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We were out of cookies. I wanted something sweet with my tea, so on Monday afternoon, I made oil-based blueberry scones. The lemon that I had in the refrigerator had gone bad, so I used 1/8 tsp of lime oil instead of lemon zest and out of lemon oil. The flavor is a little strong in the scone that I ate today. I hope that it will be less intense tomorrow when I have one for breakfast.
I also made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers this afternoon. I will bake those at the end of the week.
Here is a link to the original recipe for the Blackberry Jam Cake:
The cake is delicious, but I think that the nutmeg is a little strong. I would cut it back to ½ tsp. or perhaps replace it with some allspice. I was a little surprised that the recipe specified nutmeg, as I do not think of it in connection with blackberries.
The last two buns got moldy and had to be thrown out, so on Sunday, we had a half of a ham sandwich each on Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread. My husband still has to eat his sandwiches open faced because he cannot get his mouth opened wide enough for a conventional sandwich. He continues home therapy, and he has extended the width somewhat. We also had the last of the green bean, tomato, and feta salad for now, but I will be making more later this week.
This Sunday morning, I was searching recipes for a blackberry jam cake on Bing, and "Blackberry Jam Cake," from P. Allen Smith's website popped into view. I decided to see if I could modify the recipe to use avocado oil rather than butter. I also wanted to substitute half of a whole grain flour. When I later googled the question, "Do blackberries and barley go together," I found a scone recipe that uses whole blackberries and barley flour, so I decided the flavors would be complementary. I want to find ways to use my large stock of blackberry jam that has resulted from a couple of years of excellent harvests.
This recipe makes a very large cake. As I am experimenting, and there are just two of us, I chose to make a half recipe. Given the ingredient amounts, I decided on a 10-cup Bundt pan (the "party" pan), and that was a good decision. Oil cakes tend not to rise a lot, but the batter came within an inch of the top. I think that the very largest Bundt cake pan could handle the full recipe.
I replaced ½ cup butter with 1/3 cup avocado oil. I used half barley flour. I substituted English walnuts for the black walnuts that I do not have. I only have light brown sugar, so I used it instead of the dark brown sugar. I deleted half a cup of raisins. I used a cup of the blackberry jam that I recently made--from a jar where there was not enough to can, from a dish with not enough even to put into a jar, and from a jar that did not seal. I did not bother separating the eggs and beating the egg whites and folding them in. I think that it would not make as much difference with an oil cake as it would a butter cake.
The recipe says to bake at 325 F for 1 ½ hours to 2 hours. That seems a rather long interval, but perhaps it depends on the consistency of the jam. I checked the cake after an hour, and, since it is a half recipe and therefore a smaller cake. It registered 210 F, and a Bundt cake is done at 200 F, according to the site I googled. After 15 minutes, it came out of the pan easily. I will let it cool and rest overnight to allow the flavors to develop, and we will begin slicing it tomorrow evening for dessert. It smells wonderful!
Friday night's dinner was my Mom's Hamburger Stroganoff served over a mixture of brown and wild rice and accompanied by microwaved fresh green beans from our garden. The hamburger stroganoff is likely a 1950s recipe, and it was what she frequently served to company in the 1960s. I have given it a healthy makeover by using 93% lean ground beef and draining off the grease, using a pound of fresh mushrooms rather than canned, eliminating the butter and using a bit of olive oil, and replacing all of the sour cream with Chobani non-fat Greek yogurt. I also replace white rice with the brown and wild rice mixture. For my husband, I have to eliminate the fresh onion, so I substitute dehydrated onion. I still use the can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup, but I use the variety with less salt and fat.
Navlys--I refuse to squish garlic. Instead, I break out the garlic powder.
We had another easy meal on Friday of ham sandwiches on buns and green bean, tomato, and feta salad.
I heard that Vermont is getting a lot of rain, so I hope Chocomouse and her husband are ok.
That is wonderful that she stopped and helped you Joan! What a blessing.
My husband used the last slice of bread at lunch on Thursday, so in the afternoon I baked three loaves of Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread. Two loaves will go in the freezer. We are having cooler weather, so today was a good day to bake.
I made yogurt on Thursday, a day early, as I will not have time to make it tomorrow. I also made green bean, cherry tomato, and feta salad again. We had it for dinner with the rest of the chicken salad on more of the rolls.
I baked Blueberry Sweet Rolls on Wednesday. It is a cinnamon roll recipe with the interior dotted with blueberries, then rolled up and cut the roll into slices. And yes, the blueberries like to roll out, but I just stuff them back. The recipe makes 20, with 12 in one pan and 8 in another, but I got distracted and realized I'd stuffed 15 into the first pan, so I cut the last quarter into six pieces instead of five and found a smaller dish for it. I decided to try lining the glass baking dishes with parchment to make for an easier clean-up, which Len mentioned a while back. I am now sold on using parchment for future batches of sweet rolls--no more scraping the spilled filling off the pan!
Joan--My mother was a big fan of cold pizza for breakfast! Your pizza looks wonderful, and I approve of ALL the toppings!
I made minestrone on Wednesday for lunch for today and into the week. I have not made it in ages and had forgotten how good it is, especially with fresh green beans from our garden.
For dinner, I made chicken salad from the rest of the roasted chicken breast meat. We had it on the buns I baked yesterday, along with more of the green bean, cherry tomato, and feta salad.
We had used up all the sandwich buns in the freezer, so on Tuesday, I baked another batch of the Whole Wheat/Rye/Semolina buns.
Follow-up on the Oatmeal Scotchies: My version is very good, but I do miss that buttery taste and texture. I would still bake the revised version, as it at least gives the butterscotch taste.
You are lucky, Joan! While I have access to a small weekly farmers market, it is often hit or miss as to what I will find there.
Dinner tonight was ham sandwiches on freshly baked buns with green bean, cherry tomato, and feta salad.
Stay safe, Joan.
For dinner on Monday, I made that green bean, cherry tomato, and feta salad yet again. We had it with an ear of corn each and more leftover roasted chicken breast. I like these easy summer meals.
I hope that Joan and CWCdesign are doing ok with the storms moving into Georgia.
Ever since Joan baked the Oatmeal Scotchies cookies, I have been wondering if I could develop a healthier version that I could eat occasionally. I needed a distraction on Monday, and we were going to be out of cookies after today, so I checked and found a half bag of Nestles butterscotch chips in the second refrigerator that have been there since before I gave up saturated fat in butter and chips, which I think was four years ago. I tasted one, and it was fine. (I suspect they will never go bad.) I worked out a recipe, with avocado oil and water replacing the butter and baked a half recipe this afternoon. I will allow them to rest overnight, with the idea that, as with cakes, the flavor will develop during the rest. If we like them, I will post the re-worked recipe.
The chips give them about 1.45 g saturated fat per cookie. There is a bit of additional saturated fat from the egg, avocado oil, and sunflower kernels, but as these ingredients also contain healthy fats and nutrients, I did not include them in the overall tally.
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