New England Anadama Bread

To keep that bread maker busy here is another fantastic loaf recipe for you to try. This one has molasses and cornmeal for added flavor and texture. Beyond superb toasted with butter and jam.

As written in the cookbook 250 Canadian Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes, this bread was named for Anna, a farmer's wife, who refused to bake for her husband and who ran off with a tradesman. Upon discovering this, it is rumored the farmer was heard whispering "Anna damn her" as he kneaded cornmeal mush, starter, molasses and four for his dinner.

There is a happy ending to the story. Well for us at least. Their marital breakdown brought us this sweet, dense loaf of bread. I intend to send a note of thanks to the tradesman.

Tip: If you don't like a somewhat strong taste of molasses, you can substitute 1 tablespoon of brown sugar for 1 tablespoon of molasses.

LET'S GET STARTED!

RECIPE:
*source recipe: 250 Canadian Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes

Makes 1/5 lb loaf

WHAT YOU NEED

1 1/4 cup water at room temperature
1/4 cup skim milk powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons molasses (not blackstrap)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening or vegetable oil (neutral flavor only)
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast

MAKE IT

ADD all of the ingredients, in the order as listed, to your bread-maker pan
SET cycle for 1.5 loaf, medium crust
SELECT Basic Cycle and commence cycle
WHEN loaf is baked, remove immediately from pan and allow to cool on rack for 1/2 hr before slicing.

ENJOY!

Golden Pretzel Bites with Fleur de Sel

These scrumptious little pretzel bites are amazing. All golden on the outside and chewy on the inside. What gives them that golden sheen? A simple egg wash right before baking. The best part about these snacks? The dough is made in your bread machine. These are extremely easy to make. No manual labor required other than a little bit of rolling and cutting !

I topped these with Fleur de Sel because a pretzel is not a pretzel without a good salty crunch. You can use a simple coarse sea salt too. It works just as well.

You will need a bread maker of course. Plus a floured work surface, rolling pin and sharp knife for cutting the dough once prepared. Last but not least, a pastry brush is a must for finishing the tops off pre-bake with an egg wash.

Before we begin, I just have to say that using your bread maker to make dough of any kind is fantastic. It does all the work for you including keeping the dough warm while it rises. I am a huge fan of the "Dough" setting and keep it quite busy around here; from whipping up sweet dough for cinnamon buns to creating a gorgeous crust for pizza. Don't underestimate the versatility that little bread maker brings to your kitchen.

Truth to be told, most of us buy bread makers with such great intentions then after one loaf we promptly forget it exists. Shame on us !!! So dust off your bread maker, tell it you are sorry for ignoring it for so long, promise the neglect is OVER and be prepared to be delighted !

Now Let's Get Started !

Here is the dough after I took it out of the bread-maker.
It now needs to rest, covered with a bowl, for 15 minutes.


You don't have to be exact with your cuts. Just aim for 2" bites.



They will start to puff up right away in a 350F oven.
These are ready in 18-20 minutes.


Take them off the hot pan right away or they will keep cooking.
Move to cooling rack. These will be cool enough to eat in 10 minutes.

RECIPE:
**source recipe adapted from: 250 Best Canadian Bread Machine Baking Recipes


WHAT YOU NEED

1 1/4 cups water at room temperature
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon shortening
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon bread machine yeast

Topping

1 egg
1 tablespoon water
coarse sea salt or Fleur de Sel

MAKE IT

ADD all ingredients, in the order listed above, to your bread pan
SET bread-maker cycle to DOUGH and commence Dough cycle
WHEN cycle is complete, dust a work surface with flour
PLACE dough onto work surface and cover with a large bowl
LET DOUGH REST 15 minutes
PREHEAT OVEN to 350F
LINE 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper
CUT dough into 4 equal parts
ROLL out each part into a rectangle; no more than 1/2" thick
CUT out 2" squares
PLACE squares on cookie sheets leaving 1/2" gap between each one

IN SMALL BOWL, whisk together egg and water
WITH PASTRY BRUSH, coat the top of each dough square with egg wash
SPRINKLE with coarse salt
BAKE 18-20 minutes until golden brown
REMOVE immediately from cookie sheet and place on cooling rack.

Excellent plain, dipped in ranch dressing, spinach dip or honey-mustard sauce.

Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Donut Drops

Deep-fried donuts! Anything better? Not much. I love donuts. In fact I can safely say it is 3rd on my list of addictions. Thankfully that list ends at #3. First off, my #1 addiction is coffee. If I don't have it to start off the day then let's just say my mug shot could be on the evening news. #2: SALT! Many moons ago when I was just a little girl, my dad bought me a pony. And that little pony was lovely. A furry and brown Morgan horse and by far, the most gentle pet I have ever owned in my life. Anyway, I digress. What I remember most is watching him go crazy with his salt block. He would lick that thing on and off day and night. I couldn't understand why he liked it so much. Fast forward to today - I totally understand. In fact I am considering buying myself one and keeping it under my desk. Thankfully my blood-pressure is low, always has been, so I am safe - for now. But #3 on my list is what brings me here today - DONUTS ! Any kind - fried, baked, yeast-based, old-fashioned, cake style, French crullers, fritters. I will eat them all.

On Lemon Drop I have 2 blog posts now related to donuts: A regular baked version topped with chocolate glaze and a gluten-free baked lemon donut. The fact is I went with baked for both because I am afraid of oil. First, second or third degree burns are simply not what I wish to experience now or in the future. I grew up with a fear (thanks, Mom) of splattering oil. I figured daring to deep-fry donuts would result in a trip to the nearest emergency room so for years I have avoided it. Until today. What changed today? Today I bought a new book called Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni.

A fantastic book! The photos are glorious. The recipes are divine.

Immediately I hit a snag. I didn't have any yeast handy and the majority of the recipes at the beginning of the book are yeast-based. But then I saw the recipe: Old-Fashioned Sour Cream !
No need for yeast and these guys are deep-fried ! So I decided to make them asap. Instead of going for the traditional donut shape I went with little circles instead. Pretty much "donut-holes". I prefer to call them Donut Drops.

Words of caution: be careful not to over-bake. Do not let them cook longer than 2 minutes MAX on one side before flipping. If your dough is 1/2" thick then I say turn them over at 1 minute. Also, keep the oil at 350F. This can be challenging but necessary. Too cool and the donuts will just be greasy sponges. Too hot and they will cook too fast on the outside with uncooked centers.

LET'S GET STARTED!

You will need an oil/candy thermometer and a deep pot. I used my dutch oven.


Have your biscuit cutter handy. The smallest out of the stack

I let these cool about 5 minutes before spooning 1 teaspoon of glaze over each one.
They would also be lovely topped with sifted powdered sugar.

RECIPE*:
* Recipe adapted from Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni.

This made 22 donut drops for me with a 1 1/2" small biscuit cutter

WHAT YOU NEED

DONUT DROPS

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg ( I like nutmeg in donuts so added this to the recipe)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1/4 cup full fat sour cream
1 large egg
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or veggie shortening. I used Crisco shortening
Vegetable oil for frying ( 2 inches deep with 2 inches above the rim of a suitable pot)

VANILLA GLAZE

1 cup icing sugar, sifted
3-4 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

MAKE IT

IN MEDIUM BOWL, sift together first 5 ingredients
IN LARGE BOWL, combine sugar, sour cream, egg and shortening.
BLEND with a whisk until thoroughly combined
SLOWLY add flour mixture to egg mixture, folding in with a spatula, until thoroughly combined and dough is smooth and uniform in texture
COVER with cling film and put in refrigerator for 15 minutes
HEAT oil to 350F
ROLL out dough onto floured surface to 1/2" thickness
CUT out circles with small biscuit cutter
WORKING with 5 donut drops at a time, place cutouts into hot oil with a heat-proof spatula/skimmer
LET COOK 1 minute, turn over and let cook another minute
PLACE cooked donut drops onto paper towel to drain
MOVE to cooling rack which is placed over a cookie sheet lined with wax paper
CONTINUE cooking donut drops until all dough is used.

MAKE GLAZE:

WHISK together icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract
WITH A TEASPOON, pour glaze over donuts
LET sit 5 minutes until glaze sets

ENJOY !

P.S. Not one burn ! I am 100% burn-free :)

Also seen here:

Chocolate Banana Brownies

Rich, filled with chocolate, moist with bananas and the size of a piece of cake ! These brownies are amazing and shouldn't be missed. Thanks goes to Chef Michael Smith for, yet again, another superb sweet recipe.

