Off to visit my Granini inspiration!

Off to visit my Granini inspiration!

So I know all y'all are waiting on pins and needles to see who wins the Goodreads book giveaway contest.  I'm excited too!

If you haven't yet had a chance to enter, here's a link:

Click HERE to enter:

Goodreads Giveaway Contest for Diamonds for Diamond

Contest ends TODAY, March 23rd.
Just in time for Spring Break!

So many people have entered to win, I'm absolutely THRILLED with the interest! :)  

For the two lucky winners, as soon as I hear from Goodreads who won, I will sign and pop your books off into the mail as soon as I get back from the wild blue yonder (so that means hopefully early next week).

If you *didn't* win the contest and are completely bummed, don't fret!  You can still buy the book on Amazon!  It's available in both an e-book format, and a traditional paperback format.

And here's the link for those!

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith

Or, you can buy either my e-book or the paperback version on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith

* * * * *

While we await the final results, I'm packing up my bags, and headed off to the wild blue yonder to visit my most favorite Auntie, the one whose looks and personality inspired me to create Granini.  Hopefully I'll snag some great photos, and with her permission, I'll post some here so you can see what she looks like.  Even if all the stories are mine, the recipes are mine, the name is something my kids and I came up with, my Auntie is the heart and sole of my inspiration for Granini's wonderfulness.  She truly is the epitome of amazing.  I love and adore her, and can't wait to see her in just a few short hours!!!

Squee!

* * * * *

Granini's Lemon Breakfast Cake

Granini's Lemon Breakfast Cake

So this lemon cake is, in the immortal words of Mary Berry, "positively scrummy!"

My fam has been watching way too many episodes of the Great British Bake Off, and gleaning ideas here and there that we want to try out.  And whilst toodling about on pinterest, I cam across this  lovely idea from the lovely folks at :http://www.savingdessert.com/.  I tweaked the recipe just a tad, made the cake for breakfast this morning, to go along with biscuits and gravy and a casserole dish of scrambled cheesy eggs, and yummo!  Positively scrummy!

Ingredients:

For the Lemon Crumble:

4 Tablespoons Unsalted butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 cup flour

For the Lemon Cake:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon extract

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, salt and sugar.  Add in the lemon juice and stir thoroughly.  Slowly add in the flour until completely incorporated.  Set aside.
2. Heat oven to 325º.  Prepare your 8" or 9" springform pan.  Either lightly grease and flour your pan, and line it with parchment paper on the bottom.  OR, lightly grease your pan, and line it with parchment paper on the bottom, THEN, make a ring of parchment paper and either paperclip it at the top, or staple it together so that the paper stands up tall along the edges of the springform pan.  *See pictures below.*  If you're using a 9" springform pan, you will need to adjust the baking time as necessary.  If you're going to use a 7" springform pan, prepare to more than double your baking time.
3.  In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add in the egg, and beat thoroughly.  Slowly add in the vanilla and lemon extract.  
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
5. Add the lemon juice to the buttermilk.
6. By thirds, very slowly add in the flour mixture, then the buttermilk mixture, then the flour mixture until all ingredients are mixed together.  Do not over-mix.
7. Add the crumble to the top of the cake, making sure to distribute it evenly.
8. Place the cake in the middle of the oven, and bake for 20 minutes, or until the center of the cake comes out clean.  For my 7" springform pan, I baked it for almost 50 minutes!
9. Allow to cool for at least 1/2 an hour before removing from the pan.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you desire.  Serve warm, or completely cooled!  Yum!

For those of you who like pictures, here you go!

I melted my butter -- poor choice.  Try to keep it soft, but not completely melted. 

Mix the crumble up completely and set aside.

I prepared two springform pans, just in case.  I think the 7 inch springform was a bit too small for my preference.  I think the 8 inch would have been perfect.  But see how the parchment paper lines the entire insides of the springform pan?  I learned that neat trick from the Great British Bake Off.  Love those folks!!

The cake mixture was very odd -- almost like a wet cookie batter.  

A lot more hearty than a traditional cake batter.  Smooth everything out on top.

Add the lemon crumble to the top.

Baked perfection!

Pop it out of the pan, and there you go!

A lovely breakfast cake!  What a nice, fresh alternative to blueberry or cinnamon sugar.  

