That's Fabulous!

Mickey Mouse Pancakes

2009-08-02T12:14:00.007-04:00

If you know me, or if you've ever lived with me, or just spent the night at my house, you know how much I love love love breakfast! Hens in a Nest, french toast, omelets, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, muffins, bacon, bacon, and more bacon... what's not to love? I often find myself eating breakfast for dinner because I usually don't make much of a breakfast during the school week. I was especially excited on Father's Day because I was going to go to Fort Wayne, and my Nana was making breakfast for everyone. I knew this would involve my childhood favorite, Mickey Mouse pancakes. Sometimes just the head, other times the whole body, these were a staple of my childhood. I couldn't wait!

Then, it was all ruined. My brother's car got towed, and I don't have a car, so I was stuck in Indy. But, I still wanted my damn pancakes! Luckily for me, Joy the Baker (have I mentioned how much I love her?) posted her dad's recipe for buttermilk pancakes. I cut the recipe in half, and added more buttermilk so I could get a good Mickey shape. They were delicious! Not quite like Nana's, but yummy nonetheless. Now go make some pancakes!

Buttermilk Pancakes

Makes about 5 Mickey Mouse or 10 small pancakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Whisk together milk, eggs and vegetable oil in a medium bowl, then whisk in the butter.

Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in another medium bowl. Whisk in egg mixture until combined.

Once combined, let the batter sit for 10 minutes while griddle preheats.

Spray a griddle or skillet with nonstick vegetable spray over medium heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto skillet in a circle, then add two smaller circles for the ears. (You may need to add some more buttermilk if the batter is too thick to pour easily.) Cook until bubbles have formed on the top and sides of the pancakes and broken, about 2 minutes.

Flip pancakes with a spatula (a super thin metal spatula works great) and cook until undersides are golden, about 1 minute more. Lower heat if pancakes brown too quickly.

Serve with maple syrup. Don't forget the blueberries and bacon if you want to be super awesome like me!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

2009-08-02T11:23:00.007-04:00

Hullooooooo! (in that wonderful Julia Child/Mrs. Doubtfire sort of way)

Please forgive me for my extended absence. Yes, I know that it's been over a year since I last posted. Yes, I have baked a lot since then. Yes, I know that I am incredibly lazy and a procrastinator. But let's put that all behind us, and talk about some tasty muffins, mmkay?

I have been on a blueberry kick this summer. Hardly a day has gone by that I haven't had a blueberry in my fridge. Usually they just go in my yogurt or some pancakes (we'll get to that). But last time I went to the farmer's market, I bought an absurd amount. I was considering freezing them, but then I came across this recipe from Joy the Baker. It was truly destiny. I actually have buttermilk in my fridge, which I can never seem to use up before the expiration date. I had two little applesauce cups left to make one cup, and exactly half a cup of brown sugar. Perfect way to start a lazy Sunday, don't ya think?

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Makes 12-15 muffins

Ingredients:
* 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
* 1 1/4 cups oats
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (two of the snack pack size)
* 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
* 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 2 tbsp canola oil
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases or spray with nonstick cooking spray. I used the Crisco baking spray, which is great for muffins!

In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. (I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and it seems to fill them perfectly) If you have extra berries, it's always nice to put a few on top of the muffins.

Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious.

These go very well with a mug of coffee and Meet the Press, in my opinion.

Happy Sunday! :)

A Halloween Wedding

2008-11-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

Long, long ago, on a college campus far, far away, in Indianapolis, two freshmen at the University of Indianapolis decided to attend a "Christian" event (I can't remember the name of it, nor could I find it via google.) that allowed them to move on campus several days early. Woo!
Well not long into this event these two freshmen realized that both sarcasm and wit seemed to be wasted on the vast majority of people at this event. Thus, a bond occurred. The two freshmen were friends through all of the angst ridden drama that comes during the first year of college and some of it that comes from living in an all girls residence hall. Alas! At the end of their freshmen year, one of these two returned to Wisconsin while the other remained in Indiana.

And...roughly five years later, I finally made it to Wisconsin to see Nicki...for her wedding! on Halloween!

Meet the bride and groom: Nicki and Andy. They had a fabulous Halloween themed wedding, how could you do anything else for a wedding on Oct. 31. The seven hour drive was well worth it for me to finally meet Andy and to be there for their wedding. They had fabulous hand carved pumpkins lining the way into the reception. Each table had a Halloween centerpiece and the table numbers were small pumpkins with the number carved into them. The seat assignments were amazing toe tags hand made by Nicki. Not to mention all of the extra Halloween touches and the mini caskets filled with candy at each seat.

All of it was fabulous, but man you should have seen the cake they picked out, three layers, with each layer a different cake/filling combination. Yummmmmm...I was on my way out the door to head back to Indiana right while they were cutting the cake when Nicki's grandma brought me a piece of the delicious cake. She even psychically knew not to give me the cheesecake layer! I held off until about Chicago when I finally broke down and ate every delicious bite:-) Would you like to see the cake?

Isn't it pretty!? Just like them!

Thanks for inviting me Nicki, I was so happy to be there for your special day and to see how happy Andy makes you. The wedding was perfect. Right down to the sounds of trick-or-treating outside the church during the ceremony. Love you!

Happy Birthday to Katie!

2008-10-18T17:00:00.005-04:00

While Katie and Jason traveled to Ohio for a DEVO Concert/Obama Fundraiser I traveled to their house to let their dog out and to make some stealthy birthday baked goods. Yes, I baked in their kitchen while neither of them were home. I'm creepy like that.

First up I tried my hand at making my first ever apple pie. I cannot reveal the recipe as it is a shhhh! family secret of some sort that is not mine to reveal, but it is pretty freaking tasty, I can tell you that much. And, hey...not bad for my first attempt at from scratch pie.

Next up is one of the best things I have ever baked and one of the worst photos. When I was at Katie's I forgot to take a picture of the cake, so a week later we took this one, the cake had sank some while in the fridge and a week had not done much to improve its looks or probably its taste either.

The original recipe comes from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes, but I found it via Life in a Peanut Shell. The original recipe included a sour cream triple layer chocolate cake, peanut butter cream cheese frosting (don't judge until you have tried it..Yum.), and a chocolate-peanut butter glaze that I opted out of.

Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. Then freeze for 15-20 minutes while you prepare the frosting.

4. To frost the cake, place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup cup of the Peanut Butter Frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

The surprise didn't work out very well, but we did have a tasty if slow dinner with Katie, Rich, Rob, Susan, Jason, Tracy, Jillian and Allen and then cake and pie at Katie's. Mmm...pie.

Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-09-15T10:00:00.001-04:00

Everywhere you look on baking blogs, websites, food shows and even in the New York Times, people are discussing and fighting over the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. I won't even begin to claim that I have found that. Opinions vary so much that it is an impossible statement. If Jillian shared her grandmother's chocolate chip cookie recipe, I'd be tempted to call it the best, but she hasn't and she won't, so I'm stuck with this one. Which, actually, I'm pretty okay with as it is freaking tasty and awesome. The honey really ads something to the flavor, even though I just used regular honey flavored honey as opposed to the floral stuff that everyone seems to favor. (Bleck!) I'm in love with honey just the way it is.

This recipe came from Baking Bites, another lovely blog with tons of recipes that you should definitely check out.

Ingredients:
Honeyed Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in honey and both eggs, individually.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. On a low speed, gradually incorporate flour mixture into honey mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
Use a small-ish scoop to create 1-inch balls and place onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie to allow for the dough to spread. (And, these do spread quite a bit, so err on the side of too much space.)
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4-dozen cookies

Not So Outrageous Brownies

2008-09-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

This was another one of those baked goods for the Longaberger ladies.
This trip was a whole lot of pain, not to mention the getting up at 4 a.m. post adventures in late night baking.
The recipe came from the Cookie Madness, a virtual treasure trove of cookie and brownie recipes. Most of the stuff I find there turn out pretty well. These, not so much. I don't know what is wrong with me, the texture turned out great, but I just didn't like the added flavor from the instant espresso powder. Of course, I hate coffee in general, so probably you shouldn't judge these based on me.
The Oreos tended towards disintegration, which I didn't appreciate, but the artificially based filling stood up to the test in the oven and was easily discernible in the brownies. I would probably make these again, forgoing the additional coffee flavor for an extra bit of vanilla.

Ingredients:

8 ounces unsalted butter
8 ounces plus 4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (12 oz total)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
8 Oreo cookies, broken up

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350º. Line a 13×9 inch metal pan with foil and spray foil with cooking spray.

Melt the butter, 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.

Stir (do not beat) eggs, vanilla, and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir 1/2 cup of flour, the baking powder, salt and espresso powder together in another bowl then add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the Oreo chunks and 4 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with remaining 2 tablespoon of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into pan

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 10 minutes more, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool, then chill brownies. Lift from pan and cut into squares.

Makes about 32 (Or so the recipe said, I ended up with maybe 20, but apparently I make my brownies overly large...it's how I like things.

Doughnut Muffins! = Delicious

2008-09-13T05:00:00.001-04:00

Yum. Yum. Yummy. This are much easier than they sound, especially if you come up with a better way to dip them than by burning the tips of your fingers like I did. Robin took several young hoodlums to Longaberger Mecca, Dresden, Ohio, for a Saturday and I was urged to provide some baked sustenance for the arduous journey. I thought these sounded pretty good for a breakfasty type baked good. I chose to make mine into mini-muffins instead of full-sized, which ended up turning out really well, they tasted just like cinnamon sugar doughnut holes and they stayed really moist over the next few days.

Doughnut Muffins
Ingredients:
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon cinammon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup milk

Topping (I pretty much doubled this)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray and flour a mini-muffin pan. Don't use paper liners.
Cream oil 1/2 cup sugar and egg in a medium bowl.
In a seperate small bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together. Alternate adding the flour mixture and 1/2 cup milk to the cremed mixture. Flour-Milk-Flour-Milk-Flour. Spoon the batter into greased mini muffin tins about 1/2 full and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Melt the butter for the dipping mixture in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. When the muffins are done remove them from the tin, and immediately dip them into the melted butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Let rest on a cooling rack or some paper towels.

Coca-Cola Cake!

2008-06-23T05:00:00.007-04:00

MMMMM......Cola Cake! If you have ever wondered before, this is my most favoritest cake. Or, if you are into grammar conventions, my absolute favorite. I don't remember a time when this hasn't been the cake I judge all other cakes against.
My grandmother used to make it almost every year for my birthday, but that was a long time ago. She passed away last year, but she had stopped baking or doing much of anything long before that. Several years ago, my friend Katie went to the effort of baking a coca cola cake for my birthday. It wasn't the prettiest (she didn't realize that they never are very attractive.) but it was delicious. The fact that she made the attempt is one of the many reasons that I love her dearly. Earlier this year, Mom #2 made one for me at work. It was fabulous, but it also made me realize something....at this point, shouldn't I be able to make my own freaking coca cola cake? I had been baking all of this stuff, and it never once occured to me that I should attempt it too.

I should forewarn you that this is the most horrible, bad for you cake around. If you aren't looking for that, don't read any further.

This particular recipe came from the Coke website.

The link connects to a list of coca cole related recipes. My favorite and the one pictured is the Coke Cake. Beware the listing for chocolate cola cake. It is a dirty liar and not nearly as tasty as this one.

Recipe
Cola Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoon cocoa
6 tablespoons Coca-Cola
16 ounces = 1 box confectioner's sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together flour and sugar into large bowl. (I'm not sure how important the sifting bit is, I've always done it the way they recommend. I never want to chance messing up my cake.) Add marshamllows.

In a saucepan, mix butter, oil, cocoa and coca-cola. Bring to a boil. (I make sure to melt the butter a bit by itself first, things seem to go more smoothly that way.)

Pour the mixture over top the sugar/flour/marshmallows and blend well.

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk just before adding it to the batter along with the eggs and vanilla extract.

Pour into a greased 9x13 jellyroll pan. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

While the cake is baking go ahead and prepare the frosting.

•

Combine buter, cocoa powder and coca cola in a saucepan. (Again I recomment melting the butter a bit first.) Bring to a boil and pour over confectioners' sugar and blend well. Add vanilla extract and crushed pecans.

ICE CAKE WHILE HOT! DIRECTLY OUT OF THE OVEN! (I am using capital letters, not because my caps lock key got stuck, but because this part is important!

ENJOY! (Obviously, this part is also vital.)

**I will also recommend using the 9x13 jelly roll sized pan listed in the recipe. The cake comes out thinner and better and that is, after all, the point. Also if you are a dirty rotten scoundrel like me, you might want to double the frosting recipe. You want to shoot for a roughly 50-50 ratio between cake and icing.**

Butterfinger Bars

2008-06-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

It seems like a lifetime ago that I made these. So long ago, I don't even remember where the recipe came from or where it is just now. I remember that it was different from most "butterfinger" recipes in that it actually involved the use of butterfingers, not an attempt at replicating the taste itself. I'll go ahead and post the photos and then add the recipe once I find it.

If you care to take notice, these were baked in my fabulous "new" a.k.a. new to me pans. They are vintage and I didn't even have to go looking for them, just had to ask my grandma! I love the metal pans with the matching slide on lids. Grandma gave me two! :-)

Mom's Cherry Cordials

2008-06-03T20:48:00.000-04:00

I too, am alive. I graduated a month ago, and let's just say I needed a short hiatus from just about everything. I did start baking again, but I just need to catch up on the blogs!

My Mom really loves cherry cordials. I buy some for her on almost every holiday that is appropriate. I decided that I would try making them myself this year. I personally like the look of the hand dipped candies versus the molded ones, so that's what I decided to make.

I always wondered how cherry cordials got their gooey center, and now I know! The center is actually a fondant that is wrapped around the cherry. After you coat it in chocolate and let it sit at room temperature for a few days, it liquefies.

Unfortunately, I was too afraid that the chocolate would melt, so I kept these in the fridge. The centers didn't liquefy, but they were still tasty!

I used the recipe found here. I made about 30 cherries (however many were in one jar), and I only used about half of the fondant. I also drizzled on some white and dark chocolate after I dipped them in the milk chocolate. It was hard to drizzle around the stem, but I still think they turned out nicely!

I gave a nice box to Mom and had some extras to share with the family. Everyone loved them! Even some people who haven't liked cherry cordials in the past enjoyed these! Mom especially loved them! She said they were "nummy" and "melted in her mouth." The only problem is that now she might be expecting them a lot more often!

I'm Alive

2008-05-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

I have done some baking since my last post, but my oven hasn't even been turned on in over a week. The weight loss from the lack of baked goods at work is astounding.
No excuses for a lack of oven adventures, but I've had a very insane week and a half. Dad had emergency open heart surgery to remove an anuerism on his aorta, repair an aortic disection and a double bypass and I spent most of my time driving back and forth from work to Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky. He is back at his home again and I just finished a large-ish/tedious special section at work so I should have some time again.

Angela has been in from her Peace Corps adventures so that has been great. Hopefully I'll get some time to do some baking for her before she leaves us again until December.

In other news:

Kristen Bell and Michael Ausiello Have My Vote for the

Mother's Day: Dorie's Peanut Butter Torte

2008-05-11T17:15:00.001-04:00

This was the second of the two Mother's Day desserts. Personally, I preferred the strawberry cake, but both of them ended up getting consumed, so I'll call it a wash.

Dorie Greenspan's Peanut Butter Torte
from "Baking, From My Home to Yours"

Ingredients:
1 ¼ c. finely chopped salted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder (or finely ground instant coffee)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
½ c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 ½ c. heavy cream
1 ¼ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ c salted peanut butter – crunchy or smooth (not natural; I use Skippy)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Directions:
Getting ready: center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Toss ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chops together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Put the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.
Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Crape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you have one, or continue with the hand mixer, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, ¼ cup of the chopped peanuts and the milk.
Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream.Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To Finish The Torte: put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.
Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and, working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.
Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.
When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the Springform pan; I had no problems removing the pan, but you can also wrap a hot damp kitchen towel around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve. *I actually refrigerated mine in the springform pan because I was worried about something getting knocked into it while in the fridge. I didn't encounter any problems from that.

TORTE!

Mother's Day: Strawberry Cake From Scratch

2008-05-11T17:00:00.005-04:00

For Mother's Day this year my family came over and we had a fabulous home cooked meal and enjoyed each other's company. EHHH! Wrong. My family came over and we all went to the local New China Buffet Restaurant. My family stuffed themselves and shamed me and then returned back to the apartment for the desserts I made the night before.

Awhile ago Katie was looking for a "from scratch" strawberry cake recipe for her brother's birthday. I don't remember what recipe she ended up using, I just remember she wasn't hugely pleased with it for the amount of work and pureeing that was required.

I did some searching and came up with this one to try from All Recipes. I've since made this cake three or four times and it has consistently turned out well. The icing is a little more iffy, but the cake has always been delicious and pretty.

From Scratch Strawberry Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs (room temperature)
2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup strawberry puree, I used fresh, but the recipe originally called for frozen

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter, flour and line with parchment three 9 inch round cake pans.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and strawberry puree. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely. These might benefit from a trip to the freezer as they tend to stick in the pan.

These tend to make three moist, dense layers. I've used both strawberry cream cheese and strawberry butter cream icing. The cream cheese just refused to hold up very well and ended up making a horrible layer cake. The buttercream is a touch sweet, but it works well and is easy to use. I just use a regular buttercream recipe adding in about a 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of extra strawberry puree.

Mexican Chocolate Crunch Brownies

2008-05-02T15:00:00.002-04:00

Unless you are Jill, Richard, Heather, Hannah, Mark or my mother you probably don't know about my complete and total adoration for Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cereal is hands down one of my favorite foods. I love all kinds from regular flakes to child pleasing Captain Crunch and more health focused raisin brain or frosted mini-wheats. Cereal. The delightful combination of milk with tasty bite sized morsels. I tend to go through phases with my cereal loves. The longest and most enduring infatuation has been above all, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. My love is what led me to jump on making these brownies from the Pillsbury 43rd Annual Bake Off. Mom was nice enough to get the little recipe booklet with all of the finalists in it for me. And this was one of the first I marked to try.

Ingredients:
1 box (12.8 oz) Cinnamon Toast Crunch® cereal (about 8 cups)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbs corn syrup
1 box Fudge Brownie Mix
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 tbs cinnamon-sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch pan with baking spray. Crush cereal until finely crushed in food processor. You should have about 4 cups.
In large bowl, stir butter and corn syrup until well blended. Add crushed cereal; mix thoroughly. Press evenly in pan.
In large bowl, make brownie mix as directed on box, using oil, water and eggs as listed and adding cinnamon. Stir in 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips. Pour brownie batter over cereal mixture. Sprinkle remaining 2/3 cup chocolate chips evenly over batter.
Bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar evenly over brownies.
Bake 14 to 18 minutes longer or until brownies are set when lightly touched in center. Cool 10 minutes; loosen edges but do not cut. Cool completely, about 2 hours before cutting.

I really liked these a lot. The one suggestion I would make is to bake the crust by itself for maybe 5-10 minutes before adding the brownie mix. The cereal crust ended up really chewy and although it tasted alright it's texture was unpleasant.

Margarita Cupcakes

2008-04-30T05:00:00.002-04:00

What do I hate? TEQUILA! So what am I gonna do? Bake with it!!!

Sounds logical to me. Baking makes all flavors better right? And it is less likely that I 'll go swimming fully clothed in Canaan after eating a cupcake.

Actually, Robin needed something to take with her to the end of the season bowling shindig. And what better to take to a bunch of booze loving ladies than a liquor soaked baked good?

Ingredients
Margarita Cupcakes:
9 oz Margarita mix
3 oz tequila
3/4 oz Grand Marnier (I used Triple Sec)
White Cake Mix - GASP! (No-pudding mix works best)
3 egg whites
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs lime zest

Lime Buttercream:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbs lime juice
Food Color

Directions
Cupcakes:
Mix together the margarita mix, tequila, and Grand Marnier (Triple Sec) in a large glass or spouted bowl. You actually only need 1 1/4 cup of this for the cupcake mix. Put the remainder in the fridge to chill and then use how you see fit.

In a stand mixer, add the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, lime zest, and 1 1/4 cup of the margarita mixture. Mix on low for about 30 seconds and then increase to medium speed for two minutes (the batter will still be a bit lumpy).

Spoon the batter into a prepared muffin pan (fill the cups somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 full) and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and cool 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Icing:
Add the butter, powdered sugar, salt, food coloring, and lime juice to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the icing is fluffy. Add the icing to a pastry bag or use a spatula/knife to frost the cupcakes.

You will have to track down some who actually ate one of these get a review. I tried one and didn't really like the texture and I was a bit disappointed with the lack of margarita flavor in the cupcakes, it seemed to all be in the frosting.

Chocolate Pepper Cookies

2008-04-29T10:00:00.001-04:00

Wow. I'm not sure who the target audience is for these cookies, but it certainly wasn't me or anyone else I could sucker in to trying one. Oh wait! My grandmother, the one, who can't drink coffee after 4 p.m. liked the pepper cookies.

Chocolate Pepper Cookies
The recipe here from Cookie Madness.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder (Dutch Process) (1 oz)
1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 scant teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tbs golden syrup/white corn syrup
1/3 scant cup vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla
3 1/2 tbs water
1/4 cup chopped up dark chocolate

Directions:
350 degrees F

Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, black pepper, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, syrup, oil, vanilla and water.

Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir until almost mixed, then add chocolate and stir until flour mixture is fully absorbed and chocolate is distributed.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.

This recipe yields between 12-18 cookies and trust me, that will be plenty.

I used less than half of the pepper called for and these were still tooo peppery for me. Seriously spicier than I have ever known that simple black pepper could be.
Give them a shot if you would like. I'm sure they are someone's cup of tea. The texture and actual composition of the cookie was god, so if you can get on board with the flavor, they would be tasty I'm sure.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

2008-04-27T10:00:00.004-04:00

Out of all of my friends' parents, I've probably spent the most time with Jeff's. Scott and Sarah put up with me during most of high school when I really didn't even want to put up with myself. I didn't see them as much during college and now with Jeff gone, I haven't seen either Scott or Sarah except for brief sightings at the store.
So I wanted to make them cupcakes. I decided that this recipe would be a place to start. The recipe is from Sweet Treats Baking Blog. It sounded like a good idea, peanut butter cupcakes with a chocolate frosting...a delicious Reese's cup in cupcake form.

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

Glaze:
1/4 heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside

In a large bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add egg. Mix. Add vanilla. Mix for an additional minute or until smooth.

Add the flour mixture in 3 portions and the milk in 2 portions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned about 25 minutes. There will be cracks on the top. Cool.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream and butter over low heat until the cream is hot and the butter is melted. The mixture should form tiny bubbles and be about 175 degrees F on a thermometer. Do not boil.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the milk chocolate and let it sit in the hot cream for 30 secs to soften. Add the vanilla and whisk the glaze until it is smooth and all the chocolate has melted. (Return the glaze to low heat if necessary to melt the chocolate completely, whisking constantly.) The glaze should be thick enough to hold its shape when spread over the cupcakes. If it is too liquid to spread, let it sit at room temp for 5-10 minutes. Glaze cooled cupcakes.

Now, if you can tell from the heinous picture, I did not use the chocolate glaze recipe. I used the chocolate buttercream recipe from the Earth Day Cupcakes

Chocolate Buttercream
Chocolate Buttercream
1/2 cup butter @ room temp.
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-5 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla

These cupcakes did end up tasting alright. But, they just weren't something I was willing to take to someone else. The cupcakes were dense and the liners kept peeling off the cupcakes making it look like someone had molested them. For taste they get a 7/10; but for appearance and ease to work with they rock out around a 3/10.

Sooo, I'm still looking for something to bake Scott and Sarah. Maybe I can just make something cutesy and give it to her for mother's day.

Happy ANZAC Day!

2008-04-25T17:00:00.004-04:00

Today is ANZAC Day. Otherwise known as Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day. It honors members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Anzac Day is also celebrated in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.

It is a fabulous random holiday I decided to celebrate instead of Arbor Day, which I actually adore thanks to a former arborist and girl scout leader who I adore too!

