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I do love granola. It’s super easy to make too – just mix and bake!
The other night we wanted yogurt and berries for dinner (too hot to eat anything!)… so baked some last minute granola… yahmmy.
Blueberry Almond Granola
4-1/2 cups rolled oats fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sliced (or 2 1/4 cups whole) almonds
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee granules, mixed with 1 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 cups dried blueberries (or any dried fruit)
Its a warm Thursday afternoon today. Warmer (actually, quite hot) because the oven’s blasting in our cozy condo, at 400F, baking a sugar free apple crisp:
You say, EW! SUGAR FREE? WHY? (I do too.) Because. It’s almost summer and I can’t wait to get myself into the ocean with Shamoo and friends. Plus, B craves a bite of sweet after dinner and has been asking for apple pie for nearly a month, so, we need an um… healthy alternative. Wheat makes my face bloat like no other, my jaws tingle if I eat too much… (BOO!)… although it sure doesn’t stop me from eating it. I could never not go again without having a croissant in this lifetime. THUS, I’m testing out this simple apple crisp I threw together which is now baking in the oven. ;)
I don’t know if it’s any good yet. I’ll get back on this, however, here is the recipe.
CINNAMON APPLE OAT CRISP (sugar-free)
Apple Filling
4-5 super huge, gimongous large red delicious apples (peeled, cored, sliced 1/4″ thick)
1 Cup Splenda
2 Tsp cinnamon
1.5 Tblsp sweet potato starch mixed with 1/6-1/4 cup water (or 1/2 and 1/2, or milk)
Crisp Topping
2 cups Oat flour (I just blended a whole bunch of rolled oats in my blender and chunkily pulverized it to equal 2 cups of the finalized product)
1 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup Splenda
1/2 cup butter, melted
For Filling: prep apples into a large mixing bowl. Mix cinnamon with Spelnda. Pour over apples. Pour sweet potato starch/water mixture over. Mix well.
For Crisp: Mix chunky oat flour, oats, cinnamon, Splenda. Pour in melted butter. Use a fork to mix well.
Butter up a 12″ pie pan (or smaller if you like) generously, dump in your apples, then top with your oat crisp. There is a lot of crisp for this recipe, however, I use it ALL. I completely cover the apple mixture. (The pictures on here shows only with 1/2 the oat crisp on). IF YOU WANT, DOT THE TOP OF THE APPLE CRISP WITH SOFTENED BUTTER BEFORE PUTTING IN OVEN (i did :). Butter doesn’t hurt ;)
Bake at 400F for 1 hour.
K! Don’t make it yet. I’ll report back how it turns out – it might be totally yucky, despite how ‘real’ it looks. Although… it certainly doesn’t look healthy to me.
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Update: Ate it warm… I could KIND OF taste the Splenda-not-so-real-sugar chemical taste. But after chilling it completely in the fridge – oh my gosh. I cant tell this thing is sugar free. It’s so delicious, I keep thinking okay, I gotta substitute this lil’ bowl of apple crisp for the mac n’ cheese I was going to have for dinner. NAH. Although, there is still the butter in the crisp part (that is damn delicious too, so buttery crisp and nutty from all that oatmeal!), the carbs are purely from the apples and oatmeal. YES. Total keeper.
This is how it looked after baking. Note how much the apples shrunk down (and how much oatmeal crisp I layered on top :) yum yum yum. I know, the most caloric part… YUM YUM. )
For my girl and favorite blogger, elaine @ hellolovelythings!
Elaine is one of the biggest sweets fan I know (only my little baker cousin Jennifer and myself are right up there with her)! You would have never guessed cause she’s so petite!
