Coffee-Cinnamon Cookie Fail!

Here is a story of a recipe fail.  I'm not going to point you to the recipe because I don't know if the recipe wasn't well tested or my crazy substitutions were what caused the cookies to be so bad.  But I felt like sharing, so here you go.

Making Dough

On Monday when I was home for lunch I threw together batter for coffee-cinnamon cookies.   I made it ahead of time because it said the batter was runny and need to chill for a couple hours to stay together.  Sounded good.

I didn't have the maple syrup needed so I substituted with honey.  And I didn't have enough honey left in the open jar and I didn't feel like opening the new jar of honey I had just bought at the farmers' market.  I figured the amount of honey would would be ok since I prefer not-too-sweet cookies.  I thought about tasting the batter to see if it was sweet enough, but I was grossed out by the raw egg so I skipped it. The batter was really dry, completely opposite of the way the recipe was described.  I thought it might hydrate a bit as it sat.

Baking It Up

When it came time to make the cookies, we had to search all over the living room to find the cookie scoop.  It's one of Sonny D's favorite things to play with right now.  We found it inside a big metal cookie tin.  The dough was really stiff so we flattened the balls and hoped they would spread in the oven.

Scooping out cookie dough.

The cookies didn't puff up at all in the oven.  I think it needed more baking powder and maybe something acidic to react with, like maybe yogurt.  Plus more liquid in general. 

Baked cookies. 

We each had a cookie after they cooled a bit.  They were bland and boring, certainly not sweet. And no coffee flavor at all, so after Sonny D went to bed I whipped up a coffee drizzle glaze in order to give them some sweetness and the coffee flavor I was looking for. 

Coffee-glazed.

As they cooled overnight, the cookies seemed to get more dense and rock-like.  By this morning, they weren't very good at all, but I threw one in Sonny D's lunch bag and packed two for my morning snack.  I ate those two cookies, more out of boredom than because they were good.  And I somehow ate three of these not-very-good cookies at lunch today with a mug of tea; they're sitting like rocks in my belly.

Moral Of The Story

My advice is that you should ensure you have all of the ingredients before you start making a recipe.  Or at least read through the recipe and come up with a plan for substitutions.  Or maybe test it to see if it's actually going to be decent! 

Any Recommendations?

These coffee cookies were an absolute dud.  Does anybody have a tried-and-true espresso/coffee cookie recipe?  A family favorite?  I'd prefer something that is solely coffee-flavored, no chocolate. 

Great-Aunt Pooch's Cherry Bounce

I sat down last night with a quart of cherries and made them into something tasty... but I have to wait for three months before they're really ready to eat!  I made cherry bounce, an old-fashioned Wisconsin tradition that I'm finding not many people know about.  And I'm aiming to change that, at least in our group of friends.  Gotta start small!   

Cherry bounce is sour cherries soaked in booze, typically whiskey, bourbon, or brandy.  I went full-on "Sconnie" on this and used Korbel brandy, the number one brandy in the state.  (Read about brandy being super-popular in Wisconsin but nobody seems to know why.)  I used brandy so we could use it to make brandy old-fashioneds, plus I don't like whiskey or bourbon. 

Even though cherry bounce is a simple recipe — cherries, booze, and sugar, it requires a lot of patience to wait until they're fully marinated.  It's definitely a gamble. I have no idea what I'm doing since I've never made anything like this before and only tried it at the Tip Top Tavern this weekend (they had a homemade cherry brandy old-fashioned as their drink special, yespleasethankyou!). I hope this works out.  Oh, and you don't refrigerate it, you just throw the cherries in a jar with a bunch of booze and sugar, which are both preservatives, so it ends up that I'm making pickled cherries! Who knew!

Inspiration

Island of Consumption Door County Cherry Bounce 

The great-aunt Pooch in the title isn't my great-aunt, nobody in my family made anything as cool as this.  The recipe I followed described great-aunt Pooch, so I borrowed it because I thought it gave the aura of a time-tested recipe passed down through generations. 

I picked up the sour cherries at our Northside farmers' market on Sunday, the cherries come from Sturgeon Bay (way up north).  I was a little hesitant about the unknown sour cherries and really wanted to use the yummy sweet cherries we always get, but the guy at the stand reminded me that cherry bounce is typically made with sour cherries, so I conceded and went the traditional route.  I had never had a sour cherry, they're not particularly sour, just not as sweet as the big dark Bings.  The sour ones are definitely smaller though.

Difference between a sour Montmorency cherry (left) and a sweet Bing cherry. 

I used a toothpick to poke a couple holes in each cherry and then drop it into one of two freshly-washed big quart jars. It took 20 minutes to work through all of those cherries, but it was meditative. I had to be careful though, I was afraid I'd poke my fingers by mistake since the cherries were so small. As I did it I was kind of questioning why I was putting holes in them, but I realized that there needed to be a symbiotic flavor exchange while they marinated for three months, the brandy needs to get into the cherry and the cherry flavor needs to get out into the brandy.

Oh yeah, and the cherries aren't pitted, the recipe specifically said "unpitted cherries", so they're going to be a bit dangerous to eat.  There are dishes made with unpitted cherries because the pits supposedly add extra flavor, so I went along with it based on that concept.

Armed with a toothpick to poke holes. 

I added 1/3 cup sugar to each jar since I read that brandy is likely sweeter than whiskey.  It might not be enough sugar, but we can always add more later. 

Adding sugar with my canning funnel.
Thanks for the funnel, Mom!

Then I topped off both jars with most of a bottle of Korbel brandy and added a broken cinnamon stick to one jar for some flavor variety. I gently shook them a few times to mix in the sugar, but it was slow to dissolve.  I'll probably  I finished off by making my standard fancy-scmancy kitchen labels with masking tape and a marker. Classy! 

A jar of regular and a jar of cinnamon.

Then I put both jars up out of the way on the top shelf of the pantry to rest. Sleep my babies, I'll see you in three months!

Ruby Spring: Honey-Roasted Rhubarb Sauce

I bought a bundle of rhubarb at the Sunday farmers' market with no actual plan in mind, I just wanted to buy something fresh since it was finally there.  I made a rhubarb cake a couple weeks ago (using home-frozen rhubarb) and so we didn't really need another cake again so soon.  I don't have any other rhubarb recipes bookmarked and no other desserts I wanted to make, so I decided to turn it into a fruit sauce to use in my morning oatmeal.   Rhubarb sauce is also supposed to be good on ice cream, so I might try a spoonful that way.  My current favorite ice cream topping is peanut dust, what's left after Husband Jeff eats the huge container of store-brand peanuts from Target.  It is so perfectly nutty-salty with a tiny touch of sweetness! 

[Edited on July 2, 2014 to add microwave cooking instructions. See below!]

Inspiration

Cafe Zupas' honey roasted rhubarb

Ingredients

• 1 bunch rhubarb (mine was 6 long stalks)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tablespoons orange juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Microwave instructions - To make this in the microwave and not heat up your house, put the chopped rhubarb in a bowl with the honey and microwave for 3 minutes, stir, 3 minutes, stir, and then about 2 more minutes.  If you have a less powerful microwave (mine is heavy-duty) you might need to cook it a bit longer, but it's really quick. 

While the oven is heating up, cut the rhubarb into bite-sized pieces and put it into a glass 9x13 baking dish.  I had thoughts floating around in my head that rhubarb is acidic enough that you need to avoid metal containers, so I figured glass was probably a good safe choice.  Better safe than sorry.

And no need to worry about spraying the pan.  I gave it half a second of thought but went without and it was totally fine because it's so wet that it's not going to stick.   

Chopped rhubarb, oj, and honey.

Add the honey and orange juice.  My orange juice is frozen cubes from a pitcher I made several months ago (not homemade at all, completely from one of those frozen concentrate canisters).  All of the cubes froze into a big blob, so I had to whack the bag against the floor a couple times to break up the chunks. So classy.  One ice cube is approximately 2 tablespoons, so I just went with that. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes. 

After cooking 20 minutes.

I stirred mine after 15 minutes and decided to cook it another 5 minutes to reduce some of the liquid and fully soften the last couple of pieces.  I wish rhubarb was less wet so it could have browned like when you roast veggies.  I guess I could have put it under the broiler for a bit, but I'm slightly afraid of the powerful broiler, it's easy to let something go a little too long and burn it. 

