Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
Someone recently asked me what my favorite thing to bake was and I was stumped because it is difficult to narrow it down when I like so many things! The truth is that I like to bake just about anything, but if I have to pick, I would say that brownies are one of my favorite things to bake. They’re easy to bake, huge crowd pleasers and you can put many different spins on them to change their flavor completely. These Banana Brownies with Cacao Nibs, for instance, definitely stand out from your average brownie.
The basic brownie batter here is one that I use often, made with melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder for a strong chocolate flavor. I added mashed banana to the brownie base, along with chocolate chips and cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are chopped up pieces of roasted cocoa beans. The nibs usually go on to become chocolate, but they can also be added to chocolate bars and baked goods for a little crunch and a slightly toasty, nutty, chocolate element.
These brownies are pretty amazing and a fantastic change of pace from your standard brownie recipe. They are super moist and fudgy, yet still tender, and they have a great balance of chocolate and banana flavor. I used dark chocolate chips, but semisweet are a good choice here, as well. The cacao nibs add a crunch, but are more subtle than a big pecan or walnut is going to be, and they enhance the overall chocolatiness of the brownies. You might have to look to a specialty baking store to find the nibs, but if you want to skip them you’ll get good results by using walnuts or pecans in this recipe, too.
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Quick breads are breads that are made without yeast, hence they are “quick” to prepare. You probably think of banana bread or pumpkin bread when you think of a quick bread, as sweet quick breads are a brunch staple, but there are many savory quick breads out there that make a nice addition to other meals – like this Cheddar Onion Quick Bread. The bread mixes up in a few minutes and bakes in less than an hour, which means that you can even fit it in on a busy weeknight to have fresh, homemade bread along with dinner.
This bread could not be any easier to make, and the resulting loaf is delicious. It has a light, but moist, crumb and packs in a lot of flavor. The onions cook right in the bread, so you get a very sweet onion flavor in the finished bread, which compliments the cheddar cheese nicely. Both sweet onions and regular onions will work beautifully. I tend to use sweet onions, but use what you have on hand. The cheddar also adds a few streaks of orange here and there in the loaf for color as well as flavor.
This recipe could be easily adapted to use other types of cheese – pepper jack would be something spicier, for instance – to suit your preferences and what you have on hand. However you make it, it goes well with all kinds of savory dishes – and since it is so easy to throw together, there is really never a bad time to whip up a loaf. I like to keep it simple and serve it with soups and salads. Classic tomato soup and gazpacho are two of my favorite pairings with this bread. It is good plain and even better when you smear it with a little bit of butter. The bread can be sliced and toasted, as well, to add a little crunch to it.
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Rocky Road is a popular ice cream flavor, and the combination of chocolate, marshmallows and nuts is so well known that it can be used to make a lot more than just ice cream. For instance, these Rocky Road Scones will be instantly recognizable to fans of rocky road. They are chocolate scones with mini marshmallows, walnuts and chocolate chips. Definitely not your usual breakfast fare!
The scone dough is made much like other scones, with butter cut into a flour mixture to give the finished scones a light, flaky texture. I recommend sifting the flour mixture for this recipe because it contains cocoa powder, and you don’t want to get unincorporated lumps of it in the dough. Mini marshmallows add some extra sweetness and walnuts add a nice crunch, while those chocolate chips up the chocolate factor considerably. Walnuts could also be substituted with almonds, if you prefer almonds to walnuts in your rocky road.
These scones have a great, brownie-like chocolate flavor to them along with that light texture of a regular scone. They’re moist and not too sweet, so they still seem like a good breakfast or brunch treat, rather than a straight dessert. They are best when they are still slightly warm and fresh out of the oven, while the marshmallows are still soft. If you can’t eat them all at once, however, they will keep well for a day or two when stored in an airtight container after cooling.
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Icy, blended margaritas are definitely a good way to cool down on a hot summer evening. They’re flavorful and have a little (grown up!) kick to them. They’re never better than when they’re made with fresh fruit and fresh fruit juice, and this is true of other fruity frozen treats, too. For instance, popsicles definitely taste better when they’re made with real fruit and not just fruit juice concentrates. These Strawberry Margarita Popsicles are made with real fruit – lots of it. They also have that same little kick that you get from a regular margarita in an even cooler package.
The popsicles start withe fresh strawberries, which are pureed until very smooth in a food processor or blender. I added honey to the berry puree for some extra sweetness, as well as a little bit of fresh lime juice. Of course, there is also a generous splash of tequila and triple sec in the mix (which could easily be replaced with more lime juice for a non-alcoholic version) to keep things interesting! The mixture is poured into popsicle molds – I used these Rocket Pop molds – and frozen overnight, then they can be enjoyed as an after dinner treat or even served at a party.
You do get a tequila flavor in these, but they are nowhere near as strong as a “real” cocktail. The honey and the tequila both serve to not only flavor these pops, but to ensure that they are smooth and not overly icy. The tequila slightly lowers the freezing point of the pops so that even though they are frozen solid, they melt easily once you start to eat them. For variety, you could turn these pops into other drinks, using rum for more of a daiquiri flavor or changing the lime juice for orange juice for a strawberry orange base.
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I was always a fan of the Caramel Macciato Biscotti from Starbucks. They were inexpensive (less than $1) and made a great snack with a cup of coffee. I also really liked their unusual two-tone look. These cookies were recently discontinued by the coffee company in favor of some more traditional looking biscotti, so I decided make up a batch of two tone biscotti myself as a nod to them – and so I could have some freshly baked biscotti with my coffee at home!
These biscotti have two layers, one coffee flavored and one vanilla flavored. To get the two layered effect in my biscotti, I made up one big batch of dough and added a homemade coffee extract to a portion of the dough. The coffee extract is made by dissolving a generous amount of instant coffee/espresso powder in hot water, to make a very concentrated and flavorful brew that is strong enough to flavor the dough. I layered the vanilla dough on top of the coffee layer and the two baked together beautifully.
You can really taste both the vanilla and the coffee layers in the finished biscotti. These biscotti are very crunchy and are perfect for dipping in coffee, as they don’t break up too fast when they hit the hot liquid. I like a slightly thicker cookie that will soak up a lot of coffee, but you can cut these into thinner cookie crisps when slicing your dough if you prefer a more delicate cookie. The biscotti from Starbucks that inspired these have a caramel flavored coating that they are dipped in. I opted to leave these cookies plain, but they could easily be dipped in chocolate to add yet another layer of flavor to these already layered treats.
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