Assignment 5: Pioneer Woman’s Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme
This week we’re doing another Pioneer Woman recipe that looks just scrumptious as the last but will hopefully come together a little better (at least for me). Ree mentions in her recipe for these suckers that she was enticed by the mysterious ingredients of these simple muffin/cakes/whatever they are. I am too.
(Photo via Ree Drummond)
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Recipe: Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme
Prep Time: 15 Minutes | Cook Time: 20 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Melted Butter
- 1-⅓ cup Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Grated Lemon Zest
- 2 whole Eggs
- ¼ cups Olive Oil
- ⅔ cups Whole Milk
- 1 cup Flour
- ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoons Salt
- 1 teaspoon Minced Fresh Thyme
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- FOR THE GLAZE:
- 1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
- 3 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice, Or More As Needed
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare a muffin pan with melted butter and then dust with a little bit of flour.
- Pulse the sugar and lemon zest in a blender until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, then gradually pour in the olive oil and milk, pulsing until emulsified into a thin batter, about 30 seconds. Don’t overblend or the cakes will be too puffy.
- Whisk one cup flour, the baking powder, salt and thyme in a small bowl. Add to the blender in 2 batches until just combined.
- Pour the batter unto the prepared pan and bake until the cakes just start to pull away from the sides of the pan and spring back when lightly touched, about 25 minutes depending on your oven.
- In the meantime, make the glaze: whisk the powdered sugar, melted butter and lemon juice until smooth, adding more lemon juice if too thick. Drizzle over the cooled cakes and garnish with a thyme sprig.
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Due date: Saturday, May 14!
Happy baking!
Sara
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The smell of disaster.
My bread smelled soooo good, wafting through the apartment. And so little did I suspect what a complete and utter failure I had created!
Yes, this was my finished product. Weirdly crispy on the edges, a bit too salty, and looking like a pile of something no one should eat.
Granted, I didn’t follow the instructions perfectly, and suspected I might have a mistake on my hands when it came out of the oven. I accidentally dripped with olive oil and salted before letting it rise for an hour pre-baking. I also forgot to cover with plastic wrap! Bad baker! I presume my problem lies therein, but don’t know for sure.
What I do know is that my “focaccia bread” got dumped in the trash unfortunately! Tsk tsk, Pioneer Woman, for making believe this would be the easiest recipe ever. I don’t think it was just me—but some combination of the not actually very lucid instructions along with my lack of experience in bread baking (and anything involving yeast).
Anyway, I am disheartened and won’t be trying my hand at any breads for a while probably!
Love,
Sara
blog comments powered by DisqusFocaccia Bread Update:
Hey bakers,
When I posted that assignment, I totally lost my head and wasn’t thinking about it being due during Passover AND Easter week. I’m crazy! Anyway, anyone baking bread this week let’s bump that date over to 4/30. I know I for sure haven’t gotten to it yet, and won’t until sometime this weekend!
Nom nom nom,
Sara
blog comments powered by DisqusAssignment 4: Pioneer Woman’s Olive Focaccia Bread
If this doesn’t look good to you then we can never be friends.
Just kidding.
But really. I grew up eating a lot of focaccia bread and I really, really, really like it—but hardly ever eat it anymore simply because I’ve never made it myself, and we don’t eat out much these days.
So, thanks to Ree Drummond, hopefully that will all be changing. I’m pretty sure I was the last woman with a kitchen to hear of the Pioneer Woman, but I could be wrong, in which case you should not be offended but instead get yourself over to her website right this minute because it’s fantastic.
Anyway, I feel like it’s high time we had a savory baked item on our radar!
(Photo via Ree Drummond)
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Recipe: Olive Focaccia
Prep Time: 15 Minutes | Cook Time: 30 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 16
- 1-½ teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
- 1-½ cup Warm Water
- 4 cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ⅓ cups Olive Oil
- 1 cup Olives (any Variety Or Combination), Roughly Chopped
- Olive Oil, For Drizzling
- Kosher Salt, For Sprinkling
- Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water. Let stand for a few minutes.
- In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined, and the dough comes together in a sticky mass.
- Warm a non-metal mixing bowl in the microwave until warm. Coat it with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside for 1 to 2 hours, or store in the fridge until you need it.
- To make focaccia, blot olives with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.
- Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Place chopped olives on top of the dough, then very gently knead the olives into the dough. (Don’t overknead!)
- Divide dough in half and roll each half into a large, thin oval/rectangle. Place on separate sheet pans (or cookie sheets) drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle more olive oil on top of the ovals, then cover each one with plastic wrap. Put in a draft-free/warm place for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove the plastic wrap (dough will be puffy) and use your fingertips to press dimples all over the surface of the dough. Drizzle surface with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until focaccia is golden brown.
- Cut into pieces with a pizza wheel or sharp knife. Serve immediately.
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Let’s get baking! Due date April 30.
XOXO,
Sara
blog comments powered by DisqusPerfect for Tea Time - Assignment 3
I have never made scones before and I was really impressed with this recipe since I already had all of the ingredients lying around my kitchen. Not only did the maple smell amazing baking, it tasted just as good.I followed the advice to add a very heaped tablespoon of the baking powder and I used buttermilk. I do not have a biscuit cutter so I used a circle shaped cookie cutter to shape my scones.
