Homemade Nutella with Hazelnuts and Almonds

Homemade NutellaOne of my biggest weaknesses has to be the the chocolatey hazelnut spread Nutella. It’s so good I could just eat it right out of the container (and often do!). Today, I needed a good amount for a dessert I was making but didn’t have enough. Luckily there are many homemade Nutella recipes out there, so I made my own for the first time!
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Strawberry and Blackberry Popsicles with Coconut Milk

Strawberry Blackberry PopsiclesIt’s strawberry season and whenever I’m at the store or farmers market, I just need to pick up a pint…or two! Today it got pretty warm out so I wanted to make some fresh strawberry popsicles to snack on. This recipe was inspired by my easy strawberry sorbet made with coconut milk. To the strawberries, I added some blackberries for more flavor and color. I also mixed in coconut milk to provide a creamy texture and agave nectar to sweeten the berries.
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Mini Strawberry Pies – An Easy Dessert for Mother’s Day

Mini Strawberry PiesFor Mother’s Day, I prefer the gift of food over a bouquet of flowers. Dessert is always the first thing I think about for my mom since she loves sweets. I wanted to make a pie but nothing difficult so I used puff pastry as the crust and topping instead of making my own. For individual portions, I ended up using the same ramekins I baked my veggie pot pies in. But feel free to use a regular pie pan and double the recipe. And best of all, this recipe only uses 6 ingredients! So try baking this for Mother’s Day. Mom will surely be impressed!
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Rhubarb Buttermilk Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar Topping

Rhubarb Buttermilk MuffinsAs much as I miss living in California for the sunshine and scenery, the excitement of waiting for certain fruits and vegetables coming in season are what I love most about being back on the East Coast. I never thought about it before, but now I can truly appreciate it. Right now rhubarb is in season and I’m seeing it everywhere.

My first taste of it was back home in Pennsylvania when a friend’s Oma (grandmother in German) baked a cinnamon rhubarb bread. She very finely diced the rhubarb, almost mashed, similar to a banana bread. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but from what I remember I had a few extra helpings! So today I picked up a stalk of rhubarb and decided to bake it into whole wheat muffins topped with cinnamon vanilla sugar and diced the rhubarb into pieces instead.
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Brioche Bread Pudding with Strawberries

Brioche Bread PuddingThis past weekend was filled with good food, friends and beer. The highlight was a homebrew tour in Brooklyn. After the tour we stopped by our friends’ Kate and Michael’s cute new cafe Little Zelda. They only opened a few weeks ago and have been getting great reviews already! It was closing time so we got to take some bread home and I happily decided on a loaf of brioche. I baked what I thought was best for this rich and buttery French bread, one of my husband’s favorite desserts, bread pudding.
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Muesli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Muesli Chocolate Chip CookiesLast week I made a large batch of homemade muesli and was thinking of a way to use it all up instead of eating it for breakfast. Since there are oats and dried fruits in the mix I thought of baking some chewy cookies. I just mixed in a few chocolate chips but otherwise this is a pretty simple recipe.
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