Sunshine Muffins Friday, May 3 2013

Last year, I was given an old recipe box, with lots of old newspaper clippings, with recipes. This recipe is from one of those clippings, so I don’t know where to give the credit! Of course, I did my own variations anyways. 🙂  We all loved this recipe, and so did our neighbour kids! The 3.5 dozen (double recipe) didn’t last 2 days! Very moist, fresh, and delicious! Definitely will be making it again.

It’s a versatile recipe, feel free to change the add-ins to sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, grated apples instead of the grated carrots, dried fruit, etc.

Sunshine Muffins

2 cups flour (I did 1/2 cup white, 1 1/2 cup spelt)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground flax
2 Tbsp hemp hearts
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds/poppy seeds, etc (optional)
1/3 cup coconut
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 cups grated carrots
1 banana, mashed
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, baking soda, sugar, and cinnamon together. Stir in sesame seeds, coconut, chocolate chips, carrots and banana.

Beat together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Stir into flour mixture until just moistened. Spoon into greased/lined muffin cups and bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes.

Makes 1.5 dozen.

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Lemon Crinkle Cookies Monday, Mar 11 2013

There’s a recipe that I’ve seen going around Pinterest for a while, Lemon Crinkle Cookies, and while they look so good, they are so full of sugar that I could never bring myself to make them!! I decided to try a healthier version of them, and it worked! We all love them, and it’s such a nice variety to the typical oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies that are popular around here. 🙂

So, I reduced the sugar significantly, and used whole grain spelt flour (wheat would work too), and my husband still thought they were really sweet. 🙂  We all loved them for sure.

 

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup wheat/spelt flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients, except powdered sugar, slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.

Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. I then shook each ball briefly in my fingers to shake off extra powdered sugar. Place on greased baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until bottoms begin to barely brown. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

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Basic Biscuits Sunday, Mar 3 2013

I really like my other biscuit recipes, but I’ve been trying a few new recipes from the “More with Less” cookbook, as I’m thinking it’s one of the only two cookbooks I’ll be bringing with me to Africa. I LOVED this biscuit recipe! I am most definitely going to keep doing this one instead of my other ones now. 🙂

One day, my oldest wanted a hot dog in a hot dog bun for lunch. Since I don’t usually have hot dog buns on hand, and I was out of regular bread (which we fold to make a hot dog “bun”), him and I made this biscuit recipe together and shaped the dough into logs. Then, after they were cooked, we cut a “U” shape on the top and created a quick hot dog bun. Worked for him! 🙂

Basic Biscuits

2 cups flour*
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk/kefir

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening. Mix in milk/kefir until soft ball forms. Knead gently 20-25 times. Roll or pat dough to 1/2″ thick and cut. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and at 425F for 10 minutes.

Cheese biscuits: Add in 1 cup grated cheese into flour mixture, before cutting in shortening. Increase milk to 1 cup.

* I do 1 1/2 cups whole grain (wheat/spelt), and 1/2 cup white. Or half white, half spelt.

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Pineapple Biscuits Monday, Feb 11 2013

Spelt Pineapple Biscuits

2 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cup spelt, 1/2 cup white)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter/margarine
1 egg
1 cup crushed pineapple, undrained

Mix together dry ingredients.
Cream sugar and butter together. Add the egg. Beat well, and stir in the pineapple. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and stir just enough to moisten flour. Drop by heaped Tablespoon fulls on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400F for 10-12 minutes until the bottom is lightly browned. Serve with butter, honey, or maple syrup!

Recipe is an adaptation from a recipe from More with Less cookbook.

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Orange-Cranberry Spelt Muffins Thursday, Feb 7 2013

My friend Sara made these and talked about it on facebook. Sounded so good to me that I had to make it the same day she shared the recipe! 🙂

Orange-Cranberry Spelt Muffins

1 grated orange zest
3 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 1/4 cup buttermilk*
1/2 cup honey
2 1/2 cups spelt flour (I used 1 3/4 spelt, and 3/4 white)
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
pinch allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Mix dry ingredients together, then combine with wet. Bake in muffin tins at 350F for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

*You can make your own by combining milk with 1 Tbsp vinegar for your total 1 1/4 cup “buttermilk”, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Or use kefir if you have that handy!

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Secret Recipe Club: Pumpkin Brownies Monday, Nov 26 2012

Here comes another Secret Recipe Club recipe swap! This month, I was assigned Avril’s blog: Baking and Creating with Avril. Since we are moving cross-country this coming Thursday, I needed to find a fairly simple recipe. I knew I found the perfect recipe when I saw this one: Pumpkies (aka Pumpkin Brownies!).

We love pumpkin stuff, especially at this time of the year, I had some to use up in my freezer, and it’s a quick and easy recipe. 🙂  I made it, let it cool, then offered a piece to my 4-yr old. He took one bite and said “I really like this!!!” and proceeded to eat more instead of his lunch. 😉  (I guess it’s my fault for giving him some just before lunch!!)

Thanks for a yummy, quick and easy recipe, Avril! I’ll be making this one again. 🙂

Pumpkin Brownies

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup flour (I used spelt flour)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used: 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cinnamon)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Beat butter until light and fluffy, add in sugar, egg and pumpkin puree.  Mix all together until well combined then add in flour, spices and salt to your pumpkin mixture.  Mix all together thoroughly. Pour into greased 8″x8″ pan. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes.  Cool as much as you wish and serve.

