Delicious Gluten Free Stuffing!

When I was first considering eating gluten free last summer one of my biggest concerns was - what about Thanksgiving?  You see, I LOVE StoveTop Stuffing.  Like the kind of love that I would make a box of it and eat just that if I wanted to.  I just couldn't imagine a Thanksgiving meal without it.  But I put those feelings aside as it wasn't Thanksgiving yet and we discovered that my husband has a serious intolerance to gluten so we continued to pursue our gluten-free diet.  And it's been good. I can honestly say I don't miss bread most of the time and I am snacking a lot less than I used to.   And then October crept up on us and I realised I had my first gluten free Thanksgiving meal to prepare.  Most of the meal wasn't an issue, turkey and a pile of veggies (I follow my Auntie Sue's rule of thumb when it comes to serving veggies at a holiday meal - make sure there are lots!), my gravy I already figured out with corn starch instead of flour...it really was just the pies and the stuffing I wanted to make work.

Here's how the stuffing played out - it was absolutely delicious.  We had dinner guests who had never eaten a gluten free bread (to their knowledge before) - one of which only likes box stuffing, not homemade and they loved it!  I loved it too.  I made my bread from scratch, but I'm sure you could use a store made gluten free bread to make this work.

First - the Bread

I used Elana Amsterdam's Scrumptious Sandwich Bread recipe from her Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.  I will admit when I first mixed this batter I had my doubts.  (My gluten free bread baking experience has been hit and miss).  But this recipe really worked and it was quite quick and easy for a bread.  Do yourself a favor and put this book on your cookbook want list.  It is a really great little Gluten Free cookbook.

Here's the bread recipe:

3/4 Cup creamy roasted almond butter at room temperature
4 large eggs
1/4 blanched almond flour
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground flax meal

Preheat the oven to 350* F.  Prepare a 7x3 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.  In a large bowl, mix the almond butter until smooth (she suggests a handheld mixer, I used my Kitchenaid mixer).  Blend in the eggs.  In a medium bowl combine the almond flour, arrowroot powder, salt, baking soda and flax meal.  Blend the almond flour mixutre into the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
Bake for 40-50 minutes on the the bottom rack of the oven, until a knife inserted into the rack of the loaf comes out clean.  Let the bread cool in the pan for 1 hour, then serve.

Second - preparing the bread cubes

I let my bread cool while I was at church.  When I returned to it, I removed it from the pan and sliced it into bread cubes.  I put the cubes into a large bowl.  Meanwhile, I melted about a 1/4 cup of butter, adding a tsp of garlic powder into it.   I poured the melted garlic butter mixture over the bread cubes, coating all the cubes.  I spread the cubes onto two baking sheets and put them into an oven set to 225*F.  Let them bake to dry out (about an hour, but keep checking).  You could skip the make your own bread step and start here with store made gluten free bread.

Third - the Stuffing!

This stuffing recipe would be good with both regular bread and a gluten free bread.

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground sage
• 1 tsp dry thyme
• all of your bread cubes (or 10 cups of bread cubes)
• 1½ cups chicken broth
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350* F.  Melt butter in a large pan. Saute onions, salt, sage, and thyme for 5 minutes on medium heat, until onions are soft. Turn off heat. Add bread cubes and gently stir them into the onion mixture. Slowly pour chicken broth over the bread cubes folding everything carefully so the bread cubes do not break apart too much. In a small bowl, gently whisk the egg and add it to the stuffing mix. Continue to fold everything until the egg is incorporated. Scoop uncooked stuffing into a medium casserole dish and bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until nice and toasty on top.

*I would have added some celery if I had it - 2 or 3 stalks chopped up well, cooked in with the onion and herb mixture.

So there you go - proof that you can have a gluten-free Thanksgiving supper that with a delicious gluten-free stuffing.  Looking forward to my Christmas meal now :)

Hot Cross Buns

What would Good Friday be without Hot Cross Buns?  For me, it's become a tradition.  It started a number of years back when I went on a Stations of the Cross walk across town with my church at the time.  I remember it being a drizzly Friday and a very moving experience, taking my turn to carry the cross as we paraded along, stopping to read scripture and pray along the way.  The last stop was at our church building.  Some of the ladies at the church were ready for us with Hot Cross Buns and Hot Chocolate, a welcome gift on a rainy BC day.  Since that day Hot Cross Buns have been synonymous with Good Friday.  I have to admit that I've always let the Superstore do the baking for me.  Until this year.
This year my daughter (age 3) and I baked them together.  I grabbed the Pioneer Woman's Recipe because let's face it, if anyone knows how to make Hot Cross Buns it would be her.  The only thing I did differently was the icing.  I used my own sugar cookie icing instead as I had all those ingredients on hand.  It worked just fine. 

