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Weekend Dish: Oatcakes redux

by Catherine Toth on October 30, 2011 in Food, Weekend Dish

Remember that 10-pound box of Quaker Oats I bought months ago?

Well, I still have it.

And those rolled oats aren’t moving any faster after Derek left for Madison.

So I’ve been experimenting with them, primarily making oatcakes, those hockey puck-sized healthy snacks often sold in coffee shops and health food stores. (See my first attempt at oatcakes here.)

And I think I’ve found a winner recipe.

Here’s the step-by-step, with the recipe below:

Ingredients

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This was the first time I made this recipe — so this time I swapped enriched flour with whole wheat and sugar with Splenda. Both work well.

Fruity oatcakes
slightly modified

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used Splenda)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg white (or equivalent)
1/2 to 1 cup dried fruit (I used apricots, raisins, golden raisins, cranberries)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9-1/2-by-13-inch pan with parchment paper or lightly spray with cooking spray (such as Pam).

Grind rolls oats in food processor or blender. (I added about 1/2 cup of almonds.) Mix with flour and baking powder.

Chop dried fruit into small pieces. You can use apricots, raisins, dates, dried apples, dried cranberries or anything else you like.

In a separate bowl, cream together yogurt, sugar, honey and vanilla. In another bowl, lightly beat egg white until it gets bubbly but not stiff. Fold egg white into the wet ingredients. Add dried fruit.

Combine wet and dry ingredients. The dough gets stiff and can be hard to mix. Form into 12 patties (or any size you want).

Bake about 15 minutes. Cool, then store in refrigerator.

Comments { 8 }

Weekend Dish: Cake pops

by Catherine Toth on October 16, 2011 in Food, Weekend Dish

It seems like everyone’s making cake pops, those decadent balls of moist cake conveniently propped on a stick.

They’re everywhere — baby showers, weddings, birthday luaus. Even Starbucks is selling them.

So I figured, “How hard could it be?”

Uh, hard.

The thing is, everywhere you look online, cake pops seem like the easiest thing to make. It’s simple! You can use a box cake mix! My kids are making them!

But these sites don’t tell you how tedious the process is — and how much can go wrong along the way.

So here’s my real take on making cake pops. You may want to spring the $2 to buy one already made.

Here's what you need

$Here\'s what you need$

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Seems like a simple list, but when you throw in lollipop sticks, plastic bags and candy melts, which are about $3 to $4 a bag, it can add up.

Great video by Angie Dudley of Bakerella that shows you step-by-step how to make basic cake pops

Basic cake balls
Used to make cake pops

Ingredients:

1 18 1/4-ounce box cake mix
1 16-ounce container prepared frosting
2 12-ounce bags of candy melts (I used Guittard’s Melt ‘N Mold)
Lollipop sticks
Candy sprinkles or edible glitter

Directions:

Bake cake as directed on the box, using a 13x9x2-inch cake pan. Let cool completely.

Once cake is cooled, cut it into four large pieces. Rub two pieces together so it crumbles into a bowl. Make sure there are no large pieces; the entire cake should be crumbled into a fine texture. You can use a fork to break apart any larger pieces. (If large pieces are mixed in, the cake balls make turn out lumpy and bumpy.)

Add 3/4 of the container of frosting into cake crumbles, using the back of a metal spoon. DO NOT USE THE ENTIRE CONTAINER; your cake balls will be too moist.

Roll 1 1/2-inch balls and place onto a baking sheet lined with waxed or parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap (optional) and chill for several hours in the refrigerator. You can also place them in the freezer for no longer than 15 minutes. You want the balls to be firm but not frozen.

Melt your chocolate melt, as directed.

Dip the tip of the lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and insert into cake ball not more than halfway in; this will serve as the “glue.” Then dip the cake ball into melted chocolate. DO NOT TWIRL as the cake ball may fall apart.

Once fully coated, remove the cake ball and allow for excess chocolate to drip off. Decorate with candy sprinkles or edible glitter. Place into Styrofoam and chill in refrigerator.

Makes 48

Comments { 8 }

Weekend Dish: Deep-fried PB&J

by Catherine Toth on September 5, 2011 in Food, Weekend Dish

The other day I had the most amazing breakfast — made by the head chef at Rainbow Drive-In, no less.

And no, it didn’t involve two scoops of rice and mac salad.

He served us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — on white bread, this is key — dunked in pancake batter, deep-fried, then doused in sugar.

Oh, I can’t tell you how good it was.

So my mom and I — with the help of my dad, who manned the sugar — tried to recreate this breakfast sensation. In the process, I think we improved on it, changing up the fillings and realizing there’s so much more we can do with this recipe.

Here’s what we did:

Pancake batter

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We used a batter for instant malassadas (see below) to coat the sandwiches. It was easy enough and the batter, when fried, really puffed up.

Batter
Used to make instant malassadas

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Bisquick
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Directions:

Mix. Coat pieces of white bread — filled or not — with batter and place into deep fryer.

Comments { 15 }

Weekend Dish: Hawaiian-style beef stew

by Catherine Toth on August 21, 2011 in Food, Weekend Dish

I think it’s ironic how much I love my crock pot.

I tend to do things quickly — sometimes too quickly — in an attempt to save time and be more efficient.

So you’d think I’d use my pressure cooker more often. Faster meals, less time, more efficient.

But instead, I cling to my trust crock pot, a slow cooker, emphasis on “slow.”

I love to make fall-off-the-bone shoyu chicken or simple pot roasts in this contraption. Dump all the ingredients in, turn it on, go about my daily life and come home to a kitchen filled with some delicious aroma. It’s like dinner cooked itself.

So last night I pulled out my crock pot, a gift my mom had given to me years ago. I decided to make my favorite Hawaiian-style beef stew.

Hawaiian-style beef stew is really not the best name for this dish. This style has a tomato sauce-based broth — which has nothing to do with traditional Hawaiian cuisine. Still, this brand of stew — hearty, with chunks of meat, veggies and potatoes — is hugely popular in the Islands and can be found at just about any plate lunch shop or lunch wagon.

And it’s super easy.

Here’s the step-by-step, with the recipe below:

My crock pot

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I love slow cookers. It feels like the meal makes itself — and I like that.

Hawaiian-style beef stew
Using a crock pot

Ingredients:

1 pound of stew meat (I used tri-tip steak)
1 medium onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 large potatoes, chopped
1 14-ounce can beef broth
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce plus a can of water
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste (after it cooks)

Directions:

Plug in crock pot.

Cut up steak into bite-size chunks and brown in olive oil. Put meat, including the drippings, into the crock pot.

To that, add chopped onions, carrots, celery and potatoes. (You can add green peppers, too.) Then add the remaining ingredients.

Potatoes can be added before you start cooking or about 10 minutes before you turn off the crock pot, if you want your potatoes to be firmer.

Do NOT add pepper until AFTER the stew has cooked.

Cook for about four to six hours.

Comments { 17 }

Weekend Dish: Oatcakes

by Catherine Toth on June 26, 2011 in Food, Weekend Dish

Derek eats a bowl of oatmeal a day.

So I thought a 10-pound box of Quaker Oats from Costco was a thoughtful — and financially responsible — buy.

I didn’t realize — maybe because I don’t eat oatmeal — just how long that box was going to last.

So I needed to do something about it.

I’ve never been a big fan of oatcakes. The only ones I don’t mind are Akamai Breakfast Oatcakes and the ones from Starbucks.

And since neither company was going to divulge its secret to me, I figured I could find something similar online.

And I did.

It’s called “Sandra’s Oatcakes,” a recipe I found in a 2005 article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Sandra Stenen, owner of Serenity and Massage in Hawaii Kai, developed a recipe that comes close to the oatcakes sold at the popular chain coffee shop.

So I had to try it.

It didn’t take long to make — but it did take a bunch of ingredients I didn’t have readily available. The end result: a great-tasting, low-fat alternative to oatmeal in the morning. Maybe this will make me a believer!

Here’s the step-by-step, with the recipe below:

Ingredients

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This recipe required a trip to the supermarket for items like toasted wheat germ ($8) and a sugar substitute. But don't think this is a fat-free oatcake! There's sugar, vegetable oil, applesauce, honey and eggs. No butter, though.

Sandra’s Oatcakes
slightly modified

Ingredients:

4 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour
1 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup brown Sugar Twin (though I used 1/2 cup Splenda)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup honey
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup nuts (I used cashews and almonds)
1-1/2 cups raisins (I used dried apricots)
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-1/2-by-13-inch pan with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray (such as Pam).

Combine oats, flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon and wheat germ.

Combine oil, applesauce, honey, eggs and nuts in a blender. Blend until nuts are finely chopped. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in dried fruit. Spread in baking pan and press lightly to even top.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool, then cut.

Comments { 7 }