Category Archives: Baking

S’more Cups

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Baking, Cups of Sorts & Bites, Sweet

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campfire optional

This fun recipe just might inspire you to grab a guitar and sing around a campfire…maybe.

I’ve adapted the recipe to be dairy and soy free for all of us allergic lovlies out there. The original recipe can be found at The Pampered Chef.

Ingredients:

  • 50 – 60 Back To Nature graham sticks {1 cup finely crushed}
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 5 1/2 tbsp. canola oil
  • 1/2 tsp. butter flavor extract
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 cup enjoy life chocolate chips or chunks
  • 12 large marshmallows {I only used 6}

Directions:

please excuse my need for a mani

  • Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, canola oil, salt and butter extract in a small bowl. Using a spoon or your tablespoon place scant scoop of crumb mixture in each cup of your mini muffin pan. {I chose to do put more graham in each cup and only made 12 instead of 24 – hence only using 6 marshmallows.} Press crumbs to form shallow cups {I used the back of my tablespoon to do this}. Bake 4-5 minutes.  Remove pan from oven; place a few chocolate chips into each cup.

  • Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using professional shears dipped in cold water to reduce sticking {this works fabulously!}. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are just slightly softened. Remove from oven to cool for 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.
  • Place remaining chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH 1 minute-1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand until set.

Yield:

24 cups {or 12 if you choose to have more of a crust, I will be trying less graham in each cup next time}Store the cups in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Freezing is not recommended.Allergy friendly and delicious all in a bite sized dessert that’s worth celebrating.
Enjoy!

xoxo,

Muffin Top{s}

04 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Baking, Health, Life

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Recalling this recipe this may be a bit of torcher since I’m currently on a health “reboot” {fruits, veggies & juicing fast}. Though my food allergies keep me away from most processed food I still indulged too much over the holidays.  Okay that’s not completely true, my indulging started well before Christmas. I’ve been kind of bad off and on since my move to Georgia. It started because of a hectic schedule, but turned into me just saying yes to tasty food that I knew wouldn’t set well with me and was just generally not that healthy. My dad recommended that I watch Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead on Netflix, not because I’m a chunker, because I’m not, but more because I expressed my disgust of my diet and a bit of a tire that I’m afraid may be appearing around my waist and mostly because at 20-something I’m reliant on Nexium for acid reflux.

I’m a sap to begin with, but the story of the sick truck driver that the documentary follows left me a little misty eyed and super motivated. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it and if you find it speaks to you as much as it did to me then your next step should be a visit to Join The Reboot where you can learn how to reboot yourself. I’m doing the 5x5x5 reboot {the Standard, I believe}.  I’m only on day two, but so far so good, well minus the killer headache from my caffeine withdrawal I had yesterday - YAY!

Since I chose to start 2012 with a boost for my health I can’t eat what I’m about to share with y’all for at least the next 2 weeks. But, fasting or not I still want to share this recipe because it’s easy, dairy free, soy free and delish.

Don’t you think the top of the muffin is the best part of the muffin? I do.

Yields: 10 – 12
Bake: 400° for 16 mins.

{Muffin Ingredients}
2 C. All Purpose Flour
1/2 C. Sugar
3/4 C. Unsweetened Almond Milk
1/4 C. Canola Oil
1 Large Egg
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 Medium Bananas {very ripe} Mashed

{Topping Ingredients}
Brown Sugar
Chopped Walnuts

Preheat oven to 400°.
Grease your muffin top pan using a bit of canola oil.

Many recipes have a precise way of mixing the ingredients together. That’s not really the case with this recipe. Out of habit I mixed together the dry ingredients and then in no specific order mixed in the wet ingredients using a fork. I did mix in the banana last and if you do this with a fruit like blueberries you’ll want to do that and fold them in gently.  No need to over mix, just make sure everything is well incorporated.

In a separate dish mix together the brown sugar and chopped walnuts.

Fill your muffin top pan with the batter and then sprinkle your brown sugar and walnut mix on top. Bake for 16 mins.

Note:
I ran a toothpick around the edge of the muffin before attempting to take it out of the pan since the leverage for the spatula isn’t flat like a cookie sheet and liners are not used.

I like them best warm and think that other flavors might make for fun breakfast sandwich buns.
Hope y’all enjoy!

xoxo,

Flourless Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

07 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by in Baking, Cookies, Life, Sweet

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Almond butter…

I just really can’t get enough of the stuff so it’s only natural I would want to use it in a cookie recipe.  In my journey to find the perfect almond butter (BTW, Barney Butter wins hands down) I purchased one that I wasn’t a big fan of (ahem, Woodstock Farms All Natural Crunchy Almond Butter).  I didn’t care for it much, but didn’t want it to go to waste so I thought it might be worth trying to bake with it.  I have to say, it’s not half bad in a cookie.

Ingredients / Directions
(Yields 2 – 2 1/2 dozen)

* 1 c almond butter (I used a “fine ground” crunchy one, use what you prefer)
* 1 handful of Enjoy Life chocolate chips (or any mini chips of your choice)
* 1 c brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 t baking soda
* 1/2 t vanilla extract
* 1/2 t almond extract (If this is too “almondy” for you I think using another 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract would be yummy too, I happen to love the almond flavor)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

These cookies are SO easy to make. Mix all ingredients together; there’s no need to worry about mixing them in a certain order.  Mixing all of the ingredients together at the same time works perfect.

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Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

04 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in Baking, Cups of Sorts & Bites, Life, Sweet

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I’ve never had a peanut butter cup in my entire life, but I know their popularity so I wanted to try them in a way that is safe for my food allergies. So, this is what went through my sweet tooth mind: Chocolate, yum. Almond Butter, yum. Chocolate + Almond Butter? Of course that’s even better! Add a bit of sea salt and baby, you’ve just taken them to a whole new level of good.

Ingredients / Directions:
* 1/2 c smooth almond butter
* about 3 Tbsp powdered sugar aka icing sugar
* pinch of fine sea salt
* 1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract
* 1 package of Enjoy Life chocolate chips
* additional sea salt for sprinkling on top

Mix together your almond butter, salt, vanilla, and enough powdered sugar.  This should form a very soft kneadable ball – it took about 3 Tbsp for me to get the right consistency. I use Barney Butter brand almond butter; I find I like its texture and flavor the best –soooo good.

Line your cupcake/muffing tin with liners – I got about 16 mini cups out of this recipe. If you don’t have tins or at least the mini one and are arranging your cups on a plate, it may be a smart idea to double up on liners for added stability.

Melt your chocolate by microwaving it in 30 second increments, stirring after each until completely melted and smooth. Then, fill the bottom of your liners with the melted chocolate and place in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up.

Next, divide your almond butter “paste” into 16 equal parts (for mini liners), less should you choose regular sized cupcake liners.  Gently roll your paste into balls and flatten slightly.

Remove your tin from the fridge, the chocolate should be a little firm by now.  Place an almond butter ball on top of each chocolate-filled liner.  Try not to let the ball touch sink through to the bottom (if you press it down a bit) the bottom or sides if possible. Spoon more melted chocolate into each cup making sure it covers the sides and top of the almond butter ball. Gently shake your tin or use a spoon to level the chocolate.

Place the finished cups in the fridge to finish firming up. Once they’ve had a little sit in the fridge you can take them out to sprinkle a bit of your sea salt on top and then return them to the fridge to firm throughout.  If you choose not to add sea salt to the top and leave them as they are leave them in the fridge to firm throughout as well.  I made some with and without the salt.

Store in an air tight container and in the fridge to prevent melting. You can serve them in or out of the liners.

SO YUMMY!

Enjoy!

xoxo,

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