The ANZAC biscuit or cookie was reportedly created because any food sent to the soldiers was carried via the Merchant Navy to the soldiers, the transportation of said food would take upwards of two months. The basis of the recipe was rolled oats, then utilizing other ingredients that did not spoil easily. One notable omission from any ANZAC biscuit recipe is that of eggs. This was due mostly to the scarcity of eggs.

This particular recipe comes from A Cookie for Every Country.

Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
4 oz butter
2 tbs golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbs water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together. Melt syrup and butter together. Mix baking soda with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup. Add to the dry ingredients while it is still foaming.

Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Place spoonfuls of the dough (approx. 1 tbs each) on baking sheet approximately 2" apart. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and remove from baking sheet to racks to cool.

I baked mine for about 15 minutes and they didn't turn into little coconut rock piles as I got the impression that they would. Instead they were golden and crunchy on the outside and just a bit chewy inside. I'm not sure how they are holding up 24 hours later as far as consistency goes. In case you don't know this about me, I wouldn't touch anything with coconut in it with a 100 foot poll. The only coconut ridden item that I have ever consumed is a Samoa and I tend to think that is because the coconut is shredded smaller and is smothered in chocolate to obscure the taste, not to mention it is toasted first.

Wheezy wants to play fetch...

2008-04-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

This is what P.D. Wheezy does while I bake.

He either harasses me wanting to play fetch with his stuffed bear or creepy mice toys or he and Princess Potato commence a rousing competition of "lay around and do nothing but get in the way."
He usually wins.
He is better at flopping on the floor and being fat and sassy than Princess Potato is.

Orange Pecan Sugar Cookies

2008-04-24T17:00:00.004-04:00

Orange makes another appearance...and this time, it is kinda, well bland.
These were a little too on the cakey side for my personal preference. Overall, not a bad flavor, just not something I would really go out of my way to make again, not when there are so many other fabulous things you can do with orange. I ended up adding some mini chocolate chips to the batter for about half the recipe and that improved them a bit.

This recipe came from Technicolor Kitchen who acquired the recipe from Baking Bites.

Ingredients:
1 medium orange
1/2 cup butter @ room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped
optional: 3/4 cup dried cranberries or milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Zest orange and add zest (about 1 tbsp) to butter mixture, along with 3-4 tbsp fresh orange juice (squeeze from remaining orange).
Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture, blending it in at a low speed until no streaks of flour remain.
Stir in pecan pieces and optional cranberries, etc., if using.
Drop dough onto prepared baking sheet in rounded teaspoonfuls (1-inch balls), leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until edges of the cookies are lightly browned.
Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
I ended up with about 4 dozen cookies. 2 dozen without anything and 2 dozen with chips.

If anyone tries these, I'd be interested to know if they turned out as cakey as mine did. I think I'd prefer these with a little less flour and a little more butter. The flavor of the pecan is almost lost in the orange/sugar cookie.

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

2008-04-24T05:00:00.001-04:00

Oh. Wow. These are like tiny flavor explosions. Almost painfully so.

I had some issues with this recipe. I think I used too many strawberries and that maybe I didn't let them cook long enough on the stovetop. Interestingly this was my first attempt at making a pastry crust from scratch and that worked out pretty well. Almost better than the actual tart-ish filling.

The recipe I found from Something Sweet who acquired it from Nook & Pantry, who adapted it from a Cook's Illustrated recipe.

Ingredients:
Crust
7/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
a pinch of salt
6 tbsps unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 in cubes

Lemon Filling
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsps flour
1/4 cup lemon juice, from 2 lemons
2 tsp lemon zest, from 2 lemons (I only used one and had PLENTY.)
2 tbsp milk
A pinch of salt

Strawberry Puree
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 to 2 tbsp granulated sugar (I used 1 1/2 tbsp)

Directions:
Mix the chopped strawberries with sugar and set aside to macerate for about 30 minutes.

Add the flour, confectioner’s sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a food processor. Blend the ingredients together for a few seconds to mix evenly. Then add the pieces of butter and pulse until the mixture is pale yellow and looks like coarse cornmeal. If you don’t have a food processor you can use a fork, a pastry blender, or even your hands to cut the butter into the flour. Cook’s Illustrated recommended freezing the butter then grating it into the flour and using your hands to rub the pieces between your fingers.

Line a 8 x 8 in baking pan with a sheet of parchment. Press the crust mixture into an even 1/4 in layer in the pan bottom and about 1/2 in up the sides. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

When you finish making the crust the fruit should almost be done. Blend the strawberries in a food processor (for a few seconds) or mash with a fork until there are no large chunks. Cook over medium heat for about 5 to 10 minutes until thick. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350º F and after the crust finishes chilling, bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

You can prepare the filling while you bake the crust. Whisk the eggs, sugar, flour and salt in a bowl until the sugar dissolves. Then whisk in the lemon juice, zest, and milk.

Reduce the oven temp to 325ºF, pour the filling into the crust. Drop spoonfuls of the strawberry mixture on the surface. Use spoon or knife swirl/swish the strawberry puree into the filling.

Bake for about 20 - 22 minutes, until the filling feels firm when touched lightly. (I had to bake mine for 40 before it even appeared to be set. I checked my oven temp and it was correct so I have NO idea what the difference was.)

Cool to room temp, dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve.

Holy heck, I'm glad these finally set up. I was soo worried all those dirty dishes were going to be for nothing. I'd probably try this one again and cut back on the amount of strawberries I used and on the amount of lemon zest too. They tasted pretty good, but it was like they were fighting for attention and it was a bloody fist fight that your mouth might possibly end up being the casualty of. But a willing casualty because it really loved strawberries and lemon.

Harold Cookies

2008-04-23T17:00:00.001-04:00

No. I don't have a friend named Harold. No. I don't know anyone named Harold. No. These aren't inspired by some random actor named Harold. Nor are they a tribute to either Harold & Maude or Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. To be perfectly honest, these are named Harold because Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal and Pecan Cookies it too dadgum long for me to type repeatedly or to say efficiently. So, Harold it is.

These were just alright. Nothing spectacular. To be candid, they tasted exactly like a baked version of no bake cookies, if you added pecans. There really didn't seem to be a middle ground while baking, they were either too done or not done enough. Also, I know it was just me, but I felt like I could taste the slight molasses flavor from the dark brown sugar. Again, I know that was just my psycho little brain telling me that, because dark brown sugar isn't molasses and absolutely no one else mentioned anything other than chocolate and pecan in reference to their flavor.

The recipe came from Coconut & Lime.

Ingredients:
4 tbs butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup semi-sweet choc chips
1/2 cup crushed pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat. (Thanks again Katie!) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, vanilla and sugar. Add the egg, beat until fluffy. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and oatmeal. Mix until well combined. Fold in chips and pecans. Place heaping tablespoons of dough on the lined cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart and bake for 12-14 minutes or until they look "set". Carefully remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

I ended up with about 20 cookies from this recipe.

The original recipe didn't include pecans, but the people around here tend to be nut fiends, so I added those just for sh ... just for giggles.

Over all Harold was just kinda...average...which is kinda what you expect from something named Harold.

Earth Day Cupcakes!

2008-04-22T17:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Earth Day!
Nobody loves the Earth more than a bunch of worms digging around in it, plus I didn't have the time or inclination to make tiny world cupcakes:-)

These were tasty. Exceptionally tasty in my opinion. I don't usually go for Chocolate Overload desserts, but man, these were delicious. And I don't often think that. The chocolate cake was fairly moist and the icing turned out with a really deep chocolate flavor closer to dark chocolate than anything else. Woo. Dark chocolate.

Dirt cupcakes (with worms!)
Martha's One-Bowl Chocolate Cake Recipe
via The Bumbling Baker
2 1/2 cups ap flour
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsps baking soda
1 1/4 tsps baking powder
1 1/4 tsps salt
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbs. vegetable oil
1 1/4 tsps vanilla
1 1/4 cups warm water

Preheat the oven to 350.
Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add all the egg (including the extra yolk), milk, oil, vanilla and water, and beat with an electric mixer on low until smooth and combined. (2-3 minutes)
Line and fill muffin tin. Cups should be about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes.
The estimated yield is 24 cupcakes. I ended up with 2/4 cupcakes and a 9" round cake.

Chocolate Buttercream
1/2 cup butter @ room temp.
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-5 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla

Blend butter and cocoa on low until well combined. Add confectioners' sugar, 3 tbs milk and the vanilla. Blend on low until incorporated and then switch to medium until fluffy. Add additional milk a tbs at a time if too stiff.
(This recipe would be perfect for a dozen, but double it if you are making the full 2 dozen as I did.)

Crush 15-20 oreos. I used a mix of regular and golden for a little more color in my dirt. I also crushed mine with the food processor, but it is easily done with a ziploc bag and any some hand crushing action.

Ice the cooled cupcakes. (It doesn't need to be pretty, you are covering it up anyway.) Then roll icing in the oreo mix making sure to coat everything so you don't have any mud showing.

Now you could just put the worms on top, but I used a wooden spoon to shove the worms inside the cupcake like they were going in or coming out of the ground. I"ve seen people cut the worms in half and shove them into the icing to get a similar affect as well.

Nutella Cupcakes/Muffins

2008-04-21T05:00:00.000-04:00

Oh wow. Do I love Nutella. Yes. Yes. I do. A chocolatey hazelnut butter spread? What could every possibly be wrong with that?

These from Baking Bites.

I read fairly decent reviews of them online. I heard fairly decent reviews of them from the break room at work. I just didn't think they were all that. And, honestly, if you are using nutella, shouldn't they be? I mean the stuff is freaking amazing on a spoon. Shouldn't a cupcake version be just as fabulous if not more so?

I really think that the type of cupcake needed to support the nutella being stirred into it leaned this recipe to a lack of deliciousness. The cupcakes were dense and dry and not at all tasty. And just swirling the nutella on top left you with the bottom half of the cupcake dry and absorbing all the moisture out of your body. The top photo is the recipe exactly as written on Baking Bites. The bottom photo is after mixing the nutella into the batter and then swirling additional into the top as well. The latter were definitely preferable over for original recipe.

I think if I ever want nutella cupcakes again I'll just go with a tasty vanilla cupcake recipe topped with a nutella based buttercream.

Banana Bread

2008-04-20T22:44:00.003-04:00

I'm really surprised that this is the first time I've baked banana bread since we started this blog. Besides chocolate chip cookies, it's probably the thing I bake the most. I don't even have the recipe anymore because I bake it so much it's almost committed to memory. I do have the list of ingredients just in case, but I could seriously make it in my sleep. And I'm sure my mom has the recipe somewhere should I ever forget.

Those lucky people who have ever gotten the chance to live with me know that I say I'm going to bake banana bread a lot. I really don't like the taste of bananas once they go brown. After that, they only thing they are good for is banana bread. But sometimes (ok, a lot of the time), I get lazy or busy and forget to make the banana bread. Then we have super ripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl. So I say, "Don't worry, I'm still going to make banana bread." Then finally, when I still haven't baked any bread, the roommate gets fed up with the smelly bananas and throws them away (or eats them, if said roommate is Steve). This is a common cycle in any household that I am a part of.

Nothing has changed. We had ripe bananas sitting around and I kept saying I was going to bake banana bread. Then one day, I finally did. I also stole some ripe bananas from Rob so I would have enough to bake two loaves. I gave a loaf to Steve for his birthday (Happy birthday, Steve, btw!) and half a loaf to Rob, and we kept half a loaf for ourselves. Breakfast is looking pretty good the next few days :-)

High Five Cupcakes Part 2 -- Lime Coconut

2008-04-20T22:32:00.003-04:00

The second batch of cupcakes I made for NH5D were Lime Coconut. Dan was looking over my shoulder while I was browsing Coconut & Lime and saw a recipe for Lime Coconut cupcakes and forced me to make them. Seeing that he had just bought a bag of key limes that needed to get used, he didn't have to try too hard :-)

These cupcakes were nothing short of amazing. I seriously could not stop eating them. The cakes were nice and fluffy with a light lime flavor, but the icing really packed a punch of lime flavor. And the coconut... oh, the coconut! I'm tired of people talking smack about coconut, I love the stuff! Especially on cupcakes, yum! Originally I was just going to put some coconut on the edges of the cakes, but I decided instead to just dip them in it completely. I'm glad I did because the coconut really made these awesome! So boo on you non-coconut people! (ahem, Xian)

High Five Cupcakes Part 1 -- Lemon Strawberry

2008-04-20T22:14:00.004-04:00

This past Thursday was National High Five Day, so naturally I felt the need to bake something to celebrate. I decided cupcakes would be a lot of fun! Although the flags were not my original idea of how to "high five" up my cupcakes, I really like the way they turned out.

