Bready or Not Original: Air Fryer Maple Roasted Nuts
Pardon me, have you heard that air fryers are awesome? Yeah, yeah, I won’t go for the hard sell, but I do love my air fryer, and it sure makes these Maple Roasted Nuts quick and convenient.
This is a good recipe if you want to prepare nuts for a sports game or any kind of gathering–or if, like me, you enjoy having some lightly-sweet nuts along with cheese.
If you’d like, substitute honey for the maple syrup. I imagine something like agave syrup might work, too, but I haven’t tried that. I know maple sugar can be expensive or hard to find offline, but fortunately brown sugar makes for a good substitute for that, too.
Bready or Not Original: Air Fryer Maple Roasted Nuts
Equipment
- air fryer
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole pecans
- 1 cup whole cashews
- 1 Tablespoon butter melted
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon maple sugar or brown sugar
Instructions
- Line the air fryer tray with parchment paper cut to fit, then place tray on top.
- Place the nuts in a large bowl. Pour the butter over the top, followed by the maple syrup and salt. Stir the nuts to coat. Place them spread out on the mesh tray.
- Air fry at 325-degrees for about 5 to 6 minutes or until they begin to smell toasted, stirring one halfway through. They should look browned at the end.
- While they are cooking, pull out another small cookie sheet or plate, putting more parchment on it if desired; this will be a surface on which the nuts will cool.
- When the nuts are done, pull them from the air fryer and carefully transfer them to the fresh cookie sheet. Let them cool for about 10 minutes, then sprinkle maple sugar on top, stirring to coat. Enjoy immediately, or place in a sealed container at room temperature to eat over the next month.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Berry Scones
These Berry Scones are a delicious way to use fresh or frozen fruit to create a batch of baked goods for breakfast.
I love scones but I hadn’t made this recipe in over 10 years. Arizona is not a good place to get locally grown fresh fruit like strawberries and raspberries. Soon after we moved to Minnesota, fresh strawberries came into season AND I won a gallon-sized bag of frozen raspberries in my first horticultural club meeting.
I needed ways to utilize my new bounty. I reworked this old recipe, reducing the fruit amount and adding white chocolate chips. That extra sweet kick really elevates the fruit!
Bready or Not Original: Berry Scones
Equipment
- cookie sheet or scone pan
- nonstick spray
Ingredients
Scones:
- 1/2 cup strawberries or raspberries (fresh or frozen) about 3oz
- 3 Tablespoons white sugar separated
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup milk or almond milk
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Topping:
- 1 Tablespoon coarse or white sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper, or use a scone pan.
- Use kitchen shears or a knife to cut the fruit into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside to macerate.
- Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, using a pastry cutter or a fork to cut it in. Don’t completely mix in butter, but leave some pea-sized pieces throughout. Stir in milk. Fold in the white chocolate chips followed by the berries.
- Flour hands to coat. Gently knead and turn the dough to incorporate the dry bits from the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle dough with extra flour if it’s too sticky to work with.
- If using a cookie sheet for baking, pat the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges (or smaller), then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them; they will spread. Alternatively, press handfuls of dough into a scone pan, filling each empty space to the end to create even pieces. Sprinkle the tops with coarse or white sugar, if desired.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown. Remove them from pan. Scones can be eaten immediately, or will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Freeze them to enjoy later.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
If you’re in need of a small-scale dessert for just a couple of people (hey, it is Valentine’s Day as I post this), this Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie is perfect.
You’ll need a 6-inch cast iron skillet or cake pan for this recipe. I have the former.
This is a treat best enjoyed while it’s warm. Therefore, let the big cookie cool enough so you won’t get burned, and then dig in. If you want to make this even more luxurious, add some scoops of ice cream in the middle and eat everything with spoons!
Modified from Bake from Scratch July/August 2023.
Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
Equipment
- 6-inch cast iron skillet or 6-inch cake pan
- nonstick spray
- small saucepan
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 2 Tablespoons white sugar
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 Tablespoon milk or half& half
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips whatever kind you want
- flaked sea salt and coarse sugar for optional topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Prepare the pan by using nonstick spray or some extra butter to coat.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat, stirring often. The butter will foam and then turn brown after 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool for at least 10 minutes.
- In a mixing bowl, combine browned butter, both sugars, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Fold in the chocolate chips. If desired, add a sprinkle of flaked sea salt and coarse sugar on top.
- Bake until the edges are brown and the middle is no longer gooey, about 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool for 15 to 20 minutes before digging in, but it is ideally eaten while it's still warm.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Lemonade-Like Cookies
It’s February (how did that happen?), but these brightly-flavored Lemon-Lake Cookies will add some sunshine to your day, no matter when you make them.
These are not fancy cookies. They are fairly straightforward to make. The only real “extra” bit is etching the lemon effect onto the cookies. I found it annoying that the example picture in Allrecipes Magazine, where I found the original recipe, showed the cookies when they were unglazed, hence the lemon effect is quite bold.
The reality is that the glaze fills in many of the lines and holes, making the etching much more subtle. It is still visible, though (if you impress the lines and dots enough).
Bready or Not: Lemonade-Like Cookies
Equipment
- zester
- juicer
- parchment paper
- Rolling Pin
- plastic wrap
- 2-inch cookie cutter
- skewer or chopstick
- pastry brush
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into thin slices
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for surface
Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 to 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Zest the lemon. Cut lemon in half and squeeze out juice. Set aside zest and juice.
- Preheat oven at 300-degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Place butter, white sugar, lemon zest, salt, and vanilla in a bowl, stirring together until the butter starts to soften and the ingredients come together. Add flour, mixing until buttery crumbs form. Use hands to press dough together into a ball.
- Lightly flour a flat work surface. Set the dough there and press it into a 1/2-inch thick disk. Place a long stretch of plastic wrap on top and roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut dough with cookie cutter, placing rounds slightly spaced out on prepared sheet. Reroll dough scraps cut out more rounds until it’s all basically shaped.
- If desired, etch a lemon-like effect. Use a sharp knife to form decorative lines atop cookies, pressing in the blade to form 8 triangular wedges on each; make sure to only press into the top of the dough, not all the way through. Use a skewer or chopstick to add decorative holes near the tip of each wedge, creating an effect like a lemon seed.
- Bake cookies until they are light brown around the wedges, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely, but reserve the parchment and pan for the glazing.
- Return cookies to cooled pan. Mix together the confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, adding more if needed to form a thick but spreadable glaze. Use a pastry brush to apply a layer of glaze to each cookie, adding an extra layer, if desired, with any leftover glaze after the initial coat. Let cookies stand for 30 minutes to an hour, until glaze is set. Pack cookies into a sealed container. Store at room temperature.
