Chai Spiced Granola

I really like tea-flavored things, like those Chinese Tea Eggs. I especially like things that are chai-infused, like the Chai Spiced Pancakes. So why not give it a go with granola, hmm?

 If you're expecting to make these and eat crunchy chai tea, then you're mistaken. It just uses the same spices that chai does: creating a warm, nestling food that's good to eat while wearing orange and knit scarves.

Well, it's good any time of the year. I love granola so much. This summer I went to a program that was at a college and I basically lived off of clif bars and the bag of granola my step mother gave to me. College cafeterias suck. But Chai Granola rocks. And, as with any granola recipe, you ca switch up the nuts/dried/fruit/add-ins as you like. Enjoy!

Chai Spiced Granola
about 8 cups
adapted from Wonderful Joy Ahead

3 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup canola or other neutral oil
1/2 cup almonds (preferably slivered)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp flax seeds

1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup sunflower seeds, unsalted
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Preheat your oven to 325 F, and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large skillet over medium heat, lightly toast the almonds and walnuts, stirring every minute or so until you can start to smell them (about 2-3 minutes). Stir in the pumpkin seeds, oats, and oil; continue to toast and stir every minute or so until the oats start to get some color (about 4-6 minutes).

Turn off the heat and add the flax, salt, and wheat germ.

Temporarily empty the oats into a bowl. Add to the skillet the honey, sugar, approximately 2 tablespoons of water, cinnamon, salt, cardamom, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and pepper. Heat over medium until the sugar is dissolved. Add the honey mixture to the bowl and mix until incorporated.

Spread evenly over the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from the oven when the granola is turning golden brown.

Stir in the coconut and dried fruit. Depending on the size of your baking sheet, you'll need to either spread it out or compact it together to form a 1/2 inch thick granola slab. Let it cool completely. Break into pieces and store in an air-tight container for about a week or two, if there's any left by then.

Sweet Pumpkin Challah

)You could make this, for, um, Passover? I'm a bad Jew, when's that? Oops. It's April 16. I should probably delete those last sentences. I could swear passover was coming. Oh, oh right! It's Chanukah. Spellcheck says I spell it wrong. How do I spell Chanukah wrong? There are ten million spellings!

Alright, so I should definitely delete everything and start over. But I'm too lazy, so let's continue on, shall we?

You could make this challah for passover. Or not. You could make it for sunday breakfast. You could make it for french toast. You could make it just to rip into chunks and sink your teeth into.

Challah is a very easy bread to make. You can do it all with a kitchenaid, and it only requires one rising. It's a bit of waiting, but not too much active time. It's good for when you plan to stay in the house all day anyway because you don't have any jeans to wear outside because it's sunday and the one pair of jeans you own without any holes is in the laundry. Is that too specific? It happens to me all the time. Like, every sunday. So this recipe is good for me.

 Very good. It's a sweet eggy bread with pumpkin in it. Mmm.

And the maple glaze can't hurt, can it? No, no it can't.

Sweet Pumpkin Challah
2 small loaves
adapted from Sugar Plum

Dough
1/4 cup warm milk (100°-110°F)
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/2 packet (1 1/8 tsp) active dry yeast
scant 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
scant 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs

2 tbsps milk
1 tbsp canola oil
3/4 tsp pie/cake spice
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups unbleached bread flour

Glaze
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

To make the bread dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer, using the dough hook on medium speed, mix together milk, maple syrup and yeast until combined; allow to sit for 10 minutes or until bubbles form and you get that yeasty smell. Add pumpkin, brown sugar, 1 egg, milk, oil, spice and salt to yeast mixture and mix until well combined. Mix in bread flour until combined; continue to mix for an additional 5-8 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Form into a ball and place in a large, mixing bowl; lightly cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm area for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Punch dough down, and divide in half. Divide one half of dough into 3 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, shape each portion into a rope. Place ropes on a greased baking sheet; shape into a braid and pinch edges to seal. Repeat process with remaining dough. Lightly cover braids with plastic wrap or cloth and allow to rise in a warm area for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk remaining 1 egg together with a tablespoon of water; evenly brush on surface of braids (fingertips work fine). Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before spreading glaze on bread.

To make the glaze, in a medium bowl, whisk together butter, confectioners’ sugar, maple syrup and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Drizzle and spread glaze on top of bread (it hardens after a good 10-20 minutes).

Muesli Scones

 These are so good I could die. Seriously. As in I may not even be joking. Maybe not even a little. And they're pretty good for you, as baked goods go.

Muesli is kind of like unbaked granola. It's made with rolled out, dried fruits, and nuts. Then you put it in a bowl and eat it. You can mix it with yogurt or milk, but I personally prefer orange juice. You let it sit for a couple minutes and it gets soft and citrusy... So good. I've even poured cold tea over muesli. That was pretty good too. But these scones don't actually have muesli in them. They just kind of taste like it, what with all the dried fruit and nuts and seeds. And you can switch that up. Put whatever fillings you want in, as long as you get about 1/2 cup of dried fruit, and 1/2 cup nuts and seeds. 

