RECIPE: ANGELA'S PUMPKIN CHIA SPELT SCUFFINS

One of my closest friend's dog died a little less than a month ago and Sean and I decided to go over and cheer her up. Not wanting to go over empty-handed, Sean and I opted to make her cookies but since she's on the Weight Watchers diet (and doing a mighty good job), I had to find a recipe that would suit the WW points scale but also be delicious.

Enter Pumpkin Chia Spelt Scuffins by Angela from Oh She Glows. What the heck is a scuffin? Well, I kind of wondered the same thing but then continued reading and found out that it's a mix between a scone and a muffin. I followed Angela's recipe with my substitutions in italics below:
PUMPKIN CHIA SPELT SCUFFINS
Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour (I used whole wheat as I didn't have any spelt on-hand)
  
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t ground cloves
• 1/2 t fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar (I used white granulated since I didn't have any cane sugar)
• 1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
• 1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water, mixed)
• 1 t vanilla

Directions: (straight from Angela's website)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flax egg in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients (spelt, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves). Set aside. In a different bowl mix the butter, sugar and agave until smooth. I melted my butter a bit in the microwave for 15 seconds first as I find the Earth Balance is easier to work with when melted slightly. Now add pumpkin, flax egg, and vanilla. Beat well. Carefully mix in dry ingredients being sure not to overmix. Spelt is broken down very quickly when mixed and you can end up with a tough batter if you overmix it. But relax it will turn out regardless! The batter will be very moist and sticky, but don’t worry. Drop the batter onto the baking sheet. I wet my fingers to slightly shape the scuffins. Pop a stick in the end if preferred to have your scuffin on a stick! I got my sticks at Bulk Barn. Sprinkle with chia seeds for a spooky, yet nutritious, effect for Halloween! You can also have fun decorating little pumpkin faces on them (great for kids!). Bake for 17 minutes or until the scuffins slightly bounce back when touched. Handle the scuffins on a stick very carefully because they are delicate. I found that I improved this by making smaller scuffins on a stick- then they weren’t as heavy!
Believe it or not, these cookies are only 1 point on the WW point scale. My friend was not only really happy to have some company to cheer her up and not only happy to receive cookies (Sean made a cookie containing coconut and white chocolate), but really happy to find out that these cookies were only 1 WW point. Score!

I've made these once again since that first time and made the following substitutions according to what I had on-hand:

• 2 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour (I used whole wheat as I didn't have any spelt on-hand)
  
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t ground cloves
• 1/2 t fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread (I used butter as I was out of EB and the calorie count actually turns out to be very similar)
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
• 1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water, mixed)
• 1 t vanilla

The second round of baking these cookies turned out to be better than the first. I don't know if it was the use of cane sugar or butter but the cookies were less dense than the first batch. They were addictive, crazy addictive.

RECIPE: ANGELA'S HOCKEY NUTS IN CANADA

You have to make Angela's nuts. You'll fall in love with Angela's nuts. It's actually a recipe adapted from Union Square Cafe. You can find the original recipe here but you can find Angela's version.Here's a recap of Angela's version:

Ingredients:

- 2 1/4 cups mixed unsalted nuts (I used 1/2 cup peanuts, 1/2 cup cashews, 1/2 cup walnuts, and 3/4 cup almonds) (I used this ratio of nuts)
- 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves (I used dried since that's all I had on-hand)
- small pinch cayenne pepper
- 1-2 Tbsp Sucanat (or brown sugar) (I used 2 Tbsp brown sugar)
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup, to taste (optional) (I totally used maple syrup...I love it)
- 1.5 tsp sea salt (I used pink Himalayan salt since it was nearby)
- 2 Tbsp Earth Balance butter

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread nuts onto the baking sheet and toast for about 10-12 minutes. Remove nuts and let cool for about 5 mins. or so. While cooling, mix the sauce ingredients (rosemary, cayenne, Sucanat, maple syrup, sea salt, 1 tbsp of Earth Balance butter). Now, dump nuts into a large bowl and stir in 1 tbsp of melted Earth Balance butter. Add sauce and mix well. Pour nuts back onto baking sheet and bake for another 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool for about 20 minutes and serve warm. Makes 2 1/4- 2 1/2 cups.

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This IS a highly addictive snack. In fact, I didn't even bother waiting for the nuts to cool and did a little quality control on some hot-out-of-the-oven almonds. Yum, yum! It was some really good stuff and then I proceeded to sit on my hands for the remaining 19 minutes until the nuts had cooled down.
Then I proceeded to eat almost every single nut in the little glass above. It was a little bit of insanity but I managed to stop myself and then had to transfer the nuts into a Bernadin 500mL mason jar with the remaining placed into a tightly shut container. I'm sure how long they'll in their containers but I don't think it'll really matter. They're great snacking items.