Recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Whole Wheat Quick Bread-Daring Bakers Challenge

I used to be a chocolate chip kinda girl, now more an oatmeal raisin one.  Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate but when reaching for a cookie, I'm more likely to go for the oatmeal raisin one.  Well, the truth is I'm happiest when I can have an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!  I don't know why oatmeal raisin cookies were on my mind when I came up with this recipe for February's Daring Baker's Challenge.  I'm glad they were though, because this Oatmeal Raisin Whole Wheat Quick Bread is terrific.  


The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lis stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.


The challenge instructions were quite good and very helpful in putting this together.  Here are some of the great tips Lis gave us:


Quick breads can be created by the following methods:

• Muffin (or the two-bowl) method – The dry and wet ingredients are kept separate and then are combined quickly and gingerly by adding the wet to the dry, and folding the two together with only a few strokes. The idea is to not over-mix, basically moistening the ingredients and leaving the batter slightly lumpy, with wisps of flour showing (even small lumps are fine) so as not to overdevelop the gluten in the flour which will keep the bread tender. An over mixed batter creates tough and rubbery muffins/quick breads. Since over-mixing will cause "tunnels" – holes where the air bubbles can escape – which will make the quick bread tough.
• Creaming method – The butter and sugar are beaten and creamed together until smooth and fluffy. Next, the egg and liquid flavoring are added to the butter and sugar mixture. The dry ingredients and other liquids are folded in last. This method is best when baking cakes since a lot of air pockets are added into the mixture. Folding in the ingredients creates even more air pockets to keep the cakes light and fluffy.
• Cutting in method – The chilled fat is cut into the flour. The fat results in a flaky texture since the fat melts while in the oven. This method is best used when baking biscuits, scones or pie crusts.
• Depending on the recipe and the type of quick bread, there are also three different types of batter:

• Pour Batter: This type of batter has a dry:liquid ratio of 1:1. Because there is so much liquid in this type of batter, the result is very moist and dense.
• Drop Batter: This batter has a dry:liquid ratio of 3:1. This batter will result in a moist but fluffy baked good.
• Stiff Dough: This batter has a dry:liquid ratio of 7:1 This batter will result in a very light and fluffy baked good.
• Lower gluten flours are best to make quick breads you can replace 4 tablespoons in each cup of all-purpose flour with cake flour in most recipes or replace 2 tablespoons in each cup of all-purpose flour with corn flour (cornstarch) if you wish to lower the gluten levels of your flour.
• Flour should be sifted to aerate it which gives more rise therefore a lighter crumb to the final baked goods.
• Add fruit, nuts, etc. after lightly combining the wet and dry ingredients. Then give the batter one more light-handed stir and you're done. Is the batter still thick and lumpy? That's exactly what you want.

With all that good information and some sample recipes to look at, I was ready to go.  I wanted a moist but fluffy quick bread so I used the muffin (two-bowl) method, sifted my dry ingredients and approximated a 3:1 dry to liquid ratio with my ingredients (a little more of the wet ingredients because I assumed the oats would soak up a fair amount).

Yield: 1 loaf (9x5 pan)

Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup cake flour
• 1 ½ cups old fashioned oats (uncooked)
• ¼ cup sugar (plus more to sprinkle on top-optional)
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 2 TBSP cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup 2% milk
• ¾ cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup macadamia nut oil
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup golden raisins
• Baking spray (or butter)
• Parchment paper

 Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Lightly spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray (or spread with butter) and line with parchment paper sling. Lightly spray parchment.
• Sift flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl.
• Stir in oats and raisins.
• In a second bowl, mix together the egg, milk, yogurt, oil and honey.
• Stir wet ingredients into dry, just to mix.   Batter may be a little lumpy, that is okay, don’t over mix.
• Pour into parchment lined loaf pan.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean.
• Sprinkle top with sugar when removed from oven (optional).
• Cool 10 minutes in pan on a rack then remove from pan and continue cooling.
• Serve room temperature, warmed or toasted.

A perfect loaf, if I do say so myself! Breakfast treat, dessert, afternoon tea?  Yes, yes and yes.

This is the first time I used the parchment sling with a loaf pan-it works like a charm, so don't skip that step. So easy to remove the loaf, just lift the parchment.

Printable recipe


Here's more info about the Daring Bakers and some of my other baking challenges:

Biscuits (aka scones in some parts of the world!)

