Category: Dessert

Moms Traditional Christmas Cookies

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Happy Holidays, everyone!  I am not going to count this recipe towards the 250-in-one-year goal, as it doesn’t really fit the criteria.  There is both sugar and gluten in this one.  However, I can promise you that this one time, its absolutely worth it.  I made an exception because this recipe is particularly special to my heart.

My mom used to bake up batches this exact cookie recipe for my brother and me every single Christmas, throughout our childhood.  I awaited this time of year almost solely based on these cookies.  She would press the dough into heavy iron mold castings.  Shapes of ballerinas, drums, sleighs, bells, Santa Claus, rocking horses, the list went on.  When they were finished cooking, we would ever-so-gently dig the pillowy cookies out of their molds with the edge of a knife.  The result was a three dimensional shape which we would proceed to cover in colorful frosting and decals.  The taste, awesome.  Light, sweet, cakey, divine.

Typically I would down 5 or 6 of these per decorating session.  My mom would come to the table and grow wide eyed upon seeing the significantly diminished number of cookies left, asking where so many of the cookies had gone.  My brother and I said nothing, our silence and sneaky smiles giving us away.  These cookie decorating evenings were always a great source of contentment and joy for me.  Lots of giggling and coziness came from sitting next to my mom and brother as Christmas music lulled in the background.

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Raw Carrot Cake with Maple Mascarpone Frosting

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Drum roll for my second raw recipe…#25…and seriously?  Its a GOOD one.  One of the people I live with sampled it and said it was his “favorite thing” out of all the recipes I have made thus far!!!!  I don’t know if its the best but I have to say, its among the top.  This one came out shockingly great.  The flavors together are just awesome.  The texture is fun, the carrots giving it a nice crunch.  The coconut and coconut flour lend the cake a slightly hearty feel.  The sweetness just right.  This is a pretty bomb dessert if I do say so myself.  And it was all the result of an experimental whim.  The best part?  Its HEALTHY!!!  The recipe is refined sugar-free and gluten-free.  AND its raw!!!

(The cake itself is lactose free, though the frosting is not).

The recipe may look like a lot of steps.  It isn’t.  Half of the steps are simply regarding how to assemble it once the cake mixture is made.  So do not be intimidated!  This is one of the easiest desserts you will ever throw together, and with major taste payoff.  The actual making of the cake is just steps 1-5 in the recipe below.

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Matcha Cheesecake

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Yes, I am showcasing yet another cheesecake.  But are you really so surprised?  With the holiday season underway, I felt like this was a great opportunity to continue with the experimental cheesecake flavors.  This dessert is also in one of the key Christmas colors!  How is that for some thematic fun?  For recipe #23, I decided to jump on the Matcha trend bandwagon.

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Carrot Cake Cupcakes

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Along with pumpkin, butternut squash, cinnamon and sweet potato, carrot is another top contender for flavors of fall (though I realize at this point, we have segued into winter.  But carrot cake is fitting for all cold months).  Carrot cake, bread, muffins, cookies, its all delectable.  There is something so homey, down to earth and invitingly earthy about a slice of this flavor of cake.  I love the slightly spiced taste that this sweet bread lends.

These carrot cake cupcakes are refined sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free (though the frosting I recommend is not dairy free.  But man oh man, a carrot cake sweet bread just isn’t the same without a cream cheese flavor of frosting).

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Blackberry Poppy Seed Cheesecake

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Coming at you as recipe #21 is another lovely-to-look-at cheesecake.  Cheesecake is simply the bomb diggity.  It pairs beautifully with tea or coffee.  Its the perfect recipe to whip up for any celebration or get together, as its an easy one and always a crowd pleaser.  Plus, the possibilities for flavor combinations are wide open.  Its rich but not overwhelming.  Sweet but not too sweet.  Creamy, totally delicious.

I have been smitten with this particular dessert (OK lets be real, all desserts) since I was roughly twelve years old.  But the moment I truly fell in love with it was at my family’s little cottage where we used to spend a week or two every summer throughout my childhood, right on Lake Superior.  Many of my most loved and nostalgic memories take place with our “camp” (as well called it) as the setting.

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This would be me with my little brother during one of these said camp summers.

During the particular summer when I was first introduced to cheesecake, I was on the cusp of my teenage years, which is a period that comes with more free reign than being a child offers.  I had my own money.  I could actually buy certain things that I wanted, of my own accord.  The power and thrill that came with that, watch out.  I used some of my meager funds to purchase a box of Sarah Lee Cheesecake Bites, which I had never sampled prior to this summer.  Since then, I haven’t looked back.  My love affair with cheesecake has only deepened over the years.

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A man I dated briefly about a year ago nearly caused me to fall out of my seat when he told me during our get-to-know-you conversation that 1. he was a professional chef and 2. his specialty?  Cheesecake.  My jaw dropped.  The one heartbreak from that short and sweet handful of dates with this (another perk, admittedly beautiful) man?  That I never had the chance to sample this supposedly earth moving cheesecake.  Oh, the regret!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

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December, one of the best months of the year.  Christmas lights twinkling.  Fires roaring in hearths and rustic wood stoves.  Mittens and scarves have officially made a reappearance.  Hot chocolate and tea are constants on rotation as the comforting warm drink of choice (alongside of coffee, which diehards tend to drink all year regardless).  Decorations are hung.  Christmas music is played, to an annoying degree for some (though personally, I love it).  Cookies are baked and piped with colorful icing.  Cards filled with affectionate sentiments are penned.  Church on Christmas Eve with choir sung carols, magical.  Finding for the perfect personal gifts for those you love.  Thick books truly ideal for this month of the year, diving into an immersive, spellbinding, towering tale while holed up under your favorite blanket.  Snow, a glittering blanket across the landscape.  All of this and more is why I think December is fantastic.

Another awesome aspect of December…chocolate cake.  This particular cake is decked out, much like the halls, during this month of the year (wink, wink).

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Mock Gingerbread Cookies

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Its beginning to be that time of year again.  For recipe #19, I thought I would venture into the traditional holiday/Christmas treat realm and go with gingerbread.  Gingerbread is a multi-purpose dessert which can wear many hats appealing, don’t you think?  One can make the traditional gingerbread men and women, decorating them with colorful piped icing for charming getup’s and physical features.  An elaborate gingerbread house can be constructed, doubling as a work of art AND a tasty treat.  Gingerbread cake is always a delicious decision.  Gingerbread cupcakes with maple frosting.  Gingerbread lattes.  The list goes on.

I have a gingerbread cookie recipe for you but without all the less-than-healthy ingredients.  You might just forget they aren’t the real deal and polish off the batch within a day or two if you aren’t careful.

The final cherry on top of all this good news?  For those of you who are avid dough eaters (you know who you are.  The ones who, whenever baking, you grab a spoon and eat a number of spoonfuls of the dough before baking whatever sweet treat it is that’s in the making), this dough is egg free, so eat away!  (I certainly did ;-))

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Mock Gingerbread Cookies

(“Mock” in the sense that these gingerbread cookies are sugar-free, lactose-free and gluten-free.  Legit in the sense that they taste just like the real deal!)

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Mango, Apple and Pear Crumble

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I think its safe to say that winter is officially upon us.  Would anyone disagree?  The temperature seems to have finally dropped to subzero levels of chilliness.  A fact of which I am a bit disheartened since I love nothing more then being toasty warm as often as possible.  Being within the heart of winter makes this a difficult task to accomplish.  So for recipe #18, I decided to go with a cozy, warm, winter themed dish.

One of my favorite cafes here in Frankfurt is Cafe Crumble.  Another favorite is aptly named Sugar Mama.  Both of these inviting little eateries have delicious fruit crumbles on offering.  I have sampled both dishes more then once and each one gets major props.  Delicious.  Homey.  Comfort food that totally hits the spot on a brisk afternoon. So, I decided to make my own version, except this one is refined sugar-free, gluten-free and lactose-free.

The great news?  This version is just as tasty as my two favorite cafes takes on the fruit crumble, though thankfully, this is far better for your health.

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Earl Gray Lavender Cheesecake

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Recipe #17 is not only delicious but lovely to look at, as you can see.  I decided to play with my passion for cheesecake this weekend and whip one up.  However, I didn’t just want to make any old cheesecake.  I wanted to come up with a slightly more unique flavor combination than the usual offerings one finds with cheesecake flavorings.

I have been using lavender a lot lately, especially in my pancakes.  One of my most raved about recent pancake varieties is my blueberry lavender recipe.  So naturally, all this lavender I have been working with as of late sparked a bulb when considering cheesecake possibilities.  I have also heard of all things earl gray flavored being a trendy as well as simultaneously rather timeless flavor, especially in combination with recipes involving creams or sweets.  So I put two and two together and that set the course of my experiment.

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I am excited to report rave reviews from the handful of people who sampled it.  This recipe is refined sugar-free as well as gluten free.  Its not lactose-free.  Personally, I don’t think a cheesecake is cheesecake unless its made of cream cheese.  While I have sampled some excellent raw cheesecakes which are dairy-free (and I plan to attempt one for this very website at some point in the near future ;-)), I had to go with a legit cheesecake (aka, with dairy) for this particular recipe (just minus the sugar and gluten).

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Pumpkin Pie with Pistachio Crust

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Obviously Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here in Germany, so I am imagining all the people I love in the US crowding around full tables (probably at this very moment actually) with their families and loved ones, the surfaces heaped with DELECTABLE food in all manner of dishes, conversation, stories and laughter filling the room, candles aglow along the length of the spread.  I love all of this.  After the meal, a game of cards might break out, or everyone may cozy down in front of a movie.  And of course, watching Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade here and there throughout the day as fun background filler is a must.  And finally, once dusk gives way to night and people start to get the late night munchies, they head back into the kitchen to assemble a small plate of…drum roll…one of the best parts about Thanksgiving…LEFTOVERS!!!!

Therefore I thought with recipe #16, I would stick to the traditional-thanksgiving-foods theme, so here is an awesome Pumpkin Pie for you to sample and fall in love with.  Alongside of stuffing (though not literally eaten together.  That would be gross :-p), pumpkin pie is the most sought after item on the Thanksgiving spread for me.  I could easily kill half a pie if you twisted my arm (or, even if you didn’t).

Yes, the crust on this recipe is a tad complicated but its WELL WORTH IT.

What is the must have item on your Thanksgiving menu? 

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