Caramel Corn III

Caramel Corn

I guess I really like caramel corn since this is my third recipe here on the blog. This one is just a very slight variation of Deb's Caramel Corn. I discovered the wonders of butter extract through my sister-in-law's recipe for pecan pie. The butter extract just give the pie a special "je ne said quoi." That same "je ne said quoi" is why I have to create a whole new post for this recipe. This stuff is addictive, and I'm not mad about it.

The reason I even tried the butter extract is because when I was on vacation in Estes Park, Colorado, we walked by this shop that was emanating this intoxicating aroma of fresh caramel corn. I knew it didn't smell like my own usual caramel corn, and although I never broke down and tried any in Estes Park, I had a hunch that the butter extract/flavoring might be the key. I can't say that's what they used at that shop in Estes Park, but it doesn't matter. I'm super happy with the way this has turned out.

I should also mention that I used Costo organic pure cane brown sugar too. It's somewhere between a light brown and a dark brown sugar, and I think it contributes to the goodness of this caramel corn.

Caramel Corn III

Ingredients:

• 6-7 quarts popped popcorn (preferably mushroom popcorn)
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon butter extract

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.  Make sure you have the popcorn popped and in a large bowl or deep roasting pan before starting the caramel.  I also like to make sure I've picked out any unpopped kernels.  Bad for teeth, you know.
In a heavy medium saucepan, bring the butter, sugar, salt, and corn syrup to a boil over medium to medium high heat.  Keep stirring pretty much continually.  Deb said to boil for 5 minutes or to 245 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.  It will fluff up at this point. 
Pour caramel over popcorn and stir to evenly distribute caramel.  Spread onto some combination of roasting pan and/or cookie sheets.  Bake at 225 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes. 
Remove from oven and keep stirring until caramel corn is no longer sticky.  Then stir occasionally until it's relatively cool.  Allow to cool completely and store in airtight containers.

Almond Flour Banana Bread

Almond Flour Banana Bread

I don't know that I have much to say about this banana bread except that I'm obsessed with it right now. There's no added fat/oil (until you slather butter on it before eating). It's higher in protein that banana bread made with wheat flour. It's gluten-free. It's really super delicious too. Great option if you have to be gluten/wheat-free.

Almond Flour Banana Bread

     Adapted from Mama Knows Gluten Free

Ingredients: 

• 2 medium-large bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups superfine blanched almond flour

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350°Fahrenheit. Grease/butter one 9" x 5" loaf pan or two mini loaf pans (5 3/4" x 3 1/4"). 
• In a large bowl mash the bananas until smooth. Add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until combined.
• Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and granulated sugar. Whisk to combine.
• Add the almond flour to the banana mixture. Use a silicone spatula to mix until thoroughly combined.
• Pour/Scrape batter into prepared pan(s).
• Bake on the center rack: single loaf for 50 minutes; 2 mini loaves for about 35 minutes--or until bread bounces back instead of denting upon pressing lightly on top.
• Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool further. 
• Slice with a serrated knife and enjoy.

Wrap leftovers in foil or plastic wrap.

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

Who doesn't love a good soft frosted sugar cookie? I mean, really? It's simple sweet colorful goodness. These cookies are in the vein of Lofthouse Cookies.The cookie itself is pretty comparable -- soft, somewhat bland, but tasty -- and the frosting has more of a butter flavor than the actual Lofthouse cookies. All-in-all, a very satisfying homemade option.

I'd like to say more about these, but you're probably here for the recipe anyway, so here it is. Also check out Preppy Kitchen because they have LOTS of great recipes there, and that's where I got this recipe. The only thing I changed, really, is subbing cake flour for half the all-purpose flour.

Here you go.

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Preppy Kitchen

Cookie Ingredients: 

• 135 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) cake flour
• 135 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
• 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg @ room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream @ room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
• 240 g (2 cups) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-3 tablespoons milk
• gel food coloring (optional)
• sprinkles

Instructions:

Measure out the dry ingredients -- flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cornstarch -- and mix completely with a whisk.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Add sour cream and beat to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Lay a large piece of plastic wrap on the counter and scoop dough into the center. Fold the sides up to enclose the dough and flip over. Press dough into a flat square, and gently roll with a rolling pin to push dough into the corners, taking care to not press too hard and squeeze dough out of the plastic.

Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sprinkle a cutting surface with a little flour. Unwrap the dough and roll it out on the counter to 1/4-inch thickness.

Use a pizza cutter and a ruler (preferably) to cut dough into 2-inch squares. Depending on how you roll it out, you will end up with 24 to 30 perfect 2" squares. Re-roll or bake scraps as desired.

Place squares on prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 1/2" apart.

I like to bake mine one sheet at a time. Bake each pan of cookies for 8-9 minutes -- do not over-bake. You don't want much, if any, browning at all on the edges.

Remove from oven, allow to cool on pan for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool. (I usually slide the whole sheet of parchment with the cookies onto a wire rack.

