Almond Bergamot Bundt Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I set out to make a pound cake. You see, we’ve been getting an awesome egg share this year from Southtown Farms, and my family and I figured we’d be able to go through the full share at a dozen a week. Well, we were doing just fine with it, actually, until one day someone accidentally bought an extra dozen eggs or two to make quiche, and then we just had a million damn eggs. I’d seen some pound cake recipes online that used a whole lot of eggs, so I looked at a few (here’s one I used for reference) and made up the rest based on what ingredients I had around.

We ended up bringing this cake to my aunt & uncle’s house one evening when we had a BBQ. My other uncle was there, too, as was part of my immediate family and my cousin. Since my Heritage Bundt Pan produces a pretty huge cake, I figured I’d only need to bring half of it with me, but I never got around to cutting it and brought the whole thing. As it turned out, nearly 7/8ths of the whole cake was gone – despite the fact that a few members of the family are trying to avoid sugar! Too tempting, I guess. :)

The flavors here came out really nicely. They layered together well with just an undertone of vanilla, a hint of caramel at the edges from using the natural sugar, and then the headiness of almond and bergamot (which you’ll recognize as what makes Earl Grey tea taste as it does). I finished this moist cake with a drizzle of a nice quality melted dark chocolate – I used a bar of Dagoba I’d gotten as a gift.

*Note: If you do not have the required bergamot extract, you can infuse the milk with Earl Grey tea for a similar result.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter
6 eggs
3 cups whole wheat flour (this is what I had on hand – you can use white whole wheat or split between whole wheat and all purpose)
2 cups natural sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon bergamot extract
2/3 cup yogurt (I used one 5.3 oz cup)
1/3 cup milk
1/2-3/4 bar of good dark chocolate, about 1-1.5 oz (optional)
handful of slivered almonds, toasted (optional)

Directions

Grease and flour a 10-cup bundt or tube pan. Do not preheat the oven.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add vanilla, almond, and bergamot extracts.

Add flour mixture to the cream mixture, alternately with yogurt. Add milk. Beat until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared tube or Bundt pan. Place pan on a tray to prevent overflow in the oven.

Place cake into cold oven, set the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for 60 to 90 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. (This took me about 60 minutes, but your mileage may vary depending on how long your oven takes to heat up.) Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack.

In a double boiler or CAREFULLY in the microwave (don’t burn it!), melt the chocolate. Cut the tip off a small plastic sandwich bag. Spoon in the melted chocolate, and drizzle lines back and forth over the cake. Decorate with almond slivers if desired. Let the chocolate set before serving.

Peach Crisp with Honey & Coconut

The weather has been unusually warm here lately, and the Jersey peaches have been available sweet and absolutely ridiculously delicious for weeks. I went to a farmers market one Tuesday almost a month ago and bought a small bucket of peaches that held perhaps five beautiful peaches. I only got to eat one of those incredible peaches, as my littlest brother, age 12, apparently ate the rest of them in immediate succession. The next week, I went back and bought two or three times as many, and I got to eat one in my morning oatmeal.

Charlie has a bit of an allergy to some hand fruits like apples and peaches, and I felt so bad that he couldn’t enjoy these awesome peaches with me. Since they don’t seem to bother him when they’re cooked, on my last trip to the farmers market, I bought enough to make a crisp or a cobbler with. (I never remember if there’s a difference between the two…)

I have a pretty big amount of honey left over from a wedding cake I did several months ago, and I’ve been thinking for a while about making a crisp/cobbler with honey as the sugar. I assumed it would be fine, but I did a bit of googling, and it seemed like people had been successful with it.

I also decided to go out on a limb and change out the fat that I used. I’ve been trying to be mindful of the food I’m putting in my body lately. (I recently got back from a roadtrip, and nearly every time I go on a roadtrip, I clean up my eating habits when I return because I feel crappy from eating so much crappy food on the road.) I decided to give coconut oil a try in this recipe since I’ve been wanting to experiment with cooking with it, and also because peach and coconut are great together.

The flavors in this were amazing. The peaches were perfect (no sweetener needed in the fruit portion). On the first day, the taste of honey shone through, but the next day, the coconut flavor showed itself a bit more. I would definitely make this again with these variations.

