Red, White, and Blue Desserts for the Fourth of July

Life is Good: our forefathers made sure of it!

I love Independence Day. Maybe it's because it was my due date when I was in the womb? (I arrived a week late and my mom says that I have been trying to make up for it ever since!) Or maybe I'm just naturally patriotic. Either way, I love the holiday---warm sun on my face, pool or lake time, and...dessert! 

Yesterday I shared my yummy-tasty-easy-I mean eeeeeeasy-recipe for eggless individual banana cream pies so today, as promised, I'm sharing how I made red, white, and blue Rice Krispies treats (with all due credit for the idea to our Big Kid--I'm glad he's learning something from me! Party, party!). 

Very important to remember: you will need the ingredients for THREE full recipes of the traditional Rice Krispies treats. 

The recipe for one quantity is:

3 T. butter

1 pkg (10 ounces or 4 cups) mini marshmallows

6 c. Rice Krispies cereal

(So you will need three times everything above to make the Star Spangled Rice Krispies Treats.)

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat.

2. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. 

3. Remove from heat. 

4. Add cereal and stir until well coated.

To make Susie's Star Spangled Rice Krispies treats:

1. Make one quantity of Rice Krispies treats.

2. Before you add the cereal, add five drops of blue food coloring to the melted marshmallows.

3. Add cereal and mix.

4. Spray a spatula with Pam spray and fold the blue treats mixture into a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish. Use the spatula to flatten the treats into the dish.

Here is a pic of the first layer. (I did mine backwards---red, white, blue instead of blue, white, red.) I know...it kind of looks like raw meat. I promise it tasted better than that!

5. Make a second quantity of Rice Krispies treats following the traditional recipe.

6. Using your sprayed spatula, add the treats recipe atop the blue layer. (This is your "white" layer.)

7. Make a third quantity of Rice Krispies treats. Before adding the cereal, add five drops of red food coloring to the mixture.

8. Mix in the cereal. 

9. Using the spatula, flatten the red mixture atop the plain (white) treats layer.

10. Allow to cool a few hours.

11. Cut into desired sized pieces. 

12. Marvel at how crafty you are!

13. Enjoy!

Happy Independence Day!

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Cinnamon Roll Pancakes with No Eggs

Life is Good: we're making special breakfasts together!

Oh, my. 

SO much has been going on around here. It's hard to believe that Fall is upon us when it feels like summer was just a blink away from today.

Back to school has been wonderful for the big kids at our house. They wake up happily and skip off to school. They come home with smiles on their faces and stories about the day's fun. My biggest complaint is that they don't eat their lunches. The Big Kid looks at me with big eyes and a smirk, "But, mommy, I have lots of talking to do at lunchtime!" The Little Kid's reasoning is similar--"I didn't eat all of my lunch because I was showing (classmate's name) a magic trick!"

While he has enjoyed full reign of their bedrooms & their toys while they aren't home, our Littlest One has really been been missing his brothers. And frankly, I have, too.

But we had a blast this summer. "It was full, but not busy," I say when people ask. We had tons of fun, went lots of places, vacationed, enjoyed a couple of camps, played with tons of friends, ran through the sprinkler no less than fourteen thousand times, swam & swam & swam & swam, but all at a very enjoyable pace. I declared it a 1980s summer the day ours began. I wanted it to be innocent and low-tech like that of my childhood---lots of imagination and feel good-ness and...no screens! And besides watching The Twins play and some episodes of Chopped Junior here and there plus the Peanuts movie (I think?), it was screen-free for the kiddos and that was just fine with them!

One thing that we did a lot of this summer was cook and bake. We adjusted my eggless pancake recipe to create Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. And let me tell you that, accompanied by the glaze, these pancakes smell and taste like cinnamon rolls! Oh. My. Gosh. They are good! I've had to go gluten free in response to some postpartum physical health issues that just haven't quite gone away but the one pancake I allowed myself was worth the inflammation! (Well, maybe not? It's hard to say!) (Next up...gluten free pancakes?)

Here is our recipe:

Susie's Eggless Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
(adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted (you don't have to, but it makes them fluffier)
7 teaspoons baking powder, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I like Pink Himalayan)
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 cups milk (I use organic whole)
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup (heaping over) applesauce (I use organic, no sugar added)
1 Tablespoon vanilla (I prefer Madagascar)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of baking powder into the applesauce and set aside. This will mimic 2 beaten eggs in the recipe.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour (or at least distribute evenly), SIX teaspoons of baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
3. Pour milk, vanilla, and melted butter into dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Add applesauce mixture and mix well.
5. Oil (or butter) a griddle or fry pan. When heated, use a Tablespoon to measure out your pancakes. These are fluffy pancakes, so they need a lower heat and longer on the griddle to cook all the way through. Use the first couple of pancakes to experiment how long it takes on each side to cook all the way through without scorching the outside of the pancake. For me, it takes a couple of minutes on each side with a medium heat on my gas stove.
6. Serve with my simple glaze and enjoy!

Susie's Simple Pancake Glaze:
1. Pour 1 1/2 cups powdered (confectioner's) sugar into a small mixing bowl.
2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (I like Madagascar)
3. Add 1/8 cup of water
4. Mix well until there are no lumps
5. If you still have some dry parts, add another 1/8 cup of water and mix well
6. Look at the glaze, taste the glaze. If you want something the consistency of syrup, keep the glaze as is. If you want a thicker glaze, add another 1/4 cup of powdered sugar
7. Using a whisk, pastry brush, or fork, drizzle over your pancakes

NOTES:
This recipe makes between 24-30 half dollar-sized pancakes. It depends on what you use to measure out your pancakes.
IMPORTANT: if you have small children, I would decrease the cinnamon amount to 1/2 teaspoon. Cinnamon can be "spicy" to small children and they might not enjoy this full-throttle. You might not either! My 8-year old said we should INCREASE the cinnamon. Herbs and spices are really a matter of taste (pun intended!) so adjust this to your own palette's preference. 

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Best Eggless Thumbprint Cookies

Life is Good: what's cookin'?

We have our mom's group Christmas social tomorrow, so I have pumpkin bread in the oven and now I am moving on to the easiest cookie ever. Ever.

Thumbprint cookies! I grabbed this recipe off the interwebs a couple of years ago. I love it because it has very few ingredients, it's eggless so my kiddos can eat it, and it is so simple to put together that the kids can help me make them. Normally. They are fast asleep right now.

I've adjusted the recipe a tad. Here it is:

Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I use madagascar)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup strawberry preserves*

 

Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 teaspoons water

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (I use madagascar)

Directions:

1. Combine softened butter, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy.
2. Add flour and beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.
3. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour or until firm.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Make indentation in center of each cookie with thumb (edges may crack slightly).
7. Fill each indentation with about 1/4 teaspoon preserves.




8. Bake 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to cooling rack. Cool completely. 




9. Combine all glaze ingredients in bowl with whisk until smooth.
10. Drizzle over cookies.

*Substitute 1/2 cup of your favorite flavor jam or preserves.

Eggless Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Life is Good: we have fresh-baked pumpkin bread!

I joined a new mom's group and we've had two meetings so far. I really enjoy all of the women at my table and am excited to get to know them better as the year progresses.

As one of the coordinators of the group, I was asked to bring a treat to share. September's weather in Minneapolis has been everything from crisp to hot, but I decided it wasn't too early for pumpkin bread!

And of course, I have to share the recipe with all of my How to be Pleasant friends! This pumpkin bread is quite possibly the best pumpkin bread you will ever consume! Really! However, there is a WARNING that goes along with it: you will have a hard time leaving it alone! (I have to hide it from myself so that I will only eat one slice!)

As with all of my recipes, this one is eggless because of my kiddos' allergies. It also happens to be vegan. The original recipe calls for eggs, but I have adjusted mine using applesauce and baking powder as the egg substitute. Many people ask me what I use as an egg substitute and why I use the applesauce/baking powder combo so often. The fact is, eggs act as a binder in baked goods. They aren't there for taste, just consistency. So if you ever have a recipe that calls for beaten eggs, the applesauce/baking powder combination is a perfect substitute. The baking powder makes the applesauce foam up just like beaten eggs.

The original recipe also suggests a much larger amount of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, which I have decided overpowers the flavor of the pumpkin, so I have adjusted that, too, in my own recipe. Here it is!

Susie's Eggless Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
3-1/3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of ginger (may omit, if like me, you do not enjoy the flavor)
1 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups applesauce
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup water
2 cups canned pumpkin 

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and baking powder until foamy and fluffy.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together oil, water, and pumpkin.
5. Add applesauce mixture to oil/water/pumpkin.
6. Combine all wet and dry ingredients until smooth. (Mixer not necessary, this is easy to do just with a spoon.)
7. Bake in greased and floured loaf pans for about 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, then turn out loaves on a rack to cool. Yields 2-3 loaves, depending on pan size.

NOTES: The baking time will depend on your oven, so start checking the bread after 50 minutes by inserting a cake tester or good ol' toothpick. You can serve this with a simple powdered sugar glaze or cream cheese frosting, but I think it is delicious without it! You can store this in the refrigerator for about two weeks (if you can leave it alone that long!) or freeze it. 

Eggless Zucchini Bread

Life is good: thank goodness for chocolate! 

This past year, we were so fortunate to enroll our oldest child in a magnificent preschool. All of the staff were joyful, kind, nurturing, and encouraging. To top it off, the school had a carpool lane, which meant that teachers stood out in the rain and snow and everything in between so that parents didn't have to. I felt especially grateful that I didn't have to get our littlest in and out of the car to drop off the big kid during inclement weather. So the last week of school, I made some chocolate chocolate chunk zucchini bread for the teachers at his preschool as a way to say, "Thank you!!!" for weathering the carpool lane (pun intended!) as well as creating an atmosphere of safety and fun for our child.

Eggless Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

2 C flour

2 C sugar

3/4 C cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

mixture of 3/4 applesauce and 1/2 T baking powder (mixed together in a separate bowl until foamy)

3/4 C canola

3/4 C buttermilk (I have often used milk and it has turned out well)

3 C grated zucchini

3/4 C chocolate chips or chunks (My friend Merie used a 1/2 bag rather than measure them)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

3. Mix applesauce and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

5. Add applesauce mixture plus oil and buttermilk into large bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.

6. Mix in zucchini and then chocolate chips.

7. Pour into pans (half of batter in each) and bake. In my oven, this recipe is done after about 45 minutes. However, all ovens are different, so I suggest that you start checking the middle of the loaf with a toothpick or cake tester after 38-40 minutes.

Notes:

I leave the cocoa powder out of the recipe when I make this bread for my kids since they are allergic to nuts. Most cocoa powders are processed in facilities where nuts are present. The absence of cocoa powder doesn't affect how delicious it is. However, the addition of cocoa powder kind of "takes the flavor over the edge", if you will, and makes the bread much, much more rich. Try it both ways and see what you think!

The original recipe calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, but it makes for a very obvious cinnamon taste and I prefer it more subtle, especially when leaving out the cocoa powder.

This recipe was originally a cake made with eggs that my friend, Merie, who happens to be a marvelous and adventurous cook, posted on Facebook a few years ago. (Thank you, Merie!) I adapted it to be eggless and the result was more of a bread than a cake, so I bake it in loaf pans, but if you want to try it in a cake pan, go for it!

I made two different recipes--one with cocoa powder (for the teachers) and one without (for my kiddos). Here is a pic of both recipes in the dry ingredient stage.

In this pic, the batter is ready to be poured into the loaf pans.

Here is the Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version...

And the Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version (I used Enjoy Life chocolate chunks.)

 

Eggless Blueberry Muffins

Life is Good: we have sweet treats

We  had a playdate yesterday, so of course we needed a yummy snack! Our family love these eggless blueberry muffins. 

--> Our 5-year old has a severe allergy to eggs (among other food and seasonal allergies) and our littlest is showing signs of an egg allergy, too, albeit much less dangerous than his big brother’s. We discovered the big kid’s allergy when he was nine months old, so as his first birthday approached, what was a mama to do? I couldn’t imagine celebrating without a cake. So I turned to my friend, the internet, and went to work researching eggless cooking and baking. I felt so grateful for all of the mamas and others before me who had offered their thoughts, experiences, and recipes. For our big kid’s first birthday, I adapted my Grandma’s “secret” chocolate cake recipe using tofu instead of eggs. 
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Since then, I’ve (gratefully) discovered a carrot cake cupcake & muffin recipe that I make often. The applesauce/baking powder combo works great as a substitution for beaten eggs.

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I’m equally grateful for the vegan strawberry cupcake recipe I found on egglesscooking.com. It’s a great recipe, although mine never look like the picture that accompanies the recipe on the website.  In this case, vinegar mixed with oil and vanilla replaces the eggs. Be sure to keep your batter firm. Loose batter will make it difficult for the muffins to remain solid after cooling from the oven. (They’ll taste good, but they’ll fall apart.)

I took the strawberry muffin recipe and adapted it for blueberries.  They taste just like any other blueberry muffin…you don’t need to have an egg allergy to enjoy them!

 

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Eggless Blueberry Muffin & Cupcake Recipe

Adapted from a recipe at http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/02/26/vegan-strawberry-cupcakes/        

Yields: 12 Cupcakes OR Two 8 Inch Loaves

Ingredients:

    1 and 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

    3/4 to 1 cup Sugar (I use less sugar. The fruit makes them sweet enough for us.)

    1 teaspoon Baking Soda

    1 1/3 cup FROZEN blueberries (I use organic.)

    1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (I use Madagascar Vanilla, which is brown in color.)

    1/2 cup Canola Oil

    1 tablespoon White Distilled Vinegar (Any brand is fine.)

    1/3 cup Milk plus another tablespoon or two, if necessary (I use organic whole milk.)

 

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Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Grease/line a muffin tin or grease a 9 inch loaf   pan.

  2. In a large bowl combine together the flour, baking soda and sugar.

  3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar and vanilla.

  4. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together but do not over stir.

  5. Your batter will look a little lumpy at this point.

  6. Now, add the milk and blueberries. Stir together, but do not over stir. If your blueberries have been sitting out for a while and begin to defrost, your batter may turn purplish blue. (My kiddo likes this.) (I use frozen blueberries so that they stay firm while the batter is stirred together as well as while the muffins bake.)

  7. If your batter still seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a thick batter. There is no egg in it to hold things together, so you don’t want it to be too “loose” or “soupy”.

  8. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins. I typically get 12 muffins.

  9. Bake for about 22-30 minutes (time varies depending on your oven and also the muffin pan you use) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If baking a loaf bake it for 40-45 minutes and check for the doneness.

  10. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.  

Enjoy!