Zucchini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Almost to the end of my zucchini!  My mom recently told me about a cake she made that used up some of her zucchini.  I decided it sounded and looked really good.  So I made the cake into cupcakes and used my own version of cream cheese frosting.  And the cupcakes were really good!

My mom found this recipe at Tiffany’s blog, Eat At Home.  I adapted it with different amounts of flour and sugar.

Zucchini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 1/4 cups (270 grams or 9 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups (355 grams or 12 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups finely grated zucchini (270 grams or 9 1/2 ounces)

1 cup finely grated carrots (80 grams or 2 3/4 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.  I got 20 cupcakes.  Set aside.

Add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs and vanilla until well blended.  Stir in the zucchini and carrots.  Bake for 24-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean.  Cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Frost the cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (This can be doubled, but since some people around here don’t like frosting, I don’t make a full batch.)

4 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar (220 grams)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Cream together the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Add the salt and vanilla and combine.  Then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and beat well until desired consistency.  Put the frosting in a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes if desired.  (This made enough to frost about 14 of the 20 cupcakes. 

These cupcakes are perfectly moist from the zucchini and carrots and nicely spiced with the cinnamon.  But the best part is definitely the bites with the cream cheese frosting in them! ;)

TWD—Golden Brioche Loaf and Brioche Cinnamon Rolls

This might just look like a regular loaf of bread, but this is not quite the same.  This is the kind of bread you’d really want to splurge on.  

I took a lot of pictures and still feel like nothing could do it justice.  Maybe if I tell you that this recipe, which would make two loaves of bread, or in my case a loaf of bread and twelve cinnamon rolls is so flaky and buttery that you almost can’t believe it.  Just know that this bread (or whatever you make with it—sticky buns, anyone?) had three sticks of butter and three eggs!

 

This recipe is easy, but time consuming.  Though the mixer does all the hard work.  The time consuming part is just letting the dough rest.  It spends a few hours rising once the dough is made, then it also spends a night in the fridge.

I knew since this recipe was not low-in-fat, that I’d not being having much of it.  So I loaded the cinnamon rolls with a cream cheese and heavy cream laden icing.

Cream Cheese Icing, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups powdered sugar

2 ounces cream cheese

4 tablespoons cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla and mix, then add the cream a tablespoon at a time and beat after each addition until icing is desire consistency.  Scrape the sides of the bowl often.  Spread or drizzle icing over cinnamon rolls.

 

Both the cinnamon rolls and even just a plain slice of bread are heavenly.  Love the texture and flakiness.  I would probably only make this again for a really super occasion because I cannot afford to eat things like this but once in a blue moon.  I can only imagine that this would make some delicious French toast.  The cinnamon rolls were devoured by the boys and I gave a few of them to some neighbor friends.  Most of the loaf of bread went into the freezer so I wouldn’t “sample” any more of it.

You need this recipe that was chosen by Margaret of Tea and Scones and she’ll have the recipe on her blog.

It will be fun to hop around Tuesdays With Dorie land and see what everyone made with this really fun dough to work with.

Pineapple Sherbet (Sherbert)

Do you say “sherbet” or “sherbert”?  I say sherbert—and I say it with pride.  It drives Kevin bonkers.  He gave me a stuffed monkey for our 9th anniversary (someday I want to hold a real chimpanzee!), and for fun, I named the monkey Sherbert.  You say tomato, I say tahmaut0…..anyway, I had a big can of pineapple juice and I opened it for using just a little bit of it.  Then it sat in the fridge for a few days.

I decided that  juice needed to churn into a frozen treat and my version of pineapple “sherbert” was created!  I think it’s perfect.  I like a little dish of a frozen treat just as much as the next gal, but I cannot afford for it to always be a decadent, fattening ice cream as I’d really wish.  Thank goodness I really like this kind of thing, too!  It was easy to make.