With a crisp, I usually just wing it, so unfortunately, these measurements are sort of approximations, but, in my experience, crisps are pretty darn forgiving, so it all works out. :)

*Note: My peaches were very juicy, and after the first day, things got a bit sloshy, so if yours are very juicy, too, I’d suggest mixing a tiny bit of cornstarch in with the fruit.

Ingredients

5-7 large peaches, pitted and cut into slices or large chunks (I left the skins on)
2 plums (optional, these were just very ripe and needed to be used)
1/3-1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons pepitas (optional)
1/3 cup coconut flakes (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread the fruit in the bottom of a pan (I used a corningware one about 12x12x2).

In a mixer or large bowl, combine the honey and coconut oil. Mix until blended. Add the dry ingredients (oats, flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon) and mix until large crumbs are form. Add a bit more flour or oats if necessary. Stir in the walnuts. Spread evenly over the top of the fruit. Sprinkle the pepitas and coconut on top.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the crisp is brown and the fruit is bubbling. Enjoy warm!

Cocoa Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Oatmeal in the morning on a cool day is an awesome thing, right? But sometimes you don’t make enough, and other times (especially when you set it up in your slow cooker and then people rush out the door without breakfast anyway) there is tooooo much oatmeal. You don’t want to throw it out, but if you save it, do people really eat the leftovers? They will if you turn them into muffins! Say, Cocoa Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins?

I’m not sure that I got a photo of these muffins, but they were really tasty and they’re pretty healthy – I substituted nonfat yogurt for some of the butter and reduced the sugar, used whole wheat flour, and of course, they’ve got the healthy power of oatmeal in there, too! I was surprised at how light and fluffy these came out. I’ll definitely make them again when we have oatmeal leftovers, and if you don’t have cranberries, throw in raisins or chocolate chips or nuts or anything else you can think of!

The basis of this recipe originates here, which was a great help since I wasn’t quite sure how my oatmeal leftovers were going to factor in.

Ingedients

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
4 medium eggs (or 3 large)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups leftover cooked oatmeal (our leftovers were steel cut oats)
1 cup cranberries, sliced

Directions

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda.

In another bowl, mix together melted butter, eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, cranberries, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. The batter will seem thick, but don’t worry. Adding more liquid may make the muffins too crumbly.

Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until the muffin centers are slightly firm.

Sage & Butternut Squash Lasagna

This recipe was born for two reasons, the first one being that I love butternut squash (any squash, really!). The other is that one person in my family isn’t supposed to eat a lot of tomatoes, so I was trying to make a delicious lasagna dish that was tomato-less. This dish is great for the holidays, and although it’s got some rich ingredients, it’s also got a healthy balance with whole wheat pasta and some veggies (which you can always add more of).

Make sure you use fresh sage in this one – it’s such an important ingredient that it really needs to shine.

Ingredients

1 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles, prepared according to package directions
1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and sliced into circles (use the top part only and save the bottom part where the seeds are for another recipe)
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 cups of fresh spinach
1 .75oz package of sage, divided (if you’ve grown your own, grab a big handful)
1 32oz tub of ricotta (I used part skim)
up to 3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, depending on your taste

For the white sauce:
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons of your sage, chopped
a few cloves of garlic, minced (optional)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Begin by making the white sauce. In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter. If you are using garlic, cook it briefly in the butter (2-3 minutes). Next, add the flour to the butter and whisk it together until smooth. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly, making sure that the flour/butter mixture incorporates with the milk. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thick and creamy. Don’t forget to stir frequently. Add the sage and the parmesan cheese about 1-2 minutes before removing the sauce from the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the nutmeg into the ricotta cheese.

Assembly!

Now you should be ready to assemble. Spread a layer of white sauce or ricotta in the bottom of your lasagna pan. Drop the circles of butternut squash down in the pan side by side – you should be able to get at least nine in there depending on the size of your squash and the size of your pan. Layer the noodles, spinach, mozzarella cheese, remaining sage, butternut squash, white sauce, and ricotta until you run out or fill the pan. Be sure to save some mozzarella cheese for the very top to lock in some of the moisture.

Bake in a 400˚ oven for 40-60 minutes or until the slices of squash are soft. You may want to cover the pan with aluminum foil until the last 10-15 minutes to prevent it from over browning.

Annnd lasagna is not the prettiest thing to photograph, especially during dinner rush with the family, but here’s a picture of the finished product.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Coffee Frosting

One of the symptoms of fibromyalgia is that a person has sleep disturbances, and boy, do I ever. Just last night I had trouble sleeping, and many, many nights of the last 10 years or so, I’ve had trouble sleeping. Some nights, I toss and turn in bed. Other nights, I do odd things, like climb out of bed and bake cookies.

This recipe has been sitting in queue to be posted since May, but I’m pretty sure that the morning that I made these, I’d been up most of the night, and I decided on a whim that it was time to bake. Charlie eventually woke up and found me frosting these beauties. Perhaps the next time I bake in the early morning, I should make something like muffins or cinnamon rolls!

I adapted this recipe from Bakingdom, who had the brilliant idea to ice oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with coffee frosting, but I made a few changes, like using half whole wheat flour, adding a bit of molasses, bumping up the cinnamon, and adding some other spices. Also, for the frosting, I don’t keep instant coffee in the house, so instead I invested in a coffee flavored extract recently, so I swapped that out.

Note: I divided the batch and made some without frosting and just with raisins, which is a great way to get the sophisticated, frosted coffee cookies and something simpler that kids will enjoy out of one batch.

Just two days left to win a gift certificate to my new Etsy shop!

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins

Frosting:
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coffee flavored extract (or 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee or finely ground espresso powder)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt; set aside

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the molasses, brown sugar, and white sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the egg until just combined, then stir in the vanilla. Scrape the bowl. Add the flour mixture in a few batches, mixing well between each one. Scrape the bowl, then stir in the oatmeal until well combined. Divide the batter if desired. Stir the chocolate chips into one bowl and the raisins into another.

Place level one tablespoon mounds of dough on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges turn golden brown. Transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting… If using instant coffee, heat the milk until hot (microwave is easiest, but it can be done on the stovetop as well), add the coffee and steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Filter the coffee if there are any grounds left. Chill until at least room temperature (about 15 minutes). If using the coffee flavored extract, do not heat the milk – simply combine the coffee extract and the milk.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add half of the sugar and beat until well combined (the mixture may be a little dry). Stir in the vanilla and half of the coffee milk until combined. Add the remaining sugar, beating the mixture until light and fluffy. Stir in the remaining coffee milk, and beat until thoroughly combined. Add more extract or sugar as necessary.

Cranberry Sauce Almondies

After NaNoWriMo was over, my friend Anna and I decided we wanted to keep challenging ourselves to do more creative, wild, ridiculous challenges. Between the two of us, we wrote over 100,000 words in a month! We started making lists of what we thought would be good challenges, and some of them were food related, some of them were art related, and some of them were completely random. But the first one we decided to do was to participate in at least three out of four weeks of a bake-off (weeks of pies, dessert bars, cookies, and cakes) that was happening in December, so the next few recipes you’ll be seeing here will be from that. If you want to see more about our process, or join us for the next challenge (that we’re still deciding on!), go to our new blog, Scrawl Zoom Stir.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg replacers
1/3 cup almond paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup toasted almond flour* (Available here or toast almonds at 400*F for 10 minutes then grind up!)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cranberry sauce
1 egg replacer

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

In a stand mixer, mix Earth Balance and brown sugar on low speed until creamy.

In a separate small bowl, mix the water and the 1 tbsp. commercial egg replacer until frothy.

Add the egg replacer/water mixture to the stand mixer bowl and stir. Add the vanilla extract and almond paste and mix until fully incorporated.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, the all-purpose flour, the salt, the baking powder, and the baking soda. Stir.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Spread the mixture into an 8×8 cake pan. Bake at 350*F for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the cranberry sauce (I like to use my homemade Clementine Cranberry Sauce, a little easy on the clementine for this one) with the remaining 1 1/2 tsp. of commercial egg replacer. Mix thoroughly.

When the initial 25 minute cook time is complete, remove the pan from the oven and carefully spread the cranberry sauce mixture in a thin layer evenly over the top. Return the blondies to the oven for about 15 more minutes, or until the surface of the cranberry sauce is tacky and the edges of the blondies are brown and crispy.

Cool completely before cutting. Garnish with almonds and pear slices.

Earl Grey Tea Cakes

(Shh, they’re vegan!)

I have just realized the tragedy that has occurred. These cakes never got posted. I made them ages ago!

I’d made Casey’s Chai Cake when we had company because I thought it would be more popular than the slightly odder sounding Earl Grey cakes, but we have a fabulously fragrant Earl Grey that I’ve been dying to bake with. After I made the Chai cake, I knew I had to do it, pronto!

