What I Did at School Today

Last night was one of those nights where I got in the shower and immediately realized that I forgot to tell you what I really had intended too. All that stuff I shared yesterday about baking was the stuff I already knew, and none of it was the big discovery that allowed us to have whole grain, no sugar, fluffy baked goodness! So here goes:

In addition to the information about flour, fat, sweetener, mixing and baking add this information about

Lifters and Risers

Most baked goods call for baking soda, baking powder or both to give them the rise they need. I have no idea why I didn’t try this earlier; it is so simple, it should have been the first thing I went for when things were a bit dense. Increase the lift a bit. The recipe I adapted yesterday called for a tablespoon of baking powder and a 1/4 teaspoon (really? does that little even DO anything?) of baking soda. I opted to increase the baking powder by a teaspoon to 4 teaspoons and to double the baking soda to a 1/2 teaspoon. I have not tried this with recipes that use only soda, and I would use caution when doubling soda as it can add a metallic taste to things. I doubled it here only because I found the amount to be so trivial in the first place. This is a bit of uncharted territory, so experiment and let me know what you find out. The lift is just needs, well, a little lift.

That photo up there is of a whole wheat and honey pound cake with layers of chocolate ganache made with unsweetened chocolate, milk, maple syrup, and agave nectar covered in the most disgusting frosting ever. No kidding; I peeled it off to eat the cake inside which was a bit dry and too dense. Back to the drawing board on that one…

Happy baking again!

Oh my goodness, these are SO yummy, and really pretty healthy. I think most of you know that we try really hard around here to eat holistically; we believe firmly in not consuming processed sugars and in eating only whole grains. It’s practically impossible to eat out and accomplish this, and baked goods, well, YUMMY, baked goods have proved difficult in the past. Generally they are not sweet enough and too dense. We have found other yummy treats to satisfy our sweet tooths, but sometimes you just need a nice fluffy baked good. I have experimented and experimented over and over to try and find a way to bake a sweet and fluffy treat, and today I finally got it right!

I will share some tips for adapting recipes at the end of this post.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 2 cups whole wheat flour, divided
• 4 t baking powder
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t ground ginger
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (or cooked fresh)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 6 T butter, softened
• 1 cup chocolate chips (yep, I cheated a bit…)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease or line 12 muffin cups with liners; I used our muffin top pans since Hubby really likes the “muffies” at a certain national bakery chain. Using a mixer on low speed combine 1 cup of the flour and the baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and ginger. Add the pumpkin, milk, honey, eggs and butter. Stir on low speed until combined, then beat on high speed for two minutes. This last step is very important; you will notice a difference in the batter after it is completed. Slow the mixer to low and add the final cup of flour, stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and spoon into your prepared pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until a wooden pick comes out clean of pumpkin, not chocolate…

I have discovered a few things with all this experimenting about baking this way.

Flour

The most important of which is that we only by Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat flour; it is vastly better mixing, finer, and overall better than any other brand we have tried. I think we’ve tried them all, too.

Fat

The next tip is use butter; oh, I know, but trust me, something about butter helps with the texture, and try increasing the amount just a tad. For example, the recipe this was based on called for 1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) of fat (shortening to be specific). I upped this only 2/3 of a tablespoon.

Sweetener

Choose your sweetener substitution carefully; I’ve used both honey and maple syrup with success, but they both lend their distinct flavor to most items. You will need to cut the amount in half as well. One cup of white sugar will only require a half cup of honey or maple syrup. The same is true for brown sugar, but I always add a tablespoon or two of molasses. The math gets easier in cookie recipes, which typically call for both brown and white sugar, if you add the two called for amounts together and divide by two; use that much honey or maple syrup plus a tablespoon of molasses. You will need to experiment a bit to determine how sweet you like things and what flavors work best in different recipes. honey, of course, works well with peanut butter, but is not always the best choice for chocolate.

Mixing

Liquid sweeteners are just that: liquids. They need to be added with your wet ingredients. Whole wheat flour takes a bit more time to develop the gluten. So mix longer, and consider whether the recipe can stand a bit of beating at a higher speed to give it a bit of air. With cookies, I add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each.

