A Little Something

Honey Cakes for St. Ambrose

We usually make these on the feast of St. Ambrose, patron of beekeepers. I had an idea in my mind of a large, soft cookie scented with orange and spice, and this is what I came up with one December 7th.

1 cup honey

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoon dried orange peel

3 1/2 cups flour ( I use white whole wheat for one cup)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and honey with sugar and orange peel, either by hand or in an electric mixer. Stir in dry ingredients until well mixed. Drop by large dollops onto cookie sheet, either greased or lined with parchment. Bake at 375 degrees F for approximately 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned on top and they test done when you stick in a toothpick.

The orange spice flavor will be more pronounced if you let them cool, but who can wait? These are delicious with a cup of tea.

Homemade Chocolate Pudding Mix

 
 

We have been on quite a chocolate pudding kick lately. This was most likely brought on by the cooler weather which has us wanting something warm-and-chocolately as opposed to summer's longing for cold-and-chocolately (that would be ice cream).  In any case, I was making pudding so often I thought it made sense to make up a mix, making the preparation even faster and simpler. You can have a simple, homey, warm, chocolately, wholesome, all natural snack ready for your family in less than ten minutes (even faster than a quick chocolate cake) - what's not to love? Even the un-named doesn't-eat-things-that-shake person in my house gobbles up my chocolate pudding. And it's very handy to say to the family, "You clear the table and tidy things up and I'll make the pudding," and then you meet back at the table in fifteen minutes for pudding and reading aloud.

Homemade Chocolate Pudding Mix

1 pound box of corn starch

5 cups sugar

3 cups cocoa

I measure the ingredients into the bowl of my Kitchen Aid - I admit I based the recipe on using an entire box of corn starch to avoid having to measure it out, as the billowy stuff can be messy. Start with a very slow speed and mix until the ingredients are thoroughly combined and a uniform light cocoa color. I think the electric mixer is best for this, so you know everything is evenly mixed. Then I transfer the mix to a storage container. I keep a one cup measuring scooper in the jar for easy use.

To make pudding-

For a large family batch, measure approximately 2 1/3 cups of mix into a large pot (nonstick is nice). Stir in eight cups of whole milk and cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Cook until pudding begins to boil and is thickened - about 8 minutes or so. Stir in a tablespoon of vanilla. (Actually, I rarely remember the vanilla and I never measure.) Pour into serving bowls. This is how much we make for dessert for the nine of us (we like generous servings of pudding - not those little dainty dishes).

For a smaller batch, use about one cup of mix to three cups of milk.

Crustimoney Proseedcake

 
"Hallo, Pooh," he said. "How's things?"

"Terrible and Sad," said Pooh, "because Eeyore, who is a friend of mine, has lost his tail. And he's Moping about it. So could you very kindly tell me how to find it for him?"

"Well," said Owl, "the customary procedure in such cases is as follows."

"What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?" said Pooh. "For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me."

"It means the Thing to Do."

"As long as it means that, I don't mind," said Pooh humbly.

- Winnie the Pooh Chapter IV In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One

I recently got out Michael's old childhood copy of The World of Pooh and was delightfully surprised to find my old recipe for Crustimoney Proseedcake tucked inside. This flavorful cake is studded liberally with poppy seeds and has just a hint of almond flavor. The delicate buttery crumb is quite tasty but the golden Crustimoney bits are everyone's favorite part.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a tube pan.

3 1/2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup poppy seeds

1 cup softened butter

3 beaten eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup milk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with a wooden spoon, then beat in eggs and extracts. Toss dry ingredients together and then stir them into butter mixture while gradually add milk and mix together until well blended. Spread into prepared pan and bake for an hour or until top crust is golden and cake tests done.  Let cool for about ten minutes; loosen edges of cake with a knife and then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling. Actually, I don't think we know what the cake tastes like when it's completely cool as it's all gone by then. Setting Pooh Bear on the table in a Friendly Manner while you eat the cake is not Strictly Necessary, but it is Customary Procedure. 

