Crackle Top Peanut Butter Cookies...for food that really schmecks in the time of corona virus

This recipe comes from Edna Staebler’s cookbook called More Food That Really Schmecks. Edna Staebler famously collected the recipes of generations of Amish cooks from Waterloo County, Ontario. Interesting perhaps only to me, is the fact that my husband’s aunt, Veronica Ross, wrote a biography of Ms. Staebler called To Experience Wonder.

The thing about food that really schmecks is that it contains ingredients that really schmeck. In the case of these cookies, that means a lot of fat and sugar.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup softened butter (I used margarine)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I cut this amount to 1/2 cup)
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 and 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• white granulated sugar for rolling

Methods:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Mix the first 6 ingredients and beat until light. Mix the dry ingredients with the peanut butter mixture. Shape teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, then roll them in granulated sugar to coat. Place the balls 2 inches apart on unbuttered cookie sheets and bake for 12 minutes. Don’t let them brown.

No Knead Bread....for baking in the time of corona virus

There is no longer a shortage of yeast in my household. My husband brought me a pound of it yesterday. I'm not kidding. It was literally a one pound block of yeast I was presented with. I 'll be baking bread well into the next pandemic.

The loaf you see above is a 'no knead' bread that tastes exactly like a French baguette, although it is obviously not shaped like one. This is another easy-peasy Jenny Jones recipe from her eponymous blog Jenny Can Cook. Here's the link to this charming cook's bread recipe.
https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/no-knead-no-dutch-oven-bread/

Berliners, also known as Polish Doughnuts....for baking in the time of corona virus

The recipe for these jelly filled doughnuts is available at https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes.

I filled them with my homemade crabapple jelly. They were delicious.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding....using up the heels of bread in the time of corona virus

This post taken from my previous blog was originally directed to my friend Christine who is a bread pudding aficionado, and would apparently eat an entire pudding at one go if given the opportunity.....

Bread pudding is a great thing to bake in the time of corona virus since it uses up stale bread and doesn't require a lot of ingredients. This recipe is a bit fancy because of the addition of chocolate chips. I happened to have some left over challah, which has a great consistency for soaking up liquid. Ideally, the pudding should be served warm, shortly after it's taken from the oven, to optimize gooey chocolatey goodness. 

Ingredients:

• 100 g. chocolate chips ( I used about a cup or perhaps slightly less)
• about 4 cups ( 250 g.) of stale white bread broken into 3 cm cubes
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream (I didn't have any so omitted this ingredient)
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/5 cup  (40 g) of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of dark rum
• 4 teaspoons of demerara sugar for the top of the pudding (I used a lesser amount of ordinary granulated sugar)

Methods: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a medium-sized baking dish and throw in the bread. Scatter the chocolate chips evenly among the pieces of bread. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, rum and brown sugar, then pour the liquid mixture over the bread. Press the bread into the liquid with a fork and allow it to soak for wait 15-20 minutes before sprinkling the top with the sugar and popping the whole thing in the oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the top is nicely browned. Serve warmly gooey.

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

In the idyllic pre-pandemic days of late winter, my husband and I took a little trip to the charming Opinicon Hotel (www.opinicon.com) for lunch. I had a great tasting smoky Caesar cocktail, which was pretty much a meal in itself. My husband had a very enjoyable sweet potato coconut soup, which I have attempted to reproduce here. I'm not sure why I took such an unattractive photo of the soup. Trust me, it tastes better than it looks.

Ingredients:

• 1 small to medium onion diced
• 1 very large sweet potato (or 2 medium sweet potatoes) peeled and diced
• about a tablespoon of peeled ginger root grated (or use ground ginger to taste)
• about a half a tin of coconut milk
• a litre of chicken broth (homemade, store-bought, or a reconstituted bouillon cube)
• salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
In a pot (large enough to contain all the ingredients) sauté the onion in butter until translucent but not brown. Add the ginger, sweet potato and chicken broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook covered until the sweet potato is soft when tested with a knife tip.

