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Follow the Ruels

Surprise Inside Easter Bunny Cake

March 18, 2016

Bunny-Cake-20title

I mentioned on Monday how much I miss celebrating Easter like I did when I was a kid. I don’t know about you, but Easter at my house was so much fun! Easter Bunny paw prints would magically appear (our neighbor would stamp them on in flour) on my front steps. My parents would surprise me with a Easter basket filled with candy and toys. And I would wrap up my day with an Easter Egg hunt at best friend’s house. 

My other favorite part about Easter was making this Easter Bunny cake with my mom every year. We would buy a box of cake mix and a jar of frosting and make our Easter bunny cake. It was easy enough for me to help my mom with even when I was pretty young (she did all the hard work), but I felt like such an accomplished baker once our cake had morphed into a bunny!

Even though I have since outgrown the Easter basket and Easter egg hunt (I would argue that I can never outgrow those things), I still make this Easter Bunny cake as often as I can. But this year I decided to mix things up a bit and add a little surprise inside. 



It all starts with one big layer of cake. It can be any flavor you like, but I prefer simple white cake (and I add some lemon and vanilla to make it taste less “boxy”). Yes, I used box cake mix. It’s simple, easy, and cheap. And for a cake like this, I don’t think it’s worth it to make my own cake from scratch. You may feel differently, so do what you wish.  

Anyways, where was I? The box instructs to make 2 layers of cake, but instead I made one thick one. Once it was baked, cooled, and leveled, I cut it in half right down the middle. I did a little measuring to make sure I was right in the center. I then used a small knife to cut around the inside of the cake, leaving about a 1.5″ margin, only cutting a quarter of the way into the cake. I then used a spoon to scoop out the cake from the center. I did this to both halves of cake. A quick tip, it is so much easier to cut the cake when it has chilled. I keep it in the freezer until I’m ready to go. 

I should also mention at this point that even though I didn’t make the cake from scratch, I did make the frosting (I know ,I don’t make any sense. Why would I make my own frosting, but not my own cake mix? Answer: because I don’t like the taste of the store-bought kind). But again, do what you like and what makes you happy. 

So I piped a bit of the frosting on 1 of the halves around the part of cake that I didn’t cut out and filled the center with Easter egg M&Ms. I then took the other half of cake and pressed it firmly on top, sandwiching the M&Ms inside. 



Now that the cake is in a half circle, I placed it on it’s flat side and cut a wedge about a third of the way up one side, taking care not to eat the wedge because I will need that later (this requires lots of self control!). I then lightly frosted the cake with a crumb coat and poped it in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes. Then I frosted it one more time and patted shredded coconut into the freshly applied frosting to make the bunny’s fur!

Surprise Inside Easter Bunny Cake

To decorate the cake and really make it look like a bunny, I first dyed some of the shredded coconut green and placed it on a cake stand. Next, I put two chocolate chips and a pink jelly bean on the face to make eyes and a nose. Then I cut out two floppy ears in white construction paper and stick them in the front of the wedge that we cut out. To make the tail, I use the scraps from that wedge, “folding” it in half so that one layer is stacked on top, frosted it with more icing and topped with some extra coconut. For extra flair, I used some mini Cadbury eggs and M&M eggs to dress up the “grass”. 

Bunny Cake-15

And there you have it! The classic Easter Bunny cake. How cute is this? It may not be the fanciest Easter cake, but it is so much fun and perfect for kids of all ages (even those of us who are <<cough>>30<<cough>>). 

Bunny Cake-17

This is definitely one of my favorite things about Easter. It is as much fun to make as it is to eat. And speaking of fun…

Bunny Cake-19

When you cut inside, out fall even more Easter eggs!! Who wouldn’t want a slice of this Easter Bunny? Does your family make an Easter Bunny cake every year, too?

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

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/ Filed In: Cakes and Cupcakes, Cakes New, Desserts, Eat
Tagged: cake, chocolate, Easter, holiday

Paleo Nutella

February 15, 2016

Nutella-title

After 30 days on the Whole 30 Challenge and 12 days reintroducing foods back into my diet, I learned two things: sugar and dairy do not agree with me. 

