Genesis of a Cook

Oatmeal, Banana and Cherry Muffins

2010-07-24T13:37:00.001-04:00

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 rolled oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup mashed banana (about 2-3 bananas)
1 large egg
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup cherries, pitted and halved

Cherries are in season. So of course when asked what to do with them, I would answer without hesitation to make them into muffins. Muffins are what I love to bake the most of.. With these little snacks, there is a bonus. They are actually healthy ! Got the idea for the muffins from bloggers Honey, What's Cooking ? and Joy the Baker. If your looking for muffins that taste good and make you feel good, these are it !

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line muffin tins. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; whisk together. In another bowl, combine the egg, yogurt, brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir to combine. Add to flour mixture. Add the mashed bananas and halved cherries.

Divide the batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until browned. Let cool in the pan about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Apple, Cinnamon and Fig Muffins

2010-07-22T19:55:00.002-04:00

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. milk
1 large egg
8 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup peeled and chopped apple
1/2 cup dried figs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line muffin tins. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; whisk together. In another bowl, combine the milk, egg, melted butter, and sugar. Stir to combine. Add butter mixture into the flour mixture. Add the apples and figs.

Divide the batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until browned. Let cool in the pan about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pizza Stuffed Pretzels

2010-07-03T09:09:00.000-04:00

The name itself is drool worth ! Pizza stuff pretzels.. Mmmmm ;3 ! The beauty of these easy pretzels is that you can be creative. Whether it be a pretzel with alfredo and chicken, or bacon and bleu cheese, or like I did, with pepperoni, marinara and mozzarella. It's all up to your taste buds really !

Recipe can be found here.

Neapolitan Cheesecake

2009-08-18T19:25:00.006-04:00

Summer vacation comes to an end..

For the Chocolate Crumb Crust

Vanilla Wafer Crumbs (about 45 wafers)
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/3 cup melted butter

For Cheesecake Filling

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen strawberries, thawed, drained
3 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. flour, divided
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. red food color (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. For the chocolate crumb crust, in a small bowl, stir together 1-1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 45 wafers), confectioners' sugar and cocoa; stir in melted butter. Press mixture firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 8 minutes; cool slightly.

3. In blender container or food processor, puree strawberries to yield 1/2 cup; set aside.

4. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, sour cream, 3 tbsps flour, vanilla, 1 tsp. vanilla bean and salt; beat until smooth.

5. In separate bowl, stir together 1-1/3 cups cheese mixture, strawberries, remaining 1 teaspoon flour and food color, if desired.

6Carefully spoon 2 cups vanilla batter over prepared crust. Pour strawberry batter over vanilla batter; smooth surface.

7. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees; continue baking 55 to 60 minutes or until center of cheesecake is almost set. Remove from oven to wire rack. Cool 30 minutes. With knife, loosen cake from side of pan. Cool completely; remove side of pan. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

Makes 10 to 12 servings

Classic Coffee Cake

2009-05-25T22:42:00.002-04:00

For the Topping

16 tbsp butter, cut up
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
2 2/3 cups flour

For the Cake

3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
12 tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla

1. For the topping, in a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and add the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir, pressing when necessary, until there are no lumps of sugar. Add the flour and mix until well blended. Set aside.

2. For the cake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13" baking pan.

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Whisk until well blended.

4. Pour the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and gently stir just until blended. Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Break up the topping mixture with your fingers into medium sized pieces and sprinkle evenly over the cake batter to form a generous layer.

5. Bake until the cake springs back lightly when pressed in the center and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Me and my boyfriend ;3

Banana Cupcakes w/ Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

2009-05-17T20:52:00.002-04:00

"Still hard to believe that my high school life is coming to an end in the next couple days.. Honestly, it's really hard. Extremely hard. I didn't have much of a high school life for a long time, being that I had several health issues that were holding me back. I missed out on a lot, which also made me rebel a lot.. I don't know if I'm really ready to let go of it just yet, though I know that I'm going to have to..

In the end though, I know everything is going to be fine. I don't regret anything. My senior years could have been better, but I loved every bit of it and I wouldn't take back anything if it meant changing how I am now. Everyone that I've met and everything that has happened to me in these past couple years has really shaped me for who I am today. I have really the best boyfriend I've ever had, and new friends that I really love being with. I'm finally getting my head situated and my goals in go, and I'm finally waking up in the morning with a giddy smile on my face and a desire to do anything. I'm definitely looking forward to the years to come and my new school life ahead..

Aside from that, I noticed that a few of our banana's were going bad, so me being me, I always find the need to drop what I'm doing and put those banana's to good use. The recipe is a real simple one. It's the icing that really adds to these. OH do I love this icing! I saw this icing on these cupcakes and decided to try it on a basic banana cupcakes. I think it really complimented these moist cupcakes, as it would with ANY cupcakes I must say! It was just simple really good.

Recipe

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, slightly softened
12 oz cream cheese
6 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In the well, mix together the butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture, being sure not to over mix. Spoon batter into muffin cups.

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

4. T H E I C I N G; In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until everything is combined. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon. Ice the cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Summer of 2009 is just around the corner! OH YEAH!

Peanut Chocolate Chunk Blondies

2009-04-02T16:11:00.002-04:00

"What are blondies? I've never had one." asked a little friend of mine. "No.. no way." I said, "I can't believe you've never had a blondie! Your... your missing out!" "What are the exactly?" she asked. I simply answered, "I'll show you."

I was inspired to make these for a friend whom has never had a blondie before. I was going to make my favorite blondies, but since I was at it, I decided to try a new recipe for a blondie, and one with nuts (for what ever reason, I've been going nutty for some reason).

They came out pretty good. My friend really liked them. I'm going to make my favorite ones to give her the better experience of the blondies. These blondie don't beat my favorite blondies :P But, these are really chewy, delicious. I think it's best warm, and of course, with a scoop of ice cream!

Recipe

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
10 tbsp. salted butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 oz. roasted peanuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and a flour a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Turn off the heat and whisk in the sugar to blend. Whisk in eggs and vanilla extract.

3. Gradually stir in the flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle the top with the chopped chocolate and nuts.

4. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the pan comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Makes 24 bars

Also, go see Slumdog Millionaire. Quite possibly the best movie I've ever seen.

Banana Muffins w/ Streusel Topping

2009-03-15T00:24:00.001-04:00

Muffin lover here.

I've come to realize that when it comes to baking lately, I'm always wanting to make muffins. Though, I don't necessarily find that to be a bad thing. Muffins are amazing!! I guess I'd prefer portion sized treat compared to craving tall, calorie filled cakes... which sounds good, now that I'm thinking of it...

The weather is starting to rise here (or should I say, it's gradually getting hotter and hotter here in Floirda!!) and we've bee stocking up on our fresh fruits and veggies. We've been buying tons of bananas more so compared to everything else (my mothers on this banana diet, strange as it might sound). So, me being me, taking any opportunity to bake with bananas, I decided to make Banana Muffins. I came across this post for Banana Muffins with a streusel topping not to long ago. Decided to give it a try to day.

What really makes these muffins is the topping. Oh the topping is so good! I could use this topping on other things (which I'm going to) and it'd taste fantastic! These are a must make when bananas are ripe!

Recipe

Streusel

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces

Muffin

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp.baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp.freshly grated nutmeg
2 medium mashed ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/2 cup half-n-half or whole milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 10 muffin cups with liners.

2To make the streusel, in a medium sized bowl, stir together walnuts, oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, until well combined. Knead in butter using fingertips until well combined and clumpy; set aside.

3.To make the muffins, in a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together banana, egg, half-n-half, butter, brown sugar and vanilla until well combined; whisk in dry ingredients until just combined.

4Divide batter into muffin cups and evenly top with streusel. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and well risen. Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 10 muffins

My reaction once I tried these muffins...

Chocolate Valentino

2009-02-28T12:03:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite Daring Bakers Challenge, I must admit. Really simple, and really good. That's all I really have to say.

Recipe

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

What we Want You to Do:

-Use the following recipe

-Serve with - The original recipe calls for the cake to be served with whipping cream. BUT we decided to make this more of a challenge and ask you to make your own Ice Cream – a first for the DBrs. You can choose any flavour you want and any recipe although we provided two vanilla ice cream recipes. But we are giving you a little freedom here and will allow whipped cream as a topping as well or of course non-dairy whip. Be as creative as you want with your topping. Any fruit puree or sauce would be lovely with this cake.

- Use your favorite chocolate – the finished cake will taste exactly like the chocolate you use. Be creative with your chocolate, if you like a sweeter cake use milk chocolate or a combination of the semisweet and milk chocolate. If you like bittersweet chocolate use that and add sweetness by mixing the semi sweet with bittersweet. If you are daring, try white chocolate. (Dharm used all bittersweet and Wendy used a half bitter/half semi sweet chocolate).

- A higher cocoa percentage increases the bitterness of the chocolate.

-Equipment - it is optional to use a heart shaped pan. For a real Valentino, bake it in a heart shaped pan or cut it out into a heart shape. You may use any shape pan that gives you an area of 50” - 6x8 or 7x7. An 8” spring form pan works with great results as do smaller pans or ramekins.

-An instant read thermometer highly recommended.

Note on recipe - the recipe consists of 3 simple ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the same way of French baguette.

-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.

-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.

-Very dense and fudgy cake that tastes divine.

-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

Posting Date: February 28, 2009

Printable Recipe:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins

2009-02-22T18:45:00.000-05:00

Caffeine was in need today! I use to be a non stop, coffee everyday kind of person. I was one of those people that didn't think having coffee at 10pm was strange (but it definitely explains why I never slept!). Though I may not drink coffee as much as I use to, I still love coffee. Sunday mornings are the best times for coffee. Just waking up, don't have to do much, switch that coffee maker on and... relax.

But, this isn't coffee. Oh no. This is something better, I guarantee. A sweeter substitution for coffee, or, just a great accomplice to your morning jo'. These muffins are really simple to make, as any muffin really is. I used mini chocolate chip instead of regular chocolate chip, mainly because it was all I had. However, I've tried this recipe with regular chocolate chips and I'd recommend those over mini. Either way though, these muffins will turn out spectacular and start your morning off with you smiling!

Recipe

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. dutch-processed cocoa powder
3 tbsp. instant espresso
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups whole plain yogurt
2 large eggs
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line or grease 12 muffin cup pan.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt, eggs, and instant espresso together until smooth. Gently fold yogurt mixture into the flour mixture until just combined, then fold in the melted butter.

4. Divide batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes in pan before removing.

Vanilla Bourbon Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

2009-02-01T00:57:00.044-05:00

It's pretty hard to start this.. I don't know if there are really any words to say to state how much I've fallen for this simple quick bread. It's... ridiculously scrumptious and delicious. Moist and sweet, great with adding icing or a cup of coffee or tea... I got the idea while trying to find something to make in the small amount of ingredients that I had.

I didn't have any granulated sugar, so I decided to try using powdered sugar and brown sugar together (which turned out to be really good) and used a bunch of vanilla. I wanted something simple. I got the walnut coffee crumble idea from here off of a banana bread recipe. I thought that it'd be a perfect topping to a simple bread; and it indeed was.

This has become my new favorite quick bread recipe for this year, no doubt.

Recipe

For Crumble Topping

1/2 cup walnuts
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. cold butter
1 tsp. instant coffee
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

For the Bread

2 cups flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs
2 tbsp. bourbon
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan; set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the crumble; set aside.

3. In a large bowl combine flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. With electric mixer at low speed, beat until well blended. Add the cream, eggs, bourbon and vanilla. Beat at low speed until dry ingredients are evenly moistened and smooth.

4. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Top the batter off with the crumble. Bake in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until bread tests done.

Coffee Cake Muffins

2009-01-25T17:42:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, has it not!? Life got in the way, honestly. Way to many things going on that I really have no found the time to bake and/or cook at all. From family issues to friend issues, to relationship issues to illness issues, it's been really nonstop in the life of Tarah. For the past week though, slowly but surely, things have been starting to slow down. Not so unbalanced as it was last month.

Really, it all started getting worst once Christmas came around. It seemed like everything was headed straight down the gutter. Nothing seemed to be going right, no one knew what to do. The whole time threw all this chaos, I've been staying away from the house. I felt it'd be better that way. It was a good things I did, honestly.

The whole time I spent my time with my boyfriend, who really always up-ed my mood. It became hard for me to even be negative after being with him, even when I came home to news I really didn't want to hear. I've just been telling myself "Think of the beauty still left around you and be happy." I started to cherish everything a bunch more, and stopped looking at the negativity of things. I almost feel like a new person, I guess you could say.

"You have to put up with a little rain to get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Recipe

For Streusal Topping

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

For Muffins

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a muffin pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour, and salt. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs; refrigerate until ready to use.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

4. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sour cream, granulated sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. With mixer on low, beat flour mixture into butter mixture.

5. Divide half the batter among prepared muffin cups. Top with half the streusel mixture, then remaining batter, and top with streusel. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sugar Coated Doughnuts

2008-12-08T11:19:00.001-05:00

For the past few days, I've had a cold that just doesn't want to go away. It's driving me crazy. Coughing, sneezing, coughing, sneezing; it never ends. Whats worst is that the family keeps getting the cold, giving to someone else, then it coming back. Just a back and forth kind of thing. Even though I was kind of sick, I wanted to have something homemade and something that would really make me feel good (if just a little). I had my little brother do a lot for me (being that I'm sick) and he did a pretty good job if I say so myself.

You know, It's always good to have something that you love to eat (even if you've eaten thousands of times!). These doughnuts have a sugar coated that really makes these so delicious! If you wanted to, you could change these into cinnamon sugar doughnuts by replaces 1/2 cup of the sugar with 1/2 cup of cinnamon (a lot of cinnamon, I know). Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts are just as good as these. However, we made these, and they made me feel a little better :]

Recipe

2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 cup water at 120 degrees F (use a candy thermometer)
4 1/2 cups flour
10 tbsp. butter, softened
2/3 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp. salt
Canola or vegetable oil for frying
3 1/2 cups sugar (for coating donuts)

1. In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast on the water and let stand for 5 minutes, or until bubbles form. Combine the yeast mixture with 1 cup flour, stirring until mixture is smooth. Cover with plastic and let sit in a warm place for 30 to 60 minutes, until mixture has risen.

2. Meanwhile, using the paddle attachment or dough hook of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time and beat for 1 minute after each addition. Add vanilla, zest, and salt to butter mixture. When yeast and flour mixture has risen, add to the butter mixture in the mixer and slowly add the remaining 3 1/2 cups flour. Combine until dough forms a ball on the paddle or dough hook (the dough should pull cleanly from side of the bowl). Place dough in a stainless steel bowl for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and allow to double in size.

3. Punch down dough and place in refrigerator overnight or for at least 3 hours. Turn chilled dough out onto well-floured board. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and cut out donuts with 2-inch round cutters. Use a 1-inch cutter to cut out center. Let cut doughnuts rest on a floured board for 30 minutes or until soft and puffy.

4. Fry until golden brown in a cast iron skillet, electric frying pan, or portable deep fryer in 2 inches of oil heated to 350 degrees. Turn the doughnuts only once (it will take a much shorter time for the second side to turn golden brown).

5. Drain on paper towels, then dip both sides in sugar. Serve right away.

Carrot Bread

2008-11-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

Around here, it's been pretty hectic. First, my birthday just passed. The 18th. I'm eighteen now. My parents feel like they're ancient now and I never stopped to kid with them with how old I've gotten. So with that, my entire family has been trying to do something with me. From going to the movies to dinner with each one, it's tiring.

My friends wanted to celebrate with me as well. For fun, we decided to go to the first showing of the movie Twilight. Yes, I am one of those Twilight fans. As a matter of fact, I'm a bit obsessed. It's a hands down amazing book. I remember when I first read the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer; Couldn't stop. I read the entire book in one day (as did I with all the other books to the series).

