Sourdough Surprises: Lightener Coffee Cake

One of the first recipes I made when I attempted to blog was coffee cake. It wasn't on my to-do list; rather it was a spur of the moment craving.

Now my to-do list is about 100 times longer, I spend my summers in a bathing suit due to my divemaster job, and Sourdough Surprises picks coffee cake as the August Challenge. So what did I do? I took my old recipe and lightened it up a touch!

Of course, my desire to look decent in a swimsuit wasn't the only motivating factor. I still used regular sugar as opposed to the stevia blends I've been experimenting with some. The egg shortage, even though my original recipe called for just a single egg, did as well. Fortunately Greek yogurt makes an excellent substitution for oil and eggs.

On that note, I'm also moving up in the world. No more endless binders full of recipes. Now I'm reading them off of a tablet:

The new recipe:

Lighter Sourdough Coffee Cake

Adapted from food.com

Serves 9

Cake:

1 cup ripe sourdough starter

1 5.3oz container vanilla Greek yogurt (I used Yoplait Greek 100)

1 cup flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Streusel

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tblsp butter

1 tblsp flour

1. Combine sourdough starter and yogurt. Mix dry ingredients, add to starter mixture.
2. Pour into prepared 9” square pan
3. Combine streusel ingredients, sprinkle over batter
4. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes

I made 1 major mistake – I absentmindedly melted the butter for the streusel. I just went with it. But as you can see in the picture, the streusel kind of...disappeared:

There it is. Upside-down coffee cake, anyone? But it still tasted delicious – and unlike many fat-free baked goods, retained it's moisture for the three days it took us to finish it. For 190 total calories a slice!

Check out our other awesome coffee cakes!

Sourdough pie crust and I haven't been friends in the past.

Then again, I can't say I've attempted in a while. I'm not a huge pie person, and I prefer a graham cracker crust (less messy!). When Sourdough Surprises picked pie – specifically rustic pie – I had to bite the bullet anyway.

And, with a) my picky father being on an extended business trip and b). an unopened jar of Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams calling my name, I had to make a special pie - a cheesecake pie, no less!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Crostada with Sourdough Crust

Crust Adapted from Group Recipes

For the Crust

• 1 3/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
  
  
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter

For the filling:

• 8oz 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese
• 1/2 cup Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter
• 1/4 tbslp sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp

For the crust, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Cut in coconut until resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour in sourdough starter. Mix until flour is moistened and leaves the side of the bowl. Turn onto lightly floured surface, knead lightly. Chill while making filling

Cream peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar together. Mix in egg and vanilla.

Roll out pie crust on a cookie sheet. Spread filling evenly over crust and fold over. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes and enjoy!

This crust was much easier to work with (I did add an extra 1/4 cup flour – thank you Florida). The complete package was heaven. So much so that while I'm behaving for swimsuit season and cutting a third off of each quarter (as in 12 servings), somehow the other 2/3 is disappearing.

I'm going to go squeeze in another slice before its gone...

Sourdough Surprises: Pretzel Bagels

So, Sourdough Surprises opened up this month. Anything. My head was officially spinning. There's so much I want to redo (I am going to perfect Sourdough Kimmelweck Rolls one day, and I sorta did tell Peanut Butter & Co's

social media director I would make peanut butter filled croissants...) and so much I missed...pie, pizza, bagels, pretzels...

In my pre-blogging days, one of my first successes was a pretzel recipe I found on a party recipe site and turned into sourdough. Then I remembered an age old conversation I had with my father, in which he asked if I had ever thought of trying bagels.

Well, why not combine the two?

Sourdough Pretzel Bagels

Adapted from Sourdough Recipes

Makes 8 smallish bagels

1 cup fresh sourdough starter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup warm water

2 teaspoons salt

3 1/2 cups flour

1/4 Cup Baking Soda

Cooking Spray

Kosher Salt for sprinkling

Combine all ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Divide into eight portions, and form each into a smooth ball. Punch a hole in the center of each and

stretch evenly until about 3 or 4 inches across.

Place on a floured surface and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add baking soda. Boil the bagels (four at a time if the pot is large enough) 3 minutes on each side. Drain and place on a greased baking

sheet. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt. Bake about 15 minutes at 450.

As you can see, a few things happened. First and formost, they look weird. Second, maybe the baking soda treatment with the boil wasn't the greatest idea.

