Secret Recipe Club: Bacon Cheddar Cornbread

I get so excited every time the reveal date for the Secret Recipe Club rolls around. It is just so much fun to see who has been cooking and what everyone's been cooking! I missed having SRC in January, but it was our month off for the year. And now I'm back and ready to go!

When I received this month's assignment, I was in awe of the site. The site has so much going on, and in a great way! And when I read the 'About me' section, I knew just why. She isn't a just a blogger like me; she's a blogger who is a professional trained chef! I'm so happy to introduce you to Chef Becca from It's Yummi! She's just amazing, and SO versatile. Whether it's a fancy dessert, an elaborate main course, a simple starter or a healthy snack - she's got it all! Visit her and I know for sure you won't be disappointed with what you find.

As always, I had a rough time trying to pick just ONE recipe from Chef Becca's blog. So I ended up making two this time around. Actually, originally picked only one - a cookie recipe. Unfortunately, I neglected to take pictures before I put the cookies out when some friends came over. I figured I'd take the pictures after they left with all the leftover cookies. Well, who would have thunk there would be no leftovers! I recommend her Triple Chocolate Cookies, for sure! She has some fabulous muffin recipes too! I have several bookmarked!

The recipe I finally made for this month's reveal was her Bacon Cheddar Cornbread. It was my birthday on Saturday, and I decided to make one of my favourite meals. So we ate this yummy cornbread with my Beef and Navy bean Chili and it was oh so yummy!

Chef Becca uses her homemade Bisquick mix in this recipe. I just halved her Bisquick mix recipe, used what I needed for this recipe, and stored the rest in the fridge for later. So convenient!

I just combined 4 cups all purpose flour, 2 1/2 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp sugar. Then, I rubbed in 1/2 cup unsalted butter until I had a mixture that resembled fresh bread crumbs. Since I used butter instead of shortening, I store this mix in the fridge.

Bacon Cheddar Cornbread
Adapted from this recipe on itsyummi.com 
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups of homemade Bisquick mix (see previous paragraph)
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup creamed corn
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup cooked bacon, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Method
1. Into a 9x5 rectangular glass baking tray, or a cast iron oven-safe skillet, put 1 tbsp of butter. Place this into an oven and begin to preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the baking mix, the cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine.
3. Combine the egg, creamed corn, milk and oil in a medium bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Stir in the chopped bacon and the shredded cheese.
6. Remove the hot baking dish from the oven. Pour the batter into the tray over the melted butter.
7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Serve warm with extra butter, and some honey, if desired.

We ate this cornbread straight out of the oven with super spicy chili and we really, really enjoyed it!

The flavours are amazing, the cornbread is moist and the salty bacon is just perfect with the corn. So tasty! Or should I say SO YUMMI! My older daughter loved snacking on these beautiful squares of cornbread even after she was done with dinner. Definitely a keeper! Thanks Chef Becca! :)

I always enjoy the recipes my fellow bloggers from Group B cook up! To see what everyone else has made, check out the links below! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Pecan Monkey Bread

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2015 is a good year for all of us. 

I've been so bad at posting! And here I was, resolving to post more regularly in 2015! It has been a hectic year so far. We've been barely cooking and eating at home. For the last few days, things have become slightly less crazy, and we've all grown tired of eating out. So here's my first post for this year. 

This recipe is from a book I got as a Christmas gift. It's a compilation of baking recipes by Martha Day. The book has tons of awesome sounding recipes from all over the world! Unfortunately I'm unable to find a link to an online store that's selling this particular book. 

This morning for breakfast we ate this delicious Monkey Bread. It was really, really good! I made the dough, finished the first rise and assembled the bread last night and left it in the fridge overnight. This morning, I took it out of the fridge at about 5am and let it sit out on the counter till around 7:30. We had fresh Monkey Bread for breakfast, and lots of smiles all around!

