Thursday, August 23, 2012

Scotch Shortbread Cookies

Creamy cookies that don’t last very long (they get eaten very quickly).  They can be changed just by adding a little something such as vanilla or almond extract, or even a little chocolate.  However they are very good even when we use the basic recipe.

Needed:

1 cup butter (need to let it get soft beforehand.   We took out of fridge and let sit for a bit until it was soft)

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar).

¼ teaspoon salt

*we usually add a little vanilla or almond extract but we forgot this time.

Bowl, spoon and baking pan

Let the butter become soft, than cream it.  You can use a mixer, spoon or even a fork.  We put all the dry ingredients into the sifter, and sifted it slowly into the butter as we mixed it in.  We used a spoon but you can use a mixer.  The dough looked crumbly but well mixed.  Pour mixture into ungreased baking pan.  It is recommended to put mixture into a 9 X 9 inch baking pan.  We used a larger cake pan, giving us slightly thinner cookies, but still very good.  Press the mixture down firmly until it no longer looks crumbly, but a solid piece.  Poke a fork into the mixture about every half-inch.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 325 degrees.  When done take a butter knife and cut into squares while still warm (in the pan).  Let cool in the pan, remove cut cookies and eat.  You may find they never make it to the cook jar, they are too yummy. 

Next batch we make we are thinking about melting a little milk chocolate and drizzling it on the cookies before they cool.  Not sure if we are going to cut them first and then add the drizzle of chocolate or add first and then cut. 

Homemade white bread made with egg

This was a fun recipe to do with my kids.  There is nothing quite so nice as the smell of bread baking, except that first piece of hot bread covered in butter – as soon as it comes from the oven.  We made this last night – and the family ate an entire loaf before going to bed.

Needed:

Between 7 and 8 cups of sifted all-purpose flour

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1 package of active dry yeast (about 8 oz or 2 teaspoons)

2 ½ cups hot water (between 120 – 130 so hot but not boiling)

½ cup lard or shortening (we used vegetable shortening)

1 egg beaten

A bowl, something to cover it with (tea towel works), bread pans (or cookie sheet for free style shapes or pie tins for round loafs).
In a large bowl mix in 3 cups of flour, sugar, salt and active dry yeast.  We sifted the 3 cups flour, sugar and salt together, added the yeast and mixed with spoon.
Combine in a second container the hot water and lard or shortening.  The shortening does not need to melt, though my husband did suggest next time we put the water and shortening together first to give the shortening a chance to melt.  We just broke the shortening up into smaller pieces in the water and let sit for a few minutes.
Slowly add the water and lard or shortening mix to the dry ingredients.  Beat for about 2 minute is using a mixer.  Use the bread hook attachment, not the regular mixer attachments.  Or mix by hand, for longer.
Add the beaten egg and 1 more cup of sifted all-purpose flour.  If using the mixer beat for about ½ a minute on low (so flour does not end up everywhere but the bowl) then mix on high for about 3 more minutes.  Or mix by hand until the dough is well mixed (no dry flour and looks like to dough).
Slowly add in the last 3 to 4 cups of all-purpose flour.  It is important to add the flour slowly because you may not need it all.  We used just over 3 cups this time.  We did not use the mixer for this part (though you can).  We mixed the last 3 plus cups of flour in by hand, not spoon but actually put our hands in the bowl and worked the flour it.  It is easier to know when to stop adding flour by feel then mixing it in and trying to tell by looking.  This is a skill developed by making bread, and it will take a few batches to learn it. 
 
Lightly flour a board or clean counter top.  Knead the bread until it is smooth and elastic (about 10 min).  If you have no kneaded bread before there are many websites that will show pictures or videos to demonstrate the different techniques.  Eventually you will develop your own kneading style that will continue to improve as you make more bread.

Form a ball with the dough and place into the mixing bowl.  Some people like to use a clean bowl and add flour or butter to the sides so the dough does not stick.  I find using the same bowl is fine as long as there is flour on the sides.  Cover with cloth, cheese cloth is recommended but we used clean tea towels.  You want to make sure nothing gets into the dough, but it can still breath so don’t use a lid or plastic wrap. 

