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Posts Tagged ‘Baking’

Alton Brown’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted in Cooking, tagged Alton Brown, Baking, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chips, Cooking, Good Eats on February 2, 2013| 7 Comments »

My husband, C, is not a big sweet eater, but when the urge strikes, he usually requests chocolate chip cookies. He wanted some a couple of weeks ago so I decided to try a different recipe than the tried and true “back of the package” cookie. Alton Brown to the rescue!

I remembered an episode of “Good Eats” where Mr. Brown made different kinds of chocolate chip cookies so I got out my trusty copy of “Good Eats: The Early Years” to find it.

There it was on page 166 from the “Three Chips for Sister Marsha” episode…chewy chocolate chip cookies! Let me tell you, I think these were the BEST chocolate chip cookies that I have ever eaten, let alone made. The extra effort of this recipe was so worth it!

Remember, Mr. Brown’s baking recipes do measurements by weight, not volume so get out the trusty kitchen scale.

8 oz. unsalted butter

12 oz. bread flour

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 oz. granulated sugar

8 oz. light brown sugar

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

12 oz. chocolate morsels

Melt butter in the microwave and set aside to cool slightly. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate.

With an electric mixer, combine the melted butter and two sugars. Beat for 2 minutes.

In a measuring cup, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla.

Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture until thoroughly combined. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Stir in the chips.

Chill the dough for 1 hour. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Scoop the dough onto a lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes (if you can wait that long) and eat up!

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Cookies & Cream Bars

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Chocolate Cake Mix, Chocolate Chips, Cooking, Oreos, Picky Palate, Pinterest on January 26, 2013| 7 Comments »

This is the first sweet treat I got to make after my dad got out of the hospital. The need to bake hit me and this recipe looked like a winner! A little goes a long way so you will get plenty of bars out of one pan.

I found this on Pinterest posted by Picky Palate and Ms. Picky Palate always has tasty treat to try!

1 chocolate cake mix

1 stick butter, softened

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

14 Oreo cookies, broken into bite sized pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9” baking dish with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray. Combine the cake mix, butter and egg together. I used my hands to do this and it is MESSY! If you wear rings while cooking, take them off. Put the dough into the baking dish and pat out evenly.

Top this with the broken cookie pieces then pour the milk over the whole thing.

Bake for 23-25 minutes or until cooked through. Cool for about 5 minutes then removed from pan and peel off the foil. Cool completely; cut and enjoy!

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Bundt cake, Cake, Chocolate, Chocolate Chips, Cooking, Peanut Butter, Pinterest, The Big Green Bowl, Yellow cake mix on January 19, 2013| 22 Comments »

I am a sucker for semi-homemade Bundt cakes using a cake mix as a base. I have posted about three such cakes in the past: chocolate chip Bundt cake, moist caramel apple cake, and chocolate Bundt cake. I found this new version on Pinterest from the blog The Big Green Bowl and knew I had to try it.

This is really tasty and, like most Bundt cakes, is better the day after it is baked. The Big Green Bowl used a peanut butter glaze on hers, but also included a recipe for a chocolate glaze so I went all out and used BOTH glazes.

For the cake:

1 pkg. yellow cake mix

1 cup milk

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

For the peanut butter glaze:

1/4 cup cream peanut butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk, more or less

For the chocolate glaze:

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a Bundt pan by spraying with Baker’s Joy (best stuff ever) or grease and flour.

Beat all cake ingredients except the chocolate chips for two minutes at medium speed. Stir in chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove and let cool completely.

For the chocolate glaze:

Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat. Add the cocoa and cream. Cook and stir for about two minutes or until the mixture thickens. Do not boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth. Pour over the cake and let cool.

For the peanut butter glaze:

Whisk all the ingredients together. You may add a little more sugar or milk to get the desired consistency. Pour over the cake and allow to set up. Slice and enjoy!

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White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Cake, Cooking, Diana's Desserts, Kraft, raspberry jam, White chocolate raspberry cake on December 29, 2012| 25 Comments »

I am going a little off-subject here, but most people love doughnuts, especially Krispy Kremes. I LIKE doughnuts, but they are not the first thing I want when I crave a sweet except maybe the raspberry filled ones. Those are my favorite! Then a local restaurant served a white chocolate raspberry cake (not from scratch, but still pretty good) and I wanted to try my hand at making one.

