Delicious Sourdough Biscuits

 I've gotten myself into a lot of bread baking lately and I really enjoy it.  It's relaxing to me, just me in the kitchen all by myself  and I'm lovin' it!  It all kind of started with figuring out organic vegan bread recipes for my son and then I moved on to regular bread baking, once I mastered the vegan side of bread baking. My sister even jumped on the wagon of homemade bread baking because she needed gluten free breads. I am now making my own homemade split top hot dog buns, because the hubby has a love for them.  

Today I made a comfort meal for dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn for dinner and thought hmmmm..... biscuits would be good with our meal, so into the kitchen I went and got to work.  I made my biscuits from a sourdough starter discard, I always have a crock of that in the fridge. You have to feed the sourdough starter and that requires you to discard some of the dough every time you have to feed it.  I don't throw it out, it's still useful, so I save it in a small crock and make breads, pancakes, waffles, biscuits and rolls with it.  There are a lot of recipes out there for it's use, these are a few of the things that I use it for.  I have to say these biscuits turned out great!  They have a crispy buttery outside texture and are soft and fluffy inside. Just a few ingredients and one bowl to make them, no mixer involved.  I made mine rather large, next time I think I'll make them smaller.  I slathered butter all over the top when we ate them for dinner, and I think the leftovers are going to be great for breakfast with some butter and jam spread on them. I can't wait until morning to have those!

Recipe Below.

Mixin' them up.  That's my crock of sourdough in the back.

Flatten out the dough with your hands, the best tool in your kitchen and cut the biscuits out.

I cut mine with a glass, my biscuit cutter was packed away with my cookie cutters.

Light and fluffy pillows of dough and if you look closely you can see the butter in the dough.

Oh my, oh my they're so good!  They would even be great made into mini strawberry (or any other fruit) shortcakes and some homemade whipped cream or a breakfast sandwich too, the possibilities are endless. 

Sourdough Biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup of flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick of cold butter, cut into pieces

1 cup sourdough starter discard

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Work the butter in with a pastry blender until small crumbly balls of dough start to form.

Add the sourdough discard and mix it gently until it forms a messy dough ball.  Turn it out onto a floured surface and pat it gently into a 6 inch by 1 inch thick  round.  With a biscuit cutter, cut out 4 biscuits as close together as you can.  With the remaining dough, pat out and cut 2 more biscuits.

Place the biscuits on the baking sheet 2 inches apart.  Bake the biscuits for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Remove from oven and serve warm, or cool on a cooling rack then store in a plastic bag at room temperature, you can also freeze them.

Something Sweet Coming Your Way!

Christmas morning came and went so quickly this year, I guess it's because I spend most of my day in the kitchen.  Our kitchen really is the heart of our home.  Everyone who comes in, gathers around the counter and the kitchen table to snack on a variety of food items I put out before the big meal. We do have comfy couches and chairs in both the living room and family room, but everyone always chooses to gather in the kitchen, go figure. It's a busy day for everyone, and some do not eat breakfast because of all the running around they have to do that day.  I always try to have a breakfast item on the snack table to have with coffee or juice when they come in, it wakes them up!

So, every Christmas Eve I make a pan of my old fashion sticky buns, cover them and let them rise overnight.  I then bake them off in the morning, they're a special treat.  They only take about a half hour for piping hot, cinnamony, sticky, gooey, nut and raisin encrusted buns, you get the picture.  

This year I changed it up a bit to try something new, cinnamon buns on a smaller scale - Mini Cinnamon Buns made with puff pastry, they are so good we couldn't stop eating them!

Recipe below.

To print recipe, click on it, highlight and print.

To view photos in a larger format, click on them.

I used a 24 cup mini muffin pan for two bite buns.

Sometimes you have to buy the the best brand to make something good, and sometimes you don't.  I used this packaged puff pastry that I found in the dairy section at GIANT.  It worked perfectly for the rolls,  I got exactly 24 mini rolls from one package for about $2.39, pretty inexpensive for something so good!

 You don't even have to roll the pastry dough out, just unfold it, brush with some melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar and raisins, if you like them, we do! These are so easy to make, you will make them all the time.

 Pop those babies in the oven and watch them turn into something totally delicious.

 In about 30 minutes........

 AWESOMENESS, right there folks.

Perfect little cinny rolls coming right out of the oven, no frosting or glaze required, they are that good!

 And yea, the family kept eating them before everyone got here.  I think I said they were good already didn't I?

These are my old fashioned sticky buns, that I usually make on Christmas morning, check out that recipe on this blog (8/6/2013), they're great too.

PUFF PASTRY MINI CINNAMON ROLLS

Ingredients For The Topping

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup chopped pecans, or other nut you like

Directions For Topping

Preheat 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, with a fork or back of wooden spoon, mash the butter and the brown sugar together until all is combined.  Drop about a tablespoonful of filling into each cup of the muffin pan, then top each of the cups with chopped nuts, set aside.

