ClassiclyAmber » recipe

Happy Thanksgiving

classiclyamber — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:27:01 +0000

Herb-Roasted Turkey: recipe here

“Thanksgiving is a holiday of peace, a celebration of the simple life…a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year – and the deep, deep connection of all things with God.”- David Grayson

May you have a wonderful time of thanksgiving, cherishing these moments with the people you love most in this life~!

Molten Chocolate Babycakes

classiclyamber — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:15:27 +0000

Looking for something gourmet – yet EASY – to make for your sweetie this Valentine’s Day? I gotcha covered. You are seriously going to love everything about this dessert. It is so easy to whip up and tastes like a million dollars. Plus, who doesn’t love babycakes? Perfectly, smooth chocolate melting from the inside of the treat once you cut into it…every luscious bite scooped up with a heaping spoonful of freshly whipped cream…Mmmmm….

Molten Chocolate Babycakes

Serves 6 [but I easily tripled this recipe for the people in my life!]

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tins

1/3 cup granulated sugar [or Sucanat], plus more for dusting muffin tins

3 large fresh eggs

1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces best bittersweet chocolate, melted

Carton of whipping cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter 6 cups of a standard muffin tin. Dust with granulated sugar/sucanat, and tap out excess. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, beat in flour and salt until just combined. Beat in chocolate until just combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.

Place muffin tin on a baking sheet; bake just until tops of the cakes no longer jiggle when the pan is lightly shaken, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes.

To serve, turn out cakes upside down onto plates. Serve with fresh whipped cream, if desired, and it definitely is. [To make freshly whipped cream, simply pour in a carton of whipping cream into your mixer's bowl, and turn on a med-low speed. As you whip air into it, it starts to get fluffy. If you wish, put in a little bit of sugar or sucanat...and a few drops of pure vanilla extract. Keep mixing until there are soft peaks. Takes just a few minutes and is way better than that Cool Whip nonsense.]

This is GOOD, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not good enough.

Okay, NOW we are getting somewhere. See that melted chocolate oozing out?

Now THIS is Heaven on Earth. Served with that freshly whipped cream? Oh MY.

These bake up in about 8 minutes for me, and they do need to set up for 10 minutes before you remove them from the muffin tins. Otherwise, they will be too soft and gooey to plop out. However, that is not long at all to wait and is definitely worth it. Your honey bunches will love you all the more for giving them such a treat!

Tell me how you love it! And Happy Valentine’s Day to all you sweethearts out there! <3

All Naturally Sweet ‘n Moist Dark Brownies [+winners!]

classiclyamber — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:39:25 +0000

People, this is a keeper! And you’ll be amazed to find out that they have no processed sugar in them, but are totally delicious.

1 stick [1/2 cup] unsalted butter
1.5 cups cocoa powder [we love to use dark for this!]
1.5 cups pure maple syrup
2/3 cup expeller pressed canola oil
4 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Butter your pan. I use a smaller glass casserole-type dish that is about 9″ x 6″. However, it’s deeper than your average dish. So if you use a 13″ x 9″, be prepared for thinner brownies.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

What I like about this recipe, too, is that we make it all on the stove top, so you’re not dirtying up 500 extra dishes for mixing. Everything goes into this one pan, step by step.

In a medium-sized skillet on the stove top, melt your butter on low. Then incorporate the cocoa powder. When you get to this point, it will smell soooo divine but it will honestly look like crap. If your hubby were to suddenly walk in at this point, he might question your kitchen skillz. It looks like this pasty mass of blackness. YUH, not too delectable. Anyhoo, just keep doing your thing and know that they will come out on top in the end. Kill the heat.

Next, add in your maple syrup, canola oil and vanilla. Mix.

If your eggs are still in one piece [mine just barely made it in time thanks to Gianna's curiosity], add them in – one at a time – and mix pretty durn skippy after each one. By now, you should see the mixture starting to come together nicely. It actually looks like a batter!

Finally, add in your flour and salt, and mix just until there are no huge chunks of flour and all the white is gone. At this point, you can taste the batter [if you are into that raw egg sorta thing and if you trust your chickens] and see if it’s sweet enough for your liking. If not, simply add more maple syrup…a little at a time until it’s perfect for your family. Our family loves it by my recipe here. Do what works for you, though.

Pour it all into your pan and then pop it in the preheated oven for approx. 40 minutes. This takes a lil’ while, but will fill your entire home with the most delicious scents. Oh. My. Goodness. While you’re waiting, get out the rubber spatula and start scraping at that batter leftover in the bowl. You didn’t seriously think that I was going to recommend not eating that, did you?!? Naw, girlfriend! Go to town! Oh, and wipe your mouth, quick-like.

So you know the drill: you’ll know the brownies are done when a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes back out clean. Let it cool for just a bit…and either cut it into 12 tee-niny pieces [perfect for your frail, dieting friends], or 9 average sized pieces, or 4 huge-a-MONGO sized pieces [perfect for those late night gorge-fest sessions after all the kiddies are in bed! what? you don't do that, too?? oh, stop being so modest!!].

These lovelies are DARK! Yes, dark chocolate is a love of mine. How ’bout you? [They were also hard to photograph because of that!]

Serve ‘em up and chow down – all too happy that you successfully baked a sweet chocolatie dessert with zero processed sugar in it. It’s proof that it can be done!

In cased you missed it live online, the winners of the Lisa Leonard Jewelry were announced on Twitter! Scroll down to recap that info:

3rd prize [$25 gift certificate to Lisa's shop!] goes to:

Angie!!

I’m happy that you get to get that necklace! It’ll be cute!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Next, 2nd prize [Heartstrings necklace] goes to:

Andrea!!

Wow! Just what ya wanted!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Finally, the grand 1st place prize [Family Crest Necklace] is given to:

Very Married!!

Yep, I’m chuckling over this because she was one of the folks who chimed in with how she never wins anything! Looks like you were PERFECT for this giveaway, friend!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Congrats to all the winners! [Please contact me so I can hook you up with your prizes!] And if you didn’t win, don’t worry ‘cuz I never win anything, either! Why do you think I gave this that title? But seriously, I plan on having more awesome giveaways in the future, so keep trying and you will surely get yours one day.

Award Winning Cheesy Baked Potatoes

classiclyamber — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:32:16 +0000

The title makes ya think this is going to be something pretty fabulous, and the good news is that it’s totally true!

I entered this into a local bakeoff a couple of years ago and these potatoes won 1st place in the side dish category. You’re about to find out why!

For this recipe, you’ll need:

1/2 cup butter
5 lbs. red potatoes
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded and divided
1/2 cup milk
1.5 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tbsp. green onions, chopped
1.5 tsp. salt
1.5 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. paprika
6-8 slices turkey bacon

Rinse off the potatoes and quickly quarter them. Then they all get tossed in a big pot, covered with water and boiled lightly. Don’t boil ‘em to death, please. Once the water gets to rollin’ in these potatoes, they will cook a lot quicker than you’d think, so keep a close eye on them. You will know they are done when they are juuuust fork tender. Also, if you’re wanting to make this for a big upcoming dinner, then you can boil the potatoes ahead and time to save yourself a little bit of time there.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use at least a 13×9 in. casserole dish for this, but one that’s a little bigger than that works really well. Lightly grease it with olive oil [we are primitive folks and just use our hands].

While your potatoes are heating up, melt your stick of butter in a small pot. In another pan, fry up the turkey bacon until each piece is nice ‘n crunchy.

You can now start shredding up all of your cheeses. Put them all in the same bowl, but save 1/4 cup of your Parmesan cheese to get sprinkled on the top of your dish before it goes into the oven. Now is also the time to mince your garlic and chop up the green onions and put it into the cheese bowl. Next add in the milk, salt, pepper and paprika. Mix. Try not to eat too much of the cheese.

When your potatoes are just fork tender, drain them and pour in your melted butter. Mix. Next add in the big cheese mixture and mix again. Pour the whole thing into your greased casserole dish and top with the reserved 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Crumble your cooked bacon pieces and sprinkle over the top of the potatoes. Can you stand it? Of course not! And I’m not gonna judge you for that.

