Cookies, Anyone?

No, I didn’t bake cookies but the good people at Tate’s Bake Shop sent me 3 packages (Tate’s famous Chocolate Chip cookies, White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut, and Oatmeal Raisin) of them along with their cookbook.  Thank you.   With cookies being sparse around 3B’s they didn’t have to twist my arm to get me to agree to sample their cookies.  :)

I’m not going to twist your arm either but suggest instead, that if you’d like to eat cookies and not have to bake them yourself then leave me a comment for a chance to win Tate’s Bake Shop cookies and cookbook.  For an extra entry hop over to Tate’s Bake Shop Facebook page and become a fan.  And if you don’t want to wait to see if you win, Tate’s has also generously provided you with a discount code (cookies) for 15% off your order, from now until December 31st at tatesbakeshop.com. 

Along with the cookies I also received Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook by Kathleen King.  I really enjoyed it and have several recipes bookmarked to try.  The recipes are straight forward and the ingredients are ones readily available.  My only complaint about the cookbook is, photos are sparse.  There is a section in the middle with 8 photos.  Eight photos and yet there is over a 100 recipes?  I don’t know about you but I’m of the opinion that a cookbook should include photos for at least 25% of the recipes.  (Can I get an Amen?) I know what a chocolate chip cookie looks like. I wanna see your Lemon Cream Cheese Tart (pg. 82) or your Lime Mousse Cake (pg. 129).   And for you chocolate lovers, how about the Chocolate Mousse Cake (pg. 109)?  Wouldn’t you like to see that beauty?  With mousse in the title even I would like to see a photo of it!

With Kathleen famous for her cookies I probably should have tried one of the cookie recipes but you know me.  I dived into a bar one instead and whipped up the White Chocolate Brownies (pg. 58).  Kathleen says, “They are like a dense, yummy vanilla bar with cranberries and almonds.”  I agree except without the cranberries.  You can see from my bottom photo the texture and crumb is reminiscent of a pound cake.  The “brownies” are extremely dense but tender and surprisingly moist.  I thought perhaps I had over cooked them and that they would be dry but they were perfect.  To kick things up a notch I drizzled warm raspberry jam over individual pieces. Yes, I’ll definitely be making these again.  They were a great change from our usual banana, caramel, butterscotch, or cinnamon filled dessert!

White Chocolate Brownies, adapted from Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook, by Kathleen King

• 9 Tbs. butter, cut into pieces
• 9 oz white chocolate; I used Valrhona, which I had saved for a special occasion.
• 1 Tbs. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup dried cranberries;  I left out
• 1/2 cup of almonds chopped; I used sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray and place waxed paper in a 9 inch square baking pan. (I used an 8 inch pan and lined it with aluminum foil that I lightly sprayed with Pam. I suggest sticking with the 9 inch pan.)

In a small pot combine the butter  and white chocolate. Over low heat melt the butter and chocolate slowly.  Remove pot from heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.  Add the vanilla. (Normally I would take the easy route and use the microwave but I’ve over heated white chocolate too many times that way.  On the stove I have more control and can tell when to take it off the stove.)

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.  With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until they are thick and pale.  Add the chocolate mixture and mix until it is combined.  Add in the flour mixture and mix until it is combined.  Stir in the cranberries and almonds if adding.

Spread evenly into the pan (or sprinkle sliced almonds evenly across the top of batter, as I did) and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Don’t under bake. 

Refrigerate the brownies overnight. Remove them from the pan and cut into squares.

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Giveaway Rules & Info

• For the first and main entry, answer this question, “Are you a cookie baker or eater?”
• For a second entry, become a “fan” of Tate’s on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment telling me.
• The giveaway ends on Saturday, December 11th and a random winner will be selected on Sunday, December 12th. 
• Please leave an email address where you can be reached.  Once a winner has been selected he/she will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be randomly selected.

At this time the giveaway is only open to U.S residents.

For a 15% discount at tatesbakeshop.com use the discount code, cookies.  Offer good through December 31st, 2010.

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Disclosure:  I received Tate’s cookies and cookbook free of charge.  The opinions stated here are completely my own.

