Family Recipes

Scratch Recipe Notes

Biscuits Cyclone Lasagna Mug Cake Spaghetti Lavandino Della Cucina Apple Crisp Crepe Linzer Cookies Mayo New York Pizza Dough Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Pan Pizza Dough Pancakes Pillows Pizza Process Pizza Sauce Pregnant Smoothie Sloppy Fries Sweet Nutty Granola Tim's Cookie Dough Cookies Tim's Rice Krispy Treats Tres Leches Cake Vegetarian Chili

Biscuits

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. Mix the ap flour, salt, and powder of baking
  3. Cut butter into the dry mix until coarse crumbs
  4. Make a well, drizzle the honey and 1 cup of buttermilk into it
  5. Barely fold the wet into the dry
  6. Dump out the dough and gently bring together with extra flour
  7. Flatten with your hands into 3/4 inch high rectangle, fold bottom 1/3 to the middle and other side to the opposite edge.
  8. Turn 90 degrees and repeat 3 more times flattening and folding.
  9. Cut straight down into rounds and bake for 20 minutes or until tops are browned

Notes

I've tried a lot of biscuit receipes. This is the only good one.

The colder the dough and butter, the better

Taken from Sally's Baking ADdiction

Cyclone

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Microwave the chocolate chips, oil, and cream for 20 seconds
  2. Aggresively fold the corn syrup into the hot chocolate mix
  3. Allow the fudge drizzle to cool
  4. Spread the ice cream over a flat surface, like a large cutting board
  5. Sprinkle toppings and drizzle fudge over the ice cream
  6. Use an ice cream spade and bench scraper to quickly mix it all together
  7. Chuck the mix into two small bowls and freeze them for at least 15 minutes

Mods

These ingredients are per bowl (so double for a batch in the recipe)

Drumstick -> 25g fudge, 15g unsalted roasted peanuts, 8g waffle cone or 15g animal cracker

Peanut Butter Cup -> 2 Reeses eggs per bowl

Lasagna

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Cook the beef and sausage together with red pepper flake
  2. Stir 3 of the marinara jars into the meat sauce, then leave alone
  3. In a large bowl mix the ricotta, mozzarella, parm, garlic, basil paste, and eggs to form the cheese sauce
  4. Either cook off lasagna noodles (better) or be lazy with oven-ready noodles (comes out almost as good)
  5. For each of the 4 trays, do a layer of meat sauce, then noodle, then cheese, then noodle, then meat, back and forth until finally meat on top
  6. For each tray (esp. if using oven ready noodles) pour marinara over the top so the sides aren't exposed raw noodle
  7. Throw in the freezer uncooked (use a deodorizer, it will stink up the freezer)
  8. When time to cook, hit the oven to 425 and bake covered for one hour
  9. Once internal temp hits at least 165, remove the cover and sprinkle pepperoni and mushrooms on top.
  10. Broil until the pepperoni is crispy.

Mug Cake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Gently mix the ap flour, cocoa mix, powder of baking, and salt until no lumps in a large coffee mug
  2. Use a small spatula to barely stir the oil, sugar, and milk into the dry until incorporated
  3. Push the nutella into the center of the batter
  4. Microwave for 1 minute per mug

Spaghetti Lavandino Della Cucina

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Boil the spaghetti in just enough water. That will give you lots of starchy liquid after cooking.
  2. Sautee the chopped onion and bell pepper with a drizzle of olive oil and the italian sausage
  3. Cook the mix until the sausage is done, the aromatics should will be a little crunchy
  4. Cook the crushed garlic into the sausage mix until fragrent
  5. After draining the spaghetti, toss it with some marinara and olive oil
  6. Cook the milk, cream, and remaining marinara into the sausage mix
  7. Add pasta water until deserved thiness reached
  8. Plate spaghetti, sprinkle with toppings, laddle of sauce, sprinkle red pepper flakse and fresh grated parm.

