Happy Birthday, Daddy! (Wordless Wednesday)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!


PS - if you'd like the cake recipe, it's here - Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting.  Double the recipe for two layers.


©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

If you give a kid a math problem...

Food allergies take over your life. We're currently working on a new review -- a unit on Money from Math Mammoth.  As we started, I felt Damien was far enough in his usual curriculum (Math U See Beta) to tackle it, but today I discovered he was a little short on subtraction skills when he realized he couldn't subtract five from one, but knew that 55 was less than 71.  Today's crash course: borrowing.

This problem needed only "single" borrowing.  When Jude was learning to borrow, I tried to explain it sixteen ways to Sunday until I finally hit on something concrete that was important to him -- food.  I went with that example first this time and explained borrowing by saying "I asked you to give me five cookies, but you only have one.  You need to borrow some from somebody else so you can give me five.  You can go to Jude and say, 'Hey, do you have any extra cookies I can borrow?'  Here, the five borrows from the seven..."  Damien got it right away.

A page later, he was trying to subtract 78 cents from a dollar - or 100 cents.  He couldn't borrow from the tens place, because that had a zero.  Back to the cookie analogy: Damien needed to give me cookies, but had none. He tries to borrow from Jude, but HE has none. Jude has to borrow from Matthew, then give Damien some of what was borrowed.  I could only laugh at Damien's response: "I kinda get it, but you can't eat his kind, you're allergic. Shouldn't Jude to borrow from Dad since you have the same allergies? "

Point, Damien.

He then pointed out he didn't have any cookies to lend me to start with -- could we make his kind of cookies?  Well played, kid.   We searched and found a recipe from Blissful Basil that looked re-workable.  The lesson of the day?  If you give a kid a math problem, he's probably going to want a cookie to go with it.

Oatmeal Sunbutter Cookies

1 cup Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract*
1 cup oat flour**
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut milk + 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice***

Ingredient notes:

*Since vanilla extract isn't on our safe list, we used 2 tsp. of 896 Aged Gold Rum.  It's aged in oak barrels, so it gives it a vanilla undertone, extracts alcohol-soluble flavors, and adds moisture.

**If you don't have oat flour in your pantry, pulse 1 cup quick-cook oats in a blender or food processor until flour-y.

***Either option tastes fine, but do not omit unless you are planning to eat them all immediately.  The dough needs to be slightly acidic so that the sunflower seed butter doesn't react with any unused backing soda, or else the cookies may turn green if kept overnight.  They're perfectly safe to eat, but it can be a little disconcerting.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Cream together the sunflower seed butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy - about 3-4 minutes with a stand or hand mixer.

Add in vanilla extract and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda, and salt.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mix. Mix on low until combined, then add milk.  Continue mixing until the liquid has been absorbed.

Portion dough onto cookie sheets in about 1 tablespoon drops.  (We used a small (#40) ice cream disher.) If you use a spoon, roll the dough into balls.

Slightly flatten the tops with a fork, if desired, to get the traditional "criss-cross" pattern like on a peanut butter cookie.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned.

Somebody wanted to make sure none of the cookies got "borrowed" before he had a chance to eat them.

Cool on cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes so the structure can set.  (If you move them too quickly, they will fall apart.) Transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool.

Store lightly covered (if you have any that aren't eaten!).

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies as easy as 1-2-3!

I admit it. I love baking, but I dread getting out all the measuring spoons, all the little containers...  Sometimes, I give up (my hips thank me), but that doesn't make me want them any less.

One day, when I was making pancakes, I looked at the back of the Bisquick box and thought, "You know, if I can make all these with this, and I know I can use it for baking a cake, why not cookies?" So I tried it, and these came out of my oven.

They were so easy, and FAST!  Don't they look great?  They were in the oven in under 5 minutes (and out in 10)! No measuring out a little bit of everything, or making a huge powdered mess on the counter.  Then, I realized that the ratio of ingredients made it really easy to remember the recipe:

1 cup margarine (or butter)
2 cups sugar
3 cups baking mix

Yes, there are a few other things, but "two eggs" is easy to remember.  (It's not like you have to actually measure the egg.) Sure, you can measure the chocolate chips, but I usually just rip open the bag and dump it all in.  I mean, you can't have too much chocolate. Ever.  And I never measure vanilla. I guess if you felt compelled to, you could measure a teaspoon or two, but I just slosh a little in and call it good.  (I also made these on vacation recently - using baking mix is perfect because then you don't need to pack all the "just a teaspoon" things.  I did skip the vanilla as I didn't have that, either, but I don't think anybody noticed - they still disappeared awfully fast.)

