Category Archives: Baking

“When I smell it, it’s done.”

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Last night at work, my co-worker casually mentioned that she wasn’t sure if she had ever had Irish Soda Bread.

“What? How? Really?” I asked.

“Jennie, make some tonight and bring it in tomorrow,” Liz declared.

And that is exactly what I did. First, though, I had to call my house.

“Hello? Dad? Dad. Where are you? I need you to go to the kitchen. I need you to find mom’s soda bread recipe. It’s probably in the binder, on the counter with the cookbooks.”

About fifteen minutes later, with details yesterday and a, “You’re lucky that I watched mom make this yesterday,” and a “It says raisins or currants, but use currants,” and a “Crisco? This calls for Crisco. She used butter, use butter,” I was on my way.

I realized something. Here in California, I can get chiles, and dried Mexican spices, and there is a Latino aisle, but with that comes a lack of basics I’d find on the East coast, or even the Midwest. Which means no currants.

So, for one of the first times I replied to the question, “Did you find everything you need?” with, “No, actually. Currants? Do you not carry them?” The patient woman explained to me, “Well if we did have them, they’d be with the…”

“Raisins.” I stated. “I know. OK. Thanks.”

Besides the lack of currants, the night turned out swimmingly. Well that, and the fact that somehow I am out of sugar. How can that be true? I have super-fine sugar from when we made creme brulee, but no regular sugar. Super-fine is what I used, and I’ll have to restock my kitchen before Corelyn knows about this travesty.

I arrived home, cooked dinner, and started in on the soda bread. Which goes so fast when you have a Kitchenaid, I must say. Last night I also discovered the first recipe that I couldn’t find in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: Soda bread.

I just needed to know how long to bake my bread for. Turns out, this wasn’t written on my mom’s recipe, and my dad laughed when I asked today and said, “Mom’s answer was when I smell it, it’s done.” Which might be true, but I needed a number. Luckily, The Barefoot Contessa has me covered. She suggested 30-45 minutes, and mine ended up taking about 30 minutes.

I brought half the soda bread to work today, along with a half-stick of butter for smearing. Two or three pieces later, it was a good St. Patrick’s Day.

Mom’s recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour (she says to sift. Palluzzis never sift.)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cup currants/raisins (use currants if you can find ’em. Makes it that much better.)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp melted butter

1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add raisins.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, add melted butter and buttermilk, stir.
4. Slowly add to flour mixture. Stir until combined, but don’t over beat.
5. Put in greased loaf pans.
6. Bake at 30-45 minutes at 375.

Devour with butter, or clotted cream. Delicious.

Super Yummy Apple Crisp

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I have a real sister, and a few bunch of honorary sisters. Two of them have been my honorary sisters since I was nine. We’re talking 1995, people. Side ponytails and all. Anyways, their mama makes delicious apple crisp, and the recipe was recently shared with me. I, of course, made it nearly immediately. Results? So good I didn’t even take a picture (it was gone that fast.)
Mama H’s Super Yummy Apple Crisp
As written by LA(H)P

1. Peel & cut apples, to, you know, kinda big but kinda small pieces.  I like to go a little thin but long. The thinner they are the more mushy they get. Use enough apples to fill your pan about half way up. (Jennie side note: I used three apples.)
2. Lay them apples down in a long pan, then pour 1/2 cup water in.
3. This is how you make the stuff that goes on top:
(a) 3/4 cups flour
(b) 1 cup brown sugar
(c)  1 Tsp cinnamon
(d) 1/2 cup butter (a.k.a. a whole stick-a-butter)
(e) 1/4 Tsp. Salt
Mix all this stuff together with a fork and then put it on top of the apples.
Note: The better the butta, the better The Crisp.

Okay, so you should have pre-heated the oven to 350 F, but I always forget till I get to this part of the directions anyways so it’s no biggie if you didn’t. Then you cook it for however long it takes to get the apples “tender” and the crust crusty and dark. It’ll smell so good that you’ll want to take it out before then. Expect 45-60 minutes. (Jennie’s side note: My oven was preheated and my crisp was in for about 50 minutes, but my oven is on the cold side…)

Note: if your pan is 13×9 then you want to use 1 1/2 times the recipe.  so a whole half the recipe more, that should be easy since we’re math team captains! (Jennie’s side note: I was not a math team captain.)

So let it cool a little while and then load ice cream and whipped cream all over it and then die because it will be so g.d. good.

Invite me over, I want some.

And, some photographic evidence:

Amish Friendship Bread.

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I went on a cruise, and the day I got back, my friend Liz handed me this:

It was a bag of mushed brown substance. “It’s a starter for bread” she insisted. I was skeptical. A bag of mush? What a welcome home. She claimed to have gotten it from a friend, who got it from her brother, who received it from a neighbor. So, not only was it a bag of mush, it was an OLD bag of mush (as Jeff pointed out.)

So I brought it home. And stared at it a little. Jeff said, “What is THAT?” and I answered, “Starter.” And he stared back, like I had brought home an alien. Poor guy.

The weirdest part about this whole situation was that the bag came with instructions. Simple ones. That said, “Mush the bag, mush the bag.” Think I’m lying?

I am not. Mush the bag. That’s it. What kind of instructions are THAT?

So I mushed. And I added on the sixth day. And on the seventh day, there was no rest. There was more mushing. But, on the tenth day, there was fermented-smelling mush to then pour into a bowl.

