apple and walnut pancakes

Pancakes are the perfect weekend breakfast--easy to make but special to eat. They are warm and comforting and I love maple syrup on top.

Apple and Walnut Pancakes
adapted from More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook)
serves 2

1/2 c (60 g) whole wheat flour
1/2 c (60 g) plain flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t brown sugar
1 c (250 ml) milk
1 egg, beaten
1 T oil
1/2 c diced apples (a half or one apple)
1/4 c (30 g) chopped walnuts

Mix the flours, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl.
Combine the milk, egg, and oil in a small bowl.
Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix briefly. Stir in the apples and walnuts and stir just until mixed.
Fry in a hot pan with some oil, a few minutes on each side. Flip when bubbles are starting to appear on the top of the pancakes and the bottom is golden.

whole wheat gems

These little muffins are the perfect accompaniment to a meal since they are not very sweet, but (optionally) contain some raisins for interest. They take only one bowl to whip up and contain things I always have in my cupboard. They are an emergency carb item for veg-laden meals that I want to make appeal to Ant a bit more!

I made up a batch the other night and took the leftovers to work to fill the four o'clock hunger gap. This is the part of the day I find more troublesome and I am always on the lookout for low sugar, nutritious snacks to munch on.


The recipe is adapted from the More-with-Less cookbook, where they are made with graham flour.

Whole Wheat Gems
adapted from More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook)
makes 15 small muffins

1 c (120g) graham or whole wheat flour
1 c (125 g) white flour
1 t baking soda
1/4 c dark brown sugar
1/2 c (75 g) raisins (optional)
1 egg, beaten
1 c milk
3 T oil or melted margarine

Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C.
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir only until combined.
Fill muffin cups and bake for 12 - 15 minutes.

honey whole wheat bread

I may have mentioned before that I find yeast breads a bit stressful. My mother says this is a bit ridiculous. She loves to bake bread and makes it look like an easy, enjoyable hobby that always provides her family with fresh, healthy, tasty bread, and the house with that wonderful baking smell. She has urged me on several occasions to get over my fear and just try it out.

I have made many quick breads before, including most recently an Irish soda bread that was delicious and easy. But yeast breads scare me because the yeast can be so unpredictable, or so I thought. My mother says the opposite is true. She says you can ignore the fiddly proofing (mixing it with warm water at the start of the process), just use room temperature yeast and mix it well with the flour. And she said you never need to knead for as long as recipes say. Just do it! she keeps saying.

So I finally did. A couple of weeks ago I tried out some whole wheat rolls that were a disaster--but looking back I see that the yeast was a bit cold (I keep it in the fridge) and I burned the milk I was meant to scald. So for my second attempt I switched to a recipe from my well-loved More-With-Less cookbook, utterly reliable when it comes to healthy, sensible breads and meals. I followed the recipe exactly this time (and it doesn't even call for proofing!). This time the results were better! The bread was a great success! We ate one of my little loaves over the next few days and I sliced and froze the other to take to work this week.


I only have one loaf pan, so I made a half recipe (but it still made these two little loaves!). Here is the full recipe.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread
makes 2 [larger] loaves

Combine in mixer bowl:
3 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c nonfat dry milk
1 T salt
2 T dry yeast

Heat in saucepan [or microwave] until warm:
3 c water or potato water
1/2 c honey
2 T oil

Pour warm (not hot) liquid over flour mixture. Beat with electric mixer for 3 minutes.
Stir in:
1 c additional whole wheat flour
4 to 4 1/2 c white flour

Knead for 5 minutes, usnig additinal white flour if necessary. Place in greased bowl, turn, let rise until double in bulk.
Punch down, divide dough in half, and shape into loaves. Place in greased 9x5" bread pans.
Cover and let rise 40 to 45 minutes.
Bake at 375 F/190 C for 40 to 45 minutes.

baking muffins

My dad is a famous muffin maker. He has so many muffin cookbooks that he has an index book to help him find the muffin recipe he wants. I, however, have only one muffin recipe. I use it for everything. I like it because (a) it has hardly any sugar, (b) it has hardly any oil, (c) it contains lots of oats--and I make it even healthier by putting in oats and bran, (d) it only requires one mixing bowl, speeding up both the preparation and the washing up. Here it is.

Chocolate Chip Muffins
adapted from More with Less
makes 12 large or 18 small muffins

Mix together in large bowl:
1 1/2 c (190 g) flour
1/4 c (25 g) sugar
1 T baking powder

Stir in:
1 c (90 g) oats
1 c (180 g) chocolate chips (or 1/2 c [75 g] raisins or anything else that you fancy)

Add:
3 T oil
1 egg, beaten
1 c (250 ml) milk

Stir only until combined. Fill muffin cups and bake at 425 F (205 C) for 15 minutes.