Chocolate Whoopie Pies: a COVID birthday

Everyone should get a little whoopie on his or her birthday.  But while a little whoopie is a good thing, being quarantined in the house while #covidbaking with a full batch of little cakes is asking for trouble, so I quartered the recipe to make 4.  (Original recipe makes 15.)  I cut the sugar of the cookie part in half, and threw in a little protein powder so I'd feel less guilty, but at a 2:1 ratio since it sucks up so much moisture.

There are a lot of whoopie pie recipes out there.  I don't know where I got this one, but I chose it because there's no vegetable shortening and it uses a cooked flour filling, which helps cut the sweetness.

For 4, 3¼ " cakes, here's what I used:

1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon pea protein powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 pinch spoon of salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 egg
4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk

Cream Filling:
3/4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 375°. Line baking sheets with aluminum foil; coat with cooking spray.  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in mixing bowl until creamy, 1 minute. Beat in vanilla and eggs for 30 seconds. On low speed, beat in cocoa. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk in 3 additions.  Drop 2 tablespoons mixture per cookie onto prepared sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Shape each into 2¼” rounds (keep size equal since they will be sandwiched.) Bake in 375° oven for 12-14 minutes or until cookies spring back when lightly touched in center. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Stir flour and milk in saucepan until smooth. Bring to simmering over medium heat, whisking, until thickened and bubbly; cook 1 minute.  Remove from heat. Whisk in 1/2 tablespoon butter until smooth. Press waxed paper directly on surface. Let stand until cool to touch, about 45 minutes.  Beat remaining 1½ tablespoons butter, the vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar in small bowl until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping bottom and side of bowl as needed. Add milk mixture; beat 1 minute or until smooth and fluffy. Sandwich together pairs of cookies with 2 tablespoons filling, pressing lightly until filling begins to show around edges. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers in refrigerator.

I baked them for 12 minutes and they were overdone, even starting to burn a little. I didn't measure my rounds, but I tried to estimate a 2¼" diameter.  I made only 1/2 of an extra cookie--Right?  Fifteen sandwich cakes need 30 cookies, divided by 4 is 7.5 cookies.  I made 8.--so I wouldn't think it would affect them that much.  Maybe my oven was too hot.  (One thermometer read 400 and the other 350.  I split the difference.)  I was hoping for something softer and thicker.

I'm wondering why the cocoa is mixed in separately.  It would be a lot easier to sift it with the other dry ingredients.  I would try that next time.

The dough was quite thick, which makes me wonder if it would lend itself to piping.  These would make sweet little heart cakes if that worked.  My filling ended up runny and slightly separated, which was disappointing.  I filled the
cakes and put them in the refrigerator, hoping the filling would soften the cakes a little.  Otherwise, it's going to squirt out with the first bite.

Conclusion:  They weren't quite what I was wanting, but they were tasty.  It's nice having just that single little cake that's just enough.  Perhaps could have been a little more chocolatey.

Biscotti di Prato with anise

 

I was craving a dunking cookie for my coffee that wasn't complicated, and also craving anise, so I added anise seed to my favorite biscotti recipe.  This makes a very hard, crunchy cookie that holds up well to a hot beverage.  I got a somewhat different result this time, but perhaps I wandered too far from the recipe.  To add a little more nutrition, I substituted some pea protein powder, which probably would have been okay if my liquid ratio had been correct.  But pea powder sucks up a lot of moisture, and there isn't a lot to spare in this recipe--- just the eggs--- so I figured it couldn't be a 1:1 ratio.  I started with 1:1 with just 1/3 cup, but then took out a couple spoonfuls of wheat flour and added another spoonful of pea protein.  When I mix the lot together, it was exceedingly dry, so I added a little water and then it was too wet, so I added another spoonful of pea protein.  It was still a sticky, wet mess, but I didn't want to fool with it any longer.  I just scooped it onto the baking sheet, where it oozed into flat oblongs, and hoped for the best.

