Apple Crumble Muffins

I think you'll find that these are both delicious AND healthy. Note the egg whites, apple sauce and skim milk. They were good, but I made the mistake of adding maple syrup to the top of them (after the topping) which made the bottoms very sticky. Next time, I'll add it directly to the batter. I'll also try whole wheat flower, but that's proven to be difficult to find here (along with brown sugar and baking soda & powder).


Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup skim milk
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons applesauce
1 medium tart apple, peeled and grated

Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cold butter or margarine
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans and walnuts

Directions:
In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, oil and applesauce. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apple.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffing cups two-thirds full.

For topping, combine brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in oats and nuts. Sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for five minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Makes 1 dozen

December, now so much more than Kristimas

I know that lately I have resorted to photoblogging( is that a word? it is now. let's call it phobloing for short) but it's really an easy way for me to keep my 3 readers up to speed on my fast paced life here.

Up here we have Molly lighting a homemade menorah (yes those are pipes) at Hanukkah dinner. One of the benefits of hosting the dinner is that you get to bask in the smell of oil for the entire week. Mmm latkes.


Of course, there was lots of baking to be done and sweets to eat. Surrounding Bron's sacrilicious Christmukkah cake are my peanut butter cups that I had to make in large muffin tin instead of a small one ( this proved to be a bit much, so i chopped 'em into quarters)

Here's how you do it: (Brit, you might want to omit the deadly peanuts on this one, if you make it for Charles)

Melt 4 oz white chocolate with 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter ( i use a double boiler but it can easily be done in the microwave)

in a separate bowl melt 12 oz bittersweet chocolate (chopped)

in a lined mini muffin pan, evenly divide the chocolate mixtures, using a spoon to layer between the chocolate and the peanut butter.

Sprinkle with chopped peanuts

Place muffin tin in freezer for 15 minutes and bring to room temperature to serve

can be stored for up to 2 weeks in fridge.


In tune with the annual Christmas markets around Germany, our school put on it's own Winter Bazaar, the children made things (above lanterns and cards) that the parents purchased at very reasonable prices!

Robyn's Fritada

Luke loves this recipe so i got it off his mom and make it almost once a week. This week for Brunch, I added pumpkin and sunflower seeds. THANKS ROBYN

FRITADA (the D has a th sound... free-ta-the)
2 packages (10 ounce each) frozen spinach. thaw and squeeze out a lot of the water)
4 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese (don't know what you can substitute that with if not available
3/4 cup matzah meal (can use crushed unsalted soda crackers, or even a few slices of bread broken up or uncooked oatmeal)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan and/or Romano cheese (or any hard italian-type cheese)
crumbled feta
a little oil

combine everything into a big mush.
spread a bit of oil in 9X12 pan and sprinkle some extra crackers crumbs or oats or whatever your using in the bottom, just to make a little coating.

gently spread spinach stuff with a fork or fingers, it will be thin. don't press too firmly...can be rough looking on top with nooks and crannies

sprinkle extra cheese on top.

bake for 30-40 minutes, 370 degree F oven until top is nicely browned.

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I know that eating cookies isn't the best way to stay healthy but I actually cut the sugar in this recipe in half , and it's certainly better than anything store bought.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (220 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (170 grams)
  
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (200 grams)
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar (170 grams)
  
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
  
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 100 grams of Bitter chocolate broken into chunks
• 1/2 cup walnuts
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate and walnuts by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1 tbsp at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets.
   
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.
   

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Luke has been asking me to make him something in a bread bowl for months now, so I took advantage of having visitors over so we wouldn't have to eat the whole thing ourselves. Please note that despite Aziz, Jo and Jan helping us out, we continued eating this for several days. Next time I will definitely half the recipe.

2 pounds fresh spinach washed ( or 2 packages of Frozen)
1 large can of artichokes, chopped

2 sweet onions diced
2 tablespoons butter
1 pint plain yogurt
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup walnuts lightly toasted

Directions

In a large pan cook spinach in water that clings to the leaves until it wilts.
Drain and rinse under cold water and gently squeeze out excess liquid.
Chop finely and reserve.
In medium pan cook onions in butter over medium heat until well caramelized.
Cool then mix with spinach, artichokes, yogurt, salt and pepper.
Sprinkle with toasted walnuts and serve in a bread bowl

Zucchini Carrot Bread

I have rediscovered baking! After my disaster of a banana bread a few weeks ago, I attempted this loaf last week. You might notice that this recipe does not call for baking soda (although my roommate did find some for me) and that I've set the cooking temp in Celsius in an attempt to embrace my gas oven (we've come to an agreement, he won't burn my bread and I won't kick him). Keep in mind that while I'm baking I'm constantly referring to my gram conversion calculator as all the measuring cups are in grams.

2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. walnuts, chopped
1 c. grated zucchini
1 c. grated carrots
1 egg, beaten
1/3 c. butter
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. chopped dark chocolate (optional)
2 tbsp maple syrup

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix egg, oil and milk together. Add to flour mixture. Add zucchini, carrots, nuts, chocolate and walnuts. Stir until blended. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan. Drizzle maple syrup over thetop. Bake at 177 degrees for 70 minutes.

this recipe has been adapted from cooks.com

Fluffy Pancakes

I've been making these for my Berlin buddies to share a bit of home and a lot of maple syrup.I have been making extra fluffy pancakes by separating the egg and whipping the whites until soft peaks form.




Dry Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda,
pinch salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Liquid Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup oil or melted butter
1 egg

• In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a measuring cup, combine liquid ingredients.
• Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and mix to combine.
• Preheat frying pan. When frying pan is hot enough, a drop of water will "dance" and sizzle away.
• With a good non-stick frying pan, you won't have to use cooking spray. If not, use cooking spray or a small pat of butter.
• Pour a soup ladle full of batter into the frying pan.
• Flip when the top has bubbles and a half inch of the edge looks dry.
  
• Makes about eight 8-inch pancakes.

from cooks.com