Baking Fun: Cream Puffs

1. So often certain foods will conjure memories.  As I was making these I remembered my mom making cream puffs for my Grandpa George: he was diabetic and depending on how you fill the pastry shells, they are very diabetic friendly.  Which led to other memories of Grandpa George and sweet treats: like the time mom brought out sherbet alongside the icecream. Grandpa's eyes lit up like a little kid.  Fun stuff!  

We were having friends over for dinner on Friday night and I wanted to do something different for dessert.  I had seen cream puffs in bakeries and they were very yummy but I hadn't made them.  So, since the kids were up early (ugh) and happily playing (thank God!) I decided to play in the kitchen.  

As usual, I didn't go by a single recipe, I combined bits and pieces of three and these turned out very yummy!  

Cream Puff Shells

Vanilla Pudding (I made it with Almond Extract and then whipped it into 1 cup of whipping cream, whipped stiff)

Chocolate Ganache

Back to Freezer Fridays: Cran-Apple Crisp Bars

Way back when, I posted a regular Freezer Friday post of what batch cooking I'd done that week or fresh produce had been put away for the colder months to come.  Life shifted, things change and I lost track of the habit.

A few things have pushed me back into the practice:
1.  I'm having a baby in 7 weeks (more or less).  I know the farther into the pregnancy I get, the less I'm going to want to cook.  And after the baby gets here, the easier the meals are - the better!
2.  I've gotten my hands on some great domestic produce lately and it was begging to be canned/frozen.
3.  I inventoried the freezer and found a lot of random ingredients that will be much better in a complete meal than getting frost-bite on their own little container in the corner of the freezer.

As an added bonus, a blog I follow is running a "Four Weeks to Fill Your Freezer" feature in May so I'm hoping to get some good recipes from there!

So I bring back Freezer Fridays.  In the past I posted a lot of original recipes.  Not so much anymore.  I've found and altered a lot of the online recipes I find that have turned out fantastic.  I will put the alterations in along with the links to the recipes.  I really don't have time to reinvent the wheel here!

Without further ado, here's what went into the freezer this week (and what random ingredients I used up from the freezer!)

Cran-Apple Crisp Bars:

I started with this Cranberry Oat Bar recipe that I've made before and loved.  I altered it.  A lot.  So here's my version.  And since I was cooking for the freezer, and using up cranberries I had in the freezer- I tripled it to make 3-8x8 pans.

Filling

6 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
2 cup sugar
1 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce

In a small saucepan over medium high heat, combine the cranberries, white sugar and apple sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook until the mixture has reduced to a jam-like consistency.

Crumble
1 1/4 white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine


In a medium bowl, cream together margarine and brown sugar.  Combine dry ingredients and mix into margarine/butter batter. Press half of this mixture firmly into the bottom of prepared pan (wax paper for freezer or liberally greased for oven). Spread the cranberry sauce evenly over the base, then crumble the remaining oat mixture over the top.

At this point, all three of mine went to the freezer.  When it's time to bake them, I'll take them out, remove wax paper, put them in a greased pan and bake in a preheat oven to 350 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes (probably a little longer), until the top is golden brown and filling is bubbly.

Cool completely before cutting into bars.

* * * * *

Also to the freezer/pantry this week:

• Roasted Tomato Marinara (Thanks Florida for the awesome tomatoes!) - This was a one-off type deal.  I skimmed over a few recipes and made it up as I went along.  The end result is really yummy, sadly I don't have an exact recipe.
• Bacon Egg & Cheese Sandwiches

Freezer Friday: Sugar Cookies Made Easy

Sugar cookies are such a festive cookie adaptable for as many occasions as you can invest in cookie cutters or decorations.  Rolling out the dough and frosting them can be such a fun family activity too!  Most times, I get them rolled out, baked and decorated with the butter cream frosting and stand back and think "now what?"  I can't stack them up on a tray or storage bag or all the frosting will get mashed up.  I could throw them all in the freezer and then stack them and freeze them - but they just wouldn't be as good frozen and thawed later.

