Mini Apple Cider Pound Cakes

I found this recipe in the September 2014 issue of Southern Living Magazine. Found is the correct word. I'd marked it, laid it aside and then stuff just sort of piled on top of it. I'm going through items trying to clear out and get rid of stuff and I found what looks like a wonderful recipe. So here it is.

Mini Apple Cider Pound Cakes

 

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup apple cider

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 (5 x 3 inch) disposable aluminum foil loaf pans

Vegetable cooking spray

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Stir together flour, apple pie spice, baking powder, salt and cloves. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with apple cider, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Lightly grease disposable loaf pans with cooking spray. Pour batter into prepared pans, and place on a baking sheet. For streusel-topped cakes, sprinkle about 2 tablespoons Streusel Topping over batter in each pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely (about 1 hour).

Makes 6 mini loaves.

Streusel Topping

 

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1/8 teaspoon table salt

Stir all ingredients together. Let stand 30 minutes or until firm. Crumble into small pieces.

Makes about 1 cup.

Pressure Cooker Chicken Breasts

I found this tip in the September 2014 issue of Women's Day magazine. It's from Trisha Yearwood, who has written a couple of cookbooks. Oh, and she's a fabulous singer too!

This recipe is for all of us who need cooked chicken and/or chicken broth quickly.

 

Pressure Cooker Chicken Breasts

You can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can also use bone-in cuts.

Season the chicken and place it in the pressure cooker. Completely cover it with water. Pressure cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow it to sit for another 15 minutes to let the pressure release.

Let cool completely and store in resealable plastic bags for up to a week.

Lazy Biscuits

This is another biscuit recipe from the May 2014 issue of Southern Living magazine. This is for all us folks who never seem to have enough time.

 

Lazy Biscuits

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cups chilled buttermilk
1/2  cup butter, melted
Parchment paper
1 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk together flour and sugar in a large bowl.

Stir together buttermilk and 1/2 cup melted butter in a small bowl. (Butter will clump.) Stir buttermilk mixture into flour mixture until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Drop dough by level scoops, 1 inch apart, onto a parchment paper-lined jelly-roll pan. (Use a 2-inch cookie scoop.)

Bake at 475 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter and serve.

Makes 14.

Our Favorite Buttermilk Biscuit

The May 2014 issue of Southern Living magazine included a wonderful section on homemade biscuits. My Grandmother made the best biscuits. She had a flour bowl and just kind of threw ingredients in, mixed it all up with her hand, shaped the dough and placed it in an old greased tin pan. They were so good!!! I wanted so badly to learn how to make them but she didn't know how to teach me. She'd done it for so long, it was instinct. It didn't work when she slowed down and thought about it.

 

I doubt any of these biscuits will come close to those my Grandmother used to make, but they're sure worth a try. I probably won't use the parchment paper but I'll follow the remainder of the directions.

Our Favorite Buttermilk Biscuit

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) frozen
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup chilled buttermilk
Parchment paper
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Grate frozen butter using large holes of a box grater. Toss together grated butter and flour in a medium bowl. Chill 10 minutes.

Make a well in center of mixture. Add buttermilk, and stir 15 times. Dough will be sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly sprinkle flour over top of dough. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Fold dough in half so short ends meet. Repeat rolling and folding process four more times.

Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch floured round cutter, reshaping scraps and flouring as needed.

Place dough rounds on a parchment paper-lined jelly-roll pan. Bake at 475 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter.

Makes 12 to 14 biscuits.

For Pillowy Dinner Rolls that are soft even when cool:
Cut in 1/2 cup cold shortening instead of cold butter.

For Crunchy bottom biscuits that are perfect with Sausage Gravy:
Warm a cast iron skillet in the oven and spread a bit of butter in the skillet before adding the biscuits.

Dixie Peanut Brittle

This recipe comes from the Alabama Peanut Producers Association. It was included in a newspaper insert a few years ago. I hope you enjoy making your very own Peanut Brittle.

 

Dixie Peanut Brittle

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
4 cups raw peanuts, skins on
2 teaspoon baking soda

In a heavy saucepan, heat sugar, syrup, water and salt to a rolling boil. Add peanuts. Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly. Cool until syrup spins a thread. Add butter, then baking soda. Beat rapidly and pour on a buttered surface, spreading to 1/4-inch thickness. When cool, break into pieces.

Chocolate Pound Cake

This recipe is from Kim Daisy and was published in People Magazine's special entertaining issue. She has a cookbook titled Daisey Cakes. It sounds wonderful. Can't wait to give it a try!

Chocolate Pound Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Icing (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan.

Beat butter and shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes, or until soft and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Pour batter into greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Do not open the oven door during baking. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on wire rack, about 1 hour.

Frost with Chocolate Frosting if desired.

Sugared Nuts

This recipe comes from the Alabama Peanut Producers Association. It was included in a newspaper insert. My Mother makes these and they are just really, really good.

Sugared Nuts

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups raw shelled peanuts (with skins on)

Dissolve sugar in water in saucepan over medium heat. Add peanuts and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cook until peanuts are completely sugared (coated and no syrup left). Pour onto ungreased cooked sheet, spreading so that peanuts are separated as much as possible.

Bake at 300 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, stirring at five minute intervals.