I only made two cheesecake things so far in my baking endeavors. Last summer I made a "light" cheesecake that used a combination of light cream cheese and vanilla yogurt and just recently, I made these creme brulee cheesecake bars for the holidays. Even though my husband's favorite dessert is cheesecake, I don't make it usually because of how dense and rich it is. Not that I don't enjoy a piece of red velvet cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory every now and again! (FYI: It's delicious and if you haven't had it, you need to try it!) These bars are kind of time consuming, but not quite as complicated and fragile as a traditional cheesecake that needs to bake in a spring-form pan and requires bizarre cooking instructions (like turning off the oven and leaving the cake in there). I know there's a reason why you leave the cheesecake in the oven, but it just seems odd to me!
I love a lot of things about these bars. I love that they aren't overly rich. They have a sugar cookie base (which gets extra flavor by using a box of dry vanilla pudding mix). They also only use two boxes of cream cheese. Some standard cheesecake recipes call for four or more boxes! I also use the light or "neufchatel" cream cheese and have no problems with the density or texture at all. Neufchatel cream cheese is supposed to contain more moisture than standard cream cheese so it can effect the density of some recipes, but I've never noticed a problem. But then again, I don't think I've ever used standard cream cheese in a recipe... The point I'm trying to make is that these cheesecake bars give you the full, creamy cheesecake flavor and texture without being overly rich. So instead of treating yourself to cheesecake once in a blue moon, make these bars, and treat yourself more often!
I love holiday baking! I love baking anytime of the year, but there's something about baking around the holidays that makes it seem more special. Every year my mom and I pick out a plethora of recipes to try. Some are new and some are old classics, but regardless of how the goodies turn out, we just make sure to enjoy the time together and have fun. We usually don't have many recipes that are complete disasters (thank goodness) and these cookies are one of our triumphs!
I love the combination of white chocolate and cranberries. Especially in holiday treats! The sweetness and creaminess of the chocolate and the tartness of the cranberries just make a great contrast to each other. I've made some white chocolate cranberry cookies in the past, but this was the first time I tried this particular recipe. It's a basic butter cookie base with a few special additions, but the end result is fantastic. There's not an exuberant amount of butter in the recipe, but the cookies have a wonderful buttery flavor that will just melt in your mouth! They taste like you're making a Paula Deen recipe, but trust me, you're not!
I love breakfast. I have a mild obsession with cereal in general, so I guess it's natural that I would look forward to this meal. Even at this moment, I probably have about ten boxes in my cabinet right now, four of which are open and I eat on a fairly regular basis. I know some people wouldn't understand my obsession with cereal, but I think it's a marvelous food invention that you can eat anytime and pretty much anywhere as long as you're not committed to eating it with milk, which I am not. Not to mention you can coat chicken with it, make snack mixes with it, or top a cheesy potato casserole with it (as I did for Thanksgiving dinner!). In addition, the whole concept of breakfast usually involves some type pastry. Muffins, pancakes, waffles, scones, breads, bagels, English muffins, even cake. Coffee cake that is! And who doesn't want to eat cake for breakfast! In my family, it's a tradition to have coffee cake for breakfast on the major holidays (i.e. Thanksgiving and Christmas), so on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I busted out my baking supplies and tried a new coffee cake recipe.
This fruit-filled coffee cake did not go quite as stated in the recipe. First of all, the fruit pie filling was supposed to sink to the bottom of the cake. Yeah... As you can obviously see, it did not. This caused a couple problems. All that filling sitting on top of my cake severely altered the baking time because the cake underneath could not rise properly. The recipe originally stated to bake the cake for 35 minutes. When I checked it at 35 minutes, I had cake soup. Not exactly what I wanted to eat the next morning, so I kept adding more and more minutes to the baking time until finally (about an hour or so into baking), I declared it done. Actually, I probably hadn't even declared it done at this point, I was more praying it was done! The edges had gotten a little more brown then I would have liked, but I tried to cover them with foil during the second half of the baking time to keep them from burning while I was trying (praying) to bake the middle of my cake.