A few hints:

 -If you're making them with gluten free Bisquick, 3 cups is one box.  Since I only bake gluten free (so it doesn't matter who grabs a cookie), it's even faster -- the only thing to measure is the sugar! (1 cup margarine is two sticks.)

-Make sure you're using an "all purpose" baking mix, and not "just add water" pancake mix.  That has leavening and other extras in it.  If you're feeling brave, you could try it, but I'm not guaranteeing anything.  I'd just make chocolate chip pancakes instead.

-If you want to make these without eggs, that's not a problem.  Substitute 1/4 cup of applesauce or other fruit puree. If you want "don't bother measuring" cookies, use a single-serve applesauce cup.

1-2-3 Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
splash of vanilla (optional)
3 cups all-purpose baking mix (ie, Bisquick)
1 bag (about 10 oz) chocolate chips


Preheat the oven to 350*F.  Line baking sheets with no-stick foil or parchment paper, if desired.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale and fluffy.  Add the egg (or applesauce) and mix thoroughly.

Add the baking mix and stir until combined.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the baking sheet.  You can fit between 9 and 12 cookies on a sheet, depending on how large you make them.   I usually use a #40 disher scoop, which is about a tablespoon and a half's worth of dough, and put 9 to a sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are slightly browned.

Remove from oven, and allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish.

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Bake Sale Worthy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bites

Don't you just love when your child says, "It's ok, you can do whatever's easiest!" when they really mean "I know it's a zillion steps, but do you think maybe you could pull off your latest kitchen wizardry, but in a bakery sized batch?"  Celia's class is sponsoring a bake sale, and in the past I've stuck a ten dollar bill in an envelope and called it good.  I figured there was no point to making treats she couldn't eat, and the class actually made out better.  This year, she wasn't going for it, and asked if I could make cookies -- enough for two dozen helpings to sell.  I told her I would if she helped make them, but in exchange she had to convince Neal to go get more bananas (since Damien at the last one this morning before I could rescue it). Fair trade, right?  Since she got Daddy to take her to the produce market,  I got to grind oats into flour, and we baked after dinner.

My original plan was to make oatmeal Marranitos, because they were a fairly easy cookie with minimal ingredients but a nice "wow" factor for a bake sale.  Ultimately, we didn't make them because the dough wasn't stiff enough to roll out.  I grabbed a bag of chocolate chunks from the cabinet, and boom! Oatmeal chocolate chip cookes.

Go ahead, applaud my genius.  Hey, with an almost-teen girl, anything chocolate makes me the hero!

My next big purchase is going to be something that is more efficient for grinding oatmeal into flour.  I've been using my blender, and it works, but it takes a lot of small batches.  For the moment, I'll have to be content with my measuring cups that have not just the standard cups but also a bonus 3/4 cup scoop.  It made measuring out the brown sugar easy -- only two scoops to pack instead of three or four.  If you're in the market for new measuring cups, I highly recommend these.

Back to the cookies -- these really impressed me.  They came out with a soft, pillowy texture - more like a cereal bar than a chocolate chip cookie - and held together well.  For all the sugar, they're not overly sweet -- one recipe makes 5 dozen two-bite cookies, so it's not much sugar per cookie, but the ratio of brown sugar and baking soda work together nicely for creating a cake-like cookie.  I've also recently discovered barrel-aged rum makes a really nice replacement for vanilla extract.  The aging gives it some bright toffee and vanilla flavors without adding extra ingredients to the extract (vanilla isn't something we've gotten the green light to trial with her yet, and it's not something I'm pushing because it would be a really hard trial to get sufficient volume into her.)   You can substitute vanilla if you prefer, but it did at a little bit of caramel undertone that was unexpected but added interest.  I have a feeling these aren't going to be bake-sale-day only cookies!

