Made By Melissa

This months Tasty Tools is all about the scoop. What to make with a scoop? I have 3 different size scoops, all perfect for there own little jobs, so my options were pretty much endless. I ended up choosing this recipe for snickerdoodles for a couple of reasons. Number one, I love snickerdoodles. These classic cinnamon-sugar cookies are delicious, and it’s fun to say “snickerdoodle.” Reason number two, there was a recipe for them in my new Sweet Melissa Baking Book, by Melissa Murphy, that I have been dying to use.

Snickerdoodles

• For the Dough:
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• For the Cinnamon Sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined. The dough will be soft and too sticky to roll. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Position a rack in the top and bottom thirds of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

For the cinnamon sugar: Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Using a 1-ounce cookie scoop, or a tablespoon, shape the dough into balls and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten them slightly with your fingertips so that they stay put. Bake for about 12 to 13 minutes, or until the bottoms are slightly golden in color. These cookies are supposed to be chewy, so do not overbake. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Snickerdoodles keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. For longer storage, freeze well wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for up to 3 weeks. Do not uncover before defrosting.

Makes 3 dozen cookies. I used my Pampered Chef medium scoop (2 tablespoons) and got about 20 cookies.

When Joelen posted about her new blogging event, Tasty Tools, I immediately knew I wanted to make key lime something. I love all key lime desserts, but have never made any at home. When I went to Target to pick up a microplane, I wandered into the magazine aisle, and ”The Best of America’s Test Kitchen: Best Recipes and Reviews of 2008″ jumped right out at me. I flipped through it and sure enough on page 56 “The Best Key Lime Bars.”

The bars came out pretty good, there was something a little “off” in the texture of the filling for me though. I am not sure what it was, but it was almost a little grainy. It may have been something I did, but I followed the directions exactly.

**Update: After sitting overnight, the texture of the filling is much better today. **

The Best Key Lime Bars

ATK Note: If you cannot find fresh Key limes, use regular (Persian) limes. Do not use bottled lime juice. Grate the zest from the limes before juicing them, avoiding the bitter white pith that lies just beneath the outermost skin. The optional coconut garnish adds textural interest and tames the lime flavor for those who find it too intense. The recipe can be doubled and baked in a 13- by 9-inch baking pan; you will need a double layer of extra-wide foil for the pan (each sheet about 20 inches in length) and should increase the baking times by a minute or two.

Crust

• 5 ounces animal crackers
• 3 tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar
• pinch salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Filling

• 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temp
• 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
• pinch salt
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 cup Key lime or fresh lime juice (see note above)(I really wanted to use key limes, so I squeezed all but a couple from the bag to make 1/2 cup)

Garnish (Optional)

• 3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut about 12-inch length extra-wide heavy-duty foil; fold cut edges back to form 7 1/2-inch width. With folded sides facing down, fit foil securely into bottom and up sides of 8-inch-square baking pan, allowing excess to overhang pan sides. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

TO MAKE THE CRUST: In workbowl of food processor, pulse animal crackers until broken down, about ten 1-second pulses; process crumbs until evenly fine, about 10 seconds (you should have about 1 1/4 cups crumbs). Add brown sugar and salt; process to combine, ten to twelve 1-second pulses (if large sugar lumps remain, break them apart with fingers). Drizzle butter over crumbs and pulse until crumbs are evenly moistened with butter, about ten 1-second pulses. Press crumbs evenly and firmly into bottom of prepared pan. Bake until deep golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling. Do not turn off oven.

TO MAKE THE FILLING: While crust cools, in medium bowl, stir cream cheese, zest, and salt with rubber spatula until softened, creamy, and thoroughly combined. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk vigorously until incorporated and no lumps of cream cheese remain; whisk in egg yolk. Add lime juice and whisk gently until incorporated (mixture will thicken slightly).

TO ASSEMBLE AND BAKE: Pour filling into crust; spread to corners and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until set and edges begin to pull away slightly from sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cover with foil and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours.

Loosen edges with paring knife and lift bars from baking pan using foil extensions; cut bars into 16 squares. Sprinkle with toasted coconut, if using, and serve. (Leftovers can be refrigerated up to 2 days; crust will soften slightly. Let bars stand at room temperature about 15 minutes before serving.)

I am willing to try another recipe, so if you have one or know of one, please feel free to leave me a comment with a link!

This month’s Master Baker ingredient was Easter candy. Since I knew I would be working Easter Sunday, I wanted to make something that I could take to work. I also used this cake to practice some of my newly learned cake decorating skills. The Easter candy I used in this cake: Dove Milk Chocolate Eggs, Cadbury Mini Eggs (best Easter candy ever!) and marshmallow Peeps.

