Chewy Soft Pretzels

 Roll about 20" wide.

 Swing right side to the middle.

 Swing left side and cross over the right side.

 Cornstarch bath in HOT water and cornstarch.

Bake & top with melted butter and whatever toppings you like.

4 t yeast

1 t sugar

1 1/4 c warm water

4 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1 1/2 t salt

1 T olive oil

1/2 c baking soda

4 c hot water

1/4 c kosher salt, for topping

 

 

Dissolve yeast and 1 t sugar in warm water. Let stand until it foams and bubbles, about 10 minutes. In your bread machine bowl, put in 1/2 c sugar, salt, olive oil.  Measure 4 c flour on top of the moist mixture and start the dough cycle.  When the timer goes off, divide the dough into 12 equal parts.  Roll each out like a snake about 20 or so inches wide.  Form into a pretzel.  Dip into baking soda warm water (I mix soda and water and JUST bring to a barely simmer and turn the burner off) for about 30 seconds and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake in a preheated oven of 400 degrees for 8 minutes, until browned.

Cornbread

So, not so long ago (maybe a year), Benjamin took me on a nice date to a high class restaraunt here in Phoenix that rotates around the top of this tower while you dine.  AMAZING!  Not to mention the AMAZING waitress we had!  She was just a doll!  Worked hard and sought out ways to make our night more pleasant.  She just went the extra mile!  Such a neat place!  Anyway, while dining in this place, they served us Cornbread.  Not a huge fan of Cornbread myself, I offered my hubby my piece, but he MADE me try a bite at least.  Needless to say, he never got my piece! :)  It was AMAZING!  And I ate every last bite! :)  He teasingly asked our waitress if he could have just one more piece of cornbread and she obliged, and with it, she brought out a card that had the printed recipe!!!  The actual recipe this restaraunt uses!  Oh, were we happy! :)  I've made it a few times since we ate there and every time it's the same, incredibly addicting!  So, I'm sharing it now with you!

1 lb (4 sticks) butter
2 c sugar
2 c cornmeal
8 eggs
28 ounces cream corn (see recipe below)
3 c flour
2 T baking powder
2 T salt
6 oz cheddar cheese

Cream the butter, sugar and cornmeal. Add eggs one at a time -- mix until incorporated. Add cream corn (see recipe below) and mix until incorporated. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until incorporated. Add cheese, mix. Grease pans.  Preheat oven to 300. Bake about 1 hr until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

This recipe yeilds either 1 - 9x13; or 2 - 9x9; or 4 - large loaf pans. 

Note:  This can also be frozen UNBAKED, and baked the day of serving.  See pictures. 


Cream Corn

2 (10 ounce) packages frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 c heavy cream
1 t salt
2 T sugar
1/4 t pepper
2 Tbutter
1 c whole milk
2 T flour
1/4 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a skillet over medium heat, combine the corn, cream, salt, sugar, pepper and butter. Whisk together the milk and flour, and stir into the corn mixture. Cook stirring over medium heat until the mixture is thickened, and corn is cooked through. Remove from heat, and stir in the Parmesan cheese until melted. Serve hot or use for recipe.

Cherry Scones

I'm back!  So sorry for the LOOOOONG extended time between today and my last post.  Ahem.  I will try to do better!  The funny thing is that I have tons of recipes typed in posts ready to share, but haven't uploaded all my pictures yet, so they aren't getting posted too quickly!  Hard to find the time right now to do that!  Things get busier the older my kids get! :)  I thought it was the other way around. :)  Boy am I wrong!

So, I just got back from a visit to meet my new NEPHEW, Nolan Whitson, a few weeks ago!  Oh, and I got to see my sister and BIL.  :)  That was great too! :)  I'm smitten with that sweet baby boy, but that's not why you all are watching my blog for new recipes, so I guess this proud auntie will move along! :) 

Anyway, while I was out there, the Royal Wedding took place and Nolan just so happened to wake up at 3AM for a feeding, so what perfect timing to get up and watch the Royal Wedding!  Won't ever forget this morning.  My sister and I watched as we drank hot breves and ate................ready for it............these very Cherry Scones!  OH MY!  Let's just say I felt rather "royal" while eating and watching, so here's the recipe! :)  My sister is an AMAZING cook herself, and gave me a great stack of new recipes for me to try and she's given me permission to post them as I see fit!  She briefly mentioned she wanted to "featured" on the blog, so here's to you, sweet sister!!!  Love you!

 Dough just out of the mixer!

Roll the dough out on flour surface to 1/2" or so thick. (mine here was too thin! :()

 Cut into 8 triangles!

 Bake!  I put mine in for 12 minutes and these are too done! :( 

Would've taken out at 10 minutes had I been watching! :)

2 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
6 T cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2" slices
1/2 c dried cherries
1/4 c sliced almonds
2 eggs
1/2 c whole milk
1/2 t almond extract


Preheat oven to 425. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. Cut in the butter until mix resembles coarse meal. Mix in cherries & almonds.

