Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts
Cornbread. I love cornbread, and yet it wasn't something I experienced tasting until I was a grown up. It was not a staple or ever even mentioned in my home when I was growing up. It simply did not exist for me except in novels and stories.
My first experience of it was as an adult and it came in the form of a handwritten recipe my MIL gave to me in a little handwritten notebook of recipes that first year my ex and I were married. Elizabeth celebrated her 92nd birthday in August and though her son and I are no longer married, I still make her delicious corn cake from time to time and enjoy it with happy thoughts of her and all that she taught me about cooking and indeed life. She called it Corn Cake and you can find that tasty recipe here. It is my bench mark for what a good corn bread is.
This recipe I am sharing today comes from this Pillsbury Cookbook, Harvest Time Baking & Cooking, and its fabulously different than the usual.
First of all it has equal amounts of flour and cornmeal. By cornmeal (for the purpose of those from the UK) I am talking about a type of coarse polenta. If you are in North America, I am not talking about cornbread mix or self rising cornmeal. I am talking about good old, plain cornmeal here.
Another difference is that it is sweetened with Maple Syrup. That is unusual in my books . . . very New England . . .
It is studded with raisins and spiced with cinnamon . . . another difference from the regular versions of cornbread.
It smells heavenly when it is baking . . . you cannot beat the airborne scent of cinnamon. Full stop.
That is such an autumnal smell and Autumn is surely here. I saw three sets of geese flying south for the winter this morning . . . it seems very early I think . . . but they were right there up in the sky . . . the sight and sound taking me back to my Canadian childhood.
Cornbread . . . a flavour of autumn along with Maple and flying geese . . . and the smell of cinnamon . . .
We enjoyed it split and buttered with cold butter from the fridge . . . sliced into thin slices and laid atop the cut and dimpled surface . . .
Melting down into those nooks crannies and crevices . . . mingling with the sweet of dried fruit and warm spice . . .
So very delicious . . . the bread crisp edged . . . its crumb soft and crunchy at the same time from the cornmeal. I will always love that about cornbread . . .
The only way it could get any better was if you squirted some liquid honey on top . . . .
And I did . . . very naughty but very nice.
Yield: 9
Maple & Spice Cornbread
This unique and delicious corn bread is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and orange peel and sweetened with maple syrup. Studded with raisins, it goes fabulously with ham and eggs!
ingredients:
- 140g plain flour (1 cup)
- 170g cornmeal (1 cup) (not self rising)
- 75g raisins (1/2 cup)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp grated orange peel
- 160ml milk (2/3 cup)
- 120ml maple syrup (1/2 cup)
- 60g butter, melted (1/4 cup)
- 2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
instructions:
How to cook Maple & Spice Cornbread
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter an 8 or 9 inch square baking tin. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, cornmeal, raisins, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange peel together in a bowl. Whisk together the beaten eggs, milk, butter and maple syrup. Make a hollow in the dry ingredients and add the wet all at once. Stir together just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 17 to 22 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve warm, cut into squares.
This was so, so, so good! I hope you will bake it and when you do think of geese flying across grey skies, the sound of skittering leaves and the smell of warm cinnamon and hearth and home.
Up tomorrow: Raisin Sour Cream Meringue Pie
I love living where I do in Chester. When we lived down in Kent, I really missed Chester.
It is in a beautiful location, right on the border to Wales, with quick and easy access to the Coast, the Welsh Mountains, the North along with the Lake District, Lancashire, and the Yorkshire Dales.
Once you get into that area we are also only an hour or so from Scotland. Chester itself is a magnificent city filled with lots of things to see and do.
The area we lived in down in Kent was a prime fruit growing area and we were surrounded by orchards. They were filled with apples and pears.
I do confess that at this time of year I miss having access to drops for use in pies and such. My Husband loves apple pies and desserts. I don't make them for him often enough I don't think. Most men are quite fond of apple desserts I think!
My father always loved it when my mother would bake an apple pie for him. He liked apple turnovers also!
