I Think A Cake Is In Order

People use cakes for pretty much every special occasion.  I mean, you have your typical birthday and wedding cakes.  There's also Christmas cake, Easter cake, Bar Mitzvah cake, Graduation cake, Retirement Cake, Halloween Cake, Baby Shower Cake, and Carrot cake.  Okay, maybe not everyone celebrates vegetables on a regular basis.

Basically, what I'm aiming to confer to you is that, if there is a special occasion, someone would have considered getting a cake for it.

You know what an awesome reason for cake is?  Successfully defending a thesis and earning the right to put 'Ph. D.' after your name on flipping everything as well as 'Dr.' before you name on everything.  So, when Ashly's defense came up, what better reason could there possibly be to make a cake?  Ashly's a hard-working, blindingly intelligent girl who deserves all the best and better.

One thing though, she doesn't like sweets.  Now, normally that would prove a little tricky because a lot of cakes are all about the sugar (which, when you think about it, is kind of ironic because Ashly's a carbohydrate chemist).  However, due to the advent of the internet, it is not an insurmountable challenge.  Yeah, Word of the Day calendar, ftw.

Enter the Vanilla Chiffon Cake (from Kirbie's Cravings), dressed up with a little Dream Whip and (duh) fresh strawberries.  I cut the cake in half, spread strawberry jam on both sides, spread the cream and layered strawberry slices in the center and then loaded the top up there.

Wrapping and transport (left) can be really tricky!  I can fully appreciate cake boxes now because, man, I would have killed for one to take this sucker into the office.  To the right, you can see the filling much better.  This cake taught me many things but, among them, I learned that strawberries don't like my mandolin!  T___T  That's okay, of course, because I also have a wicked paring knife.  The strawberries were no match for Big Blue!

I won’t lie to you on this one.  Making cake from scratch is hard stuff!  Its especially hard when you don’t have the right pan.  I ended up using a spring form and had problems like you wouldn’t believe.  If I had to make the choice in this situation, I’d make the same call again though I might make cupcakes instead.  For future successful defences, however, it will be cupcakes.  Cake can be tricky to dish out and safely transport between locations. 

I can definitely say that I have a whole new respect for cake bakers (professional or otherwise).  You guys must have the patience of Buddhist monks!

Notes!

(1) Okay, with the cake.  I pretty much, more or less, followed the recipe.  But (please, you knew that was coming!) I substituted the all-purpose flour for sifted cake flour in the hopes of giving this baby some extra rise.  Also, I used superfine sugar when doing the egg whites because it dissolves much better in the whites than the granulated sugar does.

(2) Dream Whip makes an awesome dressing for cakes!  As a side note for using it, in order to get an 'icing' on the thicker side, I used a little less than the 1/2 cup of milk they tell you to use and then just beat the living day lights out of it.  I used the leftovers from the cake to enjoy the rest of the strawberries! ^__^

Best Italian Family Memory?

Oh yeah!  Though, sadly, back down to low-def. pictures again.  The sister's camera is on lockdown...

Wow, how long has it been?  A month you say?  I’d say it’s a good thing you aren’t plants or fish (fishes?), otherwise, we’d have some issues!

The past month (x__x) has been a little turbulent to say the least.  April is the month of last-ditch stress before the end of the semester.  As such, that means assignments are due, marking needs to be done, exams and anything else in life that decides it doesn’t want to be neglected.  Like one’s health.  Yeah, I got a cold on top of it.  That happened.

Because I was sick (with a nose like a faucet), I figured it was in everyone’s best interest that I not bake.  Sure, the heat of the oven would probably kill anything bringing me down but I didn’t want to run the risk.  If it was a selfish bake, I would have anyway.  However, baking should be for sharing!

My birthday also came up during all this madness.  While I personally do not like my birthday (I’m not going to tell you when it is for that reason), I don’t mind getting the gifts!  My gift this year?  A pizzelle press!  Just imagine my bliss!

Pizzelles were sort of like a childhood fixture for me when I was growing up.  Every Sunday when we went to visit my Nonna at her house, dinner would be followed by coffee, cookies and a big tub of pizzelle.  But it didn’t stop there.  All family gatherings, those beautifully browned wafflesque cookies seemed to appear.  There would be plates of little desserts and then an unassuming white Rubbermaid container filled with pizzelle that my Nonna had made with a press. 

