Sourdough Sharing - Brownies

This month's sourdough challenge was brownies.  I decided to try a blondie recipe that I have made in the past and a new brownie recipe.

Now I love to eat them - both brownies and blondies but often seem to have trouble with the centres falling.  Help anyone?  It doesn't seem to matter which recipe I try (regular or sourdough) my brownies often have a cakelike texture around the edges and are almost sticky in the centre.  If I bake them longer, the edges get too dry with the centre usually not being much different from before (just a little more cooked).  Ideas?  Suggestions?

My brownies were taken from Rita Davenport's Sourdough Cookery book.  
Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies.

Ingredients
1/4 c butter
2 squares unsweetened chocolate (I substituted 3 Tbsp cocoa and 1 Tbsp butter for each square.)
1 c sugar
1/4 c peanut butter (I used chunky)
2 eggs
1/2 c sourdough
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

You are to melt the butter and chocolate over low heat.  Then add sugar and peanut butter.  For this step, I just used very soft marg. and my mixer.

 

Add eggs, sourdough and vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients and stir into batter.

 

Spread in a greased 9" x 9" pan.  Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool and then frost, if desired.  I don't usually frost mine.

 

Here you can see the sunken middle.  :(

 

Here is one middle piece and one edge piece.  The brownies taste great with the chocolate and the peanut butter.  I will try them again, once I get help with the sunken middle problem.



The blondies are from a Robin Hood Flour pamphlet on sourdough.
Sherwood Blond Brownies

Ingredients
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sourdough
1/4 c butter, melted
1 egg
1 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c chopped nuts or coconut

Beat together sugar, sourdough, butter and egg.  Again I used softened not melted butter.  (You don't think that is my problem, do you?)  Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

 

Spread batter in a greased 8" x 8" pan.  Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes. 

Again you can see the dropped centre.  It is not as bad as the chocolate ones, though.

Again you can see how much higher and drier the edge piece was compared to the middle piece.  These taste great with the brown sugar and nuts - a nutty butterscotchy flavor.

 

Check below for other great brownie and blondie recipes to try.  Enjoy!  ;)

  



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.





Sourdough Rugelach

Since I was travelling early in December and then got sick, I didn't get much Christmas baking done.  I decided to try my hand at Sourdough Rugelach after seeing them on December's Sourdough Surprises.  Rugelach are a filled, rolled cookie/pastry.

The original recipe was here and I took my filling ideas from here and here.

Ingredients for dough

 

1/2 c butter

3 ounces cream cheese

1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sourdough 
1 c flour (I used 1/2 c whole wheat and 1/2 c white)
 

fillings - I checked out the fillings above and adjusted them to go with the jams I wanted to use.  You can change them to suit your taste.

filling #1

1/4 c spiced apricot jam

2 Tbsp chopped walnuts

2 Tbsp chopped raisins

filling #2

blackberry jam

chopped chocolate chips

chopped walnuts

filling #3

apple pie jam

cinnamon

chopped walnuts

chopped dried cranberries

filling #4

chopped raisins

chopped walnuts

cinnamon

sugar

filling #5

spiced apricot jam

chopped raisins

chopped walnuts

chopped dried cranberries

 

Beat butter and cream cheese together.  Add sugar and vanilla and beat again.  Add sourdough and flour and mix on low speed until mixture becomes a sticky dough.

 

Knead gently a few times on a floured surface.  Form dough into flat ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

 

Cut dough in half and place rest back in fridge.  Work quickly so dough doesn't get sticky.  Place dough onto lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle about 14" by 6".

 

 

Since I wanted to try several fillings, I cut the rectangle in half.  For the first half, I mixed together the jam and chopped raisins and walnuts.  I spread the mixture on the dough leaving space at the edge.  Having the raisins and nuts mixed in made the rugelach easier to roll.

 

 

Filling #2 called for mini chocolate chips.  I only had regular ones and tried to chop them in food processor - not too successfully as some of the chips turned to powder and others stayed whole.  Plus the food processor was sticky to clean.  Here I spread the jam and sprinkled on the chocolate chips and chopped nuts.

 

Roll the dough starting on the long side.  Cut slices about an inch wide and place on parchment paper.  In the original recipe you sprinkled sugar and cinnamon on the jam mixture which I thought was unnecessary.  In one of the recipes, they brushed the unbaked cookies with an egg wash and sprinkled on cinnamon sugar which I didn't do either. 

 

For the second half of the dough, I decided to try rolling them crescent-style.  Again roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface.  I used an 8" round cake pan to cut the circles.  Press scrap dough into a ball and refrigerate until ready to use it.

For the next filling I used jam, chopped cranberries and walnuts.  Spread almost to the edge.

 

Cut dough in half and then in half again.  Cut each quarter into thirds and you will have 12 cookies.  Start rolling each piece from the outer edge. 

I found these a little more finicky then the long roll.  Again place on parchment paper.



 

I then tried a cinnamon - sugar mixture with chopped raisins and nuts.  This was much harder to roll as the filling wasn't sticky so it fell out instead of sticking to the dough.

You can see the mess on the parchment paper.  It was much harder to keep these intact.

The last filling was jam and the leftover chopped raisins, cranberries and walnuts.  I just rolled the leftover dough into a rectangle and rolled and cut the rugelach as before.

