Cream and Sugarbread | Cream and Sugar

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Loaf

cream — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:31:23 +0000

Seeing as how I’ve been strongly suggesting pumpkin recipes in my Clippings posts of late, I thought I should finally get around to doing something with pumpkin. Hopefully this won’t be the last foray because I believe you can safely get away with cooking with pumpkin between September and December. Unsafely, I see no problem in pushing it all the way until Spring. I mean, pumpkin usually connotes warm and spicy. Why do those feelings have to end with Thanksgiving? In Canada, we need those feelings to keep us going through months and months of winter.

When I came across this easy easy easy chocolate chip pumpkin loaf, I knew I had the perfect Sunday afternoon task to make my coworkers love me on Monday morning. As I learned last year, pumpkin and chocolate are well-suited for each other. Chocolate gives your cold-weather pumpkin treat a little more engine power. It appears that magic happens when you add something sweet and rich like chocolate to baked goods of the vegetable variety. Think about cream cheese icing and carrot cake or zucchini bread and chocolate. They’re tricks to get us to eat our vegetables, sure, but are you complaining?

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Loaf
Adapted from Big Girls Small Kitchen

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 can pureed pumpkin (~14-15 oz)
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks or chopped chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, and soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, vanilla, and vegetable oil until thick. Fold the dry ingredients into the beaten mixture until well blended. Stir in the pumpkin, then add the chocolate. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake 1 hour, until it tests done with a toothpick or cake tester. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack.

Clippings: July 21, 2011

cream — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:02:22 +0000

Image courtesy of www.food52.com

The internet is a great source for all things foodie, and we’re constantly bookmarking, starring, and emailing intriguing recipes, food porn, and inspiration. Here’s a selection of clippings we think are worth checking out.

Here’s a recipe for baking sheet macaroni and cheese. The type of dish you make and savour… and then ask whomever to clean the pan after. Dish fairies if you must.

I don’t care if Mexican pasta sounds silly. I’m all for what looks to be a poblano chile pesto with spaghetti.

Swirly bread with cilantro? Yeah, I can see that smothered in like, lime butter. I’m so there.

Kaiserschmarrn? Something delicious you eat for breakfast.

Chocolate-Raspberry Ice Cream Bread

cream — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:13:29 +0000

I have no clue why I decided to try this recipe. Ice cream bread. Yes, exactly. WTF.
It sounded like some sort of Frankenfood. And given that it originated in a Southern Living cookbook, I guess it kind of is. It’s the type of thing you might see Paula Deen whip together; the type of thing you can’t believe she would make but secretly would like to try.

Because when you think about it, ice cream contains many of the ingredients you need for baking: fat, sugar, eggs and flavouring. All that’s missing is the flour, and that’s all you add to a pint of ice cream to make “ice cream bread.” Still totally weird, I know.

Given that I was going to use my coworkers as guinea pigs, I had to use a crowd-pleasing flavour. Unsure of the “biscuit-like” texture some bloggers have used to describe the bread, I added some chopped chocolate. I wanted a slice to be a sweet treat rather than…a slice of odd bread.

It still ended up tasting a little like a chocolate biscuit. The flavour of the ice cream really mellows out, and you couldn’t taste the raspberry swirl at all. But I think you could have a lot of fun with this recipe given that it’s so easy. Chocolate ice cream with mini marshmallows and graham chunks for a s’mores bread? Strawberry ice cream with strawberry chunks to form the base of a strawberry shortcake? Surround yourself with some kids (I’m sure they would get a kick out of baking with ice cream), and I think you could take this recipe from weird to fun.

Ice Cream Bread
Adapted from The Hungry Housewife

2 cups/500 mL/1 pint full-fat ice cream, softened
1 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Add softened ice cream and stir until just combined. The softer your ice cream is, the easier it will be to mix.
Scoop batter into the loaf pan and and smooth out.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it.
Remove from the pan and allow to cool.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Quick Bread

cream — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:46:19 +0000

I can fully admit that I’m a very particular person. Some might use the word “rigid,” but I think particular is much more apt. I like things to be a certain way. Mildly obsessive-compulsive but laid back enough to see it for what it is and joke about it. Like right now.

My taste buds and food preferences follow suit. Could they be called pet peeves? Food temperature is a big one for me. I like my cold foods cold and my hot foods hot. Yogurt that creeps upon cool instead of cold bothers me so that I put my bowl in the fridge well before I eat my yogurt. I do the same for cereal and ice cream. Hot foods get their bowls and plates warmed in the microwave. As does my coffee cup. Hot food that creeps upon warm bothers me so that I often put my meal in the microwave halfway through eating.

All true.

Of the few things I tolerate at room temperature, baked goods top the list. And it’s with baked goods that one of my taste buds’ biggest idiosyncrasies shows itself: I like muffins but I’m not a fan of cake.

