Blue cornmeal orange mini muffin

While I was debating whether to make buckwheat pancake or to pull out homemade granola with Greek yogurt yesterday morning, I suddenly remembered the bag of blue cornmeal that I bought two weeks ago. Thinking its purple color that will definitely thrill my daughter, I decided to try the recipe printed on the bag but with my own twist:-).

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup blue cornmeal

Zest from one organic orange, about 1 tablespoon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup organic sugar in the raw turbinado sugar or more to your preference

1/2 cup Greek yogurt (see note)

3 heaping tablespoon grounded golden flaxseed (see note)

1/2 cup water or milk of your preference

Half organic orange, diced

In a glass measuring cup, combine the grounded flaxseeds and the water and set aside for couple minutes.

In a bowl, zest the orange. Then, peel the orange and dice half orange. Also, grease the mini muffin tin.

In the same bowl, combine blue cornmeal, baking powder and sugar with orange zest. Fold in the yogurt and the flaxseed mixture. The batter was a bit sticky. Use the teaspoon to scoop the batter into the mini muffin tin. Last, gentlely press down the diced orange on the top of the mini muffin. Bake at 375F for about 12 minutes.

Aren’t these mini muffins gorgeous? The bright purple color from the cornmeal contrasted the bright yellow color from the orange. They have slightly sweet and nutty taste. The orange zest adds another layer of flavor and sweetness. They are nutritious and so easy to make. I just stored the leftover inside the glass container in the room temperature since it’s still on the chilly side at east coast. We had some more this morning and they weren’t dry at all. Give them a try!

Note:

I use Stonyfield Greek yogurt. You can substitute soy yogurt or coconut yogurt for vegan And dairy free. I also buy organic golden flaxseeds at whole food and grinded myself. Since there were about 3 tablespoonful of grounded flaxseeds left, I went all in. I am sure that two tablespoons are fine.

 

 

April 17, 2016 by tracy1153 Categories: recipe, SnackTags: blue cornmeal, Easy, Egg free, Flaxseed, Gluten free, Healthy, Muffin, Oil free, Orange zest, quick, Vegetarian, Yogurt Leave a comment

Orange pineapple scone

I can’t believe that day time saving ends today and the spring is around the corner. I have been busy (tax return and house related issues), but mainly struggling with my son’s battle at school and his game obsession. Another long story, sigh! I admire and respect all the stay home moms, and honestly think that working is much easier than caring for kids at home (at least for me><).

Anyhow, I was the only early raiser this morning, and enjoyed this brief quiet and alone time. While my morning coffee was brewing, I checked the refrigerator for the breakfast idea. Suddenly, I saw a lonely yogurt hid in the back and it’s expired today. Last night, my son was asking about the mango scone that I used to make in the summer time. So I decided to make scones. As I mentioned earlier, I baked and cooked with what I have handy. Feel free to substitute the choice of flour, spice, yogurt, and fruits.

ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (see note)

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

2 teaspoon baking powder

zest of 2 organic oranges (about 3 tablespoons)

4-5 tablespoons organic raw sugar or more to your preference

1 Stonyfield fruit in the bottom, fat free blueberry yogurt (soy yogurt for vegan)

1 tablespoon avocado oil

fresh cut up pineapples, about 1 1/2 cups

In a big bowl, combine flour, chia seeds if using, baking powder, orange zest, and sugar. Fold in the yogurt and oil with a spatula. If the batter is too dry, add some pineapple or orange juice or milk of your preference, 1 tablespoon a time. Last, fold in pineapples. Do not overmix. Scoop out the mixture on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Shape the mixture into a 9″ round disk and pre-slice it into 8 pieces. Bake at 400F for about 28 minutes. They don’t just smell good but also taste good. I am all ready for my busy Sunday:-).

Note:
use oat or buckwheat flour for gluten free choice. But you will need more liquid, add juice or milk of your choice, 1 tablespoon a time.

March 13, 2016 by tracy1153 Categories: Dessert, recipe, SnackTags: Cornmeal, Easy, Gluten free, Healthy, Orange zest, Pineapple, quick, Scone, Vegan, Vegetarian, Whole wheat, Yogurt 9 Comments

Jam cookies two ways

I don’t remember why I bought a jar of organic raspberry spread a while back (to admit, I like to try new products). My kids had been eyeing on it. Finally, we opened it to eat with my no knead bread over the snowbound weekend. Then the jar has been sitting inside the refrigerator. So I decided to make some jam cookies. I always made them with nuts, but came up the nut free version for my kids’ school snacks (inspired by my earlier posting of Avocado cookies).

