Saturday, December 12, 2009

No Fail Sugar Cookies

I haven't gotten any good pictures this year, but I have my amazing spread from last year captured. I hope I'll have time with two little ones to get them iced (I use homemade royal icing), I'm baking up a batch tomorrow, I think. I've been piping a lot over the last year, so I'm hoping they turn out even nicer this year.



No Fail Sugar Cookies
from Lovin' From The Oven

I found this recipe last year and I have to say, she's nailed it as "no fail". I remember, no offense to my own mom, the sugar cookies we made every year for Christmas and well, the memory isn't good. Always fun to decorate, never the first cookie I wanted to eat. I'd scoff down the chocolate chip cookies or the spritz. But these, guys these are delicious. Kind of a shortbread/butter cookie taste. Let's just say I've already made one batch and they didn't last long enough to get iced.

Ingredients

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Directions
Simple.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients.
Add slowly to butter mixture.

Chill for at least 1-2 hours.

Roll to 1/4-1/2 inch thick, and cut your shapes.

Bake at 180C/350F for 8 to 10 minutes. You'll get 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on how big you cut them.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving Feast

Well, the Thanksgiving feast has come and gone. A whole day of cooking over in 30 minutes of shoving food down our hungry gobs! I was lucky enough to have a few friends over (5 friends, so 7 adult mouths and one tiny mouth to feed total) to enjoy our American tradition. It's not so hard to talk the Irish into showing up for some free delicious food! I feel strongly there is no point in spending the time and energy to cook up a feast with no one to share it with. Plus, they always show up with the booze ;)

Now, not only did I not grab pictures of all my dishes but I didn't even snap a shot of my bunch devouring it all. I'll share the recipes anyways, as nothing failed me. My cornbread stuffing could have used a little less bread or a little more stock, but besides that, I was content.

Our menu consisted of fresh no-knead rolls, a cider-roasted 18lbs turkey (stuffed with apple and onions, the apples I mashed for applesauce), sage and pecan sweet potato casserole, cornbread stuffing, garlic buttered carrots, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, finished with pumpkin tart with cream cheese. I'll list the important recipes

No-Knead Dinner Rolls

from The Pioneer Woman
These came out okay. I felt they had a weird consistency and were a bit too sweet for me. Next time I'll probably adapt for a different recipe. They are great for thanksgiving, though, when you have limited time for cooking food and all you have to do is mix the dough and leave it rise. I halved the recipe because I had no need for 24 rolls. This is halved:

Ingredients
2 cups Milk
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
4.5 cups Flour
1 packages (4 1/2 Tsp.) Active Dry Yeast
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoons Salt

Directions

Pour 2 cups of milk into large saucepan or crock on the stove (you will let the dough rise in here so allow lots of room)

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Stir to combine.

Scald the mix on medium hear(between 90 and 110 degrees, I used a candy thermometer to be sure).

Add in 2 1/4 cups of flour and 1 packages of (2-1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast.

Next, add another 2 cups of flour.

Cover with a towel and leave someplace warm for an hour, it should double in size.

After it rises,
When it had risen sufficiently add 1/4 more cup of flour, 1/2 heaping teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and about 1 tablespoons of salt. Stir or knead (eh?) just a little to combine.

Oil or butter a muffin pan. Form the rolls by pinching off a walnut sized piece of dough and rolling it into a little ball.
Repeat and tuck three balls of dough into each buttered muffin cup. Continue until pan is full. Cover and allow to rise for about 1 to 2 hours.

Bake at 400F/200C until golden brown, about 20 minutes.


Cider Roasted Turkey with Roasted Applesauce

Ingredients
2 liter of cider
2-3 apples
2 onions
1/2 cup room temperature butter
2 chopped cloves garlic
handful of fresh thyme and sage.

Directions
Prepare your turkey as usual, wash and pat dry.

Place in a deep cooking try.

Take your butter and smash down in the center. Add chopped garlic, thyme and sage. Knead butter together and separate into two small chunks and two large chunks.

Shove two chunks under the skin of the thighs and smooth across the meat with your hand through the outside of the skin. Shove the other large chunks under each breast and smooth across.

Quarter your onions and put inside the turkey cavity. Quarter your apples and place them skin side down in the cavity.

Pour enough cider to fill the pan 1-2 inches full.

I cover the turkey then for 3/4 of the cooking time with tin foil, and remove for the remaining time to brown.

When turkey has been removed and has rested, take out your apples and remove the skin, and mash the apples for a quickie applesauce side :) You might want to roasted a few apples separately to add to this if you are feeding a lot of people.


Sage and Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole
from A Cozy Kitchen
This was ridiculously delicious. I spread my sweet potatoes a bit more thinly in the pan and didn't pack the pecans on as tightly as she has (I wish I had taken a picture!) but this is recipe gold. This is going to remain a permanent Thanksgiving feature in our house! I think I'll make this again for Christmas, or at least, I'm pretty sure Cormac will want me making this again before next turkey day rolls around.

Ingredients
3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 ½ cups milk
1/8 cup maple syrup

For the Topping:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions
Boil sweet potatoes (or steam) until tender, 10 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
Melt 1 stick of butter with the chopped sage in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for 1 minute and remove from heat.
Add butter mixture, milk, and maple syrup to the potatoes. From here decide what you want-- I didn't want two smooth mashes, so I used a hand masher and just slightly chunked the sweet potatoes together with the mixture. You can, alternatively, beat with a blender until smooth.

Lightly toss pecans, butter and maple syrup on low heat in a saucepan, for a few minutes.
Sprinkle the pecans over the top of the potatoes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until pecans start to brown and edges bubble.

