Kickin' Back Creativity: English Muffins

My kitchen creativity has been limited lately.  I enjoy playing in the kitchen, but the time consuming projects have been tabled a lot lately since my little helper, is a little less than helpful.  Usually by the time I have space to play, I'm ready to kick back.  Tonight I combined kicking back with the creativity.  I queued up the Netflix and set up camp by the stove to make this English Muffin recipe I stumbled across and wanted to try.

They turned out great!  They are so much softer and the nooks & crannies are finer than in the store-bought English Muffins.  I think that we will be having the best egg sandwiches ever for breakfast tomorrow!  Or maybe with cream cheese and Strawberry Jam, or just butter, or ... oh well, the possibilities are endless!

Here are a few of my own tips:

:: I used half unbleached flour and half white whole wheat.

:: Keep the heat under your pan on low to medium-low so that they will cook thoroughly but not burn.

:: Once the dough had risen, I dumped it out onto the board with corn meal and pressed it out as gently as possible.

:: I flipped the muffins with my fingers, very gently so they wouldn't "fall".

:: Use the edges of dough after you've cut out your muffins to test the heat in the pan (and to taste test of course - they were really good with sliced cheese!)

This was not a hard recipe, just a little time consuming on the cooking end.  I saw some comments on the King Arthur Flour site about baking them in the oven and flipping them part way through.  I may try this next time and think it may work on a baking stone pre-heated in the oven.

Pumpkin Applesauce Bread

Here's the Pumpkin Bread recipe that I promised forever ago.  With two of the best flavors of fall,  this hearty quick bread is another favorite in my hearty breakfast bread collection.

Pumpkin Applesauce Bread

1 cup Sugar

1 cup Brown Sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup Oil

2 cups Pumpkin Puree (or 1-15oz can of pumpkin)

3/4 cup Unsweetened Applesauce

1-1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour

1-1/2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoons ground Cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground Cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground Ginger

Directions

1.  Cream together oil, sugar and eggs.  Add pumpkin and applesauce and blend thoroughly.

2.  Sift all dry ingredients together into the liquid batter and mix thoroughly.

3.  Pour into two prepared loaf pans.  Bake for 40-60 minutes at 350 degrees (until a toothpick inserted comes out clean)  You can also bake as muffins for about 20 minutes.

Linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party and Life As Mom's Ultimate Recipe Swap for dishes that travel well. Check them out for more great recipes.

Drop Biscuit Baking Mixes

At some point a while back, one of the blogs I follow (don't remember which one) featured the idea of mixing up all the dry ingredients of things you bake often, so when you make them you just have to add the wet ingredients.  I love the concept behind this because then I know exactly what is in my baking mixes.  With the winter months falling quickly upon us I decided that it would be worth the prime real estate in my pantry to keep three containers of biscuit mix and three containers of cornbread mix.  I have to refill then once a month - and I usually do this when I go to make said bread the 4th time and there's no mix ready.  So one portion to a bowl, three portions to my containers.  Ingredients out once.   Priceless.  It may seem like a little thing, but these little things make things so much easier at dinner time when the Toddler is melting down and hasn't napped and your head hurts and... I digress.

So, I started with this recipe for biscuits and have modified it a bit and end up with perfect, Whole Grain Drop Biscuits every time.  I've even started substituting in 1/4 cup of applesauce, pureed pumpkin or pureed butternut squash for 1/4 cup of the butter/margarine just to cut the fat down a little bit and I haven't noticed a difference in the final product -besides the applesauce adding a little sweetness.

Without further ado, ThrivingMama's Drop Biscuit Mix:

Drop Biscuit Mixes

1 cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour

1 cup White Whole Wheat Flour

2 teaspoons Sugar

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

1/4 teaspoon Salt



Combine all dry ingredients in a 2-3 cup storage container.  Be sure to labelyour container with the contents, wet ingredients to add and baking directions to keep things super simple!

When it's time to bake, add

1 cup Milk and

1/2 cup Butter or Margarine, softened

and enjoy a meal time that 's a little bit easier!

This post is linked up at We Are That Family's Works for Me Wednesday Fall Recipe Swap

HV Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

A while back I saw a blog talking about incorporating black bean puree into brownies.  Intriguing. I already hide veggies in my baked goods, why not some extra protein & fiber. When I found this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread, my first thought was "YUM!"  immediately followed by "how can I cut back the sugar and oil?".   I thought I'd try the black beans.  I have to say, it was a great success.  Unless you share your secret, nobody will know that this recipe has been healthified.  If Ihadn't made it I wouldn't have guessed it had zucchini, let alone black beans!

This is a very versatile recipe as it makes a nice muffin or breakfast bread.   You can dust it with powdered sugar and garnish with summer berries and serve as a pretty dessert.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• ½ cup cocoa powder


• 2 eggs


• ¾ cup  Sugar


• ¾ cup Brown Sugar


• 2/3 cup oil


• 2 cups grated zucchini


• ¾ cup black bean puree


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 cups All-purpose flour


• 1 cup White Whole Wheat flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1.  Combine sugars and eggs.  Add cocoa powder, oil and black bean puree and mix thoroughly.  Add in zucchini and blend.

2.  Add all remaining dry ingredients (combine in a separate bowl if that's your style).  Mix them up.   Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.

3.  Pour batter into two greased loaf pans or into prepared muffin tins.  Bake at 35o for 20-25 minutes for muffins and 40-50 minutes for loaves.

Enjoy!

HV Blueberry Bread

I have to admit, while trying to use up the yellow squash in my freezer I've come up with some hidden veggie recipes that were tolerable but not worth sharing. However, I struck gold with this on on Saturday. It turned out delicious! You can make it in loaf pans as a bread or it would be just as yummy in square/rectangle pan as a coffee cake. Just adjust your baking times accordingly.

HV Blueberry Bread

3/4 cups Margarine
1 1/2 cups Sugar
3 Eggs
3/4 cups pureed Yellow Squash
3/4 cups Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla
3 1/2 cups Flour (I substituted 1-1/2 cups White Whole Wheat and it was great!)
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
2 cups Blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1. Cream margarine and sugar together. Add Eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
2. Add squash and milk and blend thoroughly.
3. Add flour and baking soda and mix. Once batter is smooth, fold in blueberries.
4. Spoon batter into greased pans (2 loaf pans or 1-9x13) and bake at 350 until inserted toothpick comes out clean. 40-60 minutes for loaves, 35-45 for pans.

Enjoy!

Linked up at $5Dinners Yellow Squash Grow Eat $ave post.

Destination: Warm Fresh Bread!

While on any journey, one looks forward to the destination, and in some cases, many destinations.  As I wrap up this portion of the bread journey - we will arrive at loaves of warm, fresh, bread.  I plan on continuing on the my bread journey and sharing as I go.  HandyMan has requested Pumpernickel bread for his birthday and I'm curious to try a gluten-free sandwich bread recipe.

Without further ado -one of my favorite bread recipes.  You can substitute flours in whatever combination you wish to experiment with keeping in mind the texture you want from the finished bread and the gluten contents of the flours you are using.  For this batch I used almost equal parts of bread flour, white whole wheat and all purpose flour.

Basic Bread

2-1/4 teaspoons of Dry Active Yeast (1 packet)

3 tablespoons Sugar

2 cups Warm Water

1 teaspoon Salt

4-5 cups of All Purpose Flour

Directions:

Place the yeast, sugar and warm water in your mixing bowl.



Let sit about five minutes, or until foamy.



Add 1/2 of the flour and salt and mix. (*If you are using multiple types of flour, it can save time to combine the flours in a separate bowl and add the flour mixture to the bread dough)



Continue to work in remaining flour until dough pulls away from the bowl.  Dough will be soft and slightly sticky.



Spray a large bowl with cooking spray or cover lightly with oil.  With floured hands, removed dough from the mixing bowl and place dough in the clean bowl.  Turn it over so that the ball of dough is lightly coated with oil/cooking spray.