Then I mashed the fruit with the back of the spoon and let it cool a bit. 

After mashing with that big serving spoon.  I don't like that weird pink and green color. 

As it cooled it unexpectedly thickened which was good because that's more of what I was looking for. And I don't know if it's because it cooled or what, but I was glad it turned more appealing pink color that the freshly-mashed dingy green and dull pink. 

After cooling a bit, I transferred it to a smaller container and tucked it into the fridge for later in the week. 

Beautiful ruby color of fresh rhubarb sauce. 

Verdict

I licked the spoon as I finished cleaning out the baking pan and liked what I tasted.  I'm glad I went with this recipe that used only 1/4 cup of honey, it was the right amount of sweetness and not too tart. Some of the other recipes I found used 1/2 cup of sugar, which would have been way too sweet.

I also liked that it added some orange juice for some variety in the flavor.   I wanted to add some vanilla extract and a touch of cinnamon, but I completely forgot since I was making this on my lunch break and I was watching the TV show Clean House on my iPad at the same time. I'll probably add a couple of teaspoons of my homemade vanilla (essentially vanilla vodka, a handful of vanilla beans in a bottle of vodka) and a sprinkle of cinnamon later. 

Recipe Win: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

I know a pumpkin recipe is out of season for spring, but I made this recipe back in January and then was so busy that I couldn't finish writing it up. I think I made these as the dessert to our intimidating but fabulously successful beef tenderloin meal.

Inspiration

Cookies and Cups lightened up pumpkin cream cheese swirl bars

Ingredients

Cream cheese swirl

• 1 (8 oz) block 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp water (I used French vanilla creamer because our milk was frozen (arg!) and I wanted to add more flavor)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (adding more flavor, no reason to leave it as plain cream cheese!)

cake 

• 16 oz package angel food cake mix
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon ( my cinnamon is strong so I only used 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp butter extract (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.

With a mixer, combine the swirl ingredients -- cream cheese, sugar, non-dairy creamer, and vanilla extract.  Beat until smooth and creamy.

Fluffy cream cheese mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry angel food cake mix, pumpkin puree, water, pumpkin pie spice,  cinnamon, butter extract, and vanilla extract.  Mix until smooth.  

Pumpkin-y batter

You're going to make two layers of batter to ensure you get a good blend.  Pour half of the pumpkin mixture into the pan and add dollops of half the cream cheese mixture. Swirl gently with a knife a couple times to combine. 

Swirled first layer.

Do the same with the remaining batter, add the rest of the pumpkin batter on top and swirl in dollops of the rest of the cream cheese mixture. 

Swirled messy second layer

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the cake part comes out clean (not coated in batter).

All done.

Another good indicator that it's done is when it slightly pulls away from the sides of the pan. 

Closeup of the edges pulled away. 

Verdict 

I loved this pumpkin bar.   My previous angel food bars turned out to be a bummer, they ended up really flat and not very good, so I was happy these actually worked out.  These were cake-like and a little dense with a wonderful swirl of cream cheese. So even though pumpkin is more of a fall flavor, if you're looking for a good dessert, make this!  And they are definitely bar format, denser than a cake.  

It would be neat to add some cocoa powder to the cake mixture to see if you could make a chocolate version. 

Dip An Apple In It: Greek Yogurt Peanut Butter Dip

I thought this Greek yogurt peanut butter dip would be great to send along in Sonny D's lunches for the week along with some apple slices. I whipped this up for dinner on Sunday night and it was super quick and easy. 

Inspiration 

Family Fresh Meals Greek yogurt peanut butter dip
FitSugar creamy peanut butter dip

I combined the two recipes as I was mixing it to get what I thought was the right blend of ingredients and flavors. I could have used plain yogurt, but I thought vanilla would be a better choice.  And I don't have maple syrup called for in one recipe, but I do have honey. 

Ingredients

• 6 oz vanilla Greek yogurt (one serving container)
• 1 Tablespoon peanut butter
• 1/2 Tablespoon honey
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Taste and see if you need to adjust any flavoring. 

Creamy peanut butter dip.

Verdict 

We ate this for dinner with apple slices.  Sonny D liked it, but declined when I offered it for his lunch the next day.  Oh well.  We finished it off with another apple the next night. 