Purée the soup in a blender (in batches) or by using an immersible blender (which is what I use). Stir the coconut milk into the soup . Reheat as necessary and add salt and pepper to taste.

New York Times Stir-Fry Chicken with Ketchup

I'm re-posting this recipe by Mark Bittman from the New York Times because it has a 'pandemicky' feel to it. Especially because one is likely to serve it with rice. My husband has recently purchased 100 pounds of rice, give or take. It is stockpiled in the basement. 

There were mixed reviews of this recipe online. The author exhorts us to remember how great ketchup can taste. Weird or wonderful? You decide. The person I live with said it needed more "zap".

Ingredients:

•         1½ pounds boneless chicken, in 1/2- to 1-inch chunks
•          ½ cup flour, more as needed

•          4 tablespoons neutral oil, like corn or canola

•          Salt and pepper

•         2 tablespoons slivered garlic

•          ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

•          1 cup ketchup

Methods:
Toss the chicken with flour, salt and pepper so that it is lightly dusted. Put 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet, preferably nonstick, and turn on high. When oil is hot, add the chicken in a single layer.

When the chicken browns on one side, turn it and cook until just about done. This will take 5-10 minutes depending on the size of your chicken chunks. Remove the chicken and turn off the burner for a moment. to allow the pan to cool slightly. Add the remaining oil to the pan and turn heat to medium high. Add the sliced garlic and cayenne pepper and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the ketchup and stir; cook until the ketchup bubbles darkens slightly. Return the chicken to pan and coat with the sauce. 

Why I am in charge of meal preparation.

I was making breakfast on the holiday weekend and about to flip some blueberry pancakes when my husband asked if I was baking chocolate chip cookies.

Miracle Beer Bread

So, during the pandemic there has been a run on yeast at grocery stores as those sheltering in place attempt bread-making. Shelves are depleted of yeast as well as toilet paper it seems.

I found this quick bread recipe in an Edna Staebler cookbook called 'More Food that Really Schmecks'.  It's a bread that does not require yeast and uses only 3 ingredients. And that’s exactly what it tastes like: flour, sugar and beer. If you butter it when warm, it tastes like warm butter, flour, sugar and beer.  Not half bad. The texture is somewhat suspect, verging on tea biscuit consistency. Let’s call this briscuit, rather than bread. It would be a great accompaniment to soup, stew or chili.

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups self-raising flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 bottle of beer at room temperature

Methods: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mix the flour and sugar, pour the beer in slowly to avoid frothing, stir until the flour is moistened. Place the dough in a buttered loaf tin and bake it at 350 degrees F. for about an hour. Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.

Chocolate Cream Eggs ...the best chocolate eggs you will ever eat

Spring, renewal, eggs, rebirth etc.

Since Easter is nigh, chocolate eggs are in order. I love these chocolate eggs, but unfortunately don't have sufficient powdered sugar to make them this year given the whole pandemic thing that's happening right now. This is a recipe I obtained from an internet search and chose because it seemed most similar to the cream eggs of my youth. It was written by someone called Alison Ladman of the Associated Press and makes about 20 eggs. Terribly messy process but worth it in the end I think, and if a bunny can do it....

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 14-ounces of sweetened condensed milk
• 3 pounds powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting
• yellow food coloring
• 2 packages of chocolate chips ( or other form of chocolate) for coating the eggs

Methods:
In a large bowl, combine the butter, salt and vanilla. Use an electric mixer on medium to beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the condensed milk and beat, scraping the bowl as needed, until thoroughly mixed.

Reduce the mixer to low, then add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Continue mixing until it forms a stiff dough. Transfer the mixture to a counter dusted with powdered sugar. Knead until smooth, about 2 to 4 minutes.

Cut away a quarter of the mixture, then add a few drops of yellow food coloring to it and knead it in. Use a teaspoon to divide the mixture into about 20 small balls, rolling them between your hands until smooth. (These are the yolks). Set the balls on a cookie sheet and chill until firm. Divide the white dough into about 20 larger pieces (you will need an equal number of white and yellow pieces), rolling each into roughly an egg shape. Press your thumb into the center of each and place one of the yellow balls into it. Gently work the white filling around the yellow ball, covering it completely. Shape each piece into an oval. Set aside on a cookie sheet and chill again.

