I still had half a carton of heavy cream sitting in the fridge leftover from the ganache for my chocolate cupcakes. It kills me to waste cream, butter or chocolate even when the stuff I make sometimes ends up in the trash anyway. I just can't throw out straight cream, butter or chocolate. Since I wasn't up for the caloric overkill of whipping cream pound cake I made these cream biscuits from ATK. I threw in some cheddar and dill for some savoury goodness.
The dry.
Pour in the heavy cream
Stir until it comes together with a spatula, but don't over do it.
Knead lightly until it comes together into a ball. I like to do this over saran wrap so clean up is easy.
Squish down and cut into squares. I like squares because there are no scraps to deal with. Plus, I don't have biscuit cutters :(
I can never help picking at something warm. So the rise wasn't so great, but the texture was really nice and soft, something I would have expected considering it was made with heavy cream.
Cream Biscuits
America's Test Kitchen's Revised Cookbook Chock Full Of Recipes
These are very simple, made with flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and heavy cream — NO butter or Crisco.
2 cups (10 oz) all purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds.
2. Pat the dough into a ¾-inch thick circle. Cut the biscuits into rounds using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter or 8 wedges using a knife. Place the biscuits on the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Lately, I've been feeling a little lazy. I bake, eat, but never photograph and so I never end up blogging. Ever since I bought a new camera, I can't stop taking pictures... of walls, random things on the table and of course, food. I don't usually do progress pics, but I couldn't help it.
These cookies were inspired from someone at work. Normally, I wouldn't bake cinnamon oatmeal raisin cookies because I'm not the hugest fan of cinnamon or raisins, but these actually turned out really well. They had crispy edges with a chewy centre and crispy edges that actually stayed crispy for a good period of time. It drives me crazy when my cookies turn uniformly chewy because the best part for me are those crispy edges.
My favourite part, creaming the butter and sugar
The dry
I find that oatmeal cookies never spread no matter how much butter is added so I always press them down or else I end up with oatmeal mounds.
12 minutes later...
This recipe is really a merge of different recipes until I was happy with the amount of oatmeal, chew and crisp.
Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips
10 tbsp butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 335 degrees.
In one bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, mix raisins, chocolate chips and oats.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer beat the butter on medium speed until fluffy. Add the brown sugar and continue beating. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until thoroughly mixed. On low speed, add the flour mixture until just combined. Then add the oats mixture and continue to beat on low until everything is evenly distributed.
Using a medium cookie scoop, divide the dough into 24 portions. Press the dough down about 1 inch thick. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool before transferring on a wired rack
Makes 24 cookies.
I made these cupcakes for a birthday party. As usual, I went with Hershey's perfectly chocolate chocolate cake and a ganache frosting. For the rose, I used a Wilton 2D tip and swirled from the inside to out. Lately, I've been really into playing around with fondant. They just make the cutest cakes, but I don't think I could ever wrap an entire cake with it until it can magically taste ok. I'm not even asking for good, just not gross. Until then, it's little fondant cutouts...
Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (natural)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
Chocolate Ganache
From Savoury, Sweet, Life (with an excellent tutorial)
8 ounces of chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream
*optional 3 tbl. of flavored liqueor
Place chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until completely mixed and glossy. Allow ganache to cool before pouring over cakes as a glaze. The longer you allow the ganache to cool, the thicker it will set. Typically I stick mine in the refrigerator so it is slightly cold before whipping. For piping or frosting, allow the ganache to completely cool and set up. When you are able to spoon the ganache and it can hold its texture, it is ready for piping
