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Apple Rings

Apple Rings
With the hot summer months upon us, I have found myself buying container after container of fruit. Whether it be strawberries, blueberries or even apples, when it comes to summer I love to sit down with a big bowl of fruit and satisfy my sweet tooth. The best future sister-in-law ever went berry picking the other day while I was out of town. She came home with an over abundance of raspberries and cherries. My husband had to stop by their house to drop something off and upon his return home, he showed up at the door with plastic containers full of sweet berries and cherries. Thoughts of syrups, tarts, scones, and muffins danced in my head...and the more ideas I came up with, the more I failed to realize that as I was brainstorming, I was also popping one raspberry after another into my mouth. At that point, I was back to square one...until I looked at the kitchen table and saw apples that were begging to be enjoyed. Next on my to do list? Apple Rings For the rings: Ingredients:

Milky Way Brownies Recipe I began the day yesterday with a desire to create some sort of candy bar-infused brownie. ‘Snickers‘ first came to mind. The thought of all of that caramel oozing its way through a mass of fudgy brownie sounded like a good idea to me. There was a problem though… NUTS were ruining my vision of the most decadent brownie ever. So I went the route of the Milky Way instead and created:Milky Way Brownies The mini-sized Milky Ways were chopped up and added to the batter. I cut up a full-size Milky Way to include on the top- mostly for aesthetic purposes… …but then it turned out to be a really good idea anyways. I couldn’t resist digging into these brownies before they were cooled off. Somehow I managed to wrap up the rest and refrigerate them overnight. The Milky Way bars worked wonderfully in these brownies. These brownies are my new favorite. This recipe can be found here: Milky Way Brownies

peanut butter pretzel bites « Two Tiny Kitchens Salty and sweet. Crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth. Peanut butter and chocolate. Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites recipe courtesy Foodaphilia.com Calorie estimate: 4,000 – 5,000 for complete recipe (depending upon dipping chocolate and pretzels used, etc.) Yield 60 – 80 pretzel bites Ingredients 1 cup creamy peanut butter 2 tbsp softened butter 1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more) 3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more) Pretzels 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips Directions Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or whisk, or in a stand mixer. Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting I have a secret that I’m about to blab. It’s about me. And it’s a doozie. It’s going to rock your world… I don’t really like cake… Shhh… Can you believe it? These cupcakes are insanely rich and moist, and are made using the same type of method used for making brownies – melted chocolate is added to a whisked mixture of eggs and sugar, and then flour is stirred in. And the frosting. Note: To make the swirls of icing, I use a 1M icing tip. One year ago: Sweet and Sour ChickenTwo years ago: Fresh Strawberry Tart More chocolate & peanut butter deliciousness: Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Crisp SquaresMarshmallow Crunch Brownie BarsChocolate Peanut Butter TortePeanut Butter-Fudge CheesecakeNo-Bake Cookies

A brownie by any other name… Love brownies. Love their shiny, flaky top that shatters into micro-thin shards that shower onto your fingers as you eat. Love their dark, gooey center. Their “chocolate nirvana” flavor. Sometimes can’t deal with the bake, wait to cool, cutting into squares messiness and fuss of brownies. Want something I can enjoy within 5 minutes of its exit from the oven. Every time I make these cookies (which, truth be told, is quite often), I think of a former colleague, Ana, who left King Arthur last year in order to be a full-time mom to her 2-year-old twins. The test kitchen bakers loved Ana. Ana still visits occasionally, 2-year-olds in tow. And when she does, she’ll invariably nose out any chocolate, and treat us to her classic reaction: “Perfect! These cookies are basically brownies: flat, round, 2 ½” brownies. First task: Combine the chocolate and butter. Melt in the microwave till softened… …then stir till smooth. Stir the chocolate into eggs and sugar, which you’ve beaten together. Buy vs.

Cake Batter Chocolate Bark I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to share a recipe with you. Or to lick a bowl. The secret ingredient here? You may think I’m crazy… but it’s a spoonful of actual cake mix. All you must do is whisk it well into the melted white chocolate. The truth is, I’ve never been much of a “bark” person. After laying on the couch slurping butter-soaked shrimp scampi, plowing through a bag of m&m’s and watching 7 hours of Lifetime television, I had my answer: cake batter. And I didn’t want to just make white chocolate bark. Did you know I have an obsession with sprinkles? I’d put them on everything if I could. Cake Batter Chocolate Bark 6 ounces high quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70%) 12 ounces high quality white chocolate (I used Lindt) 3 teaspoons yellow cake mix sprinkles of your choice (at least 3 tablespoons worth or more) Melt dark chocolate either in the microwave or a double boiler. Melt while chocolate. Once set, break into chunks.

