Maple Oatmeal Scones

I love these on a snowy day (like today) with hot tea.


2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/3 cup currants (optional)1/3 cup raisins(I personally use cranberries)
1/3 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Combine dry ingredients (except nuts, raisins, and currants) in mixer bowl and mix thoroughly. Cut in butter until walnut sized chunks remain.
Add buttermilk, maple syrup and egg and mix briefly until dough comes together.
Add pecans, currants and raisins and mix a few seconds more.
Turn out dough onto lightly floured board and pat into a circle 3/4 inch thick.
Cut into wedge pie-shaped pieces.

Bake on pre-greased cookie sheet at 375°F degrees until light golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from sheet, glaze with confectioner's icing (flavored with orange juice is nice) if desired or sprinkle with dots of butter and cinnamon sugar.

NOTE: if you have no buttermilk, you can substitute yogurt or sour cream one to one, or 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar.

Sugar Free Cream Puffs

This is a recipe that I've recently revised to make weight loss surgery friendly. I've become famous for making these little babies.



Cream Puffs

Dough:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, no substitutions)
1 cup all purpose flour (I tried whole wheat flour does NOT taste good)
4 eggs

Filling:

1 1/2 cups skim milk
2 packages of Sugar Free White Chocolate instant pudding
1 8 oz container of non dairy whipped topping


Optional:
Chocolate or Carmel ice cream topping (I used sugar free for mine)

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring water and butter to a boil.
Add flour all at once; stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from heat;
let stand for 5 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time; beating well after each
addition. (note: I use a Kitchen Aid mixer but use a fork if you don't have one)
It's very important to make sure the eggs are added one at a time. Beat until smooth.

Drop by half spoonfuls (a little smaller than quarter size) onto baking sheet (I use
parchment paper so it's easier to remove them).
Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Puffs should be browned on the top and cooked in the middle.

In the meantime, whisk milk with pudding. Fold in whipped topping. Refridgerate until ready to fill puffs.

Let puffs cool to room temperature. Once cool, fill with pudding mixture using a pastry bag with a bismark tip.


Drizzle with chocolate
and caramel if chosen. Store leftovers in the fridge or freeze.

Makes about 36 cream puffs

Blueberry Kuchen

Ah, at last, my blueberry bushes have small fruits developing. Soon the plump blueberries will be baked in my annual blueberry recipe!

Blueberry Kuchen
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 cups flour
5 tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups blueberries
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Beat the eggs with 1 cup sugar till blended. Stir in oil and milk. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into liquid ingredients until smooth.
Spread into a greased 9-by-13 inch (or larger, for less depth) pan. Mix the blueberries with lemon juice, 3 Tbsps. sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle atop batter.

Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes.

For an antioxidant bonus: Add 1 cup of Hershey’s Special Very Dark chocolate chips into the batter and serve cake with a cup of coffee in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other.
*smile*

Cheesecake!

The Joy of Cheesecake has this amazing Passover cheesecake, which, frankly is too good for just one time a year. Shavuos is coming up next month, aka the blintz and cheesecake holiday, so there's a good time to try this out. You could definitely do this with Splenda if you are splendarific, which I am not.

It's got some good protein going on!
Try it with the matzoh meal crust (which is a restaurant standard these days for cheesecakes). Graham cracker will work too, but it's higher in sugar:

Matzoh Meal crust: 1 c Matzoh Meal, 4 T Butter, Melted, 3 T Sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Blend ingredients well in a bowl. Press mixture onto the bottom and partly up the sides of a greased 8" springform pan. Smooth crumbs to an even thickness. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool before filling.

The Filling: 1 c cottage cheese (or ricotta if you don't want to sieve and drain), 1/2 lb cream cheese, 2/3 c sugar, 3 large eggs, separated, 1 t grated lemon rind, 1 T potato starch, 1 c sour cream

Oven should be cooled to 325 degrees.

Press the cottage cheese through a sieve. Drain. Beat together the cottage cheese, cream cheese, sugar and egg yolks. Stir in the lemon rind, potato starch and sour cream until just mixed. Beat the egg whites (in a separate bowl) until the form stiff peaks, then fold the whites into the cheese mixture.

Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and bake for 1 hour or until set. Allow to cool in the oven, with the door propped open, for 1 hour. Chill.

Perogies or Perohy (or pyrohy)

Everybody pretty much knows what perogies are, I will assume. Little pockets of dough with filling, boiled and served with some melted butter.

