Black Bean and Salsa Soup

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup chunky salsa
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion

1.In an electric food processor or blender, combine beans, broth, salsa, and cumin. Blend until fairly smooth.

2.Heat the bean mixture in a saucepan over medium heat until thoroughly heated.

3.Ladle soup into 4 individual bowls, and top each bowl with 1 tablespoon of the sour cream and 1/2 tablespoon green onion.

Black Bean Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 pinch black pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
4 (15 ounce) cans black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1.Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion, celery, carrots and garlic for 5 minutes. Season with chili powder, cumin, and black pepper; cook for 1 minute. Stir in vegetable broth, 2 cans of beans, and corn. Bring to a boil.


2.Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, process remaining 2 cans beans and tomatoes until smooth. Stir into boiling soup mixture, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Caramel Apple Coffee Cake

2 tablespoons butter

3 cups peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples (about 3 large)
Streusel Topping
Caramel Sauce
 1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract   1. Preheat oven to 350°. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add apples; sauté 5 minutes or until softened. Remove from heat; cool completely (about 30 minutes).

2. Meanwhile, prepare Streusel Topping and Caramel Sauce. Reserve 1/2 cup Caramel Sauce for another use.

3. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

4. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a greased and floured shiny 9-inch springform pan; top with apples. Drizzle with 1/2 cup Caramel Sauce; sprinkle with Streusel Topping.

5. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. (A wooden pick will not come out clean.) Cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes; remove sides of pan. Cool completely on wire rack (about 1 1/2 hours). Drizzle with 1/2 cup Caramel Sauce.

  Streusel Topping   1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup chopped pecans 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon  1/4 teaspoon salt   Preparation
Stir together flour, pecans, melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt until blended. Let stand 30 minutes or until firm enough to crumble into small pieces.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
 1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup honey Preparation

Bring brown sugar, butter, whipping cream, and honey to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; boil, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool 15 minutes before serving. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 week. To reheat, microwave at HIGH 10 to 15 seconds or just until warm; stir until smooth.

source: southern living
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/caramel-apple-coffee-cake-50400000123170/

Chocolate chip cookies... Let's try this

The Only Chocolate Chip Cookie I Will Ever Need to Know How to Make For The Rest of My Life
by Shirley Hendrickson, adapted from Leite Torres (Kate: I totally had this link and recipe wrong before, sorry about that!)

Secret 1: The use of a mix of cake flour and bread flour. Cake flour is finer, and bread flour has gluten, both important. Use them and no other.

Kate: I’m fairly certain this is one of the keys to this recipe being so great. It took me ages to find cake flour at my huge grocery store as it’s not super popular and they hid it on the top shelf that I had to have someone help me get down, but dig dig dig as it’s necessary!

Secret 2: Chilling. This is key — KEY! — to cookie texture success. The reason is that letting the dough rest allows all the eggs and the butter and the liquids to ooze and soak and hydrate into all the dry goodness. 24 hours is minimum, 36 is preferable (and noticeably better).

Also, the flavor gets crazy! Deep, caramel-y, toffee-y, and they bake up so much more deliciously brown. Plus, it lets the outside get crisp and crackly and keeps the middle almost underdone when you pull them out — they set up and turn into soft, chewy heaven.

Kate: I baked one batch after only four hours of chilling and they were great – like SO great people begged me for the recipe at the potluck. Then I tried 12 hours, 24 hours, and 36 hours. While 36 was DEFINITELY in-freaking-credible (so true about the caramel-y-ness), if you can only wait four hours, it won’t be the end of the world. This also makes SO many cookies that you could make half and then half later, like I did.

Secret 3: All ingredients. Room temperature. Do it. (Note: The misconception with room-temperature butter: it actually doesn’t mean letting it sit out until it’s supersoft and melty. You should be able to press a slice of butter with your finger and easily make a dent, and it should crack faintly.)

Secret 4: Did you know? People make their cookies way too small! It’s silliness! If you make them too small, they dry out too quick, and they get too crunchy. We want gooey and chewy! The way to achieve that is to scoop your dough out into golf-ball sized — or slightly larger — portions. I use a 1/3 c measuring cup for extra big cookies.

