Archive for the ‘Fruits and Veggies’ Category
Marmalade is just as popular a topping for toast as jams, jellies and other fruit preserves are, and its strong orange flavor makes it a popular ingredient in some baked goods, as well. Marmalade is a jelly – a fruit preserve made from sugar and fruit juice, as opposed to fruit puree – that has pieces of fruit suspended it it. It is typically made with the juice, flesh and rind of oranges. Seville oranges, or bitter oranges, are the standard citrus used in marmalade (particularly in English marmalades) because their relatively high pectin content allows the preserve to set firmly and their distinctive bitter note is a pleasant contrast to the otherwise sweet orange juice.
While orange marmalade is the most common variety, marmalade can actually be made with other citrus fruits. This is great news for those who aren’t fans of the bitterness that many traditional marmalades contain. These blends – like the Three Fruit Marmalade pictured above – use sweet oranges, lemons, limes and even grapefruits to create a sweeter preserve that still has that zesty citrus flavor.
Alongside the big, decorative pumpkins typically used for making jack-o-lanterns around Halloween that they stock at most markets, you’ll also see smaller pumpkins with names like “sugar pumpkins” or “pie pumpkins.” Large pumpkins tend to have watery and stringy flesh, so they’re not a great choice for cooking with. Sugar pumpkins, on the other hand, are an excellent choice for cooking and baking applications. These smaller squashes have a firm, sweet flesh that is much smoother than that of larger pumpkins. They’re great for roasting, making soups and for making homemade pumpkin puree for pies, not just because they have a good pumpkin flavor, but also because their firmer and less stringy flesh roasts up to a much more pleasant consistency than that of a much larger pumpkin.
Sugar pumpkins are only about 6 to 8 inches in diameter and they will usually be labeled with “sugar pumpkin” or the name of another small variety of pumpkin, often with a note indicating that they’re the best choice for baking. From one pumpkin of this size, you’ll typically be able to get the same amount of puree that you do from a can of pumpkin (15-16 oz), or perhaps a little bit more.
Pumpkin is a fall baking staple, and while you can certainly make your own puree at home with just a little bit of effort, it is far easier to stock up on canned pumpkin for your baking projects. Canned pumpkin is a very consistent and reliable product to work with and can give you great results in your recipes. Most recipes that call for pumpkin are formulated to use canned puree, and because homemade versions can vary somewhat in flavor and texture, they can occasionally throw a recipe off if you’re not aware of that. I do like to make homemade puree when I have an especially good pumpkin to work with, but I always have some of the canned stuff in my pantry so that I am ready to bake pumpkin pie on a moment’s notice. There are several brands of canned pumpkin out there and, like most products, there is some variation in flavor that can really impact your finished products. A few seasons ago, Cook’s Illustrated did a taste test on several brands of canned pumpkin to see which brand baked into the best pumpkin pie.
They tested Farmer’s Market Organic Canned Pumpkin, Libby’s Canned Pumpkin and One-Pie Canned Pumpkin. Libby’s Canned Pumpkin and One-Pie Canned Pumpkin were both taste-tester favorites, even though they had slightly different flavors. One Pie had a slightly “sharper” pumpkin flavor, while Libby’s was “creamy” and had more sweetness to it. The test kitchen didn’t recommend Farmer’s Market Organic Canned Pumpkin, which testers said had an unpleasant “chalky,” “vegetal” flavor to it. I bet that I’m not the only one who was surprised at the results of the test (given that I keep both brands in my pantry on a regular basis)! The full review is online (available without subscription until the end of the month), if you want to read through the test before stocking up on pumpkin the next time you’re at the store.
The CI test kitchen also mentions – and it is worth mentioning again regardless of your brand preference – that it is important to check the labels carefully when you’re buying canned pumpkin to ensure that you don’t buy pre-sweetened, pre-spiced pumpkin pie filling when you’re in the market for plain canned pumpkin for your baking.
Coconut milk is an ingredient that is often called for in baking recipes that showcase coconut, used in place of regular milk or other liquids to further emphasize the coconut flavor of a recipe. Most grocery stores stock it, and they also stock a similar looking product called cream of coconut. Coconut milk is a creamy liquid with the consistency of milk made by cooking coconut and water together and straining out the coconut meat. Cream of coconut is to coconut milk what condensed milk is to regular milk: cream of coconut is a very thick, almost paste-like cream that is essentially cream of coconut with most of the water removed from it. It is made by chilling coconut milk and skimming off the thick, rich layer of cream that forms on top of it. Coconut cream has a buttery mouth feel and a good coconut flavor, but it is not particularly sweet.
Although basic cream of coconut is not a sweetened product, many types of cream of coconut sold in stores come presweetened. These are typically used for making mixed drinks and ice creams, where you want an intense flavor and sweetness. Cans are not always clearly labeled that they have been sweetened (making them more like sweetened condensed milk than evaporated milk), so it is important to check the labels when picking some up. Cream of coconut, sweetened or unsweetened, is not often called for in baked goods or recipes because coconut milk is more widely available and easier to incorporate, but know that cream of coconut should not be substituted directly for coconut milk in recipes, especially when dealing with baked goods.
Zucchini is one of those summertime vegetables that never seems to run out of steam. I really have to wait until the weather starts to change before the friends who have been handing me piles of the stuff all summer long finally begin to slow down. I’m not complaining, mind you (although I have stopped planting the stuff in my own garden), because I am a big fan of zucchini in both savory dishes and in baked goods. Like carrots, zucchini is a great addition to baked goods and whipping up a batch of zucchini bread is a very good way to use up a lot of it at once and sneak some veggies into dessert. Unlike carrots, however, zucchini has a more significant impact on the cake or bread that it is baked into. Zucchini is more moist than carrots are, and bakes up to be more tender, so the texture of the vegetable is slightly more subtle in the finished product.
Zucchini should be washed and shredded fairly fine if you intend to bake with it. Coarser shreds will have a slightly more noticeable flavor and texture in a finished cake or bread recipe. The shredded zucchini should be pressed well with paper towels to soak up excess moisture to prevent whatever your baking from getting too soggy.
If you haven’t tried baking with zucchini before, it is worth knowing that it can be substituted into most recipes that use shredded carrots, such as carrot cake, without any problems. Breads, cakes and cookies that use zucchini tend to be a little more diverse than most carrot cake recipes, so once you get your feet wet and try out your first recipe or two with zucchini, you might want a little more inspiration and these recipes are a great place to start:
