tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52302860476928025982024-03-05T02:18:58.291-05:00Elfie's EdiblesI'm a red-headed Central Masshole with a Master's degree who loves to play in the kitchen. I'm primarily a baker, but once in awhile I make real food, too. I'm an eclectic woman with a variety of interests and would love to open my own bakery. I hope you'll come along with me for the journey!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-65870822848583246212015-04-05T09:32:00.000-04:002015-04-05T09:32:00.703-04:00Kosher for Passover: Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free, too!)Happy Easter/Happy Passover/Happy spring holiday of your choosing! I'm just happy that the sun is finally out and the temperature is warming up - I've got the window open a tiny bit as I write this and it feels wonderful!<br />
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Our family Passover Seder was on Friday. Naturally, mom asked me to bring a dessert. I was originally going to go with my old Passover-standby of <a href="http://elfiesedibles.blogspot.com/2013/03/apple-matzah-kugel.html" target="_blank">Apple Matzah Kugel</a>, but decided I really wanted to step outside the box.<br />
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Joe's mom is gluten free, and I vaguely remembered making a chocolate cake for her birthday back in September. I knew the cake itself was gluten free, but I couldn't quite remember if it had any leavening agents in it (baking soda/powder, etc). though I do remember thinking that it was delicious. I managed to dig up the recipe from my stash, and, lo and behold, it's kosher for Passover!<br />
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It's actually the perfect recipe if you know someone who has any type of wheat allergies. There is no flour whatsoever called for in the recipe, so you don't have to try and switch it out to something that can be eaten. Since it doesn't call for any flour, you also don't have to try and sub it out for any kind of matzah meal, which means it doesn't end up tasting faintly of matzah like most homemade Passover desserts do.<br />
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This is a mousse style cake, so it's really super light and fluffy. I served it topped with a little bit of homemade whipped cream, but a light dusting of powdered sugar would be sufficient, too. This came out slightly different than the way I originally made it, but I liked it better this way, I think. When I made it the first time, it was really dark chocolately and super rich. This time, I used two different kinds of chocolate, which gave it a more well-rounded flavor. When I made it for Joe's mom's birthday, the cake sunk a little, but it was the whole cake that sunk - this time around, the middle sunk more and the edges stayed where they were. That probably has more to do with the temperature in my apartment than with anything else. <br />
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As you can see from the photos, I had a hard time slicing and serving the cake in the way I wanted to. I melted the butter and chocolate in the microwave instead of using
the double boiler method, so that may have changed the consistency just
enough to make my cake a little less stable. I had left this on the counter overnight, but next time, I'll probably try putting it in the fridge or freezer to see if that makes serving it any easier.<br />
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If your family is anything like mine, they won't care what it actually looks like - they'll just be thrilled to be eating a dessert that tastes like "regular food"!<br />
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<b>Kosher for Passover (and Gluten Free) Chocolate Cake</b><br />
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8 oz. unsweetened chocolate<br />
2 sticks butter<br />
8 egg yolks<br />
1 1/4 c. sugar<br />
5 egg whites<br />
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Preheat oven to 250°F. Grease an 8" springform pan and set aside.<br />
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Using the <a href="http://www.craftybaking.com/howto/double-boiler-method" target="_blank">double boiler method</a>, combine butter and chocolate and stir until melted.<br />
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In a large bowl, combine the egg yolk and sugar. Mix until the eggs are a light yellow color.<br />
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Slowly add in the chocolate sauce and stir to blend thoroughly.<br />
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In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add half of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Fold in the remaining egg whites.<br />
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Pour batter into the pan and bake for one hour and fifteen minutes (75 minutes). Remove cake from oven and set on a wire rack to cool.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-58067934034525255142015-03-28T12:33:00.000-04:002015-03-28T12:33:04.812-04:00Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese FrostingI found this recipe on Pinterest in.. November? December? Around the holidays, at any rate. Joe drooled when I told him about it, so I promised him I'd make them. Gingerbread is probably one of his favorite holiday flavors. Then, like any good future wife, I promptly forgot all about it. Until a couple of weeks ago, that is, when I saw this recipe in my cabinet and said, "Oh yeah! Gingerbread cupcakes!" and decided to make them.<br />
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The recipe as it was provided needed some help, but what I've provided below is my adaptation. The batter gives you enough for about 18 regular sized cupcakes. This was one of those pins that just provides the recipe and doesn't link back to the original source, so unfortunately, I don't have the slightest idea where these came from.<br />
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Even with the changes I had to make, these came out AMAZING. As in, I can't wait to make them again incredible. Like, thinking about trying them in my square muffin tin, wondering how many mini cupcakes this would make and if it would bake well in an actual bread pan sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.<br />
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<br />Drool.<br />
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Enough already - just go get in the kitchen and make these!<br />
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<b>Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting</b><br />
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<i>For the cupcakes*:</i><br />
1 1/2 c. flour<br />
2 Tbsp ground ginger<br />
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon<br />
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1/4 tsp ground gloves<br />
1/4 tsp nutmeg<br />
1 1/2 c. butter, softened to room temperature<br />
1 c. sugar<br />
1/2 c. brown sugar<br />
4 eggs<br />
3 Tbsp molasses<br />
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract<br />
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<i>For the frosting:</i><br />
4 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature<br />
4 oz. butter, softened to room temperature<br />
4 c. powdered sugar<br />
1 Tbsp cinnamon <br />
1/2 tsp. vanilla<br />
1-2 Tbsp milk or heavy cream, as needed<br />
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Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners (or spray well with non-stick spray).<br />
Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and molasses and mix until smooth. Stir in flour and spices.<br />
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Spoon batter evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes until tops spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.<br />
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While cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting.<br />
<br />Cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the cinnamon. Add in the sugar, one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly until combined. Add milk 1 Tbsp at a time, as needed, until desired consistency is reached. Beat 3-5 minutes until frosting is fluffy. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.<br />
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*note: you'll notice that there is no leavening agent in this recipe. That is correct. DO NOT add any baking soda, baking powder, etc.<br />
<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-4907274382995279692015-03-03T10:00:00.000-05:002015-03-03T10:00:05.720-05:00Mini Blueberry Pancake MuffinsToday's National Pancake Day, so I wanted to make sure you had an easy way to partake in the celebration.<br />
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I used boxed pancake mix for this, partly because that's what we had on hand and partly because this was a fairly spur of the moment idea. Joe's mom usually gives us a box of breakfast stuff every year for Christmas, so we pretty much always have pancake mix in the cabinet. Perfect when you just want to whip some up super quickly. <br />
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These are definitely going on our "make again" list. Joe and I LOVE breakfast for dinner, but it can be awfully time consuming and intensive for just the two of us. We'll sometimes get friends together and cook for them, which doesn't make pancakes/french toast, bacon and home fries any less time consuming, but does make it feel more worth it when you're cooking for five or six people than just for two.<br />
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Awhile ago I saw something online that suggested doing this and mentally filed it away for a rainy day. Or, in this case, a Sunday that included the conversation, "shoot, it's 3pm, what are we making for dinner?". Heather to the rescue! <br />
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<b>Mini Blueberry Pancake Muffins </b><br />
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Grease a 24-count mini muffin tin and set aside.<br />
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Preheat oven to 350°F.<br />
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Mix up 2 cups of your favorite pancake mix. <br />
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Spoon your pancake batter into well-greased mini muffin tins. <br />
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Top with blueberries (or other topping of choice) and bake for 11 minutes. <br />
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Let cool for a couple of minutes and use a sharp knife to help you get them out of the tins. Serve with maple syrup for dipping. <br />
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I got about 36 minis out of 2 cups of batter, which was perfect for just the two of us.<br />
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What are your favorite pancake toppings?Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-85255496207331727352015-02-08T15:46:00.002-05:002015-02-08T15:46:32.858-05:00Bridal Shower CupcakesNo recipe for this one today, folks. Just a nice little story and a few photos.<br />
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My friend Sarah is getting married in March. On Pi day, in fact (that's 3/14/15 if you're wondering). Sarah and I haven't been friends for super long - maybe about a year, give or take. Actually, we met on our wedding planning website, Offbeat Bride (shameless plug). I was on the local forums and she seemed cool, so we became Facebook friends so we wouldn't spam everyone else with our conversations. And then we took a workout class and we got to be real life friends.<br />
<br />Funny how life works sometimes, isn't it?<br />
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She had mentioned her upcoming bridal shower a few times, but I didn't ask if there was anything I could do to help because I didn't want to be the asshole that assumed they were invited when they really aren't.<br />
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Then one day I got an email from one of her bridesmaids, asking me if I could make cupcakes for the party. Alas, there was one little hitch - Sarah has asked that they look like a wedding dress. I said I absolutely could do it, no sweat. Then, I started Googling.<br />
<br />Thankfully, it was actually pretty easy. I just had to make my cupcakes like normal and then arrange them into the shape of a wedding dress. No problem, right? HAHAHAHA. Getting the shape right was about a million times harder than I had anticipated. It got to the point where I was texting OTHER friends photos and asking if it looked the way it was supposed to. One of my suuuuuper helpful friends even went so far as to say "sure... if they were white!" Thanks for that helpful advice, my dear (yeah, I'm looking at you).<br />
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Sarah's colors are blue and silver, but I knew I wanted to leave the frosting white. I ended up getting a silver colored posterboard and a strand of blue adhesive gem thingies at the craft store. The gems were on some flexible backing, so it was easy to shape them around the cupcakes to make it look like a sash. I don't generally bake for complete strangers, so I was a little nervous but totally excited - this was my first real shot at making Elfie's Edibles an actual thing! I definitely shouldn't have been, since everyone told me that they looked and tasted great. For as quickly as they got gobbled up, I'm sure these were real compliments.<br />
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This was super fun and a little time consuming, but totally worth it. Congratulations, Sarah (and Shawn)!<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-90350816394047720652015-01-07T10:00:00.000-05:002015-01-07T10:00:05.745-05:00Holiday Picture Post<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>WARNING: This post is REALLY picture heavy! </b></div>
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Happy new year, guys!<br />
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I apologize for the radio silence the last number of weeks. I've been CRAZY busy in the kitchen! No lie, this past weekend was the first weekend that Joe and I didn't have some time of commitment to attend to, holiday related or otherwise. Other than a few errands, we basically hung around in our PJs all weekend and it was FABULOUS! I'm glad we were able to get that free time, because between my friend's wedding stuff and our own wedding stuff, I think things are about to get hectic for a little while.<br />
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I've been wanting to work on improving my decorating skills, and I figured this holiday season was as good of a time for that as any other. I didn't make too many new recipes; instead, I worked on making some of my current recipes reflective of the holiday season. To that end, there's really not much to blog about - I don't want to share the same recipe with you 47 different ways. Instead, I'll just share some pictures. There may be one or two things missing, but this is more or less everything I made between Thanksgiving and Christmas.<br />
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Thanksgiving isn't complete without pie, but I didn't want to do a regular ol' pie. Lattice top is WAY easier than it looks and my family was blown away.<br />
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While on the phone discussing the Thanksgiving dessert menu with my mom one night, Joe walked into the room and loudly announced that he wanted "Turkey cake". The man didn't elaborate any further, so... I made turkey cake! <br />
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After Thanksgiving, my friend Sarah and her almost-husband Shawn had a party. Naturally, they asked/told/requested that I bring a dessert. That afternoon, I posted on FB that I had made an awesome thing and couldn't wait to show them. When we walked in, Sarah grabbed the pan out of my hands and uncovered it to see what I made. She promptly yelled for Shawn to get in the kitchen and take a look; he immediately summoned everyone else to behold my Christmas brownies. </div>
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I also went to my best friend's house to hang out with her, her son, and their new baby while her husband was at work. She had a few gingerbread kits and her toddler was bursting with excitement to make one with me. He picked the Christmas tree one and this is how it came out!<br />
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In September (October?), my mom gave me part of my Chanukah present really early: a Star of David bundt cake pan and a bunch of Jewish-themed chocolate molds. She said I "didn't have to" make any special desserts for Chanukah, but I am also smart enough to realize that she wouldn't have given it to me so early if she didn't think that would be a fantastic idea.<br />
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We didn't really need that much food or desserts since it was just the 5 of us, but I wanted to use a little bit of everything that she'd given me.<br />
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First up: white, dark and milk chocolate candies! The blue is also white chocolate. I was trying to play around with the stars to make them two tones and the one on the top right corner and the one just below it came out just as I had hoped! I also really like the way the dreidels and circle ones came out.<br />
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One of the molds that my mom got was of the entire Jewish alphabet. Never one content to just leave things as-is, I decided to spell everyone's Jewish name (well, minus Joe since my gentle Gentile doesn't have a Jewish name) in chocolate. A couple of the letters ended up breaking during transport when they got squished between the other candies, but everyone was digging through the little container to see if they could find their letters. This one was the hardest, if only because the molds only had one of each letter and I needed one letter a few times, as you can see below. Other than that, the molds were super fun and really easy to work with, though I do need to get some type of squeeze bottle to make the two-tone thing a little easier.<br />
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Besides my mom's latkes, this one was definitely the superstar of our little Chanukah party. It's a lemon bundt cake with a vanilla drizzle icing. I was a little worried because I'd never made a bundt cake before (in fact, this was attempt #2 because the first one didn't cook all the way through) and I wasn't sure if this was going to be as light and fluffy as I had hoped. YOU GUYS. I'll probably end up doing a separate blog post about it, because everyone loved it. Joe loved it so much that he went out of his way to tell me how incredible it was.... and then he asked me to make it again and/or make it into cupcakes.<br />
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This year, we had multiple Christmas celebrations. On Christmas day, we went to Joe's dad's house for a little bit, then we went to his mom's for dinner and gifts. That Sunday, we went to his aunt's house for the big celebration with all of the extended family. These family gatherings are usually a potluck event of sorts, where the host will make one or two of the main items and then ask for everyone else to bring a salad/side/dessert to make the complete meal. Naturally, I volunteered to make cupcakes. <br />
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These were by far the most time consuming thing I made this holiday season. I mean, the chocolates were time consuming, but I was able to do other things while I had them chilling in the fridge or freezer. These were time full hands-on time consuming. I took a break of about 30 minutes halfway through, but decorating 2 dozen of these took me about 2 hours. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to streamline it any better. That said, seeing the look on the little kid's faces when they saw these? PRICELESS.<br />
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Can you figure out everything that Santa's made out of? <br />
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So - how did I do?<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-91423066867062486602014-11-16T17:01:00.000-05:002014-11-21T07:05:25.480-05:00Coffee CakeI don't know about you, but one of my favorite parts about the weekend is the laziness that comes along with the free time. Even if you have plans - and I know this time of year, we ALL have weekend plans - it seems like everything's a lot more fluid than it is during the week.<br />
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During the week, my mornings aren't rushed per se - I intentionally wake up super early to give myself plenty of time to prevent that - but they're definitely regimented. I wake up at the same time, my workouts are always between 30-50 minutes. I have breakfast at just about the same time every morning and leave the house at the same time, too. Like I said, not rushed, but definitely structured.<br />
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Morning breakfast is usually fairly quick - a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, sometimes a bagel, always a cup of coffee. If I'm lucky, I get to read 10-15 pages of whatever book I'm currently reading; sometimes, I do some light housework - a quick load of dishes, or sweeping; sometimes, I have to sit down and pay some bills.<br />
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On weekends, I love having a long, leisurely breakfast, where I can relax with my book and soak up two (!) cups of coffee. Every since I was a kid, coffee cake has been one of my favorite treats. For me, it's pretty much everything I want in a "treat" style breakfast. The topping is cinnamon-y and full of flavor; the cake is fluffy but flavorful, it's filling and delicious.<br />
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I don't even know where I found this recipe, but I was so excited when I stumbled on it. I did have to make a few changes, which you'll see below. I didn't have cake flour, so I had to do some substituting with all-purpose flour and cornstarch. I've never use cake flour before and never had homemade coffee cake, so while I can't speak for how this compares, I know that both Joe and I were thrilled with how this came out. Joe's already asked me to make it again and he told me it's better than the store bought stuff, so I'm counting this one as a total win. <br />
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The streusel topping that the original recipe called gave me a TON left over. The recipe below is the halved version so you won't end up with leftovers. I stuck mine in the freezer and I'm thinking that it'll go perfectly on some muffins or an apple crumb pie. <br />
<br />
If you're looking for something special to bring to a holiday potluck or you want to make something special but quick for breakfast on Christmas morning, I think this is precisely what you're looking for. If you want to save time, you can definitely make this head of time, too. It's delicious straight out of the pan, but you can also pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it back up, which will also give your kitchen that freshly-baked smell.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>Coffee Cake</b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For the Cake</i>:<br />
1 1/4 c. cake flour*<br />
1/2 c. granulated sugar<br />
1/4 tsp. baking soda<br />
6 Tbsp butter, divided, softened but still cool<br />
1 large egg<br />
1 large egg yolk<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
1/3 c. buttermilk<br />
<br />
*If you don't have cake flour, this is a substitution:<br />
<br />
For 1 cup cake flour: <br />
1 c. all purpose flour<br />
- 2 Tbsp flour<br />
+ 2 Tbsp cornstarch<br />
<br />
For 1/4 c. cake flour:<br />
Using a standard 1/4 size measuring cup, add 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch. Fill the remaining amount with all purpose flour. <br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For the topping:</i><br />
2 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar<br />
2 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar<br />
1/4 tsp cinnamon<br />
4 Tbsp melted butter, melted and still warm<br />
3/4 c. cake flour*<br />
<br />
*If you don't have cake flour, this is a substitution:<br />
<br />
For 1/4 c. cake flour:<br />
Using a standard 1/4 size measuring cup, add 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch. Fill the remaining amount with all purpose flour. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>To make the topping:</b><br />
In a medium sized bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon and butter. Add flour and stir until mixture is crumbly with a thickness like cookie dough. Set aside to cool to room temperature while you make the cake.<br />
<br />
<b>To make the cake:</b><br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease an 8" square cake pan and set aside.<br />
<br />
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add the butter, one piece at a time. Continue beating until the mixture looks like wet sand, with no visible butter chunks remaining. Add egg, yolk, vanilla and buttermilk; beat until light and fluffy.<br />
<br />
Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle topping evenly over cake. Bake until the crumb topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. Store tightly covered for about 5 days.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-55123081920006386942014-07-07T19:58:00.000-04:002014-07-07T19:58:27.355-04:00Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip CookiesThese are certainly not new to the internet, but they're to my kitchen and my mouth.<br />
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<br />
As for what they are: a little slice of heaven on earth.<br />
<br />
No, that's not quite right. Well, it is, but that doesn't help you. It's really like your two favorite cookies got together and had a baby.<br />
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<br />
Make chocolate chip cookies. Put oreo inside. Pour glass of milk. Enjoy.<br />
<br />
I've seen this online before and passed them by, assuming that they were difficult and time consuming to make. They're not. Well, they are a little time consuming, but only by a few minutes compared to regular chocolate chip cookies.<br />
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I used my normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, then added about an extra cup of flour so the dough would be a little stiffer and more likely to do what I wanted it to do. You can use double stuff or regular Oreos for these - whatever your little heart desires. I made most of mine with regular but threw in a few double stuff for a surprise.<br />
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<br />
You're basically using two chocolate chip cookies for every one Oreo stuffed cookie, so you'll only get about 24 cookies or so out of this recipe. The thing is, you really only need to eat one, since it's kind of the equivalent of eating three cookies at once. Joe thought these were a little too sweet, but my brother, friends, 2 year old nephew and a coworker thought they were perfect (okay, so my nephew didn't *quite* know what to make of these bad boys, but he was still interested). If you're debating about which cookies to use, I would suggest the regular Oreos. The reason here is simple: this cookies are HUGE. It's easier to eat and enjoy when you can actually get it in your mouth to take a bite... and when you can dunk it in a nice glass of cold milk. Mmmm.<br />
<br />
Have I sold you yet? Go make some right now!<br />
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<b><br /></b>
<b>Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies</b><br />
<br />
2 sticks butter, room temperatue<br />
2 eggs<br />
1 tsp. baking soda<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
3/4 c. brown sugar<br />
3/4 c. granulated sugar<br />
3 1/2 c. flour<br />
2 c. chocolate chips<br />
approx. 24 Oreo sandwich cookies<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F.<br />
<br />
In a large bowl, combine butter, eggs, baking soda and sugars. Mix in flour, one cup at a time. Fold in chocolate chips.<br />
<br />
Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, place one scoop of cookie dough in the palm of your hand and lightly flatten. Place one Oreo cookie on top. Place a second scoop of cookie dough on top of Oreo; use your hands to mold the cookie dough around the Oreo. Repeat for remaining dough and cookies.<br />
<br />
Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (you can pack them a little tighter if needed as they don't expand too much). Bake for 10 minutes until very lightly golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes, them transfer to wire rack to cool completely.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-13425056680286796662014-06-14T19:51:00.000-04:002014-06-14T19:51:23.972-04:00Watermelon Slice CookiesYOU GUYS.<br />
<br />
I don't even know what to say about these cookies. Really. I should probably just let the pictures speak for themselves.<br />
<br />
These are little butter cookies. Not just any butter cookies, though. No. These ones look like watermelons.<br />
<br />
WATERMELONS.<br />
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<br />
But they're cookies.<br />
<br />
And, they're awesome.<br />
<br />
I brought them to a family cookout and the little kids could not. stop. eating them. Sometimes I don't know where to put things at family parties, so I just put my dessert on the table and walk away, knowing that somebody else will know the right place for it to be. This time around, about 5 minutes after I walked away, one of Joe's little cousins saw the cookies and asked her mom if she could have some. When desserts finally came out, she kept running over to get a couple at a time. OK, so then she turned to the brownies and chocolate chip cookies - smart girl.<br />
<br />
Actually, Joe liked these too. Which, actually is hilarious. Here, let me give you a mental image so that you can enjoy, too: Joe has a big beard and looks like he's a real tough guy. Got a good picture? Ok, now imagine that guy eating a handful of these: <br />
<br />
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Seriously, though. These cookies are awesome.<br />
<br />
They're time consuming, but really easy. Most of the time, the dough is in the fridge or freezer and you're just waiting for it to firm up a little bit so you can work with it without making a mess or getting the colors mixed up.<br />
<br />
The log gets misshapen everytime you slice a cookie, so make sure to keep rolling it so that it stays somewhat round. It doesn't have to perfect, because you're going to slice the cookies in half once they come out of the oven, anyway. Do this part immediately so that you get a nice, clean cut. You might also want to sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top of these before you bake them. I didn't do this, but I think it would add a nice touch and a little extra flavor. The sugar crystals would help them look like glistening, juicy watermelon slices.<br />
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<br />
Man, watermelon's my favorite.<br />
<br />
I left these cooling on the counter while I went to the dollar store to find something to put them in to bring them to said cookout. When I got home and saw these cuties sitting on the counter, I squealed with delight. The only bummer is that I forgot to set some cookies aside for me and I forgot to bring them home when we left the cookout. <br />
<br />
I mentioned making these to Joe again and he's going to see about getting me some watermelon extract (Google and Amazon say this exists - anyone ever tried it?) so that they can look AND taste like watermelons. <br />
<br />
What's the last food you made that looked like a different food?<br />
<br />
<b>Watermelon Slice Cookies</b><br />
<br />
3/4 cup butter, softened<br />
3/4 cup sugar<br />
1 egg<em id="__mceDel"><br />
</em>1 teaspoon vanilla<br />
2 cups flour<br />
1/4 teaspoon baking powder<br />
red and green food coloring<b> </b><br />
mini chocolate chips (I did not measure these - maybe about 2-3 Tbsp)<br />
<br />
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in egg and vanilla. Add baking powder and flour and
beat well. Measure out 1 cup of dough and set aside<br />
<br />
Tint remaining dough red and shape it into a roll approximately 3 1/2 inches long. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put in freezer to firm up - about 10-15 minutes.<br />
<br />
With the 1 cup of dough that you set aside, tint 1/3 of it green. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in fridge or freezer until firm. The 2/3 of the
remaining dough will be left its natural color. Wrap in plastic wrap
and put in fridge until firm.<br />
<br />
On a lightly floured
surface, roll the plain dough into a rectangle, approximately 3 1/2
inches by 8 inches. Unwrap the chilled red dough and roll it up into the
plain dough. Make sure you wrap it snuggly. Roll it around on the
counter to seal the two layers together. Wrap back up and freeze
until firm.<br />
<br />
On a lightly floured
surface, roll the green dough into a 3 1/2 inch by 9 inch rectangle.
Roll the chilled dough up snuggly in the green dough. Roll to seal the
layers together. Wrap back up in plastic wrap and chill in freezer
until firm.<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F. Unwrap dough and cut into slices about 1/4" thick. Every few slices, roll dough so that it doesn't get too out of round. Place cookie slices on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press mini
chocolate chips into the red part of each cookie slice, pointy side down.<br />
<br />
Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until firm. Remove from oven and immediately cut cookies in half while hot. I used a small paring knife. Let cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-85055849333549362662014-05-18T09:35:00.001-04:002014-05-18T09:35:39.989-04:00One Banana CakeOne of my guilty pleasures is frosted banana cake. It's one of those pre-packaged cakes that you can buy at the store. I don't want to say the name, but it's white with blue script. There are a few problems with loving this frosted banana cake. For one, when I can find it, it's super expensive. Notice how I said "when I can find it"? Yeah, it's basically impossible to find. I think it's one of those flavors that they only have for a "limited time" and then they bring it back for awhile just to put it in hiding, etc.<br />
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<br />
LAME.<br />
<br />
For awhile now, I've been trying to recreate it. The problem is that it's pretty tricky because I have NO IDEA how they flavor the frosting. The frosting is part chocolate, part banana-ish but not really banana. Probably it's fake banana flavor and that's why I can't recreate it. Instead of trying to recreate the wheel, I thought that I could put the same flavors into something uniquely my own.<br />
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But, as we all know, the only time you can actually eat all of the bananas before they start to go brown is when you're planning to use them. Plus, Joe gave me an awesome tip for helping to slow down the ripening process: put something over the top part of the bananas where they all connect! You can use plastic wrap, but I used foil since that was all I had. It worked great - they didn't start browning until after I started eating them, and I just re-tightened the foil every time I took a banana. Obviously, it's not totally preventative, but it will at least get your bananas to make it through the week so you can eat them!<br />
<br />Last week, I found myself with one lonely, measly banana left on the counter. It was brown and squishy - perfect for baking. But, I didn't want banana bread or cupcakes and I didn't really feel like making cookies. So, I decided to try to make a banana cake.<br />
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You guys. It came out perfectly! The chunks of chocolate were slightly melty and soft and offered a nice contrast to the bananas and cake. It could have used more banana to increase that flavor a little bit, but hey - I had to work with what I had! I just finished the last <strike>4</strike> few small slices, and they are perfect with a cup of coffee on a quiet Sunday morning.<br />
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<b>Banana Cake</b><br />
<br />
1 c. flour<br />
1 tsp. baking powder<br />
1/4 c. butter, room temperature<br />
1/3 c. granulated sugar<br />
1/3 c. brown sugar<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
1 banana, mashed<br />
1 egg<br />
1 c. chocolate chips<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8" x 8" cake pan and set aside.<br />
<br />
In a medium bowl, beat butter, sugars and vanilla until creamy. Add banana and eggs. Stir in flour and baking powder until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.<br />
<br />
Bake 20 minutes, until top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Top will be slightly moist when pressed. Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting. <br />
<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-35838972197019489442014-05-11T08:55:00.000-04:002014-05-11T08:55:26.438-04:00Raspberry Lemon Quick BreadAs the weather (finally!) start to get warmer, I like it when my flavors get bolder and pack a bigger punch. Bonus points if they reflect seasonal tastes, like this raspberry lemon quick bread.<br />
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I like quick bread recipes because they're a cinch to throw together and if you decide you want muffins at the last minute instead, no big deal! <br />
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This bread is full of raspberries and complimented by a bright lemony flavor throughout. I used lemon juice and lemon zest in the topping and in the dough recipe, so it's a really bright and sunny flavor - it kind of reminds me of raspberry lemonade.<br />
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I used frozen raspberries because that's what I had on hand when I decided to make this. If you decide to use frozen, you'll want to let them thaw about halfway - all the way thawed and they're a little soggy, too frozen and they'll make the dough too wet when they cook. I threw them in the batter with their juice to get a little more of the raspberry flavor throughout, but you can drain them too if you prefer. The batter was a little bit pink when mixing it, but it didn't affect the final outcome. Like most things, though, fresh berries are probably best - rinse them well and carefully pat dry. The batter is dense, so you shouldn't have to worry about them sinking. <br />
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The topping gets really nice and crunchy, adding a contrasting texture to the bread that's surprisingly delicious. My bread fell apart a little bit when I was slicing it, partly because it was still warm (I was impatient) and also because the topping made the top of the bread heavier than the rest. <br />
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The topping recipe below is half of what I actually used, which should resolve any issues. You'll want to make sure the bread is completely cooled before you try to flip it out of the pan and the sharper your knife when you slice, the better. I realized while I was cutting this that we don't have any type of bread knife in this house - weird, I know. <br />
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I've still not gotten one, but I think I can pretty easily get one at the dollar store or something. If your not serving the bread right away and you don't want to deal with the mess, feel free to leave it in the pan. Just make sure to cover it tightly so it doesn't get stale. Although... I bet leaving this out to harden for a day or so would make an incredible french toast! Mmm.<br />
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Normally, this is where I would tell you what other people think. Alas, I couldn't tell you, because I didn't share! *I* thought it was delicious though, and my fiance seemed to enjoy the one or two bites that I let him have, so I think that's good enough :) <br />
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<b>Raspberry Lemon Bread</b><br />
<br />
<i>For the bread:</i><br />
2 c. flour<br />
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder<br />
1 stick butter, room temperature<br />
1 c. sugar<br />
2 eggs<br />
1/2 c. full fat sour cream<br />
juice from half of a lemon<br />
2 c. raspberries<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For the topping:</i><br />
2 Tbsp. flour<br />
2 Tbsp sugar<br />
1 Tbsp. rolled oats<br />
1 Tbsp butter<br />
zest of 1 lemon<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.<br />
<br />
In a medium sized bowl, combine butter and sugar. Add eggs on at a time, beating well after each one.<br />
<br />Add the flour, baking powder and sour cream. Mix until everything is incorporated.<br />
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Carefully fold in raspberries. Be careful not to overstir.<br />
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Scoop batter into prepared pan, gently evening it out with the back of a spoon.<br />
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To make the topping, combine flour, sugar, oats and lemon zest in a small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of the bread before baking.<br />
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Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The oats will be toasted and golden. <br />
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My favorite way to eat this was with a cup of coffee, listening to the birdies chirp away. What's your favorite springtime recipe?<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-82999582568415796532014-04-13T07:54:00.001-04:002014-04-13T07:54:39.959-04:00Kosher for Passover: Chocolate Chip CookiesPassover is literally hours away, and I started cooking some things yesterday. I've probably mentioned this before, but now that I have a real grown up job, it's difficult for me to bake and cook during the week, so I try to do what I can over the weekend.<br />
<br />
If you're anything like me and my family, you find that the hardest part about Passover is <i>noshing</i>, or finding a good snack. Sure, I have 2 containers of macaroons in the closet, and yeah, they're alright, but after a few days of them? Bo-ring! The only problem is that those box mixes or pre-packaged things are equally pretty terrible. Sometimes, the flavor is there, but man, they're so dry!<br />
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I cobbled this recipe after finding some online that had things about them I didn't like or couldn't use. Like flour. Since I'm writing this on Sunday morning, my family has yet to try them. However, I ate a few yesterday - quality control and all that - and I was pleasantly surprised. While they don't quite taste or behave like your normal cookies, these are the best tasting Passover cookies I've ever had.<br />
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Let me say that again, just so we can be clear: do NOT compare these to your favorite, everyday chocolate chip cookie recipe. If you compare them to that recipe, they will fall far short of your expectations.<br />
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However, if you look at these compared to other Passover treats, you will be pleasantly surprised. Yes, you can still taste the matzah, but for me, it's more of a muted, nutty flavor than an actual matzah flavor. I made some of these as chocolate chip cookies and some as double chocolate chip cookies, and while the flavor is a bit more muted in the double chocolate, you will not get rid of it altogether. Frankly, I gave up trying to hide the matzah flavor years ago. I don't really mind the taste of matzah, so why hide it when I can embrace it instead?<br />
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These aren't going to bake up or behave quite like your regular cookies, either. You can fit more of these on a pan because they don't really spread out. I used my cookie scoop, and they pretty much just stayed in that round ball shape. To remedy this, I just gently tapped them with the bottom of a glass. You can do this before or after they come out of the oven. Out of the oven is a little easier, though you may want to grease the glass a little bit just to make sure you don't lose any good chocolate chips.<br />
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Also, if you don't have molasses in your cabinet, no big deal. You can substitute the granulated sugar + molasses combination for the same amount of brown sugar (in this case, 1 1/2 cups). The flavor will be the same, but I found that the molasses gave the cookies some extra moisture that was lacking when I used just brown sugar. If your family prefers nuts in their cookies - go ahead and add those too! The great part about this is that it's pretty customizable to whatever tastes and flavors you prefer.<br />
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I am sure my family will enjoy these, and I hope your family does, too. Chag Sameach!<br />
<br />
<b>Kosher for Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies</b><br />
<br />
2 sticks butter, room temperature<br />
2 Tbsp honey<br />
2 tsp vanilla extract<br />
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar<br />
3 Tbsp molasses<br />
2 eggs <br />
1 1/2 c. matzah cake meal<br />
1/4 c. matzah meal<br />
10 oz. bag (2 cups) kosher for Passover chocolate chips<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheets and set aside.<br />
<br />
In a large bowl, combine butter, honey, vanilla, sugar and molasses until smooth and creamy.<br />
<br />
Stir in the eggs and mix well.<br />
<br />
Add cake meal and matzah meal; stir until combined.<br />
<br />
Fold in chocolate chips.<br />
<br />
Drop by rounded teaspoon onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set and tops are lightly browned. Remove from oven and gently tap cookies with the bottom of a glass to round them out. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.<br />
<br />Pour a tall glass of milk and enjoy!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-46671343652435360682014-02-06T14:30:00.000-05:002014-02-06T14:30:01.714-05:00Football BrowniesThe last time I shared this recipe with you, I took out the chocolate chips and threw in huge chunks of peanut butter cups to make some incredible <a href="http://elfiesedibles.blogspot.com/2013/03/peanut-butter-cup-brownies.html" target="_blank">peanut butter brownies</a>.<br />
<br />
For Superbowl Sunday, I nixed the chocolate chips altogether and turned the brownies into footballs! This was actually really easy. Mix everything up as noted in the recipe, but instead of putting it in a regular 9 x 13 pan, I baked them on a foil lined cookie sheet. I didn't actually measure it, but it was the biggest one I had - probably about 15 x 10 x 1 or thereabouts. Obviously the bake time gets reduced too. I baked mine for 12 minutes and they came out perfect. There were a couple of crispy edges that I couldn't use for this particular project, but I have my brownie scraps in a ziplock bag and I have something in store for them this weekend.<br />
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After the brownies come out of the oven, let them cool in the pan for a little while. Once cool to the touch but still a little warm (you don't want to burn yourself!), slowly and carefully lift the foil out of the pan and transfer to a wire cooling rack (or two) and let cool completely.<br />
<br />From there, I slid the racks out from underneath the brownies. I pulled the foil away from the edges and started cutting away with my cookie cutter. I cut the brownies really close to each other so I could get as many as possible. I ended up with 20 brownies, though this amount will really depend on how big your cookie cutter is and what size pan you end up using. The brownies are really fudgy in the middle, so I found that I had to cut a couple of times to get them to pull away enough for me to be able to separate my little footballs from the scraps. With a little patience though, this was no big deal at all.<br />
<br />
I transferred the football shapes back to the cooling rack and let them hang out for a little while. They were already cooled off and ready for frosting, but since these are really fudgy, I wanted to let the tops harden a little bit more first to make sure I had a smooth surface for decorating.<br />
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<br />
I had originally wanted to use marshmallow fluff for the decorating, and if you look closely, you'll notice that some of the decorations are brighter and whiter than the others - those are the ones that had fluff. Unfortunately, this was only a great idea in theory and not in practice, as the fluff was way harder to work with than I was anticipating. I also wasn't working with a "fresh" jar, so the fact that it had already been opened may have impacted the squeezability of it when I was trying to pipe it on.<br />
<br />
Instead, I decided to just make a simple confectioner's sugar glaze. I knew I didn't need much, and even though it thickens up the longer it sits, I knew I wanted it to be a little bit thicker to start with. I looked online to get some ratios (I am pretty terrible at math and can figure it out the relationships once I see the amounts/ingredients, but have a difficult time doing it by myself), then decided I was all in.<br />
<br />
We had friends over while I was putting the finishing touches on these, and as soon as I was done and everything was cleaned up, I pretty much ordered the boys into the kitchen so they could take a look at my handwork. It was only seconds before they started asking when they could eat them. At the end of the night, there were only a few left.<br />
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<br />
Score! <br />
<br />
<b>Football Brownies</b><br />
<br />
3/4 c. Hershey's unsweetened cocoa<br />1/2 tsp. baking soda<br />2/3 c. butter, melted and divided<br />1/2 c. boiling water<br />2 c. sugar<br />2 eggs<br />1 1/3 c. flour<br />1 tsp. vanilla extract<br /><br />Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 15" x 10" x 1" cookie sheet with aluminum foil, leaving overhang. Grease the corners and sides.<br /><br />In
a large bowl, combine cocoa, baking soda and 1/3 cup butter. Add
boiling water and stir until mixture thickens. Mix in sugar, eggs and
remaining 1/3 cup butter; stir until smooth. Add flour and vanilla and
stir until thoroughly combined. Evenly pour batter into prepared pan.<br /><br />Bake 10-12 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. <br />
<br />Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then carefully transfer foil to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a football shaped cookie cutter, cut out football shapes. Decorate with icing.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<b>Simple Sugar Glaze</b><br />
<br />
4 Tbsp confectioner's sugar<br />
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
2 tsp. milk<br />
<br />
<br />
In a small bowl, combine sugar and vanilla. Mix in milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired thickness is reached. Carefully transfer to a piping bag or a zip-top bag with a small hole cut in the corner and decorate brownies as desired.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-33359593373110993842014-01-25T14:00:00.000-05:002014-01-25T14:00:02.767-05:00Elvis Phyllo CupsThis recipe is really delicious and SO easy to make. My brother found it in the newspaper a few Sundays ago and called me up to tell me about it. He was SUPER excited that I immediately knew where he was going with this:<br />
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<br />Me: do you want to make it together?<br />
Josh: yes that would be so awesome!<br />
Me: ok, I'll get the few things that we need, check your work schedule and let me know when you can come over.<br />
<br />
You wanna know what I had to purchase? A banana and some phyllo cups. Oh, and I bought more peanut butter, mostly because I wasn't sure how much we had left and it was on sale when I was at the store. That's it.<br />
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<br />
At the store, I couldn't find the pre-made phyllo cups, but I was able to find phyllo dough which ended up being a better deal for me. For probably the same price as what the cups would have cost, I was able to make them myself and now I have a ton of phyllo dough sheets left over. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but that's another story. Actually, I'd love to try making baklava, but I think I'm the only person I know who eats it, so that's probably out.<br />
<br />
I googled the crap out of it, but making the cups was super easy! You have to work quickly but carefully to make sure the dough doesn't rip or get dried out, but it's pretty much impossible to ruin them.<br />
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<br />
As for preparing the "Elvis" part of these? It was easy. Easier for me, because I had Josh do it while I supervised. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we've been giving him cooking lessons so that when he doesn't have to survive on pizza delivery and McDonalds... or that if he does, it's by his own choice, not because he doesn't know what to do in the kitchen. We've taught him fairly basic things so far: mashed potatoes, chop suey, shepherd's pie, cheeseburgers, pork chops, kielbasa. He and I haven't gotten to do much baking, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to help him read a recipe and put it all together. I did make the cups ahead of time, but that's because I was planning on it being a lot more complicated than it really was.<br />
<br />
The banana makes the cups soggy if they hang out for too long, so put them together right before you plan to serve.<br />
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<br />
For real, though, these little cups have everything you'd want in one little bite-sized dessert: crunchy, salty, sweet. No wonder Elvis loved this combination!<br />
<br />
Elvis Phyllo Cups<br />
<br />
15 phyllo cups, pre-baked and cooled*<br />
<br />
1/3 c. peanut butter<br />
2 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar<br />
1 tsp. vanilla<br />
1 banana, sliced<br />
3 slices of bacon, cooked and cooled<br />
<br />
*I was unable to find frozen phyllo cups at the grocery store, but I was able to find sheets of phyllo dough.<br />
<br />
To make the cups:<br />
4-5 sheets of phyllo dough<br />
2 Tbsp melted butter<br />
sugar<br />
<br />
Lightly grease a muffin tin and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.<br />
<br />
Cover your work surface with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Lay down one sheet of phyllo dough. Lightly brush the sheet with a little bit of the melted butter. Dust a little bit of sugar on top of the melted butter. Top with a second sheet of phyllo dough.<br />
<br />Repeat until you have a stack of 4 or 5 sheets of phyllo dough. Using a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), cut the sheets into squares that are slightly bigger than the muffin cavities. Press each little stack of phyllo dough into the muffin tins.<br />
<br />
Bake for 5-7 minutes, until lightly browned. Babysit them, as they will cook quickly.<br />
<br />
Remove from oven and let cool.<br />
<br />
In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla.<br />
<br />
Place 1 slice of banana into the bottom of each phyllo cup. Top the banana slice with 2 tsp. of the PB mixture and garnish with a chunk of bacon.<br />
<br />Serve immediately.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-43539231946493648942014-01-21T14:30:00.000-05:002014-01-21T14:30:01.227-05:00Triple Chocolate Chip CookiesBy now, it should be a well known fact that I'm a chocoholic. If it's got chocolate, I'm interested. At the same time, Joe is pretty much the human version of Cookie Monster.<br />
<br />
So, what do you when you're craving something seriously chocolatey and you know that your future husband would like something in cookie form?<br />
<br />
Make these babies.<br />
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<br />
Chocolate cookies with semi-sweet, white chocolate and dark chocolate chips. Go ahead and pour yourself a tall glass of (chocolate) milk to go with them - you'll need it. YUM.<br />
<br />
I told Joe that I only made a half batch of these because I wasn't sure if he would like them (turns out there is such a thing as "too chocolatey"), but I really only made a half batch because I knew I would literally inhale these. It's too bad, because now I wish I had more.<br />
<br />
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Guess I'll have to make some!<br />
<br />
<b>Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies</b><br />
<br />
1 stick butter, room temperature<br />
1/2 cup sugar<br />
1/2 cup brown sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
1 tsp vanilla extract<br />
1 tsp baking soda<br />
1/4 tsp salt<br />
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder<br />
1 1/2 c. flour<br />
1/2 c. white chocolate chips<br />
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips<br />
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease cookie sheets and set aside.<br />
<br />
Combine
all ingredients except for flour and chocolate chips. Mix in flour until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.<br />
<br />
Drop by rounded teaspoon onto cookie sheets (I used a cookie scoop that makes cookies 2"-3" diameter).
