We've had patterns of afternoon thundershowers in these parts, which
always lead to stuffed sinuses for me, which lead to naps in the
afternoon, which led, this morning, to my being up at 4:00am. First I
started on a long letter to a friend. Then I realized that I could bake
in the morning which is a good idea if it's going to get hot later.
The Oatmeal-Maple Bread from Enchanted Broccoli Forest is an old standby
for me. I've made it lots of times and always thought it wasn't sweet
enough and doesn't have a pronounced enough maple flavor. This time was
no exception, but Jim doesn't have my sweet tooth, and it was mostly for
him.
The recipe calls for:
1 cup white flour,
1 cup whole wheat flour,
1.5 tsp. baking soda,
1/2 tsp. baking powder,
1.5 cups rolled oats
for the dry ingredients and:
2 eggs,
1/2 cup maple syrup,
1 cup buttermilk,
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract and
4 Tablespoons melted butter
for the wet ingredients. There's a handwritten note in my cookbook to
substitute 1.5 cup blueberries for the lemon rind and lemon juice. I
must have been correcting for the lack of sweetness way back whenever I
wrote that.
My method is just to sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, then combine
the wet ingredients right in the measuring cup and add to the dry. In
that way, there's really only the one bowl and one measuring cup to wash
(plus the loaf pan and mixing spoon) when you're done.
After bragging yesterday that I've had good luck with freezing
buttermilk for baking, I didn't have any and was about to abandon the
project because I didn't feel like waiting to sour fresh milk with
vinegar, but then I remembered some Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt that
was still good, thinned it to the right consistency with milk and had
exactly the right amount.
(Even if I'd taken the time to sour fresh milk, I was reluctant to use
the last of the milk. Jim always used to be adamant that he have his
cappuccino made exactly right with the sprinkle of cocoa on it. Since
coming out of the hospital UNaddicted to caffien, he's been drinking
decaf, but I wasn't sure about using the last of the milk. Some things
are sacred.)
I didn't have any blueberries either so I substituted chopped ripe
banana. It worked!
--Lia