This is a recipe we have been making forever. I bought a big container of sour cream and need to use it up so I reached for my tried and true favorite recipe. This recipe comes from my mom. I’ll post the picture later when it comes out of the oven. This keeps really well and is very moist.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1/2 C. Shortening
1/2 C. Butter
1 C. Sugar
3 Eggs
1 C. Sour Cream
1 t. Vanilla
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1 1/2 t. Baking Powder
1/2 t. Salt
2 1/2 C. Flour

Topping:
1/2 C. Walnuts
3/4 C. Brown Sugar
1 t. Cinnamon

Cream together the shortening, butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Blend in eggs, vanilla and add sour cream.

Add baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix well.

Mix topping ingredients together in a small bowl.

Pour 1/2 of batter in a greased 9 or 10 inch round deep baking pan. Top with half of the topping and add remaining batter. Sprinkle remaining topping on top of batter.

Bake at 350°F. for about 1 hour, depending on pan used. You can also do this in a 9 x 13 pan. Check at 35 - 40 minutes.

I baked a pie pumpkin the other day after I got an email asking a question about pumpkin butter. I decided I’d try the recipe. I had a little left over so I decided to try a pumpkin scone recipe I had. Now I rarely leave a recipe as I see it first and this recipe was no exception.

Here’s the recipe after I adapted it.

Pumpkin Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup fresh pumpkin (can substitute canned)
3 tbsp milk
1 extra large egg
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

Plain glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Combine all purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder salt, nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger together in the food processor. Pulse a few times to mix ingredients.

Cut butter into pieces and pulse the food processor until butter is blended and resembles a coarse meal.

Add all the remaining scone ingredients and mix until mixture comes to a ball. This dough will be very soft.

I used a a tablespoon to drop the batter into my mini scone pan.

Bake for 14-16 minutes or until scones turn light brown.

While scones cool, mix ingredients for glaze, until the mixture becomes smooth. Brush glaze over scones, when they are still warm.

Make 12 mini scones.

Want to see how they turned out?

If you have never baked a fresh pumpkin here is how I do it. Cut the top off like you are going to carve it. Scrape out the seeds. Place the pumpkin with the lid back on it on a baking sheet that has been lined with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for about a hour. This will depend on your pumpkin size. It is done when you can piece it easily with a knife. Let the pumpkin cool. Remove the pumpkin from the shell and use it as you would canned pumpkin.

I use small sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins when I cook with them. There is more pumpkin, they seem sweeter and less water. To me it is worth the time to do it and there is a taste advantage.

This is perhaps one of the easiest yeast breads I have ever made although not the fastest. Mix the dough up the day before you want to serve, cover it and forget about it until the next day. The next day remove the dough from a bowl and shape the bread on a flour covered cloth. Let raise for about 2 hours. Preheat your oven a half hour before baking with the pan you are going to bake the bread in. I used a Le Creuset dutch oven. The only change I made in this recipe was to turn the oven down to 400 when I put the bread in the oven. It was still done in 45 minutes. The smell while it baked was heavenly and I almost cut it before I took the picture. If you like a crisp crust with a tender inside and big holes that is what you will get with this bread recipe. It is so good…..

No Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.

Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours rising

Recipe from Mark Bittman