Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Blueberry Buckle

Buckle?  Crisp?  Betty?  Coffee Cake? It's delicious!

Okay, I decided I wasn't done with blueberries by FAR yet - they are amazingly tasty, great for you, and in fantastic supply these days as they are in season.  There is a local blueberry lot nearby that is convenient for summer picking... provided you bring closed toe shoes to avoid the poison ivy lurking.  I picked up about 3 pounds of blueberries over the weekend and was requested to repeat this dish that I've made several times now.

I do love Alton Brown, and his Good Eats show is hilarious.  Even though I don't trust his banana pudding (he makes it like a Northerner), and I failed miserable at reproducing his Pad Thai, every now and then he makes something fantastic that is worth repeating over and over again.  This is my favorite AB recipe!  I do tend to stray from what his recipe calls for, and I certainly don't use the weighted measurement system he does... but it ends up delicious each time!  

I went to the website and took some notes on the recipe he calls for.  It's important when you're baking to at least know what proportions of things recipes actually call for before you start tinkering with them!   




I like having a brief recipe
These are all the notes I needed in order to create this awesome dish.  I will elaborate a bit more in the actual recipe section at the bottom.  As far as what exactly you call this dish, it appears that there are an awful lot of words for desserts that are pretty similar - cobbler, buckle, betty, sonker, crisp, etc.  In fact, there are several articles I found that discuss the intricate differences among the specific words.  Sonkers are apparently unique to my home - Surry County, North Carolina, and now I am wishing I'd paid more attention to the "Sonker Festival" that happened each year.  Even when reading several articles, there seems to still be some debate as to what makes a Buckle unique.  Some people seem to think it's the streusel-like topping that buckles when it cooks, some people think it's the fact that because you use baking powder and fruit, the fruit is too heavy to rise, causing uneven rising which causes it to buckle in appearance.  It seems unanimous that the Buckle Dessert is almost exclusively a blueberry dish, so for all intents and purposes, I will continue to call this a Blueberry Buckle.  


375?!  Inconceivable!


Yep, it calls for 375 on the oven.  Better go along with it, since it's baking stuff... if you cook it lower, it'll just take longer, and this recipe is known to sometimes take a little extra time than the 35 minutes it claims. 

Mmmmm delicious... Sour Cream container full of blueberries!


Fluffy?  Not exactly... use an electric mixer for sure!


Similar to many recipes, this one calls for wet ingredients to be creamed together before the dry ingredients are added slowly.  2 oz of butter is equal to half a stick (4T) but I had 6T leftover from another recipe, so I decided to try and cut the entire butter requirement down to 6T (from 8T) for the Buckle and topping.  It meant that this first step didn't cream up quite as nicely, but it smoothed out once the egg went in!




Butter, sugar, and egg combined





This is what the "wet ingredients" bowl looked like after adding the one egg.  This is MUCH more normal looking for the "cream together" stage.  









Super necessary


The only spice that Alton mentions is Nutmeg, but I really enjoy using a fair amount of Cinnamon in this recipe, and a small shake of Cloves.  Again, watch out for overdoing.  I find Nutmeg goes best in apple desserts, but check for your own preference!  The spices should be in the dry ingredients!  













Massive amount of blueberries
At this point, I quit taking as many pictures because I was cooking this dish at 11 pm on a Sunday night.  The directions call to start adding 1/3 of the mixture of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices, salt) and 1/3 the milk (only 1/2 cup) in rotations to avoid clumping the batter.  Once it is all mixed together, it is extremely sticky.  That's when the blueberries get added.  They should be "folded" in which is where you take a spatula or spoon and lay blueberries on the batter, then scoop it up from the bottom and literally fold it over the blueberries.  It is a gentle way to mix the fruit in without completely breaking the skins into bits and pieces.  


Blueberries folded!


I couldn't locate my 9x9 baking dish, so I improvised with a round corning ware dish.  It worked just fine, but meant that the Buckle was a little thicker than usual, which required additional baking time.  

Spray this thing down!


The topping is a mixture of some flour, sugar, and more butter.  It should be mixed together, using a fork, until it's all "crumb-like."  If you're having trouble getting it to stick together, you can use some more butter, but keep in mind the butter is just going to melt when you put it all in the oven.  It doesn't have to be saturated with butter.  

Buckle + Topping = ready to go!

I cooked this Buckle for 35 minutes.  I stuck a knife in the middle of it and came out with pudding, so I put it back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.  I then divided it up among several small containers for taking to work for breakfasts!  While not ridiculously calorie-wise healthy, it's a great way to utilize fresh and local produce of the season!