Baking

Be careful not to overbake; the heavier tendency of whole grain means that items will dry out faster. You might consider lowering the oven temperature a bit for cookies, but breads and muffins seems to bake fine as recommended.

I have a whole ton of agave nectar. I plan to try baking with it soon, and I will let you know how it works out. I do have a friend who makes amazing ice creams with it, and the neutral flavor is very appealing for items that could do without tasting like honey or maple syrup. Happy baking! Be sure to come back and share your discoveries; I’d love to hear about them!

The weather here has been fabulous lately! So we’ve been “Parking It” a lot, and the boys seem to have a new favorite, one that has me emptying out my shoes before we head home each time…

I should probably take a lesson from my older son and park my shoes somewhere while we are there, but I like my socks too much for that. Spring fever is upon us, and we are thankful that the weather is cooperating. The trees have buds on them, the snow has all melted (for the time being…), and it is RAINING tonight! Ahhhhh…

I was tagged by Shannon to share 10 simple things that make me happy. I have had a blast over the last couple of days focusing on and photographing things that make me happy.

1. My boys. All three of them!

2. A healthy and yummy meal. This one is sesame ginger salmon with garlic wilted spinach. The toddler ate almost as much of it as I did!

3. Spring! The big spring thaw (hope that’s not wishful thinking…) and the buried treasures we are discovering as it happens. We even saw some buds on tree while we were out walking today!

4. Vintage goodness from my own childhood to share with my boys. The Richard Scarry book was my sister’s, and I’m guessing given to my parent’s at her birth.

5. These photos and the wonderful book chock full of them the boys and Hubby gave me for Valentine’s day.

6. Peppermint bark. Yup, I saw the photos on Soule Mama a long while back and finally made it with the preschooler yesterday. Ummmm, yeah, don’t make this. It is so very good that you won’t be able to stop eating it. It’s that good. It called to me from the fridge all night the other night, and I am not responsible for my consumption.

7. A new knitting project (for my mom)!

8. New life sprouting up.

9. Watching big construction with little boys, the conversations around it, and the happiness it brings them. (Don’t tell anyone; secretly, I like the construction as much or more than they do. Guess I am my father’s daughter!)

10. Brownie batter.

I’m suppose to tag 10 of you to share your ten, but I’ve seen quite a few of you post this recently. So, consider yourself tagged if you’d like to play along; just leave me a comment linking to your post with your ten things. I’d love to read them!

Now I’m headed to the fridge for more peppermint bark.

A very special friend became a part of our lives about two years ago. Her name is Jockey, and most of the time she wears a blue shirt. I, of course, always have to ask the preschooler about what she has on, because I cannot see Jockey. She’s imaginary. On Monday this week our oldest declared that Friday was Jockey’s birthday. And the planning began…

There was dinner out at a fast food place (Jockey’s request.) complete with homemade brownies with “chocolate cream frosting” (also Jockey’s request).

She can’t blow out real candles, of course, she’s imaginary. So she had some help with the five  on her cake. Yep, Jockey turned five today. Turns out, that means she’s an adult and can ride the train all by herself. Oh, and go to preschool…

There were also balloons lovingly provided by a good friend who dropped by.

And balloon photos also taken by said friend, Maria, who picked up my camera and took over. So very thankful for the help!

When I got out my camera today to take some photos of food in the kitchen, both boys came following after me. The younger one was saying, “Need camera; I take pictures.”. The older one was saying, “I want to take pictures too!”. I handed big brother the camera we gave him for Christmas, and little brother the wooden one. As soon as I saw the toddler with the camera that used to be his brother’s, I had one of those moments. You know, those parental moments where you look at one kid and you see the other one when he was this age? In an instant a simple wooden toy gets all wrapped up in your family’s history, and I smiled.

And then I snapped to it and snapped some photos. You can relive it with me here.

