Grandma Welling's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

My maternal grandmother's sour cream coffee cake is the standard dish my mother would bring to any breakfast or brunch gathering. My sister makes it frequently as well. I have made it several times with various gluten-free flour mixes, and it has always come out super tasty. This time I used a brown rice/potato starch/tapioca flour mix and added 3/4 tsp of xantham gum to the dry ingredients.

Since I'm loving my new muffin tin, I decided to make Grandma Welling's Sour Cream Coffee Cake in it instead of an eight-inch square pan (that I don't have anyway). Sour cream is a little hard to find here—if, however, you want double cream, triple cream or cream fraiche, you certainly will have many options to choose from—and lite or non-fat sour cream is unheard of. To cut down on the fat, I used half sour cream and half low fat, Greek style yogurt. The cake was as moist as I desired, but I could have cut down on the sugar a bit. It wasn't too sweet, but the sour cream taste was muted.
Muffins waiting to go in the oven. Although they look completely covered with topping, more should have been added.

I realized that I was a bit stingy with the topping; the muffin expands while baking so you need to saturate the top with the cinnamon, sugar and walnut mixture. Some of the topping actually trickled down the side of the muffin and end up at the bottom. This was a nice treat, spreading the cinnamon taste into more mouthfuls. Another plus about the muffins: they took half the time to cook.

The muffins which disappeared in our bellies within 24 hours.

Grandma Welling's Sour Cream Coffee Cake
(can be doubled and cooked in 13x9 pan)

Cream together (in large bowl): 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar

Add: 2 eggs (one at a time), 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cup sour cream

Mix together: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Add: dry ingredients to butter mixture

Grease and flour: 8 inch square pan (or muffin tin—12 muffins)

Pour: batter into pan (spoon into muffin tin)

Sprinkle: topping (1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and chopped walnuts) on top of batter before baking

Bake: at 350° for 45 minutes (20-25 minutes for muffins)

Tom Kha Kai

Tom Khai Kai is one of my favorite Thai dishes. Since there are a number of Asian grocers in Cambridge, I decided to finally try my hand at making this coconut milk based soup. There are Tom Khai Kai pastes where one only needs to add water, meat and desired vegetables, but making the soup from scratch was my goal. I chose a recipe from ThaiCusine.com that was not complicated and included the ingredients that I expected to find.

I only had difficulty locating one ingredient: nam phrik pao (black chili paste). I asked for help locating the paste at the store, but I was only pointed to a shelf. There was a paste that I thought might be the correct one, but the name was only in Thai though the list of ingredients was in English. Since I wasn't aware of the other ingredients in nam phrik pao besides the black chilies, I opted to use a chili paste that we already had at home. I later learned that my hunch was correct, and I should have bought the paste which contained tamarind, shrimp paste, garlic and other items as well as the black chilies.

It was when I was putting the ingredients in the pot that I realized that there didn't appear to be as much liquid as I thought. I then remembered that I thought chicken broth could also be used in this soup. Since we didn't have any, I added some water and some vegetable stock powder to the dish. I think it helped, although it may have added to the overall saltiness of the soup. We liked the soup, but, since my husband is very sensitive to salt, I think that I'm going to explore a different recipe next time. I've already located a promising sounding one, which includes the straw mushrooms that I love and added to the recipe below, at RecipeGullet.com.


Tom Kha Kai (from ThaiCuisine.com)
1. 2 cups (16fl oz/500 ml) coconut milk
2. 6 thin slices young galangal (kha on)
3. 2 stalks lemon grass (ta-khrai), lower portion, cut into
4. 1-in (2.5-cm) lengths and crushed
5. 5 fresh kaffir lime leaves (bai ma-krut), torn in half
6. 8 oz (250g) boned chicken breast, sliced
7. 5 tablespoons fish sauce
8. 2 tablespoons sugar
9. 1/2 cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) lime juice
10. 1teaspoon black chilli paste (nam phrik pao)
11. 1/4 cup cilanto / coriander
12. leaves (bai phak chi), torn
13. 5 green Thai chilli peppers (phrik khi nu), crushed


Method

Combine half the coconut milk with the galangal, lemon grass, and lime leaves in a large saucepan and heat to boiling. Add the chicken, fish sauce, and sugar. Simmer for about 4 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked, and then add the remaining coconut milk. Heat just to boiling. Place the lime juice and chilli paste in a serving bowl and pour the soup over them. Garnish with cilantro leaves and crushed chilli peppers.

