Tag: cream cheese frosting

Egg-Free Banana Muffins

This one goes out to all the mom’s out there battling food allergies. I am with you. Boy am I with you. You see, my son suffers from an extensive list of food allergies, some severe (epipen-severe) and some, mild. The thing about food allergies is that just when you think your kid might be outgrowing an allergy, you find out you are wrong. So, so wrong.

Under the guidance of my son’s doctor, we’ve been slowly trying to reintroduce beef into his diet (yes, my kid is allergic to BEEF!) and all was going well until it wasn’t. A mere bite of cross-contaminated chicken (that was grilled together with meat) resulted in an allergy so severe, I had to call the paramedics. THIS is the kind of stuff mom’s of allergic kids have to deal with, and that’s why I’ve made us all cupcakes. Egg-free ones. (And if you’re kid is allergic to dairy, go ahead and skip the frosting, or use vegan cream cheese. Unless your kid is allergic to soy. And gluten. Then just sit down with a giant chocolate bar and have a good cry).

Lucky for us, we’re good on the dairy front and my son LOVES cream cheese, so I love to spoil him with these. The banana muffins are so incredibly moist, you’d never imagine their missing a key component of fluffy baking. No aquafaba required.

I hope you’re all having a fun and relaxing summer. Stay safe out there!

Egg-Free Banana Muffins

3 very ripe mashed bananas (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
maple brown sugar frosting, optional (recipe follows)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Grease a muffin tin and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt until combined. In a separate bowl, mix the bananas, oil, sugar and vanilla with a hand mixer. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated (do not overmix). Stir in the chocolate chips and portion the batter into the muffin tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely and frost, if desired.

Maple Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. container whipped cream cheese
4 tbsp softened butter
1 heaping cup confectionars sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup

Method:

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix with a hand mixer until smooth. Pipe onto muffins.


Related Recipes:

healthy thumbprint hamantaschen (egg-free)

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Gingerbread Cupcakes with
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably already drooled over these gorgeous gingerbread cupcakes. I made them during the fast of Tisha B’av, so I wasn’t about to photograph them, but I did talk about them, a LOT. The next day, I had just 3 cupcakes left, so I decided to do what any foodie/blogger would – share! It was hard not to gobble down the last of them before getting a good shot, they’re just THAT good.

Besides being incredibly moist, these gingerbread cupcakes are chock-full of warm autumn spices. I didn’t think my kids would go for the flavors of ginger and nutmeg, but I was SO wrong – they could not get enough. Not only that, my little cream-cheese-haters were licking the frosting off their fingers! I think I’m going to start whipping up sweet cream cheese concoctions and call them “frosting sandwiches.” It will make lunch a whole lot easier for me!

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from The Collegiate Baker

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup hot water

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, mix the  oil, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs and mix to incorporate. Add the molasses and stir to combine. Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the hot water to the wet mixture and mix until incorporated. Repeat with the second half of the dry ingredients and hot water.

Fill cupcake pans about 2/3 full and bake for approximately 18 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. container whipped cream cheese
4 tbsp softened butter
1 cup confectionars sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

Add the cream cheese and butter to a bowl and mix with a spoon to combine. Add the brown sugar cinnamon and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add the confectioners sugar 1/3 of a cup at a time, stirring until thickened.

1 year ago: chicken lollipops 
2 years ago: cherry yogurt popsicles 

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Lotus Cookie Cinnamon Buns with
Speculoos Cream Cheese Frosting


Every since Trader Joe’s introduced their cookie butter, speculoos has been flying off the shelves faster than their pareve chocolate chips disappeared. If you live under a rock, and you still haven’t heard about speculoos, let me fill you in. Speculoos is a spiced shortcrust biscuit, or what Lotus (a popular manufacturer of speculoos cookies) calls, “The Original Caramelized Biscuit.” 

Speculoos cookies have been a popular treat in Belgium for years, and are sometimes referred to as Lotus or Biscoff cookies. Their popularity reached new heights, when a few years ago, a woman won a television contest for inventing a sweet spread made from the cookies. Speculoos spread went viral, with many companies, like Trader Joes, selling their own versions.

With TJ’s nonkosher cookie butter’s popularity rising, kosher foodies everywhere were left out in the dark. My fellow kosher food bloggers TheKosherFoodies and KitchenTested wanted a taste so badly, they made their own cookies just so they could crush them up into spread afterward.

But if you know me, the nonbaker, I was not about to follow suit. Slave over homemade biscuits and crush em up into crumbs? What am I, crazy? So I went the easy route…I bought them. And how, might you ask, did I find kosher Lotus cookies? Well it just so happens that I live in Brooklyn, where Pomegranate, the most awesome kosher supermarket in the world, is located. Pomegranate pretty much carries every kosher item available under the sun, from mundane to gourmet. If they don’t have it, it’s probably not kosher. And since Lotus Cookies are manufactured in Israel with a kosher symbol, Pomegranate imports them, so all their kosher consumers can enjoy “The Original Caramelized Biscuit.”

We spoke a lot about Speculoos’ origin, but what about the taste? Well when I first bit into these cookies, I immediately thought of ginger snaps, but without the ginger. They have more of a faint cinnamon & brown sugar taste, and they practically melt on your tongue when you eat them. Basically, they’re insanely delicious.

After picking up a package (ok, maybe 2), I thought about how I could turn these caramelized biscuits into something truly extraordinary. Since they’re reminiscent of cinnamon and brown sugar, I figured I would pulverize them into cookie crumbs, and use them inside, and outside, of cinnamon buns. Instead of a traditional speculoos spread, I did a play on cream cheese frosting, just like you’d spread over traditional cinnamon buns. The results were out-of-this-world amazing. If the picture doesn’t speak louder than words here, I don’t know what will.

Do me a favor. If you live in New York (or Israel for that matter) and you can get your hands on a package of these melt-in-your-mouth cookies, MAKE THIS. Better yet, if you’re up for the challenge, and you can’t get a hold of these cookies. Make your own. And then make this. You can thank me later.

Lotus Cookie Cinnamon Buns with Speculoos Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package Lotus biscuits (250 grams)
3 c. flour, divided
1/4 c. sugar
1 packet quick rise yeast
1 tsp salt
1 c. warm water
6 tbsp butter, softened, divided
1 egg at room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar

Method:

Grease a 9×13 pan and set aside. Add Lotus cookies (about 30) to a food processor or blender and process into crumbs. Divide into 2 cups.

Add 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt to a large bowl and whisk to combine. Stir in water, 2 tbsp butter and egg. Mix (by hand or with a mixer) until smooth. Gradually add in remaining flour until soft dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 12×15 inch rectangle. Spread with remaining butter. Mix brown sugar with 1 cup of Lotus cookie crumbs. Sprinkle over surface. Starting with 12″ side, roll the dough up tightly.

Cut roll into 12 slices and place in the pan. Cover and put in a warm place (I like to turn my oven on and place it on top) until buns double in size, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Uncover the buns and bake until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.

Frosting:

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup lotus cookie crumbs
3-4 tbsp milk

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth and creamy.

Spread frosting on buns and serve.

1 year ago: pesto pinwheels
2 years ago: 6-spice Morrocan stew

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