Cover and allow to rise for 1-2 hours or until at least doubled in size.



Here is where this recipe differs from many others.  From this point on, you want to handle the dough as little as possible.  You can either make one large loaf, or two small loaves.  Since we are a small family, I usually opt for the small loaves-you may choose your own adventure here! :)

Take a sharp or serrated knife and separate the dough (skip this step if making one loaf).



I made one free form loaf one sandwich style loaf from the two pieces of dough.  To form the free form loaf, remove one of the pieces of dough gently with floured hands.  Gently pull the sides down towards the bottom of the loaf until a smooth ball is formed.  Place dough on a floured silicone sheet or parchment paper and allow to rest for 20 minutes.



While the free-form loaf is resting, preheat your oven to 425 and place your baking stone in the middle of the oven and a metal baking pan or broiler pan underneath it.  Once dough has begun to rise a bit, score the top of the loaf with your sharp or serrated knife.  When the oven is hot, place the loaf (parchment/silicone sheet and all) onto the baking stone and pour about 1 cup of water into the baking pan and carefully and quickly close the oven door.  Bake for 35-45 minutes or until nicely browned.  Loaf should sound hollow if tapped.  The longer you bake, the crisper the crust.

In the same fashion, take the second piece of dough and pull it into an oval and place it in a greased loaf pan.  I only have glass pans, so I knew I wouldn't have a very "sturdy" crust on that loaf.

Allow the loaf to rise 30-40 minutes and score the top if you choose.  Then bake at 375 for 40-60 minutes -or until browned and it sounds hollow to the tap.

After warming the house on this rainy afternoon and making it smell WAY too good, here were the finished loaves:

And by the time they had cooled enough to cut into, everyone was ready to eat!

(It was still a little to warm so the middle gummed together a bit when we cut into it!)

Freezer Friday: HV Lemon Blueberry Muffins, etc.

The next couple of weeks are going to be bringing company to our home which means that I'm going to need to be cleaning up the house, and not cooking so much.  So, this week I did some freezer stocking.  I made a triple batch of this Spanish Rice Bake and put two batches in the freezer.  The key is the cilantro garnish - don't skimp on it,  it makes the dish!  I also put a batch of the Corned Beef and Cabbage Stew in the freezer.

When I browned up the beef/TVP mix for the Spanish Rice Bake earlier this week, I cooked up extra and divided it.  I used half for the Bakes and half for Taco Meat.  One skillet, washed once: I love saving time and doing less pot scrubbing!  Two containers of Taco Meat went to the freezer and one in the fridge for today.

My baking project of the week was Hidden Veggie Lemon Blueberry Muffins.  I used up blueberries and frozen squash puree from my freezer.  They were a great combination of sweet and tangy!

HV Lemon Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

3 eggs
1 cup pureed squash

3 cups all-purpose flour (sub 1c Whole Wheat)

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions
1.  Combine butter, sugar, lemon juice, eggs and squash puree until smooth.
2.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Then add milk and combine until smooth.
3.  Fold in blueberries and nuts.


4.  Bake as muffins for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees or as two loaves for 50-75 minutes.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Buttery Garlic Croutons

With my January mission to use up food that is in the house, it only seemed natural to also work to preserve what food I had and to minimize waste.  Enter the stale rolls.  We had some rolls that had been accidentally left out overnight and they were nice and hard on the outside and beyond stale.  Normally, these would have gotten thrown out the front door to provide an easy meal for the birds, squirrels and other wildlife that share out land.  But not this time!  I was planning salads for dinner and decided to make croutons.  It was SO easy I’m wondering why I haven’t done this sooner!  Here’s the quick directions:

Buttery Garlic Croutons

1.  Chop the bread into cubes, about ¾-1 inch square.



2. Melt ¼ cup of butter and sautéed in a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic.  This was for about 3 cups of cubes.



3.  Toss the bread and butter and then spread the cubes on a cookie sheet.  Pop them in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.



The finished croutons were melt in your mouth, buttery, garlicy perfectnes!

Freezer Friday: Orange Cranberry Muffins & Dinner Rolls

With the Eat from the Pantry [and Freezer] challenge underway, I’ve done baking this, but not much cooking.  I had grocery shopping and meetings on Monday, my monthly work day at Made in Chenango on Wednesday and heading to my brother’s today, my freezer meals made this week much easier!  We had Shepherd’s Pie with Garlic Cheddar Smashed Potatoes on Monday night and Turkey Butternut Squash Soup on Wednesday as our meals from the freezer this week and plate salads took on the fading produce from the veggie drawer on Tuesday.

So, I didn’t get to the batch cooking for a main meal this week but I did get some baked goods to the freezer.  My freezer was empty of breakfast breads so I worked on taking care of that.  I made a batch of Orange Cranberry Bread (a variation of the Orange Chocolate Chip bread: more orangey, fruit and whole grains) and made it as muffins and mini-bundt cakes.  I also made a double batch of dinner rolls and sent some of those the freezer as well.  I'm working on a post for my favorite roll recipe - stay tuned!

How were your meals this week?

Freezer Friday: Shepherd's Pies and HV Orange Chocolate Chip Bread

This week I managed to get three Shepherd's Pies into the oven and made a bunch of muffins and breakfast breads to take to a party and to stash in the freezer.  I made Pumpkin Bread, this Lemon-Blueberry Bread and a great Hidden Veggie Orange Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffins.  All turned out super yummy and the Orange-Chocolate Chip Bread recipe is below.  Did you get anything stashed in your freezer this week?

HV Orange Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffins

Ingredients:

2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Orange Juice
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 cups Pureed Yellow Squash
1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 1/2 cups Unbleached Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1-1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375*
2.  Cream together eggs and sugars.  Add Vegetable Oil, Orange Juice and Vanilla Extract and Yellow Squash and mix thoroughly.
3.  Add flours and then Baking Powder and Baking Soda on top of the flours and mix all at once.
4.  Fold in chocolate chips.
5.  Pour into two greased loaf pans or muffin tins.  Recipe will make two loaves or two dozen muffins or a combination of each. Bake muffins for 17-22 minutes and loaves for 45-60 minutes.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Freezer Friday: Tropical Banana Bread/Muffins

This week was banana week in my kitchen.  I ended up with a bunch of bananas that needed to be baked with.  So I made GBaby Teething Biscuits/Cookies, and I made a bunch of Banana Pancakes that have made it to the freezer and I also made the following Tropical Banana Bread.  I made a double batch and put two loaves and almost two dozen muffins into the freezer for later. On a completely different note, I also made TVP Meatballs this week and froze a bunch.  I will try to get that recipe up soon.

Tropical Banana Bread

2 Eggs

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 cups Pureed Bananas

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Pineapple Juice

3 cups Unbleached Flour (can substitute up to half whole wheat)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 cup chopped Walnuts

1 cup crushed Pineapple

1 cup flaked Coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*

2. Beat eggs and brown sugar together.  Add bananas, vanilla, vegetable oil and pineapple juice and blend until smooth.

3. Add flour and baking soda and mix thoroughly.

4. Mix in walnuts, pineapple and coconut.

5. Pour batter into two greased loaf pans or into prepared muffin tins (makes 2 dozen).

6. Bake loaf pans for 50-60 minutes and muffins for 17-25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

A to Zucchini Sweet Bread

I cannot tell you how much I love this recipe.  I made two loaves – we had one for breakfast and snacks and the other I served with ice-cream for dessert and it was perfect.  While I had hoped to send one to the freezer, that didn’t happen so I’m going to have to try again!  It not only uses the zucchini that I have coming out my ears but I could also use my homemade plain yogurt – double bonus!

For this time around I used dried cranberries, chopped pecans and brown sugar for the filling.  The bread is vanilla-y sweet and neutral that you can easily substitute just about anything for the filling – that’s where the A to Zucchini comes in.  Options for fillings: apples (diced), blueberries, chocolate chips, dried apricots … you get the idea.

