Tag Archives: dough

Feb 9

Sweet, Savory and Winter!

Hi everyone, Again, its been a while…Its only been about 3 weeks but a lot has happened. Can’t disclose much but most of you will find out in the coming weeks and its pretty exciting! I’ve been stocking up on more fun baking tools to play with in the kitchen so that’s pretty exciting too. Winter has been nice to us in PA this year. Only a small amount of snowfall so far. At the end is a yummy wintery recipe I hope you’ll enjoy!

In my last posts, I stated about pricing a wedding cake for someone. Her flowers are carnations, colors are red and black. Looking back, I realized I never used gumpaste to form carnations. Roses, lilies and a few others, yes, carnations, no. So I got to work. As of now, I’ve made about a dozen carnations and they’re so pretty. They don’t take very long to do and they’re super easy. I’m working on coloring them. I don’t have an airbrush to use and I wanted to keep the base color white, in case someone had asked for them in the coming weeks. Since I have the white ones finished, I’ll work on coloring. Black carnations? Who knew…haha. I’ll attempt to do a tutorial soon for those interested.

My mom and I visited a bakery in the area just last week and I normally find “something” good about every place, this time however, I couldn’t. My mom got a “Vanilla Bean” Cupcake and I tried the “Boston Cream”. We split them and thank goodness I had a drink, the cake in each were both so dry and the filling and icing were practically non-existent. When I got home, I was on a mission. I had some leftover butter-cream so I made a lemon curd butter-cream, peanut butter butter-cream and a blueberry butter-cream. I started on my cupcakes, just stuck to plain chocolate and vanilla then waited for them to cool. My momma got me a neat tool that “hollows” out cupcakes (regular sized and jumbo). I hollowed out a dozen of each and kept the little “tops” to the side. I filled my vanilla with the blueberry butter-cream, replaced the top and slathered on the lemon. I just stuck to chocolate and peanut butter since well, classic! My dad wasn’t too impressed with either as he doesn’t like sweets. My mom LOVED the lemon blueberry, and Art, he had no preference. I gave some away and then we had none so…Guess I have to get working in the kitchen soon! =]

If you’re from Pennsyltucky like me, you’ll probably know when I say Pot Pie, I don’t mean those little meat pies filled with veggies, gravy and meat. I’m talking a large pot full of meat, potatoes, brothy gravy and dough squares. Most others know that as Chicken and Dumplings but then where do real chicken and dumplings go? A dumpling to me is a little dough ball simmered and “baked” on top of a broth. Back to pot pie…I know its not very sweet and dessert like to be a normal post but we had some last night and its perfect for chilly winter nights, which, we’re still in for another month! Since we don’t have a real recipe for it, its just been handed down, I’ll post how its been made in our family for the past (at least) 6 generations. NOTE: This is NOT an exact cut recipe, double dough if needed, or use amounts better suited to your family so you aren’t feeding armies! We use our leftovers for lunch or dinner again so we always make extra.

Dough:
2 C. Flour (I use a mix of AP and Whole Wheat)
2 T. Butter
1 Egg
Milk

Cut butter into flour until crumbly. Add egg to a 1 C. measuring cup and beat. Fill remainder of cup up to 3/4 line with milk. Mix into flour and butter. Roll out to 1/8″ on a floured surface, cut into 2×2″ squares.

Take a bag of bone in chicken, whole chicken or a ham shank/butt and place in a large stockpot. Cover 3/4 with water or broth or a mix of both. Boil until meat is fully cooked or falling off the bone. Take out and cool. Turn off broth and strain.
Pull meat off the bone and set both aside. Place broth back on heat, bring to a boil. Add about 3 medium potatoes, diced up.
Make dough, roll out and cut. When broth boils, add a few squares at a time, using a spoon to submerge them (they will float back up). Do this with remaining dough. Add as much ham or chicken as desired and let simmer for a while, stirring often to prevent sticking. Pot pie is ready when potatoes and dough squares are tender and broth is thickened like a gravy.

When plated, sprinkle vinegar on top, along with diced onion, salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Hope my PA Dutch didn’t show through too much! Feel free to ask questions if I got confusing or post your own variations! =] Happy Eating!

