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Homemade Wheat Thins

Rebecca and I were housebound yesterday since we both have colds. We didn’t visit my grandparents as planned…don’t want to get them sick! And Justin had his first class of the semester, which means no Daddy around all day. So, Rebecca and I had an entire day of just the two of us, stuck in the house with nothing to do! It was a long day 😛  I hadn’t intended to do any more baking this week, but I needed some kind of project to fill our afternoon. I did a quick search of the recipes I’ve had on hold for a while and decided to try homemade Wheat Thins. I got the recipe from Pete Bakes. They sounded very easy. And they were! And so good!! I love Wheat Thins. A salty cracker with a hint of sweetness 🙂  But I don’t buy them anymore. I gave up all that processed junk a while ago. I have to say, these really do taste like Wheat Thins. Seriously. I have to experiment with getting them the right thickness/doneness. Mine were a little too thick I think. And the ones on the edges of the pan got darker than the ones in the middle. But the flavor is spot on. Definitely something I’ll be making again and again and again 🙂  As I put them in the cupboard yesterday I realized I currently have homemade graham crackers, vanilla wafers and wheat thins on hand. Not bad 🙂

Homemade Wheat Thins

1 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup white whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter (at room temperature)
2/3 cup milk
salt (or other dried herbs and seasoning) for sprinkling

In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter and mix until you have a coarse meal.

Slowly blend in the milk just until you have a dough that will hold together. Divide the dough into 2 pieces for rolling.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness. Sprinkle with salt and roll over lightly with the rolling pin again. Cut the dough into 2×2 inch squares. Poke each square several times with a fork.

Transfer squares to an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 325 F for 20-25 minutes, until crackers are golden brown.

Whole Grain Wheat Bread

I finally tried my stand mixer yesterday!! I have to say, I felt like I was cheating, like I wasn’t really baking. I didn’t have to do any work 😛  At the same time it was nice for it to be easy for once. I made a loaf of whole grain wheat bread. It’s a recipe that came with my mixer. Pretty simple. And very good. I realized yesterday morning that I didn’t have enough whole wheat flour in the house for it. But I had a whole bag of white whole wheat flour. So I used that instead. Still turned out fine. And I followed their instructions for shaping a loaf of bread. I had never done that before (roll out the dough, roll it up, tuck in ends). That worked well too. And I got to try my new french rolling pin. Love it! And Rebecca had fun helping with it too. I only made a half recipe (1 loaf).

Whole Grain Wheat Bread

1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. brown sugar, divided
2 cups warm water (105 – 115 deg. F)
2 pkgs. active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp.)
5 to 6 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
3/4 cup powdered milk
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup oil (I used canola)

Dissole 1 Tbsp. brown sugar in water in small bowl. Add yeast and let mixture stand.

Place 4 cups flour, powdered milk, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and salt in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 15 seconds. Continuing on Speed 2, gradually add yeast mixture and oil to flour mixture and mix about 1 1/2 min. longer. Stop and scrape bowl if necessary.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 min. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 min. longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, about 1 hour, until doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf. Place in greased 8 1/2×4 1/2×2 1/2 in loaf pans. Cover. Let rise in warm place, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 400 deg. F for 15 min. Reduce oven temp to 350 deg. F and bake 30 min. longer. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

Homemade Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers

In my ongoing efforts to make the  majority of our food (including snacks) from scratch I tried a new recipe yesterday for whole wheat vanilla wafers. I got the recipe from Heavenly Homemakers. I used to eat just about as many vanilla wafers as I did graham crackers 😛  I lived on them for a while. Then realized how much junk was in them and haven’t had any in a long time. So I was excited to find this recipe.


These are super easy to make! Very quick prep. And they are very good. They don’t taste exactly like a vanilla wafer…a little on the buttery side. But they are good.

Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers
makes ~55 cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sucanat together. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put nickel size mounds on the parchment paper. I just used a cookie scoop and made little mounds.

