Carrot-Zucchini Bread with Candied Ginger

Here we are, back in the Pacific Northwest where the nights are blissfully cool and the days sweet and bright (for now at least). After more than a month in the food desert that is the little corner of upstate New York where we have been spending our summer vacations since forever, I was eager to bite into vegetables which didn't look as if they had sprouted, plastic-clad, on a supermarket shelf, in other words, I couldn't wait to go back to our little CSA.
I knew it was too early for tomatoes in our neck of the woods, so I wasn't expecting any (I wasn't disappointed!). I also knew zucchini season was on and I was ready with some recipes but  I wasn't prepared for our basket to be almost completely taken over by the green and yellow stuff!

What you see on the picture above is just a sample of the crop. We had way more than that and I knew I had to go beyond sautéed garlic zucchini, zucchini risotto or courgettes farcies (stuffed zucchini). I needed to make something we could freeze and enjoy later, maybe when summer would be but a memory.

It so happened I had just put away a little bag of candied ginger I had bought in Vermont on my way back from Gérard Rubaud's bakery (I have noticed that ginger helps me stay alert when I have to drive long-distance, maybe because it is so spicy) and I had been wondering what to use it for now that I was back home. 
So when I saw a recipe for a bread using zucchini, carrots and candied ginger in Janet Fletcher's beautifully photographed book, Eating Local, The Cookbook Inspired by American Farmers, I knew I had found what I was looking for.
I adapted the recipe a bit: I replaced all of the all-purpose flour by white whole wheat flour and all of the canola oil (which I didn't have) by extra-light olive oil; I more than halved the sugar (using 150 g instead of a whooping 390 g!) and I didn't use any cinnamon (which I don't much care for). It came out so tasty that even my eleven-month old granddaughter (already a miniature foodie) loved it (despite the heat of the ginger). Try it if you are swimming in zucchini. You won't regret it... 

Ingredients: (for two quick breads)

• 400 g freshly-milled white whole wheat flour (I had white wheat berries I needed to use but store-bought flour would work just fine)
• 3 g ground ginger 
• 5 g baking soda (1.5 tsp)
• 1 (scant) g baking powder (1/4 tsp)
• 4 g sea salt
• 90 g chopped candied ginger
• 3 large eggs
• 200 g extra-light olive oil
• 150 g sugar
• 10 g vanilla extract
• 110 g carrots, scrubbed and grated
• 150 g zucchini, grated (unpeeled)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/163°C and lightly oil two quick-bread pans (Fletcher says to use 8.5 x 4.5 pans but I only have the two I bought at Ikea and they are 10 x 4.5)
2. Mix together flour, ginger, baking soda and baking powder, sifting if you like (I didn't sift but I whisked). Add salt and candied ginger and whisk
3. In large bowl, whisk eggs until foamy. Whisk in oil, sugar and vanilla. Add carrots and zucchini and whisk again
4. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and stir with wooden spoon until roughly blended
5. Divide the batter between the two pans
6. Bake about one hour (do the toothpick test to judge doneness)
7. Cool on a rack (but wait 10 minutes before taking the breads out of the pans)
8. Enjoy!

There are many more glorious recipes in Fletcher's book and even though it was recommended to me for the photography (which is by Sara Remington and truly stunning), I know I will refer to it over and over throughout the summer, the fall and into early winter just to figure out what to cook from the CSA or the market. It is organized by veggie or fruit and there are also a poultry, meat and eggs section at the end. It features ten different farms from across the country.
It is a lovely book to own if you have a garden or have access to a farm or farmer's market. I got mine used online and it is stamped "No longer the property of the St. Louis Public Library" in bold red letters. It still bears its Dewey identification number: 641.5 EATING.  Since it was only published in 2010, your local library might also still own it.

Blood of the Dragon: Healthy New Year Orange Cake

My brothers and I grew up eating a marvelous orange cake which I sadly probably won't make again even though I have the recipe and it couldn't be easier to make or more delicious: 150 g butter + 150 g flour + 150 g sugar + 2 whole eggs + 1 orange (juice and zest) + 1/2 packet of baking powder. Mix everything (except juice). Bake. When cake is done, drench with juice. Revel!
Over the years, I have made it over and over and it always met with the same unmitigated success. I even made it once ages ago for friends who were coming for tea one snowy Sunday afternoon and I burned my wrist when taking it out of the oven and it fell to the floor face down! There was no time to bake another one, so I took a spatula and rescued as much as I could of the part that wasn't in contact with the floor. Of course it was all broken but I pressed it into a charlotte mold and since it was still warm, it took the shape of the mold very nicely. When it had cooled enough, I unmolded it and drizzled warmed up apricot preserves over it. It was beautiful and even better than the original. My guests asked for the recipe which I provided - skipping the floor part - and all was well.
I had forgotten all about it until our youngest son's fourth grade teacher enrolled her whole class in a New York State writing program and the kids were asked to write about specific incidents in their childhood. So he wrote about the cake being scraped off the floor minutes before our guests arrived and his writing was so good and so funny that his piece was chosen to be read aloud in assembly! I was mortified but that wasn't the worst of it.
The worst came what he wrote about a very bumpy flight from Athens to Paris when he was 5 years old. He explained that he had been seating next to me and that the whole plane had been jolted when we were hit by lightning (true), that we had made an unplanned landing in Lyon to check for damages (they were minor) and that we continued to Paris under the cloud cover and that everybody got sick (true again); that we landed in Paris so fast that we were on the ground barely one minute or two before we took off again at warp speed and everyone was deadly pale and afraid and the flight attendants were running down the aisle with a strained look on their faces (still true) and that I turned towards him and shook his hand and said: "A..., it was nice meeting you" (the hand shaking and stiff upper lip discourse all figments of his imagination, needless to say). That too was read in assembly!!! I was never happier to see a kid graduate to middle school so that I become anonymous again...

Well, to come back to the cake, I can't make it anymore for health reasons but that doesn't mean we don't yearn for it every winter when huge baskets of oranges arrive at the grocery store... Last week it was blood oranges. 

Blood oranges! When I was growing up in France, blood oranges were very sour. They truly had a bite, so much so that I actually didn't care very much for them. They came from Spain and I don't think they had as much sun as the ones we get here which come from California and are sweet and fragrant.
Blood oranges (don't you love the name?) are rich in vitamin C, of course, but also in anthocyanin which is a powerful antioxydant. That gave me an idea. In honor of the Chinese New Year, I would bake a health-friendly orange cake (after all striving to keep my loved ones healthy throughout the year is certainly a priority) and call it Blood of the Dragon (as you can see, my youngest son doesn't have a monopoly on imagination!).

Now I won't lie and tell you the result is as airy and lovely as the original all-butter orange cake. You wouldn't believe me anyway. The texture reminds me more of a pudding than a cake proper but it is very tasty and refreshing. Orange and ginger combine to give it a nice kick (next time I might even add a bit of fresh ginger) and, in the health department, you can't beat the ingredients: nutrient-rich white whole wheat, natural starter (which makes it easier for the body to assimilate the nutrients present in the grain),  ginger (a powerful antioxydant in its own right), fresh oranges, cultured buttermilk, olive oil, etc...  So here is to a wondrous and healthy New Year!

Ingredients (for a 9-inch cake pan):

For the starter

• 180 g mature levain (starter)
• 180 g white whole wheat pastry flour
• 180 g cultured buttermilk
• 25 g ginger syrup

For the batter

• 80 g extra-virgin olive oil
• juice and zest of 2 blood oranges
• 100 g unsweetened applesauce
• 50 g bits of crystallized ginger
• pinch of salt
• note: the oranges I used were very sweet and with the crystallized ginger and the bit of syrup in the starter, I didn't need more sugar. You should taste the batter prior to baking (one of the advantages of baking without eggs is that you can actually have a taste) and determine whether or not sugar should be added

For the finished cake

• blood oranges
• confectioner's sugar

Method:

1. Starter is prepared at least 4 hours before baking: mix all ingredients with wooden spoon, cover tightly and let rise at warm room temparature
2. When the starter has doubled, add other ingredients, mix with wooden spoon and pour in oil-sprayed pan. Bake for 40 minutes in pre-heated 350°F/177°C oven
3. When done (a cake tester comes out clean), turn off the oven and leave the cake inside for another 5 to 10 minutes with oven door ajar. Cool on a rack
4. Dust with confectioner's sugar
5. Serve with freshly sliced blood oranges. Alternatively drench with blood orange juice  before serving.

Blood of the Dragon Orange Cake is going to Susan's for this week's issue of Yeastspotting...

Hazelnut Cake with Pears & Ginger

I think I need help. I truly do. I mean, my life is being taken over by the things I make. Just look at the wild yeast starter for instance. It requires to be fed twice a day. Each time I feed it, I can only keep a small portion of it and the rest, well, the rest has to be either thrown out or used, right? And if I decide to use it, it's now or never. The wee beasties won't wait. Not even one hour. When they are ready, they are ready. Either you put them to work or they kamikaze into oblivion, turning embittered and nasty along the way. So I have no choice. And it's eating me. I don't have either the time (I am back out of retirement working full-time until mid-December) or enough hungry mouths to feed (even though I do have a fair number of those, counting immediate family, friends and neighbors), to bake every single day. But I hate to throw food away. I just hate it. So the other day I made the sourdough chocolate cake from the King Arthur website. It came out voluptuously plump (I didn't even have time to frost it, it went out to my daughter's house in its birthday suit, demurely cloaked in confectioner's sugar, and pff! it was gone, no picture, sorry!). It had been so quickly put together that yesterday I decided I might as well make another cake. See how easy thrift entraps you in its twisted logic! However, since I was being virtuous (making a cake we didn't need to save wild yeasts we didn't need either), I decided to take stock and look around. What else did I have to use in a hurry before it turned on me? Three pears which were definitely starting to look like they were ready to go over the hill, some fresh ginger which was shriveling under my eyes and a pint of creamy homemade yogurt (which was perfectly fresh as I had just made it the day before but which I also had to find a use for, right?). I also had a big jar of hazelnut butter that a friend brought me from France a few months ago and I looove the taste of pears with hazelnuts and ginger. So here is what I came up with! Totally haphazard (hey, I even forgot to put eggs in) but it worked! It's going out tonight to some friends. Maybe I'll be able to sneak a slice back home. My starter is back on timeout in the fridge, so I won't be baking tomorrow. Too bad...

Ingredients (for one 9x9 square cake and 11 hazelnut-ginger babycakes): (if you are making just the cake, use half of all the ingredients except the first four) 15g butter, melted 25g light brown sugar 3 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced 50g candied ginger, sliced or chopped 240g mature sourdough starter (hydration: 100%) 12 g ground ginger 2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and grated 12g baking soda 260g wholemilk yogurt 130g hazelnut butter, smooth (can be replaced by another roasted nut butter) 100g agave syrup 225g all-purpose flour 225g low-fat powdered milk, reconstituted 1 pinch of salt pieces of candied ginger to top the babycakes (optional) Method:

1. Heat the oven to 375F/191C making sure the lower rack is in
2. Put melted butter in the cake pan and rotate to spread evenly
3. Dust with brown sugar
4. Arrange the sliced pears on top
5. Put the pan in the oven, bake for 20 minutes and take out of the oven
6. Chop or slice candied ginger on top of the pears, pushing it with a teaspoon into the pear syrup at the bottom
7. Meanwhile, gently fold all the other ingredients into the starter and mix well
8. Pour the starter mixture into the pan until three quarter full
9. Pour the rest (if using) into muffin pan paper liners, sticking a piece of candied ginger on top of each babycakes
10. Bake at 375F/191C for 40 minutes (checking during the last 10 minutes that the cake or babycakes are not browning too fast. If this is the case, tent some foil over them. The cake and babycakes are done when a tester comes out clean.
11. Let the cake cool for a few minutes in the pan on a rack
12. Then, before the juices at the bottom have time to set and stick, turn the cake upside down on a plate.
13. Let it cool completely before eating.

Enjoy!

All these babies are going to Susan, from Wild Yeast, for Yeastpotting. Thanks, Susan! I love Yeastspotting. It's a wonderful way to bring us bakers together...