Baked Ginger Donuts w/Orange Icing & A Tour of DC Hoods

Last Saturday was the SunTrust National Marathon and Half Marathon in Washington, DC. Exactly two years ago from this race, Travis and I purchased our first home in Northeast DC, which happens to be on the race route (both going out and coming in - I hope everyone waved twice). We closed on Friday, ran the race on Saturday, and moved in on Sunday. Can you imagine? You've just bought your first house, and the very next day you run in a hometown race that goes right by it! You better believe I announced it to some strangers while running by.

Last year, we skipped the National Marathon/Half in favor of the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach (which, ps, was superfun and really well run). But this year, we were BACK. My plan was to rock the socks off the half and hopefully get a PR. That dream went out the window in mid-February when I realized that I was going to be out of town for 4 of the 5 next weekends. No prob. Race day was beautiful, I gave it my best, and it was still an awesome race.

The coolest thing about the National Half is that it's really a locals' race. Washington has a lot of destination races: Marine Corps Marathon, Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, Army 10-Miler. These races draw participants from all around the country (and often, the world) and they are wonderful in their own right. Who wouldn't want a chance to race by the national monuments or run through the breathtaking Japanese cherry blossoms in full bloom? But it's so refreshing and fun to do a race that hits the residential DC neighborhoods, which is exactly what the National Marathon and Half courses do.

Fleet Feet, a locally owned running store in Adam's Morgan, set up a bonus water stop right where I got thirsty. And a little ways down the road in Columbia Heights, some all-star resident was handing out marshmallow Peeps outside her house! A little Rapper's Delight outside of Howard U? Don't mind if I do. And to the DJ spinning at the Bethune apartment complex, I'd like to hire you for my next party. The race rounded out on H Street, NE, with a huge cheering crowd (you can't even imagine how the landscape of H Street has changed since running down it two years ago!). And of course, a big high-five to my house right before cruising to the finish line. 

After the race, we headed to our friends' Jimmy & Janie's house for a near-spring/almost birthday/post-marathon brunch. (Because if there is one thing I do almost as much as I run, it's eat brunch.) J&J served tacos from Pica Taco in Adam's Morgan, which I highly recommend. If you don't have time to make a full brunch (e.g., if you're tied up in a race beforehand), these tacos come in pairs, wrapped in tin foil and labeled - super easy for serving and muy delicioso. Plus Pica Taco is locally owned and operated by a mother-daughter team. It's a win-win. My contribution to brunch was ginger-spiced mini-donuts with fresh orange icing. Not really sticking with the Mexican theme, but I didn't hear any complaints through the donut-stuffed mouths.

I recently purchased this donut pan so that I could make baked donuts. These ginger guys were more like cake donuts than bready donuts (like say, Krispy Kreme). But the batter bakes up super light and the outside gets nice and toasty, just like any fried cake donut. Top them with icing made from fresh orange juice and sifted confectioners' sugar and you've got yourself a brunch winner.

This is us two years ago when we closed on our house! I still feel happy about it every time I walk in the door. Yes, despite the entire new roof we had to put on, frequent blown fuses, termites (among other critters), touch-and-go heating system, and leaky walls, I love this house with all my heart.

Baked Ginger Donuts w/Orange Icing

adapted from Allrecipes.com 

Makes 4 to 5 dozen mini-donuts

Donuts

3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground clove

2 tsp. cinnamon

1-1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

2 tsp. freshly grated ginger

1 cup of buttermilk (or 1 cup milk + 1 tbs. vinegar, rested for 5 minutes)

3 eggs

1 tbs. maple syrup

Required: non-stick donut pan

Recommended: gallon-sized ziplock bag

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, dry spices and sugar (if you have a sifter, I recommend sifting all ingredients but the sugar). 

Melt butter in the microwave or on stovetop and stir in the freshly grated ginger while the butter is still warm. Set aside.

Stir buttermilk, eggs and maple syrup together in a bowl and then pour into dry mix. Mix with an electric mixer or stand mixer until ingredients are loosely incorporated. Add melted butter and continue to mix until all ingredients are completely incorporated into a batter.

Fill ziplock bag with batter and snip a 1/2 opening at one corner. Pipe the batter into the donut pan, filling each mold only about halfway (these donuts rise a lot). If you happen to have a donut pan that is not non-stick, grease the molds or spray with cooking spray before filling.

Bake at 400 degrees for 5-6 minutes. Empty the tin and repeat. Let donuts cool before icing.

