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Dec 17 2012

Sugar Cookie Butter (Gluten-Free!)

Posted by EatLiveRun in Step-by-Step Recipes

This yummy (and surprisingly healthy!) homemade cookie butter combines the two great loves of my life: cookie dough and nut butter.

I’ll be honest and tell you guys that whenever I bake cookies, which is quite often given my job, I never wash my bowl out until after I’ve swiped my finger through it at least half a dozen times. Sometimes more, depending on the day. Don’t act like you have no idea what I’m talking about!

So when I found Rachel’s recipe for a spreadable cookie dough that contains no raw eggs, I leapt for joy! As a bonus, it’s even gluten-free. This incredibly addicting Sugar Cookie Butter tastes just like sugar cookie dough and is simple to make, as long as you have a food processor or high speed blender.

Let’s get started!

Here’s all the ingredients you need: raw cashews, banana chips, baking soda, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, honey and coconut oil.

First, combine the cashews and banana chips in your food processor and process until a crumbly nut butter consistency is reached. For me, this took almost eight minutes and I stopped the food processor a few times to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula (and taste test!).

If you’re not sure, keep going! It’s impossible to over-process this.

After your banana chips and cashews are combined and relatively smooth, add your honey.

Note that I added double the amount of honey that was listed in the original recipe. What can I say? I like my cookie butter sweet.

After adding the honey, add the vanilla extract with the motor running …

Followed by the cream of tartar …

And the baking soda! Scrape down the sides of your bowl and run the motor on low until all ingredients are completely combined.

The last ingredient to add is the coconut oil. Mine was extra soft because it had been sitting on my counter in the sunshine for a little while. I added four teaspoons of this.

Give it another whirl and then taste. I think it tastes just like cookie dough with a hint of banana. I couldn’t get enough!

I like to serve my cookie butter spread on (what else?) cookies! Cookies on cookies on cookies. It’s my dream come true. I also thought the rainbow sprinkles made for a pretty touch.

This would be a great afternoon snack for little ones. The cookie butter would also be delicious on top of oatmeal or with sliced apples. You really can’t go wrong; it’s so good!

Thanks, Rachel, for the recipe. Go visit her blog Studio Cuisine for more of her incredible creations!

Printable Recipe

Sugar Cookie Butter

by Rachel {Studio Cuisine} on July 24, 2012 in Gluten-Free, Special Dietary Needs

See post on Rachel {Studio Cuisine}’s site!

5.00 Mitt(s) 1 Rating(s) 1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

Description

A creamy cashew butter that tastes just like sugar cookie dough! You won’t believe it’s healthy!

Ingredients

1-½ cup Raw, Unsalted Cashews
⅓ cups Banana Chips
1 teaspoon Honey
⅓ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
¼ teaspoons Cream Of Tartar
¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
4 teaspoons Coconut Oil

Preparation Instructions

Combine cashews and banana chips in food processor for 8-10 minutes until nut butter consistency is reached, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Add in honey, vanilla extract, cream of tartar, and baking soda and process until combined.

Add in coconut oil, 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. I added in about 4 teaspoons. This amount got me a thicker nut butter that had a cookie dough-like consistency, but feel free to add more.

Yields about a cup of sugar cookie butter. Lasts for up to 1 week at room temperature in an airtight container.

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Jenna is a food writer who has worked as a pastry chef and bread baker. Her blog Eat, Live, Run has great recipes, travel stories, and the perfect slogan: “Celebrating life, one crumb at a time.”

Dec 14 2012

No-Knead Dinner Rolls

Posted by Erica Lea in Baking, Step-by-Step Recipes

Let’s face it. There’s just nothing like fresh, homemade bread. Sure, you can get some wonderful, artisan breads at local shops, but they can’t come close to magic of the smell and taste of home-baked bread pulled from the oven and spread with butter and jam (or honey).

But here’s the problem: With busy lives, especially around the holidays, there’s precious little time to spend agonizing over kneading and rise times. And so homemade bread is often neglected.

This recipe, brought to us by Terri, is about as low-fuss as yeast bread gets. All you have to do is mix everything in a large bowl, let it rise, form into buns, and bake once they’re puffy. Still skeptical about no-knead bread? Let me assure you, it is good. Like, really good: fluffy and flavorful and soft. Let me show you!

To begin, grab the few ingredients you’ll need: yeast, sugar, oil (I used olive, but if you don’t like the flavor, you could use melted butter or vegetable oil), salt, flour (I used part white, part wheat), butter, and water.

Pour some warm water into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. You can gently stir it with a fork if you wish.

Let the yeast “activate” in the water (about 5 minutes). Then add the flour …

… wheat flour (if using), sugar, oil and salt.

Stir it all together.

If the dough is too wet, you can add more flour. The right texture is soft and sticky, but not soupy.

See that? That’s how it should look. Don’t stir too much! After all, these are no-knead.

Cover the dough and set aside to rise until doubled. This only took about and hour for me, but it all depends on how warm your house is.

Now, give that dough a punch!

Ahhh … melted butter.

Pour a little onto a rimmed baking sheet.

Get your hands in it and smear it around.

Now it’s time to make a mess! Sprinkle your work surface generously with flour.

Scoop your risen dough out onto your counter/table and sprinkle with some more flour.

Roll the dough out to about a 1/2-inch thickness.

Take a round cookie/biscuit cutter and stamp out circles of dough. You could get your circles closer together than mine.

Grab a circle of dough …

And stretch it out a bit.

Dunk half of it into the melted butter …

And fold it in half with the butter side up. Now you have a lovely little Parker House roll.

Place on your buttered baking sheet (buttered side up). Repeat with remaining dough, placing the buns close together.

Gather up your scraps and go again!

Cover the buns and let rise until nice and puffy. Aren’t they beautiful?

Bake at 375°F until lovely and golden brown. You can brush the tops of the buns with extra butter, if you wish.

Just look at how pillowy soft they are!

Recipe notes:

1. This dough can be refrigerated for up to a week. You can mix up a big batch and just pull off pieces of dough and bake them for fresh bread throughout the week!
2. You don’t have to make Parker House rolls from the dough. Terri suggests cinnamon rolls, pull-aparts and breadsticks.
3. These rolls reheat very well. Just pop them in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes.

Thanks so much to Terri for sharing these buttery rolls with us. She blogs over at That’s Some Good Cookin’, where she posts many more lip-smackin’ recipes.

Printable Recipe