Very delayed updates to come!

I am working on putting together the recipes to match the pictures to update before school vacation is over :)

A birthday cake.....or cookie :) Giant Chcolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie

 

Facts about Betty:

I like to bake. 

I partly like to bake to satisfy my own sweet tooth.

I like to bake for birthdays.

When baking for birthdays I put my own selffish desires aside and bake with the birthday person in mind. 

YES. I actually bake what they would enjoy. surprising. I know. 

This time I believe both parties benefited but I could be wrong (I know I did though!). I am not a HUGE peanut butter cookie fan BUT I am a HUE nuts n'more fan......I mean who isnt?! The recipient of this gift loves peanut butter cookies but I was not sure about his thoughts on cake so why not make a oversize peanut butter cookie to serve as a cake? The cookie vs. cake decision was made and it hightly benefited me because I got to open a new jar of nuts 'n more (my self control was missing when I did this woops....)  :) 

Just look at that delightfulness (yes I made that word up) in a jar. Anyways back to the recipe I used this recipe for a guide for measurements but changed it up a bit.
http://kirbiecravings.com/2015/03/single-serving-giant-flourless-peanut-butter-cookie.html

Giant Chocolate Chip Peanutbutter Cookie:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup nuts n'more toffee crunch peanut butter (salted caramel is up next!)
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp of a whisked egg
• 3/4 of a Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate bar chopped and some shaved (this is really up to your chocolate liking if you want more or less and if you want chunks or shavings in the cookie)
• Trader Joe's Maple Agave Syrup

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Chop and shave chocolate bar.

3. Whisk egg and set aside.

4. In a bowl combine the peanut butter, brown sugar, baking powder and whisked egg. 

5. Mix until batter is smooth. 

6. Add in the chocolate chips/chunks and mix until combined. (save a few to top the cookie with if you would like!)

****At this point I decided that the dough was a little too dry so I added a nice sized pour of Trader Joe's Maple Agave Syrup and mixed unitl combined. 

7.  Using hands shape the dough to form a round cookie shape and place on baking sheet (Press remaining chocolate on top if you set some aside). 

9. Bake for approximately 13-15 minutes until cookie is done. The edges should be browned but the middle will still be a lighter shade of brown.

10. Remove cookie from the oven. Cookie will still be a little soft still.  Let cookie cool on rack for about 15 minutes to settle and set before removing and eating.......because it was for a birthday I actually had to follow this step (but there were some nice crumbs around....)

11. Enjoy! I suggest heating up and topping with some ice cream :) or add in some candles and sing happy birthday to someone special :)

Naner Love..........Maple peanut butter chocolate chip breakfast cookies

 

Those of you that know me know that other than chocolate milk, pancakes, and ice cream, PEANUT BUTTER and naners are the other two foods I could eat all day everyday. I have recently moved and at the time I made these I had not used my oven yet! I know shocker....especially when you see a picture of my new kitchen....it is true love at its finest :). Anyways I had been having a problem with my ac system but decided I needed to bake anyways. I decided because the ac was having such a problem I needed to make something that didn't take too long and was not to intricate or required a lot of prep work either. I had been craving some chocolate chip cookies so was planning on those but then realized that the heat and humidity in my apartment was not so slowing causing my naners to ripen and brown. Therefore, regular chocolate chip cookies went on the back burner and I was trying something new. I had a cookie very similar from Pots n' Kettles food truck on Block Island ( they had coconut and more in it) and really liked it. I have never made chocolate chip cookies with naners but figured it was pretty simple and did not require much heat,prep, or baking time. I knew in my head that all you really need for these breakfast naner cookies are naners, oats, a nut butter, and chocolate chips (you can also add in nuts or dried fruit if you want). BUT I wanted to make these a little different. I had just made a little trip to the Nuts 'n more peanut butter store and picked up some maple peanut butter powder :) YUM. Instead of adding in the toffee crunch peanut butter I decided to use the maple powder.....great life choice (lets be honest anything using their products is a great life choice). Well now that I have totally gone on a tangent back to the breakfast cookies. I decided on a maple peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. These are more of a oat cookie that you can have anytime (much different consistency than a true cookie...although you could add flour in to make them more similar). You can even enjoy these for breakfast :) or just all day long like I did! Make sure to store the extra in a sealed container in the fridge. 

Maple peanut butter chocolate chip breakfast cookies:

 

Ingredients: 
   2 medium/larger over ripe naners  
  1 cup of  old fashioned oats 
   2 TBSP of nuts 'n more maple peanut butter powder 
  3/4  of a dark chocolate bar chopped into small pieces and some shavings (or a handful or 3 of chocolate chips)

optional items to add: nuts of your choice, dried fruit, a different chocolate, honey, maple syrup, coconut

Directions:
 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Chop and shave chocolate, set aside.
2. Place naners in a large mixing bowl and beat until mashed. 

3. Add in oats and peanut butter powder and mix until combined. 

 

4. Add in the chocolate (or what you choose to add) and mix in with a spatula until combined. 

                                               (obviously I added in more after this picture)

5. Spoon out the size you would like and place on lined baking sheet. Dough will not be as dry as normal cookie dough so I would use a spoon (if you think your dough is still too wet add in more oats)! 

6. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Cookies should cook through but not dry out completely. 

7. Take out of oven and let cool. OR enjoy right away (think about it....they are like baked oatmeal!) Top with some ice cream, peanut butter, or even some honey! If you have enough left store in a sealed container in the fridge. Let's be honest though....how could you have any left over? They are quite addicting and they are healthy!

It had been too long.....super chunky honey almond biscotti or cookies...depending on which directions you follow :)

Now that school is out (although it has only been about a week) I have found myself experimenting more with cooking rather than baking. This is partly because I am starting to enjoy that more as well. Also, because when I bake a lot my family  in the house doesn't like it too much! Who wouldn't like it?! But I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinion. In the cooking word, I experimented with some new marinades, salad dressing, and a few different versions of sweet potato fries on the grill. I have been doing more as well but this is what I can remember. OH and if you really know me I am not a huge sandwich person ( when you get free food as a lifeguard and work a full time job and take night classes sandwiches become old pretty quickly) or a huge egg person BUT today I did make an egg sandwich as well topped with fresh parsley from the garden!

 Now to the baking! I just wanted to bake! I know biscotti are always enjoyed around here and saw a recipe that I wanted to try out so I figured why not! I also wanted to thank a couple of special people for helping me out :) The original recipe can be found here   http://www.runonveg.com/recipes/lotties-biscotti-gluten-oil-free-and-no-added-sugar/    but I did change it around quite a bit. Also, make sure you read through all the steps before you start.....because you could miss the last part that directs you to place back in for 20 more minutes.....or you could just end up with some honey almond cookies which were quite tasty as well!

Super Chunky Honey Almond Biscotti (2 ways-half has chopped chocolate in it!)

Ingredients:

    3 cups almonds (roughly chopped in a food processor)
    1 cup Bob’s whole wheat pastry flour (or another flour of your choice)
    2 tablespoons baking powder
    3 eggs
    3 tablespoons of honey
    1 tablespoon vanilla
    2 bars of dark chocolate chopped (or a cup or so of chocolate chips)
 
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Place 3 cups of almonds in a food processor and process until chopped be careful although I LOVE almond butter you do not want almond butter for this!)

3. Chop chocolate bars if using bars and not chips. I like to use bars because it lets the chocolate spread out in the mix more....resulting in you getting more in every bite :) 

4. In a mixer whisk together eggs and vanilla.

5. Once whisked add in flour and baking powder. Add in chopped almonds on top.

6. Mix egg/vanilla mixture and almond/flour mixture until combined. Add in honey and mix until combined.

7. Add in the chopped chocolate (or chips) mix until combined (or for a few seconds and then fold in with hands). Be careful not to mix too much to overwork the dough. ***I separated the dough in half before this point because I know there are some chocolate haters so I made half without chocolate. 

8. On the lined baking sheet form two logs-you may need to wet your hands so it does not stick to your hands or be like me and just eat the dough off your hands and out of the mixer when you are done :) Make sure they are even size logs ( mine are a little off because I wanted more with chocolate!)

