Ari's Menu

Little changes making a big difference.


Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

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SOMEONE’S GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!!!

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Noooo, not me silly gooses. I already have a real husband and a New York Husband, and that is plenty. Plus, you know I said some vows to my Kitchenaid…

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

 

Ummm, I know what you’re thinking, but it’s totally normal to have two human husbands and one appliance. And everyone says vows to their favorite kitchen appliance, okay?

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

This is one of the most pointless food pictures I’ve ever taken. It shows you nothing about the actual cake, but for some reason I just love it.

Today my beautiful, wonderful friend Jen is getting hitched! I flew in to NYC late last evening, and today I’m road tripping down to Virginia for the wedding. It’s a long story, but the extra states saved me a night’s hotel fair, and earned me some extra time with NY Husband, so it’s well worth the extra travel. Jen is one of the most giving, loving people I have ever met, and I can’t wait to be a part of her special day!

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

 

I figured since today was extra special, I would do something I never do and post a CAKE! I very rarely make real cakes. I’m much more of a cupcake girl. I like the built in portion control of a cupcake, because lord knows I will break out a fork, and eat the entire cake if left to my own devices…

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

 

One time, I made Steve a red velvet cake for his birthday. Of course, this was before I knew how to cook, like at all, so it came from a box. I forgot the eggs (which is pretty typical for me), and the cake, although delicious, was a crumbly mess. This was also pre-weight-loss for both of us. We each ended up grabbing a fork, and almost completely devouring this double layer cake. It was really cute, I swear.

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

I can’t promise you that you will not have the same problem here, because this cake is GOOD. The edges browned and got slightly crispy while the middle stayed perfectly gooey and soft. The cake isn’t overly sweet to balance out the rich, chocolatey icing, and the white chocolate chips throughout create a perfect flavor balance. In basic terms, it tastes kinda like a HUGE, soft peanut butter cookie with white chocolate chips, that’s covered in rich chocolate cream cheese frosting. Except, it’s a cake. A cake I can get behind. Now, please pass me the fork.

 

Sunflower Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

yield approx 16 servings

  • 1/4 cup apple butter
  • 2/3 cup sunflower butter (or any nut butter you have on hand will work)
  • 1  cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar,packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg

For the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 12 oz reduced fat cream cheese
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 and 1/4 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2-3 tbsp unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line the bottom of a 9-10″ springform pan with parchment paper. Spray edges and parchment paper well with nonstick spray. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl. whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer), beat together apple butter, sunflower butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Beat in egg. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Fold in white chocolate chips.
  4. Transfer dough to prepared pan, and use a piece of sprayed parchment paper to gently press into an even layer.
  5. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until lightly golden. The center should be set, but soft. Cool completely in pan.
  6. Once cooled, run a butter knife along the inside to release any areas that are stuck, then open springform, and transfer cake to your preferred frosting area.
  7. To make frosting, beat cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, beating on low speed, followed by cocoa powder. Increase to medium speed and add melted chocolate. Beat until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl often. Slowly,  add almond milk 1 tbsp at a time until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.
  8. Frost cooled cookie cake completely, and serve.

White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

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Sweet, soft and chewy sugar cookie bars topped with smooth white chocolate and gooey, browned marshmallows. Secretly healthy and whole grain, but you’d never know!

White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

I’m a proud big sister! My brother graduated this winter with 2 associate degrees! He is the hardest worker I know, and I am unbelievably proud.

White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

Charlie is a, um…picky eater. He has the oddest tastes of anyone I’ve ever met. He’s not always super into sweets, but he does clear my pantry out of any white chocolate and marshmallows I may have on hand pretty much every time he comes over. They are his two favorite things, and they are definitely two things I can get behind!

White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

To celebrate his accomplishment, I made a simple dessert putting his favorite things together. The cookie layer is thick and soft, then it’s topped with melty white chocolate and browned marshmallows for a winning combination of flavors and textures.

White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

And the best part? They’re health(ier) in the sneaky, secret kinda way that no one will ever guess!

