OK, I know "applesauce" is not hyphenated, but in the interest of consistency in the title of this post, I put the hyphen in there, and I'm not changing. This is the granola I make as a base for my Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars. It is simple, fast, easy, and cheap (just like me!). It is lower in fat and sugar than most store-bought varieties, and is not terribly interesting on its own, but just lovely to make into bars or stir into yogurt. Mine is a simpler version of this recipe, which looks delicious but contains the dreaded nuts and raisins that my children will not go near. Whip up a batch today - but don't be surprised if you get addicted...
Ingredients:
3 cups large-flake rolled oats
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/4 - 1/3 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp coconut oil
Pre-heat oven to 300F. Combine the oats, seeds, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl and set aside. Combine the applesauce, sugar, honey and oil in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves (you could probably also do this in the microwave). Pour the applesauce mixture over the oat mixture and toss until the oats and seeds are well coated. Spread the mixture in a 9x13" pan and pop it in the oven. Bake it for about 50 minutes, stirring every ten minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Store in glass jars or airtight plastic containers for several weeks (if it lasts that long!) Makes about 5 cups.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
My kids love granola bars. LOVE them. The chewy, sugary kind from Quaker, which are peanut-free and safe to take to school, but with no nutritional punch and LOTS of chocolate. I wanted to give them something a little healthier, but still tender and tasty so I modified my recipe from this website, which has lots of variations and updates. You should check it out! The first time I made these I bought hemp seed granola from the Bulk Barn (because it was on sale), but have since started making my own - it is really easy, and much lower in fat and sugar than the store bought variety. I especially love that I can control and customize the ingredients, and homemade is SO much cheaper than store bought! For my homemade granola recipe, click here.
So, ready to make some bars? Here we go.
Ingredients:
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp honey
2 cups granola (click for the recipe, or use your favourite)
1 cup crisp rice cereal
1/4 - 1/2 cup chocolate chips (regular or mini)
Butter, oil, or spray an 11x8 pan (or 2 loaf pans) and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and honey. Stir over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture starts to boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and set a timer for two minutes. Continue to stir as the mixture boils. When the 2 minutes are up, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the granola and rice cereal. Stir until everything is well coated and combined, then turn into your prepared pans. Press down firmly with the back of a spoon or spatula (or use a piece of buttered waxed paper). Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and press them in firmly. Allow to cool at least twenty minutes (I sometimes do this just before bed and leave them on the counter overnight). Turn out onto a clean surface and cut into bars. If they are too crispy, you can either cut back on the boiling time of your butter mixture or not press quite so hard into the pan. Too soft, and you can try boiling the mix a little longer, or pressing everything a little harder into your pan. Depending on the size of your bars, this recipe yields 10 - 14 servings.
So, ready to make some bars? Here we go.
Ingredients:
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp honey
2 cups granola (click for the recipe, or use your favourite)
1 cup crisp rice cereal
1/4 - 1/2 cup chocolate chips (regular or mini)
Butter, oil, or spray an 11x8 pan (or 2 loaf pans) and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and honey. Stir over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture starts to boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and set a timer for two minutes. Continue to stir as the mixture boils. When the 2 minutes are up, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the granola and rice cereal. Stir until everything is well coated and combined, then turn into your prepared pans. Press down firmly with the back of a spoon or spatula (or use a piece of buttered waxed paper). Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and press them in firmly. Allow to cool at least twenty minutes (I sometimes do this just before bed and leave them on the counter overnight). Turn out onto a clean surface and cut into bars. If they are too crispy, you can either cut back on the boiling time of your butter mixture or not press quite so hard into the pan. Too soft, and you can try boiling the mix a little longer, or pressing everything a little harder into your pan. Depending on the size of your bars, this recipe yields 10 - 14 servings.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Banana Oat Muffins
In my ongoing quest to eliminate wheat from our diets, I've updated another of my old standby recipes, which is actually better now than it was before! I've used weights for the dry ingredients, since that's the most accurate and easiest way to make substitutions, but included conventional cups if you don't have a scale.
(If you don't have a scale, you should get one! Measuring ingredients by weight is so much easier and faster. And it's the only way to measure out your oils for soap making... stay tuned for instructions on that!)
230g (1.5 cups) oat flour (to make your own, pulse rolled oats in your blender or food processor until you have a fine powder.)
100g (1 cup) rolled oats
100g (1/2 cup) white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs (you can substitute eggs with chia seeds - 1Tbsp chia + 3 Tbsp water = 1 egg)
1/4 cup oil (I usually use grapeseed, but sometimes sesame oil)
1/4 cup milk (soy, almond or cow's milk all work the same)
1/4 cup molasses (blackstrap for extra iron, or "fancy" for a milder taste)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 3-4 large)
Pre-heat oven to 400F. Line muffin tin with paper muffin liners or grease them well.
Sift together dry ingredients - everything from oat flour to cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Pour into dry ingredients and stir to combine (don't over mix).
Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they are done (stick a toothpick in them, or touch the tops to see if they feel right.)
Remove them from the oven and allow to cool. Enjoy!
(If you don't have a scale, you should get one! Measuring ingredients by weight is so much easier and faster. And it's the only way to measure out your oils for soap making... stay tuned for instructions on that!)
230g (1.5 cups) oat flour (to make your own, pulse rolled oats in your blender or food processor until you have a fine powder.)
100g (1 cup) rolled oats
100g (1/2 cup) white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs (you can substitute eggs with chia seeds - 1Tbsp chia + 3 Tbsp water = 1 egg)
1/4 cup oil (I usually use grapeseed, but sometimes sesame oil)
1/4 cup milk (soy, almond or cow's milk all work the same)
1/4 cup molasses (blackstrap for extra iron, or "fancy" for a milder taste)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 3-4 large)
Pre-heat oven to 400F. Line muffin tin with paper muffin liners or grease them well.
Sift together dry ingredients - everything from oat flour to cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Pour into dry ingredients and stir to combine (don't over mix).
Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they are done (stick a toothpick in them, or touch the tops to see if they feel right.)
Remove them from the oven and allow to cool. Enjoy!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Everything-Free Banana Muffins
.... egg, dairy, and gluten-free!
I love recipes that are easy to make substitutions. Although my fridge and cupboards are always crammed full of every ingredient under the sun, I frequently find myself short on something. Like today, I wanted to make muffins and use up some of the many, many frozen bananas currently taking up valuable real estate in my freezer. But no oatmeal. And I was down to my last two eggs, and planned to try a loaf of gluten-free bread later, which called for, you guessed it, two eggs. So I got creative on my basic banana muffin recipe, and was richly rewarded with these tender, chocolatey, delicious morsels. Some suggestions are made for substitutions you can make in this versatile recipe:
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter, shortening or margarine)
3/4 cup white sugar (or brown sugar, or 1/2 cup honey, or 1/3 cup maple syrup)
1 1/2 cup mashed banana
2 Tbsp chia seed* + 6Tbsp water (or 2 eggs)
2 cups oat flour (or all purpose flour, almond flour, spelt flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (or blueberries, raisins, craisins, nuts)
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper muffin liners.
Combine the chia seed and water in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes. As it sits, it will form a sort of thick gel. In a medium bowl, cream the oil and sugar together until fluffy. Stir in mashed banana and softened chia seeds or eggs. Sift together dry ingredients, then stir in to wet mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into prepared muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven when they look done, allow to cool for a few minutes then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
*a note on chia seed: the internet wisdom is that you should use ground white chia seed mixed with water for an egg substitute. I only had black chia seed, and my food chopper appeared to just stir the seeds around. I think this would make a difference in, say, a smooth vanilla cupcake, but with these muffins the whole seed didn't seem to upset even my most texture-wary taste tester. (the cocoa was a last-minute addition to disguise the little black flecks. Success! These disappeared after school with requests for more)
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Over Night Spelt Bread
Good bread at the grocery store is expensive. The loaves that my kids like are the ones that are cheapest - the store brand, white, squishy, fluffy bread that are delicious with peanut butter and nutritionally useless. The flour is stripped of all the good stuff, and the wheat has been so genetically modified to resist drought, disease, pests and everything else that it's hardly even recognizable as wheat anymore. So I started playing around with some good flour, looking for a balance between a nutritious, environmentally friendly grain but one that tasted good, my kids would eat, and didn't break the bank. Here is the recipe that has worked best for me - simple, healthy, and most importantly, my kids will eat it!
I adapted this recipe from Chef Michael Smith's method of using very little yeast, minimal kneading (less work! Yay!) and lots of time. Letting the dough rise overnight adds the extra bonus of soaking the flour, which is supposed to make nutrients easier to absorb. Because spelt has less gluten than regular bread flour, I use xanthan gum (available at health food or bulk stores) which gives the dough strength to hold up the little air pockets that make the bread fluffy.
3 cups spelt flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp honey or brown sugar
3 Tbsp oil (I use olive oil, you can also use grapeseed, canola, or whatever suits your fancy)
1 cup warm water (or more)
Measure out the flour, xanthan gum, yeast and salt into a large bowl, along with the sugar if you are using it (if you're using honey, wait until you add the water). Sift the dry ingredients together, then add the warm water, oil and honey (if using). Stir together with a wooden spoon until it looks like dough - you may need to add a little more water to incorporate all of the flour. Add a little splash of oil to coat the top, cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm spot to rise (I use the oven with the light turned on). Leave it overnight, about 12-14 hours. The next day, the dough should have doubled in volume. Turn the dough out on to a clean work surface, and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is no longer sticky. Generously oil a loaf pan and form the dough into a log shape, then press it into the pan. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap again and place it back in your warm spot to rise. Let it rise for at least a couple of hours, I've waited as long as six hours before baking - the top of the loaf should be puffed up over the top of the loaf pan. Pre-heat your oven to 350F and bake for about 40 minutes. If the top starts to get too brown, cover with aluminum foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking time. Remove it from the oven and brush the top with oil for a soft crust. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Allow to cool completely before slicing!
I adapted this recipe from Chef Michael Smith's method of using very little yeast, minimal kneading (less work! Yay!) and lots of time. Letting the dough rise overnight adds the extra bonus of soaking the flour, which is supposed to make nutrients easier to absorb. Because spelt has less gluten than regular bread flour, I use xanthan gum (available at health food or bulk stores) which gives the dough strength to hold up the little air pockets that make the bread fluffy.
3 cups spelt flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp honey or brown sugar
3 Tbsp oil (I use olive oil, you can also use grapeseed, canola, or whatever suits your fancy)
1 cup warm water (or more)
Measure out the flour, xanthan gum, yeast and salt into a large bowl, along with the sugar if you are using it (if you're using honey, wait until you add the water). Sift the dry ingredients together, then add the warm water, oil and honey (if using). Stir together with a wooden spoon until it looks like dough - you may need to add a little more water to incorporate all of the flour. Add a little splash of oil to coat the top, cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm spot to rise (I use the oven with the light turned on). Leave it overnight, about 12-14 hours. The next day, the dough should have doubled in volume. Turn the dough out on to a clean work surface, and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is no longer sticky. Generously oil a loaf pan and form the dough into a log shape, then press it into the pan. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap again and place it back in your warm spot to rise. Let it rise for at least a couple of hours, I've waited as long as six hours before baking - the top of the loaf should be puffed up over the top of the loaf pan. Pre-heat your oven to 350F and bake for about 40 minutes. If the top starts to get too brown, cover with aluminum foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking time. Remove it from the oven and brush the top with oil for a soft crust. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Allow to cool completely before slicing!
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