Chocolate Cheesecake

This Chocolate Cheesecake is packed full of rich chocolate flavor, accompanied with a homemade Oreo cookie crust, and topped with dark chocolate ganache.

I made this for an Easter 2017 party, but it is really good for any gathering on any occasion.

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This recipe promotes chocolate as the most prominent flavor, so the type of chocolate you choose will be key in determining the outcome, or quality of the finished product. For my first time making it, it turned out just fine with semi-sweet chocolate chips. But obviously, there are many better and different options of baking chocolate out there.

In fact, I don’t necessarily recommend chocolate chips for baking. I would recommend quality baking chocolate, if you don’t mind the trouble. If you do mind, then chocolate chips work just fine.

I had the idea to make my own recipe for chocolate cheesecake when our friends invited us to their house for an Easter dinner. I knew they wanted something chocolatey, so cheesecake eventually sprang to mind, and with it came Chocolate.

It turned out great and received alot of compliments.

I hope you enjoy it too!


“Chocolate Cheesecake” Recipe  –      –      –   Print

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Hot Cross Buns recipe

Hot Cross Buns are sweet bread rolls, traditionally made for Easter, and have icing drizzled in the form of a cross. The bread is moist with a hint of cinnamon.

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This recipe is different from others because of the two egg yolks that are added to the dough. Make sure to save the 2 egg whites in two separate containers, though: you’ll need one for the icing, and one to spread thinly over the rolls just before baking them.

It makes around 18 rolls, but you can make them alot smaller if you want to serve them to a larger group of people. The balls of dough initially look small, but after their second rise time on the baking sheet, they should grow more than double in size, and get even larger in the oven. So don’t be fooled by their previously small appearance.

The ones in the picture (above) started at 1-inch balls of dough–so you can see how much larger they got.

Be sure to make these delicious rolls for your Easter celebration! And, although they are traditionally made for Easter, they make great rolls anytime of the year if you simply desist from adding the icing (WARNING: icing is a strong temptation). Remove the icing cross, and you have made these into multi-purpose baked goods.

Enjoy!


Hot Cross Buns Recipe                                                                Print

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Apple Blueberry Crisp

Blueberries added with apples make a great twist on the classic apple crisp.

If you want the recipe to make more, then increase the amount of apples and blueberries, and put it in a 9×13 dish instead of the smaller pan.

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Ingredients:

Topping

⅔ cups flour

½ cup oats

⅔ cup brown sugar

¾ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold unsalted butter

Filling

4 apples

3 cups blueberries

1 teaspoon cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons melted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS:

Mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor, or bowl. Add in chunks of cold butter and process or manually cut in the butter until it is small crumbs. Set in fridge until needed.

For filling, core, cut, and peel apples, and put them a large bowl. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Stir flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, melted butter, lemon juice, sugars, milk, salt, and vanilla in a small bowl until combined. Pour mixture over apples, and toss to coat completely.

Place apple mixture in an 8×12 pan, and sprinkle all of the crumb topping over it, evenly, until completely covered.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 – 40 minutes until mixture is bubbling, and topping is brown.

If you are serving this recipe to more than 6 people, then add 3 more apples to the mixture, and increase the amount of blueberries, and then put the mixture into a 9×13 pan. Bake longer than usual.

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Layered Lemon Cake

This layered lemon cake is comprised of three layers: Icing, Lemon Curd, then Icing, on three slices of cake.

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INGREDIENTS:

(Makes one medium size cake, 16 medium slices)

CAKE:

  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2 tsp. lemon zest
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice

ICING:

  • 1 tablespoon of butter, melted
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

FILLING:

  • Lemon curd

You can make your own lemon curd, or buy it from the store.

DIRECTIONS:

Grease two cake pans, and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the zest off a 1 lemon. Put it, and the sugar into a food processor, and blend for one minute, until all the zest is finely blended up. Transfer mixture to kitchen aid, or a plain ole stand mixer, and cream in butter. Add eggs one at a time, and then add vanilla.

In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into wet ingredients until combined.

Pour batter into the two prepared cake pans, making sure one is thicker (the one you’ll cut lengthwise in half) than the other. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cake springs back up to touch.

