pumpkin pancakes again

Andy is slowly tiring of pancakes and I’m actually excited about it because it is much easier to make a fried egg sandwich in the early AM.  However the other day – he not only asked for pancakes, but pumpkin pancakes.  Because I have many new whole grain books, I decided to try a new recipe just for fun- and it worked out great.  Andy and Sylvie really liked these – and I did too.  Rob as well!  They are not too pumpkiny – but have a glimmer of that flavor and just taste very holiday like with the nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.  Yum.  Once cooked, you sprinkle a little bit of seasoned sugar on top and it makes the (pan) cake!  Try while you have family home if you feel like it.  This recipe calls for kamut flour which I didn’t have originally so I just used white whole wheat.  It worked.  And the next time I used the kamut flour which was delicious as well.

 pumpkin pancakes adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce):

dry-

1 cup kamut flour (or white whole wheat)
1 cup all purpose flour (or white whole wheat)
or..
use 1 cup white and one cup whole wheat
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice

wet-

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted – cooled slightly
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons honey
2 eggs

spiced sugar-

1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg (or prepped already)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Mix all the wet ingredients together.  (First melt butter.)

Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Gently fold the wet into the dry using a light and gentle touch (for fluffier pancakes)

Heat pan and place some butter in it – you can use a little or more for a crisp, buttery edge.

Oh, and add chocolate chips if you have someone like Andy in your life.

Cook on medium until bubbles form, then flip over and cook the other side until dark golden.

Sprinkle a small amount of the spiced sugar on top of the pancakes – and serve with the extra on the table.

Enjoy-

 

 

 

how to cut, peel and core apples

IMG_4874Apples are soooo good – especially now.  And I know when you see that the ingredients read – 8 apples roughly chopped, your heart might sink a bit with the prep work.  So, here is the plan of attack.  First, put on some really good music.

Cut the top and bottoms off of the apples.  All of them.  Then peel each apple with a sharp paring knife (I do this) but try not to take too much of the flesh off.  If you are lousy at this – use a peeler.  Peel them all.

Slice the apples in half.  All of them.

IMG_4877Taker your apple corer (you should get one) and scoop out the center core by gently pushing the scooper in and twisting.  Then use the scooper to take the little extra rough bits around the core.

Core them all.

Take each apple half and slice.  Now you have slices.

Turn apple, slice again – now you have roughly chopped apples.

 

IMG_4880 IMG_4888IMG_4886

steel cut oats (the very best) don’t skip

Never ever ate any kind of hot cereal as a child, wanted to like it in my 30’s, enjoyed it in my 40’s but wow…at 47 I have found the exact hot cereal (n my case steel cut oats) that I craved (and didn’t even know I was craving it!)   I didn’t know that oats could be so nuanced with delicious flavors and so toothsome!  Seriously.  These oats are unlike the oats I’ve made for myself (every week) for the past year or so.  I recently bought the book Whole-grain Mornings and Megan Gordon (the author) really opened my eyes.  I looked forward to my morning bowl, but now, I can’t wait.  Please don’t beoats turned off by the tad of butter and the extra step of toasting your oats because it is WELL WORTH IT.  Really.  The result is super scrumptious.  My breakfast feels decadent.  This IMG_7184recipe is enough for 6 days.  Each morning I cut a serving, add a little water and heat – I then add my fruits, nuts or raisins and top it off with a sweetener and then add some cold home-made almond milk (you don’t have to use almond milk) and wow…feels like hmmm….happiness.  A great way to start every day!  My mom loved it too while visiting and I think I may have finally turned her into a breakfast eater.

steel cut oats (from Whole-grain Mornings by Megan Gordon):

1 cup steel cut oats
1-3 teaspoons unsalted butter (I use 2)
3 1/4 cups water
1 cup low fat milk (the recipes calls for whole milk which I bet is delicious, 2% might be a good alternative)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1-3 teaspoons sugar (optional) (I use a sweetener at the time I eat it)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
cinnamon (optional)
brown sugar, honey, syrup, heavy cream, almond milk, milk, raisins, fruits (optional all for serving)
I use almond milk, monk fruit sugar, and sliced bananas and nectarines or berries (in winter diced apples and cinnamon)

In a heavy bottomed skillet, melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add the oats and stir and gently toss in the pan until fragrant and darken in color.  See above photo.  This will take 5-6 minutes.