How do I know she made them?  I know she made them because, when I slept over, sometimes we would make them for hours in the afternoon.  Aside from the use of a really hot press, this activity was incredibly fun.

My Nonna passed away a few years ago.  She was a fantastic lady and I miss her every day.  When you lose someone near and dear, I think it’s important, even if it’s painful, to keep cherished memories of them alive.  One of those cherished memories for me was the pizzelle.  They have been missing from family gatherings from quite some time now and sometimes I get the feeling that, despite no one having mentioning it, some of my relatives think about it.  It wasn’t the cookies that were important; the tradition itself was comforting.

I had some mixed feelings, admittedly, about receiving a pizzelle maker.  I was excited because it was something that I’ve wanted for quite a while now and because, honestly, it brought back the memory of my Nonna’s kitchen; the way it smelled sort of like zucchini fritters she’d make on the stove, the rosemary growing in water on the window sill, a fresh apple pie sitting patiently on the table to be eaten.  Oh, I could keep going on forever I’m sure, but we should probably get back to the business.

Okay, I was excited, but I was also apprehensive and still am.  I am going to take pizzelle with me to Christmas dinner this year.  However, I want my relatives to know that I am not trying to replace my Nonna.  That’s impossible.  I just want to keep her memory alive.

The pizzelle maker that I have is a Cuisinart and, smart people that they are, they include a small booklet with a few basic recipes.  What’s great about basic recipes?  Making your own variations, of course!  So far, I’ve made Vanilla-Chai, Chocolate Mint, and Traditional variations.  And I can’t wait to try more flavour combinations! 


Basic Pizzelle

Courtesy of the great folks at Cuisinart 

What You’ll Need:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 large eggs, room temperature (ish)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted* (microwave!)
• 1 tbsp vanilla or anise extract**

How It’s Done:

1. Set three eggs in a dish of warm water before starting so that they can warm up a bit before you get into everything.  (I usually wait until the water feels as though it’s about the same temperature as my hand and then lower the eggs into the water.  I leave it on the counter while I get everything together.)
2. Mix flour and baking powder in a small bowl, whisk to combine and then set aside.
3. Turn on the pizzelle maker and set it to the appropriate setting for making pizzelle.
4. Put the butter in a microwaveable container and zap it for about 45 sec (or until liquid).  (For this one, I do it right in a Pyrex measuring cup and then leave it in the microwave so that it stays warm.)
5. Put the sugar in a bowl, add the three eggs and, using a hand mixer, beat at medium speed until thicker.  Make sure to move the mixer about so that everything gets dragged into the mix.  (The mixture will get lighter in colour and won’t look runny like it does inititally.  I have found that this usually takes about 1 min 30 sec or so.  I set a timer and just stop when the timer runs out at it usually turns out.  It might vary a little bit for you so maybe set a timer for two minutes and see how it goes?)
6. Stop the mixer briefly to free up your hands.
7. Remove the butter from the microwave, stir in the extract of your choice.
8. Resume mixing at low speed with the hand-mixer in one hand and, with the other hand, add the butter in a slow, steady stream.
9. Stop the hand mixer and clean it off.
10. Add the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until just combined. (I used a folding technique and rounded it out with some straight mixing.  The instruction book is all about the yelling about the over mixing.  “Do not overmix.”  So bluntly.  This.  Terrifies.  Me. X_X)
11. Turn your attention to the pizzelle press and drop the batter onto the press by the heaping teaspoon.
12. Remove the pizzelle to a rack to cool completely.  (This is sort of important.  The first rack I used had rungs that were too far apart.  I got really nice wavy pizzelle that sort of looked like ruffled chips.  That was not, however, what I was shooting for…)
13. Let those patterned beauties cool completely (completely completely) and then shove them in a tin.

Notes!
*About the butter/margarine exchange:  I’ve made these both with margarine and with butter.  With butter, the pizzelle come out a little more cakey and lighter.  If you use margarine, you will get a bit of a crispier pizzelle that’s crunchier and snappy.
**Extracts:  Vanilla or Anise are pretty standard additions.  My mom likes the anise ones because that’s the way that my Nonna used to make them.  I have to side with her on this one; there is a really nice liquorice taste to them.  When I make them with anise extract oil, I still use a little bit of vanilla because I think it rounds out the flavour nicely.

I hope that, if you have the desire and the will to get a pizzelle maker (or maybe you have one), you have fun making these.  If you don’t have one, no worries.  It’s a bit of a specialty thing and I don’t hate on not wanting to buy specialty kitchen gadgets.  You can, however, pick these up sometimes at the Italian grocer, especially around Easter and Christmas.  Whichever way you fly, be brilliant!

