Joy the Baker » sour cream

Fried Apple Cakes

joythebaker — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:35:11 +0000

I’m ready to put two more blankets on my bed.

I’m ready to invest in some fuzzy slippers.

I’m ready to sport tight turtlenecks from now until March.

I’m ready for turkey chili, broccoli soup and warm apples.

Autumn. It’s almost here. Heck yea.

These Fried Apple Cakes work along the same lines as Potato Pancakes.

Apples are peeled and shredded and mixed with eggs, sugar and spices. They’re then fried up like pancakes and topped with sour cream and maple syrup.

Satisfying, delicious, and they smell like heaven. Heaven smells like warm apples… I’m sure of it.

Fried Apple Cakes

makes 8 hearty cakes

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3 cups shredded apples from peeled apples, I used Fuji Apples, but feel free to mix em up.

juice of half a lemon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter and a dash of oil for cooking pancakes

Peel three medium apples. Grate the apples and drizzle the juice of half a lemon over the shredded apple. Place shredded apples in a colander over a bowl and leave for 10 minutes while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Beat the eggs and add the flour , sugar and spices. Whisk until no lumps remain. Press some of the excess juices out of the resting apples and add to the egg and flour mixture.

Over medium heat, melt half of the butter in a heavy bottom skillet and add just a dash of oil. This will help the butter not burn. Dollop large tablespoonfuls of apple batter into the hot butter and fry like pancakes, flipping once. Serve with maple syrup and sour cream.

Sour Cream Molasses Bran Muffins

joythebaker — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:47:32 +0000

Let’s take a trip through the top drawer of my dresser. I have a point to make.

… we’re about to talk about underwear. Can you handle it?

The top dresser drawer houses the following items:

- Cotton granny panties. Summertime sleeping bras. For private use only. No exceptions. Not to be seem by any eyes other than my own.

- Cute panties. Pretty panties. Lace panties. Expensive bras with pink ribbon running through them.. all the sort that might inspire and invite a little scandal. Yea… true.

Its like night and day in my underwear drawer… night and day.

This is normal, right? We all have underwear standards.

I share this with you because I want you to know, right off the bat, that showing you these Sour Cream Molasses Bran Muffins is like giving you a peak at the granny panty portion of my top dresser drawer.

I just couldn’t glam up these muffins…. mostly because they’re not meant for glam. They’re just meant to be cakey brown muffins… ok?

I’m not going to say any more about the underwear situation… I think it’s just making everyone uncomfortable. You get my point.

Butter. That’s what I love about these bran muffins. You can taste the butter.

The muffins are made tender with sour cream and robust with molasses. And. Bonus! They’re better after two or three days. They actually taste better!

Be sure to add a handful of dried fruit. Currants, dried cranberries, diced dried apricots, or golden raisins. The muffins need the texture and sweetness. Trust me.

Sour Cream Molasses Bran Muffins

makes 12 muffins

from The Gourmet Cookbook

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1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup molasses, not blackstrap

1/2 cup raisins, dried cranberries, dried currants or diced dried apricots

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoons salt

1 cup wheat bran (not cereal)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12 tin muffin pan and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the egg, sour cream and molasses and beat on medium speed until well incorporated, about 1 to 2 minutes.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and wheat bran. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the wet ingredients. Stir until incorporated. Fold in the dried fruit. Batter will be thick and slightly lumpy.

Divide evenly among the 12 muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Store at room temperature well wrapped for up to 5 days. The muffins are better after a day or two on the counter!

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

joythebaker — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:11:46 +0000

These Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits take me back home. I come from a biscuit loving family. We take our biscuits rather seriously. My Dad makes what he calls Mile High Biscuits. They’re light and buttery, a beautiful golden color, and we always ate them hot with dinner. We were generally a happy family of 4 sitting around the dinner table, sharing a meal, laughing, and talking about our days. Biscuit night was always a different story. On biscuit nights, there was, without a doubt, scandal and conflict.

Why? Well Dad always made a recipe of 12 biscuits. Now let’s do the math- 12 biscuits for 4 people, that’s 3 each. The problem is, no one never ended up with three biscuits. Three words- my little sister. My sister, the biscuit strategist, would cunningly place the biscuit basket at her side of the table, and with great stealth, gather about 8 biscuits for herself over the course of dinner. I must admit, the girl is clever. And with her darling smile and endless charm, she always got away with the lion’s share of biscuits. Always! I’d stomp my feet, outraged, pleading “But Mom…! It’s not fair!” Mom would calmly reply “Joy, who said life was fair? Now eat your broccoli before it gets cold.”At that point, defeated, I usually just ate my one biscuit slowly, while trying to shoot my sister down with the evil eye. Mom was right though- life isn’t always fair, sometimes your sister just gets more biscuits than you, and steamed broccoli once it’s cold, is just wretched.

As always, my Tuesdays are dedicated to Dorie Greenspan, and the Tuesdays with Dorie ladies. This basic biscuit recipe is dressed up with brown sugar, toasted pecans and sour cream. The biscuit is slightly sweeter than a traditional biscuit, and the toasted pecans add a delicious crunch. They will certainly satisfy any biscuit craving. This recipe yielded about 14 biscuits. I ate every single one with strawberry preserves. And that’s fair.

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

Print this Recipe!

Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar

5 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 10 peices

1/2 cup cold sour cream

1/4 cup cold whole milk

1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, preferably toasted.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Get out a sharp 2-inch diameter biscuit cuter, and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda together in a bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. Drop in the butter, and using your fingers, toss and coat the pieces of butter with the flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea sized pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes, and pieces the size of everything in between- and that’s just right.

Stir the sour cream and milk together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and gently toss and turn the ingredients together until you’ve got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gently kneading- 3 or 4 turns should be enough to bring everything together. Toss in the pecans and knead another 2 or 3 times to incorporate them.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour and pat the dough out with your hands or roll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t ocmpletely even- a quick light touch is more important that accuracy.

Use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most out of the first round. By hand, or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to a baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, woring them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2 inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer to baking sheet. (The biscuits can be made at this point and frozen on the baking sheed, then wrapped airtight and kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting, just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)

Bake the biscuits for 14-18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket, and serve immediately.