Pecan Monkey Bread 
Adapted from "Baking" by Martha Day
Ingredients
4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
30g unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Coating:
1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
1/4 cup soft dark brown sugar
2/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter

Method
1. In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter. Heat gently until the butter has almost dissolved completely. Set aside for 5 minutes and stir in the egg, and the egg yolk and whisk well to combine. Check the temperature and allow it to cool until the mixture is slightly warm - about 105-110F. 
2. In a large bowl, or in the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the flour, instant yeast, salt and sugar. Set aside.
3. When the milk mixture is warm, create a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the milk mixture in. Stir will a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Then knead the dough using the hook attachment on your stand mixer or by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. This will take about 7-8 minutes on your stand mixer at medium speed, and about 10-15 minutes by hand.
4. Coat a large bowl with oil, and place the ball of dough into the bowl, giving it a turn in the bowl to coat it lightly with oil. Cover the top with clingfilm and set aside for about 1-1.5 hours. You want the dough to double in volume during this time. 
5. Prepare the coating ingredients by combing the sugars, pecans and cinnamon powder in a small bowl. Keep the melted butter in a separate bowl. Prepare a 9 or 10inch fluted baking tin by greasing it generously. I used a 10" angel cake tin. 
6. At the end of the proofing time, deflate the dough and divide it into 32 even sized pieces. 
7. Roll each piece of dough into a tight ball. Drop each ball into the butter and using a fork, fish out the ball and drop it into the bowl with cinnamon sugar. Roll the ball in this mixture until it is well coated, making sure that some pieces of pecan have stuck on to the ball. Drop the ball into the prepared tin.
8. Continue rolling and layering the balls of dough in the baking tin until you've used up all the dough. 
9. Cover the pan with clingfilm and set aside for about 45 minutes or until the dough is risen and puffy.
10. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Bake the Money Bread for about 30 minutes or so or until the bread is golden brown.
11. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, loosen the sides using a knife and flip the bread onto a plate.
12. Serve warm and let people rip off a ball or five and enjoy!

The original recipe contained 1/2 cup of raisins that are sprinkled over the balls of dough about halfway into layering. My husband isn't a great fan of raisins in cinnamon bread, and so I decided to omit.

What the recipe doesn't suggest is drizzling the bread with decadent cream cheese glaze before serving. I high recommend this. I tried it after the pictures were taken, and it was just divine! And that's not even the best part! The best part of this recipe is those little pecan halves that drop off the bread and are sugar roasted to perfection. Crunching on those candied pecans was just bliss!

I'll be back again soon (I hope!), with more delicious recipes to share for this year! God bless you all! :)

Banana, Date & Walnut Bread

I've been just so bad at blogging. It has been a challenge for me to sit down and get a post out, and I apologise! I should be posting more regularly going forward. Fingers crossed!

This recipe came out of need - I just needed to use up some leftover, overripe bananas, and some dates that my daughters have outgrown. Yes, outgrown. These kids and their food choices. One day they love dates and they insist I buy them a large pack. And the next day - "Dates? Blechhhhh!" How am I supposed to keep up with that!

I loved the way this recipe turned out. It was loosely based on a recipe from taste.com.au. I changed it up quite a bit - the biggest changes being using mostly honey, and a lot less, in place of sugar, and the addition of some butter in the recipe. 

Banana, Date & Walnut Bread 

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup water

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/3 cup honey

2 tbsp sugar

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp flaxseed powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large overripe bananas, peeled and mashed (about 1 cup)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. While the oven is preheating, lay the walnuts on a small oven-safe plate or tray and allow them to toast in the oven. Remember to remove them when the oven reaches temperature. Alternatively, toast the walnuts in a skillet or frying pan. 

2. Pour the water in a saucepan, add the butter, honey and sugar and place it on a stovetop on medium heat.

3. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is starting to bubble.

4. Add in the dates and cook for approximately a minute. Turn off the heat and set the saucepan aside.

5. In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, flaxseed powder and salt. Stir well to combine.

6. Add the date mixture, which will be a little cooler now, and stir until combined. Stir in the mashed banana.

7. Fold in the walnuts. 

8. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9" loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the tin comes out clean.

