Pudding, a Healthy Dessert for Kids

30 01 2010


Pudding thickening over a double boiler.

Dessert is a tricky subject for many parents. Should we serve one or not? How much do they have to eat before they get it? And so on. I used to find a happy middle ground with pudding. Yes it’s dessert, but it’s got to be good because of all that milk, right?

Not if you’re serving instant pudding. Just look at the ingredients. Disodium phosphate. Tetrasodium pyrophosphate. Diglycerides. BHA (a preservative). The day I stopped serving it was the day I took a page out of Michael Pollan’s playbook and asked myself, “Is this something my great-grandmother would have recognized as food?” Of course not. My spell check didn’t recognize it either, also a bad sign.

Now I make something called blancmange, a yummy concoction of milk, sugar and vanilla thickened with cornstarch. I discovered it years ago in my old Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Unlike custard, blancmange doesn’t contain eggs and it doesn’t have to bake. You do have to stir it while it thickens, but you can always do this while asking your children about their day at school, or if they’re old enough, you can enlist their help.

Note that the original recipe doesn’t call for maple syrup, but I’ve found that without it, the pudding gets gummy as it sits. A tablespoon or two keeps the pudding smooth without affecting the flavor. However, if you’re concerned about the extra sweetness, just leave it out and eat the pudding quickly.

Homemade Pudding
Adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
Makes 4 servings

3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups organic milk, divided (whole is best, but use what you have)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1-2 T grade A maple syrup, if desired

First, get out your double-boiler. If you don’t have one, make your own by finding a metal bowl that fits over your saucepan. It shouldn’t just rest on the top; it needs to dip into the saucepan just enough that it won’t slip off while you’re stirring, but not so much that it comes close to the water. Put an inch or so of water in the saucepan and let it come to a simmer (not boil) while you’re preparing the other ingredients.

Stir the cornstarch, sugar and salt together in your metal bowl and add 1/4 cup of the milk. Place the bowl over the simmering water and gradually add the remaining 1 3/4 cups milk, stirring constantly until thickened. This will take about ten minutes. Keep stirring another 15 minutes. Resist the urge to cut corners; this gentle cooking improves the flavor. Remove from heat.

To speed up the cooling process, place the bowl in an ice bath. If you’ve never done this before, make one by closing the drain in your sink, filling it with a few inches of ice cubes, nestling the bowl into the ice, then adding a bit of cold water. The pudding will cool quickly. Now add the vanilla and almond extracts and maple syrup, if desired. If you’re making it ahead, cover it with plastic wrap placed directly against the pudding to prevent a skin from forming.

Three Variations: For plain vanilla, leave out the almond extract. For chocolate pudding, leave out the almond extract and stir in 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate or a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips when you add the 1 3/4 cups milk. For maple pudding, leave out the almond extract, decrease sugar to 2 tablespoons and increase maple syrup to 4 tablespoons.


Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : In Winter, Recipes, Uncategorized

White Cake with Buttercream Frosting

28 01 2010

I just heard from a mom whose son will be turning 1 next week. Hooray — such a big day! She said she’s looking for a good cake and was wondering if I’d share my recipe for white cake with buttercream that I mentioned in an earlier post.

When I looked it up just now, I paused to read my notes in the margin. (I always write down the date when I make a recipe, and any changes I’d make next time.) In the margin, I read that I made this cake for my own 30th birthday, my oldest daughter’s 8th birthday, my son’s 4th birthday, and my youngest daughter’s 1st birthday. Definitely a family favorite. So to the mother who wrote in, I wish your son a happy day and an even happier year! Maybe it will become a favorite in your family, too.

P.S. I frequently cut back on sugar when I’m making quick breads, but it’s not a good idea to do that here. The sugar is necessary to tenderize the cake.

White Cake

1 3/4 cups cake flour (you can also use white flour, but it won’t be as tender)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans. I like to cut aluminum foil to fit inside the pan. Then I put it in the pan, shiny side up, and grease and flour the foil and sides like normal. It takes a little more time, but you’ll thank yourself when it’s time to remove the cakes from the pans.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until well combined. In a large bowl, cream the butter for 2-3 minutes (believe me — this is what makes the air bubbles in the cake). Gradually add the sugar and beat another 2-3 minutes. Add the egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the vanilla extract with the cold water and add half of it to the butter-sugar mixture. Beat well. Then add half the flour mixture and beat well. Repeat, adding in the remaining water and vanilla and beating well, then finishing with the remaining flour. Pour into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating pans halfway through the cooking time. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool on a cooling rack. Don’t frost until completely cool.