Warm the chocolate in a double boiler or over a saucepan of water until melted and smooth. Use a fork to dunk each egg into the chocolate to coat it completely, then set it on parchment or waxed paper to set.

Mini Trifles....puddings for delivery in the time of corona virus

This is a riff on my very own tried-and-true recipe for trifle. The key ingredient in trifle is, of course, the sherry. So rummage through the back of your liquor cabinet, find the tin of Bird's custard powder in the depths of your pantry, and rip open the packet of lady fingers leftover from Christmas. Vanilla yogurt takes the place of whipped cream quite nicely. I made 3 small trifles but you could certainly make a single larger trifle with these ingredients.

Ingredients: 

• lady finger biscuits ( I used about 24 to make 3 mini trifles, the third trifle used up the broken pieces of biscuit)
• sherry, enough to soak and soften the biscuits
• 2 tablespoons of Bird's custard powder 
• 2 cups of milk for the custard
• a tablespoon of granulated sugar for the custard
• 2 cups of Greek style vanilla yogurt (I only had unflavoured yogurt available, so stirred in a half a teaspoon of vanilla and a tablespoon of granulated sugar to it to make vanilla yogurt).
• about a half a cup of fruity jam 
• frozen fruit thawed (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), or fresh if you happen to have some

Methods: 

Prepare the custard as per the instructions on the tin. Put aside to cool slightly.

The most critical step in making a trifle is soaking the lady fingers in sherry. I used to line the lady fingers up in my trifle bowl and sprinkle sherry on them. Now I find it easier to lay the biscuits in a flat dish and pour the sherry over them. The biscuits become quite wobbly when soaked so need to be handled carefully when lining them up on the sides and bottom of whatever serving bowl you happen to use. Place a layer of fruit over the bottom layer of soaked biscuits. Then add the layer of custard. Plop some blobs of jam on the custard layer. Cover the whole thing with a thick layer of yogurt. 

Usually, I would finish by arranging fresh fruit decoratively on top. But in the time of corona virus, I had none.  

New York Times Sausage and Cabbage

I first posted this recipe over 2 years ago, but am re-posting it now simply because cabbage is a great, long-lasting and versatile vegetable to have on hand during a pandemic. For those of you who think you don't (or won't) like cooked cabbage, I suggest you try this one-pot wonder.

It smells great while cooking, and it's sort of like eating deconstructed cabbage rolls . Although the recipe makes a large amount of food,  I'm not sure that it's dinner party material. Let's face it, you're not hosting dinner parties anyway. You can always place some of the excess on your neighbour's doorstep for them to try.

It's a rustic dish, very rustic. 

Ingredients: 

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 pounds fresh sweet Italian pork sausages or bulk sausage
• 1 large green or Savoy cabbage, about 4 pounds, cored and chopped roughly
• Freshly ground black pepper and salt

Methods:
Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Butter a large baking dish or Dutch Oven. If using sausages, remove and discard the casings.

Put about 1/3 of the cabbage in the buttered dish and cover with bite-sized bits of about half the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter. Repeat, ending with a final layer of cabbage, and dot the top with butter.

Cover the dish tightly with a layer of parchment paper, then top it with a lid or a layer of aluminum foil. If you are using a Dutch Oven, simply pop the lid on before placing it in the oven.Cook for about 2 1/2 hours, until the cabbage is soft and sweet, and the top is lightly browned. After 2 hours, uncover the dish. If there is a lot of liquid in the bottom, leave it uncovered for the rest of the cooking time. If not, re-cover and finish cooking. Serve with crusty bread.

Peanut Butter and Cereal Cookies

I like cookies  (a lot, actually), but I'm not a great cookie baker. In fact, a recent attempt produced some very large, flat and irregularly shaped cookies. When asked by my husband if they were supposed to look that way, I replied in the affirmative. "Yes, they are called Elephant Ear cookies".  

