Cinnamon Chip Scones

Cinnamon Scones are one of my favorite coffee store treats. When I found Hershey's Cinnamon Chips at the grocery store, I figured I should try them. I've made Cinnamon Scones before, but with cinnamon and sugar.


Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons salted butter, cold
• 1 cup Hershey's Cinnamon Chips
• 1 cup whipping cream

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
• Cut the butter into 1/4" cubes. Toss into the flour.
• Using a Pastry Blender, cut butter into the flour mixture until it resembles crumbs.
• Stir in the cinnamon chips.
• Stir in the whipping cream with a heavy silicone spatula just until the dough looks like a crumbly ball. It does not need to hold together.
• Carefully turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop, pastry mat, or clean surface (I have an oversized wooden cutting board that I never use for cutting, only for dough).  Try not to make a mess. crumbly dough tends to crumble all over the place.
• Press the dough together with your fingers to form a flattened disk, about 1" high and 8" wide (dinner plate size).
• Using a knife or Pastry Scraper, cut the disk into 8 wedges (like cutting a cake).
• Transfer the wedges to the lined cookie sheet (the pastry scraper does double duty here--triple duty if you use it to scrape dough bits off your pastry board during the cleanup stage).
• Bake 12-15 minute until golden brown.

Beer Cheese Bread

This is a very tasty non-yeast bread that goes beautifully with a hearty winter stew or chili.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 12-ounce beer*

*I used a Killian's Irish Red for this loaf, but it is also tasty made with Guiness.  Also, feel free to adjust the recipe to 2 beers.  If you do that, use one in the bread, as stated below, and enjoy the other while the bread bakes.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Grease a loaf pan
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients (flour, leaveners, spices) together. 
4. Add the cheese and stir to coat it evenly in the flour mixture.
5. Pour in the beer. 
6. Stir with a heavy rubber spatula just until combined. Spread the batter into the loaf pan.
7. Bake 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Cool on wire rack about 10 minutes then remove from the loaf pan. Continue cooling or serve warm.

Plain Tasty Blueberry Muffins

Don't bother with the box mixes. Their tiny canned blueberries have nothing on the flavor of fat fresh or frozen ones. The rest of these ingredients, minus the lemon zest, are probably in your pantry anyway (well, I hope you store the milk, butter, and eggs in the fridge, but you know what I mean).

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon powdered lemon zest* (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter (half a stick), melted and cooled.
• 2 cups frozen blueberries (or fresh, if they're in season). No need to thaw.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. You could also grease them, but I find that the blueberries frequently stick anyway (or maybe its my pan?)
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk  the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Toss the blueberries in the flour.
4. In a medium mixing bowl (I usually use a quart-sized liquid measuring cup to make pouring neater), whisk the milk, egg, and melted butter.
5. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry and stir with a silicone spatula just until combined (that means no more visible patches of flour).
6. Divide evenly into muffin cups.
7. Bake 18-22 minutes until the tops are lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

*I buy the powdered lemon zest from Penzeys, and store it in the fridge to keep it fresh. No affiliation, just a happy customer.

Review and Recipe - Bobs Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix

I am not usually a fan of pancake mixes, but I do like experimenting with grains. I make pretty decent oatmeal pancakes, and have tried variations of whole wheat, but usually with mixed success. I stumbled across the Bobs Red Mill 10 Grain pancake mix at the grocery store while looking for something else (barley, I think), and figured we'd try it out. Happily, this mix doesn't taste like cardboard.

My first attempt at preparing them, however, was not great. I followed the basic directions on the back of the packages--1 cup mix, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon oil. They don't specify a liquid amount, so I eyeballed it. And ended up with thick, gritty pancakes. Not good.

Today, I tried again using my own variation of their "fluffy" directions, adding buttermilk for flavor. Much better. Not quite as rich as my normal pancakes (that I make with melted butter instead of oil), but quite acceptable. I added chocolate chips to the kids' portions, and they disappeared.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• chocolate chips, optional

Directions

1. In a small bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks, buttermilk, and oil. Stir in pancake mix until well blended.
3. Fold in egg whites, being careful not to collaps them completely.
4. Heat griddle. Grease if necessary (Note, I find that if using a stainless steel or non-stick frying pan, no grease is necessary as long as the pan is hot enough before batter goes in--medium heat on stovetop.).
5. Pour batter onto hot griddle. Add chocolate chips at this point, if using.
6. Flip after the bottom is done and sides and top have begun to cook.
7. Serve warm with syrup.

*** Disclaimer: Although my Amazon links are affiliate links (aka, I might make a few cents if you click through and buy), I am not otherwise paid for this review. I bought my pancake mix at my local grocery store with my own money, and "Bob" has no idea who I am :)

Black Bean Chili Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

• 1 pound 90% lean ground beef
• 3 bell peppers
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• black pepper to taste
• 1 cup Mexican-blend shredded cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cut tops off peppers and remove the seeds and white parts from inside. Cut peppers in half to form two cups each.
3. In a large, wide pot, bring about 4 quarts water to a boil
4. Boil pepper halves about 3 minutes until they begin to soften. Remove them from the water, drain, and place in large rectangle baking dish.
5. In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Add onion and garlic and sauté until softened. Add the beans and corn.
6. Add chili powder and cook for about two minutes until fragrant.
7. Add tomato sauce, and stir well, cooking until the chili mixture is bubbly, about 2-4 minutes. Add black pepper to taste.
8. Fill the pepper halves with chili mixture and top with cheese. There may be extra chili mixture depending on the sizes of peppers. (Keep it warm and serve on the side in case anyone wants seconds)
9. Cover with foil.
10. Bake 25 minutes covered. Uncover and bake about 5 minutes more.

Breakfast Casserole

Today's breakfast was inspired by leftovers we needed to eat up:  hamburger buns from last weekend, pre-cooked sausage from a family pizza night,  shredded cheese from a taco dinner...It took about five minutes to assemble last night, and the only prep time this morning was to pre-heat the oven. Plus, I am extra-proud of myself for coming up with a tasty, hearty recipe that isn't too fattening. According to CalorieCount.about.com, our breakfast clocks in just under 300 calories per large serving (4 servings from a 9x9 pan)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 cup pre-cooked turkey breakfast sausage crumbles
• 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
• 2 hamburger buns (or 4 hearty slices of bread)
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• dash salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cut the hamburger buns into 1/2 inch cubes and spread in a 9x9 pan. Sprinkle with sausage crumbles and half of the cheese.
2. Whisk the milk, eggs, mustard powder, salt, and pepper together. Pour over the bread/sausage.
3. Top with remaining cheese.
   Refridgerate overnight.
4. Pre-heat oven to 375. Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake 45 minutes until thoroughly cooked. Remove the foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking to allow the cheese to brown.

Pumpkin Pancakes

 I have no idea why I haven't posted this recipe before, since it was one of the reasons I started this blog. Well, that and my kids' insatiable desire for pancakes. My recipe card is dated October 5, 2008, so I've been making these for a while.  I did make one tweak today from my original version and used melted butter instead of oil. They were delicious. And they are now gone.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons melted butter (or 2 tablespoons cooking oil)

Directions

1. Heat griddle (mine is cast iron set over two burners turned to a smidge higher than medium...your settings may vary).
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices).
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, canned pumpkin, and butter.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a sturdy spatula just until combined.
5. Lightly grease your griddle with oil or cooking spray (no spraying over an open flame please).
6. Pour batter by 1/3 cup scoops (I use a soup ladle) onto heated griddle. Flip once the edges are dry and the bottom is lightly browned.
7. These pancakes are pretty moist and sometimes need more time than normal ones.

Makes about 8 4-5" pancakes.

Pumpkin Bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (about half a can) pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add cloves and pumpkin and stir till combined.
4. Add the we ingredients to the dry and stir with a stiff spatula just until combined (there should be no streaks of flour left).
5. Pour batter into a 8x8 baking pan
6. Bake 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Pumpkin Muffins

