Cherry and Oatmeal Cloverleaf Buns

Hey, how about some bread? These aren't super-sweet, or I guess it depends on the type of dried cherries you use - sweet or tart.

These buns are nice with butter or a little cream cheese for breakfast or brunch, but they'd also be nice as a dinner roll with pork or with something spicy, like chili.

Of course, if you don't like cherries or you don't happen to have them on hand, you could use any other dried fruit you like.

By the way, you can buy oat flour, and if you have that you can use it. But it's more likely that I'll have rolled oats that I can grind than that I'd have oat flour stashed away.

Cherry and Oatmeal Cloverleaf Buns

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dry cherries
1 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
2 cups (9 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened

Spray 12-cup muffin pan with baking spray - it’s not completely necessary, but I like the added insurance.

Put the oats in a blender or food processor and blend until you have a powder. Add the cherries and pulse until they’re roughly chopped. You could certainly chop the cherries by hand, but since the machine is already dirty, you might as well use it, right?

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix slowly until mostly combined, then increase the speed and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. The cherries will make the dough bumpy, but the dough itself should be smooth. You can also mix in a standard mixing bowl and knead by hand.

Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm place to rise until the dough is doubled in size, about an hour.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Divide into 12 roughly even pieces. Divide each piece into three smaller pieces so you have 36 small balls of dough.

Place three balls in each of the muffin cups. Cover the pan and set aside to rise until doubled in size. You'll know the dough is ready to shove in the oven when you poke it gently with your finger and the indent remains, or it fills in slowly.

When the buns are risen, bake at 350 degrees until nicely browned, 20-25 minutes. Remove the buns from the pan and let them cool on a rack.

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Oatmeal Peanut Butter Dried Plum Bars #TheFeelGoodFruit #CG

Healthy snacking is a great idea, but I have to admit that I'm not virtuous enough to snack on foods that taste like hay and and twigs. If it doesn't taste good, I'm going to go looking for something else. It really helps if I make something at least vaguely healthy, and have it on hand.

So when Clever Girls and Sunsweet offered an opportunity to have some fun with dried plums - the fruit formerly known as prunes - I jumped right on it. I like prunes a lot, but I usually eat them as-is, just snacking straight from the bag. They're a nice combination of sweet and tart, with a little chew to remind you that you're eating real food.

My challenge was to create a healthy snack using the dried plums. Hmmm. After snacking though half of the bag of whole prunes they sent, I decided that the diced plums would make a good addition to baked goods, so I created this recipe for bars with oatmeal, white wheat flour (which is a whole grain product) and nuts. And of course the diced prunes.

Are you ready for your close-up?

Dried plums and peanuts playing the starring roles as far as the flavor, with the plums adding sweet/tart to complement the savory nuts.

Fiber is one of the good-for-you components, courtesy of the grains and the dried plum. Peanuts provide protein. And plums provide potassium.

Texture is a big component when it comes to food, and the oats and nuts add their texture to these bars - but not so much that it's a chore to chew.

Some of the oats are ground to a powder, so the bars have a slightly cakey, softer texture rather than being dense and chewy like a granola bar.

And then they're studded with the soft, sweet, squishy dried plums.

They're tasty, they're filling, and they're really easy to make. They're great for snacking any time, or for a quick running-out-the-door breakfast bar.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Dried Plum Bars

2 cups rolled oats, divided
1 cup white wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup Sunsweet diced dried prunes
1/2 cup peanuts

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8-inch square pan with baking spray.

Take 1 cup of the oatmeal and grind it in blender, food processor, or spice grinder until you have a fine flour-like powder. You can also buy oat flour, but if you'r not planning on using it for other purposes, you might as well just grind your own.

Combine the oat powder, rolled oats, white wheat flour (you can sub all purpose flour, if you prefer), baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Combine the peanut butter and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl where you will beat with an electric mixer.

Beat the sugar and peanut butter until well blended. Add the vanilla and egg and beat until combined.

Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with two additions of the buttermilk - starting and ending with the dry ingredients. In theory, you could add all the buttermilk at once, then add the dry stuff - but, trust me - doing it in several additions is easier to get it mixed, AND it's less messy.

Stir in the diced dried prunes and the peanuts. You just want them well distributed in the mix. If you want to add more, go for it. I won't tell.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it evenly in the pan. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean - about 35 minutes. The edges will be slightly brown and will be pulling just slightly away from the pan.

Let the bars cool completely before slicing into 9, 12, or 16 pieces depending on how snacky you feel!

The three products that Sunsweet provided were whole prunes, diced dried plums, and plum juice.
They said: PlumSmart® Light: This juice is made from a special variety of fresh, juicy plums and has only 60 calories and 15g of carbs, and helps you stay fit on the inside by providing a good source of fiber. PlumSmart Light is a great addition to a smoothie.

