Tag: recipes

Banana-Oat Pancakes (Gluten-free, Dairy-free)

Growing up, summer Sunday mornings meant my Grandpa was making dozens of pancakes from Bisquick and old milk for his grandchildren. He’d take special requests for blueberry pancakes, or for pancakes shaped like letters, or for simply more – there are pancake eating records next to various water sport records in the family record book. But as much as we love Bisquick, sometimes we crave something marginally healthier or that we can eat with friends who have dietary restrictions. And thus, sometimes we make banana-oat pancakes.

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Lemon-Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Summer cottage woes: when we call Grammie and ask if there’s baking powder, no one thinks to check the best-by date. The can is probably five years old, since it was best by four years ago, and definitely has a very weak fizz when plopped into a cup of hot water. So our muffins didn’t really rise, but they taste fabulous – and it’s all about the process.

Baking powder is now on the shopping list, though, because I want today’s cookies to rise.

Belle and I spent most of this recipe debating whether anything with lemon was too sour – even if it was well mixed with sugar. She was willing to taste-test until the lemon juice got added to the batter; thereafter there was no convincing her that it wasn’t too sour to eat. (Buddy, on the other hand, happily licked any spoon sent his way.) I’ll admit it is frustrating to have a daughter who couldn’t care less about one of my favorite flavors. However, this debate did lead to a great discussion of what flavors we can taste on our tongues: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami/savory. We didn’t do any real experimenting with the flavors, but the following ingredients could explain them: sugar, lemon juice, salt, and baking soda – no umami-rich ingredients, alas.
Squeezing lemons

Here we learn that a juicer would help little hands with hangnails avoid stinging citric acid – but we stick to our plan of Belle squeezing out the easy part and Mama finishing the harder part.

Fine motor skills and patience were our other big targets. Grating lemon zest is a long process for little hands, but we practiced some sequencing and if-then-else statements: grate, check for yellow or white, if yellow, keep grating, if white or unclear, turn the lemon and start again.Zesting

Coordinating pressure in the left hand for stability and firm motion in the right hand to zest is complicated, so I add some stability.

Belle quickly got tired of the task, so I finished it for her. It still takes a while, so we kept her occupied separating out 24 cupcake liners and practicing counting, starting over every time we skipped 6. It requires using pincer grasp, though with a rubbing motion instead of a release.
A very thick batter

See how stiff the batter is?

After all the mixing and scooping, Belle spotted some sprinkles. We don’t hold on formality over here, so half our muffins got rainbow sprinkles!Sprinkling onto muffins

Baking in footie pajamas is basically #goals.

Skills worked on:

  • Balancing sweet and sour
  • Balancing textures (dry vs moist)
  • Flavor vocabulary
  • Counting
  • Hand strength
  • Fine motor (mixing, scooping)
  • Patience
  • Food prep!

Equipment:

  • 1 large mixing bowl (dry ingredients)
  • 1 small mixing bowl (wet ingredients, then crumble)
  • 2-3 small bowls (cracking eggs, collecting zest, reserving lemon juice)
  • Whisk or fork
  • Spatula
  • Measuring cups and spoons
  • Two spoons/scoop and spatula (dropping batter into muffin tins)
  • Muffin cup liners (or blueberries will stick to pan)
  • 2 regular muffin pans
  • Zester/grater
Muffins before baking

This recipe comes from Saving Room for Dessert and didn’t require much adaption, though we skipped the glaze because it is sweet enough and takes long enough without. Because, as always, baking with toddlers takes three times as long.

The batter is very thick to help suspend the blueberries while baking – err on the side of slightly more liquid and slightly less dry ingredients when your toddler measures imperfectly.

If you use frozen blueberries, we recommend thawing, draining, salad spinning, and/or patting dry – the extra moisture will make the muffin fall apart around the fruit.

While the original recipe called for 18 muffins, we stretched it to 24 muffins. They are a little shorter than the original, which makes for better toddler serving sizes, but the muffin batter and topping divides without issue.

Recipe (60 min prep, 18 min bake, yield: 18-24 muffins):

Muffin:

  • 2 lemons, zested and juiced (1 tbsp zest and 1/4 c juice for muffin; remainder reserved)
  • 1 stick (1/2 c) butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 c sour cream
  • 2 1/2 c flour
  • 3/4 c sugar
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 c blueberries (fresh)

Crumble Topping:

