Fig - Oat Muffins Recipe

The fig tree that exists on our property, produces at least 30 lbs of figs each year. This means that our freezer & counter space often overflows with the delicious fruit begging to be consumed and/or turned into yummy jams & baked treats.

I’ve been craving muffins & desperately needed to use up some of the lingering fruit so I decided to make an easy jam following this recipe & ultimately used my fig jam to create a batch of wholesome treats for my family.

The recipe is quite simple & bakes into subtle sweetness from the fig.

I also topped the muffins with a light crumble made of additional oats, brown sugar, and butter for a delightful crunch.

Ingredients:

1 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp all cinnamon

1/4 tsp all spice

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F in and place parchment paper liners inside muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, mix, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

Using an electric mixer, beat (high speed) together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. scrape down sides before adding eggs, sour cream, and vanilla extract.

On the lowest speed setting, slowly add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, etc) and milk, alternating until combined.

Fold in 1/2 cup of prepared fig jam.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins and top with optional strudel crumble. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before enjoying! 💓

T h u r s d a y

On the homestead..

A bouquet of wheat celosia flowers.

Afternoon treat! Sugar cookies, recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Making pesto w/ basil from the garden.

💛💛💛

I live in climate/ garden zone 7a & although it is technically autumn, we usually don’t feel the effects of cooler temperatures until late October. However, nature is very intuitive and has a beautiful way of communicating.

This morning, I woke up to a chill in the air leaving me yearning for a hot cup of coffee besides my usual iced, oat latte. Homeschool began promptly at 8:30 a.m. as bread proof in the oven.

During our first break, I decided to bring in a bouquet of flowers to dress the kitchen table and immediately gathered a bunch of basil to make pesto for the last tomato sandwich of the year. 🍅🌿♥️

We have major sweet tooth’s so J.J. helped bake a yummy batch of sugar cookies.

Easy peach galette

Our first and final celebration of peach season was celebrated just shortly after Labor Day here in the states. It’s still very warm here in the south east region, so it only felt appropriate to bake something simple & delicious from our last batch of peaches before we close the book of summer 2023.

Recipe:

Your favorite pie dough recipe

1lb peaches, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

1/3 cup of granulated sugar (I use organic cane sugar)

1/3 teaspoon of salt

1/3 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of allspice

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Lemon zest

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F

After preparing pie crust, lightly toss together fruit & cornstarch until combined. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Gently, incorporate salt, spices, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and zest.

Fill pie crust while taking care to pinch dough closed.

Bake for 45-55 minutes

Serve warm w/ vanilla ice cream!

Knitting socks and baking Brownies

Since arriving home from my ‘Country Mouse’ retreat this past week, I ended up coming down with a terrible cough and stuffy nose.

I’ve spent most of the day piddling around in my flannel pajamas and drinking lots of tea. I also managed to finish the toe of a special pair of socks, I’m currently knitting for my eldest boy. I cast on a pair of Halloween socks for him, while in the mountains of Blue Ridge and I can’t believe that I’m already finished w/ the first one. Well, maybe I should disclose that I’m knitting him a pair of DK weight socks.. so maybe that’s why they’re practically knitting themselves. ☺️🧶🧦

I’m holding 2 strands of fingering weight yarn and oh my.. the marled effect is quite striking! Immediately upon casting off the first sock, I didn’t hesitate to start sock # 2.

While away on my retreat, I also started another pair of DK socks that I plan to give away to a special friend. The Blueberry Waffle sock pattern is what I decided to go with and I’m also holding 2 strands of fingering weight yarn together. I’ve realized that I’m finding so much pleasure in my current sock projects, at the moment but I’m also really looking forward to knitting a new sweater for one of my boys (youngest.)

( yarn 🧶 A Knitter’s Homestead )

In between my sock knitting and drinking warm beverages for my sore throat, I was pretty eager to bake a small tray of chocolate brownies for my family to enjoy.

