Jam Filled Tea Cakes

My cousin decided to take a year and bake through Martha Stewart's cupcake book. The end of the year is quickly approaching (and she was asked to supply cupcakes for a friend's wedding), so she reached out to see if others would help her reach her goal. I volunteered. I chose these cakes, and they didn't quite turn out like the picture but tasted great.

Orange zest was nice addition to regular batter

In the background of this picture you will see beaten egg whites. The way to get successful fluffy whites is to make sure your bowl and beaters are very clean and the egg whites are room temp. You can always add a pinch of cream of tarter to stabilize. When I need beaten egg whites, I always do those FIRST and then cream the other stuff, without bothering to clean the beaters. The only trick is that you have to assemble the ingredients quickly or your white will lose their fluff.

I threw all the dry ingredients into the sifter

Used my leftover butter paper to prep my dishes. You can always put a hunk of butter on the paper if you think it needs more spread.

I put a layer down of the batter, jam in the middle and then batter around the edges and over the top.

It came out the perfect consistency with a crunchy crust on top. We ate these still slightly warm (which is the only way to eat cake if you ask me) and they were delicious. I would have been just as delighted with them without the frosting.

As you can see, the whole jam thing didn't quite work out. I felt like I put a nice amount of batter on the bottom so I am not sure what went wrong. It was a dang good fruit-on-the-bottom jam cake though!

Cheers.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

I decided to do two big batches of cream of mushroom soup and freeze it so I could have it on hand. It is too easy to skip...not to mention you know actually what is in and what is NOT in it.

Thanks to Amy for the inspiration!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

8oz fresh mushrooms

4TBSP butter

4 cups milk

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp parsley

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic salt

Depending on the size of mushroom chunks you perfer, chop your mushroom. Know that they do cook down significantly. I don't mind chunks, so I always do a rough chop.

Saute your mushrooms in the butter and when they are almost done, throw in the spices. In the mean time, mix together your flour with 1 1/2 cups milk. Stir it until smooth and add it to the mushrooms.

Slowly stir in the remainer of the milk and wisk occasionally. Cook until it's almost the consistancy you want because as is cools it will thicken even more. Once it's done, taste it to be sure you don't need more spice, then throw it in freezer bags and freeze until you need it!

Canning Day

Yesterday was canning day. I was offered free apples if I wanted to pick them, and I didn't hesitate. After returning home with 10 bags full of apples I knew I needed to have a plan. I called my friend to see if she wanted to help can and share in the spoils. There ended up being three of us and we still didn't get to all the apples. We worked tirelessly for 6 hours though, and will have applesauce to last us the winter! I hope to make apple butter tomorrow with the rest of them.

First we peeled and quartered the apples (taking out the cores).

The large pot covered both the burners on that side and we had the burners going on full blast for almost 5 hours. The smaller pot is applesauce in the works. It really isn't too hard. You add water, sugar and spices and let boil for 20 minutes.

You want the jars to be hot when you fill them up with the goods, so Reilly and I loaded the dishwasher.

I don't have pictures of this but you fill your jars with the food, screw them on as tightly as you can and then boil them to get the jars to seal.

After we were done with the apples we moved onto peaches and made peach jam. It is SO good. I had some for breakfast.

I ended up with a third of the jars and that included 9 jars of peach jam, 4 jars of apple pie filling and 6 jars of applesauce.

Homemade Wheat Sandwich Bread

Greetings.

I finally found a morning full of motivation and whipped up some bread loaves to get us through the next couple of weeks. Although I have included the recipe below, if you are a beginner baker I would strongly recommend looking at this post which is the original recipe that I have since adapted. There are step by step pictures and instructions that are amazing for your first bread experience. In the original recipe she made white sandwich bread, but below you will find my wheat version. It is not whole wheat, but it is the healthiest, easiest version I have come across so far. I have tried baking 100% whole wheat breads before but they take a lot more time (some recipes up to two days), and I'm not convinced it's worth it. If I do find a recipe that's worth it, I'll be sure to share.

NOTE: If you do not have wheat gluten on hand I would probably just make the white flour version (from the original site). The gluten helps your wheat to rise and ensures you get a soft baked texture. If you do not include it, your bread won't rise as well and will be dense.

2 cups lukewarm water (think of it as a nice bath for your yeast)
2 Tbls. sugar
1 Tbls. dry active yeast
2 Tbls. butter, softened
3 cups all purpose flour + more for kneading the dough
2 cups whole wheat flour

2 Tbls. wheat gluten

1 Tbls. kosher salt

Mix water and sugar - wisk

Add yeast to mixture - wisk

Let it sit for about 5 minutes to make sure your yeast is alive. It should have bubbles and start to look creamy.

Cut up the butter and add to bowl along with all the other dry ingredients. You will want to spoon your flour into the measuring cup and level it off with a knife to be the most accurate.

Use a spatula to mix it as well as you can, then transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes. You might need to add more white flour depending on how absorbent your wheat flour is. I have the flour measurements this way because you can always add more flour to get it just right - if there is too much flour it is more complicated. :) You don't want your dough to be wet but soft and elastic.

Transfer to a clean glass bowl that has been sprayed with no-stick (and cover with plastic wrap that has also been sprayed with no-stick) and let rise until it is about 1 and a half it's size. I like to turn my oven on to 200 degrees and once it's warm, shut the oven off and throw the glass bowl in there to help it rise.

After it's risen, punch down the dough, put it back on your floured surface and knead a couple of times.

Using a large knife, cut the dough in half.

Fold the ends in a couple of times to make a nice loaf shape.

Spray two bread pans with no-stick and transfer your loaves.

Let them rise again for about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 35 minutes.

If you tap the top of your loaf, it should sound hollow.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then take them out of the pans to cool the rest of the way.

Two loaves is a lot to eat in the couple of days before it would go stale, so i slice them both up, wrap them generously in plastic wrap, throw them in a plastic freezer bag and keep them in the freezer until we want some toast!

Strawberries!

I just wanted to share my strawberry success! I really didn't do much other than plant them as instructed and water them a lot, but I am please to report that I have over THIRTY strawberries thriving right now. There are two red ones right now, but I thought I would give them another day to juice up before I pick them. I can't wait to enjoy the bounty!

Homemade Wheat Thins

For this post I will be taking you to another blog because she outlined this recipe so well. The original recipe was from King Arthur Flour. I did exactly as Ellie said in her blog post and I encourage you to do the same! And note: I do NOT have a food processor so I did it all in our blender. Not ideal, but it worked. It was worth it for such a great snack. I love that they have the full wheat flavor without any of the preservatives. Enjoy!

Wheat Thins Recipe

Healthy Quinoa Muffins

I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website and was very pleased with the original. The recipe below includes the changes I made to make it even healthier. I enjoyed these muffins best right out of the oven. Since they are a little denser I would suggest eating them within a day or two. I didn't try the freezer option (freeze and eat later), although I am sure that would be great too. They were warm, crumbly, brown sugar sweet and delicious!

1 cup quinoa, rinsed - makes a little extra so feel free to do a shy cup

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons flaxseed meal

3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes. Leave lid on for a couple more minutes just for good measure. You don’t want the seeds crunchy!

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, dried cranberries, and 2 cups cooked quinoa; reserve any leftover quinoa for another use.

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter into paper muffin cups.

Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.