What Smells So Good?

Bananas Foster Jam

2012-01-23T17:01:00.000-05:00

I've never had the pleasure of visiting New Orleans, but to me it is without doubt the world's most fascinating city. I've loved the whole idea of Louisiana for years, since my first taste of jambalaya when I was about 7, and for a solid two years I was all about the Ya-Ya movie and book series (which I highly recommend you read!), decorated my bedroom in Mardi Gras beads that my grandparents brought back from the real NOLA shindig, and begged my parents to book us into the Orlando location of the House of Blues restaurant for dinner when we went to see The Mouse. Though I only made it to HoB once (and now can't have my beloved andouille jambalaya lest I get sick), every time I go to Disney World I still have to buy at least 3 bottles of Bayou Heat hot sauce (although in retrospect I should have bought about 12 the last time, I'm out :-( ). I can't wait until the day I can finally walk around the French Quarter, check out what real Cajun and Creole music is like live, and totally immerse myself in the insanely rich culture, art and (of course) food! It would be a total win in my book to hit the city at the peak of it's celebration activity, the infamous Mardi Gras, but in all honesty just being there would be the experience of a lifetime.

Along with the jambalaya, gumbo, po-boys, muffulettas and etoufee, NOLA has a sweet side to share with it's visitors too. Beignets, pecan pie and King Cake are commonly thought of, as is the infamous Bananas Foster. A Brennan's specialty (according to NOLA Online the restaurant serves over 35,000 pounds of bananas yearly with this dessert), the flaming, sliced bananas are legendary and really, it's hard to argue with a bowl of ice cream topped with a combination of buttery, soft fruit, caramelized sugar and rum!

It was in the spirit of this NOLA hallmark sweet that I came up with this banana and raisin "jam". With hardly any sugar and no fat to speak of, it's a more "breakfast friendly" way to get your fix! Given that it's really only designed as a "store in the fridge" type of spread, I scaled back one of the jam recipes I found in my mom's cookbook Caribbean Cuisine and switched up the flavours a little bit, cooking the sugar into a slightly thicker, more caramelized syrup than called for originally, adding a packet of caramel flavoured stevia and raisins for a bit of extra oomph, and both doubling the rum and adding it with the vanilla off the heat. Because I had it on hand, I added a tiny dribble of butter flavouring to the vanilla and rum, which instantly made me visualize the fruit sizzling in a Louisiana pan as the chef goes to light off the rum. If you don't have either the stevia or the extract, no worries - it will be plenty caramelized as it is, and if you really need that butter element you can stir in a half teaspoon of the creamy stuff (or it's equally delicious substitute) at the end before adding the rum and extracts.

Have you ever been to NOLA or had Bananas Foster? What did you think?

Bananas Foster Jam

Makes about 1 cup, 8 2-tbsp servings

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 packet caramel flavoured stevia, i.e. Krisda (optional, but boosts the caramel flavour!)

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup water

3 medium, very ripe bananas

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Pinch salt

1 tbsp dark rum

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp butter flavouring (optional)

Combine brown sugar, stevia, raisins and water in a small pot and bring to a simmer.
Cook, without stirring (swirl the pan to mix), until sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to thicken a bit, about 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, mash bananas with lime juice and salt. Stir the bananas into the syrup.
Continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 25-30 minutes. You want it to be very thick and caramel-scented.
Remove from the heat, stir in the rum, vanilla and butter flavouring if using.
Cool 15-20 minutes before transferring into a jar and chilling.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 87.2

Total Fat: 0.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 3.9 mg
Total Carbs: 24.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g

Protein: 0.6 g

Apple Coconut Coffee Cake - No Gluten, No Nuts, All Vegan!

2012-01-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

Well, this recipe was a long time coming. I made this waaaay back in October, when I did the cake and cupcakes for the autism gala, but somehow it fell off the face of my "I should post this" planet. That said, it is not exactly a cake like any other, and it's definitely not from a box!

I actually made this for the coordinator of the charity gala, since she's been so generous by both figuring out all the logistics of the event and it's associated dessert auction and asking me to bake every year! Keeping in tune with the general autism diet restrictions of gluten- and casein-free, I wanted to give her something that was also nut and egg free just in case someone in her home had an allergy or intolerance to those too. Of course, I knew exactly where I'd be headed for the inspiration and at least a basic recipe - and really, would you argue with a Goddess? A couple of clicks and a quick pantry check down the road later, I knew what I'd be making: Karina's self-proclaimed

"lovely gluten-free apple cake with coconut flour".

At least, I'd be making a version of it. I designed mine to use what was sitting within convenient reach (i.e. I didn't want to schlep out to the store!) with a heightened coconut element and lower sugar. A bit of shredded coconut meat got stirred in, and I used coconut oil in place of the canola. A few tweaks to the flour and starch and binder later and I had my creation - a tender, moist, slightly exotic and definitely delicious coffee cake.

Apple Coconut Coffee Cake

Makes 1 10" cake, 12 slices

3 tbsp ground flaxseed

¼ cup hot water

½ cup sorghum flour

½ cup rice flour

½ cup organic coconut flour

½ cup cornstarch

1 tsp guar gum

½ tbsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup coconut oil

1 cup coconut milk

2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract

2 apples, peeled and chopped small

¼ cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1 apple, peeled and sliced medium-thick

1 tsp raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line the bottom of a 10” spring form pan.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flaxseed and hot water. Set aside.
Whisk together flours, starch, guar gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spice. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together flax mixture, brown sugar, oil, coconut milk and vanilla until the batter is smooth.
Fold in the chopped apples and coconut.
Spread in the prepared pan and lightly press sliced apple pieces in a decorative pattern on top.
Sprinkle the top of the cake with raw sugar.
Bake 55 - 60 minutes. Do not open the oven door before 45 minutes.
Cool in the pan twenty minutes, then loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and remove the ring. Cool completely before slicing (although this is delicious gently reheated).

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 304.8

Total Fat: 15.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 10.6 mg
Total Carbs: 49.2 g

Dietary Fiber: 4.5 g

Protein: 2.6 g

Master of Disguise

2012-01-17T17:36:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a Green Monster?

Not as a pet, of course. I'm talking about the early 2009 superfood creation by Angela of Oh She Glows and the health-community movement that exploded behind her (and not that kind of movement). Simply put, a Green Monster is a smoothie made up of blended greens (usually kale or spinach), fruit (berries, bananas, mango...) and whatever else the concocting cook desires - commonly seeds, protein powders, even nut butters. The idea is to get as much bang out of the green stuff without actually tasting the green stuff. I've had a few of these beasts in my life (perils of being in a holistic college) and regardless of what was in them, they were, well, a bit beastly. The closest I came to enjoying one of these was when I was served a blend of spinach, bananas, strawberries, stevia, dates and cocoa powder - in other words, more stuff than greens!

Luckily, my tastebuds don't have the same objection to the puree when it's baked into something thoroughly decadent. Between a wine-soaked grape cake, a cakey brownie and a rather crazy muffin, I know that leafy greens can definitely hold their own in the sweet kitchen.

It turns out that I'm not alone in baking the Green Monster into decadent treats! I found an insanely rich looking recipe by Kels (of the blog K and K Test Kitchen) and knew I had to do a spin on it, and make something really monsterous! I decided to bump up the omegas with hits of walnut, spelt, chia and flax, added some dates (I love dates!) and used bittersweet miniature chocolate chips instead of milk to keep the overall nutrient profile a bit higher than it would have been. It looked a bit creepy and even scary coming together, but once it did? These weren't just ogres of omegas, they were dragons of deliciousness!

Omega Monster Muffins

Makes 12
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tbsp chia seed
1/3 cup hot coffee
¼ cup spelt bran
¼ cup diced dates, soaked in hot water and drained
1/3 cup hot water
1 cup Cookin' Greens kale (100g)
2 packets xylitol sweetener or stevia
1 tbsp vanilla
¼ cup canola oil
½ cup brown sugar
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 cup spelt flour
¾ cup flour
½ cup sifted cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan.
In a small bowl, whisk together flaxseed, chia seed and coffee. Let stand 5 minutes.
Combine the bran, dates and hot water in a small dish and let stand until needed.
Microwave the kale 3 minutes with a tablespoon of water until thawed and cooked down slightly. Add to a food processor or blender with soaked seed mixture, xylitol, vanilla, and oil and puree completely.
Pour kale mixture into a large bowl and add the brown sugar and buttermilk. Beat in well.
Whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just to combine, then add bran mixture, chocolate chips and walnuts and fold in gently to incorporate.
Bake 25-30 minutes.
Immediately turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 237.9

Total Fat: 12.1 g

Cholesterol: 1.0 mg

Sodium: 33.2 mg

Total Carbs: 34.3 g

Dietary Fiber: 5.6 g

Protein: 5.6 g

A Cobbler's Cookie

2012-01-15T18:57:00.000-05:00

I decided to clean out and organize my baking pantry today.

Holy crap, do I have a lot of stuff! A four-page list of stuff. And not much of it is of sufficient quantity to do anything with, which is why about two hours into this little adventure and finding bags and bags of bits and pieces of stuff, I turned to the collaborative minds of Twitter for inspiration. Carla (author of the newly redesigned blog Chocolate Moosey) took pity on me and filled my stream (and mind!) with all sorts of ideas! Like my Tag-A-Long Cookies, it turned into a "use up or toss out" exercise, and in the end I had some chewy, whole wheat cookies encasing large-flake rolled oats, graham cracker crumbs, chopped Cadbury Mini Eggs and milk-chocolate Raisinets.

So is using up stuff an original theme on this blog? No. But was it a tasty outcome? You bet.

Cobbled Cookies
Makes 32
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup Krisda baking blend
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vanilla
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup whole milk
17 oz Cadbury Mini Eggs (about 12 bags), chopped or semi-crushed
6.5 oz milk chocolate covered raisins (about 1 cup)

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, oats, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl beat together sugars, Krisda, butter, oil, honey, vanilla, water and milk.
Add the dry ingredients and mix in to form a stiff dough.
Fold in Mini Eggs and milk chocolate covered raisins.
Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment.
Portion balls of dough onto the sheets (flatten slightly for crispier cookies).
Bake, one sheet at a time, for 15 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 205.7
Total Fat: 8.3 g
Cholesterol: 10.0 mg
Sodium: 76.8 mg
Total Carbs: 32.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 2.7 g

An Apple (or Two) a Day

2012-01-13T14:29:00.002-05:00

Fall and Winter around here usually means that apples and apple products begin making their appearance in rather staggering amounts. Call it an attempt at frugal living, call it a sad stab at balancing out the rich foods of the holidays, but whatever the reason we always seem to have way more apples at the brink of "overripe" than we can handle at the end of the season. This ends in one of three ways - impromptu dried apple rings, apple sauce, or it's kissing cousin apple butter. All three found their way into the household this year, and thanks to the holiday yearnings for apple butter-pumpkin pie and a round of colds that left us slurping warmed applesauce for comfort most of the bounty was used by year's end.

Just before Christmas, when we were all more than sated with appley fare, my stepdad came home with a holiday gift from his office: a giant, one gallon jug of organic apple cider. For those of you who don't know what this glorious drink is, it's basically unsweetened, unfiltered, pressed apple juice. When you buy it in the stores, chances are it's pasteurized, but it still has a definite shelf life. After force-feeding it to friends and family and drinking ourselves to the point of bursting, we still had a decent amount left over - and given my Scottish (read: cheap!) nature I didn't want to see it poured down the drain. Cider is one of those things that I only ever get to consume in the Fall, when we go apple picking, so it's fairly close to my heart. I wanted to embrace and promote the rich, warming flavour of the beverage in whatever I did with it, and was glad to find so many others felt the same way. I picked a couple that sounded interesting and went to town. One of them I was fairly confident I could make grand substitutions to and still pull it off without much issue... but the second (which also served to use up the dregs of heavy cream) pretty much scared the bejeezus out of me.

The original recipe for this loaf from Gourmet's October 1991 magazine only called for apple cider to be included, along with pumpkin, walnuts and orange zest. But I had no pumpkin (since I made some other goodies with those leftovers - will share soon!) and was loath to buy yet another can of it. I did have the perfect amount of apple butter though... and some 12 grain flour and golden raisins to use up. You can see where this is going!

Grainy Apple Raisin Bread

Serves 10

1 cup apple cider

juice and zest of 1 orange

3 tbsp ground flaxseed

1 cup apple butter

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup 12-grain hot cereal

1/2 cup 12-grain flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup golden raisins, soaked in hot water and drained

In a saucepan, reduce the apple cider until only 1/4 cup is left. Let cool.
Preheat oven to 350F, grease a large 9x5" loaf pan.
Heat the orange juice and pour into a large bowl. Whisk in the zest and flaxseed. Let sit 2-3 minutes.
Mix in the apple butter, oil, egg, vanilla, honey, brown sugar and apple cider reduction.
Stir in the cereal, flours, spice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until just combined.
Fold in the raisins.
Cover pan with foil and bake 45 minutes, then remove foil and bake a further 1/2 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool in the pan before turning out.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 296.8

Total Fat: 7.4 g

Cholesterol: 18.5 mg

Sodium: 20.0 mg

Total Carbs: 58.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 4.9 g

Protein: 4.8 g

Then came the project I both looked forward to and dreaded the most - caramels. It's no secret that the thought of boiling sugar ranks up in the top tier of my greatest fears (along with hot oil and moving bug legs), but as Carla puts it, it was one of those things "on the list".

Granted, these (now) perfectly formed, chewy squares of appley deliciousness almost didn't happen in my kitchen. I first ran out of heavy cream. I did have premium coconut milk and some coconut cream powder, though, which I prayed would make up the difference being high in fat. Some brown sugar entered the pot too, more out of habit than anything else, and after reading some of the comments on Kate's apple cider caramel post I added some sea salt and maple syrup to the mixture too. I know - I've never made candy of any sort before, why am I getting all substitution-y on it first time around? Simply because I'm like that. I'm totally incapable of following directions as written or spoken. At school I was always the kid that asked what if and why.

Everything was looking good and hunky-dory gooey, I had my greased and parchmented pan all set, a brand new candy thermometer at hand and my mom's trusty old wooden spoon standing by. Then, in an attempt to keep the mess to a minimum, I transferred my glass candy thermometer into a cup of warm liquid and was rewarded with a shattered tube. Thankfully, the glass shards were in the water, not the caramel or the kitchen floor. But with no other high-temp thermometers around and a pot of boiling fat and sugar on the stove I had to do something. So I pulled out my mom's old Joy of Cooking and quickly read up on the "ice water tests" for candymaking, then got to work dipping and testing until I was seeing something that resembled the 248 degree "firm ball" stage called for on Kate's recipe. I poured the heavenly-scented mixture into it's pan and waited for it to firm up.

And waited. And waited. And stuck it in the fridge. And waited.

Needless to say, the "firm ball" test was a lie.

But Google to the rescue - I found out that the pan was not a wasted exercise, since I could simply re-boil it to the right temperature, provided I could tell the right temperature! A 10 minute trip to the store and $7 later I had a digital instant-read thermometer and a renewed sense of confidence. It took forever to get to 248 degrees, but while I waited I had the chance to take a look at the original recipe. Well, it didn't call for 248 degrees, or "firm ball" stage - it stated a full 250. It may sound like a minute difference, but it does make a difference. I was paranoid and let it creep to 252, since that's what my mom's book said "hard ball" was and had a caramel recipe with that temperature.

But it worked! I did stick the finished pan in the fridge overnight before cutting the squares, because even the most perfect cream caramels are chewy and sticky at room temperature. Greasing the heavy-duty chef knife and the bench scraper I eventually used for the squares helped a ton too! So lessons learned: the importance of a GOOD candy thermometer, the confidence to make something totally new, different and (admittedly) dangerous, and that even with boiling sugar you can throw some pages of the rulebook out the window!

Apple Cider Creme Caramels
Recipe adapted from the blog "Our Best Bites" who in turn modified it from America’s Dairy Farmers.
Makes 64 pieces
2 1/2 cups fresh apple cider (I used Filsinger's)
2 (1 cm wide) slices fresh gingerroot
2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk (pick the highest fat concentration you can find, I used Thai Kitchen)
2 tsp apple pie spice (or cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup unsalted, cultured butter, cubed (you can use regular unsalted if that's what you have)

Combine apple cider and ginger slices in a pot and boil until the liquid has been reduced to 1/3 cup. Remove ginger, discarding (or eat it if you want...) and set aside to cool.
Line a 9" square pan with well greased parchment paper, leaving 2" overhang on all sides, and set aside.
In a cup or bowl, combine coconut milk, spice, salt and reduced cider and set aside.
In a large, heavy bottomed pot, mix heavy cream, water, sugars, corn syrup and maple syrup.
Place over medium heat and cook, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.
Insert a candy thermometer and continue to cook, stirring occasionally and brushing down sides of the pot with water, until the syrup reaches 235F.
Remove from the heat, and slowly whisk in the spiced cream mixture.
Return to low heat and add the cubed butter. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is homogenous.
Re-insert the candy thermometer and increase the heat to medium.
Cook, stirring almost constantly, until the temperature measures 252F.
Pour the caramel immediately into the lined pan, and cool at room temperature at least 4 hours. Place in the refrigerator a further 2 hours, until firm.
Unmould and cut into 64 squares, wrapping each in heavy duty wax paper (I used wax paper on the inside and foil on the outside so they'd stay closed.
Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks, or in the fridge for 1 month.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 41.7
Total Fat: 1.4 g
Cholesterol: 2.8 mg
Sodium: 24.3 mg
Total Carbs: 8.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g
Protein: 0.1 g

Sunny Days Ahead (Hopefully!)

2012-01-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

I could use some sun. The skies outside are still a dreary grey, and the rest of the foliage around here is all one shade of... blah. Browny-olivey grass, trees that didn't quite lose their leaves thanks to the warmer weather, and plants in the garden that gave up the ghost ages ago but never recieved their white winter coats are all I get to look at when I let the dog out for his constitutional.

Then again, we aren't digging ourselves out of 11 feet of snow like these poor folks, and hey, if I lived in the Yukon Territory there is no way I'd be going out in the -34°C windchill. I'm not complaining about our mild weather, as some members of the household and a few skiing friends of mine have been. All I want is a little break in the clouds, a peek of blue sky every once in a while, and some confirmation that the sun does, in fact, still exist.

While I may not have the sun outside, I can still bring a little bit of it to my kitchen! It's hard to argue with the comfort and warmth that a homemade loaf of bread brings to the house, and for me any exuse to fire up the oven is a good one. Trying to coax le soleil out of it's hiding place, I used a few types of sunflower seeds in the simple whole wheat dough: ground (using the flour I talked about here) and shelled, toasted whole. The seeds added a nice texture and crunch along with a boost of flavour that certainly brightened up my day as it baked to a light sandwich-style loaf. I can only hope that it also brought some sunny splendor to my good friend who recieved one of these for Christmas!

Wouldn't you know it? As soon as I finished typing this post, Mr Sun came out! We visited for only five minutes, but it's five minutes I'll take!

Double Sunflower Bread
Makes 1 loaf, 16 slices
2 ½ cups whole wheat bread flour

½ cup sunflower seed flour (I used Flour Power™ Sunflower Seed Flour by Oilseed Works), or ground sunflower seeds

1 tbsp raw sugar

1 tbsp ground flaxseed

Pinch allspice

1 tsp instant yeast

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 ½ tbsp softened salted butter (you could really gild the lily here with SunButter)

½ cup sunflower seeds

In a large bowl (or in a stand mixer with the dough hook), combine flours, sugar, flaxseed, allspice and yeast, mixing well.
Stir in the warm water until it comes together into a shaggy dough. Let stand 10 minutes.
Beat in the butter until well incorporated, then knead (in the mixer or on a floured board) for 10 minutes.
Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
Knead in the sunflower seeds, shape into a loaf and place into a greased loaf pan.
Cover and let rise 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Bake loaf for 45 minutes, turn out of the pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 129.8

Total Fat: 4.0 g

Cholesterol: 2.9 mg

Sodium: 8.5 mg

Total Carbs: 20.6 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g

Protein: 6.0 g

This loaf is being sent to YeastSpotting at Wild Yeast.

Tagging Along

2012-01-07T18:40:00.001-05:00

Somewhere, in the depths of my basement, lies Tag-Along.

Tag-Along was one of my mom's storybooks as a child, given to her by I believe an aunt, and was subsequently given to me when I was born (along with my favourite stuffed lamb, a giant toucan plushie and a stuffed pastel kite that I still have in my closet, but that's another story). The book was written by Bernice Frankel and published in 1962 (I won't tell you my mom's age at the time - she'd kill me) as a "Reading Readiness Book" from Parents Magazine, and tells the story of the ritual morning meetings of four animal friends: a crow, a goat, a rat and Tag-Along, the turtle - so named because he always came last. It was kind of a sad story, since Tag-Along was always made fun of and left behind until the others needed him to rescue them from traps and hunters. Go figure.

As a heavy, red-faced kid who was often made fun of at school, I always identified with the poor creature. I wasn't athletic, or strong, or overly funny (unless the kids were laughing at me) but I was sharp as a tack (I like to think I still am, but who knows!) and my "friends" used that to their advantage in copying any and all of my work. Kids are cruel, no? As a result, I only really found friendship with a handful of people who, like me, were "different" from the girly cliques - most of the boys in my class, the teachers, the troublemakers, and in highschool, the kids who were physically similar to me.

Things got better. I lost weight (sadly yes, it did make a difference to my social life) and moved on to university, college and finally the Institute. I found my niche with those older than me both physically and emotionally, and while things were not always hunky-dory, there were substantially more "good" times than bad. And regardless of what happened along the way there was always one thing.

Cookies.

Scouring my pantry one day, I was astonished at the amount of tiny bags of cereal, dried fruit, nuts and chocolate I found. None of these items was enough to make something on its own, but they were enough to be "snackable" material. I couldn't leave the poor bits behind to waste away into staleness, and throwing them away while they were still good would be such a disservice, so I took a cue from one of the snack mix recipes I wrote for my mom when I first became a nutritional consultant and piled the whole lot into the most diverse, delicious cookies my family and friends had enjoyed in a while. At least since these epic biscuits.

