Tag Archive for: dessert

Benne Wafers with Blueberries and Cream

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I can’t keep my surfing fingers off of “A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen” – here’s yet another recipe hot off that delicious spot in the bloggosphere:

I think you may agree that benne wafers with blueberries and cream sounds like the most delicious summer treat ever conceived. Also, benne wafers are extremely Southern!

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By Kim Morgan

A “Benne” seed is the old Southern name for “sesame” seeds. They were brought to the Lowcountry in 1769 by African slaves. They are still called Benne seeds to this day in the South, and frankly I would be surprised if that ever changes. It is part of the charm of the South. Southerners hold fast to traditions, refusing to budge, especially when it comes to food and entertaining. This is something we all can be grateful for, especially if you have the chance to try these wonderful buttery morsels.

Legend says that eating Benne seeds will bring you luck and good fortune. I am not one who subscribes to the notion of luck. Instead I prefer to hold to the belief that, “there are no coincidences” and that Benne seeds and the good fortune from eating them, are simply another of God’s great blessings.

There are countless ways to make Benne wafers and you will find that no two recipes are alike…

 

Southern Coconut Cake. It’s Worth It.

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I feel lucky to have randomly found Tender Crumb, a well-named baking blog with recipes and photos so compelling it makes one want to rush to the kitchen to preheat the oven. The mistress of Tender Crumb, Linda, is involved in a wonderful mass-baking-hysteria called The Cake Slice. This month’s installment of The Cake Slice features Southern Coconut Cake.

From Linda/Tender Crumb:

So far, every recipe that I’ve made out of Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes has exceeded my expectations, and I highly recommend that you go out and treat yourself to this cookbook.

Impossibly moist white cake layers are subtly flavored with unsweetened coconut milk, enveloped by a cream cheese buttercream frosting (I gained 5 pounds just typing those words) and covered with sweetened flaked coconut (oops, another 5 pounds).

With all of the cake-making happening in my kitchen this month, I cut the recipe in half and baked the cake layers in two 6″ round pans. The instructions for the cake were pretty straightforward, and the layers were baked without a hitch.

For the coconut cake recipe and a whole lot more, please visit Tender Crumb here.

Lavender and Vanilla a Go Go!

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A Southern Peach Cobbler Recipe with a Lavender and Vanilla Twist

Cobbler and the South are like bread and butter, peas and carrots, hook ‘em and horns, and other natural combination. This is not to say that they don’t have cobbler in the North, but when I think of the many ubiquitous foods in my Southern heritage, cobbler is a stand out. When I was growing up our family would visit Tennessee and South Carolina with stops along the way in Georgia to acquire bushels (or maybe pecks) of peaches that we’d take home to El Paso to peel and freeze. And while those carefully stored peaches would find their way into other dishes, their main reason for finding their way half way across the country was as filling for cobbler. There’s just nothing quite like a peach cobbler overflowing with juicy, ripe peaches, particularly when the preaches are so sweet they don’t even need more than a pinch of sugar. Of course Texas isn’t too shabby in the peach department either…

For the recipe and complete post from Fete & Feast (and for their food blogger’s guide to Austin!) please click here.

Bakeries: Kiss My Bundt

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Chrysta Wilson, chef-owner of the West Hollywood bakery Kiss My Bundt may not be a southern baker, but her inspiration came straight from the south. All I know is no matter where these cakes came from, I want one HERE right now!

Watching in awe as her Southern aunt baked cakes and confections, an 8-year-old Chrysta Wilson wanted to use the oven like a “big girl.” When her mother and aunt gave her an Easy-Bake Oven that year, Wilson began her love affair with desserts.

These days, the owner of Kiss My Bundt makes all of her confections from scratch, using hand-selected ingredients from the local dairy and farmers markets. The sassy 30-year-old also gets a kick out of giving the students in her baking academy one mischievous piece of advice: “Go say bundt hole to someone you know tomorrow,” she tells her class.

It is everything except the hole, however, that keeps customers coming back to the Mid-City bakery.

“It has sexy curves like a woman, and the glazes hug those curves,” Wilson says. During one of the 22 classes she teaches each month, named “Bundts and Booze,” one student fumbled with an ingredient. “Inventions are created by mistake, right?” he jokes.

“God knows, that’s how this store was created,” his instructor responds.

In the past year, the statuesque baker has taught roughly 1,300 people how to bake a proper bundt. And since her bakery opened, in August 2008, Wilson has been commended for her nontraditional cake flavors, such as maple-bacon, Tecate and lime-basil…

 

Clever & Glamorous Cinnamon Roll Cookies

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I found this recipe for Cinnamon Roll Cookies on Sinful Southern Treats. This treat is like the cookie equivalent of a platypus. Is it a cookie or a cinnamon roll? And really, does it matter if it’s as yummy as it looks in the photo below? I am dying to make these, a clever and glamorous cookie originally from Picky Palate (home of the recipe for Fluffernutter Cookies, a secret fantasy of mine that I promise you I will be baking before the week is through…)

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

(via Picky Palate)

ingredients
2 Cups sugar
1 Cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
6 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons softened butter, (slice 2 Tablespoons 6 times totaling 12 tablespoons)
1 1/2 Cups packed light brown sugar, divided into 1/4 Cups
1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon, divided
Frosting
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
2-4 Tablespoons milk, to thin icing

Directions

1. In an electric or stand mixer, cream the sugar and butter. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream until well combined. Slowly add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined.
2. Separate dough into 6 disc shapes and chill for at least 2 hours for best results.
3. Once chilled, roll into a 1/8 inch thick rectangle, about 13 inches X 9 inches. Spread each rolled pieces of dough with 2 Tablespoons softened butter, 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Start rolling from the long end closest to you, rolling into a log shape. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/2 inch pieces of dough then placing onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
4. To prepare frosting, beat the cream cheese until softened and smooth, slowly add powdered sugar, vanilla. Add milk until desired consistency. Frost cookies then place in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Last Minute Real Southern Cobbler, Spoon Licking Good

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I found this authentic and easy cobbler recipe on the Rick-Rack and Gingham blog – a blog by a southern grandma who loves to bake and travel around in her RV with her husband of 34 years. Thanks Cindy!

…What all Good Southern Women keep up their sleeves for those emergency..ooops.. someone is coming over… recipes. Actually my daughter started it..I finished it..baby was calling her mama!

COBBLER OF COURSE!!

We went with the Blackberry/Dewberry cobbler version..it works great with peach and even apricot.

Now I know..this is too easy..we didn’t roll out the dough..we never said we were ancient Southern women!! This recipe has been around for-ever..it can be whipped up for the last minute company..Church social on Sun evening..because your husband is whining for a dessert…and because you have a new baby in the house..lol

I would rate it “Easy Peasy” and “Stick to your ribs Yummy”..we have been known to eat it for breakfast..Hey..there are no real rules for breakfast foods…

For the complete post and the cobbler recipe we all want to try, click here. For more of Cindy’s authentic recipes check out her blog.

Festiveness, Stacked Up Southern Style

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Just looking at the photo of this layer cake makes me salivate. I wonder If I have the patience to create something with this many layers! If I do, trust me, I’ll post about it…right after I eat it!

THREE LAYERS? WHY BOTHER? Martha Meadows of Slocomb, Ala., with her little layer cake with boiled chocolate icing. She will make 10 of them this year.

Festiveness, Stacked Up Southern Style

IN this corner of the country, where cotton and peanuts pay the bills and the Florida border is a morning’s walk away, the worth of a cook can be measured in cake layers.

All across the South at Christmas, layer cakes parade across virtually every sideboard. But in the small towns of southeast Alabama, they are more than holiday tradition.

They’re currency, comfort and status. Everyone knows whose cakes are tender and whose consistently reach 12 layers or more.

“Three or four weren’t nothing to brag about,” said Franklin Peacock, who has been eating layer cake here since the 1930s. “Five or six is about where you’d want to start talking about your cake.”

Martha Meadows, 77, learned to bake 15-layer cakes from her mother, who cooked each layer one at a time in a cast-iron hoe-cake pan…

For the complete article from The New York Times, please click here.

Durham NC’s Watts Grocery Bakes

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Pecan-Cornmeal Butter Cakes

The New York Times April 20 Dining section has a great story about the flowering of restaurants in Durham, North Carolina (Durham, a Tobacco Town, Turns to Local Food).  When I lived there in the 1970s, the food was great, but the range of cookery was nowhere as bountiful as it is today.

Watts Grocery represents the best that Durham has to offer these days, and that’s alot –  Frommer’s gives it 5 stars:

“…this down-home eatery run by Durham native Amy Tornquist serves the best farm-fresh fare in the area. The chef-owner believes in serving the best of Piedmont produce, and every rib-sticking dish is homemade. You can get fried chicken gizzards here just like grandma used to make when she wasn’t baking those red velvet cupcakes. Sandwiches, burgers, and salads dominate the luncheon menu, featuring a fried green tomato BLT, even (our favorite) hand-cut buttermilk onion rings with a chipotle-blue cheese dipping sauce. At night it gets fancier with entrees ranging from braised rabbit in red wine to yellowtail snapper filets stuffed with crabmeat. Buttermilk pancakes and shrimp and grits highlight the breakfast menu.”

Amy gave us her recipe for Pecan-Cornmeal Butter Cakes that ran in the NY Times, and now that I have baked up a batch, I can affirm that this is a wonderful and unusual dessert that perfectly represents the new style in Southern cooking.  Enjoy making and eating them.  If you’re like me, you’re already thinking about your next trip to North Carolina to visit this restaurant!

Time: One hour, plus at least 3 hours’ cooling

9 ounces unsalted butter, plus extra for pans

1 cup pecans, toasted and cooled

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for berries (optional)

3/8 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

7/8 cup white cornmeal, plus extra for pans

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

8 egg whites

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Berries, for serving

Ice cream or whipped cream, for serving.

1. In a small pan, simmer butter over low heat until light brown and toasty, 8 to 10 minutes. Strain and set aside.

2. In a food processor, rapidly pulse pecans, confectioners’ sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar until finely ground.

3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Mix in cornmeal and salt. Mix in pecan-sugar mixture.

4. Whisk egg whites and vanilla together just to combine and whisk into dry ingredients. Whisk in melted butter. Refrigerate batter at least three hours or overnight.

5. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Thickly butter 10 four-inch tartlet pans or a muffin-top tin. Dust well with cornmeal. Fill each a little more than halfway. If you have extra batter, make a second batch.

6. Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes in pans, then immediately turn out on a rack. Serve warm, topped with berries (if you like, stir with a little sugar and set aside for a few minutes), ice cream or whipped cream.

Yield: 8 to 12 small cakes.

Thank you Amy Tornquist and the Watts Grocery, located at 1116 Broad St, Durham, NC – call 919/416-5040 for reservations.