Category Archives: baking

Saving and Sharing Recipes–Passing Along Traditions

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Several years ago, I was talking to my Grandma and she was recounting a story from when she was a young girl and how she spent the summer helping out at her aunt and uncle’s restaurant in Shelbyville, TN. She told me they had a really delicious BBQ sauce, a family recipe that was kind of famous in the small town. When I asked her if she had that recipe written down somewhere, she said “Darnit, no! I wish I had it…”. I’m sure it was a good recipe and I’m not upset over it. To me, it’s just another reminder to get and pass along family recipes. My grandma died in 2013….I miss her. A. Lot. There are recipes and questions and conversations that I wish I had with with her, but, I didn’t…

I was reminded of the above conversation while in the process of assembling a few binders of recipes that belonged to my friend’s mother. They are mostly handwritten on index cards all organized specifically and separated by labeled divider cards in a few metal recipe boxes. My friend’s aunt got the idea to put them all together, glued onto paper and put into plastic sleeve covers– into a few binders so my friend would have them and use them and maybe, pass along to others. These index cards/recipes were well used–you can tell by the worn edges and stray stains on the cards. (Something that all good cooks and bakers do with their favorite recipes).

Several binders of recipes later…I am now on my last one, the big one, which is all baking recipes and will probably require a second large binder. I’ve been writing down a few coveted recipes along the way, so I can attempt to recreate these recipes for pumpkin pie, biscuits and pecan-coconut cake, hoping that they will be as good as her mom’s (but, I’m sure my versions will pale in comparison). I am glad my friend is letting me put these recipes together in one place for her. I know she will use them and they will have a place on the shelf in her kitchen.

My point is….get those recipes from your mom, dad, grandma, aunt, uncle, whoever. Ask questions, write stuff down and pass them along to people you love. Continue to make those recipes and share them with people. Even though our loved ones are gone, the recipes and the flood of food memories will keep them around, forever.

Salted Pecan Shortbread Bars

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Originally I was thinking of lemon-lavender shortbread, but then I remembered I had pecans, so, I made these instead. Next up, I’ll use lemon zest and a tiny amount of dried lavender. These shortbread are pretty easily adaptable. Enjoy your Sunday….whatever you do.

  • 1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.
  • 1/4 C. sugar
  • 1/4 C. cornstarch
  • 1 C. flour
  • 1 tsp of fleur de sel
  • 1-2 tsp water
  • 1/4 C. chopped, toasted pecans

Note: I toasted my pecans in a tablespoon of unsalted butter and then let them cool slightly before adding them to the dough.

With mixer, stand or handheld, cream butter and sugar together, add flour and cornstarch and mix well. You may find that the dough is quite crumbly and not hold together…at this point add a tiny amount of water until the dough starts to come together more and is well-formed. Careful, don’t add too much water! Add toasted pecans until thoroughly mixed together. Spread dough into 8″ square baking dish and, if you like, top with another sprinkle of fleur de sel. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes, or, until golden brown. Let rest in the pan and then cut into whatever size you wish and serve. I like to cut the bars on the small-ish size. Or, wrap up in wax paper and aluminum foil and seal tightly in a plastic bag to store in the freezer. These bars should last a few months in the freezer.

Variations: other nuts: swap out pecans for almonds or hazelnuts. Lemon: add 1tsp lemon zest and 1/2 tsp of crushed, dried lavender. Lime-basil: 1 tsp lime zest, 1/2 tsp fresh, chopped basil.

Recipe adapted from Land O Lakes recipe, found online

Gluten-Free Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

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almondbuttercookies

I’m not Paleo, but, I thought I’d try something different. I have a similar peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe and I wanted to vary it. Plus, I got some new (to me)
almond butter and wanted to use it*. Most importantly, these cookies come together very quickly and you only use one bowl. Score!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies (GF)

  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 c dark chocolate chips
  • Fleur de sel (sprinkled on top, optional)

In a large bowl, whip egg with whisk until frothy, add brown sugar, almond butter, baking soda and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Use 1 1/2TB cookie scoop or, 2tsp cookie scoop for smaller cookies (what I used).
– Flatten cookies with palm of hand
– Bake for 8-10 min @ 350 F on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
– Let rest for 10 min on cookie sheets, then cool on baking racks. Resting the cookies is a must, if not, they will fall apart because they are a little bit fragile when hot. Makes about 2 dozen. Will keep in a tightly sealed container for about a week. These also freeze well.

* side note: I don’t usually purchase almond butter because I refuse to pay $14-$20 for a jar. The brand I used here, I found on Amazon, and as an Prime member, it’s totally worth the $10–in my opinion–for a jar. Yippee!

How to Make Non-Dairy Buttermilk

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Sometimes you need buttermilk and you don’t have it on hand, or, perhaps you’ve got a dairy sensitivity or are vegan. Think you’re out of luck? No way! You can totally make buttermilk using almond milk, soy milk or even coconut milk and one TB of white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) or fresh lemon juice.

  • 1 Cup Almond milk
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar

Let sit for about 10 minutes until it looks thicker or curdled. Voila! Use in cake, pancake, muffin or bread recipes.

Pear Crumb Coffee Cake

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When I bake, I end up making more than I could possibly consume, so I end up wrapping up items in wax paper, then foil and then a zip top bag and pop it in the freezer (currently, my freezer is close to over-flowing and I would kill for a larger one). Well, I just noticed that I had half of a pear crumb coffee cake in my freezer. Total score! I’d totally forgotten about it, and I forgot that I had started to write a post about it last fall. So, here it is…later than I’d wanted. I just adapted my blueberry coffee cake recipe from my mom and adapted another recipe I found online on Cooks dot com. It’s simple and you don’t even need a mixer. You can use milk (or even buttermilk) in the recipe, but I substituted unsweetened vanilla almond milk because that’s all I had on hand. Oh, and don’t over do it on the cinnamon or cardamon, as that is a lesson I learned a long time ago.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, spray an 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Coffee Cake

  • 1 1/4 C. AP flour
  • 1/2 C. light brown sugar
  • 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1/2 C. almond milk
  • 4 TB unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1-2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 ripe pears, cored, peeled (if you want) and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

Topping

  • 1/2 C. white sugar
  • 1/4 C. flour
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 3 TB cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1/4 C. chopped pecans

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, cooled melted butter,
vanilla, and milk. Add wet ingredients to dry and add pears, stir to combine. Add mixture to baking dish.

For the crumb topping, mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and cut in cold butter either with a pastry cutter or your hands. Break up butter until it’s the size of tiny peas (it’s okay if some pieces are bigger). Add chopped pecans. Evenly sprinkle streusel on top of cake batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown on top and when a toothpick comes out clean.