Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry – The Healthy Way

by 94 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Back in my former life – the one in which I innocently and cheerfully ate Chillsbury* dough from a can – I loved making a cream cheese pastry dish that always got rave reviews. It was simple. You spread a can of Whillsbury* crescent dough on the bottom of a pan, throw in some cream cheese filling, top it with another round of Gnillsbury* crescent dough, bake it, and eat. I loved that stuff, as did everyone else who ate it with me.

Gone are my days of eating biscuits or crescents from a can. Oh, and can I just pause to say this:  I do not miss that vulnerable and insecure feeling that always came from never knowing when the can would pop open and dough would ooze out. Maybe it is just me, but waiting for the biscuit can pop always put me slightly on edge. Yeah, it was probably just me. I have can-popping-biscuit-bursting-forth issues, I think.

Anyway, I had forgotten all about this delicious dish, which is crazy, because hello? It does have cream cheese in it. It occurred to me recently that the perfect replacement for Billsbury* crescent dough would surely be my go-to whole wheat yogurt dough. Why I hadn’t thought of using it to figure out a new Cream Cheese Pastry dish, I have no idea. But I finally thought of it, tried it, and here it is. My family devoured it for breakfast this morning, which means that next time, I have to double it for sure!

*name changed to protect the innocent guilty

cream_cheese_pastry

Flaky Cream Cheese PastryYum

Dough:

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Filling:

1 – 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup real maple syrup (sugar, sucanat, or honey would work too)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

Mix together all four dough ingredients and knead lightly to form a nice ball. Divide in half. Press one half of the dough into an 8×8 inch baking dish.

Whip together the cream cheese filling ingredients. Pour filling over the bottom crust.

Roll the second half of the dough into a square and place it on top of the cream cheese filling.

Bake in a 350° oven for 30-40  minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Allow pastry to cool slightly before slicing and serving.


Tell me – am I the only one here with can-popping-biscuit-bursting-forth issues? I’ll admit it right now, it makes me jumpy just thinking about it. ;)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Homemade Chocolate Caramel Creamer

by 75 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Disclaimer:  No one actually passed out while the following event took place.

Chocolate Caramel Coffee Creamer

Yum

I absolutely do not like coffee. Can’t stand the stuff. Never have liked it, no matter how I’ve tried to doctor it up. However, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always loved the way it smells, which is why, when a friend was over one morning earlier this week, I was excited to brew her some coffee. She actually likes how it tastes – and making some for her gave me an excuse to smell it. I know. I’m weird.

This is why I can hardly believe I’m about to say the following words:  I drank a cup of coffee on Tuesday. And I liked it.

Yes, my husband passed out when he heard the news. As did my children. Thankfully, they have all recovered nicely from the shock. I’m not sure I’m over it though. Seriously. I can’t believe I drank a cup of coffee and liked it.

Here’s how it all went down:  When I asked my friend what she would like for her coffee, she told me that she would usually add a shot of “Chocolate Caramel Creamer”. Since she and I are good at talking smack to each other, I said something very gentle and kind like, “Oh gag, are you serious? Do you know what’s in that stuff?”

(Partially hydrogenated oils, plus a bunch of weird stuff I can’t pronounce – in case you were wondering.)

Well, it just so happened that we had hosted a birthday party for Elias last week. And it just so happened that we had offered an ice cream sundae bar during the party. And it just so happened that I had leftover homemade hot fudge sauce, leftover homemade caramel sauce, and fresh cream in my fridge.

So I said to my friend, “You want REAL chocolate caramel creamer in your coffee? I’ll give you chocolate caramel creamer.” And so, I heated some hot fudge and hot caramel on my stove, drizzled them into her coffee, then poured in some fresh cream.

She took one drink and passed out from the deliciousness. Not really. But she loved it and said something like, “You have got to try this!” To which I reminded her, “Um no. I don’t like coffee”.

(It’s just like you’re a fly on my wall, huh? You’ve gotta love a play-by-play of my first coffee drinking experience.)

I finally gave in to the peer pressure, because shucks, it did smell really good, and I took a tiny, little sip. That was when it was my turn to pass out. Wow, it tasted good. I couldn’t believe it, so I took one more small sip just to see if I had completely lost my mind. I think the question of me losing my mind is definitely up for debate, but yeah – that stuff was good. I therefore made myself my very own cup of coffee with hot fudge, hot caramel, and cream. I sat down at the table with my friend, and together, we drank coffee.

Well now, I can’t say I’ve ever been able to write that sentence before.

The reason I share this with you is not ultimately because I have discovered a super healthy new recipe. I can’t say that this beverage is a must-have because of its stellar nutritional content. However, many of you have asked for an alternative to non-dairy creamers, which are really full of some not-so-good-for-you ingredients. If in fact you are looking for a better option for your coffee, I believe this might be just the thing you’re looking for.

