Category — Dessert

My computer time lately seems to be all filled up with freelance work, and other than “Baby Bargains” and other expectant mom resources, my “just-for-fun” book time hasn’t exactly been abundant either, so instead of reading online blogs or real novels, cooking magazines have become my go-to for a little break from reality (on the evenings I don’t fall asleep immediately upon sitting on the bed!).

I’ve been enjoying reading two in particular, Eating Well and Whole Living, and last week I somehow managed to find time to try three recipes from the latest issues!

The first two were dinners from the “Healthy Comfort Foods” article in the March issue of Whole Living. First I made Chicken Pot Pie, which got its “stealth health factor” from the inclusion of barley, a grain full of fiber and minerals. Buying that was an adventure because I had never done that before and the recipe said “hulled barley” and all I could find was “pearled barley” so there I was in Whole Foods, frantically searching on my phone for an indication about whether they were the same or not. (Apparently they are similar but hulled would have been a more healthy whole grain). I went with pearled anyway because I really wanted to try this recipe. I was similarly unable to find whole wheat phyllo dough, but I decided that would just have to be ok too! The recipe made 4 cute little individual pot pies that were yummy and, as the article’s title promised, reminiscent of classic comfort food without including the traditional heavy, less-healthy ingredients.

The second Whole Living recipe I made was Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Shells. It took a while to do this one, since there were quite a few steps, but it was well worth it. The pan of stuffed shells fed my husband and I for dinner and we had at least four more servings for leftovers. The “stealth health factor” on this recipe was using part-skim ricotta and including both spinach and bulgur (another new ingredient for me) in the filling, providing antioxidants and fiber.

Unfortunately I didn’t find these recipes online, but I recommend checking out the March issue, pages 92 and 93, and giving both of these recipes a try!

The third recipe I tried, Chocolate Decadence, was truly an indulgence, but since it came out of Eating Well and contained very little flour and all dark chocolate, I felt it was a worthwhile indulgence to make for dinner guests. It was amazing! Delicious and satisfying even in fairly small portions, unlike some dessert recipes that have me wanting more or leave me feeling unsatisfied the minute I finish.

P.S. This post was written back at the end of February, but somehow didn’t get published…apparently pregnancy brain + technology are not a good combo!

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This month instead of sharing book reviews, members of the Kitchen Reader group are all sharing a holiday recipe that is special to them.

I decided to share my mom’s recipe for Christmas cut-out cookies, although to be fair, they can be and have been made many times at other times of the year. Although they are probably the most time-intensive recipe I make at the holidays (because of the decorating time), I always make at least one batch because they remind me of making and decorating them with my mom, and they make me (and the loved ones who ooh and aah over them) feel young.

I thought about tinkering with the recipe to make it fit my blog a little bit better, perhaps swapping in a natural sweetener for sugar, but ultimately decided to stick with the original. I did use wholesome ingredients (organic butter, sugar, and flour, cage-free eggs) and decided they were a treat worth enjoying (in moderation!) Here’s the recipe!

Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1.5 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Cream butter, confectioner’s sugar, egg, and vanilla.
2. Blend in dry ingredients.
3. Cover and chill the dough for a few hours or overnight.
4. Roll out on a floured surface and cut with favorite cookie cutters.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 4-5 minutes per batch.

For decorating, you could make buttercream frosting or Royal icing. I made Royal icing (using meringue powder) for the first time this year because it hardens nicely and I wanted to mail some cookies to relatives we won’t be able to see this year.

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Today is my birthday, and I decided to bake myself a cake, but not just any cake…a gluten-free chocolate cake that a friend found online and emailed to me. As I’ve mentioned before, I am not allergic to gluten but am sensitive to wheat, so I try to avoid it when I can. Usually baked goods are a place where I make an exception, but this cake was too intriguing not to try! Unlike many other gluten-free cake recipes I have checked out, it doesn’t contain any difficult-to-find ingredients. Instead of flour, it uses quinoa! I love quinoa, and the idea that I can use it in a chocolate cake was just fantastic.