Ingredients For The Filling

1 - 13.2 oz pkg WEWALKA Puff Pastry, GIANT dairy section

6 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

3/4 cup raisins

Directions For The Rolls

Unfold pastry dough onto a floured board or other flat surface.  Brush the dough with the melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins.  Starting with the longest end of the dough, roll up tightly, tucking all the filling in as you roll. Make sure you finish rolling with the seam side down at the end.  Lightly pull on the dough at each end, to stretch just a little without tearing it.  Tuck the uneven ends under on each side.  For better measurement of the size of the rolls, cut the roll in half and then each half into twelve 1 inch pieces. You should have twenty-four 1 inch pieces when you are done cutting.

Place one of the rolls, cut side up, in each cup of the prepared muffin pan.  Brush each top with any remaining melted butter.  Bake for 30 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown and bubbly on top. Remove from oven, let stand for about 5 minutes. Flip the rolls out of the pan onto a parchment lined baking sheet larger than your muffin pan. Scoop out any remaining nuts from the pan and place on top of the muffins.  Serve warm or cold, they are great both ways.  Makes 24 buns.

Soft And Chewy Peanut Butter Bars

My favorite bar cookies are Peanut Butter Bars.  I had a recipe for Peanut Butter Bars when my kids were little, now it's lost.  Around once or twice a month I would make them and they would fly out of the pan, they loved them so much.  When we moved to our new house 10 years ago, a whole folder of old recipes including the one for these bars, disappeared.  Don't know where it is, who misplaced or threw it out!  I have been on a search, for a recipe for these bars, forever.  I don't even remember where I got the original recipe from. That recipe was baked from scratch, and all I remember is that it was handwritten on an index card, and never to be seen again.

While grocery shopping in different supermarkets, I did find a box version that came close to the homemade bars, but then that was pulled from the market too, can't find it anywhere.  After much searching I am happy to say, I found a recipe that does come close, and after tweaking it a bit, these new Peanut Butter Bars will definitely be in the dessert rotation at our house.

Recipe below.

To print recipe click on it, highlight and print.

To view photos in a larger format, click on them.

I used a box yellow cake mix for this recipe, JIF peanut butter (is there any other brand, NO!).  JIF is my favorite.  Mix the egg, water and peanut butter together.

 Whip it with a hand mixer.

 It will look like the picture on the left, fluffy.  Then add the cake mix.

 It will be more like a soft cookie dough.  Scrape the bowl so all the cake mix is incorporated.

 Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish, use a spatula and start spreading it in the pan.  It's pretty easy to do, as the dough is soft.

Make sure it's even and not lop sided.  PERFECT! Now it's ready to bake.

After it's done baking and cooling, start mixing the frosting, the best part!  

 Add milk and whip into a delicious creamy, chocolaty frosting.

 I chopped about 1/4 cup of peanuts in a small food processor, to sprinkle on 1/3 of the bars after they were frosted.  Not everyone likes to eat peanuts so I didn't do the whole pan.  If you do the whole pan 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts will do.

 Cake, frosting and peanuts lined up and ready to finish off the bars.

 I find it easy with a 9 x 13 pan, to plop down three scoops of frosting down the center of the cake and then spread it.  After it's frosted, sprinkle part of the pan or the whole pan with chopped peanuts.

 I made these Peanut Butter Bars to take to a friends house for a Saturday night get together of food, fun and talk, it was a great night!

 I cut my bars into 2 inch squares for easy eating finger food.  They were a hit!

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients

Cooking Spray

1/2 cup water

1 large egg

1 cup JIF Peanut Butter

1 box yellow cake mix

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray, set aside.  In a medium size mixing bowl combine the water, egg and peanut butter.  Beat with a mixer until fluffy and smooth. Pour the cake mix in and beat with a mixer until all is combined. Scrape down the bowl as you are mixing.

Spread the mix into the baking dish.  Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a light golden brown.  Please remember all oven temperatures are different and bake according to your oven.  Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 - 3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

Beat all ingredients in a medium size bowl with a mixer until smooth. Frost the bars, sprinkle with peanuts, cut into 2x2 inch pieces and serve.

Cookie Mania!

I branched out a little last week, I baked cookies for someone to bring to a baby shower.  I have never done this before, the pressure was on.  I was doing it all myself, no help from anyone, was I up to the task?  I got all the cookie recipes out that were requested, and broke them down as to what days I would bake which cookie. I was a little nervous, would they turn out, would they like them, would they hold up.  It took four solid days of baking from morning to night to get them all done.  I baked 11 different kinds of cookies, decorated them and packed them up to be delivered. They don't look professionally baked or decorated, but they also don't look like they were commercially baked and full of preservatives, and that is what makes them unique and fresh.

Flour, flour everywhere and lots and lots of cookies to make and bake.

Cucidati - Italian Fig Filled Cookies

 Cranberry Orange Almond Biscotti

Lemon Pie Bowties

 Dark Chocolate Cake Cookies

 Lemon Butter Cutouts

 And more Lemon Butter Cutouts

Peanut Butter and Spritz.  Oops! Forgot to take pictures of Chocolate Chip, Butter Balls and Jam Filled Thumbprints, but they are there on the trays too.

 Linzer with Raspberry Filling

 All wrapped up in cellophane and ready to go.

Four trays of cookies, I hope they enjoyed them all!