Saturn Peach Upside Down Mini Cakes

Honestly, my last few baking attempts have been a bust.  There were fallen and burnt meringues - in the same batch, too much of a new kind of flour and therefore unusable cookie dough... and I'd been feeling a little deflated about my baking efforts. But then I saw this recipe, and  decided to give it a try - I'm so glad I did!

Here's what you'll need:

- muffin pan

- standing mixer

- measuring cups and/or kitchen scale

- some bowls (for measured ingredients and mixing)

Ingredients:

- 1/3 cup room temperature butter, plus 1 tbs separately (90 gr)

- 6 tsp brown sugar (the original called for light, I only had dark - I say baker's choice!)

- 4 Saturn peaches (also known as donut peaches)

- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (190 gr)

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 2/3 cup sugar (130 gr)

- 1 large egg, beaten

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup buttermilk (120 ml) (Pinjenec, for any Slovene readers, író for any Hungarian readers)

Directions:

1. Spray nonstick cooking spray in your muffin tin. (I didn't have any, so I used butter - it was fine, but I'll be picking up some nonstick spray for next time.)

2. Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C).

3. Measure out ingredients.

4. Cut 2 1/2 peaches into thinnish slices (you'll need 48 slices), and 1 1/2 peaches into small cubes. 

5. Divide the 1 tbs of butter into 12 pieces, then put one in the bottom of each muffin hole.

6. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of brown sugar on top of that.

7. Place 4 peach slices in the bottom of each muffin hole.  I put them in kind of a clover shape, but you could change it to 5 slices and make it a flower, or fan them out - however you like.

8. In a bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

9. Using the paddle attachment on your standing mixer, cream together your sugar and (remaining 1/3 cup) butter.

10. While the mixer is going on a medium low speed, add the vanilla extract and egg.  Beat for 2-3 minutes. Your mixture will become fluffy and lighter in color.

11. While your mixer is going, add half of the flour mixture. Beat for 1 minute.

12. Pour in buttermilk, and beat for another minute. (You may need to pause mixing and scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl.)

13. Add the second half of your flour mixture, and beat until just combined.

14. Remove mixing bowl from mixer. Fold in the peach chunks. 

15. Fill each muffin hole with equal amounts of batter. The original poster used an ice cream scoop, I used the small ladle from my son's kitchen set, haha! 

16. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

17. Remove from oven, allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes, then flip out onto cooling rack. (If yours get a little stuck like mine, gently use a knife to detach them from the side of the muffin tin.)

18. Serve slightly warm with vanilla ice cream, or allow to cool and serve with peaches, powdered sugar, whipped cream... these little cakes are perfect on their own, but also pair well with a "friend".

And there you have it! A peachy-keen Spring or Summer treat!

Homemade Biscuits, Yes Ma'am!

Biscuits are ALWAYS a good idea.  Depending on where you're from, you eat them with jam, or gravy, or butter... but everyone agrees that biscuits are amazing.  So, as I've been delving into the world of bread-making, I knew biscuits were one of the first things to try.

I found this original post at Broma Bakery.  Her instructions were easy to follow, but I will write them out here for you, along with some photos.  These are great for breakfast, or for an easy dinner roll.  (If you read all the way to the end, I'll have a surprise bonus recipe for you!  Trust me, you'll want it if you make these biscuits!)

Here's what you'll need:

- stand mixer + whisk attachment and bread hook attachment

- rolling pin

- baking sheet

- baking paper

- biscuit cutter (or a round cookie cutter - you CAN do shapes, too. I made Aidan one in the shape of a Christmas tree - super fun!)

- kitchen brush

- I have found a digital kitchen scale really helpful, especially when making something off of an American recipe, but my tools/instruments are European.  Just remember, when you're Googling the conversion, especially when it's volume to weight (cup to gram, for example) that you Google specifically for the ingredient, because it will vary.  Like, "8 tbs butter in grams", etc. 

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1 tsp salt

8 tbs chilled butter (113.6 grams), cut into squares

3/4 cup buttermilk (if you're in Slovenia, it's called pinjenec, and one container is 3/4 cup, woohoo!)

1 egg beaten

optional - 1/2 cup shredded cheddar

Makes about 10.

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 F / 218 C (or 400 F / 204 C for convection oven).  Take out your baking sheets (you don't want them to get hot in the oven), and line them with baking paper.

2. Put the whisk attachment on your mixer, and on a low speed, mix together your dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. Turn mixer on to medium speed, and cut in butter.  (If your mixer has a splash guard, be sure and put it on.  I forgot to, and got flour everywhere.  Not only is it a hassle to clean up, but it can mess up your ratio too, if enough flew out!)  Mix until mixture resembles cornbread.

4. Stop your mixer.  Take the whisk off, and replace with bread hook attachment.  Turn mixer back on, bring to a medium speed, and gradually add buttermilk (in 3-4 stages).  I left out my 1/4 measuring cup, and used that to add the buttermilk.  Worked like a charm!  Mix until dough just comes together.  (If you're adding cheese, put that in now, too.)

5.  Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin.  (Our apartment is a little short on kitchen workspace, so a great "hack" that I've found, is a plastic table cloth, that I can put on our dining room table - which is also an easier level for kids helping out.  That way I can clean it, and put it away until I "knead" it again.  Get it? :) )

6. Turn your biscuit dough out on it, and roll it until it is about 1 inch in thickness.

7. Flour your biscuit cutter (dip it in flour before each time you use it), and cut your biscuits out.  If you have excess dough left, you can knead it together to recreate a "ball", roll it out again, and cut more biscuits out.

8. Place them on your baking sheet.

9. Using the kitchen brush, brush the tops of them with the beaten egg - it will make a nice golden brown finish.

10. Bake for 15 minutes.  (Or 11 for convection oven.)

We had them for dinner... and dessert.  

For dessert we had them with apple jam, that Aidan's kindergarten/vrtec made (and sold as a fundraiser - we bought 5 jars of jam.  They were that good!)

But for (breakfast for) dinner, we had them with...

bacon gravy.  

And that's the surprise bonus recipe!

Dan's bacon gravy!!

Ingredients:

6 strips of bacon

1/4 cup flour

1-2 cups milk

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2-1 tsp cajun seasoning (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Fry bacon strips.  (You can do strips or, the second time, he cut the bacon into chunks, and added them back in at the end - that was also REALLY good!)

2. Take the bacon out, keep grease in pan. 

3. Add flour, brown flour in grease, make sure it's nice and browned.

4. Add milk, whisk until no lumps are left.

5. Add more milk, until you reach the desired consistency (some people like it thicker, some like it runnier).

6. Add salt, pepper, paprika and (optional) cajun seasoning.

Et, voila!

Yumm-o!!! Enjoy!

1 Bonus Tip:

To heat up the next day, wrap them individually in tin foil, and place them in the oven at 300 F/ 150 C for a few minutes.  Nearly good as new!