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White Chocolate Guinness Filling

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Fri, 01 May 2020 15:14:08 GMT

Hands down one of the best fillings out there! Smooth Godiva white chocolate with the subtle taste of Guinness.

St Patrick's Day 2020

It's that time of year! The time where all the Irish and even non Irish folk gather around to drink and be merry with one another. What better drink to celebrate St. Paddy's day with than a good ole Guinness? When I visited Ireland 6 years ago I was certified in crafting "The perfect pint of Guinness". Which is really a fun way of saying I watched someone pour Guinness on draft, then I poured one that was deemed correct, and they gave me a certificate for it. It was such a fun experience though, and I recommend anyone who visits Dublin to go to the Guinness factory and pour yourself the perfect pint!

Best. Filling. EVER

This has to be one of my all time favorite fillings that I have ever made! The white chocolate and Guinness pair so well together that I could literally just eat this on it's own. Godiva makes a truly scrumptious white chocolate pudding that has beautiful flecks of vanilla bean throughout. The filling is smooth but stable enough to fill a cake with and not have to worry about your layers potentially sliding. If you're familiar with stacking cakes you know the all important struggle of making sure you don't have a thin or sauce'like filling that could cause potential cake destruction. When I first started making cakes I used any filling that I thought tasted good, but did not necessarily think about the stability of my cake. I cant tell you how many cakes I have had that have had filling bust out of the sides or layers shifting about. Its so important to not only make sure your filling tastes delicious, but will be able to hold the cake layers that are going to be set on top of it. I love to create fillings by using pudding mixes because A) they are super easy, B) they are seriously so yummy, and C) they are ultra stable!

Ingredients

2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream

1 Box of Godiva White Chocolate Pudding Mix ( 3.9 oz )

5 TBS Guinness

Instructions

Step 1: Using a medium size bowl and a hand mixer whip your heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form (about 2 minutes).

Step 2: Add in your pudding mix and whip together until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure that everything is even throughout.

Step 3: Add your Guinness 1 TBS at a time, whipping with your hand mixer after each addition. Give a small stir with your spoon to get rid of any air bubbles.

**Store in your fridge for up to 5 days or begin filling your cakes or cupcakes immediately.**

Pistachio Filling

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 18:35:05 GMT

Nutty and sweet, this filling is sure to satisfy any true pistachio lover

Its the best around

Ok, so this is one ultra tasty filling, if I do say so myself! It only has 4 ingredients and is super easy to make, does it get any better than that? I am honestly an old soul I love pistachio praline ice cream, molasses cookies and have more medical problems than a 27 year old should have lol. With all that said I decided to create this filling for national pistachio day which is also the same day as a cake collaboration i'm participating in on Instagram. I knew I wanted the filling to be a whipped base, but I also wanted to make sure that the great crunch and texture of pistachios was still in there. I'm a huge fan of easy whipped pudding fillings! I don't care what anyone says, they are delicious and just as homemade as if I spent hours making a reduction then mixed it with heavy whipping cream. Work smarter not harder, that's my life motto that I always take to heart. This does not mean that you should skimp on getting quality ingredients though. Make sure, if you can, to buy fresh non salted pistachios. I buy mine from Trader Joe's, which as you all know is my favorite grocery store. Picking quality ingredients will not only make your baked goods and fillings taste better but it will ensure that you and others will want to come back for more!

Tips

-Make sure you whip your heavy cream until stiff peaks form. This helps to ensure that your filling reaches your desired consistency

-Start with 2 TBS of milk and add more until you reach the consistency of your liking.

Ingredients

Box of Instant Pistachio Pudding

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/3 chopped non salted pistachios

2 TBS whole milk

Instructions

Step 1: In a large bowl using a hand mixer start whipping your heavy cream until stiff peaks form (about 2 minutes).

Step 2: Empty the entire contents of your pistachio pudding into your whipped cream and begin to beat until incorporated throughout

Step 3: Add 2 TBS of milk to the mixture and beat again until combined. If you want a smoother consistency add more milk until you have reached your desired consistency.

Step 4: Fold in your chopped pistachio pieces and refrigerate for an hour.

**Stays good in the fridge for up to a week**

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Trader Joe's Tuesday: Chocolate Chip Brownie Mix

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 18:42:47 GMT

These rich and fudgy brownies are perfect for any chocolate lover who doesn't want something way too sweet.

Last week of TJ Tuesday

Guys, this is the last week in the Trader Joe's Tuesday series. Sad I know. Unfortunately, Trader Joe's has not released any new mixes as of late, and I am all out of new ones at my house. I even went to TJ's yesterday to check to see if they had anything new that I could make for next week and there was nothing. So with a heavy heart this will be my last week making things for this series. But don't worry, Trader Joe's is still my favorite store so you will still see me making and creating things using their awesome ingredients. I will be taking a couple weeks off from doing any new series so that I can really nail down what I would like to do next. If you guys have anything you would like to see more of feel free to email, or DM me on here or Instagram (expedition_bake).

A little tip for pulling out perfect brownies that don't stick to your baking dish every time. Spray your dish with canola oil then line with parchment paper. When your brownies are cooled pull up on the parchment paper and place them on the counter. From here you can cut perfect slices without having to worry about them sticking to the sides of your dish.

Chocolate Chip Brownies

This week I decided to make the last mix that I had in my pantry from TJ's which was their chocolate chip brownie mix. Not only is this mix delicious but it is 100% gluten free! It is made using brown rice flour so anyone with a peanut allergy is still welcome to partake and not feel left out. I decided to bump this flavor to the next level by adding 1 TBS of pure bourbon vanilla extract (which can also be found at Trader Joe's). I added some milk chocolate chips to the top of these brownies purely for aesthetic reasons, because who doesn't love to see some ooey gooey chocolate on top of their brownies? Am I right?

Lets get talking about the taste of these brownies... They are super rich and fudgy and I feel like the added vanilla extract really brought all the flavors from the chocolate to the surface. The brownies themselves are not too crazy sweet so they are perfect for that dark chocolate lover in your life. I would however recommend a tall glass of ice cold milk to wash these down with because they really are THAT rich. The texture is super soft and chewy and what you think of when you picture the perfect brownie. It has the traditional crinkly brownie top and a very fudgy center.

Farewell Trader Joe's Tuesday! This was such a fun series to do and I am sad to see it end but on to the next thing loves.

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Fudgy Chocolate Quinoa Loaf

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 20:13:43 GMT

Rich and fudgy chocolate cake with subtle notes of sweet quinoa flour and bits of chocolate chips!

Back at it

I'm back ladies and gents!! After being sick for 3 consecutive weeks with a throat and sinus infection I finally feel well enough to start baking again. It seriously seems like it has been forever since I was last in the kitchen, 3 weeks is a long time! However, now that I'm better everyone else in my family is sick. This whole hot cold hot cold weather we have going on on Florida is crazy on the immune system. I never do anything half way, so instead of easing myself back into baking again I literally jumped right in. I made TJ's fudgy chocolate quinoa loaf, crusted girl scout cookie cake layers, a filling to go with it, and my buttercream for the cake. I didn't end up assembling the cake the same day because that is way too much and I never do that anyway. I must say though, I am so happy to be back in my element and do what makes me happy again. As always Lily is here helping me whilst being super sassy still, of course. With all that said lets get to this loaf!

Loaf life

I am a huge loaf lover! Banana bread was one of the first things my mom taught me to bake and it is my absolute favorite. I was excited to make this chocolate quinoa loaf because not only are loafs simple to whip up but it was a pre-made mix, which only needed a couple things added. This thing took forever to bake though, which was pretty frustrating. The recommended time on the box is 55 to 60 minutes but I ended up cooking it for about 80 minutes. The middle was just way too jiggly every time I brought it out of the oven that it needed more time. I checked my oven thermometer each time to make sure I wasn't letting too much heat out from opening the oven door and it remained a steady 350 degrees.

The amazing thing about this cake is that the taste of the quinoa flour was so subtle. Its not an overpowering taste where you can tell exactly what it is, but its not exactly the same as all purpose flour (taste wise). The chocolate definitely helps the flavor fully develop.I added about 1/3 cup of extra chocolate chips to the batter just in case the flavor of the quinoa came through too strong. Overall I would say that this loaf was very easy to throw together, tasted good, but took way to long to bake. I'm not sure if I will be rushing back to purchase this boxed mix again but I can definitely say that I am glad that I tried it out. I think more quinoa flour based baked goods are in my future though!

If you don't mind a little inconsistency in your baking time and love fudgy chocolate loafs then you should head over to your local Trader Joe's and try this fudgy quinoa loaf out for yourself. You can also make it into a cake!

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Beer Bread

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:42 GMT

Buttery and moist bread with a subtle hint of hoppiness from a delicious chocolate stout!

Beer? I think yes!

So beer has been a huge part of my household for a very long time. I'm not a huge drinker (maybe have a glass once a month if that) but, my brother is a huge beer know it all. Growing up he worked at multiple breweries, used to brew his own beer at our house, and his best friend is the head brewer for a restaurant in Disney. Needless to say I picked up a few things over the years about beer and can definitely appreciate a brown ale or a delicious stout. When I saw that Trader Joe's had beer bread I thought of 2 things; "I have always wanted to make bread!", and beer is apart of my brothers life so why not make something that he and I will both enjoy? I have never made any sort of bread before so I figured this would be a very daunting task for me. Luckily, Trader Joe's makes this extremely easy for first time bread bakers! All this pre-made mix needs is 2 things; beer and butter. Seriously! That's it!

Finding the right beer

When walking through the wine and beer aisle at Trader Joe's I knew I wanted to pick a beer that TJ's trusts and sells. I decided to choose Boatswain Chocolate Stout. Its brewed with real cocoa powder and has a roasted malt and hop bitterness to it that I think would pair really well in a bread. I was aiming for a buttery hoppy taste in this bread and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

Its the best...around!

Ok everyone, this is truly the most delicious Trader Joe's Tuesday thus far! This bread is to die for! It had a delicious buttery taste with a soft and pillowy texture. The hoppy notes come through very subtly but the beer really helps add to the delicious flavor of this bread. It is much more moist than a traditional Irish Guinness bread. If you can find this chocolate stout at your local TJ's I highly suggest you use it to make this bread. It was also a real crowd pleaser too. I allowed my parents to take half of it to their meeting at the Sheriffs office and everyone gobbled it up so fast my mom didn't even get any.

I mean come on! Look at that delicious golden brown crust on the outside and that beautiful texture on the inside. I'm drooling just writing this blog post! Head out to your local Trader Joe's and pick up this pre-made mix for yourself. I guarantee that you will love it just as much as I do!

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:41 GMT

A recipe that is 100% gluten free and has an option of being vegan, lets give this a go!

Almond Flour Cookies

When I saw this almond flour cookie mix at Trader Joe's the other day I knew I had to try them out. It's really nice that a gluten free cookie mix is available and easy to make here. I know a lot of people who either have Celiac disease or an intolerance to gluten, so knowing that a grocery store carries cookies that are not only gluten free but a healthier alternative to the standard cookie is nice. The dough came together really nicely, although it was a tad greasy because of the melted butter (or oil as a vegan alternative). I would suggest using a glass bowl to mix this all together for an easy cleanup later on. These cookies can be made fully vegan as well, which is another plus! I decided not to add anything to these cookies, for this post, since I'm not so skilled with almond flour in the first place. In the future though I would love to make my own almond flour and experiment with different types of recipes where almond flour is used.