While toasting, bring the water, milk, sugar and salt to a low simmer over medium heat.  Add the oats (be a little careful here since the ingredients all seem to puff up).  Bring to a slow boil, partially cover – and decrease heat to low and cook until it has thickened (25-30m) and the oats have softened.  Stir occasionally while cooking – but especially towards the end so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

The porridge will look loose at the this point – but it will continue to soak up additional liquid so don’t worry.

Add vanilla.  If using raisins – stir in and cover.  Let sit (covered for 5 m).

At this point you can scoop into bowls and serve with all of the above optional ingredients or some of the above.

IMG_7222Since I am the only person eating this in my house, I pour the oatmeal into a container.  Each day I take some (it is kind of a solid mass at this point once refrigerated overnight) and place in a bowl with a little bit of water (to loosen it up).  I heat at a medium power for 3 m in the microwave – and end with a 30 sec full blast heat.  (I like it really really hot).  I add my cut up fruits – lately nectarines and banana, then my monk fruit sugar (a sweetener) and top it off with my cold almond milk and yum.  Seriously yum!!  Yum!  Enjoy –

 

 

 

NOEMA chocolate

This chocolate is made without peanut, tree nuts, dairy, egg, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish, as well as sesame.  NOEMA stands for None Of the Eight Major Allergens.  You can be worry free if you or your family suffers with allergies.  The equipment is brand new and has never touched any of the ingredients above.

Check out their website here!

banana pancakes (healthier)

Andy has been eating these for the past month or so and just LOVING them.  True love.  But what used to be a cute and adorable desire for pancakes and waffles in the early AM (and my desire to find awesome healthy recipes) has slowly turned into a demand (on his part) and fatigue and irritation (on my part).  Somehow Andy and his cute face had me cooking them fresh every morning.  Why I did this for a few weeks I don’t know – maybe because his school commute is harder than Greg and Sylvie, or because he has dyslexia, or because I make Greg and Sylvie lunch every day.  But enough was enough.  Put my foot down and now make them and freeze or refrigerate like the old days.  And Sylvie is now in on the action – the two of them fighting for them in the morning.  Sylvie ate these up the other day saying “I can’t say that these are my favorite pancakes because I’ve had so many but they are definitely way up there on the very top!”  So, make and enjoy –

Oh, I use my Guittard Super chips in these and the kids love them.  I do too.  And I recently found them at Chocosphere in bulk.  If you go to Chocosphere – look at the white chocolate too while you are browsing.  Guittard, Valrhona, Callibaut and many more.  (I get nothing when you buy there – just giving you the info!)

I found these at Sally’s Baking Addiction (a blog) and I think Sally explains the directions very well – and with alternative ingredients.  I used white whole wheat flour, and a whole egg (not just the white).  In fact I added an extra egg to a batch just to boost the protein and they were just as good.  And of course we added the chocolate chips I mention above, but fresh blueberries would be great.

For the recipe and directions click on link and enjoy!

Sally’s Baking Addiction –>click

 

pumpkin-banana bread (healthier)

This is good – a great seasonal bread and another alternative when you have some browning bananas hanging out on your counter.  When I read this recipe I thought I finally found something Greg would happily eat in the morning before school.  I made several different loaves – some with semisweet chocolate, some with milk, and some with white and pecans.  I thought white would be right up Greg’s alley and well, it was – except that he said, “the bread is too sweet and you know I don’t like nuts and oh, that ginger is strong.”  Rob, Sylvie, Andy and I also thought too sweet – esp the ones with milk and white chocolate but we really liked everything else.  And we all mangaged to eat it.  So back to the recipe I went – again, primarily to feed my lean son and added only half of the brown sugar and none of the white sugar and I skipped some of the spices that seemed to offend his ridiculously delicate senses.  I took out the pecans and well, he liked it!   A lot.  But just “not for breakfast!”  Oye.  Oh well… I liked it too – it is a great snacking cake and I would def add nuts if your family likes them.  I like the sweetness of milk and white (high quality!!) chips – but I do have that serious sweet tooth.  Rob of course like the semi sweet and would have preferred bittersweet. Play around with it – I’m thinking cranberries or dried cherries too.

