Millionaire's Shortbread pg 124

I've seen this recipe floating around the internet for some time now and people seem to love it so I thought that it would be a good choice. I think I tried to make it before with dismal results but it may have been the same concept but a different recipe.

The Verdict: It takes time and patience but with some tweaking, it could be amazing. Someone compared it to a twix which blew my mind because I didn't make the connection myself. Shortbread, caramel, chocolate .. twix. The dark chocolate ganache was a nice choice, not too sweet but a good balance for the bar. I did think that the bar was missing a salty element though. Maybe some salt would be a nice addition to the shortbread.

Tips for Next Time: The shortbread was fine on it's own, a little thick but a good solid surface for the tastiness piled on top. The caramel was HORRIBLE to make. The recipe suggests two methods, 12 minutes in the microwave or 1 1/2 hours on the stove top. Obvious decision, I went for the microwave. It says to whisk every 2 minutes but between minute 8-10 when I walked away, it erupted and I was left with a molten sugar mess in my microwave. I transferred what I had left into a pot and tried to finish it on the stovetop but not even 2 minutes into it I was whisking and with each movement I was dragging burnt bits through the caramel. Thinking quick on my feet I grabbed a strainer and quickly strained out as much as the brunt crap as I could (hence the dark specs). Was anyone the wiser? No, but making that fetching caramel was stressful! Next time I'm finding my own caramel recipe.

chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies pg 139-140

I had flagged the cookies as my next recipes to try and made sure that I had all the ingredients but I made the fatal error of not reading through the instructions first. Turns out that the chocolate chip cookies needed to rest for 6 hours and the peanut butter for 3. I like to bake because the reward is also instantaneous. It takes me 2o minutes to mix something up, I get it in the oven and then I get a tasty treat when it's done baking. Ta da! I don't want to wait 6 hours for cookies! But alas, I'm following the instructions exactly as written so I mixed up all the dough on Saturday night and baked them all on Sunday. Let me just tell you that there is nothing worse than scooping cold cookie dough except for scooping cold cookie dough with giant chunks of cold chocolate. I decided that I hated these cookies before I even had the chance to taste one.

The Verdict: With the waiting period and the cold dough scooping - I really really wanted to hate these cookies but they cannot be denied. They are tasty. Super tasty even. Even though I want to bake the recipes exactly as written, I couldn't help myself and in the chocolate chip cookies I added 2 cups of semi sweet and 3/4 cup of milk chocolate, I just love the mixture of two chocolates in one bite. The chocolate chip aren't the prettiest and there are 2 sticks of butter in each recipe but dammit, I loved these cookies.

Tips for Next Time: They're pretty solid cookies as-is. Aside from my mixing of 2 kinds of chocolate chips, I wouldn't change a thing. I had enough foresight to add some milk chocolate to half the peanut butter cookies so my husband couldn't eat the entire batch, he was annoyed but his coworkers seemed to enjoy the little addition.

mmmm brownies

Why: I don’t know why I do it to myself, but every week I check out the kithn to see what they have going on. Recently they featured these, mascarpone brownies. I’m always sniffing out new and improved brownie recipes so I had to give these a try.

What: Aside from the slight taste in tirimusu – I’ve never had mascarpone. And, I didn’t know where to find it. Luckily I found it at the 3rd grocery store I looked, and for a reasonable price (although I know Costco has it from time to time but really, who needs that much?). I read the reviews and after a few comments said that they couldn’t taste the cheese, I knew I was safe. I also saw that the actual brownie wasn’t that sweet so I added an extra 2 tbsp of sugar. Ganache is one of my favorite things, so easy to make and yet everyone is impressed. I hate frosted brownies – why mess with a good thing. Whenever a frosted brownie ends up on my plate I usually scrape off all the frosting. In the case of these brownies, the ganache is definitely appropriate and needed. With the dense texture and tons-o-chocolate it’s a rich dessert so a little goes a long way. So, the big question; are they worth it? While they are super tasty, the calorie intake is questionable but the process is no more complicated than any other brownie recipe out there. I have half a tub of mascarpone left so, yes, I will be making these again. After that, I’m curious to substitute cream cheese.

peanut butter bar fail

Why: For my wedding present my mom gave me a cookbook with all the recipes I grew up with. I had fond memories of peanut butter chocolate bars and decided to give it a go.

What: The gist of the recipe is that it's a peanut butter cookie with a layer of chocolate and a layer of peanut butter frosting. If it sounds overly sweet and heavy, it was. I realized that I loved these bars as a kid because it's as much sugar as anyone could ever possibly cram into a little cookie bar. As an adult, it was way too much for me. After one bite it was instantly declared a failure. Maybe for my nieces first sleepover I'll make a batch, drop them off and giggle myself to sleep as I think of the chaos I left behind.

Halfway cookies? Try halfway gone by the time I'm willing to share

Why: It was the perfect storm, I came across an interesting looking recipe, I had all the ingredients and Michael was traveling.

What: When these came out of the oven I determined that they were completely undesirable and a mistake. I figured that I have to at least taste them. One bite and I was sold. They're perfect, the meringue is sweet but the cookie portion has a nice salty balance. It's a little bit more work than a regular cookie bar because of the meringue but I usually have extra egg whites because I make so many custards so it's a great recipe for me. I took the first batch into work where everyone instantly declared the recipe a winner. I made a batch a few days later for my husband's work and they too had their lives changed by this cookie. I made their batch half chocolate chip half white chocolate macadamia but didn't receive any feedback on which was preferred - they gobbled it up all the same. It's a little complicated, ugly and messy to transport and eat but people sure do love it so it will always be a go-to recipe in my cookbook.

Mini birthday cakes

Why: The team I work on is small, a total of 8 people not including myself but even still, we don't make a big deal out of birthdays. In fact, no one announces birthdays so it's not uncommon for someone's to slip by without anyone saying something. But, someone happened to mention that their birthday along with someone else's fell around the same weekend so I should make cupcakes. One birthday person was completely indifferent as long as there was chocolate and the other just wanted the frosting that goes on german chocolate cake. Well, I made over 3 dozen cupcakes only to find that the german chocolate dude took the day off! Rude! Others in the office gobbled them up though, some people were even hiding cupcakes for later. My bosses boss even snook some home to share with his kids.

What: Not wanting to make two kinds of cupcakes I did two very different cupcakes with the same chocolate cupcake base. I made the german chocolate frosting from this recipe. While it's not the most attractive frosting, it turned out very tasty. It wasn't overly sweet and I went a little light on the pecans, mostly because I ran out :). When I was mixing the cupcakes I was a little light on cocoa powder so I added some melted unsweetened chocolate chips but the cake itself still wasn't the rich chocolate taste I was going for so for the mint cupcakes I covered the top of each cupcake with chocolate ganache. I used my standard buttercream recipe and slowly added mint extract so it was subtle. Nothing ruins a dessert quicker than an over powering taste of mint. And of course, so people would know that the cupcakes are mint I added a little green coloring. I added a little drizzle of ganache over to top of the cupcakes to make them a little fancy. Just a little.

Biscotti.. .. . .. again..

Why: Now that I discovered how easy biscotti is, I went a little wild.

