TWD : The Tart Is Too Picky And Made Cookies Instead

There’s no getting around it, I wussed out this week. Ain’t really a picky eater, but there are some combinations that make my taste buds start threatening guerrilla warfare and screaming cliche revolution slogans. Nobody wants that. Add to that a budget that was giving me dirty looks at the mere mention of buying ingredients we don’t usually use, and it wasn’t happening this week.

Dorie has got me addicted to her though, and I needed to bake something by her! A quick chat with Laurie (ok, so none of my chats are ever quick) and Chocolate Chip Cookies were on the table! Y’all, let me be the first to say that I’m stubborn when it comes to recipes I love. The chocolate chip cookie recipe I’e used for years was my fav and nothing could compete… Oh Dorie, how you’ve humbled me!

They’re everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. A little crunchy, a little chewy and soft. Buttery and easy to work with, they didn’t spread too much on the pan and they turned the right colour. Easy means easy, I made the dough before the oven could even preheat while fighting a fever and playing a video game with D! They weren’t greasy in the slightest, they formed into little scoops and snuggled on to the parchment paper with a cheerfullness you don’t usually find in a baked good.

Ain’t it sad that I couldn’t get through taking a pic without biting one?

Y’all should follow the recipe to be sure, but let me tell you how easy these handled. The things I didn’t do were : Mix the dry ingrediants together first, beat for 1 minute between eggs, add the dry ingrediants together in thirds, cool the sheet between batches, rotate the baking sheets midway, bake them to brown (they were golden on the edges and paler in the middle because I prefer them softer), or let them get to room temperature before eating one. To be honest, I dumped the eggs in all at once and did the same with the dry ingrediants. The cookies were very happy to be treated so callously. They like it rough cutie.

“My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies”

2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 c. store-bought chocolate chips or chunks (I used dark chocolate chips)
1 c. finely chopped walnuts or pecans (I didn’t use them)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each eggs oes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingrediants in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and the nuts. (The dough can be covered and refridgerated for up to 3 days or frozen. If you’d like, you can freeze rounded tablespoons of cough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when theyre solid. There’s no need to defrost the dough before baking - just add another minute or two to the baking time.)

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfulls onto the baking sheets leaving about two inches between spoonfulls.

Bake the cookies - one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point - for 10 - 12 minutes or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle and that’s just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute then carefully, usuaing a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

 

TWD : The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

It ain’t a surprise that I was looking forward to this one, it’s my name! Y’all are free to throw in the extraordinary part when talking to me all ya want. There was even prancing as I went to get the lemons and grate the zest from them like I’ve gotten good at!

 Y’all quit staring at the lemons, they’re nekkid!

The recipe was easy, lemons and sugar and eggs and all I had to do was stir!

And stir…

 and stir…

and stir…

Ok, this is downright silly. For all the sweating (standing over a steaming pot and hot cream in Florida when it’s humid and sticky allready ain’t fun) and effort, it never got up to 180 F. Mind you, I ended up getting up to 100.2 F, but that’s a different story and why I’m writing this from on the couch grumbling.

 Y’all don’t even want to know what kind of contortions I had to go through to get pics of the stirring while at the same times never stopping the motion. The cat now thinks I’m weird, which is saying something.

 Yeah. here they are, little lemon cream tarts. Everybody who reads my blog knows I ain’t never one to not speak my mind when it comes to my opinion on desserts, and this is no different. The results were silky and creamy and smooth… and boring. Utterly boring. While there ain’t a doubt in my mind that the chef who created this is a genuis, it was like licking a lemon flavoured butter stick to me. Loved the lemon mixture before the butter went it, afterwards it tasted like nothing but lemon flavoured butter to me and that’s with leaving out the 5 tbls. past the two sticks! The tart dough was bland, like a piece of kind cheap shortbread without any oomph.

The whole thing reminded me of something that might get served to a very unadventerous bridge club after a nice day of getting their hair tinged blue and powdering the poodle. Love the pic of the side I took though, it looks like it’s a golden tart!

TWD : Gooey Chocolate Cakes

Is it legal to elope with cake? Do you have to have written permission from the cookbook authoress? Y’all, I ain’t got a clue what I did wrong but these never did gooey centers for me. The cakes were so good neither D or me really cared, but I wanted lava cakes. The obvious suspect is my oven, it ain’t working right at all and might have changed the temp a few times to be pissy.

 They’re so cute in their little tin!

Y’all can see the chocolate is on top like it’s supposed to be, but this next pic shows what happened to it. Didn’t sink a bit, stayed right up on top and got gooey there. Next time I wanna try pushing it down a little, the cupcake tines were very shallow and it’s likely I chopped the chocolate too fine. Do y’all think it would work with dark chocolate chips instead of chopped? These were so goo that if I have to bake them a few thousand moe times to get it right, D and me ain’t planning on objecting to it.

                                                            

What to do when they ain’t gooey on the inside? Pour some chocolate over the outside! They came out like a really fudgey brownie, and I can’t tell y’all how happy that makes me. They’re as good the next day at room temp! They don’t even upset your tummy if you end up devouring one for breakfast because they’re irresistible all cute and small.

This is the chicken stew so good it’s worth eating before dessert.

Gooey Chocolate Cake
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate,
 4 ounces coarsely chopped,
 1 ounce very finely chopped
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tablespoons of sugar
Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. butter (or spray – it’s easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
 Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.
 Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.
 In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogeneous. Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs. Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.
 Bake the cakes for 13 minutes. Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)
 Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board. Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.

Breakfast When I’m Whiney

There are mornings when I don’t want to eat any of the things I should. Oatmeal sounds icky, whole grains are annoying me and I don’t want any sugar. Bleh! Usually this happens when I ain’t snoozed well and I’m grumpy. Why anybody wouldn’t snooze easily with two cop cars flashing their lights outside the bedroom window and a police helicopter flying through your neighborhood on a man hunt at 2:00 a.m. I don’t know, what a picky girl I am. Mornings like today I end up making what my mom used to call concoctions. As a little girl, they were unspeakable but as I got older I started making things like this.

It doesn’t look nice in any kind of presentation way, and it doesn’t come from any recipe. It’s always a grumpy, muttering cooking session with as little effort as possible and whatever is on hand thrown in if I get the craving for it. Today’s was very easy. grabbed a little whole grain couscous and tossed that in a sauce pan with some boiling water. From the freezer I grabbed some shredded pork tenderloin that I roasted up and put back a few days ago, breaking off some frozen pieces into the pot. There were some canned turnip greens in the pantry to throw in, a little olive oil and sea salt ended up in there too. A few shakes of curry powder and a lime pepper mix perked it up, and a pinch of cinnamon made it all a little interesting.

It wouldn’t win any beauty contests and it ain’t gourmet. There ain’t a crumb left of it.

Master Baker And My New Baby

It took me a few tries, but I decided on what I wanted my Master Baker entry to be. No clue why I ever tried anything else, these are without a doubt my favourite ever. Getting ahead of myself, let me start with this morning when I found this beauty on my porch.

Other people’s preferences got me this sexy girl, not any people liked the colour so Kitchen Aid sold her on close out for half price! Ain’t she gorgeous? She’s the very first KA for me, D spoils me rotten and bought her for my B-Day.

      

There was no question about what I wanted to make first, and it happened to also be what I wanted to make for my Master Baker entry. Chocolate chip cookies! At least half of them were dark chocolate chips, the other half were full of Easter Candy!

  Reese’s Eggs! Who can resist a Reese’s Egg cookie? D sure couldn’t, and I love them so much. They were really easy to dice up, and stirred into the batter with no trouble at all.

Have you ever seen such perfectly mixed cookie dough? She can do no wrong, I’m in love.

         

The cookies aren’t as dark as this pic makes them, the lighting wasn’t great at 9:30 p.m. The Reese’s Eggs baked very nice in the cookies, they stayed warm and gooey like they should be. Master Baker, your Easter Candy challenge has been done!

  

The recipe is a modified Toll House Cookies recipe, ain’t found anything I like better yet. The changes I make is to the baking soda and salt measurements, trust me when I say it makes a really big difference. Oh yeah, the oven temperature is different too. They say 375 F, I prefer to bake them at 350 F for 11 minutes.

Easter Egg Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
20 Reese’s Eggs, diced ( Used 9 Reese’s eggs for half the batch, used Ghiradelli’s Dark Chocolate Chips for the other half )

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350 F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in Reese’s Eggs. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Things That Make You Go Ugh

The lovely and talented Nikki has declared this month’s Master Bakertheme to be Easter Candy. Y’all, this is painful to admit but I ain’t what one would call a professional baker. There’s a lot I don’t know about baking, and of of those things is what happens when you stick various things in cupcakes! Why not find out on a day I pretended to have nothing better to do?

No hating the cake mix, I knew that most of these cupcakes wouldn’t come out well and i didn’t want to waste the ingredients making it from scratch. A dollar for a box seemed like a good way to get this experiment going without crying over the cupcakes that didn’t work.

Ain’t the bunnies cute? Poor CB is cringing at this moment at the one that’s a torn off head. There are some various bits of candy in these, peanut butter eggs and mini cadbury cream eggs and Peeps and marshmallows and malt ball eggs and a pat of cream cheese (don’t ask).

Yeah. That’s what I said. The question is, are these as bad to eat as they look? Could they really be that awful?

These ain’t any better. One of them is a Peep on top of the cupcake after baking for a few, and the lumpy ones are an attempt to mix rice krispies and marshmallows in the dough. Don’t ever do that, ew.

Peeps are cute no matter what.

The peanut butter egg ended up like the other eggs, I pushed them too far in and they sank to the bottom. They were icky, a little hard disc of inedible candy.

To add insult to injury, the cupcakes got too big and the tops fell off. That was ok, since not a one was worth eating.

Y’all can thank me for educating you on what not to do for this month’s Master Baker. Y’all are all wonderfully sweet and understanding of my incompetence (except Nikki who’s laughing at me right now, hussy).

A Recipe From The AWOL Lemon

Half the week I was limping, the other half I had a tummy bug. Yes y’all, wussed out and didn’t blog at all which only made me feel worse. Feel free to yell at me next time I do that. To make it up to y’all, I offer this recipe that I came up with when I got to feeling good. It’s delicious, easy as anything and really healthy! That ain’t bad for a simple supper. The curry powder is optional, D doesn’t eat spicy so I leave it off his and use it in mine after it’s ready.

Chicken And Wild Rice

2 boneless chicken breasts
2 tbls. olive oil
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 c. wild rice mix
3 c. chicken stock
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 tbls. corn starch
Sea salt
Pepper

Cook the rice according to the directions on your wild rice mix, about 50 minutes with the two c. of chicken stock.

Flatten the chicken breasts and cut into small pieces. Put 1 tbls. of olive oil into a large skillet, and throw in diced garlic and the chicken. Saute the chicken for a few minutes on each side, until it’s cooked all the way and browning slightly. Put the chicken on a plate, and throw the celery and onions and carrot into the skillet to soften a bit. Put the spices and the chicken back in the skillet and let them cook for a few, stirring a lot for 10 minutes. The rice goes on the plate in a round pat, and the chicken an veggies are put on top. While the pan is hot, pour in 1 c. of the chicken stock and the cornstarch (dissolved in a little water), and whisk constantly so it thickens up. Pour over the chicken and serve. For two or three people as a meal.

Yum!

Master Baker And The Crumble, A Love Story

Last week, D came home from a doc’s visit and put some papers in front of me. The doctor had put him on a restricted fat and calorie diet, 2000 calories and 40 g of fat a day. Y’all will forgive me if I ain’t doing the happy dance, but there’s no sense in whining about what is and to be honest I could stand to lose a few pounds. Right, there’s baking to be done and I ain’t gonna let this stand in the way of tasty food! Master Baker has declared cinnamon is the thing to use, and I give you the Cinnamon Pear Crumble. Its really simple, the crumble recipe is from Ellie Krieger (which shouldn’t surprise anybody) and the chocolate and cinnamon is my addition. Y’all would not believe the difference the chocolate makes. It turned it from a regular crumble to something I’ve been eating non stop.

Pear Cinnamon Crumble With Dark Chocolate

The topping
1/4 c. oat flour or whole wheat flour
2/3 c. old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 c. canola oil
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate

For the filling
3 lbs. firm but ripe pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 tbls. fresh lemon juice
1 tbls. cinnamon
2 tbls. granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Combine the topping ingredients is a medium bowl and work them together with a fork or your fingertips until uniformly moistened.
To make the filling, combine the pear slices, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the granulated sugar and toss to blend.
To assemble, coat an 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Transfer the pear mixture to the dish. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the pears. Bake the crumble until the pears are fork tender and the topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Let cool while you melt the dark chocolate, and pour the chocolate into a small pastry bag or sandwich bag with a clipped tip. Pipe the chocolate over the crumble.

DB : Julia’s French Bread And Why I Ain’t French

The best way to start this post off is by saying Julia Child is a genius. Not that it needs to be said, y’all knew that already. There ain’t nobody who can teach you how to put on your fancy France Pants and shake it in the kitchen like her! Therein lies the problem with me though, I ain’t French enough. Not even a little really, heavy butter and cream makes me run the other way and I ain’t fond of… to be honest… more crust than crumb. Y’all can tell this is going in a good direction already.

Making the bread was a good experience as far as the company goes! Anytime I get to do something with CB and Nikkiis the absolute best, and we found ourselves happily clucking away in a little hen’s nest Breadchick had pulled together to all do our thing at the same time. The Belles Of The Bread Ball were very helpfully, and there was much chatting, bad joke telling, and general nonsense as we tried to type with floury, oiled up hands.

The bread… y’all, I don’t like fussy recipes. French bread for me is usually a three hour affair and a simple shaping. This bread was very long, and my poor yeast seemed to be tired of the whole thing by the time I was because the third rising resembled my family after Thanksgiving. Kinda bloated and just laying there. The batard was making a half butted attempt to rise, but the first slash with a knife that I know to be razor sharp made it give up again and the poor thing deflated. It was, in my opinion, a rather wussy dough. Mind you, I’m used to doughs that are developed to be just fine with several toddlers hanging off your pants leg. Doughs that might punch you back when you punch them down and call you names.

The shaping directions and me didn’t get along at all, and that’s my fault. Y’all who can translate written words into spatially valid directions have my admiration, I gotta see and feel it to make it work. Long directions like that ain’t for us tactile learners. Somehow, it got rolled into a relatively oblong shape, and this is what happened to it afterwards. Hah!

These were epi rolls. Hush. Stop laughing, I can hear y’all from over here. They were really pretty before they kinda rose! Baking made them… y’all can tell from the pics.

This one was braided and covered with garlic and herbs. It wasn’t bad, as this failed attempt went. Ain’t got any pictures of the little round rolls, we ate those too quickly. The oven got pissy on me and they bottoms for some of the bread burned, which didn’t improve anything. In short, this recipe was too much crust and not enough bread for us. The French apparently like their bread this way. (crusty, not burnt) A round loaf was made too, and it came out the very best. It was overly salty to me, and got dry too quickly but it was edible. Then it gave us heartburn, as a little insult to injury. This house ain’t French. If y’all are, get the recipe here. Go look at the pics from people who had a success.

TWD : Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

D loved these, and I ain’t arguing with him about it. Y’all, these are so tasty it ain’t even right! They were simple and friendly, the dough was so nice to work with and they were done before you could clean up after them. A few things I changed, walnuts instead of pecans and low fat buttermilk instead of whole milk. Wanna try these with whole wheat flour!

Now y’all, cutting in butter ain’t never been one of my favourite things to do. That’s why when I heard about this technique, I was really happy to try it! It’s worked out good, and this recipe was no exception. Using a cheese grater, very cold butter can be grated into your flour mixture instead of cutting your butter. Toss it with a fork a little, and you’re good to go! It’s a lot quicker, and you don’t have to worry about warming the butter up as you cut and rub it. Y’all won’t be disappointed with this trick. Y’all can tell I didn’t have a biscuit cutter, a star cookie cutter made these really cute!

A little apple butter is the perfect accompaniment to these tender guys. A cheerful fried egg and a biscuit was a great breakfast, and one that D says is a keeper. He’s the one who vetoes or approves the food around here. He’s a really good one to feed, he ain’t picky and he’s always encouraging me to try new things. Don’t ya love him (and these biscuits)?

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits
 (Makes about 12 biscuits)

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/3 cup cake flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/2 cup cold sour cream
1/4 cold whole milk
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, preferably toasted

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Get out a sharp 2-inch-diameter biscuit cutter and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour(s), baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bow. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between– and that’s just right.

Stir the sour cream and milk together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and gently toss and turn the ingredients together until you’ve got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle kneading– 3 or 4 turns should be just enough to bring everything together. Toss in the pecans and knead 2 to 3 times to incorporate them.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour, pat the dough out with your hands or toll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t completely even– a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.

Use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of the first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working with them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet. (The biscuits ca be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting– just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)

Bake the biscuits for 14-18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket.