What%u2019s up with dinner rolls? Do people eat them all year round, like on a Tuesday in the middle of March or maybe a nice blue sky sunny day in July? Is that a weird question? But seriously, think about it. Dinner rolls, at least in my world of people, are pretty much only eaten in and around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Huh. Kind of strange seeing that dinner rolls are bread which everyone eats all the time and are basically made specifically for dinner (although can and should be eaten for breakfast and lunch as well) which most people eat. Every. Single. Day. Well, whatever the reason, it%u2019s weird. So yes, I am making these here dinner rolls now at the traditional holiday time but I think as of now, I am going to start making them all the time. It%u2019s going to be my new thing. Fourth of July dinner rolls. Yup.
And so yes, we need dinner rolls right now for the holiday food feasts and these dinner rolls are the perfect accompaniment to any and all dinners. They are nice and fluffy and all dinner roll like, just as any good roll should be, but also slightly more nutty and soft and healthy because oats and wheat flour and homemade which is always the best.
And if you are like, hell yes I am a dinner roll person and hell no I am sticking to store bought cause that is that and how it%u2019s done, well hey, no judgment here. I made these for my people for our family Thanksgiving, (which is happening today at my house. There are going be so many people) and I know that everyone will love and be happy to eat them, but I too also bought some of those super white, take and bake ones that I know if I don%u2019t have on the table next to these gorgeous and amazing rolls, that I will probably get punched in the face. So we will have both. And then at dinner I can bask in the glory of all the comments about how much better my rolls are then the store bought ones. (Secretly why I am having both. Fishing for compliments. HAHA!)
Now to those soft and fluffy dinner rolls!
The stuff. Old fashion oats, all purpose and white whole wheat flour, yeast, oil, water (hot and room temperature), maple syrup, and salt.
First, take the boiling water and pour it over the oats. Mix them and let them soak and cool for 10 or so minutes.
While oats are soaking, add the room temp water to a big bowl with the yeast. Once the oats are soft and cooled off a bit, add them to the yeast mixture along with the oil, and maple. Mix together. The add the flours and mix until combined.
Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 3-5 minutes, adding a little more four as needed to keep from being to sticky, but don%u2019t over flour. The dough is and should be a little tacky.
Soft and supple. Kneaded and ready.
Place the dough back into the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Leave alone and let rise for about an hour or until it doubles in size.
Once the dough doubles, dump out onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 12-16 equal sized pieces .
Roll each roll into a roll shape and place them in a lightly greased baking dish. Cover for another 15-20 minutes to let rest and rise a little more.
Rolls risen again, just a little plumper. And now right before you place them in the oven, brush tops with a maple/water mixture and sprinkle with a few oats. To look pretty. And into the oven they go, 30ish minutes, until nice and golden brown.
Baked to golden dinner roll perfection.
And there you have it. Soft and fluffy dinner rolls. Warm out of the oven, looking and smelling like all the good things that you want and need.
And can, and should, be made now and all year round.
-C
makes 12-16 rolls
1 1/2 cups old fashion oats
2 cups all purpose flour plus more for kneading
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups boiling water
1 cup room tempature water plus 2 tablespoons for brushing tops
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons maple or honey
2 teaspoons yeast
1/4 cup neutral oil
In a bowl, mix oats with boil water and let sit and soak for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, in a large bowl, mix the room temp water with the yeast and 1 tablespoon of maple and mix. Once oats have soaked and cooled to a point that they are not super hot, but still just warm, mix them in with the yeast mixture. Add the salt and oil and mix then and both the white and white wheat flour. Mix until combined. The dough is going to be sticky, but that how is should be. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes, adding a little flour as needed to keep from sticking too much, until dough is nice and uniformed in texture. Place dough back into big bowl (after you clean it out and lily oil it) and cover with a damp towel. Place somewhere warm for about an hour until it doubles in size.
Once dough has doubled, dump out onto a lightly floured surface and with a knife of dough cutter, cut into 12- 16 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, pinching any ends together and place them into a 9×13 inch baking pan. Once all pieces are in, over and let rest for another 15 minutes.
While dough is resting again, preheat oven to 350.
After the dough has rested, and right before you place them in the oven, mix 1tablespoon of maple with about 2 tablespoons warm water and brush the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle with a handful of oats and then place them into the oven to bake. 30-35 minutes, until they are a nice golden brown.
Once baked remove from oven and let cool to a reasonable temperature and serve.
These can certainly be made a few days ahead of time of eating. Just remove baked rolls from pan and let cool completely then place the into an airtight bag. To reheat, just place on a baking sheet and stick in a hot oven until warm.
Bread is probably, no, definitely one of my upmost favorite things to bake. There is just something so gratifying about the whole process of mixing ingredients, kneading, watching it rise, shaping, then baking. It calms me and make me a better person. Seriously.
And this might sound sad, but this week when my Dad told me that my grandmother died, well I went home and made bread because that is what felt right to do. It gave my mind and hands a good something to do far a little while. Plus I ended up with a loaf of bread to feed people with. I also like to feed people when I am feeling sad.
I chose to use cinnamon and cardamom because of the smells. They are just delightful and happy smells. And swirls are happy so a happy swirl of happy smells in a loaf of bread that I was making to share that was (and did) make people happy. (See, bread baking is making me so nice because I am sharing it) It was just the right thing to do.
So if you are in need of a little happy pick me up, may I suggest making some bread? It might make you feel a little better, or at least get your mind off of things for a bit. And you will have bread so there is that too. It%u2019s a win win.
Now to the bread, which you can also make when you are happy. Or bored, or hungry, although it takes some time so if you are starting off hungry, you will be starving by the time it is done. Maybe eat a snack will you are making it%u2026..
The stuff. White and whole wheat flour, salt, sweet potato puree, soy milk, yeast, brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, cardamom, some flax seeds, and an orange.
In a big bow, mix together the yeast, warm milk, sweet potato puree, a little sugar, and oil. Let it sit for a minute to active yeast.
Flours and salt get a good mix to be mixed.
Then dry gets dumped into the yeast mixture along with the zest of the orange.
Mix it until a dough forms then dump it out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead dough for about 6-8 minutes or until supple, uniform, and smooth.
Place dough into a well oiled bowl and cover. Let rise for about and hour or so or until it doubles in size (could take a little longer then a hour)
Place risen dough back out onto a lightly floured surface.
Roll it out about 2 feet long and as wide as a bread pan.
Don%u2019t forget mix up your brown sugar with the cinnamon and cardamom.
Brush rolled out dough with the flax mixture. This will help the cinnamon cardamon sugar stick.
And evenly distribute the mixture all over the dough.
Roll it up nice and tight and once it%u2019s all rolled, pinch then end to the rest of the dough.
Gently place the rolled dough, pinched side down, into a well greased bread pan. Cover in a plastic bag for about another hour or until the dough has risen a good amount and is doming over the rim of the pan. Now preheat the oven.
Once the bread is sufficiently risen, place into hot oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Now the hard part. Get it out of the bread pan and get it cooling off. You cannot cut into it until it cools or you will smoosh the swirl and make it gummy. Just wait, at least a half hour. For real. Wait. You can do it!
And when the bread cools and the wait it over, slice and be amazed. A thing of beauty that smells of greatness.
Bread is so great. Great great great! Especially a swirl bread. I mean. Look at that.
Happy day to you.
-C
Makes 1 loaf
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sweet potato puree
1 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons (or one packet) yeast
3 tablespoons neutral oil like canola
2 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
For the cinnamon cardamom filling
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoon cinnamon (I used Vietnamese Cinnamon which is a little spicier and sweeter)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons ground flax mixed with 4 teaspoons warm water
Start by grabbing a big bowl. Mix together the yeast, the 2 tablespoons brown sugar, warm milk, sweet potato puree, and oil. Let sit for a minute to active yeast. In a separate bowl mix together the flours and salt. Dump the dry mixture into the wet. Zest the zest of an orange into bowl and mix it all together until it forms a dough. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes or until the dough gets supple and shinny and uniform. Place dough into a well oiled bowl and cover for about an hour or until doubled in size.
Once dough has doubled, dump out onto a well floured surface and roll out to as wide as a bread pan and roughly 24 inched long. After you have rolled it out brush the flax and water mixture all over surface . Combine the brown sugar with the cinnamon and cardamom and evenly distribute the mixture all over flaxed dough. And for the fun part. Careful roll the dough into a log. Roll it tightly so the bread doesn’tt end up with big gaps after it bakes. Once rolled, pinch the rolled end and place the log rolled side down into a well greased bread pan. Place dough into a a plastic bag with plenty of space for dough to rise. Let sit for about another hour or until the dough has risen a little bit above the rim of baking pan.
Preheat oven to 375
When dough has risen, place on middle rack in hot oven and bake for 40-45ish minutes or until bread is a deep golden brown and when you give it a tap, it sounds slightly hollow. Also check it with a intsant read thermometer. Get it to 190.
When it done baking, pull from oven and remove from pan. Place on a wire rack and let completely cool. Seriously, you got to let it cool for at least 1/2 and hour, but longer is better!
When it%u2019s cooled, cut into slices. Eat as you wish.
Uneaten bread stores well for a day or two in a airtight plastic bag but if you don%u2019t eat it that fast, cut into slices and freeze. That way you can just pop a piece out and stick it into toaster. Smart.
A couple of nights ago we had a little impromptu birthday dinner at my sisters house for the mr.%u00a0 And what did he want to do for dinner, his very own special birthday dinner? Well what he wanted was to cook, with absolutely no help from me. So cook he did. And what did he make? He made grilled cheese sandwiches, on white bread and with bright orange cheddar cheese along with some classic canned Campell’s tomato soup. I was not even allowed to make a salad (but he was being so nice when permitting me to make my own food)
But come on dude, it’s your birthday dinner. I was determined to make something so I said I was going to make a dessert. Nothing fancy and no cake (he is not a big cake guy), just something fast and easy. So I went with brownies of the sweet potato chocolate chip kind.%u00a0 Yeah I know what you are thinking..%u00a0 why am I not sharing those brownies? I’ll tell you why. They came out like shit. Like really gross, almost jello like and just not anything anyone would ever want to eat. Just shit.%u00a0 OH I was pissed. I mean, the one thing I got to do I screwed up. And there was no fixing them (I tried) So bum, there were no sweet dessert brownies ( but there was ice cream.. thanks Shannon) And worst of all, wasted food. Bah, I hate wasting food! ( I would have fed them to the dog but they were chocolate…. I miss having chickens that eat anything)
Side note here. Watching a lifetime original Christmas movie at the moment (don’t judge me)%u00a0 and it has Harriet and Carl Winslow in it. Talk about a throw back.. and now all I can think about is Urkel and his catch phrase”did I do that?” Anyways….
After the brownie disaster I really needed to make something that didn’t suck. I was going to go the brownie route again but unfortunately I used up all of my chocolate and cocoa for the shit batch before, so I went the blonde route. Blondies. close to a cookie, but not quite. A vanilla version of a chewy chocolate brownie.%u00a0 Chock full of super nutty macadamia nuts and big chunks of chocolate. Nothing missing, the perfect texture and sweetness.%u00a0 All and more of a better dessert then the night before. Perfection is what I call them and the mr is much happy with his birthday treat (with the added scoop of strawberry ice cream of course)
The stuff. A little bit of white whole wheat flour, some brown sugar, melted earth balance, a couple chia eggs,salt, a pinch of baking powder and some vanilla.%u00a0 And the mix in that make these blondies so great, the macadamia nuts and chocolate chunks.
It’s all super simple. The sugar, chia eggs, earth balance ans vanilla go into a bowl and get mix together until smooth. Then the salt gets sprinkled on along with the baking powder and lastly the flour on top.
And them mix it together unit its all incorporated… and don’t over mix!
Chop the macadamia nuts and chocalate chunks in somewhat smaller pieces…
And fold them into the batter.
And grab yourself a square pan, line it with foil or parchment paper, grease it a little, then dump in the batter and evenly pat in down into the pan.
Stick into the oven to bake.
And after 35-40 minutes of the amazing smells coming from your oven, the blondies should be done. Slightly browned, lookng like a cross between a cookie and a brownie, and raw in the middle, but only just.
Let the blondies cool for a few in the baking sheet, but then remove by the foil and cut into squares.
Keep them flat or stack them high. A dessert of the most fantastic kind.
My blonde redemption.
And lastly… HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!
-C
makes a 9×9 pan of goodness
-1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted earth balance
2 tablespoons ground chia seeds plus 6 tablespoons warm water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup roughly chopped macadamia nuts
3/4 cup of mini chocolate chunks (or chips)
Preheat oven to 350
Grab a bowl and cream together the earth balance and the sugar. Add in the chia eggs, the vanilla,salt, and baking powder and mix . Then add in the flour then mix that until just incorporated with the wet. And lastly, fold in the chopped nuts and chocolate chunks
Dump batter into a foil/ parchment paper lined and slightly greased 9 inch square baking pan and pat down with the spoon or your hand (hand is the way to go) and tick into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes or so until the top is starting to brown almost like a cookie but nice and all brownie like. Check for doneness with a toothpick in middle and if it comes out kinda clean, you can pop them out right there. (Don’t over cook.. and if you like a little under baked, do it up, just take them out a few minutes earlier)
Let cool in the pan and pop them out by the liner. Cut into squares (size to be determined by you) Eat one, maybe two, and share the rest (or not).
I still can’t believe that we bought a new house,%u00a0 not even a week ago. %u00a0Like whoa holy crap!
And with any fantastic and great house that the mr and I would buy, this place needs a fair amount of work (a few walls down, a small addition to the upstairs, and new kitchen and bathrooms to start) But other then the small details of that, this place is a freaking gem. I am more then excited to get to it and start removing, ripping and tearing out the crap to unearth and enhance the beautiful old house to it’s glory! Oh man is it going to be a long, fun filled, couple of months ahead of us!
So the day after we closed, we had a bunch of our family and friends come over to check out the place. Me being me, I needed to test out the new kitchen before we completely gut it and like any good hostess, I just had to make sure I had some snacky , good smelling, bakes treat for all the folks coming in and out of the place. So I made muffins. My initial thought was cookies, but I really didn%u2019t want to have to hover over the stove and plus, I had a bunch of sweet potatoes and cranberries that needed using up (sound familiar, this is the muffin for you)
And bonus, the house filled up wit the sweet smell of baking. (That was my plan) and the muffins, they were a hit!
The kitchen!!! Isn%u2019t it %u00a0so freaking ugly cute fantastic? Check those windows out.%u00a0
So back to the muffins.%u00a0I was being practical and premixed up some of the stuff %u00a0and brought it over to the house.%u00a0
The stuff. A bowl of all purpose and whole wheat flour along with some salt, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and ginger. And a bowl of wet which has a a bakes sweet potato, oil, and brown sugar. And a cup of almond millk with a bit of vinegar mixed in and a jar of mostly %u00a0chopped up fresh cranberries
Mix the crap out of the wet until the mixture is mostly smooth. I used a plan old baked sweet potato %u00a0for this but feel free to use any left over seer potato %u00a0casserole you have laying around for this, just adjust spices if there are a bunch already in the potato.