Creamy Rice Pudding

Unlike my cinnamon raisin custardy baked rice pudding, this rice pudding is smooth and creamy. Without any extras it is also rather bland in the most pleasant vanilla sort of way, making it a good choice for the sick as well as a delicious simple dessert. This recipe is from my mother's friend Ann, who used to make it frequently as a treat for my father who loved it.

1 quart milk (I use whole)

1/2 cup rice (I use regular long grain white rice)

1/2 cup sugar

Combine milk, rice and sugar in a large pot. Cover and let simmer for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

 2 egg yolks 

2 cups half and half or cream

Whisk together yolks and half and half and slowly pour into rice mixture. Cook uncovered for an additional 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in a spoonful of vanilla. Let cool slightly and ladle into pudding dishes. I usually make a double recipe which yields approximately 14 small servings. Serve warm or chilled.

Palacsinta

 

Jonathan said this should be subtitled: How to efficiently make a vast quantity of palascinta to make your family happy.

This recipe is for the thin pancakes that we Hungarians call palacsinta (pullah-cheenta) - similar to the French crepe, Jewish blintz, or thin Swedish pancakes.

4 eggs

2 cups milk

1 3/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Butter for frying.

Jam, lekvar (prune butter), or cinnamon sugar for filling.

I double the recipe to make about 26 8" palacsinta.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a stick blender, or in a regular blender. It is very helpful to have everything arranged for easy cooking - I set things up like so:

I ladle the batter into a measuring cup to make it easy to pour from, and set it on a saucer to catch the inevitable drips. Since I make a large batch and have hungry people waiting, I use two frying pans to keep things moving. I have my butter close by, and a plate to put the finished palacsinta on. Usually people come up and grab them as I make them and fill and roll them for themselves.

Over medium-high heat melt a small dab of butter in the frying pan (or pans if you are using two). Pour in some of the batter - it will be thin, not like regular pancakes. The dollop of batter should be about like this much-

Then you pick up the pan and swirl it around to get the batter to cover the bottom of the pan like so-

Let it cook until the surface looks rather dry-

Then flip it over to cook the other side -this is where my second pan comes in - I flip it over right into the second pan to finish cooking. Then I go ahead and pour my next palacsinta in the first pan. This works out as an efficient system for me to keep them going and feed the family.

Continue to add a tiny dab of butter to the frying pan after each couple of palacsinta.

Spread the finished palacsinta with a thin layer of jam or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar-

 Roll it up and feed it to waiting hungry child-

Alternatively, for cheese filling mix up 1 pound cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Spread filling generously on palacsinta, roll it up, and place in a buttered baking dish. Bake in oven for about 20-30 minutes until filling is cooked. 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar on top or dollop with sour cream if you want to be fancy.
 

Final Food

Treats to get a student through finals week. Made with peanut butter and other good stuff, they are tasty, nutritious, and protein rich.

'Those peanut butter things came in handy between tests this morning.'

'I ate some of those things and I'm still not hungry.'

'Those peanut butter things are really capital.' - resident college student

Peanut Butter Snacks

Adapted from a recipe from The New Laurel's Kitchen.

2 cups natural peanut butter (approximately) - we use our own home made

2/3 cup dry milk powder

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup ground flax seed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup raisins

sesame seeds or coconut

Mix everything except the sesame seeds (or coconut) together. Line a nine inch square pan with a piece of wax paper twice as big as the pan and sprinkle it with the seeds or coconut. Press the peanut butter mixture into the pan on top of the seeds. Sprinkle the top with more seeds or coconut, wrap the wax paper over the top, and flatten it down with your hands. Put the pan in the refrigerator to chill. Lift out the treats on the wax paper and cut into bite size squares - a metal dough scraper works perfectly for this. Store in refrigerator.

Apple Galette

Lydia has mastered the art of the galette and we are all enjoying her culinary skill. Last night when Michael came in the door he took one look and noted she was wearing an apron, and declared it 'a very good sign'. He was right, as three galettes were baking nicely in the oven. We have decided apple galette is even better than apple pie as the bottom crust is crisp and flaky and doesn't get soggy like a pie does. The boys like them as they think they look medieval, and Josiah wants some for movie props. The galette is less juicy than pie and not overly sweet, so you can pick up a wedge and eat it like a heathen if you are a teenager, or have it proper on a plate with ice cream if you are a civilized sort. I am.

