#19 - Tropical Oat Squares

I made these bars to take to my oncologist (Doc Onc) for my 3-month check up. I always take him goodies when I go and this time I wanted to try a "healthier" treat... oats and fruit, that's healthy, right?  Healthy or not, they were pretty tasty!

 

 



Tropical Oat Square
(Recipe from Cooking Creation)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c butter, room temperature
• 1/2 c nonfat Greek pineapple yogurt, room temperature
• 1/2 c white sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 c quick cooking oats 
• 1/2 c flaked coconut, sweetened 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp salt

Pineapple Filling:

• 2 c fresh pineapple, finely chopped 
• 2 tbsp white sugar 
• 1 lime, juiced 
• Pinch of salt

 

Directions:

Make the pineapple filling.  In a small sauce pan, add the fresh pineapple, sugar, lime juice, and salt.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.  Continue to boil over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Use a potato masher to mash the pineapple.  Continue to boil for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease an 8 x 8 baking dish.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the butter, Greek yogurt, white sugar and brown sugar, until smooth and creamy.  Beat in the egg.  In a separate large bowl, add the flour, oats, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Gradually incorporate the flour mixture into the wet ingredients with a spoon, being careful to not over mix.

Spread half of the batter in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Pour the pineapple mixture (along with the juices) evenly on top of the batter.  Carefully spoon the remaining batter over the pineapple layer.

Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Allow it to cool completely before serving.

#18 - ASPARAGUS AND GRUYERE TARTS

I am SOOOO behind on my recipe posts! It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's that I haven't been posting! I'm going to try to pound out the posts this week to get caught up... no promises!

This recipe is SUPER easy but the finished product looks and tastes FANCY SCHMANCY!  I'm pretty sure that even someone who is not a fan of asparagus might like this one... and if they don't, more for the rest of us! My asparagus was super long, even after cutting it down, so the tarts were probably a little big but I didn't hear anyone complain! You can serve them drizzled with a yummy balsamic reduction (I made that the day before... easy peasy!).  These would be great for appetizers, for brunch, lunch, or as side dish.... or anytime, just because!

ASPARAGUS AND GRUYERE TARTS
(I got 6-8 tarts out of this recipe or you could make one big one!)
Recipe adapted from Joy The Baker

INGREDIENTS:

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed but still cold.

1 egg, beaten

2 cups finely grated gruyere cheese

1-1 1/2 pounds slender asparagus

kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper

olive oil

balsamic reduction (recipe below)

 

DIRECTIONS:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

 

Unfold thawed puff pastry onto a lightly floured work surface.  Unfold the pastry and slice into thirds at the creases.  Cut each strip in half, creating six equally sized rectangles - I used my asparagus as a gage of how long/wide my strips needed to be.

 

Gently press each rectangle with your fingers, flattening slightly.  With a small pairing knife, score a 1/4 inch boarder along the inside of each rectangle.  Arrange 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.

 

Brush each square lightly with beaten egg. Sprinkle with salt and coarse ground black pepper.  Top with a generous sprinkling of grated cheese.  Press five to six asparagus spears into the cheese. Brush the asparagus with olive oil and sprinkle with more coarsely ground black pepper.

 

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until puff pastry is golden brown and asparagus is cooked through. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.  Serve with balsamic reduction.   Tarts can be stored, well wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

 

BALSAMIC REDUCTION

Recipe from PopSugar

 

All you need is a bottle of balsamic vinegar!

Pour a cup of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the heat to a boil without reducing the heat on the stove.

 

At this point, turn down the heat so that boil reduces to a simmer. Stir occasionally and allow to simmer until the vinegar has reduced by at least half (for a thinner reduction) or more (for a more syrupy consistency). However impatient you may be, don't try to increase the heat, unless you want to be left with a stiff, hardened mess!

 

Allow to cool and transfer to an airtight container; store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

 

 

(Recipe #18 of 52)

#16 - Cherry Chip Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Bean Frosting

It had been a long time since any cupcakes came out of my kitchen. There was a time when that was just about all that came out of my oven. A friend of mine mentioned liking cherry chip cake with vanilla frosting so I figured, what the heck... I'll give that a try! It's fun making something with someone specific in mind and a bonus when they actually like it! I also sent a bunch to work with The Hubs because his co-workers are perfect guinea pigs and the cupcakes were a hit with them too.

 

 

Cherry Chip Cupcakes
with Fluffy Vanilla Bean Frosting

Makes 22-24 cupcakes.

CUPCAKES:
1 package plain white cake mix
1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
1 - 10oz. jar maraschino cherries without stems, drained and finely chopped, juice reserved
1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
1 teaspoon almond extract

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners and set the pans aside.
2. Place the cake mix, yogurt, cherries, cherry juice, oil, egg whites, vanilla and almond extract in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl. Beat for 11/2 to 2 minutes longer on medium, scraping down the side of the bowl again if needed.
3. Spoon or scoop a 1/4 cup of cupcake batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full.
4. Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Place the cupcakes on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

FROSTING:
1 cup shortening, Crisco
1 - 7oz. jar marshmallow cream
2 pounds powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the frosting, place the shortening and marshmallow cream in a large mixing bowl, and blend with an electric mixer on low until creamy. Add powdered sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla bean paste, and blend until smooth. Add more milk if needed.

When cupcakes are cooled, frost generously. Top with a cherry or cherry candy if desired.

#2 - Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I have my 3-month check up with my oncologist tomorrow (Doc Onc) and I almost always take him a treat.  I guess you could call it a bribe… a clean bill of health in exchange for some baked goods.  It’s worked so far!

This time I decided to make shortbread – chocolate chip shortbread.  It’s probably not a great time of year to bring sweets to the office with people being on their New Year’s diets and all, but oh well! It’s not like I’m in there all the time with sweets (thank the Lord!!).

Anyway, after a quick search on Pinterest, I went with a recipe from Delishhh .  I pretty much stayed with the original recipe.  The only thing I did different is that I used 1 cup of mini chocolate chips instead of the 1 ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips called for.  I wanted chocolate in every nibble of cookie. 

They turned out pretty tasty.  Not real sweet.  Crispy.  Chocolaty.  Hope Doc Onc likes ‘em!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Yield: 30-2" cookies

Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

ingredients:

12 tbsp (1 & 1/2 sticks) butter, room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips

directions:

Make sure the butter is room temperature and then cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour and salt.

Add the flour and salt to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until it comes together into a dough. Add the chocolate chips and mix in.

Roll the dough into a log about 2 inches in diameter (roll it wider or skinnier depending on how big you want your cookies). Roll the log in some wax paper.

Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Slice the log into 1/4 inch slices. Place the slices on the sheet. They don't spread much, so they can be pretty close together.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to brown.

Remove from the pan and cool to room temp.

Recipe #2 of 52 (keeping up so far!)

Salted Caramel-Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

Tuesdays have become "baking day" for me, mostly due to the fact that I was baking treats to take to chemo every week.  Now that chemo is over, I'm still trying to keep up the baking.  This week I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest.  The original recipe can be found here.  I made a few modifications, the main one being that the original recipe is made in an 8x8 pan, which is much too small! I adjusted the recipe for a 9x11 pan - plenty of bars for everyone!  I also used an 11oz. bag of Kraft Caramel Bits instead of unwrapping all of those caramel squares - my chemo fingers just couldn't do it!  Finally, I sprinkled a little sea salt over the caramel layer before baking.

Well, that's about it!  Let me know if you try them. Hope you like 'em!!  Enjoy!!

Salted Caramel-Chocolate Chip Oat Bars
Adapted from the original recipe at LuLu the Baker.

32 caramel squares, unwrapped (or 1-11oz. bag of Caramel Bits)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups butter, melted
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
2  teaspoons baking soda
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, coarse

Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 9x11" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips and sprinkle evenly with sea salt. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

*If you try cutting the bars before they are completely cooled, they will fall apart.  Put them in the fridge if you can't wait for the molten caramel to cool down. They should however, be stored and served at room temperature (although warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream wouldn't be a bad idea either).
**If you want to use homemade or store-bought caramel sauce in place of the caramel/cream mixture, use 1 1/4 cups of caramel sauce, and omit the caramel squares and heavy cream.

Donut "Bread" Pudding

Lately, I've had a donut obsession.  For some reason, the other day I brought home 2 dozen donuts from the donut shop.  There was no way that the four of us would eat all those donuts before they went stale!  I wasn't about to let any of that donutty goodness go to waste, so I searched the internet for donut bread pudding recipes (my mom makes bread pudding with day old cinnamon rolls so I figured day old donuts would work too).  So, here's my adaptation of a couple of recipes I found:

Donut Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 10 day old glazed donuts
• 1/2 qt heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips
• 7 ozs sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup brewed espresso (chilled)

Directions:

1. Cut doughnuts into cubes. Mix other ingredients in a bowl except chocolate chips, sweetened milk and espresso.
2. Pour over doughnuts. Sprinkle chocolate chip over mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.
3. Whip espresso and sweetened condensed milk spoonful on top of bread pudding when serving.
4. Store leftovers covered in the fridge.

This recipe was a hit with the family! My oldest boy ate two servings and made "yummy" comments the whole time he ate!  We'll do this one again!!

Enjoy!!

My Journey with Breast Cancer