Sweet Potato Rolls (no kneading)

Sweet Potato Rolls (no kneading) 

 3/4 cup  warm water
1 tablespoon or 1 package active-dry yeast
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes - roasted, mashed and then cooled 
1 cup whole or 2 % milk
1/4 cup melted butter
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoons salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
 
Combine water, yeast and a dash of sugar in a large mixing bowl and let stand until the yeast is dissolved. Add the room temperature mashed sweet potatoes, milk, melted butter, brown sugar, and salt. Stir until combined. Add the flour, mix until it forms a dough. Dough will be sticky.

Place dough in large bowl and cover with lid or plastic wrap.  Let stand until doubled in bulk, at least 2 hours or as long as 5 hours. The dough can be used immediately, but it's easier to work with if you can refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. The dough can also be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. 
 
Put flour on cutting board and place the dough there, put a little more flour on top.  Shape into a disk.  Divide the dough into 24 pieces. Shape into balls and place on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush the top with butter.  Allow rolls to rise covered until the rolls are double in size (one hour).
 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes.  Serve warm.    Also good with honey butter. 

Cocktail Sauce

2 cups ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons creamy horseradish

Hot Fudge Sauce

Hot Fudge Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

2/3 cup heavy cream
½ cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup cocoa powder, dutch is best
¼ teaspoon sea salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped, divided in half or use chocolate chips
2 tablespoons unsalted butter - if you use salted omit the salt in the recipe
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Heat cream, syrup, brown sugar, cocoa powder, salt and about half of the chocolate until bubbles form.  Reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat and add the rest of the chocolate, the butter, and the vanilla extract, stirring until smooth. Let cool for 20 to 30 minutes, (it will thicken as it cools). Store in a jar or airtight container in the refrigerator (a couple of weeks). Reheat in microwave until warm.

Also try -

1 cup sugar 3 tablespoons corn starch 4 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 cup hot water 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 stick butter Combine dry ingredients, mixing well. Add hot water and mix over high/med heat until thick. Add Vanilla, mixing well and then remove from heat, adding butter. Stir until all butter is combined. Let sit a few minutes to cool before eating.

Chocolate Cake with Melting Chocolate

INGREDIENTS
6oz. Dark chocolate
6oz. Butter (unsalted)
4 Eggs
2 TBSP and 2 TSP Sugar
7 TBSP and 1 TSP Flour


Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave.  Beat the eggs and sugar with a whisk for a few minutes and then fold in the flour.  Add this to the melted chocolate and butter and stir until combined.  Pour into greased muffin pan.  Bake at 390 degrees for 14 minutes.   
 Make sure the eggs are at room temperature and chocolate is warm enough while making the mixture. Then, serve with ice cream and a fruit garnish.

Mushroom Soup

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 cup peeled and sliced carrots
1 cup sliced onions
1 cup sliced leeks, washed, white and light green parts only
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 pounds cleaned and sliced white or wild mushrooms
6 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
pepper, to taste


Melt butter over medium heat in large pan and cook carrots, onions, leeks and celery.  Do not brown the vegetables.  Stir in thyme and mushrooms and cook 5 minutes, until mushrooms have softened.  Add chicken stock, salt and pepper and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.  Puree soup in blender, adjust seasoning to taste.  You may mince some mushrooms and sauté them with a little olive oil and add to soup.

Peanut Butter Balls

A long time ago I had a recipe for peanut butter bars or balls and you added tons of powdered sugar to get the consistency.  These are a million times better and don't have all that added sweet.  If you don't believe me, try them!

1 jar (16 oz) natural peanut butter - no stir (the only ingredient is peanuts)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
a pinch of sea salt
4 tablespoons coconut flour
1 pkg chocolate chips (milk or dark)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
6 tablespoons chocolate crisp rice cereal crushed or crushed peanuts

Stir peanut butter in bowl, add syrup and salt and stir until it thickens.  Add the coconut flour and stir until combined.  Roll into one inch balls (or smaller) and place on cookie sheet (lined with silpat or parchment paper) and place in freezer until chilled. 

Melt chocolate chips and coconut oil in microwave.  Let it cool a little. 

Dip peanut butter balls into the chocolate and put them back on the cookie sheet and then back into the freezer.  Reserve some of the melted chocolate.

