Chocolate Dalmations

Okay, so I haven't baked anything new...still. Now I have an excuse other than homework! I'm sick, or I think I am, because these past few days I've had this really annoying sore throat. Yesterday I had all the symptoms of a fever EXCEPT for the actual fever...weird. Today I just have the sore throat, so hopefully it's getting better.

Also, I have like...no ingredients...and no working oven...soooo. But anyway, these were really good cookies that I made in March. They kinda tasted shortbread-y and were just perfect and bite sized, I could have eaten the whole batch except there were wayy too many so maybe not.

Chocolate Dalmations
Original recipe from Marcel Desaulniers' Death by Chocolate Cookies
Recipe adapted by Peabody

4 ounces of white chocolate, chopped into ¼ inch pieces
¾ pound unsalted butter, cut into 1 ounce pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
12 ounces semisweet chocolate mini-morsels

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat. Use a rubber spatula to stir the chocolate until completely smooth, about 2 minutes.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Beat on medium for 4 minutes until light(but not fluffy). Add the vanilla extract and the melted white chocolate. Beat on medium for 1 minute. Operate the mixer on low while gradually adding the flour and salt. Mix for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the chocolate mini morsels and mix on low for 30 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

Portion the dough into 48 slightly heaping tablespoons-sized pieces. Roll each portion into a ball. Place the dough balls onto a non-stick baking sheet, fitting 12 to a sheet. Place the baking sheets in the center rack. Bake for 14-16 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking time. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool at room temperature.

Cookies n Cream Fudge

Sorry sorry sorry sorry this is really old! I made these over a year ago. I realllly wanted to try them. I do remember they were SUPER good though! And super easy to boot! So great. But anyway, school life is getting very hectic right now: I'm trying to find apartments for next year, I'm trying to finish and manage group projects, I'm trying to study for exams and I'm trying to get the rest of my homework done on the side...you know, typical college stuff. So I didn't have time to bake up anything new, but here's an old recipe I used last summer!

Cookies n Cream Fudge
Recipe from Eagle Brand

3 (6 oz.) packages white chocolate baking squares
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups (about 20 cookies) coarsely crushed chocolate creme-filled sandwich cookies

Line 8-inch square pan with wax paper, extending paper over edges of pan.

Melt white chocolate squares with sweetened condensed milk and salt in heavy saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat; stir in crushed cookies. Spread evenly in prepared pan.

Chill 2 hours or until firm. Remove from pan by lifting edges of wax paper. Cut into squares.

Whoopie Pies

This weekend I had a focus group take place in my apartment for research in one of my classes. In order to get people to come I offered baked goods, and so I had to think of something that I could make successfully without it dying in my terrible oven. Aka, I had to make something small like cookies.

Problem was, I've been DYING to make cake lately...soo what do I do? I remember I've always wanted to try making Whoopie Pies, that whoopie pies probably have a texture similar to cake, and voila! I make them. I didn't decide on a filling til just when I made them because I didn't go to the store this weekend since my roommate is too busy to drive me :( but it was great! I died! I told myself I would only eat one but I had to have two...oh mann this is a perfect recipe and the combination of the almond buttercream (which for cake would be terrific too) and the cakey chocolate sandwich cookies was excellennnnt. Now I really want to try making more whoopie pie variations...but not til I recover! I used skim milk for the whoopie pies and the frosting in this recipe and it turned out great.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie
Recipe from Whoopie Pies
Found on Bakerella

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.

Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.

Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.

Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies.
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.







Almond Buttercream
Recipe adapted from Stedded

1 stick butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Mix everything together starting out slowly and then beating faster so that the sugar doesn't poof up. Beat for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Snickerdoodles

My mom has a snickerdoodle recipe that I've tried, but she doesn't make them very often--she tends to make Eggnog Snickerdoodles every Christmas, not normal Snickerdoodles. Labor Day Weekend these were the second cookies I made--I wanted something easy that I already had all the ingredients for. This was SO EASY. Almost easier tahn Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies--THAT EASY. And fun to roll the cinnamon and sugar on the balls of cookie dough, too! These were realllly good snickerdoodles, too--my friends loved them!

Snickerdoodles
Recipe from Allrecipes

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies

So I decided that the reason why baking in this kitchen has come up with such different baking times than the recipes call for, is because my oven just really sucks. I think it might just be that the top heats up a lot faster than the bottom, or something, because I have an oven thermometer that says it's not even hot enough and the top of everything tends to burn really fast and then it's left unbaked beneath (I tried making congo bars...didn't really work well).

Cookies don't seem to have too much of a problem, though. They bake really fast, but at least they aren't unbaked. Last weekend, I baked these cookies and some Snickerdoodles all day and then spent all night delivering them to friends...which was fun :) but yeah anyway, I really liked these. They had the perfect amount of lemony flavor!

Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies
Recipe by The Modern Baker
Found on Joy the Baker

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon or orange extract
1 teaspoons finely grated lemon or orange zest

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed. Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until light, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Batter may look broken and curdled. Beat in the extracts and zest.

Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour. Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a few good turns with your spatula to bring it all together.

Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on a pan lined with parchment paper. Space the balls about 2-inches apart. After all the cookies have been placed on the pan, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough. Bake the cookies until they spread and become golden, about 20 minutes. Slide the parchment paper off the pan to cool completely.

Dorie Greenspan's Tender Shortcakes

After the first day of classes, I made this dessert for my roommate and some friends. It was good and very easy to make. I made homemade whipped cream, and used frozen strawberries, though you can use any kind of fruit (and I think Dorie said to use fresh fruit). To use frozen fruit, just let it defrost completely. The juices just make it better. Add a lot of sugar and mix it with a wooden spoon to get it all together. Start with 1/4 or 1/2 a cup and add more to taste. I ended up adding a lot of sugar, haha, and my berries were still a little frozen, but they were great.

You can find the recipe here, or just buy Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, like I did. You can use any kind of berries, really, but I used strawberries because frozen strawberries were cheapest when I bought them. Mine made 12 biscuits, some bigger than others, and I probably could have made at least one more. I didn't use them all though so the rest are probably getting stale right now...I might have tried freezing them, but I guess I was too lazy.

Mine baked for much less than Dorie said: the first batch was done in about 7 or 10 minutes and they were perfect, and the second batch took about 12 minutes to be perfect (they were a little bigger than the first batch). Also, my oven was being mean and only heated up to 400 degrees when I made them, sometimes getting as low as 350, but they still turned out fine. This was an easy and delicious recipe!

Mom's Blueberry Muffins

When I got the recipe from my mom, she had written it for 6 big muffins instead of 12 small ones, so I got confused about the timing--her timing was for the 12 but she'd written for the 6, I don't know. So I could have baked mine for an extra 2 minutes, but they turned out fine and were done according to the toothpick test!

She's been making these muffins for a while. I didn't know where she got the recipe but just looked up some of the directions word-for-word and found the Betty Crocker original. They're really good straight from the oven, and they're very easy to whip together. You should probably thaw berries if you use frozen ones: I didn't and they were fine, but a little cold in comparison to the rest of the muffin.

Mom's Blueberry Muffins
Recipe adapted by my mom from Betty Crocker

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (my mom and I use 1%)
1/4 cup salad oil
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease muffin tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, using a fork, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a small bowl, beat eggs slightly with a fork, then stir in milk and salad oil.

Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Add blueberries. Stir just until flour is moistened. Avoid overmixing--batter should be lumpy.

Spoon batter into muffin tins. My mom usually uses large 6-muffin tins, but you can also use 12 muffin tins.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes if using a 12-muffin tin, longer if for 6, until they are well-risen and golden and a toothpick inserted in center of one comes out clean and dry.

Immediately remove from pan onto wire rack to cool and serve.

Hershey's Best Brownies

This is the first thing I tried to bake in my oven! For these brownies, I had to turn the oven to 400 degrees to get it to 350...but the next thing I baked got the oven to the right temperature. I wanted to double the original recipe and was afraid of getting poor results because there were SO many mixed reviews. Most people absolutely loved them and thought they were best, but there were a few who said they were terrible. I followed reviews and changed the recipe from doubling it exactly.

When I took these out of the oven, I thought they were burnt, but it turned out that they were fine. I don't really know how they turned out--I ate one fresh from the oven and it was a little hard to tell, because I just wanted to make sure it wasn't burnt--but out of all the people who ate them (there were a lot) there was one person who I could tell genuinely said they were really good. I don't think people thought they were the BEST brownies, but at least they weren't BAD.

Hershey's Best Brownies
Adapted by me from Hershey's

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Unsweetened Cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Heat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Stir together melted butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl, then mix with butter and sugar mixture. In another bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking pwder and salt. Gradually add to egg mixture, blending until just mixed. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.