Tag Archives: buttermilk

December 9, 2013 · 5:48 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Cookies

DAY 9: Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Cookies

Cranberries and oranges are flavors that pair so well together. This is a soft cookie with a cake-like texture topped with an orange glaze. I like that they are not overly sweet.

A note on storing glazed cookies: The glaze will continue to set as the cookies sit at room temperature, but it does not become hard enough to stack the cookies, especially in humid climates. To store these cookies (or other frosted/glazed cookies, allow the glaze to set at room temperature for at least an hour. Then place the glazed cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the freezer until completely frozen. Transfer the completely frozen cookies to a tupperware container and store in the freezer. To serve, remove individual frozen cookies from the freezer and allow them to thaw in a single layer (not stacked).

My kids usually skip the thawing step. They just grab cookies straight from the freezer and eat them.

RECIPE:

Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Cookies

Servings: 2 dozen
Print

½ cup dried cranberries
1 ½ cups flour
Zest of half of an orange (about ½ tsp), use other half in glaze
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbs butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tbs fresh squeezed orange juice
1 Tbs heavy cream
Zest of half of an orange (about ½ tsp)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Put the dried cranberries in a small bowl with about 1 cup of hot (but not boiling) water. Allow them to sit for 5 minutes; drain.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, orange zest, baking soda and salt.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well to mix. Mix in the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately in batches at low speed, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix in the dried cranberries.

Drop the dough by tablespoons onto baking sheets. Bake at 350°F for 10-11 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 1 minute; then transfer them to a wire rack. Cool cookies completely.

For the glaze, whisk together the sifted powdered sugar, orange juice, cream and orange zest. Add additional juice or sugar until glaze is spreading consistency. Use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon to spread the glaze over the cooled cookies.

STORAGE NOTE: The glaze will continue to set as the cookies sit at room temperature, but it does not become hard enough to stack the cookies, especially in humid climates. To store these cookies (or other frosted/glazed cookies, allow the glaze to set at room temperature for at least an hour. Then place the glazed cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the freezer until completely frozen. Transfer the completely frozen cookies to a tupperware container and store in the freezer. To serve, remove individual frozen cookies from the freezer and allow them to thaw in a single layer (not stacked).

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

(Adapted from TwoPeasAndTheirPod)

NoEmptyChairs.me

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Chocolate Buttermilk Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

DAY 9: Chocolate Buttermilk Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

Buttermilk gives these cookies a soft and chewy texture, with a brownie consistency on the inside and crispy cookie edges on the outside. Peanut butter chips make for a great flavor combo, but you could always swap those out for chocolate chips if you want an extra fudgy cookie.

RECIPE:

Chocolate Buttermilk Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

Servings: Makes 4 dozen cookies
Print

2 cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
2 cups peanut butter chips and/or chocolate chips (about 1 ½ cups PB and ½ cup CC)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with silicon mats or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Melt the butter in a small, microwave safe bowl. In a large bowl, combine the melted butter (still warm) with cocoa powder and whisk until very smooth. Whisk in sugar until well mixed. Mix in egg, vanilla extract, and buttermilk.

Gradually stir in the flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the peanut butter chips and/or chocolate chips.

Drop dough in 1-inch balls into prepared baking sheet, leaving about two inches between cookies to allow for spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set around the edges. Cool for 2-3 minutes on a baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack with a spatula to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

(Recipe adapted from Baking Bites)

NoEmptyChairs.me

3 Comments

Filed under Cookies, Desserts

Tagged as baking, buttermilk, chocolate, Cookies, dessert, food, peanut butter, recipe

September 21, 2011 · 3:10 pm

Nutella (or Cinnamon) Swirled Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Nutella Swirled Coffee Cake

Last week we were swimming in coffee cake around here. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of swimming that helps trim inches off of my waistline. Good thing there were lots of hungry skinny children lurking around!

I was bringing breakfast to our seminary class on Friday, and wanted to try a new recipe, so I had to give it a test run at home earlier in the week. I ended up making quite a few changes to the original recipe, including swapping out the traditional cinnamon topping on one batch with one made from ooey, gooey chocolaty Nutella.

The first batches I made for home (shown in the pictures) used pecans, but I used walnuts the second time around for our class. I preferred the walnuts, but I almost always prefer walnuts over pecans, so choose whichever nut you prefer. Both the cinnamon and Nutella topped varieties were really good. The cake part was moist and light, and just slightly tangy from using buttermilk.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

To distribute the chocolaty/cinnamony goodness throughout the cake, I layered half of the batter in the pan, added half of the topping, then repeated the layers. The Nutella topping was very sticky; it was easiest to just use my fingers to drop small amounts onto the batter. It melts nicely into the cake while cooking.For an extra dose of chocolate, sprinkle some chocolate chips (not shown in this picture) on top of the Nutella layers.

The cinnamon topping is crumbly and can be sprinkled easily.

I split the batter and made one of each variety in two 8×8” square pans, instead of one large 9×13” pan. Just an FYI: the full batch that I made later in a standard 9×13” pan rose right to the top edge of the pan when baked, so be sure to use a pan that doesn’t have low sides!

The only down-side of this recipe is that it uses a lot of mixing bowls (four!), but the end result is definitely worth an extra run of the dishwasher.

Recipe:

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Servings: 12-15
Print

3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

3 egg whites, beaten until stiff

1 ½ cups buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup butter (1-½ sticks), softened
1 ½ cups sugar

Nutella Swirl or Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare topping in a small bowl; set aside.(Choose your topping below for a 9×13” cake, or make one of each in two 8×8” pans, halving topping amounts)

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside. Stir vanilla into buttermilk. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar with a mixer. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately until barely combined. Beat just until flour is incorporated; do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, fold in beaten egg whites.

Spread half of the batter in a well-greased 9 x 13” baking pan (I used baking spray with flour). Sprinkle with half of the topping. Spread remaining batter into pan; sprinkle with remaining topping.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until center is set.
_____

NUTELLA SWIRL TOPPING:

¾ cup butter (1-½ sticks), softened
¾ cup Nutella
½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 scant tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
½ cup chocolate chips

Mix together all ingredients, except chocolate chips. Mixture will be sticky. Using your fingers, drop small amounts of Nutella filling onto first layer of batter. Sprinkle with half of the chocolate chips. Repeat layers.

CINNAMON STREUSEL TOPPING:

½ cup cold butter (1 stick)
½ cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 ½ Tbs cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Mix together all ingredients, except nuts, using a pastry cutter or two knifes until crumbly. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle half of topping onto first layer of batter. Repeat layers.

Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman

NoEmptyChairs.me

7 Comments

Filed under Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts

Tagged as breakfast, buttermilk, cinnamon, coffee cake, Nutella, recipe

June 7, 2011 · 9:48 am

Strawberry Nutella Muffins

After bringing these muffins to our early morning seminary class, I have had several requests for the recipe. So I am going to take a break from days full of never-ending weeding in my yard and nights full of endless softball games to share them with you. Strawberries are just beginning to arrive at the farmers markets and pick-your-own farms here in western PA, so it is a perfect time to make these muffins. And everything tastes better with a little Nutella swirled in!

051711 045-1

I found this recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod, and just couldn’t resist making them. The only changes that I made to the recipe were to add more strawberries than called for, and probably more Nutella. I didn’t actually measure the Nutella; I just scooped it out of the jar to put in the center of the muffins.

As with most muffin batters, to keep them from being dry and dense, you do not want to overstir the batter. There should still be some streaks of flour in the batter.

051711 038-1

Fill the muffin cups halfway with batter. Place a dollop (about a tablespoon: I just used a soup spoon straight from the jar) of Nutella on the batter. You do not need to spread it around. Nutella can be kind of thick at room temperature. I warmed the Nutella first in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This made it really easy to drizzle the Nutella from a spoon onto the batter. My jar was almost empty, so I just heated the Nutella in the jar. If you are only using part of your jar, you might want to spoon some into a small bowl before heating it.

051711 035-1

Top with another scoop of batter, until the muffin cups are about 3/4 full. Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar. This is a coarse raw sugar. You could use regular sugar if you don’t have it, but turbinado sugar does make a nice crystally (I’m sure that’s not a real word, but it should be) crust.

051711 041-1

These are best served warm while the Nutella is soft and gooey.

051711 081-1

Here is the original recipe from Maria, with my notes at the end on the slight changes that I made.

