Baking Junkie

August, 2010

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Peanut Butter Pretzel M&M Cookies

Recipe by Aimee

Have you guys tried the new pretzel M&M’s yet? I am a HUGE fan of all kinds of M&M’s. They are addicting little buggers. When my mother-in-law came to visit a few weeks ago she brought a bag of these with her so we could all try them out. She made the mistake of leaving the bag here and they certainly didn’t last very long. I knew right away that I wanted to bake something with them and decided to put them into a peanut butter cookie.

Let me just say that I have been using this peanut butter cookie recipe for about 7 years now an one of my all-time favorite, most reliable recipes. I copied it out of a recipe book given to me as a work gift at the time and I have since thrown out the book (it was the only recipe I ever used from it). I honestly have never used it to make straight peanut butter cookies because it is just too much fun to add in other treats. At Christmas time I use it to make my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup cookies (hello, scrumptious!). This recipe has never failed me and the cookies turn out perfect every time. You could also easily add the candy to a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but as you all know by now I am a sucker for the chocolate/peanut butter combination. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pretzel M&M Cookies
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1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 large bag of pretzel M&M’s

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Cream together shortening, sugars, and peanut butter. Add egg, vanilla and milk. In a separate bowl combine the salt, baking soda, and flour, then add to dough. Using a spoon add in candy, being careful not to break them apart. Using a cookie scoop or spoons, form into balls and place onto cookie sheets.Use your fingers to flatten cookies just a little. Bake 10 minutes.

Tags: Cookies, M&M's, peanut butter

Posted in Cookies | 7 Comments »

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Key Lime Pie

Recipe adapted from Paula Deen

How have I lived for 27 years without trying Key Lime Pie?

I’ve always been a picky eater, and lately I realize more and more that most of it is just in my head. I had myself convinced that I didn’t like limes and therefore would not like key lime pie. After falling in love with lemon bars I decided I needed to give this a try.

I would assume that most people think of Florida when they think of key lime pie. Me? I think of Dexter.

That’s right, Dexter.

Do you watch Dexter? You should. You really should. Go add it to your Netflix queue, like, now. Just don’t watch it while the kiddos are around. It’s an amazing show, and during one episode a dying friend of Dexter’s father has him searching for the perfect key lime pie. I now completely understand.

So if you want to get all technical here, I guess we can’t truly call this key lime pie since I didn’t use key limes. I guess I really don’t understand the difference between the two, other than price. Now I will be completely honest, I went el cheapo and bought regular limes (4 for $1 vs $3.99 for a bag of key limes). In case you didn’t notice I’ve been baking a lot lately, and going though butter, eggs, and sugar like crazy. You can’t blame a girl for trying to save a dime here and there! Personally, I still thought this pie turned out fabulous, especially with whipped cream. That slice you see in the picture, well I ate that slice immediately after taking said picture, only I smothered it with even more whipped cream. Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie
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Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick salted butter, melted

Filling:
2 egg yolks
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp lime zest
1/2 cup lime juice (regular or key lime)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar, then add melted butter. Press crumb mixture into 9 inch pie pan and bake for 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, beat together the two egg yolks, then add sweetened condensed milk, lime zest and juice. Pour filling mixture into crust and bake for 15-20 minutes. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Tags: Lime, Pies

Posted in Pies | 10 Comments »

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Strawberry Banana Bread with White Chocolate Glaze

Delish, delish, delish. Those are the first thoughts that came to my mind when trying to describe this bread. My go to banana bread recipe was given to me by my sister-in-law and I’ve never had a reason to try another one. I wanted to jazz the bread up a little and since it’s still summer I wanted to try adding strawberries. I kept thinking that would be a great combination, but I still wanted a little something more, so that’s when I decided to add the white chocolate.

Now I have to be perfectly honest, this was not my first attempt at making this bread. Let this be proof that I am far from perfect and have my fair share of baking fails. With the first attempt I adding sliced strawberries and a little strawberry jam, plus white chocolate chips. I baked it for about 50 minutes and when I tested it with a toothpick it came out clean, I swear!! I let it cool in the pan for a while and when I attempted to remove the loaf to take some pictures…giant banana bread mess It was not completely done in the middle, fell apart into pieces, and completely ruined my night.But, what good is a mistake if you can’t learn from it, right? I learned that I should leave out the jam and just stick with the strawberries so the baking time isn’t so long. I also learned that I just wasn’t getting as much of the white chocolate flavor as I was hoping, so I decided to leave the white chocolate chips out of the bread and instead use them in a glaze for the top of the bread (from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns). This time it turned out SO much better (and was fully cooked)! Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Bread with White Chocolate Glaze
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Bread:
1/2 cup salted butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
Dash of salt
3 over-ripe bananas, mashed
4-5 strawberries, sliced into small pieces

White Chocolate Glaze:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 stick salted butter
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium sized mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and sour cream, then cinnamon, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Save bananas for last, then mix in pieces of strawberries. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium low heat combine sugar, milk, and butter. Stir until butter is melted, plus one minute longer. Remove from heat and immediately add white chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.
Let banana bread cool for 10 minutes, then drizzle with glaze.

Tags: Banana, Bread, strawberry, White chocolate

Posted in Bread | 3 Comments »

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

So I will admit that I have never been a huge Martha Stewart fan (even prior to her jail bait days), and to this day that still holds true.

BUT…

This is a baking blog, and the girl can bake. I actually have several of her recipes that I am dying to try out for the blog.

While Derek has no baking skills whatsoever (trust me, I’m not being mean, he’ll agree with me), he sure is good taste tester and helps me pick out recipes to try. So far he hasn’t let me down, and his reign continues with these. I find myself saying this a lot lately, but I have never had a whoopie pie before, and it turns out neither have most of my coworkers. They seem to be all the rage in the world of baking blogs lately, and I think I finally understand why.

They are SO tasty!

First of all, I don’t think it’s possible to go wrong with the combination chocolate and peanut butter. I sampled some of the “cookie” crumbs and honestly was a little worried. I didn’t think the taste was that great. I also thought the peanut butter buttercream could have used more powdered sugar (on top of the extra I already added), but I decided to put my trust in Martha.I definitely wasn’t disappointed. The combination of the flavors was amazing, and I mean come on…buttercream frosting sandwiched between two cake like cookies…it’s magical! Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies
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Cookies
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter (1/2 stick), room temperature
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Buttercream
1 cup creamy peanut butter
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Combine together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a medium size bowl beat together butter, shortening, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg. Add half the flour mixture, then milk and vanilla, then remaining flour mixture. Drop 12 rounded tablespoons of batter (either using spoons or using a pastry bag with a large round tip) onto the parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, cream together peanut butter and butter, then add in powdered sugar.Spread a spoonful of frosting on the flat side of half the cookies, then top with remaining cookies and gently press together.

Tags: Buttercream, chocolate, peanut butter, Whoopie Pies

Posted in Whoopie Pies | 6 Comments »

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Oatmeal Carmelitas

Recipe adapted from Let’s Dish

So this just happens to be my third chocolate/caramel combination dessert in a row. Completely unplanned I promise, but definitely not a bad coincidence. This combination is almost as delicious as chocolate and peanut butter, but let’s be serious here, nothing can really beat that!

Do you ever look at a recipe and think “oh my goodness I MUST try that”? Lately that happens to me more and more, and this was one of those recipes. I love oatmeal. I love chocolate. I love caramel. The stars aligned people, and these are absolutely heaven!

I added cinnamon to this recipe because

a. to me you just can’t have oatmeal without cinnamon, and

b. cinnamon makes almost everything taste better.

Danelle originally adapted these to make a 9×13 pan. Once I started putting things together I thought the bottom layer was a little too thin and didn’t leave much for the topping (I didn’t eat that much I swear), so I multiplied everything by 1.5. I also didn’t have a full bag of caramels so I just used what I had left. I left out the nuts in this recipe because I am not a huge fan, but if you wanted to add nuts you certainly could (just click on the link to see the original recipe).

I am always asking Derek to rank things and pick his favorite, which he absolutely hates (I’ve already warned him that he needs to make a top 10 list for an end of the year post). Without even being asked, the first words out of his mouth after sampling these were “top 5 for sure”, and I have to agree. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Carmelitas
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2 1/4 cups butter (4.5 sticks), very soft but not melted)
3 cups flour
3 cups quick cooking oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 tsp cinnamon
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup flour
32 caramels (about 3/4 of a bag)
Just under 1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl combine together the first seven ingredients. This works best with a pastry cutter but a spoon can be used as well. Mixture should be crumbly. Press half of this mixture into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven. While baking, stir together chocolate chips and flour and set aside. Combine the caramels and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently once the caramels start melting. Sprinkle chocolate chips and flour over crust, then pour caramel mixture on top of chocolate chips. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top, return to oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Tags: Bars, Caramel, chocolate, Cinnamon, Oatmeal

Posted in Bars | 4 Comments »