healthy recipes and the occasional craft
Whenever I’m craving something sweet, I often turn to either brownies or chocolate chip cookies. The natural thing, of course, is to turn to chocolate chip cookie bars.
Using greek yogurt in these instead of butter made them light and cakey, which was just fine for me. If you like a more dense bar, use butter instead! [Read more…]
One of my very favorite liqueurs is amaretto. I love the fruity, sweet, smooth almond flavor and luscious cherry smell it has. It’s perfect for mixing or sipping, depending on your mood. It’s also fantastic for baking – talk about a fantastic almond extract, yeah? I tend to stick to Disaronno, but I wanted to try making my own. It takes a month to infuse, and it’s definitely not that much of a money saver for the time you commit, but I’ve found it to be completely worth it.
Most amaretto recipes that aren’t just adding vanilla and almond extract to vodka with sugar syrup will include bitter apricot kernels, which have traces of cyanide in them (this is what Disaronno uses, actually, to make their liqueur). Because they’re pretty expensive, I decided not to use them, and I was just as pleased with my results. I did a side-by-side test with Disaronno, and while my amaretto has slightly more bite and it’s not as sweet, the flavors were quite similar. I can enjoy my amaretto just as I would with Disaronno and I’m not disappointed in the slightest with the flavors, so I consider this a success! My favorite way to have it is with ginger ale – the perfect sipper!
You can’t go apple picking without making several batches of homemade applesauce afterwards. I love applesauce of all kinds, but nothing beats the taste and smell of applesauce you made yourself. Whenever the smell of cinnamon and apples fills the apartment, it takes me back to kindergarten when we made our own applesauce – it was so exciting for us! This time, I decided to pull out my crockpot so that I wouldn’t have to worry about watching apples cooking over the stove while I needed to study. I don’t think I’ll ever make it any other way, now!
When I went apple picking, I made sure to get some of each kind of apple – Crispin, Empire, Cortland, Ida Red, and Gala – so that I would have a good mixture of tart and sweet apples for baking and making the perfect combination for applesauce. Since I didn’t want to add any sugar, I only used a few of the greener apples, sticking mostly to the sweeter reds. I think a lot of the fun of making your own applesauce is finding the combination of apples that suits your tastes! Even if it’s a tart apple, I find that cinnamon really makes it seem sweeter than it is. I definitely never miss the sugar! If you do find it to be too tart after it’s done cooking, you can always add some maple syrup – it’ll really amplify the flavors as well as add sweetness! [Read more…]