The first cupcakes I made were Lemon Strawberry. Last summer I had made lemon cupcakes with whole blackberries in the middle, so I thought I would do something similar. I came across this recipe from the blog Coconut & Lime that used whole strawberries instead of blackberries and thought I should try it.

The cupcakes before baking -- so pretty!

The cake was very lemony and not super sweet like lemon cake mixes generally are. I liked the flavor the strawberries gave, but I don't think they held up in the oven as well as the blackberries I've used in the past. I used the cream cheese/lemon zest icing as Rachel suggested, and it was so tasty Holly said she wanted to just eat it with a spoon!

Triple Chocolate Pecan Cookies

2008-04-20T17:00:00.003-04:00

Once again, a recipe from Bake or Break. We are nearing the end of my list of stuff I really want to make from that site, I promise. At least for now.

I used a combination of Ghirardelli baking bars for the recipe. I used what they was available at Kroger, which happened to be their white chocolate, semi-sweet and 60% cocoa bars. There is not much of a selection around here as far as chocolate goes. I also didn't like the idea of using whole pecans to top the cookies. Personally, I just don't like biting into a whole pecan on top of anything. Personal preferance I suppose. So I rolled the cookies in crushed toasted pecans with a little bit of sugar.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, not quite softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 oz. white chocolate, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups of toasted pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°.

Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter until creamy, about 1 1/2 to 2 mins.
Add dark brown sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes.
Add granulated sugar and beat for another 2-3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
Add vanilla and beat for about 30 seconds.
Gradually add dry ingredients.
Stir in chocolates.
Roll dough into balls then roll in crushed pecans. Place on baking sheets (ungreased or with Silpats) about 2-3 inches apart. They will spread.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until tops are just set and the edges are lightly browned.

To be perfectly honest, I was less than impressed with these. For all that chocolate they just weren't all that tasty. I'm sure they are fabulous, but I hate. loathe. detest. abhor. despise. white chocolate. And I'm not a huge fan of semi-sweet/milk either. The darker the better is my motto. I like my chocolate like my own personality...dark and bitter.

Black and White Cupcakes

2008-04-16T17:00:00.000-04:00

What to say about these? I've seen the recipe popping up lately on all kinds of baking blogs so decided I wanted to jump on that bandwagon too.

The recipe is from Bake or Break. In case you can't tell I've been looking at that blog a lot lately. She claims her version came from the cookbook Buttercup Bakes at Home by Jennifer Appel. This may very well be true, but I have also seen a variety of unattributed and differently attributed recipes out there that are identical to this one.

Ingredients
* 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1 large egg, at room temperature
* 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
* 1 cup miniature chocolate chips
* 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup warm water
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Beat cream cheese, egg, and 1/3 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
Make a well in the center, and add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
Mix just until blended.

Fill each muffin cup one-third full with the chocolate batter.
Top with a spoonful of cream cheese mixture, until cups are about two-thirds full. Bake 22 to 28 minutes, until the tops spring back lightly when touched.
Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes about 24 cupcakes.

I did end up with 24 of these, just as the recipe predicted. I would recommend using a small scoop or melon baller or something of the same ilk to place the cream cheese in/on the chocolate mix. I think you could manage a much prettier cake with a little judicious shaping and care when placing the cream cheese mixture. I also baked mine exactly 22 minutes at 350 (according to my oven therm.) and they were well and truly done by then.

Chocolate Chunk Peanut

2008-04-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

Another foray into the world of peanut butter and chocolate for our dear friend Jack at work. These were pretty tasty, but I'm just beyond tired of the whole peanut butter and chocolate thing right now. One note about this recipe is the addition of a bit of cinnamon. It makes a world of difference in the flavor of the dough, but don't overdo it or you will end up with cinnamon flavored chocolate chunk peanut cookies.
This recipe came from Southern Living via Bake or Break

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts
1 (11.5-ounce) bag chocolate chunks

Directions
Beat butter and shortening at medium speed until creamy; add chunky peanut butter and sugars, beating well. Add eggs, beating until blended.
Combine flour and next 4 ingredients. Add to butter mixture, beating well.
Stir in peanuts and chocolate chunks.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Flatten slightly, and place on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake at 375° for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pan 1 to 2 minutes.

The original recipe claims that it yielded 28 slightly larger cookies, I made mine a more average size than they indicated and ended up with 4-5 dozen cookies. I also used half a cup of extra chunky and have a cup creamy peanut butter... Why? you may ask. Because that is what I had and I wasn't about to bring even more peanut butter into my life.

On a note entirely unrelated to the actual recipe. I baked these on my new-to-me Silpat baking sheets.
Those obviously aren't mine, but a stock photo I theieved from www.cayneshousewares.com, whom I know nothing about. Anyway, mine actually came from my dear friend Katie who loved me enough to not want me to have to scrape pans incessantly and thus donated these dears to me. Thanks Katie! I heart you and thanks for letting me visit last weekend and have adventures in baking with you!

Fruit 'Pizza'

2008-04-14T23:22:00.005-04:00

My babysitter Cindy used to make the most amazing fruit pizza. It had (from what I recall, at least) a sugar cookie crust, with a cream cheese icing, and then fresh fruit on top. I think the kiwi was always my favorite part. Dan and I decided to have a pizza party Saturday night, and I thought this would be a great dessert! Oddly enough, I ran into Amy and Tyson at Target, where Amy asked if she could bring a fruit pizza! Great minds really do think alike! Since I already had the ingredients for the crust and the icing, we split the duties and Amy brought some fruit to put on the pizza.

It didn't really end up looking like a pizza -- I don't really have a pizza pan, just a pizza stone, so I put it on a cookie sheet. We ended up having a large semi-rectangular cookie with cream cheese icing and everyone put their own fruit on their slice. We had kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, grapes, and mangoes. There was quite a bit of cookie left over, so Dan and I have been eating it plain. But I bought more fruit tonight so I could keep on making it the real way!

Oh yeah, and happy 100th post! Woot!

Bacon Chocolate -- Professional Style

2008-04-14T22:53:00.009-04:00

Dan told me last week that Blu Boy, our favorite Bloomington chocolate shop, is now selling a goat cheese truffle, which definitely sounded interesting. However, that was not as interesting as their other new item -- BACON CHOCOLATE!

I still had the Mo's Bacon Bar from Vosges that I had bought at Sahara Mart awhile ago, so we decided to have a bacon chocolate tasting!

Here's a synopsis of the two bars: Blu Boy's was a dark chocolate bar with some bacon crumbled on top (or on bottom, depending on how you look at it), whereas Vosges' was a "deep" milk chocolate with bits of bacon throughout.

I definitely liked Blu Boy's better, probably because I am partial to dark chocolate. I liked the crispness of the bacon, but Amy got a chewy piece and didn't like that so much. I think it would be better if the bits were smaller and only the crispiest parts were used.

Amy and Dan liked the Vosges' bar better. The chocolate was so smooth and melty but a bit too sweet for me. And it was twice as expensive as Blu Boy's. I guess I know where to satisfy my cravings for bacolate ;-)

So I was thinking about this -- how many people do you think have tried 3 types of bacon chocolate? Not many, I suppose. The way I see it, I'm almost a bacon chocolate expert. Now I just need to fiddle around with some other recipes to cement my place in the bacon chocolate world. Next up, candied bacon ice cream!

Derek's Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Almond Tasties

2008-04-14T22:29:00.004-04:00

Derek, our favorite Baltimore friend, had his 24th birthday last weekend, so I sent him some cookies. He said he wanted something with maybe some chocolate or coconut or almonds, so I made him cookies with all three! I found this recipe after a quick google, and it had good reviews, so I decided to try it.

I baked some test cookies first using 1/4 c. dough like the recipe says, but they didn't turn out so well. I definitely think the smaller cookies are better. Dan and I also tasted them with and without sea salt on top, and of course we went with the sea salt. I love the sweet and salty mix! However, I think there may have been a bit too much coconut, even for me, because the almond flavor was overpowered by the coconutiness. I've been eating the cookies I didn't send to Derek, and while they are still quite tasty, I think they are best right out of the oven with a cold glass of milk!

Happy late birthday, Derek! I hope you enjoyed your cookies!

Cinnamon Roll Heaven

2008-04-13T22:00:00.007-04:00

I went to visit Katie and Jason over the weekend. I wanted to escape Madison and I was so super excited for them (Their offer was just accepted on a house! Yay! Their first!) that I wanted to visit them and Maizy, Bella and Lola in their current abode.
After Katie's delicious Saturday morning breakfast which you should see here soon. She and I decided to embrace our mutual love of The Pioneer Woman by cooking her legendary Cinnamon Rolls.

We didn't get started until 3:30 or 4 and we finally finished around 9:30 or so. Neither of us had ever made anything with yeast before so this was a learning experience...one that we both learned from, but that turned out pretty well for a first attempt. Our other lesson was in the cinnamon realm. These were good, but Katie and I both agreed that we used too much cinnamon, so much so that we ended up with an almost spicy/salty aftertaste.

Here is Katie icing away with our maple coffee glaze. (Ours was more like icing to be perfectly honest. We used a two pound bag of powdered sugar because that is what I read in the comments section on the original website, seems that probably wasn't the orignal amount, but it worked out well for us.

The Pioneer Woman's recipe calls for a big strong man to mix the glaze. She had Marlboro Man. We had Jason. So we ended up using Katie's KA. :-) Teasing Jason. He could have stirred that stuff into oblivion if we had asked him too.

Ta Dah! Cinnamon roll heaven. In the back left you can see the remnants of our taste testing. I told Katie that I wanted to try the middle one like a brat and she quite easily popped that one out for our sampling.

Chocolate Cherry M&M

2008-04-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

Oh. Dear. These were tasty and delicious. Robin's new favorite cookie. Has anyone else tried out the new Wild Cherry M & Ms? Yum. Robin is in love. For Valentine's Day...several bags were procured...and according to RObin, cookies just HAD to be made. The m&ms themselves were much larger than a normal m&m and therefore some crushing was involved. My thumb still hurts just thinking about it. I tried a variety of crushing methods and that thin candy coating just wasn't giving up. I eventually ended up crushing them all up by hand with a wooden spoon. Seriously. Ouch. The cookies were coated in sugar and lightly crunchy on the outside while maintaining an ooey gooey center with just a hint of cherry.

They were good warm...but the cherry flavor became more pronounced after a day or so.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened baking chocolate
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsps vanilla
1 package M & M Wild Cherry M&Ms, crushed
Additional sugar

Combine flour and baking powder; set aside.
In saucepan over medium heat combine 2 cups sugar, butter and chocolate, stirring until butter and chocolate are melted. Remove from the heat. Gradually stir in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Chill mixture. Stir in M&Ms. Chill again.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment/foil. Roll dough into balls and roll into additional sugar. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. The recipe yielded about 3-4 dozen cookies.

Orange Dream Cupcakes

2008-04-08T17:00:00.000-04:00

I heart orange. This comes as a surprise to no one. Especially not Rich or Jeanna or Jill or Heather or anyone else that was around during the great orange attack at u of i. There wasn't much great about it other than the fact that I thieved a bunch of oranges from food services ate them all...then went and stole an orange from Rich...then later on harassed Jeanna for hers too. I made myself a little sick. Citrus overload. But I still love orange.

These are very orange. I came across an orange creamsicle cupake recipe at 52 Cupcakes. I went with that "recipe" for the cake. A box of Duncan Hines Orange Supreme cake mix plus a box of vanilla pudding. (Incidently I didn't know an orange supreme cake mix existed prior to this little adventure.) I didn't like the seven minute frosting idea though so I went with an extra creamy version of the magnolia buttercream. Bright blue buttercream of course, I can't leave anything alone.
The cake mix was a little bit too orangey for a creamsicle by itself, but combined with the very vanilla icing it really did taste very similar.

