White Chocolate Dipped Devilish Dark Chocolate Madeleines

by penji1

These are for my friend Melanie’s open house tonight before she leaves on her mission to Kentucky.  I didn’t have a traditional Madeleine pan but I did have a seashell pan that is very close to a Madeleine pan so I used that one and they came out perfect.   The recipe is from Carole Bloom’s cookbook, “Bite Size Desserts” and they are delicious!  (Bob and I ate the deformed one!)

1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70 – 72% cacao content), finely chopped (I used a 60% cacao bar)

1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg, at room temperature

3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) superfine sugar (I just used regular sugar)

1/4 cup (1 ounce) flour

1/8 teaspoon kosher or fine grained sea salt

2 teaspoons confectioner’s sugar

1  Preheat oven to 350.  (My seashell pan is a dark pan so I set the oven to 325.)  Spray cavities of pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2  Place chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt on low for 30 second bursts, stirring with a rubber spatula after each burst until smooth.

3  Add vanilla to melted chocolate mixture and blend well.

4  Whip egg in bowl of electric mixer with wire whip attachment (or use a hand held mixer) on medium speed until frothy, about 1 minute.  Add sugar and whip until mixture is very thick and pale colored and holds a slowly dissolving ribbon as the beater is lifted, about 5 minutes.  (Don’t be afraid of any of this, just follow the times listed and it will be fine.)

5  Into a medium size bowl, sift the flour then add the salt and toss to blend.

6  With mixer on low, add flour mixture in 2 stages, blending well after each addition.  Stop and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.  Mixture should be smooth.  Pour chocolate mixture into batter and blend thorougly.

7  Scoop batter into each cavity of pan, filling about 3/4 full.

8  Bake madeleins for about 8 minutes, until the top springs back lightly when touched.  Remove pan from oven and immediately remove cookes from pan by holding pans upside down over cooling racks and gently shaking to release madeleines.

She suggests the following for decorating the cookies or as she calls it, “adding style”:

dust with powdered sugar

drizzle with thin lines of bittersweet, semisweet, milk or white chocolate

half dip in melted bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I decided to do this only I used white chocolate)

make sandwich cookies by spreading a thin layer of your choice of jam between 2 cookies

make ganache sandwich cookies by spreading soft ganache between 2 cookies

She used two 20 cavity (1 5/8 x 1 1/8″) mini madeleine pans which gave her 3 1/4 dozen cookies.  I used my seashell pan (the seashells measure about 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″), I doubled the recipe and got about 23 cookies.

Little Chocolate Almond Cream Cheese Cakes

by penji1

Another recipe from “Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor” by Anne Byrn.  About 4 of the kids in my Sunday School class have birthdays this month so I thought I’d make them all their own little birthday cakes.  Pampered Chef used to make a stoneware pan that has 6 little bundt cakes in one pan, each about 5″ wide.  That’s the pan I used to make these cakes.  (You could use this same recipe to make cupcakes and it would make about 24).  They smelled heavenly!

1 (18.25 oz) package plain butter recipe fudge cake mix (I used milk chocolate)

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature (the recipe said you could microwave the cream cheese for about 30 seconds or until soft if you didn’t have them time to get it to room temp so that’s what I did)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon pure almond extract

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Spray pan with cooking spray.

2  Place cake mix, cream cheese, water, oil, sugar, eggs and extract in large mixing bowl.  Blend with mixer on low for 1 minute then on medium for 2 minutes.  Batter should look well combined.  Spoon batter into pan, filling about 2/3 full.

3  Bake cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with finger, about 14 – 17 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

I decided to make the cakes for the girls look like flowers so I made a thick glaze out of powdered sugar and milk and drizzled that over the cake then sprinkled blue sprinkles around the top of the cake for the petals and then filled the middle with “pearl” sprinkles.  Haven’t decided yet what to do for the boys . . .

 

Tomato Soup with White Beans and Pasta

by penji1

Another recipe from “All You” magazine.   So cold today so it’s a perfect day for tomato soup (a grown up version of tomato soup) and grilled cheese sandwiches on sourdough bread!