Do you hear that? 

That’s just my world shattering around me.

Almost ALL of my favorite things have dairy and sugar in them:

Chocolate

Ice Cream

Chocolate Ice Cream

And above all else….NUTELLA!!

That’s right folks, the days of enjoying Nutella without a care in the world are gone. Oh, don’t worry. I will still eat Nutella if I have to (i.e. I happen upon an open container and a spoon – shoot, who needs a spoon, I have 10 clean fingers). 

Nutella-8

So what does this girl do to remedy the situation? Learn to live without the heavenly chocolate-hazelnut spread? Oh hellllls no! She makes her Paleo Nutella.

It’s actually quite easy. You see, there is this magical plant out there that solves all of our problems – the coconut! I subbed in coconut sugar for granulated sugar and coconut milk for the milk that you would find in a bar of chocolate. The result: a creamy, chocolatey, sweet, nutty, Paleo Nutella that would make a piece of cardboard delicious. 

Nutella Collage

It all starts with some hazelnuts (and a few almonds because hazelnuts are expensive!). First I toasted them, then I roughed them up a bit in a dish towel to get as much of the skins removed as possible. Then I ground them up in a food processor until I got something akin to hazelnut butter. From there I added in the cocoa powder, coconut sugar, coconut oil, and salt. I kicked the food processor back on, and drizzled in the coconut milk until its smooth and creamy. Too little milk and you will have a ball of hazelnut dough. 

Nutella-9

I wasted no time spreading this on about everything I could find. An apple, a cracker, a banana slice. Man this stuff is good. And I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t made it myself that there isn’t any sugar or milk in it at all. 

Maybe there is hope for me after all!

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/ Filed In: Desserts, Eat, Paleo Dishes
Tagged: chocolate, hazelnut, Nutella, Paleo

Paleo Almond Joy Bites

February 5, 2016

Paleo-Almond-Joy-Bites-4b

This will not be a surprise to anyone, but the hardest part about the Whole 30 for me was the lack of sweets. I have a major sweet tooth, so eliminating all sweets was near impossible. The good news is that I did it! I made it 30 days without sugar. The bad news is that I found ways to skirt the rules and made my own sweet treats without the sugar. 

Case in point: these almond joy bites that I made the last week of my Whole 30 when I was desperately craving something sweet. This was as close to a candy bar as I had in the last 4 weeks, and it was delicious!

Paleo Almond Joy Bites-1

 

To be honest, these were a total experiment that turned out to be a hit. I was rummaging through my pantry trying to find anything sweet. I had plenty of dried fruit, including the dates which will make anything sweet, so I threw those in the food processor. Since I hadn’t had any chocolate in weeks, I knew I wanted to add some cocoa powder. Tossed that in, too.  To bind everything together, I turned to my trusted almond butter. 

I could have stopped there and had a wonderful paleo no-bake cocoa-almond cookie, but why not add shredded coconut to really make these sweet. Now what do you get when you combine coconut, chocolate, and almonds….an Almond Joy! 

Paleo Almond Joy Bites-3

These came about as close to an Almond Joy as I was going to get, and I really didn’t miss the sugar at all. These were perfectly sweet, a little nutty, with just a hint of chocolate. I devoured them, of course. I hadn’t had a cookie, candy, cake, or anything remotely close to that in weeks! Do you blame me??

 

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/ Filed In: Desserts, Eat, Paleo Dishes
Tagged: almond joy, chocolate, healthy, Paleo

Peppermint Chocolate Chex Mix

December 7, 2015

Peppermint-Chocolate-Chex-Mix2

So what do you do with the extra candy canes you bought after you make peppermint bark brownies? You make peppermint chocolate Chex Mix. Then you eat almost all of it before taking pictures for the blog. 

Yeah, it was that good. It almost tastes like if they made Chex Mix with Thin Mint cookies. So if you like Thin Mints, you will probably like this.

This would be the perfect party mix for any of your holiday parties. That’s actually what I intended for this Chex Mix. We have several gatherings and parties coming up so I planned on bringing this for our friends. Fortunately I have plenty cereal left over so I can make another batch. I am just worried it will have the same fate as the first batch. And let me tell you, my waist line can’t take any more. 

Here’s how it starts…

Peppermint Chocolate Check Mix-1

3 cups of Rice Chex Mix, 3 cups of Chocolate Chex Mix, and 2 cups of Cocoa Puffs

Peppermint Chocolate Check Mix-2

Then I added in about 1 1/2 cups of pretzels that I broke up into smaller pieces.

Peppermint Chocolate Check Mix-3

For the “special sauce” I mixed about 1 tablespoon of hot cocoa mix, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp peppermint extract, and 6 tablespoons of butter. I mixed it thoroughly so that the cocoa mix dissolved as much as possible into the butter. 

Peppermint Chocolate Check Mix-4

I then tossed the butter mixture through the cereal until it was pretty well mixed and the butter coated all of the cereal. 

I made my Chex Mix the quick way and went with the microwave instead of the oven. I microwaved this for a total of 5 minutes, mixing twice after 2 minutes and 4 minutes. 

Peppermint Chocolate Check Mix-5

Then I spread it out over a baking sheet to let the mix cool. Once cool, I tossed in a few marshmallows, because, why not! Then I drizzled it with white and semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkled crushed candy canes on top. I let all of that cool for an hour or so until the chocolate was no longer wet. 

Peppermint Chocolate Check Mix-6

I would say that this is the point I served it to our friends or brought it into work to share with my coworkers and everyone loved it. But it didn’t get that far. My husband and I ate all of it ourselves. Which is either a testament to how delicious this Chex Mix was, or how big of pigs we are. Maybe both. 

Peppermint-Chocolate-Chex-Mix

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: Chex Mix, chocolate, holiday, Peppermint

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

October 2, 2015

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies-6

This is not your ordinary chocolate peanut butter cookie. Its not a chocolate cookie with peanut butter chips. No no. It is a chocolate cookie FILLED with peanut butter. You know those Reese’s peanut butter cups you love so much? This is that in cookie form. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies-7

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies-3

Starting with a ball of chocolate cookie dough, I added a dollop of peanut butter to the center and covered it up with another dollop, making sure to press the edges together so the peanut butter didn’t ooze out. Once baked, both the dough and the peanut butter spread out to a large, soft, and chewy cookie with a surprise center layer.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies-5

The are so fun to serve, because they look like plain ‘ol chocolate cookies from the outside. Then you bite in and get that layer of peanut butter with each bite! Sounds delicious, right? You bet it is!

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/ Filed In: Desserts, Eat
Tagged: chocolate, cookie, dessert, peanut butter

Cookies n’ Cream Cake

September 16, 2015

Cookies and Cream Cakei-6

What do you make the man that doesn’t really like sweets or desserts of any kind? That is the problem I face every year for my husband’s birthday. I would LOVE to bake him something, but he could really care less about baked goods of any kind His one (or two) exceptions are Oreos and Cookies n’ Cream ice cream. 

A couple years ago I made him Cookies n’ Cream ice cream cupcakes to bring his love of cookies n’ cream ice cream to a cake (with a lot less hassle). And since I didn’t want to have to fuss with trying to make a whole ice cream cake, I decided to work the cookies n’ cream flavor into the icing.

Cookies and Cream Cakei-1

This icing is freaking amazing. It is a cross between a cream cheese and a butter cream. So it is a little bit more rich and tangy than a normal buttercream, but didn’t have an overwhelming cream cheese flavor. It was the perfect vehicle for the cookie crumbs. And the creaminess of the icing pairs perfectly with the chocolate cake. 

Cookies and Cream Cakei-2

{FYI – the pictures are of the little mini cake I made for the blog. His full cake was decorated like a putting green, which will be on a later post. The recipe posted below is for a full cake.)

