Goat cheese pizza

The recipe first, then the story below!

Ingredients:
1/4 pound thick bacon (smoked if you've got it!)
2 large yellow onions, chopped
2 T leftover bacon fat
1/2 tsp salt (smoked sea salt is great)
1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
A few twists of black pepper
8 oz chevre
One pound of pizza dough at room temperature

Cook the bacon in a cast-iron skillet over low to low-medium heat, turning two or three times. Slow cooking can take 20 or 30 minutes, but renders the fat in thick bacon better.

Pour 2 T of the fat into a heavy-bottomed frying pan over low to low-medium heat. [Save the rest for frying eggs. YUM!] Add the onions and the salt, stir, then cover. After 15 minutes, the onions will have released a lot of liquid and their sharp smell and taste, and should be translucent. Add the bell pepper. With the cover off, keep cooking, stirring occasionally. As they cook, they lose moisture, sweeten up, and slowly turn golden. This take 45 minutes to an hour or more, but produces great flavor.

While the onions cook, chop the bacon, then roll your dough out on a floured board. If you have a pizza stone and paddle, great. Turn the oven on to 450-500 degrees and put the stone in the middle of the oven. I just use a cookie sheet. Shape the dough on the paddle or the cookie sheet. I like it thin, and this dough covered the entire sheet. Thin dough responds better to a hot oven. If the dough shrinks too much, let it rest before stretching it or rolling it to cover the pan/paddle.

Drop the chevre in little bits onto the pizza dough. Spread it if you can. Once the onions and peppers are finished cooking, spread them over the cheese and crust evenly, then sprinkle the bacon on top. Bake for about 10 minutes at 450 degrees, or perhaps 8 at 500. Take the pizza out to cool and add a couple twists of the pepper mill. Let it cool 5 or 10 minutes, then slice it and enjoy!

This is an easy recipe to adapt to other ingredients. Have some arugula? Toss a fistful onto the pizza right after it comes out of the oven. Fresh basil? Toss some on before you add the onions/peppers. Roasted garlic cloves? Bring 'em! Italian sausage instead of bacon? Oh, yeah. Maybe put a smear of tomato paste on before anything else.

The story:
After giving a friend a bowl of delicious trifle made with whipped mascarpone cheese, crystallized ginger, grilled pound cake, blueberries and more, a friend returned the clean bowl and brought me some sage chèvre that she had been given. [Sharing is caring, right.]

As soon as I saw it, I thought, "pizza." She couldn't stay for supper, but another friend had a Portland Pie Company pizza dough and answered my social media call for hungry mouths. The result? This delicious goat cheese pizza with caramelized onions, peppers, and some super smoky Benton's bacon. Yummy! We sat outside on the patio and tried not to distract the joggers and walkers passing by with the sounds of our lip smacking and the repeated chorus of "This is so good!"

Chocolate Mousse (a promise kept)

Over 20 years ago, I joined the Peace Corps and went to Senegal after months and months and months of planning and preparations. While there, I met some amazing people, and I promised those people some chocolate mousse. For my own reasons, I left the Peace Corps before the end of the training, and while I don't regret that decision, I regretted deeply not getting to know those people better and not fulfilling that promise. Recently, I was invited to join many of the volunteers at the 20th reunion of the start of that journey, so I set about making a double batch of chocolate mousse with Callebaut dark chocolate, heavy cream, eggs, a bit of confectionary sugar, vanilla, and love. Love for the short time I spent with these people, love for how well I have gotten to know some of them since that time, love for being invited to participate in a reunion because I was there at the beginning, though not at the middle and end. I know, it's just chocolate mousse, but it's oh, so much more than chocolate mousse. It's a promise fulfilled 20 years after it was made. And there was blackberry-raspberry-lime sauce, too. 

What I like about this mousse is that it has good structure, but is soft and creamy on the tongue. 

A spoonful of dark chocolate mousse

So, here is the recipe I use. The proportions are simple to remember and the process is easy enough.

1 lb Callebaut dark chocolate chopped roughly

1 pint heavy cream

a few T powdered sugar

1 t. good vanilla (or another extract of choice, or a T of espresso powder)

12 large eggs, separated

1-1/2 t. cream of tartar

Heat the chocolate just till melted. I do this in a glass bowl in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring as I go.

While that has started, I whip the cream to firm peaks with the confectionary sugar and vanilla, then set it back in the fridge. 

After that, I separate the eggs: whites into a medium bowl, yolks into a large bowl. Beat the whites with the cream of tartar to the soft peak stage. If you beat them to stiff peaks, they get too dry and don't fold well into the other ingredients. Put these back in the refrigerator.

Beat the egg yolks till lemon yellow. The trick now is to beat in the chocolate so that the warm chocolate doesn't curdle the eggs and so the eggs don't firm up the chocolate again. I do this by drizzling the chocolate in slowly at first, while the beater runs. A stand mixer is very helpful for this. Once about a third of the chocolate is in the egg yolks, you can start pouring it in faster. beat in the chocolate by drizzling it in slowly at first as you beat it. This 

After all the chocolate has been beaten in, beat in a good spoonful or two of the whipped cream to soften the mixture up a bit, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites till combined. Spoon into serving dishes. Chill till set, at least a few hours, but mousse is often better the next day. When you pour it into the dishes, it will be quite wet and loose, but after a day or two, it will hold its texture very well. 

Serve with a sauce of choice, like this triple berry sauce. For the reunion, I served it with blackberry-raspberry-lime sauce, but anything that goes well with chocolate should work.
I prefer to serve mousse in champagne flutes so I can plunge a chopstick down to the bottom of the glass, then remove it, leaving a place for the sauce to go. This means having a little sauce all the way to the last bit of mousse.

This mousse is not for everyone it is not very sweet by itself, so the sauce is a must in my opinion. 

Triple Berry Sauce

I love to make this rich sauce to serve with chocolate mousse or on cheesecake. Of course, if you don't want to indulge in rich desserts, put a few drops in a glass of prosecco. There are simpler sauces, yes, but once in a while, it's nice to create something this delicious from scratch. 

1 pint of fresh strawberries trimmed and hulled
1 quart of fresh raspberries, blackberries, or perhaps dark cherries (pitted)
1 pint of fresh, wild blueberries. 
1/2 cup or more of sugar
an ounce or two of Chambord or similar liqueur
an ounce or two of champagne or other sparkling wine if you have it
the juice of 1/2 lime

Mix the fruit in a saucepan and macerate it with the sugar. Stir over low heat till the fruit breaks down to the point where the seeds separate from the fruit. Mash the fruit well, then press it through a fine strainer to remove the seeds. The strawberry seeds may be too fine to remove, but you certainly should be able to get out the blackberry or raspberry seeds. 

Return the sauce to the pan over low heat. Stir well and add sugar to taste, keeping in mind that the sauce will get sweeter as it cooks down and that you'll add some lime juice, too. You just want enough sugar to enhance the taste of the fruits.

Add the liqueur (and sparkling wine), then cook the mixture slowly still over low heat, stirring often, till the sauce has reduced by half. (I note the depth of the sauce on a spoon or by marking a cheap wooden chopstick or toothpick.). If you cook the sauce over very low heat, you can reduce it even more. 

Finally, stir in the lime juice and chill the sauce in an ice bath before refrigerating. The lime juice goes in last because cooking it can change its character in a way that I think does not improve the taste of this sauce.

Peanut "hummus"

I decided to create this recipe for a friend who has some food allergies. Beyond the allergies, he recently discovered that he is sensitive to a lot of other ordinary everyday foods, and he's giving them up for six months and maybe forever. One of the items on his list is chickpeas, so I started doing research on other ways to make a hummus-like dip. I found several recipes for boiled peanut hummus, but we can't get boiled peanuts here, or green peanuts to boil ourselves. So, I set about making a Thai-spice inspired "hummus" and gosh darn it, it's good. Here it is.

Peanut "hummus"

1-1/2 cups of roasted peanuts

several cloves of roasted garlic (adjust the sweetening if you use fresh)

a bunch of green onions (2-3 inches of the white and light green, chopped)

2 T maple syrup (honey or another sweetener would be fine)

juice of 1 lime

2 T sriracha hot sauce (use more or less to taste)

1 t. fish sauce

two or three twists of black pepper

Put 1 cup of the peanuts and the other ingredients into a food processor. Blend until the well mixed, but not as smooth as peanut butter. This might take a few minutes. Taste the paste and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate. Make it a bit more intense than you'd like as the last 1/2 cup of peanuts will be added next. Add the last 1/2 cup of peanuts and process just till the new peanuts are broken. I like having chunks of peanut in the sauce to make the texture more interesting, but if you want it consistently smooth, just put all the peanuts in at the beginning. Garnish with some minced green onion if you'd like. You could also use cilantro or perhaps even some fresh basil for brightness instead of green onion. Serve with sliced veggies, corn chips, or whatever suits you!

Mookie's Whoopie Pies (aka, the Mookie Pie)

Whoopie pies, the official treat of Maine, have been hip on the national scene for years now. There are all sorts of flavors, like pumpkin, lemon, orange, maple, and gingerbread, as entrepreneurs seek to make a buck selling this trendy new treat. The only problem is that what they're selling aren't as good as the whoopie pies of my youth.
What makes something a whoopie pie? Well, yes, an original whoopie pie has vanilla filling between two chocolate cookie-shaped cakes, but the whoopie pies you buy now are so far removed from the homemade treats of my childhood that they are simply not worth buying.
If you buy a whoopie pie now, it will probably have a simple sugar-shortening filling flavored with vanilla, but the problem with this filling is that the sugar and shortening are always a little out of balance. With some pies, the filling is too sweet. With others, too greasy. My mother's whoopie pie filling doesn't suffer from this imbalance because part of the structure of the frosting comes from egg whites.
The addition of egg whites gives the filling body without simply adding more sugar. Even better, while the frosting that fills many whoopie pies now can be oily. The egg whites in my mother's recipe make the frosting spreadable and light, but it also dries a bit around the edges creating a texture I love, but also helps to keep the filling from oozing out when you take a bite.
But it's the cake that really sets a traditional whoopie pie apart from the imitations sold around the state now. Today's cakes are often spongy like cupcakes. When you take off the wrapper, the cake sometimes sticks to the wrapper and even to your fingers when you eat them. IMHO, a traditional whoopie pie just shouldn't do that. My mother's whoopie pies were soft when you bit them, but they were dry on the outside, almost crusty. The contrast between the crusty edges and the soft middles is what made them special.
One more thing. Whoopie pies now are huge compared to the ones made when I was growing up. They were so big that eating one would send your blood sugar soaring.
So, I decided to make half a batch of my mother's recipe to see if they were everything I remembered. I made them too big, though, and a half batch made only three pies. I took one to share with my sister, and we were happy with the results, for the most part. The frosting was perfect, and the texture of the cake was good. It was certainly tastier than the whoopie pies you can buy in stores now. But I wanted something a bit more chocolatey. Whoopie pies are traditionally made with cocoa, but I thought if I could incorporate chocolate in addition to the cocoa into the batter, I would have a better tasting cake with the right texture.
My first effort was a success and a failure. The cakes ended up tasting great, but they were thin and had the texture of soft, fudge cookies. The tops were crackled. They were delicious, but too hard to eat in a whoopie pie. I also made a proper buttercream frosting just as an experiment, but the butter made it far too rich--and soft.
My second batch was more cakey and less fudgy. The cakes were perfect. But I decided to experiment with the icing, and that didn't work. I wanted to find out if it would come out the same with powdered egg whites instead of fresh, as I know that some people might be nervous about eating frosting made with raw egg whites. The result tasted okay, but was far to soft.
The third batch, I made with the original frosting recipe and the cake recipe from the second batch. The results? Yummy. I even made them smaller so a person could eat one without feeling too guilty for overindulging. And even though they are closer to what I remember eating as a child, I decided to call them Mookie pies since they are fudgier than the originals.

