Bread, Biscuits, and Brownies

Sept. 30th Kinship Meeting

I baked a couple of things for our potluck soup dinner with friends. Julie loves my tomato bread, so I'm glad that I had picked that out of all of the bread recipes I have enjoyed making. (See also: Tomato-Cheddar Bread; Tomato Dinner Rolls.)

The next item was my take on the "7-Up Dinner Rolls" recipe, which has been going around Pinterest lately. Instead of 7-Up (I don't normally have any pop in the house), I just used buttermilk. (See also: Rye Biscuits)

Quick & Easy Biscuits

2 c. Bisquick
1 t. sugar (helps the tops brown in the oven)
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. half & half, mixed with 1 T. dry buttermilk powder (or add 1/2 c. buttermilk if you have it handy)
melted butter for the pan

Preheat oven to 450˚. Mix all ingredients together; turn dough out into buttered 8" square metal pan. Dust with some additional flour, and pat the dough flat; use a buttered bench knife or spatula to score into squares. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until top is lightly browned.

And, finally, I found this recipe in a Hershey's cookbook...of course, I had to tinker with it a little...there are 4 sections (l to r): plain, almonds, chocolate chip, dried cherries. [the chips and cherries kinda sank into the batter during baking]

Hershey's Best Brownies

2 sticks unsalted butter, melted 
2 c. sugar 
2 t. vanilla 
4 eggs 
3/4 c. Hershey's Cocoa 
1 c. flour 
1/2 t. baking powder 
1/2 t. salt 
toppings/additions (optional)

Heat oven to 350˚. Grease 9x13 pan.

Mix sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla into melted butter. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring with wooden spoon between additions. Add cocoa; mix well. Stir in flour and mix well. Pour into prepared pan. 

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies are set in the center. Cool on wire rack, if you can wait that long...I usually can't! 

These turned out absolutely fantastic. Very fudgey consistency, and lots of flavor. 

Apple Pie Protein Shake

Apple Pie Protein Shake

1 c. milk
2 scoops ViShape Shake Mix
1/2 c. homemade (no sugar added) applesauce 
+/- 1 t. cinnamon (to your taste)
1 t. Butter Buds
6-8 ice cubes
Mix in blender until smooth. ENJOY!


 

Homemade Applesauce

I bought a bag of apples really cheap at the grocery store, and I knew exactly what their purpose would be－applesauce just like Grandma used to make. 

Homemade Applesauce 

This is so ridiculously easy, it hardly needs a "recipe" to make it. Really, the hardest part is peeling and chopping all the apples. 

So, get a bag of apples...any kind will do. Peel them, core, and chop them. As you are working with each apple, place the slices into a pot with cold water, which will keep them from turning brown. Use enough water to almost cover the slices as they sit in the pan; but, you don't want too much water. 

Throw in some cinnamon sticks, and apple pie spice, if you choose. Add one little dash of salt, but you won't need any sugar. Simmer over medium-low heat until apple pieces break apart easily when you stir them with a spoon. At this point, you can use a potato masher to blend them into a smooth applesauce, but I like mine chunky. Serve warm with cinnamon sugar, and keep the rest stored in the fridge.

Cakes for Julie

Julie is a friend of mine who recently had knee-replacement surgery. She's recovering extremely well, and had invited some friends over for a potluck dinner. These are the cakes I made for Julie. I believe it probably helped with her recovery a great deal! :)

Cakes for Julie

These are actually a combination of a few different recipes, to suit my purpose of delighting Julie. 

Swiss Truffle Cake
Cannoli Poundcake 
and German Chocolate Cake 

 Line a buttered jelly roll pan with parchment; this will make the cake easier to remove from the pan, without damage. Butter the parchment. (only use REAL butter!)

 Use my German Chocolate cake recipe, or cheat and use a Duncan Hines box mix.

 Bake until done in center, and it pulls away from the edges of the pan a little.

 Cool 10 minutes ONLY, then invert onto a couple of wire racks.

 Carefully peel off the parchment.

 I used a [clean] ruler to cut the layer of cake into 6 equal portions.

One cake was filled with the cannoli cream, and covered in chocolate ganache, and the other cake was simply frosted with a canned chocolate frosting because I didn't know if the coconut frosting from the German Chocolate Cake recipe would be well-received by Julie and the other dinner guests.