TENDER CRUMB: My FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookie - StumbleUpon I have experimented with countless recipes searching for that perfect chocolate chip cookie. The characteristics of the perfect cookie are a very personal matter, and here are my preferences: texture: chewy w. medium thickness --- everyone has their preference, and this is mine! chocolate to cookie ratio: 50/50 --- I really enjoy having a lot of chocolate in every bite chips vs. chunks: chunks --- I like sizeable pieces of chocolate in my cookie. type of chocolate: bittersweet --- I like using Valrhona 61% extra bitter nuts or other add-ins: NONE!! With the above criteria in mind, this recipe is the closest I've come to experiencing CCC perfection. - Don't substitute the pastry and bread flours w. - Hand chopped chocolate chunks, NOT premade chips - I will purchase a hunk of the best bittersweet chocolate that I can afford and hand cut them into chunks. - Chill the cookie dough at least 24 hours (I let my dough sit anywhere from 2-3 days) before baking.
Molten Lava Cakes I love these little babies. Surprisingly, this has been the first time I’ve ever made them myself. While preparing these Chocolate Lava Cakes I learned that they are super-fun to make. They are also surprising. And, with the generous amount of chocolate they contain, I’m sure they are just super seductive. That all makes them the perfect dessert choice for Valentine’s Day, don’t you think? Now, let me invite you to my kitchen and show you how I prepared my version of these adorable sweet cakes… Here’s what we need. Couldn’t be simpler. 1. 2. I’ve used 6-ounce (180 ml) ramekins. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Let cool slightly. And be strong! 8. 9. 10. I only have two, so I had to bake in two batches. 11. 12. 13. Too long. Although nice and tasty, they weren’t that ‘molten’ in the center. I baked the second batch for only 10 minutes. That was much better. I really like the moist center. Aah, I love this game. 11 minutes would make them absolutely perfect. Enjoy, dear friends!
Stylish Cuisine « Peanut Butter Cup Bars My cousin Greg from DC stayed with us last night. It was great to see him. When we have company, what’s one of the first things that I think of? Dessert! I must have enough dessert to feed the guests! I LOVE Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and this recipe produces an unbelievable tray of them in bar form. I’m including the recipe as I found it on the Internet. Using a pizza cutter is a brilliant way to cut these bars after they’ve chilled. All four boys loved the bars, which surprised me because one of the boys has claimed for years that he doesn’t like peanut butter. Peanut Butter Cup Bars Recipe from Michelle at One Ordinary Day1/2 cup butter 1 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar 1 cup peanut butter 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips(Line a 8×8, 9×9, or 7×11 pan with foil for easy removal of bars later.)Melt 1/2 c. butter of low heat. Print This Recipe
Deep-Dish Cookie Pie - StumbleUpon And than a warm chocolate chip cookie? If you answered, “Katie, is better than a warm chocolate chip cookie,” you’ve obviously never met a cookie pie. (Above, topped with a super-healthy ice cream recipe I’ll post next week.) This pie is everything you’d want in a cookie. Except, oh yes, it happens to be ! I could sit here and tell you about how I was in charge of dessert for our neighborhood Memorial Day party. But really, you don’t want to know all of this, do you? Side note: If you make 1/4 of the recipe, you can put it in a mini springform pan for a baby pie, like the one above. (gluten-free!) One of my Special Diet Recipes . 2 cans white beans or garbanzos (drained and rinsed) (500g total, once drained) 1 cup quick oats (or certified-gf quick oats) 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce 3 tbsp oil (canola, veg, or coconut) 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar (EDIT: click for a Sugar-Free Version .) 1 cup chocolate chips