Cookies and Cream Cakei-3

I topped each cake layer with a generous amount of the cookies n’ cream icing. Once the top layer was placed on top, I lightly iced the whole cake in plain icing, then popped it back in the fridge to chill. After 30 minutes or so, I covered the rest of the cake in the cookies n’ cream icing. 

Cookies and Cream Cakei-4

For a little added crunch and texture, I patted even more crushed cookies around the base of the cake. 

Cookies and Cream Cakei-5

And a few more to the top. 

Cookies and Cream Cakei-8

Cookies and Cream Cakei-9

This was a wonderfully decadent cake that was equally rich and creamy. The cookies n’ cream icing substituted perfectly for the ice cream so much that my husband didn’t even miss his ice cream cake. 

Chocolate cake recipe is adapted from How to Cake It, which is an amazing blog and YouTube channel you have to check out if you like cake decorating!

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/ Filed In: Cakes and Cupcakes, Desserts, Eat
Tagged: birthday, cake, chocolate, cookies n' cream

Worms and Dirt Brownie Cups

October 30, 2014

Worms and Dirt Brownie CupsOne of my favorite things to make for Halloween parties is worms and dirt. I have made it in various forms: as a cupcake, a pudding cup, a cake. And this time around, as a brownie. It’s just so easy and really gets me into the Halloween spirit!

I decided to make these for a bake sale we had a work this week (to support diabetes of all things!). I wanted it to be easy to eat and package, which is why I decided on a brownie in a cup. The cup helps hold in the “worms” and the “dirt”, which really are the key features of this dessert.



And just to be clear…these are SUPER easy. Sometimes I like to attempt complicated things, but these are not one of them. Literally they are a boxed brownie mix baked in a cupcake tin, topped with butter cream, cookie crumbs, and gummy worms. Boom. You’re done.

Brownie, icing, and cookie crumbsOf course you can make all of the elements from scratch, but I don’t really feel the need. I don’t think people are going to notice if you made the brownie from scratch when they are digging in to their little worms and dirt cups.

Worms and Dirt for HalloweenAnd it doesn’t have to be just worms. You could use gummy spiders or other insect or reptile shaped candy. Even little tombstones made from cookies or white chocolate would be a great touch. And if you don’t want to make these in cups, you can certainly make a pan of brownies and top with the frosting and cookies. There are no limits!

Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!!

 

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: brownies, chocolate, dessert, Halloween

National Pancake Day

September 26, 2014

I think children are like pancakes. You sort of ruin the first one, and you get better at it the second time around.
– Kelly Ripa
Happy National Pancake Day! I wanted to share some of my favorite pancake recipes with y’all since they are definitely my favorite breakfast food. I will be celebrating the day after National Pancake Day with a nice tall stack of my own.
 
Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes
Biscuits Be Crazy - Chocolate Pancakes1
Peach Ricotta Pancakes
Peach-Ricotta-Pancakes5
 
Sugar Free, Gluten Free Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup
BBC Strawberry Pancakes3
 Protein Power PancakesDSC03410
 
Gingerbread Pancakes
Gingerbread-Pancakes
Pumpkin Pancakes
Pumpkin-Pancakes
And even though this is National Pancake Day, there is no sense in discriminating against international pancakes.
 
Dutch Baby (Pancake) with Berry Compote
Berry-Dutch-Pancake3
Whole Wheat Crepes
Whole-Wheat-Crepes
What is your favorite type of pancake?

/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: breakfast, chocolate, gingerbread, hazelnut, pancakes, peach, pumpkin, whole wheat

Chocolate Hazelnut French Macarons

August 5, 2014

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons8Its probably fair to say that chocolate and hazelnut is one of my favorite flavor combinations, which should be obvious if you read last weeks post. I am racking my brain to try and think of anything else that comes close…maybe strawberry and vanilla, chocolate and peanut butter, or caramel and sea salt. Coincidentally, all would make excellent macaron flavors.

I have shared a macaron recipe before, but this time I am really going to go into the steps of making macarons. I have done a lot of experimenting and found some techniques that have worked well for me and ensure that my macarons turn out perfect!

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons1Every basic macaron recipe starts with the same 5 ingredients: almond flour, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar. I prefer to use Bob’s Red Mill almond meal because its a pretty finely ground and the skins have been removed. The Trader Joes stuff will work, but I would recommend processing it in a food processor before you sift it or else you will be throwing away good pieces of almond.

I also highly recommend sifting the almond meal BEFORE you measure it. Even if you use Bob’s Red Mill almond meal AND you process it, inevitably you will still have large almond pieces left over. Once I have 3/4 cup of sifted almond meal, I whisk it into my powdered sugar and make sure there are no clumps.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons2The next major step is to whip up the eggs until they form a meringue. To make the meringue, I start with room temperature egg whites. I separate the eggs about 2 hours before I want to make the macarons, but this can be done overnight, too. I start whisking the eggs on high until the look a little foamy, then I add a pinch of cream of tartar. Eventually, the eggs will start to look opaque, which is when I slowly add the granulated sugar. Once all the sugar is in, I basically set the whisk on high and forget it until the eggs are shiny and white and resemble shaving cream.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons3Because I wanted to flavor the macarons, I added hazelnut extract and food coloring to the meringue. If you forget, you can add it in when you mix in the almond meal, but I always worry that I might over mix the batter.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons4I fold the almond meal into the meringue pretty gently. I just keep going until I no longer see dry almond meal and sugar. A lot of people liken the consistency of properly mixed macaron batter to molten lava.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons5To me, that is kind of arbitrary since I have never seen molten lava. So I like to stir it until it slowly runs off my spatula in one stream of batter. If it is clumpy and and just breaks off in “pieces”, it needs a few more stirs.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons6The mat you see in the picture above is the best macaron related purchase I have made. I love it! It helps me pipe out the macarons consistently and evenly.

To pipe the macarons, I spoon the batter in either a piping bag or a plastic bag and snip off about 1/2″ from the end. I like the opening to be rather wide so that I can just pipe out the batter in the center of the circle and keep the piping bag in the center almost like I am piping out a Hershey Kiss (rather than piping around the perimeter of the circle). The batter is so runny, that it will settle out to form a flat circle like you see above. To encourage that, I tap the bottom of the baking sheet on the counter which gets rid of any bumps or air bubbles.

One thing about macarons that is very different from other cookies is that you must keep them out to dry out for at least 15 minutes until you can press your finger on the top of the macaron and it just barely tacky. I like to start preheating the oven at this point, so the macarons and oven are ready at around the same time.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons7I bake the macarons (one sheet at a time) at 300 degrees for 16 minutes. I set the timer for 8 minutes, rotate the baking sheet, then bake another 8 minutes. I find that the lower temperature and longer baking time helps them dry out and puff up, especially if you live in a humid area.

Once they cool, they should easily peel off of the mat. If they don’t, they are undercooked. But hopefully, you have a flat bottom on the cookie like the ones above. Then you can fill the cookies with Nutella or chocolate ganache. Guess which one I chose? (hint: Nutella).

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Macarons9I only spoon Nutella onto half the cookies. I take a plain matching cookie and press the Nutella down so it spreads across the surface and starts to peak out the sides.

Then I dig in! I am actually pretty good about not gorging myself on macarons. Partly because they are fairly rich for being so small and because I normally make them for other people. There is no sense in spending all that time and money (almond meal is expensive!) to just eat them yourself. Plus, I find that if you bring these to a party, people will be really impressed with your baking skills!

What is your favorite macaron flavor? What flavor should I make next?

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: chocolate, cookies, hazelnut, macarons, Nutella

Ferrero Rocher Cookies

July 31, 2014

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies1Ferrero Rochers are possibly my favorite candy. Ever. My husband knows that if he needs to cheer me up or apologize he can buy me a Costco sized package of these chocolate-hazelnut confections and all will be forgiven. And because he buys be the large box, I had a few extra to toss into a batch of cookies.

