Sweet
T'is the night before Christmas, and when Santa makes his way to the house tonight we will wow him with the most delicious cookies in the world. They are toasty, chewy, and gooey. They are sooo chocolately. And amazingly, they are gluten and dairy free, made with just 6 ingredients that you probably have in your pantry right now. You should go make some...
I'm in the middle of two projects right now, one that I'm working on for Apartment Therapy's Holiday DIY Gift Guide, the other a new iteration of the paper lantern project that involves collecting hundreds of leaves. I hope to bring you at least one of those by next week. In the meantime, here's what we were snacking on this week. I followed my usual peanut butter cookie recipe, and added a couple of ingredients to the mix to give them a little something more, one being baking cocoa, the other cracked sea salt. The result is a soft at center, crispy at the edges cookie with a peanut butter cup flavor. Here are some glamour shots of cookie eating and the recipe. Have a great weekend!
Today's post comes from Jasper my almost 2nd grader. Yesterday we made this treat together and he shot all the pictures (I snapped a couple of him). We used the iPhone with various VSCO filters. We talked about the different kids of pictures he'd need to get to tell a story. This is a fun summertime collaboration, because he gets to see how to do a post project from start to finish, he practices his writing skills, and we get to do it together. He picks the projects and writes about them, and here's what he has to say today:
I found the perfect popsicle molds at World Market. They are the classic shape and they use regulation sticks, which make them better than the usual plastic handled set or even the Zoku Pop Maker in my book. I've had today's recipe in my head for a little while now. By using coconut water you add some electrolytes to the treat (good on a hot day), plus it's sweet, but low in sugar. I added a teensy bit of fresh ginger to the strawberries in the juicer to add a little kick. The kids didn't seem to mind. Here's the recipe:
Churros are actually a Spanish dish, but you can find versions of them all across Latin America and the Caribbean. In Mexico they usually serve churros filled with dulce de leche, but I just love dipping them in chocolate. The churro recipe that I'm sharing is from the cookbook of the Berkeley restaurant Cesar, which calls for a decent amount of grated citrus rind, giving them a bright acidic flavor. I took a few liberties with the ingredients in order to make them dairy free, subbing comparable measurements of Earth Balance for butter, and coconut milk for cream, but I'll give you the original recipe today, though I've modified the chocolate sauce to make it easier. Skip the pancakes and serve them for breakfast on Cinco de Mayo!
A few weeks ago I featured a recipe using carrots and coconut that was really pretty popular with you guys, so I thought I'd reprise the ingredients, this time in cupcake form. Naturally.
I'm hosting a multi-kid play date today(man spring break has a whole new meaning when you get older) and I can't help but want to give my munchkin visitors a little treat. They'll be locked inside all day hiding from the rain doing a bunch of art projects, listening to bad pop music, jumping on the furniture, eating cupcakes. I'm not going to lie, that's kind of a dream day for me. Here's the recipe. If you like the soup, you'll probably love these...
As the years trudge on, we've had to make more effort to stay youthfully svelte, and post holidays some extra effort is usually in order. This is hard to do when celebrating the old guy's birthday. It's especially hard when his favorite cake flavor is chocolate. I pieced together a recipe from a few different books yesterday and came up with this deep dark chocolate cake. I'm not afraid of sticking some unexpected ingredients in a mix to bolster flavor, and meet dietary needs, so you'll just have to trust me, it was decadent. I garnished ours with dark chocolate covered cherries for the kids, but espresso beans would be a perfect addition for this grown-up cake.
It's the last week before winter break, and I'm in the kitchen baking dozens of Rosemary-Pine Nut Cookies for the teachers at Adam's school. Our favorite holiday cookie, it is most coveted by my sister-in-law Stacey who will be up visiting with her family on Sunday so I'll make her a special plate. I found the recipe in a Martha Stewart Living several years ago and it's become tradition for us. To make them yourself, follow the recipe below...
This will mark the 200th post on Poppy Haus. Today I want to thank you so much for reading. It's just nuts that I've had that much to share in a little over a year. I'm proud that I've amassed a small collection of recipes, projects, and musings, and I've had the chance to flex my creative muscle and started writing with regularity. Here's a little treat for today. It's a ginger-molasses cookie bowl with a scoop of pumpkin ice cream. Made from a new prepared cookie dough* from Trader Joes, they take minutes to craft and can be assembled ahead of time and frozen, making for an easy treat for a pumpkin carving party or Thanksgiving dessert.
Sometimes you just need a little something sweet in the middle of the day. Jasper starts school tomorrow and I spent some time today making hand pies for his lunches. With only a tablespoon of filling it's not quite a dessert, in fact I think they'd also make a great breakfast treat as well. Because Jasper has a dairy allergy, I substitute rice milk to seal the edges and brush the dough, but my recipe tutorial will list the real stuff.
My little guy begins his formal education today. For three days a week, he'll ride trikes, paint pictures and nap on the floor. We are sending him to a Reggio Emilia program like his older brother, where he will collaborate and explore with his fellow tiny classmates. Part of this educational philosophy involves documentation; lots of pictures of process and discovery. For his first day we are bringing something to share with the group, Wylie's Zucchini Muffins. Yesterday afternoon I put an apron on him and he went to work. I let him run the the food processor and crack the eggs. He's two, and it was messy, but he did a great job, and loved looking at the pictures of himself after we finished. They're delicious! Recipe below.
I will admit that I sometimes prefer brownie batter to actual brownies. They can be so cakey, or too fudgey. I prefer chewy with a crackly crust, a brownie that showcases the delicious flavor of the batter, with a toasty bite like a cookie. When I read the description of this recipe, I had to give it a go, most especially because it involved sea salt. I found it yesterday on one of my favorite blogs The Daily Muse, which linked to the recipe posted on Eat.Live.Shop. which incidentally has some crazy Super Bowl food posted today...chocolate covered bacon?
Christmas Eve was my Grandma Maxine's birthday. Every year some cluster of our extended family would gather to celebrate her. On her 90th, which was her last birthday, we brought her home to the house she built with my grandfather and made her a special birthday dinner. My cousin Erin brought her delicious Rum Cake, a treat her other Grandmother, Flo, used to make. I asked her for the recipe yesterday and she reminded me that December 24th has become a very sentimental day for her, as it was both our late Grandmother's birthday and the day she lost her Grandma Flo. Since this is the time of year that we look back, and create and recreate traditions, I thought I'd share the recipe today. xoxo Happy Christmas
Oh September in the Bay Area, it's hot and all I can think about is tweed. A few weeks ago I found this article about foraging in the forest for the ingredients of what appeared to be a fairy and gnome style picnic, not my bag, but they had a recipe for homemade popsicles that made me abandon my ZOKU for the day and use up the leftover and afore mentioned olallieberries, simply because the recipe called for twigs, which are in my opinion, cool.
I've owned an electric ice cream maker for about 7 years and I've never turned the thing on. The reason it sits idle is that when it comes to making ice cream, we prefer to get our hands dirty. My always creative mother-in-law decided to have her guests make their own ice cream using coffee cans at a party she hosted and now it's a summer time staple for our family.
One last post before Christmas. We made these wintery cupcakes using a Trader Joe's gingerbread baking mix as the base, adding some grated carrot to mix to moisten the cake and give them a little more texture. A simple lemon buttercream frosting with some sugary sprinkles and rosemary sprigs make them extra special Christmas treats. Find the recipe below. I hope your Christmas is magical! Until then...