Splenda a.k.a. Satan Cupcakes

2008-04-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

These cupcakes, as you can tell from their placement in my trash can, were not worthy of the cupcake name. They were dense little nuggets of pain.
The recipe came from the Splenda website directly. I thought that might mean that it had been tested. Apparently I was wrong. If for some reason you want to take a shot at these yourself: be my guest.
I really just don't know how to describe these. They were drier than anything. They didn't taste remotely like chocolate and the Splenda/sweetener taste was incredibly overpowering. Even if they had tasted like chocolate...that artificial taste would have obliterated the chocolate anyway. They weren't even worth icing. I think a half splenda/half sugar recipe would probably be the way to go. I'd recommend avoiding these little beasts unless you are retaining water, they very well might absorb all of it.

Jello Cupcakes?

2008-04-04T17:00:00.000-04:00

Mom #2 had been talking about her love of the jello cake for a long time when I ran across this at All Things Edible. Now the whold point of my recent baking adventures is to bake things from scratch...and these cupcakes are as far from "scratch" as one can get...Virtually everything in them comes pre-packaged in some way.

My particular flavor combination ended up being a lemon cake with raspberry jello drizzled into it and topped with a raspberry white chocolate whipped topping. Also, the whole thing with using the foil cups stopping the jello from leaking out...LIES! The wrappers were covered in jello, and that was with me putting in less than the two tablespoons recommended from the recipe. People ate them. They were a funny kind of adventure and much tastier than the splenda cupcakes I made yesterday. (I may post about those little bits of Satan soon.)

If I ever make them again I would probably double up the liners and not use lemon cake, at least not from a mix. That stuff is just not for me.

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

2008-04-02T17:00:00.000-04:00

I've done root beer float cookies...they were one of the first things I posted on here. Late last week I decided to attempt, at the prompting of Patti, root beer float cupcakes. The original recipe came from Yum SuugarFAIL! They exploded. It was hysterical. I'm not sure what was off with the recipe or me, but I thought they looked a tad runny...and 'lo and behold they were. Those tiny little freaks bubbles up all out of their mini-cupcake pans and went everywhere! Jerks! So I threw them away and moved on for a couple days. Last night I attacked them again, and added an additional cup of flour. The recipe also claimed that you should fill them almost to the top so they will puff up appropriately. Ermm...no. Round these parts, filling the liners to the top results in a mess...I put about a tablespoon and a half of batter in each cup and they came out just to the top and rounded. The finals worked out pretty well all things considered.

The batter had quite a bit of root beer in it but by the time you baked them the taste had pretty much baked right out. After baking I spooned root beer over top of the cakes and then dipped the cool cupcakes into a root beer flavored glaze. Then topped with a marshmallow vanilla frosting that I already had made up. (At 11 p.m. I was getting lazy and I needed to free up some refrigerator space for food stuffs other than extra icing.)

Overall, not bad, but next time I'll probably stick to using root beer extract instead of regular root beer.

Reddish Velvet Cupcakes

2008-04-01T22:19:00.004-04:00

Allen and his roommates Beth and Eric enjoyed the baked goods Xian and I brought on our road trip so much that we left them begging for more! Lucky for them, I had another trip to Chicago planned to see Jens Lekman (thanks, Allen!), so of course I brought tasty treats!

Cupcakes aren't very mail friendly, so since I was driving I decided I would make some this time since I have a trusty cupcake carrier to keep them safe. I wasn't sure what kind to make, but Eric suggested red velvet, so I went with it. I have never made a red velvet cake (or cupcakes) before, but I found a recipe from Paula Deen. Oddly enough, there was no butter in this recipe! (There was in the frosting, of course!) I did double the chocolate because I like my red velvet to be more on the chocolatey side, but other than that I stuck to her recipe. I don't think I used enough food coloring because they turned out more of a reddish pink than the bold red you usually see in a red velvet, but that may have been because I was using a paste food coloring and not the liquid kind. I like them pink though, they match the sprinkles better that way!

By My Computations You Be Owin' Me Some Scratch

2008-04-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

So way way way back in January I baked a bunch...and I mean a bunch of cookies for a group of people to take to a conference. And they gave me money. Woot for them.
Don't believe me? Think this is an April Fool's joke?

Behold.

The first check written to That's Fabulous Baking!

Kate's Maple Cheesecake

2008-03-27T20:48:00.005-04:00

Kate's been itching for a maple cheesecake since Thanksgiving dinner when she found out I like making cheesecakes. I finally made one for her birthday last week. Thanks for being so patient!

I used this recipe from the interweb. The crust, which was made with the syrup, caramelized beautifully and really gave a nice flavor to the cheesecake as a whole. The filling, however, only had a subtle maple flavor, but that was easily corrected with a drizzle of syrup on top (with fresh whipped cream and pecans, of course!). I used Wisconsin Grade B pure maple syrup instead of the Vermont that it calls for in the recipe, so I'm not sure if that's what made the difference. I don't think so, but if anyone is a maple syrup expert, let me know!

Happy birthday again, Kate! I really enjoyed making and eating this cheesecake! And thanks for the beautiful picture!

Mountain Dew Cupcakes

2008-03-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

That's right.
Last night I embraced, however briefly, that most citrusy and sugary of all soda drinks.
The product that I have frequently refered to as "white trash water" ... Mountain Dew.
I stumbled upon the recipe at quirky cupcake

Now, take note, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with drinking Mountain Dew, many of those nearest and dearest to me frequently imbibe the sugary substance with some frequency. I'm just not a huge fan.
I'm also not ashamed to admit that the little citrus sugar bombs didn't go over as well as their namesake. Oh, people ate them, but I will say once more, that my co-workers aren't the most discerning lot when it comes to their tastebuds. For the record the cake part was pretty tasty, but I think the icing was just a little too Mountain Dew/Lemon/Limey for the crowd around here. The recipe does involve lemon zest, lime zest, lemon juice, lime juice, lemon extract and Mountain Dew. So that much citrus related flavor could get to anyone.

Sara here was a good sport. Choking down some more of the radioactive green frosting just so I could take a photo. And doing that even in her current extremely sickly state. Thanks Sara! You're a pal!
What kinda cupcakes do you want?

Holly's 'Happy' Cupcakes

2008-03-25T17:14:00.007-04:00

Why are these cupcakes so happy? Well, there are a few reasons. First, it's Holly's birthday. Happy birthday, Holly! Second, they're pineapple right side up cupcakes. And vegan, at that. That makes a lot of people happy! How does it taste, Holly?

--I think she likes it--

After I had uploaded the cupcake pictures on my computer, I was playing around with the settings on Picasa a bit and got this. What do you think? I enjoy it greatly :-)

Oh yeah, and I found the recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Props to them, these were super tasty!

S'mores Cuppies!

2008-03-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Normally I am all about the cookies, but for the past week or so, I've been enjoying looking for some unique or at the very least unusual cupcake recipes. I combined a couple different ones for these mini graham cracker cupcakes topped with marshmallow creme icing and grated Hershey's chocolate.

I wouldn't say the little dears taste exactly like s'mores, but they are pretty dang delicious in their own right. This recipe is def. something I would make again. The recipe for the graham cracker cupcakes came from Gigi Cakes. However, I didn't use her marshmallow icing. It was an incredibly involved and I liked the recipe I found anyway. I don't remember where I acquired it, but it is basically a butter cream icing with the addition of marshmallow creme.
I think the next time I make these I will try some full sized cupcakes and inject the marshmallow filling and then top them with chocoalte icing and see how that works out.

Pecan Pie Cupcakes

2008-03-23T13:00:00.001-04:00

Make these:
Go here now. These are delicious. It may seem like there is too much butter or too much sugar. There isn't. They are fabulous. Tiny mini cupcakes that taste just like pecan pie filling. I even added some mini chocolate chips to half of mine to make derby pie cupcakes...for those of you that know what derby pie is.
Oh my. I just don't have the words to tell you how awe inspiring these are. I made them after Easter lunch yesterday. The recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen mini cuppies....They were all gone before everyone left my house. They were so tasty I had to make a double batch yesterday afternoon to take to work this morning. I needed to share these. Also, I was hoping their delectability would inspire everyone at work not to be so angry. (The verdict is still out on if that worked or not.)
In case you are interested, I got to the recipe via Bake or Break

Lucky Charms Muffins...not so lucky

2008-03-22T11:45:00.000-04:00

During my perusal of several food blogs I came across a recipe for Lucky Charms Muffins/Cupcakes. Wow. Cute. Adorable. I love Lucky Charms! Were all thoughts I had while reading the recipe and post. Those were quickly followed by. I'd love to try those, but there is NO way I am digging out all those little marshmallows. I'd just end up eating them as I went along. Then, less than 24 hours later I was at a local bulk foods store, Pat's Bulk Food. (An original name, I know. But she carries a lot of stuff in bulk and occassionally for less money than you can get them at a grocery store. Plus, I prefer supporting someone that is local if possible.) There, on the shelf at Pat's, which I have been to many times, I found something I had never seen there before. A bag full of the colorful shaped marshmallows, just like they have in the cereal! Woo! I can make Lucky Charms cupcakes without manhandling all of that cereal!

Dehydrated marshmallow bits! An unwieldy and unattractive name to cover all of that deliciousness!
I thought the batter was a little off and that there didn't seem to be quite the sugar ratio I associate with tasty baked goods. But I rationalized that the marshmallow bits are pretty dang sweet on their own.
Oh dear. Don't you hate it when I rationalize?
Because when I do, I end up with Lucky Charms Muffins...and I mean MUFFINS. Nothing remotely resembling cupcakes.

Seriously. Katie, my baking assistant that night and all-around fabulous person, and I didn't even bother coming up with icing. Icing could not help. No matter what type we would have used. Jiffy cornbread is far sweeter than these. The only hope for them might be adding some butter and chili or bean soup.
We also tried amping up the marshmallow content...and that was a no go as well.

Overall, cute and an adorable idea, but now I have to find something to do with these other than feed birds and wait for them to poop blue and green and pink on the cars that are always parked in our lot. If I ever purchase additional dehydrated marshmallow bits (I gave the rest to Katie in a fit of depression over the sad sad muffins) I will def. attempt it with a more cupcake-esque recipe.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

2008-03-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

Oh. Dear. These were tasty. I don't even like carrot cake and these were tasty. The cake recipe came from, of course, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

The recipe ended up making about 2 1/2 to 3 dozen decent sized cupcakes and I had plenty of icing and some left over I kept trying to give away to my grandmother. I will state that I didn't slather it on. If you like tons and tons of icing, you might run out. While the icing was a delicious addition to the cupcakes, they were tasty all by themselves. They also had none of the negative attributes that I usually associate with carrot cake.
Try this recipe. It was worth the time it took to grate up a bunch of carrots at home.
Oh and if you do make this, I think I ended up using six or so average sized carrots.

I was going to make these for Katie, since she always complains that I never bake anything for her. Then, she gets to Madison to tell me that she is making this carrot cake recipe for Easter with her family too. Boo. I still ended up giving her some of the tasty cupcakeness. I was also planning on giving some of them to Laura over the holiday weekend, but she never managed to pull herself away from her new (2 wk old) nephew. So no cupcake delightfullness for her! More for the random people at work!

Strawberry Pecan Swirls

2008-03-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

Lies! Lies! Nothing but LIES! A recipe specifically states do not grease the pan. You think that there would be a reason. In this particular instance I think the reaon was that they wanted me to suffer and curse and get angry because the freaking cookies stuck to the pan like none other.

Oh well.
Strawberry pecan swirls. The dough was pretty tasty. I might use this recipe to practice doing the rolls again. Obviously these didn't turn out all that circular and not all that intact either. Next time. Def. using parchment paper.

Another photographic interlude: Meet Hazel!

2008-03-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

This is Hazel. Hazel is my sugar glider. Hazel is freaking adorable.
Love her. Give her apples and yogurt drops.
Just don't stick your hand in her face or grab her while she is sleeping.
She will make a horrible angry noise, similar to this.
I don't recommend having the volume up if you decide to watch that.
But she is adorable and rarely makes that noise anymore. I promise

A brief photographic interlude

2008-03-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

Jill and I both previously referenced our little, brief, short, not at all of an excruciating drive to Ames, Iowa via Chicago. (i.e. to Evan via Laura and Allen.) You witnessed the baked goods.
Anyone who knows me at all or has ever seen my facebook/computer knows that I usually take pictures of just about everything all the time. I *heart* my camera very much. However, it was cold that weekend and I was sick. Not really icky sick. But def. not in the mood to lug around the camera and harass people into posing sick. I was already hauling around a variety of over the counter medications and might as well have been mainlining Tylenol Cold and Fever. That being said. Here are roughly five of the eight photos I took that weekend.

