Monthly Archives: June 2010

Jams, Jelly, or Preserves

11 Friday Jun 2010

Posted by in Uncategorized

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Making jams, jellies, and preserves are a great way to make the most out of your fruit.

Jams and preserves have the most in common. Both of them are made with the fruit.

Jams are made with crushed fruit or fruit pieces. You just put chopped or crushed fruit in a pan with sugar and anything else called for and cook it.

Preserves are made with whole fruits and sugar.
You add the fruit and sugar and let it stand awhile and than you cook it.

Jellies are made in a two-step process.
First you make juice from the fruit.
Than, you add your sugar to the juice along with optional pectin to make the jelly. 

All of them are good. 
But that’s what the difference is between them all.
   

Double Fudge Brownies

10 Thursday Jun 2010

Posted by in Brownies, Chocolate, fudgy, Recipe, whole wheat flour

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These brownies are extremely fudgy and yummy.
And you’d never guess that they are made with whole wheat flour.

For the best texture, let them sit overnight before cutting and serving.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ baking pan.

Ingredients:

1 cup(2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder-optional
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove.
Add the brown sugar and stir in.
Heat or microwave it again, just until bubbly.
Stir in the cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, optional espresso powder, and vanilla extract.
Let the mixture cool down to lukewarm.
Add eggs one at a time to make make they are blended in well.
Add the flour and chocolate chips and stir until smooth.
Spread the batter into the baking pan.
Bake for 30 minutes. When testing with a toothpick, crumbs will cling to the toothpick.
Cool on a wire rack.
Cut into bars after letting them sit overnight.
Makes 20-24 brownies.

Handling Hot Peppers

10 Thursday Jun 2010

Posted by in gloves, hot peppers, oils

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Working with hot peppers can be hard on your hands.

Even if the pepper doesn’t seem to be that hot, the oils in the peppers can make your hands burn.
Especially if you will be seeding and/or chopping several of them.

The best way to handle a hot pepper is to cut them in half and use a sharp knife to scrape out the membrane and seeds.
The membrane and seeds have a lot of the hot oil and touching them will make your hands burn more than touching any other part of the pepper.

Once you have got the seeds out, lay the pepper cut side down to avoid touching the oils in it.

If you have disposable kitchen gloves now is the time to wear them.

That way you can scrape out seeds with your gloved hands if you have trouble scraping them out with your knife.

When you remove them, do so that you are turning them inside out as you peel them off.

If you don’t wear gloves, washing your hands will not always take all the oils away.
Some times they linger and when/if you touch your face, your face may burn.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

09 Wednesday Jun 2010

Posted by in dessert, rhubarb, strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb pie recipe

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Strawberry-rhubarb pie is a classic. Both fruits are in season right now, so why not put them together?

In this recipe, I give two amounts for the sugar.
If you like your pie less sweet, use the 3/4 cup. If you like it good and sweet use the full amount of 1-1/2 cups.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
You will need a 9″ pie plate.

Ingredients:

Pastry for 2-crust 9″ pie

3/4 to 1-1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1/2″ slices
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 Tablespoon butter

Combine sugar, flour, salt, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.
Add the rhubarb and strawberries and toss. Let sit for 20 minutes.
Put bottom crust into pie plate.
Pour fruit mixture into the crust.
Dot with the butter.
Cover with top crust and seal.
Make 5 slits on top to allow steam to escape during baking.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until the filling is bubbling thickly.

Let cool for at least a few hours for the pie to set up.

Serves 6-8.

How Hot Is A Very Hot Oven?

09 Wednesday Jun 2010

Posted by in hot oven, moderate oven, oven temperature equivalent chart, slow oven

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If you have ever looked through an old cookbook, you have probably seen directions for baking with wording such as Bake in a slow oven.

But how are you supposed to know what temperature that is?

Here is a chart that will give you a close estimate.
The degrees aren’t exact. You have a 25 degree range, but it will work.

