Browned Butter Vanilla Biscuits

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Filed under Breads

I think I’m starting to develop a problem. I cannot stop making and finding uses for browned butter. Literally cannot do it. I’m addicted.

The way things are going, I think I’m going to have to add a completely separate category to the Recipe Index JUST for browned butter recipes.

If you’re new here, then there are probably two things that you should know for the purposes of this post: first, browned butter is a sauce. Butter gets melted over low-medium heat until it separates into butterfat and milk solids. The solids sink to the bottom of the pan and toast over the heat until golden brown; that is browned butter. It is one of the greatest culinary inventions, ever.

Second, I have been experimenting with it on and off on this blog for the past two and half years on this blog. Take practically any baking recipe you want that uses butter, and you can substitute the regular stuff for browned butter to kick up the flavor and taste 1000 notches. It works. Believe me, I’m on a personal mission to test and keep retesting the theory in as many different uses as I can and haven’t been disappointed yet.

Butter is truly the essence of a good biscuit. The quality of the butter, but more importantly, how you handle it, can literally be the difference between success or failure. I learned that lesson the hard way. I’ve also been pretty transparent on here about my journey with learning how to bake good biscuits and finally reaching a place where I felt confident in my abilities. I have a tried and true method that I know works. I don’t like messing with it.

But, because I had seen the wonders that browned butter had done for so many other recipes I’m comfortable with–and how it had actually improved them– I decided to make an exception and depart from my normal routine of biscuit making just enough to swap out regular butter for browned.

Spoiler alert, it went marvelously.

So what did I do differently?

Well, obviously there was an added step of browning the butter before doing anything else. If you’ve seen or used any of my previous biscuit recipes, you’ll know that I insist upon freezing butter for biscuits as well. So that kinda created 2 additional steps: making the browned butter, then placing it in the freezer to give it enough time to completely harden to be cold enough to use in the dough.

The second change I made was to use self rising flour rather than all purpose. This was a change that I had actually been meaning to test out for a while. Self rising flour is flour that already has leavening agents (baking powder and salt) sifted into it. I wanted to see if making the swap would result in a higher biscuit rise. After making those adjustments, I pretty much kept things the same.

I’m sitting here trying to adequately describe what that first bite was like. I’m really trying, y’all. But honestly, words just don’t do it justice. The depth of flavor that browning the butter gives to the biscuit is unbelievable. They taste like…warmth. Not the temperature. The flavor. Rich, golden, savory warmth. The texture is flakey and soft.

They make me want to dance. I really can’t be much more clear about it than that.

If you don’t bake with browned butter, please change that. Please.

Browned Butter Spice Cake

Browned Butter Spritz Cookies

Browned Butter Banana Bread

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Browned Butter Vanilla Biscuits

Recipe Adapted from Taste of the South

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 3 cups self rising flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (light or dark, doesn’t matter)
  • 1 cup buttermilk (plus more if needed)
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

 

Directions

Melt the butter over medium heat in a 2 quart saucepan. Let it cook and watch it closely until 3-5 minutes until the butter begins to foam, forms a golden brown color and browned bits form on the bottom. (It will have a sweet, nutty smell). Immediately remove it from the heat. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then place butter in a small bowl, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and brown sugar and stir together with a fork.

Tap the small bowl of butter on the counter to shake it out (it should be in one large block) Use the large holes on a box grater to grate the butter directly into the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk with the vanilla.

Use a large fork and a large rubber spatula to stir the mixture together. If it seems a little dry you may add additional buttermilk until it forms a shaggy dough.

Sprinkle a pastry mat, wooden cutting board or a clean smooth countertop with flour. Turn the dough out onto the surface and pat a few times with your hands until it loosely holds together. (Don’t knead it too much or the warmth in your palms will melt the butter and cause the biscuits to be tough.)

Use a bench scraper or a large sharp knife to divide the dough in half. Roughly shape each half into a square. Stack one of the halves on top of the other and use a rolling pin to roll it together into one mass. Repeat this process two to three more times before patting it into one final rectangle. (This is a process of layering so that the biscuits will bake flaky).

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and unwrap the biscuit dough out onto it. Use a bench scraper or very sharp knife to trim the edges of the rectangle. Use a square cookie cutter, or a knife to cut the remaining dough into squares, about 2″ each.

Remove the cut biscuits to the baking sheet you’ve lined with parchment paper, placing them rather close to each other (it will help them rise higher). Freeze until cold, about 15 minutes.

Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #280, cohosted this week by Ai @ Ai Made It For You and Angie@FiestaFriday.

Strawberry Pound Cake

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Filed under Desserts

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel like I should give this post a theme. Let’s call it “When Things Don’t Turn Out The Way You Want Them To, But It’s Okay.”

This cake didn’t turn out the way that I wanted it to. But it’s okay. So, I’m sharing it anyway.

A Poke Cake is a dessert where a baked, still warm cake gets holes poked through it while it’s still in the pan, then a warm liquid (usually a custard or curd) gets poured into the holes. Once it’s given time to set up, the liquid in the poked holes forms a pretty streaky filling in the cake.

That’s how it’s supposed to work.

But, as y’all can see: there is no streaky filling in my cake.

Those of you who are bakers know how this story goes. You try out a new recipe and hope for the best…and sometimes the best just doesn’t happen. It’s not the worst–but it’s not best either.

Had everything with this cake gone exactly according to my plan, then you guys would currently be able to see pretty strawberry streaks running up and down, all the way through it. Y’know, the way a Poke Cake is supposed to look. But unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. The cake itself baked up beautifully. The strawberry filling came together easily. But when it came time to poke the cake full of holes and pour the filling over the top so that it could seep inside, for some reason it just didn’t budge.

Bummer.

Some of you may be wondering, if the Strawberry Poke Cake didn’t work out, then why are you still posting the recipe, Jess?

Well first, it was still an absolutely delicious pound cake.  Second, although it may not qualify as a Poke Cake,  there was still a delicious strawberry filling on one side, and an equally delicious strawberry icing on the other. In light of that, I saw no reason why it couldn’t qualify as a Strawberry Pound Cake.

Third, I thought that maybe I’d go ahead and post the recipe anyway to see if one of you wanted to try it and might have better success than I did. Then maybe, you’ll come back here and post a comment to let me know how it turned out, and I can try to gauge where the heck I went wrong 😉

Regardless, this one of those”When Things Don’t Turn Out The Way You Want Them To, But It’s Okay.” recipes, and I hope that it’s enjoyed.

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Strawberry Pound Cake

Recipe Adapted from MyRecipes.com

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (12 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 1/2 cups sugar, divided
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 3 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a Bundt pan or tube cake pan (at least 10 cup capacity).

Combine the flour and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt together in a medium size bowl and set aside.

Cream together the butter and 3 cups of the sugar together in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed (or use a handheld mixer and a large bowl).

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed just until combined. Add the extracts.

Add to butter mixture alternately with half-and-half, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat on low speed just until combined after each addition.

Pour batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Pound cake is done at an inner temp of 195 degrees Fahrenheit)

Meanwhile, during last 20 minutes of the cake’s baking, pulse strawberries and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor until smooth, about 45 seconds. Use a spatula to press the mixture through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a bowl; discard solids. Set aside 1/2 cup strawberry mixture.

Whisk together water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Combine cornstarch mixture and remaining strawberry mixture in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, whisking constantly, just until mixture begins to thicken, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Using a long wooden skewer, poke holes about 1/2 inch apart into bottom of cake, wiggling skewer slightly to make holes about 1/8 inch wide. (Do not poke skewer all the way through top of cake.) Pour warm strawberry syrup over cake. Let stand until syrup is absorbed and pan is still warm but cool enough to handle, about 45 minutes.

Lay a piece of aluminum foil on top of a wire rack and lightly spray with cooking spray. Invert cake onto rack, and cool completely, about 1 hour.

Whisk together powdered sugar and reserved 1/2 cup strawberry mixture in a medium bowl until smooth. Use a fork to drizzle evenly over cooled cake. Allow to sit for about 20 minutes to allow the icing to harden.

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #277, co-hosted this week by Diann @ Of Goats and Greens and Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook.

Chimichurri Meatballs

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Filed under Appetizers, Main Dishes

As the Spring winds down and we get geared up for summer, I start getting craving for certain flavors that I associate with summer. The flavor of fresh herbs reminds me of summer.

A few months back, I made chimichurri for the first time. I absolutely loved it.

It’s bright. It’s fresh. It’s sharp. It’s one of those condiments that I just want to put on everything.

So y’all know me: I’m definitely going to try.