Buns Recipe

• 2 cups Milk
• 1/2 cup Canola Oil
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 package (2 1/4 Teaspoons) Active Dry Yeast
• 4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup (additional) Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• Spices: Cardamom, Nutmeg, Allspice (optional)
• 1/2 cup Raisins   
  Combine 2 cups milk, canola oil, and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan. Stir and heat until very warm but not boiling. Turn off the heat and allow to cool until mixture is still warm, but not hot--about 30 minutes.
  
  Sprinkle yeast over mixture. Add 4 cups of flour and stir to combine. Mixture will be very sticky. Cover with a towel and set aside for 1 hour.
  
  Add 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir till combined.
  
  Combine 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and whatever other spices you want to use.
  
  Lightly flour surface. Press to slightly flatten dough. Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle on about a third of the raisins. Then fold the dough over on itself and flatten again so the dough is "plain" again. Repeat the sugar/raisin process, then fold the dough again. Repeat a third time until all the raisins are used. (You won't use all the sugar/cinnamon mixture.)
  
  Pinch off ping pong or golf ball-size bunches of dough. With floured hands, quickly roll it into a ball, then turn the edges under themselves slightly. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes...an hour-plus is better.
  
  Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  
  Glaze
  Mix 1 egg white with a splash of milk. Brush onto each roll.
  Bake for 20 minutes, give or take, or until tops of buns have turned nice and golden brown.
  Remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.
  
  Icing
  
  1 cup icing sugar
  2 tbsp milk
  
  Mix the sugar with the milk.  Once mixed, put the icing into a ziplock bag.  snip one of the corners off just a little.  Use the ziplock bag as a pastry bag to pipe the cross on the top of the buns once they are cooled a little.
  
  
  *Did you know? 
  Some say sharing  a Hot Cross Bun with someone ensured unbroken friendship for the coming year. You're supposed to say these words: "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be."
  
  
  Read more: http://www.cooksinfo.com/hot-cross-buns#ixzz2R0qRPmxI
  
  
  

Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread

I cannot take credit for this delicious recipe, only the fact that I baked it and it was insanely good!  Yes, this is that recipe, the one that has been floating around Pinterest this fall.  It is time consuming, but it is completely and utterly worth it.  I made it during one of my Saturday baking days (one of those fabulous rainy days where the kids happened to be content to play Lego all day and allow me to bake).  These directions come from Sunny Side Up's blog, who got it from Willow Bird Baking.  (I love a good web of recipe trail). 


Ingredients
Bread
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp unsalted butter


Glaze
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar

*Sunny Side Up added 1 tbsp of rum to her Glaze which I did not



Directions
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown 2 tablespoons of butter, letting it bubble up and turn a dark golden brown but being careful not to allow it burn (turn black). Once browned, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the milk, return to stove and heat through.**** Pour the milk and butter into the bowl of standing mixer (fitted with a dough hook) and allow to cool so it is no longer hot but also not cool (about 100-110 degrees F). Once it has reached a warm but not hot temperature add the yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar and allow to proof (this can take up to 8 minutes, the top will look foamy and the liquid cloudy). Then add the the pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Stir until combined then add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead for 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and just slightly sticky. If the dough is too moist, add extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time.

Move dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel. Allow to rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until doubled in size.

While dough is rising, brown another 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well.** Making sure sugar evenly absorbs the butter. Set aside. Next, grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and flip out onto a clean floured surface and knead with hands for 1-2 minutes. Roll dough into a 20×12 inch rectangle.*** Evenly sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar mixture and press into dough with palms of the hand. Cut the rectangle into 6 strips. Lay strips on top of each other and cut each strip into 6 even squares (cut in half then each half into thirds). Stack strips vertically into the loaf pan. Cover the pan with a clean towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.  (I ended up with 2 loaves from this recipe, there was too much dough for just one, so I split the strips evenly in the two pans)

In the meantime preheat an oven to 350 degrees. After rising in the pan bake for 30-40 minutes (mine took 37 exactly) or until top is a very deep golden brown.

To prepare the glaze, heat the butter, milk, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to boil then immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the  powdered sugar.

