In rememberance of D-day I made this lovely dessert!

Normandy Apple Tart

1 batch of sweet tart dough enough for a 9 inch pan, partially cooked (about 8 min. )and cooled

For the filling:

2-21/2 cups of pear or applesauce

For the topping:

2 medium granny smith apples

1 egg, beaten with ½ tsp. water for egg wash

First make your tart dough and cool it all the way through. Next pour apple/pear sauce into crust till it reaches almost to the top of the crust. Peel and core apples for topping. Cut each apple into 4 pieces, and then slice into 7 thin sections. Arrange the slices in slightly overlapping concentric circles on the applesauce, starting at the edge and laying them down so their tips are against the crust. After finishing laying the apples, brush with egg wash. Bake at 400 for 50 min. Don’t worry if the apples burn a little! Cool and serve with whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream

Bizarre Love Triangle Brownies GF

Bizarre Love Triangle Brownies:

Coconut Crust, Black Bean Brownies & Macadamia Glaze

Coconut Crust:

• 4 cups fresh coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup butter, soften/coconut oil
• 3/4 cup Earth Circle Organics coconut sugar/organic cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut out parchment paper for a 9x13 baking pan and lightly grease it with coconut oil. Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Pour into prepared pan and spread the mixture evenly around the pan. Press lightly, but firmly. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake it! Pull crust out of the oven and let it cool a bit while making the brownie batter. If the crust puffs up a little, take a knife and poke slightly to allow hot air to escape. Leave the oven at 350 F for the brownies.

Note: If you opt to use dried coconut flakes. Add 1/3 cup of butter or coconut oil into the mixture.

Black Bean Brownies:

• 4 cups cooked black beans
• 7 eggs
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cup Earth Circle Organics coconut sugar/organic can sugar
• 1/2 cup butter/coconut oil
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 Tbsp. instant coffee opt.
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Rinse out black beans with water and let it drain completely. Pour into your blender or food processor and blend for a couple minutes. Add in eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla, instant coffee & sea salt. Melt and briskly stir the coconut sugar, butter and coconut oil together over low heat. Add in with the rest of the ingredients. Blend till smooth. The batter should be thick, but slightly soupy.

Pour the mixture over the coconut crust evenly. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the brownies are set. But don't overbake! Use a knife to test the brownies... it should come out clean.

Set aside and let it cool in the pan completely while making the macadamia glaze. For quicker results, put them in the fridge.

Note: You can use 2 cans of black beans instead of making it fresh and use instant grain coffee substitute instead of instant coffee.

Macadamia Glaze:

• 2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked & dehydrated
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup Earth Circle Organics coconut sugar/organic cane sugar

Store macadamia nuts in the freezer for at least a couple hours. Pour into food processor or blender and give it a whirl till it starts to clump together into a ball. While it is still going, pour in coconut oil. It should look runny. Turn off motor and add vanilla & coconut sugar. Blend it till completely smooth (several minutes). If you want it sweeter... add more coconut sugar. Pour the glaze into a seal tight jar.

Note: you do not have to soak & dehydrate the nuts, but you'll be missing out the benefits and improved flavor from this nourishing technique.

Cut and serve these bizarre, melt-in-your-mouth brownies drizzled with Macadamia glaze.

Homemade Rees' Cups!

A few weeks ago, Esther and I held a tea party at our house for a few of the young girls, and their mothers, that attend our church. While we were planning the menu for that special day, a friend sent us a recipe for homemade rees cups! They looked so cute and petite, we just had to add them to the tea menu. If you would like to indulge yourself on a rees, but don't want to feel guilty;-) Then give this recipe a try, its sure to fulfil any chocolate pb, cravings you have!

Homemade, Healthier Peanut Butter Cups

If you use another nut butter, you may need to add more honey. Peanuts are naturally sweet. For that matter, this is definitely a “to your own taste” recipe! And you can easily adjust the sweeter to satisfy you.

3/4 cup of peanut butter, toasted and salted (or use nut butter of your choice)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla (if you are making this gluten free, make sure to use gluten free vanilla)
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/3 cup of chopped soaked and dehydrated nuts, or toasted (I used a mixture of chopped almonds and pumpkin seeds) *
4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
2-4 tablespoons honey *
1-In a small bowl combine the peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla, first two tablespoons honey, and nuts. Mix until well combined.

2-Drop by the heaping teaspoon into mini cupcake pans. Place in freezer.

