Bread – Page 8 – Simply Made Kitchen and Crafts

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, breakfast, Brunch, Food, Kids in the Kitchen, Pancakes

Super Healthy Kids Whole Wheat Waffles

Posted on July 31, 2014 by lmc

M recently went on a cooking rampage and spent the day making healthy meals and snacks. She made several loaves of fresh zucchini bread, mini cupcake frittatas, and a load of flavorful whole grain waffles. One of her favorite go-to websites is called superhealthykids.com so M rifled through their pages to find what she thought would be a delicious breakfast recipe. She settled on the whole wheat waffle recipe. Earlier in the week, M and I had visited a local farm stand where we picked out loads of beautiful berries. She thought they could be used to add a bit of pizzaz to her breakfast accompanied by a hefty dollop of creamy Greek yogurt.
So if you’re in the mood, head on over to superhealthykids.com and check out this great recipe for waffles. Dress them up with your favorite healthy toppings. Store leftovers in the fridge or freezer and pop one in the toaster for a fresh baked taste every morning. As you know, breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day!

Super Healthy Kids Whole Wheat Waffles

2 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
4 eggs
3 cups fat free organic milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together, batter will be lumpy. Fill 1/4 measuring cup with batter. Pour onto hot, greased waffle iron. Cook batter until golden brown. Remove from waffle iron and top with berries, yogurt, peanut butter, or other fruit.
(Adapted from the recipe found on Superhealthykids.com

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, breakfast, Brunch

Bountiful Blueberry Bread

Posted on July 13, 2014 by lmc

As the steamy months of July and August set in, blueberry season is upon us. Farmers all over the Midwest have sent out postcards to local residents reminding them to stop by the farm for a taste of the season’s best.
Several farms in our area sit just a few minutes from our home. Making the daily drive back from work, I usually stop by for a large 5 lb. box of fresh picked berries.
Years ago, our family used to picnic at the local blueberry farms as we would spend the early morning hours picking blueberries that would be eaten or frozen for future use. As my children grow older and our days a bit more busy, we have difficulty finding the time to pick berries as we once did. None the less, we still seem to find time to enjoy the flavor of these beautiful little gems.

Bountiful Blueberry Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups blueberries, coated with 2 teaspoons of flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spry with cooking spray a loaf pan.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Stir yogurt, milk, oil, egg, vanilla, and almond extract into flour mixture until batter is just blended. Gently fold blueberries into batter; pour into prepared loaf pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, Cake, Desserts, Food, holiday

Old Fashioned Vanilla Pound Cake

Posted on April 16, 2014 by lmc

You probably recognize this cake shape from an earlier post. Yup, it’s the Mickey Mouse cake mold that we purchased in Disney World a couple of weeks ago. My twins, M and P just celebrated a birthday and M requested this delicious vanilla pound cake with cream cheese icing and strawberry topping. I usually use this recipe to make my Easter Lamb Cake. I use a special two-piece mold for a three dimensional cake. I am happy to say that this flat mold worked out just as well. Follow the recipe below for instructions to fill a more traditional pan size. A good rule of thumb when using a pan other than suggested in the recipe is to make sure that you don’t fill the pan too high or you’ll have a real mess on your hands! The pan will often overflow or you’ll end up with a lopsided, domed cake that often needs to be shaved down for a uniform shape. For a moist, dense cake, try to set your kitchen timer a few minutes less than the suggested time so that you can check out the cake before it becomes too well done. Ovens vary in temperature so get to know your oven. This way, you can avoid an over-baked cake that will most likely end up dry and crumbly. I must admit, this is a great pound cake recipe. I hope you have a chance to try this old fashioned favorite. It’s certainly isn’t a figure friendly recipe but it’s sure to please when baking for a special occasion.

Old Fashioned Vanilla Pound Cake

2 2/3 cups sugar
2 cups butter
8 eggs
8 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups cake flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Separate the yolks from the egg whites. Reserve the yokes. In a stainless steel bowl, beat the whites to form stiff peaks.
In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter thoroughly. Beat in egg yolks. Stir in milk, vanilla and almond extract. Add flour, 1 cup at a time. Carefully, fold in egg whites. Pour batter into well greased 10″ tube pan and bake for 90 minutes. Cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting. Optional: Top with fresh fruit before serving.

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, breakfast, Brunch, Food

PB&J French Toast

Posted on April 2, 2014 by lmc

Lately, M has been using the Ninja blender to make her very own homemade peanut butter. She loads up the machine with lots of unsalted peanuts and pulses the motor until the mixture forms a smooth, creamy spread. When we pair the freshly made peanut butter with our Concord Grape Jam and favorite French toast recipe, the combination makes for a killer breakfast treat.

