Sweet Wheat Bread

I came across this recipe for wheat bread and have been wanting to give it a try for a couple of weeks and finally got to it this weekend.  I thought it was going to be a loaf of wheat bread to make sandwiches but it turns out it's too sweet and would be better for breakfast. 

Sweet Wheat Bread

2 cups soy milk mixed with 2 tablespoons apple cidar vinegar (or 2 cups of buttermilk)

2 tablespoons dairy free margarine (or butter) melted

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  In bowl mix dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and pour in the liquids.  Stir till smooth. Spread the battter evenly into the loaf pan bake for 1 hour till golden brown. 

Enjoy for breakfast :)

Morning Carrot Muffins

The chill is in the air and it's almost the end of summer. Happy Labor Day! There have been some really nice summer days but the evenings are turning cool so we are waking up to a chilly home. What does all this mean? It's time to start baking again and the homemade granola is just around the corner. I used to have a rhythm of baking every Sunday night to have some things ready for the week but I fell out of it last fall and winter. I'm hoping to regain that rythm again so why not start it on Labor Day. Last night was the first baking of the seasaon.

Carrot Muffins

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup sugar

Mix 1 1/2 Tbsp. water, 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil and 1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup grated carrot

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. In a bowl mix water, oil, sugar and oil, water and baking powder mixture. Then add dry ingredients. It will look thick and gooey. Mix in grated carrot. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown.

Notes:

-This recipe doubles well.

-For the flour I use half white flour and half whole wheat pastry flour.

-I have never made this with eggs but the water, oil and baking powder mixture replaces 1 egg.

-I wish I thought of this sooner in the summer. The carrots could have been shredded and then frozen in bags so they would have been ready when needed. Oh well live and learn and remember for next summer :)

Happy Labor Day!

Good morning cherries & smoothies

Another beautiful summer week gone by there has been a lot of pool splashing, lots of sock cutting and sewing, some slow crochetting, quilt thinking, a little cleaning and good reading. Also forgetting to do a few things like blog and avoiding a few other things (basement clean up). If you're in need of a really good book to read this summer The Help is incredible.

The cooking has been good around here, we have made stuffed vegetables but I'm not sure how to explain that recipe because I made it up. I'll try to have a post on it next week. I did bake cherry muffins this week (some preferred the starwberry & rhubarb muffins). They did go nicely with the morning smoothies. We're big on fruit smoothies for breakfast especially in the summer when there is more variety for sweet fruits.

The smoothie recipe is 2-3 cups of cut cantelope, 1 peach peeled and sliced, 4 or more strawberries, 1 banana and ice cubes. Blend till smooth and enjoy. I apologize that this recipe is vague about the quantities but it's all based on what we have and how many will be drinking the smoothie. If you have cherries throw in a few without the pits instead of the strawberries. It's a good morning boost.

The cherry muffun recipe was modified from Cucina Nicolina here's my version.

CHERRY MUFFINS

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unbleached flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 vegetable oil

1 cup soy milk

Mix together 1 1/2 Tbsp. oil, 1 1/2 Tbsp water and 1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups of cherries pitted and chopped (or frozen if you have them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl mix sugar, oil, soy milk and baking powder mixture. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix. The batter will look lumpy and thick. Fold in the cherries. Fill each cup of the muffin pan 2/3 full. Bake till golden brown for about 20-22 minutes. Enjoy!

The first picture in this post is a smoothie with bagels cream cheese and cantelope with jello. We just cut the cantelope in half and then mixed the jello according to the directions and poured it into the cantelope. Let the jello firm and then cut into slices. Refreshing and fun!
Have a great weekend!

Strawberry Muffins Remake

Some time ago Amanda had a Strawberry Rhubarb Muffin recipe and I thought it looked yummy and gave it a try during the craziness last week (or maybe it was the week before). There aren't any pictures of these muffins because I accidently deleted them. They were definitely approved. Unfortunately I haven't seen much rhubarb around lately and haven't made them again but I'm looking forward to them again. Here's our version and they are dairy free and egg free.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
In a cup mix 1 1/2 tablespoon oil, 1 1/2 tablespoon water and 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dairy free margarine
In a cup mix 1/2 cup soy milk with 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar (let stand for a few minutes and it will look like it's curdling)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped rhubarb
1 cup sliced strawberries

In a large bowl mix baking powder mixture and all liquids. Then add dry ingredients and mix. Next fold in the rhubarb and strawberries. Spoon mixture into muffin pan about 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Enjoy!
I'm thinking next time cherry muffins hmmm:)

Finally some baking

Lemon & Lime Love Cake


Finally tried making the lemon & lime lime cake from The Farmers' Market Guide to Fruit.


I made it with a few variations to make it dairy and egg free and then added too much lemon and lime juice it came out a little tangy. Got mixed reviews but I'm thinking it will be nice for the spring and summer.

1 lemon

1 lime

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dairy free margarine

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy milk

Mix 3 tablespoons water, 3 tablespoons oil and 2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate lemon and lime and set aside. Cut both fruits in half and squeeze half of the lemon and half the lime and set aside. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together.

In a mixing bowl add dairy free margarine and sugar. Beat till creamy then add baking powder, water and oil mixture, soy milk, lemon and lime juices. It will look like it's curdling. Gradually add in flour mixture. Stir in lemon and lime zest.

Spoon into 9x5 inch glass loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan about 5 minutes then take out and cool on wire rack completely before slicing.

Variations:
1. If you don't mind the lemon and lime juices make the loaf tangy. According to the orginal recipe the lemon and lime juices are not mixed in the batter and used only for the topping. The loaf can be made with just the zest.
2. For the topping mix the lemon and lime juices with 3/4 cup sugar. When the loaf is cooling down place a tray under the wire rack. Spoon the sugar mixture over the top of the loaf and let it drizzle down the sides and let cool before slicing.

Then enjoy with family, friends or a cup of tea or coffee!

Oatmeal Cookie Time

Ok I have a confession today we didn't get outside not even for the short morning walk. Just a little out of sorts. This afternoon Sophia showed me a picture and asked "Mom can make brown cookies?" I said sure we can make oatmeal cookies. Because hey if one thing doesn't work out today at least warm cookies for snack will be fun to smell in the kitchen.

Dairy-free & Egg Free Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup canola oil

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Mix 3 tablespoons canola oil, 3 tablespoons water and 2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup water

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups of Quick oats

handful of dairy free chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine oil, sugar and baking powder mixture and beat well. Add dry ingredients. Beat well then stir in oats and water. Drop by the teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until light brown. Yield 4 dozen.

Notes: The baking powder mixture replaces 2 eggs. I use canola oil for my baking. Next time maybe I'll substitute half the flour with whole wheat pastry flour I forgot this time.
Happy baking!

Easter Cake & Cookies

Lemon cake decorated with starburst candy. The starburst can softened in the microwave for about 8 seconds. Then roll it out and cut with favorite cookie cutters. For the center we use skittles.

Tried something new with our favorite sugar cookie recipe. Instead of refridgerating the dough for an hour and then cutting them out with cookie cutters I just mixed the dough and dropped it by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. To decorate add a little food coloring to the icing and add sprinkles.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

2/3 cup of dairy free margarine

3/4 cup sugar

Mix: 1 1/2 tablespoons water, 1 1/2tablespoons oil and 1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups flour

Beat the dairy free margarine , sugar, vanilla and baking powder mixture till creamy. Then add in salt and baking powder. Slowly add in flour. This batter can be mixed by hand or with an electric mixer. Cove and chill in the refridgerator for at least one hour. When ready to bake preheat oven 350 degrees. Split the dough in half, roll it out and cut out with cookie cutters. Place cut out dough on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly brown. They may look undercooked but are not. Do not over bake. Remove cookies from cookie sheet, let cool and decorate.

The dough can be chilled overnight. These are great of for any occasion.

Random ::
Since we are on subject of baking a couple of nights a friend and I got to meet Molly the author of A Home Life at a book signing. It was great to hear her speak on how she came up with idea of the book, her philosphy on food and about Delancey. If she is in your area definitely worth seeing her but if not enjoy the book it's a memoir with lots of delicous recipes. Just like the book I left the book signing hungry for good food.

Snow Day Baking

Whenever it snows I think it's a great excuse to turn on the oven and do a little baking. Yesterday it was apple pie and juce muffins.

Luisa's Juice Muffins

Mix 1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil, 1 1/2 tablespoons water and 1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup cranberry juice

1/3 cup canola oil

1 3/4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners. In bowl stir baking powder mixture, juice and oil. Then add dry ingredients. Stir together well. The batter will be thick and sticky. Fill prepared muffin tins two thirds full. Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: For mini muffins bake for 12-15 minutes. Apple, pear or cranapple juice can be used instead of cranberry juice.

Enjoy the morning muffins!

Weekend In

Too cold to go out this weekend so spent the weekend in hibernating and baking.

Granola again. The third batch was cinnamon with orange craisins. Yummy with cereal or by the handful.

Dried Apricot Butter I forgot the honey and didn't dice the the apricots very well but the taste was sweet.

The best baking of all was chocolate cake for my 9 year old's birthday celebration.

We had fun with the colors and decorating.

Blog Lists

After reading everyone's blogs this past holiday season there has been so much inspiration I couldn't keep up so I decided on making a list of things I'd like to try to make, bake and read.

