Chocolate Coconut Minute Tapioca Pudding—not really Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi (Dairy Free)

Today for Tuesdays With Dorie we were to make her Coconut Tapioca from Baking Chez Moi.  I planned to and wanted to, but the recipe called for large pearl tapioca.  I couldn’t find it anywhere.  So I went with the only tapioca I could find, which is pre-cooked Minute tapioca.  I felt like using that was such a disservice to Dorie’s recipe that I pretty much changed it and went more off of the recipe on the Minute tapioca box.  Then I changed it up from the box recipes as well.  So I’ll post for you my version of a healthier pudding made with mostly raw honey (and a little organic cane sugar) as well as coconut milk, a little almond milk, I even used a free range egg (does that crack anyone else up, to imagine an egg running free? Okay, it’s just me then, I’ll continue.)—and the healthiest thing of all—chocolate. ; )  Thank you for the three dozen eggs from your little chickadees, Mom!

To be fair and stick with Dorie’s Coconut Tapioca, I did decide to make one portion of regular tapioca, then while the pudding was still hot, I stirred in some Enjoy Life (dairy, egg, soy free) chocolate chips and they melted away.  I definitely like the chocolate version better, I can’t help it.  Minute tapioca is easy to make with just a few, simple ingredients that are cooked on the stove for a short time, then put into dishes to chill.

I really like adding the nuts, berries and chocolate on top of each serving.  Tapioca has a texture that has not always been my favorite with the little bits of gelled tapioca in the pudding and the different texture and flavor added makes it taste great.  Give me more chocolate, please!

Chocolate Coconut Minute Tapioca Pudding (Dairy Free), by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

3 tablespoons Minute tapioca

1 (13.5 oz.) can full fat coconut milk

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup raw honey

2 tablespoons organic cane sugar (or omit and use 6 T. raw honey)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 tablespoons Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips (and more for sprinkling on top)

berries and nuts of choice (optional)—for garnish

In a medium sized saucepan, add the tapioca, coconut milk, almond milk, honey, sugar and egg.  Whisk together to combine.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  With the heat on medium, stir the mixture almost constantly until it comes to a boil and thickens slightly (takes about 5 minutes).  Pour the pudding into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, pressing it over the top of the pudding.  Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.  Chill in the refrigerator for up to a couple hours.  Stir the pudding and put enough in each serving dish.  Garnish with chocolate chips, berries or nuts as desired.  Makes 4 servings (about 2/3 cup each).

How easy was that?  The main difference between this pre-cooked Minute tapioca and Dorie’s recipe that uses uncooked tapioca is that the pearls are soaked overnight before making the pudding (her recipe used coconut milk as well as some whole milk, which is another reason I just decided to make sure you knew the recipe I made isn’t hers—I forgot to get some whole milk as I’m not against it, but don’t drink milk anymore as I used to do.)  Try this one and definitely get Dorie’s Baking Chez Moi for an amaing cookbook. 

Snickerdoodle Poppers from Oh, Bite It and a Rant About Stealing From Food Blogs

So, a couple weeks ago I saw these fun, delicious looking Snickerdoodle Poppers on Facebook.  Kevin saw me looking at them and said they looked like something he would like.  But there was a problem—they were on Facebook and not being posted correctly.  You see, people keep tagging and sharing photos and recipes they like from sources that are NOT the ones who created the recipes.  As a food blogger, this is very annoying.  I know that all food bloggers feel this way.  It is just like stealing!  It is wrong.  There are MANY Facebook pages out there that just go around putting photos and recipes on THEIR page and getting people to “like” them and share them.  You see, what that does is gives them the credit and leaves it so the persons who actually created the recipe and took the photos don’t get any credit for them.  Neither do they get people coming to blogs, which more often than not are the sources for the recipes and photos.  People either don’t care or just don’t have a clue that that is stopping bloggers from making money.  MANY food bloggers do this for a living.  It is their income.

PLEASE, please stop liking and sharing recipes that don’t have links to where the recipes come from!  When I saw the Snickerdoodle Poppers and the horrible Facebook page that was stealing it and getting people to like it on their page, I did a quick Google search of the photo and right away found the real source for the recipe and photo.  I actually commented to a few of my friends who I saw “liking” this recipe that they were doing it wrong and not giving credit to the correct source.  Really, photos should not have the actual recipe ON Facebook.  They should just have the link to where you can go find the photo, which are often food blogs.  Help out food bloggers and stop “liking” and sharing anything with whole recipes posted on Facebook.  I don’t know of ANY food bloggers who actually put recipes on their Facebook pages.  So if you see recipes, they are pretty much being stolen and used improperly.

