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!

Brownies

So, today I set out to make some brownies, I searched my Pinterest page (because I knew that I pinned one or two brownie recipes) and I came across this recipe. It is for "Lunch Lady Brownies" there is a discrepancy on the origin of this particular recipe in the comments on her blog. But, wherever this recipe came from it is a keeper.

The brownies are soft and the perfect consistency between fudgy, chewy, and cake like. They are YUM! They can be made with or without nuts, you can frost them or not, and you can either share...or not!  :)

The recipe did call for a 9"x13" pan, and the brownies came out a little thinner, if you wanted pretty thick brownies you could always use a 8" square or a 9" square, just adjust the baking time.

Brownies:

Yield: (1) 9"x13" pan

1 Cup    Butter (Melted)

1/2 Cup    Cocoa (I used unsweetened)

2 Cups    A.P. Flour

2 Cups    Sugar

4    Eggs

4 Tsp.    Vanilla

1 Cup    Chopped Nuts (optional)

Brownie Frosting:

1/4 Cup    Butter (somewhat softer, just not rock hard)

1/4 Cup    Milk (I used 2%)

1/4 Cup    Cocoa

3 Cups    Powdered Sugar

For The Brownies:

Place the melted butter and the cocoa powder into a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment.

Mix until smooth.

Add the flour and sugar mix until completely combined.

Add the eggs, vanilla, and nuts (optional).

Mix just until combined, do not over mix.

Spread into a greased and floured 9"x13" pan. 

*Note: this is not runny batter, it is pretty thick so you will have to smooth and even the top with a spatula.*

Bake at 350F for 20-30 Min. Let cool for about 10-15 min, then frost (make sure the brownies are not too hot, warm is okay, if too hot the frosting will melt down the sides).

For The Frosting:

Cut butter into chunks. Place everything into a mixer with a whisk attachment.

Mix until smooth. Spread onto warm brownies.

Enjoy!

Apple Turnovers

So with my rough puff pastry that I just made, I decided to use some homemade applesauce and put together some apple turnovers.

Apple Turnovers

1/2 block of Rough Puff Pastry

Applesauce (as needed)

Roll out puff pastry to about 1/4". I used the biggest round cutter I own, and punched out 9 rounds.

Using a rolling pin, roll out each round into an egg shape.

Dip your fingertip into water and on the bottom half of the egg shape wet the edges.

Place a spoonful of applesauce (or any filling you prefer).

Fold the top over the applesauce (note how it fits just inside the water line).

Press the bottom dough up over the edge sealing in the filling.

This is just for reference on the size of my turnovers.

Place on a sheet pan and brush an egg wash over the tops.

Bake at 350F until golden brown, mine took about 45 mins.

Enjoy!

Rough Puff Pastry

Puff pastry is delicious, but it is very time consuming. The other day I was debating if I wanted to start a batch of puff pastry for some apple turnovers that I am going to make, I ended up not starting it. But I came across a recipe for "instant" puff pastry. I thought to myself, "hey, isn't that cheating?!" I read through the recipe, it didn't call for sandwiching the butter in the dough or even resting in between turns. All you do is mix in the butter chunks much like you do for pie dough. So cheating aside I decided to give it a try. I must say it was sooo easy! A little sifting, a little mashing the butter with your fingers and voila! puff pastry dough. As a side note I would only add about 1/2 the water at first, then add more as needed.

Instant Puff Pastry
250g    A.P. Flour
1 Tsp.    Sea Salt (Fine)
250g    Butter (Cut into chunks)
75-150 Ml.    Cold Water

Sift flour and salt together in a bowl.

Place chunks of butter into the flour.

Using your hands mash the butter into the flour, do not compact it though.

Make a crater in the mixture and pour water into it. Start with 75 Ml. increase up to 150 Ml. total as needed.

Mine was a little too sticky, I should have used less water.

Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 20 min.

Take out of fridge and shape the ball into a small rectangle. If yours was a little too sticky like mine was just add a bit more flour to your dough.

Roll out to about 1/4" thick, keep in a rectangle.

Fold the bottom up and the top down (into thirds).

Wrap with plastic and put back into fridge for at least 20 min.

When you are ready roll out however much you need, flour table.

Bake at 350F until golden brown

Enjoy!