Fudgy Chocolaty Brownies

I wanted to surprise my grandson Caleb with a sweet treat and what better than Fudgy Chocolaty Brownies from scratch. These are moist and chewy, perfect when you have that chocolate craving.

What You Will Need:
Spatula
Stand Mixer With Whisk Attachment Or Hand Mixer with a Large Bowl
Small Bowl *to melt the butter*
8x11 Baking Dish *I like using glass*
Measuring Spoons
Measuring Cup
Scissors
Parchment Paper
Oven Mitts
Tooth Pick

Ingredients:
1-Cup Unsalted Butter Melted (2-Sticks) Use the small bowl
2-Tablespoons Cooking Oil,Vegetable, Olive or Coconut *I used Coconut this time.*
2 1/4-Cups Sugar
2-Eggs Large
1-Tablespoon + 1-Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1-Cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1-Cup Pure Unsweetened Pure Cocoa Powder
1/2-Teaspoon Salt
1-Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

**Cooking Spray or Use one of the oils listed above for coating the baking dish**

Preheat Oven 350-Degrees Fahrenheit

Directions:
Using the Cooking Spray or one of the other oils, lightly coat the sides and bottom of the baking dish.  Using the scissors, cut the parchment paper to the size of the baking dish and then place the parchment inside. You want the paper to line the sides and bottom, press inside to form.  By using the oil or spray, it keeps the parchment paper in place, now set aside. You don't have to do this, but I highly recommend it, it helps removing the brownies easily from the baking dish.

Add the melted butter, one of the oils you chose, and the sugar together into the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk on low for about a minute until well blended.  Add in the eggs and vanilla, mix again on low until the mixture is well blended for about a minute.  Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and salt.  Mix on low until well blended, don't over mix or it will make the brownies tough. Add in the chocolate chips, this time stir them in gently and fold using the spatula.

Pour the brownie batter mixture into the lined baking dish, use your spatula to scrape any remaining batter out of the bowl.  Spread the mixture evenly in the baking dish. You can add additional chocolate chips across the top if you like, I did. You can never have too much chocolate.

Place the baking dish inside of the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. When the time is up,  put on your oven mitts and remove the baking dish and place on a heat-resistant surface. Touch the brownies in the center with your finger, they should no longer jiggle to the touch. If they do, put your oven mitts back on and place them into the oven for a few more minutes and repeat the process.

Once completely baked through, let cool for about 45-minutes to an hour.  Lift the brownies up and out of the pan by the corners of the parchment paper, cut to desired size squares and serve.






















Caleb having a brownie, he actually took two because, he told me that one wasn't enough. (Smile) I had sent some home for his sister Annalise and his mom, my oldest daughter Nicole.

        

Asparagus, Mushroom and Cheddar Quiche

With this recipe I made my own scratch crust which I'll post here, it's basically a Short-Crust Pastry. You can buy a store bought frozen or those crusts you find in the refrigerator section of your grocery store.  Just some food for thought, no pun intended.  Please read the ingredients listed on the packaging, I can guarantee most of it you have never heard of or can't even pronounce, which isn't good for you. This is why I make the little extra effort and spend a little bit more time making meals and desserts from scratch.  But which ever you decide is up to you, I'm just being the messenger.

What is Quiche you're probably wondering?  Quiche is an egg custard dish made with vegetables and or meat that sits inside of a flaky crust, that's it. There are an array of variations, this is just one of them.

What You Will Need:
Pastry Cutter or 2-Knives
Medium Size Mixing Bowl
Measuring Cup
Measuring Spoon
Whisk
Cutting Board
9-Inch Pie Plate *I like glass*
Rolling Pin
Grater Box or Hand
Pastry Brush
Large Baking Sheet
Aluminum Foil

Ingredients For the Quiche Crust:
1-Egg Large
2 1/2-Tablespoons Ice Water
1 1/2-Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour plus a little extra for dusting
1/2-Teaspoon Sea Salt *Finely Ground*
10-Tablespoons Butter Unsalted and diced into small cubes

In your mixing bowl, add in the ice water and crack open the egg. Mix together with the whisk.  Once well mixed, add in the flour and salt, again mix well with the whisk.  Now add in the cubes of butter, this time using your pastry cutter or knives. If using knives you are basically using one in one hand and one in the other cutting and blending in the butter and the other ingredients, keep doing this until little nuggets form.

