January 25, 2012: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

Zucchini bread may sound healthy, but other than the nutritional value of the veggie, it doesn’t have any fewer calories or fat content than any other type of sweet bread. Still, it’s quite yummy – especially with the addition of chocolate chips.

Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 ¾ cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups peeled, grated zucchini (about 1 large or 2 small)

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

½ cup mini chocolate chips (I used regular chocolate chips; you could certainly add about 1 cup more if you’re a chocolate lover)

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

In medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another larger bowl, beat eggs until light in color. Gradually add sugar and continue beating. Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, nuts, chocolate chips, and lemon zest.*

Fold in dry ingredients until combined and then pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees 50 to 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Remove bread from pans to cool on wire rack.

*If you have a stand mixer, just mix all ingredients at once, starting with the wet ingredients and adding the chocolate chips and nuts after combining the rest of the recipe.

December 22, 2011: New Mexican Brunch Cake Recipe

Are you looking for something to serve the troops while they eagerly wait for Christmas dinner to be done? This brunch cake just might fit the bill. It’s very filling (okay, not so nutritious, but calorie counting can wait until after the New Year) and makes a very elegant presentation. I like the fact that it uses piñon nuts, which can be found throughout New Mexico and Arizona in the fall. And if you're looking for a unique dish, rest assured that this is a recipe you aren't likely to find anywhere else.

Tip: Look for piñon nuts in a specialty store or next to the other nuts in a grocery store. You may have to order them online.

New Mexican Brunch Cake

2 cups flour

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 cup sour cream

½ cup piñon nuts, roasted

½ cup sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup white chocolate (chips or bar)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together dry ingredients. Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating with an electric mixer after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Alternately add dry ingredients and sour cream, beating well.

Spread half o batter in greased 9-inch Bundt pan. Combine nuts, ½ cup sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle mixture over batter. Carefully spread remaining batter on top.

Bake for 45 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan, cool on rack. Melt chocolate and white chocolate separately in the microwave. Drizzle each from the tip of a spoon to decorate top of cake.

Serves 10

December 14, 2011: Beef Stew 2 Recipe

During the winter months, soups and stews are some of our favorite family meals. Not only are they economical and easy to prepare, they’re hot and hearty and perfect for a cold winter night, along with fresh-from-the-oven biscuits or rolls.

This is a variation on the beef stew recipe I shared earlier this year that uses Lipton onion soup mix. The spices are different and it has a very unique flavor – but one I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Spicy Beef Stew

1 T. vegetable oil

1 pound beef for stew (try a tough steak, such as top sirloin), cut into chunks

1 small white onion, cut into chunks

1 cup baby carrots, cut into thick, diagonal slices

1 cup chopped celery (use the heart and bottom half of the stalks thinly sliced)

2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

¼ cup ketchup

1 14-ounce can beef broth

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup dry red wine

1 bay leaf

1 cardamom pod

¼ t. ground cinnamon

½ t. thyme

½ t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. sea salt

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil to medium. Add the chunks of beef and brown on all sides. Add vegetables and cook five more minutes; turn off heat. Add remaining ingredients. Cover Dutch oven and transfer to a low (225 degrees) oven. Bake for 4 – 5 hours, until vegetables are tender and sauce thickens. Remove bay leaf and cardamom pod before serving.

Serves 4

December 9, 2011: Snickerdoodles Recipe

One thing I absolutely adore about the holiday season is that it gives me the license to do baking, lots of baking. I always make fruit breads, pies, a special pastry (one year I made Christmas stollen – man, that was time consuming but yummy), and cookies. Always lots and lots of cookies. Perhaps the favorite cookie I make each year, outside of sugar cookies, is snickerdoodles.

When I make cookies for Christmas, I always turn to my collection of vintage cookbooks – they have THE best recipes as well as really cute pictures. Here’s the one I use to make snickerdoodles.

Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups flour

2 t. cream of tartar

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

1 ½ T sugar

1 ½ T. cinnamon

Cream butter; add one cup sugar gradually. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Shape into balls using one level teaspoonful of dough; roll in combined sugar and cinnamon. Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees about 8 minutes (cookies should not be brown so watch carefully). Makes about 5 dozen.

By the way, it’s the cream of tartar in this recipe that keeps these cookies soft. But they’ll only stay soft a couple days so if you’re making them in advance, pack them in an airtight container and freeze.

November 25, 2011: Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

When you need a little something to fuel your Black Friday shopping, try making these homemade cinnamon rolls the night before (or even several days earlier and store them in the freezer until ready to thaw).

My recipe for cinnamon rolls simply uses a basic sweet roll recipe that is spread with lots of butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Cinnamon Rolls

Yeast dough:

½ cup milk

¼ cup sugar

2 t. salt

3 T. butter

3 packages yeast (6 ¾ teaspoons)

1 ½ cups warm water

5 – 6 cups flour

Place milk, sugar, salt and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl of a stand mixer. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 ½ cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Mix on Speed 2 for about one minute. Add flour, half cup at a time, and continue to mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on Speed 2 about two minutes longer until dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Filling:

1 stick butter, melted

½ cup sugar

¼ cup cinnamon

Mix together sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough out on floured surface to large rectangle, about 12 x 24 inches. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Starting with long side, roll up into a cylinder shape. With a very sharp knife, cut pieces one inch thick. Place on one or two buttered baking sheets with rims. Cover and let rise until doubled, about a half hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake cinnamon rolls for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Allow rolls to cool. If you are freezing the rolls, place cooled, unfrosted rolls in airtight containers and store in freezer.

