Apple Oatmeal Spice Breakfast Cake

This is a very filling breakfast square, packed with oats, and done in the style of an apple upside down cake. So, it has a "gooey" topping. One square is usually enough for breakfast but it's hard to keep it at just one! 

 

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon molasses

1 cup butter

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

½ cup oat bran

1/3 cup unsalted, raw pumpkin seeds

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup flax meal

½ cup Greek Style yogurt

2/3 cup half and half

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons Arrowroot Flour

1 cup fresh or frozen Blueberries

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced into wedges

1.      In a bowl, mix together the oats, pumpkin seeds, oat bran, flax meal, spices, flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the blueberries to the flour mixture so that they are coated with the flour. This helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the batter.

2.      In a large saucepan, melt together the butter (save 1 tablespoon to put with apples at the bottom of the baking dish), half and half, molasses, vanilla, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and maple syrup. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 5 minutes until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.

3.      Grease a 8 inch by 8 inch baking dish with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper. Arrange the wedges of apples at the bottom and add the 1 tablespoon of butter that has been cut into small pieces. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of brown sugar over the apples and butter.

4.      Whisk eggs, and yogurt, mixing well.

5.      Add the cooled butter mixture to the egg and yogurt mixture, whisk and add the lemon juice. Then add the dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon.  

6.      Bake in a 350° oven for about 1 hour until top is golden brown and a tester inserted comes out clean. The finished product should be firm to touch. Cut into 16 squares when cool.

Hardtack Oatcakes

These crisp and crunchy cookies are a combination of Nova Scotia Oatcakes, Hardtack Biscuits and Anzac Cookies. They are double baked like Biscotti to dry them out and make they crisp and crunchy. They will keep for some time stored in an airtight container but can also be wrapped and frozen. The recipe yields about 12, 2 1/2" diameter cookies. They are great with morning coffee.
Options: Use 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup Durum Atta Flour for a pronounced "snap" or crispiness. Replace 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup puffed millet cereal for more "crunch". They are great if you use 2 to make a "sandwich" with crunchy peanut butter between the two!

2 cups Old Fashioned or thick cut oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

¼ cup Crisco (or other vegetable-based shortening like coconut oil)

¼ cup butter

1 tablespoon Arrowroot flour or cornstarch

½ cup dark brown sugar

1-2 tablespoons 100% Maple Syrup

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup boiling water

Directions

1.       Mix the flour, Arrowroot flour or cornstarch, sugar, salt, butter and Crisco in a large bowl. Rub the fats into the dry ingredients (like when you are making a pie crust) until the consistency is like that of coarse breadcrumbs. Add the oats to the mixture and combine.

2.       Add the baking soda to the boiling water then mix in with the dry ingredients. Add the maple syrup at this point and mix all together to form a “dough” (it may need a tablespoon or so more water to bring the dough together).

3.       Make 12 small balls of the dough, rolling between your palms to bring the mixture together. Put all in plate and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.(I roll the dough into a small log then cut it into 12 pieces to get the ball portions)

4.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside

5.       Remove the balls of dough from the refrigerator and flatten between palms to make “patties” that are about ¼ inch thick. Use fingers to make a nice circular shape.

6.       Place patties on the parchment paper and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

7.       Lower the oven temperature to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and place cookies back in for about 45 minutes. This drying out process is what makes the cookies crisp and extends the shelf life.  

8.       Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Date Fig Bread

This is a very dense, dark date and fig bread. Sliced thin or thick, it literally begs to be buttered heavily with sweet cream butter! The inspiration for it is from the 1964 Betty Crocker Cookbook (yes, I have an original copy), but since the recipe came from a time when people cares less than they do today about the amount of sugar etc they ate, I modified to make it somewhat healthier (added oat bran, and halved the amount of sugar). Note the use of the word "somewhat"! It freezes well, and reheats well in a microwave if a gentle defrost is used. It may also be toasted.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup oat bran

1 cup milk

4 tablespoons butter

¼ cup molasses

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup chopped dates and dried figs in equal proportions (so ½ cup dates, ½ cup figs)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 egg

½ cup Greek yogurt (a 7oz tub of Fage 2% plain yogurt is what I use)

1 teaspoon salt

3 rounded teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice

1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Juice of ½ lemon

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.       Grease and flour a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan

3.       Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside

4.       Place the milk, butter, sugar, molasses in a small saucepan and bring to a slow simmer. Pour this thick mixture over the chopped dates and figs and set aside to cool.

5.       Whisk the egg and yogurt together. Add the vanilla and lemon juice, then the milk mixture. Stir to mix well

6.       Add the dry ingredients all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until just incorporated (about 1 minute). Pour batter into pan (it will be quite thick) and bake in oven for about 60-65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean.

7.       Remove from oven, cool in pan for 10 minutes then invert to let the bread cool completely. Slice when cool.