Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

I know, I know…I already posted about Livestrong Day, but it’s my blog and I can do what I want…so there!

When we were in a bit of stress I tried to make life a little better for my hubby. He loves yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Unfortunately, he likes box cake and frosting from a can(vomit). I do, on his birthday make him cake from a box but I just can not do the frosting. Which he is now fine with because he likes mine better(thank God). But he wasn’t getting box cake this time. So I baked two types of cake, one he would eat and one I would want to eat. I made an apple cinnamon with caramel frosting for me and a banana chocolate frosting one for him. One recipe two ways. Then I noticed…hey, it’s yellow. I could do another Livestrong post, so I will.

Again, I can not point out how great I think this event is. Not only is my mother a cancer survivor, so are my 2 aunts, my mother-in-law and many of my mom’s friends. Sadly my mom’s best friend died a little over a year ago from stage 4 breast cancer. I’m sure you know someone too!

I made these cakes using 4 ½ inch diameter cake pans, making two of each kind. I could have made four varieties if I wanted, but lets remember here people, I am lazy. And speaking of lazy, let me just go off on a hockey tangent here and say that my Sabres were lazy, lazy, lazy on Thursday and lost the game. If they don’t pull it together this Saturday night there will be much swearing going on at the house of Pea!!!!!

Yellow Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour, stirred before measuring
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
PREPARATION:
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Cream sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half of the flour mixture then half of the milk.
Add vanilla. Mix until blended; add remaining flour and milk and beat until smooth. Fill 4 greased and floured layer cake pans(4 1/2 inch diameter) with the batter. Bake at 375° for 25 to 35 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched near center.
Frost as desired.

Source: About.com Souther US Cuisine section

For the caramel apple version:

1 pink lady or any more tart apple, peeled and chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 TBSP sugar
squeeze of lemon juice

Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl. Seperate the yellow cake batter into to medium bowls. Pour the apple ingredients into one of the bowls and mix. Pour batter into 2 of the mini cake pans and bake as yellow cake recipe directs. When cool frost with caramel frosting.

Caramel Frosting
3 cups (light) brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons half and half
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Mix sugar and half and half in a heavy saucepan and cook, stirring over low heat until syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 235 degrees on a candy thermometer. If lacking a thermometer, check doneness by dropping a tiny bit of syrup into a cup of cold water. When the syrup can be gathered up in fingers and will almost hold its shape, it has reached the soft-ball stage.

2. Remove pan from heat. Stir in butter, then let syrup cool. Add vanilla and beat until frosting reaches spreading consistency. A little cream (or half-and-half) may be added is mixture is too thick.

1 large banana, sliced

Take the remaining half of the batter and fold in the sliced bananas. Pour into the remaining two cake pans and bake as recipe indicates. When cake is completely cooled, frost with chocolate frosting.

Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

3 ounces unsweetended chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 TBSP vanilla extract

1. Put both chocolates in a stainless steel bowl and place bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. Heat, stirring frequently, until the chocoalte is completely melted. Remove the bowl from the pot and set the chocolate aside to cool.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat at high speed untl light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Add the cooled chocolate at low speed, mixing until blended and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed to high and beat until slightly aerated, about 1 minute.

Source:  Adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Well it was a good hockey weekend all around. Both the Sabres and my hockey team won. The Sabres advance on to the Easter Conference Finals to face their nemesis the Ottawa Senators. I have two days not to stress and then it all starts up again. As for my own team we won the tournament…I have a little medal and a whole lot of aches, pains and bruises to show for it. I comforted my pain with some pain killers and strawberry shortcake…a winning combination
When I was little, my poor mom would always try to get the family to eat strawberry shortcake her way…with biscuits. But we would have nothing of it. We wanted those little round sponge cakes that they always sold by the strawberries themselves. So she would serve both kinds. It was not until we went visiting relatives that I had my first biscuit shortcake. It was at my aunt’s house. When I heard she was making shortcake I was very excited…and then she put the biscuit out. Ugh. It was in front of me now so I had no choice but to eat it…or so I was told that by both my mother and my aunt. And so I did. And you know what? It was WAY better than the yellow spongy thing that I ate growing up. Now I don’t like it any other way….my dad, much to my mother’s dismay, still likes the yello sponge.
The only real variation was the addition of some cinnamon and the use of mascarpone cheese instead just plain whipped cream. I think mascarpone just adds so much too it. I love the creamy goodness that kind of coats the top of your mouth for a little bit. I, of course made this because strawberries are amazing right now. I don’t know if they are where you live but they certainly are here! If they are not in season where you are…you are missing out!
GO SABRES!!!!

