Tag: honey

Cookies, Desserts, Recipes

Peanut Butter Honey Oatmeal Cookies

Sarah

Delightful little chocolate-studded oatmeal cookies filled with lots of peanut butter and honey flavor. Everyone will sneak open the cookie jar for “just one more” over and over again!

Delightful little chocolate-studded oatmeal cookies filled with lots of peanut butter and honey flavor. Everyone will sneak open the cookie jar for "just one more" over and over again!

My  mom has the cutest habit. Whenever she makes a recipe, she jots down a note on the recipe itself with her thoughts and the date. So no matter if it’s a recipe from a cookbook, a magazine, or printed out from the internet, she has a record of when she made a recipe AND what everyone thought of it. The worst recipes get thrown away or crossed out… but the best she sends on to her daughters. I have to admit that I don’t make all of the recipes she sends my way… but the best? Of course. 🙂 And since these Peanut Butter Honey Oatmeal Cookies, first made in February 2011, were “out of this world,” you know I HAD to make them.

Delightful little chocolate-studded oatmeal cookies filled with lots of peanut butter and honey flavor. Everyone will sneak open the cookie jar for "just one more" over and over again!

Why wouldn’t they be out of this world? Let’s look at the ingredients: oats, peanut butter, honey, chocolate… these are a few of my favorite things! Aren’t they yours?

Delightful little chocolate-studded oatmeal cookies filled with lots of peanut butter and honey flavor. Everyone will sneak open the cookie jar for "just one more" over and over again!

I’ve made these cookies two ways, as you can see in the recipe below. The first way is with a combination of peanut butter and honey. Don’t use the straight up natural kind–there’s too much oil–but you can use the shelf-stable natural peanut butter. That works great! OR  you can use some of those fun peanut butters that blend honey and peanut butter together, or even use honey-roasted peanut butter. The possibilities are endless! Just be sure to use some sort of honey and peanut butter combo, because it’s the addition of honey that takes these oatmeal based cookies from ordinary to out of this world extraordinary! P.S. Crunchy peanut butter lovers take note–crunchy peanut butter is awesome here too! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Enjoyyy!

one year ago: Apple Peanut Butter Pancakes with Sautéed Cinnamon Apples
two years ago: Potato Rosemary Knots
three years ago: Lindsay’s Chicken Noodle Soup
four years ago: 60 Minute Sandwich Buns
five years ago: Mexican Chicken Alfredo
six years ago: Tomato Tortellini Soup

Peanut Butter Honey Oatmeal Cookies

  • Servings: 6 dozen cookies
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from my mom 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups quick-cooking oats
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup peanut butter – I used the Peter Pan Natural kind… any of the shelf stable “natural” peanut butters would be fine, or regular peanut butter. I wouldn’t use natural peanut butter that you have to refrigerate though. Creamy or crunchy peanut butter are both good options here. You can omit the honey below if you want to use a honey-peanut butter blend.
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir together oats, flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

With an electric mix, beat together butter, peanut butter, and honey. Beat in sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in eggs until just combined, then fold in oat mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out the dough onto cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cookies cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Desserts, Other, Recipes

Cranberry Dessert Pizza

Sarah

Dessert pizza just like your local Pizza Hut used to make… except dressed up for the holidays with a honeyed cranberry sauce! There’s crumb topping and vanilla glaze too. Each bite of this sweet treat is better than the last!

Disclaimer: This recipe was created for the Cape Cod Select Holiday Blogger Recipe Challenge. Please follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. I was sent free cranberries for recipe development purposes, but was in any other way compensated for my time, ingredients, etc. 

Dessert pizza just like your local Pizza Hut used to make... except dressed up for the holidays with a honeyed cranberry sauce! There's crumb topping and vanilla glaze too. Each bite of this sweet treat is better than the last!

