Tag Archives: Oats
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Mini Muffins
It’s back to school time, but summer’s not over yet and there’s still plenty of summer squash available at the market. These chocolate chip zucchini mini muffins are packed with good for you oats, yogurt and zucchini, but enough chocolate to satisfy and fool the kids into happily eating their veggies. They make a perfect breakfast treat, lunch box snack or afternoon pick me up. 6-year old veggie hater approved and adults love them too!
Blueberry Tea Cake (gluten free)
- Blueberry Lemon Tea Cake – gluten free with oats and a bit of crunchy cornmeal
What are you going to do with all those gorgeous blueberries you found at the farmer’s market today… why not bake up a loaf of this Blueberry Tea Cake? It’s as gorgeous as it is delicious and just the perfect treat for an afternoon tea or served up with a side of yogurt or fresh whipped cream and even more berries for a lightly sweet breakfast or brunch treat. 
I have been experimenting a lot with gluten free baking lately and not because I’m allergic to wheat, but more because I think I have a sensitivity to it, and also because I think it’s simply better for my own body at least, to just eat less processed grains. My problem with a lot of gluten free baking recipes and packaged gluten free flour mixes is the addition of starches like potato or tapioca. I simply don’t like the slightly paste like texture that these starches seem to add to muffins, scones, etc, plus they are pretty low on fiber content and other nutrients. So, to that I’ve been using a lot of oatmeal and oats ground into a flour right in my bullet blender, just before using.
- oat flour, corn flour and corn meal, plus whole oats
I do love oats, add oats to a recipe and I’m a happy girl. Not only do I love the taste, texture and nutritional value oats bring, I find they work well in my system and that is always a good thing!
- lemon zest, natural cane sugar and coconut oil
I actually adapted this recipe for blueberry tea cake from my own (not gluten free), lemon chia tea cake. In this case, I made it gluten free and dressed it up with some beautiful juicy blueberries, when you flip the cake out of the loaf pan the bottom looks as if it’s been tie dyed by the sweet berries, so gorgeous!
- Blueberry (Tie Dyed) Tea Cake – gluten free
With the addition of buttermilk, this cake bakes up perfectly moist and tender. I also soak some rolled oats into the buttermilk (a trick I use in my oatmeal pancakes too), which adds to the lovely texture of the cake. If you want to make this dairy free, use your plant milk of choice, such as soy or almond and add the lemon juice right in with the oats, works perfectly. Continue reading
Blueberry Almond Oatmeal Scones with Blueberry Mascarpone
Blueberry Almond Scones topped with Blueberry Mascarpone
It occurs to me that maybe I should have named this blog Lemon & Oats or Oatmeal & Zest, considering how many of my recipes here include both oats and lemon. So, here’s one more for you… Blueberry Almond Oatmeal Scones, and yes they even have lemon zest! I really do love scones, probably even more than muffins or cookies, they make a tasty little breakfast treat or afternoon snack. They are delicious on their own or even better topped with a little cream cheese and jam, like the mascarpone cream cheese jam I used here. 
For a more substantial breakfast, serve with a side of yogurt and berries OR as a “breakfast dessert” with your eggs. Some people in my home have even been known to top theirs with a smear of peanut or almond butter, also quite tasty. If you’re a traditionalist or hail from the British Isles, you may question my use of the term scone here, but to me these are my perfect Americanized interpretation with a nice crumby texture, not too moist and not too dry. I use a lot less butter than many versions, but the yogurt adds extra moisture and a little tang, plus some protein to boot. I love scones with all kinds of mix ins and though the rest of my family will almost always opt for chocolate, I prefer a mix of fruit and nuts, which often leads to multiple versions being made all on the same morning! Blueberries and almonds are one of my favorite combinations, they just work well together and lemon zest adds a little bit of extra flair to the flavor. I use a combo of vanilla and almond extracts here, but you could easily go with all of one or the other if you prefer. A quick and easy recipe perfect for any lazy weekend morning. 
Blueberry Almond Oatmeal Scones
Author: Sweet Green Kitchen’s Jen Jones
Makes 16 scones
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 Tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup natural cane sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Zest of ½ lemon
3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter – cut into small cubes
1 extra large egg
½ cup plain yogurt (Greek or regular is fine, vanilla would be ok too, just a little sweeter)
¼ cup milk of your choice (I use plain soy milk, but cow, almond, etc should work just fine)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ cup slivered almonds
1 cup blueberries – fresh or frozen
Maple Drizzled Gingerbread Scones
Maple Drizzled Gingerbread Scones
maple gingerbread scones with maple drizzle
Happy 2015 to you all, and to start off the New Year, here’s another taste of the holiday season with these maple gingerbread scones. 
I love making gingerbread cookies this time of year, something I was introduced to when I spent my first Christmas Eve with Colin’s family way back when we met in college. A few years later, my mother in-law “faxed” (that gives you an idea of how very long ago this was…) me a recipe she found for a very traditional Scandanavian gingerbread complete with cardamom and then she gifted me my first jar of the very same spice, a rare and expensive find at the time. I’ve seen so many recipes for various gingerbread cookies, cakes, etc that do not include cardamom, but to me gingerbread just isn’t the same without. It is an intense spice, a very small amount is all you need and if it’s not to your taste or you have trouble finding it, you could certainly skip it. If you like Indian food, cardamom pods are those strange looking green things found in many restaurant’s “fragrant basmati rice”.
When I saw Pinch of Yum’s recipe for maple glazed gingerbread scones, I knew I just had to try them, since I both love gingerbread and scones! Of course I changed up the recipe a bit, adding oats as I seem to do with almost every baked good and of course adding in cardamom as I do with my gingerbread cookies (you’ll have to wait until next Christmas for that recipe!). I also cut back a bit on the butter and sugar and swapped out the milk for buttermilk. What you end up with is a dense, cakey textured scone (which is just perfect to me) with a good hit of spice. The scones themselves are just lightly sweet, so the maple drizzle adds a nice extra bit of moist sweetness without making them cloyingly so.
These maple gingerbread scones make a nice breakfast treat with a little side of yogurt if you like. Also perfect for an afternoon snack. I like to make mine with a heart shaped cookie cutter, but you could use a square or round cutter if you prefer or even just cut them by hand into squares or triangles.
Maple Drizzled Gingerbread Scones
Author: Sweet Green Kitchen’s Jen Jones
Adapted from “Pinch of Yum” Maple Glazed Gingerbread Scones
Makes about 11-12 scones
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
4 Tablespoons frozen unsalted butter – grated
1 extra large egg
¼ cup real maple syrup
¼ cup molasses
½ cup buttermilk (I use lowfat)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
sweetgreenkitchen 
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