Thursday, April 28, 2011

Beef Teriyaki - Just the Recipe




With the warmer days ahead you will want to spend as little time in a hot kitchen as possible. This easy and tasty stir fry dish can be whipped up in about half a hour.



Beef Teriyaki

1 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak ¾” thick
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1-3/4 cups beef stock
2 tbsp. soya sauce
¼ cup teriyaki sauce (optional)*
1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
¼ tsp. garlic powder or 1 tsp. fresh
4 cups broccoli flowerets
1 red pepper, slices
5 thinly sliced mushrooms
4 cups hot cooked rice

Slice the beef into very thin strips. If the beef steak is slightly frozen it is easier to slice.
Set aside. In a bowl mix cornstarch, broth soya, stir-fry sauce, sugar and garlic. Set aside.


Stir-fry beef in a nonstick skillet or wok until browned and juices evaporate. Add broccoli, red pepper and mushrooms and cornstarch mixture. Cook until mixture boils and thickens, stirring. Serve over rice.



Note: I use 2-1/2 cups Uncle Ben’s converted rice cooked in 5 cups of boiling water.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Blooming Coffee Cake Ring


It is well past the middle of April and although spring has officially arrived you would never know it. Cold temperatures continue with howling cold winds and yes it was snowing just this past weekend. My poor tulips are still in tight buds with no sign of blooming anytime soon and so it seems that the only thing blooming around here is my coffee cake.


But this is where I stop carrying on about our dreary spring and write about this wonderful coffee cake that I have been baking every Christmas and Easter for probably the last twenty years.

It has become a tradition to have this for breakfast on these special occasions and also to have it on our dessert table along with other goodies.


This coffee cake ring is filled with sugar, brown sugar, chopped walnuts and cinnamon. The recipe also has raisins in it but I omit them because hubby doesn't like them. Many years ago when my children were very young I use to make another version of this bread that was filled with apples, nuts, sugar and cinnamon. My children don't remember this bread ever being filled with apples but my nephew Robb (with two b's) who was probably seven or eight years old at the time does. When I began making it without the apples my clever nephew began referring to this bread as the Appleless Apple Coffee Cake and almost twenty years later he still does.


It is a delicious sweet bread that isn't terribly difficult to make. It takes a little more effort than just shaping into a loaf but in the end you are rewarded with a handsome yeasty coffee cake.













I bake them ahead of time and store them in the freezer and on Easter morning I drizzle them with a vanilla icing.

Happy Easter.


Yeastspotted.

Blooming Coffee Cake Rings


Makes 2 rings
Sweet-Roll Dough

2 pkg. dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cup milk, warmed
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
½ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
5¼ to 5-¾ cups all purpose flour

Note: If eggs are refrigerator cold, pour hot water over them and let stand for several minutes to warm before cracking.
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small cup or bowl, stir, and let stand for a minute of so to dissolve. Combine the milk, sugar, salt, butter, and eggs in a large mixing bowl, and beat well. Stir in the dissolved yeast. Add 2-1/2 cups of the flour, and beat until smooth and well blended. Add 2-1/2 cups more flour and beat until the dough holds together in a rough, shaggy mass. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Resume kneading for 8 to 10 minutes more, gradually sprinkling on a little more flour if the dough sticks to your hands, until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.

Punch the risen dough down, and it is ready to be formed and baked according to other recipes which call for Sweet-Roll Dough. You can also freeze the dough at this point, or store in the refrigerator for a few days in a tightly covered container.

Filling

½ cup sugar (100 gr.)
½ cup brown sugar (95 gr.)
1 tbsp. cinnamon (10 gr.)
1 cup chopped walnuts (110 gr.)
¼ cup melted butter
1 cup raisins
Boiling Water

Place the raisins in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them to cover, if using. In another bowl, combine the granulated and brown sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and nuts, mixing well.

Divide the dough in half. Roll one half on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 8 inches wide and 20 inches long. If the dough is difficult to roll and constantly springs back, let it rest for a few minutes, then continue rolling. Brush the surface of the dough with 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Sprinkle half the sugar-nut mixture evenly over the dough. Drain the raisins is using and pat them dry with paper towels. Sprinkle half the raisins over the dough. Gently press the filling into the dough with our fingers. Roll u the long way, to seal. Turn the dough so the seam is on the bottom. Form the dough into a circle by bringing the ends together, overlapping them lightly, and pressing firmly to seal. Roll out, fill, and shape the second coffee cake the same way. Grease one large or two smaller cookie sheets – if you have a sheet about 14 x 18 inches, you can fit both rings on one. Transfer the cakes to the baking sheet or sheets. With a pair of scissors, or sharp knife make twelve to fourteen deep cuts all around the outside of each ring. Turn each out slightly to expose the cross-section. Cover and let rise for about an hour, until puffy and swollen, but not quite double in bulk.

Bake in a preheated 375 F oven for 25 to 30 minutes (reversing the sheets form top to bottom and front to back if you are baking on both racks), until nicely browned. Remove from the oven and slide rings onto racks and cool completely.

To make the glaze: Combine the confectioners’ sugar and water, and mix until perfectly smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the warm cakes.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Buttery Chocolate Chip Cake

As soon as I saw this cake on Rose Levy Beranbaum's site today I promptly headed out to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients so that I could make it for dessert today. This is my kind of cake, easy to make, packed with flavour and studded with chocolate chips that would satisfy the chocoholics in my family. This delicious cake is the creation of Lisa Yockelson and it is a keeper.

The cake is made with butter, sugar, eggs, and egg yolk, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt and plenty of miniature chocolate chips and moistened with half and half which give the cake a lovely richness and tender crumb. The batter whips up beautifully and it is poured into a prepared bundt pan. After baking for one hour it has risen well over the top of the pan and is golden and ready. After ten minutes it is inverted onto a rack to cool.




It is sprinkled generously with icing sugar after it has completely cooled.


After dinner we all had a slice and it was devoured. It was given rave reviews by everyone and there is no doubt in my mind that this cake will be made again many times. It is the perfect snacking cake, the kind you serve with a good cup of coffee or a large cold glass of milk.


Buttery Chocolate Chip Cake

Lisa Yockelson


3 cups flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

2 1/3 cups miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs plus 1 extra yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup half-and-half

Confectioners' sugar (for sprinkling)


1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt to blend them.

3. In another bowl, toss the chips with 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture.

4. In an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the granulated sugar in 3 additions, beating 1 minute after each. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the extra yolk.

5. With the mixer set on low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions alternately with the half-and-half, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape down the bowl often with a rubber spatula.

6. Remove the bowl form the mixer stand. With a large spatula, stir in the chips.

7. Spoon the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake is clean when withdrawn, and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.

8. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto the rack to cool completely.

9. Dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar.