Tag Archives: Baking

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in Baking, Cooking, Food, Gwyneth Paltrow, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong, Still life

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Healthy Blueberry MuffinsThere are two blueberry muffin recipes I like to use in one of my favorite cookbooks, “My Father’s Daughter,” by Gwyneth Paltrow. This one is an altered version of the more healthy of the two. ( I didn’t have all of the ingredients called for, so I improvised)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
1/2 cup soy milk (I used 0% fat regular milk)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup light agave (I forgot this altogether. I would have either added honey or more maple syrup.)
1 cup white spelt flour
1 cup whole spelt flour
(I used 2 cups of gluten-free flour and added 1 1/2  teaspoons xanthan gum)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 cupcake tins with papers. Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold in blueberries and divide among the muffin tin cups and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Check centers with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Let cool a bit before eating.

HealthyBlueberryCowButterTonedSMHealthyBlueberrySecondaryTonedSM

Banana Walnut Muffins

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Still life

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Banana Walnut Muffins

 

 

I have both of Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbooks, and this muffin recipe is from her first one, “My Father’s Daughter.”  It is very easy to make, and pretty healthy. I, as usual, used what ingredients I have in my house, so it’s a little altered from hers.

Banana Walnut Muffins

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup whole spelt flour
1 cup white spelt flour
1/2 cup barley flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
3 very ripe medium bananas
1/2 cup real Vermont maple syrup
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

(I can never find spelt flour, so I used unbleached all purpose and unbleached whole wheat flours. I also did not have barley flour, so I just used 1/2 cup of the whole wheat in its place. Also, I used 3/4 cups of maple syrup because I can never find rice syrup either.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin or oil them with 2 tablespoons of the canola oil.

Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Puree the bananas in a food processor or blender and then add the 1/4 cup of canola oil, syrups and vanilla and pulse to combine. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir just to combine and fold in the raisins and walnuts. Do not over mix or the muffins will be tough. Use an ice cream scoop to distribute the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

 

Banana Walnut MuffinsPansies

Vanilla Pudding with Chocolate Shavings

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes

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Vanilla Pudding

 

 

I found this recipe in one of my old Martha Stewart Living magazines. I’m going to share the recipe because posted it online. I’m just looking for fun stuff to photograph.

Anyway, it’s pretty easy to make and very tasty.

Vanilla Pudding

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
A pinch of coarse salt
2 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, seeds reserved (I did not have this, so I just dumped several squirts of extra vanilla extract.)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ounce milk chocolate shavings for garnish (I used dark chocolate)

Prepare an ice bath; set aside. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, 2 tablespoons sugar and a pinch of salt. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl until smooth. Whisk in cornstarch mixture.

Combine milk, remaining sugar and vanilla bean scrapings in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Slowly pour milk into egg mixture, whisking constantly. (You’ll want to really pour a little bit at a time here to allow the egg mixture to come up to temperature slowly. Otherwise, they will cook like scramble eggs.)

Return mixture to saucepan set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until thickened – about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and transfer mixture to a medium heat-proof bowl.

Whisk in butter and vanilla extract. Set bowl in ice bath, stirring occasionally, until chilled. Serve pudding with chocolate shavings on top, if desired.

 

Vanilla Pudding

 

Vanilla Pudding

Blackberry Crumb Breakfast Bars

25 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Uncategorized

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Blackberry Breakfast Bar

 

The blackberries I used for this recipe were picked by my husband and me last summer near our house. We have a ton of them in our freezer; so anytime I can, I use them in a recipe. This one is actually a raspberry recipe that I found on either Goop’s website or “What Katie Ate”, both great resources for delicious food. I suspect it is from Goop, though. It’s on a piece of paper I printed from either website. I just don’t remember which.

Also, even though I baked these longer than was called for, I still don’t think they got as done and crispy as they are supposed to be. But they are very delicious.

Crust & Crumb

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Filling

1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 pound fresh or frozen blackberries or raspberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan and set aside. Combine flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until just combined. Add butter and pulse until loose crumbs form. Reserve 1 cup of the mixture and set aside.

Pour the rest of the mixture into the prepared pan and use your hands to push the crust into an even layer in the bottom of the pan. Bake until golden brown – about 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and flour together. Add the blackberries or raspberries, lemon juice and melted butter and toss gently until the berries are evenly coated. Spread the berry filling evenly on top of the cooled crust. Top with the reserved cup of crumble mixture and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

 

Blackberry Crumb Breakfast BarsBlackberry

 

 

Walnut (or Hickory) Cake

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong

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Hickory cake

Walnut cake with buttercream frosting

This is a recipe from my great grandmother’s collection she cut out of one of the Chattanooga, Tennessee newspapers back in the 60s or 70s. It was submitted by a lady from Sewanee, Tennessee.

