Brownies to die for!

Ok, so many, many, many moons ago, I was blessed to enjoy the most delicious brownies to ever be made on this planet.  My boss got the recipe from an amazing, wonderful woman that we knew and we began making these brownies.  Then, one VERY sad day, the recipe went missing.  Needless to say we were all heartbroken.  Not only was our copy of the recipe gone, but this amazing woman who gave it to us couldn't remember it.  We went without these amazing brownies and had to settle for box ghirradeli brownies for SO long!
Then one day, while looking through some binders where she kept some of her recipes, my dear friend and former boss FOUND THE RECIPE!!!  YAY!!!  We were both SO excited!  When I went for a visit a couple weeks ago, she told me of this life changing find, and I promptly began making the brownies!  I should have checked for all the ingredients... We were missing the vanilla.  That is of course the last step.  BUT.... After some frantic searching by both of us, she found the stash of powdered vanilla and we were back on course to enjoy the brownies after all!!
In case you haven't realized by now, I LOVE these brownies!! After making them again tonight, I decided that I have to get the recipe on here so that I never lose it again!

Best ever brownies!
3/4 cup cocoa
1.5 cup butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
2.25 cups flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350*

Grease 11x15" jelly roll pan

Melt butter in pan with cocoa.  Heat til bubbling.  Remove from heat.

Stir in sugar

Add eggs. One at a time ( lightly beat each one before adding to cocoa mix). Stir between each egg addition.

Add dry ingredients. Stir until incorporated.

Add vanilla.  Stir.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or less.  30 minues works for me!

Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.


Chocolate frosting (also to die for)

1-1.75 pounds of powdered sugar (4-6 cups)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp evaporated milk
3 rounded Tbsp. cocoa
Combine all ingredients and beat til frosting consistency you like.  Spread over cooled brownies. Enjoy!!!  (try not to eat the whole pan yourself... They are really yummy to share as well. And your friends/family will love you for sharing with them!)

I want S'MORES!!!!!!

So I have had this recipe for over a year and have been avoiding making them because I knew I would want to eat the whole pan!  Then this spring I was introduced, by a friend, to a delicious version of s'mores from a bakery near my home.   I vowed I would find a recipe to make their version.  I still put it off for a few months due to a "I'm trying to lose weight and trying to be good" thought process.  Then my ward had a Labor Day picnic.  It was a cold day.  The perfect excuse for a yummy end of summer tribute of s'mores.  Wow.  They were so good.  So good that I made them three weeks later for a Mommy & me activity days activity. Then again the next day for a friend.  And I'm making them again today for a general conference snack.  yes, that is 4 times in one month.  So ridiculously good! 
So I got the recipe from the blog, www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com I changed it a little, but only in assembly to make them look a little more like the s'mores I got from my local bakery. I use the crisco to keep the bar part softer longer and use a special chocolate made in Ohio by Malley's.  Their break apart chocolate fits into an 8x8 pan perfectly.  The Hershey's bars are good, too.  I have seen recipes using chocolate chips, but I think that it would be difficult to spread the marshmallow on top of shifting chocolate chips.  Feel free to experiment though!

Smores Bars

 

1/2 cup butter, soft or butter flavored crisco

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized Hershey's milk chocolate bars
1 small jar marshmallow cream 7.5 oz

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Crumble remaining dough on top.

4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

 

 

Creme Puffs!

I've made these a couple times now.  They are really delicious.  I thought they would be a little harder to make because I've never really worked with pastries from scratch before, but this worked really well.  The first time I made the cream just by whipping heavy whipping cream and vanilla together for a yummy homemade whipped cream.  The next time I made the cream the recipe called for.  It was delicious but I think I prefer the simple whipping cream.  I also prefer them to be a little smaller than I made them this time.

before they cooked..

fresh from the oven.

the cream cooling

finished product with optional melted chocolate drizzled on top.

yum.

Cream Puff Recipe (found at http://www.cooks.com/)

1/2 Cup butter

1 Cup boiling water

1 Cup pre-sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350* F.  Place butter and water in small saucepan.  Stir over high heat until melted and boiling rapidly.  Add flour and salt.  Raise saucepan a few inces above the heat source.  Stir briskly.  Mixture will come away from sides of pan and form ball in center.  Cook and stir 30 seconds more.  Remove from heat.  Break 1 egg into the paste.  Beat fast until smooth and fluffy.  Repeat until all eggs are used.  Drop by whatever size you desire onto an ungreased cookie sheet 3 " apart.  Bake at 350*F until puffed and golden, 35-40 minutes.  Cool away from drafts.  Cut off tops and fill with filling or ice cream (or whipped cream) [Also, I piped the filling inside instead of cutting off the tops.  You just need a ziplock bag and an icing tip designed for filling cupcakes or donuts, they are usually longer than regular icing tips]

Filling: (also from http://www.cooks.com/)

1/3 Cup sugar

2 Cups Milk

2 Tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

Mix sugar, cornstarch and eggs in 2 quart saucepan.  Stir in milk gradually.  Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils.  Remove from heat.  Stir in butter and vanilla.  Cool, then fill cream puffs.