My kids went crazy for this bread.  It is a lot like a cinnamon bun, but with that pumpkin yumminess to it that is perfect for fall!

Gordon Ramsay's Garlic Rosemary Focaccia

When it comes to Gordon Ramsay people either love him or hate him.  I'm part of the love him crowd.  Masterchef is one of my favorite shows.  As harsh as he can be with people he truly loves good, quality food and good, quality cooking.  He doesn't settle and he pushes people to be better. 
Last night I was looking for a way to use up the rest of my fresh figs before they went off and I thought 'Flatbread'.  I decided to open up Gordon Ramsay's "Healthy Appetite" cookbook.  He did have a focaccia recipe in there.  His needed a couple of special flours that I don't have on hand, so I substitued All Purpose Flour in their place.  His measurements for active dry yeast were in the oz and g forms, which I'm not used to (I need tsp and tbsp) - I did weigh out my yeast, but being such a small amount, I'm still not sure I got it right so if anyone has a tsp version I'd appreciate the note.
His recipe was for the flatbread alone, I topped mine with sliced figs, sliced garlic, goat cheese and a little drizzle of raspberry basalmic vinegar.  I really liked the result, quite tasty.
So here's my version of a Gordon Ramsay dish:

1/4 oz (7g) active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt (he recommends fine sea salt, I used kosher salt)
2 tbsp chopped rosemary leaves (I subbed in dry rosemary)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely crushed
1/4 extra-virgin olive oil

Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl.  Add the yeast and rosemary. Stir. 
Make a well in the center.  Add the crushed garlic, olive oil and water.   Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together.  You should get a soft, not sticky dough.
Press the dough together and put it onto a lightly floured counter.  Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes.  Place it in a lightly oiled large mixing bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
Heat the oven to 400*.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and kneed lightly.  Place on a well-oiled baking sheet and gently flatten with the palms of your hands.  Pull and shape it to the edges of the baking sheet to form a 1/2 inch (1cm) thick rectangle.  Press with your fingertips to form indentations in the dough.
At this point I added the sliced figs, goat cheese, sliced garlic and raspberry basalmic vinegar.  He suggests rosemary leaves, whole garlic cloves and olive oil.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (until the bread is golden brown).  Let cool slightly, slice and serve warm.

Dinner Rolls

Is there anything cozier than the smell of homemade bread baking on a rainy day?  I know, you wouldn't expect it to be in August, but after piles of gorgeous August weather, today we had a cold, rainy, windy day, so I baked a little.  I'm not usually a bread baker, though I'd like to be and I am getting better at it because I do enjoy it, it's just something you need to have the time for.
I have these very fond memories of Sunday dinners where my Uncle's Mom (who I called Nana Murray) would bring fresh baking of beautiful pies and dinner rolls.  Making these today brought me back to those suppers.
I know these aren't the prettiest rolls to look at (I'll have to work on my forming technique) but they were so tasty!

I found the recipe via Pinterest (with a warning these rolls are like crack).  That pin led me to "Eat Cake for Dinner".  She found the recipe floating around blogland herself.  The claim was that these are Texas Roadhouse rolls copycat recipe - a restaurant I'd never heard of before. 

4 tsp. active dry yeast

1/2 c. warm water

2 c. milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm

3 Tbsp. of melted butter, slightly cooled

1/2 c. sugar 

2 quarts all purpose flour (7-8 cups)

2 whole eggs

2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water with a teaspoon of sugar; let stand until frothy.  Combine yeast mixture, milk, 1/2 cup sugar and enough flour to make a medium batter (about the consistency of pancake batter).  Beat thoroughly.  Add melted butter, eggs and salt.  Beat well.  Add enough flour to form a soft dough.  Sprinkle a small amount of flour onto counter and let dough rest.  Meanwhile, grease a large bowl.  Knead dough until smooth and satiny and put in greased bowl; turn over to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.  Punch down.  Turn out onto a floured board.  Divide into portions for shaping; let rest 10 minutes.  Shape dough into desired forms.  Place on greased baking sheets.  Let rise until doubled.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown (I did bake mine for closer to 20 minutes).  Baste immediately with butter.  Yield: 5 to 6 dozen.  (I didn't get that many, I got 4 dozen and those were pretty small - I can't imagine how small they would be to make 5-6 dozen)

The Best Pizza Dough and Pizza Sauce!

