Strawberry Rhubarb Buttermilk Quickbread

Now that I'm not living in a city, I can't alway get some of the odder ingredients I want, but good produce is easy to come by. Case in point: my nextdoor neighbor grows rhubarb and she very kindly told me that I could pick it anytime I want as she never comes close to using it all. I admit I've never actually baked with rhubarb before. I'm not sure why--probably a combination of it being hard to come by in NYC and London and the fact that, while I like rhubarb, it's not my favorite.

Crumb cakes and quickbreads

I could have sworn I posted these two cakes, but apparently I didn't because the photos were still in my "to post" folder. So here goes:

The cake above, a raspberry sour cream crumb cake, is a really excellent and rather large crumb cake from the Williams Sonoma cookbook Muffins. It is dense, moist, great with coffee (or tea if you prefer), and has a crumb layer on top. What is really special about this cake are the fresh raspberries nestled between the cake batter and the crumble layer. The sour cream makes the cake moist, tender, and ever so slightly tangy. I'm all for substituting fat free yogurt for sour cream, but I'd hesitate to do it here--it does alter the texture and flavor slightly and I'm not sure it would be for the better in this case. On the same line, use full fat sour cream; the fat is what makes the cake tender and without oil or butter this cake is light enough already.

Pumpkin, Sage, and Brown Butter Cakes

I've made this quick bread before, but I decided that I'd give it a try with my pumpkin cakelet pan. Cute right?

Mocha Scones

I love a good scone (as evidenced by my scone kick of late.) A good scone should be light and flakey, rather liked a good biscuit. It need not be terribly moist (in fact I typically prefer a dry, flakey scone.) It should not be dense. It should taste like something other than butter and flour (though that's a good start) and they should never be overly sweet. If scones have additives (like chocolate chips or dried fruit) they shouldn't mar the texture. They should have something on top (a simple egg wash will do.) I love a good scone--but I'm very particular about what makes a scone good.

In this case I made my favorite scone recipe from the FCI, with a few key alterations. I substituted a substantial amount of cocoa powder for some of the flour and tossed in a handful of mini chocolate chips. I also added some powdered espresso powder to the mix. For the topping I added an extra coffee kick by mixing some coffee extract into the heavy cream before I sprinkled a healthy amout of sugar on top. The perfect chocolate scone!

Thanksgivukkah

As I'm sure you heard, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlapped this year (on the 28th of November), a rare occurrence that (apparently) complicated things for American Jews who had to have celebrations two nights in a row. Since I'm currently studying in the UK, I had class on Thursday until 6:00pm, so no chance of a proper Thanksgiving regardless of the timing of Hanukkah. So we combined both celebrations and pushed them until Saturday so that our British family (who had to work Friday) could come over, enjoy the day, celebrate Hanukkah and, of course, eat lots of turkey.

My Favorite Holiday

I love Halloween! It's my favorite holiday. You get to dress up in silly costumes and eat sweets without feeling stupid or guilty (respectively). Because Halloween fell mid-week, I got to celebrate it twice! Once with my friend Katy and her flatmates--it was a Halloween party crossed with a birthday party for Katy's flatmate Lucy. The invitation said come in fancy dress (that's British for come in costume) or come dressed as Lucy. So I decided to try out a costume I've been wanted to do for a few years: Lucille Ball. I found a close to perfect Lucy dress at a charity shop near me. The pearls and pumps were mine already. The real effort was getting my wavy red hair curly and pinned up (I think I used over 30 bobby pins!) The party was good fun even if I don't think any of the Brits there knew "I Love Lucy."

White Chocolate, Pumpkin, Sage, and Brown Butter Mini Muffins

The pumpkin, sage, brown butter loaf cake recipe was supposed to make 8 mini loaves. Unfortunately my mini loaf pan only makes 6 loaves. What's a girl to do with left over loaf cake batter? Make mini muffins of course!

Since I had 6 mini loaves I figured I'd have a little fun with the mini muffins and add some chocolate. Pumpkin is delicious with dark chocolate but because this batter bordered on savory (with the brown butter and sage) I thought dark chocolate--even semi-sweet--might be a bit too bitter. So I tossed in a generous helping of good quality, white chocolate chips.

