Delicious Summer Berry Cobbler (Vegan)

I wrote just yesterday about how I don't really "believe" in making vegetarian and/ or vegan substitutes for recipes. Well I guess I'm literally eating my words. I was looking for a good cobbler to finish off the berries I had bought for the coffee cake. I've been craving cobbler so I went looking. I had a really hard time finding one that spoke to me, finally I found one and it was vegan. Hmmm. Well I guess I'll try it out. I normally don't trust things that don't have milk, cream, and or eggs in bread or pastries, but I must say this turned out great! The only change I made to the recipe was to serve the cobbler with vanilla ice cream rather than make coconut whipped cream (also vegan-Find the original recipe here)

This was also really easy and quick.

This was also Blackheart's Father's Day present since we're on a budget this year and we are saving for either a vacation this winter or a big five year anniversary gift. I don't know if he likes the homemade gift better, but he did enjoy the cobbler!

What you'll need:

Ingredients

Dough Topping:

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup soy milk

Berries:

1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups raspberries
2 cup black berries
(The berries really don't matter, just make sure you have 4 cups of berries)

Items you'll need

2  metal whisks
1 large bowl
1 medium bowl
1 small bowl
1 wooden spoon
9 x 13" baking pan
large spoon

Directions or Guidelines:

Preheat 375F

Sift the flour into the medium sized bowl

Whisk in the rest of the dry ingredients

In a small bowl mix the canola oil and the soy milk

 Whisk the two together

Add the mixture to the flour mixture

 Mix together with a wooden spoon until the consistency of dough

Set aside

Rinse the berries, set aside to drain in the sink

Add all the dry ingredients into the large bowl

 Let your little helpers mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon mixture

Add the berries to the mixture, make sure to completely coat the berries

Place into the pan and scope the dough on top of the berries

 Bake for 45 minutes, turn after 25 minutes.

Let it cool

It was a huge success!

 Ryan thinks it is grrreeaaattt!

 Honestly, Rose LOVED the ice cream, and liked the cobbler

 End result

Freaking Yum!

PB&B Cookies

I will start this with two truths.

1. I am shamelessly stealing this from another blog A Cozy Kitchen.
2. I am officially in love with that blog! Amazing!!!

You should go there, read her blog, and try a new recipe.

So we're going to a Crawfish Boil at my sister's house and we figured we should bring something. So we like to bring sweets. I think it's what we do best. It also means that my sister and my family will most likely consume all the sweets. Her beautiful little girls and husbands are not big on sweets.

And these puppies are sweet. Sweet and savory. Are you ready for Peanut Butter and Bacon Cookies?

They are really good and chewy. Yum! And Chef Steve really liked them too!

What you'll need:

Ingredients:

8 slices of bacon
1 cup organic peanut butter
1 1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 tsp of molasses
1 egg
2 tsp of baking soda
generous pinch of fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts (or honey roasted peanuts)

Stuff you'll need:

Electric mixer
Large mixing bowl
spatula
2 cookie sheets
parchment paper
foil

Let's start by getting your oven ready, place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350F.

Line a baking sheet with foil and place the bacon slices in a single layer. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until crisp.

Remove the bacon from the oven (keep the oven on),

Let the bacon cool slightly, then transfer to paper towels to finish cooling.

Coarsely chop the bacon and set aside.

Line a clean cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Put the peanut butter, 1 cup of the sugar, and the molasses in the mixing bowl

Use the electric mixer to make mix to a creamy texture, about 3 minutes. The blog suggested that you use a spatula attachment for the mixer. We don't own that, so we improvised and used our regular mixer and a spatula to scrape off the mixer when needed.

Add the egg, baking soda, and nutmeg and mix on medium speed for another 2 minutes.

Use a sturdy spoon to fold in the bacon and peanuts.

Roll the dough into large walnut-sized balls and roll in the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar.

Place on a lined cookie sheet.

Use a fork to make that distinctive peanut butter cookie crisscross patter. If the cookie dough begins to stick to the fork, dip it in sugar before pressing into cookie. Dough will be a little crumbly just press together with your fingers as necessary.

Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies will be crumbly and delicious. Cookies will last up to 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Wow. They're good! But I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack just nibbling on these yummy morsels.

Ryan, "Uhhhh."

"Tank ooo."

I truly do love my family. :)

Daddy Tom's favorite Chocolate Cake

In my family, everyone knows what "home" food my step dad and Rose and Ryan's "Daddy Tom", misses most; Mema's chocolate cake. Now this is pretty much sheet cake, but with love. And Daddy Tom always gets a corner piece. This is also my favorite chocolate cake, but it MUST be eaten with BlueBell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream! Yum, yum, yum! Chef Blackheart is also a big fan, so when he did well on his entrance exams for school, I told him I'd make chocolate cake. THIS IS NOT DIET FOOD, but it is made from scratch. It's also easy to mess up, so I'll walk through it step by step.

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup water
1 cup butter (not salted)
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp. vanilla

Icing:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
6 tbsp milk
1 (16oz) powdered sugar (or 3 3/4 cups for those who buy in bulk)
1 tsp vanilla

What you need:

small sauce pan
strong spoon
two large bowls
One small bowl
9 1/2"X 13" baking pan
a mixer (or a strong arm for those whose mixer is broken or missing)

How to make:

1. Combine flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl.

2. In the small pan, melt most of the butter on low heat.

3.Add water and and then mix the cocoa in the pan.

4. STIR FREQUENTLY!!! Do not burn the cocoa. Keep this in medium to low heat until it boils
5. Add the cocoa mixture SLOWLY to the flour mixture.

6. Add the Buttermilk, eggs (beaten) and the vanilla to the mixture.



7. Mix well. Place in a lightly greased pan. (I used a 9 1/2" by 13")

8. Bake for 30 minutes on 350F on the middle rack.

At this point, take a breath. And if you're me, run back through it and make sure you did everything correctly... then figure out you forgot to add the buttermilk. :) Did anyone else catch that in my picture? Please imagine me using children appropriate curse words such as dang, snap, fudge, as I quickly pull the cake out of the oven. Yes! I can still save it! I poured it back in the bowl with the help of Chef Blackheart and mixed in the buttermilk. Regreased the pan with olive oil, poured and threw it back in the oven. At that point I just crossed my fingers, washed a couple of bowls and the pan that I would need for the icing, and tried to smile.

And now the icing...

And since I hate having to scroll so much, here's the ingredients again:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup cocoa

6 tbsp 2% milk

1 box powdered sugar (or 3 3/4 cups)

1 tsp vanilla

1. Put butter in pan on low heat until it is mostly melted

2. Add milk and cocoa.

3. STIR and stir and stir some more. DO NOT BURN THE MIXTURE. It will stink, it's hard to clean out, and it doesn't make for good icing. I don't have any pictures of this step, because I was stirring.

4. Turn up the heat to medium low until it starts to simmer/ boil

5. Pour the powdered sugar into a large mixing bowl.

6.Add the cocoa mixture to the bowl with the powdered sugar.

7. Hand mix the mixture until you get all the powdered sugar off the sides. Then beat with a mixer until smooth. I've done this plenty of times with no mixer, but the mixer is easier, and I'm trying to get my money's worth on that thing.

8. Add vanilla

Bring it all together

1. When the cake is done baking, remove and use a large fork to poke holes throughout the cake.

2. Pour the icing over the hot cake.

You should get something that looks like this...

Yuuuuuummmmmmmmm!

Cut some pieces, eat with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Happy Ryan and Rose!!!



Good luck!