My Little Hen

Egg and Butter

Whenever I bake, it always begins by going to the fridge and seeing if I have these two essential ingredients, eggs and butter. With these two simple ingredients anything is possible in the kitchen. At it's simpliest a fried egg sandwich and at a more indulgent level, a sweet dessert. I don't have time to plan to bake, it just happens spontaneously.

When I pick up farm fresh eggs from Christine I spin at the possibilities.The past few weeks of record breaking heat (115 dgerees heat index!)  prevented Christine's lady hens from laying. The heat has prevented me from baking or really cooking much of anything hot for several weeks. I'm getting ansty.

The good news is we are eating simple, fresh cold meals. I've been exploring little shops with jewels of food offerings to make cold meals interesting. Fresh goat cheese, garden lettuce and tomatoes, breads from the bakery, fresh (really fresh and fantastic) sopressato from Tuscany, amazing Prosciutto rolls that are salty and buttery at the same time come from a little Tuscan shop in our neighborhood along with Mascarpone cookies rolled in pine nuts. There are advantages, small simple and lovely advantages, to heat waves and mid summer dog days. Hope you too are exploring fun simple things this summer.

 

My Mom Doe's coffee cake

Every Mother's Day we make this recipe to remember my mom, Doe.

This recipe, Mom's Breakfast Coffee Cake, is in Cooking Fun.  I remember her making this for her brood of five, I remember eating this and loving it, and now that I have it in Cooking Fun, anyone can try it. 

It's very good. I hope you'll try it...you will love it.

 
If you want the try the real deal, here's my cleaned up version of my mom's favorite coffee cake recipe. It brings delight to the table, the palate, and the stomach! Just click on the picture to enlarge then print. Happy Mother's Day!

 

Please, don't eat the daffodils

Thinking more about the shocked reaction to natural egg dyeing using daffodil petals, I also was amused by G's use of this lovely spring flower to decorate her annual spring cake. Fearless!

Good Fats

I use butter and olive oil almost exclusively in my cooking and baking. I also use butter (rather than margarine) for the baking recipes in Cooking Fun. When I read this article on Simple Bites, I was happily surprised to find I am not alone in my practice of cooking with good fats, including butter. 

The article and the comments offer an educational conversation about fats, diet and healthy bodies.

Genoise Cake

The simple secret to this traditional sponge cake is to whip the 6 eggs and 1 cup of sugar for 15 minutes on high speed. Fold in flour and butter. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 stick unsalted butter (melted and cooled to warm)

 

Making Toasting Bread

Yesterday, the last day of snowy wintery January, I had the time and inclination to oatmeal bread and it all came back, why I LOVE toasting bread.

Making bread is something I just know how to do because I learned it at home from my mother and my Grandma Minta, both of whom were excellent bakers. I am not an "excellent" bread maker like my grandmother and I don't think my mother was nearly as excellent as her mom. Minta always said her mother was an extraordinary cook and that her own cooking was not even close, not even close, to the food that her mother Jesse Belle Wood made (that was her name Jesse Belle- my great grandmother). So maybe that attitude runs in the family. 

I will say that I can whip up a pretty tasty loaf when I want to, even though this batch was a little less than perfect to look at. 

The loaf stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to work it out so it flattened a little at the top under pressure. I made bread on the fly, sans all the extensive techniques required to make a perfect Minta loaf. She was a perfectionist and I, at the moment, am still an ordinary everyday bread maker. But that might change after the bread I just made. I may have seen the light to a new cooking craft.

I know what a good loaf of bread must look like, I know what it should taste like. I know from strong memory and experience what my grandmother's oatmeal bread toasted with lots of butter tastes like. Minta made loaves of bread weekly for years and perfected her production techniques. Her bread was always easy to slice, light, yet firm. It was delicious toasted and she allowed her 5 hungry grandchildren to indulge in buttered toast whenever we visited her humble home.

The funny thing about my grandmother was that we never "helped" her make anything. She was in charge. The kitchen was her domain, the quality of the food was her standard. It was through observation and osmosis that I learned and carry on the traditions of her cooking today. We learned to taste good food.

When G came home from school, I cut a slice of fresh warm bread and offered it to her. One bite and I could tell the tradition of quality was being transferred to her. This morning we had a slice of toasted oatmeal bread for breakfast and the same sense of appreciation of quality happened again.

This is how we can teach kids to cook well. First, they have to taste quality and then they can learn to prepare food that is good to eat.

