#22 Waffles

I did not have the time to make more homemade buttermilk, but I was making waffles the other day and I really wanted to try out this recipe, so I bought the buttermilk for the waffle recipe that is in the book "The Homemade Pantry."

Waffles
Makes enough for 8 medium waffles~4 cups of batter

2 large eggs, separated
4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) butter, melted and slightly cooled
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups ready mix (Here)
Cooking spray or oil for waffle iron

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl or large liquid measure, whisk together the egg yolks, melted butter, buttermilk, milk and vanilla.

3. Scoop 2 cups of ready mix into a medium bowl. Stir the wet mixture into the dry mix until combined.

Then stir in a big spoonful of the beaten egg white. Using a silicone spatula, gently fold the remaining egg whites into the batter.

4. Grease your waffle iron (I used cooking spray) and scoop 1/2 cup of batter into the hot iron. Or whatever is the right amount for your particular waffle iron. Cook per your machine's instructions and then remove waffles to a baking pan in the 200 degree oven to keep them warm until ready to eat.

 

Batter will keep in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Waffles will keep in covered container in refrigerator for 2 days or in the freezer in a freezer bag for 4 months.

These waffles were really yummy and my family loved them...next time I will double the batch to make enough for my hungry, waffle loving family. It is definitely too time consuming to make on a school morning, but great for Saturday morning or for the occasional evening meal, cause in my family breakfast is eaten for ALL meals! In fact, these particular waffles were made for a Sunday evening supper! Yummy!

#17 Buttermilk Pancakes

Still working through all the buttermilk recipes, so next is the pancakes...of course, using the homemade buttermilk. I actually will have to make more buttermilk before I can make the buttermilk waffle recipe because my husband mistakenly ate the buttermilk thinking it was yogurt....God Bless Him...*sigh*:)

Buttermilk Pancakes
Makes 4 cups, enough for 24, 3 inch pancakes

2 large eggs
2 Tb. butter, melted and slightly cooled (plus more for the pan)
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups ready mix (previous recipe # 16)

1. Whisk together eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, milk and vanilla in large liquid measure.

 

2. Scoop 2 cups of ready mix into medium bowl and gently stir the wet mixture into the dry. Stir until the mixture is uniform, but there can be a few lumps. Let the batter sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.

3. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium high heat and melt butter over cooking surface. Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop as many pancakes into your cooking pan as will fit. Cook until bubbles pop up on the surface of the pancake. Flip and cook for another minute or so. Repeat with remaining batter and add butter to cooking surface as needed.

J











Another confession...I'm not a big "pancake person." But where I lack...my hubby makes it up..he loves pancakes and he gave this recipe his official stamp of approval...and the kids loved them too. I will likely make these pancakes whenever we have buttermilk on hand, but my family eats so many pancakes that I think the Krusteaz Buttermilk (add water) mix will remain a pantry staple in my house. Either way, it's a great pancake recipe!

#15 Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Now that I have a couple quarts of buttermilk in the fridge, I need to use it before it expires. Since a nice leafy romaine salad was on the menu for supper last night, I thought I would start with dressing. My hubby and oldest daughter love ranch dressing...so if they liked it; I knew it was a good recipe...so here it goes!

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing (Adapted from "Homemade Pantry")

1/2 cup buttermilk (I used my own)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup plain yogurt ( I used my own)
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice, to taste ( I used the left-over 1/2 lemon from my ricotta)
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. gradulated garlic (or 2 cloves fresh)
1/2 tsp. onion powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

The original recipe called for fresh parsley and fresh chives..but I refuse to use fresh unless I can get them out of my own garden...so it will have to wait until summer:)

 

I put my ingredients in my handy, dandy Pampered Chef dressing maker...really great investment of $12.50 if you make a lot of homemade dressing! It works slick:) There are even recipes right on the container and the plunger works great to mix igredients! Super easy!

So...how did it taste? It was really, really good.Tasted just like store bought without all the junk..like MSG.....totally worth the itty bitty time and effort! I'm more of a Poppy Seed or French dressing girl myself, but I had to try this and I really liked it....and so did Hubby and my oldest. So it's a keeper! Can't wait to use my fresh herbs this summer, along with my fresh greens right out of my garden:)

#13 Buttermilk

Back when I bought my yogurt culture from Cultures For Health, I also purchased a direct-set buttermilk and sour cream culture. The difference between direct-set and a traditional culture is that with direct-set you cannot use the buttermilk to make more, like I can with my yogurt culture. This is where I got it. Eight foil culture packets come in the box. I store it in the freezer and I can also make sour cream with it....I just need to use cream instead of milk. I followed the directions that came with my starter, not the directions that were in "The Homemade Pantry."


Buttermilk

1-4 Quarts milk (I used whole milk)
1 packet direct-set buttermilk culture

I used about 2 quarts of milk...because you cannot use less then a full packet of starter...so I thought I might as well make enough for all the recipes that I will now make with my fresh buttermilk.

So here we are back to my trusty heavy bottom stainless steel pot and candy thermometer. I have used that candy thermometer more in the last 3 weeks, then I have all the 10+ years before it:)

1. I first iced the pot....check back at my yogurt post to find out how. Here.

2. Add your milk and heat it over medium heat to 185 degrees. Once it reaches 185 you need to hold it at that temperature for 30-60 minutes. This is not an easy task....I was literally strapped to my kitchen watching that thermometer and adjusting the flame temp up and down to try to hold it. It did end up going down to about 165 at one time when I got busy....but then I let it climb back up. I figure there must be an easier way to hold a temp, but I don't know what it is. So I only fussed with it for the minimum of 30 minutes. I just rearranged the furniture in my kitchen and dinning room, so it was not wasted time:)

3. After the 30-60 minute temp hold, I took it off the stove, set it on a cooling rack and allowed the milk to cool to 77 degrees. It takes a while! No fear...I just made two more recipes during that time...I will post those in the future:)

4. Once the milk temp drops to 77 degrees, add the culture and dissolve fully and distribute it well into the milk by gently stirring.

 

5. Add your milk/culture mixture to a clean jar, cover and incubate at 74-77 degrees for 16-18 hours.

I'm not sure how warm your house is, but wherever it might be a constant 74-77 degrees in your house, is the spot. I have heard of people putting it on top of their TV. Search the internet to figure out how to use an insulated cooler, heating pad, crockpot...I'm not sure what will work for you.
For me the place was in our basement furnace/storage room. We have an outdoor woodstove, so the hot water coming into the house keeps it constantly pretty toasty in there.

You can see the hot water hose in the foreground of the above photo. I set a thermometer with it so I could monitor the temp. I set it at 5pm. Before I went to bed I checked it and saw that it creeped up to 78 degrees, so I moved it further away from the hose.

I checked my buttermilk at 9am...which was the 16 hour mark...and it was perfect!

 

You can see I rolled it around in the jar and the thick buttermilk coated the jar. And it smelled great! Buttermilk success! It is now in the refrigerator where it will keep for 7-10 days. You can freeze it in 1 cup portions for 4 months. Just thaw in the refrigerator and shake before using. But, you better be sure that I will be making all the recipes in the book that container buttermilk in the next week. Can't wait to try it out!