World Nutella Day 2014: Pinterest pin tested!

For World Nutella Day (that's today - February 5th!) - I decided to celebrate by testing out one of my easiest recipes on my Recipes To Remember Pinterest board - the 3-Ingredient Nutella Brownie.  Unfortunately, this does not in any way fall into the "paleo" or in any way healthy category... but if you're looking for an easy and delicious treat, this pin is definitely approved!

With only three ingredients involved (nutella, flour and eggs), this recipe had the potential to be either REALLY good, or REALLY bad.

Thankfully, it turned out to be really good!  The ingredients are all things I had on hand, so it was easy to just pull everything out and not have to worry about shopping for anything special.  If I'd had nuts or chocolate chips, I might have mixed them into the batter, or put a few on top.  But they tasted great without any additions at all!

The batter was a little bit sticky, but easy to work with.  And once they were in the oven, the entire house smelled divine within 15-20 minutes!

My brownies only needed about 25 minutes to bake (and even then, I could have probably taken them out a minute or two earlier to get that gooey centre!), but they were perfect with an afternoon cup of tea!

They puffed up nicely after being baked and they looked and tasted awesome!

Future serving options:
- with vanilla ice cream and maybe some raspberry coulis
- with fresh strawberries and whipped cream
- with nuts or chocolate chips mixed into the batter.

So many other ways to serve this!  How would you do it?

Happy World Nutella Day!

Almond Butter Cookies: Recipe Fail, and then Fix!

My husband and I have removed all "temptation foods" out of the house, and we only have real food left - which is great!  Except when it comes to snacks.  Sometimes you just need something to munch on in between meals.  So, I searched the pinterest archive and decided to make some almond butter cookies.  I started with this recipe, but made a few modifications, and cut it in half.  The result was a delicious, but incredibly spread out, thin cookie.  (Fail!)

So then I decided to add some almond flour, because the taste was definitely good, and voila, rescued cookies!  I will come back and edit this recipe in time, but for now, just keep an eye on the consistency of the cookies after you add the almond flour.  I imagine it will probably take about a quarter cup after all is said and done.  I added about 3.5 tbsp to half the recipe.

Batter with almond flour added

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 4-5 tbsp almond flour

Method:

Unbaked cookies on sheet

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Combine the almond butter, honey, syrup and vanilla until well mixed.

2. Add in the egg, baking soda,  and cinnamon.

3. Add in the almond flour, paying attention to the consistency of the batter - it should be still somewhat liquidy, but firm.

4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop batter by the spoonful onto the sheet.  The cookies will still spread, so try not to put them too close together.

The result will be a light & fluffy, sweet & delicious almond-y cookie!

Cookies fully baked

One note about these cookies: I'm not sure if it's because I live in Florida and it's more humid here than what I'm used to, but these turned really mushy the next morning.  It helped to store them in the fridge, and then pop them in the toaster oven for 2-5 minutes at 250 degrees before serving.  Back to normal!

Let me know if you try this recipe, and leave your hints and tips in the comments!

Spiced Rum Pecan Pie

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
3 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 to 2 cups pecan halves
4 tablespoons good-quality spiced rum
1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie shell, unbaked

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and melted butter. Add the corn syrup, eggs, pecans, and rum, and stir until all ingredients are combined. Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell, and place on a heavy-duty cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue to bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until pie is set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

This is super easy to make, but when you are done it looks like you have put a lot of effort into something. A for sure impress anyone who you have at your table. Even if the rest of the meal is from a take out box. I may have added extra pecans but I don't recall - just make it your own. A Canadian treat is a butter tart - you can make it the same way but take out the pecans and add raisins.

Romance Yourself: BBQ PEACHES!

So I have been naughty and not blogging so much. So to make it up to you I am going to blog my fav summer time treat. It is so good it is crazy and so easy to make too.

Ripe peaches haved.

Soak in Cointreau for at lest an hour

Make a basket of tin foil buttered

Cover in maple syrup

Place inside down and bbq for 5 mins then turn over in basket for another 5 mins

Take out of basket and grill a few mins on each side focusing on the skinless side.

Top with Ice Cream or Whipped Cream if you would like, I have even tossed in toasted nuts and granola. Whatever you like - it is so tasty!

Romance Yourself: Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Happy May Day

So it is May 24 and while some people hit the bars and the “24’s”-eh I was plotting my evil cake plots. Well truth be told there is an entire meal planned out before this cake. But we are going to stick with the cake on this one.

Things you need:

CAKE

12 eggs separated (I find this works best with your hands)

1 cup white sugar

1/3^rd cup cocoa powder

MIDDLES

Homemade strawberry Jam

Strawberry

Chocolate Mousse

EXTRAS

Butter and line 2 9-inch cake pans. Set your oven for 350 F - you will be baking for about 30 mins or until the cake springs back to the touch.

In bowl 1 (aka the bigger bowl):

Beat egg yolks and the one cup sugar together for about 3 minutes until it is a nice pale spring time yellow.

Sift in the cocoa powder and then using a soft spatula fold and blend in.

In bowl 2, beat the whites of the eggs until they form soft peaks – how you know you are done is when you lift your hand mixer out and a little “peak” is left- also the bubbles are no longer bubbles and look solid.

In about 3 sections, fold the egg whites into the first bowl.

Pour into equal parts into 2 9-inch buttered pans and bake.

When done baking, pull out the cakes and let them rest until they are 100% cool.

On the first layer add strawberry jam followed by a layer of diced strawberries and then a sprinkle of sugar powder and top with chocolate mousse.
Drop 2^nd layer of cake on. Add another layer of strawberry jam, then a layer of chocolate mousse and decorate with strawberries on top.

When I served this I added melted dark chocolate that I swirled over the cake and plate with a big blob of whip cream .

ENJOY!

Quick & Easy Valentine's Treat

Still searching for a quick Valentine's treat?  Look no further!  I first saw this idea for chocolate dipped Oreos on D.I.Y. Louisville's blog - a semi-handmade treat that looks pretty and will be very well appreciated, especially if you present it nicely.  Check out her site for the full tutorial... but basically what you'll need is some lollypop sticks, Oreos (I used Cool Mint, to give it a little bit of a different flavour), chocolate or candy melts, melted, and some sprinkles.

Then all you do is stick the lollypop stick in the middle of the cookie, coat it with the melted chocolate, and rest it on some wax paper to dry.  Add your sprinkles before the chocolate dries.

For my presentation, I used some cellophane bags with pink heart ribbon tied around them.  I cut out heart shapes using my Cricut... and on the back, I used one of my new Stampin' Up stamps (from the Amour Par Définition collection) and signed it.

The most time consuming part was waiting for the chocolate to set!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Romance Yourself Breakfast

Good morning!

There is nothing like breakfast. I could eat it for ev

ery meal of the day. Ok, so you can’t surprise yourself with breakfast in bed you sure can still enjoy a little early day treat. Yes please note I didn’t

say AM because really why restrict yourself to the before noon hours any way.

French Toast

1 Banana

2 slices of ancient grain bread (or super fluffy crusty white bread if you are naughty)

½ cup of white chocolate chips

2 table spoons of powdered sugar

1 table spoon of organic PC sugar

3 eggs

2 table spoons of cream

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of coconut oil

So in a shallow bowl mix egg and cream and organic sugar

Soak break in the mix and put into a frying pan on med heat with coconut oil melted. Slow cook this on each side until all colors of yellow and brown and fluffy white.

Slice bananas and top the fried bread with it, add the white chocolate chips and dust with powdered sugar.

For an alternative sugar breakfast switch the vanilla with almond extract and the white chocolate chip with butterscotch. Switch the Bananas to strawberries or red berry fruit salad. I will add a picture of this version the next time I make it.