Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookies

Ingredients:

2 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted, butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semi-sweet choc. chips

Directions:

Preheat to 325 degrees and prepare cookie sheets. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a larger bowl, combine butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in egg and egg  yolk until creamy. Add dry ingredients until blended and stir in chocolate chips by hand. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto prepped cookie sheets. Use only about 3/4 of the prepared dough. They should be dropped at least 3 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes and remove. Add remaining dough to the center of each half baked cookie and put back in oven. Bake for another 5-6 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheet and transfer to wire rack.

Source: All recipes.com (but modified to my taste)

Tasty Blessings!
Heaven & Honey

Root Beer Float Ice Cream

The base of this ice cream is Alton Brown's recipe, I just added the root beer concentrate.  It is super easy to make, delicious, and tastes just like a root beer float!  We always make this for BBQs in the Summer.

Ingredients

• 9 ounces sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 3 cups 1/2 & 1/2
• 1 Tbsp root beer concentrate
• 1 cup heavy cream

Directions
1. Over medium heat, bring the cream and 1/2 & 1/2 just barely to a simmer.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks until they're light and creamy. Slowly whisk in the sugar until light and THICK. You want the mixture to fall from the whisk slowly and sort of clump when it reaches the bowl. If it's runny, keep whisking. It takes a while to get it to the right consistency.

3. Slowly add 1/3 of the cream into the eggs while whisking constantly. Once that's mixed and the eggs are tempered, slowly add the remaining cream into the eggs and whisk to combine. Add in the root beer concentrate and stir until thoroughly mixed.

4. Return cream/egg mixture to the heat, and stir on medium low until it reaches 170 degrees. Move mixture to a metal bowl and cool in sink filled with cold water. Once mixture reaches room temperature, refrigerate to 40 degrees.

5. Add mixture to ice cream machine and follow manufacturer's directions.

- Pastry Princess

Black Bottom Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes that caught my husband. Shortly after we started dating, he took me to hear the National Symphony Orchestra play in the amphitheater in Rock Creek Park. I made these to take with us and that was all she wrote. My husband shared the leftover cupcakes with his sister and brother-in-law, and they told him not to let me get away.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Batter:
1 2/3 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 t. soda
1 t. salt
1 c. water
1 T. vinegar
1/2 c. oil
1 t. vanilla

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 c. plus 2 T. sugar
1/8 t. salt
6 oz. chocolate chips

In a medium sized bowl, combine all the ingredients for the batter and mix until combined.


In a smaller bowl, combine all the ingredients for the filling, except the chocolate chips. Beat until smooth. Fold in chips.
For regular sized cupcakes, add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter to each cup. Then add a heaping tablespoon of the filling to each cup. Do not overfill, or you will never get them out of the muffin tin. You can also make minis with a tablespoon of batter and a teaspoon of filling.


Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Easy Blueberry Cobbler

I make dessert each week to take to my sister-in-law's house for Sunday dinner. This week, I made my favorite blueberry cobbler, using blueberries that I froze last year. About this time of year, blueberries go on sale frequently here, so I put a bunch in the freezer for later. Sadly, we ate it all before I got a picture.

Easy Blueberry Cobbler

3/4 stick of butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. milk
2 c. blueberries with 1/2 c. sugar

Melt the butter in a deep baking bowl or dish (I use my largest Pyrex mixing bowl). Make a batter of 1 c. sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk. Pour batter into the middle of the butter. Do not stir. Toss the blueberries with 1/2 c. sugar and add to the middle of the batter. Do not stir. Bake one hour at 350, or until crust is done (it took about 1 1/2 hours today). The crust will rise to the top.

Delicious warm with a scoop of ice cream, but it also makes a fantastic breakfast as a cold leftover.

Milky Way Cake

How can you hate a recipe that starts off like this? This is one of my mother's recipes. I have no idea where she got it, but my aunt and uncle specifically requested the recipe a couple of weeks ago after my Mom's memorial service, so here it is!

Milky Way Cake

6 Milky Way bars
1/4 lb. butter
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. shortening
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
2 t. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine candy, butter and nuts in a saucepan. Place over low heat until melted. Set aside.
Cream sugar and shortening well. Add eggs, one at a time. Combine milk and vanilla and add alternately with dry ingredients. Fold in the candy mixture. Pour into a greased and floured Bundt pan and bake for an hour and a half. (Note, this pan is too full. It either makes too much batter or my pan is too small.)

Allow the cake to cool before removing from the pan. This is what happens when you are impatient and try to unmold the cake when it's still hot. It looks terrible, but it still tastes fantastic.

Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies

Wow.  Someone sent me this recipe and how could I resist?!  Oreo?  Chocolate chip cookies?  Together?  Sign me up!  They were SO easy to make.  I made them while Lily napped and only had about 45 min to prep, mix, bake and taste test one.  They are quite rich, as it's 3 cookies in 1 (1 Oreo, and 2 choc chip cookies), but they're delicious anyway.  Grab a glass of milk, a cold Diet Coke, or whatever your beverage of choice is.  You'll need something to wash these down with.


- Pastry Princess

Original recipe from Bon Appetit.


Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 package Double Stuff Oreo cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.
4. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough.  Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is a repeat from my blog but thought it would be appreciated here too.

