Baked Tofu with Celery and Pickled Radish

This is a multi-part recipe. The first stage is to marinate then bake the firm tofu to replicate the taste/texture of Trader Joe's pre-packaged baked tofu. The reason for doing this is that Trader Joe's marinade has onions in it and we all know from reading this blog that onions are the spawn of hell. Eventually, I'll find a recipe that allows me to make the pickled daikon radish that's used in this dish. I've done this with firm, medium firm, and extra firm tofu, the latter of which works well. I'll still "press" the extra firm tofu to drain the excess water from the tofu. If you have ever purchased pre-packaged baked tofu, you'll note that it is supremely dense. Also, Trader Joe's tofu is $3.69 for 7 oz and a standard 16 oz package of "fresh" organic tofu from the supermarket costs around $2. 

The Foodening Blog: Baked Tofu with Celery and Pickled Radish

Baked Tofu

Tofu marinade:

3 tbsp tamari (wheat-free) soy sauce
3 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp raw honey
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tbsp filtered water
1/2 tsp sea salt
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp celery salt
1 block organic tofu, extra firm

Press. Before marinading the tofu, put the tofu on a clean plate and place a plate on top of the tofu. Put a heavy object (a bottle filled with water) on the top plate. Let it "press" out the excess water for a half hour. There will be more water exuded from medium firm tofu than from extra firm tofu. Discard this water.

Marinate. Combine marinade ingredients and pour over tofu in a container large enough so that the marinade and tofu can fit. I use a 3-cup resealable container. Let tofu marinade in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer.

Bake. Preheat oven to 425 F. In a metal or glass baking dish, either oil the bottom of the dish or add a bit more water to the marinade; or bake the tofu slightly covered. I did all three and didn't end up with dried/burnt marinade in the baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. You can flip the tofu half way through baking, but I don't think it matters all that much.

Onto the second stage:

Ingredients

1 recipe baked tofu, sliced thin into matchsticks
3 organic celery stalks, sliced into matchsticks
1-2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 6 oz jar of pickled radish
1 bunch cilantro, leaves only

Roughly chop the cilantro. Slice the celery and tofu into matchstick pieces. Add pickled radish and a splash of rice vinegar (can substitute apple cider vinegar). Mix well. Can refrigerate this until ready to serve.

Makes roughly 2 quarts (by volume).

Future note: The pickled radish is a specialty item; though most Asian grocery stores will carry it. And taste-wise, quick pickled radish recipes will not be a fair substitute for it.

Easy Meatballs (for spaghetti)

If you don't like to get your hands dirty, this recipe is not for you. The binders in this recipe are bread crumbs, milk, and egg. If you are gluten-free or vegan, this recipe really isn't for you either. I don't have and am not willing to create a vegan "meat" ball recipe. Get your inner carnivore on because we're going to play with meat in this recipe.

I have seen all sorts of meat ratios for this recipe. Sure, you could probably combine equal amounts of ground pork and ground beef, heck toss in some lamb or veal as well; but by then the cost of the meat will exceed your entire spaghetti recipe and that's not good for anyone's food budget.

Note to future self: use lean ground beef. I used 80% meat/20% fat ground beef for this attempt, and well, the meatballs exuded a lot of oil when cooking. 

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef (93% lean should work)
1/2 c milk
1/2 c fine breadcrumbs
1/2 c Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 c fresh Italian parsley, leaves only, finely chopped
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, minced
freshly ground black pepper

Easiest way is to add all the ingredients to a large bowl and mix by hand. Stirring it together with a fork will only get you so far.

Use a tablespoon to scoop out some of the meat and form it into a ball with your hands. Set it on a plate and repeat until the plate is full.

Directions - in sauce

If you have just made a pot of spaghetti sauce, transfer some of the sauce sans meat to a skillet and add the meatballs in a single layer. Cook for about 20 minutes then transfer everything back to the pot that has the spaghetti sauce and simmer for an additional 10 minutes or so.

Directions - oven baked 

Preheat oven to 400F.

On a lipped baking tray, arrange meat balls in a single layer and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check on the meatballs to make sure they don't burn. If they burn, none of them will come off the tray without a spatula scraping them off.

Chuck all the cooked meat balls into the spaghetti sauce. Or set onto paper towels to drain the oil. Can also store these into a quart-size bag and freeze for later.

Yes, I really did two batches of meatballs, one cooked in a sauce and baked the other, then tossed both batches into the already-completed spaghetti sauce.

Corn Chowder

What started out as a vegan recipe, turned into one not so vegan friendly. I don't usually stock vegetable broth since it's mostly just vegetables laced with onions that have been boiled in salt water for a period of time. Instead, I used beef bouillon as the broth base.

The Foodening Blog: Corn Chowder

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

2 c vegetable or beef broth
1 lb organic cut corn, frozen or fresh
One 14-oz can of organic coconut milk
3 organic celery ribs, diced
1 yukon gold potato, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1-2 tbsp olive oil or unsalted butter
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp celery seed

Quick beef broth:

2 tsp Better than Bouillon Organic Beef Base + 2 c hot water

Directions

In a medium stockpot, melt butter or olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, celery, spices, and salt. Stir until the garlic has started to brown. 

Add the bell pepper, corn, potato and broth. Let this cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 10 minutes.

Last, add the coconut milk. This might take some serious spooning as it is winter and coconut fat is solid at room temperature.

At this point you could reserved a cup of the vegetables. Use an immersion blender to turn the soup into a chunky chowder. And then, put the reserved vegetables back in.

Serve hot.

Garnish: fresh ground black pepper and/or minced chives

Buttermilk Biscuits

I wish recipe sites would say what size biscuit cutter to use. I used a 2" cutter and these turned out enormous! And, also considering that it is raining today, I'd say that it is very humid and my biscuit dough was very sticky, so sticky in fact that I had a hard time even getting a layer to form. But, dusting the cutter in flour prior to cutting was a great help. With a 2" cutter this recipe ratio made 5 enormous biscuit-textured scone-like objects. I'm sure if I used the smaller cutter, it would have come out to be more like the 10 biscuits the original "grandma's recipe" suggests this yields.

TheFoodening Blog - Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients

2 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 organic granulated sugar
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter
1 c buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 F

1. In the bowl of a food processor machine, pulse together flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, and unsalted butter.

2. Add flour mixture to a large mixing bowl and add the buttermilk. Stir to combine but do not over mix.

3. On a silicone mat, use a silicon spatula to press dough down to 1/2" thickness. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the dough into biscuit rounds.

4. Place biscuit rounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.

Serve hot and enjoy.

TheFoodening Blog - Buttermilk Biscuit with Peach Bourbon Jam

Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms

This is one of my mom's recipes and it came out looking and tasting quite nice.

Ready to eat: Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms

Ingredients

1 lb fresh shitake mushrooms
1/2 lb ground pork
8 large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Shaoxing red rice wine
3 stalks green onions, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F.

0. Wash and remove stems from the shitake mushrooms. Reserve stems for later.

1. Chop raw shrimp into small pieces. Mix together with ground pork, green onions, ginger, cornstarch, Shaoxing rice wine, and soy sauce.

2. Fill each mushroom cap with a tablespoon of the mixture.

3. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and drizzle some olive oil on top, and return to the oven for another 3 minutes.

AB Marinated Olives

These turned out tasting quite nice after a few days. I was initially concerned because of how salty the olives were after I drained them and let the olives sit in filtered water for a half hour. AB recommends up to 5 hours in water, but I didn't really have the time nor patience. I used a Cambro quart container for this because unlike the quart-size yogurt containers, Cambro containers are see-through and you can always tell how things are going without having to open the container. Except for the tarragon, everything else comes from Trader Joe's.

Recipe source: Citrus Marinated Olives

Ingredients

1 lb green olives with pits (2 jars Picholine Olives from Trader Joe's), drained and rinsed
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil (a good quality olive oil for eating)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp dried tarragon leaves
1/4 tsp curry powder

Directions

0. Soak the olives in clean water for up to 5 hours. This may reduce the saltiness of the olives; but after a half hour, the olives were just as salty as when it came out of the jar.

1. Combine all the ingredients in a quart container. Shake or stir the olives to make sure all the olives get covered by the marinade.

2. Let the olives sit, covered, for a day in a cool dark place. Refrigerate 1-2 days before serving. (The coldest "dark" place is my refrigerator; then at the house for T-day, the coldest place was the garage).

(not smoked) Salmon and Cream Cheese Spread

I like smoked salmon, as a luxury treat to eat on its own. This recipe does not use smoked salmon. Instead, it relies on no-salt added canned salmon and the convenience of a food processor. By way of food storage laziness, I found cream cheese takes on a crumbled cheese texture when thawed after having been frozen solid.

Ingredients

One 6 oz can TJ boneless pink salmon, drained
8 oz cream cheese, frozen then thawed
1/2 c cheddar cheese, grated
2 small dill pickles, diced

Directions

Whirl it all around in a food processor until a well combined paste forms. Scoop it all out and put into a resealable container. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Strangely enough, the cheddar cheese gives the spread a classic light pinkish-orange color.

Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

This is definitely not for the gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, or corn-free crowd, as it has wheat, dairy, eggs, and cornmeal in it. My muffin tin holds about a half cup per muffin and made 18 muffins. The cornmeal I used is stone ground from the local grist mill.

Ready to eat: pumpkin cornbread muffins

Makes: 12-18

Wet Ingredients:

1 c pumpkin puree
1 c half 'n' half or whole milk
2 eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4-6 tbsp raw honey

Dry ingredients:

1.5 c yellow cornmeal
3/4 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Sift in dry ingredients. Whisk gently to combine. Use a 1/3 c measuring cup to fill greased muffin tin.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Let cool on a rack.

Miso Ginger Fried Rice with Cherry Tomatoes

For a chilly autumn day, this fried rice dish hits the spot. It's both savory and sweet. I did not come up with the combination of the Miso Ginger and Jasmine rice, the samples counter at my local Trader Joe's did. I'm using homegrown cherry tomatoes, although they're not all that sweet but they'll add more flavor to the rice.

Serves: 1-3

Make the rice

2 c dry jasmine rice
2 1/2 c miso ginger soup

Rinse the rise under water until most of the starch washes away. In an oven-proof bowl, combine rice and soup. Bake for 50 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Stir fry the rice

1 tbsp unsalted butter
a handful of cherry tomatoes
a cup of cooked rice

Melt butter in a skillet. Add rice and tomatoes. Stir around until rice is hot and tomatoes can be squished when gently pressed with a spatula.

No added salt needed.

Spicy Sweet Roasted Kabocha Squash

I thought about roasting the whole squash this way. I ended up roasting the slices 15 minutes on one side, and 10 minutes on the other. A few of the edges of the thinner slices burnt, so a total bake time of 25 minutes is too much. Maybe 10 minutes on each side might suffice. Smashing the whole squash against a concrete step worked really well in opening it.

Prep to make Roasted Squash

Ingredients

1/2 small kabocha squash, washed and seeded
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice the kabocha squash into 1/4" slices.

In a large bowl, sprinkle spices on top of squash. Add sesame oil. Toss squash to coat. Add soy sauce and toss again.

Lay slices out in a single layer on a silicone mat-lined baking tray.

Roast for 10 minutes on each side. Flip slices and rotate the tray at the 10 minute mark.

Roasted Kabocha Squash Slices

Baked Zucchini Chips

These chips took a lot of time and effort for so little reward. Although, now I can say that I ate two zucchinis in five minutes. I'll need a lot more trays, oven racks, or a food dehydrator to do this recipe again. My all-time favorite way to eat zucchini is breaded and deep fried. 

Zucchini chips: slice, place, bake!

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.

Ingredients

organic zucchinis, as many as will fit in the palm of your hand
a pinch of salt, less than 1/4 tsp
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Use the cutting blade disc with the food processor, this is faster and easier than using a mandoline slicer. The only advantage the mandoline has over the food processor is the width size of the vegetable.

On a parchment paper-lined baking tray, place zucchini rounds side by side until the tray is full. Repeat with other trays. Use a pastry brush to brush each round with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle salt on top, if you want. You can always add more salt after these finish baking.

If your oven heats evenly, you shouldn't need to rotate the trays.

Bake for two hours, or until everything looks dry and lightly browned. Use a spatula to remove the chips from the trays to a plate or airtight container, should the chips actually last that long.

Kitchen Notes: Game Day Eats

Thinking about what to make before game day? You'll probably want to start with the easy stuff. Appetizers that people will enjoy and not make a mess as you are heating up the grill for the heavier stuff. Many of these recipes can all be done a day ahead. I'd put the potstickers into the oven on a baking tray to reheat them all up. Maybe 5-10 mins at 400 degrees F would suffice to get them extra crispy.

Here are a few ideas from this blog:

Sauces & Dips

No Mayonnaise Green Onion Sour Cream Dip
Edamame Pesto - good with crackers and sturdier chips
Fresh Salsa - just omit the canning part of the recipe

Appetizers

Pumpkin Fried Rice
Roast Duck Wings
Potstickers
Roasted Shrimp with Honey-Ginger
Soft Pretzels
Sweet Potato Fries
Baked Nachos with Black Beans and Cheese
Easy Kale Chips

Salads

Moroccan Couscous Salad
Quinoa Salad
Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Beverages

Ginger Beer - start this at least 3 days before game day. It's not quite alcoholic nor is it a soft beverage. It's somewhere in between those two. Use your best judgement if children are around.

