I received a jar of apple butter as a gift for Christmas and wanted to make something warm and spicy for dessert this evening. I found this recipe online and tweaked it to my own tastes. It’s delicious!
Category Archives: Fruit
Vote for my Cupcakes
Voting begins today for the Iron Cupcake Challenge and closes at noon, central time, on Dec 5th. If you’d like to vote for my Pound Cupcakes with White Chocolate & Cranberry Mousse…
VOTE FOR ME HERE!
(The poll is on the right column. Select “VegSF” and click “Vote”)
Thanks for the votes!
Pound Cupcakes with White Chocolate & Cranberry Mousse
It’s time again for the Iron Cupcake challenge where you can vote for me starting Nov 30th and help me win. This is my second month, so I’m feeling less nervous this time around and more excited. I didn’t win last month’s challenge, unfortunately, but maybe this month. Hopefully? Thanks to everyone who voted for me last month. Keep voting for me and eventually, we’ll win it!
This month’s challenge ingredient is Cranberry.I have an amazing holiday pudding recipe that uses homemade vanilla and chocolate puddings, pound cake, cranberry sauce and whipped cream. It’s a delicious combination of flavors and that is what became my inspiration for these cupcakes.
Double Chocolate Espresso Banana Muffins
I just made these HEAVENLY muffins this morning. They are much too good. I’ve already scarfed down two of them and I’m thinking about going back for a third. I really shouldn’t, but they are sitting there calling my name!
It’s the perfect way to use up overripe bananas, and all with ingredients that I usually have around the house!
Go make them. Now.
Double Chocolate Espresso Banana Muffins
(recipe & image from here)
- 1 1/2 cups of mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium-sized bananas)
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup of whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon of strong espresso *
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 3 ounces of milk chocolate chips
- 3 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, stir in the banana, sugars, butter, espresso, milk and egg. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the middle of the bowl and gently add in the banana mixture. Stir into just combined. Gently fold in the chocolates.
Fill each muffin tin about three quarters full and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Once cooked, move muffins to a cooking rack. The muffins can be stored in an air tight container for up to two days. Enjoy!
* TIP: You must brew the espresso before using it in your recipe. I had a friend make espresso cheesecake for us a long time ago and put in 2 Tbsp of espresso… grounds. We went out for ice cream. (hehe – I love you, M!)
Manchego & Membrillo (Quince) Cupcakes
This is my first entry in the Iron Cupcake challenge where you, my fair readers can vote for me starting Oct 26th and help me win. I venture into this challenge slightly excited and nervous.
This month’s challenge ingredient is Cheese. After wracking my brain for something unique, I came up with Manchego and Membrillo. Manchego is a sheep’s milk cheese from Spain. It is very frequently paired with Membrillo – a paste made from quince also famously from Spain. (Both these ingredients can be found at a Whole Foods or other gourmet foods store.)
My grandparents on my mom’s side had a quince tree in their back yard. Every year when the quince were ripe, grandma would make quince preserves, jellies, cookies, and other goodies. So, the flavor of the fruit conjures up sentimental feelings. And though they were not from Spain, my grandma on my dad’s side is from Spain.
So, I have to think… What better ingredients to use than Quince (Membrillo) and Manchego for a sentimental and inspired cupcake?
Roasted Banana Ice Cream
Here I sit in front of my computer eating spoonful after delicious spoonful of Roasted Banana Ice Cream from Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and Lara Hata. My sister swears by this recipe book. (Guess I can’t call it a ‘cook’book, now can I? It should technically be a “freezebook”, but I digress.) She was sweet enough to let me borrow it so I could try my hand and see for myself just how magnificent this book really is.’
I finally decided on the Roasted Banana flavor because… Well, quite simply… I had all the ingredients in the house. I started the mix on Saturday, along with all my cupcake mania, and froze it Sunday night.
It’s delicious. I think this recipe book is living up to it’s reputation. Except I don’t know if I agree with the name of the recipe. If I were naming it, I’d probably call it Banana Bread Ice Cream. It tastes like an awesome piece of banana bread fresh out of the oven. Except this is a bit colder and creamier.
It has a very warm banana flavor accented by a hint of butter and kosher salt. I was a bit surprised by the use of salt, but have really enjoyed how it brings out the flavor of the roasted bananas. It’s very rich and creamy with the signature thick and sticky banana texture.
Cupcake Mania
Today was they day I was planning to make a bunch of cupcakes for a church bake sale tomorrow (and a little for me, of course!). I knew I had nothing planned, so I could dedicate most of the day to the baking. Typical me, I couldn’t decide what kind to make, so I made 3 kinds of cupcakes: Magnolia’s Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream, Strawberry-Balsamic with Cream Cheese Frosting* and Boston Cream Pie from “Cupcakes!” a cupcake cookbook by Elinor Klivans and France Ruffenach. But because as if that wasn’t enough, I also decided I needed to make ice cream – Roasted Banana Ice Cream from Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and Lara Hata – a ice cream recipe book I borrowed from my sister. (I haven’t finished ice cream, yet though. I still need to freeze it. I’ll come back later with pics of the ice cream).
Peaches Foster Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake
Inspired by the plump, sweet peaches off my mom’s tree, my sister’s peach upside down cornmeal cake and the knowing how well rum would go with peaches – such as banana’s foster (wow that was a mouthful!), I decided to make my own version. Except I wanted to make it a bit lighter than the traditional heavy cake recipes usually found for cornmeal cakes. So, I looked up a few different recipes including ones from Martha Stewart and Cooking Light and made a cake of my own. I was really pleased with the outcome.
The cake has a sweet cornbread type flavor, warmed by the rum and brown sugar mixed with peach juice that seeped into the batter while it was baking. The best part was the outside edge where this sweet mixture started to bubble up along the edges of the pan, creating a crisp, sweet crust. I highly recommend serving it with some vanilla ice cream. It complimented the flavors perfectly. Enjoy!
A taste of raw vegan: My Breakfast Pudding
I can’t take credit for this one. I got the idea from my “Green” Domino Issue for a few raw vegan recipes that looked pretty good. Unlike many raw vegan recipes that I’ve seen, this one didn’t require many abnormal ingredients, so I tried it:
Pudding:
- 1 Banana
- 1/2 Avocado
- 3 Dates
- 3/4 Tbsp Raw Agave Nectar (to taste)
Blend in a food processor until pureed and a pudding-like consistency. Spread a little almond butter over a piece of bread (my bread was neither raw or vegan), top with pudding and fresh fruit.
It was so amazing. I had this for breakfast on Saturday. Today, I made just the pudding and had that as my breakfast (definitely raw vegan this time). I will definitely keep this recipe around.
Fun with Agar Agar
So I went a little crazy with the cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving. I had two different parties to go to in the Thanksgiving season and I efficiently decided to make homemade cranberry sauce for both. Smart, eh? Well, it would have been smarter had I had a concept of how much to make.
I bought 8 – yes eight – bags of fresh cranberries. I used 7 of the bags and made a MASSIVE batch of sauce. It was delicious. And everyone loved it at both of my parties. And then I had a bunch leftover. So, I got creative. Me and my cranberry sauce, persimmons, apples, and a package of agar agar. It turned out delicious and with the different weights of the ingredients, it was slightly layered which would look great in a pretty mold. Let me see if I can remember what I did…