Using your cutting board, add a little dusting of flour.  **Here's a helpful hint:  To stop your cutting board or even your bowls from moving while you are mixing, put a dish towel under them.**
Lift the dough out of the bowl and put onto the dusted cutting board.  You want to hand work the dough until it's completely well mixed, then you want to roll it in your hands and form a dough ball.  Remove the dough ball off of the cutting board and lightly dust the board again.  Transfer the dough ball back on to the cutting board. Now you want to take the rolling pin and start rolling the dough out, you want to roll it out into a disc-circle just over an inch or so of the size of the pie plate. Once it's all rolled out into the disc you can turn the pie plate upside down on top of the disc of dough.

Gently press the pie plate into the dough, this will leave an impression. You can either lift up the pie plate, using your knife to cut and follow the impression, or just trace and cut around the pie plate using your. Once the disc-circle has been cut out, fold it in half.  You want to transfer it into the pie plate, placing it in the middle. Once in the middle unfold the disc and make sure it fits evenly inside of the plate.  You want to gently work the dough disc up the sides and flatten the bottom. You don't have to get fancy with this, you can crimp or just make a ridge like I did. *See Photo.* Once this is done set aside.

**You can use the same mixing bowl that you had made the pastry crust.**

Preheat Oven To 375-Degrees

Ingredients For the Quiche Filling:
1-Cup Asparagus Cut into pieces
1/2-Cup Mushrooms Sliced
1-Cup Cheddar Cheese Shredded

Ingredients For the Custard Filling:
5-Eggs Large
1/2-Cup Heavy Cream
1/2-Cup Whole Milk
1/4-Teaspoon Sea Salt Finely Ground
1/4-Teaspoon Black Cracked Pepper
1/4-Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1 1/2-Tablespoon Ground Mustard

Directions:
In the mixing bowl add milk, eggs, cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Use your whisk and mix everything together.  Take the pastry crust that you just made, add in the mustard to the middle of the crust. Take the pastry brush and brush the bottom and sides of the crust evenly. Add in the asparagus, then the mushrooms and then the cheese on top. To grate the cheese, I freeze mine first, then I spray my grater with a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil, this helps the cheese grate and slide easier while grating. I use a pump dispenser for mine, or you can use a cooking spray. Be careful not to cut your knuckles while doing this.  Now pour the custard egg mixture evenly all over the top.  Set aside.  Line your baking sheet with aluminum foil, this will be an easy clean up if the filing bubbles over and spills. Place Quiche on baking sheet and bake for 40-minutes.

Check your Quiche at 40-minutes, the center should be firm but still have a little jiggle to it, that's okay. The top should be a light golden brown. Put on your Oven Mitts and remove from the oven. Place on a heat-resistant surface and let rest -cool and firm up for about 10-minutes.  Serve hot.

Italian Wedding Soup

This soup is so easy to make, a little time consuming but well worth it. I like to serve it with a nice rustic crusty bread, or I make my Garlic Rosemary Bread, the recipe is here on my blog.  This is hearty and great on chilly days. I make a large pot and freeze half and use for another time.

What You Will Need:
Measuring Cup
Measuring Spoons
Whisk
Sharp Knife
Large Pot
Parchment Paper *Optional*
Mixing Bowl Small
Mixing Bowl Large
Large Baking Sheet *Optional*
Wooden Spoon
Ladle
Serving Bowls

Meatballs:
1-Onion finely chopped or grated
1/3-Cup Dried Parsley
1-Egg Large
2-Teaspoons Garlic Minced
1/2-Teaspoon Salt
1-Cup Bread Crumbs or 1-slice of white bread, crust trimmed and torn into small pieces
1/2-Cup Parmesan Cheese Grated
1-Pound Ground Beef (Hamburger) *I use 80-20, meaning 20% fat
*Note: Sometimes I use 8-Ounces ground Sweet Sausage & 8-Ounces of the ground beef*
1/2-Teaspoon Cracked Black Pepper
1/2-Teaspoon Salt
1/2-Cup Dry White Wine