I made these in a new (to me) silicone baking pan my mom gave me since she never uses it. I’ve never used silicone pans before, and it was a muffin tin that was very deep. I’ve been very skeptical about silicone before, but they popped right out and looked adorable! I’m very happy to add this to my collection and I’m sure I’ll use it often.

I had some soymilk to use up, so I took the opportunity to make these vegan, and Charlie had no idea until I told him. Be sure that if you’re going to glaze these, you use the Earl Grey infused soymilk as the liquid for the frosting, otherwise, the somewhat subtle taste of the tea will be lost underneath the sweetness of the plain glaze! Be careful about your tea selection – you want an Earl Grey that has a lot of bergamot in it.

Love how the blueberries got the glaze all pink!

Ingredients

Cakes
1/2 cup Earth Balance
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2-3 tablespoons natural sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup Earl Grey Soymilk* (I used vanilla soymilk as a base – you may want to add 1 tsp vanilla if you’re using plain milk or plain soymilk)
1 tablespoon commercial egg replacer (or milled flax + 2 tablespoons warm water)
1 teaspoon Earl Grey loose leaf tea leaves, finely ground with mortar & pestle
dash of lemon juice

*To make Earl Grey Soymilk, heat 1 3/4 cups milk in a saucepan on low-medium heat. When bubbles form around the edge of the pot, add about 9 grams of loose leaf tea (about 3 teaspoons) in a filter or 3-4 tea bags. Let steep for 5 minutes. Cool.

Glaze
1/4 cup Earl Grey Soymilk
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (or to taste)
1 cup confectioners sugar (or to desired consistency)
1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (optional, for decoration)

Directions

Cream the Earth Balance and natural sugar together in a medium or large bowl. Since the ratio wasn’t totally even, it won’t come out perfectly creamed, so just give it a good mix. In a separate small bowl, mix the milled flax and warm water together until it gets gooey, then add that to the sugar mixture. Add the dash of lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, mix the whole wheat pastry flour, the baking powder, and the salt together. Slowly add a bit of this dry mixture to the creamed mixture, stirring constantly or mixing with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer. Alternate from time to time with some of the 1 1/4 cups of Earl Grey soymilk. Add a little of each until they are all mixed in. Stir in the Earl Grey tea leaves.

Pour into the silicone baking pans. You can use prepared cupcake pans with liners or that have been greased if you don’t have silicone pans.

Bake at 375*F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool for several minutes before removing them from the silicone molds.

Meanwhile, make the glaze. Add the remaining Earl Grey soymilk, lemon juice, and confectioner’s sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Making the glaze too thick with confectioner’s sugar may take away from the Earl Grey flavor. If you desire a super thick glaze, you may want to consider using bergamot extract.

Dip the tops of the cakes into the bowl of glaze and garnish with blueberries if desired.

Lactose Overdose: Spinach Cheddar Muffins

Now, sometimes, frequently, even, I do vegan cooking. When I go to an event, I like to make sure that I bring at least one vegan thing because there have certainly been times when I have arrived places and there was nothing for me to eat but perhaps salad and bread.

When we’re cooking at home, though, just me and my flexitarian partner, we eat a variety of things. Sometimes it’s vegan, like a stirfry with tempeh, or rice and beans. Sometimes it’s vegetarian, like an eggplant parm. And sometimes, I make a meal and he’ll throw some meat in with his part of it.

Last night was one of our vegetarian meals, and you’d be hard pressed to convert this one to be vegan. It’s a dinner night I like to call Lactose Overdose. It started with a big pot of Cream of Broccoli Soup and ended with spinach cheddar muffins. We’ve had the exact same meal at least three times since it’s conception a year or so ago, so it’s definitely a delicious combination. The spinach cheddar muffins are also a tasty bit to bring to a bake sale or a potluck or anything else if you’re really a baker, not a cook, but wanted to bring something savory.

Edit: Recipe updated 12/14/10!

Ingredients

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used 2% this time, but I usually use 1%)
3 cups shredded fresh spinach, stems removed (this time I just dumped in baby spinach as-is)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (I used extra sharp. I imagine that other cheeses, or a blend, would be ridiculously good)
About 1 tablespoon miscellaneous Italian herbs
Several shakes of garlic powder (let’s call it 1-2 teaspoons)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 cup muffin cups.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Stir the melted butter, egg, and milk together in a large mixing bowl until evenly blended. Slowly stir in the flour mixture to form a batter. Make sure the mixture is liquidy enough, or the muffins will be very dense.

