Posts Tagged ‘pinterest’

Sugar and Spice Biscuits

Posted: 19th March 2013 by doomthings in Breakfast, The Foodening
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One morning I had a friend coming over for crafting and immediately had the desire to make something we could snack on.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from this recipe from Diabetic Living Online via Pinterest, but I really wanted something with cinnamon in it, so I just dove in.

Yield:  12 biscuits.

Ingredients (adapted from Diabetic Living Online):

  • 2 cups bread flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup fat-free milk
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Grease twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups; set aside. In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center; add milk. Stir just until dough clings together.
  2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead by folding and gently pressing dough for 10 to 12 strokes or until dough is nearly smooth. Divide dough in half. Roll one portion into a 12×10-inch rectangle. In a small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle some of the sugar mixture over the rectangle.
  3. Cut rectangle into five 12×2-inch strips. Stack the strips on top of each other. Cut into six 2-inch-square stacks. Place each stack, cut side down, in a prepared muffin cup. Repeat with remaining dough and sugar mixture.
  4. Bake in a 450 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Serve warm.

The only substitutions I made for this recipe were for the flour and butter.  The original recipe calls for all-purpose flour and for shortening.  I have an irrational dislike for shortening, but also think that butter adds so much more flavor.  They turned out really nice, although I definitely put them in the muffin tins rotated 90-degrees than where they should have been, so they sort of came out looking funny.  I was immediately reminded of the sour cream biscuits my dad made us on weekends when I was a kid.  Really, the only difference was the lack of sour cream.  I think I’ll have to make my dad’s biscuits soon.  I’m going into a food coma just thinking about them.

OK, back to these biscuits!  So, despite the fact that I’m sure adding butter killed any chance of them being healthy (see the original recipe for nutritional information), I ate nearly half of them.  My arteries hurt.  -17 life.

[pictures will be posted when I make this recipe again]

Apple Bran Muffins

Posted: 19th March 2013 by doomthings in Breakfast, The Foodening
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Whenever we buy apples, I always want to make something fancy with them.  I usually end up just taking them for lunch, but I’ll keep my grand aspirations, thank you!  So after being sad that we didn’t get apples from our local grocery store (they usually have crappy produce), I moped around my refridgerator until the applesauce caught my eye.  The following recipe calls for applesauce and apples, but only having applesauce, I decided to experiment.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Ingredients (adapted from Cooking Light):

  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg white
  • 3/4 cup fat-free milk
  • 1/3 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
  • 1 tablespoon molasses
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 1 1/2 cups bran buds cereal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400°.
  2. Place 12 paper muffin cup liners in muffin cups; set aside.
  3. Combine brown sugar and butter in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
  4. Add egg; beat 1 minute or until well blended. Beat in egg white until well blended.
  5. Add milk, applesauce, molasses, and vanilla extract; beat on low speed until well blended.
  6. Combine flour, bran, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  7. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
  8. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.
  9. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center.

I ended up substituting some of the ingredients from the original recipe, only because I didn’t have them in the house.  For the applesauce, I didn’t have unsweetened, as per the original recipe, so it was probably a bit sweeter than normal.  I also added a slop of applesauce to account for the apples I didn’t have.  The original recipe did not call for bread flour, but I like the texture it gives to all baked things and I like to make a lot of bread.  Needless to say, I don’t keep regular flour around so all my baked treats are made with bread flour.

I ended up liking these more than my husband did.  Before the days of Pinterest, I would make plain bran muffins (as per the bran cereal box) and he thought the apple bran variety was not as flavorful.  I would agree, the flavor was not as strong, but the apple and spices taste really came through and reminded me of apple and cinnamon oatmeal.  Maybe I’ll make these with oats next time.  Delicious!

Also, it was St. Patrick’s day. + 10 creativity.

Ginger Waffles

Posted: 19th March 2013 by doomthings in Breakfast, The Foodening
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Yeah, yeah, my second food post is another post about waffles!  That’s right!  Everyone loves waffles!  I was inspired to make ginger cookies because my husband loves the ginger cookies I make during the winter holidays, and because he keeps threatening to add ginger to our dinners (I”m not a huge fan of most savory ginger dishes).  I found the following recipe from Martha Stewart via Pinterest:

Yield: 10 waffles.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 4 large eggs
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup sour cream, plus more for serving
  • 3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
  • Lingonberry preserves (or other berry preserves), for serving

Directions:

  1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs, butter, milk, sour cream, and molasses in a medium bowl. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, and whisk until smooth.
  2. Heat a waffle iron. Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each mold, and cook until golden brown. Serve warm waffles with sour cream and preserves.

This were pretty freakin’ good.  It is worth noting that the serving size for a 4-inch square waffle was spot-on.  I cut the recipe in half so my husband and I weren’t drowning in waffles and I got exactly 5 waffles.  Math is good.  I burned the first batch, but they still tasted marvelous.  -5 experience points, +20 dumb luck points.

[pictures will be posted when I make these again]

Chocolate Waffles

Posted: 19th March 2013 by doomthings in Breakfast, The Foodening
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This doesn’t really seem like a huge shift to the right in terms of trying new things.  I know, I know, but who doesn’t like waffles and chocolate?  It just seems natural to mash them into a magical goo called breakfast.  Originally I attempted to follow this recipe I found on Pinterest, but it was way too complicated and I had waffle mix in my house.  Because of that laziness, and the fact that I didn’t use it, I haven’t reproduced the recipe here.

Also, I really didn’t like the idea of adding extreme amounts of high fructose corn syrup from store-bought chocolate syrup.

So, in the spirit of using what’s easily accessible in my house, being lazy, and really wanting waffles immediately, I grabbed a box of store-bought waffle mix, cocoa powder, sugar, (and the ingredients called for on the box) and made a mess.

Ingredients:

  • Waffle mix (store bought or homemade) and associated wet ingredients.
  • Unsweetened chocolate cocoa powder (to taste).
  • Granulated sugar (half the amount of the cocoa powder).

Directions:

  1. Combine waffle mix as per the box or recipe directions.
  2. Add cocoa powder by tablespoons to taste.  Mix well.
  3. Add sugar in half (or less) the amount of cocoa powder.  Mix well.
  4. Pre-heat the waffle iron and grease well.
  5. Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each mold, and cook until golden brown.

I ended up adding the cocoa powder until it “looked right”, and kept tasting it until it was adequately chocolatey.  For each scoop of cocoa powder, I added half that amount of sugar to sweeten the mixture up a bit.  I did notice that the more chocolate that was added, the more the waffle exhibited the “bitter” taste of unsweetened cocoa powder, despite the added sugar.  I didn’t mind though, too much sugar makes me crazy so I didn’t want to go overboard.  Because it’s just me and my husband, I seriously reduced the Bisquick recipe to make 4-5 waffle squares.

How were they? Delicious!  Also, they were husband approved, so this will definitely be made again.  As a side-note, it’s really hard to tell if these waffles were burned, although I have a sneaking suspicion that they were.  Despite that, they definitely did not taste burned.  +10 experience points.

[pictures will be posted as soon as I make this recipe again]