Rosemary Focaccia Bread

I make this for my sandwiches for work every week...much more delicious than store bought stuff!:)

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast (.25 ounce)
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 1 & 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 whole wheat flour
• olive oil

Instructions:

1. In small bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in the warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes
2. In a large bowl combine yeast mixture with flour. Stir until well combined. Stir in additional water if needed until all flour is absorbed.
3. Knead dough in a ball for 1 minute 
4. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and cover in oil
5. Cover bowl with damp cloth and let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, roughly 30 minutes (depends on the humidity of the place you live)
6. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F
7. Deflate the dough and place on floured surface
8. Knead dough briefly
9. Roll the dough into a sheet to fill a lightly greased baking sheet
10. Brush dough with olive oil 
11. Place in oven and bake for ten to twenty minutes, depending on desired crispness
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Checker Board Cake

This is more of a fun how to than a recipe...

Instructions:

1. Make the batter for a cake (I used a box mix)
2. Separate into two bowls, dye one a different color (so you can see the checkers!)
3. Cook in 2 circular pans
4. Cut 3 circles in each cooked cake (easiest to understand if you look at the pictures)
5. Stack the cakes and frost!

Red Velvet Pancakes

Need I say more? Fell in love with them at Cinnamon's Restaurant on Oahu and had to try making some for myself!

Prep Time: 10 minutes


Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (I used whole wheat!)
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups milk (I used almond milk!)
• 1 + 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• red food coloring (your preference on how red you want it!)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• powder sugar

Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Measure the milk in a liquid measuring cup and whisk in vinegar, allow mixture to rest for 2 minutes.
3. Pour milk mixture into a separate mixing bowl and add sugar, eggs, red food coloring, vanilla, and butter.
4. Whisk mixture until well combined
5. Slowly whisk in dry ingredients and mix until well combined
6. Preheat skillet pan before beginning, and then pour about 1/3 cup of batter in
7. Flip pancake once you start seeing bubbles, sooner than regular pancakes, in order to preserve the red color
8. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cookies

For those of you who like peanut butter cookies, but not the overwhelmingly present peanut butter taste...these are for you.

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 11-12 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 + 1/3 cup white flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Using mixer, blend sugars, peanut butter, and butter together until light and fluffy
3. Mix in the eggs
4. Add the honey, milk and vanilla. Mix until light and fluffy
5. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix until well combined
6. Place ping-pong ball sized balls of cookie dough on baking sheet and bake for about 11 minutes

Granola Bars

Sorry it's been a while! Finals + driving across the country for an internship = not a lot of time to bake, cook, or update blogs!


I eat a lot of these, and didn't want to keep buying the kind with all those weird ingredients in them, so now I just make a batch every week!

Prep Time: ~15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (I noticed crunchy gives the best texture)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 cups Quick Oats**
• 2 cups crispy rice cereal
• 3 tsp vanilla

** I generally substitute 1 cup with multigrain oats :)

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, stir crispy rice cereal and quick oats together, set aside
2. Prep a baking pan (I use a 8x13) with either butter or parchment paper, set aside
3. In a medium saucepan, combine honey, butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar 
4. Bring to a boil, while stirring, and keep at a boil for roughly 50 seconds, then take off of heat
5. Pour in vanilla and stir
6. Pour hot mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until all ingredients are moistened
7. Press into the pan and place in refrigerator to let harden 
8. Slice into whatever size you want and eat them as you please! **

** I noticed leaving them in the pan until right before you need to take it to work makes them crunchier :)