Chocolate Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Adapted this recipe from Parenting Magazine.  Made it a sugar free recipe!

 

This is a nice alternative to red velvet chocolate cupcakes.  The flavor is chocolaty, the color is a deep red/brown, and the frosting a lovely deep pink color.  My kids loved these, and while I wasn't sure how well these would turn out, they were surprisingly good!  I am not a fan of beets, and while you can taste them in this recipe slightly, the cream cheese and the cocoa balance things out nicely so that the beets do not take center stage.  At all.  In fact, if I didn't still smell them in the air from baking them, I don't think I would have noticed them at all!

 

Chocolate Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Ingredients
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat, half unbleached white)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar (I omitted this and added 3/4 cup date paste* to the wet ingredients)
1/2 tsp salt (I omitted this completely)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I melted coconut oil in its place)
1 large beet, roasted and pureed** (about 3/4 cup puree)
2 tsp vanilla
NOTE:  I found this very thick as there was no milk listed originally, so I added about 1/2 cup milk to the batter.  I found out on the website that apparently they forgot to add the 1 cup milk to the recipe in the magazine.  They turned out OK though, either way.


Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. 
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the rest of the ingredients.  Slowly stir in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients mixture.  Pour into 12 paper-lined muffin cups.  Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:
Place into a mixer and beat on medium high until blended:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter (I used coconut oil)
1/4 cup powdered sugar (I used honey instead)
1/2 cup beat puree
1 tsp vanilla

* To make date paste, take as many dates as you can manage and pack them tightly into a large measuring cup.  Add water just to fill in the spaces to let them soak and soften (if they are soft enough already, I believe you can skip this step).  Soak for 1-4 hours, depending (some say 1hr, some say overnight... I just do whatever until they feel soft enough to process alright).  Drain and reserve liquid, and put the dates into the food processor.  Process until smooth.  If very thick, add some of the reserved liquid.  Put in the fridge for up to 3 months.  It probably won't last that long though, if you are like me.  :)  Use as a substitute for sugar in recipes!

**Basic roasted beets:  Preheat oven to 375F.  Wrap the beets in tinfoil and bake 45-60 minutes, until fork tender.  Remove from the foil and set aside until cool to touch.  Wear disposable plastic food gloves (or use Ziploc baggies over your hands) to avoid staining your skin, and rub the skins off the beets.  Puree in food processor until smooth.

No Sugar Cardamum-Pear Muffins

So, I've started on 'no sugar' since the beginning of the year (got on board a little late and so the 3rd was my first official day), and I found this recipe today in a magazine for muffins.  I love muffins.  I usually like to grab a bran muffin when we go out vs a doughnut because, to me, they taste better and give me more energy.  Well, muffins have sugar.  The ones from bakeries have lots of sugar.  So... no muffins for 90 days?  Really?

As I was reading the recipe (in my 'Fresh Juice' magazine), I noticed that it did have sugar, but I've modified a few of my tried tested and true recipes to remove sugar completely, and figured I wanted to give this one a shot as well.

So, I did!

I actually changed the recipe quite a bit... and I doubled it so I could use up ingredients that I had that were needing to be used up NOW.  I don't want to trash good Greek yogurt, after all!  Oh the horror!  So, this is the recipe, and the changes I made to it.

Cardamom-Pear Muffins

Ingredients
1 398mL can pear halves in juice from concentrate, drained
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp oil
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used about 1 Tbsp honey instead... yes, it is sweet enough)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup natural bran
1 cup each whole wheat flour and all purpose flour
1/3 cup ground flax seed (I don't have this, so I used some hemp seed hearts for salads)
1tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cardamom or cinnamon (mm... cinnamon)
dash salt
1/3 cup chopped pecans (optional... I actually used almonds instead)

Preheat oven to 375F.  Line 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners, grease, set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the pears, add milk, yogurt, oil, egg, molasses, sugar/honey, and vanilla.  Beat until blended.  Stir in bran and let sit 5 minutes.

In a separate large bowl, mix flours, flax seed, baking soda, cardamom/cinnamon, and salt.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients until the flours are incorporated (mixture is actually really thick!).

Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling to top.  Sprinkle with nuts.  Bake in center of 375F oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack.  Let cool.

Sweets and Snacks

Here are the sweet recipes, as well as good party snack foods.

Cookies
Carrot Coconut Cookies
Cream Cheese Cookies
Reese's Cookies
Spritz Cookies
Unbaked Cookies

Muffins and Cakes
Banana Blueberry Muffins
Banana Macadamia Nut Bread
Bran Muffins
Butter Sponge Cake
Carrot Ginger Cake
Cocoa Fudge Cake
Easy Mix Cakes
Never Fail Chocolate Cake
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Zucchini Bread/cake

Fondant/pics of cakes with fondant

Squares / Desserts
Apple Crisp
Granola Bars
Easy Chocolate Brownies (top recipe in link)

Other Snacks and appetizers
Chocolate Truffles
Deep Fried Popcorn Shrimp (plus various other appetizers)
Spinach Dip (bottom recipe in link)

Breads and Muffins

Here is a list of recipes that fall into the category of breads and muffins, and along with that, they make great breakfast foods.

Banana Blueberry Muffins
Banana Macadamia Nut Bread
Bran Muffins
Bright Beet Pancakes
Chocolate Velvet Beet Cupcakes
No Sugar Pear-Cardamom Muffins
Pancakes
Pomegranate Banana Bread
Pumpkin Waffles
Versatile Biscuit Dough
Whole Wheat Buns
Whole Wheat Waffles
Zucchini Bread

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I made this "new" recipe today because it looked good with two types of fruit in there... and I needed to use up my two overripe bananas. It turned out great! I got it from my "Favorite Brand Name Cookbook".

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
2 extra ripe bananas, peeled
2 eggs
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup melted butter
1 cup blueberries
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¼ cup flour (I did half white, half whole wheat)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon dash salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Puree bananas (I just used the electric mixer in the bowl till done). In medium bowl, combine bananas, eggs, sugar, and butter until well blended. Stir in blueberries and vanilla.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until evenly moistened.
4. Spoon into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Recipes Part XV: Bran Muffins (may5, 2008)

Today I made Bran Muffins for our trip (great on the go breakfast), and decided to post the recipe. I think I got it off of a package of bran years ago.

Bran Muffins

Ingredients
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup raisins or blueberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add molasses and eggs, beat well. Add milk and bran. Add flour mixture. Add raisins or blueberries if desired. Bake 18-20 minutes.
Makes 1 dozen large muffins.

And my fave, serve with chopped fruit and yogurt. Mmmmm.