Sea Salt and Chocolate covered Caramels

This year in all my Christmas baking I made caramels.  Everyone is always impressed with homemade caramels, and I don’t find it too hard to make them.  The only downside is wrapping all the little caramels once they are done. I usually end up doing this over a couple of days, which is how I came to this new small variation.

I had a bunch of caramels wrapped when O informed me that there was a baking competition at work the next day and he should take something.  I handed over my caramels (there were still lots left to be wrapped) and didn’t think anymore of it.  Turns out they were a big hit - they ran out of caramels during the eating/judging of the competition, oops.  What did come out of this though was the suggestion to coat the caramels in chocolate and sea salt.  I had some left and wasn’t excited about wrapping them, so why not play a little?

I am happy to say I did play with them and to my delight they were fantastic.  The bonus is that this doesn’t even take much more time than wrapping them, but really takes them to a whole special place on the dessert table!

I did some slight adaptations to the caramel recipe found on allrecipes.com.  I hope you enjoy these.

Sea Salt and Chocolate covered Caramels
Ingredients:
Caramels:
1 cup butter
1 pound brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup light corn syrup (i used golden, as that is pretty much all you can find here)
1 ½ tsp vanilla paste (or 1 ½ vanilla beans - well the insides of the beans - would work)

Coating:
3 cups milk chocolate melting chips
Coarse sea salt

Directions:
1. Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining it with parchment paper (or you could just grease it - I like the parchment paper as you can just lift out the caramels to cut them)
3.In a saucepan (preferably with a heavy bottom) combine the caramel ingredients: butter, sugar, milk, and corn syrup.  
4 Heat the mixture until you reach 234F, then cook for 2 minutes at this temperature, while stirring.
    Note: this will make very soft caramels, if you would like them a little firmer, cook them at 240F (I like the really soft ones, so I left it at 234F).
5. Take the caramels off the heat and add in the vanilla paste/beans.  Pour the caramels into the prepared 9x13 pan, and allow to set.
6. Once the caramels are set, cut them into bite sized squares - I did about ½ inch x 1 inch rectangles.
7. In a double boiler melt some of the melting chocolate pieces.  Once they are melted remove from heat. (if the chocolate starts to harden on you, just put it back on the heat for a couple of min).
8. Dip the caramel squares in the chocolate, set to cool on some parchment paper.  While the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle with some sea salt.

Note:  I found it easiest to work in small batches of the caramels at the time.  It was also easier to have the caramels cool while dipping them, as they held their shape a little better in the warm chocolate, so I kept the other batches of caramels in the fridge while I was working.

Reviews:
These were fantastic.  I had to give most of them away as I found I couldn’t stop eating them!  One person O work with even asked for a bunch of them to give as a Christmas present to someone!  They were a big hit and will have to be something that I make again.

The caramels by themselves are also great, so don’t worry about covering them all in chocolate! 

Kiwi Daquari Jam

A few weeks ago Kiwi’s had gone on sale and I had picked up a bag of them.  However, life got busy and BC fruit (Cherries, yum) starting coming in and the poor Kiwis were forgotten behind something in the fridge.  I discovered them and decided I would not be able to eat all of them before they needed to be used, and as it was already canning season jam seemed like a good use for the rest of them.  

I found an intriguing looking recipe on the Bernardin canning site and decided to give it a try.  I found a few of the instructions a little confusing (it calls for rum in the ingredients but never tells  you to add it), so I improvised a little.  Here is what I ended up with.



Ingredients:
5 kiwifruit, peeled
3 cups (750 ml) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (150 ml) unsweetened pineapple juice (I used a Dole in a tetra pack)
1/3 cup 75 ml) fresh squeezed lime juice
1 pouch (85 ml) Liquid Pectin  (I used the certo brand and it worked fine)
4 tbsp (60 ml) rum (I used a spiced rum as that was all I had in the house)

Directions:
1. Clean and sterilize 4 or 5 250ml jars. ( I keep them  in the oven at 275F while working so they are sterile when I want to fill them).
2. Mash or blend the fruit (I put mine in a blender and pulsed a couple times.  I found this worked better than my potato masher as I like fewer large chunks in my jam).
3. In a large saucepan mix together the fruit, sugar, pineapple and lime juice.
4. Stirring constantly bring the mixture to a full rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Note: once the sugar is fully dissolved I stop stirring constantly, but still every 30s to 1 minute.
5. Remove the jam from the head and immediately stir in the pectin (skim the foam off if there is any.  
6.  Stir in the rum, mixing well.
7. Fill jars, leaving ¼ inch head space and place on the lids and rings.
8. Process jars for 10 minutes, let cool to seal.


Reviews:
I love this jam - it is something very different from the normal berry or peach jams that I normally make.  I gave a jar to a friend of mine and she liked it so much she was eating it with a spoon!  This will be great for a cheer up treat in the middle of our long winters!

Gumpaste Lilies

Recently a girl I had worked with during Grad School joined the lab I was working in (well she was actually taking over my job as I was leaving), and she was getting married in a few weeks.  Her wedding was taking place out of province and she was trying to plan long distance.  She wanted to put Casa Blanca Lilies on her cake, but couldn’t find fake flowers that she liked and didn’t want to use real ones for various reasons.  She asked if I could make her some gumpaste flowers for her cake.  I agreed and a few weeks later I was giving her a box of 8 lilies for her cake!

I hope they made it through the air travel okay and that she had a great wedding!  I will post a picture of the cake when I get one!

Happy Valentines!

I had some leftover fondant from my last cake class, and decided to use it up on a cute Valentines day cake. It started with the green fondant and then I had the great idea to make some lady bugs. As it was Valentines, I decided to try some writing. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no idea what I was going to do when I started!

The cake was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting - everyone at work enjoyed it and I had no trouble finding someone to take the last piece off my hands!

Lady bug with her antennae (I couldn't decide if I liked them better with or without).

Frosty!

While playing around on pinterest (oh the time I waste on that!), I came across a recipe to make your own Wendy’s Chocolate Frosty. I love Frosties and find myself stopping for them even in the middle of a Canadian winter! How awesome would it be if I could make them myself at home? That and I am always looking for ways to get my ice cream maker into more use. I did have to cut the recipe in half and that was a good thing as it still made a lot, which of course was promptly finished in 24 hours.... I wouldn’t have been able to fit a full batch in my ice cream maker anyways, so it all worked out.

Ingredients:
½ tub of light coolwhip
½ can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cup 1% chocolate milk

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in the icrecream maker and let run for 20 - 30 minutes depending on your maker and the desired consistency.

Serve and enjoy!


Reviews:
I loved this and couldn’t stop eating it. O remarked that it tasted just like a Frosty! We also decided for the sake of our waists, we should not keep the ingredients on hand, as it was so quick and simple to make things could quickly get out of control.

Banana Caramel PIe

I was playing around on Pinterest (oh so addicting) and say the picture for this delicious pie. My cousin was visiting and when she saw the picture, she declared we had to try making it. It also suits her style of cooking as you can get most of the ingredients premade.

Ingredients:
Graham cracker pie crust (homemade or store bought)
3 bananas
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
whipping cream/ whipped cream/ coolwhip

Directions:
1. Remove the label from the can of sweetened condensed milk and place in a pot of water (the water should cover the can). Boil the can for 2.5 hours.
2. Peal and slice the bananas. Layer the banana slices in the pie shell.
3. Pour the caramel from step 1 over the bananas and smooth.
4. Top with the whipped cream (whip this if necessary) or cool whip.
5. Place in the fridge to chill and set for 1 hour.


Reviews:
We all loved this pie, so yummy! It is rather sweet however and can be a little messy despite being in the fridge. If I made this again, I would also not put the whipped cream on until I am ready to serve it, as it got a little melted coming in and out of the fridge.

Chocolate Coconut Milkshake - For Grownups

Recently a few friends and I went out for supper at SodaJerks - and the best part was the grown up milkshakes. They were delicious, I have been wanting more since I left. Well the past couple of days have actually been warm (apparently summer has decided to finally make an appearance here) and I have been looking for something to sip while sitting on the deck in the evenings. I decided to try making my own mixes of milkshakes. this one was inspired by the fact that I had been playing with Malibu to make some cookies, and a hot chocolate that a friend of mine makes (she works at a coffee shop and mixes me up all sorts of drinks when she is bored).

“Grown up” chocolate Macaroon Milkshake
Ingredients:
3 large scoops of vanilla frozen yogurt
½ cup milk
1 tbsp chocolate sauce
1 tbsp Malibu rum

Directions:

In a blender mix together all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into a glass and enjoy! If you are feeling extra indulgent, top with some whipped cream, chocolate sauce and shredded coconut!


Reviews:
I love this and it was perfect for a hot day on the deck. Owen also thought it was good and finished off the last ⅓ of it on me...

Pina Colada Macaroons

I have a friend at work who was leaving soon and so i wanted to make something special for her. I know that she loves Pina Coladas and so decided to try and make them in a cookie form. I had just come across the Papaya Mac Cookies by Joanne Fluke (found in Devils Food Cake Murder). I used this as my inspiration and as a guide to start my Pina Colada cookies.

Ingredients:
½ can (7 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ cups (7 ounces) unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsp Malibu (Coconut Rum)
½ cup chopped dried pineapple
2 tbsp Malibu

Directions:
1. In a bowl mix the dried pineapple and the 2 tbsp of Malibu - you want enough so all the dried pineapple is in some rum, but the top layer should not be submerged. Let sit overnight ( you could probably get away with a couple of hours, but overnight is best).
2. Preheat the oven to 325F
3. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. The mixture should be sticky and should stay in shape when formed.
4. Spoon onto a cookie sheet (I covered mine in parchment paper as the dough is quite sticky). They do not spread so you can place them quite close together.
5. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. They should be soft, but feel dry on the outside and the coconut on the top of the cookie should be starting to become a golden brown.
6. Cool and enjoy!

Reviews:
I first served these when I had friends over for supper and they were a big hit (more so with one guest than the peach pie!).

Caramel Apple Bunt

We just recieved our first order of apples - just over 200lbs! (Don’t worry I did get some apples for other people and most are windfalls for making juice.) So I have an abundance of apples around the house. I also tried a couple of new varieties this year and wanted to see how they held up in baking before I started the mass pie production. This cake seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the new baking apples - that and it was my husband’s birthday, so I was in need of a cake.

I found the original recipe on all recipes.com, but modified it a bit to suit my tastes (well hubby’s tastes and my aversion to 1.5 cups of oil in one recipe). Below is what I came up with and it was a delicious fall cake, even without the topping. I may make it again adding cinnamon to the batter and leaving off the topping.

Ingredients
CAKE:
3 eggs
1 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup apple sauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups chopped, peeled apples

TOPPING:
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch salt


Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy; gradually add sugar. Blend in oil and vanilla.
2.Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to egg mixture.
3.Stir in apples and pecans.
4.Pour into a greased bunt pan.
5.Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake tests done (toothpick comes out clean).
6.Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake to a serving platter.
7. For topping, combine all ingredients in a saucepan; boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Slowly pour over warm cake (some topping will run down onto the serving plate.)

Reviews:
My husband liked this cake and didn't mind having an apple birthday cake rather than the traditional birthday cake. The leftovers were fed to my coworkers and received rave reviews. Everyone really enjoyed the cake, and it was still nice and moist a couple days later.

Bulldogs Update

I have been really bad about posting the bulldog's cookies each week, but with all that was going on I barely had time to get the cookies made let alone write up posts to go with them, so I am giving you the last of their cookies now, and will start working on the backlog.

This is what I made for the bulldogs for the last playoff game they were in - they were playing 2-3 games a week at this point so I was short on time between games. Also supplies for baking was running out in the house, and as I was leaving a couple days later on vacation, grocery shopping was the last thing on my mind. I had tried this with a couple of leftover egg roll wrappers the last time I made egg rolls, and they got great reviews.

Apple Rolls

Ingredients:
1 pkg egg roll wrappers
3-4 apples (use a tarter apple such as Granny Smith)
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Water
Oil for deepfrying

Directions:
1. Peal and core the apples, cut each apple into 12-16 slices. You want the slices to be no more than 1/2 and inch wide on the widest side.
2. Take one egg roll wrapper, and place an apple slice near one of the corners. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon - tarter apples will need a little more sugar, so go with what you like. Top with another apple slice.

3. Fold the bottom corner over the apples, fold in side corners and roll up like an egg roll. Wet the top corner so it will seal.
4. Repeat until you run out of egg roll wrappers.
5. Deep fry the rolls in oil at about 375F until the wrappers are golden. Drain, let cool slightly and enjoy.
Note: they will become soft if stored too long - so just give them a quick cook in the oven to crisp them up again (375-400F for 5-10min).


Reviews:
These were a huge hit, I got more comments on them than any of the others cookies from through the season. One player stated that they were his all time favorite. One warning that O noticed (he has had them twice now) is to make sure you don't overcook them or the apples will be soft. Not a problem if you don't mind soft apples, but he says they are better with apples that are still holding their shape a bit.

Bulldogs:
Alright, the Bulldogs got into their divisional playoffs in first place. Sadly they were unable to make it to the finals.

Simple Apple Pie - For the Freezer

In the fall when apples are cheap (directly from the orchards) I like to stock up and make apple pies for the winter. It is great for potlucks and chilly nights to come home and just pop a pie in the oven, without the work of slicing apples and making pie dough. This is just a simple pie that I like to have in the freezer for those days. (I am really sorry for the no picture, they are all lost in the freezer)

Ingredients:
Pie crust for a double crust pie (I use the recipe on the tenderflake container for freezer pies, I find it freezers really well)
4 to 5 cups of apples
2 tbsp flour
½ tbsp cinnamon
½ to 1 cup sugar (depending on your taste and the sweetness of apples)
1 tbsp butter

Directions:
1. Roll out the pie shell and line a tin pie plate. Roll the top crust to have ready.
2. Peel, core and slice the apples.
3. Toss the apples with the flour, cinnamon and sugar.
4. Place the apples in the pie shell, and place cubes of butter on top.
5. Top with the top crust, and seal the edges. Cut a vent in the top.
6. Cover the pie with tin(aluminum foil) and place in freezer.
To Bake:
1. Place directly from the freezer into an oven at 450F, and bake for 15 mintues.
2. Turn the oven down to 350F and bake for an additional 45-60 minutes. If the top crust becomes too brown cover with the aluminum foil to finish baking.
Reviews:
Owen loves the fact that he can have apple pie anytime he wants – all he has to do (or I have to do) is put it in the oven. Friends have received frozen pies and have Loved them. The only unfortunate part is that odd shape of a pie takes up freezer space. You can also do this as a filling (like I have done for peach and apricot) and put into a fresh pie shell to conserve freezer space.

I have made about 15 of these this year, and many went to friends. I have gotten rave reviews from everyone who has cooked theirs so far!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

A friend sent me the link to these buns and said they were great when I was looking for a good pumpkin cinnamon bun recipe. I decided to try it, but do to my family's dislike of fruit in their cinnamon buns I made a few alterations. I was pretty confident they would be good, as I have never had a problem with any recipe from King Arthur Flour!


Dough
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup lukewarm water*
1/4 cup soft butter
2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup skim dry milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, optional
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons yeast
*Adjust the amount of water by the time of year or your climate. For summer, or in a humid environment, use the lesser amount of water. In winter, or in a dry climate, use the greater amount. It's always best to start with the lesser amount; you can add more as needed.
Filling
1.4 cup butter, melted
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions
1. Mix all of the dough ingredients together and knead into a soft, smooth dough.
2. Let rise for 1 ½ hours (almost doubled) in a greased, covered bowl.
3. Place the dough an a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a rectangle (about 14” by 22”)
4. Spread the melted butter on the rectangle, leaving one edge free for sealing.
5. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, and spread over the melted butter.
6. Roll the dough so that it forms a log that is about 22” long.
7. Slice the roll into 12 equal pieces and set each piece swirl up in a greased baking dish.
8. Cover the dish and let the rolls rise in a warm area for about an hour, until the rolls are puffy.
9. Bake the rolls at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Reviews:
These smelled fantastic, and they must have been good, as the all seemed to disappear. The should be stored in an airtight container if you want them to keep very long, as I was told they were a little dry the second day. This could also be easily remedied (and make the buns a little more decadent) by adding some cream cheese icing as well.

Cheesecake Filled Strawberries

We got invited to go to a friend’s house for supper in the afternoon. Now what to bring, I always bring desert – but what on earth do I have time to make with only 1.5 hours from the time I get home until supper, and I needed to stop at the grocery store. Hmmmmm. I was in the middle of the cheesecake phase after having made mini freezer cheesecakes earlier in the week, and when I saw that strawberries were on sale, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I know I have seen this someplace, but I can’t remember were, and I can’t find the post so I did my own thing.

Ingredients:
Fresh Strawberries
4 ounces (1/2 brick) of cream cheese
½ cup sugar
½ cup whipping cream

Garnish:
Graham cracker crumbs

Directions:
1. Wash and hull the strawberries, then set aside.
2. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy and smooth, then add in the sugar and continue beating until it is creamy.
3. In a separate bowl beat the whipping cream until it forms soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
4. Fill a pastry bag (or Ziploc bag with the corner cut out) with the cream cheese mixture and pipe into the hollowed stawberries.
5. Touch the top of the strawberries (with the cream cheese exposed) into the graham cracker crumbs.
6. Store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Variation: These would be great with melted chocolate drizzled over them as well.

Reviews:
These were delicious, I couldn’t stop eating them. This is a nice light cream cheese filling that isn’t too heavy and compliments the strawberry very well. Our friends enjoyed them and we had no leftovers to take home.

Individual Serving Freezer Cheesecake

So lately I am finding myself more and more interested in putting simple things in my freezer. After the mini pies, I saw that Lloyd and Lauren had also done mini cheesecakes! Oh, cheesecake, mmmmmm. I knew I had to try this. I got the recipe for the cheesecake from Martha's Kentucky Cookin'.

Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 a block)
½ cup sugar
1 egg, separated
½ cup whipping cream
½ cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tbsp butter

caramel sauce, bailey’s, or other flavors you might like to try

6 - 4 ounce (1/2 cup) canning jars

Directions:
1. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs and the softened butter to form a crumb mixture, set aside.
2. With a mixer beat the cream cheese until it is fluffly, then add the sugar and egg yolk beating until it is creamy.
3. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form peaks, do the same in a third bowl with the whipping cream.
4. Fold the egg whites into the cream cheese, followed by the whipped cream.
5. Put 1 tbsp of the graham cracker crumb mixture into the bottom of each jar and pat into place. Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the crumbs until it is about ½ from the top of the jar.
6. At this point I add the flavor, so I can have a few of each. I used about ¼ to ½ tsp caramel Sunday topping or 1 to 1 ½ tsp of Bailey’s. Add the flavor to the jar and use a knife to fold in the flavor, I like mine so I can still see streaks of the flavor.

From left to right: Plain, Bailey's, Caramel
7. Put the lid on the jar and place in the freezer.

When ready to eat, just remove from the freezer and let it warm for 3-5 minutes, then enjoy.

Reviews:
I tried the caramel one the day after putting these in the freezer, and now I am not sure how long these will last in my freezer. It is a light and airy cheesecake, that is not only delicious but addicting. Writing this post is already got me heading for the freezer …..

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

Alright, so I had still more cherries left in my fridge, they were getting to point that they absolutely had to be used in the next day or so, and I was at the point were my stomach was letting me that under no circumstance should I be eating even a quarter of the amount left. So, what do I do with all these cherries? That is right – I bake something, that way the hubs will consume it or share with the boys at work, and I no longer have to worry about it.

I did some googling and came across bakin’ and eggs, and a yummy looking recipe for Fresh Cherry Cobbler.

