Flour Child

March 3, 2011 · 7:19 pm

Buttermilk Biscuits with Lemon Curd

I generally feel as if I’m not where I’m supposed to be. It’s 2011 and I’m in southern California. Something’s up. Early 1960’s Georgia seems just about right.

Sweet tea and honey and firefly skies- it’s all so unadorned, so beautiful. I dream of wrap-around porches and peaches for days. I wish I could live in The Secret Life of Bees. For now, the closest I can get is in my kitchen. I make things like buttermilk biscuits and lemon curd and I close my eyes and feel the sticky air.

Of course three-tiered cakes and lavish pastries hold a mighty fine piece of my heart, but it’s always the simplest things that win me over. You can boast and brag all you want about your citrus dacquoise and your hazelnut praline, Mr. Fancy, but I’m sorry to say I’d rather a buttermilk biscuit. Is it safe to say that most of you would, too?

These are for those moments you spend wishing things were simpler. For those days you can’t stop thinking of Lily, Rosaline, August, and May.

These biscuits are golden and buttery, soft and flaky, and most importantly serve as a beautiful backdrop for some show-stopping lemon curd. Raise your hand if you agree that it’s super unfortunate that lemon curd is called lemon curd. Yeah, I know, I wish they picked a more attractive name, too. But please don’t let its title fool you- this lemon curd is arguably the best thing that’s ever come out of my kitchen.

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Oatmeal Sweet Potato Banana Everything Bread

Please allow me to introduce to you a certain highly celebrated, nutrient rich, infinitely adaptable, and downright delicious friend of mine, the Loaf.

My obsession with this special loaf began around this time last year. I wanted banana bread. Bad. I wanted something moist and bursting with flavor, yet humble enough for every day enjoyment. I also wanted something that wouldn’t pitch a tent on my thighs three days later. So, my crafty little banana loving brain went to work and out popped the loaf of my dreams.

It’s hearty and satisfying (healthy too! fiber!) from the oatmeal and whole wheat flour, but still chock full of flavor from the banana, sweet potato, and buttermilk. And remember how I said this was infinitely adaptable? Yeah. One time, this was avocado-banana-coconut milk bread. It’s been cranberry apple carrot bread. Fancy yourself some chocolate? Banana chocolate chip bread is awfully splendid. Zucchini date yam banana bread has happened. You can literally throw in whatever floats your boat, and this bread will not fail you. However! Be careful when adding lots of mushy add-ins- if your ratio of wet to dry is too high, your bread might never really cook through. If I’m adding a truck load of banana and yam and various other fun things, I’ll add in an extra tablespoon or two of flour.

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Filed under Banana, Breakfast, Oatmeal, Quick Bread, Sweet Potato

Tagged as Banana, oatmeal, quick bread, sweet potato

February 19, 2011 · 5:08 pm

Espresso Chocolate Mousse

Last night, it rained.

It sounded like magic and love and dreaming and soup and kittens. I put on my fluffiest sweatshirt and cuddled up in bed and watched super classy shows like Jersey Shore and Teen Mom 2. Keepin’ things elegant, you know. I was joyous; absolutely blissful. Until, without any warning, some scary evil malicious malevolent forceful force came over me and I was craving chocolate frosting something fierce.

No amount of Gossip Girl was going to help me and I knew it, so I gave in. But chocolate frosting? Really? I couldn’t just eat chocolate frosting off of a spoon, that’s so unsophisticated. Thankfully, the Heavens have blessed us with chocolate mousse. Espresso chocolate mousse. It’s acceptable the eat that off of a spoon, let me tell you. Basically, when the Queen of England and every Manhattan socialite ever get together for dessert, they eat this. So classy I can’t even handle it!

It’s like eating chocolate clouds off a spoon. Heaven in a bowl. I could on and on, but I’d rather you just make it for yourself.

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Filed under Chocolate, Mousse

February 14, 2011 · 8:38 am

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hello sweet world, I’m Jordana. I’m a sprightly seventeen and have a fabulous affection for dessert.

Today is a lovely day, it’s Valentine’s Day! A day to celebrate love, the only thing more important than a KitchenAid mixer. The one day of the year it’s acceptable to cover everything in roses and chocolate and kisses and pink and get away with it, oh what a beautiful thing!

My valentine’s day this year was a pinkie’s up, no elbows on the table, please pass the scones style tea party with some of my nearest and dearest friends, and it was out of this world delicious.

There was tea. Lots of tea. Lots of tea on the tablecloth.

There were buttermilk scones, which were really buttermilk biscuits cut in triangles, shhhh.

These truffles happened. My first truffle making experience ever! By the time they were finished I looked like a little boy playing in the mud.

Obviously, there were sugar cookies.

Let me tell you something about royal icing– it’s worth it. It’s without a doubt more annoying than a bug bite on the bottom of your foot in knee-high boots, and it doesn’t even taste all that amazing, but the Wow Factor is unbeatable.

Here’s what our out-of-an-unrealistic-movie-or-american-girl-craft-book table looked like ! :

Above all, this cake happened.

Strawberries + Rosé Champagne + a lot of butter = Great success. Make this cake! It’s dense and almost gooey from the moisture of the strawberries, super sturdy and easy to assemble, and the frosting is fluffy and bubbly and sweet with just enough tang from the champagne to make you giggle. It’s a good thing, this cake.

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