(I’m going to be totally honest, last night I was in a hurry and I just dumped in all the ingredients before this point in the stand mixer and put it on stir, and they came out just fine!)

Fold in the cheddar cheese, then the spinach. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Top with parmesan cheese before putting in the oven (optional).

Bake in preheated oven for 18-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Casey’s Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Glaze

I made Chai Cake the same weekend I made Beer Pie, which was a weekend that some of our close friends were coming to visit. Luka and Clara were coming down from Massachusetts, just for funzies, and Micah and Casey were coming out from Brooklyn, since Casey and I had some work to do to prepare a proposal for a workshop we’re submitting for an upcoming conference.

We had some hanging out in the kitchen time as I threw this together and we all made a big kitchen mess, and Luka drank chai. Casey ended up loving this cake so hard, though, so I’m calling it Casey’s Chai Cake, and the next time I make it, I’ll invite her over. <3

I've been meaning to experiment with tea in cake for a while, and I've had several reminders lately. There will probably be more, too, since we just ran out of tea, so I put in a new order of loose leaf from The Tea Table, including for some Lavender Butterfly Tea, which I can’t wait to play with. A really good cup of tea is one of my favorite things in the world. A recipe for Earl Grey Tea Cakes is soon to come…

Ingredients

Cake:

1 and 1/3 cups of milk
6 chai tea bags, without added sweetner (I used a mix Twinings Chai and Twinings Pumpkin Chai, though I have some loose chai coming, too, for next time)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 and 3/4 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks butter

Glaze:

3 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
milk to desired consistency (I probably used 1/4 cup)
pinch of salt (to cut the sweetness a bit)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 Degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a 10 cup bundt pan.

In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer over low-medium heat. Remove from heat. Add the tea bags and allow to steep for 5-6 minutes. Remove the tea bags and cool the milk completely.

Meanwhile, cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and honey until light and fluffy, in a stand mixer or a large bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry cake ingredients. Stir together the all purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.

Add the milk and the dry mixture to the creamed mixture, mixing them together, alternating between milk and dry mixture until they are completely combined.

Pour into the prepared bundt pan. Bake on the bottom rack at 325 for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the glaze. Mix the ginger, salt, and the confectioner’s sugar together. Add the honey and a tiny bit of milk, stirring until all the sugar is absorbed, adding more milk as needed.

Apply glaze while the cake is warm. The glaze will soak into the cake a bit and leave a shiny sweetness on the crunchy peaks.

Felicia & AJ’s Enchilada Casserole

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Charlie had surgery recently, so we haven’t been doing a lot of cooking. Our wonderful friends Felicia and AJ, however, came all the way down from Western Massachusetts to help us out one Saturday. They did some laundry, entertained us, and made us an enchilada casserole.

These are the awesome people who gave us the recipe for this dish. We only tweaked it a little.

Normally, I’m terrified of anything with the word “casserole” in it. I didn’t grow up eating “tuna noodle surprise casserole with crunchy potato chip topping” or anything like that. It just isn’t something I’m used to eating. I have been slightly envious, however, of the people who seem to be able to just line up a bunch of ingredients, pop them in a dish, and have dinner piping hot out of the oven a little while later. Plus, with those darling faces reassuring me, how could I have not believed that it was delicious?

I know that most of my posts feature extremely scratch-baked items, but this meal was too delicious to pass up. It’s a quasi-homemade dish that freezes really well, and it would also be a great potluck dish.

As Felicia mentioned in an email responding to me begging her for directions on how to make this, you can change the proportions, add extra veggies, leave out something you hate, make it spicier if you want, and so on. It’s just a great base and an easy to assemble meal.

This quantity makes two 9×13″ pans, but believe me, you’re going to want them. You’ll want seconds, and then you’ll want to put some in the fridge and some in the freezer to eat very soon.

Ingredients

1 zucchini, chopped
3/4 cup frozen (or fresh, if you happen to have it) corn
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 container of mushrooms, chopped
16-24 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cans of refried beans
1 large can enchilada sauce
2 packages (of eight) whole wheat tortillas

If you want to go wild, you could throw in a couple teaspoons of cumin and/or garlic powder, a little chili powder, and a hint of coriander when you assemble your bean mixture. (I added all of those things.)

