dessert explosion!

this is quite possibly the most i've ever baked in one morning...it's a little over the top when i'm just hit with the inspiration to bake this much. but enough chit chat, happy dad's day (most of these were for him). and on to the yummy stuff!

Blueberry Yogurt Loaf 

(adapted from smitten kitchen)

makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 c + 1 T all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 c plain yogurt

1 c plus 1 T sugar

3 extra large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c olive oil

1 1/2 c frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 (+) minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

* Comes out very wet/dense. Not sure how I feel about that. Would be great with the lemon flavor but didn't have lemons on hand. Or spread with lemon curd. 

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip cookies

(from Ocean Spray)

1/2 c + 2 T (1 stick and 2 T) butter, softened

2/3 c brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 c old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 5-oz Ocean Spray Craisins

2/3 c semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs mixing well. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir in craisins and chocolate chips. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool.

* Would taste better without chocolate chips and nuts in their place

Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch Cookies

(from SugarHero)

1 1/3 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 c chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella)

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 c chopped toasted hazelnuts

2/3 c semi sweet chocolate chips

To toast hazelnuts:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Coarsely chop 1/2 c filberts and place on baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10-15 min, lightly tossing throughout. Let cool.

For cookies:

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a larger bowl cream the butter, chocolate hazelnut spread, sugar, and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Slowly mix in flour until just combined and then add hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

Scoop small spoonfuls onto cookie sheet, bake until lightly golden about 10 minutes. They will smoosh and spread but if tiny not too bad.

Makes  about 3 dozen cookies.

*These are sweet cookies and are very thin on the crunchier side.  

Olive Oil-Basil Cornmeal Cake with Strawberry sauce

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens)

1 c all-purpose flour

1/2 + 1/3 c yellow cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4  c granulated sugar

1/2 c skim milk

1/2 c olive oil

1 T dried basil

1/2 T sparkling sugar

Strawberry Sauce recipe

2 c frozen strawberries, thawed

1 T granulated sugar

1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and flour a 9" cake pan, set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, milk and olive oil. Mix dry ingredients and basil into wet mix and pour into prepared cake pan, spread evenly. Sprinkle with sparking sugar. Bake about 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes and then remove cake from pan. Cool cake completely and when serving top w/ Strawberry sauce.

For the sauce, combine strawberries, sugar and balsamic vinegar until smooth. Cover and chill for up to 24 hours.  

*This one comes out very cornbready, might be b/c i put in too much cornmeal. but w/o the sugar would make great cornbread for thanksgiving.

still with me??? sugar rush hasn't gotten to you yet? just one more and it's my favorite of the bunch!

Soft and Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

(from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen)

Ingredients

2 1/4 c all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 c shortening

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 T water

1/4 c molasses

Icing (optional)

1 c powdered sugar

1-2  T water

splash vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets w/ parchment paper or silpat. In a medium bowl mix all dry ingredients (flour through cloves). Set aside. In a large bowl cream butter, shortening, white sugar, and light brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, water, and molasses until combined. Slowly mix in dry ingredients until combined. Cover and chill for at least one hour. Roll dough into desired size (I went with about a 1/2 T size) and flatten hand (will stick completely to the bottom of a glass cup) and place about 1/4" apart on cookie sheet. Bake for about 7 minutes. Remove and cool. Prepare frosting if desired by mixing powdered sugar, water and vanilla and frost.

*She's not lying when she says you have to make these cookies ASAP. If you are a ginger cookie fan these are amazing. Soft and chewy, gingery and molassy. By far my favorite gingerbread cookie yet.

bean me up!

sorry, very corny title, but it's all my brain power can give right now. 

since exams are coming up on monday (eek!) it's time to bake my heart out and pretend, as M likes to say, that i'm about to take an exam in baking. i think i would pass with flying colors!

this is adapted from Oprah by Rocco DiSpirito. i'm all about using stuff in my kitchen and i'm not a fan of splenda, so behold-

Double Chocolate Chip White Bean Cookies (right up there w/ the black bean brownies, eum eum)

Makes about 20

·         Nonstick cooking spray

·         1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1/3 cup sweet cocoa powder (Ghiradelli), sifted

·         1 cup canned white cannellini beans , rinsed and drained

·         2 T maple syrup

·         3 large egg whites

·         1/2 cup granulated sugar (can probably decrease to 1/3-1/4 c)

·         1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 of it chopped

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray (Make sure to spray even on silpat b/c it will stick!). Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine vanilla, cocoa, beans, and the maple syrup, and blend the mixture until smooth, about 3 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl halfway through blending.

In a separate bowl whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar. Continue to beat the whites until they are creamy and nearly stiff. Add one-third of the egg- white mixture to the cocoa bean mixture in the food processor. Blend to combine, about 30 seconds. In 2 batches, fold the lightened cocoa mixture into the egg whites until they are almost fully combined. Add chopped chocolate chips to the batter. Fold batter until chocolate are evenly dispersed and cocoa mixture is completely incorporated.