Leave dough in a warm (not hot or cold area) for about an hour or two.  The dough will rise.  You want it to double in size (so keep an eye on it).  Knead again or punch the air out.  Shape and place into greased baking pans.  We did one regular shaped bread pan, one in a round cake pan and did 4 mini free shaped loafs in a larger cake pan (they looked like little ½ foot balls and did not touch).  The kids loved the mini loafs.
Cover and leave dough in a warm (not hot or cold area) for about an hour or two. The dough will rise again. You want it to double in size again(so keep an eye on it).
Put baking pans into the cold oven.  Turn heat on to 400 degrees (in Canada, not sure what it is in the US).  After 15 minutes turn down to 375 degrees.  Bake for about 25 minutes longer.  Our bread was done at about 18 minutes because our oven runs a bit hot.  To test for doneness see if the bread has pulled away from the baking pan.  If it has pulled away from the edge take the bread out of the oven, flip over and let the bread loaf come out of the baking pan.  Then tap the bottom of the loaf, if you hear a hollow sound the bread is done.  If not put back into the oven for a little longer.  Let the bread cool before storing.  –Recommendation – cut a slice right away, don’t worry about how big it is, just cut and cover with butter. Yum.
You may want to brush a little melted butter to the top of the bread loafs when they come out of the over, before they cool.  A trick my Mom always did. 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Fresh slow cooked chicken soup with cheese butter dumplings



A simple but tasty chicken soup that is easy to adjust for any ones taste.  Please note that I am writing what we used, feel free to adjust or change to make the soup the best one for you.

One Chicken – we used 4 ¼ chicken pieces – legs and thighs together.  I find the dark meat is usually more flavourful and is often the cheaper cut.

3 small onions – diced – bite size pieces

3 medium potatoes – diced – smaller then bite size pieces so they cooked quicker

5 to 6 celery stocks – diced or chopped to bite size – keep the leaf part it adds flavour to the soup. 

3 to 4 cloves of garlic – diced or chopped to bite size pieces

Salt – to taste

Pepper – to taste

Other spices – to taste.

If you are using a whole chicken you should cut it into pieces to fit into the pot. Put chicken in a pot with water and some salt.  Bring to boil, reduce heat so that there is still bubbles (pot still boiling) but there is no white foam forming.  The water will reduce – keep adding fresh water so that you develop a nice broth.  Boil until chicken is cooked.

Remove chicken – let cool then peel meat off the bones.  I know some people like to keep the skin, we did not.  It tends to add fat making the soup greasy. Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Put into fridge until needed.

Let the broth cool down.  Skim off the layer of fat/grease that forms on the top.  Some people like the extra fat and believe it adds flavour.  I find that the soup is better if you remove the top layer of fat/grease.  There is enough in the remaining broth to add enough flavour.

Bring broth to boil.  Add potato’s, celery, onions, garlic and cut chicken.  Let boil at reduced heat (water boiling but no foam forming).  Add spices – this should be done slowly.  Don’t put lots in.  We added some pepper at this point and waited to add the other spices until the potatoes were soft.  Boil until potatoes are soft, reduce to low (simmer). 

This time we decided to make the soup spicy so we added more salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, oregano, thyme and a tinny amount of sugar.  We used some premixed spices we had in the house, which is why some sugar was added.  The beauty of this soup is that you can use the spices you have at home, the ones you like.  If you have fresh grown herbs and spices that will make a great soup, but dried or premixed will work.

We added some noodles just because the kids wanted them.  You can take spaghetti noodles and break them into small pieces or buy the smaller pre-cut noodles used for chicken noodle soup.  Again it is about what you like, and what you have in the house.

We added cheese butter dumplings, which made the meal for me.

Needed:

4 tablespoons butter

4 eggs

6 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup grated cheese (this can be adjusted to taste, but don’t add to much cheese)

Beat until soft the 4 tablespoons of butter.  Beat and add in the 4 eggs.  Stir in the 12 tablespoons flour and ½ teaspoon salt.  Once all mixed and smooth, add 1/3 cup grated cheese.

Drop the batter from a spoon into the simmering soup.  Put lid on and simmer the dumplings for about 8 minutes. 

Serve soup with the dumplings on the top of the bowl.  They go quickly.  You may want to make a double batch.  Once the first batch has been served put soup back onto the stove, and make more dumplings.

We made a large pot of soup.  We had enough for a family of four to have dinner and lots of leftovers.  We portioned the extra soup into single lunch sized containers.  We froze it.  When school starts we will pop the portions into the microwave in the morning and put the hot soup into the kids’ thermal containers so they can have hot fresh soup.  The kids wanted us to put dumplings in, but even after making a double batch there were none left.