Archive for Bread and Breakfast
Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins
Posted by: | Comments
Did I ever tell you about the time I almost forgot to put the bananas into my banana bread?
I have these finer moments in my kitchen from time to time. They mostly happen while I’m trying to cook and talk simultaneously. If I’m talking on the phone while mixing up a recipe, I tend to leave out key ingredients. Or add the same ingredient twice. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s crazy that I can usually multi-task quite well…but I can barely have a conversation with someone while I cook. Duh. Just be glad I type these posts after I’m finished cooking. Otherwise, these recipes would just be plain scary.
And so, because I care too much not to share, here’s a handy baking tip: When making Banana Bread or Muffins, be sure to add the bananas. The final product tastes much better this way. I’m nothing if not helpful.
Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, or puree them in a blender. Mix mashed bananas, honey, melted butter and eggs into flour mixture.
For Bread: Spread batter into a well buttered bread pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
For Muffins: Spoon batter into 12 buttered or paper lined muffin tins. Bake in a 400° oven for 20 minutes.
Speaking of finer moments in my kitchen…did I ever tell you about the time I made a lovely lasagna ahead of time so that I would be all ready for my company that night? Because, you see, it’s great to be prepared when you’re having company. Oh, and it also helps to get the lasagna out of the fridge and BAKE IT at dinner time. Being prepared doesn’t help at all if you don’t actually bake your lasagna. Yeah, dinner was a little late that night.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
Posted by: | Comments
I’m not sure if you are a chocolate lover like I am, but any recipe that has the words chocolate and chocolate written side by side makes me very happy and excited.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I recommend these organic chips without soy lecithin, or these homemade chocolate chunks)
If you have some good quality coconut oil, I highly recommend using it in this recipe. The coconut flavor with the chocolate chocolate is SO GOOD.
Stir together dry ingredients. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into 9-12 paper lined muffin tins. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. Makes about 9 muffins. (I double the recipe for my family of six.)
You can also make this into a quick bread…just spread the batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50 minutes!
——————————————–
This post is linked to Frugal Friday!
Healthy Homemade Breakfast Burritos
Posted by: | CommentsWell, I made the kids mad at lunch today. I stood there making 20 breakfast burritos and wouldn’t even let them eat one.
Instead, they had to eat tuna. I was heartless enough to actually make them wait until next week to eat the Breakfast Burritos. Hey, I’m just trying to get ahead here. Someday when they become the parent, they too might have a Breakfast Burrito agenda and make their children settle for tuna. And then they’ll come back to me and tell me how sorry they are for being mad about the 2010 Withholding of the Breakfast Burritos.
Someday.
Homemade Breakfast Burritos
1 pound turkey sausage, browned
12 eggs, scrambled
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I use Landmark Raw White Cheddar)
2 cup salsa (more or less to taste)
20 whole wheat tortillas*
*Tortilla Hint: If you’re making your own tortillas (and if you aren’t, you really should be, because YUM)…try this tip to make burrito forming so much easier! As you roll your tortillas, cook them on just one side, leaving the other side softer and more flexible. Also, I find it works best to form the burritos within two or three hours of making the tortillas…before the tortillas have been refrigerated.
To put together the burritos:
Stir together scrambled eggs, cooked sausage, cheese and salsa. (I leave out the salsa at first and make up some salsa-less burritos for a couple of boys in my life who don’t like salsa. Then I add salsa to the remainder of the mix and make a few with salsa for the rest of us!)
Place a nice spoonful of burrito mixture onto a tortilla.
Fold in the ends.
Fold up one side, and then the other.
You can freeze your burritos in a big container,
or put them into freezer bags.
To reheat: Place desired number of thawed or frozen burritos on a baking sheet. Heat in a 350° oven for 10-20 mintues until heated through.
P.S. The children weren’t mad for long. They really like tuna…but just temporarily forgot that fact when they smelled the sausage cooking. They happily ate their tuna and will ever so much more happily eat their Breakfast Burritos some morning next week when I have yet another agenda: the-hurry-up-and-eat-breakfast-so-that-you-can-start-your-handwriting-and-math…agenda.
;)
Mini Apple Pies (A Part of This Complete Breakfast)
Posted by: | CommentsWho decided that sugar coated sugar dobbers and frosted sprinked poptarts were the best way to start the day? I also want to know why the aforementioned choices…or a pancake drenched in syrup is considered a great breakfast food…yet an apple pie is considered to be a dessert.
