Almond

Almond Butter Cups

8:00:00 AM


There are a lot of things that I love in this world. Two of them off that list are almond butter, and chocolate. Aside from exploring new entree recipes, it's important to indulge now and then! With dark chocolate and nut butter, where could you go wrong? 

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter

 For this recipe in particular, I used the Endangered species variety of dark chocolate, one being caramel (non-vegan) and one being almond. You can choose whatever type of chocolate your heart desires and whatever nut butter as well. 
Almond Butter

Are you ready to make your own little cups of chocolatey-almond happiness?

Here's what you'll need: 

 Dark Chocolate
Organic Almond Butter
Ice-cube tray
Here's what you'll need to do:

 Break the chocolate apart. I used bars of dark chocolate! 
If you used two variations of dark chocolate like I did, make sure you melt them in seperate bowls! 
Melt each bowl of chocolate (depends on your microwave, I melted for about a minute).
Stir and if it's not melted enough then add about 10 seconds stirring afterwards
Add the chocolate to ice-cube tray (filling about half way)
Chocolate Cups
It'll be delicious don't worry! 

 Add small amount of almond butter
Top with rest of chocolate
Set into freezer for about 30 minutes or overnight
Take out and enjoy!
Homemade Candy
These are so simple to make and super fun! This is also the first time I have ever made something in the dorms! I wouldn't recommend using a caramel-filled chocolate just because I accidentally burnt mine and set the smoke detector off. Oh well. Ya live and ya learn! 
Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Vegan Candy

 I hope you enjoyed this recipe and try it out! What is your favorite snack that you indulge in? Make sure to leave a comment! 

 As always, thanks for reading!  

 You can also use mini-muffin tins, I didn't have any nor do I have the room in my mini fridge for storage! 

Baking

The Legend of the Berlin Pretzel Cookies

9:00:00 AM


If you haven't noticed, my second semester away from home has come to an end, giving me more time to help bake which is something I love to do. These cookies, that I've titled this post after, have been passed down through generations and this season it was my turn to learn it. Along with traditions, there are usually stories told with them. For these cookies, the legend is...there has to be sun or they just will not work! 
This year, my mom had previously made a batch and the days forecast for our baking day? Rain. 
Pretzel Cookie
Here's What You'll Need:
2 hard boiled egg yolks-mashed
3 raw egg yolks
2 sticks butter (unsalted, room temp)
1 and 1/2 cups powder sugar
2 and 1/2 cups flour
Sprinkles
3 bowls (one large and two small)
(Christmas cheer and a sunny personality!)

Here's What you Need to Do:
To prep:
Have two small bowls, one with the egg whites, and one with the sugar and sprinkle mixture ready to go! 
1. Combine flour and powdered sugar with egg yolks and butter in large bowl.
Mixture
2. Add raw egg yolks and mix with hands until ball forms. This gets messy!
kneading
3. Roll small chunks into balls (about the size of a walnut and roll into strips. 
Dough
4. Criss-cross one side over the other. (this is called a pretzel but it looks more like an awareness ribbon if that helps your forming.) 
5.  Brush egg-white glaze over pretzel cookie and dip into sugar. (repeat as you bake)
It's easier to bake each set one by one, instead of two pans at a time. You're also meant to wait until the pan cools off as they're very finicky (it's not only the sun that has to be right about them). 
Luckily for us, the legend didn't hold out to be true for this batch and they turned out great! Maybe it really was our sunny personalities and just the feeling of Christmas cheer that made them turn out so well! 
Sprinkles

I hope you're brave enough to try these cookies, after all sometimes it works and sometimes it just doesn't! I think it's fun just to say "it has to be sunny". It makes them even more special, and I'm glad I got to learn how to make them! ( I posted this photo on instagram if you missed it!) 
Did you try any new recipes this holiday season? Or even this year? Did you have any major flops or really great ones? Let me know in the comments!
See you next time! (Tomorrow is Officially the real Christmas! I hope you all have a GREAT holiday!! :) )
xx Kenzie













Baking

Christmas Baking

8:00:00 AM


It's December, and that means many things. Firstly it means that exams are coming up and I have been busy rustling around in my pile of homework and keeping up with due dates. All while munching on some Christmas cookies. Recently, you read about how I spent Thanksgiving day, but I had five days off. So what else did I do? I'll give you one guess. 
Figured it out? 
I was baking. A lot. 
My grandma and I have our traditional baking time where we usually make truffles. I wrote a blog post about those last year and you can read them here. This year, we went all out on Christmas baking. 
Molasses
This year we started off with sugar cookie cut-outs. Even though I won't be home to decorate the cookies like I have in the past, I was still able to help cut the cookies into different shapes.
DoughCookie Cut Outs
The dough was in a constant rotation of the photo on the left to the photo on the right side. There may have been a few stray sugar cookie dough bits that popped into my mouth as well. Whoops! What can you do? 
Sallys Baking Addiction
After baking the sugar cookies, my grandmother helped me make these delicious turtle cookies that I was going to give to my mom (turtle is her favorite). The dough tasted amazing and I was so excited to try these cookies out and see what my moms reaction would be to the "secret" cookies! If you'd like the recipe for these, it's over on Sally's Blog. They're amazing and you should really try them!
Turtle Cookie
While waiting for the turtle cookie dough to chill in the fridge, we quickly whipped up a double batch of my favorite cookies. Molasses. I made them awhile ago, though never blogged any photos of them. But here they are! 
Winter Cookie
They taste amazing as well. 
My mom stopped over to help us with the truffles. It went a lot faster with three people, which was really fun and actually even better since we got to enjoy them even sooner! 
After making a batch of sugar cookies, truffles, and molasses, it was time to drizzle the caramel onto the turtle cookies for the final touch. 
Turtle Cookies

Caramel

This feels like Christmas. I am even more excited to bake even more goodies after exams when I come home for a little over a month and can relax.
I hope you all are getting excited for Christmas as well!!
What is your favorite thing to bake?
Make sure to leave a comment! 
x
kenzie






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