This recipe would also work for a full-sized donut pan, just make a larger cut in the ziplock bag and increase cooking time by 3-4 minutes.

Icing

2 cups powdered sugar

orange juice (fresh squeezed if you have an orange!)

1/4 tsp. orange extract

red and yellow food coloring (optional)

Start by adding 1 tbs. of orange juice to the sugar and stirring. Continue to slowly add juice and stir well until the sugar is the consistency of syrup. It should stick to your whisk or spoon. If you go too far, just add more sugar. Add orange extract.

Coloring: Liquid food coloring is very powerful. If you want a bright shade of orange add 1 drop of red and 5 drops of yellow to the icing and stir. If you want a pale orange, take a small amount of the icing (maybe a tablespoon) and put it in a separate bowl. Add food coloring to the small bit of icing. Then spoon little bits of the colored icing back into the main batch until you have the desired color.

Icing: Using your fingers, dip the top half (whichever half of the donut you want to cover up) of each donut into the icing halfway. Twist the donut as you remove it from the icing and set on a drying rack or paper towel to let the icing harden. Donuts stay fresh for at least one night in the refrigerator.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Granola Bars and Thumbs-Up Running

I'm a thumbs-up runner. And that doesn't mean I'm so excited to be running that I throw thumbs-up signals to everyone else on the streets (though I'm known for an occasional high-five). It means that my hands naturally get into stiff little thumbs-up positions while I run, which, if you test it out right now, you'll discover requires some effort by your muscles. Go ahead - bend your elbows at your sides and look at the natural position of your hands. Then see how many muscles you have to use to form a thumbs-up. Newsflash: while they may put a smile on someone's face, thumbs-up don't make you any faster or more efficient.

I bring this to your attention, not so you that can spot me in a race, but so that next time you're running (or biking or rollerblading or moon bouncing) you stop to think about your body position and any unnecessary energy you might be expending on tense muscles. Take five seconds to consider the muscles that are flexed and whether they are actually helping you with your activity. If not, make an effort to shake em out every once in awhile.

Though I can't stop myself from thumbs-upping completely, now that I'm aware of it, I can release the tension in my hands and wrists when I think of it and give my body a break from spending needless energy keeping my fingers tight and my thumbs up. That way, more of my kcals can go towards getting me from point A to point B.  

After this past weekend's rain-riddled, thumbs-up run (with plenty of conscious hand relaxation!), I came home and I really wanted some calories. In my body. Stat. Enter sweet potato quinoa granola bars. A delightful blend of carbs, fiber and protein. If I had to compare them to a commercial product, I would say they are most like Larabars in consistency. I haven't come across a Larabar that uses oats or grains (or whatever mysterious family quinoa is in), so nutritionally, they aren't the same. But these bars have a fruit-chewy bite to them, rather than the crispy-chewy feel of regular packaged granola bars. I will call mine Katibars.

Sweet potato quinoa bars would be great to bring on a long bike ride or hike. Between the fruit, sweet potato puree and agave syrup, the sugar content is high; and the nuts and quinoa provide some protein. The fiber content is also high from the oats and quinoa, so be conscious of what your body is used to while working out.

 

 

 

Side note: when I was studying for the bar exam, I signed up for pottery class as a stress-relieving, extra-curricular activity. In my head I imagined throwing serving bowls and two-foot vases; Christmas gifts galore! In reality, I ended up with boatloads of condiment bowls and a rough, rough, cream pitcher. So I'm giving them some mileage on this blog. Hence the photo of just a bowl. Thx for indulging.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Granola Bars

Makes 12 bars

2.5 cups old fashioned oats

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sweet potato puree

1/2 cup agave syrup

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1 cup roughly chopped nuts (I used half pecans, half almonds)  

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Toast the uncooked quinoa on the stove in a wide pan over low heat, 8-10 minutes, stirring often (quinoa grains will pop in the pan). Mix oats, spices, and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together sweet potato puree, vanilla and agave. Add wet mix to oat mix, making sure that all oats are moistened. Stir in quinoa, nuts and cranberries.

Line an 8" or 9" square pan with one piece of parchment paper so that the edges of the parchment paper hang over two opposite edges of the pan (so that you can lift the bars out of the pan after baking). Press granola mix into the lined pan.

Tip: to press the granola evenly into the pan, spread mixture around and cover top with wax paper. Then use a smaller pan or heavy square/rectangular item to press down on the wax paper. Repeat this process over all of the granola until even.

Bake at 325 for 22-25 minutes. Let granola cool in pan; remove for easy cutting. Then enjoy your own [name]bars.

