Healthy Stuff, Baking

Of course I shouldn’t call them Dr. Oz Approved but how else to make you sit up and take notice? These are delicious and healthy and soul-and-body satisfying. They whip up in seconds and have all you need in the way of complex carbs. If I could have snuck in a little kale I would have. They have interesting old grains, the benefits of raw almonds, the good-for-your-brain pumpkin seeds and coconut oil (both great, says Oz), and hemp (for I-forget-what) and the vitamins and fiber of dried fruit and the perk of fresh cranberries. One of these zaps your appetite in a wholesome way. This is the sort of cookie to pack in the car so that when hunger strikes, you reach for these good carbs.

This handy scratch mix tastes terrific and delivers a wallop of breakfast nutrition.  Pack up some extra mix in a pretty jar and you have a instant housewarming gift - don't forget to include the recipe.  Although the recipe calls for some seemingly exotic ingredients (malt powder) the final result is a perfectly balanced pancake and waffle mix that a Vermont Bed and Breakfast would be proud to serve. Incidentally, malt seems to be the secret ingredient of the commercial pancake and waffle makers.

These are delectable but nutritious scones, scented with orange, sweetened with halvah and honey and studded with dried fruit or the new nutritional wunderkind’: blueberries. The halvah is optional but offers a taste of the past, updated in a contemporary treat. These are wonderfully rustic in absolutely delectable to every last crumb – the hue of their baked crusts is pure art. If you prefer, use canola or light olive oil instead of butter. The butter is a natural fat and considering that this recipe makes 12-14 scones, the end result is a mere trace of butter per scone but unrivalled flavor. Just in case: halvah comes off the block or in cans, available in deli's and Middle Eastern Food stores. Halvah is essentially ground of sesame seeds and honey and is just an awesome confection on its own -it is like....exotic fudge (for lack of a better description).
If you really want to up the nutrition of these, use www.BurnbraeFarms.com heart-healthy Omega eggs or you can opt for their organic or free range eggs. But alas, this incredible, wonderful recipe made it to the recipe Hall of Fame and now resides in A Passion for Baking, Marcy Goldman, Oxmoor House 2007.

 Sometimes pure and simple is best. Nothing beats the fragrance of these slow baked apples unless it is the taste of them, replete with cinnamon, honey and a kiss of brown sugar.

Using half coconut oil makes these a bit more heart healthy. Choose unflavoured coconut oil (which looks like a white greasy paste and comes in a jar) but if you don’t mind organic coconut oil, you will get a wonderful Mounds Bar sort of brownie. The neat thing (aside from the great coconut fat) is that these are dense, chewy, crusty topped and moist brownies. Absolutely delicious. If you want to use this as a base to fiddle with healthier brownies, consider adding hemp hearts, whole-wheat flour, and subbing from of the sugar with agave or coconut sugar. http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-choose-a-good-coconut-oil/ for information or this site to order the coconut oil I used OJIO available at http://ultimatesuperfoods.com/ItemDetail.aspx?comcode=FD&plinid=COCOIL&item=VCO32OG&type=pl&plnmain=COCONUT. Note: these will seem greasy when just baked but as they cool, they start to behave.

A Da Vinci inspired bread, aka a Mediterranean Diet bread begins with a starter and builds to a whole-wheat and rye finale with a spectacular encore of calamata olives studding the works. Totally fabulous bread. Heavenly moist, and deeply flavored rye bread. Use stoneground dark rye flour for this. Serve with fresh pears, hunks of cheese, and tomato salad. The soaked bread it calls for is called (by bakers in the know) altus. It is a slurry of stale bread and water you add to breads such as rye.

 A gluten-free version of my most famous brownie. Somehow, and perhaps it is the gluten free flour mix that suits the recipe, these are even more fudgy and chewy than the original recipe. Like the original these brownies nice crackly tops and do not require icing. I use a bulk food stores ‘gluten free all-purpose flour’ that contains rice and bean flours among other gluten-free elements. You can make your own mix (that suits you) or find a gluten free mix that appeals to your taste and dietary requirements. Some taste and perform better than others. The batter of this recipe isn’t luscious but once baked up, the brownies are fantastic.

This is a gorgeous, lofty, moist whole-wheat bread to start your new year and keep some of those diet resolutions.

These are my go-to cookie when I need a hunger-zapper, a touch of sweet, and rustic goodness. I make these small and freeze some but more often than not, I double up the dough and freeze that, baking off a few cookies when I need them.

 

Shame on you if you tell anyone in the family these have flax seed and wheat germ in them! These are: fantastic. Something about the flax seed (ground) and wheat germ makes these especially golden and crunchy crisp. The dried cranberries add flair but of course, raisins or chocolate chips is another way to go. Did I mention there's also heart-healthy coconut oil in these? This is also a great cookie to fiddle with if you want t hemp hearts, or change the sugar for agave or maple syrup. The coconut oil is available organic and pure (but tastes coconut-y) or unflavored. Either way, coconut fat is now considered a heart-healthy fat and is dairy free. Things made with it tend to bake up really well. (Try it to replace half the butter in your next batch of brownies)