The scones came out great and went perfect with a cup of tea. (As you can see in the picture I spilled a bit too much egg on one of the scones) I would make these again if I was having people over and would serve it with tea and other finger snacks.
-Katie.
blog comments powered by DisqusFirst Time Not a Charm: Assignment 3
I just joined Baking Club and was delighted to determine that I had all of the ingredients for these scones already in my kitchen. Since I have never made scones before (I’m more a cookie, quickbread, and occasional cake baker), I was excited to try them.
I pretty much followed the recipe as written, using the old-fashioned oats. I did not have a biscuit cutter but since my 1/4 cup measure was about the right size, I used that.
Overall, I’d say the scones were okay. They were a bit dry, and, while my husband would point out that scones typically are, I think mine were a bit too much so for my taste. It may be due my caution in making sure the dough was “not sticky.” The scones crumble very easily. However, all is not lost; they were improved by a little butter spread on them!
I’m not sure whether I’ll make them again or not. If I do, I’d add a little more milk to make the dough a little wetter than it was this time.
blog comments powered by DisqusSmells Like Heaven: Assignment 3
I spent the first part of a lazy Saturday morning baking this week’s assignment, and it is an AMAZING recipe. These are honestly some of the best scones I have ever had. Ever. My husband loved them, and our whole apartment now smells delicious to boot.
I didn’t really make many modifications to the recipe this go round—though I did use old fashioned, not quick cook oats, as the purveyor of Smitten Kitchen used herself. I also didn’t use a biscuit cutter to shape them, and just made little mounds with my hands, so the scones are not uniform in size really.
The scones have this marvelously rich flavor… it comes in stages. You get the oatyness, and then a buttery bit, and then finally a sweet maple kick at the end.
We buttered ours (well, technically we used vegan spread) and they were divine that way. I tried a couple bites with some strawberry preserves, which is definitely yummy but does overpower the natural flavors in the scone, so I wouldn’t recommend it for more than a bit or two if you really want to experience the full scone flavor (something I never expected to write, that).
I’ll definitely be making this recipe again and again and again! Once you’ve baked yours, submit you photos and opinion here.
Love,
Sara
blog comments powered by DisqusAssignment 3: Maple Syrup and Oat Scones
Cruising around to find our third assignment, I went over to one of everyone’s favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. And boy do these scones look awesome!
So, let’s hop to it!
(Photo by Deb Perelman, author of Smitten Kitchen)
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Maple Syrup and Oat Scones
Adapted from Breakfast Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery
These maple syrup scones have oats, whole wheat flour and maple syrup but are just barely sweet yet not at all gritty with healthfulness. I think it’s the substantial amount of butter within. Of interest, most of my favorite scones have heavy cream in them; this one does not but it has nearly the same amount of butterfat due to the higher amount of butter.
About the weights: In this recipe, they’re provided by the book’s author, not me. They differ from what I’d measure in my own cups and spoons but you can feel safe following them just the same, as they work — I did.
Yield: The book suggests 10 to 12 but I made mine (ruler-measured! yes, I’m ocd!) their suggested size and only got 8.
1 3/4 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting surface
1/2 cup (80 grams) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (35 grams) rolled oats (I used quick-cooking)
1 very heaped tablespoon baking powder (I only slightly heaped; wish I’d heaped more!)
1 very heaped tablespoon superfine (caster) or granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Scant 3/4 cup (160 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
1 egg, beaten (for glaze)
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Butter a baking tray, or, if you’re me and your baking sheets are in horrendous condition, line them with un-buttered parchment paper.
Whisk the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. With a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a small dish, combine the milk and syrup, then add these liquid ingredients to the butter-flour mixture. By hand or with a rubber spatula, bring everything together to form a softish dough. If it feels too dry, add a little more milk but not enough that the dough is sticky. “The dough should not be stick at all,” the book admonishes.
On a lightly floured surface, pat or roll the dough out until it is 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) tall. Using a 2-inch (5-cm) cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place them on the prepared tray so that they almost touch. Glaze the tops with beaten egg and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the scones are lightly golden. The scones will stick together, so pull them gently apart when they’ve cooled a bit — pull-apart scones!
Serve warm.
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Giddyup! Due date is April 9.
Love,
Sara
blog comments powered by DisqusGot Butter? Assignment 2.
I finally got around to making the oatmeal-coconut cookie bars tonight, and BOY are they buttery!
I didn’t really make any modifications to the recipe, other than instead of buttering the pan I just sprayed it with olive oil. I don’t think doing that effected anything negatively at all.
I grabbed my pan out of the oven at the perfect time. Just slightly browned on top.
I think this recipe is honestly a bit too rich for me. I ate one bar by itself, and am yet to try it with some ice cream as the recipe suggests. I think that with ice cream the butteryness would perhaps be balanced out a bit somehow, and if it is then I would like these a whole lot more.
As is, if I were to make these again, I’d definitely add some raisins, apricots or dried cherries to give them more pizzazz. But like I said, they’re just so rich I’m not sure I’ll be up for another round of these suckers.
—Sara
blog comments powered by DisqusWhat a great solution! We all know warm cookies taste best anyway, right?
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