Sunday, April 26, 2015

NHL Playoffs Popcorn

We wanted a snack to go with the hockey playoff game tonight. I will not bore you with who we are rooting for because it does not make us any less hungry for a good snack! My husband suggested caramel popcorn.  He found this good recipe for CrackerJack, which is just finishing up in my oven. It is already really hard to resist. It will go perfectly along with our shouts of "go team go!!!"
Enjoy!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Garden Salsa

Today I made a batch of my favorite salsa again. We were out of the bottles I had made in the fall, and I still had jalapeƱos and zucchini in the freezer and cans of tomatoes were on sale so I went for it! It might not be as fresh as straight from the garden, but it is still good. Here is the recipe:

Garden Salsa
6 tomatoes, peeled and diced (or a 796ml can)
4 jalapeƱo peppers, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/4 tsp powdered garlic)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped sweet green pepper
1/2 cup chopped sweet yellow pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley (I use less because we do not love parsley)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano (1 Tbsp. dried)
1/2 tsp. pickling salt

1. Place all ingredients in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until thickened.
2. Remove hot jars from canner and ladle salsa into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process 20 minutes for half-pint (250 ml) and pint (500ml) jars.

Makes 5 1/2 to 6 cups. Enjoy!

Thanks to my friend, Carmen for requesting the recipe. It comes from the book Small-Batch Preserving by Topp &  Howard.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Delicious Granola Bars

Mom (who my children know as "Oma") came to visit a while ago and made some granola bars for the children. They liked them so much they asked for some "Oma Bars" over March break. I found out mom had used the Crosby's Molasses recipe for "Peanut Butter and Molasses Granola Bars" and changed it a little. I did the same thing and here they are:

Here is the recipe that made them:

Peanut Butter and Molasses Granola Bars

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups quick rolled oats
  • 1 cup bran
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut
  • 1 cup sunflower seeds or sesame seeds or a combination of the two
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
  • ¼ cup chopped nuts
  • ¼ cup wheat germ
  • ½ cup fancy molasses
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 1 tbsp 2% milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • ¾ tsp baking soda

Directions:

  1. Mix oats, bran, coconut, seeds, chocolate chips, nuts and wheat germ together in large bowl. Set aside.
  2. Combine molasses, oil, sugar and peanut butter in a 2 liter saucepan and cook over medium low heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is smooth. (Stir constantly.)
  3. Combine the milk, vanilla and baking soda and add to the molasses mixture. Stir for one more minute. Remove from heat.
  4. Pour molasses-milk mixture over granola mixture and stir until dry ingredients are moist. Wet your hands and press the mixture into a 15 x 10 inch (2L) pan.
  5. Bake at 275°F (140°C) for 20 to 25 minutes. The edges will start to brown and the bars will be slightly puffy. They will sink as they cool.
  6. Let cool, cut into slices (I cut it into 27 pieces).
  7. Store in the refrigerator.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Rock Band KISS Cupcakes


I can barely believe I made these! I do not like the band KISS. I would never listen to their music. But my daughter is a different story. She got her father's taste in music. Sigh. I gotta say though - I had fun with this birthday cake idea. She got several KISS albums for her birthday so they helped me with the designs. I copied the word "KISS" and designed the make-up for the cupcakes onto paper, using the albums. I cut out the paper patterns with a small scissors and then I cut them out of thinly rolled fondant with a small knife. I did not even try to make eyes as I can never do realistic eyes in any medium. The whole family LOVED the KISS figures and the cupcakes were delicious!

These were chocolate cupcakes, covered in chocolate fudge icing. All the decorations are fondant. To make the 12 cupcakes, I divided the chocolate cake recipe in half and added 2 Tbsp. applesauce. 

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Chocolate Bites - Cookies

What about chocolate to dip in the chocolate fondue, you ask? How about little chocolate cookies. Yum yum! I made these for our chocolate fondue night too. They were cute, but a little dry. I think it is because I used Dutch processed cocoa. Maybe I should use regular cocoa next time.


Chocolate Bites cookies
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, fork beaten
1 Tbsp. milk
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/4 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt

Cream butter, brown sugar, egg and milk together in medium bowl. Add cocoa. Beat until well mixed. Add vanilla. Stir.

Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix. Drop by 1/2 tsp. onto greased baking sheet. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. The recipe says it makes 72 cookies but I only got 31 out of the recipe!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Ladyfingers

For yesterday's fondue, I also made Ladyfingers. This recipe also came from Company's Coming fondues. It worked out great to spell a message for my daughter.