After they have chilled again, use a fork to drizzle chocolate over the top of them and then sprinkle with the chocolate rice cereal (like cocoa crispies) or crushed peanuts. 

Cookie Tips

Cookie Tips: How To Make Cookies Flat, Crispy, Soft, Or Chewy

has to do with the amount and temperature of key ingredients:

Sugar: The moisture in sugar affects chewiness. The relative amount of white sugar to brown sugar has a great effect on the baked cookie, as the brown sugar has a much wetter moisture content (approximately 35% more moisture). Therefore, using more brown sugar will result in softer, chewier cookies, while using more white sugar will result in cookies that are flatter and crisper overall.

Butter and Eggs: The temperature of these key ingredients helps control how much the dough spreads. Cool ingredients will keep you dough cooler, which results in the cookies spreading more slowly in the oven allowing the oven's heat to "set" the cookie while it still thick and therefore producing a denser, chewier cookie. Warm dough spreads more quickly in the oven, which makes the cookies thinner and crisper. Also, keep this theory in mind if you have the habit of dropping cookies onto still-hot cookie sheets. If you don't want them spreading quickly, use cool sheets

Flour: A high proportion of butter to flour in the dough will also allow it to spread quickly. Makes sure you are measuring your flour correctly. Adding more flour to a recipe to produce a thick chewy cookie won't work for you. Too much flour will make the cookie, firm, dry and tough - you need to control the amount and temperature of all the key ingredients together and that includes the butter, eggs, sugar and flour. To insure that you are accurately using the amount of flour called for in the recipe, use a kitchen scale to weigh it or measure properly: use a dry measuring cup, not a pyrex cup meant for liquid measurements. Fluff the flour with a fork to avoid densely packed flour. Then spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it with a knife. Never scoop right from the bag as that will compact too much flour into the cup and don't shale or tap the cup as you add the flour or this will pack the flour down as well.

Bake cookies on light colored cookie sheets - dark cookie sheets will cause cookies to brown too quickly and cook too fast. If all you have is dark cookie sheets, try baking your cookies on parchment paper lining the cookie sheets. You'll be surprised at the difference it makes. Cookies also cook more evenly on cookie sheets that do not have sides as the heat flows over the cookies more evenly.

For crispier cookie creations:


Use butter instead of shortening in the cookie recipe. Cookies will spread more and be thinner and crispier. Real margarine works even better.

Use a little bit more liquid in the batter; that will help cookies to spread more and thus be thinner and crispier.

Substitute 1 tablespoon of corn syrup for 1 tablespoon of the sugar called for in the recipe; it will make the cookies crispier and browner.

Use bread flour for drier, crispier cookies and they will be darker too.
Bread flour absorbs more liquid from the recipe than any other type of flour.
All-purpose flour can also make a crispy cookie, which will be more tender than a cookie make entirely with bread flour.

Replace the egg called for in the recipe with milk for a crispier cookie.

Use baking soda instead of baking powder to make dough less acidic.
A less acidic batter spreads more, cookies will be crispier.
Substitute ½ teaspoon baking soda per cup of flour for the baking powder called for in the recipe.
Baking soda in large amounts – more than ¼ teaspoon per cup of flour – does not contribute to leavening:
It is there for better browning
Baking soda neutralizes acidity (cookies will be more alkaline, they will spread more.

Acidic doughs and batters (such as those made with baking powder, which has acids and does not neutralize other acids in the cookie dough recipe) set faster, but do not brown as well. Cookies will be puffier.

Alkaline doughs and batters (such as those with more baking soda) will brown better but spread more. Cookies will be thinner and crispier.

For maximum “puff” and chewiness in your cookie creations:

Chill the dough – that will slow down spreading, cookies will be puffier. Even chill the baking sheet before baking if you like.

Use cake flour instead of all-purpose, it has more moisture and will therefore puff more (cookies will be softer and paler, though).

Using some high protein flour (such as bread flour) can make the dough hold together better, and can make a chewier cookie – but too much can make the cookies flatter and crisper – experimentation is needed.

Use solid shortening. It makes a chewier cookie than a cookie made with butter.
Butter melts faster than solid shortening, cookies will spread more if made with butter.
Even half butter/half shortening will melt more slowly than butter-only, so cookies made that way still spread less than if made with all-butter.