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I used my garlic press)

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes

28 oz (2 cans) low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup tubetini, elbow macaroni or other small pasta (I used elbow)

1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley (didn’t have any)

1  Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add oregano, stir once, then add tomatoes with juice and chicken broth.  Bring to a boil.

2  Add pasta, stir and cook until just tender, about 8 minutes.  Stir in beans, lower heat and simmer until warmed through, about 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, stir in parsley and serve, drizzling each portion with additional olive oil if desired.

Yields 4 servings, each serving 255 calories

Dove Chocolate Discoveries Recipe Binder Giveaway!

by penji1

It’s time for a giveaway!  I have 2 Dove Chocolate Discoveries Recipe Binders to give away.  They are valued around $20 each.  Great way to keep track of your favorite recipes (maybe even some from Penny’s Food Blog).  I’ll include some recipes with the binders but basically these are for you to keep and organize your recipes.  Each binder has 12 index tabs for various categories and 20 plastic sleeves which each hold 2 recipe cards (also included).  It is a 3 ring binder so you could also slide in anything else you want to keep in there.

If you are already subscribed to my blog, then you are automatically entered.  You can get more entries by referring people to my blog and having them subscribe as well.  Each new subscriber referred by you will get you another entry as well as an entry for them.  Giveaway starts today and ends Saturday, February 5 at midnight, winner to be chosen on Sunday the 6th.

Good luck and start spreading the word!

Glazed Lemon Sugar Cookies

by penji1

The grocery store Smiths near my house is having one of their mega event sales where if you buy 10 items from a certain list of products then you automatically get $5 off at the register and if you use coupons along with that sale, you can get some really good bargains like Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mixes for .49!  So what to do with the .49 cookie mixes?  Look up recipes on the Krusteaz website and find this one which is so yummy if you like lemons!  They came out pretty flat so I thought they were going to be hard and crunchy but they are soft and chewy!  YUM!

cookie:

1 (15.5 oz) package Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 egg

1 tablespoon lemon zest (takes about 1 regular size lemon to get a tablespoon of zest)

1 teaspoon lemon juice (I encourage you to use the juice from a lemon rather than that stuff in the bottle)

lemon glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 375.

For cookies:  Place cookie mix, butter, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice in medium bowl.  Stir until dough forms, hand kneading if necessary.  (I used my mixer and had to add an additional teaspoon of lemon juice to the dough.)  Using rounded tablespoon of dough (or small scoop of dough) for each cookie, place 2″ apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8 – 10 minutes.  Cool cookies completely then spread with lemon glaze.

For lemon glaze:  Place ingredients in small bowl and stir until smooth.

I topped my cookies with Pampered Chef Lemon Sprinkles.

Makes about 36 cookies.

Two Cheese Straws

by penji1

I got this recipe in an email from Betty Crocker, specifically Bisquick.  I made a big pot of chili for dinner (Family Favorite Chili which is already on the blog) and these sounded like they would go well with chili.  They would also go great with spaghetti and they would work well as an appetizer too.  They were easy to make and Zach especially really liked them.

2 1/2 cups Original Bisquick mix

2/3 cup milk (next time I make these I’ll use a full cup of milk because the dough was really dry and didn’t hold together well)

1/2 cup (2 oz) shredded Cheddar cheese (next time I’ll add more cheese too, maybe a full cup as they weren’t really cheesy tasting)

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1  Heat oven to 400.  Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.  In large bowl, stir Bisquick, milk and cheddar cheese until soft dough forms.

2  Divide dough in half.  On surface lightly sprinkled with Bisquick, roll 1 half of the dough into 9 x 6″ rectangle.  Spread with half the butter.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese over top.  Cut dough lengthwise into 18 1/2″ strips.  (A pizza cutter works really well for this.  Also the thinner the strips, the easier they are to twist so don’t be afraid to cut them thin.)  Repeat with remaining dough.

3  Twist each dough strip as many times as possible then place on cookie sheets.  Bake 6 – 8 minutes or until light golden brown.

For a little crunch, sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds before baking.

Makes about 36 straws

Triple Chocolate Picnic Cake

by penji1

What’s better than homemade chocolate cake on a cold snowy night?  Pretty much nothing!  This recipe comes from Tablespoon.

cake:

1 box pudding included German chocolate cake mix

3/4 cup water

4 eggs

1 cup butter, softened

1 (4 oz) package instant chocolate pudding and pie filling mix

1 cup mini chocolate chips (I used the regular size ones)

glaze:

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 – 3 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (here again I used the regular size ones)

Heat oven to 325.  Grease bundt pan.  Combine all cake ingredients except chocolate chips in mixing bowl.  Beat on low until moistened then beat 2 minutes on high.  Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips.  (Batter will be thick.)  Pour into pan.  Bake 60 – 75 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from pan.  Cool 15 minutes then invert cake onto serving platter.  Combine glaze ingredients and cook over low heat until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly.  Pour over cake.

Medium Shells with Fresh Vegetables and Herbs

by penji1

Another recipe from the back of a box of Barilla pasta.  Easy and yummy!

1 box Barilla Whole Grain Medium Shells (I didn’t have any shells so I used tricolored rotini)

1 leek or white onion (I used an onion)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 medium carrot, thinly sliced

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup green peas, frozen

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup water

1 pint (2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved (I used grape)

5 basil leaves, chopped

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped (didn’t have any)

1 teaspoon (about 4 leaves) mint, chopped (didn’t have any)

1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1  Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, cut leek or onion into thin rings and place in skillet with half of olive oil and garlic clove.  Saute 5 minutes over medium heat.

2  Add carrot, broccoli and green peas.  Season with salt and pepper and saute 5 minutes.

3  Add cup of warm water and continue simmering until vegetables are cooked through.

4  Add tomatoes.

5  Drain pasta and toss with sauce.  Add herbs, remaining olive oil and Parmesan cheese and toss again.

Penne with Fresh Vegetables

by penji1

I got this recipe off of the back of a box of Barilla pasta.  It looked really yummy and it ended up being really yummy and everyone here liked it.  It wasn’t hard to make at all.

1 box Barilla whole grain Penne (I didn’t have any penne so I used the closest thing to it that I had but I don’t know what it’s called, see pic)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 small white onion, chopped

1 (about 1 cup) yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 small (about 2 cups) zucchini, diced

1 small (about 2 cups) yellow squash, diced

1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1″ pieces (I can take or leave asparagus, this time I left it)

1 pint (about 2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved (I used grape because I like the taste better)

salt and pepper

4 fresh basil leaves, torn

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large skillet.  Using the side of a knife, gently press and peel the garlic and saute in skillet for 1 minute, until slightly brown.  (I just used my garlic press and pressed it into the skillet.)  Add onion and saute for 5 minutes, until translucent.  Add bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash and asparagus and saute until heated but not completely cooked.  Add tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and saute for 2 additional minutes.  Drain pasta and toss with veggies and basil.

A note from me – this will work better if you chop everything before you start cooking, I was chopping as I went and things were cooking faster than I could chop so it would have timed out better if I’d chopped then cooked.

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Fantastic Focaccia Bread

by penji1

This is one of Courtney’s favorites.  She used to call it “piscachi” bread.  It’s a Pampered Chef recipe and really yummy!

1 (13.8 oz) package refrigerated pizza crust

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2/3 cup (2 oz) grated fresh Romano or Parmesan cheese, divided (I always use Parmesan)

2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves, divided

2 plum tomatoes, sliced

Heat oven to 375.  Roll out crust on stone.  (You can use any shape stone you like, I always use my jelly roll or large bar pan.)  Press garlic over crust and spread evenly.  Grate half the Romano or Parmesan over crust.  Sprinkle with half the mozzarella and 1 teaspoon of oregano.  Thinly slice tomatoes and arrange in single layer over cheese.  Top with remaining mozzarella and oregano.  Grate remaining Romano or Parmesan over top.  Bake 25 – 28 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.