Double Apple Bundt Cake w/Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce & A Giveaway

We have lots to talk about today but let’s talk about double apple bundt cake over first.  I’m sure you saw it as it was all over the blogosphere last month when the baking group TWD made it. I don’t recall anyone going crazy over it but I was intrigued by the addition of apple butter.  I didn’t want to buy any just to make cake so I set the recipe a side.  As luck would have it I not only received homemade apple butter from Maranda but soon after I also received some from Musselman’s.  Score!

The cake recipe suggests allowing the cake to sit overnight.  Do it.   The flavors need time to develop.  The first night I baked the cake and we tried it we were all underwhelmed.  We changed our minds after we tried it again the next night but if you really want your taste buds to sit up and take notice pour on some bourbon butterscotch sauce. 

When Kristen over at The Kitchen Sink Recipes blogged about this sauce she said she couldn’t get it out of her head.  I believed her because I made her Salted Caramel Sauce and it was every bit as good as she said it was so, I knew I had to try this one.  This sauce is even better than it sounds I think you could pour it on a bowl of raisins and I’d eat ‘em.  Okay, that may be a bit extreme but you get my drift.  I’m not gonna lie to you though I had issues making it. It seized up when I slowly poured in the bourbon and water. To say that I was disappointed was an understatement.  Instead of this wonderful sauce, I had a big lump of  caramelized sugar sitting in my pot.  Because I couldn’t just toss the whole thing into the sink I set it a side.  When I came back to check if it had cooled enough to clean. I noticed that my lump of sugar was smaller.  I put it back on the stove with the heat set at low and stirred it off and on for almost an hour! In the end it was worth. 

Double Apple Bundt Cake

From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From my home to yours”

• 2 cups AP flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup apple butter
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and grated
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (I left out)
• ½ cup plump, moist raisins (You could add these but WHY?)
• Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 9- to 10- inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. If your pan is not nonstick, dust the interior of the pan with flour, then tap out the excess. Don’t place the pan on a baking sheet – you want the oven’s heat to circulate through the Bundt’s inner tube.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed, scarping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick, and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition; you’ll have a light, fluffy batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter – don’t worry if it curdles the batter. Still on low, add the grated apples and mix to completely blend. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the nuts and raisins. Turn the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter with the rubber spatula.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a think knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding and cooling the cake to room temperature.  If possible, once the cake is completely cool, wrap well in plastic and let it stand overnight at room temperature to ripen the flavors.

Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce, The Kitchen Sink Recipes

Yield: 1 3/4 cups

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup bourbon
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
pinch salt
2 tablespoons heavy cream

In a dry 3-quart heavy kettle cook sugar over moderately low heat, stirring slowly with a fork (to help sugar melt evenly), until melted and pale golden. Cook caramel, without stirring, swirling kettle, until deep golden. Remove kettle from heat and carefully add water and bourbon down side of kettle (mixture will bubble and steam). Simmer mixture, stirring, until caramel is dissolved. Stir in butter and a pinch of salt until incorporated and cool sauce to warm.  When the sauce has cooled to warm, stir in the cream.

Butterscotch bourbon sauce may be made 1 week ahead and chilled covered. Reheat sauce to warm before serving.

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Can you believe next week is Thanksgiving and Christmas is not far behind?  I’ve been thinking a lot about the things I’m thankful for in my life and outside of the obvious ones (family, health, & a job) one of the things I’m grateful for is my blog.  It has given me so much.  The most important thing it has  given me is an opportunity to “meet” and interact with all of you.   So, to show my thanks for sticking with me through the “quiet” times, for your words of praise and encouragement I’m giving away two $35 William Sonoma* gift cards to two commenters. 

Giveaway Info

Rules:

• Leave a comment on this post by midnight December 1st. (Please be sure to leave contact information.)

Yes, it’s that easy.  You don’t need to be a follower, you don’t have to “like” or “fan” me, and you don’t need to tweet about how awesome a giveaway this is.  :) I mean, you can if you want but you’ll only get my appreciation and not another entry.

Disclosures:

• This is my giveaway and it is being funded by me. 
• *The giveaway is open to everyone.  For those of you overseas I will send you an Amazon gift card.  It appears Amazon is the only one that will ships overseas. Sorry.
• Two names will randomly be selected on December 2nd. 

Good Luck!

 

We Interrupt Your Normally Scheduled Post to Bring you….

a review and giveaway!  Your nutella marshmallow mousse post will be back next week in it’s normally scheduled spot.  :)  In it’s place we have margarine.  Not any ol’ margarine but I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! margarine.

