Adventures in Cooking: Part II
The first time I made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies from scratch, I followed Alton Brown’s recipe to a T. I love his his ability to translate science into the delightful joys of cooking.
The second time, I became complacent. I must have missed something in the baking process as the cookies crumbled from the moment I inserted a spatula. There was no remedy. Even cooled completely they were a crisp mess of baked dough. I decided to grind them up in a food processor and store them in the freezer for a later date when I’d figure out what to do: a pie crust? a topping for ice cream? Today was the day I had my epiphany.
Make it yourself: frozen bananas!!!
The other day, I had peeled and sliced very ripe bananas in half and wrapped each in cellophane and then into a zip lock bag to freeze for smoothies. Today was so hot, instead of ice cream, I decided to make for myself and my girls a frozen banana treat. I simply melted my chocolate, rolled my frozen banana into it and then topped it with cookie crumbs. A delightful, yet messy treat – all over my girls’ faces!
A frozen banana can be diet-friendly, granted you don’t go overboard on the chocolate coating and/or toppings. Considering that each serving was a half banana (@60 calories) and I added a thin coating of chocolate (about 1/2 ounce = @75 calories, 4.5g fat) and 1 TBS cookie crumbs – I based this nutritional on 1/2 an Immaculate Baking Co.’s gluten-free chocolate chip cookie = 75 calories, 4g fat), this treat was probably lower in calories and fat than a traditional serving of vanilla ice cream. This is the nutritional info I found on a 1/2 cup serving of Haagen Daz Vanilla ice cream from caloriecount.com (and this is without a topping!).
Try these other diet-friendly banana-based treats.
What have you done to save a failed recipe?
Filed under: healthy lifestyles, Nutri-Savvy
