My Fall 2011 Class Schedule is now online! There are some great classes on the horizon.
Please check it out and hope to see you soon! Below are some of the great foods that we’ll be making and baking this Fall.
Fall 2011 Class Schedule
Dinner on Wedded Perfection Film Nights
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| Chicken Polonaise and Buttery, Pearl Couscous |
Susan’s Cooking School is catering the Dinner on Wedded Perfection Film Nights at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. These dinners are pared with great movies related to a wedding theme in association with the Wedded Perfection Exhibit at the Institute. Diners enjoy a great meal beginning on the beautiful Fountain Elms Terrace at 5:30 pm and then head over to the auditorium for the film at 7:30 pm. This Thursday, July 28, we’ll be serving chicken Polonaise, pearl couscous, cream filled profiteroles along with my signature garden fresh salad, homemade red wine vinaigrette dressing and crusty rolls. Coffee, tea and our special blend iced tea are also served.
Dinner is only $20 for MWPAI members, $25 for non-members. The movie is $6 for members and $8 for non-members, $4 for students. This week’s movie is the well loved, Four Weddings and a Funeral. People can choose to enjoy the dinner or movie on their own, also.
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| Profiteroles |
Hope to see you there!
Please contact the Museum
Education Department at
315.797.0000, ext. 2158 to make reservations.
Education Department at
315.797.0000, ext. 2158 to make reservations.
Susan’s Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake
Well, is strawberry season in upstate NY and it’s been a family tradition to head out to the fields and start picking! Today I went to Tassleberry Farm in Westmoreland, NY, where there was plenty of ripe, beautiful strawberries to pick. What better to do with fresh strawberries than to make strawberry shortcake. (I’ll hopefully make some jam later today…) I decided to make mine with Amaretto for a little extra zing, but vanilla extract is great too, but a teaspoon would probably be enough for the following recipe. Enjoy!
Prepare Strawberries (about 6 servings)
| 4 cups | Fresh sliced strawberries | |
| 6 tablespoons | Sugar | |
| 2 tablespoons | Amaretto |
- Mix all ingredients and let sit until the sugar is dissolved and juice has exuded from the berries
- For a more liquid/juicy version, process or mash half of the berries and mix with the sliced berries before mixing with the sugar and Amaretto.
Make the Shortcake
This is my favorite Shortcake recipe, but it makes much more than you need for the above strawberries. You can freeze the extra or halve the recipe.
| 2/3 cup | Half and half | |
| 1 large | Egg | |
| 1 teaspoon | Vanilla extract | |
| 9 oz. (~2 1/2 cups*) | Pastry flour | |
| 1/4 cup | Sugar | |
| 1 tablespoon | Baking powder** | |
| 4 oz.(8 tablespoons) | Cold butter, cut into pieces |
* Stir before measuring if not using a scale
**Make sure that your baking powder is fresh (not lumpy or over 6 months old)
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the first three ingredients with a fork and set aside.
- In a food processor with a chopping blade, process the flour, sugar and baking powder until the butter is dispersed into small bits. If you don’t have a food processor, use a pastry blender or fork to break down the butter into the flour. Don’t let the butter get too warm and melt into the mixture.
- Place the flour mixture into a large bowl and add the liquid mixture all at once, while stirring gently with a fork. Mix only enough to moisten all ingredients. Over mixing will make the biscuits tough.
- Drop in mounds on greased or parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes at 450ºF. Be careful, they burn easily.
Assemble Shortcakes
- Need: Whipped Cream – homemade or a good quality, canned version
- Cut warm shortcakes in half and top with berries and whipped cream.
- Simply delicious!
Bunny Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Carrot Cupcakes all dressed for Easter!
This is a great recipe for moist, delicious, carrot cupcakes, so give this recipe a try even if you’re not interested in bunnies. They taste great with or without the wonderful cream cheese icing, but they sure are cute when made into Bunny Cupcakes. Enjoy!
Carrot Cupcakes
| 1 cup | All purpose flour |
| 1 cup | Sugar |
| 1 teaspoon | Baking powder |
| ½ teaspoon | Cinnamon |
| ¼ teaspoon | Salt |
| ¼ teaspoon | Baking soda |
| 1½ cups | Finely grated carrot |
| ⅓ cup | Vegetable oil |
| ¼ cup | Yogurt |
| ½ teaspoon | Vanilla extract |
| ½ teaspoon | Almond extract (optional) |
| 2 large | Eggs |
1. Line 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3. In another bowl, combine carrot, oil, yogurt, extracts and eggs.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until just blended.
5. Fill cupcake liners to about ¾ full.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes at 375ºF or until firm and baked through. Toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the center.
