Easy Almond Butter Cookies

Hi Sweets!  So sorry for missing a day yesterday, I promise to make up for it at the end.  The hubs and I just got home from a weekend away in Lake Placid, NY which was amazing and unfortunately left no time for baking any cookies.  We spent our days touring the Olympic sites and attractions- we even rode the bobsled; it was so intense!!!

We got home a little after dinner tonight and I was super tired so wanted a quick and easy cookie to feature.  These butter cookies are about as easy as it gets.  You mix everything up all at once, roll the dough out into balls and bake for 10 minutes.  They are simple, cute and if you use the right sprinkles, very festive!

Did anyone do any baking this weekend?

Need:
1 stick of butter
5 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Do:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all ingredients together, roll out into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  I pressed mine flat with a fork which created little dips for Christmasy sprinkles to sit in.  The dough isn't very sticky, so you'll need to either press any type of sprinkle into the cookie or create ridges like I did.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Sunday Summer Berry Pie

Sometimes a summer night just needs some pie.  Berry pie.  And ice cream, of course.  Ever have one of those weekends, where this...

Is the perfect cap-off to this...?

Boston skyline from Spectacle Island

If you're anything like me, you don't feel like doing much besides sitting on the couch and sipping a glass of wine after a sunny day at the beach, but this pie is simple and totally worth the ten extra minutes on your feet.

This is an awesome berry pie that uses frozen berries and is nice and quick to put together (although I'm sure in-season, fresh berries would make it even better!)  If your summer night needs a little dessert, whip this up and you'll be happy as pie, sweets ;)

As always, let me know what you think if you try this recipe out by posting a note in the comments below.

Triple Berry Pie:
Need:

• Enough pie dough for 2 crusts (for this one, I just bought the Pillsbury pre-made pie crusts in the refrigerated section at the food store.  Note- Pillsbury did not ask me to post them, I just really like their pre-made pie-crust and highly recommend it if you don't feel like rolling out your own!)
• 5 cups frozen mixed berries 
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Do:

1. Mix the frozen berries with sugar, flour and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Let stand for 45 minutes so the berries can thaw out a little bit.  (I did this step, then took a shower and blow-dried my hair which took about 35 minutes and then kept going...perfect timing!)
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees F
3. Line a pie plate with half of the crust (or 1 crust, if you bought the 2-pack)
4. Pour all the berries into the pie crust and spread around making an even layer
5. Place the second crust on top and crimp the edges to seal
6. Cut a few slits in the top crust to let the steam out
7. I brushed the top of my pie with a little milk and put some Sugar in the Raw on top, but you can skip this step if you'd like.
8. Cover the edges of your pie with tin foil so they don't burn
9. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes, then remove the foil from the edges
10. Bake at 375 for an additional 30 minutes - the pie should be bubbly and crust nice and gold at this point.
11. Let the pie cool completely if you want nice and neat slices, or, you can dig right in and enjoy some nice gooey berry pie with a scoop of ice cream on top like I did :)

Step 1:  Berries + Sugar + Flour + Cinnamon

Step 1 cont.  Mix 'em up!

Steps 3 & 4 (after heating the oven) line a pie plate and fill with berry mixture

Steps 5, 6, 7- Put on top crust, crimp edges, brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar and cut steam slits

Fresh out of the oven, hot berry pie

I spy hot pie. <3

Healthy Pumpkin Bread

Hubs & I have a cruise coming up in two weeks, woohoo!  With that in mind, I was craving a sweet bread for breakfast but didn't want to kill my calorie count for the day.  After a little google searching, I found a pumpkin bread recipe and tweaked it just a bit to make it healthy and incorporate what I had in the house.  I warned J that it may not taste as good as usual due to the health factor, but he loved it just the same.  I did too!  Bonus on this recipe?  It's super easy.  One-bowl-wonder.  Love.

Special thank you to my Auntie Elisa who gave me 2-cup packs of her fresh, homemade pumpkin puree.  Healthy, delicious super food.  Thanks Auntie!!

Healthy Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Kitchen Stewardship)

Need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/8 cup ground flaxseed meal
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree

Do: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl
3. Grease loaf pan
4. Pour batter into loaf pan
5. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes

We ate ours warm with some light cream cheese dolloped on top.  Happy Sunday!

Quick Fix - Chocolate Mug Cake

Has anyone else noticed the uprise of microwave cake recipes lately?  I've seen them a lot on blogs, and just recently the paper here in Boston did a little bit on microwave cakes.  Hubby sent me the link in an email that read:

"I FOUND THE SOLUTION!!!! ....for when you have your sweet cravings!" HAHA poor hubby always has to hear it when I "need" dessert.  He knows me well though, this 5-minute chocolate mug cake sounded like the perfect quick fix.

While the 5-minute prep & cook time was great, the cake itself turned out a bit...gelatinous.  Not going to lie, it was a little weird at first, but topped with a spoonful of fluff and some chocolate syrup, it really did hit the spot.  This won't become a regular treat but when I am in a bind and seriously need some cake, NOW, 5-minute mug cake it is.

Interested in trying one for yourself?  Boston.com listed a number of recipes for different flavors not too long ago.  Check them out here.

Note- if you do try the chocolate mug cake- I used dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet.  Dark chocolate in a moment of chocolate desperation just makes more sense, I think!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Recently my buddy Christina of All's Fare Food Blog did a post on an amazing looking apple cheesecake she made.  The post has a VERY funny (although probably not funny to her in the moment) story about her baking adventure, I highly recommend checking it out!

So Christina's cheesecake post reminded me that last week I made my first batch of cheesecake cupcakes, and that I really wanted to blog about them!  These cupcakes were super easy and fast to whip up, and went over extremely well!  I brought them to work for a meeting I was leading, and they were gone before I knew it.   The strawberries on top made them seem kind of summery, but I think the switch to fall-centric sweets will be coming soon.

I went with the cheesecake cupcakes because a coworker of mine asked me if I had ever made them, and I had not!  I figured this meeting was an appropriate time to let my work friends be the taste-testers for my first attempt.  Sad thing- the coworker who asked about them missed the meeting!  (Next time, Nancy!)

Anyway, these cuppies are great crowd pleasers, and the product of my southern love, Miss Paula Deen!  Here's my slightly tweaked version of Paula Deen's Easy Cheesecake Cupcakes.  This recipe is enough for 12 cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Need:
-2 8-oz packages of light cream cheese, softened
-1 cup sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 eggs
-1.5 graham crackers (3 squares)
-1 cup strawberry jam
-6 fresh strawberries

Do:
1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with paper liners
2.  Beat cream cheese until fluffy
3.  Add sugar and vanilla, beat well
4.  Beat in eggs, one at a time
5.  Break each of your three graham cracker squares into four small pieces, place one mini square in the bottom of each cupcake cup
6.  Spoon cream cheese mixture ontop of the graham crackers in each cup
7.  Bake for 20 minutes
8.  Let cupcakes cool completely.  When cool, put a spoonful of strawberry jam ontop, and garnish with half a fresh strawberry