Carrot-Banana Muffins (The New, Improved, and Sugar-Free Year)

I can't believe it's already a week into the new year.  I just got my decorations put away today, after a week of procrastinating and bewilderment at how easily exhausted I get recently.  I have good energy until about lunchtime, and then I seem about shot for the day.  The good news is that I have finished reading an actual novel, and I read about 4 new to me cookbooks.  The cookbook reading is nothing new of course, but my healthy title choices were timely since Julia and I decided to go for year #2 of Sugar-Free January. 

Last year, I felt like I was going through sugar withdrawal.  Every single day seemed like a trial, I tried hard to find sweet replacements so I didn't feel the pangs of deprivation.  But a weird thing happened after January of 2012 bit the dust:  I had recalibrated my sweet tooth.  Instead of "needing" sweets, I came to appreciate them in much smaller doses - and I thought carefully before choosing and baking for myself.  I have to say that trend lasted throughout the year too.  But even though this Christmastime saw only 2 batches of cookies coming from my kitchen, when they were added to the sweets that congregated at the farm for my Christmas break, I definitely felt like I overindulged for the final week of the year.  Sugar-Free January is always a good idea I think.

This year, I easily went 2 days without even thinking I was missing something sugary at all.  Then, a few, well chosen social situations found me making polite exceptions... but even then, I didn't overdo.  I ate a small square of coconut cake that barely weighed anything and reminded me of being 8.  I had a similarly tiny morsel of peanut butter rice crispy treat with a thick topcoat of chocolate.  I ate the last brandied cherry some friends dropped off as a gift.  Not all at once, just perfectly curated and well deserved if I have anything to say about it.  My goal this year isn't to be as militant as last year, but rather to continue on my path of continual sweets reduction.

Over the past year, I have come to realize that it isn't even eating the sugar that appeals so much to me, it's the baking and making with it.  I'm happy just tasting something and giving 90% away, and I really just adore any reason to fire up my oven and feel organized in my kitchen.  After 20 trips up and down the stairs carting ornaments, lights, and laundry I took a break this morning to make some muffins that almost any diet (except the unfortunate nut allergic) can appreciate: Carrot-Banana Muffins.

They come from a new cookbook written by healthy diet and living guru Dr. Weil (compiled with help from a chef and a restauranteur, Michael Stebner and Sam Fox).  Most times when reading Dr. Weil, I just really want to hire a private detective to see if he occasionally stops in at a donut shop in a moment of weakness.  I don't subscribe to a life of monastic purity, instead I strive for balance and moderation - and donuts when I feel like it.  In the cookbook True Food, there is plenty of inspiration for healthy eating featuring ingredients that are fairly straightforward (except the sea buckthorn, which I confess I had to look up).  It's easy, seasonal food that is photographed well and infinitely appealing to a generally healthy eater like me.

But I didn't get truly excited until I read the recipe for these muffins which not only fit nicely into a sugar-free regimen, they also are gluten and grain free - and full of enough decadent but healthful ingredients to convince you that you've had a slice of cake.  And I suspect with a well placed dollop of cream cheese frosting, you would have just that.

I ground the last of the almonds I had on hand, which miraculously turned out to be the correct amount.  I didn't have the finest almond meal, which was okay with me, and added a great texture to the finished muffins. I also cut back slightly on the cinnamon, walnuts, and dates (on the dates only because I wasn't so lucky with the last of them).  They are moist and sweet, like the best carrot cake you've ever had, but better since they aren't hyped up on sugar.  You might never suspect there isn't a single granule of refined sugar in these.

Carrot-Banana Muffins (barely adapted from True Food, Dr. Andrew Weil, Sam Fox, and Michael Stebner.  Stebner's wife Ally is credited with coming up with this genius recipe.)

makes 12-16 muffins depending on size

• 2 cups almond meal
• 2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. kosher salt
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut
• 4 oz. butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 3 bananas, mashed (my bananas were huge, so I used 2)
• 2 T. honey
• 1 t. apple cider vinegar
• 1 c. pitted and chopped dates
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325, and line a muffin tin with papers.

In a large bowl, combine almond meal, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and coconut and whisk well to combine.  In a separate large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer (or by hand) until creamy and soft.  Add eggs, bananas, honey, and cider vinegar and beat until well mixed.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir well to combine.  Fold in the dates, carrots, and walnuts.  Portion into muffin cups (you can fill them quite full, there isn't a lot of rise), and bake for 35-40 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  Cool in the tins for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

 Even better than the flavor and texture of these muffins, is the appreciation that comes when finishing one.  Normal muffins have me craving a second as soon as I finish the first - and these were satisfying enough to stand at a single muffin portion.  Perfect as the great sugar contemplation of 2013 is fully underway.  