I don't care for yogurt at all, but this was pretty good.  I'd rather eat apples without it though.  It reminded me of that potluck salad of grapes in a creamy dressing with chopped nuts sprinkled on top.  I absolutely love that salad but I'm sure the original isn't the healthiest with all the cream cheese and sour cream.  This dip would be approximately the same thing, but I would leave out the peanut butter and switch the honey for brown sugar.  

Oh, you could add some cocoa powder or chocolate syrup to make a choco-peanut butter version, that might be really good.  I've also got some caramel syrup meant for flavoring coffee, that would be good with peanut butter as well.  Oh, and some chopped peanuts would be a great way to expand the peanut flavor. 

Cocoa Popcorn for Sonny D

Chocolatey popcorn.

One day Sonny D and I were out downtown and he was interested in getting popcorn at one of the popcorn vendors on State Street (pedestrian mall area here in Madison). I was willing to buy some popcorn (Mama loves popcorn a lot!) but I also offered him the option to go home and make it ourselves. He said he wanted chocolate popcorn, which I told him we couldn't buy at the store, but we could make at home.  Chocolate won his vote, so we popped up this version. 

Inspiration

Martha Stewart cocoa popcorn

To make this dairy-free, pop your popcorn in coconut oil on the stove or use a non-dairy spray or spread instead of butter.  

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar 
• 2 tsp cocoa powder

Directions

Pop the popcorn in your favorite manner and put it into a large, wide container such as a cake carrier.  I use a hot-air popper but someday I'll pull out my stovetop popper since that is a wonderful way to have popcorn.

Cocoa powder plus sugar. 

While the popcorn is popping, melt the butter to drizzle on top of your popcorn.  Also mix together the sugar and cocoa powder. 

Coated popcorn. 

When your popcorn is done, drizzle on the butter while shaking the popcorn.  Then gently shake-tap approximately one-fourth of the sugar-cocoa powder mixture over your buttered popcorn a few times, shake it up, add some more of the mixture, and keep repeating until it's generally covered. 

Verdict

This made Sonny D a happy little boy!

This has a slightly bitter edge to it from the raw cocoa powder, so I would consider it something adults would generally appreciate more, but Sonny D seems to really like it.  I've made it two times for him in the last couple of weeks. I like it just as it's written, but have thought that possibly using powdered sugar might disburse across the popped kernels better, similar popcorn salt's super-fine texture so it can get into every nook and cranny.  Maybe we'll try that next time. 

I'm more a fan of savory popcorn (I like brewer's yeast or nutritional yeast) but this is fun for some variation. 

A Little Dessert: A Sixer of Cupcakes

All that stands between you and a small batch of cupcakes is a few minutes and some simple ingredients. It's quick and easy.  Throw some together when you've got some dinner guests coming over, or a small reason to celebrate, like "hey, it's Friday!" 

I finally got around to making these cupcakes for Sonny D after seeing an image of a birthday cupcake.  I even served him the first one with a candle in it.  :) 

As a warning, I really don't recommend whole wheat flour for these cupcakes, mine ended up too dry. Definitely still edible and quite good, but just not as moist and light as they could have been. We still gobbled them down, even without frosting.

Inspiration 

The Girl Tastes vanilla cupcakes (small batch)

I wanted to try out my new peanut butter extract, so I added a teaspoon to this mixture.  Otherwise I didn't change much else since working with such small amounts of ingredients could have a large effect in the end product.  Oh, I was planning on substituting non-dairy creamer for the cream in the original recipe, that's why you'll see it in the picture, but as I was making them I changed it to all milk. 

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 2/3 c flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
•  1/8 tsp salt
• 5 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar 
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 egg 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp peanut butter extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put 6 cupcake liners in your muffin pan or 7 liners if you were like me and had enough batter to make another.  

Mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt.

With a blender, beat the butter thoroughly.  The recipe I followed said you can't over mix it, so I went mixed it for quite a while.  

Fluffy butter.

Then add sugar and blend thoroughly.  The texture of the sugar helps beat the butter even more. 

Add milk and blend until light and fluffy.  

Add egg and vanilla and blend.  Add flour mixture and gently combine.

Batter

Pour into the cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Finished cupcake

Light texture.