Cran-Orange Buckwheat Muffin Nirvana

Last week, I attained nirvana in two forms: swooshing down the slopes of Winter Park, CO and eating these muffins. I'm not sure which was better. Colorado had mountains and beer and good friends . . . but the muffins had fresh cranberries! And orange zest! And if I looked at them long enough, they would tell me jokes! That's like being with friends, no? 

Seriously, though, these muffs were tight - er, delish. High in fiber, bursting with fresh fruit, and relatively low in sugar (and can be dairy free if you stick with just oil). Despite the fact that this blog might be what you call sugar-heavy, I try not to use sugar needlessly. Sure, I use gobs of confectioners sugar in my frosting (though less than most standard recipes or anything you would find on a grocery store shelf), because let's face it, if you're eating frosting, ya ain't tryin' to cut down on your sugar. At least not for that particular indulgence. But when it comes to something like a muffin, why use more sugar than you need to?

A standard muffin recipe is for twelve muffins. I routinely see recipes calling for 2/3, 3/4 or even 1 cup of sugar. This is more than you need! Depending on the recipe, it might be for a large volume of batter (even if it says only 12 muffins), in which case you can either make ginormo muffins or 18-24 normal-sized guys. In that case, maybe the additional sugar is warranted. But for your regular twelve-slot tin, with muffins that bake up one or two centimeters above the rim, 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar per batch is plenty.

 

In case you haven't noticed, I love me some fruits in my baked goods, which helps to naturally sweeten things. In this recipe, even with supertart cranberries, 1/3 cup of sugar was enough to balance out the tartness and sweeten the muffins. And if you're baking muffins with a sweeter fruit, like apples, blueberries or (especially) bananas, 1/3 cup of sugar will definitely be fine. If you're making a straight bran muffin or maybe a lemon-poppy seed, you might want to up the sugar to 1/2 cup. I've found that you can cut the sugar in a recipe without making any other changes. So if you see a good recipe that calls for more sugar than you need, take liberties with your sweetener.

But Kaaaaatie, what if I like a reallllly want a sweet muffin? Then quit your whining and go eat a cupcake, because a muffin's not what you're looking for. Kidding. If you want to make a batch of sweet-treat muffins, use your sugar where it counts - on top. Your taste buds will get more bang for their buck with a sprinkling of sugar on top of each muffin than if you were to add twice as much directly into the batter (this is a great tip for those who like sweet cornbread - skip the honey or sugar in the mix and sprinkle the top with a few pinches of raw sugar). For a crumb topping, mix 3 tablespoons of brown sugar with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and distribute evenly over muffins.

 

And for kicks, here are some pics of my other nirvana. These are the good friends:

  

 This is me and the mountain (don't worry- it didn't take me down every time):

. . . and these are the beers!

Cran-Orange Buckwheat Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

3/4 cups buckwheat flour

1-1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup ground blueberry flaxseed (optional)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 plain nonfat yogurt (or another 1/4 cup of oil)

2 tbs. orange zest

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups fresh cranberries (or frozen and thawed)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients well, adding cranberries last. Fill cups of a standard muffin tin 3/4 full. Bake for 23-27 minutes. Find your own nirvana.

Tangy Peach & Pumpkin Muffins

A very long time ago, my little sis gave me a Williams-Sonoma New Healthy Kitchen cookbook called Starters. At the time, I lived in an apartment and wasn't doing much entertaining. And I didn't normally whip up "starters" for myself. But as it turned out, the book has an awesome guide to seasonal fruits and veggies (grouped by color for us visual learners) that I was able to start using right away.

Check out the pinks and reds section - so pretty! Makes me want to run out and buy some radishes.

Obviously most fruits are available in more than one season, but Starters provides suggestions as to which fruits might be best in any given season. As you can see, peaches are best in summer. And I totally agree. If I'm going to eat a peach as a handheld fruit, I like it to be really sweet and juicy, which is what you find in the summer. But wait! Peaches have a life beyond the summer!
According to the food gospel of Katie, peaches are good for use as long as they feel ripe. I have no interest in hard peaches; I don't like them one bit. But a soft peach, even if it is super-tart, can make a great addition to winter breads, muffins and tarts.

