Buttermilk Batters

Isn't that a cute little milk jug?

Many recipes have buttermilk as an ingredient to help give the product a creamy taste and flavor. Often I keep some buttermilk (left over from another preparation) in the freezer for recipes. But this is less than successful, often changing texture as it separates slightly and loses some of the creaminess. While this doesn't seem noticeable in sauces, in some other products it doesn't work well. You can also make a substitute for 1 cup of buttermilk in recipes with one tablespoon of lemon or lime juice, or vinegar plus enough milk to equal 1 cup total.
But, fresh real buttermilk does give foods a special creaminess and flavor. It is a good thing that the acidity of buttermilk gives it a long refrigerator life, so you have longer to find uses for it. 
When daughter Sara was here and we planned to use some of her CSA veggies, the fried okra needed a buttermilk dip. Even the non-veggie eaters in the family like it! Then - what to do with the rest of the buttermilk?? So I searched for recipes. The Buttermilk Coconut Pound Cake from Martha Stewart was also a hit. It was so tender and yummy tasting. And even though I try not to fry too many things, there was still buttermilk left and it was too creamy not to use in a fry-batter, so it went with fish, tomatillos, and a few other crispy sides using the same preparation as we did for the okra.

Buttermilk Fried Okra

1 lb. fresh okra, cut into ½-inch-thick slices

¾ cup buttermilk

1 ½ cups self-rising white cornmeal mix

            (or 1 ½ cups cornmeal + ½ tsp. baking powder)

1 tsp. table salt

1 tsp. sugar

¼ tsp. ground red pepper

Vegetable oil

Stir together okra and buttermilk in a large bowl. Stir together cornmeal mix and next 3 ingredients (salt, sugar, red pepper) in  a separate large bowl. Remove okra from buttermilk in batches, using a slotted spoon. Dredge in cornmeal mixture, and place in a wire-mesh strainer. Shake off excess.

Pour oil to depth of 1 inch into a large, deep cast-iron skillet or Dutch over; heat to 365 degrees. Fry okra, in batches, 4 minutes or until golden, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

From Southern Living – Fresh Garden Recipes

Buttermilk Coconut Pound Cake

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk, divided

1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut, tasted, divided

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 4 ½ x 8 ½ -inch loaf pan. Whisk together, flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 8 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down bowl. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with two ½ -cup additions of buttermilk, and beat until combined. With a rubber spatula, fold in 1 ¼ cups coconut.

Transfer batter to pan and bake until a skewer inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 60 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet, 1 hour. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely on rack. (Store at room temperature, wrapped in plastic, up to 4 days).

Whisk together confectioners’ sugar and remaining 2 tablespoons buttermilk. Drizzle over cake and sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup coconut.

(from Martha Stewart)

Last Taste of Summer

The first official day of Autumn is Sunday, and the weather lately has been feeling more fall-like! While it isn't 'chili for supper' weather yet, it is a good time to enjoy some of the flavors of summer before they're out of season. 

The Key Lime Bars were a hit at the neighborhood women's club I attend. I use the term 'neighborhood' loosely - the members live in 3 counties and distance between some of them could span a good 50 miles. This group has been organized since the late 1930's and has it's origins in KSU Extension. I worked with them professionally when I was County Extension FCS agent and it includes some of my favorite people, so it's been a pleasure to become a member. They, and many other clubs like them, started out as Home Demonstration Units in rural neighborhoods to give farm wives a chance to get together for visiting and education. They were later called Extension Homemaker Units and now our group is a Women's Educational Club (WEC). The programs and purpose have always been to improve the quality of the home through lessons on nutrition, food preparation, home maintenance, health, family life, financial management, and community involvement. In fact, the name of this group is Community Benefit. 

Key Lime Bars

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

½ cup powdered sugar

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

¼ teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 ½ cups sugar

4 large eggs

¾ cup Key Lime juice

2 teaspoons grated lime zest

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup all-purpose flour

 (I added green food coloring to filling mixture for a more attractive ‘lime’ look)

Additional powdered sugar for dusting top

1 ounce white chocolate melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 13x9-inch-baking pan.

Combine flour, butter, powdered sugar, coconut, and salt in food processor and process until moist clumps form. Press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake until edges are golden, about 20 minutes.

