Lemon zucchini muffin recipe

It’s zucchini time in the garden and wild blueberry time in Nova Scotia, and what a fabulous combination!

We had a request for D’Arcy’s lemon zucchini muffin recipe this morning. The original recipe came from Anne Lindsey’s “New Light Cooking” cookbook (which is one of our favourites – our focaccia with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon comes from the same cookbook), but we tweak it to accommodate for food allergies. All of the muffins we serve are egg-free so our daughter can take the leftovers – if there are any – to school in her lunch.

 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup shredded (unpeeled zucchini)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Coarsely grated rind from 1 large lemon
• 1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• egg replacer to replace one egg
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (we often sour rice or coconut milk for dairy issues)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup wild blueberries

1. Lightly spray nonstick muffin pans or line with muffin liners.
2. In a large bowl, stick together flour, zucchini, sugar, lemon rind, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine egg replacer (or lightly-beaten egg), soured-milk, oil, and lemon juice. Pour over flour mixture and stir just enough to moisten, being careful not to overmix.
4. Add blueberries and combine.
5. Spoon into prepared pans. Bake in 190*C oven (375*F) for 18-20 minutes or until tops are golden and firm to touch. (May take longer if using real egg.) Makes 12 muffins.

Enjoy!

Belgravia Bed & Breakfast website

 

 

 

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Two new gluten-free breakfast recipes (Egg & dairy-free too!)

This morning around the breakfast table, we were dealing with gluten-free and egg-free diets, as well as no cheese for another guest. We tried two new recipes, both which were successful. Since I posted the photo on our Facebook page, I’ve had requests for the recipes, and also from the guests, so thought we’d post them here for easy access.

Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free banana muffins

Gluten, egg, and dairy-free banana muffins

Mix the following together with beaters until smooth:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil (we use canola)
• 2 tsp. egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water OR 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine the following dry ingredients, then add to the wet mixture and stir until moist. Do not over-mix.

• 2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (We used Bob’s Redmill)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Line muffin tins with papers, divide batter between 12 muffin cups, and bake in 350*F oven for 20 – 22 minutes.

Egg, dairy, and gluten-free crepes

CREPES:

• 3 Eggs worth of prepared egg replacer
• 3/4cup rice milk
• 3/4cup Water
• 3 TBSP oil (we use canola)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour (We used Bob’s Redmill)
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 2 TBSP potato starch
• 1/2t Salt

Combine together all ingredients in bowl and whisk until combined. Batter will appear deceivingly thin. Cook crepe in hot, oiled frying pan and top with desired filling. This morning we served our egg-free guests crepes filled with asparagus, tomato, basil, chives and boursin cheese; and our cheese-free guest, the same herbs & veggies in scrambled eggs. (Pictured above.)

As you can see from above, these recipes are also soy-free. However, the flour we used (Bob’s Redmill) is processed in a factory that uses soy and tree-nuts, so we consider these recipes both “unsafe” for our daughter.  If we used a different flour, they would be safe.

Please let us know how they turn out for you! We will definitely serve both of these recipes again!

Belgravia Bed & Breakfast

Yummy Rhubarb Struesel Muffin Recipe

Beautiful rhubarb. Photo credit: Taste of Nova Scotia*

As spring arrives in Nova Scotia, so does the growth of one of our local food treats – rhubarb! I LOVE rhubarb. Although technically a vegetable, in Nova Scotia we mostly treat it as a fruit. Rhubarb will be found growing in many people’s gardens and will then be found at the breakfast table for the next few weeks in various forms: warm from being stewed with maple syrup and a touch of lemon (perfect with vanilla yogurt and some granola!), and often chunked in muffins. The tartness of the rhubarb is perfectly offset by the sweetness of the struesel topping. The following is one of our favourite muffin recipes:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg (We use egg replacer)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 cups chopped rhubarb
• TOPPING:
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon cold butter

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, if using or add egg replacer. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and alternate with sour cream, beating well after each addition. Fold in rhubarb.
• Fill paper-lined or greased muffin cups three-fourths full.
• Combine brown sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon in a small bowl; then cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.
• Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Serve warm. Yield: about 1-1/2 dozen.

We hope you enjoy – either at your breakfast table or at ours! 😉

*Taste of Nova Scotia

Belgravia Bed and Breakfast

Taste of Nova Scotia Porridge Bread (Recipe Included)

Breakfast by request this morning? French toast with fruit and “Acadian Maple” pure maple syrup, made on D’Arcy’s porridge bread. This is a recipe we discovered years ago in our “Taste of Nova Scotia” cookbook and D’Arcy makes it at least once each week, usually twice. Described as, “a wonderfully fragrant, soft brown bread”, it gets rave reviews by all. We often make this bread for the kids’ teachers as thank-you gifts, and one teacher in particular has come to the house offering to pay D’Arcy to make it for him! For the record, I like it best when it’s still warm from the oven and slathered with butter and molasses!

