Breads and Doughs - Its Not Easy Eating Green

Babycakes – Gluten Free Mini Oat Scones

May 29, 2013 - 11:23 am | Baking, Breads and Doughs, Breakfast, Gluten-Free, Grains, kid-friendly, Recipe

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The twins are at the perfect age: the perfect age to make a mess out of anything. Too old for most baby foods, but too young for fork and spoon, they eat with their hands, and much of it ends up all over them and the floor. A good meal has a 30/70 ratio with 30 % of the food in their mouths and 70% on the floor and all over them. Breakfast is particularly messy. I’m not a big fan of most traditional breakfast cereals, oatmeal and grits are so messy and pre-made cereal bars are packed with sugar.

I wanted to make my own, so I started by making a bar based on baked oatmeal. The result was too spongy, wet and pretty gross to everyone except the babies. They devoured the flabby globs of ick like I was feeding them candy. I realized that pretty accurately described it since the recipe was loaded with sugar. I needed a new recipe.

Inspiration came while I was making the Fluffy Buttermilk Drop Biscuit recipe from the May 2013 issue of Cooking Light on Saturday morning. It was easy, and Squisy Delishy attacked it like he had the sugar-soaked baked oatmeal bars. I decided to tinker around with that recipe to get the baby breakfast I wanted. I replaced the white flour with oat flour and the whole wheat flour with rolled oats. Then I added a little cinnamon and cut back on the baking powder. To give the oatcakes a sweet finish, I sprinkled them with a little cinnamon sugar before baking. To make them easy for the twins to eat, I dropped them in small balls. They are a lot like scones, but without all the fat.

The finished product is a hit with the twins.

While still crumbly and not mess-free, they are so much less messy than sticky gloppy oatmeal. They are also the perfect size for little hands.

They are also a hit with everyone else. If you use gluten-free oat flour and oats, you have a gluten-free product. These oat cakes are delicious as they are, especially right from the oven, but are over-the-top good with jam. Enjoy!

Babycakes – Gluten Free Mini Oat Scones
makes 24 mini oat cakes

Inspired by this recipe from Cooking Light, May 2013 for Fluffy Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

1 1/4 cup oat flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup buttermilk, cold
cinnamon and sugar for dusting the tops

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. Mix oat flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.

Melt the butter and cool slightly. Pour the butter into the cold buttermilk. Pour the butter and buttermilk mixture into the oats and mix until just combined.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to drop the dough in 24 heaping spoonfuls onto the baking pan.

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Sprinkle the tops of each oatcake with a little cinnamon and sugar.

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Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. Serve warm.

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Note: Not all oat products are gluten free. If you need this recipe to be gluten-free, then be sure you are using a gluten-free product. Below are links to gluten-free oat products from Amazon.

Rustic Sweet Onion Tart

May 15, 2013 - 10:42 pm | Appetizers, Baking, Breads and Doughs, Cheese, Grains, Main Dish, Meatless Meals, Recipe, Sides, Summer, Vegetables, Vegetarian

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I was a childhood cooking-show junkie. On sick days at home, while other children would spend their days watching music videos on MTV and “You Can’t Do That on Television” on Nickelodeon, I watched PBS. Hours spent watching Jeff Smith, Martin Yan, Justin Wilson and “The Great Chefs” series. “The Great Chefs” series made me want to become a chef; Martin Yan made me want to be an entertainer, and Justin Wilson just reminded me of my family (not at all cajun but they were a bit of a wacky southern group).

I hated most vegetables though, so I would watch the cooks make recipe after recipe looking for something wonderful that was free of onions, tomatoes, celery and peppers. There was a show I cannot remember the name of with a cook whose name and face are a distant memory; I distinctly remember watching him make a chicken fricassee. It looked so good, and I remember thinking that I would eat it, regardless of onions or no onions. Watching him make this dish made me realize that if I wanted to be a professional cook, that I was going to have to eat the things I did not like.

