It’s not that I haven’t been cooking, it’s just that I haven’t been posting. In the past few weeks I have made a few things, I tried a new pancake recipe, made some Ginger-Carrot-Pecan Cupcakes, made some Chai, bought some dilled green beans, a purple bell pepper (yes purple!), and just this morning made some whole wheat cinnamon pecan pancakes.
I’ll start with the most perfect looking pancake I have ever made:
I know its not “model perfection” but it does look pretty tasty. I’ve deemed it the best looking pancake because, well it is. Its almost perfectly round, with uniform solid color throughout. There aren’t any wierd little bubble holes, or pouring mistake lines in it. It looks just right.
I’m weird about food like that sometimes, leave me alone.
One weekend while a southern friend was visiting we went to the flea market which also includes food vendors. One of them was selling purple bell peppers. Yes PURPLE.
They were pretty weird. The taste was a mild pepper taste, kind of bland, but they sure did look nice!
If you’re wondering if the color is carried inside of the pepper, it is not :(, its white inside:
The purple color fades as you cook it as well. Rather disappointing.
Then there was my chai disaster:
Lets just say trying to use a coffee filter to filter out the spices didn’t work so well. I’ll let you know when I figure the recipe out, I’m trying to make chocolate chai. For now I’m going to stick with my tazo.
As for the green beans, the cupcakes and the new pancake recipe, you’ll just have to wait.
You’ve heard of cherry coke, there’s even vanilla coke, there are weird diet cokes, and random odd flavors that come out every now and then. This concoction you have to make on your own though.
Last year at an Italian festival nearby, there was a stand advertising, vanilla coke, cherry coke, and chocolate coke. I’m a coke addict so I had to see what was going on, and the lady at the stand showed me how to make it, and now I will share it with you!
Ok, its not that big of secret. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the ingredients are simple:
Pour in the coke.
Add some chocolate syrup and stir. (It has to be syrup, chocolate milk powder mix DOESNOTWORK. Believe me, I tried.)
I recommend adding ice, after mixing in the syrup, otherwise you get little chocolate globules floating throughout the drink.
Also don’t worry when it fizzes up when you add the syrup, its just what it does.
Yeah. I hate calling certain recipes perfect, because usually you then find one that is actually better. That and its up to the actual eater to determine whether something is perfect or not. I will share why I find these cookies to be so good though.
First, they are caramel-ey crispy. The bottoms are toasted just enough they get that delicious slightly browned crisp to them. Just above that though is a gooey chewy center, that has just the right amount of chew for an oatmeal cookie. Lastly, the little bursts of chocolate spread throughout are just the right amount.
Oh by the way you could use raisins instead of chocolate chips in this recipe. I just really don’t like raisins. Raisins and bananas, yes, two very popular fruits, that I just don’t dig.
Ingredients:
The Creamed:
Unsalted butter, softened 285g (10 oz)(1.25 cups)(2.5 sticks)
Brown sugar 170g (6 oz)(3/4 cup)
Sugar 99g (3.5oz)(1/2 cup) The Eggs:
Eggs 50g (1.75 oz)(1 large)
Vanilla Extract 9g (1/6 oz)(1 teaspoon) The Dry Goods:
Wheat Flour 205g (7.25 oz)(1 1/2 cups)
Baking Powder 5g (<1/4 oz)(1 teaspoon)
Ground Cinnamon 4g (<1/4oz)(1 teaspoon) The Extras:
Rolled Oats 234g(8 1/3 oz)(3 cups)
Chocolate Chips 2 cups (or one standard sized bag 12oz I think)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Whisk all the dry goods together in a bowl.
Beat together the eggs with the vanilla extract.
Mix the butter in a mixer alone until a smooth and consistent texture (aka if there are any cold butter lumps, work them out). Slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture has lightened and increased slightly in volume.
Add the eggs slowly, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Work in the dry goods slowly in three separate stages. When the dry goods are mixed in, stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips with a spoon.
Spoon or portion, or using a 1 oz disher, drop the dough onto an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Bake 15-17 minutes (mine were 16) rotating halfway through.
Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet (or they’ll break when you try to remove them!) then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Enjoy.
Ingredients:
The Creamed:
Unsalted butter, softened 285g (10 oz)(1.25 cups)(2.5 sticks)
Brown sugar 170g (6 oz)(3/4 cup)
Sugar 99g (3.5oz)(1/2 cup) The Eggs:
Eggs 50g (1.75 oz)(1 large)
Vanilla Extract 9g (1/6 oz)(1 teaspoon) The Dry Goods:
Wheat Flour 205g (7.25 oz)(1 1/2 cups)
Baking Powder 5g (<1/4 oz)(1 teaspoon)
Ground Cinnamon 4g (<1/4oz)(1 teaspoon) The Extras:
Rolled Oats 234g(8 1/3 oz)(3 cups)
Chocolate Chips 2 cups (or one standard sized bag 12oz I think)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Whisk all the dry goods together in a bowl.
(these dry goods are before whisking)
Beat together the eggs with the vanilla extract.