THE RECIPE: 

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 shake cloves
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 cups blueberries

For the topping:
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
some nutmeg

1) Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a 9x9 pan.
2) In one bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices together.
3) In another bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.  
4) Add the egg and beat together.
5) Alternate adding the dry mixture and the milk to the wet bowl until it's all together
6) Fold in the blueberries carefully
7) Get the entire mixture into the pan

8) Mix together the butter, flour, sugar, and nutmeg using a fork to break up the butter.
9) Sprinkle the topping evenly across the top of the pan
10) Bake for 35+ minutes.  It is done when a knife/toothpick comes out of the middle clean of batter.  

*Let this cool for at least 10 minutes before serving - fresh from the oven blueberries can be heat bombs!


Friday, July 13, 2012

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

I made popovers a few nights ago to go with some amazing salmon I baked with a not-at-all-healthy bourbon glaze... but for the popovers, I decided to swap out half the flour for the whole wheat pastry flour, since the back label listed "popovers" as a good food to use it with.  What resulted was a totally different popover experience - a muffin-like texture with not as much open space as a popover, and a nutty flavor!  This made me start to think that the whole wheat flour would be an excellent idea for blueberry muffins!

It isn't that I haven't cooked all week, I just got busy with work!  I decided that since I got off at lunch time today, it would be the perfect time to try out a new recipe!

I searched around online and found several different types.  No, this isn't the "healthiest" recipe you can find out there, but I combined some ideas that I saw and came up with what I thought would work awesomely!
Blasphemy!
For these muffins, it says to set it at 425.  I was baking on a convection oven, which automatically corrects for the difference in convention/convection, so it's at 400 convection (425 "regular oven temp")

I don't care how "seasoned" your pan is.



Here is where I missed a step.  Looking back at the suggestions I saw online, it DOES mention greasing the paper wrappers.  I've never greased a paper wrapper before in my life, but considering I know how this turns out... I'd highly recommend it.









Tasty!
   




I decided to sub out the 1/4 cup oil for unsweetened applesauce.  I'm not entirely certain why muffins "need" oil, and I've noticed that a lot of recipes have unnecessary oil in them.  Don't get me wrong, I know it's an important ingredient, I just don't think muffins "need" oil... but then again, I did forget to grease the paper liners... I figured the applesauce would give enough moisture that it would work out just fine!









Required!
If you're baking a fruit pastry/pie of some kind, these are required.  Know what they are, and how to use them.  Cinnamon is hard to overdose on, but the other two require a light hand.  Cloves can become very bitter and overpowering - notice that they come in a smaller container.  A lot of people really enjoy Nutmeg.  It works really well with apple, which is why I pulled it out this time (with the applesauce), but it can also overpower foods.  Just be aware of what you're using.  Take a big whiff of the spice before you use it.  If you are gagging from the smell, you'll probably gag from the taste.



Best way to wash blueberries - colander!


If you're using fresh blueberries, which you should be because of the amazing health benefits, it is necessary to wash them before pouring them in.  This lets you check and make sure all the little blueberry stems are actually off, and that you don't pour in that one moldy blueberry in the bottom of the container.  Also, it's just good practice!





Over-stirring your muffin batter can make them tough




Muffins are a lot less complicated than cookies.  Pour everything into one big pour and make sure it's mixed up.  The most complicated part of muffins is dividing up the batter!









Divvy it up!

When you get to this stage, don't toss the extra batter!  This recipe doesn't rise very much, so you can stack the cups fairly full without risk of bubbling over.  Otherwise, you can put the extra batter in a glass bowl for baking or wait for the muffins to come out, line some more cups, and bake a few extra!  I rarely make exactly 12, but I only had one muffin tray and was too lazy to wait and make 2 batches.





Explosive blueberry action!

My muffins baked for a little over 20 minutes.  The toothpick came out completely clean.  They probably didn't need quite that long.  After I let them cool for a little bit, I had a really hard time peeling the muffin paper off the muffin.  Again, I should have greased those paper wrappers!  








How do they taste?  Meh... they're okay.  I think it's a fun recipe to start from, but it still needs some fine tuning... I decided to post anyway though to prove that even though it doesn't always work, you can still learn from your kitchen experiments!

THE RECIPE: 

1 1/4 cup dry oats
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup blueberries
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
some cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves

Mix it all up together in a bowl.  Pour into 12 GREASED muffin liners.  Bake for 20 minutes at 425.  

Pros: Each muffin is only 109 calories!  They're pretty tasty and they make your kitchen smell delicious!

