Category Archives: baking

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

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image_3This past weekend, I made a cake and frosting combo that called for EIGHT STICKS OF BUTTER. Two pounds, four cups, sixty-four tablespoons. Uh. Yuh.

The cake was obvi a huge hit but when it came time for me to bake some cookies (weekly ritual) my thighs, arteries, and life were like NO MORE BUTTAH. Buttah cleanse please! So I set off to make a cookie sans butter. And eggs. And white flour. And extra sugar.

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And so, my very first vegan cookies were born. Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that these cookies taste exactly like your standard butter-laden chocolate chip cookie (because NOTHING compares to the good stuff) but I will say that they are quite delicious in their own way. The coconut oil gives them a buttery feel and the almond flour produces a crispy-crumbly-hearty texture. And the flavor! I have been sitting here trying to describe the flavor for at least 20 minutes and all I have come up with is gooooood. Like a nutty buttery [healthy! shh.] chocolate chip cookie ball. Real gooooood.

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OH! And best of all? These babies are so super quick and easy to make!! One-bowl-wonder!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

yield: about 2 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1 cup coconut oil, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons almond milk (or soy or regular, whatever you prefer)
  • 1 cup almond flour/almond meal
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips*

*Let’s be real: I didn’t have vegan chocolate chips on hand so these cookies are not *technically* 100% vegan. But if you have vegan choco chips they will be!

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the coconut oil and brown sugar until combined. Add the vanilla and almond milk and stir to blend.
  2. Add the almond flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix on medium speed until fully combined; stir in the chocolate chips. Roll the dough into one-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Use your palm to flatten them slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are brown and the tops have started to turn golden (almond flour browns more quickly than regular flour, so don’t be alarmed if they look a little darker than usual around the edges!)
  3. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes. The almond flour gives them a crumbly texture, so if you try to remove them from the cookie sheet when they’re still hot you’ll end up with a crumbled cookie mess (learned that the hard way). Carefully transfer the warm cookies to a wire rack to cool. I think these are most delicious served slightly warm!

Momofuku’s Birthday Cake Crumbs

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cakecrumbs2.jpgListen. This post has nothing to do with Christmas. But I’ve been freeeeeaking out over these birthday cake crumbs for the past three weeks and decided it’s high time I SHARE.

Picture 1I discovered the crumbs while searching for a birthday recipe for a good friend who is a big fan of Momofuku’s Milk Bar. [I briefly posted about Milk Bar last year around this time - hellO red velvet soft serve!]

Words cannot describe, so I’ve compiled a list of reasons+pictures you should whip them up as. soon. as. humanly. possible.:

cakecrumbs4.jpg1. Crumbs, in their eensy-weensy size, do not have calories. No one was ever like, “Oh man, my pants feel extra tight. It must be all those crumbs I’ve been eating.”

2. Therefore, birthday cake crumbs = zero calories. Guilt-free.

3. They are so super duper easy to make!

4. Rainbow sprinkles!

5. So many!

cakecrumbs5.jpg6. Spoon - - mouth. Spoon - - mouth. Repeat.

7. You’re probably sick of Christmas cookies. Make crumbs instead.

8. Observe:

cakecrumbs3.jpg8a. Hypothetically, if you let your ice cream melt a little, mixed in some crumbs, and put it back in the freezer? Hypothetically, you might have BIRTHDAY CAKE CRUMB ICE CREAM. And hypothetically, your boyfriend might eat it all in .5 seconds. Hypothetically.

9. IT’S LIKE BIRTHDAY CAKE STREUSEL. I REPEAT, BIRTHDAY CAKE STREUSEL.

10. Do you really need a tenth reason at this point? WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE??? GO! MAKE THEM! NOW!

cakecrumbs6.jpgMeow. Woof. Ho ho ho.

Momofuku’s Birthday Cake Crumbs

Note: The original recipe from Momofuku is in grams, but since I don’t have a kitchen scale I used this recipe from Hummingbird on High with a couple minor changes.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
  • 3/4 cup cake flour*
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles**
  • 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

*I didn’t have any cake flour on hand so I used this trick and added 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch to a 3/4 cup measure and filled the rest with flour.

