My Mother's Cornbread

My son needs my cornbread recipe and it is really my mother's recipe. I have no idea where it came from, but it is what we have always had in our house. It is good and it is easy. Can't ask for more than that.

Cornbread
1 cup corn meal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
Sift the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter. Lightly beat the milk and egg together and then stir into the dry ingredients until they are just mixed. Do not stir anymore than that. Bake in a buttered 8" square pan in a 425 º oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
I always make corn bread in my food processor. I dump in the dry ingredients, process, add butter, process, add liquids, barely process, and voila, the cornbread batter is ready to go into the pan.

Tuscan Bean Soup

I found this recipe in Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Vegetables and tweaked it a bit. It is a great hearty soup that makes enough to easily feed 8. The original recipe called for farro but the first time I made it, when I pulled the bag I had out of the cupboard bugs had been snacking on it. So I threw it away and instead I used a similar but smaller ancient form of wheat from France called petit épeautre. Petit épeautre is often called by its German name, einkorn and is sold under that name by the brand Jovial. Over time I have found that I prefer it to farro in this soup. The orginal recipe also called for red pepper flakes, I use piment d'Espelette instead. Piment d'Espelette is a mildly spicy red pepper from the Basque area of France. I think kale would be very good in this and it would also add a color contrast. I have increased the volume of vegetables from the original recipe.

Tuscan Bean Soup
2 cups dried beans of your choice, I like white beans
1large onion, diced
2 large leaks, just the white part, sliced
1 large carrot diced
4 cloves garlic diced
1/4 cup olive oil
5 small tomatoes, peeled and diced, canned if you are making this out of tomato season
a couple of sprigs of thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp piment d'Espelette (you may use red pepper flakes to taste instead)
2 or 3 slices of good smoked bacon
6 cups chicken stock
grated parmesan cheese to pass at the table.

1 cup petit épeautre (also called einkorn) or farro
salted water

Soak the beans overnight.  Cook all the vegetables except the tomato in the olive oil in a large nonreactive pot over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until they are translucent. Drain the beans and add them to the pot along with the tomatoes, bacon, piment d'Espelette, thyme, oregano, and bay leaf and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock, bring the soup to a boil and then lower the heat until the soup simmers. Cover leaving the lid ajar, stirring from time to time. When the beans are almost cooked, after about an hour, add the salt. Cook for another 15 minutes.
If you like you can cook the bacon until crisp, remove it from the pan, and then cook the vegetables in the bacon fat. The bacon can then be added to the soup just before serving.
While the soup is cooking, cook the petite épeautre or farro in a second pot in salted water that covers it by a couple of inches. I use 1/2 tsp salt in the water. When the grains are cooked, after about 40 or 45 minutes, drain them. they should be a little al dente, not mushy. When the beans are cooked, stir in the grain and simmer for another 10 minutes. I serve the soup with grated parmesan.

Apple Clafouti

This is a wonderful cool weather dessert. Other than the time it takes to peel and cut up the apples, it is fast and easy. The recipe is a variation on one from Saveur magazine. It is best served warm with sweetened whipped cream.  Makes 8 servings.

Apple Clafouti

For the Batter:

3 eggs

1 cup milk or cream

8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

For the Apples:
4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 large or 5 medium tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp bourbon
Topping
2 tsp sugar
ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400º
Melt the 4 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apples, 1/2 cup sugar, and the bourbon and cook until the apples are glazed and warm, and the juice is syrupy.

Butter a deep 9" pie dish with 2 tbsp of butter and put the pie dish in the oven to warm. Put the milk or cream, eggs, 6 tbsp melted and cooled butter, vanilla, flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt into a blender and blend until smooth. Remove the pie dish from the oven and pour in half the batter. Add the warm apple slices, separated from the juices which should be reserved, distributing them evenly, then pour the remaining batter over the apples. Sprinkle the 2 tsp of  sugar and a little cinnamon over the batter and bake until the clafouti is golden and set in the center, 25-30 minutes. Drizzle with the reserved apple juices.

German's Sweet Chocolate Cake

This is the cake that Len requests every year for his birthday. The card that my mother found with the Baker's chocolate bar and gave me many, many years ago is starting to fall apart so I am adding it to my blog.
This recipe is straight from Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate, no changes at all.

Update for a better cake: The last time I made this cake I used Guittard 64% chocolate and the cake was much better.

German's Sweet Chocolate Cake
1 package German's sweet chocolate, 4 ounces
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks, unbeaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
4 egg whites, stiffly beaten
Butter 3 8" cake pans and line with baking parchment. Preheat oven to 350º. Melt chocolate in 1/2 cup of boiling wate. Cool. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each. Add vanilla and melted chocolate and mix until blended. Sift flour with soda and salt.  Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour batter into pans and bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and then frost with the filling that follows below.

Coconut and Nut Filling and Frosting
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sweetened, flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, my mother always used walnuts but the recipe called for pecans
Combine milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and vanilla in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Add coconut and nuts. Beat until cool and of spreading consistency. Makes 2 1//2 cups, or enough to cover tops of 3 8" layers.

Chicken Paprika

I just spent a wonderful 2 days with the friend whom I have known the longest. We met in fifth grade and I have had fantastic experiences with her. Food has always been an important part of our time together. Her mother cooked great things for us and a favorite was chicken paprika. Unfortunately her mother did not give her the recipe, but Ilse did give it to my mother. It is still a favorite of mine and it is very easy.

Ilse Steinberger's Chicken Paprika
1 chicken, about 4 lbs., cut in serving pieces
4 tbsp butter (or less if the chicken is fat)
1 large or 2 small onions, chopped
1 tbsp or more paprika (imported rose, not hot)
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream
salt
Brown the chicken in butter. Salt to taste. Add onion and cook until translucent. Sprinkle with paprika and add water. Do not brown the paprika. Cover and cook until tender, about 1 hour. Remove the chicken from the pan. Thicken the gravy with flour. Add sour cream and heat, but do not boil. Pour the gravy over the chicken. Serve with spaetzle.

Molasses Crinkles

I promised this recipe to Cindy M. This was a favorite recipe of my mother's. I don't know where it came from. I have tweaked it a bit.

Molasses Crinkles
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cup unsifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 cup white sugar
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer, longer with a hand mixer. Add egg and then molasses. Whisk all dry ingredients, except white sugar, together in a bowl and then add. Chill several hours or overnight. Shape into balls the size of walnuts, dip into white sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 375° for 11 to 12 minutes.

My New and Improved Pumpkin Pie

When it came time to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving this year I decided that the time had come to improve on my mother's recipe that I had been using for years. I don't like using evaporated milk like she always did and I wanted to up the spice a bit. I ended up combining recipes from Cooks Illustrated Magazine's cookbook and the Simply Recipes Blog, plus a bit of variation of my own.

Pumpkin Pie

single pie crust, partially baked if you like

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 cups pumpkin puree (16 oz)

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat the eggs in another bowl. Stir in the cream to the eggs and then the pumpkin. Stir in the dry ingredients. Pour filling into crust and bake in a preheated oven at 400º 45 to 50 minutes, until the filling is set 2" from edge. The center should still be wobbly. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. The center will finish cooking as the pie sits.