Yogurt pound cake

The other day, when I was suppose to catch up with my readings, I started up browsing Epicurious (such a procrastinator) and came across this recipe.  It was awesome because I happened to have alot of yogurt in the fridge, and Mr.C was craving cake that day (he has a sweet tooth!).  Who wants to study and write papers when you can play with your kitchenaid and make something yummy!  

This cake turned out pretty well despite the lack of butter in the ingredients' list because it was tenderized/moisturized by yogurt!  The original recipe is called "Yogurt Cake with Marmalade".  I skipped the marmalade because it's yucky, and I like my cake plain and simple. I added lemon juice and cut the sugar by 1/3 so that my diabetic Dad could enjoy this as well (probably also better for the rest of us).  Mr.C likes chocolate chips in his cookies/cakes, so I threw in some bittersweet chocolate chips (I decrease the sugar amount in the recipe when I add this).

I have a paper and presentation due tomorrow in class.  Today, I ended up making a meatloaf for dinner and 2 loaves of this cake (to share amongst ourselves and our parents).  Mr.C thinks I do cook/bake alot when I'm stressed and bombarded with alot of work.  Hmmm, interesting observations.

Yogurt pound cake (with a twist)

• 1.5 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• sprinkles of salt
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (I used fat free vanilla yogurt)
• 1 cup sugar (I used less)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp zested lemon peels
• few tbsps of lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cups of chocolate chips - optional (or chopped nuts/mashed banana!)

1. Place rack in centre of oven.  Preheat oven to 350F
2. Butter/grease a loaf pan lightly
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Mix all wet ingredients (except oil) until well blended.  Gradually mix in dry ingredients
5. Add chocolate chips (optional)
6. Fold in oil
7. Transfer batter into loaf pan.  Place pan onto baking sheet and transfer to oven to bake until cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and tester inserted into centre comes out clean, for about 50 mins (top of cake will be a light golden brown).
8. Cool cake in pan on rack for 5 mins.  Cut around pan to loosen cake.  Get the cake out and cool it on rack completely. 

This is soooooo easy to make, and the cake is very moist.  No butter too, so try it!

mmmmmuffins.

I forgot to post a picture of the blueberry muffins I made the other day. I think I may have found the best muffins recipe (for now). The texture is very soft and not too crumbly..... even after being left overnight. The recipe also calls for a crumble top, but I didn't make it as I fear it may be too sweet. I might try it another time. I cut the sugar in the recipe by a bit more than half and it was still really good and sweet enough for me. This is good as the husband and I have been trying to eat healthily and we have cut down our daily sugar intake. I also cut the sugar amount so that my Dad can eat the muffins too (he's a diabetic). I hate that splenda crap. Splenda makes everything taste .... fake and chemically altered?!

Super Delicious Blueberry Muffins (stolen from allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar (I cut the sugar in the recipe by a little more than half)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I only had corn oil at home and it worked well!!)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk (I used 1%)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

(Crumble topping)

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

I doubled up the recipe and made about 17 decent sized muffins! If you have a ton of fresh blueberries at home right now (snerk!), I recommend you try this :)

Spacious... wha?

I remembered when the Mr.C and I were looking for our first home back in 2006, we came across an MLS listing that caught our attention. It definitely wasn’t the cheap price tag (is there such a thing in Vancouver these days?). It was the two words in the description - “spacious panty”. Spacious panty, oh my! It was actually listed in the description of a property we found on MLS! It didn’t take long for us to figure out what the seller/realtor was trying to say – spacious pantry. Can you imagine buying a property that came with a spacious panty? How big would it be? How many people can it hold? Is it self-cleaning? What color would it be? Anyways, fast forward to 2008… we now live in a place that’s not very spacious. Its pantry is far from it, too. You can just imagine our disappointment!

This got me to think that a well-stocked pantry is very important, especially in a busy household where there are no maids, chefs or servants. If you keep your pantry well stocked throughout the seasons, it will prevent you from running frantically to the grocery stores during the work weeks. Do you really want to brave the grocery stores after a long day of work and commuting? Seriously, you just want to go home, cook and eat! A well-stocked pantry also allows you to cook or bake most things you crave in the spur of the moment, or if you run into dinner planning emergencies (ex. you think you’re working late/going out but ended up having to eat dinner at home), or you have a last minute request to bring an item to a potluck. I find that the more recipes I try, the more I realize there are in fact a lot of common items that are essential to a well-stocked pantry.

• chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, raisins
• flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract, you know, the basic essentials to baking anything edible.
• gelatin
• chips (gotta keep Mr.C happy, and you never know when friends decide to show up!)
• pasta (I almost always have 2-3 types laying around; penne, linguini, lasagna)
• jar(s) of pasta sauce
• canned coconut milk (for desserts, curries, etc.)
• Swanson's chicken stock
• Beef broth
• Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
• Nissin instant noodles, good japanese udon
• Instant coffee powder (I actually use this mostly for baking/cooking)
• tomato paste, canned diced tomato
• peanut butter (very necessary when making peanut chicken/thai noodle salad... but of course, you can use it to make PB & jam/honey sammiches!)
• honey (for sauces, marinades, sometimes for honey-lemon drinks)
• chili/soy/oyster/black bean sauces. These are essential when you don't have time to marinate anything and you just want to throw together a quick dinner
• cream of corn
• vermecelli
• spices (ground pepper, italian, cayenne, chili powder, all the good stuff...)

I'm sure I've missed a few items in this list. But, how I wish I have a spacious pantry.

This week, I made some cheese scones. Thanks to Jr., I finally found a recipe that delivers decent quality scones. I've tried two recipes before in the past (with similar ingredients) but they always ended up too dry and crumbly. Interestingly enough, this recipe calls for margarine and I decided to give it a try (I always bake with butter). Surprisingly it turned out awesome! Weird. Maybe it's the margarine. Anyways, I tweaked the recipe a little by adding dry mustard to give it a kick or two.

Cheese Scones (makes 2 dozen)

• 3 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• few teaspoons of dry mustard
  
• 1 teaspoon salt (I never measure salt in baking recipes. Just a couple dashes and you're good to go!)
• 1 to 2 cups grated cheese
• ½ c margarine
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (I use 1%)

1. Lined a baking sheet with greased parchement paper. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Combine dry ingredients into large mixing bowl.
3. Cut in margarine using pastry blender or two forks till mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add grated cheese.
4. Mix egg and milk together and stir into dry mixture.
5. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet (will spread a little) and bake in a 350 degrees oven for 10-15 minutes (I had a gas oven, and I had to bake mine for about 18 mins)

Tips:

• I use butter spray when greasing parchment paper. Forget melting butter and brushing it all over... waste of time, too much work! I like to bake, but I don't have 5 hours to waste!
  
• Forget the forks. Use your hands to work the fat into the dry ingredients. I find it works better than using a pastry cutter anyways... not that I'd know because I'm too cheap to invest in one. But, why buy one when your hands are your best tools?
• I press each dough gently (so the surface is abit flat) before baking so I can sprinkle more cheeses on top. Mmmmmm cheese.
• Do yourself a favor and buy a bag of pre-shredded cheese. It's not that much more expensive than a block of cheese (unless you're looking for good quality cheeses in this recipe) and it saves you so much time from shredding all day long. Mr.C doesn't like strong cheeses so I just buy a bag of shredded mild cheeses!
  

They're not too big, so they makes great snacks and on-the-go breakfasts. They're not crumbly and dry either, so yay. Perhaps next time, I will use this recipe and make jam-filled scones (basically split the dough in half, roll them out to 1/6" to 1/8" thick rounds, spread jam between layers, cut into wedges and bake!).

Before:


Final Product. Cheesy goodness!

Cinnamon goodness!

Over the Christmas holidays, I baked alot. I can't remember how many times I turned on my kitchenaid and my oven. It was rather nice, because whenever the oven cools I have to open the door which means... FREE HEAT! har har! Uhhhh, anyhoos....

I cooked and baked alot, from cookies/squares/peanut brittle for families and friends, to main dishes and desserts for various parties. It was actually nice because I get to do what I enjoy and I didn't have to go to work, so I had all the time to play around with recipes and ingredients. And somehow, I became the designated dessert-maker for all Chan's family parties/gatherings. It was good, because I now have excuses to try different recipes. I couldn't necessarily make desserts and baked goods every single day because my poor hubs would have to constantly eat (I secretly thinks he has a sweet tooth, despite his denial). He tells me he likes being my lab rat and seems to be enjoying the role, but I don't want him to not be able to walk through doors, hallways and such. Excessive eating with lack of exercises in cold winter days...no good!

Anyways, this was one recipe I tried over the Christmas holiday which turned out to be a great success. Seeing how easy this recipe was I had to try it. And hey, the recipe has one of my favorite ingredients in it - cinnananamon! It was calling my name!



Sour Cream Coffee Cake (by Martha Stewart) - Serves 12

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar, plus 1/2 cup for topping
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make the topping: In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and walnuts; set aside.
2. Make the cake: Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Add the flour mixture alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. (flour, sour cream, flour, sour cream, flour)
4. Spread half of the batter into the prepared baking pan, and sprinkle with half of the topping. Repeat with remaining batter and topping.
5. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes, then remove sides of pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Serve topping side up.

The cake was really moist and not too sweet (I went easy on the sugars because Dad is diabetic) and the sweetness was just right, especially after a heavy Christmas feast.