Milk Punch has roots in New Orleans, with a history as a hair-of-the-dog remedy.   In fact, my best milk punch memory is enjoying a bit too much at a wonderful wedding brunch in New Orleans.  And now, that bride makes milk punch for a Christmas party every year.  I have to admit though, I make it differently from my friend.  I’ve had milk punch that is just milk and bourbon with a sprinkling of nutmeg and I have seen many recipes that use melted vanilla ice cream as the milky base.  I split the difference, mixing up a sweet, creamy syrup lightly spiced with holiday flavors to stir in cold milk.  Then I dose it with good bourbon, serve it over ice and grate a dash of nutmeg. And to reinforce that Crescent City connection, I like to listen to one of my favorite seasonal songs, Louis Armstrong singing ‘Zat You, Santa Claus while whipping up a batch.

I love the idea of serving fudgy cookies with milk punch.  Sure, you can fill a punch bowl with a big batch of punch and arrange a plate of cookies beside it.  But I think a glass of milk punch and a little stack of cookies would make an amusing dessert for a grown-up dinner party, adding a touch of whimsy to a sophisticated event.  These gently spiced cookies are rich with chocolate, soft and sweet, just perfect for dipping in milk punch.  Plus, they can be made ahead, stored in the fridge or frozen, and baked fresh.

Milk Punch and Cookies

Milk Punch

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup sugar

½ vanilla bean

2 sticks cinnamon

4 cardamom pods

1 quart whole milk

Bourbon

Nutmeg

In a small saucepan with a tight fitting lid, stir together the cream and sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar.  The mixture may turn buttery yellow.  Just when it hits the boil, remove the pan from the heat.  Split the vanilla been and scrape out the seeds and drop them in the cream.  Add the cinnamon sticks and the lightly crushed cardamom pods.   Cover the pot and leave to cool completely.

When the creamy syrup is cool, strain it into a pitcher, add the milk and stir well to combine.  Fill a punch glass or highball with ice, add 1 to 1 ½ Tablespoons bourbon and fill with milk mixture.  Sprinkle nutmeg over the top of each glass.

Makes about 5 ½ cups punch, can be doubled or more

Chocolate Spice Cookies

2 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

3 Tablespoons butter

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the chocolate, butter and condensed milk in a large microwave safe bowl.  Microwave at medium power for 45 seconds, remove the bowl and stir vigorously until the chocolate is melted and everything is combined.  If needed, microwave in 15 second bursts until everything melts.  The mixture will be thick. Alternately, you can carefully melt everything together in a large pan.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices with a fork.  Dump into the chocolate mixture and stir beginning to come together. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until the dough it all combined.  It’s a thick batter and will take a little elbow grease.  Chill the dough in the fridge for 20 minutes, then divide into three equal portions.  Cut three lengths of waxed paper and use each to roll a portion for dough into a log.  Wrap tightly and keep in the fridge until ready to bake, up to three days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Take the cookie logs out of the fridge and allow to soften for a few minutes, then use a sturdy serrated knife to slice the logs into ¼ inch slices.  Place on the prepared sheets and bake 8 minutes, until the cookies are puffed in the center.  Remove from the oven and cool on the pans.

Makes about 60 cookies

These nuts are another cocktail party recipe.  Yes, they are perfect for nibbling at a cocktail party, but I really say this because I picked up the idea at a cocktail party.  Some ladies and I were standing around with our drinks, nibbling on a bowl of glazed pecans and chatting about various flavored nut recipes.  One of the ladies remarked that her grandmother always made “these peanuts that she boiled in sugar syrup.” As is my wont, I asked for details.  She didn’t know anything more, just that her grandmother used to fix up a huge kettle of peanuts boiling in sugar and
water.

These ideas stick with me, long after the party is over. I experimented occasionally over the years, overthinking the idea as it turns out, until I got it right.  Raw peanuts simply boiled in sugar syrup.  These little gems are not as sweet as you might think, and the salt adds a nice balance to each bite.  The peanut flavor really shines through.  They will keep in an airtight container for quite a while, so they make a great little gift.  But put a bowl on the bar, and your guests will gobble them up.  I’ll admit, I made a batch on a Thursday to photograph over the weekend, and they were all gone before the camera came out.

