Supermoist Chocolate Cake Recipe for Cake Pops

Don't you hate it when you rely on a website/blog for a recipe and either the website shuts down or the blogger loses their domain name?  Well, that happened to me with this recipe.  Thankfully,  Austin was able to find a cached version of the page in order to pull the recipe, so I'm sharing it with the interwebs once again.  You're welcome:

Dark Chocolate Cake
makes two 9-inch round cakes or three 8-inch round cakes

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans, or three 8-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixer bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes. Mix in boiling water – the batter will be quite thin. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Split Pea Burgers

I just love it when veggies are center stage of a meal and this one doesn't disappoint. It'll take you about an hour and a half to two hours from start to finish and I adapted it from this recipe.

You'll need:

• Olive oil and vegetable oil
• About 2 cups of chopped onion (2 medium sized onions)
• 2 large cloves of garlic
• 1 Tbsp. ginger
• 1 Tbsp. cumin
• 1 cup dried split peas
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 2/3 cup brown rice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 lb (one medium sized) eggplant
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 1 green pepper, seeded

Garlic Sauce:
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt (or just use all mayo)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2-1 tsp smoked paprika

Let's get started:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 F. If you have a convection setting on your oven, this will work.  Just be sure to reduce the heat to 350 and/or watch your oven thermometer if you have one.

2. Peel your eggplant and cut it into cubes (it doesn't matter what size because you'll be processing it anyway).

3. In a large saucepan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and heat on medium high. Add the onion (remember chopping onions with Austin?) and garlic.  Sauté for a few minutes. Add the ginger and cumin. Cook until the onions are soft.

4. By now, the oven should be preheated. Put the eggplant cubes on a baking sheet (no oil necessary) and toss in the oven until they're soft--just a few minutes is all they need. (You could even do this in a toaster oven if you don't want to turn on your main oven.) Turn off the oven and let the eggplant cool for a few minutes.

Fresh bread crumbs really are delicious... and easy

5. Meanwhile, add the split peas and water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for about 8 minutes.

6. While that's cooking, throw your green pepper and eggplant in a food processor and process until it looks mashed. Add the bread crumbs and pulse until they're mixed throughout.

Brown rice

7. Add the rice to the saucepan and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the water is absorbed.

8. Mix the ingredients for the garlic spread and do some dishes (I'm a big fan of doing dishes as you cook... unless there's a four month old nearby who's begging for attention).

9. Combine the bread crumb mixture and the split pea mixture. (Make sure it's mixed throughout. If not, some of your burgers won't be as firm.)

10. Form the mixture into six or seven patties. Pan fry in a skillet with a tablespoon of vegetable oil until the edges are a little crispy. (You may have to add more oil for the last few burgers.)

11. Serve on whole wheat hamburger buns with a slice of tomato and the garlic spread, or cut in half and serve in a half slice of pita bread.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Syrup and Spiced Whipped Cream

It's official.  I'm naming fall as my absolute favorite season.  The crisp air, beautiful leaves, and... pumpkins!  I'm having a serious love affair with all things pumpkin right now.  What better way to kick off Halloween morning than with some yummy pumpkin pancakes?!




You'll need:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of flour (have you tried unbleached all-purpose flour before?)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a special blend of your own pumpkin pie spice using a combination of cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves--all ground)
• 1/4 cup of real maple syrup (please don't skimp on your syrup guys... real syrup or a homemade substitute is really your only decently healthy option)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (organic, if you can find it)
• 3/4 cup of buttermilk (or plain, full-fat yogurt that has been wisked a bit)
• 1 tbsp. grape seed oil (or canola or vegetable oil)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla 

Let's get our pumpkin on!

1.  Preheat and grease your griddle.  You can test the heat by sprinkling some water droplets onto it.  If it's too hot, they'll boil and evaporate almost instantly.  You're looking for a gentle bubbling.

2.  Wisk together all the dry ingredients (including the spices).

3.  In a separate bowl, wisk together all the wet ingredients (including the pumpkin puree).

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold together with a scraper until moist.  DO NOT EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, OVER MIX YOUR PANCAKE BATTER! (Yes, I'm very passionate about this.  Ahem.. moving on...)

