Baked Apple Chips

Baked Apple Chips

This was something new to me this year. I love to eat apple chips have never thought about making them before but when I found this recipe I figured I would give it a shot. I used four large apples rather than the 2 small recommended so I doubled the syrup as well. And used more lime than lemon in the syrup mix.

I was also not able to cut them as thinly as I should. You really want them paper thin. So they look a lot longer to crisp than the 1 hour spesified in the recipe. 

I was pretty sure using huge apples and doubling the recipe would give us enough to last us a while. I was wrong. They are already gone. 
 

Gluten Free Fried Apple Pancakes

Carla Hall's Fried Apple Pancakes
 This recipe was another I found when looking for simple and yummy apple recipes. I like it because its easy to size up or down to suit your needs unlike a cake or pie. They make a great side dish, I served them with Swedish meatballs, or you can eat them on their own for breakfast or whenever. The original recipe, linked above, has an apple cider syrup to go with it but we prefered them with maple syrup or warm apple sauce.

1 Cup Gluten Free Bisquick Baking Mix
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 tbs vegetable oil or melted butter
1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

3 Medium Apples
pealed, cored, and sliced into 1/4 in rings

Prepare the pancake batter with the baking mix, egg, milk, oil, and spices. Heat your griddle to a medium heat. Dip the apple rings into the batter and then place on the well greased griddle. Let cook through. You want the pancake batter not to burn while the apple softens so if you need to reduce the heat do so.

Cheesy Cauliflower

I had a head of cauliflower that I bought on a whim and it had been sitting in my fridge for long enough that I was doubting just how edible it still was. So when I figured out it was still good I decided to cook something with it for dinner before we did have to pass it on to the compost. I did a quick search for cheesy cauliflower on line and I found this recipe. http://britishfood.about.com/

I was really impressed with the recipe it was quick and easy and tasty and it was really filling. I usually find when a recipe for a vegetable side dish says it severs 6 it really only servers 4 in our house at least this definitely went the mile.
I made some slight variations in that mine was Gluten Free and I used yellow mustard rather than mustard powder. I will definitely be making this again.

Zucchini Cornbread Rolls

I just sort of threw this one together. I saw a picture goat cheese filled zucchini rolls which inspired this. as such this is not really a recipe but a here is what I did.

I took a box of cornbread mix, prepared it as directed then mixed in sliced mushrooms and shredded mozzarella cheese. Put that in to bake and grilled up some thinly sliced zucchini.
when the corn bread was set but still soft and not quite done I took several spoonfuls of it and rolled it into a ball flattened it some and wrapped the soft grilled zucchini around it. I then topped it off with more cheese and put the whole thing into the oven for a few more minutes.

 It was good, though I think would make a better side dish than a main one.

McGough Scones

I am sure you have seen them in coffee shops and chain bakeries. Large lumpy triangle things. I will every once and a while buy one to go with my tea and then am disappointed. They are dry and crumbly with hardly any flavor really just not all that pleasant to eat. So I thought maybe if I made them I could eat them at home with butter and jam and that would be better and so I set out to find a good scone recipe and found that in fact eating them fresh from the oven with jam and tea was much more pleasant. 

But then I had some at a tea house, they were not fresh from the oven hot but still soft and buttery and wonderful with the jam and clotted cream. So I determined to make my own recipe for scones that held up to cooling and still were wonderful. I think I have found success. You see how fluffy and delightfully light they are inside? So wonderful! And they are pretty easy and quick to make. The sort of thing that you can throw together just as guests arrive, then put the kettle on as soon as the scones are in the oven and have the tea and scones ready about the same time. The only thing I need to do now is learn how to make clotted cream as I have not seen any in our local grocery store. You can substituted whipped cream but its just not quite the same.

This is one of the few recipes I can call really my own, one where I have played with the ingredients, done a lot of research in to others recipes and what effects the ingredient have on the end product so I could get the result I wanted. When making them today with The Girl she asked what they were called and I told her I did not know. The first scone recipe I ever made were called "Lily's scones" so maybe as I was creating this recipe we should call them "Mommy's Scones" She was not a fan of the idea as that implies that only I got to eat them so she named them for me, these are officially "McGough Scones"




3 and 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
4 and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, in teaspoon sized proportions
 1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon sugar

Sift or whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tarter in a bowl. Work in the butter and shortening with your hands until well combined. the mixture should be slightly grainy and stick together when compressed. In a large bowl mix milk, yogurt, vanilla, and sugar until totally smooth. To this add the flour mixture.

