Category: baking

baking · breakfast · Uncategorized

Week-Long Muffin Batter

RefreshHer4 Comments

Muffin batter - Copy

Coming up with a great breakfast is difficult to me.  Oh, I know there are lots of options – French Toast, waffles, omelets, etc., but most people don’t have time to be stirring up great recipes first thing in the morning, myself included.  The best way to have a something good is to prepare ahead.

Years ago, I found a Bran muffin recipe that you stir together and put in the fridge.  I call them Morning Glory Muffins because they make the morning glorious!!!!  The batter stays fresh for a week!  During that week, you can heat up the oven, bake up as many as you need without having the work and mess first thing in the morning.  These are healthy and delicious!  This month during Sabbatical, I mixed up the batter and it was a great addition to my yogurt and fruit.  I took some batter with us when we went to Pigeon Forge for a few days, and it was great to have it all ready to bake!

muffin batter1 - Copy

 

Here’s the simple recipe:

Morning Glory Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1/2 cup bran cereal (not flakes, preferably a wheat bran)
  • 1/3 cup (vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/4 cups
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup raisins
  • 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups bran cereal – not flakes. (Though they say “not flakes” that’s what I had on hand and used, and they turned out great!)
  • 1 – 2 tsp Grated Orange peel

Instructions

  1. In a small mixing bowl, pour the boiling water over the half cup of cereal. When cooled, mix in the vegetable oil and egg.
  2. While the water/bran mixture cools, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the raisins.
  3. In a large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and brown sugar, and stir into the dry ingredients. Stir in remaining cereal, then the softened bran mixture and orange zest. Cover the batter and refrigerate it overnight.
  4. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F for 15 minutes. Line a muffin tin with papers, and spray the insides of the papers. Or just grease the muffin cups themselves, if you like a crustier muffin edge.
  5. Stir the batter once or twice, then scoop a heaping 1/4-cup of batter into each prepared muffin cup.
  6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  7. Remove from the oven, cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan.

muffins

 

If you want a nice hot muffin without having to be in the kitchen more than a few minutes, this recipe will be your morning glory, too!

With love from my country kitchen,

Denise Signature 150 px

baking · Bread

Perfecting the Biscuit

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biscuit 2

I’m a southerner.  I’m a biscuit lover and I’m a baker.  Put those three things together and it means that over the years, I have tried to perfect both my recipe and results of homemade biscuits.  Where else would I turn but to Southern Living?  They are the cream of the crop, or in this case the best of the biscuits! 

I recently gave SL’s Best Buttermilk Biscuits a couple of runs and they turned out really good!  They have those buttery layers that are typified in a perfect biscuit.  They were simple to do and only required three ingredients – Self-rising flour, Buttermilk and Butter. No worries if you don’t have self-rising flour – just add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for each cup of flour.

The secret to the flaky layers is the folding of the dough.  Follow the instructions to fold and turn, fold and turn and you’ll get perfect results!  Here’s the recipe:

Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), frozen
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup chilled buttermilk
PARCHMENT PAPER
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 475°. Grate frozen butter using large holes of a box grater. Toss together grated butter and flour in a medium bowl. Chill 10 minutes.

2. Make a well in center of mixture. Add buttermilk, and stir 15 times. Dough will be sticky.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly sprinkle flour over top of dough. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Fold dough in half so short ends meet. Repeat rolling and folding process 4 more times.

4. Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch floured round cutter, reshaping scraps and flouring as needed.

5. Place dough rounds on a parchment paper-lined jelly-roll pan. Bake at 475° for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter.

buttermilk biscuits

Add a biscuit to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and fresh fruit, topped with yogurt and granola and you have a hearty start to your day!

breakfast

 

Have you mastered biscuit making?  I hope you’ll try this recipe and method if you’re still trying to find the perfect recipe!  It lives up to Southern Living’s reputation!

With love from my country kitchen,

 

baking

Icing That Makes the Cake

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I love making and decorating simple cakes and cupcakes.  Last week I got to make the cupcakes for Alli’s music recital. I kept it really basic since I was making 75.   Cupcakes are the star, in my opinion, only if the frosting is delicious. It can cover for a dry cake or one that is just plain with no extra filling.

I have used the Wilton Buttercream icing recipe for years and it always turns out, and it’s always delicious!  Here’s the simple recipe:

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Step 1

In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.

Step 2

Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.

Step 3

Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Don’t over-beat, though.

Step 4

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons water or milk. For piping, I add 1 tablespoon.

*To make the chocolate buttercream, add 1/2 cup cocoa powder.

I spoon icing into a large piping bag and then, using the large star tip, I pipe the icing on.  It’s faster than smoothing it on with a knife, and it looks so pretty! I like leaving a little border of the cake showing – it also keeps it from being too much icing.

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Aren’t the music note picks cute?  Alli cut two of them with a paper punch and then glued them together with a toothpick in between, then we popped them into the icing.

Here’s a helpful guide about the decorating tips and which one to use:

Understanding your piping tips will help you frost everything to perfection. Here is your guide to everything you need to know about piping tips.:
This guide came from here

 

There’s an excellent guide here on the technique of adding a swirl design with your frosting.

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This cupcake stand was made by a dear man in our church at the time of Whitney’s wedding.  Our church has used it many times since her wedding.  It holds LOTS of cupcakes, but we just spread them out for the 75 and spaced them out on the rows.

