Posted on 12/07/2013 9:49:27 AM PST by libertarian27
Welcome to the FReeper Recipe Thread.
Looking for something new to make or made something new that came out great? Please share a 'tried-and-true' recipe or three- for fellow FReepers to add to their 'go-to' Recipe Stack of Family Favorites!
Here's the place to share and explore your latest and greatest favorite recipe.
La Madeleine Pumpkin Pie / famous country French restaurant / hard to get recipes
Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger, teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice. 1/4 teaspoon salt.
In 2nd bowl mix lb can solid-pack plain pumpkin, 1/4 cup corn syrup. Mix in well 2 eggs, cup heavy cream. Add to dry ingredients/spices.
Bake in unbaked 10-inch pie shell. 325 deg 45 minutes. Cool.
Serve with dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Curious about one thing..it may taste good, but no way that’s a dumpling..Dumplings get dropped into the stock, and they FLOAT.
I’ve copied and pasted sooooo many of your recipes! Those are darling!
Some of us on the Gardening thread [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3101538/posts ]were talking about the use of hot peppers for the treatment of colds. One suggested using it in an oriental type of soup. After some discussion, I tried the following and was VERY pleased with the outcome!
Sautéed onion
Sautéed green pepper
Sautéed celery
Sautéed Snow Peas
Bamboo shoots (canned)
Used a can of one of the varieties of Lite Progresso chicken soup
Added
Garlic powder
Cumin
Onion powder
Thyme
Bay leaf
Dried parsley
Ground Cayenne pepper. We decided that since we are not currently fighting a cold to use a mild amount. We have one of those sets of measuring spoons on which dash is an amount. It is probably around a 1/16 of a tsp. It was just right for us.
We also put in a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (this was the ingredient that I had not ever tried before in a soup!)
Splash of lite (lo sodium) soy sauce
Let it simmer for a while, added more chicken.
We plan to do it again soon! Our thanks to all who were involved in bringing this idea to us!
That’s a matter of perception. My dad was a born and bred Southerner and my grandmother’s ancestry was Pennsylvania Dutch. They both made a dish with chicken flat strips of dough that were called “dumplings” in the south and “potpie” in the north.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!
Combine 3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes, cup sugar, 3 eggs, beaten, 1/2 cup milk, 8 tablespoons melted sweet butter, tbl vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour into buttered square baking dish. Scatter Crumble over top. Bake Crumble crisp/golden 20-25 min 400 deg. Serve hot.
CRUMBLE: Combine cup packed light brown sugar, 4 tablespoons cubed sweet butter, 1/2 cup self-rising cake flour, cup chopped pecans.
I’m going to try this one!
Once again this year, I’ve had requests for my Tequila Christmas Cake recipe so here goes: Please keep in your files as I am beginning to get tired of typing this up every year!
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
Nuts
1 bottle tequila
2 cups dried fruit
Sample the tequila to check quality. Take a large bowl; check the tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point, it is best to make sure the tequila is still OK. Try another cup just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck iin the cup of dried fruit. Pick the fruit up off the floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the tequila to meytest for tonsisticity. Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something. Check the tequila. Now shift the lemon ice strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 s and try not to fall over. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the tequila and wipe the counter with the cat.
Cherry Mristmas
Growing up, I was told Panforte was carried by Christians during the Crusades as it kept well, and was nutritious..
Panforte
Serves 16
6 ounces whole unblanched almonds
6 ounces whole unblanched hazelnuts
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup honey
1 1/4 pounds dried organic fruits, any combination of apricots, figs, raisins, cranberries, cherries, prunes and pineapple.
Garnish: Confectioners’ sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2 Keeping them separate on a cookie sheet, toast the almonds and hazelnuts for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Place the hazelnuts in a dry towel and rub to remove the skins. Leave skins on the almonds.
3. In a large bowl toss the nuts with the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, flour and cocoa powder. Cut the fruits into 1/2-inch pieces and add, stirring to combine.
4. In a small saucepan over high heat bring the sugar and honey to a full boil and cook to 225 degrees (soft ball stage). Immediately pour into the fruit mixture and stir. The dough will be very stiff.
5. Generously butter and dust with flour or cocoa powder a 9-inch springfoam pan or 9 x 1-inch flan ring placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet. With buttered or wet hands, press the fruit mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 1 hour, until the edges look set and the top is slightly puffed. Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan.
6. Run a knife around the edges of the pan and remove the sides. Store at room temperature. Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, panforte will keep for several weeks. Before serving, dust with confectioners’ sugar and slice into thin wedges.
