What's Baking?

I have my staples that I make over the holidays. This year, I'm adding a few new things that I've come across.

Chocolate Chunk cookies
I've tried a lot of different "the best" chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, from traditional to fancy ones like the Jacque Torres gourmet ones. For the texture and taste that I prefer, the Best recipe for me is still Nestle Tollhouse. Thats probably why it took Monica all those tries to get exactly the right one on that famous episode of Friends. 

You can find it on the back of every bag of Nestle Chocolate chips and its also available online. Here is a link for the recipe. I like the artisan look of the chocolate chunks rather than the uniform, traditional look of the chips, so I use those. Just throw in the entire bag. Why have 12 chunks left over? ;)

While I was looking for the link to share, I realized that it was really hard to find, first you have to go through their corporate site, then do a bunch of selections and pull downs. So to make it easier, I've also included a link to their recipe site as a whole. 


Pecan Pie Bars
From the checkout, I impulse bought a holiday baking magazine from Better Homes and Gardens, in it, I found this Pecan Pie Bar recipe. It was sooo incredibly easy and virtually mess free. I don't personally like pecan pie but my Sweet-toothed sister and my hubby love it so I thought I'd try it out. I wonder how well it ships?

It looked so pretty in the pan, I had to shoot a pic of it. It has to cool for awhile and I'm impatient so I'm posting this straight from the pan. I wish you could smell this!

After lunch I cut them and put them in the stand. Of course I had to try one. It was actually good. It was extremely sweet but not overly so and the crust balanced it well. 

Here is a link to the recipe directly from their site: Pecan Pie Bars

Greek Balls - Kourambiedes

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted? Shame on me! What have I been doing? Baking, wrapping, gifting, all the usual holiday stuff. I think I baked about 15 dozen cookies -- so far. 

Tonight alone, I made 2 different kinds totaling 7 dozen.  One of the cookies I made was from an older woman named Mary, who lived on the third floor of my uncle's Chinese Laudromat. We always visited her when we went to his place in the Summers. She'd give us lemonade and these rich butter cookies and these awesome, light morsels covered in powered sugar. 

She's passed away over 20 years ago, but her recipe lives on. We've always called them Greek Balls because Mary was from Greece, but (thank you internet) I think the real name is Kourambiedes. 

There are some delicious and complicated recipes on the internet but I think some of the best recipes are those simple original ones handed down. I'm sharing them with you to pay forward the delicious yumminess that was shared with me as a child.

Greek Balls

Ingredients:

4 sticks  unsalted butter - room tempurature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/.2 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups chopped pecans 

Save a bowl of extra powdered sugar for finishing.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Blend powdered sugar and flour together well. 

In a bowl, mix butter until light and fluffy

Add in the flour-sugar mixture, egg yolk, vanilla and chopped nuts - mix well. 

Form into balls, bake 8 to 10 minutes. 

Immediately roll in powdered sugar.

Bake Off Goodies

I swear, I'm not trying to kill your diets. Just bloggin' lol

My contributions were the Cinnamon Roll Sugar cookies and Double Chocoloate Hazelnut biscotti - with pistachios

And the winner was: Lemon Square Bars

'Taster's Choice' Awards: Devil's Food Cake

I don't recall the other winners but I got a ribbon for Best Texture for my Biscotti. :)

  

And how cute is this award trophy she found?

Office Bake Off

Today was our Baking Contest. It was such a hoot. We were cracking up the entire time. Perhaps it was all the sugar. (ya think??). Tomorrow I'll post the pics and stuff, because I have no idea what any of the names of the entries were, what awards anyone won or anything cuz we were too buzy being all loud and stuff.

I will tell you I made my Double Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti with Pistachios, and The Picky-Palate's Cinnamon Rolled sugar cookies.

One of them won something. I'm not being a tease, because I have no idea what it was it won. LOL

How is THIS for a completely useless post? LOL LOL

Brownie covered... What??!!???

I was reading my rss feed the other day and came across a post (forgive me, I don't recall who's site I saw it on, but will gladly give credit if anyone knows) for this yummy treat that was all store bought, easy, and... OMGosh so yummy.

The original blog was the Picky Palate - who has some amazing stuff. She made these Brownie Covered Oreos which were scrumptious. I made a batch (or two) and they were a huge hit.

For those of you interested in the How-To, she has a step by step on her blog but its so simple there is no recipe. Just buy a box of brownie mix and a package of Oreos. Make the brownies according to the box directions then drop an oreo in the batter.

Grease a muffin tin and drop the brownie-battered oreo in there. (important step to avoid the sticking) Bake for 15 mins. You're done!

To make it even worse, I dunked Reese's cups in the batter and baked a few of those. OMGosh... beyond heaven! Soooo delish.

Directions are same as above but with the candy instead. We talked about trying a Peppermint Patty -- but I'm not a fan of mint cookies, so I passed. But my DH liked the idea.

Hints

I usually grease then flour my pans - its guaranteed non-stick. And when I make a chocolate dessert, I mix a little cocoa powder with the flour. It doesn't really do anything extra, I just don't like to see the white flour on the chocolate.

I tried a few different Brownie mixes in my 'test kitchen' and Betty Crocker's regular ole original brownie mix worked the best and stayed moist the longest.

The Picky Palate suggested using white chocolate to drizzle on the top of them. You'd think it wouldn't need more sweet, but on the Oreo ones, I drizzled some homemade royal icing (confectioners suger mixed with a tiny bit of milk - mix well then drizzle) because I'm not a big white chocolate fan. My friend Jenn (JK703), made the oreos with double stuffed oreos and used Whipped Icing. I think I went into a sugar coma just hearing about hers... then she made me taste one. I drank 2 cups of milk. lol

Crazy Sandwich Cookies

Tomorrow I am going to a memorial for my dear friend's passing and after, we've been invited back to her new apt to celebrate her life. We are all bringing something so I chose to bring some of her favorite foods - things she'd ask me to find in Jersey for her like a certain pate and lobster spread.


I also thought I'd make some cookies, but how to tie it into my theme? Well, my friend was nothing if not fun-loving. She loved a good laugh and it could be at anyone's expense, even her own. She was also my boss and when we moved to the new office, she put my office in between these two girls (who we both adore) but they had some idiosynchracies. So I playfully yelled at her one day, "I can't believe you put me in the middle of a Crazy Sandwich!" (meaning I'm between Crazy and Crazier). The term stuck. She'd say, I'll meet you down by the Crazy Sandwich or we'd call the girls the Crazy Twins.


So, I made a Sandwich cookie - fits rights? Its basically a homemade Oreo type of cookie with a carmel or mint flavored filling. I colored the filling in bright colors because my friend loved color. In fact she could match a color from memory.I made them heart shaped because she still holds a bit of my heart (along with many, many, others). The cookies came out really cute so I'm sharing them.

Bonnie's Crazy Sandwich Cookies

Just finished these - "Bon"ana Whoopie Pie cookies.

Bonnie loved banana desserts. Every year I got her a banana cream pie or banana pudding for her birthday so again, in her honor, I thought I'd tackle something similar. If she were attending, I know she would love these. Cheers, Bonnie.

Wait, scratch that, I just tried one and I KNOW she'd love these. YUM. 

click on the image for a link to the recipe