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies3I started by unwrapping and chopping up about 10 Ferrero Rochers. It probably ended up being 8 because I kept stealing pieces. The Ferrero Rochers don’t need to be all that finely chopped, because once they get mixed in, they will break up a bit more.

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies5I added the candy pieces to my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. I did tweak it a little bit by adding in some hazelnut extract (totally optional), reducing the granulate sugar by 2 tablespoons (these candies are a lot sweeter than normal chocolate chips), and halving the amount of chocolate chips.

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies6When it gets all mixed together, the Neutella filling is swirled into the dough, the chocolate-nut coating is broken up into smaller pieces, and the wafer cookie adds an extra bit of crunch.

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies7But every once and a while, a piece of the Ferrero Rocher stays pretty much in tact. And those are my favorite cookies.

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies8But really, all the cookies are wonderful. I am happy that I put chocolate chips in with the candies. My original idea was to use only FRs, but I would need a lot of them and they are really expensive! But the semi sweet chocolate cups helped balance out the super sweetness of the candy.

Ferrero-Rocher-Cookies2What is your favorite candy to add to cookies?

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: candy, chocolate, cookies, Ferrero Rocher, hazelnut

Mint Cookies ‘N Cream Ice Cream

June 30, 2014

BBC-Mint-Ice-Cream6My husband and I live in a house divided. He loves cookies and cream ice cream, while I would much prefer a bowl of mint chip. Maybe it’s for that reason that we barely buy ice cream.

But it is summer after all, so our lives would be incomplete without a nice cold bowl of ice cream as an after dinner treat (well, not really…by go with it). That’s where our handy dandy ice cream maker comes in.  By making our own ice cream, we can combine any flavors we want and make everyone in the house happy.


For this recipe, I just started with a basic vanilla ice cream recipe then added in a little green food dye to slightly tint it a “mint” color along with some peppermint extract. I ended up using about 3 drops of food coloring and 1 tbsp of peppermint. After that was whisked together, I poured it into the chilled bowl of the ice cream maker. I let the ice cream churn for about 20 minutes and once the ice cream actually started to resemble ice cream and not a melted milk shake, I tossed in some crumbled Oreo cookies and let it mix for a couple more minutes.

BBC-Mint-Ice-Cream4At this point, the ice cream is still too soft to serve, so I transferred it into a container (adding in some more crushed Oreos every few spoon fulls) to chill in the freezer over night. I always perfer to let it chill overnight, but really, it just needs a couple hours to set. If you are making ice cream for a specific event or meal, give yourself maybe 4 hours prior to make the ice cream and let it set.

BBC-Mint-Ice-Cream7I just happened to find these really fun bowls at the grocery store. I really wanted to serve them in waffle cones (my husband loves waffle cones), but this was the next best thing! It was the perfect vessel to serve our creamy and slightly minty ice cream loaded with lots and lots of Oreos. I have to say, my husband was especially pleased with this flavor because it ended up tasting a lot like his favorite Girl Scout cookie (Thin Mints)!

What ice cream hybrid would you make this summer?

 

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: chocolate, cookie, ice cream, mint

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie

June 11, 2014

Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-1
A few months ago, I had the bright idea to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. I was going to create this bracket, and pin one recipe against another until I found my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie. Come, to think of it, it might have been around March Madness, which would explain a lot.

I made two recipes, and didn’t get a whole lot further. Partially because I got lazy and partially because I found this article on the Serious Eats Food Lab. Essentially, Kenji spent a whole lot of time trying to do the same thing I was going to do, but a lot more scientifically. I did make his recipe, and yes, it is pretty great. But, of course, I had to try to make it my own using some of the information I gathered from his article.

Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-4One of main differences in Kenji’s recipe versus a typical recipe is that he uses brown butter, which give the cookies a bit of nuttiness. Well, browning butter tests my patience, so instead I added a touch of espresso powder (which I use in a lot of my chocolate recipes). It doesn’t make the cookies taste like coffee, instead they take on a nutty, maple-y flavor that really adds some depth.

Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-5But like Kenji, I did add sea salt to the tops of my cookies. If you take only one thing away from this post, please add sea salt to your cookies. Sea salt takes a normal chocolate chip cookie and elevates it.

Do you have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe? What is your “secret ingredient”?

 

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: chocolate, chocolate chips, cookie, sea salt

S’mores Ice Cream

June 4, 2014

Smores-Ice-Cream8It seems a bit odd to put something that is naturally warm, gooey, and melty into ice cream, but it worked out splendidly. Possibly because there are few things more quintessential to American summers than ice cream and s’mores. There is nothing like a cold ice cream cone on a hot day or the perfectly camp-fire-roasted s’more on a summer’s night.

Fortunately, chocolate and marshmallows are made for ice cream (see Rocky Road). The wonderful thing about marshmallows is that they stay fairly gooey even when frozen. The graham crackers were the only thing that provided a bit of a challenge. They would get a bit soggy if left alone, but that is easily taken care of when covered in chocolate.

I broke up about 4 crackers into bite size pieces, poured a melted bar of dark chocolate over top, and tossed them until all the pieces were coated in chocolate. I laid them out on a baking sheet and popped them in the freezer to harden. I wanted the marshmallows to be a bit chared like a true s’more, so I broke out my trusty cream brule torch. You could also put them under a broiler for a few minutes to get the same effect.

Smores-Ice-Cream4Once everything was nice and cool, I mixed everything into some homemade vanilla ice cream. If you don’t have an ice cream maker or don’t feel like making ice cream, you could just add these pieces to softened store-bought vanilla ice cream.

Smores-Ice-Cream7I scooped my mixed ice cream into a loaf tin, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it back in the freeze to harden a bit more. This takes at least 2 hours, if not over night. After that its ready to serve! My husband suggested that some crushed graham crackers sprinkled on top would be an excellent addition. Some melted chocolate would also be nice, especially to add that melty element.

Smores-Ice-Cream6

What are some other of your favorite ice cream flavors and combinations?

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: chocolate, dessert, graham cracker, ice cream, marchmallow, s'mores, vanilla

Milk and Cookie Shots

May 28, 2014

BBC-Cookie-Cups7Last year, Dominque Ansel turned pastry making on its head when he came out with the cronut. Now, it seems like he is making it his full time job to come up with crazy, delicious, hybrids of some of our favorite treats. A few months ago, I saw a couple things pop up on Pinterest about one of his latest creations – cookie shots. Now, I had actually attempted to make a cronut but completely and utterly failed. The cookie shot, on the other hand, seemed like something I could do!

A few other sites have tried their own version of the cookie shot, too. While I am sure they are wonderful and delicious, what I didn’t really like about those is that they used some weird metal form to get the shot glass shape that I doubt anyone just keeps on hand in their kitchen. At least I sure don’t. So I turned to my trusty popover tin! The beauty of it is that its deeper and a bit narrower than a muffin tin. And while it might be bigger than a shot glass, who really cares when that shot glass is a cookie?


I did, however, use an actual shot glass (this one is from the good ol’ college days and has my sorority crest on it – classy!) to help me form the cookie shot. The dough itself is very crumbly – I basically just altered a standard shortbread recipe – so it can be a bit challenging to form. I first packed in about 1 tbsp of dough on the bottom, set the shot glass in place, and filled the space around it with more dough. Then I wiggled the glass around to help me press the dough against the walls of the tin. I went back in with my fingers to make sure the dough was nice and packed. Once all 6 tins were done, I popped them in the oven to bake for about 10 minutes.


