Apple Walnut Honey Cake

This moist cake has that unique baked honey flavor, which is a combination of sweet and acidic.

Preheat oven to 325º

2 cups Arnel's Originals Make-a-Cake, your way Mix
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup coconut sugar or cane sugar

3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
1 cup honey

3 apples (peeled and cored) chopped in small chunks
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine the 4 dry ingredients
Beat the three wet ingredients and add it to the dry.
Fold in the apples and walnuts

Pour batter in a cake pan (square or round) or in a medium sized  loaf pan (8.5" x 4.5")
Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Mousse Pie

Preheat oven to 350º

CRUST 

~ 1 cup of Arnel's Originals All Purpose Flour and Pie Crust Mix
~ 1/4 cup softened butter (salted,) or healthy margarine, or coconut oil ( add 1/8 teaspoon sea salt)
~ 1/2 of a large egg, slightly beaten
~ 1 - 2 Table spoons of water

        • Combine with a fork so the mixture is crumbly
        • Add half an egg to the crumbly mixture. It should now hold together. If it doesn't, add 1 Tablespoon water.

• Gather the dough and place it in your pie pan.
• With waxed paper on top of the dough, press into your pie pan, spreading the dough evenly on the bottom and sides and fluting the edges to make it look appealing. (As an alternative, you could roll the dough between two pieces of waxed paper, peel one piece off, carefully flip the crust into the pie tin, peel off the second piece and press the dough into the pan. Don't be concerned that the pie crust has broken into pieces. It is very forgiving in the raw state and will connect well with its parts. )

• Pierce the bottom of the crust in a few places with a fork. (This prevents air from bubbling up under the crust and making little hills.)

• Bake empty crust for 15 minutes at 350º.
• Remove from oven and cool.

FILLING

~ 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate (about 10 oz.)
~ 16 oz of TruWhip defrosted (the organic healthy version of Cool Whip)
            Scoop out 1/3 cup of TruWhip and set aside for the topping
~ 1 teaspoon instant coffee or 1 teaspoon of expresso

• Melt semi-sweet chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir until all particles are melted.
• Add the chocolate to the 16 oz of TruWhip (not the other way around) minus the 1/3 cup 
• Add the coffee

• Fold the ingredients together until combined and spoon into the baked pie crust.
• Cool
• Spread the left over 1/3 cup of TruWhip on top and sprinkle with cocoa powder or sprinkles

Bring to room temperature before serving but store in the refrigerator

APPLE PIE with the best GLUTEN FREE Flakey Crust

PreHeat the oven to 425º.  Bake at 425º for 15 minutes then bake at 350º for 30 minutes more.

CRUST -  Bottom (See below for Top Crust instructions)

~ 2 cups of Arnel's Originals All Purpose Flour and Pie Crust Mix
~ 1/2 cup softened butter (salted,) or healthy margarine, or coconut oil ( add 1/4 teaspoon sea salt)
~ 1 lg egg slightly beaten
~ 1 - 2 Tablespoons of water if needed

•  Combine with a fork so the mixture is crumbly
• Add egg to crumbly mixture. It should now hold together. If it doesn't, add 1 Tablespoon water.

• Gather a bit more than half the dough mixture and place it in your pie pan.
• With waxed paper on top of the dough, press into your pie pan, spreading the dough evenly on the bottom and sides and fluting the edges to make it look appealing. (As an alternative, you could roll the dough between two pieces of waxed paper, peel one piece off, carefully flip the crust into the pie tin, peel off the second piece and press the dough into the pan. Don't be concerned that the pie crust has broken into pieces. It is very forgiving in the raw state and will connect well with its parts. )

• Pierce bottom of crust with a fork, making several air holes.

CRUST - Top
• Between two pieces of waxed paper, roll out remaining dough in a circle, about one inch larger in diameter than the top rim of the pie pan. Set aside.

APPLE PIE FILLING

~ 8 cups of thinly sliced apples, peeled and pared (About 6 tart apples)
       (If your apples are of a sweet variety like Delicious, add a tablespoon of lemon juice)
~ 1 cup sugar
~ 1/4 cup Arnel's Originals All Purpose Flour
~ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
~ 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
~ dash of sea salt

          • Mix these ingredients together and pour into the raw pie crust
          • Top the mixture with 3 Tablespoons of butter, margarine, or coconut oil

And now for the TOP CRUST

• Carefully peel one sheet of waxed paper off of the top crust and gently flip the exposed side onto the Apple Pie Filling.
• Pinch the top and bottom crusts together and place on the bottom rack of the oven.

Bake at 425º for 15 minutes. 
Then turn the heat down to 350º and bake for 30 to 35 minutes more.