My first chimichurri had a basil base. This one has a parsley and cilantro one. I know some people have a real hate-hate relationship with cilantro, so I actually think that you can use whichever combination of those herbs that you want and it’ll still turn out fine. But I do have to insist on the herbs being fresh, especially since they’re going in both the chimichurri and the meat itself.

One of the things I like most about this is how easy it is to put together. I even feel fairly confident about putting it in the “You Can’t Mess This Up. No, Seriously” categories on the blog. If that and the yummy pictures doesn’t give you enough incentive to try this out, I don’t know what will.

The base for the chimichurri actually doubles as as a seasoning for the meatballs themselves, which  means that you’re going to get double the chimichurri flavor in one bite. The herbs get blitzed together with some garlic in a blender, then half gets set aside, while half goes into the ground meat. (I’ve made this with both beef and turkey and it’s turned out great either way, so don’t worry about swapping out one for the other if you’re not a red meat person).

I prefer to bake my meatballs in the oven for a more even cook. To minimize the mess, I usually line a sheet pan with aluminum foil, then place a baking rack on top of that, sprayed with PAM. It makes for a pretty easy clean up. However, these can be cooked in a skillet. They probably won’t be as round by the end, but that definitely won’t affect the taste.

I actually made a double batch of the chimichurri sauce to have on the side with these. It’s just that good. The bright, fresh and zesty flavors lend themselves so well to the seasoning of the meat, and when it’s added as a condiment I wanted to have a bit of it with every bite. It tasted like summer and I couldn’t wait to share it here. Enjoy.

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Chimichurri Meatballs

Recipe Adapted from Food Network Magazine

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh parsley
  • 2 cups fresh cilantro
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 1 pound ground beef (or turkey)
  • 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (preferably fresh)
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • salt and pepper
  • onion powder
  • 1/3 cup olive or vegetable oil
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Puree the parsley and cilantro with the garlic cloves in a blender.

In a large bowl, combine half of the garlic-herb mix with the ground beef. Season generously with salt, pepper, and onion powder. Add the beaten egg. Add the breadcrumbs. (Try to stir with your hands as quickly as possible, the more you stir, the tougher the meatballs can be)

Shape into meatballs (about 2 tablespoonfuls each). Place 1 1/2 inches apart on a lightly greased rack on an aluminum foil-lined jelly-roll pan.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until browned.

Pulse the remaining herb mix in a blender with the olive or vegetable oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then serve with the meatballs.

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #276, co-hosted this week by Diann @ Of Goats & Greens.

Cranberry Orange Cream Scones

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Filed under Breakfast

Sometimes I feel like I could be doing this whole ‘food blogger’ thing so much better than I am.

Looking back at where I’ve started, it goes without saying that I’ve stepped my game up on the photography end. Those first few posts were downright cringeworthy (And no, do not go back to look at them. I beg of you.)

But when it comes to the social media engagement part of this food blog gig…meh. I’m slacking off on that end, and I know it.

I only post new recipes once a week. That’s pretty sparse in comparison to the normal grind of food blogging. And even if it were the norm to post new recipes once a week, I still don’t do anything throughout the week in the meantime between time. I don’t do flashback posts on the FB page. I don’t ask questions, or post tips for cooking or baking. I don’t do that whole What I Ate/Am Eating for Lunch and/or Dinner thing (which I think is weird anyway, no offense to those of you who do participate)

I very much stay in my lane. I make my tiny little blog post on Fridays, I link it up to Fiesta Friday, then to a few other social media outlets (Pinterest, FB, Twitter & Instagram), and then I go about my business.

I wish I could promise y’all that I’m gonna “do better” and start posting more recipes, much more often. But that would feel slightly disingenuous. I’ve been doing the one-post-a-week routine for several years now and it’s one that works for me. Most of the time, it keeps me from feeling pressured or stressed about constantly putting out new content. The minute food blogging starts feeling stressful is the minute I’ll stop doing it. My posting schedule works for me; if it ain’t broke, why try to fix it?

There is one thing that I admit would be worth the effort for me to do more of on here. I want to be better about showing the actual process of the recipes, step by step. If you’re not experienced (especially with baking) sometimes written instructions fall a little short, even if they’re as detailed as I try to make mine. It’s not practical for me to keep my pricey shooting camera around while I have stuff out and messy in the kitchen ( as I definitely can’t afford to fix it should the worst happen). But I have recently been trying to make better use of my phone for those purposes.

