Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Protein Balls

I've got another gym snack for you today! Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Protein Balls! Two of my favourite things, in one neat little ball. These are super easy to make and so addictive. I've made these twice in two weeks, and am really enjoying having them in the fridge as a pre-gym snack, but also as a "I'm hungry but can't ruin my appetite" snack, like when I'm cooking dinner or we're going out for dinner in an hour and I'm so damn hungry but must wait. Patience is not a virtue of mine, but at least now I'm less likely to smash a vast quantity of nutritionally deficient snack food while waiting for dinner. Victory!

While we're here, I thought I'd show you my current nut butter collection - I wrote at length about this in my Salted Peanut Rice Krispie Treats post, so why not show you this time? (N.B. I bought these all myself, nothing gifted or sponsored here).

My nut butter collection

So, these peanut butter cookie dough protein balls. I found the recipe on Dinners, Dishes & Desserts via Pinterest, and it's ridiculously easy. Just stir together peanut butter, vanilla protein powder, maple syrup, vanilla extract, oat flour and choc chips, then form into balls. Done!

Ingredients

I don't always love protein powder - protein shakes are certainly not my thing because I'm not a fan of the taste, particularly the strongly flavoured ones (anything beyond a vanilla or chocolate flavour is too much for me). I've tried a few different commercially-made protein snacks out of curiosity - I can handle a cookies & cream Quest Bar but I don't love them, and most of the protein snacks I've tried have an unpleasant grainy and chewy texture and slightly chalky taste. As someone who doesn't have specific gym goals, or a desire for #gains, I see no point for me to eat food that is designed with function over taste. (Perhaps one day I will be a hardcore body builder, smashing BCAAs and protein shakes, and counting my macros, but today is not that day).

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Protein Balls

However, the protein powder works really well in these balls! I used Prana On Power Point Protein in Vanilla Crème, a vegan protein powder with a mild vanilla flavour, sweetened with Stevia. (Not sponsored, we just bought it at a health food store). The slight graininess from the protein powder gives these balls an appealing cookie-dough vibe, and it definitely makes them more filling. Left alone with a spoon and a jar of peanut butter I could easily eat a good four or five big spoonfuls at once - but with these balls, I find I'm good after just one. (Or sometimes two when I'm really hungry).

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Protein Balls

These protein balls certainly don't taste like a "healthy" snack, they just taste delicious! They really taste like peanut butter cookie dough, with the emphasis firmly on the peanut butter. Sandra tried one and thought they were almost too peanut buttery, I... am not familiar with that concept. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Protein Balls

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Protein Balls
Adapted from Dinners, Dishes and Desserts

Ingredients
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used a mixture of Kraft, Reese's and Darryl's)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Prana On Power Point Protein in Vanilla Crème)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
1.5 tablespoons oat flour (whizz up some rolled oats in a blender if you don't have oat flour)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt (if your peanut butter is unsalted)

Method
Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and mix everything together with a wooden spoon until blended. You may need to add a dash of milk (dairy, soy, almond, whatever) if your mixture is too dry to form into balls.
Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls - you should get approx. 12-14 out of the mixture, depending on how big you like your balls! (Heh).
Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Salted peanut rice Krispie treats

I've told you before that I like to keep some wholesome sweet treats on hand for pre-gym snacking. This is mainly to prevent fainting at the gym (it's happened, and it's embarrassing) and help me to work out harder, but also to break up that long long stretch between afternoon tea and dinner. Since last year's peanut butter granola bars I've slacked off a bit on making them myself, usually having some fruit or whatever random sweet snack I've got lying around at home.

In fact, a couple of weeks ago I was Googling "healthy pre-workout snacks" on the way home from work, and was totally going to make a banana smoothie, until I got home and saw... OOH PIZZA SHAPES! You can guess what happened next. Hah! (No regrets).

However, Sandra recently joined a gym and has been getting super into health and fitness. In addition to working out heaps, she's made a few batches of different wholesome snacks, and has also been testing out different protein powders, commercially made protein snacks and so on. She's inspiring me to lift my game, both at the gym, and in the all-important Gym Snack department.

Enter these salted peanut rice krispie treats! These are basically a riff on a Donna Hay recipe - bars made of puffed rice, nuts and chia seeds, held together with a delicious combo of peanut butter and honey. I replaced her suggested almonds and pistachios with pepitas and salted peanuts. Pepitas because I had them in the cupboard, and salted peanuts because they are my new favourite thing. After the runaway success of my peanut butter granola, I now want salted peanuts on EVERYTHING, all the time. (Have you made the granola? You must!)