If you do see a recipe on Facebook that you like and want to save, do a quick, easy search for it and you’ll find it—most likely every time!  Please stop giving the wrong people credit and income that don’t deserve it.  It has become quite the epidemic on Facebook lately.  And if you couldn’t tell, I think it’s really annoying.  I haven’t even found something from my own blog stolen yet, but I consider every food blogger out there, whether I know them or not, my friends and colleagues.  We look out for each other.  I know you’d do the same for your family, friends and colleagues.

With my little rant over, I want to share these Snickerdoodle Poppers with you.  The true and real source for these is from Amy at the blog, Oh, Bite It.  Talk about a delicious blog!

You see how I’ve left the link for you for her recipe?  Yeah, that’s how it should be done.  Now, if I would have changed some things in the recipe, I would reprint it with my changes, but still let you know where I got the inspiration for the recipe, giving her proper credit and making sure my readers know that.  Oh, whoops, got back on my little rant there.  Sorry.  All this stealing that has been going on—really irks me.  It doesn’t just happen on Facebook.  It has been running rampant on Pinterest and Instagram AND on blogs.  Too many don’t give credit to their sources.  And many actually steal photos and just copy and paste entire recipes word for word and even worse—entire posts.  Little ol’ me has even had all my posts stolen and copied and pasted right on to another blog.  (Got that all taken care of.)  Just give a little credit where credit is due!

I didn’t change her recipe.  And it is awesome.  She uses Pillsbury Grands Flaky Layers Biscuits for her poppers.  They make terrific donut holes!  After turning the biscuits in to rounds like donut holes, they are fried.

Fried food doesn’t happen very often at our house, but the boys love donuts and the like.

The only thing I did do different with the recipe is the cream filling.  Amy just uses some vanilla pudding.  I kicked it up a bit, because when Kevin saw these, he mentioned that he would like them better if that was just whipped cream or something.  (He doesn’t care for pudding, especially vanilla.) 

I remembered a vanilla cream pudding mixture I made for some Boston Cream Whoopie Pies a while back and decided to make that for these poppers.  It’s a little like making a custard and a little like a vanilla flavored whipped cream.  And it’s SO good.  I actually only injected about 8 of the poppers with the cream and left the majority of them as-is.  I knew the boys would like them better that way.  Though I will admit, I loved the one I ate with the cream inside!  I got the recipe and idea for this vanilla cream from Kristan at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  The recipe is on the link to her blog.

You just mix a package of vanilla pudding mix in with one cup of milk and a cup of whipped cream.  It whips into a nice, thick custardy-cream.  Since I didn’t use very much in the poppers, I have most of it left and will be putting it to use soon!

These were gone in a flash at our house.  Scott, my 14 year old, definitely ate MORE than his fair share of them and said he would have eaten them all if he didn’t have to share.

Thanks, Amy and Kristan!  I hope the Facebook (and other sources of online media) stealing is a passing fad and goes away quickly!  If everyone did their part…….

Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake and Sweet Potato Falafel—Secret Recipe Club

This cake is delicious!  I chose to make this cake I found on my Secret Recipe Club blog for today.  I had Isabelle’s blog, Crumb, which is such a wonderful blog.  SO many great recipes to try and delicious looking pictures!  I love Isabelle’s quick run down about herself—“I'm a 30-something coffee-chugging, booty-shaking, bargain-shopping, cookbook-collecting, photo-snapping, trucker-swearing, farmers-market-loving self-taught cook with a Boy and two cats to feed.”  She lives in Toronto, Canada and works in the telecom industry.  She could totally pull it off as a real chef!  I was lucky enough to fill-in last minute and do a post for Isabelle’s blog back in 2011 when she would have been an orphan.  I made some delicious Granola and Marbled Chocolate Banana Muffins then.  I’ve since found a recipe for granola that I usually turn to and make, but after looking back that I wrote Isabelle’s was one of the best granolas I’ve ever made/tasted, I will be making it again.  I love granola!

Looking through all her recipes and once again, I had a hard time deciding what to make.  And as usual, I couldn’t decide on just one.  So I made two.  It’s only fitting for me to start out with dessert first though.  I made her Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake.  Just as I started out this post, let me say it again—this was delicious!  I don’t know if you’ve had chocolate pudding cake before, but it’s super easy to make.  You think it’s strange as you follow the recipe with a thick, brownie-like batter put in the bottom of the pan, then a boiling hot liquid with cocoa and sugar in it poured over the top.  You wonder if it will really bake into a cake—but darn it all, it does, and ends up with a warm, gooey pudding on the bottom. 

I LOVE the combination of chocolate and raspberries, it’s one of my favorite combinations.  When I saw Isabelle had a version of this cake that included raspberries, I knew I needed to make it.  Luckily I had some frozen raspberries in the freezer.  I WISH raspberries were in season right now because some fresh ones on the plate with this dessert would have been perfect.  It was still worth it without the little fresh berries on the side.  I made the cake and was really happy with how it looked as it came out of the oven.

Almost couldn’t wait to dig in to it until after dinner!  To make this a chocolate-raspberry dessert, a simple raspberry coulis is made and poured over the thick brownie-cake layer, before the hot liquid is added.  So you can’t see it, but there is great raspberry flavor hiding in there!  Since I didn’t have any fresh raspberries, this definitely needed something on top and I’m not sure I’ve ever had chocolate pudding cake without ice cream, so naturally this got some vanilla ice cream on top.

I was still sad about  not having any fresh raspberries and then I thought some more raspberry coulis drizzled over the ice cream would be really good.  But I didn’t have any more coulis already made—so I got some raspberry jam out of the fridge and heated it up a bit, then drizzled that over the top.  Delicious!  (Go drool over the first photo in this post again!)

Here’s the link for Isabelle’s recipe again—I didn’t change a thing!  Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake

While fishing through all her recipes, I ran across her Homemade Sweet Potato Falafel and realized I had everything to make them for dinner.  We love falafel.  Kevin has even been to Israel where he still says they make the “real” thing and he’s never had any quite like the authentic ones in Israel.  I keep trying different recipes.  I’m not really trying to make some JUST like he remembers.  I just like trying different kinds.  I LOVE sweet potatoes, so when I saw Isabelle’s recipe for falafel with sweet potato added, I was set on trying it.  Go check out her recipe.  She filled her falafel wraps with a tahini sauce, hummus, a tabbouleh salad AND the falafel.  I really want to make all those components sometime.  For this meal, I went simple and just made the tahini sauce and falafel patties.  Easy and delicious!  Kevin knew when he saw the falafel there was something different about them, they looked more orange.  But he didn’t say anything and I didn’t tell him until after dinner that they had sweet potato in them.  He liked them okay.  I loved them.  The boys ate them, too.  Okay, Sam wouldn’t even try them.  I knew he wouldn’t.  He’s still my picky youngest.  ;)

I changed a few simple things in Isabelle’s recipe, but go check out hers with the tabbouleh salad recipes and hummus!  (Link above.)

Sweet Potato Falafel with Yogurt Sauce, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Crumb (www.crumbblog.com)

Yogurt Sauce--

1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon tahini oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Whisk together all four ingredients in a small bowl.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Sweet Potato Falafel--

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup chopped parsley

2 cloves garlic

15.5 ounce can of chickpeas (garbanzo bean), drained and rinsed

1 cup sweet potato, cooked and mashed (about 1 large sweet potato)

3-4 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon salt

Canola oil, for frying falafel

Put the cilantro, parsley and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until nicely chopped.  Add the chickpeas and pulse until coarsely ground.  Add the already cooked, mashed sweet potato and pulse to combine, just don’t pulse it too much in the food processor.  You can also remove the mixture from the food processor to a bowl and stir in the sweet potato.  Then add the flour, cumin, red pepper flakes, and salt.  Once it is all combined, heat some oil in a large skillet (enough to cover the bottom of the whole pan).  Form patties using about 2 tablespoons of the mixture for each.  You should get 12-14 patties.  Fry the patties over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes on each side, until they are golden and crisp.  Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towel.