When we were living in Toronto we made some fantastic friends.  We met through work (the man being my husband's boss) and were invited over for lunch out of politeness to get to know each other better.  I had to laugh later on as both couples afterwards had the same conversation of, "those guys seem really cool, I hope we get to know them better" and over the next year and a half we did.  Both families love to cook so we spent a lot of meals together.  One of their standards was their home made pizza.  They make a lot of dough and put out a wide variety of toppings and everyone just goes for it creating.
Since we moved to where we are currently living, I've made home made pizza a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same.  So I emailed Tiffany and asked for her pizza dough recipe.  Tonight we made it and this is it.  This is simply the best pizza dough recipe.  It turns out so well.  The dough rises really nicely and it crisps up well on the crusts.  I paired it with a pizza sauce recipe I found on All Recipes.  It has a 4.5 star rating and I can see why.  It's tasty and a great consistency.
We made 2 pizzas tonight.  The first was the kids' basic cheese.  The second was a little more adventurous (and perfectly delicious).  Half was fig and goat cheese.  The other half was shrimp, sun-dried tomato, onion and feta cheese.  I couldn't pick a favorite, just delicious.

Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon yeast
3 ½ C flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1.       Pour ½ cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Stir in the yeast and let it stand until dissolved and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2.       In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, make a well and fill it with the yeast mixture.  Add olive oil and 1 cup of warm water.  Stir until a rough ball of dough forms.  Turn out of bowl and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  You may need to add some flour along the way.

3.       Shape dough into smooth ball, place in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch down and divide into 4 balls. Can be frozen up to 3 months. Yields 4 10-inch pizza crusts.


Tiffany's Notes:  makes roughly 2 pounds of dough.  I use about 1 pound of dough per pizza (so my pizzas are bigger than theirs), thus I usually double this recipe.  I often use about 1 ½ C whole wheat flour and 2 cups AP flour per batch.  I usually bake the pizza at about 450.

Pizza Sauce

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff out of the shaker)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional) - did not use, would love to try
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (did not use - worried about spice for kids)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• salt to taste (left out)

1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
2. Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired. 

 She has this as a recipe for 1 pizza, it worked well for the 2 that I made without having to double it.

Pizza Biscuits

My 6 year old calls these pizza pucks, my 4 year old just calls them yummy. This is a very easy twist on baking powder biscuits that helps me get a little more meat into my kids diets.

2 Cups Flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped pepperoni (I just used one 100 gram pepperoni stick)
1/2 cup grated cheddar
3/4 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 450*
Mix the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter to add in the margarine until it's really nice a crumbly looking. Add the pepperoni and cheese. Stir in the milk (dough will be quite sticky).
Flour a flat surface and kneed the dough until soft and workable (flour your hands really well too for this). Roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Use a circle cutter (I use one of my kids plastic cups, about 2'' in diameter) to cut out the biscuits. Place on non-stick sprayed sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. This recipe makes about 16 biscuits.

Beirut Tahini Swirls

A friend of mine lent me this beautiful cookbook.  At first glance, you kind of wonder - bread?  But truly bread is a connector in cultures globally.  Every culture it seems has some sort of take on bread and home baking.  I am now on the look to get this book for myself.
This bread was so tasty for my family (though my friend loves it, she did tell me that her family doesn't like it as much, I think you have to love tahini to love this bread). 

The authors found this bread while wandering around in Beirut.  It's sweet, but not too sweet.  Well worth a try.

1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (about)
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil

Filling
3/4 cup tahini
3/4 cup sugar

In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water.  Stir in 1 cup of the flour, then add the sugar and oil and stir in.  Incorporate a second cup of flour, then turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, or until smooth.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rise for 2-3 hours, until doubled in volume. 

Mix the tahini and sugar together and stir until smooth, set aside.

Place a baking stone (or baking sheet) on the middle oven rack and heat the oven to 375*.

Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces.  Work 3 at a time, keeping the others covered.  Flatten each out on a lightly floured surface, then roll each out to a rectangle about 5x10 inches.  Spread 2 1/2 tbsp of filling mixture on top.  Roll up each rectangle from the long side to a cylinder, which will stretch as you roll to about 20 inches long.  Anchor one end as you coil the rest around  (like you are making a snail shell).  Tuck the end in on itself.  Flatten with the palm of your hand, set aside, covered while you fill and shape the other rectangles.

Return to the first coil and roll out gently with a rolling pin.  Roll the other 2 out a little, then return to the first, continue until they are thin, each about 6 ir 7 inches in diameter.