A yummo treat!

* * * * *

* * * * *

Click HERE to enter my Goodreads Book Giveaway Contest:

There is less than a week to go!!!  I'm giving two copies away!

Goodreads Giveaway Contest for Diamonds for Diamond

* * * * *

I wrote a murder mystery!  Here are the links so you can buy it:

You can buy the paperback version of my book here:

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith

Or, you can buy either my e-book or the paperback version on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith

* * * * *

Granini's Cinnamon Pecan Pastries

Breakfast Pastries

Granini's Cinnamon Pecan Pastry

So I have started to dabble a wee bit in the pastry department, 

and I think I may have just about gotten things right.

I have been changing up the recipes for the breakfast pastries for my brunch bunch depending upon which fruits and such I have in my fridge at the time.  The pastries can be filled with just about whatever your wee little heart desires.  So I thought I'd pass along a few of my recipes for my various concoctions.

Today's recipe: Cinnamon Pecan Pastries

So after scanning Pinterest, and trying out a variety of recipes, my favorite pastry dough to date comes from Sally's Baking Addition. 

Ingredients:

For the pastry dough:

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cubes (14 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Additional flour will be needed for rolling out your dough.

Oh, and parchment paper will make your life easier.  If you haven't got any yet, you have time to dash to the store and pick some up whilst your dough is resting in the fridge.

Egg Wash:

1 large egg, whisked and beaten until frothy

2 Tablespoons milk

For the Cream Cheese Goodness:

1 (8 ounce) cube of cream cheese*, softened 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

(*I use the 1/3 less fat cream cheese version in this recipe, and it seems to work just fine)

For the Cinnamon Pecan Filling:

1 cup brown sugar, softly packed

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

For the Icing:

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

dash o'salt

1 Tablespoon 1/2 and 1/2 or milk

Directions:

For the pasty dough:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the water and yeast.  Frisk with a fork until slightly foamy, and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
2. Add milk, egg, salt and sugar.  Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, slice or grate the butter into small pieces.  Add in the sifted flour.  With a pastry knife, *partially* work the butter into the flour until the flour is only partly incorporated.  Do not over mix.  Do not allow the dough to incorporate the butter like you would a pie crust.  Allow large chunks of butter to remain.  They will work themselves out later, and will make your pastry taste better.
4. Make a well in your flour/butter mixture.
5. Pour your liquid ingredients into the well, and *very, very gently* stir, allowing your dough to become a ball.  Do NOT over work the dough.
6. Spread out a large piece of  Saran Wrap.  Plunk your dough in the center, and wrap completely.
7. Allow dough to rest for at LEAST 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Preparing your pastry dough:

1.  Clean your work surface (obvs), and then lightly flour the work surface and your rolling pin.
2. Plunk your ball o'dough onto your work surface and roll it out into a rectangle about 15 inches long.
3. Fold the bottom third up, and the top third down.
4. Rotate your dough, and repeat.  Roll it out into a rectangle about 15 inches long.  Fold the bottom third up and the top third down.
5. Repeat.
6. And again.
7. Okay, so I know this is getting old.  However, you have to rotate and repeat at *LEAST* 8 times.  Your dough may get stiff.  It may be a challenge.  But TRUST ME on this.  Your dough will be lovely and gorgeous and have delicious, laminated layers when you're all finished.  Besides, you probably needed the extra arm work out.  I mean, really, who doesn't?  Besides, you're going to be snarfing all this lovely goodness down in just a wee bit, and the work out now will make you feel less guilty later when you gobble up your fourth and fifth and sixth piece.
8. Okay, so you made it!  All eight times!  Yay you!  Now, it's time to wrap up your dough, and let it rest for about 1/2 an hour or so, while you make your pastry innards.  

For your cream cheese goodness:

1. In a mixing bowl, plunk in your softened cream cheese.  Whir that around for a bit until the inside of your mixer is lovely and messed up.
2. Add in the salt and vanilla.  Then whisk in the powdered sugar.  Taste it after you've added about 2/3 of a cup.  If you want it to be a wee bit sweeter, add a wee bit more powdered sugar.  For this pastry (with the cinnamon pecan filling), I opted for less powdered sugar, because there's a lot of sugar in the cinnamon pecan filling.  But for my berry fillings, I tend to add a wee bit more sugar.  Set aside until you're ready to put it on your pastry.  You don't have to refrigerate it, but you can if you want to.  'Sup to you.

