Hangry Girl

Warning: This stuff is addicting! Another amazing recipe courtesy of my best friends mom. Its been one of my ‘go-to’ treats for years. Really easy to make and the sweet/salty combo is amazing! I love making this during the holidays to package up in cute bags and hand out as gifts.

Ingredients 

• 12 cups unbuttered popped popcorn
• 6 cups Rice Chex cereal
• 2 cups Cherrios cereal
• 1 50z can Chow Mein noodles
• (optional: 1/2 can cashews)
• 1 cube of butter
• 1 cube of margarine
• 1 cup karo light corn syrup
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Aluminum roasting pan

1. Put all dry ingredients into large aluminum roasting pan

2. In saucepan melt butter, margarine, brown sugar and corn syrup

3. Bring to a boil and cook for 6 minutes, stirring constantly

4. Lower heat and add 1 tbsp vanilla and then stir in 1/2 tsp of baking soda

5. Remove mixture from heat and pour over dry ingredients. Toss well

6. Put into a 250 degree preheated oven

7. Cook for one hour, mixing every 15 minutes

8. Turn mixture onto wax paper. Break up quickly and let cool for about an hour

There are quite a few names for these delicious little guys…7 layer bars, hello dolly’s and my personal favorite, magic bars! The best part about this recipe is the ability to make it your own by adding your favorite toppings (white chocolate, toffee candy bits or even peanut butter chips!) but my preference is still the original that I learned from my besties mom growing up

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 13×9 baking pan with parchment paper and non-stick cooking spray.

2. Put graham crackers in food processor and pulse until you make fine crumbs.

3. Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Layer chocolate chips, pecans and coconut over crumb mixture. Pour sweetened condensed milk over whole mixture.

4. Bake 25 -30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars and enjoy!

What better way to kick off the holidays than a sunday filled with christmas tree shopping and yummy cinnamon-ey snickernoodles baking in the oven. After dragging the almost 7′ tall tree two blocks and up four flights of stairs, I deserve some cookies, right? These cookies are the perfect treat, chewy and moist inside with just the right amount of crisp.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsps cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

For topping:

• 2 tbsps white sugar
• 2 tsps ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cream together butter, shortening, sugar, the eggs and the vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt.

4. Slowly blend the dry ingredients into the wet.

5. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls (using an ice cream scoop is perfect for this).

6. Mix the topping ingredients (2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon). Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Before I get to the cookies, the reason why its been a little slow lately is I went on an amazing trip to Scotland and Ireland and then moved the weekend I got back. To say the least, I’ve been busy! The trip was awesome, both beautiful places and tons of culture to experience and history to see. And actually the food was pretty good, despite what I’ve heard, I had some great meals. My favorites were the steak and ale pies and fish and chips…definitely need to try out some recipes soon.

So here it goes, oatmeal cookies with pecans and chocolate chips! I stumbled on this post while checking out Smitten Kitchen. You can always find a cookie recipe on her site, she has just about every cookie you can imagine. Overall I would say these cookies turned out OK, the texture worked but the flavors were a little too complex for me. Ill definitely make these again with adjustments to the spices, I’d suggest leaving out the ground clove and reduce the amount of cinnamon (maybe by half).

• 8 tbsps unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground clove
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat (nonstick baking mat).

2) Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about three minutes.

3) Stir in eggs, one at a time.

4) Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed.

5) Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips.

6) Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

This weekend I came across some really beautiful peaches and knew it was the start of a bake day. Rather than going with one big pie, I wanted to find a recipe for minis…makes it so much easier to transport and share I went with a recipe for mini peach hand pies by Smitten Kitchen. They were delicious, perfect amount of sweetness and the dough was to die for…definitely worth the time and energy involved.

Ingredients 

For the pastry:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 16 tbsp (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup ice water

For the filling:

• 2 pounds of peaches
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp bourbon (optional)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

One egg yolk beaten with 2 tbsp water (for egg wash)
Coarse sanding sugar, for decoration

1. To make the pastry, in a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour.

2. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

3. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

4. Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 4 1/2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut seven circles out of the rolled dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

5. Repeat the rolling, cutting, and chilling process with the remaining half of dough.

6. Make the filling: Peel and chop the peaches into small bits (approx. 1/2-inch dice). Mix them with the flour, sugar and pinch of salt, and add the bourbon and vanilla. (I didnt use bourbon and it was still delic!)

7. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, and let stand at room temperature until just pliable, 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon about 1 to 2 tbsps filling onto one half of each circle of dough. Quickly brush a little cold water around the circumference of the dough, and fold it in half so the other side comes down over the filling, creating a semicircle. Seal the hand pie, and make a decorative edge by pressing the edges of the dough together with the back of a fork. Repeat process with remaining dough.

8. Place the hand pies back on the parchment-lined baking sheet, and return to the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.

9. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, cut a small slit in each and lightly brush with the egg yolk wash. Sprinkle sanding sugar generously over the pies, and place pies in the oven to bake. Bake until the hand pies are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove the pies from the oven, and let stand to cool slightly before serving.

You win some, you lose some….this recipe  I lost (dont let the picture deceive you). I guess this wasn’t a total disaster, the top turned out great, very moist and had good flavor. The issue lies in the ingredients I used, the recipe called for fresh cranberries but due to seasonality, I could only find dried…hence the fruit lingering at the bottom of the cake instead of seeping up through the batter. This is definitely a recipe that I will try again, maybe for Thanksgiving!

Ingredients

• 12 ounces fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for stems
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1 tbsp grated orange zest (2 oranges)
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

These buttery, sweet, flakey treats are easy to make and a real crowd pleaser. I’d have to say they are one of my favorite items I’ve baked so far!

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped coarse
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter (½ stick), melted
• 1 tbsp bourbon or dark rum (optional)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2  tsp salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups toasted pecans, chopped coarse

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread all the pecans (2 1/4 cups) onto a baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Shake the baking sheet halfway through baking so the nuts will toast evenly. Remove nuts from oven and set aside to cool completely.
2. For the crust: Spray 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan pushing it into corners and letting the parchment extend up the two short sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. Fit second sheet of parchment paper in pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. Spray sheets with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Place flour, brown sugar, pecans, salt, and baking powder in food processor. Process mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal, about five 1-second pulses. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles sand, about eight 1-second pulses. Pat mixture evenly into prepared pan and bake until crust is light brown and springs back when touched, about 20 minutes.

1. For the pecan filling: While crust bakes, whisk together brown sugar, melted butter, corn syrup, bourbon, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until just combined. Add egg and whisk until incorporated.
2. Pour filling on top of hot crust and sprinkle pecans evenly over top. Bake until top is brown and cracks start to form across surface, 22 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Remove bars from pan using parchment handles and transfer to cutting board. Cut into bars.

Sundays are always bake days for me. I wake up and immediately browse my cookbooks to find the perfect recipe and sometimes consult Jay on what he feels like. This past sunday was Jays lucky day, he made two requests: 1. muffins and 2. sugar topping. I sifted through a bunch of recipes and finally went with ‘To Die For Blueberry Muffins” (allrecipes.com), any recipe that starts with ‘To Die For” and has over 5,000 reviews is definitely worth trying out. I made a few tweaks to the original recipe, check out my variation below

Ingredients 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp butter, cubed
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough buttermilk to fill the cup.

3. Mix wet ingredients with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries.

4. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

(To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon with a fork.)

5. Bake for 18 minutes (if using regular sized muffin/cupcake tin) in the preheated oven, or until done.