Tag Archives: flour

Bakery Miscellaneous

Sugar Crusted Raspberry Muffins

 

Knowing there was no way I was not going to use the last cup and a half of fresh raspberries today, I went looking for a recipe for raspberry muffins.  The recipe I used, from Real Simple magazine, resulted in 12 large moist muffins flavored with the first  raspberries  of the season.  Hello Spring!

The batter is simple and was ready in just 10 minutes.  It is a soft batter with milk, melted butter, and an egg for liquid.  Combine your dry ingredients then whisk the milk and egg and add to the dry ingredients.  Fold in the raspberries and nuts gently then scoop the batter into your muffin tins filling each tin 3/4 full for a nice pop to the muffin tops.

Today I added chopped pecans to my batter knowing the nuts would provide texture.  Cool slightly in the muffin tins then remove and cover tightly with foil until ready for serving. This healthy looking batch is today’s  Added Bonus for mama and myself with 10 muffins left for the staff at Woodland Hills; fresh, warm, and savory they make a great start to everyone’s Easter weekend!

Sugar Crusted Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1/4 cup pecans, chopped small (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 400° F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or coat it with cooking spray, vegetable oil, or butter. In a medium bowl, combine 1-3/4 cups of the flour, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and combine. In a second bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and vanilla. Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined; the batter will be lumpy. Toss the berries with the remaining flour in a bowl. Gently fold the berry mixture into the batter .Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full. Sprinkle the batter with the remaining sugar. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Serve while still warm.

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Bakery Miscellaneous

Lemon Raspberry Coffee Cake

I was SO excited to find raspberries at my local market because I had almost given up on the idea of making this delicious coffee cake for Easter, and when I spotted those raspberries yesterday, my arms went up in a victory sign and i danced a jig right there in the produce section! I have made this coffee cake for many years now and especially love enjoying it for Easter morning when we are visiting my sister and her family in Illinois.  Everybody likes this moist cake, from great-granny to the little kids, and because it is so beautiful to behold that is our  Added Bonus for this dish!

It might seem a good deal of work for only a small one-layer cake, but it bakes tall and small wedges make it a perfect breakfast offering. Although the recipe in my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook says you can use frozen raspberries also in this cake, I never do; fresh berries are definitely worth the wait. The tart berries contrast with the sugar, flour, and eggs in a dense batter flavored with fresh lemon zest. Do press the raspberries gently into the half-baked batter so they aren’t merely decorating the top of the cake (save that happiness for just a sprinkle of powdered sugar).

Because this cake usually travels, I bake it the day before, and it is even more delicious on the second day. Every bite is moist and sweet, and every berry, perfection! This is, of course, just made for coffee, but I know that our little kids like it with milk. Whatever works for you, you will be glad the cake is on the table. Wishing you and yours a Happy and Blessed Easter morning as well!

Lemon Raspberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel (zest)
1 egg
1 cup fresh raspberries (or frozen if you must)
Powdered sugar

Directions Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease bottom of 9×1-1/2” round cake pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Grease and lightly flour bottom of parchment; set aside. For cake, in a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In separate large bowl, beat 1 cup of the sugar and the softened butter with mixer on medium until combined. Add 1 egg and the vanilla. Beat on low for 1 minute. Alternately add flour mixture and the 3/4 cup buttermilk, beating just until combined after each addition; set aside.

For cheesecake filling, in a small bowl beat cream cheese and remaining 1/4 cup sugar with mixer on medium until combined. Add lemon zest and 1 egg. Beat well until combined.

Spoon half the cake batter into prepared pan, spreading to edges. Spoon cream cheese mixture on cake batter, spreading carefully to edges (so the two layers don’t combine). Dollop remaining cake batter on top of cream cheese layer, carefully spreading to edges of pan.

Bake 20 minutes or until puffed then take out of oven and gently press raspberries into cake. Bake another 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen edges of cake from the pan then turn out to a plate then turn out again on serving plate so cake is right side up. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired; so pretty!

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Recipes - Desserts

Buttermilk Pie

There didn’t seem any better day to bake a Buttermilk Pie than April 1st (and no April Fool’s indeed!).  A spanking new calendar page, spring daffodils already in bloom, and the sweet tang of buttermilk are a perfect way to greet this beautiful month!

This pie will remind you of a southern Chess Pie with the same creamy texture.  Today I used a heaping 3 T. of flour to be sure that there was enough flour to thicken the liquids in the batter.  The buttermilk is the most distinctive taste in this pie; just a hint of tartness with the sugar complementing the buttermilk tang.

