Lime Meltaway Cookies

These Lime Meltaway Cookies from The Martha Stewart Show are perfect lime shortbread cookies.  They have great lime flavor and literally do melt in your mouth with each bite.   These are one of those dangerous cookies for me to have around.  They are easy to eat too many!  With the ingredients only consisting of butter, sugar, flour, some cornstarch and lime they aren’t really on the healthy side, but more of a definite once-in-a-while treat.  I made them for my sister-in-law, Cindy’s birthday.  And I was happy to give most of them to her!

These were also quite easy to make.  The dough came together easily, took a little time (1 hour) in the fridge just chillin’ and then the logs were sliced into perfect little cookies.  They were carefully rolled in powdered sugar while still warm.  Part of the reason they are so tender is the cornstarch.  I would certainly suggest making these for all kinds of occasions or for the lime lovers in your life!

Lime Meltaway Cookies, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, from The Martha Stewart Show (link above to the recipe on her site)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar (divided use—1/3 cup IN the cookie dough, 2/3 cup for rolling)

finely grated zest of 2 limes

2 tablespoons of lime juice

1  1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (Martha’s recipe has a full tablespoon of extract)

1  3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (225 grams)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and 1/3 cup of the powdered sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Add the lime zest, juice and vanilla and beat until fluffy.  Scrape sides of bowl.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt.  Add to the butter mixture and mix on low just until combined.

Divide the dough in half.  Place each half on some plastic wrap or parchment paper.  Roll up to form a  1  1/4 inch-wide log (8-10 inches long).  Chill the logs in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the logs into 1/4 inch rounds.  Space about 1 inch apart on baking sheets that are lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 13-18 minutes, until they are barely golden in color.  Let cookies sit on baking sheets on cooling racks for about 5 minutes.  While still warm, carefully toss the cookies in the remaining 2/3 cup of powdered sugar in a plastic bag.  Store in an airtight container.  Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Banana Split Granola

 

Banana Split Granola, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

I think this is right up there as one of my favorite granola creations.  And yes, I know, I think I say that with all of them.   This one is so good just as a snack by the handfuls.  It’s almost gone and I’ve yet to put it on yogurt or have it with milk.  But I’m sure it would be fantastic like that, too.

Have you seen all the freeze dried fruit that is out there?  I like freeze dried much more than just dried fruit.  Love the crunchier, lighter texture.  I’ve made a dark chocolate raspberry granola with freeze dried raspberries.  I’ve also put them in Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I have a few family members who LOVE those chocolate chip cookies with the raspberries added.  I think they are great, too.  And while Kevin doesn’t like fruit with chocolate things, he’ll snitch a cookie or two when I make them with the raspberries and I’m pretty sure he secretly likes them. ;)

You can get small bags of freeze dried apples, pears, and a combo of bananas and strawberries.  The boys like all of those, too.  They prefer the apples and pears though, so when I recently bought a big box of the individual bags at Costco, a number of the banana/strawberry ones sat in the pantry not getting eaten.  It hit me one day recently to put them in granola.  I then decided just bananas and strawberries weren’t enough, so I also added some dried pineapple, some cocoa almonds (love those, too and just recently tried them for the first time), and some chopped dark chocolate.  All of a sudden this Banana Split Granola came to life!

Banana Split Granola, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

4 cups old fashioned oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup ground flax seeds (meal)

1/2 cup unsweetened grated coconut

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup agave nectar (or honey)

1/2 cup freeze dried bananas and strawberries

1/3 cup chopped dried pineapple

1/4 cup cocoa-covered almonds, or just plain almonds

1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate (or chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with Silpat or parchment paper.  In a large bowl, combine the oats, wheat germ, flax, coconut, brown sugar and salt.  Stir to combine.  In a medium sized, microwaveable bowl, combine the oil and agave.  Microwave for 30 seconds.  Add the vanilla and whisk until well combined.  Pour over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it is all moist.  Spread the mixture evenly onto the baking sheet and bake for 22 minutes.  Let sit on the baking sheet on a cooling rack until completely cooled.  Break into pieces into a bowl.  Add the dried fruit, almonds and chocolate and mix to combine.  Store in an airtight container after trying not to eat too much of it at once. ;)

Get a bite of it with a banana, a strawberry, a piece of pineapple, an almond, a piece of chocolate and some granola—YUM!  I will be making this again very soon!

Chocolate Toffee Crunch Coffee Cake—Secret Recipe Club

Chocolate Toffee Crunch Cake

It’s May Secret Recipe Club time!  I sure enjoy every month having a newly assigned blog to scour over and try to narrow down just what I’m going to make.  This month was no exception.  I was assigned Kim’s blog, Everyday Mom.  She is a busy mom with three kids who loves to bake.  What’s not to love about her? ;)  In looking through her blog, I can see that she spends a lot of time baking WITH her kids.  What a great thing.  I don’t bake with mine as much—I don’t know if it is because I have four boys and they aren’t quite as excited to bake along with me when I want them to.  One of my sons does enjoy it, but they are often just not around and I seem to do most of my baking while they are at school.