I wouldn't say they were inedible. My mother's first reaction was “they're not sweet.” When I said they weren't supposed to be, she said “,Well, maybe 'sweet' isn't the word I was looking for.” In a sense, I have to agree with her.

Well, maybe this is one to tuck away and maybe think about once in awhile. Still, it was worth a college try. And with work slowing down again, you can bet I'll be playing with it.

Check out our other awesome creations!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sourdough Surprises: Honey Walnut Swirl Cornbread

Cornbread falls into the category of “one of those” foods. Although my dad loves it, my mother doesn't care for it much and I can only take or leave it. I made it early on in my sourdough adventures and it was okay, but not something any of the family would eat over and over. So the recipe sat in one of my massive binders until Sourdough Surprises picked it for the September challenge.

There is one particular cornbread even my mother loves, and that's the skillet cornbread at Smokey Bones. Since the nearest location is one of the busiest in the country, we don't get it often. It's not even necessarily the cornbread, but the honey nut butter that goes with it. With that in mind, I took my old cornbread recipe and made a honey walnut caramel topping.

Honey Walnut Swirl Cornbread

Adapted from Cooks.com

Makes 12 servings

Ingredients

Cornbread

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

Topping

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup water

Topping

Directions

1. Spray a well seasoned, 9 or 10 inch iron skillet with non-stick cooking spray, add a small amount of oil and place in oven while it preheats.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
3. Heat topping ingredients over low to medium heat and set aside
4. Combine the cornmeal, sugar and salt in medium bowl.
5. Scald milk and pour over cornmeal mixture.
6. When mixture is room temperature, add remaining ingredients and mix well.
7. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Add topping and swirl through with a spoon. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Unfortunately, the swirl topping kind of got lost within the cornbread. On the other hand, with my more advanced knowledge of sourdough baking and the use of my fairly-newly-seasoned cast iron pan, it turned out to be better cornbread than my first attempt.

Does that mean I'll make it again? Well, I've still got half a package of cornmeal to use...

Check out our other awesome cornbreads!

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

Sourdough Surprises: Lemon Parmesan Squash Oven Fries

I have a confession to make:

I have never deep fried anything.

This has nothing to do with eating healthy – it's not the deep frying that adds calories, it's the batter. Anyone who knows me well knows my love of chicken wings, and I was about to give in to the local food truck that was serving deep fried Cadbury eggs (fortunately or unfortunately, they ran out before I got there). It's the fryer itself. I'm careful in the kitchen, but that does not prevent me from getting grease splatters every time I cook bacon, and then there's the spaghetti squash knife incident that has left me with no feeling in the side of my pinky finger. So a pot full of hot oil is a danger zone. But Sourdough Surprises picked fry batter this month...what was I going to do?

Then one day I was putting chicken wings on a broiler pan, ready to bake...and it hit me: almost everything that is fried can still be done in the oven. And it just so happens to be zucchini/yellow squash season, which is also one of my favorite vegetables. The zucchini selection at the market was a tad picked over, but there was a pretty straight yellow squash that clocked in at a full pound, ready for the taking.

I completely winged this recipe:

Sourdough Lemon Parmesan Yellow Squash Oven Fries

Serves 3-4

Batter:

1/2 cup ripe sourdough starter

2 tblsp mayonnaise

2 tblsp grated Parmesan

2 tblsp flour

2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

2 tsp salt

1. Cut 1 lb zucchini or summer squash into fry shapes and set aside. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Whisk all batter ingredients together. Dredge squash through batter. Place on cookie sheet
3. Bake at 350 until desired level of doneness, about 20-25 minutes (Mine were roasting with chicken and took about 24 minutes)

I can't say these turned out exactly as I hoped (oven squash fries are normally breaded, not battered). But the taste was amazing...the sourdough and Parmesan complemented the gentle squash flavor perfectly. Even my father, the one who prefers familiar food, loved them. I could have eaten the entire batch myself (although, going back to the batter being what adds calories, a mere third of this recipe still clocks in at 132 calories using light mayo).

It was still all the mess of frying (without the danger of hot oil splatters!), and quite a bit of trouble. But the taste was tempting...I just might have to make these again.

Check out our other awesome fried (and oven fried!) delights:

An InLinkz Link-up

Sourdough Surprises: Maple Cinnamon Chip Soda Bread

(I apologize for being late, but my computer has been in repair!)

