Just J.Faye

Hiking & Other Adventures

Molasses Creams with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

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I am in full swing holiday cookie baking mode. My kitchen is stocked with butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. I have a list of (at least) a dozen cookie recipe experiments I want to try. There are Christmas movies playing 24/7 on TV. It is just the best.

Molasses Creams Feeling a little nostalgic this weekend I decided to whip up a classic family recipe: Molasses Creams.

Molasses Creams are one of my great-grandma’s recipes. My mom remembers driving down to Iowa as a little girl with her brothers and parents every year to visit family for the holidays. My great-grandma would always send them back home to Minnesota with Molasses Creams wrapped with wax paper in shoeboxes.

Luckily, my mom was able to receive the recipe from my great-grandma before she passed away. They are now a family staple that make it to the “must bake” Christmas cookie list every year.

After you bake them, you’ll see why.

Molasses Creams Molasses Creams are soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with cream cheese frosting. They are heavenly.

The molasses cookie dough comes together quickly and simply, but there is some rolling and cookie cutter-ing involved. Watch the movie Elf or sing along to Christmas music while you stamp out cookies and you won’t even mind the little bit of extra time that it takes. Just make sure that you roll your dough out on a well-floured surface. I didn’t and had one heck of a time with all those little circles.

Molasses Creams These cookies bake up nice and soft. If you like them a little crunchier keep them in the oven for an additional minute or two. Once they are completely cooled, make them into delicious cookie sandwiches with some cream cheese frosting. Not just regular cream cheese frosting though, ginger cream cheese frosting. It’s amazing.

Molasses Creams I hope you try them out and love them as much as my family and I do. Who knows, maybe you’ll even add them to your annual Christmas cookie baking list!

Molasses Creams

Molasses Creams with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
 
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Molasses Creams consist of soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with ginger cream cheese frosting. This recipe was passed down from great-grandma and is on my holiday cookie list every year.
Ingredients
For the cookies:
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 2 eggs
For the ginger cream cheese frosting:
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4-5 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixture, cream together the brown sugar and shortening until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
  4. Add the molasses, vinegar, and eggs. Beat until thoroughly combined.
  5. Stir in the dry ingredients until all the flour is incorporated.
  6. Roll out the dough on a well floured surface until it is ¼-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to stamp out circles.
  7. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes (the less you bake them, the softer they will be).
  8. Let cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
  9. To make the frosting: cream together the cream cheese and butter, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and ginger. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the remaining powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
  10. Add a dollop of frosting to half of the cookies and top with the other half to make a delicious cookie sandwich.

PS- Just a head’s up that December will probably over-index on the baking side of things, rather than the workouts. But then January will be the opposite, so it’s all good.

Molasses Creams

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Frosted Pretzel Shortbread

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Do you and your girlfriends have any silly little traditions? My friends Sarah, Pooja, and I do. We tell sneakrets. We write down predictions. We drink champagne. We snack on pretzels and frosting.

Pretzels and frosting, a salty/sweet mix of deliciousness. frosted pretzel shortbread 5 years ago I moved to Tennessee for work and didn’t know a single soul. This was both scary and exciting at the same time. I was lucky to meet Sarah and Pooja there, two amazing ladies who greatly impacted my life and are two of my best friends.

Our short time (1 ½ – 2 years) living in Murfreesboro together was full of high highs and low lows for all of us. I don’t think any one of us would have survived our time there without the love and support from each other. I have learned so much from these girls and love them so much. I could go on and on and on about how amazing they are, but I won’t. There’s just not enough space on this blog. frosted pretzel shortbread I don’t remember exactly how our pretzel and frosting obsession originated. If I were to guess though, I probably had leftover frosting from a cake or cupcakes lying around. We then probably used pretzels as a vehicle to transfer the frosting from the bowl to our mouths, because spoons are overrated and pretzels are delicious. Don’t judge. It happens.

Now whenever we get together pretzels and frosting are one of our “must have” snacks. Unfortunately geography (Sarah in Arizona, Pooja in New York, and me in Minnesota) and other grown up life things prevent us from getting together as often as we would like (everyday), but we try to have a reunion at least once a year.

On the last day of our time together we write down predictions for each other that we anticipate will come true by our next reunion and read through our predictions from the previous reunion. It’s a fun little tradition. Sometimes our predictions come true, but sometimes we’re way off.

I was super lucky to see Pooja a couple of weeks ago when she was in a town for a work conference. She recently announced that she is expecting her second child, another beautiful little baby girl! I wanted to make her a little treat to celebrate this wonderful news. Champagne was obviously out of the question this time around, but pretzels and frosting definitely were not, so I transformed our favorite treat into some cookies.

frosted pretzel shortbread

frosted pretzel shortbread These are simple shortbread cookies made with pretzel flour (finely ground pretzels) and powdered sugar, giving them a fantastic salty/sweet combination. They are then topped with my absolute favorite buttercream from Magnolia Bakery, which is, of course, colored pink.

I was planning on adding sprinkles, but totally forgot. Huge fail. If you have some I would highly recommend using them for these cookies. Maybe add some sea salt too. Then get crazy and make these little gems.

frosted pretzel shortbread If you have never had the pretzel and frosting combination, you need to try it out. Make these cookies and start some new traditions with your friends!

Frosted Pretzel Shortbread
 
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These cookies are a simple shortbread, but some of the flour is replaced with ground pretzels to make a delicious salty/sweet combination. They are then frosted with Magnolia Bakery's vanilla buttercream.
Serves: 1 dozen
Ingredients
For the Pretzel Shortbread:
  • 1 ½ cups pretzel flour (~3-4 cups pretzels, see note)
  • ½ cup all purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Buttercream:
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 – 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper or a silpat mat on a cookie sheet.
  2. In a small bowl combine the pretzel flour, all purpose flour, and salt.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer add the butter and powdered sugar. Mix until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add in the vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
  4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll to ¼-inch thick. Use the cookie cutter of your choice (I used a glass, because I apparently do not have a circle cookie cutter) to stamp out the cookies.
  5. Put the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet. Baked for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are set. Be careful not to burn them. Let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  6. Make the frosting while the cookies are cooling. Place the butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium until smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add in the remaining sugar ½ cup at a time until the icing has reached your desired consistency (you may not use up the full 4 cups). It should be thick enough to easily spread. Add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly.
  7. Once the cookies are completely cooled, spread a nice layer of frosting on each one. I like my cookies to be heavy on the frosting. Feel free to add some sprinkles and a little bit of sea salt on top!
Notes
Place 3-4 cups of pretzel twists in a food processor until it is finely ground.

frosted pretzel shortbread

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Sprinkle Pudding Cookie Bars

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Find me a person that doesn’t love sprinkles. I want to tell them to their face that they’re crazy. sprinkle pudding cookie bars Sprinkles. They just make everything so much more fun. And couldn’t we all use an extra dose of fun on Mondays?

I think so. That’s why I’m bringing you these sprinkle pudding cookie bars.

And as if sprinkles weren’t enough, I topped them with these cute frosted animal cookies. Because, why the heck not? sprinkle pudding cookie bars

sprinkle pudding cookie bars In case you’re curious: yes, they do taste as good as they look.

The secret here is in the instant pudding mix. A couple of months ago I made these banana pudding cookie bars and discovered how truly amazing pudding cookies are. They are just so… soft. Soft and crumbly and delicious.

From the flavor to the sprinkles to the texture to the animal cookies, I just love everything about these adorable little bars. They appeal to both the eyes and the taste buds. sprinkle pudding cookie bars They are also super easy and quick to make. The dough comes together like standard cookie dough. Cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and our new favorite cookie ingredient (pudding mix). Stir in the dry ingredients. Throw in sprinkles and crushed up cookies, just for fun. Press the dough into a pan.

sprinkle pudding cookie bars Top it off with some animal crackers. Bake for approximately 13 minutes. Wait for bars to cool (warning: this is the hardest part). Then cut them up and enjoy one… or five. sprinkle pudding cookie bars Then go bring some to your friends because they deserve sprinkles on Mondays too. sprinkle pudding cookie bars And because having an entire pan of these around is a dangerous thing.

Sprinkle Pudding Cookie Bars
 
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I love everything about these adorable little bars. The addition of pudding mix into the dough makes these bars extra soft and delicious. The sprinkles and animal cookies make them super fun.
Author:
Serves: 20 bars
Ingredients
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup animal cookies, coarsely chopped (optional)
  • 1 cup sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add the pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
  5. Add in the flour mixture. Stir until combined.
  6. Fold in the cookie chunks and sprinkles.
  7. Put the dough into the prepared pan and press until even. Then press animal cookies on the top of the dough. I did 5 columns and 4 rows (20 total).
  8. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let bars cool completely before cutting and eating.

sprinkle pudding cookie bars

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Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread

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Let’s kick off this week with some bread. Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread  Brown bananas are a little bit ugly, but beautiful at the same time and filled with so much delicious potential! Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread What to make, what to make… I was brainstorming as I watched these bananas slowly turn browner with each passing day. Then I decided: chocolate banana bread. With some cacao nibs. And a little bit of Greek yogurt. Delicious, yes?

Have you ever heard of or tried cacao nibs? They are basically pieces of cacao beans that have been chopped up and roasted. If you were to grind them up with some sugar you’d have chocolate! Cacao nibs themselves aren’t very sweet, but still have a light chocolate flavor to them. They also have a nice crunch, kind of like a roasted coffee bean. As an added bonus cacao nibs are pretty healthy. They are full of antioxidants as well as magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and potassium. Plus, they can elevate your mood and give you an energy boost! Soooo… let’s eat some. Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread My mom had given me some a while back to try, but I had stuck them in my cupboard and forgot about them. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? Then when I was in Costa Rica I came across some dark chocolate covered cacao nibs, which led me to remember the long-lost cacao nibs in my cupboard, which led me to buy the chocolate covered ones, which led me to want to make something delicious with them, which is now leading me to this bread with my brown bananas. Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread Isn’t that a nice little chain of events? It led to such a delicious place.

This chocolate banana bread isn’t overly sweet. The melted butter and Greek yogurt give it the perfect level of moist-ness (is that a word?) and density. The cacao nibs add a nice crunch. You can have it for breakfast with some jam or, better yet, some almond butter. Or you could have it for a mid-day snack or a post-dinner dessert. Or you could just eat it all day, every day for the rest of your life, but I’ll let you make that decision.

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread So the next time you have some brown bananas on your counter staring you in the face, you should probably make this bread. You can track down cacao nibs (plain, chocolate covered, or both) in Costa Rica, but also Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s if that’s more convenient for you. If you aren’t interested in cacao nibs, that’s ok! You can replace them with chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or nothing at all.

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread
 
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A delicious chocolate banana bread studded with cacao nibs. Perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
Author:
Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 1½ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter (1 stick)
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed (~1-1 ½ cups)
  • ¼ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cup cacao nibs (I used a mix of plain and chocolate covered cacao nibs)
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
  2. In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Let is cool slightly.
  4. Whisk in the eggs. Then add the brown sugar, bananas, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
  5. Add in the dry ingredients and stir until combined, being careful not to over mix.
  6. Stir in the cacao nibs.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.
  8. Let the bread cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then take it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
  9. Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
I used a mix of plain and chocolate covered cacao nibs, but feel free to use one or the other.
The cacao nibs can be replaced with a mix of chopped nuts and chocolate chips.

Chocolate Cacao Nib Banana Bread

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Fruit And Nut Chocolate Zinfandel Cookies

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Some of my favorite things: fruit, chocolate, wine, nuts, cookies. I went ahead and combined them and these Fruit & Nut Chocolate Zinfandel Cookies were born.

zinfandel cookies I know, insane. But sometimes insane is a good thing.

You what else is insane? The fact that it is September already! How, how, how in the world did that happen? Did I accidentally hibernate all summer? Where did it go?

I guess I’ll cope by eating these cookies. Let me tell you, a very delicious coping mechanism.

zinfandel cookies I love summer, but I do really enjoy fall as well. The crisp air, the changing leaves, all the varieties of apples, boots and sweaters – so great. Also, the start of school. I always loved the first day of school. I’m a huge dork, but I just really enjoyed back-to-school shopping, school supply shopping, and the first day feeling. I should’ve bought new pens or something to bring into work today. Oh well. Next year.

Anyways, these cookies! Let’s talk more about them.

zinfandel cookies The base is a delicious chocolate drop cookie, but I added in a boost of flavor with some red wine. Why? Because chocolate and wine is always a good idea. And what else goes with chocolate and wine? Fruit and nuts, of course! So I threw those in as well. The nuts add a great texture and additional crunch to the cookies, whereas the dried fruit adds some sweetness.

zinfandel cookies zinfandel cookies Cheese also works very well with this combination, but I didn’t want to go completely overboard. I’ll save that for another day.

For the wine I used Redux Zinfandel from California, which I received in one of my Club W shipments. The recipe calls for a ½ cup of wine. ½ cup < 1 bottle, so pour yourself a glass.

zinfandel cookies Go ahead and have a glass while you bake and maybe another while you taste test. Then invite some girlfriends over to devour the cookies and drink more wine. Maybe you can serve some cheese with it too? Talk about how awesome the summer was and how great the lingering weeks of it will still be. Then start getting excited about fall and having Sunday fundays while pretending to watch football paying really close attention to football games.

That’s just a suggestion. Take it or leave it.

Baking these cookies, though. That is not a suggestion. Use them as a coping mechanism for the end of summer or as a celebration for the beginning of fall. Either way, you need these in your life. You deserve these in your life.

zinfandel cookies

Fruit And Nut Chocolate Zinfandel Cookies
 
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Chocolate drop cookies with Zinfandel red wine, studded with chopped nuts and dried fruit - so many delicious things combined into one little cookie.
Author:
Serves: 36
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup red wine
  • 1 cup mixed nuts, chopped
  • 1 cup mixed dried fruit, chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
  4. Add the egg, vanilla, and red wine. Beat for another minute.
  5. Add in the flour mixture. Mix until combined.
  6. Fold in the nuts and fruit.
  7. Place scoops of cookie dough onto the prepared pans. Bake for 11-12 minutes, be careful not to overbake. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
You can use any red wine, dried fruit, and nuts that you have on hand. I used Zinfandel, a mix of dried cranberries and cherries, and a mix of almond and pecans.

Happy Tuesday. I hope you all had as amazing and relaxing of a Labor Day weekend as I did. I was actually fairly productive and finally created an index page. Check it out here.

zinfandel cookies

 

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Blueberry-Mint Brownies (sugar-free & dairy-free)

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Would you still eat a brownie if I told you it was sugar-free?

blueberry-mint brownies

I would. In fact, I made a whole pan of sugar-free brownies and almost ate the whole thing.

No joke. It was a small pan though. And I said “almost”. I still have some to share.

blueberry-mint brownies Earlier this week I was dead set on trying bake up some fudgy, sugar-free, healthy-ish brownies. Then after reading Minimalist Baker’s recipe for simple berry compote I knew I wanted to somehow combine a version of it with my brownies. After all, who doesn’t love fruit and chocolate together?

That is not a rhetorical question. Who doesn’t love that combo?! Let me know.

blueberry-mint brownies Anywho, I had blueberries on hand and some basil. Thus, blueberry-basil compote was born.

Now it was time for the brownies. I baked some up and they were… a total fail. I wanted something fudgy and delicious and these were dense, cake-like, and had little flavor. I baked them in muffin tins and topped them with the compote. They were still edible, just not what I wanted.

I gave them to my co-workers. This is basically how it went:

  • Me: “Hey! Want a brownie?”
  • Coworker: “Sure!”
  • Me: “Great! They are sugar and dairy free!”
  • Coworker: “Nevermind. I don’t want one. (2 second pause) Ok. I’ll still have one.”
  • Me: “Here you go! These were an experiment and not the best… but hey, brownie!”

It is so easy to give away free food. Bless their hearts.

blueberry-mint brownies They did give me some great feedback though. I went home, re-worked the recipe a little bit, annnddddddd……… SUCCESS!

The result was exactly what I was looking for.

blueberry-mint brownies I used a mixture of cocoa powder and melted chocolate instead of all cocoa powder. I reduced the amount of flour (I knew I added too much the first time around! Lesson learned.) I baked them in an 8×8” pan rather than muffin tins. I then swirled the compote in with the brownie batter so that the fruit was baked right into the brownies rather than just sitting on top. Also, I was out of basil, so I used mint instead.

blueberry-mint brownies Since starting this blog I have been doing a lot of baking experiments. Sometimes things work. Sometimes they don’t, which can be disappointing. But failure can lead to a lot of learning and then to success. I like learning and I like success. I also like eating delicious things. So basically, it all works out.

Oh, and as I mentioned before these are both sugar-free and dairy-free. I used honey instead of sugar and coconut oil instead of butter. So you don’t have to feel super guilty when you eat almost the whole pan. And by “you” I mean “I”. But you are welcome to make these and then eat half of the pan and then go share the other half with people who you like. Or keep them all to yourself. No judgement!

blueberry-mint brownies So there you go. Delicious, chocolatey brownies with burst of blueberries and mint. Indulgent, yet healthy-ish. Does it get any better than that?!

Yes. Yes, it does. Today is Saturday and it’s beautiful outside. Enjoy your weekend!

blueberry-mint brownies

Blueberry-Mint Brownies (sugar-free & dairy-free)
 
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These are delicious, fudge-y brownies with bursts of blueberries and mint. Since they are sugar-free and dairy-free, they are also a bit guilt-free too.
Author:
Serves: 16
Ingredients
For the blueberry compote:
  • 1 pint blueberries
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons chopped mint
For the brownies:
  • ¾ cup all purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
  • ½ cup coconut oil
  • ¾ cup honey
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the blueberry compote:
  1. In a saucepan, add the blueberries and honey. Heat on medium-high until it begins to bubble.
  2. Turn heat to medium-low. Stir and smash berries every few minutes for about 10-12 minutes.
  3. Stir in the chopped mint. Transfer to a mason jar and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
For the brownies:
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8” baking pan, line with parchment paper, and grease again.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
  3. In a saucepan on low heat, melt the unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil.
  4. Whisk in the honey. Let it cool for a few minutes and transfer to a medium bowl.
  5. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
  6. Fold in the dry ingredients until combined.
  7. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Add spoonfuls of the blueberry-mint compote. Run a knife or toothpick through the batter to create a marbled effect.
  8. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.
Notes
The first time around I used basil and the second time I used mint. I loved the outcome of both, so feel free to swap out the mint!
The blueberry-mint compote was inspired by Minimalist Baker's Simple Fruit Compote!

blueberry-mint brownies

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