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Posts Tagged ‘dessert’

As I recently mentioned, I’m Back in the Baking Game.

And since we moved, I have only replaced my baking sheet, and don’t have any cake or muffin pans, and therefore have only baked cookies or brownies in our baking dish.

And for the past several weeks, I’ve been completely off processed sugar, which unfortunately for my tastebuds means NO CHOCOLATE.

And I want dessert! I want cake! I want something YUMMY!

And, as I’ve already mentioned, I’m Back in the Baking Game.

So, I bought some unsulphured molasses since I’m no longer buying brown sugar (did you know that brown sugar is only white table sugar with some molasses added?) and I like that molasses flavor in some things (like oatmeal), and it came with recipes. Yummy looking recipes.

One of them is called: Old-Fashioned Gingerbread. And so I made it, and it HIT THE SPOT.

Here’s the recipe:

Old-Fashioned Gingerbread

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp flour (whole wheat, of course!)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves (I used nutmeg)

pinch of salt

5 tbsp butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar (I used about half of that in granulated stevia and the rest organic evaporated cane juice)

1 large egg

3/4 cup molasses

3/4 cup cold water

powdered sugar (again, I used granulated stevia)

Heat oven to 350F. Grease an 8×8 cake pan ( I used my cast iron pan, remember: no cake pan).  Sift together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy.  Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and beat until well combined.  Pour the molasses in a slow, steady stream, beating all the while.  Add half of the sifted dry ingredients and mix just until well combined.  Mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Slowly pour in the cold water and stir until well incorporated.  Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.  Let cool in the pan about one hour before serving.  Cut the cake into squares  and dust with powdered sugar.

I couldn’t wait a full hour.  It’s even better when it’s still a little warm.

Enjoy!

I am not going to try to pass this off as a recipe that will help you improve your health in any way. But if you are a chocolate chip cookie snob like I am, you know how hard it is to find one that’s made just right. This is one of those cookies, and I just can’t keep the recipe to myself since some of you out there just might want to make an unhealthy cookie once in a while, and since there’s just no other place to get recipes (ha ha)….well, I’m sharing this one.

It started from FannieFarmer’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I altered it slightly to suit me.

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar (sucanat would work fine)
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour (I usually use whole wheat, since that’s what I have)
1/2 cup oats ( I use quick oats; regular rolled would work for a more textured cookie)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

200 g (2 bars here) of semi-sweet chocolate, cut into chunks*

*Note: the original recipe calls for 1 cup semi sweet chips. I LOVE chocolate, and was amazed to find this to be enough (I usually add more than whatever the recipe calls for). I only switched to the bars for the size of the chunks. If this is not important to you, the chips would work fine.

**And, if you’re not into a chunky cookie, you can omit the oatmeal and add 1/8 c flour. A regular chocolate chip cookie with this recipe is delicious.

Oven 375F

1. Mix the butter & sugars together, add egg & vanilla
2. Mix the flour, oats, baking soda & salt together & add to the first mixture
3. Add in the chocolate chunks or chips
4. Chill till firm, then roll into 1 inch balls, placed 2 inches apart on cookie sheet

bake 11 mins or whatever works for you depending on how crispy you like them.

And yes, that’s a glass of (gasp) cow’s milk in the picture. Which I recommend for taste, not for health. And that’s also the only reason to make these cookies.

Enjoy! But only once in a while.

Click here to see my other posts on cow’s milk and its alternatives.

Most evenings we don’t have dessert after dinner. But once a week, we have a special treat. This is one of our favorites, and although cooking the apples takes away most of their nutritional value, at least it’s not loaded with sugar or other processed ingredients.

APPLE CRISP
Adapted from The Occasional Vegetarian by Karen Lee

8-10 apples
¼ c honey (preferably raw)
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp whole wheat flour (preferably freshly ground)
Optional: heavy whipping cream for garnish

CRUMB TOPPING

1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup brown sugar or sucanat
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
Zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Peel, core, and slice the apples into eighths. Toss the apple slices with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and flour.
3. Put the apple mixture into a 9-inch round baking dish with high sides.
4. Using your fingers, in a different bowl, make the topping by crumbling together the flour, sugar, and butter. Add the lemon zest.
5. Distribute the crumb topping over the apples. Bake until the topping is brown and crusty, about 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Optional: beat heavy whipping cream with electric egg beater until desired texture. If desired, add 2 tbsp sugar and ½ tsp vanilla before beating. Place a dollup on each plate before serving.