The Perfect Brownie

My friend, Carley, made these brownies and shared them with me. I have since tried other brownie recipes and even adjusted this one to try to make it healthier. However, nothing came close to how tasty these brownies are. Better than any boxed brownie I have ever tried and they come out perfect every time. I learned my lesson though and found that you cannot substitute applesauce for the butter (like I do in my chocolate cake recipe). Make these today! You won't regret it...your waist will, but your taste buds won't. 

INGREDIENTS:

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.

3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.

7. Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

Source: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/10/08/the-baked-brownie/

Newton’s Sugar Cookies

This recipe is from a friend of mine from college. They are super delicious sugar cookies and some of my friends call them the "best sugar cookies in the world." I love making these in circle shapes (easier to frost and so versatile to decorate). I'll often make a double batch and freeze a bunch of them either frosted or plain. Then, when I want to take cookies to someone, I can just pull out however many I need, frost them if they need it and I'm good to go. These cookies are great anytime but I love them after the frosting has been on for 24 hours and the frosting has dried and the cookie has softened just a little from the frosting. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

Roll to about 1/4 inch thick. Maybe just slightly thicker. 

Bake @ 400 degrees about 7-8 minutes. They should not be brown when you take them out. If I see one cookies edge start to brown, I remove the tray.

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk *

2 teaspoons light corn syrup *

* I usually add extra milk and corn syrup until it’s a smooth runny consistency. You don’t want to fight to have to spread it on the cookies. Add a few drops extra at a time. 

Dessert

**If I double the batch of cookies, I usually use three eggs instead of two to make it moist enough. If you make a single batch and it's a little dry, you can always add another egg. Don't add the extra egg unless it needs it. 

Cinnamon Rolls and Orange Rolls

Growing up, almost every Sunday morning before church, our family would sit down to a breakfast of hot cinnamon or orange rolls. We would wake up and my parents would preheat the oven and throw a pan of cinnamon rolls in the oven. We'd get dressed and by the time we were ready, the rolls were coming out of the oven and quite often my mom would have whipped up a batch of frosting for the top of them. What good memories I have of those days.

I have decided to start a family tradition of gifting cinnamon and orange rolls to my neighbors and friends at Christmas time. What a fun gift to give that can either be eaten immediately, frozen and saved or eaten for Christmas morning. My family enjoys walking around to each of our neighbor's homes and delivering the rolls with a little note that includes reheating instructions and Christmas blessings.

Now, when I make cinnamon rolls, I go back and forth between using my mom's recipe and Pioneer Woman's recipe. They're both good and turn out about the same. When I use Pioneer Woman's recipe, I don't heat it on the stove like she says to do. I just use hot milk and mix in my mixer. It's a big recipe for my little mixer but I make it work. One recipe of Pioneer Woman's makes about 7-8 pans of rolls. One recipe of my mom's rolls makes about 3 pans. Here's the recipe I grew up with. It's called Army Sweet Basic Dough because it's a recipe that was used in the Army for their sweet rolls.

Army Sweet Basic Dough

*Set 2 sticks of butter out to soften for later*

In a small bowl, mix and let stand until foamy:
3/4 cups hot water (as hot as you can get your tap water and not burn yourself)
2 packages yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
1 Tablespoon sugar

In large mixing bowl: cream together (with cake beater):
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt

After creaming above mix, add and cream together:
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk

Add yeast mixture and:
2 cups flour

Mix well. Switch to a dough hook.
Add:
2 cups additional flour (knead for a long time to break down gluten). I usually add another 1-3 cups of flour at this stage until the dough pulls away from the wall of the bowl. There shouldn't be flour in the bowl that can't be absorbed but if it's sticking to the walls of the bowl, you can add more flour. Don't go crazy with it though. If it sticks a little, it's okay.

Preheat oven to warm for 5 minutes. Grease the bowl, flip the dough to coat both sides with oil (prevents drying out). I generally just spray it with my aerosol spray. Cover with a cloth. Let rise 2-3 hours until doubled. Punch down the dough and let rise for 10 minutes. (If you try to roll it out right away it'll tend to pull back in on itself due to the gluten. Allow the gluten to rest for a short while and it'll be much easier to roll).

Get 2-3 cake pans ready. In each pan put 1/4 cube of melted butter in each pan and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (sugar is optional...butter is not).

Pour dough onto floured pastry cloth or work surface. Using a large, sharp knife, press to cut dough in half. Return half to your bowl. Shape other half into a rectangular shape with your hands and then roll out evenly. At this point, the dough should not be sticky. Use enough flour to make sure it doesn't stick to your work surface or rolling pin. You shouldn't have to add much if you added enough prior to rising. Work the corners out so you don't end up with an oval. You want a large rectangle.

Once you have your rectangle, spread 1/4 cup or so of soft butter over the surface with a spatula. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, sugar and sprinkle with raisens. The cinnamon and sugar should cover the entire surface. Roll up and cut in half. Keep cutting your sections in halves until you have the size rolls you want. This helps you end up with even sized rolls. Mine are usually only about 1 inch wide when I place them in my pans. *(be sure to put them in pans with butter/sugar on the bottom). Remember, they will rise and spread. I usually end up with 24-36 rolls depending on how I cut them. Don't crowd your pans. I will usually put 6-8 rolls/pan. Think about the size of your family when you place your rolls. If you have 4 people, maybe make pans of 8. We used to use some larger cake pans and put 12 rolls in them so we'd each get 3 rolls to eat. The point is, it's flexible. There's no perfect number.

Place pans in a warm oven and let double in size for 30-60 minutes. The rolls should fill the pan at this point. Remove from oven and preheat oven to 350.

Because we usually weren't eating them right after we made them, we cooked them and then reheated them later which is what the following directions are for. We would always bake our rolls for about 15 minutes until cooked through. (They're a little undercooked at 15 minutes bit still edible. If you want to fully cook them, I'd leave them in for 20-25 minutes). Lay out about 2-2 1/2 feet of tinfoil and flip pan upside down on to the center of the tinfoil. Scrape any remaining sugar from the bottom of the pan and roll up the sides of the tinfoil to close. Turn and wrap with one more layer of tinfoil on the other side. Allow to cool and then you can freeze the rolls in the tinfoil and then just thaw, and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes while still in the tinfoil. This way, you have your pans free for other uses. After you reheat the rolls, unroll the tinfoil, place a plate on the bottom and flip over. Your rolls are now face up and ready for frosting.

Basic Icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon milk
Drop of almond extract
(Personally, I always like a good cream cheese icing but this one's easy and works good as well)

Variation: Orange Rolls
My mom would switch back and forth between cinnamon and orange rolls. As a child, I preferred the cinnamon rolls but now I really enjoy the orange rolls as well.
Make everything as normal but instead of cinnamon, sugar and raisens, use the following filling and a different icing to create orange rolls.

Orange Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
Stir together and sprinkle over buttered dough

Orange Glaze Icing:
3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sour cream

I hope you have fun making cinnamon rolls for your family and make many wonderful memories!

Sahara & Megan's Sow Your Own Oats Cookies

There's a local bakery that makes DELICIOUS (but expensive) breads and pastries. Earlier this week, my friend, Sahara, came over to my house and brought a couple of their delicious oatmeal cookies. After enjoying them together, we decided to try to knock-off these cookies. Today, I purchased another of their oatmeal cookies called "Sow Your Oats Cookie" and we "dissected" the cookie and attempted to recreate it. Let's just say what we ended up with is extremely close to original cookie. We were both very impressed with ourselves that they turned out so close to the original. So, if you'd like to try a hearty, oatmeal cookie chalk full of goodness, make these today!

Cream:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Mix in:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour

Add:
2 cups oatmeal (try to use old fashioned oats or thick rolled oats)
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons flax seeds
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates

Form into 1/4 cup balls of dough. Slightly flatten with hand. Only put four cookies per cookie sheet as they will spread.

Bake 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes until edges turn brown.

Recipe makes 13-15 extra large cookies.

Cinnamon Toasted Almonds

I first had these in Germany. They were being sold from a kiosk in a train station, and you could smell them all over the station. Then I ran across this recipe at tasteofhome.com and decided to try them as Christmas gifts. They are so easy, and make your house smell equally as wonderful! The only change I would make is add maybe 1/2 cup more almonds, as there was too much sauce.

Prep: 15 min. Bake: 25 min. + cooling

2 egg whites
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups unblanched almonds
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, beat egg whites until frothy; beat in vanilla. Add almonds; stir gently to coat. Combine the sugars, salt and cinnamon; add to nut mixture and stir gently to coat.

Spread evenly into two well-greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans. Bake at 300° for 35-45 minutes or until almonds are crisp, stirring once. Cool. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 4 cups.

Almost Too Much Chocolate Cake

This is a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. It's super easy to make and tastes delicious. It calls for a bundt pan and it tastes great made that way without frosting. However, my favorite way to make this cake is in two cake pans. I then frost the cake with homemade peppermint frosting. It's so delicious this way as it's such a moist cake and the peppermint and chocolate just go so well together.

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil (I usually use applesauce)
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate. If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

Alterations:
There are times when I don't have the exact ingredients and need to alter the recipe a little. I always use a chocolate cake mix of some sort whether or not it's a devil's food cake. If I don't have chocolate pudding, I've used vanilla before. Also, I've used white chocolate chips when I run out of semi-sweet chocolate chips. It's always turned out great!

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

Recipe from allrecipes.com

I made some of this bread last night to take to Bible Study this evening, and it is fantastic! The directions say that it gets better over time, so try to make it a day ahead if you can.


Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can pumkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Modifications:
I used 1 cup brown sugar and 2 cups white sugar. Many of the reviewers on allrecipes.com reduced the sugar and/or substituted 1/2 cup apple sauce for half of the oil. The texture was absolutely perfect as I made it, so I would not be inclined to modify the wet ingredients, although I did look at the amount of oil and cringe! Other possible modifications are adding nuts or dried cranberries.

This really is an amazingly moist and flavorful bread, perfect for a special treat or to share with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, or anybody else who likes autumn goodies.

Peanut Clusters

Peanut clusters hold a special place in my heart. My grandma made them every year for the holidays and gave them out to family and friends. They are simple but tasty and keep well, so they make excellent gifts!

16 oz Chocolate CandiQuik
24 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
20 oz Dry Roasted Peanuts

Melt the CandiQuik and chocolate chips together, stirring frequently. Combine peanuts and melted chocolate and spoon onto waxed paper. Let cool completely.

It took me less than an hour to make them today. I opted to melt the chocolate in a saucepan, although microwaving would have been quicker. Cooling time is going to depend on your cooling method and the weather. They can be cooled on a counter top or on trays in the refrigerator or freezer.

Here they are cooling on my counter:

I ended up with 54 clusters. If you need to increase or decrease the recipe at all, the chocolate to peanut ratio is 2 to 1. The exact CandiQuik/chocolate chip ratio is based on package sizes more than anything else and can certainly be adjusted. We don't actually know what proportions my grandma used, but my mom is pretty certain that she used more chocolate chips than CandiQuik.

My grandma used to buy jars of peanuts and then use the jars (washed, label removed) as gift containers. It's a good idea, but you can store them and give them away in any sort of packaging. Festive paper plates and plastic wrap work just as well!

Cinnamon Pecans

I made these for Christmas presents last year and everyone loved them. They're easy to make and taste delicious!! For a nice gift idea, decorate a pretty jar or tin and add the nuts when they're cool.

INGREDIENTS
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 pound pecans
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon *
• 1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, beat egg white with water until frothy. Stir in pecans and mix to coat. Combine sugar, cinnamon and salt and stir into pecan mixture. Spread on a baking sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on wax paper. Store in an airtight container.
*I tend to put double or triple the amount of cinnamon in. Just add as much as you’d like. I also found that it’s best to bake it in a glass baking dish because it makes it easier to stir without shoving pecans off into the stove.

I originally found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It’s easy and delicious!