Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Wickedly Delicious Peach Green Tea Bread *plus a product review*


Have you tried this yogurt? If not, then you should! I discovered it about a week ago at a local store. Now, I'm sure I may be one of the last on the planet to find out about this stuff (living in Mayberry), but still, I felt that I must spread the word.
So, what is so great about this yogurt? To begin with, the flavors. Not your ordinary blueberry or strawberry-banana blend. Rachel's offers calming Plum Honey Lavender (my favorite), relaxing Vanilla Chai and exotic Pomegranate Blueberry, just to name a few. Her products are void of artificial sweeteners, flavors and preservatives and the cows are given no artificial growth hormones, another plus. As for the taste, divine, and the texture, creamy, but not artificially so. Rachel's has apparently been very successful in the UK and jumped across the pond in 2007. A line of sweet and savory cottage cheese was debuted in 2009, and I am dying to try some but am unable to find any at this time.


I won't go into anymore of the company specifics, you can go to their website for more information. There are some nice looking recipes, including some fun cocktails(sans yogurt) on the site as well. I am looking forward to making a few of their recipes.



I chose to venture out on my own for the first try at baking with this product. This attempt was a flop. I used the Vanilla Chia in a muffin recipe. It flopped because I tried to go into territory I should have left alone and without going into specifics, the result was wretched! I hardly every have a huge flop, but this was one of them. So, after going back to the drawing board, or cutting board, I came up with a deliciously moist, healthy quickbread. I took it to my Friday afternoon knitting group where it was well received and dubbed "blogworthy". My quickbread is an easy, healthy recipe. It calls for white whole wheat flour, replaces most of the fat with the yogurt and is lower in cholesterol due to the egg substitute. For the flavor, I chose the Peach Green Tea yogurt as my inspiration. I had a can of raspberry flavored peaches in the pantry and organic green tea, it just seemed to all work together. Here is the recipe:


Wickedly Delicious Peach Green Tea Bread
makes 2 loaves


3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tea bag of organic green tea (1 tsp)
3/4 cup egg substitute (or 3 eggs)
1 6oz. cup Rachel's Peach Green Tea yogurt
1 cup organic sugar
1/4 cup organic honey
3 tbl canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 can raspberry flavored peaches, rinsed drained and diced
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Demerara Cane Sugar to sprinkle on top


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray and then coat each finely with a dusting of flour.

In a medium bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and green tea. Lightly whisk them together until combined. Whisking will help to sift the flour of any lumps.


In a larger bowl combine the egg, yogurt, sugar, honey, oil and vanilla. Stir well, incorporating all the ingredients. To this, add the flour mixture and fold lightly, just until there are no more dry lumps. This will not look like a cake batter, it will be thicker. You do not want to overwork the batter or your cake will be tough. A rubber spatula works well for this.



















When just combined, add the peaches and walnuts. Again, fold them in until they are well distributed. Spoon the batter into your prepared loaf pans, smooth the top a bit and the generously sprinkle with the demarara sugar. This gives the cake a beautiful shine and crunch.



Bake the loaves for 45-50 minutes or until the top is cracked and golden and a tester comes clean when inserted. Place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then gently remove from the pan and continue to cool on the rack. This is wonderful served warm or at room temperature. You could also wrap and freeze a loaf for later.



I give Rachel's Wickedly Delicious Yogurt 5 out of 5 spoons! Great name, hip packaging and a luscious product! I will post more recipes as they develop. If you have tried this product, I would love to know what you think!

Monday, March 2, 2009

And the winner is......

Toontz! Congratulations, you have won the Food & Wine Cookbook! I will be contacting you to get your email address.

I used a very scientific method to choose the winner. The names of those who left comments were written on paper and I brought in a skilled team to pick one. First, there was Larry the Cat.























He checked out the situation, but could not be bothered at this time. I even tried removing them from the basket, no go. He has some serious sleeping on the register vent to do.

So, I brought in the next expert, Hello Kitty. Ahh, she was much more interested (did I mention she has a thing for chewing paper, especially my magazines at 3am). She sized up the situation, reached in delicately and snatched her victim. I apologize for the blurry photos, she had no interest in posing for the camera.
















So Toontz, in your comment you said you could use some help with food and wine parings, here you go! I look forward to reading about your success!

Thanks to all or you who left comments. Look for more giveaways in the future!