Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Pumpkin Pancakes


It's a cold fall day today, perfect for some pumpkin pancakes before a long walk in the chilly fall air.  
These pumpkin pancakes are a breeze to make and taste great with a cup of coffee with a little eggnog in it to complete the fall touch!  

Lucky for me I had some pumpkin and sweet potato puree left from Thanksgiving which I used for these.  And bonus, there are extras for later in the week!  



You could make these with buttermilk, sourdough starter or plain milk and they would be great in any version!

Here's a couple recipe links for you:

Happy Cooking!  

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Fermented Hot Pepper Sauce


So, here's what you do with one extra hour when Daylight Saving Time ends and you get to "fall back"...I finished the fermented hot pepper sauce this morning and it's devilishly good!  


I'm not giving up my secret recipe...mostly 'cause I did not write it down!  The peppers I received as a gift from a good friend (thanks Susan!) have been fermenting since October 1 and I blended them with some roasted tomatoes I received from a neighbor, along with some salt, secret seasoning, lime juice and rice wine vinegar.  The color and flavor are delicious, and the heat is, well, hot, but not ridiculous. 




















More holiday gifts ready to be packaged nicely!


Thursday, October 18, 2018

Green Tomato Salsa






















Thanks to my neighbors with bountiful gardens, each year I receive a heap of end-of-season green tomatoes just before the first hard frost. I have made chutney and relish with them in the past, but this year I decided on something a little more zippy...green tomato salsa.  I found a recipe online to use as a basis for my adventure and yesterday chopped, cooked and processed a batch of gifts for the holidays.  And it tastes delicious too!


Monday, March 13, 2017


π  Day March 14th = Pie Day at work!


So, Beast and I set out to make a unique pie today for the feast tomorrow in celebration of π day!

We made a Sour Cream Rum Raisin Pie...a twist on the old Norwegian favorite I grew up with.

First I prepared the dough for the crust, made it into a disc and refrigerated it overnight.  I used my friend, Amy, the pie aficionado's recipe,with butter instead of shortening, and pastry flour instead of APF, and the dough rolled out like silk:
1.5 cups pastry flour
.5 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
and a few Tbsp ice cold water
I mix mine in the food processor, pulsing the flour and salt before adding the diced butter and pulsing again before adding the water.  How much water is a few Tbsp?  Well, that depends how humid the weather is.  This time I think it worked out to about 4 Tbsp, but I was eyeballing it, adding about a Tbsp at a time then pulsing the dough until it started to come together then I transferred it onto plastic wrap, shaped it into a disc and refrigerated it overnight. 
I think this recipe is enough for a two crust pie, but I only made one with it...rolled it out larger than my pie plate, then trimmed the edges to about 1.25" past the edge and crimped the edges.  I then took the remainder of the pie crust that had been cut off and basted it with heavy cream and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar for pastry leftover treats.  I messed that up...I should have basted with melted butter, it would have been even more buttery!  

I poked holes in the dough and then baked the pie crust with beans on parchment in the crust to keep the crust from puffing up.  Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes.  I know it's not the most gorgeous crust, but it's got a rustic feel to it...lesson learned, don't buy the pie plates with the handles...your pie crusts always turn out funky shapes!



Next I prepped the filling:


2 cups sour cream
1.5 cups sugar
3 egg yolks (from large eggs)
1.5 cups raisins soaked in rum (you should really soak them all day or overnight but I only soaked mine a couple hours before making the filling)
3 Tbsp pastry flour
Mixed all this together in a Wolf Gourmet sauce pan and heated over medium until it was heated through and a nice thick consistency.  This does not take very long, maybe 10 minutes with stirring occasionally once the ingredients are well mixed.
Then I turned it down to simmer while I made the meringue:
3 egg whites (from large eggs)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar - don't skip this part
3/4 cup sugar

I had reserved my egg whites from the filling and kept them in the fridge while I was doing everything up to this point, and I had pre-chilled my mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer so the tools would be nice and cold when I whisked the egg white mixture for the meringue.  I do this when making whipped cream as well- it works great!
Whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until they form soft peaks (about 4 minutes) then turn up the speed to high and add the sugar about 1 tbsp at at time and whisk until stiff peaks form (about 3 more minutes).
Here's what the peaks look like when stiff, very stiff!


 





Next pour the custard mixture into the pie crust then top with the meringue and into the oven it goes at 350°F for 15 minutes


Let it rest on a rack for one hour, then refrigerate at least four hours before serving with some fresh coffee!  The rustic crust shape doesn't look so bad after all, does it?  Can't wait to see how it tastes!
Happy π  Day!


Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Fall is in the air, and it's time to fire up the Wolf ovens for some more bread baking!

It's hot today, but cooler fall air is coming, which means more comfortable temperatures for baking.  Beast has been lying around like he's about to die from heat exhaustion, but as soon as the nights get cooler, he bounds into the kitchen eager for the next baking adventure with me.

Recently we participated in the King Arthur Flour Bake Along and made Pane Bianco, which turned out great!  http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2016/08/08/pane-bianco-bakealong/

We also made these Lemon Raspberry Cupcake Beauties http://bakerbynature.com/lemon-cupcakes-with-raspberry-buttercream/

And then over Labor Day we made Cinna Buns from King Arthur's recipe, and used some sourdough starter in the mix: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cinna-buns-recipe 


More to come soon!  



Sunday, July 3, 2016

Strawberry Season

It's Strawberry Season in Wisconsin!

Thankfully the weather is mild and the humidity low for this Independence Holiday weekend so yesterday Beast and I made some strawberry jam.  It's a love-hate relationship much like canning tomatoes in the heat of August.  I love the end result, but can live without the tedious process which keeps me indoors when I would rather be outside.


The berries are beautiful and sweet.  One of the best parts of processing day is coming up with adult beverages to enjoy during the processing adventure.  This time I made a Strawberry Mint Basil Cocktail with Vodka, Mint, Basil, SanPelligrino Limonata, and a little mint simple syrup.



Sometimes the jam turns out a bit runny but this year it is perfect.  It set well and has great flavor.  Step one of holiday gift canning complete!




Saturday, May 21, 2016

Sourdough Starter

Beast and I have taken a break for a long time from blogging, but we have not stopped cooking and baking!  During the winter a customer of mine sent me some of her 8 year old sourdough starter and I have hosted a few Sourdough Bread Classes at work to share the starter with others and teach them how easy bread from scratch with starter can be.

There are so many things to do with sourdough starter and much of it is ridiculously easy.  Besides awesome bread we have been making the most delicious tortillas, biscuits and incredible pancakes.

Here's the recipe I have been using for the tortillas.
Flour Tortillas Recipe Link
You will not believe how velvety smooth they turn out, soft and melt in your mouth delicious!

The first time I made them I was not sure if they were supposed to rest at room temp or in the fridge.  I made them for Cinco de Mayo and mixed the dough the day before.  I left the dough in a plastic bag overnite then looked at it in the morning and thought I had ruined it because it was so moist.  I chucked the bag into the fridge for the day and took it back out after work and decided what the heck, I'll try anyway and see what they are like.  After preheating my cast iron pan I floured my hands and grabbed a gooey handful and mixed it with some more flour then rolled it out.  I knew as soon as I started rolling that I had something here.  The dough rolled so easily and was great to work with.  They turned out beautiful and you could taste the sourdough in every bite.  AWESOME!

I have struggled with flour tortillas for years because they always get too dry from the flour and cooking in the pan.  These were not dry at all.  New favorite recipe!