She's Baking, Yes, Indeed...

Here's the latest recipe I've been using to make something bran-y/cake-y/bread-y/and this time chocolate-y:

Kirsten's New & Improved Sweet Potato Quick Bran Bread

Ingredients & Directions

Step 1

1 baked and mashed sweet potato

120 g tofu

1/2 C yogurt

1/2 C milk

Mash the tofu and yogurt together. Slowly stir in the milk. Incorporate the sweet potato (I add a little bit the mixture to the sweet potato to loosen it up and make it easier to mix in).

Step 2

2 egg whites

1/3 C sugar

1 t vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix these ingredients together. Once blended, add this to the tofu/sweet potato wet mix, stir until uniform, and set aside.

Step 3

1 C flour

1/4 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/3 C cocoa (I use the Ghirardeli in the orange tin)

spices (this time I used about 1/4 t cardamom, but cinnamon, cloves, etc are good options)

a little shake of salt

1 C bran

In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, spices and salt. Then stir in the bran. Once everything is mixed together, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the dry ingredients have just been incorporated. If you want to add nuts or chocolate chips or other chunky goodies, now is the time to do so.

Step 4

Bake at about 350 F for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I've stopped paying attention to cooking temps and times now that I've discovered the automatic "steam cake" function on my oven. I'm not exactly sure what it does, but I've used the setting for both brownies and quick breads and stuff keeps coming out cooked and moist.

I like this recipe because it gives me a slightly sweet treat that is full of good stuff like tofu (protein), bran, sweet potato, and (of course) chocolate. I'd like to work up to doing a chocolate pastry crust pie with a sweet potato filling (then I wouldn't lust after those PohPoh nuggets of goodness that I can't get in Hiroshima). I swear I've tweaked this recipe a bazillion times, but I've finally found the right combo for a bran bread that works for me in Japan.