Print
White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 16 bars

White Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars

Sweet, soft and chewy sugar cookie bars topped with smooth white chocolate and gooey, browned marshmallows. Secretly healthy and whole grain, but you'd never know!

Ingredients

  • 1 and 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1/4 cup apple butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp nonfat Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup mini marshmallows

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, sugar, egg white, Greek yogurt and vanilla until well combined. Slowly, add in flour mixture and continue beating until incorporated.
  3. Transfer dough to prepared pan and use a greased piece of parchment paper to gently and evenly press dough into the pan.
  4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and set in the center. Evenly sprinkle white chocolate chips on top, followed by marshmallows.
  5. Broil for 2-3 minutes until marshmallows are browned and puffy. Pay close attention during this step--they can burn quickly if left in too long. Cool completely, and serve.
https://arismenu.com/white-chocolate-marshmallow-cookie-bars/

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes {vegan}

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Lemon Coconut Cupcakes #vegan

Hi. There’s cupcakes. But first, can we please talk about Les Miserables for a hot minute? My poor, sweet, perfect husband got forced volunteered to go with me to see it. When I first saw the trailer, I was convinced it was going to be horrible, but as time went on, the hype got bigger and bigger, and I started to believe I was actually going to love it.

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes #vegan

And I’m really sorry, because if you saw it, I’m sure you probably loved it too. But we walked out and Steve said “My favorite part was when he jumped off the bridge because that meant he couldn’t sing anymore.” Spoiler alert: Javert jumps off a bridge. Spoiler #2: I kind of agree. I don’t want to talk about everything that was wrong with the movie, because flaws and all, I still enjoyed all 2.5 hours of it. Well maybe like 2 of them, but what was sooooo funny was listening to Steve go on and on and ON about it the whole car ride home. I’ve never seen him hate a movie so much!

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes #vegan

His other finest quote was “No wonder they couldn’t get anything done in that French revolution! They had to sing about everything first!” If you didn’t love the movie, you should really ask him about it, but if you’re one of the people who cried in the theatre, then it’s probably a subject best left untapped. Okay, musical theatre snobbery is over. Let’s talk about cupcakes!

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes #vegan

You guys know how I’m always talking about perfect flavor combinations. I’m not one to just have one flavor. I like variety. I get bored easily, and I need a lot going on in order to stay interested. I hadn’t ever had lemon and coconut together before (that I can remember), but I had a hunch it was going to be pretty great, and it may not be peanut butter and chocolate, but it is definitely a contendor for my secret mental list. 😉

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes #vegan

The light, citrusy flavor of the lemon complements the rich, creamy coconut flavor in these soft and fluffy cupcakes. They are definitely dessert, but not too sweet, and that slightly tart lemon glaze is the perfect finishing touch. And I promise, the best part is not when they jump off a bridge. Unless the bridge is your hand and they are jumping into your mouth. Worst joke ever?

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

yield 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes

  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp coconut extract
  • 2/3 cups sugar
  • zest of 1 extra large lemons
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 2/3 cups canned light coconut milk
  • reduced fat unsweetened shredded coconut and yellow sprinkles for topping (optional)

For the glaze:

  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • dash lemon extract
  • 1-2 tbs hot water

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 18 muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cornstarch. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and lemon zest until fragrant. Add applesauce and coconut extract and beat until combined. Slowly pour half of the coconut milk and beat until well incorporated. Add half of the flour mixture, beating until incorporated, followed by remaining coconut milk. Beat until smooth, then add remaining flour mixture, and continue beating until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary.
  4. Evenly divide batter between cupcake tins (they should be about 2/3 full) and bake for 18-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
  5. To make the glaze,  in a small-medium mixing bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, lemon extract and 1 tbs hot water. Slowly continue to add more water (and I mean very slowly. A little bit of liquid goes a long way with powdered sugar) until desired drippy consistency. Spread onto cooled cupcakes, and top with sprinkles and coconut if desired.

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

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DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

 

You know what is not easy? Taking pictures of flour.

