Banana Date Smoothie

With this unseasonably warm weather we've been experiencing lately in New England, I've been craving refreshing smoothies. However, I'm not quite ready for berry-flavored smoothies yet. Thankfully there are a gazillion other smoothie combinations out there though! So when I stumbled upon this banana date smoothie the other day from Steph's Bite by Bite, I immediately pinned it. And since then, it's been on my mind quite a bit (don't get jealous, Mike!!). And this past Tuesday I finally got around to making it. And then I made another one on Wednesday. Annnnd, you guessed it. I made another one today, Thursday. Uh huh. It's gooood. 

As I mentioned earlier, I first saw this recipe on the lovely blog, Steph's Bite by Bite. The proportions and ingredients listed below are what I used and are just slightly modified from the original recipe. This makes one serving.

Ingredients:

-1 medium to large banana, frozen

-1/4 cup dry regular oats

-3 pitted dates, chopped/sliced

-1/2 cup milk (I used organic 1%)

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until everything's mixed together and fairly smooth.

Of note, the original recipe does call for a few ice cubes. Mine turned out plenty cold (for my liking) with just the frozen banana and cold milk. But feel free to add ice cubes if you'd like! It may "bulk" up the smoothie a bit too, if you add the ice.

A trick to make this easier? Slice your bananas before freezing them. If you have a super duper fancy blender you may be able to just throw a whole frozen banana in there, but my blender isn't that great so it works better for me if I slice the bananas before I freeze them. I also chopped up the dates into smaller pieces before adding them to the blender.

On one of the past three days I made this smoothie I was on the run, going from one thing to another. So, I put it in a handy dandy little to-go cup that works great for smoothies and shakes!

Another picture of ingredients in the blender; this was smoothie day #3.

If you need a reminder about how good dates are for you, read all about them here. I looove dates! If you're a regular reader, you already know this. I've mentioned my obsession with dates when I've baked with them (recently with maple date scones and a little while back with maple date bars). And I feel like every time I make something with dates, I talk about how obsessed with them I am. Guess that really just confirms the obsession!!

After blending...bubbles!

Yep, I drank my smoothie out of a wine glass. :)

If you love smoothies, especially healthy ones, go make this one! Deeeelicious.

Cookies & Cream Brownies

I'm pretty sure that my coworkers have a love/hate relationship with me. Once every week or two, I bring in some sort of baked goodie to the lab "just because." I'll bake for coworkers' birthdays and special occasions too (as I've mentioned on the blog multiple times!), but sometimes, just because, I'll make something to bring to work. It really all comes down to the fact that I just love baking and even if I don't have a particular occasion to bake for, you'll still find me in my kitchen baking a delectable batch of cookies, bars, or cupcakes. And then I bring them to work. And that's where the love/hate relationship happens.

When my coworkers see me coming toward them with a big tupperware full of treats in the hours after lunchtime, they love me. They've just finished lunch and are craving something sweet. Don't you worry; it's the Barbershop to the rescue for your afternoon sweets craving! But then, as they're taking that cookie or brownie from the tupperware, they're mumbling "Oh Colleen, why do you do this to us? I'll have to work out longer at the gym tonight." And that's where the "hate" part of the relationship comes into play.

Sorry, guys. I just love to bake and you can't stop me. :)

The two products pictured here went into these cookies and cream brownies - Heads or Tails Oreos and Hershey's Cookies n' Creme Eggs (which are only around at Easter time!).

You may remember these Oreos back when I made Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes. I had yet to finish the package of Oreos (I know; what's wrong with me?!), so I decided to chop them up and put them into brownies. Obviously.

And I also just happened to have on hand these delightful little cookies and cream flavored egg-shaped candies. So, again quite obviously, I chopped those up to put in the brownies too. And that's how this new creation of cookies and cream brownies was born!

And then I brought these babies to work.

Uh oh.

Ingredients:

-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

-3 large eggs

-1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

-1 cup granulated sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/4 tsp. baking soda

-10 Oreos, chopped (can be any flavor you'd like)

-24 Hershey's cookies n' creme eggs, divided into two groups (16 eggs and 8 eggs) and chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 baking pan. Chop the Oreos into 1/4 to 1/2-inch sized pieces (I usually got about 6 to 8 small pieces out of each Oreo). This should yield approximately 1 cup of chopped Oreo pieces (and make sure to use every last crumb of the Oreos!). Next, chop the first group of 16 Hershey's eggs into pieces. This will be a little trickier, and there's no strict measurement for how big these pieces will or should be. Just chop them however you'd like them! Set those 16 chopped eggs aside (this should equal about 3/4 to 1 cup). Finally, chop the remaining 8 eggs and set aside to sprinkle on top of the brownie batter just before baking.