Note: If the fruit is dry and hard, pour on boiling water to cover and let soften. Drain before using.
WHAT SIZE BOTTLE OF TEQUILA???
They range from 350ml to l.75 L..
LOLOLOL! I say the better sesssss bigger...hic!
You know, they say that chefs can be slightly cavalier in their recipes..a pinch of this, a dash of that..but everyone say that pastry requires precise measurements.. I agree..so, with that in mind...if I opt for the XL size of tequila.. doesn’t it make the batter rather thin..?????
I am a baker and used to teach classes on how to make macarons. Your instructions are great, but I would add just a couple of small hints.
Aging the egg whites is helpful. Just leave them uncovered in the fridge overnight. It reduces the amount of water in the egg white.
If you use parchment, you don’t need to butter it. Parchment has a little bit of silicone in it, so things don’t stick. Also, silpats work really well for macarons. If you use one, just dip your cookie cutter into flour and touch the silpat. It will leave just enough of a ring to show you how large to make your cookie.
When you whip your egg whites you want them to be glossy and stiff. Don’t overwhip them until they start to look dry and almost curdled. They will start to separate if you do, and be more difficult to fold into the flour mixture.
Folding until you get a ribbon is the key. And after you have piped them, leave them to dry a bit, until they have “set”. When they are set you can gently touch them and they won’t stick to your finger. Setting is what allows the cookies to form a “foot”. The time may vary depending on how humid it is in your kitchen.
We always filled them with an Italian buttercream (yummy). However, when you make it, be sure to use a European butter. American butter is made from sweet cream, and European butter is made from clabbered (soured) cream. Because of that, the European butter has more of a “tang” to it, and it is just wonderful in buttercream. When made with American butter, it just tastes like sweet grease.
Good luck. They are just yummy!
Thanks for the hints/tips. I especially like the one about making a ring with a cookie cutter dipped in flour.
As for butter, Plugra is the only European style butter in stores here. Is it okay for Italian buttercream?
I love watching baking trends..For awhile it was cupcakes, then macarons, wonder what's next..
Once again, thanks for your macaron tips.
This past week it's been really hot, and humid, here in the Tampa area. Baking all the Christmas cookies, I had the AC cranked all the way down, and it still took me three times longer than I figured, because had to pop the dough back into the freezer like every 5 minutes..
Tomorrow I'm baking several lemon meringue pies, and I'm wondering if you have any special tips/hints. Sometimes they come out perfectly..almost too pretty to eat, sometimes, not quite so.
Thanks again, and a Merry Christmas to you all..
You are most welcome! Dipping the cutter in flour is just so much faster and easier than tracing those suckers!
Plugra is what I use when I want a butter treat at home. It would be great for the icing. At the shop where I taught, we had a contract with Kerrygold, so that is what I usually used there.
I think the new trend is baking is Ombre cakes...... a gradual shading from dark to light. Kind of a pain to do as you have to keep changing the color. Not hard, just more work than is necessary. 8-)
The trick to lemon meringue is one I learned from the book “The Professional Pastry Chef”.... a wonderful book that teaches some of the science of cooking, which makes the art more fun!
1-1/4 T cornstarch
6 T water.
Mix and cook until thick.
5 egg whites
2 or 3 drops lemon juice
Whip until tripled in volume.
2/3 C sugar
Add to white and whip to soft peak stage.
1 t vanilla
Add vanilla and the cornstarch mixture (gradually) and whip until stiff peaks form. Stop when the whites are still glossy and moist looking, and will hold a peak when you pull out the beater.
I always showed my students that they could hold the bowl upside down, and the egg whites wouldn’t budge. The tendency is to overwhip the egg whites, and they get dull and almost chunky looking.
The purpose of the lemon juice in the whites is to allow the proteins to break down a bit and the whites will whip better. Any acid will do... cream of tarter (but after I got a chunk of it in a meringue in a fancy restaurant, I switched to lemon juice) or even vinegar. A few drops... and I do mean drops, won’t change the flavor.
The corn starch mixture is a stabilizer. It helps the egg whites to not break down and weep during the baking. Not always perfect, but it helps, and you really can’t taste it.
Of course, putting the meringue on a hot filling helps with the baking process as well.
Merry Christmas! Hope your day is filled with Joy.
My "problem" is that I always want it to look like one of those great diner pies..with a perfect MOUNTAIN of meringue. I think I have too heavy a hand...I "glop" it...
Will advise how it turns out..
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