A few years ago, my aunt was visiting right around St. Patrick's Day and brought a homemade Irish Soda Bread. It gave me the idea: Maybe I could replace the buttermilk with sourdough starter. It's an idea that never came to fruition because of one simple fact: I don't particularly care for it.

Don't get me wrong – Irish Soda Bread is what it is: a crumbly chemically-leavened bread. But I have a massive sweet tooth, and there was just not enough of that in any sample I tried (something I just learned recently is that this is because traditional Irish Soda Bread does not include raisins and is actually served with soup). But I try my best to keep up with Sourdough Surprises. So, it was finally time to make a Sourdough soda bread.

The only sample recipe I could find was King Arthur Flour's Seeded Soda Bread. I wanted to try my best to make something sweeter. So I just used it as a guideline and made my own from there. With a bag of cinnamon chips, almost empty, begging to be used in my pantry, I thought they'd be the perfect mix in.

My recipe:

Maple Cinnamon Chip Sourdough Soda Bread

Adapted majorly from King Arthur Flour

Makes 1 loaf, about 8 servings

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

Scant 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup ripe sourdough starter

2 tblsp melted buttermilk

1 1/2 tblsp real maple syrup

1/4 cup + 1 tblsp milk

1/3 cup cinnamon chips

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, Harvest Grains Blend, baking soda, and salt.
3) In a separate bowl (or in a measuring cup), whisk together the starter, butter, honey, and milk. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. The dough will be stiff; if it's too crumbly to squeeze together, add another tablespoon or two of milk.
4) Knead the dough a couple of times to make sure it's holding together. Shape into ball and flatten slightly on a baking sheet. Cut a 1/2” deep cross in the loaf.
5) Bake for about 25 minutes, until they're golden brown and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the loaves from the oven, and brush their tops with melted butter, if desired.
I will say I enjoyed it more than typical Irish Soda Bread. It's still far from my favorite recipe. I will keep it in the Rolodex for the next time.



And now with my computer fixed, and a slower season at work...maybe I can get back to baking!
Check out our other Soda Breads!

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: “Oh, Crap” Crepe Cake

I had a gut feeling about the the challenge for this month's Sourdough Surprises. I was thinking pancakes. Maybe because I haven't done them in a while, and I have my tried and true recipe. It turned out to be crepes – so I wasn't too far off. And my first thought was “Oh, crap.” I have a hard enough time with pancakes. Crepes?

But a challenge is a challenge, and then I remembered a Crepe Cake I had seen on Delish. I had a plan.

I tweaked the suggested recipe just a tad for my tastes and my roughly 100% hydration starter:

“Oh Crap” Sourdough Crepe Cake

Serves 4

Adapted from heartlandrenaissance.com and Delish

1 cup sourdough starter
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup of milk

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 box prepared chocolate fudge pudding

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl. Add milk until it reaches a very smooth, thin batter consistency, I normally use about 1/3 cup of milk but depending on the consistency of your starter, you might use a bit less or a bit more.
In a not too big, but not too small frying pan (about 8″ – 10″ is perfect) heat the frying pan over medium high heat. Once hot, add a teaspoon or so of butter, allow it to melt quickly and then immediately pour in 1/4 cup of crepe batter, tilting the pan with a circular motion to allow the batter to coat the  bottom of the pan and create a circle of crepe.
Cook the crepe for about two minutes, until the bottom has splotches of light brown.  With a spatula, very carefully loosen the crepe and flip over. Cook for about 30 seconds and decant onto a plate.

Allow crepes to cool. Stack on plate, topping each with about 2 tablespoons of pudding and spreading to cover

As you can see, I got a little egregious. For one thing, the ladle I always thought was 1/4 cup is actually only about 2 1/2 tablespoons, so they turned out too small and therefore the cake ended up too tall. For two, I was assembling it while hungry. So hungry I cut into it before I remembered to snap a picture! So the “Oh Crap” thought that came to mind when I saw the challenge is now the official name of this cake.

The good news: In my nonstick skillet, they required very little extra butter. Plus, I actually found them easier than pancakes. And the cake was especially delicious with the almond extract.

You never know what you're capable of until you try. I'm definitely putting this recipe in the keeper file. And next time, hopefully it turns out even better.

