Tag Archives: buttermilk

Oct31

Cornbread Testing – Joy’s Brown Butter Rosemary Orange Cornbread

Posted on October 31, 2013 by athaidek

I was a bit timid bringing the rest of this batch into work the next day, because it’s definitely not what you’d expect when biting into a cornbread square! But I think the intense moisture gives you a bit of open-mindedness going into the rich orange and rosemary flavors. If there’s one thing I require in my cornbread, it’s density!! They liked it, so you should bring it to work too 🙂

Mind you, this was like numero 10 on the midnight toaster-oven bake series, for no other reason except I had to finally test this. And I FINALLY had an orange lying around. Maybe even if you want some natural potpourri this would be a good thing to make. My favorite part of these kinds of recipes is when you make the flavored sugar. You press the orange zest and rosemary into the sugar and it brings out the natural oils/essence in the fruit and herbs. A simple mix of wet and dry, this cornbread is simple yet seems pretty sophisticated right? Maybe this is meant alongside chili, but I liked it with a cup of milk or just as a regular piece of bread with my lunch.

What recipes do you like to vary? My friends Collin and Mike came over on Monday and Mike brought an AMAZZINNGG mouthwatering, sweet, dense cornbread (see meal pics at the bottom). Chili and cornbread can’t be beat. This weekend I’m making white chicken chili…got any recipe suggestions?

chili and a different cornbread that’s classic and amazing…thanks Mike!

Oct1

A&P Cinnamon Classic Pancakes

Posted on October 1, 2013 by athaidek

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Brunch with friends. Two Sundays ago, my two friends and I used up the extra buttermilk chillin in the fridge to make seriously the best pancakes I think I’ve ever made. There’s also that “good mood” factor that I think propelled me to just enjoy life altogether this particular morning : ) That being said, these were actually great. And for the record, Egen has had this A&P Cinnamon since 1995.

I used the base for Joy’s Milk chocolate pancakes, adjusting it like so:

2 eggs
1 cup white wheat flour
1 cup All Purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg (SECRET INGREDIENT)

Whisk dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk together wet ingredients, and slowly fold in the dry until just mixed. Let the mixture sit for around 5 minutes while you pour yourself a cup of coffee and heat up the griddle to medium heat. Melt some butter and pour the pancake dollops on the griddle when bubbles start to appear in the butter. Flip when you see bubbles on the top and keep finished pancakes warm in a 200 degree oven (that is if you haven’t eaten them one by one). Serve with whatever toppings you like!

So it was pretty much the same, but like I said, cinnamon and nutmeg are my favorite spices even for ole classic pancakes. We made this for brunchy brunch, then proceeded to walk 7 miles throughout the course of the day. After one 4-mile walk, we weren’t done with being outside on a beautiful day and drove down to the Belt-line, walking an additional 3.

There were a few guys with a stand setup holding a sign that said “Free Advice” at the Beltline. After giving it a laugh, I asked my friends what we should ask them originally as a joke; however I was surprised at how quickly we spurt out lingering questions we all had. Regardless of the carefree nature of the day, the most important things to us in our lives right now were right there, awaiting our considerations. The good thing is, a constant return to the same questions really helps me realize what my priorities are at any given time.

We tried to recreate the Matilda scene here with “Send Me on My Way” playing in the background as we flipped merrily away. Happy pancakes!

Fancy Canadian syrup

Sep29

Buttermilk Walnut Praline Skillet Cake with an Almond Twist

Posted on September 29, 2013 by athaidek

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My friend Claire is back in ATL for the year!! Besides updating our old blog “la chanson du soleil” and other best-friendsy things, this means amping up the baking big-time. If there’s one person who appreciates big-fat-dinner-parties and fancy aprons, it’s Claire.

