Blackberry Bran Muffins

I like to keep bran muffins on hand for.... um...emergencies?

Have a baby, feed it too much cheese and then you'll know what kinda emergencies I'm talkin' about.

Or have a husband who....

nevermind.... 

I shouldn't talk about other people and their colon cleanses.

Emergencies aside, did you know you should have a least 30g of fiber a day?!?

 That, my friend, is the only way to keep your intestines clean and your bodies 'exit route'.....open.

I can't tell you exactly how much fiber is in these muffins but I'm sure it's a lot. It'll get you well on your way to your recommended daily intake.

Start your new year off right with these tasty bran muffins but maybe make sure the bathroom's free first....

Blackberry Bran Muffin

Makes: 20 muffins

1 cup rice bran (can substitute wheat bran)

1 cup wheat bran

2 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat)

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup low fat milk

1 cup cold coffee

2 eggs

¼ cup oil

¼ cup applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup berries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease about 20 standard muffin tins.

2. In a medium bowl mix together the rice bran, wheat bran, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Make a well in the center and add milk, coffee, eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla. Stir until just combined - do not over mix. Gently fold in berries.

4. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for about 15 minutes or until muffins are browned and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cranberry Salsa

Did anyone else over indulge on spicy gingerbread and sparkly sugar cookies this past week?

How about all those boxes of chocolates laying around the house?

You can tell me.

You ate at least half the box, didn't you?

 

I'm not judging. I'm celebrating.

 Thank goodness, I'm not the only one who's been in a sugar coma.

But....

since it's New Year's Eve, it's time for me and everyone else to wake up with something tangy, tart and delicious!

 And, as you've probably already guessed, I have the perfect recipe for you.

Tart cranberries, zesty jalapeno and a bunch of other adjectives attached to food is what makes this so special.

I was a bit skeptical when my husband's aunt (Hi Tammie!) recommended this to me but now that I've tried it.... I'm in love.

 Try this one out while cranberries are in season and your head is still swimming from all those sugar plums.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Cranberry Salsa

Makes a lot! about 3 cups of salsa

Generously adapted from What's Cooking America

3 cups (12oz bag) fresh or frozen cranberries

¼ cup minced green onion

1 tbsp minced jalapeno pepper (about 1 small one)

¼ cup honey

¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves, minced

2 tbsps finely grated ginger

1 lime, juice and zest

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients except  the cream cheese to the food processor and pulse until cranberries are coarsely chopped.

2. Refrigerate 4 hours before using to allow flavors to meld. (The salsa will not be good if you skip this step, just trust me.)

3. Serve over a block of cream cheese alongside crackers, pita bread or tortilla chips.

Homemade Marshmallows

These! 

These are what I've been wanting to make!

Something overly festive that just screams "CHRISTMAS!!!" 

Perfect fluffy white marshmallows covered with red and green sprinkles.
They make me feel "♫merry and briiiiighhhhhtttt♫
(and my all your Christmases be white)''.

Marshmallows are surprisingly easy to make.
Some gelatin, lots of sugar and corn syrup beaten together for 10 minutes and voilà!
Marshmallows.

The advantages for making them at home are endless.
You can flavour them any way you want (peppermint, coconut, almond, rum.....), you can play with food coloring (use a toothpick to swirl in red and green) and you can shape them however your heart desires (drop them by the spoonful, pipe them into letters or swirls, or use a well-oiled cookie cutter to cut them out of a baking pan).

I've made marshmallows from Martha Stewart before and they were okay, but this recipe turned out much better.  I think the extra gelatin in the recipe made them firmer and less sticky than the former.

On hot chocolate, these look like fresh dollops of whip cream.

Impress your friends and family this christmas with these delicious marshmallows. (One word of warning: they can be quite sticky so don't be stingy with the icing sugar!)

Homemade Marshmallows
Makes: about 60 x 2'' square marshmallows
Source: Dinner with Julie

3 pkg (3 tbsp) plain gelatin
1½ cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup ( I ran out of light corn syrup and used some dark - it worked fine)
2 tsp vanilla, coconut, peppermint or almond extract
icing sugar for dusting
sprinkles (optional)
2oz melted chocolate (optional)

Directions:
1. In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup water. In a medium pot, combine the sugar and another 1/2 cup water and bring to a simmer; add the softened gelatin mixture and stir until fully dissolved and hot to the touch.
2. Pour into a large bowl (if using a stand mixer, use the whip attachment), add the corn syrup and extract and beat on high for about 10 minutes, until the mixture cools and increases in volume until it is billowy, white and forms soft peaks (much like meringue).
3. Pour into a 9'' x 13'' pan lined with parchment and dusted generously with icing sugar, or spoon into a large zip-lock back, snip off a large piece of one corner and pipe shapes, letters or swirl onto a piece of parchment generously dusted with icing sugar. If using, decorate with sprinkles while marshmallows are still sticky.
4. Let cool completely. If desired, drizzle melted chocolate over marshmallows. If you need to, cut into squares using a well-oiled sharp knife.

Chocolate Sandwich Cutout Cookies

I'm done Christmas baking.

My freezer is stuffed.
My kitchen is covered with a layer of flour dust.
My blood sugar is through the roof and my teeth ache.

Despite all that, I don't think I can stop.

It's an addiction.

An unhealthy one at that.

Hello, my name is Jesse and I'm addicted to baking.

Just the other day I was making up a platter (from my 20 containers of baked goods) to take to a function and all I could think of was how I haven't made anything with red and green sprinkles.

Sure, I have these beautiful chocolate sandwich cookies, filled with minty green and raspberry red icing. 

