Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Cake

6/20/17
My absolute most favorite TV Food Show is The Great British Baking Show. Last week a new season was aired on PBS. Great Britain certainly has many talented home bakers. I usually feel I couldn't possibly be successful on this show. But last week one cake caught my attention as a recipe I would like to try: Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle cake. This is not complicated. Just a quick cake with lemon zest, baked in a loaf pan, and drizzled when out of the oven with a granulated sugar/lemon juice glaze. This glaze forms a kind of crunchy crust. Oh my, sweet lemony goodness. The recipe is available on the show site.

On 6/21/17 I hosted my bridge club at Floyd's in Morehead City, NC and awarded three cakes as prizes. One for high score, second high and low score. Also, one cake for the staff at Floyd's.

Pam

Eleanor

Judy

A Fave TV Food Show

6/19/17 One of my favorite TV shows is the Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten. This past weekend I watched her prepare a very simple pasta dish. With a 1/2 pound of cooked pasta added to 1 stick of melted butter and the juice of 1 lemon, you have delicious dish of pasta in about 20 minutes. I  sauteed chicken tenderloins and bake asparagus with olive oil and salt and pepper. These components came together for our dinner. Lemon zest garnished this dish. As I am posting, I feel the need to work on presentation! With white pasta and chicken, the dish looks lackluster. How are ways I could improve the look? It needs something red and maybe I would cut the asparagus into bite site pieces. Maybe sun dried tomatoes would perk this up!

Practice, Practice, Practice

6/21/17
Cooking at home. If I don't learn anything else at Culinary School, I know I must practice, practice, practice! This past semester I truly mommicked many eggs trying to make the perfect omelette. Since, I have been working on a better omelette. Here is the latest try. This has come a long way from the class at CCC when I burned and and stuck many in the pan.  This effort needed a better whisking and a little less cooking time. Pretty good fold. Chef Garnett, I am still working on it!!

Nags Head Reunion

6/13/17 Having a wonderful visit at Nags Head, NC with my Plymouth High School friends. Tonight I plan to serve dinner to everyone and everyone helped. As dinner preparations were underway, anyone passing through the kitchen ended up with a job! Here is our Menu:

Appetizer by Kay: Tuna Cucumber Swirls
Dinner: Risotto with Italian Sausage, Spinach and Sun Dried Tomatoes
            Arugula and Radicchio Salad with Vinaigrette
             Crostini

Here is Kay's appetizer. We both learned how to strip cucumbers and found spreading the tuna mixture was easier on dry cucumber.

Kay and the Swirls

The Risotto main dish was an success and I sliced and toasted the baguettes prepared in the previous post. While preparing the Vinaigrette, Emily helped drizzle the oil and the dressing emulsified perfectly. I just wished Chef Clark could have seen it!

Love my childhood friends!!

 

King Arthur Bakealong Challenge: Baguettes

6/11/17 King Arthur is a quality brand of flour. Sometimes at Food Lion, you can catch it on sale. If you are going to go to the trouble to bake, give your product every chance of success by using high quality ingredients.

Recently I found on the King Arthur website a baker's challenge with a different recipe to try each each month. Baguettes are the recipe for June. This is my first experience with a preferment. The preferment was a "poolish." Basically a dryer preferment, this poolish contains water, yeast and flour. Here is the final result: a very crusty bread with a softer interior. My crumb was finer than I would like.

King Arthur Flour June Bake Along Baguettes

Macaroons

6/6/17 Macaroons Not Macarons, O the Difference

Coconut Macaroon Cookies are one of my favorite cookies but they don't seem to be available in the grocery store anymore. These are the cookies made mostly of coconut, not the trendy French multicolored sandwich cookies with multi flavors. Been thinking of making them myself. A good beginning would be check out the bag of coconut at the store.

A simple recipe for Macaroons is on the back of the Baker's coconut bag.`Very easy to do.

Down East Light Rolls

6/3/17 An elderly member of my church died and her funeral was today. I joined a group providing lunch for family and out of town visitors. I prepared Down East Light Rolls for this event.

The dough was wet and rose beautifully. Note the plastic wrap from Costco with the slider for cutting. What a useful product. Rolls and cuts easily. I may win the plastic wrap battle after all.

Risen Dough

Rolls

Traditional Blistered Tops

Baguettes

6/2/17
Monday, 5/29, Elizabeth and Laura are coming by on the way home to Greensboro via the Cedar Island Ferry. Mom can we have dinner? Sure! How about spaghetti? Yeah!  Of course fresh baked bread is a match with spaghetti. Choosing the bread to make became easy when I realize all my Crisco was gone. The perfect solution: French Baguettes. The French and Italians love each other, Right??

Used my classroom textbook for this recipe. I finally figured out how to use a lame to slash the dough. Speed is the key. Slash and run!! French baguettes have 5 to 7 slashes. Chef Lindsay, my baking Chef Professor, would be so proud! One loaf went to Greensboro!

