Butterfinger Cupcakes and...Lets Be Honest That's All That Matters

Let me start by saying that although I haven’t had a good week as far as feelings about my weight, I’ve had a great running and food week.

After making a chai spiced almond butter that turned bad on me in just 4 days, I made a new version.

And I am never going back. 

best of friends

So Freakin’ Good Half-the-Calories Almond Butter

Makes about 1 ¾ cups

• ¾ cup of MaraNatha’s Almond Butter (it already has organic cane sugar and salt in it, but that’s why it tastes so good)
• ¾ cup of Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla milk 

1. Blend everything
2. Enjoy

I’m going to save the really good stuff for last. General update, I’ve been running a pretty good amount, 5.3 miles today. My goal is to do at least one 5 mile run a week, and two 4 mile runs. The rest I’m just allowing to fall into place.

In other news, three of my closest friends come home next weekend, and another a few days later. So don’t expect much posting next week, but hopefully a few recipes later :)

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hahah that uhh...just happened. for whatever reason my computer keys got taken over by epic symbols that change when you capitalize the letters. so. freaking. cool.

anyway....

In addition to the almond butter I also made my own version of this, but I skipped the vinegar step. I was always a plain chips kinda girl. But these are awesomely addictive.

And now, as promised, here is the vegan, gluten-free adaption of these doughnuts. Inspired by them, but only the wet ingredients are the same. This doughnut recipe is mine.  

Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts with Maple Frosting

makes about 9 full-sized doughnuts, or 6 full and 6 mini

wet ingredients

• 1/4 cup of Almond Milk (i'm sure any other kind would work)
• Egg Replacer for one egg
• 2 T of Earth Balance
• 1/4 cup of Applesauce
• 1/4 t Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/4 t Vanilla Extract

dry ingredients

• 3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour
• 3/4 cup of diced Apple
• 1/4 cup Raw Cane Sugar
• 1 1/2 t Baking Powder
• 1/4 t xanthan gum*
• 1 1/2 t cinnamon 

maple frosting

• 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 T Earth Balance
• 1 T + 1 t Maple Syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350degrees F and grease the doughnut molds (if you don't have doughnut pans, you can shape out the doughnuts by hand to the size you want)
2. Take all the wet ingredients and put them in a small pot over low heat
3. Whisk together the ingredients until the Earth Balance melts
4. Mix the dry ingredients together, including apple
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry until just incorporated - do not over mix
6. Put the doughnut mix into the pans and do not fill too far over the top of the pan
7. Bake for about 13-16 minutes for regular ones, and for a mini doughnut pan do around 10-12 minutes; a toothpick inserted should come out clean
8. Allow then to stay in the pan about 5 minutes, then take out to cool on a wire rack
9. To make (a reasonable amount of) frosting: using a hand mixer beat together Earth Balance and maple syrup, then gradually add the powdered sugar and a teeny pinch of salt. 
10. Spread or pipe the frosting onto the doughnuts, and suggested you then sprinkle maple sugar over the top :)

*guar gum works the same as xanthan gum. difference? guar gum is about $5.50 while the same amount of xanthan gum is $13.79. I've been using both interchangeably for two years and never noticed a difference

Before I get to the REALLY good stuff, I must say I woke up the other day just craving Cookie Crisp Cereal. For those of you who don’t know, it was discontinued years ago.   

I googled and goolged “make your own Cookie Crisp Cereal recipe,” and only came up with two healthy food bloggers who had their own adaptions of cookies for breakfast. So this is my combination. I made two versions, the “healthy” and “unhealthy” kind. Neither tastes like Cookie Crisp. Both taste like cookies. Both tasted great in almond milk. If I were you I’d make the unhealthy version. But that’s just me :)

"healthy"

"unhealthy" version, just cooked at a higher temperature for a more crisp cookie

Coooooooookie Crisp Cereal Kinda (healthy)

makes about 65-75 mini cookies

• 1/2 cup Chickpeas
• 1/4 cup Almond Milk
• 1/4 cup Applesauce
• 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
• 3 T Peanut Butter
• 1 1/2 t Vanilla
• 1 t Stevia
• 1/4 t Salt
• 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1/4 cup Potatoe Flour
• 1/4 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
• 1/4 cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/4 c mini Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (I chopped mine up further, but that is not needed)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Add Chickpeas through Stevia in a food processor and process until pretty smooth
3. Mix Salt through Buckwheat in a large mixing bowl with a paddle attachment
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix, gradually adding in water
5. Once batter ingredients are mixed add the chocolate chips
6. Drop small teaspoons of batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper; flatten down dough balls
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or so, because you want the cookies to be very crisp and dry
8. Allow the cereal to cool before transferring to an airtight container
9. You may break up the cookies further if you wish

Coooooooookie Crisp Cereal Kinda (UNhealthy)

makes about 65-75 mini cookies

• 1/2 cup Chickpeas
• 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
• 1/4 cup + 1 1/2 T Maple Syrup
• 1/4 cup Almond Milk
• 2 T of Applesauce
• 1 1/2 t Vanilla
• 1 t Stevia
• 1/4 t Salt
• 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1/4 cup Potatoe Flour
• 1/4 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
• 1/4 cup Buckwheat Flour*
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/4 c mini Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (I chopped mine up further, but that is not needed)

*if you want these REALLY unhealthy, use white flour. If you want them just relatively less healthy, use whole-wheat flour to replace the 1 1/4 cups of flour

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Add Chickpeas through Stevia in a food processor and process until pretty smooth
3. Mix Salt through Buckwheat (or other flour) in a large mixing bowl with a paddle attachment
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix, gradually adding in water
5. Once batter ingredients are mixed add the chocolate chips
6. Drop small teaspoons of batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper; flatten down dough balls
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or so, because you want the cookies to be very crisp and dry
8. Allow the cereal to cool before transferring to an airtight container
9. You may break up the cookies further if you wish

broken up further, and pretty good!

my post-running snack

Now what you all have been waiting for: Butterfinger Cupcakes: Vegan and Gluten-free.

I found this recipe a while ago from here, and it has been taunting me ever since. So this week I decided to make them as a “feel better” for one of my friends.

I had to change up some of the ingredients, but not enough to mention. The making of the butterfinger, now that is a tale.

So all I had to do was follow the directions right? Boil the corn syrup, sugar, and water until it reaches 290 degrees F…

Well I didn’t think we had a thermometer in our house during my first attempt, so just boiled it for a while, then finished the steps.

And it turned out like this:

with the chocolate on the other side (ignore the ancient and gross cookie sheet)

so i took this peanut butter caramel mixture (which tasted pretty good), and stuck graham crackers and pretzels to the sticky side. Wasn't half bad i must say. 

then I made the cupcakes, 

straight up earth balance, sugar, and peanut butter right there

very thick batter

 then I put them in cupcake tins. I used some of the flower cupcake liners i got for Valentine's Day, beautiful :)

so pretty :)

Well while these were baking i found a thermometer and tried again. this time I had to boil this stuff for what seemed like forever.  but this time it turned out like this:

and then I covered it in chocolate...

and ya know what?

EVERYONE who tried this said it tasted EXACTLY like a butterfingers bar! I was shocked, ecstatic, and very full afterwards :)

the recipe said 15 regular cupcakes, but I got this out of it!

so that has been the past few days :) I also made a new friend who gets me...extremely well! so i'm looking forward to hanging out with him more in the next weeks :) I am also trying to make a birthday cupcake for my sister Gracie's birthday...a "Circus Cupcake" we'll see how it works :)

and my fantasy team is doing awesome. hope you enjoyed!