& when the phone rang & I thought it was you & I sprung like a kid who just got out of school / but its almost, always never you

I've recently discovered this artist, Lissie, thanks to my favorite radio station, The Current. I love to share music, so check her out. She kind of reminds me of a female Ryan Adams in some of her songs (i.e. "Record Collector"). She's kind of soulful, yet energetic.




Listen, love, like her on Facebook if you're so inclined. =P

Heavy cream biscuits

In a previous post, I pondered what I should do with my extra cream from the panna cotta. Well, I started on Sunday morning with a delicious batch of cream biscuits.





Ingredients:

• 2 cups self-rising flour
  OR
  2 cups all purpose flour + 3 tsp baking powder + 1 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
2. Stir everything together until the dough forms a ball.
3. Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with additional flour. Fold dough in 1/2 and knead a bunch. (Add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to your hands.)
4. Roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Or, if you're lazy like me, just knead it until you think it's about the right thickness.
5. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter coated with flour a glass coated with flour or, if you're me, an appropriately-sized metal measuring cup coated in flour, cut dough into biscuits.
6. Place on baking sheet coated with cooking spray, leaving at least 1-inch between each biscuit.
7. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

You got served!


Nom. So, my one error is that I think I may have added too much salt and baking powder. I'd cut that by about 25% next time and I'd also use WHEAT flour next time.

Chocolate Buttermilk Panna Cotta

I couldn't find a recipe for chocolate buttermilk panna cotta, so I did my best to combine the chocolate recipe with the buttermilk recipe, and this is what I got:

Ingredients:

• 1 c + 2 tbsp heavy cream (I couldn't find heavy cream, so I used heavy whipping cream)
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 1 package powdered, flavorless gelatin (vegetarian, if you can find it!)
• 1-2/3 c buttermilk
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt

1. Coat 5 or 6 ramekins or similar cup-type item lightly with flavorless oil. (I used small bowls.)
2. Place water into a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over it. (Do not stir.) Let stand 5-6 minutes.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat: Bring cream and sugar to a boil (about 7 minutes).
4. Remove pan from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth.
   
5. Add gelatin mixture to chocolate mixture until melted.
6. Stir in buttermilk and salt.
7. Ladle mixture into ramekins.
8. Refrigerate, loosely covered, until set. (About 2 hrs.)

To serve:

• Run the tip of a small knife around the edge of the ramekins to loosen the panna cotta and unmold onto plates.
• Or, if you're me, just serve them right from the bowls in which they set
• Let stand until almost at room temperature (about 1 hr).
• Garnish with berries if you have them!

Now what do I do with all this extra cream...?

Chocolate Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I bought buttermilk a bit ago to make Irish soda bread, which turned out pretty nicely. It had hints of nutmeg to spice it up a bit. Next time, I'd try some thyme and rosemary in it. Mmm...

Since, I've been trying to use the buttermilk up, so I've been making everything with it. Last weekend, I made delicious buttermilk pancakes last weekend, with a recipe claiming it's Al's Diner's recipe: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/510/Als_Diner_Buttermilk_Pancakes31323.shtml.

Then, I made buttermilk popovers the next day for breakfast. They didn't seem to want to pop over, so they ended up buttermilk biscuits, but they were still super tasty, and worked nicely with some raspberry preserves.



I made buttermilk French toast for breakfast this morning, where I just replaced most of the milk in the egg mixture with buttermilk and it was surprisingly delicious.

Then, today, I made very delicious chocolate-chip buttermilk cookies!

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• For funsies, I added 1/3 c of Ghirardelli cocoa powder
• chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Cream together shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add dry ingredients until blended. Stir in chips. Drop by teaspoons onto baking sheet.
3. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Pre-baking



DONE!




They are a really cake-y cookie -- soft and fluffy and chewy. So good.


Juggles says:
"These cookies are probably the most pretty cookies I've ever seen you make. They are totally decilicious. That's like a step above regular delicious"