Flourless Black Bean Brownies!
I have neglected this blog for FAR TOO LONG! Life has been crazy busy, and I just couldn’t fit this in. That changes TODAY! I realized that I started this blog because of David. This blog will be something my kids will always have to remember me by when I’m no longer around, so it needs to be a priority. Plus, I take (albeit mostly crappy) photos of my food alllll the time in anticipation of posting, so I have a lot to catch up on! These brownies were a good one to start back with because they are sooooooo good and pretty good for you!
I started Sherry Thacker’s 6 week Challenge on August 1st, 2018, and it has honestly changed my life. I lost a whopping 40 lbs over the course of 3-4 months! Every recipe I make, I think of Sherry’s Challenge and if it lines up with what’s healthiest for me. These brownies have 3/4 cup of sugar in them, so let’s be clear, they aren’t entirely in line with the keto/paleo plan that I follow. But, they are better than many other brownie recipes that are loaded with sugar, flour and chocolate. And, in moderation, they are a great option for something sweet!
You would never know there are black beans in these brownies. That’s one thing I love about them so much! Who discovered this?! Something else that I pay closer attention to since following Sherry Thacker’s Challenge is using quality ingredients. For cocoa in this recipe, I use this:
My husband swears by the Bulletproof products. Of course, you don’t have to use this, but I appreciate knowing that there are good quality ingredients in this recipe.
Let’s get to these brownies!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
As I sit here at 7am on a Saturday morning with a tea in my hand, the fire lit and debating eating an oatmeal raisin cookie that I made last night, I thought it might be a good time to write a post about them! And eat a cookie. It’s basically breakfast ingredients, right??
For Christmas, my husband got me a Le Creuset cookie jar! Cute gift, since cookies are kinda my thing. At least at Christmastime. Little did I know, he had a plan that I should keep this cookie jar full of cookies all the time! Sneaky.
He’s been asking for oatmeal raisin cookies for weeks! I promised him I would make them once the jar was empty of the rice krispy treats I had made previous. Now that report cards are done, the pressure is off, and it’s the start of the weekend, I thought that last night was the perfect night to make them!
I found this recipe over 10 years ago on a bed and breakfast site that I can no longer locate. I have tweaked this recipe quite a bit over the years. At Christmastime, I make these cookies, with cranberries and white chocolate chips. They have been a long time favorite.
The original recipe is made with shortening, which I generally don’t like to bake cookies with. I’ve tried this recipe with both salted and unsalted butter. Either is fine. I, honestly, don’t notice much of a difference. In truth, I think I prefer these cookies made with salted butter. I have also cut back on the sugar in this recipe, as I found 2 cups to be way too much. I opted to add more brown sugar, because I like my cookies chewy. But, if you like a crispier type of cookie, just switch the amounts of white and brown sugar.
Oatmeal Raisin Cokies
Ingredients
- 1 cup or 2 sticks, butter (softened at room temperature)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups quick cook oatmeal
- 2 cups raisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit
- Cream butter and sugars together.
- Add the eggs and vanilla.
- Slowly add flour, baking soda and salt until combined.
- Add oatmeal and raisins until all is combined.
- With your cookie scoop, or spoon, drop cookies onto a parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes - A medium sized cookie yields 3 dozen.
- Enjoy!
Nonna’s Tiramisu
Years and years ago, I made tiramisu for a boyfriend, with the help of a good Italian friend from high school. It turned out great, but I haven’t made it since. About a month ago, my husband, and some family and I went to a wine club that we are new members of for a private dinner, and tiramisu was for dessert that night. The tiramisu was good, but the cookie still had some bite to it, and I felt like I could make it better.
Fast forward two weeks later, over my lunch break, I found myself at McCall’s Cake Decorating store in Toronto for some Christmas baking ingredients. Surprisingly, they were selling ladyfingers, and since I wanted to make tiramisu, I bought them. I asked the girl behind the counter if she thought I could make two pans of tiramisu with the amount of lady fingers I had. She told me she would ask the woman that was in the basement, as she makes them all the time. From the basement, a lovely, little Italian Grandma comes up, and proceeds, in broken English, to tell me the recipe she has used for 30 years! 1 egg, 1 spoonful of sugar, and 100 grams of mascarpone, is what she said. She told me that for an 8×10 pan, she uses 5 eggs, 5 spoonfuls of sugar, and 500 grams of mascarpone. I thought that was all she was going to share, but then she kept going! She told me to separate the eggs, and beat the yolks with the sugar and then the mascarpone.
Till it looks like this.
In a separate bowl, beat your egg whites until they reach a soft peak.
Like this.
Fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture.
This is what you end up with. Just the right amount of sweetness.
I will tell you, that the container of mascarpone that I bought was only 475 grams, which I knew was 25 grams short from what Nonna told me to use! But, I figured, I’d be fine. In truth, and this is just between you and me, I think 6 eggs, 6 spoonfuls of sugar, and 600 grams of mascarpone would have been better, as we all felt that it tasted a bit heavy on the coffee and could have used a bit more custard. BUT, it was still damn good and needs to be shared.
Nonna's Tiramisu
Ingredients
- 3 cups of espresso cooled
- 1 package of ladyfingers about 50 ladyfingers
- 5 eggs separated
- 5 tablespoons of sugar
- 500 grams of mascarpone
- Cocoa for dusting
Instructions
- Working quickly, dip each lady finger, one at a time into the espresso, on both sides. Don't let the ladyfingers sit in the espresso, as they will absorb way too much liquid. A quick dip.
- Place each ladyfinger side by side, to fill in the space of the pan.
- Once your bottom layer has been filled with ladyfingers, put half of your custard on top and spread smooth.
- Repeat with another layer of ladyfingers.
- Finish with the remainder of your custard.
- Dust generously with cocoa to finish.
- Enjoy!!!
(Source: Boss Of The Apple Sauce)
Whipped Shortbread Cookies with Raspberry Jam
I have been making shortbread cookies since I was a kid, helping my mom press out the molds and decorate the cookies. But, I never liked eating them. I’m sure my taste buds have changed since then, but my memory of shortbread cookies is that they taste like flour. Blech!
10 years ago at work, we had a cookie exchange, and my good friend and colleague, Alex, made these whipped shortbread cookies, minus the jam. Since I had my preconceived notions, I didn’t try them at first, but took them home to my mom, who I knew would love them. She liked this recipe enough that I tried one, and I liked them enough to ask my friend for the recipe! I have been making them ever since.
When I was a kid, we always made two kinds of shortbread cookies – ones that the kids could decorate and ones that my mom, especially, liked to eat, with jam. So, ever since I was given this recipe, I have made these shortbread cookies for my mom. And other people too, but my mom is my motivation.
So, let’s get to it!
After forming the cookies into balls, I use the handle of a wooden spoon to help make the centers for the jam. I dip the wooden spoon in icing sugar, so that it doesn’t stick to the cookie dough. BUT, you could easily use your thumb to make the indent.
This is what the cookies look like before they are baked. Be more generous with the amount of jam than you might feel comfortable with. The water in the jam evaporates and the jam spreads out. More is more, in this case.
Baked. Cooled. Yummy!!
Whipped Shortbread Cookies with Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
- 1 pound of salted butter
- 1 cup corn starch
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 cup raspberry jam*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 F.
- In a mixer, cream butter.
- Slowly add all the dry ingredients.
- Blend until combined.
- With a tablespoon scoop, measure each cookie, and roll into a ball.
- Using the end of a wooden spoon, or your thumb, dipped in icing sugar, make an indent for the jam.
- Fill the center of each cookie with about a 1/4 teaspoon worth of jam, depending on size of indent. Don't be afraid to be generous with the jam.
- Bake for 15 minutes. They are fragile, so allow to cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Merry Mints
I was given little cookie cutters several years ago, that I have never used for cookies. Last year, I had the thought of using them as chocolate molds. I did a little research, because I was worried that, given there was nothing to secure the melted chocolate, it would all seep out from underneath. As long as I hold the cookie cutters in place as I put the first layer of chocolate in, it works!!!
It’s important that you use a good chocolate for this. After all, it is the only ingredient, minus the peppermint. I used Lindt chocolate.
Speaking of peppermint, it is (also) important. You can certainly use peppermint extract, but if you can get to your local cake decorating store, they will carry what you need. Peppermint oil.
