I figured it out!

I finally figured out the answer to all of those desert island questions!  You know… if you were stranded on a desert island blah blah blah…  It turns out the answer is always always always hot fudge.  

Watch.  I’m sure you’ll agree. 

Q:  If you were trapped on a desert island, what one food would you want with you?

A:  Hot fudge (and vanilla ice cream) for eternity. 

Q:  If you were trapped on a desert island and had one book with you, what would it be?

A:   Gone with the Wind… covered in hot fudge.  

Q:  If you were trapped on a dessert island would you prefer waterproof matches or a broken down sail boat?

A:  Um… hot fudge? 

Q:  Desert island roommate:  George Clooney or Gerard Butler?

A:  This is a trick question… obviously.  Gerard Butler with a side of hot fudge.

See?  Hot fudge.  Always the right answer.  Amazing. 

I’m pretty sure that hot fudge is one of life’s little miracles.  It’s perfect.  I happen to love chocolate paired with coffee.  The coffee flavor deepens the chocolate flavor.  The two are best friends in my book.  Hot fudge over vanilla ice cream?  Few things in this life are better.  

Mocha Hot Fudge Sauce

     makes about 2 cups

     adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

     Print this Recipe!

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 ounces good bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped

2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cup into 1/2 Tablespoons

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1 1/2 teaspoons hot water

Stir together cocoa powder, brown sugar, corn syrup, cream, salt and half of the chopped chocolate in a 2-quart heavy saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until chocolate is melted.  Cook mixture at a low boil, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, dissolve the espresso powder into 1 1/2 teaspoons hot water.

Remove the sauce from heat, add remaining chocolate, butter, espresso mixture and vanilla.  Stir until smooth.  Cool slightly before serving.

Cooled sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.  Reheat over low heat, stirring to serve after it’s been chilled. 

Not every morning in my life is filled with Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes and Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread… not when things like my ten year class reunion and bathing suit season loom just around the corner.  For real friends, those are two scary things.  At least I don’t have to go to my ten year reunion in my bathing suit.  Can you imagine the horror!?   Yea… so there’s always a silver lining.

I’d like to introduce you to Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread.  If this bread were one of your dear friends from high school, it would be that friend who wore old lady shoes because they were the most practical, and played the trombone, and was the super smart editor of the school newspaper.  This bread would be the friend that was super sensible, and sweet and just downright made you feel good about your day.

Go ahead, think of this Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread as your friend… and then it eat.  No, there’s nothing weird about that.

This bread is packed full of happy, heart-healthy oats, cinnamon spice and crazy ripe bananas.  It’s just the thing to throw together over the weekend, slice up, wrap individually, and freeze for breakfast for the entire week.  I just grab a slice from the freezer as I’m running out the door, and by the time I have a chance to eat it, it’s perfectly defrosted.  Of course the microwave and toaster oven work wonders too.

Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread

adapted from the Weight Watchers site

Print this recipe!

makes 1 loaf  of  10 slices, 4 points per slice

- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp  salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tsp canola or walnut  oil
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 medium egg whites, beaten
- 3 large bananas, ripe
- 1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.  Batter will be fairly thick.

In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions.

Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. Slice loaf into 10 equally sized slices.

Did you know that they sell quick bread box mixes in grocery stores!?  I think that’s so strange.  Fake flour, loads of sugar, and ultra dehydrated blueberries in a box to be mixed with water and eggs.  This concerns me… deeply.  Exactly how quick does a quick bread have to be to make it in this world?

I think homemade quick breads are dreamy.  With enough creativity and guts, you can throw just about anything into a quick bread and call it delicious.  This go around I tried zucchini and sweet potato.  The combination produced a full and unique flavor:  not too heavy on the zucchini or sweet potato flavors.  And of course, because I’m me, I also loaded the bread with spices, nuts and cranberries.  You can modify if to your taste, I make room for that in the recipe.  Because, yes, I care.

What’s your favorite kind of quick bread?  If you say the boxed kind, I swear, I’ll scream.

Zucchini Sweet Potato Bread

adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine,  November 1992

Print this recipe!

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup whole wheat flour)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves (the nutmeg and the cloves are optional, you’ll just have a less spicy bread)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup brown sugar)

3/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup apple sauce.  Less fat.)

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup grated zucchini

1 1/2 cup peeled and grated sweet potato

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour a 9×5x3- inch loaf pan and set aside.  Sift the first 7 ingredients into a medium sized bowl.  In a seperate, large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract.  Mix in the zucchini and sweet potato.  Add the dry ingredients and stir just to combine.  Fold in the nuts and cranberries and stir well.

Transfer batter to prepared pan.  Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Cool bread in pan on a rack for 15 minutes.  Loosen the edges of the bread with a butter knife and turn out on a rack to cool completely.  Can be prepared 1 day in advance.  Wrap in foil and keep at room temperature.

Remember those Low Fat Chocolate Muffins I was working on last week?  Well I’ve found a winner!  These Two Bite Chocolate Chunk Muffins are sure to satisfy that nagging chocolate craving.  Now, if you have a craving for something like… I dunno… dark chocolate cheesecake with extra thick hot fudge, then I suggest you kindly decline one of these muffins and go find that cheesecake.  That sounds like a no nonsense craving.  But if a light, chocolatey bite is just what you need, then these will certainly do the trick.

I hesitate to call these low fat.  I’m not a low fat kind of girl.  I go through about 50 pounds of butter a week.  There’s nothing low fat about that!  I did make some adjustments to the recipe to take these muffins into the realm of reasonable eating.  Not one ounce of those 50 pounds of butter went into these muffins.  That’s a start, right?

Two of these mini muffins have 114 calories.  Yes, I counted.  Because I care!  These are for you Drea!

Two Bite Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Print this recipe!

adapted from somewhere in internet land.

makes 18 mini muffins (about 1 Tablespoon of batter each)

1 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar or 1/2 cup sugar if you like your muffins sweeter

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup light sour cream

scant 1/2 cup 2% milk (if you use skim, your muffins will be even lower in calories!)

1 Tablespoon canola oil

1 egg white

3.5 ounces chopped dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the center of the oven.    Measure all of the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl, and whisk together.  In a separate bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients and whisk to combine, trying to get as many lumps as possible out of the sour cream.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients all at once and stir to incorporate.  Once mixture in combined, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Grease a mini muffin pan.  Scoop the muffin batter into a tin with a tablespoon measuring spoon, using one tablespoon of batter per muffin cup.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in the muffin tins for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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