honey

Honey Butter Cornbread

May 16, 2018

I don’t know about you, but as a kid I loved cornbread! My mom and I would make cornbread maybe once a week (okay, maybe not that often) from the Marie Calendar cornbread mix. It was our go-to!

Lately, I haven’t been eating as much cornbread, but sometimes the meal (and mood) just calls for it! Particularly when I make our favorite turkey chili. How can you have chili without cornbread!? You really can’t.

So I went about trying to replicate my old favorite, with a few tweaks. For instance, I swapped the sugar for honey because honey and cornbread are a match made in heaven. The honey gives the cornbread so much more flavor and depth. Not to mention, it cuts out the processed sugar. Win-win.

I also added in some frozen corn kernels (specifically, roasted corn kernels from Trader Joes, just because that’s what I had on hand). This ingredient is totally optional, but I love the little bits of corn in the cornbread which add a little bit of extra moisture to an otherwise dry bread.

The coup de gras is the little bits of butter that baked right on top of the cornbread to give it this extra crunchy and delicious crust on top. Hense why I call this honey butter cornbread.

This honey butter cornbread was so good I was eating leftovers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Top it with a little more butter (or better yet, honey butter), and you won’t even need the chili!

How to Make It

Cornbread is actually a pretty simple recipe and easy to make from scratch, provided you have everything on hand. Like other quick breads, it’s as simple as mixing together the dry ingredients, then pouring in the wet ingredients.

In this case, first mix together the cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder.

In a separate bowl or cup, mix together the wet ingredients: milk, honey, melted butter, and egg.

Then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Mix until all the ingredients are just combined.

Then, if you so choose, mix in the frozen corn kernels. I used roasted corn kernels because that’s what I had available, but roasted corn is not necessary.

Finally, pour the batter into an 8″-9″ square or round pan, pressing the thick batter all the way to the edges to ensure an even bake.

And for the butter piece of the honey butter cornbread, top the entire pan with little pieces of butter. As the bread bakes, the butter melts right into the top forming a crunchy, buttery top which is oh so good!

Once out of the oven, you will have to restrain yourself from digging right in! But I insist on letting it cool down a little otherwise the bread will just crumble to pieces.

Like this. Because I couldn’t help myself and just cut right into a slice.

It was still delicious though!

Supplies and Recipe

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Almond Butter Blossoms

January 29, 2018

Ever since I was a kid, I have been a whole-hearted peanut butter fan. I love the stuff and will eat it on just about anything. But as I have gotten older, I have grown very fond of almond butter. It is now my nut butter of choice.

Don’t tell the peanuts.

And I am certainly not the only one. For so many reasons, people are eschewing the pb for the ab. Especially those who have peanut allergies. Which is exactly who I made these cookies for.

So many of my friends kids have peanut allergies now, I feel horrible that that can’t enjoy one of my favorite childhood cookies: the peanut butter blossom. Instead I made almond butter blossoms.

And guess what. They are amazing! I haven’t done much baking with almond butter, but it works perfectly as a substitute for peanut butter and adds it’s own amazing yet subtle flavor.

HOW TO MAKE THEM

Get out your flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and all those basic cookie ingredients. You will also need almond butter and honey. Yes, honey! I subtituted some of the sugar for honey which added an extra flavor that perfectly compliments the almond butter.

If you don’t have any honey, just use plain old granulated sugar.

First, cream together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and honey.

Then mix in the almond butter. Make sure it is good and mixed in before adding in the egg.

Now it’s time to add the egg and vanilla. If you really want to ramp up the almond flavor, add 1/4 tsp almond extract. A little goes a long way, friends.

Once the egg is mixed in, but not overly mixed, add in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. If you are using unsalted almond butter, add a pinch of salt.

Mix until it forms a stick but firm dough.

Use a spoon or a small cookie scoop to form the dough into small 1 – 1 1/2 inch sized balls. Roll the balls in between the palms of your hands to form a smooth ball.

Roll the ball in some sugar. I like to use turbinado sugar because it’s nice and coarse. But if you don’t happen to have that on hand (I wouldn’t expect you to), just roll it around in some granulated sugar.

Place the balls about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet and then pop in the oven to bake for 10 minutes, or so, until they are just barely golden brown on the bottom.

While the cookies are in the oven start unwrapping whatever chocolate you plan to use for you cookies. Since Valentine’s Day is right around the coner, I use these Dove Chocolate Hearts. But you could, of course, use Hersey Kisses or any of your other favorite chocolates.

As soon as the cookies come out of the oven they will be nice and puffy and a little cracked on top. Immediately press your unwrapped chocolate into the center of the cookie so that the cookie puffs up around the chocolate.

While there is nothing better than a cookie straight out of the oven, I would encourage you to wait to dig in, or serve, these cookies until they have cooled. The chocolate will start to melt from the hot cookie, so once the cookie cools the chocolate will start to come back to it’s original state.

Then it’s ready to eat!

Even after they have cooled, the cookies are super soft but have a little crunch on the outside thanks to that sugar.

The almond butter and honey flavors are subtle but wonderful!

These cookies are perfect for just about anyone, regardless of their love for almond butter. Even those who are loyal to peanut butter will love these cookies!

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Honey Wheat Bread

May 2, 2014

I have heard it said before that there is truly no economic incentive for baking bread at home (I’m sure you can say that about a lot of things). It’s just as cheap to purchase a pre-sliced loaf at the store and a hell of a lot easier. While that might be true, I can think of one thing that makes baking bread at home worth it.

The smell.

Oh my heavens does the aroma of bread baking in the oven is just divine. Seriously. Someone bottle that up and sell it. I’ll be your first customer.

I actually don’t think making bread is all that difficult. It takes time, yes, but it’s just to let the yeast proof and dough rise. Twice. The good folks at The Kitchn really break out the steps pretty nicely.

From start to finish, the whole bread making process took about 4 hours. But only about 30 minutes of that was actual work. I mixed the dough then let is rise in the bowl for about 2 hours. Once it had risen, I punched it down and formed it into log and transferred it to the loaf pan and let it rise again.

Once it had filled up the loaf pan and formed a dome over the top, I scored it down the middle to give it that signature bread shape (and to let the steam out so that the crust wouldn’t crack all haphazardly).

Baking only took about 30 minutes. But man, that was the best smelling 30 minutes of my life.

I let the bread cool for about an hour and I didn’t slice it until the next day. But I am sure you can dig in after about 30 minutes if you what a fresh and warm slice of bread.

Actually, I can think of a second benefit for making bread at home: it taste’s amazing. Sure, that stuff from the store is easy to get and you don’t have to spend 4 hours making it, but homemade bread has so much more flavor too it. Plus you can be assured that it’s fresh and has zero preservatives.

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