Luxardo Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter at room temperature

½ cup sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 cups wheat flour

1 cup chopped almonds

Luxardo Apry or Pruny Jam

Directions:

With electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar on high speed for about 3 minutes.

Separate yolk from egg white. Set aside egg whites. Add yolks and vanilla extract to butter mixture and mix. Then add flour and salt to the mixture.

Place the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In shallow dish, whisk egg whites until bubbly and frothy. Chop almonds (I suggest tossing a couple handfuls into a food processor and pulsing a few times). Roll dough into one-inch balls. Dip nuts into egg whites and roll in nuts.

Place balls on parchment lined cookie sheet. Press thumb lightly into center of each ball. Fill each cookie with ½ tsp of Luxardo jam. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly firm. Cool and serve!

 

Spice Cupcakes

Somehow my coworker Lynda made it to her 30's without realizing that women get a full week to celebrate their birthday! After all these birthdays of only allowing herself one day of birthday fun, we've been stretching her birthday out at the office. 

Today I brought her cupcakes with plenty to share. She wanted carrot cake so I made a first ever try of it last night and couldn't get them to turn out. I think the carrot shreds were too big? After running out of carrots I went for a spice cake instead, but still topped them off with cream cheese frosting and sugar sprinkles.

Pumpkin Carving

I simply adore all things fall, especially all things holiday, and certainly all things pumpkin!

Just because a girl lives in the city doesn't mean she can't enjoy some good ol' fashion pumpkin patch fun and home cooked yumms! Yesterday after work, a friend and I headed to The Great Pumpkin Patch on Sloat and 19th Ave to goof off and pick up a few mini pumpkins and gourds for my mantle. We bought our carving pumpkins at Safeway - yah yah, I know, I am that cheap.

Low-fat jalapeno poppers from scratch (see recipe below)

Bruschetta (Baguette, basil leaves, tomato slices, mozzarella cheese) 

Blood orange mimosas with black sugar rims

After munching, we carved up these beauties! Okay, well, maybe "beauties" isn't the best way to describe them, but after two bottles of sparkling wine we weren't exactly pro status. 

This morning I seasoned and baked the seeds to take to the office and share! The batch on the left is  cinnamon and sugar, and the batch on the right is salt. Separate seeds from the pumpkin guts and rinse well in strainer, spread seeds on a baking sheet, bake at 325°F for 10 minutes, stir them up and add more seasoning, pop back in for another 10-15 min until they are more crunchy than chewy.

LOW FAT JALAPENO POPPERS

Ingredients: 

6 jalapeno peppers, 1/4 cup reduced-fat cream cheese, 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream, 1/4 cup diced scallions, 1/2 cup packed reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese, salt & pepper, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups whole wheat breadcrumbs, 4 egg whites, nonstick cooking spray.

Directions:

Preheat broiler on high. Wearing gloves - cut stem off of peppers, cut in half length-wise, scrape out seeds and membranes. Place jalapenos on foil covered baking sheet and broil for 2 min to draw out some of the spice. If you don't do this, they'll be WAY too hot! Set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 450°F. In a small bowl mix together cream cheese, sour cream, scallions, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Tightly pack mixture in each jalapeno half.

Put flour in shallow dish. Put breadcrumb in small dish. In a bowl, whip egg whites with a whisk until they are foamy but not quite holding peaks. Dredge jalapenos in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg whites, being careful not to lose the filling. Place in breadcrumbs and coat completely.

Place on foil covered baking sheet, salt and pepper to taste, spray lightly with cooking spray, and bake around 20 min until golden brown and crispy.

Pumpkin Yogurt

I finally took a stab at my own version of this pumpkin yogurt recipe. It was my first time cooking wheat berries, so I was nervous, but it turned out great! 

I found the wheat berries at Whole Foods and Googled how to properly cook them:
7 cups of water, 2 cups of wheat berries, 1 teaspoon salt, boil for one hour, strain any excess water, refrigerate. Make sure you stir a bit, especially at the beginning, to keep the wheat berries from sticking to each other or to the bottom, but for the most part just leave it be.

I used the entire Greek yogurt, the entire can of pumpkin (NOT the pre-seasoned pumpkin pie mix), and added cinnamon and sugar to taste. If you don't like bitter flavors, try using vanilla yogurt or adding more sugar.

After mixing together the ingredients, I poured it back into the Greek yogurt container for storage. I've been bringing it to work as breakfast and topping with wheat berries and apple cinnamon muesli. DELISH!

Easter Cake

I sure have had a lot of baking-related posts lately! I just can't help myself! I wanted to bring something cutesy to my parents' house for Easter and when I saw a similar cake online I just had to give it a try.

I did carrot cake on the bottom and yellow cake on top (in case my nephews didn't like the carrot, but they loved it!). The "nest" is made of chocolate that I melted and drizzled on wax paper. The eggs are rice crispy treats covered in fondant. Those were more tricky than they're worth. If I ever do this again I'll just do chocolate eggs.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

Here's a sweet treat I whipped up to spread a little spring cheer at the office!

Spice cupcake with vanilla frosting. The ears and bows are made of chocolate I melted and piped onto wax paper. The baskets I scored at Michael's in the dollar bins!