Baked Oatmeal Bites

Makes approximately 5 dozen cookies

1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil (solid)
1 banana (mashed)
1 can (12.2 oz) evaporated coconut milk (unsweetened)
1 1/2 tsp aged rum (or vanilla extract)
24 oz gluten-free rolled oats ground into oat flour (approx 7 1/2 cups flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 10-oz bag chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper or no-stick aluminum foil.

Cream together the sugar and coconut oil.  Add the banana, milk, and coconut oil and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda, and xanthan gum.  With the mixer TURNED OFF, add them to the work bowl.  SLOWLY turn on the mixer and stir on low until thoroughly combined.   Remove beaters.

Add chocolate chips to the bowl, and stir to distribute them.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until puffy and set with golden edges.

Store them in an air-tight container.

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Classic Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting (Y is for Yellow)

I don't think there's a much more classic dessert than yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Delicate cake topped with creamy icing...mmmm.  Turn it into cupcakes and I might have enough self-control not to eat the whole recipe at once.

What makes a yellow cake so yellow? Two things: butter and eggs.   This cake uses dairy-free margarine, so that it's dairy free and Matthew-friendly, and organic, Omega-3 eggs. Do the eggs need to be organic? No, not necessarily. However, I've found that they have a more intense yellow-orange yolk, which helps color the cake.  Omega-3 eggs have more going for them, nutritionally, but for our purposes, it's pure aesthetics.  (And yes, if you can have butter, go ahead and substitute it for the margarine.)

The frosting has plain shortening as the base.  You could use butter for a true "buttercream" frosting, but 1) that's not dairy-free and 2) shortening has a neutral flavor.  With a neutral fat, the chocolate is extra intense, making this frosting fudgier.

PS - you can double the recipe and make a two layer cake.  Sometimes doubling a baking recipe works, sometimes it doesn't.  Here, it does.  Make sure you double the frosting, too, if you like it thickly spread.

Classic Vanilla Cake 

6 Tbsp margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. gluten free flour mix (I used King Arthur)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I like So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake papers.  (For a single layer cake, grease and flour an 8 or 9" cake pan.)

Ideally, you'll have remembered to take the margarine out to soften before you start baking.  In my life, it's fridge-to-mixing bowl or I wander off and forget I'm baking to start with.  I cut my margarine into small cubes, stick it in the mixer, and let it go.  It takes a total of about 20 extra seconds to cut and soften enough to start incorporating with the sugar.  I can live with that.

Cream together your margarine and sugar until fluffy and light yellow.

Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until incorporated.  Add vanilla, stir to combine, and set aside.

Measure into a second bowl: flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt.  Gently whisk to combine.

Turn your mixer back on to a low speed.  Add about half of the flour mix, and allow to combine.  Slowly add the milk, and mix until incorporated.  Add the rest of the flour mix and allow to mix until it comes together. Turn off your mixer.

Using a spatula, gently fold the batter on itself once or twice.  This gets any lumps from the bottom incorporated, as well as any loose flour that was on the beater.

Portion the batter into the cupcake pan.  I like using a small ice cream scoop.  (My disher is a #40 and holds about a tablespoon and a half of batter.)  If there's any leftover after portioning, divide it among the ones that look a little skimpy.

Place in oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a skewer/toothpick comes out clean PLUS one minute.  (The extra minute helps the cake be more like cake and less gummy in the center.)

Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.  You could eat them like this, but then you'd be eating muffins, not cupcakes.  Cupcakes need frosting.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

1 c. vegetable shortening
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
about 1/3 cup non-dairy milk
     (make sure to use something unsweetened; I use So Delicious coconut milk)

Sift the cocoa powder. No, it's not a critical step, but I find my cocoa powder tends to clump, so it makes a smoother frosting.

Beat shortening and cocoa powder together until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, and mix until smooth.  Add milk - a tablespoon or so at a time, allowing it to totally mix in before adding more - until the frosting is spreadable.   (If you add too much milk, add extra powdered sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, until it's the correct consistency.)

Frost the cupcakes.  This actually makes more frosting than you NEED for this amount of cake, but this is also delicious as a fruit dip.  Or just bake more cupcakes. Or get a spoon. Whatever.  I won't judge.

