I was going to make a banana-ginger oatmeal for breakfast this morning. But then it turned out that we were all out of crystalized ginger. So that was a bust. And most of the other things I'd been looking at either required ingredients or time that I didn't have. And it was already late to be having breakfast. So, in the end, I just asked TF to put together this simple cottage cheese bowl for me. It was actually pretty good! I was going for a banana bread sort of vibe.

I tried it with a full tablespoon of maple syrup this time. But I think next time I might try it with a little less maple syrup, but add a few raisins in instead.

Banana Bread Cottage Cheese Bowl

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cottage cheese
• 1 banana, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. ground flax seed
• 1 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
• 1 Tbsp. raisins (optional)
• 1-2 tsp. maple syrup
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix and serve.

I still haven't had a chance to do a proper grocery shop yet, so I'm more-or-less running on whatever ingredients were in stock when I got here. I knew we had eggs and Reiver had put together a sourdough starter the week before I arrived, so I decided to give some sourdough crêpes a go. I had initially made some lemon curd to go in them, but then realized that we had ham, cheese, and an avocado that desperately needed to be used, so I changed tack and did some lovely savoury crêpes instead. (We still had some of the sweet ones afterward, but it was nice to be able to start with something savoury and a bit more substantial for breakfast.

Ham & Egg Crêpes

Ingredients

• 1 recipe sourdough crêpes (without any spices or sweeteners)
• 1 slice gouda or emmental per crêpe
• 2 slices black forest ham per crêpe
• 1 egg per crêpe
• 1 Tbsp. milk per egg
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 avocadoes, sliced
• drizzle of Kewpie mayo

Directions

1. Cook your crêpes.
2. Place a slice of cheese in the centre of each crêpe.
3. Place two slices of ham on top of the cheese.
4. Beat the eggs with the milk and season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until just set.
6. Scoop a portion of eggs onto the ham, then fold the crêpe over to cover the eggs (first one side, then the other; like a letter).
7. Top with a few slices of avocado and a drizzle of Kewpie mayo and serve.

Since I wasn't overly impressed with the Breakfast Bible version of a Dutch baby, I decided to revert to the Weight Watchers recipe that, according to my notes, I liked much better. I still think that I like it better than the BB version. But I'm no longer convinced that it's really correct to call it a Dutch baby. Last time I said that it came out "a bit" eggier than previous versions that I'd tried. This time it was basically a baked custard. A delicious baked custard. But still definitely more like a custard than a Yorkshire pudding or a pancake. Either way, I'm happy with the result. Just maybe don't use this recipe if you really want that Yorkshire pudding/Dutch baby texture.

Eggy Dutch Baby with Nectarines and Almonds

Adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan and Weight Watchers

Ingredients

Batter

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. milk
• 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract

Topping

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 3-5 nectarines, sliced
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. slivered or sliced almonds, toasted
• 1-2 tsp. icing sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Place 1 Tbsp. butter in a 23cm (9") deep dish pie plate.
2. Place the pie plate in the oven and preheat to 200°C (400°F).
3. Meanwhile, combine the milk, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and almond extracts and beat with a whisk until smooth.
4. Pour the batter into the hot pie plate and bake at 200°C (400°F) until set, but still slightly jiggly (15-20 minutes).
5. Meanwhile, melt 2 Tbsp. butter over medium heat.
6. Add the sugar and nectarines and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and mixture thickens slightly.
7. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.
8. Once Dutch baby/custard is done, remove from oven and allow to cool slightly (~5 minutes).
9. Pour the nectarine over the custard and sprinkle with almonds and icing sugar (if using).
10. Cut into wedges and serve.

Another one of symbol's savoury cottage cheese bowls! This one used salmon that they got for me which I then forgot to eat. symbol attests that it was tasty, but not as good as the chicken and olive version.

Smoked Salmon Cottage Cheese Bowl

Ingredients

• ½ C cottage cheese
• ¼ C diced cucumber
• 3 Tbsp diced tomato
• 2 slices smoked salmon, chopped
• 1 Tbsp capers
• 1 Tbsp chopped chives or green onions
• 1 tsp chopped fresh dill (or ½ tsp dried)
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• ½ tsp dried garlic
• ½ tsp dried onion
• ½ tsp poppyseeds (optional)
• ½ tsp furikake (optional)
• ¼ tsp black pepper, ground

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients, in listed order, in a bowl.
2. Eat.

Back when I was first trying to adjust my diet and lose a little weight, I tried a few different cottage cheese bowls. Mostly sweet ones involving fruit and nuts, maple syrup, chocolate, granola, etc. But I did give one savoury recipe a try. I didn't really care for it, so I've stuck to the sweet versions since then. My go-to involves apples, cinnamon, pecans, raisins, and a bit of maple syrup or stevia. And that's honestly been really great. It's tasty, it's filling, it's easy, and it can be made with staples that I basically always have on hand.

Unfortunately, I wasn't really feeling it this morning.

I had a green smoothie bowl for breakfast yesterday and that was really nice. But I'm pretty sure we're all out of mango now and I know that we don't have any pineapple. I think it would also be good with peaches or nectarines, but we won't have any of those until our produce basket arrives later today. And I wasn't feeling super enthusiastic about any of the other possible toppings I could think of. So I wrote off the smoothie bowl for this morning. But that left me drawing a big, ol' blank for breakfast today.

