Garden Therapy

Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Scones

Ever had those pumpkin scones at Starbucks?  Here is a recipe for a much healthier version that is so much better with a flaky texture due to the mixing technique.  Best hot from the oven – so freeze half of them after baking, and warm in an over at 350°F until just crunchy on the outside and warm on the inside.  If you make this recipe I would very much appreciate if you leave me a comment and tell me how it turned out.

Ingredients

• 4 cups organic whole wheat pastry or all purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup cold butter
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 tablespoons black strap molasses
• 6 tablespoons half-and-half
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 cup walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking pan with parchment and sprinkle it with flour. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the butter and with fingertips, pastry knife, or food processor gently cut the butter in until it is well combined and resembles course crumbs, some lumps are fine.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, cream, pumpkin and molasses.  Add to the dry mixture and gently combine.  Gently fold in walnuts and cranberries until just mixed.

Shape the dough into 2 equal balls and flatten to 3/4″ thick on the floured parchment or pan.  Using a knife slice each circle into 6 wedges and  carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them to 1/2″ space around the outer edges.  Optional: brush each scone with milk and sprinkle with  sugar for a sweet and crunchy top.   Bake until golden about 16  minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Makes 12 extra large scones

April 11 2010 | Baking and Recipes | 10 Comments »

Famous Whole-Grain Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

I have made these muffins many, many times over the past few years.  Once I was happy with the recipe I started make little changes to the flavour for the seasons.  I’ve made Pumpkin-Apple Muffins, Pumpkin-Orange Muffins, Pumpkin-Coconut-Macadamia Muffins, and many others but the original recipe is my favourite with its warm spice, rich molasses, crunchy walnuts and sweet cranberries.  The flavours are perfect for this time of year.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup butter (very soft or melted)
• 1 cup pumpkin (canned or fresh pureed & drained pumpkin are both fine)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3 free-range organic eggs
• 6 tbsp black strap molasses
• 2 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole spelt flour
• 1/2 cup whole kamut flour (kamut flour adds extra nutrients to the muffins, but can be substituted by increasing the spelt)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp each of ground ginger, cloves, and nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup dried or fresh cranberries (dried adds a sweet flavour, fresh adds a tart flavour)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 4oo°F.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together the first 6 (wet) ingredients and beat until smooth.  I use my immersion blender and that makes quick work of the blending.  In a large mixing bowl, add the flours, sugar, powder and spices and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined.  Add the walnuts and cranberries and fold in careful to not over mix.  Spoon batter into a greased muffin tin until the cups are heaping; this gets nice big fluffy muffins.  Bake 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Yields 18 large muffins or 24 medium muffins.

November 22 2009 | Baking and Recipes | 2 Comments »

Flora Friday: Squash

November 13 2009 | Harvest and Photography | 1 Comment »

Why I Love My Heirloom Veggies…

I grow heirloom veggies because 1) who needs flowers?, 2) mmmmmmmmm, and 3) I can save the seeds and grow them year after year.  Now I must go eat them.  Come here my pretties….

September 18 2009 | Growing Food and Harvest and Photography | No Comments »