A Tropical Hurricane!

Tags

crystallized ginger, ginger scone, low-iodine diet, mango scone, pineapple scone, pineapple-mango scone, rum extract, turbinado sugar

Pineapple. Check!

Mango. Check!

Rum. YES! Check! Woot!

Crystallized ginger? Check!

Mmmmm….Vanilla sugar!! We are ready to make some tropical scones!

Macaroons have more or less stolen my heart away from Prince Charming in the last couple of days and has made me mourn the loss of my KitchenAid even more, but while going through the MacTweets challenges, I became inspired… to make scones! MacTweets is a blogging site for bloggers with a passion and compulsion to make macaroons to participate in themed monthly challenges to create different macaroons, and it just so happened that while I was reading about a previous island challenge I saw the August challenge with is “candy is dandy but liquor is quicker;” and I knew just what kind of scone I could make! Who knows, I might try the next macaroon challenge and hand-whip my macaroons… is that crazy? Until then, MacTweet has been a source of inspiration for new scones!

Ever since the Strawberry Vanilla scones I had a few days ago, I have been itching to use my (coveted) vanilla sugar and once I decided on making pinepple-mango-rum scones, I knew just what I would use it in! I have been making many savory dishes that utilize alcohol, especially Cognac - often enough in fact that instead of the little airplane bottles, I have invested in a full fifth! So I thought why not scones?

I stuck to the basic framework of the scone recipe and made some substitutions. I decided to add the crystallized ginger because the flavors would work nicely with each other and I was working on a scone appropriate for the low-iodine diet that was lemon and ginger or some other pairing with ginger for the days just after my friend received her injection – but as there is a worldwide shortage of the medicine she needed, she could stop adhering to the diet which means eating anything she wants! She celebrated by eating McDonald’s for lunch and I made her these ginger scones! 

I swear the packages of dried mango and pineapple leapt into my basket at the store (as did three bottles of wine that I’m setting aside for risotto…) and begged to become yummy scones! I couldn’t wait to get back to the kitchen to bake them. While I was setting out the equipment and gathering the ingredients, Mei – who has a farther reach nowadays, grabbed the smaller of my two bowls away from  me and wouldn’t give it back and wouldn’t play with anything else, but almost immediately dropped it when I began whisking the rum extract in with the yogurt and eggs! It may be extract, but boy is it strong! I’m afraid little Mei might have had her first whiff of what drinking is like! She seemed stunned but still sober, and happy to watch the mango bits unfurl in the warm water we soaked them in. Patella even got her paws into these scones, trying bits of pineapple and mango which it turns out she doesn’t care too much for. *Shrugs* At least she will try anything once!

These scones required an egg wash because I also sprinkled some turbinado sugar on top and the egg will help hold the pieces of ginger onto the scone – and we got a little ginger happy…! I had chopped up the ginger into smaller bits and put a generous sprinkling on each scone because my friend loves to each ginger! Just like the strawberry vanilla scones, these smelled just as great – only in a happy, beachy way… ! I’m excited to make more varieties of tropical scones! The ginger added a nice bite of heat to the otherwise sweet, juicy pineapple and mango bits that finished with a little taste of rum and turbinado - it kept my taste buds dancing!

Ingredients:

oven-ready!

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 TBS vanilla sugar
• 1/2 C (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 C dried pineapple, coarsely chopped
• 1 C dried mango, coarsely chopped and soaked in warm water until softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 C yogurt
• 1-1/2 tsp rum extract
• turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top
• coarsely chopped, crystallized ginger for sprinkling on top

In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Whisk in the sugar just until combined. Knead in the butter, using your fingertips until it is well incorporated and the mixture starts to clump together to form pea-sized lumps.

In a separate, smaller bowl, soak the mango pieces for 10-20 minutes until they are soft. Meanwhile, prepare the ginger and pineapple.

Drain the mango and gently fold the mango and pineapple bits into the flour mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, (2) eggs, and rum extract until combined. Then sprinkle it into the flour mixture and toss together using a fork. Turn the shaggy dough out onto a floured surface and gently pat and knead until it just comes together, handling the dough as little as possible.

Form two 6 inch rounds on dinner plates and cut into 6-8 triangles with a sharp knife or pizza cutter and place on cookie sheets. Brush the tops with the beaten eggs and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for ten minutes and serve warm or enjoy later!

Thyroid Cancer Combatant’s Warm Apple Cake!

Tags

apple cake, low-iodine diet, Thyca, thyroid cancer

Many of you may be wondering why the low-iodine diet is so important to follow and I will tell you. Over the course of the two weeks that a patient is adhering to the low-iodine diet, the body’s iodine stores start to deplete themselves and work themselves into a state where they are looking for more iodine to soak up – hopefully hungry for iodine at this point. Then the patient undergoes radiation therapy that allows the body to soak in radioactive iodine which the hungry iodine stores soak up as much as possible, killing off the cancerous cells. Therefore, the hungrier the stores are and the lower the amount of iodine or (hopefully) the complete void of iodine in an affected person’s body the higher the likelihood that the radioactive iodine treatment will work.

I know we are all hoping for the best as the next few days pass and the impending radiation therapy session gets closer. So, to keep spirits up and to curb the craving for baked goods, we are making a cake!

There is a recipe for apple cake on ThyCa but we made some minor changes and added some more flavor! In fact, it was pretty good, but we have some ideas to make it better! This is a nice sturdy cake that would lend itself to layering pretty well and it would be nice to be able to add something like that to the ThyCa Low Iodine Cookbook.

Prepping the apples to bake this cake was something of a marathon. I didn’t have a very sharp paring knife and it made peeling the apples a bit

almost naked apple...

more arduous a task than it should have been. Mei was none too pleased to sit in her Bumbo chair, watching me dice and peel apples for what seemed like an eternity and impatiently waiting to play with her toys in the living room while I quickly mixed the batter and slid the cake pan into the oven. A little while into the baking time and the house began to fill with a warm cinnamon apple smell that made us all drool and impatiently wait for the oven timer to ding. I planned to put the same cinnamon glaze on top each slice that we made for the blueberry muffins and got that out of the refrigerator so that it would warm up a bit and be less stiff.

Boy oh boy did the cake smell EVEN BETTER when it came out of the oven! I immediately ran a blunt knife along the edge of the pan to loosen it – although the cake clung pretty hard to the side of the pan. Don’t expect the cake to come out with very smooth edges, the lack of butter means that the cake will bake to the pan regardless of the oil greased pan. Once it was inverted, a very thin layer of the cake remained baked on the pan and we took a spoon to that, drizzled some cinnamon glaze and had a nice warm snack while the rest of the cake cooled.

Every bite was delicious, warm and this would make a very nice muffin as well – feel free to leave the apple chopped more coarsely if you like a soft, crisp bite of apple in your cake as well.

Ingredients:

in the pan ready for a tan!

• 1C sugar
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 1 egg white
• 1-1/4 C flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2- 1/2 C apples, peeled and finely diced

 

Prepare the apples and put the bits into a medium bowl and sprinkle the sugar over them. Let them sit at room temperature for a half hour to macerate. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Once a half hour has passed, add the rest of the ingredients to the cake and mix it well until it is combined. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit in the bottom of the cake pan.

Grease a cake pan with canola oil, lay the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan and grease the top of the parchment paper then pour the batter into the pan. Using a spatula, spread the batter evenly across the pan and put it into the oven, baking for 30-45 minutes and the top is golden and a toothpick tester comes out clean.

baked, cooled and ready for delivery!

Cool in the pan for ten minutes and run a butter knife along the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature – or serve warm, drizzled with cinnamon icing!