Quick Chocolate Fix

In the interest of trying to add a little fiber and moisture into a plain old cake mix, this recipe uses UNSWEETENED applesauce in place of the liquid and about half the fat. The topping goes together quickly and removes any need for frosting. Cupcakes seem to work best for this, as the topping can sometimes cause the center of an entire cake to sink a bit.

Chocolate Applesauce Cupcakes

1 package chocolate cake mix, 2 layer size--I prefer the "fudge" variants over devils food, but any chocolate variety will do
3 T oil
2 eggs
2 c unsweetened applesauce (or a 15 oz can or jar if not homemade)

Topping
2 T sugar
1 T butter, softened
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/2 c miniature or regular semisweet chocolate chips

1. Combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and applesauce and beat for 3 minutes.

2. Spoon the batter into cupcake liners in a standard muffin pan.

3. Cream the sugar and butter and stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Sprinkle evenly over the cupcake batter.

4. Bake at 350 degrees 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from pans to cool.

Makes 20 to 24.

A Quick Cake for Early Spring

Fresh strawberries have been reasonably priced this month, and our Easter breakfast potluck at church showed the result of this, with bowls and bowls of the brilliant berries lined up, sometimes mixed with cantaloupe and grapes, but even more often unadorned and beautiful.

That is probably the very best way to enjoy strawberries, but the cake below will also help you stretch a pound or so of berries to a dessert that will cut into 16 to 24 pieces. The recipe will also work with raspberries, and either of these kinds of berries can be used in their frozen form if they are not frozen in syrup.

Though the column on which this blog is based did not include "healthy" in the title (couldn't come up with an alliterative adjective to go with frugal, etc.), I try to keep that as a baseline assumption. Is this cake "healthy?" Well no, but it does have a little more going for it than the "poke" cakes from which it gets its inspiration. Most of these use fruit-flavored gelatin poured over the cake, with whipped topping covering it. My version adds in a little fruit and reduces the sugar-y gelatin substantially. So it remains cake, with lots of preservative-laden ingredients, so it is not something to be indulged in frequently. Still, for that occasional "cake occasion," it may be a better alternative than a two layer, frosting-laden dessert.

So here is today's frugal (if you buy the cake mix and topping on sale), fast, and fun dessert, with a touch of not-as-bad-as-it-could be nutritive value thrown in for good measure.

Strawberry Poke Cake

1 yellow or white cake mix (I made it this week with a spring confetti cake mix that had been on a post-Easter sale for 69 cents at Aldi)
eggs, oil and water
1 pound fresh strawberries, stemmed, washed, and cut into small pieces
1 to 2 T (about a third of a package) strawberry gelatin powder
3/4 c water (only 1/4 c for frozen berries)
8 oz container frozen, low fat whipped topping

1. Prepare the cake mix according to directions BUT use only half the oil and about 1/4 cup less water than called for.
2. Pour the batter into a well-oiled 9 X 13 pan--if you have a 10 inch round pan, this could be used for a more festive looking cake. You will be leaving the cake in the pan, so use your best looking one!
3. Bake the cake as directed.
4. While the cake is baking, combine the gelatin and water, stir well and microwave for about 2 minutes, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then stir in the chopped strawberries.
5. As soon as the cake is removed from the oven, poke holes all across the top of the cake with a fork. Spread the berries evenly over the top, making sure that all parts of the cake are covered with berries and/or juices.
6. When the cake is well-cooled, spread evenly with the whipped topping and refrigerate until serving. If desired, save a few of the berries and top each piece of cake with a couple of berry slices.


A few added notes:

If using frozen berries: Allow to thaw only enough to chop the berries. Reserve all juices and add them with the berries to the gelatin mixture.

If substituting raspberries for strawberries, use raspberry flavored gelatin.

More strawberries can be added for an even more berry-flavored cake. There is no need to increase the gelatin or water when doing this.

Sometimes the cake will rise quite high in the middle. (Different brands seem to fill a 9 X 13 pan differently) If this occurs, you may want to take a large knife and slice off the rounded part of the cake so that the berries and juices do not all slide off the middle section. Another solution to this "problem" would be to bake the cake in two 7 X 11 pans or an 11 X 15 pan, increasing the berries and whipped topping to account for the increased area to be covered.

So what about the "leftover" ingredients, the unused part of the gelatin package and/or the part of the cake that is sliced off the top?

The gelatin:
Pour the remainder into a tightly capped jar, label and use for making this cake again.
Sprinkle over vanilla ice cream for a sparkly addition, or use as "sprinkles" on cupcake or cookie frosting.
Stir a teaspoon or so into a smoothie in which you might have otherwise used a bit of sugar.
For a little girl's birthday cake, I once added the gelatin not used for the topping to the cake mix itself. Very pink, very little-girlish.

The cake:
Crumble the pieces and dry by spreading them on a sheet. Then pop them in the oven after you've turned it off and have taken the cake out. When they are well dried, store in a tightly covered container in the freezer and use in place of graham cracker crumbs in a pie crust.
Or, easiest of all, leave the crumbs in a bowl on the counter and let everyone in the household know they are available for snacks.

A Hearty Winter Meal

Here's a good meal for a snowy winter evening, a contrast to the many rich foods so common during this season. If you have leftover turkey from a Christmas dinner or turkey in the freezer from Thanksgiving, use that instead of the turkey thighs.

Southwestern Style Turkey Stew

Canola oil

2 turkey thighs, about 2 pounds

1 large onion, diced

1 c chopped celery

Garlic powder, salt, and seasoning salt to taste

1 c chopped bell pepper (optional)

Cumin and oregano to taste—a lot!!

15 oz can “chili-ready” diced tomatoes

1 c turkey or chicken broth

1 T sugar

1 T cider vinegar

2 c black beans (or 15 oz can), including liquid

12 to 16 oz frozen corn

1. Saute the onion and celery slowly in the oil. When very tender and golden, remove from the oil and put into the slow cooker.

2. Remove the skin and any excess fat from the thighs and brown them in the oil from the onion and celery. Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder and seasoning salt on both sides. Cover and simmer until the meat is very tender. Allow to cool enough to handle. Cut the meat off the bones and dice. Add to the slow cooker, along with the beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, and other seasonings. Cover and cook on low for two to three hours.

3. Taste for seasoning after a few hours of simmering. I added about a teaspoon or two of mixed dried herbs (I used basil, marjoram, rosemary, and thyme), about a teaspoon or so, more garlic powder, more cumin, and seasoning salt.

The rest of the meal

A tossed salad or cole slaw makes a good side dish, and corn bread or rolls are good additions as well.

Dessert? I am blessed with a root-cellar-like garage, so have apples from the local orchards well into the winter. With plenty of garden raspberries in the freezer, I often turn to a mixture of these fruits for my dessert choices.

Apple Raspberry Upside Down Cake

Fruit layer:

2 c diced apples

1/2 c brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

10 to 12 oz frozen raspberries

Cake

1 white or yellow cake mix, two layer size

1 1/4 c water

2 eggs

2 T lemon juice

1 t cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spread the apples in the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan and cover with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Place in the preheated oven and bake about 10 to 15 minutes until the sugar has melted and caramelized over the apples. Remove from the oven and add raspberries. Stir to spread the fruit evenly across the bottom of the pan.

3. Meanwhile, combine the cake ingredients and beat as directed on the cake mix package--usually 2 to 3 minutes at medium speed. Spread the cake batter over the fruit and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately turn onto a platter. May be served hot or cold.

Though I have not tried it, my guess is that strawberries could be substituted for the raspberries.

Quick Dessert for a Winter Night

The following recipe is a great one to keep available when you need to make a better than average dessert, either for the family or for drop in guests. I have made it with raspberries frozen from my garden, but it should work as well with frozen strawberries or peaches--the plain fruit, not sweetened or in syrup. I made it several times last winter and found it to be a nice reminder of the summer and all those wonderful fresh fruits we have then.

Why half a cake mix, and how?

This is one of those recipes that is best eaten soon after baking. Even this smaller size feeds six to eight, so I haven't seen the need for a larger cake.

Since this recipe uses the cake mix as just a crumble, there is a little room for approximation. Thus, I just dump the entire bag into a large measuring bowl, check the total amount (which is usually around 4 cups) and spoon half back into a glass canister. Cover the unused half tightly, label, and put back on the shelf or in the refrigerator for a later recipe.

The half that is left in the measuring bowl is then used for this recipe.

(In case you are wondering what you would ever do with the other half of the cake mix, look back at my January 23, 2009 post, http://frugalfastfun.blogspot.com/2009/01/yoghurt-and-cake-mix-bar-cookies.html, and you'll find another recipe using half a cake mix as well.)

5 Minute Raspberry Crisp

1 1/2 to 2 cups frozen raspberries, slightly thawed, including all juices
1/2 package yellow white cake mix
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 c slivered almonds OR chopped walnuts
1 t cinnamon

Spread raspberries in a 7 X 11 cake pan.

Mix remaining ingredients together until crumbly. Spread over berries, pressing down slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until bubbly around the edges. You may want to cover for the first 15 minutes or so. Serve warm or cold, but best when still warm and topped with just a little ice cream or whipped cream.

A New Christmas Cookie, Along with an Old Standby

Yesterday we started decorating Christmas cookies, even though the weather altered the plans a little. In the middle of a blizzard, only my two youngest grandsons, ages 4 1/2 and 6, along with their parents, were here to enjoy the fun. I had planned to make cookies ahead so that there would only be decorating done with the kids, but the weather changed that too, and we ended up rolling out and cutting cookies as a group. Fortunately, the recipes I had chosen were easily worked and both proved to be "kid-proof" both at the rolling and decorating stages.

The first recipe is one that I received from my sister Alice many years ago, and it is still a handy one to keep around. This dough ends up remarkably like play dough in consistency and the cookies end up crisp and tasty. I made two batches, one with a chocolate cake mix and one with a white cake mix, the variations another advantage to the recipe.

I am not a huge fan of ginger cookies but wanted to try out something that could be the basis for "real" gingerbread men. The second recipe is an adaptation of Maida Heatter's Swedish Gingerbread Cookies that seems to be fairly common on the web. After making it, I can understand why. It met both the qualifications of ease of handling and great flavor equally well, along with being reasonable in price. This is definitely one I will plan to make again.

SPECIAL NOTE:

For either kind of cookie, or for ANY rolled cookies for that matter, here is a secret to avoid tough cookies, even with the re-rolled scraps: Spread your rolling surface with a mixture of half and half flour and powdered sugar instead of just flour. (I have also seen a recommendation to use cocoa in place of the powdered sugar for chocolate cookies, but I have never found that necessary.) If you find that you have a very flour-y surface on some of the cookies, you can lightly dampen a paper towel and brush some of the flour off before or after baking.

Frosting and Decorating!

For frosting, I make a very basic powdered sugar icing, in large quantity since I will also use this for icing the many coffee cakes that are also part of the Christmas baking here. Then I put varying amounts in resealable plastic containers and add food coloring to each. This year, we started with just red, green, and yellow--no blue for now. There is of course, lots of frosting left white, because that works best as a basis for colored sprinkles and sugars.

Ah the sprinkles.

There are all different colored sugars, chocolate and multi-colored sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and red hot cinnamon candies for adding to the decorative creations. These are arranged on a tray in the middle of the table and each decorator also has his or her own cookie sheet or cake pan with sides to keep in stray sprinkles. The frostings are each supplied with several "Popsicle" type craft sticks, as these work far better than anything else for spreading the frosting. Toothpicks are also available for the more detailed efforts of many of our cookie designers. You will also need lots of room for the creative efforts to be spread out to dry; stacking too quickly destroys a lot of the best designs!

Never Fail Rolled Cookies

1 package cake mix, any flavor, two layer size
2 to 3 T softened butter
1 egg
1 T water

Begin mixing with a fork and then use your hands to make a ball of dough almost the consistency of Play-Dough. The dough does not need to be refrigerated. If you do chill it, remove it from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before beginning to roll. (Note that this is different from most rolled cookies.)

Using about a quarter of the dough at a time, roll it out on a mixture of flour and powdered sugar. I prefer them quite thin, but they can be anywhere from an eighth to a quarter inch thick; the key to any rolled cookie is to make sure there are no spots much thicker than others.

Cut the cookies as close to each other as possible to minimize scraps, but you can shake as much flour as possible off the scraps and press them all together into a ball before re-rolling.

Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet about a half inch apart. Bake at 375 degrees until just done. This will be anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

Remove immediately from the pans and cool on racks. Store in a tightly covered container until ready to decorate.

NOTE: You can also shape this dough into one inch balls and then roll in chopped nuts, sugar and cinnamon, or colored sugars before baking. Press slightly to flatten before baking.