Cornbread Stuffing
This is my favorite stuffing. I made this two years ago as a test, and I'm so pleased. I really like my mother's stuffing, and she's made stuffing the same way since I was a child. However, I'm happy to say I've found my own way and this stuffing is MY stuffing. It's mouthwatering delicious and every day after you make it, it tastes better and better.

Ingredients
1 full cornbread recipe (listed below this recipe, you can use your own recipe if you want)
1 large loaf of wheat or white bread, or 12 slices
3-4 cups of stock (optional 1-2 tbsp white wine or 1 tbsp white wine vinegar)- I say 3-4 cups because sometimes I'll add more if I think I've got too much bread and not even wetness.
1 can cream of chicken
3 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup chopped celery (I omitted it this year and added a bit of celery seed instead, I just, didn't have celery and didn't see it at Lidl during my shopping)
Fresh thyme
Fresh sage, both to taste. I usually grab a handful of each to chop up
1/2 lbs of sausage
few strips of bacon, optional

Directions
Cube your corn bread and bread the night before and leave out to go a bit stale. This isn't totally necessary but makes the stuffing a bit more chunky.

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Saute celery and butter in pan, add in sausage and bacon if you choose.

Mix all other ingredients, I whisk it all together. Add in your meat, celery and butter mix. Pour over your cubes in a large pan. Wider the pan, more yummy crispy bits on top, the deeper the pan, the more delicious soft fluffy stuffing.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.


Buttermilk Cornbread
from The Hungry Mouse

I like using this recipe because it doesn't have butter, and well, I'm adding a load of fat to my stuffing already. This cornbread doesn't need it! It's delicious on its own, and if you're buttermilk is low fat its a healthy cornbread recipe to accompany your southwest dishes, too.

ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F/200C and grease your 9x9 pan.

Whisk eggs, buttermilk, sugar, and oil together.
Mix in cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.

Pour in a 9x9 inch pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the center comes clean with a toothpick


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking

This came about as a pleasant surprise after a bit slip up on the original recipe I found on a random food blog. The pie was my first bake of the day, and in typical Candi fashion, I made a silly mistake. As I was adding my spices, I picked up the jar of garlic powder instead of ginger (which look incredibly similar, ahem) and as I was dumping it into the mix I realized my mistake. So, halfway through the recipe I flubbed. Thankfully I hadn't wasted any pumpkin puree-- but I did wasted 8oz of cream cheese (the only 8oz I had), so I flipped open my BHG Old-Fashioned Home Baking for a basic pumpkin pie and combined the ideas. I will make this again and try to eliminate the can of condensed milk (probably through using yogurt or cream cheese as that was sort of the way my original recipe did it)... because it was only by strange chance I even had a can of condensed milk at home.
Cormac actually said to me it was the best pie he'd ever tasted. We had vanilla ice cream and whipped cream to go on top. Real whipped cream. Although, the American in me bets this would be topped off perfectly with that fake-o Cool Whip.
And yes, I pureed a real sugar pumpkin for this recipe, not a butternut squash (although...)

Ingredients
For Filling:
2 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 1 16-ounce can of pumpkin
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 can evaporated milk

For Crust:
24 graham crackers or 30 digestive biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 - 1 cup melted butter

For Dollops:
2oz of cream cheese
1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Crust:
Using a food processor, turn your graham crackers or digestives (I used half and half because you can't buy graham crackers in Ireland, but I DID have half a box left over from my generous friend E) into crumbs. I usually add the sugar in at this stage to get it mixed well. You can go old school and put the crackers in a bag and hit it with a rolling pin, too.
Slowly add your butter. I added a full cup, but I didn't measure my crumbs exactly so you may need less (you should need roughly 1 1/2 cup crumbs, but I like a thick crust so I probably used 2 cups). You want it to be wet enough that the crumbs are clumping together as you mix it.

Grease 9 or 10 inch round pan (you can use a tart pan for the cool crinkle edges, or use a springform pan like I did for ease of removing it).

Pour the crumbs in the pan evenly and pat it down until covered. I just sprinkle it in higher around the edge so I can create/pat the crumbs into a crust.

Stick this in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes to prebake, just keep an eye at it towards the end that it doesn't overbrown or burn. When you take out the pie crust, pop the temp up to 375F/190C.
------------------------
Filling:
In a bowl or mixer, combine your pumpkin, sugar and spices, mix well.

Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

Slowly pour in your can of condensed milk. Mix well.

Pour mixture into your pre-baked shell (you can obviously use a regular pie crust or one of those store bought crusts if you want).

Mix roughly 2 ounces cream cheese with 1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt (or if you have neither, thin it out a bit with just plain milk). With a tsp, plop dollops along the top of the pie. Mine sunk down a bit because I used real pumpkin puree which is a bit more watery (and I couldn't be bother to strain or cook it down too much) than canned. You can then take a knife or other sharp implement and swirl it around. I'm sure yours will look prettier than mine, but it all tastes equally delicious.

Bake for 1 hour or until the center is set and not wobbly at 375F/190C (and if you didn't skim my direction you'll have already popped the oven up to this temperature after pre-baking your crust ;) )

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

So, I loved that bread so much I made it twice. The second time I used mini loaf pans (and if I do it again I'll cut the cook time by 10 minutes because they were a bit dry). As a result, I got pumpkin-breaded-out and it was sitting in my cake box getting old.
Inspiration struck-- I'll make bread pudding with it! And it was so delicious. I hate waste. Cormac loves a good pud or custard, so between the two of us and my little monster we nearly finished it off that evening!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of pumpkin bread

Directions
Break/cut your bread into cubes and lay in an ungreased 9x9 pan.

In another bowl, whip together your eggs, milk, vanilla and spices.

Pour the egg mixture over your bread cubes.

Bake at 350F/180C for 40-45 minutes.

I wish I had a picture but, it didn't last long enough. Eat it straight out of the oven on a cold night for best taste-- with some custard poured over it, yumyum!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Spiced Pumpkin Bread



Spiced Pumpkin Bread
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking

I love this time of year, excuse to use loads of pumpkin. That is, in my case, butternut squash, since I'm a big cheat. However, I still believe firmly that it tastes nicer than pumpkin. This makes 1 ring of bread (bundt pan) or two loaves.

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour (the original recipe uses all white flour)
1/4 cup wheat germ (you can omit this if you want or don't have it)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon (shoulda added more)
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup pumpkin/butternut squash fresh or canned puree
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs (I used 3 medium eggs)
1/3 cup shortening (I suppose you could use butter if you wanted to)

1 cup of either dried berries, nuts, raisins, or seeds like pepitas (I used a prepacked mix of sunflower seeds, pepitas, cranberries and goji berries from Aldi)

Directions

Preheat oven to 175C/350F

In a mixing bowl (or the bowl of your mixer) mixed half the flour (1/2 cup WW flour, 1/2 cup AP flour), baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

Add pumpkin, milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening. Use mixer and beat 30 seconds to mix and a couple minutes on high.
Stir in nuts/seeds/dried fruit.

Bake for 1 hour for a ring mold/bundt like I used, or 45 minutes for two loaf pans.

You can make a glaze with a bit of powdered sugar and water, and a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, or just do what I plan to do, which is slice it up and smear it with butter or cream cheese. I plan on making french toast with a few slices for my breakfast, yum!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Firstly, I have to apologize. I haven't posted anything in a long time-- but I'll admit, I've been busy baking up a new baby girl. We welcome Harper Jamie into the world Halloween 2009 :) at our own home (I had a planned home birth).
I've got my birth story posted on my personal blog: The Crunchy, Contrary Yank
I'll resist the urge to spam this blog with pictures of my beautiful baby girl (and her big sister of course).

Now, to the good stuff that you all actually care about-- baked goods!


Ginger Molasses Cookies
adapted from bakingbites.com
These are everything that ginger cookies should be -- soft, chewy, cracked, spicy... and delicious with a hot cuppa. Not the best picture I've ever taken, but I'm pretty sure you can see that delicious combination of sugars crystallized on the outside of that perfectly cracked cookie. These taste of Christmas. And, here in Ireland, the weather has turned and now we face 6 months or so of cold, wet weather. To beat this, I need delicious, soul warming food to keep my spirits up.

Ingredients
1/4 cup shortening (you can omit this and use 1/4 cup butter (thats 1/2 cups total) instead, but they just don't crack as well.
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp honey
1/4-1/2 tsp vanilla (okay, I admit, its not in the original recipe but I just can't make cookies without a little touch of vanilla. I didn't measure, like I said, I just added "a touch" ;) )
1 large egg (I used 2 medium sized eggs)
2 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I'm always generous here)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (I know, its strange, but they taste great!)
1/2 tsp salt

spare sugar, for rolling in (I used white sugar, demerera sugar, and a sparkly clear sugar sprinkle I have for cake decorating-- you can just use all white sugar, but adding in a coarse sugar with it just makes them look cool)

Directions
Preheat your oven to 175C/350F-- I think this is really important for these cookies.

Cream together butter (and shortening) and sugar.
Add in molasses, honey, vanilla, and egg(s). Beat until creamy.
Sift together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
Add flour to butter mixture, slowly.

Roll your dough into 1 inch sized balls, and then roll them in your bowl of mixed sugars. Place on greased baking sheet (I use some baking/parchment paper).

Bake for 10 minutes, then keep an eye on them. I like soft and chewy cookies, so I take them out at 10 minutes. If you leave them in a few extra minutes they will likely go crunchy-- I always do half of them a little over cooked because Cormac likes crunchy cookies (bah!).

Let the cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
As always, shove several in your mouth and enjoy. These are particular good with a cup of coffee. nom nom.

You can get about 3 dozen cookies out of this recipe.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Oat Blondies



Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Oat Blondies made with Applesauce
Ingredients
3/4 cup Peanut Butter
2/3 cup Applesauce (if you want to be naughty, and make these chewier, use butter one for one)
3/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I used splenda)

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup oats
1/4 cup wheatgerm (optional)
1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup milk

~ 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

-Cream together your peanut butter, applesauce and sugars.
-Add eggs one at a time.
-Add vanilla.

-Mix dry ingredients together.
-Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with milk.

-Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake for 30-40 minutes at 325F/160C


And they are healthy, too! I'm on this low fat kick at the moment to help reduce my chances of getting a bad case of a condition I had with my first pregnancy called Cholestasis.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Cormac's Chicken Caesar Salad with Bruschetta



Now and again, I enjoy sitting on the couch and letting Cormac make the dinner. I carved up a chicken we bought a few weeks back and froze the thighs/legs/wings, and that meat made for delicious chicken caesar. I have recipes for each little bit here.

Chicken for Tearing Up
Ingredients

2 thighs and legs
2 wings
Knob of Butter
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp brown sugar
Fresh thyme
Sea salt and black pepper

Directions
Melt the butter on medium heat.
Place the chicken pieces in the pan of melted butter for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Deglaze with wine and brown sugar (combined).
Season chicken while cooking with thyme, salt and pepper.
Total cooking time roughly 10-15 minutes. Keep pan and juices aside for bruschetta.
Place in oven on olive oil greased pan at 400F/200C covered for 25 minutes.
Tear off the bone into pieces for your salad.