I don't know what acid the baking soda is working with, but it worked.  The loaves rose nicely and the cookies turned out well, albeit a little flatter than usual.  The anise wasn't very detectable---just a faint essence every now and then.

Here's what I used to make about 3½ dozen cookies.  Changes are in italics and strikeout:

3/4 cup whole almonds
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 1⅔ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup pea protein powder
7/8 3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon anise seed
dash 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Place nuts in a shallow pan and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool. In a small bowl beat eggs, vanilla and almond extract with a wire whisk. In mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, anise seed, and salt. Add egg mixture and mix until blended--about 1 minute. Cut nuts into halves or thirds and mix in. Divide dough in half. On a greased and floured baking sheet, pat out dough into two logs about 1/2 inch thick, 1½ inches wide, and 12 inches long, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake in the middle of a preheated 300F oven for 50 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer from the baking sheet to a rack. Let cool 5 minutes. Place on a cutting board. With a serrated knife slice diagonally at a 45-degree angle about 1/2 inch thick. Lay the slices flat on the baking sheet (they all fit if you place them bottom to bottom) and return to a 275F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until toasted, turning them over once to dry the other side. Store in a tightly covered container.

I cheated and used dry roasted almonds instead of toasting my own....  Don't.  You could tell they soaked up a little of the batter moisture and weren't fully crisp. Otherwise, they were just what I needed.

Conclusion:  A great staple, but I'd like to figure out something to make them a little more hearty, perhaps with buckwheat flour, or rye.

Recipe:  Biscotti di Prato from Biscotti by Lou Seibert Pappas

Alehouse hamburger buns

During this COVID-19 madness, I've had to shop in stores I don't usually go to.  So when I found packages of those new plant-based burgers, I decided I might as well give them a try.  Hamburger was all sold out most places.  Later, though, I thought about buns, and was trying to figure out which was less of a hassle:  try to find hamburger buns (how many stores would I have to go to?) or just make them myself.  I opted for the latter and started looking through my recipe collection.  These sounded like a good pairing.

The normal recipe makes 5 "huge" sandwich rolls, but it didn't say what size; I decided to halve the recipe hoping for at least 3 suitably-sized buns.  I generally don't like to detect salt in bread, so I reduced the salt just to be on the safe side (although the full amount would have been fine for dinner rolls.)  I increased the amount of wholemeal flour, and had to use regular AP flour.  I replaced the butter with olive oil strictly for ease of use.

Here's what I used to make four, 4½" hamburger buns:

38g (1/5 cup) rolled oats
220ml (7.5 ounces) Guinness
5 teaspoons unsalted butter olive oil (see note)
1/2 tablespoon honey (or malt syrup)
225 175g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) strong white flour
50 100g (¾ cup) whole wheat flour, plus extra for shaping and dusting
1 teaspoon fast action active dry yeast
1 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
Oil for kneading and oat bran (or pulsed oats) for finishing

Heat the oven to 390°F. Place the oats on a tray in the oven for a bit over 25 minutes or until they turn a rich golden brown. (They were getting pretty dark at about 20 minutes, so I took them out then.)  Pour the ale into a saucepan and add the oats, then bring to the boil over a medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat, add the butter or oil and honey, cover, and leave it about 30 minutes till it's barely warm.  Add the yeast and leave to proof.
 
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.  Pour in the warm oat and ale mixture and stir everything together with your fingers, adding a little cold water if necessary to make a soft dough, then cover the bowl and leave for 10 minutes. Lightly oil the work surface and your hands, scoop the dough out of the bowl and gently knead it for 10 seconds. Scoop the dough back into the bowl, cover, then repeat the light knead twice more at 10-minute intervals. Leave the dough for 30 minutes, ideally somewhere it won't get chilled, then divide it into pieces.  Shape each piece of dough into a ball.  To protect the bottoms from burning, I used an air-bake baking sheet, spacing the rolls 2 inches apart. Flatten each roll to about the diameter of a hamburger bun, then dampen the surface and sprinkle with oat bran.  Cover the tray loosely and leave for about an hour until risen in height by a half.  Heat the oven to 410°F. Bake the rolls for 20 minutes. then reduce the heat to 350°F and bake until a good golden brown (if necessary), possibly just another 5 minutes.  Leave to cool on a wire rack covered loosely with a tea towel.

