Bacon Cheddar Sage Biscuits

I've never really been that good at waiting for big news, and this weekend has seen us sitting here wondering if we indeed have been able to buy the house we want, or if we'll have to look at other options.  When I'm wandering around the house trying to figure out what to do, my first impulse is to go to the kitchen and make something.

Cheese biscuits are a go to recipe in our house, but I wanted something different. What about bacon?  These babies were an experiment that turned out to be the best biscuits I've ever eaten.  I think they would go really well with eggs for breakfast, or just eat them on their own.  I'm sure they are incredibly sinful, but who cares?  Sometimes you just have to enjoy things, right?






2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped finely (you could substitute green onions)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup grated aged/sharp cheddar cheese
7 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped finely (try cooking the bacon in the oven!)
1 cup whole milk ( I love buttermilk!)
1 egg, beaten

Pre-heat oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, sage leaves, and salt until combined.  Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the pieces resemble coarse crumbs.  Stir in the cheese and bacon.

In a small bowl, stir together the egg and milk.  Pour into the flour mixture and stir gently until just combined.  The dough will be sticky.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and pat with your hands until it's about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with a 2 inch cutter and space about 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until golden and crisp.


Makes about 12

Read More

Homemade Pita Bread

I love pita.  Warm, soft, bread that I can dip into things like carrot hummus or top with spiced chicken and veggies to make into a sandwich, it's one of my favorites.  Buying fresh Greek pita at the store costs me about $5 for a small package but I recently discovered that I can make a pile myself for just pennies.

Making pita is a little time consuming because you need to let it rise like bread for a total of 2 hours, which you can think of as work intensive, or just find something else to do while it rises.  The cooking time, however, goes really quick.  Don't be afraid if you've never made bread before, this is really easy and you can even get the kids involved!  Just make sure your water is good and warm-not lukewarm, but not hot, either. 





 

Adapted from Fine Cooking

1 tsp sugar

4 ½ tsp quick rise yeast (or, two ½ oz packages of quick rise yeast)

3 cups unbleached all purpose white flour

3 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp salt, plus more for sprinkling

1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Measure out the flours, sugar, salt, and yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Give it all a good whisk to mix together.   Using the dough hook attachment and with the motor running, gently pour in 2 cups of warm water mixed with 1/3 cup of olive oil.   The dough will come together into a ball.  Knead the dough in the mixer for about 5 minutes.  It may crawl up the dough hook, so stick around and make sure it stays put.   Turn out onto the counter and shape into a ball.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can do this by hand.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the water/oil mixture, while stirring with a wooden spoon.  It will take some muscle, as it’s a stiffer dough.  Turn out onto the counter and knead for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.   Shape into a ball.

Measure out the 2 tbsp of olive oil into a large bowl and slather it around the bowl, then put the dough in the bowl, turning it so that the oil coats it all over.  Cover the bowl with plastic film and set aside in a warm place for about an hour.

Once the dough has risen and is double in size, gently punch it down and let it rest for 20 minutes.  Divide into about 12 pieces at about 3 3/4 oz each (I actually ended up with 16-18 pieces in the end)  Shape each piece into a ball.

Your finished balls of dough will look like this. Not perfect, but nice and round.

Place a ball of dough on a clean counter, then cup your hand over it and quickly move your hand in a circular motion.  If the counter has no flour on it and the dough is a little sticky, this is a great trick for shaping the dough into a tight ball.   When you have finished doing this with all the balls of dough, lightly flour your counter and then roll out each ball into a circle 7 inches in diameter.  Set each aside on a floured surface and cover with a damp tea towel.  Let them rise for another hour.  They won’t rise a whole lot now, since the cool tea towels will stop that.  However, they will get slightly puffy.

Pre-heat your oven to 500F.  You will need a rimless baking sheet but if you don’t have one, don’t worry-just take your rimmed cookie sheets and turn them upside down.  Weird, right?  It works.

Try not to crowd on too many.  I could fit 3-4 pitas.  Don't forget to sprinkle with a little salt!

Set however many pitas that will fit on your baking sheets and sprinkle with salt.  I liked using a coarser salt here, as it gave a little bit of crunch on the finished product. 

