Artisan Bread at Home for Real!!

 

Wondering where I have been? Wow, I can’t believe that it is a whole new year! I have been working on my new cookbook, writing articles, shooting other cookbooks with my husband and working in our

new Art Gallery!

In most places in the Northern Hemisphere it’s winter, but here in Northern California it’s only “kind” of winter. We moan and groan about the 39 degree mornings but it warms up to 60 plus by noon. The sky is blue and the air is crisp, I imagine it’s what Spring feels like everywhere else. I know some of you are digging out, so we really have nothing to complain about, do we? I have been making stews, soups and slow cooked braised turkey and it’s time for a change.

I just felt like making bread, it is warm, comforting and I knew my family would love it! Half the joy of bread making is the smell of it baking, and this one smells really good!

I know some of you are saying to yourselves that you can’t make bread, but you can. Whenever I need to reference a recipe I have two places I go, The old tattered Joy of Cooking cookbook and America’s Test Kitchen. Sometimes I just need an idea on a measurement to a method and these two sources can be so helpful. This time I wanted a fast easy bread recipe so I went to AMT and there it was….easy bread.

My Dutch Oven needed a change from all the stew-y things it has been churning out! Bread, I never thought of making bread in it, I assumed it was meant to hold soup-y, sloppy, slow cooked meats….not bread. What flavors would you add to this bread? Lemon zest and rosemary was our plan but we got distracted and forgot.

Oh, let me tell you from now on it IS my bread oven, not my Dutch Oven. It turned out a gorgeous loaf of golden, crackl-y  artisan bread. So dust yours off and get out the flour because you are going to want to make this recipe.

Really Really Good Bread Recipe (adapted from America’s Test Kitchen)

The recipe calls for a mild lager but I used a medium/darker one. I liked the depth of the flavor a lot in the finished product.

The bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days.

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface

1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

2. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside the empty bowl (no need to clean it between steps) and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined bowl and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.

3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

 

Chicken Little Hand Pies

Chicken pot pie is not nearly as daunting a project as you may think. I know it sounds fussy with all that dough, sauce making, chicken cooking, chopping and so on. It is really just a matter of tossing everything in a pan and adding some kind of doughy top.  I got all excited one night while I was cooking some chicken and though these would be a prefect thing to make the next night for dinner.  Because I’d already cooked the chicken and would use the leftovers for the pies, it would be so easy. Then I remembered I don’t have those cute little pots that are  special for making individual chicken pot pie in. I have a million small dishes, but like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, none were just right, some were too small and some were too large. Then I thought who needs those stinkin’ mini pots anyway, I’ll make hand pies and then I won’t even have to wash forks after dinner because you eat these with your hands! Brilliant.

Then I realized that I had scheduled a very busy day the next day so… home-made pie dough wasn’t going to happen. Ok, I cheated, call me Semi Homemade (it’s ok I don’t mind, I know I can make pie dough if I really needed to) 

So I made the filling that evening after dinner and snuggled it right in the fridge for the next day. I was lucky enough to have some homemade chicken stock on hand. I was unlucky because I had a house of sick people, precisely why I had chicken stock.  The next day I had to grab some stuff at the store anyway so I tossed in a pre made pie dough, you can get fairly healthy ones at a natural market. You could use puff dough If you can’t find pie dough. I enlisted the help of my daughter in making these, she picked the size and shapes for the pies. We cut out the dough with cookie cutters, brushed them with egg, filled them and sealed them. Chilling the mixture makes easy work of filling the little pies when it’s time. We assembled them around 3 o’clock and put them back in the refrigerator until it was time to bake them before dinner. You could also freeze them raw for another day.  They baked up really pretty and were equally as tasty. You can try adding anything, make them vegetarian even, just use your creative genius. Serve alongside a colorful salad.

These little suckers stay very hot inside for a long time, be careful when serving little kids.

If using raw chicken, cut it up very small and add it after the broth, simmer until it is cooked through.

Tip: Slicing semi frozen chicken is easier than trying to slice raw chicken. Place your raw chicken in the freezer for 10 minutes and then slice away.

