Posts Tagged ‘recipe’

Chocolate Ginger Cookies Recipe

July 3rd, 2017
0 Comments

This blog is becoming less and less about food and more about the creative process. And making these cookies was a truly creative process. Penelope wanted chocolate cookies before church a few weeks ago. I didn’t have any chocolate chips, nor did I want to drive 20 minutes to the grocery store to get them. So I wanted to see if I could get a chocolate cookie by using cocoa powder. I couldn’t find a recipe that either didn’t call for chocolate chips or have a long ingredient list of things I don’t usually stock in my kitchen. So I made one up!!

I fused a molasses cookie (I wanted to deepen the flavor of the chocolate) and a snickerdoodle. My mom gave me the best recipes for both, so I used those. And these WORK WELL AT ALTITUDE!!!! YAY! We’re at 6400 ft. elevation, so cookie recipes can be problematic and the cookies end up a sloppy mess on the cookie sheet. These hold their shape and stay chewy. ON to the recipe, shall we?

(more…)

Food: Raspberry Cupcakes

July 14th, 2014
0 Comment

I’ve been mildly obsessed with making cupcakes lately. I got the right size icing tips* that I’ve been searching high and low for. Getting the right icing consistency and cake density has now been my master goal.

melissaesplin-raspberry-vanilla-cupcake-recipe-1

I won a cupcake cook book at a blogging event nearly a year ago. I’ve been working my way through the cookbook with fabulous success for each recipe I’ve tried. Chris went wild for the frosting on these cupcakes. He’s been a pretty disciplined eater since January (losing 30 pounds in the process), so I get great satisfaction when I make desserts that are too tempting for him to pass up. I’m such a devil.

melissaesplin-raspberry-vanilla-cupcake-recipe-2

melissaesplin-raspberry-vanilla-cupcake-recipe-3

Since moving to the mountains two years ago (we’re at 6300 ft elevation), I haven’t been able to make a decent cookie, but cupcakes I can do! At some point I will figure out how to make all my mom’s cookie recipes altitude friendly, but for now I’ll just stick to cupcakes. Playing with frosting is too much fun, too.

melissaesplin-raspberry-vanilla-cupcake-recipe-4

Raspberry Cupcakes

Adapted from Lizzy Early‘s Strawberry Vanilla Cupcake recipe (Your Cup of Cake)
Makes 24 cupcakes
  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Gently whisk egg whites, oil, milk, mayo and vanilla in a large bowl, until smooth. Add sifted cake mix and stir until combined. Fill cupcake liners, I used just shy of 1/4 cup batter in each cupcake liner. Bake at 350 for 17-22 minutes – I pulled mine out at 15 minutes and they were perfect. Cool.

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 4-5 cups powdered sugar
  • 2-4 tablespoons raspberry jam**, or raspberry puree

Beat butter until smooth, about 2 minutes. Combine lemon juice. Slowly add powdered sugar until it reaches a thick consistency. Add raspberry jam (**I used Bonne Maman jam. That or a freezer jam would be ideal – don’t use the cheap super sugar stuff or you won’t get much raspberry flavor) slowly until it’s the right consistency. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes and serve.

 

melissaesplin-raspberry-vanilla-cupcake-recipe-5

* Icing kit and adorable milk jars courtesy of Bake It Pretty.

Perfectly Even Cookie Balls

March 25th, 2013
5 Comments

I’m sure everyone else figured this out a LONG time ago, but while I was making my favorite (and chewy) Molasses cookie recipe I discovered how I could make the perfect, perfectly round cookie balls.

Melissaesplin.com - Perfect Cookie Balls

I had a small ice cream scoop at one point, but it would always get gummed up with the dough. I’ve also used regular kitchen spoons, but I don’t ever get the perfectly consistent amount every time, and it seemed to take forever to round out those balls perfectly.

My little ah-ha moment last week was to use a round table spoon as my scoop, and a small teaspoon to pop the dough out. I got those cookies onto the cookie sheet in record time and they all cooked evenly.

BOOM! Mind blown, anyone?

How do you get cookie dough onto the cookie sheet? Or does it go straight into your mouth like half of this recipe did into mine?

Tangy Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

May 29th, 2012
5 Comments

I’ve made this a few times in the last few weeks and I just can’t seem to get enough.

I’m the kind of gal that LOVES and is obsessed with the combination of strawberry and lemon. I had a surplus of greek yogurt in the house, so I sort of made up this concoction using Jane’s Fraiche recipe as a base. I’ve posted pictures of my concoction a few times on instagram, and a few of you were requesting the recipe, so I thought I’d post it here for future reference.

Tangy Strawberry Lemon Frozen Yogurt

adapted from Jane’s recipe

  • 2 cups greek yogurt (I used Zoi honey yogurt)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup cream or milk
  • 8-10 strawberries
  • 1/2 fresh lemon

Mash up your strawberries. I put mine in the microwave for a couple of seconds to soften. Mash and add sugar. Allow to mascerate for a few minutes. In a separate bowl, mix cream and yogurt. Add strawberries and fold. Once encorporated, add the juice and zest of half a lemon. Fold and add to your ice cream maker. Freeze. Serve immediately.

If there is any left over, you can freeze in the refrigerator, but allow a few minutes to thaw before serving.

Spinach Smoothies

January 24th, 2011
15 Comments

Way back when Chris & I were dating, one of Chris’s roommates offered me some of his disgusting-looking green smoothie. I asked what was in it & he simply replied, “Lots of spinach & fruit.” I bravely gave it a try & absolutely loved it. Gosh, it’s been somewhere around 5 years since then and now that we just bought a new blender and loads of spinach in the house, I’ve been thinking about making something similar.

Last week, I asked if any of you have spinach smoothie recipes & THANK YOU for all of the links, recipes & suggestions! It definitely got me going in the right direction. I didn’t follow any particular recipe for the smoothie I made this morning, but I took bits & pieces from all the recipes you suggested. I threw in pineapple, 100% pineapple juice, frozen 100% orange juice concentrate, a generous handful of spinach, frozen bananas and vanilla yogurt.

My first job (at 15) was working at Jamba Juice with my older sister. We had such a great time working together and it was there that I learned the secret to smoothie perfection: add liquids, solids THEN frozens in that order; a little bit of orange juice makes every smoothie wonderful and frozen fruit in lieu of ice cream or ice is the best way to thicken up a smoothie.

Penelope devoured the smoothie, as did I. It was so delicious. I just loved how Penelope kept chanting, “Mmm, dewishush!” (Mmm, delicious!) with every sip. I’m going to be making it again. I also think I’m going to make every excuse to use my blender, too. It’s awesome.

Thanks again to everyone who pointed me in the right direction for a delicious spinach smoothie!!

mobile site