Homemade Cereal Time!

Happy June! The weather is getting warm here, but with a few cool and rainy days still.

Yesterday my sister and I made some cereal. We don't buy it from the store, so we thought it'd be nice to make some and stock up. She made some granola and Cinnamon Squares.

That reminded me why I like to have a blog . . . I may have lost that cinnamon cereal recipe had I not put it on here. I created it over a year ago, and even though it was very good, I just . . . forgot about it for whatever reason. So, that poor recipe is now revived ;). We used all rice flour since we're out of the buckwheat.

I also made a variation of Nicole Hunn's Mini 'Nilla Wafer Cereal from her blog, Gluten Free On A Shoestring. They are just so cute :)! I did change it around a bit - first, I doubled the recipe because I just knew I should. We were out of vanilla . . . yes, vanilla, the key flavor in the little cookies. I used about 1/2 cup cream cheese for the double batch, just to help give it a little flavor. They turned out great, and were a hit (they are all gone). They were pretty soft (not a bad thing), which I'm sure is because I added cream cheese. They weren't as uniform as Nicole's . . . I need some work there :).

Here's some cute kids to brighten your day!

Hilarious little gal! Just taking a nap on mama.

Naptime on mom is the best! LOL.

Handsome boy.

Pretty doeling.

Peace,
~ Hanunyah

Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars

A coule months ago or so I was working on making my own recipe for butterfingers. I made up an idea and tried it - melting sugar, adding peanut butter and baking soda. I tried it and it worked . . . mostly. They were too hard. I made them making slight variations. It wasn't perfect, and I sort of forgot about it. I did use the hard butterfinger-flavored candy in a cheesecake . . . that was very good, and I repeated that even thought the candy wasn't just right.

My little sister (who just turned 8) has been in the kitchen a lot lately. She makes donuts, almost completely by herself! Yesterday she wanted to make hard candy, but we couldn't make the one we usually make because we were out of corn syrup and cream of tartar (it would crystalize without one of those). But, I remembered that the butterfingers didn't need one of those. So, I added some sugar to a pot and told her to stir it. I stirred, and gathered the other ingredients. As a somewhat last-minute decision, I decided to add another 1/2 cup of peanut butter because I remembered that they were too hard last I made them. After pouring into the pan and washing the pot, I went to score them and ta-da! I think it worked! Once they were completely cooled, I realized it was a success. They were almost just right, but I think they needed to tad more crunchy. So, I think 1 1/3 cups peanut butter would be perfect, not 1 cup and not 1 1/2 cups.

A quick note . . . I've never got to dipping these every time I've made them ;).

Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars
Hanunyah Creation
gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free

2 cups sugar, white or brown
1 1/3 cups peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a medium-size pot over medium to medium-high heat, add the 2 cups sugar. Stirring constantly, melt the sugar with NO water, only sugar in the pot. First it becomes clumps, then the clumps melt. Stir until there are no chunks left. Even if you use white sugar, the sugar should be a dark golden color at this point. Remove from heat immediately.

Add the peanut butter, vanilla and baking soda and quickly stir to combine. Pour into the prepared pan.

After a few minutes (when it's not really hot but it's not cool) deeply score into bars - big or small depending on your preference. Cool completely, break apart and dip in melted chocolate (if they make it to that point, that is ;) ).


Sorry I don't have a picture of these to share . . . I plan on making (and dipping) them to take pictures sometime soon. Right now we're out of chocolate chips, though.

~ Hanunyah

Link Parties:
Gluten-free Wednesdays @ The Gluten-Free Homemaker

Homemade Cereal - Cinnamon or Chocolate

Well, I'm still here and I'm skipping back to the blog with a recipe today. We've been getting spring showers here - yesterday and today it was dumpin' rain, and now there's a river flowing through our property.

So, here's a quick recipe I'm putting up quick before I need to go! Have a good, sweet [and crunchy] day!

I do have pictures of the chocolate stuff to post later, but for the cinnamon - see the Wordless Wednesday post I did awhile ago here. Oh, and this recipe is just what I do, the flours, etc. are subject to change ;).

Homemade Cinnamon Cereal
Hanunyah Creation

1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 1/2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a few cookie sheets.

2. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, salt and flours. Add the oil and mix together with a fork until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Add the eggs and water to form a soft dough.

3. Take a portion of the dough and place on one of the prepared sheets. Roll out very thin, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. The thinner it is, the crunchier it should be. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar, and cut into squares with a dull knife.

4. Bake for about 8 to 12 minutes, until firm to the touch, crunchy and light brown. Remove from oven, remove the cereal from cookie sheets to cool (you may have to break some of the squares apart).

Homemade Chocolate Cereal
Hanunyah Creation

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt, optional

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 1/2 cups rice flour

1/4 cup oil

2 eggs

1/4 to 1/2 cup water

cocoa sugar (a little cocoa mixed with some sugar)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a few cookie sheets.

2. Combine the sugar, salt and flours. Add the oil and mix together with a fork until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Add the eggs and enough water to form a soft dough.

3. There are several ways you can shape the cereal, but here are my preferred methods. With the chocolate cereal I ended up crumbling most of the dough to make like a "cocoa pebble" type cereal (method a.) which was much quicker and easier than all of this shape stuff I was doing (yes, I did a few hearts and circles ;) ). So, I prefer the crumble method - which doesn't necesarily look very great - but it is very quick. The square method is also pretty quick, but still a bit more involved because of the rolling.

a. Crumble method: Take a portion of the dough and crumble/break into small pieces all over the baking sheet. It doesn't need to be very spread out, but just make one layer - sort of like granola.

b. Square method: Take a portion of the dough and place on one of the prepared sheets. Roll out very thin, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. The thinner it is, the crunchier it should be. Sprinkle liberally with cocoa sugar, and cut into squares with a dull knife.

4. Bake for about 8 to 12 minutes, until firm to the touch and crunchy. Remove from the oven and remove the cereal from the cookie sheets to a container (WITH NO LID) to cool (you may have to break some of the squares apart).

~ Hanunyah


Linked to Thrifty Thursday @ Thrifty 101

Banana Cream Crunch

My brother was trying to grab it off the screen ;).

Another "Hanunyah Creation", this sure was a hit! With many bananas and the Vita-Mix cream/pudding recipe I created (with a surprise ingredient), I made this interesting no-bake treat the other day.

For a quick run-down? - A soft oat-peanut crust + ripe, sweet bananas + Vita-Cream + the good stuff (peanuts and chocolate chips) = a quick and easy, no-bake, delightful snack or dessert.

This was very good, and it was gone in minutes - credit to my taste-testers, who were hungry for a sweet snack ;).

Banana Cream Crunch
Hanunyah Creation

Crust:
1 cup safe oats*
1/2 cup peanuts*

2 to 4 bananas
a few tablespoons peanuts**

Cream Pudding:
1 3/4 cups cooked rice***
3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla
1 to 1/2 cup water

1/2 cup peanuts
safe chocolate chips (optional)

1. Add all crust ingredients to the Vita-Mix container. Turn machine on and quickly increase speed to variable 6 to 10. Blend a few seconds, until the mixture is crumbly and moist.

2. Press into a 9x13 inch pan.**** Slice the bananas over the crust, and sprinkle with some peanuts.

3. Combine all cream pudding ingredients in the Vita-Mix. Blend on high for a couple minutes, adding enough water until smooth and desired consistency is reached. Pour over banana layer.


4. Top with peanuts and chocolate chips, if desired. Refrigerate until set. Cut into pieces to serve.


Notes:
*Instead of blending the oats and peanuts together for the crust, you may mix together oat flour and peanut butter, then proceed as the recipe instructs.
**If there are allergies, or if desired, you may use other nuts in place of the peanuts.
***Instead of using all rice, you may use cooked mashed potato for 3/4 cup of the rice. You may need to use more vanilla and sugar to cover up the potato taste.
****The crust was kind of soggy, so, if you like, you may bake the crust for a few minutes at 350 degrees F, until light golden brown.


~ Hanunyah


Linked to Foodie Friday by Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Rocky Road Bars

Marshmallows, chocolate and nuts. Homemade marshmallows, chocolate chips and nuts are combined in my version here - I searched, combined some recipe ideas and came up with my own version.

And when was the last time you saw desserts in the middle of the road? (it was easy here, because our country road is not very active). But that's what I like - being unique. Whether it's celery 'n' PB cake or me weirdly taking pictures in the middle of the road - it's not a bad thing to stand out from the rest.

If you ever find yourself with extra marshmallows (not very likely in most cases), then make these bars. Or, if you don't have extra marshmallows, make some and then make these. Or, if you want, you may go with the store-bought variety, if your body doesn't take offense to it.

Rocky Road Bars (Gluten, Dairy, Corn, Gum-free)
Adapted from Cookie Madness and AllRecipes.com

2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons lard
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rice or other gluten-free flour
2 cups nuts, very finely chopped (I used walnuts and peanuts)
2 to 3 cups small marshmallows
1 1/2 cups safe chocolate chips, divided


1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Line an 9x13 inch pan with foil (optional, but would be easier) and spray it with cooking spray or grease with oil.


2. In medium bowl, beat together sugar and lard. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add soda and salt until well mixed, then gently stir in flour and 1 cup of the nuts. The batter will not be like cookie dough.


3. Spread in prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips. When the crust is done, remove from oven and let cool a few minutes. Spread a thin layer of the melted chocolate on the crust. Sprinkle the marshmallows, remaining chocolate chips and then nuts over chocolate layer. (See note).


4. Chill until set, then cut into pieces.


Notes:
Be sure to sprinkle the nuts on last. I sprinkled them on first, and it made it so that the marshmallows didn't stick very well.

~ Hanunyah


Linked to Gluten-Free Wednesdays by The Gluten-Free Homemaker, Making the World Cuter Monday by Making the World Cuter and Just Something I Whipped Up by The Girl Creative

31 for 21: Brown Sugar Spice Granola

Since being gone all day @ soccer, and not being sure what to post, I whipped this up for a couple of my siblings (who wanted granola anyway). Why not post it here?

This is a quick, nice and crunchy granola with caramelized brown sugar and spices.

~ Maybe something a bit more exciting tomorrow ;).

Brown Sugar Spice Granola

Hanunyah Creation

3 cups oats*

2 cups dried fruits and nuts (optional)

1/4 cup brown sugar**

1/4 cup oil

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

2/3 cup raisins (If we don't have any on hand I make it without)

Combine al

l ingredients except raisins; mix well. Cook in ungreased 11x7-inch baking dish (or any large glass bowl, etc.) in microwave oven at HIGH 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown, stirring between 1 minute intervals of cooking; stir in raisins.

Conventional Oven Directions:

Combine all ingredients except raisins in ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan; mix well. Bake in preheated moderate oven (350 F.) 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally; stir in raisins. Cool thoroughly; store in tightly covered container in cool dry place or in refrigerator.

Notes:

*Be sure to use gluten-free oats.

**You may find that 1/4 cup of brown sugar is too sweet. Cut back as desired.

~ Hanunyah

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