9. Remove from the oven, and allow the bread to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Ease the loaf out of the tin and allow to cool down on a rack.

10. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Let me tell you - this is a hearty, healthy and filling bread. We loved it! It was great as a part of breakfast and a yummy tea-time treat!

I ate a couple of slices with some peanut butter. My husband liked it with a caramel spread. But my favourite was when I ate a leftover slice the next morning - toasted and slathered with butter. It was just awesome!

I love the flavours and textures that come together in this loaf, and I think you will too! 

Until next time… 

DIY Series: Homemade Pancake Syrup

This pancake syrup was made because I just had to! For some reason, the price of good pancake syrup TRIPLED in a matter of weeks. I am not really the kind of person who pinches pennies, but I couldn't imagine paying that much for a bottle of syrup!

We use syrup at least once a week around here. When I decided to look up the recipe for syrup, I just couldn't believe my eyes. It was SO SIMPLE! I looked at the ingredients listed at the back of the syrup bottle and there were around 15 ingredients listed - most of which had chemically names. This homemade syrup has 6 ingredients, including 2 optional ingredient and water. And I guarantee you won't taste the difference.

The first time I made this syrup was late one night, I think it was around 10:30 PM, when I realized that I had everything ready for my overnight waffles but I had run out of syrup. I was telling my husband that I was probably going to make some caramel sauce or coulis for breakfast because we were out of syrup. During the night, I found this recipe, made it in under 10 minutes and let it cool overnight. The next morning, my husband was halfway through his waffles when he suddenly asked, "Where did you get the syrup? I thought we were out. You couldn't have gone out that late at night! Did you find an unopened bottle in your pantry?" When I told him it was homemade, he was really impressed! He couldn't even tell that it was different from the store bought brand we use.

I've made the both versions - with and without the maple extract - and while the maple flavor is yummy, the vanilla one is just as good, and no one complained about the missing maple flavor. 

Pancake Syrup
Slightly adapted from Taste of Home
Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
1 cup white sugar
A large pinch of salt, (optional but recommended)
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp maple extract, optional

Method
1. Combine the brown sugar, white sugar, salt and water in a heavy bottom saucepan.
2. Cooking on medium heat, bring the syrup to a boil while stirring frequently.
3. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and the maple extract, if you're using it.
5. Allow to cool and transfer to a bottle for use.

If you like your syrup pancake thick, reduce the water in the recipe to 3/4 cup. We like our syrup a little runny and so these proportions work well for us. I sometimes add a few extra tablespoons of water. Just remember that the syrup thickens as it cools. So don't let it cook down too much. You could even experiment with other flavors of extracts!

There are a few popular brands like Aunt Jemima, Log Cabin and American garden that make this kind of syrup. It is no substitute for maple syrup, really. But when real maple syrup is very expensive here, and while we are so blessed that we receive a few bottles a year from abroad, it is definitely not enough to last us through the year.

This recipe is just amazing! If you use pancake syrup at home, this is sometime you MUST try. You won't regret it! 

DIY Series - Homemade Pizza Sauce

A while ago, I asked friends and readers on my Facebook page what they would like to make at home from scratch. 

As I confessed in my earlier post, we've been making a lot of stuff at home these days. Things that we usually buy readymade are slowly being phased out. We didn't particularly like the price tags of some of them and didn't like the amount of chemicals and additives in the rest of them. 

A lot of the responses were great, and I've started making and compiling the recipes already! Today, I'm super excited to start the series off with one of my favorite DIY recipes - classic pizza sauce - from scratch. This recipe uses fresh tomatoes. Because the ingredients are so easily available, I think this is an awesome recipe to have in your repertoire. I've already shared the recipe for the pesto sauce I use on pizzas. This is my go-to tomato sauce recipe. 

This recipe isn't easy to standardize to precision though - mainly because the main ingredient is so inconsistent. One day you get flavorful, ripe tomatoes, and the next time you might have bland or super acidic ones. So, while the base recipe is the same, I will also share a little at the end about how you can adjust the taste of the sauce to make it taste just right. 