For whatever reason I really wasn't feeling the sweet cottage cheese bowls this morning, but the idea of cottage cheese itself wasn't unappealing. So I decided to see if I could put something together that hit the right notes for me.

We had some ground chicken and leftover zeytoon parvardeh (Persian marinated olives) in the fridge, so I decided to try to do something that would incorporate those. That said, I think this would also work with green olives and walnuts (and maybe a few extra seasonings) in place of the marinated olives. And you could probably get away with substituting chicken lunch meat for the ground chicken in a pinch (although I think the ground chicken is better here).

I may play around with the exact ingredients and proportions a bit if I make this again. But I think this was a good starting point.

Olive and Walnut Cottage Cheese Bowl

Ingredients

• 100g ground chicken (chicken breast for low-fat/diet-friendly option)
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ras el hanout
• 1/2 c. cottage cheese (fat-free for low-fat/diet-friendly option)
• 1/4 c. diced cucumber
• 4-5 green olives, halved
• 1 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
• 1 Tbsp. fried onions
• 2-3 tsp. pomegranate molasses
• 1/2 tsp. za'atar
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1-2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Directions

1. Season the chicken with the salt and ras el hanout and cook over medium heat until no longer pink.
2. Place the cottage cheese in a bowl and top with chicken, cucumber, olives, walnuts, and fried onion.
3. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses and sprinkle with za'atar and pepper.
4. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

So, full disclosure: I was in a bit of a hurry and kind of messed up this pudding. It still turned out reasonably tasty. It was just very lumpy. Since I just dumped the chia into the milk the night before and didn't both to mix it properly. Not the end of the world. Just not ideal either. So, I guess I should let that be a lesson to me to make sure to mix everything very well before I leave it to soak overnight if I'm ever making this again.

You can mix up the fruit to go with this. The original recipe calls for kiwi, blackberries, fresh apricots, pomegranate, and toasted coconut chips. I think I ended up using kiwi, blackberries, nectarines, raspberries, and toasted coconut. But you could try all sorts of things! I've included some ideas in the variations below.

Chia Pudding with Fresh Fruit

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. oat milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 150g blackberries
• 2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
• 4 apricots, sliced
• 75g pomegranate arils
• 20g toasted coconut chips

Directions

1. Combine oat milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix well.
2. Cover and chill for 4-24 hours.
3. Divide into four bowls, top each with 1/4 of the fresh fruit and coconut chips, and serve.

---

Variants

Strawberry-Banana

Ingredients

• 1 c. oat milk
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 150g strawberries
• 2 bananas, peeled and sliced
• 20g dark chocolate shavings

Kiwi-Mango

Ingredients

• 1 c. coconut milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
• 2 mangoes, sliced
• 2 passionfruit
• 20g toasted coconut chips
• 20g macadamia nuts, chopped

Lemon-Blueberry

Ingredients

• 1 c. almond milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. culinary lavender
• 150g blueberries
• 1/2 c. lemon curd
• 20g slivered almonds, toasted

Blackberry-Melon

Ingredients

• 1 c. coconut milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• 150g blackberries
• 1/4 cantaloupe, diced
• 1/4 honeydew melon, diced
• 20g pine nuts, toasted

Kiwi-Lychee

Ingredients

• 1 c. coconut milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. rosewater
• 150g blackberries
• ~20 lycheefruit, peeled and halved
• 2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
• 20g slivered almonds, toasted

Cranberry-Quince

Ingredients

• 1 c. oat milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 quince, peeled and diced
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 c. apple juice
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 250g fresh cranberries
• 1/4 c. raisins
• 20g walnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

1. Combine the oat milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, and vanilla extract as directed above, mixing, covering, and chilling for at least 4 hours.
2. Meanwhile, combine the quince, star anise, cinnamon stick, apple juice, and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for ~20 minutes.
4. Add the cranberries and raisins and simmer for another 20 minutes.
5. Divide pudding among four bowls, top with compote and walnuts and serve.

Chocolate-Cherry

Ingredients

• 1 c. almond milk
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 1 Tbsp. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 400g fresh cherries, pitted and halved
• 20g slivered almonds, toasted
• 20g dark chocolate shavings

This recipe didn't look like it should work. You beat a whole lot of cream into cream cheese -- not whipped cream even, just runny cream -- and then pour it into a pie shell and expect it to set up. It doesn't contain any gelatin or eggs or anything else that seems like it would cause it to set. You're relying entirely on the fact that cream cheese firms up a bit when chilled. (And, I guess, the tiny amount of icing sugar.) Neither of these seemed like they would be enough to cause the filling to set. I was dubious. But I've been surprised by recipes before! There are lots that seem like they shouldn't work, but then somehow do. So, I followed the recipe and gave it a go. It did not set. At all. The flavour is nice, but it has zero structural integrity. Oh well... Now I know.

I haven't bothered including the original recipe below as I don't think it actually works as written. Instead this is a rough idea of what I'd like to try next time in the hopes of getting something that actually holds together.

I've increased the cream cheese slightly and specified a small amount of gelatin. Hopefully that'll be enough to get it to hold together. I've also bumped up the quantity of strawberries. Not for any structural reason, just because I though it'd be nice with more fruit.

