egg – Oven Love

Healthier Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Giants

Natalie — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:19:15 +0000

Hold on to your hats, people!

I actually captured a photograph of something edible. Something delicious. Something for YOU!

You guys, I have to confess that I have been mentally opposed to #pumpkiningallthethings this season. It could be because I took a beach vacation at the end of September, or maybe because the food industry has really out-pumpkined itself this year. I mean, Pumpkin Spice Pringles is taking it past the point of no return. Put your thinking caps on, guys. You can do better!

Nevertheless, I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry and I remembered this old Oven Love recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Giants. I hadn’t pulled it up in a while, and when I did, I saw some ingredients in that recipe that I’m not really friends with anymore- namely white sugar and canola oil (all-purpose flour and I only see each other when absolutely necessary). So I embarked on some kitchen experimentation to see if I could substitute some pantry items and make it work.

I swapped out the white sugar for coconut sugar, used coconut oil instead of canola and substitute freshly-milled soft white wheat flour for the all-purpose. I knew by looking at the batter that they wouldn’t come out exactly the same, but I was hopeful.

The cookies bake up nice and puffy- no spreading, which I love. The texture isn’t quite as airy with the coconut sugar and whole grain flour, but I kind of liked it that way. The cookies had a nice nutty flavor that they didn’t before. You’ll definitely need a glass of milk with these if you eat them straight out of the oven, but they will relax after resting for a day or two.

If you loved the original recipe, I’d encourage playing around with it and substituting your own favorite pantry items. Recipes are more flexible than you think!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Healthier Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Giants

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: dessert

Serves: 16

Ingredients

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup coconut sugar
½ cup melted coconut oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon milk, dairy or non-dairy
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole grain flour (I used soft white wheat that we grind at home, but you could use a store-bought whole grain flour of your choice. I would think you could substitute a cup-for-cup gluten-free blend here as well with no problem.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chocolate chunks or chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk pumpkin, coconut sugar, coconut oil, egg, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. In another bowl, stir the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Add chocolate and stir to combine.
Scoop batter with an ice cream scoop and drop onto the parchment paper, leaving space between the cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotate in the oven, then bake 8-10 minutes more until puffed and set in the center.
Let cool on wire racks before serving and store in an air-tight container.

Lamb Meatballs (gluten-free, grain-free, paleo) with Yogurt Dip and Spiced Vegetables

Natalie — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:57:00 +0000

This new style of eating has been an adjustment. It’s hard to wrap my head around new rules for meal-planning and eating. So much of my day is spent thinking about food, and planning out when and what we’re going to eat and making grocery lists. I know it’s not permanent (I mean, I hope! Ack!) and I know it’s going to help to heal my stomach, but it is mentally draining.

This meal is one of my first attempts at branching out from the plain-meat-and-veg dinner. I am semi-obsessed with meatballs lately, so when I saw ground lamb at Publix I had to grab it. It was exxxxpensive, but it made delicious meatballs.

When I was combining the meatball mixture, I wasn’t sure they would come together without some kind of binder. I swore by panko or soaked bread in my old meatball recipes and that obviously wasn’t happening, so I grabbed some coconut flour- my new BFF. It’s basically magic, that stuff. It soaked up the extra moisture right away.

To go along with the lamb, I made a quick yogurt dip in the food processor with mint and feta cheese. I hadn’t ever had the mint/feta combo, but it is surprisingly delicious. A little goes a long way for me (as usual when it comes to dips and sauces), but I’m a fan.

I also roasted up some cauliflower and carrots in spices that compliment the lamb- oregano, garlic, parsley.. as well as some cinnamon, cloves, allspice and a touch of cumin. You don’t have to add the “sweeter” spices, but I like the way they taste when paired with the lamb.

I had my meatballs and veggies over a salad; hubs made pita sandwiches. The kids gobbled up the veggies in no time. I feel like I finally had a win in the kitchen after weeks of scraping by.. not really knowing what to eat or serve my family. Huge sigh of relief!