Enjoy –

pumpkin-banana bread (original recipe from Sara-Jane bedwell  and here is the link.

2 mashed ripe bananas
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or 1 cup all purpose, one cup whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt plus a pinch (kosher if you have)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (feel free to add some ginger and a little bit of nutmeg)
chocolate chips to your taste
pecans too if desired
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray or butter an 8 1/2 X 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (or 4 mini loaf pans, or mini/reg muffin tins).
Mix together the mashed banana, pumpkin puree, oil, and eggs in a large bowl.  Or beat with an electric mixer with the paddle attachment (beat up the bananas first).
Whisk together flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Add flour mixture to banana and pumpkin mixture and beat until just moist. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake until done (toothpick comes out just clean)
My mini muffins took 18 minutes and my mini loaves took 33.  If using just one loaf pan I imagine you should check after 45 m – but will likely take close to an hour.  Just keep checking.
Hope you like!

lemon poppy angel food cake

Finally!  A blog-worthy treat!  It has been one dry, sweetless period – and not for lack of effort.  Decided to go back to Lauri Chattman and her Cake Keeper Cakes for a shot at success.  I picked this angel food because I knew our friend Mike would like something lemony and that Jodi would appreciate something on the lighter side.  Almost too light in color (I think I underbaked), very white with white glaze – I can’t say that I was super excited to try it.  But…it was good!  Really good.  Light, fluffy, light in lemon flavor – and not too sweet – it was a hit.  It has a fun consistency – and so light Rob said he could easily eat the whole cake.  We devoured our half of the cake (I left half at home thank goodness).  This cake is not rich, or gooey but that can be a good thing!  Next time I’d add more lemon zest (I upped it in the recipe) – for an even sharper lemon flavor.  Oh, the glaze is good – but totally not necessary – esp if you are really trying to keep things light.  A sprinkling of 10x might be enough.

Oh, pull out your whites and let them sit to room temp.  Much better.

lemon poppy angel food cake (from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauri Chattman):

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar (divided)
12 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract (I just squeezed in lemon juice – prob a tablespoon, but if you have the lemon extract, go for it)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

glaze –

6 ounces softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
pinch salt

skim milk or milk — add if too thick

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Have an angel food pan with a removable bottom ready.  Do not grease, or flour, or prep in any way.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, 3/4’s cup of the sugar.  Set aside.

Place the egg whites in the mixer and on medium speed – mix with whisk attachment until a bit frothy.  Then add the salt and the cream of tartar.

Continue to beat on medium speed until the egg whites begin to turn white.  With the mixer still on medium speed, slowly add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and mix until the whites are shiny and hold soft floppy peaks (I love her way of describing this!)  This will take a few minutes.

With a spatuala, gently fold in the zest, poppy seeds and lemon and vanilla extracts.

Slowly and gently fold the dry ingredients into the whites.  I sprinkled them in – or you can sift the dry in – in 3 batches or so.

Pour batter into tube pan and smooth the top.

Bake until the cake is golden brown on the and springs back when you touch it.  About 50 minutes or so.

If your pan has feet, remove from oven and invert on a heat proof surface.  Don’t worry, the cake will not fall out!  If your pan doesn’t have feet, invert 4 heatproof drinking glasses on the counter and rest the inverted pan on top of the glasses.

Allow air to circulate around the cake while it cools.  Allow it to cool at least one hour – or up to 6 hours.

To remove cake, run a sharp knife aorund the edges being careful to leave the golden crust intact (you see, mine was white and a little undercooked).  Invert pan and then run a knife under the removable bottom of the pan.  Drizzle the glaze over the cake and let stand 30 min or so to set

For the glaze – combine the ingredients (save for the milk) in a food processor and then thin with milk if needed.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temp for up to 3 days.