I said: Okay, I haven't tried this yet, but I'm giddy excited that it exists. I love plums, but their season is so short. Plum juice sounds danged good, and if we're being honest, it's going to end up in a cocktail. Just wait.

Yeah, I ripped that prune bag right open. Yup. *munch*

They said: Amaz!n™ Prunes: These little gems are a good source of fiber for only 100 calories per serving. Amaz!n Prunes are nature's perfect way to feel good with nutrition and delicious taste. Prunes also have a low glycemic index, which means they keep you feeling fuller longer. They add a powerful boost of nutrition and fiber to snack time or your favorite recipe.

I said: I love dried fruits for snacking all on their own, and with a prune you get a quick fix of all the goodness of a plum in one bite. These don't last long around here.

They said: Amaz!n™ Diced Prunes: Grab a handful of these delicious diced prunes for nutritious snacking. Toss them in cereal, oatmeal, salad or your favorite recipes for added flavor and fiber. One serving of Amaz!n Diced Prunes is a good source of fiber for only 100 calories. Add to your favorite snacking recipe for extra fiber and a fruit flavor boost.

I said: Let's be serious for a second. Dicing dried fruit is not fun. It's sticky. It sticks to your knife. It sticks to your cutting board. You're not enough of a ninja to get pretty, even cuts. If you want diced dried plums that don't look like you cut them with a dull lawnmower, just buy the diced version. You'll save yourself a lot of frustration.

Want to know more about Sunsweet? You'll find @SunsweetGrowers on Twitter and Sunsweet on Facebook.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Dried Cranberry Muffins

Who says cranberries are just for Thanksgiving? The sweet-tart flavor of the berries pairs perfectly with the vanilla in these muffins and the overnight rest plumps the dried fruit and makes it softer.

For something different, you can now find flavored cranberries. The orange-flavored cranberries are particularly nice in these muffins.

Dried Cranberry Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 ounces) self rising flour
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl combine the flour, cranberries and sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk to break up the egg.

Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until combine an there are no more dry spots. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until the next day.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and spray the cups of a standard-size 12-cup muffin pan with baking spray.

Remove the batter from the refrigerator. It will have expanded. Don’t stir. Using a disher or spoon, divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups.

Bake at 325 degrees until the muffins are lightly browned on top, and they bounce back when lightly touched on top – about 25 minutes.

Remove the muffins from the oven and let them rest a minute or two before flipping them out of the pan. If necessary, you can run a thin knife around the sides of the muffins to help loosen them from the pan.

Place the muffins on a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Whole Foods Feasting: Peanut Butter and Cherry Biscotti

The great thing about biscotti is that the flavor combinations are practically endless. This time around, the cookie is reminiscent of peanut butter and jelly, with dried cherries taking the place of the jelly.

Meanwhile, the cornmeal adds a subtle flavor and texture without being overpowering.

These are great with coffee, in the morning, but the sweetness of the cherries also make them a great after-dinner nibble.

This recipe is easy to customize - use almond butter instead of peanut butter, if you like. Use dried apricots, dates, or any other dried fruit you like. Leave the cherry bits large, or cut them small. It's all good.

Peanut Butter and Cherry Biscotti

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup dry cherries, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, salt, and baking powder, and set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. A stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment is the perfect tool for this job.

Add the peanut butter and beat until it's well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well.

Add dry ingredients, and blend thoroughly (If you're using a stand mixer, doing this is three additions is much less likely to send flour spraying all over the kitchen.) Add the cherries and blend them in.

On the cookie sheet, form the dough into two long, flat loaves about 1/2 inch thick by two inches wide, leaving several inches between the loaves. They will expand when they bake.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. They should be slightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the loaves should come out clean. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

Cut the loaves on the diagonal into approximately 3/4-inch diagonal slices. A serrated knife works best for this task.

Lay these slices on their sides on the cookie sheet and return them to the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes, until they are lightly toasted. ( if you like, flip them over halfway through baking for more even toasting.

Remove the cooking to a rack and let them cool completely.

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Whole Foods Friday: Blueberry, Cherry, and Oat Muffins

We all know that more fiber is good for us, right? When it comes to baking, usually that fiber comes from whole wheat. But oats are a good alternative, and sometimes they're a better alternative. They're lighter in color in baked goods, and the flavor is milder, so they can be more appealing to people who haven't fully embraced the idea of whole grains.

I made these muffins with a combination of dried blueberries and dried cherries - about 2/3 blueberries and 1/3 cherries - but you can use any proportion, or any dried fruit that you like. I've recently decided that I like dried fruits better than fresh in muffins. The flavor is more concentrated and they're sturdy, so you don't end up with squished fruit in the muffins.