**The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of rainbow sprinkles, but I’m willing to bet you could pump up the jam all the way to 3 tablespoons if you’re really feeling the rainbow sprinkle cheer!

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with Silpat or parchment.
  2. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt, and sprinkles. Mix on low until combined. Add the oil and vanilla and mix on low until the ingredients start to clump together in small clusters - it should take about a minute for everything to combine.
  3. Dump the crumbs onto the prepared baking sheet and spread out gently with your hands to form a single, even layer. Bake for 20 minutes, carefully stirring once, until the crumbs turn a very slight golden brown.
  4. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack - the crumbs will harden as they cool. Store in a sealed container at room temperature.

 

 

M&M Candy Cane Cookies

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M&M cookies3.jpgThe best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!

M&M cookies5.jpgAnd baking cookies for all to eat.

All the cookies. All the cheer. All. The. Time.

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Lately the kids in my class have been fa-reak-ing-out over Christmas. Yesterday one of our Christmas angels brought in a picture of herself sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall and when I showed the class the picture one extra-excited Christmas lover screamed “SANTA!!!!!!!!” EXACTLY like Will Ferrell does in Elf. I literally waited for him to follow it up with “I KNOW HIM!!!!” because it was so, SO perfectly Buddy the Elf. Full of Christmas cheer and unadulterated CHRISTMAS-IS-COMING-AND-SO-IS-SANTA excitement.

I feel the same way kid, I feel the same. way.

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This sparked a 20-minute discussion of all the kiddos’ interactions with SANTA!!!!!! and their Elf on the Shelf’s recent movements. One Elf was discovered in the refrigerator this morning, “…eating all our food!”

Finally, one of the munchkins told us that when he went to visit Santa this past weekend, as he was saying goodbye Santa said, “And don’t forget to leave me some cookies!!”

Four-year-olds are THE best for spreading Christmas cheer. M&M cookies1.jpg

Wayfair recently contacted me to see if I wanted to be a part of the Wayfair/Peapod holiday bake-off, and since I can’t really go around screaming “SANTA!!!!!” like my cutie little class full of Christmas elves, I figured I would spread my Christmas cheer by baking up some [more] super festive cookies. Wayfair sent me a couple recipes to try (as well as a snowman cross-stitch which I am diligently working on every night. Hello skills learned in Girl Scouts circa 1997) and I adapted their “Festive Drop Cookies” to make them extra festive (Christmas M&Ms) and deeeelicious (candy canes). I brought half the batch into my school and sent the other half in to work with Mike - all the cookies (and all the cheer) were ingested in under an hour.

I heard Santa would REALLY like it if you left him these cookies on Christmas Eve ;)

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Festive M&M Candy Cane Cookies (adapted from Wayfair & Peapod’s “Festive Drop Cookies”)

yield: about four dozen cookies, depending on size

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup white whole wheat (or regular whole wheat) flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups holiday M&Ms (I used minis but regular sized M&Ms will work too)
  • 1/4 cup candy cane bits (you can just crush up a couple candy canes or look for candy cane bits in the bulk section of your grocery store)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, shortening, and sugars on medium high until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat until combined.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low until it starts to come together; turn the mixer up to medium and beat until fully combined.
  3. In a small bowl, combine M&Ms and candy cane bits. Shape tablespoons of dough into balls; dip the top half of the dough balls into the M&M/candy cane mixture to coat. Place the dough, M&M side up, onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are just barely golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

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chocopeppermint.jpgA few weeks ago, I freaked out over these peppermint bark baking bits from Trader Joe’s (new vlog coming soon!!) and immediately invented a cookie recipe to shove them in. I’ve now made these cookies 18 (okay, 3) times in the past couple weeks and I can’t. get. enough. They taste like brownie batter with the slightest hint of peppermint and are dangerously addictive.