After the cake had completely cooled, I added the powdered sugar glaze, which as you can see turned out beautifully! For about five hours. When I woke up the next morning and went to slice up my cake, all the glaze had dissolved and I had puddles of pie filling moisture in all the wells in my cake. So I did what any baker would do, I tried to salvage it. I soaked up the extra liquid with paper towels, sliced it up, and hoped it was still edible, and surprisingly, it was! My husband and I had tried a piece the night before to make sure it was baked and it tasted good, but honestly, letting it sit overnight really let the pie filling flavors take over, it tasted so much more delectable the next morning!
Needless to say, this recipe was more stressful than it should have been and while this cake has a happy ending, I probably won't be making this recipe twice!
When I was student worker in college, my boss and I were (and still are) very close. She became like my second Mom and during the time I had that job, I actually looked forward to going to work every day just so we could catch up, talk, and sometimes sneak out for breakfast or a quick coffee. She also would routinely spoil me with these absolutely scrumptious desserts ranging from caramel brownie bars, pumpkin bread, and my all time favorite, her scotcheroos. It was always a surprise when I came to work to see these goodies sitting on my desk! Even now when we get together for brunch or for the holidays, she will make a batch of her famous scotcheroos just to give me some because she knows how much I absolutely love them!
I have tried many scotcheroo recipes before and her recipe tops them all by leaps and bounds. Of course, the deliciousness would not stop there. She actually has two versions of her scotcheroos as well (what a great idea!). There's a gooey version and a crumbly version. The gooey version most closely resembles a typical "scotcheroo" bar that you might think of and the crumbly ones remind me of what is sometimes called a "Special K" or "Cornflake" bar. I thoroughly enjoy both and am not picky when it comes to eating either of them. In some of the scotcheroo recipes I have tried in the past, some have had an almost disgusting corn syrup-y flavor. Now her recipe, does not even remotely have that problem and I believe the secret to avoiding that feeling is to bring the sugar and corn syrup mixture to a boil. Don't just heat it up until it's combined like some recipes advise, actually bring it to a boil and then immediately remove it from the heat so it doesn't burn. This step is very crucial because it seems to be the key to making the whole dessert more cohesive. In addition, the ratio of chocolate topping to actual bar is also divine. It's about a 2:1 ratio; 2 parts chocolate to 1 part bar (sometimes more!). She totally believes in the saying that you can never have too much chocolate and with that type of mantra, she can make me desserts whenever she wants! So that's why I consider this scotcheroo recipe the best one I've ever had and I'm sure part of why they taste so absolutely delicious is that she's the one that's making them for me! :-)
This bundt cake haunted me for years. Whenever my mom and I would bake together, cook, or even just talk about recipes, she would bring up this spectacular chocolate chip bundt cake that was absolutely excellent. It was torture to hear about this cake that I had never tasted before since the last time she had made it was before I was born. She had talked it up so much and so frequently, that I wrote down the recipe years ago to have on hand, just in case. This recipe was always hanging over my head. Would it be as spectacular as my mom described? What would it taste like? Would it become one of my favorite cake recipes too? Then, one day, it dawned on me. Make the cake yourself.
I had always (for some reason) been waiting for my mom to make this cake for me since it seemed to be one of her treasured desserts and she was also the only one who had ever actually made the cake before. But I was through waiting. I had a couple of days off of work and decided, this is it. I'm making the chocolate chip bundt cake. It's time. Today I find out what this cake tastes like.
So I made it. I buttered and floured my bundt pan, mixed all the ingredients into an unbelievably thick batter, baked it, and drizzled the chocolate frosting. After dinner, the time came and I cut myself a generous slice and topped it off with a dollop of whipped cream (I've noticed I've been adding additional whipped cream and other various toppings to my desserts lately...not sure why...). The cream cheese mixed into the batter keeps the cake incredibly moist and the extra little chocolate drizzle is a great finishing touch. Since the batter is so thick too, you don't have to worry about coating your chocolate chips in flour or anything like to keep them from sinking. The batter is like cement and those chocolate chips aren't going anywhere.
Overall, my first experience with the infamous chocolate chip bundt cake was a successful and delicious one. I'm not sure it's my favorite cake recipe of all time though. Don't tell my mom that.