To frost cinnamon rolls, stir together 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and about 3 tablespoons milk or water. Adjust as necessary to make a medium thin frosting that easily drips from a spoon. Drizzle over top of warm rolls.

Makes about 24 rolls.

October 12, 2011: French Apple Pie Recipe

What’s National Apple Month without a recipe for that favorite American staple, apple pie? Although my husband isn’t big on desserts or sweets of any kind, he absolutely adores apple pie. This is one time he didn’t mind me cooking for my blog – he couldn’t wait until I got to apple pie!

Apple pie is really one of the simplest desserts you can make. There are very few ways you can go wrong, other than under-baking or perhaps not using enough flour so that the filling is too runny. If you don't care for the streusel topping in this recipe, simply substitute with a top crust; brush it with a bit of milk and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

I did invest in an apple peeler/corer machine a few years ago and it certainly makes apple pie preparation much, much easier. If you plan on baking a lot with apples, I highly recommend these simple devices. In addition, baking weights and pie crust protector rings are very handy gadgets for the pie baker.

French Apple Pie

Topping:

4 ounces (1/2 stick) butter

½ cup flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

½ t. cinnamon

Filling:

3 cups peeled, sliced baking apples, such as Granny Smith (about 4-5 medium)

2/3 cup sugar

¼ cup flour

½ t. cinnamon

½ t. nutmeg

2 T. butter

Pastry for one 9” pie crust (find my pie crust recipe here)

Combine all topping ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Mix with a fork until crumbly.

For filling, mix together sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter in a large bowl. Add apple slices and toss to combine. Place in pie shell (if you want it to look professional, carefully place overlapping slices in concentric circles). Cut butter into small pieces and distribute evenly over top of apples. Sprinkle topping over pie filling.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes, or until apples are tender (check with tip of a knife in center of pie).

Tip: Your apple pie filling may overflow; place a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil on the bottom rack of your oven before baking to catch drips.

October 11, 2011: Streusel Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Are you starting to think about your Thanksgiving dinner menu yet? It might be early for some of you, but I start planning weeks in advance for my favorite holiday of the year! Of course it’s my favorite because I enjoy cooking and Thanksgiving is a great excuse to spend two solid days in the kitchen preparing yummy food my family loves eating.

Since I had lots of pumpkin after canning three large ones at the beginning of this year, I decided to try a new recipe with some of my pureed pumpkin stash. This one came out quite nice, but did take a long time to bake. Will this be the pumpkin pie that makes it onto my Thanksgiving table this year? Hmm…I’ve got a few more recipes to try out before making the final decision.

Streusel Pumpkin Pie - I used white sugar in the streusel topping because I ran out of brown; that's why the topping is very light colored here.

Streusel Pumpkin Pie

One pie crust (find my pie crust recipe here).

Filling:

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½ t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

¼ t. allspice

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 t. grated orange rind

2 cups pureed pumpkin (or one small can pumpkin)

1 can evaporated milk

Note: You can also use 2 t. pumpkin pie spice in place of the other spices listed.

Blind bake the pie crust in a 9” pie pan as directed in my pie crust recipe.

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk well. Pour into prepared pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking 30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with topping:

Topping:

4 ounces (1/2 stick) butter

½ cup flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

½ t. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Mix with a fork until crumbly. After sprinkling topping on pie, return to oven and bake another 15 – 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of pie comes out clean. Note: The recipe called for only 15 final minutes of baking but it took a full 30 minutes for my pie to be fully cooked.

October 7, 2011: Homemade Applesauce Recipe

Making your own applesauce is so incredibly easy I’m surprised that so many people opt for the convenience of buying a jar at the store. I used to do that and often found that it didn’t get used up quickly enough and I’d have to toss half the jar when it got moldy. When I make it from scratch, I can make just enough for the night’s dinner and not have to worry about leftovers.

Because all apples have varying degrees of sweetness, there’s not a set amount of sugar to add (and really any variety of apples works fine for making sauce, tart or sweet). Try putting in a small amount, such as a quarter cup, first and then tasting. You can always add more but you can’t take it out if you get the sauce too sweet!

Homemade Applesauce

One apple per person (2 apples for 2 people, 3 apples for 3 people, etc.)

1 T. butter per 2 apples (optional)

Water

Squirt of lemon juice

Sugar

Dash of cinnamon

Peel and core the apples. Cut into large chunks. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the apples. Add enough water to just cover the apples about halfway (you don’t want too much or the sauce will be too watery; however if this happens just cook it down further). Add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook over low heat for at least 20 minutes. Applesauce is done when the apples are tender. Taste for sweetness and add sugar, if necessary.

The applesauce can be served chunky, mashed slightly with a potato masher, or pureed in a blender, depending on what texture you prefer.