Make Your Own Homemade Sour Cream

"Hey yogurt, if you're so cultured, how come I never see you at the opera?"

 

- Attributed to Stephen Colbert

I use a lot of sour cream. It is one of my favorite ingredients for baking. I prefer using it over yogurt, since it has a higher fat content, I think it makes tastier baked goods. So when I first found out you could make it yourself, I was all over it.

Measuring the cream

I keep heavy cream in the house, mostly because I use it in tea and coffee. There is nothing like heavy cream, pure and simple. I actually think heavy cream is my favorite food of all time. Since I keep it around, this is so awesome for me. I can make my own sour cream myself, if I run out of store bought.

Just added the milk/vinegar mixture

Another reason I wanted to share it here, is because many of my recipes call for it, and sour cream isn't available in every country. But heavy cream, (probably called simply, cream, in most places) I know is more widely available.





And we wait for the magic to happen

The great news is I think this homemade sour cream tastes even better than store bought. The first taste you get when you taste it is sour cream. But then you get this after taste of heavy cream. So of course I love that! And you know what the ingredients are since you made it yourself!

After 24 hours, it gets thick! But not quite as thick as store bought, but almost.

The bad news is it doesn't last as long in the fridge as store bought, and it's not quite as thick, (it's still thick, just a tad less than store bought.) It lasts about a week after you make it, but after a few days it does loosen a little. I think it's best within the first 4 or 5 days.

Vintage Minton Bowl, Pink Napkins and  Towle Sterling Silver Spoon, available at my Etsy shop, House of Lucien.




Homemade Sour Cream

There are 2 different ways you can make this, I've included them both.
 
Recipe #1 from All Recipes This is the recipe I used this time, but I've made it both ways.

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz or 237 ml) heavy whipping cream - here in the US there is whipping cream and heavy whipping cream, get the heavy kind, the one with the highest fat content

1/4 cup (59 ml) milk

3/4 tsp white vinegar

Directions

In a small bowl, add the milk and the vinegar stir, and let stand for 10 minutes.

Pour the heavy cream into a jar and stir in the milk mixture. Cover the jar and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours has passed, store it in the fridge. Use within a week.



Recipe #2 From Mother Earth News this article also includes how to make cream cheese

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz or 237 ml)  heavy whipping cream - here in the US there is whipping cream and heavy whipping cream, get the heavy kind, the one with the highest fat content

1/4 cup (59 ml) sour cream OR cultured buttermilk, OR yogurt with live cultures

Directions

In a jar add the heavy cream and the sour cream or buttermilk, shake it all up and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours, store it in the fridge. It will last a week in the fridge.


Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookie Gift Tags

"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas." 

~Peg Bracken

Hey everyone! Look I have a shiny new blog! Thanks to Rekita from A Lovely Army Wife, her business is called Designed Lovely Studio where she does awesome things with blogs like she did with mine! I highly reccomend her, if you need a new look like I did.

I'm loving these gingerbread cookie tags! They taste great, full of ginger and spice, and who doesn't want a little cookie with their gift?

These cookies have a good amount of spice, if you are making them for children, you may want to reduce the amounts a little.

These can be used as a gift tag with an initial like I've done, or you can write out names on them with the icing. These can even be used as Christmas tree ornaments. (I wouldn't eat them after that, since I've made these prior to Thanksgiving, but if it was a week before Christmas, I might eat them, even if they are slightly stale from sitting out.)




Spray the measuring cup with nonstick spray before pouring in the molasses so it slides right out. This recipe calls for 3/4 a cup plus 2 Tablespoons of molasses, I just eyeballed it in this one cup measure.

But yes, these are totally edible. Keep them in an airtight container until you wrap the gift.



Adding the flour

The dough is easy to work with. Just use two sheets of parchment to roll out the dough, so it doesn't stick. You can't use too much flour when rolling these out, since you don't want them to turn out white.





The dough is sort of stiff, not too bad. It's easy to work with. Here I'm dividing the dough into thirds to wrap in plastic and let chill for an hour.

Cut a hole out to put a ribbon through, with either a straw or the end of a pastry tip.

 Roll the dough out quite thin, 1/8th of an inch. This isn't super easy to do, especially between parchment. Some of mine are sort of thick. No problem, if yours are thicker you need to just make sure your hole is big enough, so when they bake the hole doesn't close up.