A classic Maine whoopie pie

Here's the recipe. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cake Ingredients:
2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
2/3 c. milk
2 t. vanilla

2-1/8 c. all-purpose flour
3-1/2 T cocoa
1/4 t. salt
2/3 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder

1/2 c. soft butter
1/3 c. shortening
1-1/3 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 large yolks (reserve 2 whites for filling)

In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate in the milk. Whisk in vanilla till well mixed. Set aside till lukewarm. If you have a warm* kitchen, you might want to set the chocolate milk in the refrigerator. If the shortening mix below is too warm and the milk is too warm, the fats can soften (start to melt), resulting in a cake that spreads too wide.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt, soda, and powder.

In a large bowl, cream the fats and sugar, then beat in the egg and yolks till well incorporated. Again, if you have a warm* kitchen, consider chilling the beaters and bowl to keep the fats from softening too much when creaming.

Mix the dry into the creamed with beaters till well mixed. It should not be smooth at this point. Then blend in chocolate milk mixture just till well blended. It will be smooth, but very thick.

Spoon 1/8 cup of batter (I use a cookie dough scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheets leaving space between cakes. I get 11 on each sheet--a row of three between two rows of four. If you're not worried about them spreading too much and touching, you could try to get more on the sheet. This makes either side of 36 cakes for half that many whoopie pies.  

If you'd like to make these larger, try using 1/3 cup per cake. If you do, you might fit them all onto two cookie sheets. This makes 6-8 whoopie pies (12-16 cakes, 6-8 per sheet).

I have found that the third sheet tends to rise higher. I'm not sure why this is, so I have taken to scooping out the cakes then letting them sit on the pan for about 15 minutes. 

Bake in the middle to top of the oven. If baked on the bottom rack, they might burn on bottom. Bake the larger ones for about 16 minutes, the smaller, for about 14 minutes. The larger ones should have a somewhat rounded top that is dry to the touch. The smaller ones will not round up as much. If you take them out too late, they'll be dry. If you take them out to early, they'll likely fall and be more like soft cookies. When done, remove from the oven and let sit for a couple minutes before using a spatula to remove them from the cookie sheets and put them on wire cooling racks.

Filling Ingredients:
2 egg whites
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. shortening
pinch of salt
2-1/2 c. confectionary sugar

With an electric beater, beat the egg whites, vanilla, shortening, salt, and 1 cup of the sugar till well mixed. Gradually beat in the remaining 1-1/2 cups of sugar. If the filling has the right amount of sugar in it, it should give some resistance to the beaters. The goal is a filling that stands up well, sort of like firm peaks, vs. soft peaks, though they won't really look like beaten cream or beaten egg whites. 

Putting them together:
After the cakes have cooled, spoon some frosting one one cake and press it down with another cake. How much frosting you use is up to you, but I sometimes have frosting left over. I think the small ones taste good with 1/4 to 1/3 inch of frosting, while the larger cakes take 1/3 to 1/2 inch of icing.

Leave the cakes out for a few hours so that the icing can dry a bit. After they've set well, you can keep them in a container on the counter or wrap them individually in plastic. They are best eaten in a day or two. They can also be wrapped and frozen to eat later.

Once you're comfortable with this recipe, you might add other flavors to the filling, perhaps almond extract, mint, cherry...

Enjoy!

*Warm kitchen could be as low as 70 degrees. Usually, my kitchen is about 60 degrees in winter. I have tried cooling the sheets of batter in the refrigerator for 10 or 15 minutes or so before baking them. This seems to work to keep the batter from spreading too much, and it's certainly easier than chilling all the utensils and cooling the chocolate milk.

