Qualifirst Review: Sun-dried Blueberries, Sun-dried Cranberries,Lavender Honey

Qualifirst Products 

The second part of my Qualifirst review includes 2 more sun-dried fruits and a beautiful French lavender blossom honey. All of these ingredients are amazing on their own, so I didn't do anything too complex with them. I simply paired them with foods I thought would compliment their flavours.

Sun-dried Blueberries and Cranberries

Lavender Blossom Honey

Lavender Blossom Honey

I am not a honey connoisseur in any way. I usually buy the cheapest stuff and spread it on toast or use it to sweeten tea. I was amazed at how different this lavender honey tasted compared to my regular store brand. There is a distinct, yet delicate, floral after-note that imparts a kind of tea-party-in-the-garden sentiment. I felt that these flavours would be lost in any kind of baking, so I simply used it as a topping for my cornbread muffins. It would also be amazing on scones or any other tea party appropriate treat. I find myself going back over and over again for just one more taste of that charming flowery nectar.

Lavender Honey on GF Cornbread Muffins 

Sun-dried Blueberries

There is an amazing amount of flavour packed into these tiny nuggets. They are deeply sweet and bursting with blueberry flavour. I added them to a maple walnut granola and they provided the perfect compliment; sweet and chewy, nutty and crunchy. Of course they are also delicious eaten straight up. My 2 year old discovered them and now calls them bucket raisins. He is no longer interested in regular raisins. Haha!

Maple Walnut Granola with Sun-dried Blueberries 

Sun-dried Cranberries

These are not your every day craisins. They are whole and plump and tart. I baked them into my lemon poppyseed muffins, in place of craisins. It's almost tastes like I added sweet fresh cranberries, not dried. The burst of fruity flavour is a welcome addition to my afternoon coffee treat! 

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Sun-dried Cranberries 

Disclaimer: I was provided these samples free of charge. All opinions are my own. 

Quinoa Blueberry Muffins

Gluten Free Quinoa Blueberry Muffins

Lately I've been experimenting with quinoa in baked goods. I am not a huge fan of salads containing quinoa, and I wanted to find other way of incorporating quinoa in to our diet. I've also noticed that my recipes with quinoa are some of my most popular posts. My favourite recipe so far is Quinoa Brownies, but I had success with this quinoa muffin recipe too.

I used blueberries, but you could add in anything you want (chocolate chips, dried fruit, chopped or grated apple). You can definitely taste the quinoa in this recipe, and it is delicious.

Enjoy!

makes 12 muffins
Ingredients

1 cup Cooked Quinoa
1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup Millet Flour
1/4 cup Tapioca Starch
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Milk
1/4 cup Canola Oil
2 Eggs
3/4 cup Blueberries (or other fruit or 1/3 cup chocolate chips/dried fruit)
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Directions

Stir together dry ingredients and quinoa.
Beat together wet ingredients (not blueberries) and mix with dry ingredients.
Fold in blueberries and spoon into paper lined muffin tins.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Let cool on rack and store on counter for 1-2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

spoon into paper lined muffin tins

bake at 350 for 25-30 mins

let cool on rack

mmm...

Mini Cheesecakes with Blueberry Sauce

Gluten Free Mini Cheesecakes with Blueberry Sauce

I love cheesecake. It is probably my favourite dessert. Even better when topped with homemade blueberry sauce...mmm. Because it's just the two of us around here, making a full sized cheesecake would be kind of ridiculous... I have no doubt we would eat it, but that's just the problem. For our anniversary this year, I decided to try a more sizable version of that delicious cake. It turned out amazing... and we finished all six mini cheesecakes within a day. Oops!

Delicious!

Last weekend we were invited to spend some time at a friends cabin a few hours north of Saskatoon. We had an amazing time fishing, swimming, trying out some water sports, and hot tubbing! Unfortunately, my attempt at a sort of wake boarding was a bit of a failure. When I fell the rope tightened around my arm and I ended up dragging behind the boat for a ways. No broken bones, but some serious rope burn and crazy bruising. Because I had that pulmonary embolism awhile back, I am on blood thinners which didn't really help with the bruising. As you can see, it's very pretty. I am getting good at using my left hand, but hoping to regain use of that arm fairly soon!

2 days after it happened... it's even more bruised now if you can believe it!

Ok, enough show and tell for now, on to the recipe.

This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to feed more people. Also, you can change up the toppings however you like - fresh fruit, whipped cream, crushed up candy bar, etc.

(Makes 6 Mini Cheesecakes)
Ingredients

For Crust:
1/3 cup GF Graham Cracker Crumbs (or any cookie crumbs)
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Melted Margarine

For Cheesecake:
1 8oz Package of Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg

For Blueberry Sauce:
about 1 cup Blueberries
3-4 Tbsp Sugar
Just enough water to almost cover blueberries in a saucepan
1 tsp Lemon Juice (optional)

Directions

Crust:
Crush graham crackers in a ziplock bag and mix with margarine and sugar. (you could also use other types of gf cookies)
Grease 6 muffin tin holes and press mixture into the bottom.
Bake at 325 for 5 minutes. Let cool.

Cake:
Beat together cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth. (Use a hand mixer or stand mixer).
Mix in egg until just combined.
Pour batter into prepare crusts and bake at 325 for 25-35 minutes (until centre feels somewhat firm)
Let cool completely before removing from pan.
Chill cheesecakes in fridge until ready to serve.

For Blueberry Sauce:
Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Let simmer 5-10 minutes, until it just barely starts to thicken.
It will thicken more as it cools.
Spoon over cheesecakes when serving.

graham cracker crust

mixing the batter

pour batter on top of prepared crusts

after baking

once cool, chill in the fridge

serve with blueberry sauce or topping of choice

Blueberry Muffins

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

I'm back! Well I didn't really go anywhere, but I haven't posted a recipe in almost a month... not sure how that happened. Must be the combination of the beautiful weather distractions, working on our new house, and actually working lately. Since my hubby is a teacher and I'm an EA, the end of the school year means we have more time to work on the yard and house... and hopefully time keep up on the blogging:)

We are loving our little house. It feels so good to be able to work on improving something that's our own. So far, we've removed the gravel, reseeded the left side, moved the garden, pushed back the fence, levelled the ground and added some extra nutrient rich soil. We still need to move the composter and plant the grass.

Before

Before

After

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary. We celebrated by making BBQ steak and artichokes with homemade blueberry Italian sodas and blueberry mini cheesecakes. Delicious! I love blueberry season. I will be posting the cheesecake recipe another day, but today I want to focus on a recipe for blueberry muffins.

But first a little look at our anniversary dinner:)

mmm... smashed potatoes, steak and artichokes

Blueberry Italian Sodas

Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes

Ok so now that you're drooling, I'll get on to the feature recipe: Blueberry Muffins

(makes 14-16 muffins)
Ingredients

2 cups GF Flour (Use All-Purpose Flour Blend)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
3/4 cup Sugar (or less if desired)
1/3 cup Margarine
3 Eggs
2/3 cup Milk
1 - 1 1/2 cups Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 tsp Orange Zest (or lemon zest)
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions

Combine Dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, combine wet ingredients (not blueberries)
Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined.
Fold in blueberries.
Pour batter into prepared muffin tins.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 mins.
Cool on rack.
Once cool these muffins should be frozen to retain texture. I use a ziplock freezer bag.

before baking

after baking

Cool on a rack

Once completely cool, freeze

Banana Blueberry Muffins

The other day I found myself with an overload of bananas that were going bad. I froze some, but I like baking with fresh bananas more than frozen, so I started brainstorming. I started working part time again this week (as an educational assistant). I haven't been able to work since November of 2010 because of the blood clots in my lungs. They aren't gone yet, but my doctor is letting me try a little bit of work for the sake of my sanity. Since I will be a little more tired and busy, I figured it would be nice to have a stock pile of muffins for a quick, easy breakfast on days I go to work! I had a bag of GF banana chocolate chip muffins in the freezer already, so I wanted to do something different and maybe a little healthier too. I ended up going with blueberries (I had some in the freezer) for muffin full of healthy fruit. I also had some brown rice flour from King Arthur Flour I had been wanting to try out. This particular flour is finely ground to avoid the gritty texture brown rice flour can sometimes leave in baking. I definitely noticed the lack of grittiness in these muffins and am pleased with how these muffins turned out. I ended up making some wheat flour ones for my husband to use up some of the rest of the over ripe bananas.
I love the moist texture that banana gives to baking... especially gluten free!

(makes 12-14 muffins)
Ingredients

2 bananas mashed
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup melted margarine
1 Tbsp lemon juice or lemon/orange rind

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown rice flour (I used King Arthur Flour Brand)
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp potato starch
3 Tbsp tapioca starch
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

batter

before baking

Directions
Mash banana and mix in wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients and add to wet mixture. Fold in blueberries.
Spoon batter into lined muffin tins. Bake at 375 F for around 20 minutes.
Let muffins cool on a rack. Freeze in airtight container or ziplock bag the same day as baking. Microwave from frozen and enjoy!

baked

cooling