This week, I have been on a cooking and eating frenzy. I have tried 3 new recipes, and they have all been a hit! All 3 recipes come from some of my favorite blog sites, that I read regularly. All 3 women are great cooks, and all 3 are women I would love to meet in person. Well, I have met Ree, the PW, but we only spoke for a few minutes. Her signing was pretty crowded.
First off this week, a fantastic 2 year old helped me make these S'mores cupcakes from Bakerella.
S’more or less
Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup oil
6 jumbo marshmallows cut in half, plus more for decorating
Graham Cracker Crumb topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
Ganache
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together with a wire whisk.
Separate the mixture in half into two bowls.
Stir cocoa into one bowl and the graham cracker crumbs into the other.
Add 1/2 cup milk, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup oil to the cocoa mixture and beat on medium until combined.
Repeat adding the same ingredients to the graham cracker crumb flour mixture.
Prepare the graham cracker crumb topping.
Add the brown sugar and crumbs in a small bowl and pour on the melted butter. Stir until combined.
Pour a little graham cracker cake batter into the bottom of your baking cups and then sprinkle the topping mixture lightly on the surface.
Place a marshmallow half on top and then cover the marshmallow with the chocolate cake batter until it is about 3/4 full.
Sprinkle with more topping mixture.
Bake cupcakes for about 15 minutes. Place a cookie sheet underneath when you bake just in case. I had a little bit ooze over into the oven. Oops.
This recipe will make at least 12 cupcakes. I had a some batter from each left over so you can probably get more like 14-16.
Let cool and top with ganache.
Heat the butter and cream on the stove. Heat until just before it boils. Remove and pour over chocolate. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
Pour over cupcakes and add more marshmallows if you desire.
when I made these, I ended up with 17. I used a whole marshmallow instead of a half, and they were inhaled rapidly!
Enjoy!
Next was a pretty healthy dip, submitted by "She Wears Many Hats". This was very simple, and I loved the roasted garlic. I had never roasted a garlic, and wow, was I missing something. I loved it!!!!! I left the cilantro out because of a major aversion I have to it, but besides that I followed the directions. Crazy as it seems for me to do, I have followed the directions almost exactly on each one of these recipes. I am not one that does that often. BUT, I have come to trust their opinions and if they think I should, I guess I better... at least on my first attempt.
White Bean Spread
(makes about 1 1/2 cups)
Ingredients:
1 head of garlic
1 1/4 teaspoon olive oil; divided
1 15.8 oz. can of northern beans (or cannellini)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves; packed loosely
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Peel most of the papery skin off of the head of garlic. Cut top off of garlic head to reveal individual cloves.
- Drizzle about 1 teaspoon of olive oil over garlic, lightly coating garlic all over.
- Wrap garlic in aluminum foil, or use a garlic roaster (or make your own), and bake in oven for 45 minutes.
- While garlic is roasting, warm beans in small pan on low.
- When garlic is finished roasting let cool to the touch.
- In a food processor combine the warm beans, cilantro, salt, pepper and roasted garlic cloves until smooth.
- If needed add a little olive oil at a time until you reach preferred consistency.
Enjoy!
Last was a recipe by one of my favorite cooks, The Pioneer Woman. It is baking now. If the cake turns out anything like the batter did, we are good. Or great! Jay and I licked and wiped up quite a bit of batter and loved every minute of it. Scott was not so excited, but he is strange and prefers meat to any other kind of food... I know he will love it when it is finished baking.
Perfect Pound Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour Difficulty: Easy Servings: 12
Ingredients
3 sticks Butter
3 cups Sugar
5 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Butter Flavoring
2 teaspoons Lemon Flavoring
3 cups All-purpose Flour
1 cup Sprite, 7-UP, Or Sierra Mist
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Cream butter. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each addition. Add butter and lemon extracts and mix well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add soft drink, then mix together until combined. Scrape sides of bowl, then mix briefly.
Pour into a greased Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until the cake is no longer jiggly.
Remove cake from oven and invert pan until cake drops out. Slice and chow down!
Oh wait... I forgot to mention another. I have not made this for the 1st time this week, but we love it! Jay really, really loves it. PW's Sour Cream Pancakes. These are also printed in her cookbook. Funny story- Sunday Scott was cooking breakfast. Scott's menu did not include Sour Cream Pancakes, and that was upsetting Jay. After 2 weeks of Christmas vacation and 2 snow days. Jay ate sour cream pancakes on a good 11 of these days. He is addicted. Anyway, back to the story. Jay frantically brings me the PW cookbook and wants me to find the page, the recipe is on. He thinks if we can find it, dad will make it. This tickled me so much, I stopped getting ready for church and went to make Jay his beloved pancakes.
Edna Mae’s Sour Cream Pancakes (The Pioneer Woman Cooks)
■1 cup sour cream
■7 tablespoons all purpose flour
■2 tablespoon sugar
■1 teaspoon baking soda
■1/ 2 teaspoon salt
■2 large eggs
■1 teaspoon vanilla extract
■Butter
■Maple syrup
Warm up your griddle, iron skillet or frying pan at a medium heat. Get it nice and hot but not smoking.
In a bowl combine sour cream with sifted dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, & salt).
In separate bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla together
Pour egg mixture into sour cream/flour mixture. Stir gently until all ingredients are mixed well.
Melt about a tablespoon of butter onto griddle. Using a ladle pour about 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the pan, making about a 4 inch in diameter pancake
Cook each side of the pancake for about 1 to 2 minutes, flipping when the edges start to brown and cake begins to bubble.
Have fun and enjoy. Each of these came from the original author's websites, where they all include great photography of each step, and the final product! Just thought they were all worth sharing!
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