Real Butterscotch Pudding - TWD

This was yummy! I love butterscotch everything. Even though I am not really a pudding eater, I knew that this was going to be good.

The recipe was chosen by Donna. She does such an awesome job with her blog and has some great recipes. She also chose a very easy, delicious recipe. You can find the recipe HERE. She made her pudding into a fancy cream pie.


This recipe is certainly not low fat, by any means. It calls for whole milk, heavy cream and eggs. I also was lucky enough to find a tiny bottle of JB scotch. I had no idea that scotch is basically a whiskey?! Huh...who knew?




The pudding was quite simple to put together. After reading the P&Q I was a little concerned that it was going to be a messy affair. I used my food processor and didn't seem to have any problems.

The finished product was very good. My oldest son really liked it too. I topped ours with Dream Whip.

The next several recipe picks for Tuesdays with Dorie were just posted today. I can't wait for that Berry Surprise Cake.

Double Chocolate Kiss Cookies

Also known as: Chocolate Crinkles! When I made the Chocolate Crinkles from Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook last week, they sort of resembled another recipe that I have. But, I like this recipe much better. I put Hershey Kisses in the center and the kisses that I picked up had hot chocolate in the center. They are very good. They taste like brownie bites with a kiss in the middle. YUM!

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups Sugar
¾ Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Cocoa4 eggs2 teaspoons Vanilla
2 1/3 Cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
½ teaspoon salt
60 Hershey Kisses
Powdered SugarDIRECTIONS:In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and oil. Add cocoa, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cocoa mixture.

Cover and chill for 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1” balls with Hershey Kiss in the middle. Roll balls in powdered sugar. Coat hands with powdered sugar to avoid sticking. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Magic in the Middles

I have been making a ton of cookies lately. Mostly for a cookie exchange and giving away as gifts. When I saw these cookies on Recipe Girl I thought they looked delicious. Who doesn't love chocolate and peanut butter?

Magic in the Middles

DOUGH:

1½ cups (6¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup (1½ ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar (plus extra for dipping)
½ cup (4 ounces) brown sugar, packed
½ cup (4 ounces or 1 stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup (2 3/8 ounces) smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg

FILLING:

¾ cup (7 1/8 ounces) smooth peanut butter
¾ cup (3 ounces) powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
2) Prepare dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In another medium bowl, beat together sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beating to combine, then stir in dry ingredients, blending well.
3) Prepare filling: In a small bowl, stir together peanut butter and powdered sugar until smooth. With floured hands, roll the filling into 26 one-inch balls.
4) Shape cookies: Break off about 1 Tbsp. of the dough, make an indentation in the center with your finger, and press one of the peanut butter balls into the indentation. Bring the dough up and over the filling, pressing it closed; roll the cookie in the palms of your hand to smooth it out. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
5) Dip the top of each cookie in granulated sugar and place on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Grease the bottom of a drinking glass and use it to flatten each cookie to about ½-inch-thick.
6) Bake cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, until they're set. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack.

Yield: About 26 cookies

Cooking Tips
*These cookies freeze well. They would travel well too.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup - CEiMB

Mary Ann chose the recipe this week. You have to check out her photos. They are amazing and make the only good one I got of my soup look completely pathetic. She is very talented and I love looking at her blog. You can find the recipe HERE or on page 78 in Ellie's cookbook.

I can't say that I have ever ate a butternut squash. The soup smelled amazingly good while it was cooking. I learned that I will NEVER put anything hot in a blender again to puree. The top blew off the second batch while it was blending and I had squash everywhere. I should have taken a picture of how it ended up in the speaker holes of my kitchen radio/CD player. The Hubster was not impressed. I even tried holding the top on the blender after the first fiasco and that did not help. Again.Squash.Everywhere!

I thought that the soup was good. A tad sweet. I should have only added half of the honey. I don't think that I will be making it again though. The Hubster was very displeased with it and has not been impressed with my Ellie dishes lately. Obviously, he is a HUGE carnivore and needs his meat.

Buttery Jam Cookies - TWD

This cookie recipe was chosen by Heather from Randomosity and the Girl. You can find the recipe HERE or on page 80 in Dorie's cookbook.

