Epic White Cake

This is the best White cake....ever

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups white sugar
4 egg whites
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt (if you use salted butter, do NOT add salt)
1 1/2 cup better milk (to make butter milk, for every 1 cup of milk add 1 tbs lemon juice or vinegar.  stir and let stand for 5 minutes)

1. pre-heat oven to 350 F
2. cream butter and sugar.
3. Add vanilla and egg whites
4. in a separate mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add to wet mixture.  Add milk and stir well.
5. grease 2 round baking pans.  pour 1/2 the batter into 1 pan and 1/2 into the other.
6. bake for 30 minutes or until done.
7. place on a wire rack to cool.  Allow the cake to completely cook before icing.

Red Velvet Cup Cakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 24

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup and 2 teaspoons butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups and 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3-1/4 eggs
• 3/4 cup and 2 teaspoons sour cream
• 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon milk
• 3/4 (1 ounce) bottle Red Food Color
• 1-1/2 teaspoons  Pure Vanilla Extract

 Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 3/4 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 3 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon and 1-3/4 teaspoons sour cream
• 1-1/2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 (16 ounce) box confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.
4. Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese, softened, butter, sour cream and  Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

YUMMY donuts!

This recipe makes about 3 baker's dozen donuts (that's 39!).  You can scale it down - or up - as you need! They are not Krispy Kreme's but they are GOOOOOOOD!

Donuts
3 (1/4 ounce / 7g) packages yeast (3/4 oz / 21g total) - I used "Rapid Rise" but traditional is fine too - it just affects the rising times
1/2 cup (120ml) water  (105-115F / 40-46C)
2 1/4 cups (530ml) milk, scalded, then cooled
3/4 cup (169g) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup (113g) shortening
7 1/2 cups (940g) all-purpose flour
canola oil for frying

Glaze
1/2 cup (113g) butter
3 cups (375g) powdered sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
6 -9 tablespoons (90-135ml) evaporated milk (can substitute regular milk or water for milder flavor)


MAKING THE DONUTS
Proof your yeast by adding it to the warm water.  Mix it up and let it rest.

Scald the milk in your microwave or on top of your stove, and let cool.

Combine yeast, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and 3 cups (375g) flour.

Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.

Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

Carefully (not like me), stir in remaining flour until smooth.

Cover and let rise until double, 30-60 minutes, depending on the yeast you used.
After the dough has risen, turn dough onto floured surface; roll around lightly to coat with flour.

Gently roll dough 1/2-inch thick with floured rolling pin.

Cut with floured doughnut cutter.  Separate donuts and holes, as they take different frying times (but are equally delicious).  Save your scraps - they are both great to test your fry time and to snack on while you're making the rest!  You could even get REALLY creative and use various shaped cookie cutters!

Cover and let rise until double, 30-40 minutes.

MAKING THE GLAZE
I like to make up the glaze at this point because it can sit at room temp until the donuts are fried and ready to be dipped.

Melt the butter and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.

Add milk (or water) until desired consistency is reached.

*** to make chocolate glaze, melt 6 ounces of chocolate along with the butter!***

FRY TIME
Use a deep pan to heat the oil.   I used a shallow one to be able to take better pictures, but this provides a real fire hazard.  So be safe!

Heat your oil to 350F (180C).  A thermometer makes this part fool-proof, and you can monitor the heat to make sure it stays in this prime frying range.

Even after you take the donut out of the oil, the remaining oil on it is hot enough to continue cooking it!

Carefully place the donuts in the oil. I personally found that about 30 seconds a side does it. Flip the donuts and remove them from the oil.

Place donuts on a rack or paper bags or paper towels to drain.

TIME FOR THAT SWEET GLAZE!
Now is the time to take your donuts into a magical dimension.   Dip them in the glaze and set them on a rack to dry
 

Apple-Bowl Pies

You will need
6 granny smith apples,
1 pie crust,
1/4 cup sugar and
1 tablespoon brown sugar.

Cut off the top of 4 apples off and discard. Remove the inside of each apple with a spoon very carefully, as to not puncture the peel. Remove skin from 2 additional apples and slice very thinly. These apple pieces will give you filling needed to fill the four apples you are baking. 

Mix sliced apples with sugars and cinnamon in a bowl. If you prefer more or less cinnamon and sugar, make adjustments as desired. 

Scoop sliced apples into hollow apples. 

Roll out pie crust and slice into 1/4 inch strips. You can also add a strip of pastry inside the top of the apple almost like a liner to add a little more texture/sweetness to the pie. 

Cover the top of the apple in a lattice pattern with pie crust strips. Place apples in an 8×8 pan. Add just enough water to the cover the bottom of the pan. 

Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and sliced apples are soft.

Crackers

These are SO easy to make it's not even funny.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• salt for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Pour in the vegetable oil and water; mix until just blended.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough as thin as possible - no thicker than 1/8 inch. Place dough on an ungreased baking sheet, and mark squares out with a knife, but don't cut through. Prick each cracker with a fork a few times, and sprinkle with salt.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until crisp and light brown. Baking time may be different depending on how thin your crackers are. When cool, remove from baking sheet, and separate into individual crackers. 
    

The possibilities are endless......

Tortilla Bread

Tortilla Bread
Yield: 12

You will need:
3 cups of flour
4 TBS butter or shortening
about 1 1/2 cups water (may need more or less)
extra  flour





1. in a bowl put in flour and cut in butter until crumbly - like pastry. 
2. add in a little water at a time (2 or 3 TBS) and mix well with a fork until mixture is moist.
3. on a lightly floured surface, kneed dough for 4 or 5 minutes
4. divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape into medallions.  They should look like this:

5. With a rolling pin, roll out into a round (or round ish) shape very very thin.  It should look like this - you can eve see the table cover through the dough it is rolled so thin.

6. Heat a frying pan for 4 or 5 minutes at a medium heat. I like to add about 1/2 tsp of olive oil and coat the pan and THEN put the bread in, but that is not necessary.
7. once it starts to bubble a little bit more that shown in the picture below, flip it over. (if you're cool like my hubby, you can do it without a spatula.  I however am not that cool)

Make sure you watch closely or it will burn. And don't turn the heat any higher or it will burn (I ha a few casualties)

Once you are done, you will have a yummy stack of flat bread ready for eating.  WAY better than store bought!  Enjoy warm or cold.  You can store in a plastic bag and use just like store-bought bread.

Would you like Butter or plastic on your toast?

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.
It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings....

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.

And now, for Margarine..
Very High in Trans fatty acids.
Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny micro-organisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?