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FAIRLY HEALTHY
Chocolate â„ž Cookies
These are easily the BEST COOKIES I'VE EVER MADE. However: Ricardo (the Montreal chef from whence this recipe came) calls these "Crunchy" Chocolate cookies, which must be the most underwhelming title ever for such chocolate bliss. He uses white sugar in the original recipe, which we substituted for brown, and, in combination with the lowest recommended baking time, may have something to do with the more tender result we achieved. Also, the pecans were omitted (Claire's request) and replaced by peanut butter chips. Sit on your hands in an effort not to eat these all in one sitting! Warm them up to get the ooze factor.
from @ricardocuisine
Carrot Banana Bread
For the umpteenth pandemic banana bread (and also because an oversized bag of baby carrots was burning a hole in the fridge), we decided to search up a recipe for both. Tweaks: used whole wheat flour, added shredded coconut, pecans instead of walnuts (snuck them in this time), and candied ginger (left over from a grocery store bagged salad). Weird ingredient was mayonnaise, which one user substituted with a combination of greek yogurt and coconut oil (likely a healthier choice!) but it did make it nice and moist. Would make again, but would make it more "tropical" next time by including a heavy dose of ground cloves, cardamom, extra ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (which may push it to 5 chickens); otherwise it is simply a solid representation of what it means to be - a moist breakfast bread (that you can convince yourself is fairly healthy since it includes veggies and fruit!). Tip: if you're using mayo, skip the extra salt, it doesn't need it.
from @spendpennies
Canadian Mango Lassi
Originating in India, this is a healthier and more exotic version of a milkshake, using fresh (or frozen) mango chunks, unsweetened Greek yogurt, a few ice cubes, a dash of milk and a glug of... maple syrup (welcome to Canada, lassi)! Combine in a blender and press play. Add more or less ice or milk depending one's desired level of creaminess.
from @simplyrecipes
Banana Nut Muffins
For our most recent iteration of banana baking endeavours, we tried what the recipe author calls the "best ever banana nut muffin". Unfortunately, they did not live up to their name, but they still earned 4 chickens because well... How good can a banana nut muffin be? We did like the suggestion to combine the nuts with melted butter and brown sugar as a topping. We would also be heavier handed on the cinnamon and nutmeg to boost the flavour of just... bananas. And would toast the nuts.... geez, maybe this should be 3 chickens??
from @busybakerblog
Blueberry Lemon Loaf
This was Oma's birthday cake! 87 years young? If you're thinking it looks a little brown, that's probably due to our use of organic coconut palm sugar (brown sugar) instead of the entire cup of white refined sugar the recipe called for. Likely this resulted in our slightly less than light-as-air result, although the author does say that it's a moist bread, so I'm not sure why we were expecting a feathery cakey loaf. Still, crammed with fresh blueberries and double-glazed with fresh lemon juice glaze (we put tooth-pick holes in the bread first, rather than create a top crust glaze as in the original recipe - would do this again since it adds a zing), it wasn't half bad.
from @livewellbakeoften
THE BEST Banana Bars
I don't know if we'll ever bake banana bread again! These banana bars are so delicious, you'd never suspect they are probably healthier than most banana bread recipes! 3 whole mashed bananas form the base of a batter that pours into just an 8x8 baking dish, with only 1/3 C of organic coconut (brown) sugar, and 2 TBSP of coconut oil. Even better, we swapped out the original recipe's all-purpose flour suggestion with organic whole wheat flour, and added chocolate chunks instead of chips. A decadent, fairly healthy treat that could double as a dessert!
from @realandvibrant