Cons: They stick to the wrappers and are a little dry... needs butter!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Cookie Time!


Surprisingly good!


A few weekends ago, I made a Bourbon Bread Pudding that called for raisins.  Raisins being yet another food that I don't particularly care for, I was just going to throw them out entirely.  Unfortunately, the recipe called for the raisins to be soaked overnight in bourbon, so I was fairly certain that I would be missing out on flavor by tossing them.  It was suggested to me that I use a different dried fruit: cherries!  I honestly had never considered using a raisin substitute, and didn't really know that dried cherries existed in a form that I would ever want to eat.  I was pleasantly surprised by these Harris Teeter dried cherries.  $4.00 a bag, 6 oz, 60 calories per ounce.  I think if I put these in a simple syrup, they would taste a LOT like my grandmother's cherry preserves - GREAT cherries!


That started me thinking about making cookies with cherries in them.  Great Harvest Bread Company makes a White Chocolate Cherry bread once a year that I fell in love with back in college.  I figure, if it works for bread, it should work for cookies, right?  I researched a lot of substitutions on how to make cookies "healthier."  I have come to several conclusions:

  • There are lot of crazy people with a lot of crazy substitutions out there, and I don't even mean food allergy types.
  • If you try to make cookies TOO healthy, they look gross and include ingredients no one wants to touch like "wheat germ."  
  • There's a lot of strange information on the Internet.
So let's talk about some more "normal" substitutions that I had honestly never tried until today!



1) Butter 
2 Tablespoons of lonely butter...
We all know it's the hidden evil in baked goods.  People have gone back and forth over which version of this fat is "better" for you.  My grandmother's recipe for barbecue sauce includes "Oleo," for years I know we used "Margarine," and often on the table these days I use Smart Balance.  But, when you're cooking things, it is hard to beat good old fashioned butter.  I always get the unsalted sticks of butter because almost anything you're cooking will call for salt to be added.  The butter I buy is only used for baked goods.  I have found that in MOST recipes, the amount of butter can be at least halved without much effect on the taste.  The recipe I pieced together called for an entire stick of butter, but as you can see I went with much less!  This means I needed to use a stand-in for the rest of my "wet" ingredients.  If a recipe calls for a whole stick of butter, and you are using less, you will have to add something to make it all come together.  Otherwise, the recipe will end up being just a dry clumpy mess.  One of the recipes I looked at last night called for Tahini which is sesame paste, normally used for hummus.  The recipe discussed how the sesame paste added a "great nutty flavor" to the cookies.  That all sounded well and good,  but when I looked into the nutritional content, I saw that tahini really didn't look like that great a substitution.  The recipe was calling for 1/2 cup of it, which was going to be a massive number of calories... so I kept looking.  This is when the Internet got pretty weird.  Possibilities for substituting butter include:
  • Pureed prunes.  They can be subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter in most recipes.  "Works especially well with chocolate!" (Yeah, and on my colon...)
  • Apple butter.  Can be subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter.  Can also reduce the sugar in a recipe!  (I'm pretty sure that's only because apple butter is about half apple and half sugar... doesn't sound particularly healthy.)
  • Bananas, mashed.  Can be subbed measure for measure.  That means if it calls for 8T of butter, use 8T mashed bananas.  (Now we're getting somewhere, but that still seems odd)
  • Ricotta cheese.  Can use subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter.  Works well in yeast based breads.  (This sounds promising, but not for cookies)
  • Applesauce.  Can be subbed out for up to 3/4 the butter.  Make sure to get unsweetened OR reduce sugar in recipe.  (This I've heard of... wonder how it works)
I am sure those were not the full extent of possibilities, but it was getting weirder, and later, and so I decided to go with the applesauce.  It seemed the most normal, because I've heard of using it for substitutions before and haven't ever actually tried it.  I found "no sugar added" applesauce in mini snack cups.  



2) Flour
Super organic!
Flour is a necessity to most baking, but it is mostly empty calories.  By that I mean that plain white flour really doesn't offer additional nutrients along with the carbohydrates.  It means that foods that are primarily white flour based are great for instant energy (pasta before running a race), but your body just doesn't get the same stuff from it that it could be getting.  Whole wheat flour has gotten a lot of good press as people started using the South Beach Diet and other "low carb" and "good carb" diets.  Whole Wheat flour contains "complex carbohydrates."  I have explained this to my students before as the idea of a present that is all wrapped up.  The nutrients are all wrapped up, and your body has to spend energy to unwrap the nutrients from the complex carbohydrate.  It means that your body takes longer to process complex carbohydrates, and so it offers you more long-term energy.  All this is great and all, but if you've ever tried straight whole-wheat pasta, you know that we haven't quite perfected how to make an even swap.  Whole wheat is often stickier and can have a very different texture overall, causing some problems in baking.  The solution?  Don't substitute out your entire amount of flour for whole-wheat.  Also, you can use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour - it has less "gluten-forming potential."  The Internet claims you can find this in most Natural sections of large grocery stores.  I found a small bag at Whole Foods for $2.69.  



