(Delicious) Power Bars.

Wow, my sister is really showing me up. But. Tonight I have a recipe that feels indulgent, but isn't. Do you already want to make it? Good. I thought so. These power bars are pathetically easy to make, require little effort (especially if you have a mom to chop the walnuts and almonds), and taste really, really good. Plus, you can eat them for breakfast for days. And sometimes you just don't feel like making breakfast. That's where these guys come in. And because I followed Heidi's recipe exactly, I'm simply going to link to it. Although you should make sure you have a lot of time because upon clicking on this link, you'll happen upon 101 Cookbooks (if you haven't already been there before) and then you'll spend hours (hours!) flipping through Heidi's archives proclaiming that you need 8 different kinds of flours and purging your pantry of white sugar. So, I warned you.

- The Florida Sister

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Alright. This is NOT healthy (although I wish it was). For Mark's birthday I gave him a year of dates. Each month he opens up an envelope with that month's "date". This month it was any baked good of his choice. So I gave him 6 options (per his request) and this was his choice.

And it was a good choice. This stuff is seriously good. I'm pretty sure we would've eaten the whole loaf if we didn't have the good sense to stop before we entered a sugar induced coma. We did, however, eat half the loaf, but it was oh so worth it.

You can get the recipe here. The only change I made was that I used skim milk instead of whole milk. This stuff is good. You should probably make it right now.

P.S. I love Joy the Baker (the lovely maker of this recipe). Her blog is great.

Carrot Pudding

Over the weekend I went to the library. I had accrued a $5 fine and had been avoiding going to the library so I wouldn't have to pay it, but I couldn't wait any longer! I wanted to check out Jane Eyre and read it before the movie comes out.

I, of course, had to go peruse the cooking/baking books. It's nice to check out cookbooks and page through them in the coziness of your own home. One of the books I checked out was the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts. I have two Moosewood books and love them both, so I was quite excited to see a whole book devoted to desserts! This seems to be the perfect book to aid me in my new pursuit of healthy baking. I think I might have to purchase it.

Without further ado, carrot pudding:

Ingredients:

1 c peeled and chopped carrots

1 c water

1/2 c packed brown sugar **

2 Tbs lemon juice

1/4 tsp lemon zest

1 egg white

1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Combine carrots and water in pan and cover. Simmer on medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes until tender. Cool the carrots and cooking liquid slightly (I put mine in a bowl and then put them in the freezer). They don't have to be super cool...just not boiling hot (which is bad for your food processor). Blend them up in a food processor or blender. Cool. (I put them back in the freezer for 5 minutes and they got plenty cool). While you're waiting you can preheat the oven to 350 and lightly butter, oil or spray your ramekins**. Also, boil some water (enough to fill a baking pan halfway).

Beat the carrot puree with the brown sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and egg white. Mix well. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl then fold into the carrot mixture.

Divide the batter between the ramekins. Place the cups in a baking pan. Place the baking pan in the oven. Pull your rack out a little and then put in the boiling water (it should reach about halfway on your cups). Bake for 35 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of a pudding comes out clean. Remove the cups from the pan and cool.

These are good, but not the best thing I've ever made or even in the top hundred. It was nice to eat them with a clear conscious. These have .3 grams of fat and include carrots! So I'm pretty sure this "dessert" is actually health food.

**I ran out of brown sugar so I made my own! I mixed 1 cup of white sugar with 1 tbs molasses and stirred them together with a fork. Then I packed my half cup for this recipe. I'm saving the leftover sugar for other recipes!

**I love ramekins. I use them for their true baking purpose only every couple of months. However, we use them all the time - to prep ingredients or to eat ice cream or yogurt in. It makes my daily yogurt eating that much more special.

Delicious Muffins

Two posts in one day? Yup! Hopefully someone out there is still reading this blog.

These muffins are delicious. I got the recipe from La Tartine Gourmande, which is the first blog I ever started following with any sort of regularity. I love this blog. The pictures are gorgeous, the food is delicious, and I wish I could be friends with Bea (the writer) and her adorable daughter.

When I saw these muffins I knew I had to make them.

A. They looked amazing.

B. With their healthier flours, and less sugar/butter they fit the bill for my healthier baking regime.

Indredients:

1 cup millet flour (140 g)

1/2 cup hazlenut meal (50 g)

1/3 cup teff flour (40 g)

1/3 cup brown rice flour (40 g)

1/4 cup quinoa flakes (20 g)

3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar (80 g)

1/4 cup Turbinado sugar (30 g)

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/3 cup lowfat or fatfree buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla

2 large bananas, mashed with a fork

black sesame seeds for sprinking

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with paper cups. (This recipe makes a dozen muffins.) Combine dry ingredients except for sugar.

Combine sugars and eggs and beat until light colored. Add buttermilk, vanilla, and butter. Stir until combined. Add mashed bananas. Stir some more.

Add dry ingredients. Don't overmix! Spoon batter into paper cups and then sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Bake for 20-25 min. They're done when you stick in a knife and it comes out clean!

The flours are a little pricey and can be kinda hard to find. Most health food stores will have some in bulk so you don't have to buy a bunch. I bought a bag of teff flour and though it cost a bit, it was well worth it. These are DELICIOUS! I couldn't find hazelnut flour so I made my own. I bought hazelnuts in bulk (already out of their shells), toasted them for 12 min in a 350 oven, and then after they'd cooled ground them up in a food processor. I was worried about them becoming a butter so I added a tablespoon of sugar (which I had read would help prevent this).

We enjoyed our muffins warm with a little butter and a big glas of milk!

Baking Addiction

Attention. Attention. Attention. I have a baking ADDICTION.

In the past 8 days I've made:

Buckeyes

Chocolate Cake

Eclairs

Pancakes

Muffins

To be fair. I gave away half the buckeyes, the cake was for a birthday, and I gave away all the eclairs except for one, which I split with my guy.

Anyways, I've decided since I know this addiction won't magically disappear that I need to make my baking a little healthier (by which I mean use less butter and more healthful ingredients).

Last week I bought some special flours to make the aforementioned muffins. This morning when a pancake craving hit, I decided to use some of them to make my pancakes slightly more "healthy".

Here's my recipe:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup hazelnut meal (I made my own by toasting the hazelnuts for 12 min in the oven and then grinding them up in a processor)

1/4 cup teff flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/8 cups lowfat or fat free buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients. Mix in buttermilk, egg, and melted butter. Stir until just combined. The batter will be somewhat lumpy, but that's ok. Don't overmix!

Heat your pan to medium heat. Add some butter to prevent sticking. I used 1/4 cup to dish out the batter, which made 8 decently sized pancakes. Wait until they're golden brown on the bottom and then flip to the other side. We enjoyed these with some frozen blueberries and raspberries, which I cooked up in a little maple syrup on the stove. YUM!

Yummy Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Alright. This is a baking blog. Not a political blog. But if you've been paying attention to the news at all you've probably seen something about all the protesting going on in Madison. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of it all, but it currently seems to be overwhelming life and my thoughts. It's something that I and my fiance care a lot about, and we're constantly out there fighting for the rights of public workers. This is tiring. Exhausting. So sometimes you need a day off to bake a cake. And though I don't need an excuse to bake a delicious, decadent, 5 sticks of butter requiring cake...a birthday begs and pleads for this type of cake. So without further ado...a delicious cake.

I found the recipe for this cake in the cookbook flour, a wonderful book full

of lots of yummy treats and great baking tips.

Cake:

1.5 c unsalted butter at room temp

2 c granulated sugar

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

3 c cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

.5 tsp baking soda

.5 tsp salt

1 c lowfat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 8-inch round cake pans.

Cream together the butter and sugar for 3-4 min on medium speed(for a stand mixer) and 8-10 (for a handheld mixer). You want it to be really light and fluffy. In a small bowl whisk together eggs, yolks, and vanilla. Add it into the butter mixture and mix until incorporated. Scrape down sides and mix a little more.

Mix together dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Then on a low speed add 1/3 of the flour mixture. Pour in half the buttermilk. Mix. Add more another third of flour. Mix. Add the rest of the buttermilk. Mix. (Do not overmix! After each addition mix until just incorporated).

Fold in the rest of the flour. Then divvy out the batter between the two cake pans. Bake 40-50 min. I overcooked mine a little, so make sure to check before the full 40 mins is up (in case your oven runs hot like mine). You want a golden top and the cake should spring back when pressed in the middle with your finger. Cool the cakes completely on a wire rack.

Frosting:

12 oz semisweet choc chips

1 c heavy cream

1 c butter at room temp

1 c powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a pan scald the cream over med-high heat (bubbles will start to form around the edge of the pan, but it won't be boiling). Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for a minute. Then whisk the chocolate and cream together until all the chocolate in melted and it's smooth. You can let this sit at room temp for 1-2 hours until cool. Or if you're impatient like me put it in the fridge for 30 min. Whisking every 10 min. (Make sure it's completely cool or else you'll melt your butter while making the frosting.)

Beat together the butter and sugar for 2 minutes until fluffy and smooth. Add the cooled chocolate and beat for another 2 minutes. Turn up the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for a minute. The frosting should become a lighter color and should be thick. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to increase the time.

Remove the cakes from their pans. I know a lot of cake makers at this point will cut their cakes so their level. However, I don't mind if my cakes are a little wonky. So if you're a perfectionist level your cake, etc. etc. If you're like me (without doing anything to the cake layers), put your first layer of cake on a plate, frost. Then put your second layer on. Frost the top and sides. I got a little fancy with the leftover frosting and did some decorating.

Eat with a big glass of milk. Yum!

hot cocoa + some.

I should start by telling you that I don't like hot cocoa. I suppose I did, at one time, and then I think I drank way too much. But, I'm here to say that this stuff is good. Like, mega good. Like, turned a non-hot-cocoa-lover back into the believer I used to be. So, you might want to try it. The best thing about this stuff is that you can use your powdered Swiss Miss, your fancy Ghiradelli, or your somewhere-in-between hot cocoa. Any of it will work. You should make this right away, though. And toast some extra marshmallows because you may want them for later.

Hot Cocoa + Some
Adapted from Real Simple

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 servings of the hot cocoa of your choice
8 marshmallows
3-5 tablespoons malted milk powder

Directions
1. Prepare the hot cocoa according to package instructions (we used Ovaltine). Add 3-5 tablespoons malted milk powder (the amount is really up to you).
2. While your hot cocoa is microwaving, simmering, etc., place 8 marshmallows on a cookie sheet and broil in the oven for 30 seconds.
3. Place the toasty marshmallows in the steamy cocoa, and enjoy.
4. Repeat. :)

-The Florida Sister