Amish Friendship Bread

I actually posted about this on my blog, but wanted to share the recipe here also.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe
This is the original recipe, not to be confused with a starter

Ingredients:

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.

2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.

3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe-which will make your starters
Day 1 - receive the starter

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread.

Once you have your starters completed, pass some along to share the love. Or in this case, loaves...

Watergate Cake with Cover-Up Frosting

Photo courtesy of Wendolonia blog

Okay so we just got a brand spankin' new Dell computer as a Christmas gift to ourselves, and in transferring files from the old computer to the new one I found some blogs like Wendolonia that I haven't been to in a while.

If you need a new and unique way to keep your kids interested in lunch, check out some of her crafty bento lunch ideas!

Anyway, I was browsing through old posts on her blogs and I came across this one which she calls a "Pistachio Pudding Cake". I wanted to use my camera to take pictures but apparently the battery has died on me. I had everything I needed but the club soda and pistachio pudding mix, so off to the store I went in the cold rain last night!

Moving right along...if you have no clue as to what Watergate is or who Richard Nixon was and why he resigned as president, you might want to get your history lesson so you can understand the name behind this cake recipe.

Here is the recipe from Wendolonia's blog:

**I will caution you that if you google it, you may find white cake mix instead of yellow, and ginger ale instead of club soda. I used the recipe from Wendolonia's blog for my cake.**

Watergate Cake with Cover Up Frosting
One box yellow cake mix
one box instant pistachio pudding mix
3 large eggs
1 cup club soda
1 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 baking dish.Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix wet ingredients with eggs, blending with a whisk. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix with whisk.
Pour into pan and bake for 35-45 minutes (you will discover from Wendolonia's blog that she burned the bottom of her cake, but her oven also runs hot.) I did my cake for 45 minutes.

For the frosting, you will need:
Two packages of Dream Whip (they come two to a box!!)
one box instant pistachio pudding mix
1 1/2 cups cold milk

Mix milk and dream whip until thickened. Add pudding mix and blend well. Spread frosting on top of cooled cake. Enjoy!

My thoughts: I absolutely love cakes that are very simple, like Mrs. Karen's chocolate cake that I will post sometime soon, but cakes that add pudding mix for some reason are just super moist. And it doesn't take a genius, even someone who doesn't bake, to put together a cake with these simple and easy steps.
When I finally got a chance to taste the cake, the frosting reminds me of Watergate Salad which I can not stand! I just don't like the combination of cool whip, nuts, and pineapple. I would be okay with pineapple in this frosting, and it might give it a unique flavor if you added it to this frosting and cake mixture. But it is just as good made according to the recipe! It might be a good cake for summer BBQs and pool parties. But those are just my thoughts!

Coca-Cola Cake

I'm usually not a fan of chocolate cake. At weddings I always, without fail, go for the bride's cake. I have found my chocolate cake exception.

After my Tres Leche cake flop, my Mom told me that I just had to try making a Coca-Cola cake. She swears by Cracker Barrel's version and told me that I would just love it. So I gave it a shot. Here's the recipe she gave me to try straight out of her Coca-Cola recipe book:

Coca-Cola Cake
2 cups plain unsifted flour
1 cup sugar
2 sticks butter or margarine
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola (NOT Diet Coke)
½ cup buttermilk
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups of miniature marshmallows

Sift the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan heat the butter, cocoa and coca-cola until they boil. Pour this over the flour and sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the buttermilk , eggs, baking soda, vanilla and marshmallows and mix well. The batter will be thin and the marshmallows will come to the top. Bake at 350 in a greased sheet pan (2x12x14 inches) for 30-35 minutes.

Icing
1 stick of butter or margarine (melted)
3 tablespoons of cocoa
7 tablespoons of Coca-Cola
I box of confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Mix the first three ingredients well and pour over the confectioners sugar. Mix well and pour over the cake while it is still warm. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

My only diversion from the original recipe was that I used a greased 13x9 inch dish. I didn't have the other size. My cake turned out delicious! It was so simple to make, especially considering it was from scratch, not very expensive, and I had most of the ingredients already around the house.

My Mom had a piece and she loved it also! She pronounced it more "brownie like" than Cracker Barrel's version, but it was so good! The whole family loved it! And seriously, the icing is so delicious I tried to drink the leftovers as I was mixing it. The icing would be amazing to just pour straight over vanilla ice cream if you ever wanted a quick chocolate fix. It was still warm from the melted butter when I poured it over the warm cake and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream it was so delicious!

Jeremy quickly told me that I had to make it again. Like the next day. It was that good! If you are eating the cake as leftovers, pop it into the microwave for about 10 seconds and get icing warmed up again. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. It's life changing!

Have a great day!

Hot Tomato Grits and Tres Leche cake

Since Miranda and I decided to name this blog "Cheese Grits and Jesus" we knew that we were going to have to search high and low for the perfect Cheese Grits recipe. We didn't have to look far! I heard through the grapevine that a lady from our church, Mrs. Diane, made the best cheese grits ever. I got in touch with her and asked for her recipe. When I got it and saw how easy it looked, I knew we had to try it. So Friday night Jeremy, Jackson and I headed over to Miranda's house to make the Hot Tomato Grits. We fell in love with them! They were so simple to make, and everyone (husbands and children included) loved them! And get this...they even taste wonderful re-heated. I've never even considered re-heating grits before but these were so good, even the second time around. This will go down as one of those "you have GOT to try this" recipes. I hope you enjoy!