Bruschetta
Serves two

Ingredients
1 Large Tomato, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 basil
Large ciabatta roll, halved.

Directions
Add all ingredients to the pan you cooked the chicken in.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, don't let the garlic burn!
Remove from heat.

Ciabatta cut in two, grilled under toasted.
Dip the cut side in the butter/oil left behind in the pan.
Top with tomato/garlic mix.
Grill again for a few minutes.
Top with fresh basil if desired.


Caesar Dressing
Ingredients

1/4 cup good mayonnaise
1/4 good olive oil (or all mayo)
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup Parmesan, shredded
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Blend! Add milk if needed to thin to your liking.


Salad assembly
We used fresh lettuce, spinach and a small bit of rocket from our garden. Topped with chicken, bit of corn cut from the cob, homemade croutons, dressing and Cormac added a few cashew nuts to his own. Traditionally, add extra Parmesan and pine nuts! ENJOY!

Blueberry Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins


So I've got a bad habit of making food items outside of their desired season. First I'm hitting you with pumpkin cinnamon rolls, now I'm on about muffins. I even made the applesauce from scratch (just boil them up with a touch of cinnamon, lemon juice and vanilla!) and the house smelled like autumn. In Ireland, its easy to forget its not truly summer, its just, a little warmer than the rest of the year.

Blueberry Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients
10 ounces or 2.5 cups cake flour (or -2 tbsp for each cup using all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup wheatgerm (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon (depends on how much you like cinnamon, my applesauce had some cinnamon already so I stuck with 1/4 tsp and it was just enough of a pinch).

1 cup sugar or 3/4 cup Splenda (yes, I used Splenda-- I'm going to get cancer but hey, I'll look good!)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce (if you don't have applesauce, you can use a vegetable/sunflower/canola oil here instead, but it won't be as healthy!)

1-2 cups blueberries

Demerera sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions
- Mix sugar, vanilla, egg, yogurt and applesauce well.
- Sift flour
- Combine dry ingredients
- Add wet to dry, and fold together until the whole mixture is wet. The key will fluffy muffins is not to overmix.
- Fold in blueberries.

Now, I use a handy dandy ice cream scoop/large cookie dough scoop to fill my cups. After you fill your cups, sprinkle a bit of demerera or vanilla sugar on top of the muffins. This will melt down and make a bit of a crunchy, shiny, sweet



Bake for 20 minutes at 350F/180C. Smear with butter while warm and enjoy! See that pan with all the staining? Well used! These silicon muffin cups are the business, just to let you all know. I'm happy to make my cupcakes for the family in them as well!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

My daughter Jane turns 2

It's her party, and she'll stick her fingers in the hip surfboard cake mommy made for her if she wants to.



This isn't good advertising for my business! However, it was too cute not to share. She loved it, of course. She was picking out bits of marshmallow fondant to eat. I did cry though (hormones, I blame) when I saw the disaster zone, as I had been exhausted (7 months pregnant now!) and forced myself to get it done the day before so I didn't have to worry about it on the day of her party. So is life!
When the birthday girl is this cute, you forgive! We were lucky, sunshine and a great party-- and no complaints about the finger holes while everyone scoffed down the cake! This was vanilla with vanilla buttercream, two layers and covered in marshmallow fondant. Simple.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

So, I know its summer and all and making a pumpkin anything is a bit taboo, but hell, sometimes we want it, don't we? I'm 6 months pregnant, and even though I'm fighting a chest infection and have no appetite, I wanted to make these babies. You'll want to make them, too.

told ya.

Now, first a note. I'm in Ireland and I know some of my reader's won't have access to canned pumpkin. I simply roast up a butternut squash. Same taste-- some would argue its even nicer than pumpkin. Most canned pumpkin, you'll be interested to know, is actually squash anyways. Simply cut your squash in half, and cut each half in half (that's four pieces)-- scoop out the seeds and place flesh down in a pan. Fill that pan with 1/2 inch of water. Put it in your oven, HOT. I'm talking 400F/200C or so. Cook for 30-45 minutes (until the skin starts to brown and pucker a bit). Then you scoop out the innards, voila, you have your pumpkin/squash. You'll want 1/2 cup of that so you'll have lots left over for a nice bowl of soup or some muffins.

The Rolls
Dough Ingredients
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup pumpkin (canned or fresh) or butternut squash
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, beaten
1 package active yeast
3 ounces (or 2-3 packages) of instant vanilla pudding/custard

1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cup bread (or strong) flour


Filling Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp margarine

Directions
Heat milk and butter in a saucepan until the butter has melted, remove from heat.

Mix pumpkin/squash, salt and sugar.
Add in vanilla pudding/custard powder
Add in milk/butter
Add beaten egg
Mix in yeast

Sift flours
Slowly add flours to your mixture to form a dough.

Leave this to rise in a greased bowl in a warm place for about an hour.

Roll dough into a rectangle however thick you like, mine ends up a little less than 2 ft long by 12 inches.

Take your butter and margarine (I'll be honest, I don't measure this out I just take a small handful of each, but the estimate is probably close. You can't really have too much. Margarine will help keep the filling gooey as butter will be somewhat absorbed into the dough as it cooks) and smears it all over the dough. I use my hands. Get messy. Then I use the butter/margarine on my hands to grease my pan.
Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle all over the dough.

Now roll the dough up longways to make more rolls (if that makes sense). I use a piece of string to cut the rolls so they don't smush down, but of course you can use a knife-- about 1 inch thick.

Place them in your greased pan and allow to rise for 30 minutes. You'll get maybe a bit more than 12 rolls.

Bake at 350F/180C for 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered/icing sugar, sifted
dash of lemon juice, optional but helps lift that tang!