In my search of Kim’s blog for what to make, I was drawn to a couple of cakes.  One is an Oatmeal Raisin Cake—I still plan to make that sometime.  Sounds really good.  I was actually going to make both cakes and have company over to help eat them, but I ended up just making one and started with this toffee cake.  Kim got the recipe for it in her baking group, Cake Slice Bakers.  The cake is a recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman.  It is actually supposed to have espresso powder in the cake as it was focused on being a coffee flavored cake with toffee in it.  Since I don’t “do” coffee, I switched it up with adding a little cocoa powder to the cake instead. 

The boys actually really liked the cake, which surprised me just because they don’t seem to like cookies when I put toffee in them.  Go figure.  I’ll never figure these guys out.  Here’s the cake as I made it, but check out Kim’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake.

Chocolate Toffee Crunch Coffee Cake, adapted from Lauren Chattman’s Cake Keeper Cakes, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

For the cake:

1  1/2 cups (180 grams) all purpose flour

1 tablespoon (5 grams) cocoa powder

1  1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar (220 grams)

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

For the streusel:

3/4 cup toffee bits

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Have a 9 inch round springform pan ready to spray with cooking spray (I like to do it right before putting the cake batter in the pan.)

In a medium sized bowl, combine the toffee bits, chocolate chips, brown sugar, flour and butter.  Work the mixture with your fingers until it resembles large crumbs.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl.  Whisk together to sift.  Set aside.  Cream together in the bowl of an electric mixer the butter and brown sugar.  Beat on medium-high until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Scrapes the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix together on low speed.  With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture and milk alternately, ending with the flour.  Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and stir to make sure all is combined well.  Spray the pan with cooking spray and scrape the batter into the pan.  Smooth it into an even layer.  Scatter the streusel evenly onto the batter. 

Bake the cake 45-55 minutes (I did 45 minutes), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Release the sides of the springform pan.  Cool completely.  Cut in to wedges and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

At the time I made the cake, we didn’t have any ice cream or whipping cream.  But I’d found a container of frozen non-dairy whip cream in the freezer, so we waited a short time, then scooped out dollops of it onto the slices of cake.  It looks like ice cream, but it’s not.  Here it is finally starting to thaw.

Since I didn’t make the cake low fat or with whole grain, I only took a few bites of it.  It’s good!  With all the toffee bits and the brown sugar, it’s definitely sweet and caramel-ly.  I, of course, liked the added chocolate.

It is always so fun to check out all the other Secret Recipe Club postings.  The group has grown so big that were are now in 4 different groups, each posting on Mondays through the month.  I’m in group A.  So fun to be getting to know so many wonderful blogs out there. 

Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a lot of cookbooks.  I feel like I could REALLY add to that library.  But the other day I walked past some of my books and stopped to look at the section of books that are all chocolate.  Those are sure some delicious looking books to gawk at!  I opened up The Great Book of Chocolate, by David Lebovitz.  The book is slender and thin, but full of everything you’d ever want to know about chocolate and has some great recipes as well.  Naturally, I was drawn to the chocolate chip cookies—Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies.

David mentioned that this is an authentic recipe written on bakery letterhead from the Blue Chip Cookies bakery that used to be at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.  He said the recipe is supersecret, but here it is.  Because of its authenticity, I followed the recipe exactly.  Sometimes I actually alter recipes slightly because we live in a high altitudes, but this time I thought I’d see how it turned out as written.  I was afraid the cookies would be flat and crispy, but they turned out perfectly thick and chewy!

I have my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which will probably always stand as a favorite.  I try others and while even these Blue Chip cookies are great, we all here still like “my favorite” the best.  That said, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the Blue Chip Cookies turned out.  I decided to share this recipe because I like that it is make with cold butter.  I’ve had friends and family “complain” to me over the years that their cookies always turn out flat and they can never figure out why.  I tell them it could be too soft butter.  People also say they weren’t able to make cookies because they forgot to take the butter out of the fridge so it could soften up and come to room temperature.  Well, there’s no excuse now!  (And just a tip, you can always nuke a stick of butter for 10-20 seconds, I usually do 13-15 seconds, and it will take just the right amount of chill off to be perfect for baking.  You can also soak an egg, still in the shell, in hot water for 5 minutes to have a room temperature egg. 

