Tag: Baking

Buttermilk Chive Biscuits

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Lila is a tough critic. But she approved of these biscuits.

Lila is one of my friend’s daughters. She is just about a year and a half old and in the year that I’ve known her I’ve gotten stink eye from this adorable little girl more times than I can count. She is the queen at mean muggin’.

But I think I finally broke through to her!!!!

All thanks to these biscuits!!!!!

Autumn and I made them the day before for our family. She is a fantastic little helper and baker. She helped me measure everything into the bowls. We count out the ingredients as we pour them into the bowls. And we she even learning how to propely scoop the floor into the measuring cup too!

That’s why Kid Chef Bakes: The Kids Cookbook for Aspiring Bakers by Lisa Huff is fantastic new cookbook. It has so many recipes that are kid friendly so they will love what you make with them in it. Kids of all ages will love everything from the cookies to the cupcakes to the bars. 

The book is full of clear instructions and lots of beautiful pictures. I love how informative it is for the kids learning the different processes and techniques used in baking. The book starts with different lessons in learning baking skills. It starts with basics likes measuring and moves on to folding ingredients in, and how to work with dough. All really important, interesting, and fun things for kids to try as they develop their kitchen skills.

(To note: Autumn said she would help me with the biscuits, then decided making biscuits at her sandbox/water-table on our lanai was more fun. We co-baked things. ha!)

 

Well, back to little miss Lila!

I was helping out my friend by picking Lila and her bigger sister, who is awesome friends with Autumn, up from daycare and giving them dinner while she hustled back from a meeting from work. I managed to get a smile from her while at daycare as I picked her up from her classroom, but the real moment when she let her guard with me when the kids were eating. She saw some leftover biscuits in a container on our counter and she eagerly pointed to them. While it wasn’t what I had planned on feeding her, I figured an extra biscuit wouldn’t hurt!

She gobbled that biscuit right up!!! I got the cutest smile when she was done and the rest of the night as smooth sailing.

I guess you just can’t resist a really great biscuit. I know I can’t.

This foolproof biscuit recipe is from Lisa Huff’s

To note: I didn’t have a 2″ round cookie or biscuit cutter and my cast iron pan was too small. But I made due with what I ha. And guess what… delicious biscuits.

The moral of the story is to adapt to use the size cutter that you have, or use the pan that you have, or even both! Square biscuits? Cool! 2 Smaller pans? Cool! Do the best that you can and just make it work otherwise.

Just don’t let anything come between you and these awesome biscuits. They are a going to be an instant family favorite!

Buttermilk Chive Biscuits

Makes 12 biscuits

Ingredients

  • Butter, for greasing the pan
  • 2 3⁄4 Cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 4 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon table salt
  • 6 Tablespoons cold, cubed unsalted butter
  • 1/2 Cup chopped fresh chives*
  • 1 to 1 1/2 Cups cold buttermilk
  • Flour, for the work surface
  • 3 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Process 

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F degrees . Set the oven rack to the lowest level. Grease a 10 1/2″ cast iron pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the chives
  4. Add 1 Cup of buttermilk; stir to loosely combine. Slowly add more buttermilk as necessary until the dough just comes together but is still moist. Do not overwork the dough or the biscuits will come out dense and dry.
  5. Place the dough on a well floured surface. Gently press the dough into a 1″ thick disk. Cut out the biscuits using the round cutter to form the biscuits. If you need to reform the dough into a 1″ thick disk to cut out more biscuits, do so gently so you don’t overwork the dough.
  6. Place the biscuits next to each other in the prepared pan. Bake on the bottom rack for 12 to 17 minutes or until golden brown.
  7. Brush with the melted butter. Cool slightly before serving.

____________________

Win a copy of Lisa Huff’s new book

Kid Chef Bakes: The Kids Cookbook for Aspiring Bakers

 

Leave a comment telling me what you like to make with your kids or what you liked to make with your parents while growing up.

Ends 11/9/17. Open to US residents only

 

 

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Mini Lemon Blueberry Monkey Bread Muffins

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Let’s talk The Handmaid’s Tale!!!

I am addicted. Seriously addicted. I have watched and re-watched the available 5 episodes. And I am counting down until the new episode is released on Wednesday.

The storytelling is amazing, the acting is incredible, the costumes are well developed… I could go on and on. It’s scarily so well thought out and horribly believable. It gives me chills watching it.

Insist that you watch it.

Then you must come back here and tell me what you think!!!

I also insist that you make these Mini Lemon Blueberry Monkey Bread Muffins

Autumn inhaled 2 of them after eating her dinner. I guess she liked them. She even ate one while getting a bath. (Of course, I had to snap this to Amanda as ongoing documentation of the weird stuff my kid eats while in the tub- previous to this it’s been buttered french bread, pasta, and cous cous- clearly she likes carbs!)

I honestly was surprised since they are a bit tart from the lemon in the muffin and the lemony glaze but the gobbled them right up. She is a big fan of blueberries so they were right up her alley.

I hope that you enjoy them just as much as we all did too.

Mini Lemon Blueberry Monkey Bread Muffins

Makes 12 ‘muffins’

Ingredients

For the muffins

  • 1 can of buttermilk biscuits (8 pack, 16.3oz)
  • 1 Cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1 Cup blueberries
  • 1 tablespoons butter, melted

For the glaze

  • 1 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
  • 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray the cavities of a muffin tin.
  2. Cut each biscuit into 10-12 small pieces.
  3. Combine the sugar and zest. Add the pieces to the sugar mixture to coat them. Add about 2/3 of the biscuit pieces to the muffin tin cavities, add the blueberries, top off with the remaining biscuit pieces.
  4. Evenly pour the melted butter into each muffin cavity.
  5. Bake for 18- 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes prior to removing.
  6. Combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice to make a glaze. Drizzle over the warm muffins and enjoy!

Sticky Bun Monkey Bread

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It’s Babymoon time!!!!

We are going away for a quick Babymoon this weekend. I am so excited!!

Last time, we took a trip to the Florida to visit The Keys for a long weekend but since we are here in Florida now, we are just staying local. I’d love to take another trip to The Keys but I didn’t feel like flying, err spending money on flights, really.

Price found a local resort and spa for us to visit. The idea of a prenatal massage and bumming it by the pool without a toddler asking you to go in and out and in and out again is pure bliss.

Generally, I feel good at 32 weeks but I am so blah and sore all over so I just need my slightly ever present charlie horses to be worked out. (Seriously, they are the worst things ever to wake up to in the middle of the night!!!) Thankfully, Price snagged the last one available for the day and I picked up the required doctor’s note so I am just counting down the minutes until the appointment.

The worst part is that I keep reading things included in our package and it just makes me want to stay forever. Well, more specifically, go back AFTER the baby is born for the unlimited drinks. Hello, unlimited mimosas at brunch!

If you aren’t going away this weekend, I insist you make this Sticky Bun Monkey Bread. It’s stupid good. And goes great with mimosas too. (Truth be told, everything goes with mimosas. It’s a fact!)

 

But seriously, this Sticky Bun Monkey Bread is a real crowd pleaser. It tastes just like a sticky bun with the sticky caramel syrup that you drizzle all over the cinnamon and sugar coated biscuit pieces.

I used refrigerated canned biscuits to make this process easier, but you can follow my recipe for Homemade Monkey Bread for the dough, and then add the nuts and caramel sauce to it.

The caramel is everything. Whatever you do, don’t just dip a finger in there to try it. Nor is it a good idea to immediately grab a piece of monkey bread right after you flip it out on to the serving platter. No, I def didn’t try that and burn the crap out of my fingers and then my mouth as the quickest thing I could think of was ‘ahh my fingers!’ so shoving it in my mouth was the next logical thing to do. Nope…

Let’s fast-forward to the weekend, shall we?

I’ll be ready for my prenatal massage and you will be ready to enjoy this Sticky Bun Monkey Bread. And a few mimosas in my honor.

Sticky Bun Monkey Bread

Makes 16 servings

Ingredients

  • 3/4 Cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 3 cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 biscuits per can)
  • 4 ounces of chopped pecans
  • 3/4 Cup butter
  • 1 Cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 Cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.
  3. Spray a tube pan with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nuts in the bottom on the tub pan.
  4. Cut the biscuits in 4 equal pieces. Roll them in the cinnamon and sugar mixture
  5. Add half of the coated biscuit pieces into the tube pan. Sprinkle with 1/3 more nuts. Add the rest of the coated biscuit pieces and then the remaining chopped nuts.
  6. In a small saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar. Melt together over medium- high heat. Mix in the cream and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla extract.
  7. Evenly pour the caramel mixture over the coated biscuits.
  8. Bake for 35-45 minutes.
  9. Flip over onto a serving dish. Enjoy!

Nutty Chocolate Chip Banana Monkey Bread

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Damn, toddlers are difficult.

Under statement of the year, right?

Besides stating all the obvious things like them freaking the eff out over dumb stuff like what shoes they want to wear (I swear we can NEVER find the pair she wants to wear right that very minute!) or the Minnie/Dora/Disney Princess of the cup she wants, we have entered a whole new realm of ‘fun’.

We have now entered the fun bed time fights that involve me moving things because they scare her. Last night I had to move a stack of framed pictures and canvases sitting on her dresser to get hung up since they “look like an alligator” Say what?!?

Then a little while later I had to move a bag in the hallway since it, again, looked like animals trying to eat her. 

Can’t wait to see what tonight brings!

