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I liked to browse through my assigned blog The Saturday Evening Pot a lot and found some nice gems that gave me some new ideas. I quite quickly settled on the recipe to be for this month when I saw those lovely lime squares on the blog. One reason is that I really really love limes. The subtle tangy taste just goes so well for me with lots of sweets! Another reason was that it was quite quick to assemble and bake in less than an hour which was perfect for my busy timetable this month.

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Lime Squares

recipe based on a post by The Saturday Evening Pot

Ingredients

BASE:
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used half chestnut flour and half coconut flour)
2 teasoons Xanthan Gum (I didn’t use it)
1/4 cup confecioner’s sugar (used packed brown sugar)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg white for glazing

TOPPING:
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (I used packed light brown sugar)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (used chestnut flour)
1.5 tablespoons grated lime zest
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
(for sprinkling) confectioner’s sugar

Cooking Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Lightly grease 8 inch square baking dish with butter spread.
• For the base, process flour and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor for several seconds. Add butter and process until dough comes together, 20 to 30 seconds.
• Press the dough gently and evenly cover the bottom of the prepared pan. Glaze with egg white, using a baking brush. Coat very lightly.
• Bake base on center oven rack until lightly golden, about 15 minutes (maybe longer, depending on your oven). Place base in refrigerator for approximately 15 minutes to cool completely. Keep oven on.
• Meanwhile, prepare the topping: Gently whisk eggs in medium sized bowl until lightly mixed. Add the remaining topping ingredients and continue to whisk gently until they are blended.
• Pour the topping evenly over cooled base. Bake until top is set and golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
• Sprinkle surface with confectioner’s sugar (a light dusting) and cut into squares with a sharp knife, that is dipped in hot water and wiped dry before each cut.
• If you plan to keep longer than one day, keep in air tight container and refrigerate or freeze to preserve crispness of base. Makes 9 to 12 bars.

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This rocks I tell ya! I loved it best when it came right out of the oven and still was warm but it’s also great chilled with some cream. The subtle taste of lime goes so well with the creamy consistency of the topping while the rather crunchy base adds a nice contrast.

Go ahaead – give it a try! ;o)

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“Cream butter and sugar, add some eggs.
Beat until everything is creamy white and fluffy.
A hint of vanilla is coming in right and a little cup of milk.
Now for the finish of it add some flour made of oats and spelt.
Some baking aid will be your little help.
Whipped up in a whiz, now poured in a baking dish:
off into the warm oven it goes, soon lovely smells will tickle your nose!
Out of the oven, fluffy and sweet.
Have it with your tea and you will eat and eat and eat!”

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These little lovely Irish Tea Cakes I made after a recipe from my assigned blog “Cookin’ Mimi” are so delicious I just can’t tell you how quick they were gone once out of the oven and cooled slightly!

I only made two little changes to her recipe: I used a mix of finely ground oatmeal and white spelt flour for the batter and baked them in little muffin tins for easier serving rather than in one large baking tin.

I can tell you, you would want to bake them as well if you had a chance to take a little sniff when these little cakes came out of the oven or a single bite when we had them for afternoon tea… Go ahead and make them you will love it and they are made in no time :o)

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Irish Tea Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour   white spelt flour
3/4 cup finely ground oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan or about 6 muffin tins.
• In a bowl cream together softened butter and sugar with mixer until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Mix in vanilla.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Stir the flour into the creamed mixture alternating with the milk.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden and tester inserted comes out with fine crumbs.
• Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes then turn on to cooling rack until completely cooled.

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I am more than happy that April assigned me to cook from Jane’s blog again. I especially love her “comfort foods” and “festive foods” categories oh and not to forget the “desserts” – you can always buy me in with desserts. But she has so many lovely recipes to chose from that it is a hard job to narrow it down and settle on one recipe I want to cook.

Then when I read her “Best End of the World Meal” I suddenly knew what was my Secret Recipe Club meal this month.