Sans Rival Cake

Recipe for Stuffed Turkey Burgers with Goat's Cheese and Roasted Red Peppers

We love stuffed turkey burgers so I'm always trying to come up with a new "surprise" for the stuffing.  The answer is often as simple as what is in the fridge and pantry.  This week, goat's cheese and a jar of roasted red peppers.


My quick broccoli slaw was a nice complement to the turkey burgers.


Yield: 3 burgers
Time: 15 minutes


Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey breast
• 3 large pieces of roasted red pepper
• 3 coins (about an ounce total) goat's cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 1 TBSP canola oil
• Buns for serving (or large lettuce leaves for bunless burger)
• Condiments as desired

Method:

• Divide ground turkey breast into 6 equal pieces.
• Place a coin of cheese on top of the 3 pieces of red pepper.
• Place one pepper with cheese on each of 3 pieces of turkey breast and then top each with another piece of turkey breast.
• Form gently into patties, sealing the pepper and cheese inside.
• Salt and pepper liberally.
• Heat oil over med-high heat.
• Add burgers and cook about 3 1/2 minutes on each side until browned and turkey is no longer pink (don't overcook or they will be too dry).
• Serve on buns or wrapped in lettuce with your choice of condiments.

The most important part of the recipe is not to overcook the burgers!


Printable recipe

Here are some of our other favorite turkey burger recipes:
Inside out turkey cheeseburgers



Blue cheese, pistachio and cranberry turkey burgers

Recipe for Curried Chicken with Peanuts

As I recently mentioned, we've been eating a fair number of Asian themed meals lately.  They are quick to put together-usually from stuff on hand.  They are also tasty and healthy.  So I find it's hard to go wrong!  Take this recipe for example. Tender chicken, salty peanuts, a subtle curry/coconut milk background and a little pop from the green peas stirred in at the end.  Simple and pretty perfect!

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 45 minutes


Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP canola oil
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
• 2 TBSP fresh ginger, grated
• 1 TBSP curry powder (or more to taste)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup light coconut milk
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1 1/2 cups frozen green peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup peanut halves
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• Salt and pepper 

Method:

• Heat oil over medium-high and when hot, add chicken that has been well seasoned with salt and pepper.
• Brown chicken for about 2-3 minutes then remove from pan.
• Add ginger and curry powder and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add broth, rice, and raisins and bring to a boil.
• Add chicken back to pan and reduce heat to medium/medium low, cover pan and cook until rice is tender about 20 minutes.
• Stir in the coconut milk, peas and green onions; let sit covered, off the heat for 5 minutes.
• Stir in the cilantro and peanuts and serve.

Printable recipe


Adapted from Williams Sonoma

Recipe for Chicken Curry

I've been cooking a fair number of Asian themed meals: stir fries, curries etc. This recipe is based on one that a group of us used to make on the weekends in the dorm back in the 70's.  We were poor and had very little in the way of utensils.  We cooked on an illegal hot plate and used inexpensive canned chicken.  We sure didn't have access or means to acquire fresh herbs or coconut milk. And the only seasoning we had was Martha's curry powder her family sent her from India.   But we turned out a mean chicken curry.  The whole floor of the dorm smelled lovely and we ate well! So here's to the girls on the 12th floor!

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients:

• 2 cups finely chopped potato (1/2x1/2 inch)
• 1 ½ cup chopped onion (similar size to potato)
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP curry powder (more if desired)
• 1 TBSP Garam masala
• ½ TBSP ground cardamom
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup light coconut milk
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into small pieces (similar size to potato)
• 2 cups frozen green peas, defrosted
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro plus more for garnish
• 1 cup golden raisins
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Heat oil over medium heat.
• Add spices and stir constantly while cooking for 45 seconds.
• Add potatoes, onions, water, and coconut milk and cook for 15 minutes. 
• Add chicken that has been seasoned with salt and pepper (and more water/coconut milk if needed-you do want a moist curry).  
• Cook 10 more minutes or until chicken no longer pink and potatoes are soft.
• Stir in peas, cilantro, raisins and cook 2 additional minutes.
• Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.
• Serve garnished with cilantro, with rice or naan.

The fragrant cooking smells will drive you crazy until the dish is finished and you can sit down and eat.   What recipes do you cook that bring back memories of days gone by?

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Recipe for Indian Flavored Squash Fritters-Daring Cooks

This recipe resulted from the monthly challenge from the Daring Kitchen.  The Daring Cooks' February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax and Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients, and deliciousness!  We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties.


Sometimes the challenges are very specific.  This one was great because we had a lot of latitude in our recipe. I thought about different kinds of patties all month-I think I had patty paralysis.  But, as is often the case, I just needed to open the fridge to get inspiration. When I saw the acorn squash sitting there, I was over my paralysis and knew what I'd put together-a fritter! 