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

 

I know, I know….food blogger problems…

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

There have always been a lot of recipes that I pass up on making because I reallllly don’t like to use white flour. It’s a weird thing. I don’t freak out if someone else makes something with it, but I just really prefer to use whole grains, especially when I’m creating things for Ari’s Menu.

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

 

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but it always seems silly to buy an entire container of something I know I’ll only use once. In fact, I only really buy two flours: whole wheat pastry, and white whole wheat, but you know what? I would package this up and buy it in a heart beat!

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

 

I’ve never seen whole wheat cake flour in the grocery store, so I decided to get creative, and make my own. There are a lot of tutorials out there that teach you how to make your own cake flour, so I used to same concept, and just used whole wheat pastry in place of all purpose. You could probably do the same thing with white whole wheat flour as well, I’d imagine, and even plain old wheat, although it would probably bake a bit denser.

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

 

As soon as I made this, I used it to whip up a batch of cookies. Very special cookies. They came out amazing, so I’d say the flour was a big success! They baked up fluffy, and cake-like (which is perfect for these cookies). Creating the cake flour took me all of an extra 2 minutes in the process, so I would highly recommend giving it a try next time you find a recipe that calls for cake flour–here’s an easy way to healthy it up in minutes.

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

 

 

DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour

yield 1 cup

  • 1 cup minus 2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch

Directions:

  1. Measure out 1 level cup of whole wheat cake flour and transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Remove 2 tbsp of flour and replace with 2 tbsp cornstarch. Lightly whisk together. Use immediately, or store in an airtight container just as you would any other flour.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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There is no better combination than peanut butter and chocolate. It’s a proven fact.

I would also like to say that chocolate chunks > chocolate chips. Fact. Just call me the Chocolate Encyclopedia. Or the Chocolate Whisperer. I like the sound of that. You can picture me sitting in my kitchen whispering sweet nothings to my chocolate.

In college, my friends referred to me as the Musical Theatre Lexicon. I guess you could say when something’s important to me, I spend a lot of time with it. Like chocolate. And peanut butter.

I made these for my wonderful friend Emily’s birthday. Then I spent too much time taking pictures of them and was late to her party. Story of my life. The cookies were so good though. Like, really reallllllly good, so I like to think they made up for it 😉

You know what’s REALLY hard??? Not eating all the birthday cookies you baked for your friend. Especially when they are so gooey it’s practically like biting through a slightly crunchy shell into hot cookie dough with rich, bold dark chocolate pouring out from the inside. Not eating all the cookies = true friendship.

I’d had my eye on doing some chocolate chunk cookies for a while now. I recently read a post on making the perfect chocolate chip cookies, and the two things that stood out were that you should use more than one type of chocolate to keep the taste buds interested, and always very lightly salt the dough before it goes into the oven–not for the “salted cookie” effect, but just a tiny bit to contrast the sweetness and bring the most flavor out of the cookie, so that’s what I did. The result? Cookie heaven.

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

yield 1 dozen (these are BIG cookies)

  • 1 1/4 cups gluten-free baking blend (or white whole wheat flour)
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbs corn starch
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup water (+ corn starch = egg replacement)
  • 4 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped into large chunks (I used a chili dark chocolate and an espresso dark chocolate, but any chocolate would be delicious)
  • sea salt for topping

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and corn starch. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat the apple butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla until smooth. Add water, followed by flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chunks. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  3. Use a large cookie scoop (or your hands) to drop dough onto prepared cookie sheet. Lightly sprinkle the top of dough with sea salt.
  4. Bake for 14-18 minutes until just golden. Do not overbake. Let cookies stand on sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Beer Cakes

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This recipe brought to you thanks to my amazing friend Polly.

One day she wrote on my facebook requesting “pumpkin beer pumpkin cupcakes”. You, my friend, are brilliant.

Is there anything that screams fall more than pumpkin cupcakes made with pumpkin freaking beer? And oooooomg. These are not only the softest cupcakes I have ever tasted (yes, EVER), but the pumpkin flavor is so bold, and tasted like absolute perfection. The top even got this incredible texture that I don’t even know how to describe–almost like a cookie with the slightest crunch on the edges and a perfectly gooey center? That’s kind of what happened here.

