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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Homemade Oreos



Sometime I get the urge to bake something and recently that urge lead to these homemade Oreos. So I grabbed my favorite little helper and got to work making these. The cookies were supposed to be thinner, but it was really hot that day and the oven was on in the kitchen so even though the dough had been refrigerated to firm up it was hard to slice thin wafers that would stay together. We had to use our hands to form them together.

I'd have to say the best part of making your own Oreos is that you get to control how much filling you get. The creme filling definitely my favorite part of an Oreo, and apparently it's also my niece's favorite part.  You can see that the cookies got a bit messy. That's because creme filling was disappearing from the bowl as I was assembling the cookies. I had to work fast!

If you make these cookies watch out for little creme filling monsters.



Monday, September 2, 2013

Dutch Baby Pancake


I get bored of certain foods after eating them a few times, so I'm always on the lookout for new meals. We were in a breakfast rut of the usual waffles, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal variety so I needed something to change it up. I was flipping through my copy of Cook’s Country 2010 Annual when I came across this pancake. I thought it would be worth a try.

The pancake grew way taller than we were expecting, and it was great. We've done this a few times since then. You can use any kind of milk, but low fat or skim milk is preferably. The original recipe says that higher fat milk affects the crispiness of the pancakes. We've done it once using 1 % milk and another time using whole milk. I didn't see a major difference in the crispiness, but I think the pancake did rise higher with the low fat milk.




DUTCH BABY PANCAKE

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp. canola oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
1 cup milk (preferably skim)
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:
  • Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the skillet with the oil. Place skillet in the oven and heat for about 10 minutes, until the oil is shimmering.
  • In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, zest, and salt.
  • In a different small/medium bowl, whisk the eggs for about 1 minute, until they are frothy and light.
  • Whisk the milk, butter, and vanilla into the eggs. Pour about 1/3 of the milk mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until completely combined.
  • Add the remainder of the milk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until the batter is smooth.
  • Pour the batter into the skillet. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and crisp.
  • Place the skillet onto a wire rack. Sprinkle the powdered sugar and lemon juice over the Dutch baby pancake. Cut into slices and serve.

Source: Cook’s Country 2010 Annual

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