Directions

Sauté the garlic and onions in a pan with a bit of olive oil until the onions are soft. Add the zucchini, green pepper, and mushrooms, and continue cooking briefly. Do not overcook.

Remove from heat. In a large bowl, combine refried beans, cooked vegetables, and any spices you may desire. Mix well. Add the corn.

Assemble the enchiladas by adding a small scoop of the bean mixture to each tortilla, sprinkle a bit of cheese, then roll it up. Do not tuck in the ends. Place the tortilla face down in the pan so that it does not unroll, then move on to the next. You should be able to fit two rows of four. (You’ll repeat this process in a second pan, or later if you only have one.)

Once your tortillas are all in the pan, pour half the enchilada sauce over the top until none of the tortillas are showing. You may need to spoon some from crevices to ensure complete coverage. Sprinkle more cheese on the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is melty and the sauce is bubbling.

Super Moist Pumpkin Coconut Bread

My partner had surgery recently, so I haven’t done any cooking at all in the past three weeks. My mom made us some meals, I made a lasagna and froze it in portions before the surgery, our friends have ordered us takeout, and so on. So, I thought I’d post some of my archived recipes that I’ve been meaning to move over here anyway.

I’m shocked and dismayed to see that I never put a pumpkin bread recipe up here in the fall. This vegan pumpkin bread recipe that calls for coconut milk to keep it super moist is one of my favorites. As with any pumpkin bread I make, I sometimes improvise, throwing in raisins, seeds, nuts, currants, or whatever else I have on hand, either in the loaf or on top, but it’s also delicious just as is.

Just a note, this recipe is enough for two loaf pans, so you’ll either need two, or you’ll need to spend a lot of time as you cool one, pop it out of the pan, and start again. You could also probably put it in a 10 cup bundt pan, but don’t quote me on that… I haven’t tested it yet.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup flaked coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8″ x 4″ loaf pans.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add the pumpkin puree, oil, and coconut milk, and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Fold in the flaked coconut or reserve to sprinkle on top. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

Bake for 50-60 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven, and cover loaves tightly with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil, and turn out onto a cooling rack. Tent loosely with the foil, and allow to cool completely.

Fragranced Whole Wheat Bread

Served here with butter and honey, and raspberry jam, and tea.

I’ve made brownies and cookies and cupcakes galore in my new KitchenAid Mixer, but I haven’t baked bread since before I herniated some discs in my back in July, as I was slowly easing my way back into baking, and baking bread was usually part of an all day baking fest for me.

The other day, however, I finally got around to making some. We were supposed to go visit our friends Kai and Sarah in the city on Saturday, and I was going to bring a loaf for us to have with dinner, or just for them to have, but unfortunately, I ran out of spoons, and Charlie was tired, too. It was a rainy day, and we’d been trying to finish getting our room organized and reassembled after painting it a few weeks ago. Sadly, our dinner date didn’t happen, but the bread did.

Well, I will definitely be making bread a lot more frequently now that I have this mixer! I knew that getting it would help me when my hands hurt, but I never imagined how much. The dough hook does a wonderful job of kneading the dough for you, saving my arthritic hands from doing a whole lot of work. Of course, you can still make this recipe if you’re kneading with your good ol’ hands attached to your body. It will just take you a few minutes longer than it took me.

A few notes about the recipe:

• Since this recipe calls for scalded milk, I suggest trying something interesting like an herb infusion. There’s instructions how to do that below.

• While you could use entirely whole wheat flour, that can make a reall dense loaf. The bread flour has a higher gluten content, making it a bit chewier, and adding a bit of white flour makes the loaf slightly lighter.

• Why do I have to scald the milk? Can’t I just dump it in?

KitchenSavvy tells us that there’s some evidence that some of the proteins in milk might make your bread not rise as well, so it’s better to go ahead and do it. Besides, then you get to add the yummy herb infusion!

Ingredients

*Makes two loaves. I made one round in a 9″ pie tin, and one traditional loaf shaped.

5 teaspoons active dry yeast dissolved in 4 tablespoons hot water

2 2/3 cups milk
1/2 cup oil (optional… I’m fairly sure I forgot this and mine turned out great, though your bread will last longer if you include this)

1/2 cup molasses (honey is also ok if you don’t have molasses)
5 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
a few stalks of a fresh herb (optional – I used rosemary)

Directions

First, scald the milk by heating it in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat. If using an herb, add it to the milk now. Stir it occasionally until it is steaming and small bubbles appear around the edges, but don’t let it boil.