I haven't quite decided how I will store them.  I suspect I'll keep a couple in the refrigerator for a few days since they are so moist I think room temperature could be quickly detrimental.  The rest will go into the freezer, for tucking into my bag when I'm not sure how long the errands will take, or for snacks at the movies that I hope to get to sometime soon.  I am looking forward to seeing how they age!

Daring Baker Challenge December 2012: Panettone

The December 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by the talented Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina. Marcellina challenged us to create our own custom Panettone, a traditional Italian holiday bread!

After a two month break from the Daring Baker Challenge, I finally felt up to participating.  It helped that the challenge host, a blogger I've followed for years who is quite an accomplished baker, chose a bread that I've always wanted to make: panettone.

I can tell I'm not quite back to my normal levels of crazy experimenter, because had I been, I'd have chased all over town checking Asian markets for elusive citron and candying them myself.  Traditional panettone contains ample amounts of candied citrus peels and the candy peel of the citron fruit, which is pith-heavy and floral citrus variety with roots in the Middle East and Asia.  Had I more gusto and time, I would do a bit more digging and find out how this unusual fruit happened to become the most important ingredient in an Italian delicacy - but I'll save that curiosity for another time.

This heavily fortified bread reminded me of pan de muerto.  With so much butter, you could hardly expect it to be tender and light, but it is.  Despite the fortification, it also "stales gracefully", with a changing texture and deepening flavor complexity as the days wear on.  I made the breads at my parents' farm, where I have spent the entire week catching up on relaxing and enjoying heavy dustings of picturesque snowfall, which always seem to miss us so close to Lake Michigan lately.  My Mom graciously bought me some candied citron and fruitcake mix to use in my panettone, but after smelling and tasting the rising dough we both agreed that we couldn't ruin it with grocery store standard (and quite chemically tasting) fake peel. 

Instead, I used the remainder of a little packet of wonderfully delicious candied Meyer lemon and sour orange peels that Julia sent me in a Christmas card (and I didn't send out a single card this year, either...).  I chopped it very small, and added it to a mixture of real dried fruits my Mom had on hand: some dates, cranberries, dark raisins, and apricots - all soaked in boiling water to soften them.  Combined with the small amount of candied peel and the zest from both a lemon and an orange, my panettone may no longer be truly Italian in nature, but it was more than delicious.  I couldn't be more thankful I didn't use the fake, supermarket peel in them!

Last year, I had intended to babysit my starter for a week and feed it multiple times per day (while maintaining it at a specific temperature as specified over at Wild Yeast to make sourdough panettone.  My neighbor had two paper molds that she gave me, and I've stored them for a year.  This was definitely the year that I had to make the panettone.  I made some slightly smaller in muffin liners to compensate for the 1/2 inch I was lacking in diameter.  In general I think portion control is a good thing, and I would definitely make the muffin-sized breads again.  As a note, I'll remember that filling the tins nearly to the top with a ball of panettone dough made a prettier and slightly heftier miniature bread.

Otherwise, I made the breads just as Marcellina outlined in the recipe.  I let the 1st rise dough raise for about 2 hours on the counter, then popped it into the refrigerator overnight.  My Mom has a fancy oven with a proofing mode, so I was able to proof the breads at 90 degrees the next day.  Filling the cold dough with fruit and rolling it was easier with a soft dough just from the fridge, and the formed breads raised in about 21/2 hours in the proofing oven.  (Another note:  that the muffin tin panettone baked much faster than the deep, molded ones.  I baked them the same way, 10 minutes at 400, 10 minutes at 350, and maybe about 5 minutes at 325.)

I hope I continue to feel well enough to continue with the DB Challenge again next month.  I forgot how excited I get when I try something and it meets all of my expectations (not that it happens every time with the Daring Challenge...).  A huge thank you to Marcellina for choosing such a wonderful recipe!  I'm certain that I'll be making this again next year!

I Know It's a Cliché to Crave the Pickles...

Maybe it was my subconscious working hard to inform me, when a month ago I craved egg salad and I changed my Facebook cover photo from honest autumnal carrots to hard boiled eggs soaking in a bowl of ice water.  Maybe I realized it a few days later when I couldn't stand the sight of some perfectly wonderful sourdough scones I had baked up for the Sourdough Surprises baking group.  Maybe it was shortly after when I disappeared completely from the Internet world (which despite my relaxed approach to networking, I actually do put some time into cultivating).  For awhile there, I could not read about food.  I wondered what crazy people (myself included) are deluded enough to spend most hours of the day pining over baking and cooking and plotting meals.  And the pictures people were endlessly snapping of things made, ordered out, or devoured was seriously painful to me.