L'omelette roulée (a rolled omelette)

Like most of you, I grew up eating folded omelettes, which we just called "omelettes." Little did I know at the time, the half moon-shaped golden brown stuffed egg omelette that I was used to is more trouble to make and not nearly as tender and delicious as the traditional, French "l'omelette roulée," or "rolled omelette." Fortunately for me, while celebrating the New Year at a Sunday brunch at a grand hotel in Seoul, South Korea, I met my first rolled omelette, and it was wonderfully different from anything I had ever eaten before. If you've gone your whole life so far without ever eating one of these simple, delicious omelettes, get some eggs and make one for yourself as soon as you can. You won't regret it.

So, how are they different? Well, most folded omelettes I've eaten tend to be overcooked and tough, partly out of habit, but also partly because they are often overstuffed with ingredients that need time to heat, or in the case of cheese, to melt. On the other hand, the rolled omelette traditionally is not served with a filling, so it can be prepared at very high heat in as little as 30 seconds. If you didn't already know, cooking eggs slowly makes them rubbery, or "leathery" as Julia Child often said. She's right, and once you get the technique down, you'll never make another folded omelette again. 

Rather than explain the process here, perhaps you should just watch this entertaining video of the woman who brought French cooking to Americans in the mid-1900s preparing one of these omelettes. Note: they are easiest to make on gas ranges, but as you can see in the video, she makes them on an electric coil range. Though I somehow manage, they are difficult to make on ceramic cook tops because the "flame" adjusts automatically, in other words, because you can't just keep it on high all the time. 

L'omelette roulée (rolled omelet)

If you do decide to include a filling, be sure it is finely chopped. Use perhaps 1/3 cup of filling, and be sure to sprinkle it all over the omelette just after you've given the eggs their first few shakes. If you make the mistake of clumping them all in the middle, the omelette might not roll as easily. 

The filling I used in the omelette pictured here is part mushroom, red onion, and baby spinach sautéed in olive oil and seasoned with a splash of balsamic and some salt and pepper and part shredded cheese. I filled this omelette because I already had these sautéed vegetables leftover from another meal, but honestly, a 1/4 cup of shaved parmesan alone would be enough. 

Some simple tips. 

First, I find that two eggs cooks well and quickly in a large pan. Three is just a little too much. One three-egg omelette came out beautiful on the outside, but a little too wet on the inside, but 30 seconds in the microwave finished the eggs without making them tough at all. Still, it's better to avoid this and make them two-egg omelettes. Heck, they cook so quickly, it's no trouble at all to make two or three in just a few minutes. 

Second, cook these on gas if you can. You'll get a much more consistent high flame that will heat the pan well even while you are shaking it at an angle. 

Third, have the rest of your meal ready to eat. If you're eating them for breakfast with toast, get that ready and set the table before the eggs go in the pan. This omelette really can cook in a fraction of a minute over a high flame. 

Super Anadama Bread (best for toast)

When I was a boy, my mother loved anadama bread, a New England yeast bread made with cornmeal, butter, and molasses. I decided to try out her recipe to see just what she loved about it so much. Well, partway through the process, I took a taste of the cornmeal, butter, molasses mix. Wow! Those three ingredients together are like magic!

I baked the bread and loved it, but I wondered if I could make it richer and more moist by increasing the quantity of cornmeal, molasses, and butter, and then adjusting the other ingredients so the dough would be workable. Well, it was a success.

Super anadama bread

I call this super anadama bread because it tastes amazing. It's not bread with just a hint of cornmeal, molasses, and butter in the taste; it's a soft, moist loaf loaded with flavor.

The recipe was created for the toaster, but when you slice it, be sure to use a sawing motion. If you don't, you may squish down the loaf. Because it's so moist, I have to set my toaster on high, and usually I have to put it through for part of another toast cycle. When you bite into a freshly buttered piece, it has a substantial, but light texture unlike any other bread, well, except for my super oatmeal, which I created after this with the same goal in mind.

