Peanut Butter Granola Apples

I have a new addiction, and it is called Peanut Butter Granola Apples.  

I found the recipe from a wonderful blog called Eat Yourself Skinny which you should all check out for nommy healthy recipes of all shapes and flavors.  Of course I had to play with the recipe just a bit, but mostly it's the same.  I lowered the calorie count on it by using the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend instead of plain brown sugar, added a bit of vanilla by using Nielsen-Massey's Vanilla Bean Paste, and after tasting, discovered I MUST use a Fuji apple instead of her suggested Granny Smith apple.  It's got to be my perpetual sweet tooth causing me to crave more sugar.  I also decided it's much easier to cut 8 apple wedges using my apple slicer instead of rings which would leave me with bloody stumps for fingers.

Peanut Butter Granola Apples

Ingredients

1 Fuji apple (for sweetness)

1/4 cup Pecan Vanilla Granola (recipe below)

1 Tbsp. natural peanut butter

1/2 Tbsp. Clover Honey

Directions

1. Slice the apple into 8 wedges.
2. Mix the peanut butter and honey until well combined.
3. Spread peanut butter honey blend on both sides of each apple wedge.
4. Dip both sides in the granola mix.

Pecan Vanilla Granola

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. Splenda brown sugar blend

1 Tbsp. water

2 tsp. canola oil

1/2 heaping tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup uncooked rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/8 tsp. vanilla bean paste

Cooking spray 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  
2. Combine Spenda and 1 Tbsp of water in a medium microwave-safe bowl.  
3. Microwave on high for 30 seconds or until Splenda is dissolved.  
4. Stir in oil, cinnamon and vanilla paste.  
5. Add oats and pecans, stirring until coated and you see little bunches of granola sticking together.
6. Spread oat mixture on a rimmed baking tray coated with cooking spray. 
7. Bake at 300 degrees F for 30 minutes or until browned, stirring twice.  
8. Spread mixture in a single layer on wax paper to cool completely.  
9. Store in an airtight container. 

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My Favorite Holiday Cookie Recipes of 2011

It's that time of the year again, holiday cookie baking time!  It seems so time-consuming to surf through food blogs and cook books looking for new and inventive cookie recipes each year, so I thought I'd do some of the hard work for y'all.  

Presenting my Favorite Holiday Cookie Recipes of 2011!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies 

recipe by The Country Cook

These cookies were the talk of the office when I brought them in one Friday.  I actually think I offended some of the people who were too late to the cookie plate.  The recipe is SUPER easy and the results will leave you wanting more.  Definitely a favorite of 2011!  Thank you The Country Cook for sharing such a fun and amazing recipe!

Chocolate Crinkles 

recipe by SP Cookie Queen

Chocolate crinkles are like brownie bites from Cloud 9.  They are light and fluffy, yet full of fudgey goodness, with a festive snowy powdered sugar coating.  The recipe called for 4 eggs and I only had 2 in the house, so I cut the recipe in half and as you can see in the picture above, they came out just perfect. Half a recipe gave me 34 cookies.  Thanks SP Cookie Queen for sharing this awesome recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies 

recipe from the cookbook "Cookiepedia" by Stacy Adimando

Why another chocolate chip cookie recipe, you ask?  Because these have the perfect amount of crispness on the outside and chewiness in the middle, with a touch of saltiness to make the sweetness sing.  I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips in the picture above.   I only had dark brown sugar in the pantry so I used that instead of the light brown sugar she lists in her recipe.  I also used vanilla infused sugar that I had made some time ago in place of the granulated sugar.  Here is the recipe for the vanilla sugar if you are interested:

JAMIE OLIVER'S VANILLA SUGAR

Don't buy vanilla pods that are dry and hard -- buy them fat, sticky and squashy. What we want to do is infuse the natural vanilla flavor of the vanilla pods into the sugar. It is perfectly fine, and obviously quicker, just to pop the pods in an airtight container with the sugar; you will achieve a more subtle flavor. I really like this recipe, though, because you get the maximum flavor from the pods. 

2 pound superfine sugar
4 vanilla beans 

You need a food processor for this one. Put your vanilla pods in the mixer, blitz, scrape the sides and blitz again. Add all the sugar and blitz for about 2 minutes. Sieve the mixture into a bowl, return any lumps to the food processor and blitz again. (You may want to repeat this process if you want it really fine). The result will be a slightly ashy-colored mixture -- now that's real vanilla sugar! 

Store it in an airtight container. It should last you for ages.

Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints 

recipe by That Skinny Chick Can Bake


Now these cookies look amazing, but I have not yet had the time to make my very own batch.  However, they look so amazing that I didn't want to leave them off my favorites list this year.   As That Skinny Chick Can Bake said, "Chocolate, caramel and pecans...who can resist that combo?"  Make your own batch and comment below on how they turned out!  I bet they will be the talk of your office too. :)

Happy Holidays to all of you!

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