Tag: food

Baking

Sour Dough, Yum!

Iris Rose

I, as you may know, also love to bake and have been baking my own bread for quite some time.  Last fall I was given a sour dough starter by a fellow vendor at a craft sale and was so glad to have it when the great yeast shortage began.

I got into the habit of making sour dough bread instead of standard yeast bread for the months of March and April and just kept on going even when DD found me some yeast at a local grocer.

I follow my usual whole wheat bread recipe using the sour dough instead of bread yeast and factoring in the additional flour and water used in the build.  I always feed the starter double in the morning before I bake and then, putting away one third (one cup) for the next time, build a sponge that evening.  I use double the flour and the same amount of water that I use for feeding the starter and leave that thick sponge overnight to really get working.

I have been successfully making English muffins too and I decided that I wanted to see if I could make sour dough biscuits for a change.  After a couple of okay tries (read too much whole wheat flour for a real biscuit taste) think that I have hit the jackpot!

It is such a pleasure to make and serve your own baking.  It gives me the same satisfaction as completing a project that turns out exactly as you envisioned.  It is funny how the little homely things can mean so much in these troubling times.

Have a lovely week whatever you do and remember to be kind.

Baking

Ginger Chocolate Scones, Enjoy!

Iris Rose

It is time to share another of my favourite recipes, Ginger Chocolate Scones today, yummy! Put on the coffee or tea as soon as you take these lovelies out of the oven.

I love to have a bag of scones of some type or other in my freezer for those times when you need a little something with your afternoon break and veggies just won’t do it. The basic recipe for these can be changed up to make them fit your taste.  Remember to eat them the same day as you are baking them or freeze them to maintain that wonderful fresh scone flavour.  A quick minute in the oven will make them taste fresh again.

There is a little prep to be done before mixing of the dough so be prepared for that before you start.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper or grease it lightly. Normally you don’t need to grease the pan for scones but the chocolate can stick when melted.  You will also need a round cutter of a knife to cut the dough and a little extra flour for the cutting board or counter.

Ingredients:

4 c flour
¾ c sugar
2 Tbsp plus 1tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp powdered ginger
1 c butter softened, most scones ask for cold but I like to use soft butter for a speedy mix
3 eggs
1/3 c 10% cream or whole milk
1 c buttermilk
1tsp vanilla
¾ c candied ginger
1 ½ c chocolate chips or pieces, I used Ghiardelli and used the whole bag.

Before you start to measure and mix your dough, chop or snip the candied ginger into little pieces and set aside. Kitchen scissors are the easiest to use. This is the prep done that I warned you about before.

Measure out the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and the powdered ginger into a large mixing bowl. Stir a little to combine everything. Break up the butter and add to the bowl. With your hands, gently rub the butter into the dry stuff until it resembles coarse crumbs. It is important that you use a light hand here and don’t over mix or your scones will be heavy and a bit tough. When the butter is mixed in, prepare your wet ingredients.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs a little, mix in the cream, buttermilk, and vanilla. Stir well to combine all of the egg into the milk.

Add the candied ginger and the chocolate to the dry/butter mix and stir gently to distribute. Make a well and pour in the wet ingredients. I like to use a table fork here and lift up the dry from the sides of the bowl toward the centre while I am turning the bowl. Just make sure that, as with the butter, you do not overmix the dough. Once you have as much liquid in with the fork as you can, use your hands and gently turn the dough over and over to mix in the remaining dry part. You might have a couple of Tbsp left in the bowl and that’s okay.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board or counter and pat it out to about ¾ inch thick. Cut the scones out with a round cutter and place them on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. You can pat the dough into a square and cut out squares or wedges with a knife if you prefer those shapes.

Put in the sheet pan into the middle of the oven and bake 15 to 20 minutes until they are golden on the top.

If ginger and/or chocolate (what’s wrong with you on the chocolate?) is not your thing, you can snip up some dates or other dried fruit and substitute. I love these made with fresh dates and also with dried apricots.  Fresh blueberries are yummy too!  Just make sure that you dry them after washing them before adding them to the dry mixture.

Have you got the coffee started? These are seriously and sinfully good for breakfast too!

I hope that you enjoy my recipe and have fun making these scones to share with friends and family. Have a happy week and stay warm for those of you in the northern part of the world.

Baking

Mushroom Soup, Yum!

Iris Rose

I missed you last week! I have been under the weather with a nasty bug and had some other busy stuff come up, but I am back.

I am still sniffling and coughing; my comfort food when I feel like this is homemade soup. I had a bunch of lovely mushrooms in the fridge and a container of cream. I bet that you know where this is going, don’t you?

Here is my own recipe for Cream of Mushroom Soup. I use dried herbs as, you know, Canada and winter. This is definitely not low calorie or heart friendly so if that concerns you, turn away and go back to your knitting or crocheting with  my understanding and blessing.

