English Muffins for the First Time

3/15/11: Homemade English Muffins

They always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don't mind this bit of advice, whatsoever, for breakfast foods tend to be my favorites. Eggs, toast, bacon, French toast, waffles, pancakes, bagels, and of course English muffins; when they make the scene, you know I am not far away.

I've tried making many a breakfast dish from scratch but up till a few weeks ago, I never gave English muffins a try. To me, they have always sounded a bit tedious and I didn't like the idea of a yeast dough being grilled. Scary sounding, don't you think? So when one evening came along when there wasn't a real need to make a full meal, I decided to give these muffins a try.

The recipe I chose to use was published in the Early Spring 2009 issue of The Baking Sheet. I wish I could type out the recipe here but it is copyrighted material. However, I noticed that the King Arthur's Flour website has some English muffin recipes available. So take a look at their Breakfast Sandwich Muffins and this English Muffin recipe. They may not be exactly like the recipe I found in the Baking Sheet, but the latter one does come close.

The making of the dough was very easy to execute, the only part that needs skill is the frying. I used a small non-stick skillet for the frying since I was making such a small recipe. (I would have used the king-sized griddle we have if the whole family was attending.) When frying, there is a need to keep the burner on low heat. So the muffins do take a while to thoroughly cook. I do, however, like my muffins to have a crispy exterior, so near the end of the cooking time I turn up the heat and allow them to form a crust.

I do not own special English muffin cutters so I did as the magazine suggest and use cleaned tuna cans. Works perfectly fine!

So here are the muffins. . .

I had my muffin with a smidge (OK, maybe a big smidge), of blackberry jam and a fried egg. They were wonderful! This makes me wonder. . . Do I love breakfast because of the inclusion of butter and jam in almost every single dish? Could be. ;)

The Secret of the New Fudge Cake's Fame

3/4/11: New Fudge Cake

Haven't seen a post on Sabbath Supper in awhile, huh? Now don't think that I haven't been cooking, for I certainly have! I actually have four future posts lined up. The problem lately, I think, has been the cooking. Once I've finished cooking lunch and dinner for the day, I just don't feel like thinking about food again and writing about it. You know what I mean?

But I've come to realize during the last couple weeks that I need to post more often. Forgetfulness in past meals I've made has created difficulty in preparing them again and I without posting, I sort of lose sight of how cooking can be fun and like an adventure. So that's my two cents on the situation and I hope to begin a posting spree for this month of April. :)

And now let me bring to you a long lost cake of mine. His name is New Fudge Cake and he is a chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream filling and a chocolate fudge frosting. Sounds a bit familiar? Same combination of cake and frosting was used for our past Christmas cake. It was such a good cake that there was an apparent need for another!

Here is New Fudge Cake #2:

So about now you are wondering about the secret of this cake's fame, right? Well, the answer can be summed up in one word: swiss meringue buttercream. OK, that's three, but you get the picture. :)

Strawberries and Cake for February

2/18/11: Sponge Cake Served with Strawberries

I was just going through my Sabbath Supper photos and saw a folder named "Sponge Cake and Strawberries." Oops! I forgot to post about this dessert I made all the way back in February. So without further ado, I bring you my account of sponge cake and strawberries that should have been made public a month ago. :)

The sponge cake recipe came from the good ol' Betty Crocker cook book of ours. I chose the recipe entitled: "Fluffy Sponge Cake" because it was calculated for a 13 x 9 pan and also because it uses all the egg yolks and whites. It is not always easy for me to use up the leftover yolks or whites quickly, so it is a good idea to have recipes like this one on hand. Find the recipe below.

The strawberries are actually our own which we froze with sugar last year. Learn how to freeze your own by reading this previous post.

Here is the recipe written out for you:

Fluffy Sponge Cake

Yield: One 13x9 pan

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1-1/2 cups cake flour OR all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. cold water

1 tsp. grated lemon rind

1 tsp. lemon extract

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions:

Grease your pan BUT ONLY THE BOTTOM.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick (at least 5 minutes). Beat sugar in gradually. In a separate, smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat dry ingredients into egg yolk mixture alternately with water, lemon rind, and lemon extract.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Gradually and gently cut and fold the egg yolk mixture into the beaten whites. Pour batter into pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with strawberries.

