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.

Just some things.....

1.  I love salted caramel so much that I just dumped salt on my frozen yogurt.  No, really.  I did.  But it was Heath Bar frozen yogurt, and I put caramel sauce on top.  So it's not that weird...right?  Right???


2.  My poor pup has been sick for 3 days with horrible diarrhea.  I read somewhere that pumpkin helps settle dogs' tummies, but that hasn't been working.  It's just been making his poo orange.  So I was told today (on good authority) that he needs to eat this:

(ewww) instead of his beloved doggy nuggets.  BTW, that's plain boiled chicken and brown rice, if you couldn't tell.  It's kind of weird cooking dinner for my dog.  Anyway.  I felt bad for him until he gobbled it up like there was no tomorrow.  Hope it helps his belly.  Or else he's going to the vet.  Which I (and my bank account) dread.
 

3.  I'm in sort of a foul mood today.  I don't know why.  The worst kinds of foul moods are when you can't figure out why the hell you're in one to begin with.

 



4.  I say all the time how much I hate Florida and how I want to live somewhere cold.  And then when it gets cold I turn into a big giant wuss and act like I'm freezing to death.  When it's 50 degrees.  However, I'm completely justified in my dramatics today, as it's currently 41 degrees.  And it's supposed to drop another 20 degrees tonight.  I hope it snows! 

 

5.  I'm going to Providence/NYC in a week and a half and will probably freeze my thin-blooded southern ass off. 



Since it's so flipping cold, I made some of this the other night and luckily still had some leftovers for dinner tonight (and maybe lunch tomorrow!)  

I saw this White Bean Chicken Chili on Annie's Eats the other night and it looked so warm and yummy and comfort-foody.  I made this on New Year's Day.  I HATE black-eyed peas and I thought I needed some good luck for the new year, so do white northern beans count?  I think so.

 

The original recipe looked pretty healthy, with the exception of sour cream and heavy whipping cream.  I replaced those with fat free sour cream (use Breakstone's, it's still super thick and does not seem like fat free at all!) and fat free half and half.  I also added in mushrooms (love them!) and replaced one can of green chiles with a can of jalapenos.  I like some spice.  I think this would be really good with some corn in it too.  I may try that next time.  This is definitely really super tasty and will warm you up on a chilly night! 

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White Bean Chicken Chili

adapted from Annie's Eats 

makes 6 servings

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 package sliced baby bella mushrooms

2 15.5 oz cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed

1 14.5 oz can fat free chicken broth

1 4 oz can diced green chiles

1 4 oz can diced jalapenos

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp smoked paprika

1 cup fat free sour cream

1/2 cup fat free half and half

scallions, smoked paprika, and sour cream for garnish

1.  In large saucepan or dutch oven, saute chicken, onion, mushrooms, and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. 

2.  Add beans, broth, chiles, jalapenos and seasonings.  Bring to a boil.

3.  Reduce heat to a simmer and let simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and half and half. 

4.  Garnish with sour cream, smoked paprika, and scallions, if desired.

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This, along with my salty ice cream, helped pull me out of my funk a little.  What will maybe help a little more?  Hiding under my covers and watching an episode of Bones.  I'm so jealous of Dr. Brennan. She has all these cool gadgets and tools to ID her bodies.  It's not like that in real life.  We don't have those.  She also has a delicious FBI Agent driving her around all the time, too.  We don't have those, either.  Oh well, a girl can dream.  



Happy Healthy New Year

Yes, I know this blog is called jilliebeenBAKER.  But I also like to cook.  I don't cook very often (at least anything that is interesting enough to put on here) simply because it's just me and it's hard to cook for just one person.  When I do cook, it's usually something that I can freeze some of the leftovers since I get sick of eating the same thing for a week.  Usually when I get home from work, I'm too tired to do any cooking, so I will either eat a Lean Cuisine (I know, I know, not the healthiest thing in the world but it's quick and easy portion control), make some eggs (LOVE eggs), or pull out some of those leftovers I've frozen. 

Lately I've had the urge to cook more.  Probably because I've come across some great looking recipes.  And since it's the New Year, I thought I would lighten up some of the recipes a bit and see how they turned out.  I actually have been doing this sporadically the past few months, but haven't really posted much on here.  So I decided I'm going to start posting some good dinner recipes too. 

I made this recipe the other night for dinner.  I was checking my Google reader at work (bad, I know...but we were reeeeeallllly slow and I had nothing to do) and this just popped out at me and looked amazing.  Jessica told me to make this for New Year's, but I couldn't wait.  I was actually awake enough after work to go to the store, get the ingredients, and make it for dinner.  Plus it was a Friday night, so I could stay up past my bedtime. :) 

The recipe is already pretty light, but I made a few substitutions to make it just a bit more low-fat.  I replaced the oil in the crust with fat-free greek yogurt (sounds weird, but it is a great substitute!).  I also like spicy foods, so I used a whole jalapeno and a whole onion instead of the 1/2 of each called for.  I replaced the shredded cheeses with fat-free cheese and the gorgonzola with the reduced-fat version.  I know all of this reduced and low fat crap sounds bad, but when fat-free cheese melts you can't tell the difference.  I promise.  But I'll include the link to the original recipe, in case you want to try the full-fat version. 

