Raspberry Linzer torte- and a giveaway

My Aunt Carol makes a bazillion cookies every year for Christmas. What is my all time favorite that she makes?

Yup, she let me have her recipe. And what do I do? I make it healthier, because I have a problem. My newest problem is realizing I can't control myself around linzer torte. Even though it's healthier, it's still not healthy for you. Yet somehow I kept saying, oh it's ok to have another square... and the next thing I knew 1/2 the torte was gone. WHOOPS.

Seriously. Amazing. I can't stop eating it. This can be served sliced like a cake, but she always cut them into little squares so I followed suit here.

Instead of using 1/2 POUND of butter, I used a 1/2 CUP of Melt. It's an organic butter substitute that uses healthy for you fats (think coconut butter). It gave the torte an amazing texture and this thing was so super delicious, I can't help myself... must go eat more...

Want to win your own Melt giveaway pack! (coupons to try melt for FREE, a cutting board, and a cool spreader). Just comment below and tell me what flavor you'd like to try first. US entries only, you have until Sunday Oct 6th to enter. Wow, when did October get here??

Linzer Torte- healthier
recipe adapted from Aunt Carol

1/2 cup Melt Original
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon powder (or 2 Tbs lemon zest)
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup ground walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350, lightly spray a 8" springform pan. Beat melt and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating each in. In a separate bowl mix together flour, lemon, walnuts and spices, salt, baking powder. Mix dry into wet and stir until incorporated. Place 2/3 of the batter into the spring form pan. Top with 1 cup raspberry jam, and then remainder of the dough. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until edges start to pull away from pan. Fully cool and then cut into bite sized squares.


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Quick turn me right side up!

No no no, it's much more fun to be upside down! I can now check "make pineapple upside down cake" off my bucket list. I'm not sure how I've never made it before considering I love pineapple, but it took baking for a friends dad to remedy this situation! He's been going through a rough time so I asked what his favorite dessert was (since we all know a little something special always lifts your spirits). She told me he loves anything with pineapple, so after some google searches I decided on this bad boy.

My friend said he ate it over the course of two days, so I'm guessing that meant it was good! That's the worst part about giving someone a cake... there is no easy way to taste test it without it looking like a mouse got into the cake!

What do you do when making a cake to bring somewhere for the first time? Bake two so you can test it? Or plan ahead and test drive the recipe? I seem to like to fly by the seat of my pants and hope for the best :)

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One Minute Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake... in a mug... in a minute. Need I say more? I know recipes like this have be circling the interwebs for years but I'm still posting about it because I love the idea. And this way in case you haven't heard about it, now you know!

Mix together all the dry. Add in the milk and vanilla and stir until combined. Pour into a mug and microwave for 45 seconds to a minute. DONE. Scoop on your favorite ice cream and you are ready to go!

Have you made cake in a mug? What recipe did you use? Are you hooked? Links please :)

One-Minute Mocha Cake
recipe by Chocolate Covered Katie

Katie has asked that I don't post her recipe here, head on over to her blog to see it if you want to give it a try (link above). She uses 1 Tbs of oil in her version, I used 1 Tbs of apple sauce instead and I think it came out great with that sub.

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Cinnamon Raisin Tea Cake

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here!

This was one of those recipes where I saw a picture over on Kari's blog... emailed her for the recipe... and made it that same night! And I was sooo sooo glad I did! Yes, there are two, one hour rises required... but you know what... I still started making it at 6pm on a weeknight, and it was WORTH it!

Ta-da!! This is a combo of a recipe her grandma made and another she found online (the main takeaway is she subbed the white sugar in the bread her grandma made for honey, creating a moist, NOT DRY, tea cake) Although I guess the point of tea cake is it's dry and you dunk it in tea... but who's counting! Of course I can't leave well enough alone so I subbed in 1/2 whole wheat flour, and 1/2 bread flour. I also used smartbalance instead of the butter, since again, that's what I had on hand. Oh and I only made 1/2 the recipe... which is what I'll write up below, it makes 1 cake instead of 2... I didn't need 2 tasty cakes sitting around, that's just asking for trouble!

Go make this... tonight... it's worth it... and eating it warm you don't even need the icing. YUM.

Tasty Cinnamon Tea Cake
recipe by Kari's Grandma, with a little tweaking by Kari, and then a little more by me

Ingredients:
Dough
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup smart balance
1-pkg active yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
1 cup whole wheat flour
about 1 cup bread flour (man need more when kneading)
1 large egg

Filling (sprinkle till it looks good)
Cinnamon
Succanat (she used white sugar)
Raisins

Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp water

Instructions:
Combine the yeast and warm water until it looks creamy and let sit for 10 minutes.