The recipe I am sharing with you today comes from this Pillsbury Cook booklet that I got in Canada, back in 1991. In Canada they used to have (not sure if they still do) an area by the Til's in the grocery stores where they kept some magazines and such.
These served as a further temptation for you while you were waiting for your turn. I always found these far more tempting than the candy, chips or chocolate bars!
I have quite a few of these cook booklets in my collection, probably about 30 or so. I have my favourites and you can tell which ones those are because the covers are loose and the pages splattered.
This particular one is one of my favourites. I look forward to taking it out every Autumn and cooking from it's pages, even if I do have to adapt some of the recipes to what I have available here in the UK! This hasn’t always been easy, I confess!
I have learned to adapt through the years. It was a bit hard doing so at first because I wasn’t all that knowledgeable about British ingredients!
I learned as I went along, however and I think I could adapt most things now, quite reasonably.
This recipe I am sharing is for a quick and easy Apple Pie Fold-over tart. It uses a sheet uses a sheet of ready roll pie pastry, or what they call short crust pastry here. In North America, just use ordinary pastry.
You could also make your own pastry if you wanted to. I have a great recipe for that here.
You will need to scroll down the page a bit to near the bottom. It is a butter/lard pastry and is excellent! It is my pastry recipe of choice!
Lovely and flaky. It does make two crusts, but that's not a problem as you can easily freeze one half of the pastry to use another time.
Just shape it into a disk, wrap it up tightly, and freeze. Ready to remove from the freezer and thaw overnight sometime when you are in need of a single crust.
This simple tart boasts a delicious and easy to make apple filling. In the autumn/winter months I always keep a bowl of apples in the house.
I like to keep a mix of eating and cooking apples. My favourites are Pink Ladies of Jazz for eating, and Granny Smiths for cooking.
For this recipe peeled and sliced apples are cooked with a bit of brown sugar and lemon juice just until the apple softens . . .
I used a mic of sweet eating and sour cooking.
Once the apples have cooked, the mixture is thickened with a mix of flour, sugar and salt. It thickens up lickety split.
It actually goes together very quickly.
You stir in a knob of butter and some vanilla and your filling is made. You just need to allow it to cool down before using it.
Lay out your pastry on a sheet of baking paper. I like to cut some fancy holds out of one half of the pastry.
Our ready roll pastry sheets are rectangular shaped here in the UK, I know they are round in North America.
Today I used one of my "Autumn" cookie cutters. I reckon it is probably a pumpkin shape, but it also works well as an apple shape.
You can save the cutouts to use as a decoration on top. They look quite pretty I think!
Spread your filling on the uncut side of the pastry, and fold the cut side over top, crimping the edges all around. Brush with some milk, apply the cutouts, sprinkle with some demerara sugar or sanding sugar and bake.
Easy peasy, lemon squeasy as they say!! Half an hour or so later your loved ones are enjoying it!
Yield: 4
Apple Pie Foldover
A simple and quick and delicious apple tart that your family will love.
ingredients:
- 3 medium tart apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- 50g soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup)
- 1 TBS water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 TBS plain flour
- 1 TBS white sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice (apple pie spice)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 single sheet of ready rolled short crust pastry
- 1 TBS milk
- demerara sugar for sprinkling
instructions:
How to cook Apple Pie Foldover
- Combine the apples, brown sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan. Cook over moderate heat until it starts to bubble, stirring occasionally. Cover and reduce the heat to low and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until the apples are tender, stirring occasionally. Mix together the flour, white sugar, salt and spice. Stir this into the apple mixture and cook until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and butter. Let stand and cool for 15 to 20 minutes. Take the crust out of the packet and leave it to sit while the filling cools.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Unwrap and unroll the pastry, pressing out any fold lines. (I do this on a sheet of baking parchment.) Spread the filling onto half of the pastry to within half an inch of the edges. (I like to cut out shapes from the other half.) Fold the other half of the pastry over top of the apple filled side. Press together and flute the edges. If you have cut out shapes apply the cut outs now. If you haven't cut some vents in the top of the pastry. Brush with milk and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
- Transfer the sheet of baking paper holding the pie onto a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool somewhat or completely before serving.
