Place oven rack in lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts on rimmed baking sheet and bake until deep golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer nuts to cutting board to cool; chop coarsely and set aside. Toast coconut on same rimmed baking sheet, stirring 2 to 3 times, until light golden, about 5 to 7 minutes; set aside. (Keep a close eye on the coconut when toasting as it can burn quickly.) Lower oven temperature to 325 °F. Lightly butter a 13- by 9-inch baking pan; set aside. If the pan is glass or Pyrex, turn the oven heat down to 300 °F.

Whisk flour, salt and baking soda together in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a Large bowl, whisk melted butter, brown and granulated sugars together until combined. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix well. Fold dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in chips, coconut, and nuts, if desired, and turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with spatula.

Bake until top is light golden brown, slightly firm to the touch, and edges start pulling away from sides of pan, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature on wire rack, 1 to 2 hours. Transfer to cutting board, cut into bars and serve. Mine did not pull away from the sides of the pan at all (glass pan), but they were done and still a little moist, the way they should be.

Makes about 3 dozen (1 1/2- by 2 1/2-inch) bars.

Lynn’s Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

- 3 1/3 cups Flour

- 4 teaspoons Cinnamon

- 2 teaspoons Baking soda

- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

- 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

- 2 2/3 cups Sugar

- 2/3 cup Vegetable Oil

- 4 Eggs

- 1 can (15 oz) Pumpkin

- 2/3 cup Water

- 0.5 cup Pecans chopped (optional)

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat sugar and vegetable oil together until blended (mixture will still look dry). Add eggs, 1 at a time, until blended. Add pumpkin and mix thoroughly. Add dry ingredients a little at a time, alternating with water. Mix in pecans Pour batter into 2 9x5x3 loaf pans. Sprinke tops of loaves with cinnamon sugar before baking.

Bake at 325 for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans.

Ingredients:

For the Cranberry Compote

For the Coffee Caramel

For Assembly

Directions:

For the Cranberry Compote

For the Coffee Caramel

For Assembly

Pumpkin Cake

This recipe is from one of my favourite sites, 101Cookbooks!  Click here. They are a bit of work, but SO WORTH IT!

Amazing Black Bean Brownie Recipe

For those of you who have a hard time tracking down agave nectar (which is becoming much more readily available) substitute honey 1:1 for the agave nectar. Ania’s head notes encourage you to keep these brownies in the refrigerator, they will slice much better if refrigerated several hours or preferably overnight. I used instant coffee this time around, but you can find natural coffee substitute at many natural food stores.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups soft-cooked black beans, drained well (hs: canned is fine)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (granulated) natural coffee substitute (or instant coffee, for gluten-sensitive)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs
1½ cups light agave nectar ( I used honey… and wow, that’s a lot!)

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line an 11- by 18-inch (rimmed) baking pan (hs note: or jellyroll pan) with parchment paper and lightly oil with canola oil spray.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl in the microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on high. Stir with a spoon to melt the chocolate completely. Place the beans, 1/2 cup of the walnuts, the vanilla extract, and a couple of spoonfuls of the melted chocolate mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Blend about 2 minutes, or until smooth. The batter should be thick and the beans smooth. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup walnuts, remaining melted chocolate mixture, coffee substitute, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer beat the eggs until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the agave nectar and beat well. Set aside.

Add the bean/chocolate mixture to the coffee/chocolate mixture. Stir until blended well.

Add the egg mixture, reserving about 1/2 cup. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1/2 cup egg mixture until light and fluffy. Drizzle over the brownie batter. Use a wooden toothpick to pull the egg mixture through the batter, creating a marbled effect. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the brownies are set. Let cool in the pan completely before cutting into squares. (They will be soft until refrigerated.)

Makes 45 (2-inch) brownies.

Reprinted with permission from Baking With Agave Nectar: Over 100 Recipes Using Nature’s Ultimate Sweetener by Ania Catalano. (Ten Speed Press 2008)

Ease of Preparation: Easy

Ingredients:

The Pastry

The Apples

Directions:

The Pastry

The Apples

Assembly

I love the frozen butter trick for pastry! How cool! I made mine with a bit less pastry, and it cooked about 10 minutes faster. I also used light brown sugar and a touch of Sucanat, which gave it a slightly molasses flavour! Delicious!

I’ve been selling cookies on Wednesdays at the airport, and I was looking for something really cool to try. Lo and behold, I came across this recipe! Wowzers. It’s sweet, but good… I substituted apricots for peaches (no peaches in my grocery stores) and cashews for walnuts (’cause I’m a sucker for cashews and not a fan of walnuts). The recipe comes from Sunny Anderson, host of “Cooking for Real,” another Food Network show. She’s cool because she’s not a size zero (which is a good sign in chefs, I hear) and she’s very casual and fun! But I only watched her show once… but look at the recipe I got!