Obviously I had to make a pumpkin beer glaze to go on top. Duh.

Don’t get me wrong, the glaze is awesome, but I found the cupcakes to actually be perfect on their own. It depends on how sweet you like them. The glaze is reaaalllll sweet. I mean, glaze is essentially powdered sugar so, ya know… Steve loved the glaze (he likes his desserts with a side of insulin), but I preferred mine plain.

I’m telling you, before the season is over and you are totally sick of pumpkin (does that really happen to people!?), do yourself a favor and make these cupcakes. Then drink the rest of the beer because, well, it’s the holidays… 😉

 

Pumpkin Beer Cakes

yield 1 dozen

  • 6 tbs pumpkin puree
  • 3/4 cup + 2 tbs turbinado sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tbs corn starch
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • dash salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin beer + more for brushing the tops
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbs unsweetened vanilla almond milk

For the Pumpkin Beer Glaze

  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • dash salt
  • 1-2 tbs pumpkin beer

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners and spray lightly with nonstick spray.
  2. In a medium bowl combine flour, corn starch, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together pumpkin and sugar. Combine almond milk, vanilla  and pumpkin beer in a measuring cup or small bowl.  Alternately add flour mixture with beer mixture to the pumpkin and sugar starting and ending with dry ingredients until combined, scraping down sides of the bowl when necessary.
  3. Evenly divide the mixture between the 12 muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
  4. Let stand for 1-2 minutes, then use a toothpick or thin fork to poke several holes in each cupcakes. Brush each cupcake 2-3 times with extra pumpkin beer and let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  5. If you would like to add the glaze, combine powdered sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl. Very slowly, add in pumpkin beer whisking constantly until it reaches your desired thickness. Careful, a small amount of liquid goes a long way with powdered sugar. Glaze cupcakes and serve.

 

 

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

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If you had to choose only one cookie to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

For me, it’s definitely a toss up between oatmeal and peanut butter, but then you have to take into account black and white cookies which, you know, could solve all of our problems.

Okay, so can we just talk for a second about that moment you search for something strange on the internet, or at least you think  it’s strange, and then a few words in, it pops up all the way because so many other people searched for it too? It makes me giggle. I didn’t realize how many other Seinfeld fanatics were out there searching for the black and white cookie episode on youtube. Turns out, there are tons of crazies out there just.like.me. Scary thought. Look out world.

You know what else is scary??? My “baby” brother just got his freaking learners permit. You see, I’m so much older than him (wahhh) that most of his life I referred to him as my baby brother, but somehow he got to be 15, and I got to be pushing 30 (well, I mean I’m pushing it from a distance, I guess, but still, IT’S LOOMING), and the world as I knew it has ended. I can’t even handle it.

And he had to go and do it on marathon week when I am an emotional basket case. Rude. Umm, today I got teary eyed IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS when I spoke the word “marathon”. I should be locked away until this thing is over.

Okay, so back to the cookies. “Look to the cookie, Elaine.” Sorry. Go watch the video on youtube, and that will make sense. These cookies would definitely be on my list if I had to choose one to eat for the rest of my life. I kinda feel like I’ve developed my perfect oatmeal cookie recipe, and I keep coming up with different variations on it, but the basics stay the same, and it all started with this cookie. The edges just slightly brown, the soft is so gooey that you would swear I used a Paula Dean portion of butter (spoiler alert: I used none), and they have the perfect amount of sweetness for my taste–somewhere between diabetic coma and healthy tasting. 😉

I made these for an event my mom was attending, and they were a huge hit. Everyone that tasted them fell just as in love as I did. Also, they’re vegan so some of my awesome friends can enjoy them too!

