Classic Southern Cornbread

Has anyone read The Help? If you haven't, I'm sure you've heard of it or seen the movie. I read it a couple years ago, and thought it was a great book and I loved the movie too. Well, my dad just finished it and said he wanted me to make some "southern" recipes. Every time he closed the book he would say, "This book makes me hungry". Then he would proceed to go make himself a snack.

On Saturday, I decided to make this cornbread to go with dinner. I had a surprisingly hard time finding cornmeal - I had looked for it in the grocery store before with no luck, so I ended up getting it at the health food store. Then I went to the grocery store and saw it there too. Go figure. Either way, I got the cornmeal and made this delicious cornbread, so it was all worth it in the end!

My dad really enjoyed it too. I think it may be the first of many Southern recipes that I will be making in the next little while - his next request is "caramel cake", like Minny makes in The Help. If you have a good recipe, let me know!

Classic Southern Cornbread
Adapted from Food Network
Makes an 8 x 8 in. dish of cornbread

• 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease an 8x8 inch square pan. 

Melt butter in the microwave and let cool. 

In a small bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs, buttermilk and cooled butter. Gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until just combined. 

Pour batter into pan and cook until it just begins to brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Pizza is such a great dinner (or lunch. Or breakfast, if you're feeling that way). It always satisfies, and everyone loves it. My family usually prefers pizza of the thin crust variety, but for those days when only a chewy, thick crust will do, this crust recipe is perfect.

Pizza is always sort of known as a typical Friday night I-don't-feel-like-cooking kind of meal, but lately it's gotten more of a makeover. There are a few great pizza restaurants where I live, and they have some really creative toppings these days! One of my favorite pizzas has always been pesto and cheese. If you haven't tried it, do it! It's fantastic. But for this pizza, we just chose good ol' pepperoni and cheese.

If you're feeling like pizza and you're in the mood to make it yourself, you should try this recipe out for sure. It's easy, delicious and you can top it with whatever you like. Plus, it freezes really well, so you could take it out on one of those lazy days and you'll have pizza before the delivery man would make it to your door.

Pizza Dough
From Allrecipes
Makes two normal sized round pizzas

• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 pkg.)
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast and brown sugar in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. 

Stir salt and oil into yeast mixture, then add 2 1/2 cups of flour. 

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead in more flour until dough isn't sticky. Form into a bowl and place in a well oiled bowl, turning once to cover top in oil, and cover with a kitchen towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about one hour. Punch down dough and let rest a minute before rolling out. Divide into two balls and roll out into round shapes to fit pizza pan.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease pizza pan and let rolled out dough rise for 15 minutes before topping. Add toppings and bake in preheated oven for for 15 to 20 minutes.

*Note: If freezing all or half of dough, wrap in plastic wrap right before rolling out.

M&M Cookies

Remember when, in this post, I talked about how kids can never resist sprinkles? Like, on anything? Well, the same goes for M&Ms. It must be all the colours, because an M&M cookie somehow seems infinitely better than a chocolate chip cookie.

My sister told me that she had to bring food a party at her day camp this week, so I decided that I would make her some cookies, seeing as I wasn't doing anything anyways. After thinking about a few different possibilities, I decided to make M&M cookies, because I knew they would be a hit.

And they were! I may have stolen a few before she took them to camp, and they sure were delicious! The dough was vanilla-y (I like to make up words) and the M&Ms added a nice crunch. This is a great recipe that kids (and everyone else) will love.

M&M Cookies
Adapted from How Sweet It Is
Makes 36 cookies

• 2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 12 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup M&Ms

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla, and beat until all ingredients are fully combined. 

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir until dough forms. Add M&Ms, folding in until fully incorporated (it is a thick dough, so just keep working them in, even though it's a bit tough). 

Roll the dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake in oven for 9-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

In my house right now, we have four different containers of peanut butter. Yes, I'm serious. Four. One is an almost empty jar of natural PB, another is natural sweetened with honey, one is plain ol' Kraft and the last is PB&Co's White Chocolate Wonderful.

That last one there, the White Chocolate Wonderful, came with loads of great recommendations. It seems to be everyone's favourite PB of all time. So I saw some and decided to try it out, but I found it really sweet by itself on toast. So, I thought it would be perfect for baking!