Here's there recipe for two loaves. Because I usually bake four loaves at a time, I've included that recipe at the bottom.

For two loaves
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup water
2/3 sticks butter
2 tsp salt
7/8 cups cornmeal
2/3 cup molasses
1 T bread yeast
5 cups of flour or more including the starting cup (more may be needed for the board)

Bring the milk, water, butter, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, then take it off the heat.
Whisk in the cornmeal slowly to keep it from clumping.

After the mixture cools to lukewarm, stir in the molasses, yeast, and 1 cup of the flour. It may take a hand beater or electric beater to mix this well, as the cornmeal mixture will already be a bit like pudding.
At this point, I transfer the mixture from the pan to a huge bowl I use for making bread, where I add more flour, but you could also just add flour to the mixture in the cooking pan, then move it to a board when it's workable. I find it easy enough to knead the dough in the bowl, but if you don't have one, just follow the more traditional method outlined below.

Gradually stir in more flour till the dough is firm enough to move to a floured board, where you should knead in the rest of the flour. This kneading process should take about 10 minutes. With drier bread recipes, you can knead until the dough does not stick you your hands at all, but with this one, it may still stick a bit. Shape the dough into a ball and put in an oiled bowl at room temperature. I usually press it down so that I can gauge the volume better and more clearly know when it has doubled. Cover with a wet towel, or plastic and a towel, and let rise till double.

The rise should not be rushed. I usually leave it in temps in the mid 60s, and it takes 60-90 minutes. It might be tempting to keep it someplace warmer, but the longer the dough takes to rise, the more flavor will develop in the wheat flour.

When the dough has doubled in volume, punch it down, knead it to redistribute the yeast, and divide it into two portions. Roll out each portion to the length of the bread pan till you have a large, flat sheet of dough. Roll it up, pinching to create a seam, then put it in an oiled bread pan. Cover with the wet towel or plastic and a towel, then let rise till double.

As it gets almost to double, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake both loaves for 40-50 minutes, or till they sounds hollow when you thump them. Remove the bread from the pans onto a cooling rack. Cool them completely before slicing or freezing.

There's a similarly super-rich oatmeal bread recipe here.

Here are the quantities for four loaves.
4 cups of milk
1 cup water
1 and 1/3 sticks butter
4 tsp salt
1 and 3/4 cups cornmeal
1 and 1/3 cups molasses
2 T bread yeast
10 cups of flour or more including the starting cup

Basic Hummus

Hummus (hoummous) NOT humus! is increasingly popular. There must be 10 different brands in the local supermarket and several varieties of each brand, but did you know just how easy it is to make? And how satisfying? Well, it is. Here's a recipe for basic hummus. 

Hummus

1 16 oz. can of chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans, drained
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1 t. salt
3 T tahini
extra virgin olive oil

In a food processor, blend all the ingredients except for the oil. When all is well blended, start slowly drizzling in the olive oil while the food processor is running till the hummus reaches the desired texture. A couple tablespoons will yield a chunky, coarse hummus, and half a cup of yields something much smoother. 

That's it. Serve the hummus in a bowl. If you'd like, make a well in the center and add some more olive oil to it if desired.

There are lots of extra flavors you can add to this, perhaps 1/4 of chopped cilantro to brighten up the taste, or even basil. How about chili powder, cajun spices, or cumin? And we all know lots of the store brands include roasted garlic instead of fresh, or roasted red pepper. 

Hummus with sautéed veggies on cheesy toast

Not crazy about canned beans? Cook your own. Heck, you can even make your own tahini by toasting sesame seeds in a skillet over medium heat, stirring often, then pureeing them in the food processor for several minutes.

While I usually eat hummus with fresh vegetables, like cucumber, celery, broccoli, bell peppers, etc., Winter hardly seems like the time to eat so many cold veggies. Instead, I decided to smear the hummus on some lightly broiled thin sliced whole wheat bread (try pita wedges, too) with some shredded cheese sprinkled on it. I topped it all off with some mushrooms, red onion, and baby spinach that I had sauteed with olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, and some salt and pepper. Delicious, wholesome, and healthy!