Rolling out the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper

Put the cookies on a parchment paper (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Then place a second piece of parchment on the unbaked cookies with another baking sheet on top of that before going in the oven so cookies stay flat while baking.



Cut out whatever shapes you want, initials, here I did a star with an initial inside. My alphabet cookie cutters are sort of big, so to do a cutout like this, I needed to make the outside shape pretty large.

These cookies are crisp, they are meant to be. I tried to under cook my cookies slightly to make them soft. Why not? What could be the problem with that, you say? Well, with my softer cookies I had a hard time stringing a ribbon through them, I had a few break. The softer cookies are just more delicate. So crispy are better and easier to work with.

If you are using thick ribbon for wrapping, it's so much easier to attach the cookies with a small piece of wire, or a small ribbon attached to the thick ribbon. It's a chore to get thick ribbon through the hole and not have a break.





Cut a hole for stringing on top with a straw or a pastry tip if you have one. A number 12 worked the best for me, some of these have a smaller hole. Ready for the oven.

Wrap up the gift, attach the gingerbread to ribbon, and watch everyone smile when they receive their special gift.

Happy Holidays!  I wish you a beautiful and joy filled season!



Right out of the oven



Sprinkling the frosted cookies with edible glitter. Use a toothpick to keep the hole clear.



Frosted and decorated, waiting to dry

Gingerbread Gift Tags


adapted from Martha Stewart Living

makes 30-40 gift tags, you can easily halve the recipe if you want to make less


Gingerbread Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) (228 g.) unsalted butter

1 cup (200 g.) dark brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 Tablespoons Ground Ginger

1 1/2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. allspice

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup (177 ml) plus 2 Tablespoons molasses - I used a 1 cup measure and eyeballed it

6 cups (900 g.) all purpose flour


Frosting Ingredients

2 cups (200 g.) sifted powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk (adding in more if needed for proper spreading consistency)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract - use clear vanilla (or omit it) if you want the icing to be totally white, regular vanilla will make it beige, or you can use lemon juice to give it a little lemon flavor.

sprinkles or other decorations for topping

Directions for cookies

In the bowl of an electric mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream the butter and brown sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in the spices and salt. Beat in the eggs and molasses, making sure to scrape down the bowl as needed.

Add flour and mix on low speed to combine. Divide dough into thirds, press to flatten and wrap in plastic. Place in fridge and let chill for an hour.

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 4. Lightly flour 2 pieces of parchment paper. Roll out the first piece of dough to 1/8 an inch between the two pieces of parchment. Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes. Initials, or a large cookie with an initial cut out of the middle. Or any shape you want! Cut a hole for hanging with a straw, or a size 10 or 12 pastry tip. Using a spatula, carefully transfer cookies to parchment lined, or Silpat lined, baking sheet. Cover cookies with parchment paper then top it with a second baking sheet to keep cookies flat while baking. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Keep the baking sheet on top for about 20 minutes while cooling. Let the cookies cool completely before frosting. Frost with the frosting recipe provided if desired. Keep cooled cookies (if frosted make sure they are totally dry, overnight is good) in an airtight container before using.

Frosting Directions

In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar with milk (start with 1-2 tablespoons, you will likely need more milk for the perfect spreading consistency). If you are adding sprinkles or other decorations, put them on right after frosting the cookies. Then let dry completely before using.

If you want to write names on the cookies, tint the frosting to desired color, use a pastry bag and writing tip, or put frosting into a small baggie and cut a small hole in the corner for writing. If you are writing on a cookie that has been frosted already, make sure that frosting has dried first.
 

DIY: How to make Pom Poms

This little kitchen has been keeping itself busy.  Between the catering, throwing parties for family and friends and the ever important wedding cake deadline that is slowly creeping up on me, time is going faster than I could have ever imagined.  I had big plans of reminding you about the perfect Fourth of July pie and equipping you with cold soups that make this summer heat seem not so oppressive.  But between the long days of cooking, many nights have been spent on these little fluff balls to spice up parties and gatherings.  And I promise to be back with cold soups and other goodness soon.

For now, let's pom!

