Recipe Review: Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blender Cake

I came across this recipe, Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blender Cake, from Averie Cooks via Pinterest.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate
Chip Blender Cake

I have never tried baking anything flourless and couldn't really wrap my head around baking without flour.  I love to bake, and as mentioned in previous post, am now baking my own bread.  This one caught my eye though, partly because I had bananas I needed to use and partly because it's mixed in a blender.  I have to say, I'm very happy with the results.

Next time (yes, there will be a next time), I will let my batter cool a bit before mixing in the chocolate chips (my blender got the batter a bit warm).  Other than that, it was easy to make. I did let it cool before eating (per the directions), but I'm liking it better after overnight in the fridge.

I definitely plan on giving some of her other flourless, blender recipes a try.

Bread!

It's a new year and with that come resolutions.  We all make them, though it's hard to keep them.  I'm starting out easy.  Sorta.  I joined a challenge at a gym to get back in shape and that is working.  More weight lifting/strength training, which I enjoy.  It also has the added benefit of giving me an "appointment" in the evening, so I leave work on time.  Fortunately, it's not far from the house, about 10 minutes, so that's good.  While the days are getting longer, it's still dark when I drive home and I don't see well at night, so short drive and street lights make it easier.

Another resolution was to bake my own bread.  A while ago, I found a recipe for English Muffins, which was something I'd never thought to bake/make myself.  But, I wanted to try it.  I got the English Muffin rings for Christmas, plus a mix.  I did them about two weeks ago and they were good.  This weekend, I'm will be making them totally from scratch.

Toasted English muffin (home made)

English Muffins (home made)

Based on the success of the English Muffins, I decided to start baking my own bread.  Quite a leap.  A while ago, I got the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.  In addition to recipes, it gives the how's and why's of baking just about anything, which prompted the decision to bake bread.  So, today, I gave it a go and am pleased to say it was a success.

Vermont Oatmeal Maple-Honey Bread

The bread I chose was Vermont Oatmeal Maple-Honey Bread.  Based on the advise in the book, I used the bread machine to knead, then used the traditional method to bake.  The first rise was okay, but the second rise in the pans took a little longer than their estimate.  I suspect this was because the weather is cooler and so was the house.  Still, I let it rise to where it needed to and then baked it.  I will probably never go back to store bought bread.  The big challenge now is slicing.  Even with a guide, I can get a crooked slice.

Recipe Review: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

The past week or so has seen a giant jump in my baking.  I've shared a good portion of what I've baked, but some is just for me.  These muffins fall in the just for me category.  I'm always on the lookout for a good chocolate muffin.  I've tried a lot of recipes from various cookbooks and have so far only run across one that was really good and it made just two large muffins (I tried making four smaller ones and they just weren't the same as the large ones).  Anyway, I came across this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Oh She Glows (one of my favorite blog sites) on Pinterest.  Since I've also recently discovered the joy of zucchini, I had to give them a try.

I'm so glad I did.  They were well worth the effort.  I particularly like the recipes from this blog as they are dairy free.  The flour came out a bit strong to me, but mine could have been on the cusp of needing to be replaced.  Next time, I may go with just unbleached flour or a mix of unbleached with whole wheat pastry flour.  And, I'll use a finer grate on the zucchini, but that is just my personal preference.  Overall, I'm happy to have found a chocolate muffin recipe that is good and has some good for me stuff in it (mostly referring to the zucchini).  Give them a try.

Recipe Review: Coconut Loaf

We had a meet and greet for a new employee in my department at work and I decided that it should be a morning breakfasty kind of thing.  I made Poppy Seed muffins from Mostly Muffins, a wonderful little cookbook I got years ago and have used so much it is literally falling apart.  I have many muffin cookbooks, in all shapes and sizes, and this recipe is one of my favorites.  Most poppy seed muffins have lemon.  This one doesn't.  It does have sour cream, which gives it a very moist texture.  I made mini-muffins rather than full size and as always they were wonderful.