Ingredients:  One cup of hot coffee that smells really good, one teaspoon hot fudge sauce, one teaspoon hot caramel sauce, and a few teaspoons of cream.

Make it. Smell it. Try it. And then, we will all pass out together.

Are you a coffee drinker? Have you found any great alternatives to purchased creamers you’d like to share?

UPDATE:  I love coffee now. Who knew?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Caramel Popcorn (no corn syrup!)

by 44 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Caramel Popcorn With No Corn Syrup!

For years and years and years (give or take a year or two), I’ve been wanting to find a good Caramel Popcorn recipe that did not contain corn syrup. The recipes I found that didn’t contain corn syrup were either complicated, or they contained other ingredients beyond corn syrup that I didn’t feel comfortable feeding my family.

But just leave it to you all to solve my Caramel Popcorn dilemma. A big thanks goes out to everyone who suggested that this new Caramel Sauce recipe might be able to be used on popcorn. Over the weekend, I decided to give it a try. I figured the outcome may not be blog-worthy, but surely my family would eat it regardless of whether it was great or not. My men are always so good to eat my experiments. Especially if it’s an experiment with Caramel Sauce on top.

This got rave reviews, which came, as you can imagine, while they were chewing. Since they were saying such nice things to me about my cooking, I lovingly allowed them to talk with their mouths full. Far be it from me to scold my popcorn munching children when they are in the middle of boosting my ego.

Caramel Popcorn

Yum

Caramel Popcorn (no corn syrup!)
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 cup unpopped popcorn
  • 1 recipe of Caramel Sauce*
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. Pop 1 cup of popcorn and put it into two 8x13 inch baking dishes.
  2. Stir together the caramel sauce ingredients, stirring in ½ teaspoon of sea salt.
  3. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the popcorn.
  4. Stir the caramel sauce all around the popcorn the best you can without making too many popcorny messes.
  5. Bake in a 250° for 10 minutes, then stir the popcorn.
  6. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.
  7. Remove Caramel Corn from oven and serve.

Find our delicious, no-corn-syrup Caramel Sauce recipe here!

If there is any left after you feed this to your family, package some up to give as gifts. Yep, people everywhere will be talking with their mouths full. It’ll be a beautiful, Christmas moment.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Homemade Caramel Sauce (no corn syrup!)

by 173 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

A few weeks ago, Busy Mom in AL left a comment stating that she’d used my Caramel Frosting recipe to make Caramel Sauce. Then, a little while later, the people at Challenge Butter sent me a package and asked me to come up with a recipe using their butter. Well, what’s a girl to do but make Homemade Caramel Sauce with one of those sticks of butter, and then blog about her experience?

I didn’t think you’d mind. Especially if you think about the possibilities this Caramel Sauce presents. Not only can you make it for your own family and serve it on ice cream or cheesecake – wouldn’t this make a perfect Gift in a Jar?

Why yes, I believe it would.

And then, what if you took it a step further and created a big Ice Cream Sundae Basket to give as a gift? In your basket you could include a jar of this Caramel Sauce, a jar of Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce, a container of nuts, an ice cream scoop, some bowls and spoons – who wouldn’t love to receive this inexpensive, yet thoughtful and fun gift?

Alright, now I’m giddy and need to figure out who I can make an Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket for.

Here is the very simple – and sort of healthy because at least it doesn’t have corn syrup in it – recipe:

Homemade Caramel SauceYum

2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream (heavy whipping cream)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the sucanat, butter, and cream into a medium sized saucepan.

Cook over medium to high heat until ingredients are melted and well mixed, stirring constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for one minute, while continuing to stir.

Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and add vanilla extract.

Serve immediately or pour into a pint sized jar for a gift. Store in refrigerator and reheat before serving if desired. (This recipe makes one pint jar or two cups of sauce.)

Beyond ice cream, cheesecake, and the Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket, don’t you think I should come up with some sort of Caramel Swirl Brownie recipe? Or maybe a Turtle Fudge Something or Other? We could even use it as an apple dip I bet!

Homemade_Caramel_Sauce

Interested in giving this as a gift? Here is a fun FREE printable gift tag you can use along with this sauce.

CaramelSauceTag-prev

caramel_dip_with_apples

What do you think? How could you use this Homemade Caramel Sauce?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Homemade Peppermint Patties

by 44 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Yum

This post is all Amy’s fault. ;)  She linked to a recipe for peppermint patties last week and made me very hungry for them. I figured you wouldn’t mind me testing and adapting the recipe, then sharing it with you. These would be perfect holiday treats to make and share with co-workers or neighbors, or to wrap up to take to a gift exchange.

This recipe actually calls for leftover mashed potatoes – how fun is that? Since I had a pound or four of mashed potatoes left over after Thanksgiving, I decided I could spare the 1/2 cup needed to make this recipe.

But before we go any further, I need to let you know that this recipe is a little different from those that I usually share. There is not much about this recipe that is healthy. These peppermint patties consist mostly of sugar. Do not make this recipe and serve it to your family for breakfast. Do not assume that since there are mashed potatoes in these, they can be considered a vegetable to be served as a side dish to your pot roast. Do not sit down and eat this whole batch by yourself. Do not make this recipe very often, for these patties are addicting. I will not be held responsible for you getting sick off of homemade peppermint patties. In fact, I hereby relinquish any responsibility for influencing you to make these. Just because a recipe is posted here does not mean you have to make it. Nobody here is forcing you to get out your mixing bowl. Actually, you really shouldn’t make these at all. No. You should just read through this post, then nod and smile. Then you should promptly move on to read about something less sugary, like this Angel Ornament post.

Yes, whatever you do, do not make these peppermint patties.

Peppermint Patties 2

Homemade Peppermint Patties (adapted from Domesticated)

1/2 cup leftover mashed potatoes
1 Tablespoon melted butter
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
5 cups powdered sugar (told you there was a lot of sugar)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon coconut oil or palm shortening

Stir together the mashed potatoes, butter, peppermint oil and powdered sugar to form a thick dough. Spoon a teaspoon at a time onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (I was able to form 38 teaspoon sized patties from this dough.)

Press down the dough and shape as small patties. Refrigerate for 3 hours, or freeze for 45 minutes.

On the stove top, melt together the chocolate chips and oil. Dip the chilled patties into the chocolate to cover them. Chill until set. Admire the peppermint patties, but do not eat them. Do not even lick your fingers.

Good luck with that. ;)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake

by 18 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

pumpkin_chocolate_chip_cake_2

Yum

It could be that I’ve been going a little overboard on the pumpkin recipes recently. I can’t help it. Between the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch this year, the awesome home grown pumpkins my friend shared with me, and my newly found easy method for cooking a whole pumpkin – I’ve had lots of pumpkin puree to play with. Yes, my house smells like the holidays. No one seems to mind.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake (adapted from Diva Entertains Blog)

2/3 cup butter or coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk or water
1 cup chocolate chips (I use either homemade chips or these these soy free chocolate chips)

Cream together butter and sucanat. Beat in eggs and pumpkin puree. Add flour, baking powder, salt, spices, vanilla and milk – beating until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into a well buttered 9×13″ baking pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Serve as it is…

Or top with whipped cream…

What’s your preference? With cream or without? I’ll take three dollops, myself.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Peanut Butter Apple Cookie Bars

by 26 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Peanut_Butter_Apple_Bars

I’ve managed to whittle my apple supply down to about only 50 pounds of apples after making two rounds of Apple Sauce, Apple Butter, Caramel Apple Dip, Apple Crisp and Mini Apple Pies. Since I’m still surrounded by apples, I knew I had to try these Peanut Butter Apple Cookie Bars when I saw them at the Diva Entertains Blog. If you are unable to eat nuts, I would imagine you could substitute Sunbutter in this recipe, but I haven’t tried it to know for sure how it would work.

Peanut Butter Apple Cookie Bars (adapted from Diva Entertains Blog)

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sucanat (or brown sugar)
1/2 cup peanut butter (homemade or natural)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
1 1/2 cups peeled and diced apples

In a large mixing bowl, stir together melted butter, peanut butter and sucanat until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stirring until well combined. Mix in flour thoroughly. Fold in diced apples.

Spread dough into a 9×13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Allow bars to cool before adding the glaze.

Peanut Butter GlazeYum

2 cups powdered sugar (I recommend making your own with sucanat or using organic, unbleached)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (homemade or natural)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth. Drizzle or spread over the cooled bars.

peanut_butter_apple_bars_5

As you can see, drizzling the glaze kinda led to spreading the glaze like a frosting in my case, so feel free to drizzle or spread or slop the glaze on there however you’d like. They’ll pretty  much taste great no matter how you do it. :)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Coconut Flour Brownies (Gluten Free!)

by 57 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I decided to follow my “What Kind of Wheat Flour is Best?” post with a gluten free recipe. Talk about swinging from one side of the pendulum to the other, huh? I’m either trying to be accommodating – or keeping you forever on your toes with what to expect when you check in here. ;)

Beth emailed this recipe to me, saying she found it on the Azukar Coconut Flour package that I’d posted a deal for recently. (The deal is still good, by the way!)  I tweaked the recipe slightly by replacing the regular sugar with sucanat. Also, you could add chocolate chips if you’re feeling the need for a major chocolate fix, or chopped nuts if you’re feeling nutty. Personally, I can always use a chocolate fix, and nutty as I am, I don’t care for chopped nuts in my brownies.

