Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I made cookies and cream cookies the other day (to be posted, I just put the dough in the freezer and haven't baked them off yet, but OMG yum!), and had a bunch of knock-off oreos left over.  Why not make cupcakes?!

For The Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup hot water
12 Oreos, coarsley chopped, plus more for frosting

Line a cupcake tin with papers (this made about 18 cupcakes), preheat oven to 350 F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, powder, and salt.  Sift twice. Set aside.
Cream your stick of butter with a hand mixer or blender, add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, mix.

Add milk and flour mixture in alternating additions (3 adds each), scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula between each addition.  I like to sift in the flour mixture as I add it so the ingredients are sifted a total of 3 times - it makes for a smooth and fluffy cupcake :).

Stir in chopped oreos (or Tops knock-off brand) until evenly distributed. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full with batter. Bake 16-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  (the oreo chunks rise to the top, makes for a pretty cupcake pre-frosting if you wanted to save some calories)

For the Frosting
1/2 lb powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-3 TB milk
3-4 oreos, finely crushed/food processed plus 9 whole cookies for garnish.

Cream butter with hand mixer.  Slowly add powdered sugar until thoroughly combined.  Add milk 1 Tb at a time, until you reach piping consistancy.
I used my mini food processor to finely pulverize the oreos, I put about 5 TB oreo crumbs into the frosting and mixed until combined.
Decorate as desired, and enjoy!

Cinnamon-Hazelnut Muesli

As much as I love to inhale granola for ALL occasions, I know it's really high in fat and sugar, so I try to avoid it. I have found a healthier alternative: Muesli! It's very high energy and delicious, and you can really add whatever you'd like to it to customize it for your own tastes.

Ingredients (Mix all together...that's it!)
2 cups Rolled Oats
1/2 cups wheat bran
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
2 tsp flax seeds (ground)
1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Makes 7 cups.

Nutritional Info (per 1/2 cup):

• Servings Per Recipe: 14
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 97.9

• Total Fat: 4.1 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 119.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 14.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.0 g
• Protein: 3.2 g

Mix all these ingredients and enjoy! for a much unhealthier breakfast with this, although high-energy, mix it with 2 Tb peanut butter, 1-2 Tb honey, and some almond milk. yumm.

Chocolate-Coconut Low Fat Scones

Saw this idea come from Martha Stewart, but I substituted out the fat for applesauce to make them slightly more healthy.

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold heavy cream
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup cold, unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate
Sanding sugar (optional)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together 3/4 cup cream and egg. In a large bowl, combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir applesauce into the flour mixture.  It should combine into a coarse texture. Stir in coconut and chocolate. With a fork, stir in cream mixture until just combined. (The dough should be crumbly)

Put dough onto parchment surface, shape into a 6-inch round. Pre-cut the dough into wedges (6-8).  Brush the top of the dough with 1 Tb cream and sanding sugar.  Bake 16-18 minutes, rotate sheet halfway through.  

This recipe is GREAT eaten slightly warm with a cold glass of milk. mmm.

Low Fat Blueberry-Strawberry Flax Muffins

I can't seem to get enough of berry muffins this summer.  I know it's been HOT and DRY all summer and the berry season is awful, but something about the summer makes me crave fresh fruits.  These muffins aren't entirely fat free because of the crumb top, which was delicious, but you can definitely leave that part out to make them a tad more healthy. 

For the Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups white sugar (can reduce to 1/2)
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup flax seeds, ground
1/2 - 1 cups blueberries
1/2-1 cups finely chopped strawberries

For the Crumb Topping
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease or line muffin tin (I used my tin that makes HUGE muffins, but it only made 6 that way).

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and flax seeds. set aside. In a small bowl, whisk egg, then stir in milk and applesauce.  Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Fold in blueberries and strawberries.  Fill muffin cups right to the top of the liner/tin.

For the crumb topping: (if you're using the BIG muffin cups like I did, half this recipe - you'll have more than enough.  If you use regular size cupcake tins, this amount will give you enough to generously cover all 12 muffins)
In a food processor (or large bowl with your clean bare hands), pulse sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon until it resembles a coarse meal.  Sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb pie requires no introduction. yum! 

The Crust:

This makes 2 crusts (or a top and a bottom)...half if you only  need the bottom:
3 cups flour
2 Tb sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon **(optional...goes GREAT with berry pies)
12 Tb unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
6 Tb shortening, chilled and cubed (or cut into small pieces)
8ish Tb ice water

        Blend flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl (or use a food processor if you prefer).  Dot surface of dry mixture with butter and shortening pieces.  Get in there with your CLEAN hands and mix flour mixture with butter and shortening until it resembles a coarse meal (or pulse in your food processor).  Add ice water 1 Tb at a time until you get your dough (should form together into a ball). 

 
If you are making two crusts, split dough into 2 discs (or 1 for 1), wrap in plastic, and chill for at least an hour.  Next, roll one disc of dough and mold into your chosen pie pan.  Put in refrigerator until ready to use.   If you're making it ahead of time, cover and freeze.