Tag-A-Long Snack Mix Cookies

Makes 25

2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk, warmed

3 tbsp ground flaxseed

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup packed demerara sugar

4 packets stevia

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour

½ cup quick oats

½ cup 100% bran twigs

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

4 dried figs, minced

¼ cup each dried cranberries, dry-roasted soybeans, slivered almonds, dark chocolate – covered raisins, Shreddies cereal, Cheerios cereal, toasted sunflower seeds, raisins, toasted pumpkin seeds, miniature chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond milk and flaxseed. Let stand 10 minutes.
Add the oil, sugar, stevia, and vanilla, blending well.
Stir in the flour, oats, bran cereal, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.
Fold in the figs, dried cranberries, dry-roasted soybeans, slivered almonds, dark chocolate – covered raisins, Shreddies cereal, Cheerios cereal, toasted sunflower seeds, raisins, toasted pumpkin seeds, and miniature chocolate chips.
Cover and chill 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Form balls of dough and place on lined cookie sheets, flattening slightly.
Bake for 8-9 minutes. Cool completely on the cookie sheet.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 117.6
Total Fat: 5.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.2 mg
Sodium: 31.9 mg
Total Carbs: 18.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.7 g
Protein: 2.9 g

A "Paws"-itive Response

2012-01-02T18:46:00.002-05:00

After all the goodies I made for the people on my holiday giving list, some may think that I forgot the four-legged furry members of the family! Fear not - not only did we bust out the catnip I dried over the summer for the felines here (apart from Dish, who is anti-drug apparently), but I sent a little "care package" of "kitty hash" and a new copy of Gourmet Gifts, since I love that book (especially the nuts!), to my animal-loving, ever-crafting aunt and uncle out west too. Some of you know that we also have an old grizzled mutt at home (and I do mean that in the nicest way possible), and my dad's the "puppy papa" of a golden retriever puppy and an adopted Labrador. My uncle has always had dogs, and his goofy black Lab is no exception. So I had at least four tails to wag this holiday!

I never actually planned on making something for the dogs' Christmas gifts, since I am in no way, shape or form skilled in what non-human systems need, want, can and cannot have. I was all prepared to pick up some rawhide chewies on the way to his place. After talking to my dad though, he told me that when a supply issue had forced them to switch the dogs to a wheat- and corn-free, low-grain formula for a short time, the instances of the dogs' ear infections dropped and they seemed a bit more attentive and energetic without being destructive. Apparently with our old Lab Brandy (RIP, old girl), the story was much the same. A pet food recall mandated a switch in diet, which led to her eyes and ears clearing up, her energy to perk up and even her digestion to improve (i.e. a lot less undigested poop!). He wanted to find out if there was a way to make less-inflammatory treats for his clan without paying the insane prices specialty pet foods often command, and asked if I had some recipes for him. Well, the extent of my pet-food knowledge was "no chocolate, no alcohol, no garlic, no onions", so I did a little digging. Lo and behold, once I started looking, I found out that there is a huge list of bad foods for dogs (including why they are, which I appreciated).

That was a lot to filter through in my "mental picture" of what dog treats are flavoured like, but at least I had my baseline of "avoids", which I added wheat and corn to to minimize the overall risk of reaction. I called on whatever skill I developed working with gluten-free recipes and although what I came up with were not gluten free (using rye, barley and uncertified oat flours), these grains are easier for canine systems to digest and provide much needed fibre and slow-release energy. Add in coat-enhancing fatty acids from natural peanut butter, olive oil, pumpkin and seeds, antioxidants from beets and apples and protein from legumes and seed flours and these became some pretty epic snacks!

Nutty Canine Cookies

Makes 35-40

2 cups chickpea flour

1 ½ cups oat flour

¼ cup rolled oats

½ cup natural peanut butter

½ cup pureed pure pumpkin

¼ cup pureed beets

½ cup water

1 tbsp oil

Preheat the oven to 350 F, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or greased foil.
Beat together all the ingredients in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheets and flatten into 1/8"-1/4" thickness.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake 5-10 minutes longer.
Cool completely on the sheet.
You can store these at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.

Chicken-Apple Oat Crunchies

Makes 30-35

½ cup apple juice concentrate

¾ cup prepared chicken stock

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg white

1 ½ cups rice flour

2 cups barley or oat flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 tbsp chicken broth powder

1 tsp crumbled dried sage

1 tbsp crumbled dried parsley

Preheat oven to 300F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
Combine apple juice concentrate, chicken stock, applesauce and egg white in a large bowl, beating well.
Mix in the flours, rolled oats, broth powder and herbs.
Press evenly onto the cookie sheet.
Score into bars with a knife.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Turn off the oven and leave the biscuits inside to harden overnight.

Flavour wise, I lucked out with a pupy and two Labradors as 3/4 of my recipients. Those pups will (and do) eat almost everything - animal, vegetable, fruit and sometimes none of the above. But nobody wants to be given just healthy stuff for the holidays, so I deliberately picked ingredients that I knew they would love. The crowning glory of it all was the last batch, a peanut butter, oatmeal and bacon concoction inspired from a photo on my FlickR stream that I affectionately termed "Better Bikkies". Our home "tester" became my new best friend while I mixed up the dough, and even though his teeth are not strong enough to chew through his old favourite Milkbones, I underbaked a few so that he could easily "gum" them down. And down them he did! The puppies at my dad's place almost didn't let the bag of them through the door before chomping down on their holiday treat. I guess they liked it - but really, peanut butter and bacon? How could you not?

You'll notice I used a touch of wheat germ in these (even though I avoided it in the last two rounds of canine cookies) because of the wealth of B vitamins, vitamin E, minerals and fatty acids it has. Besides, I figure that the dogs are not eating a whole batch of these in one sitting, and 1/3 of a cup divided between 60 treats is low enough of an inflammation factor for an occasional "good dog" goodie.

Better Bikkies (Peanut Butter Bacon Dog Cookies)

Makes 60 2" x 3/4" sized rectangles

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup boiling water

1 cup low-sodium chicken stock

¼ cup olive oil

1 tbsp honey

½ cup natural peanut butter

1 egg

½ cup rye flour

1 cup barley flour

½ cup quinoa flour

¼ cup sunflower seed flour (found at health food stores, or you can grind your own in a coffee grinder)

¾ cup soy flour

3 tbsp teff flour

½ tsp guar gum

¼ tsp corn-free baking powder

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

1/3 cup wheat germ (if your dog's allergic to wheat, use rice or spelt bran, or more ground flaxseed)

½ cup quick (Minute) tapioca

¼ cup whole flaxseeds

½ cup imitation or turkey bacon bits (don’t use pork bacon, it's inflammatory and highly susceptible to rancidity)

Combine oats and boiling water, let stand 10 minutes.
In a bowl, mix together stock, oil, honey, peanut butter and egg until well combined.
Beat in the oats.
In another bowl, whisk together the flours, guar gum, baking powder, ground flaxseed, wheat germ, tapioca, whole flaxseed and bacon bits.
Slowly beat the dry mixture into the peanut butter mixture.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until no longer sticky. Wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment.
Roll out the 1/2"-thickness and cut into desired shapes.
Place ½" apart on the sheets.
Bake 45 minutes, until golden brown.

Nibblies!

2011-12-31T22:52:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! I somehow doubt anyone is exactly dying to peruse the world of food blogs tonight, so I'll keep this short. Besides, on the off chance you aren't doing anything tonight and have these rather random ingredients hanging around, you'll have some nibblies to take with you if you decide to go off mumming after midnight!

Both of these variations on the classic cocktail "glazed nut" were inspired from Dinah Corley's Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself and Wrap with Style. I was generously given a copy of this book to try out and let me tell you - I made 3 different things for gifts this holiday season, and each one was such a hit I got requests to make them again, just because! If you do a lot of gifting (like me), or are a crafty type of person (like my aunt), this book will be a frequent source of inspiration, instruction and information. Bonus: the resource list at the back gives you all sorts of places to find nifty containers and decorations!

But back to these nuts. Yes, there are about 4 gazillion of these recipes out on the web, but I fell in love with the heady combination of sweet, savoury and hot spices cloaking Corley's Mumbai Nuts. I had to change the recipe somewhat to compensate for my oven (which didn't go low enough for the book's directions) but I think the idea shone through. I also bought mixed nuts in bulk to save the fuss and bother of mixing "precise" amounts of each (not to mention to save cash along the way!). They were such a hit, in fact, that I took the theory and played around with a Japanese combination of ingredients for a sushi-loving friend of mine to enjoy.

Masala - Glazed Nuts

Makes 3 generous cups

1/3 cup turbinado sugar

½ tbsp sea salt

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cardamom

1 tsp white pepper

1 egg white

3 cups nuts

Preheat the oven to 250F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix the sugar, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper in a small bowl.
Whisk the egg white until frothy. Toss with the nuts, then add the spice mixture and toss until well coated.
Spread the nuts in one layer on the prepared baking sheet; bake until dry, about 45 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 224.2
Total Fat: 17.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 299.4 mg
Total Carbs: 13.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.1 g
Protein: 6.3 g

Sushi – Bar Almonds

Makes 2 generous cups

1 tbsp turbinado sugar

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground ginger

2 ½ tbsp wasabi powder

2 cups whole almonds

1 tsp tapioca starch

1 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 250F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the sugar, salt, ginger and wasabi powder in a small bowl.
Place the almonds in a large bowl.
Whisk together the tapioca starch and water and pour over the almonds and toss to coat.
Add the spice mixture and toss until well coated.
Spread the nuts out in one layer on the baking sheet; bake until dry, about 45 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.

Amount Per Serving (1/4 cup)
Calories: 216.8
Total Fat: 18.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 291.0 mg
Total Carbs: 9.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.2 g
Protein: 7.5 g

Summat for the Kids

2011-12-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

I didn't get a chance to share with you all the "kid friendly" treat I put out for the people - including my panforte and anything-but-shortbreads-and-chocolate chip cookie-hating sister - on Christmas Eve and tucked into the children's treat bags before the holiday itself rolled around, so what better time than now?

I knew that most of the extended family, especially the men (surprisingly) are die-hard chocolate lovers, and even those that don't are hard pressed to pass up a good brownie. These were a little bit on the "adult" side anyways, since I used the delicious 70% bittersweet Lindt bars I picked up on sale as both the "melted" and half of the "chip" components and tossed in some cherry-flavoured dried cranberries too. I didn't want to use nuts, since I wasn't sure what the attendees would either like and/or be allergic to, but some smashed Mini Eggs added a bit of crispness to the batter and lightened up the dark chocolate a touch. I wasn't disappointed - both the batch for the holiday at home and the pan I brought to my hairdresser's disappeared without hesitation. At the salon, one woman even dropped a square, where it landed in her boot, and she grabbed it right out and scarfed it anyways!

Triple Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from Best Recipes Ever
Makes 16
½ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1 tbsp honey or corn syrup

2 tbsp whole milk

8.5 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used 70%), chopped, divided

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

½ cup flour

¼ cup chickpea flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup chopped candy-coated milk chocolate (I used frozen Mini Eggs that I smashed)

Preheat oven to 325F and line a 9” pan with parchment.
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring sugar, butter, honey and milk to boil, stirring occasionally.
Stir in 5 oz of the bittersweet chocolate until melted. Remove from heat.
Let cool 5 minutes, then beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in vanilla.
Stir dry ingredients into chocolate mixture.
Fold in remaining bittersweet chocolate, cranberries and candy coated milk chocolate.
Bake 30 minutes. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 199.7

Total Fat: 11.8 g

Cholesterol: 32.9 mg

Sodium: 40.9 mg

Total Carbs: 28.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.9 g

Protein: 3.2 g

The items I wrapped up for the kids at the shindig were mock candy bars that I had been dying to try out since seeing them on numerous blogs after Hallowe'en. I only ever started to like classic Butterfingers after well into my teens (I wasn't a big "candy bar" fan anyway), and while I adore the peanut butter / chocolate combo I'd much rather have it in cookie or cupcake form than bar. Not to mention, the thought of dealing with anything involving hot sugary substances scares the bejeezus out of me! But the allure of a recipe so dead simple, so inexpensive, and so easy to play with, called to me. I had to try it!

Like I said, the recipe is one that is easy to play with. The same nut-free rules as the brownies didn't apply, but I had some leftover SunButter from making another batch of Monkey Balls, and figured why not try that in a half-batch? For a bit more texture than a smooth nut butter gives, I tossed in some crunchy, flaked cereal as well. A bath in bittersweet chocolate (can you tell I loathe milk chocolate?) later and I had my very own nut-free "Butterfingers"!

Homemade Butterfinger Bars

Makes 1 loaf pan, 8 bars

1 ½ cups candy corn

½ cup creamy nut (or seed) butter (use crunchy peanut for traditional flavour)*

1/3 cup crushed "crunchy" cereal

7 oz chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted

*NB: Peanut butter is used in the NI

Line a loaf pan with parchment, making sure to cover all sides.
In a microwave safe dish, melt candy corn, checking and stirring frequently.
Immediately stir in the nut butter and cereal until fully combined.
Press mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan and cool completely, about 1 hour.
Remove from pan and cut into bars.
Dip bars in the chocolate to evenly coat.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 338.5

Total Fat: 19.0 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 179.0 mg

Total Carbs: 45.7 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.8 g

Protein: 6.0 g

With all that leftover coating chocolate, I couldn't help myself - I added some confectionary-quality orange oil and chopped almonds, turned it into a mini loaf pan, then after it set I cut cubes for the adults to enjoy!

A Fishy Feast

2011-12-26T19:50:00.000-05:00

Most of you by now know that our half-Italian family goes a bit crazy on Christmas eve when it comes to hosting the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes. Ironically, my (non-Italian) mother is really the only person in the house (besides me) who likes more than two types of fish or seafood! Since I don't "count" in group menus due to my diet (not that it would matter anyways in a cast of 5!), the resulting menu tends to have a lot of vegetarian "filler" sides like broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, salad, cheese lasagne or cannelloni, bread and angel hair marinara.

Over the years, my seafood loving Mom has been able to incorporate a little bit of variety into the "fish" portion of the meal. While still nowhere close to seven types of water-bound creatures, usually about two recipes work their way onto the table for the guests to enjoy. This year, one of my mom's most popular fish recipes once again made it's appearance, no doubt due to the fact that it's both a very special occasion dish (Salmon! Butter! Challah! Cream!) and that it serves a ton of people. Or in the case of our family... 8. We lucked out cost wise by buying the sides of wild Pacific salmon on sale at Costco a month or so ago and freezing them until the day of, but regardless it's not a penny-pinching recipe by any stretch. It is more than worth it, though - if you need to impress anyone, this is definitely one to make.

Mom’s Spectacular Stuffed Salmon

Serves 16

3 tbsp salted butter

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, halved

2 cups soft Challah (or country-style) bread crumbs

¼ cup minced fresh parsley

2 tsp dried dill

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/3 lb fresh cremini or shiitake mushrooms, chopped

¼ cup buttermilk

2 sides (2 ½ lbs each) skinless wild Pacific salmon, pin bones removed

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F, grease a roasting dish.
In a large sauté pan, melt 3 tbsp butter.
Add onion and garlic and cook over low heat until onion is beginning to turn golden. Remove garlic and discard, set onion aside.
In a large bowl, combine the Challah crumbs, parsley, dill, lemon juice and mushrooms with the cooked onion.
Pour buttermilk overtop and mix thoroughly to evenly wet mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place one piece of salmon in the bottom of the dish and spread evenly with the stuffing. Top with the remaining side of salmon, pressing down lightly.
Scald heavy cream and pour over the fish, then season with salt and pepper and cover.
Bake 35 minutes, until flaky, basting with creamy pan juices every 10 minutes.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 402.4

Total Fat: 23.6 g
Cholesterol: 150.9 mg
Sodium: 150.9 mg
Total Carbs: 4.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g

Protein: 40.1 g

Equally decadent and pricey was a newcomer to our kitchen - a recipe I devised for my mom after she returned from a business trip to Moncton raving about a baked haddock and seafood casserole that she had eaten at an establishment called the City Grill. She had been craving to know just how the dish came together, and after a quick peek at the menu and hearing her description of the meal as being "crispy and buttery on top, then tiny scallops and pieces of shrimp and a fillet of haddock underneath" with "not much spicing, maybe lemon" I had the bare structure of the meal. A dash of wine, some butter and - gasp - Ritz crackers ensued and by the time it all came together my mom was raving about how it not only looked identical to her high-end meal but tasted even better!

Baked Haddock and Seafood
Serves 6
1 lb haddock fillets, cut into 6 pieces

4 oz bay (small) scallops

12 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

½ cup white wine

2 tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup butter, melted

1 cup crushed Ritz crackers

2 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp black pepper

Zest of ½ lemon

Preheat the oven to 375F, line a roasting pan with parchment.
Lay fish fillets in a single layer on the bottom of the dish, then top with scallops and shrimp.
Pour the white wine and lemon juice overtop of the seafood.
In a bowl, toss butter, cracker crumbs, garlic powder, black pepper and lemon zest.
Sprinkle over the seafood.
Bake 15 minutes, then turn the broiler to HI and broil 2 minutes, until browned.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 280.7

Total Fat: 12.3 g
Cholesterol: 69.5 mg
Sodium: 276.3 mg
Total Carbs: 9.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g

Protein: 17.4 g

A "Strong Bread" for Us Weaklings

2011-12-23T23:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I definitely asked for it. Call it a Murphy's Law of a sort - after all my detailing of our holiday climate being anything but "wintry", we woke up today to a bitterly freezing, windy and slightly grey day. Still no snow - but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it holds off at least until Boxing Day! I'm definitely a weak soul when it comes to the chilly weather too, at any given time you can bet I'll be wearing at least a long-sleeved shirt, if not a sweater or two. I even work out in long pants and an athletic jacket!

In the past few months I've become aware of another level of weakness I've managed to accrue - brittle bones. Though I already knew I was osteoporotic in my hip and shins, it never occured to me before that the effect of decalcification impacted my entire skeleton, not just those two bone groups. In the middle of helping my mom make her delicious apple pie (specifically wedging the apples) a pop, clunk and searing pain through one side of my chest signalled something totally alien to me - a broken rib. I never thought I'd have in my lifetime, let alone at 23 years old, any sort of fracture, and I'm sorry to say it took me well over a month filled with painful breathing, bending and twisting to get it checked out. So no contact sports for me, even though it's mostly healed up!

Thankfully, I am still allowed to bake! I was sent a great recipe by Johanna (of the blog Green Gourmet Giraffe) that used the Christmas staple mincemeat in a form other than the traditional tarts or pie. In fact, her panforte was similar to the giant 6-pound fruitcake I made, only smaller and far more taffy-like in texture. It took some finangling on my part (with both Johanna's version and the original from Delicious Magazine) but I figured out a workable formula for the cocoa-laced, spicy cake-candy of Sienna.

Until, that is, I was perusing The Grid T.O. and found one of their post-Hallowe'en articles. In it, one of the Soma Chocolaemakers used Tootsie Rolls, chocolate, cocoa powder, and a variety of spices to create an unusual recipe for a rather traditional-looking panforte. I was inspired, and I knew I had to figure out a way to bring those elements to the plate. In the end, I had a spicy, bittersweet, rich and nutty confection that we've decided to serve both with cheese as an appetizer and on the cookie tray at our Christmas Eve feast tomorrow!

Spicy Chocolate Panforte

Makes a 9" pan, 36 squares

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup honey

50 g butter

100 g miniature Tootsie Rolls

70 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped

300 g mincemeat

1 cup flour

2/3 cup ground almonds

1 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

½ tsp ground cardamom

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Grated zest of 1 orange

300 g mixed nuts and/or seeds (I used almonds, walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds)

50 g chopped dried figs

50 g chopped dried apricots

pinch salt

Icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 320°F and line a 9" square pan with parchment.
Stir sugar, honey, butter, Tootsie Rolls, chocolate and mincemeat in a pan over low heat for 3-5 minutes until sugar dissolves.
Sift flour, ground almonds, cocoa and spices into a large bowl.
Add zest, nuts, figs, apricots, salt and mince mixture.
Stir to combine well – it will be quite stiff.
Press into the prepared pan (I like placing a piece of parchment or cling wrap on the surface and using a second pan to press it evenly).
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until firm and dull-looking on top.
Cool in pan, then invert onto a board and dust with icing sugar.
Cut into 36 pieces.
Wrap well in plastic and age at room temperature for 1 day, then transfer to an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 157.0

Total Fat: 7.4 g
Cholesterol: 3.0 mg
Sodium: 24.2 mg
Total Carbs: 22.4 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.2 g

Protein: 3.1 g

Warming Up

2011-12-21T19:45:00.003-05:00

Well, this year may not be the coldest winter on record. In fact, it's a balmy 5°C right now - on December 22! In Toronto at least, the "honour" of cold days goes to January 4, 1981 when it hit −44.7°C (−48.5°F). But it is still winter. I'm not going outside anytime soon in a T-shirt and shorts, and while I'm glad we're not digging ourselves out of mountains of snow I still get the yearning to embrace the "come in from the cold" activities of cocoa and cookies after an afternoon of tobogganing.

Thankfully cookies and cocoa are not overly dependent on sub-zero temperatures for enjoyment. I brought a bit of internal comfort to the mint-chilled stomachers of yesterday's cookies with some tiny, spicy versions of my favourite "breakfast food" - the cinnamon bun.

Taking a long-overdue page out of the LCBO's Food and Drink magazine, I changed up chef Anna Olson's shortbreads by using cream cheese in the dough (instead of making the frosting traditional on the yeasted buns), swapping buttermilk for the heavy cream, and decorating the finished slices with a tangy buttermilk drizzle so that they looked more like cinnamon rolls and less like ordinary pinwheel cookies. Since I knew the switch from a dough based on butter to the cheese would cause the dough to be a bit more delicate to handle, I bumped up the sturdiness and flakiness of the recipe with shortening and froze the rolls thoroughly before baking them off. Finally, to the filling of half the batch, I added two tablespoons of ground pecans - something for my pecan-adoring mom to discover. The end result was a sweet, slightly tangy and spicy bite of all the best things a cinnamon roll offers - and because I made them tiny, having a few with that cup of cocoa is totally A-OK!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Makes 75
1 cup flour
1/2 cup barley flour
1/2 cup oat flour
3 packets stevia
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 oz cream cheese
2 oz shortening
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp cornstarch
(optional - 1/4 cup ground pecans)

Glaze
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tsp buttermilk
1 tsp lemon juice

Dough:

Whisk together flours, stevia, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cream cream cheese, shortening, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla until fluffy.
Beat in dry ingredients.
Divide in half, wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour before rolling out.

Filling:

Mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined.

Assembly:

On a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of dough into a large rectangle (about 1/8 - 1/4" thick). Spread half of the filling evenly over rectangle.
Roll up from the long side. Repeat with second piece of dough.
Wrap each and freeze for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Rolls into 1/4" thick slices and place 1" apart on sheets.
Bake, one sheet at a time, for 15 minutes. Cookies will be just starting to turn golden.
Cool completely on the sheet before removing.

Glaze:

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.
Drizzle over baked cookies and allow to set.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 42.5

Total Fat: 1.6 g
Cholesterol: 2.5 mg
Sodium: 8.9 mg
Total Carbs: 8.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.2 g

Protein: 0.5 g

After warming the hearts and stomachs of those around me, I figured why not brighten up the visual appearance of the (currently) dreary holidays with a fun, funky nibble? I had been dying to make the scratch Red Velvet Cookies Jessica from the blog "How Sweet it Is" posted over a year ago, seeing as Red Velvet is one of my ultimately all-time favouritist flavours (yeah, can you tell?) and really, how can you go wrong with crimson cookies? The hue even fit into the rest of the "usual" christmas scheme of red, white and green, especially when I used a bit of red sanding sugar in the batter. Once baked, I did the buttermilk glaze thing again to hearken memories of the cake's tangy cream cheese frosting and dusted a tiny sprinkle of the red sugar on top for a bit of "pop". My resulting cookies weren't quite as colourful as the originals, but I'm blaming the darker cocoa powder and the shot of Godiva liqueur I used. I added a touch of vinegar to the batter as well, again to evoke the cake's standard buttermilk tang - a step that worked far better than I imagined it would judging by the smell from the oven! The finished treats made their way into a gift basket, which was eagerly accepted and hopefully soon to be enjoyed!

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 12
¼ cup butter

¼ cup shortening

¼ cup sugar

2 tbsp red sanding sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg white

1 tsp vanilla

1 oz Godiva chocolate liqueur

½ tsp rice vinegar

½ tbsp red food coloring

1 cup flour

½ cup spelt flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Cream butter, shortening and sugars together until fluffy.
Add egg white, vanilla, liqueur, vinegar and food colouring and beat smooth.
Stir in flours, baking soda, salt and cocoa until just combined.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake for 11-12 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 205.1

Total Fat: 9.6 g
Cholesterol: 10.2 mg
Sodium: 35.4 mg
Total Carbs: 29.8 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.8 g

Protein: 2.7 g

Cooling Down

2011-12-19T21:48:00.002-05:00

This year it looks like Christmas is going to arrive in a flurry of... mist. Personally, I'm not complaining - you don't have to shovel rain - but the lack of chill in the air and snow on the ground has been causing a little bit of apathy in my social circle. Rather than break into the chilled New Year's Eve champagne early, I brought out the good old "Thin Mint" cookie to cool everyone down a bit at the salon I go to.

Of course, I wanted to bring something that all the stylists and their clients could enjoy. I know from experience that getting through any holiday when you can't share in the same gastronomic delights as everyone else is more than a little difficult, and when it's ChrismaHanuKwanzaa the treats abound in all the buttery, creamy, nutty, eggy cookie and sweets sense. So rather than bring in my standard (and delicious on their own) Thin Mints, I re-tooled the recipe to make it gluten free, nut free and vegan. While these aren't beacons of health (they're cookies!) they were the perfect decadent touch to the day. I enjoyed making and sharing them (both the chocolate-coated and naked ones) as much as the recipients enjoyed eating them!

GF Vegan Thin Mints
Makes 60

1 cup rice flour

½ cup sorghum flour

¼ cup millet flour
¼ cup sweet rice flour
¼ cup arrowroot starch
7 tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa powder, sifted (Hershey's is GF, most brands are)

½ tsp salt

½ cup vegan margarine, room temperature

2 tbsp shortening

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

3 tbsp soy or rice milk

5 tbsp vodka

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp peppermint extract

Chocolate Coating

10 oz (GF, vegan) bittersweet chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger 70% Cacao)

1 tbsp shortening

½ tsp peppermint extract

In a small bowl, whisk together flours, starch, cocoa powder and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together margarine, shortening and sugars.
Add soymilk, vodka and extracts. The mixture will look curdled.
Gradually, add in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.
Shape dough into two logs, about 1 ½” in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1-2 hours, until dough is very firm. (Note: You can also shape into a disc and refrigerate 2 hours for rolled cookies)
Preheat oven to 375F, line baking sheets with parchment or silicone.
Slice dough into rounds not more than ¼” thick – otherwise they will not be crisp.
Place on the sheets fairly close together – they don’t spread that much.
Bake 14 – 15 minutes.
Cool cookies completely on a wire rack before dipping in chocolate.

Coating:

Combine chocolate and shortening in a double boiler over simmering water.
Melt until chocolate is smooth. Stir in the extract.
Dip each cookie in melted chocolate and transfer to a wire rack set over a piece of wax paper to set up for at least 30 minutes – 1 hour.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 80.7

Total Fat: 4.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 16.9 mg
Total Carbs: 11.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g

Protein: 0.9 g

Christmas Gloom and Goodies

2011-12-19T10:42:00.002-05:00

We're almost through the horror that is the holiday season madness. In five sleeps, the insanity of Christmas Eve will be upon us, and in six, the hubbub of Christmas Day will be here. Those who know me and my general aversion to all things "holiday" never hesitate to call me a Scrooge, or drop an ever so passive-aggressive "guilt trip" comment about how they wish I would be more active in all the festivities. Well, call me a Scrooge, call me a downer, but I just don't have the energy to deal with 40 seniors (or almost-seniors) at a house party, even if they somehow share a blood line with me. Not only am I at least 20 years younger than anyone else attending, I have nothing in common with them - not least being my diet. It's one thing to have a cut-and-dry allergy or food preference (i.e. my second cousin is deathly allergic to nuts and eggs, my great uncle will not eat any meat but roast beef cooked until grey), but explaining the intricacies of how I went from being the most die-hard carnivore, butter and cheese fiend to being totally unable to digest those same items is difficult even at the best of times, and downright frustrating having to repeat the same story year after year. The worst part is that the conclusion of the plot is always the same vague trail-off - we still don't know, and I've given up on wasting time and energy seeking out an answer. It's not their fault, I know, but all the same, family Christmases just aren't the joy and bliss for me that they are for the rest of the clan.

I'm not alone in this mentality. My sister feels generally the same way, although she has the benefit of having always been the "picky child", so nobody questions her abstinence from the buffet line. Teaghan also has the luck of being an overall "louder" and more boisterous person than I, which allows her to be a bit less of a wallflower at these occasions.

After all that, you'd think I'd be first in line for a flight to Timbuktu come November 1. But I do love one thing about the holiday season - all the prep leading up to it. I adore wrapping gifts, decorating the tree, arranging menus, and of course all the baking! There is no better excuse to break out the fun "goodie" recipes than the festive season, and this year I had a fair amount of new ones I wanted to try out!

The first of the lot came around as a "semi-regift" mechanism. I was given an adorable mug with some hot chocolate packets for Christmas last year, and since the mix contained dairy I wasn't able to use it. I couldn't bear to simply toss them though, as they were both a gift and a "premium truffle blend" of cocoa, so I did what I do with all the other random things I find in the pantry - I baked it into something! This time around, I chose the most logical avenue for a hot drink mix-containing sweet - biscotti! Why not - you can dunk your hot chocolate cookie in your mug of cocoa for a double hit! The chestnuts were my little homage to the "Italian" side of the family, since one of my step-aunts (is that even a term?) is the lucky recipient of the finished product. They add a little bit of buttery texture and mildness compared to the rich cocoa mix, Kahlua and black pepper I tossed in.

Hot Chocolate Chestnut Biscotti

Massively adapted from Cooking Light, November 1996

Makes 16

2 tbsp brown sugar

½ cup hot chocolate mix

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 egg white

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp Kahlua

½ cup flour

½ cup spelt flour

¼ cup buckwheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp allspice

Pinch black pepper

¼ tsp salt

100g shelled roasted chestnuts, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cream sugar, hot chocolate mix, butter, egg white, vanilla and Kahlua until well blended.
Add flours, baking powder, allspice, pepper and salt, beating in well.
By hand, fold in the chestnuts.
Shape dough into a 12” log and place on a lined cookie sheet. Flatten to 1” thick.
Bake 30 minutes. Cool 15 minutes.
Cut diagonally into 16 slices.
Place slices, cut sides down, on the baking sheet.
Bake 5 minutes, then flip and bake 5 minutes more.
Cool completely on wire rack.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 87.6

Total Fat: 2.1 g
Cholesterol: 3.8 mg
Sodium: 34.9 mg
Total Carbs: 16.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.0 g

Protein: 1.9 g

The major project I wanted to undertake this year was making my own Ferrero Rochers. Some of you who know my whole contact allergy reaction to cut nuts and coconut may be shaking your heads at this (trust me, I did too, until I bought rubber gloves!) but they were my all-time favourite confection back in the day and I knew there were a wealth of people who felt the same way. Plus, they are really so EASY to make and play with that I just couldn't help but try! Of course, I perused the wealth of blogs that had already done this treat to death (and admittedly made it look way prettier than mine did) before starting, and then decided to add my own little twists along the way with what I had around. I didn't go all the way to making mochi like I saw on Gourmeted, but it's totally on my list! What I did wind up with was a seductive combination of ground hazelnuts and almonds, crushed hazelnut wafers, a touch of rice flour and Nutella surrounding a toasted whole hazelnut heart, which I froze before drenching in a melted chocolate and Frangelico coating. Can we say epic decadence? It's a good thing that we're giving all these away, because there could be some not so welcome consequences otherwise!

Mock Ferrero Rochers
Makes 60
350 g hazelnut wafer biscuits, crushed (I used Loacker Classic Napolitaner wafers)

100 g ground hazelnuts

75 g ground almonds

50 g rice flour

500 g (about 1 2/3 cups) Nutella

60 whole hazelnuts

500 g bittersweet chocolate (I like it nice and dark, like 70%. Use what you like.)

2 tbsp Frangelico liqueur, optional

Combine the crushed wafers, ground nuts, rice flour and Nutella in a large bowl. Mix well.
Form a small ball of this dough mixture around each whole hazelnut. Place on a lined cookie sheet.
Freeze 1 hour.
Melt chocolate in a bowl set over barely simmering water. Stir in Frangelico.
Dip frozen balls into melted chocolate and allow to harden on wax paper-lined sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 146.6

Total Fat: 10.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 7.3 mg
Total Carbs: 13.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.2 g

Protein: 2.3 g

Quite Convenient Cupcakes

2011-12-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

Apparently, today is National Cupcake Day. Clever, situating a holiday around one of the cutest (and ome would say sneakiest) delivery devices of fat and sugar on the planet. I also find it slightly ironic that a day as decadent as this one is right smack dab in the middle of the "stuff your face" season, where really we should all be trying to keep our diets in check (or at least practicing moderation!).