Adapted from Epicurious

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, quartered lengthwise and diced
1 small potato, peeled and chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 celery rib, halved lengthwise and diced

1/4 cup thawed corn kernels

1/2 cup ounces cooked shredded chicken

Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme

Squeeze of lemon juice about a 1/2 tsp

2 unbaked pie crusts, either store-bought or homemade (not pie shells)
1 egg, beaten

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the carrot,potato and celery and season with salt and pepper to taste, raise the heat to medium-high. Cook until the vegetables are softened , add the corn and pre-cooked chicken.

Sprinkle the flour over everything in the pan, stir, and cook for 1 minute. Add the broth,  thyme and lemon juice,  and simmer for 5 minutes more or until thickened.  Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cool and refrigerate until cold, about to 30 minutes. Remove the pie crusts from the refrigerator so they can soften slightly.

When the filling is cool, preheat oven to 4oo°F  Grease or line two baking sheets with parchment.

Lay the crust out on a cutting board.   Use cookie cutter to cut as many shapes as you can. Re-roll the dough and cut more until you have no more crust left.

Place about 1 Tbs.  of filling in the center of dough, brush beaten egg around the outside of the crust,  then place another matching shape in top. Crimp the edges together with a fork, and prick the top a few times for steam to escape. Carefully transfer pie to the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining pie crust and filling. Just before baking brush all the pies with egg wash.

Bake until golden brown, 20 30 minutes.

Hamantashen, to fold or to pinch? (that is the question)

Making cookies is always fun for kids but for us, these are especially exciting to make.  The familiar shape of the triangular cookies shows itself every March, it is the official cookie of Purim, a Jewish holiday geared toward the kiddos. (You definantly don’t have to be Jewish to make these!) We first tried a recipe that seemed to have good reviews but they came out too cakey, I needed another try and I knew exactly where to look for the perfect recipe.

I went straight to Claire’s old Preschool, the ECE Preschool at the Marin Osher JCC  A place where baking and kids is perfectly natural! They use tried and true recipes passed down from Bubi to Bubi and they really work.  If 100 preschoolers can make Challah or Hamantashen taste good then I know the recipes work! When I visited, the Director handed me an adorable colorful printout of the Hamantashen recipe. Let’s back up a minute, I know you are wondering what’s up with that weird name and why is the cookie shaped like a triangle?

The Origin of Hamantaschen

“Hamantaschen” is a Yiddish word meaning “Haman’s pockets.” Haman is the villain in the Purim story, which appears in the Biblical Book of Esther. In the story, Haman is the Grand Vizier of Persia and a rabid anti-Semite. When Mordechai, a Jewish member of the king’s court and relative of Queen Esther, refuses to bow down to Haman, the Grand Vizier plots to have all the Jews in the kingdom massacred. However, Queen Esther and Mordechai discover Haman’s plot and are able to foil it. In the end, Haman is executed on the gallows he planned to use on Mordechai.

Jews eat hamantaschen on Purim as part of the celebration of the holiday, which commemorates how Jews escaped Haman’s dastardly plans. One explanation for the triangular shape of these pastries is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat. (excerpt from http://judaism.about.com )

There are some other facts about Purim that the kids really love one is

There are four good deeds that people try to carry out at Purim time.

1) To hear the reading of the Megillot Ester (Book of Esther) at a group gathering. This developed into a custom several hundred years after the real event took place.

2) To enjoy an atmosphere that encourages celebration with food and drink.

3) Helping out at least two people who are less fortunate than we are (charity) by giving them gifts on the 14th of Adar.

It has also become a tradition (Machatzit Hashekel) to give 3 half-dollar coins to charity to commemorate the half-shekel given by each Jew in the time of the Holy Temple. This good deed is usually done in the synagogue.

4) Giving gifts to a friend who is not necessarily poor. These ready-to-eat gifts might take the form of a fruit basket (Shalach Monot), pastry or beverage.

The best part of Purim is the dress up, the kids dress as Esther, Hamen or any royal. Purple is often used in decoration because it is the color connected to royalty.  The celebration is kind of like Mardi Gras and Halloween all wrapped up in one, lots of sweets and lots of fun!

Now that the history part is out of the way we can get on to sweeter things..

This recipe was great to use, a parent form the school made it, I have no clue who, but thanks because it is so handy!

