Category: Baking

My Favorite

Sadie3 Comments

This week includes my favorite day of the year, so I wanted to make my favorite dessert ever.  There is nothing I would rather have for dessert than strawberry shortcake.  It is basically the confluence of all of my favorite foods and flavors.

While strawberry shortcake can take many different incarnations, my favorite version is a biscuit, sliced strawberries, and some home made whipped cream.  This is always my preference over an actual birthday cake.

I know my mom usually makes a buttermilk biscuit recipe for the biscuits (or “shortcake”), but I decided to try Martha’s Baking Powder Biscuits this time around.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Yields 8-10 biscuits depending on size from Martha

Ingredients

  • 4 cups AP flour
  • 2 Tbs baking powder
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) chilled and cut into small pieces
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • sanding sugar for garnish

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 400.
  2. Combine 2 cups or flour with the rest of the dry ingredients.  Mix in butter so the mixture has small “pebbles” of butter.  Use a blender, food processor, or hand mixer.
  3. Add the rest of flour and mix until uniform.
  4. Fold in cream gently until just combined.
  5. Turn dough out and pat down to about an inch high.  Use a cookie cutter or slice into  desired size.
  6. Bake 20-25 minutes.  Allow to cool completely on wire rack.

*For strawberry shortcake just slice up some strawberries and whip up some heavy cream.

Testing a Super Food

Sadie3 Comments

I don’t know about you but I’ve been hearing about chia seeds a lot over the past couple years.  They’re always on super food lists in magazines or in healthy food bloggers’ smoothies or oatmeal concoctions.  They are supposed to have numerous health benefits like all the other seeds and crazy whole grains that are popular among the Whole Foods crowd.

I’m always game to try a new health food as long as it’s not too crazy, and while my initial reaction to idea of chia seeds reverts to a particularly catchy commercial jingle, I figured that all of this hype had to be for a reason.  I have heard that they don’t really add much flavor beyond maybe a slight nuttiness when added food, so how bad could they be?

In my travels on the internet I found a no-bake granola bar recipe that seemed like the perfect venue to add some chia seeds.  I took the basic recipe made a few tweaks to make it a little more exciting.  Not only did the granola bars turn out great, since they were no-bake, it was also minimal effort!  Besides the miniscule black dots in the bars you don’t even notice the chia seeds.  They’re working for me so far, maybe I’ll throw the leftover seeds in my next protein shake…

No-Bake Granola Bars

Yields about 20 squares depending on size, Adapted quite a bit from Lauren’s Latest

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2/3-3/4 cup honey (depending on if you need more binding liquid)
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 cups instant oats (not old fashioned rolled)
  • 2 cups puffed rice cereal (Rice Krispies)
  • 1/3 cup black chia seeds
  • 3/4 dried cranberries
  • 1 cup slivered almonds
  • 1 10 oz bag white chocolate chips

Method

  1. Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment for easy removal.
  2. Melt butter, honey, and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat (I started with 2/3 cup of honey and added a dash more later when I needed more liquid).  Let it bubble for about 2 minutes before removing it from the heat and adding the vanilla.
  3. Add rice cereal, oats, and chia seeds to the wet mixture.  Mix well to combine.
  4. Add dried cranberries, almonds, and half of the white chocolate.  The chocolate will melt so you want to save some to put on top of the bars in the pan.
  5. Once the mixture is uniform, press it into the lined pan and sprinkle on more white chocolate chips (I didn’t end up using the whole bag, but pretty close).
  6. Allow to cool, slice, and enjoy!

Vegan Adventures

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I’m constantly trying to justify my sweet tooth by finding recipes and baked goods that provide some healthy attribute, or aren’t completely sinful.  Though vegan recipes are not completely guilt free, they often offer nutritional benefits, and remove some level of guilt.

I found this below recipe when I was surfing through a few blogs online.  It intrigued me because it included some of my favorite ingredients: oats, peanut butter, and bananas.  What could go wrong?

At the end of the day I think these cookies are good snacks but I would not put them in the category of a crave-able treat.  They are not super sweet, and though the PB and banana add to the taste, they aren’t particularly exciting.  I think these would be best enjoyed as an energy booster when you would otherwise grab a granola bar.  And in the future I would also consider adding some mix ins like chocolate chips (obvi not vegan), nuts, or dried fruit.

Vegan Banana Maple Cookies

Adapted from Pumps and Iron

Yields about 20

Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole grain rolled oats
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  •  ¼ cup brown sugar (I added this because the batter was not sweet at all)
  • 1 banana
  • ¼ cup apple sauce
  • ¼ cup peanut butter
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp lemon juice
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp water

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls (brown sugar is a wet).
  3. Combine both mixtures.

    I resorted to a pastry cutter to mash it all together
  4. Spoon onto cookie sheets and bake 8-13 minutes.  The dough will not change shape much, so make sure they are the desired shape when they go into the oven.