Pineapple Sherbert or Sherbet, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

3 cups no-sugar added pineapple juice, divided use

1/2 cup lite coconut milk***

1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk***

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

***you could use one cup of any dairy you’d like—all milk, buttermilk, yogurt, etc., I just happened to have 1/2 cup of coconut milk to use up and had just bought some buttermilk, so I thought I’d try it.

Put one cup of pineapple juice and the sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  Take one tablespoon of the remaining two cups of pineapple juice and mix with the cornstarch in a small cup or bowl.  Pour into heated juice and whisk until mixture slightly thickens.  Remove from heat.  In a medium sized bowl, combine the milk, remaining juice and vanilla.  Pour the heated juice into the cold milk and juice mixture.  Set the bowl in an ice bath.  Whisk together every few minutes until mixture is cold.  It won’t take but 20 minutes or so.  Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Freeze in an airtight container.  Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving to soften slightly.

Kevin and I had our14th anniversary in June.  I still have the monkey and still call him Sherbert and enunciate the BERT everytime, it’s all in fun, you know. 

This post has been added to Recipe Sharing Monday at Jam Hands. 

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

Last week when we had a family get-together (when I also made the Chocolate Shortbread Coconut Toffee Pecan Bars and five other desserts), I also made these Cherry Cheesecake Bars.  I’ll have to make them again soon because they were a big hit and I only tasted a little bite off one of my kid’s serving.  These bars went fast!

I got this recipe from Cooking Light website, but it was in July 2011 magazine.  I changed it a bit since their recipe uses fresh cherries, but I only had some canned tart cherries, so I used those and made the cherry puree my own way.  The shortbread crust was great and the lighter cheesecake filling was just right, especially with the cherries swirled throughout the top.

Cherry Cheesecake Bars, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups all purpose flour (9 ounces)

6 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (1/2 cup plus two tablespoons or 5 oz.)

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon ice water

14 ounce can tart cherries (no sugar added), with the juice, which is about 1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

red food coloring (optional)—it really brightens the color of the canned cherries

12 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray, mostly the sides of the pan.  Place the flour, powdered sugar and salt in a food processor.  Pulse a few times to combine.  Add the cold butter and drizzle in the water.  Pulse about 10 times until the mixture resembles course crumbs.  Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan and press it evenly into the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool completely.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Place the canned cherries juice included, two tablespoons of sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil for a minute or so until thickened.  Remove from heat and add the almond extract and red food coloring.  Put in blender (be careful of hot things in the blender!).  Blend until pureed.  Pour the cherry mixture into a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and strain it.  Set aside.

In the bowl of the food processor, place cream cheese, Greek yogurt, 2/3 cup sugar and vanilla extract and process until smooth.  Add eggs and pulse until combined.  Spoon cream cheese mixture over cooled crust and spread evenly.  Dollop the cherry puree over the cream cheese mixture and make knife swirls across the top to swirl the cherry and cream cheese together.  Don’t swirl too much to get the best effect.  Bake for 35 minutes or until set.  Cool on a wire rack, then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.  Cut in to desired size bars.

  

Perfect summer treat!  And goodbye summer break—the boys are ready for school (and so is mom)!

Ready for 8th grade!  Scott is hiding the expander in his mouth as he gets ready for braces!

4th and 2nd grade, here come Parker and Taylor (they’ll put shirts on for school. ;)

I think Sam almost always has a chocolate face (my kind of kid!).  Ready for his last year of preschool.

Look at the size of this carrot Sam ate the other day!

And finally, can’t leave out the Professor—ready or not—he’s about to start school, too!

Poppy Chow---A Special Secret Recipe Club Post

Here we are again with another Secret Recipe Club post for August.  Why?  Because as a group, when we heard that only one blogger didn’t get something posted from their blog, we all banded together and decided that as many of us as could would make and post something today just for fun.  Surprise, Connor's Cooking!