I’ve written before about teaching myself to like vegetables, one vegetable at a time, by learning how to properly prepare each one. To like onions, I started by teaching myself to make good caramelized onions; not just browned onions, but good and properly melty, gooey, sweet and sticky caramelized onions. Once I had that down, I was in love. Onions show up in just about everything of mine. I think my childhood self would H-A-T-E having me as their parent; and I think I would get really annoyed with my childhood self because the little brat wouldn’t eat anything I made for her. While not little kid-friendly, this tart will agree with older kids and pretty much everyone else. Sweet Vidalia onions, which are in season right now, are the onion of choice, but other sweet onions will work as well.

This recipe is all about balancing flavors. The sweet onions are balanced by briny feta, tangy balsamic vinegar, spicy black pepper and herby thyme. The crust is part of the flavor, not just a shell to hold it. It becomes part of the whole picture, so don’t cut corners and use a pre-made crust. The crust can be a little crumbly, but a rustic look works here, so just work with it until you have a roundish shape and it’s okay if it isn’t perfect; because that is perfect. Enjoy!

Caramelized Onion Tart with Feta and Balsamic
Serves 6

This tart is a fantastic snack, but also makes a wonderful meal when paired with a salad. I love the sheen of the egg wash on the crust, but you could easily leave that out to make this egg free.

1 Recipe Savory Pastry Dough
2 pounds Vidalia Onion (or other sweet onion)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, plus another 1/2 teaspoon to garnish
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg yolk

Peel the onions and slice very thin; I used a food processor. Heat olive oil in a large skillet with a lid over medium-high heat. When the oil starts to shimmer add the onions and salt. Cover the onions and let cook until they release their liquid, about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Uncover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook slowly, stirring frequently until evenly brown and greatly reduced; about another 25 minutes.

Add the thyme and balsamic vinegar and cook another two minutes to let the thyme release its flavor. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out the dough to form a roughly 15 inch circle.

Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper and spread the onion in a 12 inch circle in the middle of the dough. Sprinkle the feta on to the exposed onion filling.

Turn the edges of the dough over, tucking under any uneven edges to form a 1 1/2 inch edge over the top of the onion filling.

Brush the edges with a light coating of egg wash. Move the tart to a baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is a nice even brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for five minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

Baked Corn Dogs and Birthdays

April 24, 2013 - 6:00 am | Appetizers, Breads and Doughs, Cheese, Entertaining, Holiday, kid-friendly, Main Dish, Meat, Menu, Recipe, Retro Recipes, Salad, Southern

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Time is a strange and wonderful force. What else can turn two tiny bundles unable to do anything but basic body functions into two happy, intelligent, curious individuals capable of more and more every day.

Desperate newborn cries have turned into the sweetest “Mama” sounds I’ve ever heard. Flailing arms and legs have turned into strong limbs capable of pulling themselves up and almost walking. Yes, 365 days, 8760 hours is a magical amount of time.

I know it’s a cliché, but I simply cannot believe how fast the year has past. Long gone are the sleepless nights and near constant feeding, diapering and changing. Our days now arrive and end at an almost normal rate, and we have settled into a routine that includes long breaks for me to play with Little Guy (and occasionally sleep). Life is good with one-year-old twins; it is, as they say, a good age.

Their birthday party was certainly a day of celebration. Everyone knows that 1^st birthday parties are for the parents, not the babies, and we decided that with twins, we deserved a BIG party. Decorations and ideas were easy because of the easy to use and S-U-P-E-R cute party printables available at Simone Made It. When you buy these printable theme packs available in many different themes, you buy a PDF file that is customizable with your own text. You then print out only what you need instead of buying expensive (and usually wasteful) decorations.

Since our life is still a little short on time these days, I wanted an easy menu but one that was also tasty and not too unhealthy.

Recipes for the Salsa Roja and the Firecracker Coleslaw are from this site. Both recipes are favorites, and I find myself making them over and over again. They are always a huge hit when I’m entertaining. The pimento cheese is my father’s recipe; and can be found at the bottom of this post. It’s a mild version of the southern classic and was devoured at an alarming rate!

The Herbed Potato Salad is a Cooking Light recipe. I made a double recipe and it was more than enough for the twenty adults at the party. It is full of bright herb flavor and tart acidity. I enjoyed the salad more warm than cold, but it was a good healthy mayo-free salad either way. I made it exactly by the recipe except that I doubled it. It holds well for several days so it’s the perfect make-ahead recipe.

We pulled out several pounds of the grass-fed ground beef we purchased and made sliders that were dreamy covered in oozy melted cheese. The sliders were so good, I wanted to go a bit beyond just run of the mill corn dogs. Regular hot dogs are full of nitrates, nitrites, and dubiously sourced meat. Granted that I didn’t look very hard, but I couldn’t find antibiotic free corn dogs anywhere. So, I made my own.

I’m a fan of Applegate hotdogs. According to my 4-year old, the blue package tastes the best!

I got the idea from The Village Cook to bake the corn dogs in an old-fashioned cast-iron corn stick pan. It was a fantastic pan for baking the dogs and keeping the corn dog-like shape, but the recipe used just a quarter of a hot dog per muffin tin which seemed a little bready to me and it used instant muffin mix instead of a healthier homemade version using whole-grain flours.

This recipe freezes easily. I made the corn dogs for the party a week ahead of time and kept them in the freezer until right before service time. Then I reheated them by placing them on a baking sheet and reheating at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. You can also reheat them quickly in a microwave, but you don’t get the nice crunch you get in the oven. Enjoy!

Baked Corn Dogs
makes 12 dogs

You can eat these fresh out of the oven, or freeze them and reheat in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. I use spelt flour in this recipe because of its soft texture. It does not have a whole wheat flavor or texture. If you want more whole-grain flavor, use whole wheat or even graham flour instead of spelt flour in this recipe. Of course you could always just use white flour too.

1 cup corn meal
1 cup spelt flour (or other whole wheat flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 hot dogs (your favorite variety)
12 wooden skewers

Place a cast-iron corn stick pan on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Preheat oven with corn stick pan in it to 400 degrees. In a large bowl mix the corn meal, spelt flour, salt, sugar, baking soda and baking powder.

In another bowl or large measuring cup combine buttermilk, eggs and vegetable oil and mix well. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Set aside to rest for several minutes.

Cut 1/3 off of each hot dog. Press a skewer into each of the 2/3-sized hot dogs, then skewer the short pieces of hot dog, using two per skewer to make 12 hot dogs on skewers.

Remove the corn stick pan on the baking sheet from the oven and thoroughly spray with non-stick cooking spray or brush with oil. One at a time, dip each hot dog into the corn batter covering all of the hot dog with batter.

Place the hot dog into one of the corn stick slots and repeat with enough of the hot dogs to fill the pan.

Spoon in additional batter if needed to fill the bottom of each corn stick slot. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and turn out onto a baking rack or board to cool. Wipe any residue out of the corn stick pan and re-grease it. Repeat the process with the remaining hot dogs, using any remaining batter to fill any empty slots. Once the corn dogs have cooled, you can trim the edges if needed.

Pimento Cheese
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

You can add a pinch of cayenne to this to give it a little (or a lot) of a kick.

12 ounces medium cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup pimentos, chopped

Combine ingredients in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined and softened. Season to taste with cayenne. Serve with bread rounds or butter crackers (like Ritz).

Banana Bread Pancakes

April 10, 2013 - 6:00 am | Baking, Breads and Doughs, Breakfast, Fruit, Grains, kid-friendly, Recipe, Southern

Foxboro Cheese and Sundried Tomato and Spinach Turnovers

February 6, 2013 - 5:01 am | Appetizers, Baking, Breads and Doughs, Cheese, Italian, Local, Meatless Meals, Recipe, Vegetarian

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Places like Lawton Family Farm are hard to find these days.

