A little while back my younger daughter sent me a text asking me how to make pancake bites; I guess she had seen the idea somewhere in cyberspace! I googled it myself and sent her a link but didn’t bookmark it, thinking I would never make them. As it turns out, I now regularly cook for a grade school class and am always looking for quick, easy breakfast or healthy snack ideas! Now I wish I HAD bookmarked it. S’all good, I just googled “pancake bites” again and followed the basic directions at Bakerella to create my own version of YUMMY! Oh my! When I was turning them out to cool I could not help but eat at least half a dozen of them!
I really like Pancake Bites because they are easier to eat out of hand over regular mini pancakes. Go ahead, make these, and I dare you to eat just one!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancake Bites – Make Pancake Bites using your favourite Pancake Recipe.
2 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/3 cup Milk (or Almond Milk)
4 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
2 large Eggs
4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly spray 4 mini muffin tins; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar, if using.
In a small mixing bowl whisk together milk, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla and maple syrup, if using.
Add liquid ingredients, all at once, to dry ingredients and stir just until combined; a few lumps may remain.
Evenly scoop batter into prepared muffin tins up to 2/3 full.
Bake in 350F oven for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let rest in pans on wire racks for a few minutes.
Remove from muffin tins to cool completely or serve immediately with maple syrup, berry sauce or simply as is.
Oh my goodness! I clipped this recipe out of the Vancouver Sun a gazillion years ago and made it quite often when the kids were growing up, though minus the Mushroom Sauce. ( I have two kids who have a strong dislike for mushrooms…one, because the underside looks like gills! ) No worries there though because you can easily sub in another flavour of condensed soup: Cream of Celery, Broccoli Cheddar, Cream of Asparagus, Cream of Broccoli.
Don’t eat meat? No worries there either; sub in Yves Just Like Ground Round.
Don’t do Dairy? Sub in Soy Cheese, Salsa for the Cream of Mushroom Soup, add a few Tablespoons of Sliced Black Olives, a Tablespoon of Adobo Seasoning omit the Chopped Celery and sub in some Corn Niblets and you have yourself a Mexican Style Fiesta Ring! Too easy!
Now the original recipe called for the biscuit ring to be made from Bisquick mix….I think I bought that stuff once! I just use my resourceful Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe! Especially easy if you have a Kitchenaide Mixer! Throw everything into the mixer (by everything I mean all the powdery stuff) Mix on low to incorporate; add cubed, cold shortening or butter and turn on low again for about 2 minutes until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then add milk (soy milk) and stir on low speed JUST until combined. Turn out onto floured surface and knead gently about 10 times and roll out dough. Easy peasy.
Oh, and you will see in the photo that I cheat and add Frozen French Fries right on the same baking sheet as the Cheeseburger Ring…just make a salad while this is baking and call dinner preparation Done!
Cheeseburger Ring – A nice twist for using Ground Beef
Biscuit Dough using Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe or:
3 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (Soy Cheddar)
3/4 cup Milk (Plain Almond or Soy Milk) Filling:
1/2 pound Ground Beef (1 package Yves Just Like Ground Round)
1/4 cup finely chopped Celery
1/4 cup diced Onion
2 Tablespoons each finely chopped Green and Red Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Pepper, to taste
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese (Soy Cheddar)
1/4 cup Cream of Mushroom Soup Mushroom Sauce:
Remaining Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup Milk (Plain Soy or Almond Milk)
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce (Omit if Vegan)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Biscuit Dough:
Mix Bisquick and cheese together.
Gradually blend in milk, stirring with a fork to make a soft, slightly sticky dough.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead gently 8 to 10 times.
Roll into a 14″x10″ rectangle.
Filling:
In a large skillet, with a bit of olive oil, saute onions until soft.
Add chopped celery, finely chopped peppers and ground beef (Just Like Ground Round) breaking up meat with a wooden spoon.
Cook and stir frequently until evenly browned.
Stir in remaining ingredients and heat until cheese melts.
Turn oven on to preheat to 400F.
Line a baking sheet with Parchment paper or spray lightly with vegetable oil spray and dust lightly with cornmeal.
Carefully spread onto prepared dough.
Roll up like a jelly roll, starting from the longer side.
Shape into a ring.
Place on prepared baking sheet.
Slash with a sharp knife, 3/4 of the way through ring, at 1inch intervals.
Bake in 400F. oven for 15 – 18 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve hot with Mushroom Sauce.
Serves: 6
Mushroom Sauce:
Combine mushroom soup, 1/2 cup milk, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce in a small saucepan and heat through. Oh, I often add fresh Sliced Mushrooms to the sauce.
If Vegan, omit Mushroom Sauce altogether and serve with a Salsa and Avocado Slices.
I have had it in my mind to make an Applesauce Cake for absolutely ages. On my last trip to the shops I even bought a great big bag of apples; truth be told, I have bought a big bag of apples a few times before but the Applesauce Cake just never seemed to materialize, go figure.
It just so happens I had a few plans go awry on a Saturday and when you have to shift to Plan B, but wait, there was no Plan B; well, that is a good time to head to the kitchen and do some Baking! Coincidentally I had also just made a fresh batch of applesauce so I simply had to dig out the Applesauce Cake recipe.
