Mmmm… never thought I’d eat another donut again! But I was wrong! October 14, 2008

It’s been a while since my last post- but in the meantime I’ve enjoyed first trimester exhaustion, and come back to normal, so I’m cooking again!  Being a pregnant lady, I’ve been craving good old comfort food.  So yesterday I decided to attempt donuts.  I’ve never made regular donuts, never mind a healthier version.  These came out great and they taste better the next day!  They are not overly sweet and they don’t make your blood sugar rise and crash like normal donuts.

Maple spiced cake donuts

Makes 12 donuts and 12 donut holes

1/2 cup yogurt
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup agave nectar (next time I want to try apple cider)
2 tbsp canola oil
3 cups light spelt flour, whole spelt flour, or whole wheat flour
1 cup barley flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl until throughly combined, and mix the dry in another.  Add the wet to the dry and stir for a minute or two until they are mixed well.  Refridgerate for 2 hours. 

Heat a pot with at least 2 inches of oil to medium high or, if you have a candy thermometer, to 365 degrees.  Be sure to use an oil with a high smoke point such as canola or peanut. 

Roll out your dough to about 3/8 inch thick.  I find it easy to roll out with a sheet of waxed paper between the dough and rolling pin so they don’t stick together.  Cut donuts with a donut cutter or, if you don’t have one, with round objects from around your kitchen.  I suggest a 1 cup measuring cup and bottle cap (that’s what I did anyway, and it worked for me).  If you’re using household objects, look for the sharpest edges you can find. 

Test your oil by throwing in a small piece of dough.  It should brown within 20-30 seconds.  Once the oil is ready, place donuts a few at a time into the pan, making sure you don’t crowd them.  Throw in the donut holes too.  Once one side is browned, flip with a slotted spoon to brown the other side.  Drain on a cooling rack over a plate or on a few layers of paper towels.  The big donuts take about 45 seconds per side. 

Serve warm or cold, with maple syrup drizzed on top if desired. 

Loosely based on Molasses Doughnuts from King Arthur Flour Baking with Whole Grains.

Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake June 6, 2008

This is the second try for the perfect apple cinnamon coffee cake. I got closer this time, using an adapted version of the Awesome Blueberry Cake. This cake is dense, moist, and full of apples.  I made it last night and it’s almost gone!

Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Batter:
1/3 cup applesauce
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup soymilk
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup whole spelt flour or 1 cup spelt 3/4 cup barley
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups chopped apples (with peels if organic)

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup whole rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp light agave nectar
1 tbsp canola oil

In one bowl, mix the wet batter ingredients and flaxseed. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients, minus the apples. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix well. Mix together the topping, and spread evenly on the top of the batter. Bake in a greased 9×9 pan at 350 for 45 minutes.

I appreciate this recipe for its lack of eggs.  I grew up not being able to eat the cookie dough because it had raw eggs in it, and I’m always kind of grossed out by them anyway (uncooked anyway).  I have yet to crack an egg without having a little egg explosion all over my hands. 

My husband’s great-grandmother who lived until 97 is famous for making floating island  for her guests.  Ideally, egg dishes are cooked, but this was not.  I guess my husband didn’t mind as a child, until he realized that his delicious dessert was undercooked eggs floating in undercooked egg custard.  I do not want him to relive this in any way, so I’m extra careful with my egg dishes, or, better yet, I just make a vegan cake.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins May 25, 2008

In my quest for a yummy healthy apple coffee cake, this is my first attempt.  It is based on a coffee cake recipe, but they really are not quite coffee cake texture.  I think they came out well anyway, though.  

Whole Grain Apple Muffins

Batter:
1 1/4 cups oat flour (or finely ground oats)
1 1/4 cups spelt flour or whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup + 1/6 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain unsweetened yogurt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped apple pieces
optional: 1/2 cup walnuts

Topping:
1 cup oats
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
optional: walnut halves for garnish

Mix together the dry batter ingredients in one bowl, and the wet batter ingredients in another bowl.  Add the wet to the dry and mix together.  Fold in chopped apple and walnuts, if using.  Mix together topping.  Pour into muffin tins and put some topping on each muffin.  Add walnut halves to each muffin if you like. 

