Buckwheat & Oats

The little young man and I had a very long baking session which lasted for 5 hours. We made cupcakes (as usual!), buckwheat crackers and oat crunchies.

We made lemon and orange cupcakes.

The moment it was warm, the little young man helped himself to them!

Here's the recipe for the lemon cupcakes. If you can tolerate lemons and oranges, (I can't. I bake them for my family.) these cupcakes are yummy to the tummy!

Cupcakes recipe

Buckwheat crackers

Ingredients:

1. Buckwheat flour (200g)
2. High protein unbleached bread flour (400g)
3. 1/2 teaspoon of sea-salt
4. 1/2 cup of cold water

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1. Pour the sieved flours into a large bowl.

2. Add the salt.

3. Add the cold water and knead till smooth.

4. Break the dough up into about 7 small balls.

5. On an aluminium foil, place a small ball of dough on it.

6. Add some flour over the balls and roll them flat with a rolling pin.

7. Pre-cut the crackers before baking them.

8. Bake at 190C for about 30 minutes or until crispy.

9. Once the crackers are cool, break them into pieces.

All lined-up, waiting to go into the oven.

Crispy buckwheat crackers

Oat Crunchies

Ingredients:

1. Organic rolled oats and baby rolled oats (500g)
2. Brown sugar (1/4 cups)
3. Sunflower oil (1/4 cups)
4. 2 eggs

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1. Pour oats, brown sugar, eggs and sunflower oil into large bowl.

2. Mix all ingredients until equally blended.

3. Spoon into tiny paper cups.

4. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes.

5. Serve once they are cool. You can refrigerate the rest in an airtight container.

Before baking

Rows of freshly baked oat crunchies

Going Bananas Over Bananas

We spent the whole day baking. And we made cupcakes (AGAIN!) due to popular demand by a little young man. We made crackers again. And we experimented in making banana crackers. The sides were crispy, but the texture of the middle parts were like roti canai. I am not complaining, but it would have been nice if all of them turned out crispy. But the little young man enjoyed them. We also attempted banana chips. But they did not turn out crispy. They turned out chewy instead.

Here is the recipe for the banana crackers.

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cup flour (1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, high protein bread flour and whole-meal flour)
2. 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3. 3 tablespoons of butter
4. About 6 tablespoons of cold water
5. 2 large bananas

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1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl.

3. Add the butter into the bowl and mix the ingredients until it resembles bread crumbs.

4. Mash the bananas and add it into the mixture.

5. Add the cold water and mix the dough until the mixture forms a compact ball. If it is crumbly, add more water. If it is too sticky, add more flour.

6. Divide the dough into 4 to 6 round balls.

7. Put a ball of dough onto a baking sheet and roll it until it is evenly flat. The thinner it is, the crispier the crackers will be.

8. You can use a pizza cutter to pre-cut the crackers before putting them into the oven. I used a butter knife. Use a fork to poke holes into the flattened dough.

9. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until it is brown.

10. Once it is cool, break the crackers into pieces.

Recipe for banana chips.

1. Preheat oven to 90C. Coat baking tray/foil with a thin layer of butter.

2. Slice bananas thinly (about 1/8") and place on baking tray.

3. Bake for about 2 hours + or until brown and crispy.

Banana cupcakes with sprinkles (by the little young man)

Wholemeal crackers

Cupcakes, Cupcakes and MORE Cupcakes! And Crackers Too!

My little young man got back his appetite all of a sudden after indulging in my home-made banana cupcakes. He has been talking non-stop about cupcakes, eating cupcakes for breakfast, morning tea, afternoon tea and supper, breathing cupcakes and most likely dreaming about cupcakes at this very moment!

I baked a smaller batch yesterday and Joel finished everything by this morning's breakfast! I made banana cupcakes yesterday. It is salicylate-free if you do not add the sprinkles on the top. Here is the recipe for the banana cupcake.

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Ingredients:

1. 3 tablespoons of butter
2. 2 tablespoons of refined brown sugar
3. 2 large eggs
4. 3 large bananas
5. 1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
6. Sprinkles (optional)

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1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add in one egg at a time and beat it well.

3. Mash the bananas and add them into the creamed mixture.

4. Beat them well.

5. Add the sifted flour a bit at a time and continue to beat it well.

6. Fill the paper cupcakes with the batter.

7. You can add some sprinkles on top if desired.

8. Bake them in pre-heated oven of 190C. Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly browned.

Enjoy your cupcakes!

The plain cupcakes are salicylate-free

The little young man made these today. He prepared all the paper cups, mixed the ingredients, beat the ingredients well and did the sprinkling. All I did was to scoop the batter into the cups and put them into the oven to bake and to take them out. He even helped a lot in the 'eating part'!

We made lemon and banana cupcakes today. If you are able to tolerate lemons (I cannot tolerate them at all), you can replace the bananas with the rind of 1 lemon and juice of 1 lemon.

Cupcakes galore! Lemon cupcakes (in front container) and banana cupcakes (in container next to casserole).

I managed to bake wholemeal crackers yesterday. I used a bit less butter than the original saltine crackers recipe. I find that it has its own unique taste. And I have to stop pigging out on crackers and work more in the garden. If not, I'll be looking like cupcakes SOON!

Just replace the all-purpose flour with wholemeal flour and you're all set to bake wholemeal crackers!

Here's the link to my salicylate-free salt crackers:

Salicylate-Free Salt Crackers Recipe



Bon Appetit!