nutella cookies

Nutella Cookies 

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup nutella

1 egg

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Roll into cookie dough shaped roll. 

Cut into 1/2" sized pieces. Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Mash cookies flat (recipe suggests using a glass for this -- I just smashed them with my hands and they turned out fine). 

Bake for 7-10 minutes.

Enjoy with a large glass of milk. 

[banana bread]

Yesterday I got the itch to bake something. For some reason I have an unending supply of frozen bananas in my freezer, so I opted for banana bread. I don't have a tried & true recipe that I always use, so I Googled "banana bread" & picked the first recipe that popped up since I had all of the ingredients. I think this little gem will be my forever go to recipe for banana bread! (:


Ingredients

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar 

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

*Sprinkle of cinnamon

*1/3 cup of Craisins

*I added the cinnamon & craisins, but these can easily be omitted

directionS

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda, cinnamon and salt over the mixture and mix in. Fold in the Craisins. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Root Beer Chocolate Cake

Lately Mike has accused me of having "lost my passion for baking," so for his birthday I thought I'd make a good ole old fashioned homemade birthday cake - from scratch. I found a recipe for root beer chocolate cake and voila! Passion rediscovered.

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups root beer - made with cane sugar 
unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs (room temp)
*Disclaimer: I forgot the brown sugar & it turned out fine (: 

Frosting Ingredients:
2 ounces milk chocolate or semi sweet melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup root beer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar


Cake Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Spray bundt pan with Pam.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.

4. In a small cup, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy–do not over beat, as it could cause the cake to be tough.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a small sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 20-30 min on a wire rack, then invert onto a plate.

Frosting Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate over low heat on the stove. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir.

2. Take the mixture off the heat and allow to cool (you may have to put in the fridge for a few minutes).

3. Whisk the cooled mixture to make sure it's mixed well and stiff enough to frost.

[via]

mini apple pies

This past weekend I tried another new fall recipe: mini apple pies. They were yummy! And, being muffin sized, they're a perfect after dinner treat that won't totally ruin any healthy eating you've been doing!

 

 Here's the recipe [adapted from Little Bit Funky]:

Ingredients:

• 3.5(ish) lbs granny smith apples
• 12 tbs flour (I used 1/2 all purpose & 1/2 whole wheat--I'd recommend not using the whole wheat flour for this recipe)
• 1.5 cups Stevia 
• 4 tbs cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• lemon juice
• 2 chilled [not frozen] pie crusts
• 4 TBSP chilled butter, divided evenly 

Directions:

1. Peel & core the apples. Cut into 1/2" bite sized pieces.
2. Mix the apples with the flour, Stevia, cinnamon & nutmeg. *Make sure everything is coated well!
3. Add 1-2 tsp lemon juice (enough to give the mixture some moisture) & stir. 
4. Unroll the pie crusts and cut out circles. A mason jar lid (or something about that size) is perfect. I made 14 mini pies, so I used the left over crust for decorating the top of the mini pies.  
5. Spray your muffin tin, then line each muffin hole with 1 mini pie crust. 
6. Fill each crust with the apple mixture (pile it high).
7. Once each pie crust is filled with the apple mixture, add 1 of the pieces of butter to each mini pie. (I did not do this which may have contributed to the dryness of my pies...)
8. Cover as desired with left over pie crust. Brush with a little melted butter.
9. Bake at 400 for 18-22 minutes or until the crust is golden brown! 

Pumpkin Pecan Granola

Fall is in the air...well, right now it feels like winter is in the air, but you get the picture. I made this delicious new Pumpkin Pecan Granola recipe last night and our house still had remnants of my baking in the air when we woke up this morning. (:

Here is the recipe [adapted from The Sprouted Kitchen]:

Ingredients:

• 2½ tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ¾ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ⅓ cup Grade B maple syrup -- **I didn't have any maple syrup, so I substituted honey
• ⅓ cup pumpkin puree
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• ½ cup roughly chopped raw pecans
• ½ cup dried cranberries

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together olive oil, salt, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup, and pumpkin puree until smooth. Add in the oats, pecans, and sesame seeds and stir until well-coated.
3. Spread the granola evenly onto a large rimmed baking sheet, trying to keep as many granola clusters intact as possible. Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes or until the granola is dry and golden-brown in color, stirring every 10 minutes or so by scooping the granola on the edges back into the centre and then spreading back out into an even layer. [Watch carefully! Mine didn't take the full 35 minutes and still had a few burned clumps...]
4. Let the granola cool for a few minutes, then stir in the dried cranberries. Allow to cool completely on baking sheets before transferring to an airtight container for storage. Finished granola will keep for about a week, assuming you don’t eat it all long before then.

And, here are the nutrition facts [from CalorieCount.com]:

NOTE: a serving size is 1 tablespoon [it's a great add in for yogurt or to eat with apples, but it is high in sugar, so don't eat it by the cup full!] (: 

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 25 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 87 Calories from Fat 41

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 4.5g 7%

Saturated Fat 0.6g 3%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 48mg 2%

Total Carbohydrates 11.3g 4%

Dietary Fiber 1.4g 6%

Sugars 5.0g

Protein 1.5g

Vitamin A 13% • Vitamin C 1% Calcium 1% • Iron 3%

Nutrition Grade B

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• No cholesterol
• High in manganese
• High in vitamin A

Bad points

• High in sugar

Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches

I made the Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches last night (among about 6 other things). I'm quite impressed with these cake cookies! I mean, c'mon - homemade carrot cake in cookie form (I even shredded the carrots by hand). Yes, please! What's even better is that carrot cake is one of Mikey's favorites, so I had a real-life carrot cake connoisseur on my hands and he loved them! Next time instead of using the suggested ice cream scoop to scoop the dough onto the pan I'll use a tablespoon. I made about 1/3 of the batter tablespoon size and like the size of those much better. I'll also use Splenda instead of sugar - I just didn't have any on hand.

shredded carrots

dry ingredients

shredded carrots and oats added

waiting to be iced

the final product!