Sourdough Surprises: Peanut Butter Pumpkin Protein bars

I'm all about pumpkin everything. Any squash, for that matter. My breakfast yogurt is sweetened with butternut squash daily. And if you have a glut of zuchinni over the summer, I'll eat it a lot faster than you might think.

However, I don't do much with pumpkin baking wise because I'm generally the only one that eats it. This has already been pretty much the death of this blog...me, the one who behaves around food, eating one piece of cake a day and the rest of the family forgetting it was there.

So how did I get around that for this month's Sourdough Surprises challenge? Make something only I was going to eat anyway – protein bars!

I've mentioned my love of protein and snack bars on this blog before. Getting my protein needs in is especially challenging now as the holidays and family birthdays drag me from one party to the next where I'm pretty much eating snack food. So, I decided to try and make the changes I wanted to my old bar recipe, using pumpkin in place of banana!

The new recipe:

Sourdough Peanut Butter Pumpkin Protein Bars

Makes 9

1 cup sourdough starter

1/2 cup flavored peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup (3 scoops) vanilla whey protein powder

2 cups quick cooking oats

Combine all ingredients. Carefully spread in an 8x8” greased baking pan. Bake at 350 just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Cut into bars and enjoy!

I probably shouldn't have increased the oats by that much...a cup and a half probably would have been sufficient and it cut into the sweetness of the bar. Still, it's another lesson learned and a potential recipe for my other project, Junk Food Fittie.

Check out our other awesome pumpkin creations!

Sourdough Surprises: Red Velvet Filled Croissants

I'm a bad food blogger I suppose, seeing how many pictures of recipes I've made are on my computer with no corresponding blog post. It's one of the things I love about Sourdough Surprises. Once a month at least, I need to sit down at my computer and blog. Oh, that and I am challenged to make something either a). I've never heard of or b). Would never intend to make in a million years.

This month's Sourdough Surprises falls into the latter category. While I can't say I've taken completely after my nothing-from-scratch mother, I'm also not one to put hours of effort into one project. Still, a challenge is a challenge...and I am up for that task.

I've made several recipes from Sourdough Recipes from Richard Packham and can honestly say I've yet to be disappointment. I chose to start with his croissant recipe (modified, since despite the recent cold front I inevitably need less liquid and more flour for any bread recipe). And since I seldom approach Sourdough Surprises with plain in mind, I found some Wilton Red Velvet Candy Melts I had bought on clearance after Valentine's Day that I thought I should use up.

Sourdough Red Velvet Filled Croissants

Adapted from Sourdough Recipes

Makes 12 croissants

Ingredients:

1/2 cup starter

5 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups flour, divided

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter

36 pieces Wilton Red Velvet Candy Melts

Combine starter, water, 2 tablespoons sugar and 3/4 cup flour. Let sit, covered, overnight.

Slice butter onto wax paper. Cover with more wax paper and press into 9x9” square. Chill at least one hour.

Add remaining ingredients to starter mixture. Chill for about 1/2 hour.

On a well-floured surface, quickly roll out the cold dough into a

rectangle about 15" x 10". Cut the cold butter in half and place

one slab of butter across the center one-third of the dough. Fold

one end of the dough over the butter, and then place the other half-

slab of butter on it. Then fold the last third of the dough over

the butter, forming a package of dough-butter-dough-butter-dough,

about 10" x 5". Pinch the edges together so that there is no butter

showing.

Quickly roll out this package of dough and butter into a rectangle

about 10" x 15". Fold it again into thirds, forming a package about

10" x 5"; roll it out one more time, fold into thirds, and chill in the

refrigerator at least an hour.

Repeat the previous step once more (roll out to 10" x 15", fold in thirds,

roll out and fold again, roll out, fold, chill).

Prepare a large jelly-roll pan by greasing lightly. (Do not use rimless

cookie sheets.)

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 10" x 15". Cut the dough

into six 5" x 5" squares, then cut each square diagonally forming

twelve triangles, 5" x 5" x 7". Flatten each triangle to about 1/8 thick-

ness, by rolling from the longest side to the point, stretching it until

the point is about 8" from the longest side. Place 3 candy melts along long edge. Starting at the longest side, roll it up tightly. Turn so that the point is underneath the roll, then bend the two ends so that they curl around toward the point. Place each croissant on the pans. Let rise in a warm place about

one hour.

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees. Bake the croissants 20 minutes,

then turn off the oven and let them sit in the warm oven an additional

10 minutes.

This ranks as one of the most intensive and messy recipes I've ever made. Again in spite of the cold front, the dough was still getting warm by the time I was rolling them, getting butter all over my kitchen counter and causing them to fall apart. And in spite of their bad looks...it was worth it. They were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately the rest of my family thought so too. They were gone within a day.

So perhaps I will have to do this again...both to use up the rest of the candy and so I can get more than two!

Check out our other awesome croissant creations!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sourdough Surprises: Monkey Bars

(Apologies for the late post – my computer spent 10 days in repair and blogging from my phone wasn't feasible).

Why had I never made granola bars?

I'm on a high protein diet and I have a major sweet tooth. My local Vitamin Shoppe knows me by name and knows I'll never leave without protein powder or bars. I eat some sort of protein bar every day. I love to cook and bake. Seems like it's easy to put two and two together, right?