Sorry for the image quality; I took this on my first trip with my cell phone.

They are even harder to find in the shadow of an NFL stadium. (This is not the best picture. The brown building behind the first row of trees is the farm, and behind that you can see the top deck of Gillette Stadium. It is a lot closer than this picture makes it look, the cows can probably make out the play-by-play).

It seems impossible that this farm is churning out hormone and antibiotic free raw milk and cheese in a barn that was built in 1832.

This is the type of place you see driving through the tiny towns of Vermont, not suburban Boston. Their small store sells their own raw milk (by order only), cheese, meats and other Massachusetts products.

I discovered this little gem at local farmers markets. They always bring samples of their Asaigo and Fromage Blanc cheeses for all to taste, and they are good. If you are unfamiliar with Fromage Blanc, like I was, it’s a fresh cheese similar to cream cheese, but with less fat and cholesterol. It’s much more common in Europe and is frequently eaten sweetened for breakfast much in the way we eat yogurt. You can cook with Fromage Blanc too. I think it cooks up a little nicer than cream cheese. These turnovers are the perfect example of how good it is cooked; the cheese flavor is subtle compared to the other flavors, but still distinct.

I’m always annoyed when a food trend fades from style. Usually it’s a food trend because it tastes good (not always). Sun-dried tomatoes were the gem of every foodie’s eye forever it seemed. Now days they are usually only found stuffing bad banquet chicken at your cousin Selma’s wedding. It’s a shame too because they taste good and are a nice way to get your tomato kick in the dead of winter. That’s how I use them here. Mixed with just a touch of basil and a bunch of cheese and spinach, they are almost like an Italian take on spanokopita. The finished product is a turnover that is perfect for any occasion. They freeze very well. I made up several batches when developing this recipe and froze them after I formed the turnover but before baking them. I then bake them frozen and they turn out wonderful. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you are in the Foxboro, MA area and want to stop by Lawtons Family Farm, bring cash and don’t expect much in the way of interaction. You come, you buy, you leave.

Lawtons Family Farm
70 North St., Foxboro, Mass.
Tel. 508-543-6460

Spinach and Sun-dried Tomato Turnovers
makes about 36 turnovers
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, minced, about 1/4 cup
4 packed cups baby spinach (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped (about 2 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup Fromage Blanc (or cream cheese) about 4 ounces
1 1/2 oz Asiago (or Parmesan), grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 recipe Savory Whole Wheat Pastry Dough (below)

1 egg for egg wash to brush over the top of the turnovers

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and cook until translucent, about five minutes.

Add spinach and basil, and cook until the spinach is thoroughly wilted.

In a medium bowl combine spinach mixture, sun-dried tomatoes, Fromage Blanc, Asiago, salt and pepper. Taste the filling and adjust seasonings to taste. Let completely cool before filling turnovers.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll pastry dough out to 1/4″ thickness. To form the turnovers, you can cut circles out of the dough with a 3″ biscuit cutter or you can roll half of the dough into a long rectangle and use a ravioli mold. Spoon 1/2 tablespoon (about 1 1/2 teaspoons) of filling into the center or each turnover.

If you are using the ravioli form, roll out the second half of the dough and place over the top using your fingers or a rolling pin (depending on how to use your ravioli form). If you are using the biscuit cutter, fold the dough over the top of the filling to form a half-moon. Use a fork to crimp the edges.

Using a biscuit cutter to make the turnovers

Using a ravioli form to make turnovers
Place the turnovers on a baking sheet. Beat the egg with two tablespoons of water and brush over the top of the turnovers.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the turnovers are starting to brown. Serve warm.

Savory Whole Wheat Pastry Dough
1 crust
This tasty crust is easy and does not need to chill before using. Olive oil and lots of pepper is the secret to a nicely flavored dough.

