Almost Healthy Gingerbread

This week I pulled the book Healthy Homestyle Cooking by Evelyn Tribole off my cookbook shelf. I wasn't in the mood for cookies and I'm low on supplies for savory items, so it was the Gingerbread recipe that caught my eye.

I think I bought this book at a yard sale or a thrift store or something. It's one of my older ones and it is chock full of lots of good recipes that are on the healthier side of things. I'm still working on my holiday weight, so it was nice to pick out a few things that wouldn't break the calorie bank.

I love gingerbread. I find it hearty and comforting. I like how after it sits for a little bit, the top always gets sticky and you have to lick it off your fingers. I like how it almost develops a little more flavor with age.

I did play around with the original recipe a bit. I upped the spices, added salt, switched buttermilk for yoghurt and added a little milk. I used apple butter instead of apple sauce because that's what I had on hand.

It came out very well and I'd definitely recommend you try it! Next time, I'll probably try and figure out a way to get some booze in there somewhere.

Almost Healthy Gingerbread
Adapated from Healthy Homestyle Cooking

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
3/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Egg Whites
1/2 Cup Yogurt
2 Tablespoons Fat Free Milk
1/2 Cup Apple Butter or Apple Sauce
1/2 Cup Molasses

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray or grease an 8x8 Baking dish.

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together until well combined. Add the egg whites, yogurt, milk,  apple butter and molasses and stir well until combined. You should have a nice thick batter.
Spread into your pan and bake for 30 minutes until the cake has set. Let cool in the pan, then store in an airtight container.

This is great right out of the oven, but if you let it mellow out for a few hours it's even better.

Eat at work at your desk, lick the sticky top off your fingers and try not to get anything on your keyboard.

Makes 9-12 pieces.

Banana Rum Cake for Larry

New Year's here in the Valley was a really nice experience this year. I had a lot of fun on the 51st floor of the Cosmopolitan drinking wine and champagne, playing Cards Against Humanity (which, incidentally, is the best game every) and hanging out with friends.

My friends Larry and Justin were staying with me over New Years. They were in from California and were using my guest room while I'm between roommates. They both love food, which makes them the perfect guests.

I'm going to try something new this year. It isn't exactly a resolution, just a way of keeping me busy. I have a lot of cookbooks. I consider myself a collector and I love getting books for my birthday or Christmas. I'm going to go ahead and try and aim to make and adapt one recipe from a different book every week. This could be interesting for sure, as I've got several books that I've never made anything at all from.

So since it's the first week of the year, I asked Larry to give me a hand picking out a book. The happy result was the Joy the Baker Cookbook. After skimming through the recipes, we settled on one for Banana Rum Cake. When I went to Antigua I can back with a bottle of Antiguan rum and have been looking for a good excuse to open it.

I adapted this cake a fair bit from it's an original version. Instead of making it a layer cake with frosting, I went for a simple bundt cake.... a good excuse to break out new pans.

Banana Rum Cake
Adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook

3 Cups Flour
2 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
1 3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
3 Bananas, mashed
4 Tablespoon Rum
3 Eggs
1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Buttermilk
1/2 Cup Walnuts, chopped
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a Bundt pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar, add in the eggs and vanilla. Add in the bananas, rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, buttermilk, salt, baking powder and baking soda until well combined. Fold in the flour and the walnuts. Pour into the pan and bake for fifty minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the cake in the oven for another 10 minutes. Check that the cake is cooked through. Let cool in the pan.

Cut into nice big chunks and eat at your desk at work after a busy couple of hours. Resolve to drink more tea.

Pina Colada Upside Down Yoghurt Cake

I've always loved the story of how Molly Wizenberg and Brandon Petit met because of her blog, and partly because of a recipe for French Yoghurt Cake. If you don't read Molly's blog, Orangette, you should add it to your list. She is brilliant.

So, since it's the last couple of days that I'll get to spend with my Guy, I decided it was fitting to make a yoghurt cake. I also had a pineapple. I like pineapple. I like pineapple upside down cake. One thing led to another.

I was sneaky when I made this cake because I pretty much had John make it. While I was making the pineapple, he was putting together the cake. It came out wonderfully.

This is just a quick post because John is taking a phone call and I want to put this together quickly for you while he handles that.

Try this cake. It's yummy. I like it a lot and it's even better on day two.

Pina Colada Upside Down Yoghurt Cake

1 1/2 Cups Flour, Sifted
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Plain Non-Fat Yoghurt
3 Eggs
Zest of 1 Lemon
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Coconut
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Coconut, toasted (for the top)

For the Pineapple

1 1/2 Cup Pineapple
1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for the cake into a smooth batter, except for the extra toasted coconut.

In a small pan, add the pineapple and sugar and cook over medium heat for five minutes or so until the sugar has become a thick syrup. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan. Put the pineapple and syrup in the pan and even spoon over the cake batter. Don't stir it up, you want the pineapples at the bottom.

Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown and a knife comes out clean. Let cool in the pan completely. When cool, run a knife around the edges of the pan and then put a plate on top. Flip over so the top of the cake is on the plate and the bottom is open to the air. It will be syrupy with big chunks of pineapple everywhere. Top with the toasted coconut.

Eat in wedges at 11pm after walking home from the movies with your beloved while furiously debating the fight sequences in The Amazing Spiderman and smuggling in your own beer.