From: Angry Chicken

Marshmallows dipped in chocolate

Holiday Napkins from Dec. 17, 2009


Recipes

Apricot Crumble

Marshmallows I'm excited about this one because I didn't know you could make homemade
marshmallows without eggs!


From: In the Purple House

Linen scarf I'm thinking for me and the girls.

Autumnal Wreath For our home or a gift.

headbands Can never have enough of those.

wall hanging made with buttons

I'm going to need a lot more buttons I'll be on the wathch for those.



Articles of interest: because I'm always wondering how others do it.

The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting

down--to earth: Living a deliberate life

Unschool Days

Books: Simplicity Parenting

Sunday Baking

What to do on a snowy Sunday morning?? Bake :) And yes I may have gone overboard and I also did make pancakes for lunch and fish with vegetables for dinner. I couldn't think of a better way to stay warm on winter day.

Oatmeal cookies requested by Sophia and Valentina

Not apple pie but apple turnovers. I thought I'd use my apple pie filling and pie crust to make turnovers instead of a pie for dessert or breakfast.
Snickerdoodles yes that's really what they are called.
Bad snickerdoodles.

Good snickerdoodles.

I had to make a second batch of snickerdoodles because I was up for the challenge of trying to get it right. My usual baking powder mixture to replace the egg just didn't do it. So here is the recipe I adjusted. I also recommend if unsure when baking just half the recipe.

SNICKERDOODLES

1 cup dairy free margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup applesauce (or 2 eggs)

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping: In a bowl mix 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon.

Mix thoroughly margarine, sugar and applesauce. In separate bowl sift dry ingredients then add to mixture. It will be form into dough . Roll into balls then roll in sugar in cinnamon. Place about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. If they bake too long they may burn or turn hard see the bad cookie pictures:)

Enjoy!

Random thoughts

The Christmas holiday is over and so is the hustle and bustle. Sadly the holiday itself went too quickly. Hope was given up on making lots of homeade gifts but that's ok better planning next year. So it became the year of the pizzelles gave a light sweet treat in the shape of a snowflake. With all the bustle also forgot to take pictures of how they are made...ooops!

Well for now I can at least give the random recipes that we had a couple of weeks ago.

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger

The crystallized ginger was well worth it! This recipe is from A Homemade Life but the recipe called for eggs and yogurt which I substituted and hoped for the best. For the eggs I did the baking soda mixture and for the yogurt I used 1/4 cup soy milk mixed with 1/4 teaspoon cider vinegar. Banana bread just got better even with a few ingredient modifications.

Granola modified once again

This recipe I got from Wendy's blog because I wanted to try to make my own granola. Again a few ingredient modifications no nuts for this family and no one would be crazy for dried cranberries sooo... instead of mixing the oats with something healthy I mixed in some dairy free chocolate chips, I then followed the directions for the mixture and poured it over the oats and chocolate chips. Soon realized I mixed melted chocolate chips into the oats. Uh oh...well then I baked them for a total of 10-15 minutes because I used the quick cooking oats. With that many recipe modifications I wasn't sure what this would taste like. Sure enough another hit for this family.

Actually I made 2 batches one was the dairy free chocolate chips and the other was vanilla chips. Next time I'm thinking sunflower seeds and raisins. Goodbye quaker oats granola bars for a while.

Cauliflower not mac n' cheese

This recipe was from the last issue of Kiwi it suggested instead of using pasta when making mac n cheese use cauliflower. My caulflower in the cheese looked watery and bland not too appealing to me soooo.... what did I do? I seasoned it with Mrs. Dash (use whatever you like) and then mixed with white rice. Much more appealing and tasty!

Well that's the end of today's random thoughts. Looking forward to another very cold and short nature walk into the woods with the kids in search of branches.

Been Baking

Already halfway through the week and a bit run down. Fending off a cold with echinacea while making pizzelles for Christmas gifts. I'll be back at the end of the week with this week's random recipes and if I'm lucky crafting progress.

Blog Break

Just wanted to drop a hello while I check out a couple of blogs. Hefty week is almost over but still more work to be done in the corner.

My husband asked how things were going yesterday. I said fine but I could use a wife. I needed extra hands to help me out. He said I needed a mid wife. You know someone I could call if I can't finish a job right way well call a mid wife. Or when some children need to be picked during a nap time well call a mid wife. I said maybe we should find another name to call this woman because I don't want to insult the midwives out there who are doing something really special.

I guess sometimes we could all use another woman's help when we are short on patience or hands, get interrupted numerous times while trying to complete a task or simply outnumbered by kids.

But for now I'm happy to settle down after a long day with a slice of lemon cake and a slice of pumpkin spice cake.

This is the golden cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World but I made them into cakes instead of cupcakes. For one I substituted the vanilla extract with lemon extract. For the pumpkin I added several tablespoons of canned pumpkin and added pumpkin spice.

Hopefully another fall favorite around here.