Verdict

They were missing that peanut butter flavor I was hoping for, I don't know if they needed more peanut better extract or if it was the heavy wheat flour that covered it.  But as a general cupcake, they were quite good.  And it was nice to have a small batch so we didn't have 12+ cupcakes staring at us.  I don't know if it was all the beating or what, but I ended up having to add another cupcake liner so we actually had 7 cupcakes, which was a nice bonus.  We definitely ended up eating them for the next couple meals. 

I do have to say that they're not the sweetest cupcakes, so if you prefer a more sugary treat, you'll want to whip up a glaze or frosting to go on top.  I prefer not-too-sweet desserts, so I thought they were great without anything else needed.  Sonny D liked them and so did Husband Jeff. 

Decadent Greek Yogurt Soufflés

I started out planning to make this in a lemon-lime flavor, but the jar of fruit dip seasoning I had was much older than I thought and the contents were as hard as a rock.  I hate it when I buy things and then essentially forget I've got them, or attempt to save them for "something special" and then that "something special" never happens. 

Lightly foamy egg whites with beautiful flecks of vanilla bean.

Inspiration

Jules Food Greek Yogurt Souffle


My only real change was to add some almond extract, which makes it similar to a cheesecake Husband Jeff likes to make with a sour cream-almond topping.

 Ingredients

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 3 lg egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/8 two salt 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 lg egg whites 
• 1/8 tsp cream or tartar
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

Heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Butter 6 ramekins/custard cups/Pyrex cups and coat the insides with sugar. (I had to butter and coat a 7th ramekin because I had so much filling.)   Put them on a rimmed baking sheet so you can put them in the oven.  If you don't have a rimmed baking sheet, just use a standard cookie sheet, but be very careful when you're putting them in and taking them out of the oven so they don't slide off.

Closeup of a sugared ramekin.

In a medium bowl, mix the yogurt, egg yolks, flour, salt, and vanilla.

In a large bowl, mix the egg whites and cream of tartar, beat until foamy.

that's actually a hard peak, it stands up on it's own. 
I beat it a little too long, but it was fine.

Then gradually pour in sugar and whisk until firm-but-soft-peaks form.

Fold in the yogurt mixture and divide the batter evenly into the prepared ramekins.

Bake on the tray for 15 minutes until risen and lightly brown. 

Verdict

Light-but-decadent out of the oven.  Cheesecake-like after chilling. 

I might have baked mine too long because they were dried out a bit, but they seemed too wet when I checked them at the 15-minute mark and weren't even slightly brown.  I only added a few minutes, but it had a big effect. 

It probably also didn't help that I used whole wheat flour, which soaks up more liquid than standard white flour, so the end result was a little drier.  I'm adding white wheat flour to my grocery list for dishes like this where you need the delicacy of white flour.  I've made too many things lately that were too heavy from the whole wheat flour.

Sonny D wouldn't try it, but that was his loss.  Husband Jeff was glad I used the almond flavor so they reminded him of his cheesecake.  I liked that they weren't real yogurt-y since I don't like the tang of yogurt. 

Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker

Check out the neat inside of a cranberry!

I think about oats a lot and I love new oatmeal ideas.  I even follow a blog called The Oatmeal Artist.  Lauren blogs great ideas about new oatmeal flavor combos, and she's definitely more daring than I am since she eats savory oatmeal.  This oatmeal recipe doesn't come from Lauren's blog, but I think this is one she might be interested in.

I liked this multi-serving of steel-cut oats made in the slow cooker, typically how I roll when I'm making oatmeal, several servings in one big batch.  
I've tried to make overnight steel-cut oats in the slow cooker once before, but it didn't work out.  That was my fault, I didn't know the right setting for cooking and they were raw still when I woke up.  So I was a little hesitant to try the concept again, but it was great!

 Inspiration

Jennifer's Kitchen Cock-pot Cranberry Oatmeal

The original recipe used orange juice concentrate, but I needed to use up a carton of orange juice, so I replaced both the water and concentrate with orange juice.  And it only called for 1/3 cup chopped cranberries, but that didn't look like enough to me since I really like tart cranberries in my oatmeal.  So I kept pouring out more cranberries and chopping them until it looked like the amount I wanted. 