I don't like warm fruit. There's something about mushy out-of-the-oven produce that I don't enjoy. Therefore, I don't particularly like pie. Now, I shouldn't say that I don't like any kind of pie or that if it was the only dessert I could find in the house that I wouldn't eat it (because I would, just with a big dollop of ice cream on top). I do enjoy pumpkin pie, chocolate silk pie, or some variety of pudding pie, pretty much anything that is served cold and involves little to no fruit (yes, I know, pumpkin is technically a fruit, but pumpkin pie is different. It doesn't count. At least taste-wise.).
Now why, you might ask, am I featuring an apple crisp recipe? It involves fruit and is typically served warm. Aha! That's where the title of my post comes in. Ratio. In this particular apple crisp recipe (which has been my mom's favorite for years), there is a ratio of about 1 part apples to 3 parts streusel topping. The 1:3 ratio pretty much makes this recipe, in a word...perfect. At least for my taste buds. But of course I can't just eat it like that! The warm apple taste might seep through to my taste buds! So just to cover up any remaining warm fruit flavor, I add a scoop of ice cream (I use a frozen yogurt/ice cream blend) and drizzle some extra caramel on top. Yum! I do make sure the crisp is warm just so the ice cream gets all melty and delicious. The apple crisp is pretty much just a great excuse to eat ice cream. And you just can't beat the smell of apple crisp baking in the oven. It smells so fantastic that it takes all your self-control not to eat half of it right then and there. If they could package that smell in a candle, I'd purchase it. (But it might make me hungry...)
Not only are these brownies delicious, but each layer of these decadent bars uses a pre-packaged ingredient. Yes, pre-packaged, as in "out-of-the-box". And trust me. The lucky people you serve these brownies to will not believe you. They taste gourmet but are insanely easy to make.
1. Use any brownie mix you have in your cabinet that can be baked in a 13x9-inch pan. Yes, any. Chocolate chunk, the ones with the syrup pouches, plain fudge, dark chocolate, anything. Bake as directed on the box for the 13x9-inch pan.
2. After letting the bars cool for about 10 minutes, spread your favorite preserve, jam, or jelly on top. I like to use seedless strawberry jam, but raspberry or blackberry would taste just as wonderful. I eyeball just enough jam to cover the brownies with a thin layer.
3. After letting the bars cool completely, mix together some white chocolate chips and a full container of pre-packaged frosting. I like using the creamy vanilla frosting, but you could easily make these double chocolate brownies by using chocolate frosting too.
That's it. And the best part, you can pretty much substitute any of the ingredients to fit your personal tastes or just what you happen to have in your pantry. Try using the strawberry jam and chocolate frosting with chocolate chips to make a "chocolate-covered strawberry" bar. Try combining orange marmalade and chocolate frosting. If you're a blueberry fan, some blueberry preserves and white frosting would taste wonderful as well. Regardless of which combination of ingredients you choose, you can put together an easy, elegant, and down-right delicious dessert using pre-packaged ingredients you probably already have in your cabinet. And your guests don't have to know our little secret...
One thing I have not tried when baking is using yeast. I know, I know, for as long as I've been baking, you'd think I would have used it at least once. I guess it's one of those irrational baking fears but I'm worried that I'll somehow anger all those little micro-organisms in there, which will result in a baking disaster. This is probably why I'm a big fan of quick breads, especially dessert ones. The recipes do not involve yeast and therefore, go together much quicker even though the loaves still have to bake for about an hour.
When making this pumpkin chocolate chip bread, I used a container of canned pumpkin that I had froze a couple weeks earlier while stocking up due to the never-ending canned pumpkin shortage. Yes, believe it or not, the canned pumpkin shortage is still occurring. So just a heads up that if you plan to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, start looking now. When I actually found canned pumpkin I reacted as if I was planning for the apocalypse or some sort of fall-out shelter. I walked out of the store with four giant cans of it, which is now being loving stored in my cabinets for any pumpkin recipe I happen to crave. But anyway, my frozen canned pumpkin was actually more finicky than I had planned for. It was the first time I had tried to freeze pumpkin and what comes out of your freezer does not look like the stuff in the can. It's much more flaky and separated and also involves draining off excess liquid that was attained in the freezer. But don't freak out too much (like I did), while it looks different, it tastes and bakes the same (phew!).