chocopeppermint4.jpgI made the mistake of bringing the entire first batch of cookies into work, leaving only one cookie for Mike to try, which officially makes me the meanest - I KNOW. So, the other night, we’re finishing up dinner and Mike has dropped roughly 1,000 hints about how much he would just looooove a chewy chocolate cookie and it’s toooo bad all the cookies ended up in someone ELSE’S belly, and I decide to redeem myself by whipping up another batch. At this point it’s 9PM and my bedtime is rapidly approaching, so I’m trying to make these cookies AFAP (as fast as possible. invented for the sake of this story), speeding around the kitchen like a Tazmanian devil. While the butter and sugar are spinning around inside the mixing bowl getting fluffy, I fling open the cabinet to grab the flour like a whirling dervish - thereby knocking the metal lid of my flour canister INTO THE MIXER WHICH IS ON. HIGH.

COOKIE DOUGH EXPLOSION. MELANIE CRYING. THE SOUND OF METAL SCRAPING METAL (a sound one hopes to never hear whilst BAKING). HELP. HELP. HELP.

If you have ever wondered what a cookie crime scene might look like, just imagine this:

Dough splattered onto every surface of your kitchen. Cocoa powder (which is im.poss.i.ble. to clean) sprayed across the counters and floor. Flour in your hair, eyes, and life.

chocopeppermint5.jpgAfter screaming for five seconds I had the clarity of mind to TURN OFF the mixer before it died a sad and messy death. Somehow I managed to salvage the few scoops of dough left at the bottom of the bowl to bake up a couple cookies, and all was well in the MJM household.

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The moral of the story? Make these delicious cookies, but don’t try to do it AFAP.

Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

yield: about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups peppermint bark baking bits (if you can’t find the bits, you could use a combo of chocolate chips and candy cane pieces)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add vanilla, then scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides to incorporate ingredients as needed.
  2. In a separate bowl, add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir on low speed until combined. Add the baking bits; stir until incorporated.
  3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes - do not over bake, or the cookies will be crispy instead of chewy! Allow to cool on a wire rack.

“Hurricane Irene” Cookies from Tate’s Bake Shop

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I have been on a seeeerious cookie kick for the past couple weeks months. Chocolate chip cookies, confetti cookies, oatmeal cookies, cranberry cookies, minty cookies, pumpkin cookies, salty cookies, Oreo cookies.

Cookie Monster = me. Me = Cookie Monster.

So when the awesome people behind Tate’s Bake Shop asked me if I wanted a copy of Kathleen King’s newest cookbook, Baking for Friends, and the chance to share a recipe with my readers, I was like, DOLLLLAAA MAKE ME HOLLLAAAA honey boo boo chiiild.

In other words, yes.

After bookmarking 75 recipes I wanted to try out (and making a delicious white chocolate cranberry loaf for Thanksgiving), I decided I wanted to share the “Hurricane Irene” cookies with you.

Because basically, they are just a compost dump for every delicious thing you might have in your cabinets. Chocolate chips? Check. Toasted pecans? Check. Coconut flakes? Got it. Toffee bits? Uuuhhhh HUH.

I also added some coffee grounds and cinnamon chips because I am a crazy cookie monstah.

To give a bit more background on the “Hurricane Irene” name, Kathleen notes, “In 2011, on the morning of Hurricane Irene, I felt that we might need some comforting cookies in the house, so I created a cookie with what was on hand. It turned out fantastic, chubby with lots of good stuff. At first bite, my son Justin remarked, ‘Oh, don’t give these to anyone!‘”

Exaaaactly. Except I’m giving you the recipe ’cause I just love ya oh so much! Feel free to add whatever delicious bits you happen to have hanging around :)

Hurricane Irene Cookies (reprinted with permission from Tate’s Bake Shop Baking for Friends)

yield: ~4 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned (rolled) oats
  • 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) salted butter, softened at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (not desiccated; available at natural food stores or online)*
  • 1 cup toasted and coarsely chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup toffee bits

Directions

  1. Position the oven racks in the top third and center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with an electric mixer set on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. One at a time, beat in the eggs, followed by the water and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the oat mixture, just until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, and toffee bits.
  3. Using 2 tablespoons per cookie, drop the dough 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. (Or use a 1-ounce food portion scoop to scoop the dough onto the baking sheets.) Refrigerate the remaining dough while you bake the first batch.
  4. Bake, rotating the positions, of the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking, until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned, about 17 minutes.** The cookies should be soft; do not overbake. Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough, on cooled baking sheets.

