Soft & Chewy Ginger Sticks

Hands down the most requested recipe of mine!! Jay is my number one fan when it comes to these guys. When we were first married I would sometimes surprise him and bake them in the middle of the summer...he LOVED that! This past year we held off and waited until the Christmas season...and for one very valid reason. Jay and I did a 'homemade Christmas' last year...I highly recommend it....it was his idea actually! My brilliant gift to him was 365 Soft & Chewy Ginger Sticks!!! One for every day of the year!! Won wife of the year for that gift...only problem was that they were gone after about 6 weeks!! I will vouch for him and say that he did share some of them:)

So here it is...a very simple, one bowl, cookie recipe...gotta love that!! Always a hit...I even had a friend who despises molasses give them a try and she was left speechless!

These are very pretty sprinkled with a little light sugar right before baking..and even with a little crystallized ginger and white chocolate drizzle too! In the Wiebe house we prefer them plain...who's kidding who...they don't last long enough to cool and drizzle!!

Today marked the first double-batch of the season...we're heading to Calgary tomorrow to celebrate an early Christmas with the Wiebe's!...thought they'd make for a nice Christmas treat to share...and I'll be sure to pack a separate little container for Jay to enjoy in the truck while driving!

Soft & Chewy Ginger Sticks

1/2 cup raw cane sugar...or sugar of choice
1/2 cup olive or coconut oil (coconut is much better)
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon almond milk
1 egg
2 cups flour (I use whole wheat or spelt)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
4 teaspoon sugar (for garnishing on top)

1. Heat oven to 375 F. In large bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar, the oil,
molasses, milk and egg with spoon. Stir in remaining ingredients
except 4 teaspoon sugar.



2. Divide dough. On ungreased cookie sheet, I use parchment to keep my pans clean, lightly spread out dough like photo shows. Score tops with fork.



3. Bake for 8 minutes or until edges are light brown and tops
appear cracked; cool 5 minutes. Cut each strip crosswise into 1 inch
slices.

4. Let cool for a few more minutes before removing from pan.

Do not let them over bake, unless you prefer a more crispy ginger stick!

For those of you now wondering what Jay made me for our homemade Christmas...he bought a beautiful apothecary jar and filled it with homemade body scrub...epsom salts mixed with coconut oil...still working my way through it and loving it! Looks beautiful beside my sink in the bathroom! A great gift idea for anyone:)

Starbucks "Christmas" Gingerbread Loaf

Alright...no photo yet of this one since it gets gobbled up WAY too quickly! However, I can guarantee that the majority of you know exactly what loaf I am talking about that Starbucks carries this glorious time of year! It's amazing. I tweaked with this recipe last Christmas season when the loaf was reintroduced to me through Starbucks.

I knew that I could not fully enjoy their version of it for two reasons. One, I had my baby weight from Levi to deal with. Two, I knew theirs had zero nutritional value in it!

It's wonderful and amazing, with tea or coffee or steamed milk...and makes a wonderful hostess gift (especially when topped with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting and chunks of candied ginger!)

This is one of those Christmas recipes that I limit myself to making only during November and December to keep it special...it's that good!

Starbucks "Christmas" Gingerbread Loaf

1 1/2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour
2 tsps ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsps ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, or coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup maple syrup or agave
1 cup applesauce
1 tsp baking soda

FROSTING (OPTIONAL)
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt.
Then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and syrup until fluffy.

Mix baking soda into applesauce and stir into creamed butter mixture.
Add flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until a
toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

FROSTING:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Slowly beat in confectioner’s sugar.

Once the cake has cooled, evenly spread the frosting on top. Decorate with chopped candied orange peel or candied ginger .

Fun Shaped Graham Cracker Cookies!

Okay...so this new healthy recipe was supposed to be a lovely addition to Levi's Giraffe Themed FIRST Birthday Party we hosted on Sunday...but..the whole idea of a giraffe cookie cutter just isn't a good thing I realized very quickly! WAY too long of a neck and too skinny of a tail! After about half a dozen, I gave up! Still needed to use up this wonderful dough that I had made...so I grabbed my TWO boxes of cookie cutters (used to teach Kindergarten...kinda goes with the trade!)..and told Noah to pick out his favourites...and that he did! It was a fun event for both of us! The picture isn't too wonderful, but the cookies taste great...were pretty simple to make, and are now a fun and healthy homemade snack for Noah to look forward to! He loves choosing between trains, airplanes, buses, circles, hands or cars to eat!

