Pancakes

We love pancakes. Rick always hated pre-made mixes for pancakes, so I made them homemade most every time. The recipe I use is from my red and white check cookbook that I have had for many, many years. The pages are well worn. 

  

I use an electric griddle similar to this one to make my pancakes on. It is a good investment, I use it for a lot of cooking.

ingredients

• 1cup all-purpose flour
• 1tablespoon sugar
• 2teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4teaspoon salt
• 1beaten egg
• 1cup milk
• 2tablespoons cooking oil

directions

1.In a medium mixing bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture; set aside.

2.In another medium mixing bowl combine the egg, milk, and cooking oil. Add egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just till moistened (batter should be lumpy). {I always lightly beat the egg alone first, then with the other liquid ingredients then add to dry}

3.For standard-size pancakes, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. For dollar-size pancakes, pour about 1 tablespoon batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side or till pancakes are golden brown, turning to second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Serve warm. Makes 8 to 10 standard-size (4-inch) or 36 dollar-size (2-inch) pancakes (8 servings).

I always us White Lily unbleached bread flour for this.  

I also sometimes use an equal amount (or double the amount) of melted butter instead of oil for my pancakes. I love the buttery flavor.

The other day I was on Pinterest, and I found a recipe for iHop pancakes. I will be trying it and will share it here. I haven't used it yet but may soon.

Pinterest iHop Pancake recipe

IHOP pancakes

1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/4 c. sugar

Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder,and salt. Mix the egg with the buttermilk and add to the flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Add the melted butter and sugar. Fry on a greased griddle. Serves 4. 

This is a link to the post the recipe came from:

http://cookinupnorth.blogspot.com/2011/11/ihop-pancake-recipe.html?m=1  

Homemade white bread

This recipe is my new favorite, and I love to make this bread often. I love it better than my bread machine bread. It is just as easy too! Not a lot of work to it at all! You can make bread! Please don't be intimidated!

First, let me say you don't need any fancy equipment either. It is easy with a bowl, wooden spoon, measuring cups and spoons and loaf pans. Seriously, that is all you have to have to make bread. It is easier if you have a kitchen aid or other stand mixer with a dough hook though. It helps with the kneading, which only takes about six minutes. Not difficult or time consuming at all!

  

This is ALWAYS in my refrigerator!!  It keeps very well! 

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White Bread

Makes 2 loaves

INGREDIENTS

3 cups luke-warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast

1/3 cup oil

1 Tbsp. salt

6 - 7 cups White Lily Unbleached Bread Flour  (unbleached ground white wheat flour can be used and you can use regular all-purpose flour with success as well.) I always use White Lily Unbleached Bread Flour and for this recipe, about 7 cups. Kroger and Walmart both carry it in the baking isle.

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and sugar. Let sit 10 minutes. Add the oil. Add the dry ingredients starting with 6 cups of flour. Mix all together. Knead the dough thoroughly until all ingredients are incorporated, and dough is smooth, elastic, very slightly sticky, and pulls away from the bowl (6-10 minutes). As you knead the dough, you may add more flour as needed, and repeat the process until dough reaches the desired consistency. 

Cover the bowl of dough with a dish towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (an hour or more depending on how warm your kitchen is.) You may speed up this process by placing the covered bowl inside the oven with the oven light on, and another bowl of warm water sitting on the lower rack.

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Punch the dough down, divide and and form into 2 loaves. Place the dough in 2 greased bread pans. (I use 9" pans.) Cover and let rise till the top of the dough is an inch or two above the bread pans.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the baked loaves from their pans immediately, and place on a cooling rack. Slice, and serve warm with butter and honey.

Store in an air-tight bag. Baked loaves AND bread dough freeze well. 

This bread also makes most excellent french toast. You will find my recipe for french toast in this blog. 

I believe in giving credit where it is due, and this recipe comes from Pennies and Pancakes Blog. Here is a link.  http://penniesandpancakes.blogspot.com/2012/09/grandmas-country-white-bread.html#.Ubnolm_AfcA

**some pictures are mine, some are from *Google images

Homemade Saltines

So I am out of crackers. I thought: if I can make buns, I can make crackers. So I did! 

And here's how I did it:

4 cups bread flour (White Lily)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Stir together and add:

3/4 cup shortening (Crisco)

(Cut in with 2 knives or pastry blender)

1 1/3 cups milk

Stir together until dough forms a ball. Divide into 4 sections. Roll out each section, one at a time, very thin 1/8 to 3/16 inches thick. Cut crackers with cookie cutter, biscuit cutter or pastry wheel. 

Place crackers on ungreased cookie sheet (I used my pampered chef pizza stone). Prick dough with fork several times each piece and sprinkle with salt. 

Bake at 375 degrees 12 to 20 minutes until golden brown.  Store in an air tight container. 

Yum! They are good. Didn't take long at all! 