I also couldn't find whole wheat pastry flour.  It's different than regular whole wheat flour, apparently.  I Googled substitutions and there were many.  I replaced whole wheat pastry flour with 1/2 all purpose flour and 1/2 cake flour with no issues.  I think you could probably just use all purpose flour too.  I've reflected those changes below, as well.

This turned out great, and I think I may use this crust again, but experiment with different toppings.  It came together quickly and oh my, was it good.  I felt like I was eating something really unhealthy.  This didn't last long enough for me to freeze any leftovers. 



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Whole Wheat BBQ Shrimp Flatbread

adapted from How Sweet It Is

makes 4-8 servings

Ingredients:



1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt

olive oil for brushing

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

2 oz shredded fat-free cheddar cheese

2 oz shredded fat-free mozzarella cheese

1/2 lb raw deveined and peeled shrimp

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 small red onion, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 oz reduced fat Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

cilantro and scallions for topping (I omitted cilantro because I'm not a fan)

1.  Preheat oven to 450.  In a bowl, mix shrimp and paprika.  Set aside. 

2.  In another bowl, combine flours, salt, pepper, and baking powder and mix until combined.  Add water and yogurt, then mix until a dough forms.  You can do this with your hands.  Place dough on a floured surface (or between two pieces of parchment paper) and roll out into a thin rectangle.  Place on non-stick baking sheet and bake 5-7 minutes.

3.  Remove crust from oven and brush lightly with olive oil.  Spread 2-3 Tbsp BBQ sauce on crust, then top with garlic, mozzarella, and cheddar.  Add shrimp, onion, peppers, and top with Gorgonzola and remaining BBQ sauce. 

4.  Bake for 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and outside edges of crust are golden.  Remove and let cool for 5 minutes, then top with cilantro and scallions.

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This recipe made 8 nice-sized pieces for me.  I ate two at a time and was satisfied.  Delicious!!! :) 

I did some baking yesterday and I have something yummy (and healthy!) bubbling on the stove right now, so I will post those recipes soon!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, it's technically not the "new year" yet.  But I will probably be hungover and asleep most of tomorrow so I wanted to write this today.  Warning: this might be a little sappy, so don't read if you don't want.  Just my own little personal reflection of 2011.

This has definitely been a transition year for me.  2010 sucked.  Bad.  Probably one of the worst years ever for me.  Some good things did happen, but overall, not such a good year.  I'm actually looking back in my journal that I started on Dec 26, 2010 as a sort of New Year's resolution.  I always start a few days early for some reason.  Anyway, it lists all the reasons 2010 sucked and what I was going to do to make 2011 the BEST YEAR EVER. 

First of all, I don't believe in resolutions.  They're always broken by February.  I called these "goals."  Anyway, my goals last year were pretty much resolutions:  lose weight, go on more trips, move to Tampa by February, budget better and save money, make more time for family and friends, and do the absolute best job that I can do every day at work.  Then I told myself I would write about what I was doing every day to meet my goals.  Well that lasted until.....late February.  I did an update in July.  And that's it.  See?  Resolutions don't last.  But I've kind of kept these goals in the back of my head throughout the year and have definitely made some progress. 

Anyway, here are some highlights of my year:
-Moved to Tampa (and have made it through almost a whole year without cable!)
-Met Khloe Kardashian!!! (you laugh, but she's the most normal one of the bunch and I love her.)

-My BFF Michael came to visit and we celebrated his bday at the Columbia (one of my favorite restaurants!) and by spending the day at Clearwater Beach.

-Celebrated my BFF Megan's birthday in Orlando with some Moroccan food, belly dancing lessons (in the middle of the restaurant- hah!), and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing.





- Had some fun with this crazy, amazing, hilarious lady.

- Was asked to be a bridesmaid in a dear friend's wedding



- Caught a couple of Rays games



- And ogled some hottie football players at the Bucs training camp

- Spent some time with my amazing family (and yes, we had a few beers...)

- Went to a super-crazy Jason Aldean concert with friends and had a blast!!!



- Took a trip to St. Louis for work and met some great friends.  Plus I got my certification as a Medicolegal Death Investigator.  Holla!





- Spent time and reconnected with my mom's side of the family in Southern Illinois.  Huge reunion!  Got a bunch of the first cousins together for the first time in a LONG LONG time.

- Got really lucky with a job I love and some amazing coworkers who have turned into truly great friends.

-Got my little sister in October and have had so much fun hanging out with her! (Wish I had some pictures!!!!)

- Spent the weekend in Savannah for my birthday with my BFF Michael.  SO MUCH FUN!

- Annnnd....got into just a little bit of trouble ;)

It's definitely been a fun year.  There have been some downs, but not near as many as in 2010.  I think 2012 is going to be full of changes and it's kind of scary and exciting that for me, it's a blank canvas and I have no idea what's going to happen.  With a few exceptions:
- Starting off the year with a trip to Providence, RI and NYC for my above-mentioned dear friend's bridal shower and bridesmaids/wedding dress shopping.
-Moving into a new place in a few weeks (the rent is MUCH cheaper and the place is quite a bit bigger!)
-Hoping to plan a trip to San Francisco in the spring to visit another dear friend who recently moved there.
-Also hoping to plan a cruise? (This has been on the list for the past few years and hasn't happened yet).
-Do a LOT more baking and blogging.  I have a bazillion recipes I want to try. 

In the meantime I will be celebrating with some friends tonight.  I hope everyone has a SAFE and Happy New Year.  :)

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.