Sweet Potato Biscuits with Chipotle Turkey Gravy

On "Black Friday" I try to stay home. I love making breakfast for the family and putting up the Christmas tree first. I think it puts things in a proper order in my mind. This particular Friday I made a recipe I had been working on this week.

I received an email from a teacher who has been to Space Camp. At the time, it was just such a sweet letter I had to look into what she was asking me about. I honestly, love getting mail like that and try to get things done quickly. This gal wanted to know how to make light fluffy sweet potato biscuits. She enjoyed them at her local whole foods market and wanted a recipe that would work. She wanted fluffy slightly sweet with a very light hint of spice. I was immediately intrigued. My adoration for sweet potatoes is almost as close as my bliss over blackberries. Space camp... I've never been there. I've never once claimed to be good enough at math to even go to Space Camp. Biscuit I can do. Smothered in a light buttermilk chipotle gravy with chunks of turkey sausage I can do. Gentleman...and ladies, begin countdown. Check your oven dials. It's time...

Tess' Sweet potato biscuits (yield 8 large or 16 small)

Dry ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup butter or (organic vegetable shortening)

1/2 tsp salt

2T sugar (or granulated fructose)

5 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Wet ingredients:
2/3 cup milk or buttermilk
1/3 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. I cook the sausage gravy at the same time I make the biscuits. Don't worry if you can't do both at the same time yet. It's not landing the shuttle.

First you will need to mash some sweet potato.
I prefer the fork smashing compared to the ever popular version many mothers see. You know, the kids chewing it and spitting it out version.

It takes about 1/2 a small sweet potato to make 1/3 cup mashed. Not much, right?

Combine the sweet potato with buttermilk or milk (or water if you are vegan). The colder the liquid the better.

In a separate bowl, combine the shortening or butter with the dry ingredients. Mix until the shortening has been cut into tiny pieces, the size of a pea. If you don't know what that looks like see:Tuesday Tutorial Pecan Pie. It has great pictures on what shortening cut into flour looks like in the pastry world.
Once the liquid ingredients are combined, add them to the flour/shortening mixture.

Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix very gingerly (like my fancy talk?)
Until a light dough is formed. There will be lumps and pieces of sweet potato.

Knead the dough 4-5 times, then roll out on an floured counter top. It will be about as high as a...canning ring.

Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake 15-20 minutes.

It's still not as hot as re-entering the Earth's atmosphere in there.

While they bake you can make the sausage gravy.

Tess' buttermilk chipotle Turkey Gravy

1 lb lean mild turkey sausage

1 T minced chipotle pepper

1/4 cup minced onion

2T minced garlic

1/4 cup flour

2 cups buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda (you only need the baking soda if you use the real buttermilk here...)

2 cups milk (You may need a little more if you prefer a gravy on the thin side.)

In a large 16 inch family skillet with deep sides, cook the sausage over medium heat along with the chipotle pepper onion and garlic. When turkey is cooked through, add the flour and cook 3-4 minutes until dark. Add the soda and buttermilk (soda neutralizes the acid in the buttermilk so it doesn't curdle and you still get that nice slightly tart taste of the buttermilk...nice.) Add the rest of the milk stir constantly. Simmer 10-15 minutes, stir periodically. Serve over hot sweet potato biscuits. Wonderful with cranberry relish.

There you go. Thanks for the great letter Heather!

Homemade English Muffin tutorial

This Tutorial Tuesday I wanted to show a little bit of fun with something that seems to be one of those "lost arts". English Muffins. I promise if you can make bread dough, you can make these. It's not rocket science. I have found a few tricks and have also found this recipe to be pretty good for light fluffy muffins. Auntie Em sent me a recipe book that had this recipe in it, and the directions. My mouth dropped when I saw how easy they where. Why had I not been making them for years?! So, I started practicing. I love this recipe, I do however also use the overnight started bread dough for these too, and it works really well for great flavor. Make the dough as usual and when it comes time to shape into loaves, shape and cut into English Muffins instead.

Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
3 cups bread flour (if you use whole wheat, add about 1/4 cup more liquid)
1 teas. Salt
1 T. Dry yeast
1 teas. Sugar
1 cup Warm milk (I have a friend who uses buttermilk...mmmm)
1/2 cup raisins (optional. apparently some people think raisins are of the Devil)
1T cinnamon (I add clove, ginger, and nutmeg as well)
2 oz. Butter, melted

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and leave in a warm place. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm (105 F) milk (M−Waved). Let froth, then mix in the butter. Stir all the liquid into the warm flour and beat well until smooth and elastic. More complete directions for forming dough and proofing can also be found in the overnight started bread tutorial. Cover and proof in a warm place for 50 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Turn onto a well−floured board and
knead, working a little more flour if necessary to make the dough easier to shape. Round up the dough, roll into a thick sausage shape. I use a lot of flour to coat these. Some people don't like to do it that way but I think it makes them look really cool...and not stick to my counter tops. Always a plus.

Using the sharpest knife you have, slice into 8 to 10 portions, each about 1 1/2
to 1 3/4 inch thick. Shape each one into a round with straight sides

I usually score my bread with the knife so I know what the heck I am doing. Really scientifically calculated too(...oh come on). It sounds smart. I just eyeball it. It should make about 10. I doubled the recipe so if it looks like I got a ton... I did. My kids love them.

Put onto a greased baking sheet. Personally, I love the cornmeal coating so I lightly (very lightly) mist the pan with a little oil and then sprinkle it with a good coating of cornmeal. Then I put some cornmeal on the top of them too. Cover (use plastic wrap) and put in a warm place to proof for 30−40 minutes or until springy to the touch. Leave room for expansion and be careful not to over−proof, as the muffins will get flabby and lose their shape. Big words for saying..."don't let them get super pooofy". I know a lot of things that get too poofy and lose their shape. NO comments on my thighs. None. Random moment there sorry.

The cornmeal on top keeps it from sticking to the plastic while it raises. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the plastic wrap covering the muffins. You will just have to use your imagination.

Lift the muffins carefully onto a cast iron skillet or a thick bottomed skillet (like the 12 inch Pampered Chef family skillet--I love mine.) and cook over very moderate heat for 5-7 minutes until pale gold underneath. Turn and cook the other side 5-7 minutes as well. Moderate heat for me was medium heat (#4 on my dial) but every stove is different, so try not to get it too hot. It took me about 40 minutes to make all of mine. We made 20. Days like that I wish I had an electric skillet or something. However, it did make me think that if I was camping...I could totally make these since they don't need an oven!

One secret I found to getting them to bake really well, was to use a tight fitting lid. Oh...and if you can, dump out as much of the stray cornmeal as you can between batches. It will burn a little and add a not-so-amazing flavor.

Enjoy. Wrap in a cloth and keep warm if cooking in batches. To serve, insert a knife in the side, pull the top and bottom slightly apart,and insert slivers of butter...or just crack them open and dig in.

There you go. Happy Muffin making.

Tortilla Tutorial with String Cheese

12 years ago I went to a church activity where a Mexican mother was teaching how to make tortillas. I absorbed it totally into my life. She was named Alba. It was a great class. See, I'm not above learning something new. I try to learn something new everyday...which usually means I actually do it about once a week.

Several months ago, my loving and adorable mother asked me to do a tutorial on tortillas. I am not totally all together perfect yet. I just remembered it today. So, as it is Tuesday and my cousin "String Cheese" who goes to ASU comes over just to hang out with me (yea, I know...she must REALLY like me)...on Tuesdays...we made tortillas together. This is the official tutorial for the rest of you who don't love me enough to drop everything and come over on Tuesdays. Or, just have other things in your life right now and have recently added a little bit of guilt to that list...I love you! Don't worry. I love the one on one with String Cheese. She plays a string instrument...and loves cheese. String Cheese... She's the coolest cousin.

