Pain d'épices - Taste and Create

This month for Taste and Create I was paired with Veronica of La Recette du Jour - a blog filled with lots of delicious-looking French recipes. I was slightly intimidated upon discovering this - everything was measured in grams and baked at Celsius, and I couldn't pronounce the names of half the recipes!

But I think the point of Taste and Create is partly to draw us out of our comfort zones, to make something we might not otherwise make. So I plodded ahead, eager to try something new.

I found several recipes that I would like to try (and probably will try even though I didn't choose them for this event). The one I finally settled on is called Pain d'épices. Veronica describes it as being "the French equivalent of gingerbread or parkin." Well, I don't exactly know what parkin is, but I know what gingerbread is, so there you have it. I think that Pain d'épices translates into "spice bread" or something like that.

After choosing a recipe, I had to figure out how I was going to measure my ingredients! I've never measured ingredients according to weight. But here I lucked out. I discovered that my simple kitchen scale measures, not only in ounces and pounds, but also in grams and kilograms. So I used that to measure my ingredients, instead of my trusted measuring cups. The only drawback to this is that anyone following this recipe also has to have a gram-measuring scale, because I didn't translate any of these measurements into cups.

The only thing I really wasn't sure about was "10 cl milk." My scale definitely does not measure cl! I searched around on the Internet for a while until I learned that 10 cl of milk is approximately 3.4 fluid ounces, or a little less than 1/2 cup.

On to the recipe!


Pain d'épices
100 g honey
140 g wholemeal flour (I took that to mean whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
10 cl milk (just under 1/2 cup)
1 egg
40 g butter
65 g soft brown sugar
1 tsp quatre-épices (this is a French combination of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ... pepper! - I used 1/4 tsp. each)

Preheat the oven to 180C (350 F). Warm the milk and add the honey, sugar and butter off the heat, stirring well. Put the flour, baking powder and 4-épices (spices) in a mixing bowl, make a well in the middle, break the egg into it, and add the milk. Mix well (or just throw the whole lot into a food processor).

Pour into a buttered 23-cm (8- or 9-inch) loaf tin and bake for 25 minutes. Lower the heat to 150C (300 F) and cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Store wrapped in clingfilm to keep it moist.


Verdict - Holy cow, I think from now on pepper will be my secret ingredient in any spiced baked good I make. Oatmeal cookies, carrot cake, zucchini bread - I'm adding pepper! I was tentative and nervous to add pepper to this recipe, but I figured if the French can do it, so can I. And I'm so glad I did. This spice combination was surprisingly wonderful! It gives an extra depth of flavor, and a little bit of bite. Plus, I loved licking the pan that the milk and honey had been in, after adding it to the flour. It tasted like honey-butter - delicious!

I made a simply powdered sugar glaze to serve over the Pain d'épices: 2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar mixed with a tiny amount of milk and vanilla until it was drizzling consistency. It moistened and sweetened the finished product.


My "summed up" phrase for this recipe: "A deliciously spicy bread made with milk, honey, and the surprise ingredient - pepper!"

Crock Pot Enchilada Casserole

This recipe was inspired by A Year of CrockPotting's recipe for CrockPot Enchilada Casserole. I pretty much didn't follow the original ingredient list at all, except for tortillas and chicken. But this is where I got the concept and the instructions.

Crock Pot Enchilada Casserole
8 corn tortillas
1-2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded
1 cup zucchini, chopped
Mozzarella cheese

Enchilada Sauce:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 to 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Make your enchilada sauce by placing tomatoes (undrained), garlic, chili powder, cumin, crushed red pepper, and s&p in blender. Puree until smooth (or skip a step and just open up a can of enchilada sauce. It works great, but we don't usually have that on hand).

Layer tortillas (2 at a time) in greased crock pot, followed by sauce, chicken, zucchini, and cheese. Repeat layers until your ingredients run out, ending with cheese. I got four layers in.

Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours.

After cooking, the cheese was all melty and gooey, and the casserole smelled so good!

Notes:
-I made my own tortillas using masa harina. It would be easier to use store-bought, but we didn't have any.
-Don't use flour tortillas. They will get too soggy and be very unpleasant to eat.
-For the chicken, I boiled 2 leg quarters. I shredded one leg quarter, then set aside the broth and the other leg for future use.
-I at first intended to use ground turkey. But we had the chicken thawing in the fridge, so I went ahead and used that. Feel free to substitute ground beef or turkey.
-If you don't like spicy, use less crushed red pepper. If you really don't like spicy, omit the red pepper. I used about 1 tsp, and it had a good bite to it. The kids didn't seem to mind; I gave them some plain rice on the side to tone it down a bit.