Tres Leches Cake

6/1/17 As I was driving home from school on my way to a luncheon, I called my friend Mary Lee and asked are we playing bridge tonight and where are we playing bridge. May Lee says we are playing and its my turn to host. Oh my! Well it doesn't take much to pull this together. Just need a clean house and bridge set up and then prizes and dessert. What to serve for dessert. It's always a dilemma with so many choices. I decide simple and cool. This is an opportunity to make a Tres Leches Cake. Always wanted to try this.

A plain cake is needed for the basis. There is always a box cake but I decide to make a scratch cake. The filling is 3 milks: Eagle Brand, evaporated and whole milk. When cool, top with real whipping cream. Garnish with macerated strawberries and blueberries. It was a hit with the clean plate Bridge Club!!

This recipe originates from Latin America. In order to promote sales of either evaporated or condensed milk, this cake recipe was on the label of the can.

Tres Leches Cake
1. Prepare plain cake in 13" X 9" pan.
2. When cake is removed from oven, cool slightly
3. Using a fork, perforate the cake
4. Pour a mixture of 2 cups whole milk, 1 can condensed milk, and 1 12 oz can evaporated milk over cake. Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with freshly whipped sweetened heavy whipping cream.
5. Use garnish of your choice.

Bee Hive Shaped Cake Semi Failure

5/25/17
Semi-Failure
It's Jr/Sr Day at ECHS and many of my students are out for the day. My remaining students requested a treat. I decided to repeat the Honey Lemon Beehive Cake. When baking the cake, I set the temperature but neglected to press start on the oven. 45 minutes later my cake was sitting in a warm oven and no where near done. After preheating, the cake was returned to the oven and baked until a toothpick check showed clean.

Well, the cake stuck to the pan and fell apart in pan removal. Looks terrible and tastes great. This cake did not make it to ECHS.

A good solution for a crumbled cake would be to make trifle. Layer a dish with crumbled cake and drizzle  with your choice of alcoholic beverage (rum, sherry, lemon-cello). Smooth with your choice of custard or pudding. Top with layer of whipped cream. No harm, no foul!!

Cinnamon Buns

5/23/17

My husband John enjoyed the Orange Swirl Buns. With an important meeting on Tuesday 5/23 at the office, he requested a batch of these buns. With no oranges in house, I offered to make Cinnamon Buns  and here they are. The recipe made a lovely rich dough, not to dry and not to wet. The buns held high quality for at least two days. I cut the buns at about 1/2" so they could be smaller and less messy to eat in a business setting.

 And yes, one is missing!!

Cinnamon Buns
4 1/2" to 5 cups AP flour
1 scant T rapid rise yeast
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 t kosher salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Filling
1/4 cup AP flour
1 T cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)
1/2 cup toasted pecans

Glaze: Mix together 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 1/2 T milk, and 1/2 t vanilla. Add additional milk if needed for proper consistency

1. In a mixer bowl fixed with a dough hook, combine 2 1/4 cups flour and yeast.
2. In a saucepan, combine milk, 1/3 cup butter, sugar and salt. Heat and stir to 120 degrees.
3. Add sauce pan mixture to the mixer bowl.
4. Add eggs to mixer bowl.
5. Beat on low speed 30 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl constantly.
6. Beat on high speed 3 minutes.
7. Add as much of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
8. Knead dough 5 minutes with dough hook on 2nd speed until smooth and elastic.
9. Shape into a ball and place into a greased bowl and flip greased side up.
10. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
11. Punch down dough.
12. Bench rest covered 10 minutes.
13. Prepare 9" X 13" baking pan.
14 Prepare filling in a small bowl by mixing together brown sugar, 1/4 cup AP flour, and cinnamon. Cut in 1/2 cup butter with a pastry blender until crumbly.
15. Roll out dough into a 12" X 18" rectangle.
16. Sprinkle filling over dough. Cover with raisins and pecans.
17. Roll up lengthwise and seal edge.
18 Using a serrated knife, cut into desired size.
19. Arrange in pan.
20 Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
21. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until temperature measures 195 degrees.
22. Cool slightly and drizzle with glaze.

Pie Dough

5/21/17
It's a lazy Sunday afternoon and I think I will work with pie dough. I have been having shrinkage problems with my dough sliding down into the dish. This experiment I pinched the dough with the edge sitting up rather than pressing down the dough along the edge of the dish. I was satisfied with the dough performance but the pie split. No affect on the flavor!!

The Angus Barn Chocolate Chess Pie is a quick and easy filling for the crust practice. This signature pie has been featured by Our State Magazine, The Raleigh News and Observer, and Southern Living. The Chess Pie itself is a basic flour,eggs, butter, and sugar with many variations of flavors.

I have fond memories of dining at the Angus Barn in Raleigh, NC, on my wedding night. This small town girl was in awe of this "fancy" restaurant. The waiter placed the napkin on my lap and buttered the crackers for our appetizer. So much attention!!

Orange Swirl Buns

5/20/17
The February/March Issue of Cook's Country magazine contains a lovely recipe for "Alabama Orange Rolls." These rolls have been made famous by the All Steak restaurant in Cullman, Alabama. Similar in nature to a cinnamon roll except, the feature flavor is orange. The dough has orange juice, the filling contains orange zest, and the glaze repeats the orange juice. The recipe uses the mixer method for blending ingredients and kneading the dough. This is not my recipe to share but here are the results:

Cantuccini

5/16/17 Cantuccini


Recently, I had lunch with my friend  Giulia from Sardinia. She agreed to share her biscotti recipe following a good laugh at my pronunciation. Her recipe is titled Cantuccini which means almond cookies. Using an authentic recipe from Italy, should make wonderful biscotti.