Sugared Peanuts

Raw peanuts are the key.  Ready-roasted ones will not soak up the syrup.  Look for them in the bulk section of a health food store or market. 

2 cups water

2 cups granulated sugar

4 cups raw peanuts

Salt

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line 2 rimmed baking sheets completely with non-stick foil, or foil greased with a light coat of oil.

Stir the water and sugar together is a large, high-sided saucepan.  You want plenty of room for the peanuts, so you can stir them around and avoid the pot boiling over. Bring the syrup to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Stir in the peanuts and cook in the syrup, stirring frequently, until the peanuts absorb the syrup.  This may take 20 – 30 minutes.  As the process comes to the end, and almost all the syrup is absorbed, stir constantly to prevent scorching.  When there is only a little syrup left in the pan, put the prepared baking sheets by the stove and very quickly transfer the peanuts to the pans using a slotted spoon.  Shake the spoon to let any remaining syrup drip off. Keep the pot on the heat, being carefully of the really hot syrup.  If you take it off the heat, and the peanut syrup will immediately seize up and granulate. Spread the peanuts out in one layer on the first pan, trying to prevent many from clumping up. You largely want individual nuts, not peanut brittle.  Sprinkle a little table salt over the peanuts and place in the oven.  Repeat with the remaining baking sheet.  Bake the nuts for 10 – 12 minutes, until they are lightly golden.  Rotate the trays between racks at 5 minutes so the bottom pan doesn’t burn.

Cool the nuts on the baking pans.  You can break up any clumps with your fingers.

Makes 4 cups

I was in a very fancy grocery store and saw a lovely, beautifully wrapped box of hot chocolate-on-a-stick.  My first thought was “I can do that.”  And those babies with their cellophane and ribbon and fancy label were selling for $10 apiece.  Yea, I can do much better than that.

These pops are basically block of chocolate ganache on a stick.  You can flavor the chocolate, coat the cubes in powdered sugar or colored sugar and use any number of ideas for the stick.  Serve these at a holiday party, for kids or adults, or wrap a few in cellophane of your own and give them as gifts.

Hot Chocolate Pops

8 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate (60 % cocoa)

8 ounces milk chocolate

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Line an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf tin with non-stick foil, waxed paper or plastic wrap, leaving some overhang.

Break up the chocolate into very small pieces and place into a shallow bowl.  In a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until it just comes to a boil.

When the cream is hot, pour it through a sieve over the chocolate and leave to soften for a minute.  Stir the mixture vigorously until all the chocolate is melted and smooth. Scrape all of the chocolate into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the top, and leave to cool, then refrigerate for about an hour until just firm.  Gently remove the loaf using the overhanging wrap and cut the block into eight 1 ½ inch  cubes. Run your knife under warm water before each cut.  Insert the desired stirrer into the center of each cube, making sure they will stand up on their own.  Gently return the block to the loaf tin and refrigerate until completely firm.

The pops will keep in the fridge for a week, but bring them to room temperature before using.

If you’d like, you can coat the cubes of chocolate in powdered sugar or colored decorating sugar.

For Hot Chocolate:

Bring the pops to room temperature.  For each cup of hot chocolate, heat 1¼ cup of milk over medium heat until bubbles start to break on the surface, just before it boils.  Pour into a mug and add a hot chocolate pop.  Stir until the chocolate is melted.

Flavoring options:

1 teaspoon peppermint extract or

1 Tablespoon amaretto or

1 Tablespoon Kahlua or coffee liqueur or

½ vanilla bean or

2 cinnamon sticks

For flavored pops: Stir one of the flavor additions into the cream before heating it.  If using vanilla bean or cinnamon sticks, heat the cream with the add-in, leave to infuse for 1 hour, remove the solid, then reheat the cream and continue.