Make smaller scoops (smaller cookies), they will puff better.
Uniform smaller scoops cook more evenly than differing sizes
Use a #20 ‘disher’ (looks like a round ice cream scoop) for ideal and uniformly sized cookies.

Use a larger proportion of brown sugar to white for a moist, puffier cookie
Substitute up to ALL brown for white sugar for maximum chewiness
Darker brown sugar (more molasses) attracts more moisture from the air, and will make a chewier result.

Use yolks only for a moister result – egg whites dry out cookies.

Use baking powder (1 teaspoon per cup of flour) instead of baking soda; the resulting dough will make a chewier cookie. It will spread less, since it is more acid.

Try honey. Cookies made with honey instead of sugar will become soft as they stand after baking. Same goes for cookies made with brown sugar.

 

Chewy Coconut Cookies

 

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt, then mix in the coconut. Drop dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.

 

 

 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.  

Roasted Garlic and Dungeness Crab Soup (Local Ocean - Newport OR)

Published May 10, 2011 - OregonLive Oregonian Restaurant Request

Makes 8 servings
Local Ocean Seafoods makes this soup with 1/4 cup of crab stock, but we increased the water and boosted the amount of lobster base to substitute. Feel free to make your own stock by simmering crab shells with chopped onion, celery and garlic for 30 minutes.

3 large heads garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced green onion
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup rice flour or 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (see note)
8 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon clam base (see note)
1 3/4 teaspoons lobster base (see note)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups half-and-half or whipping cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Salt
1 pound fresh crab meat, picked over to remove shell and cartilage
Fennel sprigs for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pull the papery outer layers from the garlic heads and trim the top 1/2 inch off of each head. Place the heads on a large sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and wrap tightly. Roast for about 1 hour or until the garlic is soft in the center. Let cool and then squeeze the roasted garlic out of each clove. Measure out 1/2 cup of roasted garlic and set aside. Place the remaining garlic in a mini-food processor or blender and add the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil with the shallot and green onion; blend until a paste forms. Set aside.
Make a roux by melting the butter in a small saucepan and whisking in the flour until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large saucepan combine the water, clam base and lobster base. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and add the white wine, reserved roasted garlic and half-and-half. Simmer for 5 minutes and then whisk in the reserved roux and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Return to a simmer and continue simmering for 30 to 45 minutes or until reduced to about 6 or 7 cups. Taste and add salt if needed.
To serve, divide the crab among 8 soup bowls, top each with a large pinch of parmesan cheese and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the reserved garlic-shallot paste. Pour 3/4 cup of hot soup into each bowl and top with a sprig of fennel. Serve immediately.

Note: Rice flour is available everywhere (Bob's Red Mill is a popular brand), but if you would prefer to buy a small amount, look for it in the bulk foods section.

Note: We tested this recipe using Better Than Bouillon brand clam and lobster bases, which are available at Stroheckers Market and online at www.superiortouch.com.
Adapted from Local Ocean Seafoods, Newport OR

Ranch Dressing

1 C dry buttermilk

1-1/2 tbsps dried parsley

2 1/2 tsps garlic powder

1 1/2 tsps onion powder

2 tsps salt

3/4 tsp sugar

dash of pepper

 

(set aside the following)

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried dill

 

BUTTERMILK DRESSING:

1/2 C mayonnaise

1/2 C sour cream

3 tbsps ranch dressing mix

2/3 to 1 C of buttermilk

 

DIP:

1 C sour cream

2 tbsps. ranch dressing mix 

 

Directions:

In a food processor or blender, add all ingredients and process until powder.  Add reserved dill and parsley and store in glass jar with lid.  

 

2 tbsps of the ranch mix is equivalent to one packet.

 

Store in the fridge for 3-4 months or in the freezer for 6-8.

Marshmallow Fondant

1/4 cup butter
1 16 oz pkg marshmallows
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

2 pounds powdered sugar

Melt marshmallows in microwave for 30 second intervals until melted.  Add the water and vanilla and stir until smooth.  Add powdered sugar a little at a time until the dough is sticky.  Use powdered sugar for kneading.  The dough should be stiff. 

Coat your hands with butter and knead the dough until smooth and not sticky, five to ten minutes. 

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.  Let is sit out and come to room temperature and roll out onto surface dusted with powdered sugar.  

You may add food coloring and you can stamp designs into it.