White Lily Flour & Mexican Vanilla Bean Biscuits

Much ado has been made about this flour. It's been said that this is the only flour to use for biscuits, especially if you're a Southerner. However, Smuckers bought this company up a few years ago and some bakers swear they can tell the difference. Honestly, I wouldn't know having only just recently baked with it myself.

The difference between White Lily's all-purpose flour is apparent upon opening the bag. I thought, wow, this looks like confectioners sugar! When they decided to put 'white' in White Lily, they really meant it! I actually read the label again just to make sure I had the right product because it even clumps up the way powdered sugar does. I'm guessing this has something to do with the soft winter wheat that is used (also the bleaching) to make this flour. This is what the White Lily website has to say about it:
"Soft winter wheat is a variety of wheat that has a low protein content and low gluten content. It is the type of flour recommended for cakes, biscuits, and quick breads. White Lily flour is lower in protein content because the soft wheat is pure-- not blended with hard wheat. Hard wheat has a much higher protein content and gluten content."

I decided to remake the Angel Biscuits with White Lily all-purpose flour and add Mexican vanilla bean as the Lee Brothers suggested in their Southern Cookbook. I also experimented with using all lard instead of 1/2 lard, 1/2 butter.
These were like puffy, vanilla-flecked cookies. I didn't add as much sugar as was suggested in the Lee Bros. recipe. I bet if I had, these definitely would've passed as cookies. These would be lovely with a nice glaze. My cousin suggested eating these with strawberries and cream. I think that sounds delicious.
If you'd like to make vanilla biscuits, just scrape out the beans of one vanilla bean pod into the dry ingredients of whatever biscuit recipe you'd like to use. Mix together. If you want to add more sugar, go for it. The smell of vanilla will quickly fill up your kitchen.

The World's Ugliest Toaster Tarts

I got this adorable little book awhile back called "Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It" by Karen Solomon. It contains all manner of goodies - recipes for Coconut Cream Pops, Marshmallows and Jamaican Ginger Beer. I have already made the Fruit & Nut Brandy that was a part of my post on Liqueurs. Delicious.

As a huge fan of Pop Tarts, (my favorites were the Brown Sugar and Strawberry varieties) I was excited to try the Toaster Tarts recipe, a grown-up version of dessert for breakfast. I was impressed that Ms. Solomon included lard in the recipe, as well as the encouragement to use homemade jam. Ha, of course, I didn't use my homemade jam, I used someone else's, but hey, we'll get to that a little later when strawberries are peaking. I also found this recipe to be a good excuse to try my first homemade pie dough. Since that's really what toaster tarts are - mini rectangular pies that are toaster-friendly!

I used Mosswood Farm Store's Wild Yellow Plum Jam that I purchased from them in a tizzy of delight as I had also acquired organic, acorn-finished lard from a local farmer. If you're ever in Micanopy, Florida you must stop by early Sunday afternoon when the farmer's market and bread-baking brick oven are fired up in the back yard. See photos at bottom of page.
But back to the tarts...I am not the neatest of people (see old architecture school models) so my tarts were not pretty, but they still tasted good, which is kinda the point.
The crust overwhelmed the filling which to me is the opposite of a Pop Tart where I always wanted to eat more and more of the crust and just a little of the filling. But this is a radically different crust than a Pop Tart. Very flaky and crumbly. I loved the flavor of the plum jam and thought I could probably get away with using more next time. This is one project where I don't have to worry about having leftovers that may or may not get eaten because they are so easily frozen and toasted for a breakfast treat. So my advice is this: don't worry about how the tarts look, focus on using good quality jam and practicing your pastry dough technique! What a great way to start the day out right!

Toaster Tarts from "Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It" by Karen Solomon
Ingredients

DOUGH
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup lard
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 /1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
5 tablespoons ice-cold water, or more as needed

ICING
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons water

TARTS
1 egg
5 tablespoons jam, apple butter, or lemon curd, or more as needed

Instructions:
To make the crust, chop the butter and lard into 1/2 inch cubes, and chill in the freezer for about 15 minutes while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.
Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor, if you have one. If you don't, mix by hand in a chilled bowl. Add the cold butter and lard, and pulse until combined. If working by hand, quickly coat the butter and lard with the dry ingredients and, working with 2 knives, cut the butter and lard into the flour until it forms coarse crumbs. Add the vinegar and water and combine. If needed, keep adding water, 1 teaspoon at a a time, just until the dough holds together. (The key here is to use as little liquid as possible.
Bring the dough together on a floured surface, cut it in half, shape each piece into a flat rectangle about 1/2 inch thick, wrap each rectangle in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the icing, while the dough chills, stir together the confectioners' sugar and water.

To assemble the tarts, preheat the oven to 350 deg. and beat the egg in a small bowl. Have pastry brush near.
Remove the first dough rectangle from the refrigerator, unwrap, and roll it out on a floured surface using a floured rolling pan, keeping it in the best rectangle shape you can muster, about 1/8 inch thick. If the dough gets too soft to work with, chill for 20 minutes in the fridge or 5 minutes in the freezer.

Measure twice, cut once. Grab a tape measure or ruler and nick the edges of the crust to allow for as many 3 by 4 inch rectangles as possible. When you have the sizing right, cut out your rectangles with a pizza cutter, knife or scraper. From 1 dough rectangle, you will likely have 10 to 12 pieces, enough for 5 to 6 tarts. Brush each piece of dough with beaten egg.

Eyeball 2 similarly sized pieces. Spoon 1 scant teaspoon of jam into the center of 1 of the pieces of dough and smooth it over, leaving a 1/2 inch margin on all sides. Cover with its twin piece of dough, egg wash side down and gently flatten the 2 pieces together, squeezing out as much air as possible and being careful not to let the filling leak out on the sides.

With a dinner fork, press the edges of the tart together, and gently poke 3 or 4 sets of holes into the top of the tart. Brush with the icing. Don't worry too much if the icing doesn't go on evenly, as it will become transparent as it bakes. Using your scraper or a spatula, carefully transfer the tart to an ungreased baking sheet.

Assemble the remaining tarts. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or just until light brown. The theory here is that you'll finish baking them later in the toaster oven when you're ready to eat them. If you want to eat them all right away, bake for 10 minutes more, or until golden brown all over.
Repeat the above with the second dough rectangle.

How to Store It
Cooled, prebaked tarts can be kept in a sealable plastic bag in the freezer for 3 months. Toast in a toaster, toaster oven or oven when ready to eat.

Southern Living's Homemade Loaf Bread

This bread is perfect for luscious grilled cheese sandwiches, for dipping in olive oil or pasta sauce or for simply slathering butter and jam on. A tight crumb, thin, crunchy crust and a mild flavor lend to its versatility. Not to mention how easy and fast it is for homemade bread--no long rise times or special equipment (other than a mixer with a dough hook).

Homemade Loaf Bread from Southern Living's 'Our Test Kitchen Secrets'
 1  (1/4 oz) envelope active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup warm water (100-110 deg)
2 to 3 cups bread flour
2 tblsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in bowl of a heavy-duty electric stand mixer; let stand 5 minutes.  Add 2 cups flour, oil, and salt. Beat at low speed, using dough hook attachment, 1 minute. Gradually add additional flour (up to 1 cup) until dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl and pull together, becoming soft and smooth.
2. Increase speed to medium, and beat 5 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place (85 deg), free from drafts, 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
3. Preheat over to 400 deg. Punch dough down, and let stand 10 minutes.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; shape dough into a 12-inch loaf, and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cut 3 (1/4" deep) slits across top of dough with a sharp paring knife. (The slits release interior steam and prevent the loaf from splitting apart at the sides.) Spritz dough with water just until lightly coated.
5. Bake at 400 deg. for 16 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. 