Ingredients

In my view, salted peanuts are the perfect choice for these bars because the peanuts echo the peanut flavour in the peanut butter. (Say "PEANUT" again, Sarah!) I do suppose you could try this with another nut butter of your choosing, but for me peanut butter is the ultimate of all the nut butters. I have a habit of buying fancy nut butters at farmers markets, but take forever to finish them. My true love is clearly peanut butter! I go through peanut butter like nobody's business, and usually have about four jars on the go at once. (In case anyone cares, I think Darryl's Fresh Roasted Peanut Butter is the best of all the peanut butters, but no snobbery intended here - I'm also partial to Kraft crunchy and Kraft smooth, and also Reese's peanut butter, with its disconcertingly smooth and airy texture and its strange ingredients list which include monoglycerides, molasses and cornstarch).

Anyway, here's the mixture!

Mixture

And pressed into the tin. (The baking paper overhang makes it easier to remove later). I do love how the green pepitas punctuate the otherwise plain-looking mixture.

Mixture in tin

And now drizzled with chocolate! Milk chocolate is my favourite so I went with that, dark chocolate would work well too. (And incidentally, if you replaced the honey with maple syrup and used a vegan dark chocolate, you could easily make these vegan!)

Chocolate drizzles

I found that these were slightly crumbly, so some parts were a bit difficult to slice. In the recipe below I've suggested refrigerating them for at least two hours (I only did one hour, impatient!), and also weighting them down with a plate and some heavy cans or jars, to really compress them. Another option would be to add an extra few tablespoons of extra peanut butter and honey, so there's more sweet sticky cement to hold everything together. (I'd go with the longer refrigeration-weighting-down option though, because I thought the flavours were just perfect the way they were, and I wouldn't want to make it sweeter!)

Salted peanut rice krispie treats!

These are excellent pre-gym snacks, and from experience, I can tell you that they make a pretty decent breakfast too. (It's been a hectic week). I believe these could be frozen successfully, but I got through them so quickly that they never made it to the freezer. I shared some with my colleague Jimbo, who pronounced them "freaking delicious". I tend to agree! The salty-sweet-crunchy-chocolatey combo is a total winner! Enjoy!

PS I have lots of different gym snacks up my sleeve now and am super pumped to be making more gym snacks! Watch this space.

Salted Peanut Rice Krispie Treats
Adapted from Donna Hay

Ingredients
3 cups puffed rice
1 cup salted peanuts
1/2 cup pepitas
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
100 grams milk chocolate

Method
Place the puffed rice, salted peanuts, pepitas and chia seeds in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.
Place the honey and peanut butter in a bowl and microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring each time, until warmed through and runny.
Add the peanut butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. Tip the mixture in and press down firmly. Place another piece of baking paper on top and weight down with a plate and some cans or jars.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
Remove the slice from the fridge, and drizzle with the melted chocolate. Refrigerate again until firm.
Cut into bars to serve. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Makes one 20cm square

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Raspberry Bakewell Cake

Guten morgen! So guess what! We're in Germany! Surprise! We arrived last night and are settling in, desperately trying to acclimatise to a German winter. Normally I like to tell you about our upcoming travels, but this time I had to keep it on the down low, as this trip was a Christmas surprise for Sandra's family. We totally just rocked up at the family house last night! Lots of happy tears and hugs all around. Yay! Follow my Instagram feed for lots of German deliciousness over the next few weeks!

Innards shot!

But for today, as promised in my most recent post, here's the recipe for the Raspberry Bakewell Cake! This was the dessert for our small Christmas lunch last week. I'd initially thought of making mini-trifles, but the layers of custard and whipped cream were threatening to send our lactose-intolerant eater over the edge. Second choice was a raspberry Bakewell tart, but by the time I got around to baking, I was so tired from a full day of food shopping, baking gingerbread, and cleaning the kitchen, that the idea of making pastry from scratch was just too much to bear.

So I simplified the whole affair - I wanted to keep the delicious almondy-butteriness of a Bakewell tart, but in an easy cake form, without the pastry. I'm clearly not the only person who's had this idea, as a quick Google search revealed many recipes for easy Bakewell cakes.

I found a promising-looking recipe on the BBC Good Food website - it's an easy almond butter cake, with a layer of fresh raspberries in the middle, plus crunchy crunchy slivered almonds on the top. I amped up the Bakewell factor by adding a layer of raspberry jam in between.

Layer 1

The batter is very thick - I found it easiest to dollop it as evenly around the tin as I could, then smooth it out with the back of a spoon.

Now jam!

Raspberry jam

And raspberries! So red.