For finished falafel pitas--

Whole wheat pitas

Shredded lettuce

Thinly sliced tomatoes

Thinly sliced cucumber

Sliced dill pickles

When all the patties are finished and the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and pickles are prepared, assemble the pitas starting with some of the yogurt sauce.  Let each person decide what vegetables to put in theirs.  Put two falafel in each half-pita.

The falafel are a little fragile as the sweet potato makes them softer.  You can add a little more flour to make them really hold together.  I loved the tender crunch on the outside and the soft inside!

Sweet potato falafel frying action shot. ;)

 

Molten Chocolate Lava Crock Pot Cake—Secret Recipe Club

Molten Chocolate Lava Crock Pot Cake

It’s time for Secret Recipe Club!  This is a date each month that I really look forward to but I have to say I can’t believe how fast the months fly by when it seems like just yesterday it was time for Secret Recipe Club from the last time.  Can anyone else believe it’s September?  I swear it was just Christmastime.  At any rate, here we are and I’ve certainly got another delicious treat to share with you that I picked from the hundreds of recipes I was faced with choosing from at the blog I had this month. 

It’s no surprise that I’m always drawn to the word chocolate.  And when I saw molten lava along with it, this was a must-make recipe.  The blog I got to pick from this month is Katie’s blog, This Chick Cooks.  I feel it somewhat of a disservice to have chosen this cake from Katie’s blog, since she is all about eating whole foods and cutting white flour and white sugar out of her diet.  Then why would this recipe be on her blog?  Because she used to make, eat, and blog things like this, but now doesn’t. 

I seriously started making a list of things from her blog that I wanted to make not long after getting this assignment.  Check some of these out--Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream—I still plan to make this soon, just couldn’t remember to get coconut milk every time I was at a store.  I love oatmeal for breakfast, so I’m drawn to this post for 40 Fun Oatmeal Toppings.  Hot Fudge Brownie Larabars—I would love those.  Healthier Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies—I plan to make these, too.  I love making “treats” that have a healthier twist but are still a treat.  All the things I looked at when I first got the assignment seemed to end up being things that I needed something from the store in order to make them.  Then, before I knew it, our Group A leader, Jane, sent a little reminder last week to make sure we had our recipe and post ready and I freaked out a little when I realized I hadn’t done anything yet—just dreamed of all the goodness on Katie’s blog.  Where or where did August go?

I did another quick search of her Recipe Index—and that’s when I saw the words Molten Chocolate Lava!  After looking at the recipe, I saw that I had everything to make it and decided to get to work in time for the family treat that night. 

The Molten Chocolate Lava Crock Pot Cake (also known as Mud Cake or Pudding Cake) could not have been more simple to make.  Katie found the recipe for it on the Family Fun website.  Guess what—I didn’t change anything from the recipe Katie has on her blog.  I did exactly what it said.  This is rare for me.  I deserve a gold sticker or something. ;)  The recipe said to cook the cake in the Crockpot on high for 1-2 hours.  I cooked mine for 1 hour and 40 minutes. 

Definitely delicious on its own, with a deep, dark chocolate flavor from using Dutch-processed, dark cocoa, the cake was just screaming for some ice cream.  I mean, doesn’t it just look so much happier now?  Still, that seemed a little “plain”.  Katie mentioned how good this would be with some fresh berries on the side.  Wish I would have had some because I totally agree with that.

We ended up with sprinkles on ours here because my boys think everything has to have sprinkles.

Ahhh, definitely looking better now with the little pop of color.  I think second only to sprinkles, the boys all love maraschino cherries, so it only seemed appropriate to put a cherry on top of this cake.  Parker even likes them so much that lately when they get to have ice cream for a snack, Parker begs and pleads to just have a bowl full of the cherries with no ice cream.  I think I’ve only let him have three of them so far.  His birthday is coming this week.  Somebody is probably going to get his own jar of cherries as one of his gifts.  Silly kid.  Last year he got his own bottle of A-1 Steak Sauce, he could drink that stuff.

I’ll definitely be back to Katie’s blog, This Chick Cooks, for more recipe inspiration soon!  Go check it out if you have never been there!

Can’t wait to see what the rest of Group A made this month!

