Category Archives: baking

Skillet apples

baking, breakfast, dessert 5 Comments

This is another one of those recipes that I have written down on a scrap of paper and tucked away. I have no idea where it came from, but it’s so yummy.

It’s also what I had for breakfast this morning. Is that wrong? It’s fruit, people.

Try this. Seriously. Gather:

  • 1 skillet (I used my smallest cast iron)
  • 2 Granny Smith apples
  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • Sprinkle of nutmeg

And then:

  1. Core and slice apples (uniformly sized pieces are your friends so they’ll cook evenly; you can also peel them if your little heart desires, but I dig the peels)
  2. Melt butter in skillet
  3. Add apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to skillet and stir to combine and coat apples (note: the mixture will look a little dry at first and you’ll be tempted to add more butter, but don’t; as the apples cook down they’ll get nice and juicy and everything will be great)
  4. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes or until apples are nice and tender and sauce is starting to thicken
  5. Serve for breakfast

I can neither confirm nor deny that these are crazy good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Just sayin.

Sugar spice Craisin nuts

baking, snacks 15 Comments

Let’s just run into the mall real quick. It’ll take five minutes. I need black pumps, a white shirt for your dad and…. um… a white…. um… nope, now I’m hungry. Are you hungry? What smells so good?

A hint: it’s these.

You know how it works. They pipe the smell of this stuff through the mall at the height of Christmas shopping season. And they offer free samples. You know, the first one’s free. Mm hmm. Well now you can just say no. Well, you don’t have to. You could actually buy some to eat while you’re shopping until you can come home and make more, which will have Craisins, making them even better.

I found this recipe at Buns in my Oven and went to the grocery store about an hour later. I had no idea these were so easy! Crazy good, crazy easy. Speakin’ my language.

So gather this (I roughly halved her recipe and added Craisins)

  • 1 pound nuts, any kind – I used the 1.4 lb jar of mixed nuts
  • 1 egg white, room temperature
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (this will not light you up. I promise)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 – 1 cup Craisins, depending on your level of love for them

Now do this:

  1. Preheat oven to 300 F
  2. Pour nuts (not Craisins) into a large bowl — bigger than you think you need so you have room to stir
  3. In a small bowl whisk together egg white and water until frothy, then pour over nuts, stirring to coat
  4. In another small bowl mix together sugars, salt, cayenne pepper and cinnamon, then sprinkle over nuts, stirring to coat
  5. Spread nuts onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet; we’re going to bake for a total of 30 minutes
  6. Bake for ten minutes and stir, then bake another ten minutes
  7. Fold/stir in Craisins and bake another ten minutes
  8. Move the sheet of parchment to a cooling rack, breaking up any giant clumps (little clumps are yummy) and allow nuts to cool completely before storing in an airtight container
  9. Eat for breakfast, lunch, and supper. And snack
  10. Put in Mason jars and give as tasty Christmas gifts. Try not to eat them in the car on the way to deliver them

White chocolate oatmeal Craisin cookies

baking, dessert, kids 3 Comments

I had a morning appointment at Redo in Franklin (if you haven’t been, go now — love them) today and, as I am wont to do, brought The Kiddo with me. Fortunately he travels well, especially when the iPod is loaded up with Super Why. Know what else travels well? These cookies! I can neither confirm nor deny that they are lovely for breakfast sandwiched around a healthy smear of peanut butter.

This varies just a bit from the recipe on the Craisin bag, so here ’tis:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups oats
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 bag Craisins
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips

To make the goodness:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla for 5 minutes at medium speed till mixture is light and fluffy
  3. Combine dry ingredients in a second bowl and add to butter mixture one cup at a time, mixing till just incorporated
  4. Stir in Craisins and white chocolate chips
  5. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto nonstick or greased cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes until they’re just starting to brown around the edges
  6. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then move to wire rack to completely cool

This makes about 5 dozen, and they  freeze beautifully! Enjoy!

Amish friendship bread

baking, breakfast 5 Comments

Ah, friendship bread. Let’s be honest: it’s like a chain letter. But since I end up with this: I say it’s okay.

