CANDIED ORANGE PEEL – A NATIONAL DAY
NATIONAL FOOD DAYS
CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
Friday, Mary 4th is National Candied Orange Peel Day. Candied Orange & Lemon Peel is often used in baked goods, especially around the winter holidays when it is often used in fruit cake. But there is no need to wait for Christmas or Chanukah to add the Candied Peel to everyday foods. If you would like to make your own Candied Orange Peel you can find any number of recipes on the Internet. If however, you do not want to take the time or effort ( it would take about 4 hours total to make the fisnished product) you can purchase Candied Orange Peel at establishments that specialize in nuts and dried fruit or on-line.
The featured photo shows an Orange, an Orange Slice, Candied Orange Peel and Chocolate Covered Orange Peel. There has been a long tradition of combining Chocolate with Orange and there are many ways in which you can do it. A Chocolate Fudge Cake or Chocolate Brownies with Orange Peel would make very tasty and elegant dessert.
Other ways in which Candied Orange Peel can be used are:
Cookies
Cakes
Muffins
Brownies
Fudge
Quick Bread
Cornbread
Pancakes or Waffles
Oatmeal or Cream of Wheat
Jello or Pudding
For a Muffin Recipe please see the recipe section of this blog. /muffins-with-candied-orange-peel/
Unbaked Muffins with Demarara Sugar on Top
Unbaked Muffins with Pearl Sugar
In the photo on the left, Demarara Sugar has been sprinkled on top. (Demarara Sugar is sometimes sold as Sugar in the Raw, although it is not really raw sugar – just one step on the way to being granulated.)
The Photo on the right has been sprinkled with Swedish Pearl Sugar. The idea of putting sugar on the top of the unbaked Muffins is to give a caramelized effect and taste on the top of the muffin.
Muffin Batter portioned into baking cups
Categories: Baking, Bread, Breakfast Ideas, Dessert Ideas, Fruit, Holiday Ideas, Holiday Meals, Main, National Food Days Tags: baking, Candied Orange Peel, Demarara Sugar, Eggs, Flour, Muffins, Orange Extract, Pearl Sugar, Sugar
April 7th – National Coffee Cake Day
SHARING CULTURES THROUGH HOLIDAYS & FOOD
April Food Days
Saturday, April 7, 2012 is National Coffee Cake Day. The reason this cake is called Coffee Cake is not because there is coffee in it as an ingredient, but because it is meant to be eaten with a cup of coffee as the beverage. This is a good cake to have for breakfast because it contains eggs, sour cream and butter. The eggs and sour cream provide protein and the butter of course adds flavor as well as moisture to the cake. There are many versions of this baked delight and they are probably as numerous as the number of pastry chefs in this country.
Start with the basic recipe and then add your own fillings or fruity or nutty additions. The recipe below is for a basic cake with a nut/sugar topping. I belatedly remembered the Raspberry Sauce left over from our Waffle Breakfast this morning. It would have been a nice addition to go between the layers of the cake.
This cake does not have two layers in the traditional sense which would mean that there were two layers baked in separate pans. Just that half the batter is poured into the prepared pan and sprinkled with half the topping and then the remaining batter goes over the topping and the remaining topping goes over the second layer of batter. The raspberry would have been a nice flavor contrast.
Remember that if you decide to make this cake, that the ingredients can be varied. Buttermilk can be used in place of sour cream and in fact, I did not have quite a whole cup of sour cream so I added enough buttermilk to make up the difference. Buttermilk, like sour cream, adds a nice rich flavor to baked goods and also adds some moistness. I also substituted ¼ cup of the granulated sugar with ¼ cup of brown sugar. I love the flavor of brown sugar which can give a little caramel taste to baked goods. In addition to or in place of the nuts, shredded Coconut can be used for the toppings. Orange or lemon zest would also be a nice addition to the batter. You can even add dried cherries or cranberries to the batter also. Try your own variations with this recipe and please let me know how they turn out.
SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Baking Soda
½ tsp. Salt
1 cup Butter
1 ¼ cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
Nut Mixture
1 tops. Vanilla
TOPPING
½ cup chopped Nuts
2 Tbsps. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Cinnamon
DIRECTIONS:
- Grease and flour the indicated a 9” square pan or a Bundt Pan; preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix together the ingredients for the topping; set aside.
- Combine the Flour, Baking Powder, Soda and Salt.
- Cream the Butter and Sugar; beat in the Eggs and Vanilla.
- Add the Flour mixture, alternately with the Sour Cream.
- Pour half of the Batter into the prepared pan; sprinkle with half the Topping.
Topping Sprinkled on First Half of Batter
7. Spoon remaining Batter on top; sprinkle with the remaining Nut mixture.
8. Bake in preheated oven on middle shelf for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
9. Cool on rack 20-30 minutes before removing from pan or serve directly from the pan.
Baked Coffee Cake
Yield: 9 Servings
Categories: Baking, Breakfast Ideas, Cooking for Everyone, Main Tags: baking, Breakfast, butter, Cinnamon, Coffee Cake, Eggs, Nuts, Sour Cream, Sugar
National Caramel Day
Caramel Lovers, Beware! April 5th is National Caramel Day and who doesn’t like Caramels? Not everyone loves them, but I can’t imagine not liking them. Caramel can come in many forms. Candy, Sauce, Toppings for Ice Cream, Covering for Apples and glue for Popcorn. Incidentally, tomorrow April 3rd is National Caramel Popcorn Day. In addition to sweets caramelization also occurs in cooked food such as onions, apples, even meats. Caramelization adds wonderful flavor to most foods and all it takes is a little bit of sugar and some heat. With some foods, like onions, the sugar occurs naturally and does not have to be added to get the caramelization.
Many popular candy bars are made with Caramel; just go look in the supermarket candy section and you will discover which ones.
A favorite South American Cookie, called Alfajores is also made with Caramel of Dulce de Leche as it is known in Latin Countries. Alfajores are a vanilla cookies sandwiched with Caramel in the middle.
You can buy Caramel Candy in the Supermarket, at the Drugstore or the Candy Store. It just depends in what form you would like to have it. One of my favorites are caramel covered marshmallows. Just heavenly and even better when you keep them in the freezer.
Caramel Covered Marshmallow
To make Caramel, the general way to do it is to melt some sugar in a saute pan (copper is best, but stainless with a copper or aluminum bottom will also work.) over medium-high heat. Once it melts and starts to color, remove from the heat until you are ready to finish it. When you are ready, add some very heavy cream and cook and stir until all the ingredients are combined. This will results in a very delicious Caramel Sauce.
Since today was National Caramel Day, I also made some Cashew Caramel. To make the Caramel, I heated some granulated sugar in a medium fring pan until it liquified and then I added a small amount of heavy cream. Once the Cream was blended in, I then added the Cashews (roasted, salted ones). Once all the Cashews were covered with the Caramel, I poured the mixture onto a non-stick baking sheet that was placed on a cookie sheet. The mixture was then allowed to set up. If you love Caramel and Cashews as I do, then this is a very good confection to have.
Melting the Sugar
Caramel Cashew
For Caramel Apples and Popcorn Balls, try the Easy Caramel Recipe under our Recipe Section, candy/caramel/
For more Caramel, don’t forget that April 6th is National Caramel Popcorn Day. Another American favorite!
Categories: Dessert Ideas, Food as Gifts, Holiday Ideas, Holiday Meals, Main Tags: butter, Candy, Caramel, Children's Cooking, Cookie Recipes, Cookies, Cream, Dessert Ideas, National Caramel Day, National Caramel Popcorn Day, Sugar