While you're waiting for the yeast, combine the milk, butter(smart balance), egg, and honey in a separate bowl. Add to yeast mixture and slowly stir in 1 cup whole wheat flour, slowly add the 1 cup bread flour, 1/2 cup at a time.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and kneed for around 8 minutes adding flour as necessary.

Place dough in a floured bowl and cover with a damp towel, placing in a warm dry place to rise for about an hour. I like to microwave a rice filled heating pad for one minute and then place the bowl on top of it in the microwave, it keeps it nice and warm :) (don't microwave the dough... just the pad...)

Take the dough and punch it down. On a floured surface, roll out. Cover in sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Kari's grandma used to tell her to, "give it a dirty face," when she wasn't putting on enough cinnamon.

Then roll the dough and form into a circle. Place the dough in a greased cake pan. Using a sharp knife or kitchen shears, make cuts every inch or so along the circle, cutting only 3/4 of the way through. Twist each section slightly so that the rolls fan out.

Cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm dry place to rise for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 375. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden. Remove to a cooling rack.

After your tea ring is cooled, you can ice them. Simply mix all of the icing ingredients and drizzle it on your ring.

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Melt Frosting - and a chance to win $500

If you've been around with the blog for awhile you know John isn't big on butter, he basically avoids it at all costs. He's also the inspiration for so many of the low fat recipes you find here. Enter in a new product Melt Buttery Spread. It's a butter substitute made of healthy cooking oils.

"Rich and creamy Melt is a butter alternative made of virgin coconut oil, flax seed oil, palm fruit oil and canola oil. It provides the good fats your body needs when you take out other fats in your diet. Melt cooks, tops and bakes just like butter, with good-for-you ingredients. "

Melt is organic, gluten free, cholesterol free, carb fee, soy free, and trans fat free, it does contain milk and tree nuts though so this isn't a product for my vegan or nut free friends out there.

Melt contacted me and asked if I'd like to try some for free and tell me what I thought, after looking over the ingredients I was totally on board to give this stuff a try! I happened to have some beets on hand and decided it was a chocolate cake kinda weekend. The recipe doesn't call for butter or oil, so I was looking to the frosting as a way to try out Melt. One of my favorite things about Melt is the texture, it's spreadable out of the fridge so there is no waiting for your butter to soften so you can cream it. Instant gratification!

The frosting creamed up just like butter but stayed softer and didn't really harden up, not a bad thing but just mentioning it. The taste was the same as when I make it with real butter, but this way it had half the saturated fat AND less calories! Double bonus :)


Now I'm sure you want to know how you could win a $500 gift card to host your own party for 10 friends courtesy of Melt right? (The best part, if you win, I win! Giddy-up to that!) To enter you need to head here and enter your name, email, and the blog that sent you aka stephchows.blospot.com

"One reader and the blog that reader came from will both win a chic, foodie night in with friends and use the gift card to buy cooking supplies, food, decor, a cute dress, and whatever they'd like for their party! (we'll also provide 3 packages of Melt) We'll also feature each winner's party photos and original recipes featuring Melt on our Facebook page and website! The Mingle With Melt contest lasts through October 31 and we're only working with select bloggers on this, and it's a blog-only contest."

Seriously go enter now!!! :D

Melt Chocolate Frosting
2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons Melt
5 tablespoons skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream Melt until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.



I'm making banana bread or pumpkin bread next using Melt, I'll let you know how it turns out! What's the first thing you'd try making?

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Birthday Cake

First things first, although this was my birthday cake, today is my Aunt Sandy's birthday!! Happy birthday Aunt Sandy!!! We love you!!!



Sometimes a girl just needs a nice big slice of cake.

And sometimes her husband doesn't need to know said cake has beets hidden in it :) You can read about his original reaction when I first made this last year here. You'll also find the recipe there. As for the frosting I did 1/2 batch of a simple cocoa butter frosting, super fast, and so very creamy and spreadable.

While eating this for dinner the other night (yes you read that right) John kept saying... "this cake has beets in it... and I really REALLY like it... but I really hate beets..." Poor man didn't know what to do with himself :)

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Opera Cake

When John and I went on our honeymoon we had Opera Cake for the first time (image above), and it was delicious!! We haven't been able to find any in Rochester (anyone know of somewhere??) So I decided to make some myself. You basically make a thin almond sponge and then layer it with coffee butter cream and top it with a chocolate ganache.

