Strawberry Shortcake

March is strawberry season here in Florida, more specifically in Plant City "Winter Strawberry Capital of the World". Winter it is not, we wear shorts and flip flops to the Plant City Strawberry Festival every year. This year I decided to try my hand at making jam, so I bought A TON of strawberries. I made two batches (16 pints) of low sugar jam and still had enough leftover for a freezer full of strawberries already cut up and sweetened for shortcake. We also had strawberry pie, strawberry cupcakes, strawberries on our french toast and I think Tinker Bell ate more than she cleaned. We love March! So this recipe is for the shortcake biscuits and it makes enough for 8 people or 4 people with leftovers. The biscuits are fantastic in the morning with a little strawberry jam!



You will need:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 T white sugar
1 1/2 T baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

strawberries, sliced with sugar to taste (allow to sit for at least a half hour)
more whipping cream and sugar for topping




Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and cut in the butter. I use a pastry cutter, but knives or even a couple of quick pulses in the food processor works great. (I just hate cleaning my food processor and actually enjoy working the butter into the flour with my pastry cutter--memories of my grandmother working shortening into flour for biscuits.) Work it until you have pea-sized crumbs.



Combine the cream and vanilla.



Make a well in the flour mixture and add your cream. Mix gently until just combined.



This dough isn't pretty and it may even feel a bit dry. Totally okay! Gently knead it by hand a few times, creating a loose ball. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured, parchment lined cookie sheet and pat into an 8-inch square about 3/4 of an inch thick. Any thicker than that and you may end up with raw middles in your biscuits.



Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. This step is important--why? You want the butter to be cold because that is what gives you the flaky texture you love in biscuits. Trust me on this one.

Preheat your oven to 425. Take out the dough, slide the parchment onto the counter, and cut it into 9 even squares. Place them about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.



Bake until medium brown, 15 minutes exactly if your oven is spot-on with its temperatures.



My biscuits look a little ratty, I know. And I don't care, but if you like perfect biscuits that you can cut in half then just make your 9 squares even with clean edges. We don't cut our biscuits in half...we crumble. It tastes better. Really!





You may never see it crumbled in a magazine, but the little bits soak up all the delicious juice from the berries and you don't get a mouthful of biscuits with no strawberry flavor. I fill up a plastic freezer jam container with sliced strawberries and sugar and that is enough for four servings of strawberry shortcake. I just take the container out of the freezer the night before we want to eat it. I use about a cup of whipping cream with 2T powdered sugar added for the topping. Don't spoil your strawberry shortcake with Chemical Whip! :)



You may find yourself snacking on the biscuits late a night, sans strawberries. To avoid this dilemma you can wrap the biscuits in foil, place them in a freezer bag, and freeze them until the next time you want shortcake (or a snack). They'll be beautiful from the freezer for about 3 months.

Enjoy!

Homemade Whole Wheat Pancake Mix

This recipe was born of necessity. I am entirely too tired during the week to get up and start measuring flour, baking powder, etc for the kids' before-school pancakes. So, I made this mix and keep it in a plastic bag in the freezer. Then in the morning I scoop out some mix, add milk, an egg, and a little flax seed and viola! Perfect whole wheat pancakes. I usually drop blueberries onto the pancakes as they cook. But chocolate chips are an awesome addition, too.



6 cups flour (your choice of variety. I used 4 cups whole wheat, 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
2/3 cups sugar
2 T baking powder
1 T baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Make sure you mix the ingredients thoroughly so that you evenly distribute the baking soda and powder.



For the pancake batter I whisk together one cup of mix, 3/4 cup skim milk, one egg, and 1 T ground flax seed.



1/3 cup of batter for each pancake is perfect for my frying pan...because I am also too tired to get out my electric griddle. While they are baking on the first side I drop a few blueberries (or mini chocolate chips, sliced bananas, strawberries) on top.



They deserve a closer look, don't you think?




The pancakes will bake up around the blueberries a bit. Flip them when they start to look done around the edges. I'm not sure how long you can keep this mix in the freezer. I would think a good long while, though. We never seem to keep it around for more than a week and a half. Tip: flour stays fresher in the freezer. I keep all of my flours there in their original bags with a plastic bag on the outside.



