Pumpkin-palooza!!!!

In honor of the temperatures hitting the high 50's this morning (it's practically about to snow!), I wanted to share a few pumpkin recipes I've made the past couple of weeks!  The first two are real-life breakfast recipes....Pumpkin Pie Smoothies and Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  The third, Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread, I like to pretend it's a breakfast food.  Yes, it's basically a loaf-shaped cake with cookies on top.  But it's called "bread," and bread is totally acceptable for breakfast.  
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Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Holy cow, this is so yummy.  It definitely tastes like a pumpkin milkshake, but it's actually really healthy and filling.  I've seen a lot of different recipes for this floating around Pinterest, so I sort of combined elements of those with what I like in my usual smoothies, and threw together my own recipe.  This would be really good with butterscotch or vanilla pudding mix, too.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

makes 1 large smoothie

Ingredients:

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

a hand full of ice cubes 

1/4 cup dry oats

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional- makes it more filling)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 packet Jello Sugar Free White Chocolate Pudding mix

1/4-1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk (to consistency)

Throw all ingredients in blender and blend until it's the consistency you like.  Top with a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.  

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Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal:

This is another recipe I sort of just threw together this morning.  It was so lovely outside, so I decided to grab my (pumpkin spice) coffee and a bowl of pumpkin pie oatmeal and dig through some cookbooks for some nice, warm, comfort foods to cook this week.  (BTW- does anyone else find that they have a TON of cookbooks, but get their recipes mostly from Pinterest?  I had forgotten how much I love just sitting and reading cookbooks!)  This is another really filling breakfast, and perfect for chilly mornings!  I think I'm going to make a big batch to take to work for breakfasts throughout the week.  

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

makes 1 serving

Ingredients:

1/2 cup instant dry oats

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp brown sugar

splash of almond milk

1.  Stir together oats and water in a microwaveable bowl.  Microwave for 2 minutes.

2.  Spoon pumpkin and brown sugar on top of oats and cook another 30-45 seconds, until brown sugar starts to melt.

3.  Stir in pumpkin, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and almond milk.  Enjoy!

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Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread

*I totally forgot to take a picture of this.  I found the recipe on another blog, but with copyrights and stuff, I'm not sure if I can use their pictures...not sure how that works.  I don't want to be a copyright infringer, so look here for the original recipe and pictures!  Hers are probably better than mine, anyway!*

We have the sweetest neighbors ever.  You see, Garrett adopted my crazy pup when I moved in.  Rocky is a sweet, adorable, loving dog, but has a bit of separation anxiety, which worsened when we moved here.  Let's just say a couple of windows, a bathroom door, and some fishing poles have been harmed while Garrett and I were out running errands (on more than one occasion).  After a lot of brainstorming (and trial and error), we ended up building Rocky a pretty sweet shaded pen in the backyard (and when I say "pen," I mean bigger than some bedrooms I've had).  Our neighbors moved in shortly after I did, and just happen to LOVE dogs.  They lost 3 doggies in one year to old age, and couldn't bring themselves to go through that pain again so they never got a new dog.  One day, our neighbors talked to Garrett and ASKED if they could watch Rocky sometime.  They watched him for a couple of weekends when we went out of town, and then ASKED if they could come over and get him during the day when we're at work!  Lonely pup in need of ear scratches and belly rubs + super-sweet doggy-loving neighbors who love giving pup attention all day = win-win situation.  Our neighbors always tell us how much they love Rocky, but we are SO grateful to have such loving sweet people to watch him for us when we're gone!  I think it's just as good for Rocky as it is for them!  

Last week I wanted to take them a small thank-you gift.  I decided to bake them something special and had been wanting to try this recipe for awhile (how can you go wrong with Biscoff cookies and pumpkin?!?!).  I doubled the recipe and took a loaf next door, and kept a loaf for us (and by us, I mean me, since I think I ate the whole loaf, minus the one bite I made Garrett try).  If you make any pumpkin bread this fall, make this one.  Holy cow.  So delicious.  

Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread

makes one loaf

recipe courtesy of Will Cook for Smiles

Ingredients:

FOR THE BREAD:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup Biscoff cookie crumbs

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice (I used a heaping tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of the 3 spices)

STREUSEL TOPPING:

1/2 cup Biscoff cookie crumbs

1/2 stick butter, cold

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.  

2.  For cookie crumbs: pulse half a package of Biscoff cookies in food processor until you get fine crumbs.  (Or do what I did and put them in a Ziplock baggie and pound the heck out of them with the can of pumpkin). 

3..  Whisk wet ingredients and brown sugar together in a bowl until smooth.

4.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices into the wet mixture.  Add cookie crumbs and whisk until incorporated. 

5.  Pour batter into pan, spreading evenly.

6.  For the streusel: pulse cold butter, cookie crumbs and cinnamon in a food processor until crumbly.  (Or do what I did and cut the butter into cubes and cut cookie crumbs and cinnamon in with a pastry cutter/fork).  Sprinkle crumbs evenly over the batter.

7.  Bake 55-60 minutes and cool on wire rack (if you can wait that long).  Remove from pan and eat the whole loaf eat a small slice.  :)

I hope you enjoy these pumpkin recipes as much as I do!  This week since it's getting chilly (for Florida) I'm making a couple of different soups and a pasta dish that will be some nice, yummy comfort food.  I'll share those recipes later this week. :)  

Providence and NYC Trip- Part 1: Providence

First of all, let me say I'm an idiot.  I thought I was "cleaning up" my Picasa web albums (I hate clutter) and deleting all of the old pics that were already on my blog.  Well, since I upload my blog pics from Picasa, I soon found out that if I delete the photos from Picasa, they disappear from my blog.  So, I apologize for all of my pictures disappearing.  It's not a great loss, they were crap anyway.  I have now learned my lesson. 

Now moving on to the fun stuff! 

I recently took a trip to Providence, RI and NYC for a whirlwind week of pre-wedding festivities/shopping/errands.  I think I mentioned that one of my best friends is getting married later this year.  The first half of the trip was to Providence to throw a bridal shower for Gillian.  I flew to Providence on a Thursday.  I left the 75 degree weather in Tampa and landed in freezing rain.  Gah!  I think it was only in the 40's, which I can handle (and even enjoy) but with the rain, it was awful cold.  Thursday was pretty uneventful.  Everyone else was scheduled to arrive on Friday, so G and I spent the day lounging about her (really cool warehouse-like loft) apartment and catching up.  Once David got home from work, we all three braved the cold to get some Greek food for dinner.  I can't remember the name of the place (I'm such a horrible travel-memorizer) but it was just a little college hangout Greek place near Brown University.  I had a gyro and we all shared falafel.  As much as I eat Greek food, this was my first falafel experience, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The gyro was pretty darn tasty too!

We had dinner at Gillian and David's apartment on Friday.  We had a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (a homemade one was put off by re-routed flights and a surprise trip to pick up Natalie, maid of honor, from Boston), along with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.  I'm happy to say I now have a new recipe for brussels sprouts (thanks G!).  More lounging about on Friday night after picking Natalie up from her late flight into Boston. 

Saturday started with a trip to the farmer's market.  I bought some raspberry chocolate jelly for myself and a couple gifts as well.  I sampled all sorts of stuff to my heart's content.  We ate an early lunch in the food-court area of the market (which is indoors in the winter...go figure).  I had a bowl of Portuguese Fish Chowder from a restaurant whose name I also can't remember.  Doh.  But holy cow, it was amazing.  I could've eaten 5 more bowls of it.  Then we all shared a butter and sugar crepe which was TO. DIE. FOR. 

Saturday night, we all braved the cold (windchill was something like 8 degrees!) and walked to dinner at Siena.  We shared appetizers of fried calamari and some sort of fried lobster risotto ball thingies.  I loved that their calamari was all rings and no tentacles.  The tentacles kinda scare me.  And the risotto balls...holy yum.  I can't remember the name of them, and they're not on the menu because they were on special.  Sorry.  I should really take notes (and more pictures) when I go on vacation.  Note taken for next time.  For my entree, I had the Tortellaci con Zucca.  Yeah, no idea what that means.  It's ravioli filled with butternut squash, amaretti crumbs, caramelized onions, provolone, and parmesan cheese.  And then....and then....AND THEN...they pour BROWN BUTTER over the top and add crispy fried sage leaves to the top it all off.  Needless to say, I will be attempting to recreate this at home.  It was so rich, but I ate every bite.  Quite a few of the rest of our party had the Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, which I can also say is extremely tasty.  For dessert, we took home some doughboys to enjoy while watching Tom Brady and the Patriots cream my boyfriend Tim Tebow and the Broncos.  Sigh.  That was sad.  But the doughboys cheered me up.  They're basically huge fried cinnamon sugar donut puff-things.  They come with vanilla ice cream and Nutella for dipping.  Yeah, no further explanation needed. 