Dump the wet mixture into the (already mixed up) dry mixture and mix along with the vinegar-%u00a0almond milk until everything is just combined (don’t over mix the batter!).
Grab cranberries and fold them into batter. Also can totally use up any cranberry situation you might have left over (maybe not the canned jello kind})
Batter into greased muffin tins and into the preheated oven they go.
More kitchen. Check out that dish washer, its pretty awesome. I am not going to keep it, but I don’t want to trash it, its too freaking cool. So anyone want a dishwasher? (still work)%u00a0%u00a0The fridge is new, but we are going to move it to storage and use it in one of our apartments eventually and get a new fringe.%u00a0 The counters and the cabinets are getting donated and the fake brick background is staying. (HAHA) F no.. That%u2019s coming down like today and unfortunately the super cute flower wallpaper has to come down with it. (I kinda wanted to keep it.. oh well)
%u00a0And the little window.. so my favorite part. I have never had me a nice kitchen window before.%u00a0
The othe side of kitchen, where this amazing stove lives.%u00a0 The stove works, but it%u2019s a little rough. The door is slightly coming off and broiler pan is broken, but other then that, it works fine.%u00a0I have even though I might try to fix it up and keep it. (the mr is not into that) We will see, but I think we are going to get a new one. (and donate this one).%u00a0
So kitchen tour is done Back to the muffins.
%u00a0Once they are all nice and golden brown and a tester comes out clean, these babies are done! Take out of oven and remove from pan and let cool on a rack.
The perfect snack for any occasion%u00a0
Happy (hopefully relaxing) weekend!
-C
makes 12-14
1 cup sweet potato puree
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil
1cup almond (or whatever) milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup fresh chopped cranberries%u00a0
Note.. use any left over sweet potato stuff or cranberry sauces that you might have left over.. just adjust seasonings to taste.
Preheat oven to 350
Start by measuring out your almond %u00a0milk and adding in the tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Set aside.%u00a0In a large bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda and powder, the salt and the cinmoan and ginger. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, sweet potato, and the oil until well combined. Dump the wet into the dry and mix together along with the almond milk unit just combined (don’t over mix!)%u00a0Dump in chopped cranberries and fold them in.%u00a0
Grease a muffin pan and scoop equal amonts of batter into the tin and place into oven. Bake until golden brown and a tester comes clean from a muffin middle.%u00a0
Remove from oven and let cool on a rack
Eat.
This cake was born from my anxiety. Whenever I am feeling crazy,%u00a0anxious, kinda sick, or even just really happy, I want to be in the kitchen making something. It’s probably some deep seeded control issue that I have (I can’t control my brain, but I can control bread dough), but whatever.%u00a0Being in the kitchen takes my head out of life , even just for a little while, and let’s me concentrate on something else that really has nothing to do with whatever I am thinking about (unless I am thinking about food, in which I bake whatever food I am thinking about) Does this all make sense or am I just nuts?
So yeah, the other day I was having one of those days. I was extra crazy (for so many reasons) and really needed to just step away from my thoughts. I rushed home and just started grabbing stuff.. cake stuff.%u00a0%u00a0I figured that If I was going to bake something that I might as well bake a little snack cake for the mr, especially sense he has to deal with this crazy. I had a large quantity of pears that were all ripening %u00a0at once sitting in the fruit basket, so I grabbed some of those. And I grabbed the ginger%u2026 well because why not.
And I made this cake.. and I felt better. And the mr got cake (also brought some to my sisters.. her and the kids ate it all within minutes). It was a win win situation.%u00a0
So now you know. If you are my friend and I am feeling some feelings, at some point,%u00a0you will proably get a cake.
The stuff. A few pears,some fresh ginger, brown sugar and cinnamon. %u00a0Also have some white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. And some oil, apple cider vinegar and a little bit of water.
Start with the pears. Cut in half, remove seed and stems, then chop/mince the crap out of them. It’s cool to have a few big chunks., it adds some good texture. Take the pears and as much as the juice you can scrap from the counter and stick into a bowl.
Grate up a few good tablespoons of fresh ginger..
Tip.%u00a0I keep my ginger in the freezer. its easier to grate and it doesn’t go bad!
The ginger goes into the bowl with the pears, along with the oil, cinnamon,%u00a0sugar, water and vinegar. Mix it all up . Then all that wet mixture goes into the bowl with the flour, baking soda and powder and the salt.
And that get’s all mixed.. and now you have cake batter!%u00a0
Depending on you pears and how juicy they are,%u00a0you might find that your batter seems to dry, just add in another 1/4 %u00a0cup of water. The batter should be the consistency of like greek yogurt, not ruing, but not stiff either.
Preheat you cook box (oven)
Dump the batter into a well greased 9×9 inch pan. Slice up another pear into thin strips (I only used half, then ate the other half)
Lay the slices on top to make it look all pretty. Do what I did, or some other design (it’s your cake to make pretty any way you want). Once you do that, stick the cake into the oven.
When the cake is a nice deep golden brown, take it out of the oven.
Maybe let it cool for a few minutes, letting the smell wrap around your head so that you smell like baking all day. No cut yourself a slab, grab some coffee, and go for it.%u00a0
Enjoy
-C
Makes a 9×9 inch single layer cake
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups minced , super ripe and jucey pears (about 2 whole pears)
2 tablespoon freshly frated ginger
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4- 1/2 cup water
2/3 %u00a0cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Preheat oven to 350
Take pears, remove seeds and stem, and chop the crap out of them until they are tiny little pieces. Scoop pears, and any juice they leave behind into a bowl. Add in the sugar, oil, cinnamon, %u00a0ginger, vinegar,%u00a0%u00a0and %u00a01/4 %u00a0cup of water and mix until incorporated.%u00a0In a seprertare big bowl, mix together the salt, baking soda and powder with the flour. Add in the wet mixture and mix until fully incorporated.%u00a0%u00a0If the batter seems to dry (should be the constancy of whipped potatoes or greek yogurt), add in another 1/4 cup of water.%u00a0
Scoop batter into a greased 9×9 inch baking pan.%u00a0If you want to make it pretty, grab another pear and cut into thin slices and place right on top of the batter in any fashion you like.%u00a0
Place cake into oven and bake until a nice dark golden brown,about 40-45 minutes ,or until a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove, let cool in pan, and cut yourself a big slab, grab some coffee e to tea, grab a book, and eat it.%u00a0.
What are your%u00a0weekend plans?
Me%u00a0well,%u00a0I need to can, pickle and eat as much zucchini as I can. And it’s not just zucchini anymore%u2026 we are getting into cucumbers too%u2026AAAHHH %u00a0I know I have said this a few times in the past weeks, but man, I have so manning freaking zucchinis.. and the more I eat, the more I end up with%u2026 It’s getting pretty crazy here!
So anyway, yesterday my dad came back to VT,%u00a0WOO%u00a0HOO! and I was his first%u00a0stop on his rotating dinner schedule.%u00a0(cause I am his favorite child. I think..maybe) I made zucchini noodles for dinner (I have made them%u00a0every night for the past week) and I wanted to make him dessert, %u00a0I have all sorts of pretty fruit%u00a0that I wanted to make and prepare,%u00a0%u00a0but I also had little time and honestly, little desire to move all that much (it was so f ing hot!)%u00a0%u00a0I already had out the shredder and a bowl, and the%u00a0zucchini was just sitting there, in the basket%u00a0%u00a0taunting me with it’s gigantic green whaleness. %u00a0So I figured I’d just make a%u00a0zucchini cake, or better yet, cause my dad really likes chocolate, a%u00a0chocolate zucchini cake.%u00a0
This cake is tender and moist, almost like a cakey brownie, so it%u00a0does not require any frosting%u00a0%u00a0which is nice when your dead tired and it’s so hot that any frosting would probably just melt off anyway.%u00a0(although you could totally frost it up) It makes a%u00a0great dessert, but I%u00a0would not hesitate to serve this for breakfast either because, %u00a01. It has a lot of zucchini in it which automatically justifies eating it whenever, %u00a02. %u00a0also made with whole wheat, and%u00a03. it’s totally ok to eat chocolate cake for breakfast. I mean people eat donuts for breakfast and that shit is usually fried.%u00a0
Yeah, this is for sure a dessert/breakfast cake.
