I know this is labeled ‘cake’ yet it has no sugar. Why? Because it is a savory cheeseCAKE. I didn’t think this was that revolutionary of an idea. Yes, a fantastic idea, but not THAT revolutionary. But the wine party I catered thought it was revolutionary. The guests were marveling over the idea of a cheesecake WITHOUT sugar and NOT for dessert. Skeptical at first, but they were sold within 1 bite. I am not saying that to ‘toot my own horn.’ I’m saying that because I kept getting compliment after compliment about them. I walked away from that party with a big smile on my face. Well done Julia!

Oh, and you know it is always a sign oh how good the food is when people don’t eat the fruit garnish (grapes and strawberries) and keep digging into the salty, fatty, deliciousness. Again, I was happy and had a smile on my face.

I made 3 savory cheesecakes and this is just the first post of the 3, so get excited for more to come…These would be a GREAT appetizer for Easter.

You can eat these in 2 ways:
1. cut a little slice and dig in with a fork
2. spread your slice on crackers or bread slices

The cheesecake is great as an appetizer or side dish. It is sort of like an alternative form of a dip. I love all the different varieties of dips out there: spinach and artichoke, french onion, dill, hummus, etc…But they don’t look super pretty on the table at a fancy party. Savory cheesecakes do look fancy and are very impressive.

One quick note, so you don’t get worried if this happens to you: the cheesecake with be crumbly. Because of all the toppings in it the small pieces that are sliced for appetizers crumble. However, this does not stop anyone from eating it and loving it. So don’t get worried when yours is crumbly. But if you cut the cheesecake into 12 large slices it won’t really crumble. Try using a small pie slicer/server. So it is thick enough to move the slice from the serving plate to the personal plate. And make sure the knife you are using has a sharp edge. Both of those things will help minimize the crumbles. Okay, that is the only disclaimer.

Serves 15-25 appetizers sized portions
Cheesecake
1 1/4 cups seasoned bread crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
4 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup sliced drained sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
1/2 cup Chopped fresh basil
2 Cloves garlic, minced
Garnish
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Directions
Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, mix bread crumbs and butter until well blended. Press evenly in bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Increase heat to 400 degrees. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add whipping cream and eggs; beat until creamy. Stir in mozzarella cheese, parmesan, tomatoes, garlic and basil until well blended. Spoon evenly over crust in pan.

Bake 15 minutes at 400 minutes then lower the temp to 300 and bake for 1 hour or until center is set. Turn off the temp and crack the oven door and leave cheesecake in the oven for 30 minutes. Cool completely at room temperature.

Run a knife around the edges to loosen. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours before servings. Remove side of pan.

To serve, top the cheesecake with the garnish and cut into thin wedges to spread on crackers or eat just the way it is!

If you love the idea of savory cheesecakes, but would rather buy one then make one, you can! There is a company that focuses strictly on savory cheesecakes. Wicked Kickin’ Cheesecakes has tons of flavor combinations. They are super nice too!

The $50 machine is electronic and pretty much fool proof.

Breakfast: almost 2 cups of some kind of berries and 1 jar of yogurt. I look forward to my breakfast every morning because I know I am giving my body all natural life giving nutrients with NO chemicals, additives or sweeteners.

This meal gave me that grin. I have never made a homemade veggie burger or polenta before. So I was a tad bit nervous. I was also nervous because friends were coming over for dinner, to eat my experimental meal. The couple coming over has specific eating restrictions: the wife is vegetarian and the husband is gluten free. Which isn’t crazy difficult, but I think people assuming that if someone is vegetarian, just make a veggie filled pasta and a salad and call it a day. Ya, well that won’t fly with a gluten free diet. And, knowing myself, I won’t just go by brown rice pasta to make it a gluten free meal. I will go over the top and make my own veggie burgers and fries. Healthy, delicious, picky diet friendly, vegetable hater friendly, meat lover friendly.

Sometimes my husband won’t even touch some of the veggie stuff I make. Or he will take 1 bite and say, “this isn’t your best dish,” and he won’t finish it. But not this one, he finished it. He said he didn’t love it, but he finished it, which means it was good just not a real burger so he didn’t love it. The 3 of us on the other hand devoured ours, and gluten free husband went back for seconds on the burger (we all went back for seconds on the fries). So I would say my experimental vegetarian/gluten free meal was a HIT and totally worth of a Meatless Monday meal.