What: I was still on my chocolate kick so I wanted to give a go to chocolate biscotti. I used this recipe and well, it turned out perfect. I used milk chocolate chips and I made some with and without almonds and I have to say that unfortunately the almonds didn't add much. Since I already started the mess I decided to dive in and make another batch of biscotti. I tried my hand at this recipe but cut the amount of chips, pistachios and craisins down and used 2 tsp of the almond extract. This recipe was quite a bit more sticky (I had to wet my hands in order to shape the dough into logs) and it stuck to the parchment paper so I ran a sharp knife between the cookies and paper to get them to release. I figured that the uber stickiness was totally tolerable because there was no butter and hardly any oil in them. I found the almond extract still a little too strong, next time I will use 1 ½ tsp if not a little less. Both cookies turned out exactly as I had wished, it's nice to have a roaring success in the kitchen.

brownie + cookies = love

Why: Sometimes when I want a treat there is only one thing that will satisfy my craving. Warm, gooey, chocolate brownies. Warm brownies with ice cream, best desert ever. Lava cake!? My thoughts exactly! What makes these cravings super frustrating is that you can't run out and buy one quickly and on the cheap. If I wanted ice cream, 30 seconds and $1 later I'd be happy. Warm brownie sundae? I don't even know where you can buy a decent one. The mood for a warm chocolate treat hit me and suddenly I remembered recently viewing a recipe for brownies made into cookies. SOLD!

What: Ok, I'm not going to lie, I have totally classified this as healthy because it doesn't have a lot of butter or oil in it. But it does have A LOT of chocolate which doesn't make it cheap. It has quite a few more steps than I typically care for when making cookies and scooping cold dough is annoying but I can mix it by hand which means the bowl from my stand mixer won't take up the entire dishwasher. The results are pretty good. If you're the kind of person that likes the outside pieces of the brownie pan, this is totally for you. Each cookie is a little crisp around the outside, chewy in the middle. I used my super nice semi sweet chocolate which is a little bitter for the recipe so next time (hell yes there will be a next time) I'll do maybe 1 ½ cup semi and ½ cup milk. And to make it even more amazing, it wouldn't hurt to throw a few unmelted chips into the dough before baking. I'm just saying.. if you're going to make a brownie cookie, might as well go all in.

Recipe:

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp of butter (yes, this is the correct amount)

2 cup of bitter or semi sweet chocolate

¾ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Preheat to 350. Mix together brown sugar and eggs. Add vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt, stir until combined. In a separate bowl add the chocolate, oil and butter. Melt in microwave in short intervals, stirring between, until compeltely melted. Fold chocolate into the other mixture (until color is consistent) and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes. Scoop chilled dough onto a greased or lined cookie sheet and bake for 11-12 minutes.

coconut almond macaroons

Why: Because I love coconut!

What: For other recipes I've had sweetened coconut around and have been snacking on it here and there. It's just so tasty! I had tons of egg whites left over from the crack pie so I decided to make macaroons. I started looking at recipes online but ended up using the recipe on the bag. My dentist (a very chatty fellow) made the point that the recipe on the packaging is going to be the best because they want it to showcase their product. It was a good recipe, with a few tweaks. I added about 1 extra egg white and I added about 2 tablespoons of almond paste instead of almond extract. Much to my disappointment, it didn't have much almond flavor, needed much more almond paste. They were tasty by themselves but a light drizzle of chocolate made them even better because it broke up the flavor. These would be super simple to convert into a homemade almond joy, one of my favorites. Annnd, best part, these are practically diet treats because there isn't any oil or butter.

My adaptations:

• 1 (14 ounce) package sweetened coconut (5 1/3 cups)
• 2/3 cup sugar (minus 1 tbsp or so)
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 egg whites
• 5 tbsp almond paste, chopped into tiny pieces
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 
  
• 1- Mix coconut, sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in vanilla extract, egg whites (recipe says not to whip but I mixed to small peaks, I don't think it made a difference either way) and almond paste until well blended. Drop by tablespoonful (I used cookie scoop lightly packed) onto sprayed parchment paper, MUST SPRAY! Continue to stir as you scoop as the egg whites might settle at bottom of the bowl.
• 2. Bake 325F for 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Leave on pan until cool enough to transfer.
• 3. Melt some semi sweet chocolate in microwave or double boiler (careful not to burn it) and drizzle over top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

oldie - wedding shower cakes

Why: Word has spread about my tasty cakes and I was asked to make something for a bridal shower. The colors where black and white and they wanted buttercream. This was my first time working with black frosting and man, it was no fun. I learned that no matter how much black coloring I mixed into the frosting, the best I could get was a dark grey. I ended up having to run out and buy black frosting in a tube – for shame. I can’t imagine it was terribly attractive to eat this cake either as your gums/tounge would probably turn purple. Yikes.

