Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

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It’s kind of a no-brainer, converting muffin recipes into quick bread recipes and vice versa. Still, it’s not something I always think about doing.

Remember how I turned Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins into Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread? That worked just as well when I decided to turn Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins into Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

To make it easy, I’ll post the recipe here with revised instructions for making this batter into a delicious quick bread!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip BreadYum

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
 
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Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 3 cups whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground hard white wheat)
  • ½ cup sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups pureed pumpkin (or one 16 ounce can)
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil (or butter)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together all dry ingredients. Add eggs, pumpkin and oil. Mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into two buttered loaf pans. Bake in a 350° oven for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow bread to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan.

 

(I prefer either homemade chocolate chips or soy free chocolate chips)

Do you like muffins or quick bread better, or does it depend on the day?

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Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites Recipe

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How’s the Getting Ahead {Snacks} Challenge going for you? I’m having a blast in the kitchen, but I can’t say I’m really getting ahead. We’re eating the food as fast as I make it. And by we, I mean my four boys. Okay fine, except for the Raspberry Oatmeal Bars. I took care of those very well without much help. {grins sheepishly}

You are going to love today’s idea! This one really did help me get ahead. I turned out so many pretzel bites, we ate on them all day, then I was able to stash some in the freezer too. This recipe is more time consuming than the other easy snack recipes I’ve shared. But trust me, these are worth the extra work! I didn’t stop and count how many pretzel bites this recipe makes (for obvious sanity reasons), but I would say this recipe would fill a two gallon ziplock bag and then some. Yep! You’ll get ahead with this recipe for sure!

pretzel_bites

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Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites (Adapted from my Soft Pretzel Recipe)

1 cup water
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 teaspoons honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 teaspoons sea salt
8 cups whole wheat flour (more or less as necessary)
butter
salt

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup warm water, yeast, and 2 teaspoons of honey. Stir this together and allow it to sit. Meanwhile, heat butter, milk, 1/2 cup honey, and salt in a medium saucepan on the stove until mixture has reached 120°. Stir contents in saucepan into the yeast mixture. Begin adding flour, two cups at a time until a nice dough has formed. Knead for 3-4 minutes. Place dough in bowl, cover, and allow it to rise for 1-2 hours.

On a well floured surface, roll fistful sized balls of dough into “snakes.” Cut into one inch bites.

pretzel_bites_1

Place on a baking sheet or stone. No need to allow for rising time, but if they sit there a while, that’s okay too. Bake in a 350° oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

pretzel_bites_3
Place baked pretzel bites in a bowl, drizzle on some melted butter, toss until coated, then sprinkle sea salt and toss again. Serve warm, serve cold, or cool and freeze the bites in a freezer bag for up to three months. Thaw and reheat in the oven.
pretzel_bites_2
I experimented with a Nacho Cheese Dip for these pretzel bites. Check it out here!

pretzel_bites_4

 Give me more dipping ideas for these soft pretzel bites!!

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Easy Peanut Butter Snack Bars

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Here’s another super easy snack recipe to help us along in the Getting Ahead {Snacks} Challenge. These were a huge hit at our house – and so easy that I can definitely make these frequently!

peanut butter snack bars

Easy Peanut Butter Snack BarsYum

Easy Peanut Butter Snack Bars
 
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Serves: 20
Ingredients
  • 1 cup natural peanut butter (I use homemade creamy peanut butter)
  • ½ cup butter
  • ⅔ cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup whole grain flour
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan, melt together peanut butter and butter.
  2. Pour mixture into a medium-sized bowl and stir in sucanat until creamy.
  3. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt, stirring well.
  4. Mix in flour until well combined.
  5. Spread mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  6. Bake in a 350° oven for about 25 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips on top if desired.
  8. Cut into about 20 bars.

 

To freeze:  Allow bars to cool completely. Wrap them individually to keep the bars moist. Place wrapped bars in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw for at least one hour before serving.

These make for great grab-and-go snacks!

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Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

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The first new healthy make-ahead snack recipe idea I am sharing (to go along with our Getting Ahead Challenge) was inspired by Kristen who left a comment on Facebook last week suggesting I make these muffins for a family game night. I experimented a little, and we loved the result! Cream cheese and pumpkin together in a muffin? Can be made ahead of time? Freezable? Yes, yes, yes. Not to mention, you get to learn to make cream cheese coins. Just when you thought life in the kitchen couldn’t be any more fun…

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

For those of you who notice fine details, you might realize that this recipe is very similar to my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. I simply took out the chocolate and added cream cheese. Why think hard when you already have a great pumpkin muffin recipe, right?