1 cup whole what pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoon olive oil
4-6 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

In the bowl of a food processor combine flour, sugar, salt, pepper and baking powder.

Pulse several times to combine. Add olive oil, ice water and vinegar and pulse again until small clumps form, about the size of peas.

Scrape the dough onto a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap and form into a solid disc and let sit for at least 15 minutes. Do not refrigerate or the dough will be too hard to work with. If you do make the dough ahead of time, refrigerate it but you will need to let it come up to room temp before working with it.

Chili Tamale Pie

January 30, 2013 - 7:14 am | Breads and Doughs, Gluten-Free, Grains, kid-friendly, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Southern, Tex-Mex, Uncategorized

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Tuesday was the last night in a week long freeze that had the whole family (and much of the Northeast) cooped up in the house. It’s too cold to play outside and too cold to take the twins out at all. The one time I did venture out for anything more than a grocery run or a trip to Ama and Papa’s house was a disaster. That’s when I discovered the hard way that it was so cold that even the baby wipes I keep in the car were frozen. Trust me when I say that you are very happy you were not with us at that moment.

When it’s this cold we all crave comfort food. To me comfort food equals casseroles. My love for casseroles has many reasons. I love that the effort in making them is front loaded so that you have time to clean up the kitchen while the casserole bakes, and I love that you can easily hide lots of veggies in them which makes them kid-friendly as well as mom-friendly. But I mostly love casseroles because they are warm and comforting; that’s a good thing when you are as cold as a penguin with male-pattern baldness.

Of course, I also love casseroles because many of them fall into the category of “retro” food. Most of us grew up familiar with all sorts of casseroles, and many of us have had more than our fare share of bad casseroles. Very few things are as bad as a casserole thrown together with canned soup, frozen overcooked veggies and huge tough boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don’t think that casseroles deserve their lazy housewife image. Many good casseroles take lots of attention, skill and quality ingredients to turn out just right. Cassoulet is certainly not a simple weeknight meal, and even a good macaroni and cheese requires that the cook know just the right blend of cheeses, milk, pasta and other ingredients to provide a finished product bursting with the right blend of cheese and creaminess.

This casserole checks all my boxes. It’s warm, I’ve hidden in a decent amount of veggies, it’s full of cheese, chili and yummy cornbread. It’s my take on the classic Tex-Mex casserole; tamale pie.

Tamale pie recipes vary all over the place. They are in theory a meat filling with a cornbread topping. Unlike last week’s recipe, I’m not terribly concerned with being authentic here. I just like something that tastes good, stretches the chili out across more meals and warms me up.

This basic recipe is wonderful just as is it, but it’s also has all sorts of potential for adding new things to it. If you really want to warm up, switch out the peppers for hotter ones: use pasillas, a serrano or even a little chipotles for a smokey flavor. Adding beans to the chili here would not be frowned on, and you could chop up any sort of veggie you want it. You can do what you want with this casserole, but I’m a big fan of simple. It’s cheesy, it’s warm, it’s good. So, enjoy!

Beef Chili Tamale Pie
serves 6
This is a simple casserole which combines the classic flavors of chili, cheese and cornbread. Because it is easily warmed up in the microwave, it can be made ahead of time.

Cornbread Topping:
1 cup corn meal
1-1 pound package frozen corn, thawed
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or bacon drippings
1 tablespoon sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz Co-Jack, Monterrey Jack or Cheddar cheese, shredded and divided in three parts
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Vegetable and Chili Sauce
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped fine
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1 poblano or pasilla pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups Texas Beef Chili without beans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large cast-iron pan over medium heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the peppers, onion, tomatoes and salt and cook until all the vegetables are very soft and beginning to brown around the edges, about 10 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking pulse the corn in a food processor several times until it is chopped, but not pureed.

In a bowl, combine the corn meal, sugar, garlic, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl. In another bowl combine the corn, buttermilk, garlic, eggs and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold in 1/3 of the cheese.

