I recently found a recipe for homemade poptarts (my MOPS group posted a link to the recipe…from Smitten Kitchen). I had to give it a try! So I made them for breakfast today. I made the dough last night and assembled and baked them this morning. In hindsight I think it’d be easier to do all the assembly the night before and then just bake them in the morning. There was still a fair amount of work to do this morning and I was quite rushed. They were fun, though. And taste great!! I made a few with a brown sugar cinnamon filling, a couple with peanut butter and chocolate and a couple with cashew butter and chocolate. I’d like to try them with my homemade cherry jam sometime too. We tried the cinnamon sugar today. Mmmm. That was always my favorite flavor poptart. (Side note…I now can’t believe I used to eat them…so bad for you…all chemicals and processed junk). Of course I couldn’t make them totally according to the recipe…I wanted to up the nutrition. I compromised for my first attempt…I didn’t soak the grains, but I did use whole wheat flour (white whole wheat). Next time I’ll experiment with soaking the flour first. I’m so glad I tried these! A fun breakfast to have once in a while. And so many filling possibilities. And it just dawned on me that I’ve been wanting to replace Justin’s Saturday morning toaster strudel with something homemade for a long time…and this is exactly it! So you could call them homemade poptarts or homemade toaster strudels. Justin says they are breakfast pastries 🙂  Either way they are so much better for you than anything you buy in a box. We’ll be trying the peanut butter chocolate ones tomorrow. And I have a couple packs of homemade poptarts in the freezer now for easy breakfasts. I didn’t use any glaze, but you could. I just haven’t figured out a healthy way to do it yet (need to replace powdered sugar somehow).

Homemade Poptarts (or Toaster Strudels or Breakfast Pastries)

Pastry

2 cups (8 1/2 oz.) all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 Tbsp. sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
1 tsp. salt (I used sea salt)
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. (1 oz.) milk (I used whole milk)
1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)

1/2 cup (3 3/4 oz.) brown sugar (I used orgainc brown cane sugar)
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, to taste
4 tsp. all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat)

Jam Filling

3/4 cup (8 oz.) jam
1 Tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp. cold water

Alternate fillings: 9 Tbsp. chocolate chips, 9 Tbsp. Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut paste or 9 Tbsp. of a delight of your choice, such as salted caramel or a nut paste

To make cinnamon filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

To make jam filling: Mix the jam with the cornstarch/water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Use to fill the pastry tarts.

Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible, and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. If you’ve used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whisk one egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly on a well-floured counter if necessary.

Divide the dough in half (approximately 8 1/4 oz. each), shape each half into a smooth rectangle, about 3×5 inches. You can roll this out immediately or wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9″ x 12″. [You can use a 9″ x 13″ pan, laid on top, as guidance.] Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside. Cut each piece of dough into thirds – you’ll form nine 3″ x 4″ rectangles.

Beat the additional egg and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough. This will be the “inside” of the tart; the egg is to help glue the lid on. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping a bare 1/2-inch perimeter around it. Place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with remaining tarts.

Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F. (You can refrigerate them at this point and bake them later (i.e. the next morning). Or you can freeze them at this point…wrap in plastic wrap, parchment paper or wax paper and place in freezer bag. Thaw in fridge slightly before baking. Follow same baking instructions.)

Bake the tarts: Remove the tarts form the fridge, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack.

Charming tip from King Arthur: Sprinkle the dough trimmings with cinnamon-sugar; these have nothing to do with your toaster pastries, but it’s a shame to discard them, and they make a wonderful snack. While the tarts are chilling, bake these trimmings for 13 to 15 minutes, till they’re golden brown.

Last week I had to make some muffins for a church event. And while I was looking through my recipes I found a recipe for oatmeal muffins from my MIL. I had never made them, but they sounded good…and it looked like a recipe that would be easily adapted to soaking grains and replacing the white flour with whole wheat flour. I mixed the flour, oats and buttermilk early in the morning yesterday. And then baked them later in the afternoon. They turned out great! We’ll be having them with our dinner tonight. Rebecca and I tried one right out of the oven. Very good. I added some raisins and ground flax seed for extra nutrition. This recipe works very well as a base recipe. You could add any dried fruit, fresh fruit, nuts, spices, etc. I’ll definitely be making these again. So easy, so healthy and so good! I’ll post the recipe the way I made it.

This recipe is linked to GNOWFGLINS probiotics every meal – breakfast ideas. Check it out for some other healthy breakasts.

Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cultured buttermilk (I’m guessing kefir or yogurt would work too…I’ll have to try that the next time I make them)
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground)
1 egg
4 Tbsp. coconut oil (melted butter would work too)
1/2 cup brown cane sugar (they are quite sweet…you could decrease this if you want to cut back on sugar)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
(a little cinnamon would probably be good in these)
1/2 – 1 cup add-ins (raisins, flax seed, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit, dried fruit)

Mix oats, flour and buttermilk in a glass bowl. Cover and let sit at least 7 hours.

Heat oven to 400. Stir remaining ingredients into oat mixture. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 min. Makes 12-14 muffins.

**If you do not want to soak the grains, mix just the oats and buttermilk and let sit 1 hour. Add egg and oil/butter. Mix dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry. Mix until just dampened. Fill muffin cups and bake as directed above.

A few weeks ago I tried making english muffins. They didn’t turn out very well. They were super dense…not at all the texture of an english muffin. I decided to give it another try yesterday with a completely different recipe. I found this recipe link on my SIL’s blog. The recipe is from Baking Bites. The concept of these muffins is more like a pancake than bread. These turned out great!!! Plus they are way easier to make. No long knead and rise times. And they puff up just like you expect. I’m so glad I tried these. I had one for breakfast this morning. Yum! This is a keeper recipe for sure. I’m anxious to make the cinnamon raisin version and maybe even experiment with adding some whole wheat flour. The hardest part about making these is getting the griddle temp correct. It has to be high enough to make them puff, but low enough that they can be on long enough to cook through without  burning. I had a mix of results as I adjusted the temp. But overall they turned out well. Maybe next time I’ll try my electric skillet so I can be sure to have an even temp throughout. I got 10 muffins out of this.

English Muffins

1/3 cup water, warm (110F)
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup nonfat milk, slightly warm (100-110F) (I used 1%)
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl, whisk together water, sugar and yeast and let mixture stand for 10 minutes, until slightly foamy.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 40 minutes.

Heat a griddle/nonstick frying pan over medium/medium-high heat (water dropped on the griddle evaporates very quickly). Lightly grease with cooking spray. Drop dough by scant 1/4 cupfuls onto greased surface and cook until medium brown on the bottom.

The top will look set and the sides will appear somewhat dry. The exact time depends on the temperature of your griddle and the size of your muffins, but expect this to take several minutes. Flip over and cook 2nd side until brown.

Cool on wire rack for at least 15 minutes or until completely cool.

When ready to serve, split muffins with a fork and toast.

Serve with butter, jam, peanut butter, etc.
Makes 10-12 muffins.

I got a new Barefoot Contessa cookbook (Back to Basics) for my birthday. I love it! I made my first recipe from it yesterday…granola bars. YUM!!! I’ve wanted to make granola bars for a long time, and there are so many different recipes out there. I figured I’d start with this one since I just got this cookbook. These are really easy to make and so good. They do have a lot of sugar…but I guess that’s why they’re so good 😛  When you first take them out of the oven they are super soft…you wonder how they will be granola bars. But after a few hours they are totally firm and crunchy. These are hard granola bars, not chewy. They were a little tough to cut without having them crumble too much. But the crumbs are so good too. This would also make awesome granola. If you just crumble it all instead of cutting bars. It tastes like the stuff you buy in the store…but without the HFCS, etc. I saved all of the crumbs to use in my cereal or mixed with yogurt. And to munch on by itself 🙂

We all think these are awesome! I’ll be making them again for sure. I got 15 granola bars out of this. I modified the recipe a little bit. Since I don’t have an 8×12 pan I made a little bit more than the regular recipe and used a 9×13 pan. I also just used raisins for the fruit since that’s what I have. And I added some of my homemade chocolate chips. As I figured the chocolate chips pretty much just melted. But it still tastes great. A little bit of a chocolatey bite here and there. Mmmm 🙂  In place of the sliced almonds I used some finely ground pecans. I didn’t want big chunks of nuts for Rebecca’s sake. This makes a great breakfast. And super easy! A homemade granola bar with some fresh fruit. Doesn’t get much better than that. I kept a few out and froze the rest.

Granola Bar

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds (I used ground pecans.) (preferably soaked and dehydrated)
1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (I didn’t toast mine. Leave this out to be GF)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup light brown cane sugar, lightly packed or sucanat
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates (I used about a cup of raisins and a handful of chocolate chips. Any fruit, seed or chip would work.)
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 12-inch baking dish and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dates, apricots, and cranberries and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan (I just used the back of a wooden spoon…tried to pack it down well). Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown (I baked it for 30 min.). Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares. Serve at room temperature.