Directions
Mix butter, vanilla and cream cheese... and lemon juice if you want.
Slowly add in powdered/icing sugar, add more if you want a thicker icing. This will be glaze like.

Smear all over the hot, delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

Devour them.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Homemade Spinach Pasta with Garlic Parmesan Sauce and Battered Chicken



Homemade Spinach Pasta and Battered Chicken Breast

Okay. I have a confession. With as much as I've baked and cooked I've never made my own pasta. I was intimidated as I have no pasta roller or press. I have made plans to buy the attachment for Big Red (the kitchenaid), and I may well ordered from amazon now to have delivered to the states during our visit (have I mentioned we are about to head off to Florida for a month to visit my family? Sun tan, here we come).

I don't even need to write up a recipe, this was so easy.

For each person you are cooking for, mix
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt

In my case, I added in 1/2 cup of spinach (not per person) and a heavy handed sprinkle of garlic powder.

Mix the egg and spinach first, then add your flour. Either use your dough hook or knead by hand into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut the ball in half or thirds, and rolling out the dough (or use your pasta roller, lucky you!). Let it rest for another 30 minutes or so. Then cut into slices. I was impatient and busy baking cookies at the same time, so I just cut it after I rolled it.

Then, lay it out to dry for an hour. When you are ready, boil it like you would your dry pasta! It cooks much quicker.

Now. Sauce!

Garlic Parmesan Sauce

Another quickie. I cooked for three people, so I cut one head of garlic in half, chopped off the top end to expose the bulbs, smother in olive oil and wrap tin foil around the bottom. Sick it into a hot oven (200C/400F), and cook until the garlic starts to brown/caramelize.
I than squeezed out the cloves into a garlic press and it oozes straight out. I added about 1/2 cup of Parmesan and 1/4 cup milk. Simple and much healthier than whipping up an Alfredo sauce. I would have loved to have Alfredo, but I thought in combo with the battered chicken I was about to make, I'd take it easy.

Battered Chicken

Now, I use Sunflower Oil. I convince myself this is healthy. I put on about 1/2 cup to heat up in a pan on medium-high heat.

I pounded out two chicken breasts and cut them into large pieces. Salt, Pepper, White Pepper the pieces.

For the batter:
1 cup flour
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Adobo seasoning (you can just use a smashed up chicken bullion or well, omit, but it gives a nice taste)
1 tsp ground black pepper.

Add milk until you get a batter consistency.

-Dip the pieces into the batter, and carefully place into the oil once the oil is hot. Cook a few minutes on each side. MAKE SURE the oil is hot BEFORE you put the chicken in. If its not hot, your chicken will be very soggy, nasty and oily.

I like to dry freshly fried items on newspaper. This drains the oil out of the chicken like nothing else, and it just tastes crisp.



Enjoy!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Soft-Baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from fellow expat Laura English Painter's recipe!



1 1/4 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (if you use salted butter leave this out)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter (I was low so I threw in a few tbsp of cashew butter)
1/2 cup sugar (I used half splenda, so we can all get cancer)
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla (I'm known to be quite generous with vanilla when it comes to cookies)

optional:
Maybe, 1/2 cup chocolate chips? More? Whatever you'd like.

Directions

Preheat oven to 190C/375F

1. Sift flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars.
3. Add egg and vanilla to creamed mixture.
4. Throw in your chocolate chips now (I just crushed up a bit of a left over dark chocolate bar)
5. Slowly add the flour mixture.

I used a small scoop to make the perfect small cookies. Just remember these make better small cookies, so don't be too generous when scooping on to your pan.

Bake for 6 minutes (mine needed 7, could be my oven).
Take then out of the oven and leave to cool for 1 minute on the pan. Then move to cooling rack.

I think these are best the next day. They will seem as though they are not done on the inside. If you leave them, they will be like soft bake the once they are entirely cooled!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Pepperoni Pizza with Mushroom Sauce


Pepperoni Pizza with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:
Jamie Oliver's Basic Bread Recipes:

• 1kg/just over 2lb strong bread flour
• 625ml/just over 1 pint tepid water
• 30g/1oz fresh yeast or 3 x 7g/¼oz sachets dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 30g/1oz salt

This will make enough dough for three large pizzas. This is a great bread recipe, and its very very versatile. Thanks Jamie, you stud.

Sauce
6 plum tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup water
1 heaped tsp oregano
1 heaped tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp black pepper and a dash of salt
4 chopped chestnut mushrooms

I would normally use a can of tomatoes but I didn't have any left. Thus the puree- but it worked out so well! Puree the tomatoes and garlic, add to sauce pan with the rest of ingredients, adding the water little by little until you have the consistency you like.

Topping
Whatever you want.
I used a layer of sauce, a fine layer of parmesan, a layer of torn up fresh spinach, a layer of large thin pepperonis, a layer of shredded and soft mozzarella (I was cleaning out the fridge with these pizzas!) and more parmesan. I added more mushrooms and onions to Cormac's pizza.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375F/190C or until its as crispy as you like it. The best pan for pizza is the kind with holes in the bottom, I find, or straight on the rack!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sultana Scones

Buttermilk Sultana Scones




Ingredients
2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup of butter
2 tbsp of sugar (preferably caster sugar, fine grain)
1/3 cup of sultanas/raisins/cranberries/blueberries whatever you fancy
2/3 cup buttermilk

Directions
Sift together flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until its crumbly.

Stir in the sugar and fruit of your choice.

Slowly add the buttermilk and mix together-- just until its mixed. Don't over mix. If you over mix, they will not be as delicate and tasty. I'm warning you now.

Knead until a soft dough, and roll out the dough a little less than an inch thick. I like them on the thicker side. Cut them out with cookie cutters-- I use a round cutter, or the top of a cup will do. I get about 12 out of this recipe.

