Yum Yum Yum!  I am excited I had luck with this recipe!  Inspired by Shoo Fly Pie, and Shoo Fly Cake that I love so so much!  If you don’t know what it is, it is an absolutely delicious Pennsylvania Dutch dessert with a super moist, molasses bottom, and a crumbly sweet top.  I grew up in York, PA near Lancaster, PA so I ate quite a bit of Pennsylvania Dutch Foods growing up, some to my dismay (Hogmaw, Sous…), and some to my delight (Chicken Pot Pie, Fastnachts…)

Shoo Fly Cake, though, was always a favorite dessert of mine.  When it came to deciding what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday, it was always a struggle to decide if I wanted Shoo Fly Cake or Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing.  Two different tastes, but both super delicious!

When it comes to certain desserts, it’s hard to decide whether or not you should even try to make them healthier or not.  When the original recipe is so good, you sometimes just don’t want to mess with it.  I was scared that this recipe would be dry and not have the moist bottom that is needed for it to be true Shoo Fly, because the original recipe called for 1 cup of butter.  But I also wanted to make it into a muffin that was healthy enough to eat for the occasional breakfast but could also be served as a dessert, warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  This recipe fits the bill!  And guess what?  It has NO butter at all!  Try it!

Shoo Fly Muffins
Makes 12

Crumb Topping

1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c sugar (I used coconut sugar for the first time and it was perfect for this recipe)
A couple shakes of cinnamon

Melt coconut oil.

Mix in flour, sugar, and cinnamon with fingers until crumbly.  Set aside.

Muffin

1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour*
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 c molasses
1 c natural applesauce
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
dash salt
dash cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients together.

Mix wet ingredients together.

Stir both together until mixed well.

Dump half of the crumb mixture into the muffin mix. Stir slightly until just incorporated.  Make sure not to stir to much.

Spoon Mixture into sprayed muffin tin.

Top muffins with the rest of the crumb mixture.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

*If you don’t have whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute equal parts regular whole wheat flour and white cake flour.

Someone else wanted a taste…for good reason!

So I love cinnamon buns.  A lot.  And this morning, while thinking of ideas to make for breakfast, I thought to myself, I have one more packet of yeast left soooo….I searched for “healthy” cinnamon bun recipes.  I found several and kinda mixed and matched them.  The result was delicious.  And I mean come one, it’s Sunday, I’ll eat healthy tomorrow.  Besides, Friday we went on a mountain bike expedition in the afternoon, and in the evening we rode our bikes downtown for dinner, then Saturday went on a killer hike.  And although we had ice cream and Pizza last night, well I think we warrant this cinnamon bun breakfast.

As a side not to the above picture, I have a problem when it comes to eating…I just can’t wait to eat so I forget to take a picture until I am done.  Resulting in a more than half eaten pan of cinnamon rolls….oooh well.

Whole Wheat “Healthy” Cinnamon Buns

Dough:

-1 c skim milk
-1 packet yeast
-2 c whole wheat flour plus more for kneading and rolling
-2 tsp baking powder

-1/4 c sugar or honey (I used a little sugar, a little honey)
-1/4 tsp salt
-several shakes of cinnamon
-4 tbsp applesauce

Put the skim milk in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute, until warm.  Add yeast packet and stir (Note: Do not smell this mixture unless you want to gag.  I made the mistake….) Let sit for several minutes while you combine the other ingredients.

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon together.  Add yeast mixture, then applesauce.  Combine until formed into a ball (I used my KitchenAid stand mixer with the hook mixing fixture.)

Set on Floured surface and knead a few times, then roll it out until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

Filling:

-2 tbsp butter
-4 tbsp brown sugar or other (I used organic sugar, evaporated cane juice..that’s what I use a lot as my white sugar substitute)
-2 tsps cinnamon (I hate measuring cinnamon so I just shook it a lot and made sure it was covering the dough

Melt bummer, pour over dough and spread so it evenly covers it with a spatula.  sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Roll into a log, and cut (about 1 inch) place in pan (I used an 8×8 but it was a little to small I had Enough to fill a small pyrex bowl with 5 small cinnamon buns,  You might want to use the next size up)

And here’s the rising deal,  I didn’t look up this recipe until the morning I wanted to eat them so I didn’t have a lot of time or patience to let them rise.  If you make these the night before, you can cover them and put in the refrigerator overnight.  But if you make them the morning of, turn your oven to 200 for about 2 minutes, then turn it off.  Put cinnamon buns in the warm oven for 30 minutes or so, and TADA! they have risen.

Then, preheat your oven to 350 degrees (After you have taken the risen cinnamon buns out) if you refrigerated overnight bake for 20 minutes, if the cinnamon rolls are still warmish, bake for 15 minutes.  You do not want to overcook your cinnamon rolls or they will be very dry.

Icing:

-2 Tbsp butter
-1 tbsp milk
-1/4 tsp vanilla
-Enough powdered sugar to get it to the consistency you want

Mix all ingredients together.

After taking cinnamon rolls out of the over, pour mixture over top.  Let cool for a couple of minutes then enjoy!