Hidden or Not?

Where's my little helper? There she is!!!  Just like K wanted to hide, we had a secret ingredient to hide this month in the Daring Bakers.  Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

Her favorite parts about helping:  stirring, eating a chocolate chip ("Can I have one of those?"), and liking the beater...which she always asks for before we're done!

I thought it would be fun to mix things up a bit and make donuts.  K and D love donuts but I prefer not to get them.  K and D (especially D) also like chocolate...which I prefer to avoid for breakfast.  However, I thought I'd make an except this time.  I mean, I'm baking the donuts and putting carrots in them...which K was actually REALLY excited about!  She asked for a carrot to snack on while we were making them and INSISTED that SHE pour the carrots in the bowl!

I found the recipe on Pinterest, which I have come to LOVE as a paperless filing system!  GREAT!

The recipe is from Clever Muffin.  Several things I liked about this recipe: 
1. Not much sugar.  Yes, there is some but so many muffin recipes use a cup or more!  Use 1/2 a cup and make it brown...so much more flavor.
2. Not much oil...and olive oil at that!
3. My mistake - I forgot the eggs...didn't even notice!  It was so fudgy and moist even without them.  D, of course, said it needed to be more chocolatey.  Ha!

Verdict:  They like them!  K was excited from the beginning and couldn't wait to have her donut for breakfast on Sunday.  D tried it last night and said they were good.  He had complained about the carrots.  When I said you couldn't taste them he said "but I can see them!"  So, he kept the lights out when he ate it.  ;-)  Ha!  All in all a successful recipe to make everyone in the house happy!

Chocolate Carrot Muffins/Donuts adapted from Clever Muffin
1 cup raw oatmeal or quick oats
1 cup low-fat milk
3/4 cup flour / rice flour or a gluten-free alternative
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 cup grated carrot
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup (about 100 grams) of dark chocolate chips
Note: I cut up some of a block of dark cooking chocolate for the chocolate chips, the recipe tends to lend itself to the rough kind of chocolate chips you get by doing it that way.
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with patty cases and spray with cooking oil.
2. Soak the oatmeal/oats in the milk while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
3. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder together, then add the rest of the ingredients, including oats/oatmeal (don’t over mix!).
4. Spoon into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and they bounce back to touch. Cool on wire rack. Makes 12.

Enjoy!

Cookies a Week Before

A quick post before I leave for work.  In ONE week, I get married!  So excited!  Just wanted to give you a quick recipe.  I made these a few weeks ago to take to work. 

One reason I wanted to make them is because they are called Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies...and Alice is my mom's name.  :-)  They are definitely a crispy cookie.  The flavor is just a basic chocolate chip cookie but they are definitely leaning to the crispy side.  Not my preference, but then again I don't usually eat many anyway...and these quickly disappeared at work.  :-)  Test them out for yourself. 

Alice’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe via  Sweetnicks who got it from Little Kitchen, who got it from Alice at Savory Sweet Life
Yield: 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 360°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until nice and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and vanilla, and mix for 2 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. When the cookie dough has absorbed the dry ingredients, stir in the chocolate chips and mix until they are well distributed.  Drop 2 tablespoons of dough (or use a medium cookie scoop) onto the cookie sheet for each cookie, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes. Then slide the parchment paper, with the cookies still on top, onto a wire rack to cool completely.