White Chocolate Mousse

Simple, easy, delicious. I added mixed berries and sprigs of mint on top to complete the dessert. However I cut down the chocolate in this recipe from 7 ounces to 5 ounces. The sweet essence of white chocolate is still discernible. Have fun baking and happy holidays!

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

I love sweet potatoes and cheesecake is great, but these two are something I normally don't associate together. This was pretty good, but quite rich. Quite interesting paired with sweet potato ice cream as well.

Baked Oatmeal Bars

I love granola bars, and these guilt free ones from KERF are great for a pre/post-workout snack, or any other time. I made a few substitutions: almonds in place of walnuts, almond milk, and omitted the dried bananas.

Mini Chocolate Eclairs

If you're looking for a quick dessert, this one is not for you. 

If you're looking for a decadent dessert that will wow your friends and neighbors, you're in luck. Each chocolate covered pastry puff holds a bounty of rich cream. This recipe requires a lot of patience as well as knowledge. Be sure to look up how to temper eggs and what "soft ball stage" means. But for those who want something different from typical gingerbread cookies and eggnog this holiday season look no further.

Vegan Orange Cranberry Scones

Scone

· 1/2 cup soy cream (or just plain soy/almond/etc. milk)

·  3/4 cup rice/almond/etc. milk

·  1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

·  3 cups all-purpose flour

·  1/3 cup sugar

·  2 tbsp baking powder

·  1/4 tsp salt

·  1/3 cup vegetable oil

·  3 tbsp finely grated orange zest 

Orange Glaze: Sift sugar into bowl; add all other ingredients and mix till smooth.

o 1 cup confectioners' sugar

o 2 tbsp nonhydrogenated margarine, melted

o 2 tbsp fresh orange juice

o 1 tsp finely grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

In a bowl, combine soy cream, milk, vinegar; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the milk-vinegar mixture, oil, orange zest; mix until just combined. The dough should be clumpy, not sticky.

Divide the dough in two. Knead one portion a few times, then form into a six-inch disk. Cut the disk into six slice, pizza-style, and place each slice on the prepared cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until slightly browned on the bottom and firm on top. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Once the scones are cooled, pour the glaze over.  

*This was my second attempt at making these scones. While they looked better, unfortunately they didn't taste as good. I didn't have any oranges, so I used the zest of a clementine. Don't do this! Good thing I barely used any of the zest because the scones were a bit bitter in the parts where there were zest! The first time, I followed the recipe exactly, and they came out tasting great. 

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Avocado Brownies

I love avocados, so when I came across this recipe, I knew I had to try it. These brownies were a little disappointing at first, but it was pretty good after it had completely cooled (especially with a melted marshmallow on top). You can't really taste the avocado, and they taste pretty rich, like it was made with dark chocolate.

Risotto Stuffed Pumpkin

So I've been meaning to make risotto for a while, but after reading this post, I finally went out and bought ingredients! I used a basic vegetable and brown rice risotto recipe, and baked the pumpkins with some olive oil, salt & pepper. It was my first time eating fresh pumpkin and I was actually pretty surprised at how well the pumpkin and risotto went together.

Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies

I've been wanting to make something with pumpkin ever since fall started. After reading about these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, I decided to give it a go! Well, everything was going well until I realized that I forgot to add in honey after it had been in the oven for about 10 minutes. .
First of all, they were already in a cake tin because I was already using the muffin tin for the spider cupcakes :), and when I pulled it out of the oven to mix in the honey as an attempt to save the "cake", the chocolate chips were already melting, so these turned into brownies. . .
I thought these tasted a LOT better after they cooled down. They stay pretty moist, and make a good topping for oatmeal too.

Spider Cupcakes

It's almost Halloween! These cupcakes were made for a friend's birthday, and while they were baked from cake mix, the cute candy decorations should make up for that!

Baklava: Not as Hard As You Think

As a student, I usually shy away from seemingly time-consuming desserts. Baklava being one of them. However, during a 3 day weekend I decided to take the dive and was pleasantly surprised. It was not at all difficult. The only tip I offer is to make sure to keep the phylo sheets damp at all times.

The recipe is as follows:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/baklava/Detail.aspx

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Nutella Ice Cream

As an ice cream fanatic, I heard a rumor that you can combine ice cream and Nutella. Naturally I thought: How cool to the power of awesome is that? Trust me, if there was ever an ice cream flavor to try and make, this is the one! My ultimate favorite, that I will always keep stocked in my freezer.

This following recipe makes about a quart: (remember to freeze your ice cream bowl the night before)

1) Heat together- 2 cups whole milk, 1 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup of sugar
2) while sugar dissolves, beat (4 minutes) 4 egg yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar
3) pour eggs+sugar into milk+heavy cream+sugar and continue to heat on low setting (9 minutes)
4) strain and mix in 1/2 cup Nutella, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract until they dissolve
5) chill completely
6) pour into ice cream maker

Popcorn Time

We all love the "buttered to your heart's content" movie-style popcorn. But one day I decide I want something even more delectable, something sweet, salty, and spicy. BEHOLD....the ULTIMATE POPCORN.

1) cook your popcorn; remember to follow the instructions on the side of the popcorn jar, don't listen to other recipes when it comes to this step since all popcorn does not cook the same
2) add in dash of cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and melted butter
3) stir well
4) add ribbons of maple syrup
5) drizzle melted chocolate on top
6) enjoy

Seeded Crackers

ground up seeds

taste test with hummus :)

After reading about these on KERF, I had to try them. The recipe is very simple/straightfoward and the dough was very easy to work with. The crackers came out a bit more bland than I had expected, but I guess that makes them good to eat with dips. Overall, a success!

Banana Bread

Time for something a little healthier! This recipe is pretty simple:
3 c flour
1.5 c sugar
3 eggs
1 c oil
3 c mashed up bananas
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to wet, mix in the bananas, and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until the bread is golden brown.

I substituted in applesauce for 3/4 c of the oil to make them healthier, but either way is fine. This is pretty quick to whip up, the baking time is just a bit long. It is completely worth the wait though!

Thumbprint Jam Cookies

Another delicious treat! These thumbprint cookies take 2 hours to refrigerate after you've made the dough, with 10-12 minutes baking time. Be warned health-conscious people...for about 40 cookies you need half a pound of butter. But the fruit jam should make up for that, right?

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

For any ice cream lover, an ice cream machine is a necessary investment. But what to do with such an amazing addition to the kitchen? Using it to make a unique flavor! :-)

Behold, pumpkin pie ice cream!


The recipe is extremely simple (basic ingredients for a standard pumpkin pie): heavy cream, canned pumpkin, dark corn syrup, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves, and milk.

Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Cake (Not for the Healthy)

I decided that we were posting too many healthy desserts in a row. This cake seemed like a fantastic option, found at this link: http://www.grouprecipes.com/61604/hazelnut-chocolate-mousse-cake.html#.

Be warned, the recipe does take awhile.


But you will be rewarded at the end with this delicious, decadent treat.

Key Lime Pie Parfait

Another Happy Herbivore recipe! This one was a bit of a disappointment though; after seeing it on the blog, I was so excited to try it, but it ended up tasting just "okay".

Vanilla Panna Cotta

A panna cotta is similar to pudding though there is an option of chilling the mixture in chilled ramekins overnight for a firmer texture. It's one of the easiest desserts to make in my opinion. Sorry I can't post an official link to the recipe but basically...

Step 1: 2.75-3 tsp of unflavored gelatin sprinkled onto .25 cups of milk
Step 2: Just bring to a boil- 3 cups heavy cream with .75 cups of milk
Step 3: Combine hot and cold mixtures along with 2 tsp of vanilla and a pinch of salt
Step 4: Pour into desired container and chill for 3-4 hours.

Popovers: A biscuit exploded

My parents recently came back from Acadia National Park in Maine raving about popovers. Fortunately they also brought back the mix (shown below).

From their comments about how enormous these fluffy biscuits were I had some pretty high expectations. Needless to say the popovers certainly lived up to their reputation.

Here's a side profile of them...

They taste pretty similar to bread and are meant to be eaten with either butter or jam. I only wish my parents had gotten more mix!