Sunday was the bridal shower.  Natalie (MOH), Bailey (G's sis), and I had been planning for a couple of months and were really hoping it would turn out nicely.  We were pleased how it turned out.  Our only complaint was that the room was FREEZING!!!!  We reserved a room CAV Restaurant for a brunch shower.  The restaurant has such fun, eclectic, shabby chic decorations.  I loved the crystal chandeliers and was impressed with the food.  I had the French Toast which was amazing.  Thick and fluffy, with a crispy crust and super-sweet, just how I like it.  The other options were salmon frittata (which I don't think anyone chose) and eggs with toast and bacon.  They also provided a nice fruit platter and unlimited coffee, which we needed since the windchill decided to be NEGATIVE 5 that day and the room wasn't much warmer.  Garsh, we Florida girls were chilly.  For dessert, I made a batch of Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing (at G's request) and a batch of the famous Magnolia Bakery Vanilla-Vanilla Cupcakes.  That's my go-to vanilla recipe, but more on that later.  The shower seemed to turn out really nicely and gave G and all the lovely ladies in her family a chance to catch up and congratulate the bride-to-be. 

Sunday afternoon, we took a drive up to Federal Hill to Pastiche BakeryCaserta's to pick up a couple of pizzas.  We got a plain cheese, a spinach pie, and a "bakery pizza" (aka Rhode Island Pizza).  The cheese was pretty good as far as cheese pizzas go.  The spinach pie, however?  Amazing.  It was more in the shape of a calzone and was filled with spinach, cheese, and apparently black olives, but I couldn't taste them.  Which is good.  I hate black olives.  Rhode Island pizza was something new to me.  Gillian and David  had described it to me as pizza with no cheese or toppings, served cold.  So, cold bread with cold tomato sauce?  Yep.  Pretty much.  Sounded sorta gross to me, but once I started eating it, I couldn't stop.  We had picked one up Friday night too, so we snacked on this all weekend.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. 

Sunday night, we watched the Golden Globes and gossiped about everyone's dresses and how pretty/ugly/weird everyone looked.  Then we hit the hay early for our whirlwind trip to NYC!!! 

NYC is going in the next post, since I doubt anyone is even reading this anymore.  We packed so much into 2.5 days that it's going to take a ridiculously long post to write about.  

Snickerdoodle Scones

I love Snickerdoodles.  They're probably my favorite type of cookie.  I know most people choose chocolate chip as their favorite.  And don't get me wrong, I love me a good chocolate chip cookie.  But Snickerdoodles are just perfect for me.  Maybe because my favorite food EVER is a cinnamon roll?  Maybe because my Granny made them for me whenever I went to visit her as a little girl?  I have no idea, but the cinnamon sugar combo gets me every time. 


I've been seeing a LOT of recipes lately for Snickerdoodle-inspired recipes.  Snickerdoodle cupcakes, for example.  Which I need to make ASAP. 


Then I saw this recipe for Snickerdoodle Scones on Annie's Eats and almost died.  I've only recently gotten into scones.  I've made them a few times over the past few months, and I realized how easy they are to make.  They make a great snack or breakfast.  Plus, you can freeze the dough, then pull it out of the freezer and pop into the oven whenever you want!  Perfect! 


Instead of making full-sized scones, I split the dough into two rounds and made mini scones.  I froze one round of dough for when I am craving these again.  I'm trying to watch portions and not eat an entire recipe of a baked good in one sitting, so this was a good idea.  The mini scones were just enough for a few bites of something sweet.  :)  My only comment on these is that I needed to bake these a little bit longer than called for, but all ovens are different, so just make sure they're not still doughy in the middle when you pull them out of the oven! 

