Cole Slaw (KFC Copycat Recipe)

A good cole slaw is a must-have for any picnic. Personally, I love fresh raw cabbage, so a well-made cole slaw is one of my absolute favorite things.  But, prior to this past 4th of July weekend, I had never attempted it from scratch before.

So after hunting around on the internet, I came up with this recipe, which I found on Amanda’s Cookin’, but which is also posted on various other websites. This recipe happens to be a KFC cole slaw copycat recipe, and an excellent one at that. Make it the day before you want to serve it, and leave it in the fridge overnight to let the flavors mingle. You won’t regret it. Seriously, this is some good cole slaw, I got nothing but complements.



Ingredients:


Dressing

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (* to make your own buttermilk, and avoid having to buy it for a mere ¼ cup’s worth, add 1 tbls of lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 C milk and let clabber at room temp for about 10 minutes until thickened)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (this is separate from any lemon juice you use to clabber the milk)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar (this is separate from any vinegar you use to clabber the milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Slaw
1 head of cabbage, medium sized
1 medium carrot, about 1/4 cup, chopped finely or shredded
2 tablespoons minced onion

Directions:

1. Chop cabbage into chunks and run through your food processor, or chop fine. I prefer just chopping it semi-fine, as you can see from the pics. The variation in cabbage piece size adds a difference in texture that I personally enjoy, but that is a matter for your own preference. If you don’t want to process or chop the cabbage, you can also shred it by using the largest holes on your grater. And if you’re really in a pinch, you can use the premixed bag of slaw, and just add the onion and dressing. Although, as with everything else, fresh always tastes a little bit better.
2. Combine cabbage, carrots, and onion and toss well. If you want more carrots, go ahead and add more.
3. Let ¼ C milk clabber if need be.
4. Combine mayo, milk, buttermilk, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper in a large bowl, whisking well.
5. Pour dressing over the slaw and turn to coat well. If you have a bowl with a lid, cover it and shake it.
6. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving to allow the cabbage to soak up the marinade. Overnight really is best. When you take it out the next day to serve, remix it, a lot of the dressing will have pooled on the bottom.

It didn't occur to me to take a picture of the cole slaw until I was eating it. Oops.  Right next to it is a little of the pasta salad I also made for the 4th of July... As you can see, I chopped the veggies roughly, because I like that texture. How you want to chop the cabbage and carrots is totally up to you.

This recipe makes a great cole slaw that can easily be scaled up for a large crowd. It is tasty and surprisingly light in flavor while still having a bit of a tang. The leftovers kept well for several days after the picnic.

Berry Buttermilk Cake

A slice of Strawberry Buttermilk cake!  

It's quick, it's easy, it uses up extra berries -- the Berry Buttermilk Cake! This is a great, light, fruit-based recipe for summer! I found it originally on Epicurious, paired with raspberries. You could use any type of berry however, and I made one version with sliced strawberries, and one with raspberries. Any berry would work here, including blackberries, blueberries, and (pitted) cherries.



Quick note about ingredients: you don't have to go out and buy buttermilk just for this recipe (or any recipe for that matter). I sure didn't. In order to make buttermilk, you just add 1 tbls of lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 C of milk, and let it clabber for about 10 minutes, until it thickens. Conveniently enough, this recipe already calls for lemon zest, so you can zest a lemon, squeeze it, and then add 1/2 tbls of the juice to 1/2 C milk to get the 1/2 C of buttermilk the recipe calls for. I even used 2% milk because it was all I had in the fridge, and it worked great!

Raspberry cake before baking

The ingredients list looks long, but it really isn't. This cake comes together fast, and bakes even faster. And then you get this:

Yum!

Strawberry...

or Raspberry~

Ingredients

• 1 C AP flour
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 C sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (if you are making a cherry cake, almond extract might work better)
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest 
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional, best with blueberries or strawberries)
• 1/2 C buttermilk (see above)
• 1 C berries
• additional sugar for sprinkling

Directions

1. Zest your lemon. Squeeze the juice if you are making you own buttermilk, and clabber the milk (above)
2. Preheat oven to 400F
3. Butter and flour a 9" round pan
4. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon) in a bowl and set aside
5. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add in vanilla and zest, then the egg
6. Add flour in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk (starting and ending with flour). Mix until just combined each time
7. Pour batter into cake pan, smoothing out top if necessary
8. Scatter berries over top (I ended up using a little less than a cup of strawberries, but about a cup of raspberries),and sprinkle with sugar (about 1 1/2-2 tsp)
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cake is golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean
10. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then depan and cool completely. Invert onto a plate.
11. Pair with whipped cream or Cool Whip and enjoy!

This cake is delicious. Moist, light, only slightly sweet, and pairs wonderfully with whipped cream or Cool Whip. In fact, both berry versions of this cake tasted even better the next day, when the flavors had a chance to meld a bit more. I could definitely taste the lemon zest more in the raspberry cake, presumably because I made that cake without cinnamon, and it was a wonderful pairing. I can't wait to try it with blueberries. This recipe is definitely a great go-to cake, light and refreshing. I got raves when I brought it into the office (both times). It disappeared before 9am.

Raspberry with a hint of lemon! Delicious!

I have a mind to double this recipe and make one cake with strawberries, and one with bananas, and then assemble the whole thing with whipped cream as a layer cake.