We have recessed lighting in our kitchen which makes it wonderfully bright, sometimes too bright for food photography though as you can see by this picture. You will also notice my cake looks nothing like the professional one from the bakery *whomp whomp* yeah it looked pretty darn sad... and I scorched the chocolate... which is never a good thing (it came out totally lumpy).

Things I learned... leave Opera Cake to the professionals, guess we'll just have to go on another vacation to get some... don't mind if I do! If you want to try I found the recipe here.

Glazed Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Here I go with pumpkin again! And a bundt cake! Who doesn't' like bundt cakes, I mean it's just so fun to say!

Bundt bundt bundt bundt bundt... ok you get the point. I registered for a bundt pan when we got married, and was so excited to get it. We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and I decided it was the perfect excuse to make the inaugural first bunt cake in the pan. I remembered that the one person coming was in love with gingerbread... so off I went to the internets searching for a good gingerbread bunt cake. Low and behold I found this one hiding in the crevices at Eating Well.

It didn't call for a ton of ginger, just pumpkin pie spice, so I added more ginger and a good helping of cinnamon and called it a day. Only a few slight changes to the recipe but I stuck to what they had for the most part.

Glazed Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake
recipe by Eating Well

CAKE

1 cup all-purpose, flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup granulated sugar ( I used 1/2 splenda, 1/2 white sugar)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, (not Dutch-process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice ( I used 3/4 tsp ginger 1 tsp cinnamon)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

GLAZE & GARNISH

1/2 cup packed confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips, or toasted chopped nuts

PREPARATION

To prepare cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl.
Blend 1 cup buttermilk, pumpkin puree and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Beat in whole egg and egg white. Stir in oil, corn syrup and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack, about 2 hours.
To glaze & garnish cake: Combine confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon buttermilk in a small bowl, stirring until completely smooth. Place the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the glaze over the top; garnish with chocolate chips (or chopped nuts) while the glaze is still moist.

(or another great opportunity to toss on some bacon!!!!)

PS it's the last day to enter the Shabby Apple Giveaway!

ChocoBosto Cream Pie

Don't forget to enter the Shabby Apple Giveaway!


We all know John is a bit finicky with what he eats (health-nut), so when the man lets me know he likes something (bad for him) I do my best to remake it into something he will actually eat (not so bad for him). I've had this discussion with you before... but the man loves boston cream pie, personally I can't understand it, that creamy white filling creeps me out something fierce!

Today is actually the little health nuts birthday! Happy Birthday John!! I didn't make this for today but don't you worry he got something even better (you'll have to wait to see it).

Choco-Bosto Cream Pie
recipe by ::steph chows:: with some help marked below

Cake:

1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup white sugar (I used splenda)
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Hershey's 100% Cocoa Special Dark
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Preheat over to 350 F
Mix apple sauce, sugar (and/or) splenda, vanilla, beat in egg
In a separate bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture a little at a time. Spoon batter into greased 8" spring form pan
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Set aside and let cool completely.

Filling:

Direct from CookingLight

Icing (I'm not sure where I wrote this down from... but I'd probably use something different next time, this one was ok though)

1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbs canola oil
1 cup powdered sugar

Place chips and oil in a heavy bottom pan, stir and cook over medium heat until melted, remove from heat and stir in sugar.

Assembly/Toppings

With a sharp long knife cut your cake in half (this is the hard part) place on a nice plate and then slather on all the filling, top with other cake half and then drizzle chocolate frosting over top. Toss on some toasted hazelnuts for some flair... or anything else you have laying around.. sprinkles... bacon.. you know, whatever you've got :)

Chocolate and almond butter muffins...cake

So these were going to be muffins, but then I decided to make a loaf instead. Why you might ask? Especially since I just rebranded the blog with a flying muffin... because I didn't feel like cleaning the muffin tin afterward and I was out of cupcake liners. Yup that laziness is how I roll.


I was browsing around on How Sweet it is (who also has a love of muffins) and found this recipe. I had to make them!! Just a few changes... like almond butter instead of peanut butter, and flax egg instead of egg whites. The loaf is delicious, especially served with a scoop of icecream. YUMMM



Whole Wheat Almond Butter Fudge Muffins
recipe by How sweet it is (slightly adapted by me below)

Makes ~1 loaf

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup splenda (or use white sugar)
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
dash salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup no stir MaraNatha almond butter
1 Tbs ground flax seeds plus 3 Tbs water
2 Tbs canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons applesauce

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in applesauce. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into 9" loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes or until loaf springs back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.


Did you all dress up for Halloween?
John and I went as Jesse James and Bombshell McGee... awesome.

Chocolate Espresso Cake

This cake has a secret... want to know what it is?? and it's not that is was cooked in some new crazy cooking method using dutch ovens.


That's right... beets!! I asked John if he liked beets, he informed me if I made any he wouldn't be eating them... well I'll show him!


Grating up beats allows you to sneak them into all types of innocuous things... like CAKE!


The only issue is when said husband comes downstairs while you are in process of baking and he sees said bowl of grated beets.

"Are those beets... and are you putting them in a CAKE?!?"
"Nah those aren't beets"
"What are they then"
"I aint telling"
"They ARE beets!! You lied to me!!! What now that we're married you lie to me"
"It's for your own good, now go back to your man cave and let me bake"
"Well I aint eating it!"

The cake came out beautiful and I happily dug into it with a scoop of ice cream on the side.
"mmmmmm this is sooo good!! too bad you don't want any since there are beets in it... more for me!"
"Well... maybe I could have a little slice"
"Nope you don't eat beets, sorry."

Needless to say I caved and let him have a slice... and he loved it... stinker :D

I found this while randomly browsing in the library... best way to find new things if you ask me!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake (my changes in red)
Recipe from Cook Yourself Thin

Serves 10
Calories per serving: 222

For the cake
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cup self-rising flour ( I used 1 cup APF + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
1/4 cup finely ground almonds
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces beets, peeled and finely grated
4 ounces low-fat buttermilk (I used fat free milk plus a squeeze of lemon)
2 tablespoons strong black coffee (I used instant espresso)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar

For the icing
1/2 cup dark chocolate, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons strong black coffee (I used instant espresso)
2 tablespoons honey

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly spray an 8-inch springform baking pan with cooking spray.

3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, ground almonds, salt and baking soda, and set aside.

4. Using a standing or handheld mixer set at medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar for 4 full minutes until pale and fluffy. On low speed, beat in the grated beets, followed by dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk and coffee, and beat until the batter is smooth.

5. Pour into the pan and place in the middle of a hot oven and bake for 30 minutes. (Mine took 40 for some reason) Test with a toothpick inserted for doneness; it should come out clean. Bake for an additional 5 minutes if needed.

6. Cool for 10 minutes or so in the pan and unmold onto cooling rack. Cool on a wire rack until cold. 7. To make the icing, prepare a double boiler.

8. Combine all the ingredients and gently stir until the chocolate is smooth. Stir occasionally until the mixture thickens.

9. With the cake still on the wire rack, pour the icing liberally over the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides. Transfer onto a plate or cake stand for serving.


Chow!!!!

Chocolate Orange Campfire Cake!

Real quick... if you signed up for the jam exchange check your email, you should have your partner sent to you! If for some reason you didn't get an email. Email me ASAP stephchows at gmail.com!

So Jeanne is actually two inches taller than me... I'm just sitting up higher :)

As I said Monday, we made cake on our camping trip, and it was delicious!! Don't get me wrong, it was boxed cake mix, I'm not THAT crazy to lug all of those ingredients along. Only half crazy :) The inspiration came from the blog ljcfyi, and it's the best idea ever. )PS don't you love the total vintage tin camping plate?? It's from my camping days as a kid in the 80's!

Take 4 oranges and cut off the tops, scoop out the innards. NOTE: this will cause every mosquito in the area to dive bomb you... so do it quick and clean up quick! Citranella candles also help.

Next... remember to bring a can opener... or a swiss army knife... open your 15 once can of pumpkin.


Mix said can of pumpkin with 1/2 a box of chocolate cake mix.

Spoon into your orange shells (fill about 3/4 of the way up) and wrap in tin foil.

Place into fire nestled up to all the nice warm embers for 20 minutes. Rotate every so often so they cook evenly.

Remove from embers and let cool a little, and then enjoy!!

The cake was super moist and had an amazing orange flavor infused into it. I'm totally making these again!

Chocolate Cream Pie

Happy day after valentines day! Happy day after Chinese new year... and happy presidents day! So are you all off from work and sitting on some bar stools somewhere? Not me, I'm at work... so no rubbing it in if you have today off!

I'm not a big valentines celebrator but it's always fun to do something a little special. John however is more of a romantic and I think he gets a little bummed that I'm not all gun-ho about V-Day... I try my best though... I mean I gotta show the man I love him! John loves boston cream pies, but never eats them due to the badness level of them. Personally the vanilla creamy center skeeves me out... not really sure why but bleh!! So off I went to make him a fun lightened up version.

I used my chocolate cupcake recipe (minus the chocolate chips) as the cake part and just made it in an 8 inch square cake pan and increased the time by 7ish minutes. The creamy center comes from cooking light... and the topping is just melted chocolate YUM!!


Tada! Now John can't complain that I didn't get him anything for Valentines day :D

Did you make your valentine anything special? Go out somewhere? Or just mellowed in?


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Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I always buy carrots and think I'm going to eat them... and then I never do... and they go bad... but this last time before I let that happen I decided to do something with them... no I didn't just eat them... I made dessert out of them. I mean you might as well use them in something you'll enjoy right ;)

Carrot cake can be seriously dry, BLEH, no thank you. These are super duper moist, and not an ounce of butter. Please believe me, these things taste so moist and decadent, you'd never know they are made with no oil or butter. Add a little cream cheese frosting on top, and you are good to go!

I pretty much pulled this recipe out of thin air, and was very excited they came out well. I mean that is the worst when you try something random and it's a big *whomp whomp* Next time you need a quick dessert to bring along somewhere just print this out and you wont be sorry :)

Oh and the pumpkin puree... you don't taste it at all... it just adds an amazing moistness and tenderness to the cake!


steph chows carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
for cupcakes you will need:
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup splenda granulated (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups carrots (gratted)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2-3 Tbs skim milk

In a large bowl beat together:
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup splenda granulated (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
2 eggs

Then fold in:
1 1/2 cups carrots (grated)
1 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl whisk together:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Gentry stir dry into wet. Add in 2-3 Tbs fat free milk as you stir. Fill 12 cupcake lined pans. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat together the following:
4 oz room temp cream cheese 1/3 less fat variety
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Spread on top of cooled cupcakes and refrigerate if not eating right away.

These stay moist for days... so no worries about storing them in a sealed container in the refrigerator overnight or for a few days.

AND don't forget to sign up for the jam exchange if you haven't already :)

Inside out carrot cake

Easter is on its way in two weekends. Easter makes me think of bunnies, which make me think of carrots... and carrot cake... it's one of those cakes that seems like it's going to be healthy... I mean it has vegetables in it right?? Oh and a STICK of butter? Really a whole stick? Is that really necessary??

No no it's not.

It's Cookie Carnival time again, and yes I'm a day late... the roundup happened yesterday... booo. Seriously when did April show up?? Oh right... yesterday. Well this is my contribution, better late than never! Because seriously if you like carrot cake... you need to make these. Totally guilt free, and they taste like heaven... no exaggeration! My roomie (who is a fan of her baked goods) ate one and said this was the best yet of all my alteration creations! NO WAY?? BEST EVER?? Yes it's true! These are super moist, delicious, spiked with raisins... and the cream cheese filling... marvalous my dear!

I mean look at this bad boy?


Yup not a drop of butter or oil... and d@mn tasty! So if you can have a cookie that TASTES just as good as the bad... minus the stick of butter (800 calories, 92 grams of fat) replace it with a little carrot baby food and a little unsweetened apple sauce (I KID YOU NOT!) wouldn't you rather have the healthy one? BAM you have a tasty tasty guilt free treat.

I must admit while I was spooning the carrot baby food out of its little container, I had my doubts... I was thinking, man this smells nasty... well the birds get a treat if these suck... Guess what little birdies! You aint getting any of these! Cause I'm going to eat them all! :)

I made mine with fresh homegrown carrots from the public market here. I think it totally added to the flavor of these. Now for the recipe, print it out and go make some! You wont be sorry :)

these tasted great even without the cream cheese filling

Inside out carrot cake
adapted by stephchows, original from Gourmet | April 2004

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (3.5 oz) container of Gerber baby food, pureed carrots
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tbs splenda baking blend plus 2 Tbs splenda granulated (or you can use 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 ounces)
8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1/4 cup honey (good local stuff tastes the best!)

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets. (I used silicon baking mats)

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together carrot puree, apple sauce, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl until combined. Mix in carrots, and raisins, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake,
switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and
springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total.

Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

While cookies are baking, blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth.

Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.

how seriously moist and delicious does that look!?

Chow!


Oh and check this out....
my nutritional stats for one sandwich cookie vrs making them by the original recipe...