☆☆ Berry Boy Bait ☆☆☆☆

Now we all know that berries are an excellent bait for boys....

So it is not surprising that in 1954, a 15 year old made a buttery blueberry coffee cake and seeing the effect it had on boys, named it Blueberry Boy Bait. The cake recipe that Renny Powell from Chicago had submitted a  recipe to the Pillsbury $100,000 Recipe and Baking Contest, only won her second place in the youth division that year, but it has stood the test of time and has been in circulation ever since.

Chocolate Banana Cookies

Over the past two and a half years of parenting, there is one thing I have learnt, when travelling with a toddler, carry lots of food and lots of distractions ( read books, toys, coloring books and more toys.) While we are extra cautious about not forgetting the latter, sometimes we buy but forget to pack the perishables at the end. During a recent trip, that is what happened with a bunch of bananas. They simply got forgotten. So we returned home to a bunch of overripe bananas, seeking immediate attention. With Google at service, I soon found a million ways to use those and that is how these Chocolate Banana Cookies came to being.

Hummingbird Bars

For a while I have had Paula Deen's Hummingbird Cake in my to-bake list. But baking a three-tier cake with cream-cheese frosting does not make much sense unless you are baking for a crowd. So naturally, I had put the idea off for the time being when the inspiration for this lightened and somewhat healthier version of a Hummingbird Cake struck... a Hummingbird Bar ! If you've been here before , you probably have guessed already when and from where the inspiration came... Yes it was those Chocolate Banana Bars !

Chocolate Banana Bars

Ever since those addictive Chocolate Walnut Bars got over, I had been looking for an excuse to bake a fresh batch of chocolate bars. It was just happenstance that there were two terribly over-ripe bananas lying on the counter-top on the day I bumped into Mario Batali's Chocolate Banana Bars. 

Whole Grain Applesauce & Sour Cream Pancakes with Warm Maple Syrup

Lately I have been working on my archive of recipes. No it is not ready to be published yet... but hopefully it will be up by 12.1.2014.  Anyway.. while creating the archive I noticed that I haven't yet shared this family favorites with you... 

... my Whole Grain Applesauce and Sour Cream Pancakes with Warm Maple Syrup. 

Hubby likes them, I like them and now even the toddler likes them. They are soft and fluffy and taste wonderful with that warm maple syrup. I make them every other week and I always feel satisfied when I serve these for breakfast.. Firstly because the toddler has it without any fuss and secondly they are so nutritious. Besides the applesauce and (fatfree) sour cream, these are filled with the goodness of teff. As I have mentioned earlier, teff is a nutrition packed flour with higher protein content than wheat. It has twice as much iron as wheat and barley and a high concentration of a variety of nutrients including calcium and thiamin. Also, because of its high fiber content, is believed to help in dealing with diabetes and assisting with blood sugar control. 

Compote de Pommes # French Fridays with Dorie

My son loves apples. He also loves applesauce and occasionally likes to have some with his morning toast. Toast and applesauce ? Though the combination might sound a little weird, it works for him.. So we always have a supply of Musselman's Applesauce at home. But I guess making applesauce the French way  is as easy as opening a jar of store-brought applesauce. well almost...  Just peel the apples, chop them, simmer them in a container with water, sugar, vanilla extract and some butter. 20 minutes later mash the contents and spoon out a bowl of fresh and delicious applesauce. YUMMM....

As a member of french friday's with Dorie I am not supposed to post the recipe on the blog. You can however find the recipe here. I almost used the same measures except that I used 3 tablespoonss of sugar instead of 1/4 and 1 tablespoon of butter instead of 2. For more delicious recipes order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.

Warm Applesauce Spice Bars # GYCO Applesauce Challenge

Its already been 2 months since GYCO Blackberry challenge. Hence time for yet another Get your Chef On ! This month Julie from White Lights of Wednesday and Jen from Four Mars and One Venus challenged us to make/bake something special with Applesauce. Since applesauce happens to be one of my favorite substitutes for butter and eggs I immediately signed up for it... howver a recipe in which the star ingredient is merely used as a substitute isn't really the recipe for GYCO.... right ? so i raked up the internet looking for a recipe which wasn't too complicated and yet felt special enough for a challenge. and yesterday afternoon I finally bumped upon The One.... "Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars." While the recipe looked wonderful by itself I thought a little tweaking would be nice. So i modified the ingredient list a bit and traded the original brown sugar glaze for a warm honey glaze... the result was fabulous.. we loved the spiced up soft moist Warm Applesauce Spice Bars.... 

and I am sure you will too when you try it......

now the recipe... I adapted the recipe of the cake from Something Sweet By Karen and the idea of glaze from Alex Guarnaschelli's Warm Grape Cake . The original cake recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking : From my home to yours. Thanks to Karen for publishing this recipe as part of Tuesdays with Dorie. It certainly rocks !

Warm Applesauce Spice Bars  Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

ingredients for the cake 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground allspice 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter 1 cup light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Bartlett pear, peeled, cored and finely chopped 1/2 oven dried red grapes or plum raisins (I used a 3:1 ratio of the two) 1/2 cup chopped walnuts  for the glaze 1/4 cup honey 3/4 inch knob of ginger, peeled and freshly grated 1/4-1/3 cup golden raisins -  the method center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degree F. butter a 9x13 inch baking pan, line the bottom with a parchment paper. butter the paper, dust the floor and sides of the pan with flour and tap off the excess. (in case you are like me and do not have a 9 x 13 inch pan, prepare your small cookie pan. it works. that is what i used.)  whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt, sift the mixture and keep it aside. in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter over low heat. add the light brown sugar and  whisk the mixture until the sugar melts and a smooth batter is formed. remove the saucepan from the heat and whisking continuously, add the eggs one at a time. whisk until the eggs are well incorporated into the batter, then add the applesauce and vanilla extract and whisk until a smooth uniform batter is formed.  once all the wet ingredients are well-incorporated, using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold in the flour mixture, mixing only until they disappear. then mix in the pears, the raisins and nuts. now scraping the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the surface with a rubber spatula and bake for 23-25 minutes until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (for me this happened exactly after 23 minutes.) transferring the baking pan to a rack, let the cake cool completely. once the cake has cooled completely, after about 30-45 minutes, slice the cake into 2-1/4 x 1-1/2 inch bars and go ahead and prepare the glaze. for the glaze, add the honey to a small saute pan and holding the pan over low heat, bring it to a light simmer. once the honey bubbles and turns light brown, add the freshly grated ginger and golden raisins to the pan. saute for another 20-30  seconds and then drizzle the honey glaze over the sliced bars and serve and enjoy with milk, tea or a scoop of ice-cream !

So that was my awesome Warm Applesauce Spice Bar for GYCO Applesauce...

Hope you enjoyed the recipe and will try it while apples and pears are still flooding your local grocery store. So much for today. Have a great week !

I shall be sharing this with the following food events...

Monday Food : Made with Love Mondays, Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Inspiration MOnday Party, Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party,Mix it up Monday, The Scoop

Tuesday Food:  Totally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe Box, Tasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug Blessings, Share it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles, Tasty Tuesday, Hearth and Soul blog Hop

Wednesday Food : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Buns in my Oven, Cast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain , Show and Share @ Semi Homemade Mom, Wonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2

Thursday Food: Link it Up Thursday @ Seven Alive, Creative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty Creations, Fantastic Thursday @ Three Little Chiefs, Thriving on Thursdays @ Domesblissity, Freedom Friday @ My Turn, Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage  

Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid Simple, Friday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet Home, Foodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes,  Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm , Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness Miss, Friday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club,  The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes 

St Patrick's Day and Eggless Irish Tea Cake(A Cake A Week #4)

belated greetings to all for St Patrick's day. hope you wore green, ate green and had lots of fun throughout the day. here the temperatures were below freezing point. but that did not damp our spirits at all. dressed in green the three of us joined a whole lot of enthusiastic people at Rocky Point and cheered the St Patrick's day parade. think our little boy enjoyed it too. by the time we were bound homewards, he started waving at everyone we came across just as the royals, the officials and the enthusiasts did in the parade... so a quick glance on the highlights of the day before i begin rambling about this week's cake....

now the about the cake... to honor the day i decided to bake an Irish Tea Cake this Sunday. of course an eggless version of it. so i scaled this recipe to half and substituting the eggs with applesauce almost followed the recipe to bits. the result was a nice soft and moist tea cake which perfectly complimented my morning cup of  tea. not sure if  it bore much resemblance to the actual Irish Tea Cake after the substitution. nevertheless i was happy  with the bake. I baked the cake in my new spring foam pan and was totally in love with how the cake looked when done.

Probably just dusting the cake with sugar would have been a good idea. but impressed by this carrot cake, I had made 'posh plans' of decorating mine with a white chocolate harp and shamrocks. but things did not work quite well. my harp was too soft to stand by itself and most of the shamrocks were a little out of shape... so at the last moment i decided on a butter-cream frosting and a quick icing with Wilton tip 224 in much the same way as i had done for Week #3. and this is how my cake looked after it was decorated .....

springy... isn't it ?? anyway now the recipe behind the cake..

Adapted from Will Cook for Smiles

ingredients
for the cake 
3/4 cups cake flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup of unsalted butter, softened 

1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup of whole milk
1 tbs Greek Yogurt

for the vanilla buttercream frosting
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon of milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whipped cream

what i did

• first i preheated the over to 350 degree F, greased a 6-inch round spring foam  pan and sifted the flour, baking powder, baking powder and salt together and kept it aside.
• then i whipped the butter and sugar together and once the mixture became smooth and light i added the applesauce, vanilla, milk and Greek Yogurt in it and whipped until all the wet ingredients were well combined.
• next i gradually folded in the dry ingredient mixture and whipped the batter until it was smooth.
• then pouring the batter into the prepared spring foam pan and i baked it for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted came out clean. 
• for the frosting, i simply whipped the listed ingredients together till it felt smooth enough. and after allowing the cake to cool down i frosted it with the prepared frosting and decorated it using Wilton's ready- to-use decorating icing icing tube and Wilton's tip 224. 

so that was my #4 cake of A Cake A Week. For week 5, I have a gorgeous Italian cake in mind.  More on that next week.... Have a great  day !

Sharing this with 
Mix it Up Monday @ Flour Me With Love's, Mop it up Monday @ I should be Mopping the Floor, What’d You Do this Weekend?  @ Tumbleweed Contessa, Bon Vivant #13 - Kids Delight