Orange | Oh Taste n See.....

Blueberry Orange Spelt mini muffins

Blueberry, Breakfast/Brunch, Orange, Spelt

Jun 282011

One of the greatest benefit of food blogging – is the opportunity to be exposed to a lot of different food groups – and also be aware and learn of ways to cook healthy. I had hardly known what spelt was until I saw the announcement for ‘WWC – Spelt in Breakfast’ by girlichef. I kept reading about what spelt was and the very many nutritional benefits of this fiber rich grain. I convinced myself to try it very soon – if and when I could get my hands on it. I never thought that it was possible in time for the event(which explains this last minute post). However, what has to be baked, has to be baked: DH stopped for coffee at a store, and called to ask, if I wanted him to pick up something. The first thing that came to mind was spelt flour. I asked him to check the bulk bins and surprisingly he got it(he is never known for patience, when it comes to looking for familiar ingredients, let alone something he had never heard of). A miracle in itself, I set forth on making these muffins, adapted from the recipe here.

Making these muffins was a breeze, I have not made any changes to the original recipe, except making them in mini muffin tins, as opposed to the regular sized ones. I have never heard of orange combined with blueberry, it usually is lemons, but I loved the sweet and citrusy undertones in these muffins. Very nice combination.

Ingredients:

(makes 24 mini muffins, or 12 regular)

4 tbsp butter, softened(can substitute with canola oil, or a mixture of butter and oil)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
non stick cooking spray

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 24 cup mini muffin tin with non stick cooking spray.

Sift the spelt flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs one by one. Add the applesauce, orange zest and mix to combine. Stir in the orange juice and vanilla extract. It would appear that you have too much wet ingredients right now, don’t worry, spelt flour absorbs a lot of liquid. Gently stir in the sifted dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Do not overmix. Now add in the blueberries and stir to combine. Distirbute this batter evenly among the mini muffin tins. Bake for about 25 -30 minutes, until the top is golden.

Cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool. These muffins can be frozen and popped in the microwave as needed.

Verdict: These muffins were super moist and tender. It is chock full of healthy ingredients – almost every fruit that you could have for breakfast is in here apples, blueberries, orange – all rich in vitamin C and antioxidants and fiber rich spelt flour. Makes for a super healthy one stop shop breakfast. Also a great snack to have during the day. Even DH who is a bit scared of healthy foods, had his helping.

Sending these to the following events:
1. ‘WWC – Spelt in Breakfast’, event series by Sanjeeta of Litebite.
2. Lets cook – School Break time snacks
3. Kids Delight – Mini Bites, series by Srivalli.
4. Breakfast Club – Berries, event series by Helen of FussFreeFlavors.
5. Veggie/Fruit of the Month: Orange, event series by Priya Mitharwal
6. *Food Palette: Purple*

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Cranberry Orange Barley Scones

Barley, Breakfast/Brunch, Cranberries, Orange

Jun 172011

Ever since I had the scones at the Empress hotel in Victoria, I wanted to make flaky melt in the mouth scones like the ones offered there. I also wanted it to be healthy, and was looking at different recipes. I finally fudged several recipes together to come up with this recipe. It really is a healthy recipe, that could easily substitute for cereal in the morning – because it has barley flakes, whole wheat flour and cranberries, plus the orange which acts as a refreshing wake up to your palate. The quantity really works for me, because it only makes 4 normal sized scones, or 8 mini scones. These scones are perfect for a to go breakfast or as a snack with tea in the evenings.

Ingredients
1/4 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup rolled barley
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 large egg
2 tbsp cream
2 clementines/1 regular orange

Method:
Zest the clementines and juice them. Set the juice and zest aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the all purpose flour, wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Using a fork, crumble the butter into the flour, until the mixture becomes coarse. Add the sugar. Stir in the cranberries, barley flakes and the orange zest.

In a seperate bowl, beat the egg with the cream. Stir this into the flour mixture and stir with a fork. Add the reserved orange juice as necessary for it to make a dough, kind of like chapati dough, but softer and more moist. I used up only 1 tbsp of juice, but it depends on the brand of wheat flour you use. I used chapati flour. Pat this dough into a disc. Cut with a knife into four equal triangles. Place these triangles on plate and put it in the freezer just until you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

When the oven has preheated, place the scones on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until flaky and golden brown.

Verdict: These scones were super refreshing. I wolfed one down right after it came out of the oven(the cook’s gotta taste), thats why you see only 3 scones in the pictures. The oranges made this bright and the flecks of cranberries added a nice tart taste. It would be hard to believe that this scone has barley and whole wheat flour, coss it is soooo melt in your mouth good.

Sending these cuties to ‘Breakfast Club – Berries’, event by Helen of ‘Fuss free flavors’.

Also sending to ‘Veggie/Fruit of the Month: Orange’ event series by Priya.

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Orange and Olive Oil Cake

Cakes and Cookies, Orange

May 232011

I have always heard of cakes made with Olive Oil, but never had a chance to try it. That, was until I saw the recipe for this beautiful – ‘Orange and Olive Oil Cake’ at Deeba’s ‘Passionate about Baking’. She has a beautiful blog with a lot of delicious cakes and desserts, that it was not easy to narrow down to one recipe, to make for the ‘Tried and Tasted’ event this month, a event series concieved by Zlamushka and now carried on by Lakshmi, this is a beautiful event that encourages food bloggers to try fellow food bloggers’ recipes.

The use of orange juice and zest in this cake, nails the orange flavor and makes for a pretty, rich yellow color in the cake. I absolutely love making loaf cakes, something about the shape is very appealing to me. For a cake that has absolutely no butter, this cake is rich, moist and has a great crumb. I followed Deeba’s great suggestion of using a combination of wheat flour and all purpose flour, which makes it an even more healthier cake. Here is the recipe, do try, its awesome.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 large navel oranges + 1 clementine
3/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour(I used chapati atta)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Butter or non stick cooking spray to grease the pan

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 X 4 loaf pan.

Zest the oranges and the clementine. In a bowl, whisk the zest with the sugar. Use a whisk or a fork and not your hands, as the idea is to permeate the sugar with the oils from the skin of the orange, and not have the flavors stick to your hand. You will see that the sugar takes on a pretty orangish, yellow hue, which helps in imparting the color to the cake.

Juice the oranges, to get about 3/4 cups of juice. Set aside.
Sift the dry ingredients: the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.

Add the oil to the sugar and cream until it melds together. Beat in each of the eggs, until thick, foamy and almost doubled, one by one. Now add about 1/3 cup flour and mix it in, followed by about 1/4 cup of juice. Repeat until the flour and the juice are used up. Scrape the sides of the batter and gently place it in the loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven, for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool completely, slice, serve and enjoy!

Verdict: This cake tasted like pound cake, the fruity flavor of oranges, accentuated by the olive oil. I served it to some of my friends and they had a hard time believing that it had no butter and had a little bit of whole wheat flavor. It had a great crumb and texture, tasted rich and buttery. I am gonna try other recipes with olive oil too.

Also sending this to ‘Bookmarked Recipes – Every Tuesday Event – Volume 42′.

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