Also, I was asking her what I should put into the monkey bread. We settled on adding in chocolate chips (duh!) to the bananas and nuts. She was too into watching Shimmer and Shine on my phone (our cable isn’t hooked up yet… ugh!) to help me make it so understand what I was doing because…

as soon as it was ready and we offered her some “monkey Bread” she refused “EWWWWWW NO MONKEY’S BREAD.” Well then…

 

It’s like a

I almost called this Chunky Monkey Monkey Bread but I was afraid the double ‘monkey’ in the name would be confusing. Maybe?

And that’s all my silly stories for today!

Nutty Chocolate Chip Banana Monkey Bread

Makes 10-12 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 packages of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
  • 1 Cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 2 bananas, thinly sliced (about 1/4″ thick)
  • 2/3 Cup finely chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans
  • 1 Cup chocolate chips
  • 1 Cup butter, melted

Process

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a fluted tube pan with non stick cooking spray
  • Cut each roll into 4 pieces.
  • Place half the banana slices, chopped nuts, and chocolate chips in the bottom of the pan.
  • Roll each piece into the blend of sugars and cinnamon. Then put into the tube pan.
  • Once half the pieces are in the tub pan, add the remaining slices of banana, nuts, and chocolate chips.
  • Finish putting the coated biscuit pieces into the tube pan then evenly pour the butter over all of the pieces.
  • Bake for 43-48 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before inverting on a platter for serving.

Individual Strawberry Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

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I am loving winter in Florida.

It’s a joke to call it winter. It’s been amazing out. We had one cold weekend so far and you would have thought the end of the world was coming. People reacted to at the grocery store the same way that people in Boston reacted to snow storms. Everyone at the grocery store was all bundled up and talking about how cold it was. I was standing there in a sweat shirt like “yo, you have no idea…” It was like 45 out. ha!

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I remember how the cold would cut through the air when the wind would whip around the buildings. The morning walk from the train station was never welcomed. Basically, I hated any time that I needed to leave the house.

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But I can handle the winter now down here. The one that consists of us running the dogs outside for the last pee of the night while we are barefoot. The ‘brisk’ winter that allows us to comfortably sleep with the windows open. The winter that makes you laugh at your child when they say “It’s chilly out Mommy, I need a coat.” It’s 65 degrees, that’s sunroof and windows down weather kiddo. Stop whining. (And yet, she will happily get naked and play with the sand box/water play thing at the same temp…)

To all my friends and family freezing… don’t hate me. Just remember to come and visit us when you can’t handle any more shoveling, lost mittens, and scraping ice off your car anymore. We can hang out on the lanai or whatever. Oh yeah, our house, we finally have a closing date!!!! More on another day.

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Instead, get cozy up in your house with these awesome Individual Strawberry Monkey Breads with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Don’t be like ‘Fool, why are you sharing a recipe with strawberries?! They aren’t in season now!” Well, in fact they are! They are in season here in FL. So when you are getting strawberries up in New England now chances are they are from FL. Go on, check the label…

The sweet fruit mixed into the already sweet monkey bread makes it 10x more awesome than it is already. Unless you are a 3 year old, then you will tell your mom to pick all the strawberries out… send help.

Don’t feel like making these in muffin tins? Then you can make 2 loaves and just increase the baking time (approx. 32-35 minutes). Just keep an eye on it until it’s golden brown. It’s easily adaptable. And delicious.

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Individual Strawberry Monkey Breads with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24

Ingredients 

For the Monkey Bread

  • 1 package (2 and 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
  • 1 and 1/2 Cups warm milk (110F-115F, 2% or whole milk, no lower)
  • 1/4 Cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
  • 1 1/2 Cups diced fresh strawberries
  • 1 Cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 Cup butter, melted

For the Frosting

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 3 Cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2-1 Tablespoon milk

Process

  1. Proof the yeast in the milk until the yeast is fragrant and bubbly, this takes a few minutes.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs together. Add the milk to the bowl and mix again.
  3. Add 3 Cups of flour to the bowl and mix well. Scrape down the bowl, and add the remaining flour. Mix well to combine all the ingredients, about 4-5 minutes
  4. Remove the dough to a well greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let raise for at least 1 hour.
  5. When ready to assemble the monkey bread, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  6. Put foil cupcake liners in the cavity of 2 12-cup cupcake tins.
  7. Combine the strawberries, granulated sugar, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
  8. Roll out the dough on a well-floured, clean, level work surface. The dough should be 1/2″ thick. Cut into 3/4″ x 3/4″ pieces.
  9. Mix the cut dough pieces into the strawberry and sugar mixture. It will get a bit gummy but that’s okay. Pour the butter over the mixture and then get your hands messy!
  10. Evenly portion out the dough into the cupcake liners.
  11. Bake for 22-25 minutes, until the top the golden brown.
  12. While the individual monkey breads are baking, mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk well until you have a smooth, creamy mixture. It should be a thick consistency.
  13. Drizzle the frosting over the warm monkey bread when serving.
  14. Store extra monkey bread and frosting in air tight containers for 2 days, max.