I had a few problems with it – of course.

The entire time I was making it, I kept thinking, “As long as it LOOKS good, it doesn’t have to taste good.”

The batter resembled biscuit dough at first. Hmmm. I knew that wasn’t right. I also knew I followed the recipe exactly and measured correctly. Perhaps there was a misprint in the paper. It’s happened before.

So! I added more milk. I was afraid to add too much, so the batter was still pretty thick. It also cooked faster than expected. And it didn’t rise as high as it should have. But, the batter had been thick. So again, I bet I should have added more milk.

On to the icing it called for: Honey frosting – uncooked

It was more like a glaze, and NOT very tasty. Because I had an image in my head as how I wanted to photograph the cake, I chucked the “glaze” and went with butter cream icing so I could add chopped walnuts to the top. But by this point, I was getting frustrated. So instead of measuring the exact ingredients for the buttercream frosting, I just started dumping them into the mixer. Well, that was fine until I got to the milk. Instead of measuring 2 tablespoons, I just poured in the milk.

Too much, of course. So I added more confectioners’ sugar. And then more. It never did get thick enough for frosting, so I knew it would not stay on the sides of the cake.

Great. But it turned out better because I let the frosting pour over the sides. It looked pretty cool – in most spots. Then I chopped some walnuts and sprinkled them on top; and believe it or not, the cake turned out to be very delicious. But I wouldn’t follow my instructions very closely if you want to save yourself some trouble.

RECIPE

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs separated
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg yolks. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add alternately with vanilla and milk. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Test with a toothpick in center of cake until it comes out clean.

Honey Frosting – uncooked

1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Combine all ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes or longer until of spreading consistency. Three tablespoons of cocoa may be added for Chocolate-honey frosting.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I used milk because I did not have cream)

Combine butter and sugar in a standing mixer on a low speed until well-mixed, and then increase speed and mix for about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. Add more cream for spreading consistency.

Walnut cake slice

A slice of old fashioned walnut cake.

Prize Date Bars – Mrs. Shuptrine’s

29 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes

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Date bars

Mrs. Shuptrine’s prized date bars.

My great grand mother had two date bar recipes, and I can never remember which one is better. I think I like the other recipe better now that this one is made, but this one is really good, too. It does call for cloves, though. Next time I will probably leave them out. Cloves tend to taste a little bitter to me. I like sweet tastes.

RECIPE

1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour sifted
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 packages dates, cut

Cream butter, add sugar and vanilla. Then drop the whole eggs in and beat thoroughly. Sift all dry ingredients and add gradually to egg mixture. Lastly, add nuts and dates.

Line square baking pan with waxed paper and pour in batter. Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool before cutting into squares.

Roll in powdered sugar. (I just sprinkled some on top)

Old fashioned dessert

Date bars with nuts

Date bars

 

Banana Pudding – attempt no. 1

22 Thursday Jan 2015

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Banana pudding recipe

An old fashioned southern recipe of my great grandmother’s.

This is another recipe of my great grandmother’s. It came out pretty good, but not perfect. My first mistake was using a bowl that was too large for the recipe. I think it calls for a deep, glass pie dish? But to my defense, it was all I had. I plan to re-do this with the correct container – or at least something close to it.

The other thing I did wrong was I put in too many vanilla wafers.

“There’s no such thing,” you say? Well, you may be right. It still tastes pretty good. I think I would like a little more pudding and a little less wafer, though.

I also elected to make the meringue, even though I don’t really care for it. I may try my hand at whipped cream next time. I bet it has more flavor.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything due to the holidays, as well as a few migraine issues. But the good news is, I’m on a new medicine which is preventing the headaches in the first place. After 25 years of agony, I seem to be headache-free. So, YEA!

Soutern banana pudding

My great grandmother’s recipe card of banana pudding.

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Vanilla wafers
5 or 6 ripe bananas

Combine sugar, flour and salt in a large pot. Stir in milk and cook until thickened. Beat eggs, and add a cup of hot milk to them. Then pour all back into the pot and cook about 5 minutes more. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Line casserole dish with wafers, top with bananas, then a layer of custard. Continue to layer with wafers, bananas and custard.

