Jul.
06

“Amish” Friendship Muffins

Posted by Em at: 7:06 am | 4 Comments


Nearly two weeks ago my sister gave me a half-loaf of “Amish” Friendship Bread and starter to make my own. Admittedly, the process for making this is a labor of love. Although I wasn’t feelin the love, I dutifully followed the directions to mush the bag on the correct days… but wasn’t all that enthusiastic about it. Ho-hum is how I felt, but I continued to dutifully follow the directions on what I needed to do. And then… about 5 days after she first dropped it off I finally tried a slice of the baked result that she’d left and yes siree ricky bobby that was some DEEEEEEEEElicious stuff. Holy mother of pearl what was wrong with me and my ho-hum attitude?? With one bite I was reinvigorated with vim and vigor (uhmmm still don’t know what that is but it sounds good so I’m leavin it! LOL!!). I couldn’t wait to get to the point in the process where I got to make my very own loaf!

Finally came the day to bake it… and don’tcha know, I was missing an ingredient. D’oh!!! I hate when that happens. But the next day I went to the store, purchased said ingredient, baked it up and was lost in all my nom-nom-nom happy noises as I devoured more than my fair share. Hey, what can I say, this stuff is good!!!

But I’m ahead of myself.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Amish Friendship Bread, click here for a lil background. The basic premise is you get the recipe and a ziplock bag of liquid called the “starter” from someone who has just made it. Then for the next 10 days you have to “nurture” your starter. Most days you just need to mush the bag… but in the middle of the 10 day cycle you add sugar, flour and milk. At the end of the 10 day cycle it’s time to bake it and pass along starter to others (or keep it yourself but that’s not very “friendship”-like! LOL).

If you don’t have any friends making it, here is a website which gives you info on how to make your own starter. Of course, I haven’t done it but thought I’d pass it along in case any of you felt adventurous :)

Below are the instructions that come with your starter…

=====================

Amish Friendship Bread

Do not use any type of metal bowls or spoons for mixing.
Do not refrigerate. If air gets in the bag, let it out. It is normal for the starter to raise, bubble and fermet.

Day 1 – Do nothing – this is the date that is on the bag – be sure the bag has been dated
Day 2 – Mush the bag
Day 3 – Mush the bag
Day 4 – Mush the bag
Day 5 – Mush the bag
Day 6 – Open the bag; add 1cup each of flour, sugar & milk. Seal the bag. Mush the bag.
Day 7 – Mush the bag
Day 8 – Mush the bag
Day 9 – Mush the bag
Day 10 – Mix and divide the starter as follows:

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 ½ cups each of the following: flour, sugar and milk. Measure out four 1cup servings and pour each into a separate gallon zip-lock style bag. Date each bag. Keep one for yourself (if you want to do this again) and give the other three to friends along with the copy of this recipe.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

To the remaining batter in the bowl add:
3 eggs
1 cup oil (or 1/2c oil and 1/2c applesauce)
½ cup milk
1 c sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 large box of INSTANT pudding mix (flavor of your choice)

Grease 2 loaf pans. In a small bow, mix ½ cup brown sugar and 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Dust the bottom of the loaf pans with half of the brown sugar / cinnamon mixture. Pour batter into the pans and sprinkle the remaining brown sugar / cinnamon mixture.

Bake for 1 hour. Cool in pan until bread loosens… about 10 minutes. Turn out onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.

Options: Add 1 cup chopped nuts, raisins or chocolate chips

Note: Should the recipe not be passed on to a friend on the 10th day, be certain to tell the recipient which day the bag is at when it is presented to them. When you divide the starter, write the date on each bag. This helps keep better track of which day you are on. If you keep a starter bag for yourself, you will be baking every ten days. This bread is very good and makes a great gift. If you give all your bags away, you will have to wait until someone gives you a starter back since how to create the starter is a “secret” (or follow the link I provided earlier in the post! LOL)

Have fun and enjoy!

=====================

I had fun making mine. The yield was one loaf pan and a dozen regular sized muffins (which I baked for 27 minutes). I took the loaf to work and three bags of starter… all of it was gone within an hour – they LOVED it.

If you get an opportunity to make it, definitely go for it. It’s good…. very very good :)

Have a delicious day!