Directions For The Meatballs:
Line your baking sheet with Parchment Paper. I chose to just use my counter top and laid the Parchment on top.  Put the first 6-ingredients into the large mixing bowl and mix with your hands. Once blended, add in the remaining ingredients, mix well. Shape the ground beef mixture into little balls about 2-inches, you can make them smaller if you like. Just roll the meat around in your hands.  Lay each meatball that you make onto the parchment paper.  Keep doing this until all of the ground beef mixture is gone. Set aside. I had extra meat mixture so I made larger meatballs and put them in a Ziplock Freezer bag and froze them for another time. There's 50-meatballs that I had used for the soup.

Soup:
4-Carrots Cut On A Diagonal
4 32-Ounce Boxes Organic Sodium-Free Chicken Broth
1-Pound Kale *Remove the leaves from the stems by holding with one hand and stripping upwards with the other.* After you remove from the stems, roll the Kale into a small bunch and chop with a Sharp Kitchen Knife.
2-Eggs Large
3-Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2-Teaspoon Salt
1/2-Teaspoon Cracked Black Pepper
2 1/4-Cups Dry Orzo *I didn't have any on hand so I used medium size dry Shell Pasta*

Directions For Soup:
Add all of the Chicken Broth into the large pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Drop the meatballs into the broth one at a time. Add in the Kale and Carrots. Cook until the Carrots, meatballs and Kale are cooked through and tender, about 8-10 minutes.  Add the pasta to the soup and gently stir with the wooden spoon.

While the soup is cooking, take your small mixing bowl and crack in the 2-eggs, be careful as not to get the shells inside the bowl.  Whisk the eggs and then add in the Parmesan Cheese, continue whisking until well blended. With the wooden spoon, gently stir the soup in a circular motion.  Now, drizzle the egg and cheese mixture into the soup, stirring gently for about a minute.


























Check the pasta and see if it's Al Dente, not too soft, firm to the bite. You don't want your pasta mushy or too firm. Ladle the soup into serving bowls.  You can serve with Crusty Bread or my Garlic Rosemary Bread. I tuck a piece into the bowl of soup and serve that way. You can also add a sprinkling of cheese, you can never have enough cheese.  Mangiare!!

Home Made Pizza

As many of you know by now, I love baking, cooking and canning.  I make the majority of my meals and desserts from scratch.  It's very satisfying to me to make healthy home made food.  I used my home made Spaghetti Sauce which is list here on my blog. My two grand kids, Annalise 16 and my grandson Caleb 6 both helped me, they love to help. I feel it's good to teach children how to cook and spending time with each other and away from electronics and the television makes for great bonding time and conversations.  It was the perfect day for doing this, it was chilly and raining. We had the fireplaces lit, there's nothing better than the smell of burning wood and hearing the wood popping.  The music was turned up and we were singing and dancing barefoot in my kitchen. I'm hoping that I'm making great memories for them at Granny K, AKA: K's house.  That's what the grand kids call me.  I'm the youngest of the gramma's, it originally started as a joke and the name just seemed to stick.  When my 4-kids were young, I did the same with them, and we still continue this tradition on the holidays and get-to-gethers. We all congregate in the kitchen, cooking, baking, laughing, dancing or singing.  Life is good.

  Caleb with McKenna on the left and Capone on the right.

Note: Makes 2-Pizzas

Home Made Pizza Dough Freezer-Friendly

Ingredients:

2-Cups warm water **105-115-degrees Fahrenheit, use a Candy Thermometer**

2-Tablespoons Active Dry Yeast

2-Teaspoons Sugar

2-Teaspoons Salt

4-Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

5-Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour. *Some times I use Wheat or do a 50/50 of both* Plus some extra for the Cutting Board

Corn Meal

Toppings:

Ground Beef rolled into little meat balls. I don't season these.

Pepperoni Sliced

Mushrooms Sliced

Red and Green Peppers cut into diced pieces

Onions Sliced

Mozzarella Cheese Grated
My Spaghetti Sauce or Jar store purchased is fine

What You Will Need:

Measuring Cup

Measuring Spoons

Pizza Stone if you have one, if not, a large baking sheet will work. 

