When Quilters Cook

When women who like to share recipes and ideas gathered last weekend for Quilt Retreat, it was three days of fun, food, and fabric. Quilters who frequent Needle in a Haystack came from all over Kansas and at least 3 other states to sew and share. Everyone brought dishes of food and projects and filled the lodge with the hum of sewing machines and laughter.

Here are a couple of the recipes from that weekend.

Cherry Clafoutis

A Clafoutis is an easy French dessert that can use fresh summer cherries and be served warm or cool, or even for breakfast. Traditionally the pits are left in the cherries to release an almond flavor, but I think this version with pitted cherries and almond extract is a better choice. Other fruits besides cherries can be used, and the dish is called a flagrance. Clafoutis means 'to fill' (implied: "the batter with cherries")

We had fun at Quilt Retreat saying the name - the correct pronunciation is ka-foo-TEE. 

 Ingredients:

20 oz. fresh sweet cherries, stemmed and pitted

2 tablespoons butter, melted

4 eggs

1 cup milk

¾ cup flour

¾ teaspoon salt

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a round 10-inch baking dish with butter. Dust with about 2 tablespoons sugar.

2.     Arrange the cherries in a single layer, set aside until you prepare the batter.

3.     Mix eggs with remaining sugar and salt. Stir in flour. Add milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and mix well until well blended. Add melted butter and stir to combine. The result is similar to crepes mixture.

4.     Pour mixture over the cherries.

5.     Bake for about 40-45 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Cool on a rack for a few minutes while it deflates. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. Serve warm or chilled.

This cake was a hit! Simple and light tasting, but with lots of flavor.

Pineapple Orange Cake                          

1 box yellow cake mix

4 large eggs

¾ cup oil

1 – 11oz. can mandarin oranges with juice

• Mix these ingredients together. 
• Bake at 350 ° for 25 minutes

Frosting:

1 box instant vanilla pudding mix

20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained (save juice)

1 small whipped toppiong

• Mix juice with pudding mix. Add drained pineapple. 
• Fold in cool whip. Refrigerate.

A 'deconstructed' Peach Melba
Fresh Colorado peaches, raspberries,
sponge cake and whipped cream.

A morning walk at the retreat center before a day of sewing. 

Hide the Zucchini

There's a new game at our house - hide the zucchini. Our sorry garden failed to do much with the peas, tomatoes and corn we planted, but outdid any expectations with the four zucchini plants we planted. This was about three too many plants!
So, there has been an effort to find new recipes for zucchini! Two from this week are muffins and chocolate cake. I'll be looking for more because there are now several bags of grated zucchini in the freezer waiting for future recipes.

Zucchini Bread (made into muffins)           

My muffins didn't hold their rounded top shape well,
I think because the batter is so moist. I may try
adding oatmeal for a drier batter. 

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons orange juice

½ cup canola oil (I used lemon infused olive oil)

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup chopped pecans

 

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl, combine orange juice, oil, applesauce, eggs and vanilla. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda; mix well. Add orange juice mixture; stir until just combined. Fold in zucchini and pecans.

2.     Pour into two 8x4-in. loaf pans (or 24 muffin cups) coated with cooking spray. Bake 60-65 minutes (22-25 minutes for muffins) or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I have found that a more sure way of checking for doneness is with a food thermometer. When muffins are completely baked, the internal temperature will be 120°.  These still looked moist on top, and I would have baked them longer and perhaps overbaked them if depending on appearance. They are a very moist product, zucchini makes most baked goods very moist. I recommend keeping them in the refrigerator.

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE                                    

I didn't even get the photo before
a piece was cut out!

 ½ cup (8 tablespoons) butter

½ cup vegetable oil

1 ¾ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

½ cup sour cream buttermilk, or yogurt

2 ½ cups all purpose-flour

¾ cup baking cocoa

2 teaspoons expresso powder, optional but tasty

3 cups shredded zucchini

½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1.     Preheat the oven to 325° F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch pan.

2.     In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, oil, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until smooth.

3.     Beat in the eggs.

4.     Stir in the sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt alternately with the flour.

5.     Add the cocoa and espresso powder, mixing until smooth.

6.     Fold in the zucchini and ½ cup chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

7.     Bake the cake for 30 – 35 minutes, until the top springs back lightly when touched, and it seems set. (I needed a few more minutes until the top ‘set’.)

8.     To ice the cake: Slide the cake out of the oven, sprinkle it evenly with 1 cup chocolate chips, and return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until a cake tester (toothpick) inserted in the center comes out clean.

9.     Remove the cake from the oven, and use a cake spatula to spead the chocolate chips into a smooth glaze. Cool on a rack.

My note: I didn’t find this glaze method very satisfactory, so I used a ready made frosting which can be thinned to glaze consistency in the microwave.

Many are not familiar with the cake batter mixing method of alternately adding dry and wet ingredients. I remember being taught this in 4-H Foods many years ago, and that you start and end with the dry ingredients, but wasn’t sure why, except it incorporates the ingredients better. From King Arthur Flour’s website, here are the explanations.

First, whisk dry ingredients together to evenly incorporate the ingredients and avoid lumps. Start and end with dry ingredients because there is usually more of the dry ingredients then the wet  ingredients.

This alternating of ingredients in smaller amounts is to not ‘shock’ the air out of the batter by dumping in a lot of flour or splashing in a lot of liquid all at once. By adding these ingredients a little at a time the air bubbles are preserved and the cake will be lighter.

This method also helps the butter batter absorb the liquid more easily. Otherwise, the eggs and butter or oil could only hold so much liquid and the result would be a separation of the batter, which makes a heavy cake.

Starting with the flour brings the batter together to help absorb the excess liquids and helps prevent the batter from separating. This also helps make a lighter cake.

There’s your food science lesson for the day!

Jello - Take 2

A few months ago (blog of April 23) I wrote of the waning and rise of popularity of Jello. These desserts and salads make an easy to make and take dish. A recent meeting of our Extension women's group seemed to be the Day of Jello, as several varieties were presented.
This month I've made a couple of good recipes that I'll do again. The Rhubarb Pear Gelatin makes a good tart/sweet dessert or salad and used one of my favorite flavors - Rhubarb. It is from a Taste of Home magazine of 13x9 (pan) recipes. The Creamy Orange Fluff salad is from Kids A Cookin', (http://www.kidsacookin.org)  K-State Extension website for children's recipes. We made it in quantity to serve 120 for Vacation Bible School supper and I didn't get a photo. But it was well liked!

Rhubarb Pear Gelatin                                              

 3 (3-oz) packages strawberry gelatin

2 cups miniature marshmallows, divided

4 cups sliced fresh or frozen rhubarb

2 cups water

⅔ cup sugar

2 cups cold water

1 can (15 ¼ oz) sliced pears, drained and chopped

1.     Place the gelatin and 1 cup marshmallows in a large bowl; set aside.

2.     In a large saucepan, combine the rhubarb, water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 3-4 minutes or until rhubarb is tender. Remove from the heat; pour over marshmallow mixture, stirring to dissolve gelatin. Stir in the cold water, pears, and remaining marshmallows.

3.     Transfer to a 13/9-in. dish. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or until firm.

Note: using frozen rhubarb is actually better; the freezing process breaks up some of the fibers and makes the rhubarb softer.

Orange Fluff Salad        

1 container (12 oz) low fat cottage cheese

1 package (3 oz) orange gelatin

1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple with juice

1 can (11 oz) mandarin oranges, drained

1 cup whipped topping

Directions: 

Combine cottage cheese and gelatin powder in mixing bowl.

Fold in pineapple, drained oranges and whipped topping. 

Chill until serving time.