Remember, I like to think outside the box when it comes to breakfast. I’m all about Giant Breakfast Cookies, Breakfast Cake, Funnel Cake, Whole Wheat Donuts…and if you recall…even Homemade Ice Cream for breakfast. And what about our Valentine’s day Peach Cobbler? Yes, I think breakfast should be enticing, delicious, nutritious and sometimes even fun. And I think Apple Pie should be okay to eat for breakfast.
This Mini Apple Pie recipe is a new one I’ve come up with as I work on creating more Healthy Make-Ahead Meals. These freeze well (unbaked) – then you can just pull out a little pie (or 3) per person and bake.
Make them for breakfast…and your family will smell them baking, jump out of bed and come running into the kitchen and plow you over onto the kitchen floor (out of joy and love of course).
You can make these a couple of different ways: Mini Apple Pies, or Apple Pie Pockets…depending on what works best for you. I use the same crust recipe I use for my Homemade Pizza Pockets. Follow the same instructions for the pizza pockets to create an Apple Pie Pocket…
The following directions are for Mini Apple Pies:
Crust:
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 t. sea salt
1 cup melted butter
1 cup plain yogurt
Stir ingredients together until thoroughly mixed. Use the dough right away to create pockets or pies…or let the dough sit overnight to break down the phytates and make the grains more digestable. This dough is MUCH easier to work with if you work it like playdough in your hands a while before you try to roll it out.
Filling:
3 pounds of apples – about 11-12 smallish apples (any kind you like)
1/4 – 3/4 cup sucanat (your preference)
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Topping:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2-4 Tablespoons sucanat
3 Tablespoons melted butter
To make Mini Apple Pies:
Peel apples and cut them into bite sized chunks.
Add sucanat and cinnamon.
Stir well and cook over medium heat until apples are
tender and a syrup has formed (about 10 minutes).
In the meantime, separate dough into 21-24 pieces.
Roll each piece into a little circle with a rolling pen.
As you can see, I am NOT a perfectionist. If I was making these for a
ladies’ brunch or something…I might take the time to make them pretty.
But for my family of boys?
Do you think they really care if their pies are pretty?
They eat them in three minutes flat. Thus my sloppy dough squishing.
Squish (or place nicely) your dough circles into well buttered MUFFIN PANS. Using a muffin pan for these Mini Apple Pies eliminates the need to go buy 24 little mini pie pans.
Fill each (unbaked) crust with apple pie filling.
In a bowl, stir together topping ingredients until the dry ingredients are moistened.
I find that melting the butter and stirring it into the flour, oats and sucanat makes a great crumb topping…much less effort than “cutting in the butter”.
Sprinkle topping all over the top of your little pies.
Try if you can to be as messy about this process as I am. Sheesh.
Freeze your pies in your buttered muffin pans for a couple of hours.
Remove your muffin pans from the freezer and allow them to sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes. Use a fork to gently pry the pies out of the pan. Place them carefully into freezer bags and put them bag into the freezer.
To bake your Mini Apple Pies:
Take desired number of pies out of the freezer and place them on a baking pan. Bake in a 375° oven for 35-45 minutes. You can let them thaw first if you want…but I find that the frozen pies bake just fine!
And now I’d like to point out that (depending on how much you use) there is about 1/2 cup of sucanat divided by 24 little pies…making this a very healthy, very low in sugar breakfast. Much less even than my Applesauce Bread or something otherwise considered a breakfast food.
Bring on the Breakfast Pie! Shucks…maybe we should even serve it with Ice Cream!
What’s your opinion about serving cobbler or pie for breakfast? Do I sound like a weirdo? (Wait, don’t answer that.)
——————————————-
This recipe is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap.
Warm Chocolate Soother
Posted by: | Comments
So, chocolate…or vanilla? That is the question.
I’d almost always say “chocolate” and yet…depending on the day, the occasion or the item…I may want vanilla. I’d say just about nothing beats this Warm Vanilla Soother.
And yet, last week the boys asked if I could try making my Warm Vanilla Soother into a Warm Chocolate Soother, just for fun. The kids thought it sounded yummy and hey, who am I to argue when it comes to making something chocolatey?
This recipe is almost exactly like Warm Vanilla Soother…just a couple of ingredients added.
Warm Chocolate Soother
3 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup real maple syrup
3 T. sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 T. arrowroot powder or corn starch
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, sucanat, cocoa and arrowroot powder. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Stir until creamy. Pour into mugs and serve warm.
Once this finally cooled down enough to drink, my eight year old proclaimed, “Mom!! It tastes just like you’re drinking a brownie!”
