Entries in Recipe (30)

Saturday
07Nov2009

Yankee Cornbread

DateSaturday, November 7, 2009 at 7:11PM

It was a beautiful fall day today in Chapel Hill and for dinner, I made chicken chili in the slow cooker and cornbread.  As I searched for a recipe to use, I learned that apparently there are differences between northern and southern cornbread.  After hearing the differences (southern - at least according to my research - tends to be flatter with crispy/crunchy crusts while nothern is sweeter, lighter and thicker), it became clear that I prefer northern cornbread. This recipe turned out quite well and was a nice accompaniment to the chicken chili - perfect on a crisp, cool autumn night.

Yankee Cornbread
Makes 9 servings
Adapted from Baking Illustrated

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons sugar
0.5 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter a 9 inch square baking pan.
2. Melt butter over low heat.
3.  Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the middle of the bowl.
4.  Crack eggs into well and stir eggs lightly with a wooden spoon. 
5.  Add buttermilk and milk and stir it all together quickly until almost combined.
5.  Add melted butter and stir until just combined.
6.  Pour batter into greased pan.
7.  Bake on center rack for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown with some small cracks and edges pull away from sides of pan.
8.  Cool in pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. 
9.  If you want to re-heat later, heat in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.
10.  Enjoy!

AuthorChristine Mazzone | CommentPost a Comment |
tagged in
Tuesday
20Oct2009

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies (Double Batch)

DateTuesday, October 20, 2009 at 8:48PM

We are having a potluck lunch tomorrow at my office and I made a double batch of these peanut butter cookies.  I only made one tweak - since there was so much flour, I added it in two batches, mixing on low in between each addition.  I used a combination of jelly roll pans, baking sheets, parchment paper and silicone mats.  I preferred the cookies that were baked on silicone mats.  Everything worked out really well - further confirming this as my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe.  Yum!

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 20 cookies
Adapted from Cookie Madness

1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2.  Combine white and brown sugars, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and egg.  Beat well for about 1-2 minutes using an electric mixer until well combined.
3.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to batter in two batches, beating well on low speed in between each (about 20-30 seconds each).
4.  Using a 0.25 cup ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheet leaving about 2 inches in between cookies.
5. Bake for 13-16 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.
6.  Enjoy!

 

AuthorChristine Mazzone | Comment1 Comment |
tagged , in
Sunday
11Oct2009

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Levain Style

DateSunday, October 11, 2009 at 4:00PM

When Erik and I went to NYC last year, my friend Lisa asked us to bring her back some cookies from Levain Bakery.  Always willing to take one for the team, I readily agreed.  I soon learned that Levain specialized in gigantic chocolate chip cookies, uniformly considered to be the best in NYC.  We picked some up on the morning that we were flying home and they are definitely the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever eaten.  A few weeks later, I watched the episode of Bobby Flay's Throwdown in which he took on, and lost to, the Levain Bakery women.  I knew that there were several copycat recipes on the internet.  Inspired by the Throwdown episode, I decided to give them a try.  I was quite pleased with the flavor (though no where near as good as Levain's, they were the best tasting chocolate chip cookies I ever made) but they spread a bit more than I had hoped.  So I made them again a few times, tweaked a few things in the recipe and I am very happy with this version, especially the sea salt.  Erik and I were both craving chocolate chip cookies today. I decided to make these and realized that I had never posted the recipe - so here it is.

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Levain Style
Makes eight 6 oz. cookies
Adapted from Cookie Madness

8 ounces (two sticks) unsalted butter, cold
0.75 cup granulated sugar
0.75 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups bread flour (13.5 ounces)
0.75 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's)
1 1/3 cups walnut halves or pieces (not toasted)
sea salt

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2.  Beat butter and sugars on low just until they come together.  Don’t overbeat.
3.  Beat eggs in separate bowl, add to batter and beat just until incorporated.
4.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda.  When thoroughly mixed, add to batter and stir just until blended.
5.  Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts (I stir these in by hand).
6.  The dough should be neither sticky nor dry.  Divide batter into 6 ounce mounds (don't handle batter too much or shape mounds).   Sprinkle mounds with sea salt.
7.  Bake for 19-23 minutes until lightly brown on top.
8.  Cool on sheet for about 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9.  Enjoy with a glass of cold milk!