It used to be that I would flip through my Betty Crocker cookbook but in this day and age, I enter what I want to make in the google search field on MY iPad* and sift through the multitude of recipes on offer. Good Ol’ BC has an Applesauce Cake recipe for a 9×13 cake which I guess I could have used but I wanted a tried-and-true recipe for a bundt pan because I bought a bundt pan in June and it was still sitting in the cupboard, unused!
I made only one substitution in this recipe and one addition: I used chopped dates instead of raisins and I added a layer of Cream Cheese Frosting to finish it off. You see, the picture in the old BC cookbook has a lovely 9×13 Applesauce cake all decked out in Cream Cheese Frosting and sprinkled with chopped walnuts so I had this vision in my head of my Applesauce Cake being frosted rather than merely dusted with powdered sugar.
Many thanks to Cookie Madness for breaking away from Cookies and making an Applesauce Spice Bunt Cake.
*My husband keeps absconding off to the bedroom with my iPad at the most inopportune times! And the nerve, sometimes he even closes down the pages I am using! I NEVER shut down his Geek pages!
Applesauce Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
3 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar, lightly packed
1 cup Sugar
1 large Egg
2 cups unsweetened Applesauce
1 cup coarsely chopped Pecans
1 cup chopped Dates or Raisins
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup Butter, softened
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
3 cups Icing sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Milk, to right consistency, about 1 1/2 teaspoons
Preheat oven to 350F.
Spray a 10″ Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, add 1 tablespoon of flour, tilting and lightly tapping pan to coat pan lightly with flour; turn out excess flour.
In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice; set aside.
In mixing bowl beat butter until smooth then add sugar and continue beating for about a minute.
Add brown sugar and resume beating for another 2 – 3 minutes until.
Add egg and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.
Stir in applesauce on low setting.
Turn mixer off, raise paddle and add the flour mixture; lower paddle and stir at lowest setting until well blended and no lumps remain.
Stir in chopped pecans and dates.
Turn batter out into prepared Bundt pan and bake in 350F oven for 60 – 70 minutes, until golden and pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool, in pan, on wire rack for 10 minutes.
Turn out of pan onto wire rack and cool completely.
While cake is cooling prepare Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cream butter until soft and no lumps remain.
On low speed, stir in 1 cup of icing sugar until incorporated.
Add vanilla and continue stirring on low speed.
Add another cup of icing sugar, again stirring until incorporated.
Add final cup of icing sugar and a bit of milk, if needed.
Beat on medium-high speed for 2 -3 minutes until light and fluffy.
When cake is completely cooled frost with Cream Cheese Frosting, sprinkled with chopped Pecans and drizzle with a bit of Maple Glaze (icing sugar mixed with a bit of maple flavouring and enough milk to drizzling consistency)
I started making this recipe about 19 years ago but then I stopped working at the school where I was making about 6 dozen of these a week, my own children grew up and left home and I no longer felt the need to make chocolate muffins. Now I am back at that same school and find myself making these again!
Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
4 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened Coca
2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 cups Milk
2 large Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
Preheat oven to 400F.
Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners or lightly spray with Pam.
In large mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar and cocoa; make a well in the centre and set aside.
In large mixing cup combine liquid ingredients.
Pour liquid ingredients into well in dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Spoon into prepared muffin tins. ( I use a #5Pampered Chef scoop)
Bake in 400F oven for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven to wire rack and cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
Turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
I was flipping through my November Issue of Chatelaine and came upon this recipe in the “it’syourhealth” section on page 155. I had just taken boneless, skinless chicken breasts out of the freezer with absolutely no idea what I was going to make with it. I was only missing the oranges called for in this recipe but did have a can of mandarin oranges in the pantry. I also subbed in a can of coconut milk for the milk.
The husband says the chicken was delicious! I wouldn’t know as I remain a Vegetarian … I rely on smell, A LOT, and I grill the husband about taste, texture, presentation…I usually get, “It was….tasty, very tasty.” <- A quasi quote from 84 Charing Cross Road
2 teaspoons Butter
1 Onion, sliced
1 teaspoon each: Paprika, ground Cumin, Dried Mint
1/4 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 lb skinless, boneless Chicken Breast, cut into strips
1/3 cup chopped Dried Apricots and/or Raisins
2 cups Coconut Milk (or milk)
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1 can Mandarin Orange slices, drained
In large non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat.
Saute onion, paprika, cumin, mint, cinnamon, salt and pepper until onion is softened.
Add chicken; saute for 3 minutes.
Add dried fruit.
Whisk a small amount of coconut milk into cornstarch, until smooth; whisk in remaining coconut milk.
Stir into skillet.
Simmer, stirring, until chicken is no longer pink inside, 4 – 5 minutes.
Top with mandarin orange slices.
Serve over a bed of Brown Rice or Whole Wheat Couscous with a Green Vegetable.
Serves 4
Isabelle Neiderer, November 2012, Chatelaine, it’syourhealth, Volume November/12, page 155
Moroccan-Spiced Chicken and Brown Rice with Blackened Peppers
Welcome to my Kitchen where the most important ingredient is Love.