If you guys check out my Instagram profile page, you’ll see where I’ve saved past Stories I’ve made into permanent Highlights. These Highlights are pretty much step by step instructions of particular recipes, DIY ingredients and special techniques that I use while baking. So far I’ve covered things like DIY Candied Ginger & Ginger Syrup, Perfect Pancakes and Roasted Garlic. Today’s recipe happens to be the subject of my latest Highlight. So if you’re interested in seeing the ‘play by play’, you should go ahead and check out the Highlight, then come right back here to read the recipe itself.

So far as the actual process goes, I’ll let the Highlight do most of the work, but I will say here that the heavy cream is what makes ALL the difference with these scones. The more that I make scones and biscuits, the more I’m starting to appreciate the differences between them, as sometimes I think the lines get blurred.  A good rule of thumb would be to use heavy cream for scones, and buttermilk for biscuits. The heavy cream produces a ‘cakier’ crumb, while the buttermilk will contribute more to a flaky, layered one.

 

These scones are my new favorite. Try them and you’ll understand why.

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Cranberry Orange Cream Scones

Recipe Adapted from TeaTime Magazine

Ingredients

  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 4 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  • 5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • The zest of 1 large orange
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
  • 2 cups (plus more if needed) cold heavy whipping cream
  • 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

 

Directions

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, orange zest and cranberries together in a bowl and stir together with a fork.

Use the large holes on a box grater to grate the butter directly into the dry ingredients.

Make a well in the center.  Pour in the heavy cream. Use a large fork and a large rubber spatula to stir the mixture together. If it seems a little dry you may add additional heavy cream until it forms a shaggy dough.

Sprinkle a pastry mat, wooden cutting board or wax paper with flour. Turn the dough out onto the surface and pat a few times with your hands until it loosely holds together. (Don’t knead it too much or the warmth in your palms will melt the butter and cause the scones to be tough.)

Pat and roll the dough into a rectangle. Take the two opposite ends and fold them together like a business letter into thirds. Flip it upside down & roll it into another rectangle, sprinkling the surface with flour if it gets too sticky. Repeat the folding process two to three more times before patting it into one final rectangle.

Wrap the rectangle in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and unwrap the scone dough out onto it. Use a bench scraper or very sharp knife to trim the edges of the rectangle. Cut the remaining dough into squares, about 2″ each.

Remove the cut scones to a baking sheet you’ve lined with parchment paper, rather close to each other (it will help them rise higher). Sprinkle the tops with white sugar. Place the pan of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered.

Bake until scones are golden brown, 20-25 minutes.

Browned Butter Spritz Cookies

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Filed under Cookies

It’s been a while since I last have, so in today’s post I’m back to sing all of Browned Butter’s praises. It’s worthy of plenty.

Butter itself consists of fat, water and milk proteins. When you cook it long enough in the bottom of a heavy pan, all of the water gets cooked out of the butter and the remaining solids (the milk proteins) become browned. When they brown, it takes on a warm golden color and a warm, golden brown, almost nutty flavor.

That flavor is all of the things. It does the most godly (or ungodly, however you want to think of it) things to the tastebuds, and never fails to enhance pretty much anything you want to add it to, whether sweet or savory. From my very first go at Browned Butter I was hooked and as a result, have trying to build up the Browned Butter Collection on here.

So far, I’ve made it to Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, a Browned Butter Spice Cake, and Browned Butter Banana Bread. All were a huge success, and I highly recommend you check them out before coming back here to check out today’s recipe, which I think makes a quick, easy, and perfect addition to the club.

The process of making browned butter goes pretty quick. I’ve made this recipe twice already and what I typically will do is make myself a batch of it right before bed, pop it in the fridge overnight, then take it back out the next day when I’m ready to bake. Let it come to the room temperature that regular butter should be at for creaming, and from there things couldn’t be easier. The main tip to remember with spritz cookies is to get your baking sheets as freezing cold as possible–it will make the dough come out of the cookie press so much easier and neater.

Although I used a cookie press to make these, a cookie press certainly isn’t a necessity. So, I’ve also included alternate instructions in the recipe just in case you’d like to make them into simple circle cookies. I promise it will not affect the taste. They’re light, crisp, and full of that sweet nutty buttery flavor. It was hard for me to stop at just one and share with anyone else; I think it’ll be pretty difficult for you too.

