I found a quick recipe, that I managed to make and bake before Tim even woke up this morning. After eating a few of those, we decided to go to the gym and burn off the bad-ness that was oh-so-good gingersnap heaven.
So, we came home, I made the uber-healthy mini-cheesecakes (I'm not kidding they are way good for you!) and then I proceeded to make: amaretti, chocolate macaroons, healthy banana chocolate cookies, hot cross buns and cherry chocolate breakfast bread.
Uh huh, I know. But every recipe was super easy and is as healthy/natural as I could make it. Everything (minus the bread products which I am making for my New Year's Crew, well in advance so I am not freaking out when I get home from the Christmas holidays) is very low-fat, low-ish in carbs, uses agave nectar in place of sugar and what not and so forth.
So there Christmas baking, you will not be my downfall. Until I get home and eat all the things that are full of butter and sugar that everyone else is making. But I'm not going to think about that.
Here are the recipes I made today.
Gingersnaps (for the Pumpkin Cheesecake crusts)
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| These were surprisingly good and crispy. The oil kind of freaked my out, but it meant I could make them quickly and with a whisk and a wooden spoon instead of the beater (which was helpful, because Tim was still asleep and apparently I can be super nice and thoughtful - it doesn't happen often, I know). This bonus also makes them a good cookie to make with kids. If you want a good soft ginger molasses cookie (a la Starbucks) I suggest checking out Elise's recipe for Giant Ginger Cookies over on Simply Recipes, they are my absolute fave ginger cookie. |
Single Serving Pumpkin Cheesecakes
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The verdict is still out on these. I am reserving judgement until I see how well they freeze, which was the whole point. I think I used too much pumpkin, but I wanted them to be more pumpkin than cream cheese. I just went a little overboard. I also think that a bit more agave syrup would have served well. All in all, they are more like mini pumpkin pies with some tangy zip (but no miracle whip). |
Ingredients
1 pkg. light cream cheese, at room temp.
1 pkg. light cream cheese, at room temp.
1/2 c. agave syrup or 1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 can pumpkin puree, ( I used all of a 28 oz. can, but I think a 14 oz. can would make them more cheesecake-y and less "healthy")
1/2 c. greek yogurt
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Gingersnaps
Directions:
Make the gingersnaps first. Duh.
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mix brown sugar, oil, molasses and egg. Sprinkle the baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom over the mix. Stir. Add in the flour a little bit at a time, until it is all incorporated.
3. Roll the dough into small balls, 3/4 of an inch is what I did because you want them to fit into the bottom of your muffin tins). Roll the balls in white sugar, before placing on a parchment covered baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
5. While the cookies are cooking, you can prepare your pumpkin cheese cake filling. Start by whipping up your cream cheese and adding one egg at a time, until incorporated. Mix in the agave syrup. Add the pumpkin puree, greek yogurt and pumpkin pie spice and mix well.
6. Once the cookies are cool, line muffin tins with a muffin papers and place a gingersnap in the bottom of each hole.
7. Fill each about 2/3 full with the pumpkin mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. If you use a full 28 oz can of pumpkin puree, they will be much more like pumpkin pies when they come out of the oven. If you use a smaller can I think you'll end up with a much more cheesecake-y texture.
Amaretti
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I like my amaretti somewhat soft. This is a recipe that will give you something in between on the hard/soft scale. These are one of my all time favourite Christmas cookies, and I tend to make them every year. This year, I tried to scale down the recipe a bit so that I didn't have a tonne of them, which I would end up eating all on my own. I also replaced the sugar that normally goes into them with agave nectar and it ended up changing the texture. They turned out less chewy than I normally like but the flavours are still there, so I'm happy. |
Ingredients
5 egg yolks
3 egg whites (this ratio sort of just happened because there were two double yolk eggs, otherwise I'd just use 4 whole eggs)
2 3/4 c. ground almonds
1/2 c. agave nectar (or you could use a cup of white sugar)
Enough bittersweet chocolate chips for each cookie (about 3 dozen) I like Callebaut but use what you've got (also, its kind of more Christmasy/fun to use those insanely died maraschino cherries (in green and red) instead of the chocolate chips but I didn't have any and they are all sugar.
Directions:
1. Whip the eggs until they are frothy with a beater. Add the agave nectar or sugar and mix. Add the ground almonds and mix with a wooden spoon.
2. Roll 1 tbsp. of the mixture into a little ball (it'll be pretty sticky). Put on a parchment lined cookie sheet and flatten. Place a chocolate chip (or half of a maraschino cherry) in the centre of each one.
3. Bake at 325 F for 10-12 minutes. Check them often, especially if you are using sugar in place of the agave, as they go from golden brown to burnt incredibly quickly.
Chocolate Macaroons
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These were a favourite of my mom's when the Atkin's diet was all the rave. I'm not sure that they are really Atkin's diet friendly but they are pretty healthy, especially because I changed out the sugar for agave. |
Ingredients
2 egg whites
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 c. agave nectar or 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. coconut (sweetened, desiccated)
1/2 c. chocolate chips
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Beat the egg whites until frothy but they don't have to be stiff. Add the agave nectar or sugar and beat some more. Add the flour and beat until incorporated. Fold in the coconut and the chocolate chips.
3. Make mounds of 1 tbsp. of the mixture on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Be careful with these guys too, and watch them, because they can burn very quickly.
Super Healthy Banana Chocolate Cookies (Nikki's Healthy Cookies)
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| I stole this recipe from one of my favourite cooking blogs 101 Cookbooks . I was at first somewhat skeptical as to what would hold these babies together, as there aren't any eggs or flour in them. I should know better and have faith in Heidi's recipes. I have to say that these are now my favourite vegan cookies ever (admittedly they are the only vegan cookies I've made). Try them though, I bet you'd be surprised by how good they are and you won't feel guilty about eating them!I stole this recipe from one of my favourite cooking blogs 101 Cookbooks . I was at first somewhat skeptical as to what would hold these babies together, as there aren't any eggs or flour in them. I should know better and have faith in Heidi's recipes. I have to say that these are now my favourite vegan cookies ever (admittedly they are the only vegan cookies I've made). Try them though, I bet you'd be surprised by how good they are and you won't feel guilty about eating them! |
Ingredients
3 large, ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. coconut oil (warmed, so it will mix in, or you can use olive oil)
2 c. rolled oats
2/3 c. almond meal
1/3 c. coconut, shredded and unsweetened (mine was sweetened though, maybe that's why they tasted good)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. carob chips or chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Mix the bananas, vanilla, and coconut oil. In another bowl, mix the oats, almond meal, coconut, cinnamon and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until combined. Fold in the carob/chocolate chips.
3. This batter will seem loose but it will hold together, I promise. Drop tablespoon sized dollops of batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and kind of pat them to make sure that they are together.
4. Bake for 12-14 minutes.
As for the Hot Cross Buns and the Chocolate Cherry Bread, I cheated hard core and made basic white bread recipes in the bread machine and added in the spices, raisins and mixed peel to make the buns and dark chocolate chips and dried cherries to make the bread. I then baked them on a pizza stone in a preheated oven of 500 F, which as soon as you get your bread into you turn down to 375 and bake them until when you rap on them they sound hollow. (It's just what I've been told to do and it works!) If you really want to make sure they are done in a more scientific way you can use a thermometer and make sure they are at an internal temperature of 210 F.
So instead of doing my last assignment today, I baked. Who knew procrastinating could be so productive?
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