Munchin

Want some really good cookies? Try either of these recipes, the peanut butter ones even freeze really well. They are both beautiful and taste fabulous. Especially the chocolate ones, oh my. The peanut butter ones are very chewy and have a store bought texture if you like that.

Brownie Cookies

6 oz bittersweet chocolate

6 oz semisweet chocolate

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 ounces (1 cup) milk chocolate

In the top of a double boiler set over very hot water, melt the bittersweet and semisweet chocolate and butter. Allow it to cool. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl until frothy. Slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture ribbons off the beaters. Add the melted chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the milk chocolate chips. The dough will seem more like cake batter than cookie dough. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the dough is well chilled (and more cookie-dough-like). Set the oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with baking parchment. Scoop up the chilled dough and roll with your hands into small balls the size of a whole walnut (in the shell). Place the cookies on the prepared pans, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake about 10 minutes or a bit longer. The tops of the cookies should look dry and cracked. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to cake racks for further cooling.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from Annie's Eats

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup vegetable shortening
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 large eggs

Sugar, for rolling the cookies Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt; whisk together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the shortening, butter, peanut butter and honey. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and beat just until incorporated. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Roll the dough into 1½-inch balls, and roll each dough ball in sugar. Place the dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet, a couple inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly puffed and golden. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container.

*The cookies will be cracked on top and not look done in the middle, but they are. You just have to let them cool on the pan a few extra minutes.

Cake Contest

A while back I entered a fundraising cake contest with a friend. We made a fabulous turtle cake and placed in the top five. We also made a second cake that didn't place but was instantly devoured at one dollar a slice, so it got its fundraising job done. The turtle cake was a fancy up-do to a cake mix and the other was a devils food recipe. Unfortunately, we did not have our camera at the contest, so I will have to upload a photo from my phone later.

Turtle Cake:

Cake

1 box devils food
4 eggs
1/2 C oil
1 lg instant chocolate pudding/3.4 oz

1 C sour cream

1/2 C warm water

Mix all ingredients and pour into two square or circle pans. Bake for 40 minutes at 350.

Carmel Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup light brown sugar

10 tablespoon butter, divided

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dash of salt

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Melt brown sugar and 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil over medium heat; remove from heat. Whisk in cream; blend well. Transfer to a heat-resistant bowl. Cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally.2. Place remaining 6 tablespoons butter and cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla and salt. With mixer running, slowly pour in cooled brown sugar mixture; beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar gradually, beating well after each addition until completely smooth. Chill slightly for a firmer texture, stirring occasionally

Chocolate Frosting:

½ C semisweet chocolate chips
¾ C butter
1 tsp vanilla
¾ C cocoa
3-4 C powdered sugar
½ C milk or water

Blend melted chocolate with butter. Add cocoa, vanilla and half of sugar. Add remaining sugar. Whip in milk to get desired consistency.

For Assembly:

Dulce De leche
1 C crushed pecans

1/2 recipe carmel frosting

1 recipe chocolate frosting

2 square/circle cakes

First, wrap and freeze the cooled cake, so you can slice it in half easily. I like to use a bread knife. Between each layer slather some carmel frosting, dulce and then crushed pecan. Repeat, then, repeat again. Frost the outside with chocolate. Then top it with a pile of pecan halves and drizzle with your favorite carmel topping. (I also used homemade)

Peanut Butter Cake:

Unfortunately I probably shouldn't post this cake and peanut butter mousse recipe because they are another bloggers and she shut her blog down. Please email me if you would like me to send them to you though. tammylakey@hotmail.com. As for the chocolate frosting...click here. This is a seriously delicious, slightly tangy, slightly sweet frosting.

A Twist on The Classic

Everybody has seen this recipe somewhere. Or if you're like me...everywhere. I made these the other night with a friend, but decided to take a daring plunge and throw in some butterscotch chips. Oh and it was a good plunge I tell you what. Give it a try, it just makes you love fall even more.

Pumpkin Cookies

one box spice cake mix
one 15 oz can pumpkin
1 cup chocolate chips, milk is my favorite
1 cup butterscotch chips, the "twist"

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix everything and blop scoops onto a pan. Cook for 12 minutes. DO NOT UNDER COOK.

Blackbottom for Christina

You can't go wrong with these cupcakes. Chocolate bottom, cheesecake top, or cheesey-cake if you ask my niece. I prefer the ones with the crumbly bottoms(I have a recipe for that, if anyone wants it), but my sister in law wanted this recipe. Sorry no pictures.



Black Bottom Cupcakes :

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water plus
2 tablespoons water
1/3 cup oil, plus
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar


Sift dry ingredients together in large mixing bowl. Form well in center of dry ingredients and add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Beat with mixer until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. In separate bowl, cream together cream cheese and powdered sugar. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Drop 1/2 tsp of cream cheese mixture on top. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Cupcakes

I got the opportunity to help host a shower for my friend who is having a baby girl. I love being able to do stuff like this. I am so blessed to have loads of people willing to babysit at the drop of a hat. I love returning the favor, especially if baking and pink are included. I'm not too much of a girly girl but man do I love a baby in pink polka dots.
I really wanted to try these recipes, but wasn't overly impressed. The frostings are both great and the cupcakes taste cook. They are just a little on the dry side. Especially the chocolate. I am very careful with baking, so they only thing I feel that would make these better is some sour cream or cooking them as little as possible.