Last month I received an email from Lauren asking if I’d be interested in trying a couple of recipes that called for the margarine, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!.  This was an easy yes.  While I always have butter on hand, there’s also, always a small tub of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! along side it.  In the package I received from Lauren, was a folder with three recipes, a $25 gift card to use toward the purchase of the recipe ingredients, and a lovely serving platter. 

I made two out of three of the recipes. After my recipe reviews you’ll see how you can win the same package allowing you to sample a “Reach Right” recipe.

The first recipe I made was Amaretto Cheesecakes in Pastry Shells.  This recipe was very easy.  The toughest part was not eating the filling while you waited for the shells to cool.  My three kiddos really loved these and with only six puff pastry shells and five of us there was some frantic negotiating  for that last one.  So to keep things fair I ate it.  :)  Kidding! 

The second recipe I made was Honey-Nut Glazed Brie.  This was my favorite.  Love, love, love those nuts!    I actually took this to party that my neighbor was having so my children didn’t get to try it.  I’m pretty certain they would have loved it too.  The brie was gone well before the party was over so I took that as a sign it was good.  The host and hostess thanks me several times for bring it and mentioned how much they enjoyed it.

Both of these recipes will be making a return appearance in my kitchen.   ( I’ve got big plans for those nuts!)Not only were they “Reach Right ” choices but they were both very easy and quick to put together.  Does this mean I’m done with butter?  Uh, no but it is nice to know that I can use my I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!  for more than buttering my bread.  :)

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! asks you to  “Reach Right” for nutritious tasty food. If you click here you can see  see the fat comparison between I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, Smart Choice, and butter.  While you’re reaching right they also want you to Turn the Tub Around!  You can click here for more info on the Big Fat Truth about spreads and if you’re really feeling the margarine click here to follow I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! on twitter! : )

Now for the giveaway info….answer this question.  Which has more trans fat, butter or I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!? I will randomly select and announce the winner on Wed. March 17th. 

Please note: This giveaway is being run by me and I am not receiving any monetary compensation for it!  Thanks and good luck!

And the 10 Lucky Winners are….

Before I list the winners out I would like to thank Krista and Lucky Leaf for offering my readers the chance to win a sample of their pie filling and a heart shaped cake pan. 

Nine of the lucky winners were chosen by my three children.  They each picked 3 numbers and I picked the tenth number.   To claim your prize please email me (joes1pain<at>hotmail<.>com) your mailing address.  You have until Friday noon to respond. 

For those of you that didn’t win have no fear, I  have another giveaway coming up this weekend along with two yummy recipes!

# 5

Julie Q. said...

I can't wait to try the Cherry Chocotinis - what a perfect valentine's dessert!

#13

oneordinaryday said...

The cake is so festive! My kids would love a heart shaped cake. : )
I saw the recipe for blueberry salad and it jolted a memory of my great aunt making something she called blueberry salad when we were kids. Now I've gotta go track that down and compare recipes.
(Love the pic of Joe and baby girl. Couldn't be any sweeter.)

#18

steph said...

Your cake is so pretty and perfect for Valentines! I need to get started on my Valentine's sweets!

#23

Andrew's Mom said...

What a beautiful picture - the father and daughter - not that the cake isn't nice too. I'd try apple butter bread.

#25

teresa said...

aw, what a precious picture! your cake turned out so pretty! i would love to try that cherry crisp, mmmmm.

#32

Katy ~ said...

That is the most adorable picture. Your husband and baby girl are just alight with love and anticipation of a evening made of wonderful memories. You make my throat tighten with emotion and joy for them and for your beautiful family.
Let's see. I spent some time cruising the Lucky Leaf site (I didn't even know they had one til your post) and saw any number of tempting recipes, blueberry moon pasties, coconut cherry squares, and strawberry frosting.
I think I'm going with the strawberry frosting first. That has really intrigued me and considering I'm on a bit of a cupcake kick, I think that frosting sounds totally irresistible.

#36

Amber said...

Cherry Pineapple Surprise - sounds easy and delicious!
Thanks!

#48

Diana's Cocina said...

Awwww, a father-daughter dance, how awesome! Your cake looks perfect. Seconds Please Peach Cake
sound yummy to me :).

#50

Eliana said...

Your cake looks just lovely. And what a gorgeous daughter you have. She is going to be a heartbreaker!

