Cake Bites

It's finals week for daughter #2.  Two more days and she'll have survived her freshman year at college.  Since she is only 30 miles away, I made a treat for her and her 11th floor dorm-mates.

I have wanted to try making cake pops, but did not have time to run to the craft store to get the necessary sticks, so instead I made cake bites--pretty much the same thing but minus the sticks.

Considering it was my first time, I was happy with how they turned out.  It was a lot like making the truffles I make during the holidays.

CAKE BITES

Ingredients
Baked Cake (I made strawberry)
Frosting (I used store bought cream cheese flavor)
Candy Melts
Sprinkles

I am not a 'cake' person, but everyone else in my family is.  I chose to use a strawberry cake mix for these particular cake bites but you could use any flavor combination of cake and frosting. Using your favorite homemade cake or frosting recipe would be fabulous!

Bake the cake per the box instructions (or recipe instructions).

Once the cake has cooled, crumble into a large bowl.  Mix with the frosting.  Use between 3/4 and the whole container, depending on how moist the mixture is. You want it just moist enough to stick together.

I used my cookie scoop to make the balls.  Since I wasn't making cake 'pops', I left the bottom of the cake ball flat instead of making it into a round ball.  That way they sit better in the paper holders/container.

Place balls on a parchment covered sheet pan and place in freezer for 15-20 minutes or until firm.  This will help minimize crumbs when dipping in the candy coating.

Melt the candy melts per package instructions.  I chose the microwave method.  I added a tablespoon of oil to the melted candy and mixed well.  It helps keep the candy from hardening too fast.

Dip each cake ball into the melted candy mixture.  Let excess drip off.  I can see how this would be a bit easier with a stick!

Immediately sprinkle with your choice of candy sprinkles. I chose to place in regular cupcake holders.

Aren't they pretty?

Til next time ~ find your JOY!
Kelly

Peppermint Brownies

Most of the baking I do is from scratch.  However, there is one item that I make from a box (I know, shudders from you bakers out there).  It's a very specific box.  And I'm talking about brownies.

I've tried many brownie recipes but none of them are as yummy as these Ghirardelli brownies.  They are moist and chewy with a crusty layer on the outside.  I buy the big box from Costco.  I prettied them up with some peppermint flavored frosting and crushed candy canes. They turned out very festive!

See what I mean?  Crusty outside, moist and chewy inside.  And, can you say triple chocolate?  You chocolate lovers out there know what I'm talking about.

Cool brownies completely before adding this:

PEPPERMINT FROSTING

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 Tbps milk

3/4 tsp peppermint extract

green food coloring

Crushed peppermint candy canes 

Note:  I doubled the frosting recipe for a 9x13 pan of brownies.

 

I used 4 candy canes.  Place in a baggie and using a rolling pin, gently crush into small chunks.

When you put it all together you get a very festive, rich and sweet treat for those holiday parties or to enjoy just because.

Hubby gave them a double thumbs up!  Works for me!

I cut them into 1 inch squares and placed in cupcake liners to serve on my red tile tray.  I only had white ones on hand, but I think they look good.  Colored or holiday themed ones would work too.

Enjoy!

Til next time ~ find your joy!
Kelly

Apple & Triple Berry Crumble

This afternoon we made an apple and triple berry crumble.  It's actually a triple berry crumble recipe, we just added the leftover Honeycrisp apples we didn't use in the apple pies we made a couple weeks ago.  The once crispy apples were reaching the end of their shelf life so it was use 'em or lose 'em.  So we cut them up and added them to the berries.

INGREDIENTS

4 1/2 cups berries (fresh or frozen, if frozen, thaw and discard excess liquid)
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups butter


PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, gently toss berries and sugar, set aside.

Although we added the few apples we had left, we didn't cut back on the berries or add any additional sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cut in butter until crumbly.

Press half of the mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  

Cover with berries.  Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries.  


Bake 30-40 minutes until berries are bubbly and topping is golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream, or whipped cream, or cream!  Or eat it plain.  It was delish.


Note:  If you add apples, you need to bake for an additional 15 minutes to ensure the apples are cooked through.

The best kitchen helper/partner in the whole world!  


Til next time ~ find your joy!
Kelly

Homemade Donuts

After Jim's suggestion that we make homemade French fries, he suggested, since we already had the oil in the pan, that we make donuts.

Now, neither of us have ever made homemade donuts before, but we thought, what the heck, let's give it a try!

I knew I'd seen a donut recipe on one of the food blogs I follow not too long ago, so off I went looking and I found it on Our Life in the Kitchen, one of my favorite foodie blogs.

Here is the link to Karen of Our Life in the Kitchen's Donut Recipe (her pics are much better than mine-- she's a photographer too!).  

DONUTS INGREDIENTS:
2 packs Rapid Rise Yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup water
5 cups flour
1/3 cup shortening
1 tsp salt
Vegetable Oil


GLAZE INGREDIENTS:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla
4-6 tbsp hot water

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.  Add lukewarm milk, salt, eggs, shortening and two cups of the flour.  Beat on low until it's blended.  Scrape down the sides and continue mixing on medium for another couple of minutes.

Add the remaining flour.

Beat until smooth and well blended.  Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set in a warm spot.  Let it rise for an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll it out to about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut out the donuts.  Gently re-roll the scraps so no dough is wasted.  Set the donuts back in the warm spot, cover, and let rise for about half an hour.

Meanwhile, mix up the glaze.

Heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees.

Gently drop in two or three donuts at a time and let them cook until they float, only about a minute.  Flip over and cook for another minute.

Dunk them in the glaze.  Set on a rack to cool.

