Sweet treats from Guest Bloggers

I am so excited. This week, two best friends of mine, one being my fiancé, sent me yummy recipes for sweet treats. The first is a gluten-free recipe and the second is for some chewy oatmeal cookies. I am hoping that a cookie remains in the next day or so when I visit my fiancé in North Carolina. Try out the recipes for yourself and let us know what you think!

Banana Irish Cream (gluten-free)

Ingredients:

• 1 small-medium banana, cut into chunks, at least 4 hours 
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 4 tbsp sugar  
• 2 tbsp Bailey's Irish cream 
• Handful toasted chopped pecans (optional) 
• 1/2 banana in slim slices for garnish (optional)

Recipe:

1. Place metal bowl and whip into the freezer.  Meanwhile, place frozen bananas in food processor.  Blend on med-high until creamy.  Scoop out and place into a bowl.  Place in the freezer.

2. Remove the metal from the freezer and pour in the whipping cream.  Whip on low for one minute, then increase the speed.  This might take 5 minutes.  When the cream forms, add the Bailey's and sugar and whip just to combine.  Top bananas with cream.  Save some of the bananas for a garnish.

3. Slice the remaining unfrozen banana thinly.  Chop the toasted pecans.  Garnish with both.

Eat and revel in the fact that you're not eating more than 230 calories.  :-)

Recipe from B. Riley, guest blogger

Guilt-Free Oatmeal Cookies 

(15 min. prep, 25 min. total)

 Recipe adapted from recipezaar.com, recipe #238738

I was faced with the task of making something for a work pot-luck and I decided to utilize my baking skills. I was able to create a very tasty guilt free treat.

Approximately serves 36

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend

22 packets of splenda (slightly less than 1 cup of sugar equivalent)

2 eggs (I used “best of the egg” no cholesterol liquid eggs)

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups Quaker Old Fashioned Oats

Ingredients:

Add in the order, as you see fit: nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, craisins, etc.

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Microwave butter sticks for about 35 seconds and add in sugar, beat.
3. Add eggs and beat well.
4. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix well. 
5. Add vanilla.
6. Stir in oats and the add-ins.
7. I used a tablespoon and dropped cookies onto greased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 11 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe from C. Jones, guest blogger

Banana Cookies with Zing

Do you love Bananas? I really don't, thus they often end up highly ripened in my pantry. I was looking for ideas about how to use these ripe bananas. I was inspired by a cookie recipe from 101cookbooks, another food blog that publishes creative recipes. While I don't love bananas, per se, I do love a cookie. I mean, who doesn't love cookies.


I came up with my own version for a cookie recipe, using bananas as the base, but also incorporating some crystallized ginger, made by my mom in a way that preserves the zingy flavor of the ginger. This is the best crystallized ginger I ever had.


Also, I managed to forget to add any oil or butter to the recipe (as posted below) and they still came together and tasted great. A fat-free cookie treat.

Banana Cookies with Zing


Ingredients: 

2 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups bran cereal (finely ground)
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup crystallized ginger (finely ground)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup pecans (ground but not fine)

Recipe:

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

(2) In a large bowl combine the bananas and vanilla extract. Set aside. 

(3) In another bowl whisk together the ground cereal, almond meal, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. 

(4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. 

(5) Fold in the pecans. The dough is looser than a standard cookie dough, like a drop cookie. 

(6) Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - 17 minutes was perfect in my oven.

(7) Allow to cool 10-20 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long).

Makes about 2 dozen bite-sized cookies.

Update

It has been a while since I have posted. I have been working on submitting my dissertation. This process is finally complete!! Hurray!

Look forward to some yummy posts in the next days/weeks. I have been trying out a few recipes, such as, Energy cookies (Banana with Crystalized Ginger), Banana bread, and more.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and support.

Lemon Poppy-seed Teacakes

I was looking for a recipes to use some remaining poppy seeds. I looked through my cookbooks and was inspired by a Russian Teacakes recipe. 

I found that the combination of whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and poppy seeds, created a texture that was irresistible. The addition of lemon adds the flavor of Spring.


I shared these with some co-workers and faculty at my graduate institution. They were a big hit!






Lemon Poppy-seed Teacakes
adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain baking cookbook


Ingredients:


1 1/3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat pastry flour
2/3 cup almond meal (or chopped walnuts)
11 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 tbsp splenda or 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 cup of confectioners' sugar for coating (optional)


Recipe:


(1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use without parchment, ungreased. 
(2) In a food processor, pulse the oats and flours until everything is finely ground. If using almond meal add to the processor, and pulse to mix.
(3) In a medium bowl, beat the butter, Splenda, and salt until smooth. Beat in the lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Then the oat mixture. 
(4) Roll the dough into teaspoon-size balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, 1 1/2 inches apart.


(5) Bake the cookies, reversing the pans midway through (top to bottom, bottom to top), for 15 minutes. (Note: They won't have begun to brown, perhaps maybe at bottom edge.)

(6) Meanwhile, spoon about 1 cup confectioners' sugar into a plastic bag. (The cookies taste great even without the sugar coating, so go ahead and try one before coating...I did!)


(7) Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes. Place the warm cookies in the bag and shake gently to coat with sugar. Allow them to cool completely, then shake them in the sugar again, adding more sugar to bag if needed. (This is very important, if you want the sugar coating to be very apparent for serving.)


Place the cookies on the sheet once more, to allow time for the sugar to adhere, before serving or storing.