I have my reasons (convenience, mainly), but Sourdough Surprises challenged us to make granola bars. It was a curious possibility (I'd never heard of using any flour based binders before). Still, especially as I have my sourdough protein project that I occasionally get to working on, it seemed like something I should take head on.

I'm actually not a fan of true granola bars (I frequently take them to work, where the Florida heat melts the binder and turns them to a sticky crumbly mess), and with the flour in the sourdough starter, it made sense to make them more cake like – sort of like the Kashi Soft Baked bars. Not having a whole lot of similar recipes to go on (and a half-empty jar of Peanut Butter & Co White Chocolate Wonderful calling my name) I got inventive:

Sourdough Monkey Bars

Makes 8 bars

1/2c sourdough starter
1/4c Peanut Butter & Co White Chocolate Wonderful
1 large banana
1 scoop (1/3 cup) vanilla whey protein  powder
1 cup quick cooking oats

Mix everything but oats in a blender. Pour over oats & toss to coat. Spread in a greased 8" square pan & bake for 10 minutes at 350.

Simple enough (although the peanut butter flavor got lost behind the vanilla and banana). They also were not pocket friendly, meaning I couldn't take them to work. As far as taste goes, though, they were definitely on par with some of my favorite commercially produced bars. I will probably be playing with this recipe for the Sourdough Protein project.

On the other hand...why would I make my own when I can find things like this?

Check out our other awesome Granola Bars!

An InLinkz Link-up

Shine Supper Club: Spiced Peanut Butter and Melted Banana Sandwich Spread

Even though I can't eat much in the way of bread anymore, with my nutty work schedule, I can certainly appreciate the simple convenience of a sandwich. So when, two days before I'm supposed to leave for vacation, I got a call from work asking me to come in early the next day, I knew what my lunch would be. And it just so happened that the Shine Supper Club is doing Sandwiches this month.

So I had a major challenge: Come up with something I could eat on the way, would hold up in the heat, and all in a matter of about 6 hours. Oh, and my mother happened to have just used up all but the last heel of the bread.

I've been somewhat obsessed recently with a couple of things. One is a blog called Chocolate CoveredKatie, full of healthy dessert ideas. Another is PB2, a powdered peanut butter that, while not convenient to mix and use as a peanut butter replacement, is wonderful for mixing into smoothies, yogurt, pancakes...or sandwich spread.

So I combined two things. I used CCK's Melted Banana trick, and mixed the caramelized banana with PB2 and cinnamon with just a little water to thin it out.

The “recipe”:

Spiced Peanut Butter and Melted Banana Sandwich Spread

Enough for one sandwich

1/2 large banana

2 tblsp PB2

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Water, enough to thin to desired consistency.

1-2 slices of bread (I don't folding over for a half sandwich, but it does make for a thick sandwich)

1. In a covered bowl, microwave banana in 20 second intervals, mashing with a fork between intervals, until banana is completely mushy. (About 3 sessions in my microwave).
2. Mix in PB2 and cinnamon, adding water to achieve desired consistency.
3. Spread over bread slice and enjoy!

They say necessity is the mother of invention. While I may go back to my old standbys, though, this is one to keep in the aresenal. It held up until I got to work without making an absolute mess, and still tasted good when I got there.

Sometimes I bring a cold cut sandwich, sometimes peanut butter and jelly, sometimes it's cream cheese and olive and other times I grab something from the drive thru on the way. When I'm in the mood for something different, though, I know what I will turn to.

Sourdough Surprises: Buffalo Flatbread Crackers

I almost missed this month's SourdoughSurprises challenge. It seems a little crazy that one long weekend in Western New York can throw off my whole month. I'd been struggling with inspiration and figured I'd bake when I got back, but before I knew it...it was the 18^th and I still hadn't made my crackers.

However, one benefit to my trip was inspiration. Other than the traditional Polish fare that I was expecting at my family reunion, I had three treats I wanted more than anything and can't get in Florida: A Tim Horton's S'mores donut (which they apparently don't have anymore), orange chocolate sponge candy, and traditional chicken wings.

I finally got my wings at the Anchor Bar at the Buffalo Airport just before I left, but I was still wanting more. (Then again, I can always go for good chicken wings). So what better way to flavor my sourdough crackers than Buffalo-style hot sauce?

Before I ramble on too much, the modifications I made to the recipe (summer humidity is making baking a challenge):

Buffalo-Style Sourdough Flatbread Crackers

Adapted from C Mom Cook

1 cup Sourdough Starter

1 1/4 cup flour

3 tablespoons prepared Buffalo wing sauce (or 1 1/2 tablespoons each melted butter and hot sauce of choice)

Combine flour, starter, and butter.  Add enough flour to form a stiff ball.  Cover and let sit aside for at least 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes has passed roll dough out very thin. Cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter and repeat until all dough is used. Prick with a fork and brush with Buffalo wing sauce.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. Begin checking at 10 minutes (I did not roll mine out thin enough, so they took 16 minutes to become crispy). Let cool on cookie sheet before transferring to a storage container.

So a little pressed for time, I didn't make them perfectly. My original intention was also to top them with some Ranch and chicken, so I made them a little too big. Mistakes aside, they tasted pretty good. While I can't say they were a complete success, they certainly weren't a failure.

Now I just have to fix that donut craving...

Check out our other awesome flatbreads!

Sourdough Surprises: Red Velvet Cake

If there's one thing I like baking more than anything, it's cake.

Cake is such an integral part of my family's food habits that it was one of my niece's first words. When I made my first foray in sourdough baking outside Amish Friendship Bread, it was the Sourdough Mocha Cake. Now I've made a coffee cake and a couple of mini sourdough chocolate cakes in the microwave.

One thing that has eluded me was Red Velvet Cake. Anyone who knows me well knows I can always make an exception to my attempt-to-eat-healthier habits for a taste of rich red chocolatey goodness with cream cheese frosting. It's been my birthday cake for as long as I can remember. It's made with buttermilk, so I figured I could make a sourdough version. My only attempt at it was using my grandmother's Red Waldorf Cake recipe, in my early days of sourdough baking. But while it tasted good, the texture wasn't red velvet, and with recipes catching my eye left and right, another attempt was on the back burner. Then SourdoughSurprises came out with the cake challenge for March – and I knew it was time.

Back when I made my first attempt, I looked up all the possible solutions for the coarser crumb problem. I came up with using cake flour instead, or baking it at a lower temperature for a longer time. Then I found this recipe, which in the accompanying post mentions the use of acid creating a too-coarse crumb. My grandmother's recipe used vinegar, so I decided for my next attempt I would use this recipe, as it was (only swapping out the buttermilk for the sourdough starter).

The recipe:

Sourdough Red Velvet Cake

Adapted from Veronica's Cornucopia

3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 (1 lb) box light brown sugar (about 2 ¼ cups)
3 tablespoons red food coloring
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 ¾ cups ripe sourdough starter

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 9” cake pans with baking spray and set aside. Sift flour with the cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
2. Cream butter, brown sugar, food coloring and vanilla together. Beat until well aerated and pale. Alternately add dry ingredients and sourdough starter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing until combined after each addition.
3. Scoop into prepared cake pans and spread as evenly as possible. Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

The first thing I noticed was just how high these babies rose:

I keep meaning to get into cake decorating – it's a natural progression for a cake baker – but slightly pressed for time, I opted for packaged cream cheese frosting and the more traditional crumb decoration. I didn't have quite enough frosting to finish the sides and at least swipe my decorator come. Plus, they baked up so high that I had way, way too many crumbs after trimming to use them as a cake to top them with. (I ended up making a kind of “cake pop pudding” with them, mixing them with vanilla yogurt. It was quite yummy that way).

As soon as I cut into the cake, I didn't even have to taste it. I knew I had it. It was slightly overbaked, but the texture was fine and velvety. And it still had that familiar red velvet flavor.

It eluded me for a long time. Now I not only have my red velvet cake, but a homemade sourdough version. It's probably my proudest baking success yet.

Now if I can just work on my decorating skills...

Check out our other awesome cakes!

Light Orange Soda Cupcakes

It seems like whenever I most need sweets, I don't have time to bake.

In case you haven't heard, the NHL lockout is officially and utterly over – and that means this wannabe baker has regular work again. It also means that I don't have nearly as much time in the kitchen, much less time to blog about it.

Diet soda cake is nothing new to me. I was introduced in the early 2000's when I was on Weight Watchers for my sister's wedding. A box of cake mix and a can of diet soda is all it takes. It comes out super moist, although it falls apart easily.

Generally, people use lemon-lime soda for yellow cakes and diet cola (or the variations) for chocolate cakes. A while back, I got the idea to try and recreate the flavor of one of my favorite from-up-north treats: Orange Chocolate. Why not use orange soda and chocolate cake?

Unfortunately, whenever I bought orange soda, it kept disappearing. So I took a permanent marker, wrote “NEEDED FOR BAKING” on it and then...procrastinated. Until now. With a couple of days off, into the kitchen I went.

Like I said, without any eggs or oil in the cake, it does fall apart easily. Therefore, I prefer them made as cupcakes with paper liners – even though I despise cupcake wrappers almost as much as I despise trying to make sure my cupcakes/muffins are of equal size. The recipe also only makes about three quarters of what the box says. I wound up with 19 cupcakes.

The benefit of the crumbly, moist texture is that you can go with a much lighter frosting. With a package of whipped topping in the pantry, I opted to use that and added a packet of hot chocolate mix to it.

Need an official recipe?

Diet Orange Soda Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen

Cake:

1 box Chocolate Fudge Cake mix

1 can (12oz or 1 1/2 cup) diet orange soda

Frosting:

1 packet whipped topping mix

Milk and vanilla as called for on box

1 packet of hot cocoa mix

Mix cake mix and soda in a large mixing bowl. Scoop batter into paper-lined muffin tin, filling about 2/3 full

Bake as according to instructions on box. Cupcakes will be done on the lower end of the time range given. Cool on a wire rack.

Prepare whipped topping as directed. Mix in hot cocoa mix until well combined.

Spread topping on completely cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

As far as chocolate cupcakes are concerned, these were good. However, while there was definitely something different about them, you couldn't really taste the orange flavor. Perhaps if I'd used a regular chocolate cake mix, the orange might have shone through a little more.

Best yet, each iced cupcake works out to a whole 130 calories. Sure, health nuts will probably go off on me about the trans fats in the whipped topping and the artificial sweeteners in the soda, but I firmly believe that eventually they'll discover that everything has something bad for you in it. I say enjoy, like everything else, in moderation.

Now I just need to get back to baking!

Sourdough Surprises: Babka Almost like Ciotka Polly's Paska

If there is one thing I can appreciate Sourdough Surprises for more than getting me to try new things, it's all the things I end up learning.