And all of a sudden this week things are beginning to smell good to me again.  I still don't have a normal appetite, and usually root around to find something mostly already made in the fridge to eat (Thank You, big bowl of cooked rice that seems to taste good with everything!).  I'm finally feeling a little more like concocting and cooking, but my tongue is hopelessly off.  Yesterday I couldn't tell the difference between a yogurt cucumber sauce and a creamy blue cheese dip, and I wish I were kidding.

Yes friends, it's time for me to announce the reason for my strange behaviors:  I am having a baby.

Even sitting here to type in those words brings a huge catch to my throat, the same catch that has caught nearly every time I've told a family member or close friend.  I could blame it on the hormones, but moreover I blame it on the overwhelming confirmation that I know I am not in control of my life, but that I know Who is.  Like my first kiddo, this isn't something I've planned or picked for myself, but something I am honored to receive and do my best with.  I've spent a fair amount of time in self-comfort of my paranoid medical fears by reassuring myself that this new life may actually be an adventurous eater, one who is a polar opposite of my intrepid son:  the missing link that will drive our family suppers to full family approval.  Maybe about a year and half from now, my new being will enjoy eating every wild contrivance I can dream up. 

The idea that a new life will spring up and cling to me, the notion that I will have the chance to experience all of the small wonders of childhood a second time, the moments I thought had passed me for good as my son has grown too quickly into a first grader, these all make me too overcome for words.  Compounded by the Christmas season, the overpowering greatness of it all surpasses all of the fleeting feelings that I'll once again lose some of my independence, that I'll have to put my own ambitions on hold for the time being.

So, please forgive the gaping holes in my kitchen life as I do my best to finish up my cookbook on time and battle fatigue and strange appetites.  A few Friday nights ago, I nearly cried at the deliciousness of a Greek fish fry my husband brought home for supper.  I could scarcely remember the last time a pita bread and hunk of fried fish draped heavily in lemon juice and tartar sauce appealed so greatly to me...

I made a thin glaze of orange zest, powdered sugar and milk.  The best thing about these is that they go from freezer to oven, sitting out only a half hour as the oven heats.

Meanwhile, I did flake out on the past two editions of the Daring Baker Challenge.  I'm planning to make up for it this month, as it is something I am beyond excited to make - no matter my ailments.  In November, I did bake up the Sourdough Surprises challenge of scones (according to this recipe from Susan at Wild Yeast).  In fact, I have 4 left in my freezer and I take particular delight that they are there just in case of pop-in visitors.  I'm hoping I have a few spare minutes, and sweet tooth enough, to bake some sourdough cookies this month!

Now that I'm feeling more like myself on the food front, I'm (perhaps prematurely) plotting my new-baby meals - looking so far into the future that I'm distracted from my pressing tasks at hand.  This is the strangest holiday season for me in years - one where I have not baked a single cookie (or where cookies even sound appealing to me).  Ordinary years would find my fridge stacked with extra pounds of butter and a canister of sugar in residence on the counter.  I'm hoping a flurry of industriousness will suddenly accost me, and my tastebuds will wake up and cause me to bake.  If not, I'll take solace in the comforts of my Mom's homekeeping and baking, where (weather-permitting) I'll spend Christmas in 12 short days.

So in the meantime I'll give into my sour and tart desires, because I deserve it - and it's home canned after all.  Cliché or no, this could be the last time I'll experience such roller coasters of cravings.  I will try to remember to enjoy every strange minute of it.

Sourdough Lithuanian Coffee Cake

Do you ever stand in your kitchen, a fingerfull of raw batter in your mouth, and just smile because you already know that you've hit the mark?  Food police everywhere warn against the consumption of raw and undercooked things, especially eggs, but I am a full-fledged batter tester and nothing anyone says to me will ever change it.

That moment of shear delight, when raw cake stands perched and ready to go into the oven, that is when I take early pleasure in knowing if my baked good has succeeded.  This morning when I waited impatiently for the minutes of baking time to tick by, and comforted myself with those early raw tastes, I already knew this cake was going to be a favorite.

Last Sunday, I finally made the Lithuanian Coffee Cake taken from the book Welcome to Claire's.  I had wanted to make the cake for months, a true testament to my ability to refrain from too much sugar this year.  However rigorous I think I have become in the sugar-free department, I am fairly certain that from birth I was raised to enjoy a little sweet nibble with the morning coffee, whether it be named cake or otherwise.  There is something about the way a bit of sugar complements the bitterness of coffee that makes the day complete.  If I'm going to bake, let me always be able to bake something to be enjoyed in the morning.

