Cranberry Bog Bars

Last night was my night to bring a dessert to our Life group. I was really excited to have an actual reason to bake something yet I had a serious problem finding the motivation to do the baking project that I had originally planned. We had all been sick for over a week and even though I felt pretty good, I spent yesterday doing very little. Unless you count watching Mulan with Ben as a productive activity.

Anyway, by the time that I was ready to bake, I didn't have the time to do anything epic so I settled for these "Cranberry Bog Bars." This Taste Of Home fall cookbook is proving to be extremely useful! They were so easy to make and they had such an obscene amount of butter in them that they couldn't not be good. I didn't have pecans on hand (let's face it, I never have them around. They set my teeth on edge.) so I subbed them with raw almonds which toasted up really nicely during baking. I am going to have to make these again. Also, they are egg-free.


Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups butter, softened, divided
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar, divided
3-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 can (14 ounces) whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy. Combine 2-1/2 cups oats and flour. Gradually add to creamed mixture until crumbly. Press into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Spread with cranberry sauce.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt remaining butter; stir in the pecans and remaining brown sugar and oats. Sprinkle over cranberry sauce. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Apple Blueberry Crisp

Apple Blueberry Crisp



When I put my apple blueberry crisp in the oven, I was scared. I didn't use a recipe and I was beginning to doubt my cooking skills. Also, this was my first time using agave nectar in the place of sugar. In the end, it turned out pretty well!

Anyway, with a few tweaks, this could be fantastic. Don't get me wrong, it's tasty, but the fruit was a bit tart and I probably could have used another 1/4 cup of agave in the topping. If you make this with regular brown sugar I would say to use a full cup and to cut the flour to 1/2 cup.

Here is an approximate estimate of what went into the crisp:

Filling:
3 Fuji apples sliced thinly
1 1/2 cups of blueberries
3 Tbsp of corn starch
2 Tbsp of lemon juice

Topping:
1 cup of oats
3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup of blue agave nectar (no, it's not actually blue)
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1 tsp of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put apples and blueberries into a large baking dish.(I used a round 9" wide 4" deep ceramic crock.) Toss the fruit with the lemon juice and then sprinkle on the corn starch and toss.

In a medium bowl, mix all topping ingredients. Butter should be cold and it should be cut into very small chunks with a pastry blender of knife. Because of the liquid from the agave, this will be like a dense, sticky dough. Use your fingers to drop small amounts of the dough on the fruit until the top is evenly covered in the topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Note: Because this was a bit doughy, I pulled it out after 20 min and broke up the topping with a fork and put it back in and it turned out great.




I just couldn't keep myself from posting this one. The steam was so pretty.

Carrot-Pumpkin Muffins.

I baked again today. It was really fun to bake in the morning and have a snack to bring to a playdate. I always bring something "Gemma safe" so today I made Carrot-Pumpkin muffins. Of course, they were eggless and they turned out really well. I have been struggling to bake perfect muffins that had no egg and I think that I finally succeeded! Yee Haw! I found a recipe on a vegan blog for carrot muffins and I messed with it quite a bit adding pumpkin and cutting the amount of sweeteners. My recipe is below.

Also, I should say, I had one of these cut in half with cream cheese and it was heavenly. These could very easily be turned into cupcakes with the addition of cream cheese frosting. Yummy.


Eggless Carrot-Pumpkin Muffins

Dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
(I use the O Organics brand because it has the best vanilla flavor)
1/3 cup of unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup of warm water and 1 Tbsp of flax meal mixed together and set aside to congeal in a small dish (this makes the exact consistency of egg and serves as a binder in the muffins)
1/3 cup soy milk (or regular cows milk, we just use soy)
Give or take a bit on the soy milk, I just added it at the end until it was a nice batter consistency

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (2 big ones or three regular sized)
1/4 cup raisins
Sugar in the raw for the tops

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin tuns with papers.

Sift or stir dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix together wet ingredients except for the soy milk, carrots, and raisins. Combine wet and dry ingredients in the large bowl and stir until just mixed (it's important not to over stir) Then add the carrots and raisins. Add the soy milk to get it to the right consistency. It should be a thick batter, not too runny, but also not like a dough.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full, sprinkle tops with raw sugar crystals, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe made 24 mini muffins (15 mins to bake) and six regular sized muffins (20 mins to bake.) Cool on a wire rack. Also, do not try to take them out of their wrappers until they are completely cool or they will stick to the muffin liners. Enjoy!