The stuff for cake%u2026. Regular all purpose flour,%u00a0white whole wheat flour, and cocoa powder. Some sugar, salt, baking soda and oil. A little vanilla extract and a bit of coffee. And of course, shredded zucchini
Dump the sugar, salt and baking soda into flour,%u00a0whisk together, then mix in the oil,%u00a0vanilla and the coffee. Now add in%u00a0the shredded zucchini, but right before adding it in,%u00a0%u00a0give it a squeeze to remove a little bit of the liquid.%u00a0
Mix until combined.
And pour batter%u00a0into a well oiled%u00a0pan
Feeling fancy? I was so I peeled the green skin%u00a0from a zucchini and make a little starburst%u00a0on top
And into%u00a0the oven to bake…
And it comes out looking so fancy. %u00a0Let cake cool for a few minutes and carefully%u00a0flip from pan.
Note. It might not be the best idea to test your cake with a blunt chop stick.. I did and it made the middle sink in a little. No big deal, but next time I will use a fork.
Cooled and removed from pan. Now%u00a0all you need to do now is%u00a0eat%u00a0cake.. I think that’s something you can handle.
Happy Friday!!!!%u00a0
-C
1 cup white whole wheat (can use regular whole wheat or alll purpose)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil (veggie, canola, sufflower)
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
%u00a02 cups of shredded zucchini%u00a0
1/2 cup of coffee
Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt and sugar. Then add in the oil, vanilla and coffee. Add in the zucchini. Mix until incorporated.%u00a0
Oil a 9 inch cake pan and pour in the batter. If you want, use %u00a0zucchini skin to make a pretty design on top (completely optional), and place into preheated oven.
Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a tester stabbed in the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove from oven and let cool in pan for at least 5 minutes the gently invert pan to remove cake and place on a rack to cool.
Serve as soon as you want..
Place in mouth, chew, and swallow%u2026..Smile!!!
First day of Spring!! Well kind of I guess. I think it actually starts at like 6:20 tonight, when the temperature is going to dip back done to 10.(Spring my ass) I don’t know about you people out there but here in Vermont, we are really hanging on to winter. I have to keep telling myself%u2026″ It will be warmer soon and you’ll be looking forward to this weather in a few months.. so stop bitching!” %u00a0I give myself good pep talks.
Anyway, last week at the farm share pick up, there was a nice little surprise. We got a few pounds of some sweet locally grown and milled whole wheat flour. There was a little sign with the information about the wheat and where it came from, but in my haste of gathering all of my other veggies, I failed to take notes and forgot the name of the farm that it came from. But I do know that my farm traded some celeriac for the wheat. %u00a0I was really excited because I am really into the idea of using locally grown grains and I don’t know, it just made me really happy, especially because it was a trade. %u00a0Food framing and local sharing is stuff that makes me happy.
I wanted to make something to kind of showcase the hearty, nutty flavor of the wheat and I also wanted to make something that my mister would eat for breakfast. Well what better way to do that then with muffins!%u00a0Banana coconut whole wheat%u00a0(that just happen to be vegan) Hearty, fruity, and smells like the word lovely and the color yellow.%u00a0A few to eat and a few to share. Hanging at home, running away or %u00a0getting ready for a day of spring cleaning%u2026.This is a great weekend to make muffins!%u00a0
The stuff%u2026 Light, nutty local whole wheat flour, ripe oh ripe bananas and coconut flakes are the stars in this muffin%u2026 But we need the other stuff too. Brown sugar, vanilla, coconut oil and a chia egg. %u00a0Baking powder, baking soda, and last but not least, salt.
%u00a0Yup, that sounds about right%u00a0 %u00a0The salt, baking soda, and baking powder are whisked together. The banana and all the rest of the stuff are mixed up%u2026 Then mix the wet mixture into the dry. Stir until combined and then add in the coconut flakes,Scoop mixture %u00a0into 12 lined muffin cups%u2026 A scoop like mine works very nicely. Don’t have one, well I recommend you get yourself one. Until then, use a spoon. Something I always do when baking any muffin is sprinkle the tops of each muffin with a bit of %u00a0sugar or brown sugar. It melts and caramelizes and adds a sweet little crunch to the tops.%u00a0
Now stick the muffins into the oven.%u00a0Remove from oven when they look like this, nice and golden brown. Also good idea to check with a tester stuck into the middle. When it comes out clean, they are done.12 happy little muffins cooling on a rack, waiting to be eaten with you mouth.%u00a0
Doesn’t the sight of pretty food make you happy, like sing a song happy?%u00a0Muffins, whoa yah!! %u00a0Friday yah yah!! %u00a0Spring%u2026What, Yah!! %u00a0Yah%u2026Yah Yah!!!
Terrible I know, but at least you were spared hearing my actual voice.%u00a0
Have a great weekend. Do lots of springy stuff!
-C
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
4 Ripe bananas
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup melted Coconut Oil
1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds + 3 Tablespoons warm water
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
Preheat oven to 350
In a small bowl, mix 3 tablespoons warm water to the chia seeds and let sit for at least 5 minutes (10 is better) In a large bowl, peel and mash the bananas until they turn into a kind of chunky soupy puree. %u00a0Add in brown sugar, chia seed mixture, vanilla extract, and the melted coconut oil (make sure it’s melted or it won’t incorporate into the mixture) Mix together. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix the wet mixture with the dry until combined then mix in the coconut flakes.%u00a0
Line a 12 cup muffin tin and fill each cup about 3/4 the way up with batter. Sprinkle each muffin with brown sugar and place in oven on center rack. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops 0f the muffins are golden brown and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove muffins from tin and let cool.
Serve as is or maybe with a smudge of coconut butter, or anything you want really.
No need for fork, just use you mouth.
%u00a0%u00a0There is irish soda bread in your future. I can see it. A nice hardy hunk slathered in butter and honey, crumbs all over the place.%u00a0 So all you have to do know is make it.%u00a0
I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that irish soda bread is just four ingredients, flour, sea salt, baking soda and buttermilk and adding %u00a0anything else would make %u00a0it a cake. So when I decided to make irish soda bread, thats all I used. ( I made it with some wheat flour) What you end up with is a highly dense, super fragrant, soft, chewy bread with a crunchy crust. Definitely not a cake.
Note%u2026.You can for sure add in a bit of sweetener or even little fat to make it richer and softer, but then it wouldn’t be bread (or so that’s what I read) There are tons of other recipes out there that have other stuff in them. This is just a really simple basic recipe.%u00a0
White whole wheat flour and all purpose flour mixed together. Salt baking soda and buttermilk. That’s it.All the dry whisked together and in goes the buttermilk. Mix together until dough starts to form then dump onto a floured surface. %u00a0Handling dough as little as possible, knead into ball.
Place on a baking sheet and dust with flour. Take a sharp knife and cut %u00a0an X through the top about 1/2 inch deep.