You’ve probably seen or heard of General Mills Chex Muddy Buddies (also sometimes called Puppy Chow)—this is the same idea, except instead of making it with cereal, it’s made with popcorn--Poppy Chow.  Cute.  I was drawn to the fun name and I knew my boys like the Chex Muddy Buddies version of this treat, so after seeing it over at Connor’s Cooking, I decided to make a batch.

It’s simple as can be, pop up some popcorn--

Melt some chocolate, peanut butter, a little butter and some vanilla together--

Add it to the popcorn and coat all the popcorn with the heavenly chocolate/peanut butter mixture--

That is not all though—after that, generously coat the chocolaty popcorn with a nice dusting of a little more sweetness—powdered sugar.

Let it set for as long as you (and your kids) can stand to wait before serving up the treat for the evening!

There’s just one word for this stuff---

You can get the super simple recipe at Connor's Cooking.  She found the recipe at Tasty Kitchen.

Double Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cookies (*They’re Possibly Vegan!)

My in-laws were leaving town and gave me a bunch of zucchini from their garden.  I’m having fun using them up!  You would never know these super duper Double Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cookies HAVE zucchini.

I’m very happy with the way they turned out as I just playing around with my Grandma Tiny's Zucchini Cookies.  I posted those cookies last year after finding an old hand-written recipe from my grandma for them at my parents house.   Her zucchini cookies are really good (and they’re vegan as they are made with oil and have no eggs).  Those cookies have cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and are just a basic zucchini cookies, but I think they taste great.

Yet surprise, surprise I was thinking about chocolate and how I could incorporate it into a cookie with zucchini.  It worked great to add cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa, which is why they look so dark.  I plan to try them with some natural cocoa as well.)  These are also studded with dark chocolate and pecans.  I really like the texture of them, too.  They aren’t cakey and are almost brownie-like, but they still have that benefit of health from the zucchini.  I also used whole wheat pastry flour ( fiber!).

Double Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup finely grated zucchini

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour  (150 grams) or all purpose flour

4 tablespoons dark cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup dark chocolate, chopped (or chips)*  These may or may not be vegan depending on what kind of chocolate you use.  (I used 70% Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate)

1/3 cup pecan, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together with a wire whisk the oil and sugar.  Add the vanilla and grated zucchini and whisk to combine. 

Combine all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula just until all incorporated.  Stir in the chocolate and pecans.  Scoop into tablespoonfuls about two inches apart on the baking sheets.  Bake for 9 minutes. Let cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets.  Then remove from sheet to cool completely on wire rack.   Makes about 2 dozen.  

I strongly suggest if you have loads of zucchini like everyone else it seems and you like chocolate like I like chocolate that you make these cookies.

TWD—Tropical Crumble

Bananas and mangoes in a fruit crisp.  I wasn’t sure what to think of that.  But that was our recipe for Tuesdays With Dorie this week.  When I saw that we were going to make a tropical crumble, I thought it would maybe have pineapple and coconut or something, so I was surprised when I looked at the recipe and saw that it has bananas and mangoes. 

Also interesting to this recipe was the streusel topping—it had a lot of butter.  But you know me, I couldn’t follow along with that—I only used half the amount of butter it called for and it was Bestlife buttery baking sticks.  I also used Bestlife for the filling, which starts out melting butter in a skillet, then browning the banana and mangoes.  I already knew I don’t really like cooked bananas, but wanted to give this a fair try.  I did like the addition of lime zest 

I also omitted the fresh ginger, but added some extra ground ginger.  I don’t always like fresh ginger in things.  We had some friends from Kansas visiting when I made this and they really liked it.  I tasted some and while it wasn’t bad, it was not something I’d  eat again. 

You can get the recipe from Gaye from Laws of the Kitchen.

It was even a little better served with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream!  The crisp, buttery, sugary pecans that were almost like pralines were the best part of this, but I’m really glad I only used half the butter for the streusel.

Tuesdays With Dorie—the place to go find more tropical crumble.

