Yummy Nutella Cookies

Life is hard. Listen to everything I did this weekend.

Baked, read Julia Child's book, napped, relaxed, thought about running some errands, baked, chatted, took a walk, laid around, ate, ate, ate. Oh yeah, and a friend came over and we baked some more!

Man, my life is rough.

It was warm here (an outrageous 48 degrees and sunny!) so I completely got spring fever and could do nothing at all. My internal body clock thought it was summer; I didn't want to be rude and tell it any differently.

I like my weekends. I need more weekends in my life.

Anyway, this is one of the many things I made the last few days...

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tip- These cookies can turn out really flat which means not delicious and chewy. 

To prevent this catastrophe:

• Buy and use baking liners. They'll prevent your cookie from spreading out on the pan.
• When it says to whip the butter and sugar, whip it good! The fluffier it is, the less pancake-like your cookies will be.
• Refrigerate it for the required hour. It will be worth it. Eat some of the dough while you wait.
• Do not, I repeat, DO NOT completely melt your butter. I did the first time I made the cookies because I was lazy, forgot to take the butter out in advanced, and didn't think it would matter. Don't be like me.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 heaping tsp baking powder (use just under 1/2 tsp. It will help them be fluffier)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 stick butter (at room temp.)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2/3 cup Nutella
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Mix together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.
2. Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg.
3. Add flour mixture, mix. Add chocolate chips.
4. Chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Drop ping-pong ball sized dough balls 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks.

Enjoy.


Adapted from SugarCooking

Cake and sprinkles.

We had another bake-off at work. The theme was red which meant we have to incorporate something red in our food. I kind of cheated because I made a white cake with white frosting and added some red sprinkles in order to qualify.

I don't care that I cheated, it was delicious and that is really all that matters. Plus, I had great intentions of making it a marble cake by using red food dye, but when I went to the store I was feeling cheap and food dye is expensive.

About the cake. I am going to let you in on a little secret: you can make a box cake taste like it's from scratch. It's easy. Follow me, I'll tell you how.

The Lazy Cook's "From Scratch" Cake

1. Make a box cake according to the instructions (I chose to make a french vanilla cake), but when mixing the ingredients, add one heaping scoop of sour cream and three teaspoons butter!  Easy cheesy and it will make the cake moist and delicious and seriously so good.
2. Make your own frosting. It makes all the difference.

I made frosting found here on tasty kitchen. It was really good, super light and airy, but really, really rich. I liked it a lot, but I am more of a cream cheese frosting kind of girl and may stick to that. However, everyone else adored it so I would recommend making it at least once to try it out. It may change your life if your life is easily changed.

(Almost) The Best Frosting I've Ever Had

• 5 Tbs Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated (not powdered) sugar

In a saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be super thick, like the consistency of brownie mix. This will take approx. 3 minutes and scare that heck out of you because it looks weird as it happens. 

Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and cool to room temperature. 

While mixture cools, cream butter and sugar until it is super whipped and light and fluffy. There should be no graininess left. I didn't know you could whip the graininess out of sugar but you can. I suggest using a standing mixer because it takes about 10 minutes and that would make my hand get tired but my Kitchen Aid never ties, it's indestructible.

Add the cooled flour mixture and beat it with the butter mixture until it resembles whipped cream (another 10+ minutes). It should be CRAZY light and fluffy, like whipped cream consistency. 

Enjoy.

P.S. if you're wondering, I did win the cook-off, but only by default because everyone else forgot to bring something. I don't know if I count that as a victory. However, I did get a ton of compliments and it was gone pretty quickly so I'll take that as a consolation prize.

Wedding Photos

I'd say we had a lot of fun...

...but obviously not as much fun as Justin.

Photographer: Iris and Light. http://irisandlight.net/

Brookies versus Brownies

I realized I haven't posted a recipe in a long time and I did get my wedding photos (YAY!) so I decided to do a quick food post prior to throwing down 1,000,000 photos of me and my man (get ready for that magic).


I've been experimenting with foods I don't absolutely love and guess what... I don't really like chocolate all that much. However, I do like brownies kind of (how that works out, I do not know). So, I decided I was going to explore the world of brownie-like goodies and host a little Iron Chef of sorts. It was me versus me. Or me versus brownies.


...This is confusing. Let's cut to the chase. I made two different brownie-type dishes: 1. brownies from scratch and 2. Brookies, aka cookies that taste like brownies.


The competition:

Brookies

vs.

Brownies

In the end, I honestly liked the Brookies a lot better than the brownies. The brownies were good, don't get me wrong, they were eaten in two days BUT the Brookies! Well they were gone in two hours. (This is not an exaggeration, we have a sugar consumption problem in my home.) They were chewy and crispy and just yum.

Here are the recipes for you. Make them both and decide which you prefer. 

