Adventures in Food
Baking Time
Buckwheat crepes
Apr 13th
My teen had one request for her birthday–breakfast in bed. And she wanted crepes. Mr. Squid usually handles crepe duty around our house. See he can flip the crepes in the air and have them land right back in the pan. Mine tend to land on the counter, when they don’t fly off to the floor.
But I’d been wanting to try a new buckwheat flour crepe recipe. At the Cleveland’s West Side Market one of the most popular booths is Crepes De Luxe, which touts their “authentic, Parisian style” crepes. (If you go, just ask someone to point out where “the crepe place is” then look for a long line.) I find that buckwheat crepes are thicker, bigger and heartier than your all-purpose flour variety. I like it. Usually buckwheat crepes are reserved for the savory fare. And you can use this recipe for a savory meal, I’ve melted fontina and roasted asparagus in these crepes for dinner. But this time it was all about something sweet for a special breakfast.
Notes:
I don’t use a crepe pan, I just bake ‘em in my regular, non-stick 9″ saute pan.
Recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cleveland's Crepes De Luxe
Servings: about 15 crepes in a 9″ pan
Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
Directions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender, puree until smooth. I didn’t use sugar, but you could if you want these a little sweeter. (I was saving some for dinner and I don’t like too-sweet desserts anyway.)
- Refrigerate the batter for 30 minutes to an hour.
- In a 9″ saute pan or crepe pan melt 1 teaspoon butter to medium-high heat.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan and swirl until it stretches out over the pan. Cook until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 60 seconds then carefully flip. I no longer try to toss mine in the air, but rely on a large spatula.
- Cook for 45 seconds on the other side then transfer to a plate. Repeat with the rest of the batter, placing pieces of waxed paper between the crepes so they don’t stick.
To serve:
For a sweet crepe I keep it simple: I cut up strawberries and let them sit in a sprinkling in sugar and fresh lemon juice while I was preparing the crepes. On the plate I swirled Hershey’s chocolate syrup just for decoration then slathered Nutella on the still-warm crepes. I also tucked strawberry slices inside before rolling them up, placing them on the plate and garnishing them with another strawberry and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, just cuz.
Basket cookies & bunny bread
Apr 6th
Anybody want a cookie?
For Easter I wanted to pass along a couple ideas I came up with while roaming through our neighborhood Italian shop, Alesci’s. Over the holidays, the bakery puts out their version of pupa cu l’ova, or basket cookies, a traditional Italian Easter treat. The idea behind the cookies is to bake an egg tucked into a cookie dough “basket.” Roaming online recipes, I found various ways to do this–sometimes the egg was hard-boiled, other times it wasn’t. Sometimes the egg was already dyed, others went sans color.
The sizable basket cookies at Alesci’s are made with a stiff biscotti dough that’s thickly glazed with powdered sugar and then tossed with multi-colored sprinkles. From what I could tell (and I’d have to happily research this by eating more), the cookies are baked, glazed, and then while still warm the hard-boiled egg is pressed into the cookie. Some recipes call for baking the cookies with the egg inside. My thought is if you want to try this at home, you could make a regular sugar cookie dough spiked with a little bit of anise. I’m going to have to try that for next year.
Don't eat the egg in the middle--it's just for decoration!
But what I did make with my kiddos is some bunny bread. We used pizza dough to create our edible bunnies. I rolled out the dough and then had the kids use a biscuit cutter for the bunny heads and simply cut the ears out with a kitchen knife. For the eyes we used black beans, but olives would work well too. We experimented with the nose and teeth. An overturned mushroom stood in for teeth on a couple of our bunnies. My daughter made a pepperoni smile for another. We did make one big bunny by stretching the dough out into a circle but in the end my teen noted it looked more like a pig than a bunny. Ah well, I wanted some sort of Easter treat for my kids that didn’t involve sugar and this one turned out tasty–and fun. Happy holidays everyone!
The floppy eared bunny
This one looks more like a pig, huh?
Bye bye bunny!
A week’s worth of chocolate
Mar 27th
Did you know chocolate is a vegetable? That’s right. Explaining her recent study results, which showed that people who get a daily dose of chocolate are slimmer than those who don’t, Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego said, “It’s my favorite vegetable.” Dr. Golomb cited chocolate’s antioxidant prowess when comparing it to other vegetables. She also relayed that chocoholics those in the study who ate chocolate each day had a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than those who didn’t.