The traditional filling of the Hamantashen is poppy-seed but we love strawberry or apricot preserves. I also sliced up fresh strawberries and added a slice to each one for a fresh taste.  The method is much like making sugar cookies, you roll out the buttery dough and chill. The triangle starts with a circle, imagine that, stay in school kids, the wonders of math never cease! Use a cup or a round cookie cutter to cut circles, drop a bit of filling in and then from your triangle (recipe below)

Raw chocolate chip dough

I butter

There is a debate in the land of Hamantashen about the correct way to seal up the Hamantashen, to fold or to pinch. I was always a pincher but I recently tried a recipe from Cupcake Project, while her tashen looked and tasted good, her suggestion of folding was intregiung to me. Folding the dough can produce a beautiful cookie but we had problems. Our dough was cracking with each fold although our cookies came out pretty we were discouraged by the cracking.

When we used the recipe below we pinched, you may have to use some water on the dough to make it stick but the pinched ones came out perfectly! So I say, depending on the recipe, your oven and your skill level pinching may be the way to go. **Note- for gluten free see bottom of post.

Lizet’s Hamatashen Recipe

preheat oven to 350˚ƒ

4 1⁄2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Mix together in a large bowl

3 sticks butter (1 1/2 c).

soften in a bowl

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

beat eggs in a bowl, stir in vanilla.

add eggs to flour mixture, add butter, stir, then dump on clean surface, knead briefly until sticky.divide dough in quarters.  ( I wrap and chill at this point)

roll to 1/4 inch thick on floured board.

Cut circles using a cutter or cup.

Place 1 tsp filling in center of dough.

Fold or pinch 3 sides to make a triangle.

Leave some filling showing in center. 

Bake on cookie sheet about 15 minutes.

Filling: use jam, or mix 1⁄2 lb. Prunes with 1⁄4 c. strawberry jam in a food processor. Or try making your own poppy seed filling…

Mohn (Poppy seed filling)

2 c. poppy seed, finely ground

1 egg

1/3 c. honey or sugar

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1⁄4 c. chopped nuts

Wash the seeds well, them grind them in a food processor or place the seeds in a cloth and pound them with a mallet. Mix with the remaining ingredients. chill.

                                                                                  

 

Folding the dough on a cookie sheet avoids the transfer disaster.

**NOTE

When we made these goodies with for our third grade class we needed a gluten free recipe. I tried a pie dough mix and it was terribly unsuccessful. As you can see it the photo they were like sand and not folded or pinched, we just dug out a space for the jam..

One of the moms made up a batch of GF cookie dough from Pure Pantry sugar cookie mix and it worked really well for the Hamantashen. I only have a photo of our ugly ones because the better ones got gobbled right up!

Ugly duckling gluten free cookies

Baked Typefaces

 I couldn’t resist sharing this amazing post for all you font freaks and cookie monsters out there!  I found this cute post over here…  Even more baked typefaces. What a cute and creative idea, keep being creative!!

Making Chocolate at Home

Homemade Chocolate

If you follow me on Facebook you may have seen a small post about “healthier” chocolate a few weeks back. I did promise that I would write-up the recipe, so here it goes. I have been on a Valentine’s kick, so to add to it I thought this would be a great time to make up a batch of this chocolate and wrap it up for your kids.

Recently I have been on a fitness craze, after eight years of writing about Toddlers and kid food I realized I had forgotten all about my health! I decided to start working out and making sure all my health ducks were in a row! I had a sneaking suspicion my thyroid was really out of wack and I was right, I got that all squared away and have enjoyed having my energy and motivation back again! That said, let’s eat chocolate!!

Now that my daughter is older 8 1/2  (I still consider her a toddler, but don’t tell her that.) We spend less time in the kitchen because she is busy with activities, friends and taking care of her doggie, Peepers and Violet the rat! When we are in the  kitchen I try to make it extra fun and something she really wants to do. We both love chocolate so when I came across this easy way to make chocolate at home I knew we had to make it.

In all my searches for healthy foods on my latest online obsession, Pinterest I keep coming up with a cute site called Chocolate Covered Katie she is a darling girl who makes healthy low-fat vegan desserts. I found her Chocolate recipe and had to make it. The ingredients are easy to get, you may already have them in your house!! I like her ideas, I do modify them a lot or just use them as inspiration, couldn’t we all use some of that?

