Cookie Dough Bites

I saw these little gems on a blog called bakerella. Which I am sure most of you have come across, and if you have not please go. It is an amazing blog! These were delicious and did not last very long at my house.

Cookie Dough Truffles
1/2 Cup    Butter, room temp
1/4 Cup    Sugar
1/2 Cup    Packed Brown Sugar (I used dark, bakerella used light)
2 Tbsp.    Milk
1/2 tsp.    Vanilla
1 1/4 Cup    AP Flour
1/2 tsp.    Salt (if using unsalted butter)
1/2 Cup    Mini Chocolate Chips

For Coating
either
Chocolate candy coating
Or
2 Cups    Chocolate chips
1 Tbsp    Shortening

Cut butter into chunks and put both brown and white sugars into bowl

Beat until light and fluffy, around 3 Min

Add milk and vanilla, mix until combined.

Add in flour and salt (if used) until combined.

Stir in chocolate chips with a spatula. Place into fridge (or freezer just don't forget about them) until firm enough to scoop and roll into 1" balls. Around 15-30 Min

I just estimated the size and ended up with 40 of them. Place onto a sheet pan with either wax or parchment paper. Place into freezer for at least 15 min to firm up. 

I cut cake pop sticks in half and put one in each cookie dough bite. 

For the coating either follow the directions on the back of the candy coating package or:

melt the 2 cups of chocolate chips with the 1 Tbsp of shortening until smooth, melt 30 seconds at a time and stir.

Take out of freezer and dip however you like, you can dip all the way like Bakerella, or like caramel apples like mine. You could even put into a decorating bag and drizzle it over the bites.

Place back into the fridge to firm up, keep refrigerated for up to a week

Enjoy!

Pie Crust

I went looking for a pie crust a few days ago because the one I currently use has more ingredients and is a little more time consuming. I wanted something I could just throw together when I got into the mood to make a pie, or a quiche...So I took my search to google and I found this recipe.

It is very simple, nice and flaky and delicious.

Pie Dough:
1/2 Cup    Butter (Frozen and grated)
1 1/4 Cup    AP Flour
1/4 tsp.    Salt (only if using unsalted butter)
1/4 Cup    Ice Water

I used a cheese grater and straight from the freezer butter. I grated with the bigger size.

Mix grated butter into the flour, add salt (if used) at this point.

For the ice water just fill a cup with ice add some water and wait a couple min while it gets nice and cold. Then measure out 1/4 Cup and add to the flour 1 Tbsp. at a time, I stirred the water in with a spatula and when I was finished adding the water I used my hands to incorporate all of the dry in. 

*Do not knead too much otherwise your crust will shrink in the pan while baking.*

At this point you can either wrap it in plastic wrap and place into the fridge or you can immediately roll it out if it is not too soft. 

Roll the dough out, trying to keep it circle. A trick to keep the dough from sticking to the table or wherever you are rolling it out at is...keep the dough moving. Roll out the dough a little then rotate a quarter turn keep going until you can fit an 8" or 9" pie pan.

Transfer the dough to a pie pan (I always spray my pans with cooking spray) decorate the edges however  you want. 

To pre-bake a pie crust bake at 350F until golden brown 

Enjoy!

Strawberry Bundt Cake

Let me start out by saying I love strawberries, in cakes, pastries, pudding, yogurt, smoothies, shakes, anything. So it was only natural that I start searching for a delicious strawberry cake. Now, this cake is not a strawberry cake but a plain moist cake with fresh strawberries in the batter. Now without further ado. Here is the original recipe.

Strawberry Cake
1 Cup (2 sticks)    Butter, Softened (I used salted, so I omitted the salt)
2 Cups    Sugar
3    Eggs
1 Tbsp.    Lemon Juice
Zest of 1 Lemon
2 1/2 Cups    A.P. Flour (Keep 1/4 Cup to the side)
1/2 tsp.    Baking Soda
1/2 tsp.    Salt (omit if using salted butter)
8 Oz.    Plain or Vanilla Greek Yogurt (I actually used sour cream)
12 Oz.    Fresh Strawberries, diced

Glaze
1 Cup    Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp.    Lemon Juice

For the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 375F, Grease and flour a Bundt Pan (10 In)

Place sugar into mixing bowl and cut butter into chunks.

Cream together, as you can see I did not fully cream together and the cake turned out beautifully.

Sift together 2 1/4 Cups of flour, baking soda and salt (if used), stir in the lemon zest.

Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then stir in 1 Tbsp. of lemon juice. Mix in the flour mixture and the yogurt (or sour cream) alternating between the two, only mixing until incorporated.

With the remaining 1/4 Cup flour, mix in with the strawberries. (I just used my hand)

Fold into batter.

Place into prepared bundt pan.

Turn the oven down to 325F, and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20 mins in the pan, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

For the Glaze.

Whisk together 2 Tbsp. lemon juice and 1 Cup powder sugar until smooth.

Wait until completely and drizzle over the top of cake.

Enjoy!

Yellow Cupcakes

I have made a bunch of different flavors of cakes from scratch but I don't think I have ever made a yellow cake. So, I went out searching for a yellow cake that sounded delicious and this is what I found. This recipe came out of a McCalls Cookbook from 1910! I couldn't wait to try such an old recipe. It is a one bowl yellow cake, which is awesome since a lot of recipes I was finding were very time consuming, separating the eggs...etc... What I wanted was a quick, yummy, fluffy yellow cake and that is exactly what I got!

So, as you can see at the bottom of the page I did not frost mine. It is such a versatile recipe that's not too sweet that I...used it as a muffin for chili! I wanted to see if it would taste good together and it did, although I would probably omit the vanilla if I were going to use it for chili again, I might even add some corn to it to make it more of a corn bread.  I will make another post on my adventures in making this recipe a corn bread recipe. So, here I present to you a delicious (in my opinion) yellow cake, frost it with classic chocolate frosting, vanilla frosting, powder sugar, whipped cream....Or you can do like I did and eat it with some homemade chili!!

Yellow Cake:
Yield: 1 (8") Cake (or about 16 Cupcakes)

2 Cups    A.P. Flour
1 1/4 Cups    sugar
1 Tbsp.    Baking Powder
1 Tsp.    Salt (omit if you use salted butter)
1/2 Cup    Butter, soft but not melted
1 Cup    Milk
1 Tsp.    Vanilla Extract
2    Eggs

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (if used)

Add in the butter, milk, and vanilla. 

*I used almond milk because I ran out of regular.*

Mix on medium speed for 3-4 min.

Add eggs, mix on medium speed for 3 min.

*I only made a half recipe so that is why you only see one egg here*

Batter should be pretty smooth.

Now you can either spoon 1/4 Cup into each cupcake tin like here, or you can grease and flour (2) 8" Cake pans and divide the batter evenly. I was only able to get 8 cupcakes out of a half recipe. Bake at 350F for 30-35 mins. Let cool in pan for 10 min then place onto a cooling rack. 

Enjoy!