Sourdough Sharing - Cake

This month for Sourdough Sharing, I have two sourdough cakes to offer. 

The first one is a Carrot Cake that I previously blogged here.  It is Barry's favorite carrot cake as he hates dry cakes and this one is very nice and moist.  It is very tasty with the nuts, raisins and pineapple added.

The other cake is a Sourdough Fiesta Cake that I found in my Sourdough Cookery cookbook by Rita Davenport.  I was pleased to be able to use my own dehydrated beans and raisins from my garden as well as our own apples in this cake.

Ingredients

1/4 c butter, softened

1 c sugar

1 egg

1/2 c milk

2 c mashed cooked pinto beans

1 tsp vanilla

1 c sourdough

1 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

2 c diced apples

1/2 c chopped nuts

1 c raisins

To make the beans, I soaked 2 cups of pinto beans overnight.  I then drained them and cooked them in fresh water til they were tender.  I then redrained them and mashed 2 cups of beans.  I had 2 cups of beans left over that I will use when I make refried beans later this week.  I now know that you only have to soak half of what the recipe needs as the beans double in size.

 

Beat together butter, sugar and egg.  Add milk, vanilla and beans.  Mix in the sourdough.

Combine dry ingredients and add to mixture.  Stir in nuts, raisins and apples.

Pour into a greased bundt pan and bake at 375°F for 45 minutes.  

Cool in pan for 5 minutes.  

Remove from pan and glaze when cool.

Glaze Ingredients

1 c icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp milk

Blend all ingredients and drizzle onto cake.  

I found the cake to be nice and moist.  Usually when you bake with apples, the standard spices seem to be cinnamon and nutmeg.  Using cloves and allspice gives it a different and pleasing taste.  The pinto beans are not noticeable but add hidden protein to the cake.  Enjoy!

 

Try one of these or take a look at the blogs below for other sourdough cakes.





Growing Soup Beans

We have a Seedy Saturday seed exchange here and I have tried several different seeds over the past several years.  I tried several bean varieties last year - pinto, black and white.   I only had a few of the white beans so I used them all for seed this year.  They were labelled as Cherokee Trail of Tears so I have been calling them that until I went on the internet and found that Trail of Tears beans are black.

Here are the beans in the garden earlier this summer.

 

They are a bush-type bean.  They grow green pods with a pinkish blush on some of them. 

 

As they got more mature, they turned pinker. 

 

I pulled them out before they were completely dry so they could dry indoors.  Last year I left my beans too long in the garden and a number of them split and spilt their seeds in the garden.

 

I tied them together and hung them in the greenhouse.  After they dried, I shelled the beans.

 

 

I set them on a tray to make sure they are completely dry.  Notice the shape of the beans - they are more roundish than regular white soup beans.  I'll have to do more research to see if I can find out what they are. 

 

 



Frenching Green Beans

I like my green beans frenched when I freeze and blanch them.  It is more time-consuming but I think it is worth it.  I like whole cooked green beans when they are straight from the garden but think that they taste better frenched when they are from the freezer.

This shows the three methods of frenchers that I have used.

This was my first frencher.  You feed the beans through it one at a time. 

This was the second bean frencher I bought.  You turn the handle as you feed beans into the slot.  I used it for years frenching enough beans for a family of four.  Often we did a two person frenching - one feeding the beans and one turning the handle.

Last year, when I went to french my beans, I found the suction cups that hold the frencher to the table worn out.  I decided to try the food processor and VOILA! easy frenching.  You put half-a -dozen or so beans in the hopper and turn on the switch.  Then you feed in the beans as fast as you can.

Nice and easy and so quick!

I frenched these two huge bowls of beans in no time.  Now my food processor in my bean frenching buddy!  Then a quick blanching and yummy beans all winter.  ;)

Turkey, Black Bean and Corn Casserole

I saw the following recipe in a Campbell's Soup email and it gave me an idea to work with.  The link to the original recipe is here.  Cooking with Campbell's - Black Bean Corn Turkey Chili


Ingredients

1 c dried black beans

1 1/2 c chopped turkey

1 c chopped onion  

1 c shredded carrot

1/2 c chopped celery

1 c kernel corn

1 c chicken broth

1/2 c salsa

1 tbsp chili powder

1 can tomato soup

3/4 c grated mozzarella cheese

3/4 c grated cheddar cheese

 

I used leftover turkey breast instead of the turkey hamburger in the original recipe so that changed everything.

 

I sauteed the onion and celery before mixing it with the grated carrots and frozen corn.

I used my own dried black beans instead of canned.  I washed and sorted the beans and then soaked them overnight.  I drained them and added them to the turkey - veggie mix.

I stirred in the chicken broth and chili powder.

Next I added the condensed soup and the salsa. 

I poured it into a greased casserole dish and baked it for an hour at 350°F.

Remove from oven and sprinkle on the cheese.  First mozzarella.

Then the cheddar. 

Pop back into the oven for 10 minutes for the cheese to melt and start to bubble.

 

Serve with a side salad and enjoy!

I found the casserole very tasty but slightly runny.  I had thought I might leave out the broth next time but it was great as leftovers this way.  Often casseroles get too dry when reheated, but this one actually improved as the flavours melded together. 

You could also add in green peppers.  I'm also toying with the idea of adding rice - I think I would precook the rice first though.  It was a great way to use up leftover turkey and I will be making it again.