Measuring out some OJ.

Ingredients

serves 4-5

• 1 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 cups milk (I used almond milk)
• about 3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries (I would use even more next time)
• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Check out that curdled almond milk! 

Put everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours.  I started mine before bed and it was certainly ready in the morning.  I would actually look into adding a little more water next time because I wouldn't have wanted to cook it any more, it was quite thick.   

Divide the cooked oatmeal out into five bowls or containers. 

I eat my oatmeal with a "float" of 1 Tablespoon of non-dairy creamer and 2 Tablespoons of almond milk poured on top.

Verdict

Deliciously tart and creamy! Need more now!

I was a little uncertain about mixing orange juice and almond milk since the acid in orange juice will curdle even non-dairy milk, but the taste was great.  The orange juice and almond milk mix was similar to orange sherbet, so it was super yummy.  I would even make this again without the cranberries, and maybe add some canned mandarin oranges.  Or both!

The tart cranberries were the perfect balance between the sweetness of the orange juice.  I'm glad I increased the cranberries, I would go with even more the next time I make this, and I will definitely make it again soon.  I think my next batch of steel-cut oats in the slow cooker will be apple-cinnamon with chopped almonds or maybe a creamy orange-pineapple using crushed canned pineapple.

I was originally planning this would only be 4 servings and I was afraid that this wouldn't be a large enough to keep me full, but once I saw it cooked, I decided it was actually going to be big enough to make 5 servings, and I was happy with that decision.

Tangy Ancho-Jalapeño Lime Jelly

My scribbled recipe that I refined as I worked. 

After my first jelly-making and canning success, I was so excited to make more!  I wasn't sure what my next project would be until Husband Jeff mentioned we have a ton of peppers in the garden that we needed to harvest.  In the past we've grown peppers, but then we end up without any plans to use them, and they go bad, so I felt particularly guilty until I realized a spicy pepper jelly would be a great way to take advantage of the surplus of peppers.

He picked all the good peppers and brought them inside, we had so many that they overflowed the cake container I put them into.  Unfortunately this recipe only used four big ancho peppers and four small jalapeños, but I made another batch later to use up another eight peppers.

This was my first low-sugar pectin recipe.  After tasting it, going the low-sugar route is totally my preference since it's not as tooth-achingly sweet as when you use regular pectin, which needs a lot of sugar to gel up. 

Inspiration

Ball canning pepper jelly
You Grow Girl zippy mixed pepper and lime jelly

Ingredients

• 4 big, non-spicy peppers, about 2 cups chopped (I used Ancho San Martin since that's what we grew but standard bell peppers would be fine too.)
• 1/4 c chopped onion
• 4 spicy peppers, chopped  (I used jalapeños)
• 1 c cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup lime juice (2 limes)
• 1 c sugar 
• 1/2 c honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons low-sugar pectin

Directions

Jars in boiling water to sterilize.

Wash and sterilize jars.

Chopped peppers and onions.

Chop peppers and onion in food processor.  Since I didn't know what our peppers were like, I tasted each one as I cut it up so I knew what I was working with.  I was glad I tried them because I added another jalapeño since a couple of the others weren't too spicy.  

Vintage citrus juicer and limes.

Add the chopped peppers and onions to a large sauce pan and add cider vinegar and lime juice.  Add pectin and bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar and honey and return to fill boil.  Boil hard for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.  Skim off any foam if necessary.  

Peppers, onions, cider vinegar, lime juice. 

Put jelly in jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim and add lids.  Screw on bands to finger tight. 

Tangy jelly mixture, ready to go in the jars.

Process jars for 10 minutes in the boiling water.  After the 10 minutes are up, turn off heat and let the jars sit in water for 5 minutes. Remove from the water and place on two kitchen towels on the countertop.

Verdict

So cool! I've been so excited to make jelly and then can it.  Unfortunately this jelly wasn't spicy, but I like the tangy flavor.  It's not extremely green pepper flavored, which is nice because that can be too assertive of a flavor.  It's good on buttered toast.  I tried it on a roast beef sandwich but it was a little too sweet.  But it's certainly not as sweet as my wine jelly recipe, which is good.  I'm going to continue with making jellies with  low-sugar pectin since there's no reason to use all that sugar. 