#54

Lori said...

Hmmm blueberry upside down cake. Yum!
I love that picture of your daughter and husband- so sweet.

Lucky Leaf & 10 Lucky Winners

At the end of January Krista from Lucky Leaf contacted me about trying their one of their Lucky Leaf premium pie fillings.  While I’m not crazy about pies my children are so I figured why not. Along with the two cans of  Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie fillings I received Wilton’s heart shaped pan, a set of heart shaped measuring spoons, and recipe card for a sweetheart cherry cake.

My honest opinion?  I still don’t like mushy fruit but thought the cherry pie filling had a pleasantly sweet flavor and  it didn’t have that awful artificial cherry taste.  I made a slight change to the recipe in that I added all the pie filling at once.  I did this so my mixer would chop up the cherries as I didn’t want chunks of them  in my cake. Both the kids and I really liked the cake.   (I loved the frosting and wish I could have split the cake into two layers as I had plenty of frosting to fill it.) The only issue I had with it was that the outside was done well before the middle.  I think there may be too much batter for the pan.  Next time I’ll divide the batter between two pans instead of the one.  Thanks Krista for the chance to try Lucky Leaf!  I’ll be keeping my eye open for more the next time I go to the grocery store. I’m thinking  strawberry pie filling with a lemon cake!

I’m sure you’re wondering about the 10 lucky winners.  Well, Krista and Lucky Leaf have very generously offered to give 10 lucky commenters a chance to sample their products and receive a Wilton heart shaped pan along with the sweetheart cherry cake recipe card! All you need to do it swing by Lucky Leaf and tell me what recipe you’d like to try. (I’m hoping you’ll find some good ones I might have missed!)  Besides my giveaway click here for info on Lucky Leaf’s Blue Ribbon Recipe Contest.  You’ll have a chance at $1000 and $50 worth of Lucky Leaf premium pie filling products!  Good luck!

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Here’s a photo of Babygirl and Joe just before they left tonight to attend Winter Springs’ Annual Father Daughter Dance!

Oh Nuts? Oh, Yeah!

Earlier this week I received an email from Sam at Oh Nuts asking if I was interested in hosting a Holiday Giveaway. My immediate response was, “Heck, Yeah!”  I’d love to give away a $25 gift certificate to Oh Nuts!   So, you guys in, too?  Yes? Yes!  Here’s three ways you can win! 

1. Go to the Oh Nuts Hanukkah gifts page or to the Christmas Nuts Gift page.  Choose your favorite Hanukkah Gift or Christmas Gift and leave me a comment  here  with the name and url of the gift you love the most.

2. Go to the Oh Nuts facebook page  become a fan and post on the wall the url and name of their favorite  Hanukkah Gift or Christmas Gift.  Don’t forget to write "I am here via  3B’s….Baseball,Baking, and Books!"

3. Or Follow @ohnuts and  Tweet

" Win a free Hanukkah Gift from http://bit.ly/6nIsCi Follow @ohnuts & Retweet to enter.  "

OR you can  Tweet

“ Win a free Christmas Gift from http://bit.ly/537HNp Follow @ohnuts & Retweet to enter.”

I’ve tried several of their products and am confident you will be receiving a quality product once you win and order from their site! 

Here’s the Greenies I made last December with the Oh Nuts pistachios that I received.  

Good luck and you have until midnight Friday, December11th to enter.

Technorati Tags: giveaway

Mini Triple Layer Banana Cake & Finding the Yummiest Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this cake four or five weeks ago when I promised my sitter, Miss Karolyn that I’d make cream cheese frosting (this was the fave) for her mom who was baking 100 banana cupcakes for a baby shower.  Her mom, Beth wasn’t sure what cream cheese frosting tasted like so, I decided to use my brown speckled bananas to bake a  few cupcakes and top them cream cheese frosting for her to try.  I only baked 6 cupcakes and  used the rest of the batter to make a mini three layer cake and three mini bundt cakes (My bundt cakes stuck to the pan, so no photos.).   I also used this opportunity  to try out two new recipes.  I used this lovely layered banana cake recipe and its cream cheese frosting recipe which I found on the blog, Evil Shenanigans.

The cake was great the first day and even better I thought the second.  The frosting on the other hand was good but not great.  Miss Karolyn’s mom who I passed along all the cupcakes to liked both the cupcake and the frosting but I thought I could do better with frosting. 