My son reminds me, "Coffee cake is a cake that you eat when you are drinking coffee, not a cake that has coffee in it."  While that is true, I didn't want to confuse him by telling him that there is sometimes coffee in coffee cake.  In fact, I add coffee to nearly everything chocolate that ever comes from my kitchen.  I feel sneaky and underhanded, upping the flavor of the chocolate by included heavy pinches of espresso powder when no one is the wiser.  But some cakes, like this Lithuanian Coffee Cake, actually do have coffee in them.  Not enough to replace your caffeine consumption for the day, but enough to enhance your coffee drinking experience.

Claire's version was a butter cake made in the standard way and baked in a bundt pan.  I liked it a lot, but it seemed a bit dry after it aged a few days, and the filling ingredients included raisins which when baked on top (the bottom when inverted) were a bit burnt tasting to me.  That is just nit-picking, however, since I really loved the flavor of the cake, and made my half of the bundt (I gave half to a friend) last until yesterday.  

This is after the sourdough, flour, and milk fermented overnight.

I've been increasing my amount of well fed, "discard"starter lately, and out of curiosity (and lack of cake) I decided before bedtime last night to mix up a true sourdough cake: one that ferments overnight to reduce all of the indigestible parts of the wheat flour.

After all, if I'm going to go on a cake-making and cake-eating binge, I may as well make it the healthiest possible way, right?

Sourdough Lithuanian Coffee Cake (inspired by Claire Criscuolo)

For the filling:

• 1/4 c. dark brown sugar
• 1/4 c. chopped walnuts
• 1/4 c. raisins
• 1 T. finely ground coffee
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 T. cacao nibs
• merest pinch of salt 

For the cake:

• 1 c. well-fed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 1 c. AP flour
• 1 c. whole milk
• 3/4 c. raw sugar
• 1/3 c. olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 t. instant espresso powder
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 t. baking soda

The night before (or at least 7 hours before you want to bake), combine the starter, flour, and milk and mix well.  Let stand at room temperature well covered.

When ready to continue, preheat oven to 350, and butter an 8x8 glass baking dish very well.

Mix all of the filling ingredients together in a small bowl, and set aside.

To your fermented sourdough base, add the sugar and stir until well combined.  In a 1-cup liquid measure, measure out olive oil.  Add to it the egg, salt, espresso powder, and vanilla, and whisk well to combine.  Just before ready to pour the cake into the pan, add the baking soda to the rest of the ingredients in the measuring cup and whisk well.  Immediately pour into the sourdough base, and stir well to combine.

Pour about half of the batter into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle about 2/3rds of the filling over the top, making sure to include most if not all of the raisins.  Top with the remaining batter.  Sprinkle the last of the filling over the top.  Using a long spatula, knife, or chopstick, swirl (as if to marble) through the cake.  The intent isn't to create a true marbled effect, but rather to gently incorporate the filling through the dough, since the sourdough batter is a bit foamy after adding the baking soda.

Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes, until the tester comes out cleanly from the center.  Cool for as long as you can in the pan before cutting.  You may wish to top with an icing or a thinned buttercream frosting, but it is perfectly good as is.

I actually liked the cake more than I suspected I would.  Even after tasting the batter - it surprised me.  It's incredibly moist, and seems sweeter on its own than the non-sourdough version (which really did need frosting to help it along I think... not that there is anything wrong with that).  The final sprinkle of sugar makes a crispy crust, perfect for alongside your first cup of coffee for the day.  Those few cacao nibs that I added on a whim were a good idea, when still a bit warm they were a true chocolate nuance without any of the sugar of chocolate chips or chunks.  Making sure the raisins were all tucked underneath the batter was a good idea too since they all plumped up adding sweetness without any burnt caramel undertones.

I was actually curious what makes this cake deserve the name "Lithuanian". When searching for Internet answers, all that came up was Clare's Corner Copia in New Haven, Connecticut and this insanely popular dessert that has been served there for the past 35 years.  I'm thinking that  the marriage of raisin and coffee is a decidedly Eastern European combination, and maybe one that resonates so well with me because of my ancestral roots in that part of the world.

In any case, making either the traditional version (from Claire's, read here), or this very worthy sourdough version will make the side of your coffee cup very happy.  

Feast or Famine.

Have you noticed my absence?  Maybe not.  I have never felt like the popular girl, never the one that everyone would notice is suspiciously missing from the school picture.  I'm more like the girl buried in the back of the yearbook, my photo included with the rest of the yearbook staff photos.  True story. (Except that I was also included in those high school picture days.  If our school had given perfect attendance pins I'm quite certain I would have received one.)

