It feels great to be back in business!!! My new lens is going to take some getting use to. I have already decided I need another one, but for now this works.
Years ago when my husband and I went to Ohio to visit his family, his dad took us to Young's Dairy for dinner. It's an actual dairy farm with a petting area and ice creamery and a restaurant. When you sit down, they bring out a loaf of warm sweet potato bread and cinnamon honey butter. We loved it so much that I wanted to try and recreate this for us to enjoy whenever we wanted.
After much trial and error, I came up with this recipe. I even made it everyday at the bakery and it was a big hit. We even made it up as french toast and drizzled with a little honey. Delicious! I'm sure this will be a hit in your own homes as it is in ours.
In a sieve, sift 3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp cloves.
I sifted right onto a piece of parchment paper because I didn't want to dirty up another bowl.
Sorry blurry picture! In a mixing bowl, put 2/3 cup shortening, 2 cups sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
Mix until it's crumbly.
Add 3 eggs and mix until nice and creamy. Sorry for these blurry pictures! They look so clear on my little lcd screen.
I like to make a bunch of sweet potato mash ahead of time. I divide it into ziplocs and freeze so all I have to do is pull one bag out of the freezer and thaw and it's ready for use. To make your sweet potato mash, cut up sweet potatoes (with the skins on). Put them in a big ol pot and fill up with water. Boil until they're soft. Dump into a colander and let strain until they are dry. Pull the skins off and mash the flesh in a bowl. I have found that if you fill one of those plastic produce bags at the grocery store full of sweet potatoes, you'll have enough for about 8 loaves of bread.
Add 2 cups sweet potatoes to the mixing bowl and mix well.
Dump in the dry ingredients all at once.
Turn the mixer onto the lowest speed setting and mix only until the wet and dry are combined. Don't overmix this. The batter will be slightly thick.
Spray two medium sized bread pans with Pam and divide the batter between the two. See how lumpy I put it in there? One of the gals at my bakery used to try and make it so nice and smooth on top and I told her to not do that. It all works out on its own in the oven and you actually do want a little peak in the center.
Put these into a hot 400* oven. As soon as you put the loaves in, turn the heat down to 350* and bake for about 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
See how beautiful these turn out? When you pull these out of the oven, remove them from the pans and let cool on baking racks.
Serve with whipped cinnamon honey butter.
To make this honey butter, put 2 semi soft sticks of butter in a bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Begin mixing on low speed to incorporate the butter and sugar. Drizzle honey in and turn onto high speed. Keep drizzling until the butter becomes nice and fluffy.
Transfer to a tupperware bowl and hold in the fridge when not using.
Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_123dnj9tvcc
Thursday, January 8, 2009
.sweet potato bread.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
.father's day.
Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a great Father's Day with the significant men in your lives. Thursday night I came up with the great idea to sneak Jim off for the weekend with the girls. I looked online for decent hotel rates and didn't find anything so I gave up the idea.
Then Friday morning, when I woke up, I decided to check one more time. I found a great rate for a great hotel in St. Augustine, Florida. I made the reservation and started packing and getting the house picked up. I can't ever just leave the house a mess! Jim got home around 11:30 on Friday and I had everything ready to go. We loaded the girls up and we were on our way! Talk about sweeping him off his feet, right?
We had a great time. Took some tours, walked around the historic district, ate great food. The baby had a difficult time going to sleep at night, but she was such a good kid. Both of the girls were.
We got back this afternoon and I quickly figured I better make something for the husband for Father's Day. Not that he expected anything fancy after our little escapade. So tonight I made avocado turkey burgers with sweet potato fries and a strawberry salad. It was delicious!
The turkey burger was really nothing fancy. I had some frozen (gasp!) patties in my freezer, that I whip up for lunches. The sweet potatoes are yummy and help curve the craving for real potatoes -- which I am trying to give up on right now while losing weight. The salad is one my sister Ronda makes. I changed it a little bit to work with the things I had in my fridge. It was pretty darn tasty. In this entry, I will post the recipe for the sweet potato fries. Tomorrow I'll post the salad recipe.
Sweet Potato Fries
Here's what you'll need:
- Sweet potatoes
- Olive Oil
- Coarse salt (like sea salt)
- Garlic
- Lemon
- Chipotle (optional)
Peel your sweet potatoes. I used 3 and we had way too many for just the three of us. I could have easily gotten away with 2.
Cut the sweet potatoes into slices -- like french fries!
Lay the slices on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. I used less than 1/4 cup. Don't go crazy with it. You just want to lightly coat the slices.
I love being able to find a nice product at the commissary on base. I picked this French Grey Sea Salt by McCormick up the other day. Love that!
Sprinkle some of the salt on top.
Mince a clove or two of garlic. Sprinkle that on top too.
Use a zester or the fine grate on your cheese grater to take off some of the zest. Don't get the pith (the white part under the yellow skin). It'll give you a bitter flavor.
Sprinkle that on top of the sweet potatoes too. Mix everything together so it's all nicely coated and distributed.
Pop the tray into a preheated 400* oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.
If you want a little spice added to these fries, finely mince one chipotle pepper and mix mix that in too. The flavor will pair nicely with the sweet potatoes!
Pull from oven and serve hot.Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dg2vfjqm_68g4gnbpfd&hl=en
Monday, April 7, 2008
.sweet potato croquettes.
In the previous entry for Asian infused grilled pork loin with mango salsa, I mentioned these sweet potato croquettes.
A croquette (pronounced crow-ket) is a small cake or ball of minced meat, poultry, fish, potato, or other food that is coated with beaten egg and bread crumbs then fried.
I've never made these before so I learned things a long the way that I will share with you in hopes that yours turn out even better than mine.
Start by cutting up some sweet potatoes (4) and put in a pot of water. Cook until soft. I left the skins on mine and once I strained the potatoes in a colander, I pulled the skins off.
Mash the sweet potatoes (2 cups) and add 2 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.Make little patties with the mash.
Place on strips of wax paper, or parchment. Wrap with saran and put in the freezer. I didn't let mine freeze long enough and they were very gooey to work with. I highly suggest you let these freeze all day and even overnight. This will keep them from falling completely apart on you when you go to fry.
In a large bowl or pie plate, beat an egg. Coat each side of the sweet potato patty.
Then coat each side with bread crumbs. Plain. Not italian seasoned ones.
Carefully place in a pan of hot oil. You want enough oil to come halfway up the patty. Heat the oil to 375* for great frying.When the bottom is nice and golden brown, turn over carefully. I had to use two spatulas to get these turned over without splashing hot grease everywhere.
When both sides are nice and golden brown, remove from the oil and place on a paper towel to soak up any lingering oil. Serve warm.
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