sugar high friday #23

It's another Sugar High Friday, and my first delicious time participating...

Well, sort of.

(I was so excited by the prospect of participating in my first food blogging event, that I entered terrrrrribly early with my Diet Coke Cake -- thank you, again, AK! -- and figured I should enter something else closer to the 22nd.)

This month's theme, thanks to Alanna, the Veggie Evangelist, is SURPRISE INSIDE. I thought it might be fun to interpret this theme by using an unexpected fruit or vegetable ingredient. Zucchini in a sweet quick bread seemed too obvious, but...

Tomato soup?

A little culinary history...

What would become the Campbell Soup Company was founded in 1869. Around the turn of the century, Americans began purchasing 10 ounce cans of tomato soup for a dime a piece. The company issued cookbooks in the early 20th century which included a rather peculiar dessert: tomato soup cake.

From the Campbell Soup Company website:

The idea to use condensed soup in recipes originated in a cookbook entitled "Helps for the Hostess" that was published in 1916. [C]ooking with soup remains so popular that Americans use more than 440 million cans each year in a variety of easy-to-prepare recipes. Campbell’s Soup ranks behind only meat/poultry, pasta, and seasonings/spices as the ingredient most often used to prepare dinner each evening.

I found a similar (vegan!) recipe in Sarah Kramer's "La Dolce Vegan!" and altered it a bit for my own taste.

(Muchos gracias to my friend, Alicia, who was a gracious hostess and saved the day with her gorgeous KitchenAid mixer and spacious, well-lit kitchen!)

TOMATO SOUP CUPCAKES
Recipe inspired by: Sarah Kramer (via Rene from Ottawa, Ontario)

Serves 12

10 ounces condensed tomato soup
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
8 ounces cream-cheese (vegan, if you prefer)
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray cupcake tin with non-stick cooking spray. Mix soup, sugar, and oil until uniform. In separate bowl, mix flour, soda, baking powder, and spices. Combine wet ingredients with dry and mix to combine. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 17-20 minutes, or when tester comes out clean. Meanwhile, blend cream cheese and sugar together to create icing. Dip tops of cooled cupcakes into icing to frost.

More pictures to be found here.

Update: Perhaps after the many emails I've received, I should mention how they actually tasted! I'd say that they were rich in flavor like a good spice cake, quite moist, but a bit spongy until they'd been cooled in the fridge. Alicia and I weren't sure why this was, as she's an ol' pro at vegan baking and hadn't run into this problem before. Most vegan cakes we've made incorporate vinegar, however, so perhaps the omission had something to do with it? Other than that, they were delicious -- and yes, you could detect a bit of the tomato soup, but it's a taste that you wouldn't necessarily identify without knowing it was in there. The icing, of course, was decadent.

Enjoy, and happy Sugar High Friday!

"meat"loaf sandwich

In celebration of Slashfood's Sandwich Day...

It ain't that pretty, but it qualifies as a sandwich nonetheless!

I toasted two slices of whole wheat bread, slathered them with mustard, stuck a couple garlic dill pickle slices on there, some gooey soy cheddar cheese, and then, the piece de resistance, a slab of my vegan bean & rice "meat"loaf.

'Twas delicious! As with its meaty counterpart, even vegan "meat"loaf is better reheated the next day... and who doesn't love a sandwich?

tarts

This is silly, I know...

Pictures of tarts from Tisserie that I didn't buy.

And didn't eat.

But oh, how pretty!

Now, I did, however, eat this tart -- warm goat cheese and caramelized onion -- at my first trip to Balthazar today at brunch.

The filling absolutely dissolved in my mouth upon contact with my taste buds. (Yes, it was that good.)

(Oh, and in non-tart-related news, my mom enjoyed a Ramos Fizz for the first time in twenty years!)

Mmmmm.

hardtack

After visiting a Civil War reenactment in Monroe, New York, and watching the entire Ken Burns documentary "The Civil War", I began thinking about culinary culture during that period in history. I found a recipe for hardtack, a soldier's dietary staple, and decided to bake it up.

Let me tell you, it ain't yummy in the least.No salt was typically used in hardtack, as salt would allow the cracker to retain moisture, thus causing spoilage. Just flour and water.

Many soldiers wittily remarked that the only government-issued meat they ate during the war came in the form of the various weevils, worms, and maggots that burrowed their way into their hardtack.

No bugs in this batch, folks.

HARDTACK
Recipe courtesty of: history

Serves: Not many, hopefully

Six parts flour
One part water

Mix and knead until a pliable dough is formed. Roll out to quarter-inch thickness and cut into several rectuangular shapes. Using the tines of a fork, pierce the dough in several areas.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes and allow to sit overnight for maximum molar-breakage.

tomato

I firmly believe that nothing says unofficial-last-day-of-the-summer-season more than a red, juicy, ripe tomato straight from the Union Square Greenmarket.

With kosher salt...

...and freshly-ground pepper.

black sesame seeds

They're not just for those sushi rolls anymore...




BLACK SESAME CREAM PUFFS
Recipe courtesy of Los Angeles Times, adapted from a recipe by Keiko Nojima of Patisserie Chantilly, Lomita, CA

Serves eight

Pate a choux:
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs, divided
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

Black sesame crème:
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
2-1/2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
2 cups milk, scalding
1-1/2 tablespoons butter, cut up
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
2 tablespoons black sesame paste
4 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons soy flour

For the pate a choux: Bring milk, 2/3 cup water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add butter and allow to melt. Remove from heat. Add flour all at once and stir until mixture is completely blended and forms a ball. Return saucepan to the heat and cook, stirring until the mixture does not separate and the pan has a thin film on the bottom, about 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and beat in 3 eggs, one at a time, until blended. (Post tip: Avoid overheating the eggs by beating them all together and then adding a spoonful of the warm mixture, one at a time, to eggs in food processor or mixer.)

To make the puffs, spoon or pipe about 1/4 cup of choux for each puff onto two greased baking sheets. Beat the remaining egg and brush it over the puffs. Combine black and white sesame seeds and sprinkle over top of each puff. Wipe off spilled egg from baking sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until the puffs are doubled in size and golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Make a small slit on the side of each puff to allow steam to escape.

For the pastry crème: Beat together sugar and egg yolks until pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Stir together flour and cornstarch and beat into egg mixture. Slowly beat in hot milk.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring, until boiling and thickened. Boil 1 to 2 minutes; stir constantly.

Remove from heat. Add butter, stirring until it’s melted. Stir in vanilla. Pour into a bowl and cover. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Creme puff assembly: In a chilled bowl, beat the whipping cream and sugar until the mixture forms soft peaks. Remove the chilled creme from the refrigerator. Fold in whipped cream, sesame seeds and sesame paste.

Cut the tops off the cooled cream puffs and pipe half the creme sesame mixture into the bottoms of the puffs. Drizzle each with honey, then pipe in remaining creme. Put the tops on the puffs, sprinkle each with soy flour and serve.

diet coke cake

Anatomy of the fabled Diet Coke cake...

First comes the cake mix.

Then the egg whites.

Add a can of Diet Coke (or, in our case, Coke Zero).

Stir, stir, stir...

Pour into prepared pans.

Smooth before baking.

Lick the bowl--salmonella be damned!

While baking, make the frosting with one part Cool Whip and one part pudding mix.

Stir with a splash of milk.

Frost.

Decorate.


And eat!

Update: Entered in September's Sugar High Friday and see Slashfood and Lifehacker for another variation!)

mustard

A few weekends ago, while vacationing in Brooklyn (a mere train ride away, yes, but sometimes it feels like light years from Manhattan), I was able to finally visit Fairway. Boy, what a fantastic selection of condiments!

Being the mustard fanatic that I am, I picked up few jars.

I couldn't resist this Scottish vodka chili mustard, though I haven't opened it yet and haven't a clue what I'll do with it.


I bought a couple of standard Maille mustards and then combined them -- one, a spicy Dijon mustard and another, the whole grain variety.

And what to do with that mustard but to pair it with whole wheat pretzel sticks?

meatloaf

Remember those beans I had leftover from my um, healthy enchilada casserole? What to do with them? I wanted to try something different, and not just mash 'em up and stuff them inside a tortilla.

In the nick of time, I found this Magical Loaf Studio, plugged in the ingredients I had on hand, and voila! "Meat"loaf!


Some slight changes I made to the suggested recipe include:

I reduced the olive oil to one tablespoon.

I had no nuts on hand and thus, left them out.

The mixed vegetables I had available were an organic mixed frozen blend from Trader Joe's. I simply defrosted them and continued with the recipe.

While the recipe called for two tablespoons of tamari, I would increase it to three when making this again -- the loaf could have used a bit more salt.

I sprinkled the egg replacer over the bean and rice mixture rather than adding it to water first. In fact, I needed very little liquid whatsoever to bring the loaf together.

Crunchy edges!

Drizzled with barbecue sauce!

Served with peas to maximize the comfort food factor!

BEAN & RICE "MEAT"LOAF

Serves four

Recipe adapted from: Jennifer McCann

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium garlic clove, diced
1 c. frozen mixed vegetables, defrosted and chopped
1 c. canned pinto beans
1 c. canned black beans
1 c. cooked brown rice
1/4 c. water
1/4 t dried thyme
1/4 t dried rosemary
1/2 t dried sage
1/4 t dried oregano
1 t ground cumin
2 heaping T Now Foods Nutritional Yeast Flakes
3 T San-J Reduced-Sodium Tamari
1 scant T Ener-G Egg Replacer, as needed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with non-stick spray and set aside. An 8x8 pan will allow for crunchier edges.

Saute onion, garlic, and mixed vegetables in olive oil until soft. Add to a large mixing bowl along with the remaining ingredients.

Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny. You may not need to add any liquid if the mixture is very moist. Add more Egg Replacer and/or rice as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, and then turn out onto a plate or platter and slice.

Cold leftover slices of make a great sandwich filling.