STRAWBERRY BREAD

Ingredients:

1-1/2 Cups fresh strawberries, sliced (about 1 pint with a few left over

1 cup granulated sugar, divided

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

Preheat over to 350. Lightly grease and flour a standard glass loaf pan (8x5"). Rinse, core and slice the strawberries, place in a small bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 cup sugar. In a large mixing bowl, blend together the remaining sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs until foamy, then add the vanilla extract and melted butter. Make sure the melted butter isn't too hot -- just barely melted. Stir in the strawberries. Combine the two mixtures, blending until the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape the batter into the pan and bake for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before removing the bread from the pan.

Yield: 1 loaf

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Banana Bread

This is my Banana Bread recipe that Camp Director Winnie talked about in the Campfire Chat today. I had written it quickly for a Ravelry post, so excuse the rushed way it's written.

Ingredients:
2 lg. eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup veg oil
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (or mace if want milder)
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans!)

Directions:
Preheat to 350
grease/flour 2 loaf pans
sift together baking soda and powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, set aside
in another bowl or mixer, beat eggs, sugar, oil. add vanilla
blend in bananas
add flour mix all at once to wet ingredients
when combined, add sour cream and optional nuts
pour half batter into one pan, half into another (these will be flat loaves that will not spill over) Bake for 40 minutes
Check. The loaves are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

If browning too fast, put tin foil over top for last 10 mins. cool in pan 10 mins, then cool on wire rack.

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Pear Bread

This is the talked-about bread from HSKS7

Pear Bread

Makes 16 adult or 32 kid sized slices.

Can be doubled to make two loaves and freezes well if wrapped tightly.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups regular white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon or a bit more cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
9 oz. Gerber, Stage 3 Pears (1 full jar and 1/2 2nd jar)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Butter bottom and sides of a standard bread pan
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl
Add eggs to bowl and stir a few times, but not fully mixed
Add pear puree and mix completely
Put batter in the bread pan and bake for 47 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let sit for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool.

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Raspberry and Chocolate Scones

4 cups (560 grams) all purpose flour
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (150 grams) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
4 ounces dark chocolate chips (about 1 cup) (100 grams)
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Egg mixture for brushing tops of scones:
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon milk or cream

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350° and place rack in middle of oven. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper.

In a food processor bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture by pulsing 15 times. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the chocolate chunks (chips) and raspberries.

In a bowl whisk together the yogurt, vanilla extract, and egg. Add the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix. Using an ice cream scoop (or 1/2 cup measuring cup), place six scones on two baking sheets (12 scones).

Make an egg wash of one well-beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon milk and brush the tops of the scones with this mixture.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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Pink Dalmatians

From Carma's Cafe

1.75 cups flour
.75 teaspoon baking powder
.5 teaspoon baking soda
.5 teaspoon salt
.75 cup butter, softened (6 ounces)
.75 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups white chocolate morsels (1 bag)
1 cup dried cranberries (such as Craisins®)
.75 cup chopped macadamia nuts

In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl (or stand mixer) cream the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat egg and vanilla into butter/sugar mixture. Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture about 1/3 at a time being careful not to overmix. Stir in cranberries, white chocolate and macadamia nuts.

Drop by full tablespoons onto silpat or parchement lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 325° for approx. 11 minutes.

For larger "cafe size" cookies drop ice cream scoop (1/4 cup) mounds of dough and bake for approx. 13 minutes.

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Magic Middles

Makes 26 small cookies or 12 large cookies

Bake 7-9 minutes for small; 9-12 for large

Preheat oven to 375°

Line with parchment or lightly grease 2 baking sheets

Dough

1 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 c cocoa powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 c granular sugar (plus more for dipping)

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c butter, unsalted (or omit salt from recipe)

1/4 c smooth peanut butter

1 t vanilla extract

1 large egg

Magic Middle

3/4 c smooth peanut butter

3/4 c confectioners’ sugar

To make dough:

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In another medium bowl, beat together the sugars, butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg, beat to combine, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.

To make the filling: In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. With floured hands, rill the filling into 26 on inch balls (or 12 larger balls).

To shape the cookies:

Break off about 1 Tablespoon of the dough, make an indentation in the center with your finger, and press one of the peanut butter balls into the indentation. Bring the dough up and over the filling, pressing it closed; roll the cookie in the palm of your hand to smooth it out. repeat with remaining dough and centers.

Dip the top of each cookie in granulated sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Grease the bottom of a drinking glass and use it to slightly flatten each cookie.

Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes (or longer for larger cookies), until they are set. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes then move to wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

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Two Recipes

Hello all! I'd like to share with you two recipes. One is a new recipe to me and I modified it right out of the gate. The other is an old family recipe that has been passed down for... um... lessee here... 6 generations at least.

To start with, the Hogwarts recipe:

Treacle Tart (yep!)

the recipe I modified can be found HERE.

Ingredients: (This tastes kind of like candied lemon.)

1 refrigerated pie crust (1/2 box)
9 TBSP golden cane syrup (I got mine at Cost Plus World Market)
*note: if you don't have cane syrup, you probably could use a light-in-flavor molasses.
9 TBSP plain breadcrumbs
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Use pie crust to line a 9" pie pan. Cut off all the crust above the top of the pan. I ran a knife along the top, parallel to the counter to do this. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Put the syrup in a small saucepan on medium low heat. When the syrup becomes a little more fluid, add the breadcrumbs, lemon rind, 1 TBSP of the lemon juice, and the ginger. Cook for about 5 minutes, just until it's almost bubbly and well mixed. (The cooking step can be ignored, but I found it blended the flavors better) Pour into the pie pan. It won't be very deep.