Ingredients:
12 to 14 Crimini mushrooms, sliced
½ c butter, divided into two pieces
1/3 c flour
2 c water
2 c 10% cream
1 tsp chicken stock base
¼ tsp cilantro
1 tsp dried chives
¼ tsp granulated garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan (I use a deep sauté pan) over medium heat, melt ¼ cup of butter and heat until it starts to bubble. Stir in the mushrooms and sauté until they start to give up their juices. Stir in the herbs and seasonings. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the other ¼ cup of butter in to melt. When it is melted and the mushrooms look glossy, stir in the flour. Stir in the water and stock base and return to the heat, stirring constantly so that it thickens smoothly. When the soup is thick, stir in the cream. Cover and let it simmer on low heat for about half an hour. If it is too thick for you, stir in another ½ half cup of cream and/or water or more until it is to your taste.

I apologize for the photo but steam and camera lenses are not optimum for a great picture.

Have a great week and happy cooking and crafting.

Baking
Iris Rose

I am taking a break from crafting this week, at least as much of a break as my brain will let me take. I really pushed through this fall for craft sale stock and now I am stepping back and finally working on some of the projects that have been crying for attention. Can you say yoke cardigan, do you remember this one from ages ago?

In celebration of the extra time that I have this week I made muffins! I thought that I would share my recipe with you today; I hope that you enjoy it. I always make big muffins because I don’t snack between meals and find that a small muffin just doesn’t get me from breakfast to lunch. My recipe makes twelve large ones but should make twenty four regular size muffins.

Coconut Cranberry Muffins
Heat oven to 375F. Butter muffin pans or spritz with cooking spray.
4 c flour
¼ tsp baking soda
4 tsp baking powder
1 c coconut (save a couple of tablespoons for topping if you want to)
1 ½ c craisins (or raisins if cranberry flavour doesn’t float your boat.)

Mix all these together in a large mixing bowl.

1 ripe banana, mashed
½ c honey
½ c canola oil
3 eggs
1 c milk or cream
2 c buttermilk

Mix all of these together (beat the eggs, banana, oil, and honey together first) in another large mixing bowl.
Stir the wet ingredient into the dry until just mixed. Fill muffin pan cups to almost full. Sprinkle a little coconut on the top of each muffin. Bake for 20 minutes for large muffins or 15 minutes for small ones.
Get busy and you can enjoy these for breakfast tomorrow!

Have a lovely week full of happy crafting and kindness and thank you for reading.

Knitting

Knitting and Pancakes, Love ‘Em Both!

Iris Rose

Here we are, almost into April! My goodness how the time passes by when you are not looking.  I have been busy this week.  Two new charity hats are in the bag and I have knit three babies and two mermaid dolls.  I have a big bag of unfinished dollies now so I better get to work on the sewing and stuffing.

I have been procrastinating about publishing my little cardigan pattern. I finally finished the test knits and have them blocked so will push myself to get the final draft of the pattern out next week.
In the meantime, I have been playing with my knitting machine (still) and spent my spare time this week embellishing a little pullover with crocheted appliques. I was hoping to finish it yesterday but, life, you know how that goes. Here is the almost finished sweater. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I used to make a baby version of this but haven’t done one for a while. I never write this type of finishing down, I should but I do love the creative process of just winging it!


Do you have plans for this long weekend? We are having the family over for a visit and dinner on Saturday. I can’t wait! I always love to see my kids and grandkids. I always like to make a special breakfast for DH and myself on Easter Sunday. I think that this year I will make pancakes with my homemade sausage and cook a couple of eggs as well. If you missed my pancake recipe that was featured in a prior post and would like to make it this weekend, here it is again. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Iris Rose’s delicious pancakes:
These ingredients will make two very large (plate sized) pancakes.
3 Tbsps of butter
Melt the butter in a 9” or 22cm frying pan over medium heat. I use two pans to cook both pancakes at once and melt butter in each. You will be using the excess butter in the pancake batter but leave some to brown with the batter.
1 cup of flour
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
Combine these ingredients in a bowl big enough to hold the wet ingredients too.
1 egg
2 Tbsps honey or maple syrup
1 cup of buttermilk (Don’t have any buttermilk? Just add a tsp of vinegar to plain milk or mix in a good dollop (2Tbsps) of sour cream or yogurt to plain milk to make a cup.)
I mix these ingredients using a 2 cup measuring cup in the following order: beat the egg, beat in the honey or syrup, mix in the buttermilk.
Pour most of the melted butter into the wet ingredients and stir. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Mix with a few quick stirs until all of the dry stuff is wet. Don’t worry about lumps and don’t overmix.
Pour half of the batter into each pan. Here is where you make them fun. Top the batter with sliced banana, sliced peaches, blueberries, sliced apples, you get the picture.
If you want savory pancakes, top the batter in the pan with cooked diced ham, cooked sliced mushrooms, grated cheese, shrimps and so on.
When the pancake has some bubbles that pop and is starting to look dry around the edges, be brave and flip the whole thing over. Your added goodies should have sunk into the batter and will cook while the second side is cooking. I wait a couple of minutes and turn off the stove at this point as there should be enough heat in the pan and the cooked side to finish the pancake without burning your yummy addons.
In a couple of more minutes, flip the pancake onto a plate and admire the pretty pattern made by the additions. Serve with syrup, preferably maple, and enjoy!