Tag Archives: Brown Sugar

Recipes - Desserts

Nutty Cornmeal Pie

One reason I love old country recipes is because the ingredients I need are already on the pantry shelves and in the refrigerator. It’s a comforting thing knowing you don’t have to run out to the store for that one ingredient which places this pie, and comfort food in general, so high on my list. There’s was hardly a minute’s thought between the “I want pie” idea and the doing of it on Saturday.  When you want something quick, but special, this is a great pie and you’ll find preparing it on the same happy continuum as the act of easing into your most comfortable clothes.  Prepping comfort food is as close as it gets to putting your feet up the entire time you’re in the kitchen and there is nothing easier.

The recipe is as listed in my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook.  I found it in a favorite recipe collection of mine called “Heartland Cooking” by Marcia Adams. Just reading the recipe you know its origin is from slower days when cooks turned again and again to preparing food from what was “on hand”; perhaps that is why there are so many variations to this pie, all of them sweet and filling.

Do this pie justice and roll out a flaky and tender pastry shell for this one. You’ll be glad you did.  The filling will remind you of a pecan pie as well of buttermilk and chess pies.  The flaked coconut topping suggests a french coconut pie so obviously this is a pie with many first cousins in its family tree!  The cornmeal adds just enough texture to justify the pie’s name and supplies the slight graininess in the filling.  Every one of the pies mentioned above are comforting and satisfying.  And every one of them the perfect accompaniment to a good cup of coffee and a long conversation with a friend.  This pie longs for company so do give it a chance to show its stuff.

Prep time is minimal once you roll out the pastry (I am repeating myself, I know, but I am also assuming you committed to making your pie crust when I mentioned it above). That accomplished, simply stir the dry ingredients, and, in a separate bowl, with your hand mixer, blend the liquid ingredients and combine all. Scrape the filling into that great crust and add your choice of chopped nuts; I used pecans today but my favorite with this pie is the tang of hickory nuts.  Just a light sprinkling of flaked coconut and your pie is in the oven and you are doing your its-all-done-happy-dance in your most comfortable clothes in no time!

Nutty Cornmeal Pie

Ingredients

1-9” unbaked pastry shell
1 cup brown sugar minus 2. T.
1 cup granulated sugar minus 2 T.
2 T. flour
1 T. yellow cornmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup hickory nuts, walnuts, or pecans, chopped
1/4 cup shredded coconut

Directions Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugars, flour, cornmeal, and salt; sift with fork and set aside; in a second large bowl, combine the eggs, butter, milk, and vanilla and beat with electric mixer on low-speed until just blended; don’t let too many air bubbles form. Combine this with the dry ingredients and stir to blend until smooth. Pour into your pastry shell and sprinkle the top of the pie with the chopped nuts and shredded coconut. Bake 35 minutes or until lightly puffed and golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack before serving. A dollop of whipped cream on each piece adds a nice touch.

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Recipes - Appetizers

Coca-Cola Chicken Wings (and fried rice)

Here I was all set to begin blogging a series of ice box pies but  the Lemon-Buttermilk Ice Box Pie I made today needs to freeze for 4-6 hours and we’re just now at the 4 hour mark, so I am going to wait and freeze that overnight, blog it tomorrow, then take it up to mama’s place tomorrow night.  Instead, here’s a great appetizer (or main dish) that I made for supper tonight!

I love the flavor of the brown sugar, garlic powder, chopped onion, and soy sauce that this recipe provides.  The wings turn out tender (best for eating with your fingers using a big napkin for after all the finger licking)!  I love these wings with rice and since I found some cold rice in the fridge, I set aside the pot of rice I cooked this afternoon for another purpose and used my cold rice to fry up a large bowl of fried rice using just soy sauce and edamame beans with scrambled eggs and green onion for garnish.  The chicken bakes up with plenty of rich gravy for adding juice to the fried rice and altogether it is nothing but ono (delicious!).

Stay tuned then for ice box pies, but do enjoy these great chicken wings and some fried rice for your table tonight!

Coca-Cola Chicken Wings

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup brown sugar
1-(12 oz.) can of Coke soda
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 T. soy sauce
3 lbs. chicken wings
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Dice onion and combine with brown sugar, cola, garlic powder, and shoyu (soy sauce). Mix until well combined. Layer chicken wings in a large foil-lined casserole dish or foil pan and cover with the marinade. Bake for two hours. Serve hot.

Note: If not serving with rice, cook for one hour without the marinade and then drain the fat from the chicken. Add marinade and continue. I always eat these over rice so I don’t drain as I love lots of the “gravy” this produces for my rice.

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Bakery Miscellaneous

Toffee Chip Cookies

Oh, how I have missed blogging! A family situation found me away from my computer, and my kitchen, for the past two weeks, but hopefully we are on a good track again health-wise, and today I couldn’t resist some much longed-for kitchen time! This recipe for Toffee Chip Cookies is a real winner; if you are also desirous of some upcoming kitchen time, do bake up a batch of these fabulous cookies!

The recipe, from HersheysKitchen.com is for a basic sugar cookie with the addition of the toffee bits and, for me, some chopped pecans for even more crunch. Soften your butter before beginning and then cream the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla and add the dry ingredients. The cookies are chewy inside with crisp outer edges with the buttery-toffee flavor that is so perfect with coffee or a tall glass of milk when you want something sweet and chewy.

If you’re a cookie fan, this one will put a smile on your face! Enjoy!

