Saturday, June 19, 2010

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches - 2010 Stake RS Conference

8 oz. Cream cheese, room temperature
¼ cup Mayo
¼ tsp. Garlic powder
¼ tsp. onion salt
Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

Combine ingredients and set aside.

Slice Cucumbers thinly and marinade for 30 minutes in

½ cup vinegar
½ cup water

Drain cucumbers.

For open faced sandwiches- remove crusts from bread and cut into quarters. Spread bread with cream cheese mixture. Top with cucumber slices and sprinkle with paprika.

For closed Tea Sandwiches: Spread 2 slices of bread with cream cheese mixture. Top with cucumbers and sprinkle with paprika. Top with second slice of bread and trim off crusts. Cut into quarters.

Poppy Seed Tea Bread - 2010 Stake RS Conference

Poppy Seed Tea Bread

***** Fabulous!

3 cups flour

2 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ tsp. Salt

1 ½ tsp. Baking powder

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 ½ cups milk

1 cup oil

2 Tbsp. Poppy seeds

1 ½ tsp. Vanilla

1 ½ tsp. Almond extract

1 ½ tsp. Butter flavoring

Grease the bottom and ½ inch up sides of two8x4x2 inch loaf pans; set aside. In an extra large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture, and set aside.

In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk, oil, poppy seeds, vanilla, almond extract, and butter flavorings. Add egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 60-70 min. At 325 until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaves from pans. Cool completely on wire rack. Wrap and store overnight.

Note: I prefer this bread without the butter flavoring. It overpowers the almond flavor which I prefer.

High Tea Lemon Cookies - 2010 Stake RS Conference

2 cups butter, room temperature*
2/3 cup powdered (confectioners') sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cornstarch**
Lemon Frosting (see recipe below)

* Very important - please read! You must use room temperature butter (not softened or melted butter). I get emails from bakers saying that their cookies turn out all crumbly. It usually turns out that they have not used room temperature butter. I, personally, make these cookie every year for our Spring Teas. The recipe is correct. These cookies are always the favorite at our teas. NOTE: If you live in a high humidity area, check out comments below. ** Yes, this is correct - use 1 1/2 cups cornstarch.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy looking. Add powdered sugar; mix until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract; beat well. Add flour and cornstarch into butter mixture and mix well until well combined. NOTE: At first the dough will look dry - but don't worry, as the dough slowly comes together as you mix it and the butter melts into the dry ingredients.

Do not refrigerate this dough, as the butter will harden and make the dough unmanageable for rolling to a ball. Using your hands, roll cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 15 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Remove from oven, carefully remove from baking sheet, and cool on wire cooling racks (when warm the cookies are delicate). Yields 6 dozen cookies. When cookies have cooled, spread Lemon Frosting onto top of cookies.

Lemon Frosting:
This recipe makes enough for a double batch of cookies.

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/3 to 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar

In a medium bowl, combine butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and powdered sugar; stir until well mixed. NOTE: Additional lemon juice may be needed to get the frosting thin enough. NOTE: After making many batches of Lemon Frosting, I now thin the frosting with additional lemon juice or water and dip the top of the cookie into it. This technique is much faster and easier.

Mock Devonshire Cream - 2010 Stake RS Conference

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup whipping cream

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, and salt; stir until well blended. Stir in whipping cream.

With an electric mixer, beat mixture until stiff. Store in refrigerator.

Note: I used 4 tablespoons sugar in the recipe

Sweet White Scones - 2010 Stake RS Conference

Sweet White Scones

Martha Stewart
6 ¼ cups flour

Pinch of salt (1/4 teaspoon)

¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar

1 heaping Tablespoon baking powder

¾ cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

3 large eggs

1 ¾ cups plus 2 Tablespoons whole milk

1 egg, for egg wash

Sanding sugar
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add butter and working with you fingers work butter into flour until a crumbly, sandy mixture is formed.

In a bowl whisk the 3 eggs then all the milk and whisk to combine. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll out to about a ¾ - 1 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter cut out the scones without twisting the cutter. Dip cutter often in flour. Gently transfer to prepared cookie sheets.
In a small bowl, whisk remaining egg and brush the tops of the scones. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until brown and cook through. Transfer to a wire rack.

Serve with Devonshire Cream and Jam. These are so fantastic. I fell in love with them…..really!
Note: There is a video on Martha Stewart.com that shows how to make these scones. The real name of the scone was something like My Mum’s Sweet White Scones

Ham Asparagus Rolls - 2010 Stake RS Conference

Place asparagus on a baking sheet. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Broil for 7-8 minutes. Cool

Season cream cheese with Ranch Dip. Spread ham slices with cream chesse. Lay down one asparagus spear and roll ham around it.

Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches - 2010 Stake RS Conference

Putting on the Ritz Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

8 hard-cooked eggs*
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon finely-chopped fresh dill
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
20 slices best-quality white bread**

** * Choose the best-quality white or wheat bread as possible. Never serve end slices. Freezing the bread before cutting and then spreading makes for easier handling.

Peel eggs and place into a medium bowl. Slice eggs and then coarsely mash them with the back of a fork. Add mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and dill; stir until well blended. NOTE: This mixture can be refrigerated, covered, up to two days.

Spread butter onto one side of each slice of bread. Spread the buttered side of 10 slices of bread with 2 tablespoons egg mixture. Top with remaining slices of bread, buttered side down.

Carefully cut the crusts from sandwich with a long, sharp knife. Cut in half diagonally, then cut in half again. If desired, decorative shapes can be made with cookie cutters.

Yields 10 whole sandwiches or 20 halves or 40 fourths.



Making Sandwiches Ahead of Time:

If you need to make tea sandwiches in advance and need to keep them from drying out, cover them loosely with a sheet of wax paper and then place a damp kitchen towel over the wax paper (never place a damp towel directly on top of the bread because the sandwiches will become soggy). Refrigerate.

When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator. Uncover sandwiches just before serving.

Chicken Curry Tea Sandwiches - 2010 RS Conference

2 cooked whole chicken breasts, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely-chopped nuts (I used pecans)
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Mayonnaise (just enough to moisten)
Curry powder or paste to taste
16 slices best-quality white bread*
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

* Choose the best-quality white or wheat bread as possible. Never serve end slices. Freezing the bread before cutting and then spreading makes for easier handling.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, nuts, celery, salt, and mayonnaise; stir until well blended. Add curry powder or paste (Remember, a little goes a long way with curry - be careful).

Spread one side of each piece of bread lightly with butter. Top the buttered side of 8 slices of bread with some of the chicken mixture and top with the remaining bread slices, buttered side down.

Carefully cut the crusts from each sandwich with a long, sharp knife. Cut the sandwiches in half diagonally and then cut in half again.

Yields 8 whole sandwiches or 16 halves or 32 fourths.