Tag: baking Page 8 of 9

Quick n Easy Banana Split

In Baking Recipes, Dessert

This is a recipe similar to one found in my new Speedy Sneaky Chef book. It is super easy and only takes a few minutes to make.

1 frozen banana
3 tbs of yogurt, plain or any other flavor of your choosing will work
1 tsp honey
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Add all ingredients in order to a small food processor. Mix until smooth.

Tip: Keep a couple of frozen bananas in the freezer ready to go.
This recipe would also be great with other frozen fruit in place of or in addition to the banana.

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Jessica Collins Soft and Chewy Gingersnap Cookies

In Baking Recipes, Cookies

I love ginger cookies this time of year. I made this recipe last week. It was a ginger cookie recipe by actress Jessica Collins I found in the December 27, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Digest. Pretty good!

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbs ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter – 12 tbs – a little colder than room temp
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon sugar: 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon mixed in a small bowl

Mix together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, salt.
With a mixer, beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy – about 1 minute.
Beat in egg, molasses, vanilla on medium speed – about 1 minute.
Turn mixer to low & gradually add flour mixture. Do not overmix.
Form dough into a loose disk & wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. – Apparently this is a great cookie baking secret, so don’t skip this step.
Preheat oven to 350. Let dough sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.
Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into a ball. Roll each ball into cinnamon sugar and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Place balls 2 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes.
Cookies are done when they are set and slightly cracked on top.
Note: Cookies will puff up and flatten.
Sprinkle warm cookies with a pinch more of cinnamon sugar and cool on a wire rack.

Jessica Collins used to play Dinah Lee on the soap opera Loving. She now plays Avery on The Young and the Restless. She also has her own cooking website: http://www.jessicacollins.tv/

Apple Pear Crisp Fruit

In Baking Recipes, Dessert

This recipe is adapted to use less sugar from the Pear Crisp recipe out of The New American Plate Cookbook
, pg. 248. I added more spices in place of the sugar. The original recipe also calls for 6 pears, which I replaced with 4 pears and 2 apples.
It is delicious!!!

1/4 cup rolled oats
3 tbs whole wheat flour
4 tbs unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbs wheat germ
2 tbs packed dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs canola oil
4 pears, peeled, if desired, cored and cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 apples, peeled, if desired, cored and cubed into 1 inch pieces
1 tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/16 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 375. Coat an 8 or 9 inch round or square pan with canola oil or non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine pears, apples, lemon juice, 1/2 tbs of the dark brown sugar, 2 tbs of all purpose flour, nutmeg and cloves. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
In a food processor, pulse the oats for 15 seconds. Add whole wheat flour, 2 tbs of all purpose flour, wheat germ, 1 1/2 tbs of brown sugar, and cinnamon. Process for 15 seconds. Drizzle in canola oil and process for 30 seconds. Cover top of pear mixture with oat mixture, pressing down gently. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the topping is brown and the pears are bubbling. Serve hot.

If you don’t have a blood sugar issue, like I do, this would be really good served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

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Healthy Pumpkin Pie Scratch

In Baking Recipes, Pie

Pumpkin Pie! My favorite! It does use canned pumpkin. One of these days, I will try a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin, but for now here is my new go to recipe for pumpkin pie:

1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
1 12 oz. can fat-free evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 425.
Combine cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and dark brown sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add pumpkin. Slowly stir in evaporated milk.
Pour into prepared pie crust and bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325, bake 40 – 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool and serve. Refrigerate any remaining.

My sort of healthy pie crust recipe is the following:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1/2 tbs water

Mix all ingredients together with a fork and roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper.
Makes 1 pie crust.

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Grandma’s Healthy Homemade Apple Pie

In Baking Recipes, Pie

Fall + fresh apples = homemade apple pie! YUMMM!
This is my mother’s apple pie recipe updated to make it easier on my blood sugar.

2 pie crusts
6 – 8 cups sliced & peeled apples
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbs stone ground whole wheat flour
1 tbs unbleached white flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tbs butter, optional

Mix together brown sugar, flours, cinnamon & nutmeg. Mix through apples. Place apple mixture in crust lined pie pan. Dot with butter, if desired. Put top crust over apples, flute edges & poke vents in crust.
Bake at 425, 50 – 60 minutes. Pie is done when apples are tender when you stick a knife through them.