Melt the 1 cup of chocolate chips and stick of butter over low-medium heat on the stove in a heavy duty saucepan (I use a 2-quart pan with this recipe). Stir the chocolate and butter until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the eggs. Add the flour and mix well, followed by the sugar. Again, stir well and then add the vanilla and baking soda, mixing well. Next, stir in the chopped Oreos and the group of 16 chopped Hershey's eggs. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan, and sprinkle with the remaining 8 chopped eggs.

 Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely and cut into bars. Makes approximately 24 - 30 bars, depending on the size of the bars that you cut.

Ooey gooey cookies and cream chocolatey brownie deliciousness. :)

The Oreos definitely added a slight crunchy texture to the brownie. And the Hershey's eggs plus the cream filling of the Oreos added that creamyness to truly make these cookies and cream brownies.

Now, tell me your opinion. Is it cream or creme?! I have no idea and feel like I've seen it both ways, so I just went with cream.

Either way, cream or creme, these brownies taste the same (you know, amazingly delicious) and that's all that matters.

:)

St. Patrick's Day Treats and Eats

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Although I haven't personally made anything St. Patrick's Day themed yet this year, I thought I'd share a few recipes that would be oh-so-delicious for the awesome Irish holiday that's just a few days away now!

Most of these are desserts (can you blame me?), but a few of the following ideas are for non-desserts too. These are all from my favorite blogs (including my own - shameless self-promotion!) as well as from good ol' Pinterest.

From the Barbershop:

Creme de Menthe Bars

Irish Soda Bread and Irish Soda Bread Scones

Chocolate STOUT Cupcakes with Kahlua Frosting

You could easily replace the Kahlua with Bailey's so that they're more Irish!

From elsewhere:

Colcannon

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I had never heard of colcannon until this week (what kind of Irish girl does that make me?! uh oh!), but now I can't wait to make it. It's essentially mashed potatoes with kale. Yes, please!

Steak and Guinness Pie from Closet Cooking

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Can we talk about how deeelicious this steak pie looks?!

Pot o' Gold Snack Mix from Betty Crocker

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Leprechaun Cookie Bark from Your Homebased Mom

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This leprechaun bark is so fun!

Homemade Shamrock Shake from Brown Eyed Baker

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Thin Mint Truffles from Cookin' Cowgirl

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And last but not least, it wouldn't be St. Patty's Day without green beer, now would it?! When we were little, we kids always used to drink green milk with our St. Patty's dinner. But now that I'm an adult (and have been for a while, haha), I get to drink green beer! It's funny because I've never actually made my own beer green before. But you know what? I think I will this year. :)

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Enjoy the holiday, friends! ;)

Maple Date Scones

Maple and dates. A winning combination. You've seen me use this combination before in the form of my maple date bars, which I looooved. And I'm generally just obsessed with dates, and I first admitted my obsession back when I made a batch of tasty layered oatmeal date bars. But I have yet to bake with maple and dates in scone form....until today, that is! I recently bought buttermilk at the store to make some Irish soda bread later this week, but I knew I wouldn't need the whole container of buttermilk so I got to thinking about what else I could make with it. Scones!! Obviously. Buttermilk is such a common ingredient in scone recipes. So, I turned to one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, The Best of Cooking Light, to see which scone recipes I could find that looked good and matched ingredients that I had on hand. And that's how I came to make these delicious maple date scones!

Of note, the recipe calls for 2 cups of all-purpose flour, but I decided to add 1 cup of AP flour and 1 cup of white whole wheat flour. The scones feel a bit healthier that way, ya know? ;) The recipe below is what I followed when I made these. It really doesn't differ much from the original, but you can read the original recipe here if you'd like. The original actually calls for 1% milk, but as you already know, I chose to use buttermilk.