Note:  I forgot I was making half the recipe and used the full amount of olive oil.  Oops.

My dough was VERY sticky, but I'm not very exact with measurements.  I'd erred on the side of a wetter dough because I knew there wasn't much gluten development and I'd used the extra whole wheat flour.  I don't think even bread flour would have produced a window pane after such minimal time and handling.  Leaving the dough a little wetter gave it a little help with the rise.  However, weighing out the pieces would have been a nightmare, so I just divided it into quarters as best I could.  I floured my finger tips and lightly floured the dough ball, then shaped smooth balls by pulling the dough to the bottom and tucking it in before placing on the baking sheet. 

Conclusion:  I accidentally overbaked these, so they were dry.  They looked done at 20 minutes, but I was uncertain because of the directions, and I wanted to make sure they weren't too soft.  I intended to bake them just another 5 minutes at the lower temperature, but I got distracted and they were in there for about 10.  Nonetheless, they were very tasty, with a good wheaty flavor.  These were still quite large; I could have gotten 5 "slim" hamburger buns, or made 4 normal sized and one dinner roll.

Recipe:  Dan Lepard's Alehouse Rolls via The Caterer

Sweet Potato Pecan Pudding Cake

They're lying.  All the people who posted photos of this cake are lying.  You can't dump 2 cups of sweet potato into a regular cake recipe and have it turn out light and fluffy like their photos show.  What you get is what's in that photo above:  a cross between cake and bread pudding.  Kitchen Nostalgia even acknowledged, "The cake was very moist, actually more like pudding than regular cake. I happen to like that, but I know some of my readers would certainly comment on this."  Yet her picture is of a turmeric-colored cake with a little topping.  Not the same recipe.

It's not a bad recipe, necessarily, but it's not "cake" as we're used to having, and as all those people presented.  Especially when they're touting it as "cinnamon roll" cake, further indicating it should be airy.

This turned out fine--- people snarfed it down--- but it certainly didn't come out as desired.  And after comparing the original recipe for plain cinnamon roll cake and this one, I feel confident it wasn't because of my changes.  I had wanted to use half whole wheat flour but didn't have any, so I substituted some coffee flour and some wheat bran, and I changed up the directions a little to be more conventional.  I also halved the recipe, but baked it in a pan that was appropriately sized.

My additions are in strikeout and italics.  Here's what I used:

1 ½ ¼ cups flour 

2 tablespoons coffee flour

2 tablespoons wheat bran

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup cooked sweet potatoes

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup milk

Topping:

1/2 cup butter, softened (see note)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1½ teaspoons cinnamon 

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2½ tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 10x7.5-inch baking pan.  Sift together the flours, bran, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt.  In a medium mixing bowl, beat sweet potatoes with the sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined, then add the melted butter and mix until thoroughly blended and smooth. Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk and mixing between additions. Pour batter into prepared pan. Mix all the topping ingredients together until well combined.  Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Sprinkle with pecans. Bake cake for 30 - 40 minutes.

I checked it at 25 minutes-- still raw.  At 32 minutes, it had started to swell in the middle.  Removed at 38 minutes.  Skewer came out clean and it had puffed fairly evenly and had started to pull away from the sides, but there was a lot of melted butter and syrup running around the pan.  The syrup firmed up and the butter was absorbed as the cake cooled.

Note:  I'd be inclined to halve the amount of butter in the topping.  It seemed excessive, literally being more like a seasoned butter than a topping.