Microwaving the squash made this a quick to prepare recipe.  If you are reading this blog much, you know I'm on an Indian kick lately.  I think these would turn out just as nice with other seasonings.  Let me know if you try something that turns out really tasty.


Yield: 6 patties
Time: 20 minutes


Ingredients:

• 1 small acorn squash (1 cup mashed)
• ½ cup cornmeal
• 1 egg
• Large pinch kosher salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• ¼ cup olive oil (enough for shallow layer in frying pan)

Optional:

• Prepared chutney (like Major Grey’s)
• Spiced yogurt (non-fat plain Greek yogurt mixed with garam masala)

Method: 

• Slice squash in half and remove seeds and stringy bits.
• Wrap loosely in parchment paper and microwave for 8-10 minutes until steaming and soft.
• Let cool and then scrape out cooked squash, discarding skin.
• Mix squash, salt and pepper, egg, garam masala, and cornmeal together.
• Heat olive oil over med-high heat.
• When oil is hot, drop 1/6^th  of mixture into oil and flatten; repeat with remaining mixture (but don’t overfill pan-cook in two batches).
• Cook about 3 minutes per side until warmed through and crispy on outside.
• Drain briefly on paper towels and serve hot (with chutney and/or spiced yogurt if desired).

This is an acorn squash

These are the insides that you discard

Pan frying

Printable recipe

Other Daring Cooks challenges I've participated in:
Tea Challenge

Char Sui Bao Challenge

Here is some interesting reading about patties that our hosts provided.

Technically patties are flatten discs of ingredients held together by (added) binders (usually eggs, flour or breadcrumbs) usually coated in breadcrumbs (or flour) then fried (and sometime baked). Burgers, rissoles, croquettes, fritters, and rösti are types of patties as well.

Irish chef Patrick "Patty" Seedhouse is said to have come up with the original concept and term as we know it today with his first production of burgers utilizing steamed meat pattys - the pattys were "packed and patted down" (and called pattys for short) in order to shape a flattened disc that would enflame with juices once steamed.

The binding of the ingredients in patties follows a couple of simple recipes (there is some overlap in the categories below)

Patties – patties are ingredients bound together and shaped as a disc.

Rissoles and croquettes – use egg with breadcrumbs as the binder, typical usage for 500 grams (1 lb) of filling ingredients is 1 egg with ½ cup of breadcrumbs (sometimes flour, cooked grains, nuts and bran can be used instead of the breadcrumbs). Some meat patties use no added binders in them they rely on the protein strands within the meat to bind the patty together. Vegetarian and vegan patties may use mashed vegetables, mashed beans, grains, nuts and seeds to bind the patty. Generally croquettes are crumbed (breaded) patties which are shallow- or deep-fried. Rissoles are not usually crumbed (but can be) and are pan- or shallow-fried. Most rissoles and croquettes can be baked. (Examples are all-meat patties, hamburgers, meat rissoles, meatloaves, meatballs, tuna fish and rice patties, salmon and potato rissoles, most vegetable patties.)

Wet Fritters – use flour, eggs and milk as the binder, typical usage for 500 grams (1 lb) of filling ingredients is 2 cups flour, 1 egg with 1 cup of milk and are usually deep-fried and sometimes pan-fried (examples deep fried apple fritters, potato fritters, some vegetable fritters, hushpuppies)

Dry Fritters – use eggs and (some) flour as the binder, typical usage for 500 grams (1 lb) of filling ingredients is 1 to 2 eggs and (usually) some 2 to 8 tablespoons of flour (but sometimes no flour) and are pan- or shallow- fried. (examples most vegetable patties like zucchini fritters, Thai fish cakes, crab cakes, NZ whitebait fritters)

Röstis – use eggs (sometimes with a little flour) as the binder for the grated potato, carrot and other root vegetables, typical usage for 500 grams (1 lb) of filling ingredients is one egg yolk (potato rösti).

Sautéing, stir frying, pan frying, shallow frying, and deep frying use different amounts fat to cook the food. Sautéing uses the least amount of oil (a few teaspoons) while deep frying uses (many many cups) the most oil. The oil helps lubricate (sometimes adds flavour) the food being fried so it will not stick to the pan and helps transfer heat to the food being cooked.