A couple years ago I came upon a great frosting recipe that sets beautifully and dry on the surface but moist underneath.  Bingo!  That takes care of part of the dilemma.  But what about the mess of mixing, rolling, and cutting?  This year I decided that I could mix, roll and cut all in one big party, and then freeze the cut out cookies before I bake them.  Pull what I need for a given occasion and bake them.  Mix up frosting and voila! Ready to go with half the mess.

So, here's how it breaks down:

1.  Make a batch (or 2) of your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  I use The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe and it has always turned out great.  When I mix two, I'll mix the first, empty the bowl, and then mix the second - in my world of dish loathing there's no point in washing in between if you're making the exact same recipe.



2.  Roll, cut, layer, freeze.  Repeat. Repeat.  Repeat.  Until the dough is gone.  A round cookie cutter (glass) will give you an all occasion shaped cookie.  I am working with pumpkins and fall leaves as I have three parties coming up for which fall theme will be appropriate.  Once the cookies were frozen between layers of wax paper, I stacked them in a plastic container before they found their somewhat temporary home in the freezer.



3.  Pull and bake what you need and mix up an adequate amount of icing.  I love this recipe because you can dip your cookies in and it dries glossy.  Take a bit of the remaining icing and add a little more powdered sugar to thicken it up and it pipes on nicely for accents.  If you don't have a pastry bag or decorating tips, no problem.  Put the frosting in a freezer zip top bag and cut a tiny opening in one of the corners.  Decorate away.

4.  Once the frosting has set, your cookies can be stacked and displayed on a tray - party perfect!



Then, the next time you need a cookie tray, repeat steps 3 and 4 until your freezer stash of cookies is gone.

This post is linked up at Life As Mom's Frugal Friday: Gearing Up for the Holidays.

Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies

December 2 Update: If you've landed here from Life as Mom's Ultimate Cookie Swap, welcome!  You may also want to check out my Easy Sugar Cookies method and my Coconut Fudge cookies:  both go to the freezer to make your life easier!

We had just finished dinner.  I offered a [perfectly yummy] pumpkin bread for dessert.  Handy Man says he's in the mood for something more chocolate-y.  Who am I to argue with that?!  I knew I wanted to mix up cookie dough to get in the freezer for upcoming events and asked if he liked nuts in his cookies (we've only been married just short of nine years).  He does.  I told him I would consult my little black box [computer] and find a recipe.

I started with this recipe and tweaked it a bit and here's what I ended up with.  It's not quite as healthified as my HV Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread that's featured over at The Cheapskate Cook's site today.  But I've taken some baby steps.

Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies

Note: This recipe is for a double batch and will yield about 8 dozen cookies.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour


• 2 cups white whole wheat


• 1 cup baking cocoa powder


• 2 teaspoon baking soda


• 2 cup butter or margarine, softened


• 1-1/3 cup sugar


• 1-1/3 cup packed brown sugar


• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 4 eggs


• 3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips


• 2 cups finely chopped pecans

1.  Cream together butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and blend thoroughly.

2.  Sift together flours, baking soda and baking cocoa and add to the liquid batter.  Blend completely.

3.  Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.  Scoop rounded tablespoons and bake for 8-12 minutes at 350 degrees, or until set.

Note: If you do not use the whole wheat flour you may need to add 2-4 tablespoons of additional flour to your batch to get a good stiff consistency.  Whole wheat flours absorb more of the moisture from recipes than all purpose flour.

Caramel Apple Bars

Last weekend I was tasked to bring dessert to my brother's place as we all converged for a visit. I had apples to use and thought about making Apple Crisp. But, the house was chilly on Thursday night and I was afraid that if I made crisp the day before it would be closer to Apple Soggy instead of Apple Crisp.

Off I went into cyberspace for inspiration. I found these Apple Bars and then went to work modifying the recipe. The result was amazing! We had them with ice cream for dessert on Friday, nibbled them with coffee on Saturday morning and by the time I left on Saturday afternoon folks were picking at the crumbs.

I doubled this recipe for a large jelly roll pan. This recipe will work nicely for a 9x13. Enjoy this delicious bit of fall!

