Happy Saturday sweethearts! Today I'm here to share some delicious chocolate chip muffins from mybakingaddiction.com that I made this morning!
If you have been watching the news lately, you will know that the storm of the century is on it's way.....and some of it's most powerful winds and rains will be hitting in our area. I decided to make these muffins as a peace offering for Sandy, hehe. I don't think that these will disappoint-they are light, sweet, chocolatey, and the perfect golden color.
INGREDIENTS: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 stick of butter, melted and COOLED (preferably unsalted, but I used salted and there wasn't an overpowering salty taste) 2 eggs 2/3 cup milk 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1) Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and either line or grease a 12-muffin pan. 2) Whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. 3) Whisk the butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. 4) Create a well, or hole in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Stir just to combine. 5) Fold in your chocolate chips. 6) Transfer the batter into the muffin liners, and bake for 17-20 minutes. 7) Take your muffins out of the oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Notice how "cooled" is in all caps in the ingredients list above-at first, I didn't let the melted butter cool off enough before mixing it with the eggs, milk, and vanilla, and ended up with a lumpy, curdled mess. ): Even the second time I put the wet ingredients together, I ended up with some lumps in the mixture, and I let my butter cool off for at least 7 minutes! 2 of those in the fridge! So, I have no idea what that was all about. However, the muffins ended up coming out great after 18 minutes baking in the oven. All bumps in the road aside, the muffins were easy and definitely a recipe I'd create again!
Happy Friday Sweethearts! Today I'm going to share a recipe I found through BethanysLife on YouTube, Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate! This was inspired by Starbucks' annual line of fall drinks, salted caramel mochas, hot chocolates, etc. Ever since my aunt recommended the drink to me last winter, it has been my favorite thing to get at Starbucks(when I'm there....which is about every three months or so). I love the mingling flavors of salty and sweet, and since those two flavors are the foundation of many of our posts on Savory and Sweethearts, I thought this Recipe to Reality would be more than appropriate.
First, start off by making your hot chocolate. You can get fancy and break out your saucepan and make it yourself, or just use a mix like I did. On a side note, I'll take this opportunity to share my fool-proof hot chocolate combination:
1. Hot Chocolate mix-two tablespoons should do the trick, or follow the directions on your packet
2. Add milk, and some vanilla coffee creamer- I think this brings out the chocolate flavor a little more, similar to how you put vanilla extract in chocolate cookies.
Okay, back to the recipe! Add your whipped cream....it takes practice to get it looking "professional", but jut try holding the can at an angle on its side and bringing it around the mug. Next, drizzle your carmel sauce artistically, and sprinkle with some granulated sugar.
Now you've reached the most important part-your sea salt. All I have to say is-tread lightly. A little goes a long way since sea salt packs quite a punch. Make sure that you are strategically placing the topping in various places on the whipped cream, in an effort to avoid getting an overwhelming amount of salt
in one sip.
And you're done! This takes almost no time to make, and once you've made it twice you won't even need to refer to the recipe! Although I admit it tastes very little like the Starbucks version, it is still an amazing fall/winter drink that I highly recommend you try!
My husband and I share the same group of best friends, which is a really amazing thing.
In fact, his best man at our wedding introduced the two of us at college.
Every month one of us hosts a get-together weekend where we provide meals, housing, and entertainment. We plan these rituals so that we can keep in touch, even though we live within a 4 hour range of one another.
Last weekend, my friend Cup of Joe (who was also mentioned in my Breakfast Muffins post) really wanted to try these incredibly deceiving Chocolate Chip S'mores Cookies.
The idea is to make a tiny s'more and surround it with cookie dough.
I was reluctant because I wasn't sure how a crunchy graham cracker was going to taste in my cookie (since I love soft, chewy cookies) but Joe was super excited so we went for it.
Here's What You'll Need!
Graham Crackers
Mini Marshmellows
Hershey's Chocolate Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (we used premade)
Putting it All Together!
1) Assemble mini s'mores.
2) Surround mini s'mores in cookie dough! (This part was tough! I needed a lot of cookie dough to cover up the edges and we used a whole roll of dough to make 7 of these cookies!)
Sticky business!
3) Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
We only made 7 cookies!
As you can see, a bunch of them exploded in the oven, cracking open. Overall, we didn't notice that much of a difference with the addition of the s'more. I mean, don't get me wrong, they were delicious...but I'd say more work then they're worth. Fun to say that we made these though! It was definitely an experience baking with my buddies :)
Long time no blog! Sorry that I have been neglecting my posts, I have had a few busy weekends! Nonetheless, today I am here to post about a super easy recipe I recreated this week-Bakerella's Nutter Butter Balls! I found these delicious treats through Pinterest (follow us here) and when a window of opportunity presented itself on Wednesday, I jumped at the chance to make them! The best part is that they are no bake! This is my first experience with a "no bake" recipe, and I was a little hesitant at first, especially working with an ingredient like cream cheese, which can be pretty iffy when left out at room temperature for too long. However, I was surprised at how easy the process was, and grateful for not having to wash so many dishes and utensils!