Stirrer options:

Popsicle sticks

Wooden popsicle sticks or heavy skewers

Candy canes

Cinnamon sticks

Red Velvet Cake is a real childhood memory for me.  I have an aunt who makes a great one.  But it was definitely not trendy or cool or in.  Red Velvet was seriously down-home, real country food.  It wasn’t even a standard on diner menus.  But that all seems to have changed.  I am dubious about this hipsterfied version.  I have had some really, really bad red velvet made by places that charge huge amounts for small cupcakes, and advertise that it’s the best-selling flavor. I even had a red velvet cupcake in London, but it was an abomination.  In fact, it seems that anything with a little red food coloring in it is now called “red velvet” and earns a premium and a lot of attention. No, I don’t like this trend at all.

But Christmas is different. We all love fun and whimsical at Christmas, and bright red sweets just fit the bill perfectly.  These cookies with their chocolate-y richness, ruby color and festive white snowdrops will delight kids, but they will also make an impression at a cookie swap.

Red Velvet Polka Dot Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring

1 (11-ounce) white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light-colored.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy and light.

In a small bowl, use a fork to mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Use the fork to break up lumps of cocoa powder.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter in the mixer a little at a time, mixing well after each addition and occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.  When the dough is thoroughly mixed, add the food coloring, beating until the dough is a dark red color.  If you have some place important to be or just had a manicure, I’d recommend wearing gloves.  That red food coloring will show up in the oddest places.  When the dough is evenly colored, stir in all but about ½ cup of the white chocolate chips until mixed in.

Scoop the dough onto the lined baking sheets using a 2 Tablespoon cookie scoop or spoon.  Place the cookies apart from each other to allow room for spreading.  You will have enough dough to use on a third pan of cookies after these have cooked.  Wet your fingers and lightly press down the top of each cookie mound, then press the remaining white chips into each cookie to create the polka dots. The cookies spread, so press a lot of chips into the cookies.

Bake the cookies for 10 – 12 minutes until firm in the center.  Cool on the pans for a few minutes until firm, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.  When one pan has cooled, repeat with the rest of the cookie dough. Stored in an airtight container, the cookies will keep for several days.

Makes 30 cookies

You are going to want a loaf of this around the house during the Thanksgiving holiday.  It is beautiful, autumnal and something of an achievement to show your friends and family.  It is great spread with butter.  Fig, Bourbon and Vanilla Bean Jam is a real treat.  It is gorgeous toasted, and makes amazing leftover turkey sandwiches.

Let me assure you, I am not an expert bread maker, but I can do this.  It is not difficult or time-consuming, but it does take a little effort and some time – if that makes sense.  After the initial mixing, it is relatively hands-off, but it takes some time for the rising and the chilling.  The bread is not some neon orange color, but has a lovely amber tinge.  The flavor is not overwhelming, just a nice subtle flavor of fall.

Butternut Brioche

1packet active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

3 Tablespoons warm water (around 120 degrees, hot to the touch, but not burning your fingers)

1 cup pureed butternut squash*

2 teaspoons rubbed dried sage

2 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg

3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

4 eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature

Put the yeast and sugar in a small bowl or 1-cup measure.  Add the warm water and gently stir to mix.  Leave the yeast for 10 minutes until it is puffed up and foamy.

In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butternut puree, sage, salt nutmeg and 1 cup of the flour on medium low until blended.  Scrape in the foamy yeast mixture in, scraping out as much as possible from the bowl into the mixer.  Beat until well blended.

Add the eggs one at a time, alternating with 2 cups of flour, beating on medium low after each addition.  Stop between eggs to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  When the eggs are all blended in, increase the speed to medium and drop in the butter cubes one at a time.  Continue beating until the butter is completely mixed in. Add the remaining flour with the mixer on low until combined.

Grease a large bowl. I prefer glass because you can see how much the dough has risen.  I use the wrapper the butter was in to grease the bowl, but cooking spray works.  Scrape the dough into the bowl and mound it evenly in the center.  At this point, it will be very soft and may seem more like batter than dough.  That is as it should be.  Grease a piece of plastic wrap and cover the bowl.  Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.  I use my friend Holly’s trick to create a warm, moist dough-rising environment.  Place a 2-cup measure with ¾ cup water in the microwave and microwave on high for 2 minutes.  Place the dough bowl in the microwave with the hot water and steam, close the door and leave to rise.