Conclusion:  The taste was good on this, despite everything.  I had been inclined to reduce the sugar, but my batter had a slight bitter taste (probably my additions) so I used the full amount and it was fine.  I skipped the glaze, though.  If I were to make this again, which I doubt, I would be inclined to cut it up into two-bite pieces and serve them in a bowl with whipped cream.

Recipes:  Sweet Potato Cinnamon Roll Cake via Bunny's Warm Oven (with reference to Kitchen Nostalgia's version and their original Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Cake.)

Coconut flour banana bread

The grain-free banana bread I've been making uses mostly almond flour.  This one uses strictly coconut flour.  I modified it to suit my taste and cut the recipe way down.  (I have to question any recipe that uses huge quantities of expensive items--- 8 eggs, 8 bananas, 1 cup coconut oil--- only to find it's for TWO loaves.  This recipe in particular is very easy to reduce.  And don't even get me started on the random capitalization.)  I made one quarter of the recipe as a test, but what I've posted here is for one full loaf.

Here's what I used:

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup coconut oil
4 organic eggs
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 tsp vanilla
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix together the bananas, oil, eggs, molasses, and flavoring.  Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, and salt, then stir into the wet mixture along with the chocolate chips.  Pour into a greased pan* (9x5") and bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown.

Okay, I've already realized I made a huge mistake in that I used the full cup of coconut flour called for in the original recipe, which, remember, was for TWO loaves, and I made half a loaf.  So I've got four times the amount of coconut flour in there baking at the moment.  (I wondered why the mixture was so pliable, but these "alternative" recipes are usually strangely textured anyway.)  Well, I'll certainly be getting my fiber, anyway.

The original recipe doesn't state what size pans to use.  Frequently, wheatless recipes don't rise very much because they don't have the structure.  This recipe has all those eggs, plus baking soda, so it probably would rise some.

Conclusion:  Well, this is going to have to wait until I make the bread again, properly.  I won't mark it as a "fail" yet.  The flavor was good, but the texture sort of powdery, no doubt from the excess of coconut flour.  It was very filling too.

Recipe:  Paleo Banana Bread via Healthy Holistic Living

Red wine and cherry fudge brownies

What do you do with red wine you don't like?  This new California wine style that's taking off right now--- really heavy on the dark fruits, dark red to nearly black in color (stains your lips and teeth), and generally tastes like wine concentrate--- is a little too rich for my taste.  It seems like it should be made into a syrup and poured over ice cream.  (Hey, that's not a bad idea.)  So after about two glasses of this 2017 Pessimist Red Blend (Daou Vineyards, Paso Robles), I was looking for ideas.  I really like this Blood and Chocolate beverage (vegan, but I make mine vegetarian), but was less than overwhelmed with this red wine chocolate cake.  The brownies seemed like a promising cross between the two.

I omitted the chocolate chips from the original recipe and substituted sweet cherries macerated in the wine, since the wine already had a strong cherry influence.  I also added a little espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor.  (Because there just wasn't enough in there already.)  My changes are in italics and strikeout.  Here's what I used:

For the brownies
1/2 cup chocolate chips dried dark sweet cherries (optional)
3 tablespoons of red wine, plus 1/4 cup
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon espresso powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (see Conclusion edit)
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the glaze:
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons red wine
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter an 8×8 pan and line with parchment paper, then butter the parchment. Set aside.

Macerate the cherries in about 3 tablespoons of wine by heating slightly in the microwave; set aside.  Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a double boiler over barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth; stir in the espresso powder.  Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt; set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, and vanilla. Whisk in the chocolate mixture and then the wine.  Add the flour mixture and stir until the batter is smooth and has thickened slightly.  Drain the cherries, reserving the liquid. Cut each cherry in half, then fold in the cherries into the batter.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 15-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs attached. You may need to bake the brownies for a few minutes more, but set your timer for 15 minutes and then hang out in your kitchen for the last few minutes of baking time just to make sure they don’t over bake. (At 15 minutes mine were still raw in the middle.  At 20 minutes the middle had just started to dull on top.  I removed them after another 6 minutes, when the middle had risen and was dull on top, but there was remnant damp mix on the knife.)  Allow to cool somewhat.

