11 posts tagged “buttermilk”
I have quite a few bloggers from the group Tuesdays with Dorie in my Google Reader. As a result, every Tuesday, I tend to drool all over my keyboard from all the lovely looking Dorie Greenspan recipes the bloggers conquer that week. I am pretty sure my pants get tighter just from reading those blogs. I haven't joined the group because I don't bake often and there's a reason for that--I wouldn't be able to fit into my pants, or the desk chair in which I blog any longer :P
But, still, I wanted to try my hand at a Dorie recipe. I came across her recipe for Oatmeal Breakfast Bread on Cast Sugar, and it looked perfect. For one, it's easy. I love easy baking. Secondly, the ingredients were also pretty nutritious and things I always have on hand. It was a no brainer.
This recipe is fairly healthy as it is, but I did make some modifications to make it healthier, like replacing some of the AP flour with whole wheat and reducing the amount of sugar (but adding a tsp. of vanilla for some sweetness). I also made this into muffins rather than bread, mostly for portion control. I got 16 muffins out of the mix just barely, so if you are not as concerned with calories, I'd probably shoot for 12-14 slightly larger muffins. For the 16, they were about 180 calories per muffin with my modificatins (the recipe below).
The batter for this is so light and airy. Make sure you don't overmix it (something of which I am frequently guilty, but luckily didn't do this time around) so that your muffins end up that way, too. These muffins are so tasty and I just love the streusel-like topping. It makes you feel like you are eating something worse for you than you really are and you won't miss all the sugar in the bread itself.
Oatmeal Breakfast Bread [/Muffins]
adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Makes 1 loaf or about 14-16 muffins
For the topping:
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. chopped pecans
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
For the muffins/bread:
2 egg whites
1.25 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup flavorless oil (I used canola)
1/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup dried fruit of your choice (I used raisins and cranberries as that's what I had on hand)
1 cup oats
Preheat the oven to 350 and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Lightly grease & flour a 9" loaf pan or about 14 muffin cups.
To make the topping, mix the brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon together. Set aside.
To make the bread, whisk together the egg whites, applesauce, oil, buttermilk and vanilla until blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together whole wheat and AP flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Remove about a teaspoon of the mix and toss it with the dried fruit. Stir the oats into the bowl with the flour mixture.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and using a rubber spatula, stir until just evenly moistened. Fold in the dried fruit. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan or muffin tins. Sprinkle the topping over everything. Bake for 55-60 minutes for the bread, or about 20 minutes for muffins, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
When I was young, I didn't like biscuits. How anyone can not like flaky, buttery packets of calorie-laden deliciousness, I will never know, but I suppose I was a strange kid. I would devour dandelion greens, okra and calamari by the bowlful. But biscuits? Nope. Every once in a while, my grandma (yiayia) would take me to KFC, where I would get my meal and she would order a coffee and a biscuit. Plus, she'd eat the biscuit that came with my meal. Obviously, yiayia knew what was up. I haven't been to KFC in ages but I guarantee that if I went today and someone tried to swipe my biscuit, loved relative or not, they would be swatted away--and not nicely.
The only biscuits I've made at home before tonight were the ones in a box from Trader Joe's :) I don't eat biscuits often because, these days, I could eat a dozen myself and that's probably something I shouldn't do. But today I ate healthy and went to the gym, so biscuits were definitely in order. I decided to make the fluffy biscuits from Cook's Illustrated and they turned out...well, fluffy. And buttery. And good.
Fluffy Biscuits
Cook's Illustrated
Makes 1 dozen
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup plain cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/4 lb. unsalted, chilled butter cut into 1/4" cubes
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup buttermilk; additional if needed (I used an additional 2 Tbsp. or so)
Preheat the oven to 450 and position your rack in the middle of the oven.
Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a mixing bowl or the bowl of your food processor. With a pastry blender or the steel blade of your food processor, cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse meal.
If mixing by hand, stir in the buttermilk with a spatula or fork until the mixture is a soft, slightly sticky ball. Add more buttermilk if necessary. If using a food processor, add the buttermilk and pulse process until dough gathers into moist clumps. Remove and form into a ball.
Lightly flour your hands and divide the dough into twelve equal portions. Lightly bat a portion of the dough back and forth until a ball forms, and then pat lightly with cupped hands to form a rough ball. Place formed dough rounds 1" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush dough tops with melted butter. Bake until biscuit tops are lightly brown, about 10-12 minutes.
Every time I think of muffins, I think of Elaine Benes. ;)
I make muffins a lot. I love having something quick to grab in the morning, if necessary, but mostly I just like eating one with a few egg whites. Between the protein from the eggs and the complex carbs in the muffin, I stay satisfied for quite a while. But if I made muffins with cups of oil and butter, like most (delicious) muffin recipes call for, I'd balloon. So, instead, I am always making new versions of healthy muffins, and here's another to add to the list.
It's no secret I love Trader Joe's. One of my favorite things there are frozen whole/pitted cherries, way cheaper than you can buy them fresh. But, the last time I was there, I picked up a triple berry frozen mix of blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries instead. When I came home today, I realized I had some buttermilk to use up, thought of these berries and voila, another healthy muffin (but tasty!) was born.
