Baking | Favorite Foods of a "Hummingbird"

Loft House Cookies

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Miky Jo

Hello everyone! I am back with another delicious recipe. Today we’re making loft house cookies. These delicious cookies are fluffy and sweet but not sickeningly sweet. As you might know I’ve been starting to experiment with different recipes making them gluten free. This recipe turned out to taste good but because they are gluten free they turned out a bit crumbly, which then turned into a real problem when frosting them. Frankly they didn’t turn out as pretty as I had hoped, but that doesn’t take away from them being delicious! So pull your hair back, grab you mixer and get ready to bake!

INGREDIENTS for cookies

3/4 cup (soft) butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 tsp of vanilla extract
2 cups AP flour (I used an all purpose gluten free blend)
1/4 cup of corn starch
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

INGREDIENTS for frosting

1/2 cup (soft) butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
food coloring

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 340
In a large bowl, mix butter and powdered sugar until creamy using a hand mixer.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg, canola oil & vanilla.
Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture.
In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients.
Fold your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Prepare your cookie sheet with parchment paper and cooking spray.
Roll the cookie dough into balls and set on the cookie sheet.
Put in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes
Make your frosting by beating together all ingredients
Let the cookies cool and then frost them.

And their you have it! Delicious homemade loft house cookies. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Bakery Style M&M Cookies

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Miky Jo

Hello everyone, what’s up? Today I am making the fluffiest M&M cookies. These cookies are the richest fluffiest giant cookies ever! They are amazing!! With my mom being gluten free I’ve really started to experiment with more sweets to make them GF, so I will be using gluten free flour. So if your ready, let’s bake!

INGREDIENTS

2 1/3 cups AP flour (Im using gluten free)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 stick + 2 TBS butter ( your going to want this soft so its easier to mix)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of M&M’s

INSTRUCTIONS

Start by whisking together the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt & baking soda.
Now cream together the butter and sugars together.
Once the butter sugar mixture has a light color & fluffy texture, add the vanilla and eggs until fully combined.
Now add your flour mixture until it turns into a dough.
Using your hands create 12-14 even balls of dough.
Put them on a greased cookie sheet and cover with Saran Wrap and chill for two hours.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and bake for about 16-17 minutes or until golden brown.

And there you go, you have some delicious M&M cookies. I hope you enjoy them!

Streusel Banana Bread Marbled With Nutella

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Miky Jo

Hello everyone. Today I’m making banana bread, but not just any banana bread, this has 2 special twists. First, it is kinda like a coffee cake because it has a coffee cake streusel topping. Second, it has Nutella inside! We had some very ripe bananas so my mom suggested that I make a banana bread. I wanted to do something a little more exciting so we decided to try something new. We found a recipe for the banana bread with streusel topping and thought that would be perfect because my dad loves anything with streusel! Then I thought, what could make this even better? NUTELLA!! It was definitely an experiment but it turned out so good! I’m super excited so lets start making this delicious treat!

Ingredients

3-4 ripe bananas
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
2 TBS sour cream
1 cup white sugar
2 TBS. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
Nutella

Ingredients For Streusel Topping

1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
6 TBS butter

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 or 176 Celsius. Grease 2 loaf pans. (8×4)
In a small bowl, mash bananas, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream your butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs and beat until completely mixed.
Then sift in flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir until just combined, and add in your sour cream and stir.
Pour in mashed bananas mixture and stir until combined.
Pour half of batter into greased pan.
Now this part is where it gets exciting! Take small spoonfuls of Nutella and dollop them on the batter. You can use a toothpick or knife to marble it thru the batter. Then pour remaining batter on top.
Make crumb topping by combining cinnamon, flour, sugar and butter with a pastry cutter or food processor and mix until it looks like course crumbs. Sprinkle over batter evenly between both pans.
Now bake for 35-40 minutes or until done. (It may take a little longer with the Nutella in the center.)
When you take it out you will want to let it cool completely. The wait will be worth it!

I absolutely loved this recipe! Some times in baking you need to branch out and take a risk. In this case, it was a delicious risk! Thank you for reading my blog, if you want to see what I make next time, please follow me and check in regularly. Stay sweet!

Coconut Macaroons

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Miky Jo

Today we are going to make the best Coconut Macaroons and we have a very special guest, my Nana Lisa! I’m so excited because she loves these! I was trying to decide what to make and then I found out she was coming to visit for the week, so my choice was clear. I had to make one of her favorites. They are super easy and gluten free! So let’s get baking!

Ingredients

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 extra large egg whites (room temperature)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (iodized salt will work as well)

Don’t forget to use cute and fashionable measuring tools! #PioneerWoman

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Add egg whites and salt to a medium bowl and beat on high until you have stiff peaks.

Add coconut, condensed milk and vanilla to a large bowl and stir until completely mixed.

Add egg mixture and fold (be very careful and fold in gently, if you don’t or if you over fold it will take the air out of the egg whites you just whipped)

Use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop coconut batter on the baking sheet.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more until cookies are fairly solid.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes , until golden brown.

Make sure you refrigerate them long enough before you bake them or they will spread out like this. You could even put them in the freezer for a bit if you’re short on time. They still taste great but aren’t as pretty when they do that. If it happens you could always use a biscuit cutter or knife and cut away the ugly parts (and then smother it in chocolate!!) There’s no better way to hide imperfections than smothering something in chocolate!

Let cool before serving.

Just when you think they couldn’t be any more delicious you can dip them in chocolate! To do that, melt semi sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler. You can also use a microwave, but my mom taught me this way because it can burn easily in the microwave. I just used a stainless steel bowl over boiling water in our Pioneer Woman pan. Make sure you use a hot pad to hold the bowl because it will get hot and sometimes steam escapes and could burn you.

When the chocolate is melted and shiny, turn the heat off and dip the macaroons in it. You can dip as much or as little as you want. I decided to just dip the bottoms.

After you dip them, lay them on parchment paper and put them back in the fridge for about 15 minutes until the chocolate hardens. And just like that you have Chocolate Dipped Macaroons! YUM!

Now serve them up on a pretty plate. #PioneerWoman

Shout out and thanks to my Nana for helping me with this yummy dessert. I hope you love these and can’t wait to read your comment’s and see what you think about them. Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to follow me to get post updates.

See you next week with a new delicious favorite food of a “Hummingbird”.

Delicious Black Bean Brownies

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Miky Jo

You are probably thinking “Black beans in brownies? That does not sound good! Why don’t you just get a delicious fudge brownie? But prepare to have your mind blown! These brownies are fudgy and rich and not too sweet or too bitter. They are perfect! Plus, they are healthier than normal brownies and naturally gluten free. If you use a dairy free chocolate chip they would also be vegan. So let’s start baking and change your mind about black beans forever!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup black beans (1 15 oz can drained and rinsed very well) (250g after draining)
2 TBS cocoa powder (10g)
1/2 cup quick oats (40g)
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup pure maple syrup, honey or agave (75g) (I used maple syrup)
pinch of uncut. stevia OR 2 TBS sugar (or omit and increase maple syrup to 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil (40g)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup chocolate chips
optional more chocolate chips for decor on top of brownies

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor and blend until completely smooth. Really blend well. (A blender will work if you absolutely have to but the texture and even the taste will be different so I highly recommend a food processor.)
Stir in chocolate chips and pour in a greased 8×8 pan. Mixture will be almost like a cookie dough and won’t ribbon in to the pan like regular brownie mix, so don’t think you did something wrong because you didn’t. Spread out the batter evenly in the bottom of the pan so it cooks evenly. If you have a serious chocolate addiction you can now sprinkle more chocolate chips on top. Don’t worry, I won’t judge you if you do. LOL

Cook the black bean brownies 15 to 18 minutes then wait 10 minutes before cutting.

Now all you have to do is enjoy. I hope you love these delicious black bean brownies!! Try serving one to a friend or family member without telling them what is in them and see their reaction after they’ve eaten them. They won’t believe you, but they will definitely want another brownie! Try these out and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading my blog and make sure to check back next week for another recipe of a favorite food of a “Hummingbird.” Don’t forget to follow me so that you get notifications when I post a new recipe.

Oatmeal Cookies With A Twist

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Miky Jo

This is my first blog, I’m super exited! Today I’m going to show you how to make new recipe I’ve never made before, “NESTLE Buncha Crunch Oatmeal Cookies.” Big shout out to my Nana for giving me the buncha crunch baking bits! My Nana is the Queen of deals! She found these baking bits on markdown for only $ .29! What a deal!

Cookies are one of my favorite things to make and one of the first things my parents taught me to cook. My favorite part of making cookies is enjoying a little bit of cookie dough (or a lot, depending on the day haha). I can’t wait to taste these cookies, so let’s start baking!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
4 1/2 cups quick or old fashioned oats
1 3/4 cups (8 oz pkg.) NESTLE BUNCHA CRUNCH Baking Bits

Directions:

To start, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Next you need to measure out and combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Aren’t my Mom’s measuring cups cute?! They are part of her Pioneer Woman set (my Mom loves Pioneer Woman stuff, so you’ll probably see a lot of it throughout my posts), my Auntie and Uncle bought them for an anniversary present. I also used the matching measuring spoons but forgot to take a picture with them. Even when you’re cooking you should always have at least something fashionable & cute, right?!

Next, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl of a standing mixer until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Notice the knives in the background? LOL Another anniversary gift. #PioneerWoman

Next you need to gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and BUNCHA CRUNCH baking bits.

My favorite part has arrived!! Time to taste the cookie dough… YUM! It’s rich, creamy and delicious! Now, RESIST THE URGE TO EAT ALL THE DOUGH! Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Please excuse my ugly cookie sheet. Its been used A LOT!

Bake

Bake at 375 degrees F for 9 to 11 minutes or until very lightly browned. Don’t over bake them, if you do, they will lose their soft chewy texture. After baking, cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely. Depending on how much cookie dough you ate, this recipe should make about 5 1/2 dozen small cookies. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and can’t wait to hear what you think about it. I had so much fun making it. Stay tuned to my blog for more delicious recipes and favorite foods of a “Hummingbird”.