Fresh Rosemary Bread

"With a piece of bread in your hand you’ll find paradise under a pine tree."

 

– Russian Proverb

I made this rosemary bread to eat at a BBQ I hosted. Bread may seem strange to serve at a BBQ, homemade bread even stranger perhaps. Here's the way I see it. When guests come over to my house, I want them to eat well. Of course you want them to eat well, you say! What that means to me is to serve food you don't normally get. Special food.  What that means from one person to the next is subjective. For these particular guests, I know they like bread, for example. I also know that one of them loves dessert and goes on and on about fresh whipped cream.

I used fresh rosemary from my very mature rosemary bush. I've added different amounts in the recipe for mature rosemary such as mine, or rosemary from the grocery store since mature homegrown rosemary is stronger in taste than what you would get from the grocery store.

So for dessert I served a homemade pound cake (recipe coming soon) topped with fresh peaches and lots of really spectacular homemade whipped cream. What made it so special is I used the best cream available to me, Twinbrook Creamery cream. Almost raw, and from Jersey cows, so it's even higher in fat content. I mean this stuff is ridiculous.

My bread rising it's first rise

Bread isn't really special in and of itself, but homemade bread is quite special. The smell that wafts through your house while it bakes is hypnotizing. I mean how often do you get homemade bread?

My dough rounds about to rise for the second time

Since I'm in the kitchen most of the day when guests come, making bread is easy. Most of the time spent is in the rising. I used a Kitchen aid mixer to knead my dough, but even if you knead it by hand, that only takes 10 minutes or so. Definitely worth it. Heck, if you have a bread machine, you could make the dough on the dough setting and just bake off the rounds in the oven.

After the second rise, ready for the oven

This bread in particular is crazy cheap too. I mean it's only flour, yeast, a bit of sugar, some rosemary, (My rosemary came from my garden so I didn't have to pay for it) and a little olive oil.

After baking shortly you brush the bread with oil and top with more rosemary and some coarse salt

This bread is well worth the little effort it takes. The recipe is adapted from Food Network's, Almost Famous Rosemary Bread. It has lots of great reviews with good reason. It's soft and tender, and fragrant with fresh rosemary. I love the crunchy bits of salt that top the bread. It can be dipped into olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or simply spread with soft butter.

Right out of the oven!

We ate our bread with a Caprese salad with buratta cheese and heirloom tomatoes. We drank watermelon mojitos made with fresh mint from my garden. Our dinner was kebabs on the BBQ, with 3 different homemade dipping sauces: fresh pineapple teriyaki, chimichurri, and a tzatziki sauce. It was a fun and relaxing warm summer night, filled with laughter, great friends and great food.

Here is the BBQ where I served this bread. The salad is a Caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil and Burrata. It was delicious!

 

Never miss a post! Follow The Alchemist on Facebook! Or Pinterest!

 

 

Fresh Rosemary Bread



This recipe is adapted from Almost Famous Rosemary Bread from Foodnetwork.com

This recipe makes 4 small rounds

The bread is best eaten the same day it's made

Ingredients

1 1/4 oz. packet (or 2 1/2 tsp.) of active dry yeast

2 tsp. sugar

2 Tablespoons olive oil plus more for brushing

2 1/2 cups (312 g.) all purpose flour plus more for dusting

4 Tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped finely (if you have your own rosemary bush and it's pretty mature, use 3 - 3 1/2 Tablespoons) If you are buying it from the store, use the 4 Tablespoons. OR if using dried rosemary, use 1 Tablespoon

1 tsp. fine salt


For Topping Bread

Kosher salt or another type of coarse salt

1/2 Tablespoon fresh, finely chopped Rosemary - or if using dried also use 1/2 Tablespoon

Directions

Stir the yeast, sugar and 1/4 cup of warm water (105°–115° Fahrenheit, (41°–46° Celsius) 
in a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer.) Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, the flour, the rosemary, the fine salt and 3/4 cup warm water; stir with a wooden spoon (or with the dough hook if using a mixer) until a dough forms. 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting lightly with flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (Or knead with the dough hook on medium-high speed, adding a little flour if the dough sticks to the bowl, about 8 minutes.) I used a mixer with the dough hook and I needed to add a little more flour. If it feels too wet when done kneading, add more flour until it feels like dough and is not wet or sticky.