These brownies are quite dense and moist due to the addition of 1 cup of butter, 4 bananas and 4 whole eggs. Let's not forget an entire POUND of dark chocolate.

I did adjust the recipe a tad by adding chopped white chocolate to the batter along with 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

Due to their weighty batter, these babies take a full 1 hour and 15 minutes to bake. And surprisingly, you can get all of this batter nestled nicely into an 8" X 8" baking pan. I usually bake my brownies in a 9" x 13" pan so this was a bit on the scary side for me. I wasn't sure if they were going to rise up properly let alone cook all the way through. Trust in Chef Smith for he is the master! Sure enough, these were PERFECT.



LET'S GET STARTED

RECIPE*:
*source recipe: Banana Brownies


WHAT YOU NEED

1 pound of dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup of unsalted butter
4 eggs
4 ripe bananas (med size preferred)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 ounces chopped white baking chocolate

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven 325F
BUTTER AND FLOUR 8" X 8" square baking pan
In MED saucepan, melt butter and dark chocolate. Set aside
IN LARGE BOWL, mash together eggs, bananas and vanilla extract
WITH WOODEN SPOON, stir in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder
FOLD in melted chocolate/butter
FOLD in chopped white chocolate
POUR into prepared pan
BAKE 1 hr 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean & brownies are firm to the touch.

ONE WORD: WOW!

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Lemon Drop Giveaway Winner !!!

To begin, I would like to thank all of you who entered this draw. Your support to Lemon Drop means the world to me.

There was a wonderful turnout for this giveaway. I guess many of us love Paula Deen!

This giveaway, as I am sure you all recall, is for one grand prize. You each had the option of increasing your entry count by adding a sidebar button and/or blog post.

A recap of the grand prize

A Brand New Paula Deen Recipe Card Box

Matching Mug (this is made of hard plastic, not ceramic)

Recipe Cards to fill your new Recipe Card Box

And last but not least, adorable Paper Cupcake Liners!

I again used my preferred online giveaway tool, Random.org, to select the 1 winner!

And the winner is: A Babbling Brunette !

CONGRATULATIONS!
Please email me at lemondropfoodie@yahoo.ca to claim your prize.

For those who didn't win, be prepared for the next giveaway!
I am eager to host another one very soon.
I think June will be a good month, don't you?!

Linda @ Lemon Drop

Old-Fashioned Cinnamon Raisin Bread

A great recipe tailored specifically for use with your trusty bread maker. This bread contains eggs and vegetable shortening which ensures a rich and tender slice each and every time. Speckled with raisins and cinnamon for that taste we all love!

You will be using your Sweet or Fruit cycle on your bread maker for this recipe. This makes a 1.5 lb loaf. Set your machine to normal crust.

About 1/2 hr before beginning, fill up your measuring cup with 1 1/4 cups of water and let sit at room temperature. Yes, no warm water for this recipe. We want perfect room temperature water and then we go from there!

Your egg, on the other hand, should be fresh and straight out of the fridge. No need to bring it to room temperature.

Most bread recipes call for oil as the fatty ingredient. This one calls for shortening. When adding butter or shortening to a bread machine mix, ensure it is always at room temperature and break it apart into small pieces with your fingers before adding to the pan.

This loaf rises up perfectly; no weird lumps and bumps. Also, no pockets of air leaving you with a slice of "more hole" than bread.

So haul out your bread maker and be prepared to salivate as you smell the wonderful aroma of cinnamon fill the air.

LET'S BEGIN!

A truly beautiful loaf

In all its glory!

RECIPE*:
*source: 250 Best Canadian Bread Machine Baking Recipes

WHAT YOU NEED

1 1/4 cups water, room temerature
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons shortening ( I use Crisco vegetable shortening)
3 1/2 cups white bread flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast
3/4 raisins


MAKE IT

Add all ingredients above, except raisins, to bread machine pan in the order as written.
Place raisins into "Extra" dispenser . If you don't have one, make sure you add the raisins manually at the "add ingredient" signal.
Select Sweet or Fruit/Nut setting
Select 1/5 lb loaf, regular crust
Select "Add Extras" if you have this feature.
Press Start
Sit back and relax !