Ladyfingers
1 egg white, room temperature
4 tsp. sugar

1 egg yolk
4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup flour

Beat egg white in small bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add first amount of sugar, while beating, until stiff.

Beat egg yolk, second amount of sugar and vanilla in separate small bowl until light in color. Fold in egg white mixture.

Gradually fold in flour. Spoon into piping bag. Pipe into strips or other shapes onto greased baking sheet. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes. Cool. Makes about 54 cookies - or in my case, spelled out "HAPPY 13 BDAY KIMBERLY".

These were light and fluffy and turned out to be a wonderful thing to dip in the chocolate fondue. We all enjoyed them.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Wee Fondue Cookies

I made chocolate fondue for dessert when my daughter had a friend over. It was imperative that I made cookies to go with it. So I made these:


Wee Fondue Cookies (from Company's Coming Fondues)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg

2 Tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream butter, sugar and egg together in large bowl until smooth.
Add milk and vanilla. Mix.
Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes, using 1 to 1 1/2 inch cookie cutters. Arrange on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes until edges start to turn golden.
The original recipe says this makes 4 dozen cookies. I made 8 dozen.

These made nice vanilla sugar cookies! They were great dipped in chocolate! I found that they were a bit sticky to roll out so I rolled them out on wax paper and froze them a while before lifting them from the wax paper and placing them on the cookie sheet. That worked great!





Thursday, March 5, 2015

School Safe Granola Bars

Mom! Mom! There's only one granola bar left in the box! You need to buy some more!

Now I don't. I found a recipe online that made a nice, chewy granola bar.
They were simple to make and taste every bit as good as those store bought ones. Here's how:

School Safe Granola Bars
Yield 12 granola bars
Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 2 tablespoons butter (does not need to be softened)
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (you can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips)
  • 1/3 cup applesauce, unsweetened
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a mixing bowl add the butter and the brown sugar and mash together with a fork to mix (mixture will be very lumpy and crumbly). Add in the beaten egg, honey, vanilla and apple sauce and mix well. Set aside.
  3. In a separate mixing bowl add all of the remaining ingredients (flour, oats, flax seeds, cinnamon, salt and chocolate chips) and mix. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix very well. Dump the mixture into the lined baking pan and press down firmly.
  4. Bake for 18 minutes and allow to cool completely. Cut into bars and store for several days in an airtight container. You can also individually wrap the granola bars in plastic wrap where they will keep up to five days.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Loyalist Bread

OOOOOoooh, this one was a definite Make Again! It is a beautiful loaf of fruity nutty bread called "Loyalist Bread". It originated in Nova Scotia, where there are lots of blueberries. I followed the recipe from my big book of bread on page 452. It was very easy to make and turned out very pretty. Leave me a comment and I will post the recipe.

I used really big, tame, blueberries for this loaf. There are also walnuts in it. The recipe was sweeter that necessary so I will reduce the sugar next time. I will also give it a try with some whole wheat flour and even more blueberries! Delicious!

Monday, February 16, 2015

Royal Hibernian Brown Loaf

This was another nice, quick bread from the big Bread Bible. It was on page 103, called Royal Hibernian Brown Loaf.
It's hard to tell from the picture (oops, I cut into it before I remembered to photograph it!) but it is a rustic, round loaf with a cross cut into the top of it. It was quite crumbly and had a really crunchy crust straight out of the oven. But it worked up easily and it baked nicely and I enjoyed it very much as a turkey sandwich for lunch. It had a lot of whole wheat flour, so I got full quickly! The crust was too crunchy for my girl wearing braces. 


Sunday, February 15, 2015

Peachy Valentine Cheesecake

Here we are, the day after Valentine's Day. If you still feel like celebrating, why not try a heart shaped cheesecake? Luckily, cream cheese and sour cream were on sale this past week and I smartly picked some up - just in case! My husband saw what I had bought and lovingly made this cake for me. He's great. It was wonderful. He based it off of a recipe from the Cookbook "125 Best Cheesecake Recipes" by George Geary. He tweaked "Blue Ribbon Cheesecake" to fit a heart shaped 8" pan.

Here's what you need to enjoy your own

Peachy Valentine Cheesecake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8" heart shaped pan with tinfoil, bringing the foil up and over the sides of the pan so it can be lifted out when it is cooled.