*I didn’t have any unsweetened coconut flakes, so I used sweetened shredded coconut.

**My oven might run hot, but my cookies only needed to bake for about 14 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

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Every week in my classroom we have Baking Fridays, when some tiny helpers and I whip up a baked good concoction for us to have for snack. Sometimes we bake bread, other times it’s muffins, and on special Fridays we make chocolate chip cookies. You wouldn’t believe what excellent chefs these four-year-olds can be when you give them a job. “Chocolate chip taste-tester”? Done. ”Cinnamon-smeller”? You betcha. “Flour and/or floor sweeper”? Gotcha. “The one who gets the garbage can so we can throw eggshells away”? Handled.

If there’s leftover goodies, we prance them around the school to share and everyone wants to be our best friend. Then, we have a dance party. Just another day at the ol’ j-o-b.

Most Fridays, we have baking successes. But sometimes? Sometimes, we have baking fails.

Last year we attempted to make a loaf of pumpkin quick bread from scratch and it ended up as the saddest baking fail of all sad baking fails. After getting the kids SUPER pumped up about how delicious the bread smelled and would taste, we went to the oven and discovered a charred brick of pumpkin goo. Not one to disappoint, I decided to salvage a couple pieces to give the kids for snack, because really, would they even know the difference?

Big. Mistake. Some kiddos took one look at the burned pumpkin goo disaster and promptly threw it in the trash. A couple kids laughed, like, AS. IF. Others attempted a bite and then looked at me with the saddest eyes all, “WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME???” Those poor munchkins.

I vowed never to make pumpkin bread from scratch again. I owed it to my students not to.

That is, until, Mike’s coworker shared the easiest (most successful!!!) pumpkin quick bread recipe with me. Glory hallelujah!!

Thank you, Lisa, for helping me redeem my status as “favorite teacher that bakes”. That IS what they call me…

…right??

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread (recipe adapted from Lisa Z.)

yield: one loaf

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1- 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat an 8×4 loaf pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt.
  2. In a separate bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, mix pumpkin puree, sugars, and oil on medium-low. Add the flour mixture and 1/2 cup chocolate chips; mix on low or fold in with a rubber spatula until just combined. Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top. Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for about an hour in the pan, then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Cut into slices to serve, or store tightly wrapped at room temperature.

Caramel Pecan Graham Squares

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My dreams came true on Sunday. If you didn’t notice me shouting it from the Insta-sphere, THIS. HAPPENED.:

Oh just the tiniest 12-week-old baby Frenchie. WHOSE NAME IS BERNIE. With the nicest owner who let me pet that teeny little ball of wrinkle and take 10000 pictures and threaten to take him home. The stuff [my] dreams are made of, people. The stuff. Of dreams.

I apologize that this picture is blurry but I just needed to show you that Bernie is THE SIZE OF MIKE’S FOOT. His head is the size of a clementine. I AM LITERALLY LOSING MY MIND.

As in, I can’t think about anything else. WhencanIgetapuppywhencanIgetapuppywhencanIgetapuppy??? And also: grahamcrackercrumbscaramelpecanschocolate.

After meeting the puppy of my dreams (and eating an entire pot of fondue at Grendel’s Den), I came home and ate the best caramel-pecan-graham bars in the whole world and subsequently had the best Sunday e-v-e-r. Puppies + cheese + chocolate = MelsSweetLife ideal day.

These bars are whasssssupppp. They’re kind of a pain to make (ahem, homemade caramel), but I promise you they are worth it. I mean, can you ever go wrong with caramel and pecans and graham cracker crust and dark chocolate drizzle and a puppy named Bernie? Can you?

You can’t. So make these bars and and bask in their chewy caramel-ey graham cracker glory.

