Chewy Coconut Cookies

So sorry, I totally forgot to take pictures of these! They really weren't good looking though because my baking soda needs to be changed (aka these cookies came REALLY flat and spread like crazy--but it's such a pain because I have so much baking soda left in that stupid box it seems like such a waste to buy anymore. And switch it every month, no less.) I even tried refrigerating them as well, but with no luck. Regardless of how they looked, they were really quite good and chewy as described. I called my paper thin cookies Lace cookies, lol, and tried to make up for its flatness. Oh well! I made these for the my Relay for Life team as a fundraiser so hopefully things will go well and the appearance won't be too off-putting. Originally, I was going to not toast the coconut (i was getting lazy from all the baking I was doing that day) but honestly, what a big difference it made to toast it. Since the recipe didn't specify, I just used the sugary kind of coconut flakes, but I'm sure the natural, unsweetened kind would work as well. Besides the taste, the smell of toasted coconut wafting through the kitchen is reward enough to do it! In case you don't know how, please scroll down for quick toasting instructions, it's super easy and like I said, completely worth it. I love these as a great substitute for chocolate desserts. Blasphemous as it may sound, not everyone is a chocoholic like me, and tragically, some people are quite allergic to it as well. They are quite oily, however. They're definitely not diet food. Maybe adding more flour or using less butter would help with that, but it's so hard to tell with adjustments in baking since everything is so precise. Hope you enjoy these as much as I do! 4.5 out of 5 stars/the flatness and oiliness were turn offs, but other than that, GREAT! _________________________ Toasted Coconut Instructions: Using a baking sheet (the flat one with edges on all sides) covered with aluminum foil, spread a thin layer of coconut flakes evenly over the pan and toast for 350F degrees for 7-10 minutes until the desired level of golden brown is reached. Let cool before using.

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Below from here.

Yields around 2 dozen cookies.

Prep Time: 30 Min
Cook Time: 10 Min
Ready In: 50 Min

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, EVERYONE! Let's take a moment to appreciate all those awesome people who've risked their lives for us. And what better way to celebrate their sacrifices then by eating bacon! Wait--is that right?

Oh yes, you read that right. I love these things, customizable to appease just about any picky palate (save the vegetarian/vegan). So easy, so delicious, so quick to make. Who wouldn't love them?! The only thing I would say to the recipe below is the cook time is off. That really depends on what your bacon needs, how thick it is, etc. I would say eye it and decide for yourself. If you're reading this post and remotely interested in making this recipe, most likely, you've eaten enough bacon in your life that you can discern between raw and cooked bacon.

*Please note: the recipe below uses blue cheese as the stuffing, I just left that all out. :D

4.5 out of 5 stars. I took off 0.5 stars because let's face it, it ain't healthy at all.

Extra tips:
-Try using pineapple or another hard fruit for the center.
-For a creamy twist, try stuffing the dates with soft cheese such as cream cheese or feta (just like the recipe below)

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Recipe found here.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half
• 1 pound pitted dates
• 4 ounces blue cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Slice dates in half, and open them up. Pinch off pieces of blue cheese, and place them into the center of the dates. Close the halves of the dates, and wrap a half-slice of bacon around the outside. Secure each one with a toothpick. Arrange in a baking dish or on a baking sheet with sides to catch any grease.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bacon is crisp. Turn dates over after the first 20 minutes for even cooking.

Glazed Lemon Cookies (from Gale Gland)

Today was a bad day. Why was it a bad day? I'll tell you why. I made these and they turned out TERRIBLY. You remember my crappy Momofuku kitchen sink cookies? These were much worse. It wasn't that they tasted bad, or were burned beyond belief. I have no idea what happened. Well, that's wrong. I know I put in too much butter, but I got lazy. So, yes, I added too much butter, but then that doesn't explain why some cookies (a very few) baked out okay, and why some died like a puddle of mud...brown puddle of mud. SIGH.

To add insult to injury, I used up the last of my powdered sugar on the glaze and then had to throw away half the glaze, if not more, because I threw away half of my cookies if not more cuz they were CRAPPY.

I ain't gonna take pictures of my crap, so no pictures for you today. sorry.

So yes, if you were wondering--it's true. You really need to follow directions and measurements in baking because it is a science, boys and girls. Don't try to be ridiculous like me and go all lone soldier.

If you make these right, they taste quite good: 4.5/5 stars. They have a shortbread type consistency.

I think...

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Glazed Lemon Cookies

3/4 c unsalted butter @ room temp.
1 c sugar
2 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 c + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

preheat convection oven to 325 (conventional to 350) and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

in mixer w/ paddle attachment or electric hand mixer (its much easier with these) beat butter and sugar on low speed till smooth (don't incorporate air...just blend)

add lemon zest and juice, continue to mix on low until incorporated

add flour, baking powder, and salt, mix on low for 1-2 minutes

check the dough by squeezing some in your hands - it should be crumbly but still form a ball; do not overbeat

scoop dough onto baking sheets with a 1 tsp measuring spoon (mounded spoonful)...they should look like little balls of dough, but don't pat the dough into shape with your hands because they'll look unnaturally smooth after baking

bake until edges turn a light golden brown (~8 minutes) ...don't overbake and dry out cookies by letting them go golden brown all over

transfer cookies to rack and let cool, then glaze (optional)

glaze: 3 tbsp lemon juice + 2 c confectioners' sugar (blend until smooth)

dip tops of cookies into glaze and let cool/dry

i like to fill a pastry bag (or ziploc with corner cut off) with the glaze and drizzle glaze over cookies instead of dipping

Healthy Apple Cobbler

Alright, yet another recipe I made awhile ago...sorry for the delay. I wanted to try this because there's no butter and no sugar and it still turned out really quite good. The recipe below uses berries, but I used apple instead, and it still turned out quite good.

So, I kinda cheated because I took a tbsp of butter, cut it into tiny little pieces and then stuck it all over the topping for baking. This worked well, but was completely unnecessary. Also, one thing that I didn't like so much about this recipe is, the topping wasn't enough for the amount of fruit it asks for and it didn't specify which size pan to use. So I used like an 8" x 8"--gosh, I hope that's right. Here I am criticizing them about not including pan size and I'm too lazy to get up off my butt and go look at the size dimensions of the pan in the kitchen. :) I also doubled the amount of topping cuz let's face it, that's the best part. I used little organic fuji apples and they turned out quite well. I imagine the tartness of granny smith would work well too. Overall, I think this is a great healthy, non-chocolate, budget friendly dessert that's super quick and easy! I was lucky enough to be at Fresh 'n Easy earlier in the day and the bag of organic apples was on clearance because a few were bruised and what not. One man's trash...With the apples, it reminded me a little of apple pie---who doesn't like apple pie??

I served this plain, but it would no doubt be awesome served warm with ice cream. Yummy!! It smells delicious when cooking.

4 out of 5 stars! So many attributes--quick, delicious, cheap, and healthy!

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Recipe below from here.
Ingredients

• 3 cups Mixed Berries Or Any Fruit, Fresh Or Frozen
• ¼ cups Plus 1 Tablespoon Whole Wheat Flour
• ½ cups Honey, Divided
• ½ cups Rolled Oats
• ¼ cups Chopped Walnuts
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoons Ginger
• ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Canola Oil

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, toss fruit and 1 tablespoon flour together. Add 1/4 cup honey (reserve the remaining 1/4 cup of honey for topping) and use your fingers to thoroughly combine ingredients. If using frozen berries, the honey may cause them to bunch together, so you’ll have to pick them apart by hand. Pour fruit mixture into the baking pan.

In a medium bowl, mix remaining flour, oats, walnuts, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until combined. Add remaining honey and canola oil. Use your fingers to thoroughly combine the ingredients. Sprinkle the flour and oat mixture evenly over the fruit.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until fruit is bubbly and the topping is browned and crisp. Let cool for 20 minutes. Serve plain or top each serving with vanilla yogurt.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

*UPDATED 3/29/10*


My uploaded picture! This is why you need cupcake carriers--so you don't go ghetto by putting a few in each tupperware and then have the foil smear the frosting all over!
*END*
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Recipe Song: Silence.

Thought I would try something new, and the silence was relaxing in its own right.

Continuing my crazy cooking Thursday, I made these absolutely delicious cupcakes on Friday for my mom's birthday. She absolutely loves carrot cake, so I thought it would be fun to make cupcakes for her and her coworkers.

This is actually a really simple recipe. From start to finish, it took me less than 2 hours, including baking, making the frosting, and clean up. In my book, that's fast. I know I'm definitely not the fastest baker/cook so adjust your prep and bake times accordingly. I bought pre-grated carrots just to make my life easier and then blended them in a blender to make them finer. I don't like eating carrot cake where little bits and strings of carrots come out when you bit into the cake. I did use walnuts as well and blended those into smaller pieces as well. When you don't have a food processor, the blender is a handy tool to have indeed.

Other changes I made to the recipe are as follows: I used Greek strained plain low fat yogurt as opposed to regular low fat yogurt, Fage to be specific. It's my favorite plain yogurt brand. I didn't taste the sourness at all in the end product, so I don't think it makes any difference. I actually made this recipe again on Monday and used a different brand of low fat plain yogurt and it tasted the same. I also primarily bake with salted butter and then don't add the additional salt the recipe calls for (one of my girlfriends, Annie, taught me that one).

