Spooky Treats

Does everyone has a favorite recipe that you've used so many times that the book falls open to a page that is sticky and has flour in the book spine? After a not-so-successful attempt to make pumpkin bread from a new recipe for church coffee this weekend, I went back to my all-time favorite quick bread recipe. Instead of the bananas the recipe calls for, I used canned pumpkin. It worked wonderfully! I guess that proves the old favorites are sometimes the best.

This was the Sunday before Halloween, and since our church isn't touchy about celebrating that holiday, we decorated and planned treats with a spooky theme. The other member of Sunday's coffee time, Chef Deb, had decorated the table with spiderweb strands and back cloth. I brought some pumpkin decor and found some left from the earlier Fall Festival. Chef Deb and her girls did spiderweb Oreos by dipping one side of an Oreo cookie in white almond bark and making black frosting circles on it which they pulled out with a toothpick to form a spiderweb shape. They also brought mini-cupcakes decorated with sprinkles and plastic spider rings. The kids loved these, their only problem was choosing which color spider they wanted!

Besides the re-reciped Pumpkin Bread, I took Pumpkin Bars frosted with cream cheese frostings. You can never have too much pumpkin in October!

Special Banana Nut Bread (adapted from Taste of Home, 2008)

¾ cup butter, softened

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups chopped pecans, divided

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Add bananas and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, add to creamed mixture. Fold in 1 cup pecans.

Transfer to two greased 8 inch x 4 inch x 2 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle with remaining pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 ¼ hours or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

In a small bowl, whisk the glaze ingredients, drizzle over loaves. (For the glaze, I use about 1 cup powdered sugar and about 3 tablespoons flavored coffee creamer)

Pumpkin Bars  (from Taste of Home web)

4 eggs

1 ⅔ cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

1 can (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Icing:

1 package (3-oz) cream cheese, softened

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

¼ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 – 2 tablespoons milk

In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until well blended. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Pour into an ungreased 15-in.x10-in.x1-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until set. Cool completely.

For icing, beat the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, butter and vanilla in a small bowl. Add enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread over bars. Store in the refrigerator

Easy as Pie?

The saying is old, but is it true? It seems that today making a pie can be quite an accomplishment – especially if you’re doing the crust from start (not from the refrigerated section of the grocery store). And getting the crust, filling, and meringue, if called for, just right may take more-than-a-moderate amount of skill and practice. So, this fall’s goal has been to make this dessert “as easy as pie”.

The first endeavor was for the church’s Fall Festival. The chairperson called for 70 pies! Surely I could contribute a couple? I was up to it! Actually I was rather proud of my efforts after an afternoon of cutting those collected pies. What an array of crusts, fillings, and pans! Getting a close look at many other pie-bakers’ efforts made me feel pretty good about mine – I even sneaked a bite from a crumble that fell off in cutting.

Here’s the recipe, one I’ll make again. In fact, after a friend gave me a bag of home tree pears, I’ve put 2 baggies of this filling in the freezer for future pies.

Crust:

1 ¼ cup flour (all-purpose King Arthur worked well)

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

½ cup butter (not margarine)

¼ cup iced water

Sift flour, sugar, and salt together. Cut in butter until dough is crumbly (here I used the food processor – quick and did a good job). Add enough iced water to the crumbs so that they hold together (again, in the food processor – a tablespoon at a time and pulsing the processor. It only took about 3 tablespoons). Mold dough into a circle about 1-inch thick, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. Roll out with rolling pin to desired size.

I have a new plastic mat for dough that works great! It requires only a little flour to keep the dough from sticking and has circles to measure the size you’re rolling. It allowed me to roll out dough easily and lift it up over the rolling pin to transfer to the pie pan without the dough tearing.

Pear-Cranberry Lattice Pie

Pastry for double-crust pie (9-inches)

¾ cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

5 cups sliced peeled fresh pears

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

additional sugar

Line a 9-inch pie plate with bottom pastry; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and allspice. Add pecans and cranberries; toss to coat. Spoon into crust; dot with butter.

With a fluted pastry wheel, pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut remaining pastry into eight 1-inch strips. Twist strips; position parallel to each other and about ½ inch to ¾ inch apart over filling. Trim strips evenly with pastry edge. Seal and flute edges.

