Persimmon Cookies

  Persimmons! Who knew? Certainly not me. I'd never even seen one until my boss brought some in from his tree this week. "What do you put them in?" I asked. He told me his Japanese mother used to put them in cookies. After a bit of Googling (is that a word?) I came up with a suitable recipe. You can make it as is, or sub out a couple of ingredients to make it allergen free. The version of these excellent fall cookies I made was gluten, dairy, soy free and was delicious.
  I took them in to work, where they were gobbled up immediately. Gonna have to make some more of these soft, spicy, delicious cookies with the rest of these persimmons! I don't think anybody will mind.

INGREDIENTS

2 ripe persimmons, pureed
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour (or all purpose gluten free flour)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup white sugar (or turbinado sugar)
1/2 cup butter (or butter sub such as Smart Balance)
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2.Dissolve baking soda in persimmon pulp and set aside.
3.Sift flour, spices and salt together, set aside.
4.Cream together butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy, beat in egg and persimmon. Stir in dry ingredients. Stir in nuts and raisins.
5.Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.

Bear's Pear Walnut Bread

  Get ready, because this recipe is going to knock both your socks off.

  The original recipe, which I found on Pinterest (the gold mine of all gold mines), wasn't gluten, dairy, or soy free, but this recipe IS. With just a few simple, inexpensive substitutes, you food-allergen sufferers can fully enjoy this tasty delight. Best part is, even us non-sufferers will enjoy it, because it is AMAZING.
  The recipe calls this a "bread," but it's really more cakeish. It's crunchy on the outside, and oh-so-moist on the inside. Great with milk, coffee, tea, or just about anything. Here's my modified recipe, with the original ingredients in parentheses, for those of you who don't need to swap out ingredients. Enjoy!

Ingredients

•3 cups gluten free all-purpose flour (or regular flour)
•½ teaspoon baking powder
•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon salt
•2 teaspoons cinnamon
•¼ teaspoon ginger
•¾ cups coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
•2 cups turbinado sugar (or granulated sugar)
•3 eggs
•2 pears, peeled and diced
•2 teaspoons vanilla
•1½ cups chopped walnuts

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray one large tube or bundt pan or two loaf pans with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.
2.Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3.Cream together vegetable oil, sugar and eggs. Spoon in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in pears, vanilla and walnuts.
4.Pour into prepared baking pan(s) and bake for 60 minutes, or until skewer or toothpick come out clean when inserted in the center of the bread.
5.Remove from oven and allow to rest in the pan(s) for about 10 minutes. Turn out and allow to cool completely.

Gluten Free Funnel Cake

  Yes INDEED. Gluten free funnel cake. Now everybody can enjoy this state fair treat!

  The recipe is simple. Getting the thing to fry up correctly is a little more complicated, and I'll get into that shortly. First, here's the recipe (original recipe with allergen-substitutes in parentheses)

3 large eggs
2 cups milk (can be soy milk or rice milk)
1/4 cup white sugar (can be turbinado sugar or sugar substitute)
3 cups all-purpose flour (gluten free flour, or even gluten free Bisquik)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Oil for frying (I used coconut oil)
Powdered sugar or other toppings (your discretion)

  The directions are easy. Mix all your dry ingredients, then your wet ingredients, then combine them. You should have a fairly thick pancake-batter consistency. Heat the oil in a skillet to 350 degrees. You want enough oil that your batter will float. Too shallow and you'll end up with a flat, cracker-like thing.
  Now, I didn't have an actual funnel, so I tried using a squirt bottle. This was problematic, as it really works best if you have a constant flow going into the oil. Without a funnel, you can do what I did and use a measuring cup with a pouring spout. It might take you a couple tries to get the flow right. If you pour too much too quickly, you'll get a very bloated, doughy cake. Too little at a time, it will just ball up in the oil and turn brown. Try to aim for about a toothpaste-sized stream.
  Crisscross back and forth in the oil, trying to not leave any pieces floating by themselves. After cooking a couple minutes, use a large spatula or tongs to flip your cake and cook the other side. It will be very oily when you pull it out at the end, so have some paper towels on your plate to soak it up. After it cools slightly, throw your toppings on and enjoy!

Applesauce oatmeal muffins

  Get ready for a taste explosion in your mouth! What are you doing? I said GET READY.

