The Charmed Kitchen

Goldenrod

If you are looking for a recipe using hard-cooked eggs you might want to make some Goldenrod. It’s a recipe my grandmother and mother used to make every year after Easter. Very tasty and a great way to use up extra eggs. You just make a white sauce and add the chopped up egg whites. Season with salt and pepper. When ready to serve pour the hot egg white mixture over toast and then put the egg yolks in a small strainer or sieve and press them through the strainer over the egg whites. The yolks turn into a powder and the end result looks quite pretty. I like it served over English muffins but you can serve it over toast, biscuits or bagels.

Goldenrod

4-6 hard cooked eggs

2 T. flour

2 T. butter

1-1 1/2 c. milk

salt and pepper to taste

2-4 slices bread, toasted

Peel eggs and separate whites from yolks. Chop egg whites and set aside. In saucepan cook flour and butter together until smooth. Stir in milk and cook until thickened and bubbly. Be careful not to burn the sauce. Season to taste and add reserved egg whites, heating through. Arrange toast on serving dishes and cover with the sauce. Place reserves egg yolks in a fine sieve and press through over sauce, dusting as evenly as possible. Serves 2-4.

Ready to serve

Mixed Mushroom Quiche

I’ve been on a mushroom kick lately. Since I needed a meat-free meal for a friend I decided to use mushrooms to make quiche. I had a mix of fresh shitake, oyster and portobello mushrooms. Pretty much any fresh mushrooms would work, but I like to mix a few together. I made two since I had two crusts and plenty of mushrooms. You can freeze one, or just make half a recipe.

Mixed Mushroom Quiche

2 unbaked pie crusts – homemade preferred

2 T. oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 lb. fresh mushrooms, trimmed, washed and sliced or chopped

salt and pepper

8 oz. Swiss cheese, cubed or shredded

4 T. flour

2 c. milk or half and half

6 eggs, beaten

1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley

hot pepper sauce to taste

Roll out dough and place in 2 (9-inch) pie pans. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat oil in skillet and cook onion until tender. Add mushrooms and cook over medium/low heat until mushrooms are tender. Season with salt and pepper. I don’t like to rush this part. I like the flavor of mushrooms when they cook kind of slow and long. Plus it gives the moisture in the mushrooms a chance to cook off. Place half of the cheese in each of the crusts. Add half the flour to each and toss to coat. Add the mushroom mixture, dividing it evenly between the crusts. In medium bowl combine the milk with the eggs, parsley, hot sauce and salt and pepper. Pour half of the egg mixture in each of the crusts. I place them on a baking sheet to catch drips. Place in the oven and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Turn down to 300 and bake 25-30 minutes longer- or until center is set. Serve warm. Makes 2.

I had leftover Hot Cross buns last year and ended up making bread pudding with some of them. It was a really big hits with my friends. Since I just posted the recipe for the Hot Cross Buns, I thought I’d share this recipe again. I made a big batch, but the recipe could be cut in half. Thinking I might make Hot Cross Buns- just so I can make this dessert again!!

Hot Cross Buns Bread Pudding

12 c. torn up hot cross buns- I used 8 buns

2 c. half and half

1 c. milk – I used almond milk

1 c. sugar- or less if you are using frosted buns

5 eggs

1 T. vanilla

1 T. cinnamon

Frosting:

1 c. powdered sugar

4 t. milk

In large mixing bowl place the torn up buns. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over the buns. Stir to moisten evenly. Spoon mixture into a buttered 9×13-inch pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until bread pudding is set and a little golden on top. While the bread pudding is baking combine powdered sugar with milk to make a frosting thin enough to drizzle. Let bread pudding cool 10 minutes and drizzle with frosting.  Serves 8-10.

Hot Cross Buns

These rich rolls are a traditional dish at Easter in my house. They can be served at breakfast, brunch or even as a dinner roll. Because the dough is rich, they are slow to rise, so if they aren’t jumping out of the pan after an hour or so, don’t worry. They do rise quite a bit in the oven. After they cool a bit- pipe on the icing in the crisscross pattern that gives these rolls their name.

