Excellent Chocolate Cake Recipe

November 12, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / 1 Comment

If you made my pumpkin cupcake recipe last week, you’ll have leftover cream cheese frosting. Here’s another amazing cake to use that leftover icing on. This comes straight from the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking. It is an odd recipe, and making it takes more bowls than any other cake I’ve ever made. But it’s worth the extra washing up—rich and chocolaty!

In bowl #1, combine:
1 cup sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
½ cup buttermilk or yogurt

In bowl #2, combine:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

In bowl #3, combine:

½ cup buttermilk or yogurt
1 tsp vanilla

In bowl #4 (a large one), cream:
8 Tbsp (125 g) unsalted butter, softened

Gradually add and beat on high speed until light in colour and texture:
1 cup sugar

Beat in 1 at a time:
2 eggs

Beat in the cocoa mixture. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk mixture. Spoon into greased and floured pans (makes 2 9×2-in layers), or paper lined muffin tins (makes about 18).

Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-25 min for cake, 25 min for cupcakes.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

November 6, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / 4 Comments

It’s been a cupcake sort of week here. I would hesitate to post yet another cupcake blog, but these are so seasonal for many of you, that I will anyway.

While you in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying the autumn pumpkin harvest fresh, I’m trying to clear out the last of the frozen pumpkin puree from the freezer to make way for the peas that will soon be pouring in.

What better way to use pumpkin than in cake?

This recipe is adapted from a pumpkin cake recipe in King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking.

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 cup barley flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp allspice
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups cooked, pureed pumpkin

Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil, and sugar until it’s the consistency of mayonnaise. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the pumpkin, then the dry ingredients.

Spoon into paper-lined cupcake tins. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.

Cool completely, then frost with cream cheese frosting and decorate with crystallised ginger.

If you want to bake this as a cake, be sure to line your pans with parchment—the barley flour makes for a very fragile cake—and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Frosting:

1 package (250g/8 oz) cream cheese, softened
85 g (6 Tbsp, 3 oz) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing sugar

Beat the cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar. If the icing is too stiff, add milk by the teaspoon until it reaches the right spreading consistency (I generally don’t need to add any milk).

On-the-Fly Spinach Tart

November 4, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

My plan was an easy dinner tonight. I’d been saving a few artichokes—letting them get big, so we could have steamed whole artichokes. I figured I’d make a salad with some leftover cous cous in the fridge, and maybe fry up some tofu crusted with herbs and parmesan cheese. Quick and easy.

Then I went to the garden and saw the spinach. Beautiful, glossy leaves, loving the bit of rain we’ve had recently. There was so much of it, I couldn’t resist.

So instead of a quick, easy meal, I made a spinach tart to go with those artichokes.

Dinner was a little late, but it was well worth it. There wasn’t a crumb left when we were through.

Trying to work quickly, I didn’t bother looking for a recipe. Here’s what I did.

I made a standard pie crust—enough for a single-crust pie. I rolled it out and lined my tart pan, then put it in the fridge to chill while I prepared the filling.

For the filling, I used:

Fresh spinach (maybe 1kg (2 lbs), coarsely chopped)

Fresh chives (a good handful, chopped)

Fresh dill weed (4 Tbsp, chopped)

1 cup grated goat cheddar

4 large eggs

salt and pepper to taste

I cooked the spinach and chives with a few tablespoons of olive oil until the spinach was well cooked, and most of the water had boiled off. I removed it to a bowl to cool. When it was cool enough to handle, I squeezed more water out of the spinach, and drained it off. (You want the spinach pretty dry, to keep the crust from getting soggy.)

I mixed in the dill, cheese, eggs, and salt and pepper, then poured the mix into the prepared crust. I baked it at 190°C (375°F) for about 40 minutes. I let it cool ten minutes before serving.

Instant Peanut Butter Cupcakes

November 3, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

I have always used the Mennonite Community Cookbook peanut butter cupcake recipe in the past. It makes a good, peanutty cupcake.

I had my mind on peanut butter cupcakes yesterday, but I had pulled out several cookbooks, to see if anything else caught my eye. I ran across this recipe in the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking, and had to try it. It was perfect for my needs—I was only starting my baking at 9 pm, and needed something quick to make. But surely, this couldn’t work—no separate mixing of wet and dry ingredients, no beating air into the butter, just throw it all together…

Combine in a food processor:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup milk
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup chocolate chips

Pulse for a few seconds to mix. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Pulse until smooth. Fill cupcake tins two-thirds full (I poured the batter directly from the food processor bowl) and bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes.

I was dubious, but the result was fantastic—pretty cupcakes that taste great! Of course, cleaning the food processor takes a lot longer than cleaning a mixing bowl and beaters, but the speed at which I got the cupcakes into the oven was worth the extra cleaning.

You say Iris, I say Orris

October 29, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

When we first planted our herb garden, nearly ten years ago, we planted a ‘knot’ of rosemary and lavender. In all the spaces inside the knot, we planted other herbs—a wide range of thymes, oregano, salad burnet, chives, etc. This iris was one of them (though we’ve since rescued it from being smothered in the knot). It is not a herb we ever intended to use—we just thought it was interesting. It is Iris pallida—the iris that is the source of orris root.

Orris root used to be used medicinally, but today its main attraction is its smell. It is used in perfume and potpourri, and in a Moroccan spice mix called Ras el harout.

I love the word orris, because it’s so clearly a case of dialect confusion. Say ‘iris’ with your teeth clenched, and you’ll get ‘orris’.

I can just imagine how it happened…the doctor calls on a patient in a remote village. He examines the man, and asks the family, “What have you done for him so far?”

