Brownie Bars with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting

Experience has taught me (as well as other Americans, doubtless, whose childhoods included the joyful consumption of the classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cup) that peanut butter and chocolate are a match made in heaven. Imagine my delight when I discovered a recipe for a Cocoa Brownie with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting on the food blog Not Without Salt. Delight and utter fear, to be precise, knowing that while it was my destiny to make this brownie, I would have to summon all of my will power to avoid ravaging the finished product. Such a concern was allayed by my justification that I was making the dessert for a co-worker's barbecue. Unfortunately, I never did make it to that party....

I will probably never bake these brownies again, and that is the highest compliment I can give the author of the recipe. They are just too damn good to have lying around. Especially if, like myself, you are in peanut butter rehab. But enough babbling about my vices; read more about the brownie after the jump!

Funfetti Vanilla-Almond Cake Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Pretty and tooth-achingly sweet.

Greetings! It has been quite a while since my last post. In fact, I have not posted since September, the first month of the school year in New York City. So it is somewhat apt (or at least telling) that my latest  update since then is in June, the final month of the academic year. I have just finished my first year of teaching, and while the past nine months have been the most difficult and challenging of my life, I have never learned so much in so short a period a time. So consumed was I by this job that it was difficult for me to allocate time for personal, leisurely pursuits, such as maintaing this blog. Hence the excessively long hiatus. But I understand the importance now of designating time for activities that are non-work-related and am better prepared for next year. At least, I am optimistic. My biggest flaw is my inclination towards procrastination; how I waste time browsing the Internet or obsessively cleaning things when my time would be better spent tackling tasks related to work or focusing on my hobbies or honing skills. This is a personal flaw (for lack of a better word) that I am committed towards correcting.

So, speaking of school! The colorful cookies pictured above -- my slightly modified version of Sweet2EatBaking.com's recipe for Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies -- were baked with love for my fifth period ELA students. They behaved so well during my final full-period observation for the year that I decided to reward them with a sweet homemade treat.

Like my students, these cookies are, well, as the name implies, "fun," and vivacious. It's hard to distinguish whether the cookies are so enjoyable because of their sweet components -- crunchy vanilla-rich cookie vehicle, creamy white chocolate chunky chips (MY addition), and brightly-hued sprinkles -- hitting all the right flavor spots or because of the fun, undeniably nostalgic nature of these components -- particularly the sprinkles. Either way, it's a damn good cookie. If I were to make one recommendation, it is to be certain that you don't over-bake them. Remove the cookies from the oven shortly after they begin to turn golden (that is unless you prefer hard cookies). This batch's only flaw, as I perceive it, was that they were too hard. However, this was easily remedied by briefly nuking the cookies, which lent them some softness (in addition to slightly melting the white chocolate chips!)

Here is the recipe, taken from Sweet2EatBaking.com with the only modification being the addition of white chocolate chips:

Funfetti Vanilla-Almond Cake Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg
2½ cups plain (all-purpose) flour
¼ cup corn starch
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup rainbow ‘jimmie’ sprinkles
2 tbsp rainbow ‘nonpareils’ sprinkles
1/4 cup of white chocolate chips (or mini-sized chunks)

Procedure:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2) Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then, add the vanilla and almond extracts, and the egg. Beat these ingredients until they are well combined.
3) In a separate bowl, sift the flour, corn starch, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in sections, mixing using an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Lastly, add the sprinkles and white chocolate chips to the mix, and combine without utilizing the electric mixer or over mixing, as this will cause the sprinkles' colors to bleed.
4) Scoop cookie dough onto baking sheets, setting them approximately 1½ inches apart (8 cookies per sheet). Bake for approx 10-15 minutes or until a very light golden brown colour.
5) Cool cookies. Store in an airtight container.

Serving Recommendation:
Serve the cookies warm paired with cold vanilla ice cream.

Vanilla Tofu Pudding

In this vegan dessert, the lightness of vanilla pairs well with milky silken tofu. Just as with "real" pudding, a delectable skin forms atop the pudding as it cools in the fridge. I enjoyed my treat with chopped dates, slivered almonds, and cinnamon; I found the combination rendered the pudding similar in taste to rice pudding (hmm, perhaps a vegan rice pudding will be up here soon...). However, you can have your way with the pudding: top it with carob chips, sprinkle it with cocoa powder, or eat it with fresh sliced strawberries.

Triple Berry Lemon Vegan Cake

For the 4th of July, I had my heart set on baking. As I try to eat healthy as a norm and confine my consumption of treats such as ice cream and baked goods to special occasions (birthdays, Christmas, etc.), I rarely bake. However, in spite of my commitment to "clean" eating, I actually love baking and all of the associations that come with the ritual as well as its yieldings, from the comfort of a simple vanilla-frosted plain cupcake to a trendy, pastel-hued French macaron. Baking can be fun and silly (think Funfetti mix) or elegant and refined (a classic creme brule). It can yield the most visually appealing of gastronomic creations -- smooth, spongy surfaces of cupcakes toped with a perfect tubed spiral of frosting -- or goods that were made with scant regard to aesthetics, but baked with plenty of love and the ideal combination of pleasure-inducing ingredients, such as mom's peanut-butter/chocolate-chipped cookies. 

I knew that my Independence Day treat had to contain the cliche patriotic berry medley of strawberries and blueberries, possibly blackberries or raspberries if I was feeling adventurous, and also not be extravagantly unhealthy (no cheesecake!), so I found a recipe that matched my criteria in this vegan Lemon Berry Cake (from the visual knockout of a blog, Fragrant Vanilla Cake.

This was the first time I baked with berries, let alone vegan, and I'd say it was a success. The cake was  very moist, probably due to the high concentration of fruit in the batter. While the recipe called for plenty of vanilla in addition to lemon juice, the latter overwhelmed the former. If I were more knowledgable with regard to baking, I'd tweak this recipe in the future so that the vanilla stands out more, probably by using less lemon juice. Otherwise, the cake was delicious and a hit with those with whom I shared it.

Vegan Banana Ice Cream

I haven't posted much in the past few months, not only because I was too busy to blog, but also because I was often too pressed for time to prepare interesting dishes! I will more than make up for it now that the semester is over.

Now for a few catch-up posts on dishes and food-related stuff since the last update.

Let's begin with bananas. Bananas are delicious, no? Well, in an effort to preserve quickly-browning bananas, I often slice them up and pack 'em into a plastic container, which I put in the freezer. People often freeze fruit to use for smoothies, but I'm not really into those. I find that, while delicious, smoothies like most liquid calories don't really keep me satiated. However, when frozen, these banana "chips" make for delectable nibbles. There is something about freezing this fruit that makes its sweetness extra-concentrated. 

Knowing how delicious frozen bananas are, I had always wanted to give vegan banana ice cream a go. Finally, about a week ago, I tried it, and it did not disappoint. Recipe after the jump!