whole wheat – Page 7 – Wait…are those…cookies?!

January 7, 2013

Milkshakes happen.

Sooo…

I made cookies.

And then I made a milkshake. With cookies. And Bailey’s.

Yes.

(This was the other night. And then this morning I went to my favorite bodyrock class and now typing is difficult because my arms are shaky and already sore. Bahahah ooooh I love that class so much! See? It’s all about balance. Milkshakes one day, total and complete ass-kicking the next: this is how I roll)

Be jealous… be very, very jealous.

Luckily I had Vaccuum Vati around to test run the milkshake, just in case it was terrible. Except excuse me?! How could molasses-ginger cookies+ice cream+Bailey’s ever be terrible?! That’s right. It couldn’t.

The cookies are fabulous on their own of course, and actually rather guiltless (Not that I think anyone should EVER associate guilt with food—I’m just using this as a handy turn of phrase. Food is love! Just indulge responsibly…). They are soft and chewy, with an amazing gingerbready-molasses kind of flavor, and actually really remind me of cookies my grandma used to buy when I was a kid: I liked taking three evenly spaced bites around the perimeter of the cookie to make it look like a dress. Yeah. Weird child, don’t even get me started. But whatever, they have a similar taste profile, at least as far as I remember. Apparently all my memory cells regarding that particular memory are taken up with the three evenly spaced bites (I don’t even remember what brand they were…).

Anywayyy, moving on. Make these! Your body will thank you for the nutrients, and your brain will thank you for tricking it into thinking you’re totally indulging. When you’re really not. Unless you choose the milkshake option, which you totally should. Obviously.

Molasses Ginger Cookies

The recipe comes from Running to the Kitchen, here! I made only a few slight changes (mostly just flour), but mine did this weird spreading thing. Can’t say I particularly minded, since I obviously have a thing for enormous cookies the size of my face. I got 11 palm-sized, really flat cookies.

3/4 c almond flour (I ground almonds in my food processor until fine)
1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
pinch of salt
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 c honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tbsp unrefined coconut oil, melted
1/3 c chopped dark chocolate

These cookies need to chill for at least 2 hours, so keep that in mind before you mindlessly preheat the oven like me.

In a mediumish bowl, combine almond flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt, and stir to combine. In a smaller bowl, whisk together melted coconut oil, molasses, honey, vanilla, and egg. Add wet into dry, toss in chocolate shards, and stir until just combined. Cover the bowl and stick it into the fridge for at least an hour and a half, preferably more like 2.

Now you can preheat the oven to 350 (you impatient little minx), and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. When the dough is thoroughly chilled, drop the cookies onto the prepared cookie sheet, using your fingers to smooth them into nicer-looking shapes. My dough was very sticky, so I advise using spoons rather than attempting with your fingers. Leave enough space between your cookies to allow them to spread, as mine did—or rather, as mine morphed into a giant cookie amoeba. Ridiculously tasty, but they ended up with some flat edges, hhehe. Bake for 8-10 minutes (mine went for 10), then let cool on the sheet for about 5 before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Store in a plastic container between wax paper to retain their chew!

If you care to try the milkshake (which you most definitely should…), blenderize a cookie, a few blobs of vanilla ice cream (good quality, please), and a healthy glug of Bailey’s. Serves… one. Don’t plan on sharing: trust me, you won’t want to.

Don’t be judgy, it was delicious!

May 1, 2012May 2, 2012

Confessions of a Hippie-Granola Child

Okay so. Confession time.

For being such a hippie-granola crunchy type, I had a few less than crunchy incidents in my childhood. Even though I was raised eating lots of mashed up tofu and banana, as I got older, I was allowed to eat significantly more processed food (This was of course before we discovered the evils of hydrogenation and trans fats, at which point my extremely wise mother put the kibosh on eating that kind of junk). Clearly this lapse in taste didn’t affect my gastronomical maturation too much, since after this shortish hiatus I returned to my tofu-eating roots (thank goodness). Anyway. During this small interval of colorful cardboard boxes and “food products”, I developed a liking for… pop tarts. Seriously. What little kid DOESN’T like pop tarts?! Especially the frosted ones with the multicolored sprinkles (we know how I feel about sprinkles!). My favorite were frosted strawberry, but I hated them toasted! Weird, I know… I do realize that they are, in fact, toaster pastries… but for some reason I always liked them cold. I would unwrap that shiny silver package with such anticipation, knowing that I got TWO in one bag. Added bonus. I distinctly remember eating all the way around the edge and saving the middle, since that part was the best: all the filling and frosting!

