Cinnamon Pecan Crisps

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Cinnamon Pecan Crisps

Imagine a cinnamon roll, but crispy. These pastries start out being made like a cinnamon roll, but then they are rolled flat, before baking, to create a crispy texture.

Reminds me of elephant ears. You know, those yummy fried treats from your local fair or carnival. If you are craving fair foods, why not make a batch of these? Unlike elephant ears you get at the fair, these are baked, not fried. They still give you the yummy cinnamon flavor and crispy texture of traditional elephant ears.

I serve them as they are, but you could top them with powdered sugar, a powdered sugar glaze, or a drizzle of melted chocolate. Maybe with a scoop of ice cream?

I love them.  I think you will, too.

Cinnamon Pecan Crisps

3½ – 4 c. flour
¼ c. sugar
1 pkt. Active dry yeast
1 t. salt
1¼ c. milk
¼ c. butter
1 egg
Filling:
½ c. brown sugar
½ c. sugar
¼ c. butter, melted
1 t. cinnamon
Topping:
¼ c. butter, melted
1 c. sugar
½ c. chopped pecans
1½ t. cinnamon

In mixing bowl combine 2 cups of the flour with the sugar, yeast and salt. Heat together the milk and butter until warm. Add to the flour mixture and beat for 3 minutes. Add another cup of flour and the egg and beat another 3 minutes. Gradually add enough of the flour to make a soft dough. Knead until dough is smooth- 3-5 minutes. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and turn dough to coat in oil. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1½ hours. Punch dough down and allow to rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare filling by combining sugars with cinnamon and stir in the melted butter. Divide dough in half. Roll one half into a square about 12 inches big. Let’s be honest here- rolling dough into a perfect square is pretty hard. Don’t freak out if it isn’t perfect, just shoot for sort of square. Spread half of the filling over the dough and roll it up. Slice the dough into 12 pieces. Prepare 2 baking sheets for these 12 pieces of dough. You’ll need 2 more for the rest of the dough. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Place 6 of the dough circles on each sheet- spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Flatten them to be about 3 inches across. I tuck the end under so they stay in a nice circle. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Repeat this with the second half of the dough. You will end up with 4 baking sheets and 24 rolls in all. After the rolls have doubled preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the topping by combining the sugar, nuts and cinnamon in a bowl. Slide the parchment paper or silicone baking mat off the cookie sheet and on to your work surface. Place a piece of wax paper over the rolls and roll then out pretty flat. Remove the wax paper and brush each of them with the butter and add a sprinkling of the sugar and pecan mixture to each one. I find a slightly rounded tablespoonful is about right. Put the wax paper back on the rolls and use a rolling pin to roll them again, pressing the nut mixture into them. Remove the wax paper. Repeat with the remaining rolls. I start baking the first 12 rolls while prepping the last 2 trays. It just saves me some time. Bake for 10-12 minutes. I put 2 in at a time and switch them halfway through the baking time. They should be a pretty golden brown color- top and bottom. Cool on a wire rack. Don’t be tempted to taste one when they are hot- the sugar will burn your mouth. Besides, they get crisper as they cool. Makes 24.

Flatten rolls slightly
Roll out under wax paper
Ready to be baked
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Honey Ice Cream

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Honey Ice Cream

I love this ice cream. The richness of the custard works wonderfully with the sweet flavor of the honey. I don’t use all that much honey in this recipe. It is sweet, but not overly so. You could make it sweeter if you like. I think about ice cream as a summertime treat, but honestly, I would eat ice cream in a blizzard!!!

I enjoyed my honey ice cream with a coffee waffle. It was a nice combo. The recipe for the coffee waffles is at the bottom of my post.

Thanks, Dee, for all the honey!!

So here is the recipe.

Honey Ice Cream

1 ½ c. whipping cream

1 ½ c. half and half

2/3 c. honey

6 large egg yolks

pinch of salt

Heat together cream and half-and-half to simmer . Whisk honey, yolks and salt in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in hot cream mixture. Return to pan and heat until mixture thickens (about 170 degrees). Do not boil. Strain into large bowl. Chill until cold. Process in ice cream maker. Makes about 5½ c.