When Miss Karolyn had first asked about the frosting I called my blogging buddy Monica to ask her opinion about how many cups of frosting I would need and to see if she had a recipe to recommend.  She did and I should have listened up and made it from the get go.  I didn’t but luckily I talked to her again and she convinced my I needed her recipe a try.  Oh, my goodness!  It is hands down the yummiest cream cheese frosting I have ever had.  My only issue with it and every cream cheese frosting I’ve ever made is that it doesn’t hold it’s shape or at least mine doesn’t.  It  gets so soft.  Yes, I added powered sugar, as much as I could without over doing it.   Is there some secret I’m missing?  Help! 

Vanilla Bean Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I only added a splash as I used  vanilla bean paste)
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (I used 1Tbs vanilla bean paste)
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar (I used 5 cups)

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Then add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and 3 cups of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like.

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

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Thanks everyone for all your get well wishes.

If you like fun kitchen gadgets check out this post for a chance to win your own Microplane nutmeg grater.

Technorati Tags: banana,cake,cream cheese,frosting,giveaway

A Little Thank You with a Touch of Fall

The official start of Fall was just the other day and while it’s still hotter than Hades here (FL) I know some of you are already enjoying cooler weather.  With the Fall season underway many of you are breaking out those Fall spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  Those of you who have read my blog for awhile  know cinnamon and nutmeg are spices that I happily use all year long.  While I don’t grate my own cinnamon I do grate nutmeg as I need it.  I use this handy dandy gadget by Microplane and I love it.  You can definitely see and smell the difference between the ground bottled stuff and the freshly grated. 

As a little thank you for bearing with me and my sporadic posting and commenting I wanna give you the chance to win your own handy dandy nutmeg grater.  Along with the grater I’m going to send you a bottle of nutmeg AND cinnamon sticks.  Why stop with nutmeg, right?!  The only thing you have to do to win is leave a comment telling me what’s your favorite gadget and fall dessert.  When leaving your comment don’t forget to include a way for me to get a hold of you.  Unfortunately, I’m not certain what rules there are when shipping “food/spice” overseas so this giveaway will have to be for those in the continental US. Sorry! 

Technorati Tags: giveaway

S'mores Bread Pudding

When you have bread going stale what do you make?  Why bread  pudding of course!  And if you're me S'mores bread pudding to be exact! :)

I remembered drooling over Peabody's photos of her S'mores Bread Pudding awhile back and new this was the perfect opportunity to give it a go. 

 

I checked out the recipe since it had been a while and I couldn't  find the printout in the stack of ten thousand sheets I have lying in a mountainous pile.What I found after checking the recipe was that she used a Hot Chocolate bread.  Well, I wasn't making one and the whole point of the bread pudding was to use up my leftover baguette.  Not to be deterred I decided to adapt the recipe to suit my purpose and taste.  I think I did pretty good though I'm sure had I followed her recipe I would have also been happy. 

S’mores Bread Pudding (my adaptations in red)

1 Guatemalan Hot Chocolate Bread (recipe follows)- cut up into square pieces (I used 1 loaf of french bread.)

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
½ cup whole milk  (I used 2%)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

10 graham crackers
¾ cup mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet Guittard chocolate chips)
2 cups marshmallows (give or take, the amount is really up to you, I used minis)

Butter a 8-x-8-inch pan.  (1 souffle dish)
Whisk together the heavy whipping cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, egg and vanilla extract. Set aside, this is the custard mixture.  (I cut up my baguette and added it to the custard mixture.   I left the bread soaking in the custard and stirred it occasionally until most of the custard was soaked up by the bread.)
Sprinkle bread pieces on the bottom of the pan so that the pan is covered. (I layered the custard soaked bread, graham crackers, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips in the souffle dish.  One layer of bread pudding, one layer of graham cracker, liberally sprinkled with mini marshmallows,chocolate chips, and another layer of bread pudding followed by the graham crackers.)  Break graham crackers in to pieces (I keep mine in whole pieces. Just breaking off pieces to fit my dish.) and sprinkle evenly half of them on top of the bread. Sprinkle evenly half of the chocolate chips as well. Add 1/3 of the custard mixture and press bread down so that the custard soaks in. You may need more custard depending on how dry your bread is. Then add bread pieces again, followed by remaining graham crackers and chocolate chips. Add another 1/3 of the custard mixture and again press the bread down to make sure all the bread pieces get soaked with custard. Keep adding the custard until all of the piece are soak through with custard. You will most likely have both bread pieces and custard left over (I didn't have any of either leftover), feel free to make a mini one.
Place dish in a water bath and bake at 350F for 1 hour. After the first 20 minutes, place aluminum foil on top of the bread pudding to prevent the graham cracker pieces and top of the bread from browning too much.
When the bread pudding comes out of the oven, immediately (I added more chocolate chips and then the marshmallows) spread marshmallows on top to allow them to melt. You can use a kitchen torch (Joe used our kitchen torch) or place under a broiler to get the toasted marshmallow look. Top with chocolate syrup (The kids and I don't do a lot of chocolate so we left off the syrup.) and serve warm (or hot or cold for me).