Into the oven goes the dish and bakes at 350 for about half an hour.

We ate this last night and served it up with some wild Alaskan salmon steaks that were of uber tastosity! The meal would be total perfection with a crisp salad, too. Try it!

P.S. Not pictured: Green Onions

Why? We actually didn’t have any when we made this, but please don’t forget ‘em when you make them! It really adds a lot of yummy to the dish!

Sights of Christmas ’09

classiclyamber — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:09:16 +0000

We had a good Christmas day here at the homestead. Outside was frightful, but inside was delightful. Our family spent time together and chowed down on homemade cinnamon rolls. Recipe at the end!

Hope you all had a blessed and merry Christmas!

Score! A new friend read about my fresh ground cinnamon and decided to give me this cute little jar to store it in. Love it!! Thanks, Susan! =-D

So have you tried making homemade cinnamon rolls before? They are uber tasty! But um…they also take about 2 years to make one batch! Maybe not quite THAT long, but too long for this impatient momma. I made one of Martha Stewart’s recipes…and I kid you not – I felt like I was never going to get done with those. They ended up being the absolute best tasting cinnamon rolls I’ve ever eaten (and I’ve had much!)…but because I was so worn out from all the work it took to make them, I felt as though I couldn’t enjoy them as much. I’ve always thought – “Why can’t I just find a recipe where you simply make the dough, roll it out, sprinkle on the goods and bake it? Why is that so difficult?” I ended up changing one around to suit my tastes and am sharing it with you. You still might look at these and think that they take too long – but after what I’ve been through with gourmet cinnamon rolls, I can assure you that these go by fairly quick. In fact, I can see myself making these more than just one morning in a whole year because they are tasty and mostly easy to make.

Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

1.5 tbsp. active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1/3 cup Sucanat (evaporated cane juice) or organic sugar

5.5 tbsp. softened unsalted butter + 2 tbsp. softened unsalted butter

1 tsp. sea salt

1 fresh large egg

3.5 cups all purpose unbleached flour

All right, so you’ve seen me make pizza dough before – and just think of this as very similar to that. To make your dough for the cinnamon rolls, get a large bowl – dump in your warm water and then your yeast on that. Let it dissolve (get a lil bubbly)…then add in your milk, Sucanat, 5.5 tbsp. of the softened butter, the egg – and just 2 cups of the flour. Mix it all up really well. Next, add in the remaining part of your flour. You’ll notice that this part will take a little more work to get all of that flour incorporated, but you can do it. I believe in you!

Sprinkle a little flour on your countertop and turn out the dough, kneading until smooth and elastic. In the same bowl you mixed in, just drizzle some light olive oil in there and rub it all over the inside of the bowl to grease it. Put in your ball of dough and then turn it over with the greased side up. Cover it with a flour sack towel and let it rise. At this point, I actually only let mine rise for about 25 minutes…but if you want your dough to be more light, then allow it to rise until it’s doubled in size, which will take 1-2 hours.

After it’s risen some (25 minutes min.), pull it out and roll it onto a lightly floured surface. You really don’t have to get picky with measurements here, but I think it’s neatest to roll it into a rectangle shape. I think when I rolled mine out – it was about 14 in. by 20 in. But try it however you want! Once it’s rolled out how you like it, then rub the remaining 2 tbsp. of softened butter all over the dough. On top of that, sprinkle an even layer of Sucanat. And on top of THAT, sprinkle an even layer of freshly ground cinnamon.

The whole thing gets rolled up long ways…then cut off 1 inch pieces and place in a large glass baking dish. If you want to get picky, then let these rise AGAIN – or just be like me and skip that part, popping them straight into your preheated oven (350 degrees). Cook them for 20-25 minutes. Check them at 20 because they might be totally done at that point.

When they are done, they should be cooked all the way through (no doughy centers!) and golden brown on the bottoms.

Serve up smiles to your family!

