Monthly Archives: May 2018

Mix It Up Friday -Scones for the Holiday Weekend

25 Friday May 2018

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from Tracey G.

Very Berry Scone Mix from King Arthur Flour

What perfect timing for Mix Week – cruising into a Holiday Weekend! I do appreciate something fast when the schedule gets hectic – even if it’s a fun kind of hectic!

The King Arthur Flour scone mixes are always easy and I’ve not had a disappointing experience yet! And, the scone mixes are so versatile! They provide you with “recipes” for transforming the mix into various other goodies like muffins, pancakes, coffeecakes etc. Just check out their Scone Mix Magic page for them!

To make the Very Berry Scone Mix, you just need a few ingredients:

  • Salt
  • Butter
  • Milk
  • Egg

You start by adding the salt to the mix, then mixing/cutting in your butter. Once that’s done, combine milk and egg, add that egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. You’ve got a few options for shaping, you can go the traditional triangular way by patting dough into a circle on baking pan and cutting or make drop-scones. I used my scone pan for mine!

I couldn’t wait to try these as the smelled so very yummy while they were baking! The “berry” comes from their Jammy Bits in the strawberry, blueberry and raspberry flavors. I love those little things as they’re made from real fruit, not “fruit-flavored” bits like in some other mixes out there. I also like that you can buy them separately to add to your own creation!

But, back to the Very Berry Scones – they are delicious! They tasted as good as they smelled while they were baking. I will be buying more of this mix as they make a yummy addition to your morning coffee or in the evening as a treat!

 

from Kris B.

Peaches and Cream Scone Mix from King Arthur Flour

I am departing from my healthy, low-calorie, Weight Watcher’s point friendly food here and moving toward pure decadence!.. These may look like basic drop biscuits, but in reality they are peachy rich goodness!

I suspect that the basic scone mix for the King Arthur Flour Peaches and Cream Scones is exactly the same as that of the Very Berry Scone Mix that Tracey made except with Peach Jammy Bits.  Though the Peaches and Cream Scones offer an alternative recipe that uses butter and milk as it’s liquid, the primary recipe calls for the addition of:

  • salt
  • egg
  • heavy cream

I used the cream and have no regrets! 🙂

I generally am not a fan of boxed mixes that include “fruit” because normally they taste fake.  That is not the case with this mix.  From the mixing of the ingredients to the baking, the aroma of fresh peachiness was exceptional.  Thankfully, I was not disappointed when it came to the taste test.  I had my daughter, who is much more of a “food snob” that I am, try one of the scones and she was equally impressed.  That say something!

The one thing that I will do differently the next time I make these is rather than making eight generously sized scones, I will make them smaller, aiming for 12-16.  Even at half the size, paired with morning coffee or afternoon tea, you will have a tasty and satisfying treat.

As Tracey also mentioned, the Scone Mix Magic page offered by King Arthur Flour provides even more options for using your scone mixes.

King Arthur Flour often has sales on their mixes.  Keep an eye out.  You will want to have a few of these mixes on hand just in case!

Have a safe and blessed Memorial Day weekend.

 

Food Friday – Good Morning!

18 Friday May 2018

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Low-fat Fruit and Bran Muffins

Good morning!  Well, it may not be morning right this minute, but we are doing our best this week to share some recipes that will help to make your mornings good!

Breakfast is my favorite meal.  And breakfast baked goods are some of the best – doughnuts, coffee cakes, cinnamon rolls.  And we won’t even talk about pancakes, waffles, and french toast.  Unfortunately, these morning baked goods can also be some of the highest in calories.  Who knew that degree of deliciousness and caloric content are directly proportionate. 🙂  And muffins, a breakfast staple, are some of the worst offenders when it comes to “not the best choice” as far as nutrition goes.

My goal this week was to try to find a delicious tasting muffin that would not break the “relatively healthy for you” bank.  I found King Arthur Flour’s Low-fat Fruit and Bran Muffins.

The basic ingredients are:

  • milled flax seeds
  • 100% bran cereal (not flakes)
  • skim milk
  • applesauce
  • brown sugar
  • salt
  • oil
  • an egg
  • unbleached all-purpose flour
  • baking powder
  • raisins
  • dried apricots
  • shredded carrot

That’s a wholesome list of ingredients.  I did make a few substitutions.  I used almond milk instead of skim milk, olive oil, and dried pears instead of the apricots because I already had the pears.

The wet ingredients are mixed together and then , in a separate bowl, the dry ingredients.are combined.  The wet ingredients are then added to the dry.  All can be easily mixed with a spoon.  The batter is the scooped by 1/4 cupfuls into 12 prepared muffin tins.  (I got 14 muffins and my tin was filled to the top before baking.)

The Low-fat Fruit and Bran Muffins have a slightly chewy texture.  They are not overly dense, but definitely don’t have the same texture as a muffin batter made with more fat and sugar.  In my opinion, this makes them seem more filling, more meal-like.  I have eaten a muffin with my morning coffee and been satisfied until lunchtime.  Granted, I am getting up a little later than I do during the school year (7:30 seems decadent compared to 5 am) so breakfast and lunch are a little closer together. 🙂

If I make this recipe again, the one thing that I will definitely do is add a touch of cinnamon.  The recipe calls for no added flavor – spices or extracts.  I do think that there is plenty of room in the basic recipe to customize it to your particular liking – variations in the choice of fruits and flavorings.

If you make these muffins, please share your customized recipes!

Wishing you all a summer filled with good mornings!

For those who are interested, each muffin is 6 Weight Watchers points.

King Arthur Flour’s Low-fat Fruit and Bran Muffins

 

Roasted Strawberry Cream Cheese Rolls

My wonderful partner in crime, Kris of course, gifted me with the latest edition of KAF’s Sift Magazine a few weeks ago. As soon as I saw it, right on the front cover was this photo of these wonderful looking rolls, cinnamon roll-esque, not with cinnamon filling but strawberry filling – I knew I HAD to make these. I would have made them regardless if I was making them for our Food Friday, but making them for this was much more fun!

I present to you King Arthur Flour’s Roasted Strawberry Cream Cheese Rolls. I think what grabbed me even more than the photo that had me drooling, was the fact that it says “Roasted Strawberry”, I’ve never roasted strawberries. I was intrigued. And then, as if I needed more of an incentive, you can use either fresh OR frozen berries! This is something that can be made year-round, not just during strawberry season since frozen berries are acceptable.

The ingredient list looks lengthy, but it’s really not. Most items are likely already in your pantry:

DOUGH

  •  milk
  •  cream cheese
  • unsalted butter
  •  granulated sugar
  • large egg
  •  active dry or instant yeast
  •  salt
  •  King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

FILLING

  •  fresh or frozen strawberries
  •  granulated sugar
  •  Instant ClearJel
  •  ground cinnamon
  •  grated orange peel (zest)

FROSTING

  •  cream cheese
  •  confectioners’ sugar
  •  vanilla extract
  •  milk or cream

I actually did this in 2 days, not because it was long and complicated, but because of time constraints I was working with, it just was easier for me. So, I roasted the berries one day, took them to the point just before thickening them and popped them into the fridge, to be finished the next day. And it worked well!

The only out of the ordinary ingredient is KAF’s Instant ClearJel. I happen to have it around because once I tried it for other projects, I’ve grown to really appreciate a thickener that’s instant – no heat required.

And cheated a bit, as I used was my latest acquisition from KAF, the Orange Citrus Oil. I used it in place of the of the orange zest called for in the berry filling. Worked wonderfully! (I now have the trio as I already have the Lemon Oil and Lime Oil, they have come in handy so many times and little goes a long way!)

So it was really easy to pull together, I roasted the berries and got the filling mixed up in a jiffy, the dough was easy to prepare as well. The dough was also really easy to work with, nice texture and it behaved beautifully. I hate it when I have to argue and fight with a dough I need to do certain things!

Once I patted (then I used my rolling pin because it actually was quicker!) the dough into the prescribed shape, I slathered the filling on and rolled it up.

Now, after you get that done, it’s time to cut the rolls. I had a super sharp knife, but still wish I’d gotten some dental floss to use to cut them, less mushing. And I wish I’d known about the idea (I read it in the reviews after the fact!) to refrigerate the roll for a bit BEFORE cutting – less smushing out of the filling.

Once they’re cut and in the pan, you let them rise for about an hour, then bake! While they’re baking, I mixed up the frosting in a small bowl. After they come out of the oven, you let them cool to lukewarm then put the icing on. I think mine were a bit too cool, as it really didn’t “melt” a bit, but that’s ok – tastes just fine!

I absolutely love these rolls, they are so yummy! The roasted berries are a wonderful thing, I wasn’t sure about what they would  bring to the party, but they are definitely a star guest! Wow, they add all kinds of yummy goodness. Jeremy is already asking for more and has all kinds of ideas for fillings, I’m in trouble I think…

 

Food Friday – No-Knead to Fear Making Bread

12 Saturday May 2018

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from Kris B.

Peasant Bread

And here we give you what you should have gotten last week…:-)

I love bread.  Almost any kind of bread.  For many, homemade bread carries with it the notion that it is a difficult and time-consuming task.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Think about it.  Every culture has some kind of bread as part is its basic diet.  This is because these breads are easily made from staple ingredients.

King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Peasant Bread (originally from Alexandra Stafford’s book Bread Toast Crumbs) is a simple no-knead bread recipe that makes a perfect everyday bread.  It consists of only five ingredients:

  • all-purpose flour
  • kosher salt
  • sugar
  • yeast
  • water

It is also necessary to coat your baking pan with butter or some other cooking spray to prevent sticking.

In a mixing bowl, all of the dry ingredients are whisked together.  Lukewarm water is then added to form the dough.  This dough is a very sticky dough.  Fortunately it is left to rise in the mixing bowl so there is no need (no pun intended) to handle as it’s stickiness would make that difficult.  The dough rises until it is doubled in bilk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Mine took only an hour.

After this first rise, the dough is transferred to a 3 quart (or 2 one 1 quart) oven-safe pan or bowl.  During its short second rise, 10-20 minutes, the oven is preheated to 425 degrees.  The dough is ready to go into the oven when it is almost doubled.  It bakes at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.  The temperature is then reduced to 375. The large single loaf bakes for 20-25 minutes and the two smaller loaves for 17-20 minutes.

The loaf in the photo is the single large loaf.  For my family, it makes no sense to make two loaves.  Bread disappears quickly!

The Peasant Bread is a basic loaf, but that makes its quite versatile.  It’s soft and chewy texture makes a nice sandwich bread, garlic toast to accompany soup or salad, a nice snack with a little butter, or, as I first had it, a fantastic piece of toast with peanut butter!

Well actually, I cheated a bit.

I am still working hard to shed some extra pounds.  My love of both bread and peanut butter can easily derail that effort!  This bread recipe has no fat in it.  That helps. And, my friend Joni introduced me to an awesome peanut butter substitute, PB2 Powdered peanut butter.  I know what you are thinking.  How can that substitute for the real thing?  Trust me.  I am serious about my peanut butter.  Usually I make it myself, but I am willing to go this route for a while.  It really is pretty good!  2 TBS or powder mixed with a TBS of water.  Because homemade peanut butter lacks the oil found in commercial peanut butters, the texture and consistency of the PB2 is not a whole lot different from what I’m used to.  And it’s 50 calories for a 2 TBS serving as compared to 180 calories in the same size serving of regular peanut butter.

There is also a PB2 variety with chocolate.  Mix this with a little frozen whipped topping and you have a tasty low-calorie dip for fruit.

Sorry for the diversion.  Back to the Peasant Bread…

It’s easy and it’s delicious!  Try it.

from Tracey G.

No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread

So, I’m on this wanting to eat well kick, not diet necessarily, just better fuel going in. I usually buy a really low-calorie bread for my sandwiches, like 35-calories-per-slice kind of thing when I’m trying to watch what I’m eating. Honestly though, it tastes like how I imagine cardboard would taste – like nothing. With wanting to eat better, I decided there has to be something I can make at home – that way I know what’s going in and I can slice it how I want it. That brought me to a mission, to see what I can find that’s reasonable in calories, and, offers some nutritious benefits.

After searching around King Arthur Flour website, I found quite a few that sounded good, but this recipe, No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread, had the lowest calories per slice (120), and offered a super easy preparation. That cinched it for me, this was what I was making. I could easily keep myself in bread for my sandwiches and my new favorite lunch before or after I hit the treadmill: toast spread with peanut butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and then topped with banana slices. It’s got all kinds of goodness!

The recipe is close to a batter-style bread, and it’s a dump it all together combining of the ingredients, and then mixed up in your mixer. You run it for 3 minutes, then dump it into your well-cooking-sprayed pan. Next it rises for an 1 to 1 1/2 hours and then you bake! Yay!

Ingredients include:

  •  lukewarm water
  •  orange juice
  •  melted butter or vegetable oil
  •  molasses, maple syrup, dark corn syrup, or brown sugar corn syrup
  •  instant yeast
  •  Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk (if you don’t have any dry milk on hand, you can use lukewarm milk for the water and dry milk)
  • teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour

Well. Huh. This did not go as planned at all. I’ve made it 3 times now and all three have turned out looking like bricks of banana bread. The first two I thought were operator error – I used regular whole wheat flour, instead of the White Whole Wheat Flour it calls for (more on that a bit farther down). That’s what happens when you don’t pay attention to the recipe you’re reading. Ugh. So, I dug into the reviews and it sounded like I was letting them rise too much – then when they hit the oven, they rise and then deflate. Ok, must be the regular whole wheat flour I used – that was my solution to this problem.

But let me say right here though – I really liked how it tastes, it’s not pretty by any means, but tastes pretty darned good.

Anyway, after the first two loaves, I read the recipe again, and even read their blog post dedicated to this bread (click here for that post). That’s when I noticed I used the “wrong” flour. Ok! That’s what happened, yes, I can turn this fail around! I grabbed the last bit of my White Whole Wheat Flour and started a third loaf. Yep, my third attempt.

Maybe I should be of the mind “three strikes you’re out” with this because once again, a brick shape, but I’m not. I’m fairly positive that I definitely let this one over-proof as it kind of overflowed the edges of the pan. This is a new thing for me because it doesn’t rise like a regular loaf, and you’re not supposed to let it get as high as you would a regular loaf – so I was in new territory for me here, not used to looking for different rising criteria, and this one qualified as a bit different! So, I’m fairly confident that contributed to the fails today.

I want to like this bread, I want to make this bread and have it turn out like their photo of how it should look. So, I know as soon as I get some more White Whole Wheat Flour I will be back into the laboratory kitchen to try again. However many times it takes to get a win with this darn recipe!

I’d also love to be able to say “make this now! It’s easy and turns out perfect!”, but I can’t because it hasn’t yet for me. It’s so ridiculously easy, if you can mix up a quick bread, you can do this one too. But, it’s the rise that seems to be fussy, although their blog post on it shows it doing beautifully. So, it depends on how adventurous you’re feeling or if you’re a gambler, lol. It has great taste even if it doesn’t rise to the occasion for me, but that  doesn’t mean it won’t for you! If you try it – let me know, I’m curious as to the results you get!

Food Friday NOT!

06 Sunday May 2018

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*** OUR MINDS ARE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE DUE TO SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES…AND CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL ***

There is more truth to the above this week than we’d like to admit.  Tracey and I are fairly well-organized when it comes to selecting, making, photographing, and posting our weekly recipes.  Most of the time that works in our favor.  Then there are weeks like this past one that make us realize that even the best laid plans can be upended in the blink of an eye.  

All that to say, we have no recipes to share this week.

We talked early in the week.  Settled on the final details of this week’s post and actually felt like we were on track, maybe even ahead of the game, but only for a brief shining moment.

Here’s how our week went:

This past week was my last week of classes.  I am now heading into finals week.  This meant that my office has been a revolving door with students coming and going trying to check grades, turn in missing assignments, beg for extra credit, get help on final projects, and…you get the point.

Then, Weber and I got word that a very dear family friend passed away and her memorial service was to be held on Friday.  Friday is the day that I don’t teach and have alloted to finishing up blog details.  That obviously wasn’t going to happen as the city where the funeral was held was a three-hour drive each way for us.   That meant a definite delay in posting for me until Saturday.

Tuesday morning Tracey was made royalty by her dentist when she earned a crown thanks to an unruly tooth.  There were issues that made “the coronation” a bit more stressful than it should have been, but in the end, she was indeed crowned.  Tuesday evening, Tracey had to attend sex education classes to help the feral kitties that live in her neighborhood.  Well, sort of.  It was en educational class about capturing feral cats and taking them for low-cost spay and neutering.  Definitely a worthwhile endeavor.  But it required giving over another evening.

Wednesday morning, I was at school and I get a text message from Tracey with a link to a very serious sounding message from Harry’s school saying that the entire district (a small district, but still) was on lockdown.  The message gave no details as to why and said that no district phones would be answered and no students would be released.  Parents were advised to stay away from campus.  How scary is that?!  The school finally released the kids for the day at 11 am.  That for sure puts a crimp in mom’s work plan for the day!

However, we still had a contingency plan to get everything done.

Wednesday evening, a got a message that I was needed to sing as part of the choir for a funeral at my own church.  That service was Saturday.  Now my contingency plan was in jeopardy.  This new wrinkle meant that things would  get done later in the day on Saturday than I had hoped.

Then Tracey’s Plan B was foiled when she lost power and Internet on Thursday due to nasty storms in her area.

We were beginning to feel like the universe was conspiring against us baking and posting our recipes this week.

Did I mention that we both also had Capture Your 365 prompts due Tuesday as well?

This morning, as I was drinking a final cup of coffee before getting dressed for today’s funeral, I sent a message to Tracey suggesting that we admit defeat this week.   She was willing to concede with no argument whatsoever.

So, this sob story is what you get instead.

Real, raw life.

Once that decision was made, it felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted from our shoulders.  Sometimes you just have to admit that you can’t take on anymore at the moment.  That is difficult for two perfectionists.  Usually we can talk each other through the stressful weeks. When we were both feeling it, there was no talking anyone through anything.  We had to bow to being gentle to each other and gentle to ourselves.

A little bit ago, I got a message from Tracey saying that this month’s Bakealong recipe is somewhat of a “retread.”  It is rugelach, which we did at the end of last year.  The only difference is that this time it has a savory rather than sweet fillings.  We are thinking that we will shift this week’s recipes to next week and omit the Bakealong week this month.  But, you never know what life has in store for us!

Stay tuned…

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