I found one of my old recipes from over a decade ago - the one that I’d perfected back when our eldest boy was only a young toddler. I was afraid that it wouldn’t turn out the way I remember them tasting but, to my surprise and delight.. they were everything I remember. Absolutely delicious!

Now, I can’t promise that my brownies are the best tasting brownies you’ve ever had in your life but I can promise, these brownies are good and humble AND super easy to make! Not to mention that they’ll fit the bill for satisfying any sweet tooth in your home.

🦷 🩷

Simple Chocolate Brownies :

Ingredients:

1/2 cup, butter

1/2 cup, bittersweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup, sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup, all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

* chopped nuts, optional

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat until smooth. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F .. and lined an 8x8x2 dish w/ parchment paper.

Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture followed by beating in eggs, one at a time with a wooden spoon -just until combined. Stir in vanilla.

In a small separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt together.

Add flour mixture into chocolate mixture, taking care to mix just until combined. Fold in nuts or additional chocolate chips.

Spread evenly into prepared dish and bake for 30-35 mins.

Feel free to serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy, because you deserve it! 💛

Xoxo

River

Midnight Chocolate Chip Cookies 🍪

Hi sweet friends!

After recently posting over on IG about the delicious, Midnight Chocolate Chip Cookies (that I’ve enjoyed baking for almost a decade now) - I have received quite a bit of interest from you! How lovely that many of you would too like to bake a batch of these yummy double chocolate cookies too!! 😀😍😋

Here’s my special recipe, tweaked over the years to perfection. Enjoy & Happy Baking!!

🥚🧈💛🥚🧈💛🥚

Ingredients-

2 1/2 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup butter 🧈, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup dk. brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs 🥚, room temperature

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

🧈🥚🌼🧈🥚🌼🧈

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda) in a bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high speed to combine butter and sugars until light in appearance & fluffy. 2 minutes

Continue to add eggs (one at a time) then vanilla. Add chocolate chips.

With electric mix on low speed , gently add in the flour mixture until the dough comes together. 15 seconds.

Cover the bowl w/ plastic wrap and refrigerate until dough is firm. At least 1 hour.

Time to bake! Line baking sheet w/ parchment or nonstick mats. Scoop 2 tablespoons of dough & form into round 2 1/2” balls. Flatten w/ palm of hand - cookies should be 1/2” thick.

Bake for 14 - 18 minutes

Let cool on wire rack before gobbling them up! 💛💛💛

If you do decide to bake a yummy batch of these midnight chocolate chip cookies, please tag me over on IG@aknittershomestead . I’d LOVE to see!! 🥰

River 🌸

Homemade granola recipe

So many of you kind souls have asked for my granola recipe and I’m absolutely happy to finally have a free moment to share it with all of you.

I’ve first began making homemade granola for my family many years ago, when our eldest son was only two years old. At the time, we were living in Northern California, in a small city named Hayward, in a tiny duplex - where I’d spend most of my free time in our small kitchen cooking & baking many recipes for us to enjoy. Cowboy, was working for a big corporation, which allowed me to be a stay-at home- mom. He was working such long hours, every day leaving our home before sunrise to beat traffic while driving into San Francisco. We needed something yummy, wholesome and quick for him to munch on during his transit.

Over the years, I’ve tweaked this recipe - ultimately settling on this one.. my family really enjoys it sooo much and it’s the ultimate go-to snack in my house.

Homemade Granola-

4 cups of old fashioned oats.

1 cup of sliced almonds + 1 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes + 1/3 cup of dried cranberries, dried cherries & golden raisins.

1/2 cup of wheat germ

1 tablespoon of flax seeds

Combine all dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Syrup-

Over medium - high heat, bring all ingredients to a boil before simmering for 5 min.

Ingredients;

1/3 cup brown sugar + 1/3 cup of maple syrup or 🍯 honey + 1 tsp cinnamon + 1tsp vanilla extract + 1/2 tsp salt.

Pour hot syrup over dry ingredients.

