Chewy Fruity Breakfast Bars

Some days I have classes really early, so I was looking for the perfect breakfast bar recipe that would be filling and last for a long time in the fridge (so I don't have to start baking weekly before class!). Of course, I also wanted to look forward to eating this thing early in the morning. After some searching around the internet, I didn't find any recipe that seemed just right, so of course I just mashed together a couple of recipes and then took it from there to make up my own. 

I took inspiration from recipes by Alton Brown and another blog I found called One Hundred Eggs. Actually, the baking instructions are almost entirely from the latter, as the method of cooking these bars generally stays the same. It's a pretty flexible recipe in general, so you should feel free to swap some of the dried fruit for other dried fruit you like, or some of the nuts for other kinds of nuts. Just make sure the moisture to dry content ratio stays about the same to get the chewy bar texture we're seeking here.

A single portion of the finished product

Apple Blueberry Muffins

Ari has been encouraging me to add some of my own recipes to this blog, and I've finally gotten around to it now that I'm home-bound due to Hurricane Sandy!

These delicious muffins are healthy and dairy-free. I based this recipe on a another health-conscious mini muffin recipe I found. While it looked great, I didn't want my muffins to have dairy or to be small, and I had no bananas on hand. What resulted was an entirely new recipe that are great to have around the house for breakfast or snack.

I specifically used pastry flour to get an airy texture, and I picked dry over fresh blueberries so as not to over-saturate the muffins with moisture (and a pervasive blue dye!). The original recipe calls for a cup of vanilla yogurt and half a cup of milk. As I was seeking something dairy-free, I thought that the vanilla pudding mix would add the flavor and some of the moisture the yogurt adds, while also adding to the amount of milk to ensure enough liquid in the mixture.

This recipe can be adapted in many ways, especially by swapping out the apples and blueberries for other add-ins, like chocolate chips, nuts, or other fruit.

Enjoy! What are your favorite ways to modify dairy recipes?

Vanilla-Pineapple or Blueberry Pudding Cake

This is part 2 of the suite of dessert recipes I created recently. As I mentioned in my previous post, I originally sought out to create a sugar-free, diabetic-friendly dessert without artificial sweetener. But I didn't think stopping at pudding was enough - I needed to go all out for this to prove that it's possible for a home cook to make a good dessert under those kinds of constraints.

I racked my brain trying to think of what I could do with pudding. And then I remembered I had seen some recipes for cakes using yogurt. So I figured, why not replace yogurt with pudding!

The problem was I couldn't really find anyone with a decent pudding cake recipe. So, I bravely decided to try my own - which was a big deal for me. I had never created my own cake recipe before, always sticking to the lore that baking must be precise, you must always stick to the recipe.

However, I entered my endeavor adequately prepared - I cross-referenced Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food with Michael Ruhlman's Ratio and decided to use the muffin mixing method - my cake would essentially be an oversized muffin. Borrowing a little from the basic ratios/recipes in those books, as well as the technique I was able to come up with a recipe that turned out to be quite a hit.

The cake does in fact look like an overgrown muffin (it's even a little poofy in the center) and the crumb texture has uneven air pockets, also classic muffin texture. I reserved half the pudding mixture to create a delicious creamy topping for the cake as well. The cake is incredibly moist and addicting. Beware.

Also, note that if for some reason there are any leftovers of the blueberry cake for some odd reason, if you keep in in the fridge (you should do so) it seems like the color of the cake turns from a grayish-blue to a greenish color (I'm guessing because of the blueberries oxidizing or something). Fear not the color change - it still tastes just as good!

Vanilla Pineapple pudding cake, made with no sugar or splenda

Vanilla Pineapple Pudding Cake (sugar-free, no artificial sweetener)

1 batch sugar-free vanilla pudding
1/2 cup applesauce, divided
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 20-oz can crushed pineapple, unsweetened
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp honey
pinch salt

1. Mix dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt

2. Mix wet ingredients: 1/2 of pudding (=1 cup), 1/4 c applesauce, oil, 1/4 c honey, eggs, 1/2 can of pineapple

3. Add wet to dry & mix. Do not overmix.

4. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 min or until a toothpick/knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

5. Combine remaining pineapple, pudding, applesauce & 1 tbsp honey in a bowl and mix - this will be the topping for the cake.

6. Let cake cool for 20 minutes. Prick cake with holes using a fork and spread topping. Let cake continue cooling. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Serves 12-16.

Blueberry pudding cake variation with blueberry topping

Blueberry Pudding Cake

Make cake as before, except use 1 batch of blueberry pudding. Leave out one egg and pineapple, and add an extra 3/4 cup applesauce to the cake batter.

This is what the cake actually looks like before the topping

Sugar-Free Variation, using Splenda

Make cake as directed except swap 8 packets Splenda for honey.