Sometimes I sneak sugar-free syrup onto the pancakes. My kids can't tell the difference. :)

Banana Pancakes

We are a family of pancake junkies. Our favorite is the classic buttermilk pancake. Tinker Bell likes a few mini chocolate chips dropped on each pancake while baking, while the Goose likes blueberries. My Bubba loves to absolutely drown his pancakes, while I like mine with just a touch of syrup. But we also love banana pancakes. The great thing about this recipe is that you can substitute any type of flour you want and it doesn't change the result. One weekends I might feel indulgent and use all-purpose flour, but during the week (before school) I only use whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flours. The whole wheat helps to keep the munchkins bellies full until lunch.



1 cup flour (your choice)
1 1/2 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk (any type)
2 T oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp cinnamon (add to your taste)

I usually use two small or medium bananas. If your bananas are particularly large, just use one or one and a half. Too much banana can make the pancake mushy and unpleasant. You want them very ripe, the darker the sweeter. I usually use a darker banana than the ones in the picture. Did you know that if you ripen a banana to just the way you like it and then stick it in the fridge it won't ripen any more for almost two weeks? The peeling will turn black immediately, but the banana itself stays perfect. Bananas ripen so quickly here in the Florida heat that this little tidbit has saved us money. (Did you know that chickens LOVE bananas? It's our girls favorite treat!)



I use my mixer to mash the bananas. I prefer the pancakes without banana lumps, but if you like them you can certainly leave big lumps and it won't hurt the finished pancake.



Add the beaten egg, milk, oil, and vanilla to the mashed bananas. This new Smart Balance oil is great stuff. A blend of canola, olive, and soy oils. (That's an Eragon egg. Such a sweet girl to help us out with our pancakes.)



This time around I used one cup of whole wheat pastry flour. It's a bit smoother than regular whole wheat. Add the flour of your choice, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to the banana/milk mixture.



The batter will be slightly lumpy. Do not overmix! Pancakes get tough with too much mixing.



I use a 1/3 cup for each pancake. Lightly grease your griddle and bake the pancakes over medium high heat, about 350 if you have an electric griddle. When your pancakes just start to look done around the edges and the bubbles have begun to pop, flip them. (Only flip once.) After the flip I go ahead and butter them while they are still cooking. The butter melts right down into the pancake and ooooo baby!



Enjoy!

Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes

This week's found recipe is from Martha Stewart's website. I didn't try to make this recipe any healthier, sorry. It's been my experience that cupcake recipes do not like to be messed with. I made one minor substitution and doubled the recipe, but that was it. Now let me tell you about the taste...perfection. They were fluffy with a bit of heft, not-too-sweet, moist (even the next day), and even better without the frosting. I measure the success of a cupcake by how good they are without frosting. If they need it, the recipe needs tweaking. A cupcake should be able to stand alone and then the frosting is just an extra special treat.

I pureed enough strawberries in my mini food processor to make 2/3 cup. Half of that is for the cupcake batter and half for the frosting.



Your strawberries should look like this:





To the strawberries, add 1/4 whole milk (or heavy whipping cream, which is the only change I made) and one tsp of vanilla. Set that mixture aside.




Cream 1 stick of butter (Smart Balance stick) and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. That is the secret to good cakes and cupcakes. You need to beat a lot of air into the butter/sugar combo.





It is also important to add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. The recipe calls for 1 large egg and 2 large egg whites. I put the 2 discarded yolks into a baggie and add them to the scrambled eggs in the morning. In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Add half of the flour mix to the butter, sugar, eggs mix and beat just until combined.




Then add all of your strawberry, cream, and vanilla mix.




The last step is to add the rest of the flour. Be careful not to overbeat! Just until combined.



Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners, fill, and bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes. I found that 23 minutes was perfect. If you overbake your cupcakes will be dry and sad.

The frosting is amazing, if unnecessary. I ran out of powdered sugar before I could give the frosting a fluffy texture and ended up with more of a glaze. But it was a darn good glaze!

