The ease of frozen puff pastry comes to the rescue when making these lovely pastries at Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast!

This recipe makes 8. All you need is one box of frozen puff pastry, a couple of tart apples, a circle of brie cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and egg!  And a bit of flour for dusting.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Work quickly with thawed pastry or it gets sticky and difficult.  A box has two sheets, let them thaw for about 30 minutes, then roll them on a floured board with a floured rolling pin until about 10 inch square. Cut each square into four squares and lay on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Layer a slice of brie and 3 slices of Granny Smith or other tart apple in the middle of each square.

Overfilling is the enemy, don’t overdo it.

Top each with a sprinkle of brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of butter (1T cut into 8 pieces.). Brush the border of each square with a wash of whisked egg. Fold two opposite corners together and press to hold.  Brush the entire top of pastry with egg wash.

Bake for 20 minutes until toasty brown and puffy.  Serve warm.   Easy and YUM!!!

  We sprung into Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast “Test Kitchen Mode” this morning after we found this amazing treat on Pinterest from a blog called “Ambitious Kitchen, The Perfect Slice of Life”.   Just the NAME of this was enough to send us into spasms of food lust!!!! I dashed out to the Farmer’s Market for the raspberries while Cindi pulsed the oats in the food processor to make the perfect (and gluten free!) flour.

We are always freezing bananas at their perfect, spotted ripeness moment, the freezer is chock full of them for smoothies and banana bread. And the dark chocolate is always on hand for our signature brownies, the vanilla and oatmeal for our homemade granola, all the other ingredients for our muffins and cakes, so…..this was a natural act!!!

In the original recipe the banana bread is made in a loaf pan, but we love these individual small loaves.  This can cook much longer in a full loaf pan, upwards to 40 minutes, but these came out perfect for us at 28 minutes.  Your results may vary, so pay attention, use a toothpick in the center to check for perfect doneness!!!

   No doubt, we were smitten with the sight of sweet/tart raspberries and dark chocolate being mixed into this lovely oatmeal and banana batter.  Good heavens, it’s a healthy sweet tooth DREAM!!!!!

So, into the baking pans with it!!!!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Oatmeal Banana Bread

About 3 cups oatmeal

Other ingredients:

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 egg whites

1 cup smashed raspberries

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips     Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Make oat flour: Place oatmeal into blender and blend for 1-2 minutes until oatmeal resembles flour. You may need to stop blender and stir oats a couple of times to ensure that all oats have been blended.

Measure out just 2 cups of the oat flour and place in a medium bowl. Whisk in baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a separate large bowl, beat mashed bananas, dark brown sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs for 1-2 minutes until the consistency is smooth and creamy. Slowly add in flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Gently fold in raspberries and dark chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. If using individual small loaf pans, 28-30 minutes should do.  Cool 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan and place on wire rack to finish cooling.

Though Robert, Cindi, the rest of the staff and I stood around and simply stuffed these into our mouths amid moans and yums, we managed to snatch a photo of a serving suggestion too!  We served these to Yelton Manor B&B guests this morning with a side dollop of homemade yogurt and fresh raspberries.

These are easy to make!  Head on out for some raspberries right now when they are fresh at the farm!  I suspect that frozen berries would work just as well.  Two YUMS up!!!!!

These freeze nicely for serving later.  Individually wrap in saran and place in freezer Ziplock bag.

By the way, this will probably go Vegan pretty easily simply by leaving the egg whites out.  It’s already gluten free as is!!!!

   Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast fruit smoothies are utterly amazing for one simple reason: they are 100% fruit.  Our Smoothie always features one variable: whatever fruit is at the peak moment of its season.  The backup singers (“Do wop, do wop!”) are cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, kiwi and banana.  We freeze the bananas at their peak moment, all the melons can be frozen as ready to use chunks too.   So when it’s all whirred up together, it needs no water, no yogurt, no nuthin! Frosty, creamy and awe inspiring DELISH! This week we made strawberry every day.  Next week it will be cherries.  Soon the blueberries come in, ooh la la! 

We are frequently asked by a potential guest: “What do you serve for breakfast?”  Standard answer: the menu changes.  But it also stays much the same, there are healthy, delicious options all the time.  We have some of the best jams and jellies you’ve ever tasted. We serve our homemade granola (on the sweet side) as well as 3 flavors of Uti’s Gluten Free Granola, and 4 other choices of cereal.  Chobani Organic Greek yogurt tempts in various flavors.  The coffee bar has one of our 3 special Manor blends of locally roasted, free trade Costa Rican coffee and juice.  Our hot buffet (this photo is from today!) includes a fruit platter, fresh whole grain bagels or English Muffins, cream cheese and butter. Today the egg strata was Spinach and Feta Cheese, with a fresh farm market tomato salsa spooning in as a veggie condiment. The Stuffed French Toast was blueberry, the syrup Michigan Maple. We served our “Go Nutty” Pistachio Bundt cake too!

Here’s our strawberry smoothie posing with the rest of breakfast!

Columbine never ceases to amaze me, such colorful beauty in SHADE, no less.  The Yelton Manor Gardens have 6 different varieties and I am still lusting after more!!

  The Yelton Manor Bed and Breakfast wouldn’t have spring without lots and lots and LOTS of pansies!!!

Mother Nature does the details!

A spring favorite, dazzling in a vase paired with bleeding hearts!

Mini Iris bloom early and today they are open everywhere!  Sweet, only about 6 inches high, very dainty and  detailed.