Crust
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Filling
2 packages (8 oz/250g) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Topping
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Decoration
1 1/2 cups peach slices, either fresh or drained canned slices

1. CRUST: in a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of cheesecake pan and freeze.
2. FILLING: In a large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Pour over frozen crust. Bake in preheated oven 35-40 minutes or until the top is light brown and the center has a slight jiggle to it. Cool on the counter for 10 minutes (do not turn off the oven.) The cake will sink slightly.
3. TOPPING: In a small bowl, combine sour cream, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Pour into center of cooled cake and spread out to edges. Bake for 5 minutes more. Cool on a rack for 2 hours. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before decorating. 
4. DECORATION: When completely chilled, lift from the pan using the tinfoil and peel away the tinfoil. Transfer to a serving plate. Top with peach slices. (You could also use blueberries or strawberries.)




Friday, February 13, 2015

Valentine Strawberries

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

Pretty simple, right? Yes, I put an inch of water in a pan on high until it almost boiled, turned it down to "2", put a cup of chocolate chips in a narrow glass, and set the glass in the hot water. I stirred the chips until they melted and then dipped some washed and dried strawberries in it. I set them on wax paper to solidify and that was it! Show your love and enjoy some delicious-ness today! Love Helen


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Masterpiece Sandwiches

It was leftover night again. Nobody likes leftovers unless they look nothing like the original. Today's meal used up the two big pork chops from last night and, with some home made bread and veggies, I made a delicious meal for 5!

Masterpiece Sandwiches for 4 or 5
Leftover meat - either roast beef, chicken, turkey, pork chop or pork tenderloin - 2 - 3 cups, thinly sliced
8 - 10 slices hearty bread
6 white mushrooms, sliced
1/4 green pepper, sliced into strips
2 small onions, any color, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 cup grated mozzarella
2 Tbsp. Ranch or Italian dressing
1 tsp. oil
Salt & pepper

1. Prepare all the vegetables and slice the meat.
2. Heat a medium fry pan. Pour oil in.
3. Fry the onions until they begin to soften.
4. Add the mushrooms and peppers to the onion and if there is room, add the meat too. Otherwise, heat another fry pan and reheat those leftovers!
5. Toast the bread, if desired.
6. When the veggies are limp, and the toast is ready, assemble your masterpiece sandwich!
7. Layer each sandwich according to people's preferences, omitting anything they find "yucky". My sandwich is built as follows:
Plate, bread, meat, onions, peppers, mushrooms, cheese, lettuce, dressing, tomato, salt & pepper, bread.
Slice and devour!





Sunday, February 8, 2015

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I saw these and I knew right away I needed to make them. They came to me via a facebook post from a friend. She shared them from "High Protein Foods" on facebook. Don't your friends always know just what you need?



I must apologize to "High Protein Foods" because I am totally swiping their image but this is the most direct way to show you these wonderful, delectable, totally easy treat. Seriously. I had them made and my kitchen cleaned up in about 15 minutes. I swapped vegetable oil for the coconut oil because I had to have them NOW and I don't have coconut oil. I waited about 20 minutes for them to solidify enough to cut and had one. Amazing! I cut and pasted this from here. Go there. Tell them how wonderful their bars are. Enjoy!

The Best No-Bake Bars You'll Ever Eat! Clean and healthy as always.

It's still a dessert so eat in moderation!

1 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup unrefined coconut oil (be sure to use unrefined for the coconut flavor)
2 cups dry oats (not instant)
1 C shredded coconut
1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)
1 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips
1 t vanilla extract

Melt peanut butter, honey and coconut oil over medium-low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and add oats, shredded coconut, chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir until chocolate is entirely melted. Pour into a 9x13 pan and cool in the fridge. When it's set, cut into bars and enjoy. Store in the fridge. If they last that long!!!!!


Baking Adventures

Wow, two days go by quickly when there is snow to play in with the children outside! On Friday, we had a snowday. My oldest did not want to play outside, so I set her to the task of making cookies. I gave her our "usual" cookie recipe and went to do something else.  (Note - this recipe card only lists the ingredients and the oven temp and time).

When I returned, 10 minutes later, she was visibly annoyed. "Mom", she said, "I need you to refill the four. I already put in the eggs and the other stuff, and had to refill the chocolate chips and I can't lift the bag of flour!"

She was ready to abandon me. This was the first time I ever left her alone to start the cookies. Now it was my turn to feel annoyed without frustrating her into leaving. It was a delicate situation. I did not want her to quit, but she had just put in all the cookie ingredients without ANY stirring! It looked like a big mess to me. To top that off, she started with the eggs and then the dry ingredients and the butter was on the counter because she did not know how to exactly measure two cups of it.