Caramel Apple Bars

1/3 cup Melted Butter or Margarine

1/2 cup Sugar

½ cup Brown Sugar

¼ cup Yellow Squash Puree

1 egg

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

1 cup All-purpose Flour

1 cup White Whole Wheat Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 cups finely chopped Apple

Glaze

¼ cup Whipping Cream

¼ cup Brown Sugar

¼ cup Butter

½ cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:

1. 
   

   Thoroughly combine butter, sugars, egg, yellow squash and vanilla.

   
   


2. 
   

   Add Flours, cinnamon and baking powder and mix. Fold in apples.

   
   


3. 
   

   Spread batter into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 35-45 minutes at 350, just until the edges are golden and the center doesn't jiggle.

   
   

   

   
   


4. 
   

   Glaze: Combine cream, butter and ¼ cup brown sugar in a small saucepan. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and allow to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and mix until all powdered sugar is dissolved into the caramel. Drizzle over cooled bars. {sorry, no finished picture - they were enjoyed before I could get the camera out}

   
   


5. 
   

   Cut into squares and enjoy!

   
   
   
   

   This post is linked up at Things I Love Thursday.

   
   

HV Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

A while back I saw a blog talking about incorporating black bean puree into brownies.  Intriguing. I already hide veggies in my baked goods, why not some extra protein & fiber. When I found this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread, my first thought was "YUM!"  immediately followed by "how can I cut back the sugar and oil?".   I thought I'd try the black beans.  I have to say, it was a great success.  Unless you share your secret, nobody will know that this recipe has been healthified.  If Ihadn't made it I wouldn't have guessed it had zucchini, let alone black beans!

This is a very versatile recipe as it makes a nice muffin or breakfast bread.   You can dust it with powdered sugar and garnish with summer berries and serve as a pretty dessert.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• ½ cup cocoa powder


• 2 eggs


• ¾ cup  Sugar


• ¾ cup Brown Sugar


• 2/3 cup oil


• 2 cups grated zucchini


• ¾ cup black bean puree


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 cups All-purpose flour


• 1 cup White Whole Wheat flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1.  Combine sugars and eggs.  Add cocoa powder, oil and black bean puree and mix thoroughly.  Add in zucchini and blend.

2.  Add all remaining dry ingredients (combine in a separate bowl if that's your style).  Mix them up.   Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.

3.  Pour batter into two greased loaf pans or into prepared muffin tins.  Bake at 35o for 20-25 minutes for muffins and 40-50 minutes for loaves.

Enjoy!

Freezer Friday: Peanut Butter Cup Pie

I'm always looking for easy recipes that present themselves as a more laborious dish than they really are.  In the summer, the less time in the oven or at the stove the better.  This fantastic Peanut Butter Cup pie is tweaked from a recipe used at Sonlight Camp, where HandyMan and I have spent some time.  The best part, no oven and no stove necessary!  It is easily made the night (or a week) before and placed in the freezer to "chill out" until it is needed.  The only way it will last a week in the freezer is if it's well hidden or if you're out of town!

To make this for a crowd, I'm going to try putting a graham cracker crust in the bottom of a 9x13 pan and doubling the filling.  Then cutting it into squares once its frozen.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

1 premade Graham Cracker Crust

4 ounces Cream Cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1-8 ounce tub of Whipped Topping

Hot Fudge topping & Peanut Butter Cups to garnish with.

Directions

1.  Cream together the peanut butter and cream cheese.

2.  Add vanilla and powdered sugar and blend completely.  Mix in milk.

3. Fold whipped topping into the peanut butter mixture.

4.  Pour into crust and garnish with hot fudge and peanut butter cups.

5.  Place pie into the freezer and allow to freeze until firm.  (4-6 hours).  Slice and serve!

Coconut Fudge Cookies

When I think of coconut cookies, the first thing that comes to mind is macaroons. They're good, but always a bit more work than I want to put into a batch of cookies. I like to make cookie dough that I can freeze and pull out and bake when I need a dozen.

