Whole Wheat English Muffins

Here they are!! As I promised.... the recipe for English Muffins!! Enjoy!!



2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 tablespoon agave or honey

2 cups buttermilk, or plain yogurt

1 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 cups to 6 cups whole wheat flour



In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the buttermilk. Stir in the salt and 2 cups of the flour. Mix in 2 or more cups of the remaining flour, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Knead for 3 to 4 minutes and then give the dough a rest while you grease a bowl. Continue kneading for another 3 or 4 minutes, and then put the dough in the bowl and turn it over so the top has a thin film of grease on it. Cover and let the dough rise until it has doubled (you can stick you finger in it and it doesn't spring back at you.)

Roll out your dough about 1/2-inch thick. Cut out the muffins, using a standard English muffin ring 3 to 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Place them on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Let them rest for at least 15 minutes.
Heat your griddle to a very low heat. Grease it and, very gently so you don't deflate them, place the muffins with the cornmeal side down on the griddle. Cook for about 10 minutes; turn them over and cook 10 minutes more. Cool the finished muffins on a rack. When you're ready to eat them, split them with a fork and toast.
Makes approximately 11 English muffins

Fruit Pizza

Orange Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange peel
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup agave
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Fruit: I used 3 kiwi, 1 can (approx 14 oz) mandarin oranges, and a little less than one carton of strawberries. The options are endless!!

Heat oven to 400. Mix all ingredients until dough forms. Press firmly and evenly against bottom and sides of ungreased jelly roll pan, 15.5 x 10.5 inch. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely.
In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, agave, and vanilla until fluffy. Spread mixture over cooled crust. Arrange fruit over cream cheese. Serve immediately.

Mom's Birthday Eggs Benedict

1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 English muffins, split, toasted
6 eggs, poached
In large skillet,cook peppers and onion in butter. Cook 2 to 3 minutes until crisp-tender. (I think mine got a little more done than that!!) Keep warm.
Melt butter in small saucepan; blend in flour and pepper. Cook and stir over medium heat until smooth and bubbly, about 1 mintue. Gradually add milk. Cook until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Blend a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks. Return yolk mixture to saucepan, blending well. Cook until mixture bubbles, about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. stir in lemon juice and mustard.
To serve, spoon cooked pepper mixture onto each toasted muffin half; top each with poached egg and sauce.
6 servings

Baked Coconut Millet Pudding

This is a favorite of our family. Dad mentioned that, "it doesn't really even taste like millet!" Enjoy!!

3/4 cup millet
3 cups milk or coconut milk
1/4 cup honey or agave
1 cup raw shredded coconut
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

PM In a large pot heat milk slowly, add millet, agave, coconut, and salt. Mix together until well blended. After turning the heat off add vanilla. Pour into oiled 8x8 glass pan. Cover and leave till morning
AM Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Serve hot or chilled. Top with whipping cream or yogurt and fruit!!
This can easily be doubled and put into a 9x13 pan.

Sunrise Pancakes

Saturday's have traditionaly been our pancake day. As maple syrup is rather expensive and not especially healthy for you, our family enjoys dressing our pancakes up with yogurt and fruit!! At the end of the pancake recipe I have some ideas that we tried.

1 cup pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons agave
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Combine eggs, agave, yogurt and water in medium bowl. Whisk in butter. Pour liquid ingredients, all at once, into dry ingredients; stir until moistened. For extra fluffy pancakes, cover and let sit overnight.
Preheat griddle or large skillet over medium heat; grease lightly. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto hot griddle for each pancake; spread batter out to make 5-inch circles. Cook until tops of pancakes are bubbly and appear dry; turn and cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Makes about 8 pancakes
Just a little hint: try to reduce the amount of flipping you do!!
I used strawberry-banana greek yogurt in between the pancakes and topped the stack with fresh strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and pecans. Oh and I was going to mention I didn't have to wrap up any left over pancakes!!

Pineapple Coconut Rice Pudding

This pudding was made in a crock-pot!! We had this for breakfast, so the night before I put it all together and turned the crock-pot on low. It ended up cooking for 7 hours, and I think that was perfect. Enjoy!!

1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3/4 cup uncooked arborio rice (I confess, we didn't have any arborio rice, so I used brown. It was a wee bit crunchy!!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup agave or honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Toasted coconut

Placce pineapple with juice, coconut milk, evaporated milk, rice, eggs, agave or honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into crockpot; mix well. Cover; cook on high 3 to 4 hours or until thickened and rice is tender.
Stir until blended. Serve warm or chilled. Top with toasted coconut!!

Orange Cranberry Scones

You'll notice in this recipe that the fats are supposed to be very cold. This makes a flakier scone. Also, it's handy that you can make these scones, stick them in the freezer, and pull them out when you want to use them. All you have to do is bake them!! =)

3 1/4 cups pastry flour
1/4 buttermilk powder or milk powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup agave or honey
1/2 cup orange juice
4 tablespoons (half a stick) frozen butter
1/4 cup cold shortening
Milk and cinnamon-sugar for topping

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and orange juice.
Grate the butter into the dry ingredients; then, cut the shortening in. You want pieces that remain the size of peas. If you cut the sortening in until the flour is evenly crumbly, you'll have mealy rather than flaky scones.
Add the liquid ingredients to the flour-fat mixture. Be careful not to over-mix or over knead. Gently fold everything together until the mixture is mostly moistened a bit of the flour may remain dry.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold and gather it together until it's cohesive. Divide the dough in half and place both halves on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat each half into a 7-inch circle approximately 1/2-inch thick, then cut each circle into 8 wedges. Separate the wedges , leaving about a half inch between each wedge.
Brush the scones with milk and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Bake them for 7 minutes, then turn the oven off, and without opening the door, let the scones remain in the oven for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or until they're golden brown.
Serve the scones immediately or within a few hours, for best flavor. Conveniently enough, scone dough lends itself to being made ahead, shaped, and either frozen or refrigerated overnight before baking. For scones refrigerated overnight, bae for tthe same amount of time for frozen, add 2 minutes to the baking time before you turn the oven off!
Makes 16 scones

Recipe Coming Soon

You may ask, "are those biscuits on a griddle?" No, they are not biscuits. Well, I won't keep you held in suspense for long! Does anyone want the recipe for these simple whole wheat English muffins??
Recipe will be coming soon with pictures of finished product!! =)