3) Oatmeal
I don't know many people who would complain about oatmeal in cookies.  In fact, while I was debating using it or not, I got a LOT of feedback about how healthy it is, and how one of my friends would be upset if I left it out, so I decided it probably was deserving of mentioning here.  Again, if you're going to be making cookies, you already know that they're a splurge healthy-eating item.  There's no reason you can't pack those cookies with nutrients though!  The health benefits of oatmeal are pretty wide.  I'll be honest, I don't understand half the words in the articles that talk about how great it is, but it all sounds pretty good!  Lowering your chance of diabetes, preventing sugar crashes, reducing cancer risk, lowering cholesterol.  Sure, sounds great!  Also, my aunt's advice in this whole subject was great: " Pops eats them every day and, as he is going on 87, I say VIVA LA OATMEAL COOKIES!"  Good enough for my grandfather, good enough for me.  



4) Egg Whites
Poor, misunderstood yolk...
You will be tasty tomorrow!
Hmm... this one has eluded me for a while.  Mostly because I never know what to think of eggs.  The health community can't seem to make up their minds on them either!  In fact, this article points out the USDA's guidelines on nutrients in an egg yolk vs egg white.  I decided to try the suggested "one egg + one egg white" that one of the recipes called for, but I think in the future I will take all my nutrients!  Also, that leftover yolk is gonna be weekend-breakfast!




Enough research, I'm bored.  I want cookies!


Tastiness about to happen...


Since it's a "baked good," I did actually bother to read what temperature is suggested for baking these.  

What a surprise... 
I don't know why I always set my oven temp dial slightly warmer than the temperature I want.  It's something Mom always did, so now I do it.

A bit about recipes: I really don't like sticking to a recipe.  It makes me feel like I am missing the freedom and excitement of creating my own ideas!  What I usually do is to look up several recipes (Internet, Joy of Cooking, etc) and then combine the ideas I see into one recipe.  Sometimes I even write down what I do so that I can recreate it.  When it is something baked, it is really important to check out the ratios of ingredients.  If you don't understand what you're messing with, it's best to just stick with the suggested amounts.  Also important: baking powder vs baking soda.  But that's a chemistry lesson.  Just make sure you have the right one.

Alright.  Cookies require two bowls.  One for dry ingredients, one for wet ingredients.  The wet ingredient bowl should be the bowl you want to use your electric mixer in.  

You think I measured that cinnamon?  




Into my dry ingredient bowl, I put 2 cups of oats, 1/2 c plain flour, 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  No sugar?  ha HA - sugar is a WET ingredient, didn't you know?  Suckers...






I needed to use brown sugar for these cookies.  Why?  Because they're oatmeal cookies, and you always use brown sugar in oatmeal cookies.  Is it for the coloring?  Is it because brown sugar is sweeter than regular sugar?  Sure.  Those sound like great reasons.  Either way, when I pulled down my brown sugar, I discovered it was going to be a little more difficult to measure than usual...

Um...

So I put it in my microwave, because I can remember Mom using that to "soften it up."  After about 3 minutes of heating (30 second bursts), it still wasn't really all that soft... but it was tolerable... 

Chisel time!
Honestly, I got sick of hacking at the brown sugar bits and decided my coffee grinder would be a GREAT idea for this.  I cleaned all the coffee grounds out, and put some of the chunks in.  I would not recommend this method.  Brown sugar is brown because of molasses.  Molasses is sticky.  Brown sugar is VERY hard.  I'm sure that somewhere Alton Brown is cringing at me dulling my coffee grinder blades... Also, my brown sugar ended up being extremely finely grained.  Whatever, it still works.


Not terribly appetizing

Here is my wet ingredient bowl before mixing!  It has 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup regular sugar, and 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce.  Sugar and butter are always "wet" ingredients.  They usually get creamed together before dry ingredients are (slowly) added from the other bowl.






Don't even try and measure this stuff...