Best eaten while WARM!!!

I would encourage you give making donuts a try.  They're not as hard as they seem and they are delicious while they're still warm!

'til next time, find your joy~

Kelly

Apple Crisp

My hubby loves baked apple dishes.  So, for his birthday I made him Apple Crisp.  This is just for you, babe!

APPLE CRISP

Peel and slice 4 tart apples. (I used Honeycrisp, our favorite apple.)  Sprinkle with a splash of lime juice and a shake or two of cinnamon.  Spray baking dish with spray oil.  Arrange apples in baking dish. It fit perfectly into a 9x6 dish.

Mix together 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, heaping 1/2 cup oatmeal, 3/4 tsp nutmeg, 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter.

 Mix with fork until...

(it looks like this) well combined.

Spread mixture evenly over the apples.  Bake in 375 oven for 30 minutes.

Hot out of the oven!

It's wonderful served as is, or dress up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce.  If you're really daring, try with a bit of shredded sharp cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.

Jim enjoyed it as is, hot out of the oven...for breakfast. **big contented smile**


Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook circa 1996


'til next time, enjoy!

Kelly

Easter Cookies

So sorry it's been so long between posts!  Things have been a bit crazy.  Hopefully, I'll be back to regular posting soon.  Here's what I was up to today!  Easter Cookies!  Enjoy!

Have a wonderful Easter holiday!

Kelly

Valentine Treats

I found this recipe on one of my new favorite foodie blogs, Sprinkle Bakes.  These butter cookies looked so cute I thought I would give them a try.  I think they turned out pretty good, and Jim and Haley really liked the taste of the butter cookie, but if you visit Heather over at Sprinkle Bakes, no judging.  Hers are perfect!

COLORFUL SPIRAL COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups unsifted cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp strawberry (or other flavor) extract
1/2 tsp rose food coloring
2 Tbsp unsifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups multi-colored nonpareil decors

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugars in a food processor and process briefly to mix.  Add the butter in pieces; pulse mixture until it has the consistency of cornmeal. 

Add vanilla and process until mixture forms a ball.

Divide the dough into 2 equal portions.  Return one portion to food processor.  Add the strawberry extract, food coloring and the extra tablespoons of flour to the processor and process until just incorporated.

Roll out each portion of dough between sheets of waxed paper.  Create a rectangle (about 11x8 inches) about 1/8 inch thick.  Leave the dough between the sheets of waxed paper and slide onto a baking sheet. (I was out of waxed paper so I used foil.  It worked okay, but waxed paper would have been much better.)  Refrigerate until firm, for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

Remove dough pieces from refrigerator.  Pour the nonpareils decors into a shallow rectangular dish (such as a 9x13 pan).

Peel off the top sheet of waxed paper from both doughs.  Brush the vanilla dough very lightly with water.  Using the waxed paper, lift the strawberry dough and flip it onto the vanilla dough so they are stacked.  Press with your fingertips to seal the two doughs together.  Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and trim the edges even.

When the dough is pliable, roll up like a jelly roll, beginning with the long side.  Gently curl the edge with your fingertips so you don't get any air pockets as you roll dough into a log.  As you roll, the outer portion may tear, pinch tears together as they happen and keep rolling.

Gently lift log on top of nonpareil decors in the dish and roll until the log is completely coated with decors.  I used large colored crystal sugars and candy sprinkle hearts.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to slice, about 4 hours.  You can refrigerate up to a week or freeze up to 2 months.

Slice log into 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick cookies.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Bake at 325 for 15-17 minutes.

I will definitely make these again.  Maybe green for St. Patty's day?

Enjoy!

Kelly

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - Yum!

This is a recipe I found on the internet years ago...I'm not even sure where it's from.  It was a recipe for a cookie mix in a jar that you could give as a gift.  I can't even remember if I ever gave it as a gift...hmm.  I morphed it into a full recipe and it is one of my hubby's favorite treats.  And, it's not half bad for you, if you don't count all that butter.  After all, it does have whole grain in it (whole wheat flour and oats).

I didn't take any pics until the dough was mixed.  Sorry!  I must get better at remembering to take pics when I start the recipe, not half way through.  Today, I did manage to get flour on my camera though, go figure.  (It was from a different recipe.  I'll post that tomorrow if it is worthy of sharing.  It's a new recipe.)  I'm surprised I haven't slopped on it sooner as I can tell you with complete confidence, I am a very messy cook/baker!

These are soooo gooood!   The cinnamon gives them the greatest flavor.  Let's get to it!

INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cup butter (3 sticks)
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour & 1 ½ cup wheat flour) - and yes you read that right...if you're using all white flour, use only 2 cups.  If it's a mix of white and wheat, use 2 1/2 cups total)
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 bag choc chips
4 ½ cups oatmeal (I used steel cut oats)

DIRECTIONS:
In bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon.  Add oatmeal, mix thoroughly.  Set aside.  In separate large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well.  Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture. Stir and mix well. Add choc chips.

I used 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour.  I like Hungarian Stone Ground Style Whole Wheat Flour.  It's a high altitude flour and works well for us here--where we're at a high altitude!  Sorry, couldn't resist.  Do you see that cookie scoop?

This is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.  It's a small ice cream/cookie scoop.  If you don't have one, get one.  Now.  They make scooping cookie dough so easy, and your cookies turn out all the same size!  You can get one most places where kitchen gadgets are sold.  Get a metal one, they work far better than the original plastic one I bought.  I've had mine for quite a few years, but don't know what I did without it.

Drop by rounded scoops onto parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes.

Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks.

 
Makes 5 dozen cookies 
 
Bon Appetit!

Kelly~