Well, of course, I want to make sure that we’re all getting enough vegetables in our diet so here’s a week’s worth of recipes so you can get your fill.
Monday
Whole wheat chocolate yogurt loaf
Keep 100% whole wheat bread moist by adding in plenty of Greek yogurt and chocolate, of course!
Tuesday
Blueberry-spinach chocolate brownies
Spinach-Blueberry Brownies
These brownies have a boost of extra nutrition from a blueberry-spinach puree that you mix in the batter. My teen loves these brownies even though they do turn out a bit softer than your straight-chocolate recipe.
Wednesday
Easy peanut butter cups (no bake!)
These homemade peanut butter cups are easy to put together. Thanks for the idea Martha and Me.
Thursday
Chocolate chocolate chip cookies
From Garlic Girl, add cocoa to your chocolate chip cookies for a extra boost of the good stuff.
Friday
Chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake
My signature dessert that I try to make infrequently because it’s soo tempting. (I should point out that technically you should be sticking to around an ounce of daily chocolate so you’d need to be nibbling your cheesecake slice.)
Saturday
Lemon Ginger Shortbread S’mores
Chocolate and lemon make such a surprisingly perfect combo–add a toasty marshmallow topping to make this updated kid classic from Good.Food.Stories.
Sunday
End your week with these simple treats that have both cocoa powder and mini-chocolate chips (although feel free to add the regular size if you feel like you haven’t been getting enough chocolate in your diet).
*Special thanks to the National Institutes of Health for funding this study and others like it. Dr. Golomb mentioned she needed to do additional studies. The big question: WHERE CAN I SIGN UP?
Rocky road pizza
Mar 20th
When I picked up the phone this afternoon at first I thought something was wrong. On the other end, my mother-in-law just didn’t sound like herself. When I asked what was up, I had to laugh at her response: “Kris, I finally tried Nutella today. It was a-m-a-zing.”
Even though she spent part of her childhood overseas, my mother-in-law had never tried Nutella. She’s hooked now. We talked about all of the ways she could use it, but one of my newly discovered favs has to be rocky road pizza. Bonus: these mini dessert pizzas are fun for kids or grandkids to make!
Recipe
Prep time: 15 minutes + baking
Servings: 4 mini pizzas with 4 slices each
Ingredients
1 package pizza dough
1-1 1/2 cups Nutella
1-2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup smoked almonds, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking oil.
- Divide the dough into four equal pieces and roll each one out to a 6-8-inch circle.
- Spread Nutella on each pizza round using a kitchen knife.
- Place the mini pizzas onto the baking sheet.
- Sprinkle marshmallows, nuts and chocolate chips (if using) on top of the Nutella.
- Bake the pizzas for 20 minutes or until the marshmallows become golden.
- Cool before slicing.
Kids’ reactions: As you might expect, all of my crew, including Mr. Squid raved about these mini pizzas. We also tried mixing apple slices with Nutella on pizzas too. The pizzas were harder to slice than the rocky road version but at least I felt like they had some nutritional value. I’m thinking when raspberries are in season it would be tasty to spread the pizzas with Nutella and white chocolate chips and once they came out of the oven I’d pop on fresh berries.
Yogurt banana cake with chocolate chips
Mar 8th
Shhhhh, don’t tell my kids but this recipe is simply a tweaked muffin recipe. Yup I just didn’t want to take the time to fill up all of the muffin tins so I poured the batter into a 9×13″ pan instead, called it cake, and my kids were hooked. Okay, the chocolate chips helped, but so did the hefty amount of Greek yogurt which makes this ‘cake’ moist and filling.
Recipe
Servings: 20
Prep time: 15 minutes + baking
Ingredients
3 cups flour (whole wheat flour would work well too)
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt
2 eggs
8 Tbsp. melted butter
2/3 cup chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Using a hand-held mixer mash the bananas and then add the brown sugar, followed by the yogurt, then eggs and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, stir together all of the dry ingredients.
- Blend the dry ingredients into the banana mixture. Stir in the melted butter and chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into a greased 9×13″ pan.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool and eat for dessert, breakfast or snacks.
Kids’ reaction: Well, no surprise but this was a big hit with my crew. I’ve now made it twice this week and my kids are trying to keep from eating bananas around here so they’ll be ripe enough to use in this recipe. Originally, I was going to make a simple glaze for this using powdered sugar and maple syrup but it doesn’t need it.
Five-ingredient baked ziti
Feb 29th
Five ingredients. One prep time. Three meals. What does it add up to? Easy baked ziti. I make a big batch of baked ziti one night that fills one, 9 x 13″ pan (for dinner that night and leftovers the next), then I fill a 9×9″ aluminum foil pan that I freeze and save to eat a couple weeks later. The only hard part about this meal is mixing all of the ingredients together before putting ‘em in the pans (hint: grab your biggest bowl).
A few notes on baked ziti:
•The noodles really do make a difference. Forget the penne, rigatoni, or even macaroni, ziti pasta is best.
•This dish is simple to make meatless. Skip the Italian sausage and use roasted veggies or spinach.
•I often add in spinach to this dish. The kids don’t seem to notice, plus I really like spinach.
•You can add as many different kinds of cheeses as you want–the last time I made this I put in Truffle Cheese (thank you Trader Joe’s!).
Baked ziti has all of the same flavors as lasagna, without all the work. So if your family likes lasagna, they’ll love baked ziti.
Recipe
Prep time: 25 minutes + 40 minutes baking + 15 minutes cooling
Servings: 10+
Ingredients
1 16-ounce package ziti pasta
1 16-ounce container ricotta cheese
3 cups mozzarella cheese, divided
2 24-ounce jars spaghetti sauce
1 pound sweet Italian sausage (optional, but recommended)
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions
- Cook the Italian sausage, breaking up the meat into bite-sized pieces with the spatula.
- Cook the pasta according the package directions. Note: this recipe works best with ziti cooked to al dente, make sure not to overcook the pasta.
- In a large bowl, mix together the cooked pasta and sausage, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, all of the ricotta cheese and both jars of spaghetti sauce.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Coat a 9×13” pan with baking spray. Pour the pasta mixture into the pan and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese and additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.
- Place the filled 9×13” pan on a cookie sheet to make it easier to get in and out of the oven. (The pan will be heavy!)
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the cheese becomes golden brown.
- Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
*We have a winner to the Parents Need to Eat Too cookbook giveaway! Laura will be receiving her copy soon.
Whole wheat chocolate yogurt loaf
Feb 23rd
Reading the description of chocolate yogurt loaf in Debbie Koenig’s Parents Need to Eat Too cookbook I was struck by two ideas: the recipe was inspired by New York City delis (as a former New Yorker I was intrigued) and it’s chocolatey goodness is hypnotic while still being dietlicious.
I’m all for chocolate treats that taste decadent but don’t pack too many calories or fat (think: brownie craving satisfier right here). But I wondered if I could boost the nutrition just a bit. That way I wouldn’t feel too bad adding in some chocolate chips too (hey, we all need more anti-oxidants in our diet and dark chocolate happens to have them, which is why I try to get a little dark chocolate in each day–it’s tough, but I somehow manage).
I figured this recipe with a hefty dose of yogurt would be perfect paired with whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour. I also added a tablespoon of ground flax, 1/4 cup chopped almonds, orange zest, and mini Ghirardelli chocolate chips.
Kid reactions: Well, it’s chocolate, of course they loved it! My teen who has quite the discerning taste buds didn’t like the added orange zest. In her words, “the orange zest brings out the flavor of the whole wheat instead of the chocolate so I’d skip it next time.” If your kids are begging for brownies but you want to try something that might be just a little healthier than your standard recipe, you might consider making this loaf.
Want to see more recipes from Parents Need to Eat Too? Enter the giveaway that’s going on now through next week for a chance to win a free copy.
Recipe
Servings: 9
Prep time: 15 minutes + baking
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt (I used Greek)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a loaf pan. (I thought two mini pans would work nicely here too).
- In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, except for the chocolate chips.
- Beat the butter and sugar together on high speed. Then add in the egg and vanilla.
- Add half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture; blend.
- Add half of the yogurt into the batter; blend.
- Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and yogurt. (The batter will be stiff.)
- Mix in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts, if using.
- Spread the batter into the pan and cook for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through.