For the frosting, I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese and went crazy and did the 1/2 tsp cinnamon. The frosting is so good, I really could have just eaten it plain with no cupcakes. Finger-lickin', indeed. I tried to pipe my frosting out of my own makeshift sandwich bag turned piping bag but I miscalculated the hole I cut and it ended up too big. That was an interesting experience, lol.

The most important thing to pay attention to in this recipe is that it makes a perfect 12 cupcakes. I don't know why the recipe says it makes 18, but I, as well as many other of the commenters, had a different experience. But as I said, absolutely delicious! Huge hit. Happy eating!

5 out of 5 stars!
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Below from here:

Carrot Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Servings: 18
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1-½ cup All-purpose Flour, Spooned And Leveled
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ¾ teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
• ¾ cups (1 ½ Sticks) Unsalted Butter, Melted
• 1 cup Packed Light Brown Sugar
• 1 whole Large Egg
• 2 Tablespoons Lowfat Plain Yogurt
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1-½ cup Grated Carrots (about 3 Or 4 Medium Carrots)
• ¼ cups Diced Walnuts (optional)
  
  Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
• 8 ounces, weight Organic Neufchatel Cheese, Room Temperature
• ¼ cups (1/2 Stick) Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
• 1 cup Confectioners’ Sugar
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ¼ teaspoons Or 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

Preparation Instructions

Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg; set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, egg, yogurt, and vanilla. Stir in carrots and walnuts (if using). Gradually add dry ingredients to the butter mixture until well combined. Divide among muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack in the pan for 5 minutes. Then remove from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth; beat in vanilla and cinnamon. Top each cupcake with 2 tablespoons of frosting and spread to cover. You can also pipe the frosting onto the tops of the cupcakes.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Recipe Song: "Come Together" - Beatles

You're probably thinking, what is this recipe song stuff? Well, I've decided to document what I'm listening to while I bake, this being the first recipe I do it. :) It helps create the mood, I suppose. (This particular song reminds me of the general feel of "In Rainbows" CD by Radiohead. I like it. Back to the real reason we're here...)

When I first saw this recipe on Serious Eats, I was sold. One thing I wasn't too fond of was buying the poppy seed. I purchased a small container of 60 grams of poppy seed and that was already $5+. The recipe requires almost a half of that, so that in itself is somewhat on the more expensive side. I won't be making this often because of that reason, but nevertheless it's interesting to try.

So then: I don't have pastry flour, but using the lovely tip included on Serious Eats as well as on this blog the post before this one, I just used cornstarch + regular whole wheat unbleached flour instead. I'm lazy so no sifting for me. I also used 1/2c applesauce + 1/2c butter to cut down on that fat. Substituting whole parts butter for apple sauce is kinda sketchy, so subbing about half is usually safe. (At least that seems to be my experience.) As I only have a 9"x5" loaf pan, I used that and it made the whole thing bigger and flatter, obviously. I've also gotten into the habit of using my convection oven because it heats things more evenly while using less energy. With my convection oven and the bigger pan, it took about 50 minutes to bake with a nice golden brown top and a beautiful crack in the middle that loaves of bread get. One thing I noticed is that the syrup used at the end is too much, I think we can safely cut the overall amount by about half and be good. I wish I had a saucepan that small. The recipe below suggests giving a good 24 hours before serving, but my loaf is for tonight and I will update after about how it tastes. It smelled absolutely delicious when it was baking though, and if that's any indication of what it'll taste like, I'm sold!

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Okay, this loaf turned out really delicious. Just needed to bake it for a shorter amount of time, maybe 45 minutes would have been better. It came out a little too hard and a little on the drier side. I think that could also be because I omitted some butter and used apple sauce instead. I could definitely taste the syrup, which was good and addictive.

4.5 out of 5 stars
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Below from here:

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

-makes 1 standard or 3 mini loaves-
Adapted from The Cake Bible

Ingredients

3 tablespoons milk, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups (5 1/4 ounces) sifted cake flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon (6 grams) loosely packed grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons (28 grams) poppy seeds
13 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I got this out of 2 lemons easily)

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease your pan(s), line bottom(s) with parchment paper, grease parchment, and flour pan interior. In a small mixing bowl, lightly combine the milk, eggs, and vanilla.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and poppy seeds. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add the butter and half the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium (high if using a hand mixer) and beat for 1 minute.