Brush a large bowl with olive oil. Add the dough, cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until more than doubled, about 2 hours.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Generously flour a work surface; turn the dough out onto the flour and divide into 4 pieces. Working with one piece at a time, sprinkle some flour on the dough, then fold the top and bottom portions into the middle. Fold in the sides to make a free-form square. Use a spatula to turn the dough over, then tuck the corners under to form a ball. Place seam-side down on a prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, putting 2 balls on each baking sheet. Let stand, uncovered, until more than doubled, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, 200 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 6.

Bake the loaves 10 minutes; brush with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with the kosher or coarse salt and the remaining 1/2 tablespoon rosemary. Continue baking until golden brown, about 10 more minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.


I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

Fresh Cherry Skillet Cobbler

 

"Cooking demands attention, patience, and above all, a respect for the gifts of the earth. It is a form of worship, a way of giving thanks."

 

- Judith B. Jones

We're deep in the midst of the summer fruit season and I'm loving it! Fresh cherries, peaches, and berries, I adore them all. Even tomatoes. A fresh, in season, homegrown tomato is unlike any you can purchase in a mega mart.

Using my cherry pitter to remove the pits

 

Fresh cherries may be my favorite of them all. 

 

Making the batter

In fact, a few weeks ago, we returned from a trip to the Fruit loop in Oregon, where we like to visit fruit farms. We indeed purchased many pounds of cherries. 

 

Melted butter from the oven

Unfortunately, those cherries were gone before I knew it. In previous years I have purchased pounds and pounds of them. On one trip, I brought home and pitted probably 15 pounds of assorted varieties of cherries and froze them. Those are long gone.

I buy vanilla beans online and keep them wrapped tightly in many ziplock bags. They do stay fresh for months. Much better than spending 8 dollars on one dried up bean from the grocery store.

 

It's just so nice to open your freezer in the winter and pull out some delicious summer fruit. You can use them in baking recipes such as this, or in smoothies, or making ice cream or sorbet, the list is endless. 

To use a vanilla bean, you scrape out the seeds and use only them. This leaves the pod, which has lots of flavor left inside. So I always put the empty pod in a container of sugar to make vanilla sugar.

Maybe one of the reasons I love fruit so much is because I love desserts like this one. Crisps and cobblers are one of my favorite desserts.

This particular recipe I based loosely on Michael Symon's blueberry iron skillet cobbler. So needless to say, you can use blueberries, or raspberries, or of course cherries in this recipe. I bet fresh peaches would be great too!

This is a very casual and heartwarming dessert. The batter rises to the top and hugs the cherries, forming almost a cake like cobbler. This is not the type of cobbler I'm used to, but it's tasty nonetheless. The lemon adds a nice dimension to the sweetness of the batter and the cherries, and the vanilla bean makes it special.

Ready for the oven - It's important to put the skillet on a baking sheet so it doesn't spill over

 

 

 I hope you enjoy this beautiful season and it's bounty while it's here. I'm doing my best to by eating gobs of fresh fruit and in season vegetables every day. For I know it will be but a mere moment before they're gone.

 

 

 

 

Never miss a post! Follow The Alchemist on Facebook! Or Pinterest!

James Sadler vintage teapot with blue flowers, Johnson Bros Pareek teacups, Set of vintage assorted silver plated teaspoons, Beige and Gold Old Ivory Syracuse Plates, and Antique Haviland & Co. berry bowls available in my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.




Fresh Cherry Skillet Cobbler

This recipe is loosely adapted from Michael Symon's Cast Iron Blueberry Cobbler

Makes one 8 inch cast iron skillet, about 4 servings

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons (80g.) butter

1 cup (140 g.) flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (236 ml.) whole milk

3/4 cup (150 g.) sugar plus 2 Tablespoons, divided

Juice and zest of one small lemon, or half of one large lemon

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out, use seeds only - or if vanilla beans are not available, use 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract.