I’ve been promising to bake a batch of gingerbread cookies since Christmas, but I barely see her anymore as work is busy! Finally, we met the day before yesterday and baked some fresh soft chewy gingerbread hearts (for valentines!)… Of course, I forgot to give it to her, so the next night dropped it off at her work. No worries, this gingerbread recipe produces super soft and chewy cookies that lasts for a good while! ;)
My Gingerbread Cookies
6 oz butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons milk
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1tablespoon ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Cream butter and sugar. Pour in molasses. Mix until incorporated. Sift all dry ingredients in separate bowl, pour into thirds into butter mixture. Add milk. Chill thoroughly and roll out 1/4″ thick. Cut with cookie cutters and bake @ 350F for 8 min.
Oh yes, so stylin’ as Elaine is, everything is about looks and packaging. It just tastes better to her. And so a bundled package of cookies with my handwritten tag was what she got.
Valentines happened to fall on Chinese New Years this year (indifferent for either holiday)… but yay another excuse to eat sweets!
Valentines Sunday, my aunt invited us all to her house for dinner, and I craving cheesecake (forever crave) thought it’d be the perfect time to satisfy. Heehee. Not quite sure, but blueberries seem to be in season. Package of 2 for $3!!! Perfect! HUGE, these berries. Used my usual creamy smooth NY Cheesecake recipe with fresh lemon zest. After spreading on the sweet, tangy sour cream topping, I began to lay on the blueberries…. for the life of me I could NOT stop popping them into my mouth. Had less berries went into my belly, the entire cheesecake could have been covered. Oh well, no one knows :) They were juicy delicious. I was kind of lazy that day, so, I didn’t bake the sour cream topping on, as its the usual tradition to do so (15 min in oven)… and SURPRISE!!!! its so much better – incredibly refreshing and perfect with the fresh gigantor blueberries. LOVE.
Sour Cream Topping
1 cup Sour Cream [super naughty... I like to use full fat :) ]
2 tablespoons sugar (more or less to your liking)
Last week SoCal brought tons of rain (rain=snow). We have season passes to BigBear every season and go every weekend. Every raining day last week, Bear’s website would report the mountain was “puking snow”. (puking. nice.) And that its absolutely “epic. We have not seen snow like this in over 40 years”. Well. That just about made me want to puke… with excitement. After continuous pounding rain/snow for 5 days, SATURDAY was the day. Chris and Tiggy spent the night cause for sure these two wern’t going to make it to our house 4:30am. (There were big fat potholes all over Pasadena. On our way to dinner friday, in babe’s beautiful car, we run over some in unlit residential roads. ”SHWOOOOOOOOOOooOOOoooo” WT? Got out of the car and saw the tire had separated from the BENT RIM. :*( And waited for AAA. And took forever. We were starving children!!! It was 10:30pm by the time they finished. Tiggy says to the ceiling ”I’m so hungry I’m gonna eat my face.” LOL.)
Surprisingly, we left Saturday morning @ 430am (had gone to bed @ 1:30am). As the sun came up, the roads unveiled a luscious winter wonderland:
(Can you find the car above?)
(Mmmmmm….. all that icing on the gingerbread house. Looks so. Edible. And yah… those are huge icicles hanging off the roof. Unreal.)
(… Are we really in Southern California?)
(Those trees look like powdered sugared doughnuts… powdered sugared shredded doughnuts? )
Unknown to us after arriving, they closed all roads to the public going to Bear. So we played under sunny skies on blindingly white slopes, and… no crowds. Yahhhhhhhhh. After an unbelievable day, got into the car and gobbled up all the cookies I baked the night before (especially made for the trip). Got down the mountain in good time (considering 1/4 of the way was on chains), watching the other side of traffic, with some super unhappy people in the cars…. We stopped to take the chains off, and had to ask. They have been stuck at the bottom of the mountain for 5 hours waiting at a standstill. Ew. Those poor people were residences trying to get home. Every car had to verify they were locals. When we got home, news claimed Bear was in a ‘State of Emergency’. Poor Bear. Poor fiening riders. teeeeeeheeeeee. not poor us… shhhhhhh….
Cookies. I’m gonna be real here. I was not a cookie baker. You’d think that cookies are incredibly easy to make. They probably are. I think cookies hated me. They burnt, they underbaked, they were cakey, they were gooey, they too crispy, etc. It’s been getting way better over the years though, and quite more consistent. But I don’t deviate much from cookie recipes as any slight alterations might just result in a cookie combusting in my face.
