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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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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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Cazuela Recipe

Posted on November 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

Isabel Allende’s In the Midst of Winter begins with Lucia, a displaced academic from Chile, making her comforting Chilean stew – cazuela – while a snow storm closes the streets outside her basement apartment.  Read the review by clicking on the link – here.   I wondered if her stew resembles Julia Child’s famous beef bourguignon, and went searching for a recipe.  I found this one from Pilar Hernandez who notes:

“Chilean cazuela is a very flexible homemade stew- you can use lamb, chicken or pork in the recipe, but the classic version is made with beef. In each dish you can’t forget to put at least one small piece of meat, a potato, a slice of pumpkin and a portion of corn on the cob, if in season…”

5722b9dc-deaa-497b-8581-a79af9cf1002Ingredients

  • 1 lb. beef brisket
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, cut into quarters
  • 1 bell pepper  cut into quarters with the seeds removed
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • Salt and pepper
  • One celery stalk
  • 2 ears of corn, cut into thirds
  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thirds
  • 6 small red potatoes, peeled
  • 4 handfuls of rice
  • 6 small pieces of pumpkin
  • 1 handful of green beans, julienned
  • 5-6 cups boiling water
  Cut the meat into six portions. Pre-heat the vegetable oil in a large pot. Braise the meat for three minutes on each side, and add the onion, seasonings, salt and pepper. Mix well and cook for five minutes.
Place the potatoes, carrots, celery and pumpkin in the pot. Completely cover the contents with boiling water-about five or six cups and cook for ten minutes. Next incorporate the rice and corn; let simmer for eight minutes. Finally, mix-in the green beans and cook for three more minutes. Sample the stew and adjust the seasoning as necessary.  Serve hot with one piece of meat, one potato, one piece of pumpkin and a portion of corn in each dish of stew.

 

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An Alternative to Pie for Thanksgiving Dessert

Posted on November 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

Emma Wartzman for Bon Appetit magazine suggests cookies instead of pie for Thanksgiving dessert.

“When you’re fall-asleep-at-the-table full, what you really want at the end of a giant meal is the perfect chocolaty, nutty, buttery, crumbly, sweet bite.”

IMG_4175-1    Chocolate-Almond Praline Cookies

You can’t see the candied almonds in these cookies, but you’ll taste them.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup skin on almonds
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 5 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • flaky sea salt

Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 350. Toast almonds on a rimmed baking sheet on upper rack, tossing halfway through, until slightly darkened in color and fragrant, 6-8 minutes. Let cool.

Gather almonds into a tight pile on a nonstick silicone baking mat or a rimmed baking sheet coated with nonstick spray.  Cook granulated sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, undisturbed, until it begins to liquefy and turn golden brown around the edges.  Use a heatproof rubber spatula to incorporate melted sugar into unmelted sugar and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until all sugar is melted and caramel turns a medium amber color, 6-8 minutes. Carefully pour caramel over almonds and let cool.

Break almond mixture into large pieces and transfer to a food processor. Process, scraping down sides occasionally, until praline paste is very smooth and creamy, about 4 minutes.

Cook butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, swirling occasionally, until it foams, then browns, about 5 minutes. Let cool until just warm.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.  On medium high speed, beat brown butter, paste, and brown sugar in a large bowl until mixture is smooth. Reduce speed and gradually add dry ingredients.  Mix until combined. Using a wooden spoon, mix in chocolate. Scrape out dough onto parchment paper and roll into 1 3/4″ diameter log. Chill at least 2 hours.

Reheat oven to 350. Slice dough into generous 1/4″ slices with a serrated knife and place on 2 parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 1″ apart. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake until cookies are firm around the edges, 9-10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets.

Do Ahead:

You can make the praline paste up to one week ahead, storing airtight at room temperature.  Dough can be made 3 days ahead; wrap in plastic and chill in refrigerator, or freeze up to one month.

 

 

 

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Aunt Isabelle’s Chocolate Tipsy Cake

Posted on October 31, 2017 | 7 comments

In Alice Hoffman’s The Rules of Magic, Aunt Isabelle’s chocolate tipsy cake has been handed down for generations.  The tipsy comes from rum; the magic comes from the baking.  You might want to try it for breakfast, as the aunts did in the book.

th-1   Here’s the recipe:

Aunt Isabelle’s Chocolate Tipsy Cake

  • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting the pan
  • 1 cup freshly brewed coffee
  • 1/2 cup dark rum
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Rum Icing

  • 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons half and half
  • 2 tablespoons dark rum (plus more as needed)

Preheat the oven to 325.  Grease a large Bundt pan;dust with cocoa powder. Warm coffee, dark rum, butter, and cocoa powder over medium heat and stir gently until the butter is melted.  Remove from heat and add sugar, stirring until dissolved.  Set aside to cool.  Combine dry ingredients.  In another bowl combine eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.  When the chocolate mixture is cool, stir in egg mixture.  Add flour mixture a little at a time until well combined.

Bake 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.

Prepare the chocolate rum icing by melting chocolate, then adding butter and rum; simmer 5 minutes.  Add milk or rum to thin the sauce.  Cool slightly.  Drizzle over cooled cake.

Review of The Rules of Magic

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