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Earlier this month I signed up for this great food challenge hosted by a local Houston Foodie, Anamaris of Chef It Yourself. This is my very first Top Chef It Yourself Challenge and I was excited when I found out what the secret ingredients were; dates, ginger and couscous!! I’m a big fan of couscous but the family isn’t, well Alyssa likes it but no one else.  I knew I was going to make my recipe sweet but wasn’t sure what to do.  After thinking about it for a few days I finally had a recipe in mind and it turned out great.  I loved it and so did Alyssa.

Fruit and Nut Couscous
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
1 10 oz box of Original Plain Couscous *I used the Near East brand
1 cup water
1 cup apple juice
3 Medjool Dates, diced
3 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 cup *cranberry fiesta mix (dried cranberries, coconut, walnuts, pecans and almonds)
1/4 cup honey, save a little to drizzle on top
1/4 cup apricot preserves

Directions
1. Prepare couscous according to package using 1 cup of water and 1 cup of apple juice.
2. While couscous is cooking, chop the dates and ginger.
3. Move couscous to a large bowl, while it’s still warm, add the dates, ginger, craberry fiesta, honey and apricot preserves. Gently stir until well combined
4. Serve warm with a drizzle of honey.

*A little side note. I shop at H.E.B and they have this great healthy living section that has bulk containers of fruits, oats, nuts, just to name a few. You are able to scoop the amount of product you want, put it on the scale, weigh it and it prints out the barcode for you. I love this little section of my store. For example, Medjool dates were $10.99 for 1lb in the produce section, they were $6.99 in the natural food section. I didn’t need a pound I only needed a few so I bought four big fat dates and it was only $1.40, great deal!! I also bought the ginger and cranberry fiesta is this section. I bought .10 lb of ginger and it was $0.45 and I bought .31 lb of the cranberry fiesta and it was $1.70, take about great deals. I’m sure you could buy a trail mixer to substitute for the cranberry fiesta. I would have spent a lot more if I went straight to the baking section for everything.

We love the pretzels that are at the mall. We get the cinnamon and sugar pretzel every time we make a trip to the mall. They are a little messy, but our kids love them. After seeing this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod I knew I was going to have to give pretzel making a try. It’s a lot easier than I expected, to be honest.  The dough took an hour to rise and they took 15 mintues to bake.  If you love soft pretzels you must give this recipe a try.  I did try to make the basic pretzel twist and I failed, next time I will try again.

Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites

From Two Peas and Their Pod

Soft Pretzels:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast
3 ounces unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil
3 quarts water
3/4 cup baking soda
1 whole egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
Coarse sea salt

For the Pretzels: Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands.

Oil a bowl with vegetable oil, add the dough and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring the water to a boil in a small roasting pan over high heat and add the baking soda.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 ounces each. Roll each piece into a long rope measuring 22 inches and shape. Cut the dough into one inch pieces to make the pretzel bites. Boil the pretzel bites in the water solution in batches for about 30 seconds. Remove with a large slotted spoon. Place pretzel bites on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Make sure they are not touching.  Brush the tops with the egg wash and season with the salt. Place into the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown.

Remove to a baking rack and let rest 5 minutes before eating.

Cinnamon and Sugar Bites

After baking melt 1/4 cup butter in a bowl.  Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons cinnamon in a ziploc bag.  Toss preztels in butter then toss around in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Do you have a favorite butter?  Apple, honey, pumpkin?  My favortie is pumpkin butter and it’s super easy to make.   The recipe that I use is from Libbys Recipe file.  It takes no time all to make and you probably have everything you need in your pantry.  I love eating pumpkin butter on buttermilk biscuits.  It’s also excellent on pancakes, toast, bagels, the possibilities are endless really.  How do you like to enjoy your favorite butter?  My daughter loves pumpkin butter she likes to eat it by the spoon full.

Pumpkin Butter oh so yummy

Libbys Pumpkin Butter

Ingredients
1 can (15 ounces) LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions
Combine pumpkin, sugar, honey, lemon juice, cinnamon and cloves in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring frequently, for 20 to 25 minutes or until thickened. Serve with biscuits, breads and corn muffins. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Recipe makes 2 cups.

Pumpkin Butter