Friday, decided that I would add into the cookies what I loved most to drink. COFFEE. Wasn’t feeling chocolate chips, added in some oatmeal. But the boy loves chocolate, so I split the batter in 1/2.
Oatmeal
Chocolate Chip
The coffee extract didn’t make the cookies taste like coffee at all, but just incredibly rich. They were perfectly baked (yay.). Crisp on edges and chewy soft on the inside.
Oatmeal Coffee Cookies
2.5 cups (minus 2 Tablespoons) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1.5 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Nescafe instant coffee (mixed with 1 tsp of water to make an “extract”)
1.5 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line aluminum baking sheet with parchment paper. (Warning: I have the worst luck with non-stick dark pans. Goodies tend to burn easier, as may your cookies! Therefore, all non-stick pans in CakeSkye’s kitchen have been trashed.)
Cream butter and sugars until fluffy in mixer (approx 3 min). Add in eggs, 1×1. Add in vanilla. Add in homemade coffee extract. Combine baking soda and salt with the flour. Slowly add flour into mixer. Beat until just incorporated. Add in oatmeal and chocolate chips. Shape into 1.25″ sized balls. Bake ~11-12 min or until just slightly golden on sides and top.
Watch their eyes light up when they take their first bite of warm, sweet goodness. The coffee is subtle, yet something yummily untraceable is definitely present.
Yup. Woke up this morning with a SUPER cookie craving. A very sweet cookie. Mu-hahaha. I was up @ 945am, the boy was already in the living room snowboarding shopping online (acutally just finished his purchase – so fast)!!! Anyway, he went back to sleep while I dug out a cookie recipe. Strangely enough, didn’t want any chocolate… but something warm, brown sugary, cinnamon-y… and OATMEAL-y! I’m really not into dried fruits, so that wasn’t going anywhere near the batter.
Haven’t had an oatmeal cookie since, this summer. Before that… I don’t even know when! Thus, perhaps the craving? Searched high and low, finally decided on a recipe we used at a bakery I use to work at in Pasadena. I had to make some adjustments to my craving, though, as there was no cinnamon in the recipe (ahem.). After making the cookie batter, and almost in the oven to bake, it just didn’t seem right to leave it so… plain, so toasted some raw almonds in the oven for 9 min. @ 335F, gave them a rough chop and threw them into the mix before baking off the giant cookies.
Oatmeal Almond Cookie
1/2 lb (2 sticks) Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour (actual recipe states 2 cups Pastry Flour)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 1/4 teaspoons Cinnamon (actual recipe did not include any cinnamon)
3 cups Oatmeal (actual recipe states 2 1/4 cups)
1 cup Almonds, toasted and chopped (actual recipe states 1 cup raisins)
350F. Cream butter and sugars for 2-3 min until light and fluffy. Add in eggs 1×1. Add vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda/powder, cinnamon, salt into a bowl or parchment paper, and incorporate into mixer by increments of 3. Mix until flour is just about disappeared! (tough cookies are not tasty). Pour in toasted nuts and your batter is done after 3-4 turns! I couldn’t wait, didn’t want to chill the batter (nor did they need to be) and baked them right away. 2 1/2″ diameter balls of cookie dough (Yes. They were huge), baked on prepared aluminum half-sheet pan. The balls were so big that it took 17 min to bake (at least, for me, on this morning. Enjoy warm! Cool completely before storing in airtight container.)
They smelled so incredibly good and cinnamon-y, butter-y, brown sugary, while baking for a long 17 min (took another initial 20 min to gather all the ingredients/mix, and toast/chop the almonds) that… I lost my craving after they came out of the oven. (this happens quite often…) **Sigh** Was sooooo looking forward to having them with a hot cup of coffee. Instead. became hungry… for tacos.
