Posts Tagged ‘food’
Amy’s Mum’s Pumpkin Cookies
Monday, October 18th, 2010
It’s fall and time to make one of my absolute favorite treats! These cookies are practically little cakes with their fluffy texture and delicious icing, and while they’re a long process to make, it’s absolutely worth it.
I make these a little differently than my mother, so I’ve marked my own variations with a * in case you’re not quite so much of a spice nut as I am.
Amy’s Mum’s Pumpkin Cookies
Cream 1 cup of butter or shortening
Add & beat:
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin (puree or canned)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sift together & add:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 teaspoon ginger
*1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
*1 teaspoon cardamon
*1/4 teaspoon cloves
Drop on greased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper instead), bake at 375°F for 10-15 minutes. Check frequently for burning. (They will still seem a bit wet inside when they’re golden brown on the bottom, but will finish baking into a cake-like consistency as they cool.) Makes ~2 dozen.
Ginger Brown Sugar Icing
Start with:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
Put in small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.
Stir in:
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
*1 teaspoon ginger
*1/4 teaspoon cardamon
1 cup powdered sugar
Add more powdered sugar until the consistency resembles a thick glaze, then frost your cookies. Icing will get everywhere, so i suggest you frost them on parchment paper. *grin*
Enjoy!
For those not in the US, when making your own pumpkin puree, use the smaller pumpkin varieties (approximately 5-7 lbs., 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 kg.). Cut the pumpkin in half lengthwise, remove seeds and stringy fibers, and place cut-side down on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) for approximately 45 minutes to 1 1/4 hours (depending on size) or until easily pierced with a knife. Scoop out the pulp and puree in a food processor until smooth. Can strain through cheesecloth to extract all the liquid. Cool before using.
Categories: Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange, Words Words Words
Tags: autumn, cookies, food, pumpkin, recipe, sharpie marker
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Random Recipe: Pancakes
Monday, October 11th, 2010
I made delicious banana pancakes the other night, and I thought perhaps you’d like the recipe. It’s taken from the King Arthur Flour website, and then altered to make it extra delicious.
1.25 cups (5.25 ounces) self-rising flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1-2 dashes of cinnamon (depending on the fruit)
1 cup (8 ounces) milk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) melted butter
1 banana, 1 peach, or a bunch of berries (about a cup)
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. I have a totally awesome heavy ceramic mixing bowl that I use that has Piglet on it, the smallest of a set of 3.
Measure the milk in a 2-cup measuring cup, then add the egg and whisk it in. While whisking, pour the melted butter into the measuring cup, and whisk them together until blended.
Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until blended.
Cut up the fruit. Bananas can be sliced, peaches should also be sliced into flat chunks, blueberries can just be tossed in as is, but strawberries also need slicing. Flat is good, so it doesn’t make weird lumps.
Lightly grease a skillet and heat it over medium heat until a drop of water dances or you get too impatient to keep waiting. I use a one-third-cup measuring cup to pour batter onto the skillet, making one pancake at a time. Place the fruit, if using — I usually get about 4-5 banana slices per pancake, or half a dozen berries, or 3 blueberries and 3 chunks of peach (heavenly).
Cook until the bubbles on the surface begin to break and the edges are starting to look dry. Turn the pancakes over and cook until lightly browned, about one more minute. This will also deliciously caramelize the fruit.
Remove from the pan and eat while you make the next one. The last pancake is always either really big or really small. I usually make an extra big one to eat with a big grin at the end.
I usually get about half a dozen big, delicious pancakes, eat half, and save half for the next morning. And yes, I eat them with syrup so they’re extra super sweet.
Categories: Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: food, pancakes, recipe, sharpie marker, yum
Random Recipe: Banana Bread
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Today I just thought, what the heck, I will share my banana bread recipe! It’s all in American volumetric measurements and stuff, I’m afraid, but I’m sure you can figure it out. This is a slightly altered version of the one in the Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book.
Don’t mind the rambling, I’m sleepy. Plus, I overexplain. But there is a monkey.
Banana Bread the Amy Way
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray cooking oil spray (or just use butter or whatever) inside a bread loaf pan — mine’s glass, I have no idea how this affects the final product.
Dry Stuff:
- 1.5 cups white whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur ‘cos that’s what Safeway carries; normal flour works okay but has a different final texture, and in my experience needs more baking time.)
- 1.5 tsps baking powder
- 0.25 tsp baking soda
- 0.125 tsp salt (one eighth for the math lazy)
- a rounded quarter teaspoon each of cinnamon, powdered ginger, and cardamon
- a few shakes of nutmeg
- a tiny little pinch of ground cloves
Mix all this in a bowl and set aside, making a well in the middle. I like to whisk it together to fluff things up a little, but I’m weird and watch too much Good Eats.
Wet Stuff:
- 3 nice big ripe bananas only a day at most from overripe. I call this the “cake or death” stage. Mash ’em good.
- 1 egg
- 0.25 cup cooking oil
- 0.75 cup sugar
Mash bananas, then add sugar, egg, and oil, and mix it all up with the mashing fork. Get it nice and gooey and well-mixed, though it’s expected that there will be unmashed chunks of banana.
Pour the wet stuff on the dry stuff. Stir until the dry stuff is all mixed in, but only just, to avoid overmixing. Make sure you get the secret stash of dry stuff hiding at the very bottom of the bowl. You know the one I mean.
Extra Stuff:
- 0.5 cup raisins
- 0.5 cup chopped walnuts
Fold in either or both of these — I usually just use raisins, but I’m a weirdo. Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 55-70 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean. I usually turn once halfway through, and if it seems like the top is getting way too brown, cover it up with tin foil near the end of the baking. The bake time really depends on the day, size of bananas, weather, and baking gods’ whims, so do keep an eye, though if you do overbake it, it’ll just be a little dry, so whatever.
Cool a while in the pan, and the turn it out onto a cooling rack.
The Hard Part:
For best flavor, once it’s basically cool, wrap it up in tin foil and let it sit overnight. Yes, that means no eating right away, even though your house smells delicious. It’ll be so much better the next day, moist and delicious and all flavor-blended and spiced that it’s totally worth it, but this is the reason I usually bake at midnight.
The Easy Part:
Enjoy! I like it with tea especially. Omnomnom.
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Words Words Words
Tags: bread, food, recipe, sharpie marker, yum
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