While cookies cool, mix the frosting ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth and creamy. Add more milk or powdered sugar to adjust consistency to your liking.

Spread about 1 tablespoon of frosting onto each cookie and sprinkle immediately with sprinkles.

Store cookies in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen 2" cookies

Whisk dry ingredients together

Dough plopped onto plastic wrap.

Fold plastic wrap so you have square corners.

Flip plastic-wrapped dough over and gently roll dough into corners,.

I place my dough on a small sheet pan before placing in the fridge.

I no longer waste my time and cookie dough with round cutters.

Cinnamon Caramel Crumble Bars

I've been wondering for a while if I could make a caramel version of the berry crumble bars my work friends loved so much. Then I thought maybe a layer of cinnamon and sugar--like cinnamon roll filling-- would also be tasty. Then it dawned on me: why not do BOTH at the same time? So that's what I did here. I took my salted caramel sauce recipe, added a tablespoon of cinnamon, and used that instead of the berry jam, and WOW. It really works.

These bars are chewy, cinnamony, buttery, and super satisfying. Kind of like a snickerdoodle-oatmeal cookie-cinnamon roll combo. Very nice. 

If you like cinnamon but don't want it to be too intense, maybe reduce the amount from 1 tablespoon to 2 teaspoons. 

Cinnamon Caramel Crumble Bars

Adapted from Feasty Travels


Ingredients: 

Sugar Cookie Crust

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Filling

• About 1 cup cinnamon caramel (recipe below) OR stir 1 tablespoon of cinnamon into a jar of caramel sundae topping 

Crumble Topping

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

• Line an 8"x8" pan with parchment paper and set aside.

• In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

• Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix just until combined.

• Spread cookie dough evenly into bottom of prepared pan.

• Stir the caramel until it's loose, and then use an offset spatula or back of a small spoon to spread evenly across the cookie layer in the pan.

• Make the crumble topping by first mixing all of the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. Add the melted butter and mix with a spoon and then with your hands. Squeeze the mixture a bit to get some chunky crumbles.

• Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the caramel.

• Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 48-53 minutes, or until top is well browned, and edges have puffed up the sides of the pan. (The edges end up pretty chewy, like brownie edges, and the center is more soft and tender.)

• Remove pan to a cooling rack to cool for about 15 minutes before pulling out of the pan by the parchment paper and setting on the rack to cool completely.

• Cut into bars when completely cool. 

• Store leftovers in an airtight container.

Makes about 24 small bars or 12 large

Cinnamon Caramel

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Equipment/Tools:

• clean & warm 1/2 pint mason jar
• heavy-bottomed saucepan
• small saucepan
• wire whisk
• silicone spatula
• measuring cups and spoons

Instructions:

• Place cream and butter in the small saucepan over low heat. Once it's hot, you can turn it off. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't boil.
• Place the clean mason jar on the stove to stay a little warm while you make the caramel sauce.
• Pour the sugar into the large saucepan set over medium heat.
• It will take a while, like 5-8 minutes before you start seeing the sugar start to melt. When you start seeing melted patches, start gently swirling the pan to evenly distribute the sugar and prevent any burned spots. 
• Continue melting and swirling the sugar until it's a deep amber color. Once it's deep amber, remove from the heat and pour in about half of the cream, which will bubble up violently. 
• Whisk the sugar and cream together, making sure to get any sugar in the corners of the pan. 
• Whisk in the remaining cream, and then the salt. Whisk until smooth, again paying attention to the corners of the pan. 
• Pour the caramel sauce into the mason jar, scraping all the goodness in using a silicone spatula. 
• Allow caramel to cool for about 10 minutes before stirring in the cinnamon. 
• Once the caramel jar is cool enough to touch without hurting yourself, put the top on the jar (not too tight), and allow to cool completely before using in the recipe above or placing in the refrigerator.

Makes about 1 cup cinnamon caramel

Quiche with Bacon, Swiss, and Spinach

Simple quiche with bacon, Swiss, and spinach

I have another recipe for quiche on this blog, and it's the general quiche recipe I use. The thing is, though, that I think that time I made it for the blog was the ONLY time I ever used a premade pie crust -- and I didn't even like it because premade crusts tend to have added sugar, which to me is no bueno for a savory dish. 

So, whenever I make quiche, I have to look up my other recipe for pie crust that I actually like, and for this recipe I often have to increase the recipe for a crust and a half because my pie crust recipe is really for a Marie Callendar's size pie, which is smaller than my Made In pie dish. This recipe you have here is what I've actually been doing, and this will be the recipe I go to every time I make quiche from now on. (You know that's the main reason I have this blog at all--it's my recipe box.)

