Vegan Brownies for my Secret Pal

Another treat for my secret pal who happens to be vegan. This one I won't encourage you to try. ;-)

http://thebigmansworld.com/2015/10/05/healthy-3-ingredient-flourless-brownies/

Ingredients

1. 3 medium, overripe bananas (approximately 1 cup or so)
2. 1/2 cup smooth almond butter (can sub for any smooth nut butter)
3. 2 T - 1/4 cup cocoa powder (more = richer taste)

Instructions

Preheat the oven the 350 degrees, grease a small cake pan or loaf pan and set aside.

In a small microwave-safe bowl or stovetop, melt your nut butter. 

In a large mixing bowl, add the banana, nut butter and cocoa powder and mix very well.

Pour the mixture into the greased pan and bake for around 20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing into pieces.

My secret pal kept these in the fridge which was a suggestion from the original recipe post. She also ate them with "milk" kind of like cereal and LOVED them!

Happy Health&HappyBaking,

AttyMae

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies for my Secret Pal

I found this great recipe on Pinterest for vegan peanut butter cookies for my Secret Pal at work. They were delicious and I will make them again!

Link for original recipe: http://mywholefoodlife.com/2015/03/24/3-ingredient-peanut-butter-cookies/

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted natural peanut butter

¼ cup + 1 T maple syrup

1 tsp sea salt (I was going for a sweet/salty flavor. If you just want sweet, use ½ the amount of salt.)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a food processor, combine all three ingredients

Using a cookie scoop, drop cookies onto a lined baking sheet.

Use a fork to flatten then and make the cross pattern.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Let cookies cool completely before removing from the baking sheet.

My VEGAN secret pal LOVED these! So do I! Please do yourself a favor and make these sometime. You won't regret it.

&HappyBaking,

AttyMae

Non-Baking KitchenAid Adventure -- Ice Cream!

I was so excited to try making ice cream for the first time and no better excuse than Mudder&Santa brought me the Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment. So I turned to Pinterest for a recipe and this is the one I used:

http://ellisandpage.com/2014/12/delicious-ice-cream-recipe.html

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

2/3 cup sugar

6 large egg yolks

1 vanilla bean

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Combine 2 cups heavy cream & 1 cup whole milk in a saucepan. Add vanilla seeds & pod (use knife to make a slit- then the flat side to scrape out the seeds). Bring the mixture to a simmer.

2. Whisk together 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt & 6 egg yolks in the a mixer.

3. Once the cream / milk mixture is simmering, SLOWLY pour the mixture into the eggs. If you do not do this slowly, the eggs will cook- yuck! Drizzle it in very slowly.

4. Once combine, return to saucepan and heat over medium heat until the mixture reaches about 170 degrees (six to 8 minutes).

5. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, remove the vanilla pod &  pour mixture into a metal bowl & place the bowl into an ice bath. Let cool.

6. Refrigerate until ready to churn. Follow instructions on ice cream maker. Mixture can be made ahead up to 2 days.

After churning, we put ours into the tupperware and into the freezer. The tupperware was wide enough to make it easy to scoop. Putting it in the freezer also helped for the perfect consistency!

Then ENJOY!

This is not backing&Iknowthat but it does require use of my kitchenaidmixer&Pinterest so it is a win win in my book.

HappyBaking&EatingIceCream,

AttyMae

Pappy's Birthday Carrot Cake from Mamaw

My energetic dog, Kash and I decided to bake Pappy Bill a homemade carrot cake for his birthday 4/21. I am fortunate enough to have received the recipe for THE BEST CARROT CAKE EVER from Mamaw Pinkerman. I am not sharing the recipe because of course the top-secretness is a key ingredient for a handed down recipe!

Here are some pics of the baking adventure.

Kash and I did cheat and used store bought icing... FAIL... but in the future when we have more time I will post the same cake with HOMEMADE cream cheese frosting.

Pappy said the cake was the best he remembers &WeWillTakeThatAsASuccess!

Celebrate birthdays with made-from-scratch cakes,
 &HappyBaking,
AttyMae

Granny's Cherry Nut Cake for Papaw's 89th Birthday

My Mudder and my Papaw!

For my Papaw's 89th Birthday (January 28th) I took a day off from work on January 27th so that I could bake his favorite cake with the help from Mudder using her mother's recipe.

My Granny has passed but her memory lives on through the love she shared in her food when welcoming folks into her home.

I remember as a kid going out to their home for Papaw's birthday and she would be finishing up the cake by making the deliciously sweet icing. 

This year it was our turn to carry on that tradition, and I am proud to say we did a pretty good job!

Below is the recipe she used and I took a picture of the cards it was written/typed on.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter

2 cups of sugar (minus 2 tablespoons/or teaspoons) It was later pointed out me there was a discrepancy. My mom read me to directions so I am not sure which T. t. she chose!

3 cups of cake flour

3 tablespoons of baking powder

1 tablespoon of vanilla

4 stiff egg whites

1 cup of milk

1 cup of nuts

maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350

Ready to bake!

Make the icing!

Icing is done!

Ready for icing!

The finishing touches!

Looks yummy!

Serving up some slices.

A slice&2Scoops!

Mudder was proud of our accomplishment.

The birthday boy enjoying his homemade cake!

Enjoy your family &HappyBaking,
AttyMae