As written, the recipe makes one galette which we say serves four - the recipe is easily doubled or tripled. These are very quick and easy to make, and by baking them on parchment paper cleanup is a breeze.

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt*

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup butter

5 tablespoons ice water

Toss dry ingredients together in a bowl. Rub in butter with your fingertips until blended. Sprinkle with water and mix gently until dough comes together into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface until you have an approximate 14" round.

Transfer the round to a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. If you do a good job rolling the dough and don't have any tears, all the juices will stay nicely (and deliciously) contained in the crust.

Peel, core and slice 2-3 large apples. We have been using 2 1/2 huge Stayman apples per galette. Slice the apples into thin wedges and arrange them in an overlapping circle on the dough, leaving a rim of about 3" of dough.
 
 

Keep adding apples, filling in the center with another smaller round of slices. Sprinkle the apples with 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Dot with about a tablespoon of butter on top of the cinnamon sugar. Fold up the edges of the dough making little pleats as you go around.

 

The galette should be about nine or ten inches in diameter.

Bake the galette in a preheated 400 degree F oven for approximately 35 minutes. I start checking it after about 25 minutes. It should be nice and golden looking and the apples fork tender.
  

Best served warm with ice cream, a cup of tea on the side, of course.
 Edited to add: * If you are using salted butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt per galette is adequate. Of course salt in pastry is a matter of personal taste, so adjust accordingly.

Lydia is still making, and we are still eating, lots of galette. They also make a lovely gift to pass along to a friend as well. We've found that they are best when baked to a nice golden color (not underdone), and eaten right out of the oven. The crust is really superb - crispy and flaky and oh, so delicious when it's hot and fresh - and you don't even think of putting ice cream on such perfection.

Happy Fall Breakfasts

When the weather gets cooler in the fall we start craving more hearty breakfast fare. Granola is one of those things we make in cold weather as it takes a long time to bake in the oven - unthinkable in summer but very cozy in the fall. Here's our current recipe/method:

Granola

mix these dry ingredients together in a large bowl:

1 large carton (42 oz.) of old-fashioned thick rolled oats

7 oz. shredded coconut

few cups of coarsely chopped nuts - pecans are our favorite

whisk these wet ingredients together in a small bowl:

1 cup real maple syrup (you can also use honey, but maple syrup is a nice treat)

1/2 cup oil

2 tablespoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt if desired

Pour the syrup mixture over the oat blend and stir until everything is well mixed and evenly moist. Spread out on two large jelly roll pans (rimmed cookie sheets) lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper is a big help as the oats won't stick during baking and you won't even have to wash the cookie sheets, and you can even fold up the paper to re-use next time. As always, I am all about quick and easy while striving for nutritious and delicious. Bake the granola in a 300 degree F oven. You need to stir the granola every fifteen minutes, and I like to switch the two pans from the top to bottom racks every time I stir as well. Use a timer! The parchment paper also comes in handy here as you can sort of lift the paper around the edges to help stir up the granola and move the stuff on the sides to the middle. Bake until the granola is a lovely golden brown, approximately 60-90 minutes. Let cool, then stir in as much dried fruit in whatever combination you like - raisins, craisins, dates, pineapple bits, apples, apricots etc. 

 

We presently like our granola with just pecans and dates, and lots of them. Store in an airtight container. Ours doesn't last long! It's great for breakfast with milk but also really good with vanilla yogurt.