Strain the milk and let it cool.

In your stand mixer (or a large nonmetallic bowl), combine the yeast/hot water mixture, whole wheat flour, bread flour, white flour, oil, molasses, salt, and cooled, scalded, strained milk. If using a stand mixer, use the dough hook to knead for about 4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth. (If kneading by hand, knead for about 6-8 minutes.)

Divide the dough into two parts. Place in two separate lightly greased nonmetallic bowls and cover with a slightly damp towel. Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes in a warm location.

Lightly grease the container (such as a loaf pan, but I also used a 9″ pie pan), then shape each loaf into each pan. Cover loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let rise for another 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F for 20 minutes, then tent with aluminum foil. Bake for another 15-20 minutes depending on the shape of the loaf, for a total of 35-40 minutes. King Arthur’s Flour recommends the nifty trick of testing it for doneness by removing it from the pan and tapping it on the bottom. If it sounds hollow, it’s done!

Cool on a wire rack and store in a plastic bag.

Sneaky Apple Pancakes

This morning I woke up before Charlie did, so I snuck out of bed (not an easy feat, since I sleep on the inside next to a wall) and got to the kitchen. I haven’t been able to do a lot of independent cooking and baking lately because my arthritis in my hands has been flaring and I’ve actually had worse pain since getting some epidurals for my herniated discs this week. I loathe relying too heavily on others, despite the fact that Charlie is wonderful and helps me out immensely when I need it. In spite of my reluctance, I have actually decided to ask some friends to help me out with some things from now on.

But, since I wasn’t feeling awful this morning, and since I managed to sneak out of bed without waking him, I decided to get some pancakes going before he woke up. We had the first round of apples in our farm share this week. A few of them have been munched through already, but we had a few left standing for pancakes. I made the batter in my new KitchenAid Mixer, had a cup of coffee, woke up Charlie, and he made the pancakes.

These pancakes are sneaky not only because I had to sneak out of bed to make them, but also because the apples are grated and aren’t in huge chunks, so they’re a bit of a delicious surprise.

*Note: If you’d like to make these pancakes vegan, simply substitute 1 tablespoon flax seed + 3 tablespoons warm water, mixed well, for the egg, and your preferred unsweetened non-dairy milk.

Ingredients

1 large apple, peeled and grated
1/2 cup 1% milk, plus a little extra to thin batter if necessary
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/3 cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl. So, toss in your grated apples, your oil, your beaten egg, milk, and applesauce. Give it a good stir.

Combine all the dry ingredients in another bowl, in my case, my stand mixer bowl. So, your flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, brown sugar, and baking soda. Mix your dry ingredients well.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix just to moisten.

Lightly grease a non-stick skillet with spray oil and heat griddle on medium heat. Working in batches, spoon 1/4 cup batter onto the grill. If the batter is too thick, add a bit more milk or water to the remaining batter. Cook until golden and bubbling (2 to 3 minutes), then turn and continue to cook 1 minute.

Serve pancakes with the traditional warm maple syrup, or do what I did, and top with warm applesauce, a bit more cinnamon, and sprinkle a few chopped nuts on top. Yum!

Summer Pumpkin Muffins (with blueberries, coconut, and cashews)

I love baking with pumpkin, but during the summer months, dense pumpkin breads with deep, spicy tastes like cloves and nutmeg can really weigh you down. Many of my recipes originate from having something in the fridge that was about to go off, and in this case, it was blueberries. I thought about mixing pumpkin and blueberries, and then when I was at work, I was snacking on blueberries and cashews together, and I thought that those were lovely together, too. I often throw coconut in with my pumpkin breads, and that seemed like a good idea too. All of a sudden, a jumble of tastes were together. now how to spice it up?

I did use the traditional cinnamon and nutmeg, but I dropped the cloves. I also reduced the nutmeg from what I usually use in a pumpkin bread recipe and added cardamom, which I usually use with citrus items to bring out a really bright flavor.