Stand Mixer with a Bread Hook. Or you can use your hands.

Zip Lock Freezer Bag

Wood Cutting Board

Dough Cutter or Sharp Knife

Candy Thermometer

Large Mixing Bowl. 2 if you don't have a stand mixer.

Wooden Spoon

Plastic Wrap

Rolling pin

Oven Mitts

Pizza Wheel Cutter or Sharp Knife

Large Spatula

Ladle

**Place your Pizza Stone in to your cold oven on the bottom rack, turn on to 450-degrees Fahrenheit** (I remove the other racks, it's easier to maneuver the hot Pizza Stone later)

Directions On How To Make The Dough:

Pour the warm water into the large bowl, make sure that the temperature is correct by using the candy thermometer. Sprinkle the yeast into the bowl and stir with the wooden spoon until well dissolved, set aside. Add all of the dry ingredients above, as well as the Extra Virgin Olive Oil, into the stand mixer using the bread hook attachment. Now, add in a little of the yeast mixture, mix on low-speed to start.  Gradually keep adding in the wet mixture to the dry increasing the speed to medium. Continue doing this until all of the wet is well incorporated into the dry. If the dough is sticky, add in some more flour, keep mixing on medium-speed.  You want the dough to be firm, not stiff and no longer sticky to the touch.  

Using the wooden cutting board, sprinkle some flour all over the top of it, not too thick. Remove the  dough from the mixing bowl and place on the flour dusted wooden cutting board.  Knead the dough with your hands for 2-5-minutes until it becomes smooth and not lumpy.  If it's still lumpy, add a little more flour to the cutting board and continue kneading. When the dough is at the right consistency it will actually have a little bit of a sheen to it.  Now roll the dough into a ball. Using your Dough Cutter, cut into 4-equal sections and roll in to balls.  You can either use all 4 to make 4-pizzas or freeze half and use at a later date, I chose to freeze half. Take each dough ball and wrap in plastic wrap, then put them in the Zip Lock Freezer Bag,  I also put the date on the bag so I know when I had made them. 

The dough balls that you didn't freeze, using your Rolling Pin, roll out onto the wooden cutting board with a little flour spread on the top surface.  Keep rolling out until you have an even disc. Once you have it rolled out in to the disc, sprinkle some of the corn meal on top of the dough and spread all around the dough evenly.  The corn meal helps prevent the pizza from burning and sticking to the Pizza Stone. Now here's where you have to be careful because I don't have a Pizza Paddle, if you do that's great use it.  Putting on your Oven Mitts, carefully remove the stone from the oven and place on a heat resistant surface.  Remove your Oven Mitts and flip the corn meal dusted side of the dough down on to the top of the hot Pizza Stone. BE VERY CAREFUL!!  If the dough isn't placed completely evenly on top of the Pizza Stone, don't worry about it. 

Now ladle the sauce onto the dough until it is completely covering the dough disc.  Add your topping over top of the sauce leaving the Mozzarella Cheese for last.  You can use what ever toppings you like and add as much as you like or don't like. We had made one with everything that is listed above and one that was a meat-lovers, just the sauce meatballs, pepperoni and cheese.  

Put your Oven Mitts back on and place the Pizza Stone back in to the hot oven, be very careful. Bake for about 10-minutes or until the crust looks light brown and is crispy.  When it's done, remove the hot Pizza Stone with your Oven Mitts, place on a heat-resistant surface and let cool for about 5-10 minutes or so.  Using a knife or Pizza Wheel Cutter, cut into equal pieces, remove with the spatula and serve.

How To Use The Frozen Dough:
Take the dough out of the freezer. In a large bowl, put some Extra Virgin Olive Oil on a paper towel and rub the sides and bottom of the bowl. Remove the dough from the freezer bag and place in to the greased bowl.  Cover with a linen dish towel and let thaw at room temperature for at least 4-hours or until completely thawed and you can handle it.  Roll the dough out on to a floured wooden Cutting Board, into a disc and follow the above instructions.