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Category Archives: Recipes gone wrong

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Cooking, Food, Gwyneth Paltrow, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong, Still life

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Baking, Blueberry muffins, Breakfast, Butter, Foodie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Healthy cooking

Healthy Blueberry MuffinsThere are two blueberry muffin recipes I like to use in one of my favorite cookbooks, “My Father’s Daughter,” by Gwyneth Paltrow. This one is an altered version of the more healthy of the two. ( I didn’t have all of the ingredients called for, so I improvised)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
1/2 cup soy milk (I used 0% fat regular milk)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup light agave (I forgot this altogether. I would have either added honey or more maple syrup.)
1 cup white spelt flour
1 cup whole spelt flour
(I used 2 cups of gluten-free flour and added 1 1/2  teaspoons xanthan gum)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 cupcake tins with papers. Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold in blueberries and divide among the muffin tin cups and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Check centers with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Let cool a bit before eating.

HealthyBlueberryCowButterTonedSMHealthyBlueberrySecondaryTonedSM

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Walnut (or Hickory) Cake

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong

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Tags

Baking, Buttercream, cake, Honey, Vanilla, Walnuts

Hickory cake

Walnut cake with buttercream frosting

This is a recipe from my great grandmother’s collection she cut out of one of the Chattanooga, Tennessee newspapers back in the 60s or 70s. It was submitted by a lady from Sewanee, Tennessee.

I had a few problems with it – of course.

The entire time I was making it, I kept thinking, “As long as it LOOKS good, it doesn’t have to taste good.”

The batter resembled biscuit dough at first. Hmmm. I knew that wasn’t right. I also knew I followed the recipe exactly and measured correctly. Perhaps there was a misprint in the paper. It’s happened before.

So! I added more milk. I was afraid to add too much, so the batter was still pretty thick. It also cooked faster than expected. And it didn’t rise as high as it should have. But, the batter had been thick. So again, I bet I should have added more milk.

On to the icing it called for: Honey frosting – uncooked

It was more like a glaze, and NOT very tasty. Because I had an image in my head as how I wanted to photograph the cake, I chucked the “glaze” and went with butter cream icing so I could add chopped walnuts to the top. But by this point, I was getting frustrated. So instead of measuring the exact ingredients for the buttercream frosting, I just started dumping them into the mixer. Well, that was fine until I got to the milk. Instead of measuring 2 tablespoons, I just poured in the milk.

Too much, of course. So I added more confectioners’ sugar. And then more. It never did get thick enough for frosting, so I knew it would not stay on the sides of the cake.

Great. But it turned out better because I let the frosting pour over the sides. It looked pretty cool – in most spots. Then I chopped some walnuts and sprinkled them on top; and believe it or not, the cake turned out to be very delicious. But I wouldn’t follow my instructions very closely if you want to save yourself some trouble.

RECIPE

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs separated
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg yolks. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add alternately with vanilla and milk. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Test with a toothpick in center of cake until it comes out clean.

Honey Frosting – uncooked

1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Combine all ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes or longer until of spreading consistency. Three tablespoons of cocoa may be added for Chocolate-honey frosting.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I used milk because I did not have cream)

Combine butter and sugar in a standing mixer on a low speed until well-mixed, and then increase speed and mix for about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. Add more cream for spreading consistency.

Walnut cake slice

A slice of old fashioned walnut cake.

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Cherry Upside-down Cake – Twice

01 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong, Uncategorized

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Tags

Antique forks, Cherry upside-down cake, Favorite recipe, Great grandmother, Vintage recipe, Wal-Mart

Cherry Upside-down CakeThis is my second attempt at this recipe. I tend to be in a rush whenever I do – well….anything. When I made the first cake, I used a can of cherry pie filling instead of just a can of cherries. Duh. It was in the baking aisle and I wasn’t paying attention.

So, back to the store I went. However, I could not find a 1 pound can of cherries, as the recipe calls for. I was only able to find 15 ounce cans of cherries. So, I bought two cans with the plan of doing the math later.

And yes, I forgot to do the math later. I used BOTH cans instead of 1 and a half. Of course, I did not figure that out until AFTER I placed the batter on top of ALL of the cherries. (Read here of another bone-head-recipe-misread here.)

Argh! The batter was flush with the edge of the cake pan. It had overflow written all over it. So I scooped out most of the batter, spooned out some of the cherries and then poured the batter back on top. I was sure it was ruined and that the cherries would be mixed in with the cake. But I was pleasantly surprised when I turned it upside down.

I do think I flipped it too soon, though. The recipe calls for waiting 5 minutes after taking it out of the oven, but perhaps you should wait a little longer so the cherry juice won’t slide over the sides. But, maybe it’s supposed to do that.

At any rate, it is really good. I’m guessing the better quality the cherries, the better the cake. Mine are from Wal-Mart, but still pretty good.

Cherry Upside-down Cake

Cherry mixture:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1 pound can red sour pitted cherries
Several drops of red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Melt butter in 9x9x2 pan (I used a round cake pan). Place cornstarch and sugar in a saucepan and mix well. Drain cherries – keeping juice. Stir 3/4 cup of cherry juice into sugar mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches boiling point. Reduce heat to very low and cook for 5 minutes – still stirring. Stir in food coloring, drained cherries and almond extract. Pour mixture over butter in baking pan and stir to blend.