For this twist on one of our favorite fall breakfasts, I changed up a regular pumpkin bread recipe to use coconut oil for the fat. Coconut oil is a naturally occurring, completely vegetarian saturated fat (made from coconuts, duh). It is solid at most room temperatures, and melts at about 76 degrees. (It's also good for making homemade Magic Shell...and homemade cosmetics, but that's a post I haven't gotten around to writing)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup coconut oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin cups with cooking spray (I ended up with 17 muffins, so a 12-cup and a 6-cup muffin pan).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk 1 cup of the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and ginger. 
3. Add the pumpkin, milk, eggs, and coconut oil.
4. Beat on low speed until combined. Beat on medium for 2 minutes.
5. Stop the mixer, add the remaining cup of flour, and beat on low-to-medium until combined.
6. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups. Cook 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cut butter into 1/4" cubes and toss in the flour. Then cut with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
4. Add cream and stir with a spatula just until it starts to come together (we are going for somewhere between pie crust and biscuit here).
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and ball it up gently with your hands. Don't over-knead, just sort of squeeze until it all sticks together.
6. Flatten the dough out into a rectangle, about 8x10x3/4". Using a bench scraper, slice into 8 squares (or triangles if you prefer.
7. Transfer the scones to the baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes until they are lightly golden brown on top.

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream Shell Topping

Wow. This is easy. And yummy. 2 ingredients! We were out of Magic Shell for our ice cream tonight, and the kids said please really nicely. We've had a jar of coconut oil in the pantry for a while (hint: it also makes amazing homemade lip balm), so I made homemade chocolate shell topping. It took less than 5 minutes, folks.

While we ate our dessert, the kids provided lots of suggestions for alternative varieties. Lets see, in the pantry we have peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, peppermint chips, white chocolate chips...

Ingredients

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil

Directions

1. Microwave chocolate chips on 50% power in 30 second increments until melted.
2. Stir in coconut oil (it starts solid but will melt immediately upon hitting the warm chocolate).
3. Spoon over ice cream and enjoy.

Triple Butter Biscuits

Butter, buttermilk and apple butter. The butter in the biscuits makes it unnecessary to add extra to the finished bread, providing the perfect excuse to crack into some locally canned apple butter.

Ingredients

• 1 7/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• Apple Butter (to serve)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk dry ingredients.
3. Add the butter cubes and toss in the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, further cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Pour in the buttermilk and stir until the mixture comes together into a ball.  Kneed a couple of times by hand to make the dough a little easier to handle.
5. Divide into 12 rough balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
7. Serve warm with apple butter.

Yeasted Waffles

Waffles for me are like pancake's fussy cousins. To the casual onlooker, they are just pancake batter baked in a funny pan. And yet, they are a treat I have yet to really master.

There are two main types of waffle batter. Quick batters rely on some combination of baking soda, baking powder, and (sometimes) egg whites for leavening. Yeasted waffles rely on (you guessed it) yeast.

I usually end up making the non-yeasted variety because yeast requires hours to rise, and I prefer to sleep in the wee hours of the morning rather than make batter. But the quicker kind usually has a big downside: most of them require one or two egg whites beaten to stiff peaks. As much as I dearly love my stand mixer, it is incapable of whisking less than about six egg whites. And doing it with a hand mixer takes 5-10 minutes of non stop bowl-scraping and blending. Don't even think about doing it with a plain old whisk unless you are bored and looking for an upper arm workout.

I found a great deal on a deep waffle maker recently, so I thought I would take it for a whirl with actual overnight yeast waffles. The result is shown in my photo above (forgive any uneven browning...it takes a while to learn the quirks of a new cooking tool).  The batter was pretty fast to make (stirred up about ten PM last night), and the prep work this morning was mostly unpacking the new toy and reading its instructions.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups milk (I used skim)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup, 8 Tbsp) butter, melted
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Whisk melted butter into the milk..
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Add the butter/milk mixture and whisk together (I really mean whisk here--I promise it will work better than a spatula and the batter is not heavy).
3. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together, then add to the rest of the batter. Whisk well.
   Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.
4. Heat your waffle iron. If necessary, brush the plates with cooking oil (avoid using sprays because excess spray will bake onto the plates).
5. Take the batter out of the fridge and stir.
6. Pour onto the waffle iron and bake according to the directions. Typically that means baking until it mostly stops steaming.
7. Serve warm, or set cooked waffles on a wire rack so the bottoms don't get soggy (keep them on a rack in the oven set to warm/200 if you are not going to eat them right away).
8. Leftovers can be frozen and re-heated in a toaster for quick weekday breakfasts

Walnut Streusel Bread from Cooking Light

My October issue of Cooking Light arrived this week, and of course I devoured the issue as soon as I could (uh..read the issue. I didn't really eat it. Poetic license, you know...)