2 cups (300 g.) fresh or frozen sweet cherries, like Bing or Rainier cherries - pitted


For Serving

vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream for topping, optional


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 4.

While oven is preheating, place the butter in the cast iron skillet, then put in the oven to melt.

Meanwhile in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and the seeds from the scraped out vanilla bean. Stir in the milk, the 3/4 cup of sugar, the lemon juice and zest and whisk together until mixed well.

Mix the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar with the pitted cherries in another bowl.

Remove the skillet with the butter melted inside, from the oven. Pour the batter into the hot skillet. Top with the sugared cherries. Place the skillet on a baking sheet, in case some of it overflows it will catch it. Bake until brown and the batter has risen above the fruit, about 40-45 minutes. Make sure the batter has set, and it's not still gooey inside by sticking a sharp knife into the center, if it comes out clean it's done. If it's still wet, it needs more time.

Transfer to a rack to cool slightly, then serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, optional.


I hope you love it!

 

Easy Nutella Brownie Bites

 

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.  A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."

 

~Ada Louise Huxtable

 

Oh my, it's Summer, glorious Summer! A time where I want to bake, but the recipe has to be simple, quick, easy and baked at night, after it's cooled down a bit. So a recipe that keeps well is good. And brownies keep well, or I should say they store well, they don't really keep well if they are good (like these) and you keep eating them, if you know what I mean.

 

 

Spray your measuring cup with non stick spray so it comes out easily

And I've been wanting to make this recipe for a while now. You may have seen this recipe around Pinterest, or around the Internet in general. Usually called, Easy Nutella Brownies, or 3 ingredient Nutella Brownies, something like that. They are famous because they are pretty much awesome. And super easy! Everyone loves that.

Stirring up the batter - These are so darned easy, you basically throw a few ingredients in a bowl and stir them together to make the batter.
 

And yes, they are just a few ingredients. It's pretty cool how you basically mix Nutella, flour and an egg and it makes brownies.

Spooning the batter into muffin tins

BUT, this isn't that recipe.

It's slightly different. I made that recipe. I ate one and thought it was good. But for me it wasn't chocolaty enough. I want my brownie to be full of chocolate flavor. So I replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder, and I loved the results. I also added a pinch of salt, and I loved that too.

Right out of the oven

And then just to bring the Nutella flavor home, I frosted the things with the stuff! I think it just finishes them off perfectly. If you like nuts, adding chopped hazelnuts inside as well as on top wouldn't be a bad thing.

These would be great for any Nutella lover. Or great for a party!

And they are seriously easy. So they leave you plenty of time to enjoy this beautiful season!

I frosted mine with Nutella as well as being full of it, and I loved the results

Never miss a post! Follow The Alchemist on Facebook! Or Pinterest!

Hand Embroidered Pink and Red Vintage Tablecloth, Noritake Cheri Plates with Pink Roses, Schumann Arzberg Plate with Pink Roses, Sheffield Silver Tray, Hutschenreuther Selb Teapot, and
Jackson Teacup Set available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.






Easy Nutella Brownie Bites

These brownies are fudgy in the center and sort of cakey on the sides from slightly under cooking them. Make sure you don't overcook them.

Makes 8 brownie bites, but the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled


Ingredients

1/2 cup (118 ml.)Nutella at room temperature

1 egg

2 Tablespoons (16 g.) Unsweetened Cocoa

3 Tablespoons (24 g.) all purpose flour

pinch of salt

More Nutella for frosting - optional


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 4.

In a medium sized bowl add the Nutella, (if it's not already at room temperature, if it's straight from the fridge, put it in the microwave for about 40 seconds first) and the egg and stir until combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until well combined.

Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray, or line it with liners. With a spoon scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Until the edges and sides are set, but the center is still not set. A toothpick should come out clean around the sides, but the middle will be wet. As they cool this will make them fudgy in the middle.