Lamb Meatballs (gluten-free, grain-free, paleo) with Yogurt Dip and Spiced Vegetables

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

50 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Main Dish, Appetizer

Serves: 8

Ingredients

½ onion, peeled
handful of parsley (maybe ¼-1/3 cup packed?)
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 pound ground lamb
1 egg
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 tablespoon oregano
½ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon cloves cloves
salt and pepper to taste
Feta Yogurt Dip (below), Spiced Vegetables (below), pita bread, salad greens, etc for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine onion, parsley and garlic. Process until finely diced.
In a large mixing bowl, combine onion mixture, lamb, egg, coconut flour and spices until well combined. Form into meatballs and line up on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake the meatballs at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve with feta yogurt dip, spiced vegetables, pita bread, or whatever you like. (If you’d like the meatballs to be even more brown, turn on the broiler for 5 minutes and them pull them out).

Feta Yogurt Dip

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

10 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Condiment

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

4 ounces feta cheese
⅓ cup yogurt, plus extra if you like a thinner dip
2 sprigs fresh mint
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice

Instructions

In a food processor, combine feta, yogurt, mint and vinegar/lemon juice. Process until smooth. If the dip isn’t smooth enough for you, add some more yogurt until you reach your desired consistency. Serve with the lamb meatballs.

Spice Roasted Cauliflower and Carrots

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

55 mins

These can bake in the oven at the same time as the lamb meatballs.

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Side Dishes

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
5-6 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley or a few sprigs freshly chopped parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 fresh garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon, optional
¼ teaspoon cloves, optional
¼ teaspoon allspice, optional
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine the vegetables, olive oil and spices. Spread on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 30-45 minutes until beginning to brown. Serve warm.

Salmon and Wild Rice Cakes

Natalie — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:59:00 +0000

You guys.

I am in the midst of an intense week of toddler-watching (we are caring for two extra little cuties this week while their parents are on vacay), so I have about 10 minutes to say my peace about these salmon cakes. Let’s cut to the chase:

1. They’re a great use of leftovers. As you can probably guess, the night before I made these, we had salmon with wild rice. There wasn’t enough salmon to repeat the whole meal for everyone, but making the salmon cakes transformed them into something new while using up what we already had. Refrigerator-0, Natalie-1.

2. They are kid-friendly. This is crazy, okay- I made the kids PIZZA last night, but they decided they wanted to eat these instead. What the what? Mind-boggling, really.

3. They’re great for packed lunches. They are portable, make-ahead and reheat well, too.

4. They’re nourishing. Wild salmon, wild rice.. it’s getting wild up in here. You’ve got good fats coming from the wild salmon, and the wild rice is a good source of fiber, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, zinc, Vitamin B6, and niacin. Add some spinach and avocado and things get even better. Take that, RDI!

I’m out of points and out of time- these taste great and I know you’ll like them.

The end.

Back to the crazy babies!

4.0 from 1 reviews

Salmon and Wild Rice Cakes

Prep time

45 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

1 hour

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Main, Appetizer

Ingredients

¼ large or ½ small onion, roughly chopped
1 rib celery, roughly chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 cups pre-cooked wild rice (brown rice or any other cooked rice/grain can be substituted)
12 oz wild salmon, pre-cooked (canned works also)
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt (preferably full-fat)
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a food processor, add onion, celery, parsley and garlic. Process until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the rice. Pulse just a few times until the ingredients are combined- the rice should keep most of its shape (you aren’t making pureed rice).
In a large bowl, combine the rice mixture, salmon, yogurt, egg and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Mix well. If the mixture does not seem wet enough, add more lemon juice (or yogurt). Season the mixture with salt and pepper.
Using a ⅓ cup measure, scoop out the mixture and form into patties (I got 10 patties with the ⅓ cup measure- use the ¼ cup if you would like more or smaller cakes). Place formed patties on a parchment-or-foil-lined cookie sheet and freeze until they firm up a bit, about 30 minutes.
When the salmon cakes have firmed up, preheat the broiler on high. Place the oven rack about 10 inches below the element (in other words- don’t put it right under the broiler, give it some space). Broil for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Serve hot and enjoy!

Paleo Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Coconut Whip

Natalie — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:23:00 +0000

PaleO-M-G.

It’s my first attempt at a Paleo cake.

Of course, I am not committed to the Paleo Diet as a lifestyle- ya’ll know I love me some raw milk and cheese. But I do see its merits in other ways and it seems to work well for a lot of people.

We had a little get-together at our house last night for Labor Day and it was just the right time to try my hand at baking Paleo-style. A few of our dear friends are eating Paleo and I wanted to make sure everyone could enjoy a treat and no one had to abstain. Let them eat cake, am I right?

To be honest, I was a little nervous about this recipe at first. I’ve been having some success with alternative baking, but you never know what could happen with a new recipe.

Thankfully, even though I thought it was a definite fail going into the oven, the cake was a hit with our friends. It has a nice, moist crumb which is difficult to achieve when working with coconut flour and without refined sugar. Perfect with a glass of milk, er.. coconut milk.

I was also nervous about the coconut whip- I thought my coconut cream was not solid enough to whip, but it came out just fine. Like coconutty “whipped topping,” if you will. And as for that skinny middle layer of frosting, I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough whip to top the cake, so I went easy on the middle. There was plenty left over, so I will be a little more liberal with the middle layer next time. This time I just ate the leftover whip 0with a spoon (this is also perfectly acceptable).

I think I will be doing some more experimenting with this cake in the future. I can already think of some fun variations- mint chocolate, mocha, chocolate raspberry, chocolate peanut butter… maybe I’ll get back into the baking business. Is there a market out there for paleo cakes?

I’m going to go ponder that idea over the last slice.

PS- I just shaved a little chocolate onto the top of the cake, but you could dust with cocoa powder or top with chopped fruit, nuts or berries as well.

Paleo Chocolate Cake

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

(makes 1 9-inch double-layer cake)

Author: via Paleo Spirit

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour
¾ cup high cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon celtic sea salt
9 eggs
¾ cup coconut oil (butter or ghee), melted (more for greasing pans)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
¾ cup brewed coffee (or water)
1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
parchment paper for lining cake pans

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Combine coconut flour, cacao, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, with whisk attachment, whisk the eggs.
Add the oil/butter/ghee, maple syrup, coffee and vanilla extract and continue to mix until combined.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated – about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl (you may need to do this a couple of times) and beat cake batter on high speed for about one full minute so that the batter is fluffy.
Divide batter between the two prepared pans.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn out onto the wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Vanilla Coconut Whip

Prep time

24 hours

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

24 hours 5 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

2 cans full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated for 24 hours or more
a few drops of vanilla Stevia or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Remove coconut milk from the refrigerator. Open cans and carefully scoop out the top layer of coconut cream into a mixing bowl, leaving the clear-ish part of the coconut milk in the can (save this for other uses- smoothies, etc).
Mix on high with the whisk attachment for about 5 minutes or until stiff peaks of cream form. Add your Stevia or vanilla extract to taste. Spread on top of cooled cake as a frosting, or use in any other application that calls for whipped cream.

Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Natalie — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:43:00 +0000

I love playing hostess. One of my favorite things to do is to make a meal and enjoy it with friends and family. Usually, I end up going a little overboard as the host- I start to feel like dinner isn’t enough on its own, and then I start making drinks and desserts and bread. I start looking for quick recipes that I can throw together with pantry items to share with my guests.

These cookies appeared this weekend when we had some guests stop by for dinner. If you keep your pantry stocked with the baking basics- flour, sugar, butter, chocolate, etc- these will come together in a flash. Even faster if your butter is already at room temperature!