Anyway, suffice to say that this infatuation ended sometime during high school, and I decided that kind of processed junk wasn’t worth my taste buds. I occasionally make an exception for the organic, more natural ones, but that’s rare. I much prefer just to make my own! What a concept. They’re really not difficult at all, and I’m sure they freeze wonderfully, which makes them just as convenient as a brand-name toaster pastry. Even better: they’re made with ingredients you can pronounce :) oh yes, and one more thing: they’re beyond delicious! Go appease your inner child and make some toaster pastries for yourself that you can feel good about eating! You can even put sprinkles on them, since you KNOW I would approve of that.

Whole Wheat Pop Farts (get it?! Like… fake pop tarts!)

From BabbleFood, here! I’ve made these before but Kira never had, and that was a travesty! They’re deeelicious warm or cold, and are very easy to pull together—the dough is relatively forgiving, in terms of pastry, and you can fill them with whatever floats your boat!

2.25 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar (I used turbinado)
1 stick of butter, chilled, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 egg, lightly whisked
1/3 c cold water
fillings of choice! Kira and I used a variety of pumpkin butter, almond paste, jam, and jam + nut butter (which is my favorite)
if you want a glaze, powdered sugar and water works well. They’re perfectly good unglazed as well!

Preheat the oven to 375, and line a cookie sheet with either wax or parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Once combined, add in butter chunks, and pulse until crumbly and the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Combine whisked egg and water in a separate bowl, and add into the bowl of the food processor (while running if possible, if not, that’s okay too). Pulse until the dough just comes together.

Toss the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead a few times until it sticks together. Roll out to about 1/8″ thick, and cute out your rectangles! I like to make a variety of sizes to accommodate my snacking needs and the whims of the gremlins…Try to match up the sizes of top and bottom, so that the filling stays contained. Put a couple teaspoons’ worth of filling onto the bottom rectangle, wet the edges, and stick down the top. Crimp the edges with a fork for added cuteness.

Bake on the prepared cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. If glazing, let them cool a bit, and then brush with a mix of powdered sugar and water…and add sprinkles if your heart desires it!

Eat. Love. Indulge your inner child :)

April 25, 2012

Now what?!

I can’t even believe I’m going to type these words…

Wait for it…

I FINISHED MY THESIS! For realzies. 92 pages? Check. Bound and printed? Check. Coherent (and relatively humorous) presentation? Check. Wait. NAILED. (Despite feeling I was going to go into cardiac arrest for the first few sentences, ha). I feel a thousand pounds lighter! [and mildly exhausted… this may be on account of running on adrenaline for the last 24 hours] Or maybe that’s just the removal of the pile of books that is now off my living room floor and back to the library…? It’s like my child. I sort of want to frame it, and keep it up on the wall forever and ever.

So…

Now what?! So much free time, what to do, what to do?! Oh wait. That’s right. Bake more! And alternatively get more creative with dinner. Because I’m stuck in a dinner rut the size of the Grand Canyon. Except not tonight. Because tonight is a fancy-schmancy department dinner! YAY! Celebration time. And time to do all the fun senior-type things at the end of the semester (which is rapidly approaching, sheesh. Sloooowww for the cone zone, please). Which means that I have an excuse to bake a ton… in order to mitigate the amount of food to be carted back down to California when Kira and I move out, of course. You have to admit, this a is a perfectly valid excuse. Not that I really ever need an excuse to bake.

