De Baking Psychopath

What to do when you're sitting around waiting for your full-term baby to come out? As far as "nesting" goes, we've already done everything we can possibly do for the baby's arrival. A full complement of baby clothing/linens/blankets/etc. is all washed, folded, and in their proper places. The "go-bag" has been packed and repacked and is ready-to-go in the car. The car seat is installed. We have all the baby gear (stroller, carrier, bottles/pumps, etc). We've celebrated with friends and co-workers the incoming bundle of joy (thank you all!). My mother has arrived from far away and is settled in. I've finished all my academic obligations, including all my required medical school rotations, residency applications, and licensing exams needed for graduation.  So last week, at the beginning of my vacation/maternity leave month, I decided to stock the freezer with baked goods see if I could make myself busy enough to kick the baby out of dorman...

This was one of the most popular gifts I made this holiday season, so to share the joy of the tart, not-too-sweet, deep antioxidant-packed power of this jam, here is the recipe below. I used all frozen berries for mine: 2/3 frozen blueberries (bought from Costco, wild blueberries from Maine), and 1/3 a mix of frozen berries from Trader Joe's (mix of regular blueberries, cherries, and raspberries). I'm sure fresh sweet berries would be fabulous as well. Enjoy! Mixed Berry Jam (adapted from The Art of Preserving ) Makes 6-8 half-pint jars (total volume of 48-64 ounces) Ingredients: 3 lbs (12 cups) of berries (can be raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, in any ratio you want; frozen berries work great and are cheaper during off-season months) 3 cups (1.5 lbs) sugar (cannot decrease) 3/4 cup lemon juice 1 package pectin (you can find this at the store usually near the JELL-O/gelatin) Instructions: If canning, sterilize jars and canning lids/sea...

Like many college students, I subsisted on a specific set of food items due to inadequate kitchen access, a mandatory meal plan, and busy lifestyle. One of my student center food court indulgences was a large blueberry muffin and cafe mocha from the coffee stand, often on the way to or from morning classes. The muffins were tender but stretchy, with a beautiful crown and crunchy edges. Slathered with a pat of salted butter, they were the epitome of breakfast. And when they showed up in the day-old discount rack next to the register, wrapped in plastic wrap, I did a (mental) happy dance and whisked away as many as were available and that I could carry back to my dorm room. Fifteen seconds in the microwave and they were as good as new! I've tried many a blueberry muffin recipe in the years past, and although many were delicious, none had that rich buttery flavor or soft stretchiness to the crumb as the legendary muffins from college. I attributed those qualities to mas...

Nothing heralds the beginning of summer like berries, especially blueberries! These hearty, very lightly sweet fruit bars are a perfect breakfast/snack/dessert for your next brunch/picnic/get together!  Think blueberry Nutrigrain bars, but 10 million times better. Blueberry Oat Bars (adapted from The Kitchen Sink Recipes ) Ingredients : 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats 2 cups whole-wheat flour 1/3-1/2 cup sugar (this is my addition, so add to your taste--the original crust had NO sugar! talk about healthy) 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen, in one big chunk 1 cup milk 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon cornstarch 2 & 1/2 cups frozen blueberries 2 tablespoons brown sugar Instructions : Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9x13 inch pan by lining with parchment paper and spraying with nonstick spray. P...

A few weeks ago, I officially entered the realm of "late twenties" and promptly heard my biological clock ticking like a time bomb. To herald the next decade of worrying about when to have kids before my risk of having mutant babies becomes too significant for safety, I decided to throw a scrumptious brunch and declare, "To heck with my slowing metabolism and biological clock! I am going to STUFF MY FACE." And I invited my friends to join me. I've been trying very hard to keep the sweet stuff to a healthy minimum. So here are these gorgeous roasted Hasselback potatoes stuffed with lovely slivers of garlic. And this yummy onion, mushroom and cheese frittata that I threw together on a whim and prayed would turn out okay! (It did!) And a loaf of sundried tomato and Parmesan cheese bread, made with the no-knead dough of the week! Soooo good. Moist, flavorful, savory! But of course it wouldn't be a PARTY unless there were some sweets! Front and center ...

Since I'm the only one in the household who eats muffins on a regular basis, I try really hard to keep my muffin hoarding in the freezer to a minimum so I have the space to try new muffin recipes. Oftentimes, I minimize muffin numbers in storage by bringing muffins to work or events, where I know most of them will be eaten up by the end of the day. I also keep a stash of muffins at work, for those random snack-attacks (whether my own or random hungry scavengers from the floor who know I tend to keep food around). This time, however, I took yet another approach. I cut down the number of muffins I baked by using giant muffin pans. I did not want to halve the recipe because part of reason of making it was to use up the rest of the sour cream in the fridge; this was a more gratifying alternative. And I got to use my trusty old giant muffin pan that I purchased back in college. The recipe I used can be found here . It is a blueberry muffin recipe from Cooks Illustrated but must be a ne...

More blueberries! Alas, this is probably the last fresh blueberry recipe for the year, as blueberries have permanently left the markets (at least local ones) with the dusk of summer. I made this recipe for the celebration of the successful thesis defense of my fellow graduate student in the lab. She's soon to be off to a glorious post-doc, hopefully in sunnier and warmer shores. She's not a big fan of overly sweet cakes, and this one seemed to fit the bill. A simple, light fruit-filled cake with a beautifully caramelized crust made with only pantry-staple ingredients. Other bloggers described this cake as light and moist, which I did not find this cake overly so (more like rustic and sturdy), but despite my relative disappointment, it was well-received by labmates. This would be a great everyday snack cake or a low-key function in which you didn't want to send everyone home in a sugar coma. The recipe can be found here , as found on the blog " A Whisk and a Spoon ...