Boston Cream Whoopie Pies

When I saw these cookies over at Kristan’s super yummy blog, Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, I knew one thing—that I had to make them to see if Kevin liked them.  A few months ago he saw a Boston Cream Pie in a grocery store and thought it looked good and wanted to buy it.  Good thing I was with him—I told him I would not BUY a pie, cake or cookie and that I could MAKE him one.  (I’ve never made a Boston Cream Pie, but that doesn’t stop me!)  I’ve still never made him that pie. 

Then our friend Bob told me that he wants a Boston Cream Pie for his birthday (it’s not until February).  But when I saw these whoopie pies on Kristan’s blog, I knew I had to make them.  They seemed a lot easier than a whole pie (not sure if that’s really the case).  Another thing that helped me decide to make them is while I try not to bake from boxed mixes (and I almost never EAT them), they seem to be what Kevin prefers.  I know, sad isn’t it.  Really.  Sigh.  Anyway, these cookies are made with a yellow cake mix, a box of pudding mix and canned frosting.  Never fear—I did not use canned frosting.  Can’t do it.

Kevin LOVED these.  Most of the boys and Bob liked them, too.  Later that evening, Kevin even said they are up there with his top favorites of things I’ve made.  (I WILL be trying these from scratch.  I haven’t taken the time yet, but will look for a plain whoopie pie recipe.  I know they’re out there.  Maybe I just need to get this new cookbook, Whoopie Pies, a whole cookbook of whoopie pies.  Maybe I’ll just put that on my Amazon wish list.  And if Kevin wants more whoopie pies, I just might get that for my birthday in November.  ;)

I used the cake mix.  And I used the pudding mix for the filling.  That’s good stuff.  Just take a vanilla pudding mix, one cup of milk and one cup of cream and beat it in an electric mixer for a few minutes.  Kinda beats making eggy pastry cream over the stove.  But, shhh, don’t tell certain people I said that.

And for the chocolate on top, I made a super simple, delicious ganache.  Just added some hot cream to some chocolate and let it sit for a minute, then whisked it together until it was perfectly smooth.  I spread it on the cookies after it sat for about an hour.  Perfect!

I made about 12 sandwich cookies and just didn’t feel like scooping anymore.  So I took the remaining batter and spread it in a 9 inch square pan that I lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. 

It made a somewhat thin cake, but I knew it would.  Once it was cooled, I cut it in half, slathered a nice thick layer of the pudding cream on one half, then topped it with the other and spread it with ganache.  Boston Cream Pie, the fast, cheap, easy way.  And what was really important was that Kevin loved it.

 

We sliced this in to four slices.  Kevin felt a little sick (he was full!) thinking about how much of it and two cookies he’d eaten in one day.  I took one bite of it.  I don’t know why, but I do not like eclairs.  This reminded me of them.  Many love eclairs and Boston Cream Pie.  These whoopie pies are a great way to go if you know anyone who loves it, too!

Boston Cream Whoopie Pies, adapted by Katrina at Baking and Boys! from Kristan at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

For the chocolate ganache:

1 cup (6 ounces) semi sweet chocolate chips (or any chocolate you’d like

1/2 cup heavy cream

Put the cream in a microwave safe glass bowl (or in a small saucepan) and bring to a slight boil.  (If using the microwave, do it in 20-30 second increments, cream boils over quickly and makes a mess!)  Pour the cream over the chocolate that is sitting in a medium sized bowl.  Let sit for one minute.  Beginning in the center, stir together the now melting chocolate and cream, working towards the edge of the bowl.  Keep stirring until the chocolate is smooth and satiny.  Let sit for about an hour—while you make the cookies and filling, by that time, it will be of perfect spreading consistency.      

For the cookies:

1 box yellow cake mix

3 large eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the cake mix, eggs, water and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined.  Drop by tablespoonfuls (only 6-8 per sheet as they spread) on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.  Cool cookies for about five minutes on baking sheets, then remove to cooling racks to cool.

For the filling:

1 box (4 servings) vanilla instant pudding (French vanilla would be good, too!)

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

1 cup heavy cream

Beat pudding mix, milk and cream in an electric mixer fitted with wire attachment for 2-3 minutes.  Scrape sides of bowl once during mixing.  Refrigerate until ready to fill cookies.  When cookies are cooled, spread a couple tablespoonfuls on the flat side of one cookie, then top with the flat side of another cookie.