7 DIY Treats You Won't Be Able To Stop Eating Nutella-Mallow Pillow Pockets When I tell you this, take me very seriously…..run, don’t walk to your nearest grocery store and make these today! I knew I wanted to make a Nutella treat the other day and when this simple idea came to mind I had no idea how crazy good it would be! The pastry with the gooey disappearing marshmallow and nutella make for a treat that you just must try for yourself! Enjoy! Can you handle this line up?! Sorry, I forgot to add one egg for the egg wash Um….this stuff should be illegal. Ok, easy easy. Take a little fork and crimp those edges, nice and firm. Next, you’ll brush with an egg white wash and sprinkle with sugar, mmmmm! Get a load of this! I sprinkled mine with a little powdered sugar Oooey, gooey and delish! Nutella-Mallow Pillow Pockets 1 package puff pastry, 2 pastry sheets thawed 1 Cup Nutella spread 1 Cup mini marshmallows Egg white wash: 1 egg white whisked with 1 Tablespoon water Powdered sugar for dusting 1. 8 pockets Have a great new week! Other recipes you may enjoy...

what goes into making chocolate bowls Leave it up to me to mess up every recipe in the world... but on the flipside, by experiencing everything that goes wrong, I end up learning the most.I had seen these bowls from Stephanie's Kitchen, and decided it was a fantastic idea for my food independent study. ingredients: chocolate, and balloons! first, a giant bar of chocolate all the way from taiwan! and it's -special- grade, whatever that means. (i actually tried to pipe pretty lacy chocolate bowls first, but uh, that completely failed so i moved on. plus i don't like that pink fake chocolate.) balloons! tip number 2, after you have melted your chocolate in a double broiler and poured it into a bowl for dipping, let it cool before you dip your balloons. because although you are really excited to dip them and set them down like this... five seconds later you shall hear a POP and you (as well as your kitchen) will be covered in chocolate because apparently latex doesn't like heat.

Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake St. Patrick's day is coming up and this weekend I started working on my meal plan. Normally I do not start with the dessert but when I came across this recipe for a Guinness chocolate cheesecake I knew that I would be making it immediately. Last year I made a Guinness chocolate cake and I discovered that the combination of Guinness and chocolate is a wonderful one and I could not resist using it in one of my favourite treats, a cheesecake! This recipe for the Guinness chocolate cheesecake is a pretty basic chocolate cheesecake recipe with the addition of the Guinness but the similarities stop there. The Guinness chocolate cheesecake is a moist one as might be expected with all of the extra liquid provided by the Guinness but it is also nice and light and creamy. This recipe appears in the The Best of Closet Cooking 2012 eCookbook along with 24 more of the tastiest recipes on Closet Cooking. Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake Servings: makes 6+ servings Printable Recipe Ingredients Directions

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Updated 9/22/11 to Add: If you’re coming here to sample these delicious Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, you just might like the latest recipe that I’ve posted for Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes too. And Gingerbread- Cinnamon Roll Pancakes too. Enjoy! Here’s a short video sharing how to make these delicious pancakes: If you’ve ever thought you needed a reason to eat pancakes, today is the day: National Pancake Day! How do you like your pancakes? But recently I started dreaming about mixing cinnamon rolls and pancakes together… and this is what I came up with- my new favorite pancake: Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. I have a wonderfully fluffy pancake batter that I like to use (recipe below) so I swirled a bit of cinnamon roll filling into the pancake. And they cooked up just like a pancake- fluffy, but with craters of crusty, sugary cinnamon swirled within. You might find three of these stacked in a fancy breakfast restaurant, but I’m gonna tell you that one pancake is all you need. Oh yeah. Ingredients:

One Hundred Percent EDIBLE Googly Eyes! After more than a year of painstaking directed research by our Experimental Foods Division, we have finally achieved one of our most important longstanding goals: the production of edible googly eyes. Like many other great inventions, it seems almost simple in retrospect, but in this write up we walk through the process and show you how to make your own. To begin with, we need a food-grade rigid transparent dome that will form the outer visual shell of the googly eyes. Empty gelatin capsules like these slide apart easily and come with one such dome on each end. You can get capsules like these in bulk at all kinds of “natural” and “health food” stores– or even at many grocery stores in the section where dietary supplements are sold. Note: Vegetarians will observe that gelatin is an animal product. While the gelatin capsules have a dome on each end, they have a lot of space in between that we really don’t need. The finished transparent domes, cut down to size.

Pie Pops Pie pops – a whimsical twist on a regular pie. They are tiny, they are cute, and they taste just like a bite of a nice pie. I love desserts like these. Inspired by a lovely lady called Bakerella, I knew I needed to get these pies into my life as soon as possible. Some things just need to be done immediately. To make my version of pie pops I decided to go with the recipe that I use to make my Mini Apple Pies. To make your own version, you can sure use any filling you really like. Here’s my version of the pie pops, step-by-step-by-step-by-step… by step: This is what we need. 1. 2. 3. Mix for only about 30 seconds. 4. But… oh, wait… I forgot something! Aah, now everything is alright. 5. I liked them better when they were a little more thin. 6. Dip the cutter in flour. 7. 8. 9. 10. First I thought I’d only use apple filling for my pie pops, but this filling turned out to be not enough. Jam! 10. I like them both. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy!

Honeyed Pears in Puff Pastry Poaching fruit is one of my favorite things to do when cold weather arrives. It's so warming to stand over a boiling pot of fragrant spices and lose yourself in thought. When I made these, I couldn't help but daydream as I stirred; if I were a pear... That sounds a little silly, but that's what I'd want... if I were a pear. The idea for these came from the Pepperidge Farm website. On a personal note, our Christmas tree is already up courtesy of Mr. Since poaching is a relatively easy task, I'll skip to some helpful tips for wrapping the pears in puff pastry. The poaching liquid has a high concentration of sugar, so your pears will be sticky. When you reach the top, tuck in the end piece of pastry behind the last spiral. 4 small pears 1 sheet of ready made puff pastry dough, thawed 4 cups water 2 cups sugar 1 cup honey 1/2 lemon 1 vanilla bean, seeded with hull reserved 3 sticks of cinnamon 6-8 whole cloves Peel pears and core from the bottom. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

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