Dare You To...

There is something so tasty and sweet about baked apples. 

Add in cinnamon, honey, walnuts, and you get a deliiicious dessert, paleo/gluten-free to boot!

After my first April Adventure getting funky in Zumba class, I kind of took a hiatus from adventuring. Last week just flewww by, but now I'm back and ready for another adventure!


This week, I experimented with gluten-free baking! Granted, I already did some paleo baking with almond flour (which is also GF), but this time I took a regular cookie recipe and swapped in new, never-before-used-by-me ingredients:


The recipe called for rolled oats, so I was thrilled when I happened upon this gluten-free variety!

I know what you're thinking. Beans? In a COOKIE?? I was a little nervous, too, but I chose this as my flour (rather than, say, corn flour or rice flour) because Chocolate-Covered Katie uses chickpea and white bean (and I think even garbanzo!) beans in so many of her healthy, vegan desserts.  And she is AWESOME.
Today's recipe, however, called for regular ole whole wheat flour, of which I'm usually a big fan. I was inspired (dared) by My friend Rachel, who has a b…

When a friend from out of town was visiting, a group of us were getting together for a night out.  Not wanting to show up empty handed, I decided it was the perfect time for another experiment in baking with Greek yogurt!


I decided that I'd do a variation on my classic blondies, replacing calorie-, fat-, and sugar-dense white chocolate with Chobani's Plain 0% Greek yogurt as the flavor base.  Instead of a fattening artificial bar, we'll get a high dose of protein in this sweet snack! 





This recipe is also updated in that instead of butter or a butter-substitute, I used coconut oil and applesauce.  I was a bit nervous, but this worked very well.






Next, I'll work on weaning out the sugar altogether.  The butter-subbing and swapping in honey for half the sugar was enough experimentation for this round; next time I'll try losing all the sugar (although only 1/3 cup ain't so bad!).  I might also try swapping out the whole-wheat flour for a gluten-free and/or paleo-frien…

Wow this is long overdue.  All fall, I've been baking up my signature blondies, although, for the first time in years, I've been switching up the flavors. Keeping things interesting. Healthifying it up!

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In December, my friend Jeff came over to help me prepare not one, not two, but FOUR batches of blondies--each a different flavor.  They're all the same basic recipe, with variations on flavor and dietary-swaps.  I began baking the plain chocolate-chip blondies before he arrived, to get things moving.

It all starts with some melted white chocolate and butter*...


Mix into another bowl containing mixed sweeteners, vanilla, baking powder, and eggs (or sub--see below!)


Anddd flour, etc, combine...


Add your semisweet chocolate chips!  Save a few to top it off with later, and a few to nosh on yourself. (Perks of being the baker.)

 >
Et voila - blondies, 45 minutes later.

Jeff arrived with the rest of the white chocolate needed and made me a VERY happy girl.


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