I have fond memories of the Pizza Hut buffet. My family used to go after church sometimes when I was a kid and it was a TREAT to get my choice of pizza slices, breadsticks, salad… in the amounts I wanted. Which, let’s face it, probably created a lot of waste because kids take a few bites of something before moving on to something else. Oops. It was so fun to run up to the buffet when they brought out a new pizza… and when it was one of their dessert pizzas, watch out! Everyone in the restaurant headed up in en masse to grab a slice of dessert pizza–some ridiculously sweet fruit topping out of a can: cherries or apples, usually covered with a crumb topping and drizzled to death with vanilla icing. So. Good. I haven’t been to a Pizza Hut buffet in years and I don’t think they even make these dessert pizzas anymore… so I decided to make my own!

Dessert pizza just like your local Pizza Hut used to make... except dressed up for the holidays with a honeyed cranberry sauce! There's crumb topping and vanilla glaze too. Each bite of this sweet treat is better than the last!

As you can probably guess, my dessert pizza is a little fresher, a little fancier than ye olde Pizza Hut’s was… but that’s okay, the original version was great in its own way! But let’s talk today’s version. Instead of a canned fruit topping, I made a cranberry sauce using Cape Cod Select Premium Frozen Cranberries. Check ’em out at a store near you. I can’t find fresh cranberries at my local grocery store anymore, so it’s great to have a frozen option to help with those cranberry cravings in July. 🙂 They’ll even ship them from their website. How cool! But back to this pizza. My cranberry sauce is sweetened with honey and scented with grapefruit… and I would have eaten it by the spoonful had I not needed it for this recipe. In fact, I might make another batch soon so I can do just that! I know it’s pretty typical for cranberries and oranges to be paired together, but I personally love grapefruit and the aromatic bittersweetness it adds to dishes. The smell of the cranberries as they cooked in a mixture of grapefruit zest, juice, and water was fantastic! This sauce easily is the star of the dessert pizza… but it can’t be all by itself. In true Pizza Hut style, I also made a quick crumb topping with lots of brown sugar, oats, and pumpkin pie spice to layer on top of the sauce and crust. After baking, an easy vanilla glaze drizzled on top adds just the sweetness you need to contrast with the sweet-tart goodness of the cranberry sauce. Everything was absolutely delicious together–perfect for dessert or even breakfast. 🙂 I hope you enjoy this pizza as much as we did! Happy New Year! 2017!

one year ago: Cheesy Southwest Farro
two years ago: Spiced Biscotti with Eggnog Glaze
three years ago: Baked Fish Tacos with Cranberry Salsa
four years ago: White Chocolate Peppermint M&M Cookies
five years ago: Classic Sugar Cookies
six years ago: Sweet-Spicy Pretzel Mix

Cranberry Dessert Pizza

  • Servings: 8
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Ingredients:

  • 1 batch pizza dough – I used my favorite but storebought or another recipe would work too!

for cranberry “sauce”

  • 1 1/2 cups Cape Cod Select Premium Frozen Cranberries
  • zest and juice of 1 grapefruit – approximately 3 tablespoons zest and 6 ounces juice
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

for crumb topping

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into chunks

for vanilla glaze

  • 1 2/3 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons half and half [or milk]
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, combine cranberries, grapefruit zest and juice, and water. Cook until cranberries burst, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from heat, then stir in honey and the tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water. Allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, press pizza dough into a pizza pan [mine is 14 inches].

Prepare crumb topping by combining brown sugar, oats, flour, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl. Use a pastry blender or two knives to cut cold butter into the mixture until coarse crumbs are formed.

Spread cranberry sauce over uncooked pizza crust, then sprinkle on crumb topping.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until crust and topping are both golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make vanilla glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, half and half, and vanilla. Add extra powdered sugar or half and half to reach desired consistency.

Drizzle glaze on cooled pizza. I had extra… perfect for dipping! For best results, wait until the pizza is mostly cool before cutting to allow the cranberry sauce to set. It’s a little messier if you cut it while warm, but still delicious either way!  

