Jammie Dodgers – A healthy version!

This past weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who. While I certainly haven’t been watching it for 50 years, I have quickly become a HUGE fan of the show, the actors, the messages, and the Daleks! (They’re my favorite alien monster). Heck, I even dressed as the TARDIS (the time & space ship) for Halloween this year. Yes, I love Doctor Who.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary, BBC gave its fans a special episode (no spoilers here, don’t worry). And to celebrate WATCHING said episode, I made Jammie Dodgers! And I made them somewhat healthy!

Always take a banana to a party!

Whip these up the next time you host a Doctor Who marathon, or for the Christmas special! It’s basically health-ified sugar cookie, with jam sandwiched inside. They’re delicious, easy, and could easily be used as a “normal” cut out sugar cookie.

Allons-y!

Jammie Dodgers, cookies adapted from Texanerin, idea adapted from The Baker Upstairs

Makes 12 Jammie Dodgers (about 24 individual cookies)

• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4 C + 2 tbsp white sugar
• 1/4 brown sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ C white flour
• ¾ C whole wheat flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 6 tsp jam of choice

Preheat the oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugars for about 2 minutes.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

Add the remaining ingredients and beat until well combined.

Form dough into a ball, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap – refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. The thinner, the better!

Use a round or fluted cookie cutter (I used a glass) to cut out cookies. Cut a small circle or heart shape out of the middle of half the cookies.

Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets and bake for 5½ – 7 minutes or just until they appeared cooked. You do NOT want them to brown.

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes. Spread a bit of jam onto each full cookie, and top with the other half. Put them back into the oven for 5 minutes, to let the jam set up.

Remove and let cool on the pan 15-20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Om nom nom

Banana Bread Beer Banana Bread

***Updated recipe below for MINI loaves!***

You may need to read that again, but more slowly. It’s banana bread, made with beer, that tastes like banana bread. Every single person who read or heard me say that had to do a double take this past weekend. But when they bit into this scrumptious, not un-healthy dessert bread, all questioning went out the window, and taste was embraced!

Well’s Banana Bread Beer is really quite amazing. It’s essentially liquid alcoholic banana bread. A drinkable dessert for adults! My kind of beverage 🙂 My boyfriend knew of my love for this beer, and of my love for baking, so he suggested I smash the two together! This bread uses just 1/4 cup of butter, and only 1/2 cup of sugar! AND I took the liberty of replacing half the all-purpose white flour with some whole wheat flour. No yeast or eggs required!

The leftover beer tasted great while the bread baked 🙂

The result? A not-too-sweet chocolate-filled banana bread, through which you could still taste a hint of beer. It’s like your favorite banana bread had a love child with your favorite beer bread.

If you have some bananas about to go bad, and haven’t used them all up in homemade frozen yogurt, bake up a batch of this delicious bread. Your family and friends will love you for it!

Good things come in small packages, right?

Banana Bread Beer Banana Bread

Makes 8 mini loaves or one large one

• 3 C flour (make half of it whole wheat flour if you like)
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 12 oz Wells and Young’s Banana Bread Beer (my bottle was 11.9 oz, which was perfect)
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease large or mini loaf pan – mine is the fancy Food Network kind (thanks mom & dad!).

Melt butter in the microwave in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, powder, soda).

In a small mixing bowl, mash bananas completely. Mix in the vanilla, half the melted melted butter, and beer.

Mix the wet into the dry and stir just until combined (over-stirring will activate the gluten in the flour, making the end result a tough bread – avoid it!). Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon into prepared pan of choice – fill just to below the brim. If using mini loaf pans, bake 30 minutes. If making one large loaf, bake for 40-50 minutes, checking with a toothpick or knife for it to be done.

Remove to cooling rack and allow to sit for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on the rack. Eat and enjoy!

They’re just too cute!

Want more banana bread deliciousness? But with ZERO guilt? Try banana bread overnight oatmeal! It’s dessert for breakfast. Or, just eat one of these mini loaves for breakfast 🙂

Lime Takeover! Lime Oat Bars & Lime Yogurt Olive Oil Cake

As mentioned a few posts back, I have a surplus of limes. I’ve been squeezing them into my oatmeal every day last week, but one can tire of that pretty quickly. So instead, I searched for a few recipes and came up with these two lime-y desserts. The first, a lime oat bar, is perfect for snacking. I healthified it a bit, to take out the extra fat, which makes me feel better. The second, a lime and olive oil cake, is also lightened up with nonfat Greek yogurt! Mom wanted a citrus-y dessert for Mother’s Day dinner, and everyone loved this cake! Sweet and fruity enough to represent the onset of spring, and yet light enough that we didn’t feel too full after a tasty dinner. If you have too many limes, and don’t know what to do with them, try these recipes! You won’t regret it.

I love you, mom! Me, mom, and sister.

Lime Oat Bars adapted from Plated Perfection
Makes 12 bars

• 1/3 C puréed unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 C nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 C brown sugar, packed
• 2 C old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Filling ingredients:
• 1/2 C fresh lime juice (or bottled)
• 1 tsp fresh lime zest
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk (I used leftover tres leches mixture)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8×8 glass pan with PAM.

Mix applesauce, yogurt, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add oats, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.

In a smaller bowl, combine lime juice, zest, egg, and milk. Whisk together with a fork, and allow to sit for a minute to thicken.

Spread 2/3 of the oat mixture into the prepared glass pan – even out to cover the bottom completely. Pour the lime liquid mixture on top of this, making sure to cover the whole dish. Using a spoon, spread the leftover 1/3 oat mixture on top.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack, and allow to sit 20 minutes. Chill in fridge for a couple hours, to let it set. Cut into squares, and serve plain, with ice cream, or with leftover homemade whipped cream, like I did!

A dallop of homemade whipped cream really makes this snack stand out.

Lime Yogurt Olive Oil Cake adapted from Souvlaki for the Soul
Serves 8

• 1 C nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 1/3 C olive oil
• 1/4 C fresh lime juice (or bottled)
• Zest of 1 lime
• 2 eggs
• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Lime Sugar

• 1 tbsp lime zest
• 2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a bundt pan or springform pan with PAM.

In a medium sized bowl, mix the first six ingredients together well.

In a big bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and salt.

Pour wet mixture over flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix until just combined – do NOT overmix!

Pour into prepared pan, and smooth out the top. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out and let cool completely. Mix lime sugar ingredients in small bowl, sprinkle on top, and serve!

So pretty, you could just eat it up! And we did.

Cake close-up…because even desserts are vain 🙂

The only slice left! That lime sugar on top really was the….icing….on the cake 😉