Tell me whats your flavor

So I don't hate these cookies but I don't love them either, sorry to say. One of the first things I noticed was that the almond flour didn't seem to be ground up well enough. After I made the cookies and taste tested them I had a persistent tickle in my throat due to the texture of this cookie. It was actually bothersome for me personally, because once there is a tickle in my throat I end up choking for a little while. After this experience I didn't really want to go back for another cookie no matter how good it tasted. Now, I found the taste of this cookie to be different but not awful. It definitely had a strong nutty taste, due to the almond flour, but was still very chewy and full of chocolate chips. Unlike me, my dad loved these cookies and thought the taste was quite unique. Its really all about personal preference with this cookie mix. If you are used to the taste and texture of almond flour I believe you will really enjoy these cookies. They are a great gluten free option for something sweet while still not bothering a sensitive stomach. However, if you A) don't like almonds, B) aren't use to the texture, or C) only like traditional chocolate chip cookies, this may not be the cookie for you.

Hey don't take my word for it, or my dads, head to your local Trader Joe's and make these for yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Banana Bread

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:38 GMT

Moist and chewy, a delicious and easy banana bread you can whip up in a flash

A fun week for sure

This week was full of baking and adventure for sure! I made some geometric heart cakesicles that didn't exactly go to plan, but they still looked cute, thank goodness. Cakesicles are definitely a learning process for me. The painting method is my preferred method so far, since it has been a tiny bit easier. Unfortunately my candy melts are never thick enough when I paint and therefore you can still see the cake mixture hiding beneath that pesky surface. The trouble here is that I want the layers to be thick enough so you cant see the cake and the cakesicle doesn't crumble when being taken out of the mold. However, I don't want it too thick so that it is mostly candy melts.

My boyfriend and I went to Disney World last weekend and had a lovely stay-cation thanks to his aunt. It was such a relaxing time and the weather was absolutely perfect. Usually we are walking around Disney tired, miserable, and sweaty since it is so hot and humid. But not this time! It was a cool 60 ish degrees the entire time and was not crazy busy. We went to the Be Our Guest restaurant for lunch on our first day and let me tell you it was well worth the wait. Besides the prices being a little much the food was delicious and the ambiance inside the castle was amazing! I would highly recommend it. That night we watched the happily ever after firework show at Magic Kingdom and it was spectacularly magical. I really loved every part of it!

Richard and I of course went to Epcot and took our annual festival of the arts picture. We also got to ride the Millennium Falcon: smugglers run at Hollywood Studios and it was a blast! I was the role of engineer and had to fix all the damage our ship encountered while smuggling our goods

Banana Bread Time

Now onto our regularly scheduled programming. This banana bread! So the smell of the mixture was not my favorite. It had a fake banana powder smell that was not too pleasing to the nostrils. The back of the package did offer options if you wanted to use real bananas in addition, but I didn't have any ripe bananas on hand. Lily is obsessed with banana and goes through a bunch during the week so this left me in a banana-less state. I did have some toasted pecans on hand that I decided to add to the batter to give the bread a bit of crunch. The texture of this banana bread was a little more dense than I usually prefer when making banana bread but all in all this was not a horrible bake. It had a nice taste, despite the not so pleasant smell of the mix, and the banana flavor really did shine well throughout. The addition of the toasted pecans really elevated the flavor and let the banana notes shine. Heated up with a small amount of butter on a slice would be the perfect way to go with this in my opinion.

I would certainly purchase this box mix again but definitely add some real bananas to enhance the texture and provide a smoother, lighter banana bread. If you like what you have seen and read then head to your local Trader Joe's and pick up a box for yourself! Have fun experimenting with new things and let me know what you thought about TJ's banana bread in the comments.

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Truffle Brownie Mix

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:37 GMT

Delicious rich brownies filled with chunks of gooey melted chocolate.

Guess what...I hate chocolate

As most of you know I am not really a fan or chocolate. You are probably asking " Ummm then why do you make things with chocolate in them?" Well, since you asked, I do this all for you! I know the majority of people on this planet love chocolate and think I am a crazy person for not liking it. With that said I want to make sure I encompass all things within the baking world, even if its something I don't particularly favor. One thing I do love is to look at pictures of brownies. Weird right? I can really appreciate a delicious fudgy looking brownie with puddles of melted chocolate on and within. I've said this before and I will say it until the day I die, I am obsessed with the texture and consistency of things. So if something looks delicious then my head automatically thinks it must be delicious, even if I know I hate it. The magic of food, am I right?

Rich and Chocolaty

With all that said these brownies not only looked great, which pleases me, they tasted amazing! I literally just told all of you how much I hate chocolate I know, but I can definitely appreciate things with chocolate in them. For instance two peas and their pod have the most amazing chocolate banana bread ever! I definitely have to chug a cup of water after I eat anything with chocolate (I have done this since I was younger to get the taste of chocolate out of my mouth). But, I cant deny when something is good! These brownie are just that good. Simple to make, as with everything Trader Joe's offers and yet still satisfies. The chocolate chips mixed in the batter really adds extra flavor and of course gives a great texture. The back of the box also has instructions on how to make chewy chocolate chip cookies using this mix as well. I love that you have options with many of TJ's baking mixes.

I would definitely give these brownies a 10/10! If chocolaty brownies with a crisp outside and soft inside are your thing then you NEED to purchase a box of these for yourself. If you want extra chewy brownies try adding in an extra egg yolk!

Cupcake Cones

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:36 GMT

This 2019 trend for cupcakes is fun and easy to make! Store bought waffle cones filled with vanilla cake and edible cookie dough all dipped in pink candy melts and topped with smooth swiss meringue buttercream.

Game Plan

I have seen this cupcake cone trend circling around Instagram for almost the entirety of 2019. Bakers like The Flour Girl and Baking With Blondie have some of the most beautiful versions I have ever seen! I decided to take my own crack at it and add a little extra flair by adding edible cookie dough to it. A cupcake cone holder is a must in order to make these fun cones. I purchased mine off of Amazon right here .

Not everything goes according to plan...

My original plan was to pipe a buttercream border on top of the waffle cone then add a giant scoop of edible cookie dough on top. This did not work out the way I wanted it to at all. When I went to apply the giant scoop of my edible cookie dough it began to collapse into the cone and smush all of the buttercream. I was not able to place the cones in the fridge to firm up the buttercream because the fridge would cause the cones to get soft. Did I think about this beforehand? Of course not, that would have been smart. However, it was another busy day in my kitchen making cupcakes, SMBC, cupcakes cones, edible cookie dough, all while watching an active 2 year old. So when my original plan didn't work I had to do some quick thinking as how to salvage my efforts. I decided to scoop smaller amounts of my edible cookie dough into the cone then pipe on top of that. Unfortunately you cant see the delicious looking cookie dough but you can sure as H-E-double toothpicks taste it!

This right here is one of the main reasons I named this blog Expedition Bake. I, along with you, am learning new things constantly. I want to grow as a baker and learn new things every day. Do I mess up? Yes. Do I get frustrated? Ohhhh yeah. But do I give up? Never!

Tips

- Try to make, assemble, and decorate these the day of. If you place your cones into the fridge they will soften and will no longer retain that perfect waffle cone crunch.
- Make sure to fill your cones with about 2 TBS of batter or halfway up. If you fill them too much your cupcake batter will go over the sides of your cone.
- If your waffle cones get a bit burnt at the tops in the oven this is a quick fix with some melted chocolate or candy melts.
- Make your buttercream the night before and leave out on the counter in an airtight container. You may leave your swiss meringue buttercream at room temp for 24 hours, after that it should go in the fridge.
- Melt your candy melts in 15 second intervals so you don't burn them.

Ingredients/Items Needed

Store bought waffle cones

Any Vanilla cake batter of your choosing

Edible cookie dough

Swiss Meringue Buttercream or any frosting of your choice

Candy Melts

Sprinkles

Cupcake Cone Holder

Assembly

- Step 1: Make your buttercream the night before so this is one less step you have to do the day of. The recipe is linked above^
- Step 2: Take your cupcake cone holder (I got mine from Amazon) and place it on top of a cookie sheet (this is to prevent any batter from going over the sides into your oven, as well as helping this stand up). Move your oven rack all the way down, so you have room for your cupcake cone holder.
- Step 3 : Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Begin to make the batter of your choosing. Once it is completely mixed, scoop 2 TBS of batter into your cones (or until they are about halfway full). Place your filled cones into the oven for about 13-15 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden brown.
- Step 4: Take your cones out of the oven and allow them to cool completely. While your cones are cooling begin to make your edible cookie dough (recipe link above).
- Step 5 : Once your cones are fully cooled, dip the tops of the cones into your melted candy melts and cover them in sprinkles. Allow them to dry in your cupcake cone holder.
- Step 6 : Take 1 to 2 small scoops of the edible cookie dough and put place on top of your cooked and dipped cones.
- Step 7: Swirl your buttercream using a Wilton 1M tip around your cookie dough, covering it completely. Top with sprinkles!

There you have it! Your beautiful cones are all done and ready to eat! These cones will stay fresh and crispy for 1 to 2 days depending on the humidity in your area.

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Crumb Cake

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:35 GMT

A sweet and crunchy top with a soft and tasty center, sure to please any true coffee cake lover!

Busy Busy

Another busy week down in the books! I had a fun week baking, cleaning and hanging out with Lily. I made my first batch of cakesicles, and after a morning full of frustration I finally had something I was semi proud of! Man oh man was it a process though. I tried the dipping method but it just was not working for me. Apparently the best method for me was painting my mold then placing my cakesicle mixture inside, this produced a beautiful, and yummy, cakesicle. I recently purchased this crumb cake from Trader Joe's and just HAD to make it!

Crumb Cake

I am a true crumb/coffee cake lover! The texture and taste are everything. If you followed along with my Magnolia Monday posts you know that their apple cinnamon cake is so incredibly delicious. Ever since making this cake I wanted to try to make a super easy crumb cake from a mix. Lucky for me TJ's had me covered in that area. Their recipe was wonderful and gave options for different ingredients you could use to make the cake. Some of the options were milk OR water and another was butter OR oil (I went with the milk/butter version). They also gave options for a layer of cinnamon sugar put in the middle or just place it all on top. Since I really wanted the perfect bite, I went with a layer in the middle AND on top. One of the things I really have enjoyed with all of Trader Joe's pre-made bake mixes, is that they really want you to make it your own. All the recipes have provided different ways you can bake their items and a plethora of add in options.

Ummm hello crummy yummy goodness! Lily loved this crumb cake so much. She couldn't wait for it to come out of the oven so she could try it. Within an instant she gobbled it up and kept saying "mo pees"( aka: more please). I, on the other hand had to get used to it. The only sweetness comes from the cinnamon sugar on top and in the middle. If you happen to make this on your own make sure to put some of the cinnamon crumb in the middle AND the top. This will help to achieve a good flavor in those areas. I would have honestly preferred it a tad, and I mean a tad, bit sweeter. The crumb on the top becomes crunchy and crystallizes and adds a great texture. BUT it also is a whole lot of sweetness just for one area. I would almost want to mix some of this into the batter so that the sweetness distributes evenly. All in all this was not a bad crumb cake and I would certainly make it again, just with a few minor adjustments.

Way to go Trader Joe's for another tasty and versatile boxed mix! Join me next Tuesday to see what I will be making/trying next.

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Vanilla Cake Mix

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:30 GMT

Buttery boxed cake that is quick to whip up in under an hour!

The Wonderful World of Trader Joe's

So I have officially entered the world of Trader Joe's cake mixes. I must admit I was very excited to make this cake since I absolutely adore everything TJ's has to offer. So obviously I had to make a run up to my local Trader Joe's to grocery shop and grab a few extra things to make this cake special! Now, if you know me, you know that this grocery store is lifeeee. A big majority of my lunches consist of frozen foods and salads found here. I also, mainly feed my niece food from Trader Joe's because I love knowing exactly what fresh foods are going into her little body. We are HUGE fans of their strawberry bars, Lily literally eats at least 1 a day. Sunday, on this certain trip, I bought some fresh eggs to make my buttercream, freeze dried raspberries to add to the batter, and the rest of my groceries for the week.

Raspberries? Yes you heard right. I decided to throw some raspberries into the food processor, sift them, and add some to the vanilla cake mix. Wondering how this all turned out? Lets see...

Cake Time

This cake was quite the pleasant surprise. I was a tad hesitant at first because the batter was lumpy no matter how much I stirred. But it was actually a delicious cake! It was a tad too buttery (due to the full stick of butter inside) but other than that it was lovely. The texture was a tad dense and yet still fluffy. Crazy sounding, right? I think I could have done with baking it a minute or two less, so the crumb would have been even better. You should really give this cake a try for yourself and see what fun things you can add to it to make it your own. Or you can take a page out of baking with blondies book and use this mix as a base and add whatever leavening agents and fats you prefer.

I used my own recipe for swiss meringue buttercream to decorate this cake. It is light and tastes similar to whipped cream. Its honestly the perfect type of buttercream to pair with this cake! I also used a mixture of different Sweetapolita sprinkle blends, some sanding sugar, and some luster dust to decorate.

Edible Cookie Dough

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:29 GMT

Sweet and smooth edible cookie dough with pieces of mini chocolate chips throughout.

Fake it till you make it

Ever want to eat that delicious and sweet cookie dough but are too afraid of salmonella? Or risk getting E coli from uncooked flour? (Yes, E coli is a risk when consuming raw flour) This edible cookie dough is perfect for you. All the satisfaction of enjoying this amazing treat without contracting an illness :-)

I think cookie dough is so delicious! But seriously who has ever contracted a disease from eating raw cookie dough? I am for sure guilty of licking the spoon after I bake cookie dough dozens of times. Even though I have never heard of anyone getting sick from raw cookie dough this is still a risk we don't want to take, especially when little ones want to eat some of your batter. You could go to the store and spend $8 on an extremely small amount OR you can make this tasty edible cookie dough for much less. The choice is yours.

Lily constantly wants to eat the cookie dough when i'm making my chocolate chip cookies but as the crazy "only organic whole foods for my niece" aunt that I am, I will never let her have any. This usually results in multiple temper tantrums from such a tiny human. With this recipe in mind, I decided to let Lily partake in this tasty goodness, after all she never gets to eat the actual cookie dough.

Tips

-Make sure to heat treat your flour! This is highly important because eating raw flour can put you at risk for contracting E coli.

-Cool your flour about 3 minutes after it comes out of the oven. Doing so helps ensure that your edible cookie dough is the right consistency.

Ingredients

1 cup flour (heat treated)

1/2 cup butter (semi room temp)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tsp vanilla extract

1/2 Tsp salt

2 TBS whole milk

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Heat treating flour

Creaming together our sugars and butter

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place parchment paper down on a cookie sheet and evenly spread your flour across. Bake for 6-7 minutes.

Step 2 : While your flour is in the oven cream together your butter and sugar in a medium sized bowl using a hand mixer. Scrape down the sides of your bowl then add in your vanilla and salt. Make sure everything is fully combined.

Step 3: Once your flour is ready allow it to sit on your counter to cool down a little (about 3 minutes). We don't want the flour cooled completely because we need some of the warmth to achieve the correct texture in the cookie dough.

Step 4: Add your flour and fully combine. Next, add it your milk and mix together until there are no clumps.

Step 5: Fold in your mini chocolate chips using a rubber spatula. You can eat this right away or allow it to sit in your fridge overnight for the flavors to really come together. Take it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you want to eat it so it softens.

** Store in a resealable container in the fridge for up to 5 days (doubt it will last that long before being gobbled up!)**

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Blondie Brownies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:28 GMT

Golden brown on the outside and soft on the inside. These subtle brownies have bits of chocolate throughout to add a subtle sweetness but are packed of delicious flavor.

Tuesday's are the best

Happy Tuesday Expedition Bakers! This past Thursday I had a minor procedure on my toe and I am on the road to recovery. I will save you all from the disgusting pictures because....well this is a food blog and we don't want that nasty nonsense up in here. I will let you all know that the procedure went amazing and I have one of the best podiatrists around! Even with my needle phobia I still did great (I seriously surprised myself). I made the mistake however of watching the procedure while my doctor was performing it. And ummm needless to say I may have passed out for a couple seconds. It was actually quite funny though because I tried to politely interject during the procedure while my father and doctor were having a conversation. In my defense I simply needed to alert them that I was about to pass out. (Amy: "Umm excuse me. I just want to let you guys know i'm about to pass out). And with that said my eyes immediately closed, my head slouched back and I was gone for a couple of seconds. The doctor held some smelling salts in his hand just in case I needed them, but I decided to pass on that. With all this said, praise God that this procedure went smoothly and I am now on my way to healing. Did everyone else have a lovely week?

Lily came back from her week long trip yesterday, and I can't explain how much I missed this little girl. She was so sweet as soon as she walked in the door. She gave me a great big hug and kiss and said "I mish yew". My heart instantly melted and I really thought I was going to burst out into tears for a second. I have never been apart from her for that long since she was born, and it was much harder for me than I expected. She and Aiden had the best time though and sweet Meg was kind enough to send me pictures throughout their trip. I can't wait to see nug (Aiden) too so we can make slime and cookies together. They are truly 2 of the best kiddos out there and i'm so glad that they enjoyed their vacation.

Blondies have more fun

I'm not saying that perfect things exist but these blondie brownies from Trader Joe's are certainly very close! I have had a couple of blondies before and my favorite has to be these cream cheese blondies that HoneyBaked Ham used to sell when I worked there years ago. They were soft and chewy but had the most delicious tang from the cream cheese. However, these TJ blondies come in a close second. Trader Joe's added some chocolate chips into their batter for an added element of sweetness. What better way to kick off Valentine's baking then with these tasty treats? I tinted the dough with some pink food coloring and added small sprinkles throughout to add just a touch of loveeeee. Remember that with everything baked in Trader Joe's Tuesday you can make it your own. Add things and experiment with making it your own!

Ta ta ta ta ta tasty tasty

Once again Trader Joe's has made an extremely easy recipe to follow! Its literally 1 egg, 1 stick of butter and the dry mix (provided by TJ's). If you want to add a bit of crunch and texture to these blondies TJ's suggest you add any time of nuts whether its walnuts, pistachios or some pecans. Because of some allergy issues with my family I decided to forego this added texture in lieu of some fun sprinkles. Everyone in my family gobbled these blondies up still! They are honestly perfect with a glass of ice cold milk. I even really enjoyed them! The chocolate chips mixed in really made the flavors stand out. It complimented the subtle blondie mix extremely well.

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Trader Joe's Tuesday: Triple Chocolate Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:27 GMT

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! I spent mine with family and had a blast. We started the morning with lots of baking then our tradition of a banana bread "birthday cake" for Jesus. We sing happy birthday to Jesus then eat! It may sound silly but its a tradition my family has done ever since I can remember and it is such a clever way to remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas. This year I ended up getting an amazing new Fitbit and 11 personal training sessions from my wonderful mother. Most people would be offended by this gift but with my medical issues my mother knew I really wanted to get back into the gym in a safe and beneficial way. After a very long morning of baking, opening presents, and scrambling around trying to get ready we headed to my aunt's house. We had so much food, a white elephant gift exchange, and a whole bunch of laughs with the ones I love.

My gnome cake I made last week ended up travelling 45 minutes with me to my aunt's house and made it in perfect condition (thank god!). I made so many baked goods for Christmas I thought my family was going to kill me. Lets see...I made molasses cookies, toffee white chocolate and pecan brownies (from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook), my chewy chocolate chip cookies (made with baileys chocolate chips this time), the most delicious melt in your mouth eggnog cookies, pistachio cherry snowballs, and of course my eggnog layers with eggnog cream cheese filling gnome cake. I may have neglected to tell my aunt I was bringing all of these goodies. But...in my defense I made these cookies for gift boxes to give out to friends. After all the boxes were prepped and stuffed I brought all the leftovers with me to Christmas because I thought it would be nice to have, AND they were so delicious. After all this fun Richard and I headed to our 2nd Christmas at his house where his aunt, cousin, brother, and his brothers girlfriend were waiting. We opened presents with them and had a fun and relaxing time. Needless to say my Christmas went amazing! I hope everyone else's went great as well.

Triple Chocolate Cookie Time

I am proud to say that this week I did NOT multitask and made these cookies correctly! Once again Trader Joe's made this recipe super easy to follow and quick to whip up in a flash. The cookies look very similar to a brookie. They are crispy on the top, chewy in the middle and extremely chocolaty. If you are a die hard chocolate fan then you will LOVE these cookies! It is definitely a cookie you want a tall glass of cold milk with. Is it my favorite cookie?...No. But that is simply because I am not a chocolate fan. I can definitely appreciate the texture and taste though. On a scale of 1-10 I would give these cookies a 7. Wonderful texture but just a little too chocolaty....but honestly what else did a expect from a triple chocolate cookie?

As always you can buy this cookie tin at your local Trader Joe's! See you next week for some fun TJ talk.

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Cinnadoodle Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:26 GMT

Multitasking...not my forte

So once again I have discovered I am awful at multitasking (I should really stick to one thing at a time). I had a plan this time, I really did! I took out a stick of butter for my cinnadoodle cookies to come to room temp as well as 4 sticks of butter for smbc for a cake. I placed the stick in front of all my ingredients for the cookies and placed the other 4 sticks on the opposite side of the counter. Now, in my head there was no way I could do the ole switcheroo and use 4 sticks of butter for such a small batch of cookies. Guess what? My head was right! I didn't use 4 sticks of butter in my cookie dough but rather the entire stick placed in front of my cookie mix. The problem here is that I only needed 4 tablespoons of butter for the cookies....not a whole stick. I only noticed my mistake when I peeked at the cookies through the oven door and thought to myself "man these cookies are looking so fla- oh my gosh! I did it again! I put in 4 extra tablespoons of butter!". The poor cinnadoodles never stood a chance with my awful and scrambled brain.

The final review

I wish I could say that these cookies were delicious even though I messed up, but unfortunately that's not the case this time. Even with the added butter they were dry and too crisp for my taste. The flavor was barley there, besides the added cinnamon sugar coating. These were not a cookie I would go back for seconds for. Maybe next time I'll have better luck with the 3rd and finally cookie mix in the fun tier of cookie tins. I still have faith in Trader Joe's that they will pull through with a delicious cookie mix and that I will not mess it up!

