Carrot, Raisin, Orange, Pumpkin Muffins or CROP Muffins

So many muffins today are really just cakes or cupcakes in disguise. But let's face it, it sounds way better to say you had a muffin for breakfast rather than a cake! Even so-called healthy varieties like bran or fruit varieties are often full of sugar and fat. And what about those massive costco muffins - there must be a days worth of calories in one of those pretty boys!


Well, these muffins are pretty good as far as muffins go. There is quite a bit of fibre thanks to the pumpkin, carrots and raisins. And there isn't too much oil or sugar thanks to the pumpkin puree and its natural sweetness.  I don't know the exact calorie count but if you follow Weight Watchers(tm) one muffin has 4 points. Their flavour is best within 48 hours of baking.


Recipe adapted from Canadian Living's Best Muffins and More


Makes 12 muffins.
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 vanilla
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup grated carrots
1 egg, beaten
1-3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice

What to do:

1. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
2. Stir in raisins.
3. In another bowl blend together egg, pumpkin, oil, orange juice, carrots and vanilla.
4. Pour all at once over dry ingredients; stir just enough to blend.
5. Spoon into large greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling to top of cups.
6. Bake in 375°F (190°C) oven for about 25 minutes or until tops are golden and firm to the touch.
7. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing from pans to cool on racks.
8. Enjoy!

Chocolate Overload Cookies!

So, it's a Wednesday night and I suddenly have a craving for chocolate chip cookies. Just thinking about the aroma of fresh baked cookies sends a shiver down my spine and puts a smile on my face. But I've had dinner, am comfortably sitting on the couch and waiting for So You Think You Can Dance Canada to come on the TV. And besides, how do I justify to myself eating cookies on a Wednesday night? Perhaps a bowl of strawberries will suffice??? Who am I kidding, it won't. In my head, I go over the ingredient list of one my fave recipes...I think I have everything so what the heck, let's do it.

Well.....apparently I used all of the regular flour when I made chocolate turnovers, all of the white sugar when I made a cake for a friend, didn't have any room temperature butter. Was my craving to go unfullfilled? No way, Jose. I decided to improvise. I used cake flour, cocoa (cause by now my chocolate craving was out of control) and melted butter. And by adding 2 more types of chips, my craving monster was finally satified! These cookies are cakier than my other chocoalte chip cookie recipes, soft and dense...and the aroma....oh man, I'm craving them again!!!


Ingredients
3/4 cup melted butter
2 2/3 cups cake flour (not self rising)
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee (optional)
2 tbsp hot water
2 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa, sifted
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


What to do:

1. Heat oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Dissolve coffee into hot water.
3. In large bowl, beat melted butter, brown sugar, eggs and hot coffee water until smooth.
4. In medium bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Stir into butter mixture until blended.
6. Mix in chocolate chips. Drop from teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 8 minutes.
8. Let cool 1 minute.
9. Remove to wire rack.


Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Cinnamon Bun Sugar Cookies

Aren't these the cutest little cookies ever?? I had left over sugar cookie dough in my freezer and didn't feel like using cookie cutters and re-rolling scraps so I thought this was a great alternative.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

1/3 cup melted butter
4 tbsp cinnamon
4 tbsp sugar

What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine.
3. In another large bowl beat butter and shortening.
4. Beat in sugars until light and fairly fluffy.
5. Beat in egg and vanilla.
6. Mix in flour mixture.
7. Divide dough in half; flatten each slightly.
8. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
9. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough, 1 piece at a time, to 1/4-inch (5 mm) thickness and in a 8 inch by 14 inch rectangle.
10. Brush melted butter over rectangle.
11. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over dough. 
12. Place 14-inch side of dough parallel to you and roll dough fairly tightly away from you.
13. If dough is very soft refrigerate for 20 minutes.
14. Slice dough into 1cm or 1/2 inch slices using a sharp knife so as not to squish dough.
15. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
16. Let cool for 1 minute on baking sheets.
17. Transfer to racks; let cool completely.
18. Drizzle icing over cookies.

Enjoy!

Easy Chocolate Turnovers

My Mom and Mother-in-law make fantastic tea biscuits - always high and delicious! My husband, however, will be the first to tell that my tea biscuits have never received the same high grades - even when I use their recipes. Secretly, I wonder if they left out some special ingredient in the recipes they gave me in order to sabotage my efforts - like Marie did on Everybody Loves Raymond when Deborah tried to make on of her recipes!


This recipe allows me to come into my own on the tea biscuit front because they've magically turned into chocolate turnovers! This tea biscuit recipe is sweetened up with the addition of whatever chocolate you have on hand. I used chocolate medallions (2 per turnover) in the photo below and in the 1st photo I used nutella! I think adding raspberry jam to the chocolate will be my next turnover adventure.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup of nutella or your favorite chocolate, (chopped if using normal chocolate)

2 tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Cut in shortening with pastry lender or 2 knives until crumbly.
4. Pour all of milk into bowl and stir with a fork. Do not over mix. The dough will be soft and sticky.
5. Place dough on a lightly floured surface.
6. Knead 8 times.
7. Roll dough into 16 x 8 inch rectangle.
8. Cut into 8 four-inch squares.
9. Divide your chocolate among squares and place just off centre of squares.
10. Fold the dough over to produce triangles.
11. Pinch dough to seal triangles.
12. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
13. Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with remaining sugar.
14. Bake for 20 minutes.

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Daring Bakers Style

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of "What the Fruitcake?!"  Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Who doesn't love  sugar cookies?!? I sure do. Not only are they delcious, they are a great way to spend time with the kids. Our challenge this month was to decorate cookies in a "September" theme. Well, to me September means back to school. I didn't have any "school" specifc cookies cutters tho and I didn't feel like buying new ones so I improvised. The schoool bus is really a tombstone cookie cutter, the school is a "haunted house" cutter and the apple is really a "pumpkin" cutter! Enjoy.
Basic Sugar Cookies:

Makes approximately 36 x 10cm / 4 inch cookies
200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean






Directions:

Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming creamy in texture.

Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during baking, losing their shape.

Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.

Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.

Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/0.25 inch

Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.

Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.

Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.

Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30 minutes to an hour.

Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.

Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.

Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.

Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.

Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in some cookies being baked before others are done.

Leave to cool on cooling racks.

Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated cookies can last up to a month.
 
Icing Tip
I buy pre-made Royal Icing Powder form my local cake decorating store. All I have to do is add water to my desired consistency and then I add colour gels to the icing.  I prefer to put the icing in little plastic decorating bottles - I find it easier to use than my decorating bags. It is also easier to store left over in the fridge when it is in bottles vs bags.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake

I saw this recipe in a local paper a few weeks paper and it looked interesting. Noone in our family is gluten intolerant so I rarely make gluten free desserts. But the creators of this recipe, Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming, insist noone will guess this is made with quinoa.  I'm always up for a challenge so let's find out if it's true!


Recipe adapted from Quinoa 365 (Whitecap, 2010), Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming



Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is often mistakenly believed to be a grain. In fact, it's the fruit of a broadleaf plant meaning it's in the same family as spinach and beets! According to Wikipedia, it  originated in the Andean region of South America, where it has been an important food for over 6,000 years.




Did you Know?
Quinoa is:
- A complete protein
- Gluten-free
- Contains all eight essential amino acids
- Rich in vitamins E, B2 and B6, folic acid, biotin, calcium, potassium, iron, copper, magnesium, manganese and chloride





Makes two 8-inch round cakes.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup quinoa
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 packet or teaspoon of Starbucks Via instant coffee (optional)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

What to do:
Bring the water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the covered saucepan on the stove for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow the quinoa to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly grease two 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with a piece of parchment paper or grease and flour it.

Combine the eggs, milk and vanilla in a blender. Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa and the butter and continue to blend until smooth.

Combine the sugar, cocoa, coffee, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the wet mixture and combine well. Divide the batter into the 2 pans and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Switch pans half way through time to ensure even baking.

Cool completely. Enjoy!

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one week or freeze for up to a month.

Verdict: Well, the cake is good, really good...but (there's always a but) I'm not sure everyone who tastes it would think it's a regular flour cake. They may not know it's quinoa (which is technically what the authors said) but there was a slightly crunchy texture to the cake on the day it was baked. However, by day three the quinoa had definitely softened and tasted much closer in everyway to a regular flour cake.

Overall, the cake is delicious and I will make it again and DEFINITELY make it for anyone who can't tolerate flour.

PS - perhaps if I had blended the quinoa mixture more before baking or hadn't let it cool in the fridge for a few hours before making the recipe the exture would have been different. I'll let you know if the results are different next time I bake it.

pps I added the instant coffee to bump up the chocolate but it was not in the original recipe!

A little Canadian blog... please and thank you

Note: I have entered “Project Food Blog”. Project Food Blog is the first-ever interactive competition where thousands of bloggers are competing in a series of culinary blogging challenges for the chance to advance and a shot at the ultimate prize: $10,000 and a special feature on Foodbuzz.com for one year.

The first Project Food Blog Challenge is to define yourself as a blogger and discuss why I deserve to be the next food blog star.


Challenge #1




Canada in the winter :)

This is truly a challenge because like the typical Canadian, I have been taught to never profess to be the best at anything. Boasting, bragging, putting oneself before others is not very Canadian. After all, we always say please and thank you and even “sorry” when it’s clearly not our fault. We are nice. I’m not sure telling the world I am the blogger that deserves this title is really a “nice” thing to do. So I apologize now if this hurt’s your feelings. I think you and your blog are great too.


Slam Poet, Shane Koyczan, has many great lines in his “We Are More” poem which tries to define Canada, and in many ways Canadians (you may have heard it during the 2010 Olympics opening ceremony). My favorite is that Canada is “an idea in the process of being realized...an experiment going right for a change.” And that is exactly how I would define this little Canadian blog. It is an idea in the process of being realized. My idea. My realization. One that took courage to start – what if no one read it? What if no one liked my recipes or my photography or my stories? Eventually I realized it didn’t matter what others thought (though of course I want readers to like it). What matters is that I like it and that I am proud of what I put on this blog. And I am.

Very Canadian - nanaimo bars.

This blog is a personal experiment that I believe is “going right” – I love sharing old recipes from my family, new recipes I have either created or tried to duplicate (with varying degrees of success!) from others. Even more, there are fellow bloggers and food lovers around the world that seem to enjoy what I am sharing. It can’t get better than that!


I believe when food is made with love and enthusiasm and then shared with those close to you that love can be tasted and savoured in every bite. I hope this blog conveys the love I have for food and for those in my life with whom I share my kitchen.... and that includes all of you.


I am Canadian.

I am a blogger.

Whispering so as not to offend or hurt the feelings of any great bloggers out there....I am ... yes, I really am, worthy of the title “Next Blog Star”. I hope you agree and take the time to vote for me once voting starts nex week...please, thank you and sorry to have taken up so much of your time.

And in case you are wondering how to define Canada listen to this:



“We are More” by Slam Poet Shane Koyczan. It is truly brilliant.