The Complexity of Recipe Writing

A number of years ago I worked on a fundraiser cookbook for a national grief organization. My job was to edit a slew of recipes but my own recipe– my mom's danish puff– was edited and I can still remember when the main editor came back to me and said I needed specific amounts for the icing, a powdered sugar and milk combination.

"You have to remember not everyone is comfortable cooking," I can still remember she wrote.

That was a good lesson for today when I am writing and rewriting recipes. Right now I'm sitting on a number of them that I haven't posted because I have go back and check the amounts. Or many times I have used a recipe I've found online but I made changes to it and I can't post it until I spend a little time getting the ingredients and their amounts right. Then there are the times I combine several recipes (like the recent pumpkin cheesecake) and I need to put them all together. 

I rely on Martha Stewart recipes quite a bit because they are usually well written and tested well. I often find that other recipes (Emeril is one example) don't have the quality behind them and they don't work as well. I also recently had a problem with chocolate-covered Katie: while I had tried some of hers in the past, the pumpkin bread both times wouldn't bake. I realized the problem might be that she doesn't live at altitude and when I questioned her about it via Facebook, of course she had no idea about high altitude baking.

While altitude doesn't affect everything, I am always aware when I bake that whatever I'm making might not work out because I live at 5,000 feet. And then she didn't offer to have anything tested. While that cookbook is on my counter right now, it's going to find its way back up to the top shelf of cookbooks soon.

But Martha also disappointed me recently. When I used one of her recipes to make the chocolate cake in the LeCreuset dutch oven (and this is the reason I haven't posted the recipe yet– because I have to do redo it), the ingredients are all out of order. And in the age of anyone posting anything they want on the internet, there is more and more of this. Having everything in order on the list ensures we won't forget something. That's how the sugar got left out the first time (although I added it in before it went to the oven and it worked out okay). However, that can be enough to ruin a recipe and the item created from it.

It's taking me a while to get the recipes online but it's because I'm trying to make sure they are in the best place they can be: edited, tested, and retested. In the long run, you'll thank me.

Gluten-Free Brownies That Rock

I didn't think they'd be that good.

I had made a mess of my kitchen: bowls everywhere, brown rice flour on the floor (that Nestle, the yellow lab, didn't think was good enough to lick up) because the package leaked, and melted chocolate in spots all over the counter. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth it.

I thought it was worth a shot to try the recipe for gluten-free brownies in the Martha Stewart Clean Slate Cookbook but I have this habit of not looking closely enough at the recipe and I'm usually missing something.

Yeah, more than one thing this time. I only had half the chocolate for one. Even though it had to be melted, I added carob, while I also realized that carob does not melt well. And then there was the almond flour. I may be all for different types of flour but almond flour is one of the most expensive and that I'm not for.

I knew I had some garbanzo bean flour and while I was looking for it I found brown rice flour. And when I read on the back of one of the packages of the two being used together, I thought it might be better in case one didn't work as well. Instead of the 2/3 cup of almond flour I went with a 1/3 cup each of garbanzo bean flour and brown rice flour.

By the time they went in the oven, I thought they weren't bad but when I pulled them out and tried them I worried they were a little...tasteless.

While I don't like a lot of really sweet foods, especially because I've gotten used to more natural and less processed food, I wasn't sure these were even good enough for that. I cut the brownies, left them on the counter, and went for a walk with two friends.

When we walked in the door, I started to say to Greg that I wasn't sure if the brownies were good enough until I realized he had a piece in his hand and he said, "I can't stop eating them."

Here's the link to the original recipe and my version is below:

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

8 ounces dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao- do not use 100% cacao as you will end up throwing out the brownies!!! The Target Simply Balanced brand is 70% and works very well), chopped

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons carob powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup brown rice flour

1/3 cup garbanzo bean flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking pan with oil. 

Melt half of the chocolate in an heatproof bowl; whisk in oil, sugar, and syrup. Remove from heat. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, then cocoa and baking soda. Fold in flour and remaining chocolate plus walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan and cook until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting.

Adventures in Cooking and in Life: Avochocopudding

A few weeks ago when the priest came to dinner, I served my signature carob peanut butter cookies for dessert. After Greg announced that I also make chocolate pudding with avocados, Father turned to me and said, "You're quite adventurous with your cooking."

I never thought of that way but since then I've been reflecting on why I am constantly tearing out recipes from magazines (I always pass the magazines along to people but warn them that some pages are missing) and that a chest of drawers my grandfather made by the front door my house is filled with an unorganized mess of recipes (the most unorganized part of my house). 

Cooking is a release for me and as a creative person, I am always looking for new ways to do things, new foods to try, new ways to make foods healthier but still good. I'm the same way in my life: while I admit I like to have the opportunity to jet off to various places, that doesn't always happen and when I'm home I need to find ways to make the day meaningful to me. I do that by creating. 

The recipe below is originally from the Martha Stewart Clean Slate cookbook. I have altered it by using carob instead of chocolate. While I was recently cleared of my chocolate allergy, I'm finding that after not eating chocolate for so long, I must prefer the taste of carob. You can substitute cocoa powder for the carob but I dare you to use carob powder. You'll be surprised by the taste– and there are health benefits behind carob (digestion is one) as well. I also don't like honey and substituted maple syrup instead.