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Toffee Oat Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:19 GMT

Oh so flat, yet still so tasty

Big fail

This Trader Joe's Tuesday was a hilarious fail! Nothing to do with the recipe but all to do with my horrible attempt at multitasking. Monday was an incredibly busy day for me. It was my sweet mothers birthday-Happy Birthday Holl Doll, her annual Christmas party for the Sherrifs office, and a day full of baking. I decided to make a hot chocolate cake, boston creme cupcakes, shortbread cookies, molasses cookies, and toffee oat cookies all for her Christmas party. Fortunately, I did semi prep the night before by making the entire cake, cupcakes, molasses cookies and ganache for the cupcakes. So for Monday I needed to make the filling for the cupcakes/assemble them, make the icing for the molasses cookies, make the toffee oat cookies, and make and decorate the shortbread cookies. Sounds easy right? (Insert eye-roll here) I started my morning off by taking the butter out for my shortbread cookies and toffee oat cookies to soften. Meanwhile I made my easy boston creme filling (recipe is up on the blog) and filled the cupcakes. Fresh into multitasking mode I made my first mistake. I used the butter meant for my shortbread cookies for my toffee oat cookie mix from Trader Joe's. Meaning I used 14 TBS of butter as opposed to 4 TBS...you can see where this story is going. I only figured this out when my timer went off and I opened the oven door only to discover the flattest crispiest cookies I have ever seen. A wave of realization swept over me as I looked from my cookies to the counter where my 4 TBS of butter that was actually meant for the toffee oat cookies was sitting. I proceeded to laugh too hard then I hear a little laugh from the living room that slowly made its way into the kitchen and see Lily laughing simply because I'm laughing. We both proceeded to giggle at each other simply because the other was giggling and it was too cute and too hilarious all wrapped into one.

Review

Let me tell you something these cookies were still absolutely delicious even though they don't look lovely. I took them to my mother's Christmas party still and they dissapeared in a flash. The oats gave the cookies a lovely texture whereas the toffee added a beautiful flavor and chew in the center. The amount of compliments I received on these "mess up" cookies was amazing. The added butter helped to flatten these cookies which gave them a texture similar to a pizelle. I would love to make these again and this time add the right amount of butter.

Stack and Play

One of the many wonderful things about this cookie mix is that it comes in a stack-able tin filled with 3 different mixes of cookies! After you're done with all the cookies the containers make great storage containers for kids items. You can store anything from crayons, crafting supplies, or even small dolls!

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Pumpkin Bread

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:18 GMT

Soft spiced loaf with bits of dried fruits within and icing on top to satisfy any sweet tooth.

Weekend Travels

Here I am travelling once again this week, and this time it is to Connecticut. I came back yesterday and it was so great to be in the cold and do Christmas things that actually feel Christmas-y. My family and I decided to take a quick day trip to the city and oh my word it was a blast! The day started with a train ride into the city, which I slept most of the way on. When we arrived we were greeted by my cousins friend, Floyd, with Starbucks hot chocolate in tow. Then we were off to visit the new Sotheby's location where my cousin works. It was absolutely gorgeous, so modern and high tech that it fit the classic Sotheby's name. After our tour around the building we were off to take in the sights of the city.

We visited the stunning tree in Rockefeller center. Let me tell you it is definitely a sight to see and really gets you into the Christmas spirit. The streets were filled with many people all crowding to get a chance to see what the city has to offer. After taking in some of the sights we went to MAGNOLIA BAKERY!!! I was so incredibly excited to get a chance to visit the place that inspired Magnolia Mondays. I purchased the world famous banana pudding, which I have no words for how delicious it was. I also purchased a vanilla cupcake, brown sugar cookie, peanut butter bar, and a piece of blueberry cheesecake. Everything was scrumptious! I may have fangirled a little bit and spoke the poor doorman Ian's, ear off. He was so kind and gave me a business card of some people who work in Magnolia's marketing office. I seriously had the time of my life and want to thank Magnolia Bakery for inspiring me in my baking endeavors.

Trader Joe's Tuesday

We are back at it again for this weeks Trader Joe's Tuesday! This week I made their Pumpkin bread. The great thing about this pre made mix is that you can choose to make either pumpkin bread OR muffins. Trader Joe's was nice enough to instruct how to bake both ways so I decided to go with the loaf because come on, who doesn't love a good loaf! And of course I had to add a little bit of icing on top, because well its me. The loaf is not the prettiest thing I have made, but the taste is still yummy. Once again Trader Joe's has created a very user friendly recipe, with very thorough instructions and different ideas of what you can add to the recipe to make it your own. I added some dried mixed fruits (blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, and cherries). It really added some dimension to the bread and paired beautifully with the pumpkin. The cherry on top however, was the icing on top. Im koo koo for icing lately. With such a thin layer added to the top it adds the perfect extra bit of sweetness.

My only issue with this pumpkin bread was the crumbly texture. While I love the flavor of this recipe, the next time I make it I may add an egg to add as a better binding agent. This hopefully will help the cake stay moist and flavorful while holding the bread together so that it doesn't instantly crumble when you pick it up.

There you have it ladies and gents! Round 2 of Trader Joe's Tuesday was another success. I can't wait to see what the next couple of weeks have in store. In case you haven't noticed everything will have some sort of winter/Christmas theme to help really showcase the holidays.

Make sure you get the chance to go visit your local Trader Joe's and purchase your very own pumpkin bread mix and let me know how you make it your own!

Trader Joe's Tuesday: Mixed Berry Scones

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:17 GMT

Delicious crisp and crunchy scones, filled with a tangy berry medley, and topped with sweet icing to compliment the scone.

The Start of Something New

Welcome to my new December segment (Trader Joe's Tuesday)! I cant stress enough how excited I am for this! I, like so many, am absolutely obsessed with Trader Joe's. With prices that don't break the bank and SOOOO many organic options this is my go to store to buy healthy food for Lily and I. My goal here is to make some of Trader Joe's pre-made baking items and alter them a tad. I want to show you all that box mixes don't have to just be made one way. You can experiment by adding or subtracting certain items or decorate them to your liking. Plus, Trader Joe's never really dissapoints! I've never met an item from them that I didn't like.

Thanksgiving plans

The family and I spent Thanksgiving weekend over in Port Canaveral at a condo right near where the ships were coming and going. The weather was absolutely amazing and seriously the perfect time to go. We relaxed, ate way too much, and did lots of fun activities for Lily. There was a whole kids play area and I for sure broke the rules to go down the slides with tiny. The resort was definitely kid centered which was really nice, especially for an indecisive 2 year old. She even made her own bear, Cammy, at the resort play area! The best part of the entire weekend though was spending time with our extended family who we don't get to see too often. My aunt and uncle came and visited us at the condo twice and it was so good to catch up and laugh at silly stupid things. I hope you all had a chance this weekend to spend time with your friends and family and really appreciate one another.

Here for your entertainment is a horrible quality picture of Lily and I on the slides mentioned earlier. We looked silly but had the best times!

Mixed Berry Scones with Icing

When browsing through Trader Joe's trying to decide what to make this week I found my all time favorite item along with all their baking items. I have made these mixed berry scones a couple times before and it is a family favorite. They have a lovely crisp outside with a tender inside. My family really enjoys these because they are not too sweet and the texture really satisfies any picky person. If you like crispy baked good the outside is golden brown and beautifully crisp. But when you take a bite into them it is such a soft fluffy texture perfect for the person who loves a little fluff in their life lol. I decided to make my own icing this time and add a drizzle of this on top of the scones. This adds a small bit of sweetness that balances really well with the texture of the scone and the tang from the berries.

Another thing about these scones is that they are LITERALLY the easiest thing you will ever make. All you do is add water, mix, and pop them in the oven for about 14-15 minutes. Perfect to whip up super quick or to allow your kids to help with! The first time I made these I let my nephew Aiden, who is 8 help me make these. It was so fun to have him in the kitchen helping me and by the end when we took the scones out of the oven he was so proud of himself. Not to mention he was so excited that they actually tasted awesome.

Icing

Confession here...I have slowly but surely become an icingaholic! This is coming from the gal who is not a huge fan of sweets, crazy I know. Lately I have been adding icing to a lot of baked goods for an extra level of sweetness. I would love to share my recipe for the icing but I literally eyeballed the whole thing. I can however, share the ingredients I used to make the icing. I used sifted confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. I whipped them all together using a hand mixer and BOOM! Nice and easy! I only give the scones a small drizzle as to not overwhelm them and take away from the delicious flavors within.

Don't forget to follow along every Thursday for more Trader Joe's finds!

Magnolia Monday: Brownies with Pecans, Toffee, and White Chocolate

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:15 GMT

Fudgy and crunchy with a touch of saltiness from bits of toffee scattered throughout! The perfect brownie for a true chocolate lover.

Last Hoorah

This is a bittersweet post for me this week, it is officially my last Magnolia Monday post. Honestly, writing these posts and baking things from this book has been such a fun experience for me. Everything in this book that I have made so far is pure magic, and the recipes are super user friendly and taste incredible. As you all know I am no professional baker by any means. Magnolia Bakeries recipes really cater to people who have baked before but aren't at a professional baker status. Even with the mess ups I have made along the way with some of these recipes, every aspect has been a great learning experience. I am so happy that I have been able to share my journey with all of you and hope that you continue to follow along with my next series.

My favorite recipe so far is between the apple cake with cinnamon sugar topping and the brown sugar cake. Both of these cakes were absolutely delicious and paired so well with a nice hot cup of coffee. The apple cake caught me off guard at first with the texture of the moist apples within, but once I had a couple more bites I began to fall in love with this cake. The cinnamon is the perfect spice for this cake, it brings a sweet spicy element to this cake and pairs so well with the apples. Now, the brown sugar cake was love at first bite! I have to say that the addition of icing really completed this cake for me. With its beautiful springy texture and a touch of sweetness Magnolia Bakery really has created a winning recipe here.

Yes, they are that good!

"The best brownies I have ever had", "These are my kind of brownies", "Oh my gosh these are so good!". These are just some of the thoughts various friends and family members have said after they ate these brownies. My boyfriends brother's girlfriend (that's a mouthful I know) absolutely adored these brownies. She was raving about every aspect about them. She even went as far to say that they were the best brownies she has EVER had. I'm not a huge chocolate fan so I am not the best judge here but I can tell you that these are some beautiful fudgy looking brownies. I had multiple people try these brownies for me and not one person had anything negative to say about them. Because I want to give everyone an honest review I did try these brownies even though chocolate is not my favorite. I thought that the pecans gave a nice crunch and the toffee added a salty element to this sweet snack that was much needed. I didn't get a whole lot from the white chocolate because the brownies were pretty flavorful themselves.

Bye Bye Magnolia

So sad but I must bid farewell to sharing my Magnolia Bakery adventures with all of you. I wholeheartedly believe that every single one of you should purchase this book. It is full of easy recipes to follow, wont break the bank, and everything sincerely tastes delicious. Its a win win win situation here, what do you have to lose? Thank you all for coming on this journey with me and I hope that this encourages you to try something new and learn new things, no matter how hard they may seem. If I can do it you 100% can to!

You can purchase your copy of the Magnolia Bakery cookbook on Amazon here.

Christmas Tree Cake

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:13 GMT

Its been a little while since I have shared some tips and tricks of the trade with you guys. I recently made this cake after seeing a load of inspiration from some seriously talented bakers (The Flour Girl, Frosted Fuji Cakes, and Cakes Design by Sheri to name a few). These women are seriously so amazing and inspiring!

