Love, Laura Lee: baking

Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Good Morning {a catch-up post for the new year}

Here we are nearly at the end of January. My plan to post once a week hasn't met with reality. I thought after the first of the year life would slow down enough that I could pop over here more. Hasn't happened.

We started Caleb on the ABeka 1st grade DVD curriculum a couple weeks ago and I'm happy to say that he is doing very well. Granted, he needs almost constant supervision, but that is pretty much to be expected with a boy his age. Long gone are my simple days of quiet little girls calmly doing their school work. Caleb would rather wiggle and move while he does his. That's ok. We deal with it. As long as he understands what is expected of him, he works with enthusiasm. I love that about him. He is learning to write in cursive, learning to read, doing math (read: yelling the answers at the TV screen to beat the other students), and singing the Bible songs with complete abandon. Ask him what his favorite class is and he'll tell you it's Bible. He's a kid after my own heart. I had the mistaken notion that the DVDs would free me up for other things. Instead, I'm spending more one-on-one with him than I have since he first came home. But it's great and I'm loving it.

Our school day is way longer than I like this way. Charlotte Mason would not approve. The girls work on all their independent work in the mornings and don't get time with me until after the lunch dishes are done. Some days we are still working on their phonics, spelling, or literature until nearly four o'clock.

Meanwhile, Lacy is in her last semester of homeschooling. Quite honestly, that seems impossible! She's the most diligent, self-motivated student I've ever taught. Why didn't I get a whole houseful of Lacys? I have to constantly remind her to not put too much pressure on herself. I don't set deadlines for her. She sets them for herself. The big news for her is that she's been accepted to Pensacola Christian College for the fall with a plan to study nursing. It's a long haul over there from here, but the quality of education she'll receive is going to make that sacrifice worth it in the long run. I have no idea how I will keep this household running with both Abby and Lacy gone. So I just won't think about it.

On the sewing front, I've taken a major step back from Cradle Moon projects. My goal there was to help Abby and Jonathan with their outgoing expenses. God brought in a huge amount of funding for them and my contribution was a rather small part of that total. At some point I'll get it cranked up again with the sales going toward another good cause....possibly a plane ticket to Lesotho.

I found and ordered the fabrics for Ellee's crib quilt. Jeremiah's are being a bit more elusive. Hannah and I are working on that. With the girls at 21 and 20 weeks pregnant, there is still time. Abby wants sweet, girly, and cottage-y for Ellee. Hannah wants a light, bright, simple nursery with a Noah's Ark theme for Jeremiah.

Ellee's crib quilt fabrics:

Hill Farm by Lecien

Hannah-20 weeks Abby-20 weeks

Now the recipe for the coffee cake you saw up there. This is from the newly revised Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook that Abby left at our house. I wanted to bake a simple coffee cake for breakfast and this one looked exactly right. We inhaled it. Shamelessly.

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/3 cup buttermilk or sour milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9X13 baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Reserve 1/2 cup of the mixture to sprinkle over the batter. Stir baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg into remaining crumb mixture. In another bowl combine buttermilk and egg; add to crumb mixture stirring just until moistened.

Spoon batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture and chopped nuts. Bake for 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Makes 12 or more servings.

Love,

my mom's apple cake

Here is a simple apple cake recipe that my mother has been making for as long as I can remember. When my siblings and I were little, she made these every Christmas for us to take to our teachers. I'll never forget the sweet note to me from my second grade teacher, thanking me for the gift of delicious cake.

Mom used to bake the whole recipe in one tube pan which is what the recipe calls for. Today I mixed up the batter and baked five small 3X5" cakes to give as gifts. I reduced the time from 1 hr and 15 min down to 50 minutes and they turned out great.

I was daydreaming and dumped the sugar on top of the apples. That was not a good idea. It took a lot of stirring to make sure I had all the sugar incorporated into the batter. It turned out fine, anyway. But you'll be better off mixing the sugar with the flour first.

