Kat Cupcake: Squares

Showing posts with label Squares. Show all posts

February 9, 2021

Aquafaba Peanut Butter Vegan Brownies

I am not sure if I have ever posted a recipe using aquafaba but it is such a great trick to use for vegan baking!

Aquafaba is the liquids leftover from canned chickpeas and can be used as a binding ingredient or even a mousse/whip cream replacement!

It is creamy and frothy, tasting great in recipes but also on its own. In most recipes, you will need to whip it until it has formed soft peaks which can take a while so I recommend using a food processor or stand mixer. However, some recipes may called for just the liquid added straight in. This recipe uses the whipped version.

If you eat chickpeas often, this is an amazing hack so that you don't waste anything! If you don't often eat chickpeas, then I really recommend them. I've been on a chickpea loving spree lately and have been adding them to soups and other dishes.

These high in protein brownies are sure to please even the toughest of critics! They are so chocolately and fudgy you won't believe, they're made of chickpea water!

Aquafaba PB Vegan Brownies

Ingredients

180g dark chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)

2/3 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup soy milk

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup aquafaba

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

peanuts and chocolate chips for add-ins or toppings

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 370F. Prepare an 8x8 inch baking dish (mine is non-stick and was fine but you may need parchment paper and/or some oil)

2. Beat aquafaba until foamy and then slowly add in brown sugar. Keep beating until soft peaks formed. I used a handheld mixer and this took maybe 10 minutes. If you have a food processor or stand mixer this will be a lot better to use. Set aside.

3. Melt chocolate in a double broiler or microwave in a microwave safe bowl in 40 second intervals. I took mine out each time and stirred until it was ready and melted. I recommend using a large bowl as you will need to add more ingredients to the chocolate mixture but if you don't have one then just be prepared to transfer the chocolate mixture to another bowl.

4. Once chocolate is melted and smooth, stir in peanut butter and almond extract into chocolate. Then stir in soy milk slowly.

5. In another bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and salt and then stir these dry ingredients into your chocolate mixture.

6. Next, fold in 1/3 of aquafaba mixture until combined and mixture looks lighter. Then in sections as you see fit (I did it 3 times you could do it all together but I find that a little hard) fold in the remaining aquafaba. until just combined, mixture should look glossy and thick.

7. Fold in the peanuts and chocolate chips now if you like or add them on top afterwards.

8. Spread mixture evenly in your prepared pan and top with some peanuts and chocolate chips if desired.

9. Bake for 20 minutes until edges look browned and top is set, middle should still be a little fudgy

10. Allow to cool before cutting into squares and serve

Adapted from here

December 29, 2019

Melty Pumpkin Blondies

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 6:40 PM 0 Comments

These bars are sooooo good! They are wonderfully gooey and tender. The add ins create the perfect texture along with it!

If you choose to use chocolate chips, they become so melty in the bars when warm. Making this recipe is so soothing and the bars are dense yet healthy!

I’ve been so excited to share this Melty Pumpkin Blondie recipe with you! It’s one of my favorites! If you love pumpkins as much as I do, this is a must-make!

Pumpkin Blondies

Ingredients
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
2 tbsp flaxseed mixed with 6 tbsp water, allow to sit
1/2 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Add ins:
pumpkin seeds
chocolate chips
dried cranberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Prepare an 8x8" pan with grease and parchment paper
2. Mix together flax seeds, coconut oil, and sugar thoroughly
3. Add pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and nutmeg then mix again
4. Slowly mix in flour, baking powder, and salt
5. Mix in your add ins
6. Pour mixture in your prepared pan
7. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until lightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean
8. Let cool completely and then cut into squares

# Bars # Blondies

May 2, 2018

Simple Raw Brownies

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 12:29 PM 0 Comments

I have slowly been becoming obsessed with raw no-bake desserts! And since I especially love chocolate brownies, I knew that I had to make a raw brownie recipe!

I find these ones reminiscent of Little Debbie's Cosmic Brownies, especially with the sprinkles! Which I used to eat all the time when I was little!

If anyone knows how to recreate those with a healthy twist but still just as fudgy please let me know ASAP!

