The combination of lemon and poppyseed reminds me of my mother's lemon poppyseed bread that she would make every winter. Her small loaves were soft and moist. My Lemon and Poppyseed Flax cookies are certainly not my mother's bread in bite-size form, but the flavors of lemon, almond, and poppyseed always conjure up good memories of enjoying her bread at family gatherings.

By no means am I suggesting that these lemon poppyseed cookies will become a family favorite. These are easy and quick to make, vegan, and make a great bite size snack to enjoy with coffee or tea. They have the added benefits of omega 3 from freshly ground flaxseed, and do not contain butter or oil. Cookies are best enjoyed the day after making them.

Lemon Poppyseed Flax Cookies
Makes 20 small cookies

Special equipment: blender

3 1/2 T whole flaxseed
1/4 cup room temperature water
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
4-5 drops of almond oil
1/4 cup sucanat
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
3 T Poppy seeds (use less if you don't like the texture of so many seeds)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup all purpose flour

optional glaze: powdered sugar, lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare one baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a blender, finely grind the whole flaxseed. Slowly add the water and lemon juice to the ground flaxseed and blend together to make a smooth thin paste. Use a spatula to push the meal down to the bottom for even mixing. Add 4 drops of almond oil to the paste. Set to the side.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sucanat, confectioner's sugar, poppyseeds, baking powder and all purpose flour. Make a small well in the center. Add the ground flaxseed mixture to the dry mixture and fold together with spatula to make a dough. Finish mixing the dough by gently kneading the dough together to form a large mass.

On the prepared baking sheet, place balls of dough onto the parchment. Space each ball 1" apart in four rows of five. Use a spoon to create even rounds. With a flat bottom jar or spatula push down on each ball to make an even shape. Cookies will puff up slightly during baking.  Bake 12-15 mins. Rotate cookie sheet halfway through baking until the bottoms are evenly light golden brown. 

Remove and place cookies on a cooling rack. If glazing, wait till apply the glaze until completely cool. Cookies are best enjoyed the next day.

Birthday Scone Muffins with Peaches and Almonds
Adapted from King Arthur

Sunday was Matt's birthday and I decided to make him scones. Scones are perhaps one of his favorite brunch foods, and we always manage to find them at a bakery or coffee shop if we're out on vacation.  Here I used fresh stone fruits from Hobert's in Landis Store and adapted the King Arthur recipe to use whole wheat pastry flour and sucanat sugar. These are lighter in texture than commonly associated with a scone.  These scone muffins improved in flavor by the next day and were excellent at room temperature with a drizzle of maple syrup.

Because my adaptations are not significant enough, here is the link to the King Arthur website where you can find more delectable baking recipes and only list my substitutions below.

Peach Scones  (Muffins)
Adapted from King Arthur
On the left column: ingredient in recipe; On the right: my substitution.
See the King Arthur website for the full recipe.

2 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour:   1  c All Purpose and 1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar:  1/4 cup Sucanat
1/3 cup yogurt:  1/3 cup low fat sour cream
1/2 tsp extract:  I used amaretto
2 tsp sugar:  I sprinkled Demerara Raw Sugar with silvered almonds right before baking
Scone pan:  I used a muffin pan, buttered and dusted with flour.
My yield:  11 muffins