Category Archives: baking

Apple crisp

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I had the WORST craving for apple crisp this week. A craving, yes, but no recipe. And no patience to go looking for one. So here’s what I came up with:

I’m the only one in the house who likes an apple crisp (no sharing! Score!), so I cut up two granny smith apples and tossed them in lemon juice so they wouldn’t brown (that’s two fruits already; this is practically a salad). Then I sprinkled in brown sugar (about 1/3 cup) and generous sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg, and stirred till the apples were all coated in sugary goodness.

I melted butter in the bottom of a little baking dish and spread it out with a brush, then dumped in the coated apples.

In a new bowl I put about a 1/2 cup each of white flour, white sugar, and oats. I cut in about 3-4 Tbsp of butter and a pinch of salt, and sprinkled that over the apple mixture.

25 minutes in a 350 toaster oven = happy mama. Apple crisp for breakfast anyone?

Apple crisp

baking, dessert 1 Comment

I had the WORST craving for apple crisp this week. A craving, yes, but no recipe. And no patience to go looking for one. So here’s what I came up with:

I’m the only one in the house who likes an apple crisp (no sharing! Score!), so I cut up two granny smith apples and tossed them in lemon juice so they wouldn’t brown (that’s two fruits already; this is practically a salad). Then I sprinkled in brown sugar (about 1/3 cup) and generous sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg, and stirred till the apples were all coated in sugary goodness.

I melted butter in the bottom of a little baking dish and spread it out with a brush, then dumped in the coated apples.

In a new bowl I put about a 1/2 cup each of white flour, white sugar, and oats. I cut in about 3-4 Tbsp of butter and a pinch of salt, and sprinkled that over the apple mixture.

25 minutes in a 350 toaster oven = happy mama. Apple crisp for breakfast anyone?

Baked Oatmeal

baking, breakfast 1 Comment

Here’s the thing. Two things actually:

1. Oatmeal is really good for you

2. I hate oatmeal

On a mission to somehow learn to like it, I have discovered the answer: BAKED oatmeal. This comes out as a cross between oatmeal cookie and some kind of oatmeal crisp topping. And it’s for breakfast, people!

I started out with two different recipes from Allrecipes.com and kind of picked what I liked from each and reduced the sugar a bit (still tastes plenty sweet); here’s my final result:

Beat into submission:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs

Add and mix:

  • 1 cup milk – I use whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 3 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup Craisins, raisins or other dried fruit

Pour all this into a pie plate, baking dish or muffin tin — but whatever you use, grease it. This stuff is like glue on a pan otherwise (I heard).

Now mix together and sprinkle on top:

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

I baked this at 350 for about half an hour, then served warm with choices of butter, maple syrup, milk and extra cinnamon. This was SO good and so healthy! Score!

Baked Oatmeal

baking, breakfast 3 Comments

Here’s the thing. Two things actually:

1. Oatmeal is really good for you

2. I hate oatmeal

On a mission to somehow learn to like it, I have discovered the answer: BAKED oatmeal. This comes out as a cross between oatmeal cookie and some kind of oatmeal crisp topping. And it’s for breakfast, people!

 

 

I started out with two different recipes from Allrecipes.com and kind of picked what I liked from each and reduced the sugar a bit (still tastes plenty sweet); here’s my final result:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 3 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup Craisins

Plus:

  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon

To make:

  1. Beat oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar and eggs
  2. Add milk, salt, baking powder, oats and fruit and stir together
  3. Pour mixture into a greased pie plate and top with 2 Tbsp. brown sugar and cinnamon
  4. Bake at 350F for about half an hour; swerve warm with any combination of butter, maple syrup, milk and extra cinnamon

This was SO good and so healthy! Score!

Epic muffin fail: a lesson in bakeware

baking, breakfast 1 Comment

I had some frozen bananas to use, so I pulled up the recipe for Aunt Mickey’s Famous Banana Bread from Rumble in the Kitchen. This recipe is brilliant! So quick and easy.  My crap bakeware and I take full responsibility for the partial failure of these muffins.

I wanted to make mini muffins with the batter because The Kiddo loves all things mini, and is more likely to eat a muffin than a slice of bread. I’m all about sneaking in fruits and veggies anywhere I can, so that was my game plan. I have a lovely 24-muffin mini pan by Wilton, and a 12-muffin size, a cheapo one I picked up at Home Goods sometime last year. Since I had plenty of batter I used both. And then some.

First, my bananas were frozen. I cut the ends off, then sliced it in quarters; from there I could pretty easily get the peel off. I dropped them, still pretty frozen, into the work bowl of Barbie’s Dream Mixer. Within just a few minutes they were on their way to lovely mush. I added in the sugar and remaining wet ingredients and mixed, and had a gorgeous light yellow batter in no time.

Then into the pans, as mentioned. I had a little batter left over even after filling those two pans, so I poured the rest into a ramekin. Maybe I’d end up with a little personal bowl of something like banana cake?

Baking time went by fast with two 2 year olds running around the kitchen. Verdict: USE A GOOD PAN. Here are the muffins in the cheapo mini pan:

ACK! What IS that? What happened? Two of them wouldn’t even come out of the pan, despite a generous greasing with butter before baking.

A study in contrast — the Wilton pan muffins on the left, the cheapo pan muffins on the right:

The ramekin was an utter failure. It looked lovely, but was still batter inside. I think if it had cooked more the top would have burned, so I pulled the plug on that part of the experiment.

After a purely professional taste test (I was hungry), I can tell you the ones on the left are divine! I’ll definitely make these again. When these cool I’ll freeze about 3/4 of the batch and pull them out for breakfast as needed. I think for the next batch I’ll throw some chocolate chips in, too. Breakfast of champions!