Magnolia Chocolate Cupcakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

4 eggs, at room temperature

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted (see note)

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm 5–10 minutes.Set oven to 350 degrees.Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside. In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated.Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick cream cheese, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)
Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Magnolia Vanilla Cupcakes:(slighty altered by me)

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.
In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.


Vanilla Frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4-1/4 cup milk or cream(for a firmed shape)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar.If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

I heard somewhere that trifles are great because you can make them with not so good cake and they still taste good. I decided to try it my own way and make one with some fluffy, moist angel food cake, and it didn't just taste good, it was fab-u-lous. mmmm. I could have ate that whole cake by myself. I even thought about staying home, just so I didn't have to share. So try the cake, or the pudding, or just go for the whole thing if you have the time! Because guess what the cake is good. Even when it is not covered in pudding, whipped cream and berries.

Oh and want to know a secret, angel food cake is fat free.

Chocolate Raspberry Trifle:

Here is the Chocolate Pudding Recipe

Here is the Angel Food Cake Recipe

1 C heavy cream

1 T confectioners sugar

2 C sliced berries

1 chocolate bar, for garnish

Make pudding and Angel food cake according to directions. Or buy them if you must. Beat heavy cream and confectioners sugar until stiff peaks. Be sure you reach stiff peaks.
Start by cubing the angel food cake.

Make one layer on the bottom of your glass dish. Now top that with half of the pudding. Then one cup of the berries. Repeat.

Top with cream and use a peeler to garnish the top with shavings of chocolate.
Serve immediately.

Black and White Sandwhich Cookies

Yum, yum, yum! If you love the classic oreo recipe, these cookies are for you. I started with a box of yellow cake mix, but you can use any kind you like. The frosting is a rich, smooth chocolatey delight. Try it out if you want the most gooey yummy sandwhich cookies. Oh ya did I mention these things are so easy my one year old helped me make them. His favorite part was sticking his little finger in the frosting.Too lazy to make the frosting? Thats okay, these things are pretty enough to much all by themselves.

Easy Cookies:

one box yellow cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 C vegetable oil

Mix all of the ingredients until you can't see any more powder. Roll in balls and cook in a 350 oven for 8-10 minutes. Let them stand on the pan a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. They are gooey, in the best way possible.

Silky Chocolate Frosting:

adapted from recipezaar

½ C semisweet chocolate chips
¾ C butter
1 tsp vanilla
¾ C cocoa
3-4 C powdered sugar
½ C milk or water

Blend melted chocolate with butter until smooth. Add cocoa, vanilla and half of sugar. Add remaining sugar. Whip in milk to get desired consistency. If you want fluffy frosting, whip it until it starts to become lighter brown. You will only need half a batch to one box of cake mix.

Sister-in-law

Are you salivating yet?

I spent some time living with my sister in law when I was single and my brother was in Afghanistan. As you could imagine, living with a married woman, I didn't exactly have parties every night. We did however, enjoy some delicious food together.

She makes this beautiful cake that is a spin off of molten cake. You know the kind they serve at Chili's.

You start with a chocolate bundt cake, cut holes with a fork to fill it with hot fudge. Then, drizzle on some Carmel, then fill the hole with ice cream now top that with some chocolate shell, caramel and ice cream.

I switched it up a little by using a home made devils food cake recipe that is to die for on its own.

If you want to be really authentic like my sister-in-law put a sparkler or two in the middle and light it while you sing birthday wishes.(I warn you it will likely set off your smoke alarm, but you will be so happy, you just may not care!)

I also made my own fudge and Carmel sauce. The sauces were great on their own. The only complaint I had was that the carmel was ever-so-slightly gritty in texture. The taste was so phenomenal though I still loved it.

Molten Style Birthday Cake:

Assembly:

one recipe devils food, made in a bundt

1/2 recipe carmel
1/2 recipe hot fudge

1/2 bottle chocolate shell
1/2 gallon vanilla bean ice cream
some sparklers if your feeling crazy

Make the cake according to directions. While cake is hot, or rewarmed, poke holes with a fork and pour over half of the hot fudge. Now drizzle a little carmel all over the cake. Fill the hole in the middle with as much ice cream as you can. Now cover that ice cream with fudge shell. Top that off with a little more fudge and carmel and enjoy!

Devils Food Cake

adapted from here

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs, room temperature
4 oz. (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate
4 Tbsp. cocoa powder 1 C hot water

1/3 cup sour cream

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift flours, soda and salt. Add hot water to coco and chocolate, mix until very smooth. Add the dry and the wet to the sugar mixture by starting with dry, wet, dry, wet, dry, Bake in pans greased and lined with parchment paper for 20-25 minutes at 350.

Hot Fudge Sauce:

adapted from recipezaar.com

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (12 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place milk, chocolate chips and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla (sauce will thicken while it is cooling)

Carmel Sauce:
adapted from recipezaar.com

1 cup butter

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 3/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt butter in heavy saucepan over low heat. Add milk and sugars. Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Cool slightly.
Pour into blender, add vanilla, and cover and blend on medium until smooth.