Posted in bread, cake, recipes | 4 Comments »

Jul.
01

Apple Cheddar Scones – TWD

Posted by Em at: 7:04 am | 12 Comments


It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time for another Dorie Greenspan recipe :) These apple cheddar scones come together easily, bake up beautifully and taste great! Serve with some honey butter and they’re M’mmm M’mmm deelish In my repeated perusing one of my favorite baking books – Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours, I have come across this recipe several times. While I admittedly just looooooove scones, to me they’re a sweet bread, not a savory bread. And truth be told the idea of cheddar cheese and apples just didn’t excite me. As much as I trust and respect Dorie Greenspan, I simply had no intention of trying out this recipe.

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie was hosted by Karina of The Floured Apron who chose, you guessed it, the Apple Cheddar Scones recipe! I’m actually really glad she did because like I said, I had no intention of baking these! LOL! But as a TWDer, I’m open to any recipe in this fantastic book.


This recipe is so easy and so quick! You don’t need a lot of time and you don’t even need any kind of mixer… I made these with just two bowls, a fork and a rubber spatula. Could it be any easier?!?!?!!!! And quick? Just 20 minutes in the oven. I think it took me a grand total of 45 minutes from thinkin’ to eatin’ :) :) :) :) Dorie provides instruction of how to roll these out and cut into the appropriate shape before baking on parchment… but you know I can’t possibly pass up an opportunity to use my super nifty cast iron scone pan so that’s what I used!

As written, the recipe calls for either apple cider or apple juice and dried apples… but… I’m a rebel and instead used freshly diced apples figuring the natural juices in the fresh apples would compensate. Who knows if that really *really* worked but the end result tasted just great to me and DJ :) And to make the honey butter I just whipped some honey into softened (not melted) butter. Easy-breezy!

For dinner last night we bbq’d some ribs on the rotisserie, grilled up some corn, heated some baked beans… and enjoyed these apple cheddar scones. The texture is nothing like the sweet scones I’ve blogged about here and here. Along with all purpose flour, these include a bit of cornmeal for a much more rustic texture that makes them perfect as a dinner bread.

They’re good… and they’re different…. they’re differently good!!!

Check out the others who also bake Tuesdays with Dorie – and see what they came up with as well.

Have a delicious day!

Posted in Tuesdays with Dorie, bread, fruit, scones | 12 Comments »

Jun.
23

Cornbread

Posted by Em at: 11:03 am | 8 Comments


Yes, it’s summertime in the northern hemisphere… and where I live the temperatures have been over 108F for the past week. Some may think it inappropriate to make cornbread this time of year – but it’s not! If nothing else, bookmark this post because come the fall/winter holiday season someone’s gonna ask “do you have a good recipe for homemade corn bread” and you can reply “why yes… yes I do”…

One of my favorite side dishes with Thanksgiving Dinner is cornbread dressing. In our family, I’m the one who has been trusted with our “secret family recipe” for it and I’m expected to bring it every year. Not a problem since I love, love, LOVE to not only EAT cornbread dressing, but I love the process of making it too!! In order to make a really good cornbread dressing… well… ya gotta start off with a really good cornbread itself.

Now, this isn’t the high, fluffy, uber-sweet stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love that kind of cornbread – especially when I’m just eating it by itself or alongside a bowl of chili or with a meal of bbq ribs/chicken/tri-tip. But for cornbread dressing I prefer something that’s more rustic… and holds together well without getting sogged-down when all the liquid ingredients and butter are added.

In the hot summer months, the last thing we’re thinking about making is cornbread dressing. I understand that, trust me… I do! LOL. But it’s a good time to test drive this recipe as a side dish for a BBQ or cookout. Then you can decide if it’ll make a great base for YOUR secret family recipe for cornbread dressing. What? You don’t have a secret family recipe? Never fear – I’ll post a good one for you when we get closer to the Holiday season :) But for now… try the cornbread ;-)

HomeMade Rustic Cornbread

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cups cornmeal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
In a bowl, combine cornmeal and milk – let stand for 20 minutes. — THIS IS IMPORTANT… you really REALLY have to let this mixture stand for AT LEAST 20 minutes to soften the cornmeal. As it is, cornmeal is very grainy – if you don’t let it soften up for AT LEAST 20 minutes your cornbread will be pretty much inedible. Let it sit for 30 minutes if ya got the time :)

Spray a cast iron skillet -OR- cast iron scone/cornbread pan with baking spray
Preheat oven to 400F degrees

In a separate bowl, whisk together by hand the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the dry ingredients with the cornmeal/milk mixture, eggs, oil and honey… and mix on a medium speed until smooth. Once smooth, continue mixing at a medium-high speed for another 5 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 8 servings

Have a delicious day!

