Recipes For Corn Muffins, Hot Fudge Cake, Wheat Bread

Astrophe's Journal

September 30, 2000 2:15 AM EST

I just woke up. No idea why, but I woke up. At least I am falling asleep now, even if I am waking up at odd times a few hours later. I had a dream that we went to run a bed and breakfast. This is the second time I've had that dream! Wait -- I know why I woke up. I am hungry. This would be a good time for some of that soup...

Told my sister about mom and dad and the trampoline and she e-mails me back that our family really IS a circus now, complete with clowns. She cracks me up.

Earlier tonight (Friday), I made bread, and was surprised. Either the directions for this bread were really great or I've just gotten more adept at bread making because my entire body, the counters, and the kitchen floor were not coated in flour. Lots of baking in the last two days, so I figure I better write them down somewhere until I decide if these are recipe journal worthy yet. They all need minor adjustments so I will wait until they are perfect before I copy them over.

Corn Muffins

I've been fussing with this one for a while trying to get them to turn out like the corn muffin of my imagination. I finally got it to where it came out nicely textured and vegan. Now I have to fuss with it some more so it comes out nice, vegan, and lower fat because I really don't think 2 tbs of oil is crucial.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer + 2 tbs water

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs oil

1 cup water

Directions:

Whisk egg replacer with 2 tbs water until frothy. Add remaining ingredients and whisk til smooth. Pour about 1/2 cup batter in holes of a 12 serving nonstick muffin tin. Bake at 450 deg for 10-15 min or until toothpick test comes out clean.

Hot Fudge Cake

This turned out well, but it was just a mistake. It was WAY sweet. I used to like stuff this sweet, but I don't like it that sweet any more. The cake-y part was ok, but I just wasn't expecting quite so much fudge sauce on the bottom. Wow! I'm thinking of skipping the sauce parts and turning this into a brownie recipe. I have to think it over and see how to make that happen. This is crockpot-able the way it is though -- you just do it in the crockpot instead of a baking pan and let it go covered for 2-3 hrs on high.

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup soy milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup almond slivers

Mix all those together in a 9" round baking pan with a rubber spatula. Spread it mostly flat.

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Sprinkle these over the batter in the pan evenly.

1 3/4 cups hot water

Now pour hot water over the whole thing but DO NOT MIX. The cake will bake and make it's own fudge sauce on the bottom. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean.

Wheat Bread

This 3-loafer dough batch I found turned out quite nice. I made one as a loaf, one as 12 rolls in a muffin pan, and the last one smashed flat on a pizza stone for pizza crust tomorrow. The recipe calls for honey but I think next time rather than ignore it's non-vegan-ness I will go BUY corn syrup. I had honey, I just didn't have a replacement. Naughty me. Maybe I should have tried maple syrup? Or would that have been too maple-y? The smell of this baking drove everyone in the house, including the pets wild. Why do yeast breads smell so good baking?!

Ingredients

3 cups warm water

2 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/3 cup honey

5 cups bread flour

3 tablespoons margarine

1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon salt

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tbs melted margarine (optional)

Directions

1 In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.

2 Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky--just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 - 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.

3 Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.

4 Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely

I was surfing while waiting for the bread to rise, so I was looking at all sorts of recipes and at kitchen stuff. I wish for bigger loaf pans. The coolest thing I found were different kinds of paper loaf pans fromSur La Table. They are paper liners you can bake in so if you bake over the holidays you can just bake them in there, slip them into a nice plastic bag, tie with a ribbon and go. Nothing to wash. Hooray! Maybe I'll get mom some for their mid Dec. anniversary so her holiday baking is faster. Hmm. Maybe I want some.