I'm SO glad that I decided to try it out in these cookies, because they turned out great! Because the peanut butter is already sweet, you don't need as much sugar in the actual cookies. And, because a plain peanut butter cookie (with white chocolate peanut butter) isn't enough, I added in some chocolate chips too. You know, just to push the chocolate factor over the edge.

These would work with regular peanut butter too. Or, if you have some interesting flavours lurking in your cupboards, experiment! Try out some different combinations...I wonder what Nutella would taste like. Next time...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Kitchen Grrrls
Makes 24-30 cookies

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat peanut butter with brown sugar until fully incorporated. Add eggs one at a time.

Add flour, then add baking soda and oats. Once combined, stir in chocolate chips.

Roll dough into balls and place on baking sheets lined with parchment. The dough may look a bit sticky - that's okay. 

Bake in preheated oven for ten minutes.

Blueberry Pie

If you read yesterday's post, you know that this past weekend I made homemade pie dough for the first time. Well, the type of pie that I made with the dough was blueberry!

With blueberries being fresh and in season right now, I decided that I was going to make a blueberry pie. I don't actually have blueberry pie very often because, if I have a choice, I almost ALWAYS choose strawberry rhubarb, also because that's what my family likes best. I might have to start having blueberry more often though, because this pie was delicious! Everyone in my family agreed too - we polished this pie right off!

It was so delicious, and definitely worth the extra time. When you know that you made it from scratch, not only do you know exactly what is in it, but you can eat it with the joy of kniwing you made it yourself.

Blueberry Pie
Adapted from Canadian Living
Serves 8-10

• 5 cups blueberries
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 egg (for brushing crust)
• extra sugar (for sprinkling on crust)

Prepare pie crust. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice and cinnamon. Set aside.

Roll out pie dough. Place one half in bottom of pie plate and fill with blueberry filling. Cover with other half of dough, and brush with whisked egg and sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 and bake for another 35-45 minutes, until crust is golden brown and filling is thickened.

Pie Crust

Pie is one of the best summer desserts. There's so much fresh fruit available, so you can make so many different varieties! I think my all-time favourite is strawberry rhubarb, but in the fall, pumpkin is definitely a close second.

But as much as I love pie, I've never made a whole pie from scratch. I've taken the easy way out, using frozen pie crusts, but I hadn't actually made the dough before - until now!

Making the dough yourself is definitely more time consuming and tricky than just buying a frozen pie crust and throwing your filling inside, but the taste of homemade dough is so much better! If you love pie as much as I do, you should give this recipe a shot! It's delicious and totally worth the extra prep time in the kitchen.

P.S. Wondering what kind of pie is under that delicious crust? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Homemade Pie Crust
Adapted from Allrecipes
Makes one 9-inch double crusted pie

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. white sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 cup chilled vegetable shortening
• 1 egg, plus another for glazing crust
• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 5 Tbsp. ice water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Once mixed, cut in shortening with two knives or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk egg, vinegar and 4 Tbsp. cold water. Gradually add to flour, adding one more tablespoon of water if necessary. Form dough into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap, flattening slightly into discs. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and 30 minutes before rolling.

Note: Check out my my tutorial on making pie.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

When I was little, I loved Hallowe'en. I mean, who wouldn't? Going out with friends and getting loads of candy? What's not to love? My favourite candy was peanut butter cups. I loved it when people gave them out, or even better, when they let you pick out of the bowl, because then I was GUARANTEED a pb cup. Seeing as they're my favourite, when I saw pictures of homemade ones, I knew I had to try it out.

Well, they were SO easy to make, and they turned out even better than the original (if that's even possible). I'd pick dark chocolate over milk chocolate any day, so these were right up my alley! They're so delicious, and so simple, you just have to try making them yourself. 

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Makes 12-15 peanut butter cups

• 6 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp. icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners. 

In a microwavable bowl, melt chocolate, stopping in 30 second intervals to stir. Brush some chocolate on the bottom and up the sides of the cups. Place in freezer to harden for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, combine peanut butter, salt and sugar. Once chocolate is hard in cups, roll a bit of peanut butter mixture and flatten into cups. Cover with more chocolate, then refrigerate until ready to eat. 

Store in refrigerator, because the peanut butter cups can get rather melty.