Fall Foods

 Doesn't Fall make you think of certain foods? I know the same is true with other seasons, but I think there is something about the cooler weather that bring certain foods to mind...like apples! And pumpkins!

I've jumped on the applesauce making bandwagon that is all over the blogosphere! I got some 69 cent apples last week (seconds from a U-pick farm) and used about 3 pounds worth to make homemade applesauce. I cored and peeled 6 apples, then put them in my crockpot with some water. I didn't add any cinnamon or brown sugar, but you could certainly add either!

I let it simmer away for most of the day until the apples were soft and mashable. I just used my potato masher on the slices but didn't smooth it out entirely for a nice chunky texture. MMmmmm! So good!

Homemade applesauce is head and shoulders better than the store-bought stuff for sure. But don't expect it to save any money. Even with my 69 cent apples I only just broke even, but adding in the prep time homemade applesauce is a bit more expensive. This stuff is so good that I'm planning to make some more with the rest of my 69 cent apples, but I'll be buying applesauce from the store most of the time I'm sure!

I already posted several of our favorite pumpkin recipes last week. Over the weekend I made a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies...

This has been one of our favorite fall treats the last few years. I got the recipe from a friend and so I'm unsure of the original source. The texture is cake-like and the spices and chocolate go so well together.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. 100% pumpkin
2 1/2 c. All-purpose flour
1 t. Baking soda
1 t. Baking powder
1 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Nutmeg
1/2 t. Salt
1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 egg
1 t. Vanilla extract
2 c. Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Beat softened butter and sugar in mixing bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Mix in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheets.

Bake 14-16 minutes until edges just turn brown and center is firm.

Individual sized homemade yogurt

Do you ever get one of the moments where the light bulb just switches on suddenly?

I've been making yogurt in quart sized mason jars for several years, and I really do love my homemade yogurt. But there is something about pulling an individual container of store-bought yogurt out of the fridge that almost always seems more desirable. Lately I've been really thinking about why I tend to prefer the store yogurt.

I think it comes down to the ease of being able to grab a portion of yogurt and simply go...without having to spoon out a portion into a bowl, often making a mess when I'm in a hurry. When I say it out loud, it sounds lazy - I can't even scoop yogurt? But then the light bulb went on - I could make my own individual yogurt containers!

This week when I made my yogurt I used three different size glass jars: quart, pint, and half pint.

It was so easy! I poured the yogurt from my large stock pot into a pitcher to cool. Once it was the right temperature I just poured the yogurt into my little containers, screwed on the lids, and put them in the cooler to incubate. Piece of cake!

These little guys are so irresistible! I took one to the mall with our lunch yesterday. If you are in to making yogurt at home, give this a try. I drizzled some homemade chocolate syrup on the top of one for a snack one evening...yum!

Have you ever made individual yogurt?

Homemade Bagel Twists (Dunkin Donuts style)

I've really been addicted to the new bagel twists from Dunkin Donuts the last few weeks. Its a good thing I've had a gift card, because this cheddar one keeps calling my name!

(Image from Dunkin Donuts)

I've made homemade bagels a number of times, and I even experimented with homemade pizza bagel bites, so I thought I would do a little more experimenting. I followed the same bagel recipe from John Lee as I did in the past, but this time I mixed cheddar cheese in just before taking the dough out of the mixing bowl. I probably only used 1/2-3/4 cup of cheddar, but you can certainly use more.

I kneaded the dough until smooth and shaped into bagels

I really wanted to try making bagel twists too. So I used 2 sections laid next to each other and wrapped them together.

I pinched the ends together and tucked them under so they would hold.

After resting for 20 minutes, they were nice and puffy and ready to boil!

I also added a little bit of cheddar cheese to the tops of the bagels before putting them into the oven.

And I'm so glad I did because they came out perfect! These taste so much like what I was craving at DD, but I'm sure they're healthier and they are way way cheaper!

Next time I will probably only use one section of dough to make each bagel twist, and just roll the dough out longer, bend it in half, and wrap it around itself. I'll be able to make more twists this way and they won't be quite as large. I actually put the twists back in the oven for 4 more minutes to make sure they were done. It also gave the cheese a bit darker coloring, which I like.

Here is the full recipe for homemade bagels (for my step by step tutorial with pictures click here):

4 cups bread flour

1 Tbls sugar

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 Tbls vegetable oil

2 tsps instant yeast

1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water

1. Mix all ingredients together (I used my Kitchen Aid)

2. Turn out onto lightly floured surface, then knead until smooth

3. Divide dough into 8 pieces and roll into balls. Let rest on the counter for 10 minutes

4. Roll each ball into a snake just longer than both hands placed side by side

5. Take one of the snakes and wrap it around your palm so that both ends meet. Use the counter and a rolling motion to fuse the two ends together and form a circle. Or use a twisting method to create bagel twists

6. Let the bagels rest on the counter for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil and preheat the oven to 425 F

7. Once they have rested for 20 minutes, boil for 1 minute, then use a slotted spoon to flip each bagel over and boil for another 1 minute. I put them on a bamboo cutting board for a minute or two so they were not soaking wet when I put them on a greased baking sheet. Then bake at 425. The recipe I linked to says to bake for 10 minutes, flip, and bake for 10 more minutes, but I found baking for 15-20 minutes without flipping worked fine too.

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

Lately, we've really been enjoying frozen strawberry lemonade, especially on a hot evening after a walk. This really isn't anything fancy, although you would probably pay $3-4 for something like this in a restaurant.

I've been using lemonade mix since I can get it really cheap from Costco. Of course, you could use fresh squeezed lemonade, and I'm sure it would taste immeasurably better. To make to 12oz glasses I start with 2 quarts of lemonade. There are quart markings on my blender (a KitchenAid that I absolutely love!) which make it really easy to measure.

Then I add about 1 to 1-1/2 cups of ice cubes, and a handful of strawberries. I've been using frozen berries leftover from our local U-pick strawberry outings, but this time I actually used some that were not frozen. Either tastes great!

Blend on high speed until all the chunks are gone. This makes a slushy consistency drink. You do not have to use a straw, but I've found that it is not too thick for a straw. Of course, adding more or less ice and lemonade will make it more or less thick, depending on your preference.

This makes two 12oz glasses, or you can opt to fancy things up with something like this!

No matter what, this is a refreshing drink for any hot day! Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza Bagel Bites

I am always looking for ways to improvise for different snack foods. Buying a bunch from the store is super convenient, but can get really expensive. Pizza bagel bites are one of my favorites, and I'm usually really good about not buying them because they are ridiculously expensive! (I saw them on sale last week, 40 for $10....25 cents a bagel bite yikes)

SO....I decided to make my own!

I used the bagel recipe that I wrote about a few weeks ago here...though I made a few changes. I doubled the recipe, and then made smaller bagels to look more like the bagel bites. I also opted not to flip the bagels during the baking process, which worked fine and saved a little time.

Once my bagels were completely cooled, I cut them in half with my bread knife and placed them on baking sheets like this:

Then I put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes (I took the first tray out at 30 minutes to start working, but the others were in longer). The reason I did this was so that the sauce would sit on top of the bagels instead of soaking into the soft bread. There's nothing worse than mushy pizza!

I used my homemade sauce on the bagels, and then topped them with mozzarella cheese. This was the most time-consuming part. I found that it was easier with a smaller spoon (I used a soup spoon first). Here's what they looked like after the toppings:

Then I popped the baking sheet back into the freezer for another hour or so to let the sauce and cheese set. After they had frozen, I packaged them into large ziplock containers. I made 3 trays worth, so I ended up with 80 or 90 bagel bites!

Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 8-10 minutes for perfection!

I really enjoy how these came out. They actually taste better than store bought because of the homemade sauce and the bagels are better. And of course, these are way cheaper than store bought. Since it takes a little while to make, I recommend doing a large quantity. My daughter is too young to help at this point, but I can imagine that this would be loads of fun for older kids to help with!

There's still time to enter my giveaway here!

Homemade Bagels

Over the past few weeks I had several friends make bagels, so while we were snowed in, I set out to try my hand at making homemade bagels! I was impressed with how easy it was and how good the bagels turned out. I make a good bit of yeast bread from scratch, which is pretty easy, but takes a while because of the different rises. These bagels were easier and quicker!

The recipe that I used can be found here. I followed it pretty exactly, though since I used my Kitchen Aid, I only had to knead for 2-3 minutes.

The recipe:
4 cups bread flour
1 Tbls sugar
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 Tbls vegetable oil
2 tsps instant yeast
1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water


Mix all ingredients together:
Bagels make a thicker and more stiff dough than regular bread dough

Knead until you have a smooth dough, then divide into 8 pieces and let the dough sit on the counter for 10-20 minutes.

Use 2 hands and roll each ball into a snake until it is longer than both your hands side by side.

Take one of the snakes and wrap it around your hand so the two ends meet.

Then use the counter and a rolling motion to fuse the ends together and create a circle (this is surprisingly easy!)

You'll end up with a little family of rings. Let them sit on the counter for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, boil a pot of water on the stove, and preheat oven to 425 F. The bagels will start to look puffy after 20 minutes.

Once they have rested for 20 minutes, boil for 1 minute, then use a slotted spoon to flip each bagel over and boil for another 1 minute. I put them on a bamboo cutting board for a minute or two so they were not soaking wet when I put them on a greased baking sheet. Then bake at 425. The recipe I linked to says to bake for 10 minutes, flip, and bake for 10 more minutes, but I found baking for 15-20 minutes without flipping worked fine too.

Here is a look at my assembly line:

Bagels boiling, cutting board to let them dry a little, plate full of cinnamon sugar that I dipped the bagels in, and lightly greased baking sheet with my bagels.

And the finished product? They looked, smelled, and tasted like real bagels! (You'll notice in this picture that there are only 7...we had already sampled one...)

Little munchkin agrees - they are delicious!

We also used them to make pizza bagels for dinner. I may have to double the recipe next time, because we ate these in 2 days!

Homemade Yogurt

Its been some time now that I've made my own yogurt. I first read about making yogurt from Prayer of Hannah, which is also where I first heard about Super Baby Food.

Ruth Yaron, the author of Super Baby Food, has very detailed instructions about making yogurt, including what all of the steps of the process do to the milk.

Here is how I make my yogurt:

Put milk (I use 2%, but whole milk will make your yogurt thicker) into a mason jar and heat in a large pot of water. I put a washcloth under the mason jar because when the water starts to boil the glass jar rattles. You can scald the milk in a pot without using the glass jar, but I think this works best.



Using a thermometer, heat the milk to between 180-185 degrees. Small bubbles will form on the top of the milk as it begins to get close.

Remove the milk from the pot and allow it to cool to between 105-115 degrees, but 112 is best. I put the jars in a little bit of water in the sink. You could cool it in the fridge, but I think it is easier to check this way.

While the milk is cooling, set your starter out on the counter so that it can warm up to room temperature. The starter is just yogurt with active cultures. I had not made yogurt in a while, so I needed to use store bought yogurt as my starter, but you can use your homemade yogurt as a starter too. Use 2 tablespoons of yogurt for every quart of milk.

We prefer vanilla yogurt instead of plain, I get a large bottle of pure vanilla at Costco for about $7, but I also have a smaller bottle of imitation vanilla from the Dollar Tree ($1). I use about half and half, and it tastes the same!

Once the milk has cooled to around 112 degrees add (for each quart)

2 T. yogurt

1/4 cup powdered milk

1/8 - 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

Gently mix the ingredients into the milk with a metal spoon. Put the lid on the container and let it rest in a very warm place for about 4 hours. This is the incubation phase. You want the temperature to be between 90-120 degrees, but closer to 112 degrees is best.

I put the containers in a cooler for the incubation and use the hot water from heating the milk to keep the cooler warm. Be careful about the temperature here, especially. Too hot or too cold and you will kill the active cultures!

After the 4 hours is up, you can test the yogurt to see if its down by touching the top of the yogurt with a clean finger. It should feel like....yogurt! Mine gets a little bit more firm in the fridge, so it does not need to be completely firm when you check.

Making yogurt takes very little hands on time. It also takes a little bit of trial and error. The first time I made yogurt it tasted fine, but was pretty runny. Mine is still a little more runny because I use 2% milk; whole milk would make it thicker. Edited to add: I have started making whole milk yogurt and it is soooo much better! We really like how thick it is, and there is really no way to tell that it is not store-bought!! Getting a temperature off can change things too. If it doesn't come out right the first time, don't be discouraged!

Homemade yogurt is way cheaper than store bought yogurt, even then large 32 oz containers. It goes great with homemade granola....which is a sneak peak into the next recipe I will post!

Simple Homemade Fruit Leather

I love fruit leather! But it is some crazy expensive stuff.

I found directions for making fruit leather in Super Baby Food, the book I've used to make food for my daughter. It is so simple!

Spread plastic wrap over a baking tray. The book says to tape down the plastic wrap, but I managed fine without using tape. You can also just use cooking spray on the baking sheet.

I thawed some mixed frozen berries that I get at Costco. I put them in my blender with a banana and a little bit of applesauce. It gave me a think fruit puree. Spread the puree on the plastic wrap, leaving about 1-2 inches from the edge so that the plastic wrap does not curl up over the sides, preventing it from drying.

There are several different drying methods; I chose to use the quickest one. I put the fruit in the over at 175 degrees for 3 hours. The leather was nearly dry all the way, but I decided to leave it in the over (which was off) over night just to be sure. In the morning I had this:




I cut it into pieces with my pizza cutter:

My mom had a bag of fruit leather from Trader Joe's that was the ends they cut off of the fruit leather when they cut it into pieces. I tried to mimic that with the pieces that I cut off of my strips:

Its delicious!

If you want to make this even simpler, use applesauce!