Place the breads on the hot baking stone (or baking sheets) and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and flaky.  Transfer to a rack to cool.  Shape and bake the remaining 3 pieces of dough while the first 3 are baking.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apple Banana Bread

Wow, I am really behind on my posting.  It's a funny cycle food blogging isn't it?  I get inspired by all the wonderful recipes you all post and start experimenting in the kitchen.  And then I get busy with the kids and everything else going on in my life and suddenly I realize I have a stack of photos waiting to be posted on.  Oh well, after a couple of years of food blogging I have come to the conclusion that I don't enjoy it if I pressure myself to be posting all the time.  The recipes will still be there for when I get a good chunk of time on the computer.

Here's a lovely recipe I found last month on Lauren's Kitchen (original post here).  My son loved it so much that I made it twice within a week.  He wanted it for breakfast and in his lunchbox for school.  It's really easy and a great way to use up those bananas you've got frozen in your freezer.

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 stick butter - I had to look this up, 1 stick = 1/2 cup butter, the 2nd time I made it I substituted applesauce for the butter and it worked great.
• 3 ripe bananas (mashed)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 or 3 peeled, chopped apples

Beat sugar, eggs and butter. Add bananas and mix together.   Add baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and flour. Mix.  Fold in chopped apples. Fill greased and floured bread pans 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour - I have a slow oven so I baked this for a little bit longer, just keep checking for when the top is nice and golden and a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it in the middle of the bread.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf - Amazing!

I thought I had an amazing chocolate zucchini loaf recipe posted on here, but I was mistaken (until now!)  So I visited one of my favorite foodies who always posts good baking, Monica at Lick the Bowl Good.  I was right.  She has a fantastic chocolate zucchini recipe.  Hers is for a bundt cake, but she posted that she has made it as a loaf and muffins before, so I took her word for it and used her recipe.  Thank you Monica!  This was so delicious.  My 3 year old just thought he was eating chocolate bread all week.  He had no idea that there was veggies inside.  Monica's original recipe can be found here.  Take a look.

• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cup flour
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cup sugar (plus more for coating pan)
• 3 cup grated zucchini (4 med. zucchini)
• 1 tsp. vanilla 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small mixing bowl combine cocoa and melted butter . Add vegetable oil to cocoa and set aside.

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 

 In a large mixing bowl beat eggs and slowly add sugar, until thick and light in color. Add cocoa mixture to eggs until well combined, then gradually add flour being careful not to over mix. Once mixture is well incorporated add grated zucchini and vanilla.

Butter or spray pan evenly with non stick spray, then sprinkle with granulated sugar to form a sugar crust. Pour batter into pan about 3/4 full. Place pan in a preheated oven for 65-70 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Easy Cinnamon Buns

I got this recipe from Keeper Worthy Recipes, who got it from Ezrapoundcake.  See a good recipe really travels around well.  What makes these great (besides being delicious) is that there is no yeast involved.   They are start to finish less than an hour to do.


Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Mix together in small bowl and set aside.


Biscuit Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
2tbsp packed, brown sugar
2 tsp baking powfer
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp heavy cream (I only used half and half and it worked just fine)

Mix all the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.  Add 1 1/2 cups of the cream and stir until dough is smooth and forms a ball.  Use your hands (floured) to kneed a few times.
On a floured surface, roll dough out until it forms a 9x13 rectangle.  Brush remaining cream over it.  Sprinkle cinnamon mixture over the dough evenly.  From the long side, roll dough into a cylinder.  Slice into 9 equal rounds.  place the rounds cut side down into a n 8 inch square baking dish or pie plate.  Bake 30 minutes at 400*


Icing:
6 tbsp powdered sugar
6 tsp heavy cream

While biscuits are baking, mix the icing together.  Drizzle over top the buns when they come out of the oven.   

NY Times no-kneed bread

3 C all purpose or bread flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

In a lg bowl combine flour, yeast and salt.  Add 1 5/8 c water.  Stir until blended.  Dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest for 12-18 hours at room temp (70*). 
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.  Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it.  Sprinkle with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.  Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, cornmeal or wheat bran.  Place dough seam side down onto towel.  Sprinkle with more flour, cornmeal or wheat bran.  Cover with another cotton towel.  Let rise another 2 hours.  Dough will more than double in size and will not readily spring back with poked with a finger.
At least half an hour before the dough is ready, heat oven to 450*.  Put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When dough is ready carefully remove pot from oven.  Slide you hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up.  (it may look a mess, but that's okay).  Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes.  Remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes (until loaf is browned).  Cool on a rack.

