Superfood, Buttery Hearts and More..

Yikes! I've let two semi-major celebrations pass without a hit of a recipe. What's happening to my blog brain? I have no clue -- none at all, except to say that I've got lots of pictures for you and not one but two recipes to share. Yeah, I know it's a little late, but treats are good at anytime of the year, especially when there's no celebration except friendship or love. How sappy is that.

Well, let's get on with it then!

Last weekend was the Lunar New Year -- hello year of the Snake! Our festivities were small and condensed to spending time at home this year -- no dim sum or loud restaurants, but I was totally fine with that. I did make a few treats to share including these coconut sesame peanut cookies .. I used peanut butter and tahini this time and skipped the canola oil since I was all out. Totally snackable and delicious...

I also made these traditional barbecue pork buns (char siew bao) to bring over to my parents on New Year's Day. My dad made the filling and I made the dough. My favourite part is the sticky sweet glaze that goes on top.

And so that my New Year week would be filled with health and all things red (lucky colour of Asians!), I made these superfood quinoa muffins to take to work. They are packed with red quinoa, dried unsweetened sour cherries, brain-healthy walnuts and spelt. Recipe included below!

And what about Valentine's Day? A bit of a bust since it was the same day as parent-teacher interviews, but I managed to make this to-die-for chocolate silk tart with almond and date crust. It's got a secret ingredient that, when you find out, will just make you go back for another piece. My adoring Valentine enjoyed a piece while I was running after students outside their homerooms, and I had chocolicious bite right before bedtime when I got home.

Usually, I get it together and bake treats for my colleagues for Valentine's day, but this year I was too exhausted. Better late then never, right? I made these brown sugar chai-spiced butter cookies yesterday to take to my friends at work tomorrow. They're not too sweet, tender and buttery, with a crunchy, sparkly sprinkling of spicy raw sugar on top. They are perfect with a nice chai tea or latte or of course, coffee.

Enjoy!

Red Quinoa Superfood Muffins
adapted from Hungry Gnomes
makes 24 mini muffins

The original recipe for these super healthy babies, calls for fresh or frozen blueberries. Since we're in the dead of winter, I opted to sub in some unsweetened dried sour cherries. I also warmed it up with a healthy dose of cinnamon and cardamom. If I were making this during blueberry season, you can bet I would throw in a big handful of fresh berries, and I might also skip the spices and orange juice in favour of some lemon zest and juice. 

2 tablespoons of almond milk
1/4 cup of orange juice
1/4 cup of maple syrup
2 tablespoons of cane sugar
2 tablespoon of tahini
1/4 cup of spelt flakes
1 cup of spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of cooked red quinoa
1/4 cup of dried unsweetened sour cherries, chopped
1/4 cup of walnuts ,chopped

1. In a large bowl, combine the milk, juice, maple syrup, tahini and sugar. Whisk to combine.  Add the spelt flakes and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Sift in the flour, spices and baking powder and soda. Stir gently. Add in the cooked quinoa, nuts and cherries. Stir until just combined.

3. Spoon the batter in prepared muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Brown Sugar Chai-Spiced Butter Cookie Hearts
makes about 3 dozen little hearts

This little buttery hearts can be flavoured any which way you like if you're not into chai. A simple cinnamon sugar would be lovely, as would the combination of orange and cardamom, or just straight-up vanilla. 

Cookies
1/2 cup of butter, softened
1/3 cup of dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom
1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 good few grinds of black pepper
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of spelt flour

Sugar Topping
2 tablespoons of organic cane sugar, or turbinado sugar
a pinch each of ground cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom and ginger

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and well-combined. Add the egg and mix well.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until a stiff dough forms. Refrigerate for an hour or so, just so the dough firms up.

3. Take the chilled dough and divide into four balls. Take one of the balls, roll out on a flour surface, using a pastry scraper to turn after each roll to make sure it's not sticking. Roll the dough to about 1/4 -1/3 inch. Cut out your cookies with whatever shape your heart desires.

4. Place you cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Gather up the scraps, roll out the dough and repeat until you've worked through all your dough balls.

5. Sprinkle your cookies with the sugar-topping and pop them back in the fridge for about 10 minutes before they go in the oven. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until the sides get a little golden brown.

Another New Year .. a little late

I've crawled out of my report card hole, thank goodness! I'm a little late, but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year! It's the year of the Rabbit, which only means to me, that the students at my school are all making cute little origami rabbits.. I have like ten of them on my desk right now.

Lunar New Year means lots of little traditions in my family -- cleaning the house (did that .. kind of), getting a haircut (yeah .. not this year), lots of family time spent eating (yup.. dinner.. and then dim sum!) and of course, New Year treats. I love baking for family occasions. The holiday season, I did tons of baking for my family: gift-cookies, orange crumb cake on Christmas eve, cranberry walnut bread for Christmas morning, rosemary chocolate chip olive oil cake for New Year's day .. yup! I totally baked up a storm. But for Lunar New year, it's a bit tricky. I never delved into the world of Chinese desserts, mainly because they either included difficult-to-make fillings (like lotus paste, black bean paste, and melon/coconut filling) or they were deep fried (yuck).


One of my favourite new year flavours is included in a deep fried, oily dumpling-type snack. Basically, it's a deep-fried pastry pocket filled with sesame seeds, sugar, peanuts and coconut. I gave those up several years ago, but this year, I thought I'd try to re-make it in my kitchen. I'm so glad I did! Instead of rolling up all those goodies into a deep-fried package, I baked it into a healthy-ish cookie (oats, whole wheat flour, canola oil ..). I made one batch with peanut butter and another with tahini -- both were delicious. The secret is toasting the coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds in the oven before mixing them in the cookie. It's crumbly and crunchy with just a little bit of chewiness when you get to the middle -- perfect with a cup of jasmine tea.


Now that I've officially tried baking Chinese-inspired desserts, my next plan is to play around with azuki beans. It's often made into a sweet paste, or cooked into a sweet dessert porridge (yeah I know it sounds kinda .. well... ya know..), but who knows? Azuki muffins? Bars? Squares? We'll see ...

New Year Cookies
makes about 3oish mini cookies

1/2 cup of peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup of unsweetened, shredded coconut
2 tablespoon of white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of black sesame seeds
1/4 cup of peanut butter or tahini
1/4 cup of canola oil
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1 egg
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the peanuts, coconut and sesame seeds out on a baking tray and place in the oven. Toss after about 5 minutes and let it toast for another 5. They should be nice and golden. Set aside.

2. Mix the peanut butter, oil and sugars together until smooth. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the flour, oats and baking powder and mix.

3. Add the coconut mixture to the cookie dough. With your hands, knead the dough so that all the coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds get incorporated. Form the dough into little balls and place on a cookie sheet. Flatten (or not!) with wet fingers and bake into the oven for about 15 minutes, or until they get golden brown.

4. Serve with Chinese tea. Gong Hai Fat Choy!