Next time we make this we will add chopped salted almonds, mint extract or toasted coconut.

Ingredients for Hot Chocolate Bars

Here is my version of

Hot Chocolate Bars

Next time we make this we will add chopped salted almonds, mint extract or toasted coconut.

I like Scharfenburger cocoa powder or as pictured the Organic  Gaia is nice too. We happened to have some cute chocolate molds but you could use silicone cupcake molds or just plain old paper ones.

 This makes about 6 – 2 inch chocolates.

(gluten-free)

 

• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil (Trader Joe’s now carries this)
• 1/4 cup  light agave nectar
• 2- 3  drops stevia
• optional: extracts, cocoa nibs, rice Krispies or other add-ins

In the microwave melt coconut oil in a small bowl. Coconut oil has a very low melthing point you will only need about 15-30 seconds to melt it.  Add agave or/and stevia drops. Stir, add cocoa powder. (I do not add water or milk as she suggests.)

and add 3-4 Tbs water or non-dairy milk if only using stevia

Stir, stir, stir until it gets thick. Pour into any flat container (or candy molds or smash between layers of wax paper or in Ziploc bags). Refrigerate until solid.

Tip- If you add too much agave the texture will change, try to keep the measurement to 1/4 cup.

 

 

 

After Battle Chocolate Cake

Recently my daughter has been reading like crazy, big books, the kind with lots of pages!  The kind I didn’t read until I was in my 30′s! She is voracious, she eats books!  My husband got her a book by Patricia C. Wrede called “Book of Enchantments,  it’s a book of short stories by the author who wrote a great series about dragon nappings…and a princess.

From The New Book of Enchantments

“Cimorene, the princess who refuses to be proper, meets her match in the not-quite-kingly Mendanbar. With the aid of a broken-down magic carpet and a leaky magical sword, the two tackle a series of dragon-nappings.”

In the back of the book the author wrote a recipe for Barbarians on how to make a chocolate cake.  The way  she  wrote it is so cute (see below) it’s basically a bunch of barbarians making a cake using their swords and doing the mixing in a helmet!  They chop the chocolate with a sword and cook the cake on the fire. We made it in a real mixing bowl, although Claire was looking for a shield to bake it in!  The cake was simple and delicious we all loved it! I am showing both recipes, the normal folks version and the original Barbarian version below.

After Battle Recipe (last one known to man)

We decided to make the cake for New Years Eve and to also give out the recipe on some old-looking paper to the kids to take home. We stained the paper with a soggy tea bag and let it dry overnight. We printed the original recipe on the front and the normal folks version on the back.  We then burnt the edges to make it look old, it was a family affair we all sat in the driveway and worked on burning the edges, it was lots of fun!  It really brought me back to middle school when we tried to made our book reports look aged.

Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake-Barbarian Version

First, round up the prisoners and have them make a good fire. Pile shields around it to hold in heat.

Assemble Ingredients

Butter the size of a good spear head

A good big fistful of brown sugar

A big fistful of white sugar

A couple of eggs

A good splash of vanilla

Secret Magic Ingredient

Milk from a chocolate cow

A small fistful of cocoa

Two or three fistfuls of flour

Pinch of salt

Two pinches soda

Hunk of chocolate, hacked to bits with second-best sword

 

Pick a small shield and clean it, then grease it up good.  Sprinkle a little flour and save it for later.

In somebody else’s helmet, beat butter and brown sugar and white sugar together-make sure helmet is clean before using! Add eggs and beat some more. Add vanilla and Secret Magic Ingredient and beat it all again.

Stir flour, cocoa, salt, and soda together in whatever is handy. Add to batter, alternating with milk. Beat real good. Stir in chocolate pieces.

Dump batter into greased shield. Bake next to fire while gathering loot. Give helmet back to sucker who let you mix cake in it; promise him first piece if he gets too mad. Eat warm while counting loot. Serves two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake – Normal Folks Version

One adjustment – we used cocoa to prepare the pan instead of flour.

