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Whole Grain Cranberry Scones…..

Posted by on May 17, 2012

These slightly sweet goodies will totally make your morning, afternoon, or night!   Is there really a bad time to have one for gosh sakes???   I love this original recipe as is but you can customize it to whatever you like.  Try it with dried cherries and chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, raisins and cinnamon (add 1 teaspoon to the dry mixture) or coconut and pecans…the possibilities are endless!

I topped them with large sugar granules.  You can find them at Michael’s Craft store.

Whole Grain Cranberry Scones

2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2″ cubes (if using salted butter omit the salt in the recipe)
1/2 cup oatmeal, old fashioned or quick cooking
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 cup craisins
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (you can substitute the milk with a couple of teaspoons of cider or white vinegar)
1 tablespoon orange or lemon zest
2 tablespoons milk
1-2 tablespoons large sugar granules (regular sugar is fine too)

1)  Preheat the oven to 375′.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2)  In a large mixing bowl add the flour through the salt.  Add the cold butter cubes and work into the flour with a pastry blender or your fingers.  You can also do this in a food processor.  Process until there are no large lumps and the flour resembles cornmeal.
3)  Add the oatmeal, wheat germ and craisins and mix to combine.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk and orange zest.  Stir until just combined.  It’s OK if it’s a bit sticky.  Flour the counter top and plop the dough onto the counter.  With floured hands, knead 2-3 times into a smooth ball of dough.  Add a little flour if necessary.  Roll out to about 3/4″.  Cut with a round biscuit cutter and place on parchment paper on the cookie sheet.
4)  Using a pastry brush, coat the scone tops with milk and sprinkle them generously with sugar.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.  They are best the day you make them.  Makes about twenty 3″ scones.

Enjoy!

Angie

 

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Traditional Croatian Easter Bread (Sirnica)…..

Posted by on April 5, 2012

I absolutely love learning about food traditions of other ethnicitys.    I think it’s my favorite part about being a cook.    Every week I try to make something I’ve never made before, sort of a dinner passport to different places all around the world.  This holy week, I’ll be making Croatian Easter Bread.   Check out another interesting version of this bread made with boiled, colored eggs, so interesting and beautiful!

Heather with her darling daughters Sadie,Clara, and Fiona.

I first had the pleasure of tasting this delicious bread when my friend Heather surprised me with a loaf right before Easter last year.  I was honored that she would share a loaf of her treasured family recipe.    It had a gentle yet distinctive citrus taste and was very pleasantly sweet without being too sweet.  Tender, moist, and delicious.   Of course, after the first bite I wanted to make this bread for all Easter Dinners going forward.  Heather kindly shared her recipe.

Try this Croatian Easter Bread.  It may become the next family tradition in your family:-)

Traditional Croatian Easter Bread
(Sirnica)

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 package active dry yeast or 2 ¼ teaspoon

½ cup softened butter (1 stick)
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of half of a lemon and half of an orange
6 cups all purpose flour
Crushed sugar cubes or sugar for dusting

1) Slightly heat the milk in a microwave. Add the yeast and set aside. (about 10-15 minutes or until yeast is dissolved and a little bubbly)

2) Meanwhile, in a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, and sugar, then add the eggs and salt, and zest, beat until well blended. Add the yeast-milk mixture and half of the flour, beat well. Add remaining flour gradually, until a smooth, soft dough forms. (you may not use all the flour or may require more)

3) Place the dough in a large greased bowl, burning to coat both sides, and let rise, covered, until doubled. Punch down and turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes.

4) Preheat oven to 375′.  Divide dough into 4 to 6 equal pieces, shape into a nice round ball. Cover and allow to rest 5 minutes.

5) Place dough on cookie parchment lined cookie sheet. Egg wash the dough with 1 large beaten egg and 1 tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with crushed sugar cubes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

*one way to check if a yeast bread for doneness is to thump it with your fingers, if it sounds hollow, it’s done. Be sure that you have a nice brown color was well.

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Best Irish Soda Bread Recipes…..

Posted by on March 7, 2012

I especially love St. Patrick’s Day because it was about the time I met my husband Joe.   We went to a St. Patty’s Day Party on our first date.  It was then that I knew I wanted to marry him.  Warm fuzzies:-)

I love the traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner.  So easy to make and so good.  Of course, you must serve Irish Soda Bread.  I make this bread often throughout the year as it goes great with any hearty soup or stew.

