My favorite downright irresistible coffeecake...adapted from a recipe found in, "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion." This is the only recipe I've tried, over all the years, where the crumbs actually turn out big--huge, just like what you would get in the bakery. This recipe makes for a very sweet, crumbly cake that is incredibly moist and has a slight tang due to the sour cream. The big and plentiful crumb is very tasty having just a hint of almond flavor. The proportion of crumb to batter is gloriously indulgent. To highlight those crumbs, dust the top with a little confectioners' sugar after baking. I usually make this cake at night for breakfast the next day. I believe it benefits from having ample time to cool and sit. So, it is the perfect sweet breakfast treat to make in advance.
Light, fluffy, and utterly perfect, These Buttermilk Pancakes are wonderfully thick, have a light and spongy texture and flavor that only hints of the richness and tanginess that buttermilk offers. Buttermilk has a nice thick and creamy texture with a rich tangy buttery flavor that makes these pancakes so tender, fluffy, and soft.
These unusual chocolate chunk cookies are inside-out because they're chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks. My family just loves them. They're soft, moist, rich, filled with delicious dark cocoa, and studded with white chocolate chuncks. Once baked, they emerge from the oven soft, warm, and oozing in comfort...I'm forced to fend off drooling family member to allow these cookies to cool.
In Texas, no other comfort food reigns supreme more than chicken-fried steak, or as Texans affectionately call it CFS. Traditionally, this Texan delicacy is a cutlet of top-round beef that has been tenderized, pounded thin, battered and fried in a cast-iron skillet (much like fried chicken, hence the name), and served with cream gravy. In this recipe, to seal in the meat juices, I use a wet-dry-wet method of preparation. That is, the steak goes into a wet mix, then a dry mix, then back into the wet mix (method adapted from a recipe in The Threadgills Cookbook). The use of baking soda and baking powder with the buttermilk will make for a lightly crunchy exterior. This same basic method of preparation works equally well for frying chicken cutlets or center-cut, boneless pork chops.
This is the way I saw biscuits being made by my maternal grandma. She didnt mind getting her hands messy to make biscuits properly. And of course, she wouldn't be caught using any old cake pan. To make biscuits, you have to use a biscuit pan. Her biscuit pan was a special square cast iron skillet that was used for nothing else except biscuits. These are some great biscuits for breakfast or supper. They are best eaten warm, and their mild flavor tastes even better when spread with butter, jam or honey.
This is my Mother's scrumptious Old-fashioned Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Her simple and delicious recipe uses pineapple juice in the batter for great pineapple flavor. The cake is wonderfully dense, yet still moist, and has a crisp edge because it's made in an old-fashioned cast iron skillet. The heavy pan also keeps the butter from burning, and the handle makes it easy to flip the cake upside down when it is done. This classic childhood favorite is made even better when served warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
A cross between a cake and a pie...this flavorful, moist cake combines a fragrant cinnamon and vanilla-scented crust with a sugary cinnamon-vanilla custard and apple filling. The cake is easier to make than it sounds from the recipe -- it's actually fairly quick once you have your apples all peeled and sliced. Also, you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate until needed. This is a very good apple dessert, the sort of homey recipe that makes French home cooking so incomparable.
My maternal grandmother made an incredible southern pineapple upside-down cake. The cake was less sweet than the traditional old fashioned version and the recipe included stone-ground cornmeal which gave the cake an unusual and unique texture (closer to a sweet corbread or sweet polenta than to a traditional cake). Her cake was one of my father's favorite desserts (he was never a big fan of sweets) and my mother would make it for him often. Once both my mother and grandmother had pass away, the recipe was lost. We could not find a written copy of it anywhere. This recipe is adapted from a recipe belonging to my favorite Food Network culinary personality, Alton Brown. Alton's cake is the closest I've found to my grandmother's recipe. I believe the only differences being that my grandmother added a little of the canned pineapple juice to the cake batter and she sometimes (but not always) added some dark rum or brandy to both the pineapple glaze as well as the cake batter. She would also
This delicious coffee cake is another family "Southern" favorite that both my grandmother and mother used to make. Always a big hit when I was growing up, it's wonderful served warm, with coffee, in the morning or with milk as a bedtime snack at nite. A great coffee cake to serve to guests or family.