The Poof is in the Honey.

 The watering stations, in the backyard, are beginning to see more activity.  Honey bees are finding their way back, with flowering plum and apricot trees to provide pollen as well.  Around the stations are a plenitude of flowering, what some call weeds, but are pretty flowers to me.  The bees do not complain, so why should I?

I am hoping that some of these bees are relatives of the ones saved in June 2020.  Cindy and Mack Smith helped rescue, and introduce, them into their existing hives.  Since then, the Smiths have given us a jar of their precious, and most delicious honey each year; and we are so very grateful for the generosity.

In our home, the honey is never wasted as it sweetens are tea, is used for cooking, and most definitely for baking, especially bread products.  When baking up bread, even rolls, that require yeast, some sort of food is needed to feed the yeast, a sweet food.  Most recipes call for sugar, but, in comparison, honey makes it more flavorful, and sugar is, well, sort of bland.  Now many will agree, and many will disagree, and that is perfectly alright as taste is in the mouth of the person eating.  However, I know many who will drizzle honey over their sugar infused bread, and they are making my point, honey makes it better!

As I have stated many times, I like it easy; easy recipes, easy preparation, and easy techniques.  Recently I came across a recipe for 5-Ingredient Bread with the yeast being fed by honey…perfect for me!  While it makes an airy white bread, I played with the recipe and introduced potato flour to the all-purpose flour.  The first batch was terrible.  While the outside was crusty and golden brown, the interior was a complete mushy mesh.  What went wrong? 

Potato flour is not the same as boiled, mashed potatoes apparently, even though the flour is made from, what else, potatoes.  Potato flour is made from potatoes that have been cooked, dried to remove all water, then ground; however, it retains the starch.  Adding mashed, wet potatoes means it is retaining the starch which makes the bread denser, but liquid has to be limited.  Potato flour sucks up water like a sponge, so additional water needs to be constantly added to the mixture for a dough to eventually form.  Too much water though, and the bread will bake on the outside, but leave a wet mess inside.  It seems to be a matter of trial and error.

How to fix this?  For every 3 complete cups of all-purpose flour, only add ¼ cup of potato flour.

Back to the honey.  While waiting for the yeast to grow inside the mixture of warm water and honey, expect to be amazed.  In 15-20 minutes, the entire mixture will simply grow and grow!  I used a 4-cup bowl, and good thing a clean towel was over it, as the mixture had doubled and would have been dripping over the sides.  Oh, and the smell of the yeast and honey is intoxicating!

Now to the recipe; try it as written, but I definitely suggest adding a little potato flour to the mixture.  The bread will be slightly denser, so you will think you are eating cake, instead of bread.  As is, or with butter smeared over, is lovely. Toasted, with butter and jam, jelly or marmalade, now we are talking heavenly.

 

5-Ingredient Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water (105F-110F)

2/3 cup honey

1 and ¾ Tbsp. active dry yeast

1 and ½ tsp. salt

5 cups all-purpose flour (or 4 and ½ cups all-purpose plus ¼ cup potato flour)

 

 

 

 

Preparation: 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together warm water and honey until honey is dissolved. Add yeast, and cover with a towel. In about 10-20 minutes, mixture will be frothy and double in size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stir in salt, and add flour one cup at a time.  Flour hands, remove dough to board, or clean counter, and knead for 5 minutes. Place kneaded dough in a large, greased bowl and cover with towel.

After an hour, dough should have risen to almost top of bowl. Punch the dough down once, remove to board or clean count; knead again for 5 minutes. Divide into two lightly-greased loaf pans, cover with towel; allow dough to rise for 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 325F for 30-35 minutes. Many bread recipes use an oven at 350F, but 325F works better when using honey.

 Makes two loaves.

To freeze a loaf, wrap completely in plastic wrap, place inside a freezer type plastic bag, and label with date as it will only keep for 3 months.  That is if it can last that long before both loaves are eaten.

Enjoy baking and eating this bread, and remember to always be kind to the bees.

Mary Cokenour

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe Remake for Nutella Swirl Bundt Cake.

I like cake, but being a diabetic means I have to sometimes...sometimes forego the dessert. However, life should be enjoyed and making compromises means you can sometimes have your cake and eat it too. This is what I did with a recipe I found online for Nutella Swirl Cake. Making a few simple changes created a cake that was more diabetic friendly than the original recipe. Less sugar, fat and cholesterol; yet a cake that was full of flavor and moist. Of course I also cut down the portion size from 12 slices to 16 slices, but with my recipe remake...less is more!!!


First the original recipe:

NUTELLA SWIRL CAKE

Serves: 12

Difficulty: average
Preparation time: 20 min.
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Classificaton: Dessert, cake

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 cups granulated sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
6 oz heavy whipping cream
6 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp Nutella
powdered sugar, to dust

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven at 350 F degrees.  Grease a 12 cup bundt cake pan with flour and butter or baking spray.

In a large bowl sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

With a hand or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until creamy and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at the time, until well incorporated. Add vanilla extract.