Stick in into the oven for 50 ish minutes, or unit la tester stuck into the middle comes out clean and there is kind of a hollow thunk when tapped on.%u00a0
And now you have a very pretty, dense hunk of irish soda bread.%u00a0
Cut and serve with butter and honey (thats how the mister likes it) or whatever you want to eat it with.
-C
Irish Soda Bread
1 cup all purpose flour%u00a0
1 cup white whole wheat flour (or you can use all purpose)%u00a0
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or your choice if milk plus a tablespoon lemon juice)%u00a0
Preheat oven to 375
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Mix in buttermilk until the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems to dry, add another splash or two of milk. Dump out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. transfer onto a baking sheet, dust with flour and cut a x about 1/2 inch into the top. Stick into oven for 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped.
Let cool enough to handle.
Cut into and serve with a smear of whatever you want
THE LOVELY CRAZY
November 29, 2019 by maximios • Blog
What%u2019s up with dinner rolls? Do people eat them all year round, like on a Tuesday in the middle of March or maybe a nice blue sky sunny day in July? Is that a weird question? But seriously, think about it. Dinner rolls, at least in my world of people, are pretty much only eaten in and around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Huh. Kind of strange seeing that dinner rolls are bread which everyone eats all the time and are basically made specifically for dinner (although can and should be eaten for breakfast and lunch as well) which most people eat. Every. Single. Day. Well, whatever the reason, it%u2019s weird. So yes, I am making these here dinner rolls now at the traditional holiday time but I think as of now, I am going to start making them all the time. It%u2019s going to be my new thing. Fourth of July dinner rolls. Yup.
And so yes, we need dinner rolls right now for the holiday food feasts and these dinner rolls are the perfect accompaniment to any and all dinners. They are nice and fluffy and all dinner roll like, just as any good roll should be, but also slightly more nutty and soft and healthy because oats and wheat flour and homemade which is always the best.
And if you are like, hell yes I am a dinner roll person and hell no I am sticking to store bought cause that is that and how it%u2019s done, well hey, no judgment here. I made these for my people for our family Thanksgiving, (which is happening today at my house. There are going be so many people) and I know that everyone will love and be happy to eat them, but I too also bought some of those super white, take and bake ones that I know if I don%u2019t have on the table next to these gorgeous and amazing rolls, that I will probably get punched in the face. So we will have both. And then at dinner I can bask in the glory of all the comments about how much better my rolls are then the store bought ones. (Secretly why I am having both. Fishing for compliments. HAHA!)
Now to those soft and fluffy dinner rolls!
The stuff. Old fashion oats, all purpose and white whole wheat flour, yeast, oil, water (hot and room temperature), maple syrup, and salt.
First, take the boiling water and pour it over the oats. Mix them and let them soak and cool for 10 or so minutes.
While oats are soaking, add the room temp water to a big bowl with the yeast. Once the oats are soft and cooled off a bit, add them to the yeast mixture along with the oil, and maple. Mix together. The add the flours and mix until combined.
Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 3-5 minutes, adding a little more four as needed to keep from being to sticky, but don%u2019t over flour. The dough is and should be a little tacky.
Soft and supple. Kneaded and ready.
Place the dough back into the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Leave alone and let rise for about an hour or until it doubles in size.
Once the dough doubles, dump out onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 12-16 equal sized pieces .
Roll each roll into a roll shape and place them in a lightly greased baking dish. Cover for another 15-20 minutes to let rest and rise a little more.
Rolls risen again, just a little plumper. And now right before you place them in the oven, brush tops with a maple/water mixture and sprinkle with a few oats. To look pretty. And into the oven they go, 30ish minutes, until nice and golden brown.
Baked to golden dinner roll perfection.
And there you have it. Soft and fluffy dinner rolls. Warm out of the oven, looking and smelling like all the good things that you want and need.
And can, and should, be made now and all year round.
-C
makes 12-16 rolls
1 1/2 cups old fashion oats
2 cups all purpose flour plus more for kneading
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups boiling water
1 cup room tempature water plus 2 tablespoons for brushing tops
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons maple or honey
2 teaspoons yeast
1/4 cup neutral oil
In a bowl, mix oats with boil water and let sit and soak for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, in a large bowl, mix the room temp water with the yeast and 1 tablespoon of maple and mix. Once oats have soaked and cooled to a point that they are not super hot, but still just warm, mix them in with the yeast mixture. Add the salt and oil and mix then and both the white and white wheat flour. Mix until combined. The dough is going to be sticky, but that how is should be. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes, adding a little flour as needed to keep from sticking too much, until dough is nice and uniformed in texture. Place dough back into big bowl (after you clean it out and lily oil it) and cover with a damp towel. Place somewhere warm for about an hour until it doubles in size.
Once dough has doubled, dump out onto a lightly floured surface and with a knife of dough cutter, cut into 12- 16 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, pinching any ends together and place them into a 9×13 inch baking pan. Once all pieces are in, over and let rest for another 15 minutes.
While dough is resting again, preheat oven to 350.
After the dough has rested, and right before you place them in the oven, mix 1tablespoon of maple with about 2 tablespoons warm water and brush the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle with a handful of oats and then place them into the oven to bake. 30-35 minutes, until they are a nice golden brown.
Once baked remove from oven and let cool to a reasonable temperature and serve.
These can certainly be made a few days ahead of time of eating. Just remove baked rolls from pan and let cool completely then place the into an airtight bag. To reheat, just place on a baking sheet and stick in a hot oven until warm.
Bread is probably, no, definitely one of my upmost favorite things to bake. There is just something so gratifying about the whole process of mixing ingredients, kneading, watching it rise, shaping, then baking. It calms me and make me a better person. Seriously.
And this might sound sad, but this week when my Dad told me that my grandmother died, well I went home and made bread because that is what felt right to do. It gave my mind and hands a good something to do far a little while. Plus I ended up with a loaf of bread to feed people with. I also like to feed people when I am feeling sad.
I chose to use cinnamon and cardamom because of the smells. They are just delightful and happy smells. And swirls are happy so a happy swirl of happy smells in a loaf of bread that I was making to share that was (and did) make people happy. (See, bread baking is making me so nice because I am sharing it) It was just the right thing to do.
So if you are in need of a little happy pick me up, may I suggest making some bread? It might make you feel a little better, or at least get your mind off of things for a bit. And you will have bread so there is that too. It%u2019s a win win.
Now to the bread, which you can also make when you are happy. Or bored, or hungry, although it takes some time so if you are starting off hungry, you will be starving by the time it is done. Maybe eat a snack will you are making it%u2026..
The stuff. White and whole wheat flour, salt, sweet potato puree, soy milk, yeast, brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, cardamom, some flax seeds, and an orange.
In a big bow, mix together the yeast, warm milk, sweet potato puree, a little sugar, and oil. Let it sit for a minute to active yeast.
Flours and salt get a good mix to be mixed.
Then dry gets dumped into the yeast mixture along with the zest of the orange.
Mix it until a dough forms then dump it out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead dough for about 6-8 minutes or until supple, uniform, and smooth.
Place dough into a well oiled bowl and cover. Let rise for about and hour or so or until it doubles in size (could take a little longer then a hour)
Place risen dough back out onto a lightly floured surface.
Roll it out about 2 feet long and as wide as a bread pan.
Don%u2019t forget mix up your brown sugar with the cinnamon and cardamom.
Brush rolled out dough with the flax mixture. This will help the cinnamon cardamon sugar stick.
And evenly distribute the mixture all over the dough.
Roll it up nice and tight and once it%u2019s all rolled, pinch then end to the rest of the dough.
Gently place the rolled dough, pinched side down, into a well greased bread pan. Cover in a plastic bag for about another hour or until the dough has risen a good amount and is doming over the rim of the pan. Now preheat the oven.