I went with this specific color scheme and design after I purchased some adorable white and gold sprinkles from homegoods. The background is a gorgeous forest green color created using americolor gel food coloring. Ladies and gents I swear by Americolor and their gel food coloring! You don't have to use as much food coloring because it is super concentrated and that saves you money and having to deal with that nasty bitter taste from adding too much food coloring.

Now on to our first tip:

-Creating this gorgeous green on the background of this cake. Start with a white buttercream base and gradually add color. You can always add color but you can never take it away (REMEMBER THIS!). I used about 3 squirts of Americolor Forest Green with a teeny and I mean teeny bit of black to achieve this color. Feel free to take a small amount of buttercream out of your batch and experiment trying to achieve this color.

-In order to achieve the piped design on the front of the cake I used a Wilton 1M tip to pipe onto the front of the cake.

Next tip:

-Begin with a chilled cake. Using a 1M tip slowly apply pressure to your piping bag , make small circles and begin to form a tree (think of a triangle). I like to work from the top to the bottom, so that I can judge how big I want the tree to be. Have fun with piping! Pipe small dots, rosettes, or even some squiggles. The best part about this is that it doesn't have to be uniform at all.

-When placing your sprinkles you can place each of them intricately over the Christmas tree or have fun and throw them one at a time on the design for a random effect.

I also used Wilton edible glitter spray to add a beautiful sheen all over this cake. if you look closely you can see the little details like this throughout the cake! Just make sure you spray about a foot away from your cake so you don't have giant patches of glitter.

Last tip:

-For the top part of this cake, I used a Wilton 4B open star piping tip. I alternated using white buttercream and some of the forest buttercream. Once again make sure your cake is chilled. Using slow but firm pressure start from the outer corners of the cake and work your way in. You'll want to make a motion similar to rowing a boat (using your starting point pipe out and then in) then start again directly next to your first piped spot. Cake by Courtney has a great tutorial on certain piping methods saved in her highlights on instagram.

I hope these small tips help you in achieving the perfect and easy Christmas cake for you and yours!

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Magnolia Monday: Iced Molasses Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:12 GMT

Chewy and spicy with a touch of sweetness from the icing, these cookies pack the perfect holiday punch!

With only 1 more week of our Magnolia Monday series, this chapter is coming to a bittersweet end. I still have so many other recipes that I want to make from this book. But next week will be the last that I blog about. But don't get too upset because starting the first Tuesday of December I have a brand new series of blog posts that I think will be pretty exciting. Now back to the true reason of this blog...food!

The more you know

Ever since I was young I always associated molasses with the older generation. As rude as that sounds, its true. But unbeknownst to me there is actually a reason for that. Molasses actually used to be a sugar substitute back in the day for many baked goods. It adds such a great chew and flavor to any cookie. If you aren't familiar with molasses it is obtained from raw sugar when it is boiled down. Ever wonder what gives brown sugar its famous color, well it comes from molasses. There are also a couple different types of molasses that can have different purposes. Light molasses is both light and sweet and the most common in baking. Dark molasses is darker in color and not as sweet as light molasses. It has a stronger flavor and is thicker than its counterpart. The thickest and strongest of the 3 is blackstrap molasses. It has more of a bitter taste and contains the most vitamins and minerals.

Cookie time

Between the addition of the all spice (I made my own) and molasses, these cookies have such a fantastic flavor that is similar to gingerbread. However, the texture is completely different. Gingerbread has a lovely snap to it, whereas molasses cookies are chewy with a slight crisp on the outside. Lets get back to my quick all spice mixture. If you don't have all spice on hand you can whip it up in about a minute. All spice is typically 3 spices mixed together (Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves). I combined a Tablespoon of each to a small bowl gave them a quick mix and BAM! That's literally it. So simple and saves a trip to the grocery store if you're in a rush. Magnolia Bakery has won for the millionth time in a row in my book. I really do love these cookies and consider them a new holiday staple for myself. They are very simple to make and taste so flavorful. The drizzle of icing on top gives these cookies are touch of sweetness, but if you prefer a traditional molasses cookie without the added sugar feel free to omit the icing.

Just the looks

This recipe for iced molasses cookies from Magnolia Bakery really produces such a beautiful cookie. I burned my first batch of these cookies and still thought they looked so pretty. The molasses gives the cookies a gorgeous brown color that really stands on its own. Also, look at that crackled top! Have you ever seen anything so deliciously beautiful? Such a crisp top but underneath all that crackled goodness is a soft and tasty center. I decided to drizzle icing to accentuate the cookie instead of covering it up because I really believe these cookies can stand on their own. The sprinkles were really just for a cozy winter feeling that pairs so well with this inviting cookie. One of the best parts about these cookies is that they stay fresh for days after! I made these cookies on a Tuesday and by the following Monday they tasted just as fresh as when I first made them. That's the sign of an easy and really good cookie in my opinion.

Please please please don't forget to purchase your own copy of the Magnolia Bakery cookbook . If you haven't purchased it yet this recipe will be one of the reasons you should click the link straight away!

Mini Caramel Apple Cider Cheesecakes

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:11 GMT

Crisp apple cider cookie crust with a delicious cheesecake filling and topped with apples and caramel sauce!

Can you say YUM?!

Oh my heavens these cheesecakes are mighty tasty! This is such a quick and easy cheesecake that is not only bite sized but can be made in a flash. Instead of using a traditional graham cracker crust I decided to grind up some Trader Joe's apple cider cookies and mix them with some butter for a spiced apple flavor. If you have never tried these cookies before you need to head to your local Trader Joe's ASAP and grab a box. They are tasty on their own but are versatile enough to use in many recipes. I went with a traditional cheesecake filling with a touch of cinnamon and topped it with some easy and yummy canned apples and a drizzle of caramel. However, if you are no where near a Trader Joe's and can't get your hands on these cookies you can always use graham crackers, butter, and some spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg).

Easy Peasy

This was so easy to whip up that Lily really gave me no issues when it came to making them. The only thing she did not care for was the sound the food processor made when grinding up the apple cider cookies. She kept pointing at it and calling it a monster then running away....then running back. Other than that this recipe is a breeze to make. I made sure to have every element contain some sort of spiced flavor so that everything would flow beautifully together. My oh my it is so true about cheesecake tasting even better the second day! It's like all the flavors have time to meld together and become one. I gave the rest of these mini cheesecakes to my mother to take to one of the classes she helps teach at the Sheriff's office and they were in love! I told my mother they had to wait for the blog to be posted before I could share the recipe lol. How about that for the best taste testing possible?

Ingredients

Apple Cider Crust

1 cup (about 24 apple cider cookies)

4 TBS unsalted butter (melted)

Cheesecake

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tsp vanilla extract

1/4 Tsp cinnamon

Topping

Canned apple pie filling

Caramel sauce

Instructions

- Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cupcake tin with 12 liners.

- Step 2: Finely grind cookies in a food processor until they have the same consistency of coffee grounds. Add butter and pulse a couple times in the food processor. Divide mixture evenly between the 12 cupcake tins (about 1 TBS in each). Press mixture down using your fingers or the bottom of a shotglass.

- Step 3 : Using a large bowl and a hand mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar to the cream cheese mixture and beat together until fully combined.

- Step 4 : Add egg, vanilla, and cinnamon to your mixture and beat together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is fully incorporated.

- Step 5 : Divide this mixture between your 12 muffin tins and pour on top of your apple cider cookie layer.

- Step 6 : Add 1 Tsp of apple pie filling on top of the cream cheese mixture, and swirl with a toothpick.

- Step 7 : Place into the oven for about 20 minutes or until the centers are set.

- Step 8 : Allow the cheesecakes to fully cool then drizzle with caramel sauce. Then place them into the fridge for at least 2 hours. As with most cheesecakes they taste the best the next day, but feel free to eat right after the 2 hours.

**Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days** New Par

Magnolia Monday: Apple Cake with Cinnamon Sugar Topping

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:05 GMT

Apples and cinnamon, what better combo could there be? Tender cake filled AND topped with delicious apples and a cinnamon sugar blend bound to add sweetness to your pallet.

I love a good coffee cake as much as the next person. Whenever I see coffee cake on a menu I usually HAVE to order it....that and tiramisu, but that will be discussed at another time. When I originally read this recipe I wanted to make it in order to partake in that delicious coffee cake taste. With the addition of apple and cinnamon I knew that this was going to be this weeks Magnolia Monday recipe.

Everything isn't quite as it seems

I must admit, when I took my first bite of this cake the jury was still out for me. A common mistake when making cakes with fruit can be a cake that is TOO wet, and my first bite of this cake made me think I did something wrong. My issue with this starter bite was that I took a piece of apple and a small amount of cake and that introductory bite of the apple threw me off a bit. The flavor and texture were subtle enough that I wanted a second bite, just to confirm or deny my unsure feelings. To my pleasant surprise that second bite was very nice. The cake is springy but still dense and the flavors are subtle but still come through. I'm all about texture when it comes to food. I never like to eat something that is too mushy or too textured. I love a great bit of texture in a cake but if there are multiple textures it throws me off a bit and becomes a tad bit off putting.

Tiny issue

The use of canned apples made this recipe very easy to make. It saved the time of having to wash, peel, slice, and dry apples. All you have to do for this recipe is strain your apples and dry them off a tad to get the excess moisture completely off. My one issue with this recipe was the construction of the cake itself. You take half of your apples and mix them into your batter and the other half you place on top and cover with cinnamon sugar. This sounds nice in theory but when it came time to place the cake on the cooling rack this made for a messy issue. When I flipped the cake onto my cooling rack the cinnamon sugar that was placed on top went everywhere.....and I mean everywhere. I couldn't help but laugh because how else was I supposed to get this cake out of the tube pan? Is it me or is there something wrong with this step? How am I supposed to neatly keep all the sugar on top AND get my cake out of its tube pan and onto a cooling rack?! Besides this stumble, everything about this cake process went smoothly.

Days later I can now say I have eaten so much of this cake that I am officially in love. I may even make this for Thanksgiving as a treat to go with after dinner coffee! Make sure to eat this cake within 3 or so days or else the moisture from the apples will soak into the cake and it will get a little soggy.

Don't forget to buy your copy of the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook to follow along with these blog posts and to make these delicious recipes!

Magnolia Monday: Iced Ginger Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:03 GMT

Crisp yet soft, spicy yet sweet, these cookies are incredibly easy to make and not to mention delicious!

Halloween is officially over my friends, but that doesn't mean Magnolia Mondays have to end! I will be continuing this awesome series through the end of November then will begin a brand new series in December, so be prepared.

So good!

Now, on to our regularly scheduled programming, Magnolia Bakeries iced ginger cookies! Oh my lanta these are some good cookies. Once again Magnolia Bakery has made a super user friendly recipe to follow that anyone, and I mean anyone can make. I would go as far to say that this is the easiest recipe I have made from this book so far. It is literally one bowl, ingredients already in your home, and 12 minutes in the oven. How much easier can that get?!

Bake bake bake

Lets talk about the baking of these cookies. Just like any oven I have come to find that certain spots are hotter and certain spots are cooler. I baked 2 batches of these cookies on different shelves in my oven. The cookies on the top shelf were tasty but super crispy and had burnt bottoms. Whereas, the cookies on the bottom shelf of my oven were crisp and chewy and had gorgeous golden brown bottoms. Get to know YOUR oven and learn where your hot spots are so that you can produce perfect bakes each time. Also, invest in an oven thermometer for the most accurate read of temperature inside your oven. My golden brown batch tasted perfect! They had just the right amount of spice that a ginger cookie needs without becoming overwhelming. Plus, they were the perfect texture. The icing really completes the taste of these cookies. It gives a touch of sweetness that this spiced cookie really needs.