Like my Chinese takeout tupperware?  Heh heh heh. 

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Snickerdoodle Scones

from Annie's Eats

makes 8 regular-sized scones (or 16 mini-scones)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

6 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup milk or heavy cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.  Stir together with a fork.  Add the cold butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter until the mixture is crumbly and the largest butter pieces are the size of peas.

3.  Combine the milk and vanilla in a measuring cup.  Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and stir together with a fork just until the mixture forms a cohesive dough.  IF necessary, knead the dough a few times by hand to bring the dough together. 

4.  Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet and form into a large round (or two) disc about 8-9 inches in diameter.  In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping.  Sprinkle generously over the top of the dough round.

5.  Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool on the pan, then slice into 8 (or 16) wedges for serving.

****Note:  If you want to freeze some of the dough, divide the dough in two.  Bake one round as instructed above.  Sprinkle the other round with the cinnamon sugar mixture, wrap in plastic wrap, then foil, and then freeze in a Ziploc bag.  When ready to bake, remove from bag and wrappings, place on cookie sheet and bake frozen.  Just add a few minutes to the baking time.****

The Best Blueberry Muffins Ever

I mentioned awhile back that my friend Sherry gave me a bag of frozen blueberries that were hand picked in Michigan.  She froze them a few months ago and gave them to me to bake something yummy.  Well Christmas and Thanksgiving kept me pretty busy with other baking, so I just got around to baking something with these last week. 


I have been bookmarking a TON of recipes with blueberries, knowing I would soon be baking something with them.  But out of all of those recipes, what sounded the best to me was just some good old-fashioned blueberry muffins.  Sometimes less is more, people.


These muffins are super-fantastic because they have a streusel topping on them.  The best blueberry muffins always have that sweet crumbly top, you know?  I have to say (and I'm not tooting my own horn, here) that these were the best blueberry muffins I think I've ever had.  I'm definitely keeping this recipe handy for future reference.  It's a really quick, one-bowl recipe.  The only thing I'll say is that if you're using frozen blueberries in the batter, make sure they're straight out of the freezer and stir them in gently so the batter doesn't get a funny color.  :)  Oh, and the original recipe says it makes 8 muffins.  I definitely got 9 good-sized muffins out of the batter. 

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Blueberry Muffins

from Annie's Eats

makes 9 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

approx 1/3 cup milk

1 cup (or more) of blueberries

Streusel topping:

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp flour

2 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Grease 9 muffin tins or line with muffin liners.

2.  Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Place vegetable in a 1 cup measuring cup.  Add the egg and milk to fill the cup.  Mix this into the flour mixture.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Pour into lined muffin cups and fill to the top. 

3.  To make streusel topping, combine ingredients and mix well with a fork until crumbly.  Sprinkle (or heap, as I did) over the tops of the muffins. 

4.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

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Wow.  I take ridiculously awful pictures.  One day I will join the food-blogger ranks and get a good camera.  But for now, I have to use my phone.  Oh well.  They taste a whole lot better than they look. 

I still have a ton of blueberries left, and Sherry also just gave me some crazy mutant lemons from her dad's lemon tree.  So I'll be making a treat with lemons and blueberries this weekend!  I'll post those soon! 

Meanwhile, tonight, I'm going to The Columbia with my buddies from work.  If you've never been to the Columbia, you need to come to Tampa RIGHTNOW and go.  You don't know what you're missing.  They have a few locations in the Tampa Bay area, and I grew up going to the one in Sarasota.  But the one in Tampa is really the best.  It's the original location from 1905, and the mobsters used to eat there!  It's in the coolest historic building and on weekends they do flamenco shows!  Plus, they have the best sangria in the world and the food is to DIE for.  I don't even like mojitos and theirs are the best.  Plus, I'm secretly Cuban.  So I'm in my element. 

P.S. Did anyone watch The Kennedys miniseries?  I've been sitting on my ass since yesterday (with the exception of running earlier) watching it, alternating with episodes of Bones.  I'm a little obsessed.  Kbye.

December Daring Bakers Challenge

Again, I know this is a couple of days late.  Hope they don't kick me out.  Whoops.

