Another Use for Black Beans

I felt like experimenting this week and Heidi sent me the perfect recipe for that desire. She participated in Bake 350 Flavor of the Month and this was a recipe from that event. I wanted to make it and see if Mike could guess the secret ingredient but he saw the recipe on the refrigerator.




Black Bean Brownies (Makes an 8" square pan or 12 muffin size)

From SnoWhite of Finding Joy in My Kitchen

1 can (15.5 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 eggs
3 Tbl. olive oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
pinch of salt
½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ cup white sugar
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8" baking pan with non-stick spray, or line 12 wells of a muffin tin with foil liners.

Place the well-rinsed and drained black beans into a blender. Add eggs and olive oil to blender, then puree until smooth. You may need to stop the blender and scrape a few times. There will be some fragments of black bean skins still in the puree, but they won't be noticeable once the brownies are baked. Add remaining ingredients EXCEPT chocolate chips to blender. Pulse a few times to get things started, then continue to blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides of blender as needed.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan or divide among the 12 prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake 8" pan for about 30 minutes, or the brownie muffins for about 20-22 minutes. Brownies will start to pull away from the edge of the pan when they are done. Brownies will be quite tender and moist, so refrigerate or freeze after a day or so--they won't keep long on the counter.

Review: You really can't tell that there are black beans in the batter for the most part. I think since I knew they were in there I was looking for that taste. They sort of reminded me of passover brownies in a way but defiantly a great substitute for regular brownies if you need to go gluten free. This would not replace real brownies but I think I would make them again in the future.

White Bread 101

It is no secret that I love cookbooks and looking for new recipes. One ingredient that I keep seeing in my searches of KAF recipes is potato flour. The only place I have seen it for sale is in the KAF baker's catalog. Then I thought that maybe this was something that comes out once a year in the Kosher section with the rest of the Kosher for Passover stuff. I know that potato stuff is ok to use in passover baking but what I was seeing is potato starch.

I was wondering if Potato Starch and Potato Flour were the same thing but called something different. A bunch of internet searches I did said pretty much that but I still wasn't 100% sure. I contacted the King Arthur Flour's baker's hotline via their online chat to see what they could tell me about starch vs flour.

I asked if potato starch was the same thing as potato flour and this is the answer I got: no, they are a bit different. Potato flour is processed including the peels of the potatoes, potato starch doesn't include peels, just potato flesh.

I then asked if I used starch instead of flour would this effect the recipe: they behave slightly differently in recipes as well...partly it depends on the amount, but if you use starch instead of flour, your texture will be different, not as tender, a bit stiffer.




White Bread 101
King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

3 cups (12 3/4 oz) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 oz) sugar
4 tablespoons (2 oz) butter
1/4 cup (1 1/2 oz) nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup (1 1/2 oz) potato flour, or 1/3 cup (3/4 oz) potato flakes
1 1/8 cups (9 oz) lukewarm water

Combine all the ingredients and mix and knead them together - by hand, mixer or bread machine - until you've made soft, smooth dough. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water as needed; but remember, the more flour you add while you're kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be. Cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour,until it's puffy (though not necessarily double in bulk).

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and shape it into an 8-inch log. Transfer the log to a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan, cover the pan (a proof cover works well here), and let the bread rise until the outer edge has risen about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour.



Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Uncover the pan and bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil for the final 10 to 15 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly. Remove the bread from the oven, take it out of the pan, and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. A fter 15 minutes, brush it with butter, if desired, this will give it a soft crust.




Review: I have to confess that I used the potato starch because I thought it was the same as flour. I contacted KAF after I made the bread because the answers i got online just did not seem right to me. I thought the bread came out great but I did not use a lot of it in the starch in the recipe so maybe it didn't change the texture that much.

This recipe is super easy to make especially if you use the bread machine to do all the kneading. I really love recipes where you just throw all the stuff into the mixer/machine and let it do the work. One reason I made this bread so I can make the next recipe in the book which is for Herbed Monkey Bread...I think that would be perfect for any Italian dinner coming up.

My crumb shot...

Let's Just Call It...Cuban Sheperd's Pie for Now

One thing I have been making a lot of lately is a Cuban dish called Picadillo which is super easy and sort of fast to make. It is one of those things you make when you need a no-brainer meal because you don't feel well or realize it is almost dinner time and have no clue what to make.

I have been thinking about Irish type recipes lately because of the St. Patrick's Day coming up this month. I don't think Shepard's Pie is an Irish dish but it is close enough. Which got me thinking about another Cuban dish that sort of reminds me of Shepard's Pie just in a different format...Papas Rellenas. They are fried stuffed potatoes balls which I have only had once but for some odd reason crave them.

So here is the beginning of my quest to make something that resembles Shepard's Pie using the ingredients for Papas Rellanas. For now I will give you the recipe for the Picadillo part because that I know is good. I have to still work out the kinks because as you can see in the picture below there was A LOT more potato then meat...



