Cat Food

Tip #20

One of my favorite pastry tips!

Can't Help Myself

Banana Chocolate Chip cake. Yep. Can't stop baking.

Raspberry Streusel Coffee Cakes ... Cooling

Snow Day

Inside on a snowy day. Baking.

Biscotti Finished!

A low fat treat to start the year off right!

Heading to a little party tonight and wanted to bring something baked. I'm going with biscotti. Mine don't have any fat except for what's found in the almonds that I added to the cranberries and orange zest in this variation.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
2 lg. eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups flour

Small handful of dried cranberries
Same amount of whole almonds
Zest of 1 orange

Method:
1. Beat sugar(with orange zest previously added to it) with the eggs till pale and fluffy. Then add vanilla.
2. Sift together dry ingredients and add to above. Add a couple drops of water if the dough seems dry (doesn't come together).
3. Add cranberries & almonds.
4. Tip on to a board and roll into a log.
5. Pop in to a pre-heated oven ( 350 degrees) and bake till golden, about 25 min.
6. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and then slice. Pop back into oven and bake till a bit dry. About 10 minutes.

There's A New Bakery In Town!

After spending the past 9 months searching for local space (and not being successful I'm sorry to say), former pastry chef and current local cooking instructor Cat Morris (yep - it's me!) is on the verge of opening her first "virtually" local bakery - Basic Kneads.

The bakery will focus on local ingredients baked up like gran'ma used to do it. Everything from low fat muffins like apricot ginger and cranberry orange to all sorts of cookies, double fudge chunk brownies, cakes, pies, tarts and much more. All using wholesome and locally available ingredients. There'll also be freshly baked crackers, breads and even granola packaged to go! And let's not forget about those birthday - wedding and any ole' custom cakes you can think of!

Check Basic Kneads over the next couple of weeks as we roll out our new menu and local delivery schedule.

Ahh the first warm Spring afternoon ...

Had a nice afternoon of baking for a change and finally perfected my basic biscotti recipe. I've used fresh lemon zest and rosemary here but feel free to experiment with any flavors you like. If you try the recipe shoot me a note and let me know what you came up with!
Here's the recipe as a PDF - Lemon Rosemary Biscotti

Lemon Rosemary Biscotti
Ingredients:

sugar 2/3 cup
eggs 2 large
vanilla 1 tsp.
baking powder ¾ tsp.
salt 1/8 tsp.
flour 2 cups
lemon zest 1 tsp.
rosemary (finely minced) 2 tsp.
almonds (whole, toasted) 1 cup

1 egg plus a little water mixed together for egg wash

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. mix eggs & sugar together till thick and pale yellow
2. add vanilla, lemon zest & rosemary to eggs and sugar
3. sift dry ingredients together and add to the egg mixture
4. add the almonds & mix till just well combined
5. because dough will be sticky, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about a half hour
6. roll dough into a 12 inch by 2 ½ inch log, brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with a little sugar and bake for approximately 25 to 30 minutes or until firm to the touch
7. remove from oven, cool slightly and then slice into ½ thick slices
8. return slices to the oven for 10 -15 minutes until light golden brown and dry

Concord Grape Jelly

I think my jelly was successful. I won't know till the jars cool and I can see if they have sealed properly but I think it all went well. That's the thing about home canning... I've done it a few times and things have always gone well but then you start to watch a show like Good Eats and it makes you feel like there's a one in a million shot that whatever you've canned will end up being safe to eat when you pull it out of the cupboard in a couple of months! Don't get me wrong, their intense attention to detail can be great if you want to know every little thing about a subject but let's face it - most of our grandmothers or great grandmothers spent the better part of their summers putting up preserves, pickles, fruits & veggies of all dimension. That was the main way they could have fruits and vegetables all year round. It's really easy to do.

That being said - here's a recipe for Concord Grape Jelly. A reader asked when concord grapes would be available and according to The Concord Grape Association these grapes are harvested in the fall between September and October. Here are a couple of great resources for everything you could want to know about the Concord grape:
The National Grape Cooperative
The Concord Magazine
The International Jelly & Preserve Association

Ingredients

3 1/2 lbs. Concord grapes
½ -1 cup honey or ¾ -2 cups sugar
4 tsp. Pectin powder
4 tsp. Calcium water

Method

1) Put the rinsed grapes in a sauce pot with about a ½ cup of water and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
2) Remove from the heat and strain into a clean bowl. You can store the puree at this point in the refrigerator until you're ready to make the jelly.
3) When you're ready and you've pre-boiled your jars and lids to make sure they're sterile, you're ready to make the jelly.
4) Pour the grape puree into a sauce pan and add the calcium water. Mix thoroughly.
5) In a separate bowl measure out your honey or sugar and add pectin powder. Mix thoroughly.
6) Bring the puree to a boil and add the sugar/pectin mixture and stir vigorously to make sure it all dissolves. Once it has returned to the boil remove from the heat.
7) Using a canning funnel (wide mouth**) fill the sterilized jars to a ½ inch from the top.
8) Screw on the two-piece lids and put the jars into a pot of boiling water to cover. Boil for 5 minutes and then remove.
9) Check the seals by pressing the center. If it pops up it didn't seal properly and you should keep it in the refrigerator and use it within three weeks. Otherwise the lids should be sucked down tight and once cool you can store them at room temperature in a dark cupboard.

Yield: 4-5 cups

As I usually make jam and not jelly I did a lot of research to find the easiest jelly recipe I could find and after a few hours on the internet I decided to use the one on the package of pectin. It's Pomona's Universal Pectin and it 100% pure citrus pectin.

**It seems that canning supplies can be hard to come by these days so if you're in the Montclair NJ vicinity you can get everything you need at American Royal Hardware at 251 Park Street - tell 'em Cat sent ya!