The cover story was about quickbreads, a topic near and dear to my heart (and my waistline, ahem), so I was excited to try one of their lightened versions. We frequently have muffins or bread for a weekend breakfast. I chose the Walnut Struesel Bread recipe because 1. I had walnuts and cinnamon and buttermilk on hand and 2. The cover photo looked really yummy.

My overall assessment: it was good. It wasn't exactly earth-shaking though. In fact, the recipe is an awful lot like the coffee cake recipe I posted a while back, except with walnuts and sized for a loaf pan. Still, it was yummy. That photo above was all that was left after my husband and kids sliced into it for their first round of breakfast.

While I was scrolling through their site looking for a link to the recipe (which I couldn't find) I did find a whole list of additional quick bread recipes*. Feel free to check them out and drool.

Ingredients
Streusel**

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• Dash salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped

Bread

• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups...I got to use my baking scale!)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 Tbsp butter, softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup fat-free buttermilk (my local supermarket only carries 1%, so I guess I upped the fat content of the finished product by a smidge)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. (The recipe calls for a 9x5, but mine are all 8x5..no problem, it just took a few extra minutes to bake).
2. In a small bowl, combine Streusel ingredients and stir to combine. It will look a bit like wet sand. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. With a mixer, cream the softened butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl.
5. Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and beat until combined.
6. Pour about half of the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Top with about half of the struesel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel.
7. Bake about 45-50 minutes (mine took about 55-60 because of the pan size) until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes on a wire rack before removing the bread from the pan.

*No, I don't get any affiliate fee or anything for mentioning their site or their recipes--I'm just a happy subscriber who pays my own way). In fact, I hope they don't mind that I am posting about their recipe on my blog!
**Amusingly, the spellcheck on the app I use to blog doesn't contain the word "struesel". It's helpful suggestion: stressful.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 2 teaspoons shredded lemon peel (I used Penzey's dried lemon peel)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the glaze

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds and set aside.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg, milk, oil, lemon peel, and 1 Tbsp lemon juice.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry all at once and stir with a spatula just until blended.
6. Divide into 12 muffin cups. Bake 15-20 minutes.
7. Stir the remaining lemon juice and sugar. While the muffins are still hot in the pan, brush each one with the lemon glaze with a pastry brush.
8. Remove from the muffin pans and cool.

Red, White, and Blue Baked Donuts

I've made baked donuts before, with generally good results. Muffin recipes work really well in donut pans, as muffins are typically moist and fast to bake.

This time I used the Wilton baked donut recipe. It uses cake flour, buttermilk, and nutmeg for a lighter cake part with that hint of spice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cake flour, sifted
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425*F. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approx. 2/3 full.
3. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched.
4. Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnut with glaze and sprinkles
5. Makes 12 doughnuts 

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1-2 tablespoons milk 
• food coloring

Cinnamon Scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. 
3. Cut the butter into 1/4 inch cubes and toss in the flour. With a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Stir in the heavy cream until the dough lightly comes together
5. Turn the dough out on a pastry board and gather into a flat rectangle, about 8x8, that holds the crumbs together.
6. In a small bowl, stir the brown sugar and cinnamon.
7. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over the dough. Fold the dough around the cinnamon, keeping the sugar to the inside, and flatten back out again. Repeat several times until the cinnamon sugar is distributed in layers through the dough.
8. Re-form the dough into about an 8x8 rectangle. Cut into 8 pieces.
9. Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat. Transfer the scones and bake about 12 minutes until golden brown.
10. Allow them to cool on the sheet at least five minutes.
11. Serve with coffee.

Easy Cinnamon Crescents

Cinnamon is one of the primary breakfast food groups, and I am constantly coming up with new ways to indulge in the morning. These cinnamon rolls are super-easy and super-tasty and the entire batch disappeared almost as soon as my family got to the table.

Ingredients

• 1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with a non-stick silicone mat, parchment, or non-stick foil (Trust me, these are sticky).
2. Unroll the crescent dough into a single layer on the cookie sheet. 
3. Brush the entire top surface with melted butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the whole surface, and then sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over the whole surface.
4. Separate individual triangles and roll them up, starting with one long edge.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown and flaky. 
6. Allow the rolls to cool for about 10 minutes on the pan. If you take them off too early, the melted sugar will stick to your plate. The non-stick liner allows them to cool in place and for the brown sugar to harden enough to move the rolls.
7. Meanwhile, for the glaze, stir the vanilla and powdered sugar. Drizzle in enough milk to make the glaze easy to pour.
8. Drizzle glaze over cresecent rolls and enjoy.

Makes 8

Coconut Tea Body Wash

Please don't eat this recipe :)

For Christmas, my daughter received a kit with recipes and containers to make homemade beauty products. We have only tried a few things so far (I really need to make more of the homemade lip balm--that stuff really worked on chapped lips).  Tonight's experiment was body wash.

This handmade body wash was really easy, and the ingredients are inexpensive and readily available at a grocery store. We re-used a commercial body wash bottle to hold the results (it made about 2-3 cups, mostly filling a 24-ounce bottle). And it smells lovely.

The recipe book was more of a general guide, so the following amounts/ingredients are what we actually used. You could substitute dried herbs for the tea, or add a bit of honey towards the end, or add essential oils or other ingredients. I specifically chose the tea because it is non-caffeinated and my daughter tends to bathe at night before bed (not sure whether caffeine can be absorbed through the skin, but I figured a soothing scent was a better choice).

Ingredients

• 1 bar Ivory Soap
• 2.5 cups water
• 1 tea bag (we used Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime for the soothing scents)
• 2-3 tablespoons coconut oil
• A large (20-24 ounce or bigger) body wash or shampoo bottle (reduce! reuse!)

Directions

1. Heat the water to boiling (we used the microwave). Add the tea bag, cover, and allow to steep at room temperature 5-10 minutes.
2. Grate the Ivory Soap with a cheese grater. 
3. Remove the tea bag from the water and stir in the soap.
4. Microwave 1 minute and remove from the oven.  Stir some more and add the coconut oil.
5. Alternate nuking and stirring until all of the soap is dissolved (this part probably took 5-10 minutes--we used a large glass mixing bowl and a sacrificial wooden spoon for the task).
6. Allow to cool completely, stirring gently occasionally. As it cools, the oils will try to separate from the soap-water mixture, so the stirring will keep it well blended. Once it is cool (or mostly cool), pour into a clean container.
7. The soap will look super-runny right up until the whole batch hits room temperature. We were really concerned that it would never firm up, but shortly after we transferred it from the large glass bowl and into the bottle, it thickened right up.

Notes
Coconut Oil looks like shortening--it is a saturated fat that is solid at room temperature but melts at slightly warmer temperatures. Actually makes me want to experiment with it in baking in place of butter or shortening (if it works, could help with vegan baking, should I ever care to try that). This is one of several ingredients we used to make homemade lip balm (with wax and cocoa and peppermint oil and I forget what else), though by itself  it makes a nice non-greasy (and edible) moisturizer for lips.

Also, I'm wondering if this process could work with pre-scented bar soap to make body wash (without adding the extra oil and tea). A bar of my regular soap is maybe $1 compared to the $5-7 a bottle for the same-scented body wash. In my case, its more a question of time vs money--not sure that spending half an hour to save $4 is the most economical choice, but you never know when the knowledge could come in handy.

Homemade Blueberry Granola

All the cool people make their own breakfast cereal. From scratch. And it's super-healthy. Well, sort of. There is fat (oil) and sugar (2 kinds). But I bet you can pronounce every item in the ingredient list, and its easy to go organic.

Ingredients

• 3 cups 1-minute oats
• 2 cups rolled barley
• 1/4 cup flax seed meal
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups dried blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a large, deep baking sheet ("jelly roll" size) with non-stick foil or parchment paper.
2. In a very large mixing bowl, whisk syrup, sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the oats, barely, flaxseed, and nuts. Do NOT add the blueberries.
3. Pour the oat and sugar mixture onto the baking pan, spread it evenly.
4. Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool about an hour in the pan. Break it into pieces and stir in the dried blueberries.
5. Store in a cool, dry place. Makes about 9 cups (about 18 servings).