Buttercream Fanatic

ButtercreamFanatic.com is Counterfeit! (Use buttercreamfanatic.blogspot.com Instead)

2016-07-14T08:29:00.001-05:00

Hi, and welcome to buttercreamfanatic.blogspot.com. That "blogspot" part is important because this is the only site that I (the original owner of the site and creator of all the content you see here) have access to.

No, you're not crazy: this used to be buttercreamfanatic. com, but through the black magic of the internet (I still don't really understand how), someone bought my domain and then stole the entire site and reposted it at buttercreamfanatic. com. Please don't visit buttercreamfanatic. com!! If you'd like a recipe, you can find it - the original, un-copyright-infringed version - here on buttercreamfanatic.blogspot.com.

Thank you!

New on A Clean Bake: Sweets, Savories, and Chocolate (of course!)

2014-09-19T05:30:00.000-05:00

Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake Muffins

Gluten-Free Vanilla Layer Cake

with Vegan Cherry-Rose Frosting

Healthier Pistachio-Orange Rice Pudding

Creamy Vegan Kale Pesto

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Blueberry Chia Quinoa Granola

Muddled Berry Arnold Palmer

(Secretly Healthy) No-Bake Brownie Batter Dip

Pumpkin Baked Quinoa Bars

Plum, Pear and Chia Compote

Dill and Caper Egg Salad

How To: Make Hard Boiled Eggs in the Oven

Grain-Free Single Serve Cherry Rhubarb Pies

How to: Make Candied Lemon Peels

How to: Bake Flat Cake Layers

New on A Clean Bake: Veggie Burgers, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, DIY Peanut Butter and more!

2014-07-09T05:30:00.000-05:00

Paleo Veggie Sliders and (Baked) Sweet Potato Fries

Perfect for summer BBQs!

Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free; No Special Flour Necessary!

The Best Road Trip Trail Mix

No-Bake, takes 2 minutes to make!

Butternut Squash and Thyme Biscuits

Perfect to accompany your favorite BBQ!

How To: Make Your Own Peanut Butter

1 ingredient is all your need!

Berry Crumble Bars

Naturally Vegan and Gluten-Free!

Tropical Granola

Tastes like sunshine!

Whoopie Pies

A secretly-healthy take on the classic dessert!

Carrot and Quinoa Soup with Chickpea Croutons

Can be eaten hot or cold!

Classic Banana Bread

The delicious bread you already love, only gluten-free!

Vegan Baked Tofu

5 minutes and 5 ingredients is all you need!

How To: Season a Cast Iron Skillet

A must for any chef or baker's kitchen!

Recipe Roundup: BBQ Favorites for the Fourth of July

2014-07-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

If you're planning to host or attend a 4th of July party, here are a few ideas for the most important part of the day: the food!

**

Quicker than a pie:

Berry Crumble Bars

A grain-free twist on the classic:

Thick and Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

On the grill:

Paleo Veggie Sliders

To cool off:

Lavender Lemonade Sparkler

For the kids:

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Because it's not a party without chips and guac!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

(link to homemade guac is in the post)

To cool off:

Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bites

If you're a gazpacho fan:

Cold Carrot Quinoa Soup with Chickpea Sliders

To say Happy Birthday, America!:

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

(swap in red, white and blue sprinkles for extra festiveness)

To accompany BBQ:

Butternut Squash and Thyme Biscuits

For Dessert:

Gluten-Free Chocolate Layer Cake

(no special flours required!)

Have and happy and safe 4th of July!

New On a Clean Bake: Layer Cake, Blueberry Muffins, Homemade Reese's PB Eggs, and More!

2014-05-13T13:27:00.003-05:00

**Make sure you never miss a recipe! Click here to receive posts by email - it's free! **

Gluten-Free Chocolate Layer Cake

Healthier Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs

Grain-Free Lemon Pound Cake (Paleo)

Buckwheat Blueberry Muffins

Coconut Cherry Breakfast Cookies

4-Ingredient No Bake Chocolate Coconut Truffles

DIY Oat Flour

New on A Clean Bake: Grain-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

2014-04-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

Click here to get the recipe at A Clean Bake!

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New on A Clean Bake: Gluten-Free Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake and Celebrating 1 Year of Blogging

2014-03-25T05:30:00.000-05:00

Click here to get the recipe at A Clean Bake!

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Click here to receive A Clean Bake recipes by email - it's free!

New on A Clean Bake: Grain-Free, Sugar-Free Carrot Cake Truffles (and a giveaway!)

2014-03-18T05:30:00.000-05:00

Click here to get the recipe at A Clean Bake!

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Click here to receive A Clean Bake recipes by email - it's free!

New on A Clean Bake: Irish Soda Bread

2014-03-13T05:30:00.000-05:00

Click here to get the gluten-free and conventional recipes at A Clean Bake!

Make sure you never miss a recipe:

Click here to receive A Clean Bake recipes by email - it's free!

New on A Clean Bake: Thick and Soft Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2014-03-11T05:30:00.000-05:00

Click here to get the recipe at A Clean Bake!