Cake mixture:
2/3 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg – room temperature if possible
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk – and again, room temperature if possible. This helps make the cake more moist or fluffy. Something like that. I just read about that trick)

Cream butter; and then add sugar and cream until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Sift flour and baking powder together and add to creamed mixture alternately with milk – beginning and ending with flour. Spoon batter over cherry mixture in pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Cool 5 minutes (I’d wait a little longer if I were you). Place a platter over cake pan and flip upside down. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or ice-cream.

Cherry Upside-down Cake with vintage recipeAbove is the original cake I made with cherry pie filling accidentally, as well as my great grandmother’s recipe. I think she was trying to be funny by writing the name of the recipe upside down. I can only assume she cut off the name of the recipe and needed to remind herself what it actually was. I love the fact she wrote it upside down. It always makes me smile whenever I see it.

Cherry Upside-down Cake
Cherry Upside-down Cake

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Not so Famous Brownies

06 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes gone wrong

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Baking, Brownies, Chattanooga, food photography, Tupelo Honey, Warehouse Row

Famous BrowniesAbout a year ago, Tupelo Honey came to town and set up shop at Warehouse Row. Any restaurant that serves biscuits with honey and jam before every meal will certainly last in the South.

Part of the wallpaper on the outside of the restaurant is a blown-up photo of a brownie recipe. Cool! It is hand-written on an index card just like my great grandmother’s. So I did what probably others have done – I took a photo of it and tried my hand at making them at home.

I think I made several mistakes.

I used semi-sweet chocolate and gluten-free flour. And even though I baked them close to an hour, they still did not get done. When I tried to get them out of the pan, they basically fell apart. And sadly, the gluten-free flour made them taste…..not so good.

I plan to re-do them with dark chocolate and regular flour – and a hotter oven. I’ll just have to risk getting a migraine.

Here you go if you want to try them.

Famous Brownies recipe outside Tupelo Honey's restaurant at Warehouse Row, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Famous Brownies recipe outside Tupelo Honey’s restaurant at Warehouse Row, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Famous Brownies

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Story of the Day — vegetarian chili and the BCS

09 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by lewstories in BCS football, Gwyneth Paltrow, Photography, Recipes gone wrong, Stories, Vegetarian chili

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Gwyneth Paltrow, Photography, Story of the day, Vegetarian chili

Vegetarian Chili recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow's, "My Father's Daughter," cookbook.

My husband makes great chili. It’s a little too hot for my taste, but it really is good. But my husband is good at everything. It’s annoying. He does most things better than I do. SO! When I saw a vegetarian chili recipe in my new favorite cookbook, “My Father’s Daughter,” by Gwyneth Paltrow, I thought I would challenge my better half at his own game. And what better time to try out my new-found recipe than for dinner during the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) this year between Louisiana State University and Alabama – Roll Tide Roll, y’all!

LSU and Alabama are fierce rivals. LSU won the only game Alabama lost during the regular season, so this was personal. This was the rematch of The Game of the Century. This was was important. THIS was SEC football at its best, and I wanted to make it special for my husband.

After two hours of cooking, we sat down to eat dinner about 15 minutes before kickoff. It did indeed taste great – for the first 5 seconds. And then it hit. A heat hotter than anything I’ve ever tasted – including my husband’s chili.

What the heck!?

I got up and re-read the recipe: 1 can kidney beans – check! 1 can black beans – check! 1 can whole peeled tomatoes – check! 1 teaspoon chipotle in adobo – Huh? 1 teaspoon? I put in THE WHOLE CAN! Darn it! I was so used to seeing, “1 can,” I guess I just kept in that line of thinking.

I was so mad at myself, and so disappointed that I had wasted so much time and money. AND I was ticked that I had failed at one-upping my husband – again! Meanwhile, my cell phone rang. I had to run downstairs to answer it, and stayed down there talking for a few minutes so not to disturb my husband’s pre-game viewing. When I went back upstairs to remove our dinner for our own safety, I walked in to see my husband sitting back in the chair with a distressed expression on his face.

“What’s the matter?

He said, “I don’t feel well.”

I looked down at his bowl of chili – he had eaten the entire thing.

“You ate the entire bowl! WHY did you do that? I made it way too hot!”

He said, “I ate it because you made it.”

“Well, that is very sweet, but stupid. Don’t ever do that. You’re going to make yourself sick doing that. . . You don’t look good.”

He said, “I don’t feel good.”

And then we heard a noise neither one of us had ever heard before, and it was coming from his stomach. “Awruoooooghbroooom”

I thought, “I’ve killed my husband. Now he won’t be able to watch the rematch of The Game of the Century. What have I done?”

“What can I do? Do you want some more water?”

He said, “No, maybe check to see if we have an anti-acid. That might help.”

Fortunately I found some. He took it and all was quiet for the rest of the game. Although I did keep checking on him: “How are you feeling? Are you ok? How’s your stomach? I’m SO sorry, etc.”

The game was great, too. For us, at least. I have never, EVER seen a football team’s defense stop the other team the way the Crimson Tide stopped LSU. It was a history-making game, for sure. As was my chili concoction. It will always be known as the BCS chili with which I tried to kill my husband. I don’t see my living this down anytime soon, either.

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