All the usual caveats here: this is an untested variation, use at your own risk, etc., etc.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart

Adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• enough pastry for a 9" pie crust¹
• 3/4 c. heavy (35%) cream, divided
• 1/2 Tbsp. unflavoured gelatin powder
• 225g cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 50g icing sugar
• 400g strawberries, hulled and halved

Directions

1. Roll out the pastry and line a 9" (23cm) pie plate or tart tin.
2. Crimp and trim the edges, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 20-30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
4. Remove the plastic wrap from the crust and prick bottom a few times with a fork.
5. Line with parchment/baking paper and fill with pie weights.
6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 20-25 minutes.
7. Remove paper and pie weights and bake for another 5-10 minutes until well-browned and cooked through.
8. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
9. Meanwhile, sprinkle the gelatin into 1/4 c. of the cream and set aside for 5-10 minutes.
10. Scald the remaining cream, heating it to just shy of a boil.
11. Add the gelatin mixture to the hot cream and whisk thoroughly to combine.
12. Beat the cream cheese until lightened.
13. Pour in the cream mixture and beat until smooth.
14. Mix in the vanilla.
15. Sift in the icing sugar and mix well.
16. Once the pie shell is completely cool, pour in the cheese mixture.
17. Add the strawberries on top.
18. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours to allow filling to set.
19. Cut into wedges and serve.

---

¹ I was making this to try to use up some leftover pastry from a previous recipe. Feel free to use whatever sort of pastry you prefer. Shortcrust, sweet shortcrust, sourdough shortcrust, or flaky are all good options. ^Back

Pavlova has become my go-to for using up excess egg whites. So when I ran across this recipe in the Dessert of the Day cookbook, it was an easy choice.

I opted to make one large pavolva rather than several smaller ones and I added a little plain Greek yogurt to balance out the sweetness of the meringue and cherries. But other than that, I followed the recipe as written.

It was nice as is, but I think I would have actually preferred it with the cardamom and lime mixed into the meringue rather than combined with the cherries. I honestly might leave the syrup out altogether next time and just top the pav with some thawed frozen cherries and maybe a little icing sugar. Honestly, thinking about it more, I think it would be interesting to try topping it with different fruit as well. Don't get me wrong, I love cherries, but I'm not sure they're the best complement to the cardamom. I'd be tempted to try it with some canned mandarins instead. So, uh... here's the recipe for the cardamom-cherry pavlova and then I guess I'll write up my ideas for a cardamom-mandarin pavlova below that.

Cardamom-Cherry Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Toppings

• 20 green cardamom pods, lightly smashed
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. water
• 450g cherries, pitted and halved
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. icing sugar
• 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy.
3. Beat in the sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
5. Sift the cornstarch over the meringue and mix it in.
6. Scoop the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and form into a wide disc with a depression in the middle.
7. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 5 minutes.
8. Reduce temperature to 120°C (250°F) and bake for another hour.
9. Turn off oven and allow meringue to stand in oven overnight.
10. Meanwhile, combine the cardamom pods, sugar, and water and bring to a boil.
11. Reduce heat and simmer for ~5 minutes.
12. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
13. Combine syrup, cherries, lime juice, and lime zest. Set aside.
14. Beat whipping cream with vanilla extract and icing sugar until stiffened.
15. Top meringue with yogurt followed by whipped cream and cherries.
16. Serve immediately!

---

Variations

Spiced Orange Pavlova

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Toppings

• 1 (540mL) can mandarin oranges
• 1 whole clove
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. icing sugar
• 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Beat egg whites with lime juice until foamy.
3. Mix in lime zest, cardamom, and vanilla.
4. Beat in sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time.
5. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
6. Sift cornstarch over the meringue and mix in.
7. Scoop onto prepared baking sheet and form into a disc with a depression in the middle.
8. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 5 minutes.
9. Reduce heat to 120°C (250°F) and bake for another hour.
10. Turn off oven and allow to cool in the oven overnight.
11. Meanwhile, simmer the oranges with the clove for a few minutes. Add a little extra sugar if you feel they need it.
12. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
13. Beat the cream with the vanilla and icing sugar until stiff.
14. Top the meringue with the yogurt, followed by the whipped cream and oranges.
15. Serve immediately.

I was super hungry this evening, so I made myself a quick salmon salad to top me up so I wouldn't go to bed hungry. I used frozen "spaghetti mix" as a shortcut to avoid needing to chop any veggies. It's a mixture of chopped onion, carrot, celery, and red and green bell pepper.

Quick Salmon Salad

Ingredients

• 200g canned salmon, drained
• 1/3-1/2 c. frozen "spaghetti mix"
• 2 dill pickles, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. 1/2-fat mayo
• 2 Tbsp. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh dill, optional

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Serve on cucumber slices or over chopped salad. For a slightly less healthy take, serve on bread or crackers.

This recipe may need a little tweaking. I wasn't super enthused about how the coconut oil behaved when added to the other wet ingredients. I had melted the coconut oil, but it froze again when the milk and eggs were added. This led to having big chunks of solid oil in my batter. I know it would probably behave somewhat better if I'd let my milk and eggs come to room temperature beforehand. But coconut oil is still pretty solid even at room temperature (at least at the temperatures my kitchen generally is). So, I worry that it would have issues anyway, even with warmer wets.