Also sharing with:



©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Gluten and Nut Free Carrot Cake with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting (V is for Vegetable)

Meg: When we were trying to decide what our letter V theme would be, Luke decided that we should go in a different direction.  V for vegetable make sense, but he saw this recipe a bit ago and thought "Wow, that's a carrot cake that actually looks appetizing.  It looked like I had food in front of me, not words on a screen."  I've seen some toothsome carrot cakes, but I see his point. Most are laden down with nuts and pineapple (neither of us can figure out that one) and look a wreck.  This one looked tender and spicy, but like cake, not a science experiment.  Plus, it looked simper to convert to gluten free since it was a basic batter cake.   Since Mama thinks that you can't mess things up too much if you slather cream cheese frosting on top, I said, "That works for me!  Want me to sous?"  He said yes, and promptly delegated the carrot shredding!  I should have known better...

Luke: I have only made a scratch cake once before. It was my great-grandmother’s pineapple upside down cake, and I was excited when it turned out. I was pretty hopeful I could make a carrot cake, but I was in need of a recipe. Unfortunately, the cookbooks we have lacked one that looked appetizing to me, so I looked online. Like my cookbooks, most had nuts and pineapple chunks in them. One, I’m allergic to nuts, and two -- who puts pineapple in carrot cake?! If I want pineapple cake, I’ll make Grammy Danks'recipe again!

I chose this recipe as my starting point because the directions were simple to follow along and looked easy to adapt for allergies. In fact, I hadn’t even started baking, and my mouth was watering from reading the recipe. With a few tweaks written to make it for our family, I headed into the kitchen.

The original recipe called for three 8-inch pans, which will make an impressively tall cake. Since we didn't have a third 8" round, I used one 8-inch pan and one 10-inch pan (the volume of batter needed for the 10 inch pan equals out to the same as two 8-inch ones) and stacked them as tiers.

And how come I wound up grating the carrots after all?

Simple Carrot Cake with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting 

CARROT CAKE 

1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
6 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups King Arthur gluten-free flour
1 tsp Xanthan gum
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 pinch of ground cloves
1 lb. finely-grated fresh carrots

plus ¼ c. each vegetable shortening and gluten free flour to prepare pans

FROSTING

 3 (8 oz.) containers Daiya cream cheese spread
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
6 cups powdered sugar

CAKE:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Rinse and grate the carrots. Set them in a bowl to the side.

Prepare pans. (The originally recipe calls for 3 8-inch pans or 2 9-inch pans. We used 1 8-in and 1 10-in.) Be sure that the entire pan is well greased and coated in flour so that the cake does not stick!

In the bowl of a large stand mixer, mix together oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined and smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and mix until smooth. 

Hint: If you crack the eggs into a separate bowl, it helps make sure there are no shells that will end up in your cake. Crack one egg into a bowl, check it, and then add to the mixing bowl. As it mixes in, repeat with the next egg.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients (flour, xanthan gum, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and cloves) until combined.

Add the dry ingredient mixture to the mixing bowl, and beat on medium-speed until just combined, scraping down the pan at least once to be sure that everything is well mixed. Then fold in the grated carrots by hand, and stir until combined.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean.

Yes, I know the pies already cooling on the stove top look good. But they're another blog post for
later.

Let the cakes cool in the pans for about fifteen minutes. Gluten free baked goods need time to set after they come out of the oven, and turning them out of the pan too soon increases the risk of them cracking.

Remove pans and let them cool on a wire rack until the cakes reach room temperature.

Using a serrated knife, “torte” the cakes into layers. Fill the layers of cake with cream cheese frosting, reassemble the cake, and then frost the outside.

Serve that day, or cover and store in refrigerator for up to 4 days.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

Using an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter on medium speed for 1 minute or until smooth with no lumps remaining.

Add in vanilla extract and salt, and continue mixing until combined.

Lower speed to medium-low and gradually add in powdered sugar a cup at a time. (RESIST THE URGE to beat it on high and go faster. If you try, you and your kitchen will be covered in sugar.)

Once the sugar is mixed in, Increase speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy.

If frosting is too thick to spread, you can add in water, a teaspoon at a time. If it is too thin, you can add in more powdered sugar.If you kitchen is warm, cover the bowl and stick the frosting & beaters in the fridge to firm up a little, and re-whip until smooth when you’re ready to frost the cake.

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com