Hot Cross Buns

 2/3 c. sugar

1 t. salt

2 packages active dry yeast

About 5 cups bread flour

1 ½ c. milk

½ c. butter

2 eggs

1 c. raisins

Icing

¾ c. powdered sugar

1 T. milk

In bowl combine sugar, salt, yeast and about 1 ½ c. flour. Heat together milk and butter until very warm. Beat milk mixture into to flour mixture and beat 2 minutes with electric mixer. Beat in 1 egg and 1 cup flour and beat 2 more minutes until batter thickens. Stir in raisins and enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top, cover with a towel and allow to rise in a draft free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Place dough on floured surface and divide into 15 equal pieces. Cover with towel and lest rest 15 minutes. Meanwhile grease a 9×13 inch pan. Form dough into smooth balls and place in prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat remaining egg. Cut a cross in each bun and brush with the egg. Bake for 25 minutes or until buns are golden. Remove buns to wire rack to cool 15 minutes. Make frosting, place in decorating bag and pipe onto buns. Makes 15.

Chocolate Easter Egg Biscotti

After a friend mentioned that she would love my Easter Egg Biscotti even better if they were chocolate, I decided to try to make her some. This is the end result. I used my original recipe and added cocoa powder. Worked out really nice, so I thought I’d share them with you.

Chocolate Easter Egg Biscotti

1 c. shortening – you can use butter- I do*
1 ½ c. sugar
4 eggs
5 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 t. vanilla
1 c. milk
6 c. flour
¾ c. cocoa powder
Hard cooked eggs, plain or dyed
Powdered sugar glaze- recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add next 4 ingredients and blend until smooth. Mix flour with cocoa. Stir in flour mixture 2 cups at a time. Dough should be pliable. If dough is too sticky add a little more flour. Take a piece of dough about the size of a large egg and roll until smooth. Place on a greased baking sheet. Indent middle slightly and then place an egg in the center, pressing down slightly. It should look like a nest. Continue with remaining dough allowing about 2-3 inches in between as they grow. You can fit 6-8 on a large baking sheet. Bake 20 –25 minutes or until browned on the bottom. Cool on wire rack before drizzling with frosting. Makes 24-30. Store in the fridge.

* If using butter- chill dough before rolling.

Sugar glaze
2 c. powdered sugar
2-3 T. milk or orange juice
1 t. vanilla
Food coloring, if desired
Mix together until smooth and of drizzling consistency.

Chocolate and original biscotti waiting to be baked

Glazed and ready to enjoy

Oyster Mushroom Marsala

Sometimes the ingredients take you where you need to go. I had some oyster mushrooms I had gotten at a local farm market. I used some of them in an omelet a few days ago. I decided to use the rest of them in a pasta dish. The plan was for a red sauce, but as I started making the dish I tasted the mushrooms and decided to go in a another direction altogether. After the mushrooms were cooked with the onions and garlic they were so good already I didn’t want them in a red sauce at all.  I am so pleased with what ended up happening. Here is the recipe.

Oyster Mushroom Marsala

2 T. oil – you could use some butter, too.

1 small onion, sliced

3 cloves minced garlic

4 oz. oyster mushrooms, washed and chopped coarsely

1 c. sliced sweet peppers – I had mini peppers so cut in rings

1 T. capers – maybe a little more

2 T. flour

1 c. stock- use what you like I used chicken, veggie or beef would be good, too

1/2 c. Marsala wine

1/2 c. chopped fresh parsely

salt and pepper to taste

hot pepper to taste

Hot cooked pasta- I used a tomato fettuccine – about 6 oz.

In skillet cook onion in oil until golden. Add garlic, mushrooms, peppers and capers and cook over medium heat until veggies are tender. Add the flour and toss to coat. Add stock, wine and parsley and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium-low heat for several minutes, or a bit longer. You want to cook it long enough to mellow out the flavor of the Marsala. Adjust seasonings and toss with hot pasta. Serves as is or add some Parmesan cheese. Serves 2-3.

Babka

Babka is a different bread from many others that I make.  For starters, the recipe makes 6 loaves of bread at once. Great for gift giving in those quantities. Babka also uses so much less flour than most of my bread recipes. Only 8 cups of flour for the 6 loaves. I often use close to 8 cups of flour for 2 loaves of other breads. The bread dough is really a batter- so sticky you have to oil up your hands to divide the dough into the bread pans.  This very tiny amount of dough rises to fill  9×5-inch bread pans. The result is a bread that is very light with a crunchy exterior and tender interior. I can’t say where I got this recipe. I still have the original handwritten recipe, but it isn’t handwriting I recognize. I made it for a baking class the other night and people seemed to really like it. I hope you do, too.

