CRISP OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BITES

These little bite-sized Crisp Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites are seriously going to punch self-restraint in the face.

That’s the problem with bite-sized cookies: you eat, and you eat, and you eat, then pretty soon your belly starts to resemble a round cookie itself. 

By then it’s too late. Yup, too late for any regrets, so you might as well take a swig of coffee (or milk) and have a few more.  And that’s how it went in my home this past weekend—cookies and plumbers.

Yup, plumbers. I had to feed them since I had them out on a Sunday morning to dry out the garage and upstairs. Apparently, some flap on a pipe broke and a half hour later the garage gave way to a hot, humid, water logged floor—the only thing water damaged thus far—lots of my wood boards that I store in the garage for shooting. Wah!!

The good news – I get to buy  more. The bad news – I have to buy more. So until the garage is dried out, the pictures are going to be spare around here. Thankfully all this “spareness” will subside by the end of the week.

CRISP OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

YIELD: Makes about 10 dozen tiny, bite-sized cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup old-fashed rolled oats
• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted finely chopped
• 5 ounces mini chocolate chip cookies
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn-syrup
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Move oven racks to top and bottom thrid. Line bake sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, pecans and mini chocolate chips; set aside.

In a stand mixer bowl beat butter and sugar on medium high until creamed and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scraped down the bowl and beat in corn-syrup, then the egg beating until both are fully combined. Add in the vanilla and beat until combined. Turn off the mixer and using a sturdy wooden spoon fold in the flour mixture until the dough just comes together.

Drop 1 teaspoon of dough onto the parchment lined bake sheet, making sure to place each one 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are golden, about 7 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool on a wire rack

http://www.bakersroyale.com/crisp-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookie-bites/

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ULTIMATE MAGIC BARS

I’m pretty sure parts of my body are going to look like a bulgy trussed up pork loin after I finish up the last bar. But the upside is I’m going to have a darn good time getting there.

Can we all just agree to banish the bikini terrorizer? I’m mean, really, how sucky is it to not eat for the sake of three tiny triangular pieces of cloth.

Agreed. Awesomeness—let’s get to it and do this. There’s not much to this recipe, so the hardest part will be waiting for it to set.

ULTIMATE MAGIC COOKIE BARS

YIELD: Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumb
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut, toasted
• 1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Preparation: Line 9x13 pan with parchment. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a medium bowl mix and combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press mixture onto bottom of pan. Sprinkle and layer next three ingredients on top. Evenly pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly on top.
2. Bake until lightly brown on top, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack. Cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting to preferred bar size. 

http://www.bakersroyale.com/ultimate-magic-bars/

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STRAWBERRY AND NECTARINE GALETTE

It’s a bit early for nectarines, but I saw them and had to have them. Sure they aren’t in season, nor are they at their very best in flavor, but who cares because the strawberries carry this dessert.

Now all I can imagine is how really great this will be when nectarines are finally in season.

Of course I could have thrown all the fruit in the pate brisee and kept the form free-flowing, but I decided to try making it in a pie pan after seeing it done on Martha Bakes. And I’m so glad I did because take a look at how perfectly shaped it is.

I’m keeping this one super short, because I am seriously nodding off as I write this post. That’s what happens when you sleep with a baby sling on your chest, sitting straight up for four nights, not to mention I got about 8-10 hours of sleep in four days—more on this coming soon.

STRAWBERRY AND NECTARINE GALETTE

YIELD: Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Pate brisee:

• 1 3/4  cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Filling

• 6 oz. strawberries, sliced
• 6 oz. nectarines, (about 3 nectarines)
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 cup apricot jam
• 2 tablespoon vodka

Directions:

To make Pate Brisee (recipe adapted fron here).

1. Place flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor pie. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow and steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator. Roll dough to an 1/8 inch thickness. Return rolled out dough to refrigerator while filling is being made.

To make filling:

1. Wash and hull strawberries and  seed nectarines. Slice strawberries and nectarines to an 1/8 of an inch. Toss in sugar and set aside for ten minutes; drain. Place apricot jam and vodka in a small pan and stir to a gentle boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assemble and finish

1. Transfer dough to a 9 inch pie pan (or alternately, skip the pan). Pour filling on the center of the dough. Fold and pinch edge over filling. Brush apricot glaze on top of fruit.  Brush edge with heavy cream and sprinkle coarse sugar along the perimeter of the galette. Transfer galette to an oven and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes.

http://www.bakersroyale.com/strawberry-and-nectarine-galette/

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EASY LEMON CAKE RECIPE

You know how I’m always droning on about how much I love cake, my favorite meal is cake, I survived not eating cake for a day . . . .blah-blah. Yeah, I’m a fan.