The movie was amazing! I'll admit that I don't like some of the characters and how they are picture (I have my own image as to what the characters look like) but they really did a magnificent job on the movie! Robert Pattinson and Kristin did great as the characters Edward and Bella. I'm even more excited to of heard that they are in fact making the second movie, New Moon! I'm thrilled!!

Enough of my fan girl moment over my movie. I had the time to bake something but I didn't want to make something extremely heavy (Thanksgiving is right around the corner!!). We had some carrot in the fridge and originally what came to mind was Carrot Cake, which, wasn't something I really wanted though since that would be way high in calories. Then, bread came to mind. It sounded perfect.

It turned really good and it was well loved. I bit dense, but nice and moist. I really wish now though that I had some kind of cream cheese spread (I don't know how I didn't think to make some!). Believe me, it would have been perfect for this!!

Recipe

For Bread

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

For Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 tbsp. lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, combine oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla; mix well. Slowly add the flour mixture to the oil mixture, mixing until moistened. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into loaf pan.

3. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely.

4. For the glaze, shift the powdered sugar. Add lemon peel and juice. Drizzle over top of cooled bread. Store i fridge.

Pumpkin Doughnuts

2008-11-15T16:29:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin still remains in my mind during this lovely fall season. Nothing better than the smell of pumpkin and aromatic spices to make you smile when it's nice and cool out. Like on this beautiful morning!

The idea just really pop to me. I mean, seriously, whats not better than doughnuts in the morning? I mean, doughnuts aren't something that should necessarily be eaten everyday, but it's always good to have one from time to time, yea? To make it a better and much more satisfying choice for breakfast, make it into one that for sure will leave you thinking of fall!

I found the recipe from a site I like to visit often, epicurious.com. It's really a must try recipe. Would make a great morning treat during this season. So do try! It's a recipe everyone in my house loved!

Recipe

Doughnuts

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 tap. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. buttermilk
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
Canola oil (for deep-frying)

Powdered Sugar Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
Whipping cream

1. For the doughnuts, whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (mixture will be grainy). Beat in egg, then yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in buttermilk; beat in pumpkin in 4 additions. Using rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients in 4 additions, blending gently after each addition. Cover with plastic; chill 3 hours.

2. Sprinkle 2 rimmed baking sheets lightly with flour. Press out 1/3 of dough on floured surface to 1/2- to 2/3-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds. Arrange on sheets. Repeat with remaining dough in 2 more batches. Gather dough scraps. Press out dough and cut out more dough rounds until all dough is used.

3. Using 1-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes.

4. Line 2 baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches. Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365°F to 370°F. Fry doughnut holes in 2 batches until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes.

5. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, until golden brown, adjusting heat to maintain temperature, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Cool completely.

6. For the sugar glaze, whisk powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons whipping cream to blend. Whisk in additional cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, to form medium thick glaze. Can be made up to 3 hours ahead. Add doughnut holes to bowl of spiced sugar and toss to coat. Spread doughnuts on 1 side with Powdered Sugar Glaze. Arrange doughnuts, glazed side up, on racks. Let stand until glaze sets, at least 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

2008-10-30T12:16:00.003-04:00

Fall is here! Even here in Orlando, Florida you can feel it! We reach our newest lows for the season; Lows of 36 degrees and highs of 65. It's been so beautiful out for the past couple days! I love the cool weather! Makes me wonder some times as to why I'm living in Florida..

I actually plan to move soon once I start attending college. I really want to go live on NY. I've always loved it up there, so why not live there? I love the city, the scenery, the people; I love so much about it. Whether I move there soon, or a few years from now, I know that I want to live there.

But anyways, a bit of topic! To celebrate the fact that fall is here, I decided to bake something that just screams autumn; pumpkin. What better than a comforting pumpkin bread pudding to celebrate with, yea? I've been holding on to this recipe that I found not to long ago, waiting for the right time to try it out. Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint.

Recipe

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
2 tbsp. bourbon
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle.

2. Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, spices and bourbon, if using, in a bowl.

3. Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

Sausage and Ham Pizza

2008-10-29T20:01:00.004-04:00

Honestly, I wish I was more creative with this month. Sadly, by that time I realized that the challenge was done, I'd done nothing creative for pizza. I've already seen other Daring Bakers Pizza, and some of them just wow me to no end. Some sweet ones that I really never thought about. Daring Bakers never cease to amaze me..

I've been rather busy, so I decided to just go the simple route. Sausage, Pepperoni, Ham, etc. The usual's. To be blunt, I was kind of disappointed in a way with this months challenge. It's not that I don't like pizza, I mean, I love pizza. It's just, I'm still waiting to get a challenge where I'm just so excited to trying. I mean, I make pizza dough all the time. It's how my family likes pizza; homemade. Though, I know there are many that don't do this, so this months challenge might of been pretty exciting for some. I want to try something I've never done ;P

All in all though, it's always fun to make pizza from scratch. Can't wait to see the next challenge!

Daring Bakers

Recipe

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter)

4 1/2 cups Unbleached Bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 tbsp sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

Or

2. Add the oil, sugar or agave syrup and cold water, then mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

Or

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the number of desired dough balls from the refrigerator. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with a gluten free flour. Delicately press the dough into disks about ½ inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil. Lightly cover the dough round with a sheet of parchment paper and allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

Or

10. FOR GF: Press the dough into the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough).

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.

During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

Or

11. FOR GF: Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

Or

12. FOR GF: Place the garnished pizza on the parchment paper onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

Or

13. FOR GF: Follow the notes for this step.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

REMARKS:
Tossing links: Link, Link 2,Link 3, Link 4

***************

NOTE ON SAUCE: Your sauce (any) should not be too thick as it will thicken in the hot oven. Less is more but make the less truly more by using quality ingredients.

SUCE IDEAS: Pestos, white or brown sauce, tomato sauce, sour cream, thick cream, Bolognese sauce, etc…
Check here for sauce recipes: http://www.tenspeedpress.com/page.php3?ftr=300

TOPPING IDEAS: Seafood, fish, meat (dry, cured, smoked or ground), cheeses (Gruyère, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, Provolone, Ricotta, Maroille, Munster, etc…), nuts, tofu, veggies (tomatoes, bell peppers, artichokes, hearts of palm, zucchinis, pumpkin, red onions, etc…), herbs (mixes, fresh or dried), spices (garlic, gourmet salt, pepper, curry, berbere, ras-el-hanout, za’atar, etc…), nuts (pecans, walnuts, cashew nuts, Brasil nuts, macadamia nuts, etc…)….

Pineapple Bundt Cake

2008-10-07T17:44:00.000-04:00

Before summer officially ends in my book and I let the wonderful fall season roll on threw, I had to bake something that had a summer sense to it. The heat is still already looming around in Florida (no surprise), so it really does feel like it's summer still (which, honestly, kind of sucks).

My boyfriends has been wanting me to bake a Pineapple Cake forever. I just haven't had time for the past couple weeks. I've been so busy that I never have to much time for myself, sadly. School is getting pretty hectic and it doesn't help that I'm attending night school as well. So I'm always at school.

Since I had a little time at hand and I too was craving sweets (since I've been on the school diet!!), I finally came around to bake the Pineapple Cake that someone has been nagging at me to bake. I didn't do the traditional Pineapple Cake, I guess you could say. Honestly, I don't like the idea of Pineapple on top. I much preferred the idea of the Pineapple being inside the cake. So I used shredded pineapple.

The cake was dense, but moist and sweet. Really great with morning tea (which is what I've been doing for the past couple morning). A great way to end the summer and let in the flavors of fall crawl in.

Recipe

Pineapple Cake

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites
2 tsp. lemon extract
1 (16 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch bundt cake pan.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until soft. Add cinnamon and salt. Add eggs, egg whites. Add lemon extract. Beat together until fluffy.

3. In another bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Slowly, combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients. Stir in pineapple. Pour into greased bundt pan.

4. Bake at for 55-60 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool. For the glaze, get a small bowl. Sift the powdered sugar. Add milk and lemon extract. If needed more, add in small drops (1/4 to 1/2 tsp. drops). Drizzle over cake.

Chocolate Pistachio Cake

2008-09-29T16:25:00.001-04:00

Remembering birthday is something most of my family does not seem to know how to do, for it seemed everyone almost forgot about my Nana's birthday. My dad is the worst at remembering birthday. Sadly, he'll forget mine, my moms and my brothers from time to time. I try my best not to forget birthdays. I feel horrible if I forget one. I feel as though that I need to have they're birthday to be a great day!

My Nana's didn't want much for her birthday. She really just wants to ignore the fact that it is her birthday. I think anyone that gets older and older doesn't want to get older and older, you know?

Any who, all she wanted to do was have a family get together. Which included her sisters, my grandfathers brothers, her son (my dad) and his family, and a handful of her friends. I adore my Nana, really, I do. So I wanted to make a nice cake that I know she'd like. She loves chocolate (any woman would) and she's a big pistachio eater. She always has some around the house, ready to be snacked on.

When I came across this recipe on Jens blog at use real butter, it was perfect! It was absolutely perfect for her! And she agreed. She loved it. As well as everyone else. It has a nice salty addiction to it (and we all love salt) and it was just an overall huge hit with everyone. Not to sweet, soft and had enough in each bite.

Recipe

Chocolate cake
Makes one 9×3-inch round cake. Double this recipe to get a 4 layer cake.

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, plus extra for greasing
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, broken into pieces
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. red raspberry vinegar
1 cup water

Pistachio Vanilla Buttercream

8 oz egg whites
16 oz sugar
1 lb butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups shelled pistachios

Ganache

6 tbsps heavy cream
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a sifter and sift onto wax paper or a bowl and set aside. Coat 2 9×3-inch round pans with butter on the base and sides. Place circular parchment in the bottom and brush with more butter.

2. Melt the unsweetened chocolate over water bath or in the microwave (be suer to keep stirring to prevent burning). Set aside.

3. Beat sugar and butter together in mixer fitted with paddle. Beat on medium for 1 minute, then on high for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and beat on high for 15 seconds after the addition of each egg. Add vanilla and vinegar and beat on high for 20 seconds. Add the melted chocolate and mix on low for 10 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Boil water and operate the mixer on low while adding the sifted dry ingredients. Mix for 10 seconds. Carefully add the boiling water and continue to mix on low for 10 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for 5 seconds. Pour batter into pans.

5. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until toothpick test is clean. Remove from oven and allow cakes to cool in pans for 20 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

1. For the pistachio and vanilla buttercreams, combine egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk constantly over a bain marie until 140F is reached. Place on mixer with balloon whisk and whip until stiff. Turn down whip speed to 3rd and whip until cool to the touch (this takes a while - should be cooler than your hand).

2. Change to a paddle and gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces. Mix to emulsify. Once desired consistency has been reached, add vanilla. Blanche the pistachios in boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain and place the nuts in a cotton towel. Fold the towel over the nuts and rub vigorously to loosen and remove the skins. Toast the skinned pistachios on a baking sheet for 15 minutes at 325°F. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Reserve a few whole ones for garnish. Finely chop the remaining pistachios.

3. Take 2/3 of the buttercream frosting and fold in the pistachios. Save the remaining third of the buttercream for frosting the cake.

4. For the ganache, bring the cream to a boil and remove from heat immediately. Pour over the chocolate (making sure to cover all of the chocolate) and let sit for a minute. Stir until the ganache is smooth and evenly mixed. Put in the refrigerator until firm enough for piping.

To assembly, cut off the dome tops of the cakes. Slice your cakes into two layers. Place the base of one cake on the serving plate or a cake board. Spread 1/3 of the pistachio buttercream over the layer. Repeat twice more. Top the cake with the other base slice (upside down, so base it facing up). Coat the sides with the vanilla buttercream (a thin layer spread around the entire cake). Then frost the entire cake with the rest of the vanilla buttercream. Decorate the cake with chocolate ganache however you like and garnish with whole pistachios and/or any extra chopped pistachios. Serve at room temperature.

Lavash Crackers

2008-09-28T22:38:00.001-04:00

For whatever reason, blogger hates me. I had a long, elaborate post about these crackers. I come to see my post and discover that it's not there. I had it on a timed post. I don't think I'll ever do that again... Since I'm a bite crammed in work, I'm going to make this quick, nice and sweet.

This months Daring Bakers Challenge was Lavash Crackers. These crackers were a bit... annoying, if you ask me. I'm a perfectionist, and they were rather, well, rugged most of the time after baking. But, I made several batches of these being that the taste was delicious! I chose to use sea salt, rosemary, black pepper and garlic for these crackers. They're all pretty much my favorite spice, so I thought I'd combine them all for these crackers.

I also wanted to try and get fancy with these crackers. I poke holes into them. I try to make all of them even (I even measured because I wanted to have them all perfect!) and I poked 7 in each cracker. I was a bit nervous how they would turn out... I was unsure as to how they would bake. Whether they would rise or not. But, they turned out great. And these will be something I know I will make time and time again.

Recipe

Lavash Cracker
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Recipe

1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. sesame seed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb water, at room temperature
Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

1. Put the active dry yeast with the water and let it sit until it bubbles, about 5 minutes.

2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the yeast mixture with the flour, salt, cumin, sesame seed, sugar, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. If your ball is dry and not wet enough, add in some water by the tablespoonfuls.

3. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled.

4. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

5. Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment.

6. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).
When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Raspberry Honey Mustard Sauce

1 jar (12 oz. size) black raspberry jam
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup prepared mustard

1. In small pan, combine jam, honey and mustard, stir constantly, cook over medium heat until jam melts and sauce is smooth. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-09-18T17:26:00.002-04:00

One the course I choose to do this year for my senior year in high school was Nutritional Living. Reason being was, well, I thought it'd be good to learn more about healthier foods and healthier ways of cooking. I mean, I'm a junk food, meat, sweet addict. To learn how to have meat as well as sweets in a healthier way, I thought it'd be good for not only me, but for the people I cook and bake for, you know?

This class is about health foods. So, I found it kind of funny how the first thing we we're going to make were Peanut Butter Cookies. Go figure. Not that I'd obey though. Since peanut butter cookies happen to be one of my all time favorite cookies! Peanut butter cookies are the best cookie choice for milk. Well, that's just me though. Most like chocolate chip cookies or, the famous one, Oreos. But I'm a peanut butter cookie girl ;]

The recipe we made in class was a basic peanut butter cookie. The same recipe I've used many many times with my mom and my grammys. It's a classic. Classics are the best!

Recipe

1 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine shortening, peanut butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs. Stir thoroughly till combined.

3. In a medium bowl, shirt flour, powder, soda and salt. Slowly, add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture.

4. Roll into 1 1/4 inch bolls and place on baking sheet. With a fork, make a criss-cross pattern on the top, flattening it slightly.

5. Place in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Once done, let sit for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Yields 6 1/2 dozen 2 1/2 inch sized cookies

Orange Cranberry Bundt Cake

2008-09-08T09:14:00.008-04:00

Football is back. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of football. I'm more of a baseball kind of girls. However, here at my house, football is everything. My father is obsessed with football and has since he was in high school to college. You'll definitely know if footballs on or not with him here. You'll hear him screaming at the top of his lungs going "Go, go, go, go!!!" or "What was that!?", and of course, "Yea!!!!!!"

We're FSU fans here. Go Seminoles. I usually watch the big games with my family when they're on. It can be pretty entertaining. Especially when you see the coaches faces turn red from anger. Or when the ref just does a horrible call. I get a kick out of it. I find it funny to see how everyone reacts. It's usually the same. Everyone yells.

Anyways, for the fact that football is coming back, my dad decided to have a family BBQ on Saturday. I wanted to do something to. So I baked. I was going to do a Carrot Cake, but then I came across this recipe over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and decided to try it out.