  • Reserved lemon: 1 tbsp zest (or more), 1 tbsp juice (not more)
  • 1/2 stick (4 tbsp or 1/4 c) butter, melted
  • 3/4 c flour
  • 1/3 c sugar
  1. Zest 2 lemons and squeeze for juicing (aim for a little over 1/4 c). Set aside 1 tbsp juice for crumble topping.
  2. Melt 1/2 c (1 stick) butter in a small mixing bowl; let cool.
  3. Add to melted butter: 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp zest, 1/4 c lemon juice, 2 eggs. Whisk.
  4. Fold in 1 c sour cream. Set aside.
  5. In large mixing bowl, combine: 2 1/2 c flour, 3/4 c sugar, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt. Form a well and scrape in the lemon/sour cream mixture.
  6. Mix batter gently until ingredients are moistened.
  7. Fold in 1 1/2 c blueberries.
  8. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  9. Line 18-24 muffin cups. Use two spoons or an ice cream scoop to fill the cups. Let sit 15 min to settle into the cups – the thick batter needs to spread.
  10. Make the crumble topping: melt 1/4 c butter in a small bowl. Add 3/4 c flour, 1/3 c sugar, remaining zest, and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Mix thoroughly into unevenly sized crumbs.
  11. Use forks or fingers to spread crumbs over top of all the muffins.
  12. Bake 18 min in 400°F oven or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or crumbly. Remove pans from oven and let cool for 5 min in pan then on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container at room temp for up to 3 days, or refrigerate for a week.

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Apple Cider Doughnuts

It’s fall and we happen to be near one of the world’s best steam-powered cider mills (so says Alton Brown), so we get a lot of cider slushies and a lot of cider doughnuts. At some point I start to think we should just make our own.

Pouring cider
Don’t spill don’t spill don’t spill…

Belle is a fan of these doughnuts and a fan of cider and a fan of baking, and I went into this recipe without much of a plan, except to allow her to work more on her pouring skills. Pouring combines gross motor strength, especially with a gallon of cider, with fine motor precision – both in targeting a tiny teaspoon and in slowing down to avoid spilling over. A funnel can be useful when trying to hit narrow targets, though it doesn’t help much with small amounts since there’s some lag time before you get the visual feedback.

Scraping the bowl
Scraping the bowl remains a real challenge for Belle.

Just as an FYI, the recipe still works with approximately four times as much vanilla. We might start pouring vanilla over a smaller bowl so we can recover the excess, though.

Greasing the doughnut pan
Belle has a tendency to swipe over the top and not into the crevices – we need to keep practicing that 3D greasing.

Belle also has gained a lot of independence controlling the mixer – she has developed an eye and ear for when the stand mixer is too fast or slow and when it is done. She catches herself and places her hands on the safe spot unprompted, though we haven’t talked about the safe spot in months, so I don’t watch her as carefully when she reaches around the mixer to hand me other ingredients.

Apple cider doughnuts, ready for the oven

Skills worked on:

  • pouring
  • food prep!

Equipment needed:

  • saucepan
  • mixer and mixing bowl
  • measuring cups and spoons
  • spatula
  • extra bowls (cracking eggs, pouring vanilla)
  • doughnut pan – this is ours, but you can use a standard muffin pan if you don’t have one
  • two spoons for spooning batter into pan

Fresh baked apple cider doughnutsThis recipe is adapted from Yankee Magazine. We don’t love the topping and like a deeper flavor, so we subbed in brown sugar. Add 1-3 min to the bake time if opting for standard-sized muffins.

Recipe (45 min prep, 15 min bake per pan, yield: about 21 2.5″ donuts):

  • 2 c apple cider, reduced to 1 c
  • 1/2 c (1 stick) butter, plus 1/4 c for topping
  • 3/4 c brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/4 c flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  1. Boil 2 c apple cider in a saucepan until it is reduced to 1 c, about 30 min. If you happen to have extra cider, 3 c will reduce to 1 cup with another 15 min and add extra flavor, but it’s not necessary. Let cool a bit once reduced – warm but not boiling is fine. No need to be too precise about the reduction as long as you end up with 1 c liquid added to the mixing bowl.
  2. Grease a doughnut pan for baking and preheat oven to 375°F.
  3. Cream together 1/2 c butter and 3/4 c brown sugar until fluffy.
  4. Add 2 eggs and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and mix in.
  5. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl (or a cup measure): 2 1/4 c flour, 1 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt.
  6. Mixing well after each, add 1/3 of flour mixture, then 1/2 of cider, 1/3 of flour mixture, 1/2 of cider, and final 1/3 of flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
  7. Spoon batter into the doughnut cavities, filling about 3/4 full. Bake 14-15 min, then let cool on a wire rack.
  8. Optionally, melt 1/4 c butter in a bowl and dip cooled doughnuts in it.

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Ladybug Cake

Sometimes I bake for Belle, not with her. And recently, it was to celebrate Jailbreak Day.