For real?! Drinking a brownie? I want to drink a brownie!!!
Mmmm, he was right!
This has the appearance of hot cocoa, but it’s thicker and heartier. Oh. My.
So chocolate…or vanilla? That is still the question.
Maybe we’ll assign days to flavors.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and every other Sunday will be Warm Chocolate Soother days. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and every other Sunday will be Warm Vanilla Soother days.
Unless I have a hankering for vanilla on a Friday or feel a deep need for chocolate on a Tuesday, which I very well may. I’ll have to be flexible and leave the options open.
Let’s see, today is Tuesday. Which one are you gonna make?
———————————————————————
This post is linked to Frugal Friday.
Winter Comfort…Warm Vanilla Soother
Posted by: | CommentsLately, this drink has been my favorite breakfast. It’s warm, filling and nourishing. As I drink this, I always feel like someone just handed me a delicious mug of comfort. Mmmmm
Warm Vanilla Soother
3 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup real maple syrup
2 T. arrowroot powder or corn starch
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup and arrowroot powder. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Stir until creamy. Pour into mugs and serve warm.
Sprinkle a little nutmeg on top or add a dollop of whipped cream for an extra special touch!
Ever since I bought a gallon of vodka started my big batch of homemade vanilla, I’ve been experimenting with new ways to use vanilla extract. Yum, homemade vanilla is so good!
I’ve been working hard to put all of these vanilla recipes into a new ebook. Plus…I’m creating a Vanilla Recipe Card Pack that will be downloadable and available for you to print off and give as gifts along with a bottle of vanilla.
I’m trying to get these out before Christmas! We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I’ll be giving you a few sneak peeks at Vanilla Recipes like this one!
Which vanilla recipe do you want to see next? Homemade Vanilla Wafers…or Fresh Fruit with Vanilla Sauce?
—————————————–
This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.
Ever Tried Cinnamon Apple Toast?
Posted by: | CommentsI mentioned here that I may be getting sixty pounds of apples in my co-op order this week. (UPDATE!!! Click here to see if the apples all came in or not!) If they all actually come in, I have no doubt that they will all get eaten. The kids love snacking on apples…they are SO nice to have on hand! The apples I mean. Well actually, the kids are pretty nice to have on hand too.
I ordered twenty pounds each of Gala (my favorite!), Yellow Delicious and Spartan. I’ve never even heard of Spartan apples before. Have you? Are they good? I ordered them because they were $11 for 20 pounds!!! I can’t wait to try them (if they come in)!
Here’s a very simple apple idea we’ll be snacking on with all of our apples:
Cinnamon Apple Toast
Your favorite whole grain bread (I use this homemade Honey Whole Wheat Bread…or Whole Wheat Sourdough if I have it made.)
Apples, sliced thinly
butter
cinnamon
Place slices of bread on a baking pan. Butter each slice. Lay three or four apple slices on each piece of bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Broil Cinnamon Apple Toast in the oven for 2-3 minutes.
So simple, your bigger kids can help you or make these themselves!
Other ways to eat apples…
- My kids eat them big, in slices, or cut into chunks…depending on what Mama has time for. :)
- Applesauce Bread
- Applesauce
- Apple Fruit Leather
- Caramel Apple Dip
- Strawberry Yogurt Fruit Dip
- Apple crisp
- I may experiment with individual apple pie pockets. Doesn’t that sound fun?
What are your favorite ways to eat apples? If you have one, feel free to leave a recipe link in your comment! Really, because sixty pounds of apples? I might need to get creative!
———————————————-
This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.
Chocolate Swirl Bread (Oh Yes I DID Just Say Chocolate!)
Posted by: | CommentsAfter showing you how to make Cinnamon Swirl Bread…I got a notion to try Chocolate Swirl Bread. (I get chocolate notions all the time.)
Let me just say that I’m very glad I got that notion. Now we can all have chocolate for breakfast!!! What a great start to the day…
Chocolate Swirl Bread is just as simple to make as the Cinnamon Swirl Bread…you pretty much just substitute cocoa powder for cinnamon!
I used this bread recipe, then rolled out the dough before shaping the loaf. Then I spread butter over the dough and sprinkled on about 1/4 cup sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice) mixed with 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder. Roll it up and bake as directed.
Do you think it would be too much to have this Chocolate Swirl Bread with Hot Cocoa? I think I could handle washing down my chocolate with a little chocolate.
———————————————
This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.