Spread the chocolate ganache over the top of each sandwich cookie.  Serve!  These are best the day they are made, but though the cookie is softer after a day in the fridge, they’ll still be good.  (They should be refrigerated.)

Sam loved these almost as much as Kevin.  He ate two of the cookies (his and Taylor’s) in one sitting!

TWD—Apple-Apple Bread Pudding—or not, or Maybe, Hmmm? Chocolate Cobbler, too.

Early last week, I made half the recipe for this week’s pick by Liz (Luh-OVE her!) at Cake...or DEATH?.  Everything went quick smoothly.  I chose a multigrain boule from the bakery for the bread because that’s the kind of bread I like.  I caramelized the apples. (Yum.)  I spread each slice of bread with apple butter.  Followed along with the recipe nicely.  Then, I played Miss Healthy-Pants and made the pudding with skim milk (I still used the heavy cream though).  But for the eggs, which should have been 1 1/2 eggs and 2 1/2 yolks, I decided to just use 3 whole eggs.  That was close enough.  Right?  I dunno.  Other than that I followed the recipe exactly, but what I ended up with was a not-so-pleasant really eggy goop on the bottom with bread and apples floating on the top.  I already don’t care for most custard/eggy type desserts, bread pudding being one of them, but I was optimistic about this one and thought it sounded really good.  ‘Sides, I didn’t want to skip out on Liz’ pick.

For fun and because I thought it sounded good, I made a walnut crumb topping and sprinkled it on the bread pudding about halfway through its bake time. 

It looks good, huh?

Well, I’ve spared you any other pictures of it because it just wasn’t pretty or edible.  I just cannot eat scrambled egg whites with sweet, carmel apples and cinnamon sugar topping.  ;)  I told myself all weekend that I would make 1/4 the recipe sometime with the remaining bread.  But we were having company for desserts Friday night (the day my bread pudding failed) and I decided to turn to chocolate!

I had seen this really yummy looking Chocolate Cobbler at Pioneer Woman’s blog and besides it looking so good, thought it sounded really fast and easy.  I had made homemade vanilla bean ice cream to go with the bread pudding, so it worked perfectly with the chocolate cobbler as well.  What is chocolate cobbler?  It seems to have many names.  Hot Pudding Cake and Chocolate Pudding Cake to name a few.  The chocolate cobbler version is from a recipe submitter to Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen website.  The dessert was delicious!  The recipe is there on either one of the links here.  Whip it up next time you need a quick, super rich chocolaty dessert in a hurry.  It only has a few basic ingredients that you probably have on hand (It doesn’t even have any eggs!).

This was my first time using real (or fake—hehe) vanilla beans for something.  I used David Lebovitz Philadelphia Style Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from his book, The Perfect Scoop.  It was really good.

________________________________________________________________________________

Then, I got this crazy delightful idea today (Monday) to make my own version of apple bread “pudding”.  I toasted a slice of the remaining multigrain bread I had.

Then I spread apple butter on it.

I caramelized some sliced apple and put that on top of the apple butter toast.

Pudding, pudding, hmmm, let’s see.  Aha.  Fat free vanilla yogurt.

After removing the apples from the pan, there was a tablespoon or so of the syrupy caramel.  So I let it caramelize a bit more, then added a touch of cream to it and boom—had a little caramel!

A few walnuts sprinkled on top and this was a GREAT not-so-unhealthy lunch for me!  (Had a little salad a bit later with some salad mix from the farmers’ market.)

Seriously good.  I will be having this again sometime.  Thank you, Liz, I would have never thought about something like this had you not picked the bread pudding for TWD this week.  You can get the bread pudding recipe on Liz’ blog.

And in closing, a completely random picture of Taylor.  He was playing outside, even clear down the street with part of the mop bucket on his head (said it was his cowboy hat).

Ride ‘em, Cowboy. ;)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies—National Chocolate Chip Day

Today, May 15, is National Chocolate Chip Day, so I thought I’d post these cookies I made a week ago.

I got the recipe for these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies when we were in Utah in March.  We stayed with Kevin’s sister, Cindy.  She had a book sitting on the table called A Mormon Cookbook, by Erin Allred.  So I sat flipping through it.  Some of the recipes were interesting and I’d probably never make them, but I found this cookie recipe and I’ve heard of putting an instant pudding mix in chocolate chip cookies before, but hadn’t seen or thought of it in an oatmeal cookie.  So I jotted the recipe down and found it in my purse last week and decided to whip up half the recipe.