3. Scrape down sides. Add remaining egg mixture in 2 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides and scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55-65 minutes for an 8 x 4 inch loaf, 30-35 minutes for mini loaves.

4. Shortly before the cake is done, put the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in a small pan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, put it on a rack, poke all over with a wire tester or a toothpick, and brush with half of the syrup. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto greased wire rack. Poke bottom of cake with tester, brush with some syrup, and set right side up. Brush sides with remaining syrup and allow to cool before wrapping airtight. Store for 24 hours before eating for best results, to give syrup a chance to distribute evenly. (Good luck with that waiting.)

One Ingredient Ice Cream

I stumbled upon this ingenious recipe for low fat ice cream from thekitchn.com. What an absolutely awesome idea. I experimented by adding a little bit of skim milk (more like non-fat lactaid, but who's counting?) while blending, but I think it's better if you kept that out. I made two batches because I had two frozen bananas. I used a blender and on the first try forgot to break or cut the banana into smaller pieces prior to blending. Do it, it helps. Also, freeze the bananas without a skin, works a lot better.

First batch: 1 frozen banana + 1/5c water + 1/3c skim milk + 1/2c assorted frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries) --> really good smoothie. lol, not ice cream like whatsoever, but delicious, nevertheless. Jamba Juice, move over. Not only was this better tasting, it was cheaper, and I knew exactly what was in it, no weird stuff at all.

Second batch: 1 frozen banana + 1/4c skim milk + 1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter --> soft serve banana peanut butter ice cream. Once again, really don't need the milk, and honestly I think adding a tsp or more of honey would really have made a difference. The consistency was really great, not watery like the first batch. It was so thick, it wouldn't pour out, I had to scoop the mixture out with a spoon. I added some almond slices and it was really great, added a whole new dimension to the "ice cream." I will definitely be making this again!

The great thing is you can use this recipe to make all kinds of things, any kind of ice cream concoction you want! Add peanut butter, honey, any kind of nuts, jams, chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, caramel, butterscotch...your imagination is the limit!

4 of 5 stars
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Below taken from here:

That mystery ingredient, of course, is banana! The smidgen of fat in bananas makes a magic trick when they are frozen and blended up. They turn creamy instead of crumbly, with a smooth texture any home ice cream chef would love to have in their frozen treats.

Here's a step-by-step slideshow of how to do it. The major tips can be summed up as:

• Peel your bananas first.
• Cut them into small pieces.
• Freeze for just 1-2 hours on a plate.
• Blend, blend, blend - scraping down the bowl when they stick.
• Enjoy the magic moment when they turn into ice cream!

Low Fat Banana Bread

Is there such a thing?? Why yes, there is! And it's delicious, and oh so moist and wonderful. And I ate it all. Just kidding. I wanted to, lemme tell ya. I'm still eating brownie from yesterday, good grief that stuff in decadent.

As I am just starting this blog, I don't have any pictures to put up. It's still too much a hassle to upload pictures and then resize and etc, so screw it. You get the pictures from the websites I take my recipes from, and...yea. Besides, there are so few readers, eh--maybe one day.

This blog is the product of a recent graphic design grad looking for a job in this terrible economic climate. Whomever said that unemployment equates to tons of time on his hands was wrong. There are now so many things I want to do, books I want to read, recipes I want to try. Bringing us full circle back on topic of the here and now. Low Fat Banana Bread.

Tips: I feel like less sugar can be used because its already quite sweet from the recipe. I used all apple sauce (approx half a cup, just one snack container of the no sugar added Mott's natural applesauce) and completely cut out the butter. This makes the batter more moist, so I added just a tad more flour/oats and baked it longer. I made these into psuedo-muffins by cooking them in silicone cupcake trays and the bake time would probably equate to around 40 minutes. You can get away with filling each well just a few cms short of full. I never realized til many trial and errors later that banana bread needs to be that rich brown color (but not burnt...that's black). Let them rest for a bit because you don't want them mushy. The toothpick test doesn't work on banana bread because it should come out clean about half way thru cooking. I also added a tsp of cinnamon to it too, because i like the extra dimension of flavor it provides. That's up to you, of course. Happy Baking!


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Below taken here:

Low-Fat Banana Bread Recipe

When I substituted some of the butter with applesauce in a previous recipe, it actually made the bread more moist. I put one loaf in the freezer, but had to take it out within 24 hours because the first was devoured!

by SJG3483

55 min | 5 min prep

SERVES 12 -16 , 2 loaves

• 4 very ripe bananas
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons applesauce

1. Mash bananas in a bowl.
2. Add all other ingredients and mix well.
3. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans (or you can pour it all into one, but it rises enough that you can split it in half).
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.