Recipe: Sugar Cookie Icing

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I didn't get to make any homemade sweets today, we were on the road home from our weekend getaway to the Smoky Mountains....but:

Here are some photos of sweet sugar cookies that I made last year in honor of Valentine's Day. You've got to try this recipe for icing, it's foolproof and easy to create professional looking cookies. Have fun!!

Louisville cookies for Tony

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
  
• assorted food coloring

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

Recipe: Blueberry Cream Pie

I ran across this recipe and happened to have all of the ingredients on hand so I made it right away. It's super light and so easy to make that a toddler (or even Tony) could do it! I made it while my sister was in town and it got both her and Tony's seal of approval.

You can make this with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries or anything else you can come up with by simply substituting the blueberry yogurt for another flavor to match your fresh fruit.

Photo and Recipe from Gina's Recipes

(forgot to take my own photo!)

Blueberry Cream Pie
9-inch ready made reduced fat graham cracker pie crust
8 oz fat free cool whip
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 (5.3 oz) containers fat free blueberry yogurt

Combine cool whip, berries, and yogurt into a bowl. Pour into pie crust and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour (or freeze). Garnish top with extra blueberries and keep chilled until serving. YIELD: 8 Servings

Per serving: 196 calories

Original Collector: Me

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Recipes

A website completely dedicated to chocolate and peanut butter... a website that is genius. You've got to visit The Chocolate and Peanut Butter Gallery to check out their extensively delicious looking list of recipes. Click here, yum!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Recipe: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies

This cookie recipe was posted on The Kitchn sometime last week and it looks delicious. While these are still incredibly bad for you, at least they are whole-grain and gluten-free. At the very least, a small, delicious step in the right direction!

I was planning to make these last weekend for a cookout but it didn't end up happening so I'll be saving this recipe for a summer cookout in our new house!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies

About 3 dozen cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups creamy natural peanut butter, well-mixed
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
About 1 cup chocolate candies or other mix-ins

Preheat oven to 350F and line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in baking soda, then oatmeal and mix-ins.

Drop onto cookie sheets with an ice cream scoop and flatten slightly. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes or until done. Do not overbake!

Remove from oven when slightly golden. Let cool on the sheets for a few minutes until they have firmed up enough to remove to wire racks.

Original Collector: Me

Recipe: Fleur de Sel Caramels

Here is the recipe for the homemade caramels that may be making a show at our wedding. I've always wanted to give homemade caramels a try and if I do make them as wedding favors you can bet that I'll be testing out the recipe several times. Yum!

Recipe from Cookbook Catchall

Original recipe from Barefoot Contessa

Fleur De Sel Caramels

Vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Line the bottom of an 8-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over two sides.

2. In a deep saucepan (89 diameter by 4 1/2" deep), stir together 1/4 cup water with the sugar and corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown color. Don't stir — just swirl the pan to mix. Watch carefully, as it will burn quickly at the end!

3. In the meantime, in a small pan, bring the cream, butter, and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and set aside.

4. When the sugar mixture is a warm golden color, turn off the heat and slowly add the cream mixture to the sugar mixture. Be careful! It will bubble up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248°F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Very carefully (because it's hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate until firm.

5. When the caramels are cold, use the parchment paper to pry the sheet from the pan onto a cutting board (note: the caramels will still be supple and easy to handle – if too stiff, allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes). Using the parchment and starting from the long side, tightly roll the caramel up until you have rolled 1/3 of it. Cut along the edge and repeat two more times. Use the parchment to gently roll each log to even out the thickness and smooth out the seam from the cut side. Cut each roll into 8-10 pieces, taking care not to touch the caramel with your finger. Sprinkle each piece with fleur de sel and wrap individually in glassine or parchment paper. Store in the refrigerator and serve the caramels chilled.

Original Collector: Me

Recipe: Cake Pops

These look like SOO much fun to make but unfortunately, I don't have an occasion for them now. They would be perfect for any sort of shower or for a birthday party (*Tony, take notes*). I'm filing these away for a later date but you better believe I'll be making them. If no special occasions come up soon, I'll be serving them to my friends at a cookout!

Click here for the recipe and instructions

Original Collector: Me

Recipe: March Madness PB "Blossoms"

In honor of March Madness I've decided to post an idea for basketball cookies that, just by chance, I came up with last year. I had decided to make traditional Peanut Butter Blossom cookies for Easter which was also, coincidentally, a big day for college basketball. At the last minute I decided it would be fun to attempt making the cookies look like basketballs and just see how they turned out. This is what I ended up with:


These cookies are already a cinch and to make it easier I was using pre-made cookie dough that day. I simply used food coloring (it took quite a bit) to turn the dough orange and baked the cookies like normal. After they cooled I melted the Hershey Kisses and used a sandwich bag as a piping tool to draw on the basketball lines. They ended up looking pretty awesome and tasted just like the regular blossom cookies! If you want to make a basketball themed cookie and are looking for something other than ordinary sugar cookies, I would definitely recommend giving this a shot.

You can find a traditional, non-shortcut version of Peanut Butter Blossoms here.

Original Collector: me

Monday, March 30, 2009

Recipe: Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting

Ok, I finally decided to collect this recipe because I saw versions of it posted everywhere around St. Patrick's Day. I avoided it for awhile because I find the thought of these cupcakes slightly disgusting (Guinness is nasty) but, on the other hand, they are so unusual that that I'm very intrigued. After all, Guinness and chocolate are supposed to be great together and cream cheese and Bailey's is a no-brainer. So I'm filing this one away for next March...I'm sure Tony won't complain.

From Nook & Pantry

Ingredients

2 C unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 C Dutch processed cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 C granulated sugar

1/2 C light or dark brown sugar

4 oz. or 1/2 C unsalted softened butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg

1/2 C sour cream

1 12 fl. oz. bottle Guinness or stout beer

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter or line with paper cups 2 12 count muffin tins.

In a large bowl briefly whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Add one egg and beat until evenly mixed and fluffy, make sure to scrape down the mixer bowl once in a while. Add the second egg and vanilla extract and beat again until light and fluffy.

Add the sour cream and beat in, then with the mixer running, slowly pour in the Guinness.

Sift the dry ingredients into the batter and slowly stir the batter until it is evenly mixed and there are no streaks of flour. Make sure to stop the mixer frequently to scrape down the sides and make sure to mix up any flour pockets hidden on the bottom of the bowl.

Divide 1/4 C of batter into each muffin cup, you’ll get about 20 – 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees F on the middle rack for 20 – 25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake in the middle of the pan should come out clean. Make sure to rotate the pans halfway through baking. Set on a rack to cool to room temperature before frosting.

For layer cakes: baking 25 – 30 minutes, rotate the pans around halfway, a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes should come out clean.

Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. bar of cream cheese, softened

1 4oz. stick of unsalted butter, softened

2 C confectioner’s sugar

4 – 6 Tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish Cream

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, add the cream cheese, butter, and confectioner’s sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the Bailey’s, more or less depending on how boozey you want the frosting, and beat until completely incorporated into the frosting.

Original Collector: me