Sister Schubert's Buttermilk Biscuits

My obsession with biscuits continues. I know, you're probably totally bored by now. I apologize, but I can't say when my preoccupation with biscuits is going to end.

I had heard so much about Sister Schubert's frozen, par-baked biscuits that I had to try them. Of course, they're not sold in stores in California, so when I was home over the holidays I marched myself over to the freezer case at Publix and picked me up a pack.

I really wanted them to be god awful, but they weren't. They were pretty good. Darn it. But will I ever buy them again? Nope.

Because of one evil little word. Trans-fat. Yep, the famous Alabama biscuits made by the little church lady raising money for charity contain the dreaded partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

Here's the quote off the packaging:
"Sister says, "I use no preservatives and only the finest ingredients. You can taste the difference!"

Yeah, right! Another food product trying to come off as wholesome and natural only to find it's a big fat lie. I guess they're hoping that we won't actually read the ingredients or even know what partially hydrogenated soybean oil is. What a shame.

Biscuit FAIL.

This is really embarrassing. I made this recipe 3 times.
Read this recipe, notice anything?
Overt HINT: self-rising flour. 

Mama's Mayonnaise Biscuits from Bon Appetit, Y'all by Virginia Willis

1 tblsp. canola oil, for the tin
2 cups self-rising flour (Southern)
3 tblsp mayonnaise
1 c. whole milk
1 tsp. sugar


Preheat the oven to 350 deg. Brush a 12-cup medium muffin tin with oil.

Combine the flour, mayonnaise, milk and sugar in a bowl. Using a spoon or an ice cream scoop, spoon dough into each muffin cup, filling about half full. Alternatively, drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a greased baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly, then invert the biscuits onto the rack to cool until warm. Serve warm.

In the notes for this recipe, Southern flour (White Lily or Martha White) is recommended. In order to accommodate this recommendation, I would have to order it online, but I thought I'd get all experimental-like and follow the suggestion that Virginia Willis makes for those of us who don't have easy access to Southern flour, which is to use 1 part all-purpose four and 1 part cake flour. However, I decided I'd take it up a notch and use half whole wheat flour and half cake flour. Mistake! I would absolutely not recommend using whole wheat flour for biscuits. Even if the package says it has the qualities of white flour. It really doesn't.

But that's not the half of it. From my very obvious hint that I gave you earlier, the recipe calls for self-rising flour. If you want to sub with all-purpose flour, then you have to add the baking powder and salt yourself. And here's the embarrassing part. I forgot to add the baking powder. Not once, but twice.  I made the first batch and they turned into hardened dough. I thought it was the muffin tin I was using which was stoneware, not tin, and maybe you had to preheat it? So I start over and decide to use a baking sheet instead. Exact. Same. Result. omg. It hits me. You didn't add the baking powder!?#@$!!
Lord, help me.

Still, THE THIRD ATTEMPT looked nothing like the gorgeous photo in the cookbook. And that's because I used part whole wheat flour. The biscuits were edible at least, but tasty? No. Light and flaky, definitely not. I will not be using this recipe again unless I have acquired Southern flour. Maybe I'll buy some at Publix when I'm home over Christmas.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

See, I told you, hardened dough.

Liqueurs, Cordials, Digestifs....

I almost forgot about them. They were the serene occupants of my kitchen counter, waiting patiently for their time to be up, letting the alcohol extrude all their fabulous fruit sugars. There was Super Sweet Strawberry, In Every Way Fall Fruit & Nut, Too Tart Olallieberry, Oh That's Not Good Pluot and Lime, and the Queen herself, A Hint of Spice Cherry Nectar, who was the oldest and the wisest.

Making liqueurs is so easy and so satisfying that for awhile there I was quite the addict. There is something so delightful about putting fruit in a jar with sugar, spices and alcohol, forgetting about it for awhile and then voila! You have this fragrant and potent cordial that will last indefinitely, that gets you tipsy with one sip, and can be the base for an array of cocktails.