Reduce the speed then add whipping cream and flour mixture alternately. Pour the cake batter into the pan.

Add 3 tablespoons of Nutella on top of the batter, then swirl with a fork for a marble effect.

Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool into the pan.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Recipe on Il Cucchiaio d'Argento (http:// www.cucchiaio.itwww.cucchiaio.it)

by Breadloveanddreams

Now for my recipe remake:

 

Nutella Swirl Bundt Cake

 Ingredients:

3 cups Bob's Red Mill 10-grain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cups Splenda Baking Blend
2 (16 Tbsp)sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup vanilla flavored almond milk, unsweetened
1 and 1/2 cups egg substitute
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp Nutella (also known as hazelnut spread)
powdered sugar, to dust

Preparation:

Preheat oven at 350 F degrees.  Grease a 12 cup bundt cake pan with flour and butter or baking spray.

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

With a hand or stand mixer, beat butter and Splenda at medium speed until creamy and fluffy.  Continue beating and slowly add in the egg substitute; add the vanilla extract.

Reduce the speed, add almond milk and flour mixture alternately; pour the cake batter into the pan.  Add four tablespoons of Nutella on top of the batter; swirl with a fork for a marble effect.

 

Bake for 50 - 60 minutes; until a wooden toothpick comes out clean; allow the cake to cool in the pan.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 

Makes 16 servings.

When I swirled in the Nutella, I pushed the fork in deeper than I should have.  Guess what?  It still tasted awesomely delicious!

Mary Cokenour

Art and Science of Baking.

Personally, I do not enjoy baking from scratch; all the precise measuring is tedious to me.  I enjoy cooking though; I measure by using my senses for the most part and preciseness is an option, not a must.  However, the measuring is part of the science of baking; how many parts of each ingredient that causes a reaction with each other to formulate a most delicious creation.

The art part comes along with decoration; you can leave your creation "au naturel", or add all sorts of décor that will either enhance  or totally cover up.  When someone buys a plain cake and decorates it, then this person is a "cake decorator", an artist in their own right.  Of course, this person is not a baker, so, therefore, only an artist.  The person who does both, well then art and science become unified in a common goal; create the perfect baked dessert. 

Purchasing baked goods, instead of creating your own, means you would rather not deal with either the art or the science; someone else did all the work and that is alright with you.  I am one of these people, I admit it; but lately I have found that labels on baked goods contain ingredients that I do not want to eat, nor can even pronounce.  I also notice that my body does not react well with store purchased baked goods, and I bet those strange ingredients are the cause. 

So, I gave in, and decided to bake something, but used ingredients that are considered "more healthy" than regular baking ingredients.  Instead of real sugar, I used Splenda for Baking; I am diabetic and shouldn't be using real sugar in the first place.  Egg substitute and low fat sour cream to keep the cholesterol down; applesauce instead of milk for moisture; whole grain stone ground flour instead of enriched white flour (batter will look denser).  Sounds so yummy...NOT!  Surprise, surprise though; the cake came out moist and so delicious, I was hard pressed not to keep eating more and more of it.  How did my body react to it; wonderfully, none of those "oh boy, shouldn't have eaten that" feelings at all. 

I guess playing with science in the kitchen can be fun at times, and tasty; I still don't like all the measuring though.

Cinnamon Swirl Sour Cream Cake (a healthier version)

Ingredients:

Cake Batter

3 cups "flour" (cake flour or Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Stone Ground Flour)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) softened butter
1 and 1/4 cups Splenda Sweetener for Baking
1/2 cup egg substitute (equals 2 large eggs)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (4 oz container) natural, no sugar added applesauce
1 and 1/2 to 2 cups low fat sour cream (1 and 1/2 for cake flour, 2 cups for stone ground flour)

Filling

1/3 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 and 1/2 Tbsps ground cinnamon

Preparation:





Preheat oven; 350F for light colored bundt (8 inch diameter) pan, 325F for dark colored. Spray interior with nonstick baking spray, or use cooking spray plus dust with flour.















Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda into a medium sized bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sweetener until smooth; add egg substitute and vanilla extract, beat together for one minute. Add in applesauce and half of the sour cream, beat on medium speed until smooth.

Add in dry ingredients, beat until smooth; add other half of sour cream, beat until well incorporated.

In a small bowl, mix together 1/4 cup of the batter with the brown sugar blend and cinnamon with a firm spatula or spoon until a smooth paste forms.

Spread half of the batter into bottom of the bundt pan; spoon the filling around center of batter layer and use a knife to swirl filling into the batter (avoid getting too close to the sides). Spread the other half of the batter over the filling; tamp the pan down on the counter slightly to allow the batter to fill in any open spaces.

 

















Bake the cake for 50 minutes; test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into center of the cake; if it comes out clean, it is done, otherwise bake another 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, place cake platter over pan and flip over; the cake will slip out of the pan and onto the platter.

Serve warm or cold; makes 12 servings.

Mary Cokenour