Which is why my friend and co-worker Blake hit the nail on the head in suggesting we bake her something to welcome her home! And this cake was perfection. I’m always about JoyTheBaker but on this particular day, I was in desperate need of a little sugar. I don’t even know if it was the taste of the cake or the fact that I was having a rough day and needed something warm that paired well with a nightcap (And by that I mean glass of milk).

The almond twist here is adding a bit of almond extract instead of the full amount of vanilla extract which made it a little fancier tasting if you ask me. Almond tastes so sophisticated in desserts for some reason, right? I think it comes from the word marzipan. Don’t you imagine some exotic prince fanned by banana leaves eating some exotic and fancy almond pasty dessert called MAHHHZAPANNN? Well, I do.

We are still in the years of the toaster oven, which is why I couldn’t really bake this in a skillet. Used a 9 inch cake pan and as you can see here, it came out in the first flip!!!

When I delivered this to her in the oh-so-elegant Mall parking lot, half eaten by my family and other friends mind you, we instantly became addicted to the praline. It’s dangerous. I’m serious.

Jun24

Buttermilk Brined Chicken with BEETS

Posted on June 24, 2013 by athaidek

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Poor performance on my attendance to this blog. Apologies. It’s been a busy June and although I’ve cooked quite a bit, I haven’t had much time to post and take pics. Also, my camera broke so I’m borrowing my sister’s cam and my mom’s iPad.

Here’s a little recap of some of the cooking extravaganza’s of late:

– We went to St. Augustine, FL and baked molten lava cakes for the first time. My mom has discovered a new age cooking technique. I call it yoga-mixing, mostly because she was beating eggs and butter and sugar together whilst holding the yoga-tree position steadily for a solid 4 minutes. Clearly we are a bit of ying and yang in the kitchen since I have zero flexibility but manage to coordinate baking lava cakes until juuuuust done.

– I tried to make cauliflower pizza crust with Arianna which was cheesy but a bit off. She’s used to my crazy attempts and puts up with my antics, so it was still some good sisterly bonding time!

– We made some homemade peach ice cream for Father’s Day which was delicious except for the fresh peaches part. My suggestion is that you stick to the pureed peaches for the flavor and if you really want chunks, add them AFTER you’ve fully prepared the ice cream according to the maker’s instructions. Otherwise they become essentially ice chunks.

– I got the Party like a Culinista cookbook!!!! Woop woop. I keep taking it in the car with me for “a little light reading.” Dont ask…but now I’m sooo excited to make some of the recipes!

Ok, back to the meat of the post. HA. My best friend’s mom is my recipe guy, okay well recipe girl. I wish I lived in a big city where I could be like, “Yea these beets are going to be great because you know I’ve got a great beet guy.” What I’m trying to say is my best friend Cessie’s mom is an amazing chef and everytime I want to get the deets on a recipe, she can tell me if it’s legit or not. She raves about Deb’s buttermilk roast chicken so since I had some leftover buttermilk, we thought we’d try it.

In the summertime, we try to use the grill as much as possible, so we improvised a bit. My dad’s a little obsessed with our pizza stone, so we tried it as a “pan” on the grill. Success! On one half of the grill, we grilled some beets wrapped in foil that we bought at a local farmer’s market. Then we let the pizza stone heat up before adding the chicken directly on top. If only it hadn’t been raining….

To prepare this chicken, basically follow the marinade on Deb’s recipe (we halved it) and let your chicken juice up for a few hours or overnight. We had some boneless skinless breasts, so the cooking time was pretty short for us, but she says you can use any cuts of chicken. When I make this again, I will definitely let it marinate overnight to increase tenderness. After reading some of the comments on her post, I found out that the buttermilk is the magic ingredient to the most tender chicken. I agree! And it’s a very easy recipe good for beginners!

Ingredients for marinade (minus the buttermilk)

Smashing the garlic helps let out some of the flavor

I call this one “the art of arranging food” because my Dad was showing me how I needed to better arrange the beets around the chicken. It was totally worth me stepping away because he really is good at food styling!! **Thanks Dad**

Voila!