Let’s start at the beginning. Don’t have anyone dying to give you some starter? You can make your own (recipe found here):

  • 1 pkg. active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Now get it going:

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it sit for about ten minutes. Stir.
  2. in a two quart glass or plastic (no metal!) container, combine flour and sugar; make sure they’re well combined so the flour doesn’t get lumpy in the milk
  3. Add in the warm milk and dissolved yeast/water, stirring slowly till everything is incorporated; the mixture will get bubbly
  4. Pour mixture into a one-gallon ziptop bag and seal tightly, pushing out as much air as possible

That’s it! That is now day 1 completed. Then you follow the directions as if you’ve received the starter:

Day 2: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary
Day 3: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary
Day 4: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary
Day 5: Add to the bag: 1 c. all-purpose flour, 1 c. sugar, 1 c. cold milk. Mash the bag (yep, it sits on the counter after this — weird but true)
Day 6: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary
Day 7: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary
Day 8: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary
Day 9: Mash the bag, “burp” the air out if necessary

Day 10: Pour the contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl.
Add:

  • 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1 1/2 c. cold milk.

Then:

  • Write the date (so your friends know what day one is) on four gallon size zip bags
  • Measure out one cup of batter into each bag
  • Keep one starter bag for yourself; give the other three to friends along with a printed copy of the recipe (Word doc) (remember that if you keep a starter, you will be baking every 10 days)

Time to bake!

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grease two small or one large loaf pan

To your remaining starter (about one cup), add:

  • 3 eggs
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup cold milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

The master recipe calls for a mixture of 1/4 c. sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon for dusting/topping. Use 2/3 of this mixture to dust the greased pans, and then sprinkle the remaining on top of the batter after poured into the pans. Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from the sides, about 10 minutes.

Variation: some recipes call for 2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding mix and/or substituting 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil. You can also play around with different flavors of pudding mixes and additions of fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, and spices.

Two great websites with tips and recipes:

http://www.armchair.com/recipe/amish/amish.html
http://www.momswhothink.com/bread-recipes/amish-friendship-bread.html

I was surprised at how many people were interested in this starter — I had no trouble giving it away, and even mailed a couple of them with no problems. Enjoy!

Sandy’s chocolate cake

baking, dessert 9 Comments

You know how it goes: you remember a food as being life-alteringly good.  You build it up and build it up in your mind till you just can’t stand it anymore. You hunt and track down the recipe and make it… only to find that it’s just not as great as you remember.

That was not the experience I had with this cake. Not even close!

Ten years ago (!!!) my dear friend Sandy made this cake for me and I have remembered it ever since then as kind of being the be-all, end-all of chocolate cakes. It was moist and chocolately and amazing and delicious and worth every single calorie in it (are we still counting those?). I finally got the recipe from her and made my own this week. It is everything I remembered and more.

The Kiddo’s babysitter left for college recently (the nerve!) and we wanted to send her something sweet from home, so I made mini loaf cakes rather than the original Bundt form in the name of easier mailing. I’m happy to report it worked just fine.

You will need (you will die at how easy this is):

  • One box yellow cake mix — not the kind with pudding in the mix
  • One box instant chocolate pudding (3 3/4 oz)
  • One box instant vanilla pudding (3 3/4 oz)
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Do you see what I’m saying? Something that tastes this good should surely involve more effort.

Sandy’s directions:

  1. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube or Bundt pan; in my case I used three mini loaf pans (8x3x2)
  2. Combine cake mix, pudding mixes, oil, eggs, and water and beat 2-4 minutes at medium speed till everything looks smooth
  3. Stir in chocolate chips
  4. Bake in prepared pan(s) for 50-60 minutes at 325 degrees (the mini loaf pans took about 45 minutes) till a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

The beauty of this cake is that it keeps getting better — it’s even more incredible the second day and so on, so it’s perfect for mailing.

Go make this now. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Make the cake. You will not be sorry.