I'm coming home today! So hopefully there will be more baking and blogging to be done in the near future, not to mention food travelogues to post! But for now, here's the last of the 4th of July baking, as well as the last of the getting-rid-of-sour-cream series!! This sticky-gooey, colorful beauty is from the book Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. This book has been on my radar ever since Food Librarian had a giveaway for this cookbook about it and posted a delicious-looking orange ricotta pound cake from the book during National Library Week in April. I borrowed it from the library, flipped through it, and within 5 minutes I knew I need to buy this cookbook. It's chock-full of recipes right up my alley: snack cakes, bundt cakes, coffee cakes, tea loaves, etc. The original recipe called for plums, but I had a bunch of white peaches in the fridge and the peach-blueberry combo is always a winner! Not to mention that peaches and ginger (which is in the ...

I lied: I have more recipes to post. But I will try to space them out over the next several weeks so that the blog doesn't come to a complete standstill in the meantime. I had a bunch of sour cream in the fridge to use up before I go, bought for now-unknown reasons. Probably coffee cake that never got made. But I decided to try out these intriguing sour cream muffin recipes, and boy, am I glad I did! If you have a leftover cup of sour cream you don't know what to do with, consider one of these yummy muffins! First up: Sour Cream Bran Muffins , seen on Joy the Baker, recipe originally from The Gourmet Cookbook . The biggest change I made was to use honey instead of molasses, as I like the cleaner taste of honey. I used dried cherries and dried blueberries in these guys. They are super moist and soft and a touch buttery, yet wheaty and hearty enough to convince you that you're eating something healthy! Did you notice the pretty muffin cups? These are the ones I bought...

I love quickbreads and muffins. It's the number one food label/tag on this blog. I'm perhaps more than slightly obsessed by finding recipes for moist, soft, not-too-sweet muffin-y goodness (as evidenced by the disproportionate number of recipes I have of quickbreads of various sorts versus other types of baked goods). They're quick and easy, often don't require a mixer, are crowd-pleasers, and freeze up beautifully for months of delicious, homemade breakfasts. But I have a somewhat shameful admission to make as a baker and as a quickbread/muffin-lover: I don't like banana bread. Heresy, I know, I know... One of the most versatile base recipes ever, rich in nutrients, moist... everything a good quickbread should be. I just don't like the taste, or the smell. I barely like eating fresh bananas. (And let's all ignore the phallic implications of bananas... ) But wait, hear me out. (Don't burn me yet). I humbly offer as a replacement delic...

I thought I had messed this one up. As I was cleaning up the table after popping the muffins into the oven, I saw the jar of baking soda sitting on the far side of the table, suggesting it had not been brought forward and used. CRAP!! The one tablespoon of baking powder that I distinctly remember putting in would help it rise, but without the extra base from the baking soda to balance out the low-pH of the yogurt, would the whole thing just turn out sour?? Luckily, the answer is no. The muffins came out really moist, just barely tangy, and lightly sweet. Interestingly, there was a slightly springy quality to the crumb, almost as if I had put in mochiko (glutinous rice flour) even though it is composed of all wheat flour. Was it because I left out the baking soda? I have no idea. Or maybe I did put it in and forgot?? If anyone makes this recipe, you'll have to let me know how it turns out when made correctly. But for being a failure of accuracy, it didn't turn out to be a ...

Spring is upon us, although it is still taking a bit of imagination to believe that it really is Spring because of the erratic weather. I think tomorrow we have a forecast of possible snow showers?! It seems like we're running through all four seasons sometimes, since we've had a couple of 80 degree days already, interspersed with downright chilly days. At a recent department potluck, I decided to find a treat that emanated Spring, and to me one of the fruits that reminds one of the Spring/Summer interface is blueberries. Mmm, I love blueberries, especially in quickbreads and cakes. (You may remember other posts I've had about blueberries: blueberry muffins and blueberry mochi cake , and of course the recent blueberry coffeecake . I have yet to make and post about my favorite blueberry muffin recipe, the one I've been making since early college. That'll have to wait until another time.) And of course one of the classic pairings with blueberry is lemon. These...

Have I mentioned that I love breakfast/brunch foods? Maybe once or twice... Interestingly though, this is the first coffeecake I've ever made. This particular blueberry coffeecake has been on the to-do list for ages, ever since I saw it on the blog Burghilicious . I love blueberry quickbreads, period. Muffins, tea breads, pancakes, etc. And the fact that this recipe comes from a bed and breakfast inn increases the appeal of the recipe exponentially for me. I love the romance and homeliness of tried-and-true B&B classic recipes. They emanate an aura of history and homemade comfort food. ...and of course, the two tablespoons of cinnamon in the topping of this recipe was calling my name. Loudly. So one weekend, as I was pondering what to do with the last dregs of a bag of frozen blueberries, I decided to make it. The recipe can be found here . The only change I made was to substitute half the flour for whole wheat pastry flour. This coffeecake was hearty/dark/rich wit...

Sorry for the absence of posts lately. I have lately gone through the rigors of what is called the "Comprehensive Examination," which to those of you who may not be familiar with it, suffice it to say that it is the mid-way point of Hell for a graduate student. There are many variations upon Hell that can be inflicted upon the unsuspecting graduate student, but mine came in the form of independently (no help from my advisor) writing a proposal on a project and then defending that project in front of a committee of SIX professors over the course of 2 hours. One of the ways I attempted to ease the pain of the gauntlet run I was about to embark upon was to prepare token offerings in the form of muffins and the Green Tea Mochi Cake for my judges. I made Raisin Bran Muffins and Blueberry Pecan Muffins, both from the book Once Upon a Tart... , brought fresh brewed coffee from my special stash of Casi Cielo (it's a seasonal special roast from Starbucks, a Guatemala Antigua be...