Game Day Pretzels

If you've ever been to a pro sports game, you know that there are some delicious foods at the concession stand: soft-serve ice cream in little helmets, fried dough, hot dogs... and pretzels.  Oh gosh, the pretzels.  Warm and chewy, soft and salty.  Yummy.  Whenever Joe and I go to a game, at least one of us gets a pretzel while the other silently wishes they had gotten one, too.

We're huge football fans, and the season is in full swing here.  Pretzels are perfect football food because they're quick and easy to eat, but you can still cheer for your team while you eat one.  Joe went to help a friend move this morning, and while I had the house to myself for a few hours, I decided to make my own pretzels.

When I was a kid, my mom made us alphabet pretzels a couple of times, so we each got a little baggie of pretzels that spelled out our names.  They were DELICIOUS, and I always thought they were the hardest things to make.  False.  For me, the hardest part was twisting them into that familiar pretzel shape.

Okay, so getting them out of the boiling water was a little tricky, too, but only because I made my pretzels huge and my slotted spoon isn't that large.  Next time, I'm either making smaller pretzels OR I'm going to invest in some kind of larger spoon-strainer-scoopy thing.  Like all yeast bread recipes, this one is time consuming in that it takes a few hours from start to finish, but for most of the time, you're not really doing anything.  The active time on this recipe is maybe about an hour, but it's really broken up, so you have plenty of time to do other things, like try to beat that stupid level on Candy Crush or work out (guilty of both!).

I like to eat my pretzels plain, but Joe loves his with yellow mustard or nacho cheese.  I'm already thinking about making some cinnamon sugar pretzels next time.

What's your favorite football/party food?

Soft Baked Pretzels
To print this recipe, click here

Ingredients
2 1/2 Tbsp butter, cubed and at room temperature
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 cups warm water (110°-115°F)
1 packet active dry yeast
5 c. flour, plus more for kneading
10 cups water
2/3 c. baking soda

1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Topping
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp water
coarse salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine water, sugar and butter.  Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 3 cups of flour.  Attach dough hook and mix on low speed ("stir" if you have a KitchenAid), gradually increasing to medium speed (3 or 4) as the flour gets incorporated.  Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Mix in the remaining 2 cups of flour until the dough gathers around the hook and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  The dough will be VERY sticky.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, adding more flour if necessary (I used about an additional 1/4 cup). and kneading until smooth and elastic - dough should not stick to your hands.

Lightly grease a large bowl with the vegetable oil.  Place the dough into the greased bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap or put into a plastic bag and let rise until doubled in size, about one hour

Preheat oven to 425°F and spray baking sheets with non-stick spray.  Punch dough down and divide and shape into an even number of balls, roughly the same size (I made 8 but could have made more for smaller pretzels).  Roll each ball into a 24 inch long rope.  Bring the ends together to start to form a circle, then twist ends once and lay over the opposite side of the circle, pinching the ends together to seal.

In a large pot, bring water and baking soda to a boil.  Carefully drop the pretzels into the boiling water.  Cook for 30 seconds and remove with a slotted spoon. Transfer cooked pretzels to prepared baking sheets.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and water; brush over pretzels.  Sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until pretzels are golden brown.  Transfer pretzels to a wire rack to cool completely or eat once cool enough to handle.  Serve with dipping sauce of your choice or eat plain.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

I feel silly posting these cupcakes on a baking blog - especially MY baking blog - because these aren't even baked.  They're microwaved.

I know.  I was skeptical, too.  But they seemed so easy that I figured there was no possible way these could go wrong.  That, or they would be terrible and inedible, but then I figured I could just blame that on the microwave, too.  On a somewhat serious note, I wanted to try this because it's pretty similar to the way Hungry Girl and others suggest you make a single serving of something - cake, cupcake, brownie, etc - but without having an open and partially eaten package of mix in the cabinet.

The other thing I like about these is that if you don't tell anybody how you made them or that they only have 4 ingredients, NOBODY WILL KNOW!  They're still as moist and fluffy and delicious as if you had just baked them that morning.  Only you didn't bake them.  You microwaved them.  For a whole minute.

Actually, I also like these because they're gluten free.  And low calorie.  I don't have the exact calorie counts, but there's hardly anything in them so it can't be that high.  Technically speaking, I guess these would also be kosher for Passover (I know, I know - too soon!), but it would depend on whether or not you believed that using baking soda to make these babies rise violates the "spirit" of chametz, but that's not something I'm going to get into today.

They don't take a long time to make, so it's pretty easy to make a whole bunch of them for a party (which I did) in not a very long time at all - especially if you're low on ingredients.  Speaking of which, these are ingredients that most of us probably always have in our cabinets and pantries, so it's nice to know that yes, you can quickly take care of that cupcake craving without having to make 24 tempting treats or without having to open an entire box of mix only to use a couple of tablespoon's worth.  I topped mine with some leftover cherry frosting I had in the fridge (also gluten free), but you can also eat them naked or top with your favorite desert.  I'm thinking ice cream would be delicious.

Okay, that's enough of my rambling on about these babies.  Go make them.  When you're done, I want to know: what's your favorite few-ingredient recipe?

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
To print this recipe, click here

Ingredients
1 egg
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients.

Lightly spray two coffee mugs with non-stick spray.  Evenly divide the batter between them. (about 2 Tbsp each)

Microwave both mugs for 1 minute.  Cupcake is finished when the top springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (I have a 1000 watt microwave and only needed 1 minute).

Run a knife around the outside of the cupcakes.  Tip the mugs over and let cool completely.  Top with your favorite frosting or eat them naked.  Enjoy!

L'shanah Tovah! Honey Cake

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. One of the ways we celebrate the new year is by eating apples dipped in honey, a literal representation of our wish for a sweet new year. While we traditionally dip bread in salt, this time of year, we dip bread in honey for the same reason. As such, one popular food item is Honey Cake.

In Jewish school, we used to always make and sell these to our families and to the community.  Putting a wonderful combination of Type A and Type B adolescent girls into the kitchen under the supervision of one strong-willed, patient and firm woman will certainly include a fair share of mischief (cinnamon challenge, anyone?), but I looked forward to all of these - they were some of the most fun and challenging times I had in elementary and middle school.  Unfortunately, school and grown-up obligations get in the way of a lot of things, so honey cake is something I haven't had the pleasure of making for many years.. until now.

I've tried a few different recipes in the past, and none of them quite measured up to what I remembered making in Hebrew school: a dense, sweet, moist and delicious treat. Fed up with what I was finding, I decided to just make my own.

I'm so glad I did.  This one was perfect and exactly what I was looking for.  Instead of orange extract, I think I'm going to try orange zest to make it the flavor pop a little more.  If you don't like oranges, you can easily substitute lemons or leave it out altogether.

Rosh Hashanah is the start of the Jewish High Holiday season, and I'm hoping to have some more recipes to share along the way.  The rest of the holidays are around the corner, anyway, so - what's your favorite holiday recipe?

Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake

To print this recipe, click here 

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 c. honey
1/4 c. oil
1 tsp orange extract
1/2 c. strong coffee, prepared
In a medium size bowl, combine all ingredients except coffee. Batter will be very thick and hard to stir.

Add the coffee and stir to combine. Batter should be easy to stir, similar to cake batter.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 325°F for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake should be a nice, golden brown color when it's finished.

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and sweet new year - L'shana tovah! 

Jello Cookies

I know.  I haven't posted in almost a month!  There are a few reasons for that.  First, even though I have a few things that I haven't shared yet, I don't bake as much in the summer (I might have mentioned this last time, too), so I'm trying to space things out so that I can continue to post on a somewhat regular basis.  Also, if you know me in real life, you know that I have a really difficult time sharing my recipes with people.  I don't care if you're my mother, my best friend or a stranger on the street - I'm happy that you love my cooking, but the second you ask me for the recipe, I get all weird and clammy.   You can see how it's difficult for someone like that to have a blog where they share their favorite recipes.

The other reason I haven't posted - and trust me, this one is more important and way cooler - is that I think I finally have a way to get Elfie's Edibles off the ground.  I don't want to jinx it and I don't have any details to really talk about it, but, if I'm going to regularly be baking for strangers, I'm not sure how I feel about posting the actual recipes.  Pictures and stories, sure, but I'm not sure what benefit would be in it for me if my customers can easily find and reproduce (or at least try to reproduce) whatever I just made for them.  I know I'm walking a very fine line, here, but I think I can manage it - with your patience and input, of course!