The cookies were really good.  I really liked the crisp-on-the-outside texture and the chewy-softness from the pudding inside.  I will make them again soon.  Especially since I halved the recipe and only used half a box of instant pudding.  Here’s Erin’s recipe with my slight adjustments, but I’m going to give the full recipe instead of half like I did.  And I know, it’s National Chocolate CHIP Day and I actually used chopped chocolate for these, but any CHIPS are good.  (Again, I’m trying to use things I have and I have a bunch of chocolate bars from a sale.)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies (aka, Erins’ name for them is Mushy Missionary Oatmeal Cookies, I don’t care for that name—it’s a Mormon thing.), adapted by Katrina from Baking and Boys!

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding

2 large eggs

3 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1  1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt (the original recipe had no salt, I added the 1/4 teaspoon)

Any mix of chocolate chips, nuts, raisins you’d like (original recipe)

I used:

4 ounces chopped semi sweet and milk chocolate for the half recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add the eggs and beat another 2 minutes.  Mix in the instant pudding.  Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.  Add the the dry ingredients to the mixer and beat just until combined.  Fold in the chocolate/mix-ins by hand. 

Scoop the dough into tablespoon sized balls on the baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes.  Let cool on wire racks. (The half recipe made about 2 dozen.) 

  

If you didn’t see my last post,  be sure to check out the Best Homemade Play Dough.  If you have kids, they will love it and you will, too!

TWD—Quick Classic Berry Tart (The Really Quick, Cheap Way)

So I feel like this will be the most lame I’ve ever been with a TWD recipe.  Not sure why.  I think the big reasons are that I’m trying to use up things we have, and the only berries in the store that are even barely affordable are strawberries and I just didn’t want an all strawberry tart.   Oh, that and pastry cream—I just couldn’t make the pastry cream.  I feel pretty confidant in my ability to make it, I just couldn’t subject myself to eating too much of it.  You know what I mean?  I love the sweet tart dough.  Love the pastry cream.  And berries are at the top of my fruit list.  But I might have eaten way too much of a whole tart if I’d have made it.

Does that sound good enough for excuses?  Well, I DID make a couple of cute little quick tarts, but I (she said under her breath in shame) used instant fat free pudding for the pastry cream.  I only made half the sweet tart dough.  I could just bake a whole tart and not put anything in it and keep munching on the baked shell.  Dorie’s tart in her book is beautiful.  I might make it someday when berries are really in season.  It looks like a great dessert to impress.

So I made two 4 inch tarts and two little mini tarts in my mini muffin pan.  I ended up burning those two little ones to death.  Oops!  But the other tarts were perfect.  I had a half used box of instant banana pudding, so I whipped that up with some skim milk.  And I just happened to have also made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that had vanilla pudding in the dough, but not the whole box.  So I also made some of that.  I filled one tart with banana pudding and one with vanilla.  I sliced up a couple strawberries for one of the tarts and I had a fresh pineapple.  So I sliced some of that for the other tarts.  Then I did this---

 

The strawberry tart has the banana pudding.  That’s a cherry in the middle.  We had had breakfast for dinner and I’d made crepes.  I had some frozen cherries in the freezer and made a cherry compote to serve with the crepes (though banana/Nutella is everyone’s favorite). 

Here’s the pineapple/sunflower tart, which I think is just darling and was mighty tasty as well.

 

Yes, those are mini chocolate chips in the middle.  I know you were all wonderful how or if I would be able to incorporate chocolate in to this.  There you go. ;)