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Browned Butter Spritz Cookies

Recipe Adapted from Land O Lakes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour

Directions

Melt the butter over medium heat in a 2 quart saucepan. Let it cook and watch it closely until 3-5 minutes until the butter begins to foam, forms a golden brown color and browned bits form on the bottom. (It will have a sweet, nutty smell). Immediately remove it from the heat. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove to a plastic container and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit., Place about 3 baking sheets in the freezer to chill thoroughly. Let the browned butter come to room temperature, until it is softened.

Place the browned butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl. Beat with a hand mixer or standing mixer fitted with the paddle until light and creamy. Add the flour in 1 cup increments, just until combined.

Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Place chilled dough into your cookie press. Press dough out onto ungreased and unlined baking sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned at the edges. Allow to sit on baking sheet for about 60 seconds before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

(Alternately, for those without a cookie press: Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten with tines of fork. 8-11 minutes, until cookies are lightly browned at the edges. Allow to sit on baking sheet for about 60 seconds before removing to a wire rack to cool completely)

Note: no one oven is the same, & different baking sheets bake cookies differently. Keeping this in mind, I will ALWAYS test bake one cookie before baking entire sheets of the whole batch, just to get a good idea of how long they should be in the oven and if I need to adjust the way I’ve cut, rolled them out, etc. I highly recommend that you do the same.)

Linking to Fiesta Friday #274, co-hosted this week by Antonia @ Zoale.com and Liz @ Spades, Spatulas & Spoons.

Cardamom Cream Bundt Cake

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Filed under Desserts

Did you know that you don’t necessarily need butter to bake a cake? It’s true. The function of the butter (the fat) in the recipe can be substituted with several other ingredients.

Carrot cakes are usually made without butter, using some kind of oil (vegetable, olive, canola) as the fat. Jewish Honey Cake of course goes without butter, using honey or a combination of honey with oil as the substitute. I’ve also seen paleo cake recipes that make up for it with a combination of eggs, almond flour and tapioca.

Today’s recipe was the first time I’d ever seen or heard of heavy whipping cream being the entire substitution for butter in a cake recipe. I was curious to see how it would turn out, both because of the ingredient swap and the changes it would make to the methodology of putting the cake together. Because there’s no butter, there obviously wasn’t going to be a creaming step (where the butter and sugar is beaten together until fluffy).

However, one major plus side of the no-creaming method is that the cake then becomes one of those rare gems that don’t necessarily require a handheld or standing mixer to make. If you’ve got two hands, you can put it together very easily. The dry ingredients are combined first, then five eggs (yes, five) are added into the dry ingredients. This seemed weird to me too, as the cake batter at that stage resembled clumpy breadcrumbs. But it’s fine: keep going.

An important note: if you’re using a 10 cup Bundt pan, I do not recommend pouring in all of the batter–it’s a bit too much batter for the pan. Plus, with five eggs in a batter there’s definitely going to be some rise to the finished cake. I filled my pan up about 3/4 of the way, then divided the rest of the batter into muffin cups and made them into cupcakes. If you have a 16 cup Bundt pan, then you should be able to bake it all into one cake, no problem. But if not–don’t risk it. The last thing you want is a mess of spilled cake in your oven. I know from past personal experience that it is the WORST to try and clean up.

I was very pleased with this cake. Cardamom is one of my favorite spices because it can go both ways; sweet and savory. In this case, it gives the cake a sweet yet zesty kick that pairs well with the vanilla. The cake’s texture was one that I wasn’t used to; the heavy cream gives it a ribbon-y appearance that may make you worry that’s it’s not ‘done’ in certain areas, but don’t worry. So long as you got it up the correct temperature, (195-200F) I promise you that it is. The heavy cream substitution creates a very dense, moist texture. It was different, but I still really liked it and I think that you will too.

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Cardamom Cream Bundt Cake

Recipe Courtesy of NordicWare

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 5 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or preferably vanilla bean paste

For Glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • A few tablespoons of milk

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10 cup Bundt pan and set aside.

In a large bowl using a handheld mixer (or the bowl of a standing mixer with the flat beater head–OR, you can use a large wire whisk and stir with your hand) combine the first five ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cardamom and salt).

Add eggs one at a time and blend until they become incorporated with the dry ingredients (it’ll start to look like clumpy breadcrumbs.)

Pour in the heavy cream into the mixture with a steady stream. Add the vanilla.

Pour batter into the bundt pan, making sure it’s only 3/4 full to prevent overflow and spillage. (You’ll have leftover batter. I made the excess into cupcakes.) Lift and tap it down on the counter a few times (this will prevent air bubbles from forming).