Cream Cheese Frosting
| 4 ounces | Cream cheese, softened |
| 4 tablespoons | Butter, softened |
| 1 teaspoon | Vanilla extract |
| 3 cups | Powdered sugar |
| as needed | Water |
1. In a mixer bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth and light. Add vanilla and mix some more.
2. Add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add a little water if necessary.
3. Spread on carrot cupcakes.
For Decoration
Coconut-Put on the of the icing
Jelly beans-cut in half for the nose and eyes or left whole for teeth
Chocolate chips-for the eyes
Marshmallows-Cut in half, squeeze into ear shape and press the cut side in
Pink sugar
Green coconut- makes a nice grassy place to put your bunnies
Weighing in on flour
How much does a cup of flour weigh?
I weigh flour when preparing many of my recipes, because it is the easiest, most accurate way to measure. There are some recipes, however, especially those calling for all purpose flour, where I don’t weigh the flour, because it’s not a big factor in the product’s outcome.
For those that don’t have a scale, I put in the approximate volumetric measurements in the recipe. One cup of bread flour is approximately 4.7 ounces (at least today it was). For example, if you look at my French Bread recipe, 10 ounces of bread flour is approximately 2 cups and 14 ounces is approximately 3 cups. I say approximately, because if you repeatedly measure 1 cup of flour and then weigh it on a scale, its weight may vary, because flour settles and compacts in varying amounts. When you put flour in a measuring cup, you may be measuring air, which is not going to be what you intended to measure. Weighing eliminates the problem of flour settling. Even if you weigh the flour when preparing a bread/pizza dough, it’s best to expect that you may still need to adjust the water or flour amounts, because there are so many factors including, humidity, strength of the flour, etc, that can effect your dough’s consistency.
When using one of my recipes that call for a measure of flour by volume, stir the flour, scoop it into the cup and then level it off.
Here’s a short video demonstrating how I use my (inexpensive) digital scale. Hope you find it helpful.
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
I have just released my How To Make Whole Wheat Pizza Dough video (above), showing step by step, how to make an all natural pizza dough utilizing whole wheat flour. My recipe uses a sponge method to enable the whole wheat flour to absorb liquid, develop gluten, and establish a vibrant yeast growth before finishing the dough. I use a 50:50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour to obtain a balance between the desire for whole grains and a light airy pizza dough. I have also included on my website, a recipe for Roasted Veggie Pizza (above, left), using my Whole Wheat Pizza dough, however you could of course use the topping on my regular pizza dough.
Happy Baking!
Honey Balsamic Squash and Tomatoes
Try my new recipe for yellow squash and cherry tomatoes. My garden is on the down side now, but I still had some yellow squash, cherry tomatoes and basil. I created this dish yesterday and thought it would be a good one to share, especially because it’s so seasonal. The balsamic vinegar, honey and sauteed garlic give the squash and tomatoes a lot of flavor with a slight tang and a gentle sweetness.
Happy Cooking!
Plum Sauce -Fresh, Delicious and Easy!
Fresh plums are now in the farmers’ markets and grocery stores in our neck of the woods. I used fresh Italian plums and black plums for the sauce pictured here. This versatile sauce is great for topping grilled chicken or pork. Try it, and I’m sure that you will come up with many more uses for it. Of course, it tastes good right out of the jar!
Here’s the formula:
Susan’s Fresh Plum Sauce
2 1/2 lbs. Fresh plums
2 cups Sugar
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
2 tablespoons Sherry
Wash, halve and pit plums and place in a large pot with the sugar. Cook over low heat until the sugar melts, stirring often. The plums will release their juices and soften. Once the mixture comes to a simmer, continue to cook over medium heat until the plums are soft and mashable. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice and sherry. I like to use a stick blender at this point to break down the skins and reduce the lumpiness, while leaving some chunks of plum in the sauce. If you don’t have a stick blender, chop the plums before cooking, and they should break down sufficiently during cooking. It’s really the skins that need to be chopped up -the plums turn themselves into sauce.
I pour my sauce into canning jars and refrigerate. Please note: This recipe is not a canning recipe.
Instructions for baking a traditional pizza
In response to my Pizza Dough video, here are some instructions for baking a pizza using the dough prepared as per my recipe.
1. Preheat oven to 400° F. If using a pizza stone let it preheat in the oven as per instructions.
2 .Stretch one piece of dough into a 12 inch circle. Place the dough on a peel sprinkled with cornmeal or flour. For a traditional pizza, top with tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. Other toppings may be added at this point. If using fresh sausage, make sure that it is fully cooked before using as a pizza topping.
3. Slide the pizza onto the pre-heated pizza stone and bake for 20-30 minutes.
4. If not using a pizza stone: place dough on a large oiled baking sheet and apply toppings. Bake as above. (Repeat the process for each pizza.)
5. The pizza is ready when the bottom is nicely browned and the sauce is bubbling through the melted cheese on the top.
Baking on a pizza stone
Here’s a couple of videos demonstrating the stretching, topping and baking of pizza dough on a stone. The first video shows the baking of a simple cheese pizza and the second video shows a baked pizza that has been topped with slices of fried Genoa salami.
Cheese pizza going in and salami pizza coming out! Both videos shot on the same day, but using different pizzas.