To make icing, whip melted butter, powdered sugar, milk and 1 Tbs. of lemon juice in a smallish bowl. Set to the side.

When they are done baking a cooled off, place the thinner cake section upside down on serving platter. Take the thicker one, and cut lengthwise in half. You’ll have two perfect thin section of cake for an extra layer.

On top of the first section that you placed on the serving platter, spread on half of the icing evenly.

Place one section of the thicker halves on top of this iced layer. Then spread on the lemon curd thickly. Place on the last layer of cake. On this one, spread the final layer of icing. Now you’re ready to serve it. If you prefer, you can always refrigerate a few hours before serving, and it might hold up a little better…

See my original post of this recipe on instructables

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Chocolate Raspberry Valentine Truffles

These raspberry heart chocolate truffles are the perfect candy/treat for Valentine’s Day. The outside is hard chocolate coating, and the inside is chewy soft raspberry chocolate. To complete that, they are shaped as hearts; but you can shape it any way you want.

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INGREDIENTS:

Middle:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup raspberry jam

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

Coating; (if you don’t want to buy it)

Coating recipe

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream and the butter until butter is melted and cream is at a slight simmer. Go directly to next step:

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate in a small bowl. (feel free to do variations on different kinds of chocolate; like milk chocolate, or whatever, as long as it is slightly sweetened). Let sit for a second, and then stir until completely smooth and melted.

Mix in the 1/4 cup of raspberry jam. You can also blend it with an immersion blender to make it smooth. Cool in fridge for half an hour or so.

This process will determine the shape of your truffles. And you can be creative here. I used a cookie press (i won from instructables) to press out the refrigerated chocolate cream on parchment paper.

This is purely optional; you can also roll the mixture out and cut out little hearts (no more than 1 inch wide) with little tiny heart cookie cutters when it is hardened. Or, you choose a different way. Ideally, you’ll have uniform little hearts (maybe even smaller than mine) that are easy to dip in the melted candy coating.

after shaping, place in freezer for half an hour before coating in next step:

Once perfectly hardened (in freezer is the fastest way), dip your chocolate centers into your melted chocolate candy coating.

1. First melt the chocolate candy coating in microwave, in a deep bowl. For easy dipping you should have about two cups worth of the candy coating.

2. I used two little toothpicks, and put them underneath the chocolate centers to hold them as they are dipped in chocolate. All you want to do is dip it straight in so that it gets completely covered in chocolate, and then take it straight out. Carefully place on parchment paper.

3. Store in an airtight container once hardened, preferably at room temperature.

See my original post of this recipe on instructables.

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Chocolate Raspberry Cake

This rich chocolate raspberry cake is a great delicious cake for special occasions. The raspberry mixes perfectly with the chocolate. Raspberry jam mixture fills the middle of this cake, with not-too-rich, but delicious chocolate cake layering it, with chocolate raspberry frosting on the top.

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Ingredients: (makes two nine-inch cakes for stacking)

BATTER:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup chocolate chips

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup coffee, hot

1 ¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ¾ teaspoons baking soda

4 large eggs + 2 egg yolks

½ cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup butter, softened

 

FILLING: (Not shown in pictures)

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/4 cup raspberry jam

 

FROSTING:

1 cup chocolate chips (8 oz)

⅔ cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

1 cup frozen raspberries

 

DIRECTIONS:

Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans, and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan full of water over medium heat, in an empty medium heat-proof bowl, pour hot coffee. Pour in the baking chocolate and cocoa powder and stir until chocolate is melted. Pour in sugar, and stir until it is dissolved. Mix oil in well. Remove from heat and set aside.

NOTE: this contraption (the saucepan with water in it, on medium heat, with a medium bowl on-top of the water) is essentially almost like a double boiler in the way that it works.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside for later.

Prepare buttermilk for pouring. If you don’t have buttermilk, just use an easy substitute: In a measuring glass as shown, pour in one tablespoon of vinegar, and then fill the rest up with milk until it reads as 1 cups worth. Set aside.

