While I try to eat healthy the majority of the time, it’s important to treat yourself every now and then. But if you can treat yourself and squeeze in a vegetable at the same time, why not? These rich, chocolatey cupcakes contain a whole cup of roasted beets, adding a subtle earthiness to their flavor. The frosting also contains beets, resulting in a striking hot pink color. When I brought these to the Bramble Berry office, they were gobbled up in no time. Some could not taste the beets at all, and one team member said they were the best cupcakes he ever had…success!
Soap Queen Cuisine: Brown Butter & Basil Shortbread
Back in December, the Bramble Berry Office celebrated the holidays with our annual cookie swap. Each person brought in a batch of cookies, and we filled small boxes with everybody’s cookies to take home. It was a fun, sugar-filled day. I crashed by about 2 p.m. after having cookies for breakfast and lunch. I finally had some “real food” around 3 that day and felt a little better! =)
While I’m as much a fan of fudge and gingerbread men as the next person (and for the record, hold the nuts in the fudge), I wanted to bake something a little different. The inclusion of basil in this Brown Butter & Basil Shortbread recipe from Joanne Eats Well With Others was ridiculously intriguing. I changed the recipe a teensy bit (brown sugar instead of traditional sugar) and the revised recipe did not disappoint; it was salty and not too sweet while still having the wonderfully dense mouth-feel of shortbread. Everybody at the cookie swap loved these buttery, basil-flavored cookies. They are not your average cookie and elevate simple shortbread to a foodie’s delight.
They’d be great to take to any upcoming Super Bowl parties! (Yes, the 12th Man lives here. Go Hawks!)