Preheat oven to 350 ˚F

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

2 Tablespoons blackstrap molasses

2/3 cup chocolate milk (1 tbsp. chocolate syrup to 2/3 C. milk)

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 6-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Grease and cocoa a 9″ x 9″ pan

In a large bowl, cream butter or margarine until fluffy. Add brown sugar and white sugar and mix thoroughly. Add eggs, vanilla, and black strap molasses, beating well after each addition

In a separate container stir flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda together. Beat into butter mixture, alternating with the chocolate milk. Beat for 1-2 minutes, and then fold in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into greased and floured 13″ x 9″ pan. Bake 35-45 minutes. Cake should be sort of flat and solid, not light and puffy. (Don’t over cook it though) Let cool before cutting, or the pieces will fall apart and the gooey chocolate chips will get all over everything. Sprinkle powdered sugar or top with whipped cream. Serves a lot more than two, even if everybody really likes chocolate.

 

* * * * * From Patricia C. Wrede’s “Book of Enchantments” * * * * *

 

Oh The Horror…Cherpumple Cake

Every Halloween I try to make the most disgusting thing I can think of, like earwax Q-tips or Bloody Eyeballs or the infamous Cat Litter Box Cake. We always have fun with Halloween, we eat healthy during the year but on Halloween I just have to go to the dark side! Halloween is a great time for me to showcase my baking talents, I love to bake but I try to stay away from it during the year.  My friend Barb sent me a link to one of the worst horrors I’d ever seen, Cherpumple, a travesty of cake and pie a most disgusting mess. I knew I was destined to make this monstrosity and I knew it would take hours, and it did.  I think the originator of this mess was Charles Phoenix so I will give him credit too.  

       It is basically a Turducken in cake form, a Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a chicken a duck and quail and so on with stuffing in between each layer. I have made one before but it is not a regular occurrence in our house.

I knew if I made this cake for Halloween it would have to represent something creepy. It reminded me so much of Frankenstein that I decided to give it the green frosting and hair but not the whole face. I did make bolts for the neck but they ended up looking weird.  The problem with this cake it that finished it weighed about 25 pounds and I forgot that It would have to go on a car ride.  

I made three layers, yellow cake with a pumpkin pie, chocolate cake with a cherry pie and spice cake with apple pie.

     The way you make this cake is to sink a prebaked pie into raw cake batter and cook it for about an hour and 15 minutes. The glitch is that you can only bake on eat a time or they bake unevenly. I started at 9 am and finished the last touches at 5 pm. I was speed cooling the last layer as I was frosting the rest, it was mayhem. I used some wrapped up frozen salmon on top as it sat in the fridge. 

The guts.

      It was a ridiculous idea to transport this cake, every time we turned it leaned like the Tower of Pisa but the Tower of Pisa is not covered with green butter cream and fondant! I would not recommend moving this cake, it was like Food Network Challenge when thy have to move those 500 pound cakes, totally nerve wracking. 

The good news it that it made it to the party and the crowd loved it. The bad news it that as we removed pieces it became so heavy that it tipped the cake plate over, that’s one hefty cake!

I am already planning on my Thanksgiving cake….maybe just two layers next time.  Don’t miss the Poo Poo platter photo below,  yet another disgusting idea from my kitchen.

Poo Poo Platter! (Tootsie Rolls inside)

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Epic Cake Decorating Day

Beanstalk Stump Cake

Our school has a fair every October, but because we just joined the school last January we have never been to the feté.  One of the requirements for every class is to bake a cake for the cake walk.  There is also a friendly competition for the snazziest cake, so naturally I wanted to enter.  I immediately started thinking of something to make and as usual my mind was blank. I usually don’t have a clue what I will make but I got lucky here. Our class booth is the “sleeping giant,” you know the Jack and the Bean Stalk story.  I figured I’d make a beanstalk themed cake, the ax was an afterthought but my favorite part!!

My eight year old wanted to make a cake too she went with the draw bridge theme, I love her cake! She made a sitting Knight at rest with his helmet off  just hanging out by the river.

We worked, mostly in silence sharing tools, ideas for hours.

 What a treat to be able to sit with my daughter and craft something that we are both totally absorbed in.  Who knows if either of our cakes will win a prize but I know someone lucky cake walk winner will be taking them home for sure!

