The Thanksgiving Post, Finally [Part 3 - Dessert]

I don't bake.  I use ovens, but never for dessert.  As such, I'm not going over the recipes for these.  If my mom ever gets an e-mail address I'll gladly point you her way.  I would like to note, that for the lipid of the dough, we used an egg yolk instead of crisco or butter or whatever else people are using these days.  In the past we also tried the vodka dough, but liked this one by far the best.

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Test Run - Sweet Potato Risotto

Sweet potato risotto- the dish I can never seem to get perfect.  I feel like it has so much potential, and even done poorly has decent flavor.  Why can't I go any farther with it?  Despite my own mishaps with the dish, I've been able to successfully market it to my vegetarian friends.  Due to popular demand, and a spin that made me like the dish a lot more, here is [finally] my sweet potato risotto.

The first time I made the dish, I made a 'classic' preparation, starting with a shallot and butter, then using chicken stock as the liquid.  It didn't suck.  It is however, extremely difficult to pair with.  I continued to make this preparation, adding garlic or other seasonings, for some time.

Months later a tropical twist hit- coconut milk for the liquid.  Don't need butter anymore, but have to season much more aggressively to cut through the thick flavor of coconut milk.  To accomplish this I started the pan with garlic and an insane amount of ginger.  The dish would then be finished with lime juice and zest to cut through.  This was pretty good.  The lime was key to the dish because there was a dire need for acid.

More time passes and the time to think about Thanksgiving arrives.  The last Thursday in November isn't Thanksgiving without sweet potatoes.  To keep Thanksgiving regional, I again ponder how to modify the dish.  I see an episode of Simply Ming where the master ingredients are ginger and cranberries.  Brilliant.

I make the dish for the last time, using fresh cranberries, which also add to the Thanksgiving ambiance.  Here is how to do it:

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Ninja Fruit Season

I'm a horrible baker.  The only two presentable products that come out of my oven are cheesecakes and quick breads.  Cheesecakes because I needed an angle with women in college and quick breads because they're significantly easier then said women.  Banana [nut] bread pleases most crowds but I'm finding it to be old, boring and cliche.  To find a new quick bread flavor I went to the local grocer to peruse produce.  What did I find that is fresh and in season?  Cranberries- the ninja fruit.

Fresh cranberries are giving me the chance to finally try one of of Grady Spear's mouth-watering recipes from The Texas Cowboy Kitchen, Cranberry-Peach Bread.  I'm sure frozen cranberries could work decently, but the closest grocery doesn't carry them.  Frozen cranberries also lack love, the most important ingredient in baking [duh].

• 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 TBL Baking Powder
• 1/2 TSP Salt
• 1 TSP Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 TSP Ground Nutmeg
• 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans
• 1/2 Cup Mashed Fresh Peaches (If canned, drain well)
• 1 Cup Buttermilk
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg, Beaten
• 1 TSP Peach or Vanilla Extract
• 1 12-Ounce Package Fresh Cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. 
   
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a large bowl. 
   
3. Add the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and pecans, and mix well.
   
4. Make a well in the center of the mixture and set aside. 
   
5. In another bowl, combine the peaches, buttermilk, oil, egg, and extract and mix well.  
6. Add to the dry mixture, stirring just enough to moisten ingredients. 
   
7. Carefully fold in the cranberries. 
   
8. Spoon the mixture into a greased Bundt or loaf pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. 
   
9. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.  Remove from the pan and serve warm with softened cream cheese, if you like.

I'm well aware there are a bunch of original thinkers out there.  They're thinking, I only have one kind of flour in my pantry, so I'll just double it.  After all, flour is flour.  This substitution will ruin the recipe.  Non-wheat flours are heavier than wheat.  If we were measuring the amount of flour needed by mass instead of volume, the substitution may be easier made.  However, due to this difference in weight, the amount of leaven will need to be increased, by up to three times.  But then again, maybe original thinkers like to eat bricks- I don't know. 

Second order of business- you can't buy a single cup of buttermilk at the store.  Since buttermilk has 'milk' in the word, this should be another original thinker's substitution.  This substitution will ruin the recipe.  Buttermilk contains acid that your Dean's chug doesn't.  One of the leavening agents in the recipe is baking soda.  Baking soda needs acid to be activated.  No acid equates another brick, but we're not making fruitcake. 

I hate waste and I'm not going to buy buttermilk unless I know I'm making a huge batch of waffles for an army.  The substitute I use is to fill the one cup measure with one tablespoon of cider vinegar, then fill the rest of the cup with the milk I have on hand.  Let the mixture sit for two minutes, get curdled, get gross, and it's ready to be used.  Lemon juice and other acids can substitute the cider vinegar as well- I find cider vinegar to be more neutral tasting than lemon juice, and it is always in my pantry.

That's a lot to remember- thank god I don't bake.