Apricot Empanadas---Secret Recipe Club

I don’t like to read novels.  There I said it.  Don’t hate me, but I don’t care for the Harry Potter series or any other fiction (not that I hate any of it).  I just can’t sit and read things that aren’t true.  That said, I do enjoy reading non-fiction.  I love it when someone writes true, heartfelt things that have really happened to them.  I think that is one of the things I love about most of the blog world.  We are all here writing about things we love and find important in each of our lives and sharing it with others.

This month for the Secret Recipe Club, I had the pleasure of getting (randomly selected) one of my favorite food bloggers.  Will Suzanne of Thru the Bugs on My Windshield please stand up and take a bow?  I got to meet Suzanne last year.  She lives in Texas, but through her and her husband’s travels all over the country, sometimes on motorcycles with bugs on their teeth windshield, Suzanne came to Utah last year.  We met---

in Salt Lake and had lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant, Red Iguana.  Before that, I hadn’t actually been acquainted with Suzanne’s blog for very long—she hadn’t been at it that long.  But food bloggers become friends very quickly I’ve learned and the chance to meet any of them is always such a fun, welcome thing.  It only seems right to meet for food’s sake!

Suzanne is warm and friendly and she’s witty, thoughtful and just one of those kinds of people who are wonderful to just sit and chat with (over chips and salsa, of course, hehe).  She’s got a great sense of humor, too!  Suzanne made me feel like I was meeting up with an old friend. 

I have spent the last month, since learning I had Suzanne’s blog for this month’s Secret Recipe Club, reading pretty much every post Suzanne has written (she started her blog in March of 2010).  I know, why would I bother reading all her posts?  For the Secret Recipe Club, all I needed to do was pick a recipe from her blog and make it.  As I was looking at all her yummy posts and great photography, I couldn’t stop.  Suzanne’s writing is entertaining, thoughtful, and REAL stuff.  None of that magic wand wizardy stuff.  She writes in a charming way and always throws in just enough and the right kind of humor—like this---

This Dairy Queen photo (from Suzanne’s blog), has a little caption under it that says “Texas Stop Sign”.  If you’re on the road, wind in your hair, riding your bike and you see one of these signs—STOP!

Maybe you’re on a hundreds of miles empanada run on your motorcycles.  That’s what Suzanne and her husband did all in the name of some empanadas.  That’s dedication and determination and well, just a little bit crazy!  I love it!  While on this bike ride through New Mexico, they ate at a place that Suzanne described as having a tasty morsel that never pleased her palate more—and they were apricot empanadas.    She later recreated them and sold me on the deal as well.  (You must read this post (Empanada Run) and see all of Suzanne’s photos.  She’s got leather boots on and is sitting on a bike for the first time when she was a teenager and then tells about how she became crazed with motorcycle riding.  She’ll reel you in hook, line and sinker and you’ll spend a few hours trying to read all her posts.  They are that good.  THAT is my kind of reading.  Real stuff.  Real people. 

Ready for the oven, my pretties!

I followed Suzanne’s recipe for the sweet dough exactly as she had written and it is a great dough to work with and simple to make.  I’m happy that the dough is put into two disks—because I have one of those ready in the freezer for when I just need another apricot empanada (or two)—and then I’ll need to run, run, run after that!

Suzanne’s apricot filling is made with reconstituted dried apricots, but I had some fresh ones from last summer in the freezer and decided to use those and make a filling with them.  That stuff is good and could be used for all kinds of things!  I also made a thick blueberry compote to try in a few of the empanadas, but although good, they don’t hold a candle to the apricot filled ones.  I almost need to stop talking about them or I’m liable to get that extra dough out of the freezer sooner than later.