Fresh raspberries

Second layer

Almonds

I baked the cake the night before our lunch, and it was still lovely and moist the next day.

Raspberry Bakewell Cake

The cake turned out so well! So moist and buttery, with the fresh pop of raspberries and the toasty crunch of almonds on top. Delicious!

Cream cheese cinnamon rolls with caramel pecan topping

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Saint Cinnamon. My favourites were the almond or pecan-topped rolls, and I especially loved watching the rolls being made in store. Those huge slabs of dough! All that butter! All that sugar! Wow! I thought working at Saint Cinnamon would be the coolest job ever.

The Saint Cinnamon chain seems to have closed down now, and I'd completely forgotten about my obsession... until Sandra sent me the link to Joy The Baker's Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls. The rolls are made from a buttery yeasted brioche dough, which is laminated with cream cheese. The dough is rolled out, then sprinkled with a mixture of brown sugar, raisins, chopped nuts and spices. This is rolled up into a log, sliced, then baked and drizzled with a buttermilk glaze. Wow! I had to have them, and I baked them the very next weekend for Sunday breakfast. (I omitted the raisins because no thanks). Ta-dah!

Cream cheese cinnamon rolls

They were absolutely incredible! Really buttery and tender, with a rich cinnamon flavour and a lovely crunch from the nuts and (all that) sugar. They were delicious fresh out of the oven, but were still good for the next couple of days. I think all that butter and cream cheese in the dough helps to keep them moist. I shared them with my family and some friends - big sugary thumbs up all around! Hot tip: they're more fun to eat if you unroll them and eat them in one big spiral.

I loved them, but thought they could be even better, and got obsessed with the idea of tweaking the recipe. Actually, when I said I was going to experiment with the recipe, I had two separate people say: "No! But they were perfect the way they were!" Joy's rolls are, indeed, awesome, but I couldn't shake the idea that that fabulous dough would be better with a crunchy pecan topping and a few more minor tweaks... a few weeks of obsessive thinking ensued, and this is what I came up with...

• I made 16 small rolls instead of 8 big ones for extra cuteness
• I doubled the amount of nuts (and used only pecans), and topped the buns with them, rather than using them in the filling
• Still no raisins
• I halved the quantities of all the different sugars in the dough and the filling, and used that amount of sugar to make a sticky topping with the pecans
• I skipped the sugary buttermilk glaze

So my version looks more decadent than the original recipe, but actually contains less sugar overall. (Not that I'm trying to sell these as health food!)

Let's take a look at the process. They take quite a lot of time to make, but the results are totally worth it! I thought it was a fun way to spend a weekend. Here's the dough, after the butter has all been kneaded in and before the first proving.

Kneaded buttery dough

Once the dough has risen for an hour, you can roll it out and add the cream cheese.

Cream cheese!

Folding the dough over itself and rolling it out means you distribute thin layers of cream cheese throughout the dough. Delicious! (By the way, this process of folding and rolling is called lamination). This time, we're only doing one round of lamination. If you were making croissants or puff pastry, you'd be using butter instead of cream cheese and you'd probably do this three times.

Ready to roll

Can you see the thin streaks of cream cheese distributed throughout the dough?

Brushed with melted butter

And here's where we indulge our childhood dreams of Saint Cinnamon-employment - brushing the dough with melted butter, and sprinkling it with the filling mixture. Fun! This picture below is from when I made the original recipe - you can see some chopped nuts in the filling.

Yummm

Ok, so if you roll up the dough as it is, and then slice the log into eight, you'll get eight large rolls out of the dough.

Full-sized cinnamon rolls

If you're making little rolls like I did the second time, you just need to cut the dough in half crosswise, and roll the two dough pieces up into two thinner logs before slicing them into eight pieces each. Easy!

Okidoki, these next photos are from the time I made the pecan-topped rolls. Here's the pecan-sugar-butter topping, spread out into the baking tray and waiting for the buns.

Crunchy pecan topping

As you have seen, there's quite a lot of work involved in making these, but the good thing is you can do everything up to this point, and then leave the rolls to have a slow rise in the fridge overnight. Then in the morning, all you have to do is chuck them in the oven, and half an hour later you have a tray of gorgeous sweet and crunchy cinnamon rolls. And your kitchen will smell amazing!

Ready to bake!

Baked!

It helps if you cut around the individual buns to help separate them before you turn them out.

Crunchy crunchy crunchy

These are so good! The pecans go all toasty and crunchy in the sugary topping, contrasting with the soft, pillowy dough. The cinnamon and cloves make it smell super comforting, and you can really taste the delicious butter throughout the rolls. Ridiculous!

