A "leisurely" Saturday: Hummus Bread, Blueberry Mochi Cake, and Blondies

Today was a funny day. Michael and I had an early dentist appointment, and by the time we got back to the apartment, we were starving. At 10 am, we decided it was more efficient to skip breakfast and to just proceed to lunch. Michael prepared generous portions of spaghetti and sauce with some chicken tenders. Yum.

However, the meal threw me off for the rest of the day--I was in continual surprise that it wasn't early evening already. At 12pm, I was fully in the state of mind of 4 or 5pm. The upside was that my one baking recipe of the day became three since I kept thinking, "Wow, so much time left in the day...what else can I make?"

First recipe of the day was Hummus Bread. I had acquired a gigantic Costco tub of hummus for an event, and had severely overestimated the demand for pureed chickpeas, I guess. So I've eaten some of it, but I wanted to recycle it in a more creative way. Upon Googling how to use up leftover hummus, I found a link to this recipe for hummus bread at King Arthur Flour's website. (Quick plug: King Arthur Flour has an awesome baking test kitchen and recipe repository for any recipe you might be looking for--check it out)

One loaf gets rid of a full cup of hummus, so it is pretty efficient leftover utilization. The bread was soft and hearty, yet not too filling, smells distinctively of hummus, and quite delicious. See below for an example sandwich pairing: hummus bread with sliced pan-fried kielbasa and honey mustard. Double delicious!



Second recipe of the day was Blueberry Mochi Cake. This recipe I came across on fellow baking blog The Food Librarian several weeks ago. There is no flour in this cake--rather, there is mochiko, or glutinous rice flour. The center of the cake tastes like a fluffy moist coffeecake, while the edges have the chew of mochi. For some reason, my blueberries all floated up to the top (perhaps my batter came out more liquidy for some reason), which is not a bad effect, I guess. Light, not too sweet, and fruity. And chewy like mochi, yum.



Third recipe of the day was Blondies. These non-chocolate cousins of the brownie have always looked to me like chocolate chip cookie bars. I think the difference lies in a couple of ingredients and how they're made. There is usually only baking soda in chocolate chip cookies, while in blondies/brownies, there is either no leavener at all or a bit of baking powder, as in these blondies. Second, the method of mixing in blondies is geared towards maximum melting of sugar and least amount of air incorporated--the former is achieved by melting the butter and the latter is achieved by mixing by hand for the minimum amount of time to incorporate everything evenly. The result is a dense cakey/fudgey bar that doesnt have individual crumbs or air pockets. These blondies, which I found on Cookie Madness recently, feel like a grown-up version of chocolate chip cookies (especially with a splash of rum in them!). I used toasted pecans and Ghirardelli 60% Cocao bittersweet choco chips. Definitely a keeper. I'm not sharing these...well maybe a few.