Spiced Sweet Potato Souffle

Sweet potatoes have to be one of the best vegetables ever. They are sweet like candy and are packed with tons of nutrients. If you follow that old rule that goes, "the more color a veggie has, the better for you," sweet potatoes rock the universe. They can be made into something sweet like pie or savory like baked fries, or they can be made into fancy things (hence, souffle) or just downhome goodness of mashed potatoes. Anyway, I had been dying to try a sweet potato souffle for a while, so I tested this one out for Thanksgiving. I loved it and will be making it again. I could honestly have this as dessert as well as a side, and that's fantastic news due to the fact that this dish is relatively good for you (not too much sugar or fat compared to pie or something...). I must admit, mine did fall a little, but that really is not a reason to not make this =).

Oh, and if you are not a fan of ginger and allspice and such, feel free to omit them. Some people may find the dish to reliant upon spices (too much ginger? ha. No such thing. You people are crazy.)

Spiced Sweet Potato Souffle
Adapted from Cooking Light

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 pound, 12 ounces) 
  2 tablespoons butter, softened 
  1/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 ounce) 
  1/2 cup whole milk
  1 tablespoon grated orange rind 
  1/3 cup fresh orange juice 
  1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ginger1/4 teaspoon allspice3/4 teaspoon salt 2 large egg yolks 5 large egg whites 
• 
  

• Position oven rack to lowest setting, and remove the middle rack. Preheat oven to 425°.
• Coat a 1 1/2-quart soufflé dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Set aside.
• Pierce potatoes with a fork; arrange on paper towels in microwave oven. Microwave at high 10 minutes or until tender, rearranging potatoes after 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Slice each potato in half, then scoop out the insides with a spoon (this is easier than peeling the potatoes, in my opinion). Combine potatoes and butter, and mash with a potato masher until smooth.
• Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, potato mixture, half-and-half, and next 8 ingredients (through egg yolks) in a food processor; process until smooth. Transfer potato mixture to a large bowl.
• Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl; beat at high speed with a mixer until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat). Gently fold one-fourth of egg white mixture into potato mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Gently spoon mixture into prepared dish. Sharply tap dish 2 or 3 times on the counter to level. Place dish on a baking sheet; place baking sheet in a 425° oven. Immediately reduce oven temperature to 375° (do not remove soufflé from oven). Bake 1 hour or until soufflé is puffy, golden, and set. Serve immediately.

Oat and Milk Snack Cake

I tried it with pecans on the left and strawberries on the right

(My mom taught me the tinfoil trick when trying to make pans different sizes)

You can ask almost anyone who knows me, I can go a bit overboard when it comes to health bars. I love them and, if I had enough money to buy bars that cost $3 each, my whole house would be filled with them. It's a good thing I don't have that much money, since I might never get around to eating real food.

Due to the high cost of nutrition bars, I have started poking around for recipes for them. I found this recipe the other day and tweaked it to my liking (using whole wheat flour, milk and lemon instead of buttermilk, and tossing in some strawberries that were about to go bad). The use of milk and lemon is mostly because I too cheap to go and buy actual buttermilk.

I brought these to my Friday night church group and got lots of compliments on them. For the pictures on this post, I made a half batch of strawberry and a half batch of pecan. Both turned out well. When summer is here, I think I will make this into something of a quick bread and add blackberries, mmmm.

Whole Wheat, Oat and Milk Snack "Cake"

Adapted from Cooking Light

3/4 T lemon juice in a 3/4 cup measuring glass

Enough milk to fill the 3/4 cup with lemon juice in it

1/4 steel-cut oats

1/4 cup oat flour (rolled or quick oats ground to a powder in a blender or food processor)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

3/4 t cinnamon

1/4 c brown sugar

2 T butter

1/2 t vanilla

1 large egg

Optional:

1/4 cup chopped pecans to sprinkle on top

or

1/3 cup sliced strawberries (heck, any kind of berry) folded into batter

Combine buttermilk and oats; cover and refrigerate 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flours into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; beat until well blended. Stir in oat mixture; beat until well blended. Add flour mixture, beating just until moist. If using, fold berries into batter.

Spoon batter into a 8x8-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. If using, sprinkle pecans on top of batter. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares. Garnish with powdered sugar, if desired.

You can easily double this recipe for a 9x13 pan with the same baking times, just fyi.

Strawberry version on the left, pecan version on the right.

Of course, you can just make it plain if you are allergic to nuts or don't have strawberries and it will still taste delicious.