Lemon Muffins

Huckleberry Pie, Individual Size

 

This was the wrong ratio of crust to fruit.   I don't recommend individual pies.

I made a mistake.  I should have tossed the berries with flour before adding in the butter.  

Big whoops.  It turned out okay in the end. 

 But as you can see from the photo above, I had reason to be concerned.

 As you can see from the final photo, I do not recommend making 

fruit pies in Demarle (Now Boncook) silpan products.

 

As you can see from the photo below, there was a big mess on the oven liner.  

Thank goodness there was one.  But it burned and smoked the house up so much.

To solve this problem, I had the big fans going and doors and windows thrown wide open which of course resulted in an afternoon of fly swatting.

Brunch Tarts: Hashbrowns, Bacon, Eggs

Today we are going to see a treasured 92 year old friend who is in Hospice care.  She has no appetite.  Her caregivers do.  We wanted to take something to share, but the grocery stock is not as plentiful as I would like.

What DO we have on hand?  Baked potatoes (several), one onion, 3 eggs and some dairy items such as sour cream and whipping cream.  And later in the project, I found some precooked bacon too.  And in the garden, the cilantro is ready.

Years ago I sold French bake ware called Demarle.  Since then it has changed names to Boncook.  A favorite treat for our family is to make individual tarts or pies.  And this thought came to me today.  How fun it would be to deliver savory tarts.  And even more fun if I could use what I have on hand without a trip to the store.


I started with chopping and frying the onion in lots of butter.  When those were golden brown, I added 4 grated baked potatoes left over from last night's supper.  Those too were sauteed until golden brown.

Meanwhile, I started the pie crust from scratch.

7 ounces unsalted butter, cut in chunks.  Very cold!
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 /2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar (Bragg's)
1/2 cup ice water

The butter and dry ingredients were cut together with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembled small pea size particles.  Then added the wet ingredients.  Mixing it just until it hung together.

Rolled out and cut with the cutter that matches the Silform tray with 12 individual pie shapes.  I think it's called the large Silform tray.  Mine is years old and it is not currently available on the website.

Here is an equivalent product which I would love to own as well:

https://cindy4bonbite.boncook.com/products/5529-silform-fluted-square-tray-12.aspx

Continuing on with the savory tart filling while the potatoes and onions are frying...

I started placing ingredients in a mixing bowl which included:

3 strips of bacon, precooked and chopped
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs, 1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
grated pepper

And sent a child to the garden to pick a cereal bowl full of cilantro.

When the potatoes and onions were finished, I stirred those into the mixing bowl too.

Then I filled the 12 individual pie crusts with this filling and topped with cilantro and left over grated cheese.

Oven was set to 375 degrees and were finished baking at 18 minutes.

 Photo below from old cell phone camera
 

Photo below from good camera with good lens.

Lemon Poppy Seed Sourdough Waffles

This is the first waffle off the griddle.  They went like...well...waffles.  I was going to say hot cakes...but you know, they aren't hot cakes.

 

We made a batch of lemon cream cheese frosting (next photo) to add to the waffles.  

Some of us tried these with regular syrup too and liked it better.

Personally I thought the frosting was too thick and too sweet.  Here is the recipe:

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. of cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp. of lemon zest

1/4 cup of lemon juice

2 cups of powder sugar

1. Mix the all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy.

This recipe is rather fantastic as frosting for lemon pound cake.  

Last waffle came off the griddle and we let the frosting melt in.  Ugh!  Too sweet.

The next photo shows the recipe.

Next time I would double the poppy seeds and lemon zest/juice.

And about the lemon glaze for a topping...it was too thick and too sweet for this application.  It was the recipe from the Italian Lemon Cream Cake which is back a couple years on this blog.  And just right for the cake.

We made these waffles because someone important to me wanted to experiment with these particular flavors.  We grew our own poppy seeds.

Whiskey Pecan Pie

A year ago I committed to a birthday pecan pie for my son-in-law.

This week that was belatedly fulfilled.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in Minature

Nordic Bakeware Lemon Buttermilk Bundt Cake Mix

 In the winter I was shopping in Klicker's and another lady came in and bought several of these cake mixes off the shelf.  I noticed and questioned her about it.  She was friendly and let me know her family requests these for the holidays.  She was stocking up.  So I bought one to try.

Then it never happened and my husband pulled it out of the cupboard a couple weeks ago and encouraged me to complete the project.

It calls for a 10 cup mold and mine is 8 cup.  So I had some batter left over and made 5 fancy cupcakes which I gave away to friends.

Then this week, we were back in Klicker's and they had one mix left.  I had several children along and we made it the next day but instead of the bundt cake shape, we used other shapes (see Boncook) that were smaller.  So those are pictured below.

 

 

They were very good.  I highly recommend.