Every year for the Labor Day weekend, MrMacho and son and grandson spend several days at the car races in central New York. They bond and don’t want the ladies around which is just fine by me because (no offense to any car lovers here) there are many other things I’d rather be doing than watch a few cars for a few hours over the course of a few days.

The only food involved, by the way, is what they can buy at the track. Track food. So essentially, it’s an event without food. No offense to you beer and hot dog lovers.

Even before MrMacho left I began baking, testing some new recipes: Orange Poppyseed Bundt, Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake, basic coffeecake for seasonal fruits, and a Five Flavor Poundcake. I didn’t want MrMacho thinking I was happy that he would be gone, but really, being alone with my puppy in the kitchen is not a bad place to be. Surrounded by a few cakes isn’t too bad, either. And the daily winner is…

Five Flavor Poundcake, yessirree.

I’ve made so many baked goods recently, my freezer is full, so I’ll be taking them along to the classes I teach. Five Flavor Poundcake will be guest of honor at “Start and Run a Home-Based Food Business” in the Columbia-Greene class next Saturday.

All this baking drove puppy crazy. She sat at the kitchen doorway, drooling.

So what’s a food person to do on a lovely September Saturday when she wasn’t invited to the races? Did I mention it was in the mid-70’s with a clear blue sky and full sun?

I went to the Kingston Farmers’ Market. Twice a month they have Crafts on John Street.

Monica Noll-Donnelly owns Mother May I?

A very tempting display.

Monica sculpts food (cake slices, cupcakes, pizza, and more) using polymer clay (don’t eat) to create non-edible (really, don’t eat) jewelry and magnets.

Look what I bought! A candy magnet.

For more info about Monica and her yummy non-edibles.

So that’s all for today. MrMacho will be home soon and I want to bake him a cake.

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These pretzel rolls are dense, chewy, and moist. Perfect.

Last Sunday we zipped down to Saunderskill Farm to get more corn. MrMacho wants to eat enough corn this summer to sate his corn habit. “Where else would you like to go?” he asked on our way home.

Thank you for asking! I’d been thinking about those pretzel rolls ever since I ate one from Twisted Bread, at the Rosendale Farmers Market.

Twisted Foods bakes in a local commercial kitchen and sells at several farmers' markets.

Last time the lovely pretzel ladies were sold out of all but the plain.

This time I bought several to eat with all those tomatoes tumbling from the top shelf in my fridge. (My veggie crisper is full.)

And I never leave the market without one of Jody’s pies. Cherry. Get there early.

Get there early. Jody often sells out before noon. The Rosendale Farmers Market in Rosendale New York.

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Another Breadbaking Day delight, Cinnamon Comfort Buns

Our August assignment for Breadbaking Day #33 was to make yeast bread using liquor. I made a sweet dough in my breadmachine, replacing part of the water with Southern Comfort, a fruit and spice flavored whiskey.

My Cinnamon Comfort Buns have Southern Comfort in the dough and in the icing and then served with a hard sauce. “What’s hard sauce?” you ask. More on that, later… Follow the recipe below, and no sampling before the buns are finished…

Hey y'all, I selected Southern Comfort because I like the name. Go figure. But use any liquor you want.

Cinnamon Comfort Buns
Yield: 9 buns
¼ cup Southern Comfort (or any favorite liquor)
½ cup water or milk
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
½ cup butter, very soft
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon yeast

cinnamon sugar and butter for spreading on dough
1 cup mixed currants, raisins, and nuts, optional

White Icing
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 cup (approx) confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon Southern Comfort
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Add the first eight ingredients in the order listed; use the dough cycle.
2. When done, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a large rectangle.
3. Spread with soft butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, add nuts or raisins if you like.
4. Roll up, pinch along the seam, cut into equal-sized pieces. I used nine to fill this 10×10 casserole dish. The finished buns bake together keeping the sides soft and moist.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Let dough proof until double in size.
6. Bake in preheated oven 30 to 40 minutes, until deep golden brown. Cool before icing.
7. For the icing, combine melted butter with the confectioners’ sugar, Southern Comfort, and extract. Adjust until the icing is stiff enough to hold its shape. Drizzle over buns.
8. For the hard sauce, combine all ingredients and spoon onto bun before eating. Hard Sauce, usually made with rum or brandy, is a traditional American way to serve bread pudding, a comfort food. So of course these buns needed a Comfort hard sauce.

Hard Sauce
½ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons Southern Comfort

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Watch your slowrise bread as it's baking!

Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord MA  created their sourdough starter using local, wild Concord grapes. The breads take almost 24 hours from mix to cooling rack.

We’d had a long day and stopped for a snack.

A window looked down upon the production area with a huge brick oven in the back.

I always ask permission to take pictures. "Would you mind?" I asked.

She smiled back.  “You mean right here or in the baking area?” Geez, you mean I can go down there? (And touch the brick on that incredible oven?)

Bakers were scaling dough

and shaping bread.

One baker was checking loaves just before removing from the oven. The rack on right had loaves waiting to be loaded and baked.

Here, he was double-checking the loaves when I realized my snack was waiting.

We had picked out a luscious pear tart so I hustled back.

Then we chose some bread and treats for home.

Dinner included a baguette and sourdough. Dinner and a show - Excellent!

Read more about that incredible oven and slowrise bread from the Nashoba Brook Bakery.

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Don’t have much time?

