Strawberry Shortcake

 

This recipe is one my great-grandmother used to make. I may just be fanciful, but I feel close to her when I make these strawberry shortcakes. I know this is one of my grandpa’s favorite recipes, so I’m sure she made it often for him when he was a little boy. I work up a whole mental picture of her in her kitchen, probably void of useful appliances (given the time period).  I feel like I’m cheating when I use my food processor to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. She probably used a fork or a pastry cutter. She didn’t bother with a pastry brush to apply the egg whites to the cakes, she just used her fingers. (Which really is quicker!) The rustic little cakes themselves are formed by hand. I am so lazy in the kitchen, I have never in my life whipped cream by hand!

I did add one little element to this recipe. I hope she would have approved! But after listening to Nigella Lawson go on and on about her strawberries in their ruby liquid, I just had to splash some balsamic vinegar into mine as well. And I’m glad I did, mmmmmm!

Grandma Johnson’s Strawberry Shortcakes

1 pint of strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

2 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Dash of nutmeg

½ cup butter, cut into cubes and chilled

½ cup milk

2 eggs, separated (the whites will be used for an egg wash)

Additional sugar for garnish

1 cup of heavy cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar

 

Pop your mixer bowl and whisk into the freezer to chill.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries, 2 teaspoons of sugar and balsamic vinegar.

Mix well and set aside.

In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pulse to combine.

Add the butter to the bowl of the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the milk and egg yolks and pulse until the dough forms a ball.

Turn the ball out onto a very lightly floured surface and pat it into a circle.

Divide the circle into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place it on the sheet pan.

Using your hand, flatten the ball. Then, using your fingers, brush the egg whites on to each cake.

Sprinkle the tops of each cake liberally with sugar. (This gives it a really nice, crunchy crust.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cakes are golden brown.

Remove the cakes to a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, remove the mixer bowl and whisk from the freezer.

Add the cream to the bowl of the mixer and sift the powdered sugar into the bowl.

Mix on medium until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes. Turn the speed up a bit and keep an eye on it until you get firm peaks.

With a serrated knife, carefully slice the cakes in half.

Set the bottom half on a plate and heap some of the strawberries on it. Add some whipped cream. Set the top on top (haha) and dollop another bit of cream on it. Crown with a strawberry and serve!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Well, I hope you’re ready for a flood of pumpkin recipes, because it happened. I opened my first can of pumpkin of the season. Now I’ll be making pumpkin recipes until I find myself without a partial can of pumpkin in the fridge! Actually, Michelle had a great idea to use leftover pumpkin in a smoothie, but when I went to her blog to find the recipe I found a recipe for pumpkin PANCAKES, so now I have to make those too!

Side note: I am extremely suggestible. (I’m also fond of run-on sentences, but that’s neither here nor there.) And I get songs stuck in my head with mind-numbing (don’t I wish) swiftness. My family is well aware of this, of course. So I go along, minding my own business, when all of the sudden I get a random phone call, usually from my dad. I pick up and hear, ‘this is the song that never eeeeeeeends, it just goes on and on my frieeeeeeeeeeeends, somebody started singing it not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just becauuuuuuuuse, this is the song that never ends’, and then my head explodes. 

So, in case you were wondering (although I don’t know why you would be) when I see a lonesome, half used can of pumpkin in the fridge, there is a soundtrack that starts playing in my head, and it goes like this, ‘ this is the pumpkin that never ends, it just goes on and on my frieeeeeeeends. . . ‘

Well, enough about me, let’s make some scones.

 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Do you use that cutting edge on the box? I don’t. I use scissors. I have wasted SO much paper because it won’t tear straight. And that stuff is pricey! Grab some scissors!

In a large bowl, measure out 1 cup AP flour, 1 cup cake flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Whisk it all together and put the bowl in the freezer. (I also put my pastry cutter and bench scrape in the freezer.)

In a medium bowl, measure out 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1/3 cup cream, 6 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. (Aren’t those little balls of sugar cute?)

Mix well and put the bowl in the freezer.

Cut up 6 tablespoons of butter.

Take out the bowl of dry ingredients and the pastry cutter and cut the butter into the flour. . .

 

. . until you get coarse crumbs.

Hopefully you already quartered your macadamia nuts. If you didn’t, just put the butter/flour mixture back in the freezer while you cut those babies up.

Add the nuts to the flour mixture and pour the wet ingredients over the top.

Mix until your dough starts to come together. It will be dry and sticky at the same time. It’s weird like that. Dump it onto a floured countertop.

Pat it out into a circle about 3/4 of an inch thick.

Use the pastry cutter to cut the circle into 8 pieces. (You could also use a sharp knife.) I find that if you make 8 separate cuts you get nicer points on the scones, as opposed to making 4 big cuts.

Set the pieces on the baking sheet.

I thought they looked a little dry, so I made a quick egg wash from a yolk and a little water.

The four on the right have egg wash. And it’s nothing short of a miracle that they did not get a sprinkling of crystallized sugar. That’s my favorite topping on a scone. I had a really hard time not putting some on!

Bake for 15 minutes.

That should be enough time to brew a pot of coffee. . . . .

And clean up the disaster you made while putting the scones together. Not to mention the mess made by two hungry hunters that left the house at the buttcrack of dawn.

See! You should even have time to whip up the glaze! (That’s what is sitting on the cutting board.)

Freshly baked scones = instant aromatherapy.

Put them on a cooling rack. The four on the right are the ones with the egg wash. I’ll leave it up to you (do I have much choice?) but I prefer the look of the ones with the egg wash. Oh, and here’s a little trick. . . take the piece of parchment and slide it under the cooling rack. Then, if you’re careful, when you glaze the scones the excess will fall onto it and you’ll have less of a mess to clean up!

Drizzle on your glaze.

See! What did I tell you! Easy-peasy.   

            

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Adapted from Pinch My Salt 

1 cup AP flour

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup macadamia nuts, quartered

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup heavy cream

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper.

Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator.

In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer .

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer and take the other bowl back out.

Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the macadamia nuts.

Get the pumpkin mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Brush with egg wash. Bake scones for about 15 minutes.

Ginger Molasses Icing

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tablespoons cream

4-6 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Stir together molasses, cream and ginger until combined. Add in powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until you get a thickish consistency.  Drizzle over scones and enjoy!

Are You Drooling Yet? Here, Let Me Find You a Napkin. . .

This was a Baking Beauties assignment that they did before I joined. And since I joined because I wanted to try more of the recipes in that wonderful baking book I decided to go ahead and make it anyway. The one issue I have with this recipe is that it is made in a loaf pan. Which says 'quick bread' to me. And quick bread is a breakfast food, right? So, now, Julia has me eating a CAKE masquerading as a quick bread for breakfast! Maybe 'inhaling' is a more accurate word. This is a absolutely wonderful recipe and would be a stunner of a breakfast to serve to house guests. (Because it's really cake! Haha!)

Lemon Loaf Cake
Adapted from Baking with Julia

4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/3 cups of sugar
pinch of salt
zest of 3 large lemons
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature
5 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt for just a minute, until foamy.
Whisk in the zest.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Whisk a third into the lemon mixture until incorporated.
Whisk in another third until incorporated.
Whisk in the last of the flour.
Whisk in the cream.
Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the melted butter.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes.
Let rest in the loaf pan for 10 minutes before unmolding.

I garnished it with about a cup of sliced strawberries macerated in a teaspoon or two of sugar. And I topped it with a 1/4 cup of softened butter, a teaspoon of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of chopped basil.

And now for the Works for me Wednesday portion of our show my post. What to do with those leftover lemons! I only used one for the lemon juice which left me with two naked lemons left over. The first one went into my favorite marinade. The second one I used for cleaning my cutting board. I bought this little lovely at a thrift store for 7 bucks, and the poor thing had never been used! It's a little battle-scarred now, but I try to take good care of it. I clean it with a lemon and kosher salt and soothe it with olive oil.

Place the cutting board in the sink. (Catches all the mess.)

Wipe the board down with a very wet cloth.

Sprinkle all over with kosher salt.

Cut a lemon in half and use it to scrub the whole board down.

Don't forget the edges and sides!

Wipe the salt off with a damp cloth.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Rub the oil in with a paper towel. (Don't forget edges and sides!)

Stand on side to help prevent any warping.

All done!

Cut up the lemon and run it through your garbage disposal to freshen it.

Kosher salt and lemons work for me! Head on over to We Are That Family to see what works for everyone else!

Sneaky Mommy!

