Chocolate Chip Date Cake- It Tastes Like "More!"

Well, it has been a long dry summer recipe-wise. I had terrible luck adapting ANYTHING to high altitude. It was just one failure after another, but yesterday I finally triumphed! A very successfully adaptation of Kent's all-time favorite cake, the one, the only, Chocolate Chip Date Cake.

The original recipe came from Kent's Aunt Arlene Hazlett years and years ago. I'm not really sure where she got it. This is the cake that Kent requests every year for his birthday, and sometimes we just have to have it even if it's not his birthday.  It is completely yummy and delicious. It tastes like "more"! 

Chocolate Chip Date Cake- Original Egg Free Low Land Recipe 

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9" x 13" pan. (I like to use cocoa instead- it makes a prettier presentation for a chocolate cake)

Cake:
2 cups dates, chopped (or just use one bag of Dole chopped dates)

1 ¼ cups boiling water

¾ cup shortening ( I use butter)

1 cup sugar

Ener-G Egg Replacer and water, mixed for 2 eggs  (original recipe calls for 2 eggs)

2 cups flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbs cocoa

Topping:

¼ cup sugar

1 bag (12 oz.) chocolate chips

¼- ½ cup chopped nuts

Pour the boiling water over the dates and let cool. 

While it's cooling, sift flour with the salt, soda, and cocoa. Also measure and have ready the topping ingredients. Instead of mixing the topping ingredients, I like to keep them separate and add them in layers. More on that in a bit.

Cream the butter and the sugar. 

Once the dates are cool, start adding the dry ingredients alternately with the date mixture.

Add the mixed Ener-G Egg Replacer at the very last.

Pour into prepared pan.

Top the cake batter first with about half of the chocolate chips, then the nuts, then the sugar, and then the second half of the chocolate chips.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. Test with a toothpick for done-ness.

Serve topped with whipped cream. 

About 12 servings

Egg Free At Altitude© Chocolate Chip Date Cake (changes are marked in bold face)

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease and flour (cocoa) a 9" x 13" pan.  

Cake:
2 cups dates, chopped (or just use one bag of Dole chopped dates)

1  cups boiling water

¾ cup shortening ( I use butter)

1 cup sugar

Ener-G Egg Replacer and water, mixed for 1 egg

½ cup buttermilk

2¼ cups flour

¼ tsp salt

¾ tsp baking soda

2 Tbs cocoa

Topping:

¼ cup sugar

1 bag (12 oz.) chocolate chips

¼- ½ cup chopped nuts

Mix and bake the same as above, except add the buttermilk to the butter and sugar mixture before adding the dry ingredients alternately with the date mixture.

Hard At Work And Eating All The Failures!

After the last post, my dear star-gazing husband and I took off on a long awaited trip to French Polynesia to witness an astronomical event and enjoy a fabulous vacation. Following that, we spent about a week in Austin tending to business and closing up the apartment for the summer, so it turned out to be a very late start to our time in Santa Fe. But we are here now and enjoying the cool summer days and the rain that comes with that.

But meanwhile, back in the kitchen...efforts to adapt one of our favorite cakes is proceeding with all diligent speed. The first attempt at my Mandarin Orange Cake was a total failure. Flattest cake you probably have ever seen. On the good side, the flavor was great and if you cover it with enough whipped cream, it almost looked OK.

Round two was better, but still not perfect. It had a better rise, still fell, and is still too dense.

Round three saw me adding more flour, yougurt, and orange juice. Not so flat. Too chewy.

Round four involved halving the recipe, adding flour, FORGETTING to cut the baking soda, and cooking at a slightly higher temperature.  It might have worked if I had remembered to cut the baking soda in half.

At this point, I think I must admit defeat for now and move on to another recipe. But I still have one can of mandarin oranges left if I ever decide to try it on a "smarter" day.

Now I am pondering what recipe I want to tackle next. Any ideas???

Apple Cider Cake

My beautiful and creative daughter Lauren came across this recipe in an antique book in the museum collection from Chiricahua National Monument. http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm
  

 The book is called Dr. Chase's Last Receipt Book and Home Physician and was published around 1907.



She tried the original recipe at her home in Tucson (elev. 2463 ft.) and found the recipe to be WAY too dry. After several tries at it, she perfected the recipe and has created a much moister cake.  The new and improved recipe was launched at a volunteer appreciation pot-luck to rave reviews.

As it turned out, this moist, dense cake recipe didn't require any alterations for high altitude other that perhaps a little longer baking time. (I forgot to (a) set the timer or (b) look at the clock before putting it in the oven! )

I'm not even going to post the original recipe since it was a dud, but I'm happy to present:

Lauren's New (Old) Apple Cider Cake ©Egg Free At Altitude

Preheat oven to 350° F

Cake:

1½ cups sugar

¾  cups butter (softened)

2¼ cups apple cider (cider was not available, so I used unfiltered apple juice)

8 oz. applesauce (hint: 2 single serving cups of applesauce = 8oz.)

2 Tbs. instant vanilla pudding mix

4½ cups flour

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

Icing:                                                                                         

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 Tbsp. cider (apple juice)

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. cloves

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar.

In another bowl, mix dry ingredients.

In yet another bowl, stir together applesauce and apple cider.

Using your electric mixer, add wet and dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture, alternating wet and dry.

Grease and flour one bundt pan and add the batter.

Bake for about and hour or so at 350°. Use a skewer or a clean knife to check that the cake is done. 

When cake is done, remove pan from oven and let the cake sit for ten minutes in the pan before flipping onto a cooking rack. Lift off pan without burning yourself and swearing.

Let it cool completely and then move to a serving plate.

Make the icing by mixing the dry ingredients and adding the cider 1 tsp. at a time until it reaches optimum drizzling consistency.

Drizzle with cider icing.

Slice it.  Serve it.  Be fabulous.  Graciously accept compliments.

The Best Nearly Vegan Buttermilk Pie You've. Ever. Tasted.

My daughter Lauren's friend made this pie for Lauren's birthday this year.  It is tangy and sweet and delicious.  It was originally a vegan recipe, but I "un-veganized" it to take advantage of real buttermilk and real butter. The only adaptation I had to make for high altitude cooking was an extended baking time. Next time, I will probably raise the baking temperature to see if that moves the cooking time along.

The original recipe came from the blog Voraciouseats.com which became VeganNoMore.com.  Sadly, both sites are now gone and there is no link to direct you to or name I can give credit to.  If anyone knows the name of the recipe originator, I would love to give credit where credit is due, and to send her my heartfelt thanks!

This is as close to my beloved Buttermilk Pie recipe as I have come since giving up eggs. Enjoy!

1 box of Silken Tofu, extra firm

¼ cup softened butter (can substitute vegan butter)

¾ cup buttermilk (can substitute ¾ c coconut milk + 4 tsp apple cider vinegar, mix and let curdle)

1 tsp vanilla

5 Tbsp flour

1½ cups sugar

pinch of salt

1 unbaked pie shell

In blender or food processor combine the tofu, butter and vanilla. Blend until completely smooth with no lumps or grittiness.

Add the buttermilk and the flour and blend again until completely smooth.

Add the sugar and a pinch of salt and blend completely together. A little grittiness from the sugar is OK.

Pour into the pie shell and bake at 325° for 1 hour. Check at 45 minutes to make sure that it isn't getting too brown on top. It should be a pretty caramelized color when done. (For high altitudes, try either baking longer or increasing oven temperature to 350° to get the nice caramel color on top.)

When you remove it from the oven, it will be jiggly in the center, but don't worry. Let it cool, then put in the fridge overnight.

Yum, Yum, eat 'em up!

Yummy Cornbread

Well, it's been about a month since I last posted. Clearly, either I am totally lazy, or just a bit busy. Let's go with busy. It sounds better don't you think?

I'm still tinkering with the recipe for the Awesome Cake, but I think I'm really close. It's hard to try to make all these baked goods and keep my "girlish figure." (She says with tongue firmly in cheek.)

Today's recipe is for some excellent cornbread. The original recipe is copyright protected, but I will refer all you low-landers to Rosemarie Emro's book Bakin' Without Eggs. It's a terrific cookbook for people with food allergies- lots of great recipes.  Unfortunately, so far, they don't work at high altitude.

I know my mother won't approve of this particular recipe, because she likes her cornbread without any sugar in it. All I can say is, "Mom, at high altitude, it needs something to help it rise, or it will be more like a very thick tortilla chip." I did cut down on the sweetener from the original recipe and I don't think it tastes very sweet. The original recipe also called for more baking soda and less flour, but it just couldn't hold its own against the lack of air pressure.

So here's my adaptation for Easy Cornbread.

1     c cornmeal

1½ c flour

¼   c sugar

1    T baking powder

¼    t baking soda

½    t salt

1¼  c milk

2    T white vinegar

½   c vegetable oil

Pre-heat oven to 375°. Lightly grease an 8" x 8" square pan.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until just mixed.

Pour out into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool a bit, then cut it up and eat it with butter!

 

Lauren's Luscious Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

All the credit for this recipe goes to Lauren. She did all the experimentation and figured everything out. All I did was adapt it for high altitude. These are some YUMMY cupcakes. They are sweet and tart and delicious and SUPER EASY.

Here's her original recipe and the EggFreeAtAltitude© adaptation all in one spot:

Mix 1½ cups carbonated lemonade (a 12 oz. can) with on boxed white cake mix. The lemonade MUST be carbonated for this to work. (High altitude adjustment: add ¼ cup flour)

Add one small pouch of Kool-Ade Unsweetened Pink Lemonade drink powder.

Add 1 tsp vanilla.

Beat with hand mixer on low speed for about 2 minutes.

Fill 18 cupcakes and bake according to box. Both Lauren and I had to bake these a little longer than suggested to get them lightly brown around the edges.

Let the cupcakes cool completely.

Mix half of a pouch of Kool-Ade Unsweetened Pink Lemonade drink powder into a can of vanilla frosting. 

Frost. Eat. Yum.

Throw away the remaining half pouch of drink mix, because only crazy hoarders keep little bits of cheap drink mix. ( Do you think Lauren was trying to tell me something???)

Not Totally Forgotten

No, I haven't totally forgotten to keep up with this blog. It's just been a very busy month. The casita is now done and we have moved all of our casita stuff out there. The process of moving uncovered boxes of stuff for the kitchen that I had forgotten about. I found the ice cream machine and the electric juicer. The electric can opener got broken sometime between the time it was packed last June and now. Since I paid about $12 for it years and years ago, I wasn't too broken up about tossing it.

I have been working on perfecting my favorite cornbread recipe lately. It is close, but not quite perfect yet. One more batch ought to do it. When I get it just right, you'll be the first to know. Until then, vaya con queso.