Tag Archives: Cherry

Cherry Molasses Cookie Bars

Posted on April 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

I woke up one day and decided it was a day for molasses. So, so I made molasses cookies. then I got tired of rolling them out and cutting them. There must be an easy and lazy way to make these right? What about a cookie crust? My inner lazy cook offered. But what do we put in it? It can’t be too sweet. I whined. So, time was meant thinking until finally “Cherries!”…and I realized I had spent quality time talking food…with myself. Obviously, I was experiencing molasses withdrawal and needed to bake this up stat. I did…and it was delicious.

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  • 1/4 cup light cooking margarine or light butter
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup molasses of choice
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 cup dried cherries (or cranberries, cherry flavoured)
  • 1 cup water
  1. Cream margarine and sugar in a bowl until soft and fluffy.
  2. Add sugar, molasses, and egg. Combine until smooth.
  3. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in another bowl. Add slowly to the creamed mixture. Combine until a smooth dough forms.
  4. Press dough into a 9×9 glass pan.
  5. Bake at 375F for 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven. Lower heat to 350F.
  6. Combine the cherries and water in a saucepan.
  7. Heat over medium heat until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.
  8. Pour mixture over the cookie crust and distribute evenly.
  9. Bake for 30 minutes.
  10. Allow to cool slightly before slicing into 12 bars. Serve warm or cool. Tasty either way!

Makes 12 servings. Each serving contains 134 calories, 1.9 grams fat, 29.5 grams carbs, .9 gram fibre, 1.7 grams protein. These are fabulous with a cup of chai tea.

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Posted in Comfort Foods, Craving Buster, Dessert, Snack

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Dark Chocolate and Cherry Shortbread

Posted on February 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Dark chocolate and some sort of red fruit such as cherries or strawberries always seems to do the trick when it comes to valentines day. Instead of doing the same old when it comes to this treat I figured I would do something special and offer a buttery and decadent seeming shortbread. The chocolate and cherries in this are delicious! If you can’t find dried cherries then dried cranberries flavoured with cherry will do just fine. I know that I certainly won’t kick my husband out of bed for eating shortbread.

  • 1 cup flour (I used nutri flour, an enhanced flour with whole wheat nutrition)
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup light butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup icing sugar or spelnda
  • 1/3 cup dried cherries
  • 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
  1. Prepare a pan by spraying it. I baked this in a stoneware pan and I highly recommend this for shortbread, if you don’t have one go for glass.
  2. Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt.
  3. In another bowl cream the butter, icing sugar (or splenda), and vanilla. Add the flour mixture a bit at a time. Add the cherries and chocolate.
  4. Pat evenly into your pan and prick surface with a fork. Bake at 300F for 30-40 minutes. The shortbread should have a golden colour around the edges. Allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Remove from the pan and slice.

Makes 8 large wedges. Each wedge contains 185 calories, 7.8 grams of fat and 1 gram of fibre. Ofcourse you can always cut into much smaller pieces for a more modest indulgence but for the holiday why not indulge a little. If making this in a square pan to share you can easily get 16 portions at 92 calories, 3.9 grams of fat and .5 gram of fibre as well. This is calculated using icing sugar, I used splenda in my latest batch which was nummy! This made the original 8 servings more like 165 calories, 7.8 grams of fat and 1 gram of fibre. Not bad at all for a lovely shortbread treat.

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Posted in Dessert

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Chocolate Cherry Biscotti

Posted on October 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

This weekend is our wedding anniversary (tomorrow to be exact) and apparently it is going to be absolutely gorgeous out all weekend! So, to celebrate not only our anniversary but the last al fresco brunches of the season I decided to make a biscotti to go with our foamy latte. Biscotti just takes a bit of time and care but is totally worth it. A tasty low calorie and low fat treat where the flavour combinations are endless! Make them ahead and you can seem extra fancy during your coffee break with your gaming group. Good times. We all love our fancy treats, even when we game.

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 tbl cocoa, unsweetened
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup unpacked brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1/3 cup dried cherries or cherry flavoured cranberries
  1. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
  2. Beat the egg, sugar and extracts in a large bowl.
  3. Add the dry mixture to the egg mixture slowly. You may need to get right in there and knead it to get all the flour in.
  4. Fold in the dried cherries.
  5. Form a one inch thick oblong log and place on a baking sheet.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes at 350F. Cool for 10 minutes, slice into 12 pieces.
  7. Place each slice on the sheet cut side down. Bake for 10 minutes, flip, then bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Makes 12 servings. Each serving contains 65 calories, .7 gram of fat, and 1.1 gram of fibre. Don’t worry about them looking small in the picture…I took the picture next to my uber cappucino bowl…the one I like to quote ‘So I married an axe murderer’ with…you know….”Excuse me, miss? There seems to be a mistake. I believe I ordered the *large* cappuccino. Hello! Look at the size of this thing.” . Hehe, I’m Canadian and grew up in Ontario. The Mike Myers love runs strong.

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Posted in Breakfast, Craving Buster, Dessert, Snack

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Cherry Vinaigrette

Posted on June 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

A lovely easy to make dressing for your salad. In the summer I love making hearty salad entrees. There are so many things you can do with them and salad dressing is so easy to make! We made this one as part of our True Blood premier celebrations…I’m sure you can see why. So tasty and yet not so naughty!

  • 10 sweet cherries
  • 2 tbl balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 3 tbl water
  1. Remove the pits from the cherries. Put half of the cherries into a blender along with the vinegar, oil and water.
  2. Blend.
  3. Put the rest of the cherries into the blender and give a quick burst with the blender so that the cherries are just mostly chopped up. You can skip this step if you prefer a purely smooth dressing and just blend all the cherries in the first step. Serve!

This made enough for two people to generously cover their salads. Each generous serving contains 39 calories, 1.2 grams of fat and .7 grams of fiber. It is wonderfully full of flavour using only natural sugars. To recreate the salad in the picture we also used: butter lettuce, 1/2 cup of cherry pieces, and 4 ounces of grilled chicken that we had lightly hickory smoked and sliced. Num! Great for those warm summer days.

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Posted in Dinner, Ingredient, Lunch

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