peach shortcake

I have some sad news... My camera lens has gone kaput.  Well not completely, I can still take pictures with the manual focus, but the auto focus just sounds sick every time I try to take a picture, and I can't actually snap the shot.  So until I can get a new lens my pictures may be a bit out of focus... I also need a new eye glass prescription so I'm really not the best judge of what's actually in focus and what's not.  Anyway, I had such big plans for the story of the peach shortcake through pictures.  At least I was able to document the finished product.

Buttermilk Biscuits

from Betty Crocker

2  cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup cold butter, margarine or shortening, cut into 8 pieces

3/4 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 450°F. In medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in buttermilk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky).

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2- to 2 1/4-inch round cutter. On ungreased cookie sheet, place biscuits about 1 inch apart for crusty sides, touching for soft sides.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

 Stewed Peaches

from back to basics

1 can of peaches, drained

2tbs brown sugar

2 tbs white wine

In a pan over medium heat, stir peaches until warm.  Add sugar and wine and keep stiring until liquid reduces.

Cut biscuits in half and add peaches, whipped cream and serve with ice cream.

easter and a whole lot of baking

What a weekend!  I baked up a storm and loved every minute of it.  At one point, I was whipping cream in a daze and realized I was thinking of how much I love being a baker.  There truly isn't anything I'd rather do with my life then bake up delicious treats to share with those I love.  Aside from making a chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream as dessert at our Easter dinner, I made two desserts for a friends dinner as well.

 

Cheesecake topped with whipped cream and strawberries.  This was one hell of a cheesecake let me tell you.  11" and 2 1/2 lbs of cream cheese later, I sure hope they enjoyed it!

Angel food cake with lemon curd and mascarpone cream topped with strawberries.

I have no idea how I managed to pull off baking everything I did this weekend.  I got home from work on Friday and then started a marathon in the Grob kitchen.  I started with a strawberry buttermilk cake for Josh (I've got a post coming up with details about this one.  Yum!) because I knew how much he wanted something that wasn't lemon or chocolate.  And because I really love him, instead of just whipped cream to go with the cake, I went all fancy and made him pastry cream.  He was in heaven.

 After that came lemon curd for the angel food cake, then the mascarpone cream, the most intense cheesecake ever, and then finally the angel food cake.  That was absolutely enough for one day.  

Saturday morning was spent finishing the angel food cake and cheesecake before they were picked up at noon.  Then a wonderful afternoon with my husband and then the McLean family dinner.  

Moving on to Sunday, the Grob family dinner where I baked a chocolate cake (thank you duncan hines... there are times when using a mix comes in UBER handy!)   The cake may have been from a mix, but I made the swiss meringue buttercream myself.  What a delicious combination! 

Then, just for fun, my mother in law Lori and I decorated the cake with gummy bears.  It truly was such a wonderful weekend filled with great food, lots of family, a whole lot of love, and because it wouldn't have been as delicious without it,  dessert.

I hope your Easter was as sweet as mine!

lemon tarts

I've made a lot of lemon things lately.  Josh was so kind as to point that out to me, and seeing as he hates lemon, (and chocolate, another ingredient I've used a lot lately) I know he's going to be thrilled when I get off this lemon train.  But until then...

Ever since I made lemon curd the other week I've been really interested in trying another recipe and doing it again.  This time I used the recipe from joy of baking.  

The end result was thicker and full of rich lemon flavour.  

Sweet Pastry Crust

from joy of baking

1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Place the butter in your electric mixer and beat until softened. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated.  Add flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Don't overwork or the baked pastry will be tough. Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

 

Have ready 8 - 4 inch (10 cm) tart pans. Divide the pastry into 8 pieces and then, on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece of pastry to fit the tart pans. The pastry should be about an inch larger than pan.

When the pastry is rolled to the desired size, place on top of the tart pan. Gently lay in pan and lightly press the pastry onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Roll your rolling pin over the top of the pan to get rid of excess pastry. Cover and freeze for about 30 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Place the 8 unbaked tart shells on a baking sheet and bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until the crust is dry and a light golden brown. If the bottoms of the pastry shells puff up during baking, just lightly press the pastry back into shape. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Lemon Curd

from joy of baking

3 large eggs

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)

4 tablespoons (56 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon (4 grams) finely shredded lemon zest

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce).  This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted.  The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.  

lemon graham cracker dessert

  

This is probably one of my favourite desserts ever.  We used to have it a lot growing up, and I have a lot of memories of being the one making it.  Not only is it a favourite, but it's super easy.  Graham crackers, lemon pie filling, whipped cream, a simple water icing and melted chocolate... layer it and you're done.  It's that easy. 

Graham cracker layer.

Add lemon pie filling.

 

Another layer of graham crackers.

 

Whipped cream layer.

More graham crackers.

Spread a simple water and sugar icing over the crackers.

 

 

Lemon Graham Cracker Dessert 

from the big red book

1 box of graham crackers

1 box of prepared lemon pudding/pie filling

500ml sweetened whipped cream 

Enough icing that it adds a thin layer over top (icing sugar and water)

As much or as little chocolate of whatever kind you want, melted

You really can't screw this up.  In a 9x13 baking dish, start with a layer of graham crackers.  On the next layer, add the lemon filling.  It can be hot or cold, it really doesn't matter, and then more crackers.  Next add the 2 cups of already whipped sweetened cream and then more crackers.  Lastly spread the icing over the top and then drizzle the melted chocolate.  Refrigerate until cool and then dig in!

Notes:  We always used the lemon pudding and pie filling that you had to cook, not instant, but I'm sure instant would be fine.

We always used milk chocolate, but really, you can use whatever you want.

The best part about this dessert was that it always tasted better the longer it stayed in the fridge.  By the next day the graham crackers aren't cracker like anymore but soft.  So so delicious.