Quiche
      -adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

• 1 blind-baked 9" pie crust (see pie crust recipe below) 
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
• 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
• 5 ounces of fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup whole milk, preferably room temperature (today I used 1/2 cup heavy cream and 3/4 cup 2% Fairlife milk)
• 1 1/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 cup (about 7 strips) thick cut bacon, cooked, and cut into bite-size pieces

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, and then add the shallots. Cook until shallots are soft, but not necessarily browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the chopped spinach and stir into the shallot/garlic mixture until spinach is completely wilted. Remove to a plate to cool.
• In a medium bowl or large glass measuring cup (the 1 or 2 quart size), beat the eggs with the milk (or milk and cream in my case). Whisk in the salt and pepper. Then add the cooled spinach mixture and stir/whisk to incorporate. (Note: If spinach mixture is not totally cooled, add a tablespoon of the hot mixture at first to the egg/milk mixture and whisk. Keep adding a little bit at a time. Once you have half of it mixed in, add the rest and finish mixing. This prevents the eggs from cooking before it goes into the oven.)
• Layer the bacon and then the cheese into the pie crust. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the ingredients in the pie crust. (You may need to do a little light mixing once it's in the dish because the shallots tend to sink to the bottom of the egg/milk/spinach mixture.)
• Place unbaked quiche on a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes, or until center no longer jiggles like a liquid when the pan is gently shaken.
• Remove quiche from oven and allow to cool about 20 minutes before serving.
• Refrigerate any leftovers.

Makes about 6-8 decent sized servings

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 4 1/2 tablespoons Crisco vegetable shortening
• 5-6 tablespoons ice cold water
• flour for dusting

Instructions:

• In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. 
• Cut the 6 tablespoons of butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal with a few small pebbles of butter.
• Add the Crisco and cut in until you have a coarse meal with a few small pebbles of Crisco.
• Add 5 tablespoons of the ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball, adding a little more water and stirring with the fork if it still seems super dry. Do not add more than 6 tablespoons of water. The warmth of your hands will help bring the dough together.
• Place larger-than-square piece of wax paper on the counter and sprinkle with some flour. 
• Place the dough on the wax paper and flatten into a disk that's about 1 1/2 inches thick, pressing in the edges as needed if they start to crack.
• Sprinkle the top of the dough disk with more flour, cover with another sheet of wax paper, and roll out to about 3/8-inch thickness, or large enough to fit in and up the sides of the 9" pie dish.
• Transfer the dough to the 9" pie dish, trim, tuck, and decorate the edges however you like.
• Cover the unbaked pie crust and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least half an hour. 
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit while the crust chills.
• When you're ready to blind bake the crust, remove from the fridge, uncover, and prick all over with a fork.
• Blind bake it however you'd like, but this is what I do:
• Crinkle up a thin piece of foil, uncrinkle it, and gently press it into the unbaked pie crust. The foil should go completely up the sides of the crust and it may even cover the edge, but it does not have to. Fill the foil-lined crust with dry beans, dry uncooked rice, or pie weights.
• Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. 
• Remove from the oven, set aside, and allow to cool for a bit while you prepare the filling.
• Turn oven down to 375 degrees for baking the quiche.

Sourdough Focaccia

Sourdough Focaccia

I found this recipe on Reddit and am putting it here because I want to keep it. This focaccia is chewy, fluffy, and absolutely delicious. If you're a baker of sourdough, you really must try this one. It does not disappoint.

Sourdough Focaccia

Ingredients: 

• 50-100 grams ripe sourdough starter
• 10 grams salt
• 430 grams water
• 515 grams bread flour
• olive oil
• flaky or coarse salt
• 2 large garlic cloves

Instructions:

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter and water. 
• Add the flour and salt and mix to completely combine the ingredients. 
• Cover the bowl and allow to sit for 30-40 minutes. 
• When the dough is done sitting, wet your hands and pull the dough up over on itself around the edges and then perform 8-10 folds. (See video clip below.) End your folding with the smooth side of the dough on top. Drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil and rub the oil over the entire surface. Cover and allow dough to rise for 4-5 hours at room temperature, or until almost doubled.
• When dough has risen, pour 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan and coat the sides and bottom using your fingers or a pastry brush. 
• With oiled hands, lift the dough from the bowl. Do a little lifting and folding to form the dough into a rectangle and fit it into the pan as much as possible. 
• At this point you can allow the dough to rise another 4-6 hours at room temperature, or you can cover and place in the fridge overnight. If you choose the fridge option, remove the pan from the fridge about 2 to 2 1/2 hours before you want to bake it. 
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• When dough is puffy, bubbly, and doubled in size, drizzle with a couple more tablespoons of oil and then dimple the dough deeply with oiled fingers. 
• Slice the garlic cloves into 1/8-inch slices and push slices into the dimples in the dough. Then sprinkle dough with the flaky/coarse salt.
• Bake the focaccia on a middle rack for 20 minutes. Then move the pan to the lower rack for the last 5-10 minutes of baking. (My focaccia didn't get very dark on top, but it was completely baked through and still tasted great.)
• Allow focaccia to cool in the pan for about 5-10 minutes. Then use a metal spatula to release the bread from the pan. Move focaccia to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting and enjoying.

Makes one 9x13-inch focaccia