What: The cakes were almond flavored cake with fudgy chocolate frosting between the layers. Because it had to black and white I did the outside in buttercream that had a slight almond flavoring to it. I had a grand vision of what I wanted to pipe on the cakes and it was a harsh reality when I first tried to pipe on the vertical sides. It’s all about pressure on the piping bag which was very hard to do because it was actually coming out of a plastic tube. Honestly, I kinda freaked out mid decoration but I think the result wasn't too horrible.

oh baby baby

Why: For my sisters baby showers I was on cupcake duty. There was the usual, lemon but we also mixed it up and did some chocolate.

What: Because I was so sick of doing the typical lemon cupcakes I decided to mix it up and put the lemon curd in the center of the cupcake. For the chocolate I chilled some ganache and put it in the center. I was pleased with the results but not sure if it's worth the extra effort of cutting out holes in each cupcake.

I had leftover chocolate cupcakes so I brought some into work. I didn't have enough ganache and frosting to do them exactly like the baby shower cupcakes so I just dipped the tops of the cupcakes in the ganache. Quick, pretty and oh so tasty.

Birthday weekend = parade of treats

Excuse the crappy phone pics - I was too lazy to get out the real camera.

Why: My sisters birthday was a few weekends ago and of course I was put on treat duty. As requirement, if she's eating it, it better be lemon. To meet the lemon requirement I made mini lemon bundt cakes with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream. I've mastered this recipe by now because I've made it so often for her. This time to mix it up I used meyer lemons which I have never used before. They're smaller than regular lemons and so much sweeter. It's like a weird hybrid between a lemon and orange. I don't think anyone noticed but I enjoyed the slight variation. Because I couldn't handle having an entire dessert selection of lemon I decided to make some chocolate meringues.

What: Meringues are weird little creatures. They're crispy and hollow but have a little bit of a chew to them once you start eating them. They are typically made with nuts but I love love love the chocolate meringues. They're almost like eating a brownie but with none of the guilt because it's literally sugar, egg whites, cocoa powder and some potato starch. In one of the Martha Stewart magazines I saw that they baked the merginues in muffin cups. Adorable! I used little cups that you put chocolates in and they turned out to be a great grab and go treat. A little bit more annoying to eat but they make for a cute display.

I made a small cake for my sisters birthday, same lemon cake and curd as the mini bundt cakes. I wanted purple frosting but when I mixed in the color by hand it just turned into a muddy blue. Frustrated, I tossed it in the mixed and instantly I had a very very purple frosting. Not that attractive but I don't think she minded.

Zucchini Failure - seriously.

Why: Internet, I have a confession; I struggle with zucchini breads, especially chocolate zucchini. Baking has always been easy to me. In my mind it's just following instructions. How hard can that be? I've made some of the fanciest desserts without issue but when it comes to a gosh darn zucchini bread, I get my butt kicked most of the time. My problem is that it falls! I've done well with a regular spice zucchini but I have yet to make a successful chocolate zucchini. Wanting to give it another go - today I made both.

What: Determined not to fail this time, I made the chocolate zucchini into muffins and the regular spiced zucchini bread into a loaf. I put the loaf in the oven first and when I opened the oven to put the cupcakes in I wasn't being careful and the oven moved and my loaf sunk. BAH! My muffins turned out ok but still fell a little bit. Overall, the chocolate zucchini wasn't chocolate enough, I could definitely still taste the zucchini. Back to the drawing board for me.