Black [Sesame] Magic

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone! I hope your evenings were safe and fun, and if you have children that did the rounds tonight that they didn't get blown away by the gales storming outside!

I never cease to be amazed by the imaginations of the food bloggers around the world that I have the fortune of keeping up with. From new marketplaces and restaurants, to unique ingredients, to whole other worlds of cuisine that I never thought of before, my eyes are constantly being drawn to article after article - and my "ideas book" is filling up faster than I can cross off the entries! I'm not complaining in the least though. Who else can sit in an otherwise dry and dull three-hour lecture and pipe up every three minutes with a new fact to build or contradict the prescribed material? While I may be a bit of a shit disturber (if you'll pardon the term) in class, I also am able to lay claim to re-igniting the passion of some of my teachers who otherwise only re-hashed material they learned in the same program only a few years before at my college! I enjoy being able to share whatever bits of knowledge I can, to whomever will listen (or at least put up with me)... especially when it comes from people all around the world!

These cupcakes are an example of the power of other cooks have over my imagination, and also of how a good idea is always worth making your own! Carrie, who writes an incredible blog you may know as Fields of Cake and Other Good Stuff, posted an entry way back in March to the Iron Cupcake event for a goody akin to the Vosges Black Pearl Bar - a Dark Chocolate Sesame Wasabi Cupcake. Now, if you know me and my love for all things wasabi, you know this would be a shoo-in for my favourites list on any normal occasion. But as luck would have it (of course!) it's also full of all the kinds of goodies I can't enjoy - eggs, dairy, and the critical ingredient sesame oil! Not to mention that the process of brittle- ganache- and buttercream-making scared the jeepers out of me (particularly the brittle... hot sugar + me are not a happy pair!). But I knew people who would love eating the cupcakes as much as I would love making them... and cupcakes, I could make. I can do cake with my eyes closed (most of the time!). Perhaps later, when time, money for butter and cream (and good chocolate!), and bravery are on my side, I will put everything together like Carrie did and it might just look half as good! For now, I settled on veganizing her creation, and I was very pleased with it! Not oily at all like I worried, and just aromatic enough without taking over the luscious chocolate flavour.

Without the embellishments of the original recipe, the cupcakes themselves seemed kind of... plain. Not boring, really (because who else puts such a decadent, aromatic and flavour packed oil in a dark chocolate cupcake?), but not really wow worthy. Enter my good pal and fellow foodie Joel (AKA the Foodie411) with his recipe for Manda Muffins, and newly-proclaimed love for black sesame seeds! Perfect. They would be the smile-marring ninjas of my recipe... I'm not mean enough to go through with my initial plan of a heaping spoonful of wasabi powder, but this addition worked nicely. Mind you... I still have some ancho paste hanging around in my fridge...

Double - Dark Chocolate Sesame Cakes

Makes 24

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

5 oz low-fat silken tofu, pureed

1 cup cooled, strong coffee

1 cup fat free soymilk

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup toasted sesame seed oil

3 tbsp black sesame seeds, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
   
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
   
3. Make a well in the center and pour in the tofu, coffee, soymilk, lemon juice and oil.
   
4. Stir until smooth, then mix in the sesame seeds.
   
5. Spoon the batter into prepared cups, dividing evenly.
   
6. Bake 25 minutes.
   
7. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack for 20 minutes, then unmould and cool completely.
   

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 126.2

Total Fat: 5.7 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 11.5 mg

Total Carbs: 18.2 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.8 g

Protein: 2.6 g

Pimpin' the Pumpkin

Well, it's finally arrived - the eve pumpkins all around the world fear from when they're nothing but flower buds on the vine! It's the night before Hallowe'en, and here, it's when everyone in my household crowds around our kitchen table, and armed with a variety of somewhat battered, tarnished knives (and sometimes a pasta spoon or two for the really thick-walled ones) we proceed to inflict massive carnage upon the poor orange vegetables.

Of course, pumpkins don't just exist around here for carving into various miscreants - though if you are my sister, you delight in that sort of thing... this year was "attack of the zombie" themed. In the kitchen, at least, I embrace this time of year by cranking up the oven for a good week or so to churn out anything my wee brain (and even wee-er muscles) can handle. So in the spirit of All Hallows Eve, Samhain, and good old candy-grabbin' Hallowe'en, I've got three recipes - yup, a whole THREE of 'em - for you! Of course with cans of pumpkin puree lining the shelves (pumpkin shortage? Apparently our shops didn't get that memo!) it's just as simple to make these same things in the middle of May. It just might not feel the same to eat them with a glass of iced tea than with some hot mulled cider!

