Fail Muffins

A friend of mine had suggested I made peanut butter muffins. Which I had never heard of before, so I went in search of a recipe and found one for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins. There was a typo in the recipe which caused me to have 3 times as much peanut butter than was necessary. The resulting muffins, were not very muffin like, and the batter was very fluffy.

One of the first hints that the recipe was wrong, was that I had way more batter than was needed for 12 muffins, which is what the recipe was supposed to make. They also didn't rise at all. After making the first dozen I popped the batter in the fridge, and commented on the post where I found the recipe. Once I heard back, I found out that there was indeed a typo. After asking my mom for some advice to improve the batter that I already had I made some changes. I added another egg, a little bit of water, and about half tsp of baking soda, which resulted in a much improved muffin.

Fail muffin VS. Improved muffin

Till next time, thanks for reading =)

*this post has been back-dated(posted on May 3rd)

Fudge Rounds

I found this recipe on Confession's of a Cookbook Queen's blog, and just knew I had to make these. I'm so glad I did 'cause they are awesome. So awesome that I've made them 3 times now. (as of Jan '12)

 Right when you take the cookies out of the oven they look slightly poofy but they settle down once they start to cool. I found making them slightly small and flattening them before baking made it easier when putting the cookies together.

 I found the frosting recipe made a lot of frosting. I used the whole recipe and used it for 2 x the cookie recipe. If you were to put twice as much frosting on each cookies to use it up, the frosting would just squish out the sides.

And here is the recipe. From Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup salted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs 
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda 

Heat oven to 350.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Add slowly to the butter/sugar mixture in the mixing bowl. Beat until combined.

Drop spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes. Remove baking sheets to cooling racks and remove cookies after a few minutes to continue cooling.


While cookies cool, make your filling.

FILLING


1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons warm water


In the bowl of a mixer, beat the shortening and butter on medium speed until smooth and combined. Beat in vanilla. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and beat on low until just combined. Add water and beat on medium high for about 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.


Once cookies have cooled, pipe or spread filling on the flat side of half of them. Gently press another cookie on top of the filling.


For the stripes, microwave 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl, stirring every 15 seconds until smooth. Drizzle or pipe on top of Fudge Rounds. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.

Rocky Road Brownies

I dont have much to say in this post except that these brownies are super delicious, sweet, and very fudgy.

Recipe: Rocky Road Brownies

(from Better Home & Gardens ultimate cookies & bars-"Chunky Path Brownies")

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup water

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 cups mini marshmallows

1 1/2 tsp vanilla 

Instructions:

1-Preheat oven to 350˚. Line a 15x10x1 inch (i used a 9x13x2 pan and it worked just fine) pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Grease foil;set aside. 

2-In a large mixing bowl stir together flour sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

3-In a medium saucepan combine butter, water, and cocoa powder. Bring Mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 

4-Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture. Beat together until combined. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute more (batter will be thin). Pour Batter into prepared pan. Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

My helper who accidentally added WAY more vanilla than was necessary. 

5-While brownies bake make chocolate topper.

Chocolate Topper:

In a medium saucepan heat and stir 2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces, 1/2 cup whipping cream, and 1/4 cup butter over medium-low heat until smooth.

6- Sprinkle marshmallows over hot brownies. Top with chocolate topper. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use the foil to lift the brownies from the pan. Cut into bars.

One suggestion I have is to make sure you grease the foil all the way up the side, because the marshmallow sticks a lot.

Till next time, Thanks for reading! =)

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I found an awesome ice cream recipe over at Bake at 350, for Dark Chocolate Peanut butter ice cream, and just had to make it myself. First ice-cream I've made containing eggs, which was interesting.

Ingredients:

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 

1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder ( i just used regular cocoa)

1 & 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

 Melt the unsweetened chocolate, in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Gradually add the cocoa; the mixture may clump up in the whisk...that's ok.  Slowly pour in the milk, whisking with the chocolate mixture until combined and smooth.  Remove from heat and let cool several minutes.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.  Add the sugar, a little at a time, whisking constantly.  Once all the sugar has been added, whisk 1 minute more.

Add the cream and vanilla; whisk to combine.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and stir.  Cover and refrigerate a few hours or overnight. 

Before transferring to an ice cream maker, remove 1 cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and whisk in the peanut butter until smooth.

Add this back into the main mixture and stir. Process in an ice cream maker.  Once the freezing cycle finishes, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze a few hours to firm up.

The finished product. Super rich and super tasty =)

Till Next Time, Thanks for Reading

Banana Split Brownies

Recipe: Banana Split Brownies

 (from Better Homes and Gardens- Ultimate Cookies & Bars 2010)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup mashed bananas (2 -3 medium)

2 eggs

 1 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Grease a 13x9 baking pan; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter till smooth. Add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in bananas and eggs. Stir in flour, and cocoa powder. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Spread cooled bars with Strawberry-Cream Cheese Frosting. Cut into bars.

Strawberry-Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a medium mixing bowl beat 4 ounce of cream cheese with 1/2 cup thawed, frozen strawberries, cut up, and drained. Beat in 2 1/2 - 3 cups of icing sugar to make a frosting of spreading consistency. The frosting will stiffen when refrigerated but not as much as I thought it would. I didn't addd the full amount of icing sugar, so next time I will make sure I add enough. My frosting was pretty runny, but still very tasty.

Thanks for Reading! =]

Rice Krispie Squares

I bought marshmallows quite a while ago specifically to make rice krispie squares, and I finally got around to doing it. I used the recipe that comes on the box, and then I added chocolate on top. I was wanting to kind of drizzle it on, but it wasn't liquidy(i don't think that's a work but oh well) enough. So I ended up spreading it around, which didn't look the prettiest, but its the taste that matters.

I also managed to chip off part of my nail pulling a fudgesicle out of the mold. I was amazed that just the gel chipped, and my natural nail didn't break.

Till Next Time,

Thanks for Reading!

Homemade Fudgesicles

I bought a $2 popsicle mold from Superstore a couple weeks ago, and decided to put it to use. I searched the net for some good popsicle recipes and found one for fudgesicles on Food.com that I decided to try out.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
2tbsp corn starch (I used potato starch since thats what I had)
2tbsp cocoa
2/12 cups milk
1tsp vanilla
1tbsp butter

Directions

On medium heat combine sugar, potato starch, cocoa, and milk.  Keep stirring till the cocoa is dissolved, and the mixture is slightly thick. Remove pot from heat, and add vanilla & butter, and stir till combined.

I poured the mixture from the pot to a measuring cup, so it would be easier to pour into the molds. There was about 2 3/4 cups of liquid which filled my mold with just a tiny bit of extra. Place them in the freezer  overnight. To remove them from the molds, I run it under hot water, to melt the outer edge just enough to pull one out.

More strawberries! Seems to be about 3 every time.

Till Next Time,

Thanks for reading!

Swirls & Chocolate

I had found this recipe in one of my mom's cookbooks(a Betty Crocker one I believe), and thought it seemed interesting I had no idea what this was gonna turn out to be. Especially when the description called it a "jelly roll". But it has no flour, which meant my mom could eat it =D. I also decided to have ago at making 'pinwheel' cookies, and I'd say not too bad for my first try. But I will definitely try a slightly different method next time.

1-Separaed Eggs(I used an ice-cream scoop) 2- Egg whites beat with sugar 3&4-Egg yolks beat with sugar

1-3 - Adding the cocoa and vanilla. I thought it looked neat when I first started mixing it.
 4-Folding in the egg white mixture.

1-Everything all mixed together 2-prepared pan 3-'Batter' poured in 4-The baked 'cake'

1-Sifted Icing sugar 2-'Cake' placed on top with wax paper 3-Cake rolled in a tea towel 4- Whipped Cream

1-Cake unrolled ( I don't know why it cracked like that) 2-Melting Chocolate chips with water

 3-Chocoalte Spread over the cake 4- Whipped Cream spread over the cake

And some what sadly I forgot to take a picture of the completed cake all rolled up. But it didn't roll terribly well, but I think there was too much whipped cream. The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups, but next time I will use only 1 cup. Even though it wasn't the prettiest looking 'cake' it was very tasty =D.

And for those who want to try this out themselves, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Roll

6 egg whites, room temperature

1/4 cup white sugar

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup white sugar

6 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp vanilla

Line greased 10x15 inch pan with waxed paper, and also grease the waxed paper(I used a cookie sheet that happened to be this size, its best if it is slightly deeper).

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar and beat until stiff.

Beat egg yolks with sugar until lemon coloured and light. Beat in cocoa and vanilla. Fold into egg whites. Spread into prepared pan. Bake in 350˚F oven for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean whne inserted. Sift icing sugar over a tea towel. Turn cake on top of towel(while still in the pan). Remove the pan, and peel off the waxed paper. Starting at narrow end roll the cake up with the towel till it cools. When col, unroll and spread with filling. (By the time you make the filling it should be cool)

Filling

2/3 cup Semisweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp water

1 cup whipping cream

Melt chocolate chips together with the water in a small saucepan. Spread over unrolled cake.

Whip cream until stiff, and peaks form. (I added a tsp of vanilla and a couple tbsp of sugar) Spread over chocolate layer, and then roll the cake starting at the narrow end. Keep refrigerated.

And because I already put plenty of pictures in this post, I'll just put one of my pinwheel cookies.

Till Next time,

Thanks for reading!