Emily Dickinson's "Cocoanut Cake"

53.

GOD gave a loaf to every bird,
But just a crumb to me;
I dare not eat it, though I starve,—
My poignant luxury
To own it, touch it, prove the feat
That made the pellet mine,—
Too happy in my sparrow chance
For ampler coveting.
It might be famine all around,
I could not miss an ear,
Such plenty smiles upon my board,
My garner shows so fair.
I wonder how the rich may feel,—
An Indiaman—an Earl?
I deem that I with but a crumb
Am sovereign of them all.

April is National Poetry Month. Although this post comes at the end of the month, it doesn't hurt to end with a bang. I was inspired by an article that I read in NPR a few months ago about Emily Dickinson. We're all well aware of her poetic prowess, but apparently she was also a proficient baker (actually, although no one knew about her poetry in her lifetime, she was well known in Amherst for her breads and cakes, going so far as to lower baskets of gingerbread from the second-story window in her house to neighborhood children). One of her handwritten recipes - for "cocoanut cake" - was put on display in New York recently. I'm nowhere near there, but thanks to the power of the internet, I can access and share a copy:

In honor of Poetry Month, my goal was to remain as close to Emily Dickinson's original as possible. This meant using simple traditional ingredients and mixing everything by hand, which is well worth the effort - but quite a workout if you're a runner like me with no upper body strength. As long as the butter has had time to soften, this task is definitely doable. Although the recipe itself doesn't call for icing, a simple boiled icing was common for cakes of the era; my only change was to add lime juice and some lime zest for extra flavor (I used granulated sugar, which made delicious icing, but was a little grainy in texture, so I'd recommend powdered sugar instead). The icing made way more than I needed for a single loaf, which sounds like a good reason to make two loaves' worth next time! The cake is deliciously moist and fluffy, although it's also dense (much like a pound cake). The cake itself has a nice subtle sweetness, and the lime icing adds a nice sweet tang to it. Turns out it's not just Emily Dickinson's poetry that I enjoy!

Ingredients

Coconut Cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup grated coconut*

Lime Boiled Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice + 1 Tbsp water

1 egg white

2 tsp freshly grated lime zest

Directions

For Cake:

1.  Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add milk and mix well.

3. Sift together flour and baking powder, then add in portions to the wet ingredients, stirring just until combined.

4. Gently fold coconut into batter, stirring just until mixed.

5. Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured 9x5" loaf pan.

6. Bake at 325 degrees F for 50-60 min, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for ~10 min, then turn cake out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10-15 min more before applying icing.

For Icing:

1. Stir together sugar and lime juice/water in a small saucepan. Gently boil while stirring frequently (stirring is key - sugar can easily burn!).

2. Meanwhile, beat egg white in a small mixing bowl until soft peaks form.

3. Once sugar mixture has formed a thick syrup, pour over egg white and beat until cool.

4. Stir in lime zest, then use to ice cake.

*This is the one place where I did cheat; if you don't want to take the time to grate a fresh coconut, simply add warm water to unsweetened dried coconut and allow to rehydrate for 15-20 min, then drain excess water before adding coconut to batter.

Journey Brownies

Marriages (and other long-term relationships) require give-and-take in order to last. Sometimes, though, you can get away without having to compromise. Making a fresh batch of homemade brownies happens to be just one of these situations. You may have figured out by this point that I tend to gravitate toward foods and recipes that allow for a lot of variability and room for creativity. Brownies definitely fall into this category. Of course, why limit yourself to trying one variation at a time, and instead accommodate different tastes at once? 


Hence, the Journey brownies. I've based this on a recipe out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (basically a cooking bible!). There's nothing particularly special about this recipe, other than its encouragement to get creative. All it takes is some aluminum foil and maybe 45 min, and you've got yourself a brownie sampler - no need for disagreements about what kind of brownies would be the best. I used aluminum foil to split the batter in half, but with a little extra engineering, I'm sure you could split it further. I opted for some mashed banana, coconut and almonds in my half, while my husband kept things simple. Go ahead, indulge yourself, and have it exactly the way you want it!

Ingredients

5 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar
2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate (optional)

Directions
1. Heat butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan on low heat, just until melted, stirring frequently.
2. Pour chocolate mixture into a medium mixing bowl, then add sugar and mix well.
3. Add eggs one a time, beating after each addition.
4. Beat in flour, salt and vanilla extract (if using).
5. Stir in semisweet chocolate by hand, then split batter into two halves.
6. Add desired add-ins to each half, then pour into an 8"x8" or 9"x9" pan lined with aluminum foil (arranged in such a way as to create a barrier in the middle).
7. Bake brownies in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 20-25 min, or until done. Don't be worried about slightly underbaking; they'll just be extra chewy that way!


Makes 16 brownies (or 8 generously sized brownies)


Add-ins for brownies (remember to reduce size accordingly...the measurements I'm giving are meant for half the brownie batter - although they're approximate, so add as much or as little as you want):

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut  (+ banana + macademias = tropical brownies)
• 1/4 cup nuts (sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, or chopped macademia nuts)
• 1/4 cup nut butter (swirl into batter for a nice marbling effect)
• 1/4 cup marshmallows, sprinkled on top in the last 5 min of baking (+ walnuts = rocky road brownies)
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped white chocolate
• 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 1/4-1/2 tsp peppermint extract - to replace vanilla (+ chopped white chocolate = mint brownies)
• Anything else you can come up with. The possibilities are endless!