There are many, many Irish Soda Recipes out there but the latest one I tried was at my sister-in-law’s mother’s funeral.  I thought what?  A table of Irish Soda Bread at a funeral?  Of course, this was brilliant!  She was known for her delicious soda bread.  It was so sweet, they had shamrock decorated table with offering slices of bread, wrapped bread to take home and her recipe printed on a pretty recipe card.  What a beautiful idea!

I LOVED her recipe.  It was a little sweeter than mine and had an amazing buttery taste.  I will be making her recipe this St. Patrick’s Day.

One of the things that I love most about cooking are cherished traditional family recipes.   Whatever you do, if you have a special recipe from your Mom or Grandma or any family member, make them and share them with your kids.  Dear Margie will live on through her fabulous recipe.  Here it is.

Love the simplicity of the recipe.  You can tell that she made it over and over again so her recipe did not need tons of direction.

The recipe is large.  I am thinking the four pans used for baking would be 8-9″ round.    You could also make half of the batch in mini loaf pans, filling them a little over half full.  Baking time would be about 30 minutes at 350′.   This bread would make amazing french toast!!

Have a wonderful day!

Angie

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Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake…..

Posted by on January 14, 2012

When I think of coffee cake I get warm fuzzies.  This coffee cake is very much like the one my Mom would serve after Sunday Mass.  We’d have my Aunt Anita and Uncle Jerry and our cousins over for coffee and cake.  This is a simple coffee cake that everyone will love.  I make it in the small loaf pans as it takes only 30 minutes to bake.  You can also make them into muffins.

If you look closely, you can see that I put a layer of streusel in the middle of the bread as well.  Streusel on the top and in the middle is twice as nice!

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

For the streusel:

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes
dash of salt

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled

1)  For the streusel.  Put all ingredients into a small bowl and work them together with your fingers until you have a crumbly mixture.  Preheat the oven to 350′.  Coat 4 mini loaf pans with well with cooking spray.
2)  Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center.
3)  Add the egg, milk, sour cream, and melted butter into the well.  Mix until just blended.  Fill the pans 1/3 full, sprinkle a little streusel over the batter, then top with the rest of the batter.  Top with the remaining streusel.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick for doneness.  Cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack before you remove from pans.  Cool completely on rack.  Wrap with plastic wrap or put into a cellophane bag.

*For muffins.  Line a muffin tin with paper cupcake liners and coat the liners well with cooking spray.  Fill each cup 2/3 full and top generously with the struesel.  Bake for 17-19 minutes.    Makes 12-15 muffins.

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Christmas Concert, Kringle, & Dinner Rolls…..

Posted by on December 24, 2011

The Christmas concert at school was so cute!  It was fun to watch and very exciting too that it was the last day of school.  Ahhhhh, winter break.  No jumping out of bed, making lunches, getting breakfast, getting dressed and off to school.  Nice.

What was on the agenda our first day without school???

Baking, of course!  Ryan is very good at rolling, cutting and placing the cookies on the sheet.  I mixed the dough earlier in the week.  We baked all the cookie dough, whew!

Last night I mixed dough for Kringle.  (check out the step by step instruction)   I love making it because the dough is prepared the night before and simply rolled out, filled with cream cheese and fruit filling, shaped, and baked.  No second rising required.  It is so delicious and stays very fresh for 2-3 days unlike many other yeast type breads/rolls.

Lastly, since I loved the Challah bread so much, I thought I’d make a triple batch and shape them into rolls for Christmas Eve dinner at my  sister in law’s house….

The triple batch made about 75 rolls.  My house smells amazing!

Merry Christmas!

Angie

 

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Homemade Banana Chocolate Chip Bread…..

Posted by on October 13, 2011

Today is the perfect day for banana bread, don’t you think?  Our lovely sunny and perfect weather is gone.  It’s a bit gloomy outside.  Nothing like a sweet quick bread with chocolate chips to lift our spirits!  This recipe is a very simple one bowl recipe that is consistently delicious.

I always make my quick breads in mini loaf pans.  I do this for three reasons. 1)  They take far less time to bake thus, we’re baking green.  2)  When you bake a quick bread in a large loaf pan they often times dry out due to the very long baking time.  3)  I usually give half of what I bake away as little gifts or pick me ups to my friends.  These are the perfect size to share with someone who might need a little lift.  You can find disposable ones at most any baking isle in the grocery store. I also found them at Bed Bath & Beyond in packages of four for around $10.

What to do with over ripe bananas if you’re not ready to bake?  Don’t throw them away!  Simply remove the peel and put into a zip freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible, seal, and date.  When they thaw they are not the most appetizing fruit but let me tell you, frozen bananas make the BEST banana bread!  I find that when I pulverize the bananas with the other wet ingredients before adding to the dry, you get the best result.  I use an immersion blender but a regular blender will work just fine.

When adding chocolate chips, raisins or nuts to a quick bread, always mix them in with the dry ingredients.  This will prevent the goodies from sinking to the bottom of the bread while baking.  Even chocolate distribution….very important.
Homemade Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

1 1/2 cups ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)  I’ve made it with four smaller bananas, the measurement doesn’t have to be exact
3 eggs
2/3 cup oil
2 cups all purpose  flour (you can do half whole wheat flour with half all purpose flour if you like)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips, any variety you like, I love milk chocolate chips:-)

1)   Preheat the oven to 350′.  Coat 4 mini loaf pans well with cooking spray.  They should be about 6″x3″.
2)  If you’re using an immersion blender, place the bananas, eggs, and oil into a large mixing bowl.  Blend well with the immersion blender.  If you’re using a regular blender, blend the bananas, eggs, and oil in the blender and pour into a large mixing bowl.
3)  In a medium size bowl, mix the flour through the chocolate chips until well blended.
4)  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just blended.  Divide among the prepared pans.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick if you’re unsure if they’re done.  If it comes out clean, you’re good to go.  Allow them to cool on a rack in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing.  Cool completely.  Wrap with cling wrap or put into a cellophane gift bag and tie with a pretty ribbon.

*This bread freezes brilliantly!

Enjoy!

Angie

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Traditional Croatian Easter Bread (Sirnica)…..

Posted by on April 19, 2011

I absolutely love learning about food traditions of other ethnicitys.    I think it’s my favorite part about being a cook.    Every week I try to make something I’ve never made before, sort of a dinner passport to different places all around the world.  This holy week, I’ll be making Croatian Easter Bread.   Check out another interesting version of this bread made with boiled, colored eggs, so interesting and beautiful!

Heather with her darling daughters Sadie,Clara, and Fiona.

I first had the pleasure of tasting this delicious bread when my friend Heather surprised me with a loaf right before Easter last year.  I was honored that she would share a loaf of her treasured family recipe.    It had a gentle yet distinctive citrus taste and was very pleasantly sweet without being too sweet.  Tender, moist, and delicious.   Of course, after the first bite I wanted to make this bread for all Easter Dinners going forward.  Heather kindly shared her recipe.

Try this Croatian Easter Bread.  It may become the next family tradition in your family:-)

Traditional Croatian Easter Bread
(Sirnica)

 Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 package active dry yeast or 2 ¼ teaspoon

½ cup softened butter (1 stick)
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of half of a lemon and half of an orange
6 cups all purpose flour
Crushed sugar cubes or sugar for dusting

1) Slightly heat the milk in a microwave. Add the yeast and set aside. (about 10-15 minutes or until yeast is dissolved and a little bubbly)

2) Meanwhile, in a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, and sugar, then add the eggs and salt, and zest, beat until well blended. Add the yeast-milk mixture and half of the flour, beat well. Add remaining flour gradually, until a smooth, soft dough forms. (you may not use all the flour or may require more)

3) Place the dough in a large greased bowl, burning to coat both sides, and let rise, covered, until doubled. Punch down and turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes.

4) Preheat oven to 375′.  Divide dough into 4 to 6 equal pieces, shape into a nice round ball. Cover and allow to rest 5 minutes.

5) Place dough on cookie parchment lined cookie sheet. Egg wash the dough with 1 large beaten egg and 1 tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with crushed sugar cubes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

 *one way to check if a yeast bread for doneness is to thump it with your fingers, if it sounds hollow, it’s done. Be sure that you have a nice brown color was well.

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Cheddar and Onion Whole Grain Biscuits…..

Posted by on March 18, 2011

Umm.  One word.  Delicious.