Posted in bread, food, recipes | 8 Comments »

Jun.
20

Bagels

Posted by Em at: 1:18 pm | 4 Comments


Who doesn’t enjoy bagels? I guess there’s gotta be someone out there… but no one I know, that’s for sure! There’s sweet bagels.. (cinnamon raisin, blueberry, chocolate chip)… there’s savory bagels… (onion, garlic, rye)… there’s bagels & cream cheese… there’s bagel-bites… there’s even bagel-dogs. While I know a lot about bagel-eatin, I didn’t know much about bagel-makin until I enlisted help from the fab folks at the King Arthur Flour Company…

The King Arthur Flour Company has one of the best instructional websites around. At least in my opinion. I can’t count how many times I have turned to them to learn new techniques. And their blog is one that I read regularly. Not just recipes… heck, anyone can post a recipe and leave it at that… but these folks give you a step-by-step tutorial in words and pictures. Now THAT’S what I’m talkin about! When I’m trying something completely new I like the step-by-step pics so I have a clue if I’m on the right track.

Case in point… the first time I attempted to make the bagels I didn’t know there was a difference between Active Dry Yeast and Instant Yeast. Okay, yeah, I know, the *name* is different but color me clueless because I thought yeast was yeast. HA! Now I know better. I made the starter at night and in the morning expected it to have thinned out and gotten bubbly. Well, it didn’t. It was like a super-mini rising bread. But even after looking at the pics of how it was *supposed* to look (and I shoulda stopped right there knowing mine didn’t resemble their pic AT ALL) I valiantly marched on-ward. Uhm… big mistake. 4 cups of flour + other ingredients and a one hour rising-period later, my dough did not rise. Nope, no way, no how, uhn uhnnn… it wasn’t goin anywhere. But… not to be deterred in my enthusiasm… I left it alone for another three-and-a-half hours thinking it was maybe just a slower-riser. HAHAHAHA Yeah, right. Good one, huh? On more than one occasion I dejectedly walked it toward the bin but decided to give it “just a little more time”. When I’d had enough and decided it WAS getting binned, DJ convinced me to just try baking it to see what would happen. He loves bread, btw ;-) To make him happy I kneaded in some garlic powder and italian seasoning… then pressed some sesame seeds into the top and tossed it in the oven on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Lo-and-behold if that thing didn’t bake up into one delicious loaf of artisan-looking bread which I promptly named “Ooops Bread” hahahaha

As good as the Oops Bread turned out, I still wanted to, yanno, make **bagels** :) I went to the store and purchased Rapid Rise yeast (closest thing I could find to “instant” yeast)… then one morning before work got the “starter” going. Hey, I figure bagel-makin can’t look at the clock and tell time and if it needs an overnight resting period, that’s no different to starting it before I leave for work and then come home 10 hours later to finish it off. The starter still didn’t look like it did in the King Arthur pictures… but it was closer to that – much much closer. After all of the requisite needing and proofing periods… then rolling into balls… then putting in the holes and shaping like bagels… then boiling in a mixture of water and brown sugar (cuz, yanno, I just don’t *have* non-diastatic malt in the cupboard! LOL)… and then baking… I HAD BAGELS :) :) :)

Okay so they don’t look like professional bakery-style bagels, but for a first attempt I’m pretty darn proud of em! LOL. The idea of making a dozen plain bagels didn’t rock my world so I made 2 of each of the following variations… Cinnamon Raisin, Sesame, Garlic, Sesame Garlic, Onion Garlic and Cheese-&-Pepperoni. And ya know what? They’re pretty darn tasty… each and every different kind. DJ loves sesame bagels (heck, sesame ANYTHING) and he said the sesame and sesame garlic bagels are as good as the bakery makes. HA! I don’t think they’re THAT good but it was super sweet of him to say it, huh? What a guy… gotta love him :)

Here is the step-by-step how to for making bagels. I learned a lot in this process and I can’t wait to make bagels again. Hopefully it inspires you to try making bagels too. It’s really not that hard… and they’re really very good :)

Have a delicious day!

