Oh No She Didn't...Black Bean Brownies!

Recipe name: Black Bean Brownies
Source: somewhere online
Servings: 8


Ingredients
1 box of Brownie mix
1 15 oz can of black beans

Drain and rinse the beans. Return them to the can, and fill the can (with the beans in it) to the top with water. Pour the beans and water into a food processor and puree until smooth (this part may take a while).

Combine the pureed beans with the brownie mix. Do not add any other ingredients, such as oil or eggs, to the mixture. Mix until combined. Pour into a greased brownie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

"WHAT?!?!?!?!"
This is what I thought when I first saw this recipe. If I'm remembering this correctly, when I found this recipe online there were lots of comments on a discussion board from various people swearing that these brownies just tasted "fudgey" and that nobody would notice that it was made with beans. It simply sounded too bizarre for me to not try!

So we made the brownies the other night, and just like I've been forgetting for the past 2 weeks, I forgot to take a picture of them. They simply look like dense brownies, though. And as for the taste....overall they weren't too bad! I do believe, though, that they have a slight bean aftertaste. I actually think this could be remedied by adding some chocolate syrup to the mix to enhance the chocolate flavor (this is a trick my mother-in-law taught me in order to make any brownie mix taste better).

So yes, believe it or not, I think I will make these again!

For your next holiday party: Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Recipe name: Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars
Source: Simply Tasty via Baking Blonde
Servings: 8
Cookbook date: November 4

Ingredients

1 cup butter (I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup yogurt and it turned out fine)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

Grease a 9×9 inch square pan.

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended.Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the remainder for topping.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.

Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently.Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.


Sorry that I don't have a picture for this one, but check it out on Simply Tasty if you want to see the finished product. I thought these were good, but Tim thought that they were outstanding. He says that this is his new favorite dessert item. As you can imagine, they are on the heavy side, so I don't imagine that I'll make them frequently, but Tim likes them so much that they may become a standard treat around the holidays.

My tip for making this recipe is to give the chocolate mixture time to cool in the pan before you spread the top oat mixture layer over it. I waited about 15 minutes before putting the top layer on, and I think that made things go more smoothly.

Coconut Mint Cream Cake

Recipe name: Coconut Mint Cream Cake
Source: Bon Appetit September 2008
Servings: 8-10
Cookbook date:

Ingredients

CAKE

• 2 3/4 cups cake flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract (optional)
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 14-ounce can coconut cream

MINT WHIPPED CREAM

• 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled
• Sweetened flaked coconut

Preparation

CAKE

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides; dust with flour. Place round of parchment paper in each pan.
• Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Mix milk, vanilla extract, and coconut extract in small bowl.
• Beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl until well blended. Beat in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture in several batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just to blend after each addition.
• With clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter in 3 additions.
• Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes.
• Meanwhile, combine condensed milk and coconut cream in medium bowl.
• Remove cakes from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Poke holes all over top of each cake layer with skewer. Pour coconut cream mixture by half cupfuls over cakes, allowing mixture to be absorbed before adding more. Cool completely in pans.

MINT WHIPPED CREAM

• Stir 1/3 cup mint, sugar, and 3 tablespoons water in small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Cook just until bubbles appear. Cover and remove from heat; let steep 30 minutes.
• Strain syrup into large bowl, pressing on mint. Cool completely. Add 1 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream to syrup and beat until firm peaks form. Turn cakes out of pans onto separate plates. Peel off parchment.
• Spread 1 cup mint whipped cream on 1 cake layer. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining mint whipped cream over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with sweetened coconut. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.

ingredient tip

• A thick mixture made from shredded coconut and water, coconut cream is often sold in cans or cartons. If unavailable, buy coconut milk and open the can without shaking. The thick white coconut cream will be at the top of the can, separated from the milk. Don't confuse coconut cream with cream of coconut, which is a sweetened mixture often used in drinks and desserts.

Well, this was certainly an ambitious recipe for us at moose headquarters. We very much enjoyed the cake, though we won't be making it again because we thought it took a great deal of effort and it made a terrible mess. It was really good, but it wasn't cake Nirvana, so we'll stick to something easier next time. I thought I would post it for those of you who have more culinary skill than us, or for anyone who just wants a bit of a challenge.

Miniature Rootbeer Float

Recipe name: Miniature Root Beer Float

Ice cream (preferably Dreyer's Root Beer flavor!)
Root Beer
wee little glass


I know, this shouldn't even count as a recipe. All I'm sharing with you today is a classic 2 ingredient dessert, only in a petite version. But seriously, I think this is genius! Root beer floats are perhaps my favorite guilty pleasure in the whole world. I recently discovered that the size of the root beer float doesn't matter too much to me. So I've re-purposed my juice glasses to become my nightly (um, yeah, I'm serious) root beer float glasses! I get to have all of the joy of a rootbeer float experience and about 1/4 of the guilt! Rock!

Pistachio Salad

Recipe name: Pistachio Salad
Source: Aunt Robyn
Servings: 4?
Cookbook date: July 28

12 oz cool-whip
15 oz crushed pineapple
1 small package pistachio pudding
1 cup mini marshmallows

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

I would show you a picture of this, but I ate it all. I'm not even kidding.
This is a classic summer dessert. If you have never experienced it, though, go straight to the store and pick up the necessary ingredients. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. And do not tell me that it sounds weird!

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies

Recipe name: Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies
Source: Jenny at Picky Palate
Servings: depends on how piggy you are!
Cookbook date: July 4
Date prepared: July 4

Please head straight over to this post by Jenny at Picky Palate! This is for chocolate chip oreo cookies. This recipe is completely indulgent, but SO WORTH IT! I would suggest making these to take to a party, otherwise you may just eat them all and get sick (but again, that would be SO WORTH IT!).

Just FYI, these come out looking a bit pale (I suppose because of the oreo cream).

value: worth it
time: worth it
taste: OMG

Baked Stuffed Peaches

Recipe name:Baked Stuffed Peaches
Source: somewhere online
Servings: 8
Cookbook date: June 28

4 firm, but ripe, peaches
7 large graham crackers, crushed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cut peaches in half from stem to root end, then twist gently to free fruit from pit. Gently twist pit from peach half and discard. Arrange peach halves, cut sides up, in a lightly buttered, shallow 1 1/2 quart baking dish.
In a medium bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, egg, nuts, brown sugar and vanilla. Mound about 2 tsp cookie mixture in each peach cavity. When baked, the cookie filling will resemble a peach pit.
Bake 15-20 minutes, or until topping is cooked through and lightly browned and peaches are soft but not mushy and still hold their shape. Serve with ice cream.

We recently were driving through Clanton, Alabama and we stopped at a roadside stand for 4 pounds of fresh peaches, hence having 2 peach recipes this week.

This was a really easy dessert that I would serve to company if I could ever get my act together and invite some people over for dinner!
We even ate these the following day at our jobs by heating them up just to room temperature. Having them with ice cream is best, but I didn't have any ice cream in the fridge at work, so this had to do.

Sorry that the picture quality is so bad. Now that we have a reason to take pictures regularly, we are looking for a quality camera. If you love the camera you have, tell us about it!

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time:***
taste:***

Paula Deen would be proud as a peach

Recipe name: Bundled up peaches
Source: somewhere online
Servings: 10
Cookbook date: June 15
Date prepared: June 16

5 peaches
1 can biscuits (must contain 10 biscuits)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
butter
1/2 lemon

Peel peaches and cut in half. Roll out each biscuit and wrap one around each peach half. Pinch dough so peach is completely covered. Lay in buttered casserole dish. Boil sugar and water for 5 minutes. Pour over biscuits. Dab butter on and around each peach. squeeze lemon over. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until biscuits are done.

I debated for a long time over whether or not to post this recipe. Since I won't have much to report on this week, though, I thought I might as well.

First, let me say that this dessert is incredibly yummy. If I died from heart disease and then went to heart disease heaven, these peach bundles would be waiting for me there. And I would eat them. I know that there are other desserts with more butter and sugar in them, but for the record, I used Grands biscuits, which are brimming with fatty goodness on their own. To slather them in a simple syrup and butter is out of control, folks.

The bundles came un-bundled in the oven, so if you decide to make these, spend extra time making sure that they are secure. When they came out of the oven looking ugly, I decided not to take a picture. I had already decided that I wasn't going to keep the recipe on account of how ridiculously fattening it would be.

And then I ate one. It was magical. Tim ate one, and he said that Paula Dean would be beaming with pride at us if she saw what we just made (I used to watch Paula Dean's show on Food Network but I stopped after realizing that I simply could not try her food without using 1-2 sticks of butter for everything she cooks).

So....maybe I'll keep the recipe on file, not as a part of our cookbook itself, but as something to turn to when I have an emergency situation and nothing but a peach bundle will improve the situation. You know it could happen!

value:***
time:***
taste:****

5 minutes in heaven

Recipe name: 5 minute creamsicle mousse
Source: recipezaar.com
Servings: 4
Cookbook date: June 18
Date prepared: June 15

1 box orange gelatin
1 box white chocolate pudding mix
1 (8 ounce) container cool whip

Mix gelatin with 1 cup boiling water. Dissolve gelatin completely and add 1 cup cold water and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Using an electric beater, beat in pudding mix until well combined.
fold in cool whip.
chill and serve until set.

This stuff rocks, and you can totally make it (mostly) fat and sugar free! You can use fat free cool whip and sugar free gelatin. I couldn't find sugar free white chocolate pudding mix, so I'm not sure if they make that or not.

The mix needs about 3 hours before it is ready to eat. You will eat 2/3 of it before you even look up from the bowl, I promise.

value:****
time:*
taste:****

Pint-sized pound cake

Recipe name: Lemon cream cheese pound cake
source: no idea
servings: 8-12
Cookbook date: May 20
Date prepared: May 21


1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
4 tbsp butter, room temperature
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
1 cup flour

lemon syrup
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup water
remaining lemon juice from lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bundt pan and dust with flour.
Blend cream cheese and butter with a mixer until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue beating for 4 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Add the lemon peel and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Stir in flour and salt using a spatula. Bake for 1 hour.
Remove cake from oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Poke several holes in the cake with a toothpick. Drizzle the lemon syrup over the holes and let it absorb. Serve.

To make the lemon syrup, combine 2/3 cup sugar and 2/3 cup water and remaining lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat until mixture is thickened.

First, know my substitutions: I substituted 4 tablespoons of applesauce for 4 tablespoons of butter. I might recommend doing 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp applesauce so you get more of a butter flavor, but I was feeling especially lazy tonight. We also use whole wheat flour, so your overall look (and taste) would turn out differently using white flour.

I followed the directions more or less, even though I found all the time I had to spend mixing in between ingredient additions to be stupid. But I suspect that there is a reason for these steps, so I would say that I used the mixer for about 75% of the recommended time.

Let me show you what this cake looked like when it was done:


I'm going to assume that you feel very disappointed, just like I did when I pulled this mofo out of the oven. It is true that when I put it in the oven I thought, "Hmm...there doesn't seem to be a lot of substance in this here bundt pan. But wait, this is a POUND cake; it will not let me down. What a fool I am to question its might!"

Nope, it is obvious from the picture that this caked failed to rise to the occasion (heh heh). Perhaps that is because it didn't call for any baking powder (or soda....I never know which ones makes stuff rise). Does anyone know if that is standard for a pound cake?

Ok, so as a person of slight stature myself, I realized that I needed to let the size thing go. After all, good things come in small packages, right? So I poured the lemon syrup (and by syrup I mean sugary water) over the bundt cake, and watched a lake of syrup gather in the middle. This was strike two against this cake. And for the taste? Well, it tastes like wet, dense, slightly burnt cake. While I have fairly low standards for what is and is not acceptable to eat, this one just won't be making the cut. In my opinion, if you are going to eat something loaded with calories, don't settle for mediocre, wet cake!

expense:****
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