Well, here’s your chance to make a great cookie with butter right out of the fridge!  I think I’ve tried a similar recipe before.  These cookies are also baked in the top 1/3 of the oven at a much lower temperature for a longer time than most cookies.  Well, whatever the case, it works for these.  Give them a try!  You know, I prefer chocolate chip cookies to have nuts, but since so many don’t like nuts, I usually leave them out.  But this Blue Chip recipe called for nuts, so sticking with the exact recipe, I added them this time.  I gave the option of walnuts or pecans.  I used pecans.  I’m only printing the recipe because it’s other places online as well.  But if you’re looking for more, any or all information about chocolate, get David’s book, The Great Book of Chocolate.  (I love that David gives all the amounts in his recipes in cups and grams!  Weigh your ingredients if you can, you’ll also get better, more accurate results.)

Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies, by David Lebovitz, The Great Book of Chocolate, from Blue Chip Cookies

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (120 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick or 115 grams) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1  1/4 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1  1/2 cups (200 grams or 9 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips—my favorite)

1 cup (130 grams) toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped (I used pecans)

Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven.  Heat to 300 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  **While the oven is preheating, put the nuts on one of the baking sheets and toast them for 10 minutes (the oven is on low, so adjust the time according to how much you like the nuts toasted).**—This is my way of toasted nuts.  --Katrina

Beat the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer until well combined and smooth.  Mix in the egg, vanilla and baking soda.   Stir together the flour and salt, then mix it into the batter, just until combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon-sized balls and put 8 balls of dough on each baking sheets, leaving a couple inches of space between each.  Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

 These are great cookies!  I stuck most of them in the freezer for a picnic we’re going to tomorrow.  I was asked to bring dessert. 

Next from this book, I’m going to make the Chocolate Fitness Cake—with only three ingredients, it’s pretty healthy---cocoa, egg whites and a little bit of sugar, baked like a souffle.  Sounds good!

TWD—Baking With Julia—Strawberry Rhubarb Hungarian Shortbread

For Baking With Julia today we made Hungarian Shortbread (pages 327-328).  First things first was to make a rhubarb jam.  I really need to get a rhubarb plant (or two) so I can readily have my own on hand.  It is hard to find in stores around here, even when it is in season.  A couple weeks ago I saw it at a grocery store I don’t normally go to and I knew it wasn’t at the ones I do usually go to.  So I went back to that store to get the half pound of rhubarb that I needed.  When I’d seen the store’s supply before, it was plentiful.  The trip where I actually needed to buy some there was three little stalks left that weren’t that pretty.  sigh

I bought what was there and had to cut off quite a bit of it that wasn’t usable.  After all was said and done, I only had five ounces of rhubarb and I needed eight.  (I decided to halve the shortbread recipe when I saw that it took one pounds of butter and four egg yolks!)  It was a good thing when I saw the lame rhubarb that I also grabbed two pounds of strawberries.  So for this jam I used rhubarb and strawberries and it made a lovely jam. 

The shortbread was easy to make and fun to grate after it was frozen for a short time.  Kevin saw me doing it and couldn’t figure out what in the world I was grating—he thought it was cheese.

The first layer of shortbread is grated into the pan and pressed down slightly.  Then the jam is spread on it and the second layer is grated over that. 

As soon as the baked shortbread came out of the oven, you are instructed to heavily dust it with powdered sugar.  I kind of think just a light dusting would have been fine. 

Okay, so just for the heck of it while I was spreading on the jam, I decided to only do half of it with the strawberry rhubarb jam and a opened a jar of fig preserves that I have had in the cupboard and spread that on the other half. 

I have to say, the shortbread is super sweet.  Maybe it was just because I tasted it after serving everyone some homemade ice cream on Monday, which was also super sweet.  I actually only tasted it and no one else has had a chance to taste it yet.  I’m going to have to take the rest of the week off from baking or something—or give some of the stuff away that we have around here right now!

If you want to make this shortbread, check out our hosts’ posts (ha—a rhyme!) for the week.

Lynette of 1 Small Kitchen and Cher of The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler... are the hosts.  You can check out all the other Hungarian Shortbreads here at the Tuesdays With Dorie website, too.

Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispies Treats

Yes, you read that right—Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispies Treats and I’ll be darned if they don’t taste just like a cinnamon roll—but in Rice Krispies treats fashion. 

A couple months ago I found Kraft Cinnamon Bun Marshmallows at the store and grabbed a bag.  (They are since hard to find and I’m not sure you could find them, but try your local Super Target—they seem to have all the good limited edition stuff!)  You could totally make these treats with regular marshmallows because it’s really the added cinnamon/brown sugar/butter mixture that is spread over them before rolling them up and the drizzled icing on top that makes them so cinnamon roll-like. 

Simple as can be.  I just made Rice Krispies Treats and pressed them onto a 15 x 10 inch baking sheet.  I then removed them from the sheet and laid them on a cutting board.  After spreading the cinnamon mixture over them, I rolled the thin Krispies up just as I’d do cinnamon rolls.