Picadillo

1lb ground beef or turkey
1/2 green pepper
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup white wine
salt, to taste
olive oil
Spanish olives, chopped

1) Put the green pepper and onion in the food processor and pulse a few times. You want it to be small pieces but not pureed.

2) Heat some olive oil in a medium sauce pot over medium high heat. Put in the pepper/onion mixture and cook for a few minutes until onions are translucent. Add the garlic powder, oregano, bay leaf, salt and tomato sauce. Stir to combine.

3) Add the meat to the pot and stir to combine with the sauce. Then stir in the white wine into the meat mixture.

4) Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

5) Remove cover and cook until majority of the liquid has evaporated.

6) Stir in the chopped olives and serve hot over rice.

Review: I would say this was my first trial run of what I was trying to make. Each part was good and tasted yummy but the proportions weren't right at all. I put some cornflake crumbs on the top to give it a little bit of a crunch which was nice but i think the potato part needs a little more flavor. That is the part I am going to work on to perfect...I will let you know when I have it all just right.

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate

This month's Flavor of the Month over at Bake at 350 was Chocolate!!! Now everyone that knows me, knows that I love to make candy. So when we went this past weekend down to Virginia for our nephews Christening and I made some chocolate covered peeps for the kids. My sister-in-law even called me the chocolate covered queen.

Chocolate Covered Bunny Peeps


Chocolate Covered Chick Peep

Since we were traveling I had package the peeps up. Here's a picture of them all wrapped up and ready to go.


Now where I make anything chocolate covered if it's cherries, Oreos, pretzels or peeps, I always have chocolate left over. So this time I decided to make some mini M&M/Oreo bark to leave as a thank gift for my parents since they were feeding the cats for us. I had to try some and it was soooo good!!


I forgot to post my holiday candy I made this year. So here's a picture of a little of everything I made.


From the top left going clockwise, we have chocolate cherry cordials, fudge, chocolate covered mini nutter butter, chocolate covered mini oreos (with the sprinkles), butter crunch and peanut clusters. Oh and here's a picture of some candy I made for a holiday fair. I had a bunch of it left over that I was able to save for Christmas.

Some chocolate covered marshmallows. I made the snowmen last year


and some chocolate covered pretzels.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Sorry for posting my Valentine's Day dinner so late. Mike doesn't really believe in V-day, but I always like to make it special. So I decided to make a few recipes I've been saving for a special occasion. The first one was Baked Shrimp Scampi. I found the recipe in Barefoot Contessa's cookbook Back to Basics, but it can also be found on the Food Network's website as well.

The second and third recipe came from the cook book Mike got me for Christmas. It's a cook book that has over 2,000 authentic Italian recipes. There are a lot of yummy sounding recipes, but I choice the two following recipes to try: One was for Stuffed Mussels

and the second was Lobster with Linguine.


And a special dinner is not complete unless there is dessert. I had made some brownies to bring to work and had some left over. So I decided to make brownie sundaes. SO GOOD!! Just heat up the brownie in the microwave and your favorite scoop of ice cream and top it off with your favorite ice cream topping.

My Choice - Edy's Thin Mint ice cream with chocolate syrup

Mike's Choice - Edy's Samoas ice cream with caramel syrup

Everything came out great. The problem I had was in the recipe for the stuffed mussels it seemed a little incomplete. It had you make a tomato sauce but didn't tell you what to do with it. I think i was suppose to add it to the stuffing, but it still tasted good. Not sure if I would make it again. But I would definitely make the scampi again, even I forgot an ingredient, it still came out really good.

Snow Day...What to Make?

It wasn't a total surprise that we are sort of snowed in today. We knew something was coming but did not expect this much snow. Plus what is makes matters worse is that it is very heavy and very wet snow...total yuck! Thank goodness for a neighbor down the street with a snow blower to do the stuff the plow likes to drop off at the top of our driveway. Which by this time is so dense and heavy that I would just call it a day and not go any where for a few days.

We lost a tree branch in our backyard and I am sure we are not the only ones. We even lost power last night for a little bit.


I am thinking of making something today since it is a snow day and it gives me something to do. Not sure yet what it is going to be but some yeast is probably going to be involved...check back tomorrow or in a couple of days to see if I was able to make it off the couch.

Pumpkin Cookies

Yesterday we had a blizzard warning type snow storm. So I decided to make sure I had supplies in the house to be able to bake something...that is of course after I made sure I had the regular supplies in the house.

A friend of mine gave me this recipe last week and I thought it was the perfect one to make. One it only has 6 ingredients and two it seemed to be a non time consuming one as well.


Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies
Pillsbury.com

1 (14-oz.) pkg. Pillsbury® Pumpkin Quick Bread Muffin Mix
1/2 cup dried Cranberries or cinnamon covered raisins
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon


DIRECTIONS

1.Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, combine quick bread mix, raisins and ginger; mix well. Add butter and egg; stir until dry particles are moistened. (Mixture may be crumbly.)