Marilyn's Pizza Bread

This is a loaf of bread, not a bread dough.  Very yummy!

2 2/3 C tomato juice (or V8) - room temp.
5 tbsp veg oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup parm. cheese
2 tbsp basil
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp instant yeast
7 cups flour

Mix.  Knead 8 minutes.  Raise once in bowl and once in pans.  Makes 3 lg or 3 med loaves.  Bake at 350* until done (20-30 minutes).

The Great Pumpkin

This yummy bread comes from Jean Pare's Company's Coming series. It's in the Muffins and More book. Company's Coming is a Canadian Cookbook series. I have 4 or 5 of the books and each recipe I try always turns out well.

4 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups suagar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't add these)

Heat oven to 350*. Combine cream cheese, butter & sugar in mixing bowl. Cream together well. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Mix in pumpkin.
In another bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour all at once over batter. Stir until just moistened. Spoon into a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes (until an inserted toothpick comes out clean). Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove to rack to finish cooling.

Roast Beef Dinner and Updates

Happy end of November everyone! I had a nice little message from Ingrid of 3 B's today asking how things were going, so I thought it was time to update a little. Truth be told, I look back at November and think, once! That's it? I posted only one recipe? How is that possible?
Well, then I started to think about November and go "oh yeah, that's what happened to it" and December isn't likely to produce much more looking ahead.
I started off November sick. Although completely unconfimed I have suspicions that I had H1N1. The symptoms were there, fever, cough, sore throat, lack of energy - never mind working at 2 schools where there were confirmed cases and lots and lots of sick students and staff. So I had very little energy for about two weeks there. (I did recieve the vaccine, but the symptoms showed up before the 10 waiting days were over).
I recovered nicely in time for my birthday. I had a lovely, lovely dinner out with my husband and a few close friends. We went to Suwanna, which is my favorite restaurant in town. It is a Thai restaurant and luckily my friends think like we do, order 6 dishes and pass around to share. We had Pad Thai (of coure, 2 orders of it), Matsaman Curry (my pick, so delicious), Bamboo Shoots (tres spicy!), a beef stir fry (yummy) and I know there was one more dish, I'm just not remembering what it was now. We also had some Thai carrot/cabbage salad, which is so delicious and curry puffs as an appetizer. I'm going to miss this restaurant when we move away. I did take pictures of the evening, unfortunately, my photo card got accidentally erased before we downloaded anything.
The next part of the month has been dedicated to work, work and more work. Pretty much from Thanksgiving on till Christmas, my job kicks it up a notch (Canadian Thanksgiving - 2nd Monday in October). I teach music so I'm involved in getting performance groups ready for Remembrance Day ceremonies (Nov. 11th), the Empty Stocking Fund telecast (last weekend-a 70+ year old local telethon benefitting families that need help at Christmas time), the Santa Claus Parade (very strange to sit on a float, you can't believe the number of people that watch that thing!), and currently Christmas Concerts. As I said I work at 2 schools, so most of this is x2 work. Never mind that report cards fall into the middle of all this and parent teacher interviews (marks for 600 kids). So yes, work has kept me busy.
And through all this I've found myself right into my 3rd trimester. Yay! Of course 3rd trimester means less energy and I've definately seen myself slowing down a bit. I've started to teach sitting on a chair, instead of sitting on the floor with the kids. I also discovered that there are certain songs I cannot participate in with the kids. I had to laugh at myself when I was teaching this one song to kindergarten classes that involves getting down on all 4's and then jumping up and jumping up and down - I couldn't do it. Talk about changing your lesson plan on the fly! (I teach 4 kindergarten classes in a row, so that just wasn't going to work!).
My own little guys are doing well. They and my husband take up the rest of my energy really. I have done more cooking this month than my blogging shows for, but my pregnant brain often fails to remember to take a picture.
So here's a doozy of a blog post for you all. One of my favorite comfort meals of fall and winter, a pot roast beef dinner. Oh it is so yummy, I want to make it again right now. This dinner had the beef, gravy, yorkshire pudding (my Auntie Sue's Recipe), whipped potatoes, peas and a carrot bake (Katy's recipe of Food for a Hungry Soul).