Just a few things that we’ve seen of late around here:

The cycle of thawing and freezing continues, but we can all sense that the thawing is slowly winning.

A huge pile of fulled sweaters.

The “snow blower” at work.

And a simple, delicious cauliflower soup I ate (no one else would touch it!) at dinner tonight. It was quite yummy; I used Amanda Soule’s recipe for broccoli soup, substituted cauliflower for the broccoli, and topped it with a bit of shredded mozzarella. I’m planning on trying this yummy chicken casserole recipe of Heather’s we’ve made before again with the cauliflower soup; I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out.

Hope things of late in your world have been full of all the creativity and yumminess you can handle.

Our small change for March is really, quite frankly, not so small. I’ll happily let the pictures tell the story of what we started whipping up at our house today:

We’ve read books about composting, we’ve looked up information online, we’ve consulted friends, and we even watched a Curious George today about it. And we can’t wait to get our garden planted so that we can start putting some of this good stuff to work for us! (Don’t worry; we put some good brown stuff in there too!)

…off the needles. I bought myself two skeins of yarn a while back to knit myself a matching hat and scarf. Okay, let me clarify; I bought two very different mismatched skeins of yarn. This is the main body of the scarf, and it is off the needles for a bit. It is Blue Sky’s worsted cotton in the Loop Pattern from Knit and Purl. I plan to finish some other knitting before I knit the hat and come back to complete the scarf. I’m guessing that it won’t be finished in time for cold weather this season.

I have also momentarily laid the SSS aside to knit on a prayer shawl for my mom. She is back in the hospital after a fall over the weekend. She’s improving right now, but I hope that a prayer shawl will help her get through the tough things she has to come. The February block is not finished, and I’m giving myself some grace here to let it go for a bit.

When both the shawl and the block are finished, there’s some serious Easter knitting to do. Hope you’re enjoying whatever you have on your needles, knitting or metaphorical!

Oh, the unwanted and unneeded paper that comes to our house in the mail! Our recycle bin could be filled with things that we never look at! We’ve decided to make our small change for this month (I know; I’m a bit late…) getting of off mailing lists for unwanted catalogs. I signed up with Catalog Choice and have already sent requests to a few places I knew we needed to notify. I will conitue to log on and send requests as we get unwanted catalogs in the mail over the rest of this year; they tend to come in heavily just before the holidays. I figure that by this time next year we will finally be free of all the unnecesssary paper for shopping.

We are still trying to figure out which local farm to use for meat and how to get it. There are not only a lot of choices to make, but gathering the information is taking a bit more time than I had planned. Many of these small family businesses are not online and only available by phone, and out of several phone calls to 4 or 5 different farms last week, I was only able to reach one! Of course, not returning my calls is quickly narrowing my search. We are also torn between signing up for a meat CSA (we love our veggie one!) and going in with some friends to order a side of beef. I know we’ll get there on this one, but it sure is taking us a long time to achieve what I thought was a simple goal.

I am already planning on starting to compost as our March small change. It seems like just the right time to start it so we’ll have fresh compost for the fall, but, having never done this before, I have a lot of questions. The contraption pictured above was already here when we moved into our current house, and while the lid is not on it, it is here as well. I’m certain that someone used it for composting at one time, but I have to wonder if it makes turning the heap difficult. We also have a good deal of sturdy, chicken wire type fencing at the back of the yard that could easily be turned into a place to contain a compost heap. This is great news; we aren’t in a position to buy anything fancy for composting at the moment. Plus, I’m certain that with a yard our size, you don’t need too. So, have any of you used a composting contraption like this one? Are they helpful or should I free cycle the thing? If I decided to use the wire, do any of you have tips on construction? And, how about sharing other composting tips and resources? I’ll be happy to compile them into a list and create a post about composting in the near future. I’m certain that some of you are very experienced at this and have much wisdom you can share with a newbie. Thanks!

Finally, Andy and Suzy decided after a blog blow-up to revamp everything and moved the One Small Change project to it’s own site. Things are much simpler now, and they have a great March Give Away. Head on over and check it out!