RSS - Posts
I just ran 17 miles this morning, and these cookies make the perfect post-run treat!
- 3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 C)
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1/4 C olive oil
- 2 C rolled oats
- 2/3 C ground fiber one
- 1/3 C coconut
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/2 t fine grain sea salt
- 1 t baking powder
- 6 – 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped (or both)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.
- In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don’t worry about it.
- Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes.
Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies. I only eat my bananas while they are still on the green side. This is my favorite thing to do with the overly ripe spotted ones!
I have been baking so much with the BBA challenge lately, that i have ceased all other baking. I completely forgot that i have not made my Chocolate pretzels since starting this blog. We finished up our corn muffins pretty quickly, and today, i had a hankering for these. By the time i finished writing this post, i have had more than my fair share of these cookies. I’ll run them off tomorrow!
- 1 1/2 t instant espresso powder
- 3 T boiling water
- 1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 C granulated sugar
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1/2 t sea salt
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 packets Sugar in the Raw, for sprinkling
1. Stir espresso powder into the boiling water until dissolved; set aside. Meanwhile, put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until creamy. Mix in vanilla and salt. Reduce speed to medium-low. Mix in egg, cocoa and dissolved espresso. Gradually add flour, and mix until a smooth dough forms. Turn out onto a piece of wax paper; pat into a square. Wrap dough, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll into balls. Shape balls into 9 or 12-inch-long ropes. I just rolled them out on the wax paper that they the dough was refrigerated in to save on clean up. Twist each rope into a pretzel shape. Space evenly on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl. Brush cookies with egg wash; sprinkle with sugar in the raw. Bake cookies until dry, about 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week (but they won’t be around that long).
what a delicious dinner! it was sort of naughty. we had planned to make taco salads for dinner, but i had bought buttermilk for my next Bread Baker’s Apprentice challange recipe, and we had both been wanting to make pancakes for a while. I think these came out a little too moist and had a tendency to tear.
- 2 C all purpose flour
- 4 t sugar
- 1 t salt
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/4 t cinnamon
- 1 1/2 C buttermilk
- 1/4 C milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 t vanilla
- 3 T butter, melted
- 3 T semi sweet chocolate chips
- preheat oven to 250 F and heat skillet over medium heat. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, and mix wet ingredients in a separate, small bowl.
- when the pan is fully heated, add wet ingredients to the dry and gently stir until NEARLY mixed. (be careful to leave a few clumps)
- keep the cakes warm in the preheated oven.
these were a wonderful post race treat! the food at the Columbia Triathlon was not good. When i finished, all they had left was pasta salad, dried-out bagels, and puny bananas. APPARENTLY there were cookies and cliff bars earlier on, but the racers families ate them up DURING THE RACE! this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I had not seen such moochers until i came to DC and ran the Army 10-miler. my jaw dropped when i saw overweight race bystanders loading boxes with the racers food.
For brownies, these were pretty healthy. They have a ‘B’ grade on calorie-count.com.
- 1 box of brownie mix
- 1 can black beans
- Preheat oven per box directions.
- rinse + drain the black beans, then return to their can and fill w/ enough water to cover. (about 1/2″ below the can rim)
- use an immersion blender to mix up the beans and water thoroughly. I blended them for about 3 solid minutes.
- stir bean mixture into brownie mix. spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray, pour in batter and bake per box directions.
so… it’s chocolate time again, let the cravings begin! working with what i have in our ‘pantry’, i decided to satiate my chocolate yen with a nice, semi-healthy, batch of bradley muffins. while fishing around, i found a box of cocoa and some semi-sweet chips and though, why not?unfortunately, i only had a big can of libby’s pumpkin on hand, so i had eyeball the halfway point, and figure out what to do with the second half of can…
i am so naughty!
- 15 oz. libby’s pumpkin
- 1 box devil’s food cake mix
- 4 T dutch process cocoa
- 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
- mix all the ingredients (chips last) and bake for 23 minutes at 350°.
these ‘muffins’ came out slightly crunchy on the outside, rich and fudgy on the inside. that is to say – PERFECT.