The tartness of the peaches is so perfect with the sweetness of the muffin. It's much harder to plan for tart peaches in summer, so make these now! The recipe contains cornmeal and is naturally a bit crumbly, but the crumbly muffin meshes perfectly with the big chunks of moist peaches. I reduced the sugar from 3/4 cup suggested in the inspiration recipe to 1/2 cup, but feel free to stick with 3/4 cup if you want a sweeter muffin. Whatever you do, don't skip the peach slices on top. If you're making these muffins for guests, it gives them a classy touch, but more importantly, it adds more fresh, tangy fruit to each muffin. Mmm, mmmm, mmmm.

Tangy Peach & Pumpkin Muffins

Makes 15 muffins

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or unbleached all-purpose)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup light brown sugar (or 3/4 cups, depending on taste)

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 peach, diced into chunks, plus 1 peach for slicing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin tin(s) by greasing the cups or using muffin cups. Cut your two peaches - one should be cut into chunks, the other halved and then cut into thin slices (for the slices, be sure to cut out the part of the flesh that was closest to the pit; it is usually very dry). 

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together and then blend by hand into dry ingredients. Fold in peach chunks. Fill greased or lined muffin tin 2/3 full with batter. Place 2 to 3 peach slices on top of each muffin as shown in pictures above.

Bake muffins at 350 for 18-20 minutes. 

Let muffins cool on a baking rack. Warning: the smell of these muffins baking will make you want to eat the entire pan straight out of the oven. Please let them cool at least a bit so you don't burn the lining of your mouth off. This tip is with love, from me to you.

Tea: A Love Affair

I love tea. Love, love, love it. I love the idea that tea can be infused with any flavor under the sun. I love the way the leaves are dried out like shrinky dinks and then totally come back to life with a little hot water. And I love how tea compliments baked goods, an obvious other fave of mine. 

Just about a year ago, I met a Certified Tea Master (who knew?). It was at one of those dinners where everyone is a friend of someone else, so I was several degrees of separation from the Tea Master and I never saw her again. But she was very cool and I thought it was so neat that such a title exists and that she took such ownership of it. She even had a card to convey her mastery. In another life, maybe the title can be mine. Jeni Dodd, I salute you:

While tea mastery is not in my immediate future, I do enjoy trying as many new teas as I can get my hands on. And this week, I discovered a gem that I must share with fellow tea lovers - The Spice and Tea Exchange of Georgetown. Can you say, Green Chili Sugar? Applewood Smoked Sea Salt? Almond Cookie Tea?! I know I sound like an advertisement, but I am just so smitten with this joint. It's very small and each wall is lined with infused salts, sugars, teas, spices and blended rubs. Plus an array of kitschy tea accoutrements and free tea samples. The clerk encouraged everyone who came in to open the jars and smell the ingredients (and above each jar of loose spice or tea were pre-bagged portions ready for purchase).

Apparently, the Spice and Tea Exchange is popular in Florida and exists in a few other states, but it just arrived in Georgetown about a month ago. I bought three flavors: Coconut Oolong, Almond Cookie Tea (black tea), and Mango Green Tea, all of which smell like heaven. Plus I couldn't resist some Tangerine Sugar to sweeten it up. The Almond Cookie Tea is pictured immediately below.

Today's menu: Mango Green Tea with Tangerine Sugar. Green tea and black tea leaves come from the same plant, but green tea is not fermented the way black tea is (white and oolong tea leaves come from different plants). When steeped, green tea is lighter in color, but is not actually "weaker" than black tea (although it does have less caffeine naturally). Green tea just has a milder, earthier flavor. 

When steeping your tea, avoid using boiling water and instead shoot for very hot, but not bubbling. If your water comes to a boil, just let it rest for a minute or two before pouring over the tea leaves. For green tea, 1 heaping tsp. of tea leaves should be enough for a large mug of tea (12 oz.). I like to steep green tea for 3-4 minutes, but some people prefer only 1-2 minutes. You'll have to experiment with your own palate.

Tea-related sidebar: for the past few years, my law firm has sponsored an absolutely delightful women's tea at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in DC. It is held during the summer so that female summer associates (who are like interns) have a chance to chat with other female attorneys in a relaxed (and tasty) setting. It is my only opportunity to date to attend a fancy tea party and I think it's the bees knees (did I mention that everyone gets their very own tower of finger sandwiches and pastries?!). 

Apparently, some people that I work with have recently voiced opposition to the women's tea. I'm not sure if it's because of the stereotypical female flavor of the event or simply the fact that a segregated women's event is happening at all. Either way, I cannot wrap my mind around the tea hang-up, and I'm already mourning the loss of this event. If you can articulate a valid reason to discontinue the tea, I would be interested to hear it. Signed, bitter on K Street.