It's what's for dessert.

I've been having a lot of fun dessert-related experimentation. I have decided that the world should be aware of the creations I have discovered through my well documented scientific method. Observe subject one.

Subject one is the culmination of several separate fruit trials, brought together for magical results. It all started with some over-brown bananas in the fruit basket. My man, the baker, tossed those babies into a nice batter and baked up some fine banana-nut bread, two loaves. We ate one and because that was all the banana bread we could stomach for a time, we froze the other.

Fast forward to last weekend. I was in Michigan, where the grocery prices are lower, and we bring a cooler for the purpose of cheaper grocery transport back to Cleveland. Kroger had a big sale on all things fresh berry. I partook of two packages of raspberries and one of strawberries. By weekend's end, due to much family quality time and a few meals out, I still had one package of each when I got back to my own kitchen. To use them up quick, I squashed them together in a bowl with a potato masher. Then, I put them in some tupperware in the fridge. 

There was still a slice of defrosted banana bread in the fridge. An idea was born. I took that slice of the bread after dinner the next night and topped it with crushed berries, drizzling both a glaze frosting (powdered sugar mixed with a dab of water) and some chocolate syrup.

It was heaven on a plate.

Subject Two: The Patriotic Parfait

Alas, despite my best efforts, there was still berries left over. I wanted to use them up before they went bad, so I took some lowfat vanilla yogurt and scooped some into a small bowl (read: recycled sinlge-serving greek yogurt container). I topped the yogurt with the remaining berries and drizzled a tiny bit of chocolate syrup. Then, to make things festive, I added a few July 4th star sprinkles.

This scientist's conclusion: Not only is it a healthy dessert alternative, but it's also darn cute.

Subject Three: The Vegan Extra-Chocolatey Oatmeal Cookies

These are from the book "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar." I have already made their chocolate chip cookies in an earlier blog. Those were a big hit. These babies, these are epic. They are cosmic. They are the Platonic Form of Cookie-ness. These things were delicious. Two different kinds of cocoa powder plus some chocolate chips make Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies quite um... chocolate-y. Every bite was infused with cocoa, and because most of the chocolate flavor did come from cocoa powder, rather than baker's chocolate or chips, it was less rich with a hint of bitterness that made these unique. To make your very own Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies, go buy the dang book already. Trust me, it's worth the money.

The Batter:

Apparently, these cookies can also be made with dried cherries in them. I didn't have dried cherries when I made this batch, but you can be darn sure that I've already picked up a bag of dried cherries for next time.