Espresso Truffle Brownies

Adapted from this gluten-free recipe.

• 1/2 cup dried black beans (this is the same as one 15.5 ounce can of cooked black beans, but this way there's no extra stuff in them, and cooking them with the coffee and vanilla helps them absorb those flavors)
  
• 1/4 cup coffee beans, finely ground
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 3 T coconut oil
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 cup diced dates
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips (the only not-healthy ingredient - I did use organic, but next time I'll make my own)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  

Soak beans. (I did the quick soak method: bring to a boil, remove from heat and keep covered for an hour.) Drain beans. Cover with 1 1/2 cups of water, add coffee and vanilla, and bring to boil. Boil gently, partially covered, until beans are tender, adding water if necessary.

While beans are cooking, place dates in small pot, just barely covered with water. Simmer to soften.

Place cooked beans (including juice and coffee grounds - should be about 1 1/2 cups), dates (drained), eggs, and coconut oil in the blender. Puree. (If your blender is struggling, add a bit more coconut oil.) Add cocoa and baking soda and blend until mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Pour batter into greased 8x8 baking pan. Bake at 350 until top is dry and sides begin to pull away from the pan (20-25 minutes).

Brownies will be gooey when they first come out of the oven. This is, of course, not a bad thing, but you won't be able to serve them as a bar. Once they've sat for a day or so they have a fudgie-brownie-meets-truffle consistency and taste even better. My only other tip: don't mention they have black beans in them until people have tasted them. You can't taste the beans, but some folks would be too squeamish to try them.

Lunchbox Cookies

One day I was thinking, we eat celery with peanut butter and raisins, we eat apples with peanut butter - why not combine them all in one yummy good-for-you cookie? So I adapted a recipe I got ages ago from my second favorite mother of seven and called them After School Snack Cookies. That cumbersome handle morphed to Lunchbox Cookies, but they're actually perfect for breakfast on the go.

WARNING: These cookies are hearty and wholesome and not very sweet. If that's a problem, add more honey, call them something other than cookies, or get a recipe somewhere else.

• ½ c. coconut oil
• 1 c. honey (use good, raw local honey - the stuff from the grocery store may be cheaper, but it also may not be honey)
  
• ½ c. natural peanut butter (this matters!)
  
• 1 ½ T vanilla
• ¾ c. milk
• 3 c whole grain flour (I use part whole wheat, part oat)
  
• 1 ½ t baking soda
• 2 T ground flax seed
• 2 ¾ c oats
• ¼ c sesame seeds (if your sesame seeds are unsalted, you may want to add a pinch or two of salt to the cookie dough)
  
• 1 apple, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• ¼ c. raisins

Combine coconut oil, honey, peanut butter, vanilla, and milk. If you measure the oil first and then use the same measuring cup for your honey, you'll waste less honey!

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and flax seed. Add to wet ingredients. Stir in oats, sesame seeds, apple, celery, and raisins. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Roll into balls, flatten slightly between hands, and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes at 350.

I always give the above disclaimer before serving these cookies. So long as you're not expecting a super-sweet cookie, you'll love them!

[anything you want them to be] Muffins

I've been asked for the recipe for "my apple muffins" or "my maple muffins" or "my breakfast muffins." Fact is, it's the same recipe, a "nothin' naughty" stroke of genius that works for just about anything. I'm tired of looking the original up and remembering all my little tweaks every time I bake it, too, so here 'tis:

• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 lemon, juiced (about 2 tablespoons)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla*
• 2 cups whole grain flour (I always do part whole wheat, part oat. I grind oats in my coffee grinder, much like the Ingalls ground wheat in The Long Winter, except they did it by hand and I do it by electricity.)
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed*
• 1/4 cup whole oats*
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts*
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon*
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg*

*Approximate measurements, which is better than saying "a handful" or "a generous shaking."

Mix dry ingredients. Separately, mix wet ingredients. Make a hollow in the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Stir only until blended. (Don't overstir!)

Makes about 2 dozen. Bake at 350 for 12-20 minutes (sorry, can't remember how long it takes).

These puppies are moist, aromatic, and incredibly delicious. I almost always make a streusel topping of oats, walnuts, cinnamon, and honey that I sprinkle on before baking. If I'm lazy (or out of oats) I drizzle honey on top and sprinkle it with cinnamon.

I've made these with apples, which is yummy. I've made breakfast muffins with carrots, apples, and dates. I've made blueberry ginger muffins that I served with a spiced honey butter. I've made them with 1/2 cup of honey instead of the maple syrup. I'm guessing you could do just about anything with this recipe. I want to try pumpkin, and a savory muffin with garlic and onion and celery and some kind of seed. This afternoon I'll be making blueberry pecan muffins.

Most muffins are tricksters. They call themselves muffins to fool you into purchasing them as a healthy alternative to cookies or doughnuts when they're actually loaded with bad-for-you ingredients. But not my muffins! And they're still packed with flavor. Try for yourself!

Just Call Me Susy Homemaker

I'm typing with that homey sound of the washer and dryer as background music. It's a satisfying feeling, because I was so behind in laundry that I had run out of just about everything. But it's satisfying for another reason: I just made my own laundry detergent. It took five minutes, seriously, and it's better for me, better for creation, and better for my wallet. (We'll find out if it's better for my clothes - I'm guessing it will be.)

I also mixed up a batch of my cereal. That's nothing new, as I've been eating the same breakfast nearly every day for months. It's a blend of whole oats, unsweetened coconut, chopped walnuts, ground flax seed, and (the one concession to my new attempt to avoid processed food) Grape Nuts. I eat it raw with cinnamon and milk every morning, but it's good cooked, too. I crave the stuff.

Earlier this week I invented a new salad (fresh greens with plenty of spinach, yummy local strawberries, local-to-Alabama-where-I-bought-them cucumbers, fresh mint, ginger-candied almonds, and little chunks of extra-dark chocolate) and a new smoothie (made with all that leftover cucumber, mint and spinach, plus flax seed, milk and agave nectar). They were delish, mostly nutrish - and I thought them up in my very own noggin.

I am very proud of me.

Bittersweet Mayan Chocolate Cake

I bragged the other night that I was going to make "the cake to end all cakes." That may be a stretch, but it was pretty dang good. So, without further ado:

Bittersweet Mayan Chocolate Cake

First, I made a Flourless Chocolate Cake adapted from this epicurious recipe:

• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• vanilla
  

Chocolate and butter were melted in a jimmy-rigged double boiler (during which I added a splash of vanilla). I removed the top pot from the heat and whisked in the sugar, then the eggs. The cocoa was "sifted" (I also don't have a sifter, so I filled my tea strainer with cocoa and sprinkled it by gently tapping the side) over the surface, then whisked in until just combined. Baked in a 9-inch cake pan (buttered, then wax-papered, then buttered again) at 375° for 25 minutes (until a crust formed).

This dense chocolatey goodness was inverted onto a plate and topped with...

Spiced Ganache:

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 'nother splash of vanilla
  
• sugar
• cayenne pepper
• cinnamon

I melted the chocolate and butter, vanilla and cream all together, added a sprinkling of sugar because it was supposed to be bittersweet but was leaning a little too heavily toward the front end of that adjective, and stirred in cayenne pepper and cinnamon "to taste". (I guess I ought to measure if I'm going to post recipes, huh?)

The ganache was spread over the cake, then sprinkled with some cocoa powder.

I served this with a mango raspberry sauce - just fruit, really. (I diced the mango and mushed a small portion of both fruits, then mixed 'em back up. This made it saucy, messy, and sweet, much like myself.) On top was fresh whipped cream.

We squeezed thirteen pieces out of this cake, so as not to leave anyone out, which is unluckier than any old number. It got some rave reviews, some hesitant ones, which is to be expected - spicy chocolate is not for everyone. My own review? I'm too modest to tell you.

Saturday Brunch

There's a delicious breath of freedom in the phrase "Saturday Brunch." First, it's Saturday - sleeping-in Saturday, lounging-around Saturday, do-nothing-unless-you-want-to Saturday - twenty-four hours of unscheduled bliss. And then it's brunch - like breakfast, my favorite meal of the day, only later and bigger and friendlier.

That said, here's what I made for Saturday Brunch:

Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes
As usual I kind of did my own thing - you'll notice some imprecise measurements.

• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (ground up in my coffee grinder - only I left a handful of oats whole)
  
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• handful of chopped walnuts
• smaller handful of whole flax seed [Edit: have since learned that I should grind flax seed, as it won't digest otherwise. Don't ask me how I discovered this.]
  
• lots of cinnamon
• little bit of nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda (or thereabouts - the box was nearly empty so I just dumped some in)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plain yogurt
  
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup honey (Tip: a touch of olive oil inside the measuring cup keeps you from wasting the honey remnants that stick to the cup. Although those were always fun to lick out anyway.)
  
• 2 eggs
• a few generous drops of vanilla
  

You know the drill - mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, stir together just until blended (the biggest mistake people make with pancakes is over-stirring!) I always cook pancakes in real butter, and I spread these ones out a bit because they get too dense if they're too thick. They're also quite filling, so I make them a little bit smaller than usual.

Top this yummy, hearty deliciousness of a flapjack with real maple syrup, real organic whipped cream (sweetened with agave nectar and a touch of vanilla), and a sprinkling of cinnamon, and you'll forget there was ever such a thing as a five-day work week in your recent history.

Also on the table: strawberries and blueberries with more of that real whipped cream, a French press full of fresh-ground Sunergos Sumatra (I saved some heavy cream from a whipping to put it in my coffee, unsweetened), some Bolthouse C-Boost juice (mango, cherry, and apple...and apparently camu camu fruit and maitake mushroom? what?), and bacon (which I avoided, but it did make the house smell like a Southern mama lives here rather than a passel of single females with varying degrees of domesticity).

Top this off with a dollop of quality conversation with Hannah, for whom I am increasingly grateful, and Saturday Brunch becomes a true Sabbath of rest, remembering, and celebration. One might call it a Gospel Brunch and only be half joking.

This was plenty of food for me and Hannah to eat our fill and various housemates to roll out of bed and shuffle through the kitchen to fix their plates. (Although some did insist on defiling my healthful whole-grain pancakes with fake pancake syrup - and not just any pancake syrup, but generic, lite pancake syrup. Lite!)

And there are leftover blueberries and whipped cream, giving me something to look forward to - that and a Saturday afternoon that, according to the sunshine outside my kitchen window and the forecast on my homepage, seems promising.