9. Drizzle the tops with more honey…..I went honey happy :) I also topped half with more chopped chocolate too!

10. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 275
11. ****(see bottom of page for note) Let cool for at least an hour ( mine was longer because clearly I did not read all the steps in the original recipe) then slice into biscotti shapes. Be sure not to cut them too thin or they will break (but then you can eat all the crumbs!)

12. Place back in the oven to toast at 300 for 20 minutes.
13. Drizzle tops with more honey and let cool.... or not and enjoy!

*** I enjoyed a lot of the cookies after step 10 because I did not read the last step in the original recipe. I got mixing and read the let cool part and figured it was something like enjoy with coffee or ice cream. I am still alive…meaning nothing was too undercooked the biscotti just becomes more of a honey cookie instead. I enjoyed them both ways!

This is what they looked like before putting them back in the oven.....

A new adventure for Betty and a pie for Captain Jack.

As stated in the earlier post. Captain Jack is not a fan of the white wheat flour baked goods. He has been saying why can't you just bake with AP flour. I also know one of his favorite pies is Strawberry rhubarb. We grow our own rhubarb so I went berry picking....if you have one fresh ingredient why not use all fresh ingredients?! Now I have made plenty of tarts in my day but never a full pie. This one was quite the adventure...broken dishes, burned hand, dropped ingredients the list goes one but it came out ok! A nice glass of sangria didn't make it worse either! I found this recipe.....and did not really stray from it at all http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/magnolia-bakerys-strawber_n_3308057.html. I will have to make it again though because some of the rhubarb is still not all the way soft and some of the bottom crust is quite undercooked (my favorite way to enjoy!) I am thinking it has to do with the fact that I baked it with foil over the top because after the first step of baking for 10 minutes at 425 my crumble was a tad toasted and I did not want it to burn anymore. I have copied and pasted the directions but this is not my recipe I simply followed this one (changed a bit below but not much)....again tweaks here and there based off of too much liquid and such but nothing dramatic. I did use a squeeze of fresh orange juice rather then zest.

STRAWBERRY & RHUBARB CRUMB PIE
Recipe courtesy of Magnolia Bakery
Yields one 9” pie
Pie Dough
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz butter (1 stick), cold & cut into small pieces
2-3 tablespoons cold water
Filling
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tsp orange zest (optional) ( I squeezed a very small amount of juice from an orange)
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1” & 1⁄2” pieces
3 cups strawberries, trimmed and cut in half (or quarters if they are large)
2 TBLS unsalted butter
Crumb
4 oz butter (one stick cold, unsalted & cubed)
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
  Make your pie dough first.
1. For pie dough, place the flour, butter, and salt into a food processor; pulse until the butter is pea sized and resembles a coarse meal.

2. Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, and pulse until a crumbly dough forms.

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten into a disc.
4. Wrap and refrigerate the dough for approximately 30 minutes.

In the meantime, for the filling:
1. Chop and measure out fruits for the filling.

                       

2. Combine the granulated sugar, flour, and salt in a large bowl.

3. Remove 2 tablespoons and set aside.
4. Mix the dry mixture (minus the 2 tablespoons that were set aside) with the strawberries, rhubarb and orange zest, and let sit.

To make crumb topping:
1. place the butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt into the food processor; pulse until the butter is mixed in and the texture is crumbly; set aside. (Or mix together in a bowl with a pastry cutter).

** Preheat oven to 425.

Take Dough out of fridge:
1. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the disk of dough into a circle shape, about 11” in diameter and 1/8” thick.
2. Fit the dough over a 9-inch pie pan and crimp the edges as desired.

3. Sprinkle the 1 to 2 tablespoons of the sugar/flour mixture that was set aside onto the bottom of the crust. ( I only used about half of it) 
4. Pour the rhubarb/strawberry filling evenly into the pie pan.

5. Cover the pie evenly with the crumb mixture. Press sides down.

6. Place the pie on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and put into the oven for 10 minutes. ( I only did for 8 because of crumble was burning).
7. Reduce oven heat to 350° and bake for 35-45 minutes longer until the juices are thick and bubbly.
Remove from the oven and allow the pie to cool for at least 4 hours (if you know me CLEARLY I did not do that).
8. Top with ice cream or whipped cream and enjoy!