Yesterday was another one of those days that there were just no cookies in the house, which I find unacceptable. Especially since I'm only here to provide my house with cookies for another month or so, then I'm off to New York to study hard. So, I got right to it. I opened one of my new cookbooks and saw this recipe for whoopie pies and had to try it. I've always wanted to try and make whoopie pies, so I did. They were delicious. The whipped vanilla filling was the best part, since the filling is always the best part I mean come on. It really does feel like you're eating whipped cream, but instead tastes more buttery and has no cream in it! Well, it has milk and butter and sugar instead, shhhh.
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Last night we finish dinner and 8:00 rolls around and my mom goes, "So what's the deal here, Katherine? No cookies?" Now lets just be clear, there were cookies in the cookie tin and pop-tarts in a Ziploc container, but that wasn't enough for my mom and sister apparently. Of course I have no problem making them more dessert, but a lot of the times I just get them complaining about how many cookies and cupcakes and what not we have in the house, and here they are asking me for more. Of course I obey and get right to it, even at 8:00 at night (that's late for me okay). So I whip these up in under an hour, and they were delicious! A slightly crunchy while still chewy peanut butter cookie rolled in sugar and then topped off with a mound of chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough on top. It comes from a cookbook called "The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook", a.k.a. "Katherine's Cookbook". I love cookie dough. Who doesn't though, let's be real? But no worries, this cookie dough is egg-free. Give them a shot!
Please do not close your browser right away after reading "zucchini". I promise, these are really good. This is coming from someone who grew up hating vegetables, I mean I'm a baker, right? Not a cook. I do like many more vegetables now, including zucchini depending on how it's cooked (this way is obviously preferred), but nevertheless you could hate zucchini and I promise you will still like these. I told my brother to try one and he goes, "They look so weird and green". But I forced him to try it and he goes, "They taste just like chocolate chip cookies, what's the point of the zucchini". So I guess that's good and bad feedback. One, he likes them and can't tell they have zucchini, and two, he makes a good point, which is that what is the point of the zucchini? Not really sure. Maybe to trick yourself into thinking you're eating a healthy cookie (sorry, not really). Or maybe because it's cool to get a sliver of your daily vegetables in a chocolate chip cookie. Both are probable reasons. I just thought it was cool. And no, these aren't exactly healthy cookies, but when you make two chocolate chip cookies, one with sugar and butter, and one with sugar and butter and zucchini, I guess the one with the zucchini is probably a bit healthier. Everything put in perspective, am I right?
Anyways, my point is try these out! It's summer and zucchini are beautiful right now, and I personally think it's pretty cool to make cookies that taste like cookies but actually include vegetables. The best part is making someone try it without telling them the secret ingredient, then telling them they just ate vegetables without even knowing, hehe :). Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, and especially my one and only dad! He is the best, and what do the best dads deserve? Chocolate mousse, of course. We went out to dinner a couple weeks ago to celebrate my graduation and they had chocolate mousse as an option on the dessert menu, and my dad said it was one of his all-time favorite desserts, so he couldn't let it down. So, we ordered it, but I thought to myself, how did I never know chocolate mousse was one of my dad's all-time favorite desserts? It's so easy to make! So, two weeks later, enter the chocolate mousse for Father's Day. He loved it, as he should, it was delicious! I don't have much experience with mousse but I was told it's much denser than most mousse's, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless, chocolate mousse can be made many different ways so this is just one of them, and it was still delicious!
Right now I am on the paleo diet, which means I successfully made a whole batch of delicious chocolate cookies without having ANY of the dough. It was hard, I have to say. There were times when I took a little piece and stared at it for a solid minute before just throwing it in the sink so I couldn't eat it. However, I did try like one-sixth of one of the cookies to make sure they were good. They looked good, but if I was going to put them on my blog I had to know they were good. And guess what, they were... they were really good. They have the texture and look of a chewy gingersnap but they taste like pure chocolate heaven. They do have to refrigerate, but other than that these are super easy and quick to make!
This is yet another batch of cookies going to be served to the French Club at my high school. I went on a little hunt for some interesting cookie recipes I can try and made a list that I am hoping to get through in the next couple of weeks. My only problem with some of these cookies is that the dough needs refrigeration, which I usually don't like, but this time I planned accordingly and it worked out. So, beware, the dough needs to chill. And it really isn't optional, it NEEDS to chill. Chocolate chocolate cookies like these ones are oftentimes a bit like brownie batter, so if you don't chill them they will come out like brownie crisps. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself, and you will get brownie crisps. Don't worry, I've done it before. Everyone has their fair share of baking fails. Speaking of which, I made a cake for my cousin's 9th birthday yesterday. Beautiful, chocolate cake, all finished and packed up in my handy-dandy cake container. As I walked out the door it fell out of the container and the cake fell splat on the top. Five-second rule, right? Everyone said it was delicious, but not the prettiest of all my cakes, I'll admit. Although, my uncle pointed out, I still have a pretty good record. I've made probably like 50+ cakes before and that was my first fall. Although I have had a bundt cake disaster, but that's a story, and if you've made a bundt cake, you have also probably had a bundt cake disaster, don't try and deny it.
Anyways, to the recipe. These are soooo delicious. They are so addicting it's crazy! Thank god they're leaving my house tomorrow, or else I would gain like 5 pounds this week just from these cookies. They are nice and soft, just like I like them, but not cakey, because I don't like that. Plus, they are loaded with chocolate! What's better? I'll tell you, nothing's better. I made these biscotti for my mom's Italian-themed dinner party, but I actually make them every week at the café I work at, so that can go to show you how good they are. They're super easy and amazingly quick! I call these "Basic Biscotti" because this is the recipe I use every time and then I spice it up by adding different ingredients for a new flavor every week. Some ideas for flavors are:
The biscotti pictured above and below is chocolate chip pecan biscotti. These are all the flavorings I've tried before. However, there are infinite many possibilities, which is one of the reasons I love biscotti so much! I was thinking the other day about maple walnut biscotti. I haven't tried it yet but I would do 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. of vegetable oil (instead of 3/4 cup), add 2 Tbsp. maple syrup, and do only 3/4 cup sugar, then use walnuts for the nut. They all sound so delicious! Tomorrow is another french club meeting at my school, which if you actually read my little blurbs under each recipe, you know that I am one of the leaders and bake for the members of the club every other Tuesday. They are some lucky people. I'll be honest though, since I always have to make them on a monday night when I have a lot of homework, I usually do something quick and easy like brownies or chocolate chip cookies (all homemade though, don't even mention boxes in front of me or I'll go off on a an extremely heated tangent). However, since I went to Florida last week and haven't posted in a while, I went with something more interesting so I could post it for you all.
And all this landed me at peanut butter stuffed brownies. I've made brownies before with King Arthur Flour mini peanut butter cups on top, and I've made peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, but these brownies beat them all. I'm telling you, these brownies are perfectly fudgy, decadent, wonderful brownies, made even better with a melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter filling. We all know peanut butter and chocolate is a combination made in heaven, but this is the best combination of that combination I've ever tried, if you can follow me. Anyways, all I'm trying to say is go make these now! You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry and even if you don't want to eat them all (which will be hard not to do), then you can make some pretty good friends. Tomorrow is my cousins birthday, so happy birthday Delilah! Naturally, as the baker of the household, I was assigned the cake-making. I had a blast, as you can see. She almost always asks for chocolate, but being myself, I didn't want to be as unoriginal as a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. As yummy as that is, it gets boring year after year. So, since I know she loves raspberries, I made raspberry chocolate layer cake! It is a classic chocolate cake recipe with raspberry jam on each cake layer, then chocolate ganache. You have to refrigerate half the ganache to let it firm up, then the other half you pour over the cake and then freeze the whole cake so that firms up, so that's the main reason it takes so long. Other than that, it's surprisingly easy for such a decadent and impressive-looking cake. My ganache didn't even firm up very well and it still worked fine, so don't fret if it's still runny after an hour in the refrigerator. I then decorated the top with raspberries and powdered sugar, plus a couple mint leaves in the very middle, as shown below. You can cover the whole cake with raspberries if you'd like, but I thought that would be a bit too much, so I liked this design instead. Enjoy!
Today is the Pats game, which means a big deal in my house. My dad's the only true Patriots fan I would say. My mom follows along when it gets interesting, and to be completely honest, I couldn't care less, but it means I get to make food for people! I was trying to choose between several different cupcake recipes. One had peanut butter, one had caramel, but these ones are a classic, meaning everyone will like them, so I went with these.
The cake batter is very simple. You make it like you're making vanilla cupcakes, and then put some to the side and add cocoa powder and milk. The frosting you have to make two separate frostings for, but still rather quick. The hardest part of this recipe is trying to as neatly as possible squeeze only vanilla frosting into one side of a piping bag and then only chocolate into the other, and then hope it pipes out well. I have to say I did a pretty good job for the first time, but if you give it a try and you end up needing several tries, don't feel bad, it's difficult. My advice would be to do it in two or three segments. Start with most of the bag folded down and do vanilla on one side and then chocolate on the other. Then bring up the folds and do the next segment, and that will probably be it because you don't want to over-fill the bag. |
AuthorMy name is Katherine and I love, love, love to bake! You can find all my baking adventures on this blog, plus you can follow me on Social Media by clicking below! Archives
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