Mrs. Seavey's Cake (raisin-spice)

Mrs. Seavey's Cake

This raisin-spice cake got my attention first for the name--Mrs. Seavey must have been a friend of my grandmother--second, as it was written by my grandmother's hand, and third, for the process, which involves boiling the raisins. 

The cake tastes kind of like a soft raisin-spice muffin, one that you could squish up into a ball, it's so soft and moist. 

The only adaptation I made was to reduce the cooking time. The original recipe called for a one-hour cook time at 350, but that seemed much too long to me.

Here's the recipe.

1 c. raisins

1 c. sugar

1 c. water

a piece of shortening the size of an egg

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. ginger

1/4 t. cloves

1-1/2 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

In a medium saucepan, bring the raisins, sugar, water, shortening, and spices to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool to room temperature. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the dry ingredients together, then stir them into the wet mixture just till well combined. Pour them into a greased and floured 8" by 8" cake and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack.

This cake is delicious as it is, but if you like to change things up like I do, consider adding some minced crystalized ginger, candied orange or lemon peel, or perhaps dried cherries, cranberries or blueberries.

UPDATE: According to my Aunt Mary, Mrs. Seavey was a neighbor who lived across from my grandmother where the Butler's used to live, and this cake was a "poor man's cake" because it was made with such common pantry staples and didn't require eggs or milk. In fact, if you look up "poor man's cake," you will find similar recipes. 

Super Oatmeal Bread (for toast!)

Oatmeal toast with cranberry-rhubarb-coconut jam

For years now, I have been making oatmeal bread following the Trapp family recipe. Yes, that Trapp family, the one made famous in the movie "The Sound of Music." While you can find that recipe on the Trapp Lodge recipe page by scrolling down, you can also find it on epicurious.com.

After the success of an experiment doubling the tasty ingredients in anadama bread (cornmeal, molasses, and butter) to create a richer, moister bread, I decided to try doubling the oats, brown sugar, and butter in the Trapp family oatmeal bread recipe. Of course, I had to tinker with other aspects of the recipe, but the goal still was to create a richer tasting, moister bread, three loaves instead of two.

Well, it worked! Just like with the super anadama bread, this oatmeal bread tastes more like oats, butter, and brown sugar, and has a spongier texture, too. I just needed to take the new proportions and scale them down to create a recipe for two loaves instead of three. I also scaled them up for a recipe for four loaves, the number I usually bake at one time. Those quantities are listed at the bottom. [Please note that there are other differences between how I make this bread and the original recipe. I use two rises and roll out the dough to form loaves.] 

For two loaves
2/3 stick butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 and 1/3 cups oats
2 and 1/3 cups hot water
3 and 1/3 tsp yeast
4 and 2/3 cups flour
1/3 tsp salt

Put the butter, brown sugar, and oats in a large bowl. Pour the hot water over them and stir to mix, melting the butter in the process. Let the mixture sit till it is lukewarm, then sprinkle the yeast over the top. After the mixture is foamy (5 minutes or so), stir in the salt and 3 to 4 cups of the flour one cup at a time. As soon as the dough is stiff, turn it onto a floured board so you can knead in the rest of the flour. [Don't be too quick to add lots of flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. There is a point at which continuing to work the dough will make it less sticky even without the addition of more flour. This is because the flour absorbs moisture slowly. The goal is to find that point, usually 10 minutes for this recipe, but sometimes longer.]

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place till doubled. This can take more or less than an hour depending on the temperature, but please note that a slow rise is preferred, as it allows for better flavor to develop. I let my dough rise at temps in mid- to high-60s if possible.

After it has doubled, punch the dough down, remove it to the floured board, and knead it briefly to mix it well. If it feels very elastic, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes; otherwise, divide the dough into 2 equal balls.

With your hands and a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a rectangle a bit longer than the length of your bread pan. Make it as wide as you can without going to too much trouble. Roll up the dough carefully to avoid sealing in any air bubbles, then pinch the seam to seal it. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bread pan seam side down. [This is where the original recipe calls for you to brush the loaves with egg and sprinkle on some oats. I don't bother.] Cover with plastic and a towel to hold the plastic in place. Let rise till double. This should take less time than the first rise.

Bake the loaves in a preheated 375-degree oven till the loaves sound hollow when thumped. The original recipe calls for a 45 to 50 minute baking time, but I usually check them at 40 minutes. When done, remove the loaves from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes or so, then remove them from the pans and put them on a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. Resist the temptation to slice into a loaf while still warm. Letting it cool completely keeps the moisture in and allows for development of a better crust.

When you are ready to slice a loaf, be sure to use a sharp bread knife and a sawing motion. This bread will be soft inside, and pressing down too hard can squish the bread. This bread is absolutely meant to be toasted. Because it is so moist, it might take longer to toast than other breads.

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For four loaves following the same process as outlined above. Keep in mind that when dealing with larger quantities and different conditions, the outcomes can be different, so more or less flour may be needed.

1 and 1/3 stick butter

1 and 1/3 cup brown sugar

4 and 2/3 cups oats

4 and 2/3 cups water

6 and 2/3 tsp yeast

9 and 1/3 cups flour 

2/3 tsp salt

Aunt Joanie's Prize Coffee Cake

Creating and sharing food with others is one of my favorite pastimes. A dish well made and shared with friends or family becomes a memory for everyone who enjoys it, and the recipe for that dish can bring to mind the fond times spent together. 

I am fortunate to have a box of recipes collected by my mother over those years, and when I find a recipe, it brings back memories, not only of the times I’ve enjoyed that dish, but also of the person who wrote it. 

While going through that recipe box, I found some recipes from my Aunt Joanie. Immediately, I remembered riding in her brown Ford Pinto to St. Sauveur in Acadia National Park for a hike one summer day when I was a boy. She brought Dorito’s, which, at that time, were available only in one flavor: nacho cheese. I think we met her friend K.G. then, but I don’t recall. K.G., however, recalls clearly our first meeting, as I apparently was going through a spitting phase.

When I was going through those recipes, I found one for a dish I had never tried before: Aunt Joanie’s prize-winning coffee cake. As soon as I saw it, I knew I’d have to make it.

Aunt Joanie's prize-winning coffee cake

It's a simple recipe for a moist, light coffee cake like none other I've ever eaten, and it's best eaten warm, as it falls apart in your hands. After I baked it, I gobbled down two pieces and realized I'd better send a text my aunt to thank her for giving my mother the recipe. She told me then that she had created it for an eighth-grade home economics class, and that it had indeed won a prize. She didn’t mention K.G.

Aunt Joanie’s prize-winning coffee cake

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. flour

1-1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tbls. melted butter

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1-1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease or spray an 8-by-8 baking pan.

In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon, breaking up any lumps, then stir in the melted butter till well mixed.

In a medium bowl, cream the shortening and sugar, then beat in the egg. Stir in the milk well. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, then stir them into the wet ingredients in the medium bowl. 

Pour half of the batter into the baking pan, sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture on it, spoon the rest of the batter on top of that and then sprinkle on the rest of the brown sugar mixture. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes (till golden brown on top). Remove the cake and let it cool for 10 minutes or so before cutting and serving. Serve while still warm. 

Note: I baked this in a ceramic pan, so it took the full 35 minutes. It should cook faster in a metal pan. 

Optional additions: Customize the recipe by adding chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, or any other nut of choice to the topping. Those with a real sweet tooth might add toffee pieces, butterscotch chips or chocolate chips to the batter. If you're feeling really adventurous, put some apple or peach butter in a squeeze bottle and use that instead of brown sugar mix atop the first layer of batter or just drizzle it over the coffee cake for a more elegant presentation.