Birthdays and Baking and Biscotti, Oh My!

Would you look at that?!  It has been seventeen days (give or take maybe a handful of hours and minutes) since we chatted about baking.  And, as much as I would like to say it was just because I was busy, that’d be a little bit of a lie.  Actually, I think it would be better to state that it would be a lie of omission.  I have been busy, however, I have also been sick, sleepy and sore.  Stressed, sick, sleepy and sore do not a baking mood create.

So why, do you ask, am I posting?  Well, I’m certainly not throwing an internet-wide pity party (that’s for sure!).  I’m posting because, in the spirit of celebrating birthdays, I was quite the busy baker.

This past weekend was my father’s birthday!  Remember we had been talking about biscotti?  Why, why haven’t I baked more biscotti since Christmas?  How could I be so cruel not to make more biscotti?  Oh, I’m such a horrible daughter!

You can imagine the shock (followed by happiness) that greeted the biscotti that I baked up as a gift.  That is one thing that I must say I adore about baking; you can always bake to your heart’s content and then give the results as gifts!

I didn’t, however, just stop at cookies.  A good birthday has cookies.  A great birthday calls for cake!  Apple cake as a matter of fact.

Long story short, the coconut biscotti went over really very well.  I should probably mention that I never actually got to eat one of the biscotti.  Don’t get me wrong, I totally munched on the crumbs on the baking sheet, but it seemed cruel to eat part of a batch of cookies that I intended to give as a gift.  That’d be like opening the packaging of something before giving it away (in my opinion).  I fully intended to swipe one after they were opened though.  My dad, however, hid the tin and refused to share.  And you can’t guilt someone out of something that you gave them!  Gah!

I can say that the apple cake turned out absolutely lovely.  I give fully credit to my mandolin.  That little sucker is the newest addition to my arsenal of … random kitchen gadgets that I have always sort of wanted.  Next up, I dream of pizzelle maker.

Before I wrap this up completely, its probably worth mentioning that a student in our lab also had his birthday this week but 'didn't want to make a big deal about it and bother people'.  I mean, I can relate, but only because I really have a jar full of hate for my birthday; that majority of them over the years have been, shall we say, of a less-than-stellar nature.  But I digress.  Long story short, I cranked up the oven late at night to bake him a batch of short-cut cookies.  Is there nothing that Quaker Oat's Oatmeal Cookie Mix can't fix? ^__^


Oh, I should also mention, because I rambled so much, I hid the recipes behind a cut.  I didn’t want to be a spammer.  My bad!

'Hey There!' From The Abyss

Woah, the last little while has been a miasma of activity!  How's that for a two-dollar word.  Blame my word-a-day calendar for that one.

I have, however, somehow managed to do some baking in between.  Before I get right into things, though, I just wanted to say 'sorry!' for having delayed in doing a lot of writing to you guys.  I think I might be coming down with something (again).  Man, have I been tired lately!  Thankfully, the sniffling, nose running, can't-get-out-of-bed-to-save-your-life sickness hasn't descended.  Come on, let's rally, immune system!  Lay on the O.J.!

Right, baking.  I did attempt to be healthier this time around.  I tried really desperately very hard to be healthy.  Really.  I was going to bake cupcakes and then, when I thought about how much icing I would have to make (because inevitably I'd be doing a lot of cleaning with my tongue) and then how much further I'd have to push myself, I wimped out.  Cut me a little slack, though.  Its bitter cold outside!

So, I fired up the laptop and set my internet search skills to work (read: google).  Somehow, I came across apple quinoa cake from 'Anja's Food 4 Thought' .  Quinoa in a cake?  Intrigued...  Also, I'm a huge apple fan so finding a 'large apple' to use simply requires me to open the fridge to the bounty of apples from the farmer's market!  (In a word, awesome.  And the farmers who sell them are totally rad too.  Win-win!)

So, I baked 'em up just as the recipe online said to do.  Aren't you proud?  Okay, don't be too proud because I left out the sunflower seeds (allergic, my bad) and raisins (none in the pantry, bummer).  I even picked up some palm sugar that, let me tell you, smells wicked.  Sort of like a more buttery, coconut-y version of brown sugar in a powder form.  I think we will have other cullinary adventures together in the future.