If you don’t want to spend time hauling out a mixer and then cleaning up later, just use a bowl and spatula.

Take any favorite cookie recipe and instead of scooping individual cookies, press the dough into a sheet pan.

Bake until golden brown and cool before cutting.

Cut into squares and you’re done.

Even if you need to package and label, these pan cookies are a quick fix.

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Cinnamon Crown Cake, one of many samples

SUNY Ulster open house for Continuing and Professional Education
Wed Aug 18 4:00-6:00 pm – Business Resource Center, Albany Ulster Ave, Kingston, NY

Come learn about new classes, speak with instructors, attend workshops, and enjoy samples from my upcoming cookbook. No calorie counting allowed.

Recipe testing in progress

PLUS come chat about my two new courses this fall.

MOVING YOUR DREAMS FORWARD
Do you feel stalled and need help moving forward? This class is for people who have already taken “Start and Run a Home-Based Food Business” and need some specific help starting up. You will review the process, create a personal check-list, and discuss ways to handle various issues. October 2 Saturday, 9 am - noon

GROWING YOUR HOME-BASED FOOD BUSINESS
Where are you now? Where are you going? This class is for owners of home-based food businesses who are ready to expand their current business. The class will talk about techniques to increase customer base, add value to the products you already produce, develop marketing strategies, and more. Now that you have the basics, where do you want to go? October 2 Saturday 12:15 - 3:15 pm

For more information about the Open House call (845) 339-2025

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Goodness from a blue ribbon baker.

A real blue ribbon baker!

I just heard from Annie, another student, in Rhinebeck New York.

Hi Mimi

Hope all is well and you are enjoying the summer.  I’m now DBA [doing business as] ‘blue ribbon hearth.’

We belong to Hearty Roots farm a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Red Hook.  I typically bring bread and cookies to the farm on Tuesdays when I get my share and sell the goods to the other shareholders.  This has been well received and expanded my bread recipes further into the whole wheat domain - - market demand!

I’m also selling scones a few times a week to a local cafe. This has been great fun: I bake off a few dozen scones, some cranberry and walnut, some jalapeno and cheddar, take them to the cafe, and sit back and watch. It’s a terrific feeling to see folks so heartily enjoy when they don’t have a vested interest.

Annie’s breads and scones.

Scones for sale at Cafe Omega.

Contact Annie at 845 235-7084 or by email: annie.ski@hotmail.com

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Cupcakes by Ginny Farris of 'sugar me sweet bakers'

I received an email yesterday from former student Ginny Farris, who just began her new home-based food business, sugar me sweet bakers.

Hi Mimi,
These are a sample of my first paid order. I made 200 cupcakes for a cocktail party last night…each is a different flavor, only fresh fruit used for the strawberry and lemon…then there is red velvet with cream cheese, devils food with mocha frosting, and vanilla vanilla. I was so excited…and I got quite a few orders from this….the feedback was fantastic. A lot of work, but rewarding!

Just wanted to share…
Ginny

To contact Ginny by phone 845-246-2094 or email gaf325 at gmail.com

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It’s County Fair week again! Last year MrMacho and I had the pleasure and fun of judging the baked goods category. Monday, we were back for another round. Every entrant supplied a recipe with instructions.

"From the Garden" was this years theme.

Pat Dingman, staff worker extraordinaire, took care of the paperwork and got us started.

Lori Traver, MrMacho, and I tasted brownies, drop cookies, bar cookies, decorated cookies,

and more. The berry shortbread in front were rich and buttery with a nice balance of flavor. Hey folks - we have a Best of Show!

Hey what’s this? Two entrants were exactly alike.

Lori and I discussed the odds of this happening.

Then we judged the cake category.

This cornmeal bundt cake was excellent.

On to the coffeecake category.

Let’s take another look at that recipe.

I noticed that MrMacho had no trouble cleaning his plate.

Last but not least we begin judging the kid category, where everyone was a winner.

It was another great year for the Home Arts division. Thanks to Coleen Macaluso for all her hard work. Maybe we’ll see you all again next year!

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Another Breadbaking Day delight! Panettone is a tall, fruit-filled, sweet Italian yeast bread served at Christmas.

Did I say tall?

I reviewed several Panettone recipes, tweaked one of my own recipes to fit the category, and decided to let my breadmachine do the work. Then I dumped all the ingredients into the pan and set the sweet cycle.

Uh,oh, the dough was far too wet so I added another cup of flour. Uh, oh. Way too much dough for my breadmachine. Should I let it finish and Move On? Should I remove the dough after the proof cycle and bake it in my oven? No one can obsess better than I can.

Panettone is delicious with dried fruits instead of traditional candied (glaceed) Christmas fruits

I left it in the machine. During the bake cycle the dough pushed open the lid. At the end of the bake cycle the top was totally raw. I set the machine for another 50 minutes bake time.

The results were delicious. But next time I’ll use the dough cycle and bake it in the oven.

Panettone
Yield: one verrrry large loaf or two smaller loaves
1½ cups milk or water
2 eggs
¼ cup softened butter
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast
½ teaspoon salt

½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dark raisins
½ cup golden raisins

Add the ingredients to your bread machine in the order listed or according to your machine instructions.  Set your machine on dough cycle. When it’s done, shape into two small rounds and place in 7- or 8- inch round greased cake pans. Proof until doubled and bake at 350 degrees until the tops are a deep golden brown. Also good as braided loaves.

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