Category: Recipes

Do you like breakfast cereals? I don’t. They never really fill me up in the morning, and I disdain the frosted cardboard taste and texture. But everyone else in my family likes cold cereal, so I usually keep some around for dire circumstances like postpartum and days that my husband leaves for work before 6:30. He doesn’t feel like frying eggs or pancakes at 6 AM, and I don’t blame him. But I also don’t get up that early these days, with a baby keeping me up all hours.

At any rate, when I found a recipe for homemade breakfast cereal, I was only too happy to try it and ditch the honey-flavored rings defying my nutrition goals from the corner cupboard. The first attempt turned out pretty well, I thought. Except for the fact that my kids refused to eat it.

So I played with the recipe a bit until we came up with this version. The original recipe, printed in The Simple Bites Kitchen, does not call for sugar, but I added some for the sake of peace. Two teaspoons of sugar spread out through 12 cups of cereal doesn’t seem too bad. It makes more of a difference in sweetness than you would think, though. The original recipe was supposed to be an “apple crisp” flavor, but… my kids don’t like dried apples for some reason. So I switched up the dried fruits and nuts for a combination that suits my family better. You can adjust them freely to match your own taste.

The cereal we ended up with is a sort of compromise between muesli, granola, and conventional cold cereal. It takes grains and seeds (like muesli), and toasts them (like granola), then mixes them with dried fruit and puffed grains–which could easily be used as a cereal without the extras. The combination certainly adds variety to the breakfast table, while providing ample amounts of protein, carbs, and fiber to hungry kids and grownups alike. Serve it with whole milk or yogurt, and maybe some fresh or frozen fruit for added flavor.

Variations on the Basic Muesli Recipe

You can find many ways to vary this recipe:

• In place of the oats, try a rolled 7-grain mix

• Add more spices like cloves or nutmeg, or stir in a teaspoon of vanilla extract

• Try orange juice instead of apple cider

• Drizzle in a bit of honey or maple syrup instead of the sugar

• Switch up the dried fruits and nuts

• Use different puffed grains

I made a valiant effort to make puffed quinoa for this recipe. It tasted fine, but no matter what method I used, the grains never seemed to get any bigger. To me, it just wasn’t worth to toast half a cup of grains and end up with half a cup of “puffed” grains that got lost in the mix.

If you want to make your own puffed grains, it is pretty easy, and you might well have more success than me! They did taste good, even if they didn’t puff up much.

If you try any variations and find one you like, please let me know! I love to try different flavor and texture combinations.

Method

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Set out two large, rimmed baking sheets and line them with parchment paper. (I don’t know if this step is completely necessary, but I always do it out of habit.)

In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the oats, coconut, almonds, and pepitas. You may substitute these for different nuts and seeds, but keep the amounts equal.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the apple cider, sugar, and spices. Stir thoroughly, then pour over the oat mixture and toss to combine. So far, this sounds like a granola recipe, but this mixture won’t clump together like granola does.

Spread it out over the two prepared baking sheets. Pop them in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Stir every 10-15 minutes, and rotate the pans. Try not to let the oats get too dark. We’re not making granola, just bringing out the flavor of the grains and nuts by toasting them.

Cool the oat mixture on the pans for 5 minutes or so, then carefully pour everything into a large bowl to cool completely.

Mix in the dried fruits and puffed grains, and you’re all set! Transfer the cereal to an airtight container, and relax in the knowledge that breakfast is ready. The cereal will stay fresh at room temperature for 2-3 weeks… if it lasts that long!

Print Recipe

A Real Breakfast Cereal

If an almost-sugar-free breakfast cereal that tastes great sounds too good to be true, try this easy recipe! It makes a nice big batch, enough for many mornings.

Prep Time8 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Cooling Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 8 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Keyword: Breakfast, Cereal, Granola, Muesli

Servings: 12 cups

Author: kimberly

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups oats rolled or quick
• 1 cup dried coconut flakes
• 1 cup sliced almonds raw
• 1 cup pepitas raw
• 1/2 cup unfiltered apple cider
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp Demerara or raw sugar
• 1 cup dried apple rings chopped
• 1 cup raisins
• 3 cups puffed wheat
• 3 cups puffed rice

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Stir together the oats, coconut flakes, almonds, and pepitas in a mixing bowl.
• In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, mix the apple cider, cinnamon, ginger, and sugar. Stir well to combine. Pour over the oat mixture and toss to coat evenly.
• Spread the mixture out over both baking sheets in a thin, even layer. Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes and rotating pans. Do not let the mixture get too dark!
• Cool on pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl to cool completely.
• Finally, mix in the dried apples, raisins, puffed wheat, and puffed rice. Store in an airtight container. This cereal will stay fresh at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.

Notes

If you would like a sugar-free cereal, omit the sugar.

Feel free to substitute different puffed grains if wheat is a problem for your family.

Need a festive, fall-themed treat to add to your tea table or harvest gathering? These iced pumpkin scones perfectly complement the season of blustery weather and brilliant colors. Pair them with soup on a chilly day, or serve among other dainties for an autumn tea party. Whenever you bake these, don’t expect them to last long! The aroma of these scones fresh from the oven is enough to draw eager taste-testers!