Filed under: DESSERT, DINNER, MULTISPORT | Tags: beef, brick, brownies, chocolate, potatoes
we biked and bricked the course this morning. it was 90° outside, but we biked it 10 minutes faster than last time, a month ago. the park was packed with cars and there were at least as many bikes on the road as cars. there are at least 8 good hills on the course, and on the last one, the man biking in front of me sort of slumped over off the road.
dinner: burgers:
initially, i didn’t really feel like grilling the burgers. didn’t we just eat burgers 4 days ago? but i REALLY COULDN’T after giving myself second degree burns with the spatula… i had left our metal spatula sitting apparently too close to the grill exhaust while it was preheating. i now have a very neat imprint of the spatula handle on my right palm.
joe ended up cooking the entire meal himself, while i pathetically clutched a cold beer can…
dessert: brownies:
before burning myself, i had managed to make the RICH DARK CHOCOLATE brownie recipe found on the back of the King Arthur flour bag. luckily, i made a half batch becuse these are really to die for.
- 1 C sugar
- 1/2 C butter
- 1/2 t salt
- 3/4 C Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 t vanilla
- 3/4 C King Arthur all purpose flour
- 1 C semisweet chocolate chips
- melt butter in medium sized, microwave safe bowl. add sugar and heat heat again if necessary to make it smooth (maybe 30 sec. more).
- stir in cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth.
- add flour and chocolate chips
- bake at 350 in a
yum. i had seen this in a couple places before, but not taken the initiative to make it happen. it just so happened that after making granola this afternoon, i had a few almonds left over, 6 apricots left in the package, and a hankering for chocolate. it was insanely easy to make (and kinda fun) and tasted SOOOO good.
ingredients:
- 6 dried apricots
- 3 T melted dark chocolate (or semi-sweet)
- 6 almonds, chopped (i had seen the recipe done with pistachios)
directions:
- dip the apricot in melted chocolate, sprinkle with chopped nuts, and place on plate in the freezer or refrigerator for chocolate to harden.
thank you bradley – wherever you are…
ingredients:
- 1 can pumpkin puree
- 1 box of devil’s food cake mix
directions:
- mix pumpkin puree and cake mix
- bake at 350 for 35 minutes
so, i was struggling to find a tasty and somewhat healthy cake to make for my dad’s birthday last weekend. In the tasty department, i kept running into some very similar chocolate cake recipes on some popular cooking sites. They all used packaged cake mix, which i was extremely reluctant to do, but having tasted the results, i would definitely do it again.
while decorating the cake, i found it was very helpful to refrigerate the whole thing after the white icing was on for about 15 minutes before applying the red icing. i’m not sure why, but the icing tended to slide down the sides of the cake. before laying the cakes on the pedestal, i dusted it with extra confectioner’s sugar. after placing the tiers, i used my mom’s trick of sliding pieces of parchment paper under the edges of the cake before icing, and then removing them once it was set.
ingredients:
- 1 box of devils food cake
- 1 small package of instant pudding
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup skim milk
- 1/2 cup applesauce + 1/2 cup veggie oil
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups semisweet chips (the whole bag!)
frosting:
- box of confectioners sugar
- 1 stick of light butter, softened
- 2 T milk
- 5 drops of peppermint oil
- dash of salt
cake directions:
- preheat oven to 350°.
- mix all ingredients except the chips.
- fold in chocolate chips.
- pour into two 9″ baking pans sprayed (i used spring-form pans and they worked GREAT).
- bake 44-45 minutes. it was perfect at 44, but another min. wouldn’t hurt.
- let cool on wire rack for a while (maybe 30-35 min – until fully cool).
frosting directions:
- cream 1 1/3 cups sugar + butter.
- add remaining sugar + milk + shakes of peppermint oil.
- refrigerate for 30 min.