Hubby was in Seventh Heaven when he was enjoying this. I liked that it only made a small tart, enough for four. Larger pies don't really get eaten up here.
I either have to give half of them away, or they get thrown. This was the perfect size! He had to enjoy it with some ice cream on top this time as I didn't feel like making custard. But then again, what is vanilla ice cream really but frozen custard!
Up Tomorrow: Pork Chops with Homemade Applesauce
I am enjoying a quiet Saturday as I sit and write this. Usually at the weekends, I like to bake a cake or some such.
Sometimes it will be a fancy cake, especially if we are celebrating something. More often than not it is a Victoria Sandwich Cake. This is quite simply, the best.
In all truth our favourite cake is the simple Victoria Sandwich Cake. That is the one we enjoy eating most of all, and the one I enjoy baking most of all.
I know I have shared it with you before, but can you ever share something that you love too many times? I think not . . .you can never have too much of a good thing!
My mother always filled our cakes with jam. With jam in the middle a cake needs no other adornment. Especially if you use really good jam. And I always do.
My father always loved cake with jam in the middle and it was something we all enjoyed. My jam of choice has always been Bonne Maman. It just has the nicest consistency and the right amount of fruitiness!
Jam is a very versatile ingredient. You can change the flavour of a plain cake such as this just by varying the type of jam you choose to use.
But it must always be a good jam. Homemade is good of course, but if you are buying your jam, make sure you get a quality one.
More often than not I will use strawberry jam. That is my favourite, along with raspberry which follows a close second.
These are what are the most traditional for this purpose. Any red jam looks great actually.
Here are some suggestions to shake it up a bit. Add a bit of lemon zest to the batter before baking and fill it with some wild blueberry jam.
You have yourself another tasty combination. The flavour of lemon and blueberries together is unmatchless.
If you add some freshly grated nutmeg and a bit of vanilla. Fill it with peach or apricot jam and your cake is lifted to an entirely different level.
Or you could fold raspberries into the cake and fill it with peach jam. Voila, a sort of a peach melba cake!
And don't get me started on lemon curd. Lemon curd in the middle is another favourite of mine. I completely adore Lemon Curd.
I could eat it with a spoon. Shhh . . . don't tell, but whenever I use it I always eat a cheeky spoonful. That's yours and my little secret now.
In the summer filling this cake with a layer of whipped or clotted cream and sliced strawberries turns this cake a beautiful indulgence . . .
You cannot get much better than a cake filled with softly whipped cream and berries. You do have to eat the whole thing on the day, but that is so not a problem!
This is a cake that can be as simple as you wish. It can also be as elaborate as you wish. It suits all occasions.
It is the Birthday cake of choice in this house and so quick and easy to whip up. You can seriously have one of these on the table in less than an hour, tops and that allows for cooling.
It is perfect for cold and dismal, rainy autumn afternoons near the end of September. A day when all you want to do is hunker in with a good book and a hot cuppa.
A day when you can pull a blanket over your knees and just hunker down. A day when you are wanting comfort of the utmost kind.
If ever there was a cake that you could consider to be a comfort cake, this is it. Comfort, pure and simple and most delicious.
Yield: Makes 1 7-inch cake
Victoria Sandwich Cake
Popular during the reign of Queen Victoria, this cake remains popular to this day, which is a huge testament to it's taste and ease of baking!
ingredients:
- 170g of butter (12 TBS,)
- 170g caster sugar (3/4 cup)
- 3 large free range eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 170g self raising flour (a scant 1 1/4 cups)
To finish:
- strawberry or raspberry jam
- caster sugar or powdered sugar to dust on top
instructions:
How to cook Victoria Sandwich Cake
- Butter and base line two 7 inch sandwich tins. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
- Sift the flour together with the baking powder.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.
- Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, taking care to use a cutting motion so as not to knock out too much of the air that you have beaten into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins, levelling off the surface. Make a slight dip in the centre of each.
