blondie rose honey

blondie ingredients

blondie dollops

blondie smoothed ready to bake

blondie bars

Recently, my relationship with sadness has been changing. When it first came to me it was all about me and the circumstances of my life, my disappointments, my personal heartaches. My shift relates to the endless horrors and tragedies in the world that brings a whole different level of sad. My heart aches for other people all around the world and all their suffering that I hear about seemingly every single day.

Rumi said “Come out here where the roses have opened. Let soul and world meet.”

This so speaks the power in roses. Heart and soul and help for us all.

Roses lend themselves to baking magically because they add interest, fragrance, and mix well with many other baking ingredients like chocolate, honey, lemon, cream, and berries. An especially easy way to incorporate dried rose petals is by first preparing them as honey.

Honey is a beautiful sweetener for herbal syrups because it is in itself medicinal. Natural honey, not ultra-filtered, has anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory benefits. I gravitate to using less honey: most syrup recipes call for a 1:1 ratio of sweetener and concentrated liquid, so that would mean adding 2 cups honey to 2 cups of concentrated rose tea. I don’t think that is necessary and that you create a perfect tasting syrup that’s just a little less sweet, it doesn’t change the medicinal aspect of the syrup at all.

Rose honey keeps well and having it around facilitates adding a bit of warming brightness anywhere you would use honey. My two favorites are either add a bit to some cold sparkling water with a squirt of lemon or lime and second dollop a spoonful into plain whole milk, grass-fed yogurt. I love this kind of yogurt so much, its creaminess feels comforting alone but the addition of rose honey elevates it even further. I would rather have this than almost any dessert except maybe for chocolate cake with chocolate icing. And on that note, its a given that roses and chocolate go together, which is why turning it into a gooey chocolate fudge sauce for these blondies is so perfect.

gluten free rose chocolate chips

rose petals

rose petal tincture

inside a cookie

plates of cookies

rose hazelnut chocolate chip cookies

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Granted, sometimes a recipe needs work. When I mixed together the first batter for these cookies I used almond flour and coconut sugar. I kept thinking that it looked too wet and dark but I hoped that after a short time in the refrigerator, it would bake up fine. As I carried the covered bowl of batter to the refrigerator, I became distracted with something I left on the counter and put the batter bowl down quickly on top of the washing machine, which was churning my Sunday laundry. Note: never do this. In a split second the glass bowl of batter was face down on the floor, shattered in millions of pieces, batter splashed everywhere. I admit, I began to cry as I cleaned it up. After about an hour collecting myself, I began again and in the end I believe it was divine intervention for the first was a batter that should not have been baked. The new one looked much better using organic granulated sugar and hazelnut flour (I did not have almond flour left). The final result these extremely delicate but totally scrumptious chocolate chip morsels, totally gluten-free. Perhaps an egg would have helped them to hold together and I plan to try them that way another day. For now, my children all approved, and that works for me just fine. Possibly the brightening spirits rose petals worked their magic.

Sage Sweet Potato Bread Sliced

Sage and Lemon Shortbread Cookies Ingredients

Sage Sweet Potato Bread Ingredients

Sage Sweet Potato Bread Dried Sage as Ingredient

Sage Leaves

Dried Sage

Sage Sweet Potato Bread Full Loaf

Sage Sweet Potato Bread Slice with Butter

A classic autumn combination, evocative of holiday feasting. I must admit the sweet potato for me goes with Thanksgiving and I don’t much feel like eating them at any other time. Despite that, my inner nutritionist holds them in high regard as a vitamin and mineral packed starchy vegetable. The nutrients are much needed, magnesium, iron, fiber, folic acid, tons of vitamin A and beta-carotene, vitamin C, potassium and lots of others in smaller yet important amounts. The sweet in these potatoes falls into the category of low glycemic and as such will not cause a spike in blood glucose levels, which is a plus, especially in baking. The anthocyanin pigments responsible for the orange brightness contribute anti-inflammatory benefits that scientific studies reveal affect our brain and nerves in a positive way. It is a true food as therapy vegetable.

Still, these tubers are a bit too sweet for me to crave them for dinner. And my children will not eat sweet potatoes unless they are made into French fries. Not even the delectable brandy orange glazed chunks my mom has always made in November. This quick bread with the sweetness balanced by the bitter, drying, pungency of sage acts as the ultimate solution. Here again, the beauty of cake, my children will eat it.