Monday night I got home and needed to whip up a batch of cookies and my computer was still packed away from my day out of the house so I turned to a Taste of Home cookbook that's been collecting dust on my shelf. I found a recipe for coconut cookies that looked good and weren't macaroons. I tweaked the recipe a bit to accommodate what I had on hand and this is what I ended up with.

They were SO good! They were so good straight from the oven. And as as a morning snack with coffee while I was working. And so good as dessert with dinner. And so good that the stash I sent to HandyMan's meeting completely disappeared. They were THAT good! If you like coconut, you should make them. If you like coconut and dark chocolate (think Mounds Bar) you should definitely put the chocolate on top.

Coconut Fudge Cookies

1 cup softened Butter or Margarine

1 cup Sugar

1 Egg

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 cups Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Fudge Topping

2 squares Semi-Sweet Chocolate

1 Tablespoon Butter or Margarine

Directions

1.  Cream together sugar and butter.  Beat eggs into the creamed mixture.

2.  Add flour, baking soda and coconut and blend thoroughly.

3.  Divide dough and roll into logs 2-3 inches thick.  Wrap in plastic and place in the freezer to chill for at least 4 hours.

4.  Slice dough into 1/4 inch discs and place on a baking sheet.  [mine didn't spread much]

5.  Bake at 325 degrees for 18-25 minutes or until edges turn golden.

6.  Melt chocolate squares and 1 tablespoon of butter/margarine.  Spread frosting-style on top of the warm cookies. [I also want to try to make the cookies super thin and sandwich the chocolate in the middle like a fancy Pepperidge Farm type cookie].

7.  Allow to cool [or not] and enjoy!

Flan & ChocoFlan

Happy Mardi Gras!  In celebration of decadence, I thought I'd share the yummy treats I made for Valentine's Day.

HandyMan requested flan as his Valentine Dessert. I had never made flan but I figured I could give it a try.  I found this recipe for Spanish Flan.  I did add an extra egg, but otherwise followed the directions to produce this beautiful Flan:



While reading through the comments on the Spanish Flan recipe, I found directions for ChocoFlan.  Now they had my attention.  After a bit more research, I found that it is as easy as the flan batter in the bottom topped with the chocolate cake batter and bake.  The results were as good as it looks!

Grandma Foy's Chocolate Cake

Last weekend we celebrated GBaby's first birthday.  Her birthday is two days short of falling on the same day my Grandma Foy celebrated her birthday for many years.  In honor of my Grandma, I made Grandma Foy's Chocolate Cake for GBaby's birthday.  My Mom was here to help which was good since she'd made it with the Master.  It was a hit!

Grandma Foy's Chocolate Cake

2 Eggs

2 cups Flour

2 cups Sugar

3/4 cups Shortening

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 cup Bakers Cocoa

1 cup Boiling Water

1/2 cup Milk

1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

1  teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Directions:

1.  Mix together Eggs, Flour, Sugar, Vanilla and Shortening.

2. In a small bowl, dissolve cocoa in boiling water.  Add to first mixture and blend.

3.  In another small bowl, mix Milk, Vinegar, Baking Soda, and Salt.  Add to batter and mix thoroughly.

4.  Pour into a greased 9x13 cake pan.  If you are planning to remove the cake to decorate, add flour to prepare the pan as well.

5.  Bake at 325 until center pops up when poked or toothpick comes out clean.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Chocolate Mini-Bundts

I bought myself a mini-bundt pan for the express purpose of making and freezing desserts in smaller portions.  The maiden voyage of the mini-bundt pan was on these absolutely delectable Chocolate Mint Cakes.  We were staying at my parents and off to visit friends for dinner.  I volunteered to "whip up" dessert.  I went searching for doctored cake mix recipes since I didn't have my pantry at my fingertips.  I found a Too Much Chocolate Cake recipe.  Here's the recipe I ended up with

Too Much Chocolate Mint Cake

1-18.25 oz Chocolate Cake Mix

2-3 oz packages of Chocolate Pudding

1 cup Sour Cream

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

3 Eggs

1/2 cup Warm Water

1 1/2 cups Andes Baking Chip

Mix the ingredients up and bake according to the cake mix directions.

