Brownie Nutella Mousse Pie

Okay, so I obviously know I have been a horrible blogger for WAY TOO LONG!  In my defense, I'm in the middle of a career change and things have been a little crazy.....I am now officially certified by the state of Illinois to be an elementary school teacher (quite a big change from working in finance and accounting)!  I recently finished student teaching in a wonderful 2nd grade classroom, and I'm actually lucky enough to be going back to that classroom at the end of April as a long-term sub since my cooperating teacher will be out on maternity leave so I'm super excited about that :)  Now I just have to get a full-time teaching job for next school year....fingers crossed!

Anyway, yes I have been a horrible blogger, but the good news is that I've been taking pictures of all the good stuff I've been making over the last 6+ months (and keeping track of the recipes I used) so I have lots of great recipes to update my blog with now (PS - I have to give a quick shout-out to the Megans for giving me some extra motivation to start updating this blog again via my facebook wall haha!).

To start my blog back up, I decided to post an AMAZING dessert that I made just the other day to celebrate Kevin's upcoming birthday.  This dessert is called Brownie Nutella Mousse Pie....and OH MY GAWD....it was so yummy!  I came across this recipe on this really great blog called, Sing For Your Supper.  Do you like Nutella?  Well, I love it so I knew I had to try this one out.  It was super easy, and it was absolutely delicious.  The brownie part makes it pretty rich so you can only eat a small piece in one sitting (which is probably a good thing), but I seriously wanted to eat the mousse topping in giant spoonfuls.  Give this a try, and I promise you won't be disappointed!

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked
1 box brownie mix (you could use homemade, but I was way too lazy for that)
5 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup Nutella, plus more for drizzling
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Make the brownie batter according the the box directions, and pour it into a prepared pie crust.  Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let it cool completely.

Using a mixer (love my kitchenaid mixer!), whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Transfer the whipped cream to another bowl and set aside.

In the same mixer bowl, mix the Nutella and softened cream cheese until well combined.  Spoon in about 1/3 of the whipped cream and gently fold it in.  Repeat with the remaining whipped cream- be careful to fold it in and not overstir it so it stays flufy.  Chill the mousse until the brownie layer is completely cooled.

When the pie is cooled, spread the Nutella mousse evenly over the brownie layer.  Drizzle with some extra Nutella (this works best if you warm the Nutella first).  Here's a picture of my whole pie....so good!

Source:  Sing For Your Supper

Tres Leches Cake

When I think about what desserts go best with a Mexican dinner, three desserts come to mind - flan (which I LOVE, but Kevin doesn't), fried ice cream (which is a pain because you have to deep fry it), and tres leches cake.  Kevin had never heard of tres leches cake (what?!) so I decided I had to show him what he was missing out on.

For those of you that never took Spanish, tres leches just means three milks.  This is called a three milks cake because after the cake is baked, it's soaked in regular milk (or heavy cream), evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk (although I did see one version that also used coconut milk....I may have to try that sometime!).  Because the cake is soaked in three milks, it is very moist and completely different than a traditional fluffy cake.  I used this recipe from allrecipes, and it was delicious!  Don't skip the homemade whipped cream on top :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened to room temperature
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk (I used 1%)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
Directions:
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Grease and flour one 9x13 inch baking pan.

Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.  Cream butter and the 1 cup sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and the 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; beat well.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture gradually; mix until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Let cake cool to room temperature and pierce cake all over with a fork.  Combine the milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk together. Pour over the top of the cooled cake.  Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (you can also let this soak overnight).

Once you are ready to serve the cake, make the whipped cream:  Whip whipping cream, the remaining 1 cup of the sugar, and the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla together until thick. Spread over the top of cake (I just scooped a giant spoon full over each slice). Be sure and keep cake refrigerated.

Crispy Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, I baked some coconut oatmeal cookies that ended up having a great flavor but were way too thin so I didn't blog about them.  Since the flavor combination was really good, I decided to look for a similiar recipe so that I could give these cookies another shot.  I adapted a recipe that I found on allrecipes, and they turned out much better! 

Even though Kevin isn't a big coconut fan, he ended up liking these a lot.  I love coconut flavored anything so of course I loved them :)  The only bad thing about baking cookies is that I can't resist them so they all get eaten way too fast!  This recipe will make about 28 cookies.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crushed cornflakes cereal
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
 
Directions:
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Add the oatmeal, crushed cereal and coconut and mix until combined.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 2 inches apart (this is important because these will spread....also make sure you don't make your cookies too big because you don't want them to spread into one giant cookie in your pan!). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should be light brown at the edges and on the bottom. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

There are three main food-related things that I look forward to every summer.  First - summer tomatoes.  They are so much more flavorful than when you buy them in the winter, and they taste even better when you grow them in your own garden!  Second - peaches.  There is nothing better than enjoying a sweet, ripe summer peach on a hot summer day....I will take peaches over watermelon any time!  Third - strawberries.  Sure you can get decent strawberries year-round, but I just feel like strawberries taste sweeter (and better) during the summer months. 

Anyways, this summer is flying by, and I think strawberries have been on my grocery list almost every week for the past couple of months.  While they are delicious on their own, I wanted to use them to make some kind of simple dessert for my family to enjoy while we were at the lake a few weeks ago.  I thought about making some chocolate covered strawberries, but ehhh....I've done that before and wanted something new.

After searching the internet for ideas, I found a winner!  When I saw a recipe for cheesecake stuffed strawberries on The Novice Chef blog (which happens to be a fabulous cooking blog), I knew that I had to make these.  Strawberries and cheesecake go together perfectly, and I knew these would be super good.  Well, they were amazing, and they are such a great idea - try these!

Ingredients:

2 crates of fresh strawberries
1 box of Jello No-Bake Cheesecake, prepared using box directions (basically just beat a cup and a half of milk with the cheesecake mix using an electric mixer for a few minutes - you can also use your own homemade cheesecake filling, but this was super quick and delicious)
Crushed graham cracker crumbs (if you use the Jello No-Bake Cheesecake, graham cracker crumbs are included, and I just used those)

Directions:

First, wash your strawberries and cut off the tops.  Hollow out the inside of the strawberries so that there is some room for the cheesecake filling (I used the tip of a potato peeler for this, but you could also just use a small paring knive). 

Put your prepared cheesecake filling into a large ziploc bag (you could use a pastry bag for this, but I don't have those so ziplocs work perfectly fine).  Cut the tip off one of the corners of the ziploc bag, and squeeze out the cheesecake filling to fill the inside of each strawberry until it is slightly overflowing.

Last, dip the top of each strawberry into the graham cracker crumbs.

You can definitely make these a little bit in advance, but don't make them more than 24 hours in advance or they will be a little bit soggy.  I made these around lunchtime, and they tasted perfect when we had them for dessert after eating dinner that night.  I liked them so much, I made them again for a family party we hosted a couple weeks later :)

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

I love making cupcakes for get togethers.  I think that it's a lot easier to make individual desserts so that you don't have to worry about cutting cake or pie into individual servings when you have company over.  Cupcakes can be a little difficult to transport unless you have a cupcake holder, but I served these at a family party that we were hosting at our condo so I didn't have to worry about that this time.  I did invest $25 in this cupcake carrier, and it has worked well for me in the past when I was bringing cupcakes to a party (which I love to do because you can do so many fun things with cupcakes!).

I searched for the perfect cupcake recipe to serve at our party, and I came across this recipe from Annie's Eats that she had adapted from Beantown Baker.  Anything oreo is usually a hit, (which is why I love to bring oreo truffles to parties) and these cupcakes looked perfect so I decided to make them the morning of our party.  These were really tasty and a perfect dessert to serve to celebrate a few birthdays!  Just as a warning for when you're buying the ingredients - I used a whole package of oreos plus a row of oreos from a second package....so I'm glad I ended up buying two packages of oreos.  This recipe will make 24 delicious cupcakes.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes-
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I cut each oreo into quarters)

For the frosting-
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish-
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners. Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

If you are an oreo fan, you will love these!  I loved the oreo cookie at the bottom of the cupcake, and this frosting really went perfectly with the cupcake.  I highly recommend these :)

Bananas Foster

There are only four ingredients in this AMAZINGLY YUMMY recipe - bananas, butter, brown sugar, and dark rum....this is so easy to make, but in my opinion, it is definitely restaurant quality.  I absolutely love bananas, and I have been making this recipe for a few years now.  I don't repeat very many dessert recipes over and over because I like to try new recipes, but this is definitely one that keeps getting repeated in our house.

I spent the past week at my grandparents' lakehouse, and since Kevin and I arrived a day before my parents, we decided to greet them with this dessert upon their arrival.  I always serve bananas foster over a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream (and this time we had some whipped cream in the fridge so we added a little of that on top as well).  I usually pour the bananas foster to the side of the ice cream instead of directly on top so that the ice cream doesn't melt as fast.  It was no surprise that this dessert was a big hit!

The bananas foster recipe that I always use is from Paula Deen, and I've also used it in the past to serve over waffles for a special occasion breakfast (so good!).  Give this recipe a try!  It's incredible :)

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (either light or dark will work)
4 bananas, peeled and cut lengthwise and into thirds
1/4 cup dark rum (I use Meyer's)

Vanilla Ice Cream - For Serving

Directions:

Melt butter in a large skillet. Add brown sugar and stir together. Add the bananas and cook until caramelized over medium-high heat (about 2-3 minutes). Pour in the rum and catch a flame off of the gas stove or a BBQ lighter (I always use an aim-a-flame). Stand back when ignited and flambe. Be careful; a flame will shoot up above the pan. Let flame die down.

Serve over vanilla ice cream and/or a slice of pound cake.  I always serve this over ice cream because the mix of hot and cold is so good and I love the way the bananas foster goes with the ice cream.  A little whipped cream on top won't hurt :)

Happy 4th of July! - Red White & Blue Strawberries

Happy 4th of July!  The day is almost over, but I wanted to do a quick post with my red, white, and blue strawberries that I made to celebrate the USA :)  These were super easy to make (just dip strawberries in melted white chocolate and then dip in blue colored sugar). I was a little bit sloppy with my dipping since I was just making these for Kevin and me, but these were super quick and easy and you can't go wrong with chocolate covered strawberries.

I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July!  We will be celebrating some more during this week because we are heading to the Lake of the Ozarks (a huge lake in Missouri where my grandparents have a lake house) for some relaxation, and we'll definitely have to set off some fireworks since it's illegal to do it here in Chicago (although I heard fireworks galore when we sat out on our deck a little bit ago).  Anyways, thank you to all those brave people who fought for our freedom and thanks to those who are doing so right now!  Happy 4th!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Need a dessert to bring to your 4th of July party this weekend?  Make these!  I figured that these would be good since they're a combination of cheesecake and chocolate chip cookie dough, and I was right.  These were incredible!  Seriously, you need to make these.  You may want to go for a little jog after eating them, but trust me - they're worth the calories.

I came across this recipe on this really great cooking blog, Beantown Baker, and decided I had to make it right away.  It's a great recipe to make ahead of time for a party.  It's a little more time consuming than normal cookie bars since there are 3 different layers (graham cracker crust, cheesecake, and chocolate chip cookie dough), but this recipe is very easy to follow.  Now I just need to make sure I have the self control not to eat the rest of these out of the refrigerator today.

Ingredients:

Crust -
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 Tbsp butter, melted
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Cookie Dough-
5 Tbsp butter, room temp.
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling-
10 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325.

For the crust-
Grease a 8x8 pan with butter, line pan with parchment paper and butter the paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides (lining with parchment paper makes this so much easier to get out of the pan and slice...if you want these to look pretty, definitely don't skip this step).  Crush graham crackers into crumbs to make 1 & 1/2 cups.  Add to butter and stir until crumbs are moistened.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Press crust mixture into bottom of pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.

For cookie dough-
Using mixer and the paddle attachment, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth.  Adjust mixer speed to low and add flour.  Mix just until incorporated.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Set aside.

For cheesecake-
Using mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.  Pour batter into cooled, baked crust.  Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.

Bake about 30 minutes, or until set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Place in the refrigerator to chill for several hours before slicing into squares (I cut mine into 16 squares).

Grilled Pineapple

We've been grilling a lot so far this summer, and we've made grilled pineapple several times already.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but this is amazingly simple and delicious.  It makes a perfect side dish to anything grilled or you could even add a little ice cream and turn this into dessert.

While Kevin is grilling our dinner, I will get this ready to go and have him throw the pineapple on the grill about five minutes before we eat.  It always ends up sweet and juicy :)

Ingredients:

1 pineapple - peeled, cored, and cut into strips (I cut about 8 big strips per pineapple)
1/2 stick of butter, melted
About 1/2 cup of brown sugar (I've also used regular sugar when I didn't have brown sugar, but I just used less)

Directions:

Brush the prepared pineapple strips with the melted butter on both sides.  Sprinkle both sides with the brown sugar and rub into the butter.  Grill over a medium flame for about 2 or 3 minutes on each side and enjoy!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Here in Chicago, there's snow everywhere right now.  Our dog, Windy, is having an absolute blast playing fetch out in the snow!  In fact, when I opened the door to our deck so that I could take this picture outside in the sunlight, Windy immediately ran out and rolled all around in the 5 inches of snow that has accumulated out there.

Even though Windy is loving this, I didn't want to go out and run a bunch of errands until the roads get cleaned up a little more so I decided I would bake cookies this afternoon.  I decided to make these chocolate crinkle cookies, and they turned out really fudgy, sugary, and delicious.  I used this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I actually used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup melted butter)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours (or you can also stick in the freezer for about 45 minutes).

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets (this dough is pretty sticky so I found that the easiest way to do this was to scoop the amount of dough you want with a spoon and drop it into the powdered sugar without touching it.  Then, it's much easier to roll into a ball since it's coated with the powdered sugar).

3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Toffee

I've been wanting to make toffee for awhile now, and I finally bought myself a candy thermometer and made a batch of toffee to go along with the oreo truffles I made to bring to Christmas Eve dinner.  I didn't realize how easy it was to make toffee....and only 5 ingredients!  I was pretty happy with my first attempt at making candy, and I thought these went good with the truffles.....although these are pure butter and sugar so I wish I didn't have all of these leftovers :)  I adapted this recipe that I found on http://www.allrecipes.com/.  Next time, I may do a layer of white chocolate on the bottom and semisweet chocolate on top.

Ingredients:

1 pound butter (4 sticks)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used a little more than 2 cups)

Directions:

1.  In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils (I just kept stirring with a whisk until it boiled, and then I didn't stir anymore after that). Boil to brittle stage, 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) without stirring. Remove from heat (I actually removed from the heat once the mixture reached 295 degrees).

2.  Pour hot sugar/butter mixture onto a rimmed sheet pan that's been greased with butter (or pam).  Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and let it sit for 2-3 minutes so that the chocolate melts.  Using a rubber spatula, spread out the melted chocolate and sprinkle walnuts on top and press into chocolate.  Let the mixture cool and break it into pieces before serving.

Ice Box Cake

For dessert, my sister's boyfriend, Tom, was nice enough to bring over this ice box cake.  Now I have never heard of this cake before, but it was great!  It's one of those recipes (like another favorite, oreo truffles) that has only a few ingredients, but really makes a good impression when people try it!  I give Tom props for making this for us since he knows I love to cook and he was making it for my whole family!  But anyways, this recipe is super good and definitely one that I'll make sometime.  Since I didn't actually make this dessert, I'm going to post the recipe in his words:

Ingredients:

1 pint of heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons of sugar (the more, the better)
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
2 boxes of Nabisco’s Famous Chocolate Wafers
1 chocolate bar

Directions:

First, a must for this is homemade whipped cream – no Ready-Whip, Cool-Whip, etc. Start by putting a bowl and the beaters in the freezer for around 15 minutes to get them really cold. Then take them out and pour the pint of heavy whipping cream in the bowl, and add around 4 tablespoons of sugar. You can’t really put too much sugar in, only too little, so be generous. Begin beating on high speed and continue doing so until the cream starts to form a more solid substance. At the first signs of this, add in the tablespoon of vanilla extract. Then continue beating the cream until it appears to be the right consistency. You can check on it by pulling the beaters out and some whipped cream should stay caught in the beaters, as opposed to being too liquid and running off of them. As soon as you reach this point, you want to stop beating it because if you go too long it will turn into butter.

After making the whipped cream, begin simply spreading it on the Famous Chocolate Wafers, and continue doing this so it looks like you are making a stack of little oreo sandwiches. Once you have put about 5 or 6 cookies together you should be able to turn them on their side and get them to stand on the plate. Continue spreading the whipped cream between each cookie, as you form a circular formation around the serving plate. For the last piece, you will have to spread whipped cream on both sides of the cookie and place in the last slot to finalize the ring.

After getting a complete ring on the plate, spread the excess whipped cream around the entire cake, covering every inch of it. Using a cheese grater and the chocolate bar, cover the entire top of the ring with chocolate shavings. Cover the entire cake loosely in aluminum foil, and place in the fridge (commonly referred to as an “ice box” back in the day, thus the name of the cake). After about a half a day, the cookies will have softened up with the whipped cream while in the fridge, and the ice box cake is ready to be served.

Thanks Tom!  This dessert was a winner :)

Oreo Truffles

Oreo Truffles.....Never have I found a recipe with so few ingredients that tasted so good!  If you haven't ever tried these little things, you need to make these the next time you're craving something sweet.  They're sooooo rich and addicting.  Last night was the last night for one of my graduate classes so we had a little potluck, and I decided these would be perfect to bring.  At first I was getting nervous because only a few people took one, but when somebody asked out loud who made them and I said it was me, the girl told the class how good they were and then everybody wanted to try one.  It's funny how impressed people got over these, and of course I saved a couple for Kevin to have later that night.  Here is the original recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/, but I will give my tips at the end.

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided

1 (8 ounce) package PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Directions:

1. Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.

2. Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

3. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.
 
My tips for making oreo truffles-
 
First of all, I used white chocolate to coat my truffles so that I could get the cookies and cream taste, but usually if I'm making a couple batches I will make one with white chocolate and one with semi-sweet chocolate and then use the other chocolate to decorate the tops.  Next, after I combine the cream cheese and cookie crumbs, I refrigerate the mixture for about an hour.  Then, I roll into balls and stick in the freezer for about an hour before I dip in the chocolate (this makes it much easier to dip and not fall apart).  Coating in the chocolate can be tricky and it can be hard to make them look pretty, but usually I roll the truffles in the chocolate with a teaspoon and a fork and then place on wax paper in the refrigerator to harden up.  Then I decorate the tops with semi-sweet chocolate (if I dipped the truffles in white chocolate) which helps hide the imperfections.  Next time I make these I think I'm going to place each truffle (once they're completely done and hardened up) in individual mini muffin cup liners to make it easier and less messy for people to pick them up.  Try not to let them sit out too long while you are serving them because as they get warmer the chocolate can get sticky, plus I think they taste better cold.

Apple Bread Pudding

This past weekend, we visited Kansas City (which is where I grew up) to celebrate my Grandpa Frank's 80th birthday.  For dessert on Friday night, my mom and I decided to make one of our favorite fall desserts - apple bread pudding.  It may not look very pretty in picures, but I am telling you.....this is SOOOO GOOD!  It's a great cold weather dessert that's easy to put together, and this one is definitely one of my favorites.  My mom got this recipe years and years ago when her and my dad visited New Orleans.

Ingredients:

Bread Pudding-

1 loaf of slightly stale french bread (the stale bread absorbs the liquid a little better than fresh bread)

1 quart half and half

3 eggs

3 apples, peeled and chopped

2 cups sugar

2-3 tablespoons vanilla extract (depending on how much vanilla you want)

half stick of butter, melted

Cinnamon sugar, to taste

Whiskey Sauce-

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

whiskey to taste (we used a double shot)

Directions:

1.  Cut up your loaf of bread into cubes and place in a 9x13 casserole dish.

2.  Pour half and half over bread cubes and let soak.

3.  Meanwhile, mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and apples.

4.  Pour over your bread mixture, and mix through with your hands to make sure everything is distributed.  Then pour the melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until firm.  Here's what our's looked like after baking (again, it doesn't look that pretty but it is sooooo delicious).

6.  Make the whiskey sauce:  In a small saucepan, melt butter and sugar together.  Whip in egg very quickly.  Remove from heat and add in whiskey.  Serve sauce on top of each serving of bread pudding.

Cute Cupcakes!

Last week my sister, Kristen, and her roomate, Annie, made some really cute pig and frog cupcakes.  They gave us a couple of the pig ones so I had to take a pic and post it because I thought they were really cute.  I actually love making cupcakes, but I've never made the oversize ones (which is what these were), but next time I might try these and do something fun with the decorations :)

 

Banana Cream Cheesecake

Kevin and I both love cheesecake and bananas, so I was really excited to try this recipe. It's actually a copycat recipe for the Cheesecake Factory's banana cream cheesecake, but I've never tried it from there so I don't know if they actually taste the same. I can tell you that this is a really good recipe! The original recipe can be found here. The only changes that I made from the original recipe was adding a little extra banana and a little extra vanilla.

Ingredients:

For the crust -
20 vanilla cream-filled sandwich style cookies (I used golden oreos)
1/4 cup melted butter

For the filling -
24 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 eggs
3/4 cup mashed banana (I used 3 very ripe bananas)
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used 1 tablespoon)
whipped cream for garnish

Directions:

1. Use a food processor to finely chop the cookies. Add butter and blend until they are well combined.

2. Press mixture into the bottom of a 10" springform pan and smooth it out. Refrigerate the crust while you make the filling.

3. Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until creamy.

4. Beat in sugar and cornstarch followed by the eggs (one at a time).

5. Beat in bananas, whipping cream, and vanilla.

6. Pour mixture into crust.

7. Place pan on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

8. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and bake an additional 75 minutes, or until center is almost set.

9. Allow cheesecake to cool completely before removing rim of pan -- Before removing the pan, run warm water over a knife and slide a knife around the edge of the cake to separate the cake from the pan cleanly.

10. Refrigerate cheesecake, uncovered, at least 6 hours.

Here's a picture of what my finished cheesecake looked like:


The good news is that it turned out sooooo good! It tasted great and didn't even crack at all. The bad news.......is that after Kevin and I each had a piece, I went to put the leftovers in the refrigerator and had a little accident :( I was trying to put the whole springform pan in the fridge and the bottom fell out and most of the cheesecake went all over the refrigerator! Maybe it was a good thing because we probably would have eaten all of the leftovers in a couple days, but I was really sad about this.....but the recipe was great so I will definitely have to make again sometime!

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Pie

To go along with my roasted chicken, I really wanted to make a pumpkin pie for dessert. I always use Paula Deen's recipe because I love the flavor of it, and I love how it has cream cheese in it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find canned pumpkin at my grocery store, but they did have Libby's pumpkin pie filling so I decided to use that and just adapt the recipe by adding a little more pumpkin and a little less sugar and spices. It turned out great considering I didn't have canned pumpkin, but here is the original recipe that I will use this year for thanksgiving when I can find regular canned pumpkin!

Ingredients:

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

2 cups mashed canned pumpkin

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, plus 2 eggs yolks slightly beaten

1 cup half and half

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, optional (I don't use this but I do add in a little pumpkin pie spice)

premade pie crust

whipped cream, for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a (9-inch) pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.

For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger, if using, and beat until incorporated.

Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

I would highly recommend this recipe! When I was growing up, I wasn't too fond of pumpkin pie, but I loved this recipe from the first time I tried it! Here is a link to the original recipe:

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Pie