I ended up eating some of these cookies and giving the rest out to my fellow teachers and helpers at church. Needless to say everyone, including the young helpers gobbled these cookies right on up. Such a crowd pleaser and so festive for the fall or even Christmas.

As always make sure to buy your own copy of the Magnolia Bakery cookbook so you can make these recipes yourself and see how truly amazing everything is! The book has had a recent price drop on Amazon but only for a limited time. I attached the link so you can get yours today!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:02 GMT

Soft brioche bread pudding with a delicious taste of pumpkin and spices throughout. Topped with a mouth watering hot buttered rum sauce!

The beginning of something good

I had never made bread pudding before this experience, but I always have loved the texture and flavor of a good bread pudding. Over in these parts of Florida a local place called 4Rivers BBQ has some delicious bread pudding. One day a week they make their bread pudding with Krispy Kreme Donuts and although it is so sweet, it is oh so tasty! Making bread pudding is honestly very easy and I feel like its a great dish to make for a beginner baker! I first tested this recipe out right before hurricane Dorian came. I planned to make it and test it out on my family who were all staying together in preparation for the hurricane. I whipped it together the morning the hurricane was supposed to arrive and it was a huge hit with my family. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make, but I knew I wanted to make a few more tweaks to it to make sure that it was perfect.

I looked at multiple recipes to make sure I had the correct ingredients and such but I really wanted to make this recipe my own. I decided to use brioche bread because it is such a delicious bread on its own, but when used to make a bread pudding it really adds an extra element of flavor. You really want to make sure that your bread is slightly stale so that it better absorbs all of your wet ingredients. Some bakers refer to this texture as "day old bread" but brioche is such a soft bread that you need to leave it out and let it get slightly stale in order to achieve the texture we want for bread pudding. When the bread fully absorbs all of those delicious flavors it really makes the bread pudding taste absolutely delicious. The addition of the pumpkin puree and spices really bring the fall element right into this pudding. Now, on to the amazing hot buttered rum sauce! It is honestly so tasty I have no words to describe it. It really makes the bread pudding, bread pudding if you know what I mean. It adds a buttery and warm element to this already amazing dish. You can add as much of it as you would like! Anywhere from a small drizzle to the entire pot (not like I have done that...).

Make sure to thoroughly butter your dish so that nothing sticks. I used a zip lock bag , stuck my hand in it, scooped some butter out and lathered it all over the baking dish.

Cube up your stale bread and place into your baking dish

Whisk up all of your wet ingredients

Pour your wet mixture all over your bread making sure everything is evenly coated

Warm and delicious bread pudding ready to serve up!

Tips

-Make sure to use stale (day old) bread. I like to open up my bread a couple of hours before so that it starts to feel a little crisp on the outside but it is still is soft in the center. You do not want your bread to be so stale that it feels like a crouton.

-Use fresh spices! If your spices are not fresh or they are expired then your bread pudding flavors may not come out as well.

-Thoroughly butter your baking pan to ensure that nothing sticks and you can scoop out the perfect slice the first try!

-Ensure that all of your bread is coated in the wet mixture in order to make sure there are no crisp bits when put in the oven.

-For the hot buttered rum sauce remember to keep stirring! This will help to make sure there are no burnt bits in the sauce.

-You can add as much rum to your hot buttered rum sauce as you would like. Its all about personal preference. If you prefer a subtle rum taste don't add as much when making your sauce. But, if you really want the flavors of the rum to come through add more 1 Tsp at a time.

Ingredients

Bread Pudding

1 loaf of stale brioche bread

3 cups of whole milk

1 cup of pumpkin puree

2/3 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 Tsp of vanilla extract

1 Tsp cinnamon

1/4 Tsp nutmeg

A pinch of ginger

Hot buttered rum sauce

1/2 cup of butter

1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 cup of sugar

2 Tsp of rum (any rum you like, I used Captain Morgan dark rum)

Instructions

Bread Pudding

- Step 1 : Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Butter your 9 x 13 baking dish and make sure you coat every corner.

- Step 2 : Cube up your brioche bread and place it into your buttered baking dish.

- Step 3 : In a large bowl whisk together your milk, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and all of your spices. Make sure everything is fully combined.

- Step 4 : Pour your wet mixture over your cubed brioche bread and make sure that everything is evenly coated. Let this mixture sit on the counter for 20 minutes so that it can fully absorb into the bread.

- Step 5 : Once the mixture has been on the counter for 20 minutes, place into your preheated oven and cook for 50-55 minutes or until the bread pudding is set.

- Step 6 : Once your pudding is fully set, take it out of the oven and let it sit on the counter for 5 minutes. Cut and serve with your delicious hot buttered rum sauce we are about to make.

Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

- Step 1: When there is about 10 minutes left on your pudding begin to make the sauce.

- Step 2: In a small saucepan, melt your butter, heavy whipping cream, and sugar over low to medium heat constantly stirring.

- Step 3 : Once your butter is all melted and your sugar granules have all dissolved add your rum. Feel free to add more to your liking 1 Tsp at a time.

- Step 4 : Pour over your bread pudding and enjoy!

**Keep your sauce and bread pudding in separate airtight containers in the fridge. When ready to reheat place in your microwave or oven. Will stay fresh for up to 5 days in your fridge**

Magnolia Monday: Vanilla Cake

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:11:01 GMT

Soft, moist, and perfect to whip up in flash. This cake will be sure to have you coming back for seconds!

Magnolia Monday

Doing these Magnolia Monday posts has been such a fun experience so far. I have been baking things I have never made before and I am learning a ton of new recipes to add to my favorites list. The search has been rather intense looking for a perfect "from scratch" vanilla cake that doesn't taste artificial or have too much of a flour taste. Sounds crazy but this has seriously been a long process for me to find one that I truly adore.

Batty Good

I used this Magnolia Bakery recipe to make a batty good cake in honor of Halloween. I also, filled the cake with my smooth and dreamy peanut butter filling (recipe to come soon) and topped it with my Swiss meringue buttercream. The combination of all these flavors was out of this world. I went back for seconds, and thirds, and.....well you get the point, it was AWESOME! I mean look at that texture, not dry but not raw the perfect crumb you want a cake to have.

Versatile

Now lets talk about cake. This was a great and easy cake to make, especially if you are a beginner baker. It does not take a long time to make at all, and the instructions are so incredibly simple. I really enjoyed whipping up a batch of this for Magnolia Monday. This may or may not be my new staple for vanilla cakes. It is also such a basic cake that you can really make it the base to anything you would like (funfetti, biscoff, lemon, etc) the possibilities are endless.

Don't forget to purchase your very own Magnolia Bakery book so you can follow along and make these recipes yourself!

Magnolia Monday: Brown Sugar Cake

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:57 GMT

Soft and sweet cake with a delicious glaze on top, the perfect cake to go with coffee!

Whiskey Business

You're in for a treat this Magnolia Monday! Seriously. This cake tastes like shear heaven and when paired with a hot steamy cup of coffee it is literal perfection. Magnolia Bakery really outdid themselves with this one, not to mention its super easy. The longest part for this recipe was the wait to eat it! Once again I omitted the nuts in the recipe (man oh man does Magnolia love to add nuts to everything) and added my own delicious glaze on top for an added bit of sweetness.

Tip : To grease my pans I like to use saran wrap or a plastic bag to spread butter in every crevice of a pan. Then I roll around some flour all over and tap out the excess.

Example below:

Place a plastic bag or saran wrap over your hand, then scoop up some butter and lather your pan. This allows you to get into every crevice of your pan and ensures that nothing will stick when its time to remove from the pan.

What my tube pan looks like after it has been buttered and floured.

I mean just look how perfect that batter looks! A gorgeous color and rich consistency.

Perfectly flat and beautifully golden! See how perfect that tip for greasing my pans works!

I started by using only a drizzle of the glaze but after applying it I realized that it simply wasn't enough. It was such a nice sweetness added to this cake that I decided to add all of it and smooth the top with an offset spatula. I let little drizzles slide down the sides just for aesthetic purposes.

Quick recipe for my own drizzle to go along with this delicious brown sugar cake from Magnolia Bakery:

Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbs whole milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

- Step 1: Begin by sifting your powdered sugar into a medium size bowl.

- Step 2: Add the rest of your ingredients to your bowl of powdered sugar and whisk together to fully combine.

- Step 3: Spread on top of your delicious Magnolia Bakery brown sugar cake. Add a little or a lot, the choice is yours!

That's it! Nice and easy icing to go on top of the perfect cake.

Make sure to purchase your own Magnolia Bakery cookbook so you can follow along and make these delicious recipes.

Magnolia Monday: Blondie Bars with Cream Cheese Swirl

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:55 GMT

Chewy and sweet blondie bars topped with a yummy cream cheese layer to satisfy any sweet tooth!

A not so nutty Monday

I want to start this Magnolia Monday off by saying I really was going to use pecans this week in my recipe (for the past couple of Mondays I have been omitting any sort of nuts from my baking). Much to my dismay, both batches of my toasted pecans burnt and I had completely run out of them. I followed the directions perfectly AND made sure my new oven thermometer was attached (Which is absolutely amazing by the way!). I set the oven to 350 degrees and popped the pecans in for 15 minutes. When I pulled them out they were burnt to a crisp, so for the next batch I stuck with the same temperature but only kept them in for 7 minutes. Guess what happened? They of course burnt as well. No sir was I going to go out to the store with a toddler just to grab some pecans. So nuts were completely taken out of the recipe surely for convenience and my sanity.

I have come to learn that Magnolia Bakery really loves to add nuts to a large portion of their sweet treats. I'm assuming they love the nutty smoky flavor different toasted nuts bring to a dish but also offer a great texture. I tend to be very cautious when choosing to add nuts into my baked goods. I know a lot of people who are severely allergic to nuts, so I always make sure everyone knows that certain things I make are NOT nut free and that they should not partake unfortunately.

This week Lily actually let me bake without screaming auntie every 5 seconds! Little victories people, little victories! It was mainly due to the fact that I set her up on the couch with Vampirina on the TV and a nice bowl of Trader Joe' s cheddar rockets to keep her company. Sometimes you need to just feed a hangry toddler and let her watch her favorite show in order to be able to bake in piece. Love my little squish to pieces though!

Critique

I do have to say that these blondie bars were very sweet but very tasty. Next time I would love to add a little something extra like a drizzle of some sort that would balance the super sweet taste. I would also suggest to not only butter your dish but lay parchment down so that your edges don't brown too too much. I forgot this step, so my edges came out a little crispier than I had hoped. The texture of these bars is perfect however. They have a nice chew to them without being too sticky or fudgy. I added some sprinkles to my bars and tinted the cream cheese orange for a little extra festive pizazz!

Make sure to purchase your Magnolia Bakery book , so you can follow along week after week and make these recipes yourself!

Magnolia Monday: Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:53 GMT

Fluffy pumpkin cake with a tangy cream cheese icing topped with some fun and festive sprinkles!

Ok, so Magnolia Bakery really outdid themselves with this one! This is seriously the perfect soft and fluffy texture. The bars are not too sweet so the addition of the tang from the cream cheese is very welcoming. This is also such an easy recipe to follow that literally anyone can make this! My one qualm would be that this is more of a cakey texture than that of a bar. When I think of a bar of think of a thick square that is rather dense and chewy. These bars are more square cake slices with a fluffy and moist texture (that I have no problem with at all). I also decided to omit the toasted pecans because my designated test tester has an allergy to nuts. You can find this recipe on Page 72 of the magnolia bakery cookbook under "Pumpkin bars with Cream Cheese Icing".

