I wanted to really bless a close friend and she was heading up a luncheon….so I offered to create magic if at all possible. I chose a Southwestern – New England Fusion menu and I will be blogging it over the next week or so.

This is Kyrie creating magic. My daughter Erin took the picture. One of my favorites…

Anyway….

The menu looks like this :

• Maple Caramelized Pear and Pecan Salad with Sharp Cheddar Wedges and  Cranberry Vinaigrette
• Chicken Breast with Maple Chipotle Glaze (only I am not breading the chicken this time)
• Chili Lime Corn
• Dinner Rolls
• Apple Cake with Dulce de Leche Drizzle and Granny Smith slices as garnish

Basically I tried to pull together the spicy southwest with the sweet harvest flavors of the East Coast.  So, I will get Saturday Surfing up as soon as I can.. in the meanwhile – Bake something!

image:   Erin Audet Myers

Post from: Baking Delights

I don’t know how many of you know about the cool rise method of yeast baking.  It was, as far as I know, one of those things that was developed in the 1950s or so to help the homemaker get her bread made more conveniently.  It is a process of using a little more yeast and sugar and then allowing the dough to rise in the fridge overnight.  I wanted to see if it would work for my maple pecan rolls so I made a batch of dough last night and stuck them in the fridge.

As you can see it worked!

This is an awesome method because you just mix up and knead the dough, shape it and cover with plastic wrap.  Then put it in the fridge.  Next morning, take out and let them sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven.  Bake as normal and you are ready to go.  You may need a few extra minutes of bake time because of the coldness of the dough.  These could have been left in the oven an extra few minutes.

This makes 12 HUGE rolls.  That is a vintage dessert plate not a saucer.  Although I had one child thagt ate three of them most people will only be able to handle one.

You can use less butter if you want.  I like the extra richness.  Oh, you can freeze these after baking if you like..just don’t put the glaze on them.

Maple Pecan Sweet Rolls

•  4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•  1/3 cup packed brown sugar
•  1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup milk, warm
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp maple flavoring
• 1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring

FILLING:

• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted, divided in half
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 tsp maple flavoring

TOPPING:

• 3 cups confectioner’s
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter (more as needed)
• 2 tsp maple flavoring
• Cream to thin it out

Mix warm water and sugar and stir in yeast.  Set aside for a few minutes to bubble.  I know this is no longer necessary but I think it still gives better results.

Mix about 2 cups of flour, salt, eggs, and milk into the yeast mixture until smooth. Add flavorings and butter.  Slowly add flour until a soft dough is formed.

Knead a few minutes until smooth and satiny, but still somewhat soft. Let rest for five minutes.

Roll out into a rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick or a little more.  Spread with 1/4 cup melted butter.  Mix the remaining melted butter (for filling) and brown sugar together.  Add the maple flavoring.  SPread this over the dough and sprinkle with the pecans.

Roll up as for a jelly roll and cut.  Place cut side down on a greased cookie sheet and cover well with plasitc wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.

Next morning place the rolls on the counter while you preheat the oven.  Bake in a 375 oven about 35 minutes or until done. Watch carefully because the sugar will make the bottoms burn if you are not careful.

While the rolls are baking mix the topping ingredients together.  Spread on warm rolls.

Image:Marye Audet

Post from: Baking Delights

That is a mouthful…Saying it and eating it.

I was grocery shopping on Friday and at the small, organic grocery that I  like I found several bags of ripe bananas on sale for 1.25 a bag.

SCORE!

Our family eats enough bananas to really cause monkeys to sweat.  Seriously, one time someone gave us an entire produce box full of very ripe bananas and was concerned that we would not be able to eat them all before they spoiled.  I just laughed.

Sure enough two days later the box was empty and not one banana had spoiled.

So, when I see bananas on sale like that I snatch them up, or try to.  I bought two bags and hoped to set a few aside for banana bread or something.

Well, this is the or something I decided on.  You have to love bananas because this cake is intensely banana.  Very moist, very flavorful, and just enough maple to make it complex.  I finished this cake by dusting it with confectioners but you could certainly use a maple glaze.  Just add enough grade B maple syrup to confectioners’ sugar to make it the consistency you want.  Why grade B?  Because for baking and cooking it is far more flavorful!

This cake is huge, should serve at least 12 ( It lasted exactly one meal at our house). Serve it with coffee or tea for a brunch or tea time treat.Try it with an Ethiopia Sidamo coffee or Teavana’s Vermont Maple tea.

