Category Archives: Baking

The Great Baking Escapade Begins

July 8, 2020Baking, cooking, Dessert, Dietitian, Food, Grains, home cooked meal, Recipe, registered dietitianBaking, home cooked mealsAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

One of the initial issues of the 2020 Pandemic was a shortage of toilet paper, flour, and yeast. I am now the proud owner of 97 rolls of TP from a restaurant supplier and a 25-pound bag of flour from Costco. Yeast is still a touch-and-go situation. This is the first in a series of blogs of baking my way through 25 pounds of flour. So you know, I’m not much of a baker.

My experience with baking is mostly limited to my time in Food Lab while an undergrad nutrition student. For some reason, an RD’s education including many hours devoted to baking. There is a lot of chemistry involved in cooking foods and this is especially true for baking. A lot happens from the initial mixing to the final cooking of quick breads and yeast breads. After my schooling, I have only made the occasional muffins.

I’m a well-educated novice.

My first two recipes were both for my husband’s birthday. I made cornbread as a side dish to his requested ribs. I followed that up with a mini-cake.

The cornbread recipe is here courtesy of Ina Garten and the Food Network. Trust me on this, you do NOT want to know the nutrition info on this one. It’s a bunch of cheesy, jalapeno-ey deliciousness. Just let all those nutrition concerns go and enjoy this recipe.

Cornbread in Pan and Sliced on Cutting Board

This was a very simple recipe. Not much to report baking-wise. The cornbread turned out okay, but it was more of a southern-style cakey-cornbread (due to the 3:1 ratio of flour to cornmeal). While delicious and a huge portion, I will not be making this one again.

Next up was a mini-cake with this recipe from Dessert for Two.

This was a more detailed recipe and all did not go as well as planned! The final product was very good – nice flavor, good crumb, perfect amount of sweetness that makes you go mmmmm without being too overpowering.

My biggest lesson from this recipe was that it does no good to melt butter for a recipe if your next step is to mix it with cold milk. The melted butter turns right back into solid butter! This could absolutely have been anticipated… yet I did not anticipate it. Next time I make this, because this one is a good recipe, I will make sure my milk is not cold before I start!

I should add that this was my first attempt at trying to actually decorate a cake. Don’t judge!

And while my husband liked the frosting, I prefer a frosting with cream cheese.

Follow my blog for more posts about the Great Baking Escapade and learn along with me!

Rhubarb

June 13, 2017Baking, Dessert, Dietitian, Farm to table, Fooddietitian, Farm to table, food, gardening, pie, rhubarb, vegetableAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

I am on my way home from NY State and had my very first experience with rhubarb this past weekend. It is ah-mah-zing! It is a vegetable that is used for a pie, which is typically a fruit’s job. I’ve heard of it (cue Prairie Home Companion Rhubarb Pie Song) but had never had an opportunity to try it before. When my family said they had a rhubarb plant in their garden that needed harvesting, my little dietitian brain lit up at getting to experience a brand-new-to-me vegetable experience from farm to table. This veggie is an exquisite combination of sweet and tangy sour and it is my newest love. Raw to cooked – delicious! Here is the journey in pictures. Enjoy!

Weekly Meal Plan: Baked Panko Shrimp and Pineapple Fried Rice

January 16, 2014Baking, Dietitian, Food, Grains, Healthy Diet, Recipe, Shrimpdietitian, healthy meal, nutrition, recipeAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

One thing you didn’t know about me until now is that my second job was in a Japanese Steak House where I worked as a hostess. I was young and what I remember most about that job is how difficult it is to dress in a kimono. Below is an old polaroid and the only picture I have from that time… long ago…

The other things I came away from that job with were a love of sushi and the knowledge that cooked rice should be refrigerated before it is turned into fried rice. With this knowledge, I scoffed at the feedback on the Pineapple Fried Rice recipe, knowing that my fried rice would not be mushy since I knew this trick!

I didn’t measure for this recipe and I used mushrooms instead of the red pepper. The sauce (pineapple, soy sauce, red pepper flakes) is absolutely delicious and I will use this for other recipes. The rice was also really tasty; but unfortunately, it was mushy!

I figured next time, I would also rinse off the rice before putting it in the fridge to wash some of the sticky starch off the rice… however, next time (yes, I already made it again and added diced chicken and broccoli), I used steamed white rice picked up from the local Chinese restaurant. I find that a worthwhile expense because it made a much less sticky rice dish.

For the Baked Panko Shrimp, I simply combined panko and cayenne pepper, then dipped raw shrimp into egg whites and then the panko mixture. I laid them out on a baking sheet covered with tin foil. I suggest spraying this with cooking spray, a step I did not do and I lost half the panko breading on the foil! These were baked at 475 for about 20 minutes.

