Mocha Walnut Cake

This was a great cake- although very dense. I got the recipe from my Horn of the Moon cookbook. It's made with whole wheat flour and no sugar- only honey. Although, in the end I added some powdered sugar to the icing because it just wasn't sweet enough! The flavors reminded me of the chocolate walnuts we used to get at Greektown as kids- yum!

Loaves #5 + 6: "Cracked Wheat" Bread

I have been using bulgar wheat more often in my cooking. I really like the consistency of it- I just made a great dinner of bulgar, wilted spinach, onions, garlic, and feta- very tasty! So it was perfect timing when I found this recipe on the New York Times webpage.

I haven't made a bread with a "sponge" before, but there it is- basically all the ingredients except 1/3 of the flour, some oil and some salt. The first part of this was really easy- I whisked it in my standing mixer.



After letting it rise for an hour, the directions said to fold in a cup of flour and place some more on the kneading surface before dumping the dough onto it. This turned into quite a mess until I got enough flour into the loaf! I probably added 1/4 c. extra before it stopped sticking to everything.



I only have one loaf pan so I called upon a trusty casserole dish to act as the second pan.



Observations: Next time, I will make just one loaf with this recipe- it didn't rise nearly as high as I thought it would! I have kinda stumpy loaves! Great chewy consistency- the bulgar doesn't become mushy so it has some nice graininess. Might try putting some seeds into this one.

Consumed with: toasted with butter! also, sandwiches

Pfeffernussen Cookies

I felt the urge to bake cookies yesterday and was saved from once again making my "kitchen sink" chocolate chip cookies (which are heavenly, really! but overplayed)... by the Martha Stewart Cookies book my mom gave me.



These cookies were easy to make and pack a nice surprising spice! No chocolate, but they're pretty good without! Next time I might put just a little more black pepper into them...

Recipe, by special request:
Pfeffer means "pepper" and nuss means "nut" in German

1 1/4c confectioners sugar
2 1/4c all-purpose flour
1/4t freshly ground pepper (or a bit more, I think!)
3/4t ground cinnamon
1/2t ground allspice
1/4t freshly grated nutmeg
1/4t ground cloves
1/4t baking soda
1/2c unsalted butter, room temp
3/4c packed light brown sugar
1/4c unsulfured molasses
1 large egg
1/2t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. In bowl, combine flour through baking soda and set aside. Beat butter, brown sugar and molasses in bowl of electric mixer fitter with paddle- on medium until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. With mixer on low add flour mixture, beat until just combined.

Pinch off tablespoons of dough, roll into 1 1/4" balls and arrange on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake until golden and firm to the touch with slight cracking, about 15 min. Transfer to wire rack to cool slightly, about 10 min. Put confectioners sugar in a small paper bag. Working in batches, place cookies in paper bag and shake until well coated.

Eat! And share with friends.

Awesome Ratatouille Pie!

I have been cooking dinners out of Dave's The Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes pretty regularly and have rarely been let down- except that sometimes there isn't enough spice in a dish.

The recipe for ratatouille ricotta pie that I found in there is outstanding! I could barely keep myself from eating the whole pie at once!



I cheated and bought a frozen crust at Trader Joe's- cut down on the prep time. I also dolloped extra ricotta on top of the filling before closing up the crust. The pie bubbled over quite a bit but totally worth it!

Loaf #4: Fennel and Flax

My dad read my skype tag line which noted that I'm baking bread and passed along his latest concoction. I adapted it just a bit so it would be a clear step from my last white french loaf.

Fennel and Flax
2 1/2c white flour
1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c buckwheat flour
2T ground flax
1T ground fennel
1/2 an orange finely zested
1 1/2t salt
1t sugar
1t yeast
1 1/4c water



I threw this all together in the food processor and let it rise in the fridge overnight- about 20 hours total. Let it warm to room temp about 3 hours, then formed it into a ball and let it rise 2 hours and put it into the oven at 425F for 30 min. Turned it down to 375 for the last 10 min. Turned out great! Oh, and I misted the oven three times in the first 6 minutes.



Observations: this has a really strong fennel flavor- almost overpowers the orange which I don't taste much at all. Could use a little less fennel. Might also be a slight bitterness from the buckwheat? Not sure- haven't put buckwheat in bread before. Should try it alone. Also could use a little more salt!

The yeast was very active this time- got new stuff that goes in the fridge instead of just in a packet. Might also be the teaspoon of sugar.

Consumed with: butter and ricotta cheese!

Loaf #3: Cornbread

So I know cornbread isn't a fancy long-rising bread. Its pretty quick and easy. I'm guilty of usually making it from a mix, but I figured since I'm making other bread from scratch now I might as well do this one, too. And I will NEVER use a mix again- this turned out great!

I doubled the recipe in How to Cook Everything with buttermilk and olive oil. This recipe had me pour 4T of olive oil into a large cast iron skillet and heat it up hot, then turn the heat off. I mixed the rest of the ingredients into the batter. Then I poured the batter on top of the hot oil, which of course squirted up and over the batter along the sides and made horrible looking pools on top. I thought this was going to be a disaster.



But I put the whole thing in the oven to bake and half an hour later it came out looking gorgeous! I ran it under the broiler for two minutes to brown the top up just a bit more. Big success!



Observations: this is a dense, thick cornbread. The recipe called for medium grind cornmeal and I used Arrowhead cornmeal, which is pretty finely ground (doesn't say on the package how fine). I also had a bag of bulk cornmeal from Whole Foods that was clearly a coarser grind- I might try using the coarser stuff next time to see what it does to texture.



Also, next time I will try using butter instead of olive oil- I just didn't have enough butter! The olive oil flavor was definitely present in the cornbread... I think butter will be better (especially since I often put butter on top!)

I meant to put diced fresh jalepenos in this, but completely forgot. Will do next time!

Consumed with: Mom's NYE white bean chili

Parsnip Cake, eh?

So theres a running joke here about parsnips that comes from this Homestar Runner cartoon. Strong Bad's famous line "parsnip soup, eh? we'll make parsnip pie!" has been thrown around this house for the past year.

So when I asked Dave what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, and he replied "oh, I'm not picky" I threatened that I was going to make him Parsnip Cake!

So thats what I did. I borrowed from a couple different carrot cake recipes and made my own recipe:



Parsnip Cake
2c sugar- 1 brown, 1 white
3/4c oil
mix these together. then beat in:
4 eggs
after blended, add:
2t baking soda
2t baking powder
1/2t salt
2t cinnamon
2t vanilla
1/4t nutmeg
mix together. then add:
2c whole wheat pastry flour
once fully mixed, fold in:
3c grated parsnips
1c chopped pecans
bake at 350F for 40-50min until toothpick comes out clean.



For the icing I also blended a couple recipes to create my own:

Orange Scented Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package cream cheese, room temp.
6T butter, room temp.
1 1/2c powdered sugar
1t vanilla
zest from one orange
beat together. add water 1T at a time to desired consistency.



I wasn't sure how well it would turn out -obviously it didn't smell like carrot cake, although it had a nice spicy scent to it. Frosted up beautifully and I presented it with a huge cut parsnip on top, just in case someone wasn't sure. The cake got rave reviews from everyone at the party- and second slices were had by all. Great spicy flavor, heavy cake but not very sweet, which was great! I will definitely make this one again!