Granola Brownies

Be the change you wish to see in the world.
— Mahatma Gandhi
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Did you know that brownies seem to be the most difficult thing for me to make? I have tried what seems like a million recipes and they’re either too dry, not enough flavor, too cakey, I can’t seem to get it right. Until now! I finally did it! Sure, it took me a couple of tries, but we now have the most perfect brownie. They’re moist and dense, which is, honestly, just what I wanted. I’m quite surprised that I continued to test out recipes for these babies, but as a brownie is basically a STAPLE baked good, how could I not?!

And so once I got these amazing single-nap brownies finished, I figured why not use up another of Oliver’s naps to take them to the next level?! Yep. I measure everything in naps. How many naps does it take for me to get in my workout? About half of one. How many to clean to house? A full nap. How many to make these granola stuffed brownies? Two whole naps! For a baby who naps 3-4 times per day, I’ve become a pro at using up every second of them - even if it means I’m napping during one of those, too!

If you haven’t had them already, these toasted oat raw granola bars are the best things on the PLANET. Like, I try to have our freezer full of them whenever possible! So, I decided to use the same idea but make a granola layer on top of these brownies, then just throw on some more chocolate after that! I will say these are probably some of the best things I’ve made. They’re so thiccc and decadent. Oh my. The brownies have coffee and orange zest in them (you’re welcome for this combo), then a nice peanut butter granola, all covered in chocolate. These are a TREAT for sure! Wholesome ingredients, rich flavor, I’ve outdone myself with these 2-nap brownies!

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brownie ingredients

Butter—4 oz, or 1 stick

Coconut Oil—3.5 oz, or ½ C

Coconut Sugar—2.5 oz, or ½ C

Coffee, ground—1 TBL

Orange Zest—from 1 orange

Eggs—2

Coconut Sugar—5 oz, or 1 C

Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Salt—1 tsp

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Cocoa Powder—2 oz, or 2/3 C

Chocolate Chips—5.5 oz, or ¾ C

 

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚F.

In a small saucepot, combine the butter, coconut oil, first amount of sugar (2.5 oz) and coffee. Melt on the stove until the oils are melted. Set aside

Whisk together the eggs, orange zest and second amount of sugar (5 oz) until just combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder.

Slow add the melted oil mixture and egg mixture into the dry. Fold together with a spatula until just combined—you do not want to over mix!

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour brownie batter into a 9”x9” baking pan.

Bake for 28-30 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before going to the next steps.

 

granola ingredients

Oats, toasted—5.25 oz, or 1 ½ C

Peanut Butter—6.5 oz, or ¾ C

Honey—3.5 oz, or 1/3 C

Salt—½ tsp

Vanilla Extract—½ tsp

 

process

In an oven preheated to 350˚F, toasted your oats for about 10 minutes.

Once out of the oven and cooled, mix your oats with the peanut butter, honey, salt and vanilla until all of the oats are covered and the mixture is homogenous.

Spread this over the top of your cooled brownies.

Put in the refrigerator to firm up while you do the next step.

 

chocolate topping ingredients

Chocolate Chips—6.25 oz, or 1 C

Coconut Oil—1 TBL

 

process

In a heat proof bowl, melt together the chocolate and oil in either the microwave or over a double boiler until smooth.

Pour over the top of the oat layer.

Chill in refrigerator until set, cut into squares.

 

Bon Appétit!

Nut Butter Cookie Dough Bites

It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.
— David Steindl-Rast
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Good Morning! Happy Weekend!

I will be totally transparent here: this recipe was an ALMOST fail that turned into a BIG win! I had this brilliant idea of making these yummy raw cookie dough bars with a coffee filled crust, but somehow it just did. not. work. I made the “crust,” if you will, a few times, and truly loved it! Coffee, cocoa, almond butter, dates, oh my it was truly lovely! And then, once I layered the following cookie dough recipe on top of it, it just fell flat to me! So, as I sat eating this cookie dough, being totally bummed out, I realized that THIS was the recipe I had to share!! An egg-free (well actually vegan and raw…) nut butter cookie dough!

Is it good as a snack on its own? Yep. Is it ideal for a late-night dessert? Duh. IS IT A PERFECT SMOOTHIE TOPPER?!? Oh, hell yes. That’s when I knew that I had created something so beautiful and delicious: when I threw a bunch of these on top of my morning green smoothie and the flavors were so in sync—wow totally in a dream world with that thought…

I’m truly loving these nap time sweet treats! Even though Oliver can just about sit up on his own in his highchair, I don’t want to spend hours with him just sitting there watching me throw ingredients in a bowl and mutter to myself just yet! But, let me tell you, once this boy can eat and can understand what I’m doing in the kitchen, he will totally be plopped there while I not-so-gracefully run around trying to cook/bake something new (him trying everything, of course!). ANYWHO! The failed first recipe took me probably about an hour. And then, my sad-girl turned ecstatic-girl dough recipe only took half the amount of time! Boom. Another one. Do people still quote DJ Khalid? Is that so 2016?

