SWEET POTATO CORNBREAD
- 1½ lbs sweet potato (either 1 big one or 2 smaller ones)
- 7½ oz (1½ cups) fine grind cornmeal
- 2½ oz (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
- 1¾ oz (1/4 cup) dark brown sugar
- 1 T baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1¾ tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk (whole milk is best, but I’ve used nonfat)
- 8 T + 1 T butter, divided
Preheat oven to 425º Fahrenheit.
Cook the sweet potato – either in the microwave or oven – until it’s easily pierced with a knife. (Don’t boil it – it’ll take on too much water.) Let cool enough to handle.
Split in half lengthwise. 
Scoop out the insides, measuring out 1½ to 1¾ cups, and mash. 
The skin and remaining insides are not going to be used.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in the milk and mashed sweet potatoes. Melt 8 T butter, then whisk into the sweet potato batter. 
In a separate bowl combine the cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and gently mix together just until the flour is incorporated. (Don’t over-mix.) Over medium-high heat, melt remaining 1 T butter in a 10″ non-stick or cast iron skillet until bubbling. 
Pour in batter, spreading out evenly. 
Bake at 425º F 25-30 minutes – until toothpick comes out clean.
You can eat it plain, or top with butter, maple syrup, honey, etc.
Who doesn’t love a warm loaf of Italian bread? Well, now you can make one just as good as any bakery….for pennies!
Cover bowl with a plate or tea towel and let the dough rest on the counter 18 – 24 hours (the longer, the better flavor). You’ll notice a significant change to the dough – it will become wetter and bubbly:
Cut a piece of parchment paper big enough to line a 3-4 quart saucepan with corner ‘ears’ sticking up. Rub paper with a light coating of vegetable oil and lightly sprinkle bottom with flour. Place dough in center of paper then lift the dough into the saucepan by the 4 corners of the parchment. Cover with lid and let rise on the counter for 4 hours.
Cover with lid and place in cold oven. Immediately turn oven on to 450°F. (As the oven slowly heats, the dough will yield more oven rise.) Set timer for 1/2 hour. 
After 1/2 an hour, remove lid and continue baking without the lid until the temperature of the interior of the loaf reaches 209°F. 
If you don’t have a thermometer, do a visual check – the top should be well browned. Remove the loaf and the bottom should be browned, too. 
Remove loaf from pan to a wire rack to cool. Let loaf cool at least 20 minutes (this takes some will-power) before slicing in order to get a cleaner slice.
Some people become vegetarians because they don’t like meat and/or it upsets their body. Not me. I grew up eating some sort of animal everyday – sometimes three times a day and loved it. So when I decided, for humanitarian reasons, to become a vegetarian, it was quite an adjustment.
Put the butter, rye flour, sugar, salt, caraway seeds, mustard, and 1 cup of the AP flour into the workbowl of a food processor. 
When the yeast is proofed, turn on the machine and slowly pour in the yeast water. 
When it’s mixed, add in remaining flour a little at a time, until dough starts to pull away from the sides. You may or may not need all of the remaining cup of flour. 
Empty dough into greased bowl, flipping dough ball so entire ball is greased. Cover with tea towel or plate and let rise 1 hour.
Spread on the “ham”, cheese, then pickles down the center of the dough. Make 1½” cuts along both sides – cut the same number for both sides.
Fold in one end, then grab the first dough tabs and twist them together, pinching to make sure they stay. 
Keep doing this for all the tabs.
Slide the parchment onto a large, rimless cookie sheet. Cover loaf with the tea towel and let rise 30 minutes. At this time, preheat oven to 375º F. 
Remove to rack and let set about 15 minutes before serving.
Being the loving husband his is, my friend, George, was whipping up a batch of fat-free blueberry muffins for his wife, Kathy, while we were visiting. I was curious about his recipe and what was used instead of the fat.
In a larger bowl combine whites, milk, zest, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low, a hand-crank egg beater, or whisk until bubbles form on top – it takes about 30 seconds. 
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and gently combine, until most of the flour is incorporated. Don’t overmix or you’ll get tough muffins. 
Add in the blueberries and fold in, just to combine. (Frozen blueberries – which I use – tend to bleed.)
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin, dividing batter equally. (An ice cream scooper is perfect for this.) Sprinkle about 1 tsp of sugar onto each. 
Bake in preheated 400º F oven for about 16 minutes, rotating them halfway through to cook evenly. They should be firm with slightly browned edges.
