from Tracey G

Buttermilk Doughnut Mix from King Arthur Flour

I’m really glad it was mix week – I’ve had one heck of a week that has not left me in the best of dispositions! To give you an example, one of the mornings getting Harry’s breakfast ready before school, I went to get the new Hershey’s syrup out of my cabinet. Somehow, my 90% full KAF Vanilla fell, the cap shattered and I watched at the very least, 1/3 of it pour out onto my kitchen floor. Now, I’m sure you’re all aware of vanilla prices these days so I know you’ll understand when I say I was literally almost in tears!

And that’s just one of the things this past week, so yep, I was ready for something easy and yummy. Enter the King Arthur Flour Buttermilk Doughnut Mix. This qualified as easy and it gave me a chance to play with my Doughnut Pan I’d bought from them awhile ago! Yes!

Ingredients you supply are simple:

• Eggs
• Melted Butter or Vegetable Oil
• Milk or Water

That’s it. As most of you know since I mention it enough, I am watching my cholesterol, so I used the vegetable oil instead of melted butter, and water instead of milk. Mixed it up in one bowl, poured into my prepared-with-cooking-spray doughnut pan and baked about 10 minutes. I got 8 out the batch, they state 6 as the norm. Another thing about their doughnut mixes, I know Kris has mentioned before, is that they give you two individual packages of mix – and each makes 6. Which works out really nicely I think!

I just made an easy glaze I kind of whipped up by winging it, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and some corn syrup, and added some pink color. Spooned it over and added white sprinkles. Done.

This is not necessarily a “plain vanilla-type” doughnut, it does have a hint of cinnamon as well. So, don’t expect a “plain” doughnut, even though it’s very light, it’s still there. But I guess I will leave this on the review of Harry-the-9-year-old:

“I love your doughnuts mom!!” and he ate 3-4 of the 8… ’nuff said.

from Kris B.

Trail Bar Mix

I too am thankful that this was mix week, but not because my vanilla shattered all over the kitchen floor; it was just a super busy week (as is evidenced by the fact that we are posting Food Friday on Sunday. :-))

I go in fits and spirts of making homemade granola, but have never gotten on the granola bar making bandwagon.  When I saw the King Arthur Flour Trail Bar Mix, I figured it would be a good first step toward homemade trail bars.

The Trail Bar Mix contains whole grain oats, cane sugar, oat flour, cranberries, whole millet, chia seeds, molasses, flax seeds, cornstarch and salt.

To this mix you add:

• 1/2 stick melted butter *
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon water*

*The mix offers slight variations in the amounts of added ingredients depending on whether you prefer chewy or crunch bars.  I made the chewy bars using the above list of ingredients.  For crunch bars, the water is eliminated and the amount of butter is increased to 3/4 of a stick.

One of the reasons that I have shied away from making bars is that I don’t regularly keep all of the grains and seeds in my pantry.  Making the bars from a mix relieves that burden!

I loved the texture of these bars.  anything with oatmeal in almost always is a winner for me.  I found these bars to be a tad too sweet.  But I must add here that I have not had any sugar other than that which is naturally occurring in fruit for six weeks or so.  No cookies or baked goods!  It’s killing me, but the scale is happy. 🙂  Anyway, that may be why these bars tasted overly sweet to me.  That said, the rest of my family gobbled them up!