Quinoa Cakes

We don't have an exact recipe for quinoa cakes: I start with the list of ingredients off of a Whole Foods' label for quinoa cakes bought at their prepared foods counter. What we actually put in them often depends what vegetables we have: beets, carrots, zucchini, parsnips, corn, spinach, kale, black beans.

Making them gluten-free requires substituting the pastry flour with a non-glutinous flour, and I've mostly used gram (chickpea) flour. I also use thick low-fat yogurt (Greek style) which gives them a slight richness and added umami. Although it did not say how to cook them on the label, I started out frying them. However this required my almost constant attention, and I was only able to cook four medium size cakes/ patties at a time. I've started baking them in the oven at about 375° for 30 minutes (flipping them halfway through). M* and I can't tell a difference in taste between the two cooking methods.

When I recently made them with tahini instead of yogurt, M* and I were disappointed—the cakes were really dry. The only way to make them reasonably palatable was to drown them in lemon juice or, my favorite, ketchup. If we use tahini again, we'll certainly use a thinner paste and still use yogurt.

Quinoa cakes/ patties ready to be baked.

Here is the list of ingredients from the Whole Foods's label:
quinoa (we use 1 cup pre-cooked)
(yogurt—our addition)
cumin
olive oil (we use 2-3 tblsps)
pastry flour (we use 1/2-3/4 cup of gram/ chickpea flour)
garlic
lemon juice (very important for flavor—1 lemon)
tamari
black beans
diced tomatoes
bell peppers
carrots
cilantro
corn
sea salt

Zucchini Bread

Modified a zucchini bread recipe I found online to make it gluten-free. I've done this before with a different mix of gluten-free flours and this time I used the Brown Rice Flour Mix from "Gluten-Fee Baking Classics"—both times the results were delicious. That being written, I think for the next batch I'll reduce the cinnamon by 1 tsp and the sugar by 1/3 cup. I know it's really closer to a cake than a bread, but, in my opinion, the sweetness and cinnamon overpowered the zucchini.

Zucchini Bread IV (from Allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C).

Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

Notes:
Replaced flour with equal amount of Brown Rice Flour Mix and add 1 1/2 tsps of xantham gum.

I didn't have the correct size loaf pans; I used three smaller ones instead. Not sure of their size as I forgot what the dimensions (in centimeters, of course) were on the label.

Batter distributed evenly between three small loaf pans.

Fresh from the oven and ready to be eaten.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

This is the first recipe from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" that did not turn out perfectly (or close to). Yes, the cake and muffins were yummy, delicious even, but the cake and especially the cupcakes fell in the center. My plan was to bring the cupcakes in honor of M*'s birthday to Judge Pub Night, but I'm too vain to have brought gravitationally-challenged cupcakes to a gathering where people do not know that I usually produce well-formed baked goods.

The problem may have been that I opened and closed the oven doors a few times during baking: I had the cake in the upper oven and the cupcakes in the lower. I actually accidentally slammed the bottom oven door once. Since the recipe calls for 2 tsps of baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda, I should have been more careful. Since the recipe was for two 9-inch round layers and I split the batter between cupcake and oval pans, I felt that I needed to check the progress of their baking throughout. Another reason they could have fallen is due to not being cooked enough, but M* and I liked how they tasted and did not think they were gooey.

I love this type of cake with my Grandma Welling's seven-minute white icing. M* found the icing too sweet—the sugar hurt his teeth. I told him that he is not allowed to say anything negative about Grandma Welling's recipes, but I did agree to attempt the recipe with less sugar in the future.

