Tag: Desserts
Gluten Free Halloween Candy Bark
Tonight some friends of ours came over for what has come to be a tradition in our house around Halloween time: a creepy movie night. For years my husband and I hosted a Hitchcock movie night, then we tried a Twilight Zone Party, and this year, in honor of Gene Wilder’s recent passing, I really wanted to have a bunch of people over to watch the Mel Brooks classic Young Frankenstein. For those who have never seen the movie, it’s a screwball comedy with a dark twist, starring Wilder as the tortured grandson of Transylvania’s most famous mad scientist. Despite his insistence that he has no intention to replicate his grandfather’s experiments in reanimating corpses, history repeats itself and the younger Frankenstein returns to the family castle, where he ends up with a 7 1/2 foot raging monster on his hands …all suffused with the cheesy humor you’d expect from Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. I grew up watching the movie with my mom and brother and thought it would be fun to enjoy it in the company of friends.
The thing is, though, October always somehow gets filled up with events, Halloween parties, school work, and other commitments, and my best-laid movie night plans kept getting shoved aside. Before I knew it, we were halfway through the month and I hadn’t officially invited anyone–just had mentioned the possibility to one friend. I’m not one to give up on an idea where a party is concerned, though (see my Entertaining page for evidence), so as the days went by and we got closer and closer to Halloween, I thought, hey, even if we just have that one friend and her family over for the movie, it’ll still be a good time! This particular friend and her husband have two kids who go to the same school as ours and are great friends themselves, so it was a natural fit to have them join us.
Since this friend of mine has Celiac disease, I decided it would be nice to take the “What Can I Eat?” question off the table, so to speak, by making all gluten-free treats for us to enjoy during the movie. Cider bourbon cocktails for the grownups, caramel apple popcorn, and this gluten-free version of Halloween candy bark were on the menu. I typically make a regular Halloween candy bark after my kids go trick-or-treating, but now that they’re getting older, I have a feeling they’re not going to let me steal their candy this year. Guess I’d better really enjoy this pre-Halloween version, then.
With peanuts, M & Ms, and candy corn sprinkled over hardened melted chocolate chips, this rich dessert/snack couldn’t be simpler. Try it with any gluten-free candy on top for anyone in your life who needs to stay away from gluten. The Celiac Disease Foundation has a helpful list on their website of Halloween candies that are gluten-free.
And finally, a question…what’s your favorite creepy movie to watch this time of year? Or if you love Young Frankenstein like I do, what’s your favorite part? I have to go with the “Puttin’ On the Ritz” dance routine, hands down.
Gluten Free Halloween Candy Bark
A Love Letter to Food Original Recipe
Ingredients:
1 24-oz. bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (you may need to check packaging to ensure they are gluten-free)
Lightly salted peanuts, coarsely crushed
M & Ms
Candy corn
Directions:
- Line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch rimmed cookie sheet or baking pan with parchment paper.
- Place chocolate chips in a large bowl and microwave for 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until chocolate is completely melted. Spread melted chocolate evenly over parchment paper.
- Sprinkle with any amount of peanuts, M & Ms, candy corn (or other gluten free candy) you like.
- Refrigerate at least one hour or until chocolate has hardened.
- Remove from parchment paper and place on a large cutting board. With a chef’s knife, cut into pieces or wedges. I’d recommend slicing pieces fairly small, as the richness of even a small amount goes a long way.
Makes 1 9 x 13-inch pan.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
It was bound to happen. Today is the first day of fall, so you knew this was coming, right? I’m not talking about sweater weather (which at this point in Phoenix is just a glint in a hopeful–or delusional–eye), or even the upcoming election (which at this point is hovering like a black cloud of doom, let’s be honest).
I’m talking about Pumpkin Juggernaut.
I won’t abuse you by listing all the places you’re likely to see pumpkin products this fall. I’ve already done that, and I’m sure you’ve already seen the evidence seeping like an orange fog into your local Target…and Starbucks…and Starbucks-inside-Target.
This fall, I think we could all use a pumpkin public service announcement: pick your pumpkin products wisely, lest you experience Pumpkin Burnout. It is of course a wonderful flavor that can set a festive autumn mood, but you may have to pace yourself so you don’t end up wanting to hide in your home like a paranoid seasonal xenophobe, screaming “NO MORE GOURDS!!!” until the Christmas decorations roll out.