Hello Evan! Jill and Xian love you!
We enjoy visiting you in Iowa.
But it couldn't be said that we are displeased about the fact that this will probably be our last time visiting you at Iowa State.

Evan's former roommate Wayne. Wayne of U of I, ISG and Circle K. Wayne of a variety of other things as well. Just Wayne. He was in Ames too, visiting Kacy. Kacy is a very funny girl that Jill and I both enjoyed meeting a great deal. We had dinner with them at the Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company.
Jill and I had been there before on our last visit to Iowa. I like the boy that works there taking orders at the counter. He had a funny hat that I enjoyed. It had ear flaps and was furry. Also, when he announced that pizzas were ready he did so in this highly amusing game show host voice. I know that not a single one of you care, but it was amusing and I like people who take the time/energy to make their job fun or at least funny.
Anyway, the whole point of this rather long winded and not at all to the point description is that we didn't see much of Kacy or Wayne, but this is where we assume they were while we were preparing to drive back to Indiana.

Isn't Jilly cute? The sky always seems so blue when we are in Ames. It makes for pretty pictures.

Awww...time to say goodbye! I'd post the picture that we took of the three of us together, but frankly it was flattering to no one and as much as I love both of them dearly. I think you can just imagine the three of us together. Evan was in the middle. Jill on the right. Me on the left. We were standing in front of Evan's building. The RAV was in the corner of the picture just a bit. There you go. Crystal clear I'm sure.

There was also a picture of Jill and I together, but who hasn't seen one of those. Plus, her eyes were closed. Evan didn't zoom in very much. I looked...special...to say the least. So none of that for you.

Amy's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2008-03-17T22:05:00.008-04:00

There is nothing that my friend Amy loves more than chocolate. Well, except for chocolate and peanut butter together. I saw this recipe online, and knew that it would be perfect for her birthday!

The cake in the recipe is very moist because of the sour cream. It has a nice not-too-sweet chocolate flavor that pairs nicely with the very rich peanut butter frosting (not icing!). I had a feeling that the cake might not be sweet enough for Amy, so I made 2 test cupcakes -- one exactly like the recipe and one with mini chocolate chips added. After some serious deliberation with Dan, we decided that the chipped cupcakes would be the way to go. Some other notes on this recipe, if you plan to use it: Only bake the cupcakes for 18 minutes, not the 20-25 recommended. Also, this recipe made 26 average-sized cupcakes for me, not the 14-15 it says. I still had enough frosting for all the cupcakes, and some extra to put on Amy's super frosted cupcake. Oh, and make sure you have some milk on hand -- you'll need it!

Happy birthday, Amy!

Cherry Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

2008-03-17T21:53:00.006-04:00

I got my inspiration for these cookies from my usual weekday breakfast -- Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bars. I don't usually like to eat much early in the morning, so these are just perfect for me. They also make nice afternoon snacks!

For the cookies, I just made a basic oatmeal cookie dough recipe and added Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips and some dried cherries. I don't even remember how much of each I put in (half a bag of the chips and probably 1/4 - 1/3 cup of cherries, I think), but the ratio was definitely off. The chocolate chips were a bit big for the cookies so the cherries were overpowered. Don't get me wrong, they were still tasty! But next time I think I would use smaller, if not mini, chocolate chips, and more cherries! I love fruit in my cookies!

Evan's Earl Grey Cookies

2008-03-17T21:13:00.005-04:00

I often ask around the Math Department for interesting recipe ideas. My lovely Japanese friend Yukie recommended that I make Earl Grey cookies. I personally thought she was crazy when she told me this! Tea cookies do not sound tasty! But, I decided I would at least look up the recipe. I found one online here, and it had such good reviews, I decided I would try it.

Now, every time I see, smell, or think about Earl Grey tea, my dear friend Evan comes to mind. Evan loves tea, especially Earl Grey tea. I was originally going to make these for Evan's birthday/New Year's, but things got hectic around the holidays. So I was thinking I would just mail some to him in Iowa. Unfortunately, someone (*cough* Wayne *cough*) decided to steal my idea (the nerve!) and make these cookies for Evan first.

Now, I don't know how Wayne's cookies tasted, but I knew that I needed to make my cookies extra special. How would I do this? Why, with orange zest, of course! I substituted 1 tsp of orange zest for the vanilla and 1 tsp orange juice for the water. It was a delightful combination! I think you should make these cookies just so you can experience the smell of them baking. O M G, my apartment smelled so beautiful every time I opened the oven. And, they tasted amazing. I really could not stop eating them. They weren't terribly sweet, they were more like a shortbread than anything. I really wish I would've tried them with a hot mug of Earl Grey, but they were gone too quickly for that!

I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this, but I'm pretty sure Evan liked my cookies better than yours, Wayne. (just saying!) And Yukie told me that my cookies were better than the original ones she had tried in San Francisco. Mission accomplished! Anybody have any other challenges?

Baking for Bowling

2008-03-15T10:00:00.004-04:00

So Robin bowls. Tuesdays and occassionally on the weekends, like this weekend when she was bowling in the City Tournament. Apparently they have a bake sale then too. I was roped into baking.

Cranberry Chocolate Chip. I had made these before. They were alright then. They were alright now. Nothing spectacular, but mom wanted them too.

Snickerdoodles. They were poofy. Dang poofy. I don't like poofy doodles. Just so you know. It didn't seem worth taking a picture of the exact same cookies I have made over nine batches of since January.

Butterscotch Brickle Cookies
These were pretty good overall. They ended up being huge. They were a refrigerator cookie out of the Taste of Home Cookie Book. I added some butterscotch chips to the pecans and heath brickle to half of the dough. They made them infinitely better. The chips seemed to keep the cookies softer after baking.

Cream Cheese Brownies.
Eh. Just Eh. Another recipe from the Taste of Home Cookie Book. (Obviously a misnomer, since these were not, in fact, cookies.) I also tried baking these in the microwave/half-time/convection oven. Not a good idea. The outer brownies were completely done and burning while the center was still gooey and jiggling arond uncontrollably. It wan't pretty. Neither is this picture of the remaining center brownies that I refused to give to the bake sale.

Pumpkin Chip Cookies

2008-03-13T16:00:00.003-04:00

These were really pretty tasty. They didn't have much sugar in them at all and no butter. They were essentially pumpkin, flour, oil and chocolate chips. They were really cakey which I don't usually like, but somehow the pumpkin and chips made the poofy okay.

E.T. even broke down and tried some of these...and liked them too!

Andes Mint Chip Cookies

2008-03-12T16:00:00.001-04:00

I *heart* Andes Mints. Just the original. Not the psycho cherry or whatever "holiday" flavors they come out with. Just Andes Mints. Mmmm...delicious:-) Awhile back Kroger carried an Andes Mint Chip Ice Cream...it was freaking amazing...and for a good month straight you could always find some of it in our refrigerator. Sadly or fortuitously depending on how you look at it...that ice cream is no longer.
Anyway...Andes Mints now makes Andes Mints baking chips...I was all for it. I decided to go with the recipe that comes straight off the back of the bag.

They all turned into these evenly sized perfectly adorable little cookies...that weren't my favorite. I know. I just said how much I love Andes Mints...but these cookies just really didn't do it for me. I think I could do a better job replicating the flavor of Andes Mints in cookie form than these did simply by adding the chips to a cookie. But they were cute, and Barb did love them.

Evan's Baked Goods

2008-03-10T09:42:00.000-04:00

I can't convey to you exactly how much of the car was taken up with baked goods/candy on our way out to Iowa. Suffice it to say, it was a very significant portion between Jill and I. I made some snickerdoodles and a divinity peanut butter roll for Evan after his most recent comment on how my meringue drops looked like divinity. I've never actually made any kinda of candy before, but this one wasn't that difficult actually. It was Mark's recipe, so I will probably try it again too and try to get the peanut butter to stick a bit better to make a more attractive spiral.

Also, for some inexplicable reason, these snickerdoodles puffed up. All my other snickerdoodles in the past three months, and there have been quite a few, have been flatter and a little crunchy on the outside and chewey on the inside. I kinda liked them that way.

Allen's Cookies

2008-03-09T11:00:00.001-04:00

So, in case Laura's cookies didn't tip you off, Jill and I made a pit stop in Chicago on our way to visit Evan in Iowa. This pit stop included Ms. Laura Beth and of course the ever fabulous Allen. Both of them would have committed violence if we hadn't brought baked goods. Laura got her white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and Allen got a bunch of different things. Jilly made him several items, which I'm sure she will post soon, or attach here. I made him the cutest cookies on the face of the planet, with the least taste imaginable. They were bland but they were adorable. And let's face it, who cares about substance anyway? (KIDDING)

See? Adorable?

I also re-visited the orange/chocolate shortbread cookies for Al, who has been harassing me about them for awhile. I tried making them larger, but I think next time I will stick with the tiny bite size cookies, they are more sturdy and don't crumble as much.

See? Tasty?

Laura Beth's White Chocolate Macadamia Nut

2008-03-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

I will never understand the fascination with the white chocolate or the macadamia nut. White Chocolate isn't even chocolate and macadamia nuts tend to be the most expensive nut with the least tasty value. That said, these turned out pretty well for what they were and I hope that Laura liked hers. This picture is horrible, mainly because I left all of the cookies in Chicago with Ms. Laura Beth except for the ones that I had kept at home for Joyce. Also, monochromatic cookies do not photograph well. White Chocolate. White Nuts. White Dough = White Blob on a background.

Baking without eggs

2008-03-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

I ran out of eggs and I still had cookies that I needed to get done.
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, egg-free

These look disgusting, but they tasted fine. They were a little dry for my tastes but they were made with oatmeal and without eggs, so that is understandable.

Amish Sugar Cookies Re-visited. These. Need. Icing.

Barb's Cherry Slice Cookies

2008-03-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

Chopped Maraschino Cherries. Crushed Walnuts. Cherry Juice. Lemon Juice. Cinammon.

These were just alright in my opinion. I say that, but I didn't actually eat one. I hate cherries. They were refrigerator cookies which accounts for their slightly lumpy appearance. I haven't mastered the whole cutting semi-frozen cookie dough rolls without mashing the cookies yet. Whether they were tasty or not, they smelled flipping amazing while baking. Delicious. I'm not typically a fan of either cherry or cinammon, but mix the two together and the smell was amazing.

I don't think Wheezy approved of the smell. He kept staring out the window, begging for some fresh air.

Cranberry Chip

2008-03-05T11:00:00.000-05:00

Yumm. Dried cranberries are tasty. Dried cranberries get tastier when mixed with semi-sweet and white chocolate chips.

Dan's Blue Hearts

2008-03-03T11:00:00.004-05:00

Dan, Connie's husband, wanted some iced sugar cookies. I thought I would try out a new sugar cookie recipe. These were for poofy and more cake-like cookies. Frankly I was fairly indifferent. But this recipe was easier as far as the roll-out and cut-out portion of the baking event goes.

You could go with some depressing EmmyLou Harris "Icy Blue Heart" lyrics for these...but I tend to think they look more smurf blue than cold dead heart blue. Just me though. These had buttercream icing.

But, some of them had a really soft peanut butter icing. It was tasty, but it didn't set up well.

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce!

2008-03-01T12:59:00.005-05:00

So, this is not technically baking once again, but it is tasty and if I knew how to make sourdough bread it would have involved baking. I could have lied to you. told you I baked the sourdough bread instead of going to both Kroger and Wal-Mart to find some last night. I did not lie though. Here I am telling you the truth that I am a cheater and this isn't baking, despite the obvious presence of bread and something made in the oven. It is tasty. Also, I love whisky...erm...sauce. Whisky sauce. It is delightful.
The recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Lemon Meringue Pie

2008-02-28T21:47:00.006-05:00

I've been extremely busy lately with school (yay midterms!) so I haven't had the chance to bake much lately. However, I did recently come across some older pictures of baking adventures. So I am posting them, just because I can.