PB&J French Toast

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon butter extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar
12 thick slices of bread

Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk until well combined. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, almond, butter, and vanilla extract and sugar until smooth.
Heat a lightly buttered griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Soak bread slices in mixture until completely saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown.
Slather your favorite peanut butter over one slice of French toast. Spread your favorite jam or jelly on a second slice of French toast. Combine to make a sandwich and slice diagonally for corner to corner.

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, Food, Uncategorized

Mary’s Irish Scones

Posted on March 5, 2014March 5, 2014 by lmc

Simply Made Kitchen and Crafts

My family has been making these scones for as long as I can remember. As a young girl, I used to watch my mom make batches of these buttermilk scones without having to use a recipe. She would mix everything up by hand, then swiftly kneed and cut triangular shapes from the rolled dough. During the Lenten season, Mom would make several batches as we would have scones and tea for Friday dinner.
These days, I regularly make scones for my family. I, too, can make them without the recipe but I use a biscuit cutter to uniformly cut the soft dough into circular shapes. We often top the baked scones with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam.(Although, J and M prefer to top them with gobs of peanut butter.) After removing a batch from the oven, it isn’t long before they’ve all been eaten and everyone is asking for more.

Mary’s Irish…

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Baked goods, Baking, Bread, lunch box

Cindy’s Sweet Potato Morning Glory Muffins

Posted on February 25, 2014February 25, 2014 by lmc

This past weekend, as I sat on the bleachers watching the boy’s sectional swim meet, my dear friend, Cindy asked if I had taken the time to make her Sweet Potato Morning Glory Muffins. I thought about it for a minute and said I wasn’t even sure that she gave me the recipe. She said that I had “liked” it on her Facebook page so I must have seen the recipe. Well, shortly after I arrived home, I asked M if she might be interested in making the muffins for her lunchbox this week. She agreed that the recipe sounded great. Last night, after her distance track practice, M threw together the ingredients for these delicious muffins. Wow, they are incredibly delicious! We packed them in an air-tight container so that, hopefully, she will have them for the rest of the school week. Thanks, Cindy, for a fabulous recipe! It’s a keeper!

Cindy’s Sweet Potato Morning Glory Muffins

3/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup honey
1/8 cup shredded carrot

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine almond flour, cinnamon, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Add remaining ingredients and mix just until thoroughly blended.
Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (or use paper liners) and divide batter among 18 mini muffin cups.
Bake for 11- 13 minutes or until muffins are cooked all the way through.
Allow to cool before serving.

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, breakfast, Food, lunch box

Moist and Flavorful Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

Posted on February 1, 2014February 1, 2014 by lmc

When I was first married, I used to spend my Saturday mornings running to local garage sales looking for various pieces of furniture, dishes, baking pans, etc., to fill our new home. My husband worked his share of Saturday hours, so I would plan to visit what I felt were the best sales in our historic Chicago neighborhood while he was away. Browsing through the garage sale items, I loved looking for unique old baking pans and muffin trays. Many had unusual patterns or were made of great, durable materials. They had a quality that was unmatched when comparing current brands on the market. Kitchen utensils from years gone by also caught my attention. Depression glassware and Fiestaware were my favorites and I collected every piece I could find.
My garage sale days are over now but when all was said and done, over the years I had collected, among other things, nearly twenty loaf pans for baking quick breads, meatloaf, Irish soda bread, and yeast breads.
You may wonder how it is that I have use for such an amount of baking pans. Well, I like to bake things in large quantities. I often bake several batches of cookies, muffins or loaves of bread so that I can do it once, wrap it, freeze it, and have a supply on hand for a good while.
This recipe for pumpkin bread freezes just perfectly. While the loaf is moist and flavorful fresh out of the oven, it seems even better after it is frozen and thawed from the freezer. I like to switch up the dried fruit in the loaf, often using whatever is on hand. Great substitutes include raisins, currants, diced pineapple or finely chopped apples. Mix up the nuts too, if you’d like, chopped pecans work great in this recipe.
If you prefer muffins, scoop batter into paper lined mini-muffin pans and sprinkle with wheat germ. Bake 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees.

