Orange Cake

Orange Cake

This is an adaptation for a recipe for orange bread. It turned out so much like a cake, I decided to keep it. I actually made it using mandarins. This was very delicious.

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup oil or butter (I used coconut oil)
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cups sour cream
Juice from 4 large oranges or 8 mandarins
Zest from the same oranges or mandarins
1 tsp vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups flour (or more)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Dash of nutmeg

Optional Glaze Ingredients:
1 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1 can coconut milk (cream portion and enough liquid to get the consistency of what you want)
Splash of vanilla
Dash of cardamom

Directions:
1) In large bowl, beat eggs until fully mixed.
2) Add oil to eggs and beat until fluffy again.
3) Add sugar and beat once again.
4) Mix in the remaining wet ingredients.
5) In a medium bowl, sift all the dry ingredients.
6) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. If you see it is too runny, add  more flour.
7) Pour batter into greased cake pans or a bundt pan.
8) Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven 45 minutes for cake pans and 1 hour 10 minutes in a bundt pan or until it tests done with a toothpick.
9) Let cool briefly before trying to remove from pan.
10) Top with your favorite glaze.

Directions for Glaze:
1) Beat sugar, cream cheese, the cream portion of the coconut milk, vanilla, and cardamom together in small bowl until blended.
2) Add enough of the remaining coconut milk liquid until you get your desired consistency.
3) For best results, we discovered that this glaze fluffs up a little if refrigerated overnight.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies (AKA: Crack Pumpkin Cookies)

So, my wife and everyone at her work really love these cookies. She calls them "Crack Pumpkin Cookies" because no matter how hard you try, you always eat a ton of them. They are so addictive! The recipe calls for oil only, but they can come out a little flat if you don't regularly chill the cookies during preparation time. I have debated using half butter and half coconut oil to prevent so much melting, but that might change the flavor too much.


Dry Ingredients:
6 c flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
Dash of cloves powder

Wet Ingredients:
2 c cane sugar
2 c room temp coconut oil (not the icky flavorless stuff, use the real stuff)
2 eggs
2 c raw pumpkin purée peeled
1/2 t vanilla extract

Other Ingredients:
More sugar for dipping
water for dipping





 Directions:


1) Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
2) In a very large bowl, mix eggs until smooth.
3) Add coconut oil to eggs and beat until fluffy and smooth.
4) Add other wet ingredients into egg and oil mixture and beat until fluffy.
5) Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix until incorporated. The mixture will be sticky.
6) Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
7) Dip a dinner spoon and your hands in water (wet not soaking). Use the spoon to scoop out a small ball and roll it gently in your hands to form a mediocre ball. Roll the ball in sugar and place on a greased cookie sheet. Due to the nature of coconut oil, they might melt and spread on the pan. Space them accordingly.
8) Freeze the prepared balls uncovered for about 15 minutes.
9) Bake the frozen balls in a preheated oven 350 degrees for 15 minutes, rotating once at half time.

Yield:
A heap of cookies! I think I ended up with about 8 dozen. It depends on how big you make the cookies.

Whole Kamut Bread

This is an awesome recipe I developed for whole-grain kamut! This recipe is 100% kamut flour (except for the 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten)! It is soft, fluffy, rich in flavor, sweet. . .it's awesome! This is definitely a flour I would use to substitute all-purpose flour for cakes! 

Whole Kamut Bread

Sponge Ingredients:
2 c kamut flour
2 c warm water
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp yeast


Sponge Directions:
1) Dissolve honey in water in small dish.
2) Add yeast to honey water and let proof.
3) In large bowl, add flour and wet mixture.
4) Let sit for 12 hours or more.


Loaf Ingredients: 

entire sponge from above
1/4 c coconut oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp yeast 
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 c kamut flour

Loaf Directions:
1) Add sponge, coconut oil, honey, yeast, and salt, and vital wheat gluten to bowl. Mix until well-incorporated.
2) Add flour to mixture one cup at a time until mixed.
3) Mix together thoroughly. If too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time.
4) Knead by machine for at least 8 minutes.
5) Place dough in lightly-oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled.
6) On floured surface, punch down dough and separate into two loaves for bread or into 6-8 smaller rolls if preferred. Shape how you pretty much want it.
7) Let rise in oiled pans to double.
8) Cut design and add egg wash if desired.
9) For Bread loaves:
    Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 35-40 min.
    For Rolls:
    Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 15-20 min.
10) Let cool on wire racks.

To Keep Moist:
While still slightly warm, place in bread bag and tie it off.

