apple crumb cake

You guysssss. I recently discovered Figgy Bakery, a gem of a blog/bakery, and have not been able to get enough of her recipes. They're an amazing take on whole foods and clean eating and she has a knack for making vegan baked goods and seemingly indulgent desserts just a bit healthier than they typically are. Anyways! I've made the below recipe a few times, modifying it a little each time, and this is what I've come up with:

Adapted from Figgy Bakery's recipe

Ingredients:

[topping:]  1/2 cup flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 

teaspoons cinnamon, 1 cup Earth Balance melted, 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 cup rolled oats

 [cake:] 3 cups chopped apple, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup Earth's Balance, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt, 1 teaspoon agave

Disclaimer: You need four separate bowls for this concoction 
as well as an 8x8 glass baking dish and perhaps a small loaf pan.

Begin with the topping. Melt Earth Balance (1 cup) in a medium-sized bowl. Add all other topping ingredients, mix and set aside.

Chop three apples into cubes, put into a bowl and add cinnamon. Set aside.

In another bowl, add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix.

In a fourth bowl, beat Earth Balance (3/4 cup) until smooth. Add sugar and mix. Then add the eggs and mix. Next, add the Greek yogurt and agave. Once all of these ingredients are incorporated, add the flour mixture, little by little, until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed together. Finally, fold in the apple-cinnamon combination and transfer to an 8x8 greased baking dish. You may have left over batter (I did), so I made an extra little loaf. 

Add the topping and bake on 350 degrees for about an hour, testing with a toothpick to make sure the cake is done.

Note: mine took probably an hour and fifteen minutes to cook. I'd recommend setting the timer for 50 minutes and checking periodically after that.

guest post: avery from some blissful thinking

Today, I have a special treat (literally) from one of my March sponsors, Avery! With our similar outlooks on life and our shared love for food, Avery has quickly become one of my favorite blog friends (plus she's currently a senior at my alma mater...and we all know how much I wish I was still in college).

Anyways, she's an incredible blogger who really writes from the heart. From amazing baking escapades (example below) to heartfelt posts on self-improvement and life in general, I look up to her a lot. I hope you'll head over to her blog for some inspiration... but until then... coffee cake cookies?

Hi. Yes. Please.

---

I am an emotional baker. For me, a cupcake generously topped with cream cheese frosting is often enough to cure the worst of my bad days. A bite into a snickerdoodle makes me feel like I'm wrapped in a warm blanket, and the smell of banana bread baking is all it takes to send me into a nostalgic stupor.

I grew up sitting on the kitchen counter and watching my mom cook. She made dinner for our family every night, from thick pans of lasagna to plates of chicken and big bowls of build-your-own Cobb salad. For special occasions or simply when it was cold and snowy outside and we had nowhere to go, she would bake. I loved these days. I had my own little apron I tied around my waist and a stool to stand on. When I was deemed old enough, my mom would hand me measuring cups and ingredients to add to the bowls, teaching me how to crack an egg and use the hand mixer. My favorite part of the process is sneaking pinches of dough and licking the spoon.

The other night I found myself in a baking mood after perusing Pinterest (when am I not in a baking mood?). I came across these coffee cake cookies and just knew I had to give them a try. These sweet confections pair my favorite Starbucks treat with a traditional sugar cookie which happens to be a combination made in baking heaven. While I am usually one to forego mixes and instead whip my sweets together from scratch, I decided to give the packaged Pilsbury sugar cookie dough a try for times sake.

The result? Well, the plate of warm, cinamon-scented cookies hardly lasted through the night as my roommates (myself included) snuck into the kitchen multiple times for "just one more." I'd love to try them again with from-scratch sugar cookie dough next time. Click here for the recipe.

-Avery

smitten with smitten

First, thank you guys so much for all the Yvonna love last week. It's so nice to know that my readers have great senses of humor and can take a joke, all the while commiserating with my friends and me about serial singledom. You can definitely expect more Yvonna in the near future.

On a new note, I've continued to explore San Francisco and am continually blown away by all of the unique food-related businesses. As the post title suggests, I recently went to Smitten (and then went back just a couple days later) and essentially died and went to heaven.

More than an average ice cream parlor, Smitten makes each scoop to order, from scratch, while you watch in amazement. Though the flavors and toppings are limited and I usually spend about $6 for my treat, it's worth completely worth it and definitely some of the best ice cream I've ever had.

From humble beginnings, this is the first Smitten storefront and I can't wait to see how the business grows in the future. 

vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks, hot fudge and a shortbread cookie

{Smitten Ice Cream: 432 Octavia Street; San Francisco}

azucar: a cuban style patisserie

This weekend, my roommate Amanda [who's in the process of creating a blog of her own... hooray!] and I ventured to Ocean Beach for a little day of fun...a.k.a...lots of eating. We had lunch at South Beach, absolutely the best fish tacos around [post coming soon!] and then checked out Azucar for dessert. I've been dying for a tasty treat from Azucar for about a year now, but unfortunately I don't make it to OB as often as I'd like.

Azucar caught my eye because it's a "Cuban-style" bakery and since I'm one-fourth Cuban [though I claim it as my full nationality], I was definitely interested. It was exciting to see the guava stuffed pastries [my family calls them "pillows"] and a few other treats that reminded me of my childhood in Miami and my Cuban background.

Naturally, as soon as we saw the spread of options, we had to sample a variety of treats... you know, just in case we don't make it back for a while. Amanda ordered the chocolate/salted caramel and an esperesso chocolate chip cookie and I sampled the doughnut muffins and a peanut butter white chocolate chip cookie. Let's just say, the calories were worth it and I was one freaken happy camper.

Scrumptious is an understatement 

pretty cupcakes

Next time you're in the mood for dessert, venture to OB and get a treat from Azucar [also be sure to give me a call so I can come with you]. I promiseeee there's no way you'll be disappointed. 

Azucar Cuban Style Patisserie is located in Ocean Beach San Diego at 4820 Newport Ave.

{My diet starts tomorrow.}

UPDATE: Check out my first post for the "Urban Dish" column at Urbanist Guide! I'm pretty dang excited about it!

seven layer 'crack' bars

This treat is one I've been making for a while. It pretty much combines every deliciously sweet ingredient that you could ever imagine. [Even for you skeptical nuggets who claim to dislike coconut, I can almost promise that even you will be convinced of these bars' crack-like powers.] I've heard them called seven layer bars or cookie bars. I like to refer to them as crack bars because they are truly addicting. They're easy, decadent and the perfect end to any meal.

Ingredients:

Graham crackers, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips,

shredded coconut, sliced almonds, butter &

can of sweetened condensed milk

Melt half of a stick of butter in the microwave. Using a large ziplock bag, smash 10-15 graham crackers until completely crumbled. Pour crumbled graham crackers and melted butter into the bottom of a pan to create a crust. Layer chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut and almonds. Evenly pour sweetened condensed milk on top. Bake on 250 degrees for 15 minutes [covered] and then uncovered until coconut and almonds lightly brown.

{Then eat them all. You gotta. They're crack.}