Some days I just feel fat!

Let’s face it.  I’m a girl who LOVES to bake.

So it’s pretty much inevitable I’ll have those days.

Lately I’ve been trying to eat better.

Be more conscious about the foods I’m putting into my body.

This has lead to a slight obsession with granola.

Now people usually love one of two types of granola.

Granola chunks that cling together or individual granola pieces perfect for sprinkling.

I live in the second camp.

I don’t want big chunky pieces.

I want to be able to sprinkle my granola over yogurt.

Or pour milk over it and eat it like cereal.

Even grab a handful as a snack.

I want you to enjoy some granola too!

Granola

2 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Quick Cooking Oats
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/2 C. Honey
1/2 C. Walnuts (feel free to substitute your favorite or mix several varieties)
1/2 C. Oil
1/2 – 1 C. Dried fruit (I used cranberries, use what you like)

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil. Leave enough foil on the ends to allow you to pick the foil up off of the baking sheet once baking is complete. Pre-heat your oven to 350. In a large bowl mix nuts, spices, oil, and honey. Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Stir frequently during baking. The edges will brown very quickly. Remove from oven and lift the foil from the baking sheet to stop the baking process. Allow granola to cool. Stir in fruit. Sore in an airtight container.

It’s coming….

Can you feel it?

Fall.

There’s just a hint of it in the air.

It teases me as I take my son to the bus stop every morning.

I feel it nipping at my legs as the sun sets.

I see it in the random crunchy leaf on the ground.

And my stomach is craving the warm filling foods it will bring.

Are you ready?

I know I am.

Pear Cranberry and Walnut Pie ~ (adapted from this recipe Family Circle Nov., 07)

For the Crust

2 1/2 C. All-Purpose flour
1 C. Butter (I used salted)
Ice Water

For the Filling

3 T. Butter
4-5 Pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/3 C. Brown sugar, packed
1/4 C. Dried cranberries
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp Cornstarch
1 tsp Lemon juice
1/4 c. Chopped walnuts
1 Egg white
1 1/2 tsp Milk
1 T. Cinnamon sugar

**You’ll want to prepare your crust in advance as it needs time to rest in the refrigerator before it is rolled out.

To prepare the crust place the flour and butter in the food processor. Process until it resembles coarse peas. Gradually add ice water a tablespoon at a time until a ball starts to form. Avoid adding to much water and/or handling the dough to much. Shape into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 5 hours or overnight.

To prepare the filling add the butter to a nonstick skillet. Using medium heat allow butter to melt, add pear slices and saute’ until tender and beginning to brown. Stir in the brown sugar, cranberries, and cinnamon. Turn the heat to low. Cook until the sugar is dissolved. In a small bowl mix the corn starch and lemon juice. Stir in the cornstarch mixture. Cook for about a minute until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat and add the walnuts.

Remove the pie crust from the refrigerator and divide into 2 equal pieces. Return one to the fridge while you work with the first. Roll out into a 10″ circle. Place in the bottom of a 9″ pie plate. Shape into the bottom and up the sides.

Pour pear mixture into prepared crust. Roll out the other half of the crust. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes in the center of the crust, if desired. You can use your shapes to garnish the top of the pie. (If you don’t cut out shapes you’ll need to cut slits into the top crust in order for it to vent.) Place over the top of pear mixture, trim edges if required. Crimp edges to seal. Mix egg white and milk. Brush over the top crust and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Garnish with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I’m not typically a breakfast kinda person.

Normally when I roll outta bed you shouldn’t approach me or talk to me for at least 30 minutes…possibly an hour if you want to be safe.

See I’m not really awake when I stumble outta bed.  I’m just pretending to be a functioning adult trying to get her child off to school so she can come home, sit on the couch for a few minutes,  drink a giant cup of iced coffee, and begin to feel like a human person again.

I’m fortunate that my son also shares my morning zombie affliction so we usually get along just fine most mornings.

We usually don’t do breakfast either.

Seriously….Who can eat when they are still half asleep??

but when I stumbled upon this recipe for cookies using cereal….

Portable breakfast!!!  Genius!!

These cookies use flax seed.  I’d never used it in baking before and let me tell you.

I am in LOVE.

It gives them a nutty quality and even though they spread more than I really wanted them to (I don’t think I crushed my cereal flakes enough) it kept the cookies chewy in the center which is a cookie must for me.

I must warn you though.  These cookies will call to you from the cookie container every time you walk by.

**Update ~ I made these cookies again crushing my cornflakes until they resembled the size and consistency of the oats.  They didn’t have as much spreading and held together nicely.**

Breakfast Cookies   ~ (Adapted From Family Circle)

1 C. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
1/2 C. flax seed meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks butter, soft
1 C. white sugar
1 C. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 C. corn flakes (crushed with your hand. They should resemble your oats)
2 C. quick cooking oats
optional ingredients
1  C. chopped toasted walnuts, pecans, or other nuts
1  C. raisins, dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries, or other fruit
1 C. coconut
1 C. chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 325. Combine the flour, flax seed, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.

With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium/high until well combined and mixture is pale and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Next add the vanilla and eggs to combine. Mix in the flour. Stir in the corn flakes, oats, and any optional ingredients by hand.

I used a slightly overfilled 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out my  dough onto the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Let the cookies bake for about 12-15 minutes.  They should be set and have a slightly golden tint.  Cool cookies for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Store in an air tight container.  I also like to put a piece of loaf bread in the container after the first day to help the cookies keep their chewiness.  Just change out the bread as it dries out.

It’s hot here.

Not just hot.  Miserable.  Baking in the sun.  Steaming in the humidity.       H.O.T

Comfort food is not what I’m craving right now.

Cooling and refreshing is what I want.

Baking in this heat has me longing for cool fall days.  Sweaters and blue jeans.

Roasted marshmallows by a fire.  Pumpkins and Jack-O lanterns.

Thanksgiving pies and Christmas cookies.

I’m ready to turn my oven back on people.

Until then I made us something cooling and refreshing.

It only requires a small bit of oven time and even more freezer time.

Which makes for frozen deliciousness.

**This recipe uses a boxed cake mix for the crust.  I typically don’t use those, but I was feeling lazy so I went ahead with it and doctored it a bit.  Fill free to replace the cake crust portion with your favorite vanilla cake**

Blueberry Freeze   ~   (Adapted from Ladies’ Home Journal)

1 box white cake mix (I used yellow because that’s all I had)
1 C. Sour Cream
1/2 C. Vegetable Oil
3 1/2 C. Blueberries, more for serving if desired
2/3 C. + 1/8 C. Sugar
2 T. lemon juice
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 Jar Marshmallow fluff
3/4 C. + 1 1/2 C. Heavy Cream

Pre-Heat the oven to 350.   Prepare a 9-in springform pan by spraying it with baking spray that contains flour. In a mixing bowl, mix the cake mix, sour cream and vegetable oil.   Pour about 2 1/2 cups of batter into the prepared pan.  (Fill free to use the rest for cupcakes)  Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling clean your springform pan.  Once cool return the cake to the pan placing it in top side down.  Use a long strip of wax paper or parchment to line the inside edges of the pan.  You’ll want this to extend past the top of the pan about 2 inches.  Make sure it fits tightly around the cake.  I actually placed my cake onto the bottom portion on my spring form pan, wrapped my parchment tightly around the edges of the cake; securing it with scotch tape, and then placed the side of my springform pan back into place.  Once your cake is wrapped in it’s wax paper/parchment sleeve place it in the freezer while you prepare the next step.

Process blueberries, lemon juice, and 2/3 cup of sugar in a food processor or blender until smooth.  In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add marshmallow fluff.  Mix well.  In an seperate bowl whip 3/4 cup of heavy cream until stiff peaks form.  Stir the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.  Stir in blueberry puree, gently.

Remove cake from the freeze and spread blueberry mixture over the top.  Return to the freezer until set, about 8 hrs or overnight.

