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How to Make Greek Yogurt Cookies (Recipe)

Liz Uncategorized

Happy day-after-Christmas!  I hope you had a lovely holiday and aren’t feeling too much of a sugar hangover from the past few days… you know how holidays can be.

I don’t know about you, but post-holiday, I’m always trying to keep things a *bit* lighter.  And with New Years next week, you know you’ll be indulging again soon enough.  In times like these, I grab my trusty Greek yogurt and whip up a little somethin’ sweet but sensible, like these Greek yogurt cookies.

Let me tell you, these are some soft, fluffy, pillowy (?) sugar cookies, and that’s all thanks to the Greek yogurt in the cookie dough.  For these cookies, I strained the yogurt overnight (see recipe for instructions), which gives the yogurt a more cream cheese like consistency, perfect for making soft cookies.   I used just the tiniest amount of butter, mostly for the flavor, which keeps these cookies fairly light from a nutritional perspective.

The cookies are reminiscent of a sour cream sugar cookie, if you’ve ever had one.  If not, don’t bother… just make these!

I added extra vanilla to the cookie dough for a very flavorful cookie.  You could certainly substitute some of the vanilla for another flavoring — almond, lemon, peppermint…

If you want to keep the cookies lighter, you can bypass the frosting and enjoy them plain or with a simple dusting of powdered sugar.  For me, I had lots of leftover cookie frosting on hand, so I had no choice but to top my fluffy cookies with an equally fluffy layer of frosting.

Greek Yogurt Cookies
Soft, fluffy sugar cookies made with strained Greek yogurt for a lighter result.  You can make the cookies your own by using different flavor extracts.Makes about 2 dozen large cookies

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes per cookie sheet

  • 1 1/2 cups plain low fat Greek yogurt (I used Chobani 2% plain)
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

The night before baking the cookies, line a bowl with paper towels.  Place the Greek yogurt in the bowl and refrigerate overnight.  The paper towels will absorb excess liquid, leaving you with a thicker yogurt the next day.

The next day, measure out 1 cup of yogurt from your bowl of strained yogurt. You only need 1 cup of strained yogurt for the cookies, but the original amount will reduce after straining.  

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the yogurt, butter, and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until smooth.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until mixed.  In the same bowl, add the baking powder and salt and beat until mixed.  Add the flour, 1/2 cup at at time, and beat on medium speed until mixed well.

Drop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoon onto the prepared cookie sheets (if the dough is too soft, refrigerate it for 10 to 20 minutes). Place two inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Flatten the cookies a bit with the back of a spoon (if you don’t, you will  have a much puffier cookie).

Bake 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.  Allow to cool 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets and setting onto wire racks to cool completely.

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How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter S’mores with Homemade Graham Crackers (Recipe)

Liz Uncategorized

It seems every year, as the weather changes, my appetite does as well.  Set aside cakes and pies that take upwards of an hour to bake, and bring out no-bake desserts, ice cream, and everyone’s backyard favorite, s’mores!

I impulsively grabbed a (cheap! $2.29!) bag of Bob’s Red Mill graham flour last week and decided to try my hand at homemade graham crackers.  I doubted myself several times while making them.  Isn’t this dough too soft?  Shoot, I didn’t roll the dough thin enough.  How the heck are these going to end up crisp? 

Fortunately, the results were great – a nice, crisp cracker with a touch of flavor from the molasses.  Next time, I might use honey instead of molasses.

For a fun twist on traditional s’mores, I replaced milk chocolate with two types of peanut butter.  I spread the inside of one graham graham with regular, creamy peanut butter.  Then, I spread the other graham cracker with chocolate peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams).

Then, just toast your marshmallow, sandwich it between the two crackers, and you’ve got yourself an ooey, gooey, peanut buttery s’more!

Graham CrackersAdapted from Alton Brown’s Graham Crackers 

  • 1 cup graham flour
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp. brown sugar
  • 3/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
  • 6 tbsp. salted butter, chilled and cubed
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 2 tbsp. milk
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In bowl of food processor, combine flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; pulse several times to combine. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles cornmeal.  Add molasses, milk and vanilla extract; process until dough is combined well, approximately 1 minute.