I think I'm the Daring Bakers rebel this month.  I post late, I utterly FAILED at this recipe and I'm going to talk about how disgusting my recipe turned out.  And I didn't try again.  Because this particular baked good took A WEEK to make.  So, um, sorry.  Although I did follow through and do the whole challenge (it included using the baked good in another, original, recipe).  I hope next month is something better.

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Sourdough.  Yum.  I was totally excited.  Although my last couple of attempts at anything involving yeast have been humongous thumbs-downs.  So Sourdough doesn't involve yeast- at least the kind you buy at the store.  You make your own by letting flour and water sit on your counter and ferment for 5 days.  Appetizing...not.

There were 3 different options to choose from: French Country Bread, Russian Rye Bread, or Rice, Brazil Nut and Flaxseed Bread.

They all had strange flours that I thought I would never find anywhere except online, and I didn't think I had the time to find them, order them, have them shipped, and have the flour ferment on my counter for a week.  So I chose the French Country Bread.  It had the least-weird ingredients of them all and I figured I'd be able to find whole wheat bread flour.  Um, no.  I even went to the organic stores.  No dice.  So I just bought whole wheat flour.  I know bread flour has a higher protein content, but I figured if it's fermenting, it shouldn't make a difference. 

BIG MISTAKE.

So the flour and water did ferment.  Sort of.  I almost don't want to show you a picture because it looks so gross.

I said almost.  Bahahah.  It looks like a lump of puke.  That was after day 1.  Days 2-5 didn't look much different so I didn't take pictures.  Each day, you add a little more flour and water.  It did start to grow and take up about half of that bowl, and it smelled yeasty, but it just wouldn't bubble up like the recipe said it should.  It had a few bubbles in it, but I knew it was wrong.  Oh well.  I kept keepin-on.  So on day 5, you add some more junk to the yeasty rotten stuff.  More flour, salt, water.  Let it rest for awhile. 

Still looks nasty.  Whatever.  Then you make a loose dough without the yeasty junk.  Form it into a ball, and then add the yeasty junk (it's really called "starter" btw, but I can't bring myself to call it that) on top.  Like so:



It just looks hard and lumpy.  Ugh.  Then you fold it all together for like 20 minutes or something (good arm workout at the least!).  Then you put it in a basket with a blown-up grocery bag around it.  Huh?  I don't think I read this part before I started the recipe.  It said a "proofing basket."  I'm sorry.  I'm not a stay-at-home bread maker.  I don't bake fresh bread every morning.  I have a job.  So I have no clue what a proofing basket even is.  There was a handy youtube video, so I watched that.  It looked like the basket I have in my room that holds magazines.  So I removed the magazines and of course cleaned the basket.  Then you line it with a kitchen towel, dump flour on it, and plop the loaf in.  Then you're apparently supposed to put a grocery bag around it, blow it up full of air, and tie it.  So the bread is in a balloon, sort of.  Well, my basket was too big for the Target bag I had ready, so I used a garbage bag.  Which was way too big, but whatever.  I blew it up and felt like a total weirdo.  I let my bread sit for 4 hours and guess what?  It didn't rise one bit.  It looked like this:

Whatever.  So I baked it anyway.  I'd come this far.  When it came out of the oven, I got a little excited.  It was still flat and looked like a big rock and weighed about 10 lbs (not kidding), but it had a nice crust.  And it smelled pretty good. 



 This was the toughest, chewiest bread I have ever had in my entire life.  It didn't TASTE bad, but I got a jaw-ache from trying to eat it.  My loaf of bread was so sad and flat. 

Well, I still had to make a recipe out of this crap.  So I made an open-faced buffalo chicken sandwich.
Here's the recipe, if you can call it that.

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Open-Faced Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

makes 1 sandwich

2 slices sourdough bread (preferably not MY sourdough bread)

1/2 cup chopped cooked chicken breast

a few Tbsp buffalo sauce

2 Laughing Cow Blue Cheese Wedges

2 Tbsp shredded cheddar cheese

1.  Spread each piece of bread with 1 wedge of cheese.  Toast.

2.  In microwave safe bowl, combine chicken and buffalo sauce.  Microwave 1-2 minutes, until heated through.

3.  Top toast with buffalo chicken mixture, then sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Pop in the toaster oven or under broiler for a few seconds until cheese is melted.