Tutorial: Marble Chocolate Cake | Iced Jems Like the Marble Cake I made last weekend? Want to know how INCREDIBLY easy it is to make? Then keep reading… 1 x Frosted Cake – I used a 2 layer Vanilla Sponge Cake covered with Chocolate Buttercream400g White Chocolate400g Dark ChocolateGreaseproof Paper Grab your iced cake to start, the final cake looks like it has multiple tiers but thats just the effect of the chocolate decorations. Make sure you have a clear workspace and cover it with greaseproof paper. Now all you need is the chocolate – I used a mixture of White and Dark Chocolate, the flavours were great together! Get melting! Make sure you get a good liquid consistency before taking off the heat (add vegetable oil if you need to). Create medium size circles with the dark chocolate (and one big circle for the centre piece)… …then spoon a little white chocolate around the edges of the Dark chocolate circles. Ok once they’re completely set, dip a knife in hot water then cut through the shapes to create one flat edge. Like so! Jem x
makes » recipe: banana split blondies Revealing my disinterest in ice cream always draws a lot of incredulity on the behalf of the listener. Sometimes the reaction is decidedly offended, as though ice cream were treasured family moment I just figuratively dismissed with a bored wave of my hand. Other times it’s complete confusion. What did you just say? What do you mean, you “don’t like ice cream?” But every now and again, I have this crazy craving for a banana split. I’d like to use this opportunity to let you know, in case you didn’t, that a kitchen scale is a wise investment because then you don’t have to pack brown sugar, which is one of those things that just seems to completely interrupt the flow of my baking process. I thought that these bananas looked rather . . . conversational. By now we all know to use very ripe bananas in our baking, and by necessity I often end up freezing them too, in an attempt to salvage that lone straggler at the end of the week. I polka dotted the top with some maraschino cherries. Before:
Lulu the Baker: The Tale of the Carmelitas - StumbleUpon We live in a big-but-not-huge town. We have a P.F. Chang's and a Pottery Barn and two malls and two full-price movie theaters. But we don't have a Williams-Sonoma. Instead, we have a few delightful, locally-owned kitchen stores. One of them holds a monthly baking contest, and these Carmelitas were supposed to be my ticket to local baking contest greatness. See, a Carmelita is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill treat. When I got my kitchen store newsletter in January, I started planning out my strategy. The email naming the winner took a few extra weeks to be sent--no lie--and I was on pins and needles the whole time. Epilogue: If I sound just a wee bit crazy, get a load of this! CarmelitasAll of the crazy obsessiveness boils down to this: Carmelitas are to-die-for. 32 caramel squares, unwrapped 1/2 cup heavy cream 3/4 cup butter, melted 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed 1 cup flour 1 cup rolled oats 1 teaspoon baking soda 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Campfire Delight: 6-Layer Rich Chocolate Malted & Toasted-Marshmallow Cake There’s something about layer cakes that always brings me great comfort–from both making them and eating them. To me, layer cakes are baked bliss, truly. Don’t get me wrong, cupcakes are wonderful; cupcakes are sweet; cupcakes are darling (and perky), but they just aren’t layer cakes. Perhaps part of the glory of layer cakes is the intrigue of what’s beneath all of that swirled frosting, or the wonder of what fills the stacked layers under a perfectly composed exterior. Truth is, we never can tell, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m always ready to find out. So, please, brace yourself: this cake is possibly the most delicious cake I’ve ever made. 6 layers of dark, moist chocolate cake sandwiching alternating rich and fluffy frosting: satiny Belgian chocolate malted frosting and creamy toasted-marshmallow vanilla frosting with bits of actual crispy marshmallow in every bite. Here’s a little peek at the marshmallows after being lightly toasted in the oven. Yum. Ingredients Instructions Notes
I’m rich, I’m rich! Thousand Dollar Bars Have you ever baked something that made you do the Daffy Duck? You know, the cartoon scene where Daffy runs about yelling, “I’m rich, I’m rich, whoop, whoop, yippee, I’m rich!” He’s bouncing around on his head, feet, hands, and rump in a spastic outpouring of sheer joy. Yep, the Daffy Duck. Not everything we bake here in the kitchen gets us to do the Daffy Duck. Sometimes we do the swoon, the table grip (hold me Ralphie, I’ve died and gone to heaven). On a bad day, we do the wine taster (small taste and a spit) or the Emily Post (napkin over mouth, remove offending food, weak smile). But on a really really good day, we do the Happy Dance (personal taste rules here;mine includes foot stomping and mmm mmm noises); and the Daffy Duck. These Thousand Dollar Bars did just that for us here at KAF. These bars definitely remind people of Twix® bars, both in shape and taste, but OH, so much better when top-end caramel and chocolate is used. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Homemade Snickers Bars | How Sweet It Is - StumbleUpon Insanity. That’s what this is. Pure In.San.It.TEEEEE. You know those days when you’re in desperate need of sugar and you’ve already downed more gummy vitamins than recommended while seriously considering how many more you can ingest without causing severe harm to your internal organs? Well… in that case you should make some homemade snickers bars. And I KNOW you know what I’m talking about. I spent the majority of my pre-pubescent and adolescent years scheming just how I would be able to steal my brothers’ Halloween candy. Then I went through a SERIOUS phase of those Snickers ice cream bars. And that you can eat a million of them. These days, it’s rare that I crave actual candy, often preferring some chewy cookies or super rich cheesecake or a bar of amazing chocolate that costs thrice as much as the recent organic meyer lemons I purchased. They are the peanut butter to my jelly. The salt to my pepper. The broccoli to my… wait, no. But now Nikki is like my bestest friend ever. nougat layer
makes & recipe: ice cream cake (but not like you think) - StumbleUpon If you’ve been following along, you’re probably aware that I collect cookbooks. Specifically, cookbooks created by New England civic organizations between 1950 and 1980 for fundraising purposes. With yard sale season in full swing, I find myself solvent with new recipe ideas, among them one I found in this vandalized and water-damaged collection. The picture on the cover somewhat suggests the architecture of Calvary Baptist Church in Easthampton, but I bought the book in Millbury and it has no date (I’ve never been to that Church, I just tried to do some due diligence in my googling). And hey, no cake flour or fancy measuring required, because we’re using cake mix. I let my ice cream soften by scooping it up into small chunks and letting it sit a few minutes. The recipe calls for greasing & flouring a tube pan. After 4 minutes of beating, the batter kinda just looks like . . . well, melted ice cream. She was right. Preheat oven to 350o.
peanut butter pretzel bites « Two Tiny Kitchens Salty and sweet. Crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth. Peanut butter and chocolate. Dangerous and delicious (you know what I mean). One little bite, so much to experience. Why did I wait so long to give these a try?? 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.
5 Cakes You Can Make in Your Crockpot | Family Kitchen - StumbleUpon By Brooke McLay | From Chocolate Lava Cake to a moist and rich Carrot Cake, whipping up a cake in your crockpot is even easier than making Sunday dinner or a dip for the Saturday night game! Just mix the ingredients together, toss them into your pot, and you’ve got a cake that will turn out perfect every time, guaranteed! nggallery id=’120029′ Citrus Kissed How pretty is this slow cooker lemon poppyseed cake? Peanut Butter Baby A peanut butter cup cake is one thing. Wascaly Wabbit This Crockpot carrot cake is moist and sweet and totally splendid. I Been Down that Road Before Chocolate, marshmallows, and a heap of nuts make this rocky road cake a totally perfect treat. Chocolate Cravings Hot fudge cake is, perhaps, the ultimate way to enjoy cake from your slow cooker. Pressed for time?
chocolate peanut butter cake Alex’s birthday was this past weekend and in case you are new here, let me give you a loose outline of a Standard Dessert Alex Politely Requests: Chocolate. Chocolate with chocolate. Chocolate with caramel. Chocolate with toffee. What, can you sense a theme or something? This year we added one more to the chocolate cake pile: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. Because did I mention the chocolate cake? You might be noticing a recurring theme here this summer, but what can I say? If you like baking cakes, especially celebration cakes, you really want to get this book. But here’s the other best part (you know, if the notion of a boston cream pie cake wasn’t enough to convince you)–a lot of these cake recipes are one-bowl. Peanut butter, previously: Peanut Butter Brownies and Peanut Butter CookiesOne year ago: Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze Adapted, only barely, from Sky High: Irresistable Triple-Layer Cakes 1. 2.