This month's challenge was “a sweet, swirly, enriched bread with roots in Eastern Europe” known as babka. As I clicked through all of the suggested links, I came across this one. And my first thought was that it sounded like my great aunt's paska.

No, Jessica, that would be more like exactly like your great aunt's paska. It's just another name. (“Babka” is actually Polish for “grandmother,” whereas “paska” is the Ukranian spelling of pascha, meaning Easter - when it is traditionally served.)

My great aunt sends home paska much more often than she sends home pizzelles. Doing my research, I'm not sure how traditionally Polish hers is or not. It's a kind-of-sweetened bread with raisins mixed in, until you get to the streusel topping. I'm not totally fond of it, save for the streusel. But it's a challenge, and I had an additional challenge this month: Make my family proud.

The regional and cultural variations on babka/paska seem to vary from the brioche rolled out and filled with a filling, as Sourdough Surprises suggests, to a coffee cake that is traditionally made in a bundt-style pan flavored with raisins and orange peel. (So my great aunt's is more of a cross between the two.) After some searching, I found King Arthur Flour's recipe, which seemed pretty similar to Aunt Polly's. I played with it some to make it as close to the familiar recipe as possible.

My gut said that this might not work, owing to the small amount of liquid and the relatively large amount of yeast. My first attempt didn't rise, so I added a half teaspoon of baking soda.

And what do you know, it worked! It's cakier in texture than Aunt Polly's, and I used a different streusel. Otherwise, it's pretty spot on.

The recipe I settled on:

Sourdough Paska

Inspired by Ciotka Polly & adapted from King Arthur Flour

Makes 1 loaf

Bread

• 
  
  1/2 cup fresh sourdough starter

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup softened butter

• 2 cups flour
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
  

Streusel

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and mix well
2. Add all other ingredients except for raisins. Mix until combined. Dough will be very wet.
3. Gently fold in raisins. Cover and allow to rest for 1 hour.
4. Spread dough in a loaf pan sprayed with baker's spray. Cover and allow to rest 1/2 hour, while oven is preheating to 350 degrees.
5. Prepare the streusel. Melt butter in microwave. Mix in other ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Spread over dough.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.

Like I said, I've never been all that fond of paska/babka. But something about having made such an accurate analog to the family recipe was exciting. It happily became my breakfast:

Ciotka Polly (“Ciotka” is Polish for “aunt”) is well into her 80s now. I know that we won't be bringing home her paska for too much longer. Now, I have a sense of pride knowing that I've remade a family recipe, that I can now hand down.

And perhaps I can send one up to her next time...

Check out our other great babkas/paskas!

Shine Supper Club: Sourdough Sugar Cookies

A lot of years ago (in fact, I think I was still in junior high), I finished a batch of Christmas sugar cookies. Being home alone at the time, I decided to be nice and bake a new batch. I went to town with a cookie cutter and sanding sugar. My mother wasn't at all upset that she got hardly any out of the batch I finished – she was more impressed by the cookies. It's been a tradition of mine to ever since to bake her sugar cookies before Christmas ever since. And with the Shine Supper Club doing holiday dishes, I decided to share my tradition.

For a few years, I deviated from that tradition a little, baking sourdough soft pretzels and rolling them out like cookies (still topped with sanding sugar though!), thanks to my new-found love of sourdough baking and my lack of sourdough sugar cookies. Now I happened to find a sourdough sugar cookie recipe. Perfect.

I used the almond variation of this recipe, and omitted the frosting. I'm not against frosting, but who needs the extra calories this time of year? Fortunately, these cookies are sweet and soft enough to go without it.

The recipe:

Sourdough Sugar Cookies

Adapted very slightly from King Arthur Flour

Makes 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on how big your cookie cutter is

1 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract or almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sourdough starter, active
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Sanding sugar or other desired decorations

In a large bowl, cream vegetable shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs, lemon or almond extract and vanilla extract until mixture is fluffy. Stir in sourdough starter; set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into sourdough mixture. Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour or overnight ( helps firm dough etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured board, roll dough to 1/4-inch thick; cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if desired.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until very lightly browned (for me, it was about 15 minutes, but my cookies were on the large side). Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
When cool, frost and decorate as desired.



Other than taking a little longer than specified to bake (and 90 minutes was not quite enough time to chill!), I can't tell you how pleased I am with these cookies. Coupled with my Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies (and another recipe I've made for Sourdough Surprises, coming up on December 20^th!), these are perfect for an all-sourdough cookie tin.

And on that note...how did one lonely red grain of sanding sugar get on this green Christmas Tree?

Sourdough Surprises: Kit Kat Scones

Ah, scones. There's something comforting about them. Back in college, briefly, my mother and I both worked at the mall. We had a tradition: If we started and ended within a half hour of each other, one of us drove and the other bought drinks and munchies from this little smoothie shop in the food court. Sometimes I'd get a muffin, other times I'd get a scone. Then there was my high school band trip to Scotland. Scones are, in fact, a Scottish creation. They were also one of the few foods I ate that tasted like I was used to. (Seriously – I lost eight pounds in two weeks over there, the food was so unpalatable. I didn't get a decent meal until the last day, Fish and Chips at the Allan Water Cafe in Sterling. After two weeks of hardly eating, I couldn't finish it). Plus, I've made them before – although it was so long ago, I think I was still using the milk and sugar starter from the Friendship bread. So I was very excited to have this month's Sourdough Surprises be scones.