These brownies are still better than Cosmic Brownies and maybe even more delicious! They're also vegan, raw, gluten free, paleo, and have no refined sugar!

They contain:

Cocoa powder

Coconut Oil

Almonds

Dates

Maple Syrup

Cinnamon

Salt

Sprinkles (optional)

And they're no bake so you can enjoy them in the hot summer months to come! Let me know if you try them out!

Raw Healthy Brownies
Makes 6-9

Ingredients

For Brownies
1 cup almonds
1 cup dates
1/4 cup cocoa powder

For Chocolate Topping
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp cocoa podwder
sprinkles (optional)

Directions

1. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper
2. Place all brownies ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined and mixture sticks together like a dough
3. Press dough into bottom of loaf pan
4. In a small bowl, microwave coconut oil until melted
5. Add in maple syrup and cocoa powder and whisk together until combined and it looks like chocolate
6. Pour chocolate on top of brownies, sprinkle on sprinkles and then chill until brownies are hardened

# Bars # Brownies

February 5, 2018

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 8:49 PM 0 Comments

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret, well it's not really a secret. But I loooove peanut butter! I also adore white chocolate. I mean, I like all chocolate and especially dark chocolate but there's just something about the buttery sweetness of white chocolate that I love in sweets and desserts.

The almond flour in these really makes a difference. I don't usually use almond flour in my recipes. Mostly because it costs an arm and a leg. But I was so pleasantly surprised by how almond flour really made the difference in this recipe. It made them moist but crumbly and buttery! I hope to use almond flour more often so if you have any hacks for it, please let me know!

These bars are the perfect treat for breakfast, an energy boosting snack, or an after dinner treat! They are just subtly sweet and I think they were perfect this way. However, if you have an extra sweet tooth or serving it to those not used to healthy desserts, you may want to up the coconut sugar by an extra quarter cup.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

Ingredients
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup almond flour
1 tbsp coconut flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup chopped white chocolate

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Oil and/or line a 8x8" pan
2. With an electric mixture, blend together the peanut butter, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in almond flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar, and cinnamon.
4. Fold in white chocolate
5. Spread into prepared baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until the center is sent and the edges are golden brown
6. Cool before cutting into squares. These taste great straight out of the fridge as well

# Bars # Blondies

January 2, 2018

Strawberry Matcha Blondies

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 10:26 AM 0 Comments

Raise your hand if you like matcha! *I fist pump both hands into the air*

Matcha has got to be one of my favorite things in the world! I love the strong green tea taste and how creamy and delicious it gets in drinks. So I wonder why I haven't baked more with matcha.

Matcha is a fine ground green tea. It adds the green tea taste and it's own creaminess making it the perfect ingredient for baked goods.

Many places have begun selling flavored matcha which tends to be cheaper than the real stuff as it is full of stuff other than matcha. However, it still tastes great and in my opinion sometimes even better because you get to have a yummy flavor accompanied with your matcha. It makes matcha just mixed with water delicious as well by the way.

You can find flavored matcha at David's Tea, HomeSense, and Bed Bath and Beyond to name a few.

I used a strawberry flavored matcha powder to get the strawberry taste in this, if you don't have access to strawberry matcha you can use any other desired flavor or plain matcha.

You can also add a couple drops of food coloring to make it extra green but this is completely optional.

Strawberry Matcha Blondies

Ingredients

1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 eggs
1 cup coconut sugar
1 tbsp matcha powder (I used strawberry matcha powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chunks
couple drops of green food coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare an 8x8" baking dish by greasing the bottom and sides or lining it with parchment paper. Melt coconut oil in a microwave and set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the coconut sugar, coconut oil, and eggs until well combined. Add a couple drops of food coloring if desired.
3. In a separate bowl combine flours, matcha powder, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt.
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet. Fold in white chocolate chunks.
5. Spread mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes until or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let blondies cool before serving

# Bars # Squares

December 28, 2017

Cranberry Date Squares (gluten free, vegan, refined sugar free)

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 9:30 AM 0 Comments

I hope everyone had an amazing Winter Holiday! I sure enjoyed mine by baking up a storm in the kitchen!