Apricot Empanadas, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, from Suzanne, Thru The Bugs on My Windshield

Empanada Sweet Dough: (Made the dough exactly as Suzanne did)

3 cups all purpose flour (360 grams)

¼ cup sugar (50 grams)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces

2 large eggs

3 tablespoons ice water

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add the flour, ¼ cup sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time, pulsing a few times for each one. After 8 tablespoons have been added, add one egg and pulse together. Add remaining butter one tablespoon at a time, then add the second egg. Pulsing a few times after each, add a tablespoon of the cold water at a time just until the dough starts to form a ball.

Remove the dough from the food processor and form it into two disks. Wrap each separately in parchment paper and chill them in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Apricot Filling:

2 cups frozen apricots, (or fresh, pitted and cut into quarters)*

½ cup water

1/3 cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

*You can also use dried apricots—the amounts and directions are different, you can get that on the link to Suzanne’s blog

In a medium sized saucepan, combine all of the filling ingredients. Stir together. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes. Mash with a fork when the fruit is soft. Stir occasionally while the filling is simmering. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼ inch thick. Cut circles 3 to 5 inches in diameter, depending on size you’d like. Set each round on a baking sheet, then fill each with just a teaspoon or so of filling. (Don’t overfill.) Fold over and secure edges with fork tines. Be careful not to press down too hard. If the dough is really soft, set the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm the dough. (You can freeze empanadas and have them ready to bake, just add a few minutes to the baking time and bake them while still frozen.) Fix about 12 to a baking sheet.

Mix together the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon and sprinkle the tops of each empanada with it.  Pierce each with a fork so they have a little steam room inside.   Bake for 25 minutes or so. You can also store a disk of the sweet dough wrapped in parchment and then a zip lock bag in the freezer to use later.

Delicious!

You know, I’ve actually made a number of other recipes from Suzanne’s blog—like this Fresh Crispy Pear Salad—loved it and so did the company we had over that I served it to a few months ago!

I have also made a version of her Very Southwestern Stuffed Poblanos.  I didn’t get those blogged, but check out her post!

I could not have been more thrilled with my secret blog this month and would love to get together with Suzanne again sometime.  That is what this wonderful world of food blogging is all about.  Thanks to Amanda for her hard work in getting this fun group up and running.  She’s even put it all together on a new website—check it out!  Secret Recipe Club

Chocolate Shortbread Coconut Toffee Pecan Bars

Whew!  That title is a mouthful and so are these bars!  This past week I ended up making seven different goodies for a family get together.  These are one of the things I made.  The day I made them, I was out of eggs and went searching for some kind of bar treat that didn’t all for eggs, but that was packed full of lots of flavors.  These were great!

One thing I liked about these is if you don’t like coconut, you don’t have to add it.  Same with nuts or even the toffee.  But these bars have a nice chocolaty crust.  Looking at them, you’d think it’s a thin brownie layer, but it’s more of a shortbread with just a mixture of flour, powdered sugar and cocoa combined with butter and pressed into a pan and partially baked before adding the toppings.

Hiding in between that shortbread layer and all the toppings is a nice fudgy layer made with sweetened condensed (I always use fat free, you know, to make things healthy!) and melted chocolate.  It’s a perfect thing for holding all those different toppings.

I think these would be good, fun and easy for any holidays with the toppings you like and sprinkled with festive colored sprinkles when they come out of the oven.  Give a little press down on the toppings and they will stick to the gooey, fudgy layer.  I found the recipe for these on Allrecipes, but adapted it quite a bit.  On Allrecipes, they are called Coconut Chip Nut Bars.

  

These could even but cut smaller.  They are quite rich and sweet.  Even a bite sized portion could be put in little paper liners for serving.  My favorite trick for getting bars or brownies out of a pan nicely is to always line the baking pan with foil.  Once they are cooled, just lift out using the edges of the foil that hang over the sides.  It usually works well enough to then stand the whole bar or brownie on it’s side while you peel the foil off.  Then lay them on a cutting board and cut into desired size pieces. 

Chocolate Shortbread Coconut Toffee Pecan Bars, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (210 grams)

pinch of salt

3/4 cup powdered sugar (83 grams)

5 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used 1 tablespoon dark cocoa just for fun.)