So I did what it said. I added flour.

And I added sugar.

And it all began to sink.

And I got bags out, to pass the Amish Friendship Bread along to four more unsuspecting friends, who would be equally confused and slightly terrified when receiving a bag of mush. With directions.

Then I finished putting the bread together — cinnamon, mainly. And when it was done, I literally didn’t even have a chance to take  a picture before half of it was gone to Andrew and Corelyn (Andrew loves Amish Friendship bread, and had a hard time waiting the ten days.)

Mainly, I had a problem taking a picture because my kitchen looked like this:

Because being who I am, I decided that making muffins at the same time was a great idea. I am sure I have photos of the blueberry muffins somewhere, although Jeff gobbled those up pretty quickly, too, but I’ll see what I can do for you. The bread is slowly being chipped at, like good banana bread, and Corelyn and I have been saved a few breakfast disasters with it. Doesn’t taste fermented at all, but more like really good cinnamon bread. Mmm mmm just the way I like it.

Most of you know that if we lived closer, I would have given you a starter bag of Amish mush. But, since we live so far apart, I will leave you with this, so you can start your own chain.

Snickerdoodles with Reese's Pieces

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A few days ago, I asked my friend El about cookies. Via email. The following is our email convo:

“If you were to eat a cookie, which flavor would you like it to be?”

“Matzah flavored,” he replied, since it is Passover.

“What if it WASN’T Passover? Then what kind of cookie?” I asked.

“That’s tough.  I like all cookies!  probably snickerdoodle with Reese’s pieces,” he replied.

So I made him some Reese’s pieces Snickerdoodles. On account of it being his birthday week, and all.

I used a recipe from FoodNetwork, since I have never made snickerdoodles before, except ONCE in the 7th grade in my first week of Home Ec when I had first moved to MI. It was a traumatic experience, as I had only ever made chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin, and had never heard of snickerdoodles. What land has my parents brought me to, one where cows and tractors and snickerdoodles are plentiful?? I asked myself this question daily for a few weeks, and since my Home Ec teacher was dramatic and told me I shouldn’t chew gum and had a problem with me from Day 1 (I’m pretty sure my mom got a call or two), I vowed I would hate snickerdoodles forever. Of course, I haven’t eaten any since then, nearly 10 years ago, and had nearly forgotten my hatred until El asked me to make them. Alas, I still don’t really like them. But hopefully he will.

Recipe

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening ( I used regular Crisco )
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ( I used wheat flour. Shh!! Don’t tell El. )
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon ( I probably used more. )

I did not use the “chocolate sticks” mentioned on the recipe page, instead I put Reese’s pieces into the dough (after making some for Jen, on account of her peanut allergy.) They were good plain OR with Reese’s. If, you know, you’re into snickerdoodles.

IN OTHER NEWS…

The only person who reads my blog that may know this is M. OK and maybe a bunch of you, but I had no idea!!

cinnamon-tree

DID YOU KNOW THAT CINNAMON IS TREE BARK? I would like to move to the land of Cinnamon-barked trees. It’s almost as good as Candy Land. Only the place in which Cinnamon-barked trees grow is in Sri Lanka.

Apparently we need “tropical sunshine and abundant rain” and I don’t know if I can recreate it. I might try to, in the bathtub, if Jeff says it’s OK. More to come.

Adventures of Phyllo Dough 2: Going Greek

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This week, after I made the phyllo dough pie, I had so many leftover sheets of dough I decided I needed to tackle another recipe. I remembered my friend K using her extra dough to make baklava, so I asked her which recipe she used. Turns out, she used the “Simple Baklava” recipe from Giada. It’s a good one, but I’m not all for using too many ingredients. So here is the original alongside my final recipe.

Giada’s recipe

*1/2 cup almonds
*1/2 cup walnuts
*1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
*1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
*2 tablespoons sugar
*1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
*1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
*Pinch of salt
*1 stick butter, melted, divided
*3 tablespoons honey
*12 sheets phyllo dough

My take on it…

*1 cup almonds
*1/4 cup raisins
*2 tablespoons sugar
*1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
*Pinch of salt
*3/4 stick butter, melted, divided
*3 tablespoons honey
*6 sheets phyllo dough

Turn your over to 350. Then, all you have to do is stick the almonds in the blender with the cinnamon, blend, add the salt, blend and dump in a bowl. Then add your honey and sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and mix. It works itself into a nice little paste. Then you have to take your sheets of dough, layer 6 of them sheet, butter, sheet, butter, etc.

(I had WAY too much butter left over, so I would suggest starting with 3 tablespoons and melting more if you need it. Seriously. I made Jeff make popcorn so we could use the rest of the butter, and the popcorn tasted like movie popcorn–THAT is how much I had left over. And I can’t waste, so we ate baklava and popcorn.)

Then you cut it into squares (I did in half then made each half into three) and stick the sheets into a muffin tin. Giada says to use mini-muffin tins, but as I don’t have such things, I used a muffin tin, and they came out fine. Scoop your honey/almond mixture into each phyllo/butter-lined-muffin-hole and then fold the top of the phyllo dough over the top. Bake for about 25 minutes (or until they turn brown and smell delicious.)

Let them cool for 5 minutes. And devour! Voila!

baklava

They may not be beautiful, but they sure tasted good, and they were a hit in my office when I brought them to staff meeting!