Sticking to resolutions with some healthy granola.

My New Year’s resolutions have come and gone. I know, it’s shocking how quickly I can fail. I’m not sure about you, but my list was a hefty one this year. I’m telling you, I was totally motivated writing that list while I was sitting on the sofa watching netflix and eating maple cashew brittle. I wanted to make things happen! The new year was going to be the best one yet! Then the new year arrived and I was still sitting on the sofa watching netflix, but this time I was eating my leftover deer jerky from my brother, Randy. I’m not completely blaming myself,  don’t worry. I’m partly blaming the Polar Vortex for my unmotivated self. It’s hard to get up and go when your home is so wonderfully cozy, filled with TV, books, old records, internet and a rad husband. In order to go outside you need layers, layers, and more layers. And that's just to take out the trash. It's so cold that when you throw a pot of boiling water into the air it turns to snow and ice. Oh, Minnesota. Sometimes you make living hard.

One resolution that we actually are trying to keep in this house is the “eating better” one. We both plan on living to be well in to our hundreds, which means I need to stop baking us cakes and cookies and start preparing some healthier options in the kitchen. Which leads us to this granola. I love granola, but have you ever looked at how much sugar and fat is in that tiny little bag?! It’s outrageous! This recipe I’m giving you for granola has no refined sugar, oil, or butter. Instead, it’s full of healthy seeds and nuts. Woo! It has a little less of a sweet taste, but it’s seriously good. I’m pretty confident when I say it’s our favorite granola. Ever. 

Healthy Granola
Adapted from The Earthbound Cook

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1 ½ cups chopped almonds
½ cup ground flaxseed (fiber!)
½ cup white sesame seeds
1 ½ Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 12-ounce can apple juice concentrate, thawed
1/3 cup molasses
¼ cup honey
1 ½ cups golden raisins (or raisins or craisins)


Please put two racks towards the center of your oven. You’ll fill two pans with this recipe so you will have to bake them at the same time. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. 

Put the oats, coconut, sunflowers seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, flaxseed, sesame seeds, and ground cinnamon in a very large bowl and stir to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the apple juice, molasses, and honey. Whisk them until the molasses and honey dissolve. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir until the oats are coated.

Divide the granola between two rimmed baking sheets, spreading it out on the sheets. Bake granola until it is brown, dry, and fragrant, about 35-45 minutes. TIP: while baking, switch the positions of the baking sheets several times. Also, stir the granola each time you do that. Otherwise it will burn, or some will be undercooked. Watch it carefully the last ten minutes. Trust me on this one, buddy. 

After you take out the pans, stir in the raisins while the granola is still hot. Then let it cool completely on the baking sheets. Stir a few times while it’s sitting on the pans cooling. This granola will store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 weeks! You can also freeze it up to 6 months. 

This tastes excellent with yogurt. Just saying.

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Salted Honey Shortbread....and a wedding.

A new year has started, and I’m finally getting rest from the last one. I married my husband (!) in August and we traveled a bit after, which means we had an incredibly busy year. Planning. Planning. Planning. I honestly had no idea that a DIY wedding was that much work. Good thing we had a little help, by little I mean giant, enormous amounts of help. It shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that one of my favorite things to plan was the dessert table. And yes, we had an entire table devoted to our favorite desserts to share with the people we love, who all coincidentally also love treats. It worked out perfect. My mother and I made the items ourselves that were to go on the table, including our wedding cake that Jim and I forgot to cut and is now stashed in her freezer for our first anniversary. I bet that won’t be stale at all, guys.

I’m going to share with you one of my husband’s (!) favorite treats. It was actually the first item he suggested for our dessert table. The man I married LOVES this shortbread. I made this for the first time a few years ago and he immediately gobbled it down. The only way I got him to stop was by revealing how much butter was in those little bars. That little bit of information may have put a stop to the gobbling. This shortbread is a recipe that I will continue to make for as long as I bake. I’m excited to share it with you. 

 What I like about this recipe is that there is little effort that goes into this tasty treat. Also, the list of ingredients is seriously small. There are only five ingredients! As Ina would say, ‘How easy is that?!’. Yup, I’m officially quoting Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa. Deal with it. Since there are so few ingredients, the ones you do need should be of quality. I buy my honey from a local beekeeper that sells his goods at the farmers market. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of honey, so the honey I use on my shortbread always changes to whatever looked interesting that week. Another thing to buy of quality is the salt. I use Fleur de Sel to sprinkle on this because it’s my favorite finishing salt, but you can use any sort of salt you would like. To each his own. Hope this recipe helps make your home as happy as ours. 

Salted Honey Shortbread

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces
3 Tablespoons honey (your choice!)
1 teaspoon salt (also your choice!)

Grease a rectangular tart pan with spray or butter, I use the ladder. Seems to work best for me.  In either a food processor or with your mixer, mix the flour and sugar. Then add the butter and pulse or mix until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is sandy. Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan with your fingers. Make sure it’s solid and compact. Refrigerate until it’s chilled, at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a fork, poke the dough evenly all over. Put the pan on a centered rack in the oven and bake until golden, for about 40-45 minutes.