I entered these on SparkRecipes (a great tool for those who don't know about it) and got the nutritional information listed below.
Healthy Triple Berry Muffins
Makes 10-12 muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. citrus zest (I used lime...anything would be good really, and certain citrus pairs better with certain berries)
2/3 cup lowfat buttermilk
1.5 cups berries of your choice, fresh or frozen (not thawed)
Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, sift together the whole wheat and all purpose flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a second bowl, beat the egg with the sugar until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, oil, zest, applesauce and buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold the berries into the mixture. Don't overmix the batter. Your muffins could become tough and the batter may start turning colors from overworking the batter.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin and bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Nutritional Information Per Serving (12 Servings): Calories: 130.7 / Fat: 3.2g / Carbs: 23.5g / Fiber: 1.9g / Protein: 2.9g / Sugar: 11.2g
If I had to pick my arch-nemesis of kitchen appliances, it would definitely be the waffle iron. Honestly, who thought it would be a good idea to get something really hot (to the point of smoking) and then try to evenly spread batter over its entire surface, even as parts of the batter are already starting to cook? And, assuming you are able to do this well, you have to guess the correct amount of batter to make 4 equally sized waffles, which I still haven't been able to do. If you've managed to both evenly spread and use the precise amount of batter over the grid, your next feat will be to cook the waffles so that they are 1.) nicely (and evenly) browned on the outside and 2.) done all the way through. At this point, all you can do is hope that they taste good after all that work.
Luckily, despite the fact that these gingerbread waffles weren't very aesthetically pleasing, they did taste good. Plus, my waffles were cooked through and nicely browned (though they were not evenly shaped by any stretch of the imagination). But, I'll take 2 out of 3. As an added bonus, I ended up freezing about 7 waffles so we can have them for breakfast and I don't need to mess around with the dreaded waffle iron again for a while.
I looked at a few recipes for gingerbread waffles, including this one and this one, and ended up making my own up. It wasn't quite as unhealthy as the first recipe, not quite as healthy as the latter. They had a really great flavor.
Pumpkin Gingerbread Waffles
1.25 cups whole wheat flour
1.75 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground ginger
2.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1.25 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup molasses
1.25 cups low fat buttermilk
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1.5 tsp. vanilla
Sift together the whole and all purpose flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and egg whites with the brown sugar until fluffy. Add the pumpkin, molasses, buttermilk, butter and vanilla and beat until just incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients--don't overmix.
Add the batter in batches to your waffle iron, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.
This is certainly not the best of pictures, but given my many waffle-woes, I'll take what I can get.
When Tom and I were registering for our wedding, I admit I was a little overzealous. In addition to going with Tom and registering in stores, I also added a few things here and there online. Being a bit of a kitchen gadget enthusiast, I added some things that I probably could have done without. For example--my scone pan. At the time I registered for it, I had never made a scone in my life. But it seemed like a good idea. And, well, it was pretty cute. Always a good criterion for buying things.
The pan admittedly does not get a whole lot of use, but there are definitely things it's good for--like developing great crusts on things. When you make cornbread in a cast iron skillet or square pan it still tastes good, but not everyone has a crusty edge. In my family, we fight over the corner pieces of everything--bread, brownies, lasagna. You name it. This is great because everyone has their own "corner piece."
Tonight, I used my pan for a Cook's llustrated cornbread recipe. I doctored it up slightly by adding a little shredded cheddar and a minced jalapeno. This was some really great cornbread...and this is coming from someone who doesn't really like cornbread all that much. It had the perfect texture and tasted great. A stick of butter will help out any recipe, I guess.
We had this with a bowl full of my chili and I am now stuffed to the gills.
All-Purpose Cornbread
adapted from Cook's Illustrated
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal (this dish was tested using Quaker yellow cornmeal)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed--or to your spice preference--and minced
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined; set aside.
2. In food processor or blender, process sugar, thawed corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds. Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.
3. Using rubber spatula, make well in center of dry ingredients; pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine; add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened. Fold in cheddar and jalapenos.
4. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes (took about 20 minutes in my scone pan). Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer.
I promise to lay off the pumpkin for a bit after this week. But can you believe this is still my FIRST can of pumpkin? I wanted to use it up before it went bad, so I decided to make some pumpkin waffles today.
I used this recipe from Country Living for spiced pumpkin waffles. I liked this recipe because, per person, it didn't use quite as much butter or other really fatty things as other recipes :)
When I reduced the recipe for just my husband and me, though, I didn't have *quite* enough batter to stretch over our waffle maker, so the waffles weren't perfectly square...but they were perfectly delicious!
I topped them with some toasted walnuts and the real-deal maple syrup.
I love pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bars. You name it, I love it. Now that fall is (sort of) here, I felt the need to make something with pumpkin. You can bet this will be the first of many things pumpkin-related to be added to the blog in the next few months. I already have plans for some pumpkin madeleines to break in my new madeleine pan.
