De Baking Psychopath

My New Year's resolution this year had been to cut down on my hoarding and commit to try to buy smaller amounts of ingredients (particularly baking ingredients), and only when I had a specific application in mind.  I had done a mini-purge of expired ingredients from the pantry, and the guilt over the wasted food/ingredients drove me to strive to do better this year That being said, I knew that there were many ingredients that we did in fact go through consistently, and therefore I felt less guilty continuing to buying in bulk quantities, such as flour, my beloved Ahmed Mango black tea , instant espresso , and oats of various sorts from Bob's Red Mill.   Furthermore, at the beginning of shelter-in-home, I had a realization that we were already pretty well stocked to hunker down for a good long while, with exception of fresh produce and dairy items.  I had still a decent amount of flour left over from holiday time, when I stocked up on a couple extra bags o...

Greetings from the coronapocalypse of 2020.  Right now, I am at home for an indefinite amount of time.  Our county and city have declared a stay-at-home order for all non-essential work and services.  The university has mandated for research labs to reduce to "essential" staffing only, which I am not as a postdoc researcher.  However, I may get pulled to help with clinical service at some point; since pathologists aren't front line care providers, it would likely be if the regular pathologists get sick and need to self-isolate and need backup support.  While we wait for the storm of infections to hit us, I figured now would be a good time to reboot the blog and post some recent baking exploits, if only to distract myself from the vortex that is the news.  So, welcome to the new and fancy redesigned blog! First, an update on life.  Since my last post, I have finished residency.  I went on to complete a clinical fellowship in Liver/GI path...

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...

Happy New Year! I hope 2013 is a wonderful year for everyone.  To start the new year off on a healthy note, I bring you this veggie and fruit-packed wholesome breakfast cake. For those of you who may be familiar with Morning Glory muffins, this is the cake version of that hippie health food favorite.  Despite the health food origins, the cake is surprisingly light and flavorful and tasty. The cake itself is lightly sweetened and the fruit add just a touch more natural sweetness. It definitely is a breakfast or snack you can feel good about! Morning Glory Breakfast Cake (adapted from Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet, and Savory ) Ingredients: 1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned rolled oats 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 2 large eggs 2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 1 & 1/2 cups low-fat plain yogurt or buttermilk (I used nonfat Greek yogurt) 3 tablespoons molasses 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour ...

Alright, a break from yeast! First I wanted to highlight a new function on my blog, the Printer-Friendly button down at the bottom of each post. Thanks to the folks at printfriendly.com , you can pick and choose what to print from any website or blog, change the font size, and even save as a pdf. I hope this makes my blog even more user-friendly for my dear readers! Awhile back I made a couple different gluten-free chocolate chip cookies that were both pretty tasty. I got these recipes from some blog browsing a long time ago, but never got around to trying them until recently. So if you have a gluten-sensitive friend or just want to cut a bit of carbs out of your diet, here are a couple of recipes for consideration. Nutty Oatmeal Cookies (Adapted from Cookies for Breakfast by Michael H. Perlman ) Ingredients :  8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar 3/4 cup sugar 1 large egg 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanil...

This was a dessert created out of necessity but turned out quite delicious in its own right. The task was to come up with something that was dairy free and gluten free. A flash of memory reminded me of the faux cheesecake a high school teacher of mine came up with when she had just moved to Taiwan many years ago and could not get any American cream cheese. So instead, she used fresh tofu. It ended up being a lighter and healthier version of the classic dessert that was so enjoyed by her family and guests, that even after she gained access to cream cheese again, she would substitute half the cream cheese with tofu. So to achieve my goal, I paired an all-tofu version of the recipe with a nut crust and homemade blueberry jam for a very respectable fancy dessert! For even less calories, you can substitute the sugar with Splenda. The softer and silkier your tofu, the less prominent the taste of the tofu will be; I used firm tofu one of the two times and it ended up much firmer and ...

Ok, so I bought The Cafe Pongo Cookbook pretty much for the sake of this bread recipe. I picked up this gem of a cookbook during the used bookstore rummaging that occurred at Saratoga Springs on the Food-Filled Girls Weekend of yore. The cafe itself is tucked away somewhere remote in the Hudson Valley area, so the book was not only a practical purchase for all its great recipes but also a local souvenir for my trip to the area. Walnut bread and I have a long, complicated history. Back in Taiwan, there is a big Japanese bakery chain called Yamazaki that used to have THE best little walnut dinner rolls that were soft, sweet and with a tinge of whole wheat flour. This spring when I was in Taiwan, it was a little bit of a personal mission to find that bread again. Alas, we discovered that they had discontinued that particular product and introduced two different versions of walnut-containing breads in its stead: a light French-style bread studded with walnuts, and a sweeter, milk-brea...

It seems a bit late to say happy new year on January 9, but better late than never! So here's my toast to 2011, may it be a happy and prosperous year for everyone. In the spirit of cutting back on indulgences after holiday-binging, here are these *healthy* green tea (matcha) and crystallized ginger biscotti. Green tea and ginger have been eaten for millennia for their health-promoting and medicinal qualities, and I substituted out all the sugar for Splenda as well as half of the flour for whole-wheat pastry flour. Add some sliced almonds for protein, and you've got yourself a lower-carb tasty treat to go with your afternoon tea or coffee! Matcha and Ginger Light Biscotti (adapted from Leite's Culinaria ) Ingredients : 2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half AP, half whole wheat pastry flour) 1 cup granulated sugar (I used all Splenda) 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoons matcha 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 large eggs 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted 1 tea...

Ok, this was another get-rid-of-sour-cream recipe. But boy, it's so good I'd probably go out to buy sour cream just to make it. The texture of the cake can only be described as plush . Moist, soft, with a crunchy and fragrant cinnamon swirl in the middle and top. You can also feel good about making this recipe since it boasts a reduced-fat and -cholesterol profile (no egg yolks and reduced fat sour cream) and lots of good-for you cinnamon, and you could even swap out the flour for whole wheat pastry flour to give a little more fiber. Whatever the reason, it's a yummy addition to any holiday brunch or weekday morning breakfast! Sour Cream Coffee Cake (adapted from Cooking Light Magazine ) Ingredients : 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (can decrease this if you like--it's for the topping) 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large egg whites 1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (o...

Another six months had passed and it was time again for another committee meeting! Here was the menu for this time: Normal menu Bottle of water Spiced Nut Mix Dark chocolate-covered pretzels (Trader Joe's) Green tea and red bean mochi cake Healthy pumpkin bread Low-sugar menu Bottle of water Spiced Nut Mix Cranberry Bran Muffin Savory scallion pancake Healthy pumpkin bread The new kid on the block is this pumpkin bread from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook. It is packed full of whole grains, and virtually fat- and cholesterol-free. It's really moist and a bit exotic with the cardamom in the mix. It was hearty and tasty and a nice change of pace from the normal pumpkin bread. And you don't notice that there's virtually no butter or other fat in the bread. Healthy Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook ) Ingredients : 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup oat flour (you can grind oats in your food processor or blade coffee ...

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...