The following recipe is an adaptation of an online Betty Crocker cookie. It's a great pandemic cookie because it allows you to use up the dregs of breakfast cereal you have hanging about. Any oat flake, bran flake or corn flake cereal will do. I would avoid using up the last of the Lucky Charms or Cocoa Puffs in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 cups unsweetened breakfast cereal - I used 1 cup of raisin bran and 3 cups of Rice Crispies

Methods:
Heat your oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, mix the butter, peanut butter, sugars and egg until blended. Stir in the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Finally, stir in the cereal. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes, then remove them from the cookie sheets.

They're in the tin.

Baking in the Time of Corona Virus........Hot Cross Buns! Hot Cross Buns!

'Hot Cross Buns' is an English language nursery rhyme, Easter song and street cry referring to the spiced English bun associated with Good Friday. The most common modern version is:

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

There is not a nursery rhyme that I don't know. As a child I must have thought that learning rhymes was my responsibility, or perhaps my job. In retrospect, this particular rhyme doesn't appear to make a lot of sense.

This was the batch that was almost tossed.

I happen to love hot cross buns the way I happen to love fruit cake. Unfortunately, during the current corona virus crisis, the local epicentre of bun-baking is closed. Therefore, I have been forced to resort to bun-baking myself using the original recipe from Pan Chancho, the aforementioned mecca of bun bakery.

Pan Chancho was established by Zal Yanovsky and his wife Rose, as a bakeshop to supply their Kingston restaurant Chez Piggy. As some senior citizens may remember, Zal was a member of the American band called the Lovin' Spoonful. 'Do You Believe in Magic?' If so, you'll be fine attempting this recipe.

By the way, given I've been baking in the time of corona virus, I was short of several ingredients. I lacked currants the first time I attempted these buns, and lacked both currants and candied peel during the second attempt. As my sister pointed out, grocery store buns only ever contain raisins, so 2 cups of raisins it was. It is possible to overdo the raisins. 

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups of warm water
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup of milk powder
• 2 eggs slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon of the spice mix
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups of dried currants
• 1 cup chopped candied peel, mixed
• 1 and 1/2 cups of sultana raisins
• 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk (the egg 'wash')

Spice Mix

• 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoons allspice
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Icing

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 cups of icing sugar
• zest of 1 lemon

Methods:

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. After about 10 minutes, stir in the butter, 2 lightly beaten eggs and milk powder. Add the flour, sugar, spice mixture, salt, currants, raisins and citrus peel and mix well. Turn the dough on to a floured board and knead until "silky". 

Here's where things get tricky. What exactly does silky dough look like? I'll never know. All I can tell you is that it is much easier to make these buns if you happen to have a Kitchen Aid standing mix-master. During my first bun-making attempt, having been overly influenced by the stringent rules of Paul Hollywood on the Great British Baking Show, I kneaded the dough by hand. It came very close to being thrown in the garbage. I used the Kitchen Aid mixer for the second attempt, but again the dough did not approach "silky". Maybe they meant to say "sticky".

Leave to rise (in a greased bowl, and covered in plastic wrap) in a warm place for 2-3 hours until the dough has doubled in size. Punch down the dough and shape into 18 buns. Place on a couple of greased baking sheets and allow the dough to rise again until not quite doubled in size. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Slash the tops of the buns with a razor blade (quite dramatic, I think). Just before putting the buns in the oven, brush the tops with the egg-milk wash. Bake for 20 minutes. To make the icing, warm the lemon juice in a small sauce pan, the stir in the sugar and add the lemon zest. Ice the slightly cooled buns with a cross of icing.

This is the brute of a machine they call a Kitchen Aid mix-master. I bought it with Air Mile points when they were threatening people to use (or lose) their points. Little did I know that I was not getting the delicate little machine that Martha Stewart so deftly uses, but a monster spring-loaded thing reminiscent of farm equipment.