You really must make your own crust for this pie; using a store-bought crust will not give you anywhere close to the results you will get rolling out a homemade crust, flaky but sturdy enough to provide texture to the creaminess of the pie.  As always, I used 4-5 T. of ice water for my crust and worked the shortening in quickly to the flour-salt mixture using just my fingers to cut the shortening in until the dough resembled small peas.

Once your crust is ready and in your pie plate, you need only to mix up the filling.  Sprinkle the top of the pie lightly with nutmeg, and dessert is in the oven in no time.  Hello April!

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 then reduce the 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 well before cutting into wedges.

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Recipes - Breakfast & Brunch

Biscuits & Gravy

Geeze Louise! I wasn’t going to cook at all today but an hour before supper I realized that I had taken all the cranberry biscuits up to the nursing home last night to share with mama and her friends and the night staff. Nothing to do then but make biscuits! Not quite as fancy as the sour cream and cranberry biscuits but  homemade biscuits and sausage gravy is still a great supper for a snowy night! Apologies for posting such a simple recipe but I know I have several nieces and nephews who love biscuits and gravy who also never make either. Let’s get our aprons on, y’all, and go for some B&G at home!

I used Martha White self-rising soft southern flour for the biscuits, and since I was out of last week’s buttermilk, I got buttermilk by mixing a tablespoon of white vinegar into a cup of milk. Use your fingers to cut in the shortening and work fast; the feel of the Martha White flour is silky and smooth and it produces the flakiest biscuits around. Use a biscuit cutter to shape them the size you want, kneading the dough again quickly as you cut them.

As for milk sausage gravy, that is the easiest thing in the world to make so don’t get any crazy ideas about fancy-smanchy gravy adding no telling what herbs and spices to it. You need only fried sausage, a few tablespoons of flour, lots of black pepper, and a cup and a half of milk if there’s no more than 2-3 of you eating; use all 3 cups of milk if you’re feeding four or more  people. This is the recipe for B&G from my “Missouri to Maui” cookbook; use it to get supper on the table in 30 minutes if you’re willing to walk to the kitchen and make those biscuits. Fry the sausage and make the gravy as the biscuits bake then just call ’em to the table!

Biscuits & Gravy

Ingredients for Biscuits

2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup Crisco shortening
3/4 cup plus 2 T. buttermilk
2 T. butter, melted

Directions Preheat oven to 450. Combine flour and sugar in large bowl; mix well. Cut in shortening with pastry blender, a fork, or your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add buttermilk; stir with a fork until soft dough forms and mixture begins to pull away from sides of bowl.

Knead dough on lightly floured surface just until smooth. Roll out dough to 1/2” thickness. Cut with floured 2 1/2” round cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter. Serve warm.

For Pork Sausage Gravy:

12 oz. bulk pork sausage
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
3 cups milk

Directions After frying sausage, remove from skillet then add flour, to 2 T. of the grease. With wire whisk, stir well, scraping the browned sausage bits from the pan until the flour browns..  Add the milk, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until thickened, whisking constantly. Crumble in a few pieces of the sausage and stir to blend. Split warm biscuits and place on serving plates and serve the gravy over warm, split, or torn up pieces of biscuits.

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Bakery Miscellaneous

Brown Sugar Cookies with Buttermilk Glaze

First up, on Tuesday, nibbles of dark brown sugar cookies with plenty of chewy texture glazed with buttermilk and powdered sugar. The dough is a basic sugar cookie recipe made with dark sugar.  With the buttermilk in the glaze, this is a cookie of contrasts. Their soft centers balance with the crisp edges, their chewy texture pairs opposite the smoothness of the glaze, and brown sugar answers the  tang of  the buttermilk .  Contrast and complements all in one cookie.

Soften your butter early on then cream it with the sugar and an egg. Add in dry ingredients gradually, then bake and you’re all pau except for the glaze. Flavored with cinnamon and allspice, rich with butter, they bake quickly; just eight minutes was fine.  Let them cool completely before drizzling on the glaze

I found these tasted even better on Wednesday after sitting, airtight, overnight. Their mellowing set the most magnificent aroma wafting  when I opened the container, so be ready for that! The recipe made 3 dozen.  When you next have time, why not declare a cookie day and bake these, make a pot of fresh coffee, and sit down with your book?  Sweet nibbling!

Brown Sugar Cookies w/Buttermilk Glaze

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
12 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and spices. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Add flour mixture and beat until well incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as you go.

Drop by large tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until edges are browned. Cool on the sheet for a nice crisp outside and a soft inside. Cool completely before glazing. Yields 3 dozen cookies.

Buttermilk Glaze

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Use a whisk to blend all ingredients until smooth.  Drizzle over cooled cookies with a fork.

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