Bake for 9 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes on cookie
sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-84649539065128967782014-01-18T11:30:00.000-05:002014-01-18T11:30:01.235-05:00Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip CookiesI'm sure I've mentioned my love/hate relationship with bananas before. Mostly, I just have trouble eating them before they go bad. In theory, this is no big deal, because I love turning my rotten bannas into something else. In practice, though, it's kind of annoying, because I never know what else to make besides banana bread. And, while I LOVE banana bread, there are only so many variations you can make of it before that gets boring, too.<br />
<br />
These cookies are a mouthful... literally. I've made these a few times and every time, I try to think of an easier name for them, but I keep drawing a blank. The name is a lot to say, but they're so easy to make that it's definitely worth it. I'm pretty sure that my brother has eaten an entire container of these by himself without thinking twice about it.<br />
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<br />
For me, these cookies are perfect as a snack, but I've been known to have a few (or maybe 5 or 6) for breakfast. I'm probably just deluding myself into thinking that the oatmeal makes these way healthier than they are, but all things considered, I'm pretty sure these are pretty decent. I mean, oatmeal's good for you!<br />
<br />
What helps me feel better about it, right?<br />
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<br />
The awesome part about this recipe is that you can pretty much make any substitutions you want and you'll still get something delicious. I normally use regular all-purpose flour and old-fashioned oats, but I've also made these with whole wheat flour and quick oats. Making it this way, you get a little bit of a wetter batter, but no discernible taste difference. I also like to substitute dark chocolate chunks or chips instead of semisweet chips. While they taste good, I find that the dark chocolate tends to mask or overpower the banana flavor. Nest time, I might do a combination of dark chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips and see what happens.<br />
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<br />
You'll notice that the cook time on these is a little bit longer than the cook time on pretty much any other cookie I make. The banana makes these cookies really moist which does two things: first, it means they can hang around for a little longer before they're get too dry and stale. Second, it means you end up with a really wet batter that takes a little longer to cook! Fret not, though, because even though you're cooking them for about 10 minutes, you still get a really moist and chewy cookie with a TON of banana and chocolatey flavor.<br />
<br />
What's your favorite thing to make with bananas?<br />
<br />
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<b>Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies</b><br />
1 1/2 stick butter, softened<br />
1 1/2 ripe bananas<br />
1/2 tsp. baking soda<br />
1/2 c. granulated sugar<br />
1/2 c. brown sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
1 c. flour<br />
2 c. old fashioned oats<br />
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips.<br />
<br />
Combine
all ingredients except flour, oats and chocolate chips. Stir in the
flour, then the oats, then the chocolate chips. Batter will be wet.<br />
<br />
Drop by rounded teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet.<br />
<br />
Bake
at 375°F for 10 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are dry. Let
cool on cookie sheets for two minutes, then transfer to wire rack to
cool completely.<br />
<br />
Try not to eat them all in the meantime!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-91094177048824853162014-01-14T13:00:00.000-05:002014-01-14T13:00:02.295-05:00Oatmeal Cream PiesWhen I first met Joe, I'm pretty sure the only reason he was still alive was because of Little Debbie, but especially because of her oatmeal cream pies.<br />
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<br />
For years, I've been looking for recipes and trying to figure out a way to reproduce these things. If you're not familiar with them, oatmeal cream pies are two soft-baked oatmeal cookies with a light, marshmallow frosting in the middle. I'm not positive, but I suspect the secret ingredient might be crack or something other addictive substance, because they are THAT good.<br />
<br />
The thing is, I knew I could make them better and more delicious. And, perhaps, a tiny bit healthier, with ingredients that I knew how to pronounce and knew where they came from and/or how they came to be in my kitchen.<br />
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And, then, one day, like manna from heaven, I stumbled on a recipe. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but you can adjust it to your liking. We had one of our couple friends over for dinner, and the boyfriend was so excited when he saw the photo on Facebook. We're trying to make a date to hang out again, and he suggested a dinner party - while it sounds like a great idea, I think he just wants me to make more of these!<br />
<br />
I used my cookie scoop for these because I wanted to make sure that they were all the same size - easier to make sandwiches that way! Don't pack these cookies too tight when you bake them, because they will definitely spread out a little bit. If it helps, mine were about 3 inches in diameter - about the same size as the store bought ones. You'll also want to make sure you store these in an airtight container. Mine were in an airtight container, and I'm not sure if it's because someone didn't close it right or just the nature of the recipe, but the marshmallow-like filling got a little hard around the edges. It's not enough to discourage eating them, but is something to be aware of.<br />
<br />
I had been looking for a recipe like this for so long that I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised - these were SO good and pretty addicting. You probably have everything you need to make them, (well, maybe not the oatmeal), making them much cheaper than the kind you buy at the store. Winning!<br />
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<b><br /></b>
<b>Oatmeal Cream Pies</b><br />
<br />
<i>For the cookies:</i><br />
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature<br />
3/4 c. brown sugar<br />
1/2 c. sugar<br />
2 eggs<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
1 Tbsp maple syrup<br />
1 3/4 c. flour<br />
1 tsp. baking soda<br />
1 tsp. cinnamon<br />
1 1/2 c. quick cooking oats<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F and grease cookie sheets; set aside.<br />
<br />
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and cinnamon. <br />
<br />
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, syrup and vanilla and beat until incorporated.<br />
<br />
Gradually add the flour mixture into the bitter; mix just until incorporated. Stir in oats until evenly distributed. Cover bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.<br />
<br />
Remove dough from refrigerator. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until the edges are browned and middles are mostly set. Let cool on baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.<br />
<br />
<i>For the filling:</i><br />
2 egg whites<br />
1/2 c. sugar<br />
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar<br />
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
<br />
In a double boiler, add egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar; heat over simmering water (I used a glass pyrex bowl set inside of a small saucepan filled with enough water to touch the bottom of the bowl). Whisking frequently, heat until egg whites become frothy and sugar is dissolved, approx. 160°F. Carefully add egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for several minutes, until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold in the vanilla. (*Note: I couldn't find my candy thermometer, so I just kept mine on the double boiler the entire time. Doing it this way, I was still able to get a fluffy and marshmallow-y frosting.)<br />
<br />
Add frosting to the bottom of one cookie and top with a second cookie.<i><br /></i>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-132842432259994222014-01-11T14:00:00.000-05:002014-01-11T14:00:00.016-05:00Bacon Wrapped Potatoes with Spicy Sour Cream SauceI wasn't going to post about these so soon, but I figured I should share at least one Superbowl recipe with you guys.<br />
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I saw the picture on pinterest, but it didn't actually lead to a recipe. So.. I made it up. Wrapping the potatoes in bacon was a little bit more time consuming than I had anticipated, so you'll want to leave yourself plenty of time. Also, you kind of do want to pay attention to your potato pieces and make sure they're all about the same size. I just guessed as I went and found myself having to trim a few as I was wrapping them with bacon. Honestly, you'll probably just want to make them smaller than what you think you should. Trimming some wasn't a big deal for the small amount that I made, but if you're planning on feeding a larger crowd, it's probably better to make sure they're the right size the first time.<br />
<br />
Cooking the potatoes for this is a little tricky, too. You want to the water to boil so that the potatoes cook, but you DO NOT want the potatoes cooked all the way through - if they're too mushy, they'll fall apart when you try to do the next steps! I am not too sure how to describe the softness that you're looking for - fork tender, I guess. You should be able to spear the potatoes with a fork without them falling off.<br />
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Once you drain them, make sure you rinse them with cold water to cool them off a little! This will help slow down the cooking process, but it's also practical so you don't burn your hands! I found it easier to cut the bacon into thirds as I went, so I didn't cut more than I needed, but the total amount of bacon depends on the number of people you're feeding. As with all bacon stuff, make sure you drain on these on paper towels before you serve them - I found that some of the grease got trapped in between the bacon piece and the potato.<br />
<br />
The sauce was so easy and so great. I only added 1 1/2 tsp. of hot sauce to mine, because Joe doesn't like things that are too hot. The sour cream does cool it down quite a bit, though, so you should be able to spice it up a good amount without burning the mouths of too many people. For me, I would have definitely made it hotter, but sometimes, you've just gotta go with what the crowd wants and likes. For game day, I think I'm going to chop up some chives or green onions and mix it in with the sour cream sauce so it really tastes like a little baked potato. Man, I'm drooling just thinking about it!<br />
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<br />
The reaction to these was off the hook! I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I love baked potatoes and I felt like these would taste pretty similar. When the boys saw me take these out of the oven, they got so excited when they realized what they were about to eat. When I presented the plate to them, they practically knocked me over in their quest to eat snacks. Between the three of us, we devoured this plate in just a few minutes.<br />
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<br />
The recipe below makes about 3 dozen bites - increase accordingly based on your needs! If you try this one, please let me know what you think!<br />
<br />
What are some of your favorite Superbowl/party foods?<br />
<br />
<b>Bacon Wrapped Potatoes with Spicy Sour Cream Sauce</b><br />
3-4 potatoes<br />
1 Tbsp oil<br />
1 tsp. salt <br />
garlic powder*<br />
onion salt*<br />
ground peppercorn*<br />
smoked salt*<br />
cajun seasoning*<br />
6 slices bacon<br />
4 oz. sour cream<br />
1 1/2 tsp. hot sauce<br />
<br />
*all spices are to taste. these are what I used, but you can use whatever you like!<br />
<br />
Peel potatoes and dice into about 1" cubes, keeping the pieces about the same size (it's okay if they're not the same shape).<br />
<br />
Put the potatoes in a medium pot, cover with cold water, season with salt and bring to
a boil. Cook potatoes until they're fork tender but don't fall off the fork. You want them to be almost cooked through but not mushy <br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 400°F.<br />
<br />
Drain the potatoes. Rinse under cold water and transfer to a large bowl. Season with spices and oil, coating evenly.<br />
<br />
Cut the strips of bacon into thirds. Wrap each potato in a piece
of bacon, securing the ends with a toothpick. Put the potatoes on a baking
sheet lined with aluminum foil.<br />
<br />
Bake for about 20 minutes or until bacon reached desired crispiness. Remove from oven. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Combine the sour cream and hot sauce; serve. Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-27849479426516626892014-01-07T14:30:00.000-05:002014-01-07T14:30:01.670-05:00Peanut Butter BlossomsYou've probably seen these a million times recently, since lots of people make these for Christmas. Hell, you've probably even made them yourself. I, on the other hand, have made these exactly twice in my entire life. The first time I made these, Joe still live in his dingy bachelor pad downtown. I remember that I had to go out and specially purchase everything I needed - butter, peanut butter, cookie sheets, etc. The man had the bare essentials and that was it. He did have one cookie sheet, but it was questionable looking. He had been talking about these and I remarked "are you kidding, those are so easy to make!" and then he asked me if I could make them for him. I did, and then never made them again.<br />
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What a jerk.<br />
<br />
See, it turns out that chocolate + peanut butter is Joe's favorite combination. It also turns out that Hershey Kisses are my kryptonite. You'd think that having to unwrap them in order to eat them would slow me down, but I think I see it as more of a challenge than anything else. The tricky part with these cookies is that you have to unwrap the chocolates first, since you need to be able to press them into the cookies right away. See the problem?<br />
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<br />
We were having some friends over and I hadn't made them in awhile (about 8 years, if you were wondering), so I decided it was about time to resurrect these babies. Also... I really wanted some Hershey Kisses.<br />
<br />
My self control paid off, since I had about a dozen chocolates left over that I could eat without feeling guilty (or giving myself a tummy ache) and everybody loved the cookies. Also, Joe might have made a funny little shriek/squeal noise when he saw them cooling on the counter.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Peanut Butter Blossoms<br />
<br />
48 Hershey Kisses, unwrapped<br />
1/2 c. shortening<br />
3/4 c. creamy peanut butter<br />
1/3 c. granulated sugar<br />
1/3 c. packed brown sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
2 Tbsp milk<br />
1 tsp vanilla extract<br />
1 1/2 c. flour<br />
1 tsp baking soda<br />
1/2 tsp salt<br />
<br />
1/3 c. granulated sugar, for rolling<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease cookie sheets and set aside. Place the additional sugar on a small plate or in a bowl and set aside.<br />
<br />
In a large bowl, beat shortening and peanut butter until well blended. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; stir until incorporated. Combine baking soda and flour and gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.<br />
<br />
Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar. Place on baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned (I baked mine for 8 minutes). Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate into the center of each cookie. The cookies will crack around the edges. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-84482859086068956412014-01-03T11:00:00.000-05:002014-01-03T11:49:10.714-05:00Apple Pie<br />
Alright, peeps (yes, I say "peeps" in real life, and not just when I'm talking about the marshmallows), I have a confession to make: the crust on this pie is not homemade.<br />
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I know, I know. I tried to make it. Twice, in fact. The same crust recipe I use for my <a href="http://elfiesedibles.blogspot.com/2013/02/chicken-pot-pie.html" target="_blank">chicken pot pie</a>, since it's just a basic pastry crust that can be used for anything.<br />
<br />
This time, though, it failed me. I'm not sure what happened. My dough was really hard to roll out. And I don't mean physically difficult, because I may be little but I'm pretty strong. Seriously, though, the dough was very solid and tough, not doughy and stretchy at all. If I really muscled and forced it, I could get it to stretch, but then it would rip. I tried putting it in the bottom of the pan and stretching it out that way, since it's not like the bottom crust has to be pretty. That sort of worked, but I ended up nixing that idea pretty quickly because there was some niggling thought in the back of my head that told me the crust just wasn't going to come out right. Also, I really didn't want an apple crumble pie.<br />
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The only problem was that my oven was already preheating and my apples were already mixed and waiting to be poured into the crust. So, I did what any self-respecting person does when they're having a minor kitchen emergency: I put on my sneakers and went to the grocery store in my pajamas to buy pre-made crust from the dairy aisle.<br />
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While that solved my immediate problem, it also gave me a new one. HOW WAS THE PIE GOING TO TASTE? Having never used pre-made pie crust before, I was a little worried that it would *taste* like it came from a box or the store and not like it came out of my kitchen. So... I decided not to tell Joe. And then I cut him a slice of pie and he ate it and said it was delicious, and I kept the crust a secret... until now.<br />
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Whatever - the pie was delicious and that's all that matters!<br />
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Also, I think I need a new pie crust recipe. I'll probably do some Googling and figure one out myself, but if you have one, I'd love to see it!<br />
<br />
<b>Apple Pie Filling</b><br />
6 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used Granny Smith & Macintosh)<br />
2/3 c. granulated sugar<br />
2 Tbsp brown sugar<br />
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp lemon juice<br />
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp corn starch<br />
1 1/2 tsp. apple pie spice<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly grease an 8" or 9" inch pie plate and set aside.<br />
<br />
Press first pie crust into the bottom of the pie plate, leaving overhang. <br />
<br />
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well, making sure all apples are evenly coated.<br />
<br />
Pour into pie shell. Top with second pie crust and crimp edges as desired. Cut slits in the top for ventilation.<br />
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Place pie plate on a baking sheet (this makes it way easier to handle!). Bake for 40 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove from oven and let cool for a couple of minutes, then cover edges with foil to prevent browning. Return to oven and bake for remaining 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling.<br />
<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-41710440910347286812013-12-19T19:39:00.000-05:002013-12-20T07:35:57.360-05:00Chocolate Cola Cupcakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't even know how I stumbled on an idea like this, but in a nutshell, it's chocolate cake and chocolate frosting made with Coca Cola.<br />
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Now, if you know anything about me, you know that those are two of my favorite things. I had never heard of it before so I started researching, and Google tells me that this kind of cola cake is pretty much a southern thing. Of course, it doesn't tell me and I have no idea. Maybe it has something to do with southerners needing to figure out a way to make their cakes still taste delicious in spite of the humidity?<br />
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I'm not sure, and frankly, it doesn't even matter. Wherever you're living, you need to make these right now because you're going to LOVE them. These cupcakes are moist and fluffy! The hint of cinnamon adds a little depth to the chocolate, and the frosting? HAVE MERCY. There's a container of it in the refrigerator and it's taking all of my self control not to go at it with a spoon.<br />
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I wasn't really sure how much soda I needed for this, so I ended up buying a 6 pack of cans because I'll drink it anyway (soda is one of my very few vices, lol). Turns out, I only needed one regular sized can (not those little miniature ones). I would've found that information helpful from the start, so I'm passing it along to you so you can plan accordingly :) My Coke was room temperature when I used it, but I don't think it really makes too much of a difference. You can certainly use the bottle if that's you have/prefer, but I would suggest making sure it's a brand new one and not one that's been around for a few days, since the carbonation seems like it's an important part of this recipe.<br />
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You can tell this is one of my favorite recipes because I don't have a lot to say about it (too busy eating cupcakes). If you make these, please let me know what you think! My brother may have eaten 6 in a row :P<br />
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I was pretty generous with my frosting, but you'll most likely end up with some left over. If you're like me, that means you quickly stash it in the fridge and try to forget about it before you attack it with a spoon. When your willpower inevitably cracks and weakens, as mine did, you'll want to let the frosting warm up a little bit before you attack it with a spoon. The soda makes it a little sweet to eat straight, so I ended up scooping mine with pretzels. Sweet, salty AND crunchy? Chocolatey heaven! <br />
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<br />
<b>Chocolate Cola Cupcakes</b><br />
<br />
<i>For the cupcakes:</i><br />
2 c. granulated sugar<br />
2 c. flour<br />
1 c. (2 sticks) butter<br />
3 Tbsp coca powder<br />
1 c. Coca Cola<br />
1 tsp. baking soda<br />
1/2 tsp. cinnamon<br />
2 eggs<br />
1/2 c. buttermilk<br />
1 tsp. vanilla<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>For the frosting:</i><br />
2 sticks butter, room temperature<br />
3 c. powdered sugar<br />
6 Tbsp cocoa powder<br />
6 Tbsp Coca Cola<br />
1 tsp. vanilla<br />
<br />
<i>Method:</i><br />
<i> </i>Line cupcake tins with cupcake papers and preheat oven to 350°F. <br />
<br />
In a medium sized saucepan, combine butter and Coca Cola and bring to a boil.<br />
<br />
In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Slowly and carefully add in the Coke mixture and stir to combine. Mix in<i> </i>buttermilk, baking soda and cinnamon. Add cocoa powder and mix well. Stir in vanilla and add eggs, one at a time. Whip ingredients until well blended. Batter will be loose.<i><br /></i><br />
<br />
Fill cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Yields about 24 cupcakes.<br />
<br />
While cupcakes are cooling, combine butter and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until smooth.<br />
<br />
Slowly add in the sugar and cocoa, adding the soda as needed when the frosting gets too thick. Continue adding soda until desired consistency is reached.<br />
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Beat 3-5 minutes until frosting is fluffy.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-42549569196797364522013-12-15T11:50:00.000-05:002013-12-15T11:50:34.564-05:00Pumpkin Cheesecake with Graham Cracker CrustWhen mom told me that I could make all of the desserts for Thanksgiving/Chanukah this year, I was beyond excited. About 2 seconds later, I got overwhelmed - how many people would there be? What should I make? How many desserts should I make? Should I make more, smaller things, or fewer, larger things? I asked mom for advice and she told me that there would be 6 of us and beyond that, I could do whatever I wanted. In other words: ahhhh!<br />
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See, I felt like I had some giant shoes to fill. My gramma doesn't do much baking or cooking anymore, and she never did for holiday things (keep reading and you'll see why), but she DID (does) always go bananas with the amount of food.<br />
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For every Thanksgiving except for this one, there's always a 20-ish pound turkey, a couple of pounds of boneless chicken breast, two kinds of rice, mashed potatoes AND sweet potatoes... you can see where I'm going with this. And that's just the real food. Dessert always involves the same amount of stuff: multiple kinds of cupcakes (chocolate AND vanilla/mini AND regular size, etc); at least two kinds of cookies; apple, blueberry and pumpkin pies; chocolate cake, jello and sometimes there's ice cream in the freezer that she forgets about.<br />
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So, even though I knew nobody would be "judging" me and everyone loves my stuff, I felt like my gramma had set the bar wicked high and that I wouldn't even come close. In determining what to make, I had to figure out what was the most important. As I thought about it, I realized that for gramma, it's not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie - even though I don't think I've ever seen her eat more than a little sliver of a slice, I think it's just one of those things that she needs to have on the table in order for her heart and head to be like "ahhh, now this Thanksgiving is complete". She has a really hard time letting go of the reins (so THAT'S where I get it from!), so I knew I wanted to make her pumpkin pie.<br />
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Of course, I couldn't make any pumpkin pie. No. Instead, I make pumpkin pie cheesecake with a graham cracker crust. Talk about stacking the deck against myself. I had made this recipe before, but only once. Probably two years ago. And I used a box mix cake for the base and made it bars, not a pie. That said, I remembered the bars being delicious and easy to make, and a graham cracker crust seemed like a really good idea. Plus, since it's cheesecake, I figured it would be easy to make a day or two ahead of time since it's gotta sit in the fridge anyway.<br />
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You guys. I am SO GLAD I made this. The graham cracker crust was the PERFECT compliment to the pumpkin mixture. I topped my slice with some homemade whipped cream and it was absolutely to die for. Since the filling recipe is for bars and I made a pie, you'll actually end up with leftover filling. I made cupcake sized cheesecakes, but realistically, you could probably get two 8" pies out of this. I don't really know how to do it, but I'd recommend making one to freeze and one to eat, because you'll definitely want some more before next Thanksgiving.<br />
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Yum!<br />
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Oh, and if you're wondering.. my gramma loved it!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Pumpkin Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust</b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For the crust:</i><br />
2 c. graham cracker crumbs (about 18 crackers)<br />
6 Tbsp butter, melted<br />
1 Tbsp granulated sugar<br />
2 Tbsp brown sugar<br />
1/2 tsp. cinnamon<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For the filling:</i><br />
8 oz. brick cream cheese, room temperature<br />
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk<br />
2 eggs<br />
15 oz. can pumpkin puree<br />
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Method:</i><br />
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 1/2" pie plate. (Note: I used a disposable one to make life easier, I think it was 8" or so - use whatever size you have available!)<br />
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Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugars and cinnamon in a large bowl. Press into the bottom and up the sides of your pie plate. Bake until firm, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.<br />
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk. Add eggs, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well. Batter will be loose.<br />
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Place cooled pie plate on a small baking sheet. Pour pumpkin mix into crust. Bake until center is set but still wobbly, about 45 minutes. To double check, insert a sharp knife into the center of your cheesecake, until it touches the crust - it should come out clean. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight.<br />
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*To make cupcakes: press about 1 EATING sized teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs into the bottom of your cupcake wrappers. Bake until firm, about 5 minutes. Add 2-3 EATING sized teaspoons on pumpkin mix and bake about 20 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then refrigerate in an airtight container overnight.<br />
<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-37866244897797451032013-12-04T15:00:00.000-05:002013-12-04T15:00:00.536-05:00No Bake Cookie Dough BitesI LOVE cookies. Frankly, when it comes to cookies, I'm probably the least picky person on the planet - Oreos, store brand sandwich cookies, fig newtons, peanut butter, oatmeal, those yummy italian cookies that I only get at Christmas... if it's a cookie, I want it. By far, though, my favorite cookie is just regular ol' chocolate chip.<br />
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As a kid, I would stand in or near the kitchen, anxiously awaiting mom to say that the cookies were cooled enough for me to take one. Let's be honest - sometimes I didn't even wait. I love it when the cookies are hot and fresh, right out of the oven and the chocolate is so gooey it drips down your chin when you take a bite. Sure, sometimes they were REALLY freakin' hot and I burned myself, but it was all worth it.<br />
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Once I started making cookies myself, my favorite part was being able to lick the bowl/spoon without having to share with anybody (the perils of having younger siblings). The only problem is that I have been known to give myself a tummy ache a time or two from eating too much cookie dough. Or brownie batter. Or cake batter. And watermelon. Mmmmmm.<br />
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Where was I?<br />
<br />
Oh yeah. Chocolate chip cookies. So, my friend Natascha has a son and he just turned two. I told her I was going to make something, but then I had no idea what to make. Last year, I made cupcakes, but so did everyone else. I knew there were going to be a good amount of kids at the party, so I wanted to make something that kids and parents enjoyed but that was super easy for the kids to eat - you know, so they could sneak a couple when mommy and daddy weren't looking.<br />
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Cookie dough bites seemed like a great idea. Except for the whole "raw eggs make you sick" thing. I knew I could make a bunch of cookies and then crush them up with some cream cheese to make truffles, but I wanted these to REALLY be cookie dough, just without the eggs. Alas, I knew I needed something to add some moisture to the dough, but I didn't really know what I could use. I knew that applesauce was a good egg substitute, but I didn't have any in the house and wasn't about to go buy some for the small amount that I needed.<br />
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I did a ton of googling and it seemed like whatever I was going to do, water was not the right answer. I found some recipes online that used almond/soy/non-dairy milk for similar recipes, and they all had pretty good reviews, so I decided that I could probably use regular, whole dairy milk in my recipe and get similar results.<br />
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I tried it and, what do you know - it worked! People, these are freakin' delicious. It's like the best part of the cookie without ever having to turn the oven on! As soon as the kids (and adults) realized that these little balls of chocolate had cookie dough inside, it was all over. <br />
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After figuring out the dough, making these was super easy. I did end up shelling out $8 at Target for a cookie scoop, but that's because whenever I make things like this, I have some that are huge and some that are little and some that are in between. When I make regular, baked cookies I don't have a problem getting everything to be the same size, but I thought this project would be a lot easier if I could get the sizing to be consistent. I still can't believe I paid that much for it, but it definitely helped! It felt pretty efficient, too, since I was able to scoop all of them out at once and then roll them all, instead of having to scoop and roll at the same time. My cookie scoop said it makes 2" diameter cookies. That seems like it might be fairly accurate to what I was able to make, and I got about 3 dozen - obviously, you'll get more or less depending on what size you make yours.<br />
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These don't take very long, either. Most of the time is waiting for the dough to chill and then waiting for the chocolate set. These were definitely a huge hit at the birthday party, but I think they'd go over well at your holiday party or at a football party. Actually, I think I'm gonna put these on my list for the Superbowl!<br />
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What are you waiting for? Go make some!<br />
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PS: as it turns out, today is national cookie day. What's your favorite kind of cookie?<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>No Bake Cookie Dough Bites</b><br />
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature<br />
3/4 c. granulated sugar<br />
3/4 c. brown sugar<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
2 Tbsp milk<br />
2 1/4 c. flour<br />
1 c. mini chocolate chips<br />
<br />
14 oz. chocolate for dipping<br />
<br />
Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Mix in flour and stir by hand until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips.<br />
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Cover and chill dough in refrigerator for about 1 hour.<br />
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Form dough into balls about 1-2" diameter and arrange on a baking sheet. Chill for about an hour.<br />
<br />
Melt chocolate according to package directions. Working with a few balls at a time, dip the cookie dough balls into the chocolate, letting excess drip off. Place on wax or parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Let chill until chocolate is set. Trim off excess chocolate with a sharp paring knife.<br />
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Store in an airtight container for up to one week (although good luck getting them to last that long). Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-85224084079197794472013-11-30T17:06:00.000-05:002013-11-30T17:06:18.480-05:00Chanukah Sugar CookiesYou guys. I have so much to talk about. I know I've been kinda quiet lately... it's because I got a new job! I may have alluded to some unhappiness at work in the past, and this was totally the right move. I now work at a local car dealership as the internet marketing director for the 3 dealerships that are all on the same property. I am responsible for photographing and putting descriptions up of ALL new and used cars. <br />
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To give you an idea of how large this company is, the owner has about 50 or so dealerships in the greater Boston and Providence areas. The dealerships run the gamut, from Ford and Honda to BMW and Rolls Royce and everything in between.<br />
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It's only been a few weeks, but so far, I LOVE it. Surprisingly, even though I have about 400+ new cars that I need to get photographed and online, the job is way less stress than my last one. People are treating me the way I want and deserve to be treated and seem genuinely happy to have me on board. Also, I get to use my education (imagine that!) and have minimal interactions with customers (pretty much just a smile and a friendly hello when I see them in the show room). Also, there's way more upward growth potential at this job. Overall, I'm thrilled.<br />
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So. Thanksgiving just passed and we are in the midst of Chanukah. I have done a TON of baking this past week for the holidays, and have much to show you. I thought it would be overwhelming if I did it all once, though, so I'm breaking them down into different posts. I was originally going to do it in the order of which the things were made, but, obviously, Chanukah cookies are relevant and I wanted to share those first. Also, considering my pretty terrible decorating ability, I'm the most proud of these and wanted to show them off!<br />
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Since it's just a basic sugar cookie recipe, this also seemed the most timely so that you can plan to make them for Christmas. Before you ask: I have no idea where to go to acquire Jewish themed cookie cutters. I figured if anyone would have them, it would be mom. She did, so now I do. If you're looking for some so you can make your own, Amazon seems like it's probably a safe bet (side note: I just checked while I was typing this. Definitely check Amazon.).<br />
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The cookie recipe itself is actually something I've had since high school. In my freshman year english class we had to do a "how to" demonstration. Obviously, the girl couldn't fully demonstrate how to make cookies, but she brought the recipe with some samples! Now, this is not designed to be an actual roll out cookie dough recipe, but I did all of the research for you and you can turn pretty much any sugar cookie recipe into one! All you really have to do is chill the dough so that it stiffens to the correct consistency. You can also add more flour, but this recipe is pretty similar to a lot of the ones that I found floating around on the interwebz. I chilled my dough for about 10 minutes, but you'll want to chill yours for longer. Some of my cookies softened around the edges instead of staying in the precise shape they were in when they started. For me, this was no big deal. If you're making these with kids, it's probably no big deal either. <br />
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After I noticed that it was happening when I checked on the first batch, I stuck the other sheets in the fridge to chill after they were cut and before they went in the oven. This helped out some, but chilling the dough for longer ahead of time is probably the right thing to do. The trick is to make sure you don't chill it for TOO long - I would think that about 30 minutes to an hour is good enough, because you still need the dough soft enough to work with. I worked with about 1/3 of the dough at a time, and probably could have left the rest of it in the fridge.<br />
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I love sugar cookies with frosting, but transporting them the few blocks to my mom's house with buttercream frosting seemed like it posed some problems. I've read about royal icing about a million times on the internet, but never had the opportunity or a reason to try it. Once I started investigating, my main concern was the (uncooked) egg whites called for in most traditional recipes. I was pretty sure that most everybody would be okay, but my gramma is 81 years old and I'm not knowingly going to take any chances with that woman.<br />
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Basically, royal icing is the same stuff that you use when you make
gingerbread houses. There are lots of different consistencies that you
can make by adding more water or more sugar to make it thinner or
thicker. "Flood" consistency is pretty much what it sounds like, a thin
consistency that you can use to spread a thin layer for decorating.