- Bake on a centre rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen well, are golden brown, and spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for five minutes before running a knife carefully around the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled, place one layer on a cake plate. Spread with raspberry jam. Place the other cake on top, pressing down lightly. Dust with icing or caster sugar and cut into wedges to serve.
If I am lucky this will last us several days, but since it is a favourite of both of us, I don't expect that it will be around much longer that. Quick, easy and delicious. Qualities that are pretty hard to beat!
Up Tomorrow: Fried Egg Sandwiches (brought forward from the other day)
I didn't have a lot of energy to do much today. I have had more than a few nights of terrible sleep. I think it is being caused by my change in blood pressure medication.
Hopefully it will sort itself out soon because I am really dragging my carcass today!
Dinner is something simple today I am afraid. Packaged potato gratin (like the Idaho scalloped potato mixes in North America), and chicken.
I will pop some frozen veg on and that will be it. Some days are just like that.
I have been wanting to bake this Cream Biscuit recipe however and I had it on my list to do it this weekend.
Its a good thing they are really easy and together in a flash! You can't beat a good biscuit recipe. I am always on the hunt for new ones to try.
I adapted the recipe from one I found in this old cookery book of mine, The Best of Pantry, by the Editors of Harrowsmith Country.
They were meant to be used as a topping for a curried vegetable casserole, but I thought they would also work very well on their own.
I used to love watching Harrowsmith Country on the television in the 1990's and I loved the magazine. There was a part of me that always longed to live a country life, with chickens and a nice vegetable garden . . . .
A hobby farm really . . . with maybe a cow for milk . . . or a goat . . . a kind of Little House on the Prairie kind of a life, but with some modern conveniences thrown in for good measure, like washing machines and vacuum cleaners.
I think I could probably live quite happily with just a radio to listen to . . . and I tend to romanticise doing things by candlelight and the light of a wood fire. Don't we all!
I remember when I was about 16 I wanted to live on a Commune. There was a couple I knew who lived in an old farm house up on the mountain which had very few modern amenities. Hippy dippies as my dad would say. I envied them their carefree life in a lot of ways.
I think I would have been quite happy living in an environment like that . . . growing my own veg, baking my own bread, gathering eggs, milking cows, etc.
Not so much now that I am older and not as agile as I was back then. Every now and then though I do like to channel my inner hippie and bake my own bread (not so good at that) and grow my own beans, that kind of stuff. Nothing too seriously . . . .
I do long for the comforts of a wood fire . . . sitting in my chair in the evening and crocheting as I watch the flames flicker, but alas that is not my life. I make do with a fake fire and am grateful for that.
I was really pleased with how these biscuits turned out . . . nice and light with a beautiful fluffy texture . . .
I could not resist enjoying one fresh from the oven spread with cold butter and a smattering of creamed honey . . .
I don't eat honey very often as I have Diabetes and its not so good . . . but I put 1/2 tsp on each half biscuit and I was in biscuit and honey heaven!
Doesn't that look tasty? I think it does!
Oh, if only I had had a few slivers of country ham to enjoy with it . . . ham, biscuits and honey. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
A person is entitled to their dreams!
Yield: makes about a dozen
Cream Biscuits
These North American style biscuits (not cookies) are light and delicate. They only take minutes to prepare as well, which makes them a real favourite!
ingredients:
- 2 cups (280g) plain flour
- 1 TBS baking powder
- 1 TBS sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup (80g) lightly salted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 2 large free-range eggs
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
instructions:
How to cook Cream Biscuits
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Whisk in the salt and sugar. Drop in the butter and cut it in using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat the eggs together with the cream, using a fork to combine. Make a hollow in the dry ingredients and add the wet, combing together lightly with a fork. Tip out onto floured board and lightly knead a couple times to bring together. Pat out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out using a floured 2 inch round cutter. Place onto the baking sheet, leaving some space in between each.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the biscuits are well risen and golden brown. Serve warm.
Sigh . . . I hope I sleep better tonight! I have a brisket to cook for Sunday dinner and I don't want to be doing that when I am exhausted!
Up Tomorrow: Chicken & Pasta Parm Skillet (for 2)
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