Apple Crisp

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Grease an 8x8x2 inch pan
  3. Spread apple slices evenly throughout pan
  4. Mix water, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl
  5. Pour cinnamon mixture over apples
  6. Mix sugar, flour, and butter in a bowl
  7. Spread crumb mixture over the apples
  8. Bake for 40 minutes or until crumb is golden brown

Crepe

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Whisk the eggs and milk together
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth
  3. Refrigerate at least one hour
  4. Heat a 10 inch nonstick skillet over medium
  5. Lightly grease with butter, wipe off excess
  6. If the batter is too thick to pour, thin it out with either milk or melted butter
  7. Hold the pan and pour in 1/3 cup of batter
  8. Immediately swirl the batter to evenly coat the bottom in a paper thin layer
  9. Cook until the top look dry, should take around 20 seconds
  10. Grab one edge of the crepe and cook on the second side for 10 seconds, or until edges start to brown

Notes

Based on Kenji's crêpe recipe

Linzer Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine the salt and flour in a bowl
  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together
  3. Mix egg yolk, vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon zest into the creamed butter
  4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet
  5. Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap
  6. Chill for at least two hours
  7. Remove the dough from the fridge
  8. Preheat the oven to 350
  9. Gently roll out on a floured surface to 1 cm thickness
  10. Cut the dough into 3 inch rounds
  11. Using a 1 inch cutter, remove the center from half of the rounds
  12. Reroll scraps and continue process until all usable cookies are shaped
  13. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes
  14. Move cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely
  15. Spread two teaspoons of jam on each base cookie, top with the ring cookie
  16. Cookies can be enjoyed immediately, but improve with an overnight rest to allow absorption of jam moisture

Mayo

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Throw everything except the oil into a wide mouth mason jar
  2. Slowly pour the oil into the jar
  3. Sink an immersion blender to the bottom and blend on high until incorporated

Notes

Taken from Series Eats

New York Pizza Dough

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a KitchenAid mixer on low with a dough hook
  2. Add the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined
  3. Scrape the sides of the bowl and knead on high speed for 10 minutes, or until the dough becomes smooth to the touch
  4. Store the dough in an oiled bowl
  5. Refrigerate the dough at least overnight, best after two to three days.
  6. When using the dough, make sure to allow it to come up to room temperature before working, at least an hour or two

Notes

I like this recipe when I can cook on really high heat, like the grill

Modified from Serious Eats.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Cream butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and mollases
  3. Mix in vanilla pudding powder, vanilla extract, and egg
  4. Combine ap flour, salt, soda of baking, cinnamon, and oats in a bowl
  5. Mix the dry into the wet until just combined
  6. Gently stir raisins until incorporated
  7. Wearing latex gloves, roll the dough into twelve equal balls
  8. Place the dough balls evenly on a cookie sheet
  9. Bake for 13 minutes
  10. Immediately move to a cooling rack

Notes

Not sure about toasting the oats vs baking them raw

Pan Pizza Dough

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a food processor
  2. Pulse three to four times until combined
  3. Add wet ingredients and process for 15 seconds
  4. Process an additional 15 seconds
  5. Bring the dough together into a smooth ball
  6. Tightly cover the dough in an oiled metal bowl
  7. Let the dough rise in the fridge for 1-3 days
  8. Split the ball into thirds and store each portion in a quart container
  9. Use immediately, or freeze for up to two months

Notes

I like this receipe when cooking inside with the oven

It works fine on a vented pizza pan, better if that pan is on a pizza steel

Modified from Serious Eats.

Pancakes

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat a griddle to 325
  2. Preheat oven to "Keep warm" setting with a cooling rack on a sheet pan
  3. Combine dry ingredients in bowl
  4. In an imersion blender column, whip the white of an egg to stiff peaks
  5. In a second glass bowl, melt the butter
  6. Stir the buttermilk, egg yolk, and sour cream into the melted butter
  7. Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the wet mix
  8. Gently combine the wet mix into the dry mix
  9. Dish pancakes out onto the griddle at desired size
  10. Once cooked through, keep warm in oven

Notes

Taken from Serious Eats.

