Pumpkin Granola

I really like this healthy pumpkin granola.  Healthy because there is no fat in it.  Of course there is sugar, but it is not too sweet and crisps up as it cools.  Your home will smell delicious while you bake it!  Hopefully you have a little leftover pumpkin from baking pies or pumpkin monkey bread.  If not, pumpkin puree freezes well.  This recipe comes from the blog two peas and their pod but I have adapted it slightly.

• 5 cups old fashioned oatmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup almonds, chopped
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Stir together first five dry ingredients in large bowl.  Stir together next five ingredients and add to dry ingredients.  Combine thoroughly.  Stir in almonds.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place a sheet of parchment paper on a large rimmed cookie sheet/jelly roll pan.  Pour granola onto pan and press down evenly.  Bake 20 minutes and then stir.  Bake 20 more minutes and remove from oven.  Add cranberries and cool.

Easy Irish Brown Bread

This bread tastes fairly close to what we ate in Ireland...plus it is seriously easy to make!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tbs sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 Tbs cold butter or margarine

2 cups whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup regular or quick-cooking rolled oats

1-1/2 cups plain nonfat yogurt

milk

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture forms fine crumbs. Stir in whole wheat flour and oats.

2. Add yogurt; stir gently. If mixture is too dry to hold together, stir in milk, 1 tsp at a time, just until dough holds together (it should not be sticky).

3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently 5 times to make a ball. Set on a lighlt greased baking sheet. Pat into a 7 inch circle. With a floured knife, cut a large 'X' on top of loaf.

4. Bake in a 375 degree oven until well browned (40 mins). Cool on cooling rack. Serve warm or cool.

Moroccan Chicken Soup

* taken from America's Test Kitchen: Best Simple Recipes

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients:

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped fine

2 tsp garam masala (if not available at the grocery store: substitute 2 teaspoons ground coriander, 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, then measure out 2tsp)

5 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 14oz can diced tomatoes

2 16oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup plain couscous

1 rotisserie chicken, skin discarded and meat shredded

Directions:

1. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Cook onion until lightly browned (5 mins). Stir in garam masala and cook until fragrant (30 secs).

2. Add broth and tomatoes and bring to simmer. Stir in chickpeas, zucchini, and couscous and cook, covered, until couscous is tender (8 mins). Stir in chicken. Season with salt and peppper. Serve.

*this can easily be made into a vegan recipe by subbing the chicken broth for vegetable broth, and omitting the chicken

Pumpkin Monkey Bread with Maple Glaze

This recipe originated at www.laurenslatest.com if you would like to check it out. I adapted it slightly. Further, I made it in a bundt pan, but if you use an angel food cake pan with a removable bottom, make sure to wrap the bottom of the pan in foil first so butter and sugar do not leak out and make a mess of your oven. This monkey bread (as most monkey breads, I would guess) is best eaten while still warm. Hey, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it! Enjoy...we sure did!

Ingredients:

for the dough-
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup warm milk
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 2/3-3 1/3 cups bread flour

for the coating-
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

for the glaze-
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons half & half {or milk}
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In large stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, stir milk, water, yeast and sugar together.

Stir in salt, egg, butter, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and half the flour and mix. With mixer on, pour in remaining flour bit by bit until dough pulls away from the sides and is sticky but when touched doesn’t really stick to your hands. {For me, that was 2 tablespoons shy of 3 cups of flour.} Once you reach this stage, turn mixer on for 4-5 minutes to knead. Lightly grease dough and bowl and cover to rise for 1 hour. Stick it somewhere warm and draft-free.

Lightly grease a bundt or angel food cake pan with non stick cooking spray and set aside. Create a coating station by placing sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and melting the butter in another bowl. Punch down dough and remove from bowl. Cut dough into small pieces about 1 tablespoon in size. Roll in butter, coat in cinnamon sugar and place into prepared pan. Repeat until no dough remains. If there is extra butter or sugar, pour over the top of the dough pieces in the pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap and let rise another hour in a warm spot in your kitchen.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake monkey bread for 25 minutes or until the top begins to brown slightly. Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes.