Bake on cookie sheet at 230C/450F for 8-10 minutes

Chicken Curry with Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato Curry with Chicken
adapted from Vegan Planet




1 small chopped onion (which I omitted because I hate onion, to Cormac's dismay)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 large red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 3/4 cup stock (I used fresh chicken stock from Easter roast chicken)
1 can of tomatoes
2 medium sized sweet potatoes, cubed.
dash of sea salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
Approx. 1 cup shredded chicken.

Directions:
Heat some oil in a pan, saute onions for 5 minutes. I skipped this part.

Add curry powder, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne.

Add red pepper, garlic and ginger. Stir around for 30 seconds.

Add tomatoes and chicken stock.

Add sweet potatoes. Cover.

Simmer for around 30 minutes. I took out my trusty hand blender and smoothed out the mixture. Add in the chicken, dash of salt and brown sugar. Simmer another 20 minutes (I put on the rice after this). I served this over brown basmati rice. Delicious!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Cake for Twins

I had a first birthday cake to make for twins this weekend. This was complicated by the fact that I had to go from Friday-Sunday to a La Leche League conference. So, time had come for me to employ some of the tactics of my busier counterparts. After being very reluctant to freeze my cakes, but reading many a baker saying they often freeze on PURPOSE to improve taste, I went for it.

Baked Thursday night, froze, removed on Sunday, layered and crumb-coated with buttercream and covered with marshmallow fondant. I found clear vegetable shortening, and my god, the difference it makes in handling the fondant is unbelievable. It's ever more delicate, however. I was so tired but honestly having split up the days for decorating it wasn't as big of a task as I had thought. Each cake is three layers- one is vanilla/chocolate/vanilla and the other is chocolate/vanilla/chocolate.

The rainbows nearly came out too light, but I brushed darker royal icing over the fondant and the colors came out just how I pictured them. I really hope the customer liked the cake as she had a very clear idea how she wanted them to look and I'm unsure how close I came to what she had pictured. They are not exactly the same, but they flow together, and they are each special in their own way.

The good news is I had Cormac taste test the cakes when I cut them to shape and he said they tasted just fine (he may as well be an expert at these sort of things). I'm off sweets, as we are expect spawn #2 and they are making me feel pretty horrible. So much for the worry that all this cake making would pack on the weight!




Stir fry-like chicken and rice

This was a creation of necessity, as are many of my dinners. I open the cupboards and the fridge and pull out what I've got. This time I threw on 5 cherry tomatoes halved, and cut one red pepper into cubes, tossed them in olive oil and put them in the oven to roast.

I put on rice to cook with 1 cup rice to 1 cup chicken stock(homemade from the freezer) and 1 cup water. I slowly added more water as the rice cooked, and some of that Goya seasoning I mentioned earlier. Dash of white pepper, sea salt, and dumped in the tomatoes and peppers when the rice was cooked and the peppers and tomatoes were roasted. Add a big lump of butter. Handful of baby spinach, stir until softened. Done.

Chicken. Chop into cubes. 1 tbsp of white vine vinegar. Cover the chicken in a tiny coating of flour. Few lugs of Worchester sauce. Dash of white pepper (I love white pepper, god help me) and a good huge dash of garlic powder (or some minced garlic but I was feeling lazy). Lob of butter (yes, I used up a lot of butter in this recipe. I had butter sitting out left over from making cakes and felt, why not?).

Consume.



Lucky I remembered to take the picture, I was halfway done inhaling this before I remembered to share it with all of you ;)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Baked Bean Chili and Roasted Potatoes

I am aware how difficult it is to make beans look appetizing in a picture, so I made sure you could get a good glimpse of those deliciously crisp potatoes.
We're going away to England next week, so this was a meal of "use up all the stuff in the fridge so nothing will go off" necessity.

I made roasted potatoes and a beefed up version of American-style baked beans, and it was gorgeous. I got a thumps up from Cormac, my measure of delicious, so I thought I'd share it here-- in spite of the fact that the photo doesn't do the taste justice.



Baked Bean Chili

2 cans of beans (I used pinto and kidney, you can use anything you've got in the cupboard)
1/2 cup BEER (I used Guinness left over from my chocolate cakes!)
1/2 cup bbq sauce OR ketchup (I had bbq sauce so it was a bit zippy)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worchester sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper
3-4 tomatoes (I had vine tomatoes, medium sized)
2 strips of bacon
3 slices of ham (can you tell I was using up the contents of the fridge? Obviously, adjust this to suit yourself. I'd say a 1/2 lbs of bacon would be awesome, or a chuck of ham chopped up)

Directions
1. Cook up your ham/bacon in a large pot. Add garlic.
2. Remove from and lower heat, add your beer, molasses, ketchup/bbq, dijon, brown sugar, worchester sauce and stir well.
3. Return to heat, add chopped tomatoes and chopped red pepper. Add rinsed beans.
4. Let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The longer, the better-- but keep stirring so nothing sticks to your pot (or maybe you have such a nice non-stick pot that its none of your concern, but I don't, so be forewarned).


Roasted Potatoes in Bacon Fat
That left over bacon I used in the beans was left over from our Valentine's Day breakfast-- from which I saved the bacon grease. It was very little, and I'm sure if you replace that little bit with more olive oil these will turn out just fine.
Ingredients
4 potatoes
3 pinches of sea salt
several large glugs of olive oil
optional: approx 2 tbsp animal fat
polenta/corn meal

toss it all together on a pan, sprinkle potatoes with a tiny bit of polenta, cook 30-45 minutes at 180C (350F). Stir them around occasionally to keep them from sticking. If they are sticking too much, you need more oil.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Valentine's Day

Red Velvet Cake made for promotion at my last LLL meeting. Red marshmallow fondant, decorated with royal icing. Vanilla buttercream filling. The cake went down great and I ever got an order from it!





