Reindeer Food (Luxury Granola) recipe

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Luxury Granola (aka reindeer food)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups porridge oats

½ cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons melted butter (margerine)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup dried cranberries (sweetened)

3/4 cup plain chocolate chips (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 300F (150 C)

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix thoroughly and place in a single layer on a non-stick baking try ( if you don’t have non-stick then you will need to grease the baking tray with butter or oil).

Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Every 5 minutes you will need to open the oven door and stir the granola mixture.

Cool completely and add the raisins, dried cranberries and chocolate.

The granola can be eaten on its own, or with milk for breakfast, sprinkled over yogurt or ice-cream, and of course left out on a dish for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve.

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A little help for those who don't use cups as measurements. Oh and for the record I just use normal everyday teaspoon and tablespoons for measurements, less hassle than attempting to locate the measuring ones. Which I think have migrated to H's toy box.

U.S. to Metric Conversion Table
1/5 teaspoon = 1 ml
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 tablespoon = 15 ml
1 fluid oz. = 30 ml
1/5 cup = 50 ml
1/4 cup = 60 ml
1/2 cup = 120 ml
1 cup = 240 ml
2 cups (1 pint) = 470 ml
4 cups (1 quart) = .95 liter
4 quarts (1 gal.) = 3.8 liters

Cooks Notes: later today H and I will be baking this recipe so it will be ready to place in a little dish for Rudolph next to cookies and milk for Santa. Tomorrow we shall have it for breakfast too. It is also a great topping for yogurt or ice cream. Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I have been such a bad blogger but hopefully with the New Year it will see a return to my craft blogging, some tutorials and bunches of geekery.

Snowmen Cupcakes

who you lookin at?

ingredients:

cupcakes:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 ½ cup caster (white) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup milk
3 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
Grease 12 cupcake cups or line with paper muffin liners. (recipe makes 24 cupcakes (not fairycake size, muffin tin size.)

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.In a small bowl mix the milk and the vanilla.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

add half the flour and mix well. Add half the milk and vanilla mixture.

Add eggs, one at a time mixing well. slowly add in the remainder of the dry mixture.

Add the last of the milk and vanilla.

spoon the batter into the cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn out of pan and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
1-1/2 cups powdered (icing) sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or vanilla flavouring)

Place the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl and slowly add in the powdered (icing) sugar as you mix. Blend until smooth.

decoration:
1 large bag of plain m&ms
1 industrious child to separate the m&ms ( you only need the brown and orange ones so bribery is easy)
sweetened and tenderized coconut
1 bag plain chocolate chips


assembly:

place the sweet coconut in a bowl.

ice a cupcake with the vanilla icing and gently dip the cupcake into the coconut.

use the brown m&ms for the eyes and the orange ones for the nose, and chocolate chip (coal) for the snowman's smile. Its a fun job that the kids can help you with, especially separating out the m&m colours, as H quite happily sat for an unheard of 10 minutes separating out all the m&ms and was quite happy to steal a few.

alternatively you could use other orange sweets for the snowman's nose or colour some marzipan orange and roll flat and cut small triangles (carrots) or roll into small carrot shapes.

cooks notes: I made two batches 48 cupcakes to sell after H's school Christmas Concert, every single cupcake sold!, M assures me they were very nice I never got one though I may have made myself just the teensiest bit sickly "tasting" the icing....and cake batter... I also made 24 Double Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes which sold too, so I was quite pleased that even if my crafts aren't selling my cakes were appreciated and raised some money for H's school.

blueberry and banana muffins

Blueberry and Banana Muffins

ingredients:

1/2 cup butter at room temp
1 cup caster/white granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (a pinch)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 medium sized brown bananas (smashed with the back of a fork)
2 cups self- raising flour
1/2 cup milk


Heat oven to 375°F (180 c).

Grease 18 regular-size muffin cups (or 12 large size muffins) or line muffin tins with paper cases.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating after each.

Beat in vanilla, baking powder and salt.

With spoon, fold in half of flour then half of milk into batter.

Fold in the remainder of the flour, and then the remainder of the milk.

Gently fold blueberries and mashed banana into the batter and spoon into muffin cups.

Bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to touch.

cook's notes: I probably have a half dozen different blueberry muffin recipes, this recipe takes a little more work with the mixer but it gives you a really light and fluffy muffin that melts in your mouth. And can I just say I was so happy to serve the muffins on the cake stand I made! *glee*

p.s. H has been quite poorly with the flu over the weekend so I got no crafting done, and very little of anything else. He is home today and appears to be on the mend or so it seems from his arguing with Scooby Doo on the tv, and earlier making paper lasagna...I don't know either but it was very important to him.

Cupcake Brownies

Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup butter (softened)
4 large eggs
1 cup plain/dark chocolate chips

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt, cocoa, sugar, vanilla, butter and eggs.

Fold in the chocolate chips and spread batter into muffin/cupcake cases about ¾ full. (Alternatively you could add nuts or dried fruit at this time) Makes about 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for roughly 20 minutes.

Cool for five minutes in the muffin tins before moving them to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Once cooled you can top the brownies with butter cream, whipped cream as I did, or a dollop of your favourite ice-cream, or drizzled pouring cream.

cook's notes:I had been meaning to try brownie cupcakes for awhile now, after the mums at H's school going gaga for my brownies, it made sense to try to make small individual ones that don't make as much mess as still warm brownies with a gooey centre. They still all sold in gooey form but individual portions in cupcake size will work better for the next cake sale to raise money for school activities. Sorry the picture is less than brilliant, it was at night and the light was terrible, and five minutes later, less than that actually, M had gobbled up my model brownie.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

ingredients:

for the base: 12(biscuits digestive, graham crackers, or chocolate cookies) (makes roughly 1½ cups crumbs)
2 tablespoons melted butter
4 tablespoons caster/white sugar

for the cheese cake:
2 pkg. (250g each) cream cheese

1 cup caster (white) sugar
3 100g bars of dark chocolate 72% cocoa*
2 tablespoons cream (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crush the digestive biscuits and add the melted butter and sugar.

