Tag Archives: buttermilk

Recipes - Desserts

Cherry Spice Cake

Hooray! Another “no trip to the store” baking day! Fall baking comes easily when the ingredients in many recipes are already waiting on your pantry shelves, ready for use.   When everything you need to bake up something yummy is at your fingertips, it is much easier to begin!   I browsed through this collection of recipes from “A Taste of the South’s” Fall baking special issue, making note of the 1-2 items I need to buy but those items truly are few, and that is a definite plus for us bakers.  Use what you have when you can!

I appreciate the endless choices offered with Fall baking and the traditional flavors sure to shine in these recipes.   You can bet  your hard-earned dollars that the tastes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves will be showing up! There are basic batters and crusts using flour, sugar,  baking soda or powder, eggs, and a cup or two of buttermilk. And nuts! You will be using chopped nuts, guaranteed! Today, I chose walnuts for their rich flavor. You should  use whatever tickles your fancy because it’s all about easily preparing something spiced, warm,  and delicious for your family and friends.

The easiest way to make this cake, or any cake, is to gather your ingredients and sort them out, having them ready when you need them. Have it all in place, cut your prep time in half, and you will be so much more efficient in the kitchen. The French  say “mis en place”,  and that is good advice! Read your recipe several times, know where everything fits, fill your measuring cups and small bowls with what you’ll need, and you will have this cake ready for the oven quickly. Do set your butter out early so it is completely softened. And use your stand mixer for both the cake batter and the cream cheese frosting. You can wash everything up while the mixer does its work.

The canned  cherries are a great surprise in this cake; their tart flavor perfectly complements the sweet cream cheese frosting.  Today I used the reserved juice from the cherries for the liquid in the cake frosting. I didn’t want it completely pink, however, so only used 2 T. This cake would also be great with a rich butter cream frosting. Ahhh, more choices! However you slice it, my friends, place it in the refrigerator once frosted until sliced; if you are lucky enough to have leftovers, place it back into the fridge. I set aside a large chunk last night to enjoy with coffee this morning.   Yum, breakfast too!

Cherry Spice Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1-14-1/2 oz. can pitted tart cherries, drained
1/4 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Frosting Ingredients

1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
3-3/4 cups powdered sugar
1-2 t. water
2-3 drops red food coloring, optional
Additional chopped pecans or walnuts, chopped, optional

Directions Preheat oven to 350. Line two 9” round baking pans with waxed paper. Grease and flour the pans and paper; set aside.

Using a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and powder, and the salt then add to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Fold in the cherries and pecans.

Transfer batter to prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

For frosting, in large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and enough water to achieve spreading consistency. Tint with food coloring if desired. Spread frosting between layers and over top and sides of cake. Garnish with additional chopped nuts. Store in refrigerator, covered.

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Recipes - Desserts

Buttermilk Pie

This old southern favorite pie will brighten any day and fill your tummy happily as well.  It’s one of buttermilk’s best uses in my book. The recipe is from my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook and was one of our desserts today at the Mayfield Cafe and it was certainly enjoyed all around.

There is minimal prep once you have rolled out your pie crust. The slightly sweet thickened filling, tempered by the sour milk, provides great contrast to each bite.  Don’t over bake; it will be soft in the middle still when ready to remove from the oven.

It’s a one-bowl pie to mix then just pour into your pie crust and sprinkle with nutmeg. Simple AND satisfying!  It’s SO simple in fact that I can say nothing more about this special pie than if the folks around your table enjoy it as much as folks I know then it’s time to grab your buttermilk and get going! The only decision you have to make about this pie is whether to serve it room temperature or cold. I find it equally good either way. Enjoy with gusto!

Ingredients

½ cup buttermilk
1-3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 T. flour
Pinch of salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 unbaked 9” pastry shell.

Directions: Preheat oven to 400°. Set pastry shell aside. In large mixing bowl combine all ingredients except the nutmeg and the pastry shell and stir well with a wooden spoon to blend then use a wire whisk to incorporate the liquid ingredients more thoroughly. Pour batter in the unbaked pie shell; sprinkle the top lightly with nutmeg. Bake 15 minutes; reduce temperature to 350 and bake another 45 minutes until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted comes out dry. Cool well, allowing the filling to set. Serve room temperature or chilled.

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Recipes - Desserts

Ice Box Pies

The current issue of Southern Living Magazine has a feature on ice box pies this month that I knew I would be giving a good whirl. I adore Ice Box Pies and can foresee making every one of these pies and so I’ve laid in the ingredients I need and in the spotlight today is the Lemon-Buttermilk Ice Box Pie I made yesterday. I felt it wasn’t quite ready for serving having set in the freezer for only four hours so I left it overnight and finished it up today by mixing together the Sweetened Whipped Cream before serving it from mama’s room at Woodland Hills. Yum-Yum GOOD!

I love these pies for their ease of preparation; if there is one thing a busy cook needs it is a good and fast basic recipe that is tweaked by changing just one or two ingredients for a new and different flavor every time. Ice box pies have been popular for years because they are simple to put together and so refreshing served up icy cold on hot summer evenings. Today I am also posting the basic crumb crust recipe (which is easily adjusted four different ways depending on what kind of crackers, wafer, or cookies you choose) and the recipe for Sweetened Whipped Cream. Not every pie needs the sweetened cream but it also wouldn’t harm a one of them on any given occasion. I will post the crumb crust and the sweetened whipped cream recipe today and you can easily refer back to it here.

