There is so much right about these it’s hard to know where to begin. Honey butter is a sweet and rich condiment made of 1 part honey to 1 part butter. It’s a great thing to spread on toast, in sandwiches—wherever! It only seemed natural that this would make an excellent blondie, and with chocolate chips(because what do those not make better?). The flavor of honey butter shines through more as an aftertaste. I would have liked these to be a little fudgier but if you like your brownies more cakey then these are for you.

Honey Butter Blondies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup(1 stick) butter(or Earth Balance) at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour(I used Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free)
• 1/3 cup chocolate or white chocolate chips.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Start by creaming together your butter, sugar, and honey until it’s nice and smooth without any clumps. Add in the egg, extract, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and beat lightly.

Sift in the flour and mix again until  the batter is even. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips gently.

Press the batter into a greased 8×8 baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the center has set. Cool completely before cutting in and serving.

The top looked burnt but it wasn’t at all; I can only assume the ingredients cook to be that deep brown color. It actually smelled a lot like graham crackers baking!

I ate mine hot out of the oven and it was amazing. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a pat of honey butter on top. Technically, these were honey margarine blondies since I made mine with Earth Balance, but that doesn’t sound nearly as appealing so we’ll just stick with honey butter.

The best kind of recipes are simple recipes, or recipes that involve chocolate. This is both.

Every year at Passover my mom would make this cake for our bake sales. All the Jewish kids loved it because it doesn’t break the rule of eating leavened bread and yet it’s so airy and cake-like. Now, I’m not Jewish, but I tip my hat to any religion that favors chocolate over bread.

When I saw Jenna post the recipe a few weeks ago, I took it as a sign to bake this cake. Who doesn’t celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Trebia every December 18th? You should. With cake.

I used the same recipe with a few alterations, like making it dairy-free. I followed the recipe to a T, messed up completely as I typically do, and still managed to bake something that held together and was delicious. I’m not sure how that last part happened but I’m so grateful it did.

Dairy-Free Flourless Chocolate Cake

I used this recipe replacing the butter with Earth Balance in a 1:1 ratio and added a hefty teaspoon of instant coffee granules.

I knew I was doing it just like Jenna when I had a mess in my sink, floor, and counter space.

This came out so well for a cake with no flour or gluten-free replacement. The structure is entirely made by eggs. I even beat mine way too long, never got them “thick” or to make ribbons, had to deflate them just to get the chocolate to mix, and the cake still turned out just fine. Now that’s a forgiving recipe.

And we all ate happily ever after.

One of the most underrated foods in my opinion are hemp seeds. They have a sweet, nutty flavor that reminds me of a cross between pure vanilla and almond. They are very unassuming with their small, green appearance, and yet have such great health benefits sprinkled on top of oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast. And yet so few recipes actually use them! I love these cookies, because the sweet nuttiness of the hemp seeds pairs perfectly with the flavors already in a chocolate chip cookie. These are best enjoyed with a tall glass of hemp milk.

Vegan Hemp Seed Chocolate Chippers

Ingredients(Makes 24 cookies):

• 6 tablespoons butter substitute(such as Earth Balance), softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 2 tablespoons hemp oil(or a neutral-flavored oil)
• 1 egg-substitute
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Cream together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter substitute. Be sure not to overcream but rather keep the butter light and fluffy. Next, add in the oil, egg-substitute, salt, and baking powder and mix.

Gently sift in the flour and mix until just incorporated. Lastly, add in the hemp seeds and chocolate chips and fold to distribute.

Next, chill the dough for at least 30 minutes by placing it in the refrigerator to set. Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350 degrees and line 2 large room-temperature(very important) baking trays with parchment paper.

After the dough has chilled, start making dough balls by taking chunks of dough and rolling them into 1-inch balls and placing them on the cookie trays. This should yield 24 cookies; the balls of dough will look small but be assured that the cookies spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown. Let the cookies cool 5-10 minutes before removing them from the baking trays.

These cookies have become a fast favorite of mine. They’re a good blend of being soft and nicely chewy. And the sweet, mellow flavor of the hemp pairs perfectly with the tones of butter, brown sugar, and chocolate. You can adjust the recipe for any other kind of seed, but I think they’d be missing something.