Coconut Cookies

Every year, my mom has a cookie exchange, and I make several dozen cookies to trade with a group of people.  Last year I made Carrot Oatmeal Cookies full of coconut.  This year, after much deliberation and a somewhat last-minute decision, I settled on the Coconut Cookies from Good to the Grain.

Let me tell you - I do not want to see another cookie recipe for quite some time after this ordeal.  My head is spinning.  This recipe has you do things in such a strange way.  If you know a bit about the ingredients you're working with, it will probably make sense to you (as it did to me after an a-ha moment) but it makes for quite a difficult experience.  You basically cream sugar and eggs together, add the dry ingredients, add room-temperature butter (here's where it starts to get difficult - I could hear my poor little mixer begging me to stop torturing it), THEN you add coconut milk.  In the recipe's defense, I was making double batches, but go over to your mixer, fill it 2/3 of the way with dough, then add 2 1/2 cups of liquid, and see where it goes.  Not into the dough, that's for sure.  I won't be surprised to find spots of coconut milk in some unusual places.  That being said, I can understand why this is done this way.  Coconut flour is very absorbent and it sucks in liquid fairly gradually.  I'm sure the internet could explain it to you better.

Naturally, when you are making eight batches of an unusual cookie recipe (in my case, four double batches), something is bound to go wrong.  With the unusual order of adding ingredients, I completely forgot the butter for my second batch.  I went all the way through to the coconut milk before I realized it.  The only thing I didn't waste was two cups of shredded coconut.  So I tried to put the butter in anyway.  Eventually I accepted that it was not salvageable and now I've got several dollars sitting in the bottom of my garbage can.  Wonderful.

I was up very late making dough.  It was my plan to scoop the balls of dough, roll them in coconut, and put them in the fridge that way to bake this afternoon, but when I rolled one out, it just kind of melted everywhere, so I decided to just put the dough straight in the fridge and turn it into cookies today instead.  This worked out well because the dough was firm to start with and got softer as I worked through the container, but not quite as soft as it had been when it was first made.  I made one cookie sheet with a 3 tablespoon scoop, as the directions told me to, but I panicked and switched to a 2 tablespoon scoop so that I wouldn't be short on the number of cookies.  Unsurprisingly, this also shortened the baking time (an even 16 minutes worked perfectly) so this process took a very long but surprisingly quick 3 hours.

I was skeptical about the expensive ingredients and the amount of work I was doing for these ridiculous cookies.  But when that first batch came out of the oven (the bigger ones, obviously they couldn't be used for the exchange and therefore absolutely had to be eaten immediately) they were pillowy soft inside, with a crisp coconut-flaked outside.

I now had five dinner plates and three cooling racks covered in stacks of coconut cookies.  My plan for wrapping them up was to use a fold-over plastic sandwich bag (got those by accident and need to use them up) placed inside a paper bag with the top folded down, holepunched, and tied with a ribbon.  I ended up putting them in fold-over plastic sandwich bags and put those inside paper bags.  11 cookies in each.  I folded them over and tied a ribbon vertically and called it a day.  (I don't even own a holepuncher!)  By that point it was time to leave so I was really cutting it close!  But I made it, with all my cookies.  And people seemed to like them.  :)

Hazelnut Muffins

It's hard to explain what these muffins taste like, but I can tell you how I felt when I first bit into one.

I was speechless.  It was almost a spiritual experience biting into this muffin - it was THAT good.  I never wanted to stop.  It was sweet and nutty, with a balanced whole grain flavor and a distinctive richness from the teff flour and brown butter.  The spices in the topping gave the plainer batter a twist.

I will be making these muffins again, and again, and again.  I never cease to be impressed by the recipes in Good to the Grain - if you've noticed, I hardly bake anything else at all, but I don't even want to.  I have a reasonable stash in the freezer already, but as soon as I run out, making a new batch will jump to the top of my to-do list.  This is one I will NOT mess with.

The crushed hazelnut, sugar and spice topping makes a bit extra, so I saved it and used it to top oatmeal - yummm :)

Blueberry Buckle

As with the rest of Good to the Grain, and I'm sure you're sick of hearing (reading?) me say this, I have wanted to try this recipe since my first flip through the book.  I finally had my chance when some friends joined us down the shore.  I do not make a habit of making delicious, carby, sugary breakfast cakes just for myself, so I was glad to have a bigger crowd (7 people) to serve this to.

I wanted to bake this down the shore, but knew I didn't have a stand mixer available there.  Luckily, I read the recipe notes, which suggested that you could make the batter the night before.  I mixed up the batter and tossed it in a cooler along with a pint of blueberries and a sandwich bag full of the dry ingredients for the streusel topping.  In the morning (after a 7am spinning class... fun!) I made the streusel, washed the berries and assembled the cake.