It's a thick, lumpy batter. Stir well!!

In the pans, ready to bake.

And cooling on the rack.

Mom's Fresh Apple Cake

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cups chopped apples (about 4)

Mix the dry ingredients well. Mix the oil and eggs and add to the dry ingredients, stirring well. The batter will be very thick. Mix in the apples and the nuts. Pile into a tube or bundt pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

If using smaller pans, reduce the time accordingly. Test for doneness with a toothpick.

This Christmas, I hope you enjoy baking for the ones you love!

love,

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

The moment I took a bite of this fantastic muffin, I knew I had to share the recipe. This incredibly delicious muffin recipe comes from our friends the Dexters who happen to live in Guangzhou, China. Lacy came home telling me about them, the muffins, that is. Then a few days later, they blogged the recipe for the whole world to enjoy. So I'm passing it along to you now. You will thank me, I'm sure.

I bake a lot of muffins. Some are really good, some turn out so-so. A very few are fantastic. These fall in that last column. I was actually surprised by how much I like them. I love peanut butter, but I wasn't really sure about a peanut butter flavored muffin. Just being honest here. The chocolate was a no-brainer. Always love that part. Since everyone was raving about these, I followed their recipe to the letter and I was really, REALLY impressed!

The peanut flavor is actually very subtle. I might not have even detected it if I didn't know it was there. The muffin texture is very moist. They're substantial but not heavy. And in my opinion, they tasted even better the second day, if that is possible. How many muffins can boast that distinction? I don't know of any.

Visit this link on the Dexter's blog, dubbed Pearl River Diaries, to find the delicious recipe. I have ulterior motives for sending you to their blog and not just reposting the recipe here. While you're there, I want you to browse around their whole site. Pat and her oldest daughters write great articles about their lives in China. The most recent post on the home page, Called to Have Open Doors, is a highly recommended read.

Undoubtedly, the most important section of the blog is dedicated to orphan advocacy. The Homes for the Lonely tab is where you can read about the precious children the Dexters work with weekly and with whom Lacy was privileged to spend several days. Each of these children needs a home. Perhaps you or someone you know would be interested in adopting one of them? At the very least, you can pray for them to find mommies and daddies very soon.

He makes a home for the lonely.

Psalm 68:6a

Don't forget to try the muffins!

Love,

Dutch Oven Bread

While reading Posie's blog one day (her blog is the first one I check when I make my rounds), I spied a recipe for bread baked in a Dutch oven. Wanting to find another job for Clifford the Big Red Pot, I followed the link to this recipe for Easy, No-knead Crusty Bread and found this resistible loaf. I loved the idea of mixing the dough and letting it sit for 8-18 hours, with no kneading required whatsoever.

Undoubtedly the simplest bread I've ever made, it did require a little advanced planning to get the timing down. What I discovered is that if I start it the day before, late in the afternoon or after dinner, it is ready to be baked just in time for dinner the next day.

You simply stir a 1/4 teaspoon of yeast and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt into 1 1/2 cups warm water. Then you mix in 3 cups of flour to form a very soft, wet dough. That is covered with plastic wrap and left to sit in a warmish place (I put mine on top of the fridge) for a looooong time, 8 hours up to 18 hours, till it is nice a bubbly. You dump it on a flour covered counter and form a ball, then flop in onto a flour covered dish towel and let it rise for a couple hours. That is just plopped into the HOT Dutch oven and baked at 475 for 30 minutes with the lid on. The lid is removed and it bakes another 15 minutes. The moist environment inside the Dutch oven creates the perfect moist loaf with the perfect crust.

It is simply divine.

Highly, highly recommended.

Love,

Soft Pretzels

I'll never forget the first time I tasted a soft pretzel. It was when I was about 10 years old, at the mall in Dayton, Ohio, at a little store front called Hot Sam. Goodness, was it delicious! I was an instant fan. Since then I've occasionally treated myself and the children to an Aunt Annie's soft pretzel at the mall near us, though doing so can really take a bite out of my wallet.

It's been a while since I made soft pretzels from scratch. The first time I made them, Ryan was little and he loved to help me in the kitchen. After that, he would beg me to make these.

Well, now I have another kitchen helper and we pretty much find something fun to create after school each day. Yesterday we mixed up this super simple recipe for pretzel dough, killed time for an hour or so, then rolled and baked them. Wow. I can't even begin to tell you how delicious they were. You're just going to have to try them yourself.

First, you mix water, yeast, and a little sugar in a small bowl.

When that gets all foamy, you add it to the flour and other ingredients.
Mix well.

You put your trusty kitchen helper on kneading that all till smooth.

Then cover and let rise till double.

After the dough has risen, mix 1/2 cup baking soda with 4 cups hot water.

Divide dough into 12 balls.
Roll each into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape.

Dunk in the soda water.

Sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes.

Ours turned out rather like pretzel buns because we didn't get our ropes long enough. Still, they were fabulous. We brushed them with melted butter, but next time I think I'll dunk them so they're even more buttery. I like mine dipped in mustard, because that's the way I ate my very first one, oh so many years ago. This time, I saved half and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar. Delicious!

Have a beautiful day!

Love,

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Still stitching like crazy on the quilty give-away. I know. I said it would be done by now. It should still be done by Friday. What happened was that I decided to do more quilting on it, which is a prerogative with quilting; you get to decide how much or how little you do. I started out thinking I would do less. I ended up doing more. So, this afternoon I sat outside enjoying incredibly mild temperatures, stitching, while my mind wandered to all things fall.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share this recipe with you. If you have a few minutes to putter in the kitchen, try this from-scratch cake that you can mix in one bowl in a hurry. If I can mix it up in less than ten minutes with a couple of eager assistants and a crazy dog under foot, while simultaneously taking photographs, surely you can beat my time.

Mayonnaise replaces the egg and the oil in this moist, chocolaty favorite. The flavorful brown sugar frosting is the perfect topping. Oh, man. We loved this. It's really a good thing I gave most of it away.

Flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda go in the bowl first.

Next in goes the water and mayonnaise and vanilla.

Mix until smooth. You can use a mixer, but you don't have to.

Mine's dead, so I mix my hand.

Pour into greased pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

After the cake cools, start the frosting.

Place butter and brown sugar into the the pan and heat until bubbly.

Add milk and powdered sugar.

Beat until smooth.

Frost the cooled cake.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup water
1 cup (regular not low-fat) mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla

Brown Sugar Frosting:

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1-3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda. Add water, mayonnaise and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into a greased 9" square or 11"X 7" baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool completely. For frosting, melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar; cook and stir until bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in milk. Gradually add powdered sugar; beat by hand until frosting is of spreading consistency. Immediately frost cake. Yields 9-12 servings.

Love,

Chocolate Chip Cake

Thanks so much for the comments about the table runner. I really appreciate them. The hemstitching is complete and I'm ready to "sandwich" the top, batting, and backing tonight after dinner. So far, so good. I'm still on schedule to have it quilted by hand and ready to give-away by September first. If you've said you want in the drawing, you can be sure I've made a note of it.

Now I think it's high time that I posted the recipe for a yummy, yummy cake. It's really a wonder that it isn't the first recipe I ever blogged. My friend Sharon passed this one along to me over 20 years ago, and I honestly think this is one of the best cakes I've ever had in my life. It's a little bit like pound cake, but even better. Typically, I'm an icing person. This cake has no icing, just a crumb topping, and that is all it needs.

Chocolate Chip Cake is my go-to when I need to take a dessert somewhere. Or when we're having company. Or when I'm just craving it. It's made from scratch, but it's a cinch to put together. It's one of those cakes that gets better the longer it sits. Great the first day, but possibly even more delicious the next day or the day after that.

For this one-bowl cake, you won't even need your mixer. Just grab a wooden spoon and get a good upper arm workout instead.