Lots of Bundts!

Inspired by The Food Librarian’s “I Like Big Bundts” annual blog series, I have been a bundt-making whiz these past couple of weeks:

Recipe: Culinary in the Desert: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bundt Cake.

I made this for a friend’s birthday today, and I’m a bit disappointed with it. The peanut butter filling tasted amazing, just like a Reese’s Pieces, before it was baked, but seemed to lose something after it was done. Maybe it’s just that it was overpowered by the chocolate part, which just didn’t taste sweet enough. I might try it again and either add a frosting or more sugar in the batter, since it did have a very nice, moist texture.

I added a small amount of a simple powdered sugar & milk glaze – just enough to stick some M&M’s to it, since that’s one of the preferred snacks of the friend group, and the bites with the glaze were definitely tastier than those without.

UPDATE: It turns out that this is really just one of those cakes that’s better the next day. I had some a little while ago and it was delicious! Now I know to just make it in advance.

I’ve also made 2 rum cakes – one for my brother’s birthday and one for a Halloween party, a sweet potato/chocolate marble bundt (a cross between two recipes that produced a just-okay result), a Mayan chocolate bundt, and the Burnt Sugar Bundt from the Baked Explorations cookbook! I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and doubt I’m done. The boss at my part-time job has a birthday coming up, and then there’s Thanksgiving…

Rock Buns : The Recipe Corner

Link: Rock Buns : The Recipe Corner

Today’s recipe was very like this one, except my cookbook called for 1/4 less butter, no candied peel, and currants instead of mixed dried fruits. Mine also called for an egg wash on top, but I think I’ll leave that off next time I make them. Fraser declares that they’re just like the ones he enjoyed as a kid.

They have a nice consistency – like a cupcake inside and slightly crisp outside.

Oh, and to save you doing the math or searching, that’s 1.5 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar. To make self-raising flour, measure 1.5 tsp baking powder & 1/2 tsp salt for every cup of flour. Put those in the measuring cup before adding the flour.

The Best of 100 Ways to Cook a Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes have been a great comfort to me, in the land of no pumpkin, and if anything, now I actually prefer them!

I made sweet potato pie yesterday, and we have been having them more often than not on top of our favorite shepherd’s pie, instead of regular potatoes.

Today, I came across this list of 100 Ways to Cook a Sweet Potato, and am bookmarking the ones I like and want to make. The first item on the list was almost a recipe for sweet potato pancakes, but since it just tells you add store-bought sweet potato puree to premade pancake mix, I turned my nose up at it and decided I could find a better one if I want to make them.

I thought I’d share my picks here, and since some friends can’t have gluten, I’ll make a note of which are already gluten-free, without having to modify the recipe. Most of these are vegetarian-friendly as-is.

1. Sweet Potato Flan (gluten free!)

2. Sweet Potato Doughnuts

3. Sweet Potato Pizza Dough

4. Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies with Maple Marshmallow Creme

5. Sweet Potato Stuffed Apples (gluten free!)

6. Beni Imo Dorayaki (Japanese pancakes stuffed with sweet potato. Calls for purple sweet potato, which I love, but is hard to find, so I may try it with the more common variety.)

7. Sweet Potato Pierogies (Vegan)

8. Sweet Potato Fritters (but probably without the beans, since we’re not crazy about them)

9. Sweet Potato Muffins with Cinnamon-Sugar Coating

10. Sweet Potato and Chipotle Goat Cheese Ravioli

11. Sweet Potato Biscuits

12. Roasted Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Maple Cream

13. Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Wheat Bread

14. New Mexican Sweet Potato Latkes

15. Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake

16. Sweet Potato-Coconut Pudding with Toasted Coconut

17. Ranga Alur Puli (Bengali sweet potato dessert)

18. Buffalo Sweet Potato Pizza (but with some other kind of cheese than bleu, because neither of us likes it)

19. Autumnal Sweet Potato Soup

Honorable mention:

Sweet Potato Gnocci – I do not want to make it, but I have bookmarked it to remember that when we eventually go to visit friends in Seattle, I want to go and try it at the restaurant which pioneered the recipe.

