Category: Desserts (Page 15 of 21)

Cabin Fever Cookies and Evergreens

February 26, 2015 / Dragonfly Home Recipes / 10 Comments

As I was driving the kids to school this morning, I noticed a beautiful evergreen tree. It was standing, majestic, among a bunch of trees whose leaves had long since fallen. The deep, velvety green color caught my eye. I have driven this stretch of road thousands of times, but have never noticed the beauty of this particular tree. The rich, emerald green stood out against a backdrop of bleakness–white snow, brown branches of deciduous trees, and a gray-pink winter dawn sky. This month has been so unusually cold and at times, difficult. I have done my fair share of complaining about the weather. But to see that evergreen radiating green beauty amidst the stark whites, grays, and browns of a cold winter morning, I was reminded that acts of kindness and moments of beauty stand out more against a backdrop of bleakness. This is not a new revelation. I am not the first person to notice this. But the fact that I was so struck by this evergreen tells me I needed to be reminded of this. It made me think of the shiny, tiny dime we found sparkling on the backseat of the car. Lilac-scented soap and colorful flowers from caring souls. Clean, warm blankets. A friend checking to make sure my mom had made it home safely from our kids’ band concert when the roads were covered with ice. A smile from a stranger at the grocery store. These are some of my evergreens from this winter. I made these cookies for my family to brighten their day too. I’m sharing the recipe below, because they really are wonderful. I based the cookies on my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, and then added a mashed banana to the dough. I finished by spreading a dollop of creamy Nutella on the cooled cookies. The cookies are moist, delicious, and even somewhat nutritious (with the peanuts and bananas).

Cabin Fever Cookies

Servings: about 36 cookies
Time: about 15 minutes preparation, plus about 25 minutes for baking
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Ingredients:

1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 and 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 ripe banana
Nutella for the tops of the cookies

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large mixing bowl, vigorously stir the softened butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of the flour, and then add the sugars, egg, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour. In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Add that to the dough, and stir again to thoroughly combine. Shape the dough into approximately one-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space between. Bake in your 375 degree oven for 7-9 minutes, or until the cookies are golden and lightly brown on the bottom. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. When they are cool, gently spread a bit of Nutella on the tops, if desired. Enjoy!

Rich, Chocolate Brownies with Powdered Sugar and Cinnamon

January 30, 2015 / Dragonfly Home Recipes / 20 Comments

Chocolate in the heart of wintertime. There is something special, yet completely crucial about having chocolate in the bleak mid-winter. It is an inexpensive luxury that we should not live without. My mouth is watering as I go over the photos for this post. I think I will have to make another batch of these brownies very soon. This may be old news to some of you, but to me it was a pleasant surprise–making brownies from scratch is not that difficult or time-consuming! I am not someone to shy away from cooking and baking from scratch–I love to do it when I have the time, and I often make the time–but for some reason, I always made brownies from a box mix. I guess I imagined making brownies from scratch took forever, or that I needed a double boiler to melt the chocolate, or that it made a huge mess. But really, this recipe is not that much more time-consuming than using a mix, it doesn’t make a huge mess, and this way, you know exactly what is in your brownies–just the basic ingredients many of us have on hand, plus that magic ingredient–chocolate. No food cheers me up like chocolate does, and this time of year, many of us can use a bit of extra cheer! Though I have made some changes, the recipe I am using is adapted from Susan Branch’s “From the Heart of the Home: Autumn,” an inspiring cookbook my cousin gave me years ago. I feel that making a special batch of brownies is a treat we can offer to those we love, and a way we can treat ourselves too. I am taking this pan of brownies over to Angie’s blog, The Novice Gardener, where part 2 of a very special celebration is taking place. She has been coordinating Fiesta Friday for one whole year, and the connections she has fostered through this link party are incredible. The bloggers who take part in this are kind, supportive, and not least of all, talented. I love to look at their photos and read their posts. This week’s celebration is co-hosted by Nancy from Feasting with Friends, and Selma, from Selma’s Table. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Rich, Chocolate Brownies with Powdered Sugar and Cinnamon

Servings: 12 brownies
Time: about 15 minutes preparation, plus about 30 minutes for baking
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Ingredients:

2 ounces (2 squares) of unsweetened chocolate (baker’s chocolate)
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
powdered sugar and ground cinnamon to sprinkle on the top

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with butter. In a large saucepan, gently melt the chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring often. Stir the rest of the ingredients into the pan, in the order they appear above, until everything is well combined. With a wooden spoon or a spatula, scrape the batter into the baking pan. Bake for about 30 minutes in your preheated oven. Allow the brownies to cool, and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Enjoy!

Blackberry Apple Crumble

January 9, 2015 / Dragonfly Home Recipes / 19 Comments

This delicious jumble of a crumble came about by luck this week. I don’t usually eat blackberries this time of year, but the grocery store I usually go to had organic ones on sale for a price I simply could not resist. And blackberries just sounded so juicy and luxurious, a way to brighten up the body and soul in this bleak, bitter cold weather we are having. The recipe below is a conglomeration of my favorite fruit crisp/crumble recipes, based on what I had on hand and what I thought my family would enjoy. I cannot tell you how good, sweet and juicy these blackberries taste when baked with a bit of apples and topped with the brown sugar, cinnamon, oats, almonds and pepita (shelled pumpkin seeds) mixture. The rich,velvety fruit contrasts with the crunchy, hearty topping. And of course with their deep, indigo color, the blackberries are loaded with antioxidants. After the excesses of the holiday season, it is refreshing to eat a fruity dessert. It is quite a breeze to prepare, since the blackberries require no chopping, and while it’s baking away in the oven, making your kitchen smell wonderful, you can do other things. My kids were home both yesterday and today because their schools were closed due to the extreme cold and blowing snow. I was so happy to be able to throw this blackberry apple crumble together yesterday morning and have it turn out so well, though it was an adventure to find enough natural light to photograph this dish, because of the faint winter morning light. Luckily, I have a porch, and out on the porch I went in the sub-zero temperatures with the steaming blackberry apple crumble to photograph. The deep purple of the blackberries looked so pretty against the cold, white snow and the morning sky. The sugar I had sprinkled on the blackberries before adding the topping looked just like snow. The contrast made me think about how beautiful the light and dark look together, and how our lives are defined by all types of contrasts. And that treating ourselves now and then to blackberries in the winter is good for us. I have put this recipe in the category of desserts because it is sweet, but it is substantial enough to have with breakfast, as we did this morning. Today I am going to be joining the Fiesta Friday gathering at Angie’s blog, The Novice Gardener, and will be taking this recipe over to share with the lovely bloggers there.

Blackberry Apple Crumble

Servings: 4-6
Time: 15 minutes preparation and about 25 minutes baking time
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Ingredients:

3 cups blackberries
1 cup apples, peeled and thinly sliced (about 1 medium-sized apple)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 tablespoons roasted and salted pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt the butter in a small pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, almonds, and pepitas. Place the blackberries and apple slices in a 1.5 quart baking dish (or a baking dish of a similar size). Sprinkle the granulated sugar and cornstarch over the fruit and mix gently. Stir the melted butter into the oat/flour topping mixture and then gently spoon the topping mixture over the fruit, distributing it as evenly as possible. Bake for about 25 minutes. This dish is delicious on its own, but also tastes good with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!