Flashback Monday - Cherry Pie

Today we're revisiting a post from March 2010, all about cherry pie.  Hope you enjoy it the 2nd time around!

http://adirondackbaker.blogspot.com/2010/03/cherry-pie.html

Happy Monday, with a cherry on top!

Pancake Makeover

This morning for breakfast I had pancakes! So how can a low-carber be enjoying pancakes you might ask?  These are not your typical Saturday morning pancakes -- no -- this recipe comes from The Biggest Loser, and they are a blended whirl of egg whites, oatmeal, and cottage cheese with cinnamon and a teensy bit of sugar. I was skeptical because I've tried pancake alternative recipes before with an "eh" attitude, and these really made me happy! With barely a dusting of confectioners sugar, I ate these plain, just rolled up in my hand like an empty pancake taco (not the most polite execution, but there was no one here to judge me!) and didn't miss one bit of maple syrup. I had originally planned to add blueberries, but decided to evaluate this pancake on its own merits. And it is good! This recipe makes six 4-inch pancakes.

You won't be missing a thing!

BIGGEST LOSER PANCAKES
(half the original recipe)

3 egg whites
1/2 cup rolled oats, dry
1/2 cup cottage cheese (I used 2%)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Whirl all of the above ingredients together in your blender until completely smooth. Pour 4-inch circles of batter onto heated skillet (medium to medium-high heat) or griddle that's been sprayed with cooking spray. Flip when they begin to brown on the bottom and continue cooking until browned nicely on both sides.

Dust lightly with confectioners sugar and enjoy as is or with a sprinkling of berries!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Healthy Blueberry Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

The coffee cake I've made for years was adapted from a Cooking Light recipe, but because I wanted it to be as rich and luscious as possible, low-fat ingredients were replaced with their full-fat counterparts -- yes, counter-intuitive -- but man-o-man was it a good coffee cake! So, going back to the original recipe, I've decided to make it even healthier by replacing butter with canola oil, half the all-purpose flour with whole white, and incorporating nutrient- and fiber-rich blueberries with brown sugar and cinnamon to create a pretty swirl in the middle of each slice.  This adaptation is a doubled recipe. If you want to make a smaller coffee cake (8x8 pan or a bread-loaf pan - adjust baking time), halve the ingredients and proceed as directed.

Interior View ~ just look at that! (click for close-up!)

I'm not able to indulge in coffee cake or any cake for that matter, but I'm a baker and I have to bake!  So I am happy to offer it to my co-workers. For those who do enjoy this coffee cake, they can know that it packs a greater nutritional punch than the original with healthy oil, less sugar, more fiber, low-fat sour cream, and antioxidants. It has all that. Oh yeah, and a whole lot of flavor!

HEALTHY BLUEBERRY CINNAMON SWIRL COFFEE CAKE
Oven - 375 degrees Farenheit
tube coffee cake pan, or angel food cake pan, sprayed with cooking spray

Coffee Cake Ingredients:
1/2 cup canola oil (I use Smart Balance)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
3 egg whites
2 cups low-fat sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole white flour (I use King Arthur flours)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup frozen blueberries (I use Wyman's Wild Maine blueberries - tiny and very flavorful)

In large mixing bowl, beat canola oil with sugar. Add egg, and egg whites, one at a time. Mix well. Add sour cream and extracts. Beat well. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix very well.

Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Smooth to make an even surface. Sprinkle with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, and distribute blueberries evenly over that. Add the rest of the batter and smooth top.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until cake tests done (springs back when lightly touched). If your oven runs hot, test at 40 minutes on.

Cool in pan for half hour. Remove pan and invert cake onto serving plate and continue to cool on wire rack. While still warm, spread glaze over top, and allow to run down sides a bit. Recipe follows:

Lemon glaze:

2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon Smart Balance spread, melted

Drops of water

Stir first four ingredients together as well as you can, and then add warm water, a few drops at a time, until the glaze is thick but loose enough to spread easily on its own. Be very stingy with the water as you add it. Even a few drops too much is too much. Pour over top of coffee cake and use the back of a spoon to spread it to the edges and nudge it so it spills over the edge here and there. If it's too thick to run, add a few more drops of water until it loosens up.