This process is called ‘ribboning’ and is a way to make cakes light and fluffy in texture. Put in eggs and egg yolks into stand mixer, if you have one, and beat for a few seconds, until mixed up. Add sugar, and whip on high for a couple minutes, until the mixture is doubled in size, and light and fluffy.

Go straight on to the next step from here.

Now is the time to add everything you’ve prepared: Add the chocolate mixture and softened butter to the sugar egg mixture, and mix until combined. Do not whip. just stir slowly into it.

Then add flour and butter mixture alternately, first flour, then buttermilk, then flour, etc., ultimately starting and ending with the flour. Scrape the sides and keep mixing for a few more seconds, until just combined. Do not overmix.

Pour in equal amounts into the prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven (350 degrees) for at least 25 minutes, continually checking at and after the time said.

The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted directly in the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs.

When cakes are done, turn them upside down on a cooling rack, taking off pan, and then flipping the cakes right-side up again. Let them sit this way to cool for around two hours before attempting to put the frosting on.

Place frozen raspberries in a microwave safe bowl, and heat in ten second intervals, mashing well in between until raspberries are just like puree (as shown in pic).

Mix these crushed raspberries with the raspberry jam, and set aside.

To make the raspberry juice, which will go in frosting:

using the same process described in the last step, mash frozen raspberries in between ten second intervals in microwave, until it is just juicy mash. Strain using cheesecloth or a sieve (cheesecloth is better) into a bowl to obtain the raspberry juice (bottom pic).

This process is very similar to making ganache, just a bit different, with a bit different ingredients.

Melt heavy cream and butter in saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and stir in sugar and corn syrup until sugar is dissolved.

Chocolate chips should be in a medium, deep heatproof bowl. Pour this hot heavy cream mixture over the chocolate chips, and stir until chocolate chips are melted.

Stir in the raspberry juice, and then place bowl into an ice bath, as shown above. Stir constantly until frosting is cold, and starts hardening to the sides.

Take out of ice bath, and whip with a beater until frosting is light and fluffy.

Go onto the next instructions immediately before it melts:

Start with the first layer of cake. Spread all of the raspberry jam mixture onto this layer. Then carefully put some of the frosting on top of this. Place the second layer on top of it. Then ice the rest of the cake, sides, and top completely with all the remaining chocolate-raspberry frosting.

A cake frosting knife as shown in pic is very helpful in this situation.

Refridgerate 20 minutes before serving

Store in fridge, completely plastic wrapped to keep it from drying out.

Here’s the link to my original post of this recipe on instructables.

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Chocolate Waffle Cake

For those of you who like making chocolate cake, and making waffles, why not do something new and put them together?

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INGREDIENTS:

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INGREDIENTS:

For the waffles: (makes 4-5 large Belgian waffles)

3 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

¾ cup warm coffee

½ cup chocolate chips, melted

½ cup vegetable oil

4 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup cocoa powder

4 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

 

For Frosting:

1 cup chocolate chips (= 8oz baking chocolate)

⅔ cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

 

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare a large Belgian waffle iron according to manufacturer’s instructions.

This is the one I used: Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker

In a separate medium bowl, combine flours, 4 tablespoons sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

Dump eggs, coconut milk, oil, and vanilla, into a large bowl.

Dump the dry ingredients into the large bowl with wet ingredients, and mix until smooth and incorporated.

Heat the coffee up in a microwave-proof dish.

Dump in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Stir until melted and combined with coffee.

Pour chocolate/coffee mixture into batter.

Mix until combined.

Cook batter in waffle iron, according to instructions. (With my waffle iron I used the no. 3 setting)

You should turn out with 4-5 large waffles. Optionally, you can use a small portion of left over batter: pour the small portion of leftover batter into one corner of the waffle maker. You can use this for decoration on the top of the cake later.

Heat heavy cream and butter in saucepan on medium heat until it just begins to boil. Make sure butter is melted. Return heat to low, and stir in corn syrup, and sugar, until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla.

Pour hot mixture over chocolate chips in a medium metal bowl, and stir until chocolate is melted.

Place chocolate mixture in bowl in a ice bath, and stir until frosting hardens a bit. Take out of ice bath and whip with a beater until it is light and fluffy.

Don’t ice the waffles until they are completely cooled.

