Leftover Adventures: Sweet Potatoes

You know how it is. The sweet potatoes, those delicious, golden, delightful treats, have been taken from the Thanksgiving table and are now sitting in your refrigerator, limp, cold, and oozing sticky liquid. What are  you going to do with them?

Pies, cakes, and sweet breads are out. It's after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. No one needs more deserts.  They don't reheat well, and anyway, everyone is glutted on leftovers, so just re-serving them won't do.

Time to turn to the internet for recipes! And then, if you're like me, to adjust the recipes to suit what is actually in the fridge rather than what else you might add to the bounty.

Last night's main course was Jamaican Red Bean Stew, from the Savvy Vegetarian, which gets bonus points for being a crockpot recipe and additional bonus points for being vegetarian and thus something everyone will eat. Crockpot recipes are good. I can make them when I have the time and other people can eat them when they have the time, and it works out well for everyone.

Variations ensue: I discover that I don't have red beans. The cupboard appears to have every other kind of bean, canned and dried, but not red. So, I cook some pinto beans, which turns out well, but means there's more liquid than the recipe strictly calls for.

Because of that, and because I just don't feel like using them, I leave out the canned tomatoes.

I use the whole can of light coconut milk because a partial can of anything is hard to figure out what to do with. That, also, affects the amount of liquid, but since I'm using bouillon, not broth, it's easy to adjust there.

And I used about 1/8 of a teaspoon red pepper flakes and substitute a yellow onion for scallions. Onion, I always have on hand. Scallions take planning. Besides, the goal is to use what is here, not to add to the collection.

Verdict? Yum! This recipe (alterations and all) is a keeper. It's sweet and creamy with just a hint of a bite from the red pepper flakes and a slight tang from the onion.

On to the side dish:

Sweet Potato Biscuits, from Cooking Light. Alterations: None. Biscuits are picky. Result? A very tasty, golden biscuit. They were slightly tough, which mostly means I handled them too much, but also, given the crunchy bottoms, that I should have baked them for maybe two minutes less.

After dinner, with one-and-a-bit sweet potato left, I decided to make Sweet Potato Yeast Bread, which I made last year. I had to think about this one because I used part of one recipe and part of another and did not make notes. I often forget to make notes when I wander away on my own paths. I know I used one of Cooking Light's recipes to get ideas for the flavoring. I'm pretty sure it was Sweet Potato Bread with Flax Seed, though I left the flax seed out because not everyone likes it. Also, I definitely used less sweet stuff, because this is bread, not cake. Then I put it into yeast bread. This time, I took notes:


Sweet Potato Yeast Bread
1 T sugar
1 T dry yeast
1/4 Cup water
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 T butter
1 t salt
1/4 C brown sugar

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes and 350 for half an hour. If it sounds sort of hollow when you flick the bottom (Kind of a "thwock" sound), it's done.

The water is going to be really approximate. I thought I'd add 1/4 cup and ended up adding 1/3 because it seemed to dry, and then found I had to add a bit more flour. It might be easier to regulate hand-kneading, but there was a lot else going on, so I let the bread machine take care of that part. The dough was really soft and sticky, even then, so though it worked, I'm back to thinking 1/4 C is a better starting point.

The bread is still good, though, a soft, sweet, golden loaf. It's prone to crumbling, but I don't think it's going to be sitting around very long.

What to Do with a Fifty-Two Pound Pumpkin

What do you do when the Fall Festival is over and you're left with a big, beautiful, fifty-two pound pumpkin?

1) Look at a friend and impulsively say "Let's cook!"

2) Have a friend who is crazy enough to say "Sure!"

3) Spend an evening looking at recipes while your friend is doing the same thing at her place.

4) Get together and spend the day making:

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

We had it for lunch along with the waffles. It was tasty! Leftovers are in both our fridges, and I expect to have it for dinner here.

Alterations and amendments: We neither of us had sherry handy, so we just put in some red wine. Ditto on the cheese; we did without at lunch, but dinner tonight is probably going to feature whatever cheese is in the fridge rather than the actual cheese called for.

Pumpkin waffles

The pumpkin doesn't add much flavor but does make for a really good, soft, moist waffle. I know this because the following exchange occurred as we were sampling the first waffle:

My friend: These are tasty.

