Potato Pancake Hamburger on a Biscuit Bun

This super awesome hamburger has three components that contribute to its awesomeness:

1. The biscuit bun
2. The potato pancake
3. The hamburger patty

This tender, juicy hamburger patty is complimented with a cheesy biscuit bun and with a potato pancake that'll knock your socks off. It sounds like a lot of work goes into this production, but it's actually quite simple. This is one recipe I'd consider making if I were having friends over for a casual get together.

The Biscuit Bun

Ingredients:

1 cup of biscuit mix
2/3 cup of shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend but use whatever you'd like)
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Sal & pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Combine all ingredients until a sticky dough is formed. You may need to add extra milk if the mix isn't coming together completely, do so at a teaspoon at a time.

Spoon discs of dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Each disc should be about as big as you'd like the bun to be. The biscuits will spread out a little in the oven, but not much. Bake the biscuits for 8-7 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Yields 5 biscuits


The Potato Pancake

I had never made or even eaten a potato pancake before this and I have to say I was somewhat intimidated by the thought of making it. Now that I have the first batch under my belt, I can honestly say it's not that big of a deal. They're easy to put together and cook quickly.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized red potato, peeled
¼ of a large onion
1 large egg
1/3 cup of biscuit mix

Shred the onion and potato using the shredding blade of a food processor or a box grater. Using 2 layers of paper towels, press all the liquid out of the onions and potatos. Beat the egg and stir in the biscuit mix in a medium bowl then add the shredded onion and potato. Spray a heated pan with cooking spray and spoon the potato mixture to make the potato pancakes. Allow the pancakes to cook for about 2 minutes on each side and then transfer them to a cookie sheet and bake at 450 degree for about 8 minutes. I was able to swap out the biscuits for the pancakes by the time I was ready to put the pancakes in the oven.

Yielded 3 pancakes.


The Hamburger Patty

I don’t like to fuss over the patties when I’m making hamburgers. I believe that the less seasonings and kneading you do to the meat, the more tender the meat will be.

To create my hamburger patty, I took ¼ of a pound of ground beef, formed it into disc and seasoned the top with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I cooked the patty in a hot pan coated with cooking spray for 2 minutes on each side. IMPORTANT: Only flip your meat patty ONCE. If you flip it over and over again, the meat could fall apart or could dry out, and nobody likes a dry hamburger. After the patty has cooked on both sides, let it sit for a few minutes so the meat can absorb its own juices.

Now that all three components of the recipe are ready to party together, you’ll want to slice one of the biscuits in half with a serrated edged knife then stack your hamburger patty and pancake and viola! The best burger you’ve ever had. I added a slice of tomato and some fresh lettuce. Don’t bother with mustard or ketchup, this burger is delish the way it is.

Moist Apple Spice Bread

This apple bread is perfect for someone who doesn't like an overpowering sweet taste in their quick breads. I enjoyed this wonderfully moist bread with my morning coffee during Christmas. I used Gala apples, but you can use whatever brand is on sale in your store. This recipe comes from the Bakingbites.com blog. 

The batter will fill up the bread pan (see picture above), but don't worry, this bread doesn't rise much so you don't have to worry about it overflowing. To be safe, I placed the bread pan onto a cookie sheet just in case. Also, the original recipe called for a spice called Cardamom but I omitted it since it was so pricey. If you have Cardamom in your pantry already or if you don't mind the price, go ahead and add 1/2 teaspoon. While we're on the topic of spices, you can play with the spices to fit your pallet and make this delicious bread your own.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded apples (about 2 apples)
• 3/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and all spices in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl.
4. Once combined, pour butter mixture into flour and stir until partially combined.
5. Stir in shredded apples and pecans until the batter is well combined.
6. Pour batter into a a greased and floured loaf pan and bake for about an 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Allow the pan to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then turn bread out of pan and allow to cool completely on the wire rack.

This recipe makes 1 delicious loaf.

Peruvian Brownies

Brownies is a food that will melt away all your worries with a single bite. I found the recipe for these delectable little treats on the Peruvian cooking website Yanuq.com. My husband described these as 'the best brownies ever', I think he may be a little partical considering he is Peruvian and all. However, I am not Peruvian so I can tell you that these, unbiasedly, are the most delicous brownies I've ever tasted in my life! I immediately packed up and froze half the batch otherwide my husband and I would devour them all with in a couple of days! Hello, my name is Nicole and I am a sweets-a-holic. Is there a 12 step program for a problem like this?