Bake a Cake in the Microwave

 

I decided to make this cake, well, for no real reason. I've bookmarked a bunch of microwave mug cakes, but this one sounded nice since it is supposed to make three servings, perfect for our family of three. So after dinner one night I threw it together while Sonny D was getting cleaned up for bed.

Inspiration

Angry Chicken 3-minute cake

If you wanted to make this dairy-free, use non-dairy milk and substitute oil for the melted butter.

Ingredients

3-4 servings

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk (I used almond milk)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter (um, if you look in the pictures, mine wasn't melted, but at least was really soft)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla and instant esperesso powder (if desired)
• small handful of chocolate chips

Directions

Mix all the ingredients and pour in a shallow container.  I used one of our pasta bowls. 

I'd like to say my son helped me, but I made this mess all by myself.

I suppose I could have made it all in the shallow pasta bowl, but I know those are hard to work with. 

Smooth enough batter.

The recipe didn't mention if you should spray the "baking" dish, but I figured it wouldn't hurt so I spritzed it with Trader Joe's coconut oil spray.

Shallow dish

We've got a powerful 1200-watt microwave so I cooked it for only 2 minutes rather than the 3 minutes indicated in the recipe.  It was definitely done.  

I set out our bowls while we waited for the cake to cool.

Side view.

I had mine with some spray whipped cream on top. Sonny D had his plain.  I don't recall what Husband Jeff did with his. 

Verdict

This was pretty good straight out of the microwave, but it definitely got a bit chewier as it sat. Thin and dense, not really what I think of as a cake. More like a soft cookie.

I had to cut up Sonny D's with his spoon before he could eat it since it was so dense.  He ate it and seemed to enjoy it, but what kid doesn't like cake?

We ended up splitting this into four servings with one bit leftover that I put into a plastic bag and put in the fridge. I ate it the next night as a quick dessert after a quick stop at the grocery store.  Good enough, but not really something I'm super excited to make again. 

I think maybe one whole egg is too much for the size of the batch and that's why it's a bit thick and chewy.  I wonder if skipping the egg like Chocolate-Covered Katie's vegan one-minute chocolate cake in a mug or this 5-minute wacky vegan microwave cake recipe would be better.  Also it's possible my microwave over-cooked it since it's so high-powered.  If I tried it again, I would skip the egg and cook it on a lower power setting. 

Enhanced Box Mix Brownies

I needed a treat for work but I didn't have any time to make something from scratch but I also didn't want to resort to going to the grocery store to buy treats.  I knew I had a box of brownie mix in the cupboard, so that was the plan.  I figured plain brownies weren't going to win me any points with my coworkers, so I decided I would spiffy them up a bit. 

Ingredients

• Betty Crocker fudge brownie mix  (13x9 family size, 18.3 oz)
• water, oil, and eggs called for on the box
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla 
• 1 tsp Folgers decaf instant coffee crystals (coffee enhances chocolate flavor)
• 3/4 container Trader Joe's mini chocolate peanut butter cups, choppe

Directions

Preheat the oven as directed on the box.  Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.  

chopped PB cups.  I might have tasted a couple.

Mix the water, oil, eggs, vanilla, and add the coffee crystals to ensure they fully dissolve.  Then add the brownie mix powder and mix thoroughly.  Then stir in the chopped mini peanut butter cups.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake as directed.

Had a taste to ensure they were
good enough to serve to my coworkers!

Verdict

The piece I tasted was quite good, but I don't know if they were really jazzed up enough to be a whole lot better than plain box brownies (which are quite fab!). 

They seemed to go pretty fast at the office, so I think that means they were good. 

Chocolate Truffle Brownies

[Edited on 8/19/2013] - These were originally titled "Healthy Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies" but this new name of Chocolate Truffle Brownies more accurately reflects their rich taste and fluffy texture. They're like the inside of a chocolate truffle.  

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I've wanted to make black bean brownies for a long time, like years.  Yep, it's exactly what you think, brownies made from black beans. I know it seems weird, but it's a pretty common way to make gluten-free or healthy/Weight Watchers baked goods since it removes the standard flour and replaces them with fiber- and protein-rich beans.  I've been curious about them forever but never really found the motivation to actually make them. I was pushed more to make this when my coworker Kate made a similar chocolate-chip cookie pie (made with garbanzo beans) and gave me a piece to taste.  Hers were incredibly delicious, and I was thoroughly impressed. I decided I should finally try my hand at them. 

