The Sweet Kitchen: Hazelnut Brownies

 Tomorrow, I get to have the first cookout of the season and it is my job to bring dessert. I wanted something easy but that would meet everyone's tastes. I went to my trusty cookbooks and found just the thing. Hazelnut Brownies from the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple cookbook by Tieghan Gerard. This recipe is made with only 5-6 ingredients and is made for a smaller batch, yielding 9 brownies instead of the traditional 12.

Ingredients:

1 C Nutella

2 large eggs

4 TBSP salted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C flour

1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease an 8x8 pan.

In medium bowl, whisk together the nutella, eggs, butter, and vanilla until smooth.

Add the flour and mix until combined.

Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Evenly spread the mixture into the 8x8 pan and bake until just set aprox. 25-30 minutes.

The Family Kitchen: Chocolate Cherry Cake

For my family reunion this weekend, I made one of moms desserts with a twist. A chocolate cake with cherry pie fIlling. The cake was so moist and delicious! It has 1tbsp of almond extract which I love but if you are not a fan of almond extract you could sub vanilla extract. 

I also did not make the homemade icing I just used store bought but my tip is to whip your icing with a mixer. It makes it so fluffy and a lot easier to spread. It was the best icing job I have ever done!

I honestly did not know what to expect with this recipe but it turned out so good but not your traditional chocolate cake and it was very easy and quick to make.

The Sweet Kitchen: Blackberry Hibiscus Cinnamon Buckle

 

I bought some blackberries at my local produce stand on a whim and thought it would be a great way to try a buckle I had been wanting to try. I was surprised how quick and easy it was to make!

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter melted

1 1/4 C sugar

1 C flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 C milk

2 C blackberries rinsed and dried

2 TBSP sugar

I added 1 TBSP cinnamon and 1 TBSP hibiscus powder as well. 

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter. 

Whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.

With a large spoon mix in the milk and butter until just incorporated. 

Spray 9 in pie pan or square pan and pour in batter. 

Sprinkle the blackberries over the top evenly.

Combine 2 TBSP sugar and cinnamon and hibiscus powder in small bowl.

Sprinkle the top of the buckle with 1 TBSP of the sugar mixture. 

Bake for 40 minutes.

Sprinkle the additional 1 TBSP of sugar mixture and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes until golden and bubbly. 

The Sweet Kitchen: Peanut Butter cookies with Chocolate Chips

 I am not normally a fan of peanut butter. For me it is not the taste so much as the texture. I have some weird texture issues with food. It's too gooey and sticky and I just don't prefer. I can make myself eat it but I prefer using things like PB2 powder for the taste of peanut butter without the texture issues. One way I can use peanut butter is in making a healthier version of the Peanut Butter cookie. 

If you are anything like me, you like a little sweet at the end of the day. Yesterday, I was thinking about if I wanted to make something or go to the store for some sweet. I decided I would try my hand at making the peanut butter cookies but would add some chocolate chips to give it a bit of something extra. 

The recipe is very simple. Only 4 ingredients and it yields 12 cookies. I doubled the recipe and put half in the freezer for later. I also changed the sugar. Instead of using regular granulated sugar I replaced it with Splenda. This is due to a need to limit the amount of sugar I consume.  The nutrition for this recipe is 225 calories, 11.9g of fat, 21.9g of Carbs, 1.5g dietary fiber, 19.6g of sugars, and 6g of protein per cookie. 

Next time I make these cookies I think I will swap brown sugar for the Splenda. Even though Splenda is a sugar alternative it does carry more carbs from sugar. 15.3g with brown sugar instead of the 19.6g with Splenda. Another option would be to use honey instead of sugar. 

Recipe:

1 C peanut butter- creamy

1 C sugar or alternative

1 egg

1/2 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the peanut butter, egg, and sugar together. Fold in or gently mix in chocolate chips. Spoon and roll into balls and place onto baking sheet and use fork to add criss cross pattern to top of cookie. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet an additional 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cookies will still be soft. 

This is a great cookie to make that is quick, easy, has limited ingredients, and you most likely have the ingredients as staples in your pantry already. This means at the last minute you can decide to make these and have a relatively healthy sweet treat to snack on. Just be aware that this cookie can be a bit crumbly. However, it still tastes good. 

The Sweet Kitchen: Cherry Vanilla Almond Crisp

Tonight, I felt like a little something sweet and I was all out of ice cream! Gasp! Honestly that's not that unusual in my house. So, I thought, why not make myself some cherry crisp! This recipe is inspired by Joanna Gaines, but I have made some adjustments to it. It is super easy to whip together fast and doesn't take too long to cook. 

The ingredients I use are:

2C cherries fresh or frozen (if using fresh will need pitted)

1 TBSP lemon juice (or lime juice)

1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract

1/4 C sugar or Splenda

1/8 C cornstarch

2 TBSP of already made crumble topping. (See blog post on June Farmers Market from 6/1/23 for recipe)

1TBSP butter

This is a cut back version with some differences of Joanna Gaines Cherry Almond Crisp. Her's makes 6 servings mine makes 4. The differences I make my own crumble topping that is different than hers, I did not include the lemon zest. I also add vanilla extract instead of almond in some cases. Also the amounts of the ingredients differs due to a small yield. 

The recipe I use is:

In a large bowl add cherries, juice, and extract and toss to coat. In small bowl, combine the sugar/Splenda and cornstarch and mix well. Then coat the fruit with this mixture and coat well. Divide the fruit into 4 ramekins or oven safe bowls/dishes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place ramekins on a baking sheet in case of overflow. Dish up a couple TBSP of the crumble topping onto each ramekin and top each with a TBSP of butter (or less if desired). Cook for 20 minutes, or until browned and bubbly around the edges. Cool for 20 minutes then serve. 

*Tip: if you are using frozen cherries you may need to cook a bit longer. I would add 10 minutes at a time and check and see if it is bubbly before removing from the oven. I ended up needing to cook an additional 20 minutes for frozen fruit in my oven. Also remember, if using fresh cherries you will need to pit them. 

You can serve this with ice cream or cool whip.

*Tip if you are not eating all the crisp and saving some for leftovers like I do I suggest only putting the crumble on the top of what will be eaten immediately. When you go to heat up the leftovers you can add the crumble and butter at that time before microwaving or reheating in the oven. 

Yield 4 servings. Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days.