beet cookies

beets actually make me want to vom,

but i don't want to die young from eating 

too much red food coloring... 

so i used a bit of puréed beets to make

pink heart-shaped cookies for valentine's day!

the flavor is slightly present, and as someone who hates beets,

i found these cookies really quite enjoyable.

so go ahead and say

i love you

and not

i love you and i wanna kill you with red 40.

ingredients
for the cookies:

1 stick of butter, softened 

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup puréed steamed beets*

1 1/4 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
powdered sugar for dusting
for the icing:
1 stick of butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons puréed steamed beets*
*i used the pre-steamed beets from trader joe's 

clues

combine butter + sugar, beat until fluffy

beat in egg + vanilla + beets

in a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients

combine dry ingredients + wet ingredients

refrigerate for an hour

preheat oven to 350
make the frosting by beating all of the ingredients together

roll out dough on surface dusted with powdered sugar
cut into shapes

bake for 10-15 minutes on baking sheet lined with parchment
cool and then frost
-yeh!

speculoos popsicles

continuing on with my variations on the theme of speculoos,

i give you: speculoosicles!

they're like fudgesicles but way tastier and better for you.

here's out to make them:

you'll need

1/4 cup of speculoos spread

1 cup of unflavored greek yogurt {fat-free for xtra points}

6 speculoos cookies {or these from trader joe's}

clues

in a small bowl, combine speculoos and yogurt.

spoon into popsicle molds and stick in popsicle sticks.

freeze for two hours.

obliterate cookies in a blender or food processor until you have crumbs.

remove popsicle molds from the freezer and soak them in warm water for a few seconds {it'll help the popsicles come out and the cookie crumbs stick}.

dip the popsicles in the cookie crumbs and wrap in plastic wrap.

freeze until you want to eat them.

-yeh!

the chicken egg.

 for weeks i lived off eggs prepared in various ways.

it was the most energetic few weeks of my life,

signaled in part by how great my long runs were. yeah!

would you vote that it is possible to eat a different egg dish

 every day of the year?

i would. maybe even for two years.

anywho, i narrowed the possibilities down to four and wrote recipes for them, 

as well as a narrative on my relationship 

with the egg, and they are now published in the wildly beautiful

winter issue of

the violet 

so go get your protein on!

-yeh!

homemade sno-balls

my favorite thing to do when i'm at a bodega waiting for my friends to make a beer selection is waddle on over to the hostess/tastykake shelf and give a little squeeze to the sno-balls. a little pillsbury-esque giggle is usually the sound effect i make for this action. as a texture obsessor, the hostess sno-ball has got to be the most texturally pleasing object i've ever met. maybe this lends insight as to why boys like boobies so much? idk.

when sno-balls appeared on my chrismukkuh list mum was kind enough to buy me some, which is when i realized how terrible they actually taste. the cake is dry like sand and there is only a pea-sized amount of frosting on the inside. no wonder hostess is bankrupt. but the idea is spot on: sugar inside of sugar inside of sugar coated in sugar? HELL YEAH. so i made my own and they were outstandingly messy but delicious and just as fun to smash as the store-bought kind. so if you're feeling nostalgic and also gastronomic {and if you have butt loads of time and your cleaning service is coming tomorrow} make these! 

step one: the cake

make a batch of chocolate cupcakes using magnolia's recipe.

let them cool,

and then trim around each cupcake, removing about a quarter inch from the circumference.

set aside.

step two: the marshmallow

make a batch of marshmallows using alton brown's recipe,

but instead of greasing and dusting a rectangular pan,

grease and dust a cupcake pan, and add a cup of shredded coconut to the dusting mixture {powdered sugar + cornstarch}.

once you're done whipping the marshmallow, work quickly and fill the cupcake pan half way, and then press a cake into each cup so that the marshmallow rises around the cake {do this one at a time so the marshmallow doesn't set before you get the cake in}.

step three: the frosting

make half a batch of vanilla butter cream frosting using magnolia's recipe,

put it in a piping bag,

and then fill those puppies up while they're still in the cupcake pan.

step four: flip over the pan and enjoy!!!

-yeh!!!!