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Christmas Cookie EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!!!!!!

I love Christmas!  It means family, friends, and lots and lots of baking.  Which we all know makes me a very happy girl. 

I baked a cake the other day for a coworker to take to church for a Christmas party and it was so much fun.  It had been awhile since I've actually decorated a cake for real and it felt really good to get back into it. 

I've got a few parties/get-togethers coming up too, so I'll of course be baking for those.  (Is it kind of sad that all of my "holiday" parties this year are on or after Christmas?  I think so.  But I digress.) 

And of course, we have the Christmas Cookies.  I've sort of made it my tradition to bake a bunch of cookies and give them to friends as gifts.  I started doing this in college and have been doing it (almost) every year since.  I try to mix it up every year, make a different assortment of cookies and candies.  I think this year may be the best, due to all of the blogs I've been reading and recipes I've been bookmarking.  It took me almost a full day to narrow down the recipes, but I think I found some winners! 

I don't think I took a picture of the actual cookie boxes (shame on me), but I used small shirt boxes that you can buy at Target ($2 for a pack of 4).  They have cute little Christmas designs on them, and you don't have to wrap them or anything.  I used stick-on gift tags to label who they go to, and to separate the treats inside, I used Christmas treat bags (also from Target, $1.99 for a pack of 20).  I made labels out of brown cardstock.  I cut them out with pinking shears, then wrote the name of the cookie with a red Sharpie, punched a hole in it, and attached them to each bag with the twistie tie.  I kind of randomly thought of it yesterday and I think it looks SO freaking adorable. 

So...here we go!  12 hours of baking (yes, 12) condensed into one post.  I didn't take a TON of pictures, but you'll get the idea. :) Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!!

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Striped Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Ganache

These cookies are so cute!  I saw them on 17 and Baking awhile back and knew they would be perfect for Christmas.  I've never made meringue cookies before (although I've made meringue cake- see Sans Rival- and it turned out great!) and I was a little apprehensive.  Elisa did warn in her post that if you use peppermint extract that includes peppermint oil in the actual cookies, they will deflate (the whole rule about egg whites deflating with any little smidgen of fat).  Hers didn't get as puffy, although if you look at her post, they're TOTALLY cute.  She suggested that if you can't find peppermint extract without the oil, put the extract in the chocolate ganache, instead of in the cookies.  Which is what I did, and the cookies still have a great peppermint flavor.  You can't even tell if it's in the cookies or the chocolate.  I've adapted the recipe to reflect all that.

I also think I made my cookies a bit on the small side.  That's okay- they're bite-sized.  Next time I make them I'm going to use a larger piping tip, but they still turned out pretty cute. :)

I love fluffy meringue.

Striped Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Ganache

adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

Makes about 5 dozen

Meringue:

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

Red Gel food coloring (I used Wilton no-taste Red)

Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup heavy cream

4 1/2 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used chocolate chips and found I had to add more to get the consistency I needed.  Just eyeball it)

1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 175 F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Whisk the egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer over a pan of simmering water.  Stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm and smooth between your fingertips, about 3-5 minutes.  Transfer the bowl to the mixer and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form. 

With a small, clean paintbrush, paint 3 stripes of food coloring inside a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip.  Then fill with 1-2 cups of meringue and pipe small, 3/4" high stars onto the sheets.  If you need to refill the pastry bag (or use a new one), repaint the food coloring. 

Bake the cookies until crisp, but not brown, about 1 hour 40 minutes.  Cool completely on wire racks before sandwiching with ganache.

To make the ganache: bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Pour over the chocolate in a small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.  Add in peppermint extract.  Stir until smooth and let cool to room temp, stirring occasionally.  The ganache should be thick enough to hold its shape (I had to refrigerate mine for a few minutes).  Fill ganache into a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip and pipe a small mound of ganache onto one meringue, then top with another. 

Store cookies in a single layer in an airtight container at room temp for up to 2 days.

