Mini Cherry Pie

For Easter Sunday, I made these tiny mini personal cherry pies. I used phyllo dough because it cuts a few calories, and it folds nicely into a muffin tin.

Mini Cherry Pies
2 14.6 cans tart cherries in water (drained with water reserved)
1 package phyllo dough
1/2c Red fruit juice (cranberry e.g.)
1/2c splenda
1/3c sugar
3 tbs arrowroot starch
2 tbs softened butter
2 tbs honey

Mix cherries, red fruit juice, 1/3c reserved cherry water, sugar, splenda, and starch in a medium bowl. Let sit for 15 min.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray.

Cut phyllo dough into 3-4" squares, 3-5 layers thick. Tuck those to make little mini shells.

Put about 3 TBS of pie filling in each cup and top with a little bit of the butter. Fold shell edges over the filling. Drizzle a little honey over each pie.

Bake for 15-20 min, or phyllo dough is golden brown.


These are delicious little mini pies. The only problem I had is if there is ANY tiny holes in the phyllo dough (as phyllo dough is wont to do), the filling spills out into the muffin tin. If you can get them in one piece (letting the phyllo dough get to room temperature helps), these look spectacular as well as taste super yummy!

Starwberry Chip Birthday Cupcake

I had 3/4 of a box of yellow cake mix left over from the carrot cake cupcakes. I am going to a birthday party tomorrow and am making the cake. I wanted to try a buttercream frosting and I wanted it to be chocolate.


Strawberry Chip Cupcakes (Reduced Sugar version) Makes 18-24 cupcakes

1 box Reduced Sugar yellow cake mix

1 small package sugar-free strawberry Jell-o

3/4 cup egg beaters

1/4 cup diet fruit soda (strawberry or cherry)

1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I mixed semi-sweet and white)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners. Mix cake mix, jell-o, egg beaters, soda, oil, and sour cream with an electric mixer in a large bowl for about 3 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full. bake for 20-25 min.


Chocolate Buttercream

1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

3 Tbs boiling water

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

powdered sugar... lots of it

Melt chocolate chips in heat proof bowl placed over simmering water. Let cool for about 15 min. Mix boiling water and cocoa powder and set aside. Beat butter in an electric mixer until creamy. Add milk, tsp, and vanilla and continue mixing. Add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. Add cooled chocolate and cocoa mixture.

I noticed you may want to let the milk warm up a little before adding it to the butter. The butter will cool from the milk and become hard and lumpy again.

I guess I kind of negated the reduced fat/sugar-ness by dumping chocolate buttercream icing on top. I think these taste good, but it is cake mix and not the texture I would have liked. The frosting tastes amazing though, and sometimes cake's purpose is just being complimenting delivery system for amazing frosting.

Carrot Cake Cupcake

Since I made a cupcake with more sugar and butter than flour last time, I decided to make a not-crazy-bad-for-your-diet cupcake. I have made this recipe for carrot cake cupcakes before. I got the recipe off Hungry-Girl's website. The frosting is a little gooey and isn't suited for decorating, so I used some colored sugar for an abstract carrot art. I did make some changes. Instead of canned pumpkin, I used fresh (boiled and frozen from November fresh) pumpkin. It was a little stringy and I needed to mix it longer than the canned. Maybe putting it in a food processor before hand would be beneficial.

Carrot cake (via Hungry-girl)

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots, roughly chopped if shreds are long
1 cup (1/4th of box) Pillsbury Moist Supreme Reduced Sugar Cake Mix, Classic Yellow
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
2/3 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
2/3 cup canned crushed pineapple in juice (not drained)
2/3 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1/4 cup raisins (not packed)
2 tbsp. brown sugar (not packed)
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder

For frosting:
4 oz. fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt (or another thick, plain fat-free yogurt)
1/2 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine all dry cupcake ingredients except for the carrots and raisins (in other words -- cake mix, flour, Splenda, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and baking powder). Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, egg substitute, and 1/4 cup water until blended. Add the contents of the medium bowl to the large bowl. Using a wire whisk or fork, blend until just mixed. Then, stir in the carrots, pineapple, and raisins. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray. Evenly distribute cake mixture among the cups, and place in the oven to cook for 20 - 25 minutes (until a toothpick poked into the center of one comes out clean). While the cupcakes cook, combine all the frosting ingredients in a small bowl. Using a whisk or fork, blend until smooth. Place frosting in the fridge to chill. Once cupcakes are fully cooked, remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool completely. Then plate cupcakes, and spread frosting evenly over tops. Refrigerate until frosting has set and you're ready to serve. Enjoy!!! MAKES 12 SERVINGS


Serving Size: 1 frosted cupcake
Calories: 130
Fat: 1g
Sodium: 205mg
Carbs: 26g
Fiber: 2.5g
Sugars: 10g
Protein: 5g

1st Post

This is the first post of my food blog. I find it would be weird if my normal blog became a food blog, but I intend to start blogging more about food.