Red Velvet Cake
3 ½ cups cake flour (you can use AP flour, minus 2 tbsp per cup + 1 tsp baking powder)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tbsp red food coloring
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar (I've used regular vinegar without issue)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. This recipe can make 2 8-9" round cakes or ~24 cupcakes.

1. Sift the cake flour.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.

3. In another bowl, whisk cocoa, red food colouring, and vanilla.
4. Add to creamed mixture.

5. Stir salt into buttermilk, add to your batter alternating with the flour.

6. Combine vinegar and baking soda and fold into your batter.

For cupcakes, bake about 20 minutes. For cakes, bake 30-40 minutes.




Cake Balls
adapted from Bakerella's Cake Balls

Red velvet cake crumbs (I used a whole 10" round cake)
8oz cream cheese
1 cup butter cream icing
(alternatively you can use one of those cans of premade cream cheese icing from the grocery store).

Mix together with your hands and refrigerate.

I melted a large bar of cadbury's milk chocolate in a double boiler, and used two spoons to cover my balls. I probably didn't use enough chocolate so they were sticking a lot. I don't like keeping extra chocolate in the house if you know what I mean!
The pink balls were melted strawberry chocolate chips from Ardkeen Food Stores.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Christening and Birthday Cake

The other cakes I made for this weekend. I had a great time making these first "for clients" cakes. These are also chocolate with buttercream filling, and covered in thick buttercream before I placed the fondant over them. I'm a little sad my fondant dried out on the christening cake-- it just took so long to roll out!

Christening Cake




Birthday Cake



Time to deliver!

Friday, February 6, 2009

First Birthday Cake for Ruben

This is the first "1st Birthday" cake I've made, and sold today. I desperately undercharged after I thought about my ingredients and the time I put into the cake, but that's alright. I knew the customer and it was great practice with the fondant. Now I know why most cake decorators buy the crappy tasting stuff. Oh well- I'd rather be proud of the work and the taste.

This is a moist chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in buttercream and fondant. It's the same cake I'm making today and tomorrow for a Christening which I'll post by tomorrow.




Again, I apologize for the quality of the photos. I blame it on lack of natural light this dim winter! I'm mostly annoyed that the light/flash bounces off any of the moist bits- those decorations don't actually appear so wet. The letters on this one were probably a tad too big. I wasn't completely happy with the text. I want to get some letter punches, but sometimes the bubble letters turn out great (see the 'Breda' cake). The customer was delighted, though, so that's all that matters!


I should also announce that I recently won the theme contest on the BakeBakeBake community on Livejournal for my LLL cake. Not so much the decoration but the cake/recipe. I won 2 months paid LJ account :)

Friday, January 30, 2009

Vanilla cake with Fresh Strawberry and buttercream filling topped with Whipped Cream Icing

So on a whim I whipped up a little cake to try out a recipe I have for whipped cream icing. I'm no fan of plan whipped cake just spurted on to a cake, so I wanted to experiment with something nice.
I made a quickie round cake with fresh strawberry and buttercream filling, and my vanilla cake altered a bit. Then, I topped it with a small bit of whipped cream icing. Oh boy-- was it yummy! I'm fattening up my family. Each cake is better than the last.



I took a stroll through Superquinn today, and it must be cake day as they were whipping up about 20 cakes at once. I watched them saw through what looked like pretty dry sponge cake. Bleh. I'm glad they are one of just a handful of competitors out there in Waterford. I priced a cake off them just to get any idea, and trust me, I'd rather pay an extra and get one of my cakes than walk off with one of theirs!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Birthday Cake for Cormac's Mom

I learned a few lessons doing this cake for Breda's birthday, one of them is that marshmallow fondant doesn't keep well in the fridge. It got too dry. Perhaps if I had heated it a bit and then worked it I wouldn't have had the cracking that I did.
My first attempt at fondant roses went well, I think. I did a good job of covering the areas that cracked as well. Cormac thought the cake looked great-- I have to agree. Next few cakes I'll do will be simpler. Maybe just cream or buttercream.

note: the rose of the top right got knocked over off its buttercream anchor and I didn't notice until after I took the picture. Bah! I also need to improve on my photo skills. I try all the settings on my camera that I think will work, and it doesn't.


Click on any of the pictures to see a larger image:

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Oatmeal Pecan Pancakes

I've just realized I've been feature in the Blog Digest at the Irish Independent

...which is pretty neat. So if you are visiting me from there, welcome! Feel free to ask me for conversions for some of these recipes-- I realize most of my recipes are in cups and not by weight.

Update: I will be going into business selling cakes. We checked out the farmers markets and I think to shell out the money for a table, covering, insurance, etc it's going to rip me a new one. I'd rather spend that money on cool gear for cake decorating and truly make a profit. Plus, there is nothing fun about baking zillions of cookies and just breaking even on expenses. So, if you are in the Waterford/Cork/Kilkenny area and need a cake for a special event (no weddings, yet, I'm not ready to tackle the bridezilla cartel quite yet! too much pressure), get in contact with me. After playing with the various combinations Candi + cake can create, I've decided to leave my sweet name out of it and stick with Boho Kitchen (creations)!

Anyhow, on to the food!
-----
I knew last night that I wanted a hearty little breakfast this morning. We're out of bread (you'll recall I discussed this phenomena in our house before), and I'm totally egged out.
Pancakes it is! I'm able to convince myself these pancakes are healthy... because... there are nuts, and, er, oatmeal.