Mix the butter in a mixer alone until a smooth and consistent texture (aka if there are any cold butter lumps, work them out).
Slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture has lightened and increased slightly in volume.
Add the eggs slowly, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Work in the dry goods slowly in three separate stages.
When the dry goods are mixed in, stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips with a spoon.
Spoon or portion, or using a 1 oz disher, drop the dough onto an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Bake 15-17 minutes (mine were 16) rotating halfway through.
Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet (or they’ll break when you try to remove them!) then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Enjoy.
The recipe has been modified from Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for More Food.
No really, these cupcakes are really bad. They started out as a good idea. Dark chocolate cupcakes filled with tasty peanut butter goodness, like a reese’s cup, but cake like. I couldn’t even finish taking pictures of this horrible horrible cupcakes.
I’ll share some pictures with you but I don’t have the heart to post the recipe.
It started all good. A basic chocolate cake recipe.
Mix the ingredients by the muffin method, and stir.
Mmmm tasty chocolate batter.
Pop them in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes.
This is where it began to all go wrong. So wrong!
I did a checkup about half way through baking (just turning on the light not opening the door). They looked fine. Rising, beginning to get that little dome.
Alas, when I took them out, they had sunk in the middle –
I said oh well! I wasn’t about to waste a whole batch of cupcakes because they sunk. I was gonna poke a hole in them and fill them anyways. This way, I figure the little dip is just there to fill!
And I made the tasty peanut butter frosting. The frosting consisted of butter, peanut butter, confectioners sugar, and milk. Oh yeah, tasty. (This still tasted good. Recipe at the end.)
It should have been a sign when my first makeshift piping bag blew up in my hand. But I kept truckin.
Then I filled the cupcakes with tastiness.
But then I tried them. The frosting was good. The cupcakes though….the cupcakes….
They were heavy, thick, too moist, too sticky, too gross.
I ended throwing them all out.
It made me sad :(.
But then I ate some more frosting (which still tasted good), and took a picture of the puppy chewing on the steelers.
This cheesecake is only brought out during the holiday season. Mostly because it uses crushed candy canes and those are a little hard to find in the middle of July (starlight mints, the red and white ones, work but don’t tint the cheesecake as pink). Peppermint flavor screams winter and the holidays as well.
This recipe is so good, I’m just going to get to the point and let you try it for yourself.
(Please excuse the not-so-great photography this time, I’m dog sitting and the lighting in their kitchen isn’t so great for photos.)
Ingredients:
Oreo Cookies (or chocolate crumbs)
Butter or margarine, melted
1 envelope (or 1 tbsp) unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
16-oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies
1 cup whipping cream
2 1.05 oz milk chocolate candy bars
1 9-inch round spring-form pan.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Crush the cookies. I used a blender/food processor to crush the cookies. Make sure the crumbs don’t become too fine, otherwise the crust will be too hard. The original recipe called for 1 cup, but thats never enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
Mix between 2 and 3 tablespoons of butter for each 1 cup of cookie crumbs you use.
Start with a little butter, only adding more butter if the crumbs aren’t sticking together well. Adding too much butter makes the crust really hard. Press the crumb/butter mixture into the bottom of a spring-form pan.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven (350 degrees F). Cool.
Crush the peppermints or candy canes. I used starlight mints this time because for some weird reason the grocery store didn’t have any (its two days before Christmas people!). I used about 25 mints (usually about 3 candy canes).
The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of crushed peppermints, I like using a little more about 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Adjust the amount to your taste, if you really like mint use more. If you don’t like mint, or are making this for someone else, use the original amount.
Soften gelatin in the 1/4 cup cold water. Stir over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved.
Combine the cream cheese and sugar together until well blended.
Add the melted and cooled gelatin.
Gradually add the milk, doing your best to keep the mixture as smooth as possible.
Fold in the crushed peppermints.
Chop the chocolate into small chunks. (I use about half a 5 oz hershey’s symphony bar, I like extra chocolate.)
Whip the cream.
Fold in the whipped cream and chocolate pieces.
Pour the mixture over the cooled crust.
Chill in the refrigerator until firm.
Slide a knife around the edge of the cheesecake to help release it from the pan. Slice and serve. (Pictures of that tomorrow.)
Oreo Cookies (or chocolate crumbs)
Butter or margarine, melted
1 envelope (or 1 tbsp) unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
16-oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies
1 cup whipping cream
2 1.05 oz milk chocolate candy bars, chopped
1 9-inch round spring-form pan.
Directions
Crush cookies into crumbs. Create a mixture of 2-3 tablespoons of melted butter to 1 cup of crumbs, increasing amount if needed to cover the bottom of the springform pan. Press mixture into the bottom of the pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Cool.
Soften gelatin in cold water, then heat on low until dissolved. Combine cream cheese and sugar, mixing until well blended. Add in the dissolved gelatin. Gradually add in the milk mixing until smooth. Fold in crushed peppermint.
