Granola

I remember back in the 70's (ok, I'm showing my age) when Granola became the "thing to eat"!! Euell Gibbons was asking people if they had ever eaten a Pine Tree and granola was becoming the rage!!

Granola is one of those foods to take along with you to munch on when you're hungry. You can keep a stash in the car for those long car rides or just to munch on when your on your way home from work when you just need a little something to tide you over until dinner.

I'll let you in on a secret.......

It's really easy to make!! You'll have a batch ready in no time. Ready for your munching pleasure.

I made this batch for my friend Jonathan at work. He's having issues with his cholesterol and so I made  this recipe for him to munch on and hopefully to help with getting his cholesterol in check. Oats are good for your cholesterol.

As far as the cafe, we couldn't keep enough of this on our shelves. You see there was a gym up the street from the cafe and the morning ladies wanted a place to relax after their workouts. So they would come to the cafe and munch on the granola and talk about life over a cup of coffee. Granola and coffee, life was good.......

Teri

Notes: You can use any kind of nut you like. I used sliced almonds in mine, but walnuts or pecans or even peanuts would be good.

You can also use any kind of dried fruit you want. You can use just one type, or you can add a mixture of several kinds of fruit.

Granola is great on yogurt, ice cream, as a topping for a coffee cake or just to be eaten by itself. I enjoy it with yogurt!!

Granola

3/4 cup oil (I use canola, I would stay away from vegetable oil)
1/2 cup honey
1 cup brown sugar
1 tblsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
8 cups of old fashioned oats
1/2 cup sweet coconut
1 cup almonds (I used sliced, but you can use any kind of nut you prefer)
1 cup craisins (I used craisins, but you can use any type of dried fruit you prefer)

Heat oven to 325 degrees

In a small saucepan on top of stove, mix oil, sugar, vanilla, honey and salt together and heat until sugar is melted. About 5 minutes

 

Combine oats, almonds and coconut in a large bowl. Once mixture above is ready, pour over oats and stir to cover.

 

 

 

 

Prepare two cookie sheets with either parchment paper, foil or some kind of lining. I use my silicone mats. Divvy up the granola between the two pans and spread it out.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Take pans out and stir the granola and spread back out. Put pans back in oven for 15 more minutes. Take pans out. If the granola is a golden brown, it's ready. If it's not, then back it for a few more minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool. Add craisins.

Store in an air tight container. Will keep for 6 weeks.

Enjoy!

Chocolate, Peanut butter, Rice Krispy Treats

aka Rice Krispy Treats on steroids!

Who doesn't love Rice Krispy Treats? It's one of those treats that can take you back to your childhood in a split second. It's summer time and mom doesn't want to bake and make the kitchen hot, so she makes these wonderful treats.

My mom used to make a version that had butterscotch chips in them with chocolate on them. They were called "Scotcharoos" or something like that. The version that I make is a combination of the two. These have that same butterscotch flavor, but they also have peanut butter mixed in. aka Rice Krispy Treats on steroids!!

We used to make these in the cafe and officer Dan would come by everyday and buy two of them. One for him and one for his kids to share. I'm thinking most days that second one never made it home.

Teri

Note:
The trick to pressing down the Rice Krispy part with out making a huge mess is to wet your hands and then press down. The mixture will not stick to your hands!!

Chocolate, Peanut butter, Rice Krispy Treats

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of corn syrup
1 cup of peanut butter
6 cups of Rice cereal

 

Frosting

1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup of butterscotch chips
                  

Directions:

Heat the sugar and corn syrup until it comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter.



 Stir in the Rice Krispies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press the mixture into the13 x 9 pan lined with foil and sprayed with pam. (I use a butter flavor spray) 

 

 

 

 

Frosting:

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together; stir once they are melted. I melt them in the microwave, but you can use the double boiler method for melting. Spread on the bars immediately.

 

 

 

Chill in the refrigerator until set. Cut bars and serve.

 

Enjoy!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Happy post Cinco de Mayo!!!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I'm sharing with you the cafes Friday soup. We made our soups home made everyday. Not only is soup fairly easy to make, but there is nothing like a home made soup to warm the soul on a rainy, dreary Sunday afternoon.

I found this recipe in a cook book I bought when I took my trip to San Antonio. We took a day trip to Fredericksburg, TX which is a cute little touristy town filled with wonderful shops and restaurants.

My friends and are were walking around town and walked by a bakery. I had a taste for cookies (something I can never pass up) So we walked up to the door. But at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon they were closed with a sign on the door that read "all sold out". So not giving it much thought, we kept wandered on our way. One of the shops we went to was a quaint little book store where I found this cookbook that the woman who owns the bake shop wrote. The girl that was helping me told me that her Fruit Empanadas recipe was alone worth the book.