Hope you try this and let me know!!

Homemade Hamburger Buns

This recipe is from taste of home. Now, my buns didn't look quite like theirs on my first try, but they are quite tasty! I will make these again- and again! I could only get 10 with a couple of those on the small side, so yummy!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 1 dozen.

French Toast My Style

Make an egg batter using:
Eggs - 1 for each slice of bread
Salt - 1/2-1 tsp
Sugar- 1/2 TBSP
vanilla- 1/2 - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 -2 TBSP (decide based on # eggs used)
Sliced bread (homemade is best, sourdough bread is wonderful, store bought bread works, Texas toast bread is excellent)
Using fork, whip the eggs as you would to scramble; beat in remaining ingredients. Dip slices of bread in egg mixture, fry on griddle or large skillet- don't crowd the bread- turning once should be enough, will be browned nicely and egg will appear done.

Serve with butter. Dust with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, and or use maple syrup. Yum.

Caramel Pie

So, I am going to a Dirty Santa Ornament Exchange snack party tonight. I am taking boneless bbq wings, caramel pie and my ornament. I couldn't decide on what kind of crust to put the caramel pie in. I went to Save-a-lot and was looking for graham cracker crumbs, no luck. They had pre-made graham cracker crusts, but I wanted to do my own. OK, I decided to get graham crackers and crush them. As I was looking at the graham crackers, the vanilla wafers caught my eye. Hum. Vanilla wafer crust? Yep! That is what I did. Before I left home, I placed 2 cans sweetened condensed milk in a pot, covered the cans well with water, got the pot to boiling, then reduced the heat to keep it simmering. Boil the cans for 4 hours for best results, mine was 2 1/2 hours, and while the caramel made and tasted good, it needed to be a bit firmer. Go for the four hours. Cover the pot and keep it boiling for the entire time AND KEEP THE CANS COVERED WITH WATER, then cool the cans completely before opening. IF YOU OPEN THEM HOT, THEY WILL "LAVA OUT" hot caramel all over you and YOU WILL BE BURNED!!!!! 

Now, for the crust:
crush one box vanilla wafers in a food processor or blender on the crushed ice setting, pulsing until cookies are crushed. Do 1/3 box at a time until all are crushed. This will yield about 2 cups crushed cookies.
Stir in 2 tablespoons sugar
Melt one stick butter and pour over crumbs, stir to combine well.
Press mixture into deep 9" pie plate, as evenly as possible. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes until crust is set, cool and use. This is a great crust for lemon meringue pie as well.

When caramel is cooled, pour into crust and chill. Top with homemade whipped cream.

Whipped Cream
desired amount of whipping cream
sweeten to taste, use powdered sugar, it incorporates more quickly
whip to desired consistency, careful not to make butter.

Homemade whipped cream should be kept chilled until ready to use and generally doesn't hold together well for a second day, so make in small amounts. Also, for best results, chill bowl and beaters before whipping and use a stand mixer with whisk attachment rather than paddle, but a hand mixer will easily work, just may take a bit longer.

Enjoy!

Divinity

So I have been having lots of memories creeping to the surface lately. One memory this time of year is from my childhood, visiting my cousin Vickie. Vickie is a cousin I grew up with, one who we spent a lot of time together when we were growing up. Her mom, my first cousin, makes divinity candy. I had never tried to make it until tonight. It turned out pretty well. I will post the recipe I used from Paula Deen. I will be taking it to a dinner after church tomorrow. Hope they like it. The last dinner I went to a few months ago I took vanilla fudge which was "introduced" as divinity by a friend there. It really wasn't, just a recipe I got off Pinterest. I haven't made that one since. I may make this divinity again though. Use a heavy saucepan for cooking your syrup mixture. And be careful, the hot syrup will burn you!

You will need:

• 4 cups sugar
• 1 cup white corn syrup
• 3/4 cup cold water
•  

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir only until sugar has dissolved. Do not stir after this point. Cook syrup mixture until it reaches 250 degrees F on a candy thermometer, bringing it to a hard ball stage.

• Add 3 egg whites to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until stiff peaks form. Do this while your syrup is cooking to 250 degrees

Once the sugar mixture reaches 250 degrees F, carefully pour a slow steady stream of syrup into the stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly at high speed. 

  

• Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and continue to beat until mixture holds its shape, approximately 5 minutes. Stir in 1 to 2 cups chopped pecans.

Using 2 spoons, drop the divinity onto waxed paper, using 1 spoon to push the candy off the other. This may take a little practice because the technique is to twirl the pushing spoon, making the candy look like the top of a soft serve ice cream. If the candy becomes too stiff, add a few drops of hot water. You will need to work fast when making this type of candy. After you spoon the cooked sugar and nuts onto the waxed paper, you're done. Cool the candies on racks completely. You can store them in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy your candy!

Merry Christmas!