Trying Some New Recipes

In my ongoing quest to shake up the menus around here, I recently tried a couple of new recipes.  One is a soup that appeared in the March 2015 issue of Country Living.  It's a lemony chicken orzo soup.  Since I love Panera Bread's version, I figured it was well worth a try.

It's light, yet filling.  The fresh dill adds a nice touch.  You can find the recipe on the Country Living site here.

An even better success was a scrumptious mini chocolate chip Bundt cake.  It was a big hit with me and our son.  I found this recipe in one of those compilation fundraiser cookbooks -- love those.

My cake stuck to the pan a little bit, as you can see in the photo below.  The topping is put in the pan first, and is maybe a little too buttery.  Tastes great, but leaves the fingers a little greasy if eating out of hand.

Nutty on top!

Imminently snackable

Toll House Bundt Cake

from A Cookbook by Sunset House Auxiliary Toledo Ohio (1991)

2 3/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 cup less 1 Tablespoon milk

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

4 eggs

1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Nut Topping:

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/3 cup chopped nuts

For topping, combine butter, sugar and nuts; mix until crumbly.  Spoon into well-greased and floured 12-inch Bundt (or tube) pan.  Chill in refrigerator while you prepare cake batter.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.  Place vinegar in 1 cup measure, fill with milk to 1 cup line; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and vanilla; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Turn mixer to low.  Gradually add flour mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with milk.

Gently fold in chocolate mini chips with a rubber spatula.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 50 minutes.  Loosen edges of cake with spatula.  Immediately invert on cooking rack.

Printable recipe

Heaven in Velvet

That would be Red Velvet. Red velvet chocolate pudding cake to be precise. I recently got another of my serious chocolate cravings and was too busy to shop or do much in the way of baking, so I scrounged around in the cupboards and came up with this easy red velvet pudding cake.

You can alter the ingredients in various ways to suit your tastes or pantry. My mother, for example, always bakes with mini chocolate chips because she doesn't like to bite into a big chip of chocolate. I, on the other hand, would be happy with double-size chocolate chips.  To each her own. I used devil's food pudding and red velvet cake simply because that was what I had on hand and, luckily, it worked.

I baked my cake in a Bundt pan.  If you use another type of pan, you will probably have to adjust the baking time.  It is important not to over bake the cake as you want to be sure it stays moist and just a little gooey around the chips.  Heaven!

Shortcut Red Velvet Pudding Cake

1 package (18.25 oz.) red velvet cake mix (not the kind with pudding in the mix)

1 package (3.8 oz.) instant devil’s food pudding mix

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup sour cream

2 cups dark chocolate chips (can substitute milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease Bundt pan.

Combine all ingredients except chips in bowl of electric mixer.  Beat on low speed about 30 seconds to combine.  Beat at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour into Bundt pan and bake 45-55 minutes until toothpick comes out clean or cake feels done when lightly touched.  Do not overcook.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then cool on wire rack.

Printable recipe

Here a Scone, There a Scone

Our daughter was home for the weekend, so I decided to have a little fun with the menus and try some new things.  Friday evening, I tried a veggie-filled Spanish Tortilla, recipe courtesy of Sweet Fix.  It was really tasty -- eggs and Parmesan studded with spinach, leeks, and red bell peppers.  I'm sorry I didn't get a picture, but Maria at Sweet Fix has one on her blog, and hers turned out prettier than mine anyway!  (I had a little trouble flipping it over.)

Skinny Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scone

The next morning, I made Skinny Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones.  I found that recipe on Frou Frou Britches.  I had made plain scones before, but never anything this jazzy.  Tanya at Frou Frou said they were fabulous, and she was right.  They were so good, even cold, that I began thinking about what else might taste good in a scone.

The answer came to me overnight -- bacon.  This morning, I prepared some savory bacon and cheddar cheese scones to give the daughter the strength to drive back downstate.  I found a recipe on The English Kitchen which I adapted to suit.  These scones certainly don't fit into the "skinny" category, but they do make for a hearty breakfast.

Bacon and Cheese Scones

Bacon and Cheese Scones
Adapted from TheEnglishKitchen.blogspot.com  

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

10 slices hardwood smoked bacon, cooked and crumbled (about 2/3 cup)

1 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 large egg

1 2/3 cup buttermilk, plus 1-2 tablespoons if needed

1/2 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Spray a baking sheet with vegetable spray.

Sift together flour, soda, cayenne and salt into a large butter.  Cut in butter with pastry hook, two knives, or fingertips until mixture resembles bread crumbs.  Stir in bacon and cheese.

Whisk together egg and buttermilk.  Add to dry ingredients.  Mix quickly to incorporate all dry ingredients (add 1 -2 tablespoons extra buttermilk if needed).  Do not overmix.

Place dough on lightly floured board.  With floured hands, knead gently 4-5 times.  Transfer dough to baking sheet.  Shape into circle, about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut dough into 12 wedges.  Brush top with 1/2 tablespoon melted butter.

Bake 12-14 minutes until golden brown.  Serve hot.

Printable recipe

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie Joy

Did you know that the chocolate chip cookie is the official cookie of Massachusetts?  Here in Illinois, we have an official snack food – popcorn – but no state cookie.  And while I do love popcorn, there’s something about a warm chocolate chip cookie with a glass of milk.

Of course, the reason Massachusetts is particularly fond of the cookie is because it was reputedly invented there.  According to Wikipedia, chocolate chip cookies were developed by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1930.  According to the story, Mrs. Wakefield was making chocolate cookies at her Whitman, Massachusetts inn, the Toll House Inn. When she ran low on baker’s chocolate, she substituted broken bits of semi-sweet chocolate, hoping they would melt and mix into the batter.  I kind of wonder about this; if she really wanted them to melt, wouldn’t she have melted them in a small pot first?  Whatever the truth of the story, a recipe for “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies” appeared in her 1936 cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes.  Mrs. Wakefield then sold the recipe to Nestlé, supposedly in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. 

For the last several years, I have forsaken the original toll house recipe and made my cookies using Martha Stewart’s “Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe which you can find on her website.  I follow her recipe pretty exactly except I used salted butter and reduce the additional salt by half.  I sometimes throw in some chopped nuts, too, but this batch is heading down to the son at school, and he likes his cookies nut-free.  These cookies really are soft, not crispy like many toll house ones.  The trick is to use a generous scoop and slightly undercook.

What’s your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe?