Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Power Bites

... AKA the best things ever.  Srsly.  No-bake cookie (one of my faves) made into a mostly healthy pre-/post- race snack.  The calculator on my phone approximates 82 calories per ball/bite, so eat 2 or 3.. not 20.  


Tomorrow there is a race in Philly that a lot of my teammates are doing, and, since I'm still waiting until my collarbone is healed a bit more to race, I thought I would make them some treats!  Lucky them ;)


These are super easy, and also super customizable.  I personally think the combination of bananas, peanut butter, chocolate and honey is up there with grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I was going to make some with dried cherries also, but my lame grocery store doesn't sell them in bulk and I couldn't bring myself to pay $8 for like, a cup and a half of dried cherries (especially after paying a billion for a butterflied lamb leg.. coming soon!).

At least it wasn't me eating the whole jar.. this time.
I have to admit, I supplemented with cheapo plain PB so I
could have a spoonful or two leftover.

Ingredients:
2C Chocolate Peanut Butter 
1C Honey (I ran out, so used a mixture of honey, agave syrup, and blackstrap molasses, yum!)
2C Oats
1C Coconut Flakes
1/2C Chia Seeds
1/2C Sunflower Seeds (hulled, unsalted)
2/3C Crushed Banana Chips

The hard part:
Mix all ingredients together until well blended.  Whew.


Chill for ~30min or so in the fridge.  Using a spoon to help, roll into balls (mine were around 1 inch or so, give or take a little), then coat in leftover coconut.

I used this kind of coconut; it is smaller pieces than normal shredded coconut, and I think it worked better for these.

EAT!


Since these are soft, I would recommend keeping them on the cooler side.  The coconut on the outside helps keep them from sticking a little bit. 


**UPDATE** They freeze well!!  I put a few in a baggie and froze them, then took them out for my ride the next morning.  They aren't as squishy, and were good fuel.


This batch tonight made 70 balls for me, but it really depends on what size you make them.


Can't wait to take them to the race tomorrow!  Go fast girls! 


(yes I know that last website hasn't been updated yet, but it will be soon!)

Criterium Cookies: Attempt #1

**Thanks Tom @HZ for the name of the cookies :)

So, if you can't tell, I was trying to make cookies that looked like wheels...  I think that one in the bottom left was the closest I got.  I will be trying these again (and again probably), but they taste good, and that's all that counts!  And I used a real recipe this time, hooray!

Don't mind me.. I'm just a bookmark..

For the dough, I used Joy of Cookies (sic, I'm leaving this typo in because it would be an awesome name for a cookbook, don't you think?  I'm sure it already exists..) ahem, Joy of Cooking's icebox cookies recipe, the vanilla and the chocolate variant.  Slight modifications include the use of all-purpose, white whole wheat flour, [cocoa powder + oil] instead of melted chocolate, and hopefully no cat hair.  
Ready... go!

Joy of Cooking's "Icebox Cookie" recipe:

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 stick of butter

2/3 C sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

[For Chocolate:  I used the conversion on the cocoa box - 3T cocoa +1T oil = 1oz unsweetened chocolate.  JoC calls for 4oz semi- or bittersweet melted chocolate, so 12T cocoa + 4T oil.  Optional, 1T rum or brandy.. I used rum flavoring because I forgot I actually have rum.]

 

Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.  

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  [Add chocolate here if making the chocolate dough] Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.  Stir in the flour mixture until blended.

*If you just want to make the plain ol' cookies from here, roll the dough into a log, wrap in parchment or wax paper, and chill for 4-12hrs.  You can put it in the freezer to chill faster.  Chill until the dough can be thinly sliced with a knife.  Baking instructions are the same as below (bolded so you don't have to read everything else if you don't want to :) ).

I made the vanilla first, then used the same dishes/utensils to make the chocolate (why waste water and elbow grease?).  Once both batches were made, I shaped each into a ball, wrapped in wax paper, and then put it in the fridge while I cleaned up; about 15-30min.  This helped it firm up a bit for molding, but it wasn't rock hard.  I then planned out what shapes I wanted: a flat layer of chocolate for the outside, thin roll of chocolate for the center, then alternating thick and thin strips of vanilla and chocolate, respectively.

Putting them together was interesting, and I kind went about it in a not very well thought through way.  What's new, right?  I laid out the alternating strips, then put the thin rope in the center and tried to roll the side up around it.  That probably would have been okay if I hadn't started doing this on top of the outer layer for some reason.  [Sidebar: Next time I will not do that, and will do it first just on wax paper, which I can use to help roll up the sides, then move over to the outer layer and do the same.  I will also use toothpicks to help keep it together  during this process and also during freezing.]  After I created the final roll, I wrapped it in wax paper and put it in the freezer for 2-3hrs.

When the dough is done chilling, preheat your oven to 375F.  Unwrap the dough.  JoC says to cut slices 3/16-in thick.. random number and who measures their cookie slices???  Mine were probably a little thicker, but if you are throwing caution to the wind like I did, cut them thinner than you think you should and you will probably be okay.  Thick slices are fine, they just will obviously take longer to bake and will be softer compared to thinner slices, so uniformity is key!  Anyways.. arrange your slices on a baking sheet.  JoC says 2in apart; I say they don't spread that much so closer is okay, mostly because I'm impatient (there's probably some rule behind this that I don't know yet, like how you can crowd mushrooms or something).  Bake 8-10min, until lightly browned; the longer the crispier.  **NOTE:  You can't see the chocolate part brown for obvious reasons, which made this a little hard to do by eye.  I stuck with 10min and got a pleasantly crumbly cookie.  A min or two longer probably would have been okay.  Remove cookies from oven, let stand briefly, then move to a cooling rack.

Overall, I wasn't too disappointed.  I knew I messed up the design when I put it together, so I wasn't expecting stick straight lines.  I also didn't get any complaints from taste-testers.

Stay tuned for Round #2..

Fun alternative options for this dough:  

-Make drop cookies instead (no chilling, just drop spoonfuls and cook)

-Mix up the flavors with different extracts/flavorings and or additions like zest or nuts (or PB!)

-Make a pinwheel design by overlaying rolled out vanilla and chocolate and rolling up together (a lot easier way to make a cool looking cookie!)

Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate and peanut butter is a great combo, just like peanut butter and jelly. With Peanut Butter and Co as the sponsor of my cycling team, I have a lot of delicious peanut butters to try in cooking. This is one of my favorite dessert recipes and it is very easy to make.

Get out your ingredients:

Your favorite peanut
butter - about 16 teaspoons
Chocolate morsels or
melting chocolate – 16 oz
Confectioner sugar (optional)
Mini paper muffin cups
*1 16oz bag of chocolate morsels will make about 16 peanut butter cups

1. Set up your double boiler
2. Put the chocolate morsels in the top part of your double boiler and turn the heat on low. It will take about 5 minutes to melt the chocolate. Be careful, as any steam or moisture may cause the melted chocolate to harden.
3. In the meantime set the paper cups on a flat plate or pan
4. Periodically stir the chocolate until it is like chocolate syrup

5. Next spoon the melted chocolate into the paper cups. Fill the cups about 1/3 of the way up
6. Optional: If you want to make your peanut butter filling less creamy, mix about 2 parts peanut butter with 1 part confectioner sugar. You can mix in more sugar to get the consistency you like.
7. Take about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter and place it on top of the chocolate you already poured into the paper cup. I used 4 types of peanut butter: Dark Chocolate Dreams, White Chocolate Wonderful, The Bee's Knees and Crunch Time.
8. Then take the remaining chocolate and fill up the paper cups to cover the peanut butter.
9. Place the plate of peanut butter cups into the refrigerator. Wait about 10 minutes for the cups to settle and harden.
10. EAT and ENJOY

It's ALLIIVEE!!

Well,  finally I'm getting around to writing my first post.  I should probably be trying to go to sleep.. oh well.  Annyyyways..  This first one is actually a couple of weeks old.  I took a little bit of a spill about a week and a half ago, so my mixing arm is currently out of commission :(


Late in February, I was on a team training ride, when I received a special request from a teammate: Pound cake cupcakes with a flourless chocolate cake center.


Challenge accepted.


In honor of our new sponsor, and an upcoming orientation/meet and greet, I decided to make them peanut butter pound cake cupcakes.  Oh yea.. yumm.  These count as an experiment because:


- I've never made flourless chocolate cake
- I was basing the pound cake on a recipe that I've only ever made in a bundt pan, which takes a long time to bake, so who knows how long a cupcake would take.


First, I decided to make the chocolate cake.  I searched for relatively simple recipe and found this one:


Heaping 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli 60% Cocoa)
1 stick of butter
3/4 C sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cocoa


[insert pretty picture of ingredients that I didn't take.]


Prep:  Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a spring form pan, or line with parchment paper (or both!)


Set up ghetto double boiler with help of lovely assistant (glass bowl over top of pot of boiling water).  Melt chocolate and butter in said double boiler.  Once smooth and melty, remove from heat and stir in the sugar.  Beating in one by one, add eggs.  Whip in cocoa powder.  Pour mixture into prepared pan.  I used a 9.5in pan, which may have been a little big.  I believe this only took about 15-20min, but cook until set in the middle.


Let it cool... and bake a pizza to pass the time, then reduce the temp down to 325F.


Once cool, start forming small, middle of cupcake size balls or squares, as shown on the right.  We found that cutting small squares was a little easier than forming balls.

While assistant is in charge of flourless chocolate balls, whip up pound cake batter:


(recipe adapted from what I think was a family member's church cookbook, but I could be wrong)


1 C peanut butter (I recommend this one)

3 sticks butter

3 c sugar

6 eggs

3¼ c cake flour, sifted 3 times

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325F. (original is 300, but this was taking forrreeevvvvveerrr, so we settled on 325F after burning the bottoms of the first batch)

Beat peanut butter, butter and sugar until creamy Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder 3x, then add to butter mixture a little at a time. Add vanilla.

Now the fun part.. putting them together!  

So I figured the best way to do this would be to first spoon some into the bottom of the cup, then put a ball of chocolate cake in, and then add more poundcake.  So that's what we did.

Now, the timing was the tricky part.  As I said, we burned the bottoms of the first batch.. prooobably because I had it set to 300, then got impatient and put it up to 325 after 20min or so.  The second batch took ~30min at 325, I think.  The thing that makes it tough is that the tops don't really brown like you would expect them too, so it's hard to do it by eye.


Obviously now you're like, well how the hell am I supposed to make these if you can't even tell me how long to cook them for?!?!  This is where I refer to the "about" page, where I say I can't guarantee recipes are reproducible.  All I can say is watch them and be willing to completely *$%# up a small batch first.  I usually do this anyway, just because I don't trust my oven.


The end result was really good, with lots of leftover flourless chocolate cake.  In lieu of icing, I dusted the top of cupcakes with a mix of powdered sugar and cocoa.  An end result picture would have been a really good idea, but of course I didn't take one.  Harumph.  The closest thing I have is the background (hence the blurriness) of a shot taken at the meet and greet (thank you Anthony!!) where you can see how excited people are about them:

Whew.  That took longer than I thought it would.  Now I'm sleepy.


Night!!!