Picture-Pretty Cupcakes!

Today I delivered 36 cupcakes to a very surprised birthday girl. Her friend Kim had ordered the cupcakes and I was to take them to Mary's office (Mary's the bd girl) this morning, EXCEPT Mary decided to take the day off! Kim was a little bit panicked but I assured her I'd be happy to deliver all 3 dozen cupcakes to Mary's home after work. Kim checked to be sure someone would be home at that time, and when I pulled into the driveway and walked up to the front door, I saw that they were indeed home, having a cozy afternoon and enjoying Mary's day off.

Kim trusted me to make whatever I thought would be good, so I made 18 dark chocolate cupcakes, 18 vanilla cupcakes, and frosted half of each with vanilla buttercream, and the other half of each with chocolate buttercream. The white frosting was adorned with colorful sprinkles, and the chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles. I kept the cupcakes in my car all day (nice and cold) and when I got in at the end of my work day, my car smelled like a bakery!

I don't have a recipe for you today since I have NO time (so busy at work and away from work) but thought you'd enjoy a pretty picture of cupcakes!!!!

Happy Wednesday evening!

Healthy Snacking

One fairly universal question when you completely change your eating habits and go from carb-heavy choices to healthier options is "What snack won't completely undo all the good I'm doing?" There are good options, and here's a brief list that will expand as I figure out what I'm eating in the next weeks and months!

• Apple slices with nut butters and raisins
• Vanilla Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries, let thaw in the yogurt for a few minutes
• Veggies with roasted red pepper hummus
• Sugar-free cooked pudding (I use Jello's version) - I like chocolate.  Nothing better than home-cooked pudding!
• 2% cottage cheese
• a cup of broth-based soup
• Paleo mug cake
• Mini-cheesecakes (see my last post)
• 1/4 cup raw almonds or other nuts
• Thin-sliced Virginia ham rolled up with low-fat Alpine Lace Swiss cheese  
• Deviled egg
• Olives 
• Unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon and a little sweetener (if necessary)
• Sliced cucumber in vinaigrette
• Banana chunks dipped in melted chocolate and frozen
• V-8 with a couple of shakes of black pepper
• Yogurt smoothie
• Dark chocolate (I like Dove Promises - little squares, 5 = 1 serving - I pack just 2 in my lunch)

Here are a few of my favorites of the ideas mentioned above:

These snacking ideas should hold you over for a little while until I come up with more!
Little to-go containers and zip snack bags are invaluable.

One thing I've learned:  if you are prepared, you won't make bad choices.  If you don't buy it or have it in your house, you won't have to resist it.  If others in your household are eating all those things you don't want, ask them to do without them and to enjoy the same snacks you're eating as a measure of support for you.  Maybe you can positively influence the eating habits of those around you as well, and that certainly is a good thing.

Enjoy!

Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes

Looking for a healthier dessert when you really want cheesecake? I bought a bag of key limes thinking that I'd come up with something that combines two of my favorites:  key lime pie and cheesecake. But this no/low carb lifestyle won't allow either of those, so what's a baker to do? Improvise. Tonight, I put that experiment to the test, and am happy to say that the result is very successful! Combining low-fat and non-fat cream cheeses with low-fat sour cream, a little real sugar and some sugar substitute, an egg and egg white, the juice of key limes (you can use regular lime juice) results in mini-cheesecakes that are soft, creamy, sweet and tart at the same time. Baking in muffin cups makes a dozen perfect single servings. Serve very cold with a spritz of whipped cream, and be glad to experience cheesecake with none of the guilt!

KEY LIME CHEESECAKES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
line standard muffin tins with foil or paper liners

Ingredients:

8 oz. low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
8 oz. non-fat cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 packets sweetener (or another 1/4 cup of sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup low- or non-fat sour cream
Juice of 6 key limes, or lime juice to equal 1/4 cup (fresh or bottled) - I squeezed the heck out of 6 little key limes over a strainer set over the bowl!