I just made this recipe last night, and it turned out great (moist and delicious) , I definitely making this again, I mad a few changes to the recipe adding Cinnamon, less sugar, and using milk + lemon juice rather than buttermilk.

Photo source

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups ripe, mashed bananas (approximatively 3 bananas)

2 teaspoon lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (heaping spoonfuls)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup softened butter (3 sticks butter)

2 cups sugar *I probably only added 1 1/2 cups 

3 large eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

Cream Cheese frosting:

1/2 cups of softened butter (1 stick)

1 - 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups confectioner (powdered) sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees  *Since I've notice my oven does not always heat properly I actually preheated to 300 degrees and then when I put the cake in turned it down to 275

2. Grease and flour a 9x13" pan

3. In a small bowl, mash up banana & lemon; set aside

4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside *I added about a tablespoon of Cinnamon

5. In a large bowl, cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy. *this is where I love my KA standmixer

6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla extract

7. Add in approximatively on cup of flour mixture, mixing alternately with buttermilk (approx. 1/2 cup) until all flour mixture and buttermilk is added.

8. Stir in banana mixture.

9. Pour batter into pan, bake for approximatively one hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

10. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes, this will make the cake very moist. *For you cold weather ladies, I stuck my cake outside with the snow (as long as it wasn't currently snowing or raining)

11. While cake is chilling prepare the frosting, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth

12. Beat in vanilla extract.

13. Add in about half of powdered sugar, beat at low speed until combined, then beat at high speed until smooth.

14. Taste frosting, continue adding powdered sugar until frosting reaches your desired sweetness *I never add the total 3 1/2 cups of adding powdered sugar 

15. Spread frosting over cooled cake

16. Sprinkle walnuts over frosting

~ Homemade Goddess

Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes

My team is in charge of "snacks" at work on Wednesday. I'm making some sweets to go with what others are bringing. I saw these on Annie's Eats website and thought they would be perfect.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes

Recipe from Annie's Eats.

Yield: 32 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

3 tbsp. sugar

For the topping:

6 oz. fresh raspberries

2 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:

2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature

1½ cups sugar

Pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Here's how to make them. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Place baking cups into cupcake tins.

In a bowl combine crust ingredients (graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar) and mix with a fork. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each cup and press down firmly. Bake for about 5 minutes. Let cool before filling.






Make the puree. Place raspberries and sugar in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain mixture to remove seeds. I didn't have a "sieve" or whatever she called it. I just used a wire colander and it worked out okay. I had to press the puree through and it removed most of the seeds.



Make the filling. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and mix well. Add salt and vanilla. Then add one egg at a time and mix thoroughly until well blended.



To assemble spoon in about 3 tablespoons of the cheesecake mixture. I used my tablespoon I was already using. It worked out okay.




Then place 3 drops of puree on top. I used the 1/4 teaspoon to scoop it out and place on top of the cheesecake.


Now take a toothpick and swirl the raspberry into the cheesecake to make a decorative design. (This was the fun part!)




Bake until the filling is set and rotate about halfway through. I baked them for 22 minutes as she suggested. I'm not sure that was enough for my oven.

Place on cooling racks or you can do a water bath to cool evenly. I tried both and they still started to sink in the middle! I hope they are good because they aren't as pretty as hers! Place in the refrigerator for 4 hours to chill. These pictures were taken before they collapsed!

Apple Dumplings!

This is a crosspost from my Meal Planning Mayhem blog, but had to share directly with everyone here, too!

Continue at your own risk!  You are about to be temped by something so sweet and yummy that once you try it, there is no turning back!  Compliments for a colleague of mine, enjoy some Apple Dumplings!

2 whole Granny Smith Apples

2 cans of crescent rolls

2 sticks of butter

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

Cinnamon, to taste

1 can of Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples.  Cut each apple into 8 slices.  Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll.  Place in a 9x13 buttered pan.  Set aside. 

Melt butter in a small pot, add sugar and barely stir.  Stir in vanilla, then pour over apples.  Pout Mountain Dew around edges of pan.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Serve with ice cream and spoon some of that sweet sauce over the top!

Some pictures! 

  

ENJOY!

-Chef Val

Fruitcake

This is my first post and I am going to start off with fruitcake. Now, don't run off! This is really delicious, I promise. It's the only fruitcake that I've ever eaten and enjoyed.

I got this recipe from my Mom probably ten years ago. She got it from our neighbor when we were little kids, probably 30 years ago. Lord only knows how long the neighbor had it before that.

Fruitcake
(it makes a ton, so this is half the recipe)

4 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 ½ c. flour
1 ½ t. baking powder
1 t. salt
4 c. pecans
½ pound candied pineapple
½ pound candied cherries (I use 4 oz. each of green and red)
1 pound chopped dates
½ T. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add fruit to dry ingredients and stir to coat. Add nuts and stir. In a small bowl, beat eggs and stir in vanilla. Add sugar to fruit mix. Add eggs and stir. It is very thick and hard to stir, but it gets better as the sugar melts in the eggs. Spoon into two greased 8 inch pans. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 250 degrees.

*note - for some reason, it took mine closer to two hours to bake