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Double Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

Double Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

At this moment, there are still thousands of tiny hazelnut peels scattered across my kitchen. Nobody prepared me for how messy it would be to roast and peel your hazelnuts. But is it worth it? Abso-freaking-lutely.  Roasting hazelnuts before using them in a recipe such as this one really brings out their rich, nutty flavor, and thus intensifies the delicious factor of these cookies. It also makes it easier to grind them, as the heat of the oven will crisp them up and that's exactly how we need them to be to make our hazelnut flour. I used my mini food chopper/grinder which isn't as powerful as my food processor, so my flour didn't get as fine as I had hoped for. But I actually prefer the speckled look of the hazelnut meal throughout these cookies, so no worries if the same thing happens to you.  Just be sure to stop grinding as soon as you start to see the hazelnuts bulk up- we don't want to turn it into butter!  Now I am getting ideas for future recipes with hazelnut b

Vegan Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Brownies

Vegan Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Brownies

I don't know about you, but when I look at a recipe that has multiple components, that is a sign to me that it is going to be outrageously delicious. Others might look at the same recipe and think all the steps just sound like a lot of work and not worth all the effort. But me? Give me a vegan caramel pecan cheesecake brownie over a standard brownie any day of the week. I want to put in the work baby.  Surprisingly enough, although this recipe does have a few different components to it, each step is really straightforward and simple to put together.  You start with the "caramel", which is made from medjool dates, almond butter, maple syrup and a bit of vanilla extract. Honestly, you could have fooled me. If I didn't make it myself, I would never be able to tell the difference.  The cheesecake batter is made from coconut cream, cashew butter, more maple syrup and vanilla extract, and a bit of cornstarch to thicken it up. It comes together in a blender in seconds and th

Mini Hummingbird Smash Cake

Mini Hummingbird Smash Cake

I have an idea. I know, it's probably going to stir up some controversy. But I'm just going to put it out there. Rather then spending all our time and money planning a first birthday party for a child that will more than likely not remember a thing about it, can we celebrate moms surviving their first year of motherhood? Because that sounds like the kind of party I am down for.  Even MORE kids running around everywhere? Making MORE of a mess that will need to be cleaned up? It couldn't be me. But being showered with gifts and appreciation for keeping a whole human being alive for 365 days? I love it. I need it. Because the truth is, when you're pregnant, everyone treats you like royalty. Have a seat. Are you hungry? Are you craving anything? Do you need a foot massage?  But after you deliver that baby and you have ONE well-check at 6 weeks, you are released into a world of unknowns. And you are alone. And the transition and mental shift of having autonomy to someone nee

Butternut Squash Cupcakes with Chai Infused Whipped Cream

Butternut Squash Cupcakes with Chai Infused Whipped Cream

What do you do when you've got leftover butternut squash from making baby food? Most people would suggest making soup. Me? I'm more of a dessert gal.  We haven't had a new cupcake recipe around here in a while and I feel like butternut squash never gets a chance to be sweet, only savory. So, we're switching things up and letting it shine in the best way I know how.  Full of warm winter spices and topped with a lightly sweetened whipped cream, these cupcakes are absolutely to die for.  I'm actually surprised as to why butternut squash isn't used more often in desserts, when it's super close to it's cousin squash- pumpkin. It's got almost the same texture/taste, so I imagine it would be equally amazing in pie, cheesecake, muffins, you name it! Then again, it did take me approximately 30 minutes just to peel and cut the squash for steaming, so I can see why it's not everyone's first choice. Ha!  Butternut Squash Cupcakes with Chai Infused Whippe

Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons

Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons

Well, well, well, macarons. We meet again. I took an almost two year hiatus from making you guys, but I am back and apparently, better than ever. These are my least hollow macarons to date. In fact, these weren't hollow at all.  But it's not always rainbows and butterflies. Baking macarons while simultaneously hoping your infant doesn't wake up as you are making the sugar syrup is pretty nerve-wracking to say the least. And sometimes, it makes you forget that the mixer needs to be on high while you're adding said sugar syrup so that you don't cook your egg whites.  So yeah, that happened. Surprisingly enough, a few strands of cooked egg white didn't affect my batter and my first batch of these wasn't half bad. The color was just off. I wanted to try to go completely food coloring-free, but unfortunately, when using freeze-dried strawberries without any added food coloring, it creates a sort of brownish-faintly pinkish color that's not very appealing. So

Lactation Brownies

Lactation Brownies

New year, same pandemic. Can you believe it? None of us ever imagined it would go on this long. None of us expected to be wearing masks to every outing and having drive by parties/events. Between the loss of jobs and social isolation, we have had a pretty rough year. But the one good thing to come out of 2020 was - drumroll please ...... babies. Lots and lots of babies. Not sure if it had anything to do with us being home all day, but 2020 was definitely the year of pregnancy & birth announcements.  So to follow up from my quarantine banana bread from 9 months ago, I bring you- lactation brownies. I may or may not have been one of those people with a birth announcement in 2020. And I may or may not have purchased lactation brownies, took one look at the ingredients, and thought to myself why all the galactogogues were way down at the end of the list. I mean, I could have been eating cosmic brownies if we're being honest. No benefit whatsoever!  So I took it upon myself to to

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Today is April 8th, 2020 and although each state's current quarantine orders started at different times, I think I speak for all of us when I say it feels like day 102139. Yes, that's correct, we are under quarantine. For those of you who will read this, possibly years down the road from now, quickly Google "COVID-19" and you will learn all about the scary disease that plagued America and many other parts of the world and closed down schools and businesses, leaving the majority of us at home and jobless. Right now in Ohio, we have not yet hit the peak of this deadly virus, and though it's only been a few weeks since we have been ordered to stay at home to prevent the spread, the number on many of our scales is already rising. Let's be honest, a lot of us are finding ourselves eating out of boredom and/or stress and it's just not the greatest for our health. So, I'm here to remedy that. I can't show you how to make homemade hand sanitizer

Chocolate Strawberry Cake Roll

Chocolate Strawberry Cake Roll

One of the most popular recipes on my site is this red velvet cake roll . Month after month, it comes up in my top three most visited pages. So, I thought to myself this week, why not try to whip up  another cake roll to break the internet? Cue this chocolate covered, strawberry cream filled cake roll. As a swiss roll fanatic myself, I was super excited for how this would turn out. I think I may have attempted a chocolate cake roll sometime in the past, but I wasn't successful and sort of swept the idea under the rug. This time around, I turned to Sally from Sally's Baking Addiction for her cake baking expertise and found this incredible chocolate cake base recipe for the roll. It is super decadent but fluffy at the same time and most importantly, it did not crack. As Sally says, it's super important NOT to overbake the cake because that is what will keep it from being as pliable in the rolling process. As for the inside of the roll, I prepared a whipped stra

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