I can’t recall where the original recipe for these scones came from, but I have been making this version for the past year. The sweetly spiced orange-hued scones with a drizzle of cream cheese glaze atop seems just the right combination of sweet and spice. I hope your family enjoys these iced pumpkin scones as much as mine does!

Method

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Butter a large, rimmed baking sheet and set it aside.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl: add the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Stir to combine.

You can use all-purpose flour or a lower-gluten whole wheat flour in this recipe. I have made these scones with a mixture of half all-purpose and half white whole wheat flour. You could also use whole wheat pastry flour, as this has a lower gluten content.

A word on gluten

Why is lower gluten important? Gluten is formed by two proteins in a grain when they are exposed to moisture. This compound makes a dough stronger and more elastic. Flours with a high gluten content make yeasted breads rise better, so it is good for using in those recipes. Bread flour, pizza flour, and hard red whole wheat flours have high gluten content, up to 13%. Sometimes bakers even add extra gluten to their flour with a dough enhancer, if they need a dough to be especially strong.

However, gluten can make delicate cakes, pastries, and quick breads tough in texture. I like my scones light and feathery, so I look for lower-gluten flours and use a gentle hand when kneading.

Cake flour has the lowest gluten content of any flour, at 7 to 8% gluten. It has been subjected to a harsh bleaching process which strips the grain of vitamins and minerals, as well as weakening the gluten. Pastry flour is another good option for light-textured baked goods, at 8 to 9% gluten. It is made from a different type of wheat than bread flours, usually a soft spring wheat. You can find pastry flour in white or whole wheat varieties.

All-purpose flour is a combination of different types of flour, so its gluten content ranges from 9 to 12% depending on the brand. The point of all-purpose flour is that it can be used for any type of baked good, from yeasted breads to pastries. However, if you want a nice high rise to your yeast breads or the lightest, flakiest pastry, then it might be better to use a different type of flour.

I like to use a mixture of unbleached all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour in my baking. For yeast breads and pancakes, I use whole wheat flour made from hard red wheat. For scones, muffins, and quick breads, I use white whole wheat flour, which has a gluten content similar to all-purpose flour. (King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour has 12.2% gluten.) And for the lightest cakes, I use straight all-purpose flour. Cake flour has an unpleasant flavor due to bleaching, in my opinion.

If you would like to learn more about gluten, this article on the Gluten Content of Flours is helpful.

Back to the recipe…

Once your dry ingredients are combined, cut in the butter and cream cheese with a pastry blender or a fork. It works best when they are cold, so keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them. I add the butter and cream cheese together, even though the textures are slightly different. The pieces are small enough when they are about the size of peas and the mixture looks crumbly.

In a smaller bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, eggs, and cream. Whisk lightly, then pour into the flour mixture. Stir until the mixture forms a soft dough. Add a little more cream if necessary.

Place the ball of dough onto a floured board. Knead it very gently a few times, then shape it into one large or two small flat discs. If you want to make large scones, shape the dough into one large disc about 3/4-inch to 1-inch high. If you wish to make smaller scones, divide the dough in half and shape each half into a disc about 1/2-inch high.

Use a large, sharp knife to cut the dough into wedges: 8 wedges per disc makes a nice size. Arrange the scones on the prepared baking sheet so that the edges are not quite touching.

Bake the scones for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. The larger scones may take a few more minutes to bake.

Make the glaze

Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. Combine the cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar in a small bowl and mix well. Drizzle in cream or milk until the glaze reaches the desired consistency. If you are using regular cream cheese, add a few drops of vanilla extract or a pinch of cinnamon. Otherwise, pumpkin-spiced cream cheese spread makes a fun alternative! I have made it both ways, and both are delicious.

Cool the scones on a wire rack for 10 minutes before glazing. Scones are best enjoyed the day they are baked, but you may store them, tightly covered, for 1-2 days if necessary.

Happy baking!

~Kimberly

As soon as the weather turns cool and rainy, I start thinking about fall baking. I crave warm, comforting breads and baked goodies with plenty of spices and flavors of apples and pumpkin. These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins have been one of my go-to recipes for quite a few years. I can whip up a batch in about 5 minutes now, so you know I have made this recipe pretty often!

There are a couple of things which set this recipe apart from other pumpkin muffins. First, many pumpkin bread or muffin recipes call for quite a lot of vegetable oil. I don’t like to use heavily processed oils like that, so I usually substitute olive oil in recipes which call for vegetable oil. But nobody wants their pumpkin muffins to taste like olive oil! I solved that problem by using applesauce in place of the oil!

You do need some type of fat or oil, or the muffins won’t have the right texture. But I’ve found that a little bit of melted butter in addition to the applesauce works well. Thus, I get both apples and pumpkins in these muffins, though the apple flavor isn’t strong enough to taste.