The truth is, I feel like this space online immediately reflects my home life, the things made, decorated and eaten.  And I've been so busy lately that I feel like I have to make myself pause to catch my breath.  I'm still making and eating, but it's last minute and inspired and not worthy of recording.  Gone are the days (at least for now) of watching over sprouting wheat berries and growing microgreens in the dining room.  Fall bread baking has picked up, a few loaves make their way onto Facebook or flickr, but most are only enjoyed privately, a few make their way out the door to others that I've baked for.

Whenever I start to get that rare feeling that I don't know what to do with myself, work comes in by the wheelbarrow load, and that is exactly what has happened to me lately.  I do my civic duty as a poll worker, which for the upcoming presidential election includes early election voting shifts at our city hall.  I bake treats for church parties.  I help out with some catering and shifts at a cafe a friend owns.  And make time for a visit from my Mom, some trick-or-treating, attending birthday parties, and just today a walk up to the Kiddo's school to share lunch.

I have also started revealing to people that I have been "hired" to write a small cookbook on canning and preserving!  It's my first real writing and photography gig, and I have a short deadline.  Any free moments are spent reading tech-heavy books on digital photography to improve my photos for this project.  I'm thankful to know just enough people in just the right areas of expertise to be able to shed welcome glimmers over my overwhelming naivety in all aspects of such an endeavor.  This is indeed the best schooling I've yet to receive.

But I confess that I'm not used to being so busy, not used to having to schedule in my laundry-doing and bathtub-scrubbing.  Take for instance this gluten-free shortbread that I was trying to master.  It began 2 weeks ago, when I had ripe mangoes to use up and wanted to concoct a fruit dessert to share with a neighbor.  Using a base recipe, I replaced the tart crust's flour with a GF version of homemade flour I lifted from a recent read:  Artisan Gluten Free Cookbook.  I really enjoyed reading this book, and intended to make all kinds of things from it for a full report.  That will have to wait I guess.  All I was able to manage was the all-purpose flour blend, which upon first trials seems to be very nice. 

My tart crust went unaltered from the original Gourmet recipe except the GF flour addition.  I froze the crust for a couple of hours, and popped it into the oven - docking it with a fork about 20 minutes after it began baking... when I remembered that such things need to be docked.  I glanced in at it and it was puffing up and actually, that was a happy accident, since I then took a stainless measuring cup and pushed the tart back into shape, creating a much neater finished appearance.  

What I didn't enjoy so much was the mango filling, which I set with 2 teaspoons of gelatin and premium non-homogenized heavy cream.  It was a bit vegetal; I couldn't help be feel that it would have been better served alongside some basmati rice.  I tried to help it with more lime zest, and additional whipped cream, but it remains one of the things I'll revisit another day when time abounds.

The crust, however, was genius.  A melt-in-your-mouth toasted coconut shortbread.  I googled "shortbread".  Wiki told me that shortbread is 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour. I never knew that!  And sure enough when I made the time to weigh out my next trial, it was exactly the 1-2-3 ratio.  I needed to add 1/2 teaspoon of water to help my gluten-free version come together.  Unfortunately in my haste I made the cardinal mistake of shortbread: I forgot to get it nice and cold before baking.

Instead of something well defined to cut into wedges, I got a really good tasting, giant cookie with butter-crumbled edges.  Delicious, but messy and I still haven't had the time (or the stomach space) for another trial.  (The "failure" was undeniably great on top of some maple syrup sweetened ice cream I nabbed from The Green Market Baking Book.)

For the record, I used 44g. sugar, 88 g. butter (which was just about 7 tablespoons), and 130 g. GF flour (of which the GF flour weight was added to the 1/2 c. toasted coconut weight).

I had hoped the shortbread would be sturdy enough to stand up to some preserves.  I cracked up the first jar of blueberry citrus preserves since jarring it up this Summer, and had to settle for it on some bare naked sourdough.  I'm not complaining.  I do feel like I have to rein in my sweet teeth; it seems all this talking about jam somehow ends up with me eating sweets again with gusto. 

So please forgive me if I seem absent.  I've even been behind on reading my favorite blogs. (But after hitting publish, I am making time to read about this savory fig and goat cheese danish that I noticed this morning...)  I won't give up on the gluten-free toasted coconut shortbread either.  I just need to catch up a little, and enjoy the business of working hard for the next while.  I know all too soon I'll feel the deep Winter chill of famine.  Fortunately for me, I'm equally happy with both.