Pumpkin Almond Waffles

These waffles are both the product of my discovery that Costo sells Libby’s pumpkin puree ridiculously cheap in the “off-season” AND my current obsession with all things made with almond flour. I started buying Trader Joe’s and then making my own with almonds procured at, again, Costco. Waffles made with almond flour are both flavorful and hearty – I swear I stay full until dinner time after eating one of these.

Pumpkin Almond Waffles

makes ~ 6 waffles (depending on your waffle maker)

Ingredients:

2 c almond flour (I use homemade so it is coarse)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar (or your favorite sugar sub)

1/2 c pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 c milk (I use almond milk)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon (alternatively you can use 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat waffle maker. Mix together dry ingredients then add in wet. Once mixed, pour mix onto waffle maker (according to the manufacturer’s directions of your waffle maker – ours has a pre-measured cup that comes with it). I prefer my waffles on the “crispier” side so I put them on the highest setting.

Note: The number of eggs are important in this recipe. I initially tried with less and the waffles fell apart when I removed them from the waffle maker. Four worked perfectly. I don’t suggest subbing any alternative eggs in this recipe (flax or chia) as the almond flour needs the egg for binding. If you do, let me know how it works!

Additional note: We topped our waffles with “cinnamon cream” made with 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt, 1 tsp honey and cinnamon & nutmeg to taste. It was delicious!

Enjoy.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Life. is. so. crazy.

Eat pancakes, for dinner.

With chocolate chunks.

And coconut butter.

And then get back to your crazy life.

Why is life crazy? Oh, let me count the ways…

I had 7 days, yes 7, off between grad school semesters. And I still had to work, all-day, every day.

Then my (rented) house went on the market, and in the midst of starting up with classes again (3 more credits than past semesters – what.am.i.thinking?) I have to temporarily relocate every few hours, every day.

Including today (I took a “vacation” day to get things done around the house which is now a bust since I can’t).

So I relocated, to the beach… (to read my neuro text, of course.)

And then to the gym.

And then made these before forced to relocate again.

Sweet Potato Pancakes (vegan)

Ingredients:

1/2 c coconut flour

1/2 c unbleached ap flour

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional—I used a sample of a vegan protein)

2 T turbinado sugar (this is a raw sugar—you can use brown sugar if you wish)

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1 1/2 t cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice if you wish)

1 1/2 c almond coconut milk (I accidentally bought sweetened, if yours is unsweetened you may want to increase sugar by a tablespoon or 2)

1 heaping cup of shredded sweet potato (I shredded mine in the food processor, did you know you could do that? I didn’t. No more hand grating for me!)

oil for pan

coconut butter, for topping (optional—but really not)

vegan chocolate chunks, for topping

maple syrup, for topping

Instructions:

Mix all listed ingredients through the almond milk, create “well” and add sweet potato. Mix thoroughly but don’t over mix (I don’t know why but that’s what the pancake pros say). Batter will be thick. Add additional almond milk by the tablespoon if you prefer working with a thinner batter but it’s not necessary.

Heat oil in your skillet (or whatever you use to cook pancakes) to med-high.

Drop batter by 1/4 c onto heated surface. You may want to use the back of your spoon to flatten a bit as the batter is thick and doesn’t spread on the pan. Cook pancakes until done, not sticking to pan and can be flipped. I usually “eyeball” the doneness of my pancakes but usually a few minutes on each side.

Top with a drizzle of coconut butter, sprinkle of dark chocolate chunks and syrup.

Serves 4.

Birthday Cake Donuts

A few weeks ago it was our friend Clare’s birthday; it had been far too long since I’d busted out the donut pan – so birthday cake donuts it was!

Birthday Cake Donuts

adapted from Cookies and Cups

Ingredients:

For the Donuts…

• One box Funfetti or Confetti Cake Mix
• 3/4 c buttermilk (I used 3/4 c almond milk & 1 T lemon juice)
• 2 eggs
• 2 T melted coconut spread (butter substitute made by Earth Balance)

For the glaze…

• 1/4 c almond milk
• 2 c powdered sugar
• 1 t pure vanilla extract

For the frosting…

• 1 c powdered sugar
• 1 T almond milk (plus more if needed – add by T)
• sprinkles (definitely not optional)

Pre-heat oven to 425. Add 1 T lemon juice to 3/4 c almond milk if you are subbing for buttermilk. Mix all ingredients together (use a mixer if you are rich) and put into ziploc bag or piping bag. Cut off corner. Pip into your donut pan. Don’t over fill! A little over 1/2 full is perfect… otherwise you will end up with duffins (donut-muffins) like I did. Bake 7-9 minutes, just until browned. Place on cooling rack. Make 2nd batch… recipe should make 12 donuts or so.