Bake at 325 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

My husband’s opinion of these muffins is “mmmmmmmm”.  I particularly like the chopped apple, because it’s a bit less common to find in a muffin, but so tasty!

Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

Recommended Reading May 22, 2008

I’m currently working on an apple coffee cake recipe inspired by S for KC and my fabulous blueberry cake recipe.  I will be able to get to that over Memorial Day weekend and hopefully have a lot of baking success to share soon

Here are some great books that I have found very helpful while trying to be healthier.

The pH Miracle
This is the book that first got me thinking about being healthier.  It talks about having an alkaline body pH, and how to do so.  That means more vegetables and alkenalizing grains, and less meat and dairy.  It is similar to the type A plan in according to the blood type diet, discussed in the Eat Right For Your Type books.

 

 

Live Right For Your Type 
A different diet plan for each blood type.  I find it frighteningly accurate for me. 

 

 

Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan For Automatic Weight Loss
Lots of great information about your health.  Dr. Hyman discusses many weight loss myths and backs up his points with science.  

 

 

 

Cookbooks:

King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking
Lots of information about baking with different, non-traditional flours like barley, brown rice, spelt, etc.  Not much information about baking gluten free or sugar free, but definately better than totally refined wheat recipes.  A good starting point for someone who wants to work up to eating all whole grains or looking to add more nutrition to their treats.

 

The “I Can’t Believe This Has No Sugar” Cookbook
A cookbook of fruit-sweetened desserts.  Some use date sugar, which is expensive and a bit hard to find, but I did have some luck with it.  I have been quite pleased by the recipes in this book. 

 
 

Sweet And Sugarfree: An All-Natural Fruit-Sweetened Dessert Cookbook
Another cookbook with fruit-sweetened desserts. 

 

 

 

 Baking With Agave Nectar: Over 100 Recipes Using Nature’s Ultimate Sweetener
My favorite cookbook. 

 

 

 
Have anything to add?  Let me know!

Awesome Blueberry Cake May 18, 2008

I have made this cake 3 times now and every time it’s come out really well. I do suggest that you go with canola oil and not olive oil, because even light flavored olive oil adds a bit of an olivey flavor to the cake. The website also has some good information about agave nectar.

Wheat and sugar free banana muffies May 18, 2008

This post is the first in a series of wheat-free, sugar-free recipes for treats.

Dispite looking quite large and looming in the above picture, these muffins are tiny. That’s why they are called “muffies”. The word muffie is also more fun to say. I just modified a regular banana muffin recipe a bit, and they came out great. You can make them regular sized as well, of course.

3 medium bananas, mashed, blended, or pulverized in a food processor (my personal favorite)

1/2 cup canola oil or 1 4-oz stick of butter

2 large eggs

3/4 cup agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cups spelt flour or 1-1/2 cup spelt + 1/2 cup barley flour

1/2 cup of blueberries, walnuts OR chunks of dark chocolate (I like 85% -it has a miniscule amount of sugar-but people who are used to sweets tend to find it too bitter)

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix banana, oil, eggs, agave nectar, and vanilla together. In a seperate bowl, mix baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour together. Add liquid to dry, and mix until smooth. If you’re using berries or walnuts, stir them into the batter. If you want chocolaty center muffins (shown on right), place a chunk of chocolate into each muffin tin once you fill them, and carefully cover the chunks with the batter, making sure you don’t push the chunk all the way to the bottom. If you use regular size muffin tins, bake for 23-28 minutes. If you use mini muffin tins, make it about 12 minutes or so… I can’t remember the exact time. Just make sure a cake tester or knife comes out clean.

A NOTE ON MY WEIRD INGREDIENTS

Agave nectar is a low glycemic sweetener, which means your body processes it more slowly than sugar. It is great for people like me who love sweets but can’t really take the high sugar content. It is also the plant tequilla is made from.

Spelt and barley flour can be found at Whole Foods, and some supermarkets. You could always use whole wheat in this recipe. Barley flour makes muffins more crumbly, which is good in small amounts, this is why I used a quarter barley flour. According to King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook, that is the ratio to use. (I recommend the cookbook to those who want to integrate whole grains into their diet while eating “normal”; it also has a lot of good information about baking with less common grains)