It was a scary looking bowl. I could not get to the eggs, but there were some visible hunks of brown sugar on top. I scooped out the loose sugar so I could blend it with the butter and I blended them together. Then I threw that on top of the "mess" and stirred, hoping for the best!

It all worked out and the cookies came together. The only evidence of our experiment was flecks of bright yellow egg yolk here and there. They still baked up fine and tasted fine too. Now I have learned that having a method on a recipe card is necessary for a beginner baker! We sat down together and added the method - for next time!

I was able to make my daughter feel better by telling her my own "baking blunder" story: when I was a child, mom always made pancakes for breakfast on Saturdays. When I was 10  or so, I decided to be helpful one Saturday and make the pancakes. I found mom's recipe and put in the ingredients. A lot of mom's recipes used ditto marks to mean "repeat what was written above". I helped mom enough that I knew how to measure things and I had seen these ditto marks a lot. They usually meant "cup" so when I put in the salt, it was written: 1/2 " salt. So I put in 1/2 cup salt. Sadly, this time, the ditto marks were below the word 'tsp'. Oops! Nobody would eat the pancakes! I had worked so hard and had cooked them all up before anyone tasted one. Even the dog wouldn't eat them! That is why, to this day, when I write out a recipe, I never use ditto marks!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Wheat and Oat Bread

Today was baking day! I tried another new recipe from the big bread baking book and it turned out great! I could not believe that something with oatmeal and bran could be so soft and delicious! It was called Wheat and Oat Bread on page 201.

Everyone ate and enjoyed this new raisin bread. I did as the author suggested and used less molasses than the recipe called for. I used 1/3 of a cup. It was so awesome warm and fresh from the oven and spread with butter! I will definitely make it again. Next time I will add even more raisins.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Chicken Pot Pie

Last night was cold and miserable out so I decided that the chicken breast in my fridge would be good in a nice, hot, chicken pot pie. I found a recipe in my Company's Coming Chicken cookbook, but I changed it a little to my likings. If you want the original recipe it is called "Meal Under Cover". I still call it Chicken Pot Pie. Husband and I loved it. Boys liked it. Older girl gave it a 4/10. Little girl ate the meat and the crust and would not touch the veggies with gravy on them. It looked lovely in the casserole:

Here's what I used:

Chicken Pot Pie
1 9” pastry crust, unbaked
2 Tbsp. butter
1 ½ cups chopped onion
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 ½ cups water
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 cup cubed cooked potato
1 cup sliced cooked carrots
1 cup cooked peas
½ cup cooked corn

Melt butter in a large fry pan. Add onion. SautƩ until soft and browned.
Mix in flour, salt and pepper. Stir in water until it boils and thickens. Add Worcestershire sauce.
Put chicken and cooked vegetables into the sauce. Pour all into a 2 quart (2 L) casserole. Smooth top.
Roll out pastry a little larger than casserole. Place over top and 1 inch up around sides. Slit. I even brushed the top with milk to give it a golden glow.

Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes. Serves 6.


And if you don't have COOKED chicken, potatoes, carrots, corn and peas? Do what I did: cook them! I peeled some carrots and potatoes and chopped them small. I boiled the potato cubes for 10 minutes and then added the carrots for 3 minutes and then added the frozen corn and peas for the last 2 minutes. 

While the vegetables cooked, I cut raw chicken into 3/4 inch cubes, put 1 Tbsp. butter in a hot pan and fried it. When the vegetables were done, I drained them and set them aside until the onion gravy was ready. It all worked out nicely. I even found time to make an old favorite in there somewhere. It was just like the apple pie I've made before!

It sure was delicious on a cold winter night!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Snow Day Smoothie

Welcome to another winter storm day here on the East Coast! Hope you stayed warm and safe! Guess what my children wanted for a snack on this snowy afternoon? That's right, a smoothie! I guess I keep it too warm in the house! No matter, I made them a smoothie. They declared it was the best one ever.

So, what went into it to make it the best ever? I'll tell you.

Snow Day Smoothie (Blueberry Banana Smoothie) 
3/4 cup milk
2 x 100g blueberry flavored yogurt, frozen (the children give higher ratings with IOGO yogurt)
1 banana with brown spots, frozen or fresh (it must be riper than the ones in photo)
1/4 cup of frozen blueberries (wild or tame)


Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serves 4 children nicely!