 

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

yield 3 dozen

  • 1 1/2 cup white whole wheat Flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 1/2 tbs coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, not packed
  • 1/4 cup water or unsweetened almond milk (+ the corn starch = egg replacement)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup reduced fat unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup mini dark chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and corn starch. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, coconut oil, sugar, water/almond milk and vanilla until combined. Slowly beat in dry ingredients, then fold in oats and coconut, followed by the chocolate chips.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop cookies onto the sheet using a small cookie scoop.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Skinnified Sunday: Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins

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A couple of weeks ago after one of our Monday runs, we got back to Nicole put the most amazing muffin in my hands to send me off with. It was drool worthy, and let’s just say it didn’t even last my 3 mile drive home.

 

Good friends end runs with muffins. Just sayin’. Actually, I’m a little bit surprised that spending so much time with an other food blogger hasn’t caused both of us to gain 100 lbs. That girl is always giving me delicious things to try like these. So.much.food.

These were actually fairly healthy already, so it didn’t take much tweaking, but ya know what I learned? There is no substitute for butter in a crumb topping. Well, I’ve seen some people use coconut oil, but there is no “low fat” option. UNLESS YOU KNOW THE SECRET?!?!?! I tried light whipped butter–no dice. I tried pumpkin puree and ended up with a goopy mess, so I finally sucked it up and told myself that using 3 tbs for 1.5 dozen muffins was not the end of the world. So there. I used real butter. I actually couldn’t believe I had any in my house, but I dug in the back of the fridge, and there it was in all it’s butter glory.

Just call me Paula Dean, I guess. 😉

I was super happy that my muffins came out just as delicious as the original, and they were definitely my tean’s favorite. Chunks of apple in the middle with a crumbly cinnamon streusel top? You just can’t go wrong there!

Ya know, in case you wanted to be ALL UP IN THIS MUFFIN’S BUSINESS.

 

Original recipe via Foodie Misadventures

My Swaps:

  • White whole wheat flour for all purpose (+fiber, + protein)
  • Less sugar
  • Reduced fat buttermilk for regular (-fat, -calories)
  • Apple sauce for canola oil (-fat, -calories)
  • Liquid egg substitute for real egg (-fat, calories, -cholesterol)
  • 1/2 streusel topping (-fat, -calories, -sugar) <—I made the all of it at first, but there was SO MUCH that I only ended up using about half
Skinnified Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins
yield 1 1/2 dozen

  • 1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • dash salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice
  • 1 cup reduced fat buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup apple sauce
  • 1/4 cup egg substitute
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 large apples, peeled and diced (I used gala, but honey crisp would be AMAZING)
For the cinnamon crumb topping:
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 3 tbs white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tbs butter, melted
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins with 18 paper liners. Spray lightly with nonstick spray. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, applesauce, egg substitute, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Do not over mix. Gently fold in the apples until just combined.
  3. To make the crumb topping, in a small bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter. Mix with a spoon (or your fingers…) until crumbly.
  4. Fill the prepared muffin pans 3/4 full with batter. Evenly sprinkle each muffin with crumb topping. Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in an air tight container.

 

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Muffins

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Ultra-soft whole grain pumpkin muffins filled with a sweet and spicy cinnamon sugar swirl.

The weekend before last, most of my team was completing their longest training run bright and early Saturday morning. Even though I had already completed my 20 miler the day before, I wanted to go cheer on my friends, and Susan had ordered some muffins for the team to celebrate all of the hard work we’ve put in over the last 4 months.

Obviously I had to bring something pumpkin, and these were a huge hit! Of course, I had to taste one before sending them off, so I shared one with my pumpkin hating husband who loved them just as much as I did! I don’t know know if it was the pumpkin, or the perfect amount of baking time, or what, but the texture of these muffins was absolute perfection!

They are so light and fluffy and the cinnamon swirl really spices them up perfectly!

And GUESS WHAT!!! This was the first time I took all my own pictures without my fancy camera husband around to even help me get my settings and everything adjusted. 100% me (and, you know, the fancy camera helps a little 😉 ). I feel like I know absolutely nothing about photography, so I was thrilled at how these came out!! I’m really excited to learn be learning more, and getting a little more self sufficient on the photography end, since it is such a big part of the blog.

Anyway, back to the muffins! They would be the perfect treat to wake up to on Thanksgiving morning for a quick and easy breakfast while you prepare for family and the big day. Cut them in half, slather them with pumpkin butter because there really is no such thing as too much pumpkin! Trust me.

These babies will definitely be a fall (well, pretty much year round since I’m an all season pumpkin lover) staple in my house!

Print
Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Muffins

Yield: 1 dozen

Serving Size: 1 muffin

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 tablespoon milled flax seed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • dash salt
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup egg substitute
  • 1 cup reduced fat buttermilk
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 muffin tins, then spray lightly with nonstick spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, flax seed, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup sugar and pumpkin puree, vanilla extract and egg substitute until well-combined.
  4. Alternate adding dry ingredients/buttermilk to wet ingredients (flour mixture, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour).
  5. Fill muffin tins 1/3. In a small bowl, whisk remaining 2 tbsp sugar with cinnamon. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over the top of the batter. Top with remaining batter.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Let stand for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

Ultra-soft whole grain pumpkin muffins filled with a sweet and spicy cinnamon sugar swirl.

https://arismenu.com/cinnamon-swirl-pumpkin-muffins/

Pumpkin Filled Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

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In case you’re wondering if I’m running out of things I want to make that include pumpkin…

The answer is no. Not even a little bit. In fact, the list has gotten so long. Longer than my To-Do List, and you can figure out for yourself which list I’m actually gaining more ground on…

I just wanna bake cookies all day long. Can that be my life? Except, then none of my pants would fit. No matter how much healthier my cookies may be than your average dessert, a cookie is a cookie, and if you eat a dozen a day (don’t judge me), then…well, we all know how that ends. Moral of the story? Bake cookies all day long, then bribe the love of everyone you know by feeding them delicious healthy desserts. That’s how I win friends in life. That, and rapping Gangsta’s Paradise at parties. Or maybe that was how I lose friends? I forget…

So as you can see, my tools for friendship are bribery and embarrassing myself. They seem to work pretty well. I attract awesome humans. I’m guessing it has more to do with the cookies. These cookies were, um, ridiculous. I used my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe + some pumpkin pie spice, then mixed together some canned pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar and a little flour for thickening, and I had a dangerous dessert on my hands. I loved the way the thick oatmeal cookies held up to the creamy filling. The filling was tricky. Pumpkin leads to a slightly runny cream cheese frosting, but I noticed that this girl used flour when she made almost the exact same thing, so I tried that and it solved all of the problems in the entire world. Or at least my very critical, life-or-death frosting problem. Thanks Sally, you’re my pumpkin frosting hero! 😉

These would be perfect for a more bite sized Thanksgiving dessert (I made some big ones too, but I ended up loving the minis the best!), or for any fall party, or really…just because. Who doesn’t love a cream filled sandwich cookies? It’s one of life’s happy things. 😉

 

Pumpkin Filled Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

For the cookies:

  • 1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 7 1/2 tbs apple butter
  • 1 1/2 tbs coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1/4 cup egg substitute
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup rolled oats

For the filling:

  • 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, coconut oil, sugar, egg substitute and vanilla until combined. Slowly beat in dry ingredients, then fold in oats.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop cookies onto the sheet using a small cookie scoop.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  5. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in remaining filling ingredients. Spread filling over 1/2 of the cookies, then top with an other cookie.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

· by ·

Okay, maybe you think I’ve gone off the deep end. Maybe you haven’t been lucky enough to experience how awesome pumpkin can be in a savory dish? Or maybe you’re like my husband, and you hate pumpkin.

But guess what??? Steve loves this dish! I try to get him to sip my pumpkin coffee and he acts like I handed him wheat grass, but pumpkin mac and cheese, even he can get behind.

LOOK AT THE STEAM!!! *happy dance*

The texture of the pumpkin puree works so perfectly to make a creamy sauce with no butter. This mac and cheese is actually good for you, and super filling so, even if you’re like me and want to eat delicious things until you can’t even lift the fork anymore, you won’t need to eat too much. Promise 😉

I made this for the first time last year with Jason.

I take my stirring very seriously.

Jason is good at following directions. I just yell commands at him “JASON STIR!”

This is what the mac and cheese looked like then vs now

 

I’ve actually made this many times since then because I love it sosoSO much. I figured it was time to update the photos 🙂

This is perfect for a Thanksgiving side, a fall dinner, or any time really (like, um, carb-o loading)!

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

yield 4 servings

  • 8 oz uncooked whole grain penne, macaroni or other pasta (whole wheat, brown rice, etc.)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated goat cheddar cheese (or reduced fat cheddar)
  • 1/2 cup goat brie cheese, rind removed, cut into cubes
  • pinch freshly ground nutmeg
  • pinch ground cloves
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk together and heat pumpkin puree, garlic and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until just starting to simmer.
  3. Reduce stove heat to low. Whisk in cheeses until fully melted.
  4. Stir in nutmeg and ground cloves. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Stir drained pasta into the pumpkin-cheese sauce and mix until thoroughly combined.

Salted Chocolate Chip Sunflower Butter Cookies

· by ·

My recipes always have the loooooongest titles. I’m not the type of person that can just say “Sunflower Cookies” and call it good. That does NOT explain these cookies. The have sunflower butter and dark chocolate chips and a SALT!

If you are one of those people that doesn’t like sweet and salty, then I’m pretty sure we can’t be friends. It is my very favorite thing. When I saw these, I just about died. Also, I sweat a lot which makes me crave salt, and I’m sure knowing my sweating habits makes you realllllly hungry. No? Weird. Maybe an other picture of awesome sweet and salty cookies will revive your appetite.

I’ve been making lots of vegan desserts lately. As I was stalking all the pins that come from my site (seriously, I have a problem), I noticed that a lot of people were labeling my recipes as vegan, and I was like “Whaaaaa???? I don’t think so….”, but then I looked and realized that a lot of them are, or are super easily adaptable. I don’t really use butter very often, and I use a liquid egg substitute a lot, but a flax egg, or corn starch egg works just as well. So now you plant lovers can eat lots of cookies also. And trust me, you want to eat these cookies.

I don’t know about you, but I think sunflower butter might be the best nut butter. I should know. I am, like, a nut butter connoisseur. I could do one of those blindfold tests where you put out different types in front of me, and I could probably tell you the nut and the brand. Maybe I should be embarrassed? I’m not.

Sunflower butter has the perfect texture and flavor for cookies. And spoons and fingers. Or at least the TJ’s brand does. I love it so much, I won’t try anything else. I don’t mess with a good thing. When I find something I like, I REALLY like it, and become quickly obsessed with how it’s THE BEST THING EVER, but really…I think this is. The only thing better might be making my own, which is on my list. Yes, I have lists. SO MANY. Each of them overflowing with the many things I want to make, and some crazy ramblings for my brain. It’s kind of like this blog on paper with no pretty pictures.

Anyway, back to the cookies. It’s pretty easy. Dough, baking sheet, salty goodness…

I would actually recommend smushing them down slightly less than this. I made a couple with the left over dough and I left them puffier, and I actually liked those even more! Not that I wasn’t ridiculously eat 8 cookies a day obsessed with these just as they were 😉

I loooooove the way these ones look on their cute little silpat.

 

Salted Chocolate Chip Sunflower Cutter Cookies

yield approx 1.5 dozen

  • 1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 cup sunflower butter
  • 3/4 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbs corn starch
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2/3 cup mini dark chocolate chips
  • coarse sea salt for topping

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat the apple butter, sunflower butter, sugars and vanilla until smooth.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together corn starch and water, then beat into sunflower butter mixture.
  4. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips.
  5. Using a small cookie scoop, drop dough onto lined cookie sheet. Use an extra piece of sprayed parchment paper to slightly flatten each dough ball. Generously sprinkle sea salt over cookie dough (about a pinch per cookie).
  6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until just golden. Do not overbake. Let cookies stand on sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

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