Pumpkin Bread (walnuts) with All Purpose Flour Mix

The flavor and texture of this sweet pumpkin bread is out-of-this-world.

~ 1 1/2 cups Arnels Originals All Purpose Flour
~ 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
~ 1 teaspoon cinnamon
~ 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
~ 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
~ 1/2 cup brown sugar
~ 1/2 cup cane sugar

~ 2 eggs
~ 1/4 cup oil
~ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
~ 1 cup (half a can) pumpkin

• Stir the dry ingredients
• Beat the wet ingredients
• Combine them both and beat for 5 minutes.

• Fold in 1/2 cup of raw walnuts or other nuts (optional)
• Pour batter into a small greased loaf pan

Bake 350º for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

*If you want to double the recipe, use two loaf pans or a 9 x 9" square pan. Don't use one large loaf pan (a 5" x 9") because it will take a very long time for the dough to cook in the center.

**For Zucchini Bread, substitute 1 cup of grated zucchini for the pumpkin

Buckwheat Bread, YEAST FREE

The benefits of a yeast bread is that it produces a beautifully brown crunchy crust. When yeast is an issue, however, there are alternatives to getting the bread to rise nicely and our favorite is using equal parts of baking soda and lemon juice. 

For this bread, add 2 teaspoons of fresh baking soda to the dry ingredients and 2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice to the bread dough at the last minute, after the dough is mixed. Put the dough in a medium sized loaf pan (8.5" x 4.5") and bake at 350º right away. Do not let it rise before baking the bread like you would with yeast. 

The rising happens because of a chemical reaction that occurs between the baking soda, which is alkaline (a base) and and the juice of a lemon, which is acidic.

This yeast alternative doesn't produce a crust, but it is delicious and can be used as a sandwich bread none the less.

Buckwheat Bread Mix (Sandwich Buns) (OTHER Flavor ALTERNATIVES)

Basically, you can add any of the following to the raw bread dough to create a variety of unique flavors and textures:

1 cup of dried herbs, or
1/2 cup fresh herbs, or
1/4 cup of chopped sautéed garlic, or
1/2 cup cooked diced onions, or
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, etc to the bread dough after it is mixed.

Because the balance of wet to dry ingredients in the bread mix is important to maintain, it is not advisable to add foods that would upset this balance. For instance, it is not a good idea to add mashed banana, or any fresh fruit to the dough.

To make sandwich buns, use an old fashioned ice cream scoop and pile a couple of scoops of dough on top of each other. on a greased cookie sheet. A 13 oz package of Buckwheat Bread Mix makes 26 oz of raw dough and approximately 8 sandwich buns.       

Buckwheat Bread / SEEDS and/or NUTS

We chose to make Arnel's Originals Buckwheat Bread with roasted sunflower seeds, raw sesame seeds, and roasted pumpkin seeds but you can use any seeds and/or nuts with delightful results.  Nuts and seeds add protein, crunch, and fiber to your loaf of buckwheat bread which is very satisfying when you chew, if you like that texture. It's one of my favorites.

When the basic wet and dry ingredients are mixed for 5 minutes, add 1 & 1/2 cups of the nuts and seed of your choice. Put it all in a medium sized loaf pan (8.5" x 4.5") and let rise until double in size, about 30 minutes. Move the dough around until you make a slight hill down the center and sprinkle with more seeds. Bake for the usual 30 minutes at 350º.

Cool for an hour before slicing.

Buckwheat Bread, EGG FREE (Flax Gel)

Making Arnel's Originals Buckwheat Bread Mix without egg is easiest using  flax gel, which is something you make, not buy. Here's how:

Take 1 Tablespoon of flax meal and mix it with 3 Tablespoons of boiling water and set it aside. (It's a good idea to cover it while gelatinizing.) In 5 to 10 minutes, it will gelatinize and have the consistency of a slippery egg white.

Follow the directions on Arnel's Originals Buckwheat Bread Mix package and when it comes time in the recipe to add an egg, add this flax-gel mixture instead. The loaves of bread will be delicious and moist but when it cools, the eggless loaf will be slightly shorter in height as the loaves with an egg. Below are two loaves made with a very sophisticated bread machine from Japan called Zojirushi, one with an egg (on the right)  and one without an egg (on the left).

For another EGG FREE alternative, see the post on this blog for Sour Dough Bread using Arnel's Originals Buckwheat Bread Mix

Buckwheat Bread / CINNAMON RAISIN

Making Cinnamon Raisin Bread using Arnel's Originals Buckwheat Bread Mix is easy and delicious!

After adding the yeast, oil, egg, very warm water, and apple cider vinegar to the 13 oz mix and blended for 5 minutes, add:

1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Let bread rise in a warm place (110º) until double in size (about 30 minutes) and bake at 350º for 30-33 minutes.