3 squares white baking chocolate
2 T heavy cream
2 cups (more!!) powdered sugar
1/3 cup strawberry puree
3 T butter, melted



I melted the chocolate in a double boiler. Really just a metal bowl over a small saucepan. The water should not get hot enough to boil and should never touch the bottom of the bowl.





Add the rest of the ingredients to chocolate and beat, adding more cream or powdered sugar, until you get the consistency that you prefer. Thick is good. :)



You've fallen in love a little bit, haven't you? I can't blame you. The little guy tastes even better than it looks!

Lemon Squares

After I got married my mom gave me a Better Homes and Gardens cookie cookbook. On the inside she inscribed, "have fun baking--be sure to clean up the flour!" I did a lot of baking as a kid/teenager and maybe, once, I got one tiny speck of flour on the counter top. But it was a tiny amount and just that once, right Mom? ;)


I love this cookbook. The first half is "All Day Treats" and then you flip it over and the other half of the book is "Christmastime Treats." This cookbook is well-used, spotty with recipe remains (and just a touch of flour), and marked up with alternate measurements and ingredients. The Lemon Bars recipe is the best I have ever tried.



Just look at that gooey lemon deliciousness! Makes your mouth water, doesn't it?

1/3 cup butter, softened (Smart Balance sticks)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tsp lemon zest (optional)
4 tablespoons lemon juice (use lemons, not the bottled juice stuff)
1/4 tsp baking powder
powdered sugar for dusting





For the crust, cream butter and sugar in mixer and add 1 cup of flour. Beat until mixture resembles crumbs. Just like a pie crust.





Press this mixture into an ungreased (because of all the butter) 8x8 inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. You aren't looking for golden brown, so don't overbake.




That's the before baking photo. I forget to take the after, but it looks like that only puffy.


While the crust is baking, beat the eggs in the same mixer bowl until they are foamy.



Now add the 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 T of flour, lemon juice (I have started using real lemon juice-not from the bottle-and it makes the squares soooo much better), and baking powder. (If you are using unsalted butter you might want to add just a pinch of salt.) Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Stir in the lemon zest and pour mixture over the partially baked, still hot crust.




Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges and the center is set. Be careful putting it into the oven...I slung it around a bit and had the lemon mixture slosh up the sides of the pan. So...it looks a lot browner around the edges than it should. :)



Cool in pan on a wire rack, dust with powdered sugar, and cut into squares. What? You have a crappy wire rack that sits directly on the counter and allows no airflow thereby defeating the purpose of the wire rack? I have a solution for you! A word of caution...kids find this hilarious. Don't know why.




Now, as Tinker Bell likes to say, time to feast!





That is not a fair representation of how many squares this recipe makes. Most of them never made it to the plate. The recipe claims it makes 20, but I have never counted. I've found it best not to count how many baked good I eat.

Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Muffins

I made these muffins this morning for the girls before school. I did not take step-by-step pictures because a.) my camera was under the impression that its batteries were low and b.) it was 5am. I did not feel like fooling with a camera that would take one picture and then shut off. We're out of batteries and it was too early for me to think of stealing the batteries from a remote. I did that this afternoon. I can't tell you how much my husband loves to pick up a remote and find that it has no batteries in it. :)

Banana Oat Muffins

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (or 1/3 cup honey)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
3/4 cup milk (I used skim)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Did I mention that these are healthy muffins? As healthy as a muffin can be, anyway. The whole wheat flour and applesauce instead of oil makes me feel less guilty about adding the chocolate chips.

Combine the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl (or mixer) lightly beat the egg and then stir in the milk, applesauce, and vanilla. Add the bananas and mix thoroughly. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture and stir until just combined. Pour batter into a 12-cup paper lined muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.








These muffins were so tender and moist. Really the only way you could tell that they had whole wheat instead of all white flour was by the way they stuck with you until lunch. Big hit with the munchkins and hubby.




I also liked that they were quick and easy enough to have ready by breakfast time, without having to get up earlier than usual.