Super Simple Pumpkin Bread

I cannot believe it’s October! In fact, I can’t believe it’s been October for 13 days. Time flies when you don’t have the extra brain capacity to note its passing. Over the weekend I got into a pumpkin craze seeing as it’s technically fall and everything. Last week, there was even some passable fall weather in Southern California. It’s gone now, though, don’t worry. All the born and bred Southern Californians can stop panicking about the end of the world now that the rain has stopped.
I kid,of course…mostly.
This recipe is from a fantastic basic cookbook that everyone should have. I like to think my grandma gave me my copy, but the truth is she gave it to my brother and I conveniently made sure it didn’t get packed with him when he moved away. I love being a younger sister. Anyway the cookbook is the Better Homes and Gardens “New” Cook Book (I say “new” because that’s what is on the cover but the first edition was published in 1930).

Look at the spine! It’s starting to look legitimately used, which makes me rather pathetically happy.

(Yes, that is a volleyball in the background that I have owned for around 12 years complete with crappy 5th grade handwriting. Also those are some blood physio notes sitting beneath the book).
Ok, back to the pumpkin bread.
As usual gather the major players. In this case flour, brown sugar, pumpkin, butter, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, salt, eggs, baking powder and soda.

Combine your dry ingredients.

Add in everything else and mix it up.

Pour it in to a greased loaf pan and pop it in the oven for around an hour. Pull it out and let it cool off in the loaf pan for 15-20 minutes.

Loosen the edges with a knife, turn it over and it should come right out without too much trouble.

Then give it to your friends who have never had pumpkin bread so that they, too, can learn to love it.
Pumpkin Bread
from Better Home and Gardens New Cook Book, 11th edition
Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger or ground cloves (I like to add both)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup raisins (definitely optional and not recommended…but that’s just me)

1. Grease the bottom and 1/2 in. up the sides of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Set oven for 350 F.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup flour, the brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger and/or cloves. Add pumpkin, milk, eggs, and shortening/butter. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes. (Don’t worry regular old muscle power works just fine). Fold in the walnuts if you want and raisins if you must.
3. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 F 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick/fork/knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan. Cool completely, wrap and stir overnight.

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I just noticed that there is nutrition facts per serving in this book! Awesome. As you will see in a moment, pumpkin bread is good as a snack or for breakfast.
Calories            189
Total fat             8g
   Sat. fat           2g
Cholesterol        27mg
Sodium           138mg
Carb.               28g
  fiber                1g
Protein               3g
Vitamin A          35% DV
Vitamin C            1%
Calcium              8%
Iron                  10%
Recipe makes 1 loaf or ~ 18 servings.

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

This week I have another dessert that uses a health alternative to the usual ingredients of baked goods. These banana cupcakes are made using unsweetened applesauce instead of butter or oil. What does one gain in substituting all the butter in a recipe with applesauce? Primarily the benefit is a massive reduction in calories, fat, and cholesterol. A half cup of applesauce contains 6.25% the number of calories in a half cup of butter. Additionally the applesauce contains no fat and cholesterol compared to butter’s 88g and 240mg, respectively. Below is a chart illustrating this comparison.

*%DV is percent daily value based on a 2,000 Calorie diet.
I haven’t put much effort in to using healthy alternatives in my baking before, but it is surprisingly easy. It doesn’t even require going to a specialty food store. If you are interested in substitutes that can be used for an ingredient, whether you are trying to make a recipe healthier or you don’t have an ingredient, a great resource is the Cook’s Thesaurus website.
The recipe I used today comes from an NPR article “Have Your (Less Sinful) Cupcake And Enjoy It, Too” which can be found here.
Here’s what you’ll need

In that plastic bag in the back is some 60% cocoa chocolate to melt down for the frosting. The iPad with recipe instead of a regular paper recipe is optional and not particularly recommended. The bananas could be even more ripe/black if you have any.
With an electric mixer if you’ve got one available, beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until they are “thick and light” (this could take a few minutes).

Mix in the smashed banana, bananas, buttermilk (or homemade sour milk in my case), applesauce, and vanilla.

Add a mixture of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just blended.

And that’s it! Load up your cake pan or cupcake pans/tins and pop ‘em in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Make sure they are not sticky on top when you pull them out. Even after you can insert a fork/toothpick and pull it out clean, the tops might still be a little sticky. They’ll come out better if you wait until they aren’t sticky any more. Here’s what slightly sticky looks like:

Here’s what an appropriately baked cupcake should look like:

Let the cupcakes cool off for awhile while you make the frosting. I forgot to take pictures of making the frosting, but here’s the end result.