Babka

3 packets active dry yeast
1 c. warm water
1 c. sugar
8 c. bread flour
1 t. salt
5 large eggs
1 stick butter
2 T. oil
Grated rinds of  an orange and a lemon
2 c. warm milk
1 c. raisins
1 egg mixed with 2-t. milk

In bowl combine yeast, water, sugar, 1 c. flour, and salt. Allow to stand 10 minutes. Beat in eggs, butter, oil and grated rinds. Add remaining flour alternately with milk, beating a total of five minutes. Stir in raisins. Dust a large bowl with flour and put in dough. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 2 hours. Generously grease loaf pans. This recipe will fill 6 standard loaf pans – 9×5 – inch. Lightly oil hands and divide dough into portions, smoothing tops as you place dough in pans. Cover and allow dough to rise until more than doubled, about 1 hour. Brush loaves with egg and milk mixture. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours or until bread is well browned and sounds hollow inside when tapped. Mine is normally done at about an hour and 15 minutes. Cool a few minutes in pans before removing to racks to cool. Babka in great eaten warm from the oven.

Babka dough rising

Fresh from the oven

Honey Bunny

These sweet rolls are sure to be a hit if you make them for Easter. We made them in cooking class last night and everyone enjoyed them. The dough is sweetened with honey and bunnies are brushed with a honey/butter glaze while warm from the oven. I make them every year. The dough is chilled before rolling so you can mix up a batch in the evening- put it in the fridge- then roll them out the next day. Nice when time is an issue.

Honey Bunnies

 4-5 c. flour

2 packages yeast

1 t. salt

2/3 c. evaporated milk

½ c. each water, honey and butter

2 eggs

Raisins, optional

Honey glaze

1/2 c. honey and 1/4 c. butter  heated together until warm.

In bowl combine 1 c. flour, yeast and salt. Heat together milk, water, honey and butter until very warm and beat into the flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes on high speed. Beat in 1 cup flour and eggs. Beat 2 more minutes, until batter thickens. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter and chill, covered with plastic wrap for 2-24 hours.

Place dough on lightly floured surface and divide into 15 equal pieces. Roll each into a 20- inch rope. Cut rope into a 12- inch piece, a 5-inch piece and 3 one-inch pieces. Coil 12 inch piece to form body, five inch piece to form head and inch pieces to form ears and tail. Place on greased cookie sheet and let rise, covered until doubled, about 25 minutes. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove to cooling rack and brush with honey glaze. Place raisins on each to make eyes, if you like. Brush with additional glaze before serving, if desired. Makes 15 bunnies.

Dough is rolled out and cut into pieces for each of the bunny parts

Unbaked bunny

A colony of rabbits!!

Brushing baked bunnies with honey/butter glaze

Easter Egg Biscotti

I get so many requests for this recipe I decided to post it again. This is a treat from my childhood. Rose Dieglio was the mother of my best friend, Debbi. Rose made them every year  and I loved them. Years later she was kind enough to share her recipe with me.  I always make a bunch to hand out to friends and family. It is a tradition I enjoy very much.

Easter Egg Biscotti

1 c. shortening or butter- I use butter*

1 ½ c. sugar

4 eggs

5 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

2 t. vanilla

1 c. milk

6 c. flour

Hard cooked eggs, plain or dyed

Powdered sugar glaze

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter or shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add next 4 ingredients and blend until smooth. Stir in flour 2 cups at a time. Dough should be pliable. If dough is too sticky add a little more flour. Take a piece of dough about the size of a large egg and place on a greased baking sheet. Indent middle slightly and then place an egg in the center, pressing down slightly. It should look like a nest. Continue with remaining dough allowing about 2-3 inches in between as they grow. You can fit 6-8 on a large baking sheet. Bake 20 –25 minutes or until browned on the bottom. Cool on wire rack before drizzling with frosting. Makes 24-30. Store in fridge.

* If using butter- chill dough a couple of hours before baking.

Sugar glaze

2 c. powdered sugar

2-3 T. milk or orange juice

1 t. vanilla

Food coloring, if desired

Mix together until smooth and of drizzling consistency.