I've never never gotten a bad recipe from her site. All her recipes are fantastic and they never let me down. They're all just amazing. And so was this. I decided to switch the dates that she used and added dried cranberries instead. The smell of is was lovely. Moist and dense and so mouth watering delicious.

Recipe

For the Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large egg
Zest of 1 medium orange
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup dried cranberries

For the Glaze

1 cup powder sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 10-12 cup Bundt pan.

2. Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed about 1 minutes, until fluffy. Add the sugar and cream on medium-high speed about 30 seconds. Add the eggs all at once and continue creaming for one minute. Add the orange zest and vanilla; beat until combined.

3. Add about half the flour, the baking soda, and the salt; mix on medium-low speed until just combined. Add the buttermilk and mix on medium-low speed until just combined. Add the rest of the flour and mix until just combined. Gently stir in the dates.

4. Spoon the batter evenly into the pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan about 10 minutes. Invert it onto a rack and cool at least 20 minutes before glazing. Transfer cake to a serving plate.

5. For the glaze, combine the ingredients together and whisk until it becomes a creamy orange color. Pour glaze over cake.Serve at room temperature.

Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake

2008-09-03T08:37:00.003-04:00

During this time of the year, when summer is slowing starting to traverse into fall, that I start to get tired of eating anything light and want something a little more heavy. Not so heavy that I feel like I'll gain weight from eating, but heavy enough to where I feel more satisfied about what I just ate. Having to avoid all the sweet I did, it gets rather depressing.

I love eating coffee cake. But its something that I don't care to eat till fall and winter are here. It like how I don't really enjoy pie unless it's fall, or smoothies unless it's summer. I'm pretty picky as to what I eat and when in the year I eat it. It's just how I've been raised I guess.

I didn't come up with this recipe. I found this fabulous recipe from Pete at pete-bakes.com. The only different that I did from his was I did chocolate chunks aside from chocolate chips. Chocolate chunks just sounded better to me at the moment. I also added nutmeg to the cake batter and salt. I thought it would give it more of a tasty kick.

The cake was very enjoyable. The was chocolate chunks to every bite (which I really liked!!). It turned out so light and fluffy and just melt in your mouth delicious. It made a very delicious breakfast with coffee.

Recipe

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. water
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup chocolate chunks

1. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chunks. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter, 1 cup white sugar, and eggs. Add the sour cream, vanilla and water.

3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, soda, nutmeg and salt. Combine into the wet ingredients.

4. Pour half of the batter into a greased and floured 9×13 inch pan. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon, sugar and chocolate chip mixture on the batter. Pour in the rest of the batter and top with the rest of the cinnamon, sugar and chip mix.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let it cool for at least an hour before cutting into it, or the chocolate chips will be too melty and it will be hard to get out of the pan.

Chocolate Éclairs

2008-08-31T07:11:00.002-04:00

Eclairs were this months Daring Bakers Challenge has come. I was quite excited about this months; as I am with any of them. I had decided to do this months challenge at the beginning of the month for I knew that I wouldn't be able to do anytime later. I would've never had to time.

I've never made Eclairs before. I've also understood the name of Eclairs. It's means "flashing." I wonder what that has anything to do with food. Nonetheless, Eclairs are awesome and I was quite excited about actually making one myself. I've always heard that they're hard. I don't know why people think this. It's kind of like cream puffs. People make them out to seem so difficult when in fact, they're not that hard at all. Making Eclairs isn't that hard at all. You just have to take the time to try.

These were pretty rich. One was enough for me. My little brother, the pickiest person in the house, even liked them. He saw them and actually asked me if he could try one! It took me by surprise, that's for sure. He's an honest kid, like me, so he'd tell me the truth. He said they were really great. He wanted me to make more. He loved the filling and I have to say, so did I. They were great all together. This was a great challenge!

Recipe

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

1. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.

3. Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4. The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1. Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2. You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking
sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PierreHermé

2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch, sifted
7 oz bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2. Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4. Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:
1. The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2. In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3. Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

1/3 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 tsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 tbsp Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1. In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2, Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:
1. If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly  in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2. It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

4 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup water
1/2 cup crème fraîche, or heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar

1. Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2. It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:
1. You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Start Baking
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.

2. Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3. Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the
handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the
oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue
baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking
time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:
1. The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

1. Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the
bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2. The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.

3. Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms
with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream
and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:
1. If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,
stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create
bubbles.

2. The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Tuscan Garlic Chicken

2008-08-27T20:09:00.003-04:00

Finally back to my blog! I knew that this month would be a pretty busy one. I had a gut feeling that it would keep me from cooking and baking for awhile. Unfortunately, it did.

This month was just a very, very busy month for me. It usually is. Towards the beginning of this month, I left for a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I use go as a kid, so I was very excited. It was such a fun trip! It was so beautiful! I didn't realize how much I missed being around to so much land! Being in Orlando, I'm so use to all the tall buildings and compacted buildings and homes stacked on top of each other. It was such a great thing to go do. Something I don't get to be around all the time. I enjoyed each and every minute of the trip with my family. I really didn't want to come home, but, the time came and it was time to leave dream land..

As soon as the trip was over and we were back home, we were heading right back to school. I had 2 days to get ready for school. Obviously, I was not ready to go back to school. After rushing to get all my things for school, I'm told we have a hurricane coming our way. Great. I went to school for one day before they had to cancel school.

Fay, the hurricane, ended up weakening to a tropical storm. However, the storm decided to party over Florida for about a week. It rained and rained and rained non stop. I feel so bad for the people in the other county's around me. I live in Orange County, and in the county's next to Orange, Brevard and Seminole, they got flooded so bad! This storm broke records. They got somewhere to about 4 feet of water in the streets. It's horrible! Homes flooded, cars can't move, people traveling by little boats... It's really sad. I hope those people are able to get things situated.

I'm just glad that it's gone and that the sun has actually been starting to come out. For about 2 weeks, we didn't see blue sky's or sun at all. Totally uncommon for Florida. I mean, we are the Sunshine State! I was so glad to just get out of the house. Went to the movies, saw Tropic Thunder (hilarious!), and me and my boyfriend went to Olive Garden last weekend. Something I hadn't gone to in some time.

I knew what I wanted. I always love to get the same thing. What happens when I get there? They took my dish off the menu! I was so bummed! They had this awesome dish, Tuscan Garlic Chicken. Honestly, in my opinion, best meal ever. I love it. It really depressed me to see that they took off such a delicious meal from the menu.

When I got home, I decided to go on their site to see if it was true. Sadly, it was. After I let that sink in, I decided to see if they had the recipe for the dish on their site. Ta-da! They did! I was so happy to see that. Since I had to time today, I decided to make this for everyone to have and make up for the fact that I didn't get to enjoy it last weekend. Turned out just as I remembered it. I a very happy girl today.

Recipe

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups flour, plus 1 tbsp.
1 tbsp. salt
2 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 lb fettuccine pasta, cooked according to package directions
5 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, julienne cut
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 lb whole leaf spinach, stemmed
2 cups heavy cream
1 cups Parmesan cheese, grated

1. In a shallow dish, mix 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Dredge chicken in the mixture, shaking off any excess.

2. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a large skillet. Cook chicken breasts 2 at a time over medium-high heat until golden brown and crisp (2-3 min). Add more oil for each batch as necessary.

3. Place cooked chicken breasts on a baking sheet and transfer to preheated oven. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 F.

4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a sauce pan. Add garlic and red pepper and cook for approximately 1 minute. Stir in 1 Tbsp flour, wine, spinach and cream and bring to a boil. Sauce is done when spinach becomes wilted. Complete by stirring in parmesan cheese.

5. Coat cooked, drained pasta with sauce, then top with chicken and remaining sauce. Garnish with extra Parmesan cheese.

Strawberry Almond Cake

2008-08-04T08:53:00.001-04:00

Sadly, I was unable to do this months Daring Bakers Challenge. Which, really, I was so anger at myself for never getting around to it. By the time I actually had time to do anything, this month was already over. I couldn't believe just how fast this summer has been going! And this months challenge was one that I really wanted to do! It look really good! I know I'm going to bake it sometime soon when I have time.

Though I haven't had time to really bake much, I had enough time to make a quick cake. Not a difficult cake (though, I'd really want to). We still have so many strawberries that I still don't now what else to do with them. I knew that I wanted to use strawberries, but I wanted a nut of some sort. An almond cake sounds really good with strawberries. I also used the strawberry filling I used for my Strawberry Cream Cake, which was really good with the Almond Cake.

The cake itself was amazing. The texture was just right. Soft and light, nice and moist. First bite, you just have to close your eyes and savor the taste. It's just so luscious. The strawberry filling and the strawberry frosting with the cake was really good. I might ever try blueberries or blackberries next time. That sounds really good!!

Recipe

Cake

3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup almond paste, cut into pieces
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream

Strawberry Filling

2 quarts fresh strawberries, washed, dried, and stemmed
4–6 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. kirsch
Pinch of salt

Strawberry Frosting

8 ounces strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp. butter, softened
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar

1. For the cake,Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour round 8-inch cake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, cake flour and baking powder and set aside.

2. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and almond paste on high speed until smooth, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low and slowly add confectioners' sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined and light and fluffy.

3. Raise speed to high and add the vanilla extract, whole eggs and egg yolks, 1 at a time. Mix until well combined. Reduce speed to medium and add the sour cream and dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake in the lower third of the oven for 35 minutes, or until the cake is golden and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool. Remove from pan.

5. For the strawberry filling, Halve 24 of best-looking berries and reserve. Quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Strain juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup). In a food processor fitted with metal blade, give macerated berries five 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). In small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices and Kirsch until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Set aside until cake is cooled.

6. For Strawberry Frosting, first wash the strawberries well, then hull and slice. Put the slices into a bowl and sprinkle sugar onto and toss well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Drain excess juices from strawberries. Crush and mash strawberries. Beat butter until smooth. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and the crushed strawberries. Slowly beat until sugar is blended in, then beat on medium speed until fluffy. Add more powdered sugar as needed until frosting is a nice spreading consistency. Frost the cooled cake and decorate with sliced strawberries.

7. To assemble the cake, slice cake into two even layers. Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate and arrange ring of 20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer. Pour about 1/2 cup of pureed berry mixture in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake. Gently spread about 1 t 1 1/2 cup of Strawberry Frosting over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge. Place top layer on cake and press down gently. Spread Strawberry Frosting on top layer. Decorate as you want. Serve, or chill for up to 4 hours.

Raisin Apple Muffins

2008-07-23T12:24:00.002-04:00

About two weeks from now, I'll be leaving for Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I'm really excited. I have not been in the mountains in a very, very, very long time. I use to go all the time as a kid. But, that was usually with my grandparents. My parents aren't necessarily mountainess people. They enjoy the beach. Which is why every year we usually go to the Bahamas or the Keys. However, for what ever reason, both my parents wanted to go the mountains this year.

It was mainly for the fact that my mothers lupus has been getting a little worse this year, making her have to stay out of the sun more often. Which I don't mind. I don't like the sun. It's joked that I'm a vampire. I'm very pale and I don't tan. I could try to tan, but I'll just turn into a tomato. If I could, I would live in an area where light never reached. Somewhere that is always cloudy. That'd be the way to live for me.

Anyways, since I've been just dying to go up the the mountains, I thought about making something that would remind me of it. For me, anything that's reminds me of fall, reminds me of the mountains. I think it was because every time I went to the mountain was usually in the fall. So, Raisin Apple Muffins kind of seemed like fall. Well, for me that is. They're actually pretty healthy for you too. You would never guess either. They taste excellent. They're nice and moist, not greasy, and taste amazing when right out of the oven. Nice and simple.

Recipe

For the Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup shredded tart apple (I used a cheese shredder)
1/4 cup raisins

For the Crumb Topping

2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. quick oats
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. cold butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place muffin paper in tins or grease muffin tins. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the egg, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the apple and raisins. Evenly divide the batter. Fill the muffin cups about two-thirds full with batter.

3. For topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Blueberry Banana Bread

2008-07-20T10:47:00.002-04:00

Well, with me actually starting to get out of the house more often, I haven't really had the opportunity to bake to much. For most of my summer, a lot of people I know are usually busy with work or family, and just haven't really had to time to really get out of the house to go do something. Hang out. But for these past few weeks, they have. And be really craving to get out of the house, I didn't stop to jump up and get out.

We actually went and saw the Dark Knight movie. I've seen it twice already. It was an amazing movie and Heath Ledger did and awesome job. I've always been a huge fan of Heath ever since I saw him in one of my favorite movies, '10 Things I hate about you.' I've been obsessed with him since. It's sad though. That someone who held so much potentially and really had something going for him (and only just starting to really hit big on his acting career) had to die only on a accidental use on prescription drugs. I'm really interested to see his very last movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Should be interesting.

Anyways, aside from that, When I did have the time to bake, I knew what it was I wanted to make. Banana bread. Hadn't had it in awhile and I was really craving it. We had leftover blueberries and I thought it might add some interesting flavor. And it did. I really liked it. With the cinnamon in it, it made everything seem right together. Was such a yummy breakfast.

Recipe

Bread

1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained, or frozen blueberries
2 cups plus one tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3)
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg

Oatmeal Streusel

1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, gently mix blueberries with 1 tablespoon of the flour.

2. In another bowl, blend flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a another large bowl, whisk mashed bananas, buttermilk, butter, and egg to blend. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture just until evenly moistened; the batter will be stiff. Gently stir in blueberry mixture.

3. Spread batter level in a buttered 5- by 9-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle with oatmeal streusel and press in lightly.

4. To make the oatmeal streusel, in a small bowl, combine flour, rolled oats, packed brown sugar and butter, cut into chunks. Add ground cinnamon. Mix with your fingers until fine crumbs form.

5. Bake bread in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Let bread cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then run a knife around edges to loosen. Invert bread onto a plate, remove pan, and turn over onto rack to cool completely, about 45 minutes.

Strawberry Cupcakes

2008-07-11T09:11:00.004-04:00

For me, really hate summer. Honestly I do. I do not like the heat or the humidity that comes. I'm the fall and winter kind of person. There isn't really anything at all that I like about summer... Well, I mean, except for the sales.

Fruit sales to be exact. Fruits, like strawberry's, blueberries, raspberries and watermelon are usually pretty pricey during other seasons and I tend to stay away from really getting to much fruit during fall or winter being that they are to expensive! We really don't want to have to pay for it (we're pretty cheap). But when summer comes, we go crazy on buying fruit!

There are so many things to do with fruits. What we usually do is we make a fruit salad (which doesn't last long around here), parfaits, smoothies, baked goods (what I usually do with them), there's so much you can do with fruit. Over here, strawberries have been Buy 1, Get 1, so it's what we've been getting the most. Also, it's my mums favorite. Ever since she started new medication for her lupus, she's been needing to eat a lot of fruit, like strawberries and grapes, because the new medication she's taking will make her gain a lot of weight if she's not careful. And she'd rather not gain weight so she's been trying to be really careful as to what she eats.

I thought we had a lot of strawberries in the fridge right now so I decided to put the strawberries to better (sweeter) use. It won't be that big of a deal to use some of them for myself. The cupcakes are very simple. The texture of these cupcakes are moist and light and I really, really liked them with the cream cheese frosting. The added flavor to the cream cheese is delicious. I didn't know if it would do much for the frosting but the addiction to it was amazing! It was so good! It's classic.

Recipe

For the Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup strawberry sauce
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs

For the Strawberry Sauce

2 cups of fresh strawberries, stem removed
Sugar to taste

For Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
3 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup of strawberry sauce

1. For the Strawberry Sauce, macerate strawberries with about 1-2 tbs sugar for 15 minutes. Put strawberries in a small saucepan and heat under medium heat with lid on. Cook strawberries for approximately 15 minutes till strawberries cook down and become soft and saucy. Adjust sweetness with sugar until you get the desired sweetness. Using a hand blender, puree until you get the desired smoothness or chunkiness. Cool before using in recipe.