**Have you entered the Win-Win Giveaway here on the blog yet? There’s only one day left to enter. Click the graphic at the top-right side of this page to see the details! And check back here to see if you’ve won!**

Make Your Own Peanut Butter~!

classiclyamber — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:34:40 +0000

You know what I did? I took a risk and ordered 25 pounds of raw Spanish peanuts from our health food co-op! I say that it was risky because I had only ever made homemade peanut butter just ONE TIME before making the big order…and so I wasn’t quite sure if our family was going to be on board with that type of peanut butter…and that MUCH of it. In the end, I decided that it would be the healthier, more frugal option for our family’s peanut buttery needs, so I went for it. We discovered that it was fun to make and quite tasty, too!

Yes, there is a learning curve for your palate because it is different than your regular old store-bought PB – but in a great way! If you’re used to ultra velvety-smooth peanut butter, then you will probably want to do some extra steps at the tail-end of this recipe to get it going that way. I choose to skip that sorta thing because we appreciate a slightly chunky texture.

Now – if you aren’t on board with a local health food co-op, and you would LIKE to be, then try contacting the friendly folks at Something Better Natural Foods. You can call or email them and ask if there are any health food co-ops in your area that you can join. If you aren’t in a co-op and just want to get your hands on some peanuts, then simply check your grocery store and see if they have raw peanuts. If not, then you may be able to ask for a special order of them and return later in the week to pick up ‘n purchase. Since you are making peanut butter out of these, then try to get Spanish peanuts because they have a higher oil content.

Homemade Peanut Butter

2 cups raw peanuts

6-8 tbsp. water

4 tbsp. raw honey

3 tbsp. peanut oil

salt

Preheat your oven to the standard 350 degrees.

Scoop out 2 cups of raw peanuts…

…and pan ‘em.

I double this recipe for our family because that’s how fast we go through it, but feel free to make as much as you like! Sprinkle salt to taste!

Roast the peanuts for 15-20 minutes. Keep a good eye on them – and sometimes shake the pans while they are still in the oven to ensure even roasting. When they are done, they will be a beautiful deep reddish-brown color. And they will smell divine~!

This next part deals with the papery skins. Do ya leave ‘em on or off? It’s a personal decision. At first, I thought I’d want to remove them. So I tried a few methods:

The first was to pour the warm peanuts onto a flour sack towel and then roll them around with my son’s hand (he was doing this – not me!).

We did this several times and it removed some of the skins.

Next, we tried dumping them into a salad spinner and giving it a go.

That removed a LOT of the skins!

So I just wanted to note that you do not HAVE to remove the skins if you like chunky peanut butter! With all the whirling that you’re about to do in the food processor, the skins get chunked right along with everything else and you honestly don’t notice them after the fact. I haven’t tried making a super smooth peanut butter yet…but am thinking that you’d want less skins involved with that option, but I could be wrong. Try it and see!

See my retro fabulous food processor? My mother-in-law gave it to me back when hubby and I first married. (We are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary in December!) She was getting a new one and I was just learning to cook, so she offered to let me have this one in my new kitchen adventures. It has worked really well! Anyway, chunk all of your peanuts in, and then the fun part: add in all the rest of your ingredients and watch as the machine whips up peanut butter right before your very eyes!

Yes, yes! You, too, can be a success in the kitchen!

At this point, please taste your peanut butter to see if it still needs anything – salt, honey, oil, chicken butt – and then add in just a little at a time. Remember kids: you can always add more, but you can NOT take away!

Mmmmmmercy gracious! Once the PB is to the consistency of your liking, spoon it into a mason jar with a tight fitting lid – no…no? Wait. What’chur gonna wanna do next is stick your finger in the bowl and pop that bad boy in your mouth for some supa tasty YUMS! Now – if there’s anything left…make yourself a sandwich…or peanut butter crackers with some apple slices sprinkled with fresh cinnamon…or make yourself a peanut butter chocolate cake…I could keep going here.

After all of that, if you STILL have some peanut butter left, then you can plop it in a jar and stick it in the fridge. It must go in the fridge or it will get yucky on ya, so don’t forget!

Do write back and let me know how your peanut butter turns out!