Oatmeal Raisin cookies

Spring is finally starting to show itself here. We played outside until our hands were too cold and we had to retreat back inside, Orions choice of snack lately has been cookies. I decided instead of denying him cookies yet again, we would bake some together. I found a great recipe  on Whole Grain Gourmet  and adapted it to suit our allergies and needs. It was already dairy free, so all I had to do was adapting it to be egg free. It is refined sugar free but does contain quite a bit of honey. Next time I make it I may experiment on cutting down the amount of honey.

Here is my version:
Original recipe here at Whole Grain Gourmet


Oatmeal Cookies (with Honey)

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour (a pinch more depending on the moisture of the mix)
1 1/2 cups of old fashioned rolled oats (quick cooking is ok too- do not use instant)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Epicure selections Gingerbread spice

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon full flavor molasses
1 flax egg (Mis 1 Tbsp ground flax with 3 tbp hot water, whisk and let sit until gooey)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup hemp hearts

1/4 cup chia seeds

Preparation:
In a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
Add the wet ingredients to seperate bowl and mix together.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 

Add the raisins, hemp hearts and seeds. 

Cool the mix for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven to 335 degrees
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Cookies will not spread.

Press down with a fork to ensure even cooking.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until golden on the bottom of the cookie. (10 minutes for soft and 12 for slightly crispy around the edges)

Cool on pan for 5 minutes, remove from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack. 

Dairy Free Pizza Pockets

Yesterday I made pizza (Daiya cheese is great for dairy free pizza ) for dinner. My 2 year old is not a fan of pizza crust he picks the toppings off and leaves the crust, I usually make him a thin crust pizza on a whole wheat tortilla (I will post the recipe once I get it perfect) I had a little dough left after making our pizzas so I experimented and made some toddler pizza pockets, they tasted great but needed a little work. My toddler loved his Pizza Pie pockets :) I always have lots of pizza toppings left over, so today I perfected the recipe. This makes a large amount, perfect for freezing so you always have something to pull out of the freezer for a quick bite. You could make this vegan by subbing out the honey for alternate sweetener, don't leave it out all together since the yeast needs something to eat. I didn't have enough Daiya cheese or nutritional yeast to put any in the filling but I'm sure it would be delicious. You can use any sort of filling you would like, the combinations are endless. I've listed some ideas for fillings at the end of the recipe. Enjoy!

Makes 22 snack size or 12 meal size
Filling:
1 400 ml can tomato sauce
1 tbsp Italian spice
dash of garlic powder
 5 1/4 cups your choice filling (I used 2 c diced pepperoni, 1 cup mixed left over pizza toppings, 1 chopped cup mushrooms, 1/ 14 cup chopped fresh spinach)


Dough:
5- 5/12 cups 100% whole wheat flour (The amount of flour depends on many things, the humidity of your house, the moisture level in the flour, the age of the flour, I think your altitude may effect this as well, even the day)
1 1/2tsp salt
3 tbsp local honey
2 cups 105F- 110F water
4 1/2 tsp traditional yeast
4 tbsp Olive oil

In a small non metallic bowl or measuring cup dissolve honey and yeast in water stir well, let it do its yeasty magic for 5 minutes (If after 5 minutes it is not nice and frothy, your yeast might not be active, or your water is too hot)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix salt and flour well (Reserve 1/2 cup flour), make a well in the middle of it and pour oil and water mixture in, stir by hand until moistened (You can also use the paddle attachment for this part, I have done both and prefer not having to pick bits and bits and pieces of dough off the paddle)

Knead with dough hook for 4 mins, if mixture is too wet and sticky add the extra half cup of flour. When it is done kneading it should be smooth looking but slightly tacky.

Let rise in a warm place until doubled. (1 hour for me but I live at a high altitude)

Prepare filling by mixing everything together in a bowl and sticking in the fridge while your dough rises.


Preheat oven to 420F

Roll out dough 1/4" (I do half at a time) make into 5" by 6" rectangles (For meal size pops), for snack size roll out 1/8th of an inch and cut into 4" by 4.25" rectangles

How I do the edges

Put a heaping 1/4 cup of filling ( for meal size) Use a scant 1/4 cup for snack size in the  bottom middle of each rectangle, fold over and seal edges by pulling bottom edge over top pressing and crimping  with a fork.

Poke holes in the top of each one (This is an ESSENTIAL step or you will have exploded messy burnt on pizza pockets)

Bake on parchment paper (it is worth it to use the parchment paper, they will ooze a bit and make a mess of your pans) at 420F for 15-20 minutes (meal size) 10-15 for snack size, I measure the internal temperature of  my pizza pops to gauge when they are done, they should read at least 165F, I like them to read about 170F

Ideas for different fillings:
Ham, Pineapple (Well drained crushed works great) and mushroom
Pepperoni, mushroom, peppers
Daiya mozzarella, spinach and black olives
Chicken, red onion, pineapple
Salsa ground beef, red onion, chedder Daiya or nutritional yeast

Crockpot Chipotle bacon baked beans

I really enjoy using my slow cooker for anything involving beans, for some reason if I cook them on the stove I always seem to burn them. I haven't ever tried cooking baked beans in the oven since I don't own a dutch oven. As always these are dairy free, egg free, soy free,  nut and sesame free. They also happen to be gluten free. My husband is in love with these beans, he says he will never go back to eating canned beans again :)

Chipotle Bacon baked beans

3cups dried white beans (I buy my beans at the market and they aren't labeled but I am almost certain that they are great northern beans)
2 cup bacon chopped fine (I used bacon ends that I buy by the case and sent it through my food grinder)
1 onion minced
5 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup black strap molasses
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 400 ml can of tomato sauce
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup palm sugar
1 tsp Chipotle chili powder



Soak beans in ample water and 1 tsp of baking soda overnight
In the morning boil beans with ample fresh water for 10 minutes
Drain and rinse
Put the rest of ingredients in crockpot  and mix well
Cook on high for 4-6 hours stirring periodically, until beans are cooked.
Serve with bread, biscuits or corn bread.

Delicious biscuits I made, I will post the recipe another day