For the glaze, combine ingredients in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Coat your donuts in glaze while the pan is still on low heat… place glazed donuts back on cooling rack. (Optional: perform taste test on semi-cooled glazed donuts)

For the frosting, mix together sugar and almond milk until smooth. Spread 1 t of frosting on cooled glazed-donuts, top with sprinkles. (Not optional: eat at least 2 more and complain of stomach pains for the rest of the night)

*For more technical instructions and tutorial, please see linked post. I know you don’t expect such from me.

My batch yielded more than a dozen but I don’t want to make you any promises. This was a win-win situation because I was still able to bring a dozen to the party, eat a few for quality control purposes, and have one the day after the party to perform freshness measures (I do it for you, blog friends).

Banana Coconut Mini Donuts

On Friday night for dinner I had 1/2 a leftover chile relleno and 4 of these.

Yes, I said 4.

Don’t look at me like that.

Now do you see why?

These are itty-bitty and perfect for popping in your mouth one after another.

I made them using this, a birthday gift (thanks Ben & Amanda!)

Banana Coconut Donuts very slight adapted from Bakingdom

for 3 dozen mini-donuts

Ingredients:

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 2 T buttermilk
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 c cake flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 6 T coconut spread, at room temperature
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

Mash bananas and add in buttermilk and vanilla. Stir and set aside. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda and baking powder, set aside. In another bowl, beat together coconut spread and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, mix until combined. Add some of the flour mixture to the coconut spread/sugar mixture until combined, add some of the banana mixture. Alternate adding flour and banana mixtures until it’s all combined. Gently stir in coconut at end.

Place mixture in a ziploc bag (cup the end off) and pipe into preheated donut maker*. Cook until golden in color, about 7 minutes.

*Alternately preheat oven to 350, pipe donut mixture into well-greased donut pan. Cook for about 10 minutes or until golden in color.

Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c confectioners sugar
• 2 t milk
• food coloring
• sprinkles

Combine sugar and milk and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Add food coloring. Dip donuts in glaze as soon as they are cool enough to handle (but still warm). Add sprinkles.

Enjoy.

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Hopefully some of you stuck around…

I know I’ve been absent but I haven’t done a lot of cooking lately. Unless making soup on Sunday and eating it until Thursday, counts. Between traveling to Maine for one of my best friend’s weddings, school projects and laziness, there hasn’t been much to share with you.

But I feel that might be changing. I hope so anyway. Life seems to have slowed down a bit. (As if I’m saying that going into the holiday season!!)

So anyway. This bread. I will NOT be making it again. Why? Because I cannot stop eating it.

Okay, so I lied, I most definitely will be making it again. It’s addictive and it PULLS APART! It’s just begging for me to take “one more piece” before I walk away from it.

I hope it lasts the weekend.

Actually I don’t because then I can make more.

Okay, so this photo is heinous. I have some explaining to do. In the recipe (to follow) for the frosting, you will see that I used coconut oil. My intentions here was to create a bread with a glaze rather than frosting. And I was successful, as you will see, so consider this a “before” picture if you will.

I couldn’t resist pulling a piece off while it was still warm… and eating it while I still had my camera in my hand. I may or may not have dipped this piece in the extra glaze.

This is the aforementioned “after” photo. As you can see, the “glaze” is now (mostly) clear. If it’s any indication to the deliciousness of this bread, know that the reason this picture is cropped like-so is because 1/3 of the loaf is already gone. Truth.

Make. This. Now.

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
• 3/4 c warm water
• 1/2 c quick cooking steel cut oats
• 1/2 c white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c packed brown sugar
• 2 T Earth Balance coconut spread, melted (or butter)
• 1 T chia seeds mixed with 3 T water (or 1 egg)
• 1 t salt
• 2 c all-purpose flour

For filling:

• 3 T Earth Balance coconut spread, softened (or butter)
• 1/3 c sugar
• 2 t ground cinnamon

For glaze:

• 1 c confectioners’ sugar
• 6 1/2 t unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 4 1/2 t coconut oil, softened

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the oats, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, coconut spread, chia egg, salt and 1 c AP flour. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).

2. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

3. Punch dough down. Toll into an 18-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Spread with coconut spread. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over dough to within 1/2 in. of edges.

4. Cut into 36 (approximate) 3-in. x 2-in. rectangles. Make 2 stacks of 18 (approximate) rectangles. Place, cut sides up, in a greased 9-in x 5-in. load pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Make glaze and drizzle over warm bread.

Serves one I mean, 12. Enjoy!

Pumpkin and Peet’s

I know, I know. Everyone has probably had enough with the pumpkin recipes and so I’m not going to give you another one. I made a batch of vegan pumpkin pancakes last weekend. You can probably find the recipe if you google and the only reason I made them “vegan” is because I didn’t have eggs. I also didn’t have syrup so what you see on top is coconut cream made by mixing coconut flour with almond milk. A fantastic combination if I do say so myself.

The reason behind my showing you these pancakes I’m not giving the recipe for is to tell you about the coffee I received from Peet’s Coffee as a member of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program. Peet’s sent me two bags of their new medium roast coffees to try – Café Domingo and Café Solano. I tried the Café Domingo which is a blend of Central and South American coffees that is smooth, balanced and medium-bodied with more pure coffee taste. Peet’s coffee experts describe it as a medium roast cup with hints of toffee sweetness and clean crisp finish.

For someone who doesn’t typically love non-flavored coffee, I thought this was great (and I mean it)! I added just a splash of half-half and some sweetener and paired it up with the pumpkin pancakes. I feel that pairing this with a fall-flavored dish was a great choice because the coffee truly is smooth and therefore went great with pancakes packed full of spice like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Peet’s also sent me a bunch of $2 off coupons (their coffee is now available in grocery stores) so if you are interested in some coupons let me know and I’ll send some off to you.

*I received the Peet’s Coffee at no cost as part of my participation in Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program. The opinions expressed are solely mine and I’d tell you if I didn’t really like the stuff, promise.

It’s Good to Go Home

Friday after work, Griffy and I hit the road for a weekend of visiting in Maine.

{the co-pilot}

{the caffeine.}

  {sunday naps.}

{sunday scones.}

{lemon-cranberry scones, that is.}

{recipe here.}

Way too soon we will be packing up and hitting the road back to Boston. You better believe I’ll be bringing a scone [or three].

It’s good to go home.

Pomegranate Scones

If it isn’t already clear, I have a thing for scones. I love their crusty exterior and doughy, chewy interior. Though I have yet to meet a scone I didn’t enjoy, these are by far up there with my favorites.

Low Fat Pomegranate Scones
adapted from Gina's Skinny Recipes (makes 8 scones)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup pomegranate arils
• cooking spray
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine the first five ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.

Combine flours, baking powder, salt, in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut in chilled butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently fold in pomegranate arils. Add milk mixture, stirring just until moist (the dough will be sticky).

Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly with floured hands. Form dough into an 8-inch circle onto baking sheet, about 3/4" thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into 8 wedges (do not cut all the way through). Brush egg white over dough. Bake until golden, about 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven. Serve warm.

These will make your day better. Well, at least they did that for me.

Butternut Squash Waffles

Lazy Saturday mornings make me happy. No real plans, nowhere to be and time to actually make breakfast rather than grab it on the run.

When I saw Jessica's recipe for Whole Wheat Butternut Waffles, I knew this was going to be a weekend treat I’d have to make. And it just happened to be perfect timing because I had a good size chunk of leftover butternut squash in the refrigerator.

Whole Wheat Butternut Waffles (from howsweeteats.com)

serves 3-4

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour  (I used regular WW flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup butternut squash puree

1 egg

1 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat waffle iron. Combine dry ingredients, then stir in squash, egg, milk and vanilla. Scoop about 1/3 cup batter onto waffle iron and cook until heated through.

*Note: I added about 1/4 cup additional milk and 1/4 water to batter because mine was super thick (presumably because I didn’t use pastry flour)

Top with cinnamon cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Cinnamon Cream

1/2 cup greek yogurt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon honey

sprinkle of nutmeg

Mix ingredients together until smooth. Add to waffles.

I covered mine in maple syrup too…simply divine.