Swedish Gingerbread Cookies

2/3 cup dark molasses
2/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 c butter OR mixture of half butter and half rendered chicken fat
1 large egg, slightly beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Cut the butter and/or fat into chunks in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Combine the molasses, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon in a very large saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. When it is just beginning to boil, stir in the baking soda and continue to heat until the mixture is very light and foamy. Remove from heat and pour over the butter. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is evenly blended.

Beat the egg just enough to mix the yolk and white well and then stir quickly into the molasses mixture. Stir in the flour a cup at a time and mix well. Toward the end you may want to use your hands to mix evenly, gently kneading the dough to develop a smooth, evenly mixed ball.

Roll out the cookies as thick or as thin as you like. I made these about 1/4 inch thick for a very crisp cookie. Place on well-oiled pans and bake at 350 degrees for 11 to 14 minutes. Store tightly covered until ready to decorate.

Rendered Chicken Fat

Using half rendered chicken fat makes these cookies especially light and crispy, with absolutely no taste of the chicken if the fat is properly prepared. To render chicken fat:

Cut all loose, outside, fat from chicken pieces and put in a saucepan with enough water to almost cover. You may also include chicken skin in this pan. Cover the pan, bring to a boil, and cook over low to medium heat for about 45 minutes to an hour. Pour the mixture into a colander or strainer and let drain without pressing the solids. Put into a wide-mouthed container and chill. The rendered fat will harden on top of the liquid which can then be discarded.

Note that the fat and skin must be removed before any seasoning of the chicken and before the chicken is cooked, to avoid mixing any flavor of the meat to enter the fat.

Chicken fat is found in some very old-fashioned recipes and can add a light texture to many baked goods. Even though it carries little or no flavor, you may want to use it only in baked goods with other strong flavors predominating--like ginger cookies and gingerbread!

Yogurt and Cake Mix Bar Cookies

Way back in the 80s, one of the winners of the Pillsbury Bake-off was a Sour Cream and Raisins bar cookie. I don't think I have ever made the "real" recipe, but I started modifying it and have come up with a whole set of variations that are different enough that I can really call this recipe my own. The speed at which this can be made and the variations that allow you to take advantage of whatever you can get on special really do make this a frugal, fast, and fun recipe.

Yogurt Cookie Bars

A really fast dessert with lots of variations possible

1/2 package standard size cake mix, any brand, any flavor (see NOTE)
1/3 c melted butter
1 1/2 c yogurt, plain or flavored
2 large or extra large eggs
1/2 c sugar--if using flavored yogurt, reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup

Optional ingredients

* 1/2 c raisins or dried cranberries
* 1/2 to 1 c chopped dried apricots
* 1/2 c nuts--sliced almonds, chopped walnuts or pecans
* 1/2 t vanilla or almond extract
* grated rind of one lemon or one orange
* 1 c frozen raspberries, blueberries or chopped strawberries or peaches, only slightly thawed; if the fruit is quite juicy, either drain the juice or reduce the amount of yogurt by a tablespoon or so
* 1 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Cut the butter in chunks and put into a 9 X 13 pan. Put the pan in the oven as it is preheating to melt the butter. When the butter is melted, pour over the dry cake mix and stir until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Return to the pan and press firmly and evenly across the bottom.

Mix together the yogurt, eggs, sugar, and any optional ingredients being used. Stir until well blended and pour over crust. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until mixture is just set in the middle.

NOTE: The original recipe used a full package of cake mix, but we prefer the thinner crust only half the mix makes. Most brands seem to measure out to around 4 cups, so I either measure out two cups or just eyeball the two halves, trying to make them as even as possible. After I have divided the dry mix, I put the half not used in a zippered plastic bag or glass jar, add a post-a-note to identify it, and store it in the cupboard or refrigerator.

Some of our favorite combinations over the years:

With yellow or white cake mix:

* lemon or plain yogurt, almond flavoring, and dried apricots and almonds
* lemon, plain or vanilla yogurt with vanilla extract and raisins (or dried cranberries) and walnuts
* any fruit flavored yogurt with the same kind of fruit stirred in


With chocolate cake mix:

* plain or vanilla yogurt with vanilla extract, nuts, chocolate chips, and raisins
* raspberry yogurt with frozen raspberries and slivered almonds (I usually sprinkle these over the top instead of stirring them in)
* vanilla yogurt, chocolate chips, and chopped walnuts or pecans
* vanilla yogurt, almond extract and lots of slivered almonds