Posted in bread, breakfast, recipes | 4 Comments »

Jun.
15

Happy Father’s Day!

Posted by Em at: 7:01 am | No Comments


This was an interesting couple of days. On Friday, a friend of mine, who is a terrific father, told me I inspired him to make banana bread… and take pics! And then Saturday I spent the day giving my first private baking lessons to a co-worker’s wife. The family would be attending a Father’s Day gathering of 50+ people and she wanted to make a few of the recipes she’d seen here on my site. Good things are happening all around!!

My father passed away last August and this is my first Father’s Day without him. I’m very sad about that. Much moreso than I expected to be. But on Friday, my dear friend Rich (aka Mr. Crankypants) called me up – - – and that always makes me smile. Not only is he a terrific person but Rich is also a terrific father and although he’s too young to fully appreciate it, one day Rich’s son will realize what a terrific guy his dad really is. Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like Rich. No, he doesn’t pay me to say these things… I just really feel blessed that he puts up with me cuz Lord knows that’s not easy! LOL!

I think Rich has a love of bananas. Recall that in this post last month, I wrote about the peanut butter and banana cupcakes I made for his birthday. Well, when we talked on Friday he told me how I’d inspired him to bake some banana bread. And not some regular old box mix banana bread (which would have impressed me right there) but he baked this banana bread from scratch! He used Jessica Seinfeld’s recipe and adapted it to his own liking. I’m so proud of him for taking an existing recipe and making it his own!!! In making his super-special banana bread Rich omitted the cauliflower, added more banana instead, and a tablespoon of ground flax seed. Pretty snazzy huh?? He said it was really good and next time he’ll add even more banana, and leave in more banana chunks. His son helped him measure out the ingredients and eat the yummy results. What a fantastic Father-&-Son project and I thought it was something really appropriate to share with all of you on Father’s Day :)

As you know, I take a lot of baked goods to the office. I mean, I bake… a lot! And even though DJ and the kids consume their fair share… and I give a lot away to my neighbors… I take quite a bit to work. Last week, a co-worker who has eaten plenty of my cupcakes and cookies visited my blog for the first time. He was really impressed and emailed the URL to his wife thinking she’d like the recipes. She contacted me and asked if she could pay me to make her husband’s favorite Red Velvet cupcakes for Father’s Day. We chatted about it for a while and she confided that she’s really not much of a baker but asked if I would teach her because she wanted to learn. I enthusiastically agreed! As it turned out they had plans to attend a Father’s Day gathering for over 50 people and she wanted to make the Red Velvet cupcakes w/cream cheese icing that she’d seen here as well as the Mint Chocolate cupcakes she’d seen here.

We spent about 7 hours together and I coached her thru baking, frosting and decorating about 84 cupcakes from scratch. She made the cupcakes, the icing, frosted and decorated them all with me just doing the coaching, demonstrating and supervising. She’d never used a pastry bag in her life but I’m really proud of how she did. The photos below aren’t the best since the lighting in their kitchen was a bit of a challenge… and it’s hard to see the green color of the mint icing… but she did a great job and I was happy to share my love of baking. I hope her family appreciates her hard work in making these cupcakes for Father’s Day :)

Here she is using the pastry bag to pipe cream cheese icing on the red velvet cupcakes

Sprinkling red sanding sugar on the red velvet cupcakes

The finished red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

The undecorated mint chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream icing (the mint green color of the icing doesn’t show very well in the picture – sorry)

And the tray of decorated mint chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream icing (again, the mint green color of the icing doesn’t show very well in the picture – sorry)… some are dusted with cocoa powder and some have chocolate sprinkles

She was a great student! As I said, I’m really proud of the results she achieved… and I really enjoyed playing teacher for the day.

Have a delicious day…. and Happy Father’s Day!!

Posted in Holiday, bread, cupcakes | No Comments »

« View Older Entries | View Newer Entries »
Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin