Baked

I've been on a bit of a nut crust/cookie thing for the last few weeks. Always fun to experiment with different ingredients. This time I paired up hazelnut meal with chocolate and the result was a very chewy and delicious cookie. Not half bad for you either ;) 

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies - makes about 30

3 cups hazelnut meal (I used Bob's Red Mill. Tried grinding up my own hazelnuts, but it turned into a butter. Oops.) 

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch (I use arrowroot)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

1/2 cup maple syrup or agave syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

A little sugar and cinnamon to roll cookies in.

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the hazelnut meal, baking soda, arrowroot powder, cinnamon, salt and cocoa powder. Add the vegetable oil, maple syrup and vanilla and combine well. 

Roll tablespoons of dough and place on baking sheet. Flatten a little with the bottom of a glass (preferably flat on the bottom). Roll the side of each cookie through a small dish of sugar & cinnamon mixture and place back on baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool on tray. Enjoy!

Have you tried baking without flour? If you did, how did it turn out? Let me know! 

Have a great day!

janis

Baked

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you had a great weekend.

I really love baking bread (a great stress reliever!), but I'm finding it does take heaps of practice. I'm trying to make bread that has a little less white flour, so this weekend I attempted Kamut baguettes. This is the third go, and I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. Kamut flour dough takes a little longer to rise, and is a bit more dense than a white flour bread. This recipe is a mix of Kamut and regular flour. They are not a perfect shape, but they do taste good. For some more info on Kamut, click here.

Kamut Baguettes - makes four small baguettes (so they fit in my oven!)

The night before baking:
150 g all purpose flour
150 ml of warm water
1 teaspoon instant yeast

Mix all of the above together in a medium bowl, then knead for a few minutes. Cover bowl with a towel and let sit for one hour. Punch down dough, then cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

The next day:
200ml of warm water
1 teaspoon salt
100g of all purpose flour
260g of Kamut flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar

Take the refrigerated dough out, and add a little of the 200 ml of warm water to it. This will activate the yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, mix together the salt, yeast, all purpose flour, kamut flour, sugar and the remaining warm water. Add the refrigerated yeast mixture and combine. Knead dough for about 5 minutes. Place dough in a bowl with a little oil in it, and roll dough to slightly coat. Let stand for one hour, or until dough doubles in bulk.

Divide dough into 4 equal pieces (mine worked out to about 200g each). At this point, I'll direct you to this site for a little baguette shaping lesson. It's really helpful! We might be here all day if I tried to shoot each step ;) This video is based on a regular flour recipe, so don't let it throw you off. Just be concerned with the shaping and scoring.

Once you've shaped and scored your baguettes, place them on a pan with a little cornmeal on the baking sheet, cover with a clean tea towel, and let stand for another 45 minutes. Bake in a 375f oven for about 23-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Enjoy immediately!

If you have any bread baking tips, feel free to pass them on to me ;) Back on Wednesday!
janis

Baked

Did you have a good weekend? Hope so! If you are in the Vancouver area, did you thoroughly enjoy our little blip of summer? I'm sure there is more to come ;)

I baked some healthy muffins over the weekend. I just call them "Morning Muffins", as I don't want to call them Raspberry, Brown Rice, Almond, and Orange muffins. When I first tried these out, I thought they might have a have real rice flavour, which I didn't want, but they don't. The orange flavour comes through the most - they're really delicious, especially warm.

Morning Muffins - makes one dozen

1 cup cake and pastry flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup toasted, finely ground almonds
1 cup short grain brown rice
1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest
1 cup plain yogurt, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375f.
Whisk together the ground almonds, flours, baking powder, baking soda, rice, salt and orange zest. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg, butter, sugar and vanilla. Pour over the dry ingredients, and stir just to combine. Do not over mix. Fold in raspberries.

Line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cups, and fill to 3/4 full with batter. Bake in centre of oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden on top and a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean.
Transfer muffins to a wire rack and serve warm.

Baked

Hello Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine's kind of a blur, as it involved a lot of post production.

I baked something a little on the healthier side this weekend. It's a chewy snack bar, perfect for hiking, camping or a sporty day. I like them way more than any store bought bar.

Snack Bar - makes one 9"x9" square

3 cups puffed cereal (I used puffed Kamut)
1/4 cup pitted dates, chopped
1/2 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup mashed ripe banana (1 small)

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Spray a 9"x9" square baking tin/pan with a little non-stick vegetable oil spray. In a large bowl, mix together cereal, dates, cherries, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and ground flaxseeds. In a small saucepan, whisk together the peanut butter, maple syrup and banana over medium heat. Keep whisking until it starts to bubble (watch that it doesn't burn, and do keep whisking). Pour this mixture over cereal mixture and stir with a greased wooden spoon, to combine ingredients. Transfer mixture to greased baking tin and press down hard to compact. It's easier to do this using parchment paper, by the way, otherwise you'll end up eating half of it off your hands. ;)

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the edges turn a golden brown. After it's cooled a little press down again, to avoid crumbling when cutting. Cool completely and cut into squares, or whatever shape you like. Enjoy!

I feel so healthy now ;) Let me know if you try these out, as I'm curious if you'll prefer them over store bought!

Have a great day! Back soon.
Janis

Baked

It's Monday, so it must be game 3 of the Canuck's run to the cup! Ok, that's out of my system. Won't mention it again today.

I baked these over the weekend, and I didn't feel half as bad eating almost a dozen since. They're made with white bean puree instead of heaps of butter. Believe it or not, they're not dry and you don't taste bean either!

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies - makes about 36-40

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup ground quick oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup drained white beans (save liquid) - any white bean will do. I used white kidney.
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a food processor, or blender, grind oats until finely ground but not "dusty".

Mix oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Puree the beans with 2 tablespoons of the saved liquid, until smooth. Combine puree, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl and beat well. On low speed, mix in the oat and flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts by hand. Drop batter by the tablespoons, on the parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool on wire racks. Enjoy!

These are really tasty. Hope you give them a go! 

If you haven't already click here, to enter my little give-away. I'll make the draw on Wednesday. 

Back soon!

Janis