 Tbsp salted butter, melted

2 Tbsp honey

INGREDIENTS

Preheat the oven to 425 and lightly grease a large baking sheet.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until combined.

Melt 3 tablespoons salted butter and honey in a small bowl and set aside.

Chop cold butter into pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Use a pastry cutter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Pour in honey and mix for a few seconds.

Pour cold buttermilk into the center of the mixture. Mix until just combined, dough will be sticky.

Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and sprinkle with a little more flour on top. Knead dough 5-6 times and pat into a ½ inch-think circle.

Using a biscuit cutter, start to cut out biscuits. Kneading it as little as possible, you can rework dough scraps into a ball and shape it into a circle again. Cut out more biscuits.

Place biscuits on the baking sheet leaving about an inch in between.

Brush each biscuits with honey butter mixture.

Bake for 10-13 minutes until raised and golden brown.

As soon as you take the biscuits out of the oven, brush them with more honey butter mixture.

Morning Skillet Cake

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This takes a few minutes and bakes while you are getting dressed.  Who wouldn’t want to start the day with this beauty?

INGREDIENTS

2 cups sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/4 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup melted butter cooled

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease skillet with butter or oil.

Combine all ingredients and whisk until well combined.

Pour into skillet and bake until browned on top and tester comes out clean for about 35 minutes.

Let cool before turning out.  Decorate anyway you want.  I used lemon curd.

Evening Crackers

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My husband and I are having a cup of coffee on our porch and snacking on these as I type this.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups flour (I used 1 cup each of AP, White, & Rye)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water
Optional topping: 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon caraway seeds, 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon dried onion

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 450°F: Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat to 450°F. Sprinkle a baking sheet lightly with flour and set aside.

Mix together the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour(s), sugar, and salt.

Add the oil and water to the flour mixture. Stir until a soft, sticky dough is formed. Add one tablespoon of water at time is there is dry flour left in the bowl.

Divide the dough into two halves and set one half aside. Sprinkle your work surface lightly with flour and set the other half on top. Pat it into a thick square with your hands.

Working from the center of the dough out, roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 1/8-inch thick or thinner–the thinner the better. If you have trouble with the dough, let it rest a few minutes.

Brush the surface of the dough very lightly with water. Combine the seeds in a small bowl and sprinkle half of them (roughly 1 1/2 tablespoons) evenly over the surface of the dough. You can use any toppings or seasonings you want.

Cut the dough into cracker-sized shapes.  Anything you like.

Transfer the crackers to the baking sheet using a metal dough scraper or spatula. It’s fine to crowd the crackers very close to each other. Prick each cracker with the tines of a fork so they don’t puff up.

Bake the crackers in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are browned. While the first batch of crackers is baking, roll out and cut the remaining dough and repeat.

I worked with this recipe.