Now that that's out of the way, I want to share something I made with you!  There's no actual recipe for this one, as I've seen about a million different versions floating around on Facebook and on Pinterest.  These Jello cookies kept popping up everywhere and they looked and sounded delicious, so I felt like I had to try to make them.  I looked at a few different recipes and they're all pretty much the same, so I just made whatever one I found at the time.

Whatever recipe you choose, these are REALLY easy to make!  After you make the dough, divide it into a number of smaller amounts based on the different flavors of Jello you have.  Add a few tablespoons to each smaller portion of dough, mix thoroughly and bake for about 8 minutes.  When they come out of the oven, tap the tops of each cookie with the bottom of a glass to flatten them out a little, and voila! Jello cookies!

NOTE: here's an easy way to make these:, make chocolate chip cookie dough.  Omit the chocolate chips and brown sugar, and use increase the flour by 1 cup.  Drop by rounded spoonful or roll into balls, then bake at 350°F for about 9 minutes.  They will spread out, so make sure you leave some space between them!

Here's the thing: these cookies are super sweet.  My recipe said to roll the dough balls into the extra Jello before baking, and I easily could have skipped that step and still had tons of the Jello flavor.  I guess I never realized just how sweet Jello is, because you could easily cut back a little on the sugar, and the cookies wouldn't suffer.  You can add a little food coloring to increase the color vibrancy if you want, but I found it wasn't necessary.  I used 3 tablespoons of each flavor and let the Jello sit on top of the dough for a couple of minutes before I mixing it in, so maybe that's why my colors were so bright.

As you can see from the picture, I made four different flavors: grape, lime, orange and cherry.  The grape was my least favorite, and I think I actually liked the orange the best.  If you put a small scoop of vanilla ice cream between two of the orange cookies, it sort of takes like a creamsicle :)

Since I saw these mostly on Facebook and have had mixed results with Pinterest, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.  But, I was pleasantly surprised with how these came out!

What's the last recipe you made that you found on Facebook?

BLT Pasta Salad

I don't know about you guys, but it's been HOT all week here.  I'm talking weather advisories, can barely breathe when you go outside, need multiple pairs of underwear in one day hot.  We normally get heat waves like this, but only for a few days, not a week at a time.  There's supposed to be some big thunderstorms this weekend so hopefully that will cool things down a bit.

In the meantime, it's way too hot to cook.  But... I still need to eat!  I've been seeing a few different variations of this BLT salad on Pinterest and decided to make my own.  It's delicious and the pasta makes it more filling than a regular salad. 

Okay, so you do have to do a little bit of cooking for the bacon and the pasta (yes, it's been too hot to even boil water), but I promise you it's worth it.  I made a huge bowl of this and have been tweaking it every day so that I don't get sick of it, and it just keeps getting better as the flavors get to know each other better.

Plus, I like this recipe because it's easy to adapt and add or remove things you don't like without totally changing the flavors.

Joe's not a huge salad person, but he loved this one! Although to be fair, I think he'd eat anything as long as it involved bacon.  No real recipe for this one, since it's pretty simple: romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, red onion, pasta of your choice.  Toss is all together.  If you know it's all going to be eaten, top with ranch dressing in the bowl.  Otherwise, serve in individual-sized bowls and top with dressing.  As you can see from the photos, to mix it up, I also added some corn and some shredded chicken.  Yum!

If you try this, let me know what you think!

Blueberry Bread

I'm a little behind on my blogging.  I'm also a little behind on my baking.  Let's blame Mother Nature for both, shall we?

Living in Massachusetts, it's difficult to bake as much as I like to when it's 95 degrees and humid outside and 85 and humid inside.  Even with the AC on, baking in the summer is a challenge - is what I want to make worth heating up the whole apartment?  Will it even come out right because it's so humid?  I do most of my summer baking first thing on Saturday or Sunday mornings or later in the evenings, since that's when it's coolest.  As a result, my posts will probably be slowing down from now until about August/September (when I can't take it anymore), but I do have some awesome no-bake and summery baked recipes that I'm dying to try (watermelon cookies - I'm looking at you!).

Anyhow, here's something I made a couple of weeks ago that's really perfect for this type of weather and the summer season.  Blueberries are in their prime right now, and the light and airiness of this bread really lends itself to a lot of combinations: you can easily serve this by itself or with a scoop of ice cream and/or whipped cream and either more fresh blueberries or other delicious fruits.