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

11/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 whole eggs, plus 2 eggs yolks

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup almonds, coarsest chopped

1 tablespoon milk

Unsalted butter for baking sheet

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter and lightly flour a  baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, whole eggs, 1 of the egg yolks and the salt.  Stir until a soft dough forms.  Add the almonds and mix until they are evenly distributed.  Divide the dough into equal portions and place them on a lightly floured work surface.  Using the palms of your hands, roll each dough portion into a sausage shape about 1 in. In diameter and 12 in long.

In a small bowl, mix together the milk and the remaining egg yolk.  Brush the dough rolls with the milk mixture.

Arrange the dough rolls on the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and, while the rolls are still soft, cut them on the diagonal into slices about 1/2 in wide. Separate the slices so they are not touching, return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until dry, 5 minutes longer.

Remove to a wire rack to cool.  Store in an airtight container.

Let me know if you like them!  Giulia

At first try, the dough was too dry and I added milk to pull dough together.

Bee Hive Cake

5/14/17 Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I received a cake pan with recipe included. It's definitely time to venture away from Duncan Hines. After watching the Great British Baking Show, I have been wanting to experiment with the cakes they mention. A new pan and King Arthur recipe is a good place to start. The first concern was not to over bake the cake.

With a cake in the making, I invited my brother and sister in law over for dinner. This became opportunity to experiment further with other ideas.

Recently I read an article in the Raleigh News and Observer about recipes posted on Facebook showing visual appealing foods in a time lapse video seeming to be simple to prepare. http://www.newsobserver.com/living/food-drink/article131517214.html
The author felt the foods were too loaded with fat and calories and might not be so simple to make. The author found the recipes to be  more difficult than she expected and adjustments needed to be made. Of course, the appearance of the results did not match the video.
 I attempted the Creamy Spaghetti Bake.
http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2013/06/07/creamy-baked-spaghetti/
This recipe video shows up on my Facebook page frequently and   I decided to give it a try. It was not difficult and resulting dish was delicious but not exceptional. The main difference in this dish and lasagna is pasta shape and cream cheese.

The Cake was fabulous. The cake was moist and tender with a small crumb. It was a plain cake flavored with vanilla and lemon zest. Even thought the pan was intricate, the cake came out of the mold perfectly. While still warm, the cake was glazed with a lemon and honey glaze.

Down East Light Rolls

5/13/17 Light Rolls
Down East Carteret County cooks have been making daily yeast rolls for generations. These rolls are called light rolls or lightning rolls. Usually, in the Southern US, biscuits have been the kitchen staple daily bread. Not so Down East.

Older recipes used lard as the fat ingredient, but this has now been replaced with Crisco. Lard, like cholesterol, became a bad boy in the nutrition world and disappeared from grocery store shelves. Lard is once again available in Beaufort at the Piggly Wiggly.  It has long been off the market, but seems to be making a come back. A disadvantage can be a minor pork flavor if too much lard is in a recipe.

Water for the liquid ingredient and 1/4 cup of sugar per 6 cups flour, join salt and active dry yeast in these rolls. Gold Medal plain flour is actually mentioned by name in many recipes.

These cooks used longer rising times by setting out the dough overnight in the oven or most of the day in the oven.

Particularly noted as a quality outcome is a blistered top.

Variations in Down East Rolls:

• Rolls may be placed as to brown all over or touching each other depending on cook's preference.
• An interesting addition is sweet potato for additional color and flavor.
• Down East cooks refer to sizes of the recipe as either a 6 cup recipe or 5# recipe referring to flour amount.

This is the recipe I used today. A double yolked egg was added as part of the liquid. My friend Sam Brake brought these to me from a research station near Asheville, NC. It is a good use for an egg to be included in bread. The egg adds binding quality for structure, color, nutrition, and richness.

Down East Light Rolls

2 1/2# Golf Medal Flour

2 T Kosher Salt

1/2 c Sugar

1/2 c Crisco

2 c Water

1/2 c Eggs

1 T Active Dry Yeast

Mix yeast and warm water (105 to 110 degrees). Set aside for 5 minutes

Mix flour, salt, and sugar in mixer. Blend. Add shortening and process until shortening is taken in. Add water, yeast, and eggs. Mix on 1st speed for 2 minutes. Knead in mixer on #2 for five to seven minutes until smooth and elastic in texture. 

Round dough and place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place, free of drafts, until doubled in size. Punch down. Scale rolls at 2 oz of dough. Pan and let rise again until doubled in size. Bake in a 400 degree oven until golden brown. Yield: 24 rolls.

Adapted from Light Roll recipes from the Harkers Island Cookbook

In this attempt, the rolls would be a more golden brown rather than dark brown with a shorter baking time. However, the flavor was excellent with tender centers. The eggs added color and a depth of flavor.