Place the cake pan on a sheet pan, then bake on the middle rack of the oven. Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Cake is done once it reaches an inner temp of 195-200 degrees Fahrenheit).

Cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting on a cooling rack to cool completely.

For glaze, combine the powdered sugar and cardamom with enough milk to form a smooth, thickish glaze. Use a fork to drizzle it over the cake. Allow to set up until hardened, about 15 minutes before serving.

Linking this up to Fiesta Friday #273, co-hosted this week by Mollie @ The Frugal Hausfrau and Angie@Fiesta Friday.

Strawberry Cream Biscuits and Strawberry Sauce

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Filed under Breads

It’s Good Friday-Easter weekend already. That’s wild. This year is flying by.

I hope that everyone who celebrates a holiday of some kind, whether it’s a religious one or not, gets to enjoy some good food as apart of it. It’s kind of become a tradition for me to cook a nice Brunch-Brinner for our house.

I’ve actually been holding this post back for a while. I baked it right at the end of the summer, just before strawberries were finna go out of season. I made a judgment call to keep it in the Drafts folder all throughout the autumn and the long winter because I felt like it would be counterproductive and awkward to share a recipe with produce that would probably be out of season.

Now that April is winding down and the weather is starting to warm up, hopefully strawberries are starting to become more readily (and affordably) available wherever you are. If so, then I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you get into this recipe. It has two components and strawberries are all up in both.

You can incorporate just about any mix in that you want into a biscuit dough, including strawberries. However, they are very wet, especially when sliced. This can make assembling the dough somewhat messier than it may be normally, so in order to nix that issue, I froze the sliced strawberries ahead of time so that when they’re mixed into the biscuit dough, the juices wouldn’t gush out and make the dummy gummy. Don’t worry; when the biscuits bake the berries will thaw out perfectly.

Now, listen. About the strawberry sauce. Let me talk to you about this strawberry SAUCE. It’s tart. It’s slightly sweet. It’s smooth. It’s sublime, and I want it for everything. My biscuits. My pound cake. My ice cream. My toast. All of the things.

This dish is a taste of pure spring, and I think that all of you deserve to take a bite for this Easter weekend. So get to it.

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Strawberry Cream Biscuits and Strawberry Sauce

Recipe Adapted from Better Home & Gardens

Ingredients

For Biscuits

  • 2 cups flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons butter, frozen
  • 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and diced
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, or more as needed, chilled

For Strawberry Sauce

  • 2 cups fresh strawberries
  • 1/3 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Spread the strawberries out in a single layer on a baking sheet that you line with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 60 minutes, until they are very firm.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with a fork. Use the large holes on a box grater to grate butter directly into the frozen ingredients and stir to combine. Add the strawberries and stir together until strawberries are coated in the flour.

Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in the heavy cream, stirring together with a fork until just moistened. If it seems a little dry you can add more heavy cream until it comes together.

Sprinkle a pastry mat, wooden cutting board or wax paper with flour. Turn the dough out onto the surface and pat a few times with your hands until it loosely holds together. (Don’t knead it too much or the warmth in your palms will melt the butter and cause the biscuits to be tough.)  Pat and roll the dough into a rectangle. Take the two opposite ends and fold them together like a business letter into thirds. Flip it upside down and pat & roll it into another rectangle, sprinkling the surface with flour if it gets too sticky. Repeat the folding process two to three more times before patting it into one final rectangle, about 7-8 inches and 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 425°. Place a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven.

Place dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Use a bench scraper or very sharp knife to trim the edges of the rectangle. Using a floured pizza cutter or knife, cut 12 to 16 squares in dough, leaving biscuits intact. Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 20 minutes. Bake in the upper half of the oven for 17-20 minutes. Serve warm with the Strawberry Sauce.

For Strawberry Sauce:  In a medium saucepan combine the strawberries, sugar, and water. Bring to simmering; cook and stir until strawberries pop and sauce has thickened. Remove from heat, then stir in the vanilla. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #272, cohosted this week by Antonia @ Zoale.com and Angie @ Fiesta Friday.

Smothered Sweet Potatoes

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I grew up in a very religious household and every year as apart of our faith the church we attended encouraged the members to do some form of fasting for the months of January and the first two weeks of February. It was meant to be an exercise in drawing the believer closer to God and encourage gratitude by practicing the self-denial and discipline that comes with fasting. In theory, anyway.