These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies make a great choice if you’re trying to be selective, pumpkin-wise. They happen to be my husband’s favorite. He’s asked me to make batches of them for work (his company has an annual pumpkin bake-off) and I’ve served them to neighbors and friends. A larger-than-usual amount of baking powder makes them puff up fluffy and cake-like, and if you store them in the fridge, the cold chocolate-chewy pumpkin combination will convince you that straight out of the fridge is the ONLY way you will ever eat them again. They also freeze beautifully, just in case you get overwhelmed and need to save some for later, like February, when you’ve recovered from Pumpkin Juggernaut.
But for now, on the first day of fall, let’s just bask in the glow of dreams of changing leaves, apple cider, …or…wait…is that the glow of something giant and orange headed our way?
P.S. If you think you can handle more pumpkin without burning out, here are some other great ways to enjoy it!
Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Muffins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
1 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two large baking sheets.
- In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla.
- In a smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir into the dry ingredients.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to combine. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls on prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake 12-14 minutes or until tops of cookies look dry. Cool, then store in the refrigerator for best results.
Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
Red Velvet Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Have you ever smelled so bad it was actually almost good? Like, you were embarrassed to be in the presence of other human beings, but when you were by yourself, you were like, “YEAH, MAN, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT. THIS LADY CAN SWEAT WITH THE BEST OF THEM!”
No?
Well, that was me today. It’s been a weird kind of day, to be honest. It started last night, actually, when, in anticipation of the last day of my summer community nutrition internship, I woke up at 4:00 AM feeling like an agitated chimpanzee was bouncing off the walls of my brain. Was I prepared to have my supervisor sign off on the 16 competencies I was supposed to meet by today? What about the final group presentation next week? Are we ready? What more needs to be done? These and about 900 other concerns went tornado-ing around in my head, preventing me from falling back asleep until about 45 short minutes before my 6:15 alarm. As you may have experienced, sometimes you almost feel worse getting that small amount of sleep before your alarm. Sometimes it’s actually better just getting up ridiculously early and toughing it out.
Feeling the drain of a craptastic 4 1/2 hour night of sleep, I dragged myself out of bed by sheer willpower and somehow made it to my internship site by 7:30, where a morning of outdoor work awaited me. The community center where I’ve been interning offers a once-a-month food box pickup, and this time I was assigned to direct traffic, pass out surveys, and help with set-up and tear-down of the event. By about 8:00, I would describe my mental/emotional state as “Not Enough Coffee In The World.” I’m pretty sure in my exhaustion I was gruff, if not actually rude, to the sweet fellow intern I was working alongside. (Did I mention it was over 100 degrees before 9:00 AM?) When 10:30 rolled around and we were finally done heaving extra cabbages into grocery bags, determining where a particularly foul smell was coming from–ah, yes, it was the potato sack dripping with rotten goo!–and wrestling pop tents back into their bags, the smell on all of us was INTENSE. (Probably rivaling the rotten potato goo, as a matter of fact.) Hence my secret satisfaction at just how terrible I can smell. Aren’t you glad you’re reading this from the safe distance of your computer screen and/or phone?
At any rate, somehow I stumbled through the rest of the morning, my eyes glazed with fatigue, my clothing revealing sweat stains in inappropriate places, and got everything squared away to wrap up my last day of internship. When I finally found myself on the freeway heading home, I had but one thought in my sweaty, stinky head: that there was one last red velvet brownie with cream cheese frosting awaiting me in the fridge at home. It would be my reward for toiling through a morning of labor in the blazing sun on next to no sleep. I could almost taste its fudgy richness, the cold give of creamy frosting against my teeth as I bit into it.
I got home, paid the sitter, took a shower, had lunch, and went looking for my reward.
And this is what the kids had left me:
There may have been tears at this point. Mine, then theirs. Just (sort of) kidding.
Still, even this jagged leftover morsel of red velvet brownie with cream cheese frosting was the little something I needed to keep me going the rest of this day. These things are THAT good. As a nutritionist, I know all the pitfalls of rewarding myself with sweets, but I’m only human, and I’m telling you, there would have been weeping and gnashing of teeth and possibly day drinking had there been absolutely zero of these brownies left for me this afternoon. And now here we are at 5:00 PM and the day is winding down, the kids are watching their Nth Pokemon show of the day, and I’m still thinking of those tasty two bites that tided me over. Thank goodness for brownies–especially red velvet brownies with cream cheese frosting. (And thank goodness for showers, because, holy deodorant commercial, did I need one after this morning.)
Red Velvet Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting
(Brownies adapted from Allrecipes.com, Frosting from an old Betty Crocker recipe)
Ingredients:
For the brownies:
1 c. white flour
1 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. sour cream
1/4 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. salted butter, softened
3 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- In a larger bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, eggs, food coloring, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to combine. Pour evenly into prepared dish.
- Bake 30-35 minutes, or until texture reaches desired fudginess. Cool completely.
- Meanwhile, beat together cream cheese and butter until no lumps remain. Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla and beat until smooth and spreadable.
- Once brownies have cooled, spread evenly with frosting. Store tightly sealed in the refrigerator.
Blueberry Cheesecake Popsicles
If you’ve been following the news, or go on Facebook, or live anywhere besides the bottom of the ocean, you know it’s been a rough week for this country. Every morning it seems we wake up to some new headline worse than the last. Gun violence appears to be at an all-time high, and race relations feel as strained as they’ve ever been since the Civil Rights Movement. People are literally killing each other in the streets on a daily basis. I don’t know whether I want to read everything about it or nothing at all. This week, I feel deeply grieved for my country, and am hard pressed to hang on to hope for its future.
So, frankly, I feel a little glib writing a post about popsicles.
I wish there was something I could write that would change the state of affairs in our country, but I doubt I have anything to say that hasn’t already been said to much larger audiences than mine on Twitter, Facebook, or from the White House. So maybe popsicles are something wholesome and innocent we might as well enjoy in the midst of the world going crazy. I’m reminded of the scene from Mad Men where copywriter Peggy Olson gives a meaningful pitch to her clients that takes them back to the simple pleasure of a popsicle:
Of course, I don’t mean to say that if we all just eat popsicles and sing Kumbayah, the world’s problems will melt away. There are other things I intend to do in the midst of this national crisis, like pray, vote, live my own life and raise my children to live in a way that promotes peace. If you have any other suggestions, I’d sure like to hear them.
And, on a lighter note, these creamy blueberry cheesecake treats really are especially delicious. If in the summer heat, you’re craving a little something sweet that comes without too high a calorie price tag, one of these will do the trick. I hope it brightens your day.
“So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” –Ecclesiastes 8:15
Blueberry Cheesecake Popsicles
A Love Letter to Food Original Recipe
Ingredients:
5 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. half and half or milk
2/3 c. blueberries
1/2 c. crushed graham cracker crumbs
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and yogurt with an immersion blender (or a hand mixer would probably work, too) until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar, then half and half. Add blueberries and mix until incorporated to your liking.
- Pour mixture into popsicle molds and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Freeze at least two hours.
Makes 12 small popsicles.
No-Bake Strawberry Nutella Tart
If you live in Phoenix, I don’t have to convince you that it’s been really…
really…
REALLY…
hot here this week. As I write this at 10:00 p.m., it’s 97 degrees outside, we’ve shattered several temperature records this week, and THIS is what greeted me this afternoon when I got into my car:
118! That’s the temperature they make beef jerky at! (Are we Phoenicians are all slowly becoming human jerky?) I’m starting to feel like Matt Damon in The Martian. Where’s my protective helmet and snazzy insulated orange suit?
Anyway, turning on your oven to cook or bake right now is about the same as an Eskimo chugging an Icee, but sometimes you gotta have a nice dessert. (We all have our reasons. I get it.) Barring digging into a gallon of ice cream, how do you pull off dessert with absolutely zero heat? This Strawberry Nutella Tart! It’s a 100% no-bake, no-cook dessert…that looks like you baked.
I came up with this awhile back when it wasn’t all that hot (like, you know, only 100 degrees) but I was feeling kind of lazy and wanted to make something simple with minimal ingredients for a family dessert. I’m happy to say it came together nicely, because now I have something in my dessert arsenal for weeks like this. At least even when it’s blazing hot, there can always be dessert.
No-Bake Strawberry Nutella Tart
A Love Letter to Food Original Recipe
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. crushed graham cracker crumbs
6 Tbsp. butter, melted or softened
3 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 c. Nutella
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp. half and half
Sliced strawberries, for topping
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Press evenly into the bottom and sides of a greased 10-inch tart pan. Freeze at least 30 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, mix Nutella and cream cheese together with a hand mixer on medium speed until well combined. Stir in half and half. Pour into prepared crust and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Remove from the fridge and top with sliced strawberries before serving.
*Note: This dessert is best served within 24 hours of assembly!
Serves 8.