Love Of Oats

A blog dedicated to balancing a healthy and fun life… with oats!

Category Archives: dessert

Pumpkin Trifle

Happy Friday!  Although Thanksgiving 2011 is history now, I still wanted to take  a moment and share with you what I brought to the table since it was a big hit…

A few weeks ago I received some free Duncan Hines products as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. 

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Knowing that Thanksgiving was just right  around the corner, I set to work on making a light, yet delicious dessert… Of course, it had to incorporate Pumpkin since its basically a staple these days!

I decided to try out the spice cake and instead of using the traditional baking method, I added in some pumpkin & pumpkin pie spice.  I really loved the simplicity of baking the cake this way, plus it was super easy too! 

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Adding whipped cream, my beautiful new trifle bowl, and topping with crushed gingersnaps created a dessert that was full of texture, flavor, but yet not too heavy on the belly!

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Pumpkin Trifle

Ingredients:

  • 1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake
  • 1 C water
  • 1 C pureed pumpkin
  • 16 ounce whipped cream (fresh or storebought)
  • 1/4 C plain or vanilla Chobani greek yogurt
  • 1 T cinnamon
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 10 gingersnaps crushed

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Meanwhile, mix spice cake, water, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice, together using a whisk or a hand mixer. 
  • Pour combined mixture into a clear glass cake pan or casserole dish.  Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  • Let cake cool.  After it has cooled, crumble cake (I use a fork and knife and just go to town in a mixing bowl!). 
  • In a separate bowl, mix whipped cream, cinnamon, and Chobani greek yogurt together gently until well combined. 
  • Begin layering cake, then top with whipped cream mixture.  Keep repeating until your bowl is full and you have the layering look you desire.  I divide the cake mixture into three layers and the whipped cream into two layers.
  • On top of the final cake layer, sprinkle the crushed gingersnaps.  You could mix these throughout but I like keeping the crunch on top so it actually stays crunchy instead of getting soggy from sitting in the whipped cream.

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A few notes:  I made mine the night before and it came out perfect!  This dessert is NOT just for Thanksgiving!  This was a huge hit (I made one for my family and for hubby’s family and all enjoyed it) so I plan on making it for Christmas dinner as well!

Even scarecrows like it Open-mouthed smile

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The PERFECT Chocolate Chip Cookie

Two years ago, Bill and I went to Disneyworld to celebrate our 1 year anniversary!  I quickly discovered Minnie’s Bakeshop Chocolate Chunk cookies and have been pretty much obsessed with trying to find a way to either buy them online OR recreate them at home… my attempts have failed in creating the super high, moist, ultra chocolately, chewy cookie…

UNTIL NOW… I discovered the perfect recipe & technique inspired by Cookie Madness.  I tweaked the recipe a bit because I can never follow a recipe straight out of the book, but all the credit goes to Anna!

  • 6 ounces margarine, melted in microwave for 5 seconds
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 2 tablespoon water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 c all purpose flour
  • 1 T cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup m&ms or another chocolate candy mix-in

Beat the water, egg, vanilla.  I used a hand mixer but you could use a whisk. Add in the melted margarine using a spoon or form to combine.  Set aside the wet ingredients.  Now mix the dry using a hand mixer making sure to remove all lumps:  flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, brown sugar and powdered sugar together.  Pour the wet into the dry and combine until fully blended.  Now add in your chocolate chips & m&ms or other mix-ins.

Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.   Then, separate dough into 9 balls – I used an ice cream scooper.  I placed 4 on one greased cookie sheet and the other 5 on another cookie sheet and place in freezer for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Remove 1 cookie sheet from freezer and put right into oven to bake.  Bake for 15 minutes.  I did one cookie sheet at a time just so each one baked evenly.  After 15 minutes, take the cookie sheet out and push the cookies in to make them taller & fatter using a small spatula.  Put the cookie sheet back in the oven and bake for another 3 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack.  Repeat with the second cookie sheet.

Save some for now or freeze for later.  Anna says that freezer improves the texture of these cookies, I can’t attest to that just yet because Bill and I both enjoyed one right away and then placed the rest in the freezer for later.  I love the idea of freezing the rest of the cookies because there are days when, well let’s face it, you just want a homemade cookie :)

I know it’s Monday morning, but what better way to start your day thinking about cookies :)