Bake at 325° for fifteen minutes. Turn off the oven and let the cookies sit inside for a half hour or so to crisp.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

After prepping yesterday’s dinner I had a little bit of pumpkin left. So Rebecca and I did more baking! I tried another pumpkin muffin recipe from All Recipes. This is a recipe for muffins. I made a few muffins and a couple mini loaves. The muffins turned out great! The loaves weren’t as good…a little dark on the outside, not as done as I would like on the inside. A lower oven temp might help. I’ll definitely be using this recipe for muffins in the future. It is a good recipe. And very healthy. I had a little more applesauce and pumpkin than the recipe called for, so I just skipped the oil. And they still turned out great. A whole wheat muffin with no oil or butter plus fruit and veggies added…sounds good to me! Of course we added a few chocolate chips to the muffins 😉 But they definitely don’t need them. I added some walnuts to one of the mini loaves. This recipe is easy, healthy and kid-friendly. A keeper for sure. And it’s pumpkin…yum!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I added some extra cinnamon too since I love cinnamon)
2/3 cup brown  cane sugar, firmly packed (or sucanat)
1/3 cup cane sugar or sucanat
1/4 cup coconut oil or melted butter (I skipped this)
1/2 cup applesauce (I added just over a half cup)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (I added just over a half cup)
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup golden raisins (optional)
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line the cups with paper muffin liners.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice; set aside. Combine the brown sugar, white sugar, oil, applesauce, pumpkin, buttermilk, and beaten eggs and mix until well blended. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the raisins and pecans, if desired.
Divide the batter evenly in the prepared muffin pan. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan.
*I baked the muffins for about 20 min. I baked the loaves for 35-40 min. I think they would have worked better at a lower temperature.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

As usual after Rebecca’s nap yesterday the first thing she wanted to do was bake 🙂 She goes to the kitchen and says “pour, pour…table, table.” So I bring her little table into the kitchen and put on her apron. I didn’t have any recipes planned, so I did a quick search in my recipe box. And I found a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe. I don’t know where I got it. And I don’t remember if I’ve ever made it before. But I had just enough pumpkin left for it. And Rebecca loves chocolate chips. Plus she likes to put the muffin cups in the muffin pan. So I gave it a try. These were super easy to make. And they taste great!! Definitely a keeper. I’m starting to wish I had given pumpkin a chance a long time ago. I guess in reality I just don’t like pumpkin pie. And I’m not a fan of the taste of plain pumpkin. But I do like things with pumpkin in them 🙂 I modified the recipe a bit and did 2-1 white flour to whole wheat flour. And I used a mix of semi-sweet and white chocolate chips. I think the white chips go well with pumpkin. That’s one more thing that’s growing on me…white chocolate. I used to not like it at all. But since I’ve been using it quite a bit lately I’m realizing that now I do. Funny how your tastes change as you get older. This recipe made 12 muffins.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

3/4 cup sugar (I did half white and half light brown)
1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
2 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet and white)

Heat oven to 400. Line muffin pan with baking cups or grease. Mix sugar, oil and eggs w/ whisk. Add pumpkin and water. Mix well. In a large bowl mix flour and spices. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 min.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Rebecca and I also made a batch of pumpkin cookies yesterday. Another easy pumpkin recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod. These are more cakey than most cookies. But still very good. They got 2 thumbs up from the 3 of us. And great reviews from my parents as well! Plus I like that they are a little healthier than a lot of cookies…whole wheat, oats, applesauce, pumpkin…not bad. So far so good with my pumpkin experiments. I haven’t made anything I don’t like yet. These were very easy to make. I used half semi-sweet and half white chocolate chips. And I had to bake mine a little longer. Just depends how big you make the cookies and what kind of pan you use. Some took about 12 min. Some took more like 15 min. I didn’t use silpat or parchment paper (I forgot) and they came off the pan no problem at all. I got 32 cookies out of this batch.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
¾ cup pumpkin
1 egg
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. all spice
¾ cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the butter with the sugars until soft and creamy, using a mixer.
3. Add in applesauce, pumpkin, egg and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl combine the salt, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, and flour. Whisk the ingredients together.
5. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients, with the mixer on low. Mix until blended.
6. Add the oats and briefly mix. Stir inthe chocolate chips.
7. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet that has a Silpat or parchment paper. 8. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes! Let cool on a rack.

Pumpkin Graham Crackers

Yesterday Rebecca and I were in a baking mood. And I still have pumpkin to use. I thought I’d experminet a little and try something new…pumpkin graham crackers! I just used my usual graham cracker recipe, but replaced some of the butter and water with pumpkin. It worked great! You really can’t taste the pumpkin. And the grahams turned out as good as ever. So I took out some of the fat and added in a few extra vitamins. Sounds good to me 🙂 The grahams have an ever so slight orange tint…not quite the same color as usual. But you’d never guess if nobody told you what was in them. Maybe I’ll make them this way more often. I’ll have to experiment with other fruit/veggie purees.

