SMOOTHIE BOWLS with Brandi Milloy - Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Ep 157

Hi Bold Bakers! I have a real treat for you today because here is Brandy Molloy from Eat the Trend on PopSugar Food. She is back in my kitchen. Now last time you were here, everybody went nuts. So I had to have you back. We had so much fun together. It was great. This is like last year around Christmas time. It was really, really fun. So over on PopSugar Food, myself and Brandy made some jelly donut pancakes. So you have to go over after this video. They were so good. Tap that subscribe button and watch the video. They were insane. You do not want to miss out on that. But today, Brandy, what are you going to show us how to make? We are making some very delicious smoothie bowls. These are awesome. They're packed with fresh fruit and fun toppings and you can actually have them any time of the day. I've heard smoothie bowls can be eaten in the morning, but I love to eat these whenever I want. There's no rules. You can have them whenever you want. So Brandy, I'm absolutely loving all of this fruit here. It looks gorgeous. I think the best part about a smoothie bowl is the toppings. So I'm talking, I decided to go with my favorite berries. I have strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, but then some other fun wild card ingredients. Maybe ones you haven't heard of. Bee pollen, which you can get at a lot of the natural food stores, granola, pomegranate and goji berries. But what I like to do is just make the smoothie base and then have all the toppings and you can customize your bowl however you want. Do you know what I love about that is different textures. I am all about different textures in my food. So I love like soft and then you've got crunchy from the granola over here. So tell me a little bit about bee pollen because I actually don't know a whole lot about it, but I see it a lot. Well, bee pollen is packed with fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. It's one of those awesome superfoods, but I love what you said about texture because you know, everyone knows that you can have a smoothie and drink it with a straw. But the great thing about a smoothie bowl is you have the different textures of the juicy berries, the crunch from the granola, the little pomegranates that burst in your mouth. And the goji berries for me are like the little gummy bear on top. It's chewy and juicy and tart and those are packed with iron and other awesome antioxidants. Also a superfood, I think, right? Gorgeous. They're tasty. Okay, Brandy, where do we start? Okay, so first we're going to start by making the base of the smoothie bowl. So into my blender, I'm going to start by adding milk. You can also use almond milk, soy milk, cashew milk, coconut milk. You can use coconut milk or even coconut water. Oh, yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Yeah. And then I love to keep frozen bananas in my freezer. I peel them, I slice them up. That's going to kind of bind everything together. Me too. I always have frozen bananas. Yes. Because I love that starchiness that you get from them, you know, that makes it really quick. And they're so versatile and you're really not going to taste a lot of banana in this smoothie. Next we're going to do our mixed berries. You can obviously use fresh mixed berries or just buy them in the freezer aisle. I love that it has blackberries, raspberries, all the berries. It's like the triple thread of berries. So I'm all about frozen berries. I use them a lot on Bigger Bolder Baking because they're generally frozen in season and not a lot of people know that. Right. So sometimes it's actually better to use, especially during winter. They're ripe. They're sweet. Yes. They're frozen. They're fresh frozen on farms and they have no added sugar. But also, look on the back of the pack to make sure no added sugar. Oh, yeah. Sometimes there are some that have syrup and stuff. Okay, so when we're talking sweetener, my favorite way to sweeten a smoothie or a smoothie bowl is a date. Be sure you pit it. I also keep these in the freezer, but there is so much sugar in this date. Alternatively, you could also add a little bit of agave if you wanted or honey. But honestly, I think the date is going to give us plenty of sweetness. And it's natural sugar. Right. In that goes. And finally, I love to add a nut butter to my smoothie bowl. I'm using almond butter and especially if you're using almond milk, you probably want to use almond butter. That's a good point. It just gets that nice almond flavor. I love peanut butter. Oh, well, that yeah, that can be fun when you do the peanut butter and banana combo and like some cocoa nibs on top. I mean, I just think the almond butter adds just this smooth nuttiness, but you can use any nut butters you want. And also it acts as a good thickener, right? Just so you know, this recipe can be found on my website, BiggerBolderBaking.com. So you're definitely going to want to check that out. For sure. All right. And then all we're going to do is blend this until it's nice and smooth. Lovely. At this point, I love that it's getting mixed in, but I would always suggest to scrape down the sides. Good idea. Especially if you are using a standard blender, you want to make sure you get all those frozen fruits down in there. All right. So Gemma, once this is nice and smooth, we can pour it into our bowls. It looks great, Brandy. Okay. So Gemma, take a look at just how luscious this smoothie bowl is. Look how thick that is. It's perfect. Do you think that's because of the frozen berries? Yes. The key is you have to use frozen fruit and not too much liquid like a smoothie that you would enjoy with a straw. Yeah, that's a good point. See, I'm all about, I like to eat my breakfast or snacks. I'm not a big fan of like having drinks for meals, as you can probably imagine. Oh, yeah, I know. That's so boring. I'm definitely all about this kind of stuff. All right. So we just put the smoothie base in there. Now we can have fun with all of the toppings. And I just want to let you go for it. I think this is fun because you get to show your personality. Some people like to make designs with their toppings. I like to just keep straight lines. I think I'm going to start on the left side and work my way to the right. I'm a bit of a rule breaker, so I'm going to put mine all in kind of in a spiral in the middle. Oh, I like that idea. Isn't that a good idea? Don't steal my idea now, Brandy. And so the toppings ideally are going to sit right on top of the smoothie bowl because that's how you're going to get the textures. And that's why I love adding the granola because it just adds a little bit of crunch right on top. Yours looks almost like a cake. I love the design you're going with. Oh, thank you. Okay. Now for my final touch, Gem, I think I'm just going to add some little goji berries right in the little cracks. Yours looks great, too. Here's the thing. No matter what your smoothie bowl looks like, it's still going to taste delicious. I'm going to fill in my holes. I've lots of little holes over here. Okay. I think I'm done. Brandy, what are you thinking? Oh, my gosh. What I love about yours is you can tell, I mean, this is a berry delicious bowl. It's a berry. All those awesome berries. Excuse the pun. Okay. It's a berry overload. Yours is so pretty. Oh, please. I cannot wait to eat these. That's all I care about. This is when you decide, okay, where am I actually putting my spoon? Which toppings do I want first? Do a big scoop all along the top. See, do you know why I think we vibe so well together? Because you do these crazy, over-the-top things. And I mean crazy in the most flattering way. It's just like, that girl is crazy and I like her. I love that you said that. Yeah, because you're about big and bold and that's how we are at PopSugar Food. It's all about supersizing foods, making them big. And awesome. Gigantic. Yes. Okay. So we made this awesome smoothie bowl. I want you now to head over to PopSugar Food, subscribe, and watch our video to make jelly donut pancakes. They were out of this world, weren't they? Life changing. They were crazy. They were so good. Brandy, thank you as always. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. It's always a pleasure. Thank you everybody for watching and I'll see you back here every Monday and Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking. Bye! We are making smoothie bowls with Brandy Molloy. And she's shaking her head. This is how I dance.