It’s Butter and Biscuits, and I Helped!

I can make my own butter, and I’ve done it a few times – only because I was out of butter at the time and happened to have cream on hand. Each time I make my own butter for a recipe, I want to shout out to everyone, “YOU KNOW THE BUTTER IN THERE IS HOMEMADE!?” but then I also feel sort of ashamed, like they won’t believe that I created not only the dish, but an actual ingredient for it. It’s such a tough situation. Sigh…

But then again, y’all, making butter is really the easiest thing in the world (well, next to making granola. See previous post.)… if you have a KitchenAid mixer. (If all you have is cream, a really large jar and weak biceps, I don’t envy you.) Just pour cream in (however much you have/need/want) the bowl of the mixer, and, using the whisk attachment, turn the mixer on 8 or 10, as high as it will go. Let it whirl around for about 10 minutes, until the solids turn pale yellow and separate from the liquid. Let the cream pass the whipped cream stage. Once it starts to look like a very liquid ricotta cheese (i.e., the solids separate from the liquid), turn the mixer off, and pour the mixture into a bowl lined with a clean kitchen towel. Gather the ends of the kitchen towel and squeeze out the liquid, and then open the towel. What’s left is pure, unsalted, delicious homemade butter – complete with a cool kitchen-towel pattern.

This morning for my work’s weekly potluck breakfast, I made garlic and cheddar biscuits with country ham and used that lovely homemade butter. Feel free to just slather it on good bread; my farmers market has pecan bread that would serve as a perfect butter vehicle. Or, use a store bought butter – either way, the biscuits below were gone from my weekly potluck in 30 minutes. I’d like to think it was the homemade butter that put them over the top.

Garlic and Cheddar Cream Biscuits with Country Ham Filling

Ingredients:
- 1 ½ c. whipping cream
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 c. grated sharp cheddar
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 1 ½ c. ground country ham

Directions:
For the biscuits: Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Combine whipping cream, flour, cheddar and garlic powder in a bowl until mixture forms a dough. Pour mixture out on a floured surface and knead a few times, patting the dough out to a 1-inch thickness. Cut 8-10 biscuits out with a 2-inch round cookie cutter, combining the scraps and patting out the dough again if necessary. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet two inches apart, lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper, brush the tops with melted butter and bake for 6-7 minutes.

For ham filling: Combine the ham and butter in a food processor and pulse until combined. Check ham package to make sure ham is cooked – if it’s not, fry the butter and ham mixture until lightly browned, 3-5 minutes.

Cut the warm biscuits in half and fill each with about a tablespoon of the ham filling. Makes 8-10 ham biscuits.

It's not dirty; it's delicious!

Okay, this is my first blog entry here, and it should be duly noted that this food inspired me to write a blog at all. If that isn't divine inspiration, I don't know what is.

Speaking of divine, I can't stop eating these Forget-About-'Em cookies, or Easter Cookies, which is what I will henceforth refer to as "Lovely Little Puffs of Marshmallow Heaven." Forget that the primary ingredient is egg whites and you bake them, for these ain't yo' mama's rock-hard meringue cookies. These are edible clouds. As soon as you pop one into your mouth, the rest of the pan is as good as done for.

Think of the texture of a marshmallow, with the flavor of divinity and a slight outside crispiness.

This is my adaptation of a recipe that was originally found on my favorite recipe blog, Simply Recipes. The idea of Easter Cookies is that in some variation of the Catholic faith - Greek Orthodox or something - the cookies are made to teach children about what Easter's all about. They have a story, which I won't go into. Anyway, kids make them the night before Easter, put them in the oven, turn the oven off, and wake up to delicious, gooey goodness on Easter morning. For the same reason, they're called "Forget-About-'Em Cookies;" you put them in the oven, turn the oven off, and forgetaboutit, if you're channeling the Sopranos.

Me? I'm channeling the "I-Want-Them-Now" gods, and waiting overnight just wasn't going to work, so I shortened the process. Here's what you should know about me - I'm selfish, and I like to eat --- like, now. :) I made the batch in my KitchenAid mixer (wonderful, wonderful tool) at 3:45, put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes, and at 4:15 p.m., half of the pan is gone, I'm blogging and the mouse is sticky. Don't let your mind wander on the latter statement... it's just sugar, y'all.

Ahem. So here's my quick version of Forget-About-'Ems, because if you do happen to forget these are in your kitchen, I'll find you and eat them all:

Quick! Forget-About-'Ems!

Ingredients:
- Pinch salt
- 3 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar (but today I used white wine vinegar and it was cool)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup chopped pecans, or mini-chocolate chip morsels, or chopped toffee candy, or whatever floats your marshmallow boat

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread chopped pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for five minutes.

While those are baking, place the pinch of salt in the bottom of your KitchenAid mixer bowl. Add egg whites, and turn the mixer on pretty high, like a 6 or 8 setting. When bubbles start to form, add a teaspoon of white vinegar. The little cap is a good measure (as long as it's little). When the egg whites really start to foam up, gradually add the cup of sugar and the vanilla. Continue to beat (or rather, let the KitchenAid mixer beat - let's face it; you're not doing much at this point besides anticipating yumminess) until stiff peaks form. You'll know stiff peaks have formed when you take the whisk attachment off and the egg whites stand up on the end of it.

Fold in the toasted chopped pecans with a plastic spatula. Drop lethargically on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or two layers of parchment (not wax! It will smoke!) paper.

Place sheet pan in the oven and turn the oven off. After 10 minutes, turn the oven back on to 300. Let the cookies bake for two minutes at 300 degrees, then turn it back off and wait for five minutes. Let cool... or don't. They're so, so good either way.