TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

Now that school is back in session I've been making a lot of muffins, breads, biscuits, etc. lately for breakfast. I've been trying to stock my freezer full of things that Derrick can grab on the way out the door, eat on the way in to school, or eat during his planning period...but, my plan is not working. You see, Derrick is about the size of a beanpole with the appetite of an elephant so every time I pull a batch of 12 muffins or 8 biscuits out the oven imagining that we'll have enough for today and the rest of the week they mysteriously disappear before they are cool enough to wrap up and freeze! Of course, the kids aren't really helping out with my plan either...and let's face it, now that I'm in the 2nd trimester and still nursing Eloise, I'm pretty hungry too, so I guess I can't blame it all on the husband!

Anyway, this bread fit nicely into my breakfast baking bonanza. It was soft, incredibly moist, flavorful, and not too unhealthy so it was pretty much finished off before I could really get a good picture of it! Some of the fat is replaced by unsweetened applesauce and I ended up subbing half the white flour for whole wheat flour and fat free plain yogurt for buttermilk just to up the health factor. Dorie says you can use any type of dried fruit but all I had on hand were big, plump raisins so mine wasn't too exciting- I'd love to try cherries or apricots.

I actually ended up making these again as muffins but I did about forty-million substitutions- peach puree for applesauce, prunes for raisins, and a bunch of different spices and they still turned out really delicious! The only problem I found with the muffins was that they were so soft that some of them stuck to the pan- not that that stopped them from being eaten in one day... Seriously, I don't know how to fill the man up!

Thanks Natalie of Oven Love for choosing this versatile and delicious recipe for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick!

TWD: Chocolate Whisky Cake (with a secret ingredient)

Sorry this post is late, my internet has been acting up for days- I'm finally back online now!

Ok so I know this cake looks mysteriously similar to the Daring Bakers cake I posted right before it- but it was actually really quite different. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Lyb of And then I do the Dishes (you can find the recipe on her blog). This cake was AMAZING! Seriously, I am having a very difficult time not eating the entire thing by myself and I cannot wait to make it again. The cake actually calls for Armagnac but as I walked down the liquor aisle of the grocery store at 7:45 AM with my one year old child and burgeoning pregnant belly I didn't immediately see Armagnac or any type of Cognac- instead I just grabbed an inexpensive bottle of whiskey and checked out as quickly as I could! I'm not a huge alcohol drinker when I'm not pregnant (which is starting to feel like never, by the way) and I definitely know almost nothing about liquor so I was not interested in buying a big, expensive bottle of it just to bake a cake. Well, apparently many of the TWD bakers felt the same way because most of them ended up using whiskey as well!


Anyway, back to the actual cake and the secret ingredient- prunes! That's right! Prunes! Dried plums in a chocolate cake! Don't be deterred by the bad reputation that prunes often have- they are delicious in this cake- of course, they are soaked in liquor, so that might help a little. The other really great ingredient in this cake is the ground pecans- it gives a little nuttiness to the chocolate and helps to give the otherwise extremely fudgey, moist cake a little bite.


I have to admit that I used semi-sweet chocolate for both the cake and the icing even though the recipe called for bittersweet but it turned out great anyway. I really loved this cake- I think it is the best chocolate cake I have ever made! Thanks so much to Lyb for picking this gem of a recipe out for us to bake!