5.  Once you have a nice, beautiful, thick pancake batter, move over to your griddle and spoon 1/4 cup sized pancakes onto your griddle.  Because your batter is thick, you'll have to physically spread out your pancakes until they're about 1/4 inch thick on the griddle.

6.  Cook one side of the pancakes completely.  You'll know they're ready to be turned when the edges are no longer moist.

7.  Flip your pancakes once and you should see them rising (isn't it great?).  Don't flip them a second time.  The second side will cook much faster than the first since you're basically just cooking the top, not the middle.

On to the syrup (brought to you by Austin)...

You'll need:

• 1/3 cup of dark brown sugar
• about a cup of white sugar
• about 1/2 cup of water
• 1 apple (I used a red apple, but it won't matter too much.  You could also substitute apple juice for the water if you don't have any apples)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp lemon juice

1.  Put the brown sugar, white sugar, and water in a saucepan, stir to combine,  and cook over high heat.

2.  Slice the apple and discard the core.  Add the apple slices to the syrup.

3.  Add the lemon juice, butter, and spices to the syrup.

4.  Allow the syrup to come to a boil and stay there for about a minute.

5.  Turn down the heat to let it simmer (very very low boil).  If you can have your syrup simmering while the pancakes are cooking, this would be ideal.  

6.  When the apple skins become wrinkly and they start to loose their color, the syrup is probably done (about 15 minutes).

7.  Strain out the apple pieces and serve the syrup (the apples as a "side dish" are DELICIOUS).

To finish it with the whipped cream...

You'll need:

• about a 1/4 cup of whipping cream (not cooking cream)
• powdered sugar
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• all spice

Here we go...

1.  Pour the whipping cream into a bowl.  Whip it on high with an electric mixer until soft peaks have formed (not too stiff, but not creamy).

2.  Add some powdered sugar (around a tablespoon) and some spices (mostly cinnamon and all spice), whip, and taste.  Add more as you like.

3.  Finish whipping until stiff peaks have formed and it looks like whipped cream.  Yum. 

4.  Open a plastic sandwich bag inside a drinking glass and fold the opened top over the edges (pictured).

5.  Scoop your whipped cream into the bag, seal it, cut off one of the bottom corners of the bag, and squeeze it onto your pancakes.

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

Since there was some interest in this recipe on Facebook, I thought I'd go ahead and post it.  We'll add pictures later.

You'll need:

• 1 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour (you can also make this half wheat and half white if you don't want to go all out)
• 1 1/4 cups of oats (the old fashioned kind)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2-1 tsp cinnamon (depending on your preference)
• 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce (it's quite nice to make a big batch of this and have it on hand if you bake a lot--just core and peel the apples and throw them in a food processor until pureed) 
• 1/2 cup of plain yogurt (wisked) or buttermilk
• 1/3 cup of agave nectar (or 1/2 cup of brown sugar)
• 2 tbsp. of canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2-1 cup of fresh, frozen, or dried blueberries (cranberries would be nice too... with some orange zest maybe??)

Let's get started:

1.  Preheat your oven to 375 F and grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

2.  Wisk together all of the dry ingredients except the blueberries (flour, oats, powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon).

3.  Wisk together all of the wet ingredients (yogurt, applesauce, agave, oil, and egg).

4.  Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix with a scraper just until moist.  Do not overmix your muffins and don't concern yourself with "lumps."

5.  Fold in blueberries. ("Fold" basically means to pour the blueberries in and mix them by "folding" the batter over them again and again with a scraper until they're incorporated.)

6.  Pour the batter into the muffin cups.  I love using a large cookie scoop for this.

7.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly brown on top.  

8.  Cool and enjoy! 

Cranberry Oatmeal Scones

...aaaand we're back.  The first (almost) half of pregnancy hits me really hard but, praise God, I'm finally able to withstand the smells of the kitchen once again!  Now Austin and I are getting back to sharing a lot of the household duties including the cooking which will provide us with a bit more time to blog our meals (yay!).