The sour cream can be substituted 1 to 1 with more buttermilk, but the final texture won't be quite as fluffy

A different but also good recipe for pumpkin pancakes is from Sally's Baking Addiction

The pumpkin ones are that recipe but 3x to use 1 can of pumpkin, then 2x the spices, add vanilla and pumpkin flavor

1/2 cup batter per pump pancake makes 27 pancakes

Pillows

Ingredients

Steps

  1. The mixins will determine what kind of pillow you make. My favorite is 2 cups of frozen blueberries. We have also had success with 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. Anything you would use to flavor a muffin should work great
  2. Preheat oven to 400
  3. In a bowl, stir the flour, soda of baking, and salt together
  4. In a separate large bowl, whisk the splenda and eggs together until splenda is evenly distributed
  5. Whisk in the vanilla, applesauce, and greek yogurt
  6. Using a spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mix. Do not overwork the batter.
  7. Gently fold the mixins into the batter
  8. Using an ice cream disher, drop 12 gobs of batter onto two foiled and greased sheet pans
  9. Bake until the pillows are just starting to turn golden (15 to 20 minutes, depending on the choice of mixins)
  10. Move the cooked pillows to a wire rack
  11. Once cooled, store in refrigerator for up to one week.
  12. Before serving, toast the pillow to reconstitute it.

Pizza Process

Ingredients

Steps

Notes

Making pizza at home involves a number of small steps that need to be executed perfectly.

First, I like to make a big batch of dough and freeze until needed. For a nice fluffy pie, I will use 1/2 a batch of Keni's Pan Pizza Dough. Not the 1/3rd from the recipe. Move the dough from the freezer to the fridge (still in the quart container) the day before you want to make a pie.

Two to three hours (depending on room temperature), move the fridge dough to the counter. Open the container and cover with plastic wrap.

One hour before you want to make a pizza, put a 1/2 inch pizza steel near the top of a gas oven. It should be just low enough so that a pie can slide in with clearance for the broiler. Set the temperature to 550. Put a sheet pan under the steel to catch any extra cornmeal.

While the stone is preheating, make a batch of Pizza Sauce, shred some low moisture full fat mozz, and put some pepperoni in a little dish. Having all the igredients ready makes the final steps work. If you aren't prepared, then the dough will stick to the peel.

Get a little dish of course cornmeal and a second little dish of AP Flour. Bring out your largest cutting board. Place a pizza peel on the board and top the peel with parchment paper. Flour the parchment paper. Flour a rolling pin.

Make sure the steel is hot enough to cook the pie. You want an infared thermometer to read at least 500 degrees on a couple surface points. Note that if you go above 600, then the dough will burn, so this recipe doesn't work on a grill.

Using the rolling pin, and reflouring as needed, work the dough into an even thickness round on the parchment. Once desired thickness is acheieved, sprinkle the dough with a generous coating of cornmeal. Remove the peel from under the dough. Flip the peel and put it on the cornmeal side of the dough. Use the parchment paper to quickly flip the peel and dough over, landing the cornmeal side of the dough on the peel.

Test moving the dough. If anything sticks (especially near the lip of the dough), then toss a heavy pinch of cornmeal under it. Note that when testing the dough's movement, all that should be required is a light touch. If you need to use too much force, then cornmeal is needed. Otherwise, the ingredients will slide all over the place.

Over the course of about 30 seconds, add a light amount of sauce to the dough. It should almost touch the edge of the round. Test the dough's ability to move and add cornmeal if needed. Sprinkle 1/4 pound of shreed mozzarella over the sauce. Test the dough's ability to move and add cornmeal if needed. Fill in sauce and cheese gaps with pepperoni. Do not overload on toppings. Test the dough's ability to move and add cornmeal if needed.

If the dough is mobile, then gently slide it in little flicks onto the pizza steel. Make sure to load as far back as possible to avoid the pizza overhanging the front of the steel. Turn the heat off on the oven and set the broiler to high.

Optionally set aside a couple small dipping dishes with extra sauce. These will be used for dunking the crust of each slice after eating.

