TWD: chewy chunky blondies

I LOVE blondies!  When I was a kid I didn't really like chocolate (shocking!) but was thrilled at bake sales & lunch time when the school would have blondies for dessert.  yum!

I went to make these last night and was asking hubs if he likes blondies so I would know whether to adapt the recipe to his (picky) tastes or just leave it as is.  Well...silly boy just pouted and asked why I couldn't make brownies or cookies instead.  No blondies for him!

I must say that I was excited to make this recipe as written because I adore walnuts & coconut, and also had some butterscotch chips that needed to be used up.  I used some toasted coconut that I had left over, and though I thought that it didn't impart much coconut flavor, the chewiness that it added was lovely!  The only change I made was to halve the recipe and bake it in a 8x8 pan.

The recipe came together very quickly, but I don't think mine were quite done at the recommended baking time of 40 minutes--the toothpick still came out wet.  However, since I love gooey cookies & brownies, I decided to go ahead and take them out anyway (a little underdone blondie never hurt me!). 

These are amazing!  I love the chewiness from all the mix-ins, the caramelly flavor, and the richness (one is definitely enough!).  I think that some of these will also be individually wrapped and frozen for treats later :).  Thanks so much to Nicole of Cookies on Friday for this pick (found on p. 108-109 of Baking From My Home to Yours) and check out the leave-your-link post from the TWD website to see who baked along this week.

TWD: another two-fer!

I was on vacation last week and was unable to make the Brrr-ownies chosen by Karen of Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life, but I wanted to try them b/c I knew that super-picky hubs loves brownies and York peppermint patties, so may love these as well.  I had planned to just bake that recipe for this week, but when I saw that Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities chose the Lot's of Ways Banana Cake for this week I decided to make them both--I'm always looking for a reason to use up those bananas in my freezer!
After a week with my parents and sister (and without hubs) and then a kinda weird day at the office where I am only helping to train instead of doing "my job" (and i don't have a desk or computer anymore!) I was ready to get some baking therapy.

The Brrr-ownies came first so I could let the ingredients for the banana cake come to room temp.  I had read lots about peppermint patty craters in the tops and brownies sticking to the foil, so to remedy those issues, I popped the peppermint patties in the freezer for about 15 minutes before chopping and adding them to the mix so they wouldn't become overly melty, and I was extra careful to super-grease my foil.  I really think these came out perfectly!  Super fudgy and rich but with a lovely cool sensation.  joy in my heart!  Hubs isn't home yet, but I think he will love these :)

Then came the banana cake.  I had some toasted coconut in the freezer as well as some dried cherries, so I used those, and I was out of light brown sugar (gasp!) so I subbed white sugar and substituted 1/4 cup of it with dark brown sugar.  Other than that, I made the recipe as is--from the first ingredients listed.

first picture--once again full of fog!  stupid southern humidity

I really think that banana cake/bread is one of the best smells you can have in your home!  I decided to make it easy and bake it as a bundt, which would also make it easier to transport to my mom's house (I'm gonna share it w/her and my sister--I think they will be happy (:  )  I pulled it out of the oven, let it cool for a bit, and then scraped some of the bits that had stuck to the pan to try a taste.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Seriously, my eyes rolled back in my head.  This is heavenly!  I am so glad that I made it and I think my family will love it!  I'm gonna take them at least half the cake (sliced up on a platter) and will wrap & freeze some pieces for myself for those days when only banana cake can make the world right again ; ).

I hope you all enjoyed these recipes as much as I did!  Thanks so much to Karen & Kimberly for these wonderful picks, and visit their respective blogs for the recipes, as well as the TWD leave-you-link post to see who else baked along this week.

TWD: Banana coconut Ice Cream Pie

For this week's TWD challenge, Spike of Spike Bakes chose the Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie on page 350 of Baking from My Home to Yours.
 
I wouldn't call myself a banana lover.  I  like them in my cereal, and love banana bread and cake, but am not one to eat them straight up or to eat frozen bananas or banana flavored things.  I also am not a huge fan of the banana/chocolate combination.  So, I almost skipped this week. 

But then, I was sick yesterday and wanted something sweet...and after a year of homemade baked goods, packaged cookies just don't do it for me anymore!  I looked in the fridge and freezer, and was completely shocked to see that there were no treats to eat!!!  How is that possible?? 

So I took another look at the recipe.  I didn't have butter cookies or chocolate ice cream, but it seemed like it would come together so quickly...So I subbed graham crackers for the butter cookies and used butter pecan ice cream to mix with the banana, rum & lemon juice for the filling.  Seriously, this pie was done in like 15 minutes!  the longest part of it was getting the coconut to brown, which was my fault b/c I used a small saucepan instead of a skillet. 

I've read this on so many many other blogs, but the crust is the real star of this recipe.  I mean, how can you go wrong with butter, coconut, and cookie crumbs?? 

I don't know if I will make this particular recipe again, not being a huge fan of banana and all, but I think this crust is amazing and I will definitely use it again.

Thanks for the pick spike! Check out the Leave your link post on the TWD site to see who else baked along this week.

TWD: Chockablock cookies

For Tuesdays with Dorie this week, Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet chose the Chockablock cookies from page 86 of Baking From My Home to Yours.

These cookies were not what I expected.  You know how sometimes you just have this image of how things are going to be made, and then they aren't it at all?  When I started first grade and was going to eat cafeteria food for the first time I would try to imagine what the food was when we got the menu each week.  When I saw "chuck wagon" on the menu, I was so far off....I imagined that the cafeteria ladies would actually have made little covered wagons out of vegetables!  (i tried to find an image of what I was imagining with Google, but apparently I am alone in this fantasy...)  Well...needless to say, I was very disappointed when instead of an intricately designed sculpture, I was served a breaded patty of mystery meat.  *sigh*

My thoughts were similar (though a little less grandiose) when it came to these cookies.  Apparently I just think very literally:  I imagined square shaped chocolate cookies (you know, like chocolate blocks?).  I did read the recipe and figure in all the chunks of things, but I just thought they would be a little more chocolatey.  When I mixed up the dough I was kind of "eh" about it.  I really felt that the molasses flavor was overpowering.  I liked them pretty well when they came out of the oven though, and I'll update you tomorrow to see if I like them even more (I've heard that they are even better the next day).  

I did as Dorie suggested and froze some of the dough in lumps in the freezer for later consumption and only made six little (ok, BIG) cookies for myself b/c I knew in advance that these would be a "Sarah cookie" aka, too many "ingredients" for hubs to try.  I did use dried cherries for my fruit component b/c I had some on hand and I LOVE them.  I got excited with my new chopper and cut the walnuts a bit too much, so they weren't quite as chunky as I would have liked, but overall I think they are good--lots of flavorful components and a very little amount of fat compared to most recipes that we do, and that is always great!

Thanks to Mary for picking this week's recipe (check her blog for the recipe) and check out the TWD site to see who baked along this week!

**Update: I really like these the next day!  I think some substitute other than molasses would make them even better, but they are pretty darn tasty cookies!  :)  **

MSC: Coconut Cupcakes

I'm baack!!

This is my first post since the holidays in one of my baking groups! And what a wonderful challenge to jump back in with! These were amazingly delicious.

I only made a fourth of the recipe for these reasons:
1. It is Friday and I do not work on Fridays and do not have big plans for this weekend, so there is no one to share them with (surprise! hubs doesn't eat coconut!)
2. I am trying to lose weight and did not want 20 cupcakes hanging out to tempt me!
3. Umm....I guess that's all

It was kinda tricky to divide this into a fourth of the recipe as there are two eggs and two egg whites and then more egg whites in the frosting, so you get into the division of eggs and I was kinda worried about that...Also, some of the conversions came up with things like 1/8 tsp plus 7 drops of vanilla extract...I just approximated... (btw...I used this handy-dandy recipe converter to come up with the measurements), but all was well, and most delicious!

The only change I made apart from cutting the recipe back was that I did not grind the shredded coconut in the food processor. I only used 2 tbsp of shredded coconut in the batter and my food processor is WAY to big to grind that up into a powder...or to even mess with for something this small! maybe I need a mini chopper... I kinda liked the bits of coconut in the cake though.

I was also kind of scared of the frosting--I have never done a seven minute frosting, though I have made meringues many times. I finally got to break in my candy thermometer! woohoo!!! I thought it was pretty easy--definitely more time consuming than a buttercream but not too bad, and it tastes somewhat like marshmallow....

I shared one of these with my mom when she came to visit tonight (she LOVES coconut cake--just do not add lemon curd to it or she will beat you up--seriously). She was only going to have a half of one but thought it was so wonderful that she ate a whole one...then my dad came in and even though he is not a big sweets person, he ate one too and loved it--so I sent two home with them. That means I will only have two (one tonight, one...maybe for breakfast? **mischievous grin**)

Thanks so much to Jennifer of Cinema Cupcakes for choosing this awesome recipe! We don't share the recipes in the MSC club, so go buy the book b/c it is beautiful enough to read cover to cover just for fun!


btw...don't you just love my blue plates! I think they look gorgeous w/the cupcakes :)