The only bad thing was that it took so long to bake.  I had hoped someone would wake up and get cracking on it before I got back from spinning, but no one was up when we got back.  We were very hungry and ready to go to the beach by the time the cake came out of the oven, but I made everyone wait - and for good reason - it was delicious!  The copious amounts of blueberries make it a bit sloppy, especially when warm, but it was soooo good.  I totally messed up the streusel topping - I overworked it and the warmth from my hands melted the butter, so it really just made a sweet, buttery layer on top, but this did not take away from the taste at all.

I have a bad habit of remembering things when I'm out shopping instead of making a list before I go.  I saw the blueberries and thought, oh right!  I wanted to make that buckle.  So I got two pints of blueberries.  Then when I looked at the recipe I saw it called for two cups (one pint) of blueberries.  I thought maybe I could add more, but that definitely would not have worked out.  So since I prefer cooked blueberries, I just left them in the fridge and waited for something to come to me.  Nothing did, and I decided to make the buckle again.  I had a few raspberries in the fridge as well - a little soft, but still in decent shape - so I added those in with the pint of blueberries.  I cut the butter into the streusel topping with a fork instead of my fingers, so it came out right this time.

Carrot Muffins

As we are all well aware I love baking and I love baking whole grain muffins specifically.  These Carrot Muffins from Good to the Grain used spelt flour, which I haven't used until now.

I don't have too much to say about these, as I only ate one and the rest went in the freezer or were shared.

My carrots were too dry - the muffin was good, but a little on the dry side - my carrots must be pretty old.  I usually use a trick from Mark Bittman - cut them into carrot sticks, then fill the container with water.  This works pretty well, but when these were cut up, they went into two huge containers and I only remembered the next day to put water in, and only in one container.  Also, it was a pain to grate carrot sticks on a box grater.  Next time I will just go get more and use whole carrots - or the food processor!  What a fabulous invention.

The streusel topping on this was delicious - and although it's a LOT of extra calories I think it added a sweetness that the muffin itself was lacking.  I'd like to play around a little and find a way to add a little more sweetness to the muffin without using the streusel topping.

While I'm writing this I couldn't help but think of the Carrot Oatmeal Cookies I made for this past year's cookie exchange.  I would love to try the carrot/ginger/coconut flavor profile in a muffin form - this could be a great starting point for that recipe.  Maybe I can do a combination of this with the Ginger Peach Muffins to move toward that flavor profile.

Ginger Peach Muffins

I've been waiting to make the Ginger Peach Muffins from Good to the Grain since I first got the book back in March.  When delicious, ripe, juicy peaches started showing up at the markets, I broke out the recipe.

There was some hesitation from my primary taste tester, who doesn't like ginger (but will eat anything I make with it despite that preference).  The recipe includes both fresh ginger, used to saute the peaches, and crystallized ginger, which melts on the inside of the muffin.  The final product, perfectly moist when warm, tasted more like gingerbread than actual ginger - the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

The peaches were delicious, of course - sliced, sauteed in honey, butter, and ginger, and stuck on top of the batter in the muffin cups.  After the first batch, though, we decided it would be an improvement to also dice some peaches up and mix them into the batter.  This was definitely an improvement upon an otherwise perfect recipe.  I thought it made a difference.

Another note - all of Kim's muffin recipes make weird numbers of muffins, usually 8-10 instead of the standard 12.  After the first batch, I decided I could easily stretch the batter to make 12 muffins, which is good for a number of reasons: 1, it makes more muffins; 2, each muffin is less calories; and 3, they are not ginormous and spilling all over the pan (like the first batch).  I found this to improve the quality of the final product as well and I will do it again next time.

Like every other recipe in Good to the Grain, I will be making this again.  YUM.

 

Zucchini Bread

It is obvious by now that I am trying to cook my way through Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain.  There are some things in there that don't appeal to me all that much right now, but since I haven't set a time limit on working my way through the book, I'm sure I'll eventually try them.  Every recipe I've made has been delicious (even the aesthetic failures).

I've got zucchini in my fridge.  It's not that I don't like zucchini... but it's not my favorite, and it never has been.  When we get zucchini in our CSA, I usually just leave it all with my mom - she and my sister love it.  But somehow it's snuck into my home via my Nonna and her garden.  She asked me if I wanted zucchini, and I, unable to refuse fresh local produce of any kind, said sure, I can take one, I'll make zucchini bread.  She came back with this beastly monster - over a pound, maybe a pound and a half - so I made two batches of zucchini bread, and still haven't finished that one zucchini.

The zucchini bread from Good to the Grain is not your average zucchini bread.  It uses mint and basil, infused into butter, and rye flour instead of your typical wheat.  Most of my test subjects loved it - my mom and sister complained about the rye and said they wanted "normal" zucchini bread.  (Make it yourself!)  That did get me thinking, though, about possible variations - more about that later.

I truly love this bread.  I think it's amazing.  I wouldn't think of using rye flour in zucchini bread - but that's why I bought this book.  I'm almost hesitant to even change the recipe - the whole book, organized by flour, already provides the best matches of flours to other ingredients.  My first batch of this bread was a little minty - I measured more loosely in my second batch and it was just right.  The headnotes suggest having a slice with a cup of mint tea, which sounds absolutely perfect to me.  It's great to just have it around for a snack.  I expect a loaf (or half a loaf) might freeze nicely as well, if tightly wrapped.

There is so much I want to do with this recipe.  Leave it the same, but add walnuts.  Sub some white whole wheat in for part or all of the all purpose flour (being cautious about the assertive taste wheat flour can bring to a recipe).  An all whole wheat version.  Bits of different flour.  Multigrain flour mix instead of rye.  The same basic structure, but with banana and walnuts instead of zucchini and herbs.  There are so many possibilities...

Figgy Buckwheat Scone Failure #2

Since I already had the fig butter made from the last attempt, I decided to give the Figgy Buckwheat Scones another shot.  This time, I used the heavy cream as directed, generously floured everything, and was able to roll it up and slice it.

Although I refrigerated the rolled-up dough for 30 minutes as directed, it wasn't cold enough and the scones pretty much melted into blobs in the oven.  Next time, I'll chill the dough much longer.  They were delicious, though.

Figgy Buckwheat Scone Failure

I have been waiting forever to make the Figgy Buckwheat Scones from Good to the Grain - even before the book came out, when the recipe was posted on 101 Cookbooks.  I knew it would be time consuming and although I wanted to eat them, I was putting it off longer and longer.  Today, I decided, would be the day, and had I known what I was getting myself into...

I got started on the fig butter while watching some TV.  If you read each of the recipes (the Fig Butter recipe as well as the recipe for the scone itself) you would think the fig butter would be the rough part.  Even with the specific directions and concerns outlined in the recipe, preparing the fig butter went smoothly.  It is delicious too - after I moved it to a container to put in the refrigerator, I licked the spoon.  Yum.  I might make bread soon JUST to have this on my toast.  It is DELICIOUS!  Even if you don't want the scones, you should make the fig butter.  It keeps for about a month in the fridge (and that's good, because it makes probably about 2 cups, maybe more) so I will be using it on my toast, waffles, etc.  I'm thinking it might even be good spread on the Pear and Buckwheat Pancakes I have in the freezer.  I'll probably give the scones another go as well with the proper ingredients.

That brings me to the main problem of this endeavor (or at least, I think it is).  The scone dough was coming along nicely, even though my hands were coated in gritty nubs of butter.  I opened my fridge for the next ingredient, heavy cream, which I should have known I didn't have.  I didn't want the butter in the dough to melt, so I used half and half.  That was a bad idea if I've ever had one.  The dough instantly became liquidy goo.  I added 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour, thinking it would return to a pliable state, but it didn't work.  I was about to add another 1/4 cup, when I decided I would keep the ratios at least closer to equal and use 1/4 cup of buckwheat flour instead.  This firmed up the dough somewhat, but it was ridiculously sticky.  I put it out on a large, heavily floured cutting board and tried to smush it out with my hands instead of - another missing "ingredient" - a rolling pin, which I don't think I have, at least not in my kitchen.  This, too, was a disaster.  My hands were covered in dough almost immediately and I had to wash them off.  I tried adding more flour.  No go.  I tried to scrape the dough off the board to make sure it wasn't sticking.  It was basically not happening.  I'm fairly certain it was the half and half that caused this problem as I know heavy cream is a different consistency.  Normally I'm good about using the ingredients the recipe calls for, at least the first time, but I had started before I realized.

I wanted to see if this was a total or just partial failure, so I decided to bake the dough.  Because of the viscosity of the dough, I decided to make muffin-shaped scones.  That way, they wouldn't spread out too much.  I sprayed the pan liberally, then baked them at 350* for about 25 minutes. 

Interestingly enough, it worked.  The scones are actually pretty good.  I split one in half to try, and spread some fig butter on it.  It was yummy!  At least I now have an interesting little treat to spread my fig butter on.  Next time I will be using the correct ingredients for sure.