Sheryl Crow’s recipe for roasted chicken breasts
Feb 15th
I’m usually not one to check out celebrity cookbooks, but I ran across this recipe in an issue of Prevention magazine on a week when chicken breasts happened to be on sale. Apparently this is a favorite from Sheryl Crow’s recent cookbook, If It Makes You Healthy (and I thought I was a fan of questionable puns). The recipe was easy, tasty, and made enough for two meals. (On day #2 I used the extra meat to make tacos, quesadillas, or burritos.)
Idea to make this even simpler:
I’ll buy enough ingredients to make this recipe 2 or 3 times. Place the meat in the marinade in plastic bags or containers then freeze until you’re ready to use. That way, as the chicken thaws, it’s marinating too.
Recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes + baking
Servings: 4-6
Ingredients
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
1/3 cup olive oil (I use half flavored oil, like basil, half regular)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (the juice of about 1 lemon; go ahead and toss the whole lemon in the bag once you’re done juicing it)
3 cloves garlic (or ½ teaspoon garlic powder)
1 teaspoon dried basil or Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Olive oil
Directions
- In a mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients except the chicken. Stir.
- Add the chicken to a large, heavy-duty plastic bag and then pour in the marinade ingredients.
- Marinate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Add ½ tablespoon olive oil to a nonstick skillet and bring to medium-high temperature.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and put it in the hot pan, skin side down. Heat for about three minutes or until the skin is browned.
- Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray.
- Cook for about 20 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer measures the chicken at 155 degrees. (The chicken meat should reach 160 after it’s out of the oven.)
- Allow the chicken to sit for five minutes before serving.
Dark chocolate apricot cheesecake with blackberry sauce
Feb 9th
Chocolate. Make that dark chocolate. That’s what Happy Valentine’s Day are all about. If you’re looking for something decadent and special come February 14th, this is one show-stopper of a dessert. And the best part is you can make it a couple days ahead of time: it’s even better after it’s had time to–in Mr. Squid’s words–”densify.”
I actually made this dessert by request awhile back for my tween’s birthday cake. But I was getting bored doing the same-old cheesecake; I wanted to have some fun with the recipe.
So I was looking for a few ways to tweak my classic recipe and I thought of a common dessert combination from Viennese desserts where apricots are the fruit of choice with chocolate, instead of strawberries or raspberries. I like a hint of tartness to desserts so along with subbing apricot jam for raspberry, I also decided to forgo the regular whipped cream on top with a fresh blackberry sauce instead. That said, you can’t even taste the apricot in the final cake, it just intensifies the depth of the dark chocolate.
You’re intrigued, right? I hope so. This was by far my favorite cheesecake I’ve ever made. Ever.
Note: Another update to this recipe was trying to make it just a smidge healthier. I know, this wouldn’t qualify for a light recipe by any stretch of the imagination but I used Neufchatel cream cheese instead of the full fat variety and I nixed the whip cream for a fruit sauce. Small steps, right?
Okay, one more note: Please don’t let these directions scare you, just being thorough here because I believe in cheesecakes without cracks, and a waterbath is the way to go.
Recipe
Prep time: 30 minutes + 75 minutes baking + 60 minutes cooling
Servings: 12
Ingredients
Crust
9 ounces chocolate wafers
3 tablespoons butter, melted (lower fat butter works well too!)
Cheesecake
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chips are fine
1 cup heavy cream
¾ cup apricot jam
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese (Neufchatel recommended)
*Make sure the cheese is at room temperature
¾ cups sugar (I used 2/3 this time)
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Sauce
2 cups blackberries (thawed or fresh)
1 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
lemon (optional)
Directions
For the crust: In a food processor, grind up the chocolate wafers (I also add just a touch of salt). I use Pepperidge Farms chocolate goldfish as the base for my crust—they’re not overly sweet like Oreos with cream filling. Add the melted butter to the crushed cookies. Here’s the tricky part. You’ll need a 9-inch springform pan. Surround the outside of the pan with aluminum foil (I’ll explain more on this later.) Cut a round piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom part of the pan. Spray the pan with cooking spray then insert the paper and spray again. Press the cookie crumbs into the pan and half way up the sides with your fingers (I’ve tried this with spoons, but frankly fingers are best). Put the crust into the fridge while you prepare the filling.
For the filling: Preheat the over to 325 degrees. In a large, glass measuring bowl, melt the chocolate and the heavy cream together in the microwave. Melt the two slowly. I usually start at half the power level for around two minutes. When the chips start to lose their shape, I finish the melting process by stirring the mixture vigorously. Add the jam to the chocolate mixture, stir and let it cool about 10 minutes.