I think, in the future, I'd prefer to use an oil with a lower freezing point instead. I think corn or canola oil would work well.

I also think it needs more spices. I've added some vanilla and cloves to the recipe here, although I haven't had a chance to try it with these additions yet. Experiment with it and see what you like!

Sourdough Carrot Muffins

Adapted from Everyday Healthy Cookbook by Dana Jacobi

Ingredients

• 120g whole wheat flour (hard or soft)
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 100g brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 c. dried currants (or golden raisins)
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 c. finely grated carrots
• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 250g sourdough discard (unfed starter)
• 1/3 c. neutral oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• seed sprinkle topping (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease wells of a muffin tin (or line with papers).
2. Sift baking powder and baking soda into flour.
3. Mix in the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
4. Add the currants, walnuts, and carrots.
5. In a large measuring cup, mix the buttermilk, sourdough discard, oil, egg, and vanilla.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.
8. If desired, add some seed sprinkle topping.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~20 minutes.
10. Cool in tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

---

Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 120g whole wheat flour (hard or soft)
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 100g organic brown sugar¹
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 c. dried currants
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 c. finely grated carrots
• 1/2 c. nut milk + 1 tsp. vinegar
• 250g sourdough discard (unfed starter)
• 1/3 c. neutral oil
• 1 flax egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• seed sprinkle topping (optional)

---

¹ Some sugar is produced using bone char. But it is not used in organic brown sugar. At least not in North America as far as I know. ^Back

I posted a different recipe for congee a couple years back. However, as noted in the original recipe, there are a lot of different ways to make congee. I did up a slightly different take on congee recently. It's still the same basic concept, but I decided to write it up anyway. As before, this is a very flexible recipe, so do with it what you will.

For this particular congee incarnation, I started with a cooked chicken and made the stock from scratch, so I've included those instructions below. You can, of course, use store-bought stock or even water. Pork bones also work well. Follow your heart!

Chicken Congee

Ingredients

Broth

• 1 whole cooked chicken
• 2-4 c. vegetable peelings and scraps¹
• 3L water
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• small knob of fresh ginger

Congee

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 c. short-grain white rice²
• 2-3 Tbsp. dried goji berries
• Broth from above
• 1/4 of the meat from the chicken
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste

Toppings

• sesame oil
• chopped fresh cilantro
• chopped dry-roasted peanuts
• toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Broth

1. Remove the chicken meat from the bones and reserve both the meat and carcass separately.
2. Combine the chicken carcass with all the other broth ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and slow cook on "high" for 2-3 hours.
3. Strain the broth and discard the solids.

Congee

1. While the broth is cooking, soak the rice. Place in a bowl with enough water to cover for 30 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. Place all the congee ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and simmer for 1-2 hours depending on what texture and consistency you prefer. You may want to cook it either partially or fully uncovered for some of the time (again, depending on your preferred consistency).
3. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and white pepper.

Serving

1. To serve, top each portion with a drizzle of sesame oil, then place the peanuts, cilantro, and sesame seeds on top.
2. If desired, sriracha or Laoganma can be added to give a hit of spiciness.
3. Other toppings may be added or substituted. Popular choices include: fried wontons/noodles, chopped scallions/green onions, sprouts, microgreens, and/or sautéed mushrooms. Salted duck eggs and century eggs are also popular congee inclusions.

---

¹ I often save vegetable scraps and peels and toss them in a large Ziploc bag in the freezer. When the bag gets full, I toss them in the InstantPot with some water and seasonings (and possibly bones of some sort) and slow cook for a few hours until I have a delicious stock. This time I think my bag contained onion, garlic, bell pepper, ginger, carrot, pink oyster mushroom and lion's mane mushroom (courtesy of Noki Farms), and possibly a few other things as well. If you don't have any vegetable scraps handy, then feel free to just toss in some onions, carrots, mushrooms, and whatever else seems tasty. ^Back
2 I was originally planning to make this congee with only brown rice but, after cooking for a little over an hour, the consistency was still more like rice soup with a clear broth than what I expect for congee. I added the short-grain rice to see if the extra starch would help thicken it up. I also cooked it with the lid off for a little bit. I'm not sure if it was the extra rice or the extra cooking or the time with the lid off that did the trick but, at the end of another hour, it was looking much better! ^Back

I needed to use up some sourdough starter so I was perusing the Sourdough Companion website again. I saw one person talking about making a blue cheese and walnut loaf and another person talking about doing celery and romano and I figured I could take some elements of each of those and try a celery and blue cheese loaf.

I pretty much just built a basic sourdough based on bakers' percentages and worked some inclusions into it. I figured 800g of flour would be a pretty good starting point and rolled with 65% (520g) water, 20% (160g) starter, and 2% (16g) salt. I think I might try for a slightly higher hydration dough next time, but other than that it was great! Although I need to either find a better method of working the inclusions in or make them as pan loaves next time, because they ended up coming apart a bit during baking. Flavour was real good though!