The first thing I whipped up was (suprise, suprise) a quickbread of sorts - subtly spiced, with a hint of fruity sweetness from both banana and pockets of dates and raisins! I added some rich, toasted pecans to the batter too, and taking a cue from a recipe in Cooking Light I even added cornmeal with my usual psyllium husk "spike" for some added texture.

Banana - Pumpkin Loaf With Dried Fruits And Pecans

Serves 12

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup psyllium
1 cup cornmeal
2 tsp powder
2 tsp soda
1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 banana
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
80g dates
85g raisins
100g chopped pecans

1. Heat oven to 350º F, and grease a loaf pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, psyllium fibre, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, pie spice and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, mash together the banana and pumpkin puree, then stir in soy milk, oil and brown sugar until well blended.
4. Stir in the dry mixture until just combined, then fold in the dates, raisins and pecans.
5. Bake 50 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan before turning onto a wire rack and cooling completely.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 268.8

Total Fat: 11.2 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 61.3 mg

Total Carbs: 40.2 g

Dietary Fiber: 5.2 g

Protein: 4.0 g

Of course, I couldn't do just one loaf - they're so easy to whip together and they are such a great use-up for random ingredients, after all! Since everyone in our house has had the flu at least once so far (with the exception of my stepbrother, who seems to be irritatingly immune to such things) we have a good deal of ginger and related gingery things stashed around our house. This includes a rather embarassingly large amount of ginger ale, which luckily for me works great as a sweet replacement for beer in a traditional "beer bread" type of concoction like the one I made from my mom's old, 25-cent "Bread Book". Instead of 1/2 a cup of melted butter in the recipe, I used the same amount of pumpkin, and added a couple tablespoons of oil for a bit more lightness to the texture. The resulting loaf was quite cakey due to the soda content but not at all cloyingly sweet, it was actually used as a lunch side for my mom and stepdad.

Ginger Ale Pumpkin Bread

Serves 10

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 1/2 cups ginger ale (not diet)

1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease a 9×5" loaf pan.
2. Whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
3. In a large bowl, beat together oil, brown sugar, pumpkin and fresh ginger.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir briefly, then pour in the ginger ale and mix until just combined.
5. Bake 55-60 minutes, until tests done. Cool 10 minutes in pan before unmoulding onto a rack and cooling completely.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 206.2

Total Fat: 4.7 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 6.4 mg

Total Carbs: 37.4 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.5 g

Protein: 4.4 g

The only "problem" (and I put it in quotes because it's only a problem if you make it one!) that seems to always arise around here when making anything from a can is the inevitable tablespoon or two left over that the recipe beforehand simply refused to take into account. What the heck are we supposed to do with such a teeny bit of anything, let alone plain ol' canned pumpkin? Well, luckily I happened upon Stef's recipe at Cupcake Project for Pumpkin Graham Crackers, which lo and behold use those last 2 tablespoons up! Not having the graham flour called for in her recipe, though, I ad-libbed a blend of whole wheat flour and spelt bran (you can certainly use wheat or oat bran too), which worked perfectly fine for me. It's not vegan, since I still used honey in the dough for the whole traditional "grahamy" flavour, but if you want to veganize it I'm sure agave, light molasses or even corn syrup would work just fine!

Jolly Roger Pumpkin Grahams

Makes 36 squares, though I cut some of mine into Jolly Rogers!

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup wheat or spelt bran
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 oz Earth Balance "Buttery Sticks" margarine (or butter), softened
2 tbsp pumpkin puree
6 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 350F, place 2 cookie sheets in the freezer to chill.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, bran, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, salt and flaxseed. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the cornstarch and cold water in a small dish, set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream the Earth Balance, pumpkin, and sugar.
5. Add the cornstarch mixture and the honey, stirring well.
6. Add the flour mixture, blending thoroughly. The dough should be fairly stiff (at least manageable).
7. On a well floured surface, roll the dough to about 1/8".

8. Cut out squares (or other shapes) and place on the cold, ungreased cookie sheets.
9. Bake 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and cool completely on the sheets set on racks. They will harden as they cool.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 47.2

Total Fat: 0.8 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 9.0 mg

Total Carbs: 9.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g

Protein: 1.0 g

Whattalottachoca...