Let them cool on wire racks for 10 minutes or so, then remove from the pan and let cool completely before frosting. If you serve them when they haven't cooled completely they may seem uncooked in the middle. But when they cool they will be fudgy and delicious. Keep stored in an air tight container in the fridge and serve at room temperature. They should keep for 3 days stored in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Make Your Own Homemade Sour Cream

"Hey yogurt, if you're so cultured, how come I never see you at the opera?"

 

- Attributed to Stephen Colbert

I use a lot of sour cream. It is one of my favorite ingredients for baking. I prefer using it over yogurt, since it has a higher fat content, I think it makes tastier baked goods. So when I first found out you could make it yourself, I was all over it.

Measuring the cream

I keep heavy cream in the house, mostly because I use it in tea and coffee. There is nothing like heavy cream, pure and simple. I actually think heavy cream is my favorite food of all time. Since I keep it around, this is so awesome for me. I can make my own sour cream myself, if I run out of store bought.

Just added the milk/vinegar mixture

Another reason I wanted to share it here, is because many of my recipes call for it, and sour cream isn't available in every country. But heavy cream, (probably called simply, cream, in most places) I know is more widely available.





And we wait for the magic to happen

The great news is I think this homemade sour cream tastes even better than store bought. The first taste you get when you taste it is sour cream. But then you get this after taste of heavy cream. So of course I love that! And you know what the ingredients are since you made it yourself!

After 24 hours, it gets thick! But not quite as thick as store bought, but almost.

The bad news is it doesn't last as long in the fridge as store bought, and it's not quite as thick, (it's still thick, just a tad less than store bought.) It lasts about a week after you make it, but after a few days it does loosen a little. I think it's best within the first 4 or 5 days.

Vintage Minton Bowl, Pink Napkins and  Towle Sterling Silver Spoon, available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.




Homemade Sour Cream

There are 2 different ways you can make this, I've included them both.
 
Recipe #1 from All Recipes This is the recipe I used this time, but I've made it both ways.

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz or 237 ml) heavy whipping cream - here in the US there is whipping cream and heavy whipping cream, get the heavy kind, the one with the highest fat content

1/4 cup (59 ml) milk

3/4 tsp white vinegar

Directions

In a small bowl, add the milk and the vinegar stir, and let stand for 10 minutes.

Pour the heavy cream into a jar and stir in the milk mixture. Cover the jar and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours has passed, store it in the fridge. Use within a week.



Recipe #2 From Mother Earth News this article also includes how to make cream cheese

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz or 237 ml)  heavy whipping cream - here in the US there is whipping cream and heavy whipping cream, get the heavy kind, the one with the highest fat content

1/4 cup (59 ml) sour cream OR cultured buttermilk, OR yogurt with live cultures

Directions

In a jar add the heavy cream and the sour cream or buttermilk, shake it all up and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours, store it in the fridge. It will last a week in the fridge.


Enjoy!

Butterscotch Chewy Cake - Vintage Pillsbury Award Winner!

"Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days." 

 

- Doug Larson

I was shopping at our local thrift store and I heard the employees talking. I heard the words, "wow this is old! What is it? Is it a scrap book? It's recipes! This is so cool!" I promptly came over and said, "O.K. what are you talking about, and where is it?"

 

What they were referring to was this book I'll call The Scrapbook. It was made from a tailors book that talks about their prices and the clothes they offer. Nowadays it would be a brochure, but this is a full on hard cover book. The owner of this book glued recipes over the pages. There are a few calenders glued to the back page, the first one starts in 1926. Google tells me this recipe from a Pillsbury baking contest dates to 1955. At least thirty years of recipes have been collected in this book, her whole adult life.

 

This recipe is easy to make. You just need a bowl, a whisk and a spoon.

I'm a lover of vintage items. I have my own vintage shop, even. So I was all over this. This book tells a story about the times through food. I started to think about it. My father is 80 years old. He was born in 1933. He was a child during the later years of the making of this book. This book was made by someone who lived during his mothers era.

Right before going in the oven

It was the depression. There was no internet. How did they get recipes? Probably through friends, people at church and passed down from their mothers. Cookbooks, if you could afford them.

