Avalanche Bars

by penji1

THESE. ARE. SO. YUMMY!  You must try them right now!  I made them for a Sunday afternoon treat and I’ve eaten one already but the plate is sitting on the kitchen counter calling to me.  I found this recipe on a website called Lilyshop, here is the link to it:  http://www.lilyshop.com/news/item/avalanche-bars.  SO GOOD!

12 ounces of high quality white chocolate (I used my Dove)

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups Rice Krispies

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1  In a medium bowl, break up the white chocolate and microwave on high at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until chocolate is completely melted.

2  Add the peanut butter and mix well.

3  Stir in Rice Krispies and let sit for 10 minutes or until cool.  (You don’t want the marshmallows and chocolate chips to melt when you add them.)

4  Stir in marshmallows and chocolate chips.

5  Pour mixture into a buttered or sprayed 8 x 8″ square dish.  Spread evenly.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving.

OK, this is a few days later, I made those white avalanche bars on Sunday and they were gone by Monday so I made some more today which is Tuesday only this time with some Dove dark chocolate and they are just as good or better if you love dark chocolate like me.  I followed the above recipe but omitted the chocolate chips since this whole batch is chocolate.  I’m sure I’ll be making these again sometime soon with Dove milk chocolate so I’ll add another picture of those when I make them!  YUM!

Taste of the Valley 2012

by penji1

Bob and I went to the “Taste of the Valley 2012” this morning which we’ve been going to for several years now.  I’m pretty sure that I blogged about it last year.  Every year they gather together quite a few restaurants and they set up tents or booths at the Riverwoods outdoor shopping center and you can buy a punch card for $10 and then wander around to as many booths as your stomach can handle and try out all the food.  This year was awesome with most of the restaurants handing out large samples or full plates of food as opposed to years past when it was just a bite or two.  I was so full so fast this year!  We didn’t make it to all the booths but I don’t think we’ve ever made it to all the booths.  If you live near me and are a foodie like me, then I highly recommend it!  Here’s a sample of what we ate:

On the left is a delicious pork sandwich with a little bit of a kick from Chef’s Table and on the right is a plate from La Jolla Groves (love it!) with Grilled Summer Tomato Bruschetta and Watermelon and Cucumber Salad, both delicious but the bruschetta especially, I wanted more!

On the left is pepperoni pizza from Malawi’s Pizza (yum-o!) and some shredded pork and rice from Rumbi and then a full plate from Goodwood Barbeque with potato salad, barbeque beans and then some shredded meat, all good but by this time I was already getting pretty full so only took a bite of each.

On the left is barbeque chicken salad from California Pizza Kitchen and a chocolate chip cookie wedge also yum and then in the middle is a ton of something from Shoots which I couldn’t even eat a bite of and then on the right is chocolate frozen yogurt from Menchie’s which I must confess, I did not love, the texture was a little off for me.

We also got a bottle of water from Sam’s Club and a lemon/lime/coconut drink from Tucanos and a can of Pepsi Next which were all genius since everyone was thirsty from all the food and the heat and to finish up our pig out there was  a donut from Krispy Kreme and a huge chunk of butter almond toffee from PrimeToffee.com.

I know other cities around the country do a similar thing as I was in New York once visiting some friends and we went to a similar event there (only it was $100 a card!) so check it out in your area and see if you can find one and if you live near me, there’s always next year!  🙂

Blue and Black Mini Fondant Birthday Cake

by penji1

I’ve been working so much that we haven’t been able to do any cakes lately which is just no fun at all but Courtney did make a couple on her own this week so I’d thought I’d share them.  This one is for her friend Kira, who lives right behind us.  I love the color combo of that black and blue fondant (which are both Duff’s brand fondant from Michaels) and then the chocolate cake inside, yummy and pretty!

Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

by penji1

Still working so the posts are going to be few and far between as I just don’t have much time for baking which is a big, ole bummer and will be for pretty much the rest of the year!  I made these bars last Sunday but just didn’t have the time to post them until now.  My son Zach got into a car accident last week; he was fine but his car was totaled and we had a little bit of a panic as we are all working and all need our cars but then Bob’s friend Sean at work heard about what happened and sold his old car to Zach and saved the day! So I made these as a thank you treat for him and sent them to work with Bob.  Bob said everyone at work liked them but that they were too sweet (seriously, can anything ever be too sweet?) so a lot of them scraped the frosting off to make them less sweet.  I say bring on the sweet!  I got this recipe from a blog called “Life’s Simple Measures” and here is the link to the recipe there:  http://lifessimplemeasures.blogspot.com/2012/01/banana-bread-bars-with-brown-butter.html.  I didn’t try one so can’t weigh in on the sweetness factor but I will say this, the pan came home empty!  🙂

bars:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups (3 – 4) ripe bananas, mashed

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

frosting:

1/2 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 tablespoons milk

1  Heat oven to 375.  Grease and flour 15 x 10″ jelly roll pan.  For the bars, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter and eggs until creamy.  Blend in bananas and vanilla.  Add flour, baking soda, salt and blend for 1 minute.  Stir in walnuts.

2  Spread batter evenly in pan.  Bake 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3  Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in pan over medium heat until boiling.  Let butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.  (She says “When browning the butter, make sure to pay close attention.  The ‘turn’ happens quickly and before you know it, you’ll have extra burnt butter, which is not good.”)

4  Add powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.  Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than a frosting).  Using a spatula, spread the frosting over the warm bars (frosting is easier to spread while bars are still warm).

 

Cocoa Petit Pastry Puffs

by penji1

The blog has been quiet lately and that’s because I’ve been working a lot and I have a lot of work coming up so the posts are going to be sporadic at best.  I was craving chocolate big time this week so I made these little beauties for 4th of July and they are delicious but evil because they are so small and you can pop like 5 of them before you realize how many you’ve had!  I changed the recipe to simplify it a bit so I’ll give you the original and then my twist.  The recipe is from http://www.puffpastry.com.

1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Unsweetened baking cocoa, chocolate curls or chocolate sprinkles (optional, for decorating)

1  Heat oven to 400.

2  Unfold pastry on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry into a 14 x 9-inch rectangle. Cut the pastry into about 30 rounds, using a 1 3/4-inch cookie or biscuit cutter and place the pastry rounds 2″ apart on a baking sheet. Prick the pastry rounds with a fork. Brush them with water and sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar.

3  Bake the pastry rounds for 10 minutes or until they’re golden brown. Remove the pastry rounds from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

4  Beat the cream, cocoa and remaining sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer set on high speed until stiff peaks form. Split the pastries into 2 layers. Spread about 2 teaspoons chocolate mixture on 30 bottom layers. Top with the top layers. Sift the cocoa over the pastries, if desired.

(I used a package of Dove Chocolate Discoveries Mousse Mix for the filling with DCD Dark Chocolate, heaven!)

Triple Chocolate Muffins

by penji1

Apparently I’m on a muffin kick this weekend!  These are from a blog called “The Bitchin Kitchen” which you can find at http://www.thebitchinkitchin.blogspot.com.  Zach just ate one and said they were really good, I haven’t tried one yet.  They have lots of chocolate in them so they must be good!

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used my Dove dark chocolate)

2 cups flour

1 rounded teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup semisweet chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.

2  In a double boiler, melt butter and coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate, stirring to combine.  Once melted, set aside to cool for a bit.  (Or you can melt them in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, like I did.)

3  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4  Whisk brown sugar into chocolate mixture.

5  Whisk eggs, buttermilk and vanilla into chocolate mixture.

6  Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, all at once, then use spatula to fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until you no longer see bits of flour.

7  Fold the dark and semisweet chips into the batter.  (I added the white chips here too rather than top the muffins with them.)

8  Scoop batter into paper liners.

9  Bake 16 – 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted into muffins comes out clean.  Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans 5 minutes.

10  Melt white chocolate chips then drizzle over tops of muffins.

I doubled the recipe and ended up with 36 muffins.

Cinnamon Muffins

by penji1

Last weekend my friend Mary and her family held a cancer fundraiser in honor of their son Sean who passed away from cancer.  One of the events at the fundraiser was a silent auction and one of the items at the silent auction was a huge basket of food items from Mary’s neighbor Alison who owns “Alison’s Pantry” and so of course that is one of the things that I bid on and I won the basket!  These muffins are made from some of the ingredients found in the basket such as the Classic Creme Cake and Muffin Mix, the Gerken’s Mini Cinnamon Drops and the Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast Sugar.  I was a little skeptical but they looked and tasted great!  I simply followed the instructions on the muffin mix bag for making muffins, stirred in about 3/4 cup of the cinnamon drops which melted while baking and made the insides yummy and cinnamony and then topped each muffin before baking with about a teaspoon of the french toast sugar.  They had a nice crispy top and a light and fluffy inside, delicious!  So I encourage you to check out Alison’s Pantry online at http://www.alisonspantry.com where they have every kind of food you can imagine that you can order right online.  I’ve got a bunch of other things to try from my basket so I’ll keep you posted but these three products get two thumbs way up from me!

Giant Rocky Road Cookies

by penji1

Here’s another recipe from Pampered Chef’s “Simply Sweet” cookbook which I highly recommend investing in if you like to make desserts like I do.  I did not make my cookies giant size, just regular size and they are for the grips at work who always take care of me and make sure that I have shade when we are filming outside, they are awesome and I promised them treats!

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus additional for flattening cookies)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans, divided (I used walnuts instead)

1 (11.5 oz) package semi sweet chocolate chunks, divided (I used chocolate chips)

1 1/4 cups miniature marshmallows

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper (do not omit this step, you need the parchment paper because of the marshmallows).  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and mix well.  Beat butter and brown sugar on medium high until creamy.  Add egg and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.  Gradually add flour mixture; beat just until mixture forms into a dough.  Stir 3/4 cup of the pecans and 1 1/4 cups of the chocolate chunks into the dough.  (I was in a hurry so I just mixed in all the nuts, all the chocolate chips and all the marshmallows right into the dough.)

2  Using large scoop for giant cookies or cookie scoop for regular size cookies, drop rounded scoops of dough, 2″ apart onto cookie sheets.  Dip back of scoop in cocoa; flatten cookies slightly using back of scoop.  Lightly press half of the remaining pecans and chocolate chunks into tops of cookies.

3  Bake 14 – 16 minutes or until cookies are almost set.  (Centers will be soft,  Do not overbake.)  Remove cookie sheet from oven; immediately press half of marshmallows into tops of cookies.  Slide parchment and cookies onto cooling racks; cool completely.  Repeat with remaining dough, nuts, chocolate chunks and marshmallows.

Salted Nutella Tarts

by penji1

Last night at church we had an event to celebrate the Young Women who have graduated from high school and are getting ready for college and the next phase in their lives.  I was on treat duty so I found this recipe on a website called http://www.spoonforkbacon.com and decided to give it a try.  It was pretty easy but I took a few shortcuts to make it even easier.  Everyone really seemed to like them and since there were hardly any leftover, I’m calling it a success!  Congratulations Brianne, Niki, Chantal and Sidney!  Our neighborhood won’t be the same without you!

almond nut butter crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons), cut into cubes

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tablespoons ice water

filling:

1 1/2 cups Nutella

1 tablespoon sea salt, divided

whipped cream:

1 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1  Preheat oven to 375.

2  Place flour, almonds and salt into food processor and pulse together.  (I put whole almonds in first and ground them up then added the flour and salt and pulsed them all together.)

3  Add butter and pulse until mixture has a fine, mealy texture.

4  Add egg yolk and water and pulse until well combined and a dough forms.

5  Remove dough from food processor and lightly knead.

6  Divide and press dough into twelve 3″ tart pans.  (I sprayed the tart pans with Pam first.  My little tart pans were various sizes so I got about 22 tarts from this recipe.)

7  Chill the tart shells in the freezer for 30 minutes.

8  Fill each shell with pie weights (didn’t have any pie weights so used dried lima beans, worked great!) and place onto a baking sheet.

9  Bake for 15 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 350, remove the pie weights and continue to bake for another 10 – 12 minutes or until shells are light brown.

10  Allow to cool completely before removing baked crusts from the tart pans.  Fill each crust with Nutella and top with a sprinkle of sea salt (totally forgot the sea salt because I was in a hurry!).

11  For the whipped cream, place the ingredients for the whipped cream into a mixing bowl and beat together with a hand mixer.  Beat mixture until stiff peaks form.  (Or you can just use Cool Whip like I did!)

12  Scoop the mixture into a piping bag and pipe over each tart.  (Courtney suggested that I add a slice of strawberry so I did that to about half the tarts.)

I needed to make more tarts but was running out of time so for the second batch, I used a pouch of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix for the shells (just follow the instructions on the package to prepare the dough) and they came out great too.  You don’t need to put the beans in the cookie tart shells but as soon as they come out of the oven, you need to press the middles down with a tart shaper or the back of a spoon so that you have an indentation for filling in each shell.  Here’s a picture of the tarts with cookie shells: