AndiBlog

Gluten-Free Pancakes

AndiatBettyCrocker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:50:00 GMT

If you haven’t heard about them yet, Betty Crocker has a new line of gluten-free dessert mixes.

Someone shared her idea, on one of the BettyCrocker.com message boards, to use the yellow cake mix to make gluten-free pancakes. It seemed like such a great idea that Kristen went into the test kitchens to stir some up.

These pancakes are really light and fluffy with the same texture of pancakes made with wheat-flour. They are on the sweet side though and so I’d suggest serving them with some fresh berries, sliced bananas or other fresh fruit instead of syrup. But, they are good with syrup too!

Gluten-Free Pancakes

1 box (15 oz) Betty Crocker® gluten free yellow cake mix
1 cup milk or soy milk
2 eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
4 teaspoons baking powder
Maple syrup or fresh fruit, if desired

1. Heat griddle or skillet over medium heat or to 375°F. Grease griddle with vegetable oil if necessary.
2. In medium bowl, stir all pancake ingredients with spoon until blended. Let batter stand 2 to 3 minutes to thicken.
3. For each pancake, pour about ¼ cup batter onto hot griddle. Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook other sides until golden. Serve warm with syrup or fresh fruit.

4 servings (3 pancakes each)

You Can Win $1,000-Enter Our Celebrate the Season Recipe Contest

AndiatBettyCrocker — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:04:00 GMT

I am so excited to offer you an opportunity to send us a recipe, you have created, that we may publish in one of three of our upcoming supermarket recipe magazines. If our food experts choose your recipe, you will have a chance to win $1,000.00 or other cash prizes.

Be sure to enter recipes in one of the following catagories:

Fall Baking

Thanksgiving

Holiday Baking

Recipes will be judged on taste, creativity and ease of preparation.

Click here for details to enter the contest.

5 Easy Meals-#5: Cowboy Casserole

AndiatBettyCrocker — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:23:00 GMT

Cowboy Casserole is the last recipe in a series of 5 Easy Meals for week-night dinners. With only 7 ingredients (all of which you probably have on hand), this is sure to be a meal that your family will like.

1. Cook ground beef in a skillet; stir in baked beans and barbecue sauce. Spoon this mixture into a casserole.
2. Make a dough using Bisquick, milk and butter. Drop dough by tablespoons onto beef mixture. Aren't Blake and Jack doing a good job of this in the photo below?

3. Bake uncoverd for only 18 to 22 minutes.

In the chaos of picking up Blake from daycare and my mother from her assisted living home, and then forgetting the key to Jason's and Katie's house and so driving back the 1/2-hour drive to our house during rush hour, I may have overbaked the casserole a little. OK, maybe a lot. But, it still tasted great and was a nice warm meal after a very, very busy day.

Geat-grandma Shirley, helped Blake with his dinner. Blake looks so happy because he made the biscuits on top of the casserole.

5 Easy Meals--#4: Gremolata-Topped Sea Bass

AndiatBettyCrocker — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:41:00 GMT

With only seven ingredients in this recipe, it was a perfect week-night meal for Jack and me. While the fish was baking,we had time to cook some veggies and make a salad. Our diner was ready in just 25 minutes.

Lining the baking dish with foil makes the clean-up easier.

Gremolata-Topped Sea Bass

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Start to Finish: 25 Minutes

Cooking spray
1/4 cup Italian-style dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
1 lb sea bass, mahi-mahi or other medium-firm fish fillets, cut into 4 serving pieces
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Line 13x9-inch pan with foil; spray foil with cooking spray. In small bowl, mix bread crumbs, parsley, lemon peel and butter.
2. Place fish in pan. Sprinkle with seasoned salt. Drizzle with lemon juice. Spoon crumb mixture over each piece; press lightly.
3. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.

4 servings

5 Easy Meals-#3 Super-Easy Chicken Manicotti

AndiatBettyCrocker — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:00 GMT

Would you believe that you can prepare this Super-Easy Chicken Manicotti casserole in just 15 minutes? That's because you don’t have to precook the manicotti or the filling.

Even 2-year old Blake can fill the dry manicotti shells with the chicken—that’s how easy it is! Then put it in the oven and let if bake for 1 hour.

5 Easy Meals--#2 Tangy Sesame Chicken

AndiatBettyCrocker — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:48:00 GMT

On nights when I have a French class and get home late, Jack sometimes starts dinner for us. This recipe for Tangy Sesame Chicken tastes better than a frozen entrée and costs much less than picking up the same meal from our local Asian restaurant.

Cutting the chicken breasts into strips takes only a minute or two.

It's easy to dip the chicken pieces into the batter and then fry them until crisp.

Tangy Sesame Chicken

1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch strips
Oil for frying
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 teaspoon sesame seed
1 cup purchased sweet-and-sour sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Cooked rice

1. In medium bowl, combine cornstarch, flour, 1 teaspoon sugar and baking soda. Stir in water and 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil. Add chicken; mix well to combine.

2. In 3-quart saucepan, heavy saucepan or wok, heat 2 to 3 inches of oil to 375°F. Shaking off excess batter, fry chicken strips a few at a time for 3 to 5 minutes or until light golden brown and no longer pink in center. Drain on paper towels. (Reserve 1 tablespoon oil from deep frying).