Ready to roll!

Rolled and ready to slice!

All lined up and ready to be drizzled!

Yeah, they’re good just like this—but a cinnamon roll isn’t a cinnamon roll without the icing on top!

Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispies Treats, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

8 ounce bag of Cinnamon Bun Marshmallows**

2 ounces regular miniature marshmallows**

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter

6 cups (165 grams) Rice Krispies cereal

For the cinnamon filling--

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup (110 grams) packed brown sugar

1  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste)

For the icing--

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoons corn syrup

1-2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Spray an 15 x 10 inch baking sheet lightly with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the marshmallows (**The Cinnamon Bun mallows come in 8 ounce bags, you want a total of 10 ounces of marshmallows, which is what size the bag of regular miniature marshmallows come in**, so if you can’t get the Cinnamon Bun mallows, just use regular!) and the butter.  Microwave the marshmallows and butter in 30 second intervals until (it only takes about 1 1/2 minutes).  Add the cereal and stir to combine.  Press the cereal mixture evenly in the baking sheet.  It will spread out prefectly!

In a medium sized bowl, combine the brown sugar, softened butter and cinnamon and stir with a fork to mix well.  Remove the Rice Krispies Treats from the baking sheet and set them on a cutting board.  (They should be sturdy enough to pick up and lay the whole thing on the board without breaking.)  Spread the cinnamon/butter mixture evenly over the treats.  Roll the treat up starting from the long end.  Slice into 16 (about 1 inch each) rolls.  Set each one down on the baking sheet.

In another medium sized bowl, combine the powdered sugar, corn syrup and vanilla.  Add one tablespoon of the milk and whisk together (you can also do this in an electric mixer, but I did it all by hand and it was easy enough).  Until the icing is the desired consistency, add a little more milk at a time until it is the thickness you’d like.  Put the icing in a plastic zip top bag  and snip of a corner.  Drizzle the icing over the “cinnamon rolls”.  Let sit until the icing is set—about 30 minutes.

These are being eating quickly at our house!  Since I know I’ll have a hard time finding the Cinnamon Bun Marshmallows again, I plan to make these again and use the regular ones.  I think they’ll be just as good!

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

These tasty, perfectly peanut buttery and dark chocolaty treats are just the thing for a little sweet bite when you need one.  I love that they are actually pretty healthy and you could easily make them gluten free. You might think peanut butter and chocolate ARE gluten free, but I happened to use Naturally More Peanut Butter which has a few added ingredients, like flax seeds.  The ingredient list also includes wheat germ, so these aren’t gluten free, but you could use any natural peanut butter you’d like and most are just peanuts and salt.

I can’t even take credit for this and I’m sure there have been lots of chocolate peanut butter truffles on the internet, but I was/am happy enough with how these turned out that I needed to share them with all of you.  I actually got the recipe from the Coconut Recipes website.  It was a newly submitted recipe by a reader, Megan from Glendale, California.  I liked that these have coconut flour and coconut oil.  I have a bag of coconut flour that I’ve been wanting to find more things to use it up with.

These couldn’t have been more simple to make.  Some natural peanut butter was mixed with just a touch of agave nectar (you could also use honey) and some coconut flour.  After forming the peanut butter mixture into balls, they are frozen for a short time and then dipped in melted dark chocolate.  That’s it.  You could easily make a bunch of these for a party or as gifts.

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Coconut Recipes

6 tablespoons (96 grams) natural peanut butter

1 tablespoon agave nectar (or honey)

pinch of salt (if using unsalted peanut butter)

1/4 cup coconut flour

3 ounces dark chocolate

1/2 teaspoon coconut oil

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.  Mix together in a medium sized bowl the peanut butter, agave, salt and coconut flour.  (This easily mixes together with a spoon—no need for a mixer!)  Once it’s all combined, form the peanut butter mixture into teaspoon-sized balls.  Set on the waxed paper and freeze for 30 minutes.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil either in a glass microwave-safe bowl or in a double boiler on the stove over medium heat.  Stir until melted and smooth.  Let sit for a few minutes so it’s not too hot before dipping each of the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate.  Set each one on a fork, set it down in the chocolate and spoon more melted chocolate over it until covered.  Tap the edge of the fork on the bowl to let any of the excess chocolate drip off into the bowl. 

Set each one on the waxed paper and let sit until the chocolate hardens (it starts to immediately because the peanut butter is frozen).  You can also set the sheet full in the refrigerator to set up completely when they are all finished.  This smaller recipes make about 12 truffles, you could easily double the recipe.

This post is being added to Lisa’s Sweets for a Saturday over at her delicious blog, Sweet as Sugar Cookies!