Blog Revival!

Friends! Despite the long drought of no posts, I am back with a vengeance. I sometimes just have this feeling when I want something soo delicious but I can't pin point what I want. In reality, I just want to bake and I won't sleep until I satiate my need. My best friend (http://runningintoahealthylife.blogspot.com/) has been nagging me to blog for a couple weeks now and it's not like I haven't been baking, but I just needed an internal nudge. So I decided to go with a Classic but always delicious treat: Peanut butter oatmeal cookies.... they melt in your mouth cookies. I made one batch with chocolate chips too!

Even though people rave about my baking, I'm no pro so I decided to check out a recipe then put my own twist on it. Google, is the best....search anything and you'll get exactly what you want....and easy recipes are the best. So this is what Google came up with for me courtesy of Simply Recipes:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Directions

1 Beat the butter until creamy for about 2 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Then mix together the dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar butter mixture.
2 Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours or I just put the bowl in the freezer while the oven preheated and in between batches. Works just the same ;)
3 Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.
For chewier cookies, bake at 300°F for 15 minutes.

-Baking the World a Better Place!

Crunchy or Soft--How do you like your cookies?

One of my favorite memories of growing up is when I would come home to school and my mom had fresh baked cookies waiting for us on the table. They came in all different types, chocolate chip, chocolate-peanut butter chip, oatmeal, or even peanut butter, but what mattered was that they were D-E-licious. So I wanted to be like her today, since my mom had to go pick up my little brother from school, I got to do the cookie baking. No pressure...living up to her cookie baking skills. But when they walked in the door and smelled the cinnamon and sugar my mom and brother were pleasantly surprised. What kind of cookies did I choose to make, you ask?

Skickerdoodle!

Not only is that one of the coolest cookie names ever, but these cookies are light and not too sweet to handle. I wouldn't eat too many at once because of all the butter and shortening, yikes! Snickerdoodles are really easy to make, so no stress.

I got the recipe from reliable Betty Crocker online.

Ingredients

1 1/2  cups sugar

1/2    cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2    cup shortening

2        eggs

2 3/4  cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or unbleached flour

2      teaspoons cream of tartar

1      teaspoon baking soda

1/4   teaspoon salt

1/4   cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
1.Heat oven to 400ºF.

2. Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.

3. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

How do I like my cookies?
Well, I think they are best soft, but I don't mind crunchy cookies as long as I don't feel like my teeth are going to come out when I bite down. The Snickerdoodles are a little crunchy, but the good kind. They fall apart in your mouth right when you bite down and go perfectly with a glass of milk.

Baking the world a better place!

White Wine Cupcakes (Best yet!)

We had white wine in the fridge earlier in the week and I have always wanted to try to make cupcakes with wine or champagne. I've had chapagne cake before and it was delicious, but I wanted to try it on my own. My original plan was to use a cake mix and substitute the water for wine, but I wasn't sure how that would go. Instead I found an easy recipe from scratch. The recipe was on one of my new favorite blogs, We are not Martha.

On Friday was Clemson University graduation. I went back to see many of my close friends walk across the stage and receive their diploma. I thought it would be fun to make the wine cupcakes to bring down to for the festivities. My mother was quite jealous that I was giving them away.

Right out of the oven the cupcakes smelled amazing! It was hard to not to eat them!

White Wine Cupcakes (makes about 20):
• 2/3 C butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 2 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 3 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 3/4 C riesling wine (or other sweet white wine)
• 6 egg whites
(Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees)



In your mixer or large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with the wine.
In a separate small bowl, beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form
Fold the egg whites into the batter.
Fill cupcake liners in tray about 2/3 of the way full.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Strawberry Icing!

1 cup fresh strawberries
5 cups powdered sugar
splash of white wine
1 cup butter

Beat butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar slowly. Add the white wine to loosen and continue adding powdered sugar. Once fully mixed add the strawberries and finish mixing. Honestly, there is no method to the madness, you just have to keep adding sugar and liquid until you get the right texture of icing that you like best. Taste it along the way to make sure you like it too!

They were a hit! The cupcakes were even more delicious than I expected and everyone enjoyed them. We had a wonderful lunch after graduation! Congrats to all graduates!

-Baking the world a better place!