That aside, it's still that time of year. All of the birthday cakes are gone and forgotten until March, but we still haven't finished the leftover Halloween candy (why do we always end up with at least three extra unopened bags, Mom?) Plus, Thanksgiving is this Thursday already? And then you have Christmas, with the baking I'm expected to do and the obligatory parties...more than enough to make those of us who watch what we eat fits.

That leftover candy, though, had me thinking. I've made this Twix Cheesecake Pie a few times, and substituted Kit Kat Miniatures one time. One of those extra bags just happened to be Kit Kat Miniatures. While I love that they are fall patterned and not Halloween themed, pretty soon we'll be getting out Winter themed stuff and the fall leaves will be obsolete. So I decided to chop a bunch of them up and knead them into the scone dough.

I did use the recipe I made before, still in my cookbook:

Sourdough Scones

Adapted from Group Recipes

Makes 16. How many that actually serves is debatable.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar (I used Splenda this time. It only saves a couple calories per scone – but I'm trying to use it up!)
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 7 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/4c sourdough starter
• 2 cups coarsely chopped Kit Kat bars (24 miniatures)

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients.
3. Cut in the butter.
4. Mix in the starter.
5. Lightly work the dough on a floured surface until no longer sticky.
6. Knead in Kit Kats until just incorporated
7. Divide into four parts, and shape each part into a circle 1/2" thick.
8. Cur each circle into 4 parts.
9. Place on a lightly greased sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.
   

I made these in the morning, worked out and had lunch and ran a couple errands. But when I got back, I dove into one:

The original recipe recommends serving them with a “sour marmalade.” But I think I like these just the way they are.

Check out our group's other awesome scones:

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

That time of year has to be in full swing, doesn't it? And that unfortunately means a reduction in my baking activities. Still, I can't resist sometimes. After all, we're supposed to indulge a little this time a year. Just a little.

Last year – right about this time of year, actually – my local grocery store had these red velvet cookies from the bakery. I am a sucker for pretty much anything red velvet. On the other hand, neither my mother nor I were willing to shell out $5 for a dozen cookies. I had since vowed to make my own and found several recipes – I just keep finding every other recipe that I need to try first.

A few months ago, my aunt made these cream cheese cake mix cookies. She went on and on about how easy they were. And they were good. Not just good, heavenly. Of course, I requested the recipe, and she happily obliged (Pretty much the same recipe found here). As it turns out, they were a variation of cake mix cookies. Hers were made with yellow cake mix and regular chocolate chips. My wild imagination thought of other ideas. The first thing I thought of was red velvet. Red velvet cake isn't red velvet without cream cheese icing. A red velvet cake mix with white chocolate chips would be perfect.

This week, it finally fell into place. Most of the munchies from Halloween and Birthday Season are gone, cream cheese was on sale, and there was a box of red velvet cake mix in the pantry from another meal deal. I had no more excuses.

It seems simple enough – a box of cake mix, a brick of cream cheese, half a stick of butter, an egg, a teaspoon of vanilla and a bag of chocolate chips. What could go wrong?

My suspicion is that not all cake mixes are created equal. This particular cake mix called for more water and less oil than the other boxes presently in my pantry. It got almost impossible to mix – or even knead – after I'd mixed in about 3/4 of the cake mix. Then the chocolate chips decided that they didn't want to stay in. There was a good handful in the bottom of the bowl. They also fell apart easily. I ended up having to make them about twice as big as I normally make cookies in order to get them to stay together. Nor did they look as nice as my aunt's version.

The one thing is that they did seem to cook more thoroughly. Hers got extremely after being left in a hot car. These seemed more cookie like.

The recipe, as follows:

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

Taken from my aunt, who got it from someone who got it from a website similar to this one

Makes 3-4 dozen

Ingredients

1 box cake mix. Any flavor

8 ounces cream cheese. Room temperature

1/4 cup butter. Room temperature

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 12-oz bag of chocolate chips or 2 cups mix-ins of choice – candy bits, dried fruit, nuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add egg and vanilla and mix well until blended

3. Stir in cake mix a little at a time then add mix-ins

4. Bake for 10 minutes, until edges are brown and enjoy.

So they weren't as easy as my aunt made it out to be and they aren't things of beauty. But they taste good. There's a perfect hint of cream cheese with that rich red velvet flavor.



Some other ideas I've had:
Carrot cake mix with half raisins and half chopped nuts
Orange cake mix with dried cranberries
Strawberry cake mix with coconut



And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, I'm going to try these again, using another cake mix.



That is, unless I find other recipes to try...

Cleaning out the Pantry (with a twist): Cranberry Orange Nut Muffins

That time of year is almost in full swing. There's two big bags of candy sitting by the front door for the kids who come a-knockin' and the first of three birthday cakes have been ordered. (No, I'm not baking those. Maybe next year). Pretty soon, we'll start the Thanksgiving meal lists. Not good for those who watch their waistline. Still, I have made a vow to keep myself in the kitchen.

My father is out of town this week, and you know what they say: When the cat's away, the mice will play. My father doesn't care for fruit besides apples and bananas, so with him gone, it was time to knock out a Martha White Cranberry Orange muffin mix.

I still don't care for baking from a mix, especially another one with fake fruit. The good thing with these mixes is that they only make six muffins, meaning that they'll be gone before my father comes back with Tim Horton's donuts. (We really need to get those in Florida). Plus, there's always room for a little creativity...and getting rid of some sliced almonds as well.

I made the muffins as directed on the package, topping each one with a scant tablespoon of the sliced almonds. Then, bake as usual.

The only issue I had was that, as can probably be expected, a few of the almonds fell off getting them out of the pan. Still, I was pleased with how they turned out:

Now doesn't that look good enough to eat?

Sourdough Surprises: Mexicali Grissini

October started off so beautifully. Even with 90 some odd degree weather, the humidity dropped and the breeze made it seem like fall, as much fall as we get in Florida. And then, on the day I planned to make sourdough grissini as part of dinner for this month's Sourdough Surprises, a front comes through and stalls out. Great bread baking weather, right?

But I keep my promises. Besides, I think part of the reason for joining a group like Sourdough Surprises is the challenge. So, on to my grissini.

I'll admit that I was not looking forward to this one. Years ago, when I first started baking with sourdough, one of the first things I tried making were breadsticks. They turned out horribly. I figured we could at least feed them to the fish in the pond by my sister's house. I'm not kidding – the fish wouldn't even eat them. Still, I am up for a challenge.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to do the suggested recipe. For one, my father will not eat olives. We've found by accident he likes a few foods he didn't think he did, but I doubt I could slip that past him. And no way are my mother and I trying to eat them all. For two, my food scale broke years ago (what I get for using it to weigh my parrot) and I never replaced it. Every single sourdough grissini recipe I found called for ingredients by weight, though. So I took EatingWell.Com's grissini recipe, halved and modified for sourdough. With the addition of my filling, of course!

I played around with some ideas, trying to use up some random ingredients. Maple walnut? Chocolate? Then again, I haven't baked anything savory in a while. So I decided against desert. I was pretty sure I wanted to do something Mexican-themed, something I love very much. It took off from there.

For the second time, I cooked with Kraft Mango Chipotle dressing. It's new (there's still no link or mention of it on the Kraft website), so it might be hard to find, but get it if you can. It's delicious as a marinade, as a salad dressing, and as it turns out, a base for my breadstick filling. I think the fruitiness kind of gives it a California flavor – hence calling them “Mexicali”. I mixed that with some taco sauce as my base, sprinkled some cheese on it, and voila!

My Recipe:

Sourdough Mexicali Grissini

Adapted From EatingWell.Com

Makes 12 Grissini

Breadsticks:

6 oz fresh sourdough starter (A little over 2/3 of a cup, or 1/2 cup plus 2 tblsp)

1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting.

1 tblsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Filling

2 tblsp Kraft Mango Chipotle Dressing

1 tblsp taco sauce

1/2 cup shredded jack cheese (Mine was a combo of Monterrey and Colby Jack)

1. Mix sourdough starter, about half the flour, salt and oil in a large bowl. Add additional flour until dough is no longer sticky. Knead until smooth and elastic.
2. Lightly oil a large bowl. Roll dough in oil until coated. Cover and let rise until doubled.
3. Mix salad dressing and taco sauce.
4. Spray 2 baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, flatten each into a roughly 6”x8” rectangle. Brush with dressing mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Cut each half into 6 strips. Carefully twist and place on baking sheets.
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden

I'd suggest serving them warm out of the oven, but with my family – especially during the week – that's not going to happen. They were still very good a few hours later:

They were a little stale the next day with my lunchtime salad:

Not sure if I'll do this again anytime soon, but it worked out.

Check out our other great grissini:
 

Spooky Speculaas Moons (aka Homemade Biscoff Cookies)

There's no other explanation for this. I had a craving.

I was introduced to Biscoff as a cookie many years ago, given away on a Delta Airlines flight. I hate flying, but man I loved those cookies. One time when I wasn't with him, my father asked if he could have an extra one to take home for me. A nice flight attendant gave him a whole sleeve. I was in heaven for a week or two (that was several years ago, before the airlines hit so much financial trouble and well before my diet). They're not cheap where I live and never on sale, and seeing as I don't travel anymore, I only get one every so often when my father brings them back.

It seems like everyone is using Biscoff spread these days in their recipes as well. It's made by the same company, and supposedly tastes like the cookie. Again, it's not cheap. It's $5 a jar at my local grocery store and even more at the specialty store, and similar prices online. Deals just don't seem to be had. Yet here I am, reading recipes for Biscoff this and Biscoff that. I want some.

As it turns out, Biscoff are speculoos or speculaas cookies, which are traditionally eaten on the Feast of St. Nicholas (not Christmas) in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Northern France. Recipes are actually fairly easy to come by and are written in plain English. Some are pressed into molds, like Biscoff cookies, others are rolled. I had to do it.

I selected this recipe, because I have a big set of cookie cutters that I just bought and wanted to use for Halloween, and because I didn't want the hassle of ground/roasted/blanched almonds (they're in this recipe too, on top, and easily omitted or added as you like). I modified it somewhat, halving it and subbing allspice for aniseed out of personal preference. Neither are in the traditional mix of speculaas spices, but after baking them, I looked on the ingredients list for Biscoff and the only spice listed is cinnamon. So Biscoff aren't traditional speculaas either.