Cream Cheese Pumpkin MuffinsYum

3 cups whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground hard white wheat)
1 cup sucanat
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 eggs
2 cups pureed pumpkin (or one 16 ounce can)
1 cup melted coconut oil (or butter)
8 ounces cream cheese

Before mixing together muffins, place cream cheese in the middle of a large piece of parchment or wax paper. Wrap the paper around the cream cheese and shape it into a long rope. Place it in the freezer while preparing the muffins.

Stir together flour, sucanat, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add eggs, pumpkin, and melted coconut oil. Mix well and scoop batter into 24 paper-lined muffin tins. Slice cream cheese into 24 “coins.” Slide one into the middle of each muffin. Bake in a 400° oven for about 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins
 
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Author:
Serves: 24 muffins
Ingredients
  • 3 cups whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground hard white wheat)
  • 1 cup sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups pureed pumpkin (or one 16 ounce can)
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil (or butter)
  • 8 ounces cream cheese
Instructions
  1. Before mixing together muffins, place cream cheese in the middle of a large piece of parchment or wax paper.
  2. Wrap the paper around the cream cheese and shape it into a long rope.
  3. Place it in the freezer while preparing the muffins.
  4. Stir together flour, sucanat, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
  5. Add eggs, pumpkin, and melted coconut oil.
  6. Mix well and scoop batter into 24 paper-lined muffin tins.
  7. Slice cream cheese into 24 "coins."
  8. Slide one into the middle of each muffin.
  9. Bake in a 400° oven for about 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

These muffins taste great hot out of the oven or cold several days later.

Want a little hint on forming that cream cheese? I found that wrapping it well with parchment paper, then running my hands over and over it easily shaped it into a long rope in just a few seconds. Like this –>

pumpkin_cream_cheese_muffins_3 (1)

I like to refer to this gem of a portrait as “Headless Lady Shapes a Cream Cheese Log.”

 Feel free to sprinkle chopped nuts on top of the muffins before baking. I’m also thinking that adding chocolate chips (like in the original Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe) would taste incredible.

Which do you like better? Chocolate chips or cream cheese…or both?

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Making Homemade Soft Pretzels

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The recipe is a tiny bit more time consuming that some of my other baked goods, so I find that I don’t make my Homemade Soft Pretzels very often anymore. But now that the weather has cooled off, I’m excited to make these pretzels to go with a pot of soup. I guarantee my family will not argue with my idea.

Have you tried making Homemade Soft Pretzels? Give this recipe a try. They are SO delicious!

Whole_Wheat_Soft_Pretzels

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Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins Become…Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread

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It happened last week as I was mixing up a triple batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin batter for the freezer. You’ve tried that by now right? Putting muffin batter into the freezer to help save time and so that you can have easy, fresh muffins? (Nope, I just can’t let it rest.)

Making a triple batch of the muffins was a great idea, as we eat at least 18 muffins at one time. However, a triple batch requires 3 muffin pans that hold 12 muffins each. I only have 2 muffin pans. Therefore, I filled my two muffin pans and put them into the freezer. I then poured the remaining batter into a bread pan, baked it for 50 minutes at 350°, and we ate it for breakfast the following morning. Update: I’ve since purchased these little gems, but still, this bread idea is a great one.

chocolate_bread_1

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Find the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe here.

It was a tasty experiment. I figured – banana bread makes good muffins. Apple bread makes good muffins. Surely chocolate chocolate chip muffins would make good bread. And so it did.

I used sour cream instead of milk, which if you recall, is a great substitution to make muffins and breads more moist. So very good. And even better when eaten with fresh berries.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread
 
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Author:
Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅓ cup sucanat
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • ⅔ cup milk or sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Stir together dry ingredients.
  2. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips.
  4. Pour into well-buttered loaf pan.
  5. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

 

chocolate_bread_2

Which do you prefer – muffins or quick bread loaves? Do you find that most recipes work for either/or?

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How To Make Muffins Moist and Fluffy

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Now that we know we can freeze muffin batter to make muffin baking even easier, let’s talk about how we can make them even more tasty! Today I am going to teach you how to make muffins moist and fluffy!

How to Make Muffins Moist and Fluffy

 

I love baking with whole wheat flour, but sometimes find that my muffins are a little heavier than those made with white flour. They also seem to get dry quickly (which isn’t usually a problem at my house because we eat them all right out of the pan, but still).

How to Make Muffins Moist and Fluffy

Recently I discovered that if I use sour cream in place of milk in a muffin recipe, I get a super moist, fluffy muffin! The switch is very easy. If a recipe calls for 3/4 cup of milk, I simply use 3/4 cup of sour cream instead. Occasionally, I need to add a bit more sour cream to moisten the muffin batter.

The first time I tried this idea (on Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins), I didn’t tell anyone in the family that I’d made a change. (And for the record, these were made from frozen batter that I’d set in the fridge the night before, yay!)  I served the muffins on a Sunday morning, which means that each of us were in and out of the kitchen at different times, grabbing breakfast as we had time. One by one, the boys found me getting ready for church and would ask, “Did you do something different with the muffins? They were better than ever!”