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Homemade Beef and Vegetable Soup

adapted from © 2012 Jane Evans Bonacci, The Heritage Cook. All rights reserved
Yield: about 1 quart

INGREDIENTS

Stock

3 tbsp organic olive or vegetable oil
3 lb beef bones, cut into 6 to 7-inch pieces
1 onion, peeled and chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 quarts water

Soup
1 quart homemade beef stock
4 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
4 celery stalks, trimmed and chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped –  I used the equivalent amount of shallots, cause I happened to not have any onions at home
1 large shallot, peeled and sliced
Additional vegetables as desired such as zucchini, bok choy, spinach, green beans, bell peppers, etc. chopped – I didn’t add any additional veggies but added two medium potatos because I simply love potatos in my soup
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 (15 oz) can white beans, drained and rinsed well or 2 cups frozen partially cooked brown rice
1 to 2 tbsp beef demi glace or beef base, if desired
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

METHOD

1. Prepare the Stock: In a large, heavy stockpot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over high heat until shimmering. Add the bones and onions to the pot and reduce the heat to medium-high. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Cook, turning occasionally with tongs, until deeply browned, about 30 minutes. Add the water, bring to a boil (scrape the sides and bottom of the pot to release all the delicious goodness!), reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the liquid has reduced to about 1 quart. This can take 3 to 4 hours, but is mostly untended.
2. When the stock is well-flavored and reduced, discard the bones and onions and transfer to a storage container. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days. Freeze for longer storage.
3. Make the Soup: In a medium saucepan, bring the stock to a low simmer.
4. In a medium skillet, melt about 2 tbsp of the solidified beef fat (from the top of the chilled stock) over medium-high heat. You can also use olive oil if you prefer, but I love the added flavor the beef fat gives to the vegetables. Add the chopped onions, carrots, celery, shallots, and any other vegetables you are using. Sauté, stirring often, about 5 minutes and then add the herbs, salt and pepper. Continue to cook until vegetables are starting to soften but are not cooked all the way through, about 5 minutes. Add to the simmering broth.
5. Stir the beans and/or rice into the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low boil and cook until the vegetables are softened, beans are heated through, and the rice (if using) is tender, about 5 more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings. If needed, add the beef base and simmer 1 minute. Taste again and adjust seasonings if needed.
6. If the soup becomes too salty you can stir in 1 cup of water. Ladle into warmed serving bowls and serve immediately.

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I made this soup twice: first time I made the beef stock as described by Jane. Then I ate it all up and had no pictures made for the blog post… so I had to make it again … Second time I used my homemade roasted veggie stock made after a fool proof recipe DKM once posted on her blog.

It has grown to be one of my favorite soups at the moment. It’s quite quick if you have ready made stock in your freezer. Plus I like the texture ot the white beans in the soup. Delicious!!

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…and because the Romanesco in my fridge needed to be used I also made this cauliflower gratin. Beyond yummy I say! Plus if you want to make a vegetarian version just omit the bacon and there you go ;o)

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There is something with dealines and I…

I always seem to miss them. I was so proud that I baked this lovely Holiday Apple Kuchen which Gretchen – our Kichten Babe of the Month – chose for us to bake in December actually plenty in time to be able to have my post up when expected…

Oh and it turned out so lovely and yummy – thank you again Gretchen for making us bake this lovely cake – tho I personally do not consider this as bread even tho it has yeast in it…. ;o)

I baked the kuchen in my new spiffy Christmas theme shaped miffing forms for easier single serving. I am so glad I snapped a pic when they were still in the oven because this is the only picture proof I have that I really baked at all… theses lovelies where snarfed down within minutes of serving and gone as fast as the wind – you guess it: before I could settle and make some nice pictures for the blog.

When that happened I planned to bake it again because it was so yummy anyway but alas I really ran out of time :(

So you see below my only picture of the Holiday Apple Kuchen I made – if you haven’t already baked them from the other Babes’ blogs who were int time *cough* you really should give it a try!!