3-Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in the top of a double broiler (or, like I do, in a heat proof bowl that fits on top of a pot you have). Mix in the honey. Bring about two inches of water to a boil in the pot and place the bowl on top. Watch the chocolate carefully so that it doesn’t burn, stirring gently while the chocolate melts. When there are just a few chunks left in the chocolate, take off of the heat and allow it to melt completely.

4-Drop by the teaspoon over the peanut butter mixture and place back into the freezer. Freeze for 20 minutes. Take out, and using a butter knife pop them out. Keep in the freezer or refrigerator and enjoy!

*To toast the nuts, place in a dry pan over medium-high heat. Stir almost continually until they are starting to brown. Take off of the heat.

Del Sisters note: We did not use nuts in our recipe, and they were good anyway!

Also, we would cut down the amount of coconut oil for the PB filling to 2T. instead of 1/4c.

Next time we might double the filling but keep the chocolate amount the same. I personally think that the recipe does not have a very prominent peanut butter flavor....so doubling the filling would fix that problem!

Great Recipe!

Not much cooking going on around our house lately, just the usual everyday kind of stuff, though we have found this really tasty healthy brownie recipe from Green Kitchen Stories! We modified it a little by leaving out the Chai tea and using almonds and walnuts instead of hazelnuts. Try them for a guilt free pick me up for your next afternoon snack or an after dinner treat!

Saturday Morning Donuts!

Back at Thanksgiving our Mom took us out for the "Black Friday Sales", one of our stops was at Bed, Bath and Beyond! Upon browsing the cooking/baking section we came across these donut pans. Our little siblings LOVE donuts but we don't buy or make them that often because it involves that dreaded process of FRYING;-) When we saw these pans for baked donuts we could not resist, we just HAD to buy them. Upon buying new kitchen tools you sometimes forget that you bought them, well that's what happened to us, we made donuts the day we got the pans but had not made any since!!! Last Friday evening Hannah announced that she was going to make donuts for our Saturday morning breakfast. This time around upon making them we used a different recipe. If you like pumpkin and you have a donut pan that you always forget to use, and might have forgot that you bought it like we did , try this recipe out;-)

Baked Pumpkin Donuts

Yield: 12 donuts

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon milk
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• cinnamon sugar for dusting
• melted butter for dunking in before coating in cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 6-count donut pans with non-stick cooking spray (or alternatively spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray). Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl. In a stand mixer or medium sized bowl and hand mixer cream together the brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla extract on medium speed until the butter is well incorporated.

2. With your mixer on medium low speed, slowly add the dry sifted ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until just barely combined. Do not over-mix.

3. Scoop pumpkin batter into a large Ziploc bag, pushing batter down towards one end of the bag. Snip the end of the bag with scissors and fill each donut mold with the batter. Be sure to wipe any excess batter that may have gotten around the edge of the mold or on the center "hole".

4. Bake for 6 – 8 minutes or until the exterior springs back when touched. Remove from pan and dunk in melted butter then in your cinnamon sugar!

What could be more special then this for breakfast???

Last week Kathryn lost a tooth, so for a special surprise we made her a very special breakfast. Crepes, Strawberry Nutella stuffed crepes to be exact! A little sweet for breakfast but would could be more fitting for such a sweet little sister!?!? Upon arriving at the table she had a rather sleepy look upon her face but after describing what we were making her they quickly opened and she eagerly waited for her breakfast. I think she liked them very much because she requested them for her birthday breakfast tomorrow! This was my first time making them, it was fun after the first few odd shaped ones......they tasted great but looked a little lopsided:-) By the time I had finished using the batter I had finally gotten the hang of it and they actually were round shaped! Since making them once I think tomorrow should be much easier when making them for her birthday breakfast. The only thing that is missing is fresh whipped cream, I think it could use some to cut back the sweetness a bit. But that's just my preference!

Sweet Breakfast or Dessert Crepes

Ingredients:

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, flour, sugar, and salt until smooth. Heat a medium-sized skillet or crepe pan over medium heat. Grease pan with a small amount of butter or oil. Using a serving spoon or small ladle, spoon about 4 tablespoons crepe batter into hot pan, tilting the pan so that bottom surface is evenly coated. Cook over medium heat, 1 to 2 minutes on a side, or until golden brown. Serve immediately; store leftovers in air-tight container. Makes about eight Crêpes.

Sliced strawberries and Nutella for stuffing!

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake

This recipe and picture have been sitting in our draft box for about a month, finally I have found the time to post it! This recipe does take some time to make so make sure you give your self about 1hour, though it is time consuming it is REALLY worth it. I think Hannah and I have mentioned before that we do not really get why people like cheese cake, we both agreed it is just to cheesy......if that make sense:-) But this cheese cake changed our option by a mile, I think that we do really like cheese cake just more gourmet cheese cake. So if you are one of those cheese cake haters, give this one a try and I'm sure it will change your opinion on the subject too!

Brown-Sugar Apple Cheesecake

From Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the crust

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tsp ginger
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the apples

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 3 large apples, peeled, cored, and cut into eights
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar

For the filling

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp apple cider
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

To make the crust, first butter the bottom and sides of a 10″ spring form pan.

Break up the graham crackers and put them in your food processor, pulsing until you have 2 cups worth of fine crumbs. Stir in the ginger.

Melt the butter and pour it over the graham cracker crumbs, stirring until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and up the sides, as far as it will go. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the oven has been preheated, remove the pan from the freezer and wrap the bottom in aluminum foil. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned. Cool on a rack while you make the filling and cook the apples.

To cook the apples, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in the apple slices and cook until golden brown. Sprinkle the apples with the brown sugar and cook a few minutes longer.Put a pot of water on to boil and get a roasting pan large enough to hold the spring form pan ready. To make the filling, beat the cream cheese on medium speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, for about 4 minutes. Add the sugars and beat an additional 2 minutes.

Beat in the cider, vanilla, and cinnamon. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the eggs one at a time. Then, beat in the sour cream and heavy cream until well-combined.

To assemble, pour about a third of the batter into the crust.

Spoon the apples on top of the poured batter.Cover with the remaining batter.Place the spring form pan on the roasting pan, and then pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the spring form pan.Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes, and then cover the cheesecake with a foil tent to prevent excessive browning. Bake an additional 45 minutes to an hour. If the center still isn't quite set when you remove it from the oven, that’s okay. Transfer the cheesecake to a cooling rack, and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 6 ours; overnight is best. When ready to serve, run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the crust. Then, open the latch on the pan and remove the sides.Serve plain, or with a dollop of whipped cream.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Since Valentines day is arriving within the week, we thought we had better make something chocolate and share the recipe with y'all! These brownies are an adaption from a recipe we saw on Elana's Pantry, we thought they looked so scrumptious that we must try them! Upon viewing the recipe, we found that we didn't have all the exact ingredients on hand, so we switched a few things around from the original recipe. They were just as good as the picture looked and we will be keeping the recipe in our brownie archives:-)

Double Chocolate Walnut Brownies

½ cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

¼ cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

½ cup honey

¼ cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup chopped walnuts(opt)

⅓ cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

1. Place ½ cup chocolate chips in food processor and pulse until the consistency of coarse sand
2. Pulse in coconut flour, salt and baking soda until combined
3. Pulse in eggs, agave, grapeseed oil and vanilla
4. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 pyrex dish
5. Sprinkle walnuts and remaining chocolate chips over batter
6. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes
7. Cool and serve

Dorie Greenspan's Cinnamon Chocolate Squares

It seems that the only things we have been posting recently have been dessert, and not healthy ones at that! This week we are making a new recipe that is not sweet, it's called Autumn Root Vegatable Stew with a Cheddar Garlic Crumble Crust. We are a little late in making it since its been a while since Fall but there still is a enough cold days left here in the South to make Stew, so we have justified our tardiness in making it:)

I will be posting the recipe next week so be sure to check back!

Cinnamon Squares

For the Cake:

1 1/4 c. plus 2 T. sugar

1T. plus 2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. instant espresso powder

1 3/4 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

3/4 c. milk

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla

10 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

For the Frosting:

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 1/2 T. butter, cut into 4 pieces

Heat oven to 350. Butter a 8inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper. Place the pan on a baking sheet.

To make the cake:

Stir 2 T. sugar, 2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and espresso powder together in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour remaining 1 1/4 c. sugar the baking powder, salt and remaining cinnamon. In another large bowl whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture and gently whisk until you have a homogeneous batter. Now, using a the whisk or a rubber spatula, fold the butter with a light touch, just until the butter is absorbed. You'll have a smooth, satiny batter. Scrape half the batter into the pan and smooth top. Sprinkle with the chocolate over the batter and dust with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter and smooth the top again. Bake fir 35-40 min. or until the cake is puffed and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan; a thin knife inserted into the center will come out clean. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest 15 min. before unmolding it onto another rack. Peel off the paper, invert it onto the first rack, and cool to room temp right side up.

To make frosting:

Put the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl and fit the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring gently and often, just until they melt. Be careful not to overheat the mixture so much that it thins out; the chocolate should be smooth, very shiny, thick and spreadable. ( If it thins, leave the frosting at room temp for a bit, until it thickens a little.) Using an offset metal icing spatula or a table knife, spread the frosting in generous sweeps and swirls over the top of the cake. Allow the frosting to set at room temp, then cut the cake into 9 squares, each about 2 1/2 inches on a side.

Nutella Brownie Recipe!

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

2c. flour

1/2c. cocoa powder

4eggs

2c. sugar

1 13 oz. jar Nutella

1 ¾ c. butter, melted and cooled

4 eggs

2 8oz. pkg. cream cheese

1/3 c. sugar

Heat oven to 325. Grease and lightly flour a 13x9 inch pan. In a large bowl combine 4eggs, 2 c. sugar, ½ c. nutella, and melted butter. Beat with a hand mixer on medium till well blended. Add Flour and cocoa powder; stir until smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan. In another large bowl beat cream cheese, rest of nutella, eggs, and sugar until very smooth. Carefully spread over brownie batter. Bake for 50-65 min. or until cream cheese layer is firm and set. Cool in pan. Cover and chill before cutting into brownies. Makes around 32 brownies.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter...what could be better?!?!

We made this for our brothers birthday last week, he really liked it but beware it's EXTRA rich!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers crumbs
1 cup finely ground oreo cookies( cream filling removed)
4 T. butter, melted
6 T. sugar
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temp
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
2 T. milk
4 oz. melted semi-sweet chocolate
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 c. toasted chopped peanuts
Rich chocolate sauce( recipe follows)

Heat oven to 375.
Combine graham crackers, oreo, butter and 4 T. sugar in medium bowl. Stir to combine thoroughly. Press the mixture firmly into 1 9inch pie pan and bake for 15 min. Remove the pan from the oven, let the crust cool completely, then wrap it with plastic wrap and place the pan in the freezer for at least 1 hour and for up to 2 weeks. Allow the crust to come to room temp before filling.

Combine the cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and milk in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth, about 1min. on medium speed. Add the melted chocolate and the peanut butter and continue to blend for another minute on medium speed. Combine the cream with the remaining 2 T. sugar in another medium bowl. Beat with a whisk or electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the chocolate and peanut butter mixture until thoroughly incorporated and smooth. Pour the filling into the pie crust. Smooth the top of the pie with a spatula, cove, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. To serve use a hot wet knife to slice the pie into 8 portions. Garnish with peanuts and drizzle with Rich Chocolate sauce.


Rich Chocolate Sauce

3/4 cup half-and-half
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 T. butter

In a small saucepan bring half & half to a bare simmer over medium-low heat. Remove from the heat. Place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Whisk the Half&half slowly into chocolate. Add the vanilla and butter to the sauce and whisk until butter is completely incorporated. The sauce can be kept refrigerated in an air tight container for several days, but must be returned to room temp. before serving

Banana Walnut Cake

Yesterday, I had my birthday party! I requested this very yummy banana cake that I had seen on Cooking for Sevens blog a while back. It turned out so very moist and was not to sweet. I asked for walnuts instead of pecans and Hannah also used half maple syrup and half honey.

Maple & Pecan Banana Cake

from How to Bake by Nick Malgieri

Ingredients:

For the Cake

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 2 3.4 cups (11 ounces) whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup mashed, not pureed, bananas
• 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk

For the Frosting

• 1 eight-ounce package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened but still firm
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup toasted pecans, for garnish

Directions:

To make the cake:

1) Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 13×9-inch glass baking dish and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2) In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand beater, cream the butter until soft and light. Gradually add the maple syrup and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes more, or until very light. The butter and maple syrup may separate slightly.

3) Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the bowl and beaters occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.

4) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture along with the milk and bananas. Beat on low speed just until combined.

5) Scrape the batter into the prepare pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until the cake is well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack, removing the paper, and allow to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

1) In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the butter, maple syrup, and vanilla and beat until smooth.

2) Store in the refrigerator until serving. If the frosting becomes too hard, let it sit a room temperature until spreadable.

To serve the cake:

Cut the cake into desired sized pieces. Spread with frosting. Garnish with toasted pecans. Serve immediately.

Makes approximately twenty-four 2-inch squares

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Rhubarb Pie and Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 3 cups chopped rhubarb frozen or fresh
• 5T all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1egg
• 1t. nutmeg
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
• 
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Mix together all the ingredients except the crust! Pour into the pie crust that has been placed in a pie plate. Top with remaining crust and crimp edges. Slit air holes in the top of the pie.
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour or till browned.