Whisk sugar, eggs Key Lime juice, lime zest, baking powder and flour in large bowl until well blended. Pour over hot crust. Bake until topping is set and lightly golden, about 25 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Cool in pan on rack slightly. Drizzle with white chocolate. Cool completely. Cut into squares. Makes one 9x13-inch pan (about 40 bar cookies).

 from “Cooking with Bonnie: Farm to France”, Bonnie Aeschliman

Tomato Galette

1 refrigerated pie crust (the rolled kind)

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled and divided

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

3-4 tomatoes (Roma or other pulpy tomatoes are best)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

    Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil, spray, or line with parchment paper a baking sheet. Unroll the pie crust and place it on the baking sheet. In a small bowl, stir together cream cheese, half of feta cheese, oregano, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Spread this mixture evenly onto the pie crust, leaving a 1-1 1/2-inch border. Layer tomatoes evenly on top of cheese mixture and top with remaining feta, remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and pepper. Fold edges of pie crusts toward center, pressing gently to seal (tomatoes will be partially covered). Bake for 30 minutes or until crusts are browned. 

A Galette is a term in French cooking to describe various types of flat, round, freeform tarts with hand-folded edges. They are more rustic and less formal than the classic fluted French tart baked in a rigid tart pan. I had also tried this recipe with refrigerated crescent roll dough instead of pie crust, baking the dough partly before adding the cream cheese mixture and tomatoes, then completing the baking. That was also good and reminded me of the popular 'veggie pizza' with crescent roll dough, cream cheese and finely chopped raw vegetables. 

Apple Autumn - Easy as Apple Pie

Its a sure sign of fall/autumn - lots of apples in the store and lots of recipes to try. This juicy fruit is a  popular fruit, and one of the healthiest. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is an old saying, but one that reminds us of the healthy benefits included in this original fast food. Americans eat an average of about 20 pounds of apples a year, but our European friends do even better, about 46 pounds annually per person.
A couple of recipes I've tried and will file in the 'keeper' category are Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls and Skillet Apple Pie. The Cinnamon Roll recipe is an easy-to-work-with dough that I'll use for other rolls. This dough recipe includes eggs which help the dough rise. The fat in the yolk also helps tenderize the crumb and lighten the texture. The Skillet Apple Pie is absolutely the easiest pie I've ever made - and it uses my favorite crust recipe (pre-made, refrigerated)! I didn't use quite this many apples and it was still full.

 Easy Skillet Apple Pie
Ingredients:
2 pounds Granny Smith apples
2 pounds Braeburn apples
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 (14.1-oz) package refrigerated pie crusts
1 egg white
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel apples, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Toss apples with cinnamon and 3/4 cup granulated sugar.
Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, 1 - 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apple mixture over piecrust, and top with remaining piecrust. Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white; sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar. Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly, shielding with aluminum foil during last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary. Cool on a wire rack 30 minutes before serving.

Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients – rolls

4 ½ tsp (or 2 packages) active dry yeast

½ cup warm milk

3 eggs

2 teaspoons + ½ cup sugar, divided

1 ½ tsp. salt

3-4 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

Ingredients – filling

½ cup butter, melted

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

1 Tbs ground cinnamon

1 ½ cup finely chopped apple (Granny Smith preferred)

1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

Caramel sauce for drizzling (I used ice cream topping sauce)

Ingredients – icing (or your usual icing/glaze with a bit of caramel sauce added)

½ cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

½ tsp salt

⅓ cup heavy whipping cream

2 tsp. vanilla

1 ⅓ cups powdered sugar

Instructions:

For the rolls: Mix together 2 tsp. sugar, warm milk, and yeast in a mixer bowl. Let stand for five minutes. Beat eggs, sugar, and salt until well combined. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture and whisk to combine. Add 1 cup of flour and continue mixing until smooth. Pour in melted butter and mix well. Continue adding remaining flour ½ cup at a time until dough is stiff. Knead dough 20 times on a lightly floured surface. Move the dough to a greased bowl and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Place in a warm area and let rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.

Meanwhile, for the filling: combine sugar and cinnamon. Toss chopped apples with lemon juice and 1 Tbs of sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Once dough has risen, lightly flour a large cutting board. Punch down dough and roll out to approximately 12 x 16 inches. Spread with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Next sprinkle on the apples. Drizzle apples with caramel sauce.

Starting on a long side, roll up dough into a cylinder and pinch the edge to close. Slice (I use a piece of string or dental floss wrapped around the dough roll and tightened) into rolls (12 – 18 rolls). Place in a buttered jellyroll pan and allow to rise for another hour. (At this time the rolls could be placed in the refrigerator to bake later).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (If you’ve refrigerated roll dough, let it come to room temperature before baking) Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown in color.

Prepare caramel icing. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add brown sugar and salt and stir until combined. Continue cooking for another 4 minutes or until sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Add heavy whipping cream and stir to combine. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Whisk in powdered sugar until smooth.

Remove rolls from oven and pour on icing immediately. Let cool slightly and serve. 

Cookie-ed Out - at the State Fair

I had what my husband thought was the ideal job yesterday. Judging cookies at the State Fair! And I was looking forward to it, getting new ideas and using my baking skills and knowledge. Besides, I always like going to the State Fair - see old friends, meet new people, catch up with Extension staff I haven't seen for a while, check out the 4-H exhibits, etc. Our State Fair is celebrating 100 years this year, and while I've gone many years, not nearly that many. Don and I met at the State Fair about 40 years ago, so that always holds a special memory.
We (there were 12 judges, 3 of us were doing cookies) judged for about 6 hours. I think I must have tasted about 70-80 cookies. And at least half of them were chocolate chip - conclusion: if you want to stand out in judging of your product, make it different. Of course it has to look good and taste good as well.
The criteria for a 'good cookie' and what we noted on the score card were:
Appearance - uniform shape, even contour, uniform color, ingredients evenly mixed.
Texture - characteristic of type - soft of crisp.
Tenderness - breaks apart easily when chewed, not crumbly orchard.
Flavor - pleasing, well blended, free of unpleasant or distracting flavors
Proper baking is important. Many cookies were dry and overbaked or doughy and under baked. It is also important for fair entries to follow the rules - the correct number of cookies, appropriate size (not too big, we're trying to teach portion control!), and attractive (nicely round or evenly square)

Here's the most unusual thing I saw. Sugar cookie dough made into shapes of hot dogs and buns. The 'mustard' and 'catsup' were icing gel, the 'onions' and 'pickle' bits were dried fruit candies. Unfortunately it had very little flavor, or else my taste buds were so confused by the appearance it didn't  taste right - a blue however, for originality.

 After so many chocolate chip cookie tastes, I vowed I wouldn't make chocolate chip cookies for weeks! This morning I remembered I needed to make cookies to take to a tailgate party. So, I pulled out a recipe I'd saved from yesterday's judging that seemed healthier with lots of oatmeal and I could use dried fruit.

Famous Oatmeal Cookies
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup flour
3 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)
Can add chopped nuts, raisins, coconut (I added 1/2 cup Craisins)
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream shortening and sugars. Add egg, water and vanilla extract and mix well. Blend baking soda, salt and flour and add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in oats. Drop by tablespoon on greased (or parchment paper) cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Several of the recipes called for shortening, as this one did. I was surprised at this, as most newer recipes in magazines, etc. now list margarine or butter for the fat. Shortening (or Crisco as some still list the brand name) is made from vegetable oil and is 100% fat. To make this fat solid at room temperature, it is hydrogenated which gives it the baking qualities necessary for many recipes and prolongs shelf life. Unfortunately, hydrogenating the vegetable oils transforms something that was nutritionally a 'good' fat into one that's not.
The purpose of fat in baked products is to make them more tender and help suspend the other ingredients in the mixture. Fat also gives a moistness and richness to the baked good. Different fats have different melting points and that makes the difference in how much the cookie spreads or how soft it is. Butter produces a softer and flatter (more spread) cookie because it has a lower melting point. I often use half butter and half margarine and put the dough in the refrigerator between batches.
Higher sugar content in cookies will also make them spread more. The next time I do this recipe I will decrease the sugar some and add a little more flour, hoping for a taller, less flat cookie. I do like the chewiness of the oats.

Off to the tailgate party, Go Cats!