Can you say hypocrite? Because, I’m very well aware that muffins are just cake in disguise, made acceptable for breakfast because they appear healthier and less dessert-like. Just keep nodding as the person across from you at the coffee shop starts to pull apart their carrot muffin topped with whipped cream cheese. P.S., it’s carrot cake with icing. BUT, I’m not a sheep in this flock. I prefer honest-to-goodness breakfast muffins. Bran and oat reign supreme in my muffin fantasies. Chunks of fruit, not chocolate. And always with the kind of unadorned muffin top that only Elaine Benes could so thoughtfully wax on about.

Being cake though, muffins are not always the most healthiest breakfast choice, even with top notes of wheat germ or oat bran. Fat (oil or butter, just like in cake) adds moisture, and this doesn’t always appeal to a health-conscious girl who tends to like to eat her muffins with a good dab of butter. Again, contradictions abound in my particular world.

Buttered whole-grain toast often stands in to appease my guilt, but some days, like after a really good run, I want something more. I want a big muffin. But the guilt weighs heavy.

Hello, quick bread, you sly, cakey, muffin-like treat. Quick breads and muffins are pretty much the same thing. It’s only the vehicle they’re baked in that differs. The thing about quick breads, though, is that you can slice them to fit perfectly in your toaster. So, through chance discovery, I’ve found them to be almost superior to muffins because of this textural enhancement.

I’ve made this loaf every few weeks since Christmas and have no intentions of stopping. Totally not sweet, it’s based around a recipe from Eating Well that is a very basic oatmeal bread. I’ve just reduced the honey and fat even more (to make up for the après-toasted butter) and added some chunks of fruit. It clocks in at about 175 calories per slice.

Two slices of this bread may seem the most benign and uninteresting breakfast to a lot of you. But for me, on those days after a good run when I deserve more than toast and want to sneak out of buying a giant muffin, it is the best breakfast ever.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Quick Bread
Adapted from Eating Well and Healthy Food for Living

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour*
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 175-g package of plain, non-fat yogurt
1 large egg
2 tablespoons apple sauce**
2 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup skim milk
3/4 fresh or frozen fruit (such as chopped rhubarb, blueberries, etc)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray or grease with butter.

Thoroughly stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Using a fork, beat the oats, yogurt, egg, vanilla, applesauce, butter and honey in a medium bowl until well blended. Stir in milk. Gently stir the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture just until thoroughly incorporated but not over mixed (excess mixing can cause toughening). Fold in fruit. Immediately scrape the batter into the pan, spreading evenly to the edges. Sprinkle with oat flakes and a little sugar if you wish.

Bake the loaf until well browned on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. (It’s normal for the top to crack.) Let stand in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a table knife around the loaf to loosen it and turn it out onto the rack. Let cool completely***.

*Whole-wheat pastry flour is a finer ground whole-wheat flour that I’ve found can be substituted for all-purpose flour. If you cannot find this, use 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour.

**I’ve been buying my applesauce in the baby food aisle: smaller quantity, cheaper, easier to use up.

***Once cool, I cut into 12 slices. Place wax paper between each slice and place divided loaf into a freezer bag. It’s now ready for easy defrost and the toaster.

A Tale of Two Loaves: Part I

cream — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:24:20 +0000

Every time I go into Starbucks, the banana bread tempts me. The moist fruit “bread” on the other side of the looking glass tricks me into thinking she might not be cake.
But, for all intents and purposes she is. Made in some industrial kitchen and made to look like all the other slices of SB banana bread around the world.
I only give in when I’m at airports. After an uncomfortable flight to/from who knows where, I want some familiarity. I want some cake.

Not (yet) at a point where I bake a whole loaf of banana bread for myself, I found an excuse to bake one for others when some ladies were coming over for wine and conversation.
To the internet I went to search out a recipe that used butter and not oil. I’ve found in the past that with quick breads (quick cakes?), oil can sometimes make things, well, oily.
Lo and behold, what do I come across? A recipe from The Best of Bridge.

Growing up in 80s Alberta usually meant your mother referred to either The Best of Bridge or Company’s Coming cookbooks for her cooking projects. BoB seemed more for entertaining, CC for specific items (Muffins and More, anyone?). I often remember flipping through my mom’s BoBs, comparing the pictures of the BoB ladies from year to year — Did she cut her hair? Did that one colour her hair? — and being transfixed by the handwriting script used in the books. The non-sequiturs and jokes at the bottom of each recipe were always over my young head. “Taxes are what old people worry about.” At that time, a picture was not required for every recipe and olive oil was a fancy ingredient.

For these sentiments, my search would end at this “Best Ever” banana bread. And pretty best ever it was. A soft, dense middle. A crunchy, sweet crust. OTT with a slathering of soft butter. The airport treat of my dreams.

Best Ever Banana Bread
Adapted from The Best of Bridge

0.5 cups butter
0.5 cup white sugar
0.5 cup brown sugar
1.5 cups mashed banana (about 3 very ripe)
2 eggs, well beaten
1.25 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
0.5 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add bananas and eggs and beat until well mixed. Mix dry ingredients and blend with banana mixture, but do not overmix. Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan. Bake 55 minutes to 1 hour; test for doneness (toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean) and cool on rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

The difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist is the taxidermist leaves the hide.