Strawberry Shortcake using Cinnamon Scented Biscuits and Mascarpone Cheese

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 TBSP cinnamon
3 TBSP sugar
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
coarse sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 425F.
Whisk together the dry ingredients and cut in the cold butter. Whisk the vanilla and egg with the buttermilk, then all at once add the dry ingredients and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Turn th dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4 or5 times, just until it golds together. Pat the dough out until it’s about ½ to ¾inches thick and cut it in to circles. Use a sharp biscuit cutter for the highest rising biscuits. place the biscuit onto an ungreased baking sheet, brush the tops with milk for a shiny surface, sprinkle with sugar if desires and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes.

Filling:
2 quarts hulled strawberries
½ cup sugar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup whipped cream
½ cup mascarpone cheese

Mash 2 cups of the strawberries. Slice the remaining strawberries and mix all of the berries with sugar and lemon juice. Let rest one hour. Whip the cream and mascarpone cheese together at high speed…it will look like very thick whipped cream. Split the biscuits in half, spoon strawberries and whipped cream mixture on the bottom half. Put biscuit top on and add more berries and cream if desired.

Source: Adapted from The Baker’s Companion Magazine Summer 2007 edition

Hockey is trying to kill me two ways. First off the Sabres are trying to kill me by giving me a heart attack. They allowed the Rangers to tie up the series 2-2(bastards) and tonight they waited until 7 seconds left in the game to score to force it to overtime…and then winning in overtime. So not good for my heart.
The other way hockey is killing me is my own fault. I am in a tournament this weekend. There is nothing like a hockey tournament to remind me how fat, lazy and old I am. Ugh. Why do I willingly pay to play a whole  bunch of games over just a couple of game? A glutten for punishment no doubt. At least we have won our first two games.
I showed you that wonderful cider walnut bread that I love so much but I also needed to find a bread that my husband would eat too. He is a Wonder bread man…yuck. So I had to find a bread that was more white flour than wheat flour as to trick him into eating better bread. The trick worked however He gladly ate this bread and never even asked if it was “that healthy bread crap you eat.” This too comes from the Macrina Cookbook(again, you should get this if you love to bake).
If you look at the picture you might be wondering what kind of peanut butter is that? Good question. It’s Raspberry White Chocolate Peanut Butter. Strange I know. A few months back ago I got a request from a Internet place called the Nibble.com. They wanted to use a picture of mine. In exchange they would send some goodies my way. Sure why not I thought. Goodies is certainly what I got. I really loved the pomegranate hard candy I got. The hot chocolate was yummy too. I got a bunch of chocolate from different places and I got P.B. Loco peanut butter. It is quite yummy spread on some hot toasted bread. I swear they just sent me all that good stuff so I would get hooked on it and have to buy it ! They have several flavors I want to try: Cinnamon and Raisin, European Cafe Mocha and CoCo Banana. I of course will only get to try them if the Sabres don’t kill me or if I don’t kill myself with hockey over load…wish me luck!!!

Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread

1 ½ cups rolled oats

1 cup boiling water

¼ cup water

2 tsp dried yeast

1 ½ cups buttermilk

½ cup canola oil

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1 spray bottle of water

Set aside ¼ cup rolled oats. Place the remaining oats into a medium bowl. Cover with boiling water. Mix with spoon to moisten all oats. Let bowl sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Place ¼ cup of warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Mix with a whisk to dissolve yeast. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add soaked oats, buttermilk, canola oil, brown sugar, both flours, and salt. Using the hook attachment, mix on low speed for 1 or 2 minutes to combine ingredients. Increase speed to medium and mix for about 10 minutes. Dough will be wet at first, but will eventually from a ball. Ball will have a satiny finish and will bounce back quickly when poked with finger.

Place dough in an oiled, medium bowl and over with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm room, 70-75F, for about an hour. Dough will almost double in size.

Pull dough from bowl onto a floured surface and flatten it with your hands, releasing excess air bubbles. Form dough into a 12 x 6-inch rectangle and position it so that a long side is facing you. Fold the 2 short ends onto the top so they meet in the middle. Starting with the closest end, roll dough away from you into a log. Let loaf rest on its seam for a few minutes.