Honey Ice cream with a Coffee Waffle

Coffee Waffles

1¾ c. flour

¼ c. brown sugar

1½ t. baking powder

½ t. salt

1½ c. half and half or milk

1 egg, beaten

1/3 c. oil

1 T. instant coffee or espresso powder

1 T. vanilla

Non-stick spray or oil for coating the waffle iron

In medium mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients together and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the half and half with the remaining ingredients. The dry coffee granules will not dissolve right away. You can let the wet ingredients sit a few minutes and whisk again, if you like. While they are just sitting there, you can heat up the waffle iron. Coat the waffle iron with a non-stick cooking spray or brush with a little oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until mixed together. Don’t get crazy over mixing. That will give you tough waffles, and nobody wants that. Just stir until you don’t see any dry bits in the mix. I like to use a rubber scraper to get to the bottom of the bowl. Ladle some batter into the waffle iron and cook until golden brown. When the steam stops coming out of the waffle iron, or lessens a lot, it is usually good indicator that your waffles are done. Yield depends on the size of your waffle iron. I got 10 waffles, about 4×5 inches.

Note: The instant coffee breaks down more when mixed with the dry ingredients. Espresso powder will dissolve quickly, but if you use instant coffee like I did, expect a few “flecks” of coffee in the batter. I kind of liked the way it looked.

 

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Spicy Pickled Beets

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Spicy Pickled Beets

Beets are just one of those foods. People seem to love them, or hate them. I am a beet lover. I enjoy them in all sorts of dishes. The nice thing about making a batch of pickled beets is being able to open up a jar whenever you want.

This recipe is a pretty classic way to preserve beets. The brine is a sweet and sour mixture with pickling spice, salt and red pepper flakes for added flavor and heat. You could play around with the seasonings a little. Maybe adding more heat or less, depending on your preference. Keep in mind that spices tend to intensify in flavor when canned.

Pickled beets are great served as a side dish with all sorts of foods. I like them served with cheeses, crackers and other pickled foods as an appetizer. I also like to add them to salads. If you don’t want to can them- you can store them in the fridge for up to six months.

Spicy Pickled Beets

4 lbs. beets, smaller sizes preferred

3 c. thin sliced onions

2 c. sugar

2 T. Pickling spice

1 T. canning salt

2 t. red pepper flakes

2½ c. cider vinegar- 5% acidity

1½ c. water

Wash and trim beets, leaving a couple inches of stem attached. Cook in boiling water until tender. Cool beets down so you can handle them. Peel beets and cut into 1½- 2-inch diameter pieces, if beets are large. Leave whole if beets are small. Set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and simmer 5 more minutes. Add beets and cook a few minutes, until beets are warmed through. Ladle hot beets into clean pint jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Ladle in hot liquid, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe off rim, screw on lid to finger-tip tightness. Repeat with remaining beets and liquid. You should fill about 5 pint jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave jars in water bath 5 minutes before removing to counter to cool.  Yield: 5 pints.

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Pickled Brussels Sprouts

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Brussels Sprouts Pickles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first time I had a jar of pickled Brussels sprouts I had picked them up at a country store. They were tasty and I hadn’t really thought about them in a long. Then I ended up with a bunch of Brussels sprouts and I decided to pickle them, or at least try to. These are going in the fridge, not being canned, but they could be processed if you wanted to. The recipe is pretty simple. The sprouts are cleaned and trimmed, cooked part way, then combined with the brine. The brine itself can be used for any number of fruits or veggies when you want to make a quick pickle.

 

The sprouts can be served alone or with cheese and breads. Or even on the side with sandwiches.  They are pretty intense in flavor. I think pickled food lovers are really going to enjoy them.

 

Here  is the brine recipe.