If you’ve never taken a simple cake decorating class, many craft stores offer them.  I took the Wilton class when my girls were young, and it was really helpful in creating special cakes for birthdays, anniversaries and events.

Even if you never take a class, you now have their yummy Buttercream Frosting recipe.  It tastes good, no matter how it’s applied to the cake!  I hope you’ll make it for your next cake!

I think my favorite combination is chocolate cake and white icing.  How about you?

With love from my country kitchen,

 

baking · Uncategorized

Breakfast Muffins To Start Your Day!

RefreshHer8 Comments

Muffin 1

I love to look at the reviews of recipes I’m going to make, but I have to laugh at people who give a great recipe a horrible review and then go on to share how they did NOT follow the directions!  Hello?  That’s what directions are for!
Try a recipe once.  If you don’t love it, then you can tweak the it a bit, then try again.  But give the recipe a chance!!

muffin 3

Saturday night I went strictly by the recipe I found in my Cooking Light Cookbook and I made their Lemon-Blueberry Muffins.  They were supposed to be used for Sunday breakfast.  I baked them   and “someone” smelled them from his office and came in for a taste!  Two muffins later  he returned to his office, declaring them, “Absolutely scrumptious!”  There were plenty for breakfast – and I love it when he wants to try what I bake!

Here are a few pictures of the process:

Be sure to add a tablespoon of flour to your blueberries before you add them to the batter. This will keep them from falling to the bottom of the muffin.

muffin 5

muffin 6

Some people who reviewed this recipe said they left the glaze off and served them plain.  I would definitely add the glaze!  It makes them so good!!!  Here they are cooling, waiting to be drenched in that lemony glaze…

muffin 4

This is what I’m talking about….
Why would you leave that off???

Muffin 2

Finally, here’s the recipe.  You need these muffins in your morning routine!

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 cup blueberries
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through nutmeg) in a medium bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Combine buttermilk, egg, and rind; stir well with a whisk. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Gently fold in blueberries.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until the muffins spring back when lightly touched. Remove muffins from pans immediately, and place on a wire rack to cool.

Combine lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drizzle glaze evenly over cooled muffins.

Note: You can make these muffins up to 2 days ahead and glaze them the morning you need them.

Muffin 2a

When you bake, do you go strictly by the recipe when you first try it?
Let me know if you make these!

With love from my country kitchen,

baking · Side dish · Uncategorized

Indulgences/No Guilt

RefreshHer1 Comment

I don’t always eat indulgences, but there are cravings for yummy things that hit like the recent winter storm – hard and with little warning!  But I like to eat what I love in a way that doesn’t bring guilt.  How to eat  delicacies and still feel good?  Enter Cooking Light.  You’ve seen their links all over my blog because with their recipes you eat real food, but it’s just lightened up and tastes outstanding!  

I tried a recipe on Cooking Light for Chocolate Chip Cookies that are a cross between cake and cookie.  Excuse me?  That means Delicious in my book. So would they be called Cakies or Cookes?  I think I’ll go with Cakies – Chocolate Chip Cakies. To make them low-fat, they replaced some of the fat with applesauce and you don’t miss anything but the calories! These are SO good!

Cakie a

Chocolate Chip “Cakies”
Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray
Cakie

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk.

Spoon applesauce into a fine sieve over a bowl; let stand 15 minutes. Discard liquid. Scrape drained applesauce into a large bowl. Add sugar and butter; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in vanilla and egg. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended. Fold in chips.

Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

Now for my next low-fat cooking test…I’ve been playing around with Oven-fried Onion rings, trying to find the perfect combination of crunch and flavor.  It’s a little tricky to do when you’re not deep frying.  My old recipe, which will always be my favorite onion ring on a day when I want to splurge, requires oil and deep oil at that, so in order to live without clogging up my arteries, I thought an oven-fried method would be better!  This recipe was found on Food Network’s sight on the Sandwich King’s recipes.  The mix of flour and Panko breadcrumbs give it the perfect crunch with a fraction of the oil!  

onion rings

These little guys had to be husband-worthy, because they were part of his Birthday dinner!  It would be safe to say, he LOVED them!  I had a few…he had the rest.  End of story!  Here’s the recipe…

Oven Fried Onion Rings

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups buttermilk
4 eggs
3 cups panko breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 large yellow sweet onions, such as Maui, sliced 1/4-to-1/2-inch thick

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place parchment paper onto 2 baking sheets and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, paprika and 2 teaspoons salt. In another bowl or shallow dish, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs. Add half of the flour mixture to the buttermilk and beat until smooth and thickened.

In a separate bowl, combine the panko, olive oil and remaining 2 teaspoons salt.

Lightly dredge the onion rings in the flour mixture and then drop into the buttermilk. Drain the excess batter and then dredge in the panko mixture.

Oven Onion rings.jpg

Arrange on the prepared baking sheets in a single layer. You can place smaller rings inside bigger rings if necessary, just make sure there is space between them. Then place in the oven. Cook until golden brown, 14 to 20 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, flip over each onion ring to ensure even crisping and browning.

Recipe courtesy of Jeff Mauro

I feel for people who settle for substitutes for real food when they want to cut back.  There’s no need to do that when there are recipes this good!  I hope you’ll try a Chocolate Chip Cakie or an Oven-Fried Onion Ring!

What do you do to enjoy your favorite foods without the guilt?

With love from my country kitchen,

  P.S. Don’t forget to enter a picture on Facebook or Instagram today for #Monday Marriage Matters, then check back tomorrow for a post about my favorite photo(s)!