RECIPE:

Strawberry Nutella Muffins

Servings: 9-12
Print

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup sugar
¼ cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1/3 cup Nutella
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of muffins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease well. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.

3. In a small bowl, combine canola oil, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Use a fork or whisk and mix until well combined.

5. Incorporate the wet ingredients into flour mixture. Add slowly and gently stir, you don’t want to over mix. The batter will be thick. Carefully fold in the strawberries.

6. Fill each muffin cup half way with batter. Next, add a small spoonful of Nutella to each muffin cup. Cover the Nutella filling with the remaining batter. Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar.

7. Bake muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Makes 9 muffins

Kelly’s notes: I used coconut oil instead of canola oil. I didn’t measure the Nutella, I just used a spoon and scooped straight from the jar, but I probably used a little more than 1/3 cup. I heated the Nutella for about 30 seconds in the microwave before using (to make for easier drizzling). I also used more strawberries than called for (about 1 ¼ – 1 ½ cups). I ended up with 12 muffins, and I needed to bake mine for 23 minutes before they were cooked through.

Recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod

NoEmptyChairs.me

3 Comments

Filed under Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts

Tagged as bread, breakfast, buttermilk, dessert, fruit, muffins, Nutella, recipe, strawberries, swirled muffins, Turbinado sugar

May 28, 2011 · 7:50 pm

Vanilla Buttermilk Syrup

Servings: Makes about 2 cups
Print

1 ½ cups white or brown sugar (I use half white, half brown)
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup (1 stick) butter
2 Tbs dark corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped**

Combine sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, baking soda, salt and vanilla bean (both seeds and split pod) in a large pot (mixture will increase drastically in volume while cooking from the reaction between buttermilk and baking soda. Use a LARGE pot: soup pot size). Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to maintain a low simmer and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes, or until syrup is a light golden brown. Remove from heat. Remove and discard vanilla bean pod. Serve warm.

Store in refrigerator. Syrup will thicken to a soft caramel consistency in the refrigerator. Reheat before serving.

Serve over Waffles, Pancakes, Ice Cream, or anywhere you would use a caramel sauce.

** You can substitute 1 tsp vanilla extract for the vanilla bean, if desired. Stir vanilla extract into syrup AFTER cooking and removing from heat.

NoEmptyChairs.me

Waffle Week: Whole Grain Waffles

Looking for a healthier waffle that is also great tasting? These whole grain waffles are made with whole wheat flour, oat flour (ground oats) and wheat germ. After making the Buttermilk Waffles (with no separated eggs), I used some of the same techniques to try and make these as light as possible. Replacing some of the flour with cornstarch and letting the batter sit for a little while before cooking really helped make these waffles great.

Wholegrainwaffles (8)-1

With the heavier whole grains, they will never be quite as light as all-white-flour waffles, but they make up for in flavor what they lack in airiness.

For Waffle Tips & Suggestions, click HERE.

RECIPE:

Whole Grain Waffles

Servings: 12
Print

1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup cornstarch
½ cup oat flour*
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbs wheat germ
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk or sourmilk (or 1 cup kefir + 1 cup milk)**
2 eggs
¼ cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry; mix well. Let batter sit for 30 minutes before cooking. Do not stir batter after letting it sit.

Use a ladle or measuring cup to pour batter evenly into hot waffle maker (about 2 scant cups for the 4 small Belgian waffles in my waffle maker). Cook for about 3-5 minutes, or according to directions on your waffle maker. Remove waffles from waffle maker and place on a wire rack (not a plate). Serve immediately or keep warm in a warm oven (very low heat).

Makes about 3 large Belgian waffles (12 small squares)

* To make oat flour: Place rolled oats in a blender or food processor and blend until fine.

**To make sour milk: add 2 Tbs lemon juice to a 2 cup measuring cup, fill to 2 cup line with milk (whole milk works best). Stir; let sit 5 minutes before using. If using sour milk, add an additional 1-2 Tbs flour to batter.

To freeze: Cool waffles on a wire rack. Place in Ziploc bags and freeze. Reheat individual frozen waffles in a toaster (for crispier edges) or microwave (for a soft waffle).

NoEmptyChairs.me