Whole wheat cranberry oatmeal almond muffins

It's been a while since I've posted. Part of that has been that school has started up, and life with Owen has been wonderful but very busy. That's no excuse though, as Lee has reminded me, for not cooking and baking. So this morning I made these super wholesome, yummy muffins with cranberries from the farmers' market. The have very little sweetening in them. If I make them again I might make them a little sweeter. But they feel so good just as they are, that I'm not sure I would recommend it.





Here it goes:

Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare your muffin tins. (I try not to use disposable products as much as possible, but I have recently been converted to muffin papers. It just makes everything way easier.)

Combine the dry ingredients
2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. oats
1/4 c. bran
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. chopped almonds

Combine the wet ingredients
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp flaxseeds, ground, beaten with 6 tbsp water
1 c. soy milk

Add the cranberries to the dry ingredients and evenly distribute.
2 c. fresh cranberries

Add wet to dry, make homogeneousbut do not overmix.  Dollop into muffin tins. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Makes about 16 little muffins, probably 12 regular sized ones.

Fried Zucchini Flowers with Basil

My little rooftop garden is doing splendidly, and I've been enjoying zucchini flowers. They have a beautiful, subtle flavor. This time, I stuffed each flower with a basil leaf before battering and frying it--the basil is the perfect complement to these flowers.

As many zucchini flowers as you can get your hand on.
As many basil leaves as you have zucchini flowers.
Equal parts water and chickpea flour.
olive oil for frying
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the water and chickpea flower into a paste. It should be a little, but not too, runny. Gently stuff each flower with a basil leaf. Heat a skillet on med-high, with some olive oil in the pan. Completely cover each flower with the chickpea batter. Make sure you get all the little nooks and crannies.

Fry on each side until golden brown. Remove and place on a cloth or paper towel. Gently pat to remove excess oil. Place on a serving plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

(You can make a little pancake with the extra chickpea flour. That's yummy too!).

Whole Wheat Peach Muffins

These whole wheat peach muffins are made with almond oil and agave, so they're good for you all around! They're moist and not too sweet.

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
dash cloves
1/2 c. bran
1 c. soymilk
1/2 c. agave
1/4 c. almond oil
1 tsp. vanilla
4 ripe peaches
2 tbsp flaxseeds
6 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, mix bran and soy milk. Let sit for ten minutes. Grind flaxseeds and beat with the water. Dice three of the peaches, and make slices with the fourth to put on top.

Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to the bran mixture. Gently mix in diced peaches. Add dry. Mix completely, but not too much. Spoon into a greased muffin tin. Place peach slices on top. Bake 20-30 minutes.

Alegria (a.k.a. Amaranth Bars)

I was in Germany during the E. coli outbreak, which meant that as a vegan who was not eating raw vegetables, I subsisted largely on potatoes and white asparagus. They are both wonderful in moderation, but I was looking for something to supplement my diet. I stumbled upon amaranth bars. I am sure that I have had amaranth before, but I had never noticed it, and it had never been the main ingredient in anything I ate. It's wonderful! It's a high-protein grain that has a subtle nutty flavor to it.

R informs me that amaranth (amaranto) is very popular in Mexico. They eat bars from it as a kind of quick snack. Those bars are called alegria. That seems to me to be quite an appropriate name.

Here is a recipe for alegria. R tells me that it's got a few more goodies in it than regular alegria, but I couldn't help myself. Here it goes:

1/2 c. amaranth
1/2 c. agave
1/2 c. almonds
1/2 c. figs
1 tsp. vanilla

Pop the amaranth. Do this by putting a pot with a lid on the stove on high. Wait until it is hot and then add one tablespoon of amaranth. It pops quickly. Once it is popped, transfer to a bowl. Then repeat with another tablespoon. Repeat until all the amaranth is popped. It actually doesn't take very long, because it pops so quickly.

Chop the almonds and figs into small pieces. Add to the amaranth. Mix. Add the vanilla to the agave, mix. Add the agave to the amaranth, coating well. Press into a 9" pan.

Hamburger Buns

Yesterday I attempted to make vegan veggie burgers to grill for the fourth of July, along with homemade hamburger buns. The veggie burgers were a total mess. They fell through the grill, and then finally we could cook them in a basket on the grill, but they still got crumbly and fell apart. I will be back hopefully with a more successful post for a veggie burger.

HOWEVER, the hamburger bun experiment turned out really well! I basically followed this recipe. It's really fast and easy:


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/hamburger-buns/detail.aspx

Of course I veganized it. Here's the vegan version. The buns on the original recipe were a little small, so I'd probably make 16 instead of 25 next time.

2 cups warm soymilk, plus some for brushing (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/4 cup earth balance, melted
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
2 (.25 ounce) packages instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed

Preheat the oven to 375.

In a large bowl, stir together the warm water, sugar and yeast. In a saucepan, warm the margarine and soymilk together. When warm, add to the yeast mixture. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Mix in the salt, and gradually stir in the flour until you have dough that won't be too sticky to knead. Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes. Divide into 16 pieces, and form into balls. Place on greased baking sheets so they are 2 to 3 inches apart. Let rise for 20 minutes.

Lightly brush the tops of the buns with soymilk, and then sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the tops are a nice golden brown.

Lime Poppyseed Cookies

I was over at my friend H's house yesterday, and we were trying out different foods for H&Z's wedding in September. H made a killer raspberry poppyseed dressing, which made me start thinking about poppyseeds...

I had a couple of limes in the fridge, and it turned out that K had a bunch from yesterday's cooking adventure, so we and S and L made lime poppyseed cookies! They're super-limey and super-yummy.

Here's the recipe.

3 limes: fresh lime juice
2 limes: fresh lime zest
1 stick (1/2 c.) vegan margarine
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 flaxegg
1/4 c. poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare flaxegg in a large bowl by grinding 1 tbsp flaxseeds (I used golden ones because they don't show in the cookies, but you can use whatever), and beating with 3 tbsp water until it has an eggy consistency. Mix the rest of the wet with the flaxegg, and mix the dry in another bowl. Add wet to dry. Mix. Dollop onto cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes. They don't really get brown on top, so make sure you don't burn the bottoms!

Tofu Scramble with Herbs, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Today I made a tofu scramble with herbs from my garden, and cherry tomatoes and spinach I had lying around. I used a good deal of garlic, which gave it a nice kick, and the herbs deepened the flavor.

It also has black salt (kala namak), which is a spice that smells and tastes eggy, because it's got sulphur in it. I used some of that and some turmeric, to give the scramble an eggy sight, smell, and taste.

I will definitely make this again!

4 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 yellow onion, diced.
A few leaves of fresh basil, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp black salt
1 block (14 oz) extra firm tofu, drained
1-2 c. fresh spinach
handful of cherry tomatoes.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Saute onions, herbs, turmeric, and black salt on medium until well-caramalized. About a minute after starting the saute, add the cherry tomatoes. Once the onions are well-caramelized, crumble in the tofu. Increase heat to medium-high, and stir until evenly mixed. Stir frequently. After five minutes or so, add the spinach. Add salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Basil Socca

This is so delicious I'm posting it as I am eating it.



And it is ridiculously simple. It's a cross between a crepe and socca--a traditional french street food. It's made with chickpea flour (socca), but it's cooked on the stovetop (crepe), as I didn't have a proper dish to put in the oven. My twist is that I added fresh basil from my little garden into the batter.

It took me a long time to discover chickpea flour. What was I thinking? It has a wonderful, eggy, nutty, flavor--not to mention that it's really good for you too. The basil complements it perfectly.

Here's the recipe (if you can even call it that):

1/2 c. chickpea flour
1/2 c. water
Handful of basil leaves
some olive oil for the pan
salt and pepper for seasoning.

Beat the chickpea flour and water well. Heat a nonstick or cast-iron pan on high, with some olive oil in it. (Don't skimp, otherwise it will stick). Add basil leaves to the chickpea flour batter. Make sure you coat the leaves thoroughly.
When the pan is hot (but before the oil starts to burn!) add the batter to the pan, turning the pan so that it spreads evenly. After a couple of minutes (when the first side is brown), very carefully flip it over. After the other side is brown), slide it onto your plate and season to taste with salt and pepper. YUM!

p.s. I also had a zucchini flower from my garden which I also fried in this batter. That was excellent too! (In fact, so excellent, that I ate it before remembering to take a picture.)

Waffle Redux

This is the second waffle recipe I'm posting. It's definitely an improvement over the last one. This is the first real day of summer (i.e. yesterday was the last departmental event of the semester--M defended her dissertation!), and I felt like celebrating. We had these with bananas, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and maple syrup on top. We ate them before I remembered to take a picture, so I'm including a picture of my garden instead :).

Waffle Recipe (Makes about 6 waffles)

2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups soy milk
2 flaxeggs
1/2 cup margarine

Brush your waffle maker with canola oil and preheat it. Mix dry ingredients. Cut butter into dry ingredients until the crumbles are pretty small. Prepare flaxeggs (see any pancake or muffin recipe below), and 1 cup of soy milk. Beat again for another minute or so. Add the flaxegg mixture and another cup of soy milk to the dry mixture and mix until blended (but not too much). Then follow your waffle maker's directions.

Whole wheat banana blueberry oatmeal muffins

I've had a craving for banana-something recently, and wanted that banana something to be pretty earthy and healthy. This is about as healthy as muffins get. Makes about 16-18 muffins.

1 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp flaxseed, ground and beaten with 6 tbsp water into an eggy mixture.
4 ripe bananas, mashed well.
2/3 cup canola oil
1/3 c. brown sugar
juice of one lemon
1 1/2 c. soy milk
1 c. frozen (or fresh!) blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine lemon juice and soy milk in a small bowl. Let stand for five minutes while preparing other ingredients. In another small bowl, beat ground flaxseeds and water. In a medium-large bowl, mash bananas well. In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Add the soy milk and flax mixtures to the bananas. Add oil and mix well. Mix the frozen blueberries into the DRY mixture (this prevents everything from turning blue. Then add wet to dry, and mix until homogeneous but try not to over mix. Then pour into pre-greased muffin tins.

Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean from one of the larger muffins.



(It's inspired by this recipe.)

Garden!

Hi all,

This post isn't about things that I've made, but hopefully about things I will make! I've got zucchini, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and a bunch of herbs in the works.

Blueberry Orange Scones

Life's been a little hectic and it's been a while since I posted, but this morning I really felt like making scones. The orange is not overwhelming in these, but still gives it a nice twist on an old regular. (By the way, in the background you can see my gardening experiments! I hope to write more soon about those!)Here it goes:
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. margarine
1 c. blueberries (fresh or frozen)
3/4 c. soy milk
zest of one orange
juice of 1/2 orange
2 tbsp flaxseeds, ground
6 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 F. In a small bowl, combine soy milk and juice of one orange. (I was trying to get it to curdle a little bit the way soy milk does with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, but it didn't quite do it.) In a medium bowl, beat flaxseeds with water until an eggy consistency. Add lemon zest and sugar. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients and, using your hands, mix the margarine thoroughly so you have a somewhat crumbly flour mess. Then mix in the blueberries so they're distributed throughout the mixture. Then add the soy milk mixture (reserving just a little bit) to the flaxseed mixture, and mix thoroughly. Add wet to dry and try to make it into a homogeneous mixture without overmixing. Divide in half and press into a wheel (3/4'' thick) on a floured surface. The dough will be sticky, so sprinkle some flour on top to make it manageable. Cut into 8 pieces, and place them on a baking sheet. Repeat with the other half. Then brush a little bit of the soy milk you reserved onto each scone, so that they brown nicely. Bake for about 20 minutes.