How come I didn't take enough pictures to have one separate this block of text? I may have to remedy that. My kitchen may need another batch of these, soon.

Muesli Scones

makes 15-20 squares. 

adapted from Elana's Pantry

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried california apricots, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/8 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
1 large egg
2 tbsps agave syrup

2 tbsps milk

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, salt and baking soda.
Stir in dried fruit, seeds and nuts.
In a small bowl combine egg and agave, then stir wet ingredients into dry. If, at this point, the dough is not sticking together enough to form a ball with your hands, add 1 tablespoons of milk, or more as needed.
Use hands to shape dough into a square that is about 1" thick, and cut the dough into squares.
Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 10-12 minutes, until slightly golden on top. 

Serve.

Chai Spiced Pancakes

 Have I mentioned that I'm really into infusing tea flavor into recipes? And that I really like pancakes? There's not a lot to describe with these pancakes. Use your favorite recipe and throw in some chai tea and spices, and you've got something special.

 I was inspired by Joy the Baker's version, but I used the Tassajara Bread Book's recipe for pancakes. Joy says to directly mix in the chai tea. Which I did, but while I got a hint of chai, it seemed a bit lost. I think the flavor needs to be more concentrated. I want to try this recipe again, but use a technique outlined in the cupcake project. Stef says the key is to steep the tea in butter, and then strain to get tea-infused butter. I like. I'll update this whenever I get around to Chai Pancakes 2.0. For now, these aren't half-bad.

Chai Spiced Pancakes
serves 6.
adapted from tassajara recipe and joy the baker.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of ground cloves
pinch ground ginger
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup black chai tea
1/2 cup oil

Whisk baking flour, baking powder, salt, spices, and sugar together.

Beat milk, tea, and oil into beaten egg yolks.

Stiffly beat egg whites.

Combine wet mixture into dry until just blended. Then fold in egg whites.

Cook and flip and do as pancakes do.

Green Eggs (sans ham)

 Yay! They're eggs! And they're green! And the green actually denotes something nutritious and not food colored!

 The green is from kale, the ever-nutrient-ready green of my heart, apple of my eye, yadda yadda. Bright. Green. Do you see these eggs?! You blend everything up (the kale, the eggs) and throw it in a pan. It makes breakfast more fun and makes you feel super-healthy.

Oh, right. And I better explain the red. It turns out, I'm weird. No, I mean duh, I'm weird, but specifically when it comes to scrambled eggs. Apparently not many people put ketchup on their scrambled eggs. Well, world, I do. And not only is it visually striking, but it is so much better than anything else you could try to put on your eggs. The same goes for ketchup/mac-and-cheese combo. 'Nuff said. Go to it, my friends.

Kale Green Eggs
serves 2-3.
adapted from elena's pantry

4 eggs
4 large kale leaves
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil

ketchup!

Roughly chop the kale to be friendly to your blender and stuff it into that thing. Add eggs and blend.
Heat oil in pan under medium heat.
Pour eggs into pan and add salt and pepper.
Scramble by pushing the spatula around the pan until lumps start to form.
Cook eggs for a couple minutes (the longer they cook, the less runny they become).
Douse in ketchup.

(is it too early to make a joke about christmas?)

Mango Bread

 It sounds a bit odd, but it's delicious. A steaming loaf from the oven for breakfast. I feel tropically overcome, in the middle of my kitchen on the tenth floor of an apartment in new york where the smog rises by my window, and many feet below the cars honk and the bagels sell.

Overnight Oats, Anyone?

Overnight oats, as an idea, is pretty appealing. It's oatmeal you don't cook. It's breakfast you can prepare in individual portions the night before and have a bowl waiting for you in the morning... with endless variations. 

Breakfast Quinoa

Well, I can only assume you followed my every move and made the quinoa kale salad from before and now have left over quinoa. 

You wake in the morning, yawn, stretch, and pad to the kitchen. And behold! O mighty quinoa, you are sitting in a container in my fridge! Come to my belly, my child!

Apricot Granola

Mmm... granola. My family are self-described crunchy-granola-upper-west-siders. And it's true. We're not hippy-dippy (though at times I veer off to that edge), but we do eat a lot of veggie/vegan organic, local farm-grown food, wear tevas, play ultimate frisbee, and go to world music concerts.
And me? Well, I love granola. I don't really eat cereal with milk. Never have; I don't like how it gets soggy. So, minor freak that I am, I eat cereal with yogurt. Especially granola with yogurt. So, yesterday morning, with a hankering for granola and not enough for a bowl in sight, I pulled up a recipe and conjured my first batch.

Dry, Coated, Baked