Tag: Road-Tested Recipe

Most “gingerbread” flavored waffle or pancake recipes are not good.

There.  I SAID IT.

This is because most of them have simply taken regular waffle/pancake batter and added molasses and some spices to it.  The extra sugar from the molasses makes the resulting waffle/pancakes too dry and sandy.

This recipe, however, has a thicker, moister batter, giving waffles that are cakelike and deeply flavorful.  Using buttermilk stops them from being too sweet, and adds complexity to the flavor.  Make sure to use a thick Belgian-style waffle maker for these; they become flimsy sad little graham crackers as thin waffles.

Whipped cream and sugared berries are a must.

Gingerbread Waffles

• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• UN-optional whipped cream and fruit

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add sugar, molasses, buttermilk, and vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, soda, and powder.  Add all this to the wet ingredients and stir until smooth.  Stir in the butter.

You can either cover and refrigerate the batter overnight at this point (it will be very thick in the morning) or cook immediately in a waffle iron, 2-4 minutes.  It will makes around 14 big fluffy gingerbready waffles.

Hmm.  Can you guess what Eleanor is thinking?

If you guessed “I’d rather be friends with a racist kangaroo than eat that,” you’d be absolutely right!  It’s a face I’ve become familiar with over the years.  That’s why I like this recipe.  You serve it like this:

Everyone chooses which toppings to put on — or not put on — the top of a pile of tortellini: things like fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, and other objectionable foods.  Those who want plain pasta can blah it up as they choose.

Grown-ups are rumored to even put a nice balsamic-lime dressing on top of the salad, too.  But that’s just a rumor.

Something-For-Everyone Tortellini Salad

• 1 pound cheese tortellini (don’t substitute ravioli.  Ravioli, while great in its own floppy way, doesn’t salad-ify as well as tortellini.)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 fresh mozzarella, cubed*
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper

Cook tortellini according to package directions.  Drain and rinse under cool water (if you don’t, the tortellini will glom together in a Starchy Ball of Doom).  Put the tortellini, tomatoes, cheese, basil, and avocado in separate serving bowls.

Whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, and balsamic vinegar.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, pile some tortellini on a plate, then add other ingredients as desired.

*Fresh mozzarella is the pure white, very soft stuff usually found in the “fancy” cheese sections of grocery stores.  Sometimes it’s packaged as bocconcini — little pre-made balls that you don’t even have to chop.  My kids call these “cheese marhsmallows” — it’s what we used in the photographs above. But you can substitute regular mozzarella if you want.

My friend Angry Baker wants to find the best chocolate cupcake recipe in the world.  That’s a darn noble endeavor.  Here’s my contribution.  This recipe was published years ago in Everyday Food magazine.  I make it all the time for parties, and people always ask for the recipe.  That’s known as Good Sign #1.

Good Sign #2 is that this is the only cake I’ve ever seen little kids eat.  Usually they just lick off the frosting and run away.

Good Sign #3 is that this recipe has just as much cocoa powder as there is flour.

You’re on your own with the frosting.  Just promise me you won’t use anything that comes from a can.  Swear it!  Swear upon the King Arthur Flour catalog!

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes.

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners and coat with nonstick baking spray.

In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, powder, and salt; set aside.  In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla.  With mixer on a low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour.

Spoon batter into cupcake pan, filling each cup about 3/4 full.  Bake until it comes out clean 20-25 minutes (my oven runs cold, so I always need to bake it longer.  Use your judgment).  Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a rack.

This is it: my hands-down most requested recipe.  For years, my mother has made it for church potlucks, family dinners, and even meetings of the Officers’ Wives Club (back before my dad retired from the army).  I made this cake just this past week for my science fiction/fantasy book group (we read Howl’s Moving Castle), and they all wanted the recipe, so here it is.

It’s a pretty unassuming-looking, humble cake, but once people try it, they usually want more.  I think it manages to be both elegant and down-home at the same time — what more can you ask for?

This cake is moist, dense, and chock full of apples.  As a finishing touch, my mother and I like to add a liberal sprinkling of sugar right when the cake comes out of the oven, making a crunchy crust that contrasts nicely with the chewy interior.

Some people like to add a half cup of toatsed chopped walnuts to the batter.  Those people don’t understand the nature of apple cake.

Fresh Apple Cake

• four large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 cups flour
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a big bowl, combine the chopped apples and sugar with a wooden spoon.  Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix.  Add 3 cups flour and mix well.  (The mixture will seem dry, powdery, and cling to the apples.)

In a large liquid measuring cup, measure out 3/4 cup oil.  Add vanilla and eggs to the oil and combine with a fork or small whisk.  Pour liquid ingredients into the apple mixture and mix very well, using wooden spoon and spatula to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.  Keep mixing until flour is entirely combined — the batter will be very thick, the consistency of paste.  Pour batter into a greased 9″x13″ pan, smoothing top evenly with a spatula.  Bake for 60 minutes, or until center of cake springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip.  (My oven runs cold, so I usually have to bake this cake for 80 minutes.)

When the cake is done, remove from oven, place the pan on a cooling rack, and immediately sprinkle liberally with sugar for the topping.  My mom likes to pour on enough sugar to make the cake disappear, but I think that’s overkill.

This cake is really, really moist, so all you need to store leftovers is a layer of aluminum foil, although I’ve left it uncovered for the night and found it still moist in the morning.

You can also bake this cake in two round 8″ pans, which lets you put the cake on a fancy glass stand or whatever.  Either way, you’ll find that eating this cake with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream may be a moral imperative for your family.

My friend Valerie keeps an amazing cooking blog called My Life in Food.  It isn’t fancy — there are no textured wallpapers, custom designed banners, or even much photography — but this is why it’s extraordinary: every SINGLE ONE of her recipes is trustworthy.

Valerie’s taste is always elegant and leans towards healthy.  She is fond of Latin and Asian cooking, and while the recipes vary in difficulty, they are all equally delicious.

I made her Chicken Veracruzana last week, and it was quite delish and very easy.  Here’s what the results were:

Not bad, eh?  And very easy to make — you basically layer ingredients in a Crock Pot and let it simmer away.  I only wish we’d had some corn tortillas, like Valerie recommended.  The corn flavor was essential for contrasting with the meaty chicken flavor.  But we ate it up anyhow!  Click on through for the recipe, and enjoy.

This is my mother’s baked bean recipe, and it’s the richest, thickest, yummiest one I’ve ever encountered.  My friend James requested that I give it to him (I brought them to a potluck last month, and he’s been thinking about them ever since), and why not spread the artery-clogging wealth with everyone I know?

These are so rich that I limit myself to only making them once a year, usually for July 4th.  Be wary of the long baking time — 3 1/2 hours — and plan accordingly.

Baked Beans

• one pound bacon
• one large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cans pork & beans, drained
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Fry the bacon until crisp, reserving all the bacon grease.  Let bacon cool, then crumble into bits.  Use 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved bacon grease to cook the onion until soft, about 5 minutes.

In a large lidded casserole dish or bean pot, combine crumbled bacon, onion, beans, sugar, ketchup, molasses, and 1/4 to 1/2 of the reserved bacon grease, stirring until well mixed.

Cover the dish with its lid and bake for 3 hours, then remove lid and bake an additional 30 minutes.  Let cool for a good long while before you eat it; it retains heat well, which makes it great for taking to potluck suppers.