Right out of the oven

Newspaper articles and food labels with delicious sounding recipes must have felt like a gift. What a perfectly sensible idea to glue them to the pages of an already existing book! During a depression you do what you gotta do to provide your family with a tasty and hearty meal. A great and timeless lesson in resourcefulness.

 

 

The scrapbook made from a tailors book, I love how art deco it is.

I have a collection of vintage cookbooks myself, but this was more special. More personal. I wanted to cook from it right away.

This is incredible. She used it her whole adult life, 30 years of collecting. There are calenders glued to the back from 1926, and the recipe I used from a label that dates to 1955. 

Loose in the last few pages of the book was a leaflet from Pillsbury, with the recipes of the prize winners from 1955. Turns out Pillsbury has been sponsoring baking contests for 64 years and counting.

The book includes recipes of all kinds

The recipe that caught my eye was this butterscotch chewy cake. I love the flavor of butterscotch and it was easy and quite straightforward. I crossed my fingers that the recipe would still work after all of these years.

There are pictures! It is interesting to me to see what was in fashion.

I'm happy to announce that yes, indeed it did work. It produced exactly what it advertises. A chewy cake. The texture is a cross between a snack cake and a blondie, or a brownie. I enjoyed it alone as a casual snack in the afternoon. But we really devoured it topped with butter pecan ice cream and caramel sauce. A sundae is how this cake shines. The texture stands up to the ice cream and caramel without getting soggy. And since the weather around here has been unseasonably warm, it was a welcome treat.

Even handwritten recipes, waffle cake, sounds good!

The cake is super easy to make. It really just takes a few minutes to throw together. It's just a few basic ingredients, eggs, flour, lots of pecans, etc. - with one exception. Scotch. Scotch whiskey to be specific.

There are even diet tips.

Scotch isn't included in the original recipe, I added it. Here's why. I've made a few different butterscotch desserts in my life, (I'm not talking about artificially flavored butterscotch like those chips) that included it. It really brings home the taste of butterscotch without tasting like alcohol, since it's baked. If you absolutely can't use alcohol you can go ahead and omit it. But I do recommend it for the best flavor.

labels with recipes

While I'm very happy about my new book, I'm also a little sad, that this book isn't in the hands of the family of it's creator. More and more in this digital age I find people don't hold onto things like they used to. I attend garage sales where they are selling their mothers items and not passing them down like previous generations would. With shows on TV like Hoarders, no one wants to be a pack rat. Which part of me totally understands.

Call me sentimental, but I like these little pieces of yesteryear, in a tangible form to hold in my hands and dream about times past.

 

My free range chickens are always looking for a treat. I think they thought I was bringing this outside for them.

 

 

Never miss a post! Follow The Alchemist on Facebook! Or Pinterest! 

 

 

 Vintage Etched Drinking Glasses, Antique Johnson Bros Plates, English Ironstone Pitcher with Pink Roses, Towle Sterling Silver Spoon, and Baby Pink Cloth Napkins available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.

Enter coupon code ALCHEMY at House of Lucien for 20 percent off of your order! 

Butterscotch Chewy Cake

Adapted from the 2nd prize winner of Pillsbury Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest 1955, Mrs. Richard Enloe Atlanta, Georgia

Ingredients

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups (400 g.) packed brown sugar

2 Tablespoons butter - melted

1 1/2 cups (190 g.) sifted all purpose flour - sift first then measure

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups (146 g.) chopped pecans

3 Tablespoons Scotch Whiskey (optional, but recommended)

For serving

Ice cream, butter pecan or vanilla or whipped cream - optional

Store bought or homemade Caramel Sauce - optional


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 4. Grease well a 13 x 9 inch pan, set aside.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add brown sugar, vanilla and melted butter and stir together. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and stir together well, until incorporated. Add the chopped nuts and the scotch whiskey (if using) and stir again until well blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until it springs back lightly when touched lightly in the center, and until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, I used butter pecan ice cream and store bought caramel sauce for topping and it was marvelous!