Tofu and Bean Burgers
makes 6 veggie brugers
1 15 ounce cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 14 ounce packages firm tofu, drained and patted dry
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup chopped mushrooms (Chop them into little pieces, but not minced)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garlic
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
hamburger buns, lettuce, tomato, cheese, grilled onions

Place beans and tofu in a food processor; process until fairly smooth. Add flour, egg, cornmeal, cumin, cilantro, salt, pepper and garlic. Process until well combined. Stir in the mushrooms.
Spoon mixture into 6, slightly flattened, balls on individual pieces of parchment paper and put on a large plate and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours before cooking.
*The mixture WILL be sticky. I just sort of formed them into shapes that slightly resembled some sort of round object and placed them on little individual sheets of parchment paper (I cut squares that were about 3×3 inches). If you put them on their own little square of parchment, it helps when you put them in the pan. Kind of the same effect as those hamburger patties you buy at the store with sheets of paper in between? You got it.

Heat a skillet pan over medium heat. Coat pan with non stick spray. Form each ball into a 4-inch patty about 1/2-inch thick. Place the patties in pan and cook until browned and heated through.
*To heat them through, I cook the patties on the skillet with the lid on for about 12 minutes on the first side. Then I flipped them and cooked them with the lid on for about another 10 minutes. Trick: Put the burgers on when the fries go in the oven. Your meal will all be done at the same time!

Polenta Fries

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup of water
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

In a saucepan, bring the water and the milk to a boil, add the polenta and stir frequently (The mixture will get very thick, just muscle through it).
Reduce heat to low and let polenta simmer, about 10-15 minutes. Stir every few minutes to make sure polenta does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Add the mozzarella, garlic, and salt & pepper about 2 minutes before you will take the polenta off the heat..
Cover a cookie sheet (9×13) with parchment paper. Pour the polenta on to the paper and spread out with a spatula. Let cool down for about 5 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for another 60-90 minutes.
*Don’t skip this step. The polenta becomes firm in the fridge which makes you able to cut them into the frie shape and they will still hold up to it. If you miss this step the polenta will break apart and you wont get fries, you will get crumbly polenta pieces.

Preheat your oven to 450ºF.

Take the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and cut it in strips (about 14 inch wide and 3 inches long).
Place the polenta strips on the sheet and spray with Extra Virgin olive oil.
Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes or until golden brown, turn once after 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with a little salt & pepper and serve!

Cilantro Aioli (Lightened up)
2 tbsp reduced fat mayo
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
2 tsp chopped cilantro
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and spread on the burgers and use it to dip with the fries.

Or you can go bunless, and make this a completely gluten free meal. That’s what my friend did, and it still looks so tasty!!

2 things that are on my daily menu are maple syrup and either pecans or walnuts. How do I incorporate them into my diet, everyday? Easy. Maple syrup sweetens my coffee and walnuts and/or pecans are a snack throughout the day. Combining the 2, ingenious!

I have made candied pecans before, but never maple walnuts. It didn’t seem that hard though:

3 cups walnuts
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
pinch black pepper

Throw all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Stirring every minute or so. You know when they are done because the stickiness becomes thicker and stickier. Real technical description, I know.

Pour the glazed nuts onto a sheet of parchment paper and let them cool. Once they cool you can break apart any chunks.

*If you want chopped walnuts, you can chop the nuts before or after you glaze them with the maple.

I was EXTREMELY pleased with how these came out. They have a distinct maple flavor and ooze of a rich nutty butter taste. Even though there isn’t any butter or oil added. As the walnuts warm in the saucepan the natural oily favors are extracted. And oh man, the taste tingles your taste buds!

There are a few ways I plan on eating this batch of maple walnuts:

served over a wedge of brie with some crackers as an appetizer

topped on a baked sweet potato

Or just by the handful into my mouth. I may spend the entire day snacking on these. Like I said, maple and walnuts are 2 of my favorite things!

These would be a great addition to your Easter appetizers. You know how grandma always has a little bowl of mixed nuts n the table? Make these instead, everyone will be impressed!