The best part of royal icing is that it dries hard, so you can stack
your sugar cookies for easy storage and transport. (For more information and/or a better explanation, I would definitely check out <a href="http://theshiksa.com/2012/12/09/how-to-decorate-sugar-cookies-with-royal-icing/" target="_blank">The Shiksa's</a> post on it - I found it tremendously helpful!)<br />
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I made mine with meringue powder instead, which is made of dried egg whites, sugar, and gum. I had to go to Walmart (my nemesis) to get it, but I was able to find it pretty easily once I could figure out where the cake decorating/Wilton section was.<br />
<br />
After reading about 20 blogs about royal icing, I was prepared for a battle. I was expecting it to be much more difficult than it really was. The hardest part, for me, was getting the icing to the right "flood" consistency, but I think that was really because I was bound and determined to make only one batch and split it up from there, rather than making multiple batches and then wondering the the heck to do with the leftovers. I ended up having to use my (clean!) fingers to spread the icing on some of the smaller cookies, but it definitely worked well. I was a little wary about leaving my cookies out overnight, and while I ended up with a crunchier cookie in the end, none of the bad things I imagined ended up happening.<br />
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This exercise made me realize how much of a perfectionist I can
be. For me, I was originally unhappy about the cookies losing a little
of their shape in the oven. Then, I was like "man I could have
decorated these much better!". Then, I called Joe into the room when I
was finished and he thought they were awesome. Then, I brought the cookies to my mom's house and made a whole huge thing about keeping them a surprise and not showing them until it was time to eat dessert. <br />
<br />
And suddenly, it didn't matter that it took me a couple of days to make these or that I thought the results could have been better. Wanna know why? My family LOVED these cookies - I hope your family does, too!<br />
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<br />
<b>Easy Sugar Cookies</b><br />
2 3/4 c. flour<br />
1 tsp. baking soda<br />
1/2 tsp. baking powder<br />
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature<br />
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
1 tsp vanilla extract<br />
<br />
Combine all ingredients. Dough will be thick. Cover and refrigerate for about one hour. Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out to about 1/4" thick and cut cookies as desired. Bake for 8 minutes or until edges are just starting to turn golden.<br />
<br />
<b>Royal Icing</b><br />
3 Tbsp meringue powder<br />
1 lb. (approx. 4 cups) powdered sugar<br />
1 tsp vanilla extract<br />
1/4 c. warm water, plus more for "flood" consistency icing<br />
<br />
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine meringue powder and powdered sugar. Add water and beat on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes.<br />
<br />Add water or sugar as needed to achieve correct consistency.<br />
<br />
Use immediately.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-22395576599141018352013-10-31T18:44:00.001-04:002013-10-31T18:44:13.437-04:00Boo! Chocolate Cupcakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Boo!</b></span></div>
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We had a potluck lunch today at work and since I volunteered to bring dessert (shocking, right?), I wanted to make something that everyone would enjoy but that was also Halloween-y. Last year, I made dirt pudding, but this year, I wanted to really make something special.<br />
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My cake decorating skills are still pretty limited, but I figured I could easily pipe some lines of frosting on a cupcake to look like a mummy. M&Ms for eyes add the perfect touch.<br />
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<br />
I went into this cupcake making adventure completely blind. While I've had good results from the recipes in my KitchenAid book, I haven't tried them all. The frosting recipe was something I found online awhile ago and then tucked away for a time when I could figure out what to put with it. I thought chocolate cake and marshmallow frosting would taste something like a whoopie pie. Since I was making them last night while waiting for game 7 of the World Series to start (spoiler alert: my Red Sox won!), it seemed apropos and timely.<br />
<br />
I've used the white cake recipe in the KitchenAid book before and it make about a dozen cupcakes, so I doubled this one, thinking I'd get about 24. Obviously something crazy happened, because I got 36 regular sized cupcakes and 10 mini ones. Ah well.. at least I had enough frosting!<br />
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As far as the frosting goes, I'm learning that patience is key. When it says "whip butter until smooth and creamy", that means whip the butter until it's smooth like... well, like buttah! Seriously, you want the butter to be super smooth and creamy. And then you really want to thoroughly mix in the marshmallow fluff, until the contents of your bowl are white. This was the fluffiest frosting I've ever made and it was the perfect piping consistency. It made me wish I was better at decorating so I could have tried something better or more intricate than just crisscrossing lines. I think as long as I'm patient with my regular buttercream frostings, I'll be able to get consistently fluffy results every time.<br />
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We live in an apartment building and there aren't many kids that live here, so we don't get any trick or treaters. Instead, we're hanging in our PJs, eating mummy cupcakes and watching the Bengals-Dolphins game (hey, the Bengals are Halloween colors!). How are you celebrating Halloween?<br />
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<b>Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting</b><br />
<span id="goog_1438545839"></span><span id="goog_1438545840"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMmFhKGLC6axtM3oOSbw1DLuIW50FcBndQrUQzgswb7Ey0_8d6Sy_zcmoXCfB2W7fouw4jI4hFLvFxA9aX2P1NObWOg5WdwgszkwGzJ1kuoMKMb8Ls-s_4IiVIdScZYUCQJ4RfZFYXsDc/s1600/012.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<b>Chocolate cake</b>:<br />
2 c. flour<br />
1 c. sugar<br />
1 tsp. baking powder<br />
1/2 tsp. baking soda<br />
1/2 c. shortening<br />
1 c. milk<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
2 eggs<br />
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted*<br />
*I substituted 3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder + 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil for each ounce of melted chocolate<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake papers or spray with non-stick spray.<br />
<br />
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine dry ingredients. Add shortening, milk and vanilla. Turn mixer on low and beat until combined - batter will be a little lumpy. Add eggs and chocolate; mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium-high speed for about 1 minute, or until batter turns from a dark chocolate to a milk chocolate color.<br />
<br />
Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. (I got 16 regular sized cupcakes from the recipe above). Bake for 18 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.<br />
<br />
Let cool in the pans for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.<br />
<br />
<b>Marshmallow Frosting</b>:<br />
<br />
1 cup (2 sticks butter), room temperature<br />
1 7.5 oz. jar marshmallow fluff<br />
2 c. confectioner's sugar<br />
2-4 Tbsp milk<br />
<br />
Using a mixer, cream butter until smooth and creamy. Add in marshmallow fluff and beat until fully incorporated. Slowly add in the sugar, making sure each additional is fully combined before adding more. Add in the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Beat until frosting is soft and fluffy, adding more milk or sugar to reach desired consistency.<br />
<br />
To make the mummy cupcakes, put the frosting into a zip top bag and snip off the end. Pipe crisscrossing lines across the cupcake. Use m&ms for eyes, "m" side down. Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5230286047692802598.post-68516600044893677032013-10-21T07:57:00.000-04:002013-10-21T07:57:31.273-04:00White Chocolate Cranberry CookiesI've been dying to make something "seasonal", like apple or pumpkin, but Joe is only "meh" on pumpkin things and I keep eating the apples before I can make anything with them. I bought some cranberries to put in my salad and had some left, so I wanted to use them in something. They're pretty seasonal but also a little tart, so I thought they'd be perfect in something a little sweeter.<br />
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We've been on a huge cookie kick (try saying that three times fast!) lately, and when I realized I had some white chocolate chips hanging around in the cabinet, I thought this would be a perfect way to make something with some unexpected seasonal flavors.<br />
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I only made a half batch of these cookies, mostly because I wasn't sure if Joe was going to like them. Turns out, I should have made a full batch, because I barely had time to take the few photos you see here before he started stuffing them in his face a la Cookie Monster. Since you'll probably want to make more, simply double (or triple) the recipe that you see below.<br />
<br />
The sweetness of the white chocolate is a really nice balance to the tart flavor of the cranberries. I've only been able to have a few, but I think these would be PERFECT with a nice tall glass of milk. The way the holidays fall this year, my family will be celebrating Chanukagiving (Chanukah starts at nightfall on Thanksgiving), and I'm already thinking that these will make a perfect holiday dessert.<br />
<br />
What are your favorite seasonal flavors?<br />
<br />
<b>White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies</b><br />
To print this recipe, <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/elfiesedibles/white-chocolate-cranberry-cookies" target="_blank">click here</a><br />
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<br />
1 stick butter, room temperature<br />
1/2 c. granulated sugar<br />
1/2 c. brown sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
1 tsp. baking soda<br />
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour<br />
1 c. white chocolate chips<br />
1 c. dried cranberries<br />
<br />
Combine all ingredients except for flour, cranberries and chocolate chips.<br />
<br />
Mix in flour until thoroughly combined. Add in chocolate chips and cranberries.<br />
<br />
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto greased baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04027812580807260788noreply@blogger.com0