Category: Baking

Have Some Ham…Make Croque Madame

CarrieLeave a comment

This weekend I was having some girlfriends over for brunch.  I decided to try Paula Deen’s Croque Madame Casserole.  Let me tell you.  This is a must have for your next brunch menu.  It is rich and delicious.  Mind you, it is not something you should make if you are counting your calories!

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Ingredients
8 tbsp butter, 1/4 c flour, 2 c milk, 2 tbsp mustard, 3/4 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 10 slices bread, 3/4 lb ham, 8 oz grated swiss, 6 eggs
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400. Grease an 8×8 square baking dish. (I used an 8×11 baking dish instead).Melt 6 tbsp of butter in a large skillet over low heat until bubbling. Whisk in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in milk and cook until thick and bubbling, 3 to 5 minutes more. Whisk in mustard, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Pour a thin layer of sauce in the baking dish and cover it with 5 slices of bread. Then top the slices of bread with half of the ham slices and half of the swiss. Repeat the layers once more and finish the casserole with another layer of sauce to cover the entire dish. Bake for 30 minutes.

In a large skillet, cook 6 eggs over easy. You can work in batches. Season with salt and pepper to taste. After the casserole is finished baking, cut the casserole into 6 portions and top each portion with an egg. You have a delicious meal ready for your guests.

Check out this cute grater that I found at Love the Cook in Cape May!
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Muffins!

Sadie1 Comment

These Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are a very distinct food memory for me.  I rowed crew in high school which is kind of a niche sport, especially when you’re in high school.  It’s a little bit of a hassle because you have to have a body of water, a boathouse, and of course boats.  Not the most popular high school sport.  Our regatta’s would typically be at the Schuykill or Cooper Rivers (Philly or Camden).  They would typically be weekend-long affairs.  While some of the weekend was spent actually on the water either warming up for a race or racing, there was always a significant amount of downtime that consisted of watching the other races and basically tailgating along the side of the river.

All of the parents of the kids on the team would pitch in to provide the snacks (lots, and lots of snacks).  And my mother would bring these muffins.  They always got raves from all of my teammates.  I love them too.  They seem like such a simple flavor combination: banana and chocolate chips, but some things never get old.Muffins!

I made them recently for some friends to munch on while we were volunteering for some local community service.  A perfect morning treat!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yields almost 24 regular size muffins (definitley 24 if you add walnuts)

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 2 eggs  (room temp)
  • 2 cups mashed banana (ripe!)
  • 2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 2T hot water
  • 3 cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 and line the muffin tins with cupcake liners.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt), and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, and add vanilla extract to butter and sugar mixture.
  4. Add dry ingredients to wet in a batches.  Try not to over mix.  Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts (if you want).batter up
  5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins.  Fill them each about 2/3rds full.  Bake them for 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean and top is golden brown.

all done

Happy Accident

Sadie2 Comments

Ok so usually baking is a rewarding venture for me.  I find a recipe, I follow it, make some tweaks here and there, get a yummy result, and get compliments from whoever I share it with.  Lately, though, I’ve had mixed results and mixed feelings.

This story starts out happy.  There was a birthday cake to be made.  In an effort to use up some extra buttermilk, I strayed from the standard family chocolate birthday cake recipe, to a version that trades regular milk for buttermilk.  It’s an Ina Garten recipe, and it turned out great.  So great, in fact, that it’s making my family rethink the traditional family birthday cake recipe.  With these chocolate cake recipes in my arsenal, buying a chocolate cake mix from the store is out of the question these days.

Fabulous cake: check.  Now onto the frosting.  My plan was to make “White Mountain Frosting” or “Seven Minute Frosting.”  Typically a combination of egg whites, sugar and water that yields a light fluffy frosting.  I have tried two different recipes three separate times (following the recipe to letter).  I can not get the frosting to fluff.  It falls flat no matter what I try.

To mitigate my repeated frosting disaster I used the flat frosting (which still tasted quite good) as the frosting between the cake layers, and a “glaze” for the top of the cake.  Then to disguise this monstrosity, I made a quick, easy chocolate frosting to cover the outside of the cake.aftermath

Crisis averted.  The funny thing was that the combination of the two frostings made for a very moist cake.  The flat White Mountain Frosting was almost like having a layer of marshmallow fluff under the chocolate frosting.

I guess some days the frosting fluffs, and some days it doesn’t…

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Yields 2, 9 inch rounds, recipe from Ina Garten

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups AP flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cups cocoa powder, more for pans
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed coffee

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare pans by spraying with non-stick spray and coating with cocoa powder.  If you want to be extra cautious, cut out a circle of parchment paper to fit in the bottom of your cake pans.
  2. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
  4. Add the wet to dry gradually and beat with an electric mixer.  Finally add coffee gradually.
  5. Bake at 350 for 35- 40 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before you remove the cake from the pans.almost done

Flat White Mountain Frosting

From a very old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar (my mom’s hypothesis is that this recipe is lacking the right about of sugar)
  • 1/4 cup corn syrup
  • 2 Tbs water
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Method

  1. in a small sauce pan combine the water, sugar, and corn syrup.  Cover and bring to a strong boil.  Take the lid off and bring to 242 degrees (use a candy thermometer).
  2. While the mixture is boiling, whip up the egg whites to stiff peaks.
  3. When the mixture has reached the right temperature, very slowly add it to the egg whites while you continue to beat them.  Add the vanilla and beat for about 7 minutes.  At this point the frosting is supposed to fluff up, but in my case it didn’t.  You win some, you lose some.

Chocolate Frosting

From an old Hershey’s Baking Chocolate wrapper

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbs unsalted butter
  • 3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • dash salt

Method

  1. Using a small saucepan over low heat or a microwave melt the butter.  Add the chocolate in small pieces and melt it with the butter.
  2. Put melted butter and chocolate in a bowl and add sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt.  Beat with an electric mixer until it reaches the desire consistency.  To thicken up the frosting place the bowl in an ice bath while you mix it, or refrigerate for a few minutes before frosting.Ready for FrostingSo. Much. Frosting.