This was a really good recipe! It tastes like enchiladas, but without the work and mess of rolling them. My one-year-old absolutely loved it - he threw a fit when I took him out of his seat after his bowl was emptied. So I gave him another serving, which he ate just as enthusiastically as the first. I enjoyed this with some of the salsa I made a couple days ago.


I can very much see myself making this again using a variety of fillings - anything you would put in an enchilada can be layered into an enchilada casserole!

Another Sauceless Pizza

At around quarter to six this evening, I decided it was finally time to think about what we should have for dinner. I wanted something quick, simple, nutritious, and absolutely delicious.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

Turns out that, no, it's not too much to ask. I remembered that Rustic Garlic Onion Pizza I made a while back, and decided that was the way to go. So I pretty much made that tonight.

Here are the changes I made:
I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose for the crust.
I sliced a fresh tomato from my parents' garden and used that instead of the chopped onion.
I grated the mozzarella on instead of slicing it, so that it would cover the whole surface.
I put this in a 9x13 instead of a baking sheet, and it made the edges more even. It fit the pan perfectly.

The result? This pizza was every bit as delicious and wonderful as the original garlic onion pizza. Hooray!

Makes 8 pieces
Calories: about 150 per piece

Homemade Salsa

I found a blog today called 50s Housewife. Mostly I was looking for homemaking blogs, because I am in serious need of inspiration and motivation in that area. But this lovely housewife also has a fair share of delicious-looking recipes on her blog. I was really excited when I found her recipe for Easy Homemade Salsa. We have several fresh jalapenos from my parents' garden, and they have been waiting to be used (I actually can't believe that we've had them for several days and have only just now started using them!) so I knew I had to give this simple recipe a try.

I'm glad I did. The 50s Housewife says, "I don't thinks it's ever lasted more than 24 hours at my house. My husband nearly drinks the stuff." It's so true - Jeff couldn't get enough of this salsa, he would have been drinking it out of the bowl if I hadn't slapped his hand away - I wasn't done with it yet!

Homemade Salsa
1 can diced tomatoes - it looks like she uses a 28 oz can, I just used a 14 oz
1/4 to 1/2 of an onion - I used about 1/3
About a teaspoon bottled minced garlic
Fresh cilantro - I didn't have this, and substituted a couple tablespoons dry parsley
1 fresh jalapeno
Salt to taste

Toss everything in your blender. Or set it in gently. Either way.


Whirl it around in the blender until it's the right consistency and texture. Then you're done! You can let it sit in the fridge for a while to allow the flavors to blend, but it's easy to get impatient. :-)

Calories per 1/4 cup - about 15


I made some quesadillas specially to go with this salsa. I made the tortillas from scratch using the recipe on the back of our bag of Masa harina, then cooked them on the stove with cheese to make quesadillas. I didn't get any pictures of the quesadillas, because we were too busy eating them. Fresh homemade quesadillas served with fresh homemade salsa are so delicious!

One of the best parts about this is that I finally got a chance to use my beautiful little salsa bowls that I bought at D.I. a few weeks ago. They're just like the ones used in Mexican-American restaurants. Lotsa fun!

Corn Cakes

Corn meal makes some deliciously cheap breakfasts. From corn meal mush, to coffee cake, to corn cakes!

Corn Cakes
1 1/4 cups corn meal
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Sift together dry ingredients. Add egg and milk and mix just until combined.

Cook like pancakes on a hot, lightly greased griddle or skillet, until golden brown, turning once.

These were good with butter and syrup, but when I added some freezer peach jam, they were really good! I didn't get pics of the cakes with jam, because by the time I added it, the plate was all messy. But it sure tasted great.

Tomato and Squash "Alfredo"

This recipe comes from my sister Michelle's blog, Fabulous Food! She came up with this not-exactly-alfredo dish by doing something I do frequently - throwing things together and hoping it turns out tasty. In this case, it definitely did!

I altered her original recipe. She used chicken breast, but we don't have any on hand. I did pick a couple nice-sized yellow squash from our garden last night, so I added those instead. Also, she put cream in her recipe. I chose instead to add some powdered milk to regular milk, to thicken it up. It worked great, and saved a lot of fat calories.

She calls this "Alfredo" because of the Parmesan. It really isn't an alfredo at all, but like Michelle said in her post, "It's that parmesan flavor, I'm telling you!"

Tomato and Squash "Alfredo"
2 medium yellow squash, cut into bite-size chunks
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
salt and pepper
2 tsp. bottled minced garlic
1 tsp each parsley, thyme, and oregano
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups macaroni
1/3 cup milk + 1/3 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup Parmenan

Heat oil and butter in a saucepan. Add squash, seasoned with salt and pepper, to the oil and saute until tender-crisp. Add the garlic and herbs, cook a minute or so more. Pour the broth in, and add the can of tomatoes, do not drain the juice out. Let that simmer on low to reduce the liquid by half while the pasta cooks.

Bring salted water to a boil, add macaroni (or pasta of choice). Cook for about 10 minutes, until done. By this time, the liquid in the veggies should have reduced nicely. Drain the pasta and add to the squash and tomatoes.

Whisk together the milk and powdered milk (or use 1/2 cup cream); add to the squash and pasta mixture along with Parmesan. Here I tasted it and realized I needed to add a lot more flavor (I kinda scrimped on the salt and herbs). I added more salt, some Italian seasoning, some garlic powder, and some more Parmesan. That fixed it.

I served this with some steamed green beans and wax beans, also from our garden. I really like having a garden, even if half the things we planted didn't grow. The beans and squash are all doing so well!

S'more Cookie Fingers

***** This recipe is being entered into the SITS (Secret is in the Sauce) Recipe Contest! The winner will receive a $100 Williams Sonoma gift certificate and a new digital camera. If you want to enter the contest, click here. *****


Happy National S'Mores Day, everyone!

To celebrate this very important National Holiday (while using the ingredients on hand, which did not include full-sized marshmallows, phooey!) I decided to get creative and invent my own s'more-inspired dessert. I tossed around the idea of making a s'more pie (baked crust filled with a mixture of mini-mallows, chocolate chips, and graham cracker chunks, then heated in the oven until the marshmallows puff and the chocolate is soft and gooey) but decided I didn't want to do a pie crust. My reason is so lame - I didn't want to have to clean shortening off a measuring cup and pastry cutter!

My next idea was to make some sort of cookie. I eventually decided to make a cookie and top it with chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows. Sounded great, and all that was left was to find the right cookie recipe.

Looking online, I found a recipe for Cookie Clay Dough - it tastes like cinnamon grahams, and is made for the express purpose of being shaped. Little plug for this recipe - it is so awesome! It's healthier than some other cookie doughs, because it's made with whole wheat flour (ignore all the sugar and butter...). It's also really fun, because you can plop it on some wax paper in front of your kids and they play with it like Play-Doh (make sure they wash their hands first), then you bake their creations and they get to eat them! The other reason this recipe is so great is that the raw dough tastes incredible! If you have powdered egg product, use that instead of the raw egg because you're going to want to just snack on this dough without ever baking it! Or if you don't care about the salmonella risk, eat it with the egg (just so you know, I'll probably get salmonella after today, but it would be worth it for that dough).

S'more Cookie Fingers
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 cube)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg (or 2 tbsp. dry egg powder and some water)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:
Chocolate chips
Miniature marshmallows

Cream together the sugars, butter, vanilla, and egg (if using dry egg, add the powder with the dry ingredients). Add flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix well. If using the dry egg powder, now add 2-4 tbsp. water until the dough has a Play-Doh consistency. I used a regular egg, and ended up adding about a tablespoon of water at the end because it's really dry here.

At this point you can give the dough to your kids and say, "Look kids, edible play dough! Have at it!" They'll love you forever. But if you want to make cookie fingers, here's what I did.

Shape the dough into sixteen "boats" on ungreased baking sheets.

Fill the boats with about 7-8 chocolate chips.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and press 6-7 mini-mallows onto the chocolate chips.

Return to oven and bake for 3 more minutes, until the marshmallows are puffy and a tiny bit golden. The marshmallows look kinda like big white caterpillars, don't they?

Let cool in the pan for about 3 minutes, then remove to wire racks. The best time to eat these is right after you remove them from the pan - they're still a bit warm, the chocolate is soft, the mallows are gooey and stretchy, and it tastes so good! Once they've cooled, you can pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to get that warm, gooey texture again.


This will also be my sweet entry for the second August edition of I Love Baking. Who can resist a big round-up of delicious baked goods twice a month from all over the blogosphere?