I love love love my Nanny's lemon meringue pie. It's always my favorite part of the holidays. Dan's family came to visit the weekend after we had moved into our new apartment (gah! 7 adults and 5 children in our tiny not really unpacked apartment!), and he requested that I make some pies. I wrestled the recipe from Nanny and made these 2 beautiful pies! I wish I had a picture of the inside of the pie, because it had set up very nicely, but me and Dan and the pies will just have to do.

Vegan Orange Cookies

2008-02-28T14:56:00.003-05:00

These are not the tastiest things on the planet, but they are cute, they are low-fat, and they are vegan.
Originally the recipe was for spritz cookies, a.k.a. cookies you make using a cookie press. That did not really happen For reasons unknown to myself, the cookie dough was entirely too thick and even after being thinned down a bit did not even look like something that could remotely work in the cookie press. There went my idea for pretty orange butterflies.
On the bright side, they do not taste disgusting considering they are a cookie that lacks all the things that usually make a cookie delicious. Also, I got to try out my powdered food coloring again. Red and yellow make orange. It worked here too! Also, note the delightful colored sprinkles, courtesy of Jillian for my birthday last year. Woo. Adorable.
Overall: not a complete waste of time.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

2008-02-27T14:31:00.004-05:00

I hate coconut. I hate it. I hate the smell. Ick. Ick. Ick. The texture. There is nothing redeeming to be said about coconut.

Apparently I am the only one that feels this way.

Chocolate chip and coconut cookies topped with coconut pecan icing and then drizzled with chocolate. A cookie amalgamation of German Chocolate Cake, Derby Pie and Samoas. (That is if cookies were people that could be amalgamated.)

These were a favorite of Mom #2 and another one of her selections from the Taste of Home Cookie magazine.
Other name options for these cookies:
"Damn Good Cookie."
"MMMmmm"
"Best cookies you have made"

Jack, of course, eats them for the chocolate and tries to ignore the coconut.

Meringue: Semi-Fail

2008-02-26T13:44:00.003-05:00

As I posted awhile ago, my first attempt at meringue was a complete failure. It resulted in a giant bowl of meringue, err... egg white and sugar, soup. (Which I then tried to bake to see what would happen. Nasty. Nasty rotten egg smell. That is what would happen. Let me save you the trouble of finding out.)
Fast forward about a month to me with a stand mixer and another attempt was fated to happen.
My second attempt at meringue resulted in slightly more meringue like results, and the smell wasn't nearly as heinous.

Berry blue kisses. They were berry blue and they were sorta in kiss shape. The recipe called for them to bake at 250 for 25 minutes and then sit in the closed oven for an additional 20. That seemed like too short of a time to me, but what do I know. I make meringue soup. So I went along with things. Resulting in kisses that look like kisses, but fell flat on the inside. so they really are light and fluffy...more so than usual what with the gaping hole in the middle and all.

I will prevail. Just not right now.

Chocolate Pecan Thumbprints

2008-02-26T13:34:00.006-05:00

These were another request from work. This particular cookie was a selection of Barb, aka Mom #2.

The actual recipe yield was 1 1/2 dozen. Who makes just 18 cookies for something? Who I ask? I was anticipating some recipe shrinkage because, lets face it, how often is the yield actually what you end up with. I doubled the recipe. Then I was pleasantly surprised because I actually ended up with 3 dozen plus TWO!

So let me tell you a story about hot chocolate and zip lock baggies. I'd finished the cookies. They were cooled. I had melted the chocolate for the centers. Stirred it up so it was nice and smooth. Let it cool a bit. Then I decided I didn't want to waste a decorating bag on such a small amount. I would just use two ziplock baggies and cut off the tip. Great plan! I had used it before. Not an issue. Wrong. Apparently the chocolate was still a tad bit warmer than I thought. Half way through the filling of the cookies *SPLOOSH* chocolate explosion all over several of the cookies and back to the chocolate melting for me. Needless to say the people that ended up with the overly chocolate laced cookies weren't complaining much. But it was a tad disgusting.

The worst of it was trying to keep Wheezy away from the chocolate that landed on the floor post explosion.

Creamy Peanut Butter Spritz

2008-02-25T13:30:00.000-05:00

I have seen lots of spritz cookies before, but peanut butter is a variety that is new to me. To be perfectly honest I was going to make a Geneva Peanut Butter Pie for my uncle Roger (He of the Robin, Ronnie, Roger and Rodney: R4; My mother and her siblings.) I owe him one from the set he paid for at a church craft show, but it turns out we did not have enough peanut butter so I opted for these instead. I still have to make the pie for him. It doesn't involve a bit of baking, but I will still probably post it when I get around to making it.

In the process I got to use two fun new toys, the new Kitchenaid Professional 5 Plus mixer and my Pampered Chef Cookie Press that I bought well before Christmas. Both were fabulous. The recipe ended up making something like 8 dozen thin spritz cookies. I wasn't a huge fan, but seeing as they all disappeared pretty quickly it seems that, as usual, I was in the minority.

Birthday Pizza!

2008-02-24T23:37:00.003-05:00

After a super exciting birthday party, thanks to Xian's tasty treats and awesome friends, my actual birthday was pretty low-key. Amy, Holly, and Rob came over for pizza and Waitress, which Holly had bought me. I used Tyler Florence's recipe for the dough, only instead of rolling out the dough, Holly used her pizza shop experience to throw the dough in the air and stretch it like at a real pizza place. She has mad skillz! We added various toppings (mushrooms, onions, barbecue sauce, banana peppers, pepperonis, mozzarella, and parmesan, but not at the same time), and then threw it on my new pizza stone (thanks, Mom!). I don't think I ever need to order a pizza again! (I'm sure I will, though.) The crust was light and crisp, with lots of flavor. One note, though -- make sure you bake the crust by itself with a little bit of olive oil before you put on the toppings. The crust is so thin that if you don't bake it first the sauce will soak through and the crust gets not so crusty. It happened with one pizza, but it was still tasty.

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies Part II

2008-02-24T23:20:00.003-05:00

I also decided to make some sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I finally got to use some of the cookie cutters I got from Xian for Xmas! Holly gave me a super tasty recipe for thick, soft, grocery store style cookies. I know that sounds bad, but they were quite tasty. Actually, I had issues with about half of the cookies. They looked done when I took them out of the oven, and they had been in for the recommended time, and they were even brown on the bottom, but apparently they weren't cooked all the way through. About 20 minutes after I had taken them out, they started to fall, and I noticed they were still raw in the middle. I tried to save them, but it just didn't work. I think I was able to keep about half of the cookies, mostly the little ones. I probably had about 3 dozen.

After getting frustrated with the cookies, I didn't feel much like being creative. So I only frosted and sprinkled the remaining ones, nothing too exciting. They were still tasty. I took some to school and my students enjoyed them. My friends enjoyed the "I 'heart' PDE" cookies as well, although no one ate them (lack of frosting, I'm sure). I figured since I didn't have a real valentine, and I had to spend my V-Day evening in my Partial Differential Equations class, then I might as well make a cookie for it. That's right, Math is my hot, hot sex. And yes, I am a huge nerd.

Cinnamon Rolls

2008-02-24T22:59:00.007-05:00

Yes, I know, I am lame. L-A-M-E. I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks, even though I have done some baking. Please allow me to make it up to you by showing you these:

That's right -- tasty cinnamon rolls just waiting to rise to their full potential (ha!). I made these for my super-awesome roommate for Valentine's Day. I was trying to be quiet while I made these the night before so I could surprise him, so I stirred everything by hand with my trusty wooden spoon. I guess you could use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer if you had one (ahem, Xian), but wooden spoons will give you bigger guns. I refrigerated the rolls after their first rise, so I had to wait longer for them to rise the second time around. I read about a neat trick that seemed to speed it up, though. If you microwave a cup of water for a few minutes, and then put your bowl o' dough in (microwave turned off, of course), the warm humid air will make the dough rise faster. After baking, they should look something like this:

Then comes the best part -- cream cheese icing! I used leftover icing from the Guinness cupcakes, and they turned out beautifully!

I got the recipe from blogger Orangette's column in Bon Appetit. It was well worth the cover price! The recipe made about 20 rolls. After Dan and I ate a few in the morning, I took some to school to share with friends. I was still eating them for a few days afterwards. It was nice to wake up every morning to warm cinnamon rolls (after some time in the microwave, anyway). I'm pretty sure I ended up eating more of them than Dan did, but I'm ok with that.

Beer Bread

2008-02-23T15:16:00.000-05:00

So...anyone who knows me, knows that I hate beer. The smell. The look. The affects. Ick. Not a fan. Never have been. Never will be.

Apparently throw in some extra carboyhydrates and I am lovin' it all of a sudden.
Beer bread. So tasty. This was from a mix. Not from scratch. But I think I am going to try to make my own soon.
I knead to tackle the whole using yeast thing, otherwise I will scare myself out of it.
(Did you catch that...I "knead" to! Ha! Ha! Ha! LAUGH! I am very witty!)

Happy Kitchenaid Friday!

2008-02-22T17:00:00.001-05:00

Look how pretty! This is now on the counter at home! Yay! Fun! Thanks to Mark!
I'm also pretty excited about it being a weekend so I can in theory play with it some too.

Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Cookies

2008-02-21T09:32:00.005-05:00

These were Patti's second choice cookies. A tad disconcerting initially as the recipe is almost entirely oatmeal and peanut butter with some crushed peanuts and chocolate chips. I also baked them for the maximum amount of time allotted according to the fabulous Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies magazine....and they were still really squishy and swirly in the middle, but they turned out pretty well and firmed up quickly after taking them out of the oven. Which make sense seeing as how they were mainly peanut butter.

Mom likes them too...as you can see. It took several photographs for her to actually smile. I would say it was because she was so busy eating the tasty cookie...I would be lying. She just does not smile.

Chicken Pot Pie!

2008-02-21T09:26:00.003-05:00

So...I know this isn't a dessert as such...but it sure was tasty, and it did involve baking.
Now if only I can learn how to make a homemade pie crust. (I cheated on this one.)

Pretty in Pink! and Chocolate!

2008-02-20T08:16:00.010-05:00

So...I made some Amish Sugar Cookies Monday night. I am not entirely sure what was "Amish" about them. They were kind of shortbread-esque which was far superior to my previous sugar cookies. However, these could never be used for cut-out purposes. I was not really looking for another sugar cookie this week, but I had a bunch of icing left over from Jillian's cupcakes. Almond buttercream tastiness.

Essentially, I forgot to take a picture of the pretty pink sugar cookies at home with them still on the baking sheet. I improvised today when there was one left. I promised ET that I would not put this photo on some weird website. So we can look at this one of two ways. Either A.) I do not consider Jillian and myself weird or B.) I am a dirty rotten liar. Anyone who knows me or Jill would probably opt for B. (Not because we/me are patently liars, but because we are patently weird.

Last night I made some Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies. Wooo. Chocolate. Chocolate dough: two types of chocolate. Chocolate chips: two kinds of chips. Chocolate drizzle. = Chocolatey. They are pretty. I like the drizzle.

In other news: SNOW! Lots of SNOW! Actually, not really. I just was not prepared for the wintery goodness that greeted me this morning. It did not hamper travel. Just made my pants wet. I love. love. love dusting snow of of my car. It is all so pretty. I hate. hate. hate. scraping ice. Light and fluffy snow though is difficult to get upset at, even when it does make your jeans wet for five hours and impede your driving via incredibly SLOW people driving five m.p.h. down a hill, with their brakes on the entire time, with one of their brake lights out, on a rental car like some demented rear cyclops terrified of breaking the snail barrier.

Also, I have made some lame-o cookies lately. I think I am going to tackle Springerle tonight, but those will not be ready for awhile. Maybe it is time for some of the cookies from Global Cookies.
This is Jack, he did not want to pose with the cookies and he did not want to eat a cookie either. Shame. Shame.

Hey! It's Jillian's Birthday! Almost!

2008-02-17T17:00:00.001-05:00

Rob and Dan threw Jillian a surprise birthday party...I baked some junk. Evan flew in from Iowa! Yay!