3. Heat reserved 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until hot. Add bell pepper and sesame seed; cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until pepper is crisp-tender and seed is golden brown.

4. Add sweet and sour sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil; mix well. Add chicken strips; cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly, or until thoroughly heated. Serve with cooked rice.

2 servings

5 Easy Meals-#1: Swiss Steak Casserole

AndiatBettyCrocker — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:40:00 GMT

With the holidays quickly approaching, we all need help with planning week-night meals because it's such a busy time of year. So, I’ve decided to share five easy dinner recipes with you in my next five posts, as a way to help you though an entire week.

This Swiss Steak can be prepared in just 20 minutes and then you put it in the oven and forget about it for about 1 1/2 hours. I sometimes double the recipe so that we will have leftovers. There are lots of vegetables (mushrooms, onions and carrots) baked with the steak and so, you just need to add a baked potato or mashed potatoes to round out the meal.

Swiss Steak Casserole

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Start to Finish: 2 Hours 5 Minutes

3 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 lb boneless beef round steak, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 cup frozen pearl onions
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
4 cups sliced carrots (8 medium)
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, mix flour, salt, paprika and pepper. Add steak; toss to coat. In 12-inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add steak, reserving remaining flour mixture; brown steak on all sides. Spoon into ungreased 2 1/2-quart casserole.
2. To same skillet, add remaining 1 tablespoon oil, the mushrooms, onions and garlic. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until browned; add to casserole. Add carrots, tomatoes and reserved flour mixture; mix well.
3. Cover casserole. Bake 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes or until meat and vegetables are fork-tender.

6 servings (1 cup each)

Christmas Cookies

AndiatBettyCrocker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:03:00 GMT

Is it too early to start baking Christmas cookies? Absolutely not! This new Betty Crocker supermarket magazine is full of great Christmas cookie, bar and candy recipes. Copies will be available at your supermarket by November 10th.

Here is a sampling of the great recipes in this issue:

Ginger-Lemon Delights (below) are one of my favorites. Ginger cookies are a nice addition to any Christmas cookie platter and they would be nice to serve for Thanksgiving too.

Don't these Chocolate-Mallow Cookie Pies (above) look delicious?

The Saint Nick Cereal Cookies (below) are adorable and easy to make—you can make them in just over an hour.

Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Butterballs (above) are a similar to Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cakes but with more flavor!

I can't decide which of the fudge recipes below, I like the most.

Is there one Christmas cookie that you bake every year? Mine is Gingerbread Boys. Blake and I plan to make some this weekend.

Cheesecake Pancakes

AndiatBettyCrocker — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:33:00 GMT

Cheesecake Pancakes—REALLY? Members of our staff read about them on the Bettycrocker.com message boards and from the comments on the boards, we learned that they are a new item on the menu at a popular pancake restaurant. They sounded so good to us, we decided to develop our own recipe for them. This, as they say, was “easier said than done.”

When we did an online search, we found recipes using cottage cheese. SO not an ingredient in cheesecakes! We all know that cheesecakes start with cream cheese—lots of it. And often times, they have a graham cracker crust. How to get that yummy flavor into a pancake?

We put Jackie to work in the kitchens on our quest for developing a mouth-watering recipe for Cheesecake Pancakes. She tried adding cream cheese to the batter which resulted in a very gummy and heavy pancake. When she cut the cream cheese into small chunks (which isn't easy to do) she ended up with a mess. Finally, we discovered, by accident, that if the cream cheese was frozen, we could chop it into chucks more easily. And finally, we added some sugar and graham cracker crumbs to the batter for lots more flavor.

Cheesecake Pancakes

Start to Finish: 8 Hours 30 Minutes

Pancakes

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Strawberry Syrup

1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup strawberry syrup for pancakes

1. Slice cream cheese lengthwise into four pieces. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; cover and freeze 8 hours or overnight.

2. Brush griddle or skillet with vegetable oil, or spray with cooking spray; heat griddle to 375°F or heat skillet over medium heat.

3. Cut cream cheese into bite-size pieces; set aside. In large bowl, stir Bisquick mix, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, milk and eggs with whisk or fork until blended. Stir in cream cheese.

4. For each pancake, pour slightly less than 1/3 cup batter onto hot griddle. Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook other sides until golden brown.

5. In small bowl, mix strawberries and syrup; top pancakes with strawberry mixture.

5 servings (3 pancakes and 3 tablespoons syrup each)

Jeanie's Favorite Recipe: Danish Puff

AndiatBettyCrocker — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:24:00 GMT

After working in the Betty Crocker Kitchens for 30 years, Jeanie retired on Friday. In this photo, she is holding one of her favorite Betty Crocker recipes: Danish Puff. It is one of my favorite breakfast treats too. Jeanie told me that this recipe was published for the first time in the 1969 edition of the Betty Crocker big red cookbook.

The rich and buttery base is spread with a moist, almond-flavored filling. After baking, a simple powered sugar glaze is drizzled over the top.

Serve this pastry with coffee for breakfast. If you want a traditional Scandinavian breakfast, include Harvarti cheese slices & flatbread, soft-cooked eggs and pickled herring for a heartier way to start your day.

We will miss you, Jeanie.