2.In small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon; mix well. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; roll in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.


3.Bake at 350°F. for 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are set. Remove from cookie sheets.


Review: I can't stop eating these cookies...they are so addicting. Super easy to make since most of the work is just opening a package and adding the rest of the ingredients. A perfect fall flavor cookie and something I would make for Thanksgiving in a heart beat. I wonder if you could make other cookies like this one with a different mix. Definitely a keeper!

Beautiful Burger Buns...Say That Three Times Fast!

Since I knew we weren't going any where for the Superbowl I took the opportunity to make some kind of bread. When else am I going to get a guaranteed not getting off the couch day from Mike. So of course I went to my favorite bread cookbook for this task.

What could I make to go with cold cuts and something that I did not need an overnight starter for...that actually narrows it down a lot. Then I found the perfect thing to try out and if they were good this would be something I could make in the future.


Beautiful Burger Buns
KingArthurFlour.com

3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast

1) Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to make a soft, smooth dough.

2) Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it's doubled in bulk.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round 1" thick (more or less); flatten to about 3" across. Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until very puffy.

4) If desired, brush buns with melted butter. Or brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water), and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5) Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, till golden. Cool on a rack.

My favorite crumb shot...

Review: If I can help it I will try to make these every time we have burgers or cold cuts in the future. They were so easy to make and the end result is just fantastic. They have the right taste and the right texture for burger or a sandwich. I tried to keep track of the time when I started (about 8:30ish am) and the time I finished (just before Noon) to see how long they really take me to make. This way I know if I can squeeze in making them before our next bbq. Check out the link above to the recipe because on that page they give you some tips on making these. Also they give you a great way of how to shape them which I am going to try next time to see if I can get them to be more even in shape. This one is a keeper for sure!

Cupcakes from Scratch...

Last week for the birthday boy I made cupcakes from scratch to bring in for his class. I was actually going to make the cake from a box mix and the frosting from scratch. With preparing for the family party I just wanted it make it easier on myself. Well the baking gods had another plan because I did not have enough oil to make the box mix so I had to make it from scratch.


So I used my well tested and trusted KAF Devil's Food Cake recipe which came out I think the best I have ever made it. It is the same one I used for Jacob's birthday cake last year which I now wish I did this year. This time I topped the cupcakes with KAF Easy Vanilla Frosting recipe which I have never made before.


Easy Vanilla Frosting
KingArthurFlour.com

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 to 5 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk or cream

1) In a large bowl, beat together the butter, shortening, and salt till fluffy.
2) Add about half the confectioners' sugar, and beat slowly until well blended.
3) Add the vanilla and half the milk or cream, and beat until fluffy.
4) Continue mixing in sugar and milk alternately until they've been completely incorporated.
5) Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Note: If you want some frosting left over to use in decorating, increase the ingredient amounts to: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, approximately 6 cups confectioners' sugar, and up to 1/2 cup milk or cream.

All done and ready to be taken to school...

Review: I am going to review the frosting since this isn't the first time I have made this very yummy cake. I was a little worried about making my own frosting because I haven't really found one that I like very much. All other buttercreams that I have made came out tasting well like butter. This one does not have that taste at all and goes perfectly with the chocolate cake. I made the larger amount because I wanted to do some fancy decorating but time and cranky kids got in the way of those plans. So I did the next best thing put a bunch of sprinkles on them...Jacob LOVES sprinkles so he was happy with it. He is my child after all...loves sprinkles, loves frosting and LOVES chocolate cake! I would definitely make this frosting again and I want to try the chocolate version next time maybe.

Birthday Cake & Shrimp Fajitas

Saturday we had Jacob's birthday party with the family which was a lot of fun. I decided to make him one of those checker board cakes this year. I actually bought it last year but didn't make it. To be honest I don't think I am going to make it again. I used the recipe on the box which was ok (a box mix would have been better) but my checkerboard did not come out right. The best part of the cake was the sprinkles that Jacob put on the cake himself.


The one thing that was a success and will be added to my list of thing to make is the shrimp recipe I used. I wanted to provide a few option for everyone so I made chicken, taco meat and shrimp for my fajita bar. I left half the shrimp plain (just salt and pepper) and marinated the other half. I did not know how the marinade would taste since I never made it before that night and was worried about having something inedible on my hands. I thought most people would like it but I was worried it might not be what I thought it would be. Well the that was the first thing to go completely...it was a success.

Marinated Shrimp

1 pound medium shrimp, shelled
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup lime juice

1. Stir together shrimp, cilantro, garlic, and lime juice. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

2.Add shrimp mixture to pan, increase heat to high, and cook, stirring often, until shrimp are opaque in center; cut to test (about 3 minutes).

Review: Who does not love a recipe that is only 3-4 ingredients and ingredients I had on hand anyway because it was all the stuff I was using for fajitas to begin with. The shrimp had a really great refreshing taste to it and was perfect for the fajitas. This would make a great summer recipe and probably good on any type of fish. It is a keeper!