Slow Cooker Barbecue Pork Ribs

I'd been thinking for months about trying barbecue pork ribs in the Instant Pot pressure cooker, but then my friend Jo mentioned cooking some in the slow cooker mode. So that's what I decided to do.

I usually do my wonderful Oven Barbecue Pork Ribs, but I didn't feel like running the oven on such a hot day; so it was the perfect time to try this. 

The "Normal" Slow Cook setting of the Instant Pot (or Low setting for most slow cookers) for 10 hours cooked them to tender perfection, and then a couple of 3- minute stints under the broiler developed the sticky, crusty finish.

Of course, barbecue ribs (slow cooker or otherwise) are like meat candy, so I don't eat a large serving or have them very often. 

Mr Delightful was really happy with these ribs, so I'm going to be making them again. All part of what I call my Streamlined Cooking! Are you a rib fan? No need to wait for grilling weather!

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Slow Cooker Barbecue Pork Ribs

I think the 6-quart Instant Pot could easily hold 6 pounds of ribs.

(Serves 3 or 4)

The Ribs

4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) pork back ribs

The Dry Rub

1/4 cup (1.75 ounces/50 grams) dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground dried chiles (I make a little mixture of my own)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

The Barbecue Sauce

(Makes about 1/2 cup)

1/3 cup organic ketchup

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons country Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 In a small bowl, stir together all the barbecue sauce ingredients; cover and refrigerate.

2 In a small bowl, stir together all the dry rub ingredients.

Note: This is the part where I would tell you about peeling the tough membrane off the bony side of the ribs, but my friend told me she didn't bother and it made no difference with the slow cooker method, so I skipped it. However, I am accustomed to doing that and may, or may not, do it next time. 

3 Apply dry rub all over. Roll the rack of ribs up like a rug, meaty side out, and place it on its edge in the inner pot of the Instant Pot. If cooking two racks of ribs, place the largest coil in the pot--it will move itself out to the sides of the pot--then put the other coil in the center.

Note: May be made ahead to this point, refrigerated and finished the next day.

4 Put on the optional Instant Pot glass lid, or use the pressure cooking lid with the steam release handle turned to Venting. Select the Slow Cook program. Within 10 seconds, press Slow Cook to set temperature to Normal. Within 10 seconds, press “+ or –“ to set time to 10 hours.

5 Move your oven rack to 6 inches below your broiler. The top position in my oven is 4 inches below the broiler, but I think I'm less likely to burn things at the slightly lower level! Turn the broiler on High. Place the ribs on a foil-lined 18x13x1-inch half sheet pan. Using about half the sauce, lightly brush the underside (bony side) of the ribs with a little sauce, and brush the meaty side of the ribs with the rest of the half. Broil for about 3 minutes (you'll have to be the judge of that!).

6 Take the pan out of the oven, and brush the top of the ribs with the remaining half of the sauce. Broil for another 3 minutes (again, you'll have to sort the timing out with your broiler).

7 Let the ribs rest for 5 minutes before cutting apart. 

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon .com and affiliated sites. We are a ThermoWorks affiliate, earning a small commission at no cost to you on purchases made through our links. This helps cover some of the costs of running the blog. Thank you for your support. 

Jean

Autumn Apple Cake

Though we can eat apples year round these days, they have a special appeal in autumn. And today I felt like making the heavy-on-the-apples cake my mother always loved. 

It's a no-fuss, mix-it-all-up-in-one-bowl cake that you can get into the oven quickly. You don't even peel the apples. Good varieties to use are, in the US, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Bramley, Braeburn; in the UK, Cox's Orange Pippin and Braeburn. Tell me in the comments what the best cooking apples are in your part of the world.

Of course, I can no longer bring any produce into the house without painting it; so please indulge me once again. 😊

I hope you'll give this a try with your next batch of apples and let me know how it turned out for you. Also, try Apple Pie - Autumn Classic. What sort of things do you especially enjoy in autumn?

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Autumn Apple Cake

(Makes one 7-inch cake)

1 stick (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter, melted

1 1/4 dip-and-sweep cups (6.25 ounces/177 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup (4.67 ounces/132 grams) sugar

1 teaspoon non-GMO baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon mace or nutmeg

2 large eggs, room temperature

3/4 to 1 pound (12 to 16 ounces/340 to 454 grams/2 medium to large) apples, cut into 1/3-inch dice

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1 Butter well and flour a 7-inch springform or push-bottom pan. Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas4. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. 

2 In 2- to 3-quart bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and mace or nutmeg. Whisk together well to "sift."

3 Scrub well--don't peel--and dice the apples into a small mixing bowl; set aside. Take out 1 cup of the apples to put on the top. 

4 Add the eggs and cooled melted butter to the flour mixture. With a large spoon, beat well until thoroughly combined. Stir the apples (except the 1 cup) into the batter.