Breakfast, Pancakes

SRC: Apple Cider Pancakes

Sarah

Flavorful fall pancakes–made with apple cider and topped with cinnamon sugar, these pancakes are a real treat! 

Flavorful fall pancakes--made with apple cider and topped with cinnamon sugar, these pancakes are a real treat! #secretrecipeclub

It’s time for a FALL DISHES themed edition of Secret Recipe Club! Even though I’m still sad that the club is retiring next month, I’m pumped for today because fall food is my favorite!! Pumpkin and apples and squash… yes, please! For this special edition of SRC, I was assigned to Erin’s wonderful blog, The Spiffy Cookie. Fun fact: the word “spiffy” was one of my favorite words in junior high/early high school. My friends and I were really kind of weird, and had all sorts of nicknames for ourselves. I was Spiffy Sarah. Or Scarah. Or Schara. I don’t know how I spelled it but it basically sounded like “scary+Sarah” combined. Like I said… we were weird. I was weird. But I digress…

I don’t know how I first met Erin through blogging, but I’ve been fortunate to be part of a variety of blogging events with her over the years [like our weekly Menu Plan posts]. She always makes such creative dishes, especially for her #PBChocSat where she celebrates all things peanut butter chocolate to support her Buckeyes. 🙂 I obviously had a tough time to choosing what to make from her blog. Some close runner ups to these AMAZING apple cider pancakes included: Penne with Butternut Squash, Kale, and Goat Cheese, Apple Maple Turkey Burgers, Speculoos & Pumpkin Spice Oreo Lasagna, and S’mores Pumpkin Pie. There were a bunch of other runner up recipes too, but I couldn’t link to 20 of her recipes in one post. That would just be crazytown.

Flavorful fall pancakes--made with apple cider and topped with cinnamon sugar, these pancakes are a real treat! #secretrecipeclub

So let’s talk pancakes, specifically these Apple Cider Pancakes. Pancakes are, without a doubt, my most favorite breakfast food. There’s just something about them that I love. It’s more than just the crispy edges and versatility… but they can be SO flavorful and can be the basis for SO many toppings, it’s unreal. They just seem like breakfast for special days, and who doesn’t like special days?!? I just love them! ❤ I’ll admit they are a little time consuming to whip up and cook on the stove, but homemade pancakes are way better than the plain pucks you can purchase at the grocery store. Did I just say that? Whoops. 🙂

These Apple Cider Pancakes are full of REAL apple cider flavor. Be sure to use good apple cider so all the warm fall spices and apple-y goodness comes through. 🙂 Erin topped her pancakes with a fabulous cinnamon sugar topping, a la an apple cider doughnut from an apple orchard… Let me just say–DON’T SKIP THIS PART.

Flavorful fall pancakes--made with apple cider and topped with cinnamon sugar, these pancakes are a real treat! #secretrecipeclub

Whoa.

The cinnamon sugar topping takes these pancakes to the next level. They are unbelievable; a real treat without being a big sugar bomb. I know you’ll love them! Enjoy! Thanks, Erin for a great recipe!

one year ago: Beef Stroganoff 
two years ago: Honey-Thyme Roasted Pork Tenderloin
three years ago: Sweet Potato Pie with Cranberry Compote
four years ago: Pumpkin, Kale, & Black Bean Stew
five years ago: Individual Pumpkin Pie Parfaits
six years ago: Aunt Charlotte’s Tex Mex Corn

Apple Cider Pancakes

  • Servings: 20 pancakes
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from The Spiffy Cookie

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt, regular or Greek
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 1 cup apple cider
  • canola oil
  • butter
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir together both types of flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, olive oil, buttermilk, yogurt, honey, and apple cider. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then stir until combined. Mixture will be lumpy. Let batter rest for 10 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat.

When skillet is hot, add 1 tablespoon of canola oil to pan. Pour batter onto hot skillet in 1/4 cup increments. Cook for two to three minutes on the first side until bubbles form, then flip and cook on other side until golden brown. Add extra oil as needed so pancakes don’t stick, and don’t be afraid to adjust heat as needed if pancakes start to get too dark over time.

Meanwhile, mix sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.

After pancakes are removed from pan, melt butter on top of each pancake, then top with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Notes: If your pancakes are, for lack of a better word, greasy enough already – no need to top with extra butter before adding cinnamon sugar. I found I only needed the butter on about half of the pancakes to make the cinnamon sugar stick.

Check out other fall dishes at the link below!

Hearty and savory pumpkin bread... this is a recipe you don't want to miss!
Breads, Recipes

SRC: Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Sarah

Hearty and savory pumpkin bread… this is a recipe you don’t want to miss!

Hearty and savory pumpkin bread... this is a recipe you don't want to miss!

Hey everyone! Welcome to another SRC post! This month I was assigned to Smruti’s blog, Herbivore Cucina. As with most food bloggers, Smruti loves to cook–and the more unconventional the recipe, the better! Though she lives in the US now, she is originally from India so she has a wide variety of Indian and international recipes on her blog. Everything sounded SO good that I had a tough time deciding between Indian dishes like Layered Vegetable Biryani, Cilantro Coconut Chutney, and Oats and Dry Fruit Chikki… or Pizza Buns… or finally, Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread. I had to go with the seasonal favorite, ya know? 🙂

Hearty and savory pumpkin bread... this is a recipe you don't want to miss!

This bread is so simple to make, and so delicious. Though there are a lot of steps involved with making a yeast bread, every time I make one I wonder why I don’t do this very often. It’s just mix, knead, rise, shape, rise, and bake. And then enjoy! If you have a stand mixer, it’s even easier because the mixer does the kneading for you. 🙂 This bread is way different from your average sweet pumpkin bread… but yummy in its own unique way. Of course, there is pumpkin pie spice to liven things up, yay! I served this hearty pumpkin bread with one of my favorite soups that has yet to make the blog [SOON! I promise]–Curried Lentil Soup. And if you’re waffling between adding the seed topping or not–DO it! It’s well worth the extra effort, even if you have a baby you’re trying to entertain in the meantime. Enjoy! Thanks, Smruti for the great recipe. 🙂

two years ago: Sausage and Ranch Potato Skillet with Fried Eggs
four years ago: Peach Ginger Pie
five years ago: Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad
six years ago: Chili Burgers

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

  • Servings: 8
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from Herbivore Cucina

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet yeast [2 1/4 teaspoon]
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 2 teaspoons salt, divided
  • 1/4 cup water, heated to 110-115 degrees F
  • 3 cups whole wheat flour [I used 1.5 cups whole wheat and 1.5 cups white whole wheat]
  • 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • toasted sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds, optional

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, honey, 1 teaspoon salt, and water. Stir together and then let rest for 5 minutes or so until yeast is frothy. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together flour, vital wheat gluten, and pumpkin pie spice. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin and olive oil.

When yeast is frothy, add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately, stirring with paddle attachment until combined. Then, use the dough hook to knead bread dough for 7-8 minutes, until a soft dough forms. Remove dough and place in a greased bowl. Cover and place in a warm spot to rise for about an hour until, doubled in size.

Punch dough down and let rest for 5 minutes. Grease a 9×5 inch bread pan with cooking spray, then shape dough into a log and place in bread pan. Sprinkle seeds on top, if desired, gently pressing in. Flip dough and sprinkle the other side with seeds too. Cover bread pan and place in a warm spot to rise for another hour.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, until top is golden brown. Place pan on cooling rack to cool completely before cutting, about 3 hours.

Be sure to check out all the other SRC recipes today at the link below:

Main Dishes, Recipes, Salads

Awesome Kale Salad

Sarah

This kale salad is truly awesome. I mean, adding fried eggs and fried potatoes to kale makes it awesome, even if it sounds a little weird at first. You need to try this!

This kale salad is truly awesome. I mean, adding fried eggs and fried potatoes to kale makes it awesome, even if it sounds a little weird at first. You need to try this!

I’ve been making this kale salad pretty much non-stop since last July. Well, non-stop if you count the break from September to March. See, I found out in September that I was pregnant with Baby Volde and so I decided to nix fried eggs until the baby was born. I didn’t obsess over dietary stuff during pregnancy but uncooked eggs [not in cookie dough, mind you] kinda freak me out. But they’re delicious so I push through it for the joy, haha. And when springtime started coming and mama needed a good salad, I decided to live on the wild side and hope fried eggs didn’t make me sick. They didn’t, whew! But I’m not a doctor so if you’re pregnant or otherwise immunocompromised, proceed at your own risk. #disclosureover

Anyway, I love this salad for three reasons: 1) kale; 2) eggs; 3) potatoes. And also for two more: healthy and fried. Total opposites, I know… but kale is healthy… so are eggs and potatoes too. But they’re a little more unhealthy if you fry them… but the kale part takes away the guilt! That, and the potatoes are just pan-fried so that is mucho better than deep frying, right? Soooo, this salad is the BEST combination of healthy and fried, guilt free and delicious. Does that make sense to you? It makes sense in my head so I hope so!

This kale salad is truly awesome. I mean, adding fried eggs and fried potatoes to kale makes it awesome, even if it sounds a little weird at first. You need to try this!

You have to experience this salad to understand its greatness. At first Ben was skeptical. I mean, fried eggs on a salad? Bizarre. And, the runny egg part of the fried egg serves as the salad dressing. Another notch on the weird scale, but it works. Plus, the egg gives a little more staying power to the salad. Usually I have to have meat on a salad to make it filling, but not here. Though you could add bacon for some extra deliciousness. 🙂 Anyway you make it, you’re sure to love it!

Oh and before I go, I have to mention my silverware. Isn’t it so cool? I received a fork and spoon handstamped from Tattooed Silver, a great small business located in Ohio. Tattooed Silver is the business of a fellow Wittenberg University alum, and I’m excited that we started a lil partnership. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, and Etsy. Her products are all so unique and fun, and would make great gifts too. 🙂

Enjoy!

one year ago: Cheesy Veggie Pasta
two years ago: Chocolate Cream Filled Cupcakes
three years ago: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
four years ago: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
five years ago: Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken
six years ago: Potato Soup

Awesome Kale Salad

  • Servings: 4
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Inspired by the best parts of these salads from Jenna’s Everything Blog and We Are Not Martha, with my own additions too 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 1 bunch kale
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 tablespoon honey, if desired
  • 1 teaspoon whole grain dijon mustard, if desired
  • 4 medium potatoes – 1 per person
  • chili powder
  • dried oregano
  • garlic powder
  • 8 eggs – 2 per person
  • optional additions: diced avocado, crumbled feta, chopped bacon, etc.

Directions:

Wash and dry kale, then cut into thin strips taking care to remove the middle stems. Place in a large bowl and massage with several glugs of olive oil and the lemon juice until kale softens, then season with salt and pepper. If desired, drizzle honey and dijon mustard on top and toss/massage that in as well.

Meanwhile, dice potatoes into bite size pieces [1 per person]. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add some olive oil to the pan. When hot, reduce heat to medium and add potatoes. Season with a little salt, a lot of pepper, and some chili powder, garlic powder, and oregano. Saute, stirring frequently, for about 10-12 minutes until potatoes are crispy and cooked through.

When potatoes are finished, remove to another dish and cover with foil to retain heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and fry eggs as desired [2 per person].

Serve kale in a big bowl or plate. Top with potatoes and fried eggs, along with other desired additions. Enjoy!