2. For the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grab a large bowl and beat the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Measure out milk and strawberry sauce together.

3. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter mixture and beat to combine. Add about one third the milk mixture and beat until combined. Repeat, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture. Scoop into cupcake papers about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

4. For Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting, bring cheese and butter to room temperature. Sift powdered sugar into a bowl. Beat butter and cheese at medium speed until creamy. Add half of the sugar, beat until combined. Add strawberry sauce until you achieve the right color and flavor but making sure not to add too much or the frosting will be too soft. Gradually add any remaining sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

Strawberry Cream Cake

2008-07-02T18:06:00.004-04:00

Seems likes it's getting muggier and muggier here in Florida each day. The non stop pouring rain and the rising heat is killer. I love and hate Florida. This being one of the reasons I hate Florida.

Since it's been so very hot out, I haven't really been baking as much as I use to. I mean, why would I stand around a hot oven and sweat my butt off even more than I already am? It also doesn't help that our air conditioner seriously sucks. I swear out conditioner literally loathes us. We've tried so many times to get it fixed, yet, it always decides to brake down and not work. It's always pms-ing!

But, I wasn't going to let the heat keep me from baking for to long. I've been really craving cake lately, which is strange because I don't exactly love cake. I like it, but it's not something I necessarily love. But I wanted it. And the heat was not going to keep me from making cake, no I was not. My mom found a recipe awhile back for a Strawberry Cream Cake in Cooks Illustrated that I knew I wanted to make eventually, but after seeing Lisa's, Pittsburgh Needs Eated, post on the cake, I decided that this was what I was going to make.

The cake turned out excellent! One of the best I've had, seriously. It was so light and so tasty. I couldn't help but get another slice. It was so good. It's a great light and refreshing cake for the summer!

Recipe

Cake

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs (2 whole and 3 separated)
6 tbsp. butter , melted
2 tbsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla

Strawberry Filling

2 quarts fresh strawberries, washed, dried, and stemmed
4–6 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. kirsch
Pinch of salt

Whipped Cream

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
2 cups heavy cream

1. For the cake,Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour round 9 by 2-inch cake pan or 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and all but 3 tablespoons sugar in mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks (reserving whites), butter, water, and vanilla and whisk until smooth.

2. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. With machine running, gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form, 60 to 90 seconds.

3. Stir one-third of whites into batter to lighten; add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then cool completely for about 2 hours.

4. For the strawberry filling, Halve 24 of best-looking berries and reserve. Quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Strain juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup). In a food processor fitted with metal blade, give macerated berries five 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). In small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices and Kirsch until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Set aside until cake is cooled.

5. For the whipped cream, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed.

6. To assemble the cake, slice cake into three even layers (or two like me). Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate and arrange ring of 20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer. Pour one half of pureed berry mixture (about 3/4 cup) in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake. Gently spread about one-third of whipped cream (about 1 1/2 cups) over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge. Place middle cake layer on top and press down gently (whipped cream layer should become flush with cake edge). Repeat with 20 additional strawberry halves, remaining berry mixture, and half of remaining whipped cream; gently press last cake layer on top. Spread remaining whipped cream over top; decorate with remaining cut strawberries. Serve, or chill for up to 4 hours.

Danish Braid

2008-06-29T11:43:00.005-04:00

Daring Bakers Challenge has finally come! This months challenge was one that I was pretty excited about. It's actually something that'd I'd been wanting to make for sometime. In fact, I still have in tags in my mems.

After last months challenge, the Opera Cake, which I sadly didn't get to do, I was really bummed. It was something that I really wanted to make too! But, there was a lot going and, unfortunately, I never got around to making it... But, I definitely made sure that this months I'd have time to sit down and bake this months challenge.

Since this was my very first Danish Braid, I kind of struggled with the making of the braid. It doesn't necessarily look like a 'braid', but more so of like a messy design of lines. But, it still look gorgeous in its own way. The whole making of the dough however was very easy. Not difficult at all. It was just when I was cutting the dough that I got aggravated. I screwed up on some of the cutting and I knew that I couldn't just take it back. But I was fine with it.

For the filling, I used a Orange Marmalade. It just sounded something that'd go really well with the dough, in my opinion. I love citrus filling and flavors. So, I knew that for me, as well as everyone else in the house (who all love citrus as much as I) would like the idea as well. In the end, it was really good, and I love having it for breakfast. And, surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult. I plan on making this again. There's so many different filling I could use!

Recipe

For the Dough

1 tbsp. active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt

For the Butter Block

1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1. Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well.

2. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. If using without a standing mixer, Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

4. For block butter, combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.

5. After the dough has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and 1/4 inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

7. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

For Orange Marmalade

1 1/2 Oranges, peeled
1/4 Lemon, unpeeled
2 3/4 cups cold water
1 3/4 cup Sugar

1. Remove all white membranes from peeled oranges and slice thin. Slice unpeeled lemon. Cover oranges and lemon with water. Let stand in refrigerator for 24 hours. Boil for 3 hours, add sugar and boil 1 more hour. Put into sterile jars and seal.

To Make the Danish Braid

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.

3. Spoon the filling or marmalade you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

4. Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.

5. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

6. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

2008-06-24T08:20:00.007-04:00

To be completely frank, I have never had a cobbler in my life, nor have I ever baked one. Shocking, right? But, I guess there's always something that not everyone has tried before. For me, it's the cobbler. I didn't really even know what the heck a cobbler was. From what I heard, it was basically just a fruit filling with a biscuit on top. This was a reason as to why I really never tried a cobbler. It just didn't sound to appealing to me. However, I was extremely excited to find that this weeks challenge for TWD was a Mixed Berry Cobbler. Now I had to try a cobbler.

Now, I knew that making a cobbler was very easy (which this was), and that it didn't take to many ingredients or anything difficult to make it. It was just the taste that matter. But, I didn't see how you could really go wrong. In the end, it was just how sweet you, as the person eating it, would want it. I made mine pretty sweet (I have a major sweet tooth).

I didn't make it into a huge cobbler. Instead, I made them into individual ramekins (Who knows if I'd really like it or not, or if everyone else would). In my opinion, they looked prettier in little individual portions anyways. I only used blueberries and strawberries (But I used more blueberries than anything ;]). I didn't really have any blackberries or raspberries on hand. If I did, I would have definitely had used them!

So, what did I think of my first cobbler? Well, after waiting for what seemed like forever and smelling the fruit in oven with my mouth watering, I finally got to take my first bite... And... It was really good! To my surprise, it didn't make me feel bloated for I thought that it might be a bit heavy (I was thinking of pie here...). But it didn't. Which was good. I've now discovered cobbler and it will be something I will make more often now ;]. Go Cobblers! :D

Recipe

For the topping

2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. cold butter, cut up
3/4 cup cold heavy cream

For the filling

5 cups mixed berries, frozen or fresh
4 to 5 tbsp. sugar (depending on your taste)
1 tbsp. cornstarch
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon or lime
1/4 tsp. (or more, to taste) ground black pepper (optional)

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces in between — and that's just right.

3. Pour the cream over the dry ingredients and toss and gently turn the ingredients with a fork until you've got a very soft dough. When the dough comes together, you'll probably still have dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl — just use a spatula or your hands to mix and knead the dough until it's evenly blended.

4. Don't overdo it; it's better to have a few dry spots than an overworked dough. Even with all the flour mixed in, the dough will be soft and sticky.

5.Turn the dough out onto a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap, cover with another sheet of paper or plastic and gently press or roll the dough into a circle that is a scant 9 inches in diameter. Don't worry about getting the size exact or about seeing that the edges are even — this is a very homey dessert, and a rough-around the-edges biscuit adds to its charm. Set the dough aside while you prepare the fruit.

6. To make the filling, Toss all the ingredients into a large bowl and stir to mix. Turn the fruit into the buttered pie plate and top with the biscuit. Using a small sharp knife, cut about 6 slits in the dough, just as you would for a piecrust. Then, using either the knife or a large piping tip, cut a circle out of the center of the dough.

7. Bake the cobbler for 60 to 75 minutes, or until the top is puffed and golden brown and the fruit is bubbling steadily up through the center steam hole and all around the scallopy edges of the biscuit. Transfer the pie plate to a rack and let the cobbler cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

8. Serve the cobbler warm or at room temperature, with ice cream.

STORING: Once the cobbler cools, you can keep it lightly covered for a few hours at room temperature, but you really should enjoy it the day it is made. Don't refrigerate it — the biscuit will lose its appealing texture.

Mini Banana Crumb Muffins

2008-06-22T09:45:00.001-04:00

Baking with bananas again? I know, I know, but I couldn't resist. I love baking with bananas and the left over bananas were extremely ripe (black), which is when they're best to bake with! So, me being me, I couldn't resist to NOT bake something. I almost flipped out when I saw that my father was about to just throw them away! I was about to go total ninja on him when I saw him do that! He definitely learned something from this...

Since I'd already made cookies with bananas in the past couple days, I decided to go with what people would normally bake with bananas; muffins. Easy and delicious. I was going to make regular muffins, but I'd realized the my mini muffin pan was beginning to look lonely (since I hardly ever use it!), so I wanted to put it to go use and make cute little banana muffins. The recipe very simple and they come out so good.

I love baking mini muffins. Something about mini or tiny things always make me squee and say "They're so cute!" Maybe thats just me though... But these mini little muffins were cute. :]

Recipe

For the Muffin

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

For Crumb Topping

1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour
3/ tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a standard or mini muffin pan with muffin papers.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat together sugars, butter and egg. Add bananas and vanilla.

3. Slowly add the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

4. In a small bowl, mix together sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add butter and combine until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

5. Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes (about 13-15 minutes for mini). Let cool for about 5 minutes before taking out of muffin pan.

Makes about 10-12 standard Muffins (16-18 mini muffins)

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

2008-06-19T15:13:00.004-04:00

Bananas are one of those things that I love to bake with. I never get tired of baking up some comforting banana bread or some big, yummy muffins. I love baking with them and having them. One thing that I've always had trouble finding was a good recipe for banana cookies. I tried my handful of tries and as well as tried several other recipes for banana cookies, but, I've never been to crazy about them. I don't want a cookies that reminds me of eating a banana muffin. I mean, its a cookie, not a muffin.

I recently have seen a lot of people talking about The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook by Elinor Klivans. I've heard that it's a really awesome cookbook to have on hand, so, when I got the money, I decided to go check it out. One of the recipes that appealed to me was the Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. They looked really good, and, healthy. After seeing the blogger Erin Cooks post on the cookies, I decided that I need to bake them right away.

What was so great about these cookies, for me, was that they didn't taste like a banana muffin. They tasted like they were really a Banana Cookies, which, was what I was looking for. I did, however, not add the chocolate chips. I wanted to make these so that my father could eat them too (who doesn't really enjoy chocolate... hard to believe, right?), so I didn't had the chocolate chips. Nonetheless, they still came out really well. This is a recipe I'll be keeping on hand.

Recipe

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
2 bananas, ripe

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together, set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars until smoothly blended. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until blended.

3. Slowly add the flour mixture with the butter mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated. Stir in the oatmeal. Use a large spoon to mix in the ripe bananas and mash, mixing just until they are evenly distributed.

4. Drop by tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until edges are lightly browned and the tops look dry, about 18 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Coconut Cupcakes

2008-06-15T18:23:00.003-04:00

Fathers Day is here! A lot of people go out for breakfast, lunch or dinner when these kind of days come (like Mothers Day or Valentines Day, etc, etc). However, we who enjoyed home cooking, choose not to. We'd rather just cook at home and just chill. What's better than that? Enjoying good home cooking and not having to care about much at all; That's awesome!

My dad wanted to have some of his favorite foods for Fathers Day. We slow cooked our favorite BBQ Pull Pork, we made Baked Beans, Potato Salad and Texas Toast. It was a lot of food to begin with, and I didn't really think I was going to bake anything. However, when my Nana and Grandpa came over for fathers day, and saw that I didn't bake anything, they were a bit upset. So, I decided that I'd come up with something good to bake.

I didn't really want to bake a cake; I didn't want to have something that not everyone would eat.. So I decided to bake cupcakes! My dad likes coconut, so I thought that it'd be a nice treat for him; And something that won't ruin is day of to much calories (He's a calorie counter like me). I remember seeing this recipe while watching Barefoot Contessa one day and they sounded so good!! I kind of altered mine to be without butter, and it turned out really good. Really, really good! The coconut went well with the cream cheese icing. It was really light and delicious.

This was entered into AFAM for June '08.

Recipe

For the Cupcake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup shredded coconut

For the Cream Cheese Icing

8 ounces cream cheese, cold
4 ounces butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners sugar
Milk to thin

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar and eggs until thick and smooth. Beat in vanilla. In a medium bowl, shift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to the liquid mixture and beat until smooth. Beat in yogurt. Fold in coconut.

3. Scoop batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.

4. For the icing, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract; then confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if icing is too thick.

Makes 12-15 Cupcakes

Doughnut Muffins

2008-06-12T22:06:00.004-04:00

Probably just about anyone would like to be able to have doughnuts more often. At least, thats how I feel. If I could, I would be the biggest junk food addict out there. That is, if I would gain weight or cause health issues. But since I can't do that, I try to stay healthy. I also tend to try and stay away from anything that is fried. Not that I don't like fried food; I absolutely love fried food! I'm a southerner, you know? It's kind of a necessity. But to have fried food all the time really isn't good for you or your belly.

Anyways, I had been wanting both doughnuts and muffins lately. Which is odd since I don't usually crave these things to often. So, I thought, to make things better for me, would combine the two. The muffin itself tasted like a regular doughnut with a sugary topping. It gaves it a pretty, more sweet, taste. My boyfriend would definitely love these since he loves my Cinnamon Sugar Muffins. These are a lot like those. However, I have to say that I like these much more. They were great and satisfied my

Recipe

For Muffin

3 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar, plus 1/8 cup of sugar
1/2 tbs. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

For Topping

1/4 cup butter, more if needed
1 cups sugar
1 tbs. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just mixed in. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Combine the vanilla, milk and heavy cream.

3. With a spoon, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix in a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don't overmix.

4. Scoop enough batter into each tin so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup, about 1/2 cup. Bake the muffins until firm to the touch, about 25-30 minutes.

5. To finish, Melt the butter for the dipping mixture in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove them from the tin, dip them into or brush them all over with the melted butter, and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

La Palette’s Strawberry Tart

2008-06-10T08:57:00.002-04:00

This weeks TWD challenge was a Strawberry Tart. Perfect for the season. It's summer and you don't necessarily want to be having any heavily sugared desserts. So this was just really perfect.

The recipe is very easy. Not hard at all. I do however have to say that I didn't really like the crust. It's was a bit to flaky like for me. I didn't like it at all. I think next time I will use nuts into the dough. This one just didn't have me at all. It was still good, I just would had used a different tart crust. Like, the one I make for my White Chocolate Blueberry Tart. That crust was amazing!! I think I'll do that next time.

Recipe

For the Filling

Strawberry Jam (I used blueberry to give it a twist)
1 pint strawberries
Sugar (optional)
Whipped Cream (optional)

For the Tart Dough

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 1 tbsp. (9 tbsp.)cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

1. For the dough, Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition.

2. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

3. To press the dough into the pan, Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

4. To partially or fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

5. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

6. To fully bake the crust, Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

7. To patch a partially or fully baked crust, if necessary: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.

8. Once crust has completely cooled, spread jam on crust. Add strawberries, chopped roughly, on top of the crust. Serve with whipped cream is desired. You can add sugar too to lightly sweeten it.