Transfer dough to an oiled 9 x 5 x 4-inch loaf pan, seam side down. Using your hands, push down on the dough to make sure it extends to all corners of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let proof in a warm room for 35-45 minutes. Loaf will rise to slightly above the top of the pan.

While loaf is proofing, preheat oven to 385F.

Remove plastic wrap and mist top of loaf with spray bottle of water. Sprinkle with remaining oats. Place pan on center rack of oven an bake for approximately 1 hour. Top and sides of finished loaf will be deep golden brown. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the sides of the loaf to release from the pan. Invert to remove loaf.

Source: Adapted from Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie with Andrew Cleary, 2003

May. It used to be one of my favorite months. That was when I was a teacher. For May is the last month of school in Arizona. No matter how much you loved your teaching job, every teacher by this time was more than ready for the Summer to start. So now that I don’t teach school anymore, May simply means Summer is coming…and well if you are new to my blog and didn’t read last Summer you don’t know…I hate Summer. I am a Fall/Winter gal through and through. I don’t crave the warmth, the bugs, the crowds of people mass exiting on the highway each Friday and most importantly the food(I am allergic to a lot of Summer produce). As I flipped the calender page over I let out a sad little sigh, knowing that I will have to wait around until September for my beloved Fall to come. I rarely bake bread in the Summer. Though our Summer in the Pacific North West are very mild compared to Arizona, we don’t have air conditioning(most residential places don’t) and so it can become quite unpleasant.
So during my time of stress(it is getting much better…one of our big bumps got smoothed out!) and still decent weather I decided I better get some yeast bread in while I can. This recipe comes from a local bakery that I have written about before. If you love to bake, you should really own this cookbook.  I came across this bread and thought it sounded great. I am one of those people who feels their bread should have something to it(Sourdough aside). If I am buying bread it is usually Ezekiel bread with 7 grains…stuff you really have to chew…you know you are chewing bread and not a ball of gummy dough(exception is Thanksgiving turkey sandwich must be on white). This bread brought true happiness to my mouth and sadness to my heart. I realized that now that I am in love with this bread, Summer was coming and I would not be getting to bake it . It has become my standard sandwich bread around here(well for me…picky hubby wont eat it). So be careful if you bake this bread…you might become additcted and then not be able to bake it because it is too hot in your home.

Cracked Wheat Walnut Cider Loaf

Makes 1(9 x 5-inch) loaf

¾ cup cracked wheat

1 cup boiling water

1 ½ cups walnuts chopped, toasted

1 ¼ cups apple cider

1 ½ tsp dried yeast

2 TBSP honey

1 cup plus 1 TBSP coarse whole-wheat flour

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

½ cup canola oil

Place cracked wheat in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Stir with a spoon and let sit for 10 minutes to let liquid get absorbed.

Place apple cider in a medium saucepan and warm over low heat, just until it is warm to the touch. Pour warm cider into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add yeast and honey and mix with a whisk until yeast has dissolved. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes. Add plumped cracked wheat, 1 cup whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt and canola oil. Using the hook attachment, mix on low speed for 1 minutes to combine ingredients. Switch to a medium speed and mix for 10 minutes. Dough will form a loose ball at the base of the hook. Add walnuts and mix for 2 minutes.

Transfer dough to an oiled, medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let proof in a warm room, 70-75F, for 2 hours. Dough will almost double in size.

Pull dough from the bowl onto a flour surface and punch it down with your hands to release the air bubbles. Form dough into a 12 x 6 inch rectangle and position it so that a long side is facing you. Fold the 2 short ends onto the top so they meet in the middle. Starting with the closest end, roll dough away from you into a tight log.

Place loaf in an oiled 9 x 5 x 4-inch loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let proof at room temperature for 1 hour. Loaf will rise to slightly above the top of pan.

While loaf is proofing, preheat oven to 385F.

Remove plastic and dust top of loaf with remaining TBSP of whole wheat flour. Place pan in center rack of oven and bake for approximately 50 minutes. Finished loaf will be medium brown on top. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the sides of the loaf to release it from the pan. Invert pan to remove loaf.

Source: Adapted from Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie with Andrew Cleary, 2003