Nut free oat jam cookies:

1/3 cup water

3 tablespoon flaxseed meal (note 1)

2 cup quick cooking oats

4-5 tablespoon orange sugar (note 2)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (optional)

jam of your preference

Mix 1/3 cup water with 3 tablespoon flaxseed meal in a glass measuring cup and set it aside. Grind the quick cooking oats in the food processor to a coarse meal or to a flour if you prefer. Transfer the oats to a plate, use the spatula to mix in the orange zest sugar and baking soda.
Then, fold in the flaxseed meal mixture until combined. Use a ice cream spoon and scoop them out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare the nut version jam cookies.

Pecan oat jam cookies:

1 cup pecans or nuts of your preference

1/3 cup organic raisins or dried fruits of your preference

2/3 cup quick cooking oats

1-2 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

2 tablespoon water

jam of your preference

Measure all ingredients into the food processor. Pulse couple times until the mixture come together. Or do nuts first and then the rest if you prefer nuts and oats in different texture. Use the spatula to scrap out everything into the same plate. If the mixture is too dry, add 1 tablespoon of water a time. Let the mixture sit for couple minutes.

While the nut mixture is resting, use the back of half teaspoon to make an indentation of each nut free oat cookie and fill the indentation with raspberry jam.

Then use the same ice cream scoop to scoop out the pecan oat mixture to the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat the same process, making an indentation and filling with the jam. Bake them both at 350F for 15-20 minutes.

My husband and my son each swallowed three pecan oat jam cookies within minutes after I set them on the cooling rack. So my daughter took a close shot of one cookie only ^^.
I tasted both but preferred the nut free version. The orange zest balance the sweetness of the sugar. My daughter loves both. What do you like?

Note 1:

I used to buy Bob’s red mill golden flaxseed meal. But now, I buy them at whole food bulk aisle and grind them in the coffee grinder.

Note 2:

To make orange sugar, mix equal amount of orange zest and organic raw sugar. You get about 1 tablespoon of zest from 1 organic orange. Alternatively, you can use zest of other citrus fruits and adjust the amount of sugar. Or use honey or maple syrup for sugar free version, but you may need more oat flour.  If the cookie mixture is too dry, add 1 tablespoon water a time. Vise versa. If the mixture is too runny, add 1 tablespoon oat flour a time.

 

January 28, 2016 by tracy1153 Categories: recipe, SnackTags: Chia seeds, Easy, Gulten free, Healthy, jam, Jam cookie, Kids friendly, Nut free, Oats, Oil free, Orange zest, Pecan, sugar free, Vegan Leave a comment

Orange cake and orange buckwheat rye cracker

Since the mysterious orange zest in the star bread eased my non-stopping cough the other day, I was convinced to put more orange zest in my baking to do myself good. Yesterday, I simply modified my One bowl banana chocolate bread recipe to make an orange cake and the super easy orange buckwheat crackers.

Let’s first zest and juice three oranges. Preheat the oven to 350F and begin the fun of baking.

Orange buckwheat crackers:

1 cup Bob’s red mill organic buckwheat pancake & waffle mix (note 1)

zest from 1 organic orange

1 tablespoon organic raw sugar or more to your preference

1 tablespoon avocado oil (note)

2 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup rye flour (note)

In a bowl, mix all ingredents to form a dough ball. Let it rest while preparing the orange cake.

orange cake:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1-2 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

3 tablespoon organic raw sugar or sugar of your preference

1 teaspoon baking soda

zest from 1 organic orange

3 tablespoon avocado oil or oil of your preference

1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar

1 cup orange juice, squeezed from 3 organic oranges

I used a Pyrus 9″ pie plate, and didn’t even bother to grease and flour the plate. In the pie plate, mix all dry ingredents and the zest. Then pour in oil, vinegar and the orange juice. Give it a stir until the dry ingredients are combined with the wet ingredients (my daughter’s favor part). For a better presentation, you can grease and flour a cake pan before pouring in the batter. I prefer mine not very sweet and the orange juice adds natural sweetness. You can adjust the amount of sugar to your preference. Bake at 350F for about 30-35 minutes. My daughter helped here and there and couldn’t wait for the cake to come out. She quickly snapped the picture and poked the cake with her fork. I could only hold her wait for another 5 minutes. Then, she ate one slice and requested and finished the second slices:-). The cake is moist with a hint of orange. I did feel better after eating the cake and being surrounded with the orange smell in my kitchen (mentally effect haha).

While the orange cake is baking, roll out the cracker dough between 2 sheets of parchment papers (the size of half sheet pan). You should be able to roll out the dough to almost as big as the size of half sheet pan (maybe just 1-2″ short). Lift the parchment paper on the top and use a pizza cutter to pre-slice the dough into the size of cheez-it. Gently slide the cracker dough and the parchment paper underneath on a half sheet baking pan and bake at 350 F for about 15-20 minutes. Check at 15 minutes. I like to take them out before they are completely baked. Take them off the parchment paper, break them into the pre-sliced size, leave them on the baking pan, put the baking pan back to the oven, turn off the oven, and let them completely cool down inside the oven. The crackers can be stored in the glass container for at least a week if they last that long:-). Because of the lighting, the picture didn’t reflect the true color of the crackers. They are actually in the color of dark chocolates. My son even asked whether I added cocoa powder. I think that the color is from the combination of buckwheat flour and chia seeds^^.

Note:

The ingredients of the pancake mix: organic buckwheat flour, organic whole wheat pastry flour, wheat gluten, cane sugar, non-aluminum baking powder, and sea salt. To confess, this is the first time that I bought the pre-mix!! The ingredients look good to me and it’s “on sale” (That’s one of my weakness><). I am sure that you can use all buckwheat flour or any combination of buckwheat and whole wheat flour and add 1 teaspoon baking powder for 1 cup of flour used. You can also skip the rye flour and chia seeds but add the water 1 tablespoon a time up to 1/4 cup. Also, you may need to adjust the amount of water depending on the type of the flour you use.

You can skip oil. But based on my experience, adding oil adds crispness of the crackers and improves the taste.

January 16, 2016 by tracy1153 Categories: Dessert, recipe, SnackTags: Buckwheat, Cracker, Easy, Healthy, Kids friendly, orange cake, Orange zest, Vegan, Whole wheat Leave a comment

Orange star bread

After coming back from our road trip to Disney during Christmas and new year holiday, I have been sick. It started with a really bad headache, then sore throat, and full bloom to stuffy nose and coughing (this is killing me). Still, I can’t believe this happened to me as I don’t get sick easily or often. I was surprised to find myself feeling down… So after couple days, I gathered myself and started baking again. Baking not only cheers me up but also boosts the energy inside my body (maybe mentally^^). I got couple organic oranges from whole food last Friday and decided to tried this new recipe on Tuesday. I modified it from Cinnamon star bread on King Arthur website.

Dough:

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon organic raw sugar

2 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 plus 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour

3 tablespoon brown rice flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon avocado oil

filling:

1 egg, beaten

zest from 3 organic oranges

3 tablespoon organic raw sugar or more to your preference

In a bid bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water and add the yeast. When the yeast mixture begins bubbling (within 5 minutes), add flour, salt and oil. Combine all ingredents and knead until you form a soft and smooth dough (still a little bit sticky).

Place the dough in the bowl, cover, and let it rest until it almost doubles (about one hour and 15 minutes).

While the dough is resting, zest 3 organic oranges. Mix the zest with sugar and set aside.

Gently deflate the dough and separate into 4 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball, cover and let them rest on the parchment paper for about 15 minutes.

At the mean time, line the parchment paper on the baking sheet and set aside. Beat the egg and get the brush. I also set a 10″ plate next to me and therefore I can easily compare and control the dough size. Sprinkle some white whole wheat flour on the parchment paper and roll out one dough ball into 10″ circle. Put the dough circle on the parchment paper lined baking sheet, brush with egg and spread with orange zest sugar mixture. Repeat the same process with the remaining 3 dough balls (egg, orange zest sugar and dough circle), but leave the last layer bare.

Set a small circle cookie cuter in the center of the layered dough circle, use the knive to carefully cut the dough from the cuter to the edge into 16 equal strips.

Remove the cutter. Pour two adjusting strips, twist them outwards twice and then pinch the two ends together. Repeat the process with the remaining strips. The dough would have a star shape with eight points. Brush the star dough with egg. Cover the star dough and let it rest until it’s puffy (about 50 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while the dough is resting. I baked mine for about 20 minutes.

The bread was amazing, not only the presentation but also the taste. But it’s really not sweet as I intentionally did so because of my cough. They were easily to pour apart and served as breakfast and/or snack. Somehow I didn’t cough much yesterday. Is it the orange zest in the bread or something else? What do you do with your orange zest?

January 14, 2016 by tracy1153 Categories: recipeTags: Easy, Healthy, Orange zest, Vegan, Whole wheat, Yeast Leave a comment