Mini Brownies

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! We are in a our new home!!! And we somehow managed to host a 20 person Christmas dinner made up of 5 courses with help of our awesome family!! We owe a lot to all the members of my family who dedicated countless hours to do everything from cook, clean, and unpack to lay flooring and painting. We still haven't fully unpacked and despite the fact that the kitchen floors are still not grouted, it was a perfect Christmas in our new home! However, our house and the internet have yet to be friends so this is my first post in the month of December as ironically the month and year come to a close! Pictures, stories, and of course, more recipes to come in 2012! Wishing many blessings to all of you in this new year!



Since December is National Brownie Month, Nicole, from Seven Ate Nine , chose a brownie challenge for this month's What's Baking. I used the brownie recipe from Baker's chocolate topped with a simple ganache for icing. It was a perfect bite-sized treat!




4 squares unsweetened Chocolate
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks


1. Melt the chocolate squares and butter in medium sized bowl in the microwave for about two minutes or until melted. Stir until thoroughly mixed together. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. Transfer chocolate mixture to a mixing bowl and add in sugar. Beat to incorporate.

3. Add in eggs and vanilla on low. Mix in flour and nuts until well blended. We skipped nuts for those who may be allergic, but it would be good. You could replace nuts with white chocolate or semisweet chunks too.

4. Using a small cookie scoop and a well VERY greased mini muffin pan, scoop small amounts into each cup. Put into a preheated oven of 325 degrees and bake for 12-14 minutes. Do not overbake. Flip them onto baking racks to cool. Make sure you grease those cups well or they will get stuck!

5. While the mini brownies cool, heat one cup of heavy cream on stove top or in a microwave until it reaches a boil, then remove. Pour atop chocolate chunks or chips. I opted for milk chocolate, but any kind will do! Let the hot cream soften the chocolate and then stir.

6. Dip mini brownies into the ganache for a yummy topping or eat them naked if you prefer. I also topped them off with dark chocolate chunks, festive sprinkles, and cinnamon chips. Use whatever you have in the pantry! Enjoy! HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Source: Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate Box or Kraft Recipes

Yeast Dinner Rolls

Hello all! Sorry I've been rather scattered in my posting, I know you've heard it before, but we are actually moving in this weekend! It's taken us about five months to get everything up and running at our new home! Fixer-upper homes that basically need to be gutted and then rebuilt kinda take some time. Hubby and I had crazy, unrealistic aspirations to be done and moved in months ago, but reality hit us, along with the rest of life's business (work, family, obligations) all mixed in with construction, creating a full few months! But the end is near. I just finished painting my new kitchen (AHH! so excited)! For those interested, it's a very soft yellow entitled Popcorn Ball. It seemed fitting. We have so much to be thankful in every aspect of life; but anyhow, back to the food....


For this month's What's Baking challenge, we were requested to bake something savory by Jey, from The Jey of Cooking. So, despite my love for all things sweet, I'm always up for a challenge. I wanted to keep it simple though, considering the craziness of the holidays along with our home endeavors. So I opted for something everyone seems to like and can't get enough of, rolls. And Hubby and I love Texas Roadhouse Rolls! I only just discovered this eatery during my college years, and have always enjoyed their rolls. So when I came across these copycat rolls, I knew they were winners! I only regret that the photos are lacking, since I was photographing during Thanksgiving prep! Hope you enjoy!




4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cup milk
3 tbsp of melted butter,slightly cooled; plus some for brushing
1/2 cup sugar, plus one tsp
2 quarts all purpose flour (approx. 7-8 cups)
2 eggs
2 tsp salt


1. Add the yeast to a small bowl with the warm water and let dissolve. Stir in a tsp of sugar.

2. Scald the milk in a small saucepan, and let cool slightly to lukewarm. Add the cooled milk to the yeast mixture. Also, stir in the sugar, and enough flour to make batter. (The recipe I was using actually stated to make a medium batter. However, despite my baking savyness,I was unsure exactly what a medium batter entailed. I googled but to no avail. I think it's somewhere in the realm of the thickness of cake batter.)

3. Let stand until foamy, and then add in eggs, butter, and salt. Beat to incorporate.

4. Add more flour until a soft dough forms. Sprinkle some flour on the rolling surface and let the dough rest. While you are waiting, grease a large bowl and set aside. Knead the dough until you have a smooth round ball. Place the ball of dough into the greased bowl and turn over to be sure to grease both sides of the dough.

5. Cover the dough and let rise in a warm spot until it doubles in size (about an hour). Punch down the dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and cut the dough into workable portions for shaping. Let the dough rest ten minutes.

6. Shape the dough into your desired forms and place onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. How many rolls you make will greatly depend on the size you choose. I made mine rather small and managed to get about 4 1/2 dozen. Let them rise for about another 30 minutes or so, until they double in size.

7. Bake on 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter immediately. (Ok, so here's a how-to-know-you-are-too-tired-to-be-baking moment. I completely omitted this step! I just forgot. The rolls were still yummy, but lacked that extra softness from the brushed tops.



You can enjoy these with some cinnamon butter (Because I had to work a little bit of sweetness in somehow!) The recipe will be coming shortly!


Source: Eat Cake for Dinner

Lady Bug Sugar Cookies

with some pink girly flare!

