Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Blondies

So easy and really good! The original recipe said to bake for 45 minutes, but I would check on it at 40 minutes and take the blondies out at that time. I felt the pieces around the edge were drier than those in the middle...and I really like a nice gooey blondie! They made a perfect addition to our impromptu Super Bowl Party. As soon as I knew it, we were expecting 10 people over to our house and I needed to whip up something quick!

Adapted from: http://www.lesliesarna.com/

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt (I like kosher best)
About 8 oz. chocolate chips, butterscotch chips or a combo of both

DIRECTIONS
Grease a 8 x 8 inch pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, whisk together the butter and sugars until they are smooth. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Slowly stir in the flour and salt. Stir in the chips : ) and pour into the greased baking dish. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Brandy Alexander Cupcakes

Another dessert for our Mad Men party! Yes, I know cupcakes weren't big in the '60's...but Brandy Alexander drinks were! (Also, I just bought this cute cupcake holder, so I wanted to use it at the party.) Brandy, cream and creme de cacao garnished with nutmeg....yum. I couldn't actually find a recipe for Brandy Alexandre cupcakes, so I altered Martha Stewart's brandy cupcakes which I found on The Cupcake Diary's website. The cupcake itself was wonderful. This must have been from the sweet milk/brandy mixture that the cupcakes soaked in for about one day wrapped in the fridge. I wanted to add creme de cacao in the whipped cream topping but couldn't find a miniature bottle that I could add a tablespoon or two to the mixture. Instead, I had some leftover Kahlua from a previous recipe and added some cocoa powder. I added each of these to taste, so I approximated the measurements in the recipe below. Then I topped off the cupcakes with a dusting of nutmeg.

Adapted from: www.TheCupcakeDiary.com (Originally Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

INGREDIENTS - Cupcake
6 large eggs, separated, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Brandy
Nutmeg for dusting

1. Preheat over to 325* F. Line regular sized cupcake tins with paper-lined foil liners, you can buy these at most grocery stores. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together egg whites, baking soda and salt until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low. Add yolks and sugar, whisk until completely combined. Fold in melted butter with a flexible spatula. Add flour in four batches, folding until just combined after each.
2. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each half-way. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until light golden brown, the original recipe says about 25 minutes. I checked on the cupcakes at 20 minutes and they looked done so I remove from oven at that point. Immediately poke holes in tops of cupcakes with a wooden skewer or toothpick.
3. Whisk together evaporated milk, condensed milk, heavy cream and Brandy. With cupcakes still in tins, brush milk mixture over cupcakes, repeating until all liquid has been used, this might take several minutes. Allow cupcakes to absorb mixture, at least 30 minutes (or up to 1 day in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in plastic once completely cool; bring to room temperature before serving).
To finish, dollop or pipe on whipped cream generously onto cupcakes and dust with nutmeg. (The original recipe calls for cinnamon.) Serve immediately.

INGREDIENTS - Frosting
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Cocoa powder - about 2 Tbsp
Kahlua - about 1 1/2 Tbsp


DIRECTIONS
Whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar, and whisk until combined. To create the "Brandy Alexander", I added some cocoa powder and Kahlua since I didn't have any Creme de Cacao. It gave the frosting a nice hint of chocolate. If not using immediately, whipped cream can be refrigerated, covered tightly, up to 3 hours in an airtight container.

Chocolate Bundt Cake with White Chocolate Glaze

This was my first time making a bundt cake because I never had a bundt pan before! I recently bought a bundt pan because my husband and I threw a Mad Men party. Having an early 1960's themed party, I wanted some authentic food to be served! The bundt cake became popular during this time. I found a recipe for a fantastic chocolate cake at BakingBites.com, though omitted the frozen raspberries. I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa (as always) and this cake was phenomenal! It was so rich and dense. Since I didn't have the fruit to offset this, I prepared a very simple white chocolate glaze. TIP: Spray the bundt pan REALLY well with Pam in order to have a mess-free bundt cake. I've heard how it can get stuck to the inside of the pan and look very messy but as you can see, mine looked amazing! :)

Cake adapted from: www.BakingBites.com

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

2 tsp instant coffee/espresso powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup hot water

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (I omitted)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan. (Spray with a lot of Pam, I actually thought it was too much. And I didn't flour it.) In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in butter, vegetable oil and vanilla. Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, followed by the hot water. Mix only until no streaks of flour remain. Pour about half of the batter into the prepared pan. If using raspberries, add them in and then topped with the remaining batter. Run a knife through the batter gently to even out the distribution of the berries. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cake rest in the pan for about 10 minutes, then gently loosen the cake and turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Serves 12.

White Chocolate Glaze adapted from: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com\

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS

Combine white chocolate chips and milk in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM (50%) 50 seconds; stir. Microwave on MEDIUM at additional 30-second intervals until chips are completely melted; stir well after each 30-second interval. Pour warm glaze over cooled cake. Let stand about 30 minutes. Garnish as desired; serve.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

What? Bacon chocolate chip cookies? Yes, that's right. And they were delicious. I wasn't sure how I felt about this at first, but I've been seeing a lot of bacon and chocolate dessert recipes online lately and just had to try one. The cookie recipe itself was really good, I may have to use this as a basic chocolate cookie sometime! The mix of salty and sweet taste was just right, and the cookie was very buttery as well. I altered the recipe a bit - I used margarine instead of butter (usually a no-no in baking!). We only had one stick of unsalted butter left in the fridge and I was only making these for fun, so used the margarine instead. I also didn't add white chocolate chips and actually only did add about 1 cup of dark chocolate chips (not 1 1/2 since the white chocolate was omitted). I also used less bacon than was called for. I mixed in about 1 1/3 cups instead of 2 cups and it looked to be more than enough. And I didn't make the maple glaze, so I can't comment on that. Maybe bacon chocolate cupcakes will be next....?

Adapted from: http://www.creamandsugar.ca/


INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened (I used margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of cooked bacon broken into pieces (I used about 1 1/3 cups and it was plenty!)
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (I omitted and used all dark chocolate)
5 strips of cooked bacon, cooled and cut into one inch strips (to top the cookies - I didn't do this)

GLAZE (I didn't make the glaze)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp maple extract
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp water

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla, until light and fluffy. Gradually stir flour mixture into creamed mixture.
Add both chocolate chips and cooked bacon bits. Mix to incorporate.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a cookie scoop or your hands, make approximately one inch balls.
Bake for a total of 9-10 minutes.
While the cookies bake, mix the Maple Cinnamon Glaze by combining the powdered sugar, maple extract, vanilla, and cinnamon, and mix together until smooth and creamy.
Once baked, move cookies to a cooling rack, add a small amount of glaze, and top with the reserved squares of crisp bacon.

The Ultimate Black Bottom Cupcake

I was looking through my blog and forgot to post this! I made these Black Bottom Cupcakes for Christmas and they were awesome. There are several recipes out there for this type of cupcake, but apparently this is the ultimate. I don't have another to compare it to, but I would definitely make this recipe again. I even had some left over batter and made a few mini-cupcakes. This way when they were finally cooled, I didn't have to eat an entire cupcake to do a taste test. However, I ate about 3 of the mini-cupcakes....hmm....

Adapted from: http://www.cookiemadness.net/

INGREDIENTS (Yields 18 cupcakes)

FILLING
16-oz cream cheese, cool room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tbsp sour cream, room temperature
1/3 cup miniature or regular size chocolate chips – or however many you want (I used regular sized chips, and it was more like 1/2 cup)

CAKE
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (7.9 oz)
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder – Hershey’s Dark
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth. Add the egg whites and stir or beat on low speed just until mixed; stir in the sour cream and chocolate chips. Set aside.
Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl.
In the actual mixing bowl, beat together the oil and sugar. You can do this with a whisk, spoon or hand-held mixer.
Mix together the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the buttermilk/vanilla mixture and the flour alternately to the sugar/oil mixture. Stir until smooth – be careful not to overbeat.
Divide the chocolate batter evenly among the muffin tins. Spoon large tablespoonfuls of cream cheese batter over the chocolate batter. You should have some cream cheese batter leftover.
Bake on center rack for about 25 minutes. Let cool in cupcake pan for 30 minutes and then transfer to the refrigerator to chill.

Brown Sugar Streusel Baked French Toast

Great for Christmas morning breakfast! I prepared this the night before after being out for Christmas Eve dinner since I was baking all day and didn't have anymore time before we went out. It was really easy to prepare. It was also really nice to wake up Christmas morning, pop it in the oven and a half hour later have breakfast ready! (Along with eggs and bacon, of course.) I used french bread instead of regular white bread. I just thought it would taste better....and I'm sure it did!

Adapted from: www.BakingBites.com


INGREDIENTS
12 slices [white] bread (I used french bread)
2 cups milk
4 large eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Streusel
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
pinch salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
Cut crusts off bread and cut each piece into triangles. (Or slice the french bread and leave on crusts like I did.) Arrange bread into three even layers (the exact number of slices will vary depending on the size of the bread you start out with) in a lightly greased 8-inch baking dish. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, brown sugar, salt, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour over bread. Press down to ensure all pieces are thoroughly soaked. (I still had some on top of the liquid, which I liked since those ones came out a bit crunchy.) Custard should just come to the top of the bread layer. It if covers it more deeply, add additional bread.In a small bowl, make the streusel. Stir together brown sugar, flour and salt. Pour in butter and stir with a form until mixture has the consistency of wet sand. Sprinkle evenly over bread and custard. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 350F and bake for about 30-35 minutes, until french toast is a golden brown on top. Let the dish stand for a few minutes. The dish will be very soft and souffle-like, but should not be too runny. The french toast will continue to set and soak up the custard as it cools. Slice and serve warm, with maple syrup.
Serves 6-8

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

I thought these were pretty good - a mix between pumpkin and gingerbread and I even added a few white chocolate and butterscotch chips on the top for extra flavor. However, my husband and brother-in-law were not crazy about them. They said they were a bit dry. I'm posting the recipe anyway since I thought they were good! That's all that really matters, right? ;)


Adapted from: http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/

Yields 24 cookies


INGREDIENTS
2 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 Tbs butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup molasses
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling



DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and pepper. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar, molasses, and pumpkin puree and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until the flour and spices disappear. If flour remains in the bottom of the bowl, mix the last of the dry ingredients by hand to avoid over beating. You will have a very soft dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Freeze for at least 30 minutes, or refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The dough is sticky, so the longer time it can chill the easier it is to work with. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Put the sugar in a small bowl. Working with one packet of dough at a time, divide it into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. Roll the balls in the sugar and use a the bottom of a glass to press down on the cookies until they are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Transfer to cookie sheets. Do not over crowd. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12-14 minutes, or until the top feels set to the touch. Remove baking sheets from the oven. Let cookies cool 5 minutes on the sheets before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat with second batch of dough.