Those muffins were reserved for personal use.  They freeze pretty okay, too.  I just let them cool completely then wrapped in saran, placed them into a Chinese take-out container and shoved 'em in the freezer.  Somehow, that sounded a lot more succinct in my head.  Why freeze them?  Well, those muffins were a bit of a selfish bake.  They made the apartment smell awesome and were for my nom-ing purposes.  Since I started this blog for the recipes that I share, I'm going to skip over copying that recipe here.

Okay, I did say that I baked some things so I still owe you guys a shared adventure right?  Very yes.

Do you guys eat PB?  I grew up on the stuff (Kraft, the one with the teddy bears on the jar, and Skippy, I think, intermittently).  Combined with jam, I really can't make a lot of complaints.  Also, peanut butter cookies with a few chunks of actual peanuts are lovely (Tim Horton's classic, anyone?).  Growing up, however, my love for the PB has really died.  The final nail in the coffin was figuring out how they make the commercial stuff.  Its was like figuring out that atoms don't have discrete shells of electrons; don't get me wrong, the math is cool, too, but I liked the shell concept while it lasted.

Okay, given that I gave up PB.  I switched to almond butter and am much happier.  Its just a richer, nuttier flavour without needing like a ton of it.  Buying a big jar of almond love, however, was not my smartest move.  It separates and, if you don't eat it quickly enough, it can go bad.  So I had a jar that needed some using up.  I was worried it would go bad and, honestly, good AB shouldn't go to waste.  The solution?  Skip the bread and make some cookies.  Oh wait, first, check that you won't kill anyone in the work place *then* bake some cookies.  'Cause some people are allergic, you know.  Just saying.




AB&J Cookies 

From wet crumbles, to crumbs before arriving at baked awesome!  I was scared that this might not turn out because the almond butter was inherently a little bit runnier than your standard PB.  I mean, when you have to mix the crap out of something to get it spreadable as opposed to I-opened-the-jar-for-use, things are going to be a little different.  I think this might be why mine spread more.

What You'll Need:

• 1 cup almond butter, properly stirred (You can't have it all separated, after all.)
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• jar of your best preserves, my kind sir (or ma’am) (I'm kidding, any jam you use will do nicely.  Like the jar of preserves your mum made you about a year and a half ago... ^__^;;)

How It's Done:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Line a couple baking sheets with some foil.  (You can use a greased cookie sheet, but I love my pyrex pan a little too much to gum it up just yet.)
3. In a bowl, combine the AB and sugar with a mixer until its well combined.  (Basically, you want to mix it up until it looks even and, turning it over, you don't find any sugar hiding from you.)
4. Add the egg and baking soda and mix again for 2 minutes.
5. Add the vanilla and mix briefly to get it throughout; it will come out a little crumbly.  (For this, my batter looked much like the sand that you find on the beach underneath the dry powdery stuff; it looked pretty damp and crumbly.)
6. Grab a cloth and set near the mixing bowl.  (This is pretty key; it will come in handy later!)
7. Using your hands, form balls of dough and drop them on the sheet.
8. With a finger (or your smallest measuring spoon), press a small hole in the top of each ball.
9. Give you hands a wipe with the cloth to clean them off a bit so you don't get batter everywhere.  (Because I used the almond butter, my hands had some of the almond oil there so the towel was pretty handy.  Told you it would come in handy.)
10. Drop a bit of jam in each little well.
11. Stick the cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes.  (I found for mine that they needed about 11 minutes but, as I'm sure I've mentioned, my oven is tricksy!)
12. Once they're done, cool them on the sheet for five minutes then transfer to a rack to cool. (I let mine cool a little longer than usual because it took the pan a little longer to cool too.)
13. When you're done, tin 'em up and separate layers with wax paper.  Or just enjoy!  (But wait for them to cool.  As I quickly learned, hot cookies not only crumble all over the place but stick and burn.  Its a yummy burn, but it makes tasting a little tricky for a while! =P)

I found the recipe for these beauties on Joy's webpage.  Originally, it's done with peanut butter and, I have to say, her cookies look a lot cuter than mine.  T__T;;;  Jealous!  I think the reason is that the almond butter had more natural oil than solids (probably because my mixing skills were lacking once when I went to use it).  They still turned out okay so I guess I shouldn't belly-ache.  =P

What To Do On Family Day

What do you do with one whole day to spend with your fams?

