Tag: nuts

  • Flourless White Chocolate Macadamia Brownie Cookies

    flourless brownie cookies

    Say hello to my current obsession!

    melted chocolate

    I’ve made these bad boys three times this week, and if I’m being honest with you guys, I’m about to jump into the kitchen and bake some up again right now. (more…)

  • Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies

    pecan butter cookiesIt’s about time, guys.

    I’ve been itching to share this recipe with all of you since the birth of this blog last year, but posting a recipe that’s been years in the making is like watching your baby head off to school for the first day of kindergarten. It’s so hard to let go. After years of effort, I can only hope it does well out there. It’s close to my heart, so naturally I want it to succeed. But no matter what happens, I will always love it.

    pecan cookies and milk

    Too melodramatic considering I’m talking about cookies? Let me explain. It all started back in 2012 when I stopped eating gluten, dairy, soy, and all processed food for a couple months…right before I started working at a bakery.

    I never said I was sane. (more…)

  • Arugula Zucchini Pesto Quinoa Bowl

    a to z quinoa bowlHere’s a whole lot of green comin’ atcha! What better way to celebrate the weekend?

    I always make big plans for my free days or weekends, with the best of intentions. I say I’m going to clean out my closet, finally perfect my brown butter croissant recipe, or spend a whole day prepping meals for the following week. I never, ever do these things. Who do you think I am, superwoman? I usually end up sleeping in, lazily making breakfast, and then I sit around spending way too much time looking at trending recipes, or dream places I could one day live, or fantasy jobs I could one day have. Right now my ideal job is to be a recipe tester at Bon Appetit (but, I mean, whose isn’t. It’s like the unicorn of jobs).
    final close upBy the time I finally get around to doing anything productive on weekends, half the day is gone and I have to rush around just to get all my necessary errands done. On days like these, I’m always relieved to have a quick, healthy dinner recipe I can pull out of my back pocket. Enter the mighty quinoa bowl.

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  • Triple Fudge Peanut Butter Brownies

    brownie stack

    You can’t blame me for shoving more chocolate in your face.

    stack and milk2

    I mean, I guess you can. Actually I’ll totally take the blame. I will do that for you, friends, because this is really more of a public service announcement: you all deserve to try these brownies, free of guilt. (By the way, whoever invented the idea of “feeling guilty” about eating should seriously re-evaluate their lives. I call bullshit.) (more…)

  • Blueberry Basil Salad

    salad plate

    I have an insatiable sweet tooth.

    blueberries1Over the years, I’ve experimented with putting sweet things where they didn’t quite belong. No one questioned a spoonful of sugar in tomato sauce, or a drizzle of honey on some oven roasted veggies, but I definitely raised some eyebrows when I put chocolate on a sausage and cheese pizza…more than once. (It was delicious, but haters gonna hate). Luckily, I don’t have to go putting chocolate in salads too, because nature’s got its very own sweet stuff.

    I’m talking about fruit, guys.

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  • Smoked Salty Almond Chocolate Cookies

    Stack

    If you’ve read our About page, you would know that Leili and I met while working at a bakery in Boston. Allow me to garnish with extra information on our delicious friendship. Leili worked back of house as a baker while I worked front of house – we quickly became friends by talking about boys and her occasionally sneaking me sweets.

    Between the two of us, Leili is the sweets and I am the salty. I have always been intimidated by baking but slowly unlearning that fear. This all changed very recently when Leili got me the Not Without Salt Cookie Mix by the great Ashley Rodriguez for Christmas.

    Mis

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  • Brown Butter Banana Nut Muffins

    cut muffin

    I’ve been in serious hibernation mode lately.

    And I’m here to tell you that that’s totally okay. It’s okay if you’d rather binge watch Friends on Netflix instead of going to that dinner-thing this weekend, or you just want to take a long, glorious nap instead of going out with those friends you don’t talk to that often anyway. ’Tis the season to cozy up and stay out of the cold. Join me, won’t you?

    muffin

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  • Dark Chocolate Truffles

    pistachio truffles

    I’m a sucker for Christmas music. From Nat King Cole to Mariah Carey, Christmas music gives me the warm and fuzzies. It throws me back to blurry childhood memories of coming in from the cold after a vicious snowball fight and eagerly tumbling over my siblings to get to the first cup of hot cocoa. It reminds me of that fresh pine smell and the way beautifully thick snow crunches underfoot. This time of year is filled with nostalgia, and I’m a fan.

    So I don’t waste any time when it comes to getting pumped for the holidays. Although I usually wait for the Thanksgiving dishes to be cleared, this year I couldn’t resist from listening to some Christmas songs in early November. This was not too appreciated by the people on the bus listening to me hum a little too loudly, nor by my boyfriend, who is the Grinch reincarnate. But I don’t care. The past few days have had me in a cookie baking frenzy as I try to wrap up all my holiday gifts, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Bing Crosby’s familiar soothing voice reminding me that I’ll be home for Christmas.

    mocha truffles

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  • Hazelnut Buttercrunch Toffee

    buttercunch stacked

    I may love chocolate, but I’m not a candy fan. Jelly beans, sour gummies, hard candies, lollipops, Swedish fish…they just don’t do it for me. Cookies, brownies, cakes, mousses, and flaky pastries are more my thing…can you tell I’m a baker? I do have a HUGE sweet tooth, but candy is usually way too sweet for me. Or, at least that’s what I thought until last weekend, when I tried English toffee for the first time.

    Two words: Butter. Crunch. Say it with me. Buttercrunch. Crunchy, buttery buttercrunch.

    hazelnuts

    I never thought I’d be one to like toffee; I always thought of it as old lady candy. Or maybe I’m thinking of taffy?

    But after trying one bite I was converted. I believe my first words after it graced my tongue were “MMM BUTTERY”. It was not a stick-to-your-teeth caramel nor a painful-to-chew candy. It had a light, pleasant crunch and melted in my mouth after one bite (yeah, there was also chocolate on there – so it was officially better than brittle). This, my friends, was a candy game changer.

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  • Nutty Cherry Granola

    Final

    Fair warning: I LOVE granola. If a shop or bakery sells granola I have never tried before, I will almost always purchase it in hopes of falling in love a little.

    As for the granola I make at home, I never really stick to one recipe. I frequently like to tweak it a little to see what would happen. Leili is usually my guinea pig but I don’t think she minds.

    Dry Mis

    This particular recipe is special because I used dried cherries instead of cranberries. It’s not groundbreaking but it is absolutely scrumptious. Now, this is my favorite thing about making granola – the smell that rolls out from the oven is divine. The combination of brown sugar and oats is irresistible. I like to have my granola with milk and fruit but you can obviously enjoy yours with yogurt as well.

    Start your day healthily and deliciously!

    – W.

    Prep

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