Your oven rack should be around the middle to bottom third of your oven.  Bake the pitas about 4-5 minutes, watching carefully at the 4 minute mark.  You want the bottoms of the pitas to be golden, but it’s a fine line when they go from golden to slightly burned.  I burned the first batch and found that 4 ½ minutes worked the best for me.  You be the judge!

Remove the freshly baked pitas from the oven and pile on a cooling rack to cool.  These are best eaten warm, but if you can’t eat them all,  once cooled they also can be wrapped up and stored in the fridge for about 3 days or the freezer for 6 months.

They are extra tasty when warmed up in the oven-just wrap in foil and heat in a 350 F oven for about 5-10 minutes.

Makes about 14-18

Note:  These pitas typically don’t always become super puffy and have pockets, as are common with pita breads you buy at the store.  Some poofed up in the oven, and some didn’t.  Greek pitas don’t have pockets, and are more for dipping and piling ingredients onto, rather than stuffing.   Either way they are very tasty and good with tzatziki, hummus, souvlaki, or just on their own.

Read More

Tequila Pepper Jelly and a Review of Canadian Living's Complete Book of Preserving

I grew up in a small town in Central BC in the 1980s, where there was 1 stoplight and not even a take out pizza joint until I was in grade 10.  Every summer my parents would load up the car with flats of fat, juicy tomatoes, ruby red cherries, and sweet strawberries from fruit stands with their wares trucked up from the Okanogan.  Making jam or canning was a family affair; with us kids sitting at the island in our kitchen knife and cutting board in hand, hulling strawberries or peeling and slicing peaches. 

There’s something about homemade jams and jellies that I just can’t get from buying them at the store.  The lack of additives and colors, fresher fruit, and the freedom to play around with flavors keep you from being limited to what’s on the grocery shelf.  Also, making jam at home is far more economical than buying it once you already own all the canning equipment.

Awhile ago, I was sent this gorgeous new book from Canadian Living.  I’ve often used Canadian Living’s recipes in my kitchen when canning, always with great success. This hardcover book has everything from pickles to mustards, fruit vinegars, jams, chutneys, and more.   This pepper jelly has a fantastic twist with the addition of tequila, and comes out sweet with a bit of spice.  I think it would be tasty on a wheel of brie, slathered over cream cheese on baguette, or as a glaze on chicken.  I don't think you need to worry about the alcohol with young kids; when you add it to the screaming hot jelly, there's much bubbling and I'm sure the alcohol just burns right off, leaving the flavour behind. 

Having said that, when I bought the tequila I was asked not for one, but two pieces of ID at the liquor store.  I'm 41.  Let's just say it made me really, really happy.

If you are new to canning, the book also explains the process well, talks about equipment and tips, and offers recipes for beginners as well as for more advanced cooks. With beautiful photographs and easy to follow directions, I highly recommend that you give it a good look.

Adapted from Canadian Living

1 cup minced sweet peppers-1/3 cup each red, yellow, and orange.

1 tsp minced hot red pepper, seeded  (I used bird's eye chiles)

¾ cup white wine vinegar

3 cups sugar

¼ cup tequila

1 envelope of liquid Certo

Before you start, sterilize 8 ½ cup sized jars and keep them hot in the oven.  Fill a canner with water and bring it to a boil (this takes awhile, I’d do this first).  You also want to get a small pot and bring the water to a simmer, then set the snap lids in to soften the glue.  Don’t boil them, but keep them in hot water while you continue.

In a large pot, stir together the sweet and hot peppers, vinegar, and sugar.  Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring.  Let boil  or 5 minutes while you stir to keep it from burning.

Remove the pot from the heat and add the Certo, stir, and then add the tequila.  The mixture will bubble after you add the tequila, but don’t worry about it.   Set the hot jars onto a tea towel on your counter to catch the spills.

Ladle the hot jelly into the jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace.  A canning funnel and ladle work really well here and keep the mess to a minimum.  Wipe the rims of the  jars with a clean cloth, then cover with a warm snap lid and screw on the band to fingertip tight.