I really loved the ease of baking this in the 9 x 13 dish then just spreading the icing all over without having to worry about it being perfect. I figured that the addition of these awesome sprinkles from Wilton would really add a fun and festive fall element to these delicious pumpkin bars.

I mean come on! Look at how perfectly moist and fluffy this piece is! Let me tell you it was absolutely delicious too. Buy

Magnolia Bakeries cookbook for yourself to taste this delicious "bar".

Magnolia Monday: Chocolate Chip Cookies (Halloween Style)

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:52 GMT

Crispy on the outside and chewy in the center, the best of both worlds while also tasting delicious.

Is it too early for Halloween cookies.... never! (right?). These spooky cookies are brought to you by the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. This week is a continuation of the Magnolia Monday series so I decided to make Magnolia Bakeries chocolate chip cookies but with a Halloween spin! I didn't nail the first batch looks wise but the taste was still out of this world. However, the second batch was more aesthetically pleasing and still tasted awesome. This is seriously the perfect cookie for any cookie lover honestly. It has nice crispy edges with a yummy chewy center.

Batch number one: Ugly mess

If you are familiar with baking, you may know that oven temperatures are often not exactly as they seem. For example, your temperature may read 350 degrees but in reality it could possibly be well below or under that temperature. Investing in an oven thermometer is definitely something I need to do in the near future. I have always pushed off buying one since I usually just watch my baked goods intently until they look golden brown. The eyeball method did not pay off for me when following an exact recipe from a cookbook. My first batch was pretty well done and extra crispy for my liking. Also, the larger sprinkles I added for a fun Halloween spin melted all onto the cookie sheet and onto some of the cookies (face palm lol). Even though these cookies looked pretty ugly they still had a great flavor to them. Magnolia really knows what they are doing when creating new and simple recipes. As long as something still tastes good who cares how it looks, right?

A success story

Nailed it with my batch number 2! I learned from my previous mistakes... and I may have also lowered the temperature and still watched the cookies like a hawk. But hey it still worked out and I have yet to purchase an oven thermometer (seriously though I am still going to purchase one). I went a different route this time and lowered the temperature down to 325 degrees then decided to only keep these bad boys in for 8 minutes (Normal is 350 for 10-13 minutes). For that fun Halloween aspect of these chocolate chip cookies I poured some festive sprinkles into a bowl before baking and rolled the dough around in it. When all was said and done these festive little miracles came out beautifully!

Review

These cookies taste seriously amazing! I mean look at the picture, yumm! A nice crisp outside with a soft and tender inside. Also, they have been toddler tested and approved by our resident foodie, Lily. She even ate a cookie from the first batch and let me tell you that is saying a lot cause they were not a pretty bunch. Overall once I figured out to lower my oven temperature these cookies were really easy to make. The ingredients are things that are already in your pantry and it literally takes about 10 minutes to whip up. Buy your own Magnolia Bakery cookbook here .

Peach Cobbler Muffins

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:48 GMT

Moist golden brown peach muffins with a crisp and crumbly streusel topping that will be sure to leave you with your mouth watering! Tastes EXACTLY like a warm peach cobbler! Also the perfect recipe to let your little ones help you out with.

Helping Hands

For these tasty treats I enlisted my nephew, Aiden, to help me make the best peach cobbler muffins out there. It was the week before going back to school and I had both he and lily with me for the entire week. When I asked him what he wanted to do with his good ole Aunt his response was "well what are we going to bake?" (he knows me so well). We decided muffins were delicious and nice and easy to make.

Peaches are such a delicious refreshing fruit and I love when I get any chance to bake with them. When I think of peach cobbler I think of comfort. Cobblers are always so warm and fruity that it always heats my belly right up. But lets face it, this is not something me and my fellow Floridians necessarily want during the intensely hot summer months. It is hot! Seriously, it is intensely hot! Let me give you an idea of how awful this scorching heat is. Today our high is 95 degrees, 90% humidity, with it feeling like 105 degrees. Death I tell you! Instant death! Ok... I may be a little dramatic but it is so incredibly hot over this way guys. What better way to not die of heat stroke and also eat a delicious and sweet comfort food?

We start off with our diced up peaches

Gently fold in our dry mixture with our diced up peaches

Cut in your butter for your crumbly topping

Use your fingers to make sure the butter is at the right consistency

Ingredients

Muffins :

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 Tsp baking powder

1/2 Tsp salt

2/3 cup white sugar

2 cups fresh peaches diced (about 3 peaches)

1/2 cup whole milk

1 egg (beaten)

1/4 vegetable oil

Crumbly Topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 white sugar

1/8 tsp cinnamon

6 TBS cold butter

Let those little hands help you to spoon on your leftover peaches

The last step is to place your crumbly topping all over your muffins

Make sure to enlist those little hands to help you out with this bake because it is so easy and fun to make! If they are old enough you can even let them help you cut in the butter using two butter knives. If your young ones are small, like Lily (2 yrs old), don't worry they can still help! Helping to mix is always a fun way to get your really little ones to help out. I usually put a towel on the ground, sit with Lily on the floor, and guide her in stirring. They can also help by scooping the extra peaches and crumble on top of your muffins before baking. Lets not forget the most important part that any one of your kids can partake in though....the taste test!! This is MY favorite part at least.

Instructions

Muffins

- Step 1: Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line your 12 cup muffin tin.

- Step 2: In a medium size bowl use a whisk to mix together your flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

- Step 3: Using a rubber spatula gently fold in your peaches (save about 3/4 cup for topping) and coat them in the dry mixture.

- Step 4: Add in the milk, beaten egg, and oil. Slowly stir together until the flour is gone. (Make sure to not over stir)

- Step 5: Pour the batter into the muffin tins are fill to about 3/4 full (no more than this).

- Step 6: Put the remaining peaches you saved and spoon them on top of your batter.

Crumbly Topping:

- Step 1: Mix together your flour, sugar, and cinnamon.

- Step 2: Add your cold butter into the dry mixture and start to cut it in. After your butter pieces are smaller use your fingers to break up the butter and incorporate it into the dry mix. You want this to resemble small crumbs.

- Step 3: Top your muffins with this mixture. Place them in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and your toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

**Eat immediately or store in an air tight container for up to 3 days**

Have fun making this on your own or with your little ones and make sure to let me know how you enjoyed these tasty creations in the comments section!

Magnolia Monday: Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:46 GMT

Welcome to the first post for the brand new Magnolia Monday posts! Each week I will share pictures and experiences of making things from this fabulous cook book.

The idea here is to highlight the wonderful cook book from the lovely ladies of Magnolia Bakery. I'm so excited to share my experiences baking new things from this book along with good homemade classics. I will not be sharing exact amounts from these recipes because I really believe that you need to buy this book for yourself and try out all the wonderful things these ladies have created.

I wanted to start off with something simple to ease me into baking all the delcious items in this book. I decided on making the Chocolate Chip Peanut Banana Loaf (Pg.21). My 15 year old neighbor, Jillian, brought over some bananas a couple days prior and begged my mother to make her banana bread :). I decided to make it for her instead! The original recipe from Magnolia Bakery uses peanuts but I decided to omit that since Jill is a classic banana bread kind of girl, like myself. The recipe also calls for self rising flour but since I didn't have any on hand I made my own easy concoction (2 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt). Self rising flour is simply a combination of flour, baking powder, and salt already mixed together, so if you don't have this on hand it is an easy fix.

Honestly, I was a little scared of not using store bought self rising flour at first because I wasn't sure if I had the right ratios or if the loaf would rise or taste appropriately. But it ended up turning out beautifully! It was so incredibly moist and tasty that I was pleasantly surprised. The loaf wasn't too crazy sweet like some store bought mixes can tend to be, between the added sugar and natural banana flavor it was absolutely delicious. Magnolia Bakery's version of this classic had such a great balance of sweetness. The one thing I would change for next time would be to follow the recipe exactly and add the pea nuts. The crunch of the peanuts in the loaf would have added a great dimension of textures that I would have loved to try out.

I would highly recommend buying this book and making this banana bread for yourself. It is 100% homemade and super easy to make! Let me know if you try this out for yourself!

Stay tuned every Monday for more Magnolia bakes!

Fruity Pebble Rice Crispy Treats

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:44 GMT

Sweet and fruity rice crispy treats paired with fluffy melted marshmallows and soft mini marshmallows. The perfect treat for someone look to nibble on something sweet!

Pebbles Time

I am obsessed with fruity pebbles in baked goods. I consider this the holy grail (along with biscoff). What better way to incorporate this delicious cereal than to make it in rice crispy form?! I know what you're probably thinking right now "Fruity pebbles are so sweet. If I make rice crispy treats out of them it will taste like pure sugar". WRONG! This recipe uses half fruity pebbles and half regular rice crispy treats to cut out that sickeningly sweet factor this cereal can sometimes taste like. So whats stopping you from making this incredibly easy treat? Are you not a fun lover? Do you hate fun and happiness?

Tips

-Make sure to gently stir your cereal in so you don't crush the pieces.

-Mix together your rice crispy treats and fruity pebbles first then set aside. This makes it easier to simply pour them into the melted marshmallow mixture instead of having to pause and measure them out.

-Line your dish with parchment paper so you don't make a huge mess and so your treats will come just right out.

Ingredients

6 TBS butter

1 16 oz bag mini marshmallows

3 cups fruity pebbles

3 cups rice crispies

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Step 1: Start by lining an 8x8 dish with parchment paper then spray the paper with some nonstick spray.

Step 2: Grab a large nonstick pot and melt your butter on low/medium heat until melted all the way.

Step 3: As soon as your butter is melted add in your marshmallow (reserve 1 3/4 cup for later). Stir the entire time until your marshmallows are fully melted.

Step 4: Take your mixture off the heat and add in your vanilla. Once you have mixed in your vanilla slowly and carefully add in your cereal mixture. Gradually add cereal and stir then add more cereal and stir until you have fully incorporated the cereal.

Step 5: Gently stir in remaining marshmallows. Transfer your mixture to your lined dish. Spray your fingers with some nonstick spray and evenly spread the mixture. Be careful not to press too hard or you will have brick like bars.

Step 6: Let your mixture come fully to room temp then pull out using your parchment paper and slice into bars. Enjoy!

**Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days**

Ooey Gooey Smores Brownies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:41 GMT

Crumbly graham cracker crust, with a moist chewy brownie center, and gooey toasty marshmallows on top!

Who doesn't love a good s'mores? That ooey gooey toasted marshmallow, rich chocolate, and crunchy graham cracker make a s'more having you want, well.... some more. A clever and camp fire free way to eat this yummy snack is my delicious s'more brownies. These squares pack a perfect rich, sweet, and crunchy flavor that you will want to make them over and over again!

Making it work

These bars took some trial and error for me, personally. I wanted to incorporate the graham crackers in a way that didn't involve just setting some down in a baking dish. A graham cracker crust seemed like a perfect yet simple way to get that graham cracker crunch while also adding a small spin.

Attempt #1

My first attempt at making these yummy bars didn't go exactly as planned. Lily was having quite the active auntie obsessed day and wanted me to follow her around the entire house and play with everything (sitting still was not an option). So when auntie wanted to go into the kitchen and bake, Lily was not having it. Temper tantrums and screams for auntie uppies ensued. Eventually I decided to have her come in the kitchen with me so I could, hopefully, multitask (later on we will discover that this was my downfall).

I continued to attempt to bake and watch a very active year and a half old who wanted to get into everything, as all littles do. Life's distractions got a little too much for me and while making the brownies I forgot to add some crucial things like flour, baking powder, and salt. I realized this as the brownies were already in the oven and I decided to wait and see what was going to emerge from that oven. The timer finally went off and to my surprise I pulled the brownies out and to the naked eye they looked great! They had a nice crackled brownie top and appeared to be moist looking. Unfortunately, the taste test didn't go as well. The brownies were not horrible but they were just wayyyyyy too chocolaty and didn't have a good balance between sweet and rich. The graham cracker crust was also way too crumbly and basically fell apart as soon as you picked it up. The problem with the crust was that I dint put enough butter into the graham cracker mixture so when I cooked the crust it came out too crusty.

The tush that launched 1000 pinches ♡♡

Attempt #2

Now, off to round 2 of my s'mores brownies!

Round 2 went much better than round one! I added more butter to my crust to make sure that it wasn't too crumbly but was still stable enough to hold the brownie mixture and marshmallows. I also remembered to put my flour and leavener in this time and the brownies came out absolutely perfect!

Tips

-Make sure to watch the oven closely when broiling so that you don't burn any of the marshmallows or graham crackers.

-If it doesn't seem like enough melted butter in your crust feel free to add more 1 TBS at a time. Be careful to not add too much, so the crust isn't soupy.

-Spread your marshmallow fluff on top of your warm brownies so that the heat makes it easier to move around.

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust

12 full graham crackers (crushed finely)

1/3 cup sugar

7-8 TBS melted butter

Chewy Brownies on blog

Topping

1 Jar of marshmallow fluff

1 cup marshmallows

2 Hershey's chocolate candy bars

2 Graham crackers

Instructions

Graham Cracker Crust

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (Depending on how thick you want your smore's brownies to be you can either use a 9x13 dish or an 8x8. I used a 9x13 dish to get more brownies out of this recipe). Line your dish with parchment paper.

Step 2: Crush up your graham crackers finely using a food processor or a bag and rolling pin. Mix together your graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter with a fork.

Step 3: Press your mixture into your dish using your hands or the bottom of a measuring cup. Place into the oven for 10 minutes. Take out and place on a wire rack.

Chewy Brownies

Use the recipe on the blog to make your brownies

Step 1: Once your brownie mixture is all done, pour on top of graham cracker crust and bake as directed.

Topping

Step 1: Pour the entire jar of marshmallow fluff on top of your warm brownies, spread evenly.

Step 2: Place marshmallows, Hershey's chocolate bar pieces, and broken up graham cracker pieces all over the top of the dish.

Step 3: Put under broiler for about 1 minute or until the marshmallows get nice and golden brown. Pay close attention to this step so you don't burn your marshmallows or graham crackers.

Best eaten immediately but you can store them in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days.

Lemon Bars with Candied Lemon Garnish

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:39 GMT

Lemon Love

CALLING ALL LEMON LOVERSS!! I myself, am a major lemon lover!! That delicious tang goes so well in desserts! It helps balance a super sweet taste with a bit of sour tang. I first tried lemon bars in Connecticut when my cousin, Jessica, made them for a family gathering. This wonderful recipe i will be sharing is actually one of hers. These lemon bars are sweet and chewy with a bit of tang from the lemon juice and zest. They are perfect for the summer to bring to a friends house or to an outdoor gathering.

Candied Lemons

Once I decided on lemon bars for sure I needed to figure out what to garnish them with that kept with the theme. I spend a little too much time in my noggin throwing many ideas around on what to make all the time or how I want to decorate or execute it. Candied lemons seemed like the perfect choice since they are very easy to make, pretty to look at, and fit right along with the lemon theme. Honestly this was one of the easier things I have made since baking. It is literally just a mixture of sugar and water boiled down. Then boiled with thin slices of lemon and left to air dry for 24 hours. Any extra lemon garnish on top of this dessert is always a good idea since you have some people who really....and I mean really love lemons or other people who prefer a more subtle lemon taste. Candied lemons are not the only thing to garnish this delicious treat of course. You can garnish them with fresh lemon slices, lemon zest, powdered sugar alone, or get creative and add something new!

Execution

Make sure to start a day in advance by making your candied lemon slices so that you give them a full 24 hours to dry. You will want to have room temperature butter and cut in your butter. I learned what this method was thanks to Jessica! She even sent me a little homemade video explaining it to me attached here (im only kidding Jess). Its fairly simple, all you must do is use 2 knives and literally cut your butter up in opposite directions until it is fully incorporated (see picture below). I had too much fun cutting in my butter, it was almost therapeutic in a way. To consistently and rhythmically go about a motion then at the end you have created something delicious is so rewarding in my opinion. If you are still confused by this method just google how to "cut in butter". Also, if you have a pastry cutter you can use that instead of this method! This makes a great shortbread crust that you only need to cook until slightly golden brown.

Tips

-Make sure to use room temperature butter so cutting in your butter is easier.

-Bake your pastry layer until it is slightly golden. You don't want to overcook it because it will go back in the oven with the lemon mixture.

-I used about 3 lemons between the juice and the zest. You may need more depending on how large your lemons are.

-Make sure your bars have cooled down completely before cutting into them. If you don't wait then you will have very messy runny slices.

-Start making your candied lemon the day before. The candied lemons need at least 24 hours to dry.

The Fate of the Lemon Bars

These lovely treats were taken to my mothers job and received a stamp of approval from many of her coworkers. One of her coworkers even ate the candied lemon and said that it was delicious! My favorite thing about making baked goods is the fact that I can share them with others and pass along recipes.

Ingredients

Candied Lemons

2 Lemons

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

Crust

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 sticks butter (room temp)

Lemon Filling

2 cups sugar

1 TBS flour

1 TSP baking powder

1/4 TSP salt

4 eggs (beaten)

1 TBS lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Candied Lemons

Step 1 : Make sure to thoroughly wash then dry off your lemons. Slice them thinly then set aside.

Step 2: Boil together your water and sugar mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. Turn your burner to a simmer and place your sliced lemons in.

Step 3: Simmer your lemons until they turn a sort of opaque color (about an hour).

Step 4: After your lemons have turned an opaque color using a slotted spoon place them on a foil lined tray and allow them to dry on the counter for 24 hours. (optional: before drying sprinkle a light layer of extra sugar on top).

Crust

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift your flour and powdered sugar together, making sure there are no clumps.

Step 2: Cut in your room temperature butter until fully blended. Press this mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish. Then place your dish into the oven and cook for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Lemon Filling

Step 1: About 10 minutes before you take your shortbread out of the oven begin to make your lemon filling. Combine all your ingredients for your lemon filling and give it a quick stir.

Step 2: Take your shortbread out of the oven and raise your oven temperature to 375 degrees. Pour your lemon filling into your pan on top of your shortbread layer. Place the dish back in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the lemon mixture no longer jiggles and has a golden color.

Step 3: Allow your lemon bars to cool completely before topping with a dusting of powdered sugar and cutting.

Thats it! I find that these bars taste best when they are cold. They will store in your fridge for up to 5 days. Enjoy!

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:38 GMT

Smooth and creamy swiss meringue buttercream that is not overpoweringly sweet. Perfect for cakes, cupcakes, or to top of a delicious cheesecake.

For starters

So I need to start off by saying this is my all time favorite buttercream, it has such a silky texture and isn't crazy sweet like american buttercream. With that said, its a tad more complicated than making american buttercream but the results are well worth it. This buttercream is perfect for frosting a cake, using as a filling, or decorating cupcakes! I am not a huge frosting person (I usually take 80% of the frosting off my cake when I eat it) but this is too good to take off. It has such a good and subtle sweet taste that it ends up tasting similar to whipped cream in my opinion.

Adventure

Making swiss meringue buttercream is a task on its own, but making it with a 20 month old (my niece; Lily) is an adventure for sure. While making this batch of SMBC for the blog, Lily decided to be a stage 5 clinger. Nothing wrong with that usually since most of the time I have her on my hip while doing things. BUT in the beginning stages of making SMBC you need to use a double boiler...and that is not necessarily the best thing to have a curious handsy baby around. With many cries, snacks, and oh so many cuddles later I was ready to tend to Lily. Just kidding the snacks and cuddles were all for Lily ;-) We settled on Moana and a big bottle of milk. Now, Auntie was finally able to start making this dreamy buttercream. I made sure to set my butter out about a half an hour before I started, so that it had time to come to room temp but still be a tad bit cold. In order to start making SMBC we need to start with making a basic meringue mixture (eggs and sugar) over a double boiler. Once this was done everything else was a cake walk. Swiss meringue buttercream takes practice but never get discouraged! It is one of the best buttercream's to save from disaster, just remember to keep whipping it.

Tips

**Some tips may be the same from the meringue "how to" post**

-Make sure your bowl and mixing attachments are 100% clean and grease free. Give your bowl and tools a wipe down with a paper towel just to make sure! If there is any grease or fat remnants still left over from the last time you used these items this will effect how your meringue will puff up.

-Make sure there are no sugar crystals left in your mixture before you start with the whipping process. When you are using the double boiler method you will constantly whisk the mixture until any sign of grit from your sugar is gone. If you skip this step you will have meringues that taste fine but their texture will be quite gritty. That is the exact opposite texture you want in a fluffy meringue.

-You will want to use 2 paddle attachments. Start off with your whisk attachment, then before you add the butter switch to the paddle attachment. The whisk attachment helps to make sure your meringue gets those perfect stiff peaks you need. The paddle attachment is great for mixing up your buttercream with ease and will not incorporate as much air into your buttercream.

-If your mixture begins to look curdled, soupy, or just not right. Make sure your bowl is cold and remember to keep mixing! Mixing is your friend when it comes to getting the perfect consistency with SMBC.

-If your mixture is still soupy looking after you have mixed for a couple minutes pop it in the fridge for around 15 minutes and begin mixing again. The cold will help to firm up the mixture so when you take it out and mix it again it should mix up to the perfect texture.

-Its ok if your mixture looks curdled at first, that means it is becoming buttercream. Don't get scared and remember your mantra for this recipe "keep mixing"!

-Use clear vanilla extract if you want a white buttercream without that pesky yellow tint.

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

6 fresh egg whites

4 sticks (2 cups) butter

2 tsp clear vanilla extract

1/4 Tsp salt

Instructions

Step 1: Take your egg whites and sugar and place into the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the double boiler method (one pot of boiling water and your glass or stainless steel mixing bowl) stir the mixture with a whisk non stop for 7-10 minutes or until all the grit is gone and your meringue mixture is smooth. I like to test this by putting a drop between my fingers and feeling for grit. If there is any grit at all continue to stir over your double boiler until it is gone.

Step 2: Once your meringue mixture is grit free, transfer to your stand mixer and mix with a whisk attachment on high for 8-10 minutes. The goal here is for smooth glossy peaks in your meringue.

Step 3: Feel the outside of your bowl. If it is still a tad warm pop your bowl into the fridge for 10 minutes. Switch to your paddle attachment. With your mixer on low slowly begin adding your butter 1 TBS at a time, making sure your butter is incorporated each time. I like to scrape