Chocolate Blood Orange Bars

Well, you  win some and you lose some. I almost didn't put this recipe on here, but it was just b/c the form wasn't what I wanted...but they taste so good I had to. Last night I had the idea to make an orange bar instead of lemon bars. Rather than use a graham cracker crust, I made a chocolate graham cracker crust. Sounds pretty good right? It does taste good...really good, but let's just say it's a mystery how it turned out. 

I've always been fascinated with blood oranges. One b/c they're oddly a dark red, and two b/c the name kind of scares me. Well the name might have put a curse on these bars, but you'll have to find out for yourselves. 

This was my crust; it was absolutely perfect.

My added ingredients.

The finished product! It looks pretty doesn't it...just wait until it's cut open.

Here's a square.

...and the inside. 

Now if you recall, I used a chocolate crust...and the crust/bottom of this is clearly not chocolate. What happened? Who knows...it's a mystery, but I think it's kind of cool actually. The only bad thing about these bars was that they are very goey, but all you have to do is chill them overnight and they set up perfectly. This could be for a number of reasons: I would add more flour than just the 1/4 cup I got from one recipe, the glass pan wasn't the best choice to cook them in, and they needed to set in the refrigerator longer. B/c I  got impatient and wanted to see what they looked like, I only let them chill for 30 min. 

I'm hoping that by tom. they'll set up some more, but oh my goodness they taste so good. It's like eating an orange truffle in a gooey mess of goodness. If any of you have any suggestions for this, let me know. They are definitely best served cold and chilled.

Ok so confession time: I have to come out of the closet and admit that I like my brownies and bars a little gooey...a lot gooey, so of course I loved these when they first came out. Then the next day I loved them even more when when were cold and had hardened a bit. The orange and chocolate are completely blended together--one doesn't overpower the other. Feel free to leave any comments on my creative endeavor. But point being: if you like your bars on the fudgier side, follow my instructions and let them chill. If you like them to be a little cakier, add more flour and reduce the amount of eggs. Either way they definitely are a must to make.

Ingredients

Crust

1 & 1/2 cups chocolate graham crackers, crushed finely

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa, sifted

5 tbsp. butter, melted

Combine all ingredients and press firmly into a 9 x 11 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-7 min.

Filling

4 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup blood orange juice (about 3 medium-sized oranges)

1 & 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. orange extract (optional)

1 tsp. orange rind

1/2 bar of dark chocolate, broken into little pieces (optional)

Combine beaten eggs and sugar until smooth. Add orange juice until well blended; add orange extract and orange rind. Add in dark chocolate pieces and pour over graham cracker crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. Chill in refrigerator or let set and serve at room temperature.

Cocoa Butterscotch Krispies

  

In my defense, I really had no plans on baking anything today. After finishing reading for one 

of my literature classes, I decided to go get some popcorn or something to equip for my next book I have to start for another literature class (such is the life of an English Lit. major). So as I'm glancing over our pantry, I see a box of Cocoa Krispies that in a week or so will go bad...and I felt sorry for them. So then I look up and see an opened bag of mini marshmallows that will also go bad in a week or so. Then something inside me took over and the next thing I know I'm whipping up a batch of cocoa krispies! I swear it was an out of body experience. 

I didn't want just a boring cocoa krispie though, so again a light shines upon a half leftover bag of butterscotch chips screaming at me to be used. So I decide to add a middle layer of butterscotch and M & M's (for a little crunch and rainbow :))

10 minutes later out come probably one of the best rice krispies I've ever had. They are sweet, but sooo good. The butterscotch really marries the marshmallow and chocolate flavor together wonderfully. I highly recommend these if you love rice krispies. These are also great b/c they're made in a smaller pan, thus they're bigger. I hope you enjoy my sweet creation. :)

Ingredients

3/4 bag of mini marshmallows

5-6 cups Cocoa Krispies

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 bag of butterscotch chips (about 1 & 1/4)

3/4 cup M & M's

Directions

Lightly butter an 8 x 11-inch pan with butter or margarine (I used butter flavored cooking spray b/c I was lazy). Melt butter or margarine with marshmallows in the microwave; add Cocoa Krispies. Add half of mixture into prepared pan. Melt butterscotch chips in microwave for about 1 & 1/2 min. Spread over Cocoa Krispies and add 1/2 cup M & M's. Add remaining Cocoa Krispie mixture on top. Top with remaining M & M's. Let set until firm or set in the refrigerator for a few min. 

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Pretzels

I recently had an inclination to try and make pretzels for the first time. I scanned through a few recipes online and all of them called for around 5 cups of flour, which seemed like a lot to me. I thought it would end up making way too many pretzels than I wanted. I finally settled for this recipe on cooks.com, and boy was it a mistake. I've never seen a recipe have such ambiguous language in it!

All of the mixings ready to be beaten until "smooth and glossy"

The shape that I formed looked like a calzone.

 

All formed into their pretzels shapes and ready to be put in the oven.

My personal favorite was to wait until the dough was "satiny." What is that even supposed to mean? Then it was supposed to be "soft" butter...does that mean butter softened or a spreadable butter? Another favorite was that the batter was supposed to be beaten until it was smooth and glossy. Dough doesn't get glossy! So I basically just used the recipe as guidelines and took over for myself...not like I had any option.

The end result tasted just like a pretzel! They weren't bland necessarily, but I might add more brown sugar and cinnamon in my b/c I have a huge sweet tooth...more like a sweet mouth. But they taste great, not an overload of sugar that will make your teeth rot. They also make the house smell like those little pretzel places at the mall that when you pass, you feel like if you don't have a pretzel at the very moment--you'll die. :) Definitely try and make these though! Pretzels taste so much better when they're hot and soft compared to those hard store bought ones. They would taste wonderful with a skinny Cinnamon Dulce' Latte from Starbucks.

Ingredients

Pretzel Dough

1 pkg. active dry yeast (or 2 & 1/2 tsp.)

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 cups flour (I used whole wheat flour)

Topping

2 1/2 tbsp. butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions (with no help from cooks.com thank you)

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast with warm water; add dry milk and stir. Let stand 5 min. until  yeast foams or bubbles. Beat in 1/3 cup butter, salt, egg, 2 cups flour until well blended. Beat in 1 more cup of flour. Let dough stand for 15 min.

Sprinkle some flour on top of dough and turn onto a floured board. Knead for about 1 min., or until "satiny." Spray a large bowl well with nonstick cooking spray. Turn dough into this bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled, 1-2 hours. 

Turn onto lightly floured board. Roll to 12 x 14 inches. Spread half the dough with 1/4 of melted butter and sprinkle with 3/4 of sugar and cinnamon mixture. Fold unfilled dough over filling; press edges together (mine looked like a calzone). Cut into 12 strips. Separate strips and twist if the dough separates. Form into pretzel shape (see my picture if it helps...it's almost like a heart with the center touching the bottom). Lay pretzels seam side down on cooking sheets sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Use a baking brush to spread the remaining melted butter across the pretzels and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon and sugar on top. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min. or until slightly brown and firm to the touch. 

Marbled Nutella and Peanut Butter Brownies

So it's a cold and rainy day here in Memphis...and what better way to beat the blues than to bake! Though really, it's not like I ever need an excuse to bake something. I realized that what makes baking so fun is that I always get excited to bake something; there's never a moment when I dread going into the kitchen and making something tasty. 

With these three ingredients, how can you go wrong really? 

This is the syrup I used in place of the hazelnut extract that I wasn't able to find anywhere.

With that being said, I found this recipe on cookiemadness.net, thus I'm of course giving all credit to Anna who is a baking genius. I, however, did tamper with the recipe just a bit. Instead of using a dark chocolate bar with hazelnuts in it, I bought a package of hazelnuts and toasted them. Then I added 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips to the Nutella swirl mixture. 

I know that Nutella has a hint of hazelnut flavoring, but I wanted to make it more prominent with the addition of the actual hazelnuts themselves. Plus I thought that the batter might need some hazelnut flavoring as well. I searched two grocery stores for a hazelnut extract and came up empty-handed. On the way home as I was trying to think of an alternative, it hit me that I have some sugarfree hazelnut coffee flavoring syrup. I was weary of how good it might taste in a dessert, but on the bottle it said that it can be used in baking. So I added a tsp. to the peanut butter brownie mixture and it gave it a nice, subtle hint of hazelnut. Yum.

Ingredients

Peanut Butter Brownies

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. hazelnut syrup (regular or sugarfree)

Swirl Mixture

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 tsp. butter

1/4 cup Nutella

1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted (toast in a oven at 350 degrees for about 10 min. or until fragrant)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x11 inch pan with aluminum foil.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until slightly crumbly, but able to be smoothed when stirred with a spatula. Beat in vanilla and peanut butter. Add eggs one at a time just until mixed--don't overmix. Add baking powder and salt until well blended. Add flour until it is just incorporated and spread peanut butter mixture into prepared pan.

To make the swirl mixture, place chocolate chips, Nutella, and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat until smooth (about 1 1/2 min.). Add in hazelnuts. 

Drop spoonfuls of Nutella mixture of peanut butter brownie batter and drag a knife through to make a marbled pattern. Bake on center rack for 30 min. or until brownies begin to pull away from the side of the pan and center seems set. Cool pan on a wire rack. When brownies hit room temperature, chill them for an hour or so. Lift from pan and cut into squares. 

Funfetti Friday!

Funfetti Cookies (I made mine a little large)

You  can use whatever food dye you want in the frosting, but I used pink of course :)

 

Funfetti Cake Balls

This is what they look like all mixed up and about to be put in the refrigerator.

My cat Cinnamon sat patiently watching me while I was baking in the kitchen...but I think he got a little tired from all that staring. 

So if you are one of those people who are stuck with having to bring dessert somewhere and have no time to make anything, here's two good recipes using a Pilsbury Funfetti Cake mix. Yes funfetti is supposed to be a kids cake, but why can't adults enjoy the sprinkles in a white cake too? The cookie recipe came from Pilsbury's official website, and if you wanted to add a special flavor try adding vanilla or coconut extract. The cake balls recipe comes from allrecipes.com, but you can also use any kind of cake to make these. I've made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting from a mix and dipped them into semisweet chocolate. I've had great reviews of those red velvet cake balls too...they almost look like a glorified truffle.

Now if you think that you're too grown up to eat funfetti cake, make it for the kids b/c if it has sprinkles, they're going to be sold on it. I think these would be a great dessert to take to a kids birthday party. For a baby shower you could decorate the cookies with a blue or pink frosting (I used pink of course b/c I'm a girl and will put pink on everything). 

Funfetti Cookies

1 (18.9 oz) Pilsbury Most Supreme Funfetti Cake Mix

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs 

1/2 (15.6-oz) vanilla frosting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With the bottom of glass, dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness. 

Bake for 6-8 in, or until edges are lightly golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with sprinkles. 

Funfetti Cake Balls

1 (18.9-oz) Pilsbury Most Supreme Funfetti Cake Mix

1 can of vanilla frosting

white or milk chocolate to coat (about a package worth of of chocolate)

Bake cake according to instructions on the box.  Let cake cool slightly and crumble into pieces. Add frosting and form into balls. Let them set in the freezer for about 3 hours. 

Put parchment or wax paper on cookie sheets. Remove cake balls and coat with chocolate; place on cookie sheets. Let set in the refrigerator for chocolate to harden.  

Hawaiian Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com for a Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie. After scanning through the ingredients and reviews, I decided to tamper with the ingredients myself. I knew that just adding coconut and almonds to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe wasn't going to yield enough flavor, so I added coconut and almond extract.  As my mind was ticking of new ways to make this next time, perhaps an addition of coconut milk or mashed banana would be good. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened or at room temperature

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. coconut extract

1 tsp. almond extract

2 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 &1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add almond and coconut extracts.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir in small additions into the creamed mixture until well blended. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, coconut, and almonds. Drop by spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-12 min. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 min. before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Death By Chocolate Trifle

This recipe was found off allrecipes.com I tweaked the recipe a little to make it more my own, but it's super easy to make. If you're a chocolate-lover then you're just going to have to try this recipe. If you don't want to use a cake mix, you can also use a brownie mix too.

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 cup chocolate syrup

2 (3.9 ounce) packages instant chocolate pudding mix

8 candy bars (whatever your favorite are)

1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

Bake cake in 9x13 inch pan according to the manufacturer's instructions. While the cake is baking, prepare the instant pudding according to instructions on box, set aside to chill.

When the cake comes out of the oven, punch holes in the cake with a fork. Pour the chocolate syrup over the top of the entire cake. Using a fork, crumble the cake into smaller pieces. In a large bowl, put a layer of cake on the bottom, then cover with a layer of pudding. Then spread a layer of whipped topping, then sprinkle some of the crushed candy bars. Repeat the layers to the top of the bowl, ending with the candy bars on top. Refrigerate until serving time.