Tag Archives: no refined sugar

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Meringue Cookies

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Flourless Peanut Butter Meringue Cookies

Flourless Peanut Butter Meringue Cookies

If there was ever a food match that was made in heaven, it is peanut butter and chocolate! One of my favorite lazy treats is to dip a dark chocolate bar into peanut butter.  So the other day when I was craving a sweet, I thought what a great idea it would be to make a delicious peanut butter cookie that was both moist and light.  Sort of like my Starbucks Inspired Flourless Chocolate Cookie ,or, (cue the light bulb over my head), how about exactly like my Flourless Chocolate Cookie! But instead of adding melted chocolate to the meringue, I’d add melted/warmed peanut butter—and so this cookie was born! It’s light, moist, gooey, and crisp in all of the right places! A miracle really, considering the fact that we all know that I am not the most proficient baker. I was fully expecting that this would turn out to be another disastrous baking episode for me. I’m so glad that I was wrong, and that this turned out to be all that I wanted and more!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Total time: 20 minutes

Makes 8 cookies

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
6 Tablespoons of creamy peanut butter warmed
1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
3/4  cup of powdered sugar (I used maple sugar,see how to powder any type of sugar here)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

Directions:  Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Over low heat warm the peanut butter, until it begins to thin a bit, and takes on a glossy shine—about 5 minutes, set aside.

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Add the two egg whites to a bowl and beat on low until bubbles form, add the cream of tartar and beat on high, add in the sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat until peaks are stiff and fluffy—you can turn the bowl upside down with out the mixture running.

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Pour in the melted peanut butter and fold it into the egg white fluff–be gentle– fold until the white streaks disappear.

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Fold in the chocolate chips,

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then spoon the cookie mixture onto a parchment/silpat lined cookie sheet.

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Let them cool for 10 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to continue cooling 5-7 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

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Fudgesicles

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Coconut Fudgesicle

Coconut Fudgesicle

One of my favorite treats as a kid was a fudge pop. Back then they were sold as the low-fat, low-calorie version of ice cream.   Not that any of that mattered to me , I was 7!  I just really enjoyed the creamy chocolate treat!  Back then fudgesicles contained 3 or 4 key ingredients, Milk, chocolate, and cream.  That is a far cry from the ingredient list we see today on a fudgepop box.  When formulating this recipe, I wanted to stick to what made fudgesicles great when I was little, a few ingredients and not much else.  I switched out the milk for coconut milk, and added some coconut cream for richness, the result—-Heaven–creamy fudge heaven!  I didn’t add any extra sugar to this, for my palate it didn’t need it.  My daughter and husband both loved these without any added sugar as well.  However, if you like fudgesicles on the sweeter side, add 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the mix before freezing.  Although I used coconut milk and cream as a base for these, you can use milk and cream, or just use milk.  You can also use my recipe for Chocolate Tofu Pudding just freeze and enjoy!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Freeze time: 4-6 hours

Makes 4-6 pops

Ingredients: 2 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chopped

1 tablespoons of unsweetened  cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of coconut milk

3/4 cup of coconut cream

Special equipment: Popsicle molds

Directions: Add the milk, cream and cocoa powder to a sauce pan over medium heat, and whisk until well combined and mixture is just below a simmer–DO NOT BOIL!!! Remove from heat.  Add in chopped chocolate, and whisk until all the chocolate is melted, stir in the vanilla extract. image Divide the mixture evenly among the popsicle molds image Freeze for 4-6 hours or until solidly frozen. Follow your popsicle molds instructions for removing pops from molds and enjoy!   image

Graham Crackers

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Cinnamon Graham Crackers

Going into the store now a days is quite a test of wills between me and my daughter. She is always asking to have the box of cookies/crackers/treats with the picture of Elmo on it.  I find myself trying to avoid that aisle all together, but the marketers have this kind of stuff all figured out–smart bastards– they put those products on the same aisle as the children’s vitamins and hygene products, so it’s almost unavoidable! Luckily for now my daughter has a short attention span, so I find that if I just let her play with the box while we are in the store, and give her an apple just before we leave the store, I can get out of the store without buying the box of treats, which she probably won’t eat anyway. It’s tough but us moms have skills too you smart alec marketers! Have you ever read the ingredients on some of these snacks? If you have then you probably know that they’re full of things that are hard to spell, and that probably aren’t good for you.  I wanted to buy my daughter some healthy graham crackers to go along with some marshmallows that I made. But I read the ingredients on a box at the store, and not one of the boxes contained actual graham flour. Weird, considering the crackers are named for the use of that very flour.  So I bought some graham flour, and set out to make my own.  You can find graham flour at Whole foods, or on Amazon. It’s pretty inexpensive, about $3 for enough flour to make at least 10 batches of these crackers. If you consider that 1 box of graham crackers is $4 then you know you’re saving! You can play around with the use of the second flour in this recipe, as I did.  I made these with all purpose, coconut, and spelt flour.  I can tell you that the difference in taste is hard to decipher.  The coconut flour definitely took some fidgeting with, because it absorbs so much liquid, so I had to add much more water to that batch. But whatever flour you decide to use, just know that the final product will still be delicious.

Makes 75-100 mini crackers and 24 large crackers
Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of graham flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of spelt or all purpose flour
1/4 cup of coconut sugar, or maple sugar, or organic cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons of  chilled butter, cut and cubed
3 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon of molasses
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place all of the dry ingredients into your food processor and pulse to combine. Add in the butter and pulse until mixture resembles corse corn meal.

Add in the wet ingredients and process until dough becomes a ball.

Roll dough out between to pieces of parchment paper until dough is about 1/8 inch thick.

Remove top layer of parchment and cut out shapes or use a pastry flute or knife to cut out 2.5 inch squares.

Remove any excess dough and set aside so that you can roll it again. Place the parchment paper with the cut out crackers onto a cookie sheet, and bake for 15 minutes, turning them mid way, bake until they are golden brown and the edges are firm. Be careful to check on these often they burn easily. Repeat this process with any remaining dough. Let the crackers cool on a cookie rack, and then enjoy!

Okay give me your best grocery shopping with little ones tips, I really need them!!

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Homemade Marshmallows

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Home made Marshmallows

Becoming a parent has afforded me the benefit of seeing the world anew.  I love watching my daughter get such pleasure from the smallest of things. Interacting with her reminds me of all the fun I had as a kid, and all the things that brought me pleasure; like having cookouts, going to the beach with my family, eating ice cream, candy, s’mores and toasted marshmallows. I want her to have all of those same pleasures, but without all the additives, and sugar. This is every moms wish I suppose. Some of us just give in and buy the box of cookies, and others like myself let the guilt eat us and try to offer our children other alternatives. Last week I was feeling very nostalgic and I wanted to let my daughter have a s’more. I could have bought store bought marshmallows, and graham crackers, but both are super easy to make, at home. So I decided to give them both a go, (recipe for the graham crackers coming soon).  This recipe for marshmallows is actually pretty good for you.  I used an organic grass-fed gelatin, which is composed of the amino acids, glycine and proline. These amino acids are great for over all immune health, and they are required for proper skin, hair, and nail growth. They also aid in digestion. These marshmallows contain no refined sugar. I used maple sugar, but you could use, agave, honey, coconut sugar, all are great options. Even if you use white table sugar, these will still be preservative free and very, very good! If you are like me and love marshmallow fluff, then dig into the finished product right away! It’s super gooey and delicious! If messy isn’t your thing, then wait and let them set.

Makes
45 marshmallows
Time:
25-30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 Tablespoons of unflavored grass-fed gelatin
1 cup of maple sugar
1/2 cup of cold  water divided
1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

Equipment
A stand mixer or hand mixer

Directions:
Line a 13 by 9 inch baking pan with foil:

Pour 1/4 cup of the water into mixer bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let sit until gelatin becomes very firm about 15 minutes:

Meanwhile,  add sugar, the remaining water and salt to a pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook gently swirling the pan until the sugar has dissolved completely and the temperature reaches 240 degrees, about 6-8 minutes:

Turn the mixer on low  and slowly add the hot sugar mixture to the gelatin:

Once the sugar mixture is added, turn the mixer on high. Beat until firm peaks form, and the mixture is very thick about 10-12 minutes:

Pour out into a foil lined pan. Smooth out, and enjoy immediately, or cover and allow to set at room temperature over night.

When you are ready, you can cut out cute shapes like I did, or just squares.  I lightly dusted a cutting board with some cornstarch, and turned the marshmallow slab out onto the cutting board.  Then I spayed my cookie cutters with coconut oil, and made these lovely shapes:

These go great with graham crackers and chocolate, or in my recipe for Banana Marshmallow Split!

Do tell, what are some of your favorite childhood treats? Do you still eat them?

Banana Marshmallow Split!

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Banana Marshmallow Split

I wasn’t going to post this on the blog, just because this is so easy to make, it barely needs directions. I made this dessert after making a fresh batch of marshmallows, I’ll post the recipe for those soon. This is a super yummy single serve dessert that isn’t involved at all. But it’s so yummy that you’ll probably want to make it all the time. Sometimes I add peanut butter to this, or almond butter and sliced almonds. You can even add sliced strawberries if you want to make it fancy.

Ingredients:
1 Banana split down the middle
1-2 squares of a good quality chocolate (chopped into small pieces) ( I used 60% organic fair trade bittersweet chocolate)
4-6 miniature marshmallows
2-3 walnuts crushed

Equipment needed:
Foil

Serves: 1

Directions:

 Place the chocolate and marshmallows inside the slit banana:

Cover with foil. Bake in a 400F degree oven for 5 minutes:

Remove the banana peel. Place in a serving bowl, top with crushed walnuts and enjoy!

Share your favorite single serving dessert recipes? I’d love to try some new ones;-)

Chai vanilla latte ice cream

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It’s National ice cream day! Celebrate with a scoop or two of this delicious chai vanilla latte tea ice cream. This ice cream recipe is inspired by my love of chai tea lattes and ice cream. If you want to know how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker check out this Link. Homemade ice cream is so much better than store bought, you can control how much sugar is added and what type of sugar is added, so it is also healthier. If this flavor of ice cream doesn’t interest you check out my ice cream recipe for Homemade Lavender infused vanilla bean ice cream. It’s a big hit in my house, and I’m always making it. I use the base of that ice cream recipe to make other ice cream recipes. I just add what ever flavorings I want to use at the end.

Here’s what you need:
8 egg yolks
2 cups heavy organic cream
1 1/2 cups of whole fat organicmilk
1 teaspoon of organic vanilla extract
3 earl grey tea bags
10 organic cardomom pods
1 organic clove
3/4 cup of organic maple sugar, (can use agave, maple syrup or any sweetener you choose)
2 organic cinnamon sticks, or 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Directions:
Add the milk, tea bags, clove, cinnamon, to a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then turn off heat and let steep for 10 minutes:

 Add 1 cup of heavy cream to the warm milk mixture, turn the fire back on low and heat to just before it simmers, then turn off heat, and let it steep for 5 minutes. Then strain mixture.
In a mixing bowl beat egg yolks and sugar, until light an creamy:

Take one cup of the warm milk and cream mixture and while whisking, slowly add it to the egg and sugar mixture. Be careful to go slowly, you don’t want scrambled eggs! Once the eggs have been tempered, slowly add the tempered egg mixture to the remaining warm milk and cream mixture in the sauce pan. Turn on fire, add the last cup of heavy cream, and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Turn off heat and immediately pour the hot mixture into a large bowl. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature, then either place in an air tight container and refrigerate overnight so that the flavors can meld, or freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions.

What’s your favorite kind of ice cream? Follow me and like my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/lazygirldinners 

Pure Maple Cream

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Maple Cream / Maple Butter

It’s nearing Father’s Day and one of my gifts for my husband is to finally fulfill his desire to have maple cream, also known as maple butter, on his toast. He loves maple cream, and always speaks of the time he spent in Vermont very fondly. Whenever he speaks of Vermont, there always comes a point in the conversation in which he talks about maple cream, and every single time that he speaks of maple cream, his eyes gleam. It’s almost like witnessing him sitting in a cafe tasting the maple cream for the very first time. Before today, I  have never had maple cream. So up to this point I didn’t really get this infatuation he had with maple cream. On an ingredient scale, maple cream is easy to make, it only requires one ingredient, maple syrup. However, making maple cream requires some effort, it is definitely not a lazy girl activity. This however is a special occasion, and my husband deserves all the effort, and some, that I put into making this maple cream for him. He is an amazing father, extremely hands on, and he ADORES our daughter. I wish that every child could be loved by their dad as much as my husband loves our daughter. She is definitely lucky to have him as her dad. Making this maple cream is the least I could do for him. To be fair, I actually thought that it would be much harder to make this maple cream than it actually was. Just stir at a steady pace and you should be fine. This requires about 30-40 minutes of constant stirring, so just prepare yourself.

Here’s what you need:
3 cups of Grade A Maple Syrup

Equipment
A wet/dry thermometer or candy thermometer

Directions:
Prepare an ice bath by placing a medium size sauce pan into a large bowl of ice:

In another sauce pan add 3 Cups of maple syrup:

 

Over medium heat allow the syrup to boil undisturbed until the temperature reaches 235 degrees Fahrenheit, I went over a degree because I was trying to take a picture for the blog;-)

Boil for 1 more minute just to make sure that the liquid has indeed reached that temperature, then turn off the heat, and pour the hot syrup into the clean sauce pan in the ice bath. Allow it to cool until the temperature reaches 100 degrees.

Remove the pot  from the ice bath and begin stirring:

As you stir the color will begin to change and the liquid will begin to thicken it turned this color after about 15 minutes of stirring:

Once the maple syrup looses its glossy sheen and it starts to look like tahini, or has the texture of peanut butter stop stirring. It took about 40 minutes. Pour into a clean storage container:

Spread this mixture on biscuits, toast, pancakes, waffles, or whatever your heart desires, and enjoy!

What are your fondest memories of your dad?
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