Now on to the next challenge...

Sourdough Surprises: Graham-Crusted Brownies

There is one thing I absolutely don't like about May anymore: All I do is eat. Somehow I managed to have my birthday right about the same time as Mother's Day – and who created this “Eat What You Want” day that my friends have to remind me of, on May 11^th, right when I'm trying to behave myself?

Instead, once the local bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes were gone from my birthday, I used this month's Sourdough Surprises challenge to do my Mother's Day baking in one swoop.

I found a different recipe this month, as I didn't want a 13”x9” pan of brownies lying around this time of year. I looked around for how I could jazz it up, and found a nearly empty box of graham cracker crumbs in the pantry. Reminded of a few variations of s'mores brownies that I've read about, I decided to top my brownies with the crumbs. I did realize (right after coming home from the store) that the recipe called for cake flour, so I had to make another adjustment.

My version of the recipe:

Graham-Crusted Brownies

Adapted from grouprecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
  
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ cup ripe sourdough starter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

• Preheat oven to 375F, and grease a 9" pan.
• Microwave chocolate and oil in 10 second increments, stirring in between, until melted.
• In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• Beat together brown sugar, egg, sourdough starter and vanilla, then stir in cooled chocolate mixture.
• Stir in flour mixture until just blended.
• Spread in prepared pan. Top with graham cracker crumbs
• Bake 25-30 minutes, or until edge begins to pull away from pan.
• Cool completely before cutting and serving.

They didn't need quite the 30-35 minutes in the oven that the recipe called for. My only complaint is that they turned out a bit more like cake than brownies:

Still, by using unsweetened chocolate, they had a very rich and satisfying chocolate taste. I do plan on making more of a graham streusel if I do this again, and probably omitting the baking soda so that they don't come out so cakey.

Yes, I will be saving this recipe. They're pretty darn good. And all things considered, they're not that bad for you – 1/12 of the recipe is only about 160 calories.

So even though it's May, I can still have my cake and my brownies too. And then I can go back to my regularly scheduled baking.

Check out our other delicious brownies!
 

Chocolate Cinnamon Brownie Cookies

Let's be honest folks: I watch what I eat carefully. I log everything, even if I'm going crazy overboard (Yes, I ate 4 donuts yesterday. They tasted good). But I have the world's biggest sweet tooth. Combine that with the fact that I live with two people who could care less what they eat, it makes staying on track tough.

An online friend mentioned a blog called Chocolate Covered Katie a while back. It's a healthy desert blog. I don't necessarily even have easy access to some of her ingredients unless I order online or go to a certain grocery store that I always end up buying way more than I came in for (and unlike the blogger, I am not vegan), but they are still lower in sugar and she provides all kinds of substitution options. My first recipe was her Sweet Potato Chili, which I would have blogged about – except my mother and I finished it before I could think to snap pictures (I've already been told that I have to make it every time my father is out of town now). Having the house to myself today, I decided to try one of her wonderful sounding desert recipes – with my own spin.

While I know the dangers of experimenting with recipes I've never made before, I have been craving spiced chocolate lately. So I ended up playing with these Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies a little more. My version of the recipe:

Chocolate Cinnamon Brownie Cookies

Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

Makes 1-1/2-2 dozen

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

Scant 1/4 tsp salt

Rounded1/4 baking soda

1/4 cup plus 1 tblsp sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup oil

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. In a separate bowl, mix all liquid ingredients. Now pour wet into dry and mix, kneading by hand until fully combined.

2. Roll into roughly 3/4” balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Refrigerate for at least half an hour.

3. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Let cool on pan for at least 10 minutes before moving. Store in an airtight container.

Now, perhaps it was the extra oil and the sugar, but the nutrition info she gives is a little off from my recipe calculator. For the 21 cookies it made, they are 87 calories a piece – on par with most other cookies. Still, I definitely like the fact it only makes 21 cookies. It makes it much easier to finish them off and move on to the next recipe.

Being eggless, they are a tad bit crumbly, and they are a little small (I think I made them slightly smaller than the original recipe intended). But for two bites, you get a rich chocolate taste with a hint of cinnamon. It's kind of hard to not plow through several...or the whole recipe worth.

So...healthy or not, I call these little cookies a two-thumbs up success.

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!