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A Clean B(re)ak

2014-03-05T20:49:00.000-06:00

THE THING ABOUT BLOGGING IS THAT ONCE PEOPLE START READING, YOU ARE COMMITTED.

Whatever topic, whatever style, whatever schedule you started randomly rambling about one day - well you're stuck. And there is an implicit pressure to not only embody it, but to embody its ideal - to continue to crank out magazine-worthy photographs of pastry school-caliber dishes...to hold all of the secrets to the baking universe...to invent and perfect and present the most ideal recipes...and to do it again every week. Without chipping your manicure.

I mean, I get it. We all want to live the dream. We read and write about food because we see the beauty in making and consuming it: how perfect it can be, how delicious and satisfying. We want to believe that we can eat with abandon, taking for granted that our bodies will accept whatever meals we throw at it.

SOMETIMES IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

Our lives are chaotic and food is sometimes ugly and our bodies don't always work they way they are supposed to. I have been dealing with a lot of stomach issues for a long time, and they're not going to go away on their own. I don't want to offer any more details than that, but suffice it to say that it has been agonizing at times, and made even more unpleasant by a succession of vague recommendations from doctors whose specialty this was not (and who subsequently had no idea what was really wrong or how to fix it).

I FINALLY GOT SOME REAL ANSWERS TODAY.

Now I can begin to heal with a course of medication, some heavy-duty supplements, and a strict elimination diet that forbids all of the good stuff like butter, wheat flour and refined sugar. I'll eventually recover in full, and it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But now that I know what's wrong and how to (hopefully) fix it, the hardest part is wrestling with the question of what to do with this blog. With a few exceptions in which I have an opportunity to bake for others, I can't continue to post "regular" desserts, because I can't taste test them for you, and I would never share something with you that I don't personally know is delicious.

SO I'VE DECIDED TO START FRESH.

Buttercream Fanatic will remain live, and I'll post as time and opportunities allow. But the majority of my energy will shift to a new outlet.

I'm calling it A Clean Bake: Clean for clean(er) eating, bake for things from the oven. But it's also a pun. (Some things never change!). That way, when you come to Buttercream Fanatic, you can expect buttercream, and when you go to A Clean Bake, you can find healthy desserts like the ones I have been whipping up lately. Luckily, I am quickly getting the hang of making outrageously delicious desserts that also happen to be healthy and easy to digest. Most of the people who try the stuff I bake have no food allergies or intolerances, and can't tell the difference between what I bake and the "real" thing.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

For starters, please go to www.acleanbake.com instead of www.buttercreamfanatic.com every Tuesday (and some Thursdays) for new recipes.
If you want to receive A Clean Bake recipes every week by email (completely free!), please take 5 seconds to subscribe by clicking here.
If you are currently a fan on Facebook or follow on Pinterest and Twitter, stay where you are - the accounts will simply change names.
And finally, if you subscribe on Bloglovin or another feed reader, you are going to have to resubscribe. Follow on Bloglovin here.

SO, THAT'S THE STORY.

I know this is awkward and unusual for a blogger to totally change horses midstream, but hey, that's life. I am figuring out how to live better by eating better, and if that's something that interests you, and/or if you've been particularly jazzed by the recipes here on Buttercream Fanatic these last couple of months, I think you'll really like what A Clean Bake has to offer.

SEE YOU THERE?

Better-Than-Dunkin' Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts

2014-03-04T05:30:00.000-06:00

I like a challenge.

One recent morning, while I was deep into my new year's healthy eating program, I was tempted by a doughnut. Not a healthy doughnut, though; far from it. The CEO of my company insisted I eat a Dunkin' Donuts glazed chocolate, so I took one for the team. The thing is, he insisted he made them and just put them in the Dunkin' box for presentation, so um....needless to say, that turned into a bake-off.

I work in a small, tight-knit, hungry office so I bake a fair amount for my coworkers when I have the time. But this batch of doughnuts was different. I was up against the CEO and his "homemade" (Sorry DR) Dunkin' Donuts, so I had to bring my A-game. Time to call in the experts. To that end, I used Joy the Baker's chocolate cake doughnuts recipe, except for adding a touch more moisture (reflected in the recipe below) and changing the frosting, which I replaced with a simple vanilla glaze. I followed the recipe pretty much verbatim, which is nearly unheard of for a serial recipe-tweaker like me. But Joy's recipes are always so impeccable and so precise, that you're better off just following it (except for when you don't). As for the frosting, a hearty slather of chocolate would certainly have been fantastic, but I decided to go with more of a vanilla glaze as something of an homage to the doughnut that inspired this bake off. And, just for some extra insurance, I finished of each doughnut with a generous portion of sprinkles since, well, that's gotta give me some points right out of the gate.

Can you guess who won? Scroll down past the recipe to find out!

Better-Than-Dunkin' Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts
Adapted, slightly, from Joy the Baker

For the doughnuts:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon buttermilk*
1 large egg
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*If you don't have buttermilk around, that's no problem! Simply add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to 1/2 a cup of regular (cow's) milk, gently stir, and set aside for about 5 minutes until it curdles.