The sitter, Miss Karolyn and the twins really liked the it.  Babygirl was too slow so she missed out.  Devon, my unofficial taste tester said it was good but that the Bananas Foster one was better.  (I think it was the Bananas Foster sauce that put it over the edge!) I admit to liking this better after it cooled substantially. When I first tasted it still warm (hot) from the oven I didn't like how "wet" the bread still was  (I DO NOT like mushy, soggy  textures! EW!) but after it cooled to room temperature it was perfect, moist with a yummy custardy flavor but not soggy.

I broke out my new kitchen torch and (finally) used it or rather Joe did to toast the marshmallows.  I was a little timid and kept worrying we'd burn the house down or at least each other.  He did a good job.  Did ya see all those lovely toasted marshmallows?

**Please let me know if I missed something in the recipe or if I didn't explain myself well.

Don't forget to answer my question with your opinion and enter my giveaway!

Technorati Tags: giveaway,s'mores,marshmallows,chocolate,graham crackers,bread pudding

Thank you(s) are in order

Unbelievably in March I won THREE different giveaway!  I probably should have played the lotto. 

The first giveaway I won was Grace's Barney Butter.  Unlike many I'm not a fan of peanut butter and will shy away from it unless paired with chocolate, so I was super psyched to be selected as one of the Barney Butter winners on  A Southern Grace. 

Barney Butter is an almond butter.  It is healthy and yummy alternative to peanut butter.  To read more about the health benefits of it click here. 

 

As soon as my jar of Barney Butter arrived I quickly grabbed a spoon, broke the seal, and dug into the jar of crunchy almond butter.  I admit to preferring almond butter over peanut butter when straight from the jar but I'm still unconvinced that I like it with chocolate over peanut butter. 

The following night Babygirl and I slathered some of the almond butter on to graham crackers and topped it all off with a dollop of marshmallow fluff!   Oh, man, talk about good! We wolfed those down as we played cards.  The other dessert I made was one I saw on Sydney's blog, The Crepes of Wrath.  I made some changes to the recipe and have noted them in red.  The bars were made for Babygirl's art teacher's birthday. She said her art teacher shared them with everyone and that there were no complaints.  :-)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
from Velvet Lava

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (1/2 cup, 1 stick)
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (1/2 cup almond butter)
3 cups powdered sugar (1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I used 18whole graham crackers to make the crumbs)  (9whole graham cracker sheets)
1 2/3 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (1 cup semi-sweet)

1. Line and grease a 9×13 (7"x11") inch pan with aluminum foil. In a food processor, grind up your graham crackers (unless you have store-bought crumbs).
2. Add the butter, peanut butter, and sugar to your crumbs and process until a ball forms (you can also beat everything together in your mixer if your processor/blender/whatever can’t do it).
3. Press the mixture into the pan. I found that using my hands worked best.
4. Over a double-boiler, or carefully in the microwave or in a small sauce pan over the stove, melt the chocolate chips, stirring often to prevent burning. Spread the melted chocolate over peanut butter mixture.
5. Chill in refrigerator for about an hour. (When I pulled my bars out of the fridge the chocolate looked like it had bloomed and had dots when it came to room temp. You can see them in the photos.) Allow to come to room temperature before cutting into squares. Store in the refrigerator, or better yet, the freezer! Makes 20-24 bars.(I cut mine smallish so I got about that many.)

I would make them again but I'm not certain I'd use the almond butter.  I think I'd like to try them with peanut butter.