In a separate bowl combine eggs, almond extract and milk. Stir into the flour mixture just until moist. (If sticky, add a little more flour.) Turn dough and make into a ball. Flatten to 1/2" thick. Cut into 8 wedges.

Brush tops w/ milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 15 min.

NOTE:  These freeze VERY well, just pull them out frozen and place on your cookie sheet as little or as many as you need and bake.  May need a few extra minutes, but not much!  The morning of the royal wedding we pulled them from the freezer and they were baked a very short time later!

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread!  Reminds me of my childhood sometimes Sunday mornings when our good family friends would make it adn serve it fresh out of their oven!  Mmmmm!  Unbelievably yummy! :)  I have to be honest, having watched it be made, I hesitated making it as it looked like so much work.  I've simplified the process and had it in the oven in less than 30 minutes! 

Biscuits, here's so you know what to look for! :)

Cut one tube at a time.  Quarter each biscuit.

Once one tube is cut, throw them all into your sugar & cinnamon!

Layering them in the bundt pan!

Microwaving butter, brown sugar & KARO!

Pour over uncooked bread.

Bake!

Here is your end product!

4 Pillsbury tubes of biscuits
1 c sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 stick butter
1/2 c DARK brown sugar
2 T KARO syrup

In a gallon ziploc bag, combine the sugar and cinnamon.  One tube at a time, cube each biscuit into fours.  Throw that quartered tube into the sugar mix, seal bag and shake coating each piece individually.  Put sugared pieces into a greased bundt pan.  Do this with each of the other three tubes of biscuits until all pieces are covered in sugar and layered evenly in your bundt pan.  In a microwave safe bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and Karo.  Microwave for 60-90 seconds until all ingredients can easily be incorporated.  Pour this over the top of your biscuits and put in the oven.  Bake @ 400 for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from the oven.  Take a large plate or platter and immediately flip the monkey bread out.  The caramel sticky layer will drizzle down over the sides.  Enjoy!

Asiago Cheese Bagels

Any Panera lovers!? :)  I used to be until I moved out to the southwest where they have NO PANERA!!!!!  I've come up with my own solution when I get that REALLY BAD CRAVING (which it's been most recent cause a friend of mine came out here to stay a few months and facebooked that she missed Panera, and was SHOCKED there wasn't one here. :))  You have already seen a few other posts about my Panera addiction and this is just another! :)  Enjoy!

Balls of dough before hole is poked in the center!

Holes have been made.  This is a tedious process with LOTS of stretching needed!

 Water almost ready to start boiling the bagels! You'll notice the holes in the center are almost closed!

 Boiling!

Topped with cheese after they've been boiled!

 Baked!

PERFECT MATCH!  Asiago Cheese bagel WARM & a Breve!

It can't get much better than this! :)

4 c flour
2 pkgs yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
3 Tsugar
1 Tsalt
1 T sugar
1 c shredded Asiago Cheese

Put yeast into your warm water and stir.  Let sit for a few minutes, it will start to foam.  Meanwhile, mix together your flour, sugar (3T) and salt.  Pour yeast mixture into your bowl and mix until everything is well blended and a dough ball forms.  I use my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook, this is THE BEST way to do it if you have it.  Once you've mixed the dough and nothing is sticking to the sides (add little bits of flour if still sticking to the sides of bowl until it doesn't any longer), drop it onto the counter and hand knead for another 5 or so minutes.  Then let rest on the counter with a damp dish towel over the top.  Let it sit for about 20 minutes.  Take and divide the dough into 8 even sections.  Once that is divided take each ball of dough and knead so that the creases are in the bottom of the bagel when put onto a GREASED pan for their second raising.  Once all have been formed into smooth circles, stick your finger into the center of each piece of dough and stretch as much as possible.  This dough is stiff and will spring back, just keep restretching them.  Put the dish towel over the top of the pan and put into your oven with JUST THE LIGHT on.  Let them raise for another hour like that.  Remove and preheat your oven to 375.  While your oven is preheating, boil about a gallon of water with 1T sugar.  Boil bagels 7 minutes, flipping them ONCE at about 3 1/2 minutes.  Remove and let drain on a paper towel.  It will stick to the paper towel, but will also remove fairly easy.  I let them drain for only about one minute.  Top with shredded Asiago Cheese.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes.  Just WATCH CAREFULLY as every oven will vary.  Mine were definitely done at 30 minutes.  I don't care for mine super dark.  They are best eaten right out of the oven.  Just my own opinion! :)  Otherwise when through, make sure to put any leftovers (if there are any) in a Ziploc to keep them moist.  Toast the next morning and top with cream cheese! :)

Honey Granola

So, many are "health conscious" at the beginning of the year always!  Thought I'd post my granola recipe that isn't too terrible.  Better choice than a donut! :)

This is all the ingredients mixed raw BEFORE the honey butter mixture.