Because I was using applesauce instead of just butter, the "creamed sugar/butter" was a lot runnier than usual.  Oh, and it called for vanilla.  I don't even remember how much it said I was supposed to use.  Have you ever had anyone complain that you used too MUCH vanilla?  The only complaint I've ever had of vanilla extract is that as a child I once licked the spoon I'd used to measure (because as a child, you probably should measure) and was sorely disappointed at the sudden bitter taste that flooded my mouth!





Wetter looking than usual... because of the applesauce?
Then I poured the dry ingredients into the wet bowl and stirred it all together with a spoon.  Using the mixer at this point is unnecessary, and entirely too messy.  Oatmeal cookies get clumpy and would clog up the mixer!  It's a real pain.  Seriously, once the butter has been broken up, your mixer time is done. Also, I added a cup of white chocolate chips and about a cup of the dried cherries.  I cut the cherries in half because they were really large.  You want to make sure your ingredients are combined, but don't over-stir.  It'll make your cookies tough.  The wheat flour says it's less likely to produce gluten, not impossible!


Then I scooped it out onto a greased cookie sheet, using patented "two spoon method" of cookie forming!
Much easier than an ice cream scoop - also easy to clean

Smaller, snack sized!
I like to keep my cookies fairly small.  Recipes I saw called for cooking times anywhere between 8-16 minutes.  I set a timer for 8 minutes, and checked on them.  They weren't quite done, so I added another 3 minutes.  They seemed pretty good at that point.  Oatmeal cookies are a little tricky because they don't look "done" when they finish baking.  They're supposed to be chewy, so they aren't super crispy when they're done baking.  I looked for the tips and edges to start to brown to tell me mine were done.  





I ate one right after this picture.  It fell on my shirt.  Worth it.
When they come out, they're super gooey, so it's best to let them rest for a few minutes on the baking sheet before you try and evacuate to a cooling rack. Otherwise, you might end up with cookie pieces instead of cookies.  Still tastes delicious, just looks less favorable.  Don't let them sit too long, or you will have a hard time getting them off the cookie sheet.  Also, be aware if you're reusing the cookie sheet you should adjust your cooking time since the sheet will still be warm the second/third times.  This means your cookies will probably cook faster subsequent times!





All in all, I consider these a total success.  The applesauce did not have a noticeable change in texture or taste in the final product!  

Pass the milk... although they were awesome with coffee!

The actual recipe I used:
Dry Ingredients
2 c oats (not the "quick" kind)
1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour>
1/2 c regular flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt


Wet Ingredients
1/2 c brown sugar - your choice light/dark, they have the same caloric value
1/2 c granulated sugar (plain white)
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk (seriously, I don't think it's worth it, just use 2 whole eggs)
2 T unsalted butter
3/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1 T vanilla, just in case you wanted to know how much it actually calls for

Non-moisture-specific Ingredients (added at very end)
1 c white chocolate chips
1 c dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Blend the wet ingredients in a separate bowl until all the butter is broken up.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet bowl, stirring with a spoon until the dry ingredients are coated.  Once everything is combined, stir in the cherries and chocolate.  Avoid over-mixing as this will cause your cookies to be tough.

Spoon the cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet and place in oven for 10-12 minutes.  When they come out, let them sit on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.


I like to know what kind of nutrition I'm putting into my body, which isn't always easy when you're cooking with "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that."  Fortunately, My Fitness Pal has a great recipe feature that lets you add all the ingredients you use and figure out per YOUR serving what kind of nutrition you're consuming.  With the small size, I managed to make 59 cookies, which made each cookie 60 calories.


IngredientsCaloriesCarbsFatProteinSodium
Eggland's Best - Large Eggs, Whole, 1 Large Whole Egg7004660Ico_delete
Eggland's Best - Egg White Only (Large - 50g), 1 egg white2600683Ico_delete
Domino - Dark Brown Sugar, 24 tsp (4g)36096000Ico_delete
Food Lion - White Granulated Sugar, 24 Teaspoon36096000Ico_delete
Generic - Bread Flour- White, 1/2 cup (30g)20044080Ico_delete
365 Organic - 100% Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, 1/2 cup22046160Ico_delete
Harris Teeter - Organic Dried Cherries, 4 oz32072040Ico_delete
Great Value - All Natural Apple Sauce - No Sugar Added, 0.75 cup75200016Ico_delete
365 Organic - Butter, Unsalted, 2 T20002200Ico_delete
Quaker - Old Fashioned Quaker Oats, 2 cup dry58910811220Ico_delete
Nestle Toll House - Premier White Chocolate Morsels, 16 tbsp (14g)1,120144640160Ico_delete


Total:354062610252319
Per Serving:6011215

Only TWO grams of fat?!  Fantastic!