It might sound weird, to use an avocado, but what we're doing is giving the pudding its texture by including ingredients that are healthier. I only advocate that you don't let it sit for more than a few days in the refrigerator as the carob taste seems to melt away and you're left with, well, avocado.

3 avocados (halved, pitted, and peeled)

at least 1/4 cup carob powder

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Puree all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Tofu Scramble and Setting up the New Year

I am not a huge fan of new year's resolutions. As someone who has been running for a long time, I see the number of people out running increase after January 1 and then fall off after people get bored or tired or both. I do think it's good to set goals and for me January is the usual time I set goals because my birthday is in December: I'm coming into a new individual year and an overall new year. But I do then at any point during the year when I feel the need to make a change or move my life forward because it doesn't matter when you set your goals, the key is sticking them.

And I believe one of the hardest parts about setting goals regarding eating is finding healthy food that tastes good. I've been trying to eat well since I was in junior high– this was the middle 1980s and we didn't have the access to the food we do now. We also didn't have the knowledge. For instance, everything would say that you need to eat salad. That was great and I was happy to do that but no one told me to add some protein to my salad (in those days "salad" meant all vegetables) so I wouldn't have a headache at the end of the school day when I went out for track practice. 

After a few days of that, there was no more healthy eating; I needed protein I wasn't getting. Today I would add hard-boiled eggs and nuts.

But I also didn't understand why I would attend a conference and want to sleep during the keynote: orange juice and bagels are not exactly the best breakfast to keep people awake (but they are cheap!). I finally started bringing my own blender and making smoothies. It wasn't worth the exhaustion I felt when I didn't get a good breakfast.

Now we talk more about eating proteins that will fill us up and keep us full for a number of hours. We have access to whole grains rather than simple carbohydrates. And we are encouraged to eat more greens. 

There are lots of good happenings in the eating world but I'm sure many people don't think that tofu is one of them. I would agree– the one time I made tofu I didn't get it. The white substance had no flavor and left me hungry.

I decided to give tofu a chance again with this recipe from the Martha Stewart Clean Slate Cookbook (one of several that I've tried already). I made it Saturday for lunch and while I did things slightly differently: used chile powder instead of turmeric, no cojita cheese, and onions instead of scallions, it was quite tasty. I liked the spice off the chiles and the chile powder. The tofu wasn't too bad either because it had been blended with several other spices. We also had strawberries as a side.

However, I was hungry about two hours later. In the future I would find something to pair it with to help stave off my hungry and I would add more black beans. While I agree it is important to eat every few hours, often our lifestyles don't allow us to do that. The less I think about food, the better off I am.

Give tofu a chance in the new year.

The tofu scramble recipe is here.

Memories of Mom: The Cookie Press

These cookies are not going to win any awards for presentation and I definitely wouldn’t invite Gordon Ramsey over to eat any. But they represent something else to me: Mom.

Every year this was the one item on the list we could count on Mom to do at Christmastime, even in the last years when she didn’t go out to buy us cards. At least she still made the cookies. When her original Mirro cookie press broke, we found her a new one at an antique store.

But I will be the first to admit they are not my favorite recipe to make simply because of the cookie press. The dough has to be at an exact temperature for the cookies to come out perfectly. I used the trigger-operated press once but I never found it to be easier to use and now that Mom has died, I have her second generation press.

However, if I wanted any of her cookies this year, I had to make them. While the they are made of cookie basics (flour, sugar, butter), these also have almond extract which gives them that distinct flavor. And in my laziness, I combined the two colors of dough but found that they actually create tie-dye looking cookies.

Mostly, this was about eating the cookies and tasting the memories that came with them.

Mirro Cookie Press Recipe

2 ½ cups flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

green and red food coloring

decorating candies

Sift together flour and baking powder. Cream butter; add sugar gradually and cream thoroughly. Beat in egg, almond extract, and food coloring. Gradually blend in dry ingredients. Fill cookie press. Form cookies on ungreased baking sheet. Decorate with candies. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 6-7 dozen cookies.

Red Velvet Cake with...Beets? Carob?

Periodically I will talk about the challenge I always faced when I was very into running in high school and trying to eat better: I wanted to use better ingredients and find more nutritional density to my food but it was almost impossible in the late 1980s. 

My fiancé and I were talking about this a little while ago. He said, "It wasn't just that you didn't have the access to ingredients but you also didn't have access to the recipes."

While I would make pizza using wheat flour, I knew of all most no one else who did that (outside of Rocky Rococo Pizza, a Wisconsin chain that had opened in the next town over from mine in Illinois).

Now there is so much out there and I'm willing to explore all sorts of ways to make my food not just be nutritionally better but also have unique flavors.

For a dinner party across the street yesterday, I used the Cooking Light recipe for red velvet cake that uses beets for the color. However, instead of using cocoa, I put carob powder in my version. While I had some issues with the recipe (I don't believe there was enough frosting or filling), I was very happy with the outcome and the taste which wasn't overly sweet but brought together several foods one might not consider before. I also like the lightened calories and fat content- including using Greek yogurt in the filling.