Well, I got up early in the morning and got on the interwebs, hot cup of Caramel Cream coffee (love!) in clutches, to do some reading of the blogs when I stumbled across a recipe for a quick bread that uses olive oil.  This, to me, was really interesting because olive oil was always first and foremost for one thing when I was growing up; browning onions when making pasta sauce.  But cake?  Really?

I mean... Really?

I was so curious that, with that same coffee in hand, I printed out a copy of the recipe and got to baking.  Besides, I thought, I had a lemon that was begging for use.  Only one problem though: at that hour, no grocer near the house is open and my fridge was Greek-Yogurt-less.  I do, however, have an abundance of Activia in several flavors including blueberry... Done!

The fams and I sat down for another cup of coffee (I had tea this time around) in the afternoon and enjoyed this a lot.  If you make it, I hope you enjoy too!

So, without further delay (because its been almost a week!), I'll get on with it!


Lemon Blueberry Olive Oil Loaf

A little crispy around the edges but still soft (and warm!) on the inside.  I should note that, because I used blueberry yogurt, the inside is not perfectly yellow but has a slight tinge to it.  I can't quite describe the color to you, but it still tasted quite good!

What You'll Need:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• grated zest of one lemon (I usually juice it too, but the lemon had been sitting in the fridge for a little while...)
• 1/2 cup of yogurt (I used the Activia like I mentioned and this ended up being about 1.5 of the serving cups.  I used one blueberry and enough vanilla to get it roughly to 1/2 cup.)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract (I added extra extract because the fams and I are lemon fans.  You can totally leave this out if you want to do so.)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use Bertolli but any good extra virgin works.)
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt (At measurements like this, its pretty much like a pinch.)

How It's Done:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Pull out the eggs and let them hang out to get near room temperature.
3. Prepare a loaf pan by lining tightly with tin foil.
4. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set it off to the side.
5. Zest the lemon and rub it into the sugar you're using with a wooden spoon (or spatula).
6. Mix in the yogurt, r.t.* eggs and extracts.
7. Throw in the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.
8. Pour in the olive oil and continue to fold the batter over until the olive oil is fully integrated.  (I admit that you're going to have a bilayer system going on in your bowl for the first little while, but it comes together after several folds so don't stress!)
9. Carefully pour the batter into the lined loaf pan and place it in the oven for 50-55 min.  (I set the timer for 45 minutes because it tends to bake oddly sometimes but ended up adding an extra ten minutes.  The toothpick test inserted into the middle will definitely let you know when its done.  All I can really say about this one is that you know your oven so use your best judgement!)
10. Let the loaf hang out on a rack to let it cool.  (One of the best things about lining with tinfoil is how easy it is to pull the loaf out of the pan.  'Nuff said.)

Like I had mentioned earlier, I came across the original recipe on the food blog 'Nuts about food' while I was randomly browsing on the internet.  Actually, I'll be perfectly honest, I was looking at all the beautiful pictures on Tastespotting (and getting camera envy) when I saw the picture and description of this cake.  Because I can't stick to a recipe to save my life (I just can't resist the urge to add or substitute when I don't have stuff), this version's a little different.  However, I hope to get a little bit better at it in the future!

Just Imagine My Bliss

Hey there, guys!

I'd say it’s me again but, with internet posting, you're kind of aware of the fact that it is me.  Then again, I guess someone could be posting as me, but I am doubtful that it would happen.  Besides, you'd know; the tone of it all would be wonky and it wouldn't seem like me.

Just like the over-thought going on right here.  Right, enough of that.  Let's jabber about chocolate!

Remember a short while ago when I was so high on getting to bake flourless brownies?  If not, brief refresh: I was pumped to bake flourless brownies, I gathered the ingredients then realized that there were absolutely no cocoa in my pantry and cried a little.  To soothe my disappointment, I baked cookies and prepared some mini-desserts for my week.  It really soothed my will to create, but left a well because it didn't involve chocolate.  You can chuckle, but I (<3) my chocolate.

So, this past weekend (not to be confused with the one that has technically started), you can bet I made sure to have chocolate - or, rather, I got myself some cocoa.  Good cocoa.  And, frankly speaking, enough to make plenty of haystacks and brownies for a good while.

Oh, cocoa and butter...  A pondering for another time!

