Category Archives: Dessert

The Food Matters Project: Lemon-Blueberry Crisp

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Laura picked Lemon-Blueberry Crisp with Pine Nut Topping for the Food Matters Project this week. I didn’t have time to make the whole dish, but reading the description made me crave something warm and bubbly from the oven, so I made an easy tiny version of the crisp with an oatmeal topping.

In fact, it’s pretty easy to do a simple fruit crisp for one: just take a ramekin or another small oven-safe dish and fill it about 3/4 of the way with fruit (fresh or frozen). In a small prep bowl, mix a small pad of butter with a spoonful each of whole wheat flour and oatmeal. For this, I used lemon zest as the original recipe called for but omitted the sugar, since blueberries are already so sweet. Then I popped it in the oven at 400 F until the filling is bubbly and the topping is browned. It took between 20-30 minutes or so.

The Food Matters Project: Almond Biscotti

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I was actually going to have an active, productive weekend. I swear. I had two holiday parties to attend on Saturday, I planned on completing at least one long run, and I wanted to accomplish at least some Christmas shopping.

But this was a hectic week, and as sometimes happens after a hectic week, the weekend arrived and my body said, “Great! We’re gonna get sick now that we have time to relax.”

So my parties turned to peppermint tea and my running turned to knitting.

knitting

This week’s Food Matters Project recipe, chosen by Margarita, made a perfect accompaniment to my afternoon cup of tea and made me feel slightly less pathetic.

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Almond Biscotti, adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

1 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
vegetable oil for greasing pan

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Pulse almonds in a food processor until finely ground, with some larger chunks remaining. Put almonds in a bowl with flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir to combine.

3. Stir in 1/2 cup water until just incorporated, adding a bit more water if needed to make the dough stick together.

4. Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil, then dust it with all-purpose flour. Shape the dough into a 2-inch wide log and put it on the baking sheet.

5. Bake until the loaves are golden brown and beginning to crack, 30 to 40 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them cool for a couple of minutes. Lower the heat in the oven to 250 F.

6. When the loaves have cooled enough to handle, cut them into 1/2-inch thick slices on a diagonal. Put the slices back on the baking sheet and put them back until the oven. Leave them there until they dry, turning once.

Related posts:

The Food Matters Project: Buffalo Chicken White Bean Dip
The Food Matters Project: Acorn Squash Ravioli
The Food Matters Project: Whole Wheat Carrot Gnocchi
The Food Matters Project: Baked Sweet Potato and Corn Cakes with Thai Dipping Sauce

Treating the end of summer blues

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I’m back from vacation and starting to get past the post-beach withdrawal, although a nasty case of allergies is really making that difficult. However, I wanted to share a drool-worthy photo to help battle the end of summer blues!

This is the Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet we did last month for the Food Matters Project, made with a package of frozen mixed berries that included cherries, blackberries and blueberries. It was incredible, as usual, and I mixed in chocolate chips after running it through the food processor.

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What’s your favorite end of summer cool-off treat?

The Food Matters Project: Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet

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This week’s Food Matters Project recipe feels like the epitome of decadence, but it’s actually quite low on guilt — the best combination! Our host is Jennifer of Simple & Amazing, who is giving me sorbet envy with the coconut recipe she made to go with her pick for this week, Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet.

Let me just point out that this is a dessert recipe that contains wine, which makes it an automatic winner in my book. The original recipe, which you can see on Jennifer’s post, calls for a bit more sugar than I ended up using, just because I like a tart flavor. I think I used about half what it called for, and I stuck to plain yogurt for the base. The sugar and yogurt turn creamy and the wine keeps it from freezing completely, so you end up with this gorgeous, incredibly easy sorbet that I wouldn’t hesitate to serve to dinner guests.

Raspberry cabernet sorbet

It really does look angelic, doesn’t it?

Although Bittman recommends serving it immediately, I found I needed to freeze it for a few hours because it was melting too quickly. You can see in the photo below that it’s starting to soften, although that could be attributed to the fact that I took a few minutes to admire it before scooping it into a bowl. After dinner, I pulled it back out of the freezer and ate it straight from the container with a spoon.

raspberry cabernet sorbetThis is fantastic on its own, but some dark chocolate chips, nuts or coconut flakes mixed in after you take it out of the food processor would probably be outstanding too.

Update: After a few people commented about the chocolate idea, I tried it. Behold, chocolate shavings and coconut. Heaven!

Raspberry cabernet sorbet with chocolate shavings and coconut

Related posts:

The Food Matters Project: Corn-Avocado Salad (with a Little Something Seared on Top)
The Food Matters Project: Tomatoes with walnut pâté and beet chips
The Food Matters Project: Updated Tea Sandwiches

Smoothie of the Week: Coconut banana smoothie pops

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I guess I’m still a kid, because when the dog days of summer start to bear down on DC, all I crave is popsicles. Lucky for me, they’re super easy to make homemade — a lot of the store bought ones are full of sugar and artificial ingredients, and the healthier varieties can get expensive.

I bought a popsicle mold for $2.50 at Target and I use my smoothie machine to make the filling. Pretty much anything you can dream up as a smoothie can be made into a popsicle, so have some fun experimenting! Give me your best recommendations in the comments.

These tropical pops are so much better than the artificial banana flavored ones you buy in the store. Other fruits like pineapple or mango would work well here, too. If you have bananas that are ripening too fast to eat and it’s too hot to bake banana bread, peel and freeze them in freezer-safe bags and you can use them to make these.

Banana popsicles

Coconut banana smoothie pops

2 ripe bananas, peeled and cut in half
3 tablespoons coconut flakes (sweetened or unsweetened)
1 cup soy or almond milk

Combine all ingredients in a smoothie maker or blender and blend until very smooth. Pour directly into popsicle molds and freeze until solid — in my experience, this has taken at least 6 hours. If there’s a heat wave coming through, set them the night before so you have them ready to go.

Makes 8 popsicles

Strawberries and yogurt

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There’s one major staple of my diet that I have neglected to post about here, but I talk it up to basically anyone who steps into my kitchen. Strawberries and yogurt is my standard after-dinner sweet-tooth-satisfying treat, since chocolate is heavily addictive for me and I try not to get in the habit of keeping it around. Here’s how the magic is made:

Strawberries and yogurt

Ingredients:

1/2 cup or so of frozen strawberries
1/4 cup or so of plain, fat-free yogurt (enough to coat the strawberries)
a drizzle of honey

Put the strawberries in a bowl, still frozen, and mix the yogurt around them so that it becomes sort of a coating. Drizzle the honey on top. Give it a couple of minutes to thaw a bit, then dig in.

Serves one.

And that’s it. The thing is, if you wait a few minutes, the yogurt partially melts the strawberries and the strawberries partially freeze the yogurt. This way, you can dig a spoon into it like chunky frozen yogurt, or maybe chunks of creamy, delicious popsicle — whatever you want to equate it to. The honey just adds a touch of sweetness, but the plain yogurt keeps it more tart.

I make this so much that I actually buy the big huge bag of frozen strawberries they sell at Giant or Safeway and buy plain yogurt in two-pound containers rather than in the single serving sizes. I also have a family-sized bottle of honey — don’t judge me. At least not until you’ve tried it!

Mini cranberry pumpkin muffins

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Continuing with the pumpkin trend today (in other words, I still have a ton of canned pumpkin left over from yesterday), I did some experimenting today and ended up with some absolutely scrumptious cranberry pumpkin muffins.

Muffin tins

I based these off the Joy of Cooking recipe, but made a couple of substitutions along the way. And the first thing I did was to halve the recipe, because I would have ended up with 48 mini muffins–and that’s just too much muffin, even for my sweet tooth. The book is one of the most useful things I own, but I always cut their recipes in half because there’s only so many leftovers I can handle.

Here’s my adaptation.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
sprinkle of salt
1/2 cup skim milk
1 egg
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp plain nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup Splenda for Baking
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease two mini muffin tins with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk together first five ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together next eight ingredients in another bowl.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, mixing until just moistened. Don’t overmix — the batter should be lumpy.
5. Fold in cranberries with a few quick stirs. Again, don’t overmix it — just get the cranberries spread throughout.
6. Spoon the batter into the greased muffin tins.
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean, about 13-14 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool for several minutes before removing from the pan.

The cranberries made for tart little explosions in the middle of all that fluffy cinnamon goodness. Divine. Since I reduced the amounts of butter and sugar and added some oats in there, I feel a little better about the fact that I stuffed four of these little guys in my mouth right after they came out of the oven. Still, I froze a bag of them because I don’t trust myself to not eat the other 20 within the next couple of days unless they’re out of sight. They’re that addictive.

Muffin on plate

Note: I just had to post a quick addendum to say that the muffins freeze beautifully and don’t lose any of their taste or texture in the freezer. All you have to do to heat them up is toss the frozen muffins in an oven or toaster oven preheated to 350° and they’ll warm up crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. For mini muffins, it generally takes about 15 minutes in there for them to warm through, but I set the timer for 10 minutes in case and just keep an eye on them.

Pumpkin Day

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Today is Pumpkin Day in my house. I may have gone to three grocery stores today, but what better to do with a fall weekend than spend it making the house smell delicious?

PA100069I made a spicy pumpkin latte, inspired by StreamingGourmet‘s recipe, although I thinned it out a bit and improvised with a packet of Starbucks VIA because my coffee maker seems to be incapable of making a strong brew. Then, I whipped up some of Robyn Webb‘s pumpkin butter and pumpkin parfait. Both are designed for diabetics, but there’s some wiggle room–I try to go low-sugar anyway whenever possible.

Here’s how I adapted the latte, in case you’re curious:

Ingredients:
1 packet Starbucks VIA Italian roast
1/3 mugful of hot water
2/3 mugful of skim milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
2 packets Splenda
sprinkle cinnamon
sprinkle nutmeg

1. Boil water and pour over contents of Starbucks VIA packet. Mix together–this will make very, very strong coffee.

2. In the same saucepan as the water just came out of, heat up the milk on low heat, stirring in pumpkin, Splenda, cinnamon and nutmeg.

3. When milk is hot, but not boiling, mix it with a hand-held egg beater.

4. Add milk mixture to coffee and mix well.

There’s no way to describe this mid-afternoon pick-me-up except this: it was wicked strong and wicked good. I’m from Massachusetts; I can’t help it.

PA100072I had the parfait for dessert tonight after it chilled for a few hours in the fridge. As for serving the pumpkin butter, I spread it over low-fat cinnamon graham crackers, and the combination was incredible.

Now I’m wrapping up the day with–surprise–some pumpkin beer from Buffalo Bill’s Brewery. Hey, I have to take advantage of my favorite season for flavors! At least we know my eyesight will be awesome with all this Vitamin A.