Before serving,  whip 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream with 1/8 C. of sugar until slightly stiff peaks form.  Dollop or spread over the top of the blueberry cake.  Re-freeze.  Remove cake from freezer and allow to come to room temperature for about 15 – 30 minutes before serving.

Garnish with additional blueberries and confectioners sugar if desired.

We need to talk…..

K.  See this next recipe is one of those MANY I told you about last week that I’ve been saving, OK hording, for awhile now.

Now this recipe uses yeast.

Calm down.

Their is absolutely no reason to let this intimidate you or keep you from trying it.  Trust me.  When these bad boys come out of the oven you’ll be glad you did.

Now these do take some time if you consider the amount of time you need to let your dough rise, but it’s pretty simple and you can asseemble the buns the night before and let them hang out in the fridge and bake them the next morning if that strikes your fancy.

I personally couldn’t wait to try them.  So I baked them at 8 o’clock at night….

And had one for supper.  Don’t judge.

Cinnamon Rolls ~ Adapted from Family Circle

1 (1/4 oz.) Envelope active dry yeast
1/4 C. Warm Water
3 T. Sugar
1 C. Milk
2 Lg. Eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
4 C. All Purpose Flour + about an additional cup for kneading and rolling out
1/2 tsp. Salt

Filling

1 Stick butter, Soft
1/2 C Sugar
1 1/4 C. Brown Sugar
1 T + 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 C. Chopped Pecans

Glaze
2 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
1-4 T. Milk

Pour your milk into a saucepan and heat on medium heat until the milk just starts to boil. Remove from heat and sit aside to cool to room temperature.

While your milk is cooling sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. (Do this in a large mixing bowl, or I did it directly in the measuring cup and transferred to the bowl of my stand mixer later so I would be able to use my dough hook) Add 1 T. of sugar and let it hang out for about 5 minutes until it’s foamy. (Now here is where I transferred it to my stand mixer.) Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, butter, eggs and the cooled milk. Beat all of this together. (If you are using your stand mixer use the whisk attachment.)

Now you’ll gradually add the 4 cups of flour and salt. (If you are using your stand mixer change to your dough hook before adding the flour/salt.)
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix until a soft dough comes together. Lightly four your work surface and turn dough out to kneed. Continue to kneed in up to 1 cup of additional flour if dough is sticky. You’ll want to kneed this for about 10 minutes until you have a soft smooth dough.

Grease a large bowl. Let your dough rest inside. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it hang out in a warm spot until it has doubled in size. That should take about 1 1/2 hours. (I let mine go a little longer.)

While the dough is rising prepare your filling and pans. For the pans you’ll need two 9-inch round baking pans or cast iron skillets. Spray them with cooking spray. I used a spray that also contained flour. You can also line the bottoms of the pan with waxed paper and spray that with cooking spray to further prevent sticking. I baked mine in 9-inch aluminum cake pans and didn’t have any issues not using the waxed paper.

For the filling mix the butter, sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside.

Once your dough has risen you’ll punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface to roll it out. Your going for approximately an 18 x 12 inch rectangle of dough here. Spread your filling mixture over the dough with the back of a spoon or rubber spatula. Sprinkle with pecans or other nuts if you’re using those.  Raisins might be good here too.  Starting on one of the long sides roll up the dough and pinch the seam to close when you’re finished.

Cut the roll in half directly through the middle of the roll. This will give you 2 short rolls.  Cut each short roll into 6 equal pieces. Place cut-side down 6 pieces to each prepared pan. If you plan to cook these now cover the pans with plastic wrap and allow the pieces to sit for about 35-50 minutes or until hey have doubled in size. If you are preparing the night before for the next morning wrap your pans in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

To bake heat your oven to 350. Remove the plastic wrap and bake until golden brown and bubbly. This should take about 30-45 minutes. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before adding the glaze.

For the glaze add enough milk one tablespoon full at a time until you have a thick, smooth, slow pouring glaze. Pour over the tops of buns and serve.