Overall, we can say that I am pretty dang jazzed. I love putting granola on top of my smoothies but doesn’t everyone?! So, let’s really get wild here in 2020 and put COOKIE DOUGH on them things. Like, SAFE cookie dough. I eat as much eggy cookie dough as the next person, but I suppose I should be slightly more careful now with our little dude (even though he will totally get sneaky bites of it!). I would even argue that this cookie dough is relatively healthy! There ain’t much in these bites, and a nice chocolate chip in the morning on top of a beautifully greens filled smoothie is truly what we all need these days!

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ingredients

Nut butter—9.5 oz, or 1 C

Coconut Sugar—8 oz, or 1 ½ C

Vanilla Extract—1 tsp

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Coconut Flour—8 oz, or 1 C

Salt—1 tsp

Maca Powder (optional)—2 tsp

Chocolate Chips—7 oz, or 1 C

 

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the nut butter and sugar until smooth.

Add in the vanilla extract and milk, mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and maca powder.

Slowly pour this into the mixer, making sure to scrape down the sides.

Add in chocolate chips.

Spread cookie dough out evenly onto a baking sheet or a dish so that it is easier to cut into chunks once it has firmed in the fridge.

Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Once the dough has firmed up, cut it into small chunks/cubes.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

This is great as a healthy treat, to top on your smoothies, ice cream, etc.!

 

Bon Appétit!

Sweet and Salty Snacking Bars

Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.
— Thich Nhat Hanh

Can I call it consistent if it’s just two posts? Yes? Okay, perfect! As I have always been a HUGE planner and list maker, having a baby has taken that to an entirely different level. At the start of each week I make a nice long list as to what I want to get done, from the bigger things to the basically insignificant things (yes, I wrote ‘weed garden’ down…) just so that I can visually see and tick off everything throughout the week. There’s nothing like the feeling of completing a to-do list! That being said, I’ve been adding in time for me to recipe test and blog each week. Finally! I am back to it. Big win for this mama!

This week on parent-friendly-recipes-that-won’t-eat-up-your-whole-day, we are going back to a childhood favorite of mine! Do y’all remember Sunbelt granola bars?! The chewy ones covered in chocolate?! Yeah, they were AMAZING. I’m not afraid to admit that I used to eat multiple at a time—who could resist? To this day, I’m still a big snacker. Sure, I try my best to be better at three meals, but lunch isn’t always for me! Maybe it’s because I’m constantly eating handfuls of nuts or fruit or chocolate…

Anyways! Back to these granola bars. I’ve been wanting to spice up my snack game with a little something something homemade. Probably one of my all-time favorite things I make are these raw granola bars. They’re SO simple and quick, which, as we know, is my go-to these days. With these bars, I wanted to go even more back to basics! I’m hoping that once Oliver is old enough to eat and then old enough to talk, he will be ALL about my homemade bars. Is it too much to want him to bake with me and love eating raw cookie dough as much as I do?! Ugh I can’t wait!! There are so few ingredients in these, and I was able to make them AND clean up before his nap was over, so a win all over!

The base is sweetened from dates and loaded with oats, which I think is what gives it the very authentic childhood granola bar taste. Cashews, coconut, a little bit of salt, nothing too overwhelming so that every flavor can be tasted. Plain and simple. Of course, we had to jazz it up somehow! And so I went for it and added a chocolate layer in the middle. Oohhhh la la. Yes, please! A little bit of cocoa powder, coconut sugar (the flavor of coconut sugar is out. of. this. world.), and coconut oil or butter, and that’s it! Again, a basic yet extremely satisfying layer! More of the base on top, freeze them and boom – you’ve got yourself a nice sweet and salty snacking bar! I also am so tempted to do a jam filling. A peanut butter filling. A coconut-based filling. The limit does not exist!

Could I eat the entire tray of them? Duh, don’t even tempt me! Will I? No, because I’m a sweet wife who will let their husband have a few. In true mom/baker/health obsessed gal fashion, these bars won’t take you an entire afternoon to make, have a flavor that is so satisfying and nostalgic, and the ingredients are simple and wholesome. I have somehow done it again!

 

16-2” bars

base/topping layer ingredients

Cashews—7.5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Oats—5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Dates, pitted—8

Coconut flakes, unsweetened—1 oz, or ½ C

Coconut Oil, melted—3.25 oz, or ½ C

Salt—pinch

 

process

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the nuts, oats, dates, coconut and salt. Pulse until the nuts are almost fully ground.