Pumpkin, Sage, Brown Butter Loaf Cakes

As I mentioned, I have a new eCookbook. Since the orange yogurt cake and fig olive oil cake both came out so well I decided to try another recipe. Pumpkin, sage, brown butter loaf cakes seemed sufficiently autumnal for the end of September and I love any recipe that has "butter" right in the name.

There is something very dignified about these cakes that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it's the sophisticated flavor profile or maybe it's how perfectly these miniature loaves came out. It could possibly be the lack of glaze. I'm not sure. But whatever it was it made me feel as though these cakes (possibly sliced nicely) would be fit for a proper, English afternoon tea at a fancy hotel--you know, like the ones in the US that do traditional afternoon tea but with a distinctively American take on sweets.

Blueberry Muffins with White Chocolate Chunks

Remember the plum muffins I made a while ago? All the fruity muffins I've made since haven't managed to live up to those. They were pretty much the perfect muffin. But I love plums (and strawberries, a variation I made) and I don't like blueberries. Sophie loves blueberries and had some left from a batch that were so gorgeous I enjoyed them when they were baked in pancakes, so I figured I'd use them up before they went bad. Of course buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup are good enough to make up for blueberries--would the muffins be enough? My answer is an emphatic yes!

Banana Nut Bread

In case I haven't mentioned this before, I have a strong dislike for bananas. Seriously, I can't stand them--the taste, the smell, the texture, yuk! Generally I can't even eat bananas when the come in the lovely form of banana bread--and even if I can tolerate it, I don't really like it. This was an exception; I actually found it enjoyable. The rest of my family, who are normal and like bananas, were even more enthusiastic than I was--Pops ate two and a half mini loaves himself (impressive since we only kept 4)!

I think what makes this banana bread so good is that it is chock full of toasted walnuts and unsweetened coconut. This didn't mask the banana flavor, but it does make the whole flavor of the bread more complex. Usually banana bread is quite sweet and dense. This was a bit less sweet (which was nice) and a bit lighter while still being moist (which was also nice). Plus I used ripe but not over ripe bananas--not by design, just because I was making these for a specific purpose (I wanted to give two mini loaves to two people I was meeting with) and the bananas weren't over ripe yet. These really were good--so good that I may need to rethink my position on bananas.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Remember the raspberry sour cream coffee cake I made? This is a variation of that. Instead of sour cream, I used fat free Greek yogurt. It made the texture of the cake a little bit tough but it tasted pretty much the same and made the cake lower fat and cal. Next time I think I'll try regular fat free yogurt (instead of Greek yogurt) since it has more moisture and, hopefully, will make the crumb a bit more tender. I also substituted sliced strawberries for the raspberries because I happened to have strawberries in the fridge that needed to be used up but no raspberries at all. I think I liked the raspberries more, but generally I like raspberries more so I'm not convinced it's a reflection on the cake. Overall not the perfect cake, but yummy nonetheless and (as cake goes) nearly healthy!

Marble Loaf Cake

This marble loaf cake from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook is just delicious. The chocolate is richly, deeply, almost bitterly chocolaty. The vanilla is warmly sweet. The cake generally is moist and dense but not too heavy. The glaze is rich with white chocolate and sets very nicely. Plus it's remarkably simple to make and I think swirling the cake batter is a ton of fun (I like the method that Martha suggest of spooning in the batter in 2 layers both with a sort of checker board pattern, it helps distribute the chocolate and vanilla without risking over swirling the batters and blending them.)

The cake before swirling and after I took it out of the oven

Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Scones

These scones are based on the traditional scone recipe I learned at the FCI. Basically I added cocoa powder (instead of some of the flour, plus a bit more) and a bit extra sugar to the dough to give a delicious bittersweet chocolaty dough. Then I just substituted chocolate chips for the dried currants or raisins. Yum!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Loaf

The color of this photo is oddly yellowed and I can't seem to fix it,
so you will have to imagine the rich warmth of the
orange cake studded with deep brown chocolate chips.

I like pumpkin, but I'm a bit picky about it. I don't like pumpkin pie or other overly sweet applications. In fact I tend to only eat pumpkin in savory dishes, such as pumpkin soup or pumpkin risotto--yum! I digress. I happened to have a few cans of pumpkin purée in the back of the cupboard and I decided it was high time I used them--plus I always like making pumpkin recipes for Halloween and I'll be traveling on the day so I figured I'd do it early. I found a recipe for chocolate chip laden pumpkin loaves in the original Baked cookbook and decided that chocolate was bound to improve on the pumpkin. I was right! (I suppose it was their idea first, so they were right...but I take credit for choosing to make the recipe!)