Say hello to my second batch of homemade girl scout cookies, HELLO!!

Last week I posted Samoas/Caramel DeLites, my FAVORITE!

This year I decided no more buying girl scout cookies. They are pumped with chemicals and preservatives, hence the waxy coating on the outside. And they are cookies, just cookies. Which means I can for sure make them. And thin mints don’t seem that hard. Cookies and chocolate coating, not too difficult. So I went exploring for a thin mint recipe. I didn’t have to go far before I found one on 101 Cookbooks. Of course Heidi has made them! She makes great vegetarian recipes and also desserts so I knew it was a trusted recipe.

In the recipe it says to roll out the dough on a floured surface and use a cookie cutter to cut out circles. I got lazy (I really just hate cleaning up paste-y flour from my counter tops). So I divided the dough into 2 balls. Rolled each ball into a log about 1 1/2 inches thick and wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for about an hour. Then I just cut slices of the log to make the cookie disks.
*When you do this, roll the log every 2 or 3 slices. This will prevent 1 edge of the cookies from becoming flat. It will help keep a rounded log/cookie.

No, the cookies weren’t all the exact size or perfectly round like a true thin mint or like they would be if I used cookie cutters. But let’s be honest, we eat these things by the dozen so we don’t even have time to notice the small imperfections. Well, at least I don’t If I was giving these away as a gift to someone, I may take the time to roll them out and use a cookie cutter. But for the purpose of quickly inhaling them because they smell so wonderful, perfection is obsolete.

Recipe From 101 Cookbooks

Just go to her website and follow the directions exactly. When it comes to the part where you can roll the dough in a ball and place it in the freezer, this is when you can roll it into the log and freeze it for slicing. Either way, these cookies will fill your house with a fantastic chocolate, butter, mint aroma. To-Die-For!!!!

Oh, and my pictures suck. I have become so much better at food photography. Not to be confused though, I am by NO MEANS calling myself a good photographer. I have just improved.

For how impressive these are in taste, the pictures sure don’t capture it. But oh well, what can I do? Oh, I can make them again, REAL soon and take better pictures. Done and Done!

I have always loved carrots. Even in my super duper picky childhood/teens years I could gobble down tons of them. Most days while I am sitting at my desk at work I eat an entire bag of baby carrots. And I am not talking about the little snack bag that you send your kids to school with in hopes they will get some veggies into their system. I’m talking about the bag that most people buy to last them the entire week.

When I saw this recipe my jaw almost dropped. WHAT. A Carrot Sandwich. Get out! Oh, with goat cheese none the less. I was speechless. A stinken sandwich left me speechless. Obviously this meant I had to make it immediately. But as I approached the recipe I became lazy, very very lazy. So I ended up making the marinated carrots, but 86′d the olive tapenade. Instead I mixed some avocado in the goat cheese. Wow, delicious. The spices and flavor of the marinade is just intense (like nothing I have ever tried, and I now have a new love of Moroccan flavors). And the creamy nuttiness of the goat cheese avocado mix is the perfect balance of the sweet, tangy, spicy (flavorful, not hot) carrots. I am stoked I made it the way I did because it was so delicious.

Makes 6 sandwiches
For carrots
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb medium carrots (8)

For sandwiches
12 slices bread (I used some 100 calorie sandwich rounds I had on hand)
4 oz soft mild goat cheese (1/2 cup) at room temperature
1 avocado

Directions
Prepare carrots:
Whisk together sugar, lemon juice, spices, salt, and oil in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved.

Using a food processor, or grater, thinly slice the carrots. Toss with dressing. Marinate, covered and chilled in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
*I marinated them overnight.

Assemble sandwiches:
Mash the avocado and mix it with the goat cheese.

Spread goat cheese mix on 6 slices of bread top with carrots and the remaining slice of bread.
*If you spread the goat cheese thinly enough, add it to each piece of bread. YUM!

I served this sandwich (open face) at a girl’s brunch along side a bunch of other delicious treats. It was fabulous! The girl’s brunch post will be coming soon…

I don’t make M&M cookies at home though. The only reason; I will eat them all. They are my weakness. My guilty pleasure. My comfort dessert. M&M’s and Peanut M&M’s are my favorite candy. I am just a sucker for anything with them in it. 2 years ago on Christmas my sister-in-law gave my bro-in-law a huge bag of peanut M&M’s in his stocking. Guess how long they lasted? Less then 2 days. Yep, I ate my brother-in-law’s Christmas present in less then 48 hours. Moral of the story: You can’t leave me alone with M&M products.

2/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup green m&m’s

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray non stick spray in a 13×9 inch glass dish.
In a small bowl combine the flour, egg, baking soda.
Mix the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Add in the egg, mix well. Then add in the vanilla extract.
Mix in the M&M’s into the batter. Pour the batter into the glass dish and bake for 30-35 minutes. Until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool to room temperature then cut into bars.

UPDATE

A little over 2 months ago we found out we had a miscarriage. The type of miscarriage we had is called a blighted ovum. I received so many responses that were so encouraging. I also received a few responses from women who were going through the same thing around the same time. I am so sorry for the pain you have gone through as well, it’s awful, I know!!! I am glad I shared about the miscarriage on here. But I think I need to update you, just in case you are wondering

I had the d&c (the surgery to remove the remaining tissue) on January 26th. Everything went really well. Some people have pain for weeks following the surgery. I only had pain for a day or 2. I decided to find some blogs about how to loose the weight after a d&c. I was pregnant, so I gained weight. And unfortunately I gained way too much because I felt so sick and the only thing that somewhat helped the nauseousness was carbs. Good old complex unhealthy carbs. I gained 10 pounds in 2 months, ridiculous, but oh well. 2 weeks after the d&c I got the stomach flu. Well, if that isn’t a weight loss plan, I don’t know what is. That helped me dropped 5 lbs, immediately. Since then I have started training for a half marathon which is getting me back in shape. In case you think training for something will help you loose weight, think again. You are ravenously hungry most of the time, FYI. Yes, your cardio and muscles are toned and healthy, you just might not loose those extra 3 lbs you were hoping too.

Within 2 weeks of the surgery my body started to feel normal again. The pregnancy symptoms started to go away and I was feeling like myself. I was so excited to have energy to exercise, cook, bake, get up in the morning. It was great. But of course I still had the little lingering thought that in August we won’t have our baby. As the weeks have progressed the hurt isn’t as strong. But there are random reminders of what we went through, and when those reminds come up, I am taken back for just a few moments. I take a minute to make sure I hold my composure and then I move on. I don’t want this to cripple us. And it hasn’t.

My body is 100% back to normal and hopefully in the next few months we will be able to get pregnant again. My doctor kept reminding me that we aren’t dealing with infertility (I guess I looked worried about it, but I wasn’t). We had a miscarriage, which sucks. But it doesn’t equal infertility. So we need to remember that and not get stressed that we won’t be able to get pregnant quickly again. As great as it would be to get pregnant immediately again, I understand the reality. We are hopeful it will happen quickly, but realistic that sometimes this takes time. And that is okay.

I would lie if I said we weren’t nervous about a future pregnancy. We are nervous we will miscarry again and have to experience this all over again. And we might. But we have decided we won’t let that prevent us from trying. We will adopt one day too. Adoption has been put heavily on my heart and I can’t wait to do it one day. So if pregnancy doesn’t work for the first one, hopefully adoption will. In any case, we will have kids at some point and we are so excited for that day. We will be married 6 years in June, and hope that by our 7 year anniversary we will have a baby. In the meantime we are praying for our future family and looking forward to what God has in store for us…

On weekend mornings I still wake up early like I do during the week. Which gives me lots of time to bake, blog, catch up on recorded T.V. shows and drink plenty of coffee. I make a quick trip to the grocery store most Fridays just to ensure I have enough supplies to get me through the weekend: flour, butter, sugar, eggs. The basics. Last weekend I almost freaked out. It was Sunday morning and all I had in the house for baking was 3 eggs, a couple cups of flour and a little brown sugar. No butter. Shoot. I really wanted to make shortbread, and well, that just wasn’t going to happen. So I quickly decided I would make a muffin of some kind. I am not a huge blueberry muffin fan. Yes, they are good. But I don’t love them. You know what I LOVE? Carrot Cake. I was going for an 8 mile run that morning, so a muffin would be the perfect pre-run and post-run quick snack. I was pumped to make my mock carrot cake muffin.