  This is yet another semi-healthy and very easy to make snack you could have alongside your breakfast, or in the middle of the afternoon for a pick-me-up. You could probably even have one in the middle of the night, although I wouldn't advise it, as you may lose further sleep over how delicious it is, and whether or not you should have a second one. The recipe, from Running With Spoons, is below:

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 large egg
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or regular milk)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted (or canola/vegetable oil)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins

For the topping

2 Tbsp. quick-cooking oats
2 Tbsp. sliced/slivered almonds
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted (or butter)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a muffin tray, or line it with 12 paper/silicone muffin liners.
2. Prepare topping: In a small bowl, combine oats, almonds, and brown sugar. Add melted coconut oil and mix until well combined. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. Beat egg in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in applesauce, almond milk, brown sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mixing lightly until just combined. Fold in raisins.
4. Divide batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Using your fingers, sprinkle topping onto each muffin.
5. Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until top is firm to the touch and toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for ~10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cake Pops

  Ah, cake pops. I've wanted to try my hand at these for quite some time, but never got around to it until now. Deceptively simple seeming, there are actually quite a few things to pay attention to the first time you make them, as I found out.
  This is another one of those desserts that is endlessly customizable. There are an infinite number of fillings, coatings, and toppings you can use. For my first batch, I used plain old yellow cake (from a box mix) and white chocolate for the coating.

  Your first step is to bake a beautiful cake. Make it from a box, or from scratch, and in whatever shape you like. It won't matter when you get to the next step, which is...

  ...to completely obliterate your beautiful cake. Turn it into crumbs. I used my stand-mixer, but you can use any method you prefer. If you use a shotgun, be sure to pick the pellets out of your cake-crumbs before moving on to the next step.

  Next, you'll add some frosting to the cake crumbs, and combine them well, until they form a "dough." I say "some" frosting, because it's a bit subjective. If you use too much, your cake pops will be overly dense and mushy. If you use too little, they will crumble apart and not hold their shape. I used about half of a standard frosting container. You also want to be careful with what frosting flavor you choose. Make sure it compliments your cake flavor. I picked plain white, which really doesn't have a flavor.

  Now, roll the dough into small balls no bigger than about 1 1/3" in diameter. Some people will want to use a scoop for this, so all their pops are exactly the same size, but I just eyeballed it. In order to help the balls better maintain their shape, I gave the dough a slight squeeze before forming it. Throw them in the fridge for a little while as you work on the next step.

  Using a double boiler, or heating it in the microwave, melt your chocolate coating. If you double boiler it, be careful to not get any water in your chocolate, because it will seize. If you use your microwave, do it in no longer than 30-second bursts, or you will risk overheating the chocco.

  You see here that my white chocolate is completely melted, but still looks pretty thick. That's okay, because the first thing I'm going to do with it is dip the ends of my cake pop sticks into it.

  Take your cake balls out of the fridge and insert the sticks into them, first dipping them in the chocolate. This will glue the balls to the stick, and form a nice little support that will keep them from sliding down the stick when they're right side up. Throw them back in the fridge for 10 minutes or so to let the chocolate firm up.

  Now comes the fun part. Dip the cake pops in your melted chocolate coating, being sure to coat the entire thing (my white chocolate was a little thick for dipping, so I added a couple tablespoons of canola oil). Go easy on them, or you'll knock the cake ball right off. Too much up-and-down dunking or twisting motions will bring you to grief. Just dunk them, then bring them out and let the excess drip off. Turn them on their side and rotate them, giving a gentle tap as you do so.
  Don't roll them in your coatings just yet. At this stage, the chocco is so gooey that it won't be able to hold them and the whole thing will slide right off. Instead, let them sit for a couple minutes until they start to take on a dull sheen. Then, you can stick them in your sprinkles or nuts, or mini-chips, or whatever you like.
  Don't refrigerate them, because it will cause them to sweat. Leave them out on the counter to firm up for a few hours, or overnight. Trust me, they will be perfect.

  Enjoy!

Granola Bites

  Tired of those run-of-the-mill granola bars from the store that have preservatives and chemicals and formaldehyde and insect parts and who-knows-what in them? Why not make your own?
  I sound like an infomercial.
  Really, though, these granola bites (or indeed, bars, if you wish) are ridiculously easy to make, and endlessly customizable. My favorite two things! You can put the mini-chocco chips in that this recipe calls for, or you can put nuts in there, or dried cranberries, or pretty much whatever you want. You can make them into bite size treats with a mini-muffin pan, as I did, or put the mixture into a pan and slice them into bars. Do whatever your little chef heart desires. The original recipe was posted over at Another Lunch, and is as follows:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C. quick oats
1/2 C. crisp rice cereal
1/2 C. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. canola oil
1/4 C. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
* optional: ground flax seed and/or wheat germ (I use 3 heaping Tbs. or so of each).