I made the cake this morning and was pleased with the ease of the recipe. I did have to cook the quinoa first and let it cool, and then the rest of the batter creation took place in my blender and a bowl, by hand…I didn’t even have to use my mixer! I did have a little trouble getting all of the batter out of the VitaMix blender, and unfortunately I didn’t have 8″ pans, only 9″, so my cake is a little bit larger and flatter than the photo with the recipe, but taste-wise it was a complete success!

The cake had just come out of the oven when I was leaving for a birthday lunch with a friend, so my darling husband took it out, let it cool, and had it frosted and ready on the cake stand when we returned. As my husband observed, it’s a slightly more dense cake than many made with flour, but it’s still delicious. We’ll have a few more friends over later for dinnertime slices so I will get some more opinions then, but so far it’s a unanimous success.

Here’s a link to the recipe, which comes from a book that was already on my wish list but has just been bumped to the top: Quinoa 365 by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming.

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Every so often my extremely healthy-eating husband will request something decidedly unhealthy, like one of the sugary cereals he loves: Fruity Pebbles or Cookie Crisp. I repeatedly say no to those (and since I do the grocery shopping, they just never make it into the house) but when he requests baked goods, I have trouble saying no. Monkey Bread I tend to put off at least for a while, but when he asks for something easier like chocolate chip cookies or, like tonight, lemon bars, I often acquiesce pretty quickly.

Tonight after dinner he mentioned lemon bars for, oh, the third time in as many days, so we got out the family cookbook that his mom put together and lo and behold, I had all of the ingredients on hand. So I set out to make him some lemon bars, which was fun because he stayed in the kitchen to help me! He actually did quite a few of the steps himself, all the while declaring that these were going to be the very best lemon bars EVER made, because he was helping. He even documented the process with his camera.

First you mix butter (the original said shortening but we used butter), flour, and powdered sugar and press them into a 9 x 13 pan.

That goes into the oven at 350 until golden brown…this took about 25 minutes in our oven.

The next step is to combine eggs, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, lemon juice, and more flour—this is the top layer. My husband did this part, and commented that it was really hard to mix…and more cloudy than he expected…he remembered the top layer being kind of transparent, and maybe even brighter yellow…but oh, well.

The mixture gets poured over the baked crust, and then the whole pan goes back in the oven for another 25 minutes.

When it comes out, it gets a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Let cool, then cut and enjoy!

When the bars were done and ready to sample, we were both surprised that the layers had similar consistencies and the entire bar was a little more “cake-y” than we expected. We figured we were both just remembering a different lemon bar recipe.

Then, as I sat down to write this post and transcribe the recipe, I noticed that flour is listed in the ingredient list twice…because you use it in the first step (2 cups) and in the 2nd step (4 Tbsp.) Unfortunately, when my husband read “Combine eggs, sugar…and flour,” he then looked up at the ingredient list, and added 2 cups of flour. Oops. That explains the blister he got whisking all of those ingredients together and trying to get them smooth!

OK, so it wasn’t a perfectly executed recipe but we had fun, the bars are still tasty, and we got a good laugh once we discovered what went wrong. But according to him, the baking is going to be left to me from now on…or at least the recipe-reading! I hope I can convince him to try again, though, because the group effort made it more fun.

What funny mistakes have you made by misreading a recipe?

Lemon Bars
(A family favorite)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups flour for bottom layer + 4 Tbsp flour for top layer
• 1 cup powdered sugar, divided (1/2 cup for bottom, 1/2 cup for sprinkling on top)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 6 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine butter, 2 cups flour, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Press into prepared 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
2. Combine beaten eggs, sugar, baking powder, lemon juice, lemon zest, and 2 Tbsp flour.
3. Pour onto hot crust and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, sprinkle 1/2 cup powdered sugar on top.
5. Let cool, cut, and enjoy!

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This cake does not belong in the health food category, but it’s made with love using the most fresh, natural, whole ingredients available, and I believe that counts for something. In fact, I think it counts for a lot.