Side thought: I throw around the word love and hate too much. No, I do not love carrot cake like I love my husband. And no, I don’t hate escargot like I hate rape and murder. Okay, just so we are on the same page.

I quickly did a google search for carrot muffins. I looked up from my computer (I was sitting at the kitchen table) into the kitchen and could see I also had 1 banana that was the perfect brown speckle color for bread. Now I wanted something will carrot and banana. And while I am being particular, I also wanted it to have walnuts, whole wheat flour and be low fat. Hmm, I might be a little too finicky. But I am going for it, I am going to be finicky dang it. In my search, this is the recipe I came across, by none other then Martha Stewart herself. I used it as my reference but heavily modified it.

After I modified it I realized this is a great base for a muffin recipe. You could substitute many ingredients for the ones I used and ‘build your own muffin.’

Carrots –> zucchini, shredded raw sweet potato
Banana –> cooked and mashed: pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash, avocado
Walnuts –> pecans, almonds, pine nuts, hazelnuts (pretty much any nuts)
Currants –> chocolate chips, any dried fruit: craisins, blueberries, apricot, dates

I think the variety I might go for next is: Zucchini, Butternut Squash, Pecan,and Date. All together in 1 muffin. Random, I know.

Makes 12 muffins or 1 loaf

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin-pie spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups plain non fat yogurt
4 tablespoons applesauce
1 large egg
2 cups peeled, shredded carrots (about 5 medium)
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Line 12 cups (each 2 1/2 inches wide) of a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
*Or you can spray non stick spray int he muffin tins instead of using liners, that’s what I did.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, pumpkin-pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, applesauce, banana and egg. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add yogurt mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in carrots, currants, and walnuts.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake in a 375-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These would be great spread with butter, peanut butter, apple butter, pumpkin butter. Pretty much anything that has ‘butter’ in it would be great spread on the muffins.

Last weeks dinner was sub par. I thought it was fine, but Jon hated it. It was chili, with no meat. Lots of beans and mushrooms for texture, and a side of cornbread. Again, I liked it and if there would have been meat in it, I bet he would have liked it too He is getting used to the idea of not having meat on that one day, it is an adjustment for him, for sure. But we will continue on, persevere on this journey.

This Monday will be different. Creative ways to incorporate veggies is my goal. Like this Roasted Vegetable Terrine. Delicious. My friend Bonnie ate it and said, “This is the best thing in my life.” She said it with eggplant and cheese practically falling out of her mouth b/c she was inhaling it (it is that good). You can make it on Sunday and enjoy it on Monday. In fact, if there are only 2 of you in your house, this is enough for each of you to have some for lunch and dinner.

I think a lot of people get stuck on what to eat if they aren’t eating meat. They automatically assume it will be a meal filled with carbohydrates: pasta, rice, pizza. It doesn’t have to be. But I understand that it is hard to think outside of the box. Maybe the ideas below will help you think creatively about removing some of the meat from your diet and replacing it will flavorful produce.

Here are some lunch and dinner ideas to compliment the Roasted Vegetable and Goat Cheese Terrine:
Roasted Pear Salad
Pizza: Margherita, Greek or Butternut Squash
Sweet Potato Raviolis

I got the idea for the terrine from Once Upon a Plate. Beautiful pictures!!

Roasted Vegetable and Goat Cheese Terrine
Makes 8 slices
1 eggplant
Olive oil cooking spray
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 large red bell peppers, roasted
1 large yellow bell pepper, roasted
3 large zucchinis, sliced lengthwise
5 tomatoes
6 ounces goat cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste (you won’t need a ton of salt and pepper though. Roasting the vegetables brings out tons of flavor)

Remove both ends of eggplant; slice eggplant lengthwise into 8 slices. Place eggplant on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Coat eggplant with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt and pepper (only a little). Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven; brush with balsamic vinegar, and set aside to cool.

Place sliced zucchini on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Bake at 450° for 12 minutes. Brush with balsamic vinegar and set aside.