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Oct 21

Busy busy…

Hi Everyone! Monday was busy for my Momma and I. She had off work that day so we spent it using apples we got on Saturday. We made some delicious apple dumplings and a huge batch of apple cobbler. I have never made apple dumplings before so it was very interesting to say the least. The dough recipe was really strange, it called for so much oil I questioned it the whole time! I ended up using about twice the amount of flour called for and I wasn’t too pleased because it kept wanting to tear when I was rolling it out (I even channeled Chef Charles from college, “Flour is your FRIEND”…) So maybe it was three times the amount? haha. And the sauce, holy sugar high!!! Called for 2 cups sugar and 2 cups water (simple syrup basically) and I used some cinnamon sugar that I dusted and filled the apples with for part of the 2 cups. In the end, things turned out pretty okay. The dumplings were divine! Top it with ice cream and sauce, heaven! I had apple overload for the day so I didn’t try the cobbler but I’m sure it was good haha.

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Sep 27

Let’s hear it for more dooough

What a dreary day! Rain rain go away!!!  Woke up to some gloom today and wasn’t really motivated to do much. Hubs left for work (hate when he’s gone) but I trudged on. I made some more bread dough, instead of doing the bowls, I decided to make rolls and a loaf of it to try instead. With the very old house we’ve got, it can be tricky to find a good spot to proof my doughs. If its chilly out and the radiators are running (LOOOVE THEM!!!) its easy to just sit a chair by one and let the dough rise. If not, I just preheat my oven to the lowest setting and when it beeps, I turn it off and put the dough in. Wonderful solution! In the summer, its not so fun but that’s what the a/c’s are for! =] As the day went on, I decided to make my Hubby one of his favorite cakes. Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake. So good! He insists it tastes like brownies but really its a cake. I was getting all my ingredients Mise’d, and I had run out of one of the main ingredients: Flour. What kind of baker allows herself to run out of a staple? (Hint: The one without a car…)  After much searching, I checked a cabinet and found some pastry flour I never used. Since its lighter than regular all purpose, I just had to use some extra. All in all, it turned out good, but I made sure to tell Archie to pick some up after work!!! I had half of my day gone and spotted the mix I had just bought. It was Krusteaz Pumpkin Pie Bar mix, I love their other mixes (c’mon I need a break sometimes!!!) I’m so in the mood for fall and I just saw it and had to TRY! There’s a gingerbread crust and a pumpkin filling, tastes just like pumpkin pie. I mixed up the crust, baked it and just as I was taking it out of the oven, a friend, Candy, came by! We talked almost an hour and when she left, I finished making the filling and baked them some more. Yum! They tasted just like a thin pumpkin pie and the gingerbread gives just enough spice to keep you balanced. Yum!

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Sep 26

Attack of the dough!

Hello Everyone! First off, I’d like to say, Happy Birthday to my Aunt and her daughter! We made them a cake on Saturday (my cousin had to work) at my sister’s party. We had a busy weekend working on the site but I still sit here writing “back blogs” because it isn’t up yet. Turns out all the graphics I had done up, were way too small and the coding got extensive for Hubs. So this week, I’ll be doing them as well as some fall baking (viva la fall!) for some content. My a/c’s are still up and running as it’s another Indian Summer in PA…Hopefully the chill soon gets here! You’d think, October…Most years we start getting snow in October!!! I’m getting antsy waiting to make all my candies and goodies involving all kinds of melty goodness!!! My mother in law Pat is expecting her “birthday turtles” soon and well, her birthday is in June. As soon as some chill arrives, I’ll get right on those. At this rate it’ll be Christmas!

So this weekend, besides the blog, I was busy doing some bread baking. For about a week, I was craving Broccoli Cheddar Soup. If you’re a fan, you know that one of the only ways to eat BCS is in a bread bowl. After checking out various restaurants to see if anyone served it, I was heartbroken to find out, I had to figure out a way to do them myself. I’ve only done bowls once before and it was years ago, so I really wasn’t too into the idea. But Ms. Betty Crocker I am, I trudged onward and delved into my web browser’s search. The method I’ve always used, insists on making softball sized dough balls, proofing them, and baking. When baked, hollow them out and use…I’ve never had any luck with that so I saw one that said to coat the inside with oil to keep it “liquid proof” and bake again. If you’ve ever been to Perkins and had their salad in a bread bowl, you know its not the same technique. Those take on more of a bowl shape so it seems. Digging deeper, I found a recipe that used overturned bowls. Jackpot! Too bad I only have ramekins right now. I stretched out the dough, formed it over the dishes, baked for 15-18 and waited…I unmolded them and brushed the inside with oil, baked them another 5 and let them sit overnight. It was a looong day but Mumzi had soup ready to go when we got home. I was super excited to try out the bowls and I picked one up, hard as a rock. =[ So upsetting! I was really hoping I had a hit but I didn’t. I’ll have to check around and see if there’s another method. I think I stretched them too thin. Maybe if I had a smaller bowl, a metal one at that, it would work out considerably better! Here’s to hoping for next time!

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