Linden's Coconut Cake and Hazelnut Plum Crumb Tart

So I am beginning to start a slight weight-loss program, but it hasn't gotten to the part where I exclude delicious cakes and sweets from my diet, which is good because I wouldn't be able to explain this post. My current (likely unrealistic) plan involves eating better breakfasts and lunches, and not worrying about my cake intake yet. These are my most recent attempts.

The first is a coconut cake with chocolate chunks, which was super delicious, but probably more calorie-dense than I would like to admit. It does, on the other hand, travel fairly well, although there is some coconut loss along the way. (A big slice of this cake travelled with me to Paris a few weeks ago.)

This cake was one of those, "I want to bake something but have nothing interesting in the pantry" shots. Found and modified a recipe off epicurious for it - next time I would use less chocolate.

This cake has a better story. There is a store in Engand called Waitrose, which has a wonderful habit of making extreme price slashes when its food is about to go off. Right before Easter, they had some extra good reductions because they were closed Easter. I got a bag of six plums for 30p, and thought I had better use them up quickly rather than eat squashy plums.

So, I made this delicious hazelnut plum crumble, which has a hazelnut crumb base and topping, and a custard with plums going through the middle. Mm, tasty.  (It also has the advantage of using up some ground hazelnuts in the pantry, which were left over from chocolate hazelnut christmas cookies.) I would heartily recommend this one to anyone who is looking for some delicious good hearty fruity baking. (I always use milk instead of cream in these recipes, as I don't see the point of buying cream and it's still delicious with milk.) Pulled off the very reliable smitten kitchen.

Linden's Baked Oatmeal

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything here. This is in part because while at home for six weeks, I fell into the easy (and sometimes very rewarding) habit of letting Papapapa cook, despite my best intentions to take advantage of the free time and deep fryer to experiment. (Well, the other half of that was that it was a time of darkness and allergy testing, which meant I couldn't really experiment.)

But now I am living in Cambridge, and working a standard workweek, and I have returned to my habits of cooking for myself. Now, it's important to recognise that this is a massive endeavor, mostly because of the things no one ever thinks about. I can't have your standard cereal for breakfast, so I have to make my own. I can't eat store-bought bread, so I either have to make my own, or not eat bread (usually the latter) which means that I can't just pack a sandwich for lunch. And, even on the nights I get home late and exhausted, I can't just open a tin of soup or put some pasta on the stove and add ready-made sauce. And store-bought lunches or dinners are right out.

But I have adjusted, and I plan and prepare. It means lots of cooking on the weekends, like Sunday: on the slate was baked oatmeal, and a big vegetable baked ziti (most of which I put into individual lunch-sized containers and froze. Currently in my freezer are ziti, risotto, and quiche, because variety is important).
Let me tell you about baked oatmeal. I had never even heard of it until a few weeks ago, when I came across it during a late-night browse through cooking blogs, which is the sort of thing I do, and it seemed like a reasonable thing to try (partly because it doesn't require expensive nuts and dried fruit). It is super delicious, easy to make, and comes out steaming and photogenic. Also, it survives microwaving very well, which means it does well for breakfasts all week long.

And look how delicious it looks, with it's oatmealy top and gooey fruity bottom.

I am including the recipe here because I think others involved might benefit from this recipe, others in this case meaning everyone. Borrowed from sevenspoons, changed a bit by me.

Ingredients
slightly more than 2 cups large flake rolled oats (not instant)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
slightly less than 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
slightly less than 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup or honey
2 medium bananas, sliced
1/2 cup blueberries (unthawed frozen or fresh)
Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Get out your 8" round baking dish (around 2 quart capacity) and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, oil, vanilla and maple syrup. Set aside.

In the prepared baking dish, spread the sliced bananas in an even layer, then scatter the blueberries over top. Pile the oat mixture to cover the fruit, but do not pack too tightly. Carefully pour the wet milk mixture over the oats; it will look as if there is too much liquid, but not to worry, it will be absorbed during baking. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the oatmeal is puffed and set, with a golden brown top.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, then enjoy.

Makes about 4 hearty servings.

Linden's Delicious Vengeful Desserts

Well, I was certainly not happy to hear that the entire family Conspired Against Me regarding the pizza at the beach (except for Papa, who shows his love in other ways).

So I guess it's time to bring out pictures of my delicious cakes. Of all the desserts I make, these are the most requested and most delicious.

The first has its roots in the humble American coffee cake - a confusing name in this country, since all of their cakes tend to have the dryness which distinguishes coffee cakes from other cakes and makes it good for tea time. But this one adds rhubarb, and lots of cinnamon and a hint of ginger, and makes a not too dry, not too dense, not too sweet, but very delicious cake. Topped with big crumbs of cinnamon and brown sugar and butter. Then, while the cake is in the oven, the cakey bit rises up over the crumbs, subsuming them and making a lava-field looking top, which results in what you might think of as Cake Surprise. When you fork off another bite, you don't know whether it will contain a chunk of rhubarb, a buried big crumb, or both!

The second cake is even more delicious, and much richer. It is a torte, made by whipping eggs for half of eternity until they get light and fluffy and ten times their original size, and then browning butter over the stove, for a nice round nutty flavor. Then, to top it off, there's large chunks of chocolate and pears. It is  delicious, and by the time I got my camera, two thirds of it was gone.  Not a great picture, but if you look at the sides you can see chunks of pear and chocolate hiding inside the delicious moist dense cakiness.

 

(Oh, am I making those of you on diets want some? I'm sorry, maybe you should have thought about that before you Conspired.)

And you know what else, because I'm feeling a little vindictive about the Lies, we're not going to stop with cakes. Here are my delicious raspberry-topped lemon muffins, an excellent balance between sweet and lemon, with raspberries perched on top for some extra zing.

Oh and in all of my hard work on my thesis, I almost forgot my double dark chocolate chunk muffins, which are deliciously moist and densely chocolatey, with big chunks of chocolate lurking inside, just waiting to attack you with deliciousness. Some even say they are the best chocolate muffins they have ever had, and I am tempted to agree.

There, I'm feeling a bit better now. Back to work.

Full of Goodness: Linden's Tart, Wegetables, and Pasta Casserole

To continue posting food cooked months ago, here are dinners from mid-may. We have a cauliflower and caramelized onion tart, which is both delicious and not new to my repetoire. This time I did change the crust though - instead of trimming the edges and being left with (1) pie scraps and (2) a cooked tart whose edges have receded (like Papa's ... is this too mean? I think it might be.), I folded the extra back down over the crust, so the edges are double-layered. This has two benefits - leaving it overhanging a bit is okay, since there's more holding up the extra crust, so you can get a less shrunken crust, and, more crust per slice.  Other delicious highlights of this meal are that you roast the cauliflower beforehand (roasted cauliflower is delicious) and caramelize the onions. Everything that goes into this tart is delicious on its own! And they go really well together.

I submit that this fulfills half the requirements of goodness, since it is vegetarian and has cauliflower, and that we can round up and call this goodness. (I know this is sort of cheating, since it also has enough cheese to kill a wild Xanbeast, but I use skim milk.) Plus, we ate it with asparagus and salad, because I believe in wegetables (and because knowledge is beliefs that are true, I also knowledge wegetables):

Concurrent to this, since there's some occasional waiting with this recipe (even once you've made the crust and it's chilling, you have cauliflower roasting in the oven, and onion caremelizing on the stove, neither of which require much attention. So, I made a second dinner, which I divided up into meal-sized portions and froze, because the life of a student sometimes calls for freezing.

So, because I was feeling slightly bad about the whole tart thing, I made a pasta casserole with a higher goodness-cheese ratio. This one features spinach and almonds. I know, you say, spinach? and almonds? with pasta? how could this work? How could it possibly taste good? Like this, gentle readers:

You add cheese (fresh mozzarella, because that's how we roll here and studentchez-Linden). It was slightly bland, but the addition of pepper and fresh basil post-thawing whenever I ate some improved matters, and it made me feel very virtuous, which is almost as good as feeling decadent.

Xan: Asparagawesomedogs

BEHOLD

I dub thee, Asparagawesomedog!

Yes, that is roasted bacon-wrapped asparagus with steak and eggs all in one of those absurdly good Costco hotdog buns.  A complete breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Top 5 invention right here.