Except today. I was celebrating :)

Coconut-Banana Bread with Lime Glaze

Mega thanks to Christine for showing me this (and for several ingredient donations)! It’s adapted from Cooking Light. I made 1/2 the batch and ended up with 2 mini-loaves, though putting it all in one loaf pan would be fine as well (just increase the bake time). I reduced the sugar quite a bit, as sweetened coconut is already pretty sweet. This bread comes together quickly and is DELICIOUS. Just sweet enough, with a pronounced coconut flavor… mmm. It’s also decently not so bad for you, considering it comes from Cooking Light. Win all around :)

Acquire:

1 c whole wheat pastry flour
very heaping 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 c Earth Balance (or butter)
1/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
3/4ish cup mashed ripe bananas (the riper the better, obvs) (about 1.5 bananas)
1/8 c plain, lowfat yogurt
2 tbsp rum (don’t leave this out, it’s YUMMY!)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
heaping 1/4 c shredded sweetened coconut + 1 tbsp (mine was probably closer to 1/3 c… I loooove coconut)
optional: chocolate chipppies! (But really… why would you leave these out?!)
1/4 c powdered sugar
juice of one lime

Preheat the oven to 350, and lightly grease your loaf pans of choice. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a larger bowl, combine Earth Balance and sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy. Beat in the egg until well combined. Add in banana, yogurt, rum, and vanilla, and beat to combine. With the mixer on low speed, add in flour until just combined. Stir in 1/3 c coconut and chocolate chippies, if using. Pour batter into the prepared pans, and top with remaining tbsp of coconut. Bake for about 30 minutes for the mini loaves, until a tester comes out clean. (Or about an hour for a larger loaf).

While the bread is cooling/baking, combine powdered sugar and lime juice, and whisk until smooth. When the bread is cool, drizzle the glaze over the top of individual slices, or poke holes in the bread and drizzle over the whole loaf… up to you!

Mmmm… post thesis and post workout zen :)

March 17, 2012

Definitely Leprechauns.

Sláinte! Happy Saint Patrick’s Day :)

So. I had taken a fab set of pictures for today’s post (with natural light, even! Thanks, Oregon, for cooperating) yesterday, and they were all nicely stored on my camera, ready to be uploaded. This morning, when I uploaded them, I swear I put them into my blog photos folder. I know I did. So…

Where are they?! Nowhere to be found, is the answer I’m looking for. Maybe in pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? I suspect leprechaun involvement in this (definitely not user error. DEFINITELY leprechauns). Probably because I didn’t make a leprechaun trap last night… those sneaky little buggers! I better rustle up some green to put on… currently I’m not wearing any (that’s visible, anyway! ha.). I’ve always loved St. Patrick’s day! And yes, I am for-reals Irish (not just 1/365th), which is probably why I’m being targeted by those feisty little green men.

Anyway, after much grumbling, I took another set of photos (sadly not as good as the last ones), so you can vicariously enjoy the soda bread scones Kira and I made to celebrate! They turned out beautifully—the shape almost reminds me of a four leafed clover. Scoring the top of soda bread lets the fairies out (and promotes even baking, but that’s less fun), so I kept to this tradition and scored my scones into triangles… we now have a sprite-free apartment! To me, these scones don’t taste like traditional soda bread, but they are definitely delicious. And not at all bad for you, since they’re made with soda and yogurt rather than eggs and butter. Mmm… and, I have to say, they’re excellent with lemon curd (what isn’t?!)!

Irish Soda Bread Scones

Very slightly adapted from Eat Drink Love, here! Makes 8 scones.

3 c whole wheat pastry flour (We used half pastry, half whole wheat bread flour)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (optional but sooo good)
1.5 c low-fat plain yogurt (Kira and I usually keep this instead of buttermilk, but buttermilk works here too)
1/3 c chocolate chippies
1 tbsp turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 425, and line a baking sheet with wax or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Make a well in the center, and add yogurt and chocolate chips (or other add-ins of choice). Stir to combine: the dough will look shaggy when its close to incorporated. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead into a circle (ish). Place onto prepared baking sheet, and slice into 8 scones (a knife works fine for this). Brush the tops with buttermilk (if using), and sprinkle turbinado sugar onto them for crunch factor :) Bake for 20 minutes, until the tops are golden! Eat. Preferably warm, with lemon curd. Mmm. Maybe share with a leprechaun, if one happens by…

January 27, 2012

Cookies:1, Empty Tupperware: ZERO!