Process the jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and move the canner off the element to let it cool a bit before removing the jars to the counter top.  As they cool, occasionally turn them upside down (carefully!) and leave them that way for a few minutes so that the bits of pepper in the jelly don’t float to the top and stay there.   If you do this every so often as they cool, the bits will eventually be suspended in the jelly quite nicely.

Allow the jars to completely cool on the counter.  Each of the snap lids should be sealed up-meaning, if you press the top they are firm and there is no give.  Any jar that didn’t seal can be refrigerated and you can use it up immediately.

Makes 3-4 cups of jelly

Disclosure: I have not been paid by, nor do I work for, Canadian Living or their publisher.  The book was sent to me to review.  However, it should be said that some of the recipes in the book have been around for years in their publications, and I have made them before, with great success.   

Read More

Anne's Cheesy Popper Biscuits

Ready to be baked!

When I first wrote this post, I didn't realize that these biscuits would be the last time I'd ever bake anything for my friend Anne. After months of fighting cancer, she was becoming too weak to bake but had a craving for these little cheese filled bites and asked me to bring her some. We had shared these biscuits often at her house over the past few years when I'd visit for tea every Friday. Sitting in her kitchen overlooking the garden, we'd sip tea and nibble treats as we watched the birds rummaging through the feeders. Anne always had the best cookbooks, and one of her favourites was Kim Boyce's "Good to the Grain."

During the visit where I brought Anne these biscuits, we sat for one last time in her apartment in the city closer to cancer treatment, nibbling biscuits and looking out over the city. She insisted that I take her beloved Kitchen Aid stand mixer home with me, and once I traveled all the way home, sent me a tweet.

"The red mixer, home at last! Fantastic biscuits."

Anne died a month later.

These biscuits were her favourite, and I'm sure she'd want me to tell you how wonderful they are.  Full of sharp cheeses, buttermilk, and even creme fraiche, they are both tangy and cheesy, yet have more substance than usual biscuits because of the whole grains used.  Cut them with a 2 1/2 inch cutter if you want to make sandwiches out of them, but Anne always liked to make them tiny with a 1 inch cutter, like cocktail biscuits.  They are especially good with tea or to dunk in soups and stews to soak up extra juices.  Use the best cheddar you can find, I noticed it really makes a difference, and definitely freshly grated Parmesan cheese, not the sawdust-like stuff from a can.  These biscuits are best fresh from the oven but freeze and re-heat beautifully.  Try some for breakfast straight from the toaster oven, slathered in butter.

Adapted from Good to the Grain and Anne

1 cup Kamut flour

½ cup whole wheat flour (or spelt, even)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

¾ tsp salt  (skip if you use 1/2 cup salted butter)

½ tsp fresh cracked black pepper

¼ tsp cayenne or smoky hot paprika

½ cup unsalted butter, frozen

2 cups grated sharp white cheddar

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup crème fraiche (or use 1/2 and 1/2 whipping cream/buttermilk)

Topping:

2 tbsp buttermilk

Fresh cracked black pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk the kamut flour, whole wheat flour, all purpose flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, pepper, and cayenne together.   Grate the butter using the large holes on a box grater onto a plate, then dump the grated butter into the dry mixture, along with the cheeses.   Stir to combine.

Stir the butter milk and crème fraiche together in a medium sized bowl, and then pour into the flour mixture, stirring with a fork until a raggy dough forms.  You may need to add a small amount of buttermilk if the dough appears to be too dry, but resist the temptation to add too much! 

Turn the dough out onto a counter and bring together with your hands, kneading it very slightly just to make the dough come together.  Pat the dough out with your hands to about 1 inch thick.   Cut the biscuits out with a biscuit cutter-2 ½ inch works well if you want to use the biscuits to make breakfast sandwiches, 1 inch if you want to make cocktail sized biscuits. 

Place the biscuits about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet, then brush the tops with buttermilk and top with a bit of pepper.  Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, until the bottoms are golden.  Be sure to rotate the pan half way through so that they cook evenly.  Remove to a wire rack and let cool.  These really are best served warm right out of the oven, but freeze and re-heat quite nicely.  You can also keep them in an airtight container on the counter for 2 days.

Makes about  16 two inch biscuits, or about 4 dozen 1 inch biscuits

Read More