Directions:

In large mixer bowl, combine cream cheeses, sugar, cornstarch, sweetener, and extracts. Beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in egg, and then egg white. Mix thoroughly. Add sour cream. Mix well.  Add lime juice and mix thoroughly until all little lumps of cream cheese have almost disappeared.

Divide cheesecake batter among the 12 muffin cups.  I use a standard, levered ice cream scoop and it works perfectly.

Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  They'll look puffed up and a little funny coming out of the oven, and then deflate a bit while cooling.  Not the prettiest dessert on their own, but thoroughly chilled and plated with a spritz of whipped cream, they are beautiful and delicious!

Breakfast, Pie, Cake, and a Saturday to Remember

As weekends go, this is a good one. I've been doing more cooking than baking lately, but this weekend found me baking a pie for an old friend, and a graduation cake for my nephew. I was glad to see how much they were enjoyed, especially since I cannot partake in the fruits of my labor (carb detox living).  It really didn't bother me at all to skip the pie and cake; it is such a pleasure to see how much they were enjoyed by everyone else!

Yesterday morning (Saturday) started with having breakfast with my good friend Claire at a brand new place she suggested in downtown Saratoga Springs -- SPoT Coffee at Market Center on the corner of Railroad Place and Division Street. It's a beautiful and cheerful coffee bar that also serves cook-to-order eggs and wraps, and lots of other things. I had a big cup of hot black tea and a goat cheese and mushroom omelette, skipping the bread choice that accompanies every order. Claire had scrambled eggs in a spinach wrap and a cup of coffee. We sat by the sidewalk in the heated and enclosed porch and did what we always do when we get such time together, solve our own and the world's problems! Time goes too quickly on such occasions and I can't wait to go to SPoT Coffee again, and do exactly the same thing!

On the way home, I took a detour to deliver the apple pie (Martha Stewart recipe) to Lynn who worked at Skidmore College years ago. Now, in her early 80s, she has finally given up the 9-to-5 and is getting some overdue time to herself! There's no one who deserves it more, and I hope she will be able to now spend more time traveling and visiting with her family, most of whom live a distance away. It was so good to catch up and sit with her while she enjoyed a piece of her pie. It was a surprise, requested by her beautiful granddaughter Kristin who is one of my daughter Tricia's best high-school friends (they're both 30 now!). It just made me realize that time flies so quickly, and that it's good to step back, stop, and smell the apple pie! We chatted until it was time for Lynn to leave for a few hours of beauty with her hairdresser, and me to get home to finish my nephew Patrick's graduation cake.

Lynn's apple pie

Henry and Peter came upstairs to my little apartment to help me finish the cake, a black and white marble cake with buttercream frosting. They got to sample the trimmings, and each had their own ball of fondant to play with while I did the serious work. Henry really helped this time by holding the flower nail as the frosting roses were constructed. He was fascinated seeing the roses come to life, and I was thinking that he just might remember this moment. He's almost five (seems impossible) and we're beginning to have very interesting conversations. Every day he says something worth writing down to remember! Pete was busy drawing pictures with a pink highlighter, and as Henry and were engrossed in fondant, I looked up to see Pete drawing all over my kitchen table, a long, bright trail of pink swirls and lines. I gave him a wet paper towel and he cleaned his artwork until it was all but a memory, so proud of himself!

It was snowing lightly last night, on the way to my sister's house for the graduation party, and I was glad to get there and join the warmth of the evening. Patrick graduated in December from Florida State University, and has landed a good job that he likes, so life is good. Anne and John had a big spread of foods that included lots of no/low-carb options, so I was able to eat well without feeling deprived (shrimp, cheeses, nuts, turkey chili)!  She had a house-full of our family and friends, with little cousins happily playing together. It was a terrific ending to a lovely day, a day that focused on how meaningful relationships make life so much richer!

A warm welcome...

Cousins

Will (left) and Patrick (the graduate, right) Bishop!

Congratulations, Patrick!  So proud of you!