Blackberry Sage Coffee Cake

You know what the perfect accompaniment to a super cold Boston day is?  A good friend, a hot cup of tea, and a piece of this coffee cake.  Particularly if you've spent the afternoon baking it together.

I love the smell and flavor of sage.  It's one of those herbs I never really ate before, for some reason.  It wasn't until I tried Republic of Tea's Blackberry Sage tea that I even knew what it tasted like.  And after that?  I was hooked.

I think sage is a lovely complement to blackberries, and so when my friend Kate showed up at my door with a bag of fresh blackberries, ready for an adventure in gluten-free baking, we decided we'd try our hand at inventing a blackberry coffee cake.  And all it took for her was one whiff of my jar of ground sage to convince her that it needed to be part of our recipe. 

So we pulled out my trusted copy of Ruhlman's Ratio and got to work using the ratio for sponge cake. 1:1:1:1 (fat : egg : flour : sugar).  "Should we substitute applesauce for part of the fat?" I asked Kate, holding a stick of butter.  "Yes," she said, nodding.  "Then we can eat more of it and not feel guilty."

Great minds think alike.

Trust me, you'll be glad you built in a guilt-free way to eat more of this cake.  It is heavenly!  The only thing I might change is to chop the blackberries or add more of them so they were more evenly dispersed throughout the cake.  But the flavor was still wonderful, the soft of sage spreading across my tongue - but not overpowering it - and the blackberries melting in my mouth.

Divine.  You won't be sorry, trust me. (Unless you hate sage. Then you might be sorry.)

Blackberry Sage Coffee Cake
Makes a 9x13 coffee cake

For cake:
4 oz. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
4 oz. smooth applesauce
8 oz. white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2.5 oz. sorghum flour
2.5 oz. brown rice flour
3 oz. tapioca starch
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
2 - 3 tsp. ground sage (depending on how strong you want the flavor to be)
1 cup blackberries, chopped into small pieces if desired

For topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup brown rice flour
2 tbsp. melted Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp. ground sage

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray a cake pan with cooking spray.

Cream together the butter, applesauce, and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate, then the vanilla and lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Add bit by bit to the wet ingredients, mixing well.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and smooth with a spatula.  Press the blackberries into the dough, spacing evenly.  You can leave them whole, or cut them into smaller pieces for more even consistency.

Place in the oven.  Assemble the crumble topping.  After 20 minutes of baking, as quickly as you can, open the oven and sprinkle the crumble topping over the cake as evenly as possible. Continue to bake for anohter 15 - 30 minutes, or just until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool completely before serving.

Swirled Blackberry Sage Banana Muffins

Swirled blackberry sage banana muffins.  Aren't they pretty?  The name even sounds pretty....blackberry sage.  These were inspired by a favorite tea of mine, the (you guessed it) Blackberry Sage flavor of Republic of Tea.  I used to go on afternoon tea runs with a friend of mine when we used to work together, and the people at the place we visited would make any tea iced.  We tried them all - but the blackberry sage remained my favorite.

A few weekends ago, a spree at Haymarket landed me three containers of blackberries.  I was pondering what to do with them on the ride home.  I continued to ponder as I washed them and put them in the fridge.  And then, it hit me.  Of course.  It had to be something with sage.  So I pulled out one of my favorite recipes for banana bread and reshaped it into delicious sweet-savory muffins. 

These rocked.  If you're a sage fan, give these a try - it really brings the flavor of the berries to the forefront without crowding them.  I had a hard time refraining from eating all of them in one sitting, but I kept it together and ate a respectable number (only two, I swear) and saved the rest to share with friends. 

Swirled Blackberry Sage Banana Muffins
Makes about 16 - 18 muffins

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup sorghum flour
2/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 - 2 tbsp. ground dried sage, depending on your own taste (I used 2 tbsp.)
1 cup blackberries, either chopped into small chunks and stirred in, or pureed and swirled on top of each muffin

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line two muffin trays with 18 paper liners or spray with cooking spray.

Combine the wet ingredients together and stir well.  In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sage and sift together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Now you have two choices - you can either add chunks of blackberries to your muffins, or you can puree the blackberries and swirl them in.  I swirled, but I can't say it would be a bad idea at all to swirl AND add whole chunks.  But do what you feel is right for your muffins.  If you're adding chunks, chop up the berries and add them to the batter, stir lightly, and then spoon even amounts into the paper liners.