Once the bread is sufficiently risen, place into hot oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Now the hard part. Get it out of the bread pan and get it cooling off. You cannot cut into it until it cools or you will smoosh the swirl and make it gummy. Just wait, at least a half hour. For real. Wait. You can do it!
And when the bread cools and the wait it over, slice and be amazed. A thing of beauty that smells of greatness.
Bread is so great. Great great great! Especially a swirl bread. I mean. Look at that.
Happy day to you.
-C
Makes 1 loaf
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sweet potato puree
1 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons (or one packet) yeast
3 tablespoons neutral oil like canola
2 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
For the cinnamon cardamom filling
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoon cinnamon (I used Vietnamese Cinnamon which is a little spicier and sweeter)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons ground flax mixed with 4 teaspoons warm water
Start by grabbing a big bowl. Mix together the yeast, the 2 tablespoons brown sugar, warm milk, sweet potato puree, and oil. Let sit for a minute to active yeast. In a separate bowl mix together the flours and salt. Dump the dry mixture into the wet. Zest the zest of an orange into bowl and mix it all together until it forms a dough. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes or until the dough gets supple and shinny and uniform. Place dough into a well oiled bowl and cover for about an hour or until doubled in size.
Once dough has doubled, dump out onto a well floured surface and roll out to as wide as a bread pan and roughly 24 inched long. After you have rolled it out brush the flax and water mixture all over surface . Combine the brown sugar with the cinnamon and cardamom and evenly distribute the mixture all over flaxed dough. And for the fun part. Careful roll the dough into a log. Roll it tightly so the bread doesn’tt end up with big gaps after it bakes. Once rolled, pinch the rolled end and place the log rolled side down into a well greased bread pan. Place dough into a a plastic bag with plenty of space for dough to rise. Let sit for about another hour or until the dough has risen a little bit above the rim of baking pan.
Preheat oven to 375
When dough has risen, place on middle rack in hot oven and bake for 40-45ish minutes or until bread is a deep golden brown and when you give it a tap, it sounds slightly hollow. Also check it with a intsant read thermometer. Get it to 190.
When it done baking, pull from oven and remove from pan. Place on a wire rack and let completely cool. Seriously, you got to let it cool for at least 1/2 and hour, but longer is better!
When it%u2019s cooled, cut into slices. Eat as you wish.
Uneaten bread stores well for a day or two in a airtight plastic bag but if you don%u2019t eat it that fast, cut into slices and freeze. That way you can just pop a piece out and stick it into toaster. Smart.
A couple of nights ago we had a little impromptu birthday dinner at my sisters house for the mr.%u00a0 And what did he want to do for dinner, his very own special birthday dinner? Well what he wanted was to cook, with absolutely no help from me. So cook he did. And what did he make? He made grilled cheese sandwiches, on white bread and with bright orange cheddar cheese along with some classic canned Campell’s tomato soup. I was not even allowed to make a salad (but he was being so nice when permitting me to make my own food)
But come on dude, it’s your birthday dinner. I was determined to make something so I said I was going to make a dessert. Nothing fancy and no cake (he is not a big cake guy), just something fast and easy. So I went with brownies of the sweet potato chocolate chip kind.%u00a0 Yeah I know what you are thinking..%u00a0 why am I not sharing those brownies? I’ll tell you why. They came out like shit. Like really gross, almost jello like and just not anything anyone would ever want to eat. Just shit.%u00a0 OH I was pissed. I mean, the one thing I got to do I screwed up. And there was no fixing them (I tried) So bum, there were no sweet dessert brownies ( but there was ice cream.. thanks Shannon) And worst of all, wasted food. Bah, I hate wasting food! ( I would have fed them to the dog but they were chocolate…. I miss having chickens that eat anything)
Side note here. Watching a lifetime original Christmas movie at the moment (don’t judge me)%u00a0 and it has Harriet and Carl Winslow in it. Talk about a throw back.. and now all I can think about is Urkel and his catch phrase”did I do that?” Anyways….
After the brownie disaster I really needed to make something that didn’t suck. I was going to go the brownie route again but unfortunately I used up all of my chocolate and cocoa for the shit batch before, so I went the blonde route. Blondies. close to a cookie, but not quite. A vanilla version of a chewy chocolate brownie.%u00a0 Chock full of super nutty macadamia nuts and big chunks of chocolate. Nothing missing, the perfect texture and sweetness.%u00a0 All and more of a better dessert then the night before. Perfection is what I call them and the mr is much happy with his birthday treat (with the added scoop of strawberry ice cream of course)
The stuff. A little bit of white whole wheat flour, some brown sugar, melted earth balance, a couple chia eggs,salt, a pinch of baking powder and some vanilla.%u00a0 And the mix in that make these blondies so great, the macadamia nuts and chocolate chunks.
It’s all super simple. The sugar, chia eggs, earth balance ans vanilla go into a bowl and get mix together until smooth. Then the salt gets sprinkled on along with the baking powder and lastly the flour on top.
And them mix it together unit its all incorporated… and don’t over mix!
Chop the macadamia nuts and chocalate chunks in somewhat smaller pieces…
And fold them into the batter.
And grab yourself a square pan, line it with foil or parchment paper, grease it a little, then dump in the batter and evenly pat in down into the pan.
Stick into the oven to bake.
And after 35-40 minutes of the amazing smells coming from your oven, the blondies should be done. Slightly browned, lookng like a cross between a cookie and a brownie, and raw in the middle, but only just.
Let the blondies cool for a few in the baking sheet, but then remove by the foil and cut into squares.
Keep them flat or stack them high. A dessert of the most fantastic kind.
My blonde redemption.
And lastly… HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!
-C
makes a 9×9 pan of goodness
Preheat oven to 350
Grab a bowl and cream together the earth balance and the sugar. Add in the chia eggs, the vanilla,salt, and baking powder and mix . Then add in the flour then mix that until just incorporated with the wet. And lastly, fold in the chopped nuts and chocolate chunks
Dump batter into a foil/ parchment paper lined and slightly greased 9 inch square baking pan and pat down with the spoon or your hand (hand is the way to go) and tick into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes or so until the top is starting to brown almost like a cookie but nice and all brownie like. Check for doneness with a toothpick in middle and if it comes out kinda clean, you can pop them out right there. (Don’t over cook.. and if you like a little under baked, do it up, just take them out a few minutes earlier)
Let cool in the pan and pop them out by the liner. Cut into squares (size to be determined by you) Eat one, maybe two, and share the rest (or not).
I still can’t believe that we bought a new house,%u00a0 not even a week ago. %u00a0Like whoa holy crap!
And with any fantastic and great house that the mr and I would buy, this place needs a fair amount of work (a few walls down, a small addition to the upstairs, and new kitchen and bathrooms to start) But other then the small details of that, this place is a freaking gem. I am more then excited to get to it and start removing, ripping and tearing out the crap to unearth and enhance the beautiful old house to it’s glory! Oh man is it going to be a long, fun filled, couple of months ahead of us!
So the day after we closed, we had a bunch of our family and friends come over to check out the place. Me being me, I needed to test out the new kitchen before we completely gut it and like any good hostess, I just had to make sure I had some snacky , good smelling, bakes treat for all the folks coming in and out of the place. So I made muffins. My initial thought was cookies, but I really didn%u2019t want to have to hover over the stove and plus, I had a bunch of sweet potatoes and cranberries that needed using up (sound familiar, this is the muffin for you)
And bonus, the house filled up wit the sweet smell of baking. (That was my plan) and the muffins, they were a hit!
