Donut Failure

You know how I love to search and search and read and read recipes, I get that from my Grandma, she used to read recipes all of the time. Well, I wanted to try a baked donut recipe. I found one on Pinterest. 

I know that my parents have donut pans, because I bought them, so I borrowed the pans and tried the recipe. I looked promising when I started.

Off to the oven.

This is a picture of the 'topping'. It came out awful. It wasn't crumbly. I was just runny and gross.

I tried to frost the donut and add the topping. 

The recipe didn't live up to my expectations. It was pretty awful. Luckily it only made one pan so after I tried one I tossed the rest out.

Recipe Fail. I won't tell you the recipe or where I found it. I just took these pictures with my phone. 

~Michelle

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Really now, who doesn't love the taste of chocolate and peanut butter? huh? who? I found this recipe and thought I would give a try. Oh, it is so rich and creamy. I cut it into small bite sized pieces because it is so rich. It has a brownie layer on the bottom and a creamy peanut butter layer on the top with chocolate drizzle. 

I really like the way they turned out. Happy Baking.

The recipe is from an older cookbook magazine and it calls for 1 square of unsweetened chocolate. Well, the newer Bakers chocolate come in these easy to break squares. So 2 'squares' equals 1 ounce. I like the new easy to break style.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
recipe from 2003 Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients
1 ounce  unsweetened chocolate baking bar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Filling
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
2-3 Tablespoons half-and-half or milk

Glaze
1 ounce semisweet baking chocolate baking bar
1 Tablespoons butter

Directions

In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and pale-colored. Add flour and melted chocolate; stir well. Pour into a greased 9-inch. square baking pan. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool.

For filling, beat confectioners' sugar, peanut butter and butter, in a mixing bowl. Stir in cream until mixture reaches desired spreading consistency. Spread over cooled brownies; cover and chill until firm.

For glaze, melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the filling. Chill before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.

~Michelle

Chocolate Cream Bars

I am always on the hunt for something to bake and another reicpe to try. I decided to go back to and old cookbook. This is another recipe from Pillsbury - Simply From Scratch cookbook, circa 1978. I made one of my favorite take along snack cakes from this book. You will love it too. It is a Chocolate Chip Cake.
I thought I would try something else from the book. 

These looked tasty even in this old looking photo. 

These bars are on the left. Is that a candle in the background?

Cut into bars.

The topping really fell off as I was cutting it into bars. Hmmm

Chocolate Cream Bars

Crust / Topping
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter softened

Filling
12-oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients; mix at low speed until crumbly. Press 4 cups crumb mixture into ungreased 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan.

In medium saucepan, combine first four filling ingredients. Heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla and nuts.

Pour filling over crumb crust. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over filling.

Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Cool; cut into bars

~Michelle

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt

I found this fun and easy recipe. I love to look at recipes, she says with a little sass. Now, who doesn't like to eat cookie dough. It is so popular that they make ice cream with it and there are recipes all over the place. Well here is a raw cookie dough that is safe to eat. I thought I would give it a try.

It is very sweet so just a small couple of scoops really hits the spot. My sons and I love it. Well, mostly my one son and I. We both have a sweet tooth. :)

Serve it in a pretty dish and enjoy.

recipe from here
Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
6 oz plain Greek yogurt

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix gently. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Add the yogurt and fold with a rubber scraper.

Place in a container and cover with lid. Freeze until set. preferably overnight.

~Michelle

Halloween Decor

I thought I would put up some Halloween decorations around the house. I love Christmas lights so I used orange lights for these areas.  Here are a few things that I did. I made those orange puffs out of tissue paper. I watched some YouTube videos last year to see how to make them. I bought the paper from Hobby Lobby and cut them in half the long way. I used 6 pieces to make each puff. I also bought some black tulle and attached them to the orange strand of lights. oh.. pretty.

Here is the other side of the front hall. The office I framed the doorway the same way that I did the other side. Look closely I covered some of the books on the shelf with black and orange wrapping paper.

Here is a close up of the books :)

This is the fireplace mantle in the family room. Just some lights with pumpkins, tissue paper puffs and a black tree candle holder.

~Michelle

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I must admit, I don't think I have ever made a Spice Cake. I always wondered if anyone would like the flavor and I wasn't sure if I would like the flavor. When I saw this recipe I thought it was interesting that it had a spice cake mix as the base. I love chocolate and pumpkin mixed so I had to give this recipe a try.

It came out great. I put everything in one bowl and just mixed it by hand. Very moist and had a great mix of spice, pumpkin and chocolate flavor. I certainly got rave reviews on the muffins.

I found the recipe here


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
I got around 18 muffins (standard size)

Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix
1 (15oz) can pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Place paper liners in muffin pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, mix all ingredients until well blended (I mixed it all by hand so I dumped the chocolate chips right in)
Scoop the batter into lined muffin tins. Bake standard-sized muffins for 25-30 minutes and for mini muffins, bake for 15-17 minutes.

~Michelle

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

I made this recipe for a fundraiser for a friend. It was an amazing event that my brother and sister-in-law put together for a lovely teacher and friend. Here is a bit of her story. http://www.4caryn.org/

The cookies turned out delicious.

Ingredients:

Cookies

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

2 Tablespoons

Filling:

4 ounces cream cheese

2 Tablespoons

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. To make cookies, mix together cake mix, eggs, oil and flour. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until tops look cracked.

Cool completly.

Meanwhile, make the filling by beating the cream cheese and butter with an electirc mixer. Mix in milk and vanilla, then beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Place 1-2 Tablespoons of filling in the center of a cookie. Top with a second cookie and press toghether until the filling reaches the edges of the cookies. Makes about 15 sandwiches.

~Michelle

recipe from here