This is one of my “healthier” recipes… I used whole wheat flour, light coconut milk, cut back the oil and swapped in applesauce, and it’s vegan, so there’s no eggs.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tablespoon milled flax seed
2 tablespoons warm water
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup light coconut milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cashews, crushed
1 pint blueberries (make sure all the stems are removed)
flaked coconut to sprinkle on top (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two regular sized muffin tins with liners.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom.

In a separate bowl, mix the flax with the warm water and stir until a goopy mixture is created. Add the pumpkin puree, oil, applesauce, and coconut milk, and stir until all wet ingredients are blended.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Fold in the cashews. Gently fold in the blueberries. Scoop into prepared muffin tins, and, if desired, sprinkle coconut on top.

Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on racks.

Vegetarian Lasagna of Doom

This has got to be one of the best vegetarian lasagnas I’ve ever made (or even tasted). It’s got to be one that’s recorded in blog history.

One of the key things about making lasagna is having enough sauce. Don’t be shy with it! It helps keep everything moist, and if you’ve ever had a dried out lasagna, you know how important that is. I like to use two kinds, a red sauce and a white sauce. The white sauce is easy to whip up from scratch, but if you’re in a pinch or extremely lazy, you can use alfredo sauce in a jar, though they’re not exactly the same thing.

The other thing I prefer about making lasagna… I hate those no-cook noodles, the ones that you put in still hard. It’s weird to me. I grew up watching the biggest pot we had boiling with lasagna noodles, and getting to eat the curly edges that were leftover. What fun is making a lasagna if you don’t get to eat the curly edges first? So, I recommend the noodles that you have to cook before you layer them in… I think they taste better, too.

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (we prefer baby bella mushrooms, but tend to go with whatever looks the freshest)
perhaps 2 cups? of spinach trimmed
1 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped
1 jar of vegetarian tomato sauce of your choice, preferably something with lots of vegetable chunks in it
lasagna noodles (you probably only need a half box because of all the veggies, unless you have a super deep lasagna pan)
16 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz brick of mozzarella cheese (whole milk or part-skim, not fat-free)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Eggplant:
1 small to medium eggplant, sliced lengthwise
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, dried parsley, dried oregano to taste
1-2 eggs
Oil for frying

White Sauce:

1/2 cup butter
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk or light cream
1 cup vegetable stock
1/8 tsp salt
about 5 sprigs parsley (optional)
one huge piece of green garlic (optional)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

White Sauce:

Melt butter, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly add milk or cream and vegetable stock; stir until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add salt.

If you’ve got some fresh parsley handy, you should grab maybe five sprigs of that and the tops of some green garlic. Don’t chop it in any way. Leave it whole and just toss it into the sauce. Let it cook for a few more minutes on low heat, stirring constantly, then strain off the parsley and garlic. Add a bit of parmesan cheese to the sauce if desired.

Eggplant Preparation:

Before you can start layering, you’ve got to fry the eggplant because in this recipe, it’s almost like a eggplant parm/lasagna combo.

Mix breadcrumb ingredients of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, flour, oregano, salt, pepper, and parsley in a flat tray or plate. In a separate tray, scramble the eggs. Take your eggplant slices and coat them one at a time in egg, then dredge them in the breadcrumb mixture.

Pan fry them in a generous amount of oil at medium-high heat until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side. Remove from pan and let them drain on a mesh spatter shield or a paper towel.

Lasagna:

Prepare pasta according to package directions. If you’re not using a disposable pan, I recommend that you put down a layer of aluminum foil before you begin for easier cleanup later.

Coat the bottom of the pan with a layer of red sauce, then alternate between vegetables, cheeses, fried eggplant, sauces, and noodles until you run out of ingredients or reach the top of the pan. Toss in the fresh oregano and some parmesan cheese along the way, if you feel so inclined. Be sure to reserve enough sauce and mozzarella cheese to cover the entire top of the pan, otherwise your noodles will be hard and your veggies will dry out.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees. After 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese begins to brown. (The foil on top prevents the cheese from browning too much too quickly.)

Let the lasagna cool for at least 15-20 minutes once it’s out of the oven, or it will be a soupy mess!

If you’re not serving a crowd, I recommend putting a few slices in the fridge for consumption soon, and the rest in the freezer. When freezing the lasagna, make sure that you freeze it in the portion size you’d want to eat it in, since sawing through a frozen casserole is never any fun. Cut slices and put them into little gladware containers, let them cool (until they’re no longer steaming) and then pop them in the freezer for a great meal in a week or a month.