Claire’s drawbridge and Knight cakeUPDATE Claire took first place in her division!!! YEA CLAIRE!! I won nothing…..

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Apple Stuffin’ Muffins

Mini muffins with a strawberry and mint leaf in place of real leaves

Besides driving, working and entertaining, parents are always running right alongside their toddlers: making meals, doing dishes, and trying to keep everyone from getting grumpy.  The best way I have found to offset the constant running in circles is to be prepared with nutritious snacks.   I promise you that these are so quick and easy that you will WANT to make them, instead of feeling like it’s yet another chore.

This is a really flexible recipe.  You can change ingredients here and there and still get great results.  Add a small dot of cream cheese on top for more protein, or leave out the butter or replace it with a vegetable based non-hydrogenated margarine.  These muffins are extremely forgiving, so get to it and make a batch now your kids will thank you!  What are your kid’s favorite healthy afternoon snack?

 Apple Stuffin’ Muffins

Makes 24 mini muffins

Here’s a great after-school snack for a hungry kid or any other member of your family. These are perfectly sweet with a strong apple flavor when you use homemade applesauce.  The better the apple sauce the more flavor the muffins will have. No time for making applesauce, add diced fresh apple to the recipe for a stronger flavor.

Ingredients     

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

3 tbs butter

1/8 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup fresh applesauce 

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

Optional. 1/2 apple peeled and chopped very small

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl, set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter on high for about 30 seconds; add sugar, applesauce, egg and salt to bowl.  Mix well.

Pour the apple mixture over the flour mixture.

Gently stir in the flour until just incorporated, do not over mix.

Fill the muffin tins about half full with batter.

Bake for 8-9 minutes for mini muffins.

Note: For 6 standard size muffins bake 15 minutes

Tip:

For evenly sized muffins, a mini cookie scoop works wonders, get one at your baking supply or craft store.

Optional Add-ins:

Small shredded carrot or zucchini, currants, chopped dates, flax seeds, quick oats, peanut butter, diced banana, shredded cheddar cheese

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Great American Bake Sale

My friend Michelle of Whats Cooking was nearly brought to tears by the enthusiasm of her friends, family and classmates when she told them about the Great American Bake Sale. What began as an attempt at getting a few families to help hungry children by baking together has turned into a series of three separate Bake Sale events…one of which will be a celebration in the park with a band comprised of parents! The details of our events are below – hopefully they will inspire you to take some steps to help hungry kids across America, too!

WHAT’S COOKING
Holds Bake Sale To End Childhood Hunger
in San Rafael, California

What:
What’s Cooking, a local business that teaches cooking classes to children, is organizing a bake sale, as part of Share Our Strength Great American Bake Sale, a national campaign that mobilizes Americans to end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their communities.

Local families will be working together to make signs, bake goods and sell items at our 3 bake sales. Our students are enthusiastic about spending time together with their family and friends, knowing that they are making a difference in the lives of other children.

The highlight of our efforts will be an evening of Music in the Park on June 8. Music will be performed by several parents from Glenwood School. All families are welcome to join us for a BBQ Dinner, Baked Goods and Music, with most food items selling for just $1, each.

Why: Nationally, more than 12 million children at risk of hunger. Funds raised through What’s Cooking’s Great American Bake Sale will be used to ensure America’s most vulnerable children – those living in poverty and at risk of hunger get the regular, healthy meals they need, where they live, learn and play.

If YOU would like to contribute to the What’s Cooking Team’s goal of raising $500, but are unable to attend our events, you can make a monetary donation at the What’s Cooking Team’s Bake Sale Web Page.

About Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale®

Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, presented by Domino® Sugar and C&H®, is a national campaign that mobilizes Americans to end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their communities. Great American Bake Sale proceeds are granted to organizations in communities across America to help provide at-risk children with nutritious meals when they’re needed most – during the summer, and after school. Additionally, proceeds support Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®, a chef-led nutrition education program for low-income children and families. Since 2003, more than 1 million people have participated in Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, raising nearly $4 million to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. Great American Bake Sale is supported by national television partner Food Network and national magazine partner Family Circle magazine. For more information, visit http://www.greatamericanbakesale.org

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