Heat oven to 325º degrees.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips. I used both semi and milk chocolate chips because my semi-sweet chips were seriously starting to bloom, so I threw them in. (When a white coating appears on the surface of any chocolate, it's called bloom.)

I have to disagree with this next step. However, I did both my own way and CI's way to show the outcome. They taste the same, but presentation is a whole other ballgame....

CI's TECHNIQUE:

Form scant ¼ cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted.

MY TECHNIQUE:

Use an ice cream scoop.

Today is Sunday. It's gloomy, rainy, and cold. A PERFECT time to bake!

A few posts back, I told you the story of the 10,000 Chips Ahoy cookies I have in my possession. Thankfully, I'm down to about 4,000 cookies now, but for a cookie addict like myself, that's still 4,000 too many! Since they're individual wrapped, they won't go stale anytime soon, but I would like to use them up before I lose all self control.

Today, I was hankering for a good brownie. A brownie that has all the bells and whistles - moist, chewy, chocolaty, sweet, salty and peanutty. I started sifting through my cookbooks as well as the internet, but I didn't find one that said, "I'm it Baby. Make me yours!"

So I took matters into my own hands and created what I think are Ultimate Brownies.

Oh yes ladies and gentleman, these are ultimate. It has everything Mama is craving today. Throw on some Barry White, dim the lights, and close the blinds.

It's brownie time.

ULTIMATE BROWNIES

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

¾ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup dulce de leche sauce

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup mini white chocolate chips

12 chocolate chip cookies – I used Chips Ahoy

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with foil cupcake wrappers. Place a chocolate chip cookie in the bottom of each; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and coffee granules into a bowl and mix well. Add eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix well. Add peanut butter and dulce de leche into flour mixture and mix well. Add white chocolate chips. 

Divide mix into 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.

Yield: 12 brownie cups.

Happy Baking!

Since she couldn't be found for a comment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own damn rainbows.

Rainbow cupcakes that is. These are very cute, super colorful, and a nice way to take my mind off the weather for a bit. Consider these little lovelies your sunshine, rainbow, and pot of gold all in one.

If you're waiting for Ms. Nature to send any of those gifts to you, you could be waiting a long time. 

I also think she may have stolen my garden gnome. 

You can certainly use a box cake mix for these as well. If you do, be sure to use a white cake mix. If you cannot find a white cake mix, no worries, you can still use golden or yellow cake mix, just be sure to use ONLY the whites of the eggs. The yolks will make it yellow and it will be difficult to get true colors.

½ cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
1½ cup flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup buttermilk (You can substitute sour cream here as well)

Preheat oven 350ºF.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together; set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add egg whites, beating well. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated.

Using mixer, add flour mixture and milk, alternating between the two - beginning and ending with the flour.

Using a ladel, spoon exact amounts of batter into 6 cups.

Once that step is done, use food coloring to make desired shades. The bolder and deeper the color, the better.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with foil cupcake liners. (Mine are paper lined foil wrappers). Starting with purple (or blue if you choose to omit purple) carefully layer colors on top of each other, finishing with red. If you're a bit heavy handed, you can transfer colored batter into squeeze bottles. It will yield almost perfect layers.  

Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and it comes out clean. Don't worry if the colors bubble to the top. You can cover up any imperfections with frosting.

Allow to completely cool and frost cupcakes with desired frosting. I used a chocolate buttercream frosting.


CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING  - This recipe makes quite a lot of frosting, but you can freeze what you don't use.

½ cup shortening
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
¾ cups cocoa, sifted
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Cream shortening, butter, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar and cocoa on medium speed, scraping down bowl often. Add milk and corn syrup until light and fluffy.

Yield: 12 cupcakes.

Happy Baking!

Sunday is Mother's Day.

In honor of a few special Mama's I know, I made cake pops. If you've never heard of them before, you will now. These ingenious little treats are the brainchild of Bakerella. The flower idea I got from Bridget over at Bake at 350.

I've seen these cake pops making their way around the internet for a few years now; I've also noticed them recently popping up in a popular coffee house chain. Heck, I've even picked up Bakerella's how-to book a few times when I visited the book store, but they kept missing my 'need-to-make-these-like-yesterday' radar until I was looking for fun treat my daughter and I could make together. 

Well slap me silly for waiting so long and call me Crazy. I am in love. These pops have two of the three most important factors to earn the BB's stamp of approval: easy and delicious. I guess you could also classify them as authentic. The third most important factor. 

Be sure to treat your Mama real good this Mother's Day. Buy her something that she has had her eye on for awhile or something she wouldn't buy for herself and take her out for a delicious meal. Be sure to wear clean underwear, tuck in your shirt, and comb your hair.

She'll be so proud you've listened.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Yummy Mummies out there. You are beautiful. You are one of a kind. You are loved.



1 box of cake mix
1 tub frosting (or you can use your own) in the SAME flavor as cake mix

Assorted colors of candy melting wafers. We used orange, purple, and pink.

Happy Baking!

The Easter Bunny has gone back into hibernation for another year.

While I love to to fill my kids baskets with sweet treats, I tend to go overboard. Finding sugary surprises I know they will love to tear into come Easter morning is fun, but once the dust settles and the craziness passes, I'm left with chocolate oozing out every cupboard, drawer and closet. Of course, with bathing suit season lurking around the corner, it's imperative to get it out of the house as soon as possible. This is when I dig out recipes I keep for such occasions; recipes that don't mind if chocolate isn't in standard chip form and uses up a good chunk of the loot.

Despite the fact I have been baking these particular cookies what seems like forever, I only seem to make them around Christmas and Easter when said chocolate likes to crawl out of its hole and shout, "Here I am!".

Although I would prefer dark or milk chocolate, white chocolate adds the necessary sweetness to give amazing flavour to these cookies. I'm sure you'll agree. 

WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY COOKIES

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup chopped pecans, optional

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 

In a separate mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir into butter mixture.

Add in white chocolate and cranberries with a wooden spoon. This is a great time to use up some of that leftover chocolate. Just chop into chunks and throw into batter. (The chunkier, the better!) Add in pecans, if using. 

Drop by heaping spoonfuls or use a small scoop with a retractable mechanism onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 9-10 minutes. Do NOT over bake. Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Yields: About three dozen. Cookies will keep for several days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Once in a while, a dessert that is just too amazing for words will present itself to you.

Tres Leches cake is one of those desserts. I am so not kidding.

My friend, Daniela, who hails from Mexico, introduced me to this gorgeous cake about 4 years ago. She thoughtfully brought me a piece that was leftover from a party she had with her family. True story, I licked the dish clean.

I was so very fortunate to be reunited with this mouthwatering masterpiece a few months later at her daughter's birthday party, but this time, the cake was made by a close friend of hers who happens to be pastry chef...and Mexican, so we are talking authenticity at it's finest. 

I moaned through every single bite. In front of complete strangers. In a building that echoes. Loudly.

Dignity - Nil. Stomach - 1.

½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

5 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1½ cups all purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk OR coconut milk

TOPPING

1 ½ cups whipping cream

¼ cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; mix in eggs and vanilla.

Combine flour and baking powder; add gradually to butter mixture, stirring to blend.

Bake for 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Pierce cake with a fork all over....and I mean all over! I used a skewer and realized I would be there all day!

Combine the 3 milks, and pour on top of cake; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.