I served these with sauteed spinach and mushrooms with sliced almonds. YUM!

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

February 11, 2013Baking, Dessert, Dietitian, Healthy Dietcookie, fiber, flax, healthy snacks, heart disease, oatmeal, registered dietitian, vegan, vegetarianAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

Today, my mission was to rework an oatmeal cookie recipe to be more heart-healthy and vegan. Oats are already a heart-healthy food so I didn’t have much work to do there; but I have not done much vegan baking. This was going to be a challenge! I ended up making two batches of oatmeal cookies. One is low-fat and the other is vegan. You decide which one fits into your healthy eating goals better.

I started with a basic oatmeal cookie recipe and focused on the ingredients that needed to be swapped out.

First up, vegetable shortening. Great for flakiness and flavor in baking; but it contains trans fat which is about as far away from heart-heatlhy as you can go. For the low-fat recipe, I swapped 3/4 cup vegetable shortening with 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup mashed banana to retain moistness and flavor. In my experience, when I replace more than half the fat in a recipe with a fruit puree, the final product loses some “yummy.” This wouldn’t do for the vegan version however since butter is a dairy/animal product, so I chose refined coconut oil. The refining removes some of the coconut flavor and leaves you with a solid fat that is good for baking. This swap removes the trans fat; but it adds some saturated fat. I think I could find a better option; but this is at least a baby-step towards heart-healthier.

Next replacement was the egg for the vegan version. Mixing 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of water makes for a nice egg replacement. If you buy flaxseed from the bulk bins, it is much cheaper! I was about to spend $4 for a bag of ground flaxseed and ended up spending $0.65 on a small amount of seeds from the bulk bin. Shop smart!

Flaxseed - before and after grinding — Flaxseed – before and after grinding

Ground flaxseed mixed with water is a great egg replacer

Finally, I wanted to add more fiber. I swapped half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour and called it a day.

Rolled oats coated with all-purpose and whole wheat flour and baking soda

There was a difference in the batters as well as the final cookies when they came out of the oven. The vegan batter was drier than the low-fat batter. If I were to recreate the vegan recipe, I would add more water for a more moist batter and cookie.

Into the over for a quick 14 minutes and both cookies spread a little while baking. I didn’t adjust cooking times at all from the original recipe.

I was a little disappointed in the nutritional changes. The low-fat and vegan cookies both had fewer calories than the original and no trans fat. These are both heart-healthy changes. The vegan cookies had the same about of total fat and a more saturated fat that the origial due to the coconut oil. I still think that’s more heart-healthy than having a cookie with trans fat. The catch is not to eat so many cookies that the fat starts adding up! Finally, the fiber content didn’t increase as much as I’d hoped.

Per 1 cookie	Original	Low-Fat	Vegan
Calories	70	60	50
Fat	2.6	1.5	2.5
Saturated Fat	0.6	0.5	2
Trans Fat	0.3	0	0
Cholesterol	2.6	4.5	0
Sodium	11	11	8
Carbohydrate	11	11	8.5
Fiber	0.7	1	1
Protein	1.4	1.5	1

The important thing is how they tasted, right? I preferred the vegan cookies because they had a sweet brown sugar flavor, are more oat-ey, and have a nice crispness. The low-fat cookies are softer and moister; but they had a bit of a banana flavor. I don’t know about you; but I’m not looking for banana in my oatmeal cookies! In the future, I’d consider adding dark chocolate chips or walnuts to boost the heart-healthy properties of these cookies.

Whichever cookie you prefer, I hope you now have some strategies for adjusting recipes when baking and that you will enjoy that occasional cookie, even on your heart-healthy diet!

A day's work for an RD — A day’s work for an RD

Veggies In Dessert – Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins

November 30, 2012Baking, Dietitian, Grains, Snacks, Vegetableschocolate chip, cupcakes, dietitian, eggplant, healthy, healthy snacks, muffins, vegetable, vegetable pureeAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

If you missed my segment on First Coast Living, you can watch me talk about Veggies in Desserts by choosing the tab for Food (click the right arrow to see more tabs) and then scrolling to Wednesday September 26th UNF Nutrition.

I showcased three desserts during this segment: Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes (see previous blog post), Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Black Bean Brownies. As I mentioned, none of these recipes were my creation and you can find them at these links:

Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins

Black Bean Brownies

The main points from my segment were:

1. Add vegetables to your day in any way you can!

Americans do not eat enough vegetables. The recommended amount for generally healthy adults is 2-3 cups per day and data shows we are eating 1.5-1.8 cups/day (2004 NHANES)! Sneaking vegetables into desserts can help us to baby-step our way towards the recommended daily amount – remember, it’s still dessert so it won’t get you all the way there!