Whip the whipping cream. Fold in the whipped cream and chopped chocolate. Pour over the crust and refrigerate until firm.
Last night I went and hung out with Amy. She has been busy, busy, busy making chocolates for gifts for Christmas. She was already in the middle of finishing up the cherry cordials when I got there.
Cherry cordials are something you have to pay attention to while you’re making them, so I left her to her chocolatey ways. Instead I helped her mom dismember some retarded quilt squares that were put together backwards. We also decided the menu for dinner on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve Menu:
Honey Baked Ham
Green Beans
Summer Corn
Twice baked potatoes
Pizza wreath
Cranberry Mint Punch
Corn Bread
And dessert provided by me, Peppermint Cheesecake (and its no-bake!). I’ll be making this Sunday night so if you would like to make one too here is a list of things you will need:
Oreo Cookies (or chocolate cookie crumbs), butter, unflavored gelatin, 16 oz cream cheese, sugar, water, milk, peppermint candy, heavy cream, and milk chocolate candy bars, some beaters, and a springform pan.
about 12 oz of crushed peppermint candies (candy canes or starlight mints, or other hard peppermint candy)
a 9 × 13 pan lined with wax paper.
Melt 1 lb of the brown melting chocolate until smooth.
Spread into the bottom of the lined pan so it is a uniform thickness. Work quickly before the chocolate sets.
Place pan into the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened.
While the chocolate is cooling in the fridge, melt the white chocolate.
Take the pan of brown chocolate out of the fridge and spread the white chocolate ontop of the brown chocolate.
Sprinkle the crushed peppermint candies ontop of the white chocolate before it hardens, using your hands to press the crushed candy into the chocolate if needed.
Place in the refrigerator until cooled.
Remove from the refrigerator and peel away the wax paper. Break the large sheet of peppermint park into smaller manageable pieces.
Here is a simple recipe version of Amy’s Cordials, the amounts are not exact, you kind of just go along as you’re making them until you’re out of one ingredient or another, or have made as many as you want to (at least thats how we’ve done it).
Sorry I do not know what types of molds she had or what brand fondant she used. All of her supplies came from the Hartville Chocolate Factory though, so I’m sure if you call them they can give you the details! (I’ll also update this with a link to the information when I get it from amy later.) When you initially mix the fondant, it looks like a thick powdered sugar/water mixture. When it sets up with the cherries inside the chocolates though, it turns into a delicious cherry flavored liquid.
Ingredients:
Melting Chocolate
Fondant
Maraschino Cherries
Drain the maraschino cherries, reserving the juice. Slice the cherries into halfs or quarters (depending on the size of the cherries). Dry them the best you can with a tea towel or paper towels (be careful of towel fuzz!).
The fondant that Amy had was a 1 to 5 ratio of cherry juice to fondant, so for each 5 teaspoons of fondant powder, she added 1 teaspoon of cherry juice.
Melt the chocolate. Spoon a small amount of chocolate into each mold. Using a paintbrush brush the chocolate up the sides of each mold. Set in the freezer a minute or two to quickly set the chocolate. If the shell on the sides of the mold is too thin for your liking, add another layer of melted chocolate, and quickly freeze again.
Place a piece or two of cherry into each hardened cherry cordial mold. Top carefully with a small amount of fondant and allow the fondant to flow to the bottom of the cups.
When the fondant has settled, top with melted chocolate. Set in refrigerator to cool until solid.
How many dozen cookies did you say you need? Seven? Thats how many cookies? 84? And why didn’t you mention this earlier, like Sunday, when I loafed around the house with nothing better to do than catch up on my movie watching?
Last night I spent three hours making 9 dozen chocolate mint snappers – for my Mom. She has a cookie trade today with 14 other people. Fourteen people multiplied by six cookies each = 7 dozen cookies. The last two dozen we’re keeping. The recipe makes 3 dozen cookies, so two batches wouldn’t be enough, so three it was.
These cookies are rolled into balls then coated with sugar before being baked. They flatten out as they cool into a flat crispy crunchy cookie.
Of course I’m the brainiac who thinks, why yes, I can make all three batches at one time!
After making three batches in one bowl at the same time, I don’t recommend it. I had added about 2 cups of the flour when I realized my brand new kitchenaid wasn’t going to make it through the last three cups.
I ended up sitting on the floor so I could get a tight enough grip on the bowl to mix all of the ingredients together (don’t worry, no floor related ickness or dirt entered the cookie making process, i just needed the stability of the floor).
Finally the dough was mixed, I then spent the next two hours forming balls, rolling them in sugar and baking them for fifteen minutes. Not the most enthralling way to spend an evening, but definitely tasty, and I helped my Mom.
Chocolate Mint Snappers
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
1 3/4 cups unsifted flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
sugar for coating
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the chocolate chips over hot (not boiling) water. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl combine shortening, sugar and egg; beat until creamy.
Mix in corn syrup, peppermint extract and melted chocolate.
Gradually blend in flour.
Shape dough into balls using 1 level tablespoon dough for each.
Roll in sugar.
Place 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies.
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