Pumpkin Graham Crackers

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
4 Tbsp. honey
1/8 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup pure pumpkin

Heat oven to 350. Melt butter in sauce pan or microwave. Stir in the pumpkin. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the liquids: honey, water, vanilla, butter, pumpkin. Stir well until a nice ball of dough is formed. Divide into two balls. Cut 2 pieces of parchment paper the size of a cookie sheet. Put one piece on the cookie sheet. Put ball of dough on the paper. Lay the other piece of parchment on top of dough. Squish the dough down a little with your hand. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough between the parchment paper. Roll until the dough covers the whole cookie sheet. Remove the top piece of parchment paper. Repeat with 2nd ball of dough. Cut into squares or shapes. Separate the dough a bit if you’re cutting out shapes. Bake for 13 minutes. Turn off oven, but leave crackers in to get crisp. Remove after 30 min. Break crackers apart (if you just cut the squares and left them close together). Store in airtight container.

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Yesterday afternoon Rebecca and I made some pumpkin pie muffins. I had pumpkin and buttermilk to use up after making the pumpkin scones. And I’ve been wanting to make these for a while. I found the recipe a couple months ago when I read through my Ellie Crieger cookbook. Plus it’s one more attempt at pumpkin. These are very easy to make. And they taste great! Since Rebecca thinks everything tastes better with “coca chips” I let her sprinkle some mini chips on a few of the muffins 🙂 They are good with the chocolate added. Some dried fruit or chopped nuts would be good too. The recipe says it makes 12 muffins. I made 16. And they took a little longer than 20 min. to bake for me. And I didn’t add the pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour or whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (I used light brown…that’s all I had)
3 Tbsp. unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack

Pumpkin White Chocolate Scones

Last night for dinner I made quiche. And I always like to make scones when I make quiche. I saw a recipe for pumpkin white chocolate scones recently on Two Peas and Their Pod, and I knew I had to try them! These were so good!!! All 3 of us loved them. Simple to make, like most scones. I love that. Plus I had some buttermilk to use up. I didn’t add the glaze last night. I might try that tonight or if we have them for breakfast some day this week (**Update…the glaze is awesome!!! I didn’t think they could get any better…but they did 🙂. I got 8 scones out of the dough. I baked 3 and froze 5. I’ll bake another 3 with dinner tonight and save 2 for a breakfast. Some dried cherries might be good in these, but definitely not necessary. The chocolate chips added just the right amount of sweetness. There aren’t enough to make them super chocolatey. But you get a little hint of chocolate in most bites. I bet milk chocolate would be good too in place of the white. Definitely a keeper recipe. And that’s one positive pumpkin experience for me. Hopefully there will be many more this month 🙂
Pumpkin White Chocolate Scones

Scone Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. pure vanilla
1 Tbsp. cream
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top

Spice glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
sprinkle of nutmeg
milk
Add as much milk until desired consistency. Drizzle or spread over cooled scones.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in middle of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. I use my hands! The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the white chocolate.

In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree and vanilla and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough.Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (3.75 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 3 pie-shaped wedges (triangles) (I cut it into 8 triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the cream and sprinkle a little Turbinado sugar on top.Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and drizzle scones with the glaze.

Chocolate Graham Crackers

Yesterday I tried making chocolate graham crackers. This isn’t a new recipe. It’s my same graham cracker recipe. But this is the first time I added cocoa to make them chocolate. I made the dough, then took out half, then added cocoa to half. After mixing it in I realized it’s probably better to add the cocoa at the beginning, with the rest of the dry ingredients. Oh well. They look like marble grahams 🙂 But they still taste chocolatey.

*Edited 9/6/10 – Made another batch this morning…adding the cocoa into the dry ingredients. Works MUCH better : P

Chocolate Graham Crackers

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup cocoa
4 Tbsp. honey
1/4 cup water (I usually have to add more than this to get a good ball of dough)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter, melted (or 1/2 butter, 1/2 coconut oil)

Heat oven to 350. Melt butter in sauce pan or microwave. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa. Add the liquids: honey, water, vanilla, butter. Stir well until a nice ball of dough is formed. Use silpat or line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Put half of the dough on each baking sheet. Use another piece of parchment on top of dough. Squish the dough down a little with your hand. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough between the parchment paper. Roll until the dough covers the whole cookie sheet. Remove the top piece of parchment paper. Cut into squares or shapes. Separate the dough a bit if you’re cutting out shapes. Bake for 13 minutes. Turn off oven, but leave crackers in to get crisp. Remove after 15 min. Let cool completely. Break crackers apart (if you just cut the squares and left them close together). Store in airtight container.