Cooking time: 12 min          Level: easy          Yield: 20 cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped dried peaches
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add egg and continue mixing. Slowly add flour mixture, oats, peaches, walnuts, and white chocolate chips. Mix until combined.

Line 2 sheet trays with parchment. With wet hands make 20 balls from the dough placing evenly among sheet trays. Press down on cookie dough with palm of your hand to make a flat circle.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and still a bit tender in the center. Remove from oven and let sit on sheet trays 1 minute. Remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Of course, I don’t have a fancy mixer; my arm worked just fine.
]]> http://teresaskitchen.madphilosopher.ca/2009/04/peaches-and-cream-oatmeal-cookies/feed/ 0 http://teresaskitchen.madphilosopher.ca/2008/10/pumpkin-swirl-cheesecake/ http://teresaskitchen.madphilosopher.ca/2008/10/pumpkin-swirl-cheesecake/#comments Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:45:10 +0000 Teresa http://teresaskitchen.madphilosopher.ca/?p=37 It’s Thanksgiving, and no better time to try Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake! My sister made this for us one year, and we loved it! So, I sought out a recipe and made a batch yesterday. Very creamy, and like my sister, I made cupcake-sized cheesecakes (I’m being lazy, so visit this link for the recipe). As cupcakes, I only cooked them for 20 minutes (but in your oven, they may need 25). As I often do, I altered the recipe and make a dark crust using chocolate cookie wafers, similar to Oreos (in the cookie section of the grocery store), and butter and ground cashews. Yummy! Cashews are one of my favourite nuts, and they worked quite nicely in the crust. I also had to make a little more of the plain cheesecake mix (one more brick of cream cheese) because I didn’t have enough in proportion to the pumpkin flavoured mix. So, when the recipe says to take 1 and a half cups of plain out, perhaps take 2. My batch, which used a total of 4 bricks of cream cheese, made 32 cupcakes.

Enjoy, and if I didn’t say it already – Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, best-for-bread flour, spelt flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt

- 1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter (the “just peanuts” kind, no added sugar)

- 1 cup maple syrup (yum!)

- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

- 1+1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used the cheap stuff, but I bet the real expensive stuff would be better)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Place racks in the top third.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. in a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture and stir until barely combined – still a bit dusty looking. Let sit for five minutes, give one more quick stir, just a stroke or two. Now drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets (I used my Pampered Chef baking stone, no parchment paper). Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork. It’s a loose batter, so if you’re set on doing criss-crosses, go ahead and chill the batter for an hour or so before this step. Bake for 10, maybe 11 minutes – but don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.  They will be moist and delicious!

Make 2 – 3 dozen cookies.

Cinnamon buns

This recipe comes from my sister – what great buns she makes! The full recipe takes about 3 hours to make, and makes about 48 buns!! And you’ll need all the counter space you’ve got! Half recipe takes about 2 hours to make, and still makes a lot. Half recipe amounts are in [square brackets].

- 1/2 cup sugar [1/4]

- 3 cups warm water (not too hot!) [1+1/2]

- 2 packages (8 g each) of active dry yeast [1]

Mix the above together. Let stand for 10 minutes. Then stir it and mix in these ingredients:

- 2 lg eggs [1]

- 1/2 cup oil [1/4]

- 1 tsp. salt [1/2]

- 9 cups all-purpose flour (although “best for bread” flour is even better). It is best to start with 8 cups and see how thick it gets. You can use the last cup for putting on the bread board while rolling. [4 cups]

Knead 5-8 minutes till smooth. Divide into 4 parts. Roll out. If you just want to make regular dinner buns, bread, etc, stop now and make buns and bake.

Filling:

- 1/2 cup butter [1/4]

- 1 cup sugar [1/2]

- 1 Tbsp. cinnamon [1/2]

I find it helpful to make sure butter is soft, and to make a little more than the recipe says!

Roll dough out, spread filling on, roll dough up and cut into slices (no less than 1″ thick). Put into pans and let them rise, covered with a tea towel, light or oven on for a little heat. Leave 1 hour, or til doubled in size. Bake in oven at 375°F for 20 minutes. Watch them closely at the end to make sure they don’t burn. They could burn in metal pans and not in glass pans.

For sticky buns:

- 1+1/3 cup brown sugar [2/3]

- 1 cup butter [1/2]

- 1+1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup [3/4]

- 1 Tbsp. cinnamon [1/2]

- pecans (optional)

Combine in a pot. Boil mix for 30 seconds. Put in the bottom of the pan before putting buns in. Only cook buns at 350°F for 25-30 minutes (20 min in metal pans).

Icing:

- 1+1/2 icing sugar [3/4]

- 1/4 cup butter [1/8, or 2 Tbsp]

- 3 Tbsp. milk (or more to make thinner) [1+1/2]

- 1/2 tsp. vanilla [1/4]

I’ve never made the icing, but if you like that sort of thing, knock yourself out! Combine with a mixer, or maybe a blender. Try not to splatter the whole kitchen in sugary goodness. Drizzle over buns while they cool.