Making a better muffin

Applesauce makes these muffins especially moist, without the residual greasiness you sometimes get with muffins that have lots of oil in them. So these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are healthier and have a better texture! That’s a double win!

To increase the nutritional value of these muffins even further, use whole wheat flour for all or part of the flour this recipe calls for. I’ve written the recipe for using 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour, but you are welcome to use all whole wheat flour if you like. I recommend using a whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour in this recipe.

Method

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Butter your muffin tins, or line them with paper cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the applesauce, pumpkin puree, eggs, melted butter, and sugar. Stir well to combine. In another bowl, sift the flour with the salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir the flour mixture gently into the pumpkin mixture. When it is almost combined, stir in the chocolate chips until no streaks of flour remain.

Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full with batter. (If you are using large bakery-size muffin tins, fill them about 2/3 full.) Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the top of a muffin springs back when touched lightly. Cool in pans for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the muffins are cool, store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Enjoy!

Note: This recipe makes more or fewer muffins, depending on what size of muffin tins you use. For example, the last time I baked these, I made 18 standard-size muffins and 6 large bakery-size muffins, for a total of 24 muffins. If you use all standard-size muffin tins, expect to make 30 muffins. If you use all large-size muffin tins, expect to make about 15.

Print Recipe

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Applesauce makes these muffins especially moist, without any residual greasiness from oil. That makes these muffins both healthier and the perfect texture!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Breads, Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Apple, Chocolate, Muffins, Pumpkin

Servings: 30 muffins

Author: kimberly

Ingredients

• 15 ounces pumpkin puree
• 1 cup applesauce unsweetened
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 2 cups all-purpose flour unbleached
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare your muffin tins with butter or paper cupcake liners.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, eggs, sugar, and melted butter until smooth.
• In another bowl, sift the flour with the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add to the pumpkin mixture and stir until nearly combined. Stir in chocolate chips until no streaks of flour remain.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the top of a muffin springs back when touched lightly. Cool in pan for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you like these muffins, try some of these other fall recipes: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles or Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal!

Fresh cranberries in a cookie? Yes indeed! There’s something about these cookies that makes them an instant family favorite. In fact, they have become legendary in my family, thanks to my sister Bethany who loves to bake them.

While they are quite simple to make, the white chocolate and tangy cranberries make an unforgettable combination that will have you baking them again and again. And don’t expect these cookies to sit around in your cookie tin–once your family gets a sniff, they will be gone as soon as they’re cool enough to touch! (My husband admitted to consuming five cookies in one sitting the last time I made them!)

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. You will need to bake these cookies in several batches, so it is helpful to have at least two baking sheets. Lightly butter the sheets and set them aside. While these are buttery drop cookies, the fresh berries tend to stick to the pans, so that’s why I recommend buttering them. Alternatively, you may line the baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Brown sugar makes these cookies soft, and lends a subtle depth of flavor. You may find it easier to use an electric mixer to make the dough, but if your butter is soft enough, a wooden spoon works just fine.

Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and stir well to combine.

In a medium-size mixing bowl, sift together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Add them to the creamed mixture, and mix thoroughly. Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries.

Using Fresh Berries in Cookie Dough

For this recipe, I use lingonberries, or lowbush cranberries, as they are commonly called in Alaska. This is a smaller cousin of the cranberry, which tastes very similar. (They are more intensely tart, if you ask me.) These berries grow wild in Alaska, Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and parts of Northern Europe.

Lingonberries are ideal to use in this recipe because they are small and firm. If you cannot get lingonberries where you live, you may substitute regular (fresh) cranberries. Since those are bigger and tend to be less juicy, you may wish to chop them coarsely before adding them to the cookie dough.

When folding berries into cookie dough, you must work quickly and gently, or the berries will burst. Then you will have pink-streaked cookies and flat, chewy berries instead of whole, juicy ones. I like to use frozen berries, so they don’t burst or squish as easily. If you have trouble incorporating the berries into the cookie dough, err on the side of less mixing. You can always press stray berries into the top and sides of each cookie after you form them on your baking sheet.

Baking the Cookies

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto the buttered baking sheets, spacing them 2″ apart. Press any stray berries and white chocolate chips into the cookie dough. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned.

Let the baked cookies rest on the pans for 2 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will be fragile at first, so letting them rest on the pans for a few minutes gives them a chance to firm up.

These cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. They also freeze well, and may be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Cranberry + White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Tart cranberries and luscious white chocolate pair perfectly in these easy drop cookies. They make a pretty addition to holiday cookie trays, but they are delicious all year long!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Christmas, Cookies, Cranberry, Oatmeal, White Chocolate

Servings: 50 cookies

Author: kimberly

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter softened
• 1-1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups flour unbleached
• 1-1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup lingonberries or cranberries fresh or frozen

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter two baking sheets and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, and mix well.
• In another bowl, sift together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Stir into creamed mixture until thoroughly combined. Dough will be stiff.
• Fold in white chocolate and cranberries. Do not overmix, or the berries will burst and turn the dough pink.
• Drop cookies by tablespoon onto buttered sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.