I glazed mine with Satiny Chocolate Glaze and used the rest of the Andes chips instead of the chocolate chips.  If you can, glaze right before serving as it did set up to be pretty firm, but the extra glaze pooled in the center of the bundts was oh-so-good!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have had a love for chocolate chip cookies for a long time and have been making them myself, for almost as long.  When I got this e-mail from my friend Karen in Germany, I decided it was time to make up a batch and actually pay attention to what I was doing so that I can share the warm-cookie-love!  Karen wrote:

hey sara,
I just thought of making (chocolate chip) cookies with you at your parents house about 15 years ago... a kind I cannot buy over here, they're always too crunchy. so I figured I should make em myself and was wondering whether you could send me a recipy with ingredients and notes on how you do it? nothing fancy, just simple wonderful yummy american cookies? thanks a lot in advance!

So Karen, this post is for you!

A few tips for chewy cookies before I throw the recipe out there for you all.  I achieve my chewy cookies by combining shortening and butter and closely monitoring the cooking time.  There is a "perfect" point of pulling the cookies out of the oven and it happens when the tops of the cookies look "dry".  This usually happens before they hit the "golden-brown" point.  Once you take the cookies out of the oven, let them sit on the cookie sheet for at least 5 more minutes as they cool, they will actually continue to cook a bit.  (Sorry the pictures aren't that great - GBaby was fussy and I couldn't get my hands on the real camera quickly.)

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Butter, melted on stove
3/4 cup Vegetable Shortening
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 cups Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup chopped Pecans or Walnuts

Directions:
1.  Pre-heat oven to 375*(Fahrenheit).
2.  Melt butter in a saucepan on the stove until bubbly.


3.  Cream together butter, shortening, sugar and brown sugar.


4.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.


5.  Add flour and baking soda and blend thoroughly
6.  Fold in chocolate chips and nuts if desired.
7.  Spoon out teaspoon size portions onto a baking sheet leaving room around each portion for your cookie to spread.

8.  Bake 8-12 minutes or just until to top looks "dry" or set.  Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes.

Cookies will stay fresh for a few days if kept in a sealed container and unbaked cookie dough freezes beautifully.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Freezer Friday: Shepherd's Pies and HV Orange Chocolate Chip Bread

This week I managed to get three Shepherd's Pies into the oven and made a bunch of muffins and breakfast breads to take to a party and to stash in the freezer.  I made Pumpkin Bread, this Lemon-Blueberry Bread and a great Hidden Veggie Orange Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffins.  All turned out super yummy and the Orange-Chocolate Chip Bread recipe is below.  Did you get anything stashed in your freezer this week?

HV Orange Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffins

Ingredients:

2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Orange Juice
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 cups Pureed Yellow Squash
1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 1/2 cups Unbleached Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1-1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375*
2.  Cream together eggs and sugars.  Add Vegetable Oil, Orange Juice and Vanilla Extract and Yellow Squash and mix thoroughly.
3.  Add flours and then Baking Powder and Baking Soda on top of the flours and mix all at once.
4.  Fold in chocolate chips.
5.  Pour into two greased loaf pans or muffin tins.  Recipe will make two loaves or two dozen muffins or a combination of each. Bake muffins for 17-22 minutes and loaves for 45-60 minutes.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

We all have our favorite websites, and I have to admit, that AllRecipes is one of mine.  I especially make frequent use of their ingredients search option.  This week, I needed to take cookies or bars to a meeting on Monday evening.  I went to my usually adequately stocked pantry, to find that I was out of sugar.  Hmmm, cookies or brownies without sugar.

I clicked over to AllRecipes, told them that I wanted a cookie recipe with brown sugar but without sugar.  I got a ton of results, so then I clicked the little button that sorts all the results by ratings and came up with is recipe for Chocolate Revel bars.  I followed some of the recommendations of reviewers and ended up with some very yummy bars.  Below is the recipe and directions that I ended up with when I made these bars.  These are very rich and can easily be served in little tiny squares without feeling like your scrimping on the serving.  Because they were gooey and I was taking them to a finger food affair, I ‘plated’ them in mini-muffin papers and that worked great!