Shazaaam! Two cookie posts in a row! Are you feeling loved? You should be… I have only your best interests at heart :)

I promise I haven’t fallen off the blogging wagon! I’ve been SO BUSY with recruitment, but my normal schedule is returning to me on Monday, so we’ll have lots of tasty eats coming. Hooray! I’ve been getting antsy: there is decidedly NOT enough time to cook when you are expected to eat dinner at 3:45 in order to have time to recruit new sisters. A fun activity, to be sure, but definitely not friendly to kitchen experiments. It’s a bit more conducive to eating a sandwich for dinner. Yes. I did that yesterday.

BUT.

I made up for it with spontaneous cookies made during my lunch break between class and work! Time management, for the win! Hayley:1, crazy schedule: ZERO. Take that, empty Tupperware. Rejoice, in your fullness! You are empty no longer. And I am satisfied. For the moment, anyway. I’m sure the combined efforts of Kira and I will make short work of this current batch, like the last *cough* two. Oops. What can I say, a girl’s gotta have cookies! It’s in the blog title, after all.

Besides, these are healthy(er) cookies—not your average white flour/sugar laden/yucky additive cookies. I like to make cookies that are bursting with nutritional value (or at least have some redeeming qualities!), so that I can eat them for a snack, in a pinch. And when I eat them for dessert, they’re much more satisfying. This particular incarnation is full of healthy things: they’re vegan (if you use vegan chocolate chips, which I didn’t), which means less saturated fat. They have oats and whole wheat flour, which means whole grains and soluble fiber! AND they have chia seeds (antioxidants galore and mega omega-3s) and coconut (healthy fats and anti-inflammatory properties!). And chocolate. Because what is life without chocolate? For cookie, these are pretty spectacular little guys. Oh yeah. Did I mention they are DELICIOUS?! Because they totally are. So seize your next awkward block of time (hellooo, lunch break!) and bake yourself some indulgently healthy sweets. You’re worth it!

Chocolate chip, Coconut and Chia Cookies

Adapted from (Neverhome)Maker, here!

These cookies are soft but a bit crumbly, with oaty-coconuty goodness. If you like a slightly denser cookie with nut butter, or want another chia recipe, check these! Both recipes produce cookies that are lightly sweet, but satisfying. I got about 11 good-sized (like 3″) cookies from the full recipe.

Whatcha need!

1/2 c Earth Balance spread
scant 1/4 c brown sugar
scant 1/4 c turbinado sugar
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 c unsweetened shredded coconut (or flakes. I used shredded)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 c instant oats (make sure you use instant, I think rolled would be too flaky/crumbly)
1/3-1/2 c chocolate chippies, depending on your preference
1.5 tbsp chia seeds
*If you want to throw in other add ins, feel free! I might try wheat germ next time…

Preheat the oven to 350.

With an electric mixer, cream together Earth Balance and sugars until creamy. Add applesauce and vanilla, and beat to combine. In a smallish bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, coconut, salt, baking soda and powder. Add dry ingredients to your butter/sugar bowl, and combine (I used the mixer again for this, and it was fine…just be careful wher you’re flingin’ that stuff!). Stir in the oats, chocolate chippies, and chia seeds by hand.

Drop/roll into little balls and flatten slightly, making sure not to lose any of those precious choc chippies! Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Mine were done at about 11.

Go eat your cookies outside, in the warm (!!) Oregon sun, like a somnolent kitty in front of your apartment door. Thank you, Oregon, for this gloriously sunny day in January!

January 17, 2012February 20, 2012

I’ll take quiche over slush, thanks.

an Imperial cruiser? Or a slice of quiche...?