Heat the honey in the microwave until warm, about 10 seconds. Pour the honey over the shortbread and spread it all over with a pastry brush and sprinkle with your salt. Put the shortbread back into the oven and bake it for about 3 more minutes. Take our the pan and let cool. Cut. Enjoy!

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Roasted Red Salsa. Hot hot hot! Or not, it's really up to you.

Whoa! Summer is almost over. I realized this because the Minnesota State Fair starts this week, which means it's almost Labor Day, which means school starts soon in Minnesota. It all comes together nicely, doesn't it? The other fantastic thing that's happening this time of year is the abundance of tomatoes at the farmers markets and in personal gardens. Beware because I'm about to brag... the first picture below is a sample of my personal garden success. My first garden! It's pretty rad, right? I think so!

As I was saying, before the bragging began, the abundance of tomatoes present in Minnesota right now is awesome. I have found several tomato recipes that I'm going to be testing out in the next several days, but after getting my first of many Minnesota tomatoes several weeks ago, I chose to make salsa. In fact, I have made this salsa several times and so has my sister after telling her how good it was. If you don't like spicy foods this salsa might not be for you, but you can also adjust the spice of the salsa to your liking. I hope you get a chance to make this. It has honestly become one of my personal favorites.

Roasted Red Salsa

Adapted from One Particular Kitchen

15-20 full size Roma tomatoes

2 large or 3 medium yellow onions

15-20 Serrano peppers* (the amount you choose depends on the level of spice you'd like)

8-10 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons sea salt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Slice tomatoes, onions and peppers in half and put on cookie sheet with garlic. Place items cut side up on the pan.

Roast vegetables for about 30-45 minutes until onions are soft and translucent. The peppers should be charred a little as well as the tomatoes.

Cool vegetables slightly after taking them out of the oven. Put roasted items and salt through a food processor or blender and blend until completely smooth. I have a smaller food processor so I did it in several batches and then mixed them all together when I was finished.

This recipe makes several cups worth of salsa and make sure you keep it refrigerated. Enjoy.

*WARNING: When slicing the hot peppers please wear rubber gloves. Don't be a hero.

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Cherry Galette

An abundance of cherries I did have. My eyes were larger than my stomach when I bought them all. I wasn't quite sure what to bake with the extras I had since I rarely bake with fresh cherries. The pitting and the mess are somewhat annoying to me. Even though I have one of those fancy pitters with a splash guard, the juice still tends to splatter quite a bit. Okay, I'll stop complaining about a little juice splatter. This galette ended up being worth the tiny inconvenience of the cherry juice mess. 

Last weekend I made my first galette and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. This particular galette was a savory one that smelled and tasted fantastic, but I figured a sweet one would taste just as swell. This particular cherry recipe ended up being pretty juicy and leaked a bit onto the pan. So, make sure you use a pan with somewhat of a siding on it so it doesn't leak all over your oven. It will make your life easier. Also, let the galette cool completely so the filling can set and be easier to slice. I hope you get a chance to make this cherry galette or any kind of galette for that matter. You won't be sorry! Enjoy.

Cherry Galette

Instructions:

For the galette: 

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 pound (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter diced

2 tablespoons ice water

Cherry filling:

3 1/2 cups pitted fresh cherries

4 tablespoons cornstarch

2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (adjust this according to the sweetness of your cherries)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 tsp lime

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits

Egg wash:

1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water

sanding sugar, optional

Directions:

Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle bits of butter over the flour mixture and using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with the biggest pieces of butter the size of small peas. Add ice water and with your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Pat the lumps into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Cherry filling: Stir together the cherries, cornstarch, cardamom, sugar, salt, lime and almond extract gently together in a large bowl.

Prepare galette: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into an 11-inch round. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the cherry mixture around on the galette leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the border over the filling, pleating it to make a circle. The center of the galette will be open. Brush the crust with the egg yolk glaze and sprinkle with sanding sugar if you wish to, which I did.

Bake the galette until it's golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for about 20 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve at room temperature.

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We all scream. Ice cream.

It's that time again. The third Sunday of July is here, which means it's National Ice Cream Day. Last year at this time I was sweating uncontrollably and shaking my ass off making homemade ice cream in a bucket with ice. This year I'm sitting in our comfortably air-conditioned home using an electric ice cream machine. Life is grand sometimes, isn't it? Just so you know, I'm somewhat addicted to my new fancy machine. All you have to do is flip a little switch and it churns the ice cream for you. Genius.

I had this new fancy machine on my hands which meant I needed to find a recipe book. Well, I have found the ultimate ice cream book, man. I have made at least 6 recipes from this particular book and there is no stopping me. I've set a goal to try and make every single one of these ice creams and I couldn't be more excited. Yes, I do realize I'm a giant nerd. Anyway, this book, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, categorizes all of the ice cream recipes into groups of the seasons and it includes recipes for waffle cones, which hopefully will be happening for me sometime soon. I just need that waffle cone iron....one day my friend, one day.

