Anything Goes Cookies or “Dirty Mikes”

I was on the Upper West Side dog sitting (for Ice, see below) this past weekend and my baking was called upon for a bar birthday get together. I wasn’t in my own kitchen to bake, so I peeked around and came up with a stash of Hershey kisses and a box of Cocoa Krispies. I found a recipe online for Cocoa Krispy cookies and ran with it.

I’m calling these “Dirty Mikes” because

A. the birthday guy was named Mike and if you knew him you’d get it,

B. and because you could really put whatever you have laying around the kitchen in them. I think these would be interchangeable with nuts, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, crushed potato chips, maybe even Cap’n Crunch. Heck, why not.

These cookies have a really nice crunch because of the cereal addition. Nicole I’m sorry you didn’t get to eat any

*I also didn’t have my camera with me so these were all taken on my iphone 5

Look at the Camera Ice!

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Lemon Blueberry Loaf

I bought a pint of blueberries about two weeks ago that were magically on sale. I was so excited to see fruit on sale this time of year I bought three pints. So it’s been two weeks now, and after freezing the other two pints, my boyfriend has been inquiring as to what will happen to the third. I sort of started a fight with him this morning for no particular reason other than I was being moody so I thought I’d make it up with something yummy. I often find forgiveness with delicious food.

People go blueberries when I bring in this bread to work. I think it’s the aspect of something with fruit in it. I used 6oz chobani plain greek yogurt but any kind will do, or sour cream even. It’s pretty flexible with what you happen to have in your fridge at the time. So buy some frozen/fresh blueberries and bake something yum! Read the rest of this entry »

Tennis Camp Coffee Cake

Both my bundt pan and my blog have been needing a little love lately. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to make posting more of a priority. However, it’s already January 16th, and this is my first post of 2013. So let’s start 2013 blogging off with a bundt—my most underused baking pan. Even the spring-form gets more love.

If you think my photographs are improving it’s because for my birthday (today) I was gifted a Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash by my sous chef! Pretty nice, right!

This coffee cake is a true family classic. My mother has been making this dessert/breakfast as long as I can remember. It’s easy, pretty, and of course, delicious! When I moved into my first apartment 7 years ago, my mother put together a book of family recipes, this cake being one of them, and I’m happy today to share it with all of you!

“Before you were born, we attended tennis camp that was located at Mt. Holyoke College. They served us three meals a day in the college’s alumni housing. There was a chef that made our meals and she made this coffee cake. We asked for the recipe for this and thereafter, named it the ‘Tennis Camp Coffee Cake.’ ”

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Chocolate Peppermint Snowflakes

Last year I began the office tradition of a holiday cookie swap. Our office has been displaced this year since Hurricane Sandy flooded our downtown location, but luckily we started at a temporary space last week. So swapping was a go! Last year I made chocolate lace sandwich cookies, but this year I wanted to do something more festive. I made roll out cookies a few weeks ago and had forgotten how much fun it was, so I decided to do another batch for the swap, this time in chocolate and with peppermint frosting. The candy canes have been around from a holiday shoot I did in October, but they had all arrived cracked; I hung on to them just in case they’d have a use down the road. And this was a terrific use of them!

I found my chocolate cookie recipe on Smitten Kitchen and my Snowflake Cookie Cutters were from William Sonoma. I don’t see them on their website anymore, but these look pretty similar. I don’t celebrate Christmas, so I find snowflakes to be pretty holiday neutral, but you could do this recipe with any shape cookie. I think round could be cute as well, and of course traditional candy cane shaped.

Happy Holidays Eaters!

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Pumpkin Cookies

From that first pumpkin latte to that last silky slice of pumpkin pie, we all love pumpkin (except Jessie and Pat).  I make these cookies at least three times each fall because they’re fairly easy and make a lot. One may think that December is too late for pumpkin desserts but with the modern day convenience of canned pumpkin, there are no limitations on delicious.

The year I made my own puree with unused jack-o-lanterns from my Halloween party and was left with the wonderful problem of too much pumpkin. We made pumpkin chili, pumpkin mac and cheese, pumpkin pie and these pumpkin cookies. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

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Turkey Cupcakes

With Thanksgiving on the horizon (OMG 4 days!) I felt it timely to finally upload this post. In the past year I’ve taken my baking decoration to the next level. Delicious tasting cupcakes aren’t enough anymore, they need to have that WOW factor. Enter the Thanksgiving turkey cupcake.

When looking for ideas on how to execute these cupcakes, I didn’t find great suggestions for making the head. Some websites suggested just adding globs of frosting to build it up, but I did one better. These turkeys have a peanut butter-chocolate malt ball head with frosting covering (Thank you Dylan’s). So delicious you could eat them right up, mmmm. I wanted to use candy corn for the beak, but could not find any last year, so I made do with fondant and added food coloring. I used white fondant (you can buy at Micheals, or baking supply or make your own) for the eyes and dotted with an edible food pen. Pecan tail feathers round out the decoration.

I went with a traditional chocolate cupcake for the bottom and chocolate butter cream frosting for the top. I think a vanilla cupcake would be fine, as long as you kept chocolate frosting on top. I happen to love this particular chocolate cupcake recipe because it calls for melted chocolate over cocoa powder. Is there anything better than watching chocolate and butter melding in a pan over low heat? I didn’t think so.

I brought these to a bar, my family Thanksgiving dinner and work. They were enjoyed by all; including the one child who had a mild allergic reaction to the peanut butter malt ball. An allergy wouldn’t have stopped me from eating these either. When carrying intricate cupcakes like these I highly recommend this 2 Layer-Cupcake Carrier.

Detailed decoration diagram/photos below

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Apple Crisp

MMMMMmmmm apple crisp makes my apartment smell like a yum factory. I went apple picking back in September and I’m still sitting on a bushel of apples. The other night when my boyfriend was craving something sweet I whipped up some apple crisp.

I haven’t made apple crisp since high school. It’s so easy to make I just forget all about it. It’s also not something I usually want sitting around the house because this happens (see photo above, nom nom nom).  It’s much easier to pack up a bag of cookies and send them off to work, a heavy dish of apple crisp however, not the easiest to transport via subway. Heavy dishes of apple crisp left at home can lead to excessive apple crisp eating = deliciously dangerous.

This recipe is adapted from this awesome book I grabbed at work a few years ago Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys. Read the rest of this entry »

Mint “Add Anything” Ice Cream

Two weekends ago we packed up the car and headed up to Vermont for a super exciting event!! Details to come in future blog post. We tried to be as Vermont-y as possible. We camped, cooked over a wood fire, found a massive bottle of maple syrup and most importantly, visited the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory (see photographic evidence below)! I went for a tour of the factory over a decade ago and still talk about it, it’s my own personal heaven.

As a kid I read the Ben & Jerry’s Cookbook as if it was a fairytale. The story opens with the tale of two students who began their decadent empire in a renovated gas station and churned it into a worldwide sensation! After the intro, the book reveals all of the delicious ice cream recipes so any old Harry, Jane or Joanna (ME!) can make them. So far Mint Oreo is our favorite; what’s great about this recipe is you can really mix in anything. We’ve mixed in cut-up brownies. Chocolate chunks and even cake would probably work. You can no longer find Mint Oreo at B&J scoop shops or pints as it’s been renamed Mint Chocolate Cookie, but don’t worry, you can always whip up a batch at home!

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Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Sunday mornings are for pancakes, especially lovely Sunday mornings when it’s not 98 degrees outside. Today I was finally able to use my kitchen without creating an at-home sauna sweat box. Windows open and a lovely breeze of high 70′s blowing through my apartment, I happily whipped up some Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes. My boyfriend happily gobbled them up. I mean really, who is not happy when chocolate for breakfast is on the menu?

My bf walked in when I was cooking and jokingly asked if the ratio was 2:1 on chocolate chips (2 for the pancakes 1 for my mouth). Sometimes there are advantages to being the cook.

My father is the breakfast maker in my family, and he ingrained in me this important tradition: Whenever there are chocolate chips in the batter, at least one pancake must be shaped like Mickey Mouse.

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Best Blueberry Muffins

This is my first summer participating in a CSA; fresh veggies and fruits have been arriving every other week. This week we received 3 pints of plump blueberries so I’ve been making blueberry loaf, blueberry cake, muffins, pancakes –  blueberry everything!

The recipes from the cookbooks on my shelves have only produced lackluster muffins, so this time I googled “best blueberry muffin” and the following recipe popped up with 5,746 reviews. If it’s good enough for over 5,000 muffin eaters I thought I could spare some blueberries to test it out.

I've been getting huge bags of there every other week! YUM!

And after 40 minutes of measuring, mixing and baking…

5746 reviewers were not wrong. The muffins were pretty darn delish!

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