Brookies

From Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook (I got this from Lovintheoven.com)

(Makes about 18-20) -Made about 10-16 for me we are notorious dough eaters around here.

• 1 tablespoon of canola oil
• 1 teaspoon of unsalted butter
• 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chunks (52-62% cacao)
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup of light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

1. Melt the oil, butter, and 2 cups of the chocolate together in a stainless-steel bowl of a double boiler. Let the mixture cool. (I don't have a double boiler butone pot on top of another pot full of boiling water will do!)
2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla together until combined.
3. Fold the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until combined.
5. Freeze the batter in a shallow pan for 6 to 8 minutes until the batter sets and hardens slightly.
6. Preheat your oven to 350°F at this time.
7. Scoop the cookie dough into balls and place on baking sheet.
8. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes until the tops look dry and cracked.
9. Cool completely for a soft and chewy Brookie.

Brownies:
From my new Grandma Fran

• Melt 2 cubes butter and place in large mixing bowl
• Add 2 cups granular sugar. Cream butter and sugar.
• Add 4 eggs (2 at a time). Mix.
• Add 1/3 cup cocoa. Mix.
• Add 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsps vanilla. Mix.
• Add 1 1/2 cups flour. Mix.
• Add 1 cup chocolate chips (I added this just to give it some more umph! I recommend it.) Mix.
• Pour into 9"x13" cake pan.
• Bake at 350 for 28 minutes.

Cinnamon Roll Cake.

Haven't posted recently because I was waiting until a few things happened:

1. Waiting, waiting, and yep, still waiting, until I got my wedding photos so I could put millions of picture up for your viewing entertainment. I've stopped holding my breath on that one.

2. Waiting until I finished my Spanish test. Took it today. Check.

3. Waiting until I finished my piano test. Completely bombed it, but still, check.

4. Waiting for some free time. Ah yeah.

So here I am. I've been cooking like crazy lately, so I will share some things with you.

This was divine. And I don't use that word lightly because it makes me sound like a drama queen. But honestly, anything with this much sugar has to be good.

Enjoy. 

Cake:

• 3 cups flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) real butter, melted

Topping:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) real butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup pecans, chopped (optional... aka throw this out. nuts are disgusting.)

Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

The glaze will be super runny. Go with it.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in the 1/2 cup melted butter. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and pecans until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center.
5. Place powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I got this recipe from lovintheoven.com who got it from thegirlwhoateeverything.blogspot.com. I don't know who she got it from.

Sugar Cookies, Skiing, and Julia Child.

I am turning into quite the blogger and I think this could get embarrassing. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Anyway, how was my weekend? It was awesome.

What did I do? Well let me tell you...

Have any of you ever seen the movie, Julie and Julia? I just watched in Sunday night and loved it. Love. I mean it. It was a million times better than I expected and though there is not really a plot line… it’s kinda just about life… but it is still really interesting.  I highly recommend it.

And that isn’t all I did this weekend. Oh no, my friends (all two of you who read this). I also went skiing with my family! Good people and good ski weather. It was really nice.

And finally, I got down to business and made my favorite sugar cookies! They were supposed to be for my Spanish class fiesta, but Andrew and I ate them all because they were soooooo good… so then I had to go ahead and make brownies for the fiesta.  Both turned out to be delicious.

I made little dinosaurs and named this one Mia. Hello Mia! She is so pretty.

Anyway, here is the recipe for the sugar cookies. I love it because I searched forever for a recipe that you didn’t have to chill forever (who has time for that?) and that stays soft and doesn’t get all gross and crunchy (I HATE crunchy cookies).

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 2 3/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 deg.  In large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Add baking powder and flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.  The dough will be very stiff; blend last flour in by hand.  Do not chill dough.  Divide dough into 2 balls.  On a floured surface, roll each ball in a circle approzimately 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. (It depends on how thick you want the cookies.  Thinner cookies are crisper and thicker cookies are softer. Aka the thicker the better.) Bake cookies on  ungreased cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly (very lightly!) browned.  

Sugar Cookie Vanilla Butter Frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla
• About 2 Tbs milk

 Mix powdered sugar and margarine.  Stir in vanilla and milk; beat until frosting is smooth, and is spreading consistency.

Oh, and happy one month anniversary to Andrew and me! 

So here is what I want to do...

...this weekend. It is a three day weekend after all.

I want to:

1. Go to Ikea and buy some goods that we have been lacking.

Ikea is a wonderful place.

2. Go to Ruth's Diner for dinner. I am craving it.

This is Ruth. She is a lovely lady.

3. Spend time with the greatest guy I know.

I took this picture, approximately a year ago, on our second date.


4. Go skiing!

This is about the kind of skier I am.

And this.

5. Relax.

6. Start cooking actual meals again. (Andrew and I had grilled cheese and tator tots last night.)

7. SLEEP!

But instead I'll probably be doing this:

And Andrew would be right next to me, under his pile of  books.