Category Archives: Desserts

Chocolate Halloween Pretzels

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An alternate heading and photo I probably should have led with:

What Not To Do When You Move

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In the spirit of putting away some extra food for a rainy day, I have a 5-gallon bucket full of chocolate chips (of various varieties). Shown above: what used to be a bag of Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Chips, Costco-sized bag. My favorite.

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Don’t judge my food storage choices. When the zombie apocalypse hits, what do you really want to eat: cracked wheat porridge or chocolate?

Before moving last year, I did not think about the effects that a month of sitting in the back of a moving truck in June/July, would have on my precious bucket of chocolate chips. So instead of a bucket full of chocolate chips, I had a bucket full of chocolate bricks. I have finally made it through the last bag!

The struggle is real.

This is certainly a lemonade from lemons kind of first-world dilemma. We ended up with some fun chocolate dipped pretzels to share at a recent Fall Fest.

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Don’t want to bother remelting the chocolate block? It also makes a good paperweight.

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A Birthday Experiment

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake

Just wanted to give a little teaser of a recipe in progress. Next month I am making a couple of cakes for a church young women event. I wanted to try out a new recipe I hope to bring that night, and since Monday was my birthday, I figured that was as good of an excuse as any to try it out. Monday was also a holiday from school, so I enlisted Little J to help me. She was thrilled to help; she had been worried that with her two older sisters now gone at college, she would be on her own to come up with a birthday dessert for me.

This is not a traditional cake –in fact,  there is  no actual cake in it at all. It has a brownie base that is topped by chocolate, raspberry and vanilla mousses. It is not an especially hard cake to make, but is extremely time consuming, as there are long waiting periods throughout the assembly process.

We were pretty pleased with the result, although there are some additional changes I want to make to the recipe before I post it here. So you will have to wait until next month for the full revised recipe.

For anyone who lives close who would like to test it out for me, come on by! Since Little A won’t touch chocolate, there are only three of us left here to eat this enormous cake! (Don’t feel too sorry for him though- I am a sucker-mom and made him his own parfait out of the raspberry and vanilla mousses.)

It has been 4 days now, and we still haven’t made it halfway through. Help!!

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Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

Cinnamon Rolls 2

The best way to start a 6:00am day? Homemade cinnamon rolls, of course.

Cinnamon Rolls 1

To keep your rolls light and airy, do not add too much flour to your dough, and knead only until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl. Because the dough is sticky, it needs to sit for a while in the refrigerator before rolling out the dough. To keep the rolls soft, I also roll my dough out on a buttered silicon mat (instead of a floured mat). Greased hands will help in handling the slightly sticky dough.

An easy way to cut your dough logs into rolls without crushing the dough and having the knife stick to the dough is to use dental floss (not mint!) or a strong sewing thread. See THIS POST for more details.

This recipe makes a lot: 36  large rolls. You can scale the recipe back if you don’t want as many OR Rolls can be frozen either after or before cooking.

To freeze before cooking: Prepare dough. Fill and roll dough into log. Slice into rounds and place each round on a foil lined baking sheet, not touching. Freeze until solid and then place in Ziploc bags and return to freezer. Place frozen rolls in prepared pan and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled (about 2-3 hours). Bake and frost as directed.

RECIPE:

Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

Cinnamon Rolls 2

2 ½ cups buttermilk*
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp salt
9 – 9 ½ cups flour, divided
1 ½ Tbs instant yeast

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2-3 Tbs cinnamon

Place buttermilk, butter, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until butter is melted. Pour into a large mixing bowl (stand mixer) and let cool for 15-20 minutes. Mix in eggs and salt. Add 4 cups of flour and the yeast and mix until smooth. Add additional 5 cups of flour and knead until smooth. Add additional flour, if necessary, to make a soft dough that barely pulls away from the edge of the bowl. Dough will be slightly sticky. Cover dough with plastic wrap touching the dough and refrigerate for at least 60 minutes, or until the dough is chilled and not sticky when touched.

Lightly butter rimmed baking sheets or 9”x13” pans. Mix brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Divide dough into two halves. On a lightly buttered surface, pat each dough half into a rectangle about 12”x18”. Spread ½ stick of butter (¼ cup) on each dough half and sprinkle with half of the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Starting from long edge, form a roll. Pinch long edge to seal. Use a knife to lightly score dough into 18  sections about 1” apart. Place a strand of dental floss under the dough and cross over the top of the dough at the scored marking. Pull dental floss to cut through dough log. Place in prepared pan. Cover with a thin towel and allow rolls to rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 5-10 minutes. Spread warm rolls with cream cheese glaze.

Makes 36 rolls

*Buttermilk substitute: Scald 2 cups milk (bring to boiling point) and stir in ½ cup plain yogurt

Cream Cheese Glaze
8 oz cream cheese
6 Tbs heavy cream
3-4 Tbs milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar

Use a hand mixer to mix all of the glaze ingredients. Add additional milk or cream if needed to make a smooth glaze.

To freeze rolls before cooking: Prepare dough. Fill and roll dough into log. Slice into rounds and place each round on a foil lined baking sheet, not touching. Freeze until solid and then place in Ziploc bags and return to freezer. Place frozen rolls in prepared pan and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled (about 2-3 hours). Bake and frost as directed.

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Filed under Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts

7th Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies Recap

Here is a quick recap of the twelve new cookie recipes for this year. Time to head to the store to restock on flour, sugar and butter.

Merry Christmas and Happy Baking!

Pecan-Sandies_thumb4

DAY 1: Pecan Sandies

 Oatmeal-Pumpkin-Chip-Cookies-1_thumb[1]

DAY 2: Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Chip Cookies

 Chocolate Peppermint CookiesThin Mints 2

DAY 3: Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars 2

DAY 4: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Caramel Christmas Chex Mix

DAY 5: Caramel Christmas Chex Mix

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies 2

DAY 6: Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Cake Mix Snowball Cookies 1

DAY 7: Cake Mix Snowball Cookies

 Cranberry Orange Bread 1

DAY 8: Cranberry Orange Bread

  Buckeye Brownie Cookies

DAY 9: Buckeye Brownie Cookies

 Marshmallow Blondies

DAY 10: Butterscotch Marshmallow Blondies

Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

DAY 11: Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

 Christmas M&M Cookies

DAY 12: Christmas M&M Cookies


I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas season, a season full of lasting memories made with family and friends as we celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world.

A Savior is Born

#ASaviorIsBorn

Need more cookie inspiration? Try the links below for some of our family’s other Christmas favorites:

First Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2009)

Second Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2010)

Third Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2011)

Fourth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2012)

Fifth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2013)

Sixth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2014)

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Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Christmas M&M Cookies

Christmas M&M Cookies

DAY 12: Christmas M&M Cookies

Chewy delicious cookies made festive for the Christmas season.

I made these cookies with M&M’s designed for baking called “M&M’s Christmas Baking Bits” which are smaller than regular sized M&M’s. The mini-sized candies are less likely to split when baked.

RECIPE:

Christmas M&M Cookies

Christmas M&M Cookies

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 Tbs cornstarch
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 bag (11oz) M&M’s Christmas Baking Bits (or use regular M&M’s)
½ cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat into butter mixture. Set aside 1/4 cup of the M&M’s. Stir remaining M&M’s and chocolate chips into the dough.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto baking sheets. Press a few of the reserved M&M’s into the top of each cookie ball. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

DAY 11: Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

These cute cookies come from Inside Bru Crew Life.

The cookies themselves are not at all sweet, but with the addition of the melted white chocolate and crushed candy canes, you end up with just the right amount of sweetness.

Great cookies for peppermint fans.

RECIPE:

Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

Candy Cane Snowball Cookies

½ cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar (don’t pack tightly)
1 egg
½ tsp peppermint extract
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
2 ¼ cups flour
4 oz white candy melts
8 whole candy canes, crushed

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease baking sheets, or use silicone mats.

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in egg and peppermint and vanilla extracts. On low speed, beat in flour and salt.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls and bake on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Move cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Place white candy melts in a small microwave safe bowl. Cook on high for 30 seconds; stir. Add 20-30 seconds if not completely melted. Dip the tops of the cookies into the melted chocolate and then roll in crushed candy canes. Place on waxed paper to harden.

Makes about 3 dozen.

(Adapted from Inside Bru Crew Life)

NoEmptyChairs.me

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