Hot Tomato Grits
8 cups chicken broth
2 cups quick grits
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 can Rotel tomatoes (add a second can if you really like it spicy!)
2-1/2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

Bring Chicken broth to a boil and slowly add grits, stirring constantly while adding to prevent lumping. Turn heat down and continue stirring until desired consistency. Add salt and pepper and tomatoes. Add cheese - when cheese is completely melted, transfer to heated crock pot. Add crumbled bacon and garnish with extra tomatoes and 1/2 cup extra cheese.

Mrs. Diane also sent me a few tips for this recipe: You don't have to put these in a crock pot - that is only to keep them warm for serving. When cooking the bacon, put on a cookie sheet and bake it. If you put the bacon in the oven at the same time to start cooking the grits, they will be ready about the same time. (*This worked amazingly well for us!) By doing that, the whole recipe comes together in about 15 minutes.

This make a really big batch, so if it is just your family, cut it in half. However, when you cut it in half, remember to use only half a can of rotel because it will be really spicy if you use a whole can in a half batch.

And since we were trying a new recipe, I decided to get all wild and crazy and make a cake from scratch.

I'll let that sink in a moment....

I've never made a cake from scratch before. Frankly it's much harder than opening a box of cake mix and adding an egg and water. Much harder.

So I decided to make the Pioneer Woman's Tres Leche cake. I made a cake that I've never even tasted before. That might have been my first mistake, because y'all, this cake was hard to make. Maybe I should have started with something a little easier.

Is this a good time to tell you that I've never even separated egg whites from egg yolks before? I feel like I need to say something like, "Hi, my name is Amy. I'm 29 years old and I've never separated an egg before."

Anyways, with this recipe I was busy separating eggs, folding stuff into batter, whipping, and dirtying about 30 dishes. The total cake cooking time (including icing) took 2 1/2 hours which is about 2 hours longer than baking a boxed cake mix. So here's the recipe:

Tres Leches Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

1 pint heavy cream, for whipping
3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Spray 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over flour mixture and stir very gently until combined. Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer on, pour in 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold egg white mixture into other mixture very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out surface. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. Whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.

We ate the cake over at Miranda's and we all decided that the cake was kind of "eh." I've never had a sponge cake before, and this was definitely very spongy. We all decided that it just wasn't quite sweet enough (despite all the sugar) for our tastes. Nothing at all against Pioneer Woman, because she is amazing, but I think I bit off a little more than I could chew with this recipe. Miranda and I both decided to go ahead and share this recipe, despite our so-so rating, because everyone has recipes that didn't work out quite great for them. If someone loves tres leche cake, then they might want to give this a try. I, however, will not be making it again. I found another cake recipe that knocked my socks off. I'll share it soon!

And now I'm off to go dream of those cheese grits again!

Amy's Apple Dumplings

Since Miranda gave you a little bit of her cooking background, I guess I need to do the same. To be totally honest, I don't think I did much cooking, other than scrambled eggs, until I moved to Auburn as a freshman, and then I realized that food doesn't just magically appear on the table all by itself! I can't tell you how many times I would call my mom asking her how she cooked this or that, and she was graciously patient with me until I figured out "how in the world do I cook ____ " without calling my Mama! Now I've figured out my own cooking style (which has been greatly influenced by my Mom!) and I still cook as simply as she does!

I didn't grow up eating food cooked with fancy herbs and spices, and I wouldn't know the difference between rosemary and thyme if you offered me a million dollars! My spice cabinet consists of salt, sea salt, Lawry's seasoning salt, Lawry's garlic salt, black pepper, cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, chili powder, taco seasoning and that's about it. I'm not exaggerating with my simplicity! I will never, ever share a recipe that calls for some fancy, schmancy seasoning like dill or basil. It's not gonna happen! About as wild as I get would be minced garlic, and even that is out of a jar! And where Miranda is very exact with her measurements, I tend to be a bit more "pinch of this" and "dash of that" with my cooking.

I absolutely LOVE my crock pot, and am obsessed with finding recipes that are simple, quick to fix, and are somewhat healthy for my family to eat. I have a three year old at home, so if supper can't be fixed in less than an hour, not counting crock pot meals, then it won't be cooked in my house! Oh, and I hardly ever fry stuff unless you count homemade onion rings or fried green tomatoes about 2 times a year!

With all that being said, let's bring on the recipe! I found this recipe on a blog that I stumbled onto, and I hate to say it, but I have no idea whose recipe it is. I wish I could give them credit, because y'all, this dessert recipe is life changing. It's that good. But since I've changed the recipe up just a tad, so I guess it's fair for me to call it my own now!

Amy's Apple Dumplings
2 packages of Crescent Rolls (Do not let them get room temp. They need to be cold)
1-1/4 cup of sugar
3 Granny Smith apples
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 sticks of butter
1 cup of Mt. Dew

Preheat oven to 350

Here is everything you need!

Peel and slice apples into 8 slices each (Use an apple wedge if you have it. We couldn't find ours.)

Wrap each slice in a crescent roll triangle and place in ungreased 13x9 inch baking pan. I put a few smaller pieces of apple in each crescent roll with 1 or 2 bigger pieces. It just depended on the size. Mostly I just eyeballed it!

Combine butter, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan and cook on medium low, stirring until it becomes a gravy-like consistency.

Keep stirring so it doesn't burn!

See how it looks like gravy!

Pour the mixture over the wrapped apples. Make sure to spread it out really good and cover all the crescent rolls. Pour the Mt. Dew arond the edges of the crescent rolls. You can also pour it on top, just don't wash off the sugary stuff. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. (Don't be afraid of the Mt. Dew. It gets soaked up and turns everything into a glaze!)

After 30 minutes, place a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the pan and bake covered for 15 more minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. See all that cinnamony goodness on top! It's so delicious! Spoon some out and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy! You can always tell yourself it's healthy because it does contain apples. At the very least, it's a good dose of fiber! I hope you love this as much as I do!