I have also spent a good amount of time emailing out instructions on how to make these since I first posted about this party in January so I figure it's about time I share in pictures.  My brilliantly creative friend Abby brought these pom poms for her sister's baby shower and I have been using them ever since.  

They are cheap, easy and the possibilities are endless, but before you head off to the craft store, let me warn you of one thing... they seem to take way longer than you would ever imagine.  The process of making one is not that involved, but to create a great effect, you need quite a few.  

If you plan on diving into this endeavor, I would assemble a crowd and maybe put on a movie while you pom.  Yeah, I've made so many of these, I've turned it into a verb... pomming.

Materials:
Yarn
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun (for securing poms to yarn... see note at the bottom of the post for other ways to string)

Grab some yarn.
Michael's craft store has a great selection and often goes on sale for 1/2 the price.

Begin to wrap yarn loosely around four fingers.  Do not wrap really tight or you will have a hard time removing your hand from the middle. Depending on how think you want the poms, you can change up how many times you want to wrap, but I would guess mine were between 30-50 wraps per pom.

Cut yarn and remove yarn from your fingers. Find the middle of the loop.

Cut a small piece of yarn from the roll and wrap it around the center of the loop.

Tightly knot the string around the middle.

Trim ends of yarn tied around the middle.

Insert scissors to the middle of the loop and cut.  Turn pom over and do the same thing to the other side.

Now you will have a frilly little pom on your hands.

Trim long edges of pom so that you have a perfectly round ball.


When ready to string, heat up the glue gun.  Using the same ball of yarn (or a different color), pull out a large strand from the yarn ball.  I do not cut the yarn until I am finished gluing the poms so I have the right length.  Put a couple of dots of glue in the middle of the ball.  Press piece of yarn onto glue.  Press pieces of yarn on pom ball into the hot glue to make it stick.  Depending on how far you would like the poms spread out, continue to glue on piece of yarn.

Note: When I saw these originally made, Abby used a straight pin and yarn to string them together.  I have never been talented with a thread and needle and I could not make this work.  I found gluing them to be really easy to get each pom exactly where I wanted it.  You can easily cut the string off and change up the order or color after you have used them once.  


These poms are great for a photo back drop...

Or provide a pop in trees...

Maybe dangling over a food table...

The possibilities are endless.

Happy pomming. 

How To: De-Seed a Pomegranates

I'm sorry... what?  Excuse me?  Did you just say it's the middle of February?  

Please, stop.  Just stop. 

I didn't make it through my list of soups to make... oh great, it's already 70 degrees outside. 

I went to San Francisco and haven't even told you about it yet. (one word for now... Tartine)

I didn't get a chance to get crafty for v day this year.   

At least I'm trying to be proactive... I'm trying to wipe the cobwebs off this place. 

Sure, it's only been a couple of weeks but there has been a lot I want to share.  Time will come back one day... I can feel it. 

For now, I must talk about pomegranates and I must do it quickly.  These exotic puppies are already at the end of their season.  They are getting noticeably smaller and a bit sad on the grocery aisles... not nearly as plump and cheap as they were during the height of the season in December and January, but alas, it is still not too late.  

Grab a pom and let's get the seeds out of that sucker.  

Throw them in Greek yogurt, toss them in a salad or eat spoonfuls all on their own.  They are great.... and apparently super healthy... bonus points. 

What you need...

a pomegranate

a sharp knife

plastic cutting board (or anything you don't mind staining red)

a medium sized bowl, filled halfway with water
Warning:  Pomegranate juice will stain everything! Wood... clothes... white dish towels.  Unless you want everything a tinge of pink, make sure you are careful with this guy.  I like to use a plastic cutting board on top of my wooden board and I wouldn't be wearing my favorite white shirt... those seeds can spit. 

Lay your pomegranate on a plastic surface (or something you do not care about staining).
Slice off the top. 

Oh, now we are talkin... what a piece of art.

Using a sharp knife, cut along the white stuff... also known as the membrane.

Gently break apart the segments of the pomegranate.

Place each segment over the bowl of water. Submerge the segment and loosen the seeds.

The seeds will sink to the bottom and the white stuff will float to the top.

  Skim the white parts off, drain the water...

and there you have it... a bowl full of gems.
I had quite the plump pomegranate so I did not go after every seed.  If you want to get every last one, continue to submerge each piece in your bowl of water a loosen the seeds.