Name: Oat Protein Balls
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 15 pieces
Ingredients: 3/4 Cup Oats (Whole, Rolled (not instant)); 1 TBSP Hemp Seeds; 1/4 Cup Coconut (Flaked, Unsweetened); 1/2 Cup Semi Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips; 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter; 1 TBSP Maple Syrup

Life, Pastry, Pistol Whipped Pastry, Recipes, Snacks

Oat Protein Balls

The kitchen right before the movers arrived and loaded it up with boxes.

I am working on a post about our new house, I promise. We are unfortunately still drowning in boxes. Some things are easier to unpack, while others it takes a little living in the house to find their spot. Also, have you ever tried to unpack boxes with a teething, crawling one-year old, who only wants mama to hold her? It should be an olympic sport.

Today I am waiting around the house for an oven repair person that the superintendent of the job site supposedly called. I’m not holding my breathe after I texted him this morning to inquire what time frame they may show up in, and he told me to let him know if they don’t show up because they notoriously won’t show up for appointments. ::eye roll:: To say I’m annoyed would be an understatement. I’ve talked with a couple other neighbors, and apparently they have had the same problem, plus the superintendent himself told me they have been having this problem. A brand new house, and no oven for the first month of living in it. Absurd.

Yesterday was a blah day for us all around the house. I don’t know if it’s all the boxes or just the stormy day, but we didn’t want to do much. Usually I would bake, but oven woes prevented that, so I concocted instead.

I tried to create these protein balls last week, and they didn’t turn out the way I wanted. They were way too crumbly, need a little kick up to the sweetness…they just needed more. I went back to the drawing board. I’m happy to say the modifications I made yesterday were a winner, though I’m already planning another version in my head.

These are great for anyone trying to watch what they are eating and want a little sweet treat, but also they are fantastic for nursing mamas. I have tasted some of the lactation treats for nursing mamas…disgusting (for those not in the know, oats are great for helping you make milk, and yes we worry about these things, because we basically worry about everything now that we are moms).

Oat protein balls (a horrible name, I agree) are a perfect treat for anyone. Mr. PC took them with him to work this morning and now I have 1 left. Bummer. Time to make another version, and unpack some more boxes.

Oat Protein Balls

Perfect sweet treat, especially for breastfeeding mama's. Copyright Croissant In The City, 2017

Course

Snack

Prep Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

2-3 hours

Servings

pieces

Ingredients

3/4 Cup Oats Whole, Rolled (not instant)
1 TBSP Hemp Seeds
1/4 Cup Coconut Flaked, Unsweetened
1/2 Cup Semi Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 TBSP Maple Syrup

Course

Snack

Prep Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

2-3 hours

Servings

pieces

Ingredients

3/4 Cup Oats Whole, Rolled (not instant)
1 TBSP Hemp Seeds
1/4 Cup Coconut Flaked, Unsweetened
1/2 Cup Semi Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 TBSP Maple Syrup

Instructions

Grease a baking dish or pan.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix to evenly distribute.
Add wet ingredients and mix until combine.
Scoop with ice cream scoop or TBSP to portion evenly, then roll with your hands. Place in the baking pan and place in the refrigerator for a few hours until firm.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Let me know how long they last. In our house, they last about 24 hours.

Recipe Notes

Just a couple notes for you!

I used a dark roasted peanut butter and I love the depth of flavor it adds, but feel free to use what you have and/or what you like.
Guittard are my favorite chocolate chips, and you can now find them at Fry's and Sprouts.
Don't feel like you have to use the same add-in's that I used. I love hemp seeds because they are a great plant based protein. We use them daily in our smoothies. If you don't want to invest in a package of them for this recipe, sub in something else. Chopped or ground nuts perhaps or flaxseed meal.
If you are concerned about the digestibility of raw oats, you can always sub sprouted oats. I have also toasted the oats in the oven for 8-10 minutes at 325 (this doesn't really assist in digestibility, it's more to enhance flavor). For my purpose of this snack, to support lactation, raw oats seem to work better for me.

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July 18, 2017 by croissant | 0 comment

Bits and Bobbles, Desserts, Life, Pastry, Pistol Whipped Pastry, Wine

Daydream Monday, anyone?