Here is the recipe I tried yesterday. I talked to my sister who has Jesse Belle's recipe for Oatmeal bread, which I'll try next.

Snowballs

I just had a gaggle of girls stop by to drop off G's books before running off to celebrate the beginning of winter break. They helped themselves to G's Snowball cookies and a glass of cider (we were very glad to have these fresh cookies on hand). Stored in a festive tin, the girls dipped in and tried a powder sugary, buttery bite. G made these with pecans and they were very rich, more so than when made with ground walnuts. It's fun to enjoy the holiday in unexpected ways, informally. So cheery.

Soon, we'll be skiing!

Giveaway, cookies, and sewing

I just realized that a giveaway of one of Chris's books would be fun here this weekend. In honor of childhood fun and childhood friends someone can win a sign copy of this book from Chris Sheban. 

If you have an old friend from childhood you haven't talked to maybe you should get in touch. As for this lovely book, just leave a comment. Comments close Tuesday, November 23 at midnight. 

Winter holidays are still around the corner and there is no need to rush towards them. We still have Thanksgiving to welcome and enjoy. We'll be finishing up our edible craft, Thanksgiving Cookies today for the weekend blog post. Pictures should be up later for the curious.

I've been mentioning that I'm doing a workshop for hand-sewing at Purlsoho this weekend, tomorrow in fact. I'm bringing along some crafty girls for this event and we are going to try our hand at red and green toy bunnies as well as a few blue bunnies for Hanukkah. Everyone needs at least one Soft Toy Bunny to have as a friend when the going gets tough. Stop by Purlsoho around 12:30 if you are in town and say hi. (Warning the fabrics and yarns in this store are over the moon, be careful.)

We have a  busy weekend ahead. Enjoy yours!

Thanksgiving Cookies; An Edible Craft on Simple Kids

I'm guest blogging about Thanksgiving Cookies; An Edible Craft on Simple Kids today. Go on over and have a read. I'm still smiling inside about the part in the post when I recalled a memory of my brother dive bombing his GI Joe into the mashed potatoes and gravy at the Thanksgiving children's table. That family memory popped up when I was writing about making leaf cookies for Thanksgiving. I can see it all so clearly, especially his grin. Love family memories!

Do you have any favorite childhood memories about Thanksgiving?

Peach Tart

I'm on a baking roll. We had 6 perfectly ripe and juicy peaches to use up so  I made a Peach tart this weekend that was swoon-worthy. I had so much fun making it and G took pictures of the inspiration in action.  I made the dough but didn't have time to chill it completely so I ended up pressing it into the tart pan. Crazy good, crazy good tart. 

 Jackie's Sweet Tart Dough

(makes 2 tarts)

2 stick unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

pinch of salt

2 1/2 cup unbleached cake flour

Filling for 1 tart

5-6 ripe peaches cut into thick sections

1 teaspoon fresh peach or apricot jam (for each tart)

1 teaspoons flour
(for dusting that base of each tart)

3-4 tablespoon granulated sugar (to top the fruit)

1 teaspoon butter (to dot the top of the fruit)

1. In a medium bowl, beat soft butter and sugar until creamy and smooth.

2. Add egg yolks and salt to butter mixture and mix well.

3. Stir in cake flour and mix well until you have a moist and well combined dough. Divide dough into two equal amounts and roll into a soft ball. Don't over-handle the dough.

4. Set dough balls in bowl and cover with a towel. Place in freezer for 20 minutes or chill in refrigerator for several hours.

5. When you're ready to make the tart, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up 5-6 ripe, un-peeled peaches into nice large slices (these were from Harry and David's compliments of Grandma) and set aside in a bowl.

Place a dough ball on a floured bread board or surface.

Roll out gently to make a 12 inch circle that is about 1/8" flat.

This dough was soft (like a sugar cookie dough) and barely chilled so I switched plans...

and placed the partially rolled dough into the tart pan. Using fingers, lightly press the dough into the shape of the pan. (This part was really fun!)

Lightly spread a scant teaspoon of fresh peach jam (or apricot ) around the area where the fruit will sit. Sprinkle jam with a large pinch of flour. (This helps to absorb the juice and keep the crust from getting too soggy.) Assemble fruit slices as shown above.

Sprinkle 3 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar over the top of the peaches.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until you can pierce the fruit easily with a fork and the edges of the crust are golden brown.

Crazy good.