I had my doubts about this recipe: could brownies still be good if they didn't have a lot of butter and no flour?  You have to understand, I grew up with traditional baking and, really, the healthier versions always tasted like cardboard.  For the really good cookies (meaning the ones you only got at Christmas when people feel more generous with their time) were made with sugar, butter and flour.  Shortbreads?  Three ingredients in that one.  Banana bread?  Butter, flour and sugar!  Muffins?  BFS!  So, when looking at this, I wasn't sure it was going to work out.  I was 'approaching with caution' as they say.

And...

They turned out pretty darn good!  Moist, chocolaty and approved by office mates.  Healthier options, in this case, scores some bonus points!


Flourless Brownies

Is there anything greater than chocolate?  Personally, I like my chocolate dark.  I don't even get out of bed for anything less than 60%.  I jest (of course) because its black coffee for which I'm getting out of bed!  On a serious note, next time I make these, I'm going to leave them out and make sure that they are totally cool.  As you can see, mine went a little shinny even though they seemed cool.  Then again, my kitchen is a little small and retains heat incredibly well...

What You'll Need:

• 1 (19-oz) can black beans (I used the Unico brand because they were taking some pocket change off of them but I don't think this recipe is too picky about that one.)
• 3 large eggs (I brought them to room temperature before I used them.)
• 1/3 cup melted margarine (Kitchkem in the ... kitch with a microwave and a glass bowl.  Somehow, this "Clue" reference seemed a lot cooler in my head.)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (For the win, I might add.)
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt (At that small a measurement, its pretty much equivalent to a pinch, really.)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

(Note: Walnuts can be used here but I left them out because I find them yucky.  Yes, that is the technical term.  If you want to use them, the original recipe says 1/3 cup.)


How It's Done:

Okay, before we start off with how it’s done, I just want to say that I don't have a food processor so this recipe was a little trickier than I had initially intended it to be.  I mashed the black beans by hand and then proceeded onto the mixing.  I suppose this note in a nutshell is that if you don't have a food processor, its still do-able.  I also made these more like 2-bite brownies so the instructions are going to be a little different than the original recipe.  Sorry!

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Drain the black beans in a sieve and rinse briefly with water.  (Gotta toss these about a bit so that most of the water will actually come out but not so roughly that the beans get squished.)
3. Toss the black beans in a large mixing bowl and mash until beans are as homogeneous as possible.
4. With electric mixer in hand, slowly add in the eggs, one at a time and fully incorporate.
5. Add in the melted margarine and continue to mix.
6. Slowly pour in the sugar to the mixture and mix until the sugar is incorporated throughout.
7. Add cocoa powder, salt and vanilla to finish off the mixing.
8. Line the cups of a miniature muffin tin with liners and half-fill the cups.
9. Drop in 2-3 chocolate chips in each cup.
10. Fill the cups until near the top, covering the chocolate chips previously added.
11. Transfer the tray to the oven and let it bake for 13-15 minutes. (The poke test should come out crumbly but not wet.)
12. When they're done baking, let them cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  (The 'cooling completely' is pretty key here as the brownie gets this hardness on the surface to disguise the chewy goodness underneath.)

Makes a total of 32 two-bite-sized brownies for your enjoyment!


The recipe is courtesy of Whole Foods Market, whose site has a bunch of different recipes not only for baking but for cooking as well.  Like I mentioned before, their recipe uses a food processor that I don’t have but these still turned out regardless (so no worries all you food-processor-deprived persons like me, you can still pull it off!  And, I might add, no one knew the difference or noticed that there were black beans in there!).  I’ve never had the chance to physically go there because there isn’t a location near my house, however, an acquaintance mentioned what the interior was like in the New York branch so I wanted to at least check out their website.  I’m thinking I want to see if there’s one nearby my zio’s house so maybe I can stop there on the way home after a visit!

For The Love Of Cocoa!

Let's talk some hilarity to put a chuckle in your day.  I, admittedly, have been unfortunately blessed with such foul luck (at times) that it leads to some pretty decent stories to recount.

After driving home in a blizzard to spend time with my Dad, I rushed back home (to avoid any more ridiculous weather and, quite frankly, to be warm because their house is flipping cold).  I scrambled to get a whole bunch of stuff together for baking as well as to make sure I could eat for the next week then went to hole up from the cold.

I was so terribly excited to get baking flourless brownies, thinking that I had cocoa in my pantry; I could even smell the chocolate in the air and nearly tripped on the drool on the floor(okay, that last one was a complete lie, sorry).  So, you can imagine how hard my heart hit the floor (and then some) when I discovered that I actually had not pillaged the cocoa from the pantry.  Yes, that definitely hurt.  I stood like Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide in my kitchen and wallowed for a few moments.