Summers in Arizona for restaurants and bakeries or any hospitality business here is slow. Super slow. I assumed this would give me time to relax, daydream, and plan for the upcoming season. Yeah, not so much. I have been consistently busy planning and plotting with the odd job here and there, that I feel like I haven’t been able to spend much time playing with all my new ideas.

Mondays are my creative days. Well, I do office work too, but I give myself space to write recipes, test recipes, and flip through my cookbooks and mags that are piling up on my desk, and finally organize the bobs and bits around my messy office.

Daydream Mondays allow for endless cups of coffee, slices of leftover dark chocolate cake for lunch, and wine time arriving whenever the day demands and permits. Bowls of sweet plum slices for snack while catching up on emails or sorting through boxes of baking tools that will be used and abused this upcoming season. I don’t have to be anywhere or have to meet any deadlines. The day takes shape however I need it to, plus it’s alone time in my home office and kitchen to be by myself.

It’s simple and not the break I had hoped for, but the business is growing and starting to find its shape, and I am so grateful for this progress.

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to Williams-Sonoma Biltmore for the Artisan Market. We love being able to do these events and spread the word about what we are doing at Pistol Whipped Pastry.

Happy Monday, friends!

Rachel Ellrich Miller is a pastry chef and food writer in Phoenix, where she bakes, eats, hangs out with her amazing husband, Mr. PC, and drinks copious amounts of Arizona wine. You can get more information about her pastry at http://www.pistolwhippedpastry.com, or her Sugar Rush column on Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog.

August 4, 2014 by croissant | 0 comment

Desserts, Farm Life, Food Love, Pastry, Pistol Whipped Pastry, Travel, Wine

A Willcox Weekend

Mr. PC and I are in love with Willcox, Arizona. The land stretches forever in every direction, with farms and vineyards lining the roads. People are kind, waving to us, even though they have never seen us and may never see us again. The main drag of downtown is slowly being revitalized with wine tasting rooms, and hopefully restaurants will follow.

The purpose of our trip was a going away party for our friend Simona. She has an amazing career as a wine maker, venturing around the world to different wineries, helping through the entire wine making process. We met Simona a few months ago when we went to Willcox to help our friends at Sand-Reckoner plant some vines (see story here).

We brought a dessert bar with dark chocolate cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream, a s’mores station (Simona had her first s’more and while a little too sweet for her, she did enjoy it), bourbon coconut rice pudding, and mason jars of lemon posset.

As everyone arrived at the Pillsbury Wine Company tasting room, a variety of dishes filled the table and full bottles of wine collected on the bar. There wasn’t a bad bit of food in the place. Citrus salad, grain salad, peaches baked with goat cheese, baked squash, marinated steak tacos, and Simona’s veggie lasagna.

Everyone sat outside eating, drinking wine, talking and watching the rain storms roll overhead. A beautiful weekend with lovely people.

If you have the chance, get down to Willcox wine country and taste the beautiful wines they are making.

Simona, we will miss you! Safe travels on your next journey! xo

Rachel Ellrich Miller is a pastry chef and food writer in Phoenix, where she bakes, eats, hangs out with her amazing husband, Mr. PC, and drinks copious amounts of Arizona wine. You can get more information about her pastry at http://www.pistolwhippedpastry.com, or her Sugar Rush column on Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog.

July 28, 2014 by croissant | 0 comment

Decor, Desserts, Dinner, Food Love, Life, Pastry, Pistol Whipped Pastry, Wine

Wedding, House, And Building The Business

Dessert from our mini moon at Bourbon Steak.

I married my love, Mr. PC. We tied the knot just over two months ago in a sunset ceremony surrounded by our family and close friends. While it was a beautiful day, we are still exhausted and attempting to recover.

I wish I could have spent more time with family and friends that came in from out of town. Everything went so quickly and the wedding day was a blur of hugs and quick conversations. I don’t feel like I was able to talk to everyone enough. Happily, I was able to at least speak with everyone who attended, but for me, it wasn’t enough. Now they are all home, we are moderately recovered, and I wish we had more time with our families and friends. Check out the lovely armadillo cake one of my best girlfriends made me over at my Sugar Rush column on Chow Bella.