Mix well and press firmly into a 8-inch pie pan or use an assortment of ramekins (6) or glasses.

Pat down using the base of a glass for the larger dish and the back of a spoon for smaller ramekins or glasses. Place in fridge for 30mins to set.

While the base is setting mix together the cream cheese, cream, vanilla, and sugar using a wooden spoon or electric mixer.

Break the chocolate into squares and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until the chocolate is smoothly melted.

Pour the chocolate into the cheese mixture and mix thoroughly. Spoon the cheese mixture over the base and spread evenly.

Refrigerate the cheesecake for at least a half an hour before serving.

* I used Mark’s and Spencer’s organic dark chocolate, not because I’m posh but because its some of the nicest smoothest dark chocolate you can buy. If you use a dark chocolate that has a lower cocoa percentage you can lower the amount of sugar it the recipe, its all a matter of personal taste.

cook's notes: The recipe is true to what I mixed together in my experimenting on Sunday night. The cheesecake was dark rich and smooth. I must admit that I prefer and no bake cheesecake to a baked one.. but it could just be that I'm lazy. There is one small ramekin in the fridge for M's pudding tonight which I'm sure he will like because he adores cheesecake.

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edit: slight edit, the vanilla disappeared on me. have re-added it to the list of ingredients. and blogger is being wierd about spacing again.

Luxury Granola (aka reindeer food) recipe

Luxury Granola (aka reindeer food)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups porridge oats

½ cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons melted butter (margerine)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup dried cranberries (sweetened)

3/4 cup plain chocolate chips (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 300F (150 C)

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix thoroughly and place in a single layer on a non-stick baking try ( if you don’t have non-stick then you will need to grease the baking tray with butter or oil).

Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Every 5 minutes you will need to open the oven door and stir the granola mixture.

Cool completely and add the raisins, dried cranberries and chocolate.

The granola can be eaten on its own, or with milk for breakfast, sprinkled over yogurt or ice-cream, and of course left out on a dish for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little help for those who don't use cups as measurements. Oh and for the record I just use normal everyday teaspoon and tablespoons for measurements, less hassle than attempting to locate the measuring ones. Which I think have migrated to H's toy box.

U.S. to Metric Conversion Table
1/5 teaspoon = 1 ml
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 tablespoon = 15 ml
1 fluid oz. = 30 ml
1/5 cup = 50 ml
1/4 cup = 60 ml
1/2 cup = 120 ml
1 cup = 240 ml
2 cups (1 pint) = 470 ml
4 cups (1 quart) = .95 liter
4 quarts (1 gal.) = 3.8 liters

Cooks Notes: The recipe is mine based on several granola recipes that I found on the Internet and was quite disgusted by the amount of salt, and vegtable oil used in them. In the end I ignored the recipes I had found and experimented with what I thought of as Christmas-y tastes: dried cranberries, cinnamon and brown sugar.

It smelled devine and tasted great, I kept nibbling on it as I added the dried fruit and baked the second half of the batch. I gave the granola out as gifts last Christmas and may do the same again this year when we make some that is. Both H and I have been poorly with cold and fever and haven't had the chance to do any Christmas baking just yet but we will be. H keeps asking to make Reindeer Food and this is alot better than the kind with glitter in.

cupcake snowman recipe

ingredients:

cupcakes:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 ½ cup caster (white) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup milk
3 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
Grease 12 cupcake cups or line with paper muffin liners. (recipe makes 24 cupcakes (not fairycake size, muffin tin size.)
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.In a small bowl mix the milk and the vanilla.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

add half the flour and mix well. Add half the milk and vanilla mixture.

Add eggs, one at a time mixing well. slowly add in the remainder of the dry mixture.

Add the last of the milk and vanilla.

spoon the batter into the cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn out of pan and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
1-1/2 cups powdered (icing) sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (flavouring)

Place the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl and slowly add in the powdered (icing) sugar as you mix. Blend until smooth.

decoration:
1 large bag of plain m&ms
1 industrious child to separate the m&ms ( you only need the brown and orange ones so bribary is easy)
sweetened and tenderized coconut
1 bag plain chocolate chips


assembly:

place the sweet coconut in a bowl
ice a cupcake with the vanilla icing and gently dip the cupcake into the coconut.
use the brown m&ms for the eyes and the orange ones for the nose, and chocolate chip (coal) for the snowman's smile. Its a fun job that the kids can help you with, especially seperating out the m&m colours, as H quite happily sat for an unheard of 10 minutes sperating out all the m&ms and was quite happy to steal a few.

alternatively you could use other orange sweets for the snowman's nose or colour some marzipan orange and roll flat and cut small triangles (carrots) or roll into small carrot shapes.

cooks notes: I made two batches 48 cupcakes to sell after H's school Christmas Concert. every single cupcake sold at a £1 each, M assures me they were very nice I never got one though I may have made myself just the teensiest bit sickly "tasting" the icing....and cake batter... I also made 2 trays of brownies (recipe soon) which all sold out as well, so I was quite pleased that even if my jewellery wasn't selling my cakes were appriciated and raised some money for H's school.