Edamame Pesto

I really thought I was going to make pea pesto today from Giada de Laurentiis' recipe. Sadly, I ate the last bag of frozen peas and didn't remind myself to buy more. But, what else is green and comes in a pod...? Edamame, the sexy name for soybeans. Per cup, edamame has about 17 grams of protein vs organic green peas which have 4 grams of protein per 2/3 cup (if you were looking at a Trader Joe's package). These pair well with the multiseed flatbread crackers that Trader Joe's also carries. One day, I'll figure out the ratio of seeds on top and make these myself. Onto the recipe...

Ingredients for edamame pesto

Ingredients

1 lb edamame in-shell, cooked then unshelled
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

Directions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together edamame, cheese, and garlic.

2. While running, drizzle in olive oil, salt and black pepper until well combined. Less than a minute.

3. Scoop everything out into a small bowl.

Makes almost 2 cups.

Spreadable Edamame Pesto

Steamed Bao with Pork and Nappa Cabbage

This is a different bao dough recipe than the other one (uses milk) or this one (uses milk powder) posted on this blog; the primary difference is that it doesn't call for dairy. For wrapping meat dumplings, it is very pliable and easy to work with. It's tastes ok. Though, it'll take a lot more tries to get the pleats to look "normal" at the top.

Steamed Bao, looks pretty ugly, tastes okay

Because it's autumn, it's about 60 degrees in the kitchen. I used a double boiler with a covered bowl insert to create a warm, dark environment for the yeast to rise. It's really quite clever. I didn't even have to crank the oven.

Chinese Steamed Buns (mantou)

I have apparently made this before and this version one doesn't use dried milk. The metric recipe ratio comes from the China Sichuan Food website. I'm not sure why the measurement for liquid milk was done in grams, so I used a kitchen scale and measured it out by weight. My Imperial conversion of the recipe is as follows:

Makes 8 buns

Ingredients

10 oz (by weight, roughly 2.25 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/2 c whole milk, warmed to 110 degrees F
1/4 c water, warmed to 110 degrees F

Directions

1. To ensure that your yeast is still alive. Proof the yeast in warm water with 1 tsp of sugar. After 10 minutes, if the yeast is foamy then it is still active.

2. In a large bowl, add flour and stir yeast water with chopsticks to combine.

3. In a small pot, heat milk and remaining sugar until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat before the milk comes to a boil. Let cool to 110 degrees F before adding it to the flour.

4. Gently knead flour into a ball and cover bowl with a plate. Let rise for about an hour until it has doubled in size.

5. Roll dough on a silicone mat or on a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll out each half into a log and use a dough scraper to divide the log.

6. Dab a little olive oil to the bottom of each bun before placing onto a 2" square of waxed paper. This step is optional. It helps you remove the paper after the buns are steamed.

7. Bring a large stockpot with a steamer basket set inside to a boil. Add enough buns so that they are spaced at least 1/2" apart. Steam for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy.

These are best eaten right after they're cooked, otherwise the buns will get hard if left out too long.

Kale Chips, the easier way

Nearly year-round, both Trader Joe's and Costco carry bags of pre-washed, ready-to-use fresh kale leaves. This takes a lot of the prep work for these chips away since all you need to do now is remove whatever stems are still attached to the leaves. By the end of summer, the stems are usually thick and woody and not terribly good for eating.

Fresh kale ready to be baked in the oven

In two 5-quart mixing bowls, separate one Trader Joe's bag of fresh kale leaves into equal portions. With each bowl, you'll be able to spread the leaves in a single layer across two 17" x 11" rimmed cookie sheets. 

Add a teaspoon of olive oil to each bowl and work the oil onto the leaves with your hands.

If you are going to lightly salt these, use less than 1/4 tsp of regular table salt or sea salt. A little bit of salt goes a long way. I used a Himalayan pink salt that I ground into a finer texture using a mortar and pestle. You don't have to do this. I just wanted to see what it would taste like. 

Kale chips, ready to eat!

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees F oven for 9-10 minutes.

Baked Nachos with Black Beans and Sundried Tomatoes

For a rainy August day, this dish really hit the spot. I thought I'd add in some sun-dried tomatoes for flavor and color contrast. I found that the shallowest oven-safe dish I had to use was a pie plate, imagine that. If I make this again, I think I will try making a cheese sauce for the nachos.

Ingredients

some quantity of organic tortilla chips
a large quantity of a cheese (jack cheese)
an equal portion of another cheese (grass-fed sharp cheddar cheese)
6-8 sun-dried tomato strips, roughly chopped
1/2 can of organic black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Layer ingredients starting with chips at the bottom, followed by cheese, then beans and some sun-dried tomatoes. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until all the cheese has melted.