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons whole milk
Splash of vanilla extract

For garnish:
Colored oblong sprinkles (don't use the confetti/ball-shaped ones, which will bleed their colors into the glaze)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325F. Liberally coat 2 x 6-slot doughnut pans and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt an and sugar). In another similar bowl, combine the wet ingredients (buttermilk, egg, butter, and vanilla).

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a fork until just combined. Make sure there are no lumps.

Divide the batter into 9 portions. Each doughnut form should be approximately 2/3 full.

Bake for 11-12 minutes until they go from glossy to matte. Cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before removing and cooling doughnuts the rest of the way on a wire rack.

While the doughnuts are cooling, whisk together the glaze ingredients. It will be thick. When doughnuts are totally cool, turn each over and dunk it in the glaze (It's best to use a cereal-size bowl for this), then return it to the wire rack and immediately garnish with sprinkles. Wait for the glaze to harden slightly before serving.

If you want to make these look just like the Dunkin' version, thin out the glaze by adding 2-3 more teaspoons milk and dunk both sides of the doughnut instead of just the top. Skip the sprinkles.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge (glazed) or at room temperature (unglazed) for up to three days. Unglazed doughnuts keep best, and can also be frozen for up to three months.

Yield: 9 standard-sized doughnuts.

The results of the Doughnut Throwdown (Did I build up the suspense enough?):

I won, but only by default. The CEO was sick ("sick") the day of the doughnut throwdown. Personally, I think he was just scared to go up against my doughnuts ;-)

I don't like taking the easy way out, so I suggested a rematch!

Healthy Homemade Frappuccino

2014-02-27T05:30:00.000-06:00

This drink is vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, lactose-free, soy-free, and refined sugar-free.

I’ve been traveling a lot lately. Like The First 5 Seconds of the Up In the Air Trailer a lot. Ok, maybe not that much, but it sure feels that way. Traveling, especially by air, in February is a recipe for disaster, and there have been so many cancelled flights, one almost-drive home from Ohio, and one actual drive home from Ohio. I bought incredibly obnoxious glittery slippers to wear in the car just to make myself feel better about life that night (they are now shedding glitter all over my house, oops). Luckily I drove with my colleague, which made it fun. The time passed quickly, and before we knew it, it was almost 1am and we were home. In addition to the power of glittery shoes to make unanticipated late night weekend road trips go more quickly, I also learned another important life lesson: it is cold in Minnesota this time of year. C-c-c-cold, as in the sound of teeth chattering.

Anyway, between all the work and the travel headaches, I have been trying to take it easy on the weekends. Meaning no elaborate plans beyond brunch and lots of episodes of 24 (don’t tell me what happens past season 5 yet, please!) and only cooking when I feel like it. At breakfast, I haven’t felt like it. And holy moly have I been exhausted from this schedule. Thus was born the breakfast of lazy champions: How I Threw Coffee into My Favorite Winter Smoothie or, for those of you who prefer brevity (I don’t), the Healthy Homemade Frappuccino.

It makes sense, though, right? We've been doing a healthy thing the last couple months, and here, at the conclusion of Gluten-Free February, we should end the same way we began Detox January: with a smoothie. I mean, that’s all a Frappuccino is - a smoothie that has been enhanced coffee, that wonderful elixir of the gods.

I’ve posted a few other smoothies here before, but this one is different. Whereas those were crisp, this is creamy. Whereas those were refreshing, this is comforting. But both involve bananas. Are you like me, always looking for novel ways to use up old bananas? You must be. Who isn’t?

I tried something different with this smoothie, sweetening it with dates, in addition to the bananas. A little extra sweetness was necessary to offset the bitterness that the coffee brings, and you can feel free to adjust the sweetness using more dates or liquid sweetener to taste. The trick is to puree the dates very well before adding the rest of the ingredients, or else the dates remain chunky and either sink to the bottom or, you know, get stuck in your throat and suffocate you. Either way is not cool. But, ok, I digress. This smoothie is sweet and spicy, soft and creamy, smooth and thick. Because it looks like this outside most of the time lately….

…I decided not to add ice, but you can feel free to do so, if you want a more authentic fresh-from-the-Frap-machine consistency. The best way to chill this drink without diluting the texture or flavor would be to actually freeze the coffee in standard ice cube trays ahead of time, and then add coffee ice cubes instead of the liquid coffee. You might have to increase the almond milk slightly to get the right consistency. You can also, of course, feel free to use whatever coffee you want. I used a super dark French roast, but you can use a lighter roast, decaf, or even flavored (hazelnut would be pretty good, I think).

So to recap: this recipe is, as all smoothies/milk shakes/Frappuccinos are, pretty adaptable to your taste, so don’t be afraid to adjust the ingredient proportions a little bit if you want to. But whatever you do, don’t plan 3 back-to-back out of state client meetings in February, unless you really want an excuse to drive through Southern Indiana at midnight.

Healthy Homemade Frappuccino

Print this recipe

Ingredients

1 large overripe banana
1/2 cup almond milk
2-3 large soft (medjool) dates, or to taste, pitted
1/2 cup brewed coffee, at room temperature or chilled
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
A few drops of liquid Stevia (to taste; you can replace with any liquid sweetener)
2-4 water or coffee ice cubes (optional)

Cooking Directions

In a blender, puree the banana, almond milk and dates until smooth. Make sure no large chunks of date remain.
Add coffee, vanilla and stevia and mix to combine. Add ice cubes if using, and blend just until crushed.
Serve immediately.

Yield: Makes 1 smoothie

The Best Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

2014-02-25T05:30:00.000-06:00

Between Detox January and Gluten Free February, it has been about 2 months since I have eaten bread, pasta, crackers, or anything wheat-y or gluten-y. Truthfully it hasn't been that hard. I mean, luckily, I still had plenty of cookies, cake and chocolate, so that probably helped me avoid feeling deprived. But at the end of two months, I would absolutely kill for a sandwich.

(Preferably my favorite kind: open-faced almond butter and fig jam. You know how I like the combination of figs and almonds!)

The quality of store-bought gluten-free bread usually ranges from "pretty bad" to "petrified styrofoam", and I've long since given up on finding a ready-made gluten-free bread that didn't either give me the feeling of eating home insulation or sit like a rock in my stomach for hours after consumption. Mmmmm - how's that for a selling point? I had all but given up hope until I saw this recipe. It was actually included in an article in the Chicago Tribune, in which Shauna Ahern, who writes the wildly successful blog Gluten Free Girl and the Chef (and has written several GF cookbooks too), contributed her recipe for sandwich bread. It is, far and away, the best I've ever had. Yes, it is a bit more labor intensive than regular bread, but it is worth it. You have to - HAVE TO - measure the ingredients by volume, and no you cannot skip this step because good gluten-free bread is super finicky and it will rebel if you don't follow the directions exactly (luckily, kitchen scales are not too expensive, and I use mine constantly for gluten-free and regular baking). But it is so, so worth it.

Why? Well, for starters, even though when you're making it, the dough is more like a batter, and you can't possibly imagine that this will result in any kind of success, it miraculously comes out of the oven with the consistency of bread. It contains yeast so the loaf is springy and airy, and contains the kind of nooks and crannies that good bread should have. It's slightly chewy - a first in my gluten-free-bread-eating experience, as most commercial varieties I've tried are incredibly dense, dry and tough. At the same time, it is hearty; none of that weird starchy/insubstantial texture here. And....drumroll please... it has a crust. A crust doesn't seem like the end of the world if you have been eating regular bread, but I've never seen a proper crust on a loaf of the gluten free stuff. In short, it looks, tastes and feels like the "real" thing. It is, without a doubt, the best gluten-free sandwich bread I have ever had.

The Best Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Print this recipe

Ingredients

100 grams gluten-free oat flour
94 grams millet flour
71 grams sweet rice flour
70 grams potato starch
15 grams whole psyllium husks, ground
1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon table salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups hot water (about 110 degrees)
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) coconut oil, melted a cooled slightly, but still liquid
Nonstick spray
1 large egg, beaten

Cooking Directions

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, potato starch, psyllium, yeast and salt and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add the water and coconut oil slowly and mix until the water has cooled to room temperature, about 5 minutes.
With the mixer running on medium speed, pour in the dry ingredients, a bit at a time. Let the mixer continue to run to whip some air into the batter. The final dough will be like thick, yet pourable pancake batter. (If the dough is thicker than that, add a dribble of hot water at a time until your batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)
Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with the nonstick spray. Pour in the batter. Preheat the oven to the warm setting. Turn off the oven, and put the batter in to rise until it is about as tall as the pan, which takes roughly an hour.
Take the batter out of the oven, and set the oven to preheat to 450 degrees.
Brush the top of the dough with some of the beaten egg. Once the oven is preheated, bake the bread until the top is brown, the edges of the bread are pulling away from the pan, and the internal temperature registers 200 degrees on a thermometer, for about 30 minutes.

Yield: Makes 1 loaf
Source: Adapted from Shauna Ahern's recipe in the Chicago Tribune.

Chocolate Sea Salt Popcorn

2014-02-18T05:30:00.000-06:00

This snack is gluten-free and low sugar.

The hardest thing about eating healthy (or, dare I say, dieting?) is snacking, right? Especially when you are trying not to reach for a cookie or a muffin or a bowl of ice cream. Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks that tastes like an indulgence but actually, if its made right, is not at all bad for you. By "if it's made right", I'm obviously not talking about the kind from the movie theater which, as we all know, is infamous for containing 309482093842093840928 calories per 1/2 cup.

No, instead, I am talking about making the stuff at home, popping it by air or in a slight bit of oil - I only use about a Tablespoon for 1/3 cup of kernels, which makes about 5-6 cups of popped corn - and adding a drizzle of good quality chocolate and a pinch of coarse sea salt that will give you the satisfaction of a treat, without slamming your body with a million grams of sugar and salt - not to mention gluten, if that is something you care to avoid.

As you've probably noticed, I put chocolate in most all of my healthy treats, because, without a little bit of the good stuff, it tastes like diet food and I don't like diets. Eating healthy is a totally different thing though, which involves not depriving yourself but also not going overboard.

The only way for this to work, though, is to use the good stuff. Yes, this is the time to splurge on good chocolate and fancy sea salt. There actually is a difference in salt! You're only going to need a little bit of each, so I promise this won't break the bank. I actually got my coarse sea salt on clearance at TJ Maxx. The reason to spend a little more than you usually might is because, with so few ingredients, each one is very important. In your mouth, that is. For example, I used good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa) here, which produced a flavor that was not only unmistakeable but also concentrated enough in each bite to not even consider wanting a brownie. Seriously! I know this sounds like witchcraft, but give this recipe a shot: it's quick and easy, appropriate for any experience level and produces a ridiculously good snack or party food.

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cake for Two

2014-02-13T05:30:00.000-06:00

These cakes are gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo, and can be adapted to be vegan or dairy-free.

You didn't honestly think I would let Valentine's Day pass without something chocolate, right? Now that we have gotten the obligatory cute cutout cookies out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. Er, chocolate tacks.

The wonderful thing about this dessert is how fast and easy it is to make. Melt some chocolate, stir in a few more things, and bake for a mere 12 minutes. You barely even have to let these cool (in fact, don't let them cool too much!) before you eat them. Valentine's Day is not the time to worry about delayed gratification. Just stick your spoon in a giant pile of chocolate and enjoy it.

You'll notice a really surprising ingredient in the recipe. Scroll down and take a look..........see it now? Avocado. I know this is weird, but it's the perfect way to make a decadent dessert that is still dairy-free (mostly, notwithstanding the tiny bit of dairy in the chocolate). Trust me on this one, it works. Avocado provides a lot of healthy fat and is easier to digest than dairy. Plus, it has basically no flavor, so you'll never know it's there. But if you're a little squeamish about putting a veggie (although it's technically a fruit!) in your dessert, I would imagine you could swap in melted butter with no problem.

Yes, the recipe is made for two, and no I am not trying to stick it to the single ladies. Actually, if you don't feel like sharing these, no problem! Bake one dense, gooey, fudgy cake now, and keep one in the fridge for later. I would not halve the recipe, because then you'll lose out on the structure and flavor provided by the extra egg yolk. And, besides, since when is having too much gooey chocolate cake a bad thing?

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Five Spice Valentine Cookies

2014-02-11T05:30:00.001-06:00

#GLUTENFREE FEBRUARY

These cookies are free of gluten, grains, lactose, refined sugar, and artificial colors.

Have you ever cooked with Chinese Five-Spice powder? It is magic. The flavor is so unexpected: a little bit of sweet (cinnamon, star anise, cloves), and a little bit of heat (black pepper, fennel - which, I have recently learned, is not the same plant as anise) in the same bite. It's a combination that is all at once really unfamiliar to the American palette and inexplicably comforting.

Plus, if I were better with cheesiness or puns, I would be able to make some sort of reference to making your Valentine's Day "extra spicy" or "kicking it up a notch" or some uncomfortable entendre like that. But I'm going to rise above it. Instead, I'll tell you that four of the five flavors are very subtle, so really these taste very much like your favorite anise cookies with a subtle kick of pepper at the end of each bite. Yes, I know that anise is a very polarizing flavor, and most people either love it or hate it. I was raised eating anise cookies, and I love it. If you are a fan of anise, and of gently sweetened cookies (Notice I did not call these "sugar cookies"? There is a reason for that.), you will love these cookies, too.

The five-spice powder is not the only unexpected ingredient in what looks like a standard sugar cookie. I know that a lot of people are really uncomfortable ingesting artificial colors (and I don't mind avoiding them myself if I can help it), but luckily beet juice or puree makes an amazing alternative to chemical food coloring. Don't worry, you can't taste any veggies in these cookies.

Instead you taste a crispy-on-the-outside, moist-and-tender-on-the-inside, spicy-sweet cutout cookie that you and your valentine will love.

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Frosted Banana Cinnamon Raisin Detox Cookies

2014-02-06T05:30:00.000-06:00

(When I say frosted, I really mean frosted.)

Yes, another detox cookie recipe. Why? Because they're delicious, healthy and versatile, and because when I posted the last recipe, I was floored (and psyched!) at the overwhelming response it got. I almost didn't post them, you see. Too easy, too healthy, too ugly. I'm glad I did. They're awesome.

I got a comment on the last recipe asking about a chocolate-free version. Fair point; I am usually really biased in favor of chocolate! But for those of you who can't or don't eat chocolate, it's not fair to deprive you of detox cookies.

When I set out to make these, I thought there would be a simple replacement for the cocoa. It turns out, just replacing the cocoa with coconut flour or oat flour results in a really bland and boring cookie. So I had to use a few extra flavors like cinnamon and raisins to make these just as tasty as the chocolate version, which is why they are no longer made of just three ingredients. The ingredients are still normal everyday foods that you probably have on hand, like bananas, raisins, oats and cinnamon.

I made these bite sized because they are the perfect two-bite treat for an afternoon snack. But you can feel free to make them larger to become breakfast cookies (just don't forget to increase baking time). The frosting is, of course, the most important part, but once these are frosted, they don't keep well for more than a day or two. Not that they'll last much longer than that!

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Midnight Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies #GlutenFreeFebruary

2014-02-04T05:30:00.000-06:00

These cookies are free of gluten, grains and lactose.

Fresh off of #DetoxJanuary, I thought we'd keep the healthy-eating train moving. One of the most commonly (and arguably trendiest) vilified ingredients in food these days is gluten, a protein that occurs in wheat, barley, rye and oats (except those labeled "gluten-free"). This isn't news, probably, unless you've been living under a rock - or in a wheat field - but I've seen gluten blamed for everything from digestive upset to muscle and head aches to ... well just about anything you can find wrong with a person.

Anecdotally (meaning I haven't done any formal research on this because I am not a biologist, chemist, epidemiologist, or anything else ending in -ist), the research seems sound: wheat is both highly genetically modified and highly pervasive in the American diet, and too much of anything is bound to leave its mark. I challenge you to find a single processed food that does not include wheat or a derivative thereof. And then there are the predictable wheat products like pasta and bagels (omg be still my heart), which are obviously a huge part of the American diet. The bottom line is that we eat a lot of wheat. And where there is wheat (as well as barley, rye, and most oats), there is gluten.

I'm not passing judgement by any means. I mean, you know how much I love bagels. Not to mention that nearly everything else on this site is made starting with wheat flour. But for me, at least lately, reducing the amount of wheat, and many other grains, has had a significant positive effect on my health - and I know I am not alone. Whether for health reasons or just to try something new, there is nothing wrong with a few gluten-free treats now and then. The trick is not to try to make a gluten-free version of something that is heavily reliant on gluten, because that is just gross, but to put the best naturally gluten-free ingredients to work in order to make something delicious.

Like these cookies for example, which are made of simple ingredients you already have on hand, and are a big hit among gluten-lovers and gluten-avoiders alike. The secret, if you can call it that, is to focus on the silky moistness that the peanut butter offers, and the intense dark chocolate flavor provided by the cocoa powder. Once you get these flavors and textures right, you'll never notice the lack of cakeyness or fluff that is missing without the flour. Instead, these cookies are dense, moist, a little crumbly, a little bit bitter and a little sweet. But like any good cookie, gluten-y or gluten-free, the most important flavor is the chocolate. These cookies do not disappoint; in fact the chocolate flavor is so prominent that these couldn't possibly be called anything less than "midnight chocolate".

And by the way, if you don't care about gluten in your diet, don't overlook these cookies! I served them to many people who all eat - and love - regular cookies without a second thought, and they inhaled them and went back for seconds. So, don't let the little "gluten-free" label deter you, or risk missing out on a truly great cookie!

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Easy From-Scratch Guacamole

2014-01-29T05:30:00.000-06:00

Sorry I left you hanging yesterday. I worried that if I gave you guac, the idea of making your own wholesome baked tortilla chips would get lost in the shuffle. The creamy, salty, citrusy shuffle. What a delicious, delicious shuffle.......

Sorry, I kind of went into a guacamole dreamscape there for a second. I'm back. This guac will do that to you, though. So I hope you weren't too intent on paying attention to the game on Sunday because this guac might be kind of a distraction.

If your guac tastes are a little different from mine, that's cool. Luckily, this recipe is highly adaptable - in fact, I had to resist the urge to asterisk every ingredient with little notes. All of the notes basically boiled down to "or to taste", so maybe it is best to think of this as a guideline rather than a hard and fast recipe. Like chunkier guac? Don't mash your avocado as much as I did. Want some more texture? Add extra tomatoes. Go heavy on the lime juice or light on the salt if that is what floats your boat. Best of all: double the heck out of this recipe. Because there is no such thing as too much (chips and) guacamole.

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

DIY Three-Ingredient Tortilla Chips

2014-01-28T05:30:00.000-06:00

I really felt obligated to start this post out with a line like "let's talk Superbowl..." or something to that effect. But then I realized that all I have to say about it is the prompt to talk about it. No follow up questions, please. Unless you want to make a joke about it being a SUPER BOWL. *knowing smirk* (because both states from which the Superbowl teams hail have legalized marijuana). But that joke has been a little overdone, no?

So let's just talk snacks. Everyone likes snacks. In fact, I'd wager a bet that 57% (<---highly scientific projection) of all Superbowl viewers don't actually give two shakes about football. They're just in it for the snacks. So let's not disappoint them. "Them" can refer to party guests (if you're hosting), fellow viewers (if you're attending), or your taste buds (if you are watching alone or don't care about football).

In any of the above cases, it's worth doing more than opening a bag of chips and a can of artificially-flavored onion dip to make sure that, no matter how the game turns out, at least the spectators are winners. This snack is a serious winner: crispy, slightly toasted, and topped with crunchy sea salt. Baked, not fried, of course. And the fact that they are free of whatever unpronounceable preservatives the store-bought versions contain, not to mention the copious amount of grease those are fried in, thereby not requiring you to completely trash whatever healthy eating progress you've already made this month, is just the icing on the cake.

The chips take about 5 minutes of prep and only about 15 minutes in the oven, and you can double, triple, quadruple the batch to serve however many you hungry snackers you are watching with. And they go with just about anything: bean dip, salsa, ranch dip, etc. But - and it pains me to admit this to you - you're really missing out on something special if you don't pair them with a homemade bowl of silky, tangy guacamole, which is one of the easiest dips this side of mixing sour cream and ranch powder.

Obbbbviously, I have the perfect guac recipe to accompany your perfect tortilla chips, but that will have to wait. ~~Meet me back here tomorrow~~ Click here for the creamiest, zingiest homemade guacamole you've ever had. These chips just aren't complete without it.

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

3-Ingredient Detox Cookies (Sugar/Gluten/Grain/Dairy-Free) #DetoxJanuary

2014-01-23T05:30:00.000-06:00

These are literally the easiest, healthiest cookies you will ever make or eat. Ready for this? They only require three ingredients, and you already have them all on hand: peanut butter, bananas, and cocoa powder. Even if you don't usually keep cocoa powder on hand, I'll bet you have some left over from your Christmas cookies, right?

You probably also have a few perfectly overripe bananas that got, shall we say, overlooked in the midst of all the holiday cookies and pies and cinnamon rolls. They'll do just fine and, in fact, the riper the better. The last ingredient is peanut butter, and don't even try to tell me you don't have peanut butter! It's best if it's the unsweetened, natural, creamy kind, but use what you have.

And finally, there's the sea salt which, I suppose, is technically the 4th ingredient. Wait, don't go! You can skip the salt if you want, but the cookies won't taste the same. The salt is what pulls the whole cookie together, making the cocoa taste more robust and bringing out the sweetness of the bananas. The salt is actually pretty important, even though it doesn't technically go in the cookie.

Use the course kind, and try to find the best quality you can manage. Believe it or not, different kinds of salt have different flavors and the more premium kinds have a more complex flavor than the homogenized kind that comes in a can labeled "table salt" (or whatever). That's why it's worth what might seem like a little bit of an indulgence, but you can actually find some pretty good quality course sea salt in the food aisle of TJ Maxx or Marshall's. It will last you awhile, too, since it's not something you typically use for more than a garnish.

Anyway, these cookies are as easy to make as they are to eat. The batter will come together with just one bowl and a fork or spoon, and it will become cookies after only 8-9 minutes in the oven. Sound too good to be true? Well, they're not. They're chocolatey, moist, and cakey, and they might be just a little ugly, but they taste pretty darn good, despite being refined-sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free and dairy-free. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't eat healthy and still have cookies.

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla "Buttercream" Frosting (Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free, Sugar-Free) #DetoxJanuary

2014-01-20T10:07:00.000-06:00

Beware: lots of pictures ahead. I just couldn't resist. There is something so darn cute about these colorful little two-bite beauties. And, man, do they taste good.

The problem with just about every healthy-eating attempt is that sooner or later, you get hungry, or stressed, or sweet-tooth-y and you Need some cake. With a capital "n".

These tiny heroes are the guilt-free answer to your worst comfort-food craving: moist, fat-crumbed, chocolatey and topped with creamy buttercream. Er, "buttercream". These can't possibly be healthy, right? Wrong. Not only are they the size of the palm of your hand (portion control? Nope, just means you can eat twice as many.), they are also 100% gluten, lactose and refined-sugar free (sweetened with beets, maple syrup, and just a touch of stevia, if you can believe that!), but you would never, ever know it.

When I proudly announced to Bryan (taste-tester/skeptic/lover of classic, non-beet-riddled desserts) that I had created the perfect cupcake that didn't taste healthy but was free of all of the allergen-irritating, diet-busting ingredients that a cupcake usually requires, his exact response was something like "ohhh gee, you're really selling me on those". Then he took a bite...and ate three of them in under five minutes. His only critique - said while his mouth was still full by the way, because why stop eating these if you don't have to? - was to ask if these have banana in them. That's his diplomatic way of saying he doesn't like the taste of banana (except in this or this of course). Yes, there is a whiff of banana in the frosting, but it's barely noticeable. And if that really bothers you, you can feel free to swap in a butter-based frosting (try this or this).

There are two little secrets to making these amazing: first, make sure you are using a great quality vanilla extract in the frosting. Typically, I use the Trader Joe's brand vanilla and it works just fine, but I had no idea how much better it could be until I tried a new brand called Lagrima. The vanilla is so pure it comes with the vanilla beans still in the bottle. The company is run by a friend in Seattle, who I happen to know in a completely non-blog-related capacity. He was nice enough to bring me a bottle of the vanilla to try and I can honestly say that it lives up to the hype (by the way, he doesn't know I am writing this, and certainly didn't put me up to this! I just really thought this product was special.).

The second little trick to making these a success is to make the cupcakes a day ahead of time because storing them in an airtight container (unfrosted) at room temperature overnight does something to the moisture that I don't totally understand but completely and totally approve of. Allowing them to sit overnight really is the secret "ingredient". But it won't be the end of the world if you don't have time to make them until just before serving. Just make sure that the cakes are cooled completely before you frost them; don't be afraid to cool them in the fridge if necessary just to be sure. Otherwise, the frosting will slide right off the tops. And then where will you put your sprinkles?!

Last but not least, I want to leave you with a request. A pleading request, if you will: please don't be put off by the ingredients in these cupcakes. If you want something light, airy, moist and chocolatey, you've come to the right place. These are like a mini-me version of the very first recipe I posted on this page, and man do they taste like it. If these don't prove to you that you can eat well and still stick to your new year's resolution, then I don't know what will!

Click Here to Get The Recipe on A Clean Bake!

Kalamata Fig & Toasted Almond Granola (Gluten Free, Vegan) #DetoxJanuary

2014-01-14T05:45:00.000-06:00

If you're doing a post-New-Year-healthy-eating-detox-cleanse-resolution thingie, or you know, whatever you are calling it, breakfast can be hard. It is SO easy to either skip it (a problem in this house), reach for some sugary, carb-y pastry, or fall into a rut. I am guilty of the latter, while others in this household are chronic breakfast-skippers. We're all trying to reform though.

Granola to the rescue!

Granola gets a bad rap because the stuff you buy at the grocery store tends to be excessively calorie-dense and basically coated with sugar. Not so of homemade. This entire recipe is sweetened by only two tablespoons of honey - not even sugar! - plus a tiny bit of cane sugar in the almond butter. It's worth it, I think, but if you are trying to avoid sugar, you can definitely swap the almond butter out for the unsweetened kind.

Speaking of swapping ingredients out here, you may not be the kind of person who keeps their pantry fully stocked with such quotidien ingredients as Kalamata (I want to go to there) figs. The horror! Just kidding. I'm not either, and I don't know anyone who is. These figs were left over from Christmas cookies and I have been giving them the side eye ever since, wondering what I am going to do with them. I basically created this granola specifically to accommodate these sad/delicious leftover figs. If you can get your hands on some, it's well worth the extra effort to find them, but no need to run around on a wild ~~goose~~ fig chase. Feel free to swap it out for any old kind of dried fig, date, or apricot. (I would recommend cherries too, but we already did that one.)

No matter what kind of "___ and toasted almond" granola this becomes, it's a perfect quick and filling breakfast, snack, half-of-a-yogurt-parfait, or middle-of-the-night-when-I'm-too-hungry-to-fall-asleep nosh. Guaranteed.

Click here to get the recipe on A Clean Bake!

Chocolate Coconut Doughnuts (Gluten/Sugar/Dairy-Free) #DetoxJanuary

2014-01-06T05:30:00.000-06:00

Who here loves doughnuts? I know I do, but they are usually so rich and greasy that they make me feel kind of sick. There is also a way-too-large-for-my-taste proportion of the doughnuts out there that are filled with goopy, sticky fillings and that's just not ok, man. That's just not ok. So, although I love doughnuts, I have never really been able to consider myself a doughnut person.

Despite that, or rather because of it, I was very excited to find a doughnut pan under my Christmas tree this year, because that obviously changes everything. Let's be doughnut people, ok?

I'm kind of on a health kick right now, in the new-year-post-Christmas-fresh-start kind of way we probably all are. The need to change it up and try something new is my excuse for all of the unusual ingredients in these doughnuts, like oat flour and almond milk. Actually, these are ingredients I've been baking with for awhile now, and am loving the results. Have you ever tried these? What did you think?

So, although my guess is you could probably replace the flours with the regular all-purpose kind, and the almond milk with the kind that comes from a cow, I haven't tried it. I simply haven't needed to because these are honestly amazing just as they are. Even though they're made with "wierd" flours, and even though they're *gasp* sugar free, with no added fat, and sweetened only with banana. They don't taste healthy, although they aren't as sweet as you might expect, but you can balance that out by using sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened.

And they aren't heavy at all, except for the chocolate taste, which is incredibly deep, especially if you use Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder like I did (The Hershey company did not put me up to this, I swear. I just honestly love this cocoa powder!). The first bite is moist and tender; and the toasted coconut on top provides a slight crunch. It doesn't matter what your dietary restrictions are or aren't: even the most diehard Dunkin' Donuts fan will love these chocolately little rings of deliciousness.

Chocolate Coconut Doughnuts (Gluten Free, Sugar Free)
Buttercream Fanatic (2014)

1 large banana, smashed into a smooth puree
1 large egg, beaten
2 Tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup + 3 Tablespoons good quality cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/4 cup GF oat flour (I make my own by grinding whole oats in a food processor)
1/4 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 "drops" (squirts) liquid stevia, or to taste*
Heaping 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

*Note: Sweetener is optional, but recommended if you are not used to the taste of bittersweet chocolate; you can use a packet or two of powdered Splenda or stevia instead.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Coat a doughnut pan with nonstick spray. If you don't have a doughnut pan, you can use a standard size muffin tin.

In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients (banana, egg, and almond milk). In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (cocoa powder, oat flour, almond flour, baking powder). Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix to combine.

Distribute batter evenly among the 6 doughnut forms in the pan, and sprinkle each with coconut. Press the coconut very gently into the batter just to make sure it doesn't all fall off.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes (15 minutes if you are making muffins) until the coconut is lightly toasted (golden brown) and a tester comes out clean.

Makes 6 doughnuts or 5 muffins. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months.

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