Mmm… These delicious pumpkin spice pancakes are quickly becoming a weekend staple in our house… In fact, they’re so good that it’s very likely that I might not go back to making regular pancakes until next spring. {Not that I think anyone around here would mind.}
You know what I miss? Spending time cooking and baking with Miss G. Don’t get me wrong… We do still spend some time in the kitchen together, but definitely not as much as we used to. Back home in Canada we probably did a cooking or baking project once a day. So what’s changed? Well firstly, here in Kuwait, I tutor several afternoons/evenings a week which means dinner prep is often done while Miss G rests after lunch, but mostly, our kitchen here just isn’t very inviting. And when your kitchen is a dark converted bedroom way on the far end of the apartment, spending a lot of time in it just isn’t that high on the priority list. That being said, I’d really like to get back into it. Time to suck it up. Grae loves cooking, I love cooking, and with the weather getting hotter (it’s currently 38 degrees), spending a little more time indoors is starting to become a necessity.
Whenever Miss G and I have her very favourite homemade cheddar crackers out during play dates, our guests say two things – “yum!” and “how long did they take to cut out?!” I must admit, cutting out several baking sheets full of teeny tiny moons or hearts takes a loooooong time. And while most of the time I can muster up the energy, today I decided we’d take the easy route.
First up, we followed our recipe as usual and combined all of the ingredients into a soft cheesy dough using our food processor.
Then we placed the dough between two layers of parchment, rolled it out nice and thin, and used a pizza cutter to slice them into quick and easy squares.
I contemplated just placing the entire sheet onto a baking pan and cooking them in one big mass, but in the end, decided to scoop them up and flip them onto a pan while quickly separating them.
And because they reminded both Brad and I of Cheez-Its (one of the only ‘Americanized’ types of crackers available during our four years in Kuwait), I added the centre holes with one of our teeny dowels just for fun.
We baked them as usual, and even though little squares may be a little more on the boring side, they’re every bit as delicious!
♥
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A few months ago, I bought a cookbook for kids put out by the Mayo Clinic. Gracen loves flipping through the recipes and selecting new “projects” for us to try, and without fail, if I ask her what she thinks we should have for dinner, she’ll respond with, “Just a minute, Mama. Grae Grae checks recipes!” She’s had the book open to a recipe for chocolate raspberry scones for a couple of days now, so today we finally got around to whipping up our version of the recipe.
We went all out and used butter (I always replace butter and margarine with grapeseed or olive oil), but I justified it with the fact that it was organic butter and it was a pretty small amount. I just didn’t know if scones would have the proper texture without it. Though they aren’t very sweet {at all}, I’m happy to say that they are moist, tender, and perfect when paired with jam.
Here are our ingredients… Whole wheat flour, plain organic yogurt, baking soda, baking powder, organic butter, honey, frozen raspberries, vanilla, and a lemon.
We started by combining the dry ingredients.
Then we added the butter and cut it into the flour mixture with a fork because I could not for the life of me find my pastry cutter (perhaps I owned one in Kuwait, but not in Canada? Hmmm…)
Next, we added the frozen raspberries and lemon zest into the dry mixture and gently stirred them in.
Then, in a separate bowl, we mixed the yogurt, honey, lemon juice, and vanilla together.
Grae then poured the wet mixture into the dry mixture and gently stirred it until just combined.
Afterwards, we plopped in onto a piece of parchment paper, kneaded the dough a few times, and shaped it into a circle about an inch thick.
Our dough was pretty sticky at this point, and probably could have used a little extra flour, but we just went with it and cut it up into triangles.
Then we carefully moved the scones onto a parchment-lined sheet, and popped them in the oven to bake.
Voila! A delicious homemade snack or breakfast.
Wholewheat Raspberry Scones
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients well. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in the butter. Add the raspberries and lemon zest and stir gently.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just barely combined. Spill dough out onto a countertop and knead it a few times. Shape it into a circle that is approximately an inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut the circle into triangles, as you would a pizza.
Gently place the wedges onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 12 – 14 minutes.
Allow to cool and serve.
Enjoy!