I think she really loved seeing the blogging process first hand. She was laughing at me a lot...and that was just before we started cooking...then she was rolling!

She also loved her tortilla with extra, extra, extra cheese...go figure.

We used a tortilla mix... but you can also make your own!

Tess' Homemade Tortilla Mix:

5 cups flour
1T salt
1T baking powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder,optional
1/2 tsp ground cumin, optional
1/2 tsp ground oregano, optional
1 cup butter (or shortening or lard-- I use butter)

Cut butter into flour, baking powder, salt, and seasoning with the paddle in an electric mixer, (with a food processor, cut the recipe in half and proceed, with 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup butter.. use the blade attachment, are you getting this?) Mix until the butter is in fine pieces smaller than peas. Totally okay to use the mix! This is store bought. I used it today with String Cheese...
If you use the store bought mix, use the water to mix ratio suggested on the bag. For mine...In a separate container BOIL 2 cups water (full recipe) or 1cup cuisinart. Dump boiling water into the flour mixture and combine with paddle about 1 minute on medium speed (food processor, 25-30 seconds). remove dough from the bowl and form into 12-18 balls, depending on the size of the tortillas you want. 12 will make 8-10 inch tortillas, 18 will make 4-6 inch tortillas.

Roll the tortillas into rounds...starting with an oval seems to work pretty well...I don't know why. String Cheese did an exceptional job!

Hold up that uncooked tortilla so the folks at home can see how cool you are!

No need to use flour on the board. Just roll out into a 6-8 inch tortilla and cook on a moderate skillet (medium heat) until done (about 2 minutes on each side). It should bubble up like this...and look this artsy too...

Cover with moist dishcloth to keep tender. I usually roll one out while one is cooking, and enlist the help of my two sons who adore the tortilla project! They don't make super round ones just yet, but it is so cute to see them getting all freaked out about their little tortillas! I think adults do a lot better...and String Cheese totally proved me right (as usual).

Serve warm with fresh salsa and lots of cheese...double that for any cool cousins who love cheese. Enjoy!

There you go. Thanks for the fun String Cheese!

Spiced Apple Sourdough and pumpkin seed muffins

Playing in the kitchen has again brought me a family favorite. These muffins are slightly sweet but not overly sweet. Overly sweet is possible and it seems that most American pastries are just overkill. I wanted to use the Apple sour in a quick bread. Adapting a " low fat" muffin recipe from a major bakery chain, I came up with this new personal recipe. I used less than half of the sugar they originally called for, and didn't miss it at all. The low fat recipe also called for twice the butter! How is that supposed to be low fat? Yikes. That is where the apple sour came into play. It replaced half of the fat with a lot of flavor. When I have a bakery this recipe will be wiped off the blog...so use it now.

Spiced Apple Sourdough muffins with pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup melted organic butter (or oil...but butter is goooood)

1/2 cup Apple sour
3/4 cup dark buckwheat honey, or molasses

2 eggs

1T double strength vanilla

1 cup organic yogurt (I used peach)

1/4 cup water or milk

4 cups whole wheat cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1T cinnamon (Penzey's Spices )

1/4 tsp curry powder (yea, really it seems weird but it gives great subtle flavor)

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Directions:

Combine the butter, honey, eggs, apple sour, vanilla, yogurt, and milk. Look how cool the apple sour island is. I want to vacation there, but I can't find my pink flip-flops.

Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour into the bowl with the wet mixture.

Mix just until combined. If you use regular wheat flour instead of cake flour this means don't mix much more than you have to. Really. I mean it. Add the pumpkin seeds. I didn't even plan on them being the green in my St. Patrick's day but these muffins would totally work for a fun green breakfast...with some green eggs and ham.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scoop batter into paper lined muffin tin. This recipe makes 24 medium muffins. I use a scoop to measure batter. It just makes it go so much faster. See the pumpkin seeds sitting there patiently in the mason jar?
Yes, I may use mason jars more than any human being on earth.

