Zucchini Muffins

We served snack after church this past Sunday and one of the items I served was mini zucchini muffins. 

I got this recipe from a former co-worker, and they always turn out great. 

Of course I've messed with the recipe over the years to try to cut down on sugar. See my notes above. 😅 

This time I tried using dehydrated shredded zucchini since I didn't have any fresh. 

I soaked the zucchini in whey as I mixed up the rest of the recipe. Since the batter is typically quite wet, I added the zucchini and the leftover liquid. 

They turned out pretty good! 

This is the second batch I made... The first batch used applesauce instead of sugar and they tasted savory. I decided people at church probably wouldn't be thrilled with a not-sweet muffin and I made a batch with the regular amount of sugar to serve the public. We'll keep the not-sweet ones for us. 🤪

Sweet Potatoes

It seems our sweet potato bin was prolific this year! G noticed them first... He saw some sticking up out of the dirt when he walked past the bin. 

I needed a couple for a recipe, so I stuck my hands in the dirt to grab a few. Much bigger than last year! I picked these from the top of the container just an inch down. 

I wonder how deep they go...

Chicken Preferences

We're testing out a new chicken feed with our birds. The company has a pelleted version (top pail) and a crumble (bottom pail). 

We're doing the experiment with the two indoor feeders. So far it seems like they like the crumble better, but that's been in the feeder closer to the door which tends to get eaten down quicker. 

I'd like to switch which feeder the feed is in to see if they continue to eat the crumble the quickest. 

Update on the nesting boxes... They haven't loved any of them. 😂 Instead, they lay their eggs under the hay tray I added to the goat hay feeder. 

A few of them have been laying in the lower level nesting boxes. None have used the nesting boxes in the haymow. Although, a couple keep laying on top of open hay bales... We've found a couple when we pull flakes of hay down for the goats and the eggs fall with the hay. 😑

One final piece of excitement... Jip battled a raccoon in the marsh close to our house and he won! He carried it all the way home and wouldn't let G take his prize, so it's still in the pasture. Hopefully it's a warning to other raccoons to stay away! 

 

First Loaves

I baked my first loaves of bread made from home milled flour. They turned out okay. I used my favorite bread recipe, the one that's nearly impossible to mess up. I made two batches - one with hard white wheat and one with hard red wheat. I also used whey as the liquid instead of plain water.

As I expected, the dough was pretty dry. I added a little extra whey until the dough was a similar consistency to what the recipe is with normal flour. 

Red wheat:

White wheat: 

Can you tell which dough is which on the pan?

 Flat loaves, but they taste great! 

You can definitely see the color difference between the red and white wheat: 

Both loaves have a tang because of the whey. The red wheat has a nuttier flavor that covers up some of the whey flavor. The white wheat doesn't hide it as much and has more sour flavor. 

G said he would die a happy man if I served him this bread every day for the rest of his life. 😂 

Big Batches

I've been on a mission to use up goat milk so it doesn't go to waste. First recipe was to make two batches of a quadruple recipe of cream of mushroom soup for freeze drying. That used 8 cups of milk. 

It worked much better this time. I sauteed the mushrooms in a little bit of butter, scooped them out of the pot and then melted the rest of the butter for the roux. After the flour mixed in, I added the mushrooms back to the pan. I ended up with a gallon of soup. 

Next was to make a double recipe of lemon raspberry cottage cheese pancakes. Each recipe uses one cup of cottage cheese and just under 2 cups of milk. 

This time I used lemon infused oil to boost the lemon flavor. I also added a bit more goat milk since my raspberries were freeze-dried and would soak up moisture. 

These cooked better than last time and the batter was thicker too. We ended up with about 35 five inch pancakes for the freezer. 

I still had goat milk left in the fridge... More ice cream! I redid the first recipe we tried, the one with honey and arrowroot powder, but I cut the honey in half. Double recipe again, so that's another 8 cups used. To activate the arrowroot powder, it needs to heat on the stove. Then it has to cool before churning. So, it's mixed up in the fridge to churn sometime. It tastes great unfrozen! 

Quest: Banana Muffin #7 (and #8)

G is getting muffined-out. When he found out I made another recipe, he said I should quit looking and settle on one of the ones I've made before. Good thing this is the last recipe I had on deck to try. 😂 

Pros- it's gluten free, hearty because of the almond flour and oats, uses maple syrup and bananas as sweetners. 

Cons- I've been putting off making it because it seems putsy. I had to grind oats to make flour for the recipe, melt coconut oil, and a number of ingredients need to be room temp. Also, it says it only makes 10 muffins. Lots of work for a few muffins. 

The oats ground up fine once I got the mill out. I did a bunch to speed up the process for future recipes. 

I didn't feel like dealing with coconut oil, so I substituted grapeseed oil. And since the oil doesn't solidify when cold, I didn't worry about having room temp ingredients. 😅😜

It didn't make any difference in the recipe. 

They turned out great. I baked them without muffin liners in my copper muffin pan. That probably accounts for the low height. There was enough batter for 12 muffins plus a mini cake. 

I enjoyed the flavor and thought they were nice and moist. G didn't like the gritty texture, but I think that's from the home ground oats and the brand of almond flour I used. I could sift both and get a much smoother texture. 

So this recipe is a keeper for sure. 

I have three keeper banana recipes, each with a slightly different purpose. This is a good gluten free recipe. The one with hemp hearts is G's favorite. And then the one I made twice without realizing it can be our normal standard. 

But... 

What if I don't have any ripe bananas?? The way Jaron ears them, it's pretty tricky to have any around. Maybe I could sub applesauce for bananas? Chat gpt thought so. 

So I whipped up a batch using a 1:1 substitution of homemade applesauce for bananas. 

Very liquidy. 

I debated adding more oats or almond flour and decided against it. Another factor I threw in the mix was baking it in the toaster oven instead of the regular oven. The way the pan fits inside brings the batter close to the heating element, which could impact the bake. I also filled the muffin wells fuller and still had a good amount of batter leftover for my little cake pan. 

As you can see, they ended up with dips in the middle. Too much moisture. 

Still, they taste good. Extremely moist, so I should tweak that next time.  

And bake them in a regular oven to see if that makes a difference. 🙃

Lemon Raspberry Goat Cheese Pancakes

Another recipe from the recent cookbook perusing. It uses both milk and cottage cheese, so it's a win for "milk season". 

It came together quickly, always a plus. Pretty liquidy. 

We fried them in a cast iron. It took a little to figure out the best timing and temp for flipping. 

I had the idea to toss in some freeze dried raspberries... 

They all floated to the top. I waited a few minutes for them to rehydrate, but probably not long enough. 

The batter cooked up just fine! And actually, we liked the flavor with the raspberries added even more than the original recipe! I froze the leftovers and Jaron has already had a couple of frozen ones as a quick snack.

 Definitely a recipe I'll make again.