Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog!

My name is Katrina and I’m an amateur home baker that loves to bake. I’ll be baking my way through other people’s recipes to document my journey and improve my baking skills.

I’m starting out with Claire Saffitz’s recipes. I never really watched much YouTube until I met my boyfriend. Then, over the pandemic, we had Bon Appétit on all day while working from home.  They had several chefs working out of the NY test kitchen, but Claire was my favorite.  She’s an amazing baker, super creative, and really fun to watch.

So on to the recipe: Spiced Honey and Rye Cake.

This is a simple loaf recipe that can be made any time of year.  Some of the ingredients I had at home but some I had to buy: rye flour (never used this before), allspice and cloves.  I don’t normally use those spices in my everyday cooking.

It’s the first recipe in her book, Dessert Person.

It’s on page 37.  The top of each recipe has the difficulty rating, the season, and the approximate time it takes to bake.

She also lists all her ingredients out in multiple measurements.  I actually hate recipes that list everything in cups.  We could all measure out “a cup of flour” and get different measurements.  One time I tried to make cookies using a recipe with cups and they ended up tasting like sawdust.  I’m no expert, but I’m definitely not that bad.

Anyway, Claire thankfully also lists them by weight in both ounces and grams so I used an Ozeri scale to weigh everything. 

Necessary equipment includes a 4½ by 8½ in loaf pan, parchment paper, 2 large bowls, a whisk (or a hand mixer), and a wire rack.  Oh, and your oven of course.

Preheat to 350 and prepare your loaf pan.  Coat it with some neutral oil (I used vegetable oil) and then place a cut piece of parchment paper so that it drapes over the long sides.

You add all the dry ingredients to a bowl first.  173g all purpose flour, 33g rye flour, 6g baking powder, ¾ tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground allspice, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg, and ⅛ tsp ground cloves.  Whisk, whisk and mix everything together.

Then you add the wet ingredients.  You need 2 large eggs at room temperature, whisked.  Then 50g of sugar, 2 tsp lemon zest, 170g honey, and more whisking.  Then 113 g neutral oil, poured in slowly while whisking.  Lastly, 100g unsweetened applesauce (or pear sauce) with some more whisking action.

I’m not sure why sugar is included with the wet ingredients, but I’ve seen that in other recipes.  Anyone know why this is?

Also, I used monkfruit sugar instead of regular sugar.  I’ve gone through so many diets over the years and now I eat everything I used to eliminate (dairy, gluten, meat) but in moderation.  BUT I still avoid sugar.  It just doesn’t make me feel good and diabetes runs in my family, so I like to be careful.

I used the monkfruit sugar as a 1:1 replacement but afterwards, I learned that it’s 150 to 200 times sweeter than sugar!  Next time I’ll adjust for that.

I used a hand mixer because I’m lazy and I think it does a better, more even job than a traditional whisk.

Once your wet ingredients are all whisked, set them aside.

Grab your dry ingredients, and make a well in the center with your hands.

Then pour your wet mixture in and whisk!

Pour your homogenous mixture into a pan and it’s ready to bake.

50 to 60 minutes later, it should be done! The kitchen should smell warm and full of spices.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes first before using an offset spatula to loosen the sides.

Then place it onto a drying rack to finish cooling.

And then it’s ready to taste! Cut yourself a few slices.

And don’t forget to drizzle with honey!

We tried it plain, with butter, and with honey and the honey topping was the best.

As promised, the recipe was easy to follow and it didn’t take too long. I was afraid it would be overly sweet (because of the monkfruit sugar) but surprisingly, it wasn’t.  You can taste all the spices in the loaf.  Usually when I make a spiced loaf, it’s some variation of a pumpkin spiced loaf during the Fall, so it was fun to try a different one.

I think this one was a baking success! And that’s it for now! I’ll be back with another recipe soon.

Katrina