This Lemon-Buttermilk Pie is creamy with the tart taste of fresh lemon juice and lemon zest with an added tart bonus of buttermilk. I would recommend using a 9″ pie plate only as you want the filling to come all the way to the top of the crust. I think the plate I used when I made this one was a 10″ plate which was one reason I wanted to top it with the sweetened cream to cover that little blooper.  Once I tasted the finished product, I was very glad I made the sweetened cream topping as the powdered sugar in that added a rich bit of texture to the pie. Once the pie bakes and cools, pop it in the freezer for 4-6 hours (or overnight as I did) then prepare the sweetened cream.  A real spot of sunshine will then be ready and waiting to grace your summer table!

Ice Box Pies
Southern Living Magazine – June 2015

Ingredients – Crumb Crust
1-1/2 cups crushed cookies or crackers such as
* vanilla wafers
* graham crackers
* gingersnaps
* saltine crackers
* buttery Ritz crackers
1/4 cup sugar
1 t. sea salt (omit when using saltines or ritz crackers)
6 T. butter, melted
Vegetable cooking spray

Process crushed cookies or crackers, sugar, and (if using) salt in a food processor until finely crushed and well combined. Add melted butter and process until thoroughly combined. Press on bottom, up the sides, and onto the lip of a lightly greased (with cooking spray) 9-inch regular pie plate or 9” deep-dish pie plate. Freeze 30 minutes to 1 hour while preparing filling unless otherwise directed.

NOTE: For baked crusts, pre-heat oven to 325. Bake crust 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Lemon-Buttermilk Ice Box Pie

Ingredients

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 T. loosely packed lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (2 lemons)
3 large egg yolks (discard whites of eggs)
1/4 cup buttermilk
Graham Cracker Crust baked recipe (above)
Vegetable cooking spray

Directions Preheat oven to 325. Whisk together first three ingredients in a bowl. Beat egg yolks with a handheld mixer in a medium bowl at high-speed 4-5 minutes or until yolks become pale and ribbons form on surface of mixture when beater is lifted. Gradually whisk in the sweetened condensed milk mixture, and whisk until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the buttermilk. Pour mixture into the prepared crust. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes or until set around the edges (the pie will be slightly jiggly still in center). Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover pie with lightly greased plastic wrap (sprayed with cooked spray) and freeze for 4-6 hours. Serve with sweetened whipped cream (recipe below).

Sweetened Whipped Cream

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions: Beat the cream and vanilla at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Spread on pie just before serving.

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Recipes - Breads & Biscuits

Pimento Cheese Biscuits

Geeze Louise, I meant to make and blog about these biscuits yesterday in honor of the Kentucky Derby but my “just do 3 hours of work in the yard” turned in to “it’s 5:30 and I haven’t made biscuits yet!” Determined to make up for the neglect yesterday, I baked these before I went out to the yard this afternoon. You might be tickled to find these tasty little treats on a Kentucky Derby buffet next year, even your own buffet table if you plan on hosting a Derby party (and what could be more fun?).

The recipe comes from a blog I enjoy reading, “Syrup & Biscuits” and though I followed the recipe exactly, I did not have 12 biscuits to bake after I was finished, only 7 biscuits.  Next time I will add more flour as I work the dough.  Today I also used a fresh jalapeno pepper, not a pickled one, and that was fine. I haven’t tasted these yet but they will be greatly enjoyed with my supper I know.  If you get 12 biscuits they will make a great appetizer for your Derby party or as a special side dish with a simple supper as I have planned.

The dough is very sticky so you will need to add enough flour for it to become smooth and elastic as you work with it.  I can imagine adding at least 1/2 cup additional flour as you roll it out.  I love the look of these with the cheese topping and the jalapeño slices.  The jalapeño gives just enough warmth to these pretty puffs and the pimento cheese is a great surprise when you bite into them.  Go on, put on your Derby hat, think about a cool mint julep, and have a Run for the Roses yourself!!

Ingredients

¾ cup soft winter wheat all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup plain cornmeal
¼ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
½ cup buttermilk
½ to ¾ cups pimento cheese
15 pickled jalapeño pepper slices

Directions: Place flour, baking powder, kosher salt and cornmeal in a bowl and stir lightly. Rub or cut in butter until flour resembles coarse meal.  Pour in buttermilk and stir until dough is wet and sticky. Turn out onto a well-floured surface. Sprinkle flour on top. Gently work in the flour, adding more as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky and holds its shape.  Roll out to ½ inch thick. Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour. With the back of your hand, flatten out the cut out biscuit as much as possible.

Spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick spray. Place about a teaspoon of pimento cheese in the center of the biscuit cut out. Press the edges of the cut out toward the center to form a flower shape. Place the biscuit in a mini-muffin cup and top with a pickled jalapeño slice. Repeat with each biscuit cut out.  Place in a 450 degree oven for 12 minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly brown and the biscuit is done.  Remove from oven and transfer each biscuit to a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Best served warm.

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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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