These cookies deserve an entrance. Not only are they huge frisbees of sweet, rich chocolately delerium, but they're made with hardly any flour - full instead of coconut, chocolate chips, cocoa, and of course the legally death-defying narcotic that is Nutella! I based this recipe off of one of my standard peanut butter chocolate chip cookie formulas, tweaking the sugar a bit to compensate for the sticky sweetness of the chocolate-hazelnut spread, and added in a touch of unsweetened cocoa powder and a handful of shredded, toasted coconut for good measure. With such a "small" bowl of cookie dough to play with (I had to cut the recipe down a ton since - perish the thought - we were running low on Nutella!) I figured I couldn't go halfway on the size with standard tablespoon balls of dough... after all, I was going to share the creation with Bell' alimento's Paula and the rest of the Nutella Blogroll this month for the Nutella Challenge. It should be a showstopper!

Needless to say this recipe makes enough dough for 16 cookies, but with Nutella in the mix, you wouldn't really be able to stop at one "normal" cookie now, would you? Make 8 jumbo discs... you'll be glad you did.

Whattalottachoca Cookies
Makes 8
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch kosher salt
2 tbsp shortening
1/4 cup Nutella
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cornstarch mixed into 3 tbsp cold water
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line two baking sheets with silicone or parchment.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, coconut, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream shortening, Nutella, sugar and honey.
4. Add the cornstarch slurry and beat well.
5. Add the dry mixture and stir just to combine, then add the chocolate chips and fold in.
6. Bake for 12 minutes and cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 206.9
Total Fat: 10.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 6.1 mg
Total Carbs: 29.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.6 g
Protein: 2.2 g

Melding the Seasons with Quickbread

It's funny sometimes how the seasons start to meld together over the years - for instance, I can recall times when I knew precisely when Summer had "officially" started (as soon as we went up to the marina the first time in May), and when Winter made itself known (via the first snowfall, or when Mom started making us wear our winter boots). These days it seems like we don't even get a Spring or Summer season anymore, just a "not freezing cold" lull of a few months when all the construction crews come out.

I think a large part of this "melding" of seasons is that now people in general are so busy with everything else in their lives that we hardly ever slow down to appreciate the different elements that appear throughout the year. For myself, I don't even really look at the changing foliage outside anymore - it's a given that leaves go from green to red before falling off and leaving the ugly tree skeletons behind. The only time I see enough trees at once for a decent length of time is actually when I'm stuck in traffic driving into Toronto (and locals will know the whole DVP corridor I'm talking about!). Even the foods that used to be so season specific are now commonplace at the local grocery store, and people still think nothing of picking up a strawberry shortcake or peach pie from there either regardless of the fact that without copious sugar and cream to carry it, the key ingredient is totally flavourless!

I know I'm not one to throw stones either. My family (though not necessarily me) still buys tomatoes in December and acorn squash in May, and regardless of how gaudy the markup is my mother still puts clamshell containers of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries into the grocery cart every week. I would, over the Summer at least, take any dwindling berries from the baskets and freeze them on trays before storing them in freezer bags. I had plans for some kind of cake or pie too, or possibly even a jam, but all of a sudden school started and lo and behold the freezer was still full. Couple that with some delicious, creamy and seasonal "buttah", and a general lack of willpower or motivation to do anything remotely scholarly, and somehow this loaf came about. It melds the warmth of Summer with the chill of Fall, and the intoxication of sweetness with the homey scent of toasting oats and comforting spices. It's a blending that I'm not ashamed to embrace.

Changing Seasons Quickbread

Serves 12

2 1/3 cups Roasted Sweets and Apple Butter (or pumpkin pie filling - not pure pumpkin)

1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp ground flaxseed

1/2 cup 1% milk

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup fresh or frozen (unthawed) small blueberries

1/3 cup sliced fresh or frozen (unthawed) strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 375F, lightly grease a loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together butter or pumpkin pie filling, sugar, egg, vanilla, flaxseed and milk. Set aside.
3. In another bowl whisk together flours, oats, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Gently fold into the wet ingredients, stirring until just moistened.
5. Fold in berries and stir just until combined.
6. Bake 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350F and bake a further 20 minutes.
7. Cool in pan 20 minutes before turning out onto a rack and cooling completely.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 197.2
Total Fat: 1.9 g
Cholesterol: 18.2 mg
Sodium: 81.2 mg
Total Carbs: 42.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.8 g
Protein: 4.1 g

Like Buttah

Fall is my favourite season. It's unlikely, especially for someone like me (who is always cold - even in July I wear long sleeves!), but I can't help it - the colours of the changing leaves, the smells of burning leaf piles and the end of the season flowers clinging to the last rays of sunlight are just the final, pretty touches on a season so rich in every sensory experience. In fact, if you enter the kitchen of almost anyone within easy driving distance of an apple orchard these days, you might just walk into a cloud of flour and sugar, or at the very least be enveloped by the enticing aroma of caramelizing juices and warm spices.

