Cinnamon Maple Granola

A Parker summertime tradition, homemade granola. My husband’s favorite is cinnamon, my favorite is dark chocolate peanut. It’s great for snacking, eating as cereal with milk, or sprinkled on yogurt or ice cream (especially delicious on homemade ice cream!). You can follow the basic recipe and make it your own by adding your favorite ingredients.

 

5 cups rice krispies
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup rough chopped walnuts
2 cups raisins
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup craisins
3 Tbl cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.  In large bowl, mix together rice krispies, oats, walnuts, raisins, coconut, dates, craisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  In saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together.  Add maple syrup, salt, and vanilla.  Pour over dry ingredients and stir gently until thoroughly combined.  Spread out evenly on two cookie sheets that have been sprayed with nonstick spray.  Bake for 8 minutes, remove and gently stir and spread out again.  Bake another 8 minutes, remove, gently stir and spread out again.  Bake 8 minutes more.  Remove and cool completely.  Store in airtight container.

More Granola!

 

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Sausage & Egg Casserole

This is a delicious breakfast casserole that we had for Easter brunch. It is an overnight casserole, mix together the night before, cover, refrigerate, and bake in the morning. I mixed it together early in the morning and baked it about 5 hours later, worked beautifully. We also ate the leftovers for dinner, definitely can be an anytime meal. It combines so many of my favorite foods, sausage, cheese, bread and eggs, of course I would eat it anytime.

1 lb pork sausage (I use turkey sausage)
6 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground dry mustard
6 slices white bread, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese*

In a skillet, brown and crumble sausage; drain and set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs; add milk, salt and mustard. Stir in bread cubes, cheese and sausage. Pour into a greased 11×7-in. (or 9″x9″) baking dish. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. *I sprinkled more cheese on top during baking with about 10 minutes remaining. Recipe found at tasteofhome.com.

Super Moist Chocolate Chip Muffins

Looking for a chocolate snack? These chocolate muffins are so good, and because applesauce is the secret to making them moist, we can call them healthy! Well, while we are in quarantine everything seems skewed a bit, so healthy becomes relative. Recipe from ChefAlli.com

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided use
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanila
1 egg
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease 12 muffin cups or line muffins cups with paper muffin liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, brown sugar, 3/4 cup chocolate chips, and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, egg, applesauce, milk, and vegetable oil until smooth; pour into flour mixture and stir until the mixture is just combined. Don’t over mix!

Divide the prepared batter between the 12 prepared muffin cups, filling each one about 2/3 full. Divide the remaining ¼ cup of chocolate chips between muffins, sprinkling them over the top of each one. Bake muffins, uncovered, on center rack, in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. s soon as the muffins are removed from the oven, gently place a sheet of foil on top. Let the muffins cool covered, then remove them from the muffin tin. Store in an air tight container.

More Snacking Muffins!

 

Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffins

It’s 1:30 pm, I’m still in my pajamas, and I have eaten four blueberry muffins. Just being honest about how quarantine is going. Hope you’re doing well, maybe bake some muffins and enjoy! This is recipe #12 on kingarthurflour.com‘s Best Basic Recipe Collection.

   

1/2 cup (8 Tbl) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2½ cups blueberries, fresh preferred
1/4 cup sugar, for topping

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin; or line the tin with papers, and grease the papers. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl and beating well after each addition. Beat in the baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Add the flour alternately with the milk, beating gently just to combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Mash 1/2 cup of the blueberries. Add the mashed and whole berries to the batter, stirring just to combine and distribute.

Scoop the batter by the heaping 1/4-cupful into the prepared muffin pan; a muffin scoop works well. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon granulated sugar atop each muffin, if desired. It’s traditional — go for it! Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, until they’re light golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, loosen their edges from the pan, and after about 5 minutes transfer them to a rack to cool.

More Muffins to Enjoy!

         

Whole-Grain Banana Bread

Moist and flavorful is what I will say about recipe #10 on kingarthurflour.com‘s Best Basic Recipe list. I say that after much grumbling about the burned overflow in the bottom of my oven and the burned smell that exists in my house. I am following these recipes as exact as I can to see if I agree with the word BEST given in the title.

So, as I poured the batter of this banana bread into the loaf pan and it goes scarily close to the top rim, I say to myself, this isn’t going to work. In my mind there is a battle brewing, that is way too much batter for that pan, no, trust the recipe and the pan size it says, follow the recipe as exact as possible, you better use a larger pan or separate into two smaller pans. You add quarantine to this situation and it’s not good!

Well, I went with trust the recipe and the pan size it says. All is cleaned up now, it’s not the prettiest loaf you will ever see, and you have the full story. Use a larger pan or two smaller ones, and you will have a moist and flavorful Whole-Grain Banana Bread. Ü

Batter
2 cups mashed banana, about 4-5 medium bananas
1/2 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Topping
1 Tbl sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center position. Lightly grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan; if your pan is glass or stoneware, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. In a large bowl, stir together the mashed banana, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Weigh your flours; or measure them by gently spooning into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts into the banana mixture. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and mix again to thoroughly combine the ingredients. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake the bread for about 60 to 75 minutes, until the bread feels set on the top, and a paring knife (or other thin knife) inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs (but no wet batter). If you have a digital thermometer, the bread’s temperature at the center should register about 205°F. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it with aluminum foil for the final 15 to 20 minutes of baking. Note: If baking in a glass or stoneware pan, increase the baking time by 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven. Cool it in the pan for 15 minutes, then loosen the edges, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely. Store leftover bread, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.

