Tag: Blend

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

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Can you believe Thanksgiving is this week?? This year has just flown by!

 

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. It’s a day spent with family and friends over good food, just enjoying each other’s company.

 

We spend Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle’s house. Every year, I bring a little something up to contribute to the meal. For the past few years, I’ve done desserts. My sister put in a request for a chocolate cake this year because in her words, “there’s not enough chocolate at Thanksgiving.”

 

 

We usually have quite a few desserts for the taking, so I decided to make the cake with less added sugar with the help of SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend.

 

SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend works just like regular brown sugar, but with half the calories. I picked up a bag at Walmart (it can be found in the baking aisle with the other sweeteners, or on Walmart.com).

 

I love the flavors of Hazelnut and Chocolate together, so I tested out a recipe for chocolate hazelnut cake with chocolate frosting this past weekend.

 

The cake uses ground hazelnut in the batter to add a nutty, buttery flavor as well as a really nice texture to the cake.

 

Ingredients:

Hazelnut Cake:

  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup ground hazelnut (hazelnut meal)
  • 1 cup SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend
  • 3/4 cups cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon hazelnut extract
  • 1 cup brewed coffee, at room temperature

Chocolate Frosting:

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon hazelnut extract
  • 5 tablespoons milk

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Whole Grain Mustard Potato Salad

I’ve never fully understood traditional potato salad. Mayo on potatoes just doesn’t appeal to me, especially on hot summer days where you always seem to find it as a side at barbecues and picnics, which is why this recipe for Whole Grain Mustard Potato Salad appeals to me!

I came across a whole grain mustard based potato salad from 1st & Fresh Catering a while back that had no mayo and was absolutely delicious. I’ve been meaning to try to make my own version ever since. So when our friends said they were having people over this weekend to barbecue, I knew exactly what I was going to make! (These poor friends of mine are always my taste testers for new recipes, from Cornbread to Brownies with Grilled Fruit. Hopefully they don’t mind!)

 

This recipe does include some Greek yogurt to keep the dish creamy but is fairly minimal. To kick the flavor up a notch, I included some of Healthy Solutions Spice Blends’ Salmon with Dill Spice Blend. The spice blend includes dill (of course), onion powder, and garlic powder along with some other spices that I thought would really complement the whole grain mustard. The result is a spicy potato salad that is sure to be a hit!

Note: Healthy Solutions Spice Blends sent me samples of some of their blends including the Salmon with Dill.

 

Ingredients:

Continue reading Whole Grain Mustard Potato Salad

Creamy Fresh Tomato Soup

Naturally, the day after I made my Grilled Tomato Orzo Salad in a Tomato Bowl pretending it was summer, the weather decided to do a 180 and veer into rainy cold sadness. Sigh. So what better way to use some of my Lipman Tomatoes than to make Creamy Tomato Soup? I found this recipe on Food Network and I had most of the ingredients already, win! I changed the recipe slightly for my tastes.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 carrot, unpeeled and chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
12 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basil leaves, for garnish
3 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
Croutons, for garnish

Heat a large pot or a Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the olive oil. Chop the onion and carrot.
Saute for 10 minutes.
While waiting for the onion and carrot to soften, mince the garlic and set it aside. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Chop the basil.
Add the garlic to the pot and cook for 1 minute.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt and pepper to the pot.
Stir well and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
If you have an immersion blender, at this stage, use to puree the soup. If you don’t, remove half the mixture and add it to a blender. Blend until smooth; be sure to keep the center of the top off of the blender and cover with a paper towel. Repeat with remaining mixture. Return to the pot over medium-low heat.
The soup is honestly good to go at this point. Feel free to just stop here.
To make a creamy soup, add the cream to the soup and mix.
Serve with basil and croutons.

Oh my goodness. Not only is this super easy, but it is absolutely delicious.

Because the soup is made with so many fresh tomatoes, it’s important to use tomatoes at their peak.

This is a wonderfully thick soup so it’s a meal in itself, but rainy, cold days always make me want a favorite childhood staple:

Note: The original recipe used a food mill but I don’t have one. And I was not willing to peel the tomatoes so I blended them, and it worked out great. The soup ended up completely creamy.

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