5 Scrape the thick batter into prepared pan (see "Note"), press down and smooth the top, and press the reserved cup of diced apples into the top of the batter. Sprinkle with the brown sugar. Bake for about 60 to 70 minutes, until it passes "the toothpick test" or is pulling away from the sides of the pan a bit. Do not underbake! 

Note: I forgot to use my Ateco Stainless Steel 2x3-Inches-High Round Form to turn the pan into a tube pan to prevent the center-of-the-cake baking challenges of heavy batters like this or fruitcake. I love it! It turns any pan into a tube pan. Just center it in the pan and hold it steady while you fill in the heavy batter around it.

My homemade tube pan (or tube pan "hack," if you must!)

6 Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn cake out of pan and continue cooling on wire rack for 2 hours. Before serving, you might give it a dusting of powdered sugar. And a little whipped cream is never a bad idea.

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon .com and affiliated sites. We are a ThermoWorks affiliate, earning a small commission at no cost to you on purchases made through our links. This helps cover some of the costs of running the blog. Thank you for your support. 

Jean

Sally Lunn Buns - Jane Austen Comfort Food

When I'm not cooking, eating or writing about food, I like to read. There's nothing so delightful to me as a rainy day at home, with tea and buns (or scones or crumpets), a cuddly cat and a good book (preferably English). 

I'm adding this little watercolor of my cat to the post

at the request of one of my readers. He does enjoy a 

long reading session, or the occasional film, but 

he objects strenuously to music of any kind at all!

There are good books I've only read once, but some books are meant to be enjoyed again and again. Has anyone ever read a Jane Austen novel just once? A day spent in Jane Austen's world can be a marvelous restorative.

Avid afternoon tea aficionado that I am, it was quite a shock to me years ago when I realized that afternoon tea was not part of Jane Austen’s life. But tea drinking, popular at Court since the 1660’s, had by the Regency Period long since trickled down through all strata of society. 

Jane and her family no doubt enjoyed a nice cup of tea at least twice a day, at breakfast and in the evening after dinner, and surely at other times as well. There are a number of things Jane might have had with her tea, including hot, buttered Sally Lunn buns, good with both sweet and savory toppings.

At Sally Lunn's in Bath, when you order a bun, it is a half, either top or bottom, of a split bun, toasted, and topped with something savory, such as beef or vegetables, or something sweet, such as lemon curd or cinnamon butter.  

Those made today in Bath are very large, perhaps five or six inches across and three or more inches high. My own, which I’m sure Sally Lunn’s in Bath would scorn as an inadequate imitation, are much smaller, about three inches in diameter, more "teatime" size.

Basically a brioche, they are good with either sweet or savory accompaniments. My method is so simple--no need for great skill or strength (no kneading) and no need for any special equipment (no food processor or heavy-duty stand mixer). Give them a try and let me know what you think.

And head on over to London Calling and see what expert Janeite Tony thinks of the new television production of Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon. 

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Sally Lunn Buns

(Makes 18 )

4 dip-and-sweep cups (20 ounces/567 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup (2.33 ounces/66 grams) sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package/0.25 ounces/7 grams) instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 stick (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter

4 large eggs (medium, in the UK)

1 cup (8 fluid ounces/237 ml) milk

1 In medium bowl (I use a 2-quart glass measure), whisk together flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In small saucepan, melt butter; set aside to cool a bit before needed.

2 In 2.5- to 3-quart mixing bowl, with electric hand mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs until fluffy and pale lemon yellow, about 5 minutes. Add the milk and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. By hand with a dough whisk or wooden spoon, add the flour mixture to the egg mixture in three additions, alternating with the melted butter and beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Cover with lid or plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to three days.

Note: At this point, you can divide the dough if you'd like to bake 9 buns one day and 9 another day. Store in 2 lidded glass containers. If baking all 18, you'll need 2 baking sheets and need to rotate the sheets in the oven halfway through the baking time.  

3 About 2 1/2 hours before serving time, remove dough from refrigerator. Divide the dough into 18 pieces.* Roll each into a smooth ball, place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten gently into a 2 1/2-inch disk. If your baking sheet does not have a lid, lightly butter a sheet of parchment or plastic wrap and place, buttered side down, over the buns. Let rise until very puffy and nearly doubled in volume, about 1 3/4 hours. During last 15 minutes, preheat oven to 375F/190C/Gas5. 

* I'm pretty persnickety about making them equal, so I weigh the dough and divide by 18. It weighed 1170 grams, so divide that by 18, and you get 65 grams (about 2 1/4 ounces) per bun.

4 Uncover buns. Bake about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer buns to wire racks. Serve warm, or cool completely before storing. To serve later in the traditional manner, split the buns and toast them under the grill (broiler) or in a toaster oven. Toasting them in a regular toaster gets them a bit too dark on the uncut side if you're not careful, and it's hard to get them out of the slots!

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon .com and affiliated sites. We are a ThermoWorks affiliate, earning a small commission at no cost to you on purchases made through our links. This helps cover some of the costs of running the blog. Thank you for your support.