Chocolate Fudge Cake from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics"
4 ozs unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 3/4 cups Brown Rice Flour Mix
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 teaspoon xantham gum
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsps pure vanilla extract

Melt chocolate in small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir regularly. When done, remove from heat and cool until lukewarm.

Whisk ingredients 3-7 in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk canola oil and milk in liquid measuring cup until thoroughly combined. Discard two tbsps of liquid.

Beat sugar and eggs in large bowl at medium speed until light and fluffy. Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add dry and wet ingredients in two additions at low speed, then at medium for 1 minute.

Cook in center of oven in two 9-inch round layer cake pans (lined with parchment or waxed paper and sprayed lightly with cooking spray) at 35o° for 30-35 minutes (35-40 minutes for 8-inch layers; 18-20 minutes for cupcakes).

Cool cake layers in pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Loosen cake from sides of pans, invert layers onto a rack, peel off paper, and cool.

Notes:
I could not find unsweetened chocolate, so I used 80% dark chocolate and reduced the sugar by 1/4-1/3 cup.

I melted the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave at low heat, stopping the cooking to stir regularly. Worked fine and took less work.

I didn't line the cake layer; I forgot=(

Grandma Welling's Seven-Minute White Icing
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp light corn syrup or 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I've always used the cream of tartar)
1/3 cups cold water
1/16 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients except vanilla in double boiler; mix thoroughly. Cook, beating steadily (I use a hand mixer) until frosting forms stiff peaks, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat; add vanilla extract and beat until think.

Cake cooling.

Fallen cupcakes.

Seven-minute white icing just after peaks formed. I had to improvise the double boiler.

Icing can hide a cake's imperfections. Drizzled dark chocolate is a nice finish on this cake.

Millet Flour

The gluten-free pizza crust recipe that I love suggests using 1 cup of millet flour along with the brown rice flour mix. This provides the nuttiness that is missing when you substitute out wheat flour. There was a shortage of millet flour at the local health food stores, and I was beginning to worry that my pizza's wouldn't taste as good without it. I was at Al Amin on Mill Road, which carries a great variety of Middle Eastern, African, Asian and Mediterranean ingredients, and I saw a large bag of bajri flour paranthetically labled millet flour. It looked a bit greener than the millet flour I had bought previously, but I decided to try it.

Above is a photo of the bajri flour (bottom) and the little bit of millet flour that remained from a previous purchase. The difference in color is obvious, and the bajri flour appeared to be milled to finer texture.
I am happy to report that there was no difference to the appearance or taste of the pizza. It's a plus that the bajri flour is cheaper than the millet flour purchased in health food stores.

Gluten-Free Cornbread

I made a large pot of spicy chili, and since I had corn meal and a gluten-free cornbread recipe I made cornbread as an accompaniment. I should have known by the sugar in the recipe that this was a sweet cornbread which I prefer with a cup of milk and a bit of butter and jam. M* and I certainly ate all of it within a few days, but we never ate it with the chili. The sweetness and cakey texture just didn't mesh with the mouth-burning, vegetable-laden tomato chili. Since I haven't had cornbread in many years due to gluten issues, I forgot about the differences between sweet and savory cornbread. One can find quite a bit online explaining the difference between or extolling the virtues of one of the two types. Here's the Wikipedia explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornbread#Regional_tastes.

Gluten-free sweet cornbread

I certainly would make this again if I want a sweet treat, but next time I want a savory version I'll modify it by lessening or removing the sugar, adding corn kernels and possibly adding some diced, mild chili peppers.

Gluten-free Cornbread from "Gluten-Free Baking Classics"

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup Brown Rice Flour Mix
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup milk minus 1 tablespoon
1 large egg, well beaten
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Combine oil, milk, egg and vanilla in another small bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry and gently stir to combine, being careful not to over mix. Pour batter into muffin pan or 8-inch round cake pan that has been coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes for muffins or 25 for bread. Eat and enjoy.