This recipe is not completely from scratch either since it takes advantage of a white cake mix for the cake, but the taste was awesome! It also turned out to be really pretty with the white cake, white frosting and the bright red raspberry jam filling. Yum!

The cake recipe is from Kraft.com and the frosting is from Diana’s Desserts.

For the cake:

1 pkg. (6 squares) BAKER’S White Chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

For the frosting:

4 1/2 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick/3 oz./85g) unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 (9-inch) round pans; set aside. Microwave chocolate and butter in medium microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted; cool slightly.

Combine cake mix, milk, eggs, vanilla and chocolate mixture in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake 25 to 28 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 10 min.; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool cakes completely.

For the frosting:

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl. Stir in the milk and vanilla. Add the butter and salt and beat until smooth. Stir in the cooled white chocolate. Refrigerate until firm enough to frost the cake, about 30 minutes.

I then split the cake layers in half so I would have more filling to enjoy. Place 1/2 of a layer on to the cake plate and spread half of the raspberry jam and a dollop of frosting. Do this in between each split layer.

Spread the remaining frosting over the entire cake. Chill for about an hour and enjoy!

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Baked S’mores

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baked Perfection, Baked S'mores, Baking, Chocolate, Marshmallow, Pinterest on November 24, 2012| 13 Comments »

I really like s’mores, but we are not really into campfires too much so I was delighted to find this baked version. The recipe originates from Baked Perfection, but I, of course, found it on Pinterest and saved it for later. Later finally came and these bars are so ooey, gooey good! Hurry to the store and pick up the ingredients because these are awesome.

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (approximately 7 full graham crackers)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 super-sized (5 oz.) dark chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)(I didn’t check my bar size so I ended up with HUGE chocolate bars, but don’t worry because the extra didn’t go to waste.)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow crème/fluff (not melted marshmallows

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8×8 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.

Then layer the chocolate over the cookie dough…

THEN layer the marshmallow crème over the chocolate and top that off with the remaining cookie dough. You will probably have to carefully work the dough over the crème to have complete coverage.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool completely and then try to keep from eating the whole pan by yourself. It will be hard to do, I promise. As you can tell by the photo below, I didn’t let mine cool quite enough before cutting into it. Oh, well…

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White Out Cake

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Cake, White Out Cake on October 13, 2012| 4 Comments »

I am a huge chocoholic, but sometimes a simple white cake is a wonderful thing. I spotted this not long after I started my Pinterest addiction, but hadn’t taken the time to make it until recently. The photo of this cake is what first caught my eye. The delicate white frosting with the creamy custard center were just too good to pass up thanks to Life’s Simple Measures.

Well, mine turned out really good except for that gorgeous custardy layer. No matter how long I cooked and stirred and stirred and cooked, that stuff would not thicken. Ugh, how frustrating! All was not lost though…I just used some of the frosting to fill the cake and it was really tasty.

For The Cake:

1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened

1-1/2 c. sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

1 cups milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 egg whites

For The Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter, very soft

8 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cups milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 9” round cake pans. Cream butter with an electric mixer on medium until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy which will take about 3 minutes.

Combine the milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour to the butter/sugar mixture in 3 parts alternating with the milk/vanilla mixture.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on high until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter, stirring slowly until no white streaks show.

Divide the batter evenly in the cake pans. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then turn out to cool completely.

For the frosting: combine the butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until the frosting is thick enough to spread easily.

Frost the cake, slice and enjoy!

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Lemonade Cake

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Cooking, Feeding My Temple, lemonade cake, potluck on October 6, 2012| 10 Comments »

Back in the summer, C’s family held a reunion and it was a potluck meal. Since it was so so hot, I wanted to fix a cake that was moist and refreshing, but not heavy. When I found this lemonade cake recipe at Feeding My Temple on one of the link parties I participate in, I knew it was the one I wanted to try.

This is a scratch made, super-moist cake infused with lemonade concentrate with the most delicious lemonade butter cream frosting. I could have eaten the frosting by itself! In fact, I may have eaten just a little on the side, but you won’t tell, will you? If you have a potluck to attend, give this recipe a try. I think it will be a great success.

For the cake:

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cup frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used the dehydrated buttermilk mixed with the dry ingredients and added water where the recipe called for buttermilk.)

For the frosting:

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13” baking pan with non-stick spray. Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each. Then add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and buttermilk (or water) in portions, starting and ending with the flour mix. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

When the cake has cooled, prepared the frosting by beating the butter and one cup of the powdered sugar together. Then add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla. Finish with the final cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy. Spread it on the cooled cake and enjoy!

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Honey Zucchini Muffins

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Cooking, Honey Zucchini Muffins, Weelicious on July 7, 2012| 18 Comments »

My co-worker, K, gave all of us at the office some of her garden overflow which included a beautiful head of cabbage and some zucchini. You will have to check back in a little while to see what I do with the cabbage, but I knew I wanted to bake with the zucchini. I have made zucchini bread in the past before and really enjoyed it, but this time I decided to search for a different recipe. When I found this muffin recipe at Weelicious, I knew it was the one I wanted to try since I could include honey made by my father-in-law and his cousin. There is nothing like eating local if you can!

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, whisked

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

2/3 cup honey

1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded (I used one medium zucchini.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put liners in a muffin pan. This recipe made 12 regular sized muffins. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Then pour the wet into the dry and stir just until combined. This is called the “muffin method” and keeps the muffins from becoming too tough and dry.

Fill the muffin cups about half full and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy! These make a great breakfast with a glass of orange juice on the side.

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Turtle Cake

Posted in Cooking, tagged Baking, Cake, Caramel, Chocolate, Cooking, Midwest Living Magazine, Turtle Cake on June 16, 2012| 18 Comments »

Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity knows that I LOVE chocolate and I think caramel is pretty tasty, too. My MIL subscribes to a magazine called “Midwest Living”, which is a lot like Southern Living just about the Midwest. This awesome looking cake was featured in one of these books and I knew I had to make it as soon as possible.

I think I have found my new favorite cake recipe because this is one of the best things that I have ever put in my mouth. I am not a coffee fan. Love the smell, hate the taste, so I have never been brave enough to try a chocolate cake recipe with brewed coffee as an ingredient. Coffee is included in this cake and now I know why so many recipes to include it. There wasn’t a strong coffee flavor, and the cake was so moist from it. This would make an awesome birthday cake or even a groom’s cake. It is that good!

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk (see note)

2/3 cup cooking oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder + a little extra for dusting the pans

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Frosting (see recipe)

1 1/2 cups pecan halves, toasted

3/4 cup purchased caramel ice cream topping

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 9” cake pans by spraying with non-stick spray and dusting with extra cocoa powder. Then line them with wax paper circle. In a small bowl, combine the egg, buttermilk and cooking oil.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, beating with an electric mixer until combined. Gradually beat in hot coffee. Pour batter into prepared pans; spread evenly. Layers will appear thin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes in the pans then turn the cake layers out of the pans to cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

6 tablespoons butter

12 ounce package (2 cups) semisweet chocolate pieces

1 – 2 teaspoons freshly brewed hot coffee

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and milk. Add butter. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add semisweet chocolate pieces. Using a wire whisk, mix until smooth. If frosting is too thick or grainy, stir in coffee.

Now here comes the fun part…

Place 1 cake layer, top-side down, onto a serving plate. Using an icing spatula or wide knife, frost the top of this layer with one-third of the frosting, pushing it out slightly from edges to make ripple or petal effect. Arrange one-third of the pecans on top and drizzle with 1/4 cup of the ice cream topping. Top with the second layer, top-side down. Repeat with frosting, pecans and caramel topping. Top with the third layer, right side up. Repeat with remaining frosting, pecans and caramel topping. Chill for 1 to 2 hours before serving.

Just look at all that decadence. Mmmmm…wish I had a piece right now.

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