You can also make it as loaves or in a tube or Bundt pan if you need a coffee cake or dessert.  A simple glaze can be made from 3/4 cup Powdered Sugar, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract and 2 teaspoons Milk if you’d like to frost this as a dessert cake.  So experiment, and be sure to come back and tell us how yours turned out!

A to Zucchini Sweet Bread

Ingredients

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

3/4 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1 1/3 cups Plain Yogurt

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 cups Shredded Zucchini



Filling:

1/2 cup Pecans

1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

(Brown Sugar may be omitted, feel free to be creative with your filling – you will need about 11/2 cup of the filling items of your choice.)

Directions:

1. Beat together Vegetable Oil, Sugar and Eggs and Vanilla in a large bowl.  Mix in Yogurt.


2. Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.


3. Mix in Zucchini.  Batter will look like this:


4. Combine Filling ingredients in a separate bowl.  


5. Batter will be divided between two greased loaf pans.  Pour one third the batter in the bottom of the pans.  Sprinkle half the topping over the batter.  Continue with batter layer, filling and remaining batter.


6. Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

HV Zucchini Bread

Update 7/17/2010: If you've landed here from $5 Dinners Grow. Eat. $ave. series, Welcome!  Please take a moment to look around.  This zucchini bread recipe is still one of my go-to zucchini bread recipes!. It is quick and easy, moist and freezes beautifully!  It's also really good with cream cheese. Click here for more of my zucchini recipes including Veggie Spaghetti Quick Dinner and [Green] Potato Soup.

This is another one of those hearty quick breads that is great for breakfasts or snacks.  While it's obvious that there will be veggies in zucchini bread, this particular recipe is absolutely packed with veggies!  You can substitute your pureed squash for the pureed zucchini in this recipe and you can also substitute in up to 2 cups of whole wheat flour for more whole grain goodness!  Still need to find uses for more zucchinis?  Check out this article.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

3 cups shredded Zucchini

1 cup pureed Zucchini (or Yellow Squash)

2 Eggs

1/2 cups Vegetable Oil

2 cups Sugar

3 cups Flour (can substitute up to 2 cups Whole Wheat)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Cream together eggs, oil and sugar.

3.  Add Zucchini puree and blend.

4.  Mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl then add to your batter.

5.  Add shredded Zucchini to the batter and mix thoroughly.

6.  Divide batter between two, greased, loaf pans.  Bake for 45-60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

HV Spiced Applesauce Bread/Muffins

Updated 9/16/2010 -Hi!  If your visiting from LifeAsMom's Ultimate Recipe Swap - Welcome!  I posted this last year about this time and it's time to add this one to the menu again. Enjoy :)

Once I drag myself out of bed, I usually hit the ground running.  The chore list, dirty diapers, and well being of GBaby usually take priority over a lingering breakfast.  For me breakfast needs to be something that I can grab quickly and will fill me up for a while.  I enjoy hearty breads recipes that can be made as loaves or muffins and easily enjoyed fresh or frozen.   This recipe can be made as muffins or as a loaf and is great warmed or toasted.  For an extra energy kick, it's also very good with cream cheese.  Enjoy!

HV Spiced Applesauce Bread/Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Applesauce

1/2 cup Squash or Zucchini Puree

1/2 cup White Sugar

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

2 cups Flour (may substitute up to 3/4 cup Whole Wheat flour)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Ground Allspice

Crumb Topping:

1/3 cup melted Margarine or Butter

1 cup Oats

1/2 cup Flour

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2.  Beat Eggs, Vegetable Oil and Sugars.  Add Applesauce and Squash Puree and mix thoroughly.

3.  In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients and add to the mixture of liquids and mix thoroughly.  (Or if you are comfortable with cheating, dump in flour(s), then spices then baking soda and baking powder and then mix until thoroughly combined.)

4.  Spoon batter into a greased loaf pan or muffin tins (1 loaf or 18 muffins).

5.   Mix up the crumb topping and spoon on top of loaf or muffins.

6.  Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes, and loaf 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.

Nutrition Facts from http://caloriecount.about.com