Only Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from chocoloatecoveredkatie.com

2 1/3 c oat flour
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t salt
1 t bkg soda
1/2 c coconut (opt)
chocolate chips (couple generous handfuls)
2 t vanilla
1/4 c milk
2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients well. Add wet ingredients and stir to combine. Scoop onto cookie sheet 1-2 inches apart. Bake at 380 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until look almost done, then let cool on pan for 10 minutes before removing to cooling rack. Yield 46 cookies using my small cookie scoop.

Melissa's Molasses Cookies

We first got these from one of Andy's coworkers and they taste just like the gingersnaps my best friend's mom made when I was a kid. I googled it ('cause I'm geeky like that) and apparently gingersnaps are supposed to be crunchy and molasses cookies are supposed to be chewy. Either way, they are delicious!

• ½ c. Crisco shortening
• 1 c. margarine, softened to room temperature
• 1 c. white sugar
• 1 c. packed brown sugar
• ½ c. molasses
• 2 eggs
• 4 tsp. baking soda
• 4 ½ c. flour
• 1 tsp.  cloves
• 1 tsp. ginger
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 375°.  Mix shortening, margarine, and sugars together.  Add molasses and eggs and blend together.  Add rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended. Refrigerate dough until firm.  Roll dough into 1” balls between palms and then roll and coat in white sugar.  Place on cookie sheet 1 ½ to 2 inches apart.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Bake shorter for more doughy cookies and longer for more crispy.

Banana Bread Brownies

This is my new favorite thing to do with overripe bananas! Next time I may try swirling some peanut butter on top too.

• 6 Tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (for me this was 4.5 bananas, so measure!)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 3/4 cups flour (I use at least half whole wheat)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 T cocoa

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9x9 or 11x7 pan with cooking spray. In a medium sauce pan, combine butter and chocolate chips. Over medium-low heat, melt together, stirring occasionally. When melted, set aside to cool.

In a large bowl combine the mashed bananas, sugar and vanilla. Stir in beaten eggs until evenly incorporated. Stir in flour, cocoa, and salt until just combined.
Pour all but 1/4 cup melted chocolate into the banana mixture and stir.

Pour batter into prepared pan and drizzle remaining 1/4 cup melted chocolate on top, and swirl it into the batter.


Bake 25-30 minutes until the center is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Brownies will be very dense. Cool completely and cut into squares.

Adapted from: http://cookiesandcups.com/banana-bread-brownies/ 

Chocolate Banana Ice-Cream

From the Healthy Dessert Blog

I have been meaning to try this recipe for awhile, but was skeptical about how I'd like it. I couldn't get the image of the mushy frozen bananas I use for banana bread out of my mind. But today I was hungry and it sounded like a good snack! I figured that about 1/3 of the recipe was 2 carbs, which is just the amount I'm allowed to have (gestational diabetes). I will definitely be making this again when I have 3 more bananas to freeze! It's yummy, and pretty rich. If I made it for Andy I'd use bananas that weren't overripe, as I think it would be less banana-y that way. (But he can eat normal ice cream, so I probably won't need to!)

Chocolate Fudge Soft Serve

• 3 medium bananas, frozen in chuks (ripe--mine were spotty but not black) 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1/16 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3-4 tsp milk
• sugar to taste (optional, I didn't use)
• 3-5 tbsp peanut butter or another nut butter of choice, opt (I used PB)

Combine all ingredients in a blender (or food processor)and blend until smooth. (If you scoop it all into a container and freeze about 10-15 minutes, the texture will also become a bit firmer like ice cream, as opposed to soft serve.) 

Pumpkin Spice Scones

I have been on the hunt to find a scone recipe that has the texture of the scones we used to get from Great Harvest. When I was working at Purdue, Andy and I would stop by every day on the way home to get samples. We miss having our friend working there! Anyways, I've finally found some to compare! This recipe was created by Nicole at Pinch My Salt. I'm excited to try her other scone recipes!

Ingredients:

Scones:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice (I didn't have any)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup raisins (optional, I did not use)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup heavy cream
6 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer, or refrigerator if no freezer available.

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs (dough will start to clump together). Stir in the raisins (if using).

Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky. (I had to add about 2 T extra pumpkin puree here, as it was too powdery still)

Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.

While scones are in the oven, mix together icing ingredients. When scones are right out of the oven, apply icing. Place scones on rack to cool, or enjoy when warm!

Icing: For ginger molasses icing, mix together 1 T molasses, 1-2 T milk, 1 C. powdered sugar, 1/4 – 1/2 t. ginger (to taste). Adjust amounts to change consistency. Icing can be brushed on or drizzled.

Brigadeirão

This is a yummy cake-like Brazilian dessert. Recipe from the mother of Andy's Brazilian coworker, Gustavo.

2 T butter

3 eggs
2 T sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can of cream (3/4 cup normal cream)

Blend eggs and butter. Add everything else and blend. Pour into well-greased and sugar-dusted microwave safe bowl. Microwave 8 to 11 minutes or until set and edges begin to pull away. Chill before serving.

You can place a greased cup in the middle to create a bundt-like effect. After cooking, remove the cup and invert the Brigadeirão onto a serving platter.

Brigadeiro

Brigadeiro is a traditional Brazilian birthday treat. It tastes like chocolate caramel. Yum! (not to be confused with Brigadeirão). Recipe from the mother of Andy's Brazilian coworker, Gustavo.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 T butter
3 T cocoa

Mix everything and put into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes, stir. Repeat until it becomes thick, smooth, and creamy.

Eat with a spoon or form into balls and roll in chocolate sprinkles.

Fresh Blueberry Pie

1 single crust 10-inch pie crust, baked and cooled.
Blueberries (3-4 cups, I didn't measure)
4 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp lemon extract (or less, optional)
1/2 cup blueberries
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch
2 T lemon juice

Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon extract (if using). Spread into pie crust. Arrange berries on top of cheese layer (as many as you want).

In small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup blueberries, water, sugar, and cornstarch. Bring to a boil and cook until thickened and bubbly with lots of purple color released from the berries. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before adding lemon juice. Pour over berries, spreading so it covers all of them. Chill until set.

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

2 large cans sliced peaces (lite syrup), drained
1 smallish can crushed pineapple
1 cake mix (yellow or white)
Butter
Brown sugar

Line Dutch Oven with tin oil. Pour peaches and pineapple into dutch oven. Sprinkle cake mix on top. Cut squares of butter and dot on top of cake mix. Sprinkle some brown sugar over top.

Cook with 5-6 coals on bottom and cover top with coals. Rotate every 15 minutes.

Best Ever! Peanut Butter Bars

I love any excuse to make these... (I need an excuse b/c they make such a large pan we can't eat them all. Well, we shouldn't. Well, I shouldn't...)

3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup oatmeal

Cream wet ingredients, then mix in dry ingredients. Spread into an 11 x 17 rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 375 or 12-15 minutes. While still hot, spread with about 1 cup peanut butter (I don't measure this). Frost when cool.

Frosting:
1/4 cup margarine
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar to desired consistancy

Berry Delight Cobbler

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 & 3/4 cups of sugar, divided
  
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 bag (~2 cups) frozen berries

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place butter in 9x13 pan in oven until butter melts. Meanwhile, mix 1 cup sugar, flour, and baking powder and stir in milk. Pour into pan with melted butter. Mix berries with 3/4 cup sugar. Spread evenly on top of batter. Bake for about an hour until golden.

Note: Original recipe (found here) said to mix batter in with butter, but we didn't notice and poured it on top and liked how it turned out kind of crispy. Also, to reduce baking time, you could cook the berries with the sugar on the stovetop first.

Coriander Cookie Thins

I haven't tried these yet, since I don't have a mortar and pestle... and I haven't looked to see if you can buy ground coriander--I have such an abundance of the seed every time the cilantro goes to seed!

(Recipe from Wendy Olmstead)

2 c. Flour
1 c. Sugar
2 T Ground Coriander Seed
3/4 c. Butter
1 Egg
1 tsp vanilla

Mix first 3 ingredients in bowl. Add butter and cut in with pastry blender. Blend egg and vanilla and work into mixture with hands to form a smooth dough. Roll in 1/2" balls and put on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten with moistened bottom of measuring cup dipped in white or colored sugar.

Bake at 400 degree F for 6 minutes. Makes 7-8 dozen.

Melissa's Molasses Cookies

½ c. Crisco shortening
1 c. Blue Bonnet margarine, softened to room temperature
1 c. White sugar
1 c. Packed brown sugar
½ c. Molasses
2 eggs
4 tsp. Baking Soda
4 ½ c. Flour
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 375°. Mix shortening, margarine, and sugars together. Add molasses and eggs and blend together. Add rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended.
Refrigerate dough until firm. Roll dough into 1” balls between palms and then roll and coat in white sugar. Place on cookie sheet 1 ½ to 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Bake shorter for more doughy/chewy cookies and longer for more crispy.