Gotta turn this baking need into some baked goods, I thought.

I had the will, and, since the cliché is totally true, there had to be a way!

My default?  Cookies!  I didn't have a lot of time after all of that wallowing, so I made oatmeal from the Quaker mix (just the plain version).  Personally, I really like this mix.  I like this mix plain, with chocolate chips, with raisins.  Oh, yes, I'm quite a fan.  I definitely like it, Sam I Am.  Seuss jokes aside, they are especially wicked-awesome if you have chocolate orange on hand from your Christmas holidays (I get a bunch from my family; it's a dangerously delicious tradition).

In this particular case, I decided to add in some white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.  Ultimately, I used half of the bag of mix, a quarter cup of white chocolate chips and a third a cup of dried cranberries (which I chopped down into smaller pieces).

I also fashioned myself some lime cheesecake jello.  Have you guys ever tried it out?  I like it because I like that milky taste but, obviously, I can't walk around eating cheesecake a day.  I'm not one of those lucky people with a ridiculous metabolism.  There's nothing wrong with that at all; I'm a little green around the edges, you lucky people!  This recipe is nice because its not too heavy, not too sweet and still has a nice flavour.  I happen to enjoy this but I find that taste is fairly subjective so this may not appeal to everyone (forewarned is forearmed!).

I like the lime version because I'm partial to lime (though I hate the colour green).  This recipe for me makes about twelve small servings in individual cups for which I had lids.  I have, however, also made this like a real pie with a graham cracker crust.  For right now, I'll go over the actual filling part, but there's no reason you can't make a pie with your favourite graham cracker crust (homemade or otherwise).  It will totally have to hangout in the fridge for a long time to get that solidification so that it isn't like soup but actual cheesecake.

All that said, on with the recipe (and the bad photo!).




Lime Light Cheesecake

After I took this picture, I thought about having a tea party in my living room.  Spreading out the picnic blanket and sitting quite like Alice in Wonderland, sipping tea and enjoying tiny sweets.  On the left, I have a little cup of the lime cheesecake and a couple of the oatmeal cookies that I baked (right)!  Now for a miniature tea set... 

What You'll Need:

• 2/3 cup water, boiling
• 1 (85g) box of Lime-flavoured Jell-O (I use the regular one, but there's no reason you can't use the sugar-free one!)
• 1 cup Non-Fat Cottage Cheese
• 1 (250g) container of Fat-Free Cream Cheese (I used Philadelphia 95% Fat Free Cream Cheese; the container is this light blue colour which is different from the 'light' one whose package is white.)
• 2 cups Light Cool Whip, thawed (Just let it hang out in the fridge for a bit then you can freeze the bit you don't use.)
• 3 limes, zested and juiced (I say three because I really like that lime taste.  If you're not a citrus fan - happens to some people - you can definitely scale this back)

How It's Done:

1. In a large bowl, add cottage cheese and press large lumps with a spatula as best as you can.  (This is because I don't own a food processor.  If you do, lucky you, and you can just wazz up the cottage cheese until its smooth and then carry on.)
2. Add in softened cream cheese and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and light.  (Again, food processor makes this a walk in the park.)
3. Mix in the lime zest and juice.  (I mix the lime zest in first then the juice.)
4. Stir boiling water into the Jell-O and stir for 2 minutes.
5. Cool 5 minutes.  (This is important because I've not waited before and it get s a little clumpy.  You can fix that by continuing to mix it with the electric beater.)
6. Slowly incorporate the lime Jell-O into the cheese mixture until incorporated.
7. Add the whipped topping and mix everything together until it is homogeneous; make sure at this point to scrape down the sides.
8. Pour the filling into the individual cups and refrigerate for 4 hours to fully set.  (If you're using a pie crust, you're going to want to pour the filling in slowly.  I used a shallow dish when I made the crust and ended up having a little extra.  That's how I got the idea to make the individual cups - I poured the extra into a few ramekins and covered with saran wrap until I wanted to eat them up.)

Makes 12 servings (or six really generous slices of pie, ftw!).


There are a ton of recipes for this on the internet, including numerous different variations.  The closest one to the mischief I got up to would be from Cooks.com (click here!).  I don’t see why you couldn’t do lemon like that version suggests.  I’m thinking I might try raspberries and stir in some raspberry preserves or something.