Rum Gingerbread

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Andrea

I know that it might not be the holidays any longer but it technically is still winter and that means winter foods are still acceptable.

One of my favorite flavors of all time is that of gingerbread. The combination of clove and molassess is a match made in heaven.

Gingerbread is so spicy and not overly sweet which makes it the perfect dessert for me.

I experimented a lot this winter with cooking and baking with bourbon and rum. This is one of those experiments and it turned out to be a favorite.

Andrea’s Rum Gingerbread
Dry:

1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1C Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1tsp Baking Soda

1 1/2tsp Baking Powder

1 1/2tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/4tsp Ground Allspice

1/2tsp Ground Clove

1/2tsp Ground Ginger

1tsp Grated Fresh Ginger

2TBSP Brown Sugar

Wet:

1/2C Unsweetened Coconut Milk (the kind found in the dairy aisle)

1/4C Rum

1/2C Molasses

2TBSP Light Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 375 and spray a square baking dish (9×9) with oil or nonstick spray.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Andrea

The other day I was surfing around looking at different recipes for stuff when I stumbled up on a chocolate chip cookie cooked in a cast iron skillet.

Whoa! Back that train up!

They completely had my attention because that sounds darn good! I looked at the recipe and immediately started figuring out how I could make my own.

Everyone’s heard of those BIG chocolate chip cookies sometimes people use in place of birthday cakes. But this? This is a completely different concept.

It really is just a basic chocolate chip cookie cooked in a cast iron skillet which results in a thicker cookie with a gooey middle.

I wasted no time in making my own version.

Andrea’s Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

1C Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1C White Whole Wheat Flour

1/3C Unsweetened Coconut Milk (Found in the dairy aisle, not the canned kind)

2 1/2TBSP Unsalted Butter, room temp + 1/2TBSP

1 Egg, room temp

2011 International Blogger Cookie Exchange Roundup

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Andrea

Whew that’s quite the title! The day has arrived where we get a chance to look at all the lovely cookie recipes that were passed around for this year’s cookie exchange!

Please take a look at these links and have fun checking out all the cookies that everyone made!

Diana made Whiskey Molasses cookies, recipe by yours truly.

Rachel made pecan brittle bars.

Alyse made gingerbread cookies.

Jess made oatmeal cookies.

I made Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies.

Also swing over to Lori’s site to see the rest of the roundup! She’s got a big list of recipes to share!

Thanks to everyone who participated this year! What fun to see all these cookies!

Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Andrea

For the Holiday Cookie Exchange, I was paired up with Jess! She sent along her recipe for Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies.

I made a few changes to accomodate what I had on hand along with adjusting to suit our tastes.

Below is the original recipe from Jess:

Italian Chocolate Meatball Cookies

from Dianna Petrella’s recipe (a family friend)

Ingredients

1 cup shortening (yes, you have to use shortening or something like Earth Balance – unfortunately butter just doesn’t work right)

1.5 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 cup warm milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

5 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup cocoa powder (Hershey’s, Ghirardelli, or Scharffen Berger are good)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1 cup walnuts (finely chopped)

1 cup raisins

1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl (ideally you would do this in a stand mixer if you have one; I wouldn’t recommend a hand mixer unless you’ve got an industrial strength one). Roll into balls. Bake at 350º for 10-15 minutes. Cool and dip tops into confectionary sugar frosting and sprinkle tops with confetti. Freeze for up to three months. Yields 4-5 dozen.

For frosting, mix 3 cups confectionary sugar, 2 Tbsp milk, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

My adapations are as follows:

Sweet Potato Pie

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Andrea

Pumpkin pie is one of those items that I stopped making for our Thanksgiving dinner a few years back. Don’t get me wrong, I love pumpkin!

But we have it all the time and I use it in a lot of different applications. Sweet potatoes were something that was completely traditional for Scott to have at Thanksgiving so we couldn’t skip them.

What to do? They had to be part of the menu yet as a side dish would put us way over the edge.

I decided to remove them as a side dish and return them as dessert.

This has worked out very well! We’re still getting sweet potatoes for the big day but not as a sticky gross mess (sorry but that whole marshmallow thing needs to go!). Instead it’s served up in pie form!

And if you’ve got folks who claim they hate pumpkin (GASP!) you can serve them this instead!

This year I experimented a little and added a crumb topping and some good rum into the mix.

Fig and Date Coffee Cake

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Andrea

It’s no secret that I like cooking with beer but I also like baking with beer. And experimenting with different ways to use beer in the kitchen.

One of my most recent experiments resulted in what is now my favorite coffee cake of all time. This coffee cake uses dried figs, dates, and nuts as part of the crumble topping.

This helps keep the cake moist while baking and gives a slight nod toward the fig newtons of my childhood. I wasn’t a huge fan of fig newtons as a kid but when I got older I enjoyed them a great deal.

Having found dried figs at the store, I knew that I wanted to use them in something. With seasonal beers out right now, the idea of making a coffee cake with one seemed like a natural fit.

I’ve made this cake several times since the first experiment and it always makes me squee with happiness when I get a chance to nibble on it.

Read more on Fig and Date Coffee Cake…

Frozen Pumpkin Dessert

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Andrea

We eat a lot of bananas in this house. So much, that I’m pretty much convinced the grocery store checkout clerks find us a bit bizarre as we pile up at least 5 bunches of bananas.

They get used in oatmeal and frozen ones get used in smoothies. Rocky also gets a frozen one every night in his kong for his bedtime snack. We eat them a lot! So it’s a good thing we love bananas.

When I came across Gena’s tip for using frozen bananas to make a soft serve style dessert I was intrigued and knew immediately that we would love it. We’ve had frozen banana dessert a bunch of times now, our favorite way using chocolate soymilk and peanut butter.

I know, it’s pretty much heaven.

Being that it’s fall, it was only a matter of time before I tried my hand at using pumpkin in this dessert.

I used to be in love with pumpkin ice cream. It was my very favorite flavor! Then I started becoming more aware of ingredients and what exactly I was putting into my body. Sadly the majority of pumpkin ice cream out there (Jeni’s excluded obviously) has a ton of crap in it. I stopped buying it and became a very sad Andrea.

Chocolate Quinoa Bread

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Andrea

It’s the end of the month which means we are wrapping up Quinoa Month! What better way to end the month than with some chocolate!

I originally set out to make brownies but this experiment turned out a lot more quick bread-like and not so brownie-like. However it’s still super tasty and full of chocolate goodness!

Andrea’s Chocolate Quinoa Bread

1C Whole wheat pastry flour
1/2C Unbleached All-Purpose flour
1 1/2C Cooked quinoa
1/4C Cane sugar
1/4C Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2tsp Baking powder
1tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp Ground cinnamon
1TBSP Ground flax
Pinch salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
1/2C Crushed walnuts
1/2C Dark chocolate chips
1 1/4C Soymilk
1/2C Coffee
2tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a brownie pan or 8inch square casserole dish with nonstick spray, set aside. In a medium size mixing bowl combine the soymilk, vanilla, and coffee. In a large mixing bowl combine all other ingredients except the walnuts and chocolate chips. Whisk to get all ingredients combined and fluffed. Add in the nuts and chocolate chips, then add in the soymilk mixture. Gently stir until everything is combined and then add the mixture to the baking dish. The batter is a bit thick so make sure that you even it out with a spoon once it’s in the baking dish. Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.