For the Filling

If you haven't figured it out yet, I LOVE using cinnamon in everything.  I think it goes great in strawberry rhubarb pie, but if you're not a fan than *omit cinnamon from this recipe.

2 cups sliced strawberries
2 cups diced rhubarb 
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup dry tapioca (you can use flour too but I prefer tapioca for thickening)
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon*


In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for the filling.  Gently toss using a rubber spatula so all of the fruit is coated by sugar mixture.  Let sit about 15 minutes once mixed.

 
Remove crust from the fridge, and fill with strawberry-rhubarb mixture.  Roll out second crust and cover as you prefer (I did a lattice top, but I like to switch it up with full cover and ivy top or use fun patterns with cookie cutters)





Bake at 400 F for 45-50 minutes, until filling is thick and bubbly.  Allow pie to cool and set (if you're patient enough), serve, and enjoy!

Cinnamon-Vanilla Bean Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to make something tasty but custom for Heath's Birthday (A week early but we had a lunch with his fam).  Since I've heard amazing things about his mom's strawberry rhubarb pie, I opted out of the pie making...good thing too, her's was delicious!  Instead, I wanted to keep those flavors and have an excuse to get more fondant practice.  My camera batteries were dead, so I just have this cell phone picture and no pictures of the inside :( Looks like I'll just have to make more...

The Cake:

Prepare a recipe of white layer cake, but add 2 tsp of cinnamon with your dry ingredients.  Bake as specified, or in whatever pan/cupcake tin you need for your occasion.

The Frosting:

Prepare a recipe of vanilla buttercream frosting, keeping it on the thick side.  You may want to almost eliminate the milk addition, as the strawberry-rhubarb reduction is juicy.

In a small pot, combine 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, 1/2 cup chopped rhubarb, and 1/2 cup sugar.  Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until all ingredients are tender.  

I used the smoothie attachment for my hand mixer, but a food processor or blender would do the trick.  Puree/blend the sauce to work out the chunks.  Let cool completely.  Slowly add to your buttercream until you reach the flavor you desire.  This seemed VERY sweet to me, next time I'm going to either cut back on the sugar or not use buttercream, but it tasted very good with the cake.  Frosting will be a light pink.

Frost your cake/cupcakes as desired, and enjoy! The cinnamon really compliments the strawberry rhubarb flavors for a very delicious treat.

This particular cake I decorated with fondant (blue water and camoflage upper; white fish with luster dust) and modeling chocolate (grizzly bear and bobber) to make it very "Heath-ified."  The camoflage was a pain to make...split into 4 different colors of greens and browns, then arrange in a camoflage-like way as you roll it out.  Might stick with solid colors until I'm a little more seasoned at decorating cakes!

HEALTHY Thanksgiving (in May...)

So I was craving Thanksgiving flavors, and didn't get called to work the other day, so I figured I'd get creative and create a healthy version of Thanksgiving dinner! This meal consisted of orange-glazed turkey breasts, mashed cauliflower, and roasted butternut squash with craisins.  Delicious!

Turkey

The turkey breasts are really easy for this meal. You need:
2 Turkey Breasts
1/2 - 3/4 cups orange juice
3 Tbsp brown sugar

Combine orange juice and brown sugar in a medium bowl.  Place turkey in bowl and marinate for at least an hour (the longer you marinate, the more flavor you'll get).  Sear the sides of the turkey with your grill on high heat (1-2 minutes per side), then turn the heat down and cook thoroughly.

Mashed Cauliflower

I made a HUGE batch of cauliflower for this meal...it just meant more leftovers for me!  I recommend using a food processor for this to get a better texture that is more like mashed potatoes (I was at Heath's, the bachelor pad that lacks cooking appliances, so I just mashed them by hand).
1 head of cauliflower
1 Tbsp of butter (more or less depending on your preference)
1/4 cup fat free cream (more or less depending on your preference)
Salt and pepper

Cut and clean the cauliflower into florets.  Bring a pot of water to a boil, cook the cauliflower until tender.  *Using a food processor* (or by hand if you lack the tools), mash the cauliflower into a fine texture.  Add butter and cream to reach your desired consistency, then add salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Roasted Butternut Squash with Craisins (thanks, Wegmans!)

This is my favorite side dish served up by Wegmans.  I just started working there part time and it's an internal battle not to get this every time I work.  I changed the recipe slightly, but the original can be found on the Wegmans website. yummy!
1 medium-large butternut squash, cubed
1 medium-large vidalia onion, chopped
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 bag of baby spinach 
Olive Oil 
Salt and Pepper

Peel and cube the butternut squash.  Chop your onions.  Toss with olive oil (I used about 1 Tbsp to keep it on the light side) and salt and pepper.  Place in a roasting pan and roast until tender (about 45 minutes in the oven at 350).  Remove from oven, then toss with craisins and baby spinach.  Serve and enjoy!


These flavors together were delicious and VERY healthy!