Yes, these are pink lady bug cookies, because almost everything is better in pink, is it not? But more importantly, these cookies were made for a special one year old on her birthday! I made these lovely lady bugs for my best friend's adorable little girl. We had the pleasure to visit my wonderful friend and her sweet little girl for the weekend and we had a blast! She is truly the cutest thing since cupcakes and sprinkles!

These cookies are made of lemony vanilla dough and topped with royal icing. The recipe for these cookies has similar flavorings to an earlier sugar cookie I've made on here, but is a very different. As any of you who follow my posts know, I am always on the hunt to perfect my sugar cookies recipe, which means getting the joy to try many other recipes! Whether it's a cookbook, a magazine, a blog, a friend or family's recipe, or whatever, I'll gladly give a new recipe a whirl! And my husband and family don't mind serving the taste testing committee! This particular recipe is one I've heard much positive rumblings about in the cyber world. It's courtesy of the blog, Bake at 350, which posts all things cute, sweet, and colorful! The writer is both witty and incredibly talented with a piping bag! I used her basic sugar cookie recipe, only switching out some flavorings.





Lemon Vanilla Cookies

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest

1. Start by combining the flour and baking powder in a bowl; set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand or electric mixer.

3. Add in egg, extracts, and zest beating after each addition.

4. Slowly add in the dry mixture, beating and scraping the bowl down frequently.

5. Be sure to give the dough a quick hand knead before rolling it out.

6. Roll out your dough and grab your favorite round cookie cutter. Transfer the cut cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets.

7. Pop the baking sheet with cookies in the freezer for just a few minutes before placing them into a 350 degree preheated oven. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes and then allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheets for a few minutes before moving them to cooling racks.

8. Once the cookies are fully cooled, decorate the cookies with your favorite colors for lady bugs following this recipe for royal icing from a previous post on house cookies.
For these cookies, I learned how to make polka dots on flooded icing! (Polka dots are one of my favorite things !) A full post on the how-to for this fun technique will be coming soon!



Source: Bake at 350

Also featured on: Made from Scratch Tuesday

Blueberry White Chocolate Cookies

When will this craziness end? The weather has been a constantly changing threat in the area all week long. First, we begun with an earthquake (luckily with no damage). It was so foreign to NJ and NY. And now we are preparing for hurricane with some possible negative ramifications. The food stores were like a madhouse today full of scurrying customers in search of water, batteries, flashlights, generators, and food. After some likewise shopping of my own and some fun craft purchases to keep me busy during the looming possibility of a long power outage, I knew we would be in for some fun! Well, as soon as I heard we could stuck without power (translate to not being able to cook/bake), hubby and I started baking! We whipped a few batches of brownies and muffins for the family to enjoy, as well as these yummy cookies chock full of fresh, summer blueberries! These are slight adaption of white chocolate raspberry cookies made earlier this summer. They were such a huge hit with everyone, we gave them a "re-mix" with blueberries. Summer certainly has been unpredictable this year!

Jade, from The Mess Pot, hosted the What's Baking Challenge this month, and her choice was to Celebrate Summer with a nice, fresh summer recipe. So since I had some local blueberries, I simply incorporated them into part of this yummy cookie recipe.





8 oz butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (7 oz)
2 cups self-rising flour
7 oz white chocolate chips or chopped pieces
1 pint blueberries


1. Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended.

2. Add the sweetened condensed milk and continue to mix.

3. Sift in the flour slowly, while mixing it into the dough with your hands.

4. Stir in the white chocolate.

5. Take small pieces of dough and flatten it into a disk with your fingers.

6. Place a few blueberries into the middle and fold up and over.

7. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets in a 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. Rotate baking sheets halfway through bake time.

8. Allow cookies to set on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes while cooling, then transfer to wire racks to fully cool.





Source: Phil Vickery from Womenseverything.com

Also featured on: Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday

Peach Tarts

Well, the home renovation projects are underway! Life is busy and fun right now, but with all the craziness going on, it's been a quick cooking month. Here is one of my favorite easy sweet treats with fresh summer stone fruit. And it's so simple to switch out peaches to use your favorite stone fruits.


1 pkg frozen puff pastry dough, divided (or you can make your own,which is on my to-do list)
3-4 peaches, pitted and sliced thin with skin on
3 tsp rum extract, divided
3 tsp vanilla extract, divided
3 tsp cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp salt, divided
*Makes 3 tarts*

1. Allow the frozen puff pastry to thaw slightly (about 30 minutes or until pliable). Unroll the dough and cut it into thirds.

2. Roll each piece of dough out until about 1/8" thick. Transfer to baking sheet.

3. Layer the sliced peaches on the center of the dough in rough rows, leaving about an inch of dough around the exterior.

4. Fold up the sides lengthwise and then fold up the top and bottom edges. Repeat with remaining dough and peaches.



5. Sprinkle a few tablespoons sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon,a pinch of salt, 1 tsp vanilla and rum extract over each tart.

6. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes or until puff pastry is golden brown. Serve with fresh whipped cream for a yummy dessert!




Enjoy!

Source: adapted from Veggie Belly
Also featured on: Made From Scratch Tuesdays, Mangia Monday, and Southern Fairytale