1  1/4 cups cold butter, cut into pieces (I used a combo of butter and Bestlife Buttery Baking Sticks, as that is what I had on hand.  It seems to have worked just fine!)

1 can (14 ounces) fat free sweetened condensed milk

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, divided use

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup flaked coconut (I used about 60 grams)

1/3 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray the sides with cooking spray.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, powdered sugar, salt and cocoa.  Pulse a few times to combine.  Add the cold butter and pulse again just until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press the mixture firmly into the pan (it will be crumbly, but will press down nicely).  Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized saucepan, combine the condensed milk and 1 cup of chocolate chips.  Stir together on medium heat until all melted together.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour over the crust and spread evenly.  Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips and the pecans over the top.  Then the toffee and coconut.  Gently press down into the chocolate layer.  Bake for 18 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Remove from pan by lifting foil edges and carefully remove foil from bottom of bars.  Cut on a cutting board into desired size bars.

TWD—Carrot Spice Muffins

I’m late, I’m late!  Well, not really, since it IS still Tuesday.  But I usually post the night before at midnight.  We’ve had company.  I made the muffins.  The only change I made was using whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour.  And while the muffins taste great, they are the most crumbly muffins I’ve ever had or made.

I don’t know if it was the flour or that’s just how these are.  I wanted the crowns to dome up more, too.  Oh well.  Like I said, they taste good, but you just need to made sure you eat one over a plate at the table.

You can get the recipe from Nancy at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs.  Her muffins look great!

There are more muffins to check out at Tuesdays With Dorie.

Baked Alaska with Chocolate Chip Cookie and Chocolate Ice Cream—A Guest Post by Me at Cookie Madness!

Check out my first ever guest post at Cookie Madness!  Anna and her family are on a vacation.  First they are spending a few days in Seattle, then they are surprising their 9 year old daughter and going on an Alaskan Cruise.  I’m sure it will be so fun, what more, since they are from Austin, Texas and have been having a super hot summer, I know they’ll love the cooler weather.

Just for fun, I volunteered to do a guest post for Anna while she’s gone and she took me up on the offer.  Then the decision on what to make and post quickly came to mind—Baked Alaska!  I’d never even eaten one before much less made one, so this turned out to be a fun challenge for me and I’ve now discovered yet another dessert I really like!   I went a little non-traditional and made mine with chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, but I think it will be fun to try it with different kinds of cake (traditionally it’s made with a sponge cake).  I think brownies would also be good!  The flavor possibilities are also endless.  And my favorite part was the meringue—It tasted like ooey, gooey toasted marshmallow.

It was fun for me to get to post for Anna while she’s away, so thank you, Friend, for letting me play!  Go check out the post on Anna’s blog for the recipe!  Adding to my wish list—a kitchen torch!

Carmelita Oatmeal Cookies

This morning Sam woke up with the best bedhead.

The little bugger wasn’t happy about having a camera pointed at him first thing in the morning.

I never did get a very good shot, but darn—it was a good ‘do.  My boys are in terrible need of haircuts.  But that’s no fun, so it keeps getting put off—we have a few more weeks until school starts.

Best shot—still, it was the best view front on.

I made granola this morning.  I do often.  I seem to run out fast.  I must eat a lot of granola as I’m the only one around here that eats it.  Though I do put it in baggies and give it away and we’ve had company lately that appreciated it in a yogurt parfait.  This is the granola I always make since seeing this recipe on Barbara Bakes a couple months ago.  Oh, sometimes I change up some of the things I put in it and I often double the recipe, but what I love about Barbara’s recipe is the method.  Mix it up, bake it for just 20 minutes, then leav it on the pan until it’s totally cool.  That’s it, it’s clumpy and perfect.  In fact, it stays almost like a big, thin sheet of granola until you break it up, but it’s not rock hard and is chewy and almost caramel-like. 