Though I know (or my rational brain does, at least) that those smells and flavours are pretty much seasonless these days, given the year-round availability of everything from kiwis to strawberries to pomegranates, there really is nothing quite like arriving home from a pick your own farm with a giant bag or two of right-off-the-tree, hand selected apples in tow. The work ahead of you, if you're an en masse baker of pies like my mom used to be when I was younger, never seemed like much effort - with a couple kids roped in to help with turning the peeler machine, tossing fruit and spices, or even doing the basic pastry prep, an afternoon passes in the blink of an eye. No sign of the toils you undertook spoil the atmosphere either, just the lingering mixture of butter, sweet fruit and cinnamon and a pie (or three) cooling on the countertop. When we were younger we knew we hit the jackpot at the orchard when Northern Spy season came. Spies meant two things to me then, and still do today: one, that my favourite Russet apples were out too, and two that apple square season was upon us!

For the past couple years, at least, my Autumn treats after mornings of apple picking have been relegated to nothing more than fresh out-of-hand snacking. Don't get me wrong - it's still my favourite way to enjoy the bounty of any in-season produce (even the perfect, tiny purple Brussels sprouts discovered last weekend were delicious raw!), but there is something about the oh-so-buttery combination of pastry and fruit that makes home made pie that much better.

Since every year we always wind up with about a trillion more apples than we could ever go through raw, and after a while the freezer threatens to revolt if we add one more pie to it's hold, the task of "dealing with them" is usually left to me. When my mom first gave me that responsibility, I'm not sure if she really realized how potentially dangerous that could make me! I've done apple cake, pancakes, latkes (my personal favourite combination paired sweet potatoes and shredded Spies), mincemeat, muffins, crisps and more applesauce than we could care to assimilate in our minds, but somehow morphing the fruit from a solid ball into each new format somehow makes the same taste completely new again. This season I got an early jump on the apple crop when I discovered that one of my favourite local varieties - the Red Free - was out in the market. Five minutes and $3 later I was the owner of a large bag of apples, and upon arriving home found out that we also had a hefty load of *cough* imported fruit sitting in the crisper as well. Subsequent scavenging for dinner items later that night revealed some sweet potatoes just starting to edge past the peak of awesomeness, and lurking in the back of the fridge was a lone orange too.

With those ingredients at hand and a great basic recipe from Kevin (@ Closet Cooking) for roasted applesauce as a guideline, I set about making my own version of what I can only really call a "Fall butter". It's not apple butter, to be sure, but nor is it a mashed yam dish, and the flavour is one of those savoury-sweet blends that worked wonders on my morning bagels but was also used by my grandparents as a side dish with a Sunday dinner. What I couldn't finish on my own, I baked into "hand pies" and wrapped in a lightly sweetened cookie shell as well for a couple different "carry case" experiment. The crumbled graham crackers added a great crunchy texture and nutty flavour too, which helped break up the richness of the puree.

Roasted Sweets and Apple Butter

Makes 3 cups, 24 2-tbsp servings

1 large apple, chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

1/3 cup orange juice

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 graham cracker sheets, crumbled

1. Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a shallow casserole dish.
2. Toss together apple and sweet potato chunks and pour into the dish.
3. In a measuring cup or bowl, combine brown sugar, honey, orange juice and pumpkin pie spice until well blended and smooth.
4. Pour over the apples and sweet potatoes, stirring to coat.
5. Cover casserole and bake for 50 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
6. Uncover the dish and bake for a further 20 minutes, until the liquid is reduced and the mixture in the pan is caramelized.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
8. In a food processor, finely crush the crackers. Remove to a small bowl.
9. Add the roasted mixture to the food processor (no need to clean) and puree completely. If you dislike the texture of the skin (albeit pureed) use a food mill for a very fine consistency.
10. Add the crumbs back to the processor mixture and pulse to combine.
11. Serve as a pudding or pie filling.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 51.1
Total Fat: 0.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 24.0 mg
Total Carbs: 12.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g
Protein: 0.5 g