Green Fabfetti Cupcakes:

Diet Cherry Coke Cupcakes:

Scissor Sisters/Breast-Cancer Cake:

Mark Campbell's Jillian's Birthday Red Velvet Cake:

Graham Cracker M&M Cookies

2008-02-17T14:59:00.003-05:00

Made these last night...they have peanut butter in them for some reason I can't discern, because you can't taste it after baking.

Overall...pretty tasty and nice and chewey too...if you like that kind of thing.

Robin: Butterscotch Crunch "Cookies"

2008-02-14T19:30:00.000-05:00

Robin calls these cookies...I call them an exercise in stirring.

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

2008-02-14T14:00:00.003-05:00

Then...I got bored...

Robin's Cookies: Butterscotch Oatmeal Chip

2008-02-13T14:00:00.000-05:00

Robin has been hasseling me for butterscotch cookies for an incredibly long time...so here they are. I didn't like them. *SHOCK*

White Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

2008-02-12T09:46:00.000-05:00

I love hazelnuts. Hazelnuts , Filberts, whatever you want to call them. I love them. I always thought that was a pretty normal relationship to have with hazelnuts. I mean seriously, they are the most tasty and delicious. My love for them started around 2001 when Katie and I and some other people went to Italy and we were introduced to Baci the tastiest hazelnut candy on the planet. Now of course, they are available just about anywhere, including Wal-Mart. Although that diminishes their allure, it doesn't diminish their freaking tastiness.

These cookies = not as tasty. I don't like white chocolate. But it seems to me that lots of other (insane) people do. I also discovered that these people are additionally insane because they enjoy the white chocoalte, but not the delish stylings and nutty delight that filberts embody. Silly people. Next time I won't waste my filberts on you!

Brownie Rollo Cookies

2008-02-12T09:41:00.001-05:00

Essentially these cookies were a sturdy pecan brownie dough wrapped around a rollo dipped in a sugar/pecan mix and baked.
I hate rollos. I don't really like caramel that much and I hate the milk chocolate they are dipped in. All of that side these turned out pretty well. They are much neater when they are warm and gooey inside. The chocolate from the rollo seaps in to the cookie dough for some squishy chocolate fun. After they cool. Not so entertaining.

Cherry Slice

2008-02-12T09:30:00.000-05:00

Cherry slice cookies...v. similar to orange slice cookies, except I followed the recipe on these and used shortening and added oatmeal...I still couldn't bring myself to ruin any kinda of cookie with coconut. They flattened out a lot more than our previous adventure into slice gummy cookies, but they were pretty tasty and much chewier than the orange too.

Cutting up the little slices was a pain in the rear. I decided to dust them in sugar this time after snipping them to pieces and that seemed to work much better as far as the stirring them into the dough went. I got so bored cutting up the little slices that I abandoned the cookie making until the next day. That is how boring it was and how much the scissors made my hand hurt.

Lemon Ricotta "Biscuits"

2008-02-10T14:18:00.001-05:00

We had some leftover ricotta cheese (I don't even remember what from anymore) so I decided to make this recipe. It's in my Food Network cookbook, but it can be found online here.

Despite some negative initial reactions from the boys about putting ricotta cheese in something sweet, these turned out very nicely! They were much more like a muffin then a biscuit though -- very moist and fluffy with a mellow lemon flavor. The almond flavor (extract in the batter and slices on top) really tied everything together. Perfect for a late Sunday breakfast!

Guinness Cupcakes

2008-02-10T02:01:00.000-05:00

We always like to try odd things around here. Chocolate and bacon? Yeah, we've done it. But, what about beer and cake? Sounds odd, but let me tell you -- it's totally awesome! I found a recipe the other day here and decided I had to try it. With a little help from my beer-loving friend Rob, I was on my way to another delicious combination.

Neat picture of butter and Guinness on the stove.

Chocolate and some other ingredients were added...

and then into the oven they went.

Whip up some cream cheese icing...

...and voila! Guinness cupcakes!

These were some mighty fine cupcakes! They had a nice chocolate yet not too sweet taste. They didn't really have much of a beer flavor at all. You could taste it if you tried pretty hard, and that's only after they cooled. The cream cheese icing was a nice contrast to the cake. I can't wait to try the recipe again with other beers!

Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

2008-02-10T01:38:00.000-05:00

Brian asked if I wanted to bake some cookies this weekend. I think we all know the answer to that question!

He was an awesome helper in the kitchen!

Brian recently bought a Cook's Illustrated magazine with a recipe for Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies. I've never seen one of these magazines, but they are awesome. It has drawings to go along with almost every recipe. Even though the magazine is mostly black and white, the pictures still seem very helpful. It's also interesting to read about how they test the recipes and what works and what doesn't.

This article was all about thin and crispy oatmeal cookies, not the traditional chewy raisin ones. I personally love the crispy oatmeal cookies. I remember when I worked at Panera I would eat the crispy edges of a Nutty Oatmeal Raisin cookie and throw away the chewy middle. But these cookies are perfectly crispy throughout! They are so tasty, I've had 3.5 already today! Dan especially liked that they were bigger than my usual cookies.

There is also a suggestion to put coarse sea salt on the cookies before they bake. We tried it with a few, and it was surprisingly delicious! And they came out sparkly, which is always a plus in my book.

Jack's Cookie of Choice: Peanut Chocolate Chip

2008-02-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've discovered that people will eat anything I bring in...but they seem to favor the old standbys chocolate chip and peanut butter.
Jack enjoyed his cookie selection, but I can't say much about how they turned out, I don't like peanuts. My least favorite nut by far.

Rocky Road and Oatmeal Pecan

2008-02-07T22:45:00.000-05:00

After some issues with finding my baking cocoa...these finally got made. The cookies themselves are a little flimsy, I'd probably add a little more flour the next time I make them, but the marshmallow, chocolate icing and pecan topping were pretty tasty and pretty as well. I had fun drizzling chocolate over everything in the kitchen too!

Patti's cookie choice of the week: Oatmeal Pecan

I'm not a fan of oatmeal and I was expecting these to be really really bland, but they weren't. The brown sugar in the dough really helped the pecan and oatmeal work together to be their best. Overall, very tasty. Patti even hid some of them to save from the ravenous heathens at work.

While I had the camera out I hunted down P.D. Wheezy for some photographs. Potato was nowhere to be found. She doesn't like the sound of the mixer.

The worst cookies on the face of the planet

2008-02-07T22:30:00.000-05:00

So...I made these out of the Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies magazine I got for Christmas...may I just say they were HORRIBLE! They tasted like biscuits. Initially I thought the recipe was a little odd...a little lacking in the sugar dept., but I said to myself, "Hey, this is taste of home. They do all that crap with testing their recipes. I've read about it. I'll go ahead and give it a shot." Well...I checked my measurements and ingredients and I followed the recipe correctly, and they were BAD BAD BAD! Like tiny salty biscuits that had melty peppermint candy chunks disspersed throughout. Ick. I actually took a picture of them in the trash can, but then I decided I didn't want to post a picture of my trash can on here.

They may look edible. But, I promise, they are not.

King Cake - Cupcakes!

2008-02-05T08:21:00.000-05:00

So I wanted to make a King Cake for Fat Tuesday...alas...I've never made anything that requires yeast successfully. (I admit I haven't tried since my freshman year of high school.) Also, I lack anything mixer/breadmaker capable of mixing the dough. I went the lame easy route instead and made King Cupcakes!
They are the magnaolia vanilla cupcake recipe from http://neverbashfulwithbutter.blogspot.com filled with a cinammon pecan filling... topped with a tangy buttercream icing recipe...and a baby!

I thought they were pretty tasty cold, but I have my doubts that anyone around these parts will enjoy them.

Superbowl Sunday Baking

2008-02-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

So I went to Jungle Jim's on Saturday and after several laps of the store managed to find most of the spices and such that I wanted to start trying to make some less common cookies. Saturday also involved "helping" Katie, who needs no help from me in the kitchen, bake a cake for her brother's birthday. Paula Deen's Strawberry cake. I don't know how it ended up, because we ended up finishing the actual cake around midnight, but it smelled yummy and the strawberries were freaking delicious.
Anyway, Sunday I decided to forgo trying any of the recipes that I want to try, but am pretty sure no one will eat for something that it turned out no one but my grandmother liked anyway.

Ginger creams...Fluffy ginger, cinnamon and clove cookies iced with a tart-ish lemon icing. Personally, I think the icing was the best part of the cookie. I sent these home with grandma. They will probably be the first cookie to survive her sons, since none of them liked them.

Sunday night, pre-Superbowl

Almond Toffee Sandies. Not nearly as tasty as the sandies with pecans and in my opinion, they turned out to be a waste of almonds.

Iced Raspberry Chip

2008-02-04T08:27:00.001-05:00

So the plan was to make some raspberry thumprints to take Heather at work. Heather works the dreaded evil Friday night shift in composing. Tragically...the best laid plans and all that...any form of raspberry filling proved to be missing in action. I didn't discover this until after I had already made the dough. Soooo...rasberry extract to the rescue and the one time thumprints ended up with some chocolate in the middle and iced with raspberry buttercream. Heather seemed to like them alright, but she could have been lying, she is incredibly nice. Too nice to tell me that the cookies I gave her sucked at 11:30 at night.

Whoopie Pies! Whoopie!

2008-02-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

So...I've been having some adventures in baking lately. I made 18 dozen cookies to send off to Las Vegas on Tuesday/Wednesday. I also learned that unbleached flour is rarely your friend. Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip and peanut butter chip. Nothing all that new or entertaining.

"Amish" Whoopie Pies are slightly more labor intensive than one might suspect...and they are pretty sweet. I think Robin and I might be the only people that like them.

I'm hoping for a Jungle Jim's trip in the near future...there are some cookie recipes at www.globalcookies.blogspot.com that I would like to try out and Madison just doesn't seem to have the variety of ingredients I'm looking for.

Sandy Pecans

2008-01-29T10:05:00.001-05:00

I don't really care that much for nuts...but these are actually pretty tasty. I wasn't paying much attention to the actual recipe at first so I had already started mixing some of the ingredients together before I noticed that it called for four freaking cups of flour. This is a perfect example of why you should completely read the recipe including amounts before beginning anything. If I had, I might not have eight dozen decent sized pecan sandies right now.

I've never actually consumed a store bought pecan sandie before, so I can't testify if these are that similar or not, but people seem to be eating them. Again, I must make note of the fact that my test group don't seem to be all that discerning when it comes to free baked goods.

Allen's Awesome Apple ^2s

2008-01-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

Allen requested that we bake something in his honor. Fried chicken and watermelon cookies just don't sound appetizing, so we picked the next best thing -- apple pie. When Allen lived in Vincennes, almost every weekend he came to visit we would buy a pie to eat while we watched High Fidelity. It was always a frozen Sara Lee Dutch Apple pie with Breyer's vanilla (not vanilla bean, mind you) ice cream to go with it. We got pretty good at baking those frozen pies without burning the crusts by the end of the year.

We found a couple apple pie-type bar recipes, but no dutch apple pie bar recipes. So we combined them and got these tasty little squares. It's not quite dutch apple, but the oatmeal gives that crunchiness plain ol' pie just doesn't have.

So here they are, Allen's Awesome Apple^2s. (That's Apple Squares for you non-math people.) Best served warm with vanilla ice cream and a heaping scoop of John Cusack.

Weekend Baking

2008-01-29T08:47:00.000-05:00

Jillian working hard on the indoor smores.

Baking bacon! The beginning of the Bacon Street Bars!

I'm not sure exactly what she was trying to convey with that look...I'll leave it for you to decide.

The melding of the chocolate and the bacon!

In case you can't tell from our expressions, I think we need a little work in the chocolate bacon realm.

This guy...this guy on the Honey Graham Box, the one that looks a little bit like Draco Malfoy? He was looking at me funny. I didn't like it. Creepy little freak.

Jillian, friend that she is, took him out for me with one of her Christmas knives...personally I think she was a little too aggressive with the stabbing...but he deserved it.

Indoor smores are oh, so tasty. PFS couldn't hold a candle to these chewy dears.

Orange slice cookies. Made with only the finest CVS orange slices. Diligently hacked into tiny pieces by me.

We might have made some other things too, but, to be honest, we took a little break and that break turned into watching the movie Stardust, which we both highly recommend. It was much more entertaining than anticipated.