Some recipes call for hydrating dried fruits before baking. I might do something like that for a more delicate baked good, like a cake. But muffins are more robust, and they can handle the more dense fruit. Of course, if your dried fruit has been sitting around for a while and it is too chewy, you can certainly opt to hydrate the fruit before baking.

These muffins were only tested at high altitude - if you're cooking at sea level, you might need an extra teaspoon of baking powder beyond what's provided from using self-rising flour. Up here (gasp, gasp) at about a mile high, these rose nicely, but didn't over-rise, which is always a worry. And the texture was perfect.

Blueberry, Cherry, and Oat Muffins

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) self-rising flour
1 pinch salt
1 cup dried blueberries and cherries (any combination you like)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup creme fraiche*
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a muffin pan (with 12 regular-sized muffins, not the giant ones) with baking spray. Or, if you prefer, line with cupcake papers.

Obliterate the oats in your food processor until you have a fine powder. It's fine if there are a few bits, but it should be mostly powder.

Combine the obliterated oats, self-rising flour, salt, and dried fruit in a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, creme fraiche, oil, and egg. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir until it's combined.

Portion the batter into the 12 muffin cups in the pan.

If the oven hasn't quite come up to temperature at this point, no worries. Just wait for it.

Bake at 375 degrees until the muffins are golden brown on top, they spring back when gently touched in the center, and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean - about 18-20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the muffins to a rack to cool.

*Home made creme fraiche is easy. Here's my method.

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Oatmeal Date Cookies

My husband called from the hospital on Thursday night. I didn't make the drive to visit him that day because I had a few things I needed to do to prepare for him coming home on Saturday.

"Are you busy?" he said.

I was thinking he was asking whether I had time to talk for a while. But no, he wasn't being chatty. He wanted me to make cookies to bring to the staff.

Duh! I should have thought of it!

Of course I should bring goodies to the staff.

Instead of creating a new cookie recipe (because, seriously, I couldn't risk a failure) I thought it was wiser to use a tested recipe. Or at least adapt one.

So I started thinking about what I had on hand. Flour, of course. I had chocolate chips, but I didn't think it was enough for a big batch of cookies. So what else... oatmeal! I knew I had plenty of oatmeal on hand. And I have plenty of dried fruit. I thought about adding cherries, but then changed my mind and went with dates.

I figured that a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies would be perfect. I'd just substitute the dates for the raisins.

I pulled out one of my trusty cookie books, 1001 Cookie Recipes by Gregg R. Gillespie. The great thing about this book is that no matter what type of cookie you're looking for, you'll probably find several versions. And there are photos of the cookies, so you can choose by that rather than reading ingredients and descriptions.

I wanted a bumpy oatmeal cookie. And - hey - I found one that actually called for dates. How weird is that? Of course, I changed a few things. Because that's how I am.

Oatmeal Date Cookies
Adapted from 1001 Cookie Recipes by Gregg R. Gillespie

1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon butter vanilla emulsion (or vanilla extract)
3 cups rolled oats
1 8-ounce package chopped dates

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Or, four cookie sheets, if you have them and you don't want to wait for the first cookie sheets to cool between batches.

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir well.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the shortening, brown sugar, and sugar. (You can also do this in a bowl with a hand mixer.)

Beat in the egg, then beat in the sour cream and vanilla emulsion or extract.

Gradually add the flour mixture, scraping down the bowl as needed. Stir in the oatmeal and dates (You can do this with the stand mixer on low speed. If you used a hand mixer, you'll probably need to stir in the oats and dates by hand.)

Using a tablespoon-sized scoop or a spoon, portion dough onto the cookie sheets, leaving room between them to spread.

Bake at 350 degrees for 14-18 minutes (depending on the size of the cookies) until they are lightly browned.

Let them cool for a minute on the cookie sheet, then move them to racks to cool. Bake the remaining cookies the same way.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

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Michigan Munchies

See this box of goodies?

It all started with Serious Eats. Then there was this Facebook group that spun off to talk about non-food things. We talk about all sorts of things, but we talk about food a lot, too. Funny how that works.

One thing that comes up a lot is local and regional foods. Things we have where we live, or things we miss from where we used to live. And then once in a while, someone would offer to send a much-missed product to someone else. Then people started talking about how fun it would be to trade random goodies with others in the group. Pretty soon we had a plan for swapping foodstuffs. Regional things. Home made things. Fun things. Quirky things. Favorite things.

This is what I received from the most recent swap. Pretty awesome array of items, including garlic dill potato chips, Michigan maple syrup, dried cherries, mustard, home made pickled green tomatoes and green beans ... a whole lot of great stuff!

