Blame it on the cool, drizzly weather that Los Angeles has been experiencing as of late, or the baskets of yams I encountered at my local farmer’s market last week, but my usual craving for root vegetables has gone up by a notch or two. A staple during my “starving college student” days, I’d often bake a yam, smother it in butter and cinnamon, and call it a day (or a meal). But now that I’m living with the ‘rents, I not only have the luxury of throwing other ingredients into the mix, I also have a plethora of kitchen appliances to choose from! Yipee!
Quick breads make me feel like I am really somebody. It’s kind of weird; I feel much more accomplished after baking a loaf of bread, than I do baking most other things, for some strange reason. Maybe it’s the size of the baked good that I rest my inner baker’s sense of self-worth upon. Whatever it is, I decided that a yam quick bread would do the blog (and my tummy) some good. Restaurant reviews have quickly taken precedence over the ol’ food blog, and if I have any hope of taking Meal Muse to the next level of culinary know-how, I need to take my pots and pans out for a test drive once in a while. So…a yam quick bread was in order.
Now, part of owning a blog, in my opinion, is the ability to unabashedly admit when you’ve messed up. I don’t know many food bloggers whose dishes ever come out crappy (or so it seems). I, for one, would like you to know that this bread was an utter baking blunder. The recipe I consulted was from an old, dilapidated cookbook my mom owns, appropriately titled, “Quick Breads”. I followed the recipe to a tee for the most part, save for the fact that I used mashed, roasted yams rather than a 16 oz. can of sweet potatoes, omitted the nuts, and added a bit of water since the dough seemed very thick and dry. So maybe I didn’t follow the recipe to a tee. The result? A very goopy bread. A bread pudding, if you will. But not in the good way.
Before things went awry…
After literally baking this bread for two hours (covering it with foil for the last 20 minutes so as to avoid the top getting too brown), I threw in the towel. The metal skewer I was using to test the “done-ness” of the bread, simply refused to come out clean. Even as I type this, the loaf sits on the stove, mocking me, daring me to cut into it and expose the mushiness inside. Whatever, yam loaf. Screw you.
In the spirit of interactivity, I want to open this post up for discussion. Why, oh why, was this loaf such a failure? I’m not giving up faith in my baking abilities, but as I sit at the kitchen table trying with all my might to suck it up, my ego is undoubtedly bruised. Here’s the recipe. Have at it. And please know that I yam terribly sorry.
Sweet Yam Quick Bread (don’t try this at home….seriously)
Ingredients:
2 cups Pamela’s baking & pancake flour (gluten-free flour)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup orange juice
1 egg, well-beaten
1/3 cup oil
16 oz. yam purée (about 2 large yams)
For the yam purée: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap yams in foil, place on cookie sheet and bake for at least 45 minutes, or until you can easily pierce with a fork. Let cool for at least 10 minutes, peel skins off, and mash in a bowl. I like to add a bit of butter to get that creamy consistency. And because butta makes everything betta.
For the loaf: Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix orange juice, egg, oil and sweet potatoes together well. Add this mixture to dry ingredients. Add in about 1/2 water. Stir until just blended. Pour batter into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes (or in my case, two, long and tortuous hours). Cool in pan for about 10 minutes.
Despite my shame, I decided to cut into the loaf to show you all what exactly I mean by “goopy bread”.
Oh, the horror! Where did I go wrong, dear reader?!
P.S. – Just so you don’t think I’m a total loser, I need you to know that my Tahitian Squash loaf came out perfectly! But you’ll have to wait until my next “Farmer’s Corner” article comes out to read about that one!
Kath,
Have you thought about maybe taking this goopy bread and turning it into a Yam Bread Pudding? I bet it would be tasty, unless you already threw it out. My assumption is that if you nix the oil that it would probably be dryer. The egg should make it moist enough, but that’s just my guess. Whenever I cook with oil, the baked goods always come out much more “moist” but since you’re already using a yam puree and egg… that’s a lot of liquid to flour…
PS I love that you write about triumphs and disasters! No cook does it perfect every time, not matter what they tell you. Part of the adventure of cooking is making mistakes and learning from them 😉 I think you should try this recipe again, nix the oil and see what happens!
The yam bread pudding is actually a good idea – I haven’t thrown it out yet, so that might work (it’s currently sitting sadly on my kitchen counter). The flavors are right on, it’s just the texture that’s screwy. But yeah, I think I could’ve left the oil out. Hmm I will try again…I’m not giving up!
P.S. – thanks for putting a link to my blog on your Facebook page! You’re the best!
did you make this with regular ole yams or a some special elusive sort? perhaps one could try it with 1 yam and 1 sweet potato though i don’t know why that would make a difference.
if you want to have another go, i’m game!
I made it with regular ol’ yams – I roasted, peeled and mashed two pretty decent-sized yams. I’m thinking now that maybe I should have only used one. Maybe it was the ratio of yams to flour that was off. I might try it next time with less yams and more flour…? A yam quick bread bake-off might be occurring in a kitchen near you sooner than you think!
Dearest K dawg,
This is what I think Happened:
1. butter to the yam puree
2. water to the recipe
3. gluten free flour
when you add butter to the yam, it may break apart their natural gluten causing a goop.
adding water = goop
gluten free flour is just weird.
in my limited experience with food, recipes are not the be all end all in the kitch. you gotta massage them, coo them, and when they are at their most vulnerable; coax the inner recipe(truth) out of them. They are not always so forthcoming at first, so try it again. You know that goopy comes from liquid/fat so try scaling back on that stuff a little. find out what is gonna work for your needs and write your own recipe. I rarely use a recipe that I find to the letter, I have to experiment and see what works for me in the setting/mood/season that I am in. then I write a recipe and the prep cooks can follow that one to the tee. after it is tried and true by this humble reader.
my two cents.
Love,
your adoring bro.
P.S.
I try things several times before I unleash them on people.
You’re the biggest doll there ever was. Thanks for the tips. I’ll def give it another try. And the gluten-free flour thing was a favor to Mom…she might be outta luck the second time around, though. But P.S. – I made scones with gluten free flour and they came out fine….?? Whatevs.