Quick Pickled Veggies or Fruit for Fridge Storage

 

Brine- for every pound of vegetables or fruit make a batch of the brine below

2 c. vinegar

2 c. water

3 T. sugar

3 T. salt

additional spices – optional

Heat brine ingredients together. Pour over prepared fruit or veggies. Allow to cool and store in the fridge. Your food will be pickled in a few hours for fruits  or a day or two for veggies like mushrooms, onions, daikon or tomatoes. For denser vegetables you want to simmer them in the brine or steam them ahead of time. Denser vegetables might take longer to fully pickle, but they will get there. That would include carrots, Brussels sprouts, or beets. Store in fridge- lasts for months.

 

To make the Brussels sprouts pickles:

Wash and trim the sprouts. You can cut larger ones in half. Cook in boiling water 3-5 minutes. Drain. Place in jars and cover with the hot brine. I added some red pepper flakes to each jar along with pickling spice and a clove or garlic. Allow to cool before attaching the lids and placing jars in the fridge. The sprouts take a few days to pickle. I like them best after at least a week in the fridge.

Note: you can add a little more sugar, if you like. These are a sour pickle and not sweet, but the sugar mellows them out a bit.   You can also cook them a little longer if you want a softer “pickle”  or if your sprouts are big.

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A Trio of Potato Salads

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Just in Thyme Potato Salad

If you are looking for a side dish for Labor Day, why not bring a potato salad? Everybody loves potato salad.  I love potato salad.

Actually, I love potatoes pretty much any way they are prepared. With so many cookouts and picnics, you can never have enough potato salad recipes, right? I am sharing three of my favorite potato salad recipes. The first one is really simple, enhanced with fresh thyme leaves. Thyme pairs well with the potatoes. The second one uses some of my fresh basil in a pesto sauce that is tossed with the potatoes. Who says pesto is just for pasta? The third salad is the way I remember my Mom making potato salad. She never wrote down her recipe, but I think I got it right.

Just in Thyme Potato Salad

With my herb garden growing like crazy right now I thought this was the perfect dish to make. This salad can be served warm or cold and goes well with so many dishes. I find when I have leftovers, I’ll even brown it in a skillet and serve it like hash browns with eggs for breakfast.

2 lbs. boiling potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces*
½ c. olive oil
¼ c. red wine vinegar
1 T. fresh lemon juice
2 t. fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook potatoes until tender. Drain and toss with the rest of the ingredients and serve right away or chill to serve later. Serves 6-8.

* You can really use any potato you like. I often bake the potatoes whole and then peel and cut up. Cook them any way you prefer.

Pesto Potato Salad

This salad always makes me think of a warm summer day. I think it’s because of the basil. During the summer, my driveway is lined with pots of basil. I cook with it almost every day. Pesto can be used in a lot of different dishes beyond pasta. Here I’ve paired it up with potatoes. The combination works great together. I always freeze extra basil so I can enjoy it year round.

2 lbs. Boiling potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 c. basil leaves
3 T. pine nuts
3 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste

Cook potatoes until tender. Cool. In blender combine remaining ingredients, except 1 tablespoon of the pine nuts. Pour blended mixture over potatoes and sprinkle with the reserved nuts. Chill. Serves 6-8.

Mom’s Mustard Potato Salad

When I was a kid I did not like the taste of mustard- except in this recipe. It adds such a wonderful flavor.

4 lbs. potatoes- I used Klondike Rose and I did not peel them

4 hard cooked eggs, peeled and chopped

1 sweet pepper, seeded and chopped, optional

1 c. mayo- maybe a little less

1/4 c. prepared mustard- I like a grainy brown mustard

salt and pepper to taste

dash of hot sauce

Bake whole potatoes until tender and allow to cool. Cube potatoes into large bowl and combine with remaining ingredients. Chill until ready to serve. Serves 8.

Pesto Potato Salad

Mustard Potato Salad

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Mom’s Macaroni Salad

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Mom’s Macaroni Salad

I’ve been in a nostalgic mood this week. Remembering, fondly, the picnics and cookouts from my childhood. For summer cookouts, we always had this salad. Long enough ago that it was called macaroni salad, not pasta salad. I loved it then, and I love it now.

I won’t say I don’t make other pasta salads. I do. I make all sorts of combinations, but this is the salad that brings me home.