Coconut Loaf

I also wanted to take something else.  I toyed with a blueberry coffee cake or a pound cake or some type of nut bread.  I was going through a little Taste of Home Muffins and Quick Breads cookbook, you know, the ones that you get at check-out registers, that I came across this Coconut Loaf  recipe. I'd wanted to try it for some time, but never had any coconut.  Well, I had coconut, so I gave it a try.  It's simply wonderful!  It's more like a pound cake with a bit of coconut -- the coconut is not overwhelming at all.

I did make a couple of modifications - I used margarine (really not a huge change) and almond milk, leaving this version dairy free.

It sliced fine after it cooled, but the following day it was a little crumbly when sliced.  Not sure why.  Still, it's a wonderful recipe and I'll probably bake it again

Baking and a cookbook review...of sorts...

I haven't baked since I moved back in April.  Which is sad, because not only do I enjoy the results of my labor, I enjoy the process of baking as well.  However, it's always hard to get used to a new kitchen and new appliances and really get a cooking/baking groove in any new place.  My Mom figures it's because in the beginning, it's not "my" kitchen.

But, things happen and in my case I baked out of a little bit of desperation.  I'm having a lot of stomach problems as well as a return on headaches, just plain tiredness, etc.  It finally occurred to me that it could literally be the food I eat.  I mean who thinks they're intolerant to certain things if they've gone their whole life not thinking that?  Well, I'm still researching, but I started by going dairy free (taking a challenge, which is still in the rough start phase).  Do you know how many things have diary in them?  Even my bread had dairy.  This weekend's grocery store trip I got more substitute items (for lack of a better phrase) to better go dairy free (I'll also be following up with a doctor).

So, back to the baking.  This weekend I tried two new recipes - diary free and gluten free - from the cookbook, Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone.  Awesome.

Last night, to satisfy that sweet tooth, was Chocolate Chip cookies.  I have not made her "flour mix," so I subbed Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free mix, but after baking these two recipes (other one below), I will be.  The cookies have a slightly nutty flavor, but I've baked chocolate chip cookies with whole wheat flour, so this doesn't bother me.  Overall, these cookies are great and were worth my late night baking foray.


The other recipe I baked today.  Cornbread.  I hadn't planned on it, but I've been eating sandwiches at work and the author has a recipe that uses cornbread as the sandwich bread.  What a cool idea.  This cornbread is awesome!  It will be around my house even if it's not the food causing my problems.  I didn't do the sandwich she had in the cookbook, but I did an egg sandwich (with a small amount of dairy free cheese that was quite tasty).  Truly, this cornbread is some of the best I've made.

I'm looking forward to trying other recipes from this cookbook.

New Recipe Challenge - Whole Wheat & Millet Banana Bread

I a member of a cooking group aimed at cooking for one or two people that has a challenge to try a new recipe three times per month.  I finally realized that this includes all recipes, including baked goods!  While I am trying true meal recipes, I love to bake so am including some of the baked goods recipes I try as part of the challenge.  And, since my surgery, my stomach doesn't appear to be as happy with goodies from various bakeries as it used to be.  Such is life.  So, I hope to explore more recipes for baked goods as well as for meals.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across the Whole Wheat & Millet Banana Bread recipe on Joy the Baker's blog and knew I had to try it.  Maybe it was the pictures or that it used millet seed or maybe it was the fact that it makes two loaves (I'm good at sharing and freezing baked goodies).  At any rate, today I tried this recipe -- with a few modifications.  I used spelt instead of whole wheat, because that's what I had.  I used an organic egg product because, well, it needed to be used, but it did have the benefit of reducing the calories.  And, because I knew I'd be calculating the calories for this recipe, I substituted apple sauce for half of the oil.

I happy to report it tastes as good as it looked on the blog.  Maybe a tad rich. Trying to decide if it's the oil and if maybe I can just replace it all with applesauce the next time, because yes there will be a next time.  Recipe recommended.