You see, Belle spent 102 days in the NICU after she was born 14 weeks early. They said she’d likely come home around her due date, but she was doing so well on so many measures that we not-so-secretly hoped she’d come home earlier. Alas, she just couldn’t get the hang of eating, and so the nurses kept giving her milk through a tube, and so the doctors kept delaying her discharge. We felt like our baby was in jail.

When she finally came out, we called it Jailbreak Day, and swore to celebrate it every year as the anniversary of when life together really started.

This year, Belle really really wanted a ladybug cake, and I really really didn’t want a pile of icing. So, I needed the cake itself to resemble a lady bug. The first (only?) red cake I could think of was red velvet, and chocolate was dark enough to sub for black!

In my head, this required 1 9″ red velvet cake and 1 9″ chocolate cake: I would cut the red velvet in half and splay it a bit to form wings, cut a wedge of chocolate to fill the gap, carve a semicircle (maybe a crescent) as the head, and then get some shotglass-sized spots of chocolate to fill some shotglass-sized holes in the wings. The challenge would be finding recipes with similar texture and keeping the glossy sides up.

The other challenge would be completing this during naptime.

Skills worked on:

  • Surprising Belle!
  • Cake design

Equipment needed:

  • 2 9″ cake pans
  • 2 mixing bowls
  • Mixer
  • Parchment paper
  • Cooling racks
  • Mixing cups and spoons

Recipes:

Red Velvet Cake (15 min prep, 30 min bake, yield: 1 9″ cake)

My go-to red velvet cake is from Cake Central. I’ve sometimes tried to skimp on the red dye; the outside turns brown. Since I never have buttermilk, I’ve adapted it, and since I’m not doing a layer cake, I’ve halved it. Double the prep time with a toddler assistant.

  • 1/2 c milk
  • 1/2 tsp white vinegar
  • 1/2 c (1 stick) butter
  • 3/4 c sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 oz (1 tbsp) red food coloring
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/4 c flour
  • 4 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • A heaping 1/2 tsp baking soda
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease pan and line with parchment.
  2. Mix together 1/2 c milk and 1/2 tsp white vinegar. Set aside.
  3. Beat together 1/2 c butter and 3/4 c sugar until fluffy. Add 1 egg and beat in, then 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tbsp red food coloring.
  4. Mix together 1 1/4 c flour, 4 1/2 tsp cocoa powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and a heaping 1/2 tsp baking soda.
  5. Beating together each time, add half of flour mixture to mixing bowl, then half of milk mixture, the remainder of the flour, then the remainder of the milk.
  6. Pour batter into pan and bake 28-35 min. The top of the cake should be glossy and springy. Let cool in pan for 10 min, then turn out onto a cooling rack until completely cool, about 40 min.

Chocolate Cake (15 min prep, 35 min bake, yield: 1 9″ cake):

This recipe also had to be adapted from a layer cake by the Stay at Home Chef to fit the bill. There will be a little extra batter – making either a taller cake than you want or potential for cupcakes.

  • 1 c flour
  • 1 c sugar
  • 1/2 c cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 c milk
  • 1/2 tsp white vinegar
  • 1/2 c warm water
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9″ pan and line with parchment.
  2. Mix in a cup or bowl 1/2 c milk and 1/2 tsp white vinegar. Set aside.
  3. Mix together 1 c flour, 1 c sugar, 1/2 c cocoa, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt in large mixing bowl.
  4. Add milk mixture, 2 eggs, 1/2 c warm water, 2 tbsp oil, and 1 tsp vanilla, and beat until smooth.
  5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 min until top is glossy and springy.
  6. Cool on wire rack in pan for 15 min then turn out onto rack to cool completely, about 30 min.

Assembly (15-20 min):

Using a bread knife on cool cakes, slice the chocolate cake so it is the same height as the red velvet cake. Now, get creative.

While you could use icing to assist in gluing the pieces together, I chose to wing it and just place the pieces together on uncoated cardboard, so they would not slide around. I opted for an Amazon box (it was handy), then created a few leaves out of zucchini for the lady bug to munch and a parchment sheet taped on top (don’t use scotch tape – it won’t stick to the parchment) with some holes punched in it so the lady bug could “breathe.”

Excess cake can be frozen for later transformation into cakepops!

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Vegan Gluten-Free Zucchini Muffins

Summer’s bounty comes in the form of many, many, MANY zucchini. In our friend’s garden. Miss T is an outstanding gardener, with a degree in plants, drip irrigation systems, and an intuitive sense of color and scale that we can appreciate but not duplicate. Fortunately for us, she gives away vegetables when they become too much.

Zucchini bounty
This was after we made zucchini au gratin, stuffed zucchini, and zucchini pancakes…thanks Miss T!

