Wednesday, April 10, 2013

How to Make Ice Cream Sandwiches


This week I wanted to make something easy because I am kind on a sugar overload form last week. It’s also really nice outside so I would rather spend my day out of the kitchen.  I decided to would show you how to make ice cream sandwiches.

I decided to buy cookies from the bakery because I wanted this to be quick and easy but you can also use my Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies or Cookies my Way.  Just make sure all the cookies are the same size.





All you need are cookies and your favorite ice cream. I decided to use mini chocolate chip cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream.






The ice cream works better the colder it is. I started using it as soon as I bought it and it was a little melted.

Get out a plate or the container you will store the cookies in and lay out a few cookies bottoms up.

Then take a spoon full of ice cream and spread it onto one cookie.  I only did this to one side but I think it would be better if I did this to both sides.  For lager cookies you are going to need more than a spoon full. 
Make sure the ice cream is about an inch to two inches thick.

Once the ice cream is on the cookie top it with another cookie and place back on the plate. Both cookies in the sandwich should have ice cream on them before be put together.




Once all the sandwiches are together put the plate in a baggy or close the container and put in the freezer to chill. This will help the cookies stick together.




I let them freeze for about 5 hours, but 30 minutes to an hour should be fine.

Take out and enjoy especially on a hot day.





Sunday, April 7, 2013

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies



So this weekend I had a 80s movie night with my friends and I wanted to make something that we all would like. I decided to make giant dark chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. I took a Hershey’s recipe and tweaked it.

Ingredients


2 sticks of butter
1 ½ cups of sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups of all purpose flour
2/3 cups of dark cocoa (use regular if don’t want it to be super rich)
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 bag of reese chips (I didn’t have a full bag so I add some regular chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees





Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl until it is fluffy.






 
 


I didn’t want to get another bowl dirty so I mixed the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt) in a baggy.







 
Then mix the two mixtures together until all the dry ingredients are mixed in.

Stir in chips then grab a spoon fool and roll into a ball. To make to cookies giant the balls were a little smaller then my palm which makes the balls be about 2 inches across. 












Place balls on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  I’m using my pampered chief stone bar pan.

Once cookies are done cool before moving onto a wire rack or they will break into pieces.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Spring Filled Cupcakes



So my mom got me this cup cake corer and I have been really excited to use it. I decided to fill the cupcakes with pudding because I did not want too much icing. I also have been excited to try Kraft’s new Cool Whip frosting (even thought I don’t like cool whip frosting).  

Ingredients

Cake

1 cake Mix
3 eggs
1 cup of water
5 1/3 tablespoons of butter

Pudding
Instant pudding mix (I used vanilla)
2 cups of milk

1 tub Cool whip icing (I used chocolate)

Food coloring
Sprinkles (optional)

Set out frozen icing about an hour before you use it or stick it on the stove ( if you forgot to take it out) while the oven is on to defrosted it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners.





Mix eggs, water, and cake mix in a bowl for about two minutes at a medium speed. I did this by hand because I don’t have a mixer at school. For spring I decided to dye the batter pink.




 Fill cupcake pans a third to half way full and bake for about 19 minutes.




While cupcakes are baking mix pudding mix and milk in a bowl for two minutes with a whisk or a fork. Then dye green or yellow if the green doesn’t work and chill for at least five minutes.




 


Once cupcakes are done baking let them cool completely and use a cupcake corer to take the middle out.  I used the larger corer and pressed about half way down. Sometimes all the cake didn’t come out so I had to just pull it out. Next time I will use the smaller one because I like less filling but you might like more.


 




Take pudding out of the fridge and scoop into a baggy then cut of a corning like you would if you were making icing. Squirt the pudding into the cupcakes.





 



Then scoop icing into a baggy and cut the corner off and ice the cupcake. Make sure you cover the filling completely.







Sprinkle and enjoy but you need to keep the cupcakes in the fridge because of the pudding and icing. 


I made cake balls with the cupcake middles and leftover icing. 

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Lemon Meringue Pie



For Easter my mom wanted me to make some kind of pie because she had a flaky crust that needed to be used. I thought about lime, but mom said that lime goes better with a graham cracker crust, so I decided on 
 lemon. I really like citrus and had never made lemon meringue pie before.

Ingredients

Pie crust (can buy ready to bake one at the grocery store)

Filling
½ cup fresh lemon juice (2 ½ lemons)
5 tablespoons cornstarch
 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
3 egg yokes
1 ¼ sugar
1 ½ cup of water
3 tablespoons butter (cold)

Meringue
5 tablespoons sugar
3 egg whites


Bake pie crust at 425 with parchment paper and beans in it to weight it down. Fork the pie crust before sticking it in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes then take beans out and bake for 10 to 15 min until crust is a light brown.  Let cool







Turn down the heat on the oven to 350

While the crust is cooling get out a medium sauce pan or pot and whisk cornstarch, water and sugar. Then put pot over medium heat and add zest, lemon juice, and yokes. Make sure to get the zest before you squeeze the lemons. It really difficult to get the zest off a lemon that had been squeezed.
 



Whisk constantly until it boils then remove from heat and add butter. Then strain into pie crust.








 
Using a mixer or whisk (you really need a mixer for this. I was at home so I used it) mix egg whites until they 
form soft peaks.  

Gradually add in sugar while mixer is still on until it feels about half the bowl (about 6 times as much as when you started.)




Add to the top of pie and bake for about 10 minutes until the meringue is lightly brown. Then cool and serve at room temperature or cold. I like mine cold but the meringue will start to separate.







Wednesday, March 27, 2013

No Bake Cookies with a Twist


love dark chocolate
With Easter Break coming up I wanted  to make something easy and quick. Since it is not raining or cloudy, I decided to make No bake cookies. The trick to no bake cookies is to not make them when it’s rainy. They will not set correctly if the humidity levels are high. I wanted them to be a little different, so I decided to pretzels. This I'm hoping will add some salty flavor to go along with the sweet.

Measure-All® Cup
Ingredients

2 cups of sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa (I use dark)
1 stick of butter
½ cup milk
½ cup of peanut butter (I use crunchy)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups of oatmeal
1 cup of crushed pretzels (if you don’t want to use pretzels use 3 cups of oatmeal instead of 2 1/2 )







just keep string
Measure all ingredients out first because it needs to be ready to go. If you don’t get the ingredients in fast enough it will not set correctly.

In a sauce pan or pot mix sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk together. Let it boil for a minute then take of heat and immediately add peanut butter, vanilla, oatmeal, and pretzels





and stir some more

 
Mix together until all the oatmeal and pretzels are covered.

Take spoon and drop onto wax paper.

Lets cool and harden then enjoy.