Sourdough Stories #16: Mixed Berry Sour Cream Discard Muffins

 This is officially my new favorite recipe for using up discard.  Just gonna say that up front.  Just the right amount of sweetness.  In the rearranging of our freezer to make space for our 1/4 cow, I found a bag of frozen mixed berries.  Perfect for smoothies & muffins!  I also needed to use up some sour cream, so this seemed like an excellent opportunity.

The base recipe for the muffins I made is here, but I made enough modifications that I'll go ahead & post my recipe here.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 Tbsp margarine (like Country Crock)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 100 g sourdough discard
• 2 cups frozen mixed berries (tossed with 1 Tbsp flour)
• 3/4 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Cream the butter & sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time, along with the lemon juice.  
3. Gently fold in the sourdough discard.
4. Mix in half the sour cream, then half the flour, then repeat.
5. In a separate bowl, toss the frozen berries in 1 Tbsp of flour.  
6. Fold the berries into the batter.
7. Portion the dough into a muffin tin (made about 18 for me).  I love these silicone cupcake liners!
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Blackberry Chipotle Freezer Jam

My cousin sometimes lets us come raid the blackberry bush at their farm when they've got a surplus.  I was itching to make some freezer jam, but didn't want to make plain ol' regular boring blackberry jam.  No...I wanted to do something INTERESTING.

...in retrospect, I really should have split the batch, and been boring with half and then played with the other half, because now I have 6 pints of INTERESTING jam when I would occasionally really like some regular ol' blackberry freezer jam.  But not to worry. I'll share the recipe for both, so you can learn from my mistakes.

INGREDIENTS (makes 4 jars):
4 cups crushed blackberries (you can use a potato masher or pastry cutter, but I'd shy away from a food processor, otherwise you'll end up with puree. A few pulses with a stick blender might work well.)
4 Tbsp Instant (no cook) pectin (or one 1.35 oz packet)
1.5 cups  Sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS: 

Combine the pectin and the sugar and mix well, then add the lemon juice and the blackberries, and stir well until fully incorporated.  At this point, if you're making straight up regular blackberry jam, you can go ahead and divvy these into half-pint jars.  Let sit at room temp for 30 minutes, at which point it should be soft-set. Then you can put one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer for later.

However, if you want to ramp things up a bit, then add the following to the mix:

1/4 tsp Chipotle powder (per jar)
1/4 tsp Cumin (per jar)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (per jar)
1/4 tsp Tabasco Chipotle Sauce
a pinch of smoked salt (per jar)

I'm providing these as "per jar" ratios so that if you want, you can make a full batch of the base, and then make the Chipotle version in one or two of the jars.  Just make sure you label them appropriately! 

The Chipotle version is pretty versatile. It makes a great grilled cheese (like this one), or you can put it in a Crockpot with a pork tenderloin for a delicious dinner. And of course it goes great on a biscuit.

Blackberry Scones

Third trimesters are chaotic.  I've learned this.  You can really feel the time ticking away--and the baby kicking away at your internal organs.  If you're a working lady, you're swamped trying to get balls kicked out of your court before the big day comes so that the people who will be covering for you while you're out have less to worry about.  There's baby classes and showers and last-minute getaways with your partner to try & make the most of the last of your alone time...not to mention that summers are just always FULL of things going on over the weekends...

...and you somehow manage to not cook a single "real" meal all week, aside from a doctored up Hamburger Helper on Monday, and you forget to do any kind of lunch prep over the weekend.  (And maybe everyone else but you raises their hand during baby class when the instructor asks who already has their car seat installed. *sigh*) So...lunches that week are a little thrown together.  Aaaand maybe one morning your stomach/baby decides to reject first breakfast for no good reason.  It's a weird time, and without proper prep & planning, you find yourself eating very random meals like:

Breakfast -8:30a (the second one, which baby was apparently okay with):
Ginger Ale
A banana
Blueberry Nutri-Grain bar

Lunch -11:30a:
cottage cheese w/strawberries
a PB sandwich on multigrain
Earl Grey tea

Afternoon Snack(s) - 2p-4:30p: 
watermelon
grapes
snow peas
Babybel cheese (the highlight of my day--they're SO good)

Pre-Dinner:
5:30p - A packet of Grilled Cheese Captain's Wafers as you drive to your baby class
7:30p - A bag of Panera potato chips your husband brought to the baby class in case they didn't provide snacks (thank goodness...Seriously...who hosts a 3 hour class for 20 pregnant women and doesn't provide snacks?)
8p - 4 more Captain's Wafers (PB & Honey this time)

"Real" dinner (at 9pm after class):
Split a Taco Bell Big Box with the Hubs, eat half a Quesarito & 1 Doritos Locos taco on the way to trivia

Post-Trivia (aka dessert):
11p - Split a Samoa donut with the Hubs from Hurts Donut

Talk about a downward spiral...

BUT...You know what I DID have time to do this past weekend?  Make a big batch of blackberry scones to have for breakfast throughout the week.  

I used Marion Cunningham's base scone recipe, and then added some fresh blackberries that we picked at my cousin's house.  I've had issues making scones in the past, but these turned out really well.  They were slightly more cakey than some of the scones you see, but the Hubs actually preferred that because he thinks regular scones are too dry.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12):

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (you could also do a split, with half AP and half wheat or oat flour)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (note: 1 stick of butter is 4 oz, so I opted to use Smart Balance Spread for the other 2 oz)
• 3/4 cup skim milk (original recipe calls for buttermilk, but I just never have that on hand--the original also calls for more milk, but since you're going to get some additional moisture from the berries, I've removed a bit of the milk)
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries (you can toss these with a tablespoon or so of sugar if they're not super-sweet)

To top:

melted butter

granulated sugar

Directions:

Heat the oven to 425F.

Working either by hand or with a stand mixer, combine the first 6 ingredients & mix well.  Then add the chopped butter and mix until it's the texture of cornmeal.  Add the zest & the milk, and then fold in the blackberries (your dough will likely start to take on a bluish tint if you're using fresh berries).

Divide the dough into two balls, and then set one onto a floured surface.  lightly dust the top with flour if the dough is sticky, and then pat flat to about 1-inch thick.  Use a pizza cutter to slice the wheel into 6 wedges.  Repeat with the second ball.

Place the wedges onto a lightly spritzed cookie sheet, then lightly spread melted butter over the tops and generously sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms & tops are browned. (NOTE: since your dough may be bluish, the tops may not get as brown, so use the bottoms as the best reference.)

Serve warm plain, or with butter or jam (or cream if you're a Brit...tell me, is clotted cream as disgusting as it sounds?).  We ate some fresh for breakfast that morning with a Greek yogurt parfait, and then bagged up the rest in the fridge for breakfasts through the week.

NutriFacts (per scone):

• Calories233.8
• Total Fat10.0 g
• Saturated Fat6.0 g
• Polyunsaturated Fat0.5 g
• Monounsaturated Fat2.8 g
• Cholesterol26.2 mg
• Sodium307.9 mg
• Potassium79.2 mg
• Total Carbohydrate32.5 g
• Dietary Fiber1.6 g
• Sugars7.7 g
• Protein4.0 g

29 Weeks: More Nursery Prep & Blackberries

Welcome to the third trimester!  Hello acid reflux, heartburn, gestational diabetes test, RhoGam shot (because I'm O- blood type), nice to meet you.  I'll be honest--I'd never had acid reflux before.   I asked The Hubs what it was, and he told me it felt like burping up acid.  I said, "Oh...so...well...I thought that was just bile, but apparently I have acid reflux."  Zantac 75 is my new BFF.

(Technically 27 week photo, but you get the idea.)

The clock is swifting ticking away...NOTE: isn't it odd how units seem to make all the difference in the world when it comes to that sort of countdown?  When I think "I have about 2.5 months left", that FEELS like a longer time than "11 weeks" or *gulp* 75 DAYS.  Plus I'm in a weird spot where I don't have much baby-prep to do--I can't do much more with the nursery or organizing until after baby showers next month (since I'd rather hold off on making too many purchases until after then).  I started prepping a hospital bag--but there's only so much I can put in it that I'm not going to need at some point between now & then.  So really, it's a bag with a bathrobe, a bottle of lotion, and a hospital bag checklist sitting in it.  (I am paranoid about getting the hospital bag ready as soon as reasonable, since my cousin just had her baby 5 weeks early.)  Our chest freezer is completely full of freezer meals & the like, so there's no more room for that sort of prep...

So I guess it's time to just twiddle my thumbs for a few weekends & enjoy pre-baby life.  This past weekend we did an 11-mile float with a bunch of friends, and this weekend we'll be driving up to Kansas City for a family reunion.  Last weekend, we went berry-picking at my cousin's blackberry patch & came home with about 2 gallons' worth.  1.5 gallons went into the freezer, but the rest we either ate fresh or used to make blackberry cobbler and a blackberry-balsamic glazed chicken.


In the meantime, thought I'd share what little bit of progress we have been able to make on the nursery.  We went with a Beach theme for the nursery so that it could be gender neutral (disclaimer--please ignore the giant Yoda poster that's still hanging in many of these photos--I haven't found a good new home for him yet).

So, as a reminder, this is what our nursery looked like at the last update (24 weeks):

And this is it about 2 weeks ago:

We only have a mattress at this point (holding off on the crib until after showers), but I have it laying where we plan on putting the crib (though we have joked about not getting a crib at all & just leaving him on the mattress...I mean, it's only a 4-inch fall, right?) :)

The nightstand will be for the nursing area, and the basket on the floor is full of blankets at the moment.  The dresser is a family heirloom from the Hubs' grandparents that was in our guest room before.  The cube-bookcase is mine and had been filled with office-stuff before.  As you can see, there are several pictures that need frames or need to be hung (Ooh...frame shopping--NEW MISSION).  The hamper, believe it or not, is mine from college.  I have no idea why I kept it so long, aside from the fact that it folded up flat & was easy to store for the last 15 years or so.  There's also now a changing pad on top of the dresser.

Just a bit of beachy decor on the dresser (thinking about painting that lighthouse all one color, but I haven't decided).  No lie--I've had that little pelican for about 6 years.  I found it while shopping for a friend's baby shower gift & couldn't help myself.  So...I guess I've had my nursery theme picked out in my head for a while. :)

And of course, there IS a little Star Wars nook in the nursery. :)

Then we got the curtains hung:

Those boxes are FULL of clothes a friend gave us.  We are so good on 3-6 month clothes.  I moved everything that was 6+ months into a storage tote that's under the mattress (will eventually be under the crib), but the rest are waiting to be washed & put away. (Yes...much washing to be done before baby comes...guess I could get started on that task at some point...)

And then, this past week we found a glider on Craigslist.  Getting it home (and then IN to this room) was quite a challenge (had to take the door off the hinge), but I'm pretty happy with it.  But I'm not in love with the pattern on the cushions (plus the ottoman has some stains) so thinking about making slipcovers for it.

I found this netting in with my crafting supplies, so I decided to use it to add a little visual interest to the mirror on the dresser (and to hide the gold frame a bit).  It still needs a little tweaking, and I might add a few more bits & baubles to the net (more shells, driftwood, maybe a lil' crab...)

More updates to come in the next few weeks!  

Canadian Cinnamon “Cookies” with Fresh Berries & Cream

Hello again!  We’re back from the Great White North.  …and I managed to tow back a Great White Cold, that I’ve code named “Canadian Goose Flu”.  It’s totally a thing.  (Okay, it’s not a thing, but it sounds good, and I did SEE some geese while I was there, alright?)

So let’s work our way through the trip, shall we?  And where else to start but at the beginning?  As in…the day before we left.

A big part of traveling is, of course, the PACKING.  There’s an art to packing for a proper trip.  For our honeymoon, thanks to the tutelage of Rick Steves, we managed to take everything we would need for a 12 day trip in two carry-on suitcases.  But of course, that was September, and Europe.  Most of our clothes were pretty light and easily compactable. 

This trip, we have to deal with SKI GEAR.  Big fluffy stuff. And winter sweaters and socks and the like.

Thank heaven for Space Bags. (Note husband and suitcase included for scale.)

Before:

After:

Ta-daaaaa!!!

 

So then, once you’re packed, there’s the refrigerator that must be considered.  You’re leaving the country for 7 days—what needs to be devoured before you leave so you don’t come home to a stanky rancid mess?

The Usual Suspects:  yogurt, milk, 4 strips of bacon, half-loaf of bread, leftover peas, random produce, etc.

The night before our departure, we had managed to whittle our contents down to:

- a few remaining slices of potato bread

- 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

- 4 oz carton of fresh blackberries

 

And I was craving sweets….but lacking the energy to make anything too complicated.

So, this little gem was born of some Kitchen Improv.

Fleur-de-lis and Canadian maple leaves!  (Yes, I’ve been dying to test out my newest cookie cutters.)

Ingredients:

2 slices potato bread (you could probably use any type of bread, but the potato bread makes this really similar to a brioche or challah)

1 tbsp light butter

cinnamon sugar

fresh berries of your choosing

1/2 cup whipping cream + 1 tbsp powdered sugar + splash of vanilla extract (or 1.5 cups already whipped cream)

(NOTE: I use the whipped cream recipe from Kitchen Basics.  Super easy, especially if you have a stand mixer.  Just add the ingredients to the bowl & let it run with the whisk attachment!)

 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 (or use a toaster oven).  Lightly butter both sides of each piece of bread, and then sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon sugar.  Toast for about 5-10 minutes, and then use a cookie cutter to cut out your preferred cookie shape. 

Don’t throw away the rest!!!  You tear that up, and place it in the bottom of a large bowl (or two small bowls, however you prefer, whether you want to share one dessert or make two separate ones).  Then dollop the whipped cream on top, cover with berries, sprinkle with some extra cinnamon for pizzazz, then add your fancy “cookies”. 

The “cookies” and the scraps at the bottom of the bowl are super crispy and buttery, almost like a toast-shortbread hybrid.  Comingle the vanilla-y cream, sweet fresh berries, and the crunchy bread, and it’ll satisfy any sweets craving in a heartbeat.

 

Come back tomorrow for some more Canadian goodness, eh? :D

Overnight Stuffed French Toast, of the Blackberry Variety.

Back in July, my mom hooked me up with a flat of blackberries.  We froze about half of those, so we’ve got a nice stockpile in the freezer still.  So when I saw a recipe on Pinterest for Overnight French Toast….yeahhhh….the pic might SHOW blueberries, but I had blackberries on the brain.  Nothing against blueberries, mind you.  But I don’t have a stockpile of fresh-frozen BLUEberries, now do I?  But seriously---this would be awesome with whatever berries you have on hand: strawberries, cherries, raspberries…heck, I think you could even attempt this with gooseberries, though you might want to add some extra sugar in that situation.

This recipe was nicely simple.  Just perfect for a weekend.  I prepped everything up on Friday night, woke up after a nice sleep-in, popped it in the oven, had my morning coffee, read for a bit, played around on Facebook, and then by the time the Hubs roused himself, breakfast was ready!

Oh…and it was DEELISHUSSSS.

Ingredients:

12 slices French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 (8 ounce) package fat free cream cheese, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup fresh blackberries
6 eggs, beaten
2 cups skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg  
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup fresh blackberries
1 tablespoon light butter

Directions:

Lightly coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray, and then place half of the bread cubes into the pan.  Place half the blackberries on top of that, then add the cream cheese cubes.  Cover that with the remaining bread and berries.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then add the spices, milk, vanilla, and syrup.  Pour over the pan evenly, cover, and place in the fridge until the morning.

 

The next morning, heat your oven to 350F, remove the pan from the fridge and let it sit for a bit (20-30 minutes) to come closer to room temp.  Then place in the oven for 30 minutes while covered with foil.  After 30 minutes, remove the foil and let finish cooking until the center is firm and the top is lightly browned.

While that’s cooking, we need to make a sauce for the top.  So in a small sauce pan, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and water and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the remaining 1 cup blackberries.  Then reduce heat and simmer  for about 10 minutes or until the berries burst.

Stir in the butter, and pour over the baked French toast.

Serve warm and dig in!

 

Makes 12 servings.

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 249.0

  Total Fat 4.0 g

  Saturated Fat 1.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.5 g

  Cholesterol 96.7 mg

  Sodium 386.2 mg

  Potassium 207.8 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 42.5 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.2 g

  Sugars 22.2 g

  Protein 10.3 g

Kitchen Improv: Blackberry Cobbler!

The other night the Hubs shot me a text saying that we needed to use up the blackberries in the fridge, as a few were starting to go bad.  We can’t have that!  So of course, cobbler was my first thought.  Delicious, easy way to use up a couple cups of fresh berries.

I got home from work, flipped through a couple cookbooks, and picked a recipe that seemed simple. I mean, flour, butter, berries, sugar, milk…how much more basic can you get?

Ten minutes into the prep for our Adventure into cobbler town, we made two discoveries.

1. We had only 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour in our pantry.

2. We also had only 1/4 cup of milk.

Did that stop us?  HECK NO!  There’s a 9x13 pan in the oven melting butter…and I’m not wasting a stick of butter just because of a couple setbacks.  Care to find out how we still managed to throw together this delectable gem?

Then keep reading. (Duh.  I’m sure you were planning on doing that anyway, right?)

First, I’ll give you the recipe I was SUPPOSED to use.  It’s apparently Mel Tillis’ mother’s cobbler recipe.

Ingredients (original):

1 stick butter

2 C milk

2 C flour

2 C blackberries

2 C sugar

 

Nice & simple, right?  But missing items in a pantry will throw off even the simplest of recipes.  So… we improvised.

First, my husband MADE flour.  Seriously.  MADE it.  He is RESOURCEFUL.  I’ve never made flour before.  I typically leave that to the professionals.

Two cups of old fashioned oats + 1 blender + 1 awesome husband?

 

BAM: Oat Flour.  Homemade even.

(Note: 2 cups of oats makes about 1.5 cups of oat flour.  So we added the 1/2 cup of regular flour that we already had.)

Then…no milk.  But that’s no problem: We have INSTANT MILK!

If you DON’T keep a box of dry milk in your pantry…you really should.  It’s perfect for these situations and there’s no taste difference (when used for baking), and a big box is pretty darn cheap.  Also comes in handy when you’re out of coffee creamer. :D

So we have a glass 9x13 pan in the oven, with a stick of butter cut up in it, melting:

And we’re combining our ingredients in our mixer: flour, milk, sugar (I actually decreased this to 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1/2 cup of Splenda.  The blackberries are already pretty sweet, so 2 cups of sugar just seemed excessive).

The batter seemed a little thin, and I was really surprised there wasn’t a leavener of some sort in the recipe, so I added 1 tsp of baking soda & 1/4 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of cornstarch, and about 1/2 cup of additional flour (I had some wheat pastry flour in the pantry that needed to be used up as well).

Once the thickness seemed right (like cake batter), I poured it into the pan on top of the melted butter, and then sprinkled the blackberries evenly over the top.  Then, sprinkle 1 tbsp of white sugar over the top of the batter.

Bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes, or until the top browns and the edges of the crust pull away from the sides of the pan.

Makes 15 servings.

Ingredients (actual recipe used):

1 stick butter

2.5 cups flour (1/2 cup AP, 1.5 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup wheat pastry flour)

2 cups nonfat milk

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 baking powder

1 tsp cornstarch

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Splenda

2 heaping cups blackberries

NutriFacts:

Calories 150.0  

Total Fat 4.1 g   

Saturated Fat 0.2 g   

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g   

Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g  

Cholesterol 10.6 mg  

Sodium 122.0 mg  

Potassium 90.6 mg  

Total Carbohydrate 28.3 g   

Dietary Fiber 2.5 g   

Sugars 13.1 g  

Protein 3.8 g