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Cookie Crust:

1 cup Butter or Margarine, softened

2 cups Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

3 cups Minute Oats

2 cups Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

Fudge Filling

1-14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 ½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

2 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine

Crumb Topping

1/3 of the Cookie Crust dough

1 cup finely chopped Walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*, and lightly grease a 10"x14" inch baking pan (or half the recipe for a 9x9 square pan)


2. Prepare Cookie Crust dough: Beat together margarine and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla and blend thoroughly.  Add dry ingredients and mix.  Resulting dough should be very soft cookie dough.  Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.  TIP: Since the dough is sticky, I found it difficult to press in to the pan with a spatula or fingers like I normally would.  But, if I dipped my spatula in flour and then pressed the dough down it didn’t stick to the spatula and the extra flour was negligible to the recipe.  Place dough in the refrigerator while you prepare Fudge Filling.


3. Prepare Fudge Filling:
   In a medium saucepan heat sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips on as low of a heat setting as possible.  You really just want this mixture to be warm enough to melt the chocolate chips.  As soon as the chocolate chips are melted, turn the heat off and add the butter or margarine and stir until margarine is melted.  Spread on top of cookie crust.


4. Crumble top: To the 1/3 remaining cookie crust dough, add ¼ cup flour and walnuts and mix until crumble.  Spread crumbles over the chocolate layer.  


5. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the cookie crust looks “done” from the side if you’re using a glass pan.


6. Let cool and cut and serve.  Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Make Your Own Hersh--I mean Chocolate Syrup

I am a huge fan of hot chocolate, chocolate milk, and chocolate sauce on ice cream.  Over time though, I realized that a lot of the syrups and cocoa mixes tasted more sugary and less chocolaty.   I decided that I could change that!  So I started making my own chocolate syrup.  It's really easy and I can get my bakers cocoa powder at our bulk grocery store so for me it ends up being less expensive too.

Ingredients

1 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder*

1 cup Sugar*

1-2 cups Water (to your desired thickness - less for hot fudge, more for syrup)

Directions

Step 1: Combine 1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder and 1 cup Sugar in a 1 quart sauce pan. *If you want it sweeter, use more sugar, less chocolate and visa versa for a richer, less sweet syrup.  The main thing is to make sure that you have 2 cups of dry ingredients.



Step 2: Add Water to dry ingredients and combine until all are moistened



Step 3: Cook over medium low heat until mixture begins to simmer.  Cook until the syrup is the desired consistency and remember that it will thicken even more as it cools.  Usually my cook time is about 15 minutes start to finish.



Enjoy!

Banana's Foster

Tonight the pile of bananas on the counter beckoned to me and so I decided to try this recipe for Bananas Foster.  It was very yummy, although you really probably should divide it between four servings as the recipe calls for, not two.

Chocolate Mint Grasshopper Brownies

I'm not sure how the combination of chocolate and peppermint became known as "grasshopper" but I do know that this is a great easy brownie recipe that's sure to win you lots of comments at your next party - if they make it to the table!  This is a great way to dress up a brownie mix and make folks think you spent hours making a pretty dessert!  Around the holidays, dress it up with crushed candy canes sprinkled on the very top.

Grasshopper Brownies

Step 1: Make a batch of brownie-mix brownies according to the directions and let them cool.

Step 2: Mix 1 teaspoon of Peppermint Extract into a standard container of white frosting and spread on cooled brownies.

Step 3:  Melt 4 Tbs of margarine and 4- 1 ounce squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate the microwave or in a double boiler. Note- chocolate chips do not work for this - as I learned the hard way when I made these last weekend!  Once melted pour on top of the frosting and tip the pan around to spread the chocolate glaze layer.

Step 4: Chill.  Once chocolate top is set, cut in to squares or triangles and serve.

Click here for the printable version of this recipe.

Easy Cookie Bars!