Me: Yes.
Pause.
You know what I forgot?

My friend: What?

Me: Pumpkin.

So then I added the puree to the rest of the waffle batter, and the results were impressive.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

No accidents or incidents marred the baking of this bread which we had with dinner and which I recommend whole-hardheartedly. As with the waffles, the pumpkin doesn't seem to add any flavor but does make for a softer bread. The combination of spices and chocolate is wonderful. Actually--one slight caveat--I know it adds calories, but next time, I'd probably use more chocolate chips.

Alterations and amendments: The recipe calls for canned pumpkin, but since the purpose of the exercise was to use the actual pumpkin sitting in front of us, we used the puree. It worked.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Struesel Buns The bread is very, very soft without having much butter. I may use this as my base for the annual cinnamon rolls this year since it's always a struggle to get a soft enough bun, and I have plenty of puree left.

Sugar-and-nutmeg pumpkin slices, a recipe courtesy of my sister who had her own pumpkin inundation a few days ago. This one is easy: Stack slices of pumpkin sprinkled with sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon in the crockpot. Add a little water. Cover and leave on high for 4 hours or on low for 8, give or take.  Serve as is or with additional sugar on the side.

Pumpkin pie I haven't tasted it yet, but it really looked good when I took it out of the oven!

And pumpkin yeast bread using a recipe from The Bread Machine Gourmet. We didn't use the bread machine since both of us wanted loaves. We ended up with three beautiful loaves. They rose splendidly and baked to just the right shade of golden-brown, probably courtesy of the pumpkin. As with the cinnamon rolls, the bread is very soft without being high-butter, so I'd say this is a keeper, at least as long as I have pumpkin puree.

And, yes, I do have pumpkin puree, lots and lots of pumpkin puree. Both of us ended up with big containers full of pumpkin puree which we're now separating out and freezing in smaller containers for later, less intensive baking efforts.

And we didn't quite make it through the whole pumpkin for all of that. The last ten or so pounds are just going to have to go the way of all good things. The local squirrels may get a slice or two, but that's about it.

The Bread Machine Gourmet by Shea Mackenzie, a book review

With hot weather closing in, it's time to reiterate my love of The Bread Machine Gourmet, still my favorite bread machine cookbook.

Homemade bread is miles ahead of the flat, packaged stuff that they sell in the grocery store. Bread from the bread machine isn't quite as good as oven-baked bread--you get a larger crumb, for one thing, and a slightly awkward shape, particularly where the paddle was. However, it has its advantages. Making bread in the bread machine means not having to be around while it bakes--it's even possible to set a timer to arrange for it to be ready by a specific time--and not having to deal with the heat of the oven during the summer months.

Trouble is, most bread machine recipes stop at a basic white. There may be one or two recipes for oatmeal bread, and just possibly a "whole wheat" bread where no more than a third of the flour is actually whole wheat. Anything truly interesting has to be removed from the pan, shaped, and baked--and there goes most of the advantage of using a bread machine. Almost no one thinks of trying new recipes, particularly not whole-grain recipes.  Shea Mackenzie is the exception. I sometimes call her book the "everything but the kitchen sink" cookbook. There are recipes for oatmeal bread, banana bread, apple bread, black bean bread, jalepeno cheese bread, chocolate bread, peanut butter bread, and the list goes on.  I have by no means tried all of the recipes, but the ones I have tried have been good!

Baking now?  Apple oatmeal bread.

Super-Tangy Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread: A Recipe

Super-Tangy Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread

I've made this a few times now; the first time was just to get rid of some buttermilk no one was drinking, the next couple of times were because I liked it. It's a very approximate sort of recipe, particularly when it comes to flour. I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, you might like more; I think it could go as high as 1 1/2 Tablespoons without really slowing the rise down.

2 Cups rolled oats
4 Cups all purpose white flour
4-5 Cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 C buttermilk
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/4 C molasses OR 1/4 C brown sugar OR 1/4 C honey (slightly different tastes; pick which you prefer; it won't be a dominant note in the bread in any case)

1) Pour the oats into the bowl and put the buttermilk in right after; let it sit a while so the buttermilk can soak into the oats a bit (This is instead of the boiling water routine most oat breads call for).