Pot Roast

1 roast
1 tsp salt
ground pepper (have ready to grind)
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp cooking oil
1 1/2 cups each BBQ sauce, and beef broth
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic (crushed and minced)
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp lime juice

I like to cook my roasts in a crock pot, it just makes the meat so tender. I put this all on in the morning and let it cook for 8-10 hours. Prepare your crock pot by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
Sprinkle roast lightly on all sides with salt, pepper and flour. Heat oil in a frying pan (med-high heat). Add roast and brown on all sides. Once it is browned/seared, place roast into the crock pot.
Mix remaining ingredients together. Pour over roast. Cover, put crock pot on low heat and cook for 8-10 hours. (You can also make this on high heat for 4-5 hours).

Roast gravy

Once roast is finished, remove it from the crock pot and cover with foil to keep hot. Drain the juices over a seive and into a saucepan. Add 1 cup water, 1 tbsp beef boullion powder and 1/4 cup + flour. Whisk everything together over med. heat, whisking constantly until gravy is heated thouroughly and thickens.

Auntie Sue's Yorkshire Pudding

My Auntie Sue is one of my very favorite people. She isn't really my aunt, but a good family friend that I've known my whole life. I grew up with her home being my second home and our families spending a lot of Sunday dinners and Holidays together. She is a wonderful cook. I'm glad my mom snagged this recipe of hers for me.

3 eggs
1 C flour
1 C milk
1 tsp butter
dash of salt.

Whisk eggs. Add rest of ingredients and whisk together. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 425* until done (about 10 minutes or so) - the puddings should puff up nicely and brown. My mom says this works best if the ingredients are cooled in the fridge while the oven is heating. My English husband insists it works best if you let the ingredients sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour or so before baking. I've done it both ways and both ways turn out well.

Sour Cream Zucchini Bread

'Tis the season for zucchini! I had some fun poking around Recipezaar.com and found this lovely recipe for zucchini bread. I did some adapting of my own and would have done more if I hadn't discovered that my applesauce was growing mold in the back of the fridge. I would have substitued applesauce for the oil (there's a lot of oil in this recipe!) The bread was really nice and moist. Delicious with butter, even better with cream cheese :o)

Ingredients
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups zucchini, shredded
1/2 cup light sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 bread loaf pans. In a mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, and oil. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the egg mixture. When thoroughly mixed, add the sour cream and vanilla. Finally, mix in the shredded zucchini. Pour the mixture into the two loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour and 10 to 1 hour and 20 minutes (use a toothpick to see if the bread is done, it should come out clean, or with just a few crumbs on it. Enjoy!

My Favorite Banana Bread

This recipe comes from one of the most unique cookbooks that I own. It is "Cooking With Mickey, Vol. II" and contains the most requested recipes from Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I have to admit that I haven't made most of the recipes in this book, but keep it just for this recipe. It is in no way low-fat, in fact it is high fat, high sugar and really, really yummy!
I ended up with this book thanks to my brother. My brother and I have a love affair with everything Disney since we were kids. It was one of our favorite family vacations. I grew up on the west coast of Canada and quite often we would camp our way down the coast from BC to San Diego and back. I was almost 5 the first time we did Disney and I look forward to the day when I can take my kids there too. Jeff (my brother) spotted this book at a Disney store in Seattle about 9 years ago and knew it would be something I would like (especially since it had their cinnimon french toast recipe in it which he loves and knew there was a good chance I would make it for him).

My family at Disney way back (circa. 1989?) I'm about 12 in this picture.

The Recipe
1 cup butter (melted)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp water
2 cups banana (mashed)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) - I've never put in the full 2 cups, usually I make it without, today I added about 1/4 cup

Preheat oven to 350*. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. Mix melted butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add bananas, water and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture and walnuts and blend until all flour is moist. Pour batter evenly into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until the centre of the loaf is firm and a toothpick comes out clean.

Cherry Chocolate Muffins and a Bananaberry Smoothie

Well, my oldest son asked me to buy some cherries not too long ago. Sure. Unfortunately, he decided that the best way to enjoy cherries was to make cherry juice and squish them. After cleaning up a good sized mess (note to self, never leave 4 year old with cherries unattended), I hid the rest of the bag in the back of a fridge drawer.

