Buttermilk Scones

So, I had the urge to bake for my co-workers at the Resource Center. Therefore, I made buttermilk scones and took them in on Thursday. 
They turned out super good! And they pair well with your favorite fruit spread (Mine are made by Bonne Mamman!)!

So, here's the recipe for the scones:
3 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2.5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. (1.5 sticks) butter
1 c. buttermilk
1 Tbsp. heavy cream


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. 

Dry Ingredients Combined

Add the butter and combine with the dry ingredients by using your fingers to a "coarse meal."

Add the buttermilk until the "meal" is just wet and combined.

Wet dough 

If you have a scone pan (greased!), place the dough in the pan. If you don't, roll out the dough on a floured service and divide it. Roll into 3/4 inch thick rounds. Cut each round into 8 wedges and place a greased baking sheets. 

Brush the tops with the heavy cream (you could use buttermilk, if you don't have the heavy cream!)

Placed, Brushed, and Ready!

Bake for 15 minutes!

YUMMY!

I let mine cool on a baking rack.

Cool!

Best served warm! They microwave well! And, as I said above, they go will with your favorite spread! 

I had mine with Raspberry!

Eat and Enjoy!

Blackberries! Muffins! BLACKBERRY MUFFINS!!!!

The loaf indentation was a knife, but the muffin's is a blackberry!

I had blackberries on hand and wanted to make something! Especially since I leave on Sunday and didn't want them to go bad.

So, I found a blackberry & blueberry muffin recipe here. Yes, I do get almost all of my recipes online, it's simplest that way.

Yet, I changed some of the recipe. So, here's what I did!

1 c. wheat flour

1 c. all purpose flour

1/3 c. oatmeal (I magic bulleted it first)

2/3 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 eggs

2 c. half-and-half (I used all the half-and-half I had then of what was left I was half heavy cream half skim milk [I had to work with what I have on hand!])

2 c. blackberries (that's what's called for, I think I had less since I had eaten some already!)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Butter your muffin pan(s).

Whisk all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Whisk the eggs and half-and-half.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Fold in the blackberries.

Scoop into muffin tins (I used 2-6 muffin tins and 4-mini loaf pans [again, working with what I've got]).

Bake for 20 minutes (I should checked at about 17). 

MUFFINS!

Would a liar give you mini-loaves?!
(bad paraphrase fromThe Office)

Eat and Enjoy!

mmmmmm!

Caramelized French Toast

Just wanted to inform everyone of some AMAZING French Toast that I have had twice now. However, I keep forgetting to take pictures. I am always wanting to get straight to the eating. It is that good!

I totally took it from here, halved it, and did some of the suggestions in the comments section. So, mine is down pat from all it the combined!

I will definitely be eating it again soon and will add the pictures!

But here's the recipe in the mean time:
Butter/Magarine
3 eggs
1/4 c. milk
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 slices of bread
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. water
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Beat together the eggs, milk, salt, and cinnamon is a shallow dish, like a pie pan.
Melt some butter (the actual recipe gave an amount, I think it's your own judgement call) in the bottom of a skillet.
Dip a piece of bread in the egg mixture, coating on both sides. Cook on both sides until golden brown.
Repeat with the rest of the pieces of bread. I add a little more butter each time.
Then I wipe out my skillet because I know that it gets all brown when using butter in a skillet. One time added more butter at this point and another time I didn't (again, your call).
Add the brown sugar to the pan and let it start to melt. BE CAREFUL!! You are making caramel, which can be a difficult task!
Boil your water! (You don't want to be adding cold water to the sugar and causing a hardened mess).
Once the sugar is partly melted, add the boiling water and the vanilla.
Stir until a caramel sauce has been made. Again, BE CAREFUL, it can still burn and ruin the whole sauce at this point.
Once you have the sauce, dip each piece of toast in the sauce coating both sides.
Voila, Caramelized French Toast. Use the rest of the sauce as though it is syrup (since none is needed and you may want a little more!)

Eat and Enjoy!

Hava Nagila

So, for my Children's ministry class, one of my classmates and I prepared an Old Testament Feast and we celebrated during class. Now, feast normally implies food (and all the Feasts do include eating [unless it is a fasting Feast]), but really Feast in this sense means celebration. It was more about the remembering what has happened in the Hebrew history and celebrating God's goodness. Yet, you cannot do a class project that has the word Feast in it without cooking something!

I made Challah (braided bread), Kreplach (like a meat dumpling), and Potato Kugel. Therefore this blog will be intense on the recipes and pictures!

Challah
Ingredients:
2 packages of dry yeast
2 c. warm water
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
7.5 c. flour

Pour the water in a large bowl. Make sure it is warm, not too hot, not too cold, but juuuust right!
Soften the yeast in the water (pour the contents of the packages in the water and let it soak for about 5 minutes).
Add the sugar, oil, and salt. Blend in the eggs (keep a Tbsp. of egg whites for brushing later!).
Add 3 c. flour - beat well, no lumps allowed!!
Let it rest for 5 minutes.

Resting

Gradually add the rest of the flour.

Adding flour

Oil your hands! And the table or board or whatever you will be kneading on.
Knead for 10 minutes.

Knead Me

Place the kneaded dough back into the bowl, cover it with a clean cloth, and leave it in a warm place.