You can, at this point, roll the dough out to about an inch think and cut with a biscuit cutter if you want the neat uniformity and attention to detail associated with English Tea. Or you can turn it out on some flour and work it a little, not really kneading the dough just improving its elasticity then roll and cut into squares, dividing those squared diagonally into triangles for baking. But I generally prefer to just plop a bit of dough on a greased cookie sheet and let them keep there lumpy shape.

You can add an egg wash if you would like them to have a nice golden color after baking, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I didn't this time. You can also add dried fruit. I love them with 1/2 cup dried cranberries and the zest of about half an orange. That is what is in the ones pictured. The zest is added to the milk and yogurt mixture and the cranberries are added after both the wet and dry have been combined before you turn it out if you are doing so.

Bake them on a greased cookie sheet for about 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 425 degrees. It should make about a dozen biscuit sized scones. You can leave them well spaced to get the look I did when I plopped them on there but squishing them together and letting them cuddle up while baking is quite alright as well and results in fewer dirty pans for me at least as I could not fit all twelve on one sheet and still give them room.

When fresh from the oven cover with jam or butter or cream and enjoy! But delightfully these keep there wonderful texture when cool so I suggest you make a batch for tea and enjoy whats left with breakfast the next day.

Pumpkin Butter

Vade mecum

PUMPKIN BUTTER

4 c. cooked pumpkin, mashed (one large can of pumpkin puree) 1 c. apple sauce 1/4 c. honey 1/4 c. brown sugar ~ 2 tbsp cinnamon 1 tsp all spice 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves ~ or 3 tbsp pumpkin pie spice Place pumpkin in a crock pot with out its lid, Dutch oven or heavy kettle. Place over high heat and bring to boil, stirring frequently. Stir in sugar, spice and apple sauce. Continue stirring and let it continue boil until reduced by about one third and darkened as the sugars will caramelized. You will know it is done when the texture is slightly thicker than apple butter but not as dense peanut butter it will stick to the spoon as you tilt it but will not remain if spoon is turn upside down. Remove from heat. Stir well to be sure it is fully blended and let cool. Move to clean storage containers and freeze what you will not use right away. This is not acidic or sweet enough to can with out the risk of botulism and at current there are no approved recipes that are, though in theory you could add more sugar and make it safe, but I am sure this one is not so freeze any extra.

Vade in pace

Amish Friendship Bread

So I was given a starter batch of Amish Friendship bread and instructions I was flabbergasted and flummoxed! The instructions looked like a bad chain letter. They included the insistence that the starter recipe was only known to the Amish and you had to pass the batter on or this wonderful bread would pass out of existence. The final bread recipe also included instant pudding? Well I don't know about you but I am sure the Amish did not use mysticism when they mixed flour, milk, sugar and yeast for the starter batter, nor do they use instant pudding in any fashion. So here is a Starter recipe if you want to make it (its great to have around as its a constant source of baking for you if you don't pass on all the starter batter and helps endear you to neighbors who are usually more than happy to receive free baked goods.)
So if you are given a starter batter from me or others here is what you do.
Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is below)
Day 2 - mix
Day 3 - mix
Day 4 - mix
Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.
Day 6 - mix
Day 7 - mix
Day 8 - mix

Day 9 - mix
Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers (gallon freezer bags are good for this), with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

Amish Friendship Bread

2/3 cup oil 1/2 milk 3 eggs 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda Mix ingredients well. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional). Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour. Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread. you can make it in single bunt pan if you happen to have lent your second bread pan to someone and so only have one on hand.

If you would like to start your own Friendship Bread you can do the following...

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

1 pkg. active dry yeast 1/4 cup warm water (110°F) 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup white sugar 1 cup warm milk (110°F) 1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well. 2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk. 3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter. For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread.

Thanks for visiting!

Beer Bread

For those of you who have noticed my To do list make bread has been on there for a while I can take it off finally! I made three different types of beer bread but first the basics. Beer bread relies on the yeast in the beer to rise. This produces a good soft bread with a sticky batter similar to banana bread and so it needs a bread pan too cook in. I altered the recipes I found some by adding a little dry active yeast to the beer and a lot more flour to get a more typical kneadable bread.

My Beer bread Recipe:

5 cups all purpose flour
6 cups bread flower
24 oz beer (two bottles)
one packet yeast
4 eggs (and one more for glazing)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey

Put room temp beer in a mixing bowl, add honey & mix
Add dry yeast & mix. Wait until the yeast activates & gets foamy (it will foam a lot)
Mix 4 eggs & oil
Add flours, mix & knead slowly adding the beer and honey mix - You may have to add more beer or flour to get the right consistency I'd start with 3 cups of each flour and add as needed. (Break time)
Let it rise to double size (I did this overnight in the refrigerator and then let it sit out to come to room temperature before preceding)

Knead, shape into loaves, put in an oiled pan or place on oiled cookie sheets (in replacement of the oil for this batch I used corn meal like some pizza places do)
Let rise again, be patient.

Mix another egg with equal amount of melted butter, beer, or just a well beaten egg will do.
Baste loaves with same.
Bake at 350 for 20 min, remove & baste again.
Bake another 10 min.

when shaping these loaves I simply divided the dough into thirds rolled them into snakes and braided the snakes into a loaf. I love the way they look they have a very rustic home made look.

This recipe makes four loaves. I made two plain, and two I fancied up a bit. one I added honey mustard, thyme, and shredded cheddar in the final kneading just before shaping and then after brushing with the egg I added some more shredded cheddar on top.

The other I added shredded pepper jack during the same kneading and put some on top to melt as well. It turned out lovely and I am very excited to have finally done it.
Thanks for visiting!

Onigiri

Onigiri are rice balls they are a common packed food option in Japan and depending upon a lot of factors can serve for any meal. Like sushi they are hand packed rice that are wonderful plain but can be dressed up with nori (the sheets of toasted seaweed that wraps sushi) or sesame seeds.

They can also be filled with all sorts of yummy additions. A traditional filling is pickled plums called umeboshi. But just about anything works. Mini meatballs, well drained western style pickles, canned tuna fish with a little mayo to bond and salt to flavor.

The onigiri I made today were filled with chicken teriyaki, crab with a little mayo for bonding and a little Old Bay and rosemary for flavor, omelet with sauteed onions, and azuki which is a sweet red been paste and used most frequently in Japanese deserts.


1) Prepare sushi rice, any short grain rice CAN be used but sushi rice is your best bet. You will want to wash the rice until the water runs clear and follow cooking instruction on package. A rice cooker makes this flawless.

2) Heat some rice vinegar and dissolve sugar into it, add a very little bit of soy sauce. The proportions to this is basically done to taste, this is then pored over and gently mixed into the hot rice. Start by adding very little at a time. This is just to add some flavor too much can water down the needed stickiness of the rice.

3) In a bowl mix cold water and rice vinegar use this to keep your hand wet while handling the rice or else it will stick to you and not itself.

4) take a small mound of rice and shape it into whatever shape you like a ball as is implied by the name is the simplest to do.

You can find a good alternative to this method at www.justhungry.com They recommend using salt and water rather than vinegar and water. This is an common alternative but one that I don't particularly like.

This is a traditional plain onigiri shaped into a triangle, with nori wrapped around the bottom. This one is the simplest to do as there is not need to worry about the filling causing the rice to break apart, but the flavor of the rice is the only thing here so this is where the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce mix really shines the most.

This one I filled with the azuki and was probably my favorite. I love azuki and make my own from kidney beans. As this was the first of the filled that I tried today I simply made it round as it was easy to manage while I got the feel for the rice. The nori is shaped like flowers, as nori comes in stiff sheets like paper and so can be cut with scrap booking paper punches to dress up the onigiri.

This is made with the omelet. The omelet is made very thick by western standards then cut into cubes or rectangular prisms. I wanted the omelet to be visible from the out side so it was shaped in a flattish circle rather a full sphere. This technique is really lovely when the filling has a bright color as well a red or green really pops against the rice.

These were filled with a crab mix, this was a big deviation from the japanese flavores but appeals to the Maryland palet. The really nice thing about the crab I used also is that it was a white and sitcky filling so I could over fill and risk having the filling mix with the rice with out it showing through the rice or causeing the onigiri to crumble. The nori is cut with a scrap booking paper punch just as the flowers for the azuki onigiri were.


The chicken teriyaki onigiri showed its filling the way the omlete did however it was shaped into a triangle. It also has sesame seeds. I would have much prefered black sesame seeds for the visial contrast. If I had more time or forethought I would have toasted the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan, this would serve to both bring out the flavor as well as to darken there color.

I really hope you decide to give this a try it is a great picnic food and really very tasty.

Thanks for visiting!

Homemade Pasta

Today I made homemade pasta for the first time using this recipe.

BASIC PASTA DOUGH
1 cup flour 1 egg 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tsp. olive oil warm water Make a well with 3/4 of the flour; add salt and egg to the well and mix together slowly, adding oil then water as necessary. Knead about 10 minutes; cover and let dough rest for 10 minutes, then knead again until very smooth. It can now be put through a roller or simply rolled by hand.

I rolled it by hand one little knob at a time and used these to make a filled half moon pasta. I used the remaining pumpkin from the cake, mozzarella, and some baked tilapia (which is a very mild white fish, we couldn't taste it.) It was good but I recommend the following changes: ricotta in addition to or instead of the mozzarella, and crab meat rather than the fish if available.