Place one waffle on a serving dish. Spread frosting thinly over it.

Place the second waffle down over, and spread frosting over that.

Do this with the rest of the waffles, spreading over the final part in a thin layer, not the sides.

Here’s where that extra optional waffle corner comes in: You can place it how you want to on the top of the cake on the icing. See picture.

Place in fridge for 15 minutes before serving.

NOTE:

There is not much icing for the waffles, which is why you should only do thin layers, and not over the sides. But if you want to, you can double the icing, and make it look more like a standard cake.

However, this look still looks good as you can see the sides of the waffles, and reduces sugar.

And that’s it! Thanks for reading, and be sure to also check out my original post of this recipe on instructables.

 


 

Chocolate Cake with Ganache Frosting

Finally, JUST a chocolate cake. A rich, plain old chocolate cake, using many of the same ingredients and techniques that are used in my instructables Raspberry Chocolate Cake and Harry Potter’s Birthday Cake

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I learned a lot from Jen Wold’s Cake Decorating Class on Instructables, and really recommend it to any beginner cake makers (like me) who like to make cake, and want to learn how.

Ingredients:

(For Cake Batter, Makes three 6-inch round cakes)

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup chocolate chips

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup coffee, hot

1 ¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ¾ teaspoons baking soda

4 large eggs + 2 egg yolks

½ cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup butter, softened

 

(For Frosting)

1 ⅓ cup chocolate chips (a bit more than 8 oz of baking chocolate)

⅔ cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

 

DIRECTIONS:

Butter and flour three 6-inch cake pans, and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If you only have two 6-inch cake pans, don’t worry. You can bake two cakes, then take them out, and use the same one to bake in again, with the reserved batter.

Over a saucepan filled a bit with simmering water, in a medium bowl, pour the hot coffee. Stir in chocolate chips and cocoa powder, and stir until chocolate is melted. Stir ½ cup of sugar until it is creamy and dissolved, a couple minutes. Mix oil in well. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.

To substitute buttermilk, if you don’t have it: in a measuring cup, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Fill the rest of the cup up with milk and let sit for a few minutes. Combine this, or buttermilk, in a medium bowl with vanilla.

In a stand mixer, whip all the eggs, and the remaining 1 ¼ cup of sugar on high for a few minutes, until fluffy and light. Stir in the chocolate mixture and softened butter until completely combined.

Add a bit of the flour mixture, and a bit of the buttermilk mixture alternately into the sugar mixture in the stand mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until combined, no more, no less.

Pour the batter in equal shares into the prepared cake pans, (if you only have two 6-inch pans, then pour 2/3 of the batter into the two of them, and reserve the other third for when the next pan is out of the oven).

Bake in preheated oven for at least 25 minutes, checking to see if done after 25 minute period. Doneness is reached when toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with only a few crumbs.

If you only had two 6-inch cake pans, now’s the time to bake that other cake real quick, and you’re done with the cakes!

When done, flip cakes over, still in their pans onto cooling rack, peel off the parchment paper. Then flip right side up on the racks and let cool completely before frosting, a couple hours. Then with a large serrated knife, level the tops of the cakes off, so you have a nice even surface, and a nice even cake, and not the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Heat heavy cream and butter in saucepan on medium heat until it just begins to boil. Make sure butter is melted. Return heat to low, and stir in corn syrup, and sugar, until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla.

Pour hot mixture over chocolate chips in a medium metal bowl, and stir until chocolate is melted. Place chocolate mixture in bowl in a ice bath, and stir until frosting hardens a bit. Take out of ice bath and whip with a beater until it is light and fluffy.

Now’s the time to ‘decorate’ the cake, or just frost it. As I mentioned before, there is a great class on Instructables making a great cake, particularly the decorating. See that class here.

It was a really helpful class, and here’s my own instructions on how to ice the cake:

If you haven’t yet, level the rounded tops of the cake layers so that they are flat, with a knife.

Start with the first layer of cake.

Put some of the frosting on top of the center. With your knife angled outwards, turn the cake platter, and push the frosting gradually out, until there is a smooth circle of frosting on the top of the cake.

If you want to, as I did, you can smash some fruit like strawberries, or raspberries in between layers, as in picture.

Place the second layer on top of it. Repeat the process as described above.

Then put on the last layer of cake. Then ice the rest of the cake, sides, and top, making sure to reserve a good bit of icing for going over the cake again. The first layer you just put on is the ‘crumb’ layer, and after cooling it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so, you should have a nice solid cake to put the last layer of ganache on.

A cake frosting knife as shown in pic is very helpful in this situation. After applying the final layer of ganache, refrigerate for another 20 + minutes, and then take out of fridge.

Now, if you want to, you can do something extra that will probably make your cake look smoother and nicer.

Run your cake knife over really really hot water for about fifteen seconds, then quickly dry it with a paper towel, and run the hot knife smoothly over the cold ganache. Repeat this a few times until you have a smooth frosting.

Store in fridge, completely plastic wrapped to keep it from drying out.

Serve.

To see full step-by-step pictures for this recipe, go to my original post on instructables.

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Lemon Cheesecake Muffins

The perfect variation on cheesecake–Lemon Cheesecake Muffins!

This was my first post I’ve ever uploaded to the web; see the original post here.

For years I have made my favorite recipe for cheesecake: Chantal’s New York Style Cheesecake, and have never been pushed to do something entirely original. But I got creative, and made this variation. Keeping in mind the basic makeup of cheesecake base, I made these delicious lemon Cheesecake Muffins.

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Lemon zest is finely chopped in with the sugar, creating a vibrant lemon flavor, with some lemon juice in the wet ingredients. The lemon curd goes well on the top, completing the lemon flavor. This is a perfect party treat–though, be sure to make this recipe the day before you want to serve it; it spends alot of time chilling in the fridge. But it’s certainly worth it. And the best part–you get to whip this cheesecake mixture up in your blender!

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

Crust:
7 graham crackers

1 tablespoon of butter, melted (you can add more, if needed)

 

Filling:

2 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, softened

½ cup white sugar

two teaspoons lemon zest

⅛ cup milk

⅛ cup lemon juice

2 eggs

⅔ cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

 

Topping:

Lemon Curd

 

Make sure that the cream cheese is softened completely to room temperature. An easy way to do this is to put it in the microwave on low power for a minute or so–depending on your microwave.

Lemon curd can be purchased at nearly any store. Or, you can make it yourself.

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

This recipe serves about 12; Place 12 muffin papers into your muffin tins.

The crust is the easiest part.

Add your graham crackers to the food processor, and blend until fine crumbs are all that remain. (you should crumble them up by hand a bit, beforehand, so it will blend up easier.)

Then add the melted butter, however much is needed to maintain a little shape with your crumbs. After this is completed, the simple mixture should look like the picture above.

Then press the mixture into the bottom of your muffin papers.

If you don’t have a lemon zester, you can always zest the lemons as shown in the picture. It’s a relatively easy way to go. After your whole lemon is zested, the amount of zest should be approximately two teaspoons worth.

Place zest and sugar in blender, and blend until zest blended finely in with sugar.

Pulse Cream Cheese into Sugar until smooth. DO NOT OVER-MIX THE WET INGREDIENTS.

Pour in Milk, the eggs, and the lemon juice. Remember, don’t over-mix; pulse until ingredients are just incorporated.

Add in the last 3 ingredients: Flour, vanilla, and sour cream. Again, blend until smooth, and just incorporated.

Carefully pour mixture into crusted muffin papers. This recipe makes about 12 muffins–an entire muffin tin.

Bake in preheated oven (350 degrees), for about 40 minutes, or until almost set, and just beginning to slightly brown. Do not over-bake.

Turn oven off and leave muffins, in a bit, to cool. Then put muffins in fridge to chill 6+ hours. (if you made your own lemon curd, be sure that’s chilling, too!)

NOTE: don’t worry if your muffins have a squishy weird texture, after you take them out of the oven. Once it cools in the fridge, it will taste and feel exactly how you want it: cheesecake!

When you’re ready to eat the chilled muffins, top with chilled lemon curd, and serve.

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Chocolate & Candy Cane Coated Marshmallows

These delicious and simple treats make perfect Christmas gifts for friends and family.