Press dough into a 1/2-inch thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 2 hours. If dough is still too soft after 2 hours, continue to chill an additional 2-3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Unwrap chilled dough; place dough between two large sheets of parchment paper. Roll dough into rectangle, 1/8-inch thick. Slide the rolled dough and parchment paper onto a large cookie sheet. Remove top sheet of parchment paper. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut dough into 2-inch square pieces. Trim off any excess.

Use a fork to poke holes over top of dough.  Bake crackers about 25 minutes or until edges just start to darken. I took the crackers out of the oven half way through baking to re-cut the crackers, as they expand a tiny bit while baking. Remove from the oven, set pan on cooling rack; allow to cool completely. Once completely cool, break into individual crackers and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

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How to Make Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (Recipe)

Liz Uncategorized

When it comes to food in New York City, I feel like I’ve done a pretty well for myself as a tourist over the years.  I’ve eaten bagels (hold the cream cheese… yuck) at Murray’s, waited in hours-long lines for brick oven pizza at Grimaldi’s, and slurped down frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.  I’ve eaten my fair share of Magnolia Bakery banana pudding, Shake Shack frozen custard, and sidewalk pretzels (Sigmund’s are 3498x better though!).  But for whatever reason, trip after trip to New York, I had never made it to Levain Bakery, a bakery on Manhattan’s upper west side, which is known to bake some of the best (if not the best) cookies in the city.

Last weekend, while enjoying a great weekend with friends in the big apple, my friend mentioned she wanted a really good chocolate chip cookie.  While she started to Google best chocolate chip cookies in New York, I mentioned Levain Bakery, and as fate would have it her Google search led her to Levain Bakery. :)  In no time at all we found ourselves outside the teeny tiny bakery on the upper west side, eating cookies the size of a frisbee.   As soon as I took my first bite I knew I had to try to recreate the cookies at home!

 

Some quick Internet searching led me to a variety of “copy cat” recipes for Levain Bakery’s famous cookies, and after some adaptations, I had myself a chocolate chip walnut cookie that tastes very close to the real deal!

If you can’t tell, these cookies are monstrous in size.  I laughed when an entire batch of cookie dough yielded just a dozen cookies!  But it’s all worth it when you’re enjoying bite after bite of crispy edges and gooey centers.  Just make sure you sit down for a bit afterward… sugar. coma.

In comparing the cookies to Levain Bakery’s, the flavors are definitely close.  Texture wise, I think the Levain Bakery cookie is a bit more crispy than mine, but that also might have to do with the fact that the humidity in upstate New York has been about 99% for the past 72 hours.

Levain Bakery Walnut Chocolate Chip CookiesA “copy cat” version of New York City’s famous Levain Bakery chocolate chip walnut cookie, adapted from this recipe.

Makes 1 dozen very large cookies

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 3/4 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed.  Add the eggs, one at a time, until mixed well.  Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch, mixing until blended.  Gradually add the flour, mixing until just blended.  Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts, ensuring they are evenly distributed in the cookie dough.

Divide the cookie dough into 12 equal parts.  Loosely form each part into a ball (does not need to be perfectly shaped), placing 6 cookies on each cookie sheet.  Place the cookie sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown (it is okay if the cookies are still a little gooey in the middle!).  Allow the cookies to cool 5 to 7 minutes before removing from the cookie sheets.

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How to Make Vanilla Greek Yogurt Cupcakes and Frosting (Recipe)

Liz Uncategorized

Cupcakes.  With sprinkles.  And… Greek yogurt!  Would you expect much else from me?

I’m sharing these cupcakes today because it’s my mom’s birthday.  Happy birthday, mom!  🙂  I’m a thousand or so miles from my mom, so I figured we can just share a virtual cupcake today.

In fact, let’s all share a virtual cupcake, OK?

If you were wondering whether substituting Greek yogurt for part of the “normal” fat called for in cupcakes (like butter or oil) can still yield a tasty little cupcake, the answer is a big yes.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that these little cakes made with Chobani vanilla Greek yogurt are even more moist.

In addition to Greek yogurt, I used coconut oil in these cupcakes, which I personally believe is the secret to a delicious made-from-scratch vanilla cake.  Coconut oil was once pretty hard to find, but I see it popping up in stores all over the place these days.  Try it if you see it! (but if you don’t have it, just replace the coconut oil called for in this recipe with softened butter).

