Apple almond bread

October 24, 2017 by Rebecca Davis in Recipes, Toddler eats, Sweets

Use up a few of those abundant fall apples in this quick, easy loaf that you can make in one bowl!

Apple and almond might be one of my favorite combinations and luckily, M thinks so too. Because we’ve eaten a lot of these breads in the past few weeks. And I mean…a lot.

Why have I tested this recipe so much, you might ask? Well, I thought my first try was pretty darn close to perfect, but my husband thought it was too dry. I thought he was crazy, but his comment stuck in my craw. I tried this quick bread with more butter, more yogurt, more butter and yogurt, etc, but the end results, to me, never seemed as good as the original and it spoiled faster the wetter I made the batter.

If you like a wetter crumb, feel free to throw in another 1/4 cup of yogurt, but remember that you probably shave off a day from the life of your loaf. (Without the extra yogurt, you get about 4-5 days loosely wrapped at room temperature from this bad boy- not that you'll need it).

A couple of notes:

No need to toast the almonds in the topping because they'll toast while the bread cooks.
If you want the apples to disappear into the bread, chop them into tiny pieces. If you like to see and taste the apples more emphatically, leave them in 1/2-inch chunks. Larger chunks of apple make the bread a bit more crumbly, so choose whichever method better suits your tastes.

Also great about this bread? You only need one bowl for the base! (The topping uses another small bowl, but you could wipe out the large bowl and use it again to make the topping once you pour the batter into the loaf pan.)

Apple almond bread

Time: about 1 hour, mostly hands off
Yield: 8-10 slices

For the topping:
1 ½ Tbsp butter, melted
¼ cup sliced almonds (not toasted)
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
pinch of salt

For the bread:
2.5 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt (non-Greek)
¾ cup maple syrup
2 eggs
½ tsp almond extract
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup almond flour
2 heaping Tbsp flax seed meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3 cups diced apples (about 2 large apples, not peeled)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 or 10x5 loaf pan with olive oil and set aside.

Make the topping: In small bowl, melt the butter. Add the almonds, 3 Tbsp of whole wheat flour, sugar, and salt and mix well. Set aside.

In a large bowl, melt the rest of the butter and let cool slightly. (Or, melt the butter halfway and stir to melt the rest. This usually results in warm, not hot, butter.)

Add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk to incorporate .

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined and no streaks remain. Set aside.

Chop the apples and add to the batter. Stir a few times to combine, but don’t over mix.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Check the bread after about 30 minutes or if you start to smell the almond too strongly. Cover with foil if the topping browns too quickly and continue to bake until the tester comes out clean.

Chopped fresh fruit, a simple buttery cookie crumble that bakes quickly, and a honey-sweetened whipped cream result in a perfect summer crumble that is quick, fresh, and delicious. Me & The moose | DIY Stonefruit crumble #meandthemoose #crumble #peaches #nectarines #plums #fruit #summerbaking #dessert

DIY Stonefruit crumble

August 01, 2017 by Rebecca Davis in Recipes, Toddler eats, Sweets

The easiest, make-ahead, assemble-yourself dessert that celebrates summer produce and lets guests (or picky kids) customize it to their liking.

Take me to the recipe!

What's better than a summer crumble, amiright? It's the easiest dessert because you don't have to deal with a finicky pie crust or fish out any special kitchen gadgets (or even non-special ones like the mixer). However, the downside of a crumble is that it often requires 40-50 minutes in the oven, which means 40-50 minutes of heating up your house. No thanks!

This "crumble" lets the ripe seasonal fruit be the star— it's just chopped and mixed with a little lemon juice to prevent browning— while a quick bake of the crumble topping adds crunch and a fresh honey whipped cream adds a little decadence. And ALL of this is toddler approved, especially the part where you get to DIY the toppings.

The crumble topping was a bit of an experiment. I started with a recipe from King Arthur Flour. Initially, I used all coconut sugar and tried to sub in coconut oil for the butter, but it burned almost every time and tasted burned even when it wasn't quite baked yet. Gross. The proportions I landed on are buttery and caramel-y and form a crispy cookie that’s easy to break once it cools. But, if you don’t have coconut sugar, using all brown sugar works well too!

DIY stone fruit crumble

3.5-4 lbs mixed stone fruit (I used 6 peaches, 6 plums, 5 nectarines, and 6 apricots)
1 large lemon or 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Chop the fruit (leave the skins on) and cover with lemon juice to prevent browning. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

For the crumble:
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

½ cup melted butter
½ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, loosely packed (or, use 3/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar if you don’t have coconut sugar)
¾ cup whole wheat or AP flour
½ cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300.

Melt the butter in a large bowl. Add the dry crumble ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Spread onto a baking sheet in a thin, even layer.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, checking every 5 minutes to prevent burning.

Let cool for about 30 minutes or until the cookie can be easily snapped into pieces.

Yield: 3.5 cups crumble

For the honey whipped cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Whip the cream until soft peaks form, about 5-6 minutes. Add the honey, vanilla, and salt and whip for 3-4 more minutes, until the cream has reached your desired consistency. Don’t overmix or the cream will turn into butter.

Yield: 3 cups

Serves: 6-8

Banana bread doughnuts

June 24, 2017 by Rebecca Davis in Parenting, Recipes, Toddler eats, refined sugar free, Sweets

These banana bread doughnuts are the best way to use up old, overripe bananas, cook faster than regular banana bread, and are a perfect bite-sized treat for breakfast or a snack.

Take me to the doughnuts!

I've been thinking a lot about feelings lately as M, in typical toddler fashion, has all of the feelings, all of the time. Well, not all of the time. But while it makes life harder for me when he has A DAY, I want him to know that feelings are fine and that "managing" them doesn't mean suppressing them. That reminder is for me more than him because he wants to fly his feelings flag high. Unfortunately, my first instinct is to talk him out of it in an effort to make him "feel better," but which is probably more like "feel nothing negative."

I've read a few articles lately about parenting boys like this one, which was a good reminder of things I already think about and do (and wrote about here). Most writings about raising feminist sons (or just sons who aren't jerks) mention encouraging their emotional vocabulary, but don't give a lot of specific data or instructions. However, this article gives both and made me think about how I talk with M about everything, not just his feelings.

Since reading this article, I've tried to be more curious with M, particularly when we're cooking together. He takes his little step stool and stands next to me at our (tiny) counter. I give him jobs and we make a huge mess and in the mean time, I have the opportunity to ask him a million questions about what he's doing, choices he's making, and what he feels while we work on this whole project. Baking is also a great way to teach patience because we can't eat the finished product right away.

M made (and tasted) every batch of these banana bread donuts with me. He loved them all, but I liked my final batch with a little more coconut sugar and a second egg, the best. This is truly a one bowl recipe: We mixed the wet ingredients first and added the dry ingredients directly to the wet batter and they've turned out really well each time (with minimal dish doing at the end). This recipe could easily be made as mini muffins, regular muffins, or a loaf of banana bread. But I quite like them as doughnuts because they bake very evenly and very quickly.

Banana bread donuts

Time: 20-25 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 10-12 doughnuts, depending on how much you fill the tins

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

3 medium bananas, smashed
¾ cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup full fat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats
2 Tbsp flax seed meal
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375.

In a large bowl, smash the bananas. Add the coconut sugar, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined and no dry flour can be seen.

Spoon the batter into greased doughnut pan and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pushed. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to let cool completely.