Very slow oven………………..250-275 degrees Fahrenheit

Slow oven……………………..300-325 degrees Fahrenheit

Moderate oven………………. 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit

Hot oven………………………400-425 degrees Fahrenheit

Very hot oven………………..450-475 degrees Fahrenheit

Extremely hot oven…………500-525 degrees Fahrenheit

What Makes A Food Whole Grain

08 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by in all purpose flour, whole grain flour, whole wheat

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The Whole Grains Council defines whole grains this way:
Whole Grains or foods made from them contain all the essential parts and naturally occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed. If the grain has been processed the food should give you about the same balance of nutrition that is found in the original grain.

The more processed the grains are, the more nutrients are lost.

When baking with whole grains, it is possible to bake with all whole grains, but most baked goods benefit from a mix of whole grain and all-purpose flours.

Many times, to get the best texture you will need to use both flours. If you do use all whole grain flour, you may want to let the baked food rest overnight to soften up the rougher texture of a whole grain such as whole wheat.

If you are wanting to add more whole grains to your recipes, try experimenting with 1/4 whole grains and increase until you find the taste and texture that you want.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

08 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by in Baking with chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, Recipe

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Chocolate-chocolate chip cookies are for the serious chocolate lover. When you want some chocolate, this cookie always satisfies.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
You will need a couple of ungreased cookie sheets.

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup(2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside.
Beat the butter, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla extract in another bowl until the mixture is creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Blend in flour mixture.
Add the chocolate chips.
Drop by Tablespoon or medium size cookie scoop onto cookie sheets.
Bake for 9-11 minutes. They may be a bit soft in the middle and that is OK. They will finish cooking after they come out of the oven.
Remove to wire rack to cool.
You will get 4-5 dozen cookies.

Waffles

07 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by in breakfast, Recipe, waffles

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I love waffles. I have to say, I don’t think I have met a waffle I didn’t love. This is a really simple recipe for homemade waffles.
I make Belgian waffles, which are the large ones with deep pockets.
But, just a regular waffle maker still works great with this recipe.

Preheat your waffle maker per manufacturer instructions.

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt 2 eggs
1-3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup cooking oil

In one bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set off to the side.
In a second bowl mix the eggs, milk, and oil.
Dump the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. The batter will be lumpy.
Pour 1-1/14 cups batter onto the grids of the waffle maker and bake until done. It will take 3-4 minutes.
Carefully remove waffle from the maker. Repeat with the remaining batter.
You will get 12-16 waffles on a 4″ waffle maker.
You will get about 4 waffles using a Belgian style waffle maker.

Serve with butter and your favorite syrup.
Fruit is great on these waffles too.

Cutting Your Bars

06 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by in cutting brownies, lining pan with foil, pastry scraper

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Here are a couple of tips for making a great cut for bars.

When you cut brownies, it always seems as if the brownies want to come up a bit with your knife.

The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen is to let the brownies cool thoroughly before cutting them.

But who doesn’t love a warm from the oven brownie?

So, another option is to layer your baking pan with aluminum foil.
Let the ends hang over.
When the brownies are done, you can grab the ends of the foil and lift the brownies out of the pan.
Turn the brownies upside down and remove the foil.
Cut the brownies from the bottom side.
You will still want the brownies to cool at least slightly before cutting.

Another great way to cut bars is to use a pastry scraper to make cuts. Just push the scraper straight down and you will get an even cut. I have never ended up with bad edges cutting bars this way.

Lemon Bread

06 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by in breakfast, dessert, lemon, lemon bread, Recipe

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This quick bread has a very mellow lemon flavor. It is pretty moist and tasty.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grease the bottom and 1/2″ up the sides of an 8″ x 4″ loaf pan.

Ingredients:

1-3/4 flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts- optional
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon sugar

In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set to the side.
Combine the egg, milk, cooking oil, and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice in another bowl. Add all at once to the flour mixture and stir just until moistened.
Fold in the lemon peel and the nuts, if you are using.
Pour into the loaf pan.
Bake for 50-55 minutes until it tests done with a toothpick or cake tester.
While the bread is baking, mix the 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon sugar.
After taking the bread out of the oven, brush the lemon juice sugar mixture over the top. Do this before you remove the bread from the pan.
Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes.
Loosen and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Wrap in foil or plastic wrap overnight before serving.