Apple-cinnamon-raisin oatmeal

Everything apple-cinnamon tastes so good in fall. Here is my easy oatmeal method

4 cups water

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 cups old fashioned (thick rolled) oats

1 large apple, diced

1 teaspoon cinnamon

few handfuls raisins

Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Dissolve the sugar in the water. Stir in oats and remaining ingredients. Turn off the heat and cover the pot. ( I have an electric stove - I would imagine if you use a gas stove you need to let it cook a few minutes before turning off the burner.) Let sit for at least five minutes or as long as you need to - if the breakfast eaters don't show up for another 20-30 minutes that's fine too. Stir before serving. By adding the brown sugar to the pot the oatmeal is already sweetened and the sugar level is controlled, so there's no need to add gobs of brown sugar on top at the table. (no fun, I know)

 

German apple pancake
 
  

These are currently quite popular in the bloggy breakfast world! I had started to post these a while ago when I noticed two other ladies had already posted their recipes for the same thing. However, I realized I make mine a little simpler (of course) so I decided to go ahead and post my method here.  In order to cook from scratch as much and as often as I do around here, I have to keep it quick and simple (psst- I don't even peel the apples). :-)

For each pancake you need:

1 large apple, sliced in thin wedges (or 1 1/2 medium apples)

4 eggs

3/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat)

1 cup milk

butter, cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Generously butter a glass pie pan. Arrange the apple sliced nicely in the bottom of the pan. Mix the eggs, flour, and milk either in a blender or in a bowl using a stick blender. Pour mixture over the apples. Sprinkle generously with a few spoonfuls of cinnamon sugar. (If you plan to serve them with a sweet syrup you can probably just sprinkle them with plain cinnamon.) Bake for 20 minutes - pancake will be golden and puffy.
I

I make three of these for my family. They are best served warm right out of the oven, but they taste just fine at room temperature if there happens to be any left over at afternoon tea time. You can also warm up any leftovers quite nicely in the microwave.
 

Applesauce

We bought lots of extra apples at the farmer's market so I could make applesauce. Homemade applesauce is a most simple, delicious, warm, homey, nutritious snack - perfect for fall. Being a lover of quality kitchen gadgets and also of tasty homemade food, my dear husband granted my wish for a food mill. I am now the very happy owner of the Oxo Good Grips Food Mill which makes applesauce super easy.

Wash the apples and chop them with a handy dandy apple slicer - you don't need to peel or core the apples - I love that. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of a large pot and throw in all the apple pieces. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer, covered, until apples are cooked through. Mine took about 40 minutes.

 

Then run the apples through the food mill. The Oxo lives up to its reputation of comfortable, easy to use kitchen gadgets. It takes a lot of turning to process the apples, but it's very fast and easy and the comfortable spinning rubber knob makes it a breeze.

 

Stir in a spoonful of cinnamon if you like.

 

We enjoyed our applesauce warm for lunch with cheese and crackers. My big stock pot of apples cooked down to about five quarts of applesauce, and by the end of the day it was all gone. I would like to make more and maybe freeze some for the winter - we'll have to see if the next batch 'evaporates' as fast as this one did. 

Buttermilk Scalloped Potatoes

We enjoyed these hearty potatoes last night. I served them with garden green beans and beets on the side along with a salad and some hard boiled eggs for a simple Friday supper.

Scrub as many potatoes as you like, and butter a flat baking dish big enough to hold your potatoes; I used my 11x15" glass dish. A Salad Shooter works perfectly to slice the potatoes uniformly thin, and you can 'shoot' them right into the prepared dish minimizing cleanup. In a small bowl mix together your 'sauce' using a small whisk. For this large pan of potatoes I used 3 cups of buttermilk and 3/4 cup of flour (King Arthur white whole wheat). You can easily adjust the amounts for a smaller pan, using 1/4 cup of flour for every cup of buttermilk. Pour the mixture evenly over the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper if you like. Cover tightly with foil and bake in a 400 degree F oven. After about a half and hour I take them out of the oven and cover the potatoes with a very generous layer of grated sharp cheddar cheese. It's very handy to use the Shooter again for grating the cheese, right on top of the potatoes. Replace foil and bake for another half an hour or so until potatoes test done with a fork. Remove foil and bake uncovered for another five or ten minutes or so to let the cheese get nice and toasty brown.

You can sprinkle parsley or chives in with the potatoes, or sprinkle a generous amount of paprika on top of the cheese if you'd like to dress them up just a bit, or you can have them plain and simple if your children don't like funny green stuff in their potatoes.