And that’s it! Go hand ‘em out to your friends or fellow med students, whatever you have on hand.
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Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
Cupcake Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups smashed, ripe bananas (~ 3 medium bananas)
• 1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk*
• 4 tbsp (1/2 cup) unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
•  1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or confectioner’s sugar, if you must)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened almond milk, plus more if needed (I used regular milk)

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa), finely chopped or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F
2. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until thick and light, around 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the smashed bananas, buttermilk, applesauce, and vanilla.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt over mixture and beat until just blended.
5. Transfer batter to prepared pan, sprayed or with cupcake holders. Fill to 3/4 full.
6. Bake cupcakes until golden brown on top and a toothpick or fork inserted into center comes out clean. Around 18-20 minutes.
7. Let the cupcakes cool.
8. For the frosting**, add sugar and milk to a small saucepan over heat and mix until sugar is dissolved into the milk
9. Slowly stir in chocolate and mix constantly until fully melted.
10. Dip tops of cooled cupcakes into icing, twist and let the icing harden completely (~10 minutes)

* You can make sour milk and use that instead of butter milk. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 cup. Stir and let stand 5 minutes.
**We didn’t actually follow these directions for the frosting. We carefully melted the chocolate in a microwavable bowl in the microwave. This involves lots of stopping, stirring and restarting. Then we mixed in the powdered sugar and milk. We used more milk to thin out the frosting. If you accidentally make it too thin, you can thicken it some more either by adding more powdered sugar and melted chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder.

This describes my typical weekend so well.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Healthy Twist

This weekend I had an abundance of avocados on hand and what with the heat wave and all I decided baking cookies would be a brilliant idea. Avocados are not a fruit (yes, fruit) people generally associate with cookies, however they can be used to substitute part of the butter in cookie recipes. It sounds weird, but trust me everything turns out just fine in the end.
So why bother with the avocado at all? Avocado contains 75% less calories and fat than butter. While avocados are generally considered to be rich in fats, they contain monounsaturated fats and no cholesterol. Diets rich in monounsaturated fatty acids have been found to lower LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol), total cholesterol, and triglycerides (basically fat) and increase HDL (“good”) cholesterol in the blood for patients with elevated cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) (source). It has also been suggested that avocados may help to prevent cancer (source). Avocados are also rich in vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, folate, and potassium.
Here is a chart comparing 1/4 of a cup unsalted butter with 1/4 cup mashed avocado:

Chart from: http://www.fitsugar.com/Substitute-Butter-Avocado-When-Baking-8199268

Are you convinced yet? That’s ok time for some pictures.

 Set the oven for 375F and gather all your ingredients

Cream together the butter and sugars. Mash up half a cup of avocado and add it to the bowl. Gently beat in the avocado until blended.

Trust me, it turns out much more yummy than it looks.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt slowly until it is all mixed in. Next it’s time to stir in the oats.

Fold in the chocolate chips

Spoon onto a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden and crispy.

With respect to the oats, I really think that Quaker’s Old-Fashioned quick-cooking (but not instant) oatmeal is the best. I used Coach’s Oats here and was not as pleased with the result. I’ve been told, however, that Coach’s Oats makes some kick ass oatmeal. I think the rolled oats or Quaker’s gives a less grainy cookie in the end.

Here’s the recipe from London Foodie in NY

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (with avocado)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup peeled, mashed avocado (around 1/2 an avocado)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)
• 6 oz chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 F
2. Beat butter until smooth, add sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in avocado until blended
4. Add egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly
5. Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix well.
6. Stir in the oats and coconut.
7. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
8. Drop tablespoon-sized balls onto a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden and crispy.

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Ever want to look up nutritional information about foods like fruits and vegetables? Search the USDA National Nutrient Database for free: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

A Weakness

One of my many weaknesses is spending way too long checking out kitchen stuff in stores. It’s sad, really, because I change my residence every year or two, and I really hate packing up all the stuff I have in my kitchen. When I moved out of my last apartment, my mom made me throw away one of my baking sheets! It was quite sad. It’d been in my house most of my life and we had a lovely 3 years together in college and grad school. My other baking sheet was not in much better condition. I’m not sure why I was allowed to keep it. It rattles when you tilt it side to side and it is scored in many directions from having pizza cut on it.
In any case today I came across this baking sheet set and I couldn’t resist.

Plus it’s made by “Nordic Ware” complete with a Viking head. What person with the tiniest smidgen of Norwegian blood could resist? No one, that’s who.
With respect to the chef’s knife on top of the box, I bought that today too. I had kidnapped my mom’s Chef’s knife for the past 3 years, but gave it back when I moved to med school. I was in a discount store and decided I couldn’t live with awkwardly chopping up produce any longer.
I guess I need to bake cookies with nuts now to justify today’s purchases.