Ronald's Saturday Off: Soft Pumpkin Cookies

Fall is officially in the air. With that in mind, I want to share a few recipes that is great for the Autumn season. Throughout the season, we experience a mixture of creating things from Pumpkin, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, herbs and also nuts. These key ingredients make up the fall cuisine come to life. Even though as a society, we are more geared to “The Pumpkin”, because it’s actually the number one staple item in American Cuisine. But I had just found out, why not separate food items based on the months? It would make much sense to have Apples in September. Anyway,  since we are talking about the pumpkin, I guess I’ll stick to the topic.

I never actually grew up eating pumpkin at all. That includes pie, cookies, cakes, bars, you name it. In fact, it wasn’t until I got to College, when I started to enjoy “Pumpkin Foods”. Now, I have carved a pumpkin in my childhood. I’ve made pumpkin cookies in school, and I have also ate a slice of pumpkin bread. If I can recall, I actually did make a pumpkin pie in daycare. I think the reason why I didn’t want to try anything pumpkin related, is because we associate a pumpkin to human characteristics. It was like eating a “Living creature”….But what the heck. The past is the past. Right? Anyways,

The other day, I went to the store to buy some Pillsbury Pumpkin cookies with cheesecake bites in them. The cookies had me thinking about my mother’s pumpkin cheesecake that she had made about a week ago. So I thought to myself, there’s a recipe I recall from school. It goes as follows

Ingredients

·      2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

·      1 teaspoon of baking soda

·      1 teaspoon of baking powder

·      1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

·      ½ teaspoon of salt

·      1 ½ cups of granulated sugar

·      ½ cup of butter, softened

·      1 cup of canned Pure Pumpkin pie filling

·      1 egg

·      1 teaspoon of Vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. on a greased baking sheet.

Combine your dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. In another mixing bowl, beat your sugar and butter until it is well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla until it is very smooth. Gradually in your mixing bowl, beat in the dry ingredient mixture. Next, drop rounded batter on a baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for about 15 to 18 minutes or until the edges are firm. Cool on a baking sheet for two minutes.

What you can do for these, is to make a nice glaze for these cookies. You can also throw in some pecans, white chocolate chips, and regular chocolate chips as well. I wish I can find cheesecake bite chips in a store.

Best Wishes and Happy Cooking!!

Ronald Atkinson Jr. 

Ronald's Saturday Off: Biscuit Recipes for National Biscuit Month

Incase you didn’t know that September is National Biscuit Month, I decided to pull some recipes from my stash in its honor. Buttermilk Biscuits!! Can you even think of the best biscuits you have ever tasted? I can’t. However, The Loveless Café in Nashville does make a hell of a delicious biscuit. But since it’s national biscuit month, I wanted to share some recipes. I found a few recipes in my stash to make up for, National Biscuit Month. First we’ll begin with the biscuits.

Now with your biscuits, oven temperature will vary. Mine worked at 400 degrees, for others, it may be less than that. 400 degrees does sound pretty high.

Buttermilk Biscuits:

You will need:

o   2 cups of Self-Rising Flour 

o   ¼ cup of Lard (or Vegetable Shortening)

o   1 Cup of Buttermilk

o   A handful of flour (for kneading)

o   Melted Butter

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, combine your flour with the shortening. While your fingers, or a pastry cutter, blend it well until your dough becomes crumb-like.

Once your dough becomes very crumb-like, add in your buttermilk. Once you add in your milk, mix your dough together using a wooden spoon. Don’t over mix it, but mix it until it is formed together. If you are using the “hand” method of mixing your dough, go ahead and make sure that you wash your hands. But dry them completely for the next step.

On a table top, sprinkle a handful of flour, and then go ahead and scoop all of the dough out the bowl with your hand.

In this next step, you are going to knead your dough until it’s firm and smooth like a baby’s bottom. Once your dough is smooth, fold the dough onto itself 6-8 times.

Roll out your dough until it’s good enough to be at least an inch thick. With a cutter, or a glass, press the dough firmly so that it makes biscuits. When you press to cut out your biscuits, make sure that you do NOT twist the dough. If you PRESS and TWIST, your biscuits will NOT RISE. BIG NO-NO!!!

On a lightly buttered/greased pan, place your cut out biscuits on the baking sheet. You know how store bought biscuits say “Please place them inches apart”? With these, you don’t have to.

When your biscuits are placed on the pan, for each biscuit, place an index finger print in the middle of each one. Bake in your oven for 8-10 minutes.

When your biscuits are done, brush them with melted butter. Serve with butter, jam, and enjoy.

Quick and Tasty, Country Sausage Gravy:

Many people have different variations of a Country Sausage Gravy, as much as they do with biscuit recipes. But for now, I’m going to keep it simple like the cowboys did in the old days.

You will need:

o   1 pound of Bulk Sausage.

o   4 tablespoons of All-purpose flour

o   2 cups of Half and Half

o   Crushed Black Pepper

o   Seasoned Salt

o   Red Pepper (Optional)

In a hot skillet, brown your sausage accordingly. When your sausage is fully cooked, you want to make sure that you still have some fat in your skillet. Take your flour and just sprinkle it over the sausage while stirring. With this, you’re making a Roux. As your roux seems to be somewhat thickening with your sausage, add your half and half while continuing to stir the gravy. While you’re stirring the gravy, you can add more half and half depending on how creamy you want it.

As your gravy seems to become a nice thick gravy, go ahead and add in your seasonings of crushed black pepper, seasoned salt, and red pepper.

With your gravy, I don’t judge based on measurements. With my method, I do a simple taste test. That way, everyone has their own preference of how they want their gravy to taste.

A Southern Breakfast Casserole.

·      1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

·      6 large eggs

·      ¼ cup of whole milk

·      Salt and pepper

Now that you know how to make biscuits and gravy, let’s go ahead and make something that all southerners love. You can use canned biscuits if you want to, but we will do it with the biscuit recipe from above. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. With your biscuits, create and knead your dough as stated from above, and place them in a buttered 9 x 13 Baking Dish. Whisk your eggs in a large bowl along with your milk. Season it with salt and pepper and pour it over your biscuits evenly. Next, take your sausage gravy and pour it evenly on top of everything. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let it sit for five minutes before serving, cut, serve, and eat.

I find that these are a great hit for the early morning Tailgating games.

Happy Eating!!

Ronald's Saturday Off: Ruth Berry Gordon's Famous Fruit Pies [Dried Apple Pie]

Fort Riley, Kansas, is home to the nation’s most oldest, and recognizable divisions of The United States Army, The First Infantry Division. Not only does this Fort serve its division, but back in the day, this Fort was once home to the famous General George Custer, and his wife Libby Custer. Dating back to the Calvary period.

Growing up, I never took the time to come out to Apple Days, until I started High School actually making pies with other volunteers. But as I was creating them, I realized that it serves a purpose with a rich history. According to sources, General George Custer and his wife, Libby lived in a set of quarters in which it’s identified as Quarters 21. However, when a fire had burned the quarters, a recipe box, along with many other historical items were used. With that said, Libby’s Apple Pie Recipe was born to the public.

In the 1970’s, Fort Riley has grown a series of Apple Trees in the fall, in front of the Commanding General’s Quarters. “What will we do with all of these apples?” , someone mentioned. Then, an idea was brought to the table of making Apple Pies for the public, in terms of raising money for scholarships. Since then, The event turned out to be The Fort Riley Apple Day Festival. The Ingredients are simple, but the recipe remains a secret. The only people who know the recipe, are the Apple Queens themselves, who are in charge of making over 2,000 pies. The recipe is very old, and instead of having a crust, it has a crumble.

When I was in High School, I picked up a recipe that was left out on the table. I picked it up, and now, I can’t find where it’s at. Then I came across an old PowerPoint with the exact same recipe. It was worded weird, and I tried to do the best I can to find it, relocate it, and also modernizing, edit it, and experiment. No matter what I did, there’s always adjustments to be made, so I decided to keep things as it is. While everyone knows Libby's Pie, Ruth Berry Gordon also made a staple in creating pies. People of Pawnee, knew that Ruth created a DRIED apple pie filling, that is great to share. 

Pawnee’s Famous Fruit Pies

Ruth Berry came to Kansas with her parents in a covered wagon when she was 16 years old. They arrived in Pawnee, which was the settlement that Andrew Reeder determined to be the capital city of the Kansas Territory just days before the first legislature was to convene there. Berry was recruited to help prepare 70 pies for the governor’s banquet in July 1855. While serving the “fruits of her labor” to the governor’s table, she met Grabet Gordon. Gordon and Berry wed a year later in the stone capitol building. The couple moved to Junction City after it was founded in 1858. There Gordon served as justice of the peace and was elected to the first Kansas State Legislature in 1861.

In the old days, you would have to prepare your apples accordingly.

·      First you will need to buy some fresh apples. Cut them into quarters and you will need to tie them on a string and let them hang to dry out for maybe at least a couple hours. It might be turning brown but sometimes its ok if they do.  This is an old method that they used. However, I would recommend to leave them out on a plate.

Ingredients for the dried-apple pie filling

•       2 cups of dried apples

•       4 cups of boiling water

•       ¼ teaspoon of salt

•       1 teaspoon of cinnamon

•       2 egg yolks

•       ½ cup of sugar

•       ½ cup of milk

•       You will also need a 9-inch unbaked pie shell.

First, wash your apples and place them in a pot of salted boiling water. Make sure that your apples are completely covered with water. Reduce the heat, and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the apples from the heat, and place them in a colander to drain. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks while adding sugar and spices (Cinnamon, nutmeg, or Apple Pie Spice.). Next, you will add in the milk to blend. Last, mix thoroughly with the apples, and pour the mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Let it bake in the oven for 425 for 30 minutes.

One of the hardest things about a 150 year old recipe, is actually modernizing for the presentence. With that said, the crust was very hard to experiment.

Pie shell ingredients

• ·      2 ½ Cups of sifted flour
• ·      ½ teaspoon salt
• ·      1 cup of lard
• ·      1 beaten egg
• ·      1 tablespoon of vinegar
• ·      Cold water

First, cut your shortening into a bowl of flour and salt. Next, beat the egg lightly in a 1½  measuring cup, and add the vinegar. Last, fill the cup with cold water. Add just a barely enough liquid to dry ingredients in terms of holding the dough together.

With about 4 tablespoons reserving the remaining liquid, use that for your next batch of pastry dough. Handle as little as possible. Roll out the pastry dough, and use as desired. When your pastry is nicely rolled out, clutch the dough against the pan, and you may use this as your crust. If you want, you can also use this as your pie shell. This amount of dough will make two 9-inch pie shells.