And think of Bernie. Always.

Caramel Pecan Graham Squares

yield: about 16 squares, depending on size

Ingredients

For the graham cracker crust**:

  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped pecans, toasted

For the caramel layer (recipe slightly adapted from Ina Garten):

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/8 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the chocolate drizzle:

  • 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

*Edit: Originally I had noted that the crust seemed very crumbly, so I did some research and realized the ratio of butter to graham cracker crumbs was too high - I’ve reduced the amount of butter from 8 tablespoons to 5, which should solve the crumble problem!

Directions

  1. Prepare the graham layer: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 if you’re using a glass baking dish). Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the butter, graham cracker crumbs, honey, and cinnamon. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan to form a smooth, single layer. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Place on a wire rack to cool while you make the caramel. Sprinkle the toasted pecans to form a layer on top of the graham crust.
  2. Prepare the caramel layer: In a deep saucepan (at least 4 1/2 inches deep) combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil until the caramel is a warm golden brown color. Do not stir - just swirl the sugar mixture around in the pan. Watch carefully, because the mixture will burn quickly! While the sugar is cooking, bring the cream, butter, and sea salt to a simmer in a small pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside. When the caramelized sugar is the right color, slowly add the cream mixture to the caramel - it will boil up at first but should subside after a few seconds. Stir in the vanilla with a rubber spatula and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 244 degrees F (between soft and firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Carefully pour the caramel on top of the pecans/graham crust in the prepared pan. Put the pan into the fridge and allow it to cool for a few hours, until the caramel is set.
  3. Prepare the chocolate drizzle: In the microwave or using a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and shortening; stir to combine. Drizzle over the cooled caramel bars. Allow the chocolate to harden, then cut into squares (tip: it’s easier to cut the bars if they’re at room temperature, but make sure the caramel and chocolate have set before you start slicing!). Store in a sealed container at room temperature.

Bernie.

Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Scones

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THESE. SCONES. ARE. LIKE. BEING. INSIDE. A. COZY. BLANKET. MADE. OF. CINNAMON. AND. SNUGGLES. ON. A. RAINY. DAY.

Was that hard to read? Sorry, let me reiterate:

COZY WARM SOFT SNUGGLY COZY CINNAMON BUTTERY FLAKY MAPLE GLAZE COZY GOODNESS.

Cozy.

Speaking of not being cozy, anyone else seeing the reports for the Nor’easter headed our way tomorrow? Torrential downpours?? High winds? HAAAAAAAALLLLPPPPP. (I realize I should not be complaining about a little rain & wind when there are people without power/heat/houses/clothes/etc., so I also say: No, really; help!)

No thaaank you, Nor’easter. No. Thank. You.

Between the impending doom of more deeesgusting wet weather and the stress of today’s election (I CANNOT handle the stress of it all. Cannot.), you can surely find me huddled inside a blanket fort jamming cinnamon scones into my mouth. See you Friday or whenever the sun comes back out and the president is chosen.

Until then…the warmest, moistest, COZY-est scones of yo LIFE.

Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Scones (inspired by Yes, I want cake)

yield: 8 scones

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, very cold
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup cinnamon chips
  • 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, for the glaze
  • 1-2 teaspoons pure maple syrup, for the glaze

Directions

*note: I make these scones in a 9-inch round pan and then cut them into triangles after baking because I’ve found that they stay extra moist that way.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 9-inch round pan with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the COLD butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or two knives until pea-sized crumbs of butter remain.
  3. Fold in heavy cream, vanilla, and cinnamon chips (gently!) until barely combined (some chunks of flour should remain). Turn onto a floured surface and knead 5-6 times with your hands until dough comes together. Press into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are slightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  4. Allow to cool for an hour in the pan, the turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling fully. In a small bowl, whisk together confectioner’s sugar, 1 teaspoon maple syrup, and a few drops water; the glaze should be thick but pourable. Add more maple syrup and/or water to reach desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled scones; cut into triangles. These are best served warm!

Halloween Candy Cookie Bars

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A couple of good things happened in the past few days:

1. I finally bought Halloween candy. Never mind the fact that I live in an apartment building made up of only grown ups, because - much like my Frankenstorm prep - you can never be too prepared. Never mind the fact that said Halloween candy will certainly not last us until the actual day of Halloween. Never MIND the fact that there are 750 Butterfinger wrappers in my garbage can. Do you even KNOW how I feel about Butterfingers???? I want to hug them with my whole face. CHOMP.

2. MIKE PASSED THE BAR!!! This is very, very good news. We celebrated by getting a fancy drink in a fancy bar and congratulating ourselves on being grown ups and then hit up The Lower Depths and ate 500 $1 hot dogs and drank beer. Grown ups < not grown ups.

3. Frankenstorm cancelled school today!!!! I think this is karma for all the snow days we DIDN’T have last school year. Thank you, Sandy. Even though you have the saddest hurricane name.

4. Mike and I became addicted to Homeland and it is, to date, the only TV show we agree on. It’s also the only thing we’ve done in the past 4 days. IT. IS. SO. GOOD. Thank you, Showtime, for saving my TV-watching relationship.

So, anywho…I bought all this Halloween candy and said to myself, “Self? How can you add 4,000,000 more calories to Halloween?” And myself said, “Chop up your Butterfingers and Snickers and Kit-Kats and put them in a cookie dough blanket.” So I did.

Perhaps my sub-conscious is preparing me for the impending doom of Sad-Sandy? Like a chipmunk collects nuts for the winter, I collect calories in the form of cookie-candy bars for power outages. It’s biology. Delicious, delicious, biology.

Halloween Candy Cookie Bars (basic blondie recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

yield: 16 squares

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup candy bars, chopped*

*I used my favorite Halloween candies: Butterfingers, Snickers, Kit-Kats and M&Ms, but feel free to add whichever candies are YOUR favorites!

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8×8 pan with cooking spray (for even easier removal, line the pan with parchment paper and then coat with cooking spray).
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir with a rubber spatula until mostly combined. Fold in the chopped candy bars.
  3. Spread the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the center is just set - it will seem pretty gooey but the bars will firm up as they cool. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Mini Almond Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

18 Replies

Dear Everyone in the World,

WHY HAVEN’T YOU TOLD ME ABOUT BAKING WITH ALMOND FLOUR BEFORE?????

Sorry for yelling.

Love,

MeI opened my fridge yesterday and spied the huge bag of almond flour I bought in Paris last spring (otherwise known as The Time I Went To Paris And The Only Souvenirs I Bought Were Food) that was {{GASP!}} about to expire!! Rather than let my beautiful Parisian memories go to waste, I decided to a little baking-with-almond-flour experiment.

Usually when I conduct a baking experiment in my kitchen, it goes 50-80% wrong and I send the failed baked goods with Mike into work and his fancy lawyer co-workers that I should try harder to impress work peeps eat them anyway and give me compliments and I feel super good about myself because even when I fail at baking I still make wicked delicious things. Right? Right.

So when I finally had a baking experiment success, I couldn’t help but feel a little mad at you, everyone in the world, for not telling me about almond flour sooner. I could have been baking 100% DELICIOUS things and sending them into Mike’s work and being impressive all along!! What the heck??? I forgive you.Baking with almond flour makes these muffins really really not dry (for lack of a better word) (AHEM…moist. MOIST! THESE MUFFINS ARE SO MOIST.) with very little added oil. Who knew???

And the flavor is out-of-this-WORLD. Try them! Try them!! I promise to never say moist again.

Mini Almond Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

makes 36 mini muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the bananas and vanilla; beat until combined. With the mixer on low, slowly stream in the vegetable oil until fully incorporated.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana/sugar/egg mixture and beat on low until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill mini muffin tin 3/4 full; bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges of the muffins are brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.**
  3. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Best served within 24 hours.

**Almond flour bakes differently that regular flour, so the muffins might look a bit over-baked but they will still be moist inside! Just watch them carefully once you hit the 12-minute mark.