Drop mounded spoonfuls of batter onto the prepared sheets. Spread batter out to form cookies about 2½ inches in diameter. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the cookies.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pans one turn halfway through baking. Using a metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

sleepless in...well, it's not seattle for sure

if it were, it wouldn't be so hot! haha, apparently being sleep deprived = corny jokes and a post that might not make too much sense. but you're going to luck out b/c i got some sweet treats coming! fall means pumpkin and that means it's cheaper and easily found in the grocery store. went to safeway and it was cheaper (99 cents!) but it sure wasn't easy to find, and once i got home i actually took the time to read the label...

at least it's organic :D i tried it, not quite as good as the pumpkin butter i got last year at ann's house of nuts, but as a baking item, it would do. it has all the spices and cane sugar added to it, so no need to add any extra of that!

this recipe is only using HALF of the canned pumpkin! it came out pretty awesome if i do say so myself. i've got some pumpkin walnut muffins baking right now using the other half of the can, can't wait for fresh mufins!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

9 x 9 baking dish

Ingredients

~ 1 1/2 c flour

~1/2 c instant oats

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 c pumpkin pie mix (I had Safeway's organic and used half a 15 oz can)

2 eggs

1/2 c plain, fat free yogurt

1/4 c water

1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1-2 T cane sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease baking dish.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine wet ingredients and then lightly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Add in the chocolate chips last. Spread into the baking dish and sprinkle with sugar- bake for about 35-40 minutes or until lightly brown.

*the cane sugar gives it a nice crystallized crust since there's no oil or butter in the cake! These suckers are amazinggggg

so many bananas...

there are a million over ripening bananas in the house and it's near impossible to bake w/o eggs. and patience. and time. (and school, but we sort of pretend that doesn't exist:) the next couple posts are going to be how to use bananas, especially since i found this awesome photo montage of things to do w/ bananas that wasn't just straight up banana cream pie (which is still very much a possibility). everything i'm trying is super easy (as for all the issues mentioned at the beginning. 

the first recipe is about as easy as it gets- frozen banana bites. i got it all prepared before i had to jet for class (although i was almost late getting to school...haha). grab some super ripe bananas and chop them up, about 5-6 per banana. i used 2 bananas.

melt 1/4 c. of chocolate chips (i had semi-sweet) and 1/4 c. creamy peanut butter and melt it in a microwave safe bowl for about 30-45 seconds, mix and dip the bananas in the mix. you can leave them undecorated (as in the back ones) or you can top/roll them in fun stuff- i used chopped pecans. dessicated coconut, any nuts, etc would be excellent options. then pop these bad boys into the freezer (i transferred bananas w/ the parchment paper into a wide short tupperware). and wha-lah! come back at the end of a long hot day and you have some super yummy bananas waiting for you. 


has anyone noticed their bananas having the sticker "yo nana" on it? what happened to my chiquita stickers? 


next for the next banana posting- baked banana fritters (and it's really only b/c i don't want to deal w/ cleaning up all that oil...supreme laziness! hopefully it turns out yummy)

Cherry, chocolate, walnut whole wheat bread

phew, just writing that title made me tired. this was not originally what i planned to make at 7am but the grocery store was conspiring against me. because the bananas are merrily greenish yellow but i still wanted to bake i figured i would make some pumpkin chocolate chip bread, BUT, after haunting the grocery store for 30 minutes and not finding it i decided it just wasn't meant to be.

so instead i bought a bag of frozen dark cherries (i had wanted cranberries, but i couldn't find fresh or frozen!) and this is what i ended up creating...

i was stealing bits of cherry as i cut them in half. yum! the recipe was definitely a fiddle as i go kind of thing. the bread is a little too sweet and doesn't hold together very well, but who am i to turn down chocolate and walnuts. not so sure about the cherries, but i will continue eating them to find out!
the other problem may have come from my strange obsession to base this recipe off of the banana bread in the Everything Cookbook...

Cherry, Chocolate chip, walnut whole wheat bread (say that 3 times fast!)

1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup instant oats

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

about 1 cup apple sauce

½ cup water

2 eggs

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 ½ cup halved frozen dark cherries, tossed in whole wheat flour (not sure if necessary)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two loaf pans and flour the bottom of the pans (or you can make 1 larger loaf, they come out pretty shallow). Mix flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl add the apple sauce and water. Mix eggs in one at a time. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Slowly mix in the flour mixture. After mixing add the cherries. Scoop into bread loaves and bake about 25 minutes.

the chocolate chips were a bit overpowering so i would cut that back a bit. i can't taste the oats, but the whole wheat flour definitely gives the bread a very hearty and dense flavor. i wonder what it would taste like with white flour?