Directions:

Mix all ingredients (except for the chocolate chips - keep those out for now) really, really, really well. I start with a wooden spoon and then usually end up using my hands too. Take your time to make sure everything is really blended. Taking your time also allows the wet ingredients to sort of soak into the dry components. If your mixture seems dry after mixing then you may need to add a little more oil and/or honey - a teaspoon at a time - until it starts to clump up a little. It may be hard to tell, but can you see how some of the granola mixture is starting to cling and ball up a little here?
  When your granola mixture gets to this point, not too wet, not too dry, then stir in the chocolate chips.   Holding the mini muffin cups, scoop the granola mixture in and form the mound compactly. I use a rounded tablespoon to help form them, a small cookie scoop would work too. You need to use both hands to press the granola and support the muffin cup at the same time. Line them up on a baking sheet to place in the oven.
  Press the remaining granola into your baking pan (if you are making bars). Make sure your baking pan has been sprayed well with non-stick spray! Press mixture firmly, compacting it as well as you can.

Baking:

350 degrees. Granola bites: 12-15 minutes. Granola bars: 17-22 minutes (keep an eye on them!). They are ready to remove from oven when the tops are golden. If they don't cook long enough they may not hold their shape. If they cook too long they will get too dry (not to mention they can burn) and may not hold their shape. (I've found granola bars to be finicky.) Let the granola bites cool completely. Just leave 'em alone for a few hours so they can set. Then, they are done! So easy.

Peanut Patties

  Holy blast from the past, Batman! I loved these things growing up, and my mom loved them when she was growing up too. We used to be able to find them at the grocery store in packs of ten. Then you could only find them in gas stations, one at a time. Then, for the last few years, nothing. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across the recipe on Pinterest!

  They're very easy to put together, and pretty cheap too. They're PURE sugar, so, they aren't the healthiest things for you, but they will kick your sweet tooth right in the sweet teeth.

  Why are some of them heart-shaped, you ask? Why are some of them rougher around the edges, like they took a ride in a washing machine, you ask? For one, you're very observant. Two, stop asking so many questions. Here's the deal: in the original recipe, posted at Just a Pinch, they have you pour the mixture out in little pancakes onto wax paper. You can do that, but the patties I used to get when I was a kid were thicker- like a third of an inch or more. So, I decided I would pour the mix into a muffin pan. Surely it wouldn't stick to the metal, right? Wrong.
  The mix, even when it sets up, is too sticky for a muffin pan. You need to either do the wax paper thing, or do what I did with the remaining part of my mix and pour it into a silicone cupcake sheet. The only one I had was little heart shapes. Adorable, right? Manly, right? No? Anyway, the silicone worked like a charm. The patties set and popped out as easy as you please. Lesson learned. I had to cut the other ones out with a knife, so they got a bit crumbly. They still taste good, though, so it's not a total loss.
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

2 1/2 c sugar
2/3 c light karo
1 c milk
2 1/2 c raw peanuts (16 oz. bag)
4 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 c powdered sugar
4 OR 5 drops red food coloring (I used quite a bit more for my red color)

Directions

1. Place the first four items in a heavy saucepan. Stir to combine.
2. Bring to a boil and continue cooking on a low boil, uncovered, for approx one hour until soft ball stage (235-240*), stirring occasionally.
3. While cooking, prepare a spot on your counter top with waxed paper to drop candy on.
4. At soft ball stage, remove from heat and add margarine/butter stirring until melted.
5. Add powdered sugar, sifting if needed, and red coloring. (I use extra for more color)
6. Stir to combine well. Keep stirring until it just starts to thicken.
7. Quickly drop by spoonfulls onto waxed paper. The nuts should be flat, not in a pile. If candy starts to get too thick, just place pan back on heat to warm slightly.
8. Depending on your preference, they can be any size you like. I prefer to eat several that are 2" across. Bobby likes bigger ones. Your choice will always be right.
9. ENJOY


  Step 9 is always the most important.