Buttercream Frosting

2/3 cup butter, softened but not melted
1/8 tsp salt
4 cups powdered sugar
4-8 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract, or more
1/2 tsp almond extract, or more (optional)
Food coloring, if desired

Cream the butter and salt together, then slowly add in the powdered sugar. Add 4 tablespoons whipping cream, and vanilla and almond extracts. Beat on high, adding more cream until you reach the desired consistency. Keep beating on high for 3-4 minutes, far longer than you might think is necessary. The longer you whip, the lighter and fluffier your frosting will be. Taste, and add more vanilla and/or almond extract to suit your taste. We like plenty of almond extract because it cuts the sweetness (though of course the frosting is still very sweet!)

* Note that you can also make the above cake recipe as cupcakes. If you do, you can pipe on the frosting in swirls with a large tip. Inexpensive Wilton decorating bags and plastic tips can usually be found at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. Cupcakes are great for kids’ birthdays because you can divide up the frosting and tint it different colors. Multi-colored sprinkles and add-ons like gummy bears are also a big hit with kids, though I wouldn’t put anything but sprinkles on a young child’s cake.


Comments : 7 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : In Winter, Recipes, Uncategorized

Food Storage and Freezing Tips

26 01 2010

A friend is reading the Young Readers Edition of Omnivore’s Dilemma with her daughter and just wrote in asking for advice on what freezes well and what doesn’t. A city dweller, she doesn’t have the luxury of extra space for a stand-alone freezer and is also wondering how to use the precious space she does have.

Questions like this make my day. If I can help her on this journey, she’ll affect others (her daughters, her friends, etc.) and they’ll affect others, until there’s a butterfly effect on the way that food in our country is produced, packaged and consumed. We’re part of a community, after all, and we all succeed when one person succeeds.

To answer her first question, I recommend a paper by the National Center for Home Food Preservation called Foods that Don’t Freeze Well. Potatoes, celery and sour cream are listed, along with other items that come out of the freezer worse for the wear. Many foods that do freeze well (corn, green beans) should be blanched, cooled and dried before freezing. Others, like diced tomatoes or onions, can be put in raw. Berries should be frozen, unwashed, in a single layer on a cookie sheet, then transferred to another container; this prevents them from clumping together. Just remember to wash them when you take them out. Always mark the date on the container or bag, and use all produce within a year.

For more info, check out a post I wrote earlier this month called Summer in January, aka Freezing 101. There’s also a link to a helpful article in The Washington Post on the do’s and don’ts of freezing.

When you talk about freezing, you can’t help but talk about what to freeze in. Last year, SeedtoSpoon readers debated the problems of freezing in plastic bags, given the potential hazards of the plastic. I still use Ziploc bags, but I put the contents in after they’re cool and don’t thaw them in the microwave or in hot water. If you take the plastic bag route, remember to double bag your food and squeeze out the excess air. To find this string of posts and comments, click here.

Her second question — what to devote your small freezer to — deserves an answer all its own. More on that later this week. In the meantime, any advice for my friend? Has anyone frozen something that didn’t come out well?


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Food News, In Winter, Uncategorized

Liquid vs. Dry Measuring Cups

24 01 2010

While we were away for Christmas, my oldest daughter turned 8. She asked for her favorite homemade white cake with buttercream frosting, and despite the fact that we had a less-than-fully stocked condo kitchen, I said yes. How hard could it be? I’ve been baking since I was her age.

Turns out, it was quite a challenge. No cake pans. A mix of granulated and superfine sugar. An oven that seemed to run hot. And the worst? No dry measuring cups.

The only measuring cup I could find was a 32-ounce liquid measuring cup. I’m a big believer in substitutions, like using thyme instead of sage because you like it better, or green beans instead of zucchini in a soup because that’s what you have on hand. But you just can’t substitute a liquid measuring cup for a dry one.

As I baked, the kids and their cousins kept asking about the cake. “It’s a science project,” I finally told them. In the end, the cake tasted normal. But it was oddly-shaped from the assortment of glass baking dishes I had to use, and didn’t rise much, no doubt from old baking powder.

Back home, I experimented to see just how off I’d probably been on the flour. Here’s what I discovered: 1 cup (dry cup) = 1 1/8 cup (liquid cup). While I was at it, I decided to test the different ways to fill a measuring cup, too. One method is to dip the measuring cup inside the bag of flour, fill it up and scrape it off. Another is to spoon flour into the measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Chefs do neither, preferring to use a scale. Do these different methods really matter? Here’s what I found:

- 1 cup of flour by “dip and scrape” = 5 ounces of organic all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of flour by “spoon and level” = 2 T less than 5 ounces

Now imagine if you were making bread calling for 4 cups of flour! This might be why a friend’s favorite recipe never tastes the same when you make it yourself. Some cookbooks tell you what method the authors used in their ingredient lists. In cooking school, I was taught the “spoon and level” method; Gourmet used to suggest this as well. When in doubt, that’s what I’d recommend.

Of course, none of this helps if you’re baking from scratch in a condo. If you find yourself in that position, just wing it. Then make sure you’ve got a great frosting.


Comments : 6 Comments »
Tags: ,
Categories : Food News, In Winter, Uncategorized

Dark Chocolate-Cherry Granola Bars

22 01 2010

A friend received dried cherries for Christmas, and emailed SeedtoSpoon for an idea how to use them. Perhaps something with dark chocolate?

I suggested this recipe for homemade granola bars. If you don’t have cherries and dark chocolate, you could easily substitute semi-sweet chocolate, raisins, coconut, walnuts, almonds, whatever. The bars make great after-school snacks, although they’re so good, you might be tempted to save them to go with your coffee!

Dark Chocolate-Cherry Granola Bars
1 1/2 cup oats (not steel cut)
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate (or semi-sweet morsels)
1 tablespoon flour

Preheat oven to 325. Put oats in a large sauté pan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, about 8-10 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside. Lightly butter an 8-x-8 or 9×9 pan. Whisk the egg and egg white, then stir in brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract. Stir in toasted oats, dried cherries, dark chocolate and flour. Spread in the pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool and cut into bars.


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : In Winter, Recipes, Uncategorized

Good Use for Carrots

19 01 2010

Carrots look so innocent, especially those inaccurately named “baby carrots” sold in the store. But if you’re part of a winter farm share, you might find them overwhelming. Carrots are a storage crop, meaning that farmers harvest them in the fall and store them throughout the winter. If you’re part of a CSA and don’t use them up before the next delivery, you can easily find six pounds in your fridge.

It’s rare, even for us, to finish them all off. But today as my husband scrubbed carrots for lunch, he announced somewhat victoriously, “We’re almost out of carrots!” (He’s not normally so excited by vegetables. That’s my thing.) Some went to soup; others went to salad. The bulk of them we ate raw with hummus.

As a nutritionist told me, carrots make a better choice than pita for scooping up this rich, healthy chickpea spread. It’s easy to get carbohydrates in our diet, she said. It’s harder to get all that vitamin A. Not sure that your kiddos will like it? You might be surprised. Even my picky 3-year-old eats it by the spoonful.

Hummus
Serves 8

4 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
Juice of 1 to 1 1/2 lemons
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
1/3 to 1/2 cup tahini
2/3 to 3/4 cup plain yogurt

Put all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Taste and add additional lemon juice, tahini or yogurt, as desired. Serve with carrot sticks, celery or whole-wheat pita wedges. (Remember that carrots and celery are on the Environmental Working Group’s list of foods with the most pesticide residue, so buy organic.)


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : In Winter, Recipes

Food, Inc. Fallout

17 01 2010

If you haven’t seen Food, Inc., you should.

The film powerfully brings together voices like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser to give us a behind-the-scenes peek at the nation’s industrial food complex. (Or as behind-the-scenes as you can get when company after company refuses to comment.) No stone is left unturned, from seed to supermarket, as they say in the movie. Or, more disturbingly, from farmer to feedlot, lobbyist to lab.

If you’ve already read books along these lines, much of the content won’t be new. But it will still be as poignant. And it will still change your life in surprising ways, some big, some small. Much of my blog is devoted to the big ways it’s changed our family. This is about one of the small.

This weekend a friend came to dinner. It was Friday, on the heels of an ice-skating birthday party across town, and I knew our guest might arrive at the house before us. So that afternoon I made Sara Foster’s chunky minestrone (from Fresh Every Day) and spinach salad with dried cherries and toasted pecans. I set the table and bought the sourdough baguette.

But I didn’t buy the ice cream for dessert, as planned, because at the last minute I thought about industrial, non-organic dairies and how they treat their cows. I thought about all the corn derivatives that would likely be flavoring the ice cream. And I walked past the dessert aisle, knowing that I’d be in the kitchen an hour longer by doing so but feeling good about the choice because at least then I knew what I’d be feeding my family and guest.

How has the movie changed the way you think about food, big or small?


Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: ,
Categories : Food News, In Winter, Uncategorized

Warm Lentils with Sausage

15 01 2010

Tonight we’re having such a seasonal dish, I actually laughed out loud when I imagined cooking it in summer. The very heartiness of this meal is so well, January that it would be as out of place in June as a snowman.

Inspired by meals I’ve eaten in French bistros, this simple dinner combines one of my favorite things (lentils) with one of my kids’ favorites (Italian sausage). Not many recipes include them both, which is why I’m so fond of this one.

The recipe calls for vegetables to be sauteed in oil, with the sausage browned separately, but I cook the sausage first, then remove it and saute the garlic, onions, carrots and celery in the same pan to build up the foundation of flavor. When the vegetables are soft, you add the cooked lentils and sausage and toss everything with a mustard vinaigrette.

Besides being a good source of iron, calcium and vitamin A, lentils are quick cooking and don’t need to be pre-soaked, making them an excellent choice for a quick and hearty weeknight meal. To complement these flavors, we’re having wilted chard and sauteed apples with just a bit of sugar. Mmm, delicious. Just don’t ask me to make it in July.

Click here for the recipe for Warm Lentil Salad with Sausage


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : In Winter, Recipes, Uncategorized

Turning One!

12 01 2010

Today is the first anniversary of SeedtoSpoon.com! Cheers!

Last January, I had little idea how big SeedtoSpoon would become. I appeared on BusinessWeek.com, exhibited at Local Food festivals, met many of you at farmers markets, and cooked with Sara Foster. When I started I only wanted to help people by sharing my passion for local, organic and seasonal food. And I’ve heard from so many of you that it has indeed helped. Some of you have joined farm shares. Some of you have started cooking at home again. Some of you have sworn off canned tomatoes. Some have just read for fun.

This year, no matter where you are in the journey, I encourage you to take the next step. Maybe you’re an armchair reader. Well, this year maybe you can crack an egg, dice an onion (local and organic, of course!) and roast a beet. For cooks, maybe you can add more local & organic goods to your pantry and fridge. For gung-ho converts, maybe you should join a farm share (now is the time to start researching one near you).

Thank you to all my readers. Keep in touch, keep debating issues from BPA to chocolate milk in schools, and keep cooking. Here’s to a great year #2!


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Uncategorized

Birthday Waffles with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

11 01 2010

Our family underwent a rite of passage this weekend. My oldest, newly 8, opted not to celebrate with a Beach Party or Make-Your-Own-Pizza-Party, as in years past. Instead, she invited three best friends over for a slumber party, the first we’ve hosted. They ate their share of junk, more than we normally have in the house. Rolos and Starbursts were prizes in the treasure hunt; Pringles were a hit during a late-night game of Junior Monopoly.

To make up for it, I tried to serve healthy fare at other times. Whole-wheat pasta with parmesan, steamed broccoli and milk for dinner. (No gripes there; everyone had thirds.) For breakfast I opened a bag of local, organic strawberries picked in August on my daughter’s last day of summer. Standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window at the snow, I smiled. Who knew on that early morning in the berry patch — one still full of the peacefulness of summer not the rush of fall — that we would open them on a day like this, a birthday party for a girl who just yesterday wanted to wear princess dresses and make shell necklaces with her entire class? As I listened to the girls laugh at the table, I was hit by something so true it’s cliché: Change sneaks up on you when you least expect it.

After the berries were rinsed and mostly thawed, I cut off the tops and mashed them, adding sugar and a spritz of lemon juice. We served the sweet red sauce atop homemade waffles with a dollop of whipped cream. Luxurious in their minds; healthy in mine. Perhaps the start of a new birthday tradition.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : In Winter, Recipes, Uncategorized

« Previous Entries


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 76 other followers