It was kind of like an early form of Lent. Some people would actually fast from food completely for the entire 40 days. Others would fast from things like television. But most people would just opt for a Daniel Fast.

It’s a reference to the prophet Daniel from the Bible who at one point consumed nothing but vegetables for 10 days.In a nutshell, it’s a diet where the participant doesn’t eat meat, alcohol, processed sugar and in some cases, most grains. It’s the fast that we most often participated in. Is it a blast? Not particularly. But there are ways of cooking so that you don’t have to be munching on crudites for 40 days.

My mom would cook a lot of potatoes in a lot of different ways for us. Our favorite way was to fry them up smothered style in a skillet. I shared one recipe a long time ago when I first started the blog. Today I decided to give out another one that’s made with one minor ingredient swap.

I’m actually partial to sweet spuds as opposed to Russets. I’m surprised it took me this long to getting around to sharing this recipe; it’s probably because so far as ‘recipes’ go, there’s not a whole lot of rigid structure or rules to smothered potatoes. I don’t specify how much of the spices to add because after so many years, it’s really become a kind of ‘instinctual’ preference. You season them until they taste right. If you’re really that nervous about it, go easy with the salt and it’ll be fine.

Smothered potatoes made the ritual of Daniel fasting infinitely easier for us to do growing up. Potatoes are still a comfort me for me, and I enjoy these so much that I still like to make them now as a favorite side dish. Try this dish out for yourself and I think you’ll understand why.

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Southern Sweet Potatoes

Recipe from Jess@CookingisMySport

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup liquid bacon grease
  • 4 lbs sweet potatoes, scrubbed, sliced into thin rounds (peeled or not is up to you)
  • 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • Onion Powder to taste
  • Garlic powder to taste
  • Salt, to taste
  • Pepper, to taste

 

Directions

Heat a cast iron skillet or nonstick pan over medium high heat.

Drizzle about 2 tbsp of the bacon grease into the pan, swirl about to evenly cover the surface.

Add enough potatoes and onions to pan to fill up. (You will have to do this in multiple batches).Sprinkle a generous coating of the onion powder, garlic powder over the potatoes and onions. Stir to evenly coat, then add a little bit more if necessary.

Add the salt and pepper to the potatoes and onions (be a little less generous with these, I typically do about 1 tsp of each per batch).

Cover the pan and allow to cook until potatoes are brown, tender and slightly crisp at the edges, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking at the bottom of the skillet.

Repeat steps 2-6 in batches with the remaining potatoes and onions and serve.

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #271, co-hosted this week by  Ai @ Ai Made It For You and Angie @ Fiesta Friday.

Ginger Biscotti

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There are a certain set of foods that I like to think of as ‘Blank Canvas’ recipes. They’re perfectly able to stand alone, delicious just the way they are. However, they’re versatile and ‘blank’ enough to be able to ‘color; (and thereby enhance) them with all kinds of different flavor profiles. A good Blank Canvas recipe should have minimal base ingredients and be pretty hard to mess up.

Biscuits are a perfect example of a Blank Canvas. They’re great on their own, but they’re also extremely versatile to the point that they’re able to be either sweet or savory. Pound cake is another great Blank Canvas. Once you have a good base recipe for a pound cake, you can add just about anything you want to it; extracts, zest, chocolate, fruit, booze, vegetables–the possibilities are endless.

I’ve shared Blank Canvas recipes many times before on the blog, both in their original form and when I’ve added the variety of flavors to enhance them. Search the Recipe Index and you’ll find many variations of biscuits, pound cake, and scones. I checked myself just now and saw that there are also currently three different kinds of biscotti to choose from. Guess what? After today, there’ll be four.

Biscotti are THE cookies for us coffee and tea drinkers. They’re minimally sweet, extra crunchy, and perfect for dunking in a cup of hot caffeine. The base recipe is also basic and versatile enough to be able to be given just about any flavor you could possibly think of, and that includes sweet AND savory.

I’ve made biscotti about four times before and I’ve tried to do something different with it each time. Today’s recipe is the latest rendition on the Blank Biscotti Canvas. Ginger is a spice that I try to throw in most of everything that I cook in general. Since it lends itself so well to sweet and savory, it was easy to incorporate here. The dough is flavored with both dried and crystallized ginger, giving it an extra boost of sweet and subtle heat. I added an iced drizzle to top off my biscotti, but it’s not necessary if you prefer to just eat them plain. They’re certainly delicious enough to do so.

