Applesauce Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Bread

I have VERY happy co-workers this morning. Why? Because I brought in two loaves of homemade applesauce oatmeal cinnamon chip bread. Why? Because we have so much applesauce in our freezer that we're getting accosted by it when we open the big freezer in our basement. It was time to take action!!

A very good family friend is an AMAZING cook/baker. (I remember taking a stained glass cookie class from her when I was probably 8 or 9 years old). Anywho, After deciding to put the applesauce to use sooner rather than later, I looked on our family friend's web-based recipe collection and saw an entry for Applesauce Oatmeal bread. Unfortunately, the link to the recipe was broken and she didn't recall the recipe. Bummer! To solve the problem, I did what I often do when I need a recipe... I turned to the Internet. I ran across a recipe on the King Arthur Flour site that looked promising and then ran across a recipe from a blog called Tracy's Culinary Adventures that was loosely based on the King Arthur Flour recipe. (It felt like the baking gods were telling me something.) SO, I decided to use those recipes as inspiration and dive in using those recipes as my jumping-off point.

Annika's eyes about popped out of her head when she took her first bite of the bread. For a half second, I couldn't tell if she loved or despised the bite in her mouth. Another half second later, I realized that she was infatuated. Win!!

Without further ado, here is my version of the applesauce oatmeal bread recipes I discovered online.

One of the plates of bread I left out for my co-workers

Applesauce Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Bread ala Meredith

(I doubled this and made 2 loaves and 2 mini loaves)

3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oats
1 cup applesauce (I used homemade)
1/2 bag of cinnamon chips (I use Hershey's brand - found on baking aisle by the chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Pam a 9x5-inch bread pan, line the pan with parchment paper, then Pam the parchment paper.
3. Mix all ingredients (except cinnamon chips) in stand mixer or by hand until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Gently mix in the cinnamon chips.
5. Pour or spoon the batter to the prepared pan. (I had a bit more than would fit in the pan, so I put the extra in a disposable mini 2x4-inch bread pan.)
6. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, remove bread from pan and parchment paper, allow the bread to  completely cool on wire rack.

December 2013 Daring Bakers Challenge: Whoopie Pies

It felt really silly to create more baked goods immediately after completing the marathon baking session that is Christmas, but oh well! I'm not one to shirk off a challenge... especially a baking one! :)

This month, we were challenged to make homemade whoopie pies. I chose the most direct route available, aka the first recipe listed in the challenge write-up. The main reason I chose it (aside from being listed first) was because it was a King Arthur Flour recipe and they tend to be quite reliable resources. The only change I made to the recipe was the size of the cookies; the original recipe called for using 1/4 cup of batter per cookie and that seemed like A LOT to me, so I used my 2 T scoop to measure out the dough instead. Because of the smaller cookies, I also changed the baking time to 11 minutes, down from the recipe's 15 minute bake time.

My plan was to make the cookies and then take them to my brother's house so we could eat them as our families watched the UW Huskies play in the Fight Hunger Bowl. As the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"... twas not meant to be. Our nephew has come down with a stomach bug (hopefully not the one our kids had a few days ago!) and we were kindly uninvited to watch the game at my brother's house. (Only other parents really understand how wonderful it was of them to call and warn us ahead of time!)

Now we have more whoopie pies than 4 people can shake a stick at! I still haven't had one, but they look promising... will know how they taste in a few hours! GO DAWGS!!

Whoopie pies, captured with my new LensBaby lens!

The December Daring Bakers' Challenge had us all cheering - the lovely and talented Bourbonnatrix of Bourbonnatrix Bakes was our hostess and challenged us to make fun, delicious and creative whoopie pies! Delicious little cake-like cookies sandwiching luscious filling in any flavors we chose... What else is there to say but "Whoopie!"

Sourdough Chocolate Cake

I've taken on a new profession (of sorts) ... sourdough starter rancher. It is a great profession .. I feed and care for my precious stock and get to turn it into all sorts of yummy baked goods. Really, how could that be anything but a good thing??

I found myself pondering about non-bread uses for my starter, which made me turn to my trusty friend the Internet. Oh, how I do adore the Internet and all of its recipes! (Except for Emeril's cornbread ... that was GROSS! But I digress...)

While surfing the 'net, I ran across a sourdough chocolate cake recipe on the King Arthur Flour website and decided to give it a try. Oh my, but am I glad that I did (and so are my co-workers). The cake did take a bit of forethought because it required 2-3 hours for the sourdough to get fed and eat (geez .. who takes that long for a flour/water meal??). Then, it is time to make the cake (easy!) and chocolate/espresso frosting (easy and insanely yummy!) and chocolate drizzle (a snap!).

The only issue I had was the 9x13 pan I have probably needed to be about 1/4" taller to keep the frosting from oozing over the edges. Oh well ... small price to pay for a yummy cake. As promised by the recipe, the cake doesn't taste like sourdough; I think the sourdough provided the great leavening and poof to the cake.

Will definitely keep this recipe on hand for future use!

Sourdough Chocolate Cake