Category Archives: Baking

Bread and Cakes

Apple Nut Muffins

Posted on by Andrea

apple nut muffins

It’s that time of year again – making lunches, yay! These are a delicious yet healthy lunchbox snack, great for a breakfast on the run or afternoon tea.   Sure, these have sugar and butter in them – but they also have oats, nuts, apples and dried fruit — and no toxic chemicals, preservatives or HFCS.  They are delicious…I only have one big kid here, and they lasted about one day.  A very good recipe.

APPLE NUT MUFFINS

adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

makes 12 regular sized muffins

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup apple cider (or another 1/2 cup milk if you don’t have cider)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1  3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3/4 cup large-flake oats
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cut into small dice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/3 cup dried cranberries or any dried fruit (raisins, etc)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 F. Line 12 cup muffin tin with muffin liners. Place pan on baking sheet.

Whisk together milk, cider, egg, vanilla and almond extracts and butter in small bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, and salt to combine thoroughly. Toss in the brown sugar, then add the oats and whisk the dry ingredients a few more times to mix. Switch to a large rubber spatula and stir in the liquid ingredients, stirring just until everything is moistened–as with all muffins, less mixing is better than more. Gently stir in the apple, nuts and dried fruit.  Using  a 1/3 cup scoop or measuring cup, scoop batter into muffin cups, ensuring that it is evenly distributed. Top with a sprinking of oatmeal flakes, if desired, for decorative effect.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins  are golden brown and centers bounce back when pressed with your finger.  Cool. Remove from pan. Enjoy as is (delish)  or with some butter, peanut butter, almond butter, jam….very delicious muffin with lots of fiber, a good one for the lunch boxes if walnuts are allowed.

mix up batter - adding wet ingredients to dry, mix only until combined

fill muffin cups to top, making sure batter is distributed evenly

sprinkle some oats on top before baking if desired

S’more Chocolate Birthday Cake

Posted on by Andrea

Here’s an idea for a birthday cake I made today. It’s a chocolate layer cake that I  made from scratch, but use your favourite chocolate cake recipe, out of a box is fine.  I melted about 15 marshmallows with 3 tbsp of butter, and added that to a pre-packaged tub of white icing. I refrigerated that until it firmed up a bit. Frosted the cake, added some crumbled graham crackers in the center and sprinkled on top. Made chocolate shards and stuck them in. Quite dramatic looking, wouldn’t you say? Quite delicious too. Serve with ice cream. Fun! Continue reading →

Healthy Quinoa and Dark Chocolate Snack Bars

Posted on by Andrea

quinoa dark chocolate snack bars

Here’s a healthy and very tasty snack bar that works well in school lunches or as an afternoon snack.  They are sweetened with maple syrup and composed of cooked quinoa and a few different gluten free flours. I cut and wrap these individually and store them in the freezer. The quinoa and eggs contribute to these bars having a fair amount of protein so they are filling…but they also taste delicious. Give them a try if you are not interested in buying mass produced, high-fructose corn syrup-laden bars. The best part about these gluten-free, low glycemic bars is that they taste great. Continue reading →

Fruity Butter Tarts

Posted on by Andrea

fruit-filled butter tart with walnuts

Just when you thought butter tarts couldn’t taste any more awesome….well, they can. This recipe is inspired by my friend, Marion Ratzinger (who got the recipe from her friend…and she got the idea from her friend and so it goes 😉 ).  This is basically a buttertart recipe with added fruit and nuts. We used fresh seasonal fruit, but they taste great with frozen berries as well. We added walnuts, but feel free to use whatever you like. Customize them to your taste. They are so good! The use of store-bought tart shells makes these a snap, in fact, my 16 year-old daughter made these with no supervision. You can throw these together Continue reading →

Zucchini Pecan Loaf

Posted on by Andrea

zuchini pecan loaf- delish

It’s that time of year again, already! Sheesh, it’s almost August and it seems like it was June about five minutes ago.  Well, the good thing is the availability of  fresh, local produce. One of my daughter’s male friends keeps bringing me giant zucchinis–so I had no choice but to figure out a great recipe for Zucchini Loaf. This one is easy, really tasty and fairly healthy. It makes 2 nice big loaves, everyone likes it, freezes well…and uses up all those zucchinis that everyone keeps dropping off! Continue reading →