I thought that this was a good recipe. I used Smuckers Strawberry Jam. The strawberry and ginger spice combination was really good. The cookies had a nice flavor and were soft. From their appearance I thought that they were going to be crumbly, but that was not the case. These cookies are not the prettiest things though. I wish that I would have flattened them out a bit before baking. They literally stayed in the exact same shape that I dropped them on the cookie sheet before baking.

My husband and kids really enjoyed them as well. I would make these again and experiment with other jam flavors. Thanks for the great pick Heather! Check out what the other TWD'rs had to say.

Chocolate Crackles

Well...I don't think that Martha would be impressed! That is for sure. I decided to participate in a mini bake-along involving this recipe. The recipe comes from Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook. It appears that the cookies made by others (Nichi, Judy & Susan) turned out somewhat taller and the powdered sugar did not disappear. Mine were flat, flat, flat. And the powdered sugar just vanished when they were baking.

Chocolate Crackles

INGREDIENTS:
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used a milk chocolate Hershey candy bar)
1 ¼ c. all purpose flour
½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ c. butter, room temperature
1 ½ c. packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c. whole milk (I used 2% milk)
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. confectioners sugar

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt bittersweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over the top of a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined. Divide the dough into quarters, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Divide each piece into sixteen 1” balls. Roll in granulated sugar to coat, then in confectioners sugar to coat. Space 2” apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.Bake until surfaces crack, about 14 minutes rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks.

Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

I have no idea why my cookies turned out like this. Maybe I added too much baking powder. I will admit that I didn't measure that part out very good. I don't think that substituting milk chocolate for bittersweet would have affected it that much either (I really don't like bittersweet chocolate). The cookies taste great though. They are crispy and chewy at the same time. Just not very pretty.

I am probably not going to be making this recipe again. The dough was hard to shape into balls and ended up completely melting in my hands. I also have no idea why Martha suggests to divide the dough into quarters to then shape 16 cookies out of each quarter. I didn't get anywhere near 16 cookies out of each of these quarters either. Maybe 10?? I have a much better recipe for chocolate crackles, or something similar, and will post that recipe later this week.

Thanks Megan for sharing the recipe and letting me participate!

Cinnamon Bun Cookies

I found this recipe and knew I had to try it! I love cinnamon rolls and these little cookies looked so cute. I found the recipe at The Recipe Girl. The cookies are G 'double O' D...GOOD. Very addicting and especially tasty while warm. I was surprised that the recipe used powdered sugar instead of regular sugar. The cookies are a cross between kind of chewy and cakelike. The cinnamon taste is incredible and the frosting is to die for! I really like these cookies and will be making them again. The recipe also suggested not putting the frosting on the cookie but instead serving it in a bowl to dunk the cookies in. That might be a neat idea too!

Cinnamon Bun Cookies

VANILLA COOKIE DOUGH

½ cup (2 ounces) powdered sugar
¾ cup (1½ sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter
½ tsp salt
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups (6¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

MIDDLE:

1 large egg white
1 Tbs water
¼ cup granulated sugar
1½ tsp ground cinnamon

ICING:

½ cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs heavy whipping cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon

1. Prepare dough: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, salt and vanilla. Add the flour, stirring to make a cohesive dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

2. Roll the dough: Transfer chilled dough to a lightly floured piece of parchment or waxed paper. Roll it into a 9x12-inch rectangle. In a small bowl, whisk together egg white and water until foamy. Brush onto rolled out dough. In another small bowl, whisk together sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle it evenly over the dough. Starting with a long edge, carefully roll the dough into a log, sealing the edge (if dough sticks to parchment, gently use a metal spatula to guide it off of the paper). Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment, and freeze until firm.

3. Bake the cookies: Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two cookie sheets. Remove the dough from the freezer and unwrap it. Using a sharp knife, gently cut it into ½-inch slices. Transfer them to the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, until they're a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

4. Ice the cookies: Sift or strain the powdered sugar into a medium-sized bowl to remove any lumps. Whisk the cream into the sugar to make a smooth icing. Drizzle or spread icing onto cookies (or serve alongside in a bowl for dipping).

Yield: 2 dozen cookies