I am cooped up in the house post-exams grading, planning for next semester, nursing a sprained ankle, and avoiding the cold and ice outside. I wanted something tasty for breakfast and needed a distraction because everything on TV was millionth time reruns. For sanity's sake, it was time for more quinoa flakes! These muffins are soft and moist, and there's lots of room to change up ingredients according to your own preferences.
Ingredients:
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour*
1 and 1/2 c quinoa flakes
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
spices, as you like 'em**
3/4 c milk
1 banana, mashed***
2 T butter
3 T vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c raisins****
1 apple, diced
*You can do an extra 1/2 c all-purpose flour and forget the whole wheat pastry if that's easier!
**I did 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp allspice, 1/8 tsp cardamom. Ginger would work, too, as well as cloves.
***I mashed a banana because I didn't have an egg. But an egg, lightly beaten would work here instead (in this case you can lessen the baking powder to 2 and 1/2 T). Or a couple tablespoons of applesauce (keep the baking powder to 3 T in this case).
****Mix in whatever you've got on hand and that sounds good!
Yield: 9-12 muffins, depending on size.
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Prepare muffin pan by greasing or using paper muffin cup liners.
2. Melt butter in microwave or in a heavy saucepan. Set aside to cool a bit.
3. In a large bowl, stir together flours, quinoa flakes, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.
4. In a second bowl, blend together milk, banana, butter, oil, and vanilla.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients bowl and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir just enough to blend.
6. Add in raisins and apple, stirring gently.
7. Pour batter into the prepared muffin cups.
8. Bake for 15-17 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin should come out clean.
9. Cool, serve, and enjoy!
These muffins are great warm from the oven. You can also reheat them and serve with butter, apple butter, honey, Nutella... make it work!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Chewy Oatmeal-Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies
A couple of people needed some cheering up this week and I've been looking for an excuse to use more quinoa flakes. So baking it is! This recipe produced a hearty, chewy cookie. We ate so many that we got upset stomachs. Hizzah!
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c sugar
1 and 1/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 T milk
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips (dark ones!)
2 c rolled oats
1 c quinoa flakes
Yield: approximately 2 dozen cookies
1. Melt butter in microwave or in a heavy saucepan on low heat.
2. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together on medium speed. Don't do this for too long.
4. Add egg, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture, beating gently until just mixed.
5. Add flour mixture to the wet mixture, mixing gently with a wooden spoon.
6. Add oats until just mixed, then add quinoa, then add chocolate chips. Do your best not to overmix. Things should be mixed until "just blended."
7. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
8. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375 F.
9. Prepare cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
10. Scoop dough with an ice cream scoop or large spoon and place on cookie sheets - 6 to 8 cookies per sheet.
11. Bake 11-13 minutes. If cookies are not browning evenly around the edges, you can rotate the cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then move them to finish cooling. Cookies should be soft and moist, but retain their shape when moved. Store these in an airtight container to retain chewy fabulosity!
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c sugar
1 and 1/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 T milk
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips (dark ones!)
2 c rolled oats
1 c quinoa flakes
Yield: approximately 2 dozen cookies
1. Melt butter in microwave or in a heavy saucepan on low heat.
2. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together on medium speed. Don't do this for too long.
4. Add egg, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture, beating gently until just mixed.
5. Add flour mixture to the wet mixture, mixing gently with a wooden spoon.
6. Add oats until just mixed, then add quinoa, then add chocolate chips. Do your best not to overmix. Things should be mixed until "just blended."
7. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
8. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375 F.
9. Prepare cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
10. Scoop dough with an ice cream scoop or large spoon and place on cookie sheets - 6 to 8 cookies per sheet.
11. Bake 11-13 minutes. If cookies are not browning evenly around the edges, you can rotate the cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then move them to finish cooling. Cookies should be soft and moist, but retain their shape when moved. Store these in an airtight container to retain chewy fabulosity!