Slowly stream in the coconut oil.

This base should hold together when squeezed in your hand. If it does not, add in more coconut oil (1 tsp at a time).

Reserve 1 cup of this for the topping.

Press the remainder into the bottom of an 8”x8” baking dish.

Set aside.

 

chocolate layer ingredients

Cocoa Powder—2 oz, or ¾ C

Coconut Sugar—1 oz, or 3 TBL

Butter—3 oz, or 6 TBL

Salt—pinch

 

process

In a small pot over the stove, melt the butter.

Whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar until homogenous.

This will be a slightly thick and like a fudge consistency!

Pour over the base layer into an even layer.

Sprinkle more salt over the chocolate.

 

Take the reserved crumble and sprinkle over the top of the chocolate, press into the chocolate, making sure that it is in nice chunks!

Stick in the freezer until it has frozen.

When ready to cut, remove from freezer and cut into 2” squares.

Best stored in the freezer!

 

Bon Appétit!

Peanut Butter S'more Bites

Maybe 2020 isn’t so much about specific goal setting as it is taking care of our mind, being kind through our thoughts, fine tuning our daily mind set, and seeking to uplift ourselves and others. Perhaps everything from there with naturally find its course.

Here’s the deal: since having a baby 3 months ago (what!!??) and now being at home with a new appreciation for all things parenting, I’ve decided to pick this blogging thing back up! I needed a ‘me’ activity. Yes, I do consider my workout time me time, even with little Oliver sitting right there watching and giggling at me the entire time! That aside, unless you want to consider showering my personal time, I don’t have too much of it. My incredible husband (like, seriously, out-of-this-world-amazing. Does middle of the night wakeups, the bad diapers, knows when to refill my wine glass when I haven’t said a word…) suggested that I start to do something that is truly me time. While I LOVE a good workout and am so excited that we just got a lawn mower, this blog has been on the back burner (hah!) for quite some time. I’m ready to pick it back up with some TLC!

So, in quick mom fashion, here’s the DL. Having Oliver is probably the greatest thing to happen to me, to us, ever! I can’t even begin to explain the love I have for him – if you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about. Like, right now at 9:45pm, while he is asleep, I just watch him on the monitor and want to cuddle him!! Obsessed is an understatement.

Anyways, I could ramble about him for dayssssss. Seriously. Little did I know that being a mom would take up every breathing moment of mine. Feeding him alone is a full-time job! Oh, and then my husband and I are both in graduate school. LOL. We love to take on as much as possible, clearly! With all of that + my husband working like crazy from home, I didn’t think I should get any down time, so I totally just shut off any part of my brain that wasn’t related to baby / dog / school / scheduling. But hey, guess what? Mental health needs some lovin’ too there, mama! Which is where I was like dang, I miss that blog. I’ve put so much time into this baby and then I just stopped writing. Stopped baking. Stopped experimenting. So, boom, I’m going to wipe the dust off of this thing!

I then started to write down recipes like crayzee! But not just any recipes. Healthy ones. Quick ones. Parent-friendly ones. Cause here sits a mom who has anywhere from 15 minutes-2 hours when babe is napping that I can do things. Sure, I love to let him do independent play, but I also love to play with him and watch him grow every single second! So, these recipes are a mix of healthy and slightly not, simple and quick, hell, a lot of them will probably even be raw and frozen because helloooo timesaver and what’s up Atlanta summer from March-November!

Recipe #1. Peanut butter s’mores. An eggless PB cookie + a 10-minute marshmallow + a simple chocolate dip. What more could you want!? Not your traditional s’more setup, but peanut butter is my jam – and it’s a top allergen so I should just be consuming it by the jar, right?! And I am storing these babies in the freezer, which is my place of choice to keep desserts. Something so decadent about a frozen treat to me! Also. Still no dairy for this gal, so ice cream is not an option. Probably ever again. Eye roll.

How many times have I said that I’M BACK!!? Let’s try this again. Get ready for parent-friendly, quick, minimal ingredients, healthy, TASTY snacks/goodies/what have you. This mama is making her comeback!

 

peanut butter cookie ingredients

Peanut Butter—4.75 oz, or ½ C

Honey—1.5 oz, or 3 TBL

Vanilla Extract—1 tsp

Coconut Sugar—1 TBL

Flour—3 oz, or 2/3 C

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Maca Powder—1 tsp

 

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚F.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and maca.

In another small bowl, combine the peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract.

Add the wet into the dry, mix until combined.

Roll into balls, about 1 tablespoon in size.

Flatten each cookie and, if you wish, make a crisscross with a fork (in true PB cookie fashion!).

Bake for 10 minutes until they just begin to brown around the edges.

Remove from the oven to a cooling rack.

 

marshmallow

Recipe can be found here! I have cut this down into a quarter of the size, as you do not need that much!

 

chocolate dip ingredients

Semisweet Chocolate Chips—¼ C

Coconut Oil—2 tsp

 

process

Combine the chocolate and oil in a heat safe bowl.

Melting this for 20 second increments in the microwave is the quickest/easiest way to do so!

 

assembly

Once the PB cookies have cooled, spoon a dollop of the mallow on top.

If you have a torch, light these babies up! It’s a fun ‘indoor s’more’

Put these into the freezer to set up slightly while you melt the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted, dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate.

When you are finished coating in chocolate, place the tray in the freezer.

I have found that there store best in the freezer, as they are a nice refreshing treat!

Recipe makes 16 PB S’mores


Bon Appétit!

Chai Spice Snickerdoodles

 

It’s holiday baking season!!! The best time of the year!!!

Yeah yeah, I have been nonexistent on this bad boy for a majority of the year, but that’s life! When you buy a house, change jobs AND find out you’re pregnant, my little passion project that is this blog seems to go to the backburner. Or, well, into storage, where it gathered a lot of dust and you only remember it when you’re busting out the Christmas decorations mid-November…

All of this being said, I’m going to do my best to post on here as often as I can! Seeing as I am no longer working in a bakery, I actually miss doing it a lot! I’m no longer drained from 2am wake ups, my feet don’t hurt from standing on them all day long in a bakeshop, and I actually have true weekends now, so I’m going to enjoy this life as long as I can until the baby boy comes in February, and get back into this wonderful world of baking! 

Now that y’all are up to speed with my personal life, let’s talk COOKIES! I love a cookie, especially a holiday one. The flavors are incredibly inviting, the options are endless, and they are simple. That’s exactly what I love around the holidays. You can bake up a million different types of cookies, fill platters with them, gift them, bake them all day long and feel accomplished, plus, they’re easy! Sure, if you’re hand cutting them and decorating them with piped icing, that takes some time, but overall, they’re the most loving and forgiving of desserts!

 I first made these chai spiced snickerdoodles for my work Halloween party (and won 1stprize I might add!) and decorated them with some buttercream and spooky eyes for that mummy look. When I put these out, all I could think of was uhhh HOLIDAY COOKIE STAPLE! They’re soft, they’re filled with the perfect blend of spices, they’re cozy, I could go on. These chai spiced snickerdoodles are also light enough to not give you that belly ache when you eat a few after dinner, or for a snack…see, perfection.

The recipe is a nice creamed cookie method, and you have TOTAL control over what spices are added! Also, black pepper? Yep—that’s in chai! So it’s in these babies, too. If you want more or less of something, of course, that’s up to you and your taste buds. Also, the chocolate drizzle is another optional addition to these, but it’s a nice touch to the sweet outside of the cookie to put something slightly rich yet not overwhelming on them, so I promise that you won’t regret that drizzle!

WELL! Happy holiday baking season, let’s spend this next month turning up in the kitchen, belting out your favorite holiday tunes, putting lights in every open space, and just being full of joy and happiness (and cookies…)!

 

ingredients

Butter—13 oz, or 1 ½ C

Brown Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—15 oz, or 3 C

Baking Soda—1 tsp

Baking Powder—1 tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—2 tsp

Black Pepper—1 tsp

Maca Powder (optional)—1 tsp

 

Sugar—½ C

Cinnamon—1 ½ TBL

Ginger—1 tsp

Cloves—½ tsp

Nutmeg—1 tsp

Black Pepper—¼ tsp

 

Semisweet Chocolate—8 oz, melted

 

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined. Scraping down the sides of the bowl is necessary for this step.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients (from flour-maca powder).

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients.

Mix until combined, scraping down when needed.

Wrap and transfer cookie dough into the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

When you are ready to bake cookies, preheat your oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices.

Roll your cookie dough into 1.5 oz balls, or about 2 TBL worth of dough—of course you can make these as small or as large as you’d like!

Roll each ball into the sugar spice mixture and place on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or sprayed with nonstick spray.

Bake cookies 12-15 minutes. They will be slightly browned on the edges, with a nice soft center, this will be what keeps them so soft.

Place on a cooling rack until ready to coat in chocolate.

When you are ready to drizzle chocolate on these cookies, melt your chocolate (I like a nice 70%-80%) either in the microwave or in a double boiler over the stove.

To drizzle, you may either use a piping bag, a spatula or a spoon to drizzle as much or as little chocolate as you’d like over these cookies.

Allow to cool before storing. These can be stored at room temperature up to a week!

Recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.


Bon Appétit!