Chocolate Chip Almond Biscotti

1/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup xylitol or honey (or white sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup whole white wheat flour ( or all purpose flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more :))

Turn on oven to 300 degrees

1. Cream together softened butter and xylitol/honey.
2. Add in vanilla and eggs.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.
4. Gradually add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
5. Add the almonds and chocolate chips

Cook for 35 minutes on a pan lined with parchment paper. Take out of oven and let cool for 10 - 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 275 degrees. Cut into 3/4 inch wedges. Lay out wedges on baking sheet and cook again for another 8 - 10 minutes or until dry.

Let cools completely and enjoy!

Gingerbread Molasses Cookies

I love the smell these cookies fill my house with while I am making them! Reminds me of Christmas!!

Ingredients:

3 to 3 1/2 cups whole wheat, white whole wheat, or all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup honey

1 large egg

1/2-2/3 cup molasses (if you like the taste of molasses, use the whole amount) 

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 to 2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest or orange (optional)

1.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves until well blended.
2.  In a large bowl (KitchenAid's great for this) beat butter, honey, and egg on medium speed until well blended.
3.  Add molasses, vanilla, and lemon zest and continue to mix until well blended.
4.  Gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth.
5.  Let dough sit in the mixing bowl for about half an hour, covered with plastic wrap.
6.  (Dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Return to room temp before using.) Preheat oven to 375°.
7.  Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
8. Spoon out about a tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball, and place on cookie sheet. I usually grease me hands a little because the dough may be sticky.
9.  Space cookies 1 1/2-inches apart.
10.  Bake 1 sheet at a time for 7-10 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies-- very good!).
11.  Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.
12.  After cookies are cool you may decorate them any way you like.

Chocolate Cake

This recipe will make a huge double layer cake, (pictured above) plus about 7-8 chocolate muffins. Or one huge three layer cake, which is crazy! You do not need to double this recipe!!! Unless you are baking for a wedding or a celebrity sized birthday party because it makes a ton! I doubled the recipe not knowing how much it would make and now I have a huge cake for my husband and I to finish by ourselves, a bag full of 15 chocolate muffins in the freezer, one layer of a cake in the freezer that I didn't use and I had to give away half of the second double layered cake. So believe me, you'll be eating cake for months if you double this!

*Please read the directions before starting this recipe or getting any of your ingredients out.*
Ingredients:

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 cups whole wheat or whole wheat white flour (3 1/2 if freshly ground at home and using the soaking method)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups honey
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions if Soaking the Flour:
Additional ingredients:
-1/8 cup lemon juice

-The day before you want to make the cake, put 3 1/2 cups of flour into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the 1/8 cup lemon juice and add water (not boiling) until you have 2 cups of liquid. (You will not need any water boiled if you are soaking the flour.) Add the lemon water mixture to the flour and stir together. After it has all mixed together well, cover the bowl with a towel, or plastic wrap and let it sit for 12-24 hours to soak. A slightly warm place is best, so I put the bowl in my oven and turned on the oven light to let it sit overnight. The next morning it was warm and ready to be used.
*This soaking breaks down the phytic acid in the flour and makes it more digestible for you, almost to the point where your body thinks its eating a vegetable. The reason we soak grains is the phytic acid in the flour inhibits your body's ability to absorb the minerals found in the flour into your intestinal tract; calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc. Breaking down the phytic acid by soaking it in an acidic solution allows your body to absorb the minerals.*

The next day...
Preheat your oven to 330 degrees.

-(You can transfer the flour into a mixer bowl at this point if you are using a mixer.) By hand or by a kitchen appliance mixer, add the cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, honey, butter, vanilla, eggs (scramble the eggs in a separate bowl first and then add to mixture), and mix until well blended. Small lumps in the batter is ok.

-Pour into greased 9 inch round cake pans or muffin pans. (I made to round cakes and half a batch of chocolate muffins.)

-Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Poke the middle of the cake with a toothpick or something similar (I only had a paper clip at the time that I straightened out) and if the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If gooey batter comes out on the toothpick, then add 2 more minutes to the timer and try it again. Repeat if needed. Allow to cool completely or for about 30-40 minutes in the pan before dumping out on a cooling wrack. Once the cakes are completely cooled you make ice them.

Directions if Not Soaking the Flour: 

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. 

-In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans. 

-Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Poke the middle of the cake with a toothpick or something similar (I only had a paper clip at the time that I straightened out) and if the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If gooey batter comes out on the toothpick, then add 2 more minutes to the timer and try it again. Repeat if needed. Allow to cool completely or for about 30-40 minutes in the pan before dumping out on a cooling wrack. Once the cakes are completely cooled you make ice them. 


For the Frosting Recipe, see here: Frosting

Brownie Biscotti

An Italian Cookie!

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups 100% whole white wheat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips or chopped up sugar free chocolate
1/3 cup finely chopped almonds
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tablespoon water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease baking sheets, or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, honey, and baking soda until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. Dough will be stiff, so mix in the last bit by hand. Mix in the chocolate chips and almonds.
3. Divide dough into two equal parts. Shape into 9x2x1 inch loaves. Place onto baking sheet 4 inches apart. Brush with mixture of water and yolk.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm. Cool on baking sheet for 30 minutes.
5. Using a serrated knife, slice the loaves diagonally into 1 inch slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet, placing them on their sides. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes on each side, or until dry. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients:
1 small carton of heavy whipping cream
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 Tbls. vanilla
1/3 cup honey or 1/3 cup Xylitol

For Chocolate Frosting add in:
5 squares of baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
Pinch of salt

Directions:
In a medium sized bowl or mixer, whip cream until soft peaks form.  In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla, salt and honey/Stevia until smooth. Melt Chocolate in a boiler or microwave oven. Add to cream cheese mixture.  Fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream. Taste before you use it so you can adjust the sweetness if you need to.

*Note: this tasted really off to me at first. It had that tangy after taste from the cream cheese and I thought I had failed at making the frosting. But, I iced my cake and let it sit in the fridge UNcovered for an hour until the cake had become cool and the frosting had solidified a little and I could hardly taste the cream cheese. It tasted just like chocolate frosting. So don't worry if you think it tastes weird at first. The cooling in the fridge somehow magically did something to make it taste like chocolate frosting.

To make this into Vanilla Frosting, leave out the bakers chocolate squares.

ShortBread Cookies!!

Basic Recipe:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup Honey
1 tsp Vanilla
2 1/4 cups Whole White Wheat Flour or Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (You can use white flour if you like but Whole wheat is sooo much better for you!)

Optional:
1 1/2 Tbls Lemon Zest
(my opinion, if you are using the zest, then you really don't need to put any chocolate on these cookies. They are very rich.)

Cream together butter and Honey. Add Vanilla,Zest is using it, and flour until dough is smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30-60 minutes. Roll out, cut, and bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes.

After my cookies came out of the oven I made a little indentation on the top while they were still hot and then poured melted Simply Light Dark Chocolate (from Trader Joe's or Walmart) on top to fill in the little indent I made. Then I let them sit in the freezer for 15 minutes (while my next batch of cookies was baking). Then I took them out of the freezer, let them return to room temperature and ate them!! They are sooo good! For some reason, all my cookies recipe always seem to be twice as good the NEXT day, even though they are still awesome right out of the oven. What other cookies do that??!