Ingredients:

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-1 cup white whole wheat flour

-1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

-1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1/3 cup (5 and 1/3 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

-1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates

-1/2 cup buttermilk

-3 Tbsp. maple syrup (I used the good stuff! the real thing from VT ;))

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients (flours through salt) in a large bowl; cut in the pieces of butter with a pastry cutter, fork, or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Randomly, I decided to use a whisk and it worked great to cut the butter into the flour mixture! Add the dates; toss well. Combine the buttermilk and syrup. Add to the flour mixture and stir well, until the entire mixture is moistened.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead 4 or 5 times. Pat dough into an 8-inch circle and place on a cooking sheet that's sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper. Score the dough with a knife, "cutting" it into 8 wedges. Do not cut all the way through the dough. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm with butter/margarine, jam/jelly, or plain! :)

I think I've mentioned this on the blog before, but a great tip for cutting up dates is to spray your knife with cooking spray first. Since dates are so sticky, this will prevent them from sticking to the knife! It works great.

The maple and date combination was yet again, not a disappointment! It was quite yummy.

These scones were incredibly easy to put together too, which was nice. I love when all ingredients can be mixed in one bowl.

I just had to taste test one, of course! I was able to hold off until after I took all my pictures, but then I dug right in. I enjoyed mine warm with a little bit of butter. Sooo good. Scones are such a comfort food for me. And this particular recipe came out with just the right amount of "flaky-ness" that scones should have, in my opinion. But they weren't dry in any way, and that's really important to me when it comes to scones.

If you haven't yet baked with the combo of maple and dates, I highly recommend that you do. Soon!

White Russian Cupcakes

White Russian cupcakes? Yes, I went there. I've made treats with booze in them in the past (cupcakes with kahlua cream cheese frosting, creme de menthe bars, beer bread, etc.). But these White Russian cupcakes really stepped it up to a whole new level. This recipe called for not one liquor - but two! Kahlua AND Vodka. The coworker for whom I made these cupcakes requested a dessert with alcohol in it. Simple request. Done and done. 

The recipe is adapted from Baked Perfection. I doubled the recipe (with a couple minor changes) and made about 18 large cupcakes and 8 mini ones.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

-2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

-2 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1 and 1/2 cups sugar

-12 Tbsp. butter, softened

-2 large eggs and 2 large egg whites

-2 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 cup milk

-1/4 cup vodka (I used vanilla flavored)

-1/4 cup kahlua (this was also vanilla flavored for me)

For the kahlua buttercream frosting:

-1 stick butter, softened

-3 cups powdered sugar

-pinch of salt

-3 to 4 Tbsp. kahlua

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a separate bowl or stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until well combined. Add the eggs and egg whites, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla, vodka, and kahlua. Gradually add the flour mixture, in three additions, each time alternating with the milk and ending with the flour mixture.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on cooling rack.

For the frosting, beat butter until creamy, then add the salt. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, and beat well. Add kahlua one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency of frosting is reached. If you'd like, sprinkle cocoa powder or chocolate shavings on top of the frosting (I added chocolate shavings).

You'll have to forgive my poorer than usual quality of the photos. I finished frosting these in the evening and was kind of running around/doing a million things at once, in general, so I didn't take a ton of time with my pictures. And as you know, I don't have a fancy camera or a nice lamp to improve my food photos...

The cupcakes were a total success at work! The flavor of the alcohol was definitely there but it wasn't overpowering in any way. It really just enhanced the overall flavor of these cupcakes, I think. I'm thinking I should bake cupcakes with liquor more often! Ha.

And the kahlua frosting? Awesome. Definitely a keeper of a recipe. As you know, I also used some leftover frosting to make a few to-die-for chocolate chip sandwich cookies...

Again, I apologize for the poor photo quality. But I hope you get the gist that these cupcakes were awesome. They come highly recommended by my coworkers and me!!

De. Li. Cious.

Ooooh, and what are these cupcakes, might you ask??! Well, these are the seven (yes, seven!) cupcakes that Mike and I tasted a couple weeks ago when we had the tasting for our wedding food. Oh my goodness. They were all soooo good! Our reception venue has the same idea I did with these White Russian cupcakes, as several of the cupcakes they made for us involved alcohol! No kidding. The cupcakes involving liquor included a cabernet chocolate frosting, a Creme de Menthe frosting (with crushed Oreos on top!), a Bailey's chocolate frosting, and a Grand Marnier frosting. 

Heavenly.

I won't reveal which ones we chose for the wedding though. Sorry. ;)