Cooking Lessons for Dad

Cooking Lessons for Beginners

Orange Cake

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Yield: 2 - 8 inch cakes

Orange Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup white flour, unbleached
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup coconut milk, unsweetened
  • 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, thawed
  • 1/2 orange, large
  • 1/4 peel from large orange
  • 1/2 cup water, approximately

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 8 inch pans with parchment paper (cut to fit the pans).
  2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. Blend together the coconut milk, orange juice concentrate, orange, and orange peel.
  4. Blend in enough water to make the liquid mixture 2 1/2 cups total.
  5. Add the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix well. You can mix the batter by hand quickly or use an electric hand mixture and beat for it 20 to 25 seconds.
  6. Immediately pour the cake mixture into two 8 - inch round or square baking pans.
  7. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes. The cakes are done when they begin to brown and pull away from the sides of the pan. As well, a knife inserted into the center of the cakes should come out clean.
  8. When the cakes are done, let them cool about 10 minutes in the pan. Next remove the cakes from the pans. Store the cakes in plastic bags or plastic wrap to keep them moist. Decorate the cooled cakes as desired.

Notes

You can use all whole wheat flour (no white flour) and the cake will be denser.

For a lighter cake, use 1/2 cup unbleached white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour.

You can also use white whole wheat flour for a lighter color cake.

Wash the orange well since you are going to use part of the peel.

You can freeze these cakes in plastic bags. When you are ready to decorate the cake, remove them from the freezer and decorate.

For an amazing dessert, try the Pineapple-Orange Cake Filling recipe with this cake. Spread the filling between the layers. Top of the cake with whipped topping or more orange filling (or both!).

© Karen Breyer

 

Crockpot Peanut Butter and Flax Energy Bars

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Yield: 12 - 18 bars

Crockpot Peanut Butter and Flax Energy Bars

Ingredients

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt, Kosher
  • 1 3/4 cup flaxseed meal
  • Cooking spray

Instructions

  1. Spray the inside of the crockpot or slow cooker with cooking spray.
  2. In a bowl, mix together peanut butter, honey and salt.
  3. Stir the flax seed meal in with the peanut butter mixture.
  4. Press the mixture evenly in the bottom of the crockpot.
  5. With a fork, pull the mixture about 1/4” inch away from the edge of the crockpot.
  6. Cover the crockpot with two layers of paper towels and cover with the lid.
  7. Bake the bars on low about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours or until the edges are lightly browned. The bars should be soft. The top may still be moist until it cools.
  8. Let the bars cool for about 30 minutes.
  9. After the 30 minutes, cut the bars and remove them from the crockpot to continue to cool. The bars will become more firm as they cool. Serve.
  10. Serve.

Notes

You can make flax meal by grinding whole flaxseeds in a coffee grinder or blender.

You can use another type of salt if you so not have Kosher.

Instead of paper towels, you can cover the crockpot with a clean towel (no fabric softener on the towel).

Save leftover bars in an airtight container.

You may have to cook these bars longer or shorter depending on how hot your crockpot/slow cooker cooks.

© Karen Breyer

 

Banana Ice Cream

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Yield: 1 - 2 servings

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 1 - 2 bananas, ripe

Instructions

  1. Peel bananas and cut them into smaller, similar sized pieces.
  2. Put banana pieces in the freezer for several hours until they are frozen and hard.
  3. Blend the frozen bananas in a powerful blender or food processor.
  4. Continue blending the bananas until they are smooth and creamy like ice cream. It takes a little while to transform into ice cream consistency.
  5. You can now mix in additional ingredients if you would like. Serve now or freeze in an airtight container for later.

Notes

This banana ice cream is amazing plain but you can add other ingredients to make and endless number of different flavors.

Some optional ingredients you could add to your banana ice cream include:
Chocolate chips, nuts, peanut butter, honey, cinnamon, coconut, fresh or frozen fruit.

Try adding in my Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter to this banana ice cream for an amazing treat! You can find this recipe at Cookinglessonsfordad.com

Freeze bananas on a baking sheet (cover with plastic wrap or wax paper) or in a covered container.

Freeze bananas for several hours or overnight.

See a cooking demonstration of this Banana Ice Cream recipe on the Cooking Lessons for Dad YouTube channel.

© Karen Breyer

 

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter

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Yield: 3 cups

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts
  • 1 - 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt, to taste
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chilled chocolate chips (mini or regular)

Instructions

  1. Put chocolate chips in the freezer for about an hour or until cold.
  2. Add oil to blender or food processor. Add the peanuts.
  3. Blend until smooth. Start on low and then increase the speed to high.
  4. Slowly add remaining peanuts and blend until desired consistency.
  5. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and blend thoroughly.
  6. Add more salt as desired a little at a time.
  7. Pour in airtight container.
  8. Fold in the chilled chocolate chips. If you want chocolate swirls, stir in some room-temperature chocolate chips. The warm peanut butter will melt the chocolate. The more you stir, the more they will melt and swirl.
  9. Refrigerate the peanut butter until it is firm. In the first two hours of chilling, gently fold the chocolate chips up from the bottom of the container every now and then. Stir as little as possible.
  10. Store this chocolate peanut butter in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Notes

You can also use dark chocolate chips.

You can use raw peanuts instead of roasted if you want.

I like the taste of Kosher salt best.

When using a Vita-mixer, use tamper through lid opening and push the peanuts down towards the blades.

When using a regular blender (needs to be strong enough to blend nuts) stop periodically and scrape the peanut butter down the sides to help it along.

You can also use a food processor.

If using salted peanuts, reduce the salt to taste.

This peanut butter will stay fresh at least a month in the refrigerator.

See a cooking demonstration of this Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter recipe on the Cooking Lessons for Dad YouTube channel.

© Karen Breyer

 

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