In Memory of the Pillsbury Dough Boy

image source here

I don't normally do this here at Sabbath Supper but I wanted to share with you a little snippet about the Pillsbury Dough Boy's Funeral. My younger sister just sent it to me today and it proved to be one of the most hilarious news articles to date! Enjoy! :)

"Dear friends, It is with the saddest heart that I pass on the following.  Please join me in remembering a great icon.  The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes in the belly.  He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly-greased coffin.  Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs.  Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Cap'n Crunch.  The grave site was piled high with flours as long- time friend, Aunt Jemima, delivered the eulogy, describing Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.  Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers.  He was not considered a very "smart" cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes.  Despite being a little flaky at times, he -- even still, as a crusty old man -- was considered a roll model for millions.  Toward the end, it was thought he would rise again, but alas, he was no tart. 

Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough; two children, John Dough and Jane Dough; plus they had one in the oven.  He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.  The funeral was held at 3:50 for about twenty minutes."

Source found here.

Cooking Lesson -- How to Make Kolache Step by Step

Ah, Kolache! This delightful Czech pastry has a cream cheese or fruit filling and is one of the undisputed favorite desserts of my Papa. What better time to make this delicious favorite than Fat Tuesday? I was thinking about doing Paczki, a Polish pastry, but it requires deep frying and I didn't feel like tackling a pot of hot oil. It takes me awhile to build up enough confidence to take on such an ordeal!

So Kolache it was. And this time I am going to do something different. I am going to share with you a step-by-step cooking lesson on how to make cream cheese filled Kolache, from start to finish. I just recently bought a digital camera for myself so I wanted to give this a try!

Baking Bread for the First Time

2/11/11: Grandma's Oatmeal Bread

If my younger sister, Catherine, was asked, "What is your favorite food?" She would say, "BREAD!" She adores bread in every shape or form and loves recipes that include whole flours or oats. She made bread in the bread machine before but she has never done it from scratch, and that is what she set out to do earlier this month. And I came along for the ride.

She chose Grandma's Oatmeal Bread from the Holiday 2009 issue of The Baker's Sheet, a magazine that is published by King Arthur's Flour. I wish I could write out the recipe here but it is copyrighted. Best thing to do is buy the back issue here.

The recipe includes rolled oats and molasses which I think is a great combination. Catherine did very well with following the recipe, the only problem that arose was the slow rising. The kitchen was probably too cold that day! Anyway, here is Catherine's first ever bread from scratch:

Scrumptious!

So is Catherine willing to make bread from scratch again? She says: "I'll stick to the bread machine." At least she gave it a go! ;)

Sweet Victory

2/08/11: Dulce de Leche Bars

I'm not sure why, but I always find it easier to write about desserts. Maybe it is because I cannot write a post without a picture and dessert photography is a piece o' cake compared to main entree dishes! I should try to change this habit and make sure I take some snapshots of dishes outside the realm of sweet.

So earlier this month I was planning on making Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares, but realized that we were out of graham crackers. Oh dear! And earlier that day I made some dulce de leche (sweet milk in Spanish), out of two cans of sweetened condensed milk. What will I do with it now?

A quick search on the internet brought me to Land O Lakes' website and their Dulce de Leche Bar recipe. Sounds good doesn't it? Knowing that we had all the ingredients, I whipped up a batch and then frowned over the leftover dulce de leche sitting in the double boiler. Leftovers. . .

Now what about frosting? Aha! Frosting! So after mixing together an 8 oz. package of cream cheese (for my family are lovers of cream cheese frosting), a few tablespoons of dulce de leche, and a tad bit of milk, I made my very own frosting for this cake. And the verdict? Sweet victory of course! The bars had a golden brown color and were tender, moist, and sweet; not cloyingly sweet, however. And the bars made a good contrast with the thin layer of frosting on top. Perfect match.

To dress the bars up a bit, I drizzled some dulce de leche over the top of the frosting.

Jam and Cake. . . Scrumptious!