They're festive, right?

Pretty to look at, great to eat, but they still don't fit the bill.

They lack a certain holiday tackiness.

But don't worry. 

I'm going to find something to make. 

It'll be red and green and white and tacky to the max.

Meanwhile, you can try out these chic sandwich cookies.

The chocolate cookie part is really good; in fact, you might even want to forgo the icing and just eat these as is. The dough is easy to work with, it's very forgiving and can be rolled and re-rolled as much as you want. I found the raspberry icing lacking in flavour but the mint was minty good.

Chocolate Sandwich Cutout Cookies

Makes: about 15 sandwiches

Adapted from Martha Stewart

For the cookies:

¾ cup all-purpose flour

⅓ cup dutch process cocoa powder

⅛ tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup icing sugar

1 large egg

½ tsp vanilla extract

For filling:

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar

Mint:

½ tsp peppermint extract

2 drops green food coloring (optional - but you know you want too)

Raspberry:

½ cup raspberry jam, heated and strained (like I said earlier, I didn't find this very flavourful so you may want to use more jam or some raspberry flavouring to enhance the taste)

Directions:

1. For the cookies: Whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture, beating to combine. Divide dough in half; form into disks, and wrap in plastic. Chill until firm, at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. (Dough can be frozen up to 2 months; thaw in the refrigerator before using.)

2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, lightly coat with cooking spray. Working with one disk at a time, roll out dough to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using a 1 1/2-inch square biscuit or cookie cutter, cut out shapes, transferring to prepared sheets (1 inch apart) as you work. Chill in freezer until firm, about 15 minutes. Brush off excess flour. Gather together scraps; roll, chill, and cut out more shapes.

3. Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are firm, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer cookies, on parchment, to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the fillings. Beat butter until smooth. Add icing sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Divide the icing among 2 bowls. To one bowl stir in the mint ingredients and to the other stir in the strained raspberry jam.

5. Spread a small amount of mint filling on one quarter of the cookies and raspberry filling on one quarter of the cookies. Top with remaining cookies, gently press to adhere. Refrigerate in an airtight container for 4 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

Breakfast Quinoa

This recipe must of hopped on my blog when I wasn't looking.

A recipe without sugar and butter?

I haven't seen one of those around here in a long time.

It doesn't even have wheat or dairy.

Nope, doesn't look like something that went on in my kitchen this month!

But that is my pot.

And these pictures do look familiar.

Actually,

I think it's coming back to me.... 

that's right, I ran out of sugar last week.

 I was forced to revert to my pre chrismas baking days and make this hot cereal (or hot grain).

Come to think of it... I didn't even miss the butter or sugar.

The quinoa (keen-wa) is cooked in apple juice and studded with raspberries, making it naturally sweet enough.

The almonds even gave it a nice crunch (just like a crispy christmas cookie).

I should make this again....

Why don't we all eat this nice healthy breakfast this weekend so we can eat all the Christmas sweets that are coming to us next week? 

Good plan?

Good plan.

Breakfast Quinoa
Makes: 2 cups
Adapted from: Martha Stewart.

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups apple juice (or substitute any type of milk)
1 cup raspberries or blueberries
½ cup almonds, toasted
 ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions:
1. Bring juice (or milk) to a boil in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add quinoa and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until 3/4 of the milk has been absorbed.
2. Stir in cinnamon (if using), continue to cook covered for about 8 minutes or until all the milk has been absorbed.
3. Stir in berries and cook for about 30 seconds (longer if berries are frozen).
4. Remove from heat and stir in almonds. Serve with milk, additional berries, cinnamon and brown sugar.

Cinnadoodles

I made 135 of these cookies last week.

I know I usually exaggerate, but this is for real.

One hundred and thirty five cookies.

Wow. Sometimes I amaze myself.

They weren't all for me, though.

9 dozen (108 cookies) were for a cookie exchange.

I've heard a lot of good and bad things about cookie exchanges but I'm happy to report the one I attended (thanks to Crystal for hosting it) was a success!

There was an excellent variety of baked goods being exchanged and they were all delicious:

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Butter Tart Bars

Chocolate Caramel Crunch Cookies

Peanut Butter Balls

Chocolate Chunk Brownie Buttons

Gingersnaps

Chocolate Pecan Caramel Thumbprints

Not bad, eh? (My canadian accent really comes out at Christmas time)

Best of all, I can justify eating more baking because, you know, I wouldn't want to offend anyone by not eating their goodies ; )

Packed up and ready to be exchanged

Cinnadoodles

Makes: 4 dozen cookies

Adapted from here. Inspired from here.

2 tsp cream of tartar

2 ¾ cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup butter ( I used ½cup butter and ½ cup margarine)

2 eggs

1 cup cinnamon hearts or cinnamon chips plus more for on top of each cookie

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

*Note: The cinnamon hearts (or chips) can either be mixed in right away with the dry ingredients or a few can be stuffed into the middle of each cookie dough ball. I used the second method because I didn't like the look of the cinnamon candies throughout the batter. When they were cooked they sort of oozed and melted all around the cookie. By stuffing them in the middle the cookie had a cinnamon centre. Regardless of my choice, either method will work fine.

1. Mix together the cream of tartar, flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon hearts (see note above). Set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and continue beating until well blended.

3. Add dry mix to the creamed mixture and blend until thoroughly incorporated.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon.

5. Form into balls ( I weighed mine out into 25grams) and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Press 1 cinnamon chip or candy into the top of the ball for decoration.

6. Place cookies 2'' (they spread a lot) apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 11 minutes.