Ok, maybe a couple more words.    These are made with real ingredients.  I use unbleached all purpose flour, whole wheat flour and wheat germ….and butter.   Can you imagine taking a bite of this right now????  They’re wonderful with honey too.   These go together in 10 minutes and bake for about 17.  Have some leftover?  Quick breakfast:  nuke the biscuit in the microwave for 15 seconds and top with a fried egg and cheese.  That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Cheddar and Onion Whole Grain Biscuits

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
½ cup cold butter, cut into ½” pieces
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
½ cup thinly sliced green onions (green part only)
½ cup plain non fat yogurt
½ cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon of milk

 1) Preheat oven to 375’. Foil line a cookie sheet, set aside.

2) In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour through the salt, whisk to blend.

3) Add the cubed butter pieces to the flour mixture. Use your hands to work the butter into the dry ingredients until there are no lumps of butter. The flour should resemble cornmeal.

4) Add the cheddar cheese and green onions, stir to blend. Make a well in the center.

5) Whisk the yogurt and milk together. Dump into the center of the flour mixture. Mix with a fork until the dry ingredients are moistened. Dump onto counter. Bring all ingredients together with your hands, knead a few times to make a dough. Dust the counter with a small amount of flour if the dough is too sticky.

6) Roll out the dough to ½” thickness. Using a 3” biscuit cutter, cut out as many biscuits as you can. Place them on the cookie sheet 1” apart. Put the scraps together trying to handle too much and cut out as many as you can. Pitch the scraps.

7) Beat the egg with the milk. Brush the tops of the biscuits with the egg wash. Bake for 14-17 minutes or until the biscuits are golden and set.   Makes 12-15 biscuits.  Serve with butter and honey. Yowza!

*Don’t have yogurt?  Substitute 1 cup of buttermilk, or 1 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon of vinegar.

Have a wonderful day!

Angie

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St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Accompaniments….

Posted by on March 16, 2011

Irish Soda Bread.  This soda bread is not of the dry variety.  This bread is moist, slightly sweet, and quite pleasing to the eye.  I make mini loaves as they take about half the baking time.   The shorter the baking time the less dried out it may become.  You can buy mini aluminum loaf pans at most any grocery store.  Serve alongside your traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner.  If you have any leftovers, use it for french toast…OH  BOY!

Sauteed Cabbage.  I know this isn’t the traditional “boiled” cabbage but come on!  Who wouldn’t prefer delicious caramelized cabbage over boring boiled cabbage!  Trust me, you’ll LOVE this!  So simple.  Slice the cabbage into quarters and remove the core.  Thinly slice the entire head.    In a heavy large skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the cabbage.  Season with kosher salt and pepper.  Cook for 40-50 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring often,  until the cabbage is caramelized. 

Homemade horseradish.  Wow!  If you like the sensation horseradish gives your sinuses, look out!  There is nothing like homemade horseradish to go with your corned beef and potatoes.  It’s quite simple.  Fresh horseradish root can be found in the produce section at most any grocery store.  Make your own cocktail sauce with one cup of ketchup, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.  Add horseradish to taste.  So good!

I hope you have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day!

Angie

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Corn Muffins with Ceddar Cheese and Chives…..

Posted by on January 31, 2011

Boy, look at the background in this picture!  I took this last summer….I can’t wait to take my pictures on the deck again!  I love that you can see Ryan’s ball in the back of the yard.  I’m so easily distracted!!!

This muffin is outstanding with most any soup creation you come up with.  They go together in about 10 minutes and bake for only about 17.  These round out your soup into a hearty,  pleasing supper.

Corn Muffins with Cheddar Cheese and Chives

1 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup yellow corn meal
1/2  cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons minced chives
3/4 cup milk
¼ cup sour cream or plain non fat yogurt
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 beaten egg

1) Preheat oven to 350’. Line a twelve count muffin pan with paper liners and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, add flour through chives, mix to blend.
3) Into a 2 cup measure, measure milk, oil, and add egg. Beat slightly.  Add sour cream or yogurt and give a quick mix.
4) Make a well in the dry ingredients and add liquid all at once. Mix until just blended. Divide evenly among 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Serve immediately. Makes 12 muffins.
*if you don’t have sour cream or plain yogurt, simply substitute ¼ cup of milk.

Enjoy!
Angie

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