Now, sprinkle a few more pumpkin seeds on the top of the muffins. They are supposed to look all natural and earthy. Feel that? It's the seeds making your soul sing.

Bake 15-17 minutes, until golden brown...or more golden brown. Serve warm with something equally as earthy and delicious.

There you go.

Weight watchers: 3 points each.

Rosemary and Shallot breadsticks

In my last post, I mentioned that it was pizza night and in order to keep the peace with my vegetarian husband, I made bread sticks to go along side the Arizona BBQ Chicken and Sausage Pizza . Here is the two worlds colliding and my wooden spoon keeping the peace, as it often does:

For the bread sticks, it couldn't get much simpler if I tried. Top with 1/4 cup melted butter...or olive oil or whatever oil you like. I like the flavor of butter...plus it looks like a giant egg over easy ...

Once the butter is spread, I top it with fresh cracked black pepper, 2T all purpose Italian seasoning (my blend, but most brands work...), and 1/2 cup chopped fresh rosemary. I don't know about the other parts of the country, but here, we have rosemary bushes we trim with an electric chain saw. I've been told some people have to coddle this little herb to make it grow. I'm so sorry if that is the case. Rosemary is my favorite herb. I make no apologies. This rosemary grows on a bush in my yard. MMM. Rosemary...

I break it up and sprinkle it all over the bread stick dough, though you can just chop it if you don't want your fingers to smell like fat little sausages. Yea, my fingers look a little like fat sausages anyway so I guess the smell couldn't be a far off addition to the living metaphor of sausage personified. Dip me in maple syrup and serve me up fried. Yikes. I don't even want to think about being served up fried.

Slice 4 shallots thin, and spread them out on the dough as well.

Cut up the dough into rectangle things using your pizza cutter. Mine is really shiny so it looks like a mirror. Crazy vain Rosemary wanting to get a glimpse of itself before it is cut into pieces.

This makes about 20 bread sticks. I tried to figure that out without the picture later on when I was figuring out the Weight Watchers points for one bread stick, and it hurt my fragile brain. Use the picture. It works better. I was pumped to figure out that if I use whole wheat flour, they are 1 point a piece. ONE. Yippeeee!

If they last long enough to put on a plate and take pictures, I highly recommend taking them down to the river. The rocks make an excellent backdrop...and the trickle sound of water isn't too bad for your heart either.

There you go. No crying vegetarians in the home. It's a beautiful thing.

Blue Cheese, Bacon and Dill Cornbread Muffins

Can I just say I love cornbread ? I do. I wish I could eat it everyday. These cornbread muffins we had with some lovely French Onion Chowder and Cheese... It was a perfect fit. In case you didn't get the first two hints...the recipe for these is here : cornbread . For muffins, use a half recipe. So...one cup flour instead of two...

Instead of sour milk or buttermilk, I used 1 cup prepared dill dip. Sue me.

I stopped myself from smearing this all over my face, despite the natural beauty it would have enhanced. That lactic acid alone is worth gobbing on your face...it's the clumps of onion I'm not so sure about. I mean really, what if a chunk got caught in my ear canal. That would defeat the whole purpose of the beauty scrub, right? Wait, why would anything get caught in my ear canal if I'm rubbing it on my face?! That was totally random.

Then I added 1/2 cup cooked crumbled bacon and 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese.

Why is it when I say or type bacon, I oink out loud. I also snort when I laugh sometimes. Which has nothing to do with muffins...

Mix just until combined, like the cornbread recipe states. Scoop into 12 muffin cups, lined with cupcake papers if you'd like. Bake 425 degrees, 12-15 minutes. Remove from pan. Put them in a lovely basket lined with a crisp clean kitchen towel...not one your kids have used to wash the turtle.

If you are not a cutsie chick or guy then just eat them standing up in the kitchen slathered in drippy butter. I do mean slather the muffins, not yourself. I see how that first sentence could be totally misunderstood.

I'm not checking to see if you present them in a decorative manner. Do what you want!

Dig in.