Christmas Bears

Merry Christmas!  It's been 11 years since my last post.  Life has been busy and there hasn't been time to bake cute things, or if there was time, there was no time to photograph and write about it.  This last week hasn't been very busy so my kids and I did some baking.  I hope you will enjoy these cute cookies we made.  My son in allergic to egg so there is no egg in this recipe.

¾ cup Butter 

1 cup White Granulated Sugar 

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups All Purpose Flour (I may have used a tablespoon or 2 less)

¾ cup Cocoa Powder 

½ tsp Baking Soda

¼ tsp Salt

350 degrees for about 10 minutes

I rolled the dough in my hands to make the shapes.  I used a tablespoon cookie scoop for the head and made 2 smaller balls for the ears.  We used sprinkles from Trader Joes and used store bought frosting.  I warmed up the frosting a bit and used a spoon and toothpick for the bear's face and to "glue" on the sprinkles.

Christmas chocolates

i made these chocolate a couple nights ago to bring to work. these are the same chocolates i usually make with the walnut and caramel inside. i used 3 red sprinkles and a leaf to make it christmasy.

i think this is my friends/co workers favorite thing i make because they go fast! and i like them too, they don't take long to make and are really easy to make. so i made more tonight to share with my friends this weekend.

turtles for my husband's birthday

i made some turtles for my husband. it was his birthday last week. i used caramel from Whole Foods and walnut halves from Trader Joes. The turtles were medium sized made from 3 walnut halves. i melted the caramel and the chocolate in the microwave. it wasn't too hard, just make sure to heat your caramel on medium for about 20 seconds at a time, it's easy to burn, especially if you are only melting a little bit.

i only made a 8 turtles. i used a dinner plate and stretched plastic wrap over it tightly. i highly recommend using plastic wrap, it's the best surface for chocolate and/or caramel because they peel off the plastic so easily. i hate foil which is recommended in a few recipes for caramel apples. ugh, i used foil once and it was really, really hard to peel off the apples.

i don't like a ton of caramel on the turtles, so you can see here that i used about a teaspoon or so of melted caramel

i poured on about a tablespoon and a half of chocolate

and here they are, the finished product.

Easter chocolates

I found more pictures of things i made before i had this blog. Here are those same walnut caramel chocolates i've made many times, but this time they look like a delicious, spring chocolate garden. (Sorry, i know i make some of the same things over and over, i need to be more adventurous, but these are no fail desserts unless you don't know how to temper chocolate or are trying to serve these to someone who's allergic to nuts)these were made with dark chocolate. i bought the candy box from a local candy making store and made the "grass" from gift wrapping tissue paper.

3 flower sprinkles on each chocolate

4th of July chocolates

I made these walnut, caramel chocolates again. I brought them in to share at work today. They are always a hit and go quickly!

yummy little bite sized things!

cute huh? i just love this container

strawberries: tuxes and wedding gown

i made some strawberries for some friends who just got engaged. the strawberries i bought were pretty small and kind of hard to decorate. i didn't do so well making the bows on the tuxes or the buttons. it's hard "drawing" with chocolate. i was going to make a string of white pearls on the "wedding gown" strawberries, but it was too hard.

walnut, caramel chocolates

one of my nieces is celebrating her 2nd birthday this weekend. i made some chocolates to serve at the party and made some extra to bring to work today. they are made from walnut halves, caramel and milk chocolate. i bought the walnuts and chocolate from trader joes and the caramel is from whole foods. i buy my caramel from whole foods or trader joes because they use real butter instead of using partially hydrogenated oils in their caramel. the caramel from whole foods is just a bit cheaper than trader joes.

here are some pictures


don't you just love this cheese dish? it looks like a tiny cake platter. i just love it. i have 2 of them. one thing i collect is cake platters. i especially love the domed ones and footed ones. i love love love them. if i had more money and more storage area at home, i would buy more.

Brownies

I had some extra dark chocolate and decided to make brownies from it. i had lots, so i quadrupled this recipe. it was almost too big for the pan i baked it in. i have never made brownies from scratch so this was exciting.

p.s. since the recipe was quadrupled, i baked it for 40 minutes, which was just a bit too long. Next time i'll bake it for 36 min. and also i used whole wheat flour

MMMMM... Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 8 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies set up. Do not overbake! Cool in pan and cut into squares.

turtles

i had extra caramel so i decided to make almond and walnut turtles. i've since learned that when i make things with caramel or chocolate not to let things set on just a cookie sheet, parchment paper or foil because they get SO stuck (especially the caramel)! so when i make caramel apples, turtles or chocolate covered strawberries, i use plastic wrap to line my cookie sheets or pans and it just peels right off.

below is the recipe for the caramel apples i got from http://allrecipes.com which says to use aluminum foil.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 Granny Smith apples
• 6 wooden sticks
• 1 (14 ounce) package individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Insert wooden sticks 3/4 of the way into the stem end of each apple. Place apples on a cookie sheet covered with lightly greased aluminum foil.
2. Combine caramels and water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring often, until caramel melts and is smooth. Dip each apple into the caramel and gently run apples around insides of saucepan to scrape off some of the caramel. Scrape excess caramel from the apple bottoms using the side of the saucepan. Place on the aluminum foil and chill until ready to serve.

English Toffee

i made toffee this week. i used to make toffee a lot years ago and i thought i would try it again. i tried a recipe on martha stewart's site. the toffee tasted great but it was a little messy trying to cut it up in pieces because i forgot to oil that pan. oh well.


here's the recipe

Makes about 70 pieces
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, each stick cut into 8 pieces
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3 cups pecans, chopped very fine and sieved to remove fine powder
Vegetable-oil cooking spray


1. Spray a 15-by-10-inch baking pan, a 16 1/2-by-11 1/2-inch baking pan, and an 8-inch square baking pan with vegetable-oil spray. In a heavy 3-quart saucepan, combine butter, 1/2 cup water, corn syrup, and sugar. Clip on a candy thermometer. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Wash down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove sugar crystals. Reduce heat to low; stop stirring. Let mixture come to a boil.

2. Let boil, without stirring, until temperature reaches 280 degrees.(soft-crack stage). This will take from 35 minutes to just over an hour; it is essential that the mixture continues to boil. Remove from heat. Without scraping pot, pour into prepared pans as evenly as possible. If needed, use a spatula to smooth. Let cool at room temperature for 1 hour.

3. After 45 minutes of cooling, melt chocolate in a double boiler over medium-low heat, stirring with a rubber spatula. Pour over toffee; spread with a spatula if necessary. Let cool about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with nuts; press them into the chocolate.

4. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Using a large knife, lightly score 1 3/4-by-2 3/4-inch rectangles over chocolate. Cut toffee along scored lines; lift pieces out with a spatula. Alternatively, toffee may be broken into shards. Store in an airtight container for 3 to 4 weeks.

baking blog

i thought i'd start a blog for the things i make. i'm not a good cook but i love to bake. i'm not that good of a baker yet. i love to bake, almost as much as i love to eat baked goods. i love to make things that look cute or pretty or different. i'll post the pictures/recipes when i make new things here. in the meantime, here is a few things i have made in the past.

chocolate covered strawberries with white chocolate wedding cake that i made for some newly wed friends

spinach feta rolls

meringue mushrooms