If you're swirling, puree the blackberries in a food processor.  If desired, push the mixture through a sieve to get the seeds out (but it's not really necessary).  Add about 1 tbsp. of blackberry puree to each muffin and swirl around in the batter using a knife or fork.  If desired, sprinkle the top of each muffin with a little more dried sage.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or just until they are slightly browned and spring back when you push down on them.  Remove from the oven and let sit in the hot pan for another 2 - 3 minutes until they firm up, then remove them carefully and place on a wire rack to cool.  Serve warm or cold - they are delicious either way!  Store leftovers in the fridge until ready to serve.

Sage and Parsley Chicken with Garlic Smashed Potatoes and Gravy

Mmmm, sage. While I was visiting some friends in Champaign-Urbana a few weeks ago, we went out to a farm in the area and picked bags of fresh herbs. I picked what seemed like a scant amount of sage, but it turns out, I have more of the stuff than I know what to do with. I used part of it in my Butternut Risotto last week, but that still left me with 90% of what I had originally bought. My boss was telling me this week about baked herbed chicken made with a wine gravy that she's tried before, and that sounded pretty good to me, so I thought I'd give it a whirl with the fresh herbs that I happened to have in my kitchen: sage, of course, and parsley. It turned into a very 'comfort food' kind of meal; a steaming mound of mashed potatoes, a tender chicken breast, and a smooth and delicious gravy to top it all off. I made this for two people, and the amount of potatoes was actually just right (although we had an extra serving of gravy leftover). But obviously, you can adjust this to accommodate a larger dinner crowd very easily. The gravy is made with cornstarch, by the way, but feel free to subsitute another starch (arrowroot, perhaps) if you are avoiding corn. Using only cornstarch, I discovered, will also give your gravy a nice little sheen, so if you'd like it to look less....shiny, I would combine the cornstarch with sweet rice flour or some other starch to tone it down. All of the seasonings are approximate and you should add more or less depending on your own taste. I personally could have done with a little more sage on my chicken, but that's just me. I also think this would have turned out just as wonderfully if the chicken had been cooked entirely in the frying pan and been allowed to brown a little more. So experiment with it, and enjoy!

Sage and Parsley Chicken with Garlic Smashed Potatoes and Gravy

For the chicken:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 - 1 tsp. lemon juice

For the gravy:

8 oz. gluten-free chicken broth (I used Pacific Chicken Broth)
1/3 cup white wine
1/4 - 1/2 cup hot water
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. fresh sage
1 tsp. fresh garlic

For the potatoes:

22-oz. package of Red Creamer Potatoes (625 g), chopped into halves or quarters with the skins still on (or off, if you don't like them)
1/4 - 1/2 cup soy milk (or other thick non-dairy milk)
3 tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
2 -3 tbsp. minced garlic (depending on your own taste)
1 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Salt, white and black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Chop potatoes and place them in a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil while you're working on the chicken and gravy.

Combine the fresh sage, parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice in a bowl, and then coat each piece of chicken in the mixture and place in a skillet. Saute the chicken for 2-3 minutes on each side so that it gets a little brown, then place them in a small baking dish and place in the oven at 450 F for 20 - 25 minutes. I covered mine with foil, but feel free to bake uncovered or to remove the foil after 10 minutes to allow the chicken to brown a little.

In the same pan in which the chicken was sauteed, place the remaining 1 tbsp. sage and 1 tsp. minced garlic and saute for about 1 minute. Add the 1/3 cup white wine, bring to a simmer, and heat for another 1 - 2 minutes. In a small jar, combine the 2 tbsp. cornstarch with at least half of the chicken broth and shake it up to mix the cornstarch into the liquid. Add this to the pan, and then add the other half of the chicken broth, stirring constantly to avoid clumping. As the mixture thickens, add the hot water little by little until you've reached your desired consistency and taste.

Once the potatoes are tender, drain the water and mash them up with a masher or fork. In a small pan, heat the Earth Balance Buttery Spread with 2-3 tbsp. minced garlic (depending on how strong of a garlic flavor you'd like) and the fresh sage and parsley. Saute for about 2 - 3 minutes, and then add all of it to the mashed potatoes and stir in. Add the soy milk a little at a time, stirring it in thoroughly, until you've reached the desired whipped consistency. Add salt, white pepper, and black pepper to taste. Remove the chicken from the oven once it is thoroughly baked and serve with the smashed potatoes and gravy to top it all.