2) Add the yeast; stir it in.

3) Add 1 C flour; stir it in.

4) Add the butter and the rest of the flour. Stir the flour in until it gets too stiff to stir, then knead until you have a soft dough. So far, I've kept it on the sticky side--a handle-with-the-heels-of-the-hand type dough that holds its shape. You can add more flour if you want a smoother dough.

Here, in case you hadn't noticed, is where the recipe gets really approximate. I've never actually measured the flour. I think it comes to around 6 or 7 cups to make a sticky but manageable dough; it may be more; some day, I may measure (or, if you do, you can tell me). I have been adding about half whole wheat, about half white. A greater proportion of white flour makes for a less-sticky dough, a higher rise, and a softer loaf; a greater proportion of wheat flour means a flatter, coarser loaf that is more nutritious and has a somewhat nuttier flavor; choose based on what you like and/or what you happen to have on hand.

5) Let the dough rise until double in size; this takes about an hour and a half in a comfortably warm room, much longer in a colder room (like last night, rainy, chilly weather meant dough that took forever to rise!)

6) Shape into two more-or-less smooth oblongs and place in bread pans.

7) Let rise until approximately double (anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, or more, depending on room temp).

8) Preheat oven to 375.

9) Pop the dough in, turn the oven down to 350.

10) Bake for 35-40 minutes. When the loaf makes a hollow "Thwock" sound when you flick the bottom with your fingernail, it's done.

11) Enjoy!

The bread has a lot more buttermilk than usual in buttermilk recipes, so it is super tangy. It has more oats, too, which gives it a lovely texture.

Bread and Brownies

So I'm still baking!

Let me put in another word in praise of my absolute favorite brownie recipe: Cooking Light's "Bourbon Fudge Brownies." Usually I make it with milk instead of bourbon (an option they do allow for). Alcohol seems to make for a drier, crummier brownie. It may be tasty, but the lovely, fudgy texture is gone. I have tried it--never with bourbon, though a friend did, but with rum, which was tasty but, like I said, not as good. Coffee (an option if one is really playing around with the recipe to make it vegan) is tasty without being dry, and does add a nice flavor, but milk is best.

I am also playing around with bread. I found a recipe for Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread. that I liked, made it almost the way the recipe calls for, and then came up with a version sort of based on it and kind of based on two other recipes and mostly just messing around that I like even better for a Sourdough Walnut bread.

Made the way the recipe instructs only with more wheat flour, it makes a good, dense, chewy bread.

For the walnut variety, use:
1/4 C walnut oil (instead of butter)
2 eggs (to help soften the loaf)
1 1/2 C rye flour (to add a nice taste)
2 C whole wheat flour
And enough white flour to keep it from being impossibly sticky,

Just before shaping it, add 1 1/2 cups of walnuts, if you're measuring, or as much as the dough will hold, if you're not.


Whichever way you make it, let it rise in the machine. I Donna M,who posted the original recipe, mentions just taking it out of the machine and shaping it without letting it rise first, but I find that rather odd; sourdough does take a long time to rise (especially if you're maintaining it on the "when I remember" program rather than the proper weekly diet & if you don't remember to take it out of the fridge the night before), and it makes more sense to let it do so in the nice, warm bread maker rather than shaped and on the counter.

Preheat the oven to 350 & bake for about half an hour.

Actually, I read a while back that it is better to overheat the oven by about 50 degrees before putting the bread in and then turn it down as you put the bread in, and I find that helps a lot--the bread does a nice, fast rise. That's rather important if, like me, you're addicted to whole grain breads that tend not to rise a whole lot to begin with.

Yummy

This and this make a great combination.

It helps if the tomatoes and basil come from your own garden.

*Sighs contentedly

The Bread Machine Gourmet by Shea MacKenzie

One of my favorite cookbooks; I've had it for years. I love making bread by hand, but sometimes there just isn't time, or it's too hot to turn on the oven, and then the bread machine comes to the rescue.

And this cookbook has lots of intriguing and tasty recipes in it. Favorites include: Blackstrap Bread, Black Bean and Raisin Bread, Brown Rice Bread, Banana Maple Bread, and Chocolate Chip and Nut Bread.