This recipe is very simple to make and requires very basic ingredients. I believe you'll thoroughly enjoy these.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Cocoa Powder
• 9 oz Butter
• 3 cups Sugar
• 2 cups Flour
• 6 Eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• Powdered Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan or double broiler on medium low heat. Remove from heat once completely melted.
3. Mix in cocoa powder with melted butter until smooth.
4. Once cocoa is completely incorporated, mix in sugar.
5. Transfer the sugar mixture to a large bowl and mix in eggs.
6. Sift flour and salt into sugar mixture and combine completely.
7. Place batter in a rectandular baking dish (I used an 11 in x 7 in pan) that's been buttered and floured.
8. Bake brownies for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.

I like my brownies very soft and gooey but if you prefer a firmer brownie, bake them for 10 to 15 minutes more, checking on them every 5 minutes or so.

You can jazz up your brownies any way you'd like. A few ideas that immediately come to mind are:

• Vanilla extract
• Chocolate chips
• Nuts
• Peanut butter
• 1 tsp of instant coffee mix

Feel free to make this recipe your own! These are officially my favorite brownie recipe ever!

This recipe yeilded me 24 1 inch square brownies that were quite thick. You could use a larger baking pan and get more, thinner brownies if you'd like. Just be sure to keep an eye on them so they don't overbake.

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

I wanted to include something in my Christmas goodie baskets that would warm my family up. What else does the trick better than a nice warm cup of hot chocolate? I made this recipe that I found on The Confections of a Foodie Bride blog. This recipe makes a ton of hot chocolate mix, so if you're just making this for yourself, you could easily cut the recipe in half and have enough to last you for a long time. The original recipe called for 2 things that I couldn't find, vanilla beans and dutch process cocoa powder, so I improvised and used plain Hershey brand cocoa and left out the vanilla entirely. The hot chocolate still turned out delicious! This recipe is so easy to make, it'll knock your socks off!

Ingredients

• 4 cups granulated sugar
• 24 oz high-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 9 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups cocoa powder

1. In a blender or food processor with a metal blade, process both chocolates until finely ground using short pulses (3-4 seconds). I did mine in batches in the blender and one thing I noticed is that i needed to let the blender blades cool down after each batch otherwise the heat from the blade would melt the chocolate. Just something to keep in mind.

2. Add ground chocolate and cocoa powder to sugar in a large blow. There can be unmixed cocoa or sugar at the bottom of the bowl so be sure to combine completely.

That's it! So simple yet so delectable. This mix can be stored in an airtight container for up to 6 months. I divided it into 9 1 cup services in cellophane bags. I included a tag on each bag that instructed the recipient to make mix 2 tablespoons of mix in with 8 ounces of hot milk. You could top this with whipped cream if you're feeling extra jazzy. I liked to mix a sprinkle of cinnamon in mine. 

Sugar Cookies With Royal Icing

In honor of the holiday season, I attempted to make the traditional iced sugar cookie. I noticed that sugar cookies aren't a big deal to a lot of people except for during the holidays. I don't know why, though. These cookies are DELICIOUS! I used this recipe I found on the Veggie by Season blog. It was recommended to me by this post on the Beantown Baker blog. I chose this recipe because I wanted a yummy cookie that would make a big enough batch to satisfy my sugar cookie need for all my goodie bags I'm putting together and because I wanted a cookie that would hold it's shape.

If you're intimidated by the thought of making this holiday classic, don't be. This is a recipe that anyone could make and that everyone will thoroughly enjoy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 5 c. flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Powdered sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cream butter and sugar together for 5 minutes using a hand mixer or stand mixer. It's important to cream the two ingredients for a full 5 minutes, don't rush or you'll be sorry!

3. Add eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next.

4. Add all three extracts and mix in thoroughly.

5. Sift and mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. I did about a cup at a time. Be sure you don't over mix the flour. If too much gluten develops you'll end up with hockey pucks instead of cookies.

6. Roll out a portion of the dough on a counter that's been WELL DUSTED with powdered sugar. Don't be afraid of the dusting sugar, if you have too little the dough will stick to the counter and you'll have a complete mess. Make sure you sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top of the dough and on the rolling pin as well to avoid sticking. I divided the dough into 4 portions and rolled them out one a time to cut out my cookies. If you have the counter space to roll out more dough, then by all means please do!

One thing I did wrong with the first batch of cookies was I rolled the dough out too thin. This resulted in thin, flat, burnt cookies. You want to roll the dough out to about the thickness of half of a checkbook. Just eyeball it and make sure there's a little depth your cookies.

7. Bake cookies for 6 to 7 minutes, or until the edges are just barely starting to brown.


For the icing, I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com. I chose this recipe because it made small enough batches I could easily whip up individually for each of the colors of thick icing and flooding icing. What I didn't realize before I iced these cookies was that using royal icing takes a bit of patience. Please be sure to give your cookies plenty of time to sit out so that the icing can harden.

Ingredients

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract -- or whatever you want to use. I substituted lemon and vanilla extract in some of my batches.

assorted food coloring

In a small bowl, mix confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, and milk until smooth and glossy. If the icing is too thick (like mine was) add a teaspoon of milk and corn syrup until just right.

There are two types of icings that you'll use when icing sugar cookies, a 'thick' icing that you'll use for outlining the cookies and then a thinner 'flooding' icing you'll use to fill in outlines.

To make the 'thick' icing, stick to the recipe above. To make the 'flooding' icing, add two more teaspoons of milk.

Here's a picture of my reject cookies that I practiced on before doing the real thing.

Be sure you allow the cookies to cool completely before you start outlining them with the thick icing.

 Once you've outlined your cookies, make sure you let them sit for at least an hour and a half so the frosting has time to set up.

Once the outlining frosting has set up you can add the flooding frosting and use a toothpick to spread it around and fill in the outline. You'll want to allow the flooding icing to sit out overnight (so it can harden)  before adding any embellishments to your cookies.

I used ketchup bottles to squeeze out the icing, but I know other bakers who use the #2 Wilton tip and a piping bag. Use whatever you want to use, it won't affect the outcome.

Alas, here are the final products:

This recipe yielded five and half dozen delectable cookies.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Pinwheel Cookies

I've been a busy, busy baker! The Christmas baking marathon has officially started in my house. Since I've ran out of eggs, I'm taking the day off to blog.


I originally saw this recipe on Annie's Eats blog and knew immediately that I needed to make it. I went into it knowing it was going to be a bit of a challenge since I've never done anything like this before. But I had no idea just how hard it would be! From the dough being too crumbly to stay together to burning the better half of the batch of dough, you name a baking conundrum and it probably happened. I'm going to make another attempt to make these since I think I've figured out what I did wrong.


Despite the obstacles I encountered, these cookies turned out DELICIOUS! Do you remember those yummy little cookies that come in tins usually around this time of year? These are those kind of cookies, only a million times better! They're absolutely mouthwatering, I believe you'll thoroughly enjoy these little delights.


I made 2 batches of dough, one plain and another chocolate, so I could roll them together to make the pinwheels. Here's the list of ingredients for ONE batch of dough. Don't skimp on the butter, not only will your dough completely fall apart but the flavor of the cookie won't be completely developed. I know it's a lot but trust me, you won't be sorry.



Ingredients

1 large egg
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour


1. Place the egg in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, remove the saucepan from the heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile fill up a small bowl (I used my measuring cup) with ice water.

2. After the egg has sat for 10 minutes, transfer the egg into the ice water and let sit for 5 minutes.

3. Once egg has sat in ice water for 5 minutes, carefully crack the egg and peel away the shell. Separate the yolk from the white and discard the white.


4. Press the yolk through a fine mesh strainer. My yolk was bright yellow like a raw yolk is but was a thicker consistency than a raw yolk, it wasn't runny at all. It's not supposed to be pale yellow like a hard boiled egg. I tried to get a good picture of the yolk so you have an idea of it's consistency. Here's my best attempt:

5. In the bowl with the egg yolk, combine butter, sugar, and salt with an electric beater. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

6. Once butter mixture is light and fluffy, turn the mixer down to low and beat in vanilla until well incorporated.

7. Add the flour and mix on low speed until everything's combined. Then use your hands to press the dough into a ball. If the dough is crumbling apart, add more butter 1 tbsp at a time until it's no longer crumbly.

8. Divide the dough ball in half and set aside.

9. Repeat steps 1 thru 8 but instead only using 1 1/3 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to make the chocolate dough.

10. Once you have the plain and chocolate doughs separated, roll out each dough half on lightly floured wax paper until it forms a rectangle that's about 1/4 inch thick.

11. Place one rectangle of chocolate dough on top of one rectangle of plain dough and roll dough starting with the long end into a tight log. Use the wax paper to help you roll the dough. I tried using my hands and the dough was sticking to the paper when I tried pulling it off. When I used the wax paper to roll and then pull the paper off the dough, it came up just fine. Twist ends of wax paper and chill for 1 hour. Repeat with the remaining halfs of dough.

12. Once dough has chilled for an hour, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice your dough logs into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Be sure to rotate your log after every few slices so the log doesn't become misshaped.

13. Place the cookie rounds an inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Bake cookies for 15 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through. Allow cookies to cool.

Like I said before, these cookies were difficult for me to make but were absolutely delicious. Here's a few mistakes I made that I want to share with you so you don't make them as well.

• I rolled and chilled the plain dough and chocolate dough into loges without stacking them first. I thought that I would be able to roll the dough out once it had chilled, and I was wrong. I had to let the dough soften up and go repeat steps 10 & 11.
• I put the dough in the freezer and I think I should've put it in the refrigerator. The dough fell apart when I was slicing it and I think it was because the dough was too hard. Next time I make this recipe I'm going to put it in the fridge and make sure it's slightly soft when I slice it.
• Lastly, my ADD got the best of me and I forgot about a batch I had in the oven when I was organizing my pantry. I'll be investing in a kitchen timer this weekend.
• I also forgot to rotate the cookie sheet halfway through (thanks again, ADD)

Enjoy! Let me know how your attempt goes!

Learning Moments: The Perfect Pie Crust

For this weeks Learning Moments, I went in search of the perfect pie crust. Since we're in the midst of the holiday baking season, I figured this would be a helpful topic of discussion.

Pie crust is essentially a mixture of flour, water, and fat. Seems pretty simple, right? Well where the science (and it is, in fact, a science) of the pie crust comes in is the culmination of the ingredients. Let's not jump ahead of ourselves, though. We should have an understanding of the purpose for each of the three main ingredients and how they interact with each other.

Let's start with flour. Flour is the main ingredient in a pie crust recipe and serves as the body of the dough. It provides a foundation for the other ingredients to stand upon. Generally all purpose flour is utilized in a pie crust recipe. All purpose flour is chosen instead of cake or even pastry flour because of the gluten content it provides. Gluten provides structure when mixed with liquid. Having too much gluten can cause a crust to be tough while having too little gluten will produce a pie crust that falls apart.

When water is added to flour, it helps develop the gluten and makes steam that will give you a flaky crust. the amount of water you use when making a pie crust is crucial; too much water and you have something resembling a clay disc while too little water will give you crumbs rather than dough. It's important that you use ICE COLD water when making a pie crust dough so that the fat doesn't soften.

Finally, fat. It serves as a flavoring agent and works together with the water to make a flaky crust. In my research, I found recipes that called for lard, shortening, or butter. Lard and shortening will definitely help you  make a flaky crust, but it doesn't serve much purpose in the flavor department. Butter, however, will provide a nice flavor and give that desired flaky texture. As I mentioned earlier, it's important that your fat doesn't soften. This is because if the fat is completely incorporated into the flour and water, you'll have dough that will fall apart on you. If the fat is cold, it will mix into the batter in chunks and provide a flaky yet stable dough.

So in summary:

1.Flour: Use all purpose.
2. Water: Keep it ice cold.
3. Fat: Butter is best.

In true scientific research style, I have three versions that I've manipulated to be slightly different from each other and am measuring their ability to produce a stable flaky crust.

My three variations are as follows:

1. Plain Martha Stewart Pate Brisee recipe
2. Pate Brisee recipe + liquor
3. Pate Brisee recipe + grated butter

Let's start with a list of ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

I sifted together the flour, salt, and sugar and then put the bowl into the freezer with the butter. After about 30 minutes I removed the flour mixture and the butter and divided each into thirds.

Variation 1: Plain Martha Stewart Pate Brisee

1. I took the first third of my butter and cut it into small pieces.

2. I then added the butter to my flour and mixed the ingredients by hand. Use your thumbs to mash the butter into the flour.

3. Once the butter and flour were starting to form marble sized pieces I added 1/4 cup of ice water and used a hand mixer on low speed for 3 seconds to blend the ingredients. Make sure to not over blend. You can use a spoon if you think you may go crazy with the beater.

4. Once everything was barely mixed together (you should still see chunks of butter) I balled up the dough, flattened the ball into a disc, wrapped the disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for about and hour and a half. 

Observations: This dough was sturdy when I balled it up. It came together and stayed together nicely.


Variation 2: Pate Brisee recipe + liquor

1. I took the second third of my butter and cut it into small pieces.

2. I then added the butter to my flour and mixed the ingredients by hand. Remember, it's all in the thumbs.

3. Once the butter and flour were starting to form marble sized pieces I added a little less than 1/8 cup of vodka that's been sitting in the freezer (remember the importance of cold ingredients?) and 1/8 cup of ice water and then used a hand mixer on low speed for 3 seconds to blend the ingredients. Make sure to not over blend. You can use a spoon if you think you may go crazy with the beater.

4. Once everything was barely mixed together (you should still see chunks of butter) I balled up the dough, flattened the ball into a disc, wrapped the disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for about and hour and a half.

Observations: This dough was the stickiest out of all three. This dough also seemed like the most likely to break. It rolled out the thinnest.


Variation 3: Pate Brisee recipe + shredded butter

1. I took the last third of my butter and shredded it with a standard vegetable grater. I have to say, I was very skeptical that the grater would actually grate the butter. I thought I was going to end up with a big buttery mess but because the butter was COLD, it shredded just fine!

2. I then added the butter to my flour and mixed the ingredients by hand.

3. Once the butter and flour were starting to form marble sized pieces I added 1/4 cup of ice water and used a hand mixer on low speed for 3 seconds to blend the ingredients. Make sure to not over blend. You can use a spoon if you think you may go crazy with the beater.

4. Once everything was barely mixed together I balled up the dough, flattened the ball into a disc, wrapped the disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for about and hour and a half.

Observations: This dough was the crumbliest out of all the doughs. It didn't hold up as well as when balled up as the others.


Once all three doughs had a chance to chill in the refrigerator for an hour and a half:

• I rolled each dough out on a floured counter 
• I then cut two circles out of each dough and placed them into a greased cupcake tin.
• To be able to differentiate each kind of dough, I poked holes in the bottom of each making the letters 'M' for the plain Martha Stewart recipe, 'P' for the liquored recipe, and 'S' for the shredded butter recipe.
• I baked the doughs in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 13 minutes.

Final Observations:

The first variation (plain Martha Stewart Pate Brisee) baked darkest in color, the second variation (Pate Brisee + liquor) baked the thinnest, and the third (Pate Brisee + shredded butter) baked the lighest in color.

I enlisted the assistance of my favorite tastetester, my husband Armando, to conquor the task of tasting each of the three crusts. We both agreed that the first variation was very flaky. The second variation was kind of hard to bite into. Finally, the third variation was very consistent and tasted the best.

We concluded that the third pie crust was the best because it was flaky, but didn't crumble all over, and tasted great.

So, if you want a flaky pie crust that also tastes great, use shredded butter, all purpose flour, and cold ingredients. Below is the winning recipe.

The Perfect Pie Crust

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

1. Sift together flour, salt, and sugar.

2. Place bowl with flour mixture and butter in the freezer. Remove after 30 minutes.

3. Shred butter and mix into flour mixture with spoon or hands.

4. Gradually mix in ice water until dough starts to form marble sized balls. Dough should not be sticky.

5. Divide the dough into 2 halfs, wrap in plastic, and refridgerate for at least an hour and a half.

 Dough can be frozen up to a month.

**Make sure to place all ingredients in the freezer for at least 30 minutes and use ice water.**

When I embarked on my search of the perfect pie crust, I enlisted the help of some of the finest bakers I know, the ladies from the 'What's Cooking' message board on TheNest.com. A special thanks to duchessII81, bmk112302, martinilove, GardenPeach, maxlad, and blu-eyedwife for your suggestions.


I hope you enjoyed this comprehensive review of pie crusts. Please let me know what you thought. I'm going to go eat some pie!