The kitchen!!! Isn%u2019t it %u00a0so freaking ugly cute fantastic? Check those windows out.%u00a0
So back to the muffins.%u00a0I was being practical and premixed up some of the stuff %u00a0and brought it over to the house.%u00a0
The stuff. A bowl of all purpose and whole wheat flour along with some salt, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and ginger. And a bowl of wet which has a a bakes sweet potato, oil, and brown sugar. And a cup of almond millk with a bit of vinegar mixed in and a jar of mostly %u00a0chopped up fresh cranberries
Mix the crap out of the wet until the mixture is mostly smooth. I used a plan old baked sweet potato %u00a0for this but feel free to use any left over seer potato %u00a0casserole you have laying around for this, just adjust spices if there are a bunch already in the potato.
Dump the wet mixture into the (already mixed up) dry mixture and mix along with the vinegar-%u00a0almond milk until everything is just combined (don’t over mix the batter!).
Grab cranberries and fold them into batter. Also can totally use up any cranberry situation you might have left over (maybe not the canned jello kind})
Batter into greased muffin tins and into the preheated oven they go.
More kitchen. Check out that dish washer, its pretty awesome. I am not going to keep it, but I don’t want to trash it, its too freaking cool. So anyone want a dishwasher? (still work)%u00a0%u00a0The fridge is new, but we are going to move it to storage and use it in one of our apartments eventually and get a new fringe.%u00a0 The counters and the cabinets are getting donated and the fake brick background is staying. (HAHA) F no.. That%u2019s coming down like today and unfortunately the super cute flower wallpaper has to come down with it. (I kinda wanted to keep it.. oh well)
%u00a0And the little window.. so my favorite part. I have never had me a nice kitchen window before.%u00a0
The othe side of kitchen, where this amazing stove lives.%u00a0 The stove works, but it%u2019s a little rough. The door is slightly coming off and broiler pan is broken, but other then that, it works fine.%u00a0I have even though I might try to fix it up and keep it. (the mr is not into that) We will see, but I think we are going to get a new one. (and donate this one).%u00a0
So kitchen tour is done Back to the muffins.
%u00a0Once they are all nice and golden brown and a tester comes out clean, these babies are done! Take out of oven and remove from pan and let cool on a rack.
The perfect snack for any occasion%u00a0
Happy (hopefully relaxing) weekend!
-C
makes 12-14
Note.. use any left over sweet potato stuff or cranberry sauces that you might have left over.. just adjust seasonings to taste.
Preheat oven to 350
Start by measuring out your almond %u00a0milk and adding in the tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Set aside.%u00a0In a large bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda and powder, the salt and the cinmoan and ginger. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, sweet potato, and the oil until well combined. Dump the wet into the dry and mix together along with the almond milk unit just combined (don’t over mix!)%u00a0Dump in chopped cranberries and fold them in.%u00a0
Grease a muffin pan and scoop equal amonts of batter into the tin and place into oven. Bake until golden brown and a tester comes clean from a muffin middle.%u00a0
Remove from oven and let cool on a rack
Eat.
This cake was born from my anxiety. Whenever I am feeling crazy,%u00a0anxious, kinda sick, or even just really happy, I want to be in the kitchen making something. It’s probably some deep seeded control issue that I have (I can’t control my brain, but I can control bread dough), but whatever.%u00a0Being in the kitchen takes my head out of life , even just for a little while, and let’s me concentrate on something else that really has nothing to do with whatever I am thinking about (unless I am thinking about food, in which I bake whatever food I am thinking about) Does this all make sense or am I just nuts?
So yeah, the other day I was having one of those days. I was extra crazy (for so many reasons) and really needed to just step away from my thoughts. I rushed home and just started grabbing stuff.. cake stuff.%u00a0%u00a0I figured that If I was going to bake something that I might as well bake a little snack cake for the mr, especially sense he has to deal with this crazy. I had a large quantity of pears that were all ripening %u00a0at once sitting in the fruit basket, so I grabbed some of those. And I grabbed the ginger%u2026 well because why not.
And I made this cake.. and I felt better. And the mr got cake (also brought some to my sisters.. her and the kids ate it all within minutes). It was a win win situation.%u00a0
So now you know. If you are my friend and I am feeling some feelings, at some point,%u00a0you will proably get a cake.
The stuff. A few pears,some fresh ginger, brown sugar and cinnamon. %u00a0Also have some white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. And some oil, apple cider vinegar and a little bit of water.
Start with the pears. Cut in half, remove seed and stems, then chop/mince the crap out of them. It’s cool to have a few big chunks., it adds some good texture. Take the pears and as much as the juice you can scrap from the counter and stick into a bowl.
Grate up a few good tablespoons of fresh ginger..
Tip.%u00a0I keep my ginger in the freezer. its easier to grate and it doesn’t go bad!
The ginger goes into the bowl with the pears, along with the oil, cinnamon,%u00a0sugar, water and vinegar. Mix it all up . Then all that wet mixture goes into the bowl with the flour, baking soda and powder and the salt.
And that get’s all mixed.. and now you have cake batter!%u00a0
Depending on you pears and how juicy they are,%u00a0you might find that your batter seems to dry, just add in another 1/4 %u00a0cup of water. The batter should be the consistency of like greek yogurt, not ruing, but not stiff either.
Preheat you cook box (oven)
Dump the batter into a well greased 9×9 inch pan. Slice up another pear into thin strips (I only used half, then ate the other half)
Lay the slices on top to make it look all pretty. Do what I did, or some other design (it’s your cake to make pretty any way you want). Once you do that, stick the cake into the oven.
When the cake is a nice deep golden brown, take it out of the oven.
Maybe let it cool for a few minutes, letting the smell wrap around your head so that you smell like baking all day. No cut yourself a slab, grab some coffee, and go for it.%u00a0
Enjoy
-C
Makes a 9×9 inch single layer cake
Preheat oven to 350
Take pears, remove seeds and stem, and chop the crap out of them until they are tiny little pieces. Scoop pears, and any juice they leave behind into a bowl. Add in the sugar, oil, cinnamon, %u00a0ginger, vinegar,%u00a0%u00a0and %u00a01/4 %u00a0cup of water and mix until incorporated.%u00a0In a seprertare big bowl, mix together the salt, baking soda and powder with the flour. Add in the wet mixture and mix until fully incorporated.%u00a0%u00a0If the batter seems to dry (should be the constancy of whipped potatoes or greek yogurt), add in another 1/4 cup of water.%u00a0
Scoop batter into a greased 9×9 inch baking pan.%u00a0If you want to make it pretty, grab another pear and cut into thin slices and place right on top of the batter in any fashion you like.%u00a0
Place cake into oven and bake until a nice dark golden brown,about 40-45 minutes ,or until a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove, let cool in pan, and cut yourself a big slab, grab some coffee e to tea, grab a book, and eat it.%u00a0.
What are your%u00a0weekend plans?
Me%u00a0well,%u00a0I need to can, pickle and eat as much zucchini as I can. And it’s not just zucchini anymore%u2026 we are getting into cucumbers too%u2026AAAHHH %u00a0I know I have said this a few times in the past weeks, but man, I have so manning freaking zucchinis.. and the more I eat, the more I end up with%u2026 It’s getting pretty crazy here!