After allowing the cups to cool completely and removing the baked cups from the tin, I poured in some melted chocolate working it around the cup until it covered all sides. Once it was coated how I liked, I flipped the cup upside down on a wire rack over a baking sheet covered in parchment. This not only helps to get the chocolate evenly disbursed, but any extra chocolate will just drip right on to the sheet. Once they were all lined with chocolate, I placed the whole sheet into the freezer for about 15 minutes until the chocolate was hard.

BBC-Cookie-Cups8From here, you could just leave them in the freezer until ready to use, or immediately fill them up with milk. I chose to add in a bit of Baileys to make it more of an adult treat. Needless to say, if making these for kids, forgo the Baileys. But you could add some coffee creamers to the milk to make different flavors. Or if you are really feeling indulgent, what about espresso or ice cream?

BBC-Cookie-Cups9

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: bake, chocolate, chocolate chips, cookie, cups, milk

Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes

May 19, 2014

Biscuits Be Crazy - Chocolate Pancakes1If the good people over at Neutella can convince us that their chocolate-hazelnut spread makes for a delicious addition to a nutritious breakfast (because toast is sooooo nutritious), then I can convince you that these chocolate hazelnut pancakes make a well rounded way to start your morning.

Biscuits Be Crazy - Chocolate Pancakes2Except we all know that this is pretty much dessert for breakfast. Which I am totally okay with, by the way. Life is too short NOT to have dessert for breakfast at least once and a while.

Biscuits Be Crazy - Chocolate Pancakes3

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/ Filed In: Eat
Tagged: breakfast, chocolate, hazelnut, pancakes

Homemade Cookie Dough “Oreos”

March 31, 2014

   BBC Cookie Dough Oreo3 There may never be two things on this earth quite so divine yet humble (especially to my sweet tooth) than cookie dough and Oreo cookies. If you find the previous sentence offensive or utterly ridiculous, then you are probably a better person than I, and we probably won’t ever be friends. I’m sorry….or, you’re welcome?

While I would love to take credit for such a glorious collision of childhood treats, I cannot. You should thank the good people in the Nabisco test kitchen for this flavor combination. I will, however, take credit for sharing with you how I recreated this treat so you can have yourself a homemade and all-natural(ish) take on a classic. I might even venture to say they are better than the original.

BBC Cookie Dough Oreo7Like any good sandwich cookie, there are two key parts: the cookie and the filling. An Oreo cookie is light, crisp, and a bit crumbly so I knew I did not want to make a soft and chewy cookie. To get the cookie consistency I was looking for I employed the same technique you would to make a delicious, crumbly biscuit (full circle, people): cold butter. Before getting all my other ingredients together, I cubed up some butter and popped it in the freezer to get extra cold while I assembled everything else.

My other not so secret ingredient to make the cocoa flavor extra bold was espresso powder. You don’t taste the espresso flavor at all, but it adds depth and richness to the cocoa that will really make the flavor pop.BBC Cookie Dough Oreo2The standard Oreo filling seems to be your basic buttercream, which is just butter and sugar…maybe some vanilla. To make the buttercream for these cookies a bit more cookie dough-like, I used both brown sugar and powdered sugar, a bit of salt, chocolate chips, and some flour to thicken it to be more “doughy”.

BBC Cookie Dough Oreo1Assembling the cookies is the easiest part of the whole process, as you might imagine. But just be sure to let the cookies cool entirely or else you will have a melted puddle of butter and sugar (doesn’t sound so bad to me, actually). I scooped about 2 tsp to 1 tbsp of filling onto a cookie, then topped it with another. You may want to vary this depending on the size of your cookie.

Also, like normal cookie dough, this is also great to eat out of the bowl.

BBC Cookie Dough Oreo6Or just lick straight off the cookie. No judgement here.

 

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/ Filed In: Eat, Uncategorized
Tagged: chocolate, cookie dough, cookies, dessert, Oreo, recipe

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Hey there, I'm Lindsey. I'm a number cruncher by day and a home cook and baker by night. While I love to eat healthy and find fresh and healthy alternatives for my favorite foods, I will never turn down dessert! Life is all about moderation, right?

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