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Ginger Biscotti

Recipe Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark), packed
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup finely diced crystallized ginger

For Glaze:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • a few tablespoons milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine the eggs and vanilla. In the bowl of a standing mixer or using a handheld one, beat together the butter, sugar, spices, salt, and baking powder until mixture is smooth and creamy.

Add the egg mixture; it may look lightly curdled.

Add the flour in about 1 cup increments, mixing just until combined. Mix in the crystallized ginger.

Scrape dough out of the bowl and onto the parchment paper. Shape it into a log about 14″ long. It will be about 2 1/2″ wide and 3/4″ thick. Use either a spatula you’ve sprayed with cooking spray or your fingers that you’ve wet with water to smooth out the top of the log.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on the pan about 30 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dip your fingers into water and smooth out the top of the log again.

Wait another five minutes, then use a serrated knife to press down firmly and cut the log into 1/2″ to 3/4″ slices. Cut at a 45° angle, for long biscotti; cut crosswise slices, for shorter biscotti. As you’re slicing, be sure to cut straight up and down, perpendicular to the pan; if you cut unevenly, biscotti may be thicker at the top than the bottom, and they’ll topple over during their second bake.

Set the biscotti on edge on the baking sheet. Return to oven and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes. They should feel very dry, but they may still feel a little moist in the center; that’s ok. They’ll continue to dry out as they cool.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Once completely cooled, combine all the glaze ingredients until you have a thick-ish glaze and use a fork to drizzle over the sides of the biscotti. Allow to set for about 15 minutes until glaze is hardened.

For extra crunchy biscotti, leave them uncovered overnight to keep drying out.

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #269, co-hosted this week by Mollie @ Frugal Hausfrau and Ai @ Ai Made It For You.

Butter ‘Finger’ Cookies

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Today’s post is another one for all the people who may be reading this and think that they can’t bake. I understand. I used to feel that way too. But believe me when I say that there are some recipes out there that are near impossible to mess up. I don’t just mean box mix recipes, either. Despite what you think, it IS possible to bake certain things from scratch, and not have to worry about blowing it because it’s just too simple.

I’ve made these cookies numerous times before when I needed a dessert to take somewhere to pass at a social function, and either didn’t have a lot of time or just didn’t feel like doing much work. Everybody loves butter cookies. These come together in minutes and bake in pretty much the same amount of time.

You probably have most, if not all, of the ingredients to make this in your house already. I think the best part is that you don’t have to worry about rolling them out and fooling with any cookie cutters. Just spoon all the dough in a bag (and yes, you *can* just use a ziploc bag and snip off the end) and pipe it out in tiny little sticks. They don’t have to be straight. In fact, I purposely piped mine into kind of oval-ish shapes so that when they baked, they would resemble little ‘fingers’.

I used vanilla emulsion, but this dough can be flavored in pretty much anyway you want. I think they’d be wonderful with lemon or orange. Once they’re done baking, you can dip them in chocolate and sprinkles to jazz them up. These are a perfect little snack to have alongside coffee, tea or cocoa. They transport very well and the freshness also lasts when stored in a sealed plastic container.

Get into these, y’all. They’re worth it.

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Butter 'Finger' Cookies

Recipe Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla butter emulsion (like LorAnn Oils, but vanilla extract will work fine too)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups all purpose flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the bowl of a standing mixer or using a handheld one, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing just until combined and yellow disappears. Add the vanilla emulsion.

In a small bowl combine the flour with the salt, stirring together with a fork. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 1 cup increments, mixing just until combined.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray.

Spoon the dough into a pastry bag or a gallon size Ziploc plastic bag fitted with a decorating tip (I used a Wilton 6B tip, but if you don’t have one, it’s not necessary, they just won’t be ridged) and pipe it into curved or straight sticks that you space about 2 inches apart on the sheet. Once finished, refrigerate the sheet pan for about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a little bit more sugar. Bake in the oven on the middle rack until just golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

(Note: no one oven is the same, & different baking sheets bake cookies differently. Keeping this in mind, I will ALWAYS test bake one cookie before baking entire sheets of the whole batch, just to get a good idea of how long they should be in the oven and if I need to adjust the way I’ve cut, rolled them out, etc. I highly recommend that you do the same.)

Sharing at Fiesta Friday #267, co-hosted this week by Antonia @ Zoale.com and Abbey @ Three Cats and a Girl.