2. Use vegetables to increase the nutritional content of your favorite desserts by reducing calories and fat, increasing fiber, and adding vitamins.

3. Methods (not covered in segment)

If using a puree, replace half of the fat with the puree. If it’s a liquid fat (oil) use 3/4 the amount that you are replacing and if it’s a solid fat (butter), use 1/2 the amount you are replacing. Reduce the oven temperature or check sooner than the recipe calls for or it might over-bake.

If using chopped vegetables, some have a high water content so you may need to reduce the other liquids in the recipe.

Now, on to my favorite of the three recipes – the eggplant chocolate chip muffins!

Start by making sure you have all the ingredients you will need on hand.

Ingredients for Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins

Next, figure out how to chop that eggplant! Here’s a suggestion, start by cutting into smaller sections with straight edges so the vegetable will sit flat when you start chopping.

Now, peel the eggplant. Honestly, when I make my second batch of these muffins today (yes, they are that good!) I will not peel the eggplant and see how that goes… but the recipe called for peeling, so I did.

Finally, chop the section in half (again to give you a flat edge for safer chopping) and make smaller and smaller cuts. These pictures show going from the whole section, to half the section, to slices, to matchsticks, to a small chop.

Finally - Chopped Eggplant! — Finally – Chopped Eggplant!

Moving on to the other ingredients, you will end up with four bowls of goodies. Top left is the flour mixture, top right is the butter mixture, bottom left is the chocolate chips, and bottom right is the chopped eggplant.

The beautiful thing about making muffins is that it is so easy! Simply make a well in your flour mixture (dry ingredients) and add your liquid ingredients. Be careful how much mixing you do! Gluten develops quickly once liquid is added to flour so you want to mix as LITTLE as possible while still combining the ingredients so there are NO DRY SPOTS of flour. Then fold in the extras (chips and eggplant) and mix just enough to distribute those extras throughout the batter. The mixture should be lumpy!

This recipe yields 24 muffins. Here they are before going in the oven

And after! YUM!

Compared to store-bought chocolate chip muffins, these have 50 less calories, 4 grams less fat, double the fiber, and we’ve added vitamins A and C.

Per muffin:

Calories	180
Carbohydrates (g)	26
Protein (g)	3
Fat (g)	8
Sat Fat (g)	3
Trans (g)	0
Cholesterol (mg)	30
Sodium (mg)	170
Fiber (g)	2.1
Vitamin A	3%
Vitamin C	7%
Calcium	2%
Iron	4%

Original publication date: September 30, 2012 at http://newmotivationcoaching.blogspot.com.

Veggies in Dessert – Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes

November 30, 2012Baking, Dietitian, Snacks, Vegetablesbeet puree, beets, cupcakes, dietitian, healthy snacks, muffins, red velvet cupcakes, vegetablesAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

Did you know it’s “Fruits and Veggies – More Matters” month?

I’m doing a media spot this month and decided to focus on sneaking in more vegetables by using them to create desserts. My first adventure in the kitchen was red velvet cupcakes made with beets. I’m happy to report no red stains anywhere in my kitchen from the beets!

The recipe is from: http://www.dominosugar.com/recipe/beet-red-velvet-cake-7560 with no alterations. I did add store-bought cream cheese icing because making these cupcakes – which is more like making cake than muffins – was enough for one day.

Lab coat, check. Hair back, check. Hands washed, check. All ingredients on hand and measured, check. And we are ready to go!

Step 1: Cream sugar and butter. Note that a husband with strong hands is helpful for this step!

Creamed Butter and Sugar — Creaming Butter and Sugar is Easiest with a Fork

Step 2: Add eggs

Other bowls of goodness ready. Note that if you don’t have a sifter, you can use a wire mesh strainer. I did this and it sifted beautifully. Top left: flour mixture. Top right: sugar, butter, eggs mixture. Bottom left: buttermilk mixture. Bottom right: pureed beets – pretty!

Ingredients for Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes Ready for Mixing!

Once mixed together = big bowl of batter and a wooden spoon that will probably always be slightly reddish…

The recipe does indeed make 24 cupcakes

These have a nice moistness and grain but are not as red as conventional red velvet cake (even with sneaking a few drops of red food coloring in the batter…shhh!)

Cooked Cupcake - Look at that Grain!! — Cooked Cupcake – Look at that Grain!!

And the final product with the icing, which I will be bringing into work tomorrow to share!

These are husband-approved, so you know they must be good, and they sneak in a vegetable that many people dislike in it’s pure form. Simply by making the vegetable into a puree, you can add beets to your diet! Next is the nutrition information as compared to a store-bought mix for red velvet cupcakes. The rows in pink are where the biggest nutritional changes are seen.

Original publication date: September 16, 2012 at http://newmotivationcoaching.blogspot.com.

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