Aha! So they noticed. And they liked the change. Score!

I will be adding sour cream to muffins more often. And of course, I will forever and always be making the batter and freezing it ahead of time. Now I have moist, fluffy, tasty, healthy, and convenient muffins.

Confession time:  Who read the post about making muffin batter for the freezer and promptly went and mixed some up? Ever tried subbing sour cream for the milk in a muffin recipe?

Need More Muffins Recipes?

What is your favorite muffin recipe?Yum

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Breakfast Cake Muffins

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breakfast_cake_muffins

One reader, Kim, left a comment months ago sharing that she’d made my Breakfast Cake recipe into muffins instead of baking the batter into a cake. It sounded so good that I decided to try it right away!

And then I forgot. For months.

I think it’s actually been well over a year since she left that comment. That’s practically like trying the idea right away, right? Yeah, well…

Turns out these are an easy, yummy, freezable, on-the-go breakfast muffin that is hearty enough to keep us satisfied until lunchtime. Thanks for the idea, Kim! Next time you share a great idea like this one, I’ll try to get around to trying it before thirteen months go by. Sheesh.

Breakfast Cake MuffinsYum

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups whole rolled oats
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, melted
¾ cup buttermilk or milk
¾ cup honey or 1 cup sucanat
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit  (We like Enjoy Life Soy Free Chocolate Chips)

Stir together flour, oats, salt and baking soda. Add butter, buttermilk, honey, eggs, and vanilla. Fold in chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit.

Spoon batter into 18 paper lined muffin tins. Bake in a 400° oven for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Give these a try. Don’t wait a year like I did. :)

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

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 This recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins looked too good to pass up – and it was super easy to makeover with healthier ingredients. We all loved the results. (Except for Malachi, who didn’t try them because he doesn’t like peanut butter. He’s missing out!)

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Have a recipe you’d like me to try and make over?
Submit your recipes on this Real Food Recipe Makeover Submission Page.

It probably goes without saying that these muffins taste awesome with a glass of milk. They are easy to make ahead of time and serve the following day. (Although they really do taste best right out of the oven. Doesn’t everything?!)  These muffins freeze well. They make a great snack. I love recipes like this! It doesn’t get any easier!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
 
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Ingredients
  • 6 Tablespoons butter, melted
  • ½ cup natural peanut butter
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2¼ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅔ cup sucanat
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan, melt together the butter and the peanut butter.
  2. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sucanat.
  3. Add melted butter and peanut butter, eggs, and milk.
  4. Stir until well combined, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  5. Scoop batter into 18-24 paper lined muffin cups.
  6. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Notes:

  • I use homemade peanut butter. It is amazing, so if you haven’t tried your hand at making peanut butter, learn soon! You’ll love it and it’s much easier than you think!
  • I use freshly ground flour made from hard or soft white wheat. Soft wheat works best as it is lighter and fluffier (more like white flour – except still nourishing).
  • Make these muffins even more moist by subbing 1/2 cup of milk for 1/2 cup of sour cream.
  • Make these muffins ahead of time, freezing the batter like this. You’ll love this time-saving trick!
peanut_butter_cc_muffins_2

Are you a chocolate/peanut butter fan?

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Whole Wheat Quick Mix Biscuits

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Here’s another promised Whole Wheat Quick Mix recipe! When you have the Quick Mix put together and ready to go, it is so easy to throw these biscuits into the oven. And if you want, you can make Sausage Gravy to go with them. My family cheers when I make gravy for our biscuits!

Whole Wheat Quick Mix BiscuitsYum

2 cups Whole Wheat Quick Mix
2/3 cup milk

Mix ingredients together, adding additional whole wheat flour if necessary to form a nice bisuit dough that will roll out well.

Press or roll dough onto a well-floured surface. Cut with a biscuit cutter or round glass to shape biscuits. Place biscuits onto a baking stone or a well-buttered baking pan. Bake in a 450° oven for 10-12 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.

Makes 10 small biscuits.

quick_mix_biscuits

Here are other recipes you can make with Whole Wheat Quick Mix:

More Quick Mix Recipes found in the Oh For Real book:

  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Easy Fruit Cobbler
  • Garlic Cheese Drop Biscuits (like those you get at Red Lobster!)
  • More!

Have you ordered a copy of Oh, For Real: Real Food, Real Family, Real Easy yet? You’ll find all these recipes in the book – plus many more recipes and tips that will make your life easier as you work to feed your family a diet of real, whole foods!

I’m curious:  What’s your favorite way to eat a biscuit? Dripping with butter and honey? With gravy poured all over them? Slathered with jelly? Can you guess my favorite way to eat a biscuit?!  :)

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