The pizza will be fully cooked within 10 minutes, but go by look and smell. I often give the pie a turn or two while cooking, and switch off the broiler once the toppings reach desired doneness. The most important tell is that the bottom of the pie is taking on a nice peopard spotting appearance.

Set the pie on a cooling rack over the previously used parchment paper. Leave it here for a minute or two to allow steam to escape, locking in that crispy crust. While allowing steam to escape, sprinkle the pie with dried oregano and micrograte parm and pecorino over the top

Once ready to serve, use the peel to move the pizza back to the large cutting board. Use a sharp round pizza cutter to make the desired number of slices. With my 1/2 dough recipe, I like 6 big slices.

Previous Attempts

Note that this current list is the result of years of making pizzas in a gas oven. Every tool, ingredient, and step is essential. Leave anything out, and the entire pie will be subpar.

One major step that finalized this process was switching from parchment paper to cornmeal. Parchment paper makes getting the pie in the oven much easier. However, you need to pull it out before it lights on fire.

That little bit of time to pull the pie out and let heat escape results in a weaker rise and a less flavorful pie.

I wanted to try course semolina, but I couldn't find it anywhere around me. After trying cornmeal, I am certain all my favorite pizza joints were using cornmeal on their doughs.

You want to flour the dough as little as possible when shaping it on the peel. Otherwise it will develop a poor tasting thin layer of unhydrated flour that will make the pizza taste raw and bitter.

I have tried to make NY style super thin pizzas, but that will be a different write up. I like to roll for this method because it gives a better height across the entire pie.

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

Steps

  1. In a tall container, dump the can of tomatoes
  2. Using your hands, gently break the tomoatoes apart. Make sure to leave some large chunks, don't get it too soupy.
  3. Stir in the olive oil, salt, and basil
  4. Use immediately, or fridge for a couple of weeks

Notes

{'step': 'If it gets too hot out, it can be impossible to find good Basil. I have subbed in squeeze tubes of Basil paste (to taste) in a pinch and it worked great.'}

Pregnant Smoothie

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Add the ingredients in the order listed to a high power blender.
  2. Blend until uniform and smooth
  3. Divide into two servings

Notes

The ingredients are listed in the order they enter the blender.

You can substitute 40 grams of fresh veg for the 100 grams of frozen

Kathryn always drank this when she was in the first trimester. It is easier to vomit a smoothie than a handful of granola.

Sloppy Fries

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Prepare the fries as instructed on the bag
  2. While the fries are cooking, brown the ground beef in a pan
  3. Once the beef is browned, add the manwich sauce to the pan. Cover and barely simmer.
  4. While the fries continue cooking, combine the olive oil, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl
  5. Immediately after the fries are finished cooking, coat them evenly with the oil mixture by tossing them in the bowl
  6. Plate the fries and cover with a quick zig zag of ketchup
  7. Scoop the sloppy joe over the ketchuped fries
  8. Sprinkle the cheese blend over the sloppy joe mix
  9. Give the dish another quick zig zag of ketchup

Subrecipes

Sweet Nutty Granola

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
  2. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, crispy cereal, pepitas, cashews, cinnamon, and salt
  3. In a second bowl, combine the peanut butter, vegetable oil, honey, light brown sugar, and almond extract
  4. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry
  5. Divide the granola between two Silpat lined half sheet pans
  6. Bake for 20 minutes
  7. The granola will not have taken on much color, but will carry over while cooling
  8. Allow the granola to completely cool on the sheet pans

Tim's Cookie Dough Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Mix flour, salt, pudding mix, and soda of baking in a small bowl
  3. Cream the light brown sugar and white sugar into the butter in a second, larger bowl with a silicone spatula
  4. Mix in egg and vanilla until air incorporates into the dough, making it lighter
  5. Barely mix the dry into the wet
  6. Gently fold in chocolate chips
  7. (Optional) Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours to improve flavor and texture
  8. Measure the dough and divide into 12-14 cookies (40-50g per cookie recommended)
  9. Evenly space the balls on the cookie sheet
  10. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, or until the bottoms are barely golden brown
  11. Quickly move the cookies from the sheet pan onto a cooling rack lined with parchment

Notes

The cookies should appear slightly undercooked, do not put them back in the oven

This is an original recipe. I wanted a cookie that stayed soft for days in a row and felt like eating barely set cookie dough.