Remove from oven and let set in tin about 2 minutes. To remove, run a rounded knife around sides, then start pushing in around the bottom with the knife to help release the muffin. 
Set muffins on a wire rack to cool a bit before eating.
I admit that I may be a little obsessive about making things from scratch. I make my own tortillas, pasta, yogurt, desserts, and most breads. The reason? As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a firm believer in “you are what you eat”.
Empty dough into a greased bowl, flipping dough to grease both sides. 
Cover and place in a warm area to rise – about 1 hour. 
Pour dough onto floured board and cut into 6 pieces. Shape into a 2″ x 5″ rectangle and place on a parchment lined (or greased) cookie sheet. Cover with tea towel and let rise while you preheat the oven to 425º Fahrenheit – this will take about 1/2 hour. (If you have a portable oven thermometer, use it! Internal oven thermometers are often wrong.) 
While dough is rising, mix together your topping blend. (I like to use 2 T Parmesan, 2 T dried minced onion flakes, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and 1/8 tsp salt.) 
When oven is hot, one by one, gently brush milk onto top of dough then sprinkle on topping. Lightly press down on topping to make it stick. 
Bake at 425º F about 15 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. You’ll notice significant rise to the rolls after a few minutes. When golden brown, remove from oven to a wire rack. 
Let cool before slicing.
Saints be praised, St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, sure.
Pile the batter into the hot skillet, pushing it all the way into the corners but mounding the batter into a dome. (Only the bottom portion of the batter should touch the sides of the pan – this will create a higher loaf.)
Slash top to make an ‘X’, 1/2″ deep and 5″ long.
Bake in the preheated 375º F oven until interior temperature of the bread is 185º F – about 35-45 minutes. If you don’t have a thermometer, look for a golden brown top after 35 minutes.
Remove hot loaf from skillet and cool at least an hour on a wire rack. Delicious with butter or jam.
Cornbread often doesn’t live up to expectations. While it may look buttery-moist with it’s vibrant yellow color, one bite sends you reaching for the water glass. The other side of the coin is the cornbread you get at some restaurants, so full of sugar and fat that’s it’s really just a slice of cake.
Melt the butter and set aside to cool a bit.
Into the workbowl of your food processor (If you don’t own one, put it on your birthday or holiday list, which is becoming longer by the minute!)), add the corn, sour cream, eggs, and hot sauce. Pulse about 6 times to break up corn.
Pour the corn mixture into the cornmeal mixture and gently stir a few times. (The dry mixture will buffer the eggs so they don’t cook when the hot butter is added.) Then add in the butter and complete blending the ingredients just to the point where the flour in incorporated. Don’t over mix – overmixing a quick bread (which this is) will produce a tough bread.
On the stovetop, heat the oil in a 10″ cast iron skillet over high heat until shimmering. Turn off heat and pour in batter (you’ll hear sizzling), spreading it out evenly and smoothing top. 
Place in hot oven and bake at 450º F for 18-25 minutes. (Set your timer for 18 minutes and test with a toothpick – when done, it should come out clean. Reset timer and cook longer, if need be.) 
When done, remove from oven and let cornbread set in skillet at least 20 minutes before slicing.
What could be better when that late afternoon hunger hits than a nice cup of tea and a freshly baked scone?
Pulse 10 times to form a coarse texture. 
(If you don’t have a food processor, then crosscut the butter into small bits using 2 knives.)
Empty flour mixture into a mixing bowl. Pour in all but 1 T egg mixture (you’re going to use the reserved liquid as a wash) and stir gently to blend. (You don’t want to overmix or the scone will be tough.) 
Lightly flour a flat surface and dump dough onto it. With floured hands, pat the dough into an 8″x5″ rectangle if cutting circles, or a 6″ diameter circle if cutting wedges. 
If you’re making circles, dip circle-mold in flour then press straight down into dough. Don’t twist. Dip into flour each time before cutting a circle. If making wedges, slice 3 lines, intersecting in middle to form 6 equal wedges.
Sprinkle on a few strands of cheese, if you like. 
Place in preheated oven and bake until golden brown – about 12 minutes for circles, 13-15 minutes for wedges. Remove to a wire rack to cool a bit, then serve.
Mardi Gras is filled with a number of traditions. A yummy one is King Cake – a rolled cake decorated with purple, gold, and green. Often a plastic Baby Jesus or treat is hidden in the cake for some lucky person to be served.
Company was coming and I needed a bread – fast! I flipped through my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and found this Kalamata Olive Bread recipe made in a cast iron skillet. (To those under 35, cookbooks are how people used to get recipes!)
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