While the brownies are baking, make the glaze. Melt the chocolate and butter in the double boiler until melted.  Measure out the reserved cherry liquid and add enough wine to make 2 tablespoons.  Add to the chocolate along with the salt and whisk until smooth. Pour the glaze over the warm brownies (warm enough to melt the glaze but cool enough that the glaze remains a little thick) and spread it to the corners so the top is evenly coated.  Cool completely, preferably overnight in a cool area.  (They are very delicate until they've been allowed to sit for a while.)  Lift from pan using the parchment paper and cut into squares, wiping knife after each slice.

 

Conclusion:  These are crazy rich.  I'm undecided about the cherries, mostly from a texture perspective.  They don't really add flavor, so it's just this sort of squishy/chewy thing in an otherwise silky, melt-in-your-mouth crumb.  (I had expected them to taste wine-soaked.)  However, the wine imparts a mildly tart flavor (interesting, since the wine wasn't tart at all), so perhaps tart cherries would have been a better combination.  Or perhaps not macerating them, so they were chewier.  In the end, these are good, but I'd prefer a brownie less rich, so I can eat a bigger piece. (Later edit:  I discovered the missing flavor profile was salt.  The flavor of these improved immensely after sprinkling with a little salt.)

Recipe:  Red wine chocolate fudge brownies via butter me up, Brooklyn!

Granola

I love all the things that go into making granola, but I really don't care much for granola.  I remember when Quaker's 100% Natural granola first hit the shelves; it was a massive hit in our house and I ate loads of it. I can only think that I OD'ed on it and that's why I no longer care for it.

Fast forward to present day, when I found this "it will change your life" cult-following granola recipe and decided to give it a try.  I don't hate granola, and it's nice to have a crunchy, healthy snack in the house.

There are loads of variations suggested, but I went for the straight recipe to start.  The only change was that I had forgotten to add the brown sugar before spreading it out on the baking sheet.  I wasn't sure I wanted more sugar, and I really didn't feel like piling the mix back into the bowl, already in the sink.  But I also didn't want to miss out on the deep, toasty richness that brown sugar (aka molasses) could add.  So I just drizzled some molasses (maybe two tablespoons?) across the top and mixed it in.

Here's what I used:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup hulled raw pumpkin seeds
1 cup hulled raw sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut chips
1¼ cups raw pecans, left whole or coarsely chopped
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (see introduction)
1½ teaspoon coarse salt, to taste

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together. Spread mixture in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Transfer to oven and bake, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes, until granola is toasted and dry, about 45 minutes.  Remove granola from oven and season with more salt to taste, if desired.  Let cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

I had more liquid in the bowl as I dumped it out than she does in the video, and the mix seemed fairly damp.  It might have something to do with the maple syrup and how liquidy or thick that is.  My maple syrup did not have a strong maple flavor, so it probably could have been reduced a bit more in processing, thus rendering it more flavorful and thicker.  I also baked it about an extra 10 minutes, as it still seemed damp prior to that.  Perhaps only a 1/2 cup of syrup next time would reduce the liquid and the sweetness.

Conclusion:  One of the nicest things about making your own granola is that you can toast it to the degree you like, which for me is more than what I get in store bought granola.  And whether it was the oil or the molasses, this recipe has a really nice crispness to it, rather than being crunchy.  I especially like the little bursts of coarse salt that sparkle on the tongue.  However, I'm glad I didn't add the brown sugar as it was plenty sweet as it was.  Perhaps could even be a little less so.  And I'm wondering what the maple syrup added...  Could I use a plain sugar syrup and add a little maple flavoring?  This is a fairly expensive recipe, so anything that would cut costs would help.

Recipe:  Nekisia Davis' Olive Oil & Maple Granola via Food 52