Enjoy-

mixed berry pavlova

Lisi's Kitchen

This was so good that I completely forgot to take a photo!  But not to worry, photos on the Smitten Kitchen site for you to enjoy.  I made this a while ago – and kept thinking I would make again to photograph and share – but the summer is almost over and I don’t want you to miss out.  Use the last of the berry season to make this delicious treat.  I mean it – the meringue so tasty, soft and fluffy – the whipped cream and the fresh cold berries.  So so so good!  I followed the recipe (well, I doubled it and made two!)

Try to squeeze it in and enjoy

smitten kitchen pavlova

pumpkin waffles

After about two years of eating the same healthy pancakes, Andy finally tired of them.  Eager to find him a new healthy breakfast, I perused many books and eventually found these scrumptious waffles.  Filled with good things like flax-seed, pumpkin, eggs, milk, and ground walnuts (that you don’t even taste) – these keep Andy running and running and running.  What’s nice about these is they have really good flavor – the pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg make it feel like a holiday treat – and the walnut and eggs add some good protein.  Andy is not a nut lover so I put the nuts in a processor and finely ground them – making them undetectable.  Of course if you have nut allergies – just leave them out.  The waffles are tender and tasty and with the addition of chocolate chips (always a must here) you don’t need any syrup on them – however a little drizzle of pure maple syrup happens to be delicious.

pumpkin waffles (slightly adapted from No Whine With Dinner by Liz Weiss and Janice Newell Bissex):

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup walnuts (finely chopped – or like me in the food processor to almost a flour)
2 tablespoons flax seed
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or slightly less)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (use 1/4 if using reg table salt)
3/4 cup low fat milk (I used 1 percent)
3/4 cup canned 100 percent pure pumpkin
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract chocolate chips (optional)
pure maple syrup (optional)
powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat the waffle iron.  Chop or grind the nuts.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, whole wheat flour, ground nuts, flaxseed, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

In a larger bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, brown sugar and vanilla extract.

Pour the dry into the wet and whisk gently until combined. Likely oil or coat the waffle iron and cook as your waffle iron directs.  As mentioned, we add a small handful of chocolate chips. Serve with added walnuts on top – banana and a dash of syrup or 10x if you like! Enjoy –

apple cinnamon muffins (very healthy – made with almond meal)

Andy came into the kitchen and said omgoodness what is that smell?  It smells sooo good!  I told him I was making muffins but didn’t mention the healthy part of the description.  Hot out of the oven Andy asked if he could have one – I said sure and his eyes lit up with joy and disbelief because he usually does not get to eat a muffin close to dinner.  He mmmmed and mmmmed and declared these AMAZING!  I said you know these muffins are healthy and he smiled and said, “good, I can have them for breakfast!”  I will say that he said (on his second one) that the consistency was a little soft and that they were best when hot and fresh out of the oven.  And yes, all that is true – but my thought is that if you have a kid like him – who loves muffins and loaf breads, it is awesome to have a treat that is full of protein and apples and cinnamon!  Unfortunately, Sylvie didn’t love them as much.  The consistency bothered her a bit more and Greg too – thought they were ok but not memorable.  So – well – after reading all that you can decide whether you think your family (or a member of your family) might enjoy.  Oh and btw, I did!

I kept the muffins unwrapped and out so that they wouldn’t get even softer.  You could slice and toast the next day to recreate the warm flavor.

apple cinnamon muffins (from elana amsterdam’s book The Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook):

2 cups blanched almond flour (almond meal)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced into 1/4 inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin cups with paper liners.  Peel, core and dice apples.

In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, salt, baking soda, arrowroot powder and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, stir together the oil, agave, egg, and vanilla extract.

Next, stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix fairly well  then fold in the apples.

Bake for 30-35 m – until the muffins are golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

These are best warm outta the oven or soon after.  Remember though – they are soft,  so you might need a spoon when hot!

Enjoy-