Maple-Quinoa-Oatmeal Cookies from Vegetarian Times
I first learned about quinoa from my hippie parents who went on about how its an ancient grain with so many good qualities blah dee blah. They are easily excited, my folks, by healthy food. Then I saw an episode of Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda where he spent time on a reservation somewhere in the American southwest and learned about traditional "ancient" foods like cactus and prickly pear that are good for you because they slow-release sugars into your body. The episode explained how a move away from these foods meant a steep rise in diabetes for the groups that used to eat them regularly. Heck, that's pretty convincing, especially when told by silver fox Alan Alda.
So I'm kind of on an ancient grain kick lately, eating cooked quinoa with dinner occasionally and exploring its ancient glory. The first baking I did with quinoa was with a recipe from my fave magazine, Vegetarian Times: Maple-Quinoa-Oatmeal Cookies. I didn't use the pecans like the recipe said, but the cookies were so delish that the boyfriend ate them en masse before they cooled from coming out of the oven and packed the leftovers as a snack for a weekend trip we took. There have even been requests for an encore appearance on Super Bowl Sunday. This would make the boyfriend AND the hippie-ancient-grain-loving dad happy, as they'll be watching together, the former supporting the Giants (crazy!) and the latter supporting the Patriots. At least they will have some ancient goodness in their bellies. Plus, it will give me something to do to avoid watching the game. Yawn.
To link to the Vegetarian Times recipe online, go here: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/8984
So I'm kind of on an ancient grain kick lately, eating cooked quinoa with dinner occasionally and exploring its ancient glory. The first baking I did with quinoa was with a recipe from my fave magazine, Vegetarian Times: Maple-Quinoa-Oatmeal Cookies. I didn't use the pecans like the recipe said, but the cookies were so delish that the boyfriend ate them en masse before they cooled from coming out of the oven and packed the leftovers as a snack for a weekend trip we took. There have even been requests for an encore appearance on Super Bowl Sunday. This would make the boyfriend AND the hippie-ancient-grain-loving dad happy, as they'll be watching together, the former supporting the Giants (crazy!) and the latter supporting the Patriots. At least they will have some ancient goodness in their bellies. Plus, it will give me something to do to avoid watching the game. Yawn.
To link to the Vegetarian Times recipe online, go here: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/8984
Kale Goodness
I like me some kale and it's so healthy that I figure every time I eat it I get some extra points for Heaven. Baby Jeebus loves the leafy greens! But for me it's gotta be cooked, cuz otherwise it's a little too bitter and chalky. For an easy, healthy dinner side, try the following...
Ingredients:
a couple tablespoons of olive oil
6-8 fresh, washed kale leaves
some cloves of garlic, crushed/finely chopped/micro-grated (I used 5. Yumz!)
half a can of diced/crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
Serves 2.
1. Pour the olive oil in a big, heavy frying pan/wok pan.
2. Add the garlic and heat it up just until it starts to smell good.
3. Add the big pile of kale and let it start to cook on medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. The kale will shrink down as it heats through. You can cover the pan to help it heat more efficiently.
4. A few minutes before the kale is done, add the tomatoes and let them heat through. Mix it all up.
5. When everything is nice and warm, remove from heat and serve immediately.
Possible accompaniments: mac and cheese, rice pilaf, couscous, quinoa, tofu.
Ingredients:
a couple tablespoons of olive oil
6-8 fresh, washed kale leaves
some cloves of garlic, crushed/finely chopped/micro-grated (I used 5. Yumz!)
half a can of diced/crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
Serves 2.
1. Pour the olive oil in a big, heavy frying pan/wok pan.
2. Add the garlic and heat it up just until it starts to smell good.
3. Add the big pile of kale and let it start to cook on medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. The kale will shrink down as it heats through. You can cover the pan to help it heat more efficiently.
4. A few minutes before the kale is done, add the tomatoes and let them heat through. Mix it all up.
5. When everything is nice and warm, remove from heat and serve immediately.
Possible accompaniments: mac and cheese, rice pilaf, couscous, quinoa, tofu.
Sneeze-a-licious Brownies
Every chocolate connoisseur knows that truly dark chocolate will make you sneeze (daintily). These brownies are an adaptation of the Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies, with some serious added chocolate-fudgey goodness that practically guarantees a gesundheit. They are for true chocolate lovers (if you are deluded enough to think that Godiva doesn't taste like plastic, then this recipe is probably not for you!). Splurge on quality chocolate for this one -- Valrhona is best, but if you don't have time to order it online, go for Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (60% cacao) and Lake Champlain's Sao Thome bar (70%!). Both are available in any Whole Foods baking aisle. These brownies are expensive, but so is life...
Ingredients:
2/3 stick butter
6 oz dark chocolate chips (half a bag)
two 3 oz dark chocolate bars
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 eggs
1 T vanilla
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/3 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
a little flour for sprinkling
a little something to grease the pan
Yield: 9 brownies
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Use a double boiler to melt 2/3 of the dark chocolate chips (4 oz) with one 3 oz dark chocolate bar, the unsweetened chocolate, and the butter. If you aren't fancy and don't have a double boiler, you can do like me and use a small-ish bowl (one that is safe to boil - metal/porcelain) and float it in a saucepan full of water.
3. Let the melted mixture cool slightly. In a different bowl, mix together eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Then mix it with the melted chocolate.
4. Let the warm stuff cool to room temperature. Patience is a virtue, even when chocolate is involved.
5. Occupy yourself while the chocolate cools by mixing flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Set aside.
6. Chop up the second dark chocolate bar in 1/4 inch chunks. In yet another separate bowl, mix the chunks with the remaining 2 oz of dark chocolate chips. Sprinkle a bit of flour in to lightly coat the chunks and chips.
7. Grease and lightly flour an 8x8 inch baking pan.
8. Once the chocolate mixture is finally at room temperature, thoroughly mix in the flour mixture, then gently add the chocolate chunks and chips.
9. Pour the whole shabang into the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick/fork poked in the center just comes out clean. Fifteen minutes into baking, rap the baking pan against the oven shelf a few times to make sure there are no air bubbles between dough and pan. Do NOT overbake!!
10. Cool, slice, and enjoy. You know you love me!
Ingredients:
2/3 stick butter
6 oz dark chocolate chips (half a bag)
two 3 oz dark chocolate bars
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 eggs
1 T vanilla
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/3 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
a little flour for sprinkling
a little something to grease the pan
Yield: 9 brownies
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Use a double boiler to melt 2/3 of the dark chocolate chips (4 oz) with one 3 oz dark chocolate bar, the unsweetened chocolate, and the butter. If you aren't fancy and don't have a double boiler, you can do like me and use a small-ish bowl (one that is safe to boil - metal/porcelain) and float it in a saucepan full of water.
3. Let the melted mixture cool slightly. In a different bowl, mix together eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Then mix it with the melted chocolate.
4. Let the warm stuff cool to room temperature. Patience is a virtue, even when chocolate is involved.
5. Occupy yourself while the chocolate cools by mixing flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Set aside.
6. Chop up the second dark chocolate bar in 1/4 inch chunks. In yet another separate bowl, mix the chunks with the remaining 2 oz of dark chocolate chips. Sprinkle a bit of flour in to lightly coat the chunks and chips.
7. Grease and lightly flour an 8x8 inch baking pan.
8. Once the chocolate mixture is finally at room temperature, thoroughly mix in the flour mixture, then gently add the chocolate chunks and chips.
9. Pour the whole shabang into the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick/fork poked in the center just comes out clean. Fifteen minutes into baking, rap the baking pan against the oven shelf a few times to make sure there are no air bubbles between dough and pan. Do NOT overbake!!
10. Cool, slice, and enjoy. You know you love me!
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