Filling:

5 cups Bing cherries, pitted

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

4-5 teaspoons cornstarch

Topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons cold butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2 quart baking pan
In a saucepan over medium-high heat mix together the filling ingredients and cook until bubbling and thickened – about 10 minutes, stiring frequently. (Start with 3 teaspoons of cornstarch and add more if the mixture is not thickening – remember it will thicken a little more when it cooks in the oven and when it cools).
Pour filling into the prepared baking pan.
While the filing is cooking mix together the flour, sugar, baking poweder and cinnamon in a new bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture become crummy (not bad, just looks like crums).
In another bowl combine the egg and milk. Then stir the mix into the flour mixture until just combined.
Top cherry filling with tablespoons of dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until topping is golden in color.
Serve with ice cream.


Reviews:
Hubs and his friends enjoyed it. I don’t know if cherry cobbler isn’t the hubs favorite or if he has been overwhelmed by all the fruit and new things in the house lately, but it actually lasted for more than a day! He says it was great, so I am going with he has to much food going on in the house.

Rum and Coke Cupcakes

I am still proving to my H that cupcakes are just as good if not better than brownies, and so I decided to do a more grownup version of cupcakes – and these were perfect. He always appreciates a good rum and coke (not to mention so do I), and I happened to actually have some coke in the house for once. This grown up version of a cupcake is also perfect for my friends birthday that was on the weekend – Happy 25th!

I found the recipe for Rum and Coke Cupcakes on I Heart Cuppycakes site and couldn’t wait to try them. I followed her recipe (well I halved everything, but otherwise didn’t make any changes), and the turned out great!

Reviews:
I loved these, H loved these, my friend loved these and H’s coworkers loved these. Even his boss couldn’t wait to get his hands on one. One of his coworkers told me “oooooh, they are just like a rum and coke! I knew they tasted familiar” after a couple of bites, so they were bang on.

Thanks for the great recipe Clara.

Neiman Marcus Cookie

While I was on Vacation in Maui this spring, H and I stopped in at Hula Cookies and got a Kona coffee cookie Ice cream sandwich. It was fantastic!


Ever since I got back, I had been craving that delicious coffee flavoured chocolate chip cookie. After some searching I came across the Neiman Markus recipe and decided to try it. I had to add a little milk (1/4 cup) to the dough, as it was a little dry, and used instant coffee instead of instant expresso.


They were really good and H loved them. It was a great chocolate chip cookie with a hint of coffee flavour, it just didn’t have quite enough coffee flavor to be the cookie I wanted. So after trying the first batch that came out of the oven, I kept adding coffee until the color was right (and they smelled about right). I ended up adding another 2 tbsp of coffee (to about ¼ of the batch of cookie), and they were great. It probably would have been fine with only 1.5 tbsp though. The final product was a nice coffee brown cookie that tasted great, especially with a little vanilla icecream.

A Quick Catch Up

So, my picture taking has not been able to keep up with my H’s ability to quickly finish all my baking. If I don’t get a picture before he knows that it is around, it isn’t likely that I am going to get one. Along those lines, I have also been really busy with work and haven’t been as on top of picture taking and writing up the recipes as I would like, so I am going to do a quick review of what I have been making for the past little while.
1. I did make some actual food this week! In flipping through my old posts one day, I found Chicken Lasagna and then wondered why I hadn’t made this again (now I remember why I do this blogging thing). Anyways, I made this earlier this week and it turned out fantastic. Removing the milk from the recipe was a great idea, it wasn’t soupy at all this time. Oh, and I substituted the mozza cheese for some swiss, which was also great.
2. Nutella Cupcakes from I Heart Cuppycakes. Alright, so this is midstream in my campaign to prove to my H that cupcakes are good. Apparently he has never been a cupcake fan and I just had to set him straight. He thinks they are boring as it just cake and icing, and he also doesn’t like all the icing piled up on top (he doesn’t really have a big sweet tooth), so I wanted to make something I knew he couldn’t resist. Now who can resist Nutella? I had a bunch left over from the brownies, and so rather than just pig out with a spoon, I decided to make these lovely cupcakes. They were fantastic, although my mixing in of the nutella could have been better. Oh and Clara, you are right, I didn’t even need the icing.
3. Apple dumplings. So someone not to long ago pointed me in the direction of The Pioneer Woman. I don’t know how I have not come across this before, but hey, at least I am catching up now. I have made these twice now, once for a surprise for the guys that my H’s work (they had been having a slow week) and once for my Dad’s 50th birthday. They worked fantastic and everyone raved about them (actually the guys that H works with almost swarmed me when I brought them in, and it took them no more than 1.5 minutes to polish off the whole batch). At my Dad’s party, a couple people took one look at them and asked if they were from Pioneer Woman, apparently they had been meaning to try them for a while. These were fantastic, a big hit, and are a keeper for those days when I need a quick dessert to take somewhere, thanks Pioneer Woman.
4. Chili Brownies. I love chili and chocolate, and I love the gooeyness of brownies. So I decided to try and make come chili chocolate brownies. I found this recipe on Rachel Ray’s site and decided to try it, it had all the elements I was looking for. I used a yummy 72% cocoa bar instead of the bittersweet baking chocolate, which worked great. The brownies were delicious and gooey, but sadly there was not enough chili powder (or my chili powder is old and needs to be refreshed with I am thinking is a contributor). Everyone liked them, but no one noticed that they had any heat to them. I will have to try again on this one.

Nutella Brownies

While doing some brownie searching I came across a delicious idea - nutella in brownies. Now, I am a lover of Nutella, and don't really need anything to eat it with (spoon and occasionally fingers are all I really need), and do to my lack of self control there is rarely Nutella in the house. What better excuse for picking up a nice big jar of the chocolate goodness than "But I need this for a recipe".

The recipe I found and used (For the most part) was Nutella Chocolate Fudge Brownies. I modified the recipe by cutting it in 1/2 and cooking it in a 8x8 pan instead of the full 9x13 recipe. With all the baking that goes in my house this is usually essential, if I made full batches of everything I would either be 300lbs or tossing a lot of perfectly good baking.

Now, in the intro they said they swirled Nutella into the batter, but in the instructions I did not see this, so of course I swirled Nutella into the brownies. I swirled about 1/4 of a cup of nutella into the batter before baking (I didn't really measure, just kept plopping tablespoons in until I thought it looked good).

I did follow the instructions and spread Nutella over the top as well, mmmmmm, so good.

These turned out great, albiet a little overcooked (the Nutella can make it a little deceiving about when they are finished apparently, so watch out.). Everyone loved them and only one person besides myself (that would by my lovely H) figured out I had left them in the oven a little longer than I should have.

I will have to try these again.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Alright, so I know it is past easter, but spring needed some encouragement around here (seriously, why is it snowing on April 27th?), and I wanted to do something fun as three coworkers have birthdays this week.

I used to exact recipe from I Heart Cuppycakes found here, and they turned out great!

I only used four colors for my dough, but the colors were nice and bright.

After baking:



Well alright, I experimented with a new icing recipe, as a lot of people around here don’t like lots of icing on their cupcakes (I know, what is wrong with them?). I got the icing recipe out of an old church cookbook and it looked interesting.

Icing (I halfed their recipe and it was plenty, but it can be stored in the fridge for 3 months apparently)
2 tbsp Cold Water
4 ½ tbsp White sugar

2/3 cup cooking oil
1 egg
1 tps vanilla
4 ½ cups icing sugar

1. Mix the water and white sugar together, set aside and let dissolve (stir often).
2. Beat together the cooking oil, egg, vanilla and icing sugar until it resembles whipped cream (now mine never got light and fluffy, but it did get thick and creamy.)
3. Add in the water and sugar mix. (At this point I had to add another cup of icing sugar to thicken it up a bit, but that seams to always happen, must be something about were I live, or how I measure, which umm, I have to admit a “close enough” method most days)

I really liked this icing, it smoothed itself on the top, and looked really good, as well and really stuck to the sprinkles. My H was really grateful that I hadn’t put a bunch of buttercream on top as well.