For Christmas dinner I served these date squares and a couple other desserts. The date squares were for sure the big winner!

And I mean come on with that delightful red color in the filling, how can you not love them for Christmas?

These date squares have a gooey filling and crisp base. The cranberries mixed with the dates is a wonderful combination giving it a sweet and tart flavor.

They also make the perfect after dinner treat as they are light, gluten free, vegan, and free of refined sugars! But I'm sure you can enjoy them any time of year!

Cranberry Date Squares

Ingredients

Base

1 cup oat flour (blend 1 cup of oats in a food processor until it reaches a flour consistency)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/3-1/2 cup coconut oil, softened but not melted
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp guar gum
pinch of salt
1/4 cup hazelnuts, chopped

Date Filling

1 cup dates pitted, soaked in a cup of warm water
1 cup dried cranberries
zest of meyer lemon
juice of half a meyer lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp honey/maple syrup (optional)
couple tbsp of water if needed

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8x8" baking dish with wax paper
2. In a medium sized bowl, stir together the oat flour and coconut flour.
3. With a pastry cutter, cut in coconut oil until it has coated all of the flour and the oil had formed small pea sized balls with the flour. Add as much coconut oil as necessary to achieve this.
4. Add rolled oats, shredded coconut, coconut sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, guar gum, and salt. Mix until everything is combined. If your mixture is too dry to clump together with your hands you can add more coconut oil.
5. Pour about 2/3 of the base into your prepared dish and press down firmly until the dish is evenly coated and sicking to the dish.
6. For filling, drain dates and place in them into your food processor. Process until dates have broken down then add in dried cranberries and process again until smooth. You can add in a little water if your mixture is too thick. Alternatively you can reserve some of the water the dates have been soaking in for this purpose.
7. Add in zest of a meyer lemon, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Process until combined. Give mixture a taste and if it's too sour, add in some honey, maple syrup, or more dates until sweet enough.
8. In big spoonfuls drop date mixture on top of oat base layer and smooth out with a spatula until it has covered the base.
9. Top the rest of the oat base on top of date filling and press down so that it sticks to the filling. Sprinkle hazelnuts on top.
10. Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown.
11. Allow to cool before cutting

# Bars # Gluten Free

December 20, 2017

Paleo Pumpkin Squares (gluten free, paleo)

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 2:02 PM 0 Comments

We finally got some snow here just in time for Christmas!

I am not always too fond of the snow (I mean in Canada we get quite a lot and I say this now because we suddenly got more than 40cm or something) but I do like how beautiful it makes the world look!

Possibly my favorite thing about the Holidays though is the amount of baked goods that suddenly come available! Fortunately I am here with a healthy baked good fit for the Holidays.

These pumpkin squares are low carb and refined sugar free. The pumpkin spice flavor is absolutely perfect for this time of year.

Paleo Pumpkin Squares

Ingredients

Squares
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup almond milk
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp baking soda mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Topping
1/2 cup chopped up almonds
3 tbsp shredded coconut
3 tbsp seed mix (mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds)
2 tbsp dried cranberries
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp melted coconut oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8x8" pan
2. In a large bowl combine coconut flour through salt. Mix together and set aside
3. In another bowl combine eggs through baking sod and mix thoroughly
4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until combined
5. Pour batter into your prepared pan
6. For topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl with a fork until a paste forms
7. Sprinkle topping mixture on top of batter
8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until top is brown and a toothpick comes out clean
9. Cool and cover with plastic wrap and then place in fridge to allow the squares to set

Adapted from here

# Bars # Low Carb

December 10, 2017

Secret Ingredient Nanaimo Bars (gluten free, vegan)

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 3:23 PM 0 Comments

I'm giving you ten seconds to guess what the filling is made of. I bet you'll never believe what the filling is made out of!

... it's lentils!

These bars are so good and taste exactly as a Nanaimo bar should. You can barely make out the lentil taste and you would never be able to taste how healthy they are.

To test these out I gave it to a few a people and they couldn't even tell that the filling was made of lentils. If you have a sweeter tooth I would suggest adding 1/2 cup of maple syrup rather than just 1/3.