 Honey butter mixture blending.

This is when the granola is coated with the Honey Butter mixture BEFORE it is baked. 

Completely baked and cooling.  You can see the color difference.

1 - 18 oz container old fashioned oats (6 c)
8 oz sliced almonds
1 c brown sugar (I prefer DARK brown sugar)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 c honey

In a large bowl, toss together all ingredients except butter and honey.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. When the butter is completely melted, stir in honey. Stir continuouslly until the butter and honey blend together and are no longer separated.  Pour over oat mixture and toss until everything is well coated. Spread granola onto a parchment lined baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Stir right in the middle at 15 minutes.  Watch it closely as at the end it darkens quickly! The sugar will begin to caramelize. Cool completely on pan. Transfer to an airtight container or Ziploc bags.

My FAVORITE way to eat granola is over sliced fresh bananas and vanilla yogurt!  Mmm, mmm!

Cupcakes - FOR SALE

Hey, just wanted to let you guys know, I am going to start making cupcakes on a "made to order" basis for those of you that are interested.  I will post different flavors and kinds you can order as I bake them and have pictures. Right now I have 3 different kinds, but if you have a birthday coming up, consider ordering homemade cupcakes!  I promise you they are 1000 times better than store bought!  Prices are as follows:

FIRST dozen cupcakes - $15
EACH ADDITIONAL dozen cupcakes - $12
18 cupcakes - $21 (about equivalent to one sheetcake at Fry's/Bashas/Walmart)

1/2 dozen cupcakes - $9

If you have a "theme" you are doing I'm happy to discuss other ideas than what is shown.

RAINBOW CUPCAKES

CANDY CORN CUPCAKES

These will have a different yellow on bottom next time.

 SALTED CARAMEL CUPCAKES

Biscuits & Gravy

Hands down, I became addicted to Biscuits and gravy in Oskaloosa, Iowa.  Smokey Row was a coffee house that served the most amazing B&G along with a hot and steamy Breve!!!  OH MY!  Ultimate experience right there! :)  While I HAVE NOT mastered their specific "ungiven" recipe, I have found one I like very well.

Biscuits:

2 c. flour

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

1 T white sugar

1/3 c shortening
1 c milk
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture until it looks like piecey.  The flour mix and shortening will be dry and separated. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet (or I ALWAYS use parchment paper on my cookie sheet for ANYTHING I'm baking on it!).  Bake in preheated oven to 425 for 13 to 15 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.

Sausage Gravy:

1 lb breakfast sausage
1/2 c flour

1 t salt

pepper, to taste

2 T Worcestershire Sauce
2-3 c milk

Brown sausage and drain.  To the same pan, add flour, salt and Worcestershire Sauce and coat all the meat.  It will be really pasty and thick.  Still over medium heat add the first 2 cups of milk and continuously stir.  It will start to thicken the longer it's on the burner.  If it's too thick, add more milk about 1/2 c at a time.  It needs to be between thick and thin! :) 

Oatmeal Bread

1 c quick oats

1/2 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1 T salt

2 T butter

Mix all above ingredients and pour 2 c boiling water over the top and mix.  Let cool. 

2 T yeast

1/2 c warm water

Dissolve.  Then add to the oatmeal mixture above.  Add 5 c all-purpose flour and stir until well combined and it forms a "ball" like in the first photo.  Knead.  Let rise for about an hour.  Make into 4 mini loaves and put into non-stick metal pans.  (Note: I have tried the Pampered Chef bread stone pan and it DOES NOT WORK for yeast breads.)  Let raise in pans until they are ALMOST to the top of the pan.  Usually about 30 minutes.  Bake at 350  for 20 minutes.  Serving it warm is by far my favorite, but we use this for sandwich bread, toast, etc.  This CANNOT be done in a bread machine.

Pancakes

Our tradition for BIRTHDAYS.  I usually DOUBLE this batch, fry all of them up and freeze for quick breakfasts later!  You can microwave them or toast them, whichever is easier!

1 c flour

2 T white sugar

2 T baking powder
1 t salt
1 egg, beaten

1 c milk

2 T vegetable oil

In a big bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Make a well in the center.  Pour in milk, egg & oil.  Mix until smooth.  Heat griddle or electric skillet over medium high heat.  Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle.  Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Braided Bread

5 c flour

2 pkg yeast
1 c milk
1 stick butter
1/2 c sugar
1 t salt
2 eggs
1/3 c water

Combine 3 c flour & dry yeast.  Heat milk, butter, sugar & salt til warm.  About 2 minutes in microwave.  Add to dry ingredients.  Add eggs & water.  Beat 3 minutes.  Stir in remaining flour.  Knead.  Raise.  Braid.  Raise.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  For a pretty look, take just an egg white and brush the top of your uncooked bread then sprinkle poppy seeds right away so they stick with the egg whites.  THEN bake it until golden.

This makes either 2 large loaves or 4 mini loaves.