I apologize for the lack of recipes lately! What with returning to Salem and starting classes again, I’ve been rather busy. And lazy, haha. BUT. Fear not, hopefully things will start returning to normal! This semester is brimming with potential recipes to be tried and eaten (I just have to figure out what they are, haha). I fully intend to eat extremely well this semester, and graduate with full gastronomic satisfaction.

The weather in Salem has been rather ridiculous… we’ve had snow and some nasty slush that makes walking around a tad wet. I believe the weather gods have temporarily decided on rain, but you never know around here. Today on my way to class, it decided to snow heavily, except not stick. So it turned into nasty slush which got me and my feet soaked. Which I’m normally okay with, except that by the time I’d dried out, it was time to walk back from class. Mrrrggg. I’d be quite happy with snow, as long as it was somewhere I could ski on it! Are you listening, weather gods?! Send the snow to the mountains, and some rain to California. It’s a bit dry there at the moment… mmk? Good. I’m glad you’re listening.

Anyway. Quiche seems like a good way to combat the cold and ridiculousness of this weather… it’s warm, quick, and comforting. I tried this recipe out at home, and loved it, so as soon as I got back, Kira and I made our own version. It’s made excellent leftovers for the last few days as well. This recipe is great, as it’s very flexible, and is good for you :) Lots of veggies and good eggy protein. It comes together quickly as well, which is a perk when you’ve spent the last hour grocery shopping in snow/sleet/slush/rain/cold (would that be sneet? Or slain? or just ridiculous). Yum.

mmmm apple crunch. you see the bite out of it? hehe.

Pesto-Veggie Quiche with an Oatmeal Crust

Adapted from (Neverhome)Maker, here! Makes one 9″ quiche.

*Update from Feb. 20th: I made this the other day with no onion, lots of baby broccoli and spinach + bell pepper, and 1/3 c parmesan + 1/3 c goat cheese. It is AMAZING. I like this combo possibly better than the one posted below, but really where I’m going with this is that this quiche is incredibly adaptable to whatever is in your fridge!

Preheat the oven to 400, and lightly grease a 9″ pie pan.

For the crust:

3/4 c rolled oats
1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour
pinch of salt
3 tbsp Earth Balance
3 tbsp of your milk of preference (I’ve done it once with soy and once with 1% milk, and both worked fine)

For the quiche:

3 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1 heaping tbsp grainy mustard
ground pepper to taste
2 tbsp milk of choice
2 tbsp basil pesto (I like Trader Joe’s!)
1/2 a large onion, sliced
1/2 a good-sized red pepper (or a whole, depending on your preference)
a handful of mushrooms, sliced
a handful of fresh spinach
2/3 c Parmesan, grated

it looks like a mountain. I only wish it was!!

In a food processor, pulse oats, salt, and flour until combined. Pulse in butter, until it gets crumbly, then add milk. The dough should form into a rough ball. Take the dough out, and roll it out between two sheets of wax paper. It should be relatively thin. Press it into the pie dish, evening out the edges and making a nice top edge. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, and then set aside. Lower the oven temperature to 350.

While the crust is baking, heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the onion, until translucent, then add mushrooms and pepper. Cook until slightly soft, about 10 minutes total.

In a bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, ground pepper, mustard, pesto, and milk of choice. Sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the bottom of the prebaked crust, and then dump in veggies and onion. Pour the egg mixture over the top of all this. Pop into your preheated oven, and bake for 35 minutes, or until lightly browned and set!

This is particularly good with toasted apple-crunch bread, courtesy of the local bakery and your nice apartment management’s Christmas gift. As Kira said, “It’s like they know us, or something!” (Breadaholics. At least we embrace it!)

January 5, 2012

Healthy fats are my excuse to eat [more] dessert

You see those classy Spongebob liners? Oh yes.

Okayyyy… I lied. I promised you healthy things, but oops oh well! You get cupcakes instead! Life happened and I was notified of a demand for sweet things. And of course, I can always be persuaded to make dessert. Teeheehee. Plenty of time for healthy things later.

Besides, in terms of desserts, these actually aren’t all that bad… perhaps they qualify as a healthyish item? I think so. Whole wheat and a good dose of healthy hazelnut and coconut fats. Plus, they’re vegan! So no pesky saturated fats from butter. And cupcakes are adorable. They’re like tiny cakes, which makes it totally acceptable to eat multiples in one sitting. Especially if the fats are good for you. (I will, apparently, come up with any excuse to eat dessert. Not like this is anything new…)

Life is too short to NOT eat dessert! I’ve decided I need about 5 stomachs to accommodate all the food I want to eat. Desserts included. I need to be like a cow. Except minus the ability to digest grass (they have… what is it… a rumen? to digest grass? I’ll pass on that bit, grass looks unappealing, thank you).

…

ANYwayyy. Let’s move on, after that semi-awkward tangentially irreverent thought. These cupcakes are fab! And they have nothing to do with cows. They’re full of coconutty goodness, and I highly recommend them. Make them, eat them, love them. Preferably with friends you haven’t seen in ages. Dessert with company is always the best idea :]

Vegan Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut-Hazelnut Frosting

Slightly adapted from (Never home)Maker, here! Makes 12 normal-sized cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, acquire:

1.5 c whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 c sugar (I used half turbinado, half regular granulated)
1/2 c unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c light coconut milk
1/3 c canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

For the frosting!

1/4 c light coconut milk
1/2 c Earth Balance (vegan butter)
2 c powdered sugar
1/3 c finely ground hazelnuts (blitz whole ones in the food processor for a bit)
1/2 c unsweetened, shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350, and line a muffin tin/cupcake pan with liners. Or not, depending on your preference.

In a large bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking soda, coconut, and salt. In a smaller bowl, combine coconut milk, canola oil, and vanilla. Combine wet into dry, stir just to combine. Add apple cider vinegar at the last bit (so that you get max fluffiness out of the cupcakes, when the baking soda reacts with the vinegar). Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake pans, and bake for 20-25 minutes. Mine were done after about 23. They’ll be done when a tester comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make your frosting!

In a bowl, combine coconut milk, Earth Balance, and powdered sugar. Use an electric mixer to beat until it reaches frosting consistency, on high speed. Stir in hazelnut and shredded coconut. Frost cupcakes when they’re completely cool! I topped mine with a sprinkle of cocoa powder, which I found to add a nice counterpoint to the sweet frosting.

Eat. Drool. Enjoy your good fats, and revel in the fact that you’re being sneakily healthy :]

January 1, 2012January 1, 2012

Cookies are not structurally-sound building materials (sadly)…

Wait… are those…?!

COOKIESSSS!!!

I dare you to NOT drool over these.

Even after the glut of holiday treats, why not have oneeee teensy cookie more? (Meeester Creeasote?! hehehee) It’s still New Year’s Day, after all, and as the Rose Parade isn’t until tomorrow, that kind of makes tomorrow New Year’s too. Ish. Enough that I can say it is, and eat holiday cookies. And really, chocolate chip cookies are my ideal way to ring in the new year. They go with champagne, right?! And if I eat them for New Year’s, along with my black-eyed peas and cabbage, doesn’t that mean I’ll have lots of chippies in the coming year? I hope so.

Besides, if I can drool over these, so can you. We know I’m the ludicrously picky chippy cookie-snob, the one who will only eat chocolate chip cookies that conform to my exacting specifications. Which is why I usually end up at my favorite bakery, rather than making my own (instant gratification has nothing to do with it, oh no, of course not). But THESE.

These actually are deeeelicious. Not exactly to my bakery specifications, but delicious enough that I inhaled two fresh off the cooling rack (cooling? psh. Cookies don’t need to cool. Cooling racks are more like the cookie-waiting-to-be-eaten holding area). I would definitely make these again, which is saying quite a bit coming from me. They are perfectly crispy on the edges, with a chewy, vanilla-y middle. They do have a really pronounced vanilla flavor, which I (and Vacuum Vati) love. The only way they could be more perfect is if they were a bit fatter… they flattened out just a bit as they cooled. Not that this stopped me from eating them, clearly. Don’t let it deter you…

these are about to get up close and personal with my tummy gremlins

Crispy-Chewy Chocolate Chippies

Adapted from Full Circle Foodie, here!

I probably got about 30 cookies, most a few inches across, and several that were *ahem* larger (I may have eaten those myself. Shhh, don’t tell. Another picky specification: cookies are supposed to be BIG).

Rummage in your pantry for the following:

2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 c unsalted butter, melted
1 c brown sugar, packed*
1/2 c white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 c chocolate chippies!**

*I left the sugar content as is in these, since brown sugar is what makes them chewy. However… for a second batch, I think I would play with reducing sugar, like in my other recipes. Though I like deadly sweet (occasionally), I’ve come to prefer less sweet versions. Likely the sugar could be cut by about 1/4 without effect. Oops, oh well, I guess I have an excuse to make another batch…

**I also prefer a higher cookie to chocolate ratio in my cookies, so I cut the chocolate by half. Up to you, whatever floats your cookie boat!

This is like the Isengard of cookies (only not evil)

Preheat the oven to 325, and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. In a mediumish bowl, whisk together melted butter and sugars until fluffy (no stand mixers allowed for this recipe! Use it as a bicep workout). Add in whole egg, yolk, and vanilla, and whisk until your arm falls off. Fold into dry ingredients, as well as choc chippies. Drop by one-inch ish scoop for smallish cookies, or fatty scoops like mine for bigger ones. Or a combo. Like I said, whatever makes your cookie float! (in milk, ha)

Bake for about 14 to 16 minutes. Mine were about 14 for the smaller ones, 16 for the larger ones. Let cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheets, and then transfer to the cookie holding area (as in, those waiting to be discreetly scarfed on the way through the kitchen).

Eat, and relish the fact that not only will you have good luck in the New Year (thanks to my Southern roots: black-eyed peas and cabbage), but that my future will be rife with cookies. Can’t ask for a better 2012 than that. Wait… are those…?! :]

heheh whoops... Isengard was apparently not seismically sound...

December 18, 2011

The Siren Song of Dead Bananas

Hmmp. Tis the season, indeed.

…

FOR CAKE! Ha. Prepare yourself. This is only cake one of two. For now, anyway. One never can tell in this household. Wait. Let’s be real. It’s ALWAYS the season for cake! But I have more of an excuse now, hooray! Hehe.

Anyway. This cake was supposed to be the dessert for company, but I decided to make it early, because hey, why have one cake when I can have two?! So there you have it. Cake greed and several dead-ish looking bananas won out. Totally not my fault—those bananas were singing their siren song from the counter, looking all dejected and spotty. Like, “Come over and eeeeeaaaat meeeeeeee, I am tastyyyyyyy and fermentedddd!” Well actually, if a banana said that to me, I would a) run screaming out of the house, and b)…yeah. Run screaming. Anyway, these particular bananas didn’t speak to me, thankfully, but notified me via their spottiness that they would prefer to hang with some buttercream in a cake. Of course they would want to go in a cake! I mean, I could have made banana bread, but psshhh really? Why make banana bread when the holiday season gives me the excuse to cover everything that comes out of my oven in buttercream?

See? Cake.

This particular one was delicious to the max. Banana cardamom for the cake (I love banana cake already, so it wasn’t exactly a hard sell), with browned butter buttercream. WHaaaaattt. Browned butter makes everything so much better. Because there were only three of us, I decided to make a baby cake! I made half the batch, and then used a glass to cut out three layers from the 9″ cake pan… which of course left cake scraps to be eaten, yesssss! It was adorable, if I do say so. AND delicious. AND I’m on cake-making duty this Wednesday, which is excellent as this one is tragically gone.The more, the merrier!

Banana Cardamom Cake with Browned Butter Buttercream

Adapted from here! I’m including the full recipe; however, if you want a baby, halvsies cake, make half the cake and half the frosting. I had more than enough to frost the cute little three layer cake, plus the leftover cake pieces.

Cake!

2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (I might play with adding more, next time—I felt the flavor could have been more pronounced)
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
scant 1/2 c brown sugar, loose (not packed)
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c greek yogurt (I used nonfat)
2 c mashed ripe bananas, about 5ish, depending on the size
toasted cashews, for garnish (or, if you like nuts in your cake, you can add them to the batter… I don’t, so I left them out)

Frostinggggg!

3/4 c unsalted butter
3 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4-6 tbsp milk (I used 1%)

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour your pans of choice, (it would be two 8 or 9″ for a two layer, full recipe), and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, and cardamom. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Beat in sugars until light in color and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then yogurt, and then mashed bananas. Without throwing flour everywhere, add in dry ingredients and beat until incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between your prepared pans, and bake for 25-35 minutes. Mine was done more around the 35 minute mark, as it’s dense cake. It wasn’t dry at all though—just perfectly done just shy of 35. Let cool in the pan for 10ish minutes, and then turn out onto cooling racks.

While the cake is cooling, brown the butter in a medium saucepan. You’ll know it’s browning, as it starts to turn to an amber color, and smells FANTASTIC. When it’s finished, pour it into the bowl you’re using for frosting—this keeps it from cooking too much more and burning. Whisk in sugar, vanilla, and 3 tbsp of milk, until smooth. Gradually beat in enough milk to take it to a buttercream texture (you’ll know when it gets there—it’s lots thicker and spreadable). Frost cake when its completely cool. Garnish with toasted cashews and enjoy indulging :) Tis the season!

December 14, 2011

Squash-Powered Cat

So I really wasn’t planning on blogging about these pancakes. I mean, laziness and whatnot took over, and I was going to blow it off. BUT THEN. Semi-epic things happened, and I changed my mind.

As in, I have discovered that my cat is squash-powered. He prefers butternut.

There I was, casually opening the can of butternut squash, when Nosh (my Maine Coon goofball) comes sauntering over, looking decidedly interested in what I was doing. I looked down at him. He looked wide-eyed and cutely up at me. I said, “Surely you can’t be interested in eating this…”. He continued looking up at me, with a totally clear agenda. Whatever, I said. I let him sniff the can… and then went on with what I was doing. He kept watching. At which point I spasmodically dropped a spoon on the floor (the spoon covered in squash puree). I picked up the spoon and pointed out the squash on the floor to Nosh… who quickly trotted over and ATE. IT. ALL.

What?!

Since when do cats like squash?! But wait. It gets better.

511061349_DCcgk-M — Nosh is on the right. Jessie apparently wasn't interested in the squash...

Mom had gotten involved… and kept feeding him little bits of puree out of the bowl. (Which he ate. All of it) By this point, I’d finished at least a few pancakes, and since one was a total flip-fail (as in, it semi-splattered all over the pan…), we decided to feed it to him and see if he liked it (Keep in mind, my cats don’t normally get people food… excepting the odd bit of fish, they don’t eat much of what we do, which makes this SUPER WEIRD) (They did have a weird incident with refried beans, ages ago—perhaps they just like things in cans?!). Nosh proceeded to eat a pancake… and a half. Probably. I lost track, but what?! He’s obviously my cat, if he likes pancakes that much, hehehhe :]

Anyway, these pancakes were deeeelicious. They were originally supposed to be pumpkin, but the pumpkin we had wasn’t good anymore, so butternut happened. Much to the delight of Nosh, apparently. Who then proceeded to take a massive catnap (and by massive, I’m refering to the fact that when he sleeps, Nosh acts like one of those inflating sponges that you soak in water. Get up for two seconds, and good luck getting your spot back from the amazing expanding wonder!), and sleep off all he ate. And dream, too, with lots of chewing. I bet he was eating squash in his sleep! heeehe.

Butternut Squash Pancakes

Adapted from the Betty’s Diner Pumpkin Pancake recipe

1.25 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 c butternut squash puree
1 c 1% milk or your fave nondairy
2 eggs, separated
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Combine flour, spices, salt, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, squash puree, sugar and egg yolks. Add liquid to dry all at once and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy or until your arm falls off. Fold into the batter. Do the pancake dance. Eat. Feed to your cat and watch him dream about them later :]