Secret Ingredient Nanaimo Bars

Ingredients

Base:

6 Medjool dates
¾ cups whole raw almonds
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
¼ cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut oil
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Filling:

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup dry red lentils
1/3-1/2 cup maple syrup
¼ cup coconut oil
2 tbsp coconut flour

Topping:

2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp maple syrup
6 tbsp coconut oil

Directions

Place your lentils and one cup of water into a small pot. Bring to a boil and turn down heat to then simmer. Stir occasionally for about 12 minutes until the lentils have become mushy and the water is almost completely absorbed.
As the lentils are cooking you can prepare your base. Add the almonds to a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the dates, coconut, cocoa powder, coconut oil, salt, and cinnamon and process until the mixture comes together. The dough should stay together when pressed.
Line a 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper (you could also use a larger square pan if you want thinner bars). Put the base into the pan and press it down on the bottom evenly.
Wipe out the bowl of your food processor with a paper towel. Add the shredded coconut to the bowl and blend until it breaks down even more finely. Pour your cooked lentils, maple syrup, coconut oil, and coconut flour into the processor and blend for a few minutes, until the filling is smooth and creamy.
Pour the filling over the base and spread evenly.
Put the pan into the fridge or freezer to harden.
For the topping, melt the coconut oil in a bowl and then stir in maple syrup and cocoa powder and everything is glossy and combined. Take your pan out of the fridge and pour the chocolate layer on top.
Place back in fridge to harden.
Before serving, take out of the fridge for a few minutes so you can cut it easier

adapted from here

# Bars # Gluten Free

November 5, 2017

Vegan Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars

Kat @ Cupcake Kat 3:01 PM 0 Comments

I recently read a graphic novel called Bake Sale by Sara Varon. I saw this book on the sale rack at my university book store and I had to buy it! This book was so cute and some really nice themes in it about friendship and perseverance. It also included some recipes that are made in the story.

One thing the main character of the book does everyday in their bakery is try out new recipes so I was inspired to try something new out as well!

A few weeks ago I picked up a can of coconut cream from the store with the intention of making something with it. It didn't know what at first but after seeing many coconut ice cream recipes I decided to try out an ice cream bar!

These bars are gluten free and vegan! The filling is so good and creamy. You can tastes the coconut as well as the peanut butter and they complement each other decadently. The topping is simple yet puts everything together.

My favorite thing has to be the base though. There's something about dates and oats that just can never go wrong.

Make sure to allow these bars to warm up a bit at room temperature before serving otherwise it may be too icy to eat.

Vegan Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars

Base
1 cup oats
1/3 cup shredded coconut
12 dates, softened
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Filling
1 can of coconut cream, chilled
2 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)

Topping
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp maple syrup
3 tbsp coconut oil

Directions

1. Prepare a 9x5 inch baking dish with wax paper on the bottom, set aside
2. Put all of the base ingredients into a food processor and blend until a dough forms
3. Press dough into the baking dish and then leave this to set in the fridge
4. Beat together all of the filling ingredients until fluffy and combined. Pour this mixture over the base and then put it into the freezer to set or about 15 minutes
5. Meanwhile, make the topping. Place coconut oil in a microwavable dish and microwave for about 30 seconds until it has melted. Add in the cocoa powder and maple syrup and mix until smooth
6. Drizzle the topping all over the filling and then place it back into the freezer for a few hours until everything has hardened
7. Take pan out of the fridge and carefully remove it from the dish while frozen than cut into squares
8. Leave the bars out for a few minutes to softened then serve
9. Bars can be stored in a container in the freezer

# Bars # Ice Cream

February 9, 2021

Aquafaba Peanut Butter Vegan Brownies

December 29, 2019

Melty Pumpkin Blondies

May 2, 2018

Simple Raw Brownies

February 5, 2018

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

January 2, 2018

Strawberry Matcha Blondies

December 28, 2017

Cranberry Date Squares (gluten free, vegan, refined sugar free)

December 20, 2017

Paleo Pumpkin Squares (gluten free, paleo)

December 10, 2017

Secret Ingredient Nanaimo Bars (gluten free, vegan)

November 5, 2017

Vegan Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars

Vegan Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars

Directions

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