Eggplant bread

We still get a garden box once a month, and while our household is generally very open to eating damn near anything, there's a couple things that neither of us are fond of. Eggplant is one of those things. So when faced with a lovely eggplant in the last garden box, I did what any self respecting person would, and took to the internet to figure out how to add enough sugar and fat to make even eggplant edible. We shredded it with the food processor and then put it aside in 2 cup amounts in  baggies in the freezer (after trying one eggplant bread recipe from online that was.. enh. Alright, but not wow.)

So I took one of these frozen baggies of eggplant and said 'I can do better than that', and then did.

Eggplant bread

255g flour
90g sugar
3t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt 
90g raisins

Mix all of the dry together in one bowl. 

2c thawed grated eggplant
1/4c vegetable oil
3/4c milk of choice (I use almond)
1/4 jam (random jam I'm trying to use up.. in this case, unsweetened plum)
1 egg

Mix together in the super handy 4c measuring cup.

Pour wet into dry, mix just enough to combine. Pour into greased loaf pan, bake at 350 for anywhere from 45 mins to an hour, depending on when it smells and is done based on a solid poke with a pokey stick.

Lightening up Cakes

It's no secret at all that I rather adore a 30 yr old cookbook from a church group in the Canadian prairies, but I have to admit that the palate of a hippie surburbanite in 2013 and the palate of a farm kitchen in 1980 aren't quite the same, generally just in the sheer amounts of oil that gets used. Crazy pants. So I started tweaking.

One cake came about by aiming to clear out some of the jars from the fridge, in specific the random end bits of jam jars. Of course I cleaned out two, didn't have enough and had to open another, so it was only a net drop of one, but at least its a change of flavour.

Leftovers Cake

2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup of whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 cup jam (I ended up using three different ones, mix and match, it's okay)
3 eggs
1 cup milk (I use almond milk, use whatever milk makes you happy)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mixed dried fruit, nuts, seeds (raisins, dates, almonds, coconut, sunflower seeds, whatever!)

Sift together the dry (or mix, because few of us ever really sift). Mix together the wet in another bowl. Add wet to dry, and then mix in the dried fruit/nuts/seeds. Pour into a greased pan, I used a bunt pan, and bake at 350 for about 40 mins.

Verdict: I had ginger chunks in my mixed fruit, and I think without those this would have needed some more spice. It'd be a perfect place for those sweet spice mixes that you use once a year and wonder why they're in your spice drawer.



The other cake came about on a similar desire to use things up. I had a couple of elderly beets and decided to bake with them. The church lady cookbook had a veggie cake I wanted to try, which was a list of ingredients and no directions that matched the ingredients. Oops.

Veggie Cake

2 cups flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup milk (I use almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded raw beets (about 1 medium sized)
1 cup shredded raw carrots (about 1 medium sized)


Sift together dry, I tossed in the raisins at this point, I probably should have kept them 'til the end but enh. Mix together the wet, and add to the dry. Mix in the veggies. (I shredded them with the food processor. So much win.) Pour into a greased 9 x 9 pan (I had planned on putting it in a bunt pan, but it was full of Leftovers Cake). Bake at 350 for 30 mins or until done.

A long weekend full of cake, parties, Civ V and sangria. Can't argue with /that/.

Fruitcake

I know, I know, the world has a hate on for fruitcake. They call it hard and dry and building material and lives forever.

And I love it. Dark and rich and delicious, even a year later when it's a touch dry. (Yes, I'm nibbling the last of last year's, and it's gotten a touch dry. I need to work out a better storage.)

I make my own fruitcake, mostly because I'm allergic to dairy and most are made with butter. Although part of it also comes from the fact that I rather adore baking, so of course I make my own. My favourite recipe comes from a little booklet put out by the candied fruit company and I think the booklet is about a bazillion years old.

I have adjusted and adapted it and this is now my recipe, mostly here for posterity sake such that I remember how I changed it this year.

Dark Fruitcake 2012

125g chopped pecans
125g slivered almonds
450g Deluxe mixed glace
450g mixed candied cherries
225g candied pineapple chunks
300g mixed citrus peel
150g currants
80g crystallized ginger, finely chopped
225g golden raisins
225g dark raisins
225g chopped dates

Toss in a huge bowl, mixed well and soak with white rum for a while.