Dungeness Crab Cheesecake

This is a savory cheesecake and will be served up with some crackers as an appetizer. It is the same baking process as a dessert cheesecake, except this one is made without a water bath. Frankly, I think the only reason to bake it is so that the eggs get cooked; otherwise, everything else that went into the recipe can be eaten as is. This recipe ratio, minus the onions, is adaapted from the 1999 issue of Taste of Home. I baked this one in a 9" springform pan, like the one used for cakes. For the crab part of the recipe, I steamed a dungeness crab the previous night and reserved the meat.

Dungeness Crab Cheesecake. Looks a little boring.
Tastes like it desperately needs a contrasting flavor or
roasted red peppers added to it.

On the seafood seasoning, you could just use Old Bay seasoning; though in lieu of that, this is what goes into it: celery seed (adds a savory depth to meat rubs), black pepper (spicy), bay leaves (savory), cardamom pods (sweet & spicy), mustard seeds (savory), whole cloves (sweet & spicy), sweet paprika (mild & sweet, mostly for color) and ground mace (sweet).

[edit] This came out tasting terribly bland, like it was just cream cheese mixed with crab. To bring out the flavor more, perhaps next time add in a cup of shredded smoked gouda or fry some red/green/yellow/orange small diced bell peppers into it for color contrasts.

Ingredients

16 oz cream cheese, softened

3 oz sour cream

1 c crushed butter crackers + 1/4 c melted unsalted butter

1 c cooked dungeness crab meat, flaked

3 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp seafood seasoning (I used ground mace, smoked paprika, pinch of ground cloves)

dash of chili sauce (like a sirracha or Tabasco sauce)

freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, seafood seasoning, and chili sauce. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine cream cheese and sour cream. Beat together until smooth. Add in lightly beaten eggs, lemon juice, seafood seasoning, chili sauce and some freshly ground black pepper. Blend until smooth-ish.

3. Take 25-30 round butter crackers (like Ritz or Trader Joe's) and crush them with your hands, in a food prep, or in a sealable plastic bag with a bottle or rubber mallet. You could also substitute panko crumbs in this step, I suppose. Mix the cracker crumbs with melted butter and gently press into the bottom of a buttered springform cake pan.

4. Bake cracker crust for 10 minutes, remove from oven and turn oven heat down to 325 degrees F.

5. Pour cream cheese mixture into the prepared cake pan and use a spatula to spread the filling evenly. Bake for 35 minutes, until center has set.

6. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Use a butter knife to loosen the cheesecake from the edge of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let refrigerate for an hour or more before serving.

Serve with freshly made bread or crackers.

Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

If you enjoy the salty-sweet taste of kettle corn at the farmers market, you'll definitely enjoy these cookies. The savory cookie is a more adult version of the cookie genre. Something that you'd probably not nibble on over tea, but would go down pretty well with a glass of wine. All of my bakeware is in storage, so I'll have to improvise and borrow the toy cutters from my nephew's toy bake set. Hehehe. This ingredient ratio comes from Gourmet Magazine.

Ingredients

2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/3 c confectioners (powdered) sugar
2 tbsp raw mild honey, clover or wildflower
1 tbsp organic granulated cane sugar
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

1. Whirl together dry ingredients in a food processor. Add in butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Empty contents into a container with a lid. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

2. Roll out cookie dough to 1/4" thickness and cut out with cookie cutters. Place unbaked cookies on a parchment-lined or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden brown. Let cookies cook on a wire rack.

Alternative Flavorings:

Savory Thyme Cookies: substitute with fresh thyme

Buttermilk Biscuits

I'm not sure what I did wrong here. They didn't rise at all; but at least there weren't any leftovers for this side dish. The only ones that looked "normal" had two biscuit rounds stacked on top of each other when baking. Maybe if I had used fake ingredients like vegetable shortening they might have risen to great poofiness like the Staypuft marshmallow man. When it comes to preparing dishes for Thanksgiving, I shudder at the notion of using post-industrial methods; like using shortening in baked goods. Frankly, I don't think vegetable shortening existed in 1621, but hey, in today's America it's all about speed and convenience.

These biscuits are easy enough to make and I could have posted the recipe years ago; but never got around to it because it is so simple.

Ingredients

2 c all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled, cut into chunks
3/4 c buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

1. Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. Add buttermilk and mix. Dough will be sticky.

2. Pour dough onto a floured surface and roll out with rolling pin. Be sure to not overwork the dough, because I think that's what I did during the folding-in-half and rolling out part.

3. Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness, fold in half and cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter.

4. Place onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

5. Remove from oven and set onto a rack to cool before putting into a clean kitchen-towel-lined bowl or basket.