Recipe to Reality: Chocolate Chip Muffins for Sandy

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!

Stay Sweet and safe,


                                                                Candee

Recipe to Reality: Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

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!

Stay sweet, and happy fall!

Recipe to Reality: Nutter Butter Balls

Hey Sweethearts!

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!

Stay Sweet,