Cooking Archives - Page 441 of 566 - Garden Seeds and Honey Bees

Yellow Cupcakes

*1 1/2 cups Sugar
*3/4 cup Butter, room temperature
*3 Eggs, room temperature, add one at a time
*2 teaspoons vanilla
*1 1/4 cups 1 percent low-fat Milk
*1/2 teaspoon Salt
*2 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
*2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
*Colorful Cupcake Cups
*Muffin Tins
*Cotton Candy and lollipop sticks, if desired, please note that if adding the Cotton Candy it needs to be added just before serving for best results.

Pre-heat oven 350* F.
Makes about 24 cupcakes
Bake: 18-22 minutes

Cream together the following ingredients in an electric stand mixer on medium speed; Butter, vanilla and add sugar gradually. Then add one egg at a time. Scrap sides of mixing bowl as needed.

Slowly add milk and flour with baking powder adding to creamed mixture, alternating each. Mix just until combined.

Line muffin tins with cupcake liners and fill 3/4 full with yellow cupcake batter. (We place batter filled muffin tins on a half baking sheet for even baking of the cupcakes.)

Cupcakes are done when toothpick comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool and frost with Butter Frosting.

Butter Frosting

Makes about 4 1/2 cups

*3/4 cup Butter, room temperature
*Approximately 8 cups Powdered Sugar or 2 pounds
*1/3 cup 1 percent low-fat Milk, add more if needed
*2 teaspoons Vanilla
Pinch of salt if needed
*Food Coloring, used McCormick Neon Colors

In electric stand mixer combine butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Slowly add milk until desired spreading or piping consistency.

When making the colorful stripped butter frosting, divided made frosting into four bowls, about one cup in each and add as many drops of coloring to each bowl making colors desired.

If using pastry bag, cut off tip of the bag at the point, about 1 inch across, above bag tip. Now for piping frosting, place a spoon full of each color in each bag trying to keep each color close to the sides, inside bag, now twist top of pastry bag and pipe in a circular motion starting on the outside of the cupcake and pipe in towards the center of cupcake and pull up at the end for a nice frosting tip on top or if desired or press down frosting tip with wet a finger.

**Yellow Cupcake and Butter Frosting recipes adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, Cupcakes.

Have a great day!

Jessica and Lindy

The following recipe you could also use turkey in place of the chicken. This would be a great way to use turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Chicken Pot Pie

*5 Chicken Breasts, cooked and cut into small pieces/squares
(Pre-cooked Rotisserie Chickens from the grocery store would work great too!). See here for a recipe on cooking chicken
*4 Celery Sticks, diced
*4 medium Carrots, diced
*1 medium Red or Yellow Onion, diced
*1 1/2 cups of fresh peas, or freshly frozen peas from your garden
*3 medium Russet Potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch squares, we used Caribe potatoes a purple skinned potato they worked great in this recipe.
*1-2 cans 15 ounce low sodium Chicken Broth
*1/2 teaspoon dried Parsley
*1/4 teaspoon Thyme
*1/4 teaspoon crushed Rosemary
*1 whole Bay Leaf, used in cooking for flavor, then discard
*Freshly ground Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste or 1/2 teaspoon of each
**1 1/2 cups of fresh Peas, or freshly frozen peas from your garden, add them last

Roux

*4 tablespoons Butter
*6 tablespoons All-purpose Flour

Slowly add:

*2 1/2 cups Milk
*1/2 cup Whipping Cream
*1 1/2 teaspoons Lemon Juice

Sauté together in an enamel covered cast iron pot, on medium heat adding the 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melt and add the celery, carrots and onions, sauté for about 3 minutes.

Add to the sautéed vegetables; 1 can Chicken stock, potatoes, parsley, thyme, rosemary and 1 bay leaf. Continue on medium heat until potatoes are firmly tender about 15-25 minutes. Add the chicken.

In a small sauce pan make the roux by melting butter and stir in the flour until combined then slowly add the milk stir continuously until smooth. Remove from heat and add roux/sauce to your pot of chicken and vegetables. Continue to cook on low adding peas and more chicken stock if needed. Stir in lemon juice, cream and remove bay leaf. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare baking dishes by spraying them with cooking spray and add the above chicken pot pie mixture.

Recipe adapted from a Cooking Classy Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Top Crust

Crust:

Recipe makes 1 pie crust top and bottom. For the chicken pot pies 1/2 the dough made 7 small ramekin crust tops and the other half of dough makes two size 12 , medium sized, crust tops for oval (holds 8-10 ounces of pot pie mixture) ceramic baking dishes.

*2 cups All-purpose Flour
*1/2 teaspoon Salt
*3/4 cup Shortening/Crisco
*1/3 cup Milk plus 2 teaspoons Vinegar

Combine flour, salt and Crisco just until crumbly, don’t over mix. Add the milk and vinegar mixture and mix just until moist. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Divide the dough into two balls, refrigerate just until cold and roll out each ball of dough on individual pieces of wax paper and cut into desired shapes for crust tops. Place the rolled-out dough shapes on top of chicken pot pie mixture in baking dishes and place baking dishes on a foil covered 1/2 baking sheet to catch spillage.

Beat 1 egg and use as an egg wash and brush the edges of dough and bake at 375*F. for 35-45 minutes or until crust is a golden brown. Cool completely before removing from baking sheet or cutting.

Crust recipe slightly adapted from Food for Real People, Best Pie Crust