Even though I was not allowed to make my own wedding cake, I still represented Pistol Whipped Pastry with some tasty cupcake treats for my family and friends to take with them as well as a dessert table at the rehearsal dinner. I wanted to give my out of town guests something from my bakery, plus, I love doing orders for dessert tables or dessert favors for weddings, and my wedding was no exception.

Of course, there is always drama when you put many different opinions into one space. I have chosen NOT to change my name at the present time. I like my name. I have a business and a career built on my name. Never did I think that it would matter to me, to change my name, until a couple months ago, when someone asked me if I was practicing signing my new name. I hemmed and hawed, caught off-guard at how much I didn’t want to change it. This has been my name for 31 years. I’m not ready to part with it just yet.

When we went to sign the marriage certificate after the wedding, the venerable female reverend told me that I HAD to change my name, because legally, my name is now that of my husband, and I could get into serious trouble with the law if caught with my maiden name on my license and social security card. My photographer frantically waved her hands and shook her head no behind the silver-haired reverend. It’s a great story to tell, and I eagerly wait being arrested by the police for not using my married name.

We hit the ground running after the wedding. Pistol Whipped Pastry is taking off and I am thrilled. Crazy busy. Somedays, I wish I could clone myself, but I am really excited about all the progress. We are booking events left and right, and I am getting to work with so many amazing people. Check out the new line of gluten free pastries I am doing at Kaleidoscope Juice. I’m writing for some fabulous publications, and being extended some amazing writing opportunities that I can not wait to share with you all.We bought a house in December, you know, because we haven’t done enough this year, yet. Life is good.

The recovery process after a wedding seems to involve the regaining of one’s appetite. I feel like I didn’t eat for about a month prior and during the wedding. My trainer was amazed at how quickly I was losing weight. “No appetite,” was not her favorite response. However, we are making up for it now, by eating good food.

It’s like I hit Suzie Homemaker mode this weekend, roasting a chicken, then making stock from the remains. Homemade chicken soup. Apples for applesauce gurgling away in cider on the stove. The windows opened. Prepping dinners for the week. It was the first time in a couple weeks I had cooked a homemade meal, and it was fully relaxing. As much as I love the precision and measurements of pastry, I equally love the dash-here-and-pinch-there of savory cooking as well.

Chicken soup, pink lady applesauce, and new wine glasses.

I make chicken stock quite a bit, since I typically roast a chicken about every other week. I throw the whole chicken carcass into the stock pot, fill with water till just covered. Add a couple chopped carrots, some celery, an onion, a bay leaf, salt and pepper, and simmer for about 4 hours. Make sure to skim off and discard the foam as it collects on the surface.

I strain my stock through cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve. Store in deli containers in the freezer for use whenever needed.

With the proliferation of kale and other hearty leafy greens popping up from our local farmers, I have been chopping and tossing those greens in near the end of the soup making process.

Our new house is perfect. It’s exactly the amount of space we needed and in a great area, that is up-and-coming. I finally have a dedicated office to house my books, Pistol Whipped Pastry gear, and all the great photography gear & props I have been collecting.

I am loving the blank slate that is before me, daydreaming up how I want to decorate. I have already procured some paint samples, and have a pinterest board full of creative DIY ideas of how I want to organize and create my perfect workspace.

Over the next month I will be working on putting together my office space, and sharing it with you here. The challenge I am facing is the need for a lot of storage, but I don’t want it to look like I work in a storage room or a closet. With a growing collection of cookbooks and vintage cake stands, I want to be able to display them, but not feel overwhelmed in the small space.

I guess it’s time to open a bottle of wine and start painting the walls. Do people have such things as painting parties? Hmmm…

January 8, 2014 by croissant | 0 comment

Bacon, Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Food Love, Lunch, Pastry, Recipes, Wine

Caramelized Onions and Quiche

I went through a phase a few years ago where I was obsessed with caramelized onions. I made them everyday to eat on thick toasted slices of bread I was testing, tossed with pasta and goat cheese, or with my morning eggs. They were sweet, charred, and with a dash of salt, perfect on just about anything. Due to some comments from friends and my sister, I am pretty sure that my house, as well as my person, were pretty pungent, but I didn’t care. I love the smell. It was comforting to come home and have the scent of onion perfuming the air.