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Glazed Sprinkle Cookies

I was going to make cut-out, iced, decorated sugar cookies.  Then I decided I'm making way too many other things and that would just take even more time to do.  I saw this recipe and they were cute and looked delicious.  Still festive, and were pretty easy.  The cookies aren't too sweet, which is a good thing, since the glaze is.  That's about all I have to say about these.  Except I may have gone a little overboard with some of the sprinkles.  Is that a bad thing?

Glazed Sprinkle Cookies

from Sugar Crafter

Makes 2 1/2-3 dozen

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp lemon extract

For the glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs on high 3-4 minutes until pale.  In another large bowl, whisk together flour, powdered sugar, and baking powder.  Work in shortening with a pastry cutter.  Stir in extracts until crumbly.  With the mixer on low, add flour mixture into eggs.

Roll the dough into 1" balls and place 2" apart on cookie sheets.  Bake 12-14 minutes or until very lightly browned.

In the meantime, make the glaze.  In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.

Once the cookies are cool, dip each one into the glaze.  Pour the sprinkles on top and let dry.  Store in an airtight container. 

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 Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (Homemade Oreos)

Aaaah!!!!  I saw this recipe on a blog and I feel like such a dinkus that I can't remember for the life of me which blog it was.  :/  Although I do remember that person got the recipe from ANOTHER blog,  so let me just say: I AM NOT PLAGIARIZING THIS RECIPE.  IT IS NOT MY OWN.  Just in case. 

These cookies definitely take some forethought and planning, and I wish I had read the entire recipe beforehand to know that I had to refrigerate the dough for 2-3 hours.  I would've made these first had I known that.  Whoops.  The dough is a little tricky to work with.  Straight out of the freezer, it's too hard and cracks.  If it gets too soft, it sticks to your cookie cutter and gets all gloppy.  It has to be just right.  But let me say, these are SO worth the trouble.  They're even BETTER than Oreos.  And I'm an Oreo expert.  So if you have the patience, make these.  I'm definitely making them again.  Oh: and the filling?  Ohmigod.  I'll just leave it at that.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (Homemade Oreos)

stolen from a blog I can't remember the name of

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen sandwich cookies

For the dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

1/2 stick butter, at room temp

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then beat in egg yolk and vanilla.  At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms.  Divide dough in half and form each piece into a 6-inch square, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Roll out 1 piece of dough between sheets of parchment paper into a 14x10 inch rectangle (1/8 inch thick).  Freeze dough until firm, about 10 minutes.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Cut out as many rounds as possible with a 2 inch cutter, reserving and chilling scraps, then quickly transfer cookies to baking sheet. 

Bake cookies until baked through and slightly puffed, 10-12 minutes.  Cook on sheet on rack for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to rack to cool completely (cookies will crisp as they cool).

Make more cookies with remaining dough and scraps.

To make the filling: beat the butter and shortening together at medium speed until combined and smooth.  Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in sugar and vanilla.  Increase speed to high and beat for 2-3 minutes until the filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, pipe a heaping teaspoon of filling onto the flat side of a cookie.  Top with another cookie to make a sandwich.  Store in airtight container at room temp.

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Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

I made little tags and baggies for these too, but by the time I was done with these, I was DONE.  I wasn't taking any more pictures.  You can see how half-assed my white chocolate glaze is.  These cookies were the biggest pain in my ass.  The dough is so sticky and turns EVERYTHING, including your hands and kitchen counter, red.  The dough looks like bloody meatballs.  I had eaten so many cookies and samples of dough and icing that I was about to be sick, so these cookies disgusted me sort of.  Until this morning when I had one for breakfast and it was awesome.  :) 

These cookies are a total pain in the ass.  I doubled the recipe because it said it made 10 giant cookies.  I was going for a few dozen smaller cookies.  So if you make these, maybe you should go for the giant cookies.  They'll probably be a lot easier to make.  They are delicious, though.  Especially for breakfast.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

from Two Peas and Their Pod

makes 10 giant cookies

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

For cheesecake filling:

4 oz cream cheese, room temp

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

For white chocolate drizzle

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

To make filling: Using a mixer, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  Using a teaspoon, scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate.  Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into balls until you have 10.  Place plate in freezer and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  To assemble the cookies, take 1/4 cup cookie dough and flatten in your hands.  Place a cheesecake filling ball in the center and wrap dough around filling.  Gently roll into a ball and place on baking sheet.  Bake only 3 cookies at a time, as they will spread.  Bake 11-13 minutes or until cookies begin to crackle.  Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack and cool completely. 

Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave. Drizzle over cooled cookies (I used a ziploc back with the corner snipped off).  Let cookies set until chocolate hardens.

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So there you have it.  I also included a family candy recipe in my cookie boxes, which I will share later.  Now I have to go clean my kitchen and bleach all the red off my counters.  Merry Christmas!



Toffee Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

I'm back after having a FABULOUS 4 day weekend in Savannah with my BFF Michael.  We had an amazing time and I have to say it was one of the best birthdays ever.  I ate a lot of food, drank a lot, and got to spend time in one of my favorite places with one of my favorite people.  But that is another whole post in itself (coming soon).  

This post is about someone else's birthday.  My high school friend Robin's birthday is a few days before mine and we went out for drinks last week to celebrate.  I love baking for people on their birthdays.  It's kind of a new thing, but it's so much fun to search through recipes and find something that you know that person will love.  And when I saw these, I knew Robin would love them.  She loves the Caramel Brulee Latte at Starbucks (who am I kidding? We both love those things).  And these bars have similar components.  Caramel (lots of it), toffee bits (almost like the crunchies they put on top of the latte?)...I thought they would be perfect.  Along with a Starbucks gift card so she could enjoy a latte with these treats. 

Let me tell you.  It took just about all I had not to eat half the pan of these before it was time to leave.  I did cut myself a thin strip off the edge (the "ugly" pieces...riiight) and savored them.  And now I'm wishing I kept a couple bars for myself because they were that good.  And SO easy.  So I'm going to stop talking and tell you how to make them. 

Another blog I've really come to love is Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  Kristan is HILARIOUS and the things she comes up with....they're rich and chocolatey and gooey and every recipe on there looks like the best thing you could imagine.  Gahhhh...I can't wait to make everything on there! 

Yes.  These bars have ALL OF THESE THINGS IN THEM.  A whole bag of chocolate chips.  And white chocolate chips.  And toffee bits.  I didn't think it would all fit.  But it totally did.

All of your ingredients.  Minus the Caramel Brulee Latte.  Not sure how that got there.  :/

Mix together cake mix, oil, and eggs.  Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits, and press half into the bottom of a super-duper greased, foiled baking dish.  Bake for 10 minutes to get a crust.

I want to eat it already.

Mix caramel bits (the best invention ever), butter, and condensed milk and microwave until it looks like....

...this.  I may or may not have burned my fingers (and tongue) pretty badly while trying to eat this. Multiple times.

Pour caramel over crust and top with crumbled cake mixture.  Bake it and you get....

...edges that look like this.  They're so ugly, you'd hate to give them to anyone.  So you have to try them to make sure that this whole pan of stuff is even suitable to give to anyone.  Right?  Unfortunately, they were delicious so I had to give them away.  Plus it would be really mean to eat all of someone else's birthday treats. 

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Toffee Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 oz) box of yellow cake mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) bag chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

1 cup white chocolate chips (again, Ghirardelli)

1 cup crushed Heath Bars or Heath Bar toffee bits

1/2 cup butter, room temp

32 Kraft Caramels, unwrapped (duh) or 1 bag of Kraft Caramel Bits (These are the best invention ever!  Use them!)

1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray thoroughly with cooking spray.

2.  Pour cake mix, oil, and eggs into the large bowl of a mixer (or you can use your hand mixer).  Beat on medium until well mixed.  Fold in chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and toffee bits.  Press half the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.

3.  While the crust is baking, put the caramels, butter, and condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl.  Heat on high 2 minutes.  Stir and repeat every 30 seconds until caramel is melted and mixture is smooth.  Pour mixture over baked crust and top with remaining cake mixture (Just crumble it on and spread it as evenly as possible.  It will spread when it bakes). 

4.  Bake 25-30 minutes, until the top is set and golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool at room temp for about an hour.  Refrigerate until set (another hour), then peel foil from the bottom and cut into bars. 

5.  Share them with your friends.  If you can bring yourself to part with them.