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Pumpkin Honey Bread Wednesday, Sep 12 2012

 

I made a double batch of these. I put chocolate chips in own loaf, and dried cranberries in the other! YUM! Probably my favourite pumpkin bread recipe yet. 🙂

Pumpkin Honey Bread

1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin*
1/2 cup oil or butter
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour (I used 1 1/4 cup spelt, and 1/2 cup white)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup nuts/chocolate chips/dried cranberries/raisins

Beat oil and honey together, add eggs and pumpkin, mix well. Combine dry ingredients and water, add to honey mixture. Stir in nuts/chocolate chips/dried cranberries/raisins. Grease 1 bread pan or muffin tins, and pour in batter. Bake at 350F – 1hr for a loaf, or 25 minutes for muffins, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Place loaf or muffins (still in pan) on cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes before removing out of the pan (or it will bread).

Put icing if desired, or eat as is! Freezes well for later use.

* You can also use cooked mashed squash!

Recipe from Whole Foods for the Whole Family.

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Homemade Stuffing Monday, Mar 5 2012

I don’t know about you, but I like stuffing! Homemade is the best, and quite easy to make. I stay away from Stove Top boxes since they have MSG in them. I really like Tammy’s stuffing, as it is quick, easy, and flavourful! It worked great in this Spinach Balls recipe, as well as other casseroles that I top with stuffing.

The only downside to it is how mushy it is, which is usually fine, but once in a while you want something a bit dryer. Something baked in the oven. My friend and I used the yummy spices from Tammy’s recipe and turned it into an oven-baked stuffing recipe!

We’ve both made it a few times since, and each time we like it. 🙂  Depending on the type of bread you use, you may need more liquid. When I use my own 100% wheat/spelt bread, I need a little bit more liquid as its a dryer bread. If you are using storebought or homemade bread that uses some (or all) white flour, then this recipe will work great as is. Enjoy! It’s delicious!

By the way, if you don’t have some of these spices, it’s ok to omit them. I haven’t always had all of them on hand, yet it works out every time!

Homemade Stuffing

9 cups say old bread cubes, cut in 1/2″ chunks (set out bread cubes the day before)
2 eggs
1 onion, diced
2 celery ribs, chopped
3 cups chicken stock
3/4 tsp lemon pepper
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp parsley
1 1/2 tsp chives
3/4 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/3 tsp tumeric

Cook onions and celery in frying pan until soft.

Mix together bread, onions, celery, eggs, chicken stock and spices. Place in greased 9×13″ pan. Bake covered for 20 minutes at 350F. Then bake uncovered at 400F for 20 minutes or until top of stuffing is browned and crisp.

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French Baguette Monday, Jan 23 2012

I have wanted to try making baguettes for two years now. For some reason I thought it would be very hard to do. There are probably some methods that are very hard, but the one I [finally] tried sure wasn’t! Keeps me wondering WHY I waited two years to get around to trying it?! 🙂

This recipe makes 3 baguettes and oh, were they ever good!!! I ate some for mid-morning snack…. lunch…. mid-afternoon snack…. supper…. and evening snack. A little too much bread maybe, but it was just that yummy. 😉

The recipe is an adaptation from Famous French Desserts’ website.

French Baguette

4 cups Flour (I used 1/2 spelt, 1/2 white flour)
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water
Oil for bowl

In a large bowl combine water, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir in 2 cups of remaining flour until mixture forms a stiff dough.

On a lightly floured surface knead dough with lightly floured hands 8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Add more flour if needed to keep dough from being too sticky.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled deep bowl, turning to coat with oil, and let rise, bowl covered with plastic wrap, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Punch down dough and form into long 2-3 slender loaves. Put loaves on a lightly greased large baking sheet and let rise, uncovered, about 20 minutes. (Baguette may be made up to this point 4 hours ahead and chilled.)

Make 3 or 4 diagonal slashes on loaf with a sharp knife. Place a bowl of boiling water in oven*, in bottom rack. Bake loaves in middle of oven about 20 minutes, or until golden, and transfer to a rack to cool.

*After placing the loaves in the oven, quickly pour a cup of boiling water in a metal dish in the rack under the bread.

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Cornmeal Pizza Dough Friday, Dec 9 2011

This is a nice variation to traditional pizza dough, especially if you’re making a Mexican pizza! It’s from the Fleischmann’s Yeast Best-Ever Breads booklet.

 

Cornmeal Pizza Dough

1 cup wheat flour (I use spelt)
3/4 – 1 cup white flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup very warm water
Cornmeal (about 1 Tbsp), optional

Proof yeast if necessary; if using instant yeast, just mix in with your flour! Mix all ingredients, adding flour until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the sides (or sticks just a little bit). Knead 5 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, rolling it around to oil all around the dough. Cover with a cloth.

Let rise 30min-1hr, or until doubled. Punch down. Sprinkle greased pizza pans with cornmeal. Roll out dough into pizza pans (it makes one large one with thick crust, or two thin crusts).

Add your toppings. Bake 20min at 400F, or until golden brown underneath.

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