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sorry fo the crappy pic, but it sure was so delicious you should bake it!

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Holiday Apple Kuchen

Yield: 12 servings
Source: from the Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Baking 2009 Magazine
(Which, if you have never picked this seasonal magazine up…you are sorely missing out! It has become my favorite holiday magazine and I have people on the lookout for the 2012 edition already. I have 2007-2011 on hand and love them all. Great ideas, delicious recipes. Take note!)

2 1/4 cups flour, divided (I used closer to 2 3/4 cup to get a stiff batter)
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup milk (I used lowfat)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used Demerara sugar)
1/4 cup butter (I used salted, as always)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups apple slices (about 4 medium baking apples)
1/3 cup brown sugar (I used “panela” – a Peruvian dark sugar)
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I used lime juice…no lemons!)
1 teaspoon apple pie spice (I used a mix of cinnamon and allspice…I didn’t even take time to look up how to make apple pie spice)
Crumb Topping (I made this first)
Cream Cheese Topper

1. Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour and the yeast; set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, heat and stir milk, granulated sugar, butter and salt just until mixture is warm (120F-130F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes or until smooth. Beat in as much of the remaining flour as you can without the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour to make a stiff batter.
3. Spread batter into the prepared baking pan. In another large bowl, combine apples, brown sugar, tapioca, lemon juice and apple pie spice. Place apple mixture on top of the batter. Sprinkle with Crumb Topping. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
4. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 30 minutes or until top is browned and apples are tender. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Cut into 12 pieces and serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of Cream Cheese Topper on each piece.

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. (I will not confirm or deny that I doubled the crumb topping. Because crumb topping really is the best part.)

Cream Cheese Topper
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
2/3 whipping cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar

1. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in whipping cream and powdered sugar.

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Holiday Apple Kuchen

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Yeastspotted!

I send this over to Susan’s Yeastspotting.
YeastSpotting is a weekly showcase of yeasted baked goods and dishes with bread as a main ingredient. If you are not familiar with YeastSpotting just scroll the archive and you’ll know what I am talking about. To submit your post simply klick here!

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You sure want to bake this bread as well, don’t you?

Please do so, you will not regret it. If you snap some pics and share your thoughts about this month’s bread on your blog Tanna will be more than happy to add you to the BBB Buddy round up on November 29th.  If you do not own a blog, no worries, you can also post your picture to Flickr or any other photo sharing site and share your thoughts there.

One word about that whole Buddy thing: 
The Bread Baking Babes are a closed group but we thought it would be fun to reward people who take the effort of baking our breads with us and give them a nice Buddy Badge and mention in a round up post every month. Just to say thank you for baking along and sharing your thoughts with us.

Since we are Babes and do no obey to rules, there are nearly no rules for Buddies, except these two:

1. Bake the featured bread, snap a pic & share your thoughts about how you liked it (or not liked it)
2. Send an email to the Kitchen of the Month to notify  us and make it easier to write the round up.

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Don’t forget to visit my fellow Babes and see what they did with this lovely Bread this month.

Oh and don’t forget to visit Katie our BBBBB (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire) who writes up such lovely round ups of all the BBB Breads every month!

Bake My Day – Karen | blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth  | Feeding my enthusiasms – Pat  | Living in the Kitchen with Puppies – Natashya | Lucullian Delights – Ilva | Notitie Van Lien – Lien | Wild Yeast – Susan | My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna | Provechu Peru – Gretchen |

Busy, Busy Babes on Hiatus:  Grain Doe – Görel | Living on bread and water – Monique  | The Sour Dough – Breadchick Mary | Thyme For Cooking – Katie | Cookie Baker Lynn – Lynn | I Like To Cook – Sara

Thinking of you with Love: Glenna (Alumni Babe) | Sher (Angel Babe)

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