Kansas Day Coffee Time

This month is Kansas Day, and for someone who grew up with Kansas history and pride, it is a fun way to decorate the food tables. This Sunday I helped supply refreshments for our church's coffee time after morning service, so I baked (Kansas wheat) and decorated with sunflowers and Wizard of Oz. Even though the Dorothy jokes can get old, it is a fun theme to use.
Two new coffee cake recipes were waiting for trial in my notebook. I think they are both good and I'll use them again. However, both were baked for 50 minutes, and seemed a little dry. Next time I'll watch closer and check at 45 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 ¼ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup 2% milk

1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Topping:

¼ cup sugar

¼ chopped pecans

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions: In a large bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased 9”x13” pan. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Streusel Topping:

⅔ cups granulated sugar

pinch of salt (if you use unsalted butter)

¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 cup brown sugar, light or dark

1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (for color, not taste. Optional)

Cake:

¾ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt (1 ¼ teaspoon if using unsalted butter)

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

⅓ cup brown sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

¾ cup plain Greek yogurt (or regular yogurt)

1 ¼ cups milk

3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x13” pan.

Make the topping by whisking together sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add melted butter, stirring until well combined. Set the topping aside.

Make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Set it aside.

To make the cake:

In a large bowl, beat together butter, salt, sugars, baking powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt and milk until well combined.

Add flour to the butter mixture alternately with milk/yogurt mixture, beating gently to combine.

Pour/spread half the batter (about 3 cups) into the prepared pan, spreading all the way to the edges.

Sprinkle the filling evenly over the batter.

Gently spread the remaining batter over the filling. Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter, as though you were making a marble cake. Don’t combine the filling and batter thoroughly; just swirl the filling through the batter.

Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

Bake the cake until it is a dark golden brown around the edges; medium-golden with no light patches showing on top, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes. When pressed gently in the middle, the cake should spring back.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving.

Pumpkin Season continues? Pumpkin Cake

The Pumpkin Eaters in my family celebrate the fall arrival of everything pumpkin flavored and hang on to the season for months! So, this weekend we had another serving of Pumpkin Cake. In defense of using this recipe in January, son-Clint had missed its first round of it and this recipe made a quick and easy dessert for an unplanned Saturday evening dinner.

Pumpkin Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

Cake Ingredients:

Spice Cake mix (18.25 oz. package)

Canned pumpkin (15 oz.)

2 large lightly beaten eggs

¼ cup sugar

Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 Tbs. whole milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a bundt cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mix all cake ingredients together with an electric mixer until well blended, about 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly.

Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile make glaze by combining all glaze ingredients in a small bowl and mixing until smooth.

When cake is cooled, drizzle with glaze and serve. Store any left overs in the fridge.  

 

Batter in pan ready for baking

Baked  just right. Ready for glaze. 

Deer Hunt to Shrimp Dinner

Not the deer that netted the shrimp, but a photo of what we might
see in Greenwood County. 

Who would think that a deer hunt would produce a dinner of Shrimp Gumbo? That's what happened when we allowed a hunter from Louisiana to hunt on our property. (We only allow a few bow hunters, those the Rancher thinks can respect the property and the deer). After a successful hunting trip, the hunter returned to pick up his blind from where he watched for deer and brought us some bags of frozen Louisiana shrimp. This is a real treat, we've only had shrimp that was purchased from the store or served at a restaurant.
After searching and considering recipes, I decided a Shrimp Gumbo would be good on a cold damp winter day. Maybe we can pretend we are in the sunny south! This recipe is from Betty Crocker, but I've made some changes, adding more veggies and different seasoning. We enjoyed it over brown rice and it was both warming and filling.

Shrimp Gumbo         

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 large onion, sliced

1 medium green bell pepper, cut into thin strips

2 cups sliced celery

2 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups beef broth

2 dashes red pepper sauce

1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 box (10 oz.) frozen cut okra, thawed and drained

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 pound uncooked peeled and deveined medium shrimp, thawed if frozen and tails peeled

3 cups hot cooked rice

Directions:

In a 4-quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onions, ball pepper, celery, and garlic in butter 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly , until bubbly; remove from heat.

Stir in remaining ingredients except shrimp and rice. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir shrimp into gumbo. Cover and simmer about 5 minutes or until shrimp are pink and firm. Serve soup in bowls over rice.

Golden Harvest Pumpkin Pie

Happy Thanksgiving. Many are walking up early this morning to put turkeys in the oven and put the last touches on a plentiful meal. We have much to be thankful for.
Today I will not be preparing a family dinner, but instead helping with a community dinner, that will be a later post. This morning I share a pumpkin pie recipe that a good friends of mine brought to a church dinner earlier this year and I made for our church's Fall Festival. It is similar to the traditional recipes I've used in the past but the nut topping adds extra taste and an attractive look.

Festive Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

¾ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 ¼ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 ½ cups canned pumpkin

1 ⅓ cups evaporated milk

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Nut Topping:

½ cup nuts, chopped

1 tablespoon margarine

2 tablespoons brown sugar

 1 ½ teaspoons grated orange rind

Directions:

Mix brown sugar, flour, salt, and pumpkin pie spies. Stir in canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, and egg. Stir until smooth. Pour into pastry lined pan. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for 45 minutes, remove pie from oven and spoon topping mixture around edge. Bake 15 minutes longer.

Cranberry Ginger Pear Crisp

Fall flavors include both cranberries and pears. Pears are an often overlooked fruits, many times overshadowed by their cousin, the apple. However, in history pears are found to be a common theme and in ancient times were considered a better fruit than the apple. Pears were introduced to the United States in 1629.
Perhaps one of the difficulties of pears is that there seems to be one good day for a fresh pear. If you don't eat it on that day you've missed it. In anticipation of this recipe and a couple of others, I purchased several pears. And I missed the day for some of them, so they all ended up in this dessert. So I used about 6 pears instead of the 3-4 called for, but I think it made the crisp even better.
I also liked this recipe because it uses Cranberry Pear White Balsamic Vinegar. I like shopping for flavored vinegars and oils but sometimes I'm unsure when and where to use them. Olio's Market in Wichita now has an east location, so I'll be buying more frequently, good to have recipes for ideas of using these ingredients. I found the recipe in the Wichita Eagle's Holiday Recipe section.

Cranberry Ginger Pear Crisp

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 pounds Bosc pears (about 3-4) (or more!)
1/4 cup sugar
Grated ginger (use a piece approximately .7 oz)
2 tablespoons Cranberry Pear White Balsamic Vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I like Vietnamese Cinnamon)
topping:
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions:
          Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8" glass baking dish or a 9-inch pie pan. Peel, core and cut the pears into thin slices. In a large bowl, combine the pears with sugar, ginger, Cranberry Pear White Balsamic Vinegar and cinnamon. Combine well and allow to sit while you make the topping.
         For the topping: Combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal and butter in a bowl. With an electric mixer or with a pastry blender, cut in or mix until crumbly. Don't over mix. The clumps of butter should be about pea-sized.
        Layer the pears in the baking dish, making sure you include all the juice from the bottom of the bowl. Spread the topping mixture evenly over the pears. Place in the oven for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and slightly bubbly. It is best served warm, and maybe with a scoop of ice cream.

Favorite Flavors - Chocolate & Peanut Butter

It's been a month of pumpkin tasting, and I have lots of recipes to post and will try to get to those soon. But yesterday was a day to take a break from pumpkin flavors and stir up a recipe for a no-bake cookie bar that combines two favorite flavors - chocolate and peanut butter. That it also contains our favorite cereal is a bonus.

Honey Nut Cheerios Peanut Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light kart syrup
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups honey nut cheerios
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional but very good!)

Directions:
Butter (or spray with non-stick coating) a 9x13 dish and set aside.
In a large pan melt sugar and kart syrup over medium heat until it barely comes to a boil Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Add cheerios, 2 cups at a time and stir until fully coated.
Press cheerios into the 9x13 pan.
Optional: melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute and drizzle chocolate (or smear, mine didn't 'drizzle' well) over top of the bars.
Store in an air-tight container for 3 -5 days - if they last that long!