Cut the ends off of the tomatoes and slice them in third. Season with salt and pepper. Place on a foiled lined baking sheet, seed side down and roast for 25 minutes at 450 degrees. Remove from the oven and cool.

Combine goat cheese, parmesan, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, and basil leaves in a bowl. Stir in ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Line an 8- x 4-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, allowing edges of plastic to overhang.
*Make sure all your veggies are at room temperature or only slightly warm when you start to layer your terrine.

Gently press 3 eggplant slices crosswise into loaf pan, balsamic side up (facing you), allowing top of slices to be even with pan. Press 1 slice up against sides of each end of loaf pan, allowing top of slice to be even with pan (you are essentially living the pan with eggplant slices).

Spread half of cheese mixture over eggplant; top with yellow pepper and half of the zucchini slices. Spread the remaining half of the cheese mixture over the zucchini. Repeat procedure with remaining veggies: zucchini, peppers, tomatoes. Top with remaining slices of eggplant, balsamic side down.
*It doesn’t matter the order it is layered in. The point is to have layers of roasted veggies and cheese.

Cover with plastic wrap that is hanging over the sides, and place a weight on plastic wrap. (We used 3 cans of soup.) Chill in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight (I chilled it for about 1 hour and it tasted great, so if you don’t have the time to chill it for 8 hours, don’t let that stop you from making this.)

Uncover and invert loaf onto a cutting board; carefully remove plastic wrap.
*It comes out of the pan really easily and holds it form really well. So don’t be worried, you can do this!

Cut into 8 slices using a really sharp knife and serve along side almost any dish.

If there is any excess liquid, just use a paper towel to blot it up when you serve it.

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally served on Good Friday. They are a spiced bun and each bun is marked with the shape of a cross (made from flour and water) to symbolize Christ’s suffering and crucifixion (this is just one of the many reasons I read about behind the ‘cross’ on the bun). In the United States we add candied citron, raisins and currants (and other varieties of dried fruit).

I have never eaten hot cross buns. I had never even heard of them. And no, I don’t even know the song (I was home schooled, and I guess we missed that day). So I could venture to say these are the best hot cross buns I have ever had. Which would not be a lie. But I have nothing to compare them to.
*In one week I made 2 batches of hot cross buns, both different recipes. This is the first batch. The second batch will be coming soon. So now I have something to compare these too. I decided if I ever open a restaurant or bakery, hot cross buns will be my signature roll. That is how much I love them.

The dough reminds me of a very flavorful cinnamon roll dough. The cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg flavor the dough perfectly. You bite into the roll and it is such a smooth combination of the flavors together. And the sweetness of the dried fruit compliments the spices. The glaze adds a very slight bit of extra sweetness to the roll that it just delicious.

Hot Cross Buns
makes 12 large buns
1 tablespoon active dry yeast (2 packets)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (I used 1%)
3 cups plain flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg
2 cups mixed dried fruit (I used 1 cup raisins and 1 cup dried apricots, chopped)

Crosses
¼ cup plain flour
3 tablespoons water

Glaze
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp water

Place the yeast, two teaspoons of the sugar and milk in a stand mixer bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes. The mixture will start to foam, indicating the yeast is active.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices and remaining sugar then add it to the yeast mixture. Add the butter and egg to the dough.

Knead the dough in the mixer for 5-7 minutes until dough is elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and allow to stand in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
*If you kitchen isn’t hot, turn on the oven to around 300 and place the bowl on top or right next to the oven.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls.

Grease a 9 inch square cake tin and line with spray with non stick spray. Place the dough balls in the pan, cover with a towel and set aside for 30 -60 minutes or until they rise and almost double in size.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

For the crosses, combine the flour and water in a small bowl. Using a piping bag, pipe crosses on the buns.
*The cross mixture will be sticky.

Bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.

Prepare the glaze right before the buns are done baking by mixing the sugar and water in a bowl with a fork.
Brush the warm glaze over the buns while they are hot.

Enjoy while warm. Oh, and you WILL enjoy them. They are dense, flavorful and wonderful!

I recently read this, from an unknown author: “Hot Cross Buns, and other forms of Good Friday bread, were considered blessed, and were believed to provide powerful protection against disease and danger.”