Now since this is a bread recipe and not a dessert recipe specifically, it is not as sickeningly sweet as maybe I would like. Both my husband and I thought a piece of this bread would be perfectly topped with a dollop of Cool Whip for dessert. But don't let me stop you if you want to add the Cool Whip anyway even if you eat it for breakfast. You know that's what I would do. :-)
I just don't think you can go wrong if a recipe involves both chocolate and peanut butter. I mean, come on. Puppy Chow, Buckeye Candies, Peanut Butter Brownies, etc, all amazing, including these Layered Peanut Butter Bars. There's just something about that glorious combination that makes a dessert a sure fire hit, unless of course someone is allergic to peanut butter and in that case, please don't serve these to them.
These bars have become a staple in my household not only because of how easy they are (they're made using a prepackaged peanut butter cookie mix) but also because of how great they taste. Especially when you keep them stored in the refrigerator! I've taken them to both my work and my husband's and there are never any left overs.
I chose to make these bars with creamy peanut butter since I don't like nuts and therefore, crunchy or extra crunchy is out for me, but if you like nuts, I'm sure you could substitute it in. I've also been curious to try some other types of "butter". Not dairy butter, but rather nut and/or fruit butter like almond, apple, pumpkin, even white chocolate peanut butter. I guess it's the culinary part of me trying to get out since I've never tried anything past the basic peanut butter and I feel like there's a whole new world of taste possibilities out there. Just food for thought...
That's what this dessert is made of! One of my favorite things about fall is the return of my beloved Honey Crisp apples, which you can only find for a limited time once a year. A cross between the Macoun and the Honey Gold apples, the sweetness of Honey Crisp surpasses any other variety in my opinion. And the sweeter something is the better it is! At least that's what I think. I usually don't even use them in any recipes because they taste so good just on their own they don't need any extra sugar or spices to make them taste good. I did use them in this recipe for Applesauce Spice Cake since I already had them on hand, but normally, I would use a Gala or Cortland since there are so many additional ingredients compared to the one fresh apple the recipe calls for.
As I described to my husband while preparing the cake, "This smells like fall in a bowl!" The cake uses fresh apple, prepared applesauce, cinnamon, and raisins in the batter and bakes into a very dense cake. And I like dense. None of these wimpy, airy, light desserts for me! The frosting complements the cake well since it also uses cinnamon in the frosting which ties the flavors together nicely. It was supposed to be a browned butter frosting, but I don't usually stock butter in my fridge, I'm more of a margarine girl, so it kind of turned into a basic butter(margarine)cream with cinnamon flavor. But it still tastes wonderful! And going the extra mile for the homemade frosting totally makes all the difference! Trust me!
I'm a die-hard baking fan. Just because it's summer, 90 degrees outside, and 100% humidity does not mean I won't turn on the oven just to make some scrumptious dessert. However, I will admit that baking in that heat is not my favorite setting (see previous post for my fermenting Blueberry Buckle). As soon as that first cold day of fall comes around, I get the urge to bake. Something jam-packed with cinnamon, or apples, or pumpkin, or brown sugar, or streusel topping. Anything that could be served warm with a healthy serving of cold vanilla ice cream on top. These Cinnabun Bars fit just the specifications to indulge in my fall baking obsession. They're made with lots of cinnamon, caramel ice cream topping, and brown sugar. I also added chocolate chips since the original recipe called for chopped pecans and nuts of any type, are not my cup of tea. Although I do enjoy honey-roasted peanuts even though I don't like honey or peanuts... Anyway, I usually end up substituting various types of nuts with chocolate chips and really, let's face it, chocolate trumps nuts on the indulgence meter.
However you spell them, or whatever you call them, Whoopie Pies are an amazing concoction in the world of cookies. And I'll admit it, I actually am not a cookie fan (gasp!). I just don't find them very appealing since one cookie has about as many calories as something more "substantial" like a dessert bar, etc. And if I can eat a bigger dessert for the same amount of calories, I will eagerly chose the larger option. So due to my aversion to eating cookies, I usually don't bake them that often, unless I find some decadent creation like these pumpkin whoopie pies which I knew would fulfill my craving for fall baking!