After their smoothies, the children and I went out to try to scrape our driveway. It was very frozen out there and rather impossible to move anything. When we came in, I made them all some hot chocolate with marshmallows. That seemed a little more expected. Hopefully the snow will let up soon and maybe they'll even get to school tomorrow.



Sunday, February 1, 2015

Soft Tortilla Shells from Scratch



The other day, I decided would be a good day for turkey tacos. We almost always stock soft tortilla shells in the freezer but that day, it was not the case! Well, I didn't let that stop me. I was reminded by my ever helpful husband, that I should check the internet and maybe I could make some from scratch. How right he was! I simply followed the recipe at Best Ever Homemade Flour Tortillas, but I replaced one cup of the white flour with whole wheat flour. I was so proud to make them myself. They certainly have less sodium that way and they were delicious.

My tortilla shells turned out nicely. They are more filling than store bought ones but also tastier!  Enjoy.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Nutty Cream Carrot Muffins

Wow! Three days in a row I'm here. When I looked around my blog, I noticed this entry, still in draft. I never posted it even though I wrote it back in 2013. It's not too late. So without further ado, Here are wonderfully decadent cream cheese and nut covered carrot muffins. These were so heavenly right out of the oven! The soft cream cheese topping was melt in your mouth goodness atop these beautiful, tall muffins!
The nuts were only on top, with the cream cheese, but the orange and carrot showed everywhere else!
This was a recipe out of "Company's Coming Mostly Muffins" page 43. I'll share the recipe since it was so good.

Nutty Cream Carrot Muffins recipe
4 oz. Block of cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
4 tsp white sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 3/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrot
1 cup soured milk (1 Tbsp. lemon juice with milk to make 1 cup)
3 Tbsp. frozen concentrated orange juice, thawed (I used 1 Tbsp. orange rind and 2 Tbsp. orange juice)
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping: Combine first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Add walnuts. Stir. Set aside.

Measure next 5 ingredients into large bowl. Stir. Make a well in centre.

Combne remaining 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Add to well. Stir until just moistened. Fill 12 greased muffin cups full. Spread about 1 Tbsp. cream cheese mixture on each muffin. Bake in 375 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool. Makes 12 muffins.

Note: in the future, I will not convect bake these. I'll use regular bake so the muffins rise straight up. On convect bake, they went a little lop-sided. Terrific muffins though!

Friday, January 30, 2015

Perfect Pumpkin Loaf

Perfect. That's a word I reserve for something very special. My friend brought this loaf to our weekly gathering and it was so good I almost ate half a loaf! I bugged her until she revealed the recipe to me. She could not remember where she got it either, but I'm passing it on to you because it is something that needs to be shared. I hope it turns out as delicious for you. Her original recipe used 3 1/4 cups of all purpose flour but I changed 1 cup to whole wheat with good results.
Perfect Pumpkin Loaf - yields 2 loaves
2 ¼ cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. ginger

1 ¾ cups pumpkin
1 cup oil
1 cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Grease two large loaf pans.

Whisk together the flours, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger in a small bowl.

Whisk together the pumpkin and oil in a large bowl. Add the sugars and whisk again. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition. Add vanilla and water and whisk again. Stir in chocolate chips. Fold in dry ingredients.

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes at 350°F or until a toothpick comes out clean. If using convection oven, reduce heat to 325°F.


Cool in pans for 15 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
See what happens when you leave it to cool? Your hungry husband comes home and "tastes" only a "little corner"! He promptly got yelled at and apologies were made, but the perfect loaf was just a little corner less than perfect! 
No big deal. It was, of course, delicious! I'm still trying to figure out if it was the allspice or the ginger that made it so much yummier than any pumpkin thing I've made before... I'll have to do some testing. Sounds like a tasty thing to do.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Three Flours Bread

Hello once again! I'm returning today because of a night of movie watching. That's right, a movie made me blog again. The movie was Julie and Julia - the movie where Julie writes a blog about doing every recipe from the cookbook by Julia Child. I had seen it before but it inspired me again so here I am!

Today's loaf was again from my big bread cookbook. It is called "Three Flours Bread" on page 205. It made me two nice big loaves. I personally call it "Soy Bread" because it has white flour, whole wheat flour and soy flour as the three flours. Since we are used to the taste of the other two, the soy flour stood out. It is a fine loaf of bread and the recipe worked wonderfully well. My family ate it with no difference, except for the eldest, who preferred my usual bread. I did find this bread was quite crumbly and soft. It is much sweeter than the bread we're used to but nobody complained about that!
It looks really pretty, doesn't it?