Creativity

As some of you may know... I am not a very creative person. I like to color in between the lines and follow directions. Therefore, I am not the most creative cook nor the most inspirational. I just take other peoples ideas and make them my own. So here are just a smattering of foods I have made in the past few days.

This was using Giada's Pizza dough recipe, found here. Instead of all purpose flour, I used 2 cups of 100% of whole wheat. But we all know what happens when you use whole wheat -- the dough as you can see is dry and brittle and not tender and crispy as promised.

I had tomatoes, olives, and basil on hand so there you have it.

Tips for next time would be to let it rise longer (I only let it rise for 40 minutes because I was in a rush), use more cheese, and mix a bit of all-purpose flour to tenderize the dough.

I also made a Coffee Bundt Cake from Martha Stewart's November 2006 Living magazine. I can't find the recipe anywhere on her website so here it is:


Aunt Patty's Coffee Cake
Makes one 10-inch cake

For the filling:
3 Tblsp. sugar
4 1/2 teapoons instant coffee ranules
4 1/2 teapsoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

For the batter:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the filling: Stir together sugar, coffee, and cocoa powder in a small bowl; set aside.

2. Butter a 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan. Dust with flour, and tap out excess. Make the batter: Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with sour cream. Add vanilla, and mix 1 minute.

3. Spread one-third of the batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with half the filling. Spread another third of the batter on top, followed by the remaining filling. Spread remaining batter over top. Run a thin knife through batter to marbelize.

4. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 38 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes. Invert onto a plate.

I made a few adjustments by adding yogurt instead of sour cream and reduced the sugar to 1/2 a cup. I don't know how much of a difference that would make to the fat intake, but I guess every little bit counts. Although we did pay for it because the cake was not as moist as I would have liked and a little bit too dense. Eh, I guess it's a trade off.



I also made another bundt cake this week: Banana Bundt Cake. I did the same with this one, reducing the sugar and the butter by 1/2 a cup. Still dense and dry, but still tasty.


Those are my adventures for the week..