Cookies N Beans

Cookies and beans? Yes beans! Black beans. I’ve seen them numerous times amongst brownie recipes out there but now, here they are in chocolate, fudgy cookies.

I was sceptical of how these were going to turn out, especially upon opening up my can of black beans and thinking they smelt more like cat food than the desirable chocolate cookies I was aspiring for. But upon adding in the cocoa powder and vanilla, they were well on their way to becoming a satisfying cookie dough.

I used this recipe and made a couple of variations subbing out the dried cherries and chili for walnuts and raw cacao nibs. I have to say, they turned out pretty well. I think upon making these a few more times I could end up making them into the perfect base for a gluten free and even vegan cookie. No flour, no sugar, and they can be made with no eggs; whatever you fancy.

Vanilla Extract

Homemade vanilla extract. Who knew it was so easy? I didn’t, but really all you need is some alcohol and vanilla pods! I only made the one bottle and I gave it away as a gift this Christmas but I plan to make it again. I love the smell of vanilla when I’m baking and mixing it into my other ingredients. This was so simple to do and the smell was incredible as it was left to sit and colour and ferment. I highly recommend trying this out if you’re a vanilla-lover. Plus, you can keep topping up the bottle with extra beans and alcohol and it will continue to ferment as vanilla.

Candy Cane Cookies

I had completely forgotten about these until the other day and once I had remembered, I knew I’d have to make some (despite having a list of other important things to make that I had hardly started!)

It’s amazing how a smell can you take you back to a certain memory or a time in your life. As soon as I had added the variety of extracts to these cookies (a wonderful blend of almond, vanilla, and peppermint) I was brought back to when I was a little girl. I always made sure to leave some of these out for Santa. I believed they were his favorite because they were always the ones gone come Christmas morning, year after year. Oddly enough, these were also my brother’s favorite…

Apple Crumble

Crumble is by far one of the easiest and quickest things to make. It’s also pretty versatile in the fact that you can throw in whatever you have on hand- whatever’s in season. I made this particular one with a mixture of apples I had sitting in the fruit bowl and all gluten-free.

I found a great recipe a little while back for a streusel topping that I used from Ina Garten on a cake (see here) I decided to try it out on a crumble once and I’ve never looked back. No more rubbing the butter to pea size bits!

The streusel topping is super easy, super crunchy, and super tasty. I add that on top of my fruit which has been tossed in a little lemon juice, sugar, flour, and vanilla (this creates a bit of a thickened “sauce” underneath the streusel topping) It is such an inviting smell when this bakes up. There’s something very comforting when you take it out of the oven and you see it bubbling away underneath that lovely topping.

Works a treat every time.

Breakfast Eats

As everyone knows, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I have always notoriously, never missed breakfast. Then about a year ago, I started to skip it. I’d settle for a glass of juice or a snack bar here and there until I ended up eating something later on in the day.

There’s something in my subconscious when I don’t eat breakfast—
I feel like every other meal doesn’t count, and the rest of my day isn’t as productive all because I skipped it. It nags and nags at me until I go to sleep that night.

It’s a horrible habit to get into and I don’t recommend it to anyone! I’ve made a conscious effort to eat it again everyday.
So here’s a couple of things I’ll have for a quick and easy breakfast:

Do it like Goldilocks- Have some porridge!

½ cup semi-skimmed milk (soy milk/rice milk/almond milk- works for all)
3 tbsp rolled oats
1 tbsp coconut oil
a splash of vanilla extract
a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg

Heat the milk in a saucepan on medium heat until it almost hits a boil- but don’t let it burn! As this is heating up, you can add the coconut oil to melt. Add the vanilla and then the oats. Bring the heat down to a simmer and let them cook until the mixture thickens (takes about 5 minutes)

Add the nutmeg and cinnamon and voila- easy peasy

Yogurt with Granola

I used to only like certain types of vanilla yogurt, until I tried Yeo Valley’s Organic Blueberry with a hint of lime.

When I get the chance, I like to make my own homemade granola but when I don’t have that, I settle for Jordans Super Berry Granola (The best thing about this one- no sultanas! I really don’t like them)

So using the two of those, I add a teaspoon of chia seeds to the yogurt, half a tablespoon of sunflower seeds, some berries (strawberries, raspberries, whatever is on hand) and if craving some extra sweetness (which I do admit, is pretty much every morning) good quality dark chocolate- chips or chopped up.

The Best French Toast

French toast is one of the easiest things to make ever. It’s great for breakfast, and even works for dinner or a snack. There are so many things you can do to vary it up. You can make it gluten-free as well by substituting the bread for gluten-free bread.

2-3 slices of bread
1-2 eggs (free range and organic if you can)
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
2 tsp coconut oil
maple syrup (it really is the best, if you can’t get that, you can use golden syrup)
icing sugar and berries

In a bowl mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add the slices of bread and coat both sides. Heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the bread slices to the pan. Let it cook for a couple minutes then turn it over. If you like it a bit soggy, leave it on for another two minutes but if you prefer it cooked well throughout, leave it on longer. Remove from the heat and plate up.

I usually cut the squares in half to triangles and line them up on my plate. Scatter the berries; add the maple syrup, and a tiny sprinkling of icing sugar.

Cupcakes Galore

Over the weekend, it was my  father-in-law’s birthday and I decided to celebrate by making him cupcakes– 65 to be exact. And they’re all gluten-free!
I never made any of these kinds before and wanted to vary it up and include a few flavours of the things I know he’d like best.

I settled for an apple cupcake with cinnamon buttercream frosting, a banana pecan cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting, and finally, a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

I decided to decorate the entire table. The red velvet cupcakes were in a formation of “65” and instead of buying tiered cake stands I’d just be tossing away, I chose a variety of different plates and bowls to stack at different heights to display the rest.

This is how it turned out:

Apple Cinnamon cupcakes

Banana Pecan cupcakes

Red Velvet cupcakes

What are some of your favorite cupcakes to bake? Do you have any creative ways of displaying the things you’ve made?