Coconut Flour BrowniesYum

1/3 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sucanat
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Stir together melted butter (or oil), cocoa and sucanat. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing well. Stir in coconut flour, stirring until all ingredients are well combined. (Coconut flour likes to clump together a little bit – I find a whisk usually helps smooth out the mixture as I stir.)  Fold in chocolate chips and/or nuts if you choose.

Pour into an 8×8 inch baking dish. Bake in a 350° oven for about 30 minutes.

Whether or not you need to eat a gluten free diet, I really recommend that you check into using coconut flour every once in a while. It’s a very healthy flour. Read more about why I love coconut flour.

What have your coconut flour experiences been like so far? Are you a nutty brownie sort of person, or simply just…nutty?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Homemade White Chocolate Chips

by 46 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

We have homemade chocolate chips, homemade butterscotch chips, and now we have homemade white chocolate chips! As with the butterscotch chips, I didn’t use sucanat on these because I felt like the flavor would be too strong. Instead, I used organic raw sugar, which isn’t much healthier than regular white sugar, but at least it hasn’t been bleached. :)  (You can read more of my thoughts on healthy sweeteners here.)

I ordered cocoa butter from Mountain Rose Herbs and was very pleased! I also found that I could get it through Amazon, but it was a little more expensive there. The little cocoa butter wafers look good enough to eat all by themselves, but beware, they are not. I may or may not have taken a little nibble just to find out for sure. But alas, chocolate is not chocolate without sugar, no matter how tasty it looks. ;)

White Chocolate ChipsYum

1 cup cocoa butter
1 cup organic raw sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine cocoa butter, sugar and coconut oil in a medium saucepan.


Stir with a whisk and heat until all the ingredients are melted and mixed thoroughly. This takes several minutes.

Remove mixture from heat and add vanilla extract. Pour it into a parchment paper lined baking dish (I used my 9×9 inch pyrex).


Refrigerate for several hours until hardened. The mixture may separate while it’s cooling, but that’s okay!

Break the hardened mixture into little chunks. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.


We stirred some homemade white chocolate chips into these fudge brownies…

See those bits of white chocolate chips in there? It was like candy in a brownie. You must try these. (After you eat a good dinner of course.)

What do you like to make with White Chocolate Chips?

P.S. These are a little bit pricey to make – but I try to avoid white chocolate chips from the store because they are full of hydrogenated oils. I’ll probably only make these every once in a while for a very special treat. :)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Peanut Butter Brownie Cups (made with whole wheat and sucanat)

by 262 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

The delightful thing about eating healthy, whole foods is that you can still have your cake and eat it too – you just need to make treats with real, wholesome ingredients. It also helps you to stay healthy if you refrain from eating the entire batch of goodies. Shucks.

Read through this post about Healthy Sweeteners, this post about Healthy Fats and this post about Whole Grain Flour to answer questions you may have about how to make treats that still have lots of great nutrients! While we still limit the sweets and treats at our house, I don’t feel guilt when feeding my family delicious desserts that are made with these whole foods and healthy fats. (You’ll see a big list of our healthier treat recipes here.)

And now, my friends, I have a very exciting new recipe to share with you that contains wholesome, funky fresh ingredients. Warning:  You may want to sit down when you take your first bite so that you don’t faint from the pure joy of it all.

A Heavenly Homemakers reader, Katie, gave me the idea for these Peanut Butter Brownie Cups. With tears in my eyes, my hand clutched to my chest and a sob in my throat, I’d just like to say from the bottom of my heart, “Katie…thank you.”

Yes, gooey chocolate and peanut butter makes me completely sappy. You can only imagine that this type of behavior is what my children and husband experience on a regular basis while living with me. If you think my reaction to this recipe is overwhelming, you should have heard me trying to get through the end of Little Britches when I was reading it out loud to the boys. Don’t even ask about Old Yeller.

Peanut Butter Brownie CupsYum

1 cup melted butter
1 1/2 – 2 cups sucanat (depending on your preference)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I use homemade peanut butter)
2 Tablespoons honey

Stir together melted butter, sucanat and cocoa. Add eggs and vanilla and stir well. Mix in flour until batter is thoroughly mixed. Scoop batter into 24 paper lined muffin tins (filling each one about 1/3 full).

Stir peanut butter and honey together. Spoon 1/2- 1 teaspoon of peanut butter mixture into the center of each brownie cup.

Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes. Makes 24 Peanut Butter Brownie Cups.

Have you tried baking treats with whole wheat flour and sucanat (or honey)? Do you use real butter (instead of margarine or crisco)? Does the thought of chocolate and peanut butter together make you swoon?

Leave a comment on this post for an additional entry for our drawing for 5 $10 Gift Certificates to the Heavenly Homemakers Shop!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!