The loaves were delicious! The pumpkin wasn't overwhelming, nor were the spices (I find many pumpkin dishes tend to use far too much cinnamon and nutmeg). The bittersweet chocolate cut the sweetness of the loaves and actually enhanced the pumpkin flavor. The were dense and moist but still tender and the chips added some texture. Definitely my favorite pumpkin dessert recipe!

Maple Muffins

These were not quite as yellow in person; they were more of a warm yet pale brown.

These maple muffins are from Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook. They are dense but not overly heavy and they are sweet but not overly sugary. The maple syrup is sweet but with a complexity and deep, warm flavor that is lacking in regular sugar. They are a perfect thing to eat with a cup of tea (or apple cider) on a cold fall day. I believe this was supposed to make normal size muffins. Instead, I made a multitude of mini muffins and 3 mini loaves. I wrapped the loaves in foil, put them in a freezer ziploc bag, and froze them. I kept them about a month and just defrosted them overnight in the fridge. I took them out, let them come to room temp, unwrapped them, sliced them, and tentatively took a bite. They were just as good as the fresh muffins were a month ago. Okay, maybe they were slightly less fresh tasting, but honestly they were still very good and the difference was minor at most.

A note on maple syrup: many baking recipes call for grade B maple syrup. The grades unlike for many other foods, don't refer to how good or fresh the syrup is, instead they refer to how translucent it is. Grade B the darkest and therefore has a stronger flavor than the three subdivisions of Grade A (light, medium, and dark). It is a little strong to use on pancakes (typically Grade A light or medium amber is used for eating) but it is perfect for baking. It can be a little hard to find, so if you can't find it, use Grade A dark amber. Never ever use fake syrups (like Aunt Jemima); they are good for pancakes but bad for baking.

Currant Scones, version 2

These scones are from Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook. I like the recipe we learned at the FCI slightly better; these were a bit baking soda-y. I suppose the baking soda and powder is why these have such good rise, but a similar light flakiness can be achieved with obscene amounts of butter and heavy cream. Overall, a very nice, very close-to-traditional, currant scone.

 

Bread Unit Exam

They really threw us a curve ball for this exam. We knew we would have to make brioche and croissant (and presumably pain au chocolat) because we prepared the dough the class prior to the exam. However, we didn't know that we would have to make another yeasted bread (of our choice) and a quickbread muffin (that we were randomly assigned.) I got cornbread for my muffin! I'm very happy about that because I love cornbread and it's quite easy to make. For my choice of yeasted bread, I picked vienois, because it was incredible and one of the simpler breads to make.

So the brioche à tête came out pretty well. Definitely tasty and even though the heads came out a little wonky, the chef said that they looked quite nice. This is especially good because about half the brioche dough (mine included) wasn't defrosted before class, so I had to wait over an hour before I could use it. The croissants were under proofed and slightly underbaked because there wasn't enough space in the proof boxes and then I ran out of time. Ah well. At least the pain au chocolat were closer--they were pretty much proofed and properly baked--and the chef said they looked nice. The cornbread came out almost perfect and oh so yummy! And the vienois was pretty close to perfect (although I didn't do the cuts on top quite deep enough.)

Overall, not a great success, but not too bad either. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I was really excited about these, but unfortunately they were a bit of a let down. They weren't as tart as I like and mine got taken out slightly too early--they weren't undercooked, but they weren't quite browned and crisped enough on top. Ah well, I'll have to try these again...or maybe just another recipe.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Considering I don't like banana, these were quite good. I actually didn't mind eating them, although I would have preferred less banana (I do understand that less banana defeats the purpose of making banana muffins.)  Everyone who likes bananas and tasted these said they were excellent and not too banana-y at We made muffins and then compiled our excess batter to make one large "cake," which is really more a giant quickbread. I got to take home so of both, which made me a hit with my mom and pops, who both whine that I won't make them banana bread.

Cornbread

I love cornbread and this was no exception. It was a little sweeter than I usually love for cornbread, but the light texture and other-than-the-sweetness perfect taste made up for that. Plus it is amazingly easy to make! The chef said that you can cut down on the sugar or even cut it out and add savory flavoring (like rosemary or cheese) to it. I'll have to try that!