(Oh, and please excuse the poor photo quality.)

Breakfast the other morning was delightful and we wanted to share it with you...

You'll need:

• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 c. cold butter (1 stick)
• 3/4 c. oats (the real old fashioned kind, not the "quick" variety)
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries
• zest from one lemon
• 2/3 c. of plain yogurt (or you can use buttermilk, but I like yogurt better), wisked until smooth
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp. milk

Now let's get to it...

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 F. 


2.  Wisk all the dry ingredients (except the cranberries, oats, and zest) in a mixing bowl.

3.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, fork, two knives, or food processor (on pulse).  You've never cut in butter before?  No worries, it's basically exactly what it sounds like.  I start by cutting my butter into small pieces about the size of a large raisin.  (I used to use an egg slicer for this but grew tired of the extra dish washing.)  There's no science to the size, it's just a starting place.  Add the butter to the dry ingredients and basically chop up everything up until it resembles coarse crumbs.  This is the base for a lot of pastries.

After you cut in the butter, it should look something like this.

4.  Add the oats, cranberries and zest and stir together.

5.  SLOWLY stir in the yogurt until the mixture sticks together.  You may not use all the yogurt or you may end up needing a little more.  You do not want your mixture to be too wet.  Once you get close and have just a little bit of dry ingredients still floating around in there, just reach in and start squeezing it together with your hands until it comes together.

This is before gathering it with my hands.  See the dry ingredients still loose on the bottom left?

6.  Put your dough on a floured surface.  I prefer a pastry mat with measurements on it.  We have this one.  You may also want to flour your hands as you work with your dough but don't flour the dough too much.  Knead the dough a few times with your hands.

7.  Pat your dough into a 7 inch circle that is about an inch and a half thick.

8.  Cut your dough into 8 wedges.  I prefer to cut scones using a pizza wheel but make sure you flour it first.

9.  On a greased baking sheet (preferably with a baking mat), arrange your scones so that they're equally spaced.

10.  Wisk together the egg and milk in a small bowl.


11.  Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on the top of the scones.  You won't use the entire egg wash.  I used the leftovers for the base of some scrambled eggs.

12.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned.  Scones should be dense and cooked all the way through.

13.  Cool and enjoy!


We served our scones up with scrambled eggs, fresh grapes, and blueberry tea.  Delicious!

Meat[less] Loaf

Alas. The title is at least one of the things that has been holding up this post. I think it's such a shame to name a recipe primarily for what it lacks, but ah well (lentil loaf just doesn't have the right ring to it anyway).

Kayti and I have really gotten into this recipe if nothing else for it's freeze and bake later characteristics. I this is going to be a challenge for some as it's definitely a vegetarian replacement of a well known recipe, but seriously when was the last time you had meatloaf? You probably don't even remember what it tastes like. Consider this a riff on lentils and rice with some bonus veggies and fiber--I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Here's what you will need:


1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils
1/4 cup brown rice (or a 1/2 cup cooked)

1 medium chopped onion
1 diced carrot carrot
1 diced bell pepper
1/4 cup crushed flax seed

1/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup bread crumbs
3 eggs

1 (6.5 ounce) can tomato sauce (just under a cup)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons dried thyme (or fresh)
1 pinch cayenne pepper or chili powder, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Tomato Topping:
Tomato Sauce
Vingar
Tomato Paste
Salt

1. First things first lets get both the lentils and rice boiling. There is quite a bit of prep work so I suggest taking the time to make brown rice instead of white, but if shaving off 20 minutes makes the difference, I suppose white would work just as well.

For the lentils first you'll want to rinse the lentils and check for any stones (I have never actually found a stone in my lentils, but everyone tells you to check... better safe than sorry). Then in a medium pot add 5 or 6 cups of water and the measured lentils. Bring to a boil and then let simmer.

The rice needs to be put in a separate pot along with 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 45 minutes. Around 25 or 30 minutes you will see the rice start to stick up above the water (if you have a clear top to your pot, or I suppose if you have x-ray vision). It's not necessary to check this, but it gives you a good idea that you're getting close. In fact the best rice is mostly left alone while cooking. Once it seems the water is mostly soaked up your rice should be nice and tender. If the water is gone, but the rice still seems hard you can add some more water and give it more time.

