Oreo fudge bars

Wanted to take a new dessert at a party. These were easy to make and were all eaten. Got the recipe from Pinterest.

 

1 devils food cake mix
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1  can (14oz.) sweetened condensed milk
14 Oreos, broken into bite size pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a 9×13 inch baking pan with foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place cake mix, butter and egg into a large bowl, mixing to combine. Use your hands, it works much quicker. Press into prepared baking pan. Top with broken pieces of cookies.
3. Pour sweetened condensed milk over cookies and top with chocolate chips. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until cooked through. Remove from oven.

 

 adapted from pickypalate.com

Cinnamon roll caramel popcorn

I made this for all of the kids teachers, helpers,etc.  It turned out great.  I will definitely make it again. 

 

• 18 cups popped popcorn (about 3/4 cup kernels)
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons)
• 1 1/2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 4 ounces white chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease two large rimmed baking sheets and set aside.
2. Place the popcorn in a really large bowl (or two separate large bowls if you don't have an extra big one).
3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. When melted add the brown sugar, corn syrup, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil while stirring. Once the mixture starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring often, for 3 minutes. The mixture will be slightly thickened. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the vanilla and baking soda. The mixture will bubble so be careful.
4. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and mix until the popcorn is evenly coated.
5. Turn the popcorn out onto the baking sheets, spreading into an even layer on each sheet. Bake the popcorn for one hour, stirring and tossing every 20 minutes. Move the bottom tray to the upper rack and vice versa each time you stir. The popcorn will deepen in color and harden a bit as the caramel bakes and sets.
6. When the popcorn comes out of the oven, scrape it onto an even layer of parchment or wax paper.
7. Drizzle the white chocolate over the top (using the tines of a fork to drizzle it across or pour the melted chocolate into a freezer quart-size ziploc bag and snip a corner to drizzle).
8. Let the popcorn sit until white chocolate is set, 30 minutes or so. Break into pieces

 

adapted from melskitchencafe.com

White almond cake

Amelia turned 2 this month and we had party. I saw cute cake on pinterest using peeps and egg m&ms.  I wanted a yummy cake to make.  We like Kribels cake in our family but the closest Kribels bakery closed.  So I decided to make my own white almond cake with almond butter cream icing.  I searched the internet and chose these 2 recipes.

For the cake I used a recipe I found on all recipes and have made before.  The cake is delicious and moist.  The recipe is one that doctors a boxed cake mix so it is easy.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/white-almond-wedding-cake/Detail.aspx

I hate making  butter cream icing at home.  It never turns out the way I want.  This recipe is the best I have made so far. We enjoyed it. 

Ingredients

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup of softened butter
• 1 teaspoon almond extra (or vanilla for traditional butter cream frosting)
• 1 – 2 Tablespoons whipping cream

Instructions

1. In large bowl, cream sugar and butter together on a low speed.
2. Mix until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for an additional three minutes.
3. Add whipping cream and almond extract and continuing mixing for an additional minute, adding more cream, if necessary until you reach desired consistency.

Brownie pudding

This another Ina Garten recipe. It is a perfect dessert for any get together. Serve it with ice cream. It's delicious.


Brownie Pudding
Printer-Friendly Version

Ingredients:
½ lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Lightly butter a 2-quart oval baking dish.  Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs and sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until thick and light yellow in color.  Meanwhile, combine the flour and cocoa powder in a medium bowl and whisk together until blended.
When the eggs and sugar are finished mixing, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the mixing bowl.  Add the flour-cocoa powder mixture to the bowl as well.  Mix on low speed just until combined.  With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the melted butter and mix again just until combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Place the baking dish in a larger baking pan.  Add very hot tap water to the outer baking pan to create a water bath, coming halfway up the side of the baking dish.  Bake for 60 minutes.  The center will appear very under-baked, that is the way the dessert should be.  Allow to cool slightly before serving with ice cream.

Peanut butter chocolate chip brownies

I love almost anything peanut butter and chocolate.  I had these brownies pinned forever.  We were going to dinner at a friends house so I finally made them.  They were delicious.

The recipe is from bakerella's site.  She makes cake pops.  They are amazing.  She makes any character.  They are so cute.  I tried to make Mickey ones for Amelia's birthday party.  They didn't look anything like bakerellas.  My brownies didn't look like hers either but they still tasted good!


Recipe:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 X 8 pan.
• In a medium bowl, stir the flour, baking powder and salt together with a wire whisk and set aside.
• In a mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add the sugars and mix until combined.
• Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until combined.
• Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Spread in the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until done.

Frosting
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
Milk

• Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth.
• Stir in the peanut butter until completely combined and set aside.
• In a mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
• Add the sugar and mix until combined.
• Add the chocolate and peanut butter mixture and mix until completely blended.
• You can add a teaspoon at a time of milk if you would like the frosting creamier.
• When the brownies are cool, spread the frosting on top.

http://www.bakerella.com/peanut-butter-brownies/

Peanut Butter Sheetcake

If you like peanut butter at all you need to make this. I actually don't each much peanut butter...but if it is in a dessert I love it. This is so yummy. It is just like chocolate sheet cake but peanut butter. Next time I may mix it up and do chocolate cake with the peanut butter icing. Or peanut butter cake with chocolate icing. But it is great just all peanut butter too. Here is the recipe:

* 2 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
* 2 cups Flour
* 1 teaspoon Salt
* 2 sticks Butter
* 1 cup Water
* 1 cup Peanut Butter
* ½ cups Milk
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla
* 2 whole Eggs
* 1 stick Butter
* ½ cups Peanut Butter
* 6 teaspoons Milk
* 1 pound Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

In a large bowl, mix together sugar, baking soda, flour and salt. Set aside.

Combine butter, water and peanut butter in saucepan and bring to boil. Pour over flour mixture.

Add milk, vanilla and eggs. Mix.

Pour in large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake at 400F degrees for 20 minutes.

Frosting:

Bring butter, peanut butter and milk to boil in saucepan. Add one pound of powdered sugar. Pour warmed frosting over cooled cake.



http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/peanut-butter-sheet-cake/

Christmas cookies

What did you make over the holidays? I haven't been cooking too much. But I did do a lot of baking for our Christmas cookie tray.

This year we had:
chocolate chip cookies
sugar cookies
oatmeal scotchies
peanut butter cup cookies
candy cane hershey kiss cookies
buckeyes
oreo truffles
mint oreo truffles
golden oreo truffles

I got the sugar cookie recipe here: http://creatingpostitnotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/almondine-sugar-cookies.html (here). They were delicious. She sells them so I knew they had to be good.

I also tried a new recipe. These turned out very good. Moist, chewy and just enough mint. I did not add the peppermint extract.

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1¼ cups butter, at room temperature
1 tsp peppermint extract, optional
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped Candy Cane flavored Hershey’s Kisses
granulated sugar
additional, unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses- about 30

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Make room in either refrigerator or freezer for your cookie sheet.

2. In large mixer bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until creamy (2-3 minutes). In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl often until well blended (1-2 minutes). The mixture will be a bit crumbly. Stir in chopped Kisses.

3. Shape dough into ¾-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. As soon as they come out of the oven, press a Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each cookie. They’ll crack a little around the edges, so just use your fingers to kind of hold the cookie together while you set the kiss inside. Put cookie sheet (with cookies) immediately into the freezer (preferred) or refrigerator so that the Kisses will set quickly. As soon as you press them into the cookie, they will begin to soften… so if you can get them into the freezer then they will keep their Kiss shape.

4. Store in a covered container- at room temperature for up to a week. In the freezer they should be ok for a couple of weeks.

Yield: About 2 1/2 dozen

See recipe here

Got Pumpkin?

This is probably a little late since Thanksgiving is now over. But maybe you have extra pumpkin that you need to use up...

