Mardi Gras is music, parades, picnics, floats, excitement...and one big holiday in New Orleans! Everyone is wearing purple, green, and gold, and adorned with long beads caught from the beautiful floats. They sit on the ground throwing balls, playing music, having a picnic, and watching the crowds walk by between parades.
During Mardi Gras, all of the businesses and roads are practically shut down--people walk everywhere and meet new friends. People are dressed in crazy costumes, kids are everywhere, and they love it!
It's also a wonderful time to indulge in something tasty because what can be better than food and fun together?
Apple-pecan pancakes
Serves 9, yields 3 dozen pancakes
Dry ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup oat-meal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Liquids:
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups finely-chopped apples
- 1/2 cup golden raisin, chopped
- 1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- optional additional milk
Directions:
- Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly.
- Add lemon juice to cream and let sit for 2 minutes.
- While cream sits, beat eggs into the milk. Combine with cream and vanilla.
- Toss appples, raisins, pecans, and lemon zest with the dry mix.
- Preheat lightly-greased griddle medium to medium-high.
- Pour liquid mix into dry mix and stir together well to make a thick but fluid batter. Do not overmix or pancakes will not be as light.
- Ladle batter onto griddle to make pancakes about 4 inches in diameter. Turn when bubbles appear all over the pancake.
- Cook until done in the middle - adjusting heat if necessary to avoid burning.
- Continue, greasing griddle as necessary, until all pancakes are cooked.
- Batter may thicken as it stands. It may be necessary to think it with a little additional milk if gets so thick that the pancakes don't cook properly in the center.
Mardi Gras Cupcakes
Yields 2 dozen cupackes
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- the seeds of 2 Madagascar vanilla beans
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups Buttermilk
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 3 cups cake flour
- 3 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- Green, Purple and Yellow food coloring gel (I used Wilton brand)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pans with white liners.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes.
- While that is creaming, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the buttermilk, vanilla beans, vanilla extract and sour cream. Whisk until combined. It will look lumpy, which is okay.
- Add the wet mixture to the butter/sugar and mix on medium speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl and make sure everything is incorporated. NOTE: It will look curdled. DO NOT FRET! It will smooth out once you add the flour.
- Add all the flour at once and mix on low to medium speed until smooth. Don't over mix!!
- Separate batter evenly into three bowls.
- Add food coloring and mix until uniform in color.
- Using a tablespoon, scoop one color into the liner against one edge. Quickly, scoop the second color next to/overlapping the first color. Finally, add the third color. NOTE: By the time you get to scooping the third color, you should still be able to see a 1/3 of the bottom of the liner.
- Add another smaller scoop of each color until the liners are 1/2-2/3 full. NOTE: Do not fill these more than 2/3 full. They puff up nicely and you don't want overflow!
- Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate pan after 12 minutes.
- Cool in pans for 7-8 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and decorating.
If you happen to cook any of these yummy recipes, don't forget to send us a photo or a comment. We'd like to know!
Be good. Be creative.
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