Category Archives: sweet stuff

Gluten-Free Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

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almondbuttercookies

I’m not Paleo, but, I thought I’d try something different. I have a similar peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe and I wanted to vary it. Plus, I got some new (to me)
almond butter and wanted to use it*. Most importantly, these cookies come together very quickly and you only use one bowl. Score!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies (GF)

  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 c dark chocolate chips
  • Fleur de sel (sprinkled on top, optional)

In a large bowl, whip egg with whisk until frothy, add brown sugar, almond butter, baking soda and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Use 1 1/2TB cookie scoop or, 2tsp cookie scoop for smaller cookies (what I used).
– Flatten cookies with palm of hand
– Bake for 8-10 min @ 350 F on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
– Let rest for 10 min on cookie sheets, then cool on baking racks. Resting the cookies is a must, if not, they will fall apart because they are a little bit fragile when hot. Makes about 2 dozen. Will keep in a tightly sealed container for about a week. These also freeze well.

* side note: I don’t usually purchase almond butter because I refuse to pay $14-$20 for a jar. The brand I used here, I found on Amazon, and as an Prime member, it’s totally worth the $10–in my opinion–for a jar. Yippee!

Banana “Ice Cream”, aka, Bananascream

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Why on earth did it take me so long to make this? I had seen the recipe online last year some time and had filed it away until a friend mentioned it last week. I’m lactose-intolerant and have found many ice cream substitutes (coconut milk, almond milk ice creams are my preference) at the grocery store, but have never tried making anything comparable at home, until just now. I will say, that if you want just one serving (one medium banana is about 105 calories), use one banana and a mini food processor, like I did just now. I’m still swooning. The flavor reminds me of my favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor, Chunky Monkey. You can adapt this recipe to your whims…the possibilities are endless…fresh or frozen berries, chopped nuts, maple syrup, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, peanut butter, etc. Next up: I’m going to buy some popsicle molds and make popsicles for the warmer months…

Of note: I think it helps if the bananas have a few brown spots on the skins. It’s also helpful if you cut the bananas into chunks prior to freezing because I found it difficult to cut frozen solid bananas (oops). Freeze the peeled bananas overnight and until completely solid. For more than one serving, use more bananas, I know, a no-brainer.

For one serving

  • 1 frozen banana, cut into chunks
  • 2 TB bittersweet chocolate chips

Add frozen chunks of bananas to food processor and pulse until creamy. Do not over-process, or else you’ll have soup. Throw in whatever additions you please and pulse a couple more times. Next time I think I’ll add some pecans or Nutella or cold peanut butter…or, or..

Don’t worry if you did over-process! Just pop the mixture in the freezer after you add your extras and you should be good to go in under an hour.

Pear Crumb Coffee Cake

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When I bake, I end up making more than I could possibly consume, so I end up wrapping up items in wax paper, then foil and then a zip top bag and pop it in the freezer (currently, my freezer is close to over-flowing and I would kill for a larger one). Well, I just noticed that I had half of a pear crumb coffee cake in my freezer. Total score! I’d totally forgotten about it, and I forgot that I had started to write a post about it last fall. So, here it is…later than I’d wanted. I just adapted my blueberry coffee cake recipe from my mom and adapted another recipe I found online on Cooks dot com. It’s simple and you don’t even need a mixer. You can use milk (or even buttermilk) in the recipe, but I substituted unsweetened vanilla almond milk because that’s all I had on hand. Oh, and don’t over do it on the cinnamon or cardamon, as that is a lesson I learned a long time ago.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, spray an 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Coffee Cake

  • 1 1/4 C. AP flour
  • 1/2 C. light brown sugar
  • 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1/2 C. almond milk
  • 4 TB unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1-2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 ripe pears, cored, peeled (if you want) and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

Topping

  • 1/2 C. white sugar
  • 1/4 C. flour
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 3 TB cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1/4 C. chopped pecans

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, cooled melted butter,
vanilla, and milk. Add wet ingredients to dry and add pears, stir to combine. Add mixture to baking dish.

For the crumb topping, mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and cut in cold butter either with a pastry cutter or your hands. Break up butter until it’s the size of tiny peas (it’s okay if some pieces are bigger). Add chopped pecans. Evenly sprinkle streusel on top of cake batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown on top and when a toothpick comes out clean.

X-Mas Cookies Invasion

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Just a heads up: Christmas cookies are coming! I’m trying to figure out what I should bake this year though. I love the process: put on some jazz (Oscar Peterson and Louie Armstrong or John Coltrane) or this Christmas cd from my friend Jen and bake away. I make dozens of cookies, usually about 4-5 kinds and then give them away to friends. Last year I dove into dark chocolate truffle making. That went fairly well for a novice. Anyway, I’ll be back to share my recipes…

Sweet Potato Cookies with Raisins

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I had one rather large sweet potato and considered making a small amount of baked sweet potato fries, but decided upon trying out this cookie recipe my friend found on youtube for mbatata cookies found here.

I did tweak it a bit by adding vanilla and a little bit of white sugar and pecans. My apartment smells like sweet potato pie. Oh, man!

  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4TB melted unsalted butter
  • 1/2C dark brown sugar
  • 1/2tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/4 C flour
  • 2tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2C raisins
  • 2 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon
  • 1/4 – 1/2C chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Peel the sweet potato and cut into somewhat large pieces, put in glass bowl with a little bit of water, cook in microwave for about 4 minutes, or until tender. Mash potato with a fork, set aside to cool slightly. Using a stand mixer, add cooled potato, melted/cooled butter and mix for about a minute. Add brown sugar, vanilla, beaten egg, mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix for about 2-3 minutes until everything is well combined. At this interval, taste the batter, if you want it a bit more sweet, add 1/8-1/4 cup of white sugar and mix again. Stir in raisins with spatula. At this point you’ll notice the dough is more muffin-like in consistency, that’s ok, that is what it’s supposed to look like.

Using a large cookie scoop, place dough on parchment paper covered baking sheets and bake for 18-20 minutes. These cookies don’t flatten out and are soft in texture and more cake like. Not too sweet either.
A very tasty and healthy fall treat.