A perfect way to start the day

Gluten-Free Creamsicle Cupcakes

With summer fast approaching, memories of orange creamsicles come flooding back to me. They were, by far, my favorite summer treat. That and banana popsicles!

I wanted to make a gluten-free cupcake that would do justice to the classic creamsicle ice cream indulgence. After much research, I settled on a source recipe from The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook for Orange Chiffon Cake. Then I adapted it quite severely to go from a cake to these fluffy, orange, cream filled delights you see here today.

The chiffon batter does tend to settle after baking so you will have a flat cupcake top. Perfect for what you need to do next and that is cut out the top with a melon baller, fill with creamy vanilla buttercream and then place the cutout cupcake piece back on top.

For the frosting, I took the vanilla buttercream filler frosting and jazzed it up with orange food coloring, orange extract and then piped it all with my Wilton 1M tip. The crowning glory: a little orange gummy candy and an orange candy stick which I simply cut in half as one large one is simply overkill for these beauties.

To begin, you will want to have 1 orange handy and some orange juice (pulp free). I added the scrapings of 1 vanilla bean to the batter plus one in the icing so I highly recommend you have these on hand as well. The vanilla bean enhances the entire cupcake from top to bottom giving it that vanilla flavor so well loved in the creamsicle treat.

This is my staple go-to book for gluten-free baking . I couldn't live without it. As with the Chocolate Cupcake recipe also posted here on Lemon Drop, the original Orange Chiffon one in her book is both vegan and gluten-free. My focus was simply to retain its gluten-free qualities. Therefore, I did used eggs rather than egg replacer.

Basic Gluten-Free Baking Mix
used throughout the book:

• 4 cups superfine brown rice flour (preferably from Authentic Foods)
• 1 1/3 cups potato starch (NOT potato flour)
  
• 2/3 cup tapioca flour or tapioca starch

You will need 3 cups of this baking mix blend for this cupcake recipe.

NOW LET'S GET STARTED!

RECIPE:

WHAT YOU NEED

CUPCAKES
2 cups fine granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup orange juice (pulp free)
zest of one medium orange
scrapings of 1 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons canola oil (Crisco oil is great)
3 cups gluten-free flour mix (see above)
3/4 teaspoon xanthum gum
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
orange food coloring gel or liquid food coloring

FILLING/FROSTING
2 1/2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
6 cups icing sugar, sifted
scraping of one 1 vanilla bean
3/4 cup whipping cream

FROSTING EXTRAS:
1 1/2 teaspoons orange extract
orange food coloring gel
orange gummy candies
orange candy sticks, cut in half

MAKE IT

LINE muffin pans (2) with 16 liners.
PREHEAT oven to 350F

IN LARGE BOWL, with electric mixer, blend together sugar and egg for 1 minute, MED speed
ADD orange juice, zest, vanilla bean scraping, liquid vanilla and oil
BEAT MED speed 1 minute
IN MEDIUM BOWL, whisk together remaining cupcake ingredients
SLOWLY ADD to wet ingredients in 3 batches, mixing slightly after each addition.
BLEND together at MED speed for 1 minute
ADD food coloring and blend into batter on LOW speed just until you have the color you want.
WITH ice cream or cookie scoop, fill liners 3/4 full
BAKE 15-18 minutes testing with a toothpick in center; if it comes out clean then they are done!
LET COOL in pan for 5 minutes
REMOVE and let cupcakes cool on rack completely for 1/2 hr

IN LARGE BOWL, with electric mixer, cream butter for 1 minute MED speed
SLOWLY add icing sugar and continue mixing for 4-5 minutes MED speed
ADD vanilla bean and whipping cream. When adding whipping cream, add only a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency

WITH MELON BALLER, scoop out a circle from each cupcake, approximately 1 inch deep. Set cut out tops aside.
WITH teaspoon, fill cut out areas with 1 teaspoon of white frosting.
COVER with cupcake cutouts
WITH remaining icing, add orange extract. Start adding food coloring: A little goes a long way so start adding a little bit at a time and mix after each addition until desired color is reached.

FILL piping bag with orange frosting and pipe onto cupcakes. I used a Wilton 1M tip for the swirls on top.

TOP with candy and orange stick.

ENJOY !!!

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