Single girl’s brioche

cream — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 06:38:28 +0000

Pain au lait. Poor man’s brioche, or in my case, single girl’s brioche. Less butter not because of the price to my wallet, but because of the price to my hips.

My February project was bread baking. First came bagels, and then, pain au lait. Because I eat so many bagels, making my own was a fun challenge. Making pain au lait was a nod to the wonderful sweet bread I ate while in Vietnam, specifically that at Pat a Chou in Ho Chi Minh City.

I had gone done a path to make brioche but while looking for a recipe, I was put off by how temperamental the dough sounded. I’m a novice, so words like “stubborn” scare me. Having had pain au lait in Vietnam and knowing that it contains less butter than brioche, I thought it might be a good second best thing to try. But finding a recipe was not easy. I found few, and most were in French. In the end, the recipe I went with was quite easy and produced a beautiful dough. I have found mixing and kneading by hand to be so satisfying and almost magical. All you need is good music blasting and rolled-up sleeves. Et voila! Pain au lait.

Pain au Lait
Adapted from The Fresh Loaf

2 teaspoons instant yeast
0.75 cup water
3.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons powdered milk
4 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs
6 tablespoons butter, softened

In a large bowl combine the yeast, flour, salt, powdered milk, and sugar. Add the water and eggs and mix until ingredients are combined. Add the softened butter and mix or knead until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. I kneaded for about 5-10 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise until doubled in size (approximately 1 to 1.5 hours). Punch the dough down, return it to the bowl and cover it again, and place it in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, I took half the dough and divided it into three baguette like shapes*. I wrapped each in plastic wrap before placing them in a freezer bag and then into the freezer. The other half of the dough, I rolled out and cut into small squares to make small buns.

I let the buns rise for about an hour until they were puffy. I glazed them with a simple egg wash, sprinkled them with fleur de sel and put them in an oven preheated to 385 degrees. I baked them around 15 minutes, until they were golden brown.

*Knowing that a full recipe would make a lot of bread, I decided to try my hand at freezing the dough. I had no problems in the three subsequent bakings. I pulled the dough out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the fridge. I followed a proofing trick I learned in a NAIT class to quicken the second proof: Place a pan of boiling water on the bottom shelf of your cold oven and place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the oven for the proofing time. When puffy, take the dough out and preheat your oven. Take the pan of water out before baking your bread. I made braids and buns.

Braided pain au lait from frozen dough

Hand to Mouth Part I

cream — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:47:37 +0000

I’ve always been told that it’s the Anglo in me that craves bread and butter. I like it soft, fragrant, and white. A chewy crust. Slathered with creamy (always salted) butter. A large slice or two and it’s like I’ve been given a warm blanket and kiss on the forehead. As a little girl, it was always my snack of choice. One of my grandmas always had beautiful Italian buns waiting for me. I remember a Dutch loaf from a Highlands bakery that was spongy and sweet. One of my favourite parts of large family dinners was the basket of Safeway tray buns. Baguettes in Vietnam hold a special place in my heart. Even now, I’ll suggest the occasional excursion to the Old Spaghetti Factory just to have the cornetti bread.

The process of making bread by hand with Sugar put me a little over the edge. The kneading, the rising, the proofing, the baking… I was as giddy as a school girl to see our loaves come out of the industrial oven. The aroma from the oven hit me like pheromones.

Oh my. I made that?

May I eat it now? Hot and fresh?

No.

Our instructor told us that bread should be given 2 hours to rest before eating so that the flavours fully develop.

The good little students put their loaves in their bags and left the classroom to go home for the night.

Of course, cheating occurred. And it was well worth it.

Even now, it’s hard for me to believe I made something SO good. Dare I say that butter was hardly necessary?

I gifted one of my loaves to the hands of another; its mate was cut in half and placed in my freezer.

When might a half come out?

Stay tuned.

Basic White Bread By Hand

Remember, baking is a science. It’s all based around percentages, so accuracy is important. Ingredients should always be measured by weight, not volume.

This recipe makes 4 loaves that are approximately 625 g each.

In class, we cut the recipe in half. Everything was done by hand—no mixers, no special tools. Just the two Mother Nature gave you.

Bread flour* 1.4 kg

Water 950 g

Yeast (fresh)** 45 g

Salt 35 g

Sugar 35 g

Milk powder 30 g

Shortening 55 g

Blend milk powder into flour, then rub shortening through flour.

Dissolve sugar and salt in water.

Make a well in the flour.

Pour water mixture into well and crumble yeast into mixture

Slowly combine ingredients and mix until gluten window is formed.

Rise for 1 hour, punch back. Rest another 15 minutes then round. Rest another 15 minutes then form into loaf.

Put in loaf pan.

Proof*** for 1 hour.

Bake**** at 425 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

Don’t eat for 2 hours!

*All purpose or whole wheat flour can be substituted.

**If using active dry yeast, use 40% of this amount.

***To proof: Place a 9 x 13 pan in your oven full of boiling water. Place the dough in with it. Do not turn on oven… yet.

****To bake: Keep the pan of water in with the bread until it turns golden.