Can use 3 egg yolks in custard, then after putting layers in casserole, beat egg whites, add 1/4 cup sugar. Pile on top of pudding and bake at 425 degrees about 5 minutes.

Lemon (Cup) Cake

16 Tuesday Sep 2014

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Lemon Cupcake

I used a Lemon Cake recipe from my great grandmother’s cookbook, “Rumford Complete Cookbook,” but I made cupcakes instead. I haven’t made cupcakes in….. about 40 years. I made a mess. I over-filled most of the cups, and they spilled over and baked to the top of the muffin tins.

The second batch came out a little better. I had a lot of fun at any rate. And they taste really good.

Lemon Cake

2 scant cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 rounding teaspoons baking powder
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

Beat the butter with half of the sugar; add gradually the remainder of the sugar together with the well-beaten eggs. Next, put in the grated lemon, then the milk, and then lastly the flour sifted with the salt and baking powder. Bake about 40 minutes in a moderate oven, (350 degrees) and cover with lemon frosting. (See below)

Lemon Frosting

Juice of 2 lemons
About 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Strain the juice of the lemons into a bowl and add the sugar, finely sifted, until thick enough to spread. The exact quantity of sugar will depend on the size of the lemons. Pour over the top of the cake, and spread smooth with a thin-bladed knife that has been dipped in water.

Yeah, forget that.

It did not work. That is the second time I’ve tried to make frosting from this cookbook.  The cake is very good, but the frosting was just a thick paste that did not taste good at all. And forget trying to spread it. And to top it all off, there wasn’t enough to cover a cake, or all of the cupcakes, anyway.

So! I went to the internet in search for what ingredient might be missing, and I found it – BUTTER. I added 1 stick of butter and a small amount of almond milk and a little bit more powdered sugar to thicken it back up – and it turned out perfectly. Oh, and I decided to get wild and add yellow food coloring since it was supposed to be lemon frosting.

After I iced the cupcakes, I sprinkled them with shaved coconut I bought at the Fresh Market. They look good, but I think the cupcakes would be better without the coconut. . . and I like coconut. It was just too much texture for those moist cakes.

Lemons for cupcakes

Lemon Cupcake

Lemon Cupcakes with FlagsLemon CupcakeLemon Cupcakes with Flags

Not so Famous Brownies

06 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes gone wrong

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Famous BrowniesAbout a year ago, Tupelo Honey came to town and set up shop at Warehouse Row. Any restaurant that serves biscuits with honey and jam before every meal will certainly last in the South.

Part of the wallpaper on the outside of the restaurant is a blown-up photo of a brownie recipe. Cool! It is hand-written on an index card just like my great grandmother’s. So I did what probably others have done – I took a photo of it and tried my hand at making them at home.

I think I made several mistakes.

I used semi-sweet chocolate and gluten-free flour. And even though I baked them close to an hour, they still did not get done. When I tried to get them out of the pan, they basically fell apart. And sadly, the gluten-free flour made them taste…..not so good.

I plan to re-do them with dark chocolate and regular flour – and a hotter oven. I’ll just have to risk getting a migraine.

Here you go if you want to try them.

Famous Brownies recipe outside Tupelo Honey's restaurant at Warehouse Row, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Famous Brownies recipe outside Tupelo Honey’s restaurant at Warehouse Row, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Famous Brownies

Date Ice Box Cookies – (Aunt Lucy)

25 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by in Baking, Food, Photography

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DateIceBoxCookiesAboveTonedReadI love dates. So any recipe that contains them gets my attention pretty quickly.

I have no idea who Aunt Lucy is, but that is how it was printed in the newspaper article that my great grandmother cut out for her collection. Unfortunately there is no date (no pun intended) on the clipping. But Mama died in 1976, so it was way before then.

These are pretty good. Not too sweet. I think they will make a good compliment to coffee. They are pretty easy to do and they make a ton.

Date Ice Box Cookies 

Filling:
1 pound chopped dates
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Cook mixture together until thick. (In a medium-sized pot on a low heat. I stirred frequently.)

Cookie dough:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together sugars and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture. (You may need a little bit more flour) – I definitely did need to add some.    Add vanilla.

Divide the dough into three equal parts. Roll dough about 1/4-inch thick. Spread filling onto dough and roll tightly into tight, oblong stick. Put cookies in refrigerator until well-chilled or store in freezer. Slice and bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

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