Fruit Empanadas? Sold out sign? I had to have this cookbook; so, I bought it!

Now I'm one of those strange people that LOVE to read cookbooks. So guess what I read on my flight home? (OK that was probably an easy one) Her book had all these wonderful recipes and we tried many of her recipes at the cafe. As a mater of fact, my book is all torn up and food stained on most of the recipes we used!

I should buy a new one. But what a wonderful thing to pass down to my daughter or granddaughter. An old stained, highly used cook book!!

This soup would be a wonderful addition to any ones repertoire. Happy Seis de Mayo! empanadas

Teri

Ingredients

 

2 tbls. olive oil
1 medium onion diced
1 red bell pepper diced
6 garlic gloves diced
2 cups of corn
1 tbls minced chipotle pepper in adobe sauce (1 pepper)
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
3 medium sized chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 can diced tomatoes
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook and shred chicken.

 

 

In an 8 quart pan, (I used my dutch oven) heat olive oil. Add onions, garlic and red pepper to oil. Saute until onions are translucent. Add cumin, chili powder and chipotle puree to pan and stir.

 

 

 

Add diced tomatoes and corn and stir; add chicken broth. Stir all ingredients together. Add shredded chicken and cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

 

Serve in bowls and garnish with tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!!
 

Outrageous Brownies

Need I say more? Doesn't the title just say it all?

This Brownie recipe is an Ina Garten recipe. (of course...the food network) I saw her make them on her show once and decided to give them a go.

I have to warn you, they are expensive to make, but they are sooooo worth it!!! This is one of my favorite brownie recipes. They are very rich and fudgey, everything you want in a brownie.

My friend Keith that I work with had a death in the family, so I made these brownies for him.

Chocolate = comfort, comfort = love, love = brownies. See how I did that? Brownies love me and I love brownies!! It's a mutual thing. :-)

We made these brownies a couple of times at the cafe, but everyone was so used to our other brownie recipe that these ended up going by the wayside most of the time. What a shame. Because trust me, once you try these, you will love them. And based on my math above, the brownies will love you back.

Teri

Notes:  Like most things made with chocolate where the chocolate flavor shines, the better the chocolate, the better the taste. I use Ghirardelli Chocolate because I think it has a great taste. You can use Scharffen Berger Chocolate, but you really don't need to go to that expense.

I also didn't add a complete pound of chocolate to the butter and unsweetened chocolate that gets melted. I only added 12 oz. I don't think that the 4 oz that's missing made a huge difference.

You can add a different nut if you like other than walnuts. I believe walnuts go with brownies, but if you believe a different nut does, by all means, use it. Or if you have an allergy to nuts or don't like them, leave them out!! Either way is good.

These can be frozen. I like to freeze them and take them out when I need a chocolate kick. They are just as good as the day I made them. I've frozen them for up to a month, but only because they never last further than that!

You can also warm these up and serve them with some Vanilla Ice cream. That will take them from outrageous to over the top!!!

Outrageous Brownies



1 pound unsalted butter

1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

6 extra-large eggs

3 tablespoons instant coffee granules

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl in the microwave. I started at 1 minute with just the unsweetened chocolate because it takes longer to melt. Then added the butter and chocolate chips and microwaved for 2 minutes in 1 minute increments; stirring after each minute. You might need to microwave longer if not fully melted. But all should be smooth and melted. If you don't want to microwave you can put all in a double boiler and melt mixture that way.

 

 

 

 

In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the flour mixture.

Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter.  This helps to keep the chocolate chips and walnuts from sinking to the bottom.

 

Pour into the baking sheet.

 

 Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake!

Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into squares.

The first time I made this, I didn't refrigerate the brownies before I cut them. Trust me you have to. Otherwise you will have nothing but crumbs on your hands!! I think it has something to do with all the butter that's in them.

Enjoy!!

Pecan Sticky Buns

Tracie came for another visit and guess what we made?

Ok, so my title and this picture gave it away. As promised, we made sticky buns!!





When I first opened the cafe, we used to make them a different way. Instead of making the Goo, we mixed butter, brown sugar and pecans together and then put that mixture into muffin pans and then put the pecan roll on top of that and baked them that way.

As I have mentioned previously, I have this penchant for the Food Network and I love Bobby Flay. He has a show called Bobby Flay's throw down. It's where he competes against someone who is the best at what they make and then asks them to a throw down where he tries to out beat the thing they are known for. He'll add a twist to make the recipe his own to see if he can win against the other person. I love it!!

