Category Archives: healthy baking

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Thought: living ~~at the North Pole~~ in Canada makes you crave spice in the winter…? Do you find yourself gravitating towards hot or spicy foods this time of year? I sure do. The spicier the better…I can down a bowl of habanero salsa like there’s no tomorrow, but over-pepper my food (I’m looking at you Court) and I curl up into the fetal position and cry. Black peppercorns are SO spicy.

Do you like hot chocolate? (dumb question, who doesn’t?) Do you like mildly spicy food? If you answered yes to one of these questions then you have to try these cookies. Now, to give you a bit of back story, when I found the recipe on Martha Stewarts website, I immediately created a healthy version. Warning: you will probably develop diabetes just by reading the original recipe.

I used whole wheat pastry flour, subbed butter for unsweetened applesauce, and reduced the appalling amount of sugar by using four packets of stevia + 1/4 cup of raw cane sugar. The cookies turned out cakey… but not the cookie I was hoping to achieve. Don’t get me wrong – they tasted good, but I wanted something better.

‘Cakey’ Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies:

He is a foodie too – just like his parents

Later in the week, I attempted the recipe again, this time using half butter – half applesauce. The result? Crumbly biscuits. What is going on.

The next night, I took a simple approach: Keep the ingredients, and subtly ‘healthify’ the recipe. And it worked – third time’s a charm!

Here’s all I did:

Swapped the all purpose flour for whole wheat pastry and reduced it to 1 3/4 cups
Used half the amount of butter and 3/4 cup of sugar
Combined everything in my mixer and beat the dough on medium until it had a ‘frosting’ consistency. I think I loved the dough more than the actual cookie. I couldn’t keep my finger out of the bowl while the oven was pre-heating.

The finished product:

Just the cookie I was looking for! I realized it’s ok to satisfy a craving with the real deal once in a while. This doesn’t apply to Oreos though. If you want Oreos, you should still make them yourself.

Apple Pie Bars

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Has anyone else noticed the Larabar name difference between Canada and the States? My favourite Larabar is “Apple”, but in the States it’s called “Apple Pie”. When I asked Larabar why this was, they explained Canadian law requires them to be “very literal” with their product names. You can sleep well tonight knowing that. You’re welcome!

Apple Pie Bars
Inspired by this recipe, my Moms homemade pie and Apple Larabars

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp brown sugar (sweeten to your preference)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce + 1/2 cup applesauce, set aside

2-3 tbsp non dairy milk

1 tbsp coconut oil (melted)

2 peeled and chopped apples

2+ tbsp chopped walnuts set aside

2+ tbsp unsweetened coconut, set aside

Preheat oven to 350F

Sift together oats, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients (except the half cup of applesauce) then slowly add dry to wet. If mixture is a little on the dry side, add more milk.

In another bowl, combine 1/2 cup applesauce with chopped apples.

Press half the oat mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 9×9 baking pan.

Evenly spread apples over crust. Sprinkle on the remaining oats, walnuts and coconut.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let bars cool slightly before digging in – oh, and serve with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Are you a chocolatey or fruity dessert person? I go through phases, preferring fruit themed desserts during the summer (lime sorbet! strawberry cake!) and ‘comfort’ desserts throughout fall and winter.

Halloween Rice Krispie Squares

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As a kid, some of my favourite Halloween treats were rice krispie squares, popcorn balls, Reese’s peanut butter cups and apparently diabetes. Once my Halloween stash got low, I became desperate and would eat the molasses caramels. (Why do those still exist?)

As an adult, my favourite Halloween treats are rice krispie squares, popcorn balls, Reese’s peanut butter cups. And Coffee Crisps. No diabetes. Or molasses caramels.

I made a pan of white chocolate coconut rice krispie squares – which turned out WAY better than the original recipe. Court’s eyes bulged out of his head when he took a bite.

Ingredients:
3 cups Natures Path Crispy Brown Rice cereal
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown rice syrup – DO NOT sub. This is replacing the marshmallows & will not bind properly if you use agave or honey
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Optional:
1 cup white chocolate
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
In a saucepan on low, melt chocolate, stir in coconut

Heat brown rice syrup over low heat. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla & salt while stirring constantly. Mix in cereal until well combined, press into a 9×9 baking pan. Evenly spread melted white chocolate/coconut on top of the krispies then place in the fridge to set.

Autumn Apple Crumble

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It’s beginning to look a lot like aut-umn!

It still looks like summer in our backyard though.

Is there a difference between apple crisp and crumble? At any rate, apples are so good right now. Court and I have been bingeing on galas.

I made mini apple crumbles for dessert last night, but this could easily double as breakfast.

Autumn Apple Crumble

Serves 2

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Preheat oven to 350F

Ingredients:

2 apples, cored & sliced. (I like leaving the peels on – I don’t want that extra fibre to go to waste!)

1 cup oats

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Sift together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream together:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup agave nectar

Slowly combine dry ingredients with creamed butter. Place apples into a mini baking dish and top with the crumble mixture. I added an extra little drizzle of agave to the top for a hint of extra sweetness.

Bake for 20 mins or until golden brown.