Problem: My stovetop isn't great. As a result my pancakes don't always come out golden and beautiful. So I'll leave you with the recipe and you'll have to trust me there are as delicious (more delicious) as they sound. I've got left over batter SO I might snap a good shot of these babies later this week.

Oatmeal Pecan Pancakes
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup pecans
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 LARGE eggs (if your eggs are medium sized, you need 3-- most recipes are like this and I notice a lot of people make the mistake of not adding an extra egg to baked goods when they are using medium eggs)

Throw your oats and pecans (and flour, baking powder and soda, salt if you don't have a sifter) into a food processor.
Mix your buttermilk, vanilla and oil and add to the dry ingredients. Then mix in your eggs just until its blended. Try not to over mix it.

Scoop onto a hot griddle, flip when the top bubbles, eat with butter and syrup-- yum!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Choux

I recently tried my hand at making choux pastry. I didn't have any cream, so I later smeared chocolate on top (which wasn't pretty so I didn't take pictures). However, these babies are purty.



I robbed this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2003/10/sugar_puffs.php

Moist Pink Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Filling Covered in Marshmallow Fondant

So, I mostly started this blog because I'm thinking about selling my cookies and cakes. I've had a lot of rave responses to my very American style cookies and cakes here in Ireland, so I though, why not set up a market stall in a few places. I'm still looking into the specifics.
However, I have a cake order for the first week in February for a Christening, so I'm trying to decide between buttercream icing and a marshmallow fondant. I had never made marshmallow fondant before, so naturally I had to practice. It was about 8pm, Jane running around while Cormac watched her and I rolled out the icing to put on my cake, so I didn't get too creative. I was bringing this to a little La Leche League meeting, so I put three L's and some boobs nursing a baby on it for funsies. Fondant is fun, you can really play with it. I'm looking forward to having more time to make something that looks amazing.



Yeah, there is a little wetness shining on the cake. It looks a little blah, I know.
Dear God, though, this cake tastes amazing.

Try the Magnolia bakery vanilla cake, as mine is an adaptation of that.

Marshmallow fondant is pretty easy:

Melt about 16 ounces of marshmallow in the microwave on low heat with a few tablespoons of water. Just stop the microwave every once in a while and give it a stir. When its pretty much melted take it out and stir until its all melted. Slowly sift in about 2 lbs of icing sugar. The instructions were to grease you hands with crisco-- I don't have it here so I didn't do that. It was fine. You just want to knead it for ages, like bread dough. Once its smooth and not sticky, stick it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. Do not, DO NOT, put a cake into the fridge after you've rolled out and laid fondant over it. Bad idea.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Roast Veg and Apple-basted Ham

Some nights Cormac arm wrestles me to cook dinner. Sometimes, I let him. Tonight was a delicious little roast. We found the ham we picked up at Lidl was a little meh, however. I basted a ham for New Years from the butcher (it was a smoked joint) and it turned out much, much nicer. So, lesson learned. If you are going to eat pork (which I do infrequently anyways, outside of nice sausages from our butcher in the village), make sure you get a decent cut.




The roast veg are an idea stolen from my good friend, Angelica. At dinner recently she served up the same sort of roast veg. Here we have carrots, sweet potato, white potato, and red pepper. Toss in generous amounts of olive oil, sea salt and pepper, a bit of garlic, thyme and rosemary. Just put this in a very hot oven for about an hour, keep tossing them around so they won't stick (honestly if they start to stick you aren't using enough oil). Delicious. We're going to start making this healthy sidedish more often. It's handy if you are like us and find yourself pathetically staring at one potato, one sweet potato, one carrot and half a pepper in your pantry!

I'll post the ham glaze later when I've got my recipe notebook in front of me.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Quick dinner or sandwich rolls

I often hear the sound of the bread box opening and shutting, and Cormac's voice from the kitchen complaining there is no bread. We very rarely buy bread, and usually Cormac makes a family soda bread each week. However, some times, come lunch, we are all out of bread.
Cormac has an aversion to carbless meals, and will say to me somedays "can we get some sort of bread product please?!?". So, I went in search of a quicky bread recipe I could whip up in an hour's time. These are slightly sweet and fluffy and very satisfying. Next time I will make smaller rolls and smear on the butter and jam, yum!



1 cup water
2 tbsp softened butter
1 egg (room temperature)
3 1/4 cup bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Mix in order (you could toss this in you bread machine on the dough setting and let it rise). I let this rise in my oven (warm) for 30 minutes (longer is probably better). I only tore the dough into 4 long rolls since I wanted to make sandwiches-- but this recipe would make awesome dinner rolls, maybe 8-10 round rolls. Let them rise again for 20 minutes or so.

375F 8-10 minutes

Friday, January 16, 2009

Ham and Potato Quiche

Another delicious comfort food-- and easy to make! Another recipe born of necessity. What's in the fridge? Left over ham, eggs... any veg... potatoes, spinach... excellent!

Something you will notice is a lack of onions in recipes that scream "onions!". I have a strong distaste for onions. That said, I acknowledge which dishes should have/need them. This is probably one of those.




Ham and Potato Quiche
Filling:

1 cup chopped ham
8-10 sliced baby new potatoes (3-4 diced regular sized potatoes)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
optional: handful of spinach, and an onion

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp thyme (fresh is best)
4 eggs
salt and pepper

Crust:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
-- add milk until forms a non-sticky dough. About a cup maybe? Probably less.

1. Make up crust and line a greased pie pan/quiche pan
2. whip cream, milk, eggs and seasonings
3. add in ham, potatoes, cheese and veg
4. pour into crust
5. bake 30-40 minutes at 180C/350F

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