Archive for Desserts
Homemade White Chocolate Chips
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We have homemade chocolate chips, homemade butterscotch chips, and now we have homemade white chocolate chips! As with the butterscotch chips, I didn’t use sucanat on these because I felt like the flavor would be too strong. Instead, I used organic raw sugar, which isn’t much healthier than regular white sugar, but at least it hasn’t been bleached. :) (You can read more of my thoughts on healthy sweeteners here.)
I ordered cocoa butter from Mountain Rose Herbs and was very pleased! I also found that I could get it through Amazon, but it was a little more expensive there. The little cocoa butter wafers look good enough to eat all by themselves, but beware, they are not. I may or may not have taken a little nibble just to find out for sure. But alas, chocolate is not chocolate without sugar, no matter how tasty it looks. ;)
White Chocolate Chips
1 cup cocoa butter
1 cup organic raw sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine cocoa butter, sugar and coconut oil in a medium saucepan.
Stir with a whisk and heat until all the ingredients are melted and mixed thoroughly. This takes several minutes.
Remove mixture from heat and add vanilla extract. Pour it into a parchment paper lined baking dish (I used my 9×9 inch pyrex).
Refrigerate for several hours until hardened. The mixture may separate while it’s cooling, but that’s okay!
Break the hardened mixture into little chunks. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
We stirred some homemade white chocolate chips into these fudge brownies…
See those bits of white chocolate chips in there? It was like candy in a brownie. You must try these. (After you eat a good dinner of course.)
What do you like to make with White Chocolate Chips?
P.S. These are a little bit pricey to make – but I try to avoid white chocolate chips from the store because they are full of hydrogenated oils. I’ll probably only make these every once in a while for a very special treat. :)
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Peanut Butter Brownie Cups (made with whole wheat and sucanat)
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The delightful thing about eating healthy, whole foods is that you can still have your cake and eat it too – you just need to make treats with real, wholesome ingredients. It also helps you to stay healthy if you refrain from eating the entire batch of goodies. Shucks.
Read through this post about Healthy Sweeteners, this post about Healthy Fats and this post about Whole Grain Flour to answer questions you may have about how to make treats that still have lots of great nutrients! While we still limit the sweets and treats at our house, I don’t feel guilt when feeding my family delicious desserts that are made with these whole foods and healthy fats. (You’ll see a big list of our healthier treat recipes here.)
And now, my friends, I have a very exciting new recipe to share with you that contains wholesome, funky fresh ingredients. Warning: You may want to sit down when you take your first bite so that you don’t faint from the pure joy of it all.
A Heavenly Homemakers reader, Katie, gave me the idea for these Peanut Butter Brownie Cups. With tears in my eyes, my hand clutched to my chest and a sob in my throat, I’d just like to say from the bottom of my heart, “Katie…thank you.”
Yes, gooey chocolate and peanut butter makes me completely sappy. You can only imagine that this type of behavior is what my children and husband experience on a regular basis while living with me. If you think my reaction to this recipe is overwhelming, you should have heard me trying to get through the end of Little Britches when I was reading it out loud to the boys. Don’t even ask about Old Yeller.
Peanut Butter Brownie Cups
1 cup melted butter
1 1/2 - 2 cups sucanat (depending on your preference)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I use homemade peanut butter)
2 Tablespoons honey
Stir together melted butter, sucanat and cocoa. Add eggs and vanilla and stir well. Mix in flour until batter is thoroughly mixed. Scoop batter into 24 paper lined muffin tins (filling each one about 1/3 full).
Stir peanut butter and honey together. Spoon 1/2- 1 teaspoon of peanut butter mixture into the center of each brownie cup.
Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes. Makes 24 Peanut Butter Brownie Cups.
Have you tried baking treats with whole wheat flour and sucanat (or honey)? Do you use real butter (instead of margarine or crisco)? Does the thought of chocolate and peanut butter together make you swoon?
Leave a comment on this post for an additional entry for our drawing for 5 $10 Gift Certificates to the Heavenly Homemakers Shop!