When the dough has risen, spray a sturdy spatula with cooking spray and use it to gently stir down the dough, scraping the sides of the bowl and moving it all into the center.  Cover the bowl with a clean piece of greased plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, deflate the dough by pressing down on it.   Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a standard size 9 by 5 inch loaf pan and spread it out to the corners.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled again, about 40 minutes to 1 hour.  The microwave trick works again.

Preheat the oven to 375°.  When the bread has risen, bake it for 30 to 40 minutes until it is firm, puffed and golden and sounds hollow when tapped.  Gently run a thin knife around the edge of the bread and turn it out of the pan.  Make sure the bottom sounds hollow when knocked, then cool on a wire rack.

Makes on loaf

*For the butternut puree, there are several options.  From a whole butternut squash, cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and place on the rack of an oven and bake until soft, 20 – 30 minutes.  You can also place the halves on a microwave safe plate and microwave until soft, 5 – 8  mintues. Scoop out the flesh and place in a small food processor and blend until smooth.  Add a few tablespoons water if needed

For pre-cut quash pieces, place in a the pieces in a microwave safe bowl with a bit of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave until soft, 5 – 8 minutes. Puree as above.

I also find canned butternut squash puree in my local stores, and I am completely fine with that.  Just scoop it out of the can.

The flavor of caramel covered apples is amazing.  Eating a caramel apple, not so much.  The caramel-to-apple ration in my opinion, tends to be too low.  I can’t abide those pre-made wrap around sheets, and making a good caramel is a bit of work.  And in the end, the caramel tends to slide off the apple.  Here’s the solution.

I’ve made these cookies for years, but not as often as their flavor warrants.  I used the square caramel candies, and slogged through the process of unwrapping each one, then cutting them into small pieces with floured scissors or a knife.  But I recently discovered caramel bits in the baking section.  Basically, caramel pieces with all the work done.  If you can’t find them, cut up the old squares.  These are chewy from the caramel with a little snap from the apples.

Caramel Apple Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

2cups finely chopped green apples (about 1 large apple)

11 ounces caramel bits, or caramel squares cut into small
pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy, about 7 minutes.  Add the egg and beat until smooth.  Add the flour, cinnamon and baking soda , bit by bit, beating until smooth. Fold in the apple pieces and the caramel bits until well mixed.

Using a 2 Tablespoon cookie scoop or spoon, scoop mounds of dough and inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.   Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until firm and puffed.  Rotate the trays from the top shelf to the bottom shelf after 5 minutes.  Cool on the trays until firm, then remove to a cooling rack.  Some of the caramel may leak out and turn brown; those pieces will snap off.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

When October rolls around, I start thinking about beer.  Because I start thinking about Oktoberfest.  I’ve never been to Germany, so I’ve never been to a real Oktoberfest celebration, which I understand generally happen at the end of September anyway.  But the idea of Oktoberfest just presents so many options for cooking with, and drinking, good beer. It’s impossible to pass up.

So here is my contribution to the festivities this year.  A nice little beer- based starter.  Tangy with camembert cheese and beer and studded with crispy bacon, these would make a great starter to a meal of German Meatballs, or Belgian Beef and Beer Stew with a selection of nice, crisp beer.  There are so many amazing imported and locally made beers out there now, it’s a great chance to have a little tasting party to familiarize yourself with the latest options.  In the name of research, of course.  So, the name of this recipe is a little silly, but any celebration focused on beer is bound to get silly at some point…

Bacon CamemBeer Bites

Use a good beer you like to drink, but not a dark or amber.  The color would be muddy and the taste overwhelming.

½ pound bacon

7 ounce round of camembert cheese

1 cup pale or golden ale or lager

4 Tablespoons butter

¼ teaspoon ground mustard

¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

Cook the bacon until crispy and drain on paper towels.  Finely dice the bacon and set aside. Cut the rind off the camembert as best you can, cut it into small pieces and leave it to come to roomtemperature.

Pour the beer into a high-sided saucepan, add the ground mustard, smoked paprika and cayenne.  Drop in the butter, cut into pieces. Bring the beer and the butter to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the butter melts.  When the beer is boiling, dump the flour in all at once and stir vigorously with a sturdy spatula or wooden spoon until the dough comes together in a ball.  Remove from the heat and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth.  Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition until the mixture is smooth.  Drop in the camembert pieces and continue stirring until it is melted into the dough.  Stir in the bacon, mustard and salt.

Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350° degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Take the dough from the fridge and using a 2 Tablespoon scoop or spoons, drop mounds of dough onto the prepared sheets,  about ½ inch apart.  Bake for 15 – 17 minutes until puffed and golden. They puff up quickly, wait until they are firm and golden brown on top to take out them out.  They willdeflate a bit, no worries.  Serve immediately.

Makes 18

Every community, particularly in the South, has those handful of classic community cookbooks that everyone seems to own, or haveaccess to, or just know about.  They are the reference points for the community table. Compiled by church auxiliaries, symphony leagues, historic societies, these treasure troves bind a community through the most essential love we all share. Food.   When you are at a party, or have friends over and someone prepares a great dish, how often is the answer to the recipe request, “oh, it’s in…”  In Memphis, the end of that sentence is frequently, “Heart and Soul” one of the most popular of the local Junior League’s cookbook offerings.  There are recipes included in Heart and Soul that people know by heart now, that are as much a part of the Memphis lexicon as an Elvis song.  But there a few that get overlooked.  This is one of those recipes.

I never really noticed this delicious appetizer recipe in the book, but awhile back, a friend served it at book club.  We were all much impressed.  She offhandedly remarked “oh, it’s just from “Heart and Soul.”  It took me awhile, but I pulled out the book and made the recipe myself, and it is so good, it is worth sharing.  These tender little golden bites are so surprising.  Rich with chicken and a real depth from the seasonings.  These make a nice change from your standard appetizer fare.

I have made a few adjustments to the recipe to streamline the prep, and I serve them now with a blue cheese dip, which complements the chicken and pecans so well. I do recommend celery salt, but if you don’t have it on hand, try your favorite seasoned salt or a little plain salt.  And these do freeze beautifully, so you can always have some on hand.

Chicken Pecan Bites with Blue Cheese Dip

For the Chicken Bites:

1 cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 cup chicken broth

½ cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs, at room temperature

½ cup chopped pecans

3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1.2 teaspoon celery salt

For the Dip:

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

8 ounces plain Greek yogurt

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise

1 -2 Tablespoons milk or buttermilk

Generous grindings of black pepper

For the Chicken Bites:

Melt the butter in the chicken broth in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a sturdy wooden spoon.  The mixture will roll away from the sides of the pan and come together in a ball.  Keep stirring until the mixture is relatively smooth.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, finely chop the cooked chicken breast.  You want small pieces.

When the flour mixture has cooled, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until smooth and completely combined.  Stir in the chicken, pecans, parsley, Worcestershire, poultry seasoning and celery salt and stir until well combined.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop the chicken bites onto the pan.  I use a 2 Tablespoon cookie scoop for a nice hearty bite, which makes about 2 dozen.  Feel free to scoop smaller bites if you’d prefer.

You can preheat to oven to 400 degrees and cook the bites immediately for 20- 30 minutes until firm and golden, or freeze the tray of unbaked bites for a few hours until firm, then remove to a zip-top freezer bag.  Bake from frozen, but you may need to increase the cooking time accordingly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 24, more if you choose to make them smaller

For the Dip:

Place the blue cheese, yogurt, and mayonnaise in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add a little milk to thin it out to a dipping consistency as needed.  Season generously with black pepper.  Pour the dip in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

The dip can be made up to 2 days ahead.  You may want to thin it with a little milk before serving.

Makes 1 ¼ cup

Adapted from Heart and Soul: Stirring Recipes from Memphis

The combination of peaches and ginger is a favorite of mine, and in these muffins, it really shines.  These muffins are not too sweet, but burst with flavor and texture.  Fresh, in-season peaches are such a summer treat, make the most of the season.

Use real ginger ale for this – the kind you find at natural food stores or specialty markets.  Fortunately, it is frequently sold by the bottle in the refrigerated drinks section, so you won’t have to buy a whole six-pack.  I like Blenheim’s and Reid’s, but make sure you don’t buy the spicy or hot variety for this recipe.  I find crystaliized ginger already chopped into little chunks pretty easily, but if all you find are big pieces, use scissors to cut it into small bites.

 Peach and Ginger Muffins

 2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

2 fresh peaches

3 Tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger

6 Tablespoons real ginger ale

turbinado or granulated sugar for sprinkling

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 12 muffin cups.

 In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and ginger lightly with a whisk to break up lumps of sugar. Add the melted butter, sour cream and eggs and stir just until mixed – do not overwork.

Cut the peaches, with the skin on, into small chunks.  Drop peaches and crystallized ginger into batter and lightly stir just to mix.  Lightly stir in the ginger ale.  Muffins need to be just mixed, the batter will still be a bit lumpy.  Spoon into muffin cups, they will be nice and full. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until a tester inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins

This also works well with plums.

I like books about people who do things.  This summer I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series, and boy do they do things.  Make their own clothes, their own food – even their own housee.  I have a list of books I have enjoyed that detail the work of women in the kitchen, baking bread, tending gardens, canning produce, collecting their own honey.  Now let me be clear, for the most part, I don’t want to do these things.  I can’t sew or build or grow.  I have a new found canning obsession, but it’s for fun, not survival.  I just like the idea of doing all these things.  I like the imagery of our foremothers carefully tending their corn crop, gratefully harvesting its bounty, shucking all those silky ears and turning them into delicious meals.  These are the women who can crank out biscuits and breads in mass quantities, by touch and feel and eye.  Again, I am not one of these women, but this recipe harks to that literary longing in me.  The combination of freshly shucked corn and old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits.

These biscuits have the loveliest buttery yellow color, with the gorgeous flecks of fresh corn shining through. Serve these warm with some fresh, rich butter with a summer dinner and your friends will swoon.  The breakfast possibilities are endless. Serve one with a slice of fresh tomato for a burst of summer flavor.  And a buttered biscuit with a slice of bacon is a real treat. I think Ma Ingalls would approve.

Fresh Corn Buttermilk Biscuits

These biscuits are best served warm to bring out the fresh corn flavor.  If you don’t eat them right out of the oven, wrap lightly in foil and heat for a few minutes in a low oven.

½ cup (1 stick) butter, divided

3 ears fresh yellow corn, husks and silks removed

1 cup buttermilk (preferably whole)

4 cups all-purpose flour (preferably White Lily), plus more for dusting

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line an 8 by 11 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt 1/3 cup of the butter and set aside to cool. Cut the kernels off two ears of corn and place in a blender.  Puree until very smooth (you can add a drop of buttermilk to get things going if needed).  Pour the puree into a 2-cup measuring jug.  You should have about 1 cup puree.  Add buttermilk to measure 2 cups of liquid.  Return the liquid to the blender, add the melted butter and blend until smooth.

Cut the kernels off of the third ear of corn, picking out as much silk as you can, and set aside.

In a large, wide bowl, mix 3 ½ cups flour, the baking powder and salt with a fork until blended.  Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the wet ingredients.  Using the fork, blend everything together, pulling the flour into the wet ingredients until everything is incorporated.  Lightly flour your hands and work in up to another ½ cup of flour until you have a soft, cohesive dough.  Drop in the corn kernels and knead a few times until they are distributed throughout the dough. Don’t be mean to this dough or it won’t be sweet to you.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it.  Lightly knead the dough a few times, then pat it out into a circle 1-inch thick.  Using a floured 2- inch biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits by just pressing down and lifting out – don’t twist the cutter.  Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet almost touching.  You can pat out the dough scraps to cut more biscuits, but they are never quite as pretty.  Bake the biscuits for 8 minutes.

While they biscuits are baking melt the remaining butter.  After 8 minutes in the oven, remove the biscuits and brush the tops with the melted butter.  Return to the oven for another 2 or three minutes until the biscuits are done.  They won’t brown on top, but when they are firm to the touch they are ready.

Makes 12 – 14 biscuits