Toffee Chip Cookies

Ingredients
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg.) HEATH English Toffee Bits
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in toffee bits.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 48 cookies. Store airtight.

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Recipes - Breads & Biscuits

The BEST Raspberry Bread

2 Comments

 

 

I wanted “something raspberry” with the small pack of berries I bought Thursday, and a quick late night Google search brought this recipe up immediately. I used it exactly as I found it on Averiecooks.com blog page except using less raspberries than called for and adding chopped pecans to the batter. Moist and dense, this sweet bread is just Plain ‘Ole Raspberry Perfection! Right here! Make it early in the day and let it mellow before slicing if you can wait. It’s only going to taste even better!

I used fresh berries as recommended; they are available now in my local market and frozen berries do produce extra juice, not needed here. It’s always so exciting spotting those first shelves of fresh berries in the produce aisle, and if I had 12-oz of berries I would definitely use them. Omit the nuts if you wish; I like them for the texture they bring and they make up for using less fruit. The batter is rich with buttermilk, oil, and melted butter; don’t over stir it; it is lumpy and shouldn’t be smooth. The fats added lightness to the batter and it slid right from the bowl under its own steam into the loaf pan. Those fats also guarantee a dense moist bread, bursting with flavorful tang of buttermilk and melted butter. The brown sugar casts a lovely golden color and adds sweetness.

I did bake the bread for 55 minutes today as it was still wet at 45 minutes. I turned the oven off then and let the bread sit in the oven 5 more minutes. It browned nicely and dropped easily from the pan after it cooling 20 minutes. A small knife run around the sides of the pan will loosen the bread perfectly and it drops right from the pan. Cool completely on wire rack with bread wrapped in lightly in foil. A dollop of Cool Whip on each slice will be extra good tonight!

I followed the directions as given but rewrote them using my words and my results today. I couldn’t agree more with Averie that this is the BEST raspberry bread around! At my house, today, at least! It won’t last until tomorrow because it was made for sharing, but if there are leftovers, wrap slices in foil and store in an airtight bag. This will be even better the next day, guaranteed! I have no idea what’s for supper but, with a glass of cold milk, following half a day of water sloshing all-out cleaning on the front porch, i found that two slices of this raspberry bread made a wonderful late lunch. Hey, now, it’s Spring! Get Raspberries! Be Delighted!

The BEST Raspberry Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 to 12 ounces raspberries, about 2 cups (today, 6 oz.)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions: Preheat oven to 350F. grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, add the flour, the brown and white sugars, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine; set aside.

Melt the butter. Allow butter to cool slightly then add the egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla. Whisk well.

Pour wet ingredients over the dry and stir until just combined; don’t over mix. Batter will be somewhat lumpy; don’t try to stir the lumps smooth or bread will be tough; set aside.

In a medium bowl, add raspberries and 2 tablespoons flour; toss lightly to combine. Add the floured raspberries to the batter nad fold in, along with the pecans, if using, very lightly to combine. Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula and distributing batter well in pan.

NOTE: Recipe recommends if using frozen berries, bake for 1 hr 17 minutes. Tent foil over the pan after 30 minutes. Today, using fresh berries, I baked it for 55 minutes, with foil tented over it at 30 minutes) then turned the oven off and let it sit for five more minutes. Test the batter after 45 minutes and adjust. Bread is done when the top springs back and a tooth pick inserted has no batter on it. Allow bread to cool in pan for 20 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

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Recipes - Desserts

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I have always thought of a Pineapple Upside Down cake as a cake perfect for Spring weather!  Perhaps it is the glossy thin batter or the bright colors of the pineapple slices and the maraschino cherries (the cherries are a must; do not omit!) that bring to mind the Spring flowers that I know are just waiting to appear after a long winter’s hibernation, but this cake always begins food whispering to me once winter loosens her icy grip.  Today was definitely THE day!

I finished the prep work and had the cake in the oven in 30 minutes today.  Basically you have four easy steps: preparing the skillet with melted butter and a layer of brown sugar and pineapple juice, layering in the pineapple slices and cherries, creaming your shortening and sugar then adding the dry ingredients with enough reserved juice from the pineapple to make a thin batter.  That’s it.  Pour the batter over the sugar-fruit-cherry mixture and bake!

I bake this cake in a 10″ cast iron skillet just as my mama and grandma did.  The brown sugar-pineapple juice layer browns perfectly in cast iron and the size is perfect for a cake to serve seven. If you grew up enjoying this sweet delicate cake you know how good it is with a glass of cold milk on a day where you can smell Spring in the air.  Make one today and open your arms wide to this most beautiful season of the year.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

1-(8.5 oz.) can sliced pineapple, juice reserved
3 T. butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries, from jar, drained
1/3 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour, sifted
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Drain the pineapple reserving the juice. Melt butter in medium-sized cast iron skillet (no larger than 10”). In small bowl, mix the brown sugar with 1 T. of the reserved pineapple juice from the can and sprinkle this over the butter. Arrange the pineapple rings on top of this mixture leaving them whole but trimming when you need to fit the curved bottom of the skillet. Add a maraschino cherry in the center of each whole pineapple ring.

In large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and white sugar until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until mixture is fluffy. In small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and add to shortening mixture alternately with at least 1/2 cups of the reserved pineapple juice (if you don’t have 1/2 cup left; add water to get it), beating after each addition. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter over the pineapple mixture in the skillet and use spatula to spread to edges of pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool 10 minutes after removing from oven then invert the skillet over your serving platter and turn out cake to platter.

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