Blueberry Hand Pies

2008-06-04T16:27:00.005-04:00

With exams finally over and school coming to an end today, I felt like I should spoil myself a little with the fact of all the stress from studying for exams for the past week. We have a bunch of blueberries that we bought not to long ago that needed to be used (we stocked up on blueberries when there was a sale).

I wanted to make something that would for sure make me feel happy. And what better than pie! A feel good dessert in my opinion. I didn't necessarily want to make a big pie because I knew not everyone would want to eat it (with bikini season here), so I decided to make them in little individual pies. These aren't hard to make at all, and the dough is very good. It's kind of flaky, which I like. If your not into making your own dough or don't have the time, you could always buy store bought dough. That'll be just as good. Either way, they'll turn out great. These were killer!

Recipe

For the Filling

1 cup fresh blueberries
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
Milk for brushing top

For the Dough

1 1/4 cup flour
6 tbsp. butter, cold, cut in small cubes
2 tbsp. shortening
1/8 tsp. salt
3-4 tbsp. ice water

1. For the filling, in a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat cook blueberries, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Stir frequently until mixture comes to a boil and thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

2. To make the dough, get a food processor or use your hand, blend flour, butter, shortening and salt until the mixture resembles a coarse meal and has some pea sized pieces of butter left in it.

3. While pulsing, add water a little at a time until dough comes together when pinched in your hand. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 1 day. Preheat oven to 375.

4. When dough is ready, roll chilled pastry out on a lightly floured surface into a 1/8 inch thick rectangle. Cut 4 1/2 inch squares or circles. Fill with about a mounded tablespoon of filling. Seal shut with your fingers . Fold edges over in a decorative shape or seal with the tines of a fork. Re-roll dough scraps to make up to eight circles or squares, allowing it to rest about 10 minutes between rolling.

5. Place hand pie on parchment lined cookie sheet. When all the pies are on the cookie sheet brush with a little milk and generously sprinkle with sugar. Bake about 20-25 minutes until golden brown, rotating cookie sheet half way through baking. Store at room temperature.

White Chocolate Blueberry Tart

2008-05-30T18:20:00.012-04:00

Blueberries have been going on sale a lot lately here in Florida, so, I decided to take the opportunity to stock up on a few blueberries since they're always so expensive! And I love blueberries, but buying them as much as I'd like kind adds up to be pretty costly. There were actually a lot of things that I thought of to make with the blueberries, but one thing really stuck with me. A blueberry tart; With chocolate! Oh yea. Winner. Ding, ding, ding! So, that's exactly what I did. Made one awesome blueberry tart.

What I loved most about this was defiantly the crust! The cashews really gave it a awesome taste! If you don't really like cashews though, you could always use other nuts that you prefer. Pecans, almonds, walnuts; Whatever to your choosing. But, I'd have the say that the cashews really complemented with the blueberries and chocolate. I would say try it. I'll defiantly be keeping this recipe for the crust in memory for the future. It was just so good.

The whole things was awesome in general. You have to keep in in the fridge or freezer. For me however, living in the Sunshine State where heat is out enemy, I had to keep it in the freezer since it has been killer hot out. If you were to take ice out of the freezer, it would begin to melt. So I thought I'd be safe and put the tart in the freezer so that I wouldn't have to fear that it would melt! Anyways, I really liked this recipe. Everything came together really well and very much enjoyed it! It's typically a very easy dessert, too! You'll love it!

Recipe

For the Crust

2/3 cup cashews, finely chopped
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. orange zest

For the Filling

1 cup white chocolate
2 tbsp. butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1. For the crust, preheat oven to 375 degrees degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch tart pan or 4 small tarts pans. Place all ingredients for the crust into a food processor, and mix until combined well. Press the mixture into prepared tart pan (or 4 small tart pans), using the back of a small spoon (the mixture will have a crumbly texture). Refrigerate crust for 15 minutes. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Let crust cool.

2. Break the chocolate into pieces in a large glass bowl placed over a saucepan of boiling water. Stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, and stir in the 2 tbsp. butter until melted. Mix in the heavy cream, and whisk until smooth.

3. Spread the blueberries over the tart crust, then pour the chocolate mixture evenly over the top. Chill in refrigerator for at least 3 hours, so that the chocolate sets. Garnish with walnut halves.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Almond Honey Sticky Buns

2008-05-27T09:11:00.000-04:00

Sticky Buns. Just saying it gets people excited. And I was so excited to hear that this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was Sticky Buns! I'd been wanting to make it for sometime, but never seemed to get around it. But, this time, I had a reason to do it!

Making these are fairly easy. Just some patients. It's not near as difficult as people come to think of it. The only part I hate is when it comes to flipping the sticky buns out of the pan while it still hot. Reason doing it is so that it won't stick to the pan; Which is will if you don't get it out soon enough! And I'd burnt myself several time doing it. Every time. I always tell myself to be extra careful, but I never seem to do a good job at it since I burn myself anyways. I'm cursed as a klutz I guess.

Anyways, I've instantly fallen in love with this recipe! I moment I took my first bite, I was just completely speechless. It was just to good to be true. The recipe actually called for Pecans, and, normally, I'm a pecan kind of girl. However, this time, I was really wanting almonds. Which, was kind of odd, but I wanted almonds. And I really liked the almonds in this. It turned out so sticky, gooey, and sooo delicious! This is seriously my new favorite recipe.

Recipe

For the Buns

2 pks. (4 tsp.) active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup warm milk
3 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
12 ounces (3 sticks) butter, room temperature

For the Filling

1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. light brown sugar
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
3 tbsp. butter, room temperature

For the Glaze

1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups almonds

1. For the buns, put the yeast, water and milk in the bow of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and fit the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one.

2. Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can - this will help you, the counter and the kitchen floor from being showered in flour. Turn the mixer on and off in a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour, then remove the towel, increase the speed to medium-low and mix for a minutes or two, just until the flour is moistened. At this point, you'll have a fairly dry, shaggy mass

3. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Increase the miser speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2 tablespoon size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You'll have a dough that is very soft, almost like a batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.

4. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.

5. Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap into the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours. Then leave covered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

6. The next day, butter a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and one loaf pan (or you can use two 9 x 13 inch baking pans. This dough is that of a Brioche Loave and the recipe makes 2 loaves, but we only need half of the dough for the sticky buns. You can half the recipe, or use the the other half the dough to make a loaf of Brioche or another pan of sticky buns. It's up to your own choosing).

7. For the glaze, bring the brown sugar, butter and honey to a boil over medium-low heat in a heavy saucepan. Stir frequently to dissolve the sugar. Pour the glaze unto the buttered pan, evening it out as best as you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle over the almonds.

8. On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled dough into a 16-inch square. Using you fingers or a pastry brush, spread 3 tablespoons of butter over the dough. In a small bowl, mix the sugars and cinnamons for the filling. Sprinkle it over the dough, leaving a 1-inch strip base on the sides farthest from you. Starting with the sides nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can.

9. With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. Should make 15 buns. Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them. Lightly cover the pan with wax paper and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, until doubled in volume.

10. When buns have almost fully risen, preheat the over to 375 degrees. Remove the wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until puffed and gorgeously golden; the glaze will be bubbling away merrily. Pull the pan from the over.

11. The sticky buns MUST be unmolded minutes after they come out of the oven. If you do not have rimmed platter large enough to hold them, use a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or buttered foil. Be careful - the glaze is super hot and super sticky.

Red Velvet Cupcake Bites

2008-05-25T13:48:00.004-04:00

Nope, those are not what you may think they are. They are not cupcakes. They are in fact the red velvet balls that I made at one point. But, they are decorated to look like they are cute, tiny little cupcakes!

I can not take credit for these adorable little cute cupcake bites. I got the idea from the creative genius at bakerella. The idea's she comes up with always leave me speechless. Everything she makes are so cute and so beautifully done. Everything always amazes me. I came across this idea from here when she posted her here. I defiantly saved it to my memory as soon as I saw it. I wanted to make them soon!

It made me so excited when I was told a few people at my moms work wanted me to make the red velvet cake balls I made one time. I couldn't wait to make these. They were so much fun to make and so cute! And of course, they were soo good!

Recipe

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (or candy melts for cupcake bottom)
Colored Candy Melts (for cupcake top)
Candy Cup Mold
Sprinkles and m&ms for decoration

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. (The texture should be fine/fluffy)

2. Using the back of a large spoon, mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)

3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls (make sure they are smaller in diameter than that of your candy mold) and lay on wax paper covered cookie sheet.

4. Chill in the freezer for a few minutes, until they are slightly firm, not frozen.

5. Melt chocolate bark and candy melts in microwave per directions on package.

6. Using a spoon or squeeze bottle, fill each mold cavity with a small amount of chocolate. Sorry, I didn't think to measure how much. But as soon as you fill the cavity, go ahead and place one of your rolled balls into it. Carefully push it down until the force causes the chocolate to push up and fill in around the sides of the ball. You may have to experiment with a couple to get the right amount. Stop pushing once the chocolate reaches the top edge.

7. Place the mold tray filled with cupcakes in the freezer for just a few minutes to let the chocolate set. Remove and then gently pull up on the cake ball top to release from candy mold.

8. Now, holding the bottom of the cupcake, dip the top in another color of melted chocolate.

9. Decorate.

Chocolate Marshmallow Delights

2008-05-23T08:52:00.003-04:00

Marshmallows, in all honestly, are not my kind of thing. I'm not exactly the marshmallow kind of girls. Unless they're in a rice crispy or are melted between graham crackers and chocolate, I'm not one to eat it. However, when I cake across this recipe when looking threw one of Martha Stewart's Cookie Book (which is a must have for any cookie lover out there), I had to stop on the page and marvel at the cookies. They looked so good! And I had been in the mood lately for a really good cookies; But not just a simple cookie. So I decided that I'd go ahead and try these.

I really liked the cookies itself before the frosting and marshmallows. It was very cake like. It kind of had the texture like my Peanut Butter Munchies, which, I really like. I liked the frosting idea. It gave the cookies a nice coating over it. But, I think I have a better idea (which I will probably do soon). All in all, there were pretty awesome. Any chocolate + marshmallow lovers out there must try these!

Recipe

For the Cookies

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. course salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
About 15 marshmallows, halved crosswise

For the Frosting

3 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. whole milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make cookies: Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

2. Put butter and sugar into the bowl and mix on medium high until fluffy and pale, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium low; mix in egg, milk and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until combined.

3. Using a 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until firm, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately press a marshmallow half on top of each cookie. Bake until marshmallows begin to melt, 2 minutes more. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

4. To make the frosting, Put powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Melt butter with the cocoa in a sauce pan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Add butter mixture to the powdered sugar. Whisk in milk and vanilla.

5. Spread about 1 tbsp. of frosting on top of each cookie to cover marshmallow. Let stand until set, about 10 minutes. Cookies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

2008-05-20T07:30:00.000-04:00

This months challenge for Tuesdays with Dorie was suppose to be Madelines. However, I do not have one of those pans. And, sadly, I could not find one. I went to a craft store where I normally buy my baking equipment, however, they did not have the madeline pan. I was going to order it, but it would not be in till around Wednesday. It really bummed me out because I really wanted the madelines. But, I did get to make these delicious little cakes!

For the people that didn't have the madeline pan (like myself), we were able to use a recipe that was completed in the past. At first, I was going to make the Gooey Chocolate Cakes. After thinking about it, I really wanted to have the Carrot Cake. I hadn't had one in so long. The last one I had was when I was a little girl! My best friends mother made the best Carrot Cake I had ever had. I've really missed that cake. So, I decided that I was going to make Bills Big Carrot Cake. Instead of making it into a cake, I thought making it into cupcakes would be great. They were so good. Brought back memories. I couldn't believe how moist they were! They were amazing! A total must try I have to say.

Recipe

For Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup plump golden raisins
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tbsp. sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess (Or divide it among muffin cups).

2. In a bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth.

3. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.

4. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

5. The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

6. For the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter and sour cream in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth. Cool cake completely before frosting. If desired, sprinkle top of cake with chopped nuts and/or sprinkles.

Blackberry Rice Pudding

2008-05-17T11:47:00.004-04:00

Pudding is one of those things that I normally only have during the Spring and the Winter. It's nice and creamy and doesn't make you feel like you had too much. Which no one really likes that feeling when it's a hundred degrees out and in a swim suit.

My favorite kind of pudding, is Rice Pudding. Rice is one of those things I grew up with and had pretty much with anything. When ever my mom would make jasmine rice or risotto, I'd ask her to leave some for me to make rice pudding with. This was one of the first rice pudding I really made when I first discovered rice pudding. It's nice and light and pretty creamy. One of my favorite puddings to have during this time of
year!

If you wanted, you could substitute the blackberries with strawberries! It really goes well with this recipe as well. It's just as great, and it's a great alternative for you strawberry lovers out there!

Recipe

6 tbsp. risotto rice, carnaroli or arborio
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
10.5 oz blackberries
1 tbsp. vanilla (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water

1. In a small pot, dissolve 1/2 cup sugar with the water and bring to a gentle boil. Wash and dice half of the blackberries. Add them to the syrup with cinnamon and the lime juice.

2. Simmer on low heat for about fifteen minutes. Let cool.

3. In the meantime, rinse the rice under cold water. Bring the milk to a first boil. Slowly pour the rice in. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Until the rice is cooked but still al dente. Let slightly cool in a bowl.

4. When the cooked blackberries are cooked, mix them with the rice. Put into individual cups or a bowl and add the remainder blackberries.

Ham and Cheese Macaroni

2008-05-15T20:21:00.002-04:00

Giada De Laurentiss is one of my favorite Food Network cooks to watch. All the food that she makes, I love. I'm a pasta fanatic. I'm either eating sweets or pasta (I'm a carb freak!). And I love italian food. It's my favorite type of food to eat, follow by Chinese and Mexican. I've tried a few of the other cooks and or cheif recipes with pasta, however, Giada's recipes have always been my favorite!

This recipe was one that I knew that I'd love. Ham with Macaroni and Cheese is truly an awesome combination to me (as well as to my boyfriend. He absolutely Macaroni and Cheese). And I liked the idea to use Egg Noodles. I was going to use Macaroni pasta, but when I looked into the pantry, all of it was gone. So I went with what the recipe called for.

The egg noodles made the macaroni and cheese even more comforting then it already was. Which, I didn't think possible. But, it did. Everyone absolutely loved it, and I'll defiantly use egg noodles more often. There awesome in a Macaroni and Cheese. You can never go wrong with Giadas recipes! This was also entered into the Presto Pasta Night roundup!

Recipe

12 ounces wide egg noodles
2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cups grated Fontina
3/4 cup parmesan
3/4 cup mozzarella
4 ounces cooked ham, diced
2 tbsp. chopped parsley

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside.

2. Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Drain well, but do not rinse.

3. Whisk the cream, milk, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper in large bowl to blend. Stir in 1 cup Fontina, 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/2 cup mozzarella, ham, if using, and parsley. Add the noodles and toss to coat. Transfer the noodle mixture to the prepared baking dish. Toss the remaining 1 cup Fontina, 1/4 cup Parmesan, and 1/4 cup mozzarella in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the noodle mixture.

4. Bake until the sauce bubbles and the cheese melts and begins to brown on top, about 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Mocha Cupcakes

2008-05-12T16:08:00.004-04:00

Coffee is most defiantly an addiction of mine. I absolutely love coffee. Anything coffee, I'll have. Baking with coffee, well, its something I love to bake with. From muffins to cupcakes to cookies to pastries. I love it. Muffins are my norm for coffee, but, I really wanted to have a cupcake to do. And what better than to have coffee and chocolate in the little package of a cupcake?