So anyway, yesterday my dad came back to VT,%u00a0WOO%u00a0HOO! and I was his first%u00a0stop on his rotating dinner schedule.%u00a0(cause I am his favorite child. I think..maybe) I made zucchini noodles for dinner (I have made them%u00a0every night for the past week) and I wanted to make him dessert, %u00a0I have all sorts of pretty fruit%u00a0that I wanted to make and prepare,%u00a0%u00a0but I also had little time and honestly, little desire to move all that much (it was so f ing hot!)%u00a0%u00a0I already had out the shredder and a bowl, and the%u00a0zucchini was just sitting there, in the basket%u00a0%u00a0taunting me with it’s gigantic green whaleness. %u00a0So I figured I’d just make a%u00a0zucchini cake, or better yet, cause my dad really likes chocolate, a%u00a0chocolate zucchini cake.%u00a0
This cake is tender and moist, almost like a cakey brownie, so it%u00a0does not require any frosting%u00a0%u00a0which is nice when your dead tired and it’s so hot that any frosting would probably just melt off anyway.%u00a0(although you could totally frost it up) It makes a%u00a0great dessert, but I%u00a0would not hesitate to serve this for breakfast either because, %u00a01. It has a lot of zucchini in it which automatically justifies eating it whenever, %u00a02. %u00a0also made with whole wheat, and%u00a03. it’s totally ok to eat chocolate cake for breakfast. I mean people eat donuts for breakfast and that shit is usually fried.%u00a0
Yeah, this is for sure a dessert/breakfast cake.
The stuff for cake%u2026. Regular all purpose flour,%u00a0white whole wheat flour, and cocoa powder. Some sugar, salt, baking soda and oil. A little vanilla extract and a bit of coffee. And of course, shredded zucchini
Dump the sugar, salt and baking soda into flour,%u00a0whisk together, then mix in the oil,%u00a0vanilla and the coffee. Now add in%u00a0the shredded zucchini, but right before adding it in,%u00a0%u00a0give it a squeeze to remove a little bit of the liquid.%u00a0
Mix until combined.
And pour batter%u00a0into a well oiled%u00a0pan
Feeling fancy? I was so I peeled the green skin%u00a0from a zucchini and make a little starburst%u00a0on top
And into%u00a0the oven to bake…
And it comes out looking so fancy. %u00a0Let cake cool for a few minutes and carefully%u00a0flip from pan.
Note. It might not be the best idea to test your cake with a blunt chop stick.. I did and it made the middle sink in a little. No big deal, but next time I will use a fork.
Cooled and removed from pan. Now%u00a0all you need to do now is%u00a0eat%u00a0cake.. I think that’s something you can handle.
Happy Friday!!!!%u00a0
-C
Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt and sugar. Then add in the oil, vanilla and coffee. Add in the zucchini. Mix until incorporated.%u00a0
Oil a 9 inch cake pan and pour in the batter. If you want, use %u00a0zucchini skin to make a pretty design on top (completely optional), and place into preheated oven.
Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a tester stabbed in the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove from oven and let cool in pan for at least 5 minutes the gently invert pan to remove cake and place on a rack to cool.
Serve as soon as you want..
Place in mouth, chew, and swallow%u2026..Smile!!!
First day of Spring!! Well kind of I guess. I think it actually starts at like 6:20 tonight, when the temperature is going to dip back done to 10.(Spring my ass) I don’t know about you people out there but here in Vermont, we are really hanging on to winter. I have to keep telling myself%u2026″ It will be warmer soon and you’ll be looking forward to this weather in a few months.. so stop bitching!” %u00a0I give myself good pep talks.
Anyway, last week at the farm share pick up, there was a nice little surprise. We got a few pounds of some sweet locally grown and milled whole wheat flour. There was a little sign with the information about the wheat and where it came from, but in my haste of gathering all of my other veggies, I failed to take notes and forgot the name of the farm that it came from. But I do know that my farm traded some celeriac for the wheat. %u00a0I was really excited because I am really into the idea of using locally grown grains and I don’t know, it just made me really happy, especially because it was a trade. %u00a0Food framing and local sharing is stuff that makes me happy.
I wanted to make something to kind of showcase the hearty, nutty flavor of the wheat and I also wanted to make something that my mister would eat for breakfast. Well what better way to do that then with muffins!%u00a0Banana coconut whole wheat%u00a0(that just happen to be vegan) Hearty, fruity, and smells like the word lovely and the color yellow.%u00a0A few to eat and a few to share. Hanging at home, running away or %u00a0getting ready for a day of spring cleaning%u2026.This is a great weekend to make muffins!%u00a0
The stuff%u2026 Light, nutty local whole wheat flour, ripe oh ripe bananas and coconut flakes are the stars in this muffin%u2026 But we need the other stuff too. Brown sugar, vanilla, coconut oil and a chia egg. %u00a0Baking powder, baking soda, and last but not least, salt.
%u00a0Yup, that sounds about right%u00a0 %u00a0The salt, baking soda, and baking powder are whisked together. The banana and all the rest of the stuff are mixed up%u2026 Then mix the wet mixture into the dry. Stir until combined and then add in the coconut flakes,Scoop mixture %u00a0into 12 lined muffin cups%u2026 A scoop like mine works very nicely. Don’t have one, well I recommend you get yourself one. Until then, use a spoon. Something I always do when baking any muffin is sprinkle the tops of each muffin with a bit of %u00a0sugar or brown sugar. It melts and caramelizes and adds a sweet little crunch to the tops.%u00a0
Now stick the muffins into the oven.%u00a0Remove from oven when they look like this, nice and golden brown. Also good idea to check with a tester stuck into the middle. When it comes out clean, they are done.12 happy little muffins cooling on a rack, waiting to be eaten with you mouth.%u00a0
Doesn’t the sight of pretty food make you happy, like sing a song happy?%u00a0Muffins, whoa yah!! %u00a0Friday yah yah!! %u00a0Spring%u2026What, Yah!! %u00a0Yah%u2026Yah Yah!!!
Terrible I know, but at least you were spared hearing my actual voice.%u00a0
Have a great weekend. Do lots of springy stuff!
-C
Preheat oven to 350
In a small bowl, mix 3 tablespoons warm water to the chia seeds and let sit for at least 5 minutes (10 is better) In a large bowl, peel and mash the bananas until they turn into a kind of chunky soupy puree. %u00a0Add in brown sugar, chia seed mixture, vanilla extract, and the melted coconut oil (make sure it’s melted or it won’t incorporate into the mixture) Mix together. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix the wet mixture with the dry until combined then mix in the coconut flakes.%u00a0
Line a 12 cup muffin tin and fill each cup about 3/4 the way up with batter. Sprinkle each muffin with brown sugar and place in oven on center rack. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops 0f the muffins are golden brown and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove muffins from tin and let cool.
Serve as is or maybe with a smudge of coconut butter, or anything you want really.
No need for fork, just use you mouth.
I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that irish soda bread is just four ingredients, flour, sea salt, baking soda and buttermilk and adding %u00a0anything else would make %u00a0it a cake. So when I decided to make irish soda bread, thats all I used. ( I made it with some wheat flour) What you end up with is a highly dense, super fragrant, soft, chewy bread with a crunchy crust. Definitely not a cake.
Note%u2026.You can for sure add in a bit of sweetener or even little fat to make it richer and softer, but then it wouldn’t be bread (or so that’s what I read) There are tons of other recipes out there that have other stuff in them. This is just a really simple basic recipe.%u00a0
Stick in into the oven for 50 ish minutes, or unit la tester stuck into the middle comes out clean and there is kind of a hollow thunk when tapped on.%u00a0
And now you have a very pretty, dense hunk of irish soda bread.%u00a0
Cut and serve with butter and honey (thats how the mister likes it) or whatever you want to eat it with.
-C
Irish Soda Bread
Preheat oven to 375
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Mix in buttermilk until the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems to dry, add another splash or two of milk. Dump out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. transfer onto a baking sheet, dust with flour and cut a x about 1/2 inch into the top. Stick into oven for 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped.
Let cool enough to handle.
Cut into and serve with a smear of whatever you want
Best eaten within a day or two