Recipe by Taste of Nova Scotia:

Porridge:

• 3 cups boiling water
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cups rolled oats

Bread:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 ½ tsp granulated sugar
• 4 tsp dry yeast
• 2 cups porridge
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup molasses
• 7 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp salt

In a saucepan, bring water and salt to a boil; add rolled oats and bring back to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set porridge aside. In a small mixing bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water; add yeast and let rise until foamy. In a large mixing bowl, blend together porridge, brown sugar, oil and molasses. To porridge mixture, add yeast mixture, stirring to combine. Add flour 1 cup at a time, stirring to blend well, and continue to add flour until dough starts to come clean from the sides of the bowl but is not dry. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and somewhat elastic. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size. (60 – 90 minutes).

Punch dough down and divide into six equal pieces. Shape into loaves and place two loves each into three greased 10 – x 6-inch double bread pans. Cover and set aside to rise in a warm draft-free place until double in size, approximately one hour. Bake in a preheated 325*F  oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until loaves are golden brown. Makes three double loaves.

** If you are so inclined, we’ve been nominated as Best Bed & Breakfast in the Truro & Colchester Chamber’s 2013 “Best of Colchester” awards. Voting takes place until May 15th. We’d be so grateful if you’d click on the website and vote for “Belgravia” as “Best B&B” up to five times per IP address. You do not need to register, nor do you need to vote in every category. Thank you in advance!

Best of Colchester Award voting

Belgravia Bed & Breakfast website

“To Die For” Blueberry Muffins

It’s national Teacher Appreciation Week this week and at our daughters’ school, the parent-teacher group has been making sure there have been special treats for the teachers each day to show them how much they are appreciated. Little treats like a mural that says “We love you” made out of kids’ drawings, ‘real’ toilet paper in the staff washroom (hey – these things matter!), and today, a tea trolly with treats. Although I can’t be at the school to help deliver the treats, D’Arcy made a batch of his “to die for” blueberry muffins this morning to send.

Thank you teachers!!

Here is the recipe:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs OR 2 tsp egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with pastry blender, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.
5. Makes 12 muffins.

 

Homemade Granola Bar Recipe

Happy New Year! Gosh, keeping the blog updated has taken a backseat to life recently. We had a busy and fun Christmas break, entertaining a total of 72 friends and family at different times during the twelve days we had off from school.

I’m amazed at how fast the month of January has flown – they say “time flies when you’re having fun”… This semester, I’m teaching Entrepreneurhip, Experiential Tourism Products and Services, Into Psychology, and Intro Sociology at the Pictou Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College; while D’Arcy continues to teach Grade 6 at a school not far from mine.

The boys are curling every day after school, and at least one day on the weekend. They are heading “South” to Yarmouth tomorrow for their first Canada Winter Games (2015) qualifier. The tournament is double-knockout and the top two teams will automatically move forward to next year.

The “mate” or “third” of their team is from Yarmouth, so the boys and their coach will be staying at their house, for which we are very grateful. I spent last weekend cooking and baking, to send some food along (the least we can do): lasagna, chilli, homemade macaroni & cheese, four loaves of bread, blueberry muffins, and homemade granola bars.

I posted a photo of the granola bars on my personal Facebook page and got such a response of friends looking for the recipe, that I decided to post it here for more people to enjoy! I must begin with the caveat that each time I make these, they are slightly different, depending on what ingredients I have on hand. Although they are not gluten free, they are peanut, tree nut, egg, and soy free. (Dairy free too if you omit chocolate chips, or use Enjoy Life or Divvies brand chocolate chips.)  I hope if you try them, you will enjoy!

The base of each recipe is:

• 2 cups flaked oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon

To this, I added:

• 1/2 cup hemp hearts – be sure to use the nutritious hemp hearts 😉
• 3/4 cup sunflower seeds
• generous handful raisins
• generous handful dried cranberries
• handful of chocolate chips

Other suggestions would be to add flax (I was out), coconut, dates, or any other dried fruit.

Bind together with:

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mixture will be crumbly. Press into a well-greased 11×13 pan. Bake in 375*F oven for 20 minutes or until edges are browned. Cut while still warm, or they become difficult to cut through.

This bars have quickly become a lunchtime or snack favourite in our household and the bonus is that they are economical, allergy-free, and litter-less!

 (I promise not to take so long until the next post…)

Return to the Belgravia B&B website

 

Blueberry Sauce Recipe

This week we have had new testimonials added to both the Belgravia Bed & Breakfast’s  Trip Advisor and  BBCanada.com listings.

One read:

“We have now completed our 3rd stay here and it’s like visiting family. Situated on the outskirts of Truro, within easy walking distance of the town, a beautifully appointed house with lovely, well equipped rooms. Breakfast was delicious as usual and we shall return again, if only to hope we get the blueberry waffles next time!”

We have guests staying with us this week for five nights while they do some genealogical research and explore Central Nova Scotia. We serve something different for breakfast each day, and so far this week they have had omlets and Eggs Florentine. Helen’s comment inspired me to serve our waffles with blueberry sauce today. There was not a bite left on anyone’s plate when I cleared them, so I thought I would share our blueberry sauce recipe:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine:

• 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• 3/4 cup water
• dash of salt

Bring to a boil and add:

• 1 TBSP corn starch mixed with 1 TBSP water

Stir until thickened.

Top waffles with blueberry sauce, vanilla yogurt and wheat germ, and serve with maple bacon.

SO YUMMY – and this also works well for blueberry shortcake when put on a scone with whipped cream!