Category Archives: baked

{vegan} samoas

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Happy Friday Friends!
Who has some bake time scheduled for this weekend? If so, might I suggest some samoas?
Girl scout cookie season may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can no longer eat girl scout cookies!

I made these cookies once before and I remember loving them, but I never wrote out the full recipe. I had originally found the recipe on the a blog called The Baking Stone, making only a few substitutions, however when I went back to remake them recently I discovered that the blog is no longer around. I racked my brains and a very smudged/handwritten piece of paper and came up with what I believe to be the recipe I originally used. In the end it doesn’t matter if this is the same recipe as before because these cookies came out amazing. Therefore, I am posting the recipe here before it gets lost again. 

vegan samoas

{vegan} samoas
(makes 28 – depending on size)

- 2 heaping cups unsweetened coconut flakes (reduced fat coconut flakes for lower fat cookies)
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted
- 1/3 cup nut milk of choice, near room temperature
- 1 cup sucanat or brown sugar
- 1 T ground flax
- 1 t pure vanilla bean paste or extract

chocolate drizzle:

- 6 oz dark chocolate
- 1 t extra virgin coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Toast coconut flakes for 5-7 minutes or until slightly golden. Make sure to stir after 3 mins so they don’t burn!
Once toasted, put aside coconut flakes.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, & salt.

In a larger bowl mix together coconut oil, sugar, milk, flax, vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture. Once combined, fold in the toasted coconut flakes.

Using a melon scooper or spoon, roll the dough and place on cookie sheet. Make sure to press the dough balls down because they will not spread.

Bake for 10-12 mins or until edges are slightly golden. Longer for larger sized cookies.
The cookies will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven and will harden as they cool. At this time poke a hole in the middle with a chopstick or similar sized utensil.

vegan samoas

While the cookies cool, melt the chocolate and coconut oil over a double boiler or in the microwave (stirring every 20 seconds until melted). Dunk the bottom of the cookies into the chocolate and let cool on nonstick foil or parchment. Once all the cookies bottoms have been coated, use a fork and drizzle remaining chocolate over cookies.
(I actually did it the other way around, but recommend coating bottom of cookies before drizzling)

vegan samoas vegan samoas

Place in the freezer for 20 minutes to let the chocolate firm up.

Then package and give to your cookie loving friends : )

vegan samoas

Orrr just save them all for yourself ; ) They keep very well in the freezer just FYI.

I’d venture to say these taste even better than the actual girl scouts samoas. The ingredients are definitely better. And the best part is they’re really simple to make.
Whether you’re a vegan or not, I guarantee these will be enjoyed to the fullest. So get baking!

Have a lovely weekend y’all!

Have any fun plans this weekends?
Do you like girl scout cookies? Which kind is your favorite?

 

 

pumpkin swirled brownies

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now you see it…

now you don’t…

it took all of about 4.5 minutes for me to scarf those down this morning. i was hungry! and i love bagels. 
{half a cinnamon raisin bagel and half a pumpernickel – both spread with some extra virgin coconut oil}

After breakfast I headed outside to get my blood circulating. The weather around here has been too gorgeous to avoid. Particularly in the mornings.
I was just going to do a quick 5 rounds of 10 push ups + 100 high knees w/ jump rope. However, on my 4th set during the high knees my rope decided to break.

poop.
It was my favorite jump rope and I don’t remember where I got it from. Time to go in search of a new one.

In the mean time, baking brownies makes it better.

I couldn’t decide what to make for my sisters golf team this year as their halloween treat. Too many choices does not bode well for an indecisive individual.  I knew I needed something that would be easy to hold, not messy, and doesn’t melt in the sun. So…I ended up choosing to make pumpkin swirled brownies, in the spirit of halloween.

As much as I love making baked goods from scratch, sometimes you have to take some shortcuts when you lack time.

I only needed three ingredients for these brownies:

1) ready to bake brownie mix

since when does brownie mix come  prepared in a bag? i had no clue this even existed, but i was glad to see it at the store because I didn’t have any eggs at home to make brownies with a mix. plus it means no bowl to dirty.

2) pumpkin cream cheese

3) pumpkin spice kisses

{which for the record, I didn’t think were that good…}

I poured the brownie mix in a pan, lined with sprayed parchment paper so the pan stays clean {purely a lazy girl trick}, and added the cream cheese,

swirled it around,

and topped it off with a couple rows of kisses.

Then I baked it for about 35 mins at 350F.

Easy peasy.

BUT, just in case it doesn’t taste good {since I’ve never tried the brownie mix before} I have backup.

gracie’s cake batter blondies, made with funfetti cake mix and halloween-ified with pumpkin sprinkles.

When I was looking for my pumpkin sprinkles in my upper cupboard, I knocked over a jar of white sprinkles that burst open the moment it hit the ground and just about splattered into ever crevice within a 10 foot radius.

double poop.

 and now i’m off to vacuum.

Do you usually bake from scratch or do you use mixes?

What’s your go-to quick and easy recipe? 

chocolate banana almond muffins

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what do you do when you have a bag of almond meal & bananas that need to be used up?
easy, you bake!

i searched ‘almond flour‘ on my handy dandy whole foods market recipes app and found a delicious sounding banana apricot muffins recipe that was pretty much just what i was looking for.

i made a few substitutions according to what I had on hand…

chocolate banana almond flour muffins
{adapted from this recipe}

 - 4 small bananas, mashed
– 3 T olive oil
– 1/4 cup honey
– 2 eggs, room temperature
– 3/4 T baking soda
– 1/4 t sea salt
– 3 cups almond flour, i used bobs red mill
–  1/4 – 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate, chopped
– 1 small banana sliced

preheat oven to 325F
in bowl 1, mix together – mashed banana, olive oil, honey, eggs
in bowl 2, mix together – baking soda, salt, and almond meal
mix bowl 2 into bowl 1 and gently fold in chocolate and sliced banana
spoon batter into muffin tin and bake for 25-30 mins or until toothpick comes out clean

the muffins are in no way low-calorie if that’s what you’re looking for, but they’re full of hunger satiating qualities from the almond flour and so perfect for breakfast or a mid afternoon pick-me up.  the bananas sweeten them naturally and the chocolate gives them an extra kick of sweetness.

 enjoy!

what would you make with a bag of almond flour and ripe bananas?