As you can tell from the names of the liqueurs above, some were more successful than others. The Pluot (a cross between a plum and an apricot) was an experiment gone bad. I used what was handy, which was pluots, lime and vanilla. I know they sound like they would go well together, but take my word for it, they don't. I was disappointed that the Olallieberry didn't work out because the berries were a gift from local farmer, Alex Weiser. And because, well, they're olallieberries. It's not a berry that you hear about every day. An olallieberry is a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry, each of which is itself a cross between blackberry and another berry (raspberry and dewberry, respectively). Did you get that?

However, the Cherry turned out very well according to Jonathan (my roommate and best friend who has become a liqueur/cordial fan despite his general lack of interest in alcohol with the exception of wine). I had also bottled some up for my Thanksgiving host family (the ever-spicy Hamaoui's) for them to sample. It got rave reviews. Here's the recipe from an amazing book called "Preserving" that no one ever refers to, but really should. It's a part of the Time-Life Good Cook Series edited by Richard Olney.

Cerises á l'Eau de Vie or Cherry Nectar, adapted from Preserving.

2 lbs cherries, I believe I used Rainier cherries when they were in season. I have heard you can use whole frozen cherries, if you don't want to wait til cherry season in spring. But I would say wait til you get them fresh.
1 L brandy
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup sugar

Put the cherries in jars with cloves and cinnamon. Melt the sugar over low heat, and cook until this syrup reaches the hard-ball stage, 250 deg F on a candy thermometer. Cool the syrup slightly, then stir in the brandy. Mix well and let cool completely. Pour the syrup over the cherries. Seal the jars.

I shook the jars daily for a few maybe the first three months. Total sit time is 6 months. You can let this steep for much longer, if you prefer. When infusion is complete, strain the fruit from the alcohol. You can eat these brandy-drenched cherries, which are magnificent with vanilla ice cream.

Real Cajun's German Chocolate Cake

My method for buying cookbooks goes something like this: First I check them out at the library. Then if there at 12 or 15 pages I've marked with those page keeper sticky things, then I know I should buy the cookbook. That's what happened with Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link's Louisiana.

And the first recipe I had to try was the German Chocolate Cake. The photos totally sold me. Sugary, oozy frosting dripping all over luscious layers of dark, dark chocolate cake. I couldn't imagine how this cake couldn't be anything but decadent and mouth-watering.

But I warn you, this cake is a project, not only in terms of making the cake, but for the sheer amount of ingredients. 17 eggs! 4-1/2 sticks of butter! 3 cups of condensed milk! I guess a lot of people would say this is a special occasion kind of cake, but as a friend of mine said, 'Every day is a special occasion in Brooke's kitchen". Seriously, why wait for a special occasion? Why doesn't an ordinary day deserve a great cake? The answer is, it absolutely does. So maybe this isn't a cake you make spur of the moment on a weeknight, but on a thoughtfully planned Saturday or Sunday. Ooh how about on Saturday and then you can serve it for Sunday lunch or dinner? Just make sure each guest has easy access to at least 2 glasses of milk because they're going to need it!

I also have to say that I will be making just the cake from the recipe and leaving off the frosting, the German bit. This cake reminds me so much of my Nana's chocolate cake. Unfortunately, like so many of her amazing dishes, she didn't leave behind the recipe. I can't remember the last time I had a slice of her cake but it's impossible for me to ever forget it. I have searched for years for a recipe that comes even close to the feel and flavor of hers. We knew it had to be butter that made it good, but how much? Also this cake is just as dark as hers. I used the pricey Valrhona cocoa powder for this cake. Look at the photos, you'll see what amazing color this cocoa has. Really unbelievable stuff. However, I recommend the Ghirardelli brand for cocoa if you don't feel like a splurge.