Now, I was always under the assumption that whoopie pies and sandwich cookies were one and the same. Two cookies stuck together with some delicious filling ranging from cream cheese frosting, various jams, chocolate, peanut butter, you name it. However, I recently learned that in order for your cookie sandwich to be an official "whoopie pie", it requires a marshmallow based filling. My pumpkin whoopie pies used a kind of marshmallow frosting filling, which was amazing, but I've also seen the more traditional version from Food Network that just melts large marshmallows between the two cookies. Personally, for me, I love overly sweet desserts and think thick, creamy, sugary frosting, is divine, so frosting has my vote, but chose whatever fits your taste buds. I also think that for storage, frosting holds up better for leftovers than just plain marshmallows, which tend to taste best straight out of the oven and usually end up being a big sticky mess if you try to re-heat them or something like that. But that may just be my taste for sickening sweet desserts taking over...
So, my husband is a huge Star Wars fan and when I saw these cookie cutters at Williams-Sonoma, I knew I had to get them! They sat in my cabinets for a little while but I decided to finally bust them out when my husband was going away for a "guy's weekend" with his best friend. I thought it would be a perfect surprise and a perfect treat for their Comi-Con weekend.
I ended up just using the cookie recipe included in the box since I was worried that other recipes would rise too much in the oven and then the decorative indentations would disappear. Just a heads up that the recipe calls for the dough to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, so you might want to know that before you start the baking process. I did not read through the entire recipe before I began, so the cookies took a little longer than I expected. The dough is great though because not only does it taste wonderful, but it is not overly sticky and I did not have any problems getting the cookies to release from the cookie cutters.
As for the finishing touches, my best friend for years (who I consider more like my own sister), made homemade icing in a variety of colors and hand frosted each of them to bring out the cookie indentations. They looked absolutely fantastic! Since I had not planned that far ahead (I decided to make these morning of) and did not have that much time before my husband arrived home from work, I ended up melting some chocolate chips and shortening in a shallow pan and dipping the backs of each of the cookies in it. It was a great addition to the sugar cookies since you could still see all the indentations on the tops and the chocolate added some extra flavor overall. I kept my cookies in the fridge to keep the chocolate from melting since it was about 90 degrees with 90% humidity that week where I was.
Overall, my husband was extremely surprised and both he and his friend thought they tasted "out of this world"! :-)
I think the hardest thing about baking (or cooking for that matter) is finding time to do it. I don't have kids, a dog, or a house, and I still feel like I am too busy to find time to do all the cooking and baking that I'd like to. If only there were a couple more hours in the day that we could use for those extra things that we never have time for. Since I require my place to be stocked with various meal choices and desserts, I try to use some short cuts to help myself out.
I make a lot of my meals on the weekends if I can and just eat leftovers during the week. I know some people don't (or won't) eat leftovers, and I really don't understand that. If it's good food in the first place, the leftovers usually aren't that bad that they would be inedible.
If I don't want to make it ahead of time, I will at least cook up the meat (if the recipe calls for it) and freeze it so it's ready to go whenever I need it. That saves a surprisingly large amount of prep time on most recipes.
I also like to take a note from Sandra Lee and make things only half homemade. For example, I had a banana cake mix that I wanted to use up but still wanted to do something a little more personal. So I baked the banana cupcakes as directed and made homemade cream cheese frosting for the top (only one of the best frosting flavors ever!).
I know many people have already thought of these time saving tips, but oh well. I'm just sharing what I do! :-D
I only made two cheesecake things so far in my baking endeavors. Last summer I made a "light" cheesecake that used a combination of light cream cheese and vanilla yogurt and just recently, I made these creme brulee cheesecake bars for the holidays. Even though my husband's favorite dessert is cheesecake, I don't make it usually because of how dense and rich it is. Not that I don't enjoy a piece of red velvet cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory every now and again! (FYI: It's delicious and if you haven't had it, you need to try it!) These bars are kind of time consuming, but not quite as complicated and fragile as a traditional cheesecake that needs to bake in a spring-form pan and requires bizarre cooking instructions (like turning off the oven and leaving the cake in there). I know there's a reason why you leave the cheesecake in the oven, but it just seems odd to me!