How to Make Whole Wheat Bread Tutorial
Posted by: | CommentsBesides making Sourdough Bread, this is my favorite, simple 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe. This recipe makes two loaves. (I always double it for my family, so if the pictures in this tutorial look like twice the amount, that’s because it is.)
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
6 cups whole wheat flour, divided
1 ¾ cups warm water, divided
1/3 cup honey
1 pkg. active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon)
1 t. sea salt
3 T. melted butter
Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour with 1 ½ cups of warm water in a large glass bowl. Allow this to sit for about 30 minutes. This will break down the gluten and help the bread to rise better.
In a small bowl mix together ¼ cup water, 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast and 1/3 cup honey. Allow this to sit for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast is activated and mixture becomes bubbly.
In the meantime, melt 3 Tablespoons butter in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool. You don’t want the hot butter to kill the yeast.
Add 1 teaspoon salt, melted butter and yeast mixture to the flour and water mixture. Gradually add the remaining three cups of flour and stir well. As the dough becomes harder to stir, pour it out onto a clean counter and begin to knead the dough.
Here’s a video to show you how to knead the dough. Two things: 1) I was having a freaked out hair day. So glad I could share it with you. 2) I’m pretty sure “wetter” is not a real word, yet I use that word toward the end of the video. I are sorry.
Don’t you love how I “spank” the dough at the end of the clip? There’s something very gratifying about giving the dough a nice “spank”. You should try it sometime.
Once you’ve kneaded your dough, place it into a bowl to rise.
Cover the dough with a cloth and let it rise for at least one hour or until it has risen to twice it’s starting size.
While you’re waiting for your dough to rise, get your bread pans buttered. You can also do some laundry, wash some dishes, or clean the bread dough out from under your fingernails.
There it is…doubled up.
Give the raised dough a nice punch.
(Punching? Spanking? Who knew making bread was so violent in nature?)
Using a floured hand, pull the dough out of the bowl onto the counter.
Knead for three or four minutes until the air bubbles are all gone.
Now you can watch how I shape my dough into loaves before baking. Again…more spanking…
Cover and allow 30 minutes to one hour to rise again. They should double in size, but the rising should happen more quickly this time because the yeast knows what to do by now.
See here how the loaves have doubled in size?
Bake the bread uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when you thump the top of it. (Great. Spanking, punching and thumping. I am really a bad influence.)
Allow the bread to cool in the pans for 10 minutes,
then remove it to finish cooling on a wire rack.
The bread slices more easily after it’s cooled. However…it’s awfully hard to wait…and bread fresh out of the oven slathered in butter is really, really good. I say go for it.
A few notes:
- Making bread from start to finish takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Most of that time is waiting and baking time…but if you plan to make bread, you should block out an entire morning or afternoon.
- If your water or butter is too cold or too hot, it will kill the yeast. If you can put your (clean) finger in the water or butter and it doesn’t burn you, but just feels warm… you’ve got the right temperature.
- If the dough in your bowl has risen to double and suddenly you need to nurse the baby or wash cottage cheese out from between your toddler’s toes…just go punch down your dough and let it rise again before you shape it. It won’t hurt anything.
- If you want to shape your dough into loaves, but bake them later: Shape your loaves then put them directly into the freezer before they have a chance to rise. Allow them to sit in buttered loaf pans for several hours (or overnight) so that they can thaw and rise before baking.
- Many of you have asked if I have a bread machine. I don’t, so I’m sorry I am not able to answer your questions about them. I’m assuming this recipe would work in a machine, but I don’t know. Maybe some of you with bread machines can chime in on this?
Click here to read through posts describing and explaining grains, grain mills and grinding flour!
——————————————————-
This post is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap!
How to Make Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve had several of you ask how I make my Cinnamon Swirl Bread! It is SO easy to make and your family will love it!
I use my Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe for this. I usually double the recipe then make two regular loaves and two cinnamon swirl loaves. This recipe freezes well.
Instead of shaping the dough immediately into a loaf, roll it out like this.
Spread a generous amount of softened butter all over the rolled out dough.
Sprinkle with a mixture of cinnamon/sugar (I use cinnamon/sucanat). I haven’t measured this out but I would estimate the amount needed to be about 2 teaspoons of cinnamon mixed with 1/4 cup of sucanat.
Roll it up.
Poke the ends under to make a loaf shape, place in a buttered bread pan, let the loaf rise for about 30-45 minutes and bake as directed.
This bread is AWESOME lightly toasted and then buttered! With a glass of milk.
Sprinkle on some raisins if you like for Cinnamon Raisin Bread!
See how easy that is?! :)
————————————————–
[print_link]