In particular, as a form of cooking patties, pan- and shallow-frying relies on oil of the correct temperature to seal the surface (so retaining moisture) and to heat the interior ingredients (so binding them together) so cooking the patty. The exposed topside of the patty while cooking allows, unlike deep frying, some moisture loss and contact with the pan bottom with the patty creates greater browning on the contact surface that is the crust of the patty is browned and the interior is cooked by pan- and shallow-frying. Because the food is only being cooked on one side while being pan- or shallow-fried, the food must be flipped at least once to totally cook the patty.

Quick Valentines Treat

I know not everyone can get fresh strawberries right now.  If you can, this quick treat is always appreciated!


I hope you have a Happy Valentines Day tomorrow!

Recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu Bites

Now here's a fun little appetizer. While these take a bit of effort to make, they are sure to please.  We ate these (along with lots of other goodies) at a friend's football party.  Unfortunately, the team we were all pulling for lost (San Francisco 49ers) but these are a winner!  


I named these little goodies after a favorite chicken dish-chicken stuffed with ham and Swiss cheese.  These are actually "inside out" in some respects since the bacon is on the outside!

Yep, takes a bit of patience to wrap them up.  Worth it though!

Yield: 30 bites
Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch strips
• 4 slices low fat swiss cheese, sliced into 1 inch pieces
• 10 oz. center cut bacon slices, cut in half
• Pepper

Method: 

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Season chicken with pepper.
• Fold a piece of cheese inside each chicken piece, then wrap each in a piece of bacon.
• Secure each with a toothpick.
• Cook on rack over tin foil lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes until chicken is no longer pink and bacon is crispy.
• If chicken is cooked and bacon isn't, place under high broiler for 2-3 minutes to finish crisping bacon.

They are best when warm out of the oven but still good at room temperature.

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Recipe for Stuffed Portabellas-Secret Recipe Club

It is that time again!  I look forward each month to my assignment for the Secret Recipe Club.  This is a large group of bloggers who cook from one another's blogs each month.  We don't know who is cooking from our blog or what they are cooking until the big reveal day.  That would be today!


This month my assignment was the blog "cravings of a lunatic" authored by the very irreverent and funny Kim Bee.  I chose one of Kim's non-dessert dishes to cook since Mr. ELEB and I are supposed to be limiting our treats right now (although I enjoyed browsing through all the decadent sweets on her site!).


I've made portabella pizzas before and we love them so I was naturally drawn to Kim Bee's recipe for stuffed portabella mushrooms.


Yield: 4 servings
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients:

• 4 portabella mushrooms, stems and gills removed (see my video if you need to learn this technique)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
• 4 TBSP mushroom sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
• 3/4 cup cooked, diced sausage, I used a mix of grilled chicken apple sausages
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Crushed red pepper to taste (I omitted this)
• 1/2 cup grated asiago cheese, plus more for tops

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Line baking sheet with parchment and place mushrooms on parchment.
• Mix rice, sauce, onion, sausage, most of cheese and seasonings together.
• Spoon mixture into mushrooms and top with remaining cheese.
• Cook for 15 minutes or until filling is warmed and cheese is melted.
• Serve hot.

Big mahalo (thanks) to Kim Bee for this tasty recipe.  I can envision all sorts of yummy stuffing combinations for portabellas going forward.

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Recipe for Gingered Salmon

I'm dying to do this recipe again.  It was very easy and very satisfying.  Bonus:  also good for you!  I saw a recipe on some website for a gingered salmon served with cucumber and radish salad but despite searching online, I can't find it again!!!!  So I did what all home cooks do-winged it.
Now, Mr. ELEB likes radishes; me, not so much so I didn't include them in the side salad but you could certainly do so.  The flavorful salmon worked well with simple steamed broccoli and cilantro brown rice.


Yield: 2 servings
Time: 10 minutes


Ingredients:

• 2 salmon fillets, about 5 oz each
• 4 TBSP freshly grated ginger
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon wedges for serving

Method:

• Position broiler rack about 4 inches from broiler and preheat oven to "high broil".
• Wash and pat the fillets dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Mix olive oil, zest, and ginger together and pat on top of fish; place fish on a foil lined baking sheet.
• Broil for about 6-7 minutes, watching carefully.
• Serve with lemon wedges.

For the cucumber salad, I think the original had a few more ingredients besides the radishes (?) but I just seeded a cucumber and mixed it with garlic, ginger, plain non-fat Greek yogurt and a squeeze of lemon.  Chill in fridge while fish is being prepared.

Printable recipe

Here are a couple of other favorite salmon recipes:

Sesame salmon with spinach and whole wheat spaghetti

Lemony salmon and dill toss