Celery and Blue Cheese Sourdough

Ingredients

• 800g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 550g water
• 16g coarse sea salt
• 160g active/fed starter (100% hydration)
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. bacon grease or butter
• 100g blue cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Mix the water into the flour to form a dough. Cover and set aside for at least an hour and as long as overnight.
2. Add the salt and knead a few strokes to work it into the dough.
3. Add the starter and knead it into the dough. This will be a little messy at first!
4. Cover and ferment at room temperature, stretching and folding every hour or two until dough is light and active.
5. Meanwhile, melt the fat over medium heat and add the celery. Cook until softened.
6. Press the dough flat and sprinkle half the cheese and half the celery over the surface. Letter fold, press flat again, and sprinkle over the remaining cheese and celery before doing a second letter fold on the opposite axis.
7. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
8. Press flat and divide into two equal portions.
9. Round each portion, cover, and rest for 30 minutes.
10. Shape each portion into a loaf and place, seam-side-up in a floured banneton to rise.
11. Cover and proof at room temperature until well-risen.
12. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F), grease a baking sheet, and sprinkle it with cornmeal.
13. Turn the risen loaves out onto the prepared baking sheet and shalsh as desired.
14. Once the oven is preheated, pour some water into a pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
15. Bake the bread at 250°C (475°F) on the middle rack of the oven for ~15 minutes.
16. Reduce heat to 160°C (325°F), remove the pan of boiling water, and bake for another 20 minutes.
17. Turn off oven and allow bread to rest in oven for 10 minutes.
18. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

This was a cast-about-wildly-for-breakfast-ideas sort of morning. I just got back from a big camping trip and haven't had a chance to do groceries yet, so I needed to work with what we had on hand. I spent a while perusing the internet for ideas and eventually landed on a sweet potato hash recipe that looked promising. I mean, I didn't have the bell peppers... or the carnitas... or the avocado, but I figured it'd give me a jumping off point at the very least. If this meal were a movie it would be "inspired by" rather than "based on" is what I'm saying.

Sweet Potato Hash with Ground Beef

Adapted from The Modern Proper

Ingredients

Hash

• 1/4 c. bacon grease (or other fat of your choice)
• 4 sweet potatoes, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2-2/3 c. mixed dried veggies¹, reconstituted (to make ~2 c.)
• ~1/2 Tbsp. hot paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste

Beef

I didn't really measure anything for the beef. I just tossed spices in 'til it smelled about right. I've tried to guess at approximate measurements below, but it's not super precise.

• 450g ground beef
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• ~1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• ~1/2 tsp. hot paprika
• ~1 tsp. sweet paprika
• ~1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
• ~1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• ~1 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• ~1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• ~1 tsp. dried chopped onion
• ~1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• ~1/2 c. chicken, beef, or vegetable stock
• ~1/2 tsp. cornstarch
• 2-4 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Toppings

• eggs
• cilantro
• salsa and/or pico de gallo
• avocado and/or guacamole
• hot sauce (preferably Tabasco or similar)

Directions

Hash

1. Melt the bacon grease over medium-low heat.
2. Add the sweet potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes.
3. Increase heat to medium-high and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the onion, garlic, and reconstituted veggies and cook for another 5 minutes or so.
5. Sprinkle in paprika, salt, and pepper and cook for another minute or so.

Beef

1. Heat a pan over medium-low heat and add the beef, breaking up any large chunks as you go.
2. Add salt, garlic, pepper, hot and sweet paprika, chili powder, oregano, dhania-jeera masala, garlic powder, onion, and Worcestershire sauce and cook until beef is no longer pink.
3. Increase heat to medium-high and add tomatoes, stock, and cornstarch. Cook for another 3-5 minutes.
4. Stir in cilantro.

Assembly

1. Fry one or two eggs per person.
2. Scoop a portion of hash into a bowl.
3. Add a portion of beef on top of the hash.
4. Place one or two fried eggs on top of the beef.
5. If desired, top with salsa, guacamole, cilantro, and/or hot sauce.

---

¹ I would normally use fresh (or leftover cooked) veggies for hash but, as noted, just returned from camping trip so I didn't have much in the way of fresh veggies on hand. I think the dried mix I used had a mix of onion, potato, carrot, celery, and red and green bell pepper in it. Whatever it was, it seemed to work well. ^Back

There is no one canonical recipe for chicken cacciatora. I'm used to seeing it as chicken in a tomato sauce with olives and bell peppers, but it turns out that there are many different regional variations on the dish. I looked at a few recipes and then just sort of rolled my own based on them.

I went for a fairly mild flavour here because I wanted to serve it with some stuffed pasta and vegetable sides and didn't want the chicken to overwhelm everything else. If I were serving it on its own or over pasta, I would probably add some tomatoes and olives and chop the chicken up smaller. I'd probably also add extra garlic and maybe a bit of extra onion too. But, for what I wanted tonight, this was just right.

Pollo alla Cacciatora

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. flour
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1kg skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• rosemary and sage (fresh is best, but dried also works)
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 4-5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 bell pepper, sliced (optional)
• ~12 olives, sliced (optional)
• 4-6 roma tomatoes, diced (optional)
• 1/4 c. vinegar (optional)
• 1/2 c. dry white wine
• 1/4 c. chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the flour, salt, and pepper.
2. If your chicken breasts are very large, split them so they're not too thick.
3. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture.
4. Heat the oil over medium heat.
5. Add the dredged chicken along with a few fresh sage leaves and sprigs of rosemary (or equivalent amounts of dried).
6. Cook until the chicken gets a bit of colour on it. Flip and do the same on the other side. Then remove it from the pan. (It will still be raw in the centre. That's okay!)
7. Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper (if using) to the pan and cook until softened and starting to colour. Season with a little salt and pepper. (Omit the salt if you will be using commercial stock.)
8. Add the olives and tomatoes (if using) and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
9. If not using tomatoes, add the vinegar at this point and deglaze the pan. If using tomatoes, skip the vinegar.
10. Return the chicken to the pan along with any accumulted juices and any left over dreding flour.
11. Add the wine and mix everything around a bit.
12. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
13. Add the stock, stir, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes.
14. Drizzle in balsamic vinegar (if using).
15. Serve on its own or over pasta or polenta.

I've been trying out a few more recipes from my Filipino cookbook. We had chicken adobo for dinner tonight and I needed a couple other dishes to round out the meal. I opted for a cucumber salad and a mango salad. For the cucumber salad, I followed a recipe that I found online. For the mango salad, I was pretty much just winging it. I ended up stirring together a couple tablespoons each of some other dressings I had on hand and stirring together a few other ingredients with some sliced mango and a little bit of palm sugar and calling it a day. I was slightly worried that such a chaotic approach would result in a disappointing dish, but it was actually amazingly good! TF and I both had seconds. I would definitely make both this and the cucumber salad again in the future.

Mango salad (top right) picture with cucumber salad (bottom right) and chicken adobo with rice (left).

Mango Salad

Ingredients

• 1 mango, sliced
• 1 shallot, halved and sliced thin
• 1 fresh red Thai chili, sliced thin on bias
• 1 tsp. palm sugar¹, pulverized
• 2 Tbsp. dressing from cucumber salad
• 2 Tbsp. dressing from salad crêpes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss to thoroughly combine.
2. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
3. Top with chopped dry-roasted peanuts if desired.

---

¹ My mango was a bit under-ripe and not very sweet. If you have a very sweet, ripe mango you may wish to omit the sugar. Make it to whatever level of sweetness you prefer. ^Back

I abused this recipe quite a bit. First I halved it. Then I converted it to use sourdough starter. And then I converted that to a sponge method. I think it's gonna be okay in the end but it was touch-and-go for a while. I was going for a very stiff sponge since I wanted to do a long room temperature ferment. I think I may have made it a bit too stiff though. I also didn't properly feed and activate my starter before using it. (I've been a bit stingy on my feedings and the starter is a bit more sluggish than it probably should be.) This all contributed to a very, very slow rise. The sponge hardly did anything overnight and the full dough, once it was mixed and kneaded, took ~9 hours to complete its first rise!

I think next time I'd try making the sponge a little wetter. If I'm still not happy with the results I get from that, I'll see if adding a bit of fresh yeast when mixing up the full dough improves matters. If nothing else, it should help speed up the rise (which is mostly what I'm after here). I think I probably also should've swapped the buttermilk out for milk since the starter is already lowering the pH. Leaving out the lemon juice might've been a good idea as well.

What follows is not what I did this time, but rather my notes-to-myself ideas for what I'd like to try next time.

Petaluma Rye

Adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

Sponge

• 100g hard (bread/strong/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 6 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 c. sourdough starter (100% hydration)

Full Dough

• 1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 175g hard (bread/strong/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 65g rye flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. caraway seeds

Directions

Sponge

1. Combine the flour and salt.
2. Dissolve the honey in the water.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the starter and the honey-water.
4. Mix to form a stiff dough.
5. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours.

Dough

1. Combine the lemon juice and oil with the milk.
2. Combine both flours and the caraway seeds.
3. Add milk mixture to sponge and squish and squeeze until it's thoroughly mixed.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the sponge mixture.
5. Mix, working from the centre outward.
6. Once most of the flour has been incorporated, turn the dough out onto a work surface and begin kneading.
7. Knead for ~10 minutes.
8. Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise.
9. Once dough no longer returns a wet fingerprint, knock it back.
10. Shape into a ball and return to bowl to rise again.
11. Knock back again, shape into a ball, and pull gluten taut across the top surface.
12. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
13. Shape into a loaf by pressing flat, folding into thirds, and rolling up.
14. Place in a greased loaf pan, cover, and set to rise for ~45 minutes.
15. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45 minutes.

Split Pea Soup with Indian Flavours

This split pea soup recipe comes from the "contemporary curries" chapter of Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries. The recipes in this section include fusion dishes from various regions -- Anglo-Indian mulligatawny, Indo-Chinese Hakka noodles, etc. -- as well as many of Iyer's own unique creations. This soup appears to be one of the latter.

I enjoyed this soup served over some leftover gatte ki tehri. It went with the dumplings particularly well. That said, I think I'd probably tweak it's not one of my favourites and I think I'd probably tweak it a bit next time. I'd like to try substituting flavourful ghee for the more neutral canola oil. I'd I think it'd also be interesting to swap out the dairy tang of yogurt with the citrus tang of lime + a bit of coconut milk. Hmm... or maybe even just leave out the dairy/coconut milk altogether and add a swirl of yogurt on top of each serving... That could be nice! I'd also be tempted to toss a few more veggies in with the peas. And to chop the tomato smaller and forgo the puréeing step at the end. I know that's a lot of changes. It's basically a whole different soup at that point. But sometimes that's what cooking is all about. Sometimes you find a recipe you really like, sometimes it's a flop, and sometimes you find something that has the potential to become something you really like.

Indian Split Pea Soup

Adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 onions, 1 chopped, 1 halved and sliced thin
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1 c. yellow split peas (chana dal), rinsed and picked over
• 4 1/2 c. water, divided
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 (5cm x 2.5cm x 3mm) pieces of fresh ginger, chopped
• 2 fresh green Thai or cayenne chilies, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• juice of 1 lime

To Serve

• 1/2 c. plain yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 6 Papads, toasted and crushed
• 1/4 c. Fried Onion

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the carrot, celery, chopped onion, and garlic and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
3. Add 1/4 tsp. of salt as well as the pepper and split peas.
4. Add 4 c. of water and bring to a boil.
5. Skim off any foam, reduce heat, cook, covered, stirring occasionally for 25 minutes.
6. Meanwhile heat ghee over medium-high heat.
7. Add cumin seeds and sizzle for 15-20 seconds.
8. Add sliced onion, ginger, and chilies and stir-fry for ~5 minutes.
9. Reduce heat to medium and cook for another 5 minutes.
10. Add turmeric, tomato, remaining 1/2 c. of water, and remaining 1/2 tsp. of salt.
11. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tomato is cooked and sauce-like (~5 minutes).
12. Add the tomato mixture to the peas and cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for another 15-20 minutes.
13. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice.
14. Serve topped with yogurt, cilantro, crushed papads, and fried onion.

Yeasted cakes are nothing new. Yeasts were the only leavening agent available for centuries. Baking soda is a relatively modern innovation. So, when looking for ideas on what to do with sourdough starter, I was unsurprised to see lots of recipes for cakes, biscuits, waffles, pancakes and, of course, breads. What I was not expecting to see was cookies! I've never heard of yeasted cookies before, let alone long-fremented sourdough cookies! This is something a bit different for sure. I can't wait to see how they come out.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Slightly adapted from Deliciously Organic

Ingredients

• 1 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. (~100g) fed sourdough starter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 100g oat flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped or chocolate chips

Directions

1. Cream butter with sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in starter, vanilla, and egg.
3. In a separate bowl combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Cover and place in fridge to ferment for 72 hours.
7. Make little balls of dough (~2 Tbsp. each) and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
8. Flatten the balls slightly.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 14-16 minutes.

Update:

I initially did this write-up while the cookie dough was still fermenting in the fridge. I've since had a chance to bake them off and try them. They tasty, but a bit more cake-y than I'd ideally like for a cookie, especially a chocolate chip one. I think next time I'd try swapping the proprotions of brown and granulated sugar, adding an extra egg, and leaving out the baking soda to help remedy this. Melting the butter and skipping the creaming step to avoid adding extra air should also help. And I do wonder how much the oat flour is contributing to the more cake-like texture. I'll leave it alone for now, but if they still come out less chewey than I'd like, I might try adjusting that next. I'd also be tempted to swap out half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat. Not as a texture thing, just to see how it affects the flavour. So, with that in mind, here're my suggestions for chewier sourdough chocolate chip cookies.

Chewier Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. (~100g) fed sourdough starter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 150g whole wheat flour
• 100g oat flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

The yeast is all gone. The yeast has been all gone for over a month now. Where is all the yeast?

There has been a lot of panic buying during this pandemic. I think there have also been a lot of people who are suddenly doing a lot more home cooking, so there's a bit of increased demand right now. This is all understandable. And, given that, I was expecting a few things to become grocery store rarities for a little while: frozen veggies, toilet paper, rice, beans, maybe even milk and eggs. (Eggs have turned out to be even more in demand and harder to get than I had guessed, but I was at least expecting some increased demand. Also, we have chickens, so not being able to get eggs at the grocery store really isn't an issue for me.) What caught me completely by surprise was the sudden run on flour and yeast. And the yeast part of the equation, in particular, has been especially problematic.

Flour has been in stock (at admittedly low levels) intermittently since this whole thing started. Yeast, on the other hand, just flat-out vanished pretty much immediately and hasn't been seen since. During my first pandemic grocery shop I saw that all but two industrial-sized packages of instant yeast had gone. I thought about grabbing one but concluded that a) even I don't need to buy my yeast in bulk quantities quite that large and b) I really prefer "traditional", non-instant yeast. I figured I'd just grab some in a week or two once they'd restocked. My yeast supplies were getting a little low, but they weren't critical yet, I'm sure it'll be fine, right?

Fast forward a few weeks and now I'm almost completely out of yeast and there's still none to be had at the grocery store. Uh-oh...

This bread was my stop-gap solution. I made bagels on Monday. I made enough dough for 12 bagels, but I only baked 11. I mixed some water into the remaining dough, plonked it into a mason jar and let it ferment overnight. The next day I made what was supposed to be an unleavened/naturally fermented seed bread. But I dumped my faux starter in along with the other liquids and mixed it into the dough. I then proceeded to make bread as normal.

The resulting bread definitely isn't a sourdough, but it is distinctly flavourful. It's a hearty loaf, to be sure. Not as light and fluffy as many of the breads I've made, but it's decidedly lighter than other unleavened/naturally fermented loaves I've experimented with in the past. I'd say this is a nice middle ground. And I was able to pinch off a bit of the dough and pop it back into the mason jar with a bit of water to ferment and get ready for the next batch of bread!

Semi-Sourdough Seed Bread

Adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 430g hard whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 100g of bagel dough mixed with 100mL of water and left to ferment overnight
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 3 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
• 2 Tbsp. everything bagel topping
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine flour and salt and mix thoroughly.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the reserved dough mixture and 1 c. of water.
3. Mix the flour into the liquids working from the centre outward.
4. Pinch off ~1/4 c. of the dough and combine with 1/4 c. of water in a mason jar. Set aside for your next batch of bread.
5. Turn the rest of the dough out onto the counter and begin kneading. Work in additional water as you knead. You may not need the full 1/2 c.
6. Once the dough has taken up enough water, begin kneading in the seeds. Aim to knead for a total of 20-30 minutes.
7. Shape into a ball and set in a covered bowl to rise. It will likely need 2-4 hours for this first rise.
8. Once the dough no longer rebounds after a wet finger is pressed ~1cm into it, knock it back. Knead for a few strokes if you wish.
9. Shape into a ball and allow to rise again. This rise will probably only take ~2 hours. Maybe less.
10. Knock the dough back again and shape it into a loaf. (I chose a round hearth loaf for this one.)
11. Allow to rise for an hour or so.
12. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F) and place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack once the oven is preheated.
13. Spritz the loaf with water and slash the top.
14. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for ~10 minutes.
15. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and remove water pan.
16. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for another 30 minutes.

I ran across this recipe while searching for breakfast ideas and decided to whip up a batch to have on hand throughout the week. The author warns that these are rich, decadent, "almost a cupcake" muffins, not to be had every day. And they do have a large amount of sugar and oil in them, so I agree that they probably shouldn't be a regular breakfast offering. That said, despite the rich ingredient list, I didn't find that they tasted as rich and decadent as I was hoping for.

To my palate, these don't taste like the dark, sweet, fudgy bakery muffins the recipe promised. They mostly taste like baking soda. With just a mild chocolate flavour. They are light like a cupcake and the crumb is nice and tender, but the flavour just isn't there! I stuck pretty much to the recipe this go 'round, only swapping out some of the white sugar for brown. I think I'll make a few more changes next time though and see if I can come up with something that I like better.

I think these muffins would actually work really well with whole wheat flour. Chocolate and banana are both good strong flavours that should stand up well to the whole wheat without being overwhelmed by it. At the same time, I think the slight nuttiness of the whole wheat will add a nice extra layer of flavour to them. And I think the extra fibre provided by the bran will provide a pleasant texture and mouthfeel that will make them seem a bit more virtuous and breakfast-y.

I'm also definitely going to swap out the baking soda for baking powder. I was surprised that the original recipe called only for soda and so much of it as well. I was tempted to swap it out this time, but I thought I should try to stick to the recipe to give it a fair chance and to give myself a baseline to work from. I can now definitively say that baking soda is NOT the way to go for this one though!

To improve the banana and chocolate flavour, I figured I'd toss in an extra banana and some melted dark chocolate. The cocoa powder on its own just wasn't cutting it. It just wasn't chocolate-y enough! I'll start out with just a small amount of chocolate, but I suspect I may want to add even more than I've listed below. The extra banana should help to boost the banana flavour as well as add a bit of extra sweetness without needing to dip into sugar jar again. As with the chocolate, I suspect that I may want to add even more banana, but I'll start with just one more and see where that gets me first.

The recipe I'm writing up below is NOT the recipe I made today. It is untested and presented as-is and without any guarantees of tastiness or edibility. I'll include a link to the recipe that I used today in case you want to try it in its original form. What I'm writing up here is basically a notes-to-myself version of what I want to try next time that incorporates the changes outlined above. Hopefully I'll be able to come back sometime in the not-too-distant future and update this with a report on how this worked out.

Dark Chocolate Banana Muffins

Adapted from Fork Knife Swoon

Ingredients

• 7 Tbsp. milk
• 85g dark chocolate, divided
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Dutched cocoa powder
• 250g soft whole wheat flour
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and add liners to your muffin tin.
2. Heat the milk until very warm and steaming -- but not boiling! -- by whatever method you prefer. I like stove top, but microwave also works.
3. Coarsely chop the chocolate and mix half of it into the milk. Stir until chocolate is fully melted and and thoroughly mixed.
4. Stir in mashed bananas, vanilla, oil, applesauce, and egg.
5. Mix in both kinds of sugar.
6. Sift in cocoa and mix well.
7. Add flour and salt. Do not mix it in yet.
8. Sift baking powder and baking soda into the bowl on top of the flour.
9. NOW give it a good stir, mixing in all the dry ingredients.
10. Stir in the remaining chocolate chunks.
11. Spoon batter into lined muffin tin. This should be enough to make one dozen 5cm (2") muffins.
12. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 16-18 minutes.
13. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.