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Ingredients: (Serves 3)

3 medium marshmallows

1/4 cup chocolate chips

3-4 mini candycanes (= 1 medium candycane)

 

NOTE: Medium size of marshmallow is most preferable, and nothing smaller, but if you choose larger marshmallows, be sure to use more chocolate chips, and lengthen microwave time.

As shown, you can use mini candycanes or one medium candycane.

It is easier to keep them in their wrapper and crush them in there, and then you can pour it from the wrapper.

DIRECTIONS:

Place chocolate in small bowl and place in microwave for about 1 minute and 40 seconds, stirring in between. The time just depends on your microwave.

Leaving them in their wrappers, crush them with something like the handle of the knife coarsely. Size of normal chunks that candy-cane should be crushed into are shown above in bowl. Cut the wrappers, and pour all of it into a wide bowl that is good for rolling marshmallows in.

Place marshmallows on a paper towel or parchments paper (parchment paper works best). Using toothpicks to help holding the marshmallow without grabbing it with your hands, use a silicon scraper to spread the melted chocolate onto the marshmallows completely and evenly.

Roll chocolate covered marshmallows in candycane before chocolate hardens. Place on a platter and cool in fridge for ten minutes before serving or putting in gift bags.

To see more step-by-step  pictures, visit my original post of this recipe on instructables.

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Healthy Lemon Poppy-seed Muffins

These Lemon Poppy-seed muffins are made healthy by using coconut oil instead of butter, coconut sugar instead of cane sugar, and some gluten free flour replacing some of the all-purpose flour. These make a great snack anytime of the day.

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Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)

½ cup softened coconut oil

½ cup coconut sugar

2 eggs, separated

½ cup + ⅓ cup all purpose flour

½ cup all-purpose gluten-free flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons poppy-seeds

2 tablespoons lemon zest

3 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup buttermilk (to easily make your own buttermilk, see step #_)

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins, or place little muffin papers in each.

(Optional but preferred: Put the lemon zest and sugar into a food processor and blend until zest is all blended in with the sugar. This is good to impart a more lemony flavor. )

In a large bowl, cream coconut oil and coconut sugar. Add eggs one at a time, until creamy and combined.

Place the egg whites separately in a medium deep bowl.

If you don’t have buttermilk, then you can easily make this substitute, that works just as well:

You’ll need 1/2 cup of buttermilk, so in a liquid measuring glass, pour in 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar. Then pour in the milk till it is filled up to 1/2 cup. Let sit for a few minutes, until curdled.

In a separate medium bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, poppy-seeds, and lemon zest. (if you already blended the lemon zest in with the sugar like I earlier suggested, then obviously, you won’t be putting it into this bowl)

Dump the flour into the sugar/oil mixture. Alternate this with pouring in the buttermilk, and lemon juice, and then vanilla, until everything is combined.

With a high-speed handmixer, whip the egg white until tall peaks form, and it is light and fluffy.

Carefully fold in the egg white into the batter until completely incorporated. Spoon evenly into the 12 muffin tins.

Bake in oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

See some step-by-step pictures below, or go to my original instructable recipe.

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Beat the egg white…
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Mix it all together…

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

If you don’t want to use the store-bought canned pumpkin, then homemade pumpkin puree is the way to go. The only ingredient you’ll need: 1 sugar pumpkin, which equals approximately one 15 oz can of pumpkin puree.

The Sugar Pumpkin:

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INGREDIENT:

1 sugar pumpkin

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut off the stem, then cut the pumpkin in half, and scrape out all the seeds and strings, reserving them if you plan on roasting the seeds. Cut the halves again into half, so that you have four pieces of pumpkin.

Place all the quarters of the pumpkin face down on a baking sheet, cover with foil, and bake in preheated oven for about an hour and a half, until tender.

Scrape the tender meat off the rind, and place in a high speed blender, or food processor. I used a Vitamix, which works really well. Puree until completely smooth, and no chunks are found.

Now you’re ready to use this your next fall recipe! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin roll, pumpkin soup, etc….

Use 1 sugar pumpkin worth of puree PER 15oz can of pumpkin.

 

Quartered and scraped pumpkin

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