Back from Baking Break

It has been a while since my last post, but I do have a few desserts to share with you while I was on my blogging hiatus:

These were some cookies that I made one night, just spur of the moment. I felt like something with Chocolate, so I made Chocolate Chocolate chip cookies. It is a pretty easy you just add melted chocolate squares to your batter and then end with chocolate chips. These cookies were good but extremely rich because of all the chocolate, but very good if you are in the mood for something chocolatey. My recommendation for these cookies is to use parchment paper on your baking sheet, it helps to keep them from sticking.

My next dessert that I made around the Christmas Season was an Apple Tart. I LOVE THESE!!! I eat these by myself all the time, I don't like to share them. I know, it is selfish but I think it is by far my favorite dessert. It is actually super easy to make if you are already making an Apple Pie. This is how I make it if you want to give it a try: Step 1: Peel and slice the apples and add whatever you like to add to the apples for Apple Pie makings. A few of the things I use are orange juice, salt, flour, sugar's (yes plural, two types of sugars) and a few other things that I unfortunately can't say because of the family secret. Step 2: making the dough, now you can make the pie dough any way you like. I use the dough from the "Mellen Pie" recipe, again I can't tell you how to make it because it is a family secret. Step 3: Roll the dough in a circular shape and add the apples to the middle, fold the sides to wrap around the apples. Wash with milk and sprinkle with sugar to end. Place on a baking sheet or fold up some tin foil (like I do) and put in oven at 350 for 30 minutes, give or take depending on your oven. You'll know when it is done when the top is browned and the juices from the apples are bubbling. You should wait for it to cool before eating, but if you are like me you can't and you start eating it right away while burning your mouth. Try this it is DELICIOUS!

My final Dessert that I actually just made Thursday night is "Lily's Marble Cake" I got this recipe off of the food network website, just search for the title. I decided to make this for a friend from work, she was having some friends over and didn't realize everyone she invited were actually going show up. I offered to make her something and she said no that I didn't have to, but I decided to do it anyways. She text me Friday night and told me it was "soooo good." So I guess it was good, I only wish I would have been able to test it, I guess I will just have to make it for my Tribes group. For those of you reading this you now know what I will be bringing on Wednesday to our group. Now what I really wanted to do with this cake was end with a white chocolate glaze, I think it would have made it that much better, but since I had never made it before I wanted to follow the recipe to the T, so it would taste good. I just told her to top it off with a dollop of whipped cream per slice.

I hope you enjoyed reading these recipes and will try them sometime soon. Thanks for reading!

Oh Sweet Chocolate

So I haven't been keeping up on my blogging, but I have been keeping up on my baking. I have two different desserts to share with you. The first is Caramel Fudge Cheesecake, sounds delicious right? It was. A little rich, but delicious, and kind of just melts in your mouth. This cheesecake had a fudge brownie crust, covered by a layer of melted caramel, followed by a layer of chopped pecans, and topped off with the chocolate "cheese" portion of the cheesecake and a little raspberry for good measure. I tried this the day of, when it was only slightly cooled, which was not too good. This is a much better dessert after it has sat in the fridge overnight.

Caramel Fudge Cheesecake

The next dessert I made was S'more Brownies. I planned to bring this to a BBQ, but decided against it because I didn't like how how the crust tasted. Although I really enjoyed the brownie and marshmallow portion, so I thought I would share the recipe anyways. This wasn't the best tasting dessert, but it was still fun to make. I think those of you who have kids would have a fun time making it with them, and you can always change up the recipe to make the crust more flavorful. I think it was the best when it first came out of the oven, and the brownies were smooth and the gooey marshmallows remind you of sitting around a camp fire. Plus, it is really fun to watch them puff up in the oven!

S'more Brownie

I hope you enjoy the desserts. If you want the recipe for the Caramel Fudge Cheesecake I can email it to you. As for the S'more Brownie, you can go here.

Happy Baking!

Pumpkin Ricotta Pudding

"This is called a budino in Italian. It is a firm pudding, halfway between a cake and a pudding. A crust forms as the budino cooks, but there's no pie dough here."(Diana Serbe)

I decided to make this because a friend from work wasn't able to chew food so I thought I would make something she could enjoy that would not require chewing. Pumpkin Ricotta Pudding tastes a lot like Pumpkin Pie without the crust, although you can taste the slight hint of Orange zest and it is a little more creamy due to the cheese. This called for chopped Pecans to be mixed in, but I left it out so that my friend wouldn't have any surprises; so if you are allergic to nuts you can leave the nuts out of the mix and as a topping and just use powdered sugar to end. What I liked about this recipe was how quick and easy it was, maybe next time I will try it with real Pumpkin, it may take a little longer but I think it would make it taste that much better.

My girls from work really enjoyed this Pudding and I hope that you do too. You can find the recipe at www.inmamaskitchen.com