I have been wanting to try this Hershey’s chocolate cake recipe for a while, as it is always highly recommended. The cake was excellent, very moist and dense, but not fudgy. I was a little worried that it was not “chocolatey” enough when I tried the piece I trimmed off the top. But after sitting overnight, it seems like the chocolate flavor developed more.

The frosting on the other hand proved to be more of a challenge then I expected. Maybe it’s something about the Master Baker blog event that my intended recipe will not work out. Last month, I had planned on making an apple strudel, but that was a disaster, so I ended up making cinnamon biscotti. Well this time, the frosting I had planned on making was a complete flop. It turned to liquid and would not set. So, after some frantic google searching I settled on the recipe below from grouprecipes.com. I am so glad I did, it was a perfect match with the chocolate cake. I think it tasted a lot better then my original frosting as well. It was sweet, but not as sweet as a buttercream frosting and the texture was great for decorating with.

I love how this cake came out, and it was a hit with all of my co-workers. I am really proud of myself for taking this “vision” of the cake I had in my head and transforming it into a really cute cake! The colors are slightly different then they appear in the picture, they look better in person.

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. I dropped about a cup of the Dove eggs into the pan. When the cake baked up, these settled on the bottom, but retained their shape providing an extra bit of chocolatey goodness!

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 10 to 12 servings. I wasn’t paying attention to the amount of cake batter this made and baked it in my 8-inch round, 3-inch deep cake pan. Let’s just say it overflowed *slightly* and filled my house with a lovely burnt chocolate smell.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13×9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Marshmallow Frosting

2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 jar (1 lb) marshmallow fluff
1 pkg. ( 1 lb.) confectioners sugar (about 4 cups)
1 tsp. clear vanilla extract

 On medium-high , beat butter until fluffy, 2 minutes.

Add fluff, beat 30 seconds. Gradually beat in confectioners sugar and vanilla until combined. On medium-high, beat 1 minute.Fill and frost cake, using some of frosting to pipe decorative edge around top of cake.

How I decorated the cake: Fill the cake with the white icing. Set aside about 3/4 of a cup then tint the rest of the icing a pale green. I used a combination of Wilton gel coloring in Willow and Kelly greens. Frost the cake with the green, then transfer the remainder of the green in to a pastry bag. Using a number 21 star tip, pipe a green border around the bottom of the cake. Press Cadbury Mini-Eggs into every-other star. Set green icing aside. Tint the remaining icing lavender. I used Wilton gel coloring in violet. Transfer to a pastry bag with a coupler. Write your message on the top of the cake with a number 2 round tip. Change the tip to a number 18 star tip and pipe a border around the top edge. Using the green icing with the number 21 tip, pipe 2 mounds of frosting under where you want each Peep Bunny to go. Stick a toothpick about 1/2 way in to the Peep, then set on top of the mounds of frosting, pushing the other half of the toothpick into the cake.

So I was lucky enough to score some TCHO chocolate during Blakes last give-a-way. If you haven’t checked out Blake’s blog yet, head over there right now and sign up to be a sooper hero! Then maybe you can have free food too!

Now on to the chocolate. TCHO is a new chocolate company who actually manufactures their own chocolate. They worked with Blake to get the word out about their product. I was so excited to come home and see the cute silver bubble wrap sitting in my mailbox. Inside was there signature paper packaging containing 2 small bars of dark chocolate.

This is seriousely good chocolate. Smooth, rich and just the right balance of dark chocolate flavor. Visit the TCHO website to learn more about who TCHO is, read reviews, and even order some of your own chocolate.

Yay! I have joined the foodie blogroll! The blogroll was created by The Leftover Queen to create a community of food bloggers. Click here to learn more, or to become a member of this growing community! Be sure to click to foodie blogroll icon in the right sidebar to see all of the wonderful food blogs out there.

Why do you build me up (peanut) butter cup, baby?

This was my inspiration for the Eat to the Beat blog event. Elly, over at Elly Says Opa, created a this event, where you have to make a dish that somehow relates to food. I struggled with this for several days, before I heard this song on the radio. With it’s catchy lyrics and up-beat tune, Build me up Buttercup, but The Foundations, is one of my favorite oldies songs. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this sooner.

I was aiming to re-create the chocolate peanut butter cup dessert that is served at Uno’s. Nate loves this dessert. It has a crumbly cookie bottom, creamy peanut butter center and smooth chocolate top. I could not find any similar recipes out there, so I set out to make my own.

This is a very rich dessert, perfect for sharing!

Peanut Butter Cup Dessert

• 1 cup crushed chocolate cookies (I used chocolate Teddy Grams)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter, divided
• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I think next time I may do 3/4 semi-sweet and 1/4 bitter-sweet)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine crushed cookie crumbs, sugar and 3 tablespoons melted butter. Divide and press into the bottom of 4 ramekins. Bake for 4-5 minutes in preheated oven, set aside to cool. (This step could probably be skipped, but I think baking the crust helps it hold together better)

Mix together peanut butter,  remaining tablespoon of butter and confectioners sugar, until smooth. Spread peanut butter mixture over cooled cookie crust.

Melt chocolate chips in a medium bowl over just barely simmering water, stirring occasionally. Pour chocolate over peanut butter mixture and spread into a smooth layer. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

To serve, dip ramekin into a bowl of warm water for a minute or so. Invert onto a plate, then onto serving plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream (I was out) and garnish with chocolate sauce.

For my first ever blog challenge, I chose this one, created by Nikki over at Crazy Delicious. The rules are pretty simple- she picks an ingredient and you bake whatever you want, as long as it contains that ingredient. She even picked an easy ingredient for the first round, cinnamon.

Sounds easy, right? Well, I decided to challenge myself a little more and choose another ingredient that I had not worked with to much, filo dough. I found a fabulous recipe for an apple strudel using filo, bought my ingredients and was ready to go. A large blob of apple-pecan-filo slop later, I had to change my plan. I am not sure what went wrong, and I plan to find another recipe to make with my remaining filo dough, but just could not handle attempting that damn strudel again.

Still wanting to make something I had never made before, I came across this recipe for cinnamon biscotti from Cooking Light. Success! The biscotti were light, crispy and perfect for dipping into my warm cup of tea. I plan to take the remainder of the biscotti into work with a bag of Dunkin Donuts Vanilla Spice coffee for my co-workers. I think the two together will be a very nice treat.

Be sure to visit the Master Baker Blog to see what everyone else bakes up!

Cinnamon Biscotti

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons stick margarine, melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine eggs, margarine, and vanilla; stir with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 10 times. Shape dough into a 16-inch-long roll. Place roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; flatten to a 3/4-inch thickness. Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; sprinkle over dough.

Bake at 325° for 30 minutes. Remove roll from baking sheet; let cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Cut roll diagonally into 24 (1/2-inch) slices. Place, cut sides down, on a baking sheet. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; let cool completely on a wire rack.

I happened to be wandering around Whats Cooking? board last week when there was a post about this guy, Blake and he was giving away this stuff that he makes. Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche, to be more specific. Blake was doing a Dulce give-a-way that night, and I just happened to score a sample.

One taste and I knew I had to make something special with my little jar of peanut-caramely goodness. Hmmm, what to make…… cheesecake! So I adapted this recipe to make 2 small cheesecakes in ramekins, with a Dulce de Leche swirl. These little cheesecakes were fabulous! I heated the Dulce to make it easier to swirl, but as soon as I dropped it in to the batter, it hardened slightly, so my swirls aren’t as pretty as I would like. If I happened *winking at Blake* to come across a larger container of Dulce de Leche, I think it would work better in a large cheesecake. Honestly though, this stuff would be good on anything. Make sure you visit Blake’s website and sign up to be a Sooper Hero- then maybe you can have your very own little jar of PBDDL.

Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche Swirl Cheesecake

• 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

• 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 3 ingredients to make graham cracker crust. Press into ramekins, bake for 4-5 minutes for crust to harden slightly. Remove from oven and let cool.

Put a pot of water on to simmer for the water bath. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in sugar and vanilla. Beat in egg,  just until well blended. Pour filling into the prepared crust.  Heat the PBDDL in the microwave for about 5 seconds. Put little dollops of PBDDL all over the cheesecake, then swirl in with a toothpick. I used all of my little jar of Dulce for my 2 ramekins.

Set the ramekins in a pan. Put the pan with the cheesecake on the oven rack then slowly add boiling water to the larger pan to a depth of about 2 inches. Bake the cheesecakes for 25-30 minutes, until the middle is almost completely set. Remove from oven and let sit in the water bath for another 15 minutes to cool. Remove from water bath and cool on a rack for 45 minutes - 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator for another 2-3 hours.

When ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of the cheesecakes to loosen, invert onto a plate, then onto  the plate you want to serve them on. Garnish with peanuts.