Moist and Flavorful Pumpkin Bread

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dried dates, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons wheat germ

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray with cooking spray, 2-9X5″ loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients, add sugar and mix until well blended. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a separate bowl. Stir in nuts and dried fruit. Pour into the pumpkin mixture; mix until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. Sprinkle wheat germ evenly over batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Bread, breakfast, Food, Homemade Mixes, Pancakes, Syrup, Toppings

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes with Homemade Maple Flavored Syrup

Posted on January 7, 2014January 7, 2014 by lmc

For the last several days, we have been experiencing record-breaking low temperatures in our part of the world. On the positive side, forecasters had given us plenty of warning, so I was able to head out to the local stores last week to stock up on lots of food before the arctic blast set in. All in all, I did pretty well. I purchased lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, plenty of oatmeal and other breakfast items, baking supplies to make fresh bread and a few goodies for my home bound troops.
Yesterday, M pulled out our set of Mickey Mouse egg rings and asked if we could make pancakes for breakfast. The rings are meant to mold eggs into the curved shape of a Mickey Mouse head but we usually use them to shape pancakes. We whipped up a batch of our tasty, satisfying Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes before heading out into the blizzard-like conditions to shovel the newly fallen snow.

After dropping the first batch of batter into the molds, I checked to see if we had an ample supply of maple syrup for the pancakes. To my dismay, we only had a drop of syrup left in the bottle. “No problem”, I said to myself… “I will make a batch of my own maple syrup”.
I had discovered this recipe last year, around the Thanksgiving holiday, when we had sleep-over guests and had run out of syrup. I quickly scoured my cookbook collection for an appropriate substitute. I ended up making this adapted recipe and I also heated some of our Homemade Concord Grape Jam to act as a flavorful, delicious, topping as well.
I keep the syrup recipe close at hand for we always seem to be running out of maple syrup in this house. Enjoy the recipes and stay warm!

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes

1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil

Combine oats, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, and extracts. Stir into dry ingredients; just until moistened. Pour batter onto lightly greased, hot griddle. Flip pancakes when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Continue to cook until second side is golden brown.

Homemade Maple Flavored Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon maple flavored extract
1 teaspoon butter flavored extract

Bring the water, sugar, and brown sugar to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and stir in the maple and butter flavored extract; simmer 3 minutes longer. Serve warm. Refrigerate remaining syrup.

appetizers/snacks, Baked goods, Baking, Bread, Brunch, Food, holidays, lunch box

Cranberry Orange and Almond Biscotti

Posted on December 10, 2013December 11, 2013 by lmc

Boy, is it cold outside. As I bundle up my kids for their 5:30 am swim practice, I think about how dedicated they are to their sport. I know it’s my job to supply nutritious and comforting meals to provide fuel for the day and I do my best to get the job done. However, there is one indulgence that M requests for her morning snack at school… Cranberry Orange and Almond Biscotti with a cup of tea is her favorite cold weather snack.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a decent coupon for Celestial Seasonings Tea. I had 5 coupons so I bought five of their holiday selection flavors for roughly 79 cents a piece. M was thrilled!

During M’s Saturday morning swim practice, I whipped up a batch of her favorite biscotti and brewed her a cup of tea. When she arrived home, she was so happy!

Recently, I purchased M a wonderful thermos to take to school with her. So every morning, I brew her a cup of tea, fill up her thermos, and pack a biscotti cookie in her lunch box so that she can enjoy her snack during an early morning break. It’s a great way to warm her tummy during the cold (freezing cold) Midwest winter days.

Cranberry Orange and Almond Biscotti

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, stir together sugar, oil, orange peel, vanilla extract, almond extract, and eggs. Stir in remaining ingredients.
Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth. On two cookie sheets, shape half of dough at a time into two 10×3-inch rectangles. Press a handful of almonds into the top of each dough band.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on cookie sheets for about 15 minutes. Carefully cut rectangle crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Turn slices cut sides down on cookie sheet.
Bake about 15 minutes longer, turning once half way through, until crisp and light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Baked goods, Baking, Bread, breakfast, Brunch, Food

Blueberry Bagel Bake

Posted on November 27, 2013 by lmc

I am one frugal gal… This morning, I searched through the fridge for left overs that looked to be past their prime. In the very back corner, I spotted a half eaten bag of blueberry bagels and I thought that they might taste delicious added to a breakfast bake made up of eggs, milk, bagels, and apples. To my delight, the end product tasted delicious!

Blueberry Bagel Bake

4 stale blueberry bagels, cubed (Use any flavor you like)
1 large apple, cored, peeled, and chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Place cubed bagels in a greased deep dish pie plate; set aside. In a small microwave safe bowl, mix apple, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Microwave until apple is soft and juices bubble; about 3 minutes on high. Pour mixture over bagels; mix well. In a medium bowl, mix eggs, milk, vanilla and almond extract. Pour over bagel mixture making sure bread is completely soaked. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and syrup.

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