Category Archives: recipe

Scones

Posted on June 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

 I found this easy one in the New York Times:

Ingredients: 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon sugar (increase to 1/4 cup if you want a sweet scone), 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, 1 1/4 cups of heavy whipping cream

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and position a rack in the top third of the oven. Thoroughly combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of this mixture, add 1 1/4 cups of cream and stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a fork. Work quickly, stirring as little as possible, until a soft, shaggy dough forms. Add more cream, a tablespoon at a time, if the dough seems too dry.
  2. Use a large serving spoon or cup measure to drop the batter onto an ungreased baking sheet, allowing at least 2 inches between each scone. Brush the top of each with heavy cream and bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

And from NPR, a note to be sure to eat your scones properly:

“The grocery store Sainsbury’s showed a photo with a fruit scone smothered in cream and jam. The problem: the photo showed jam on top of the cream. Customers in Cornwall argued the jam must go first…Some Brits take their afternoon tea very seriously. That’s landed the grocery store Sainsbury’s in trouble. They put up a picture with a fruit scone smothered in cream and jam. That is normal. The problem is the photo showed the jam on top of the cream. In the county of Cornwall where the picture went up, customers were outraged. They argued that jam must go first. Sainsbury’s admitted its mistake, saying it has all scone wrong.”

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Blueberry Muffins with a Song

Posted on July 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

Perhaps you watched the Disney channel offering of Hamilton released for July 4th, as I did.  I did enjoy it, but was happy not to have spent hundreds of dollars for a ticket.  I also watched an old seventies favorite, 1776, with a young Ken Howard as the tall red-haired Jefferson and Blythe Danner as his wife Martha. Although it may be sacrilegious to admit, I liked the latter better.

My favorite part of the movie is Blythe Danner singing “He plays the violin,” as she dances with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.  I replayed it several times.

I have a recipe from Blythe Danner, published in one her daughter ‘s (Gwyeth Paltrow) cookbooks.  Since I had all the ingredients, I made the blueberry muffins for dinner.  So delicious – I could have danced all night (but that’s another movie).

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it.  All you need to enjoy them is some butter and a fiddle.

INGREDIENTS
  • 1/2cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 2eggs (preferably organic)
  • 1/2cup whole milk
  • 2cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 3/4cup plus 1 tsp sugar, divided
  • 2teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2cups fresh blueberries
DIRECTIONS
  1. Heat oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
  2. Whisk butter, eggs and milk in a bowl. Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries.
  3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups; sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp sugar.
  4. Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.

 

 

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Just a Spoonful of Water Makes It Better

Posted on March 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

In this time of separate and distant, as we try to cope with not meeting our favorite person for coffee and cake, or connecting with a like-minded group to discuss a book over food relevant to the plot, I scurried to find store bought cookies to ease me into comfort.

Ah, but to venture into a store was to risk contagion, despite the plastic screens in front of the cashiers at Whole Foods and the yellow tapes marking six foot distance.  Not many millennials venture in, but when they do, their sense of immortality tends to drive them to ignore science-based suggestions.  I could order cookies from Amazon, but then I would need to wipe down the cartons inside and out, and those handiwipes are precious, better saved for my hands when needed.

A friend, noting my dilemma, suggested I make my own cookies.  I always have a stash of semi-sweet chocolate and sugar.  Recently, I had bought a ten pound bag of organic flour on sale – before I knew I would be housebound.  Why not make the most comfort laden food I knew.  And, I could control everything in the process, in a time when control of anything seems almost impossible, from the dough to the oven to the delivery – without packaging.

Toll House Cookies

If you have made the traditional Toll House cookies lately from the recipe on the bag, you may have noticed the teaspoon of hot water has been omitted from the ingredients.  Originally the water was used to dissolve the baking soda, a step most modern bakers no longer use.  Earlier forms of leavening, including baking soda, were chunkier than now, and a little water helped to keep out the granular specks.

I’m not sure when it disappeared from the wrapper, bu I still add it.  Does it make a difference?  I’ve never tried making the cookies without it, so cannot judge, but if you have, let me know.

Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie, sold Nestlé the rights to reproduce her recipe in 1939 on its packages, with the teaspoon of water included.

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

My mother always had a few dozen eggs in the refrigerator, and I started to have more on hand when I discovered Cosco’s packaging of two dozen.

I remember reading one of the many books about Julia Child’s meticulous research in creating Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  With its own section for eggs, from omelets to eggs Benedict, my favorite is her version of scrambled eggs.

Do you remember the running line in The Runaway Bride, when Julia Roberts tries to discover her favorite version of eggs?  Mine is scrambled eggs, Julia Child style.

The secret to their fluffiness is to add a tablespoon of water for each egg. Bringing the eggs to room temperature is always a good idea too.  I usually just bath my eggs in hot water from the tap for a few minutes to take off the refrigerator chill, and always add a tablespoon a water for each egg.  They taste just the way I like them.

Julie Andrews sang about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down; a spoonful of water can help too.

Related Post:

https://nochargebookbunch.com/2010/01/03/autobiographies-vs-biographies/

 

 

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Pat Prager’s Private Recipe Dessert from Kitchens of the Great Midwest

Posted on August 9, 2018 | Leave a comment

In J. Ryan Stradel’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest, a hometown cook successfully beats out more sophisticated chefs in a prestigious cooking contest with her simple five ingredient recipe.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it.

Pat Prager’s Award Winning Bars

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 cup melted Grade A butter
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon Grade A butter

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs. melted butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Put into a greased 9×12 inch pan. Melt the chips and butter and spread them on top of the bars. Set into the refrigerator until firm. Cut into bars.

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Zeppole for St. Joseph Day, March 19

Posted on March 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

While the bakeries sold fancy concoctions for the feast day, my Italian grandmother used a fast and easy traditional recipe for a bite-sized donut covered in powdered sugar, resembling a beignet.  You can whip up a batch in about ten minutes – best when hot.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs well beaten
  • 1 cup whole milk ricotta

Directions

Mix dry ingredients together.  Stir vanilla and ricotta into beaten eggs.  Combine dry and wet ingredients.  The dough will be sticky.

Heat about 2 inches oil (the only oil my grandmother used for everything was olive oil but you can use vegetable oil, if you prefer) in a pot.

When oil is hot, drop a  tablespoon of dough into the oil and fry until puffed and brown – about 3 minutes – flipping over about halfway through.  Try your test donut to check the timing – break it open and eat it.

Continue cooking, about three or four at a time.  Then transfer finished zeppole to a dish with a paper towel to absorb the oil.  Roll in powdered sugar and eat hot. Try not to eat them all yourself.

 

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