Pasta Bowls

Credit for this recipe goes 100% to my creative husband. He was looking at a flier in our mail for a local pizza place, saw the pasta bowls and thought, "hey, I can make that!" And make it he did. I'm not going to pretend that this is the healthiest thing you've ever eaten, but there's definitely plenty of potential variety here, and I'm willing to bet it's more delicious and still healthier than you'd get at a restaurant. You can fill it with whatever pasta and sauce combination you want, and if I didn't have a picky husband, I'd make the pizza dough with whole wheat. Instead of butter, you could always use olive oil to baste. In the end, of course, it's the taste that counts, and my husband really made a winner here. :)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or 3/4 cup whole wheat + 1/2 cup all-purpose)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or one envelope)

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

6 oz pasta (rotini or penne), cooked

1/2 cup pasta sauce (pick your favorite - I like Newman's Own tomato & basil)

shredded mozzarella cheese

grated parmesan cheese

4 Tbsp butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2-1 tsp italian seasoning (basil & oregano)

Directions:

1. Add flour, yeast, salt, and water to a medium mixing bowl. Mix ingredients until well-combined.

2. Stir in additional flour in small portions, adding in as much as you can.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, kneading in additional flour as necessary.

4. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once. Cover and let rise until double (~20 min).

5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in half.

6. Shape each half into a ball and place on a pizza stone or baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal (the cornmeal keeps the bottom from sticking or burning).

7. Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 minutes, or until lightly golden.

8. Cut an angled circle out of the top of the bowls, and scoop out bread from the middle (you can use the extra to make bread crumbs or croutons later!).

9. Toss pasta with sauce and spoon into bowls.

10. Sprinkle generously with cheese; if you want it extra cheesy, add cheese in layers with the pasta.

11. Place top back on, then baste bowls with garlic butter mixture using a pastry brush. (To make garlic butter: add butter, garlic, and italian seasoning to a glass measuring cup, then microwave and stir - baste while still hot).

12. Return bowls to oven, and bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, baste a second time, then bake for 5-10 minutes more.

13. Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, and enjoy!

Makes 2 pasta bowls

Whole Grain Banana Coconut Bread

An Improved Method for the Preparation of Banana Bread Mediated by Whole Grains and Coconut

Banana bread is a classic comfort food, a beloved childhood treat. Whenever we had bananas that were past their prime, this was the perfect way to avoid letting them go to waste. Every Christmas time especially, my mom would whip up a huge batch of banana bread as a special homemade gift for friends and family. Needless to say, I've developed quite a fondness for the stuff, and made sure to copy the precious recipe from my mom's aged and stained 1970s marching band cookbook before moving away from home. 

Nonetheless, part of growing up is making your own mark on things, and so over time I've played around with the recipe. One necessity was adding more nutritious ingredients to make the bread more substantive and healthy, to give a bread that tastes like a treat without the guilt. After significant experimentation, I think I've finally hit the jackpot here. A mixture of whole grains amps up the fiber, and honey replaces the refined sugar to give a more complex flavor (plus antioxidants and minerals!), and equal sweetness while lowering the sugar content. The banana chips also give an extra banana-y taste, adding more sweetness without refined sugars. Coconut flakes give some extra moisture and a nice texture. Biting into a warm slice, you'll forget that the bread's nutritious!

The great thing about quick breads like this, too, is that you can make either a loaf or muffins with equally fantastic results, depending on how hungry you are and how many people you're willing to share it with. I've made it both ways. You can make the muffins and throw half in the freezer (in a sealed bag, of course, it'll keep for 1-2 months), so you can enjoy them later on without additional effort. A whole loaf can go in the freezer, too, but I wouldn't freeze individual slices. As a test to my hypothesis as to the deceptive deliciousness of this bread, I baked a loaf to share with my labmates recently. The loaf was gone within 12 hours of its arrival in the group room (and I did not announce its presence, either). Experimental results support the hypothesis. 

Unoptimized Conditions (a.k.a. original recipe):

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3-4 large bananas, mashed

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Optimized Reaction Conditions (a.k.a. my recipe):

1/2 cup butter, softened (or coconut oil, for vegan bread)

2/3 cup REAL honey (wildflower is the best!)

2 eggs (or 2 Tbsp chia seeds + 9 Tbsp water)

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup golden flaxseed meal (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)

2 Tbsp wheat germ

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3-4 large bananas, mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup dried unsweetened banana chips

1/2 cup walnuts (or almonds or macademia nuts), chopped

Experimental Procedure:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. If using chia seeds in place of eggs, mix chia seeds and water in a small bowl and set aside (after ~15 min, it should form a gel of “gloppy” consistency, at which point it will be ready to add to wet ingredients).
3. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and honey, then add eggs (or chia gel) and beat mixture. 
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, flaxseed meal, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
6. Mix in mashed bananas.
7. By hand, stir in coconut, banana chips, and walnuts (let banana chips soak in water for a couple of minutes before adding, just to give a little extra moisture - they were a bit chewy without a pre-soak).
8. Pour batter into a greased and lightly floured 9x5” loaf pan or paper-lined muffin cups.
9. Bake for 50-60 minutes (loaf) or 30 minutes (muffins), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out fairly clean.
10. Allow to cool in pan for  about 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.


Makes 1 loaf or ~1 1/2 dozen muffins