 

Molasses Bran Muffins

I am working my way through Good to the Grain, in case you haven't noticed.  It's going to take me a while, but at some point I'd like to try everything in the book.  Ken has been eating the Fig-Bran Muffins from So Easy and wanted me to make another bran muffin for when those run out.  My mind immediately snapped to these.

Like most of the recipes in this book, this is more time-consuming than most other recipes I've made or even read, but like the rest of the book, you're trading some extra time for extra quality.  The first step here is making a prune puree, which keeps the muffins moist.  You have to cook the prunes in orange juice, then puree them with an immersion blender.  I wasn't able to squeeze out enough OJ from the few oranges I had left, so I had to scale down the recipe, which made it much more difficult to puree.  Finally, though, with a little help, I got it pureed down enough.

The other minor roadblock I ran into was an error in the actual recipe.  One step mentions warming buttermilk on the stove to lukewarm.  Later, softened bran is mentioned with no indication as to how to soften it.  I put two and two together and mixed the warmed buttermilk into the bran, letting it sit for a few minutes before continuing with the recipe.  Next time I might let it sit a little longer.  I also messed up a little when adding the prune puree - I was supposed to mix it in thoroughly with the wet ingredients before adding them to the dry, but I forgot (oops) and added it in after.  I'd like to try it again the right way, though.

These muffins were yummy and I'm sure I'll be making them again.  Next time I'll prepare better so that I have the right amount of prune puree and can freeze the other half to make another batch of muffins.

Pear and Buckwheat Pancakes

I have been wanting to try something with buckwheat flour since this post on 101 Cookbooks.  I bought the flour to try that recipe but haven't gotten around to it yet.  As I was thinking about what to make for dinner with the minimal ingredients I have on hand (due to not having cooked in a long while since baking is my thing right now) I got to thinking about breakfast for dinner.  I peeked in the fridge and saw the buckwheat flour.  Hmm.  I looked around a little more and saw two pears.  Hmm.  Didn't I see this somewhere?  I went to The Book (if you've read ANY of my posts in the past two months, you know which book) and there were the Pear and Buckwheat Pancakes.  What a coincidence.

This was an easy recipe.  You just grate in the pears, right over the bowl so that the juices fall in, mix wet into dry, and make as pancakes.  I, however, am bad at pancakes.  This was not always so.  Once upon a time I could flip a pancake and it would work out just the way it was supposed to.  Now, for some reason, they are always falling on top of themselves.  You would think I would have gotten better, not worse, but oh well.

The pancakes tasted good.  They were nice and moist.  The buckwheat flour has a strong taste, but the kind where you keep taking another bite trying to really figure it out.  The recipe calls for a honey butter to be poured over the pancakes, which I would love to try sometime, maybe for guests, but I felt it was too indulgent for something I was eating right at the stove.

Five-Grain Cream Waffles

This is the recipe that inspired the Multigrain Waffles on 101 Cookbooks.  It originally wasn't high on my list, to be honest, but I wanted to do a sort of comparison between the two.

A few days ago I put together the dry mix for this recipe so that it would be easier when I actually wanted to make them.  This worked out well for me.  I dumped the contents of the bag directly into the sifter and there was no measuring to be done whatsoever.  All I had to do was blend together the heavy cream and eggs, then mix them into the dry ingredients.  Yes, heavy cream.  50 calories per tablespoon.  Not the best nutritionally, but again, I want to try all these recipes as-is so that when I modify them I know whether I am completely ruining them.

The waffles were delicious but honestly, a little boring.  I definitely prefer the Multigrain Waffle recipe with the poppy seeds.  I think these would taste delicious with fresh strawberries - like strawberries and cream.  Yum!

The one thing I do want to stress about this recipe is that I can understand how it inspired the multigrain waffles.  It inspired me, too.  Mostly to severely cut the calories down, but also to add my own twist to it - kind of like a blank canvas waiting for some art to be made on it.  I've got a small notebook where I write down my recipe ideas, since I'm not too capable yet of putting things together entirely on my own, but I have a few thoughts that will go down in there.  I'm looking forward to continuing to work with these different whole-grain flours to learn more about them and how they work.  I found a great substitution list on the Bob's Red Mill website that should help a lot.  (If you are seeing black diamonds with question marks in place of numbers, go to View > Character Encoding and try selecting Western.)

I need to stop baking and get back to cooking actual meals.  Expect to see a few interesting things coming up, maybe over the weekend.  I've been flipping through some other books (as hard as it is to put down Good to the Grain, there are no dinners in there) and I've found a few things that I plan to try out in the next few days.

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

I had promised I had quite a few things to post about, and now here I am having gone four days without an update.  Oh well.

I am trying not to eat preservatives and other junk found in the processed foods at the store.  I have found a few brands of sandwich bread that are acceptable, but the last time I went to buy one they were not on the shelf.  (Granted, I will not pay full price for bread, especially the type of bread that I find acceptable, so they may have been on a shelf somewhere, but they were certainly not on the sale shelf.)

I have tried to make my own bread before, but I have since researched the difference between instant and active dry yeast (rookie baker mistake), so I gave it another go.  This time I used a recipe for Oatmeal Sandwich Bread from Good to the Grain, using active dry yeast.

Things went well at first.  I used an autolyse which gives the flour time to absorb or something.  (I don't know, I just followed the directions.  Note to self: learn what the hell you are actually doing.)  Then I had to let it rise for an hour.  Then I had to knead it a bit and fold it over on itself and put it in the pan to rise some more.

Here is where I ran into some trouble.  Maybe I need a bigger loaf pan, but I suspect the whole hour in the directions was too long for the second rise.  I should have kept a closer eye on it, because when I brought it out to go in the oven it was already bulging out of control.

I tried to scoop it back in a little, but it was a little too late.  I put it in the oven with a sheet pan on the rack below in case it fell that far.  (Luckily, it did not.)

In the oven, it grew more, as you can see from the photo.  For the whole 40 minutes of baking time I was nervous that it was going to get out of control and turn into some kind of bread monster.

When it came out of the oven, it had wrapped around the loaf pan.  As you can see, it was not sitting flat on the cooling rack since it had literally wrapped around the bottom of the pan.

The roughness you see is mostly wheat bran, which promptly fell off as I tried to find a way to remove the bread from the pan.

This was no easy task.  In the end the loaf pan had to be released from its yeasted prison by knife.

In the end, it looked mostly like a loaf of bread.  I would count it as a success, although it could be improved upon.

I sliced the bread the next day (sorry, no pictures) and made a sandwich using leftover spiral sliced ham from Easter, a slice of Swiss cheese, a romaine leaf or two, and some spicy brown mustard.  It was delicious, but crumbly.  The top part of the bread pretty much just fell off.  I would attribute this to the stress placed on that area by the excessive rise.  Oops.

The bread did taste good, at least as good as storebought bread, with the potential to be better.  I followed the recipe exactly which I do not think I will do again.  My main concern is the refined bread flour.  After a little bit of research I am going to try using white whole wheat flour in its place because, if the source was correct, it has a similar amount of protein to bread flour.  I would also like to try including some of the multigrain flour mix, the recipe for which is also in this book.  I think it would be fun to add some different flavors in the mix.

When you take into account how little time you are spending actually doing work, bread making goes fairly quickly.  Now I can't wait for tomato season so I can have my favorite sandwich, BLTs, on my homemade bread!

Banana Cereal Muffins

This morning I made the Banana Cereal Muffins from Good to the Grain, my new favorite book. Written by Kim Boyce, a pastry chef turned stay at home mom, these recipes are designed for optimal performance rather than nutrition - something that always bothers me until I get to the delicious finished product. I plan to try the recipes as-is first, then begin to tinker a little to cut down on some of the all-purpose flour she uses. I'm not a pastry chef, so a flatter muffin top won't really bother me.

Some of the ingredients this recipe calls for: cracked multigrain hot cereal, whole-grain rye flour, bananas, molasses. Yum. The multigrain cereal, which I really bought with this recipe in mind, is actually delicious as a cereal if you like cream of wheat, oatmeal, etc. (which I do). I made it for breakfast (plain, with water only) and reserved the 1/2 cup needed for the muffins for when I had more time to make them. I made much more cereal than I could eat so I had it for breakfast for the next two days as well. I reheated it in the microwave with a generous splash of soymilk, which made it sweet enough for me. I hate ingredients that have only one purpose because they fill up my cabinets and refrigerator and then I spend hours looking for recipes to use them up.

I have never used rye flour before, which made it more interesting when I opened the bag and saw what it looked like - kind of like gravel. Yuck. But no, it was good in the muffins. I can understand why the recipe was written with 1 cup rye flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour as I don't know if I could stand the taste of rye alone.

I did forget an ingredient - a teaspoon of cinnamon. I had it sitting out on the counter after making oatmeal cookies the other day, and I thought to myself, "oh good, it's already out," and then I forgot to put it in. Fortunately the muffins are still delicious - I was very concerned when I realized what I'd left out halfway through the baking time. Molasses is a unique flavor of its own, which I think helped to save it, and so did the bananas. But next time I will include it and I do think it will be better that way.