I know it will be enjoyed by family and friends this weekend, and I can feel good knowing that although I didn’t provide a low-calorie dessert, I did provide one made from scratch with real ingredients!

To create this recipe, I started with my mom’s classic pound cake recipe but instead of vanilla and almond for the flavorings, I used vanilla and fresh lemon juice and zest, and then added a lemon glaze on top.

P.S. Since this cake has to travel tomorrow, I couldn’t put it on my adorable new cake stand, but I couldn’t resist setting it on there on its plate anyway and taking a photo to share!

Lemon Pound Cake

• 16 oz. cream cheese (not low fat or fat free), softened
• 2 sticks unsalted butter (fresh from farmer’s market if available!), softened
• 3 cups sugar (I used 1.5 cups regular, and 1.5 cups organic evaporated cane juice sugar)
• 6 large eggs (pastured and fresh from farmer’s market if available!)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest (from organic lemons!)
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 3 cups organic unbleached flour

1. Beat cream cheese and butter.
2. Beat in the sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs.
4. Beat in the flavorings, baking soda, and flour.
5. Spoon into your choice of:
   • 6 greased & floured mini loaf pans, and bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.
   • 1 large bundt pan, and bake at 325 degrees for approximately 90 minutes (but start checking every 5 minutes after 75).
   • 1 large bundt pan AND 1 mini loaf pan (if your bundt pan gets really full like mine did!), bake at 325 for 75-90 minutes but take out mini loaf pan around 40 minutes.
6. Cake(s) will rise and become golden brown on the edges/top. Check with toothpick and be sure the middle is done before removing from oven.
7. Let cakes cool a bit before removing from pans.
8. When cake(s) are completely cool, prepare glaze and pour over the top.
9. Cakes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in fridge or freezer. They freeze and thaw/reheat very well!

1. Put 1 c. powdered sugar in bowl.
2. Add 2 tsp. lemon zest.
3. Slowly pour in up to 2 Tbsp. of lemon juice, whisking as you add.
4. If too thick, add extra juice, if it gets runny, stop adding juice.
5. When desired consistency is reached, pour over cake(s)!

Lemon Pound Cake

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Whether your motivation is to sneak a healthier ingredient into a treat for your family, or simply to use up an abundance of summer zucchinis, this recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cookies is a winner. I found it in one of my new favorite books, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and have made it several times with positive reviews. In fact, this weekend my parents are having a cookout, and I convinced them to drop the “gourmet” cookies from Costco from the menu by offering to make these instead!

I have adapted the recipe slightly to make it a little more “sneaky,” which meant mashing my zucchini into a pulp in my VitaMix blender rather than just shredding it. If you want your cookies to taste a bit more like zucchini bread, don’t grind your zucchini until it’s totally pulpy, and just double the amount of nutmeg in the recipe. Both ways result in tasty cookies!

If you prefer the sneaky route, follow the recipe below and you could even leave out the nutmeg altogether (although I can’t really taste it in the most recent batch I made). Even with pulpy zucchini you may spot a few green flecks, but for the most part the dough (and the cookies) look and taste like regular chocolate chip cookies. Yum…cookie dough…

The recipe below is also doubled from the original (which yielded me close to four dozen cookies, not two as the recipe said it would), because I have always found that doubling a chocolate chip cookie recipe results in better cookies (and you can enjoy them longer and share them with more people)! Enjoy!

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from the recipe found in the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website and book

Yield: approx. 90 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup organic turbinado (or simply brown) sugar
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups white flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1⁄2 tsp. salt
• 1⁄2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1⁄4 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 cups zucchini, cut up and beat to a pulp in a food processor or blender
• 20 oz. chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Combine eggs, butter, sugar, honey, and vanilla in large bowl.
2. Combine flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a separate, small bowl and then blend into liquid mixture.
3. Add zucchini and mix well.
4. Stir chocolate chips into mixture by hand.
5. Optional: chill dough in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. I find especially in the summer, this tends to be beneficial and makes dough easier to work with!
6. Drop dough by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon.
7. Bake at 350° for 13-15 minutes.

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I substituted Xylitol for the sugar in these cookies and they turned out well. Much like the shortbreads, they aren’t supposed to be extremely sweet cookies. They are meant to be very light in flavor, and they are soft and almost cake-like in texture. I’ll be serving them on Easter with coffee, and might try to make some lemon buttercream frosting and turn some of them into cookie sandwiches as suggested on AmazingMoms.com.

Yield: About 2 dozen cookies (I somehow made closer to 4 dozen!)

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it’s smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Beat until it’s well combined.
4. Add the eggs to the mixer and beat on medium speed for at least one minute.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture a little at a time. Stop once the mixture is just blended.
6. Drop the cookie dough in roughly 1 tablespoon balls onto the prepared cookie sheet. The mounds should be about three inches apart.
7. Bake until the edges of the cookie reaches a delicate golden brown, roughly 12 – 14 minutes.
8. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring to a cookie rack to cool completely.
9. Repeat until all of the dough has been used.

Store these cookies in an airtight container for up to four days.

Source: AmazingMoms.com

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My husband loves shortbread cookies and doesn’t care for frosting on his cookies, so the sugar cut-out cookies I usually bake and painstakingly decorate for holidays usually get “oohs” and “aahs” from other people but he always asks me to keep some undecorated for him. When I saw this recipe, I knew he would like them, and they looked quick and easier than the kind I usually decorate.

The other reason I was excited to try this recipe was that it only has five ingredients, and they are all things I can get organic/natural versions of. I even took it a step further and used Xylitol instead of sugar!

I first bought some Xylitol as a sweetener for coffee, after I decided to cut out Splenda and before I decided to cut out coffee. Now I have it in my cabinet and don’t know what to do with it, so I decided to give it a try today. After consulting Cameron and doing a Google search I determined that a 1-for-1 substitute should work. As some of the sites predicted, the cookies did turn out a little dry, and they are not overly sweet, but they are pretty good (yes, even though they have flour in them (wheat!), I cheated on Lent and had a small piece when the stem broke off!) I thought it was pretty good, and my husband confirmed they are tasty but a little dry, which he says can easily be solved by drinking a glass of milk with them!

For (nearly) sugar-free cookies (the sprinkles added sugar), I think they came out quite well and it was fun and easy to make them for St. Patrick’s Day!

Here’s the recipe, with modifications/specifics added:

Yield: 24-30 cookies (depending on cookie cutter size)

Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 20-25 minutes per batch
Total time: 30-60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (all-natural, unsalted) butter (no substitute!), softened
• ½ cup xylitol (use 1/2 cup sugar if you prefer)
  
• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups organic all-purpose flour
• ½ cup green sprinkles

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla; add in flour very gradually.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness.
3. Let your kids go to town (obviously I did this myself!) by cutting dough with 2-inch cookie cutters.
4. Transfer cookies from counter to lined baking sheet using a thin metal spatula. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Sprinkle cookies with colored sugar, if desired.
5. Bake at 300 degrees F for 20 – 25 minutes (took mine 26-27!), until lightly browned.
6. Place cookies on wire racks until they cool (when I did this, they broke, so the next batch I left on the sheet to cool).

Source: AmazingMoms.com

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I was excited to try these, not only because I love dark chocolate, but because I have been craving coconut for the past month or so, but not being a big coconut eater most of the time I haven’t had a lot of chances to have it.

I got organic reduced-fat grated coconut (not shredded) to use for the Dark Chocolate Truffles, and figured that would work for this too but I am not sure it turned out as well as it could have. I used dark chocolate “chips” (they are little rectangles) from Whole Foods and they were delicious (yes, I popped some into my mouth when I opened the package!) and they melted well but 1 cup did not yield enough melted chocolate to make 32 cookies…maybe the shredded coconut instead of grated would have made the overall volume a lot higher!?

After I used about half of the ingredients, I added a few drops of peppermint extract to the rest so I could make some mint dark chocolate coconut cookies. Lesson learned there…the addition of mint was yummy, but a few drops was MORE than enough. The mint cookies are a little overpowering!

These turned out well–kind of like chocolates you’d get in a box, more so than like cookies–but I think using the shredded coconut next time would make them better. And, of course, these are a little more guilt-inducing than the “Babies” since they actually use chocolate (which contains sugar) rather than fruit to make them sweet, so I won’t be making them too often.

These simple but delicious cookies are reminiscent of the no-bake cookies you may have eaten as a child, but without the oatmeal.  They’re sure to satisfy your sweet tooth while providing some of the health benefits of both cocoa and coconuts, as long as you’re sure to choose a low-sugar dark chocolate and unsweetened coconut.

Time to table: 30 minutes
Serves: 16
Healing Nutrient Spotlight: Source of iron and fiber

Ingredients:*

• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

* Choose organic ingredients for optimal nutrition.

Preparation:
Place chocolate chips in top of double boiler or in a stainless steel or glass bowl that will fit on top of a saucepan of water.  Heat the water to a slow simmer then place the chocolate chips in the container on top of the hot water.  As the chips begin to melt, stir them rapidly to prevent the chocolate from burning.  Lift the bowl off the pot of water and stir the coconut into the melted chocolate.  Drop the mixture by tablespoonfuls onto an oiled cookie sheet and place into the refrigerator to set up. Makes 32 cookies, 2 per serving.

Source: Cameron Rupprecht

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OK, these are really awesome, especially if you are a fan of Lärabars. I’ve mentioned these a few times now…they are snack/energy bars that are literally made from unsweetened fruits, nuts, and spices…and nothing else. I’ve recently spent some time in the snack/energy/protein bar aisle checking them all out, because I was curious…do you know how many ingredients are in most of those bars? Even the “all-natural” ones? It’s craziness!

Lärabars, on the other hand, have like 3 ingredients. And they are delicious. It was a very happy day when I was at Whole Foods and they were giving out samples of 5 or 6 different flavors. So far my favorites are Peanut Butter Cookie and Cinnamon Roll.

But back to the point of this post…today I tried out the recipe for “Babies” from “Chocolate-Covered Katie” and was very pleased to discover that I had basically made my own bite-sized Lärabars. Now that I have made 5 different varieties in tiny form, I am going to choose my favorites and make bar-sized versions every so often for snacks.

Here are the recipes for what I made, but be sure to check out Katie’s site and her recipes as well. The instructions for all are the same–mix the ingredients in a food processor and then mold into whatever shape and size you want. I found it worked best for me when I put the nuts in first and chopped them up very small, then added the dates (quartered) and any other ingredients. These batches will make 8-12 balls, depending on what size you make. The main ingredient is pitted dates, which I bought in 227-gram bags at Whole Foods. I used my food scale and found that 80 grams was about 15 dates. For the nuts, I used my food scale, and I used all raw, unsalted nuts…remember, raw nuts are the most nutritious.

Chocolate Fudge
I rolled these in raw cacao to make them more like truffles!

• 80 grams dates
• 30 grams (total) cashews and walnuts
• 1 Tbsp. raw cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Chocolate Mint

• same as above, but add 1/8 tsp. peppermint extract

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

• 80 grams dates
• 30 grams cashews
• approx 1 tsp. dark chocolate chunks (chopped with nuts)
• 2 Tbsp. rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• approx. 10 milk chocolate chips (added at rolling-into-balls stage)

Peanut Butter Cookie
Check out the photo…we did a taste test and mine were very similar to the Lärabar! (mine’s on the left, the end I cut off of a Lärabar is on the right)

• 90 grams dates (just throw in an extra 2 or 3)
• 5-6 raw unsalted peanuts
• 1/2 Tbsp. natural chunky unsalted peanut butter (Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 Tbsp. natural creamy salted peanut butter (Trader Joe’s)
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon Roll

• 80 grams dates
• 30 grams (total) walnuts, cashews, and almonds
• 3 pitted prunes (because I did not have any raisins)
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• approx. 1 tbsp. cinnamon

Source: ChocolateCoveredKatie.com

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