Category Archives: baking

Grandpa

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Today would have been my Grandpa’s 87th birthday. He died last November a week before Thanksgiving from complications from congestive heart failure. He was WWII vet, former minor league baseball player for the Tigers (right field), active member of his local VFW, told the best stories, had a good sense of humor, strong work ethic, provided for his family and my Grandma and, he loved cookies, well, sweets in general. For his b-day and other times during the year my mom would bake him some sort of cookies and mail them to him. I also sent him some cookies from time to time. Sometimes he’d share them with Grandma, sometimes not. He was funny that way. She used to tell me that he’d go get the mail and then she’d ask him if there was anything special. He’d be evasive and eventually tell her that “Barb sent me some cookies.” She and I would have a good laugh about that. I always sent him funny birthday cards, which he always appreciated and saved. I wish mom and I could have baked him cookies one last time.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa.

Toasted Almond Buttermilk Biscuits

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Warm homemade biscuits for breakfast!

I never personally knew my Great-Grandma on my Dad’s side of the family. She, Clara, lived through stories told by my Dad and my Grandma R. My Dad and his brother lived with his grandparents on a farm in Tennessee for a few years while his mom, my Gram, looked for work and got a job up north in Michigan (times were tough back then for a single mom living in TN and the north afforded more opportunities in employment). Apparently, Clara was quite the baker, pies, cakes and buttermilk biscuits. Stories of Clara live on via my Dad, but I wish my Grandma were alive to tell me more stories (she passed away last year and I feel like our life-long conversation was unfinished. I guess that’s what happens when someone you love dies: there’s always more to say and much left unsaid. I sure miss her). The way she described the farm to me, the smokehouse, the pickling and canning, the baking, it was as if I was there myself. I’d like to think that Clara would approve of the buttermilk biscuits I’ve been making and attempting to perfect lately.

The key to making a nice, flaky biscuit is ice cold butter. Well, that, and don’t over-work the dough and when you cut out the biscuits, don’t twist the biscuit cutter, because then your biscuits will be flat, and no one wants flat biscuits. I also keep my flour in the freezer and I tend to think that helps too. I use all-purpose flour rather than cake flour…mostly because I’ve never used cake flour and never buy it. I usually get up early on the weekends because I can’t seem to sleep late anymore. And, after a cup or two of coffee, or sometimes barely a cup, I get to baking these biscuits. The addition of toasted almonds is a new and I think it works well. Pecans would also be delicious.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

  • 2 1/4 C. AP Flour
  • 1TB baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 9 TB cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 3/4 C. buttermilk (can be low-fat)
  • 1 TB sugar (optional)
  • 1 cup chopped almonds, toasted in 1 TB butter

Chop and toast the almonds until almost browned. Remove from heat, put in a bowl and let cool. Spoon the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk them together. I have tried this recipe with sugar and without. I like them without sugar and prefer a more salty biscuit. Add the cubed, cold butter to the flour mixture. Now, you can use a pastry cutter, or your clean hands. I use my hands because I find it easier. You want to break up the butter until it’s the size of small peas and the dough is crumbly and coarse. If the dough gets too warm from your hands, put bowl in the freezer for a few minutes. Add the buttermilk and toasted nuts (if using) stir together with a spatula until the dough looks craggy and just comes together. Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface and flatten to about an inch or so. Do not use a rolling pin! Use biscuit cutters or a glass to cut out the biscuits. Place biscuits on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. You can also brush the tops of the biscuits with a little bit of buttermilk. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. Do not over-bake. Your kitchen will smell heavenly and your neighbors might be jealous. Enjoy warm biscuits with butter, honey, or preserves.

Easy Raw Kale Salad with Preserved Lemons

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Wow, seems I’ve not posted in a long time. I’ve still been baking and cooking, but apparently too lazy to write up posts for the blog. I need to write more! Anyway, ever since Xmas dinner–where my sister-in-law made this salad, I’ve been making it about once a week (my friends make fun of me for my kale consumption). It’s super simple and flavorful. You should be able to find a jar of preserved lemons a most gourmet food stores.Or, and I’m not sure why this never occurred to me until now: you could make your own! I’ve been wanting to make my own pickles (cue Portlandia’s skit, so I should also get some Meyer lemons and preserve them too. Now I have a project.

  • 1 package of cut kale
  • 2-3 TB of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 TB minced preserved lemons
  • dash of salt (optional)

Put kale in large mixing bowl (I use my glass Pyrex one) and massage oil into the leaves until they become tender. Add minced lemons and mix together. That’s it. I also tend to add a little (1 tsp.) of the liquid from the jar of lemons too.) If you’re like me, try to not consume the entire container of kale in one day. That’s not a bad thing, is it?

X-Mas Cookies Invasion

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Just a heads up: Christmas cookies are coming! I’m trying to figure out what I should bake this year though. I love the process: put on some jazz (Oscar Peterson and Louie Armstrong or John Coltrane) or this Christmas cd from my friend Jen and bake away. I make dozens of cookies, usually about 4-5 kinds and then give them away to friends. Last year I dove into dark chocolate truffle making. That went fairly well for a novice. Anyway, I’ll be back to share my recipes…

Sweet Potato Cookies with Raisins

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I had one rather large sweet potato and considered making a small amount of baked sweet potato fries, but decided upon trying out this cookie recipe my friend found on youtube for mbatata cookies found here.

I did tweak it a bit by adding vanilla and a little bit of white sugar and pecans. My apartment smells like sweet potato pie. Oh, man!

  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4TB melted unsalted butter
  • 1/2C dark brown sugar
  • 1/2tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/4 C flour
  • 2tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2C raisins
  • 2 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon
  • 1/4 – 1/2C chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Peel the sweet potato and cut into somewhat large pieces, put in glass bowl with a little bit of water, cook in microwave for about 4 minutes, or until tender. Mash potato with a fork, set aside to cool slightly. Using a stand mixer, add cooled potato, melted/cooled butter and mix for about a minute. Add brown sugar, vanilla, beaten egg, mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix for about 2-3 minutes until everything is well combined. At this interval, taste the batter, if you want it a bit more sweet, add 1/8-1/4 cup of white sugar and mix again. Stir in raisins with spatula. At this point you’ll notice the dough is more muffin-like in consistency, that’s ok, that is what it’s supposed to look like.

Using a large cookie scoop, place dough on parchment paper covered baking sheets and bake for 18-20 minutes. These cookies don’t flatten out and are soft in texture and more cake like. Not too sweet either.
A very tasty and healthy fall treat.