Ready. Set.

Rise!

Let it rise for 1.5 hours.
Now it's time for shaping/braiding the bread!
Divide the dough into 6 parts (the recipe makes 2 loaves!).
Roll out the 6 parts into 6 logs.
Make an asterisk (*) out of 3 logs. Cross the sides on the bottom and top halves.
Repeat with the other 3 logs.
You can sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom to texture it if you'd like, but I didn't (mostly because I didn't have any).

Braided and Rising.

Now brush the tops of the loaves with the reserved egg whites.
You can top the loaves with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt and finely chopped onions, or you can just leave it plain with the egg wash!
Now, let the loaves rise for 1 (more) hour.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. The bottom should sound hollow if you tap on it!

Challah!

Holla!!

Kreplach
I used the recipe from here.

Potato Kugel
I used the recipe for Bubby's Potato Kugel.

They both turned out really well and I'll probably update this to include those recipes on here, as well. But for now, you've got the links!

Fiesta!

When my Momma was in town a few weeks ago, I had a bunch of first year CFMers over for dinner.

It was similar, yet different to the party we had at Jazmine's a few weeks ago. However, this time, I did all the cooking for my friends instead of all of us contributing.

We had a Mexican Fiesta with tacos (with home-fried tortillas), Mexican rice, guacamole, and black bean salsa (both chilled and warmed [warmed is my preference!]).

I'll add the recipes for each of these things soon, but for now here are the pictures!

Mexican Rice

A little bit of everything.

Black Bean Salsa

Guac

Ingredients!

LZ and Jazmine

Torrey and Jordan

Lemon Bars Doubled.

First off, doubling the lemon bar recipe is a bad idea!

"Why?" you may ask. Because if you're doubling and aren't using two 9x9 or 8x8 dishes, it just doesn't work. I don't have two of those dishes. So, I decided to double the recipe and use a 9x13. And 117 sq. in. (area of 9x13) is not the same as 124 or 162 sq. in. (area of two 8x8 or 9x9 dishes, respectively).

I should have one and halfed the recipe, honestly and it might have worked out better.

"What was wrong with the lemon bars this time?" you may be wondering even. Well, they did not bake and set all the way. I baked them longer in preparation of the different pan, but they were totally done on top and would have burnt if I did not remove them from the oven. Yet, then when cut into, they were still gooey and liquidy and did not set like they should have. They also did not taste as good as the first batch.

Therefore, do not double the lemon bars!

Wake Up in the Morning, Feeling like some Waffles!

So, I woke up this morning wanting to make waffles! So, that's exactly what I did, I got out of bed and made waffles.

It's the recipe my mom has used my whole life, so it's what I like.

I'm trying to make thins "healthier" and more "carb friendly

So, I only use whole wheat flour any more. This made the waffles kind of interesting compared to when my momma makes them, but they were still good!

I also used sugar free syrup, so my version of breakfast was a healthier version of waffles, but you can make them with the flour you have and use the syrup of your preference.

The recipe is easily halved, doubled, or quartered even! I quarter when I'm making waffles just for myself. It makes it interesting with the eggs, cause you'll notice it then calls for 1/2 egg. I still use a whole egg, however this morning I thought about how I could possibly get just half the egg in the batter.

Also, my momma likes to use pecans in her waffles, so the recipe is easy, so you can add anything in it that you want! My sister adds chocolate chips. I'm sure you can think of other things that can be added, fruit maybe? Or anything you want, it should work!

Here's the recipe:

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted

2 c. flour

1 c. milk

2 eggs

Separate the eggs! Mix the butter, flour, milk, and egg yolks. Beat the eggs whites and fold into the batter.

Then use a waffle iron and make waffles!

Enjoy!

Lemon Bars

Someday, I will decide to do a "Betty*Brandon" Blog and cook through the Betty Crocker cookbook, but until I get to that point (or when I use other recipes) I will be using this new blog about my cooking adventures!

So, today was Twilight Extravaganza! My friend, Jordan, and I are watching all three Twilight films and baked!

We made Lemon Bars, which are very good!! It's an easy bake, too! You just make the crust, bake it, make the filling, pour, bake, and voila, Lemon Bars!

These things are divinely sweet and just enough tart! Lemon perfection!

They do have a slight gooey consistency, so you may think they weren't cooked enough, but (I'm pretty sure) they're supposed to be that way.

So here's the recipe for Betty Crocker's 40th Anniversary Cookbook Lemon Bars, p. 113 bottom left corner:

Crust:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter/margarine

1/4 c. powdered sugar

Filling:

1 c. granulated sugar

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. baking powder

2 t. lemon zest, if desired

2 T. lemon juice

2 eggs

For the crust, mix the ingredients well and press into an ungreased 8x8 or 9x9 pan, with a 1/2 inch edge. Bake it for 20 minutes on 350 degrees.

This is when I juiced and zested my lemon! And everything worked out just perfectly with the timing of the baking.

For the filling combine all the ingredients and beat for about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Pour over the hot crust and bake for 25 minutes. Make sure there is no indentation when touched lightly in the center.

Cool! Obviously, but it's an important step.

Sprinkle some powdered sugar over the top and you're done.

Enjoy!