Popovers

One of my childhood memories is my mom would make popovers in the morning for special occations. 

Although these are easy to make they do take a while to bake, but totally worth it. 

 

Popovers

Preheat to 400 degrees.

2 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
(1 tablespoon shortening or cooking spray)

You can use an actual popover pan or muffin pan, grease (or spray) each cup, bottoms and sides.

Now start in a medium mixing bowl, whisk eggs first, then add milk and oil until combined the add the flour beat until smooth. The mixture will be runny.

Fill the prepared cups half full with batter.

Bake for 40 minutes or until very firm.

Remove immediately from oven and prick the tops with a fork to let the steam escape (the trapped moisture will soften the popovers and make them soggy).

For crisper popovers, return to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes.
Remove popovers from cups and serve immediately.
I used a muffin pan so it made 10 popovers, with a popover pan it should make about 6.

The version that I made are made with cinnamon.
Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to the flour before pouring into the wet mixture.

Finally, you can fill with butter, jam or honey. Really, pretty much whatever you want.

Enjoy!

Homemade Graham Crackers

I love graham crackers, but since I stopped buying stuff with high fruictous corn syrup, i stopped buying graham crackers. They are my favorite snack and I was very sad about that.

I came across a recipe on Pinterest, and modify it. These are made with brown sugar and honey.

They turned out soooooo tasty. The next time I make this I will roll of the dough thinner to feel more like the store bought ones.

Graham Crackers

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teasspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter, cold and cubed

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry indregients,

Then add the cubed butter and use a pastry blender (or fork) and blend the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.

Then add the honey, water and vanilla and mix until incorperated.

Remove the dough and shape it into a large ball.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough like you would cookie dough, roll out until it's less then 1/4 inch thick.

Cut out into crackers or cut out into shapes. Re-combine the scraps and roll out, cut out, repeat until all the dough is used up.

You can use a pizza cutter to make straight lines and a pointed skewer tto poke holes into the crackers.

Place the crackers on a lined (baking mat or parchment paper) cookie sheet and bake for 15 mintues.

To achieve the crispy cracker crunch, let cool completely.

These are super easy to make and super tasty. Enjoy!

*edited 7/1/2014

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Oven Baked French Fries

I love starch. Potatoes are my weakness. I don't think I can live without them. There are so many ways to cook them. But whenever I get the chance, I like them nice and crispy. I love french fries, but I don't love the oil. Baking them is the healthier option.

The key to crispy baked fries is to soak them in water for a while. The more moisture pulled from the the potato, the crispier they get. So good!

Oven Baked French Fries

3 to 4 baking potatoes
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Salt and Pepper to taste

 I say the bigger the potato, the better.
Clean the potatoes under cold water with a soft bristle brush.

 Next, cut the potato in half and the slice the halves into 1/4 inch thick pieces, as shown.

Take the slices and lay then down flat and cut lengthwise to make sticks.
Next fill a large bowl of cold water and add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and stir until it has dissolved.
Now place the potatoes in the salt bath and let sit for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 410 degrees.

Drain the water and lay out the potatoes on a kitchen towel and pat dry, but not completely dry.
Transfer them to a large greased baking sheet and lay out so that none are on top of each other.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to liking. With the potatoes being wet, the spices adhere better.

Place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, while taking out half way through to flip over to get even browning on both sides. Additional time may be needed for crispness.

These turned out pretty good. I will be making these a heck of a lot more. So yummy!!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love cinnamon. I love it so much that I named my cat Cinnamon. I love the scent, and taste, everything about it!

Many times when I bake and a recipe calls for cinnamon, I add a little extra. I little extra never hurts, I say.

I wanted to make cinnamon rolls, but I didn't want to make the icing and I didn't want something super sweet. This bread has a great flavor, color and texture. It's an easy to make bread, so any level baker can easily follow the directions.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

 

1/4 oz. packet of active dry yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

or 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

7/8 to 1/18 cups lukewarm water (around 85 degrees)

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes

Filling:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1 large egg + 1 tablespoon water (to brush onto the dough)

 

 Directions:

If you are using the active dry yeast, dissolve it with a pinch of of sugar in about 2 tablespoons of lukewarm water. Let it sit for 15 minutes. In that time it will bubble and rise. (Skip this step if you are using instant yeast)

While the yeast is bubbling, combine all the rest of the ingredients for the bread itself into a large mixing bowl.

(ignore the two extra eggs)

Next, combine the dissolved yeast into the rest of the ingredients and mix (by hand or mixer or the dough setting on a bread machine) till the dough becomes smooth. If it is too dry, add very small amounts of water until smooth, or if too moist and sticky, add small amounts of flour at a time until smooth. But any way you mix it, you should end up with a nice smooth round ball.

Doesn't look like it, but it's the right consistency.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until it's doubled in size. This should take an hour or so.

 I didn't make mine into a ball because I'm a rebel.

While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Mix the egg and water in a small dish and set aside right before handling the dough.

Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a 6" x 20" rectangle.

Brush the dough with the egg mixture before sprinkling on the filling. Save the remaining egg mixture to brush on the dough before placing in the oven.

Start with the shorter end, and roll the dough into a log. Pinch the ends and the long seam closed to seal.

Transfer the log, seam side down, to a lightly greased 9" x 5" loaf pan. (I only had a 8" x 4" pan and it was a little snug) Tent the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap. Allow to rest and rise for another hour or until it rises an inch above the rim of the pan.

When bread is almost ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 Brush a layer of the egg mixture you saved on top of the dough. This helps it achieve a nice golden brown color. Tenting it lightly with tin foil for the first 15 minutes and then remove it for the remained of the time left in the oven.
Bake the bread for 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and gently loosen the edges with a heatproof spatula. Turn it out of the pan and allow to cool completely before slicing.

I used it to make really yummy french toast. Oh, man! It' was DELICIOUS!

 

 

Mini Beef Rolls

My husband told me about these Mini Beef rolls and bought the ingredients. Super easy to make if you are running low on time.

These look and taste pretty good.

 

All you need is:

• sliced roast beef deli meat
• a can (or maybe it's called a tube) of croissants rolls
• sticks of string cheese

Take four pieces of string cheese and cut them in half (to fit in the roll without it poking out the sides). Then cut each of those half pieces in half the long way. Now you have four long pieces that fit nicey inside the roll.

Next, roll out the croissants and take two pieces of roast beef for each. Lay out one piece flat and roll up a cheese slice in it.

Take the other piece of beef and fold it in half, laying it on top of the flat croissant.

Place another piece of cheese on the wide part of the croissant. Lay the rolled piece of beef next to it and start to roll the croissant up with the meat and cheese in the middle.

Follow the directs on the croissant roll packaging for baking time and temperatures.

Serves 8

And you're done!

 

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Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies

I use to eat these as a kid. But they were a special treat, my mom didn't really ever buy junk food for us.

 

I like peanut butter cookies so I thought that these would be super soft and yummy. I'm not a chocolate fan, so I would pick a peanut butter cookie over chocolate chip any day!

I saw a recipe on Pintrest and thought that they would be super easy to make. To a novice, they are fairly simple, there is just more steps to follow.

The peanut butter filling is the pretty much frosting, so it's nice and easy to make. It took me a couple of hours to make everything (chill time, baking time etc..).

I took loads of photos so following along should be nice and simple. So, now on to the baking!

 

Nutter Butter Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup peanut butter (I used natural, no additives)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed lightly

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspon baking powder

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar (for the top of the cookies)

Start by creaming the butter in a mixing bowl, then add the peanut butter. By creaming the butter first, you are making sure that there are no clumps of butter. Add the sugars and mix until fluffy.

Next, add the eggs and vanilla, beat until well combined.

In a sperarate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients (minus the extra 1/3 cup sugar). Then a little at a time, pour into the moist mixture, mix until nice and fluffy.

Place plastic wrap over the bowl and place in the refrigerator for one hour.

Meanwhile, make the filling.

Filling

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

4 cups powdered sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons milk

 

Begin by creaming the butter like you did with the cookies, then add the peanut butter. Beat until smooth.

Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time so there will be little to no mess.

Add the milk a tablespoon at a time, or until desired consistency is reached.

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

 

Take the chilled dough out of the fridge and start scooping out 1 inch diameter balls and rolling them into about three inch long logs.

Take a fork and place in sugar to start making the cross hatching on both ends of the logs.

Then pinch the middles inward to form the peanut shape.

Place in oven for 6 to 8 minutes. (oven temps may vary)

Let cookies cool for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack.

Wait until cookies are completely cooled before you start applying the filling.

The final step to these wonderfully tasty cookies is the filling. You can simply spread the fillingon the underside of one cookie with a knife or spatula, then place another cookie on top, creating a sandwich!

Or, you can be all fancy and use a pastry bag and large tip and pipe out the filling.

And that's it, you're done!

 

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