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.

eummm

i have a huge sweet tooth. sometimes i have control of it and sometimes i just let it run wild :)
both of these recipes are very different from one another but they are both relatively straight forward. for mother's day i wanted to use up the rest of the key lime juice i have (no luck) but also wanted to make something healthier than the strawberry coffee cake i had made last week (i'm behind on post, but it was pretty good, but i needed to add more sugar)

this key lime mousse pie is completely raw. the crust is unbelievable and would make a great energy bar. the filling is really creamy and rich and it's nice and tart w/ the key lime. i adapted the recipe from here w/ some tweaks. 

Raw Key Lime Mousse Pie 
(makes one 9" pie)
Crust
1 c quick oats
1 cup shredded coconut*
1/2 c almonds
1/2 c pitted dates
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 T key lime juice
Dash of salt
*The recipe calls for unsweetened but I can never find unsweetened so I just omitted the sugar they call for

Mousse
4 large ripe avocados
3/4 c key lime juice
1/3 c honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Pulse the crust ingredients in a food processor and blend until dough like. Spray or grease a 9" pie pan and press the dough evenly into and up the sides of the pan. Food process all the mousse ingredients and pour over the crust. Chill in the fridge or freezer depending on your texture preference for at least 3 hours (we chilled in the fridge and it took longer than 3 hours for it to hold.)

these cookies on the other hand are not raw but the recipe is very straight forward and took all of one hour to whip up start to finish and only has 4 ingredients. how easy is that? the coconut macaroons i've ever had have to be the ones at presti's in little italy, cleveland (not completely random, s4 is studying there). but these little suckers are so quick and easy and kind of taste like a denser coconut goodness of angel food cake. i had to take a picture really fast before the family descended onto them.

Coconut Macaroons (from Alton Brown)
4 egg whites
Dash of salt
1/2 c sugar
8 oz sweetened shredded coconut (could probably decrease the sugar amount b/c of the coconut. I also forgot to toast before tossing them into the oven, but that probably would have made these suckers amazing)

Preheat oven to 350F. Whip the eggs and salt until white and begin to stiffen. Add sugar in 3 parts. Continue to whip until the whites are very stiff. Using a rubber spatula fold in the coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto silpat, parchment paper or a greased surface about 1 inch distance from one another. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on the outside (they will be deliciously soft on the inside).

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.

pumpkin goodness

a mini pie

if you don't have a pumpkin pie recipe for thanksgiving yet and want something a little different this year- go for this (i may sing a different tune when i try out a paula chiffon pumpkin recipe, but that's not important right now).

wasn't really feeling in the thanksgiving mood (which is a clear sign of something very wrong!) but after my run this morning i was feeling so much better (now i know, those 5 am runs are completely necessary). but anyway, since i had today off from work and was feeling rejuvenated, baking was in order! this is a recipe merging a much healthier recipe with a not as healthy one, and together it's yummy goodness, totally ready for t-day!

the crust inspiration comes from this fitness blog which i think i actually found from some daily newsletter i get in my inbox. 

regular sized muffin cup

the filling comes from my friday-at-work-and-only-30-minutes-left to do perusal. from foodnetwork.

i had some leftover filling (i made less "crust") and so popped the rest in the microwave for 3 minutes and had instant pumpkin pie filling (my favorite part). not sure what to call this- but i'm going with oat & date pecan maple pumpkin mini pie with maple whipped cream. whoo, that's too long. any suggestions?

Oat, date & Pecan crust Maple Pumpkin Mini Pie w/ Maple Whipped Cream

Makes 12 mini, and 8 muffin cup sized pies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups instant oats

8 large dates, pitted (make sure you take out the seeds, or you'll have my problem and wonder why your food processor sounds like it's dying and then have to dig and search for each partially broken seed)

pinch of salt

~ 1/4 c pecans

1/4 c water

1 c pumpkin puree

1 T all purpose flour

1 T sugar in the raw

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 c heavy cream

1/4 c maple syrup, grade B

1 egg, beaten

Maple whipped cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 c grade B maple syrup (or to taste)

dash of cinnamon

Optional

Top with a toasted pecan

Line muffin pans with paper wrappers. Process the oats, dates salt and pecans. Slowly add in the water until the mixture begins to combine (but not wet sticky!). Form into balls and press into the muffin tins.

For the pumpkin filling, combine all the ingredients except the egg. Taste, add more maple syrup or spices as desired, and then add in the egg. Spoon into the muffin tins and bake at 400 for 15 min (for the little ones) and about 25 min for the larger ones. Place a pan filled with some water in the oven (this way the pies won't crack on top and stay nice and moist).

For the whipped cream, beat the whipping cream on high speed until the mixture thickens. Add the maple syrup and continue to beat until the cream holds firm peaks. Dollop on top of the pies and sprinkle with cinnamon. Top with toasted pecan. 

happy baking!

the bright side of insomnia

there's always a positive spin to anything right. well, here it is, finally updating this baby :D

my mom bought these pre-peeled roasted chestnuts at Costco and since they have no preservatives realized we had to eat them in 7 days and since we're off on a 24 hour road trip we figured chestnut bread. which i couldn't find (anyone have a recipe?) but found this instead- Korean chestnut dessert. or what i'm just calling chestnut rolls. the whole blog is pretty cool.

i did a half recipe and fiddled a bit b/c of the insanity that was trying to get honey out of the bottle. i love that these aren't that sweet and remind me of my cakebites, but your teeth don't cry from the sugar shock (don't get me wrong, cakebites in a flavor i like are no match for my sweet tooth!). 

Korean Chestnut Rolls (adapted from the korean american mommy)
8 oz Galil roasted chestnuts
~3/4 T honey (i had clover)
1 T sesame seeds (i bet these would add a great flavor if toasted!)
dash salt
dash cinnamon
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted and ground coarsely.

Food process the chestnuts. Add the sesame seeds, honey, salt and cinnamon until a meal forms. Shape into balls. Food process the pine nuts (make sure your nuts are cooled before processing) and then roll the balls in the pine nuts. I got about 15 rolls/balls. (balls just sounds awkward...haha).

after seeing this post, all i want is to go out and buy a mini cheesecake pan! sounds and looks adorable! now if only there was a bakery store that was open 24/7. but seriously, peanut butter AND cheesecake. i'm thinking a biscoff version also needs to be tested!

happy baking! and happy weekend! we're off to cleveland to visit s4, which hopefully means some yummy italian food, if not, certainly delicious korean california rolls on the way over!

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