Try not to eat them all at once.

Nom

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Pecan Topping
Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients
For the dough
7 grams dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon, plus 2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 3/4 cups plain flour, plus more for kneading and dusting
3/4 teaspoons salt
112 grams soft butter

For the topping
1 1/2 cups pecans
6 tablespoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
90 grams softened buter

For the filling
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon maple syrup
125 grams cream cheese
30 grams melted butter

Method
For the dough, place the yeast and 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with 1/4 cup warm water. Allow to stand for 10 minutes until foamy.
Add the 2 tablespoons caster sugar, milk, light brown sugar, vanilla extract, egg and egg yolk, and whisk to combine.
Fit the bowl onto the mixer, then add the flour and salt. Knead with the dough hook (slowly at first!) until combined. Knead on medium-high for 4 minutes.
With the mixer going, gradually add the softened butter. Once the butter is all added, continue to knead for 4 minutes.
Add an extra 1/3 cup flour, and knead until combined. Form into a ball shape in the bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about an hour.
Meanwhile, prepare the topping and filling.

For the topping, heat the pecans in a dry frying pan until toasty and fragrant. Allow to cool, then tip onto a chopping board and roughly chop.
Stir together the caster and light brown sugar, the maple syrup and the softened butter. Add in the pecans and stir to combine.
Line a 20 x 30cm baking tray with baking paper. Tip the pecan mixture into the baking tray and spread out as evenly as you can manage. Set aside.

For the filling, stir together the caster sugar, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, cloves and maple syrup. Set aside.

Time to assemble! Once the dough is doubled in size, punch the dough down to expel the gas. (Heh). Tip the dough onto a well floured work surface and knead lightly until smooth. Roll out into a 25 cm square. Chop the cream cheese as finely as you can manage (it will squish a bit, not a problem), and sprinkle evenly over the dough.
Fold the square into thirds like a business letter. From the open ends, fold into thirds again to form a smaller square.
Place the dough seam side down, and gently roll out into a 25 x 50 cm rectangle. Cut the dough in half crossways, so that you have two 25 cm squares. Brush the dough squares with the 30 grams melted butter.
Sprinkle the dough squares with the filling, and roll up each square into a tight cylinder. Cut each cylinder into 8 even pieces (16 in total). Place the pieces, swirl side up, in the pecan-lined baking tray. Cover the tray with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight to prove.

To bake, preheat the oven to 190C. Take the rolls out of the fridge to come to room temperature while the oven is preheating. Remove the clingfilm. Bake the rolls for 30 minutes, or until cooked through when tested with a skewer. (Cover with foil if they get brown before cooking through).
Remove the tray from the oven, and gently cut around the rolls to separate them. Allow to stand for 10 minutes, then invert onto a large serving board to serve.
Makes 16 delicious sweet and crunchy cinnamon rolls.

Oma's Nusskuchen

First recipe of the year! I baked this cake last week, and we loved it so much that I baked it again last night! I adapted this recipe for Oma's Nusskuchen ("Grandma's Nutcake") from one on the Dr. Oetker website - essentially it's a butter cake, with added almond meal and chopped chocolate.

Chopped chocolate

Batter in the loaf tin

It's a lovely, simple cake, with a light vanilla fragrance. It's slightly dense, quite like a pound cake, with a moist nuttiness from the almond meal. It's the type of thing you can leave on the counter and keep going back to throughout the week.

Omas Nusskuchen

The first time I baked it, I accidentally took it out too soon, so it was crazy moist in the centre - oops. It tends to brown before it's cooked all the way through, so I suggest covering it with foil halfway through the cooking time.

Super Moist

It's nice for afternoon tea, or even for breakfast, if you're the type of person who eats cake for breakfast. (Spoiler alert: I am totally the type of person who eats cake for breakfast).

Breakfast!

Enjoy!

Omas Nusskuchen, or Grandma's Nutcake
Adapted from Dr. Oetker

Ingredients
250 grams unsalted butter, softened
175 grams caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
200 grams plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
100 grams chocolate (milk or dark, as you prefer), finely chopped
200 grams almond meal

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C, and line a loaf tin with baking paper. (My loaf tin is 29cm x 14cm x 7.5cm).
Beat the butter in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the caster sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract and salt.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. (The mixture may look curdled but will come together after you add the flour).
Speaking of which... sift together the flour and baking powder, and mix into the butter mixture using a wooden spoon.
Stir in the chopped chocolate and almond meal.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth out the top.
Bake for 60-75 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. (Check the cake at 45 minutes, and cover with foil if it is browning too quickly).
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.