Again, the voting for Iron Cupcake:Summer Berries is open! My two cupcakes (Strawberry Balsamic and Alien Blueberry) are about half way down the page. The voting box is on the right hand side of the page. I will love you forever if you click here and go vote for me!!!



We have this crabapple tree in our backyard that I hate, hate, hate. I don't want to spray the darn thing for bugs, so it just drops tons of wormy little apples on the ground. These mess up the lawnmower and are painful to sit on. (We like to spread a blanket out under that tree.) So, yesterday as it was nearing snacktime I had a brilliant idea! Take advantage of free child labor!!


I gave them a couple of baskets and told them that I'd trade one goldfish (cracker) for each apple they picked up off the ground. Score! There are now about 100 crabapples less in the grass rotting and being infested with flies, and I've got two little kids who had a ball picking up crabapples and munching on goldfish! Lia told me 'it's just like Easter!' Yeah kid, except for the lack of chocolate!


And one more tip that's really saved my sanity. I took the kids to a pool party a while back and instead of having water balloons for the kids to play with, one of the brilliant women in charge filled up a bunch of zip top sandwich bags. No more standing for ages at the sink with that awful little spout dealy trying to fill up impossible little balloons just to have them burst all over you when you try to knot them! Plus, most of the time the sandwich bag doesn't actually burst when you toss it at someone so you can reuse it over and over.

Works for me!! Head on over to We Are THAT Family to see what works for everyone else!

And if you're hungry, please give my scones a try! They are just my favorite things to make when I have guests, they always impress! And they come together in about 10 minutes, doesn't get any better than that!

Cherry Lemon Scones

½ cup of dried tart cherries
zest of 1 lemon
2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces and chilled
1 egg
¼ cup of cream
½ cup of milk

1 egg + 1 tablespoon of water
Crystallized sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set out a baking sheet lined with parchment.
In a food processor, sift the dry ingredients together.
Grate in the lemon zest.
Cut the butter into the dry ingredients and pulse until your mixture looks crumbly.
In a medium bowl, combine wet ingredients.
Add to flour/butter mixture until just combined.
Add in the cherries and pulse until combined.
Pour out onto lightly floured surface.
Sprinkle more flour on top and pat into a large circle.
Using a sharp knife cut into 8 pieces and lay onto a baking sheet. (For smaller scones, split dough in half, pat into two cirlcles and cut each into 6 wedges.)
Beat the remaining b with a tablespoon of water and brush eggwash over the scones.
Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the scones are golden and delicious.
Serve with lemon curd. Enjoy!

And this is my favorite fresh lemon curd recipe!

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Martha Stewart

3 egg yolks
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces and chilled

In a medium pot, massage the lemon zest into the sugar.
Whisk the egg yolks into the sugar until light.
Add the lemon juice and set pot over medium heat.
Stir with a wooden spoon for about 7 minutes, until it mixture coats the back of the spoon and holds it's shape after you draw a line across the spoon.
Remove from heat.
Stir the butter in, waiting until it's melted to add the next piece.
Pass through a strainer into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. (push the wrap down onto the curd so it doesn't form a skin.)
Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
Enjoy!

Did you vote yet?

Life is a Bowl Full of . . . .

Okay, it's late as I write this so it's going to be short and sweet. Very sweet. And moist. And very, very addicting! You must try my olive oil quick bread! It's fantastic! And you can definitely flavor it to whatever tickles your fancy and it will be delicious. In fact, I think I'll make it again tomorrow!

It's has a wonderful, crunchy crust and is very tender inside. I was too impatient to let it cool all the way so the bottom stuck to the pan when I pried it out. Don't worry though, not a single crumb went to waste!

Basic Olive Oil Quick Bread

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, use your fingers to massage the lemon zest into the sugar.
Add eggs, milk and olive oil and mix well.
Pour into the flour mixture and mix until incorporated.
Pour into loaf pan and bake about 55 minutes.
Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack.

*For Cherry-Pecan quick bread I folded in 1 cup of roughly chopped cherries and scattered a cup of pecans over the top of the loaf.



*For Lemon Poppy quick bread I reduced the milk by 1/4 cup and added 1/4 cup of lemon juice, the zest of 2 lemons and 3 tablespoons of poppy seeds and drizzled it with a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice.

Enjoy!