Use a blender or food processor to blend the vegetables up into a smooth paste.

Return to skillet and add chili. Bring mixture up to a simmer then remove from the heat.

Spread 1/3 of the shredded cheese over the chili.

Then evenly spread the cornbread batter over the top.

Mix the chili powder with the last 1/3 of the shredded cheese and sprinkle over the top of the cornbread batter.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top of the casserole is evenly brown and the center of the casserole springs back when lightly touched.

Cinnamon-Date Graham Bagels

November 8, 2012 - 7:32 am | Baking, Breads and Doughs, Breakfast, Grains, kid-friendly, Recipe

Happy New Year (Apple Oatmeal Scones with Honey)

September 16, 2012 - 9:44 am | Autumn, Baking, Breads and Doughs, Breakfast, Desserts, Fruit, Grains, kid-friendly

Graham Crackers and New Beginnings

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August 30, 2012 - 2:52 pm | Breads and Doughs, Breakfast, Cookies, Desserts, Grains, kid-friendly, Recipe

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This marks our first post twins edition. Things are more hectic than usual around here, but we are back with new posts and a whole new site. If you are new here, welcome. If you’re an old friend, welcome back! Please be sure to subscribe to our new site, either by email, Facebook or RSS feed.

…and now on with the show!

graham crackers final.odt

I’m pretty sure that Sylvester Graham was a weird dude. Imagine someone telling you that you need to bathe daily when, to get enough water for a bath, you had to first hand-pump the water from the well, schlep the water in to the house by the bucketful and finally heat it up enough to be able to stand it. Not only that, but he wanted people to eat whole-grain bread; I mean really! I would have dismissed him as crazy, a lunatic, absolutely batty.

Or maybe the Reverend Graham, Presbyterian, was just a man born before his time (1794-1851). Vegetarian, clean and regular he might have been, but he was eccentric for his day and age. Still, he managed to amass quite a following; enough so that his crackers are now commonplace fare for toddlers, pie-makers and girl scouts everywhere. However, I am sure that Rev. Graham would be appalled at what passes for graham crackers today. His breads and crackers contained only specially ground whole wheat flour, probably little sugar, and no chemical leveners (baking soda and baking powder). Today’s store-bought cracker ingredients read like the good reverend’s no-no list; white flour, calcium carbonate, malto dextrin, and high fructose corn syrup (if it were around in his day I’m fairly sure he would have been against it).

I don’t think my version of graham cracker would necessarily get the Reverend Graham stamp of approval, but they are better than the store brand. I do use chemical leveners and enough sugar to entice a youngster, but not as sweet as the pasty bear-shaped graham cracker snacks that are found in most grocery stores. These taste better, are better for you and make far better s’mores. Enjoy.

Graham Crackers – click here for a printable version of this recipe
makes approx 30 – 3X2” crackers

1 1/2 cups graham flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, cut in 1/4” inch pieces
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk

In the bowl of a large food processor, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Pulse to combine then sprinkle butter pieces over the top of the flour mixture. Pulse several times until butter is in small pieces and mixture resembles wet sand.

In a small bowl, combine milk, molasses, honey and vanilla. Pour over flour mixture and pulse until just combined. Empty dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until the dough is even and smooth. Divide into two discs, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take dough out of refrigerator. If the dough has been chilling for more than an hour let it warm up for about ten minutes before rolling out. Roll dough directly on silicone baking sheet or parchment paper to about 1/8” inch thickness.

You can cut and move pieces of the dough until you have a nice rectangular shape. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough to 3×2 inch rectangles.

Prick the top of the crackers with a fork.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes until the edges are slightly darker in color than the middle. Remove from oven and let cool before removing from the pan. If crackers are not crunchy when cool, return to oven for another minute or two. Store covered for up to a week.