My recipe, as follows:

Spooky Speculaas Moons (aka Homemade Biscoff Cookies)

Adapted from Food.com

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting

9 tblsp butter (1/4 cup +1 tblsp, or 1 1/8 sticks)

3/4 cups packed brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tblsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground ginger

dash of salt

1. Cream butter and sugar together
2. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together. Gradually add to the creamed mixture, mixing well, until the dough forms ball
3. Roll out to about 1/4” thick. Use cookie cutters to shape into desired forms
4. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes, until lightly brown

Word of warning: these smell good. Really good. I honestly couldn't wait to seal them up because they were making me hungry. They're not quite Biscoff – a little spicier and crunchier. But they are as good as they smell. In fact, I think I like them better than Biscoff.

Now I just need to find a way to get the spread. On the other hand, there's no eggs in this dough...

I might have another project on my hands.

Easy Peasy Mocha Donut Muffins

Awhile back, as I browsed my food blogs (as I frequently do when I'm bored), I came across a review of the new Jif Hazelnut Spreads. At the time, they were so new that I hadn't seen them in the store yet. I Then I found out about the Mocha Cappuccino flavor...and I couldn't wait to get my hands on some.

To this day, my regular grocery store still doesn't carry them, but they are conveniently located near the end of an aisle at a certain supercenter I frequent, and noticed that they had been marked down. I had to do it. Even Mom agreed with me. However, with all the other baking projects that I've been trying, working with it has been pushed towards the back burner.

Last week, one of my usual blogs posted this recipe from a few years back. Three ingredient Nutella Donuts. With the small output size, it was a perfect recipe...save for one thing: I don't have a donut pan. I'm running out of room in the kitchen to store pans, even if I bought one.

But, even though I was replacing Nutella with a competitor, I'm all about recipe experimentation. So I made an adjustment and baked them in a regular muffin pan!

The first thing I noticed about the mocha spread was the smell. You can't avoid that delicious mocha smell from the second the jar gets opened. The second thing was that the look and texture are not the same as Nutella. It's kind of a cross between peanut butter and chocolate frosting.

Still, I measured out 2/3 of a cup (giving my mother the spoon I used to scoop the stuff out to lick and making sure I licked the measuring cups clean!) and mixed the ingredients. The recipe, as follows:

Easy Peasy Mocha Donut Muffins

Adapted from Lauren's Latest

Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:
2/3 cup nutella + more for glazing
1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pan with baker's spray and set aside.

2. In small bowl, combine nutella, egg, egg yolk and flour until smooth batter forms. Spoon evenly into pans and spread batter around to fill cavities evenly.
3. Bake 12-15 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.
4. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely on a wire rack.
The original recipe called for glazing with more Nutella and an optional sprinkling of hazelnuts. I didn't do that for a couple of reasons. For one, the texture of the mocha spread is not something that can easily be used to glaze like Nutella. For two...it's hard to resist eating them right off the rack. They...smell...heavenly!

If you're expecting that perfect Nutella flavor, these aren't for you. You can't taste hazelnut whatsoever. The review I read had prepped me for such. But these things are absolutely divine and were ready in just about half an hour total. Two thumbs up...and I'm going to have to buy me a few cases of this stuff!

[Virtually] Carb Free Bread

It's getting to be that time of year.

Come October, the food barrage starts. There are three birthdays within nine days in my family at the end of October and beginning of November, sandwiched around Halloween and all the candy leftovers. After all the cake and candy, you have no time to recover before Thanksgiving and Christmas give everybody who watches what they eat all kinds of temptation. Not to mention that it also starts the busier season at work, meaning meals get kind of crazy as well.

I was browsing Kirbie's Cravings yet again the other day in search of nothing in particular, and came across her Carb Free Cloud bread. It intrigued me. Carbs are not my enemy, but wheat is a big source of fructans, which is a chain of fructose that my diet limits. So, I figured, why not? It looked simple enough.

I clicked through and looked at the original recipe, along with the reviews. I liked the idea of just spreading it out on a cookie sheet and cutting it later, so that's what I did.

Another change I made to the recipe (yeah, I know, I'm good at doing that) was the addition of a half teaspoon of salt. This was also based on something in the reviews, although I knew it wouldn't mask the eggy taste.

However, there was one thing that the recipe wasn't clear on. The Kirbie's Cravings version uses a gram of sugar (roughly a quarter teaspoon), while the original calls for a “1 gram packet of artificial sweetener.” I buy both sugar and artificial sweetener in bulk bags, and one gram of artificial sweetener works out to about two teaspoons of Splenda, which supposedly is equivalent in sweetness by volume, but not weight. I'm not sure which sweetener the original creator used, and I have all this Splenda I'm trying to use up. Since I have broken every food scale I've ever owned, I went ahead and used two teaspoons of Splenda.

My version of the recipe:

[Virtually] Carb Free Bread

Adapted From Kirbie's Cravings, who adapted it from Food.com

Serves 4-12, depending on how you like your sandwiches

3 eggs, separated

3 tblsp cream cheese (about 2oz)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp Splenda Granulated

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Separate the eggs into mixing bowls. Use a large bowl for whites.
3. Mix together the egg yolks, cream cheese, Splenda and salt until smooth.
4. Add 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar to the whites and beat the whites on high speed until they form stiff peaks.(You should be able to turn the bowl upside down without the egg whites falling out.
5. Very carefully fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites by stirring clockwise with a spatula until mixed and no egg white streaks remain.
6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
7. Pour mixture onto parchment and very gently spread with a spatula.
8. Bake on the middle rack about 25 minutes or until a golden brown.
9. Carefully remove by the parchment paper and cool on a rack or cutting board
10. Once completely cool, slice into bread-sized slices (about 8) and store in a tightly sealed storage bag or container over night.