I was considering making a quick bread, but I just decided to make muffins for portion control and because I just love having muffins for breakfast, So, once again, I altered my basic healthy muffin recipe to make the pumpkin muffins. These are even healthier than usual because pumpkin is packed with so much nutritional goodness!
Healthy Pumpkin Raisin Muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ginger
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable/canola oil, if you're not calorie counting)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Sift together flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices.
In a seprarate bowl, beat egg with brown sugar until well combined. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, applesauce and pumpkin puree.
Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in nuts and raisins.
Pour mixture into muffin cups and bake approximately 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Nutrition Info, per muffin: Calories: 143 / Fat: 3g / Carbs: 27g / Dietary Fiber: 2.4g / Sugar: 2.2g / Protein: 3.8g
Trying to bake without butter is not easy. I know what you're thinking--it's because baking without butter is a crime against nature. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good, buttery, fatty dessert. And in the rare event that I *do* make desserts, I spare no additional calories for something completely sinful and delicious. But, when I make something like muffins, I really prefer they are not calorie bombs, since I tend to eat one or two a day until they are gone. Most of the time, my breakfasts consist of some sort of egg (usually 3 egg whites, "fried" in cooking spray) and some sort of carb (usually ezekiel toast, sometimes a healthy muffin when I have them). So, often times on Sundays I will bake muffins for the work week.
I created what I guess could be called a basic muffin recipe, that I adapt based on what flavors I feel like that day or, more likely, what I have sitting in my fridge/cupboards. Today, I had some pineapple, flaked coconut and even some buttermilk so I decided to go with that. The recipe below veers a little more from my original than usual.
I only made 6 muffins, but the recipe below makes 12. I might add a little more coconut next time but overall, I thought these were really moist and delicious for such a healthy muffin.
Pineapple Coconut Muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt.
2 eggs
2/3 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbsp. vegetable or canola oil
1 small (8 oz.) can crushed pineapples, drained
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, divided
Preheat oven to 400. Grease or paper-line a 12-cup muffin tin.
In one bow, sift together whole wheat and all purpose flours, baking powder and soda, and salt. (Many times I am too lazy to sift but I find it's a good idea when it comes to whole wheat flour because you have a lot more hard little pieces/balls than with AP).
In a second bowl, beat eggs with sugar until well combined. Add buttermilk, almond extract, applesauce, pineapples and oil and stir to combine.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until mixed. Fold in 1/4 cup of the flaked coconut.
Pour batter into prefared muffin tin. Top each muffin with 1 tsp. flaked coconut.
Bake approximately 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Nutritional Information (per muffin): Calories: 154 / Fat: 4.5g / Carbs: 26.2g / Dietary Fiber: 1.7g / Sugar: 4.1g / Protein: 3.6g
Tonight I decided to try Tyler Florence's smothered pork chop recipe since we still had a couple pork chops to get rid of, as well as some buttermilk. They turned out great!
Because I cannot follow a recipe...well, ever, I did make a couple small changes. I omitted the onion powder (I don't really use it, so I rarely have it on hand) and saute a few tablespoons of chopped onion in the pan after the chops had browned and before I put the flour in the pan. I didn't actually measure out the flour/spice mixture, either. I also used boneless chops, since that's what we had in the freezer.
We ate these with buttermilk mashed potatoes and roasted green beans.
Someone on a cooking board I frequent posed the question today of whether it bothers others when they spend more time making a side dish than they do a main dish. I promptly answered no, because I love my sides and will often do something really simple for a main dish, like a roast piece of meat, but spend more time making a risotto or side dish someone may consider more time consuming than normal. It didn't even occur to me that tonight's dinner was actually a case in point :)
Tonight we had oven-fried chicken strips with pesto potatoes and corn on the cob.
Earlier today, I seasoned some buttermilk with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then I marinated 1" chicken breast strips in the mixture. You can also just dip the chicken into this mixture, rather than marinate it.
Then, I rolled the pieces in panko. I sprayed a cookie sheet with Pam, put the strips on there and then sprayed the top of the strips. Baked in a 375 degree oven for about 8 or 9 minutes per side, and finished them off in the broiler for about a minute.
Tom and I both love pesto and we love pesto potatoes. This is a fairly frequent side for us, and after I get my basil plant this weekend, I have a feeling it will become even more frequent.
The pesto potato recipe was actually part of my very first vox post! I am going to copy and paste it below so it's easier, though.
Pesto Potatoes
1 lb. potatoes (I prefer Yukon gold, but redskins and russets work just fine)
cooking spray
1 cup fresh basil
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, divided
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 375* and spray a small baking dish with cooking spray.
In a food processor, process toasted pine nuts and garlic until combined well. Add basil and 3 Tbsp parmesan cheese, and process until all ingredients are combined and basil is in small pieces. Stream in olive oil and pulse until desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.
Peel and slice potatoes in 1/4" thick circles. Place slices next to each other in baking dish, forming one layer and sprinkle with a little salt. Top layer of potatoes with layer of pesto. Continue layering, ending with a layer of pesto.
Pour chicken broth over potatoes. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven.
Bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of parmesan cheese, and bake uncovered another 5-10 minutes.