2. While the lentils and rice are cooking you should get started cutting up your veggies. You will need one carrot, one onion and one pepper (green or another color if you like). Start your dicing. The goal here is just to get everything distributed for the food processor so don't feel any pressure to get things perfect.

3. Once theses are cut up, you can start them in the food processor. Add all the veggies along with the wheat germ and flax seed (you should crush the flax seed first though).  Pulse these ingredients until everything is fine, but not near the point of pureed baby food. You want to have some texture from these veggies, but you don't want to have a giant chunk of onion in a bite. It should look something like this picture to the left.

4. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 350 as well as grease a 4x8 loaf pan (or  2).

5. Transfer the veggies to a bowl along with the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of cooked rice (when it's done cooking).

6. Test the lentils, and if they are done drain them and put them into the food processor (in batches if necessary). Puree them to death... this time we're looking for the baby food consistency.

7. When they are finished add them along with the can of tomato sauce and thyme to the bowl (use fresh if you can!). Mix well and taste to see how it's coming along. Add some salt and pepper as well as the cayenne pepper if you're going to tasting all along. Once you're happy with the general flavor add the eggs and mix well.


8. Now fill the bottom of the loaf pan leaving enough room to cover and add the tomato topping. At this point you can either freeze the loaf for later or cook it right a way. To cook place in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes while you prepare the topping.

9. To make the tomato topping simply mix 3 parts tomato sauce to 3 parts tomato paste then add 1 part white vinegar and a dash of salt. Mix and taste. Then after about 30 minutes when the loaf is firmer on top you can add some of the tomato topping and return to the oven to cook. After 20 more minutes check with a knife to see if the middle has gotten firmer. It's important not to rely too heavily on your (distant) memory of the firmness of meat loaf. This will be less firm when finished.

10. Slice and carefully pull out to serve. If you have leftover tomato topping serve it on the side, and if not just grab some ketchup from the refrigerator to serve.

We really enjoyed it served with fresh steamed soybeans.

Hope you enjoy!




Note about frozen portions: I haven't really nailed the timing yet if you cook it from frozen. But if you try plan on about an hour and a half to two hours. If you're trying to impress someone though, it would be best to let it defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours before cooking with the given directions.

Also, leftovers are nice crisped up on a grill pan and served like a burger on a bun.

Lastly I was warned, so I will pass it on, this meal has a lot of fiber. Be warned.

Broccoli and Lemon Pasta

This is a deliciously simple meal for lunch or dinner.  You can make it with all fresh ingredients or from staple kitchen items.

You'll need:

-450 grams of pasta-- We used farfalle (bow tie).  I finished up two open bags so I'm just guessing on the amount here.
-salt
-broccoli (as much or as little as you like--frozen or fresh)
-2 tbsp. butter
-1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on your own love for garlic)
-2 tsp dried basil (or a few leaves of fresh basil, chopped a bit)
-one lemon (or a tbsp. of lemon juice and some lemon pepper)
-1/4 tsp. pepper

1.  Boil the pasta in salted water (think "the ocean" when you're salting your water for pasta).
2.  Steam the broccoli (from fresh or frozen) with a steaming basket.  You can also boil the broccoli and strain it later, but you'll loose a lot of the nutrition that way.
3.  Find a cute baby to pick a lemon from your yard (ok, this is optional... I guess).

4.  Juice and zest (grate off the first layer of the outside of the lemon... be really careful not to grate too deep) the lemon and set it aside.
5.  Find that cute baby again to pick some basil for you.

6.  Melt the butter in a small skillet.

7.  Press the garlic.
8.  Add garlic, basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pepper to the butter.
9.  Cook butter sauce for a few minutes (doesn't it smell amazing?!).
10.  Strain the pasta when it is fully cooked, but not soggy (al dente).
11.  Mix the sauce, broccoli, and pasta together.
12.  Eat and enjoy.