Graham Cracker Cookies

2 1/2 Cups Spelt Flour
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Cane Sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Butter, chilled & cubed (sub in Coconut Oil and these are vegan)
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor or mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
3. Add cubed butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
5. Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk
6. Roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or shapes.
7. Bake for 12 minutes.
8. Cool and serve

These would freeze really well too!

Fluffy Spiced Pancakes

It seems like we've eaten A LOT in our house this past week based on how far behind I am on posting recipes!! So here we go...let's see how many I can get up during the boys' nap time!



Jay treated us to these on Friday morning! (Sorry for the blurry picture!) He taught Noah at a very young age how to say "pancakes, mommy?" in the morning...sounds more like "pass-icks"...which we think is super cute and results in us making them for him everytime! This time Jay took his turn in the kitchen though...gotta love that!

Stumbled upon this recipe in the complimentary magazine that you get at the register in the liqour store...and then made a few healthy changes:)

Great for a fall morning...and extra great with some Almond or Peanut Butter on top and real Maple Syrup! That's how we eat them at our house! Sometimes a sliced banana too! While eating these I thought that some Apple Butter would also taste yummy smeared on top!

Fluffy Spiced Pancakes

3 large eggs, separated
1 3/4 cup almond milk...or milk of choice
1 Tbsp coconut oil..or butter
2 tsp molasses
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Whip the egg whites in a bowl with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. In another bowl combine egg yolks, milk, butter and molasses. Beat until blended. Add remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites. Batter is ready to go!

These would make a great Thanksgiving morning breakfast:) ENJOY!

Blackberry Yogurt Muffins

Surprisingly we still found Blackberries this past weekend at the Farmer's Market! I should add VERY RIPE Blackberries...so we knew that we needed to do something with them asap, other than freezing them that is. Skimming through my new favourite cookbook, SLICE, I stumbled upon Raspberry Yogurt Muffins...made a few changes (other that the obvious, blackberries for raspberries that is!)..and came out with these!!

Levi got first dibs on the fresh berries...too cute to resist!



A little measuring and mixing gave us this tempting 'before' shot...



And approximately 20 minutes later...this yummy result!



Easy...incredibly moist...healthy...and fun:)
ENJOY!

Blackberry Yogurt Muffins

1 1/2 cups spelt or barley flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup plain yogurt (get your hands on some coconut milk yogurt and these become vegan)
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup blackberries, cut in half, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pan. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Puree together wet ingredients. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Gently fold in blackberries. Divide into muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an insert toothpick comes out clean. Makes one dozen muffins.

Pumpkin Scones...Starbucks Style!

Here's a taste of what I whipped up at breakfast today for our houseguests! My sister-in-law Jen and her two boys are staying with us...and we thought this would be a nice treat for a 'cool' fall morning breakfast. The funny part is that I actually got this recipe from Jen last fall after a conversation about the temptation of Fall treats at Starbucks! Is it wrong to feed a houseguest her own recipe??! Hmm..I don't think she minded!! Oh..and the boys gobbled them right up too!

Pumpkin Scones

2 1/4 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup maple syrup, agave, honey (or something sweet of your choice!)
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup almond milk
2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup coconut oil

Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Combine mixtures. Pour out into pan...it will look a bit runny...that's okay! Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Take out and cut into shape of your choice! Great with a little maple syrup or jam drizzled on top!

*The original recipe had buttermilk rather than almond milk...and butter rather than coconut oil. Go ahead and use any combination...the way I posted the recipe makes it vegan friendly though:)

ENJOY!

The New Favourite Cookie! Oatmeal PB Chocolate Chunk

sorry...I know I said I would post summer recipes...but these are just too good not to share! I'll try adding a picture one day...the cookies don't last long enough around here to get a chance to pull the camera out!

Oatmeal PB Chocolate Chunk Cookies (sooooo chewy!)

2 cups quick cooking oats
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter (I think coconut oil would work too!)
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
2 large free range eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips/chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl combine oats, flour and baking soda.
In a separate bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Beat in agave. Mix in peanut butter, eggs and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients until combined. Fold in chocolate.
Roll dough into golf ball sized balls, flatten slightly with hand or fork.
Bake for 8 minutes. Let set for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.
Makes 2 dozen!