Simply Perfect Pancakes

How about a stack of pancakes to make quarantine a little better? This is recipe #9 on kingarthurflour.com list of Best Basic Recipes. I have to admit, I haven’t had pancakes since…well, I don’t know when. So, this was a treat! Light and fluffy, an amazing vehicle for getting butter and pure maple syrup into my mouth!

2 large eggs
1¼ cups milk
3 Tbl melted butter or oil
1½ cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbl sugar or 1/4 cup malted milk powder*

Beat the eggs and milk until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed of a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter or oil. Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener (*I used powdered French vanilla coffee creamer). Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes (hard to wait, but an important step), while the griddle is heating; it”ll thicken slightly.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, or set an electric griddle to 375°F. Lightly grease frying pan or griddle. The pan or griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break, about 2 minutes; then turn the pancakes and cook the other side until brown, about 1½ to 2 minutes. Turn over only once. Serve immediately.

 

Scones

Recipe #3 of kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipe Collection is SCONES! I will eat any scone from plain to savory to sweet (sweet will always be the favorite, of course). The secret with scone dough is to handle it as little as possible to keep those littles bits of butter nice and cold until they hit the oven. This is a basic recipe and you can choose your mix-ins and flavoring, this time I used 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and vanilla. Next time I might use raisins, pecans, and maple, oh, that sounds amazing!

Dough
2¾ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
1/2 cup cold butter
1-2 cups chopped dried fruit, chocolate or other flavor chips, nuts, or combination
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla or flavoring of choice
1/2 – 2/3 cup half-and-half or milk

Topping
2 tsp milk or half-and-half
2 Tbl sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar, optional

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in butter just until mixture is unevenly crumbly; it’s OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated. Stir in the fruit, chips, and/or nuts, if you’re using them. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla or other flavor, and half-and-half or milk. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until all is moistened and holds together.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat; if you don’t have either, just use pan without greasing it. Sprinkle a bit of flour atop the parchment or pan. Put dough onto floured parchment or pan, and divide it in half. Round each half into a 5″ circle. Brush each circle with milk, and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar, if desired. Using a knife or bench knife that you’ve run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges. Carefully pull wedges away from center to separate them just a bit; there should be about 1/2″ space between them, at their outer edges.

For best texture and highest rise, place pan of scones in freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. Chilling scones relaxes the gluten in the flour, which makes scones more tender and allows them to rise higher. It also chills fat, which will make scones a bit flakier. While scones are chilling, preheat oven to 425°F with a rack in the upper third.

Bake scones in upper part of your oven for 18 to 23 minutes, or until they’re a light golden brown. Remove scones from oven, and cool briefly on pan. Serve warm. They’re delicious as is, but add butter and/or jam, if you like.

When scones are completely cool, wrap them in plastic and store at room temperature for up to several days. To reheat room-temperature scones, place on a baking sheet, tent lightly with foil, and warm in a preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.

Bran Muffins

We love a good muffin, don’t we? But, I am big on counting calories, and a muffin can be loaded with calories. With this recipe, the goal was healthy, good taste, fiber, and low calorie. I think is hits the mark, it can be a good start for your morning or a great snack. Don’t expect a lot of sweet, there is no sugar added. The flavor comes from the hardiness of bran, a hint of molasses, cinnamon, and little bit of chocolate here and there.
One muffin has 145 calories, 5g fiber, 2.6g fat, 30.7g carbs.

1¼ cups All-Bran cereal
2/3 cup milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2 Tbl molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbl mini chocolate chips*

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 6 muffin cups or add papers.
Stir together All-Bran, milk, applesauce, egg, molasses, and vanilla. Let sit 5 minutes for the bran to softened. Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add dry ingredients to bran mixture and stir just until combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Scoop batter evenly into the 6 muffin cups. Bake 20-22 minutes.

*Use 4 Tbl mini chocolate chips for a little more chocolate in your muffins, this increases the calories per muffin to 170. Still good on calories, and more chocolate!

 

Peanut Butter & Banana Oatmeal Bake

This is a delicious way to eat your oatmeal!

4 cups old fashioned oats
1½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2¹⁄3 cups almond milk (or other milk)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy

Preheat oven to 375°. In medium bowl, stir together oats, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In large bowl, stir together milk, brown sugar, vanilla, maple syrup, and lemon juice. With electric mixer on lowest setting, mix in bananas and peanut butter. Add oat mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour mixture into sprayed 13″x9″ baking pan, spread evenly. Bake 20-25 minutes, until set. Serve while hot on a plate or in a bowl with syrup, cream, milk, bananas, raisins, you decide! Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in refrigerator for 5-7 days and reheated. You can make half a batch and bake in 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ baking pan. Recipe from shelikesfood.com.

Other Breakfast Ideas:

 

 

Mandarin Orange Muffins

Mandarin Orange Muffins, may you have a happy sunny morning!

1¾ cups flour
2½ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (11 oz) can mandarin oranges, drained, reserve 1/2 cup liquid
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 400°. In large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup mandarin orange liquid, egg, oil, and sugar. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in oranges. Divide batter evenly into six muffins cups sprayed with non-stick spray and sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake 20 minutes or until golden. Makes 6 large muffins.

One Year Ago: Easy Cheesy Breadsticks

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Four Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes w/Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting