Monday, October 31, 2011

9th done! S'mores Cupcakes!

I love s'mores!! and the colder it gets the less we have bonfires and the less s'mores I get to eat. So I made these! I made these for a swim team party I was going too and they were d-lish! The chocolate I inserted into the center solidified but it gave the s'more some crunch! I added fluff to the icing but it didn't really change the taste except to make it whiter and personally I think it tasted better- not marshmallowy but yummier! I also didn't know how to separate eggs but it actually isn't too terribly hard and watching the egg whites whip is AWESOME!! I wish I had gotten it on video!! Without further ado here is how to make it!

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs (I'll explain how to separate them)
  • 1/2 lb crushed graham crackers (about 8 full sheets)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 can (16 oz) vanilla icing
  • 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
First thing is to separate and stiffly beat the egg whites. Crack your first egg in half and make sure the yolk is on one side of the shell, dump the whites out of the other half of shell, now transfer the yolk into the other half of shell and dump the white out of the shell the yolk was originally in continue doing this until all of the whites are out of the shells. Don't throw the yolks out you will need them. Now dump the egg whites into a mixer and put it on the highest setting. Let them whip for about 5 min. They should be white and fluffy- they look kind of like soft serve ice-cream. Move the whipped egg-whites into another bowl and rinse the mixer out. Put butter, sugar, and egg yolks into the mixer and mix together. In another bowl mix together graham cracker crumbs, milk, baking powder, and vanilla. Combine the ingredients in the two bowls and fold in the egg whites. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 min.. The recipe said that it made 24 cupcakes but it only made 18 for me so to each their own.
For the topping, when the cupcakes are cooled completely melt the chocolate and put it into a squeeze bottle and squirt into the center of the cupcake, since I had extra I put some on top of the cupcakes too. Mix the icing and the fluff together and ice the cupcakes. Then gobble them up!!!


Stiffly beaten egg whites







It got a little messy, adding the chocolate to the top

Monday, October 24, 2011

8th 52! White Chocolate Raspberry Truffles!

One word... Easy! these are really simple, melt the chocolate add the jam mix refrigerate roll in powdered sugar!  And they taste REALLY good too!! I made these in July when I went to a Candy-Making day camp for a week, we made these on the last day of camp and we couldn't help but lick the bowl clean when we were done!! Shout-out to Rhiannon, Katharine, Julia and Elizabeth for being in my group!!! (When I was making these I kept thinking about boomba and jello shirts:p) anyway... here is the recipe!!

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 2 tbsp seedless raspberry jam

(see only 2 ingredients!)

How to make them:
          Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or candy melter or a microwave (I used a microwave) When I melted my chocolate chips they melted but they were still really thick but it thinned out when I added the jam. Add the jam to the melted chips and mix well the mixture should turn purplish. Put in the fridge for a couple minutes (5-10) and then roll into balls and dip in powdered sugar. Serve at room temperature. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.                                                                       



See very thick!
A purplish color!















Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pumkin Flavored Jack-o-lanterns! 7th 52!

I wish I could've made more of these! I made these cupcakes for Tyler Arboretum's Pumpkin Days. I used to volunteer for Tyler at their butterfly house. I thought the recipe for the muffins would make 24 muffins but it only made 16. The container I put them in only held 14 so my family split the remaining 2. I used to not like pumpkin bread but now it tastes great to me!! Maybe because I haven't had it in a while.... anyway I used a pumpkin bread mix and poured it into cupcake pans. The cook book I used used tootsie rolls for the Jack-o-lantern cutouts but I used ready made fondant by mixing together the 4 colors I have to make a purplish brownish color. Cutting out those little shapes is not fun!!!! It took me forever!! And then I couldn't get my icing to turn deep orange, I didn't have orange food coloring so i used yellow and red but then I didn't see that you could use cocoa powder to make your orange more orange! But they turned out really cute so its all good!! Here is the recipe and pics!!!

Ingredients:
  • Pumpkin Bread Muffins (I used a mix from trader joes)
  • 1 Container of white frosting (its better if its not whipped)
  • Orange food coloring (or yellow and red)
  • Cocoa Powder
  • Tootsie Rolls (or brown fondant)
  • Wheat Pretzel twists
  • Quart sized plastic bag
To Prepare:Make The pumpkin bread muffins and let them cool. If your using tootsie rolls put them in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them up (I think it would be easier if you just use fondant because its a LOT easier to roll out) roll your fondant/tootsie rolls and cut them into eyes, mouths, and noses. Dye your icing orange with the food coloring and cocoa powder. Put about 1/3 to 1/2 of the icing into a quart sized bag (use a quart size because their usually the thickest) and snip a hole at the corner of the bag and ice the cupcake like pumpkins with thick stripes for the ribs in the pumpkins. Break off the ends of the pretzel twists and stick it in the top of the cupcake like the stem of a pumpkin. Attach the mouths, eyes, and noses to the pumpkins and you have created a jack-o-lantern cupcake!



Wednesday, October 12, 2011

6th 52... Banana, Chocolate chip, Walnut, Oatmeal Cookies!

That is a veryy long name! These tasted great! I kinda messed up but then fixed because I was only going to make a half-batch but I accidently added 2 eggs instead of one like you supposed to so there wasn't as much butter but it all worked out in the end! I made these at ight so when i took pictures of the batter they didn't turn out very well because there wasn't any natural light so the next day (actually it was Monday) I took out 3 of the prettiest cookies and took like 30 pictures of them. I'll only put up 5-6 though!  These tasted great and they weren't hard to make at all!! Here's the recipe!


Ingredients:
  • 1 cup butter or margarine
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 3 cups quaker oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 2 bananas
  • Optional walnuts dried fruit etc.
Heat oven to 375 F. Beat butter/maragine and both kinds of sugar at medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Break bananas int pieces and add in.  Mix your dry ingredients except oats and choco. chips and nuts etc. together in a separate bowl and add to margarine mixture mix well. Stir in oats and remaining optional ingredients. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 min.
Makes 24 medium sized cookies.






Tuesday, October 4, 2011

5th 52! Apple Pie!

Yum! I made this with help from my sister Madeline (Mads) and with my mom making sure we didn't mess anything up. Turned out that my mom was needed because I messed the dough up by adding water before I was supposed to. oops! Well this turned out great and tasted great! I think that the filling also would've tasted good by itself too! (and I would know I had plenty of 'samples'). I wasn't as organized as I would've like to have been but that's ok because the pie turned out good in the end! I think the recipe could have used a little more cinnamon and spices and a little less lemon but I'll write the original recipe and you can tinker with it as you want. Well here's the recipe. The crust first and then the filling.

Ingredients for pie crust:
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 6-7 tbsp water
How to make it:
Using a pastry cutter, cut the shortening, flour, and salt until the mixture is pea size.  Add cold water 1-2 tbsp at a time and mix with a fork until dough forms, do not over-mix. Divide into 2 and roll out to fit the pie pan. Roll the other half of the dough out and cut into strips (those will be for the top criss-cross pattern.

Filling Ingredients (I think this would taste good by itself if you don't feel like making the crust):
  • 12-14 Granny Smith Green Apples
  • 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • A dash of pumpkin pie spice
  • Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces 
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 400. Press one of your pastry circles into a 10" pie pan. Peel, cut and core your apples (this would have taken me hours but my mom bought this apple cutter and peeler thats awesome!! there is a pic below). Put the sliced apple in a big bowl and add your lemon, flour, sugars, and spices, mix together (and possibly try a slice of apple). Put the apples into your pie tin, it might seem like its going to overflow but the pie sinks. Dot the sliced butter on top of the apples and make your top. Okay I made a lattice work top this is how you do it. Put one strip going each way, then put another strip going the same way you put your first strip down.  Now put another strip going the opposite way going under the one that went under already and over one that went over already. Continue doing that until the pie is covered. Cook for 45 min. Until the crust is browning. Let cool and dig in!!
If you have extra dough add cinnamon and brown sugar and cook for 10 min at 400 degrees.
Makes 1 10" pie
Pie Crust Recipe From The Weidman Family Cookbook
Pie Filling recipe Adapted from Pies & Tarts by Martha Stewart

My Sister Mads


Awesome Apple Peeler/Cutter from Bed, Bath, & Beyond