In a small bowl, whisk egg and milk; brush over pastry. Sprinkle with additional sugar. Cover pie loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and remove foil; bake for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

Silver and Gold and Recipes (Pumpkin Brownies)

          

There’s an old campfire girls saying about friends “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold”. Friends are like a precious metal that enrich our lives.  Recipes are like that also; we have our old favorites, but like to try new ones. So when I volunteered to bring brownies to a friends’ lunch, I thought of my all-time-favorite-tried-and-true recipe (blog of August 6, 2011). But I’ve been seeing lots of pumpkin brownie recipes on Pinterest and in the magazines that were tempting, keep the old or try the new??

The Friends’ lunch was great – our ‘old’ Extension staff (Jeff, Cherie & I) and the ‘new’ Extension staff (Amanda & Anna). It was good to visit with all and to appreciate the specialness of these friendships – a celebration of long-standing friends and the discoveries of new friends.

The ‘new’ recipe of Pumpkin Brownies was special too. With two favorite flavors – chocolate and pumpkin, it turned out to be a new favorite.  Best enjoyed with a cup of kindness.

Pumpkin Brownies

Ingredients:

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter, melted

1 ½ cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips)

½ cup pumpkin puree

½ cup chopped walnuts

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.

2.     In another bowl, stir together the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla extract, beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoon. Gradually add the flour mixture, and stir the batter until it’s evenly moistened. Divide the batter in half I two separate bowls.

3.     Into one bowl of batter blend cocoa powder ad chocolate chips In the second bowl of batter stir in the pumpkin puree walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

4.     Spread ½ of the chocolate batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, and follow with ½ of the pumpkin batter. Repeat the layers, ending with a pumpkin layer, and drag a kitchen knife or small spatula gently through the layers in a swirling motion, to create a marbled appearance.

5.     Bake in the preheated oven until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Cool in the pan, cut into squares, and serve.

Makes 16 servings.

We've had many coffee times, birthday cakes, and office conferences around this table. 

Jammin' on a Sunday Afternoon

No, I haven’t joined a rock band! But I really like my new toy -  a jam and jelly maker by the Ball company. Just a few easy steps and jam is made! I did 2 batches yesterday afternoon, just a couple of hours from digging out the equipment to cleaning the kitchen!

This tabletop appliance looks similar to a large slow cooker, but has a heating element and a stirrer. There are only a few recipes with the purchase, and when I contacted the Ball Company about some others, they said nothing else had been tested to print. As I looked at the recipe booklet, it seemed the recipes were all similar, and if I used proportions of other recipes for the same quantity, maybe I could make my own variations. So from the Strawberry Jam recipe I made a batch of Strawberry/Rhubarb Jam, and a batch of Strawberry/Blackberry Jam. I’m anxious to try Jalapeno Strawberry Jam for the Texas son-in-law.

This is a simple procedure – it went so quickly I hardly had time to wash the jars before it was ready. First add the powdered pectin to the pan, then the crushed fruit. Turn on the timer and the stirrer, it beeps at 4 minutes to tell you to add the sugar and put the lid on. After a total of 21 minutes of heating and stirring, there’s your jam! Ready to go into jars. I like making jam in half-pint jars to use or give as gifts. Also, five half-pint jars will fit in my spaghetti pan for the water-bath processing. No need to get the big water-bath kettle out. It is important to use a large pot with a rack, as the jars should not set on the bottom of the pan.

The basic Strawberry Jam recipe is:

2 ⅔ cups crushed strawberries (I used frozen berries that had mostly thawed)

3 tablespoons Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin

½ teaspoon butter or margarine

3 ⅓ cups granulated sugar

            Prep berries (if using fresh, wash, drain and remove stems and hulls). Crush berries one layer at a time using a potato masher. Measure required quantity of crushed berries and remaining ingredients of the recipe. Set aside.

Sprinkle pectin evenly over bottom of Pot fitted with the stirrer. Add crushed strawberries evenly over pectin. Add butter/margarine to help reduce foaming.

Press ‘Jam’ button, then ‘enter’.  After 4 minutes (4 short beeps sound), add sugar gradually while stirrer continues running. Place glass lid on pot. At the end of cooking/stirring time, the appliance beeps again to signal that the jam cooking is complete. Then press ‘cancel’, unplug and remove lid.

The jam is ready to eat, or preserve. If you don’t want to preserve the product, jam can be kept in the refrigerator or frozen.