Apolinaras and I just booked a trip to Lithuania! He grew up there and came to the US in 1995 for college, and while I’ve heard a lot about it, I actually haven’t visited yet. So I’m very excited to see where he grew up, meet his extended family, and visit the Curonian Spit, which was recently named the second best beach in the world by The Lonely Planet. You can probably guess that I also can’t wait to try the local cuisine! I love being inspired by flavor combinations during our vacations.

In fact, one of the first things I did when I got home from URS was to make this bread pudding because I was so inspired by Andria’s idea to use donuts instead of bread in her version of the dessert! My own little twist was to add instant coffee since donuts remind me of breakfast (I may or may not have started my day with this treat one day…), and I couldn’t resist a little chocolate drizzle. This is a really easy dessert to pull together since you’re already starting with the baked donuts.

Mocha Donut Pudding
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups cubed cake donuts (I used a 12 ounce package of 12 donuts)
1/4 cup hot fudge sauce or warm chocolate ganache

Directions:
Heat oven to 350˚F. Place doughnut chunks in a greased 9-inch bread pan. Whisk eggs and milk until smooth in a medium bowl. Stir in sugar, instant coffee, and vanilla extract. Pour egg mixture over doughnuts and soak for 5 to 10 minutes.

Bake donut pudding for 40 to 50 minutes or until the custard is set, but still soft. Cool slightly and cut into slices. Drizzle hot fudge or warm chocolate ganache over each piece. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 406 calories, 20.7g fat, 1.1g fiber, 7.5g protein per serving
Cost: $0.65 per serving

I’ve always loved the Olympics (just hearing the theme song makes me smile!) and have been glued to the couch the past week enjoying the games every night. Since I usually don’t watch nearly this much TV, I’ve been keeping my restlessness at bay by multitasking and brushing up on my vector art skills while designing a new header for my blog! The change was inspired by my recent WordPress crash and Apolinaras’ comment that the fonts in my header look like they’re stuck in the early web development age of the 90s – LOL, thanks honey! I agree though, it’s time for a makeover! I’m having fun with it, although I’m tired of watching Adobe Illustrator tutorials every time I can’t figure something out (which is often…). I’m starting over from scratch, so stay tuned for the big reveal later this week!

The downside to all the Olympic festivities is that I haven’t been cooking anything exciting for the past week. Luckily, I have a few recipes saved just for occasions like this that I can still share! Today’s treat is one I made right before Christmas but thought would be more appropriate to share after the holidays when people would be more interested in lighter dessert options. I decided to make a creamy faux mousse (no eggs are involved) of roasted butternut squash and apple cider. It’s rich, creamy, and indulgent. I served it in martini glasses topped with toasted walnuts and gingersnap cookies, but it would also be lovely as part of a layered trifle.

Oh, and I’m submitting this to Natasha’s 5 Star Mousse Makeover!

Roasted Butternut Squash Mousse
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded
1/2 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup apple cider
1 8-ounce container light whipped topping, thawed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts
6 gingersnap cookies

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Use a pastry brush to evenly brush flesh side of the squash halves with melted butter and place flesh side down on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400˚F for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender. Let squash cool for 10 minutes. Remove flesh from the squash halves with a spoon and mash with a fork until smooth (my yield was 2 cups).

Place mashed butternut squash, powdered sugar, and apple cider in a pan over medium heat and heat for 5 minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool completely and puree in a blender until smooth.

Mix squash puree, 2 cups of whipped topping, and vanilla extract until smooth. Place into serving bowls and sprinkle evenly with nuts and remaining whipped topping. Garnish with gingersnap cookies. Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition: 220 calories, 9.8g fat, 2.5g fiber, 2.8g protein per serving
Cost: $0.93 per serving

Have you ever thought you didn’t like an ingredient and then suddenly realized that you’d actually been enjoying it for years? This recently happened to me. I never liked Whoppers growing up and remember being thoroughly confused about why someone would prefer a chocolate malt over a milkshake. But this all changed when the lovely Shannon announced she was hosting a Boston blogger cookie exchange. I decided it would be fun to come up with a cookie version of my very favorite Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor, Chubby Hubby. Between the fudge covered peanut butter filled pretzels and streaks of fudge and peanut butter, I was completely hooked the first time I tried it! So you can imagine my surprise when the label of the pint I picked up for “baking research purposes” said the ice cream itself was vanilla malt! Huh, how come I never noticed this before? I was a bit flustered. I mean, how could I have been enjoying malt ice cream and turning my nose up at Whoppers over all these years? I think the answer is that the flavors of Chubby Hubby are perfectly balanced. I would have never thought to pair malt with pretzels, peanut butter, and chocolate, but I am sure glad the geniuses at Ben and Jerry’s did!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any malted milk powder at the store, so I picked up some Whoppers and decided to use peanut butter cookie dough as the base instead. I sandwiched coarsely chopped pretzels and Whoppers between two layers of cookie dough and then baked the bars up and topped them with a chocolate ganache. The bars were very rich and I loved getting a bit of Whopper and pretzel in each bite!

All the cookies at the exchange were delicious and unique! Ready for your mouth to water? I got to pig out on Adrienne’s Lime Meltaways, Bridget’s Chocolate Almond Orange Macaroons, Elina’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Kelly’s Cookie Dough Truffles, Mary-Kate’s Black and White Cookies, Nicole’s Lemon Almond Cranberry Crescents, Shannon’s Maple Bacon Toffee Oatmeal Cookies, and Tina’s Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Bars! The event was so fun and I think Shannon wants to make it an annual tradition, so I am already looking forward to next year!

Peanut Butter Chubby Hubby Bars
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini pretzels, coarsely chopped
1 cup Whoppers candy (malted chocolate balls), coarsely chopped (I just cut mine each in half)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla extract together in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt. Spread half the dough in a greased 13×9-inch pan. Sprinkle pretzels and Whoppers evenly on top; drop remaining dough in chunks on top and spread evenly, until all the pretzels and candy pieces are covered. Bake at 350˚F for 23 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

In a medium bowl, microwave chocolate chips and milk on High 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Spread ganache over cooled peanut butter bars and refrigerate for an hour or until ganache is set. Cut into 32 bars after the pan reaches room temperature (this makes it easier to cut the ganache). Makes 32 servings.

Nutrition:  288 calories, 15.4g fat, 1.4g fiber, 5.7g protein per serving
Cost:  $0.21 per serving

If you’re having a bit of déjà vu, it’s because I posted a similar dessert sushi recipe back in March when I started my blog. But, I’ve since tweaked the original recipe after a few email requests and I think this version is definitely worth sharing! In all honestly, I don’t think this will be the last dessert sushi variation you’ll see on my blog. I think I’ll always be a bit obsessed with it and working towards improving my recipes and trying new techniques and flavor combinations!

The sushi itself contains a chocolate “seaweed” cookie dough wrapper, which is stuffed with coconut sticky rice and fruit. I played with the chocolate sushi wrapper ingredients and found that the dough is easier to work with when I used cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate. I’ve also included additional measurements so you can make it if you don’t have a kitchen scale. Plus, you know I couldn’t resist filling the sushi with red and green fruit (strawberries and kiwi!) so it would be perfect for Christmas!

Christmas Dessert Sushi
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup jasmine rice
1 1/3 cups (11 ounces) light coconut milk
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 ounces quartered strawberries (2-3 medium strawberries)
1 1/2 ounces kiwi, sliced into long rectangular strips (3/4 of a medium kiwi)
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

Directions:
Combine rice, coconut milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture boils. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender and sticky. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, mix butter and remaining 4 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl until creamed. Add milk, vanilla, and cocoa powder and mix until smooth; stir in flour and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Roll chocolate dough into a 12-inch log and place down the middle of a large sheet of waxed paper. Place another piece of waxed paper on top of the log and use a rolling pin to roll the log into a 12×6-inch rectangle. Remove top sheet of waxed paper.

Spread room temperature coconut rice on top of chocolate dough rectangle in a 12×5.5-inch rectangle, leaving a 1/4-inch border on both long sides of the rectangle. Line up quartered strawberries horizontally down the center of the coconut rectangle. Line up sliced kiwi below the line of strawberries. Roll up dough into a cylinder like a “sushi roll” by lifting up waxed paper and sealing the ends of the dough together. Roll the roll on the counter and press together firmly. Remove waxed paper from the roll and cut into 16 dessert sushi pieces with a sharp knife. Fill in any gaps with extra fruit, if needed.

Place melted chocolate into small soy sauce containers. Serve dessert sushi with chocolate “soy sauce” and eat with chopsticks! Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 209 calories, 10.6g fat, 1.3g fiber, 2.7g protein per serving
Cost: $2.92 total