Maple Snickerdoodles

Cinnamon. Sugar. Soft. Chewy. Those are four words that help explain why I enjoy snickerdoodles. I have to admit that I haven't always loved snickerdoodles though. Gasp! I don't ever remember my mom making snickerdoodles; if she had, I know I would have fonder memories of them because she's an amazing baker. :) The only times I remember having snickerdoodles they were hard, not soft and chewy, and they weren't too flavorful. I don't know whose snickerdoodles I was eating, but I didn't really love them. :(

This all changed a few years back when I discovered a great recipe for snickerdoodles that uses cake mix to make them. Yep, cake mix. Those of you who know me or have been reading my blog for a while know that I have used cake mix to make cookies many times. When you're short on time, cake mix cookies are perfect to whip up a batch of yummy treats really quickly. Don't worry so much that they're not from scratch. Every good cook and baker needs shortcuts from time to time. :)

Back to my snickerdoodles story... So since I have been using the great cake mix snickerdoodle recipe, it's been nice to know that they can be soft, chewy, delicious, and cinnamon-sugary. Score!

Last week I was trying to decide on a new cookie recipe to make to bring to my sister, Melissa, for her birthday. I considered whipping up a quick batch of cake mix cookies (I always keep cake mix on hand for this purpose!), but I wanted to make something from scratch instead. Melissa looooves maple (you already know this if you read my May 6th edition of Friday Favorites), so my focus was on a cookie made with real maple syrup. I was short on time though, so it had to be something simple. Thankfully, I stumbled upon a great recipe for maple snickerdoodles. The recipe called for only a few ingredients, was easy, and took almost no time to make. And the other obvious great quality of this recipe? It made cookies that tasted deeelicious! They were not heavy on the maple flavor though, so if you're hoping for a strongly maple-flavored cookies, these may not be for you. The maple was subtle, yet still detectable. The cookies themselves were the perfect texture in my opinion; they had just the right level of chewiness. And the cinnamon sugar flavor was wonderful. I'd describe these maple snickerdoodles as a "comfort cookie." :)

(did you notice that you can see my reflection in the mixing bowl in the above picture as I'm taking the picture? too funny)

Here's the recipe for you (I found it on AllRecipes):

-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1/4 tsp. baking soda
-1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 cup margarine, softened
-1 cup white sugar
-3 Tbsp. real maple syrup
-1 egg
-1/2 cup white sugar
-1/4 cup maple sugar (or 2 tsp. cinnamon)

Now, I did not have the maple sugar, so I just used cinnamon instead. The recipe calls for mixing the last two ingredients listed, white sugar and maple sugar, and then rolling the balls of cookie dough in that mixture. So my mixture was simply cinnamon and sugar instead. If you can find maple sugar though, I bet that would enhance the maple flavor of these cookies! I see that King Arthur Flour carries maple sugar. I may have to look into getting that...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the softened margarine and 1 cup of white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and maple syrup. Gradually add the dry ingredients until everything is just mixed in. In a small dish, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 cup and maple sugar (or about 2 tsp. cinnamon). Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll the balls in the sugar mixture until coated. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the cookies are "cracked" on top. They may look slightly wet in the middle still (that's okay!). Cool completely on cooling rack. Makes about 24 - 30 cookies.

The last picture above shows that the cookie, fresh out of the oven, still looks a little wet in the middle. This is okay, as that will go away when the cookie cools, but it will still allow the cookie to be nice and soft.

I enjoyed a few of these on my own but was also able to have enough self restraint to give the rest for Melissa for her birthday. :) She loved them too! Snickerdoodles, either the cake mix version or this maple version, are definitely here to stay in my kitchen. 

Do you have a favorite snickerdoodle recipe?! If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Friday Favorites, 5.13.11

Greetings and as I always love to say once Friday arrives, HAPPY FRIDAY! I hope everyone has had a fabulous week. 

This past week, I joined my boyfriend Mike's ultimate frisbee team and will be playing with them for their summer league this year! I have only ever played one season of ultimate before, and it was waaay back in the fall of 2008. The league I played in then was made up of players with a range of skill levels. The summer league I'm joining this year is made up of much more experienced players, and needless to say, I'm not the most experienced player. :-D Mike's team (named Fetch - great name for a frisbee team :)) is made up of players who have mostly been playing for several years so I'm definitely the rookie among everyone! I owe Mike and his teammates a big thank you for taking me under their wings... I plan to learn a lot this season and hopefully improve my game quite a bit!

In honor of my new adventures playing ultimate this summer, for this week's edition of Friday Favorites I thought I'd bring you a few favorite cookie recipes of team Fetch (that is also now my team - yay!). Since dating Mike, I've attended many of the team's games to cheer them on...and obviously I've brought them many different Barbershop baked goodies along the way. Here's the ultimate cookie round-up of treats that team Fetch has enjoyed thus far. ;-)

1) The "Ultimate" Cookie

There's a fun story behind this cookie. If you read the blog post I wrote about it last June, you'll see that I randomly jumped in and played in a game with Fetch to fill in for an injured player... I was only there to watch and support the team (with cookies), but I ended up being on the field for most of the game! It was definitely quite fun though. Reading that blog post again, I see that at the end I said: "Perhaps there is more ultimate playing in my future. We shall see!"

Guess that came true, huh? :)

2) S'mores Cookies

I made the s'mores cookies for the team last summer, and they instantly became a hit. What's not to love about chocolate, graham crackers, and toasty roasty ooey gooey marshmallows? The s'mores cookies are SUPER easy and obviously delicious. You may want to make them for yourself...like today. Just sayin'.... :)

3) Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are one of my all-time favorite cookies, I think! I just love them. I love just about any baked good made with bananas though, so I may be a tad biased. These banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are very soft, moist, and flavorful. And they almost seem healthy, almost. ;-) They're actually based on a Cooking Light recipe though, so they're really not all that bad for you! I promise. I originally made these quite some time ago, but I've made them several times since. The picture above is actually from a batch that I brought to a recent Fetch game (before I joined) already this season in 2011! I made this batch with both butterscotch and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

4) The Ultimate Sugar Cookie (apparently when I make cookies for Fetch I like to use the word ultimate to describe them)

For the team's final tournament last summer, I made sugar cookies (Mom's famous recipe, of course) in the shapes of dogs, dog bones, and frisbees (a.k.a. "discs" to ultimate players)! 

The team loved them. :)

There you have it, a summary of some of my favorite, yummy cookie recipes I've made for Fetch over the past couple years. I will certainly keep baking for the team this summer, and I'll be sure to share more delicious recipes with you! Actually, now that I'm thinking about it a bit more, I'm beginning to wonder if the team took me on just for my baking skills...

Strawberry Scones

(Note: this blog post was originally published on May 11th, but due to system problems with Blogger, the post and all comments were erased. I had to re-create the post, so this is technically Strawberry Scones, Take 2! If you commented the first time, feel free to comment again. ;-))

You may remember a couple weeks ago when I included some delicious sounding strawberry scones from Annie's Eats in my Friday Favorites. I had mentioned them when referencing the Royal Wedding (oh my goodness, how beautiful was Kate's dress?? I seriously loved it). Anyway, back to these scones... :)

I actually made these the day after the Royal Wedding, but it's obviously taken me a little time to blog about them! These scones were simply delicious, and they were also quite simple to make!

(Strawberries, I ♥ you)

I had a really fun time baking these. That may sound silly, but it's true. The process of making them was very enjoyable...and I also couldn't wait for the final product to be done so I could try one of these flavorful, delicious treats. :)

Ingredients:

-1 large egg
-1/4 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
-1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
-1 tsp. orange or lemon zest (I used orange)
-2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I ended up using about 2 and 1/2 cups)
-1/4 cup sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
-1 Tbsp. baking powder (yes, it's one TABLEspoon)
-1/2 tsp. salt
-8 Tbsp. cold, unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
-1 heaping cup fresh, diced strawberries

Instructions:

In s small bowl, whisk the egg, yogurt, milk, and zest until blended, and set aside. In a bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pulse briefly to blend. Add the butter pieces to the bowl with the dry ingredients and pulse several times to cut the butter into the flour, until the largest butter pieces are the size of small peas. If you don't have a food processor, you can also mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and cut in the butter using a pastry blender or two knives or forks.

Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.

Add the strawberries to the flour mixture and toss to coat. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently fold together with a fork or spatula until a sticky dough has formed (I added more flour at this point because the mixture was too sticky/wet for me to work with). Knead a few times to ensure that all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough is cohesive. If you think it's needed, you can add one more tablespoon of milk at a time to hydrate the remaining dry ingredients).

Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface and pat into a disc about 7 or 8 inches in diameter. Sprinkle lightly with additional sugar. Slice the disc into 8 wedges.

To bake the scones, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper (I used the latter). Place the shaped scones on the prepared baking sheet and bake until lightly browed on top, about 15 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before serving. To freeze, transfer the baking sheet with the shaped scones to the freezer and let them chill until they are firm, 30 to 60 minutes. Wrap the scones individually and store in a freezer-safe bag until ready to bake. Bake as originally indicated, adding a few minutes to the baking time (about 18-20 minutes).

I did freeze the scones for about 60 minutes before baking them. Annie from Annie's Eats recommended that you freeze them before baking if you're not planning to eat them right away (I was bringing these scones to a brunch the day after making them).

I really cannot wait to make these again this spring and summer while strawberries are in season. :) They were super delicious!!

See you again soon!

Friday Favorites, 5.6.11

Friiiiiday. It's finally here. There's something special about Friday this week though. It's my sister Melissa's birthday!!!! So in honor of my lovely sister, I'm going to share a few of her favorites sweet treats with you. :)

1) Homemade apple pie! As long as I can remember, my sister has always requested a homemade apple pie for her birthday instead of cake. We loooove apple pie in our family. Although I don't have a recipe for apple pie to share with you on the blog (yet), I will share my grandmother's homemade pie crust with you!

2) Maple! Melissa loves anything maple flavored... And if you're going to have maple syrup, pure maple syrup (especially from New England :)), is obviously the best! I'll be heading to visit my sister this Saturday and will be bringing her some MAPLE snickerdoodles that I just made. The recipe for these will be shared with you soon, I promise! I used maple syrup from upstate New York, where we're from, in these delicious cookies.

3) White chocolate! Melissa is most definitely the biggest fan of white chocolate I know. I've never made white chocolate mousse, but I found this recipe for it, and I think it may just have to go on my Barbershop to-do list! :)

Here is one of the most recent pictures of Melissa and me. This was taken after we completed our second half marathon together back in February in California. :)

Love you, sista! Happy birthday!!!

Cinnamon Bun Smoothie

I ♥ smoothies. You all know about my love affair with the original green monster smoothie...I make at least a couple of those monsters each week and I don't think I'll ever get sick of them! I've even started to eat them out of a bowl sometimes...green monster "soup" perhaps? :) I topped this bowl with some granola for an added crunch and sweetness.

In addition to the green monster, I've had fun experimenting with all other flavors of smoothies as well, but sadly, I have shared very few of these with you on the blog! I think it's about time I changed that. The only other one I think I've shared is the delightful Yum Yam Smoothie, that Jenn and I created together last fall. Delicious!

Sometimes I make up my own smoothie recipes (it's really hard to mess up a smoothie!), and other times I like to follow a recipe that some other creative person has developed. This cinnamon bun smoothie was created by The Happy Herbivore, and I just couldn't resist trying it. Cinnamon bun in smoothie form?! Yes, please.

Recipe, as adapted from The Happy Herbivore (makes 1 serving):

-1 banana, cold 

-1 cup milk (non-dairy if you'd like your smoothie to be vegan, I used regular skim milk)

-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp. maple syrup

-1 tsp. cinnamon bun flavored coffee creamer (this was a special Barbershop addition!)

Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend away! Then, ENJOY. :) 

A couple points of note for you... The banana I used was medium in size, and I left it in the freezer for about an hour or so before using it in my smoothie, so it was only slightly frozen. I think that if you didn't already have a cold banana, you could easily use one that's at room temp...but you may then need to add ice to your smoothie. Also, this is a rather sweet smoothie, but for my tastes, it was not too sweet. It really did have a noticeable cinnamon bun flavor! I will absolutely be making this smoothie again...and again...and probably again. ;-)

I had fun taking some pictures outside on my porch, as you can see here. I only wish I had some real, homemade, ooey gooey cinnamon buns to use as a backdrop in these pictures!!

Be back again soon. :)

Black Bean Brownies

I know what you're thinking. Black bean brownies?! Yes, you read that correctly. :) I've heard about recipes for black bean brownies and have always been curious...and as you can gather by this post, I recently got around to making them!

The texture of these brownies is a bit different than your usual brownie. They were less cake-like and more dense, even fudge-like in some bites. And I bet you're wondering whether you can taste the black beans. Nope! Not to worry; these brownies taste only like our beloved chocolate, not beans. ;-)

Ingredients:

-1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
-3 eggs
-3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
-1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-pinch of salt
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-3/4 cup white sugar
-1/2 tsp. baking powder (optional, but I added it after reading reviews that some people added it to make the brownies rise more since they're quite dense)
-1 tsp. instant coffee (optional, but I added it)
-1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (also optional, but I added them)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 pan. Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, baking powder, and instant coffee in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour the batter into your prepared pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the batter, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the edges start to pull away from the side of the pan. Let cool completely before cutting into brownies.

How cool is it that everything goes in a blender?!

So although the instructions say to sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the batter before baking, I decided to go against the directions, and instead, I mixed chocolate chips right into the batter (I mixed them in with a spatula though - I didn't blend in the chips!!). I should have thought about this more ahead of time but I didn't... This brownie batter is much more liquid-y than your typical brownie batter, allowing the chocolate chips to sink to the bottom of the pan. So as you can see in the above pic here, the chocolate chips almost formed a bottom "layer" there; they were not evenly distributed throughout the brownies. I ended up really liking this though and thought that my unintentional creation of two layers in these brownies was kinda fun. :) However, if you aren't looking for that effect, I'd recommend just sprinkling your chocolate chips on top of the batter before baking, as the instructions tell you to do!

Delicious! I really enjoyed experimenting with this new recipe. As a result of these brownies being made without flour, they are gluten-free. :) And with the added black beans, they pack a good punch of additional protein and fiber too! Gotta love that.

Banana Oat Breakfast Cakes

Over the years, breakfast has become one of my favorite meals to "play around with" and create yummy, fun recipes. Especially on the weekends if/when I have a little extra time, I enjoy spending more time in the kitchen to try a new recipe or create a slightly more elaborate breakfast than I typically have time for on the weekdays. A couple weekends ago I tried a recipe for "banana oat cakes" that I had bookmarked from a great blog I recently discovered, "Running Around Normal."

Here's the recipe for you. Note that it only makes enough for two cakes, so you'll need to double or triple this if you're making it for more than one or two people!

Ingredients:

-2/3 cup regular oats

-1 egg

-2 - 4 Tbsp. water or milk (I used skim milk)

-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-1 banana, sliced

-almond butter or yogurt, for toppings

Simple ingredient list! :)

Instructions:

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. In a small bowl, mix together the oats, egg, milk or water, and cinnamon; set aside. Add the sliced banana to your skillet to grill it to bring out its natural sugars, about 3 minutes per side. After letting the oat cake mixture sit for about a minute, form it into two "patties" and place them in your pan, grilling for about 3 minutes per side and until they're very lightly browned on the outside. Top each breakfast cake with some grilled bananas and any desired toppings (almond butter, yogurt, sprinkled cinnamon, etc.).

I don't think this could be any easier, friends! It'll take you no time to make this recipe, AND you'll enjoy it. It's quite tasty, especially with the grilled bananas and yogurt on top. The grilled "nanners" (yes, sometimes I refer to bananas as nanners) are so yummy! If you love oatmeal, this is a nice healthy twist on your typical bowl of oatmeal. I love finding new ways to eat the foods I love. :)