Secret 5: The chocolate. Sorry, Toll House. And don’t even think about the generic supermarket brand. I only use Ghiardelli 60% Cacao chips — they’re pretty widely available the best chips you can buy at a grocery store. However, if you run across anything that is 60% cacao, it’ll be good.

Secret 6: The sprinkle of salt on the top. Makes all the sweetness sing.

Secret 7: Wait. I mean, sure, have one piping hot out of the oven, but the flavors actually meld and deepen once they cool. These are definitely cookies that get better the next day.

Secret 7 1/2: Always err on taking them out too early rather than too late – also essential for middle-softness. They continue to cook on the sheet for a few minutes, so don’t overdo it – underdone is better than overdone, every time (and you can always pop them in for a minute more if you like).

Stick to these secrets, and you will ace chocolate chip cookies forever.

2 cups minus 2 Tbsp. (8 ½ oz.) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 ½ oz.) bread flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher
2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups; 10 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups (10 oz.) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. (8 oz.) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, preferably about 60% cacao content, such as Ghirardelli
Sea salt or kosher salt for garnishing

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; then set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low; then add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. (Unless you have a plastic guard that sits around the rim of the bowl, this will make a big mess at first, with flour flying everywhere. I found that carefully holding a dish towel around the top of the bowl helped a lot.) Add the chocolate chips, and mix briefly to incorporate. Press plastic wrap against the dough, and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. The dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to soften slightly. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Using a standard-size ice cream scoop – mine holds about 3 fluid ounces, or about 1/3 cup – scoop six mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, making sure to space them evenly. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto the rack to cool a bit more.

Kate: my oven is a class-act pile of junk, so one batch was cooked at 400 for 15 minutes and I think it turned out the best! One was cooked at 300 for 25 and it was kind of mediocre. So, in my opinion, hotter and faster seems to be better. At least in my crazy oven.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: About 24 (5-inch) cookies. Kate: Mine made more like 18. But I have a cookie dough eating problem.

Go forth and make cookies, people.

Kneaders French Toast!!

1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. yeast
3 tbsp. sugar
3 c. AP flour (do not use whole wheat!)
1/4 c. dough enhancer
3 tbsp. butter, soft
1 tbsp. oil
pinch of salt

For the Brown Sugar Filling:
2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:
Proof the yeast by sprinkling it over the water. Sprinkle the sugar over the yeast. It should all start to sink into the water and eventually become foamy.
Meanwhile, add remaining dough ingredients into a bread machine or a stand mixer.

Add the yeast mixture into the bread machine or bowl.

If using a bread machine, run through dough cycle.

If using a stand mixer-- use a paddle attachment to mix together until a dough ball forms. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Punch down with bread hook. Repeat two more times.

Meanwhile, grease and line two bread loaf pans with parchment paper.
Mix together the brown sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon.
Remove from bread machine or bowl. Divide dough into halves. Continue to divide into halves until you have 64 small dough balls.
Line the bottom of the two pans with dough balls.
Spread each of them with the brown sugar mixture. Continue alternating layers of dough with layers of brown sugar until no more remains (I got 3 layers of dough, 2 of brown sugar).

Cover and let rise for 30 more minutes.
Bake at 375º for 27-28 minutes.
Remove and let cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let continue to cool on rack


1 loaf of Chunky Monkey Bread, cut into 8 slices
8 eggs
3 cups milk
1 tbsp. brown sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla
1. Whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla and pour half of mixture into 9x13 baking dish.

2. Place slices of bread into the baking dish and pour remaining egg mixture over top, making sure to cover all slices.

3. Refrigerate while making syrup (recipe follows).



Kneaders Caramel Syrup

1 c. brown sugar
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 c. corn syrup
1. Whisk together over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is heated through.

Remember: these slices are super thick, so you'll need to use a lower heat and keep them on for a little longer-- just like crockpot cooking, "low and slow."

Homemade Whipped cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
Directions
In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.