For the Cinnamon Pecan Filling

1. This is pretty much a no brainer.  In a smallish bowl, add in the sugar, cinnamon, flour, and nutmeg.  Mix together with a fork.  
2. Toast your pecans and dice them up in to wee pieces.  Mix them with rest of the cinnamon goodness, and set aside until you're ready to use it.

Rolling out and filling your Pastry:

1. So now that your innards have all been made, and your pastry has had a chance to rest again, it's time to roll everything out, and slice everything up.
2. Rip off a nice long piece of parchment paper and lay that down onto your clean working surface.
3. Open up your Saran Wrap, and cut half a hunk o'pastry dough.  Put half onto your parchment paper.  The other half, you should rewrap and plunk back into the fridge to await its moment of destiny.
4. Lightly flour your rolling pin, and roll that sucker out one more time into a rectangle about 15 inches long or so.
5. Now it's time to fill.  I found that it's easiest if you take a knife and lightly score the area that you're going to use to fill, so that you still have ample space on either side to cut the dough for the pastry's braids.  You should mark an area about 1/3 of the width of the dough, right down the center, leaving 1/3 on either side of your fill zone for the braid strips on either side.  (There are pictures below, should you have trouble imagining what I'm describing here.)
6. Split your cream cheese goodness into two blobs, so that you can use one blob for each of your two pastries.  Spread out a fairly decent layer of cream cheese goodness into your fill zone.  If you don't use it all, that's fine.  I never have a problem using it all.  But I like a good layer of cream cheese goodness in my pastries.
7. Split your cinnamon goodness innards into two, fairly even, sections. (One for each of your two pastries).
8. With a fork, gently scooch out the cinnamon goodness innards into your fill zone.  Try not to let too much of the innards fall out of the zone.  Some will, and that's okay.  But keep as much on the inside as possible.

Cutting and braiding your pastry:

1. Don't be afraid.  This part of the recipe is a lot easier than it seems.  Take a very sharp knife, or a pizza cutter, and cut strips at a 45º angle on either side of your fill zone.  Remove the final two "triangles" of dough that remain at the top and the bottom of your dough, and discard.
2. Alternating between the two sides, pick up a strip off the side, and gently lay the strip down across the fill zone.  Then, go to the other side, pick up the strip, and lay it down on top of the fill zone, so that the two strips form a bit of an x shape, slightly crossing over each other.  If they don't cross over, the pastry may open up completely, and the filling may ooze out.  That would be sad.
3. Repeat the process until the entire pastry has been covered.
4. Now it's time for the egg wash!  In a small bowl, whisk the egg until frothy.  Add in the milk, and whisk again.  With a pastry brush, gently brush each strip with the egg wash so that your pastry will have a pretty color when it's done baking.
5.  Slip your parchment paper onto a baking sheet.  Bake at  400º for 16-18 minutes or so, or until the top is lovely and golden.
6. Slide your parchment paper off the baking sheet directly onto a cooling rack.  Once your pastry is cooler, then you can drizzle on the icing, slice, and serve.  

Enjoy!!!

* * * * *

For those of you who like pictures, here you go!

 Pretty pastry dough.

 Roll it out.

 Roll it up.

 Roll it out.

 Roll it up.

 Whew!  8 times you do this.  It gets tougher each time, but it's worth it!

 It's ready for its final roll out.

Roll it out onto parchment paper this time.

 Fill it up, and cut your strips.

 Start at the top.

Work your way down.

 All done!  Reminds me of an Egyptian mummy.

 Wash with an egg wash and pop it into the oven.

 Ooooh, so pretty!

Cut into slices, and drizzle on the icing.  Yum!!!

Enjoy!

* * * * *

Click HERE to enter my Goodreads Book Giveaway Contest:

Goodreads Giveaway Contest for Diamonds for Diamond

* * * * *

I wrote a murder mystery!  Here are the links so you can buy it:

You can buy the paperback version of my book here:

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith

Or, you can buy either my e-book or the paperback version on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith