Dessert Biscuit Puffs

This past week I stayed home for half a day for the delivery and installation of our new dishwasher. Yes, I realize that you're probably wondering what the heck this has to do with Dessert Biscuit Puffs! And you may also be wondering about the above picture at the beginning of this post. It doesn't exactly look like a "puff" of any kind! Well, let me explain so that you're not wondering much longer. :) When the guys were installing the dishwasher the other day, I actually got to sit and relax for a little bit, and I happened to be watching Good Morning America. I lucked out with my timing because a cooking segment came on that featured Taste of Home's editor sharing some yummy recipes from one of their new cookbooks, the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook. Several good recipes were shared, and they can all be found here under the title "Skinny Snacks Pack Loads of Flavor." Anywho, if you're looking for some light, yet delicious comfort food recipes, you should check out that site! A couple nights later I was making a homemade chicken noodle soup (blog post about the soup will be coming soon!), and I wanted to make an easy dessert to go with it. I recalled the segment I saw on GMA earlier in the week, and voila, there was my dessert!

This really is one of the simplest recipes, and the basic recipe where I got the idea can be found here. Taste of Home calls them Chocolate Biscuit Puffs, but I thought Dessert Biscuit Puffs was a more appropriate name since I changed the recipe slightly...as I typically do!

For the simplest version of this recipe, you really only need four ingredients, which are refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, chocolate, cinnamon, and sugar. As you can read in the recipe online, all you have to do is flatten each piece of the buttermilk biscuit dough, place a piece of chocolate in the center of the dough, and then bring up the edges of the dough and pinch them together to enclose the chocolate, as you can see in this picture below. That is all!!

The store-bought refrigerated biscuits that I bought contained 10 biscuits, so with a few of the biscuits I put a Hershey kiss inside each one. For some of the others, I used a combination of chocolate and butterscotch baking chips, and then for others I put in three or four thin slices of banana and about 1/2 tsp. of peanut butter.

According to the recipe, you sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on each one and then bake in a 450 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes. I, however, did not do the cinnamon sugar step until after baking, and for the baking, I actually only had the oven at 400 degrees. They probably took about 7 or 8 minutes until they were lightly golden brown on top, at which point I removed them from the oven. While they were still warm, I used a pastry brush to brush on a tad of melted margarine and on top of that, I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar. So darn easy! From start to finish, these did not take more than 15 or 20 minutes. Below is a picture of the puffs right after I took them out of the oven and then another picture after I brushed them with margarine and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on them. The cinnamon sugar touch is really key, I found. Yummmm!!

As I was making these, I was thinking that they would be a super easy treat for kids to help create. I bet they would love choosing different fun fillings to put inside! They might also like flattening the biscuits. Since the biscuits are so small (compared to something like a pie crust!), it would definitely be something that a young child could do. I obviously don't have kids of my own, but someday I look forward to having little ones baking in the kitchen with me! I have to say that the peanut butter and banana combination was by far my favorite with these. Since I didn't eat all of them right out of the oven when they were warm (although, believe me, I could have), when I had one later on, I would zap it in the microwave for just 10 seconds or so. Deeelish!

Here are a couple more ideas for tasty fillings inside the dessert "puffs"..... :)

-your favorite candy bar

-peanut butter and jelly or jam

-nutella (with anything really!)

-small pieces of fruit and jam (e.g., fresh blueberries and raspberry jam)

-small pieces of fruit and chocolate (e.g., strawberries!)

-apple pieces coated in cinnamon/sugar (with the dough around this filling, it would be like a mini bite of apple pie!)

-raisins and peanut butter

-banana slices and honey

-banana slices and chocolate chips (oooh, what about these two things and peanut butter)

Do you have any fun ideas to share? If so, feel free to comment below!

Also, as aforementioned, this recipe is from a Comfort Foods Diet cookbook too, which means less guilt...and ya gotta love that! The recipe says that each one of these treats is 78 calories. Of course, if you're loading the insides with a very rich and caloric chocolate or candy, that number of calories will vary... But, I still think these are an a-okay dessert to have when all you need is just that little something sweet at the end of a meal! Try them out the next time you're craving sweets, don't have much time on your hands, and want to avoid the guilt that often accompanies a tasty treat!