Then again, when have I been one to eschew the goodness and happiness a baked good can bring to the world? Thankfully, I didn't have to make yet another sweet treat to share with the blogosphere - I had a recipe in my files I had been meaning to post for ages and now had the opportunity to bust it out! Remember back when I was busy waxing poetic about this year's Autism gala cake, packing any fora I had available with step by step, "new parent"-esque photos? Well, somewhere in the middle of all that kerfuffle I managed to squeeze out a dozen of these gluten and casein free goodies for donation as well.

Why gluten and casein free? Well, although it is not a cure for the anomaly (I hesitate to call it a "disorder" or "disease" as I know many individuals who are fully capable of independent and contributory living), numerous research reports have detailed the benefits of excluding these proteins from the autistic diet. Given that my standard cake contribution to the event is anything but GF/CF, and knowing that a good portion of that evening's attendees were relatives (if not parents) and caregivers of autistic individuals, I wanted to donate something that they could bid on and take home for their entire family to enjoy without worry.

Sadly, these deliciously orange-packed cakelets are not entirely a creation of my own design. That honour goes to the Gluten Free Goddess Karina, who's blog I spent many an hour paging through looking for a goodie that would be simple enough to pull off and elegant enough to dress up for a gala performance. When I saw her exquisitely detailed recipe for Frosted Orange Creme Cupcakes I knew I had my star. A couple mini-tweaks and a piping bag later the cupcakes were done, frosted and sparkling in their monotonal orange glory. The lack of colour differential was no mistake on my part either. One of the things I picked up over my year at holistic nutrition college was that many people who fall on the Spectrum of autism related disorders have issues with overstimulation from external triggers, not the least being the food on their plate. Last year, a group of food bloggers held an awareness event to that effect, so you can check out the associated blogs for more info if you're interested.

So enjoy these fruity, sweet, tangy cupcakes - regardless of whether you're in need of the modifications or not. Their flavour is perfect for any season and you don't need a special occasion to dig in!

Orange Crème Cupcakes – GFCF

Makes 12

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp honey (or agave nectar)

juice of 2 oranges

1 tbsp Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with ¼ cup warm water

1 tbsp pure vanilla

½ cup sorghum flour

¼ cup coconut flour

¼ cup potato starch (not potato flour!)

½ cup arrowroot starch

½ cup sugar

3 packets stevia

¼ tsp sea salt

pinch nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp guar gum
zest of 1 orange

Frosting

¼ cup shortening
1 tbsp Southern Comfort
zest of ½ orange
3 drops natural yellow food colour (optional)
2 drops natural red food colour (optional)
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp orange juice (as needed)
Orange sprinkles or sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a twelve cupcake/muffin pan with paper liners.
With electric beaters, beat oil, honey, orange juice, egg replacer and vanilla until well blended.
Add remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for two minutes.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (I found 20 to be perfect), until slightly tender but not squishy.
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes and cool on a wire rack.

Frosting:

Beat shortening, Southern Comfort, orange zest, and food colour (if using) on medium high until smooth.
Sift in the sugar slowly until incorporated. Add orange juice as needed to make the frosting smooth and creamy.
Pipe frosting on cupcakes and sprinkle with decorations.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 251.6

Total Fat: 6.8 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1.2 mg
Total Carbs: 47.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g

Protein: 1.2 g

Ah! (Four) Gingers!

2011-12-13T22:11:00.002-05:00

GF, Corn-Free, Vegan
Gingerbread Cutouts

The outward look of my family is one that really makes you marvel at the weird things genetics can to to offspring. If you were to see my grandparents, mom, dad, sister and I together in a group, you might pick out that my sister and my dad had something in common, or that my mom and grandma have a similar fine cheekbone structure. But me? Well, I look almost nothing like my immediate relatives. I'm a fair bit taller than any of my female blood relatives (though my male relations are tall, so I got a boost there). Unlike my sister, who has an enviable swarthy, almost olive complexion and a face structure that allows her to pull off any hats or glasses she tries on (even really, really bad ones), I'm pale, apt to burning after 15 minutes in the sun and the only reason I wear hats or glasses at all is to avoid skin cancer and see more than 6 inches in front of my face (literally). I'm also the only "ginger child"... the "red sheep" of the family if you will. As a kid, I hated it, since along with my chronically red face it meant that all the "cool" clothes in the store looked awful on me, but I've come to embrace, and even love, the genetic anomaly I've been given.

Of course, I really started to defend my redheaded appearance after the Harry Potter movies started coming out, sparking a round of "ginger" jokes. Ironically, I don't actually know any other natural redheads, but at the same time I believe that we're all just as loveable as the rhizome that our colouring is (mistakenly) named after. Since when you look at the colour of a ginger root, it's a mousey brown when the peel's still on it's gnarled frame, and after it sheds the paper-like layer it's a gorgeous, straw-blonde. So why the association with redheads, I ask? Why don't we get called "PEI beaches" or "topazes"? That makes just as much, if not more, sense than "gingers".

Homemade Candied Ginger

Anyways, I've taken advantage of all the flavours and variations the ginger root has to readily offer the home baker this holiday. From grating the fresh rhizome to using ground, dried powder, dicing sugar-coated candied slices, folding in chunks of sugar-soaked crystalline spice and even making my own candied ginger and ginger caramel a la Alton Brown, it's been in no short supply here! I rounded up the goods from the past week of bakery into this one post, for everyone's holiday cheer - especially my good friend and past teacher Verity, who is the biggest ginger fan I know!

And for those of you wondering, the title is adapted from a line in the (very awesome) A Very Potter Musical.

Verity's Very Ginger Chewies

Makes 25

½ cup shortening

¼ cup butter

2 tbsp grated fresh ginger

¾ cup Demerara sugar

¼ cup molasses

1 tbsp corn syrup

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 ¼ cups oat flour

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cardamom

1 tbsp ground ginger

½ tsp cloves

1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger, 25 pieces reserved for topping

Preheat the oven to 350F, line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicone.
Cream together shortening, butter, fresh ginger and Demerara sugar until fluffy.
Add molasses, corn syrup, and egg, beating well.
Beat in flours, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and spices.
Fold in candied ginger.
Roll into tablespoon-size balls, placing on the cookie sheets ½-1" apart. Flatten slightly and press a chunk of reserved crystallized ginger into the tops.
Bake 10 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 139.6

Total Fat: 6.0 g
Cholesterol: 12.3 mg
Sodium: 22.1 mg
Total Carbs: 23.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.1 g

Protein: 0.9 g

GF, Corn-Free, Vegan Gingerbread Cutouts
Makes about 40
½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup arrowroot starch
1/4 cup potato starch

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
Pinch black pepper
½ tsp salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon guar gum
½ cup molasses
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/4 cup softened vegan margarine
Extra rice flour for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease.
Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Cream molasses, sugar and margarine.
Slowly add dry ingredients and beat just until a stiff dough forms.
Place dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap lightly dusted with rice flour. Roll out to 1/8” thickness and cut out shapes.
Bake, one sheet at a time, for 10 minutes in preheated oven, or until cookies are firm to the touch.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 54.9

Total Fat: 1.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 12.2 mg
Total Carbs: 10.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g

Protein: 0.4 g

Dark and Sticky Ginger Cake
Makes one 9" pan, 9 pieces

¾ cup (75 g) Cookin' Greens Kale (or chopped frozen greens like spinach)
Juice and zest of 1 orange
3 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 packets stevia (optional)
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
½ cup molasses
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
½ cup flour
¾ cup spelt flour

1/3 cup oats
1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
½ tsp sea salt
½ cup hot coffee
½ tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp minced candied stem ginger (in syrup)

Preheat the oven to 325F, grease a 9" pan.
In a small, covered saucepan, cook the kale with the orange juice 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender or food processor with orange zest, flaxseed, stevia, canola oil, brown sugar and maple syrup. Puree smooth.
Add molasses and fresh ginger, blend in well.
Add flours, oats, ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt, pulse in until just combined.
Stir together the coffee and baking soda, add to the blender or food processor and pulse in.
Pulse in the stem ginger.
Bake 45 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before turning out.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 211.8

Total Fat: 4.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 44.4 mg
Total Carbs: 42.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 3.0 g

Protein: 3.6 g

What's your favourite baking spice?

Preserving Health

2011-12-11T11:31:00.000-05:00

Baking with my mom can be like pulling teeth. I love her dearly, but when it comes to making something together that the rest of the family is going to be eating, God forbid that any recipe "tweaking" or changes to the written recipe of any sort happen along the way. She doesn't trust recipes of my own design for family fare either. Other blogs? Magazines? People on TV? No problem. Her own daughter though? Not so much. Le sigh.

I regret to say that while yes, these rolls (sent to YeastSpotting) are of my own design, and that my mom loves the recipe enough to serve them for our Christmas Eve shindig, they are the product of a lie. I told my mom that they came out of a French cookbook I read through at Chapters the other day, after she mentioned a week or so ago that she was looking for a good whole wheat dinner roll for the holiday meal. She agreed we could make the recipe - if we made a test version first. That was no problem with me, of course, but it also involved me giving Mom a little "education" on sourdough, whole wheat and soakers. The woman taught me how to bake as a child, but it was white flour basics and our once-a-year Challah. Let's say I've evolved a little bit.

I feel guilty as heck for having to make up the story to get Mom's approval, but in a way I also am somewhat let down that I had to in the first place. C'est la vie. Her mental health is preserved, and given the rest of the world that's on her shoulders right now it's a small plus. If I'm going to Hell for the white (or whole wheat) lie, at least I'm making the trip in a bread basket, and hopefully with some of these yummy buns tucked alongside me.

Faux "French Health Rolls"

Makes 15

1/3 cup 12-grain hot cereal

1 cup active sourdough starter (feed it a couple times before making this)

1 ½ cups warm water

2 tbsp instant mashed potato flakes

¼ tsp instant yeast

2 tbsp raw sugar (I steal the packets from Starbucks... shhh!)

2 ½ cups flour

2 cups whole wheat bread flour

1 cup triticale flour

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp melted butter

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp whole flax seeds

The night before baking, cover 12-grain cereal with hot water and let stand overnight.
The morning of baking, lightly oil a 9 x13” pan.
In a sturdy bowl, combine the sourdough starter (which should be vibrant and frothy), water, potato flakes, yeast, and sugar.
Begin beating in the flour, adding ½ cup at a time until dough is manageable.
Knead for 2 minutes. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes.
Drain the soaked grains and combine with the salt, melted butter, lemon juice and flax seeds.
Knead in this mixture until well dispersed, then continue kneading 8-9 minutes until supple.
Place dough in a bowl, cover and set in a warm place to double in size, about 2 hours.
When dough has doubled, punch down and with lightly floured hands, form into 15 rolls.
Place in the oiled pan and cover. Allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Bake the pan of rolls for 20 minutes.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 218.0

Total Fat: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 4.1 mg
Sodium: 13.4 mg
Total Carbs: 41.0 g

Dietary Fiber: 5.0 g

Protein: 7.0 g

Spicing Up the Season

2011-12-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that, as a recent grad, I'm a little strapped for cash this holiday gift-giving season. That said, I'm also one of those people that can't help but want to give my family and friends the "best" of everything - they've been so kind, understanding and generous to me over the years that I could never begin to repay them, but I at least set out to try.

Luckily, the best gifts are always those from the heart - and I'm well practiced at giving those! From when I first realized the process of "giving" at holiday and birthday times, I began concocting things I could bring to the event. Even though my parents would foot the bill for "proper" gifts from the store for the friends and family, I would find a way to do something of my own. My three year old self thrived on giving my relatives hand-drawn stick figure-and-scribble pictures (with a bow stuck to them) as presents, and once I started Home Ec in elementary school it was pretty much a guarantee that the last project of the year would become the first thing wrapped for my parents.

These days my giving list has changed somewhat, though the number of recipients has stayed more or less the same. The major difference over the years is that I've begun to refine the items I make to give away, focusing on my cooking and baking strengths (which should be obvious from this blog!) and finding a way to package them attractively (in an upcoming book review you'll see how a real gifter operates! One of my "themes" for this year's gifting stems from the bounty and variety of things my garden gave me over the summer. Grape jam, green tomato chutney, green tomato-carrot-beet mincemeat and roasted "everything" sauce were simmered, stewed, stirred and canned, awaiting their chance to be gilded with ribbons and bows and given away along with the prerequisite baked goodies (one of which you know is a constant, the others as yet are unshared!).

When I set about making that Sweet Garlic Pomodoro Sauce, I found that I had more tomatoes than I really wanted at my disposal. Instead, I set about making this rich, sweet and spicy tomato preserve laced with touches of ginger, cinnamon and lime. I decided on a blend of recipes that I had from books and two delicious looking blogs that translated into a mix of dark brown sugar, chili flakes, pineapple sage, lime, ginger and cinnamon that the tomatoes cooked in until they were a rich, thick, caramelly mass. I scaled down the recipes (thank you Excel!) and it made exactly 1 cup, perfect for the two tiny jam jars I had. I think it would be fitting for a cheese and cracker plate, or stirred into steamed broccoli and asparagus for a weeknight side.

Exotic Tomato Jam

Makes about 1 cup, 4 1/4-cup servings

10 oz fresh tomatoes, diced
7 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp chili flakes
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp (about 2 leaves) minced fresh pineapple sage (you can use lemon balm or mint)

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan.
Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring often, for 1 1/2 hours.
Spoon into jars and either keep in the refrigerator or can in a water bath for 20 minutes.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 107.2

Total Fat: 0.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 16.1 mg
Total Carbs: 35.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g

Protein: 0.6 g

Are you making any holiday gifts this year? What are your favourites to put (or find!) in a gift basket?

Twice the Tasty Tarts

2011-12-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

Now that December's come around and brought the flurry of parties, open houses and other shindigs along with it, I wanted to share a few of my recent successes when it comes to things yummy and portable. Unfortunately, I've been a pretty big fail the past few days when it comes to taking decent photos of my cooking, and making sure the photos I have taken actually save onto my hard drive - so you'll simply have to picture the goodies yourself!

Tartlets are pretty much a perfect party food, since you can put almost anything in a pastry shell, bake it (if need be) and voila - appetizers or desserts in half an hour. Its hard to pass up two-bite nibblies, and when it comes to the appetizer table tartlets beat out chips and dip hands down - if for no other reason than they are their own dip cup and chip in one! I was trying to figure out a good bring-along treat for an early-season get together with the family and found these phyllo shells at the local grocery store. My mom loves phyllo anything, and originally wanted to buy a premade fig and brie appetizer in the flaky shells, but once I pitched this to her and make them, those storebought pastries were long forgotten.

If you love the creaminess of guacamole and the crispness of a good nacho chip, these are for you. Instead of deep frying a tortilla crust (horrors! Actually, more terror on my end), I just use the pre-baked phyllo shells and scooped the guac in. No muss, no fuss, no oven required! Make these no more than an hour before serving them for the best appearance.

Flaky Guacamole Cups

Makes 15

½ cup cooked cannellini beans (if using canned, use a low-salt variety and rinse well)

1 red onion, finely chopped, divided

½ of a jalapeno, seeded

¼ tsp black pepper

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp Mexican chili powder (or ancho chile powder)

Juice of 1 lime, divided

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp sea salt, divided

1 very ripe avocado, peeled and diced

1 plum tomato, diced

15 pre-baked phyllo pastry “mini shells” (I like The Fillo Factory’s All Natural Mini Shells, which are vegan, preservative and trans-fat free)

In a food processor, puree the beans, half the onion, jalapeno, pepper, cumin, chili powder, half the lime juice, garlic and half the salt until smooth.
Scrape into a bowl and add avocado, tomato, remaining onion and remaining lime juice.
Fold vegetables in well, then taste and add salt if needed.
Place phyllo shells on a tray and fill each with the guacamole mixture.
Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 46.9

Total Fat: 2.3 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 175.5 mg

Total Carbs: 5.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.4 g

Protein: 1.3 g

Any party is remiss without dessert, especially when I'm around! Tarts fit the bill here too, and for us Canadians the iconic recipe is none other than the classic butter tart. I love those gooey, rich custard-like tartlets, but the conventional formula uses butter (duh) and a glut of eggs, two more or less verboten items at one of the places I was bringing them to. Then I came across a recipe by Claire Gosse in her e-book Vegan Cooking For Carnivores and with a few tweaks I had my nouveau filling.Even though I didn't manage to save a photo of my marvelously finished tarts (after all that!), they looked very similar to this one I saw on Shermans Food Adventures. Raisins and nuts are, as always, optional - if you are doing raisins (I vote strongly for that option!) remember to soak them in hot water at least 1/2 an hour (or in rum - yum! - for 24 hours) before making the filling.

Un-Butter Tarts

Makes 16
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups spelt flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegan shortening (like Spectrum)1 tsp vinegar
2-4 tbsp ice water

Filling:

10 oz low-fat silken firm tofu (like Mori-Nu)

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup agave nectar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup Demerara sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup melted vegan margarine (I prefer Earth Balance here)

3/4 cup dark raisins, soaked in hot water and drained

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Mix flour and salt in a large bowl.
Cut in the shortening until mixture resembles rolled oats.
Stir in the vinegar and enough ice water to make the dough cling together.
Roll out to about 1/8” thick on a floured surface and cut circles, gently place each circle inside a muffin tin making sure to press up the sides as well.

Filling:

In a food processor, puree the tofu, corn syrup, agave nectar, maple syrup, vanilla, sugar, salt and melted margarine.
Divide the raisins between the bottoms of each pastry cup, then pour enough filling to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the shells.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool in the tins 15 minutes, then de-pan and allow to cool on wire racks.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 328.2

Total Fat: 12.3 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 213.0 mg

Total Carbs: 51.8 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g

Protein: 4.5 g

Who Gets the Kitchen Aid Food Processor??

2011-11-27T15:06:00.000-05:00

Thanks again to all those who entered and promoted my (admittedly awesome) KitchenAid Food Processor giveaway - I'm floored at how many interesting and unique responses I got along the way!

So, without further ado (if I had a drumroll I would give one of those), the winner according to Random.org is....

Abbie Neary (@mamaflutter)

Who's favorite gadget is her immersion blender and would love to try out my Green Tomato and Apple Chutney with her prize! Congratulations! Send me an email by 9PM EST tomorrow and I'll pass it along to the Kitchen Aid folks.

Wow!!

2011-11-26T23:16:00.000-05:00

One hour left in my KitchenAid Food Processor giveaway and I have SO many amazing responses! There are currently 86 entries, and I've read each and every one - I have one heck of a shopping list now :-). Thanks again for humouring me and my littlebloggie giveaways!

Sorry, no recipe tonight, but stay tuned for the winner tomorrow!

I'm a #CALWALNUTS♥ Case

2011-11-24T23:22:00.001-05:00

So now that everyone on both sides of the border has eaten their fill of Thanksgiving chow (and, if you're like us, stashed the rest in the freezer to disappear until March), the attention of the masses is free to turn to the next seasonal shindig on the docket. Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Divali, Yule, Solstice or simply being alive, warm and fed for another year, the cold weather brings people together in a way not much else can.

The cold and sometimes stormy weather has another side effect too, triggering the tastes for heartier, warming and (admittedly) higher-calorie and -fat food. It's a natural impulse - after all, back in the paleolithic times, humans needed that extra nourishment to keep warm and make it through until the next spring's plants and animals returned. Today, it's not a necessary yen, but still a persistent one... and should be looked at not as a source of "dreaded weight gain" but as an opportunity to embrace new and varied sources of nourishment.

Healthful whole grains (think steel cut oats, kasha, barley and grainy breads), tubers and squashes, cruciferous veggies and nuts all play starring roles when the mercury starts dropping. For those of us who turn to the stove and oven for comfort this season, baking and sweet treats begin to crop up on our "to-do" lists, as much for the purpose of continuing tradition as for sharing the bounty and warmth with others. For many years, holiday goodies at our home (except Mom's filled brioche) were solely the nut-free variety - nuts were verboten at school, and neither my sister nor I particularly cared for them (why have nuts, we reasoned, when you could have chocolate, or better yet, Mom's shortbread?). Even the more traditional dried fruits of mincemeat, fruitcake and Christmas pudding were relegated to the "older set". Dad was (and is to this day) the Mincemeat King, his mother always broke out the brandy-laced plum pudding at the holiday party, and we could count on any of my grandparents or great-relatives to take a doorstop fruitcake crusted in marzipan granite off our hands. I didn't eschew fruit completely - but unless it was a chunk of apple in my mom's to-die-for pie, a raisin in a rich, gooey buttertart or a plethora of dates in a "Matrimonial Square", I could be counted on to pass it by.

Times have changed - somewhat. While my sister and I still don't eat nuts (her out of preference, mine since discovering an allergy to the very ones I avoided), our circle of family and friends has expanded to include many a nut-lover. So who am I to deny them - especially when I have something as fresh and rich as the goodies in my California Walnuts gift basket to use?

This year's "nut cookie" uses the walnuts in three forms for a variety of textures and tastes: ground nuts freckle the batter slightly and give the cream cheese cookies a hint of sandy buttery-ness, diced "crumbles" add pops of more assertive walnut character, and finally a maple-glazed half crowns each sugar-rimmed slice for a glistening, bitter-sweet finish. After consulting with one of my favourite taste-testers, I added currants to half the batch, but I have it on good authority that the recipe is just as delicious without them.

