Hamburger Buns Revisited

I am making a recipe tonight for dinner from the Campbell's Soup Cookbook.  The recipe is called Pizzaburgers and I needed hamburger buns.  So this was the PERFECT opportunity to try the Hamburger Bun recipe again with a few modifications.  I was VERY pleased with the results.

Here is the original recipe:
Homemade Hamburger Buns

I followed the basic recipe, BUT after shaping the dough into 8 balls, I only let them rise for an hour instead of two hours.  The buns turned out a PERFECT size.

Secondly, I didn't brush them with the egg white and water.  That seemed to smush (is there such a word??) the tops down.

Thirdly, I didn't steam the rolls.  So these should be nice and soft.

Overall, I am extremely pleased how the rolls turned out!!  I am definitely going to make these again with these modifications!!

My Mom's Brownie Recipe

As promised, here is my Mom's, Betty Askew, brownie recipe. 

I had to do a few alterations to the recipe.  Her recipe calls for margarine.  We don't use margarine, so I used real butter - it's your choice.  Also, she wrote "2 squares chocolate" - she didn't specify unsweetened or semi- sweet.  So I used semi-sweet.  Again, your choice.  Onto the recipe . . .

Betty Askew's Brownie Recipe

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 squares chocolate - either unsweetened or semi-sweet
3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl
Melt the (butter or margarine) and chocolates together.

Mix the sugar, eggs and vanilla together.

Add the melted chocolate (butter or margarine) to the sugar/eggs/vanilla mixture.  Stir to completely combine.

Pour into a small baking pan.  

Bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool on a baking rack.

Frosting - YUM!!!

1 square chocolate - either unsweetened or semi-sweet

1 tsp butter

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 1/2 T milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate and butter

Mix confectioner's sugar, milk and vanilla together - add chocolate/butter mixture.

Frost brownies after they have cooled.

Enjoy!!!

Mistake I made:   Yes, I do make mistakes.  I used a rectangle baking pan.  If I remember correctly, my mother used a 8 x 8 square pan.  The brownies sunk in the middle - still edible. 

VERDICT:

These were as good as I remembered!  My husband loved them!! He thought this was one of my better brownie recipes!  These brought back a lot of good memories!  I even poured myself a glass of milk.  Thank you, Mom, for the great recipe - I miss you so much!!

I made Butter!!

Ok, I know you can buy butter in the store!!  But I am from the school that it is so much better homemade!  Again, I know it is a lot of effort to do homemade, BUT it really is worth the effort!  Who would have thought making butter was so easy.  No, you do not have to go out and buy a butter churn!!  We are living in the 21st Century!!!  I guess, if you REALLY wanted to buy a butter churn, you can, they do look charming in a "country" kitchen . . .

Homemade butter is so easy - takes about 10 minutes to make - REALLY!  Now, have I ever lied to you???

All you need is heavy whipping cream - that's it!!  Just two cups of heavy whipping cream.  If you really want to be fancy, buy ORGANIC heavy whipping cream.  My local store just carries plain ole heavy whipping cream.    Like I said, all you need is two (2) cups of heavy whipping cream - that's it!!  Well, and a stand mixer helps!!

Pour the whipping cream in your mixing bowl and attach the whisk attachment.

Put the mixer on medium-high speed and let it run.  It will make really nice whipping cream - don't stop it!!  You want to "over-whip" the whipping cream (try to say that fast 3 times!). 

It will start to look like this:

You can see the butter curds start forming and the liquid is the buttermilk.  At this stage, you want to strain the buttermilk, so we will transfer this to a strainer.

You will knead and squeeze the butter until all the liquid is out.  I was told also to rinse it with very cold water. 

So, two cup of heavy whipping cream produced 6.80 ounces of butter - not quite half a pound.  The butter will last about a week to a week and a half. 

The fun part is that you now can add herbs to make herbal butter - salt or leave it unsalted.  Now wasn't this fun!  Better than a trip to the grocery store, I bet!!

My Mom's Cookbook

Maybe I am just getting old, but I don't like those "eBooks."  I have downloaded the "app" from Amazon that lets you look at eBooks on your computer.  I'm sorry it just isn't the same as a good ole book, particularly cookbooks.  How do you pass your eBook down to your kids and grandkids?

Here is my Mother's cookbook:

Yes, it has seen better days!  The cover is missing and it is probably 50 or 60 years old!  Oh, but the things that were made from this book.  And every time I open up this book, it brings back so many good memories of my Mom (she died over 25 years ago).  I love look at the neat handwriting.  She was very meticulous with her handwriting.  Me, I can't even read my own handwriting!!

Sometimes when I am missing Mom, I just get that cookbook down, look through the pages and touch the writing.  Somehow, I feel connected with her.  And, in my mind, I can see her in her kitchen.

Here is her Brownie recipe.  She used to make these, at least, once a week for us as an after school snack.  And she would frost them with chocolate icing.  Boy, does that bring back good memories.  I might make those this afternoon!!  You can tell it was a good recipe because of how splattered the page is!

This is a recipe from my Grandmother - Seafoam Salad.  Without fail, we would have this every Easter.  I now carry on that tradition in my family.  It is hardly legitible in the cookbook.  But, you can tell that it was a very popular recipe, again, by all the splatters.  Fortunately, I copied this recipe over long time ago, so I have a legitible copy!!

So, how does an eBook compare to this?  I think I said this in a post earlier, these old cookbooks are like family albums - so many memories - good memories that you can pass on.  I just can't see how you can do that with an eBook.  Well, this is just one person's opinon.

By the way, I will share this recipes in the near future!

Pinot Noir Chocolate Brownies - Perfect Valentine's Day Dessert!!

I, somehow, stumbled upon this recipe this week.  It is from the Creative Culinary Blog.  I thought WHAT a perfect dessert for Valentine's Day.  Of course, the original recipe uses ingredients that are not on my Walmart budget!!  She uses HandCraft Pinot Noir wine (?) - Walmart doesn't carry that, so I bought a $6.99 bottle of Pinot Noir.  I am not a wine expert and, hey, this is brownies - not a gourmet meal!  She also used Ghirardelli ground cocoa - again not something you will find in Walmart - so I opted for Hershey's - just as good!

On to the recipe . . .

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 T Pinot Noir wine
3/4 cup Cocoa (I used Hershey's)
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
*1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Icing:

4 T unsalted butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 1/2 T grandulated white sugar
3 T Pinor Noir wine

Brownies:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.
Add the melted butter and wine.
Separately, mix the cocoa with the flour and baking powder.
Add the cocoa/flour mixture to the egg mixture (add nuts if you are adding those). 
Spread into an 8 x 8 inch greased pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze:

Melt the butter over medium heat.
Reduce heat to low and add the chocolate, sugar and wine.
Continue heating over low heat, stirring until the mixture is smooth - do not let it boil!!
Spoon hot icing over fresh brownies and le+t stand for a minimum of an hour or two.

Verdict:

My husband loved the brownies.  I thought they were a little dry.  So. if I make them again, I will shorten the baking time maybe by a couple of minutes.  The glaze is out-of-this-world!!  Cooking does evaporate the alcohol so you don't have to worry about feeding these to children!!

Homemade Hamburger Buns!

I know you are saying WHY make hamburger buns when they aren't THAT expensive to buy at the market!!  I know BUT have you ever looked at the ingredients of the store bought buns - hmmm!!  And making your hamburger buns isn't that hard.  Yes, it does take a little but extra work, but trust me it is worth the extra effort!!  My family loved these.

This "adventure" comes from my fast becoming favorite cookbook, Handmade Pantry, by Alana Chernila.  Excellent cookbook!  Disclaimer - I do not know this woman and I am not getting paid to endorse her book - just love her cookbook.  That being said and done - on to the recipe.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
3 T milk
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 T sugar
3 large eggs
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour plus extra for kneading
2 1/2 T unsalted butter - at room temperature
OPTIONAL - poppy or sesame seeds

In a glass measuring cup, combine the yeast, warm water, milk and sugar.  Let stand for about 5 minutes until nice and foamy.  While waiting, beat 2 eggs in a separate bowl.

Using a mixer, combine the flour and butter.  Add the yeast mixture and the eggs until the dough starts to come together.

Dust a countertop with flour and dump the dough onto the counter.  Knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding more flour when the dough becomes sticky. 

Roll the dough into a ball and place into a greased bowl.  Cover the bowl with Saran Wrap and a dry dish towel.  Place in a warm spot.  Let rise to double in size - about 2 hours.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Cut the dough ball into 8 pieces.  Roll each piece into a small ball and place on the baking sheet arranging 2 to 3 inches apart. 

**She says to let rise 1 hour.  I did and the buns were HUGE.  I think a 1/2 hour would suffice.  After a 1/2 hour, look and see how much the rolls have risen.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

**In the recipe, you are to beat the last egg with 1 T of water and brush the tops of the buns.  I found that this deflated some of the buns.  This might have happened because I let them rise an hour. 

**She also wants you to "steam" bake the rolls.  This makes for a hard crust.  I baked these buns that way.  I don't think I am going to do that the next time.  To "steam" bake the buns, you place a metal pan in the bottom rack of the oven and fill with hot water - DO NOT USE A GLASS PAN!!!!

Bake for 20 minutes.

As I said, these buns take a little bit of effort, but they are DEFINITELY worth the effort!!

You can freeze these buns - just cut them in half and put them in freezer bags.  Good for 6 months!