When these cookies first came out of the oven, they were crisp; but after a day resting in a container, they got a little softer. I liked them both ways with a big glass of milk. If you want to make sure they are a chewier, bake them for 8-10 minutes instead of 12-14. If you are looking for a really chewy cookie with similar flavors, try these Nutella chocolate chip cookies (they look a lot alike but taste different, trust me).

If you aren’t sold on the cinnamon (they are snickerdoodles, after all), you can roll these in plain sugar. I am a big cinnamon fan, though- I think next time I’ll add cinnamon to the cookie batter as well.

Next time you’re playing hostess on short notice, you can look to this recipe for help. Your guests will thank you!

Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Author: Food and Wine (Grace Parisi)

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a bowl, sift the flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with 1 cup of the sugar until creamy. Add the melted chocolate and the egg and beat until smooth. Beat in the dry ingredients until incorporated.
In a shallow bowl, mix the remaining ½ cup of sugar with the cinnamon. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar. Transfer to 3 parchment paper–lined baking sheets and flatten to 2-inch rounds. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the cookies are puffed and cracked. Transfer to racks and let cool.

Sweet Beet Pancakes

Natalie — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:23:00 +0000

Oh, how the times have changed.

If you told me five years ago that I’d be recommending that you eat beets in any form, I would have laughed in your face. But here I am, about to tell you why you need to make beet pancakes- and soon.

This weekend, I had my first experience cooking with beets. Hubs brought home four beets for me from our farmer (Hilton) and I knew it was time to experiment. Is it weird that I am not ready to eat a plain roasted beet, and that I’d rather put it in a pancake first? Weird or not, that’s what I did. I roasted those babies up, trimmed and pureed them (all with GLOVED hands, which I highly recommend unless you want stained beet fingers), and mixed them up into my batter.

The verdict? Sweet and delicious. Hubs thought they could use a little extra syrup, but I didn’t think the earthiness of the beets came on too strong. The little guy enjoyed them, too (that means he actually took a few bites and didn’t run the other way asking for M-I-L-K).

If you’re new to beets, too, I would encourage you to start with this recipe. It’s a fairly safe introduction into the world of beets. Some day soon, I hope to face my fears and actually eat a beet on its own.. but until then, I’ll be sitting down to a plate of these sweet, pink cakes.

P.S. Like most pancake recipes, these are freezable!

Sweet Beet Pancakes

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

adapted from Weelicious- http://weelicious.com/2011/06/28/red-beet-pancakes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=red-beet-pancakes

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
¾ Cup Whole Wheat Flour
3 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
½ Tsp Kosher Salt
2 Medium Beets, roasted & pureed (about ¾ Cups)
1¼ Cup Milk
⅓ Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
1 Large Egg
3 Tbsp Melted butter or coconut oil
1 Tsp Vanilla extract

Instructions

Sift the first 5 ingredients into a bowl.
Place the rest of the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined (you don’t want to overstir the batter — some lumps are good).
Drop about 2 tbsp of the pancake mixture onto a greased griddle or pan over medium heat and cook for 3 minutes on each side.
Serve with desired accompaniments- butter, syrup, honey or jam.
To freeze: Place the pancakes in labeled zipper bags and freeze for up to 3 months.

Pie Fries

Natalie — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Wondering what you’re going to do with your pie dough scraps?
Do you even have pie dough scraps?Sometimes I do. Usually, I just throw them away, but if there’s a ton left over, I’ll make hand pies. After my pie dough comparison, I had a lot of extra dough and had already made hand pies, so I decided to try something new.

Pie fries are just little strips of pie dough brushed with egg or butter (you can use whatever you brushed on your pie crust) and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. They’re sweet, flaky, crunchy little treats that can easily become an addiction. Just warning you.They would probably be extra tasty dipped in jam or chocolate sauce and would make perfect garnishes for ice cream sundaes. Simple and sweet. The instructions below are pretty loose- you can’t really mess these up.

Pie Fries

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert, Snack

Serves: 2

Ingredients

any amount of pie dough
melted butter or one beaten egg, for brushing
sugar
cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (or whatever temperature your pie is baking at- feel free to bake them at the same time as your pie). Roll out your dough and cut into thin strips. Place the strips on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush the dough with melted butter or the egg. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top (1 tablespoon sugar to 1 teaspoon cinnamon is a good ratio). Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack.

Blackberry Galette

Natalie — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Did I tell you my thing about pies? Here’s my thing.

I didn’t used to like pies as a kid, but I do now. I love to eat them, but I don’t really like to make them. (I’m more of a cake baker, remember?) I know pie dough is easy to pull together, but the part I don’t like is rolling it, shaping it, pre-baking, par-baking, all that nonsense. You have to think ahead. I’m not into it, and that’s why I chose pies as part of my GFA challenge.. it’s not really my comfort zone.

The galette is like the lazy gal’s pie. All you have to do is make the crust, roll it out haphazardly and fill it with fruit. It can be an even lazier gal’s pie if you use a pre-made crust. All the tastiness of pie without the work! (Am I selling it?)

I plan on getting into some real pies here soon, but if you’re scared of pie-making like me, give the galette a go. It’s a great end to a summer meal, perfect with ice cream, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be eating it for breakfast while most of you are reading this. Hopefully blackberries are in season for you right now- if not, bookmark or favorite or star or pin it- or whatever the kids are doing these days.

Blackberry Galette

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

adapted from For the Love of Cooking- http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/06/blackberry-galette-with-homemade.html

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 cups fresh blackberries rinsed and patted dry
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 batch pie dough, chilled (enough for a single 9-inch crust, I used Dorie Greenspan’s all-purpose recipe this time- http://shadowcook.com/2007/11/29/dorrie-greenspans-good-for-almost-everything-pie-dough/)
1 egg, beaten
coarse sugar, for sprinkling (I used turbinado)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
In a small bowl, toss blackberries with sugar and cornstarch until absorbed. Set aside while you prepare the crust.
Roll out your pie dough into a circle. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but the dough should be about ½ inch thick. A helpful hint is to roll it out between two pieces of plastic wrap. Move the dough onto your baking sheet.
Spoon the blackberry mixture onto the pie crust. Be sure to keep the pile in the center, leaving ample room on the sides to fold the crust up- maybe 3 inches or so. Fold the crust up around the filling, pressing the crust down gently to seal it. Brush the crust with egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 10-15 minutes before serving.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Natalie — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:06:00 +0000

May is all supposed to be all about pies around here, my darlings. I’m starting out with a bit of an unconventional pie post, though, just to keep things exciting for you.. with whoopie pies!

Have you heard about whoopie pies? They kind of had a moment in the foodie world recently, and it seemed like everyone was making them. This was crazy to me! I grew up in Lancaster County, PA, the Amish capital and home of the best whoopie pies around. As a kid, no one I met outside of CenPenn knew what they were. Now they are super popular, and rightly so. They are so good!

The typical flavors for whoopie pies that I remember from home are chocolate and cream, pumpkin with cream cheese, red velvet, and chocolate peanut butter. We’d get them at bake sales or any of the good markets- Central Market in Lancaster City, Saturday’s Market or Root’s. Man.. I’m getting nostalgic/hungry.

The cookies are the cakey type, so if you love cookies or cake or frosting, these are for you. You really can’t go wrong with the red velvet and cream cheese combo, either. There is a little effort involved if you want them to look good visually, but if you don’t care what they look like, the recipe is fairly straight-forward.

I must admit to you that I have some real Amish whoopie pie recipes, but I’m saving them up for later. I liked what I saw on Annie’s Eats, and I think they turned out similar to my hometown type, but they aren’t quite perfect. Guess I’ll just have to do some more experimentation/taste-testing..

What do you think about whoopie pies? Are you on board or already over it?

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/08/red-velvet-whoopie-pies/

Author: Annie’s Eats

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 oz. red food coloring
1 batch cream cheese frosting, recipe follows

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
Using something round, trace evenly spaced circles onto pieces of parchment paper sized to fit two cookie sheets. Place the parchment on the cookie sheets so that the side you have drawn on is facing down; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, beat in about a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the buttermilk, beating each addition just until incorporated. Repeat so that all the buttermilk has been added and then mix in the final third of dry ingredients. Do not overbeat. Blend in the food coloring.
Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Pipe the batter onto the parchment paper using the tracings as a guide. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the tops are set, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets at least 10 minutes, until they can be easily transferred to a cooling rack. Repeat with any remaining batter. Allow cookies to cool completely before proceeding.
Transfer the pre-made frosting (you can make while cookies are baking/cooling) to a clean pastry bag fitted with a plain, round tip. Pair the cookies up by shape and size. Flip one cookie of each pair over so that the flat side is facing up.
Pipe frosting onto the flat-sided cookie of each pair, leaving the edges clear. Sandwich the cookies together so the flat sides are facing each other and press gently to help the filling reach the edges. To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

2 mins

Total time

7 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1

Ingredients

8oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
5 tbs softened butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (or more, if needed)

Instructions

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth (no lumps!). Add sugar until you reach the desired consistency and sweetness.

Maple Syrup Scones

Natalie — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:58:00 +0000

I have two sweet treats to end up our month of brunching- Maple Sugar Scones today and Cinnamon Sugar Baked Doughnuts tomorrow. Perfect brunch fare, and both inspired by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. She and I are totally on the same wavelength!

I’ve made maple pecan scones before, which were great, but I was looking for something a little healthier this time. The original scones were made with white flour, white sugar and maple extract. These are made with whole wheat pastry flour and pure maple syrup as the only sweetener.

Honestly, I didn’t miss the white flour or the white sugar. I loved the taste of the real maple sugar and the crunch of that natural turbinado sugar on top. These are perfect with a little sweet cream butter spread on top while they’re still warm. These would work for a nice ladies’ lunch, snack or tea time, too. Yum, yum, yum.

These went very quickly in our house. If you have more than two people, I would suggest doubling the recipe. You can also make an extra batch, shape them, freeze them (before you add the egg wash and sugar) and then pop them in the oven straight from the freezer if you really want scones in a hurry.

So good!

Maple Syrup Scones

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

only slightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks- http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/maple-syrup-scones-recipe.html

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 9

Ingredients

¼ cup real, good quality maple syrup
6 tablespoons milk or cream (I used half milk and half cream)
2¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour (sub all-purpose or half white/half wheat if you can’t find it)
½ cup rolled oats
1½ tablespoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine grain salt
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
1 egg, lightly beaten
large-grain sugar (for example: turbinado) for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees, rack in the top ⅓. Line one baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the maple syrup and milk in a small cup, and set aside. Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Using a food processor, cut the butter into the flour mixture, pulsing until it resembles little pebbles in a beach of sandy flour (about 20 quick pulses). You can also cut the butter into the flour using a knife and fork, or smushing it through your thumb and fingertips. Now add the maple syrup milk. Pulse (or mix) until the dough just comes together – don’t over mix. If the batter is too dry add more cream a bit at a time -you want it to hold together w/o being crumbly.
Turn out onto a floured surface, kneed once or twice, just enough to bring the dough together. Now arrange the dough into a 1-inch thick rectangle. Trim the edges and slice the dough into nine equal-sized squares. Arrange the scones next to one another on the prepared baking sheet – ¼-inch distance between each of them. Brush generously with the egg wash and sprinkle with the large-grain sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden along the bottom and tops.