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
Posted by: | CommentsFinally, we can eat a guilt free Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookie. Made with real-food ingredients and homemade butterscotch chips, we don’t have to worry about hydrogenated oils or empty calories. These are so good for us, we could almost eat them for breakfast. Well, except that the butterscotch chips add extra sugar – which is maybe not the best way to begin our day. Shucks.
What if we eat them for breakfast with scrambled eggs?
And fruit.
Okay. I’ll stop.
Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
3/4 cup melted butter
1 1/4 cups sucanat or brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat flour)
1 cup Homemade Butterscotch Chips
In a large mixing bowl, stir together melted butter and sucanat. Add egg, baking powder, vanilla and baking soda. Stir in oats and flour until the dough is well combined. Fold in butterscotch chips.
Drop by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a 375° oven for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
If we drink a big glass of milk with our scrambled eggs, fruit and Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies - then could we count it as breakfast?
No really. I’ll stop.
Share your opinion! For breakfast or not for breakfast?? :)
Homemade Butterscotch Baking Chips
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Check one more item off the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge List! We have Butterscotch Chips!
These are more than just a little bit sweet – wowza, these chips are quite sugary. Therefore, I must advise that you don’t eat the entire pan of butterscotch chips all in one sitting. I’m pretty sure you knew that already. I’m also pretty sure you are planning to eat plenty of vegetables before (and after) you make these. Right?
Here are the reasons I attempted Homemade Butterscotch Chips:
- Many of you wanted me to do this. I aim to please.
- Every single package of butterscotch chips I’ve seen on the market has hydrogenated oil in them. Bleh. It is very important to avoid hydrogenated oils.
- I need some Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies.
You will notice that I used organic brown sugar in this recipe instead of sucanat. I did this because I was afraid that the molasses flavor of the sucanat would effect the flavor of these chips, making them not taste like butterscotch. I had some organic brown sugar on hand, so I used it and was pleased with the results.
Homemade Butterscotch Chips
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (I used expeller pressed so as not to have a coconut flavor)
1 cup organic brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan, melt together butter, coconut oil and brown sugar. Stir continually until all ingredients are mixed well, bringing the mixture ALMOST to a boil, then turning down the heat. Cook and stir some more on low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a liquid.
Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour the contents onto a parchment paper lined container. I used a pyrex 2 quart rectangle dish.
Place the dish into the fridge for 3-4 hours to allow the mixture to solidify. Cut or break the butterscotch into small “chips”.
Store them in an air tight container in the fridge.
And would you look at that? These homemade butterscotch chips make fantastic Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies! (I’ll share my recipe next week.)
Are you a fan of butterscotch chips? What’s your favorite way to use them?
Read about making Homemade Chocolate Chips here!
Coconut Cupcakes (Dairy Free!)
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My adorable little nephew isn’t able to eat dairy, which means his (favorite) Aunt Laura had to do a little bit of experimenting before his visit last week. I came up with a very delicious and healthy Coconut Cupcake recipe that all of my kids loved! Coconut Milk is awesome stuff and works very well for baking. (I had purchased a case of Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk to experiment with and to have on hand.) We don’t need to eat dairy free at our house, but I will be making these cupcakes again!
Coconut Cupcakes
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups sucanat
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 can (13. ounces) coconut milk
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Mix all ingredients together with beaters. Spoon into 24 paper lined cupcake pans. Bake at 375° for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
1/2 cup palm shortening (I buy palm shortening from Tropical Traditions or through Amazon.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I use organic, unbleached powdered sugar or I make powdered sugar myself with sucanat and a blender.)
1-2 tablespoons coconut milk
shredded coconut for garnish (optional)
By the way, this Coconut Milk also works great for making these pudding recipes and these whole wheat donuts. Yes, Aunt Laura does like to spoil her nieces and nephews, what can I say? Don’t worry. I also gave them protein and vegetables. :)
Ever done any cooking or baking with Coconut Milk? I’m excited to experiment more with this great product!
Mock Frozen Yogurt
Posted by: | CommentsCan I now offer you the perfect little side dish to go with your Taco Corn Fritters? This Mock Frozen Yogurt is so very easy and really, really tasty too.