There were a bunch that involved using mashed sweet potato instead of refried beans in enchiladas, quesadillas, and burritos. I like the idea, but wouldn’t necessarily use any of the specific recipes mentioned.

Fraser’s First Sweet Potato Pie

He approves! The pie was based on a recipe from Epicurious, but which I adjusted and substituted as I felt like it. The consistency is similar to a pumpkin pie, but fluffier, and tastes nothing like a pumpkin pie. It puffed up quite a bit as it baked, but then it deflated and was even with the rim of the crust.

Ingredients:

5 small sweet potatoes

1/4 cup of butter

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (used instead of the milk & sugar in the original recipe)

3 eggs

Several dashes of pumpkin pie spice (I like it fairly spicy)

Dash of salt

Splash of milk (I didn’t measure – just enough to thin it out some)

1 premade shortcrust pie shell

Method:

Bake the sweet potatoes at 350 F/180 C for about an hour, or until they’re soft but not too mushy. Prick the potatoes with a fork a bunch of times before placing them on a baking sheet.

Let the potatoes cool until they’re safe to handle, then peel off the skins and mash the potatoes.

Raise the oven temperature to 400 F/200 C.

Melt the butter, then mix it and the rest of the ingredients together.

Press the pie crust into a deep pie or flan dish.

Pour the filling into the dish, then sprinkle some cinnamon on top.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle. (40 minutes put mine just a trifle too dark on top.)

Breadmaking, take 1

After getting used to things fresh from the oven, like the pizza dough earlier this week or the drop biscuits that have gone with various things, we’ve decided to extend this to bread for sandwiches.

I found this recipe and followed some advice from previous bakers to adapt it for sandwich rolls. The original recipe even states that it’s versatile, and can be made to work with dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, or whatever.

I reduced the sugar, since these are intended for sandwiches, and replaced 1 3/4 cups of A.P. flour with strong brown bread flour.

Not having a breadmaker, I stuck mostly to the steps described by summer_lover in the reviews (2nd from top as of this posting).

I also shaped them into 8 round balls instead of the crescents described in the original recipe, as other bakers had done this without damaging the finished product.

As it turns out, one additional step is needed that isn’t mentioned by anyone – re-shape the dough after the $%^&* cat walks across the pan. Luckily, I’d already covered it, so I didn’t have to waste any of the dough.

The bread is on its second rise right now, the cat has been banished outside until they’re finished, and with luck, Fraser will be taking a sandwich on homemade bread for lunch tomorrow.

I hope they’re good, since this was an easy recipe, and could potentially save us a little money, since the recipe probably cost a third, if not less, than the cost of a loaf of the bread we usually get.

– Heather

Chocolate Chip Yogurt Muffins

Link: Chocolate Chip Yogurt Muffins

While my friends in So Cal are melting under record-breaking heat, it’s really strange to me to be shivering and searching for something to bake so I can use the oven to heat up the flat a little (According to the Star Wars weather report, Glasgow is currently a lot like Endor – low 50’s, temperate, but gray & cloudy, with a chance we’ll get our own cartoon series). Also, I found our lack of baked goods disturbing.

I made the recipe almost as written (click on the title above), but with these changes:

I substituted 1/2 cup of the all purpose flour with wholemeal flour.

I accidentally used the 1/3 cup measure for the sugar, oil, and yogurt, and therefore added 2 TBSP more all purpose flour at the last minute.

I used plain white vinegar instead of the apple cider vinegar just because it’s what I had on hand.

I added about a tsp of cinnamon because we like cinnamon in everything, especially this time of year.

As far as I can tell, they didn’t suffer at all for any of this. They do tend to stick to the muffin papers, but as long as you don’t mind looking a little silly when you eat them, that’s not a major problem.

– Heather

Update: For some reason, the next day, they’re not sticking to the paper at all, as long as you peel it off carefully!