Spread across sheet pan. Bake at 300F degrees for 20-25 min.

Let cool on wire rack for 20 minutes before storing into a tightly sealed container or glass jar. The granola will keep fresh for up to 3 weeks.

I hope you have fun making this simple recipe and feel free to substitute any of the ingredients to make it more suitable for yourself and family.

Baking Apple Turnovers While Grieving 🤍

Dear Friends,

Despite the reality of sadness that does exist in this very moment, I’m glad to be alive and well. Six days ago, I lost the physical presence of my beloved, Dada. A great man, that truly loved his family and honored the Lord. My Dada, served God by being of service to others. He was remarkable in every way and I’m honored to have spent 37 years with him. 🤍✨🕊️

He had a true passion for making delicious food for his family to eat and now that’s he’s gone, it’s dawned upon me that he must’ve passed his love for cooking & baking down to me.

It’s no surprise that despite today’s circumstances, I was able to find inspiration in a few apples lying across the kitchen counter top, this morning.

I made apple turnovers for my family to enjoy because we all needed something sweet to eat and a sense of peace and comfort.

I used a few Honey-crisp apples, fresh cranberries and golden raisins for the filling. Cinnamon, all spice and vanilla extract helped round out the flavors.

This little project took about 45 minutes total from sorting and preparing the ingredients to baking and letting them cool before digging in.

The recipe can be found over on the Sally’s Baking Addiction website. It’s such a simple recipe and will adapt well to many seasonal variations.

If you find yourself baking a batch of delicious turnovers, I’d love to hear all about them.

I hope you’re having a wonderful week and happy baking!

Sincerely,

River

shop update

The shop update is now live

Cornflower on 1-ply mohair + silk

Antique Pink on 1-ply mohair + silk

Miss Potter on 2-ply s.w. merino

my little secret

As the balmy days of summer continue on…

I can recall the buzzing excitement around the initial release of a specific pattern. At the time, all of my lovely friends were knitting one and I truly adored each of their versions. It never crossed my mind to knit one too.. especially with two sweaters already in rotation and a few sock wip’s scattered about.

But then, on a warm and lazy Sunday morning, I was unexpectedly inspired to knit one too. I slowly shuffled through an old wicker basket, nicely tucked underneath my bed - in search for that beautiful skein of yarn my sweet friend, Mary so graciously gifted me. It was found near the bottom, unexpectedly yet properly placed next to a skein of Carnation from my Valentine’s collection. The two were a match made in Heaven and I knew in my heart that together they would create a gorgeous My Little Secret Crop.

Pattern: My Little Secret Crop by Jessie Maed

Yarn: A Knitter’s Homestead in Carnation on our 2-ply s.w. merino /nylon // Artistic Lilly in the colorway Freshly Brewed. Both are fingering weight and were held double to achieve this beautiful marled effect.

summer solstice socks

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

In honor of this year’s summer solstice, I created a five (5) skein mini set based on simple pleasures of summer. Tomato vines growing across the trellis and the aroma of sweet basil in the air. Slow days and starry nights. Our son’s catching crickets and firefly’s while dancing about. There’s a tall oak tree that lives far east of our ranch and is the home to a family of glorious owls. These stunning birds sure do have a way of demanding attention, for their presence is quite powerful. As a family, we enjoy owl watching and this has become a delightful summer tradition.

Summer continues … and with each free moment in honor of the season, I’ve enjoyed knitting on these beautiful socks. My sweet Summer Solstice socks…

yarn: summer solstice mini set

summer solstice mini set's

Inspired by tomato vines, glasses of sangria, blue skies and mammoth sunflowers.

Our homestead is bursting with an abundance of happy blooms and buzzing bees, gazing over the sweet balm underneath the hazy sunshine. Our Summer Solstice mini set includes five (5) twenty gram mini’s on the 2-ply donegal tweed base.

Summer Solstice 2021

Stock: SOLD OUT

Hand Knit Socks and Flowers