Ahh, see where I’m going with this and the title to this post?  While putting away the granola, I sometimes taste it (Who am I kidding, I ALWAYS taste it!).  The granola has brown sugar and honey, sometimes I change the honey with agave nectar.  This morning, when I tasted it, I thought of Carmelita Bars.  Also known as Danger Bars or Chocolate Caramel Bars.  Whatever you call them, they are good—perfectly chocolaty and full of caramel, yet good and healthy with wholesome oats (ha!).

I decided to make oatmeal cookies and thought it would be fun to add a little chocolate on top and drizzle them with some melted caramel.  It turned out to not only be fun, but very tasty!

  

I used a recipe from Pillsbury’s website for some Oatmeal Cookies we’d made for Cookie Carnival last year.  I’d remembered that they were a great, chewy oatmeal cookie.  I doubled the batch, but actually only drizzled a dozen cookies with caramel and sprinkled mini chocolate chips on the top.  After that, I just added some chocolate chips to the cookie dough and baked them without adding the caramel after they baked. 

I don’t even feel like typing the up recipe as I made them.  I’m lazy, no really, Kevin and I are going out tonight in just a little bit and I don’t have time.  Then he’s going out of town tomorrow for a week.  Should be quite the week!  I’m sure the boys will just be little angels for me while he’s gone. 

If you go to the link I’ve left there for Pillsbury’s Oatmeal Cookies, I doubled the recipe and used Best Life Buttery Baking Sticks instead of butter and I used whole wheat pastry flour, oh and I added 1/2 cup more flour than the recipe called for because I didn’t want them to be too flat and they were perfect.  I also left out the cinnamon.  Then just for some of the cookies, I sprinkled them with mini chocolate chips after they came out of the oven.  Once they cooled I drizzled them with some caramel, which I made with 4 ounces (15 caramels) of Kraft caramels (don’t forget to unwrap them! ha) and 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of heavy cream.  I just melted the caramel and cream in a glass dish in the microwave in 30 second intervals until it was all melted together.  It only took about two minutes.  Maybe three.  Once the caramel cooled a little, I put it into a piping bag with a small round tip and piped (drizzled) it over the cookies. 

I got my Carmelita, Danger, Gooey-Oaty-Chocolaty-Caramel fix in with these and that is what I was aiming for!  I know, I could have just made the bars in a pan, and maybe that would have been easier, but I wanted cookies.  And to think, it all began with making some good, healthy granola to go with my yogurt this morning.  Must go now!  Later.

TWD—Cocoa Almond Meringues

I need you to sit down for a minute.  Are you sitting?  Okay.

Brace yourself.

I made today’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe EXACTLY as written.  I know—I know….it’s hard to believe, but it really wasn’t that hard to do since it’s a chocolate based recipe. ;)

I love meringue cookies.  I was interested in these since they had some almond flour in them which in my mind made them similar to the macarons I made for the first time recently.  Although they don’t bake quite the same, these were/are good, but the macarons I made, which were also cocoa with almond flour, were better.  And the other meringue cookies I made a couple months ago, I kind of liked them better, too.  I think these would be even better with some almond extract to bump up the almond flavor.

These TWD cookies turned out just a little crunchier and I was wishing for a bit more chewiness.  But I will say who knows, it could be the weather or the oven temperature or cooking method and not so much the recipe.  Meringues are finicky like that.  Mine look more smooth than the ones in the photo of Dorie’s book, but that’s because I put the meringue in a piping bag and piped it out into mounds.  I like the look of them better that way. 

Glad I got these cookies made Monday afternoon.  We have had lots of company over the last couple weeks and my parents just left Monday morning and I really didn’t think I would get to these.  But I’m happy I did.  Mike at Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude has the recipe on his blog.

  

Ah, bummer, know what I just realized?   I didn’t follow the recipe exactly after all—I didn’t dust the meringues with powdered sugar.  Aw, I’m still calling it exact. ;)

Tuesdays With Dorie