Inspiration

Ridiculously Healthy easy super low calorie brownies
Chocolate-Covered Katie black bean brownies
Summer of Pie healthful vegan chocolate brownies (my coworker Kate's blog!)

I combined these three recipes to make mine.  The first two are more what I was going for because they didn't have flour and I wanted to keep mine gluten-free, but I compared flavors and other ingredients with the last recipe to see how she enhanced hers. Plus Kate's recipe is vegan, and I thought that was yet another restriction, and I didn't need to restrict these even more since they're already made with black beans, no flour of any sort, and oil-free. I was afraid if I made any other modifications, they wouldn't turn out at all.

Ingredients

makes 16 brownies, 100 calories each

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (recommend Ghiradelli semi-sweet)
• 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed well
• 3/4 cup egg substitute (or 3 whole eggs because an egg is 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules, optional but it really enhances the chocolate flavor
• 3 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I'm using the homemade stuff)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with cooking spray.

Put the chocolate chips in the food processor and chop them up.  You don't want fine granules, only a few pulses to make them about 1/3 of the original size for better distribution.  Mine were frozen so they didn't chop too well. When you've got them chopped to the size you want, put them in a bowl off to the side to be incorporated later. 

Mine aren't too chopped, hopefully yours go better.

Once the chocolate chips are out of the food processor, put in the rest of the ingredients and pulse until smooth. 

beans and cocoa powder.

You'll probably need to stop and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and ensure there aren't any bits of bean missed. 

blended up smooth.

As you can see from the photos, the chocolatey batter oozed from the food processor bowl and came out everywhere.  So if you've got a small food processor, you can blend it in batches.  I would recommend mainly processing the beans (or most of them) with the egg and cocoa powder, the rest of the stuff can get mixed in by hand.  The cocoa powder definitely needs maximum hydration time. 

Messy batter.

If you use egg substitute, you can taste the raw batter since the eggs are pasteurized.  It tastes like chocolate pudding, quite nice. 

Tasty pools of chocolate.

When you've got it all processed smooth, add your chopped chocolate chips and pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Finished pan.

Verdict

A moist, fluffy brownie with rich chocolate taste... and NO hint of bean flavor.

Husband Jeff tried them (not knowing they were made of black beans) and he declared them to be the best brownies I've ever made.  Even a day or two later he was proclaiming them to be so amazingly good.  He might have gotten a little shy about eating them after I told him they were made of black beans, but I wasn't really paying attention. Sonny D wouldn't try them when I first offered him some, but he finally did taste it and as he scampered up into his chair to eat it, he said "thank you, mama", which was awesome. 

Wow, it really helps to use good quality chocolate.  This was my first time using Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips and they are wonderful.  Of course Sonny D and I had to taste them as soon as we opened the bag, and then a few more to verify their deliciousness.  They didn't have any of the bitterness I usually associate with Hershey's chocolate chips.  I also used high-quality Callebaut cocoa powder, which I don't think is necessarily much better than the Hershey's natural unsweetened cocoa powder but I guess for homemade brownies that truly depend on the flavor, it might matter here. 

The texture might have a little of the bean graininess, but I might think that because I'm looking for it.  They're fluffier than a normal brownie, which is fine if you're used to cake brownies since it's pretty similar, but if you prefer them fudgy, you might want to underbake them a bit.  I gave a brownie to a coworker and he said there is no way you would be able to tell it was made from beans.

I love them, I think they're great, but definitely a little different than a standard box brownie mix.  They might be a little closer to a homemade brownie, but since I don't prefer homemade brownies, I haven't eaten one in a long time to really remember what they're like.  But like I said, the high quality chocolate chips and cocoa powder probably really help a lot to make them taste richer and more decadent.  They're certainly not going to taste like a full-fat brownie since there's no fat added to keep them low-calorie.  If you don't mind adding a bit of calories, you can replace the applesauce with coconut oil or butter. 

So if you're curious, I highly suggest you try them with an open mind.