Handy House Tip #7: Buttermilk

So the other day, I decided to make cornbread. At 10pm. On a friday. I’m cool like that. Also because of my whole making things from scratch kick, I decided cornbread would not come from a mix. Enter my dilemma: I had to buttermilk. I refused to let closed grocery stores stand in my way of yummy cornbread. So I did what every person  does these days: I googled it. Turns out there are two ways to substitute buttermilk-

1) Actually make it.

Pour heavy cream in a jar (or just mix it with a mixer, but where is the fun in that?). Screw on the lid, and shake it. And shake it. ANDDDDDDDD SHAKE IT. It takes about 10-20 minutes, but me and Lotti would switch places and you get BUTTER out of it too. So we had butter for our cornbread! You have to shake it past the whipped cream phase, until it becomes yellow and part of it hardens. Simply pour out the buttermilk, you get about 2/3-3/4 of a cup for every 1 cup heavy cream PLUS YOU GET BUTTER. ( P.S. you need to wash the butter after you pour so the buttermilk doesn’t make it go bad) Seriously, making butter was so cool. We were simply enamored with it the whole time.

2) Okay, not as cool but simply add lemon or white vinegar to regular milk.

Add 1 tablespoon lemon OR vinegar to one cup milk. Let stand for 5 minutes. Done. 

 

      The first method does take more work, but come on YOU GET BUTTER too! How is that not worth it? 

Homemade Biscuits

     I love a good biscuit. There is nothing like the right out of the oven warmth and taste of a homemade one. Last week in the midst of studying for finals, I decided to give myself a break and figure out how to make them instead of just unrolling them from a Pillsbury container. Turns out they are quite easy to make and with a heart shaped cookie cutter, they looked good enough to eat!

Ingredients:
1 cup Milk
4 tbsp Butter
2 tsp Baking Powder
3 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Sugar
3 tbsp Milk (for glazing) *I prefer using sugar*

Directions:
1)  Preheat oven to 425 F degrees
2) Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Rub with butter until it resembles breadcrumbs *For me, I broke the butter into tiny pieces then rubbed into flour mixture, this was just weird to do* Stir in sugar.
3) Make a well in the center and pour in the milk. Stir with knife until soft dough forms.
4) Place mixture on a floured surface and lightly flatten dough until about 1 cm thick. DO NOT BE HEAVY HANDED. * I was the first time, making my biscuits quite hearty, just barely press the dough so you keep a lot of the air thickness in*
5) Use biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, to cut biscuits and place on baking sheet. Glaze with milk or sugar. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden.

Adopted from Grandma's Best Recipes

King’s Cake

I love King's Cake, the bright colors, the gooey goodness inside and of course the plastic baby. So I set out to make one yesterday and realized why most people buy them instead of making them. They take FOUR hours. You can't get around that, and all the reviews of it said one way to make it easier was to make it in a bread maker; however, I do not have neither the money to buy a bread maker nor the space to put one. I was stuck making it by hand for four hours and once I halfway done, I realized the recipe was for making double. So luckily, my gracious boyfriend was nice enough to take one off my hands. The recipe is very delicious and I highly recommend it, if you have four hours to spare and the patience to knead dough for 10 minutes. Also I made a few changes to the original recipe, I halved it, so you only have to make one cake and I doubled the filling, since mine didn't seem to have enough plus I added some lemon juice to the icing as it was too sweet even for my large sweet tooth.

• PASTRY:
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1/8 cup butter
  
• 1 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
  
• 1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  
• 1/4 cup white sugar
  
• 1 eggs
  
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 
  
• FILLING:
  
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
  
• 1/2 cup melted butter
  
• 
  
• FROSTING:
  
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons water
  
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  

Directions *I added notes between the *s in the directions*

1. Scald milk, remove from heat and stir in 1/8 cup of butter.*To scald mean to basically burn, you want it to 185 degrees F or basically until it starts to boil* Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water with ½ tablespoon of the white sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. *It will pouf up and bubble*
2. When yeast mixture is bubbling, add the cooled milk mixture. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the remaining white sugar, salt and nutmeg. Beat the flour into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. * This will get very hard to mix, you will hurt your arm and you may break a whisk* When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. *This is a bitch, no getting around it*
3. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. *Yes, really, it will double in size*
   
4. When risen, punch down *This is fun* 
 
5. 
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
7. 
8. To Make Filling: Combine the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, chopped pecans, 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup raisins. Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the cinnamon mixture and mix until crumbly.
   
9. Roll dough out into large rectangles (approximately 10x16 inches or so). Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough and roll up each tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at the wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form oval shaped rings. Place the ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1 inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. *Oh my god, it does double again!* 
10. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. *check it at 20 minutes, they tend to bake quickly, and you don't want it as brown as mine*
    
11. Push the doll into the bottom of the cake. Frost while warm with the confectioners' sugar blended with 2 tablespoons of water. *AND LEMON JUICE*
    

1. 
   
   
   Notes-
   
   
   1. This takes a looonnnggg time. It is intensive, you need a large surface to knead the dough and then again to roll it out and put the filling on it.
      
   2. You need more flour. You have to flour everything, the rolling pin, the surfaces, and the dough. So make sure you have an extra 2 cups of flour
      
   3. Kneading is difficult work.
      
   4. It will rise to double its size, make sure your bowl can handle it. Mine couldn't.
      
   5. The icing may need more lemon juice/ water. And you make actually want to make a second batch to drizzle over each slice. 
    
   
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Martha Stewart Sunday: Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

 

      Well, I saw these fabulous cookies and wanted to try to make them after tearing out the recipe from Martha Stewart; however, I baked them late at night while a bit sleepy and didn't fully read the recipe. I just dumped everything in the bowl and mixed it instead of making the batter first then cutting in the strawberries. The good news is they still taste delicious!

 Here's the recipe:
Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

• 12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• Sanding sugar, for sprinkling
 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 7 tablespoons granulated sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in strawberry mixture. (Or you can just throw all the ingredients in one bowl and use an electric mixer for about one minute on medium)
   
2. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing evenly apart. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, and bake until golden brown, 24 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool. Cookies are best served immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

Strawberry-Shortcake Cookies - Martha Stewart Recipes

 

Have you ever not read the directions and still made the recipe work out fine?