I had a bite before downing 5 tacos, and sure enough were exactly what I wanted when I woke up: chewy in the middle, crisp on the sides, warm, buttery, cinnamon and sweet… The boy who isn’t really into cookies except for chocolate chip, loved them.
Think I gained the equivalent weight of a baby… so much food! We had a slightly different feast this year from the traditional American spread we usually do :) I cooked everything and we brought it over to my new momma’s house. 8 people all together. When I cook, I like to. Wait, when I cook, I can ONLY go big. Therefore cooking for 8 was SUPER FUN. (The boy at home, when cooking for us two, he gets scared, because I cook enough for 6, and we eat SOOOOO MUCH, we can finish it all, but painfully, till every morsel is gone.)
ANYHOW (going off tangent! Forget what I was talking about.) Oh yea, so we had a kinda funny Christmas dinner, mixed ethnic. The food was really random, but worked… cornbread stuffing, 2 lbs of Chilean Sea Bass steaks steamed Chinese Style (soysauce, ginger, scallions), rice, dill potato salad, corn cut off cob with scallions, mashed sweet potatoes, 5 plates of different vegs… more stuff, and:
15 lbs Korean BBQ Short Ribs ( SO NERVOUS. This was the main meat dish, KOREAN meat dish, I was making for 7 KOREANS, including new IN-LAWS!!! If my marinade was a bust, there goes Christmas dinner. And an embarrassed me. but, it turned out fine :sigh:)
(teehee. there is some leftover in the fridge still.)
Let’s move onto dessert.
This NY cheesecake recipe is beautifully rich and creamy cut with a bit of freshness from lemon juice and zest. Baked the cheesecake Christmas Eve in a 10″ springform pan. mmmmmm. Made fresh blueberry sauce topping Christmas eve as well. I never make cheesecake because the boy doesn’t like cheese ::cries:: so, this was my chance! After dinner all the males in the house split to watch Chargers VS Titans or take a nap, but before doing so, they all (minus my husband) made it a point for us to make an announcement when the cheesecake was going to be cut. Some wanted to skip dinner altogether and just dig in. i don’t think so, boys. Was it mean we didn’t wake them? The ones who did eat it while watching football i overheard my brother-in-law yell into the tv (or to himself): ”its the most effin delicious cheesecake ever” creamy white. heaven. (recipe below)
Cheesecake
Crust:
6 sheets of graham crackers (3×5″)
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
2.5 lbs cream cheese, softened
1.5 cups sugar
4 eggs, large
1 cup sour cream (didn’t use reduced or fat free – let’s be real, it’s a cheesecake, didn’t want to sacrifice taste over calories.)
1 lemon, grated zest and 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Oven preheat to 350F. Optional: line your springform pan with parchment paper (I personally like to line all my cake pans with parchment before baking, so the beautiful and time-consuming cake does not stick to the pan!) Spray your 10″ (9″ is fine as well) springform pan bottom with non-stick spray. In your blender or food processor, pulse sugar, melted butter, and crackers. Press cracker mixture on bottom of pan and up sides. I actually spread out the crumbs then use a glass cup (make sure the bottom is completely flat) to press it down. Results are more neat, less messy, and just so much easier than using your fingers. Bake for 10 min if in a dark non-stick pan. Bake for 15 if in professional/aluminum pan. Turn oven down to 325F.
Put a pot/kettle of water to boil while making your cheesecake filling. Cheesecake: Beat cream cheese in your stand mixer until smooth (couple min). MAKE SURE TO SCRAPE DOWN SIDES OF BOWL (very important). Beat in sugar until fluffy (couple min). SCRAPE DOWN BOWL. Beat in eggs, 1×1. SCRAPE DOWN BOWL. (If you do not scrape down bowl between each step and often, your cheesecake will mix lumpy and there is no reversal once the eggs are in! ewwwwwwwwww.) Once eggs are completely incorporated, do not mix much more after. Beat in your lemon juice and zest with a few more turns. Beat in sour cream. Set Aside.
Line the bottom of your crust-ready-springform-pan with aluminum foil, making sure the aluminum foil goes up 1″ up the sides of your pan. Set in a large roasting pan. Pour cheesecake filling over crust. Place the cheesecake/roaster pan on the rack you want to bake it in. CAREFULLY pour in boiling water into the roaster pan – do NOT SPLASH INTO YOUR CHEESECAKE PLEASE! and only pour in enough water to come up 3/4 of the way up the aluminum foil on your springform pan (the point is to not have any water get through – soggy waterlogged cheesecake is YUCKY.) I baked my cheese cake for 1hr 15 min exactly in a 10″. Cheesecake should be jiggly in the middle when you take it out, so don’t be afraid if it is! Carefully take roasting pan out out of oven (leave cheesecake still in waterbath) and let cool for 1/2 hr. Using a flat metal spatula, loosen sides of cheese from pan (prevent cracking). Take cheesecake out, take off foil, and cool completely on a cooling rack. Cover top of pan with foil and place in fridge overnight.
Fresh Blueberry Sauce
1 lb blueberries (can be frozen)
1/2 cup plus 1.5 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Combine cornstarch with lemon juice and mix well in small bowl. Place all ingredients into a saucepan and pour cornstarch/lemon juice mixture over. Cook at medium-high heat. Bring up to a simmer, then cook for 5 more minutes thereafter. Let it cool completely before storing in fridge in an airtight container. Chill overnight before serving!
Its fall. IS IT FALL? or is it now winter?? Anyhow, during the holidays, I always purchase a liberal amount of canned Libby’s Pure Pumpkin as they are delicious, abundant, in your face at the market, and on sale! and… i just LOVE pumpkin. To eat, to touch their hard cool skin, to stare at, to hug. YAY. Pumpkins.
Okay, back to the point. I accidentally purchased a can of Libby’s Pumpkin Pie (Pumpkin with added sugar and spices). But there was no way I was going to throw away a 30 oz. can! All pumpkin recipes I own are only for Pure Pumpkin so did a search online and found a pumpkin bread on Libby’s website (it was not easy finding recipes with the Pumpkin Mix – I was hesitant on substituting since there is added sugar and spices and didn’t want to misjudge!). I did make some alterations – instead of apple juice, I substituted plain yogurt, omitted the pumpkin spice and added 2 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1 1/4 tsp of ginger and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, omitted nuts (you can substitute dried cranberries, but I’m not much of a fruit gal if I’m going for something rich and heavy.)
Already knowing I wanted cream cheese with this (love cream cheese), had a 3lb brick in the fridge ready to go. First made the pumpkin bread recipe in my trusty KitchenAide mixer 600 Series, then preheated the oven to 335F. Pour the finished batter into a clean bowl. Wipe the mixing bowl clean with a paper towel, and add:
1.5lb (or 3-8oz) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
(cream the above two ingredients until creamy and smooth ~3 min)
3 eggs (add in 1×1)
(mix until eggs are fully incorporated into cheese mixture)
Pour 2/3 of pumpkin batter into a 9×13″ parchment lined, sprayed (with Pam), springform pan. Spread batter to cover bottom of pan. Carefully pour all of cream cheese mix over batter. Spread out evenly over pumpkin batter. With a large spoon, carefully spoon (dot) the remaining 1/3 pumpkin batter over cream cheese mix. Swirl with a knife. Bake for 30 min. Rotate pan and bake for another 30 min (may need an extra 5 min depending on your oven.) Check at 55 min first, if your toothpick comes out clean, take it out! (This baby was HEAVY.)
I baked the Pumpkin Cheese Coffeecake Tuesday night and waited until Wednesday morning to cut into so that babe could take it to work.
I ate one. I think I ate it with my eyes closed. Felt super sinful. Thank goodness he took the rest to work. I would have done some serious damage. OH YEA. He does not eat anything pumpkin unless its pumpkin pie. And only on Thanksgiving day. Therefore, I didn’t get a review from him, but his people loved em! Try them next time you are in the mood to bake. WILL NOT regret. ::giggles::
