Category: Baking Success

No Pinterest Pics Here!

{Warning} There are no pretty photos on this blog. I can link you to my Etsy shop for that.

I am not afraid to substitute, my family is afraid when I substitute, with good reason. I have had some less than successful baking results, but they were “healthier” so there’s that. Except the time when I added salt instead of sugar, I am pretty sure that was at LD50.

In my defense, my sugar and salt decorative jars are very similar. It was inedible. Spit it out inedible. I blamed the salted butter, which I accidentaly bought during the Corona panic buying. It was not the butter, I added a cup of salt. But they were almond flour, so healthy?

This morning, I needed a pick-me-up, I didn’t sleep well. I am trying to reinvent my life post-COVID19. This is a story for another time. We are not a “paleo” family, no verified allergies, just the vain wheat belly reasons. I randomly subsitute almond flour into traditional recipes, it doesn’t always work out. I also don’t believe in using more than one bowl when baking, sort of a “one pot cooking” but for baking, it also doesn’t always work out. I know there is a science, nay, a chemistry behind the two or sometimes 3 bowls used in baking recipes, liquid/solids, acids/bases, oxidation/reduction, etc. I just don’t think it’s efficient and as I have learned more about myself, my goal is to optimize, sometimes the baking doesn’t look so pretty.

Exhibit A. #blueberry (I don’t know how to use a hashtag either)
Kids, come take a scoop of blueberry mess!

Back to this morning, today was a good day. The recipe, once I scrolled past all of the manicured pictures and found the buried recipe treasure, was pretty simple. I decided on a few substitutions. I didn’t have much coconut oil, I generally use olive oil for everything (I know, most of the best pastries are made with olive oil, ha-ha) I buy it in bulk (optimizing) and it usually works ok in most things. I find that olive oil and almond flour prove to be a little leaden when they combine forces so I use whole plain yougurt. This seems to add the fat but allows for a lighter texture. More edible, less building material.

Not all substitutions are successful, i.e. salt for sugar, vinegar and milk for buttermilk. Pretty sure the indigenous people built dwellings from this maize creation. You could really taste the vinegar, which was not at all tasty.

I beat the eggs, yogurt and honey with a hand mixer. I felt like it needed some vanilla extract so I added a capful or so. I then mixed in my salt, baking soda and almond flour, being oh-so-careful not to overmix. Acid/base blah blah blah.

For the topping I used brown sugar, I don’t know what coconut sugar is, cinammon and all spice. Also, I learned that allspice is not a mixture of all of the common baking spices as I thought for most of my life, according to my Google overlords, it is “Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica.” I think I will say I added Jamaica pepper next time, sounds more beachy. I drizzled a little oilive oil on top. I did not add slivered almonds as I felt the 3.5 cups of ground almonds was probably enough nuts for my GI system to process this morning.

I popped it in the oven and then the questions began. “Another coffee cake, are you putting blueberries in this one too?” “Is that almond flour, why can’t you use regular flour?” “How old is this coffee?” It baked in less than 30 minutes and was quite attractive for one of my baking experiments.

The entire cake was consumed in a few minutes, there were no stray blueberries squished onto the floor. A success! Additionally, I had but one bowl to wash. It was relatively light, delicious and practically a vegetable. I went on a run later and did not feel like I swallowed any lead weights.

No, I am not a professional photographer, but I can see why you might be wondering.