This year I made a pumpkin sheet cake. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. But instead of eating it as is, we made it into cake balls. They turned out really good. How do you make cake balls?

Make 1 cake (box or from scratch)
Make some icing or just buy it in a can.

Let cake cool. When its cool crumble it up in a big bowl. Add some icing so it gets all sticky. Then roll into small balls. Freeze for a few minutes. Then dip in chocolate (white or regular). Then decorate as you like.


Here is the recipe that I used for the cake: here




Since I had leftover pumpkin we also made pumpkin chocolate chip coookies. I love these.




Ingredients
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1.Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2.Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3.Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Enjoy! We hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

A birthday dinner

Mike turned 34 on Tuesday. With soccer and work I just don't have time to cook some fancy meal. But I did manage to make a few favorites and possibly a new favorite.

Since it is fall I picked up a quart of Eat N Park Chicken Noodle Soup. Mike loves the homemade noodles.



I was going to pick up some bread but decided I could make his favorite cheddar bay bisquits. I posted the recipe awhile back here


Then I made a side dish to go with it that we call tater tot casserole. It is So bad for you but Mike loves it. It is pretty much your standard "funeral potato" recipe or simliar to the Duggar recipe except we don't put ground beef in it.


Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
1 (32 ounce) package frozen potato rounds
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.
Adapted from allrecipes.com


For dessert I made some peanut butter chocolate rice krispie Treats.

They were more like "buckeye" cookies but they were yummy. Mike took a bite and did this groan noise. So they were a hit. But they are very rich. Here is the recipe:
* 3 cups Powdered Sugar
* 1-½ stick Butter, Melted
* 2 cups Peanut Butter
* 3 cups Rice Krispies
* 16 ounces, weight Semi-sweet Chocolate

Mix the powdered sugar, butter, peanut butter, and Rice Krispies together in a large bowl. Lightly butter a 9×13 baking dish, then spoon in the peanut butter mixture. Use a spatula to spread evenly. Melt the chocolate, then layer evenly on top. Refrigerate for an hour or two, then cut into bars and store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Chocolate Pudding Crock Pot Cake

This is a great cake served warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

Ingredients:

* 1 pkg. two layer chocolate cake mix
* 3 oz. pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
* 4 eggs
* 1 cup water
* 2 cups sour cream
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preparation:
Spray a 4 quart crockpot with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix and pudding mix. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the water, then add the sour cream and oil and beat until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and beat well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour into crockpot. Cover slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours, until top springs back when touched very lightly with finger. 8-10 servings

Crockpot Dump Cake

On Labor Day we had 2 cakes...both made in the crockpot. One was a chocolate cake that I will post later. One was this one. Both are delicious. Feel free to try with other types of pie fillings.

Crockpot Cherry Dump Cake

1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling
1 package yellow or white cake mix
8 tablespoons butter, cut up


Rub the slow cooker generously with some of the butter. Place pie filling in the slow cooker. Mix dry cake mix and remaining butter until crumbly, sprinkle over filling. Cover and cook on low for 2 – 3 hours. Serve warm in bowls.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

Currently in our house we have a big tub of sour cream... Don't ask it is a long story. So I have been looking for recipes to get rid of it. I found this cake. It was delicious. The sour cream made the cake so moist. And the icing was just a little different but yummy.

I don't usually have much luck baking cakes from scratch, so I was defintely pleased. I got this recipe from a cookie site. The lady bakes a batch of cookies or baked goods everyday I think. Wow! My kitchen as a disaster after making this so I dont think I could do it. Not to mention I have no self control when it comes to cake or cookies.

Here is the recipe:
Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

2 cups cake flour (8 oz)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces unsalted butter, softened but not too warm
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (14 oz)
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup water or room temp coffee (divided use)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten in a separate bowl

Sour Cream Frosting
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons warm water or coffee

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

2. Spray two 9 inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray, or rub with shortening and dust with cocoa powder.

3. Sift (I actually didn’t sift) the cake flour, baking soda, and salt into bowl of a stand mixer and mix well. Add softened butter to flour mixture and mix on low speed with the paddle until the butter coats the flour. Stop occasionally to scrape sides of bowl. Add the brown sugar, cooled melted chocolate, sour cream, vanilla and *half* of the water. Continue mixing on low speed until well blended, scraping sides of bowl. Then beat on medium speed for about a minute.

4. To the eggs in the separate bowl, add the remaining half cup of water (or coffee) and beat with a fork or whisk. With the mixer on low, gradually pour the egg/water mixture into the batter. Continue running mixer for about 3 minutes on medium speed, scraping sides until you get a smooth, velvety batter.

5. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans and bake on center rack at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes or until cakes test done. If your pans are black, you might want to use 325 F for 40 minutes.

Sour cream Frosting

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add chocolate. Stir over low heat or residual heat until chocolate melts. Remove from stove and let cool slightly (about 10 minutes). Stir the sour cream into the chocolate.

2. Sift half of the powdered sugar into bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Add the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and beat mixture until smooth, adding water as needed.

Recipe from here

Chocolate Chip Cheeseball

I was looking for something different to take for an office food day. Its always the same old food. I spent a lot of time on allrecipes.com searching for something and stumbled upon this. It is more dessert like but can be used as an appetizer. It is kind of like eating cookie dough (but no risk of salmonella). My office full of women loved it.

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
* 1 pkg. 8oz. cream cheese (for a healthier version you can use low-fat)
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/4 tsp. vanilla
* 2 Tbs. brown sugar
* 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
* 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
* 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans (optional...I usually leave them out)

Directions:

Bring cream cheese to room temperature or microwave on 50% power for approximately one minute to soften. Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until creamy. Slowly add sugars until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into your favorite serving dish and sprinkle with pecans (if you are using them, if not, just sprinkle a few chips on top for a lovely presentation). You can also form into a ball by chilling the cheese ball for 15 minutes in the fridge before gently forming into a ball and rolling in pecans and/or chocolate chips.

Serve with assorted graham crackers .

Original Recipe here

Easter Dessert -- Vanilla oreo truffles

I was in charge of Easter dessert this year. I made egg shaped rice krispie treats decorated with white chocolate. I also made oreo truffles. But I didn't make chocolate ones. I made them using the Golden Oreos. They were yummy. I prefer them dipped in white chocolate but I always make some with regular chocolate for those who do not like white chocolate.

I made these for the first time for Christmas. The Smith family loved them. So did everyone else. I also make them with regular oreos and mint oreos. I can't decide which are my favorites...

Here is the recipe:
1 box of golden oreos finely crushed (into powder basically)
1 softened box of cream cheese
Chocolate for melting/dipping

Mix cookies and cream cheese. Roll into balls. Place on wax paper on cookie sheet. Put in freezer until they are hard. :O

Take out of freezer and dip into melted chocolate.

Decorate as you like.

Recipe is from here

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have one go to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I will post it later. I just tried this recipe by Alton Brown on the food network. Mike really liked them and It got rave reviews from several people (one who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies).

I didn't have bread flour but they still turned out great. I will have to try it with bread flour next time.

Ingredients

* 2 sticks unsalted butter
* 2 1/4 cups bread flour
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Recipe from here

Texas Sheet Cake

I love this cake. It is so bad for you but so good. My brother in law Eric really enjoyed this and that is saying a lot b/c i have never seen him get that excited for desserts.

Ingredients

For the cake:
* 2 cups Flour
* 2 cups Sugar
* ¼ teaspoons Salt
* 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
* 2 sticks Butter
* 1 cup Boiling Water
* ½ cups Buttermilk
* 2 whole Beaten Eggs
* 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla

For the Frosting:
* 1-¾ stick Butter
* 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
* 6 Tablespoons Milk
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla
* 3 1/4 cup powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Pour over warm cake.

Recipe