Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

A lovely Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread is the perfect way to lighten up your day.

With soft swirls of cinnamon, a light and springy interior, and raisins throughout, what more could you ask for?

The absolute true beauty of this is that it's not sugared down. You can taste the subtleties of the different ingredients, which compliments a nice spot of tea. Use in your own Croatian Easter Breakfast or any which way. Enjoy!

Yields 1 loaf

Ingredients

1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 egg
1/6 cup white sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/6 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup raisins
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Let milk warm to room temp.

2. Dissolve yeast in warm water, and set aside until yeast is frothy. Mix in eggs, sugar, butter or margarine, salt, and raisins. Stir in milk. Add the flour gradually to make a stiff dough.

3. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes. Place in a large, greased mixing bowl, and turn to grease the surface of the dough. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled.

4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Moisten dough with 2 tablespoons water. Mix together 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon, and sprinkle mixture on top of the moistened dough. roll up tightly; the Roll should be about 3 inches in diameter. Tuck under ends and place loaf into well greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Lightly grease tops of loaf. Let rise again for 1 hour.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes, or until loaf is lightly browned and sounds hollow. Remove loaf from pan. Let cool before slicing.

Thanksgiving Recipes

We made 3 dishes to take over to a friend's place for Thanksgiving - Garlicky Baked Butternut Squash, Green Bean Casserole, and Smashed Potatoes with Garlic. It took a couple hours to prepare everything, but we had a wonderful time doing it and everything turned out great. And isn't that all that really matters?

Coconut Granita

If you're looking for a way to make a refreshingly light and cooling summer sweet treat, look no further. This simple, easy-to-make coconut granita is just what the doctor ordered.

It requires just one ingredient: coconut milk. Now you can either go with the ones in the can or the ones that are made for drinking straight (from brands such as So Delicious - which is what we used). It's almost like making your own shaved ice. Enjoy!

Muesli with Yogurt

I think there's something wrong with my camera. See that purple line at the top? Not too pretty. And the display screen doesn't seem to work as well as it once did. And the pictures don't seem to come out as clear (not that they were ever that awesome to start. Any tips for fixing it would be sincerely appreciated!

Anyway, on to the goods! Muesli - sweet, sweet muesli. I'm not a fan of plain milk, so I make my own yogurt a lot. But I love muesli. There's something about leaving it overnight to soak up everything that I love. Plus, it's perfect for a hot summer day.

It's also pretty much perfect because I don't have to spend time over a hot stove cooking oatmeal to get my oats fix. And it's also pretty much perfect because you can toss in whatever your little heart desires, as I've done here. Read on for the specifics. Enjoy!

Vanilla

As a featured publisher for Foodbuzz I check out the Daily Specials from time to time. Today, the daily special is some Madagascar Vanilla. Pure, sweet vanilla extract - none of that imitation stuff.

The last time I used vanilla myself was for our Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream.

I have fond memories of going to Mexico and sampling, smelling, becoming intoxicated with their vanilla. A little pure extract goes a looong way, and I highly recommend using the pure stuff over imitation if you can afford it. That said, for most recipes it won't make too much of a difference, so don't beat yourself up over it.

Southern Banana Pudding Pie

Not my typical kind of dessert. But it wasn't a typical kind of day.

This hearkens back a month ago to Valentine's Day - wait, this goes all the way back to mid-January when we went to Luckenbach, Texas (middle of nowheresville) for the greatest Texas BBQ I've anyone's ever had. On that trip, after stuffing ourselves full of slow-roasted, -cooked, -braised brisket, pork, and ribs, we were introduced to a little southern hospitality in the way of Banana Pudding Pie.

I tasted it- let it hit all my taste buds. Hmm. Mmm. I like bananas, I like pudding, I like pie. Sold!

Yes, the above picture looks like eggs or some sort of ancient fertility goddess figurine, but despite the horrible photography, it really is something. So step on up and take a swing at Southern Banana Pudding Pie. Enjoy!