For Better Slicing:
Let sit in refrigerator overnight.

Remember that this bread has no preservatives and requires refrigeration if you intend to keep it longer than a day. This bread freezes well and should taste fresh after a month.

Whole Wheat Starter

Here is the starter I created for my amazing whole wheat bread. Basically, it is just an ordinary starter, but using whole wheat flour.

Whole Wheat Starter

Ingredients: 

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp yeast



Directions:

1) Add whole wheat flour to bowl.
2) In separate dish dissolve molasses in the water.
3) Add the yeast to the water to proof.
4) Pour water mixture onto flour and mix thoroughly.

5) Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit for 12-24 hours on the counter. (Or continue to feed it over several days.)
6) After your desired wait time is over, put it in the bread you're making!

Yield:
4 cups

Sourdough Whole Wheat

This happens to me one of the most delicious whole wheat breads I've ever had! I took this recipe from my Seedless Jewish Rye and changed just a few things. Light and airy with the heavy taste of whole wheat!

Sourdough Whole Wheat

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cups pieces of previous (whole wheat) bread
3 cups fed whole wheat starter (click here for recipe)
1-2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp yeast 
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
3+ cups unbleached or bread flour

Directions:
1) Soak old loaf pieces in water and squeeze out water. Place them in the bowl.
2) Add starter, molasses, yeast, and salt to bread pieces. Mix until well-incorporated.
3) Add flour to mixture one cup at a time until mixed. Do not over-flour.
4) Mix together thoroughly. If too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time.
5) Knead by machine for at least 8 minutes.
6) Place dough in lightly-oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit 1/2 hour only.
7) On floured surface, punch down dough and separate into two loaves for bread or into 6-8 smaller rolls if preferred. Shape how you pretty much want it.
8) Let rise in oiled pans 1/2 to 3/4 hour only.
9) Cut design and add egg wash if desired.
10) For Bread loaves:
    Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 25-30 min.
    For Rolls:
    Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 10-15 min.
11) Let cool on wire racks.

To Keep Moist:
While still slightly warm, place in bread bag and tie it off.

For Better Slicing:
Let sit in refrigerator overnight.

Remember that this bread has no preservatives and requires refrigeration if you intend to keep it longer than a day. This bread freezes well and should taste fresh after a month.

Butter and Sugar Cookies

So, I was looking for a good recipe for sugar cookies that keep their shape and are soft when cooked which do no not need refrigerated. Here it is! And I found it on the inside of a cookie-cutter package! I did change this recipe though. I used less vanilla, and I used orange extract instead of almond (and I doubled it)! I also doubled the baking powder.

Butter and Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter (2 sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt


Directions:
1)  Beat butter, egg, sugar, salt, and extracts in mixing bowl until smooth and fluffy.
2) Mix dry ingredients together in small bowl.
3) Add flour mixture one cup at a time until incorporated. It will look like loose meal.
4) Used hands to smoosh it all together.
5) Roll it out to desired thickness on a well-floured surface.
6) Punch out with your favorite cookie cutters.
7) Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. They will not look done, but they will be.
8) Decorate with your favorite frosting!

Yield:
About 4 dozen depending on the thickness and shape of your cookies.

Whole Rye Experiment #1

This was my first trial bread using fresh-ground rye flour with a new grain mill I got for Christmas! All I really did was substitute 1/3 of the flour with rye flour. It was okay, but something went wrong as it fell. I have suspicions to several reasons why it did this (kneading time, lack of gluten, soaking the rye first, etc.), but the bread tasted great and I used the leftovers in a later bread recipe!

Whole Rye Experiment #1

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp yeast
1 cup whole rye flour
2 1/2 cups unbleached or bread flour
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1) Dissolve sweetener into water and add yeast to proof.
2) Sift and combine flours and salt in mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle.
3) Add liquid mixture to dry in the well. 
4) Mix together thoroughly. If too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time.
5) Knead by machine for 3-8 minutes.
6) Place dough in lightly-oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit until doubled in size; about 1/2 an hour.
7)  On floured surface, punch down dough and separate into two loaves for bread or into 6-8 smaller rolls if preferred.
8) Let rise in oiled pans until doubled in size.
9) For Bread loaves:
    Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 25-30 min.
    For Rolls:
    Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 10-15 min.
10) Let cool on wire racks.

To Keep Moist:
While still slightly warm, place in bread bag and tie it off.

For Better Slicing:
Let sit in refrigerator overnight.

Remember that this bread has no preservatives and requires refrigeration if you intend to keep it longer than a day. This bread freezes well and should taste fresh after a month.