Strawberry Shortcake

Summer fun! I have very little time at home before going to Asheville to work at the best camp in the world for the summer, so I have been spending much of my time in the kitchen of course. I have not only been baking, while it is my forte, I do love making meals as well. On Monday afternoon, I got to spend some quality time with my mother. We went strawberry picking!! I was soo excited to get to do this since my room mate went a couple weeks ago. With fresh strawberries comes the classic of all recipes....strawberry shortcake.

The shortcake was so easy to make. It came out golden brown, light, and fluffy.

Ingredients

	4 cups sliced strawberries (1 quart)
	½ cup sugar
	2⅓ cups Original Bisquick
	½ cup milk
	3 tablespoons sugar
	3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Directions

Mix strawberries and 1/2 cup sugar; set aside. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir Bisquick, milk, 3 tablespoons sugar and butter until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet OR spread evenly in 8×8 inch ungreased pan. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe from KeyIngredient.com (off my mother's online recipe box)               

We usually just pour heavy cream over the shortcake and strawberries, but I have become a whipped cream purist. It can only truly be done well by hand. I whisked for over half and hour, but it was by far the best whipped cream I have ever tasted.

I know my picture quality needs a lot of work, but atleast I'm trying. Finished product was soo delicious and the perfect summer treat!

-Baking the world a better place!



Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love waking up and starting my day with a delicious bite to eat. When I am at school I often don't have time to eat breakfast, so now that summer has finally arrived, I begin with a classic breakfast treat: muffins.

My go-to recipe is usually blueberry-banana muffins, but I decided to try a new recipe. I made banana-applesauce muffins.

I added dark chocolate chips because my wise mother told me that if you have a little bit of dark chocolate in the morning it helps with weight loss. Not arguing with that, chocolate and weight loss in the same sentence...it's a go.

Ingredients

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 cup mashed bananas

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup applesauce

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat the bananas, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into muffin tin, and bake 15-20 minutes

Recipe from The Reality of Skinny blog.

-Baking the world a better place!

Cake in Mug

It has been one of those weeks. Crunch time before finals + no motivation = baking. It's my anti-stress so completely kosher. I recently was introduced to Pinterest. BLD: also known as bad life decision. It is an addicting, time waster, but there are endless recipes. Cake in a mug is perfect for a quick sweet tooth fix.

 The cakes took just about 5 minutes and there was minimal clean up. This recipe was found on my best friend's Pinterest before I got one of my own. It comes from the blog: Experiments of  Housewife.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 3 tbsp nutella/chocolate syrum
• 3 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• Pinch salt

Directions

1. In a mug ( I use a 300 ml coffee mug), break the egg and whisk a little with a fork.
2. Add milk, oil and mix together.
3. Mix in the nutella well.
4. Add sugar, cocoa, salt and espresso powder. Mix well.
5. Fold in the flour with fork. Mix well but be careful as to not overmix else you will get a rubbery, tough texture.
6. Microwave for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on high. You will have to figure out how long you want to microwave. For me the cake is done after 2 min 45 sec.
7. Let cool a bit and dig in.

Peanut Butter-Strawberry Bars

My room mate, Christy, went strawberry picking this weekend. They picked over 11 pounds of strawberries. My task: find a recipe to encorporate strawberries for a tasty treat. Challenge Accepted.

I decided to take some liberties with the recipe because I have not been eating so healthy this weekend. So, I decided to add some oatmeal for texture and some health factor.

Into the oven it goes!!!

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens online which was quick and easy to find.

Ingredients

¾ cup butter, softened

 

¾ cup peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup strawberry jam

4 cups small whole strawberries, halved or quartered

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil beyond the edges. Set aside.

2. In large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter on medium to high for 30 seconds. Beat in sugars, baking powder, and salt until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining flour.

3. Spread dough in prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

4. Cool completely on rack. Remove from pan by lifting foil. Spread jam and top with berries. Cut into bars. Serve at once or refrigerate up to 6 hours. Makes 24 bars.Cool completely on rack. Remove from pan by lifting foil. Spread jam and top with berries. Cut into bars. Serve at once or refrigerate up to 6 hours. Makes 24 bars.

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The Final Product!! It's got Christy's seal of approval.

cupbutter, soft

-Baking the world a better place!!

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