2/4/11: Blackberry Jam Cake

Doesn't that recipe title sound so scrumptious? For me, putting together jam and cake (two of my favorite things), sounds like perfection. That title is actually what drew me to baking this cake last Friday. I found the recipe in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Cook's Country magazine that we subscribe to (check out what America's Test Kitchen changed with this cake, an Appalachian staple, here). I wish I could post the recipe here but copyright issues, ya know.

Anyhow, let me explain this cake to you a little bit. The actual cake is spiced with cinnamon, allspice, and cloves and it also has delicious blackberry jam added. The frosting that the magazine had teamed up with the cake was Caramel Miracle Frosting. And also chopped pecans were added to the side of the cake.

Let me tell you, I like frosting. And I like trying out new ones. So the Miracle Frosting was right up my alley! It is a cooked frosting that starts with a mixture of brown sugar, cornstarch, and flour. Then a load of butter is added and mixed until light & fluffy.

Did I make any modifications to the recipe? I didn't make a Caramel Miracle Frosting, I just made the 'original' version which has white sugar instead of brown. I also omitted the pecans and I used blackberry preserves instead of jam.

Both the cake and the frosting turned out very well and this cake is a great contender for birthdays! (I have two requests already!)

So are there any notes I should leave for myself? Yes.

1. There didn't seem to be enough frosting to cover the entire cake, probably should do 1 1/2 times the recipe next time.

2. I probably need to go a tad bit less on the amount of preserves used for the filling. It sort of leaked to the sides making it harder to frost.

So here it is. . .

Lemon Meringue Pie from Scratch

1/28/11: Lemon Meringue Pie

Last Friday my younger sister and I were trying to figure out a dessert to make for dinner. We chose a rather risky one: Lemon Meringue Pie. Because this pie is such a classic (it is right beside chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, and blueberry muffins in the realm of baking in my opinion), you would think that it is an easy recipe to execute. Not so. Especially for a person who has failed in the past with the meringue part!

We used Annemarie's Betty Crocker cookbook for the crust, the filling, as well as the meringue topping. The filling and meringue recipes worked out well, but we weren't happy at all with the crust recipe. There just wasn't enough dough to work with and we actually had to go back and make another batch. Next time I should use our traditional go-to recipe for a double pie crust and simply cut the recipe in half.

Now for the filling and meringue part:

Lemon Meringue Pie

Yield: Two 9" pies (my family likes their pie!)

Ingredients:

Two 9" pie shells that have been blind baked

3 cups sugar

2/3 cup cornstarch

3 cups hot water

6 egg yolks, slightly beaten

6 tbsp. butter

8 tbsp. lemon juice

3 tbsp. grated lemon rind

Meringue:

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

12 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. flavoring (optional)

Directions:

In a saucepan, mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and hot water. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 1 minute. Beat a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolks to temper them. Then move warmed egg yolks to the cornstarch mixture. Boil 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Continue stirring until smooth. Blend in butter, lemon juice, and lemon peel.

Onto the meringue! In a large, clean bowl, beat white with cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar, a little at a time. Continue beating until stiff and glossy.

Now to assemble the pie. Pour filling into the pre-baked pie shells and smooth top. Spoon the meringue on top of filling in large dollops. Try to smooth out--while not disturbing the filling below--and make fun swirls or peaks with your spoon.

Move pies to a 400F preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.

---------------------------

So that's the recipe but I do want to write here some things I would change next time. First off, Papa and Annemarie said that they would like more meringue on top as well as a stronger lemon flavor. So for next time, I will maybe use 5 eggs per pie and add the extra yolks to the filling; Annemarie said that the extra yolks won't harm the recipe. All they will do is make the filling slightly thicker. She's made this pie before so she should know!

And I will add a couple more lemons to the mix to get a real pucker sensation!

You may notice here that this meringue is darker than what you are used to. That is way my family likes it even if it causes "weeping."

Ciabatta Bread Pizza

1/24/11: Ciabatta Bread Pizza

Meal details: Pizza with a Ciabatta bread crust, homemade pizza sauce, and a pepper, pepperoni, and cheese topping.

Defining moments: First time for us to try out Ciabatta bread, which, by the way, is an Italian bread that is usually used when making panini. The interior of the bread has very large holes so it a great candidate for soaking in flavors like olive oil.