While monkey bread is cooling, prepare glaze by mixing powdered sugar, maple syrup, half & half and vanilla together in a small bowl until smooth.

Remove warm pull aparts onto serving dish and drizzle with glaze. Serve warm.

Sufganiyot

Jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot in Israel, are a popular Hanukkah treat. Although fried foods are often associated with this holiday, these are baked. I have eaten these when I was a little girl but have never seen a baked version. After trying them, I can tell you they are really delicious. I filled some with apple butter (thanks Julianna!), some with lime curd (thanks, Laura!) and some with doctored Nutella (just add some powdered sugar, cocoa and a little water to Nutella to get it the right consistency). See directions on how to fill them...if you have piping bags for cake decorating, that would be easiest. But if worse comes to worst, I suggest just splitting them and making little doughnut sandwiches. This recipe makes 16. The recipe comes from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook 125th Anniversary edition.

Sufganiyot

3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
5 teaspoons yeast (2 packages)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk (preferably whole, but I used 1%), warm (120-130 degrees)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup filling (jam such a sour cherry or see above)
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

In electric stand mixer bowl, combine flour sugar, yeast cinnamon, and salt. With paddle attachment add oil and milk, and beat medium low for 3-5 minutes (mixture will be stiff). Add eggs one at a time and beat 10 minutes, scraping sides of bowl (mixture will be quite soft, to sticky...if too sticky to work with knead in a little flour by hand). Transfer to large greased bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise in warm place 40 minutes or until doubled.

Lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets. Gently punch down dough and roll into a 16" log. Cut into 16 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Place each ball on cookie sheet (8 per sheet). Let rise 20-30 minutes or until slightly puffed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush tops of dough with milk. Bake one sheet at a time, 12-15 minutes or until pale golden. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes.

To fill, cut off corner of self-sealing plastic bag to make 1/4" diameter hole; fit with 1/4-1/2" plain piping tip, and fill bag with filling. Slide paring knife horizontally into one side of each doughnut and, using sawing motion, carefully cut pocket in pastry. Fit piping tip into hole, and pipe filling into it until filled. Repeat. Dust doughnuts with powdered sugar to serve.

Ono Butter Mochi

On campus at the Seasider Snack Bar, a common delicacy are these little cake-looking little square things that are easily one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.  Or as they say in pidgin Hawaiian, it 'broke da mouth!'  The texture is so unusual.. it looks like a square cupcake but it's much chewier and the flavor much milder and less sweet than a cupcake.  Me and my friend Kaitlyn bought one as a little treat earlier this week and decided we should try making our own. So thanks to allrecipes.com, we found this recipe for ono (or 'the best' in Hawaiian) butter mochi.

• 1 pound mochiko (glutinous rice flour, can be found at your local asian market or pretty much anywhere in Hawaii)
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 cups whole milk
• 5 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut (optional, if you're like me and hate coconut)

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

-In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and milk. In a separate larger bowl, stir together the rice flour, sugar, and baking powder. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir to blend. Mix in the melted butter and coconut (again, optional). Pour into prepared pan.

-Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Cool completely, then cut into squares. Serves 12.

This is just an image from google, but that's what it looks like.  If you don't like mochi or other squishy foods, then this probably would not be the best recipe to try.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

This recipe was the winning cookie on an L.D.S. Web site. I tried it and thought it was very good. I love chocolate crinkles, but this lemon version is light, crisp and has just enough lemon to say it is Spring...bring on the citrus. Not too sweet either, but rolled in powdered sugar to give them the typical crinkled look. I am also glad to say that this cookie, when stored covered, did not dry out but remained chewy. Oh, go on, give it a try!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon each baking powder and salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar. Mix well and chill for 30 minutes. Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into balls and roll dough balls in powdered sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 9-11 minutes at 350 degrees until barely browned on edges and matte (not shiny and damp looking). Cool 3 minutes before removing to cookie racks to cool. Makes about 40? Can't really remember and now we have eaten them all!