Southern Banana Pudding Pie

Yield: Serves 6-8
Ingredients

• 2-3 bananas
• 1 box vanilla wafers
• 1 large box vanilla pudding mix (sugar-free if desired; plus the milk or non-dairy milk for it)

Cooking Directions

1. Create the pudding mix as instructed on the box. Spread out a layer of wafers in a 9-inch pan. Slice bananas to desired thickness.
2. Spread the pudding on the "crust". Top with bananas and press them into the pudding.
3. Chill well. When ready, top with vanilla wafers, slice, and serve.

Alternatively (though I haven't tried this and I think the wafers would get really soggy) is to layer pudding then bananas then wafers then pudding then bananas then wafers and so on until you run out of ingredients. There's also the method of using a graham cracker crust as well. The texture will be different, yet delicious either way.

Homemade Yogurt

Keeping in line with our series on homemade things like our Homemade Oat Milk, today we have Homemade Yogurt.

For this there aren't any of those fancy yogurt culture starter kits - just a tablespoon or two of some store-bought yogurt. Pick one that has all the live and active cultures you'd like, and it would probably be best if the store-bought yogurt didn't have pectin or gelatin or something like that. A great brand is Fage Yogurt. Either the regular, 2%, or 0% will work with Fage (pronounced Fa-yeh). I'm 100% convinced a generic brand will work equally as well, but doesn't Fage just sound delicious right about now?

Anyway, follow after the jump for complete instructions on how to make yogurt (both Greek and non-Greek) at home. You could be savoring it by tomorrow. Enjoy!

Homemade Oat Milk

OK, so here's what we have for today: homemade oat milk. Whoa whoa, calm down. It's not that difficult. Trust me. Hey, I see you not trusting me there...that's right....get back here. Don't worry. We'll figure this out together.

That's better. So oat milk is easier to make and more nutritious than rice milk by far. For homemade rice milk you have to cook the rice and let it sit and blend and strain. It takes about 4+ hours of cooking to get it right - not something we want to do when oat milk is SO much easier. All oat milk requires is some oats, water, a strainer or cheesecloth, and a blender.

So step on up, folks, for the best homemade oat milk money can't buy. Once done, flavor it with vanilla or cocoa or whatever you like. And use it as an excellent substitute in recipes and for its creaminess. Enjoy!

Homemade Oat Milk

Total time: 12 hours
Yield: 4 cups
Ingredients

• 4 cups hot water
• 1 cup oats (any kind)

Cooking Directions

1. Heat the 4 cups of water and add to oats in a container. Note: do NOT use boiling water.
2. Let sit at least overnight in the fridge but for as long as two days.
3. Blend oats and water together in a blender. Add another cup of water if you'd like it thinner.
4. Strain the milk through a metal mesh strainer or one layer of cheesecloth. Note: this will make your cheesecloth harder to clean than when you used it for the yogurt.

Ta-da! That's all there is to it. How simple. Use within 5-7 days unless you like oat milk that's started to go a little bad (hey, to each his own).

Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

A gift just in time for Valentine's Day for all you sweet treat obsessed lovers out there. Way better than a box of chocolates, I say.

I have to admit...I was skeptical this would work. Not only because I didn't have an ice cream maker and had to use the plastic bag method, but because I didn't have (what seemed to me) a key ingredient for thickening up the ice cream. Yet I really wanted to make this so gosh darn badly that I persevered.

Basically, non-dairy greek yogurt replaced the creamer and arrowroot from the original recipe (featured below). And it turned out ok! In fact, it turned out great. The tart from the yogurt played really nicely with the vanilla. I can't even imagine how sweet this would have been if the yogurt was not in there. It's perfect for me (though my girlfriend is slightly less of a fan, but who cares?).

Next time, hopefully soon, I plan on experimenting further with my own homemade oat milk and making that into ice cream. I haven't yet decided on the final ingredients for that - maybe peaches or blackberries. We'll see. Enjoy!