These cupcakes are very moist and super rich that it'll have coffee fanatics like myself jumping with joy. The Kahlua Frosting was fanamnal with these cupcakes. I got the recipe from a friend of mine whom loves cupcakes and loves making homemade frosting. She's totally against store bought frosting (as am I), and when I told her that I was making Mocha Cupcakes, she said that this would be perfect with them. And they were! They were to die for!

Recipe

Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, combine the milk and brewed coffee. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined.

3. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk mixture in 2 additions, beating on low speed until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-22 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour.

Kahlua Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tbsp. butter, room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp. Kahlua
2 cups powdered sugar

1. In a bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Mix in Kahlua, then powdered sugar in one cup increments until frosting reaches desired consistency. Apply to cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-05-08T18:57:00.004-04:00

After my first entry, the Peanut Butter Torte for the new blogging event I recently joined, Tuesdays with Dorie, I had left over peanut butter that would be of better use with baking rather than being slabbed onto a slice of bread.

I hadn't had peanut butter cookies in so long. I use to eat them all the time when I was at my aunts house. She use to make cookies all the time (actually, she still does!), but I don't go there as often as I use to, but when I do, theres always something that she baked. She loves to cook and bake, and they're all awesome! But, thats beside the point.

I was just really in the mood for a good peanut butter cookie. I knew everyone in the house would love them, especially Chris and my father. They both love peanut butter. They both love peanut butter but try not to have it to often. But, I knew that they would like these, and so would I. They are really delicious, and I make them teaspoonful for smaller cookies for snacks. There just amazing. I even caught my dad sneaking a cookie late last night (he'll never admit it though..).

Recipe

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
3/4 cup plus some for sprinkling
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used light, though, dark would be fine)
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, beat in the butter and the peanut butter until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until smooth. Add egg and mix well. Then add the milk and the vanilla.

3. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and beat thoroughly. Fold in the chocolate chips. Place some sugar on a plate for sprinkling. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto baking sheet lined with parchment. Leave about 1 inch between each cookie. Using a fork, lightly indent with a criss cross pattern.

4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Torte

2008-05-06T10:38:00.008-04:00

Theres been a blogging group that I've really been wanting to join for awhile now. Tuesdays with Dorie. You have to have a book to join this group, and I didn't have the book; Till now. I finally got the book so that I could finally join the group, and I didn't hesitate to join.

It was actually kind of funny. Before I saw what the next challenge was, I looked threw the book to see what all recipes there was. And one of them that really shout out to me was the Peanut Butter Torte. It was just beautiful, and sounded, as well as looked, unbelievable. I knew that I wanted to make it soon; And who knew that'd it'd be one of the first things that'd I'd bake!

This weeks challenge was the Peanut Butter Torte. I knew that I was going to love this because, I mean, come on. It's peanut butter! One of those things that make you happy and certainly bring bake being a kid.

I really liked the crust for this. An Oreo crust is my favorite kind of crust to have on an cake, cheesecake, or anything else that has a crust. I was kind of unsure as to if it'd pair will with the peanut butter. I didn't really think that'd be that good together. But they were! They were excellent together! And I defiantly have gotten my peanut butter dose!

Recipe

1 1/4 cup peanuts, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. instant espresso powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbled
4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) butter, melted
Pinch of salt
2 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup confectioner sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp. milk
4 ounces chocolate, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Toss 1/2 cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chips together in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Put the Oreo crumbs (you can crumbled in a food processor or a blender), melted butter and salt in a small bowl and stir to combine until moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and the sides of a springform pan (they should go up about 2 inches up on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.

3. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack and let cool completely before filling. With a stand mixer, whip 2 cups on the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in 1/4 cup of confectioner sugar. Scrape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

4. Wipe out the bowl (no need to wash) and beat in the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup of confectioner sugar on medium speed until cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, 1/4 cup chopped peanuts and the milk.

5. Using a spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Stir in the crunchy peanut butter mixture, gingerly fold remaining whipped cream.

6. Scrape the mousse 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 it Up

7. To finish the torte, put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave bowl over the water till it starts to melt. Remove from the saucepan.

8. Bring the remaining 1/2 cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and blend until glossy. Pour over torte, smoothing with a metal spatula. Scatter remaining 1/2 cup peanuts over torte and chill until the top is set. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cream Puffs

2008-05-02T18:55:00.036-04:00

Cream Puffs; A light, but rich, hollow pastry puff which may be filled with a sweet filling, or, if you prefer, with savory filling. And I, have yet to ever trying one believe it or not. Call me crazy (like everyone else), but I have yet to ever tried cream puffs.

I actually decided yesterday after watching a new drama called Absolute Boyfriend that I wanted to try making cream puffs. In this drama I was watching, there was a girl who said to being to make the best cream puffs around. As she made them, I was thinking, "Hmm.. wow. That seems easy."

From what I heard from other, cream puffs are hard to make. I defiantly disagree with that. These were actually not hard at all. They're quite easy to make. I have no idea why people make a big fuss about them being hard to make.

What did I think after having my first ever cream puff? I'll put it simple... "Oh yea."

Recipe

1 cup water
3 1/2 ounces butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 large eggs, beaten
2 egg whites [reserve yolks for custard]

1. Preheat oven to 420 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Do not grease baking sheet, as the grease will cause the dough to flatten.

2. Cut up butter into small pieces. In a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the water and butter; bring mixture to a full rolling boil.

3. Remove pan from the heat and add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until blended. Reduce heat to medium; return pan to heat and continue stirring until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Remove from heat and transfer the dough to the bowl of a mixer. With the paddle attachment, mix at low speed until the dough has cooled slightly.

4. In a small bowl, add eggs and egg whites; Whisk until mixed together. At medium speed, beat the eggs/egg whites in slowly (at first the eggs will act like they don't want to mix in, but they will). When all the eggs are absorbed, the dough is ready to use. The dough should be soft and a little sticky, but be able to hold its shape.

5. Place dough into bag. Cut the end off one corner with scissors, to make an opening about 1/4 inch. Squeeze the mixture onto the baking pan.

6. Bake for a total of about 20 minutes. At 1 minutes into the baking, lower heat to 375 degrees F. and continue baking until golden brown. Approximately 5 to 10 minutes longer for the small puffs, and 15 to 20 minutes longer for large puffs.

7. Remove from the oven and immediately prick the lower side of each puff with the tips with something sharp. Turn off oven and return puffs to the oven. Leave the door open slightly and allow the puffs to dry out for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove and oven and let puffs cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack before filling.

Makes about 2 dozen large puffs, 3 dozen medium puffs, to 5 to 6 dozen small puffs.

For Custard

1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons flour and a pinch of salt. Stir in milk, a little at a time, until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.

2. Boil for 1 minute, then pour a small amount of hot liquid into the 2 egg yolks, and stir. Then return now heated egg yolks to saucepan and stir until mixture starts to bubble again. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Cover and chill in refrigerator till ready to use.

Red Velvet Cake

2008-04-30T00:19:00.012-04:00

Today, it was my fathers birthday. He usually doesn't like to do anything to extravagant for his birthday. He prefers to just have a relaxing day from everything really. My father is a hard working business man and spends every second of the day dealing with work. He'll get calls at midnight from workers asking him what to do or that they need help. Managing the Orange Business with orange pickers whom tend to forget a lot of things you tell them to do can be rather annoying...

My dad is always thankful whenever he gets a day to just relax and not have a care in the world (though, I think anyone would like days like that). I to like to just relax on my birthday. Its a day in celebration of you. Spend it as you'd want. Which is what my dad did. He had my nana and grandpa (his parents) come over for the day and to have a cook out. Trevor's little friend Phillip as well as Chris also came. My fathers wanted steak, potato's, corn and... His all time favorite cake... Red Velvet Cake.

My dads not to much of a sweet person (nor is many in my family) but when it comes to Red Velvet Cake, my dads all over it. I too have to say that it's a pretty darn delicious cake. One of the best really. And I wanted to make this for my dad on his birthday. The cake is so moist, a very light cake, and so delicious it'll leave you wanting seconds. It's amazing.

Cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 ounce red food coloring
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tbsp. sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round 9-inch cake pans.

2. For the cake, Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric mixer until fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually blend in flour mixture, just until incorporated. Do not over blend.

3. Pour batter into cake pans evenly. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely on wire rack.

4. For the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter and sour cream in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth. Cool cake completely before frosting. If desired, sprinkle top of cake with chopped nuts and/or sprinkles.

Makes 12-16 servings

Dad relaxing.

Here's Trevor and his cute little friend Phillip.

My nana. She's a cutie.

My mom... She has a horrible habit.

Cheesecake Pops

2008-04-27T11:59:00.005-04:00

Once again, this months Daring Bakers Challenge is here. To be completely honest, I was hoping for something more... Well, challenging. This months challenge was to make Cheesecake Pops. I don't know if it were just me, but it seemed way to easy. Nonetheless, I still was looking forward to making these. They seemed interesting and I'd never made them before. So I was still all for trying something I'd never made.

The recipe was pretty simple. However, the baking time... It said for 35-45 minutes, but, for me, it took almost an hour. That was probably the only thing that I'd had trouble with. The time. When it came to coating them, I first coated one completely with chocolate. I didn't like it. The chocolate over powered the taste of the cheesecake. You couldn't really taste the cheesecake because the chocolate was over powering it. So, instead of coating it completely with chocolate, I drizzled it. Much better in my opinion.

It was an o.k. pop in my opinion. My taste buds don't necessarily like the taste of just plain cheesecake. I'd want some more flavor in it. I'd probably would had liked it more that way. Nonetheless, it was still a good pop.

Recipe

5 packages (8-oz. ) cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed

30-40 lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbsp. vegetable shortening

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

1. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

3. Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

4. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

5. When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

6. When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate in the top of a double boiler, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth.

7. Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening as needed.

8. Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Banana Piña Colada Muffins

2008-04-24T09:31:00.006-04:00

To start this post off, I have to say; These have to be some of the best banana muffins I've ever tried!! Seriously, no joke. They seriously taste as though they came straight out from a bakery! It was when I pasted a local bakery that I decided today to bake Banana. And when I thought about it, I hadn't some in awhile, and, it felt like a great time to bake some.

When summer comes around, fruit is something that most people eat because it's hot, and, eating hot food or heavy food just doesn't sound good when you dieing from heat. You want some light and fresh tasty. Fruit is exactly that. And it's been feeling a lot like summer here in Florida. So we've got a lot of fruit floating around here. So, to but the bananas to use, I decided to make them into muffins.

I'm not joking when I say that these are good; Because they really have to be some of the best muffins I have ever made! Coconut and raisins, in my opinion, team beautifully together (especially in that famous rum drink, the piña colada for some of you). The two play just as nicely together in this whole-grain muffin. Banana adds pleasingly moist texture, and an additional taste of the tropics.

Recipe

2 cups flour
1/2 cup diced dried pineapple
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. coconut flavor or rum flavor (optional)
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and coconut or rum flavor. Add the bananas, honey, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt, beating until smooth.

3. Stir in the flour, then add the pineapple and raisins. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and sprinkle each muffin with coconut.

4. Bake the muffins for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let set for 5 minutes. Take muffins out of muffins cups and serve warm, or at room temperature. Store in an air tight container.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2008-04-22T22:50:00.007-04:00

Mint ice cream is love. Well, for me it is. I don't think there is any ice cream out there that taste better than mint ice cream. There a lot of people that disagree with me, it's pretty contriversal, especially with my boyfriend and my mom. It's funny how we can get into the silliest of arguments. Well, they're not really arguments, there just debates I guess.

My boyfriend loves birthday cake ice cream. I however loath birthday cake ice cream. Something about just... grosses me out. The taste all together just doesn't taste right to me. And my mom loves Rocky Road. I do like Rocky Road Ice Cream as well, I just don't love it. My brother is on my side with Mint Ice Cream being the best. He's a mint lover like myself. And since I just recently got an Ice Cream Maker (finally!), I wanted to make his and my favorite Ice Cream; Mint Chocolate Chip.

I did not come up with this recipe, I actually found it at Simple Recipes by Elise. I love a lot of the things she comes up with, and I finally came around to trying one of hers out. And I got to tell you; It tasted so good! I didn't add as much chocolate as she did. I didn't want to much chocolate it it. It came out so creamy, silky, and, of course, minty! This is defiantly something I am going to be making over and over and over again.

Recipe
Adapted here from Simply Recipes

3 cups fresh mint leaves, rinsed, drained, packed
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 egg yolks
3-4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (keep in freezer til used)

1. Firstly, take the fresh mint leaves, rid the stems, then rinse, drain, and pack it. Put the mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with the 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of the cream. Heat until just steaming (do not let boil), remove from heat, cover. Let stand for 30 minutes. Reheat the mixture until steaming, remove from heat and let stand for 15 more minutes.

2. While the mint is infusing in step 1, prepare the remaining cream over an ice bath. Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set in ice water (with lots of ice) over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.

3. Strain the milk cream mixture into a bowl, pressing against the mint leaves with a rubber spatula in the sieve to get the most liquid out of them. Return the milk cream mixture to the saucepan. Add sugar and salt to the mixture. Heat until just steaming again, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

4. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm mixture, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

5. Return the saucepan to the stove, stirring the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes.

6. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the cold cream to stop the cooking.

7. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (at least a couple of hours) or stir the mixture in the bowl placed over the ice bath until thoroughly chilled (20 minutes or so). Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

8. Once the ice cream has been made in the ice cream maker it should be pretty soft. Gently fold in the finely chopped chocolate. Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours. If it has been frozen for more than a day, you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften it before serving.

Blueberry Ice Cream

2008-04-19T12:43:00.006-04:00

There are many things that I like, but, for me, ice cream is just pure love. It's almost like a comfort food for me. So rich and creamy... Never leaves me hangin. When I was a little kid, I use to go to my grandma's house everyday. I always saw her and I always was with her. We use to be real close. She was like my mom. She took care of me through most of my childhood. Since my parents we're always working, she became my mom.

One of things I use to do with her all the time was bake and cook. She's want really got me into baking and cooking. She's also the person that developed my love for burnt food... Yes, I like food to be slightly burnt. She burnt a lot of things. But, one of the things me and her use to do was make homemade ice cream. Real homemade. Not with the help of a machine. The real deal. And I was thinking about the times we spent together, and I just felt the need to make some to bring back memories.

Add this to the running for ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday.

Recipe

2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Get out a plastic container out (or churner) to be ready to pour ice cream in. Drop the blueberries, sugar and salt in a sauce pan and turn to medium-high heat. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, mashing berries and stirring with a fork. Simmer mixture, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes; cool slightly.

2. In a blender, puree mixture with milk just until smooth and stir in cream. Chill this mixture until cold in the fridge or an ice bath. Churn in an ice-cream machine until thick or place in a plastic container, pop it in the freezer and give it a good whip every few hours.

Orange Blackberry Muffins

2008-04-17T14:06:00.010-04:00

Lately, I don't know about other places, but lately here in Orlando, blackberries have been on sale. I'm guessing it the season for them? I really have no idea. I don't really know anything about berries. I only know about oranges since my fathers in the citrus business. But since they've been on sale, I thought, you know, why not get them. I mean, theres a lot I can bake and make with them.

I thought of added orange to these, you know, since they've just been laying around. My dad had just brought home a bunch of oranges recently, so I thought I might as well make use of them. It made the muffins just that much more better. So moist in the inside, and the blackberries; Oh my god, I just love berries when they are baked in the oven! When you take that first bite, and the berries are still hot and soft; It's just unbelievable.

Theres an event that I recently found that I found pretty interesting. And I've yet to participate in it. It's a new blogging event called 'Snack Shots', and when the new event came up for muffins, I decided, why not enter it in? So, I've decided to enter my yummy Orange Blackberry Muffin into the running for Snack Shots #3; Muffins. Details for this event can be found here.

Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
Zest and juice of 1 orange
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup blackberries, fresh

Decorating sugar, for topping (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.

2. Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

3. In a large bowl, rub sugar and orange zest together with fingertips until the sugar is moisten and you can smell the orange. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently but quickly stir to blend. Stir in the blackberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

4. Bake for about 22 to 25 minutes. If you want, you can decorating the muffins with sugar. Just sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin.

Raisin Nut Granola

2008-04-16T15:48:00.005-04:00

Aside from having cereal for breakfast, granola is one of my favorite food to have for breakfast. And I've finally gotten around to posting about this; My favorite granola. It's such a great breakfast food. Gives you plenty of energy to start off your day, and, the good perk about it is; its great for you! But, I would say, that making it homemade is the way to go. I don't really enjoy the store bought granola.

I had one experience when I thought about buying a store bought brand... Me being me, I look at the nutritional facts all the time. I try to make sure what it is I'm buying is actually good for you (I think this habit is rubbing off on my little brother; He now points out whats on the nutrition label). I forget what brand of granola this one I look at, for I'm not to familiar with the different kinds of brands, but I kid you not; This granola was loaded with 40g of sugar!! That'd cause a diabetic to drop down in a heart beat!

It just shocked me. I feel bad for the people who didn't look at the nutritional label. I mean, god... Thats a lot of sugar. And that's just ridiculous! Thats when I decided to just stick to making homemade granola. And this granola; It's killer. This is my favorite granola to make. I totally go bonkers for it, and I've even gotten my boyfriend into it (who is trying to eat more healthy..). A lot of the time, I just eat this plain. I don't usually add milk to it. From time to time, when I've been wanting milk, I'll add a little. But I think it's great just as it.

I'll even make parfaits with this. With some yogurt, or, make caramlized bananas with granola. Either ways, its great. And my dad is crazy for this stuff. He'll usually have some before working out. My mom however... She's not a breakfast eater. Which I tell her is bad!! But not that she listens...

"The most important meal of the day, lalalala, yay!" - Spongebob

Listen to Spongebob people!

Recipe

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup cashews, chopped
1/2 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup honey
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, honey, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

3. Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed. Store at room temperature for up to a week.

Pecan Crunch Granola Bars

2008-04-15T15:40:00.010-04:00

So, I've seen plenty of granola bar recipes floating around on several websites, that I finally decided to make my own granola bars. My dad was especially happy about this; Being that these were going to be homemade granola bars. He doesn't like anything store bought. He likes anything that is homemade and thats the way he likes it. So he was especially happy about this.

I originally wanted to have dried blueberries in these, however, I could not find any in the store, and I didn't have the time or the patients to make my own dried blueberries. I wanted to make granola bars today. And I had to make granola bars with my favorite nut; Pecans! In the end, it was much better that I used raisins instead of blueberries. I have a feeling that the blueberries the pecans wouldn't have made a good pair. With the cinnamon, everything just came together wonderfully.

One tip I have when making these; LET THEM COOL! If you do not let them cool completely, they will fall apart on you. Then you would had destroyed a beautiful creation.

Recipe

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pecans, chopped into little pieces
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried raisins (or any dried fruit)

1. Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes to toast.

3. While thats going, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, extract and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook just until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

4. Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit and coconut, and stir to combine.

5. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and wrap up for snacks or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Key Lime Cups

2008-04-12T21:26:00.008-04:00

So, I was just sitting around the other day, trying to think of something to do with these green melt away chocolates that I've had. Reason is because I've been eating them all the time now, but it would taste better that have them made into something rather than just eating them by themselves. So, while I was sitting around... It came to me.

Well, it came to me after seeing a Reeces that Chris was eating. Then I just though, "Cups.. Green Cups.. Lime.. Key Lime Cups!" So then I came up with the idea to make Key Lime Cups. They're very simple; A lot like my Peanut Butter Cups, except, not Peanut Butter. The inside is just like a Key Lime Pie filling, but now, put into a chocolate cups. These are well loved, especially with lime fanatics!

Recipe

1 1/2 cups green chocolate melts
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup bottled or fresh key lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Set 2 dozen mini muffins wrappers on a baking sheet. Melt half of the chocolate, using a microwave-safe bowl and cooking it in short 30 second intervals until smooth.

2. Using a spoon, pour a little bit of chocolate in each muffin wrapper and using a small clean brush to paint the chocolate up the sides of each wrapper. Chill candy for 10 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together condensed milk, key lime juice, vanilla and eggs . When mixture has come together.

4. Once candy has chilled, spoon generous amounts of key lime mixture into each candy cup. Chill for another 10 minutes.

5. Melt the rest of the chocolate and fill each muffin cup once they have chilled. Chill until set (I would recommend longer than this. Like around a few hours. It taste much better after sitting in the fridge for awhile).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies

2008-04-10T15:55:00.006-04:00

You know, I think that maybe no one would ever have guessed that I liked blondies more than I liked brownies. Since I make brownies all the time, one would most likely think that I loved brownies more than a decadent, lushes blondie. Oh how wrong people would be if they were to believe such a thing...

I'm a serious addict when it comes to blondies. One of the reasons that I don't make them that often is because, if I have the chance to eat the entire thing of baked blondie, I will... No joke. Not it one day, but I'll defiantly be snatchy when it comes to my blondies. If I see someone taking one, I'll be right behind them as they walk, staring them down with evil eyes for they had taken one of my precious blondies! Haha, ok, that may seem crazy, and I'm not to the extreme of such, but I really do love blondies and I will eat loads and loads of them, which, is the reason why I don't make them all the time.

With brownies, being that they are so extremely rich, that just having one is far enough for me. It's to rich that I can't extend even just one. With blondies however, I never get tired of the chewy, melt in your mouth taste. I find that any blondie taste amazing and I also find it hard for there to be a 'bad' blondie. Same as how I feel about brownies. I don't think there is really a 'bad' brownie; Not that I've experienced yet.

I find that blondies are best with pecans, chocolate, and coconut. I think the combination is just wonderful and amazing together. I think the combination of pecans, chocolate, and coconut alone is a great combination (as you will seem to find out...)! But, when you put that combination into a blondie; Ohh! It's just to die for. But, you'll die of true bliss happiness if you take a big, huge scoop of ice cream and top it on a blondie. Just to die for.

Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup flaked coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9" x 12" baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, mix the butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and mix until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.

3. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate, peanuts and coconut. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the blondies have just begun to brown around the edges. Allow them to cool completely before cutting.

Rainbow Cupcakes

2008-04-08T16:38:00.010-04:00

What lurks behind the beautiful cupcake? Well that'd be my new little stuffed animal Apple! Chris bought me her the other day. She's so cute. She's the only one that I like out of the Hello Kitty collection. I don't really like Hello Kitty, or that white.. thing. Or that... Panda thing. I do like Chococat and Kuririn though. As you can see, I know a lot about the little Hello Kitty collection. I'm a bit of a dork. I learned all the names though from my friends baby sister. She' of was obsessed with Hello Kitty; And all the characters! She had a giant Hello Kitty! It was about 5 feet tall. It kind of scared me...

Anyways, thats all beside the point of the reason I made these cupcakes. To be completely honest, and it may seem kind of weird, but when I look at my little stuffed animal Apple, makes me think of... Spring. All the beautiful and bright colors that come along with the season of Spring. Then I thought, well, I could make bright, spring like cupcakes. Which is how I came along to making these little adorable cupcakes.

These cupcakes are super moist! Very delicious, and so fun to make. You can color them and decorate them however you choose. I even got my little brother and my boyfriend doing it. We all came up with our own little creations and spent time together, enjoying each others company. This is one of the things that I really love about making cupcakes. You can have friends and family help out, and we all came make our cupcakes the way we want and decorate them how we'd like them!

Recipe

For Cupcakes

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Food Coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, beating until combined.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Measure out the milk and vanilla, then stir to combine.

3. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

4. Divide the batter into a few different bowls (However many different colors your using depends on how many bowls you'll have). Put desired food coloring in each bowl. Do it one drop at a time, stirring each addition drop till you get the color you are wanting.

5. Scoop batter into cupcake cups, alternating with different colored batter, and fill to about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

(Apple was very happy ^_^)

For Soft Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. milk

1. Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Sift powdered sugar into the mixer bowl (right on top of the beaten butter). Beat to combine.

2. Add the vanilla and the milk. Beat until combined. Spread on top of cupcakes or cake.

Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich

2008-04-06T12:22:00.007-04:00

Supposedly the Peanut Butter and Banana idea came from the all time famous star, Elvis Presley. The 'Peanut Butter and Nanner' what they considered it. Whether that may be true or not, I got to say, the man had great taste. Peanut Butter and Banana themselves are great. Both have a creamy texture, and are just delicious in general. Putting both Peanut Butter and Banana together; Well, it just equals to a great combination!

I grew up eating this with my Grandpa and Nana when ever I went over to they're house. They're the grandparents. They want to spoil you. Give you all the things that you couldn't get because your parents said so. Like, getting the snacks you mother never let you have like oreos or goldfishes, or getting the expensive toy that you parents said you didn't need, or going to Chunk E' Cheese from time to time, or staying up late watching movies, or going outside to play; At which my grandparents did. I was extremely spoiled as a child by my grandparents; To be honest, I still am.

But, even now, I still always look forward to having a Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich for lunch with my Nana. The warm melted peanut butter with the warm, creamy bananas is something I can never get tired of. Its a comfort sandwich. One of the best.

Recipe

2 tbsp. peanut butter (preferably smooth)
2 slices sandwich bread
1 small ripe banana, mashed with a fork (about 1/4 cup)
2 tbsp. butter

1. Spread peanut butter evenly on 1 slice of bread, then spread mashed banana on other slice, leaving a 1/4-inch border around edge. Close sandwich, gently pressing bread slices together.

2. Heat butter in an 8- to 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then fry sandwich, turning over once, until golden brown, about 2 minutes total.

3. Eat immediately with a knife and fork

Makes 1 Sandwich

Oatmeal Raisin Bread Pudding

2008-04-03T16:15:00.010-04:00

Bread Pudding, in my opinion, has got to be one of the most comforting desserts ever. Aside from Ice Cream, Bread Pudding is one of my favorite desserts that I enjoy having every time. I actually never had nor heard of Bread Pudding till about 3 years ago after going out for my fathers birthday at Ruth Chris Steakhouse.

We went there to enjoy some really great steak (one of the best I've ever had, by the way. Wish I could still have some...), and I knew that I was going to get a dessert, and my dad was gonna get one to. I mean, it's his birthday. Even though he's a health consensus freak, he to likes to have a good dessert for his birthday. Who really doesn't though?

I ordered the Chocolate Lava cake, my brother order ice cream, and my father, the birthday boy, ordered New Orleans Bread Pudding. When I got my Chocolate Lava Cake, it was way to chocolaty for me. I should have expected such from a Chocolate Lava Cake. I only took one bite and had enough chocolate for the day. But, my father only finished half his dessert. So, I decided to try it. And fell in love. That when I became obsessed with Bread Pudding.

I made Oatmeal Bread the other day and had half of it left. So, I decided to make more use of it. How? By making an Oatmeal Bread Pudding. I used my Oatmeal Bread recipe for the bread, but I got the custard and sauce from Peabody here. This is a really comforting dessert, and when in need of comfort, try this! You'll be in love!

Recipe

Oatmeal Bread

Recipe Here.

Cinnamon Custard

2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
4 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

Toffee Sauce

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Make the Oatmeal Bread as in the recipe. Let cool complete.

2. In a bowl, mix together the heavy cream, egg yolks and eggs, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk together all the ingredients until completely incorporated. Set aside until needed.

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut up the Oatmeal Bread into 1 inch pieces. Place half of the Oatmeal Bread pieces in a buttered 8 x 8" pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of raisins (if desired). Pour half of the custard mixture over the bread, pressing gently to allow the liquid to soak in.

4. Scatter the remaining bread evenly. Followed by another ½ cup raisins and then the last of the custard. Again, press the bread down gently to allow the custard to absorb into the bread.

5. Place bread pudding into a pan that is large enough to hold both the pan and a water bath. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the pudding pan. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Remove from oven carefully and serve with Toffee Sauce.

6. To make Toffee Sauce, stir brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add cream and vanilla and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Chocolate Mint Brownies

2008-04-01T11:25:00.010-04:00

These brownies were made mainly for my boyfriend Chris who actually asked me if I'd bake him something today. And whenever someone asks me to bake something, especially friend or family, I'm always excited and ready to bake.

When I was sitting down on my bed yesterday, looking threw one of my Baking book by Williams-Sonoma, he asked, "If I find something that I like in that book and really want it, would you bake it today?" Oh course I would! I'm always ready to bake, and I was so happy when he actually wanted me to bake him something.

As he looked threw the book, he at first thought he wanted muffins, but then decided he didn't. He knew he didn't want bread. He didn't want to have my make a big pie, cake or cheesecake when it won't be eaten when made. Then we he got to the brownie section, he was like "Yes!" He then choose these Chocolate Mint Brownies. I was actually happy because I had these brownie bookmarked to bake, so, now I get to finally bake them.

These brownies are very and divine delicious, especially for someone who loves mint (Me, Me, Me!!). I love anything and everything mint. Mint is one of my favor flavors, and these brownies defiantly made me all happy and giggly from it yummy chocolate-ness. What could have made these better? A big serving of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with it!

Recipe

For Brownies

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour

For Icing

1 cup confectioner sugar
3 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. milk, or as needed
2 tsp. peppermint extract
Food Coloring (optional)
Sprinkles (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil (or a 9 inch pan for thinner brownies; I did this one).

2. To make the brownies, combine the chocolate and butter in a large heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and smooth. Let cool slightly.

3. Whisk the sugar, peppermint, vanilla and salt into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition, then continue to whisk until the mixture is velvety. Add the flour and whisk just until incorporated. Four and scrape the batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake until the top is just springy to the touch and toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. About 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

5. To make the icing, combine confectioner sugar, butter, 1 tbsp. milk, and peppermint extract. Stir until necessary, thinning with milk if necessary. The icing should be thick. You can add food coloring to it if you desire.

6. Spread the icing over the cooled brownies. Put sprinkle on top if desired. Cut into 2 inch squares. Remove brownies from the foil. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

DBC: Perfect Party Cake

2008-03-30T10:42:00.009-04:00

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge has finally came. And this months was the Perfect Party Cake. I don't know about everyone else, but these last few challenges has been sort of easy. I'm still waiting on something that just really challenges me. But lately that hasn't been the case...

None the less, I was still excited about this months challenge. I'm mean, who doesn't like cake? I pretty much followed the recipe all the way threw, except for the filling. I did not use raspberry because my mothers actually allergic to them. I decided to make a strawberry frosting for the filling because everyone likes strawberries.

I was sort of suprised at how fast this cake went! On the first day I made it, I didn't think to many people would really want to eat some, however, by the time it was 6 pm, more than half the cake was gone! Apparently, my aunt and cousins found out that I had made a cake, and came over to get some. Not that it bothered me, I was actually flattered that they came and got some and loved it.

And it was a very nice came. I especially loved the coconut on top. I toasted my coconut because that how I generally like coconut. It being toasted just tastes so much better in my opinion. This months challenge was a very great cake, and now I'm ready for the next challenge. I'm hoping for something very challenging.

Recipe

For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1. To make the cake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.

3. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

4. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean

5. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

1. To make the Buttercream, put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.

2. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

3. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.

4. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

1. To assemble the cake, using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.

2. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Oatmeal Bread

2008-03-28T08:46:00.004-04:00

Oats, in my opinion, is one of the best things to bake with. It's such a verse ital ingredient that you can really make it with anything. My father, you is a big time griller, has even been grilling with oats. Lately, he who loves burgers, has been going to the healthy side. Lately, he's been grilling turkey burgers! One of the main ingredients? Rolled Oats. It really does add great flavor to the turkey burgers..