2c flour
1/3c cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp allspice
nutmeg, mace, cloves all to look right

Add to the fruit and mix until well coated.

In the mixer bowl, cream together:

1 cup shortening
1 1/3c dark brown sugar, firmly packed

Add:
6 eggs, one at a time
1/2 c molasses
2 tbsp oil
1/4 c booze (bourbon this year)



Blend well and then fold the liquid into the fruit mixture and mix well. Spoon into greased pans. Bake at 275F for about 2 hours. Makes 2 8"x8" pans and 3 small loaf pans.

Party food

Parties are a common summer thing around here, pretty much every long weekend finds us throwing open the doors to everyone we know, for copious food and Rock Band and geeky chatter and board games and whatever else happens to end up going on. This time we're co-hosting with a friend who wants to throw a birthday party for his girlfriend, so its all our friends, all their friends and even more food than usual. Mix in vegetarians, vegans, dairy allergies (me!) and gluten allergies and there's always all sorts of interesting food. It's a non-obligatory potluck arrangement, we provide plenty of food and anyone who wants (or is able) to brings something to share. Most do, and it ranges from a bag of chips to salads and dips and veggies and fruit and cookies and sometimes even a bottle of booze. 

I often make my own hummus or other bean dips, and this weekend's party is no different. 

Sun-dried tomato and basil hummus

1 can chickpeas (I found garlic chickpeas this time)

3 cloves garlic

3 generous tbsp sundried tomato in oil (with the oil)

2 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp tahini

1/2 tbsp dried basil

Salt to taste

Toss everything in the food processor and puree the daylights out of it. Add water as needed to give the consistency you like. I'm a garlic fan, you may want to tone it down some if you're not. 

The recipe book I've had since I was a child and first learning to cook and bake has my favourite banana bread recipe in it. It's the Monarch flour Cookbook and I can't find any date or publishing information anywhere in it. I've had it since the early 80's, and I still use it often. 

Banana Bread

2 cups flour

1/2 c sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 c milk (in my house, this is almond milk)

1/4 c vegetable oil

1 1/2 c mashed banana

Stir together dry, then stir in 1/2 c chopped pecans (if desired). 

Beat together wet. Add wet to dry and mix fairly well. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350F for 60 - 70 mins. Do not overcook this, you want it to stay moist. 

Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake

Yes. Sauerkraut. No. You don't taste it. You don't even really notice its there. It adds some fibre, some moisture. Tell people what's in it /after/ they eat it.

Sauerkraut Cake (adapted from Canadian Lutheran Ladies Family Favourites Cookbook)

2 1/4 c flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup water
2/3 cup sauerkraut (drained, rinsed, chopped well)

Combine dry. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Add liquid and dry ingredients alternately ending with dry. Stir in sauerkraut. Bake in a 9x13 pan at 350F for 30 mins.

It certainly doesn't suck to have a piece of this with boozed cherries that didn't seal properly poured liberally on top. I mean, they didn't seal properly, clearly they need using up. Clearly.

Cornmeal bread

1 1/2 cups whey
4 tsp yeast in 1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 eggs
1 cup cornmeal
Flour 'til it looks right.. 5 cups ish? More?

Left to rise overnight.. left to rise 2 hours with saran wrap over it, then it was trying to take over the oven. Punched down and left to rise while I slept. About 8 hrs and it was trying to take over the oven again. This time with a damp tea towel over it. Peeled off the towel, punched down again. (Note to self.. less yeast next time), and then took a loaf ish size amount into the loaf pan, 12 (13 really, but one was sacrificed to the floor) egg sized balls into a muffin tin and then the rest as a lump on a baking pan. It's artisinal round loaf! It has nothing to do with my other loaf pan already being packed! Another hour in the oven to rise.. and then baking. It didnt rise much in the hour, a little but not much. 350F, and yes I'm lazy and left the pans in the oven while it preheated.

Well. The rolls barely rose at all and they are.. well they bounce. VERY crunchy on the outside, but like a thin crust of supercrunch and then squishy inside. They all baked about an hour.

Next time, I think perhaps more sugar, and not an overnight rise. First rise in the bowl, second rise in their baking dishes. I think that's how it should be done, and I probably could find recipes to take me by the hand, but I learn better by experimenting. Sooo.. we eat some very crusty rolls. It's all good.