Category Archives: dessert

Carrot Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting

We’re determined to make desserts that taste good and are good for you (well okay… desserts that at least aren’t horrible for you and don’t have processed sugar!). The original recipe came from Epicurious, but we made a decent amount of changes to get it sugar-free and we also substituted coconut oil for canola oil, since coconut oil is more beneficial.

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

1/3 cup dried shredded organic unsweetened coconut
3 cups (a little less than a 1 pound) organic farm-fresh carrots, shredded
1 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons organic ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated organic nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sucanat
3/4 cup organic coconut oil
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
3 organic eggs

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Homemade Ice Cream


The base is the same regardless, but you have some options when it comes to the sweetener that goes with the flavor. If you don’t want to use sugar (we try not to!)  we  suggest agave nectar or succanat, depending on the flavor you choose. Succanat has more of a molasses taste to it, so we wouldn’t recommend it for the lemon ice cream, but it would be great if you wanted to make cinnamon ice cream or something more substantial like chocolate.

For our first try we decided to do lemon and strawberry & banana. The lemon came out very lemony (which we like!) and the strawberry banana was a perfectly smooth end of summer flavor.

Ice Cream Base

4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon zantham gum
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half and half
1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Lemon Flavor

finely grated zest of 3 lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup agave nectar or 3/4 cup succanat or 3/4 cup sugar

Strawberry/Banana Flavor

1 pint of strawberries
1 banana
1/3 cup agave or 1/2 cup succanat or 1/2 cup sugar

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Peaches & Coconut Muffins

These healthy (sugar-free!!!) muffins passed the ultimate test: I was thinking about them the next day and couldn’t wait to have another one with my morning coffee! We got the recipe from the Food for my Family blog (great resource!), which has some great food planning tips and more yummy recipes we can’t wait to try!

As usual, we made some modifications of the original recipe based on what we had on-hand and also didn’t add the icing.

Muffin Ingredients:

1 egg
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup raw honey
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups fresh peaches

Topping Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons oats
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil

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Mixed Berry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
3 tablespoons sour cream ~we didn’t have any so we used some yogurt and heavy cream!
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Triple Chocolate Cake

We saw this on-line and couldn’t pass it up… it’s the winner of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Is Your Dessert Intense Enough? contest! Enough said! We also liked the simplicity of ingredients… literally chocolate, butter, eggs and heavy cream. While there are very few ingredients, it is fairly time intensive, so plan accordingly. We made the cake on a Wednesday and froze it until Friday when we pulled it out around noon. We whipped up the ganache frosting around 3:00, frosted the chilled cake and it was perfect when it was cut around 9:00 that night!

Active time: 30 minutes Baking time: 40 minutes Freezer time: overnight

Cake Ingredients:

3 cups Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
8 large eggs, chilled
1/4 teaspoon salt

Ganache Frosting Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips
2 ounces Ghirardelli White Chocolate baking bar, chilled

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Chocolate Beet Muffins

Found the original recipe on this blog, but–big surprise–modified it slightly to its current form. We’re not totally convinced about the awesomeness of this recipe; and not sure we’d even make them again. It got very mixed reviews from our official samplers, but if you really like beets try it out! If you don’t like beets and are wondering what beets are doing in a dessert, then don’t waste your time!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup coconut flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup olive oil
1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾-1 cup whole milk
2 cups pureed (cooked) beets
some chocolate chips, if you want to add them to the tops of the muffins!

click “read more” for additional photos and the instructions!

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Chocolate Covered Granola

Ingredients:

3 oz dark chocolate
2 cups of your favorite granola

Instructions:

Melt the chocolate (either over a double boiler pot set up or in 20 second increments in the microwave)
Pour over the granola
Scoop out into individual servings while still hot- we put ours in cupcake liners!
Let cool until chocolate is set
Enjoy this super easy dessert!

Black Forest Cake

Ok, we’ll admit…. this is a time consuming cake. We made this over two days. Day one we made the four chocolate cake layers and the filling. Day two we made the frosting and assembled it. Click “read more” to see the lengthy list of ingredients and instructions. While it’s time consuming, it did get rave reviews from those that ate it! One catch–you have to like maraschino cherries!

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Peach Crumble

Ingredients:

8 ripe peaches, pitted and chopped into eight sections
 Juice of 1 lemon
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into thin pieces
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats

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Spiced Plum Pie

Ingredients:

one pie crust–store bought or try our easy homemade whole wheat crust!

1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons (packed) finely grated orange peel
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 pounds plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges

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Pie Crust

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

Found on Epicurious, but we modified how the crust was prepped. These were a HUGE hit at the party we took them to!

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 cup flour (we used wheat pastry flour)
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 cup pecan halves (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:
1 cup sour cream (we didn’t have enough sour cream, but it still came out great!)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Taken straight from the Martha Stewart website! Changes made from original recipe: we took out the fresh ginger, used 1/8 cup unsulfured molasses and 1/8 cup bootstrap molasses to get the full 1/4 cup of molasses and we used a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour.

with sugar and without

Ingredients:

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

 

 

 

 

 

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Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature for 30 minutes
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Equipment:

9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan

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Hot Lemon Soufflé

Best served hot. Really. We (five of us today) managed to devour this soufflé (that technically serves eight) straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
4 egg yolks
grated zest of 3 lemons
5 egg whites
powdered sugar for sprinkling

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Party!

Key Lime Bars in the forefront with Orange Earl Gray Tea Cookies and Molasses Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies on the platter in the background.

Key Lime Bars

plated and ready to eat!

Straight from Martha Stewart, these bars were a big hit! The fresh lime juice is what makes them so mouthwatering, but it’s also what makes this a very time consuming recipe. Budget about an hour from starting the crust to pulling the bars out of the oven. You’ll only need a few minutes to whip up the topping and slice the limes later. Worth the effort for a party or family function!

Crust Ingredients:

1.5 cups finely ground graham crackers
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons melted butter(drizzle of honey)

Filling Ingredients:

3 large egg yolks
1.5 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup fresh key lime juice (anywhere from 16-24 limes)

Garnish:

1/2 cup heavy cream
2 limes finely sliced into crescents

 

 

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Molasses-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

done!

We found this recipe in a book compiled by Gwen Steege titled The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. We both love molasses and all the spices traditionally associated with that flavor and the oatmeal seemed to at least add the idea of health to the cookie. We got off to a rough start, resulting in a recipe that has been (accidentally) modified from the original version, though mostly just in the ratios, not the ingredients themselves.

For the flour we used a mixture of whole wheat  flour, whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached flour (it was one of those bottom of the bags day!). Flavor- and texture-wise we both really like these cookies, but think the oatmeal isn’t really necessary. Though we both also agree that we like the Soft Molasses Cookies better!

And yes, you can expect more variations on chocolate chip cookies as we pursue the perfect chocolate chip cookie!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips

 

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Orange Earl Gray Cookies

baked

Modified from the Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook (link to original recipe here)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour (we used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Gray Tea (4-7 bags depending on how finely you grind it)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract

 

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Mango Pineapple Surprise

We found this recipe here, because we had a lot of leftover phyllo dough and some fruit that needed to be used up. We didn’t have all the ingredients and so modified it heavily to get to the recipe you see below. We think it worked out quite well and was much simpler and faster than the original recipe .


Ingredients:

1/2 pineapple
1 mango
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water
phyllo sheets (we just used leftover scraps)
1 stick butter

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Blackstrap Molasses Cookies


Our favorite straight molasses cookie, by far! They’re so soft and moist!  And due to the combination of normal molasses and blackstrap molasses they have a really strong–but still smooth–flavor. They also freeze really well… just layer them in a tupperware once they’ve cooled and freeze for up to a month. Enjoy them straight out of the freezer, no need to let them thaw! Or make an ice cream sandwich out of them!
The Wiki page on molasses nicely breaks down the difference between regular molasses and blackstrap molasses.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vinegar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon clove
5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
extra sugar, for sprinkling