The overall process was super easy-
1) Start by using a food processor or the back of a spoon to finely crush all but 5 Nutter Butter cookies from the package.
2) Combine the 8 oz. of cream cheese with the cookie pieces. I found that it was easiest to use my hands, even though it got a little messy. Simply use a kneading motion to combine the crumbs and the cream cheese. It should take a little elbow grease, but I think that this is the best way. It's almost like creaming butter with sugar, except doing it without the help of a standing mixer.
3) Using your hands, form the mixture into little balls about 1 inch in width and place on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. I ran into a little trouble as I reached the bottom of my bowl because I hadn't incorporated all of my crumbs with the cream cheese. So, some of the balls ended up falling apart a little, but it didn't bother me so much.
4) Melt your chocolate in a small bowl. I really don't like semisweet chocolate, and was unable to find any milk chocolate baker's squares, so I used about 3/4 of a bag of milk chocolate chips.
5) Coat the balls in the melted chocolate. I used my hands and looking back realize that it was probably not the best idea. Try your luck placing the ball on a spoon and into the chocolate, rotating it to coat the bottom and top.
6) Place the newly coated balls back onto the wax paper, and leave them to set in the refrigerator.
Once your desserts have been left in the fridge for about 2 hours or so, they are ready to eat! Just make sure that you store them in the refrigerator to prevent running into any problems with spoiled cream cheese or melty chocolate.
I thought that these treats were great, easy for anyone to make (like many of my recipe to reality posts) and would satisfy any peanut butter-chocolate craving! Plus, it only took me 15 minutes tops to create them, so they would be perfect for anyone scrambling for something to bring to a last minute party. Since they are small, they are a great after school treat as well!
Today's post involves one of the most delicious ingredients ever- it is brown, usually imported from Italy, and has been featured in at least one of the majority of food bloggers' post's......
You guessed it! Nutella!! This is one of my favorite companions to pretzels, crackers, whole wheat toast, and more. I found this recipe on Laura Vitale's youtube channel and have made the cookies once before, which worked out great as well.
I personally had most of the ingredients in my house, except for the cacao powder, which I am glad I was able to add to my pantry since it is frequently featured in the recipes I have tried out.
The process is definitely standard procedure if you call yourself a seasoned baker like I think of myself, simply mixing the dry ingredients, creaming the butter, sugars, and adding the eggs. However, there were some changes I made to the recipe. For one, I substituted Nutella for my Jif Hazelnut Spread, and I honestly didn't find any difference in the taste of the cookies. (P.S. There is a significant amount of hazelnut spread used in this recipe, 1 cup, so make sure that you have a backup jar. I found myself with only a little bit of Jif left, and I started with a fairly full jar!) I also added a tiny splash of milk into the batter because I thought it looked a little dry, and I was happy to find that I didn't throw off anything in the recipe. As for time in the oven, I would say for a perfectly chewy cookie, 11-13 minutes is the way to go.
When transferring the batter to the cookie sheets, I made each cookie with a medium amount of the batter. As you can see from the pictures, they definitely spread out! In the end, I was able to detach the cookies from each other with a knife, and there was no harm done. I even made a mistake and forgot to grease one pan, and the treats came off with only a little elbow grease!
The first time I made these cookies, I brought them to my grandparents house where I was meeting my cousins for the weekend. We used these cookies to make ice cream sandwiches, and they are great paired with vanilla ice cream. I totally recommend these cookies for any occasion, and like many of my featured Recipe to Reality posts, it is super easy to make in no time!
Last Friday Jasmine and I got together and baked up a STORM! Her recipe of choice was some delicious oatmeal cookies. I chose to whip up some Mallow Brownie bars for a Labor Day BBQ I was attending!
I found these decadent treats on Nichi's blog, The Mandatory Mooch. They are extremely easy to make despite their intricate appearance. They are so delicious and definitely will not fail to impress anyone's taste buds.
One of my favorite quick desserts has to be box brownies. I know, I know, probably not worthy of a "food blog" discussion, but just having access to a delicious treat that only takes a few ingredients you are bound to have around your home is a relief when you finish the last box of Oreos. Thus, when I saw that brownies were included in this recipe, I was extremely excited to make it! Another incentive was that I had all of the ingredients for the rest of recipe, and I'm sure many of you will be in the same boat!
The actual process was a piece of cake, no pun intended. When the brownies were almost done, I took them out of the oven and dumped a bag of mini marshmallows on top. I allowed it to bake for another 3 minutes (I let the brownies bake prior for about 25 minutes) so that the sugary topping had developed a sort of hard shell, but had not completely melted.
While the bottom layers of the dessert were cooling, I started on the top chocolate layer, which involved chocolate, peanut butter, butter, and crispy rice cereal. Although I ended up having only half a bag of chocolate chips (the recipe called for 1 full bag) everything actually ended up coming together fairly nice. I also used Simply Jif peanut butter, which has about a 1/3 less fat than the regular kind included in a popular lunch box staple.
Once I finished melting everything together, I poured the chocolate mixture on top of the brownies and spread evenly with a spatula. Once everything was visually appealing, the brownies went into the fridge for 1-2 hours to set.
A little while later, the treat was ready to eat! They cut evenly, and there was no problem with any liquidy chocolate left on top. Everyone at the party I brought them to loved them, and they were gone within 10 minutes! They actually remind me of chocolate Rice Krispie Treats. All in all, I though these brownie bars were a hit and I will totally be making them again! If anyone is going back to school, these are a perfect cure for the end of summer blues that everyone is sure to face in the coming weeks. (:
The first few steps of this recipe are very basic and easy. If you are a tried and true baker like what I would want to call myself, you would probably understand why simply creaming butter and sugar, then adding eggs and all of your various flavorings is more of a habit than anything else.
Now, this wouldn't be a true "post" if I hadn't put my own spin on this wonderful recipe. First, I added about a 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the batter for a bit of kick. Now, my second twist really amped up that minty flavor I was going for. The original recipe said to stuff the cupcakes with mini York Peppermint Patties-I, however, spooned out the peppermint filling of the candies and baked it inside the desserts instead. For the technique I used to get access to the filling, watch my Sweet Tip #2 below. If you are reading this and the thought popped into your head, "I'm not going to take apart 18 peppermint patties!" than I highly recommend that you stuff these treats with the whole candy instead, or add more extract. I am saying this because, well, the author of this recipe intended these to be chocolate cupcakes, and well, even with my addition of the peppermint extract, the candies inside were what really added the flavor I was looking for.
To get the filling in the cupcakes, I used an ice cream scoop to place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter into my tins. Then, using my fingers I placed about a teaspoon of filling into the cupcake. Then, push it down into the batter so that it is not as clearly visible as it was before. Finish off with about a teaspoon more batter on top to seal things off.
After being in the oven for 17 minutes, my cupcakes were done. I enjoy more of a cake kind of texture, but for my savory and sweet hearts out there who want a moist cupcake, I would shoot for about 14 to 15 minutes in the oven.
As you can see in the pictures, the peppermint filling ended up spilling out of the cupcakes! However, the unsettling first impression you receive from these cupcakes can easily hidden by frosting. I also chose to let these babies sit a little to set as well as cool - I was definitely not content on letting the filling mix with my icing!
This delish Hint of Mint buttercream frosting also came from Bakingdom.com as well.
Here is a minuscule problem I ran into during this process, and I am sure I am not the first.....I didn't have any heavy cream on hand! Ironically, I ran into a similar problem a few days prior while baking with my cousins, and found a substitute that worked just as well as the suggested ingredient. If you ever find yourself without heavy cream, just beat flour and milk together in loo of the desired amount in the recipe. In my opinion, it is easiest to just eyeball it, but you should have a good bit more milk than flour.
After a splash of green food coloring, the icing is complete! I think the consistency of it is wonderful, light, airy, and a perfect companion to the chocolate cupcakes. A small change I made to the frosting is the addition of more peppermint and vanilla extract than the recipe called for. When I first tasted it, I really couldn't taste any mint! However, after alternating splashes of the two flavors I was able to find a happy medium of the flavor that is a significant part of these tasty candies. I do have one complaint with this icing...I felt like it was too buttery. I don't know whether it was because I undermixed, or because I used salted instead of unsalted...all in all though, this frosting is too good of an opportunity to pass up. If you choose to recreate this recipe, I suggest using 1 1/2 sticks of butter. If the consistency ends up being off, than it is a good idea to add more sugar and a little less liquid.
Here are the final cupcakes! I think that this recipe was consistently easy to make, and I was able to get lucky with the various changes I made to the batter. As Jasmine and I learned a few posts ago with our Buttermilk Blueberry Raspberry Breakfast Cake, while baking, it is difficult to just add in ingredients as you please, which is the case when cooking. To pipe, I used a freezer bag equipped with a medium sized opening to frost the treats. After realizing that a plastic bag really wasn't doing the trick (my Wilton kit was with Jasmine, as she was taking a class), I ended up smoothing the cupcakes over with an icing knife. I also garnished them with pieces of the candies that were left from my filling. These cupcakes were a hit with my family, and I personally could not get enough of them! And I will let you in on a little secret - I usually do not eat what I bake! Although I am payed many positive compliments on various treats I bring to parties or share with family and friends, I usually do not end up personally liking tastes of my creations. Anyway, long story short, if I like them, than you'll LOVE them! I will definitely be making these candy inspired cupcakes again!
3) Whisk the butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. 
Notice how "cooled" is in all caps in the ingredients list above-at first, I didn't let the melted butter cool off enough before mixing it with the eggs, milk, and vanilla, and ended up with a lumpy, curdled mess. ): Even the second time I put the wet ingredients together, I ended up with some lumps in the mixture, and I let my butter cool off for at least 7 minutes! 2 of those in the fridge! So, I have no idea what that was all about. However, the muffins ended up coming out great after 18 minutes baking in the oven. All bumps in the road aside, the muffins were easy and definitely a recipe I'd create again!