Mods

Gluten Free

Substitute the ap flour 1 to 1 with Namaste Perfect Flour Blend. Add 1 tablespoon / 15 grams of whole milk to the wet ingredients.

Chocolate Orange

Replace 1/2 the choc chips with chopped chocolate orange candy

Add a teaspoon of orange extract to the dough

Peanut Butter Kiss

Substitute butter and chocolate chips for 160g smooth peanut butter and 90g shortening. Double the salt. Double the white sugar.

Make cookies that are half the normal size (~24g). Bake for 9 minutes. Press kisses into cookies immediately after leaving oven.

Do not thumb print the cookie dough balls before baking.

There is conflicting data from when I did the trials for the PB cookie. I prefer the mod as written, but a lot of people liked a 50g shortening + 50g butter split instead of 90g shortening.

Butterscotch Chocolate Chip

Substitute 60 grams of the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips

Dark chocolate chunk cookies

Add an additional 10g of pudding mix (50g total)

Use 47 grams dark chocolate (72% cacao) (1 Trader Joe's bar) and 90 grams chocolate chips

Make the cookies as per the instructions

At the mixin stage, chop the cholate bar into large pieces

Separate the flakes from the chunks

Mix the chunks in with the chocolate chips

Equally distribute the large chunks on the top of each dough ball

Pull the cookies at the regular time, but let them cool on the tray for 4 minutes before moving to a rack

Date Night

Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract to the wet mix

Replace chocolate chips with 47g dark chocolate chunks, 33g choc chips, and 50g chopped dried dates

Tim's Rice Krispy Treats

Ingredients

Steps

  1. In a medium pot, melt the butter on the lowest heat setting
  2. Add the marshmallows to the pot
  3. Still on the lowest heat setting, stir the marshmallows until completely melted and mixed with the butter
  4. Take the pot off the heat, and quickly yet gently fold in the rice krispy cereal
  5. Immediately after the cereal is mixed, gently dump the mix into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish
  6. It is critical that you don't press the mix into the pan, but rather tap the mix gently to evently distribute
  7. Let the treats cool for 5 minutes, and then flip onto a greased cutting board
  8. After 30 minutes, the mix will have cooled enough for you to cut
  9. Cut the treats into 20 servings
  10. Once the treats are cool to the touch, they can be stored

Tres Leches Cake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Follow the instructions on the box to prepare the cake
  2. Allow the cake to completely cool and leave it in the baking dish
  3. Combine the half and half, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk in a bowl
  4. Use a bamboo skewer to poke holes evenly across the surface of the cake
  5. Pour the dairy mixture over the punctured cake
  6. Cover the baking dish and refrigerate at least over night

Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Dice the carrots, sweet peppers, celery, and white onion. I dice each chunk of carrot and pepper to twice the volume of the celery and onion
  2. Add the diced aromatics to a large cold pot
  3. Splash the veggies with the cooking oil
  4. Sprinkle the salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder, and MSG into the pot
  5. Give everything a stir and bring the heat up to sweat the vegetables
  6. While sweating, remove the soy chorizo from its packaging and have at the ready
  7. Once a carrot is about half way to the doneness you prefer, stir in the soy chorizo. I look for the carrot to be just barely starting to soften to a fork
  8. Open and rinse the pinto, black, and kidney beans. Skipping the bean rinse will result in an unpleasant earthy flavor in the final prepped chili
  9. After the soy chorizo is brought to temperature and the pot begins sizzling again, stir in the rinsed beans
  10. Stir in the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes
  11. Stir in the chili seasoning
  12. Simmer for at least ten minutes before serving
  13. Best results will be obtained by allowing the chili to cool and then storing in the fridge at least overnight
  14. This chili goes great with a side of corn chips and a dollop of plain greek yogurt