Jean

Fig Clafoutis - Clafoutis aux Figues

As the long hot summer seques into autumn, I'm still favoring easy but elegant recipes that will get me out of the hot kitchen as quickly as possible. Summer's cherries have been replaced in my affections by black mission figs.

Got in a supply today and thought of making a Fig and Frangipane Galette or a Fig Upside-Down Cake, but they both seemed like too much work on a hot day, so I went with that northern French classic we love, clafoutis (pronounced cla-foo-TEE). 

It's shocking to me the number of people who make a funny little face whenever figs are mentioned and claim to not like them, even though most of them have never tasted one. The flavor is like nothing else, sort of jammy, fruity, earthy. Though it looks "seedy," the interior is soft.

And they're such lookers! Beautiful inside and out. The velvety purple skin of the black mission fig is edible, so don't even think of peeling it. And the flesh comes in such beautiful shades of pink. The fig is actually an inverted flower, so it's no wonder it's so photogenic.

Are you a fan of figs?

Fig Clafoutis - Clafoutis aux Figues

(Makes 8 servings)

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3/4 pound (12 ounces/340 grams) fresh figs, halved lengthwise (quartered, if large)
1/2 cup (3.5 ounces/99 grams) sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon cardamom or ginger, optional
3 large eggs

1 tablespoon brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 dip-and-sweep cup (2.5 ounces/71 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (10 fluid ounces/296 ml) milk
Garnish: powdered sugar

1 Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas4. Butter a Pyrex Easy Grab 9.5-Inch Deep Dish Pie Plate, not the standard 9-inch pie plate, with the 1/2 tablespoon softened butter. In a small dish, melt the tablespoon of butter and leave to cool slightly.

2 Place the halved (or quartered, as mine were) figs cut side up in prepared dish in a single layer. Stir together 1/8 cup sugar and cardamom; sprinkle evenly over the fruit.

3 In a 1-quart glass measure, whisk together the eggs, all but 1 tablespoon of the remaining sugar (save it to sprinkle on top), melted butter, brandy, vanilla extract, orange zest and salt. Whisk in the flour and then the milk, adding it gradually at first, to make a smooth batter. If it’s not as smooth as it should be, you can hit it with an immersion blender. Don’t drag out your blender for this one; a whisk will get the job done.

4 Pour the batter over the fruit. Sprinkle on the reserved tablespoon of sugar. Bake for about 45 minutes, until puffed and golden and browning around the edges and pulling away from the edges of the pan. Then it falls; that is perfectly normal.

5 Let stand 10 to 20 minutes before serving warm. Add a dusting of powdered sugar, if you like, just before serving. 

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon .com and affiliated sites. We are a ThermoWorks affiliate, earning a small commission at no cost to you on purchases made through our links. This helps cover some of the costs of running the blog. Thank you for your support.

Jean

Chewy Pecan Bars - Pecan Blondies

Chewy Pecan Bars (or Pecan Blondies) are my favorite bars. I make great Brownies, or so I'm told, but I'm not a chocolate fan myself. And these have half the sugar of brownies, just 2 teaspoons per 2-inch square! With this quantity of nuts and no sugary add-ins, they're practically health food!

Of course, you can add in whatever you like; I don't judge. And you can bake these in a 13x9x2-inch pan, even though I use a 13x9x1-inch quarter sheet pan. I have multiples of this pan because it is such a kitchen workhorse. If you haven't tried one, go ahead and order two. You're going to want more.

Couldn't resist doing a quick watercolor sketch of a little

squirrel heading out to gather nuts.

My friend Julia named her Miss Emily Squirrel.

These bars are quick and easy to make, fairly healthy, and very "packable," perfect for the lunchbox or tucked into your purse for a snack. What's your favorite portable snack?

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Chewy Pecan Bars - Pecan Blondies

(Makes 24 2-inch squares)

1 1/2 cups (6 ounces/170 grams) coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup (1.75 ounces/50 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 dip-and-sweep cups (7.5 ounces/213 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons non-GMO baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (3/4 teaspoon, if you like that salty kick)
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces/170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1 firmly packed cup (7 ounces/198 grams) dark brown sugar
4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 In dry skillet over medium heat, toast the chopped pecans and oats until lightly browned and fragrant. Set aside to cool.

2 Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas4. Grease, or line with baking parchment paper, a 13x9x1-inch quarter sheet pan. I like to line it with parchment with a bit of an overhang so I can lift it out of the pan for cutting. In small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt to "sift."

3 In 2- to 3-quart saucepan, melt butter and stir in brown sugar. Then stir in eggs and vanilla extract, mixing well to combine. 

4 Stir in flour mixture, nuts and oats. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake about 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan. As with brownies, you want to avoid overbaking. Cool completely and cut into 24 bars. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon .com and affiliated sites. We are a ThermoWorks affiliate, earning a small commission at no cost to you on purchases made through our links. This helps cover some of the costs of running the blog. Thank you for your support. 

Jean