Category Archives: dessert

Nutella shortbread bites

baking, breakfast, dessert, snacks 9 Comments

It’s been at least a week since I posted a recipe with Nutella! What am I thinking? I can stop anytime I want. Ahem.

ANYWAY!

This will shock you, but this is a ridiculously easy recipe; a riff on the also ridiculously easy shortbread two ways.

Nutella shortbread bites

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 2 Tbsp. Nutella
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar (unsifted)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup flour (unsifted)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Cream the butter until the color lightens, then cream in powdered sugar, then Nutella, then vanilla, then flour
  3. Knead briefly without adding any flour until dough is smooth (look for it to be a uniform color)
  4. Scoop dough by the teaspoon onto a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet — they’re fine just left as little rounds, no need to flatten them out
  5. Bake for 20-30 minutes until very lightly browned, then transfer to a wire rack to cool
  6. Eat as is, or dust with powdered sugar as below:

These are AWESOME with coffee. Or for breakfast. Or after supper. Or as a snack. Or, um, well you get the idea.

Buzzy Brownies

baking, dessert Leave a comment

My sweet friend Sarah has a love for Starbucks VIA. When Kiddo and I were getting a college care package together for her last week I was already planning some basic brownies…. and then I saw the VIA in the cabinet. Score! The result? Fudgy, caffeinated, rich chocolaty brownies. I, ahem, may have eaten one before I sent the rest off. Just so I could report back to y’all, obviously.

Buzzy Brownies

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1-2 tbsp chocolate chips
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/8 tsp baking powder
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 pack VIA coffee or a Tbsp. or so of espresso powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Spray a 9 inch square pan with nonstick spray, then lay in a piece of parchment paper just wide enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and long enough so the paper hangs off both sides of the pan by a good few inches (you’re making a sling for your brownies). Spray the parchment paper with nonstick spray
  3. Melt the butter with the chocolate chips (I did this in the microwave), then add in sugar and cocoa, mixing well. Add dry ingredients and eggs and mix again
  4. Spread into your prepared pan and bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted halfway between the middle and the edge of the pan comes out clean
  5. Remove the pan from the oven and wait 5 minutes, then use the sling to pull the brownies out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut the brownies with a plastic knife (I don’t know why this works, but it keeps the brownies from getting torn up), then use the sling again to transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Shortbread two ways

baking, breakfast, dessert 5 Comments

I got a new shortbread pan from King Arthur Flour last week and it included a recipe booklet. I had NO idea shortbread was so easy to make! The Yankee has taken several batches to work already, with more requested. Check this out!

Classic shortbread

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar (unsifted)
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla or maple syrup
  • 1 cup flour (unsifted)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Cream the butter until the color lightens, then cream in powdered sugar, then vanilla, then flour
  3. Knead briefly without adding any flour until dough is smooth
  4. Press dough into nonstick sprayed pan and prick surface with a fork
  5. Bake for about 30 minutes until lightly browned, and cool in the pan for 10 minutes; turn onto a wooden cutting board and cut immediately (if you wait till it cools it will fall apart when you cut it)

For even more easy fun, try out some chocolate shortbread!

Chocolate shortbread

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar (unsifted)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup flour (unsifted)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Cream the butter until the color lightens, then cream in powdered sugar, then cocoa powder, then vanilla, then flour
  3. Knead briefly without adding any flour until dough is smooth
  4. Press dough into nonstick sprayed pan and prick surface with a fork
  5. Bake for about 30 minutes until lightly browned (make sure the edges do not brown too much), and cool in the pan for 10 minutes; turn onto a wooden cutting board and cut immediately (if you wait till it cools it will fall apart when you cut it)

Enjoy, and happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Apple cake muffins

baking, breakfast, dessert, snacks 4 Comments

Apples. Oats. Chocolate chips. How can this possibly go wrong?

It CAN’T.

My friend Vanessa came over while I was in the middle of winging these today, and they turned out to be the perfect dessert after our lunch of chicken and dumplings.  They’re based on Rick Bayless’ recipe for Grandma’s Moist Apple Cake from Rick and Lanie’s Excellent Kitchen Adventures. I tweaked and added and subtracted and adjusted and came up with these. And I’m not sorry.

You can add a chocolate glaze or a dusting of powdered sugar over the top of this, but I think they’re pretty great just as is. Let me know what you think!

Lemon fairy food cake

baking, dessert 4 Comments

This is an old recipe from the Homesteads. Don’t you just love the name? Being a kind of angel food cake it should, obviously, be made in an angel food cake pan. I had a moment of mommy brain and made it in a Bundt cake pan, though, and it turned out super yummy regardless.

Lemon fairy food cake

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 7 Tbsp water
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside
  3. Beat egg yolks and water for 5 minutes; add sugar and beat 5 minutes; add flour, salt and lemon extract and beat 5 minutes; fold in egg whites
  4. Bake at 325 in ungreased tube pan for 30-40 minutes; turn upside down to cool then run a knife around the edge to free from the pan
  5. Slice and mail to your sweet friend/Kiddo’s babysitter who has had the nerve to go back to college (this step optional)