The second giveaway I won was over at  Bunny's Warm Oven.  The  name that was selected would win a $20 Macys gift card which happened to be me!  I haven't used it yet. I'm saving it for something special!

The last  giveaway I won was on A Duck in Her Pond. Though it was totally awesome that I won the other two giveaways this one was special.  I won a short story/book written especially for me by Duckie!  She has been working on it and sent me a rough draft the other day.  I'm so excited and can not wait to see and read the finished book. 

Thanks, Grace, Bunny, and Duckie for the chance to win such cool prizes!  For a chance to win a couple of (I hope) cool prizes please click here and leave me your opinion! 

Technorati Tags: almond butter,Barney Butter,bars,peanut butter,chocolate,giveaway

A Question....

Okay, I've got a couple of questions for you and information about my giveaway. 

In my posts I generally provide a link to the recipe I made instead of posting the recipe here.   Would you guys rather I give you the recipe or are you okay following the link?  My feelings are that if I provide the recipe here you are less likely to check out the other blog.  My second question is many of the recipes I make are not the previous blog's recipe but an adaptation from another source.  Do I need to state where the recipe originated from if I'm not giving the recipe? 

Giveaway info......In my previous post I mentioned that I would be giving away two books.  The first book is The Food Lover's Companion  and the second  is Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  Martha's cookbook is not in print yet (June 2nd) so I will be pre-ordering it for the winner. The winner will be announced on Saturday May 2nd and you'll have until Thursday, April 30th to enter.  I'm  going old school and the winner's name will be pulled out of a hat by Babygirl on May the 1st..  Now on to the important stuff how to enter. All you have to do is leave me a response to my questions. Good luck!

Technorati Tags: question,giveaway

Bananas Foster Bread Pudding

A few weeks ago I while I was visiting the blog, Annie's Eats I saw that she had made Bananas Foster Bread Pudding and that the recipe had won her over.  She says in her post that she hadn't been a fan of bread pudding prior to that recipe.  Already a fan of it I was excited to give the recipe a try. 

I was not disappointed.  The bread pudding was excellent  and the Foster's sauce was even better.  The sauce is one that could be made over and over again to serve with other desserts.  I had some  left over and  topped some vanilla ice cream with it.    The kids loved it as well as the bread pudding.  I would make this again especially the Foster's sauce!  Speaking of making again a few of you asked it I would make again the "sugar cookie" cake from my previous post.  YES, I would!  Sorry I didn't make that clear.  Hope those of you with a love for sugar cookies or just of cake give it a try.

I did have one issue with the recipe.  The amount of "custard" to bread was off.  I had more custard than I needed for the amount of bread used. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until I had added all of the bread (6 cups).  I let my bread soak longer,  in hopes that  it soak up more of the excess custard.  I would have added more bread but I used up all I had.  Not being overly bothered by the extra custard I went ahead and spooned it all into my ramekins and souffle dish and baked for the 50 minute.  While the taste of the extra custard was fine the texture was not really smooth.  It was kind of curdly due I'm certain to the mashed bananas (It might help the texture to puree the bananas  in a blender or food processor) but again it didn't effect the taste as the scrapped clean dish can attest!

I baked my bread pudding in six small ramekins and one medium sized souffle dish.  Thinking and looking back at the photos I should have whipped up some heavy cream to top it all with, duh!  Not only would it have added to the overall photo it would have tasted great along with the bread pudding.  I just never think of those "touches" at the time. :(

Baseball update:  We had a double header this past Saturday and won both games.  The exciting part was I had, on the spur of the moment planned a BBQ for the team.  Thankfully everything went well.  Seems everyone was pleased how it turned out and we have decided to do it again this Saturday during another double header.  I did bake for it but didn't get any photos. Maybe next time and to be quite frank while they were tasy they were  not anything special.

Books:  I'm starting to read Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli.  I am actually reading with my friend Wendy and we started to day.  While I was a B&N with Wendy I also picked up a copy of the Food Lover's Companion.  It's a great reference book.  Yes, you can go on the Internet and get the same info but I'm old school and like looking it up in the book.  I also like the convenience of having it by my side. :-)  Okay, you listening?  I'm having my first giveaway!  One of the items I'm giving away is the book Food Lover's Companion and the other is Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  I'll be pre-ordering you a copy.  It is due to be released on June 2nd. Details soon to follow!

Technorati Tags: bananas,bread pudding,foster sauce,giveaway