Enjoy!!

Spring time sugar cookies!

Ok, so a perk to being an activity day leader is I get to make special treats for the girls for recognition night.  Yesterday was my first recognition night with the girls.  I must say the work that they do in a year is impressive!  I wanted to make something special for them and had to take a milk allergy into consideration when preparing these lovelies.  So I altered my regular Almond sugar cookie recipe by using butter flavored crisco and using the royal icing from http://www.bakeat350.blogspot.com/.  I love her step by step instructions and photos for how to make the icing.  Only thing I didn't do right was I didn't add enough karo syrup so they weren't as shiny after they dried.  Next time...
I liked how the crisco kept the cookies softer longer as well.  Might keep this substitution for future uses!

I also reallized that since I so rarely use my kitchen table to eat at that I could use bed risers to lift my table up six inches so I have a surface counter height to work on!  Now I just need to go buy them! Its amazing how messed up my back was after baking and decorating 100+ cookies!  I can't wait to have a real house with a real kitchen so I don't have to have cookies lining my table, stacked on the stove and drying on boxes all over my living room. 
It was a great evening and I didn't have to take a single cookie home with me! 

Baking, baking, baking...

So, I love to bake.  My favorite place is the kitchen.  Big or small, I could spend my entire day in the kitchen. The only bad thing about doing that would be that my butt would get even bigger and I would have a LOT of dishes to clean at the end of each day.  I guess it's a good thing I spend most of my days chasing children around and cleaning.  However..... in my spare time I do enjoy cooking, baking and generally hanging out in the kitchen. 
My dream kitchen is huge, with a large island, lots of counter space and a wall of windows facing west so I can watch the weather and the sunset as I cook and clean.  Currently though, I have a small apartment kitchen with windows facing another building and east.  I don't get up for the sun rise, so not much to look at.  It works though for what I need so I can't complain too much.  When I'm in my kitchen I can create so many different things.
 From scrambled eggs to a sunday pot roast and malted chocolate cupcakes for dessert, I love finding new things to make.  The best part is when I can share them with others.  It's not that I don't enjoy eating them, but a whole batch of cupcakes for one person is kind of overkill.  Even making a pot of soup requires forethought.  I have to decide if I'm going to eat it as leftovers for lunch and dinner all week or if I need to get freezer bags and portion it out so that none goes to waste.  Recently I have been only making desserts (my absolute favorite thing to do) when I have someone in mind to give them to.  I just can't eat it all! 
I decided to start this blog in part so that I will be able to access my recipes anywhere I am.  I know, I could simply keep the recipes in my ipod, or email them to myself and put them in a folder for easy access, but this way I can post pictures of them and those that have tried them can attest to their taste (if they so desire).  I can also just tell people this site when they ask for a recipe instead of having to find it in my email and send it, which I invariably forget to do anyway.
I figure the best way to start out is to post something I've done recently.  The last time I got to bake for fun was for my Sunbeam class at the end of 2010.  I made them sugar cookies and had my nieces and nephews help me decorate the extras.  I got to leave all the extras at their house! YAY! Though I have been craving those cookies ever since and will probably be making more tonight for valentine's day tomorrow.
 This recipe comes all the way from Ireland.  It is totally delicious and simple.  No refrigeration time needed for the dough!  So great.  I got it when I was there for Christmas visiting family in 2000.  I love decorating sugar cookies and had so much fun watching my nieces and nephew decorate as well. We made trees, snowmen, stars, wreaths, it was so fun.  The kids decided to marbelize the frosting colors on their cookies so they looked tie-dyed and I even made a snowman that was visited by the local puppy... We shared a lot of laughter over that one...  I think this is my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe ever.

Sorry to all out there with nut or gluten allergies, this one's not for you.

Almond Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup +2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cup flour
pinch of salt
+additional flour for rolling surface
Preheat oven to 350* F. Cream butter and sugar together.  Beat in egg and extracts.  Sift in flour and salt.  Mix until soft dough forms.  Roll out onto lightly floured surface to desired thickness (I do appx. 1/4"). Cut into shapes and place onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 6-8 minutes or until lightly browning on bottom.  Cool and decorate with Almond Buttercream Frosting.

Almond Buttercream Frosting (from Cupcakes! from the Cake Mix Doctor, by Anne Byrn)
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3 Cups powdered (confectioner's) sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon almond extract

Place butter in large mixing bowl and blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy (appx. 30 seconds).  Stop machine and add powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk and the almond extract.  Blend with mixer on low speed until sugar is incorporated then increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy.  Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Whoops!

OK... so I really didn't mean to start a blog.  I thought I was signing in to be able to comment on a friend's blog and ended up creating one for me instead!  So I figured why not?  I figure at the very least, if I keep my favorite recipes on here then I can access them wherever I am instead of having to pack the recipes when I travel.  So.... we'll see how this goes! 
I have a little time on my hands since the great Chicago blizzard of 2011 is currently raging outside and my only door in and out of my apartment is blocked by drifted snow! I love it!  I can't tell the difference between the thundersnow and the snow plows outside my home.  I guess I can use the extra time to load up some pictures and recipes!