Recipe sources: No recipe was needed for this pizza. Annemarie came up with the concept last Fall and we've been waiting to try it out since. We actually prepared our bell peppers for the freezer in a special way (cut them into ring shapes), just for this pizza.

The pizza sauce was concocted by me, so read on to find it!

What I learned: I created a very tasty recipe for the pizza sauce. I made Sloppy Joe's the Saturday before (I used this recipe here), and I kept a pint of our tomato puree and about a cup of canned tomato paste. On the day of this pizza's creation, I combined these two ingredients with some spices, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. I'll write it out here:

Homemade Pizza Sauce

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (16 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 cup (8 oz) tomato paste
• 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp. white sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tbsp. dried basil
• 1 tbsp. garlic salt

Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and cook over moderate heat. Reduce until consistency resembles apple sauce. I recommend tasting at this stage and adjust seasoning if necessary. When it comes to a tomato-based recipe, you usually need to change something in your ingredient lineup.

Now how exactly did I put this pizza together?

I cut the ciabatta bread loaves in half lengthwise and brushed them with a 1/4 cup of olive oil. I then placed them in the oven for about five minutes at 425F; just to crisp up the cut side. I then smeared my pizza sauce over the entire surface of the bread and followed it with lots of shredded mozzarella and monterey jack cheese. On top of the cheese, I fanned out some pepperoni and bell pepper rings evenly. I moved both pizzas to the oven preheated at 425F and I baked them for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese was golden brown and the peppers were sizzling.

Any modifications? Created this recipe.

How it tasted? Very, very, very, very, GOOD! The ciabatta bread made a terrific, crunchy crust and the sauce was zingy and had distinctive tomato flavor.

How about a 2nd time? Oh yes, definitely. And maybe next time I will use homemade ciabatta bread--sounds interesting, huh?

My Old Kentucky Pie

1/07/11: Kentucky Pie

This recipe came from the Holiday Baking 2009 Issue of Cooking with Paula Deen. I, by no means, had the intention of baking this pie when I was browsing the magazine. I was much more interested in the buttermilk pie that was featured on the same page. But it so happened that a) I wanted to bake a pie that day, b) I wanted something chocolate-ly, and c), I wanted something with nuts. So that is how I gravitated towards this pie recipe, which I never heard of before.

Kentucky Pie has a truck load of nuts and chocolate--and then some. I should know about the nuts because me and my sister had to crack all of them by hand. What a job! Pecans are not that easy to crack, there is a required skill for sure. The best way to crack them we found was to crack both the top and the bottom off first, then crack the nut lengthwise. But you need to make sure you crack it BETWEEN the two inner pecan halves. Otherwise, you break the halves into a million and one pieces. :)

As you can see, this pie is not for the faint of heart:

Get a load of all that chocolate! I think I've died and gone to heaven. Here is some more cocoa goodness coming your way:

It was a really decadent pie for sure and I would battle those pecan nuts anytime to make this pie again!

Did I Forget Something?

12/25/10: Christmas Cake

In answer to my post's title: Yes. I completely forgot to post about the cake I baked and decorated for Christmas! How on earth did that happen? Anyhoo, here it is now:

So what recipe(s) did I use?

I used the New Fudge Cake recipe from Annemarie's Betty Crocker cookbook. Here is a scan of the page:

For the cake's filling I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream from this source. The chocolate frosting came from the Sour Cream Cake I did before. And finally, the white frosting I used for piping (as well as the roses) is from here. Whew! Lots of different recipes this time!

What decorating techniques did I use?

I used two 13 x 9 cakes, stacked them on top of each other, and cut the top layer to make it resemble a tiered cake. After the carving, I piped a shell border at the base of the cake, piped roses using a specific rose tip, and made decorative "facades" around the sides of the cake using a template that I received for my birthday last year. For Christmas I received some liquid dyes (Wilton brand) that can be mixed with frosting, and that is what I used for the colored roses.

How did it taste?

This might actually be my favorite cake as of yet. The actual cake was very moist, chocolate-ly and held up well to being stacked. And the chocolate frosting was just as good as I remembered. But the real attribute of this cake was the Swiss Meringue Buttercream that I used for the filling. Papa said that it reminded him of an expensive torte he had long ago. It was so delicious!