Bake at 350°F for about 15 or so minutes until cookies are brown around the edges, turning pans after 10 minutes.  Some people sprinkle the cookies with icing sugar.  Cool rugelach and enjoy!



The rugelach were a big hit.  They tasted part pastry - part cookie.  I enjoyed the spice jam ones and also the ones with chocolate.  The filling variety is as broad as your imagination.  ;)

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I was given this recipe years ago when my boys were young.  It was a new way to use up some zucchini.  I was very moist and tasty and I made it every year when the zucchini took over the world.

Ingredients

1/4 c butter or marg
1/2 c oil
1 3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sour milk
2 1/2 c flour
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
2 c grated zucchini
1/2 c chocolate chips


Grate enough zucchini to make 2 cups.  I use unpeeled but know of some people who peel their zucchini to hide it from others eating the cake. 
 

 

Combine oil, eggs and butter.  Mix in sugar and vanilla. 

 

Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. 

 

Mix well. 

 

Add dry ingredients, alternating with sour milk. 

 

Add chocolate chips and zucchini. 

 

Stir well. 

 

 Pour into greased and floured 9" by 13" pan.  Bake in preheated oven at 325°F for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

 I don't bother to frost the cake because it is so moist.  Enjoy!  ;)

 

 



Chocolate Cake and 7 Minute Frosting

Years ago, I used to make 7 minute frosting in a double boiler, beating it with a hand mixer.  I hadn't made it for quite a while and was remembering how good it was.  Unfortunately, I got rid of my hand mixer so I didn't think I could make it again.  I checked on the internet and found several recipes that didn't need the hand mixer and double boiler.  I decided to give it a try.  I like it on chocolate cake and had a cake recipe I wanted to try as well. So here they are.
http://www.bestmoistchocolatecakerecipe.com/   http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/favorite-fudge-birthday-cupcakes-with-7-minute-icing-recipe

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2 c flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 Tbsp vinegar in 1 cup, add milk to make 1 cup)
1 c oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c boiling water or strong coffee (I used coffee)

Preheat oven to 300°F and grease and flour a 9" x 13" pan.
Mix all dry ingredients together to prevent lumping. (The sugar does the trick.)

Add rest of ingredients except hot water or coffee and mix for about 1 1/2 minutes.  Add coffee and continue to beat until smooth.

Pour into pan.  Bake for 1 hour at 300°F or until toothpick comes clean.

Cool on rack.

7 Minute Frosting

Ingredients

2 egg whites

1 c sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/3 c water

1 tsp vanilla

Beat egg whites until foamy and thick.

Place sugar, water and cream of tartar in saucepan.  Stir well and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved.  Then boil without stirring for 2 minutes or until 240°F on candy thermometer.

Beat egg whites while slowly pouring in hot syrup.  Continue beating and add vanilla.  Then beat until icing forms peaks that hold their shape.

Spoon frosting onto cake and spread thickly.

Swirl with knife into peaks.

Cut a piece and enjoy!  Eat leftover frosting with a big spoon.  ;)  It tastes like marshmallow cream.  Barry and I pigged out and enjoyed it immensely.

The cake was very moist and chocolaty.  Yummy indeed!  And the frosting was as good as I remembered it.  The only think about it was that it did not keep as well as the stuff I made in a double boiler.  That icing would get a thin crust that protected the rest.  This frosting did not get a crust so the frosting slowly deflated over time.  Maybe I didn't boil the syrup long enough (next time I'll use a thermometer)  All in all it was great and I would definitely make these both again.

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are fairly easy to make and wonderful to eat.  I use the recipe in my Purity Cookbook given to me by my grandma-in-law.  She was the same sweet Swedish lady that taught be how to make Palt.  http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.ca/2011/03/palt.html

Ingredients
1/2 c butter or marg
1 c boiling water
1 c flour
4 unbeaten eggs
pint whipping cream
sugar to taste - 3 to 6 tbsp
vanilla (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Combine butter and water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and melt the butter.

Remove from heat and add the flour all at once.

Beat until mixture leaves sides of pan.  Cool until you're able to touch the dough with your finger.

Beat in eggs one at a time.

Beat until smooth after each egg is added.  Continue to beat until glossy.  I beat the mixture by hand but would use my mixer next time as all the beating is hard on your wrists.

 

Drop batter onto greased cookie sheets.  Space at least 2" apart.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until light and dry.

Cool away from drafts.

Whip cream until thick.  Gradually add sugar to taste.  You can add vanilla or other flavoring, if wanted.  Beat until stiff.

 

Cut cream puffs in half and fill with whipped cream.  Enjoy! ;)

According to the original recipe, you can make larger cream puffs (cook them longer) and fill them with ice cream and top with chocolate or caramel sauce.

Or you can make smaller ones and serve warm with a cream filling or cold with a salad filling.

Or you can make eclairs.  Spoon the dough into a pastry bag and with a large tip squeeze out strips 4" long and 1" wide.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.  Cool.  Split and fill with a cream filling and top with a chocolate glaze.

I have never tried any of the other recipes besides the basic cream puffs.  I find that they keep better if you only fill as many as you need.  I store the whipped cream in the fridge and the cream puffs in a cookie tin covered with a tea towel.  When we are ready for more, just split, fill and eat.