Use a knife to loosen the edges of the pie crust from the pie pan. Fold the crust over gently, without pushing the crust into the filling or pinching it together. Mine ends up looking like waves of crust. If you want, you can roll out the leftover crust and cut it into strips to make a lattice top. Mine looked kinda stupid.

Bake 25-30 minutes or so. The important thing is the pastry being cooked - the filling will simply follow suit. Let cool a bit and nosh the deliciousness.

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And now, for my family recipe. Not one person I've fed this to has ever not liked this.

Paprikasch (sometimes called Hungarian Goulash, but not in THIS family!!!)

4 TBSP bacon grease (you should ALWAYS save your bacon grease!)
Onion the size of an egg, chopped fine

- saute the above until golden

Add:

1 heaping tsp paprika (yeah right... we usually add 2 TBSP or so, laughing all the way)

1 pound cubed veal, young chicken, or beef (we usually do beef, but that's cause we're a beef packing plant family)

1 tsp salt or more to taste (we actually tend to just do a quick sprinkle)

1 quart water

Simmer VERY slowly for 1.5 hours. 45 minutes before serving, add 1 med potato, diced. Five minutes before serving, you may also add the following:

Spoon Dumplings (often called the best part of Paprikasch)

1 c flour
1 egg
enough water to make the dough the consistency of baking powder biscuits.

Drop by scant teaspoon into the paprikasch. COVER and LEAVE IT ALONE for 5 minutes or until the biscuits are floating. (I hope you have a glass lid!)

Enjoy. Oh so very yummy, and now I think I'll have to cook it this week sometime.

As my great grandmother Weinschrott used to say (and I have no clue what it REALLY means)

Ich wunsch, Ich wunsch
Ich wissen nicht vas
Greifen zei sak
Ein gabe fur alles

Cheers!

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Pumpkin Pasties

I have fond memories of my gram making pumpkin pasties and I found this recipe which is fairly similar. I hope it brings great enjoyment to all!

Pumpkin Pasties

• 1 29 oz. can of pumpkin
• 1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup minced non-crystalized, candied ginger
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 boxes pre-packaged rolled pie crust (in the refrigerated section of your grocery)

Directions

Using a wire sieve, drain the canned pumpkin over a bowl for about thirty minutes. This will remove approximately 1 cup for liquid from the pumpkin and make the filling more dense. While this is draining, mince the ginger into fine pieces.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In another bowl, mix together the pumpkin, condensed milk, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Stir until thoroughly mixed and set aside.

Unroll the pie crust on a nonstick surface and use a rolling pin to thin it out to almost a 12" diameter. Using your 3 1/2" round cutter, cut circles from the pie crust and lay them out on a baking sheet with 1" of space in between the circles. Combine the crust scraps together from the first cutting, re-roll to a similar thickness, and re-cut to create the tops of the pasties. Set aside.

Fill a piping bag with the pumpkin filling, and squeeze the filling onto the crust circle, leaving a 1/2" border at the edge for crimping. Moisten this edge with water, lay the reserved circle on top of the filling, and crimp the edges together with a fork. Repeat until the pan is complete.

Use a knife and make small slices into the top crust to allow steam to escape while baking. You can use any decorative design that you wish and have the patience to create.

Bake the pasties for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Repeat this process until you have used all yours crust and filling. This recipe makes about 30 pasties.

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Muggle CPBCC Cookies

Hello! I am delighted to be able to share with you a favorite treat of my Muggle boyfriend. He loves it when I make these delicious cookies and I'm sure you will love them too. As I am in Ravenclaw and am studying Muggle Pastry Arts, my original recipe was all in ounces, grams and weights, but I've converted it to standard home baking measurements. Enjoy!!

Muggle Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups AP flour
1/4 cup dark cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter soft
1/2 cup smooth pb
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (buy the good vanilla - you won't regret it!)
1/4 cup melted dark choc chips
1/2 cup dark choc chips

Preheat Oven to 350 F. Combine flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Beat together butter, pb, sugars and melted choc until all gooey and delicious lookin'. Add egg and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Fold in chips. Chill dough for 30 minutes. Using small ice cream or cookie scooper, scoop out nice round balls and bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly firm to the touch. Let cool all the way before eating (or at leat try). I think salted crushed peanuts would be an excellent addition as well, but I'm a salty/sweet kinda girl....

Let me know what you think. The recipe is a work in progress, but I think I've nailed it. Any suggestions will be tested and appreciated!!

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Mum's Trifle

My mum taught me how to make this a long time ago, its the easiest trifle recipe you'll ever see!

English Trifle

Prepare 4-serving package vanilla pudding and pie filling with milk as directed and set aside.

Cut an 8-inch sponge cake into 1-1/2 inch cubes. Place cake cubes in pretty 1 to 1- 1/2 quart glass bowl.

Stir together 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/4th cup of sherry wine: sprinkle over cake cubes. Combine 1/3rd cup red raspberry preserves and 2 tablespoons wine; spoon over cake.

Top with 1/2 cup of soft macaroon crumbs. Spoon on prepared pudding, covering cake completely.

Chill at least 2 hours minimum or preferred overnight.

To serve; Whip 1 cup of heavy cream; spread over pudding. Garnish with toasted almonds and stemmed maraschino cherries. Makes 8 servings.

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