As for the frosting, it’s packed with Greek yogurt as well.  The trick with the frosting is to strain the yogurt overnight before making the frosting, so that you’ve got a super thick yogurt to work with.  Otherwise you’ll end up with a really runny frosting that falls right off the cupcake.  The horror!

Vanilla Greek Yogurt Cupcakes and FrostingLight and fluffy vanilla cupcakes made with vanilla Greek yogurt, that taste just as good as the boxed mix.  The vanilla frosting is a lighter alternative to a vanilla cream cheese frosting.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

  • 1 large egg + 2 large egg whites
  • 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil (or unsalted butter, softened)
  • 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles, if desired (for a “funfetti” look)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a small mixing bowl, stir the eggs and yogurt with a wire whisk until combined. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the coconut oil; beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until mixed. Add the egg and yogurt mixture, beating until smooth. Fold in the rainbow sprinkles, if desired.

Spoon the cake batter into the prepared muffin tins (each cup should be about 2/3 full). Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are light golden brown. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Greek Yogurt Frosting

  • 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt, strained*
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, beat the strained yogurt and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.  Reduce the speed to low; add the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time, until smooth and creamy. Makes 2 ½ to 3 cups.

*Strain the yogurt for the frosting the night before making the cupcakes.  Line a small bowl or container with a few paper towels; place the yogurt over the paper towels.  Refrigerate overnight.  The next day, you’ll have a very thick yogurt, perfect for using in a frosting recipe!

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How to Make Pumpkin Apple Cupcakes (Recipe)

Liz Uncategorized

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: cupcakes make Monday a better day.  But before we get to these little gems, I’ve got something very important to discuss…

I think we’ve got another canned pumpkin shortage on our hands here in Central New York.  I noticed the dwindling supply a few weeks ago, but didn’t think much of it since it was barely September.  Now – almost October – it’s gotten worse.  Pumpkin isn’t on the shelves at all, not even at Wegmans.  And they have everything!

As horrific thoughts of a pumpkin-less fall started going through my mind Saturday evening, I decided to take last-ditch trip to WalMart.  By the grace of (the pumpkin) God, I was relieved to find it there and promptly put twelve hefty cans in my basket.  By the time I got to the checkout, my arms were about to fall off and a few people in line were looking at me strange.  Ha, they’ll think of me when they’re not eating pumpkin pie on the fourth Thursday in November!  Then, I noticed the guy in front of me was buying three cases of beer and couldn’t help but think to myself—gosh Liz, you’ve gotten pretty wild, hoarding pumpkin at WalMart on a Saturday night!  I should really tone things down and take it easy.  Anyway…

Let me know if you’re noticing the same problem in your area.  I hope you’re not, because you need to make these pumpkin apple cupcakes!

It’s interesting how my eating pattern changes when I’m deep into marathon training.  I still have the urge to bake and cook, but I tend to take more shortcuts.  Like last weekend, when I was making these cupcakes for my mom’s friend.  I wanted to do a fall-inspired cupcake, but I didn’t want to put in too much effort…so I didn’t!  And let me tell you, the ease of prep didn’t sacrifice flavor or texture one bit.

These cupcakes use a boxed cake mix, but you don’t even have to bother adding eggs or oil.  Just pumpkin, an apple, spices, and some water.  Before you know it, you’ll be savoring a super-moist spicy cupcake, without all the fuss!

 

Pumpkin Apple CupcakesCanned pumpkin and cooked apple are the secret to these incredibly moist, spiced cupcakes.  Don’t have a white cake mix on hand?  Yellow or spice cake mix are great substitutes!

Makes 24 cupcakes

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Cupcakes:

  • 1 medium apple (peeled, cored and diced)
  • 1 boxed white cake mix
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
  • 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
  • 1 1/3 cups water

Frosting:

  • 1 16-ounce container cream cheese icing
  • 2 tablespoons light maple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, microwave the apple on high about 1 minute or until tender.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat all of the cake ingredients with an electric mixer on high speed 2 minutes.  Fold in the cooked apple pieces.  Spoon the batter into prepared cupcake pan.  Bake the cupcakes about 18 to 20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, stir the cream cheese icing, maple syrup, and cinnamon until well blended.  Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

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