You do not need to add much of this stuff to get the right amount of mint in your chocolate. For 4 bars of white chocolate, I used 6 drops. Also, I only added mint to the white chocolate, and left the milk chocolate alone. I add crushed candy cane on top of the chocolate, so between that and the mint in one of the chocolates, it’s enough!
Here’s a breakdown of what I did:
To get started, get your candy canes ready. I wish I had taken an after pic of these suckers. No pun intended! Just bash them babies up small enough that the chunks aren’t too big.
Picture a bottle of melted milk chocolate in a similar bottle. Oops!
FYI….I melted the chocolate, slowly, in the microwave (30 seconds at a time, until melted) and then transferred the chocolate into these bottles. So easy!
I dipped the cookie cutters in oil before I put the chocolate into them, so that they would release more easily once frozen.
After dipping cookie cutters into oil, fill them up halfway with chocolate, and put them into the freezer to set. About 5-10 minutes. You’ll notice the ripples in the chocolate in this picture. You can bang those out if you want to, but its only the first layer, so it’s no big deal.
Second layer! Bang the ripples out now!
Finish second layer with candy cane and put back into freezer to set.
Ta-da! So good! Try them!
(Source: Boss of the Apple Sauce)
Marshmallow Easter Pops!
The first time I made these was for my daughter’s 3rd birthday, this past year. I knew she would love them because she’s crazy about marshmallows! She actually thought these were her birthday cake, until her amazing Octonauts themed cake arrived. I’ve made these marshmallow pops many times, for different reasons. They’re tedious, but worth the effort. Here’s what happened…
This is an oasis. Florists use these for bouquets, which I’m sure you already know. My husband has always been good about sending me flowers and this is from one of those moments. For my last birthday, he sent me a bouquet that looked like a cake! I saved this oasis because I knew I could use it for something just like this! If you don’t have an oasis, you can use a styrofoam cake form.
You’ll want to cover it well with tin foil.
I chose Easter colors for these pops. Not shown in the picture are the very important marshmallows and lollipop sticks! You can get all of these ingredients at your local Bulk Barn, or most cake decorating stores.
If you can, melt all the chocolates you plan to use at once. Will save you time. This step in your marshmallow pop process is fairly important, as you can overheat chocolate pretty easily. These are make-shift double boilers, and they work perfectly. You want to make sure that the water in each pot isn’t touching the bowl that is sitting on it. To begin, turn your heat to medium, to get the process started. Once you see any steam coming out the sides of the bowl, you can remove it from the heat.
This is an example of the pink wafer chocolate I had melting. It’s off the heat at this point, and there is plenty of internal heat in this chocolate to help melt this chocolate down. It’s important to remove your chocolate at around this stage, so that it keeps a loose, velvety consistency once melted. If overheated, it can remain thick, almost burnt. I’ve done this! To keep the consistency where you want it, leave it to sit on a double boiler, that’s off the heat, while you dip your marshmallows. This will keep it from seizing.
First thing you want to do is dip your lollipop stick into the chocolate before you insert it into the marshmallow. The will ensure that your marshmallow doesn’t slip around the stick after being dipped. It sets it. It’s an important step.
Skewer your marshmallow onto the stick until you can feel the tip at the top of the marshmallow, but you can’t see it. You don’t want the stick to pierce the other end of the marshmallow.
Coat each marshmallow fairly quickly. You don’t want it sitting in warm chocolate, or it will begin to melt and its shape will change. This is the tedious part. You will want to make sure enough of the chocolate has drained off before you coat the marshmallows, or you will have a drippy, chocolatey mess.
Next step. Coating. I chose various sprinkles for all of my marshmallows this time around.
This is what you want. It can stand upright and has set enough that it isn’t dripping. It’s good to go!
I don’t know any kid that wouldn’t love the sight of these! Take the time, and make these. Especially, if you have little people in your world!
Here’s what you need to do…
Marshmallow Easter Pops!
1 bag marshmallows
1 cup each, pink, yellow, and purple chocolate wafers
Variety of sprinkles for coating
Lollipop sticks
Melt the chocolates over a double boiler until melted. Coat the tips of each lollipop stick, as you skewer each marshmallow, with the chocolate you will be using for dipping. Dip each marshmallow into the chocolate and tap off any excess. Coat with desired topping.
Enjoy!! Happy Easter!
(Source: Adapted from https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/marshmallow-pops.html)
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