AuthorChristine Mazzone | CommentPost a Comment |
tagged , in
Sunday
06Sep2009

Classic White Sandwich Bread

DateSunday, September 6, 2009 at 8:51PM

I had my first foray into baking bread at home today.  Erik loves bread in much the same way that I love baked sweets.  He's been suggesting to me for several years to try my hand at baking bread. I took a class with my mother a few years ago at La Farm, a fantastic local French bakery. It was great - we made all sorts of wonderful, crusty breads in the bakery's huge, commercial ovens.  It was a bit intimidating with all that kneading by hand and figuring things out by touch (not one of my fortes). I was also discouraged by the fact that I didn't have one of those commercial ovens equipped with the ability to mist the dough as soon as it starts baking (apparently that's pretty important in order to achieve the nice crustiness of many breads such as on a baguette).  I never tried making bread after that class.

Until today. Erik recently renewed his request that I try baking some bread.  My friend Lisa bakes ALL of the bread her family eats (impressive, I know!) and she recently wrote a blog post about just how easy it is to make delicious bread with a bread machine.  I don't own a bread machine but we gave this one to my mother a few years ago.  So I borrowed it from her this morning and made a basic white bread recipe that I found on the King Arthur website. It couldn't have been easier, filled the house with all sorts of wonderful smells and it came out perfect. I was thrilled. I can't wait to get my own bread machine and try out some more recipes.

Classic White Sandwich Bread
Makes one 1.5-2 pound loaf
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

1 cup lukewarm water (about 80 degrees F)
1/3 cup lukewarm milk (about 80 degrees F)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
3.75 cups all purpose flour (I used King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour, which has a high level of protein)
3 tablespoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast (I used the regular, not Rapid Rise)

1.  Add all ingredients, except yeast, to the baking pan in your bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer.  The order for my bread machine is:
     - water and milk
     - flour, sugar, salt and butter
It's important for the liquid ingredients to be room temperature. My bread machine has a pre-heat function so it's OK to add the liquid ingredients straight from the refrigerator. Be sure to check your machine.
2.  Make a depression in the middle of the flour and sprinkle the yeast into it. Don't let the yeast touch any liquid.
3.  Select proper settings and start bread machine. For my bread machine, I chose Basic and Regular Crust and about 3.5 hours later, it was ready.
4.  Remove bread from the baking pan and let it cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes.
5.  Enjoy!

AuthorChristine Mazzone | CommentPost a Comment |
tagged in
Sunday
30Aug2009

Chocolate Almond Toffee with Sea Salt

DateSunday, August 30, 2009 at 8:38PM

I wanted to make something for my friend Ashley who had a baby a couple of months ago and she is a big toffee fan so I made a variation on the Pecan and Almond Chocolate Toffee from the Baked cookbook.  I've made it once before and wanted to try a few things differently (adding salt and omitting the pecans).  This version had a better flavor than last time (the salt definitely improved the flavor in my humble opinion) but the toffee was lighter in color and more chewy than the prior version.  I'm thinking it has to do with the type of butter I used and the low quality thermometer I have. I definitely plan to get a better thermometer before I try this again but I highly recommend trying out this toffee recipe - and if you do, let me know how it goes!

Chocolate Almond Toffee
Makes about 1.5 pounds
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

1 cup sliced almonds
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces each
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon warm water
0.5 teaspoon salt
5 ounces dark chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger bittersweet), coarsely chopped
4 ounces milk chocolate (I used Trader Joe's), coarsely chopped
sea salt

1.  Butter a 9x13 glass or metal pan (do not use nonstick spray).

2.  In a food processor, pulse the almonds until they are a fine powder.  Set aside.

3.  Toss the milk and dark chocolates together and set aside.

4.  Heat the butter in a medium pan over low heat. When the butter is about halfway melted, add the sugar, salt and water and cook over low heat, stirring very gently with a silicone or rubber spatula, until completely combined.  Insert a candy thermometer into the pan, turn the heat up to medium-high and wait for the mixture to reach 300 degrees (about 15 minutes).  The mixture will start to bubble and turn brown.  If it is browning unevenly, swirl the pan but do not stir.

5.  When the mixture reachs 300 degrees, remove the pan from the heat and remove the thermometer.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  After the mixture has evened out in the pan, wait 1 minute, then sprinkle the chocolate pieces evenly over the toffee. Wait about 3 minutes for the chocolate to melt, then use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate into an even layer. 

6.  Sprinkle the almond powder and some sea salt over the melted chocolate, then carefully put the whole pan in the freezer for about 30-40 minutes.

7.  Remove the pan from the freezer and cut or break the toffee into pieces with a sharp knife.

8.  Enjoy!

AuthorChristine Mazzone | CommentPost a Comment |
tagged , ,
Page 1 2 3 4 5 ... 6 Next 5 Entries ยป