Chocolate dipped Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwiches...

I found several versions of this recipe online. Versions can be found at LilyShop or FoodaPhelia. I modified the recipe as follows, omitting the butter and reducing the sugar.

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter (I used reduced fat PB - shhhhh don't tell my husband)
1/2 cup granulated or Brown sugar
1/2 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar

Semi-Sweet chocolate chips for melting
Waffle pretzels (square or round, but I suppose you could just use mini pretzels as well)

Next up, make the filling by combining the sugars and peanut butter until it makes a nice solid ball. If it's too sticky add more confectioners sugar, if it's not sticky enough add more peanut butter.

Then, you'll be making small 1/2 - 1" round balls for the middle of the sandwiches. and pressing them together as follows:

After the PB sandwiches are made, you want to stick these guys in the fridge for a bit, while you melt the chocolate in a double boiler or using your preferred method. (If you don't refrigerate them in between dipping them in chocolate, they will be soft and you will end up pinching the end you are holding to dip as you can see from some of the bites below - they'll taste just as good, just look a little catawampus)

Refrigerate or leave out on counter to cool. Again we prefer these refrigerated as well. Enjoy!

Rolo Pretzel Turtles

I've seen these online for years now and have always wanted to make them. Last Christmas my husband's aunt made them and they were devoured in about 15 minutes flat. I made these again for a friend's BBQ a few weeks ago, and don't you know the same thing happened..gone in no time flat!

Shamelessly easy recipe here:
Pretzels (waffle style round or square)
Rolos
Pecans / Almonds / Peanuts / Peanut M&Ms (your choice)

Preheat oven to 200˚
Lay pretzels on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Unwrap rolos and place on top of pretzels. Place in oven for 5 min.

Remove from oven and smoosh nut or candy on top of each rolo..

Let cool on counter for 30 min, or from faster cooling, place in fridge for 10 min. In our house we prefer these right out of the refrigerator - it makes for a chewier caramel center. Enjoy.

Samoa Bars

With summer in full swing and relatives visiting from out of town, we planned a family BBQ a few sundays ago, and craving coconut, I made these Samoa bars, recipe found here: Baking Bites Samoa Bars These are my most favorite girl scout cookies ever, but the boxes just seem to keep getting smaller and smaller every year...maybe I just eat them too fast? Who knows.

Cookie base: 
1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened1 large egg1/2 tsp vanilla extract2 cups all purpose flour1/4 tsp salt



You make the dough by creaming together the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg, then slowly adding the flour and salt until dough is crumbly. Then press it into a 13" x 9" pan lined with parchment (for easy removal). Bale at 350˚ for 20-25 min. 


Next time though I would make the cookie layer thinner, as you can see from the photo above the cookie base is much much ticker then the coconut caramel topping - but this is just my preference. 

Topping: 

3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Toast coconut in oven at 350˚ on a baking sheet stirring every 5 min til golden. Unwrap caramels and put in a microwave safe dish with milk and salt and nuke on high for 3-4 min (stopping to stir every minute). Stir til smooth and add coconut when melted. Spread on top of cooled cookie layer. Let sit for a few min and cut into squares. 

Melt chocolate in double boiler (if too thick add a 1/2 tsp of shortening) then dip each square into the chocolate so that bottom is coated. Let cool on parchment lined baking sheet. 

Finally, use remaining chocolate to add decoration to the top of the bars. let cool completely and serve!

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

My husband goes scuba diving pretty frequently. Whenever he goes, his dive buddy's wife always sends her husband off with enough delicious snacks to feed the entire boat (or at least it seems that way). My hubby is always raving about her cooking, especially her chocolate chip meringue cookies. Which she happen to send on sunday's dive trip. He was kind enough to bring home 2 of them for me to try, and indeed they were quite delicious.

I don't know if you've ever had these little puffs of air before or not, but they're just that puffs, like "air". You could probably eat about 100 of them before getting full. Okay, maybe not 100, but you get the point. Needless to say 2 cookies didn't do it for me yesterday, so off to the kitchen I went to whip up a batch.

The recipe I used is derived from this one here at SpryLiving. Except I modified it as follows:

Ingredients:
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions: 
1. Preheat oven to 200˚.

2. Combine egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla extract with electric mixer til soft peaks form. Then gradually add sugar until stiff peaks form.

3. Fold in chocolate chips.

4. Line baking sheet with parchment. Drop dollops of mixture onto parchment or pipe shapes with pastry bag and tip. These cookies will remain in whatever shape they are added to the parchment as. They don't flatten, rise or smooth out or anything. I used a pastry bag with no tip.

My apologies for not taking pics til I put these in the oven, but you really don't need to see a mixer in a bowl right? Here's what they looked like when I put them in the oven:

And here's what they look like when the came out:

In fact I think they were better then following day, once the flavors combined a bit more. You can keep these in an airtight container or ziplock bag for up to a week. Enjoy!

4th of July Cookie Fruit Pizzas

I have to come up with another name for these then "Fruit Pizzas" because to me, fruit and pizza should never go together.

Nonetheless, We have Cookie Fruit Pizzas. This recipe came from my friend Nicole who make them for a BBQ of her own a year or two ago. I feel in love with them and have been waiting to make them for my own function every since!

4th of July is my father-in-law's birthday. Every year we celebrate at my in-law's house and watch the fireworks from their backyard with about 30 or so friends and family. This year I made 2 of these delicious cookie fruit desserts.

Ingredients go like this:
1 package of pre-made sugar cookie dough
1 bar of low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 of a can of sweetened condensed milk

Assorted fruits: kiwi, blueberries, strawberries, banana, peaches - whatever you like!

Instructions:
Line baking pan with parchment (I find parchment is the best thing ever when it comes to baking as the chance of burning things is much less and the chance of these items sticking to the pan is also much less. Invest in parchment!)

Preheat oven to 300˚ (I think the package says 350˚ but this cookie will be BIG so you don't want the edges to burn before the middle cooks all the way through. You'll want it to cook slow and even)

Pile the cookie dough into one ball and flatten it out slightly in the center of the parchment, it will do the rest on it's own. Then bake for about 30-35 minutes keeping an eye on it. Cookie is done when the edges are slightly browned and the center doesn't look raw anymore. Let cool on pan or wire rack.

Next up, Add cream cheese and brown sugar and combine with a mixer until smooth. Once cookie is cool spread frosting over top and decorate with fruit!

After this was finished I opted to drizzle a tiny bit of sweetened condensed milk across the top of each cookie. But this is not necessary. The dessert is plenty sweet on it's own. The only thing I would suggest is perhaps brushing the bananas with the condensed milk only so that they do not turn brown by the time you're ready to serve it.

Enjoy!

Momma Duke's Birthday..

So my amazing mom had another birthday. She was so busy the weekend of her actual birthday that we ended up celebrating it the following weekend. Which gave me more time to decide what to make. Since I've been sitting on a box of red velvet cake for awhile and it was burning a hole in my cabinet, I figured I better get to making it.

So this is nothing fancy, Store-bought box of red velvet cake, jar of cream cheese frosting. Heart Sprinkles.

I had some small 6" or 7" round pans, so I thought I'd just make a layer cake with many layers. I had to refill these pans twice in order to make all the layers.

Then, let them cook on a rack, and iced them up. After the first one, I ended up cutting the bumps off the tops because I realized I have to cram a lot of icing into the edges to make it smooth. 

Overall it came out quite good. Although in all fairness it's pretty hard to screw up a boxed cake. Happy Birthday Mom. xo

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

The other day, despite it being almost 85˚ out, I felt like baking some cinnamon swirl bread. I found this recipe for Homemade Cinnamon Bread from the Pioneer Woman. She has some seriously detailed photos and instructions on her page if you're interested. I did however, follow her instructions and after an entire afternoon of mixing, rising, rolling, rising and baking the bread was finally done.

I didn't begin taking pictures until after I had already added the cinnamon sugar, rolled the bread and let it rise for the second time. So here's what it looked like before going into the oven:

After it came out, I let it cool on a rack for about 30 min.

Finally I sliced into it and the hubby and I split a few slices while it was still warm. It was pretty good. A little dry actually, but pretty damn good.

Then this morning, it was time for cinnamon toast:

                     

It was much more delicious toasted with butter. So delicious in fact, that I think I'm going to make another slice now...