I have no idea why I felt the need to say that. It really is sort of a “duh” statement because if I didn’t feel like it was tasty, would I actually post the recipe on my blog? How would that look…”I don’t really like eating this dish, but I thought I’d post it for you anyway so you could be grossed-out along with me. Feel free to stink up your kitchen and tell your kids that the Heavenly Homemaker made you do it. Be sure to come back and share your gag stories.” I would never do that. And yet I still felt the need to point out that the recipe tastes good. Duh.
So yeah, this recipe is really tasty! You should try it sometime! Anyway…
My favorite thing about this recipe is that it works great as a side dish or snack, but is also sweet enough to be a dessert. And in case I failed to mention it, this Mock Frozen Yogurt is really quite tasty. :)
Mock Frozen Yogurt
3 cups any varieties of frozen fruit (I used blueberries, peaches and strawberries)
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1/4 cup grade B real maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Place frozen fruit in a food processor.
Add plain yogurt, vanilla and maple syrup.
Blend until all ingredients are well mixed. Easy as that!
Serve right away as a side dish, snack or dessert! I LOVE it when desserts are this healthy!!
And there you go. Come back for more tasty (and gluten free!) recipes all week long!
What are your favorite frozen fruits to use in treats??
Whole Wheat Lemon Pound Cake
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It’s been birthday week at our house, as our third son turned nine on Tuesday. We now have 13, 10, 9 and 6 year olds at our house (and two 37 year olds but never mind that).
Birthday week means mom makes a special treat…usually a cake chosen by the birthday boy. I’ve tried to come up with healthier varieties of cakes and treats so that we’re not just consuming empty calories…even if it is a birthday. You can click through this entire section of Healthy Celebrations if you’re interested in finding other healthier varieties of treats I’ve shared in the past. I mean, Lemon Pound Cake is delicious, but sometimes you just need Chocolate. Or is that just me? Regardless, hopefully you’ll find something fun that will please your sweet tooth in our Healthy Celebrations section…and I plan to continue to add to this category as I continue to experiment. If you recall, White Cake and Angel Food Cake are both on the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge list!
For some reason, two of the last three birthdays celebrated at our house have included a Lemon Pound Cake. It has been fun to experiement with…although the first time I got a little bit carried away with the lemon juice. We were all pretty puckered up by the end of that cake. Whew! A little lemon goes a long way!
Lemon Pound Cake
1 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 1/4 cups sugar (I use sucanat and I’m pretty sure honey would work well in this recipe)
1/4 cup 100% lemon juice (from a bottle or from freshly squeezed lemons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
With beaters, whip butter, sour cream, sucanat, lemon juice and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time beating well with each one, or until you get tired of adding eggs one at a time…then just crack them all in and beat well. (Sometimes I get so lazy about individual egg cracking…) Beat in flour and baking powder until the batter is well mixed.
Pour cake batter into a well buttered cake pan (I use a fluted cake ring pan). Bake in a 325° oven for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes before removing cake from pan and placing on a cake plate. Allow cake to cool completely before pouring Lemon Glaze over the top…
Lemon Glaze
1/2 cup 100% lemon juice (if that’s too much lemon for ya, just cut the amount of juice down and substitute water)
1 cup powdered sugar (I recommend using unbleached organic powdered sugar or your own homemade powdered sugar from sucanat)
Use a fork (or a spoon or a whisk or whatever is clean at the moment) to mix the two ingredients. Drizzle the glaze over the cake. You can even use a toothpick to poke a few holes in the cake before you start to drizzle so that some of the glaze goes down into the cake!!
So are you a lemon lover? Does lemon make you pucker? Have you ever been one of those parents who have given their baby a lemon wedge, just to see the face they make?
Whole Wheat Gingerbread Men
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It may be that I’ve gone a little loopy with all of the recent Christmas preparations, but for some reason I got really hung up on what I should call these cookies. Are they Gingerbread Men? Or are they Gingerbread Boys? But then, I didn’t want to leave out the girls…so maybe some of them should be called Gingerbread Girls. Or maybe I just go with the politically correct name and call them Gingerbread People?
When did Christmas baking become so complicated? :)
Gingerbread Men/Boys/Girls/People/Cookies
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sucanat
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting
Cream butter, sucanat and molasses together. Add eggs, vinegar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda and spices. Stir in flour and mix well. Cover and chill dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours (more is fine).
Roll out dough on a well floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut into desired shape. Bake cookies about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet in a 375° oven for 5-8 minutes.
If you don’t put your cookies 1 inch apart on the pan, you’ll end up with one cookie kicking another cookie in the head. I tell ya, I can’t even get my cookies to behave sometimes. A mother’s work is never done…
I recommend spreading Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting on the cookies. I had a little bit of Chocolate Fudge Frosting leftover in the fridge and used that for faces and buttons.
I figured they wouldn’t mind if I put chocolate on their faces. I know I would never mind if someone wanted to put chocolate on my face. ;)
Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win one of our Christmas Brunch Presents!
Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting
Posted by: | CommentsLet’s first do a quick sucanat/sugar review for those of you who are new to these ingredients:
Sucanat: Organic dehydrated cane sugar juice – my favorite form of natural, unrefined sugar to use in cookies and cakes. Recently I learned that you can use sucanat to make your own powdered sugar. It’s very cool! You can substitute sucanat one for one when a recipe calls for brown or white sugar. Rapadura is the same thing as sucanat…just with a fancier name. Rapadura is usually a little more expensive.
White Sugar and Brown Sugar: Refined sugars that have been stripped of most their nutrients.
You can read more about natural sugars and sweeteners I recommend (and don’t recommend) here!
Well…I wish this frosting was a little less…tan. But, what can we expect when we make frosting from our homemade sucanat powdered sugar? The darkness of the sucanat is easily disguised in this Chocolate Fudge Frosting, but there’s no way to make “white frosting” unless you use regular powdered sugar.
Oh, except that Baking Mama mentioned in my Cream Cheese Frosting post that you use honey granules to make powdered sugar, which makes an unrefined, but whiter frosting. I’ll have to look into honey granules.
I did find that this Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting worked great for Gingerbread Men. I’ll share a recipe for those fellas later! I think this frosting would also be good on just about any cake you make…it has a very rich flavor.
Sucanat Powdered Sugar Frosting
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4-4 1/2 cups sucanat powdered sugar
Blend all ingredients together with beaters, adding your sucanat powdered sugar a bit at a time until your frosting is the consistency you would like it to be.
Be sure to check out our other recipes using Sucanat Powdered Sugar:
I hope you’re having a lovely time at our brunch. If you haven’t had a piece of Easy Breakfast Casserole, go ahead and help yourself. Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win one of our Christmas Brunch Presents! Coming up next on the menu: It’s Gratituesday time…which will hopefully offer you a little Christmas Brunch encouragment during this busy time of the year!
Cream Cheese Frosting
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I’ve had several requests for a good frosting to use for decorating sugar cookies. I’ve worked on a “sucanat powdered sugar frosting” and will share the recipe in a few days. Obviously that frosting is going to be a bit on the brown side and is probably not quite what you’re looking for in a Christmas cookie frosting (unless you’re frosting Gingerbread Men).
Today I have two Cream Cheese Frosting recipes to share with you. One uses unbleached organic powdered sugar, which has no nutritional value, but at least it’s not bleached or filled with pesticides. It is very much a compromise food, but we’re talking about Cream Cheese Frosting here. At Christmas time. Don’t go crazy, but if you’re gonna frost some sugar cookies anyway, you’ve gotta make sure you really enjoy the taste of the splurge!
The second recipe I’ll share uses honey or real maple syrup for sweetener. This frosting doesn’t work as well on cookies…it’s fluffier and better on cakes. BUT, since it uses honey or maple syrup, it’s one step healthier than the unbleached organic powdered sugar variety.
Powdered Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 1/2 cups unbleached organic powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whip butter and cream cheese with beaters until fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until mixed thoroughly.
Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4- 1/3 cup honey or real grade B maple syrup (depending on your taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whip cream with a mixer until soft peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, honey and vanilla until creamy. Fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream.
You can make your own cream cheese very easily! I do prefer store bought cream cheese in these recipes however as the homemade cream cheese is cultured and therefore a little too sour for my taste in these frosting recipes.
I will admit right here and now that if something has cream cheese in it, I have a hard time staying out of it. I CAN NOT make either of these frostings very often because I love them too much. Are you a cream cheese lover like I am?