Triple-Walnut Cookies

Makes 32

5.3 oz (a generous 2/3 cup) salted butter, softened

5.3 oz (a generous 2/3 cup) shortening

4 oz cream cheese

5.4 oz (13 tbsp) sugar

2 tbsp vanilla

1 1/3 cups flour

1 cup oat flour

pinch nutmeg

1/3 cup ground California Walnuts

2 cups finely chopped California Walnuts

1/4 cup currants (optional)

coarse turbinado sugar for rolling

32 California Walnut halves

Maple syrup for brushing

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.
Add vanilla, beat in well.
Add flours, nutmeg and ground walnuts, beating in.
Fold in the chopped walnuts and currants (if using).
Scoop 1/2 the batter (it will be very soft and sticky) onto a sheet of wax paper set on a double layer of foil.
Using damp hands, roll dough into a log about 2" in diameter.
Wrap in the waxed paper / foil layers and freeze until very firm, at the least 3-4 hours and up to 6 months.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Unwrap one log and roll it in the coarse sugar to coat the sides completely.
Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the log into 1/4" thick rounds and place them 1" apart on sheets.
Lightly press a walnut half onto the tacky surface of each cookie (dough will have defrosted somewhat) and using a pastry brush lightly glaze the top of each round.
Bake, one sheet at a time, for 16-17 minutes. They will not look overly browned but this is OK.
Cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 205.2

Total Fat: 16.9 g
Cholesterol: 16.7 mg
Sodium: 37.9 mg
Total Carbs: 12.2 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g

Protein: 2.8 g

Don't forget to enter my KitchenAid Food Processor holiday giveaway! Entries close at 11:59PM on Saturday, don't delay!!

Somebody likes nuts!

Feeling Ballsy

2011-11-22T19:54:00.002-05:00

I am such a sucker for chocolate. Not that mamby-pamby "flavoured" stuff you usually find in your corner store, though. For me, I'm a 70% minimum all the way, and bittersweet chocolate truffles (possibly with a hint of sea salt) were one of my major weaknesses at holiday parties as a kid. Don't get me wrong - I'm still of the mind that any chocolate (except white... that ain't chocolate, guys) is better than none, and if offered a Twix bar I wouldn't necessarily say no! But I was probably the only non-adult I knew that didn't go crazy over extra-creamy hot chocolate, preferring just the barest amount of sugar in a cupful of unsweetened cocoa powder and 1% milk. Usually the only times I would indulge in the "milkier" variety involved mass consumption of Ferrero Rocher balls at Christmas and the occasional square of Hershey's in a s'more.

You'd think that after this tower of insane chocolateyness I baked, fought with, and won over a few weeks ago that I'd never want to see or touch the stuff again. Logically, that would make sense. But there are two factors working against me on that one: firstly, I'm female, and it has been pointed out to me on occasion that women are biologically irrational creatures (I on the other hand beg to counter that men just need to open a few more mental boxes at a time). Second, I have never known someone with a passion for anything to be rational about experiencing it. And I do love truffles.

If you want to get really technical, though, these fudgey balls of super awesomeness aren't exactly chocolate truffles, not as the Toronto patisserie Dufflet defines them anyways. According to their website, a chocolate truffle "is a bite-sized petit four, made from chocolate and ganache to which flavourings have been added, such as liqueurs or essences". Hmph. Well then.

I guess they're right, though. Chocolatey, sweet and rich though these are, there is no cream, no butter, no booze, no sugar, and no "actual" chocolate to speak of. What they do have in mass quantities are dates, unsweetened cocoa and my current favourite "binder" in the kitchen - ground flaxseed. Cooked down (though if you wanted to keep it raw you could soak them too), the dates become a pulpy, honey-like paste with just the right amount of caramel notes to balance the bitterness of the cocoa (again, for raw go with raw cacao). The flax comes in with a toothsome and somewhat nutty element and keeps the whole mass together, mouldable and moist. A drizzle of toasted sesame oil and a roll in a crunchy two seed "bath" finishes them off.

I think my favourite part about making these more or less off the top of my head is that they are so open for variations. Hazelnut oil, a blanched nut in the middle and a roll in ground filberts? Ferrero Rocher without the guilt. Diced dried pineapple and mango in with some of the cooking dates and a crust of dessicated coconut? Sounds like tropical paradise to me. Heck, as long as you have a food processor on hand (like this amazing one that you can win from KitchenAid and me!!) the possibilities are endless, which can only mean one thing - 'tis the season for balls-out blinging!

What are your favourite chocolate combinations, or are you (like me) a bittersweet purist through and through?

Submitted to Ricki's Wellness Weekend and Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

Sweet Cocoa-Flax "Truffles"
Makes 25

1/3 cup diced dates

1 cup water

1 tsp honey (or agave nectar), optional

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup ground flax seeds

1/2 cup cocoa powder

toasted sesame seeds and golden flax seeds, for rolling

Combine dates and water in a small saucepan and place over medium heat.
Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring often, for 15-20 minutes, until very soft and falling apart.
Drain, reserving the liquid, and place into a blender with honey, oil and salt. Puree until very smooth (you are looking for a thick, pasty consistency).
Mix together ground flax and cocoa in a small dish and add to the blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth and all one "paste" - add 1-2 tbsp of the saved date water if necessary, but you need to be able to form the mixture into balls.
Place sesame seeds in a shallow bowl or plate and roll small balls of the paste in them to coat.
Place balls on a plate and chill 1-2 hours before enjoying.
Store, covered, in the fridge, or freeze up to 1 month.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 31.4

Total Fat: 1.8 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 0.4 mg
Total Carbs: 4.2 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.0 g

Protein: 1.4 g

Tis the Season of Heart Health

2011-11-20T18:50:00.001-05:00

Hey! Want a brand-spanking-new KitchenAid Food Processor just in time for holiday gift-giving? Enter my holiday giveaway here! Hurry, ends soon!

This time of year (pretty much from our (read: Canadian) Thanksgiving until the New Year's resolutions have worn off) is both a time of excess and a period of reflection and appreciation for those around you. For me and my family, we're thankful every day for my grandfather's continuing presence with us. After a triple-bypass surgery, working in a chemical paint production plant, smoking every day since his teens, bouts of cancer, high blood pressure and most recently Type II diabetes, it seems that every little roadblock that could have stepped into his path has. But he was still lucky enough to have the chance to choose to improve his lifestyle and diet along the way - and now at the ripe old age of 79, he can easily run circles around me (literally and figuratively!). His levels are beginning to normalize, as much as they possibly can given his other medications, and he still has the wit, humour and mobility of a man half his age.

Unfortunately, 27.4 million people in the US are still diagnosed with heart disease every year - shortening the years of holidays spent with whole families and changing lives forever - sometimes in the blink of an eye. Developing Type II diabetes, having high cholesterol, hypertension, or a history of smoking, and of course being part of the overweight and obesity epidemic in the Western world spike your risk of becoming one of these statistics. But this high number of heart patients doesn't have to exist. 80%, possibly more, of the cases of heart disease are fully preventable. Staying active, getting regular checkups and eating a healthy diet will loosen the grip this condition has on your life, even if you're genetically predisposed to it like me.

One of the strong players in this battle against heart disease (not to mention a myriad of other things) is a classic favourite of the season: the cranberry. Cranberries have more potassium than sodium (72 times more!) which keeps blood pressure down. They help reduce your (bad and total) cholesterol too, and protect your cell walls from free radical damage (huzzah for beauty inside and out!). Of course, most of the goodness the tart, bouncing balls contains gets overloaded by a bucketful of sugar, since they only have 4 grams of it in a half-cup. I've never been one for either of the canned varieties of cranberry sauce that are on every supermarket shelf over the holidays for precisely that reason. If you go for the (creepy, IMHO) jellied "log", you're taking in 11 grams of sugar for a paltry two tablespoons, and not much else. On the other hand, spooning into the more "normal" whole-berry sauce, you're still getting 11 grams of sugar. Not to mention that the "sugar" in question is actually a blend of HFCS and "standard" corn syrups. Yummy!

So this is my contribution to the holiday table this year. Relying on rich, oven-caramelized onions, fresh orange juice, balsamic vinegar and just a handful of sweetened, dried cranberries for the bulk of it's sweet notes, it only needs the barest hint of raw sugar to seal the deal. It's not your conventional blend, of course, but it makes for a decadent topping for roasted meats, or even mixed into mashed or sweet potatoes, or your plain ol' boiled carrots or green beans.

Cranberry - Ginger Relish

Makes about 3 1/2 cups, 28 2-tbsp servings

1 large Spanish onion, diced

2 tsp olive oil

12 oz (1 bag) fresh cranberries, washed and dried

1 orange, zested and juiced

¼ cup dried cranberries

3 tbsp raw sugar or Sucanat

1 tbsp fresh-grated ginger

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Toss onion in the oil and pour into a shallow baking dish.
Bake, uncovered, 1 ½ - 2 hours – until the onions begin to turn a rich brown. Stir every 15 minutes.
Scrape the onions into a saucepan and add cranberries, orange juice and zest, dried cranberries, raw sugar, ginger, vinegar and salt.
Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the cranberries are tender and the mixture is thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool.

Amount in 2 Tbsp

Calories: 20.9

Total Fat: 0.4 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 19.4 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 4.7 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g

Sugars: 2.9 g

Protein: 0.2 g

Of course, one of the other culinary darlings of the heart health community, especially at holiday time, is the humble walnut. In 2009 a series of investigations into the health benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids (including the ALA which is concentrated in walnuts) and found that walnuts dropped total and “bad” cholesterol levels, boosted antioxidant intake and behaviour and lowered inflammation. The hearty benefits continue when you delve a bit deeper - walnuts are also rich in the "gamma" form of vitamin E, which is actually more beneficial for the cardiac system than the "alpha" variety, and also help prevent blood clots, inflammation and high blood pressure.

When I was approached by the California Walnut Commission to toss my hat into their "search for the best walnut recipes" ring with it's Holiday Blogger Challenge, I jumped at the chance. Almost everyone I know who likes baked goods (especially banana bread!) loves the flavour and texture that they bring to pretty much any application. Since the entries are being judged on the originality, creativity, flavour profile, ease of preparation and the use of California Walnuts, I didn't really want to go down the banana bread road again. But I did have in mind something just as easy, just as fruity, and perfect to serve no matter what the occasion. Whether it's on the dessert table at holiday gatherings, tucked into lunches or nibbled on mid mall-crawl, I think you'll find a use for this tender, moist quickbread!

Apple-Walnut Loaf

Makes 1 loaf, 10 slices

1 egg

3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

1/3 cup spelt flakes (or Kamut flakes or large-flake rolled oats)

2/3 cup Demerara (or dark brown) sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

2/3 cup spelt flour

2/3 cup flour

3/4 cup ground California Walnuts

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp pumpkin spice

3 unpeeled, diced apples

1/2 cup chopped California Walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F, grease a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, beat egg with yogurt.
Stir in the flaxseed and spelt flakes. Let stand 10 minutes.
Add the brown sugar and vanilla to the yogurt mixture and blend in well.
Whisk together flours, ground walnuts, baking soda, and spice in a medium bowl.
Add the dry mixture to the yogurt mixture and mix to blend, then fold in apple pieces and chopped walnuts.
Bake on the lowest rack of the oven for 55-60 minutes, until it tests done.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 214.7

Total Fat: 9.2 g
Cholesterol: 18.5 mg
Sodium: 16.2 mg
Total Carbs: 35.6 g

Dietary Fiber: 3.1 g

Protein: 4.6 g