Coffee & Walnut Bread [Coffee: 100 Everyday Recipes]

I want to preface this recipe from the coffee cookbook with the warning that I have genuinely never baked bread from scratch before. However, since the whole point of this blog is that these recipes should work out, I'm putting my trust in the cookbook. As a precaution, I made sure to crank the heat in my place, since I normally like to keep it cool and I know that's not great for yeast.

Cookbook Recipe:

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil, for greasing
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 2/3 cups white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup walnuts, chopped coarsely
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey

Following the cookbook recipe exactly:

1. Grease a baking sheet. In one bowl, mix the flour, salt, yeast, and walnuts, making a well in the centre. In another bowl, mix the water, coffee, olive oil, and honey. Pour the liquid into the flour and mix with a knife until soft and sticky. (Not sure why the recipe specifies a knife to mix it with, but I went with a butterknife.)

2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 5-7 minutes. (As seen later, this is the crux of the problem with this recipe.) Put the dough in a bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and place in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.

After the second rising. I mean, it kinda worked!

3. Turn the dough out again onto a floured surface, and knead for 1 minute. Shape into an 8-inch long oval and place on the baking sheet. Dust with flour and slash a curve off-centre along the loaf. Let rest (they don't specify covered or uncovered) for 40-50 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400F.

That is definitely bread!

4. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and "the bottom sounds hollow when tapped with your knuckles". Cool on a wire rack.

The Outcome:

Hey, I made bread! However, this bread is way too dense. I googled around to see if it was something I had done, but it turns out that the problem is the recipe - 5-7 minutes is half the time bread really should be kneaded (though there's plenty of conflicting arguments). It still tastes pretty delicious, though I don't think the coffee adds much except a bit of colouring.  I do want to try this again and knead it longer to see if that will make it into a lighter, fluffier loaf. But hey, it's distinctly and clearly bread, and I made from scratch!

Chocolate-Marbled Banana Bread [What's Cooking: Festive '12]

I like banana bread, and I like chocolate, so I'm down for What's Cooking's Kraft-branded recipe. I don't normally eat mayo, so its seems a bit odd to put it in what is essentially a type of cake (sorry, not "mayo" - "Miracle Whip dressing spread") but I can see it working. Between following the recipe exactly plus the double boiler, this recipe uses a LOT of mixing bowls.

Cookbook Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Miracle Whip
• 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet chocolate, melted (I always find an impromptu double boiler of putting the chocolate in a small bowl inside a bigger bowl of boiling water works easiest)

Following the cookbook recipe exactly:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Beat the egg, bananas, and Miracle Whip with a whisk until blended.

2. In another bowl, mix the remaining ingredients except for the chocolate. Add to the banana mix and stir until "just moistened". Pour half the mix into a bowl and stir in the melted chocolate.

Dat swirl tho

3. Spoon the batters alternately into a greased 8x4 inch loaf pan. With a knife, gently swirl the batter. Bake for 1 hour - 1 hour and 5 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

4. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

The Outcome:

This is pretty good banana bread - I really like the chocolate addition. The cool swirl pattern is lost a bit when baked, but it still looks neat. I was worried it would be too sweet (American baking recipes usually use too much sugar for my taste), but it tastes pretty decent. The only issue I have is that the outside was a bit too cooked - not burnt, but starting to head down that path, and gives a noticeably harder crust that tastes a bit strong. That can possibly be fixed by playing with different oven temperatures and cooking times.

Super Simple Peanut Butter and Sriracha Cookies [The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook]

Like the section on drinks, I knew I had to give the dessert section of the Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook a go. The idea of peanut butter and Sriracha doesn't seem to be as off-the-wall as you'd think - the combination of peanuts and chilies is pretty common in a lot of Asian cuisines. However, it's not incorporating the spice that's the problem here, it's incorporating the vegan-ness (or the fact that this recipe is mainly just peanut butter on a tray).

Cookbook Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 cup natural creamy peanut butter (I had to make a mandatory substitution of "unnatural" peanut butter - I don't really like peanut butter so I needed to get rid of this jar)
• 1/3 cup Grade B maple syrup (that's "Canada No. 2" in Canada)
• 2 tbsp Sriracha
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Following the cookbook recipe exactly:

"Mucilaginous" is an amazing, if gross, word

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a small bowl, mix the flaxseeds and water until they mucilaginate and turn into a goopy gel after a few minutes.

2. Mix the flaxseeds and their goo with the peanut butter, maple syrup, Sriracha, salt, baking powder and soda. The dough needs a vigorous stirring to come together, and it's going to be a lot stickier than normal cookie dough.

3. Put heaping tablespoons of the dough and put them on a prepared baking sheet, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes, then let cool on the pan for 15 minutes (they have a weird foamy consistency right out of the oven). Cool further on a wire rack.

The Outcome:

Sad to say but the consistency just doesn't work. When they came out of the oven, they were a weird foamy texture that only somewhat firmed up after the cooling. The flaxseeds didn't seem to do much, I'm guessing they were meant as a flour substitute, but these really had the texture of warmed peanut butter. To be fair, that's basically what these cookies are - they also seriously stick to the roof of your mouth and fall apart if you try to lift them. The spice is nice and does go well with the peanut butter and maple syrup, but I think someone with a bit of time and dedication could fix this recipe and still keep it vegan - add some flour, amplify the amount of flaxseeds, or bake them for longer? Or just say sod it and add Sriracha to a peanut butter cookie recipe?