I actually made this twice, as the first one barely made it into the door at work before it was devoured.  The second one, Joe and I took our time and savored - then used the rest of it to make french toast, which I will blog about later. 

For me, one of the most surprising things about this bread was my brother's reaction.  Now, I love this kid, but holy hell, he can be really picky sometimes.  My favorite thing to do is say, "Josh, do you like _____?"  And, when he says, no, I make it any way.  Sometimes, he still doesn't like it, but more times than not, he ends up going back for a second or third helping.  He came over after I made this and we ended up just missing each other because I had to work late and then run a couple of errands.  He sent me a text that said he doesn't like blueberries, but the bread was delicious.  Further proof that you don't know you like something until you've actually tried it (PS: Hi Josh)!

What I loved about this recipe is that it's so easy to make.  If you're planning to make it for a party you're having, it's an easy thing to whip up the night before OR the day of, and as long as you put it into an airtight container or cover it good with foil, nobody will know!

I also really like how the blueberries are perfectly mixed in.  I decided to sprinkle the sugar on top because while it was baking, the smell made me think of blueberry muffins, which are my absolute favorite.  I like adding the sugar on top partway through the baking process because then you still get the sweet taste to compliment the tartness of the blueberries, without the sugar crystallizing too much while it's cooking.

I'm a huge fan of fresh berries - and tend to buy way more than one person can reasonably eat - so this is an excellent summertime recipe that will give you something sweet to munch on without being too heavy.

Blueberry Bread
To print this recipe, click here

Ingredients

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 c. sugar, plus more for dusting

2 eggs

6 oz. vanilla yogurt
1 pint blueberries

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Add the flour, baking powder and yogurt.  Mix until everything is incorporated.

Carefully fold in the blueberries, being careful not to overstir and not to crush any blueberries.

Scoop batter into prepared pan, using the back of a spoon to gently even it out, if necessary.  Bake for 30 minutes and remove bread from oven.  Sprinkle about 1 Tbsp of sugar on top, then return to oven for approximately 30 more minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

When bread is finished baking, let cool in pan for about 10-15 minutes.  Gently run a knife around the outside edge.  Carefully invert onto a plate or cutting board and move to wire rack to cool completely.

Yields 10-12 slices, depending on thickness.

Raspberry Coffee Cake

The calendar says spring, but Mother Nature apparently thinks that means it should rain for a week at a time.  It's actually nice and sunny today, but earlier in the week, the weather really had my down in the dumps, so I decided I needed to make something light and flavorful that would cheer me up.

You see, spring and summer are my favorite time of year.  Normally, it's something like this: the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the sky is blue, the grass is green and the trees are in full bloom.  I'm driving with the radio up and the windows down, and all of my favorite fruits are in season: watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, watermelon (yes, I like watermelon so much it made the list twice).... mmm.

Only, mostly it's been like this: dark, chilly, wet, gloomy.  I'm really an outdoorsy person, but this weather makes it really hard for me to want to go from my front door to the car, never mind do anything fun.

Some early berries are starting to hit shelves, and they're everything you'd expect from seasonal fruit: bright and colorful, juicy and delicious.  So, I decided to the bring the outside in.  A lot of coffee cakes have a full bottom and top dough.  I liked this one because there was just a little bit of dough on top, which really lets the tartness of the raspberries take center stage.  If you prefer your coffee cake a little more contained, simply double the dough recipe.  The dough is quite a bit sticky, though, so you'll want to be careful spreading it over the raspberries.

I can't speak for everyone else, but this definitely brightened my mood.  The cake is light and fluffy and the raspberries are the perfect combination of sweet and tart.  While this would certainly work with frozen berries, this really lets the flavor of the fresh berries shine.

Raspberry Coffee Cake

To print this recipe, click here

For the filling:
1 cup raspberries
3 Tbs brown sugar

For the dough:
1 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
1/2 c. sour cream
3 Tbs butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the icing:
1/4 c. confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp. milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease an 8" square baking pan and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine raspberries and brown sugar; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.  Stir in egg, sour cream, butter and vanilla.  Mix just until combined and moistened.

Spread batter into baking pan, reserving about 2/3 cup (I found it was easier to spread using just the very edge of a fork).  Top with raspberries.  Spoon remaining batter over raspberries.

Bake for 25 minutes, until raspberries are set and top is lightly browned.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over coffee cake.  Serve warm.  Store leftovers in an airtight container.