Mom used mostly mayo, with a little salad dressing like Spin Blend. She felt it gave the salad just a little more zing. I use straight mayo, but that part of the recipe is flexible.

She added quite a few hard cooked eggs and I think they add a richness to the dish. My dad would cut up the celery and green onions for her. Mom liked the veggies cut into a fairly small dice in this dish, and Dad had great knife skills.  I love the image of them cooking together.

So here it is- a family recipe wrapped up nicely with some memories, too.

Mom’s Macaroni Salad

1 lb. uncooked pasta, shells are preferred
Salt and pepper
Mayonnaise, about 1 1/2 cups
3-4 ribs celery, sliced thin
4-5 green onions, trimmed and sliced thin
8-12 hard-cooked eggs, cooled and peeled

Cook pasta according to package directions, but do not overcook. Rinse with cold water and drain well. Place drained pasta in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add mayo and vegetables and stir until well mixed. You may want to add more dressing to suit your taste. Chop eggs and stir into salad. Adjust seasonings if needed and chill before serving. Serves 8-10.

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Frozen Mocha Cheesecake

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Frozen Mocha Cheesecake

If you want a really tasty dessert that requires no baking, this one just might do it for you. Rather than being baked, this cheesecake is prepared, then frozen. Because it is made ahead of time and frozen, you can keep it on hand for when you need a dessert.

You can make one large cheesecake, or you could also make smaller, individual serving cheesecakes, in ramekins.

It also pairs chocolate with coffee- a classic combination. The crust is normally made with chocolate cookies- I used chocolate graham crackers for the crust. They worked great.

Great dessert for hot weather. Who am I kidding? I would want this even if there was a blizzard.

Frozen Mocha Cheesecake

1 ¼ c. chocolate cookie crumbs

¼ c. sugar

¼ c. butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese

1 (14oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

2/3 c. chocolate syrup

2 T. instant coffee crystals

1 t. hot water

1 c. whipping cream, whipped

Combine crumbs, sugar and butter and press into 9-inch springform pan. Chill. Beat cheese until fluffy and beat in milk. Stir in syrup and dissolve coffee in water. Add to cheese mixture and fold in whipped cream. Pour into prepared crust and freeze until solid, at least 6 hours. Garnish with additional cookie crumbs if you like or with shaved chocolate. Keep leftovers frozen and use within a few weeks for best flavor.

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Homemade Plum Jam

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Homemade Plum Jam

This is one of the easiest jams you can make. You don’t need pectin and it cooks pretty quickly into sweet, thick jammy goodness. I prefer a softer set, so I stopped cooking mine a little sooner than you might prefer. I like a jam that spreads easily, even after it has been opened and stored in the fridge. I love this jam.

When I hand chopped the plums in the past some of the pieces of the peel seemed too big. I could see them in the finished jam. To insure the skins got chopped up, I chopped the plums in a food processor this time. I did not puree them, but pulsed enough times to have fine chopped plums This is just a cosmetic preference. You can just cook down chopped up plums and they will be fine. Or use an immersion blender after the plums have cooked a bit to smooth it out more.

So here is the recipe. I got it from the NCHFP website. The only changes I made was to up the processing time to 10 minutes, so I didn’t have to sterilize the jars. I also let the jam sit in the canner a few extra minutes to prevent siphoning.

Plum Jam

2 quarts chopped, pitted tart plums (about 4 pounds) – any plums will work

6 cups sugar

1½ cup water

¼ cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients; bring slowly to boiling, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly to, or almost to, the jellying point (which is 8°F above the boiling point of water, or 220°F at sea level). Stir constantly to prevent sticking or burning.

Pour hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; adjust two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow jars to remain in canner 5 minutes before removing. Set jars on cooling rack or towel in a draft free place while they cool down. Check seals once jars are cool. Yield: About 8 half-pint jars.

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Cherry Lemon Italian Ice

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Cherry Lemon Ice

After making lemon Italian ice recently, I had thought about variations. What else could be added to the base recipe? I decided to try cherries because I love the way cherry and lemon taste together. I was not disappointed. The cherries took my lemon ice to a whole new level. And the color!!! This may be one of my favorite frozen desserts ever.

You can use sweet or sour cherries for this recipe. I reduced the sugar from my original Lemon Ice recipe. Taste it before freezing and adjust sweetness to your preferences. Keep in mind, it will taste less sweet after freezing.

I am definitely making this recipe again. Besides just enjoying it as a dessert, you can add scoops to cocktails or non alcoholic drinks.

Cherry Lemon Italian Ice

2½ c. water

1 c. sugar

1¼  c. lemon juice*

Zest of 2 lemons, optional

2 cups pitted cherries

Combine water and sugar in bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and zest, if adding, and stir until well combined. Add the cherries. Place in a food processor or blender and process until cherries are liquefied. Since I knew I was going to be processing the ice in a food processor after freezing, I didn’t bother to blend the mixture up first. I just made the lemon ice base, tossed in the cherries and through it in the freezer. It really is about how smooth you want it to be.I knew I didn’t mind a few small flecks of cherry. Freeze.

You have options here. You can place the mixture in a shallow tray- preferably one with a tight lid- and place in the freezer. Or you can put the mixture in any shape container with a tight lid and freeze. It kind of depends on how you plan to serve your ice, once it is frozen. Some recipes call for stirring the mixture every 30 minutes as it freezes. Then to serve it, you just scrape over the surface with a heavy spoon for a grainy ice- a granita. This is one option and a tasty one. Works best in the flatter, longer container.

Another option is to just freeze it. Once frozen, allow the cherry lemon ice to soften a few minutes, then break into chunks and place in a food processor. Run the processor until the mixture is smooth- then serve or put back in the freezer until you want to serve it. You can even repeat the food processing part another time for a smoother end product. This is what I did with this batch. I wanted a sorbet – like texture.

If you didn’t have enough choices already, you can also put the mixture in an ice cream machine to freeze. This method will also give you a sorbet like final product.

No one way is best- it is just what you like. Makes about a quart and a half.

* you can use lime juice and zest instead, for lime ice- or even use them together.

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Lemon Italian Ice

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Lemon Italian Ice

I hadn’t made Italian ice in a long time. As a kid, I remember getting little cups of this treat in the summer and I loved it. I decided it was time to make some again. We have hotter weather coming this week and it seemed like a great time to make this frozen treat.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler. Just water, sugar and juice. You can also add zest. You don’t even need any special equipment. Lemon is more traditional, but lime works great, too. You can add more juice or less or more sugar to suit your own taste. I like my lemon ice to have a nice strong lemon flavor. Taste it before you freeze it to make it to suit your taste.

Italian ice is a great, light dessert or it can be served as a palate cleanser. Make more than you think- it goes fast. A neighbor stopped over last night and we added scoops to our vodka cocktails. Very tasty!!

Enjoy!!

Lemon Italian Ice

2½ c. water

1½ c. sugar

1¼  c. lemon juice*

Zest of 2 lemons, optional

Combine water and sugar in bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and zest, if adding, and stir until well combined. Freeze.

You have options here. You can place the mixture in a shallow tray- preferably one with a tight lid- and place in the freezer. Or you can put the mixture in any shape container with a tight lid and freeze. It kind of depends on how you plan to serve your ice, once it is frozen. Some recipes call for stirring the mixture every 30 minutes as it freezes. Then to serve it, you just scrape over the surface with a heavy spoon for a grainy ice- a granita. This is one option and a tasty one. Works best in the flatter, longer container.

Another option is to just freeze it. Once frozen, allow the lemon ice to soften a few minutes, then break into chunks and place in a food processor. Run the processor until the mixture is smooth- then serve or put back in the freezer until you want to serve it. You can even repeat the food processing part another time for a smoother end product. This is what I did with this batch. I wanted a sorbet – like texture.

If you didn’t have enough choices already, you can also put the lemon juice mixture in an ice cream machine to freeze. This method will also give you a sorbet like final product.

No one way is best- it is just what you like. Makes about a quart.

* you can use lime juice and zest instead, for lime ice- or even use them together.

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