Choosing tomatoes: For this recipe, you want the tomatoes to be ripe. Uniformly red, firm with a little give when pressed. As far as possible, try not to choose one which have green or yellow spots. Those just aren't ripe enough.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

Ingredients   

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp unsalted butter 

1 large or 2 medium onions, roughly chopped into chunks 

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 tsp dried oregano

3 sprigs fresh frozen basil leaves (or or frozen basil leaves, or 1.5 tsp dried basil)

1/4-2 tsp dried chilli flakes (to taste)

900g fresh, ripe tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste 

1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper, to taste 

Method:

1. a. Blanching and peeling the tomatoes: In a large pasta pot or saucepan, bring about 1.5 liters of salted water (I used 4 tbsp rock salt) to the boil. b. While the water is heating up, wash the tomatoes and on the bottom of each tomato score an 'x' using a sharp paring knife. It doesn't need to be deep. Just deep enough that it cuts through the skin. 

c. Make ready another bowl/saucepan with a similar amount of ice cold water - I used cold water with extra ice cubes added in. 

d. When the water is at a rapid bubble, gently immerse the tomatoes and leave them in the bubbling water for about 30 seconds. Fish them out using a ladle or slotted spoon and cool them down instantly by plunging them into the bowl of iced water. 

e. Leave them there for a minute or two. Using the 'x' mark on the bottom of each tomato, peel back the skin and the skin should slip right off with no difficulty. 

(If the tomatoes have any raw spots, you will find that the skin doesn't come off easily in those areas. So get ripe, red tomatoes!)

f. Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters and core the.  

g. In a large blender jar, purée the tomatoes until mostly smooth. A few small chunks are fine, according to me! Set this purée aside. 

2. In a large saucepan, add the oil, butter, onions and garlic. I add all these into a cold pan and then bring the heat up gently. I find this keeps the butter and the garlic from burning. Sauté these ingredients until soft and fragrant, but not brown. 

3. Add the dried oregano, basil - fresh, frozen or dried,- and the red chilli flakes. Sauté until fragrant. 

4. Add the puréed tomatoes, the tomato paste, sugar snd about 1/2 tsp of salt. 

5. Stir well and allow to cook on a medium heat for 1-1.5 hours. I like to speed this up by using a pressure cooker and cooking it for about 30-40 minutes. Either way, you want the sauce to reduce by more than half. 

6. Taste the sauce and adjust the salt. Add a dash of pepper too.

7. Adjust the thickness of the sauce. It should be a good spreading consistency. Almost ketchup-like in thickness. 

8. Store in an airtight box for upto 5 days in the refrigerator and up to 3 months in the freezer. 

Adjusting the flavors: As I mentioned earlier in the post, the flavor of the sauce depends on the quality and ripeness of the tomatoes you use. So here are some adjustments you can make. 

1. Too bland - add a splash of vinegar, and a little extra sugar. 

2. Too tart - add a tsp or two of cocoa powder. Just dilute in a little warm water so it isn't lumpy in the sauce. The cocoa adds a richness and balances out the flavors well. If needed, add a tiny bit of sugar too. 

3. Too sweet (this usually doesn't happen unless you've gone overboard on the sugar) - add a splash of vinegar, some more tomato paste and some cocoa powder as mentioned a above. 

Basically, vinegar, sugar and cocoa will help you adjust the flavors to get a perfectly balanced sauce. Just taste as you go!

This recipe makes enough sauce for about 6-10 pizzas that are about 9" in diameter. Of course, this depends on how much sauce you like on your pizza.

The sauce goes well with any pizza topping and we have used it for years. The blanching process can be time consuming, and I admit that I have skipped it sometimes, but you do risk getting those annoying bits of tomato peel in your mouth. If you want a smooth, perfect pizza sauce, take that extra time to blanch the tomatoes. 

Make a large batch and freeze some. You'll never be tempted to buy bottle pizza sauce again!