Get this.  After I made the tarts, I tucked them into the refrigerator to let the boys have them for snack the other night.  And I forgot about them and they had a popsicle instead.  When I remembered later that night I actually thought I’d let the boys have some for breakfast the next morning.  And I forgot about them again.  As “healthy” as I made these with the fat free pudding, I still didn’t want to eat them both myself.  I was afraid they weren’t going to still be good.  That night, I got ice cream out and while they were eating their ice cream, I saw the tarts.  So I pulled them out, cut them into four pieces each and offered them to the boys who were stuffing their mouths with chocolate ice cream.  Parker matter-of-factly said, “Oh, I don’t like tarts”.  (Never heard that one before.)  Taylor and Sam didn’t want any.  Scott obliged me and ate a little piece.  So since it was cut, I ate a few bites of each.  They were good.  I especially liked the pineapple.  I tucked them back into the fridge and the next day was Mother’s Day.  We had a yummy Belgian waffle breakfast, a simple, quick lunch before church then some Asian Chicken Pasta Salad for dinner.  And I made myself my favorite cake--Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake (I used coconut oil and whole wheat pastry flour to make it a little more healthy) for dessert.  I’ve made it plenty of times and I don’t recall the boys going so gung-ho with it.  But they each ate two pieces, including Kevin and Sam.

And later on, I opened the fridge and saw those poor tarts.  Darn it.  Forgot again to at least get them out and offer them to anyone who wanted some.  After school today (Monday) I got them out for the kids to eat as a snack after school.  They actually still looked pretty good.  When the boys got home, Scott is the only one who wanted some, so he ate both tarts that were almost still all there.  But I discovered a danger for me.  He doesn’t care for the crust and kept leaving it on  the plates.  I picked at some of the leftover, rejected crust, then I was a good girl and threw away a lot of it or else I’d have eaten it all and I just can’t do that.  So the tarts were great and I can only imagine they’d have been even better with real pastry cream and lots of fresh berries.

 

Poor delicious little tarts.

Yes, that’s a banana slice underneath the chocolate chips.  I didn’t look at its condition three days after making the tart, but Scott ate it.  So thank you, Cristine, from Cooking With Cristine for a great pick for the week.  I will do it more justice someday.  Cristine will have the recipe on her blog.

Please come back tomorrow as I’ve got some of the best cookies (Toffee Cowboy Cookies) I’ve ever made coming up and I’ll share those oatmeal  chocolate chip pudding cookies in the next couple days as well as more pictures of four the the cutest boys in the whole world! ;)

TWD--Buttery Jam Cookies and Chocolate Brownie Trifle

This week's recipe from Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours is for Butter Jam Cookies and was chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl.   I was going to skip this week, but decided today to just make the cookies anyway.  The verdict?

These cookies, in my opinion, are not the greatest.  They are just okay.  I was surprised that there wasn't more to them, but hey, they've got butter and jam, so they totally live up to their name.  I thought mine seem a bit dry and plain, so I did a few things to cheer them up.  There is some ginger in the cookies, but I can't taste it, also the apricot jam.  You can see it, but I don't feel like it really added anything to the cookie.  These aren't really as buttery as I thought they'd be and didn't spread out.  Still, that said, and they'll be fine on a multi-cookie holiday tray! 

 

See.

I made some like jam thumbprint cookies with apricot and raspberry jam and sprinkled some toasted walnuts and pecans on them.   I also happen to have a bunch of almost-gone bags of Hershey's Kisses left and thought it would be fun to try some of them on the cookies.  So, no--the candy corn Kisses don't really fit the holiday, but I wanted to try them anyway.  The orange kisses are the pumpkin spice ones that were out briefly over the fall and the cool, festive ones are candy cane Kisses (just don't tell anyone those have been in my cupboard since last Christmas.  Gasp!)  You'd never know it and I think they look cute.  I actually haven't tried tasting most of them, but the plain cookies were okay, not bad, so I'm sure they're even better with all the fun tops!

That concludes TWD for this week.  Thanks Heather for another addition to the holiday cookies!  Click here and check out all the other baker's Buttery Jam Cookies.

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Quickly, just wanted to show you a Chocolate Brownie Trifle I made as we went to dinner at some friend's house last night and I made dessert.  So simple!  I quickly made a batch of Anna's One Bowl Cocoa Brownies, you could also use a boxed brownie mix.  I crumbled pieces of brownie in the bottom of the bowl, then layered it with Jell-o pudding and Cool Whip.  Now usually, this trifle has you also layer Heath toffee bits in it, but my kids don't really like those and I thought it would be fun to let everyone choose what they wanted to add, so I made six little cups of toppings, including, toasted, chopped pecans, walnuts, toffee bits, mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, mint chips, and my kid's favorite--sprinkles!  The trifle was a big hit and yummy!

I meant to take pictures when the kids and everyone made their cupfuls of this, but forgot.  Yummy!