One time I was watching it and saw him do a throw down against a woman in Boston that had a bakery and was known for her sticky buns. I wasn't real fond of the way we made them, so I came in to work the next day and proclaimed to Tracie that we are changing our recipe!!!

Do you know how hard it is to get Tracie to change her ways? She can attest, we fought for weeks on this one. But being the owner, I won out!!

I love them this way. Tracie likes them the old way. I know our customers loved them this way. But I also know some of our customers liked them the old way. This is still a winner either way!!

So Gail, without much ado, here is our recipe for sticky buns.

Teri
p.s. Tracie hated it when I watched the food network. :-)

Notes: We used to make this in glass baking dishes. You might notice my batch wouldn't fit in one pan so I had to use two. One was glass and the other was metal. The glass batch actually turned out better. So if you make this and have a 9 x 13 glass pan, make these in it. They should all fit.

You could add raisins to the roll part if you like. You could probably use chopped apples, craizins or any other type of fruit (dried or fresh) you like. I'm sure it would all be good!

You can make the roll ahead of time (we used to) and freeze the roll. Freeze them at the point after you cut them. Just let them come to room temperature and rise with the goo before you bake them.

 Roll recipe

1/2 cup luke warm milk
1/2 ounce active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs room temp.
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour
4 tbls butter

 

Goo recipe:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 170 grams, 6 ounces) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups (345 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup (110 grams) honey

1/3 cup (80 grams) heavy cream

1/3 cup (80 grams) water

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

 

First, make the goo. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, to combine (it may look separated, that's ok).

Remove from the heat and whisk in the honey, cream, water, and salt. Strain to remove any undissolved lumps of brown sugar. Let cool for about 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature. You should have about 3 cups. (The mixture can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)

 

While the above is cooling -

 

Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat or in a microwave until an instant-read thermometer registers 110°–115°. Transfer milk to a 2-cup measuring cup; stir in 1 Tbsp. sugar. Sprinkle yeast over milk and whisk to blend. Let sit until yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs; whisk until smooth. Combine remaining sugar, flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add milk mixture. With mixer running, add  4 tbls room-temperature butter, 1 piece at a time, blending well between additions. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Knead on medium-high speed until dough is soft and silky, about 5 minutes.

 

If you don't have a stand mixer, fit your food processor with the standard chopping or dough blade. Combine remaining 4 Tbsp. sugar, flour, and salt in food processor. Pulse to blend. Add milk mixture; process until combined. With processor running, add 1/2 cup room-temperature butter, 1 piece at a time, blending well between additions. Process until dough is soft and silky, 2–3 minutes longer. Dough will be sticky but should not be greasy. If it is greasy, process for an additional 1–2 minutes.

 

Brush a medium bowl with some melted butter; place dough in bowl. Brush top of dough with remaining melted butter; cover with plastic wrap. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic; chill.

 

 

Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in size, 1–1 1/2 hours (or 2–2 1/2 hours if dough has been refrigerated).

 

Also a quick way to proof your dough. Set your oven to the lowest temp. Mine will go down to 125. Place covered dough in oven for about 15 - 20 minutes and dough should be doubled in size. (Keep a close eye on your dough if you are going this route.)

 

To put together -

Roll dough out on floured surface to a rectangle aproximately 12x16. (if you don't have a rolling pin a wine bottle works just as well!!)  ;-)

 

With longer edge facing you spread 4 tbls. of room temp. butter over dough. Mix 1/2 cup of white sugar with 1 tbls of cinnamon and spread over dough. Sprinkle 3/4 cups of chopped pecans over dough.

 

 

 

Beginning with the long edge closest to you, roll dough into a log, tightening as you roll, and patting in ends if they begin to taper. Pinch together the seam where the long side meets the roll to seal. Arrange the log seam side down on the work surface.

 

Using a large knife, cut the log crosswise into equal pieces. (we got 13 1 inch slices) Lightly flour the knife between slices if the dough is too sticky.

 

Pour goo into lightly buttered pans. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup of pecans (whole or chopped, what ever your preference is.

Turn the buns cut side up and gently pat the top to flatten slightly. If needed, reshape to form round edges by cupping lightly floured hands around each bun and gently pushing and turning them in a circular motion.

 

Place the buns in prepared pan; space them evenly apart (buns should not touch each other). Cover with tea towel and let rise until almost double.

 

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake, rotating pan halfway through until buns are golden brown, and filling is bubbling.

 

Take out of oven and let sit for about 5 minutes. Then place platter over pan and turn over and serve.

 

 

These are best warm. They are also good the next day warmed up in the microwave or room temp.

 

Enjoy!