Banana Maple Bundt Cake with Walnut Praline Swirl

Cake

3 cups organic white flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted organic butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon maple flavoring (use a natural maple flavor like Frontier’s)

2 large eggs

4 very ripe bananas, mashed.  About 1 1/2- 1 3/4 cups

1 cup full fat sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a large bundt pan.

Blend dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Using the paddle attachment on an electric mixer beat butter until creamy.  add the sugars and beat until fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time beating a minute or so between each.  Use a rubber spatula to pull the mixture from the sides and bottom of the bowl, ad the vanilla and maple,  and mix about 30 seconds more.

Reduce speed to lowest setting and beat in the bananas.

Add half of the dry ingredients.  Mix quickly, and then add all of the sour cream.  Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients.

Add about half the batter to the bundt pan, cover with the praline mixture, and then add the rest of the batter.  Smooth the top. Sort of swirl a knife through the batter to move the praline layer around.

Bake for 60 to 70  minutes or until a knife comes out clean.  Let cool  for ten minutes in the pan and then turn the pan upside down on a cake plate.  Let it finish cooling.

I have heard that the cake is best the second day but we have never tested this theory.

Walnut Praline

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans, or macadamias, or hazelnuts)

Melt butter and brown sugar in a sauce  pan stirring until smooth and blended.  Allow to bubble for about 20 seconds and then add walnuts.  Stir the nuts to cover with the praline and then set aside to cool to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.

Sorry for the lack of close up shots.  By the time I realized that my close ups were blurry the cake was gone..You will have to trust me on this one!

Image:MaryeAudet

Post from: Baking Delights

Maple is one of everyone’s favorite flavors around here.  I can’t use the syrup straight because we go through literally a quart of syrup for pancakes, yeah…we do…but I add it to my homemade syrups for more flavor.

I like it in cookies and cakes, and lately I have been thinking of a maple glazed grilled chicken dish..but it hasn’t come together in my head yet…I promise..you will be the first to know..

Anyway so I have had this “thing” with maple.  It is my aunt and uncles fault..they made their own and when they were through making it one year when I happened to be there they fed me a small bowl of homemade, maple syrup…au naturel.

Do you know that it is amazing stuff on it’s own without the trappings of pancakes or waffles?  Good thing I don;t livei n maple syup-land because I think THAT is what would be in my coffee cup in the morning.

Anyway. I was looking for something else on the web and I found these maple chips at  Prepared Pantry.I haven’t ordered any yet because the way the budget has been. Frankly, I think that there are certain places  food addicts should stay away from until they are inddependently wealthy. Prepared Pantry is probably one of them.

So, maple chips.  That intrigues me.  I am thinking of pecan blondies with maple chips, white chocolate and maple chip cookies, maple chip muffins, banana maple chip bread…maple ganache? OMG! Can you imagine a maple cake with maple ganache filling and that pecan coconut frosting that you put on German chocolate cake?

See? I told you I was an addict.

Anyway..don;t be surprised if you see some maple chip recipes in a couple of weeks.  Meanwhile I wanted to share the information.

Oh, if you have gotten the idea that I have not cooked this week? You would be totally correct. I have not been home enough to blog OR cook and I am averaging aboout 4 hours of sleep a night.. Our completely gourmet menu for last night was homemade chili over homemade french fries. …and me running out the door with Sean for his JBQ practice, yelling back over my shoulder, “If you are still hungry, there is a loaf of bread in the pantry”

sigh.  You know at the zoo, where the keeper throws a side of beef to the lions? Well welcome to my world.

Hey, don’t forget about Boobie Bake-off!

We are off to the VA again this morning. Tra La!

Image:Marye Audet

Post from: Baking Delights

These cookies are a fantastic addition to tea, or coffee in the afternoon.  In fact, they are great for an after school snack. They are light, buttery, crumbly and everything I think shortbread should be.  I like them better than Lorna Doones and trust me, that is BIG.

They go together pretty fast, and they also freeze well if securely wrapped.  Be careful about what else is in the freezer, though, they can pick up off flavors due to the delicacy of the cookie.

I like to sprinkle sugar crystals on mine before baking..something like Sugar in the Raw works great due to the large size crystals. And the rustic flavor of the Sugar in the Raw goes especially well with these cookies.

The trick to making the best shortbread cookies is to make sure you don’t over mix  the dough. You don’t want to develop the gluten.