Pareve Vanilla or Blueberry Pudding (with Sugar-Free and Diabetic variants)

Okay. Here it comes. So I have this set of 4 recipes that kind of all belong grouped together and I've been meaning to post them for a while but haven't had time. Now I finally have the chance, so get excited!

So, the first recipe was for vanilla pudding. Let me give you some background on the genesis of this recipe first. I was going somewhere for Shabbat and I wanted to bring a dessert. The problem was, one of the people there was diabetic, so I couldn't bring anything with sugar. Another person was allergic to artificial sweeteners - so using splenda or such was out. So, I had to sweeten everything with honey (apparently some diabetics can have honey? who knew?). That's what led to the diabetic-friendly version of this recipe.

I later made this recipe again a few weeks later, but did not have the artificial sweeteners constraint, so I chose to use splenda since I wanted to minimize the sugar content anyway for calorific reasons. That's when the blueberry variation came about - I had a box of frozen blueberries I had been saving for a tasty dessert, and this seemed like the time to use it.

One big difference though was (kinda obviously) the flavor profile - the honey-sweetened one had a much more rich, full, even a little cloying (but not bad) taste than the splenda version. I kind of preferred it to the version with artificial sweetener.

I should note that these are actually just variations on the basic Joy of Cooking recipe for cornstarch pudding. I was surprised how easy it was - it's basically just a really simple custard. I hope that people will start realizing how simple it is to make a good pareve pudding and bring it more often to Shabbat meals! You can, of course, swap out the soymilk for regular milk for a dairy version.

Basic pareve vanilla pudding - can be made sugar-free or diabetic-friendly!

Regular Pareve Vanilla Pudding (not sugar-free)

1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
2 cups soymilk (divided into 1/4 cup and 1 3/4 cup)
1 large egg, well beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

1. Combine sugar, cornstarch, salt in a pot or saucepan.

2. Gradually mix in 1/4 cup soymilk into pot, whisking well so the mixture becomes a slurry (this will avoid lumps of cornstarch).

3. Whisk in remaining soymilk.

4. Turn on heat to medium and heat through until mixture comes to a simmer.

5. Extract about 1/2 cup of the mixture from the pot. Gradually stir this into the egg slowly, so you temper the egg (you want to raise the temperature of the egg without curdling it by sudden application of heat).

6. When egg mixture is sufficiently tempered, pour it back into the pot and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute beyond the boil.

7. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.

8. Pour pudding into a glass bowl, serving cups or ramekins and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly touching the surface (actually, I'm not sure this is 100% necessary since this is meant to avoid forming the 'skin' on top, but that's formed by the casein proteins in regular milk, which aren't present in soymilk). Chill for at least 1-2 hours before serving.

Serves 2-4.

Blueberry pudding variation!

Pareve Blueberry Pudding

Follow recipe as above.

Combine 1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries with 1 tsp. lemon juice in a pot, along with a little bit of sugar/splenda/honey (maybe 1 tbsp - that's like 2 splenda packets I think) and a splash of water.

Cook over medium heat until blueberries are mostly dissolved (some can be intact - it adds texture to the pudding).

Mix blueberries with pudding well and chill as directed.

Cook the blueberries till they are about this texture

Sugar-Free Pudding Variation

Replace 1/4 cup sugar with 10 packets splenda. Follow directions as above.

Diabetic-Friendly Pudding Variation

Replace 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup honey.

Low-Fat Blueberry Cobbler

Okay, okay, so I know I haven't posted any recipes in a month. January was a bit hectic and I could never find time to just sit and write down my recipes. But that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking! Though some things I forgot the recipes for, or didn't take pictures. But I do have a few things up my sleeve to share with you!

The first is a recipe I made this past Shabbat, when I was asked to bring a dessert. I ended up pushing this off till Friday, at which point I decided I was in no mood to leave the house to buy ingredients. So, the name of the game was to find a recipe for something I could make with only what I already had in stock.

Now, it just so happens that I was at Fairway the week before and they had this amazing special - $5 for a 24 oz. package of blueberries!!! I bought two, thinking I would freeze one, but they didn't even last long enough to get into the freezer. I had one of them left in the fridge, and being a blueberry fanatic, I decided I had to make use of them.

After some research, I found a recipe for blueberry cobbler that was simple. I decided to spice it up a bit myself. The result was a very moist dessert which was very low-fat and highly tasty.

Mmmm, blueberries...

Low-Fat Blueberry Cobbler

1 1/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 cup soy milk
4 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen & defrosted, drained)
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. maple syrup

1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar together in one bowl. Combine milk, lemon juice, syrup together in another bowl.

2. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly till the batter is smooth with no lumps (a spatula is fine, no hand mixer required).

3. Pour batter into a greased baking dish (I used a 9x13). Note, batter will be shallow, but it will rise to about double or triple the volume. Scatter blueberries evenly over the batter.

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown & delicious, and the batter is set (toothpick/fork/knife/spaghetti comes out clean).

Serves around 12, depending how you cut it.