I was a very bad food blogger and didn't take any pictures of this while it was still whole. I tasted a corner of it before I sliced it up and packed it away – it pretty much tasted like scrambled eggs. Still, I packed it up and put it in the fridge.

I used it for my lunchbox chicken salad sandwich for lunch. Perhaps (and you might be able to discern this from the photo) chicken salad wasn't the best choice, as it fell apart a little. The whole breast wouldn't fit in my reusable container, though. Anyway, I forked half of the chicken salad onto each slice and ate it open face.

As far as the taste goes, the chicken salad overpowered the egg taste. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it tasted. I haven't tried it yet with peanut butter and jelly, but I think it would still work. As an added plus, it was done quickly. And, at about 50 calories for an eighth of the recipe (and about half a gram of carbs), it actually works out to be slightly less than the sliced bread I normally buy. I'm very tempted to try this with Neufchâtel or part-skim ricotta cheese to lower the calorie count even more.

Even using full fat cream cheese, it's still one to keep in the arsenal. Even if I can't stop playing with it.

Sourdough Surprises: English Muffins

Florida has its benefits – but baking real bread and related goodies over the hot, humid summer is not one of them. You have to add so much flour that, at least I believe, affects the results. Still, I discovered an online baking group: Sourdough Surprises. This month's project was English muffins. I've never before attempted baking English muffins, let alone while the humidity is still above 90%. But with my aunt in town for the weekend and some Philadelphia Indulgence Dark ChocolateCream Cheese in the refrigerator, this was just a little added incentive to try.

I followed the recommended recipe, sans cornmeal – although it took about a cup and a half more flour with the weather we've been having. The cornmeal was both a convenience choice (none on hand and its a small amount to use, and when is the next time I'm going to make cornbread?) as well as personal (I hate it when things start to flake off of my breakfast, be it sprinkles, poppy seeds or cornmeal). I didn't do it all myself. I actually worked last Thursday and needed to do this on Friday, so I fed the starter before I left and my mother helped me by doing the first step for me Thursday night, so it would be ready Friday morning.

I couldn't resist testing one out Friday, eating a post-workout egg sandwich on one. But Saturday morning was special. They were good – really good – and that dark chocolate only made it better.

So good, the only thing that could make it even better was peanut butter:

Problem solved. Yum.

Check out the other Sourdough Surprises English Muffins here:

Cleaning Out The Pantry: Blueberry Muffins

Life can most certainly get in the way of baking sometimes. Don't worry about the starter – I made pancakes last Saturday. But preparations to get the not-done-being-remodeled upstairs liveable for my aunt (who's in town for the weekend) coupled with work made for a rough week. So to make up for it (and keep my aunt happy), I had two culinary projects yesterday. One will be posted next week for an online project, but in case that didn't turn out, I had a Plan B: Krusteaz One StepBlueberry Muffins.

This particular mix had several reasons for sitting in my pantry so long. Like I've said before, my dad hates fruit, other than apples and bananas. Plus it's made with “imitation blueberries.” Unbaked, they're these little nugget things that taste like blueberries but look more like the carbon pellets I put in the filter for my turtle tank.

Having said that, I had a multitude of reasons for baking it today. One, my aunt loves my baked goods and I wasn't sure how my other project would turn out. For two, I think she's the one who gave it to us in the first place. Plus my dad is out of town and it quickly makes just a half dozen – meaning I could devote some time to Plan A and if it did work, not have a whole lot of extra baked goods.

They're also both hard to modify (there's only so much extra that will fit into the bottle) and hard to mess up. I did consider baking it in a mini loaf tin, but I wasn't sure how high it would end up baking up. So I made it exactly. It doesn't happen often.

Like most mixes, it tastes okay. I think the regular blueberry muffin mixes do taste better, though still not as good as homemade. It's not bad either though – I've certainly tasted worse things in my life.

Plus, that's one more thing out of the pantry. Until next time...

Cleaning out The Pantry: Funfetti Whoopie Pies

There's something about whoopie pies. My whole family loves them. They truly are something special, but they're also normally a labor of love. I don't particularly like making them – the ends just don't really justify the means. So, with various recipes saved and a Pillsbury Funfetti Whoopie Pie kit sitting in the pantry, I took a step to fix that with one of my new toys: A Wilton Whoopie Pie Pan. Now I guess I have no excuse.

Like about 90% or so of all baking mixes I've done over the years, it doesn't make exactly as many as it says it would on the box. Plus, the pan makes 12 cakes at a time. Not 24. It's more of a muffin top pan, I think – but don't tell the folks at Wilton that.

In order to compensate, I just doubled the size (which, either I was rounding the tablespoons a bit much or there weren't 24 rounded tablespoonfuls in the box) and increased the bake time to 10 minutes from 7.

Does it work? Yes. The pies came out relatively even and fit together nicely. As far as form, I have no complaints. However, the filling is just vanilla icing and sprinkles. I love marshmallows – that's my favorite part of whoopie pies. So, as far as taste goes...it was just off.

So now I need a homemade whoopie pie recipe, preferably one that doesn't make a whole dozen individual pies. And I still need to use the sourdough starter. And some more baking mixes. Oh, and I still have a few more toys I haven't gotten to use yet.

But maybe, just maybe, I can learn to enjoy making whoopie pies.