This was the original recipe, if you don’t worry about sugar consumption:

2 pie crusts
6 – 7 cups sliced & peeled apples
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs butter

Mix together sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg & salt. Mix through apples. Place apple mixture in crust lined pie pan. Dot with butter. Put top crust over apples, flute edges & poke vents in crust.
Bake at 425, 50 – 60 minutes. Pie is done when apples are tender when you stick a knife through them.

The pie crust recipe I use is:

1/2 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1/2 tbs water

Mix together all ingredients with a fork. Roll out between 2 pieces of floured wax paper. Makes one crust.

The original pie crust recipe my pie crust recipe above is adapted from is:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs water

Mix together all ingredients with a fork. Roll out between 2 pieces of floured wax paper. Makes one crust.

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Aunt Sherry’s Strawberry Apple Pear Pie

In Baking Recipes, Pie

Bottom Crust with Filling

This is similar to strawberry rhubarb pie. I substituted the apple and pears for the rhubarb because that was what I had on hand. The strawberries made it look like strawberry rhubarb pie.
It’s super easy and tastes great!

Makes 1 Pie Crust:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1/2 tbs water

Filling:

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, diced
2 pears, peeled and diced
1 apple, cored, peeled, and diced
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/6 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
squirt of honey

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine all ingredients for the pie crust. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of wax paper and put bottom pie crust in a glass pie pan.
Combine all filling ingredients and put in glass pie pan on top of the pie crust.
Combine all ingredients for the pie crust. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of wax paper and put top pie crust on top of the filling in the glass pie pan.
Pinch the edges of the top and bottom pie crusts together. Poke a few holes in the top crust using a fork.
Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, or until bubbly. Let cool 10 minutes before cutting.

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Ultimate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

In Baking Recipes, Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are a combination of chocolate chip cookie recipes from the Nestle Toll House chocolate chippackage, Subway Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from the Fast Food Fix, and Sneaky Chef Flour Blend recipe.
They are so good, I have a hard time not eating them. Even my picky eaters like them.

1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt, if desired
1/4 cup butter, unsalted, softened
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.
In a small bowl, combine whole wheat flour, unbleached all-purpose flour, wheat germ, oatmeal, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter, applesauce, granulated sugar and brown sugar for 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and mix on medium speed until well blended.
Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until well blended. Add chocolate chips and stir.
Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake 8 – 12 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen.

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Homemade Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

In Baking Recipes, Bars

I was craving chocolate yesterday, so I made some homemade chocolate chip granola bars. YUMMMM! They were super good!
I modified the Chewy Peanut Bars from the book Living the GI Diet by Rick Gallop.
Here’s the homemade chocolate chip granola bar recipe I came up with:

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 wheat germ
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 – 3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/4 packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
squirt of honey
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, oat bran, wheat germ, flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
In another large bowl, combine the egg, brown sugar, vanilla and honey. Add the oat mixture and stir. Add the chocolate chips and stir.
Spray an 8 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and add the dough. Pat and spread the dough evenly.
Bake 12 – 15 minutes until firm to the touch.
Cool and cut into bars.

Gingerbread Men Cookie Recipe Healthy

In Baking Recipes, Cookies

This recipe is modified from here. I modified it by adding extra flour. The dough in the original recipe is very sticky and impossible to work with.

My Gingerbread Men Recipe:

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, I used my homemade canned applesauce
1 egg
1/3 cup dark molasses
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and applesauce until smooth. Add egg and molasses. In another large bowl, combine flours, baking soda and spices. Add to sugar and molasses mixture, stirring well. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough to 1/4 or 1/8-inch thickness. I roll out the dough between two heavily floured pieces of wax paper to help cut down on sticking. Cut gingerbread men, or other shapes, with a cookie cutter. Place on baking sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake 8 – 10 minutes. Decorate as desired when cool.

I used this buttercream frosting:

1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbs half n half, or milk

Beat butter until creamy. Mix in 1 cup of sugar, vanilla, and half n half until smooth. Add the rest of the sugar and continue mixing until smooth.

These are really good!!! The original recipe says they are lowfat. It was the healthiest gingerbread men recipe I found. Next time I make them, I’m going to substitute more whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour. I would like to substitute something healthier for the molasses, but I have a feeling they just wouldn’t be the same.