Category Archives: baking

Thoughts About Cornbread

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Some Thoughts on Cornbread

 

May be an image of text that says 'The North thinks it knows how to make corn bread, but this is a gross SuPerstition. Perhaps no bread in the world is quite as good as Southern corn bread, and Perhaps no bread in the world is quite as bad as the Northern imitation of it. Mark Twain Sonthern THE Voice'

 

 

 

 

I think Mark Twain got this right. I don’t think I’ve ever had true Southern Cornbread but I’ve had some pretty awful cornbread here in the North. Maybe my sister in law and I should have a cornbread bake off. My sister-in -law is from Charleston, South Carolina and is one of the most fun people I know.  But I digress.

Cornbread is something I don’t eat very often but every once in a while I get a craving for it. When I was working I’d buy the little mix packages that were just add water. Although easy and quick to make the result was  this dry, crumbly stuff that was really pretty bad.  Still bad cornbread is better than no corn bread so I kept doing that until someone gave me a recipe for Boston Market Cornbread. I’m always looking for ways to improve my cooking skills.

Boston Market Cornbread

Boston Market cornbread is a very moist, very sweet, cornbread that is served as a mini loaf.

No photo description available.

Photo credit- Boston Market

I think they are great but is it cornbread? 

When I got the “Imposter” recipe I could see why it’s so cake like. It uses a box of Butter Cake mix as a base. It makes a ton of these little loaves and they also freeze well. I used to make a batch for the office and we’d put them in the freezer so my co-workers and I could have them whenever we wanted.  

Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread

Boston Market cornbread aside, I still think there is nothing like cornbread that’s baked in a cast iron skillet. You get such a beautiful crust when you bake your cornbread this way. So  I set out to see if I could make a decent cornbread even though I am a Northerner. I think my effort was pretty successful. Here’s the result. 

Photo credit Deb Neumann

 

 

Photo Credit- Deb Neumann

 

Photo credit- Deb Neumann

Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread Recipe

(Food Network)

 

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teas. kosher salt
  • 2 teas. baking powder
  • 1/2 teas. baking soda
  • 1/3 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
  • 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, Melted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F, and place a 9 inch cast iron skillet inside to heat while you make the batter.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt baking powder and baking soda. Whisk in the milk, buttermilk, and eggs. Lastly whisk in all of the melted butter, reserving about 1 tablespoon for the skillet later on.
  3. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and reduce the oven temp to 375. Coat bottom and sides of the hot skillet with the remaining butter. Pour the batter into the skillet and place it in the center of the oven. Bake until the center is firm and tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (25-30 minutes) Allow to cool 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. 

Enjoy! 

 

 

 

It’s Baking Season in New England

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It’s Baking Time

Fall is the time for baking in my house. Summer time is for grilling. Outdoor cooking keeps the house cool while the aroma of charcoal and grilling meat drift on the breeze. With cooler days and evenings its time to get the oven going. Homemade breads, muffins and cakes begin to appear. Fresh apples and cranberries lie in wait on the counter.

Apple MuffinsApples

The cranberries haven’t quite hit the store shelves yet. They will be here any day now but apples are beginning to come in season. As I considered my options I thought Apple Muffins might be a good breakfast choice. I’ve never made apple muffins but I didn’t see any reason why they wouldn’t be just as good as blueberry or cranberry. With that in mind I began an internet search for a good day to day recipe. I found a promising one at Allrecipes.com 

Granny smith apples

Time to Refresh the Pantry

I made a quick trip to the store for flour, baking powder and apples. I had everything else on hand but I wanted to be sure the flour and baking powder were fresh. For apples I selected Granny Smith. I wanted Macintosh as that’s just what I always think of for baking but like the cranberries, there weren’t any on the shelves.

Breaking in a new Recipe

I’ve never tries a new recipe that didn’t need a little tweaking but this one looked pretty straight forward.

Easy Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Easy Apple Cinnamon Muffins

  • Prep 20 m

  • Cook 25 m

  • Ready In 45 m

Recipe By:Mindy
“A really easy apple cinnamon muffin recipe.”

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup butter, cubed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease six muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
  2. Stir together 1 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, baking powder and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in oil, egg and milk. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling to the top of the cup.
  3. In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, butter and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix together with fork and sprinkle over unbaked muffins.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2017 Allrecipes.com
Printed From Allrecipes.com 9/4/2017

The Results

Yummy, but next time I will use the jumbo baking tins and only fill 3/4 of the way. I’ll add the strudel topping to top it off. My regular sized tin was overflowing even with 8 muffin cups instead of 6 and I had to trim the strudel topping to get the muffins out. I found it easiest to eat them with a fork. But sooooo good! These are going to be very popular around here.

 

Photo of the Week ~ 16

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There were some close counts this week. Some of the photos were pretty colorful and that seems to make them popular. The number one photo for this week was also, in my opinion, the most colorful. With 35 combined points the week 16 photo of the week is Easter Peeps Cake.

Peeps Easster 008a copy

To Order Prints click here: http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p161572686/h1b088693#h1b088693

Peeps are Here

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Last year I was still working at my previous employer and that means I was going into an office every day.  We were quite a social group and often had pot luck parties. Around Easter last year we had a Spring party and I contributed a “Peeps Sunflower Cake”. Some of my long time readers may remember it.

WFO Spring 011e copy

Since I no longer go into an office regularly and when we do, lunch is usually delivered, I haven’t done any baking since Christmas. (I’m supposed to be losing weight. Just ask my Doctor). But a few weeks ago I ran across a recipe for another “peeps cake”. I cut it out and left it on the end table.

Every night I’d look at it sitting there. Some nights I’d pick it up and read it. Oh I was tempted to try it. It looked so pretty.

Well I finally gave in. The problem was that once I got into it I realized I didn’t have the right size cake pans. It’s a 4 layer cake and even if a 9″ pan worked I only had 3 pans. I could use the 9″ pans and have skinny layers or I could do the right thing and get 4 new  8″ pans. I’d already been to the store and had all the ingredients. It would be a shame to quit now.

So off to Michael’s Craft Store I went. Sure enough, they had 8″ cake pans. They aren’t cheap! But I consoled myself that I’d have them for future cakes.

I baked the cake after work and let the layers cool completely. In the morning I frosted and decorated the layers. And here’s the end result 🙂

Peeps Easster 002a copy

 

Peeps Easster 008a copy

I do love being creative!