Coincidentally, I started noticing cherry based posts on some of my favorite foodie sites. One for chocolate cherry muffins caught my eye. This morning I decided to bake those muffins. But do you think I could find the original post? Why, oh why didn't I bookmark it? I should know better, I'm not going to remember who posted it...there are too many lovely recipe sites out there. So I started to search. Yes, I went through each blog site and typed in the word cherry to search. After about 10 blogs I found it. It was at Joy in My Kitchen. The recipe can be found here.
The muffins turned out quite nicely. I did omit the chocolate chips as I had used up what I had earlier this week making chocolate chip cookies. My son really liked them too.
I thought smoothies would make this into a more complete breakfast. They are so great and so easy. This version had:

1/2 container of vanilla yogurt (650 g size, PC provantage brand)
1/4 cup skim milk
2 generous cups of frozen mixed berries
2 ripe bananas, cut into chunks

Everything goes into the blender and blend until smooth. I did have to stop a couple of times to push the fruit down, but it all worked and tasted so delicious.
The funny thing was my youngest who watched me make the smoothies. He saw me put the banana in and said, 'no like banana Mama', but he was the first one to ask for seconds of the drink :o)

Bisquick Popovers - an experiment

I was quite inspired by Coleen's Mini-Popover recipe and decided that I would make those instead of my usual Saturday morning pancakes. Unfortunately, I forgot that I used up my flour making muffins earlier this week. To tell you the truth I really did not want to get out of my jammies and run to the store to get flour (that kinda defeats the purpose of a lazy Saturday morning). So I hunted around my cupboards to see what I could find. What I found was a box of Bisquick. I don't normally have Bisquick in the house, I had bought it especially for a dumplings recipe. So really, I don't know a lot about how Bisquick works, but I thought I'd try a little experiment and see what happened. I wasn't sure if this would work, and they didn't turn into popovers exactly, more of a thicker Yorkshire Pudding, with no fancy rising. They were still fluffy and tasty. I think they would have been even better if I'd had some whipped cream to sweeten up the berries. While I was waiting for them to bake, I looked on Betty Crocker's site to see if anyone else had made something like this. While I didn't see any recipes like it, I did see some other recipes that looked tasty. I may just have to buy another box of this stuff and experiment some more.

2 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 450*. Beat eggs until fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together until blended. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each muffin cup half full. Bake for 15 minutes.

*Cooking Tip - When baking with a muffin tin and you don't use all of the muffin cups, fill the remaining cups half full with water, this prevents the cooking spray from cooking onto your tin.

Biscuits & A Breakfast Sandwich

hI have been in love with the breakfast sandwiches at Tim Hortons. It's so tasty. I've been trying to pinpoint what they have put into their biscuits (or eggs) that make them so delicious. This morning's attempt was kinda a Tim's sandwich crossed with an Egg McMuffin. But before I get to the recipe, I want to talk kitchen tools.
Before Jonathan and I were married we had the pleasure of registering. Or rather I did. My mom and I had a great time picking out stuff. The only thing Jonathan requested was a good set of knives and a blender, he trusted me with the rest. There were 2 cooking items that he made fun of me for wanting: the garlic press and the egg poacher. You see Jonathan used to be a restaurant cook. For him, if you want to press garlic, you crush it with a knife an chop finely. To poach an egg you do it the traditional way and slip the egg into boiling water. I do neither of those things. I like my garlic press and I like my poached eggs to be easy to make. I will say that in subsequent years he has come to appreciate both tools. For those of you who have never used an egg poacher, basically it's a little pan that has an attachment to hold egg cups over boiling water. It takes very little time to make poached eggs using it.


Okay, on to the biscuits. I took my basic biscuit recipe and changed it up a bit. Here' the basic:
2 Cups Flour (white or whole wheat)
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup milk
Pre-heat oven to 450*
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter to add in the margarine until it's really nice a crumbly looking. Stir in the milk (dough will be quite sticky).
Flour a flat surface and kneed the dough until soft and workable (flour your hands really well too for this). Roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Use a circle cutter (I use one of my kids plastic cups, about 2'' in diameter) to cut out the biscuits. Place on non-stick sprayed sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. I err on the side of less time to avoid burning and keep the baking sheet on a higher up rack. This recipe makes a dozen biscuits.

Here are my additions: I added a tsp each of parsley flakes and onion powder. It worked. The biscuits were nice and fluffy and tasty!



To make the breakfast sandwich, I added a poached egg and a cheese slice. You need to poach the egg well to pick it up and eat it as a sandwich. Overall, a nice, filling breakfast, but I still haven't hit on the Tim Horton's secret. I think I need to go back and have another one there, take a look at the egg this time.
 

*I've updated this recipe - find the Tim Horton's Breakfast Sandwich Copycat Recipe Here!