Sweet as Honey (34 page)

Ingredients:

Bring the milk, cream, honey, and lavender to a gentle boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. I add the lavender when I remove the milk mixture from the heat instead of boiling it with the other ingredients, but either way is fine.

Remove from the heat and let steep for ten to fifteen minutes. Strain out the lavender petals and let cool a bit.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm milk mixture, whisking as you pour. This helps warm the eggs slowly so they don't cook when you add them to the hot liquid.

Pour the warmed eggs back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk mixture. This mixture is now called custard because of the eggs. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (five to ten minutes).

Strain again into a bowl to make sure you got all the lavender pieces. Set the bowl of custard over a large bowl of ice water. Stir the custard until cool, then cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled (three hours or overnight).

Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions, and invite Dan Kanagy over to do the crank turning. This ice cream is creamy and smooth and pleasantly soft. It doesn't freeze very hard because it uses honey instead of sugar.

The vanilla adds a lovely color, and the ice cream is a very pretty beige. The lavender doesn't add any color. I really like watching the little lavender pieces floating on top of the milk mixture, and the smell, while it cooks, is delightful.

Ingredients:

Mix all ingredients together and pour over two raw chicken breasts. Bake for one hour (or until chicken is cooked through) at 350 degrees. Serve over rice.

 

Combine the yeast and milk with honey and let sit for five minutes.

Cream the butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.

Add the yeast mixture to the butter mixture, and mix until combined.

Add bread flour, all-purpose flour, and salt. This is thick like dough, so if you are not Amish and you use electricity, you can mix this together in a stand mixer at low-medium speed for two to three minutes. If you are Amish, you've just got to use your muscles. (We often ask Poppy to do this part.)

Add eggs and mix.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for sixty minutes until the dough is a little puffy. (It won't fully double.)

Butter a nine-inch round springform pan. Stir the batter a few times to deflate it slightly, then scrape it into the prepared pan and spread it until it fills the bottom.

Cover with plastic wrap (don't let the plastic sag and touch the dough) and let it rise for another thirty minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

 

 

In a medium saucepan, stir butter, sugar, honey, cream, and salt over medium heat until butter is melted. Stirring frequently, bring to a simmer and let boil for three to five minutes, until the mixture goes from a yellowish color to a light beige.

Remove from heat and stir in the almonds.

Once the cake has finished its second rise—remember that it won't rise significantly—press the dough lightly to deflate it. Spoon the almond topping evenly over the top of the cake.

Bake cake for twenty to twenty-five minutes until the top is a lovely golden brown color and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Be sure to put a foil-lined cookie sheet under your springform pan in case the almond topping drips. This is very hard to get out of your oven when it's baked on. It puts Aunt B in a bad mood.

Transfer to a cooling rack and let it sit in the pan for ten minutes. After ten minutes, run a knife between the cake and the pan and remove the outer ring. Let cool completely.

 

 

 

Warm milk in a medium saucepan (not too warm or it will scald). Set aside.

Rinse saucepan with cool water and dry it. In the cool saucepan, whisk the egg yolks and sugar for one minute. Whisk in flour and salt until smooth. Drizzle in warm milk a spoonful at a time while whisking continuously. Once you add half of the milk, you can add the rest in a steady stream, whisking continuously. Return the saucepan to the stove and cook on medium-high heat until the mixture bubbles. Keep whisking (this is a
gute
job for Dan or some other boy who hangs around the house all the time), and simmer for one to two minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in the butter and either the vanilla or almond extract. Cool the pastry cream completely—either in the fridge or over a bowl of ice water.

 

 

Once both the cake and pastry cream are cooled, place the cake on a serving platter and cut it horizontally into two layers with a serrated knife. Spread pastry cream over bottom half of the cake. Place the top half of the cake on top of the pastry cream.

You can make the dough and pastry cream a day ahead and refrigerate it. It's quite a bit to do in one day.

3 cups rolled oats
2 cups sweetened coconut
½ cup raw sunflower seeds
½ cup wheat germ
1 cup bran flakes
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, or pecans—I prefer pecans)
2 cups raisins (optional—I don't put raisins in, but Aunt Bitsy loves them)

1 cup honey
½ cup safflower oil (I use regular vegetable oil when I don't have safflower oil. The safflower oil is healthier. The vegetable oil is cheaper.)
2 tsp. vanilla

Stir until well coated. Spread on large cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes, turning occasionally with a spatula. Do not overcook.

Remove granola from the pan immediately after taking it out of the oven. Store in plastic or glass container with a lid to keep it fresh. Does not need to be refrigerated. I usually double this. It is less likely to overcook, and it disappears as fast as I make it.

Ingredients:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan over low heat, stir together sugar, shortening, and honey until melted. Let cool.

Mix together eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and ginger. Gradually add to cooled honey mixture.

Slowly add four cups of flour to mixture. Stir until well blended. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees until golden (about ten to eleven minutes). Do not overbake. They're better soft.