Recently I made a beet and poppy seed ice cream as well as a sweet corn and raspberry sauce ice cream and have a few photos to share. I'm also going to share the base ice cream recipe for this book and a link to Saveur magazine which has several links to a few of her recipes. The two I made are both listed on this site so you should take a look!

Jeni's Ice Cream Base

Recipe from Saveur Magazine Article

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home (buy it!)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups milk

4 tsp. cornstarch

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp. light corn syrup

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

3 tbsp. cream cheese, softened

Directions for homemade ice cream:

In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set that mixture aside. In a medium to large size saucepan, whisk together the remaining milk and the cream, sugar, syrup, and salt. Bring this to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes and stir in milk and cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in 1/4 cup hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth. Then whisk in remaining milk mixture. Pour mixture into a plastic bag and seal, and put into a bowl of ice water until chilled, about 30 minutes. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to your manufacturer's instructions. Transfer ice cream to a storage container and freeze until set, around 4 hours. Makes about 1 quart.

Just a note, when you pour the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker you can add to it. Chocolate chips, herbs, candies and nuts. Whatever you desire on/in your ice cream will work.

Best of luck.

p.s. my friend, Reba, took that picture on the top of my post. It was rad so I asked to use it.

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Citrus Buttermilk Sheet Cake with Duck Eggs

Yesterday was my birthday and I decided to bake myself a cake. I still have the dreaded ‘tiny oven’, so I chose a boring sheet cake instead of a pretty layered one. Poor me, I know. This wasn’t just any sheet cake though, it was made with fresh duck eggs. There is a rad little family I know that has ducks and chickens in their backyard and they donated some fresh duck eggs to my kitchen. Thank you, friend Oliver! You may be asking yourself, ‘what’s the big deal with duck eggs?‘. I didn’t know either until last year when I read about the benefits of baking with them. These eggs have more protein than chicken eggs do, which gives them more structure when cooked. Extra protein creates more loft in cakes which makes it so much better! Isn’t it wonderful?! Using duck eggs in your baked goods results in fluffier, moister and richer cakes than those made with chicken eggs. Jamie Oliver told me this and I totally believe him. Just in case you don’t have the faith in Jamie Oliver that I do, there are a few other websites that talk about the benefits of using these eggs in your cakes and I will post the addresses at the end of my rant if you want to learn more.

I usually buy my duck eggs from Seward Co-op, who actually gets them from LTD Farms, but I was so excited to get my first eggs of the year from my generous friends. It was really cool being able to see the actual ducks that produced the eggs I was about to use. I love the texture, which almost feels waxy to me, and the look of the shell of the duck egg too. They are much thicker and are a little bit more difficult to break into. Since they have a thicker shell it gives them a longer shelf life. Who knew?! You can keep duck eggs for about three weeks in the refrigerator, some can last longer but you just have to check them over. It all depends on the freshness of the egg when you receive it to see how long you can keep it in your refrigerator. Makes sense, right? Once you crack that duck egg open, you’ll notice that the egg white is thicker and the yolk is a super bright yellow. If you have a chance to, I would recommend baking with duck eggs at least once to try it out. I have even tried them in cookies and they worked great.

Back to my birthday cake. I chose this particular cake because it seemed light and fresh. Perfect for a May birthday. We found out that this cake tastes best the day it is made. The next day it gets just a little dry, but it’s still quite edible. On top of this particular cake it has just a simple powdered sugar glaze. The glaze seriously took me about a minute to make with a whisk. One of the best parts of the whole thing is the sprinkle of reserved citrus sugar on top of the glaze. It added a crunch and a little more sweetness to it. This cake would actually be great to bring along to a picnic or something this summer. Super easy to make. Hope you get to give it a shot.

Citrus Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Adapted from Cook’s Country

For the Cake:

2 ½ cups cake flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup buttermilk, room temperature

3 tablespoons grated lemon and orange zest

¼ cup lemon and orange juice, mixed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¾ cup granulated sugar

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3 large eggs plus 1 large yolk, room temperature OR 3 duck eggs

Glaze:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons buttermilk

Directions for Cake:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9X13-inch baking dish. Sift flour baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Combine buttermilk, lemon/orange juice, and vanilla in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup.

Using your mixer, beat granulated sugar and lemon/orange zest on medium speed until moist and fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer ¼ cup of the sugar mixture to a small bowl and cover it for later use. Add butter to remaining sugar mixture and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and yolk, one at a time. Mix each egg until incorporated. Make sure your mixing speed is on low and then add flour and buttermilk mixtures alternating between the two beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until smooth, but don’t over mix.

Scrape batter into buttered baking dish and smooth out the top. Bake about 25-30 minutes until cake is golden brown or toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes.

Directions for Glaze:

Whisk confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and buttermilk together until smooth. You may have to add a little extra lemon juice to make it a little more runny. I did. Gently spread glaze over warm cake and sprinkle evenly with your reserved citrus sugar mixture. Let cool completely, at least 2 hours. Serve when ready!

Resources for learning about duck eggs:

LTD Farm

Urban Homestead

Local Harvest

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