“We’ve given ‘im a bit of iris root.”

“What? Orris root?”

“Yep, iris.”

“What is orris? I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s this plant, blue flower, grows down by the creek. I’m sure ye’ve seen it before.”

“Hm.” The doctor scribbles orris root into his notebook, and forever after iris root is known as orris root.

Supreme Spring Salad

October 21, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

We had occasional salads all winter, from the fall planting of lettuces and spinach. We’ve also had several salads from this spring’s lettuce planting. But all these salads have been small, and have required me to scrounge every available leaf to glean even a modest quantity.

Today’s salad was the first of the Supreme Spring Salads—salads for which I have so much lettuce, I can choose to pick only the best, most perfect leaves, and can adjust the proportions of each variety to perfectly suit the meal. I also had a few lovely radishes from my daughter’s garden to add to the salad, making it even more perfect.

And this was just the first. With luck (and a fair bit of weeding), we’ll have many more Supreme Salads to look forward to in the coming months.

All Hail the Bucket

October 14, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Where would civilisation be without the 20-litre (5-gallon) bucket? We own seven of them, and it’s common for all of them to be in use simultaneously.

I can’t look at a 20-litre bucket without seeing a…

Washing machine—In Panama, we washed our clothes in a 20-litre bucket.
Shower—The bucket was also our shower in Panama. We would fill it with water and haul it out to our “shower” enclosure. Half a coconut shell made a scoop for pouring out the water for washing.
Brewery—Panamanians brewed and served the local corn alcohol in 20-litre buckets, and my husband brews beer in one.
Punch bowl—We used a bucket as a large punch bowl for parties in Panama.
Diaper pail—With tight-fitting lids, 20-litre buckets make great diaper pails for cloth nappies. They were an essential part of our baby gear when our kids were that age.
Watering can—Several of our current buckets have holes drilled in the bottom, and we use them to provide drip irrigation for the fruit trees.
Wheelbarrow—We use buckets to haul everything from rocks to weeds in spaces where the wheelbarrow can’t go.
Measuring cup—The 20-litre bucket is a handy unit of measure when mixing concrete.
Rubbish bin—A 20-litre bucket is the perfect size for a rubbish bin in the shop or shed, and it’s tough enough to handle the rough treatment a shop bin gets.
Grain bin—Tough plastic and a tight lid keep mice and rats out of the grain.
Stool—I regularly turn our buckets upside down to use as stools for reaching items on high shelves in the shed. I suppose you could also sit on them, if you were inclined to rest.

I could lose a lot of tools and get by easily without them, but I’d be hard-pressed to do without my buckets.

Time for Thyme

October 11, 2016October 10, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Thyme is one of my favourite herbs. In spring, its lush new growth encourages me to put it in almost everything. Nearly everything is better with thyme, but it is especially good with braised carrots, eggs, pumpkin, and mushrooms. Mixed with good olive oil, also makes an excellent marinade for bocconcini—little mozzarella balls.

It’s one of those herbs that we plant more of than we need for culinary use, because it’s so pretty in the garden. There are around 400 varieties of thyme. Some are more culinary, others are more ornamental. Some grow into 30 cm tall shrubs, others creep low to the ground.

Thyme is a tough little plant. It puts up with hot dry conditions, and recovers from even the most aggressive pruning. The low-growing varieties can even be used as a fragrant lawn (though at our house, there’s no stopping the couch grass coming up through it).

Its white, pink or purple flowers are attractive to a wide range of insects. On ours, we regularly have honey bees bumble bees, flower flies, and butterflies—and the preying mantids that eat them.

Truly, you can never have too much thyme.

Vacation Day?

October 3, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

The list of things I have accomplished today is plenty long enough—I prepared two garden beds, attended a virtual writers’ meeting, paid the monthly bills, entered six months worth of information into my cashbook, made a huge batch of cookies, cleaned and organised my office, took the lawnmower to the mechanic for repairs, finished and sent off a guest blog post…

But I’m sitting here at 4pm feeling guilty that I’ve lazed around today—practically took a day off and did nothing!

It only feels that way, I think, because I got up before 4am to take a cheese out of the press and make it to my meeting on time (it was scheduled at a reasonable hour…in the UK—4am my time). I’d finished preparing the garden beds before 9am, and had dropped off the lawn mower before my second cup of coffee before 10am.

I did a little of this, a little of that—no long hard slog on any one task. Only the cashbook was a drag of a chore (as you might guess since I had ignored it for six months)—the fact I did it at all makes me think I clearly didn’t do enough today, otherwise I would have been able to put it off again.

It would be nice if every day went like today—if I ticked off a whole raft of things from my list and ended the day feeling like I’d been on vacation. Of course, if it meant being up before 4am every day, I’m not certain I could manage. Pretty soon I’d feel like my vacation involved a long plane ride and serious jet lag.

A New Oven

September 28, 2016 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Partly deconstructed old oven.

The old bread oven was almost ten years old. Theoretically, it might have lasted longer, but earthquakes and aging bricks took their toll. A crack split it top to bottom, and we regularly had to pick gravel out of our bread.

So the kids spent last weekend dismantling the old oven to make way for a new one. This one will be quake-proofed with a reinforced concrete base, and include such luxuries as an ash pit, a chimney, and a roof.

Ready to pour the new foundation.

The bread oven is my husband’s project—he’s the family builder and the bread baker. But all of us will lend our muscles to the effort. We’ll mix concrete, haul bricks, and provide whatever brute labour is necessary.

And all of us will enjoy the breads, cakes, cookies, and dinners that come out of it.

Mmmm…I can taste them already!

Robinne Weiss

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