Hodgepodge

Okay, here goes nothing.  I'm going to try and get everything posted.

First up is Joy the Baker's Candy Bar Blondies.  This was a no brainer!  If  you've read my blog just a few times you know how I feel about Blondies!  I followed her recipe and added Milk Duds, Twix, and Heath Bars as my 2 cups of candy. 

 

 

I don't have a recipe for you for the cake.   No worries, you're not missing anything there as it is just a combination of a Jiffy cake mix (I know you're cringing) that I found in the pantry, about a half a can of leftover pumpkin and some pumpkin pie spice.  With regards to the  spice, I kept adding until the batter was tasty, it took quite a bit.  The cake actually turned out pretty good and was very moist but it was the Orange Double   Cream Frosting I found on the blog, Hey, That Tastes Good that was outstanding!  I loved the orange flavor of the frosting, it wasn't over powering and it tasted wonderful with the pumpkin.  Check out the gorgeous specks of orange zest, YUM!  Question for ya while I have ya here, what's up with the big holes?  I didn't drop my pans on the counter should I have? Clue me in!  THX!

 

Peanut Butter Buckeye Bars from Cooking by the Seat of My Pants was another keeper recipe that I made recently.  Easy and good, I made these for Devon's end of the season football party.  I cut them up pretty small and got about 32 out of the pan.  Most of them were eaten except for a few and that was mostly because I made Simple S' mores Bars and everyone went for those first!

 

Out of all the desserts that I've made for the kids over the past month this one was hands down the kids' favorite.  The funny thing is I've seen this recipe around the web a lot but it was the picture at Kat's Kitchen of the Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffin that was the straw that broke the camel's back.  I've come to realize that for my three cinnamon is the key ingredient.  If it has a cinnamony (Grace is that correct spelling?) taste then they love it.  I did make one slight change in the recipe which was to use demerara sugar for the cinnamon sugar topping on half of the muffins.  I loved the added crunch.

 

This next recipe comes from Rice and Beans and Other Fine Things.  Like a dummy I only made half the recipe for Tortilla Toffee thinking that would be enough for my three and my nephew.  I  figured Joe and I would pass on it.  Duh, that  toffee was so addictive!  I think Joe and I might have eaten more than our fair share.  Joe added his stolen pieces to a bowl of Blue Bell's Homemade Vanilla ice cream. Can you say genius? 

Besides halving the recipe I added some of pecans I received from Oh,Nuts instead of peanuts.   I know that I mentioned in another post about the free nuts I received but if you didn't read it, here's a quick summary.....save your money and order your nuts from them.  They are much better than anything you'll find at the grocery store.

 

I found the following recipe, Pumpkin Coffee Cake on the blog Life Lightly Salted.  While it came out very good, pumpkin pie mixed with tender moist cake and capped with yummy crumb topping I did not like the vagueness of the directions.  Here's an example.......The second to the last of the instructions was "pour the remaining cake layer mixture over  the pumpkin layer."  Well, when I did that it just blobbed to the bottom as the cake layer mixture was more dense than the pumpkin layer.  I swirled it in as best as I could and added the crumb topping during the last 15 minutes of baking since it too was a bit more dense that the pumpkin filling and I didn't want it to end up at the bottom.  Because I didn't have enough walnuts  I threw in some of Oh,Nuts' pecans to make my one cup.  While it may not sound like it I would make this again. 

The following three recipes I didn't get photos of as they were made the night before Thanksgiving and eaten the day of, with all of the hecticness I neglected to take any photos.  Guess what?  I talked to Santa and he said I was indeed very good and can expect to find  a special light that will allow me to take decent photos at night!  What I wonder will be my excuse for crappy photos after I start using it? 

Baked French Toast from the blog Mommy?  I'm Hungry!  Joe actually made this and used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon so the filling was not as sweet as it should have been.  I also thought the "sandwiches" needed to be flipped midway as the bottoms were still soggy after their 40 minute bake but the recipe didn't mention it.  I'd like to give this one more try on the kids.  While they are pancake lovers I think this would be a nice change for them once I get it right.  I especially love that it is put together the night before!

Up next another pumpkin recipe (it is the season), this one, Pumpkin Bundt Cake comes from Dinner with Kirsten.  I followed the directions for the cake but used Grace's (A Southern Grace) recipe for the frosting.  It comes from the Sweet Spud Cake with Pray-leeen Pa-cahns recipe.  The pumpkin cake was so moist and because I poured the praline pecan frosting still warm over the cake it made it even more so.  The cake would have been terrific on it's own but the frosting made it so rich and decadent, just right for Thanksgiving!

Last and certainly not least was a mistake that I salvaged.  I intended to make the Chewy Butterscotch Brownies that Bakerella featured with her recipe for Butterscotch Ganache but instead of baking them in a regular pan I decided to use my mini muffin pan.  Here's where I hit a snag, though I sprayed the pan well, it was not well enough as the brownies wouldn't come out of the pan.  After getting Babygirl to scoop them out with a spoon and into a Tupperware I went ahead with the ganache and made a trifle out of all the broken bits.  Except for two tablespoons I layered the broken butterscotch brownies on the bottom of my bowl, poured 2/3 of the vanilla pudding that I made out of a box on top of that, mixed the last third of the pudding mixture with coolwhip, threw it in as my top layer, sprinkled the last bit of butterscotch brownie crumbs on top, and drizzled some of the butterscotch ganache over it all. This was good the first day, no complaints but was even better the next after the butterscotch brownies which by the way are really blondies soaked up all the yumminess of the other layers!  I'm really impressed with myself that I didn't just pitch the brownies when I thought they didn't turn out!

I know that I've been longwinded and probably should have broken this up into a bunch of individual posts but  I just knew it wouldn't happen if I didn't sit down and do it all NOW.  Even if you don't try the recipes that I've mentioned please visit all the various blogs.  Besides the recipes I've linked here they have many others featured that are equally if not more delicious!

LiveJournal Tags: bars,brownies,blondies,pumpkin,frosting,pecans,french toast,candy bars,peanut butter,chocolate,cinnamon,orange,muffins,donuts