Perohy Dough:

2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Yoghurt
1 Tsp Salt

Mix the above well, and let stand covered on counter (room temperature) so that the dough can become elastic.

American bread flour is lower in gluten than Canadian all-purpose flour. Americans must use bread flour and often must increase the quantities of flour in by 5-10%. You may also just need to add gluten, or you could go across the border and buy some of Canadian flour...

Potato Filling:

3 Cups Potatoes (that is about 4 1/2 cups raw and cubed)
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups Cheese

Other stuff to do:

Boil potatoes until cooked but not mush. Drain water, mash while adding in the other ingredients.

Roll out dough into relatively thin (but not parchment) sheets. Use a little extra flour to keep things from sticking.

Cut dough into squares or use a cookie cutter or other item to cut dough. Put a spoonful of potato mixture in the middle of each cut piece of dough, fold over and pinch the edges together. If it tears too much, you may need to re-roll your dough thicker or add less filling.

Put on a cookie sheet or some such.

When completed the batch, bring water (lots - big pot) to boil and drop them in. When they float to the surface, they are cooked.

Remove from boiling water by draining into a collander or with a slotted spoon so you can throw in the second batch. You know the saying... "Bet'cha can't just eat a dozen."

Cover with as little or as much melted butter as you want. Often the butter is even better if you slowly saute some onions in with it while metings the butter.

Also good with sour cream. Better with sour cream and butter...

Perohy can be frozen. Do not thaw before cooking - drop frozen perohy straight into boiling water.

This recipe works well with exercise and/or starvation after you gain weight from eating too many.

Banana Bread

Don't you hate throwing away those brown bananas? Well, here's your answer, make them into bread. It's easy.

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. soda
1 1/4 tsp. cream of tarter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas (2-3)

Sift flour, soda, cream of tarter and salt. Cream shortening, stir in sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Add eggs and beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with bananas, a small amount at a time. Beat until smooth. Pour into a well greased loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven about 1 hour until done.

If you don't have time to make bread, bananas can be frozen for future bread use. Just remember to thaw them before you use them, lol.

Carrot Cake

Buddha Girl has been begging for this recipe. It is awesome!

Carrot Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I add 1 tablespoon, cuz I like it)
3 cups finely shredded carrot
1 cup cooking oil
4 eggs

optional:
finley chopped English walnuts

*Grease and lighly flour a 13 x 9 x 2 pan. (I use a bundt pan)
In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients.
Add the next three ingredients, beating with an electric mixer until combined.
Continue beating two minutes on medium speed.
Turn into the pan and bake at 325 for 40 minutes or until done.
Frost with your favorite cream cheese icing.

***I also like to pour this prepared mix in mini loaf pans and use as a mini bread loaf.
This makes an excellent gift!

Sugar Free Berry Delight

Again, this is not low fat or calories but is sooo good! Mr. Sign came up with this concoction. It makes a huge amount so you can always cut the ingredients in half. You could also use graham crackers for the crust but wouldn't get that salty sweet taste we all love.

¾ Cup Flour

2 cups chopped pretzels

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 stick of butter

1 cup Splenda

Melt butter in the microwave. Mix ingredients above in a bowl and press firmly on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan, Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

2-8 oz blocks of 1/3 less fat cream cheese

2 cups of Splenda

1-16 oz container of non dairy whipped topping

With a wire whisk blend Splenda and softened cream cheeses together. Fold in whipped topping and spread on the cool crust and set in the regenerator for 10 minutes.

2-.3 oz of sugar free packages of Jell-O black cherry (you can use any flavor but this is my fav.)

3 cups of frozen berries such as blue berries, raspberries, black berries

Prepare Jell-O per the directions from the package using quickset method. Mix in the berries and let set for 5 minutes. Then spoon over the top of the cream cheese mixture and let set for two hours.

Blueberry Stuff

Up until now things have been fairly healthy and there have been no desserts. I think it is time to change this. It is a favorite of anyone that tries it. Maybe if you just had a bite or two.


1 quart blueberries***
1 large can crushed pineapples
1 box yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter


In a 9x13 glass pan layer: quart of berries, Large can crushed pineapple (drain a little), 1 box yellow cake mix (just the dry mix out of the box), two sticks melted butter.

Bake on 350 for 45 minutes. Best served warm with ice cream or cool whip. For a change use cherries in place of blueberries.

***NOTE: If you substitute frozen berries for fresh then reduce some of the pineapple juice otherwise you will have to much liquid and this will be more soupy than normal. This should no affect cooking time.