Belle and I are working on showing appreciation through actions, so we grabbed our recipe book and started thinking of ways to give back to Miss T. Alas, her family has a combination of allergies and sensitivities (dairy, gluten, egg, and peanut) that makes vegan recipes safest. So, Belle and I discussed why we had to use special flour for Miss T’s zucchini muffins:

“That flour makes Miss T sick, but this special flour doesn’t!”

“Why does it make her sick?”

“Because there’s something in it that her body doesn’t like. It’s okay, as long as we are very careful not to give her our flour, but instead use Miss T’s special flour! Should we mix in our normal flour?”

“No! Because Miss T might get sick!”

Kitchen set up
Mise en place for the recipe – including flax eggs in the bottom right bowl, melted coconut oil in a center bowl, plenty of ingredients in the top left (with excess tomatoes), and a written recipe blocking the flour we don’t want to use.

Cool, she gets it. In our house, we just frame allergies as something that we accommodate because it’s nice to share and it’s nice to keep people healthy when we do. Good friends help friends stay healthy. (Note that we also use this logic for pandemic masks!)

This recipe has a lot of places where we repeat the same size measuring cup/spoon four times, which I took as an opportunity to do a little early math. If we need 4 teaspoons of ground flax, then let’s count how many scoops we’ve done, and how many are left.

Counting on fingers 4+0
Four scoops left…zero hands left.

“We haven’t done any teaspoons, and we have four to go, for four teaspoons.”

“We have done one teaspoon, and we have three to go, for four teaspoons.”

“We have done two teaspoons, and we have two to go, for four teaspoons,” etc.

Counting on fingers 3+1
We used the same technique the next day while baking bread.

I broke the 2 cups of flour up into half-cup measures so we could do the same process to reinforce the concept. It’s basic math facts (1+3=4, 2+2=4, 3+1=4, 4+0=4) but also the transitive property (if 1+3=4 and 2+2=4, then 1+3=2+2) and just a general reinforcement of number sense. Where I might use math manipulates on a table to show the relationship, here I’m asking Belle to hold these concepts in her head and reference my fingers as we count.

Belle lost interest shortly after, so she went off to draw something while I wrapped up the recipe. Timing is an estimate based on how long it would take with start-to-finish participation.

Batter before baking
The batter should still be loose and sticky when you add the zucchini and optional chocolate.

Skills worked on:

  • Early math: number sense, transitive property, math facts
  • Character formation: appreciation, consideration
  • Allergy awareness
  • Fine motor: pouring
  • Food prep

Equipment needed:

  • two small bowls (coconut oil, flax eggs)
  • two large mixing bowls (wet, dry)
  • mixer
  • measuring spoons and cups
  • spatula and spoon
  • muffin tin

Fresh baked muffins
Get some domed muffin tops by sacrificing a few muffins and filling the cups to full depth!

Recipe (35 min prep, 25 min bake, yield: 12 standard muffins)

This recipe is adapted from Beaming Baker, and is egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, gluten-free, and vegan. We used Namaste gluten-free flour, but it should work with any flour marked gluten-free, including oat flour as in the original recipe. This recipe is written to minimize dishwashing, so it may feel out of order to experienced bakers. Overmixing is very easy if you do as I usually do (which is ignore recommendations to combine dry ingredients early) and will result in a flat and underbaked muffin.

  • 4 1/2 tsp ground flaxseed
  • 1/4 c plus 1 1/2 tsp warm water
  • 1/4 c plus 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 1/4 c maple syrup
  • 1/4 c brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 c gluten-free flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/4 c grated zucchini (a zucchini around 8″ long should be enough)
  • 3/4 c chocolate chunks, optional
  1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease or line a 12 cup muffin pan.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together 4 1/2 tsp ground flaxseed with 1/4 c plus 1 1/2 tsp water to create 1 1/2 flax eggs. Set aside.
  3. Grate zucchini using a box grater or a small food processor. A quarter cup more or less of grated zucchini will not break the recipe.
  4. Add 1/4 c brown sugar to a mixing bowl (the stand mixer if you use one).
  5. Add 1/4 c plus 2 tbsp coconut oil to a small bowl and microwave until clear (about 45-60 seconds). Set aside.
  6. In a large bowl (separate from the mixer), combine 2 c gluten-free flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.
  7. Add coconut oil to the sugar bowl, then add 1/4 c maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla, and the flax eggs. Mix on medium using standard beaters until well combined.
  8. Add dry ingredients, mixing until mostly moistened, then add 1 1/4 c grated zucchini and optional 3/4 c chocolate chunks til fully moistened (no more than 20 seconds). Scrape down bowl and work any remaining dry ingredients into the mixture using a spatula.
  9. Spoon into muffin tins – the batter should be thick and the spoon can be used to help fill the cup to the edges.
  10. Bake for 25-30 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack in the pan about 20 min, then remove muffins from pan to continue to cool, about half an hour.

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