A Cupcake By Any Other Name….Would Be a Muffin (Carrot “Cupcake” Muffins)

January 20, 2012 - 3:12 pm | Baking, Breads and Doughs, Breakfast, Cheese, Dairy, Desserts, kid-friendly, Recipe, Vegetables

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carrot muffin 1

Last week saw a big day in our house. Little Guy started pre-school. He now spends three mornings at school playing, learning and creating the cutest art you’ve ever seen; and I can no longer give him the late breakfast he likes. On the days he goes to school, my newest challenge is finding a quick easy to eat breakfast packed full of protein and grains that will give him enough energy to not break down into the three year old screamy-weemies before he gets home. He doesn’t really like breakfast so this is a real challenge. The first day I made the fantastic spelt pancakes found in The King Arthur Whole Grains Cookbook. If you haven’t discovered this book, you should. It’s just the bees knees! However, I can’t give him pancakes every single morning (can I?). So day two saw oatmeal which was slightly less enthusiastically received. By day three I was down to eggs and whole grain toast which he took one look at, grabbed the toast and pushed the eggs away. Now I have a new strategy. I’m disguising breakfasts as food he loves; namely cupcakes. What toddler can resist a cupcake with frosting.

This brings up an interesting topic though. What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? I decided to ask my friends and posted the question on Facebook. The answers varied. It’s no surprise to me that my marvelously talented food stylist and baking expert friend came up with the culinary difference, “A muffin is made by the quick bread method most of the time while a cupcake is made with the cake method.” While this may be the actual difference, most of my friends agreed only that muffins are for breakfast and supposed to be healthy. Pretty much everyone agreed that this is not usually the case, as one friend put it, “One is for breakfast. The other is a muffin.”

Of course, not all cakes, er um, I mean muffins are created equal. It would be very easy to just make a sweet, oil drenched, white flour ridden muffin and get Little Guy to eat it, but the sugar low that would ensue about an hour after I left him at school would make me very unpopular with his teachers. Instead my goal was to make him a healthy, whole grain muffin that provided a balanced breakfast that would keep him fueled for the morning. Morning glory muffins were tempting because they are full of fruits and veggies but there is no way I could get him to eat them. Then we were at the grocery store one day and Little Guy solved my problem. Next to the checkout was a display of carrot cupcakes ; “Those look good he said.” So, carrot cake muffins it was.

I knew I wanted a muffin that was not laden with sugar and one full of whole grains, carrots and one high in protein to keep my little guy moving in school. I sifted through a dozen or so recipes and decided to base my muffin on carrot cake recipes instead of a muffin because I wanted the finished product to taste more like a cupcake than a muffin. I immediately slashed the sugar from an average of 1 ½ to 2 cups down to a combination of 1/3 cup of brown sugar plus 3 tablespoons of molasses – for a total just under ½ cup (not including the cream cheese topping). I also switched out the white flour for whole wheat flour and slashed the fat down to a mere ¼ cup of oil. In place of cream cheese icing I used a small amount of lightly sweetened reduced fat cream cheese and a sprinkle of pecans. Enjoy!

Carrot Cupcake Muffins with Cream Cheese and Pecans – Click here for a printer friendly version of this recipe
makes 12 muffins

The cream cheese topping is not necessary for the enjoyment of these muffins, but does make them oh-so-good. If you do use the topping be sure to keep the muffins in the refrigerator.

2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons molasses
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 cup grated or ground carrot (see note), about 5 carrots

Cream Cheese Topping

4 oz light cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 12 muffin tins with non-stick spray or use muffin liners.

Beat eggs in the bowl of a standing mixer, slowly add vegetable oil then vanilla, brown sugar, molasses, and applesauce. Beat until slightly foamy.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl at least once. Fold in carrots.

Divide mixture evenly between the muffin tins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven to cool.

For topping:

Mix cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth. Spread about 1/2 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture onto the top of each cooled muffin. Sprinkle the chopped pecans on the top of the muffins. The muffins will keep in refrigerator for several days and can be frozen, although the cream cheese topping may crack.

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