Side from that, I decided to make Oatmeal Bread today. I debated on weather or not to make them with raisins, and I decided that I just wanted Oatmeal Bread. Not one with raisins. This Oatmeal bread is a nice golden, cake like bread, and goes great with peanut butter or jam, like strawberry jam. And if it becomes a little stale, simply toast it a little before serving. It's a really delicious loaf of bread.

Recipe

1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1. In a bowl, stir together the buttermilk and rolled oats. Let stand for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2" by 6 1/4" loaf pan. Dust with flour.

3. In another bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Add the sugar, butter and eggs to the oatmeal mixture (this is where you'd add the raisins if you wanted a Oatmeal Raisin Bread). Beat until well blended. Add the dry ingredients and beat until just blended.

4. Pour and scrape the batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until a thin wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Serve with a jam, like strawberry jam if desired.

Whole Grain Maple Oatmeal Scones

2008-03-27T20:02:00.007-04:00

I'd been craving scones for sometime now. I don't know when the last time I've really had a good quality scone. All I know is, it's been awhile. And I needed to have a scone today before I seriously went crazy from scone deprivation; Ok, not crazy, but I really wanted a good, yummy and delicious scone. And a homemade one at that. I was in no mood to go to Starbucks and get a scone that has more sugar than needed that'd it drive a diabetic to their death bed.

I decided I wanted to make Oatmeal Scones. Using one of my favorite ingredients to use while baking; Oatmeal. I think you can really use oatmeal in basically anything. My fathers even been making Turkey Burgers that have oatmeal in them. I've had them before and I have to say, they're very good. My entire family never wants to have a burger again. I haven't had one in sometime since I've decided that I'm going to be a Vegetarian.

Side from that, I really wanted Oatmeal Scones. To add more flavor, I added Maple Syrup. In my opinion, after tasted these scones, Oatmeal and Maple really go hand in hand. They're a great combination. And with the added cinnamon, everything just tasted wonderful all together. These are a great morning wake me up.

Recipe

1 1/3 cup oat flour
1 1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
8 tbsp. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup yogurt
2 tbsp. pure maple syrup

For the top:

1 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. oats

1. Preheat the oven to 400.

2. Whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Transfer that mixture to the bowl of a food processor. Add the oats and pulse in short bursts (1 sec each) about 15 times. Drop in the pieces of cold butter and pulse again in short bursts until coarse meal forms, about another 15 pulses.

3. Place this mixture back into the large bowl. In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk, yogurt and maple syrup. Pour the liquid into the flour/oat/butter mixture, and stir gently with a fork until it’s moistened and starts to come together. Using your hand, gather the dough into a ball right in the bowl and knead it a few times against the side of the bowl to bring the dough together.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a 3/4-inch thick circle. Using a sharp knife, cut like a pie into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

5. Whisk together 1 tbsp milk and 1 tbsp maple syrup in a little bowl. Brush the tops of the scones with this mixture, then sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp oats across the tops of the scones.

6. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Cool on a rack.

Makes 8 Scones.

Tropical Coconut Cheesecake

2008-03-22T21:40:00.004-04:00

Easter has come! Yes! Easter is always so fun; For me and my family at least. Even now, I still go easter egg hunting. Makes me feel like a little kid again. Plus, I do it for my little brother. I mean, he's still younger than me. But as I grow up and get older, my parents kind of stop doing the things they did for me as a kid for my brother. Because they've already done it. So it forces my little brother to grow up faster. And I don't want that. I want him to have fun as a little kid like I did. Plus, I'm still a kid inside. I still love doing these kind of things.

For Easter, we usually go to a brunch at a restaurant called Dubsdread. This is the only time they actually do a brunch, and it's always packed! You have to make reservations a month in advance just so you can have a table! But we always make sure to do such. They're food really good to. There's so much to choose from. This year, my boyfriend got to come with us for the first time. He loves buffets (which he shouldn't!!), so he was in heaven we he saw all what they had. It was fun with just the 5 of us, my mom, dad, brother and Chris. But, then we had to go see the ENTIRE family after words.

We went over to my aunts house to see everyone; And I mean everyone. Had to of been 100 people in that house. We're a big family here. Which, I like my big family :]. After going to my aunts, we head back home to have dinner with my grandparents (on my fathers side). And they love it when my mom cooks and I bake. They'll eat everything to. They're big eaters. I decided to make a cheesecake for them. I know my Nana loves cheesecake, and my grandfather, well, he'll eat anything really. With all the sugar he eats, you'd never know he was actually diabetic!! But he's started to get his sugar intake under control.

After a long day, it was great to get to sit down, with your close family, and have a slice of a delicious cheesecake. I even gave the cheesecake a light pink color to it for the holiday. It was so cute; And it was so good. And everyone loved it, which was what I was hoping for. Everything turned out great.

Recipe

Coconut Cake Base

2 eggs
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 (18-ounce) jar pineapple ice cream topping, divided

Cream Cheese Filling

24 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 (8.5-ounce) can cream of coconut
4 eggs
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 tablespoon rum

Garnish

1/2 cup toasted sweetened coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom of a 10-inch spring form pan.

2. Combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla, coconut, baking powder and flour in a medium bowl and spread in the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly. Spread with 1/2 of the pineapple topping, reserving remaining topping for use later in the recipe.

3. Place cream cheese in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Beat on low speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until combined. Add the cream of coconut, and beat again. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until well incorporated. Add the rum and coconut and beat until just combined. Pour over prepared base and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut in a glass pie plate and toast in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until it becomes golden. Sprinkle the toasted coconut around the outside of the cheesecake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes 12 to 16 servings

Peanut Butter Sandies

2008-03-18T18:52:00.009-04:00

If your a peanut butter lover, than these are totally the right cookies for you! To he honest, I think the cookies are just an excuse to have pure peanut butter. Because it taste just as if your licking peanut butter from the spoon; But you don't want to just say, "I want peanut butter." No, you dress it up in the form of a cookie!

I decided to make these to send to a friend of mine, along with other cookies, so that he could have some. I was already sending my Chocodoodles and my Chocolate Chunk and Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies, and I wanted to add something else to the batch of cookies. I already have chocolate, as well as oatmeal, so, why not peanut butter?

My whole objective with these cookies were to make them taste as peanut butter-y as possible. Which, these defiantly defined pure peanut butter very well. The ones I had in sent to work and friends, they were devoured in 1 second flat! It was well loved. This recipe is very simple. And it's much better than just have peanut butter on a spoon!

Recipe

1 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup flour
1 cup light brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and peanut butter. Slowly add flour and mix until thoroughly combined.

3. Using your hands, roll about a tablespoons of dough together into a ball. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and press slightly to flatten.

4. Bake 8 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly golden. Allow to cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes then carefully remove to wire racks to continue to cool. It is best to allow them to cool completely before eating, they "set" while they cool.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Chicken Tetrazzini

2008-03-16T17:23:00.008-04:00

This recipe was adapted from Giada De Laurentiis, one of my absolute favorite cooks on Food Network. I remember watching one of her episodes with her making Chicken Tetrazzini. I'd never heard of anything like it, so I was intrigued. After watching and seeing the entree, I defiantly kept the recipe in my memories from when I'm craving some serious pasta. Today happened to be one of those days.

I hadn't had pasta in awhile. The heavy duty pasta is what I mean. The heavy kind of pasta, thats so bad, but so good. And I was really wanted something like that today. At first, I was just going to make some Fettuccine Alfredo. But, then I decided since I was going to heavy, why not try Chicken Tetrazzini?

I certainly made a huge mess while making this. Though, I'm a messing baker/cook to begin with. And while this bakes in the oven, the smell is so devine. The parmesan is just heavenly. That was probably my favorite part out of this; The top. Where all the parm was. But the whole thing was delicious. A great comfort food. Can't wait to have it again!

Added to Presto Pesto Night Roundup.

Recipe

9 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
12 ounces linguine
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup dried Italian-style breadcrumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Spread 1 tbsp of butter over a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish. Melt 1 tbsp each of butter and oil in a deep large nonstick frying pan over medium-high. Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the hot pan and cook until pale golden and just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate to cool slightly. Coarsely shred the chicken into bite-size pieces and into a large bowl.

3. Meanwhile, add 1 tbsp each of butter and oil to the same pan. Add the mushrooms and saute over medium-high until the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates and the mushrooms become pale golden, about 12 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme, and saute until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it evaporates, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mushroom mixture to the bowl with the chicken.

4. Melt 3 more tbsp butter in the same pan over medium-low. Add the flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, cream, broth, nutmeg, remaining 1 3/4 tsp salt, and remaining 3/4 tsp pepper. Increase the heat to high. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 10 minutes.

5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the linguine and cook until it is tender but still firm to the bite. Drain. Add the linguine, sauce, peas, and parsley to the chicken mixture. Toss until the sauce coats the pasta and the mixture is well blended.

6. Transfer the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir the cheese and breadcrumbs in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the pasta. Dot with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Bake, uncovered, until golden brown on top and the sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes.

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

2008-03-13T17:24:00.008-04:00

For the past couple days, I've been craving cinnamon. Anything cinnamon sounds wonderful to me right about now. And I don't know the reason. All I know is, I want something with cinnamon.

I had a few thoughts poppin in my head as to what I wanted to make that had cinnamon. I wanted to do a cake, but not many people would eat it in my house, so I crossed that out. The people in my house rarely eat cake. They only eat it on special occasions. How they do it remains a mystery to me.

Then I thought; Cinnamon Rolls? No, to time consuming. This went on for a while because I wanted to make something that everyone in the house would eat. So, I went around asking everyone. To my surprise, they all said a muffin would be great. Yes! And I love muffins! And I don't make them often.

I came up with a muffin that has a muffins topping. One with lots of cinnamon on the top. I was jumping up in down in excitement after opening the oven with that wonderful cinnamon smell coming out from it. I couldn't wait for the first bite; And as I soon as I took a bite, I've now declared this the best muffin I've ever had. It's almost like a doughnut! Seriously! Except, with out the guilt and added ingredients! A must try.

Recipe

Muffins

2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 to 8 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping

1/2 stick of butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree. Line a standards muffin pan with paper cups.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Do not over mix.

3. Divide batter among the muffin cups and bake for about 12-15 minutes.

4. While the muffins are baking, melt 1/2 stick of butter and place in a bowl large enough to hold a muffin. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are done, dip them in the butter and then roll them in the sugar mixture. Set on a rack to cool.

Oatmeal Raisin Sandwich Cookies

2008-03-11T18:27:00.004-04:00

It is the cookies I use to live off as a kid. It was the treat I always looked forward to (beside ice cream that is..), and its probably one of the most famous cookies among children (well, beside the chocolate chip cookies). We see these cookies usually all the time in the grocery store. The ones that are in a box, next the the twinkies, cinnamon swirls, snow balls, ho hos, mini donuts (you know, all the junk food) and etc. But thats the food I lived off as a kid. It was also the reasons I drove my parents insane while being high off sugar, jumping up and down off the walls.

Oatmeal Raisin Sandwich cookies. Just the name makes me happy. For one, the oatmeal cookies has got to be my favorite cookies that exist in this entire world, but to have it into a sandwich; Ohmygoodness. With a creamy, silk filling in between two soft, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies; it's just to die for.

Oatmeal cookies are my favorite cookies to use when having a sandwich cookies, but one of my other favorite cookies to use would have to be one of my other favorite cookies; white chocolate, chocolate cookies.You can really use whatever kind of cookies you desire. From monster cookies to heath bar cookies, you can use whatever. You could even use my Oatmeal Walnut Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies; Now that'd be a treat!!

Recipe

Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup raisins

Filling

12 oz. cream cheese
1/3-1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and rolled o2ats. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat in eggs. Add applesauce and vanilla. Gradually begin adding the flour mixture the th sugar mixture, slowly mixing the two together. Don't over mix. Fold in raisins.

4. Drop dough by 2 tbsp. full, shaping them into a ball. Leave about 3 inches between each ball to allow to spread.

5. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until cookies are golden on the edges. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to wired rack to cool completely.

6. For the filling, make sure the cream cheese is softened. Beat all ingredients in until smooth. Spread a generous amount on the flat side of half the cookies. Sandwich together and serve.

Make about 14 large sandwich cookies

Chocodoodles

2008-03-05T09:20:00.003-05:00

I've always been a Snickerdoodle fan and have always been one to choose it over any other cookie. I even like it more than I do an oatmeal cookie! I mean, whats not to love about these cookies? Their basically sugar cookies coated in cinnamon sugar. How could you not like that?

Not to long ago, I was just sitting around, thinking. And then a thought came to mind; "Wonder what a Snickerdoodle would taste like with a little bit of cocoa...". And thats basically how I came about to trying this out.

What I did was, when I was combine the flour into the bowl, I would take 2 tablespoons of flour out, and add 2 tablespoons of cocoa. It's really simple, not hard at all. And you'll defiantly like the results of the cookies. The cookies had a sort of cake-like texture. And were to love. You'll defiantly fall in love with these cookies and think of Snickerdoodles in a whole new way.

A little tip for this recipe. With the nutmeg, be very careful! Do not add anymore than 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg! Anymore than that, and it will overpower.

Recipe

1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar + 2 tbsp. for rolling
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

2. Combine flour, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. Beat butter and 1/3 cup sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until smooth.

4. In a small bowl or plate, mix together cinnamon and 2 tbsp. sugar. With a tablespoon, roll dough into balls, then roll in cinnamon mixture. Place on baking sheet.

5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for one minute, then cool completely on cooling rack.

For Chocodoodles: Replace 2 tbsps. of flour with with cocoa.

Makes about 32 cookies

Sugar Cookies

2008-03-01T19:51:00.004-05:00

I love sugar cookies. Can you really ever go wrong with a sugar cookie?

What I really love about sugar cookies, besides how good and yummy that are, it's that you can cut out a bunch of your own little shapes. What I usually do with sugar cookies, is I actually draw out the picture I want, like, say, a cartoon character, and then I place it over the rolled dough, and cut them out. I didn't really feel up to do that today, but I'll post some of my creations soon.

Another plus to making sugar cookies and cutting them out is that it's really great to do with kids. My little brother, who's always wanting to help me bake, weather it be to knead, fold, stir or cut, he always wants to help me (he's a real sweetheart). But, most of the time, I always say no. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and when it comes to baking, I always want them to be perfect. But with sugar cookies, this was something my little brother got to really enjoyed and have fun with. He got to cut out his own shapes and then decorate them as he wanted to with the frosting or the sprinkle. He, as well as I, had a lot of fun with them.

Oh and this frosting; I really like this kind of frosting. Reason being is because it hardens. I don't really like cookies with any sort of gooey frosting as if coming from a cake. If it sticks to things, then you can't throw the cookies into its one bowl. With this frosting, after it hardens, you can throw them all together and not worry that they may stay together! Yay!

Recipe

Cookies

1 1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar

Icing

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup milk
Food Coloring

1. Cream butter for 2 minutes, add sugar and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until light and fluffy. Combine dry ingredients and add to batter. Stir to blend.

2. Divide batter in half, forming two balls. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

3. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 thickness. Dip cutters into batter; cut out shapes.Place cookies on lined or lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375°F for 7-8 minutes.

4. To make icing, combine sugar, almond extract and just enough milk (about 1/4 cup) to make the frosting the consistency of thin glue. Pour icing into shallow bowls wide enough for dipping cookies. Add food coloring.

5. To decorate, dip the topside of each cookie into the icing. Remove quickly and let icing drip of excess back into the icing bowl. Let dry. Pour additional colored frosting into pastry piping, or use a plastic sandwich bag with the tip of one corner nicked off. Gently squeeze frosting on to cookies in whatever patterns you choose.

Makes 2-3 dozen