Shine Supper Club: Breakfast-in-Bed-Worthy Mocha Oatmeal

When I first saw that the Shine SupperClub was doing “Sexy Dishes” for February, I was at a loss. I'm a single girl, just cooking for family and friends. Romantic dinners for two hasn't been in my repertoire.

Then, after a hard workout, I was exhausted and looking for some carbohydrates. I turned to one of my quick and easy favorites: oatmeal. When I'm as tired as I was, I sometimes just make an instant oatmeal packet with hot brewed coffee. When it's plain, one of my favorite sweeteners is a packet of hot cocoa mix. At this point, I was so tired I wanted someone to just bring it to me.

And then it hit me: it's the perfect breakfast-in-bed food. And what's sexier than breakfast-in-bed and chocolate?

Of course, instant oatmeal and hot cocoa are easy enough to throw together. So for my next post-workout oatmeal dish, I set out to make a more from-scratch version.

So, a little coffee, a little sugar, a lot of cocoa powder (I like it dark!) and a coffee creamer and voilia!

Breakfast-in-Bed Mocha Oatmeal

Serves 1...but easily doubled

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

2/3 cup cold coffee (oatmeal will be on the thick side, use more or less to taste)

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon sugar (use more or less to taste)

1 half-and-half coffee creamer, or flavor of choice

Splash of vanilla extract

Mix oats, cocoa, and sugar in a bowl, stir to prevent clumping when wet ingredients are added. Add coffee and vanilla, stir.

Microwave 1 1/2 minutes, or amount of time specified on oatmeal container.

Add coffee creamer, stir until well mixed.

I think this on a tray, maybe with a side of strawberries, would make anybody's sexy meal list. It's also a perfect breakfast food – get your caffeine fix in your morning oatmeal!

I'm not making any promises if you serve this to your sweetie. But I think it ups your chances. Now if someone would just make it for me...

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!

Sourdough Surprises: Chocolate Pizzelles

Ah, the sourdough cookie. When I started sourdough baking, I had all kinds of breads and quick breads. Cookies were notoriously missing until recently. Now I've made a few kinds of cookies...here and here and here. But when SourdoughSurprises announced that they were doing cookies for December, there was a recipe I had to try again.

I told the story of how we came about the pizzelle iron the first time I attempted to make Sourdough Pizzelles. Pizzelles are a traditional Italian cookie, frequently making an appearance around the holidays. How my 100% Polish great aunt got to making them, I may never know. All I know is that I accepted them as a treat from up north, like Platter's Orange Chocolate. When my niece fell in love with them, my mother bought the iron. And my first thought was: How do I make sourdough pizzelles?

My first attempt, using a waffle recipe, didn't turn out very sweet at all. I ended up using them in place of bread. Then I came across this desert waffle recipe and thought I was on to something.

The problem is that malt powder was going to be another one of those one-recipe-and-done ingredients. So, a little research and I came up with a substitute using flour and powdered milk. Everything else was according to the recipe.

A word of warning about pizzelles: They take forever. It was easily over 2 hours that I spent carefully pouring batter onto the heated iron. They are certainly a labor of love, which is why I knew they were a special treat.

The recipe, as follows:

Chocolate Sourdough Pizzelles

Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

Makes about 4 dozen

1 cup fresh Sourdough starter

1/2 cup Cocoa powder

1/3 cup powdered milk
2 1/2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whisk the dry ingredients in a small bowl; you may need to sift the mixture if your cocoa is lumpy.

Add the dry ingredients, plus the eggs, melted butter, and vanilla to the sourdough batter, stirring to combine.
Drop batter by scant tablespoonfuls onto preheated waffle iron. Bake according to manufacturer directions.

Pizzelles may be shaped into cones, bowls or cannoli shells while still warm. They will crisp up as they cool.

They are a little chewier than most pizzelles (although they still hold their shape quite well). However, they disappeared quickly. They were rich and chocolatey, not too sweet, with just the hint of cinnamon.

I'm very pleased. I finally have made a sourdough pizzelle. I'm not done though. One of these days, when I have the energy to burn at the pizzelle iron, I have an idea for a more traditionally flavored sourdough pizzelle. Until then...I'll have to find other ways to keep my starter active.

Check out our other awesomely delicious cookies!

Sweet Potato and Broccoli Shepard's Pie

They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. The same might as well be said of creating new recipes.

Like I said, my father's out of town. That's when my mother and I normally treat ourselves to everything that he won't eat – things like spinach, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. This time, though, we have to work around my sister's birthday and my work schedule. Sure, he'll be gone for five dinners, but only two of them can my mother and I choose what we eat and eat together. And we have to squeeze in one of his least favorite restaurants while we're at it.

I was browsing recipes a couple of weeks ago on Food52, looking for a creative non-pasta ground beef dish. After seeing not much besides pasta, stuffed peppers and Shepard's Pie, I came across this Sweet Potato Cottage Pie.

I'm not a huge fan of Shepard's Pie or Cottage Pie, typically, and it's not just that I don't really care for ground beef. I think it's the fact that it was one of the few meals my father felt comfortable cooking, meaning back when my mother worked retail when I was a kid, we'd eat it for days on end. Still, it got me thinking. And it kind of took off.

I found a few Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie recipes on the internet – here and here – but when I realized the limited time we'd have to squeeze our favorite foods in, I started taking inspiration from each, adding the broccoli, and making it into something new:

Sweet Potato and Broccoli Shepard's Pie

Inspired by this and this and this recipe

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 oz cream cheese

1 pound lean ground beef

1 small onion

1 cup tomato sauce

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cumin

2 oz cream cheese

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 cups chopped broccoli

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350. In a medium size pot, boil sweet potato until tender.
• In a large skillet, cook beef and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add tomato sauce and spices. Spread in a baking dish. Top with broccoli and set aside.
• Mash sweet potato with cream cheese, salt and pepper with a potato masher or electric mixer. Spread over meat and broccoli
• Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Dare I say I think I actually created something original here? And you know what, it was good. Darn good, in fact. I had to resist eating seconds. Plus, my mother even told me to freeze a helping to save for my aunt.

It's kind of sad that my father won't eat it. For as much effort as it was, I want to make it again. Two thumbs up, easily. Only because I only have two thumbs.

Maple Spice Microwave Mini Cake

Ah, October. The humidity is down for now, the air has cooled a little, it's been sunny and pleasantly breezy. It almost feels like fall...at least as much fall as we get here in Florida. Naturally, it's also the time to start thinking about fall foods. Like spice cake.

I've mentioned a few times about the “Meal Deals” that my local grocery store has. A fairly frequent one is buying some bacon and getting pancake mix and pancake syrup free. We go through the pancake mix and bacon a lot quicker than we do the syrup, and it's starting to pile up. So I decided to try something with it.

I know very little about replacing sugar in a recipe with maple syrup. It's not my family's favorite, so it's not something I've tried before. But still, this is a microwave cake. I figure if I messed it up, it's small enough to not make a fuss over.

I took my base recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Kirbie's Cravings. There aren't a whole lot of mug spice cake recipes out there, so I started with her “Light Strawberry Mug Cake” and swapped the pancake syrup for the sugar and added the spice, omitting the strawberries. Yes, I know you're supposed to reduce the liquid. I didn't.

The cake itself came together nicely. I noticed two things baking it, however: One, it took a lot longer – almost two and a half minutes – to microwave. For two, it was very dense. It almost had a pudding like consistency. This was mentioned in Kirbie's original post on the recipe, so I can't necessarily blame that on too much liquid.

Still, I can have my cake and eat it too. I topped it with about a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar for a little extra oomph. Yet neither myself nor my mother could taste maple (granted I didn't use real maple syrup), and it wasn't very spicy either.

Anyhow, the recipe I used:

Maple Spice Microwave Mini Cake

Adapted heavily from Kirbie's Cravings

Ingredients:

5 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup pancake syrup (use real maple if you have it, but otherwise the blends will do)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 egg
5 tablespoon nonfat milk
1 tablespoon oil
1 tsp cinnamon

1tsp Pumpkin Pie spice

1tsp cinnamon sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except cinnamon sugar. Stir until smooth. Spray a microwave-safe 2 cup ramekin or oversize mug with baker's spray and pour in batter
2. Microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds. Continue in 20 second intervals until cake tester inserted in the middle of cake comes out clean.
3. Invert ramekin over a small plate and top with cinnamon sugar, if desired.

Dense and non-spicey-maple-y as it might have been, it still tasted good. I'm going to keep this in the play-around with file. That is, if I don't find another recipe I have to try first.