In another large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese and the sugar. As I noted in the directions, it’s key to have the cream cheese at room temperature. (Eggs, too!) Beat the sugar and cream cheese for at least 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Now, add the vanilla and the chocolate-apricot mixture. Beat all the ingredients together for at least 5 minutes (I set a timer).
Constructing a waterbath: Here’s another tricky part—creating a water bath for your cheesecake. water bath keeps your cheesecake dense and smooth instead of dry. You’ll need a large, glass baking dish. I wish I had a larger one, but my biggest is 9×11” so I have to improvise. (I also add a larger, cookie baking pan under the casserole dish to make it easier to get it into and out of the oven.) make several aluminum balls and place them in the center of the baking dish because the casserole dish isn’t wide enough. Next, gently press the springform pan into the casserole dish. Pour the cheesecake filling into the crust, making surethat your aluminum balls stay in place and keep your pan level. Add about a half an inch of water to the bottom of the casserole dish (not into your cheesecake!). Carefully put the whole contraption into the preheated oven.
Bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours or until the cheesecake just jiggles in the center. Once the cheesecake is set, turn off and leave the door open. Wait one hour and then remove the cheesecake. Carefully pull it out of the water bath. Gently release the springform mechanism, but don’t remove it. Use a butter knife to separate the crust from the pan (this will ensure that the top doesn’t crack). Put your cheesecake into the fridge for at least one day before serving.
For the sauce: Place the water, sugar, and butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until the mixture thickens and just barely become syrupy (about 4 minutes on my power burner). Pour the berries into the hot mixture and simmer until the berries start to break apart. Use a handheld immersion blender to liquify the berries. Alternatively, you can pour the sauce into a blender. Adjust the seasonings: I like my sauce tart so I added 1 teaspoon lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon red raspberry vinegar. You might like adding orange zest or a bit of juice to add a hint of sourness and interest to the sauce. Cool to room temperature before serving. The sauce will thicken as it cools.
Note: I’ve had this recipe for years, it comes from an old recipe book called 365 Great Chocolate Desserts by Natalie Haughton
Banana buckwheat bread
Jan 28th
Who else likes to experiment with different flours? Me too. Buckwheat flour has been on my list since I noticed a popular, local eatery, Crepes De Luxe, touting that they used it to make their nearly tire-sized crepes.
So buckwheat works to make hearty crepes, I wondered about using it in breads and muffins. The texture of buckwheat flour is noticeably courser then white flour and even whole wheat. I thought it might pair well with a recipe that tends to be moist anyway. Banana bread! I don’t like banana bread that gets too gummy. Have you ever had that happen where on day #2 of cutting into your banana bread the top is sticky? Buckwheat might just solve the problem.
As long as I was using buckwheat flour, which happens to be packed with nutrients, I wanted to keep all of the other ingredients as healthy as possible. I looked for a butter-free recipe that was also slim on sugar. But of course I added a few dark chocolate mini chips to the mix because they’re full of anti-oxidants. (Okay, it doesn’t take much for me to add chocolate to just about anything, but hey, dark chocolate is good for you.) I tweaked a recipe from Ginger Jen to come up with my version.
Recipe
Prep time: 15 minutes + baking
Servings: 4-6
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar)
3 ripened bananas
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
2 tablespoons milk (I used fat-free Greek yogurt)
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup mini dark chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small mixing bowl, stir together all of the dry ingredients, except the sugar, chips, and nuts.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mash the bananas using a handheld mixer. Add the eggs, then oil, then sugar, and blend until combined.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the banana mixture, just until moistened.
- Mix in the chocolate chips (if using) and walnuts.
- Coat one regular-sized loaf pan or two mini-sized ones (I prefer the smaller size) with cooking spray and pour the batter into the pan(s).
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the loaf tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool before cutting.
Kid reaction: I honestly didn’t think my kids would go for this heartier bread. Admittedly, the mini chocolate chips helped but I kept asking my youngest if she thought it tasted any different from our regular, whole wheat banana bread. She didn’t seem to notice and even walked off with the pieces I was using to take pictures for this post! I did think the bread was a bit drier and tended to crumble more than my usual recipe, but I liked it, especially since the crust stayed crisp on day #2.
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