Returning from a trip is always so much more work than leaving for the trip.  Last week was filled with a task list a mile long and lots to do for everyone else.  By Thursday afternoon, I decided it was time to do something for me.  I am a huge fan of coconut, chocolate and pecans and easy cookie bar recipes are my best friend!  I had used a spoon of sweetened condensed milk in my much needed coffee on Tuesday before I got to the grocery store so I needed to use the rest of the can (see, I HAD to make these).  This recipe is in the tradition of the Magic/7 Layer Cookie Bars, with the ingredients slightly tweaked.  Prep time is 10 minutes- tops.  Bake it for 25 and then let the cookie bars set- that’s the truly hardest part- and enjoy! (Click here for a printable version of the Macaroon Cookie Bar recipe)

Macaroon Cookie Bars

1 ½ cups crushed Graham Crackers (usually 1 package, crushed)

½ cup Margarine, melted

1 cup chopped Pecans

1 ½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, divided

2 cups Unsweetened Coconut, divided

1-14.5 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Directions

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted margarine and press into the bottom of a 9x13” pan.
2. Sprinkle 1 ½ cups of Coconut, 1 cup of Chocolate Chips and chopped pecans on top of graham cracker crust, in that order.
3. Drizzle Sweetened Condensed Milk over the top – covering thoroughly.
4. Sprinkle remaining coconut and chocolate chips on top and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350° or until coconut on the top begins to look a little toasted.  Allow to cool completely before cutting.

When I made the Macaroon Cookie Bars last Thursday, I thought there would be enough for me to take some to a party on Saturday.  Um, yeah, well, there wasn’t. So I made Magic Cookie Bars to take to that shindig.  Equally easy and pretty darn yummy.

Magic Cookie Bars

1 ½ cups crushed Graham Crackers

½ cup Margarine, melted

1 cup chopped Pecans

1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup Butterscotch Chips

1 1/2 cup Unsweetened Coconut

1-14.5 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1.   Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted margarine and press into the bottom of a 9x13” pan.

2.  Sprinkle Coconut, Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Chips, and chopped Pecans on top of graham cracker crust.  Drizzle Sweetened Condensed Milk evenly over the top.

3.  Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350° or until it begins to show signs of browning or bubbling around the edges.  Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Click Here for a  printable version of this recipe.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

For the closing night of the vacation Bible school at our chuch I made these fun ice cream cone cupcakes for the kids.  As usual I totally made too many, but they all found a good home by the end of the night.  This is totally a cheater recipe and while I had planned on just using cake mixes, I goofed a batch and ended up having to mix up homemade yellow cake.  So, for the cheater easy version,

You Will Need:

1 box of your favorite cake mix and the ingredients it calls for

18-24 cake ice cream cones (the kind wiht the flat bottoms)

1 can of your favorite frosting or a homemade frosting of your choice

Muffin tins.

Directions:

1. Mix up the cake batter according to the directions.

2.  Stand ice cream cones in the muffing tins, one cone per cup.

3.  Fill the icecream cones with batter, leaving about one inch at the top.  This is important!  If you overfill them, you will have "melted" icecream cone cupcakes all over you oven - that was my goofed batch :-).

4.  Bake according to your cake directions for cupcakes.  The may take a little longer but will be done when cake bounces back when pressed or when a toothpick comes out clean.

5.  Add frosting after they've cooled and enjoy!

Almond Butter-cream Frosting

Last week I made a fabulous HV Chocolate Cake.  I love chocolate cake with butter-cream frosting. However, when I hit my favorite recipe site for a butter-cream frosting recipe, the recipes it returned to me wereshortening based frosting.  Uh, no.  I like to at least use margarine.  So I pulled out the trusty Betty Crocker binder that HandyMan brought to our marriage and started with Betty's Butter-cream Frosting recipe, and as usual, modified it.  Here is what I ended up with and it was great!

Almond Butter-cream Frosting

3 cups Confectioners Sugar

1/3 cup stick Margarine

2-4 tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Almond Extract

Directions:

1.  Mix margarine and confectioners sugar on low until the margarine and sugar make a coarse mixture.

2.  Add almond extract and milk, 1 tablespoon at a time.  Mix thoroughly between milk additions.  Stop when the frosting is the consistency you desire.

When I made the frosting this time it was a bit thinner than normal but it set up beautifully!