I think it's a blast to try regional products from other places, and in fact, when we travel anywhere I like to scout out the grocery stores to see what I can find that's new and different. How about you? Do you stick to old favorites, or do you try to find new things?

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Oatmeal Apricot Cookies

I'm not a big fan of raisins. It's not a taste or texture thing - it's a ... raisin mental block. I've gotten to the point where I can eat them for politeness, but there's little chance I'm going to willingly add them to baked goods.

Fortunately, there are a LOT of other dried fruits that I do like. Most of them, actually. Unless they're in fruitcake, but that's a whole different thing.

When my friends at Mariani asked about recipes using dried apricots, the first thing I thought about was oatmeal apricot cookies. The apricots add a nice sweet-tart chewiness to the cookies. These are a little crisp on the edges with a caramelly crunchiness on the browned edges. The centers are chewy and moist.

This recipe makes about 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on how large you make them.

Oatmeal Apricot Cookies

1 stick butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried apricots

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper for easier cleanup.

Cut the apricots in a large dice - I ended up with 6-8 pieces per apricot, and the pieces were about the size of a chocolate chip.

Cream the butter and brown sugar together in a medium bowl. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until well-combined and smooth.

Add the flour and mix well. Stir in the oatmeal and apricots.

Use a small scoop or a spoon to portion the cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, leaving room for them to spread. (You might need a third pan, depending on how you arrange them.)

Bake at 375 until the cookies are browned at the edges and no longer look wet on top - about 12 minutes for smaller cookies 15 min for larger ones. About halfway through baking, turn the pans around front-to-back, and swap the upper pan for the lower one, for more even baking.

Let them cool a minute or two on the pans, then let them cool completely on a rack.

This post is sponsored by Mariani.

    

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Walnut-Apricot Bread

People often ask me how I come up with the unusual flavors in some of my breads. Sometimes I'm trying to create a particular flavor profile, and sometimes it's a matter of being creative with what I have on hand. In this case, someone had given me a bag of raw walnuts and seeing them on the kitchen counter got me thinking about ways to use them up.

Bread was the obvious answer, but what sort of bread? I wasn't in the mood for sweet, sticky, chunky, nutty rolls. When I thought about the flavor of walnuts, I decided they would add an interesting flavor component to a loaf of bread without overwhelming it. Since I didn't want obvious hunks of walnut, I decided to grind them to a paste.

Rather than adding sugar, I decided that a natural sweetness would be nice. I had Turkish apricots left over from something else, and the combination sounded appealing to me. I used exactly 14 dried apricots, because that's what I on hand had at the time. As with the walnuts, I decided that I wanted them incorporated into the dough as completely as possible, so they went into the food processor with the walnuts.

The resulting bread has a beautiful mahogany crust, and a subtle walnut flavor. It's not sweet at all; perfectly appropriate plain, with a little butter, or for a sandwich. I think it's particularly tasty with cream cheese, and it would make a great base for an appetizer with cream cheese and thin slices of cucumber.








Walnut-Apricot Bread

1 cup lukewarm water

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) yeast

2 1/2 cups bread flour, divided

1 cup raw walnuts

14 dried pitted apricots (I used Turkish)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, and one cup of the bread flour.

Put the walnuts, apricots and olive oil into your food processor, blender, or other capable device, and process it until it is a mostly smooth homogeneous mixture. This should make about a cup, but a little more or less is fine.

By the time the walnut mixture is smooth, the flour mixture should be bubbly.

To that, add the rest of the bread flour and the salt, and knead with the dough hook until it begins to come together.

Add the walnut mixture, including all the liquid that may be separating from the walnuts. Knead until the mixture has incorporated fully into the dough and it starts becoming smooth. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes before continuing.

After the rest, continue kneading with the dough hook until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic. Remove the bowl from the mixer, form the dough into a ball. It shouldn't be sticky at all at this point. Put the dough ball back into he mixer bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest until doubled in size, about an hour and a half.

Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Take the dough out of the bowl, knead it briefly, and form into a tight ball. Place it, seam-side down, on the baking sheet. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise until doubled, about 30-45 minutes.

When the dough has doubled, slash the top. Be decorative if you want, or just slash an "X" in the top or make parallel lines or a square - whatever you prefer.

To recreate the slashes I made, first make the large X in the top of the bread going almost to the base of the dough, then make short slashes in-between the long ones. Use small, sharp scissors to make tiny snips around the short slashes.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Check the dough after 15 minutes, and rotate the pan if it's rising or browning unevenly. If it seems to be browning too fast, turn the oven temperature down to 325.  

 

The crust will be a deep brown, and the bread should sound hollow when tapped.

This recipe also appeared on Serious Eats.

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