This recipe calls for a 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes in thick puree. I used Red Gold’s 100% natural tomato product. I made a few modifications to the recipe and made it vegetarian-friendly and also a bit healthier, I guess. Instead of the eggs, I used egg substitute made by combining 1 part flax seed meal with 3 parts hot water. I reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe by a half. One cup of sugar just seemed too much to me. I used about 1/2 cup of raw cane sugar. I used a half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour combination.

Tomato Bread (Recipe adapted from Red Gold Recipe Collection)
Ingredients: (8-12 servings)

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp flax seed meal + 6 tbsp hot water (substitutes 2 eggs)
• 1 (15 ounce) can Redpack Crushed Tomatoes in Thick Puree
• 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine eggs, oil, sugar in a large bowl.
3. Stir in Red Gold Crushed Tomatoes.
4. In another bowl, combine flour and spices.
5. Combine the tomato mixture and dry ingredients; batter will be thin.
6. Pour into a greased 5×9-inch bread pan.
7. Sprinkle the almonds on top.
8. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out
9. clean.
10. Cool completely before slicing.

The bread had a wonderful aroma and tasted great too. Although it’s called Spicy Tomato Bread, I found that the blend of spices gave it a very slight kick but it was more savory than spicy. The bread had a very nice texture. Moist and flavorful, and so satisfying. This dish would make a delicious item to complement your breakfast or a tasty mid-afternoon snack too.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary six pack of Red Pack tomatoes. The family-run company from Indiana, produces over 100 different styles and flavors of tomato products in 20 different sizes and containers, with a mission “to produce the freshest, best tasting tomato products in the world.” No other compensation was received for this post. The post was written by LookyTasty and all opinions expressed are solely mine.

A while back, I came across olive bread at a restaurant when they brought out a basket of olive bread as appetizers. I really liked it. The salty olives added a nice flavor to the rustic bread. Later that week, I decided to bake some muffins and add chopped pieces of olives to them to make a savory and delicate muffin. I picked up a small container of kalamata olives from Titan Foods (awesome Greek specialty food market in Astoria) and proceeded home to do some baking.

Ingredients: (Makes 8-12 muffins)

• 2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp flaxseed meal (optional)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 oz chopped olives (I used kalamata olives)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flaxseed meal and nutritional yeast, if desired.
3. In another bowl, bean the eggs and add honey, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and water.
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Add chopped olives and stir.
6. Pour mixture into greased muffin trays/cups.
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until ready. Insert and remove toothpick and it should come out clean.
8. Let the muffin cool in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
9. Serve warm.

I used a really basic muffin recipe and added nutritional yeast and flaxseed meal into the muffin batter to enhance the nutrition a bit. The muffins were soft and by itself didn’t have much taste to it, but the kalamata olives added a nice bold flavor to the finished product. I liked how it came out. I’m thinking about redoing something similar next time – pickle bread, perhaps.

No egg?
I read that flax seed meal can be used to make an egg substitute for baking. I conveniently have a bag of flax seed meal in my fridge. I like to add a scoop of flax seed meal to my cereals, oatmeal, smoothies, pancakes, and such. It’s a great source of extra fiber. It also adds a light nutty flavor. The writing on the package says that 1 tbsp of flax seed meal can be combined with 3 tbsps of hot water to make one egg replacer.

No shortening?
Fruit puree makes a good shortening or butter substitute for baked goods. I usually like to use either bananas, applesauce, prunes. I had a ripe banana laying around the counter and it was the perfect candidate. Fruit puree will add a hint of flavor to the baked product, so we should make sure that the fruit will complement the product well. Bananas and cornbread works.

No milk?
This one was easy. I rarely ever have cow’s milk in the fridge since I’m lactose intolerant. I like to alternate between soy milk, almond milk, and rice milk. This week was soy milk and so, I substitute the regular milk with the soy milk.

Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed meal
• 6 tbsp hot water
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup if want sweeter)
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 medium size banana, mushed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray muffin pan/baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Bring some water to boil. In a small bowl, add the ground flax seed. Pour 6 tbsps of hot water into the bowl. Stir until the mixture thickens. Set it aside to rest for a few minutes. (You’ve just made an egg substitute.)
4. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
5. Add the ground flax seed mixture, soy milk, and mushed banana to the flour mixture. Beat until smooth.
6. Pour mixture into muffin pan/baking dish.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle
   comes out clean.
8. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.
9. Serve warm.

This recipe created a very savory cornbread. The cornbread smelled amazing and tasted great as well. It would be perfect for soups and stews, or dipped in some gravy sauce.

For a sweet cornbread, you can add more sugar into the recipe instead. You can also add some honey or maple syrup to give it extra sweetness.

The cornbread freezes very well too. I wrapped them up individually in plastic wrap, placed them in a ziplock bag and tossed the bag into the freezer. The cornbread can be reheated in a microwave or toaster oven and it tastes just as great.

Happy eating!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup almond milk (or regular milk or soy milk)
• dried herbs or seasonings of choice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the flours, sugar, and salt.
3. Add the butter and mix.
4. Slowly pour the milk in to the milk while stirring.
5. The mixture should reach a light dough consistency.
6. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces to roll out individually.
7. Roll one piece of the dough out on to a floured surface.
8. Aim for about 1/8 of an inch thickness.
9. Sprinkle some dried herbs or seasoning of your choice. (I used Italian seasoning.)
10. With a rolling pin, roll over the dough lightly to press the herbs into place.
11. Cut the dough into small bite sized pieces
12. Using a fork, poke each pieces a few times.
13. Transfer pieces to baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

After the snack crackers were done, I tossed it with a little bit more dried herbs and some roasted soybean powder to add a hint of nutty flavor.

Let it cool and pour it in a bowl and serve! This is a simple and fun recipe. It requires a little work, but you get to control what ingredients go into the snack crackers and adjust it to your liking. There’s so many variations to it – can use different herbs and seasonings – can cut crackers in to various sizes and shapes. It definitely makes a tasty snack – to munch on by itself or eat with dip.

This time, I decided to make Blueberry Pesto Popovers. I don’t have a popover pan, and so I used my XL muffin pan instead. These popovers looks more like huge muffins with a dome and inflated points on top, but they smelled wonderful. They were very tasty as well. They were slightly crisp on the outside, and soft and airy in the inside. These popovers are very light and the blueberry pesto adds a very nice flavor to it. Next time I’ll use a baking pan with a smaller cup, so that there will be more of a popping effect.

The basic popover recipe calls for 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 2 eggs. I made a few changes by incorporating some whole wheat flour and substituting soy milk instead of milk. I mixed in a little bit of pesto into the popover batter to give it an added taste. Also, an important part of baking popovers is to have all the ingredients at room temperature before mixing ingredients. This recipe makes 6 popovers.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup soy milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• some pesto

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 F. Grease a popover/muffin pan and place it in the oven as it reheats.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the milk and the eggs.
3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
4. Once the oven is preheated, remove the popover/muffin pan and distribute the batter evenly across the pan.
5. Mix a little bit of pesto in each popover/muffin pan cup.
6. Baked for 20 minutes at 450 F.
7. Reduce oven temp to 350 F and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
8. Remove the popovers and immediately pierce each of them on the top with a knife to allow steam to escape.
9. Serve warm.

By the way, don’t forget to check out her other flavors of frozen pestos: Pestos with Panache. She also has recipes on the website for each of the flavors. You can order the pestos online too. And if you’re in the area and have the time, definitely check out one of her pesto tastings at Whole Foods. More info: here.

Also, the fresh frozen pesto can keep for up to 2 years in the freezer. Once thawed, it can stay refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. It is recommended to section off some pesto to use and keep the rest in frozen state in the freezer.

The procedure was very simple and easy – no mess, no kneading, nothing complicated about it. I used King Arthur whole wheat bread flour. Here’s a picture of the bread sitting in the dutch oven. Looking kind of good.

The bread was really good. I think I’ll start making my own bread more often and switch it up with the different types of flours and combination of flours and grains. I need to invest in a nice large bread knife though, if I want to make cleaner slices of bread. I can’t wait to try the other varieties of bread in Jim Lahey’s My Bread book. If you’ve ever though about baking your own bread but was hesitant, I definitely recommend giving this recipe I try. I’m really enjoying using this cast-iron dutch oven as well.

One of my plans for the new year was to learn to bake my own bread. I recall reading about an innovative method for baking bread that involves no kneading by Mark Bittman in the New York Times Dining and Wine section a long while ago The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work along with a recipe from Jim Lahey at the Sullivan Street Bakery. I googled Jim Lahey and the Sullivan Street Bakery and found out that Jim Lahey released a cookbook just a few months ago, called My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method.

I had skimmed through the cookbook at Barnes and Nobles and found it to be very intriguing. I like to buy my buys off Amazon though, it’s much cheaper than most bookstores. I didn’t previously own a dutch oven, so I took some time to look into dutch ovens that were in my price range. Le Creuset dutch ovens are one of the famous lines, but they are quite pricey. I decided to go with the 5 qt Lodge preseasoned cast-iron dutch oven since it was the affordable option recommended in the book.

I can’t wait to try this recipe for No-Knead Bread, featured in the New York Times a long while back. I’ve re-posted the recipe here for your convenience.

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey at the Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 – 20 hours rising
Yield: 1 1/2 pound loaf

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450°F. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

I’ll be quite busy for the next week or so, but I’m excited about my new additions to the kitchen and bookshelf. I can’t wait to try the other recipes in the cookbook. Also, looking forward to all the wonderful things I can make with this diesel cast-iron dutch oven. Suggestions welcomed!

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat cake flour
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves
• allspice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup quinoa, cooked* (detailed directions below)

• 2 oz cream cheese
• 2 oz ricotta cheese
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, rice flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, salt, baking soda, and 1/2 cup of sugar.
2. Add the beaten eggs and the pumpkin puree.
3. Stir in the cooked quinoa.
4. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp of sugar.

   (So, there’s the muffin mixture and the cheese mixture. I thought about simply mixing the two contents together and baking it in muffin molds. I decided not to mix them together, but instead, layer them so that the cheese mixture is in the middle. Therefore, it would taste like cheesecake inside a pumpkin muffin.)

5. Transfer the cheese mixture into a plastic sandwich bag. Make a small slit at one of the corners of the sandwich bag. Twist the open end of the bag.

   (Now, I have an icing bag.)

6. For each muffin cup, spray PAM baking spray (or your choice of no-stick cooking spray). Put a heaping spoon of pumpkin mixture in the bottom. Squeeze some cheese mixture with the icing bag. Top with a smaller spoon of pumpkin mixture. Repeat.

   (I sprinkled some crushed almonds and placed a whole almond on top of each piece, as garnish.

7. Bake muffins at 350 degrees for about 20-25 mins, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Here they are!

These muffins were very tasty and moist. They are lightly sweeten. The cheese mixture is not overwhelming. Using both ricotta cheese and cream cheese made the cheese mixture very creamy and light. The combination of cheesecake and pumpkin muffin is great!

Next time, I might try swirling the cheese and pumpkin mixtures together instead of layering them.

* How to cook quinoa:
Prepare the quinoa:

1. Soak the quinoa in cold water for at least 15 to 30 minutes, or overnight if desired. Soaking makes the grain tastier and gives it a nutty, light flavor. Without soaking, the grain may be a bit bitter. Soaking helps loosens the outer coating of bitter-tasting saponins. Many commercial quinoa are pre-washed to remove this coating, but giving it an extra rinse helps remove any excess saponin.
2. Rinse the quinoa by stirring it with your hand and draining off the water with a fine mesh strainer.

Cook the quinoa:

1. Combine 1 part grain and 2 part water in a saucepan.
2. Bring to boil.
3. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover.
4. One cup of quinoa usually takes about 15-20 minutes to cook.
5. Remove the quinoa from heat.
6. Let it sit for at least 5 minutes.
7. Fluff the quinoa with a fork and serve.

Banana Bread topped with oats and black currants

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup pecans
• 6 tbsp apple sauce
• 4 medium apples
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 1 tbsp arrowroot
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/8 tsp cloves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, mix the oats, flour, sugar, pecans, and applesauce. Mix until it is crumbly.
3. Chop the apples into small dices.
4. In another mixing bowl, toss the diced apples, apple juice, arrowroot, and spices.
5. Pour apple mixture into a baking dish and spread it evenly across the dish.
6. Sprinkle the oats mixture on top of the apple mixture.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and the fruit bubbles slightly around the sides of the baking dish.

Instead of a large baking dish, I decided to make little bite size apple crisp tarts. I scooped the apple mixtures into twelve silicone muffin cups, topped it off with the oats mixture and placed them into the oven. They looked pretty adorable. They tasted pretty good as well. I noticed that it wasn’t very sweet and a bit tart. If serving alone, I would probably recommend increasing the sugar. Otherwise, I think it would go really well with something like ice cream or yogurt.

I used red McIntosh apples in this recipe. I read somewhere that Cortland apples (red), Granny Smith (green) and Golden Delicious (yellow) apples are good choices of apples for baking pies. Maybe next time I will try it with one or many of those. Feel free to share any comments about baking/cooking with apples.

Here is a single piece along with three blueberries and some cinnamon sprinkled on top. Serve warm and accompany with some vanilla ice cream (non-dairy, soy ice cream of course)!