So it should be no surprise that guess what’s taking up your screen today-CAKE! You know—in case you couldn’t figure out what that ruffled flowered-crown sphere is. 

The sarcasm you’re picking up on is directed at me, not you. I mean look, scroll down and you’ll see a second photo styled completely different with almost the same composition. It was just one of those days. Nothing creative was connecting and my indecision with what to go with just made things worse, so I gave up and ate cake.

On a more positive note,  the cake is utterly fabulous. It’s one of my favorite cakes I’ve ever made from Better Homes and Gardens. I didn’t mess with the cake recipe, but I did flip out the whipped cream finish for a light and airy mousse-like buttercream—a new recipe I’m super pumped to share with you in the coming days. I know, why the wait? Because, why else? I have more cake to share!

Until then, check out this lemon cake recipe and get to it, because it’s fantastic! But before you do—I’m so curious—which styling would you have gone with, the first one or the styling in the second photo?

EASY LEMON CAKE RECIPE

YIELD: Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2/3 cup olive oil

4 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 6x2-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper; grease the paper. Set pans aside.

For the remainder of the cake recipe, click here.

http://www.bakersroyale.com/easy-lemon-cake-recipe/

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FROZEN CUSTARD CAKE

Summer is around the corner, so ice cream cake is a must.

Who can deny a no-bake cake that’s stacked with a chocolate cookie crust, chocolate ice cream, crushed pretzel bark, salted caramel ice cream, homemade whipped creamed and crushed chocolate covered pretzels?

Seriously, if you can, you are better than me. The DREYER’S Frozen Custard I used for this recipe is unstoppable. I couldn’t quit. Think DREYER’S ice cream but extra creamy,extra thick and made with whole milk. It makes this ice cream cake.

This newly introduced item can be found at Pavilions*. Just look for the “new “ tag as the designator. On that note, can we talk about how cool these “New” tags are? They totally keep me in the loop, especially since nowadays, commercials for new food products are few and far between.

So the “New” tags along with the intuitive store layout makes grocery shopping at Pavilions a preferred experience over its competitor.  Because, honestly I’m not a huge fan of grocery shopping so I want mine painless and effortless.

Now, go get your pints and grab your pan! Let’s do this.

*Pavilions is apart of Safeway, Vons, CARRS, Tom Thumb, Randalls for all you guys across the way!

FROZEN CUSTARD CAKE

YIELD: Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 12 chocolate sandwich cookies
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 1 quart DREYER'S Chocolate Frozen Custard
• 1 quart DREYER'S Salted Caramel Frozen Custard
• 2 cups chocolate pretzel bar
• 3 cups whipped cream*
• 2/3 cups chocolate covered pretzel, crushed

Directions:

Place cookies in a food processor and pulse to a fine crumb. Combine and toss cookie crumbs with butter. Press cookie mixture into a round 8-inch removeable bottom pan. Layer with with chocolate frozen custard, chocolate pretzel bark and salted caramel frozen custard. Finish with a layer of whipped cream, sprinkle with crushed chocolate covered pretzels and drizzle with caramel sauce. Transfer to freezer to set for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

*To make homemade whipped cream:

• 11/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Place heavy cream and sugar in a bowl and beat until soft peaks from.

http://www.bakersroyale.com/frozen-custard-cake/

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BUTTERSCOTCH POT DE CREME

Your are gonna lick your spoon clean on this one. I am confident of that. Butterscotch Pot de Creme—um, yes please and then yes five more times.

I think I’m going to be wearing stretchy yoga pants for the next few weeks from all my butterscotch pot de creme eating.

But here’s the deal, this recipe required a few runs. The first run the flavor was too weak, so in the second run I extended the carmel cooking time and cooked it to a dark copper color – it worked. The flavor was nice  and strong. With the flavor nailed down, the third run was to tweak the texture for a creamier finish, so I added in an extra egg yolk—it worked. Fourth run was necessary for the pictures and to proof the recipe one more time. Fifth run, was for the video. Yes, the VIDEO! I thought a how-to video on making this recipe would be a nice companion to the written recipe. All that said, you can see how I ate and ate, then ate and ate, and then ate some more.

Now, if you have a two minutes tomorrow, I would love it if you dropped in and watched the videot. Just be kind, it’s a freshmen effort, and if you have been a reader for any length of time on here, you know my obsessive ways, so expect each one to improve (or so I hope) as I learn my way through vlogging.

BUTTERSCOTCH POT DE CREME

YIELD: 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preparation: Heat oven to 300 degrees F

Place cream, milk and dark brown sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat and cook to a simmer (small bubbles will appear around the edge of the pan), stirring often until sugar dissolves. Do not let the mixture boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place water and sugar in medium size sauce pan over high heat, stir until sugar dissolves. Once dissolved, continue to cook, swirling the saucepan by the handle. Remove any sugar crystals that form inside of the pan with a brush dipped in cold water. Cook mixture until it turns dark copper in color and just starts to smoke, about 3-5 minutes. Turn off heat and carefully add the cream mixture with one hand and whisking with the other until fully combined (be careful not to burn yourself, wear oven mitts if needed).

Slowly add and whisk the hot mixture into the eggs to temper it. Pour mixture through a sieve to catch any chunks before filling oven-proof jars or ramekins. Place filled jars into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Transfer pan to oven then fill pan with simmering water a 1/2 inch up from bottom of jar. Bake at 300 degrees F for 35-40 minutes. Pot de creme is ready when custard slightly jiggles when jar is shaken. Remove the pan from the oven and the jars from the the pan. Let cool completely. Cover each jar with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator until chilled, at least two hours or overnight. Serve chilled with a sprinkling of some fleur de sel.

http://www.bakersroyale.com/butterscotch-pot-de-creme/

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JELLY DOUGHNUT RECIPE

Do you know what I love about a doughnut? It’s almost like having cake for breakfast, but almost better because it’s deep fried.

Okay, so I might be stretching it because these doughnuts require yeast while most cakes don’t; and this hardly has any butter, whereas most cakes do. But do we have to be technical? Let’s just agree that it’s a spongy-like cake with a little more elasticity.

Yeah. Okay, let’s do this.

Please.

Because I even went as far as doing step-by-step photos to show you how easy this recipe is to pull off. Admittedly, step-by-step photos take a good long while to do, but I tried a video and that was a colossal failure. I scrapped it half way through. Ah well. Luckily, the pictures worked out, so really, now  you must make this. I promise it’s worth the effort. But if I still haven’t convinced you, pass this along to a friend who will make these for you, because homemade doughnuts are the awesome-est (awesomest – a real word if you play Scrabble with me) and even more awesome when they are jelly-filled.

HOMEMADE JELLY DOUGHNUTS

YIELD: Makes 18-20 doughnuts

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup milk (100 degrees to 110 degrees)
• 1/3 cup + 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions:

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Place yeast, warm milk, and 1 teaspoon sugar in a small bowl. Set aside until foamy and doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Place flour in a large bowl. Create a well in the center and add eggs, yeast mixture, 1/4 cup sugar, butter, and salt. Using a wooden spoon, stir dough starts to come together and is sticky. Flour a work surface and knead until dough is smooth, soft, and bounces back when poked with a finger, about 8 minutes (add more flour if necessary). Place in a lightly oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Lightly flour a work surface, roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch-round cutter, cut 20 rounds. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise 15 minutes.

In medium saucepan over medium heat, heat oil until a deep-frying thermometer registers 370 degrees. Using a slotted spoon, carefully slip 2 rounds into oil. Fry until golden, about 40 seconds. Turn doughnuts over; fry until golden on other side, another 40 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet. Roll in sugar while warm. Fry all dough, and roll in sugar.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a #4 tip with jam. Using a wooden skewer or toothpick, make a hole in the side of each doughnut. Fit the pastry tip into a hole, pipe about 2 teaspoons jam into doughnut. Repeat with remaining doughnuts.

Adaptations I made to the original recipe:

This recipe is untraditional in the sense that it lets the yeast proof beyond just foaming. I let the yeast double in size because it makes for  a jelly doughnut that is just a bit chewier the way I like it. To keep, the doughnuts pillowy-soft stick to the original recipe and proof the yeast just until foamy, about 10 minutes.

The original recipe uses water, I use milk instead. I went for the latter because it seems to hold the heat a bit longer than water, a necessary thing when you proof the yeast to double the size rather than just foamy (this is solely an empirical observation and not scientific in any way).

The original recipe uses 2 1/2 cups of four, but I dropped that to 2 1/4 cup.

The original recipe uses two large eggs, but I went for 3 large egg yolks instead for some added density and chewiness—again, if you like your jelly doughnut pillowy soft and light, stick to the original recipe and just use two eggs.

Lastly, I skipped the nutmeg.

http://www.bakersroyale.com/homemade-jelly-doughnut-recipe/

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