Sorry- yellow light from eco-friendly spiral bulbs…at least you know I am green, right?

The Best Maple Shortbread Cookies 

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 c cake flour

1 c powdered sugar

1 c unsalted butter

1 tsp maple flavor

1 tsp vanilla flavor

1/4 c sugar in the raw for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 13×9x2 inch pan,

Combine flour, cake flour, powdered sugar, butter and flavorings. Mix at low speed until it forms a soft dough.

Turn the dough into the pan and press it evenly to fill the pan. Sprinkle with the Sugar in the Raw and press in gently.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.  Cool slightly, cut in desired sized bars, and finish cooling.

My desired size in ONE but some people get as many as 32

Image:(c)MaryeAudet

Content:Marye Audet for Baking Delights 

Post from: Baking Delights

Some people love summer. To me autumn is the best because the pace slows down, in my mind anyway, and it seems a time to savor the moments spent with loved ones. I always imagine myself and my husband seated in a romantic New England Inn, this time of year. I know that it is unrealistic with our lives to expect it to happen, but the imagining is wonderful. I imagine we have been strolling through crimson woods, talking and at last, when the purple dusk just starts to envelope the world we go in to sit in front of a crackling fire, dining on roast chicken, wild rice pilaf, brioche, baby beets….and this dessert.
Even though we can’t have the actual experience, I can share this fantasy with my family through the magic of the wonderful flavors of fall!

Maple Leaf Cookies:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup
1 large egg yolk
teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 c walnuts, finely ground but not paste

cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy and beat in maple syrup and egg yolk until mixture is combined well. Sift together salt and flour over mixture, add walnuts,  and fold in thoroughly. Chill dough overnight.
Let stand at room temp a few minutes to soften. Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick on a floured surface and with a 3-inch floured maple-leaf cookie cutter cut out cookies. Lay on silpat covered baking sheet, sprinkle with red, yellow, and orange sugar crystals or edible glitter, and bake at 350F for 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Cool. Run “veins” of royal icing in autumn colors decoratively on cookie. Set aside.

Pots de creme

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup half & half
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
7 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 325°F.

Whisk together cream, milk, syrup, and pumpkin in a heavy saucepan and bring just to a simmer over moderate heat.
Whisk together yolks, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl.
Add hot pumpkin mixture to yolks in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup, then divide among custard cups . Bake custards in a bain marie (hot water bath- take a large pan, fill with hot water to come up halfway on the sides of the custard cups), covered tightly with foil, in middle of oven until a knife inserted in center of a custard comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer custards to a rack to cool completely. Chill, covered, until cold, at least 2 hours.

To serve place the pots de creme in the center of a plate, with the maple leaf cookie next to it. If you really want to go all out serve with a pot of hot maple flavored coffee with plenty of cream…if you have access to the maple flavored beans.

Post from: Baking Delights

Before I give you my thoughts on this incredible Maple Apple Streusel Muffin, let me say that I have no clue what is up with my lighting for my photographs. Combination of cheap, old camera and the new type of light bulbs (green but yellow if you know what I mean)..or maybe it is just my monitor.

I think I have mentioned that Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the chilly walks down leaf strewn lanes, the smell of apples and leaves burning, and the golden hues that announce that the season is changing.

WAIT! I live in Texas now. Umm…I love READING about all of those things and remembering them from my childhood.

These muffins are a taste of all that Autumn is. I did not have walnuts to put in but I would definitely add them if I did. They are slightly tart and sweet with the very intense apple taste from unpeeled granny smith apples, and the maple just whispers in the last lingering flavor. Try them with a cup of maple-nut flavored coffee and be transported to a Currier and Ives scene. In your mind anyway.

Maple Apple Streusel Muffins

1 egg

1/2 c milk

1/4 c unsalted butter melted

1 c coarsely chopped unpeeled apple, macintosh, granny smith or other tart apple is best.

1 1/2 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

a few grates of nutmeg

1 tsp maple flavoring (or use 1/4c maple syrup, and reduce the milk to 1/4 c)

Preheat oven to 400.

Prepare muffin tins with paper, or silicone liners, or grease. Beat egg, and stir in milk, butter, apples and flavoring. Combine dry ingedients and stir in just to mix. Never over mix muffins because you will lose the texture and they will not be delicate but coarse and chewy.

Streusel:

1/2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 c butter

Blend with fingers until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of muffins.

Spoon into muffin cups andbake for 20-30 minutes.

Post from: Baking Delights