Working as a pastry chef can be challenging at times, to keep your creativity fresh. I read everything I can get my hands on, taste the work of other chefs, travel to new towns to see what is happening in their food scene, scour the internet for new techniques and back myself against a wall, to force myself to come up with new ideas and methods.

Some days, I go back to my favorites. Hunting for new scone flavor variations the other day, I wandered around the kitchen. I scoured the walk-in, the freezer, dry storage. That is when I saw the onions. As freshly baked bacon wafted through the air, I started to piece together a new scone flavor. It is simple, but caramelized onions, bacon and cheese scones are one of my biggest sellers, so apparently others feel the familiar tug of comforting flavors too.

I hadn’t made caramelized onions in a long time and once I started at work, I couldn’t seem to stop. Zipping to the market after work, I filled my basket with onions and headed home to continue my caramelized project.

Pale onions, on their way to being caramelized.

One of my favorite ways to eat caramelized onions is in quiche. Silky custard of eggs and milk, flaky pie crust and all the little bits and pieces you have left over in the fridge, tossed into the mix. I keep a pie crust rolled out in a pie plate in the freezer at all times. It is my quickie dinner when I just don’t feel like assembling a full meal. I mix up the egg and milk (or cream if you are feeling dangerous), toss in the bits and bobbles I can find. Pop it in the oven for about 45 min-1 hour. While it bakes, I toss together a small salad, and pour glasses of wine. It’s simple, like the caramelized onions, but it’s comfortable.

As Mr. Paul Child walked in the door, mid-caramelized onion sautéing on the stove, the first words out of his mouth were “Ohhhh! What smells so good in here?” I knew I was marrying the right man.

Caramelized Onions and Quiche

Rachel Ellrich Miller

Ingredients:

For the Caramelized Onions:
2 large onions (any variety that you like)
A couple tbsp good olive oil
A pinch of salt

For the Quiche:
Pie crust in a 9.5" or 10" pie plate; chill very well (or keep in the freezer like I do)
7-8 eggs
1/2 cup milk (you can also use all cream or half milk, half cream)
Various odds and ends (I used zucchini, red pepper, teleme cheese, caramelized onions and bacon)
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

For the caramelized onions:
Heat a sautee pan over medium heat. Pour in a couple tablespoons of good olive oil. You want to keep the onions from sticking to the pan, you do not want your onions drowning in oil. Toss in your onions. This process will take a bit, so be patient. Allow the onions to sweat, stir occasionally. The onions will start to color. When they do, try not to move them around too much. You do want to move the onions, to allow the color to cover all the onions, but you also want them to color, and moving them around a lot will not allow them to get nice and caramelized. If you like a paler caramelization, take them off at your preference.

Quiche:
Whisk egg and milk together. Toss all your odds and ends in the frozen pie crust. Pour your egg mixture over.Pop in the oven at 350 degrees for 45minutes to an hour. Basically, it should not be jiggly in the middle and golden brown on top. I always end up covering the top with aluminum foil near the end, to keep the top from over browning.

Serve with side salad and a glass of Arizona Sand Reckoner white for a perfect summer evening.

June 17, 2013 by croissant | 0 comment

Desserts, Life, Pastry, Photography, Pistol Whipped Pastry

Seasons of Change or Change of Seasons

The past few months have been busy. The past few weeks have been insane! My latest and greatest news is that Pistol Whipped Pastry, my pastry business, is up and running!

We are generating interest and picking up some great clients, plus placing PWP products on the shelves at some fabulous local stores. PWP is looking at getting into some of the farmers markets soon. I will keep you updated on where you can grab some tasty PWP treats, and we hope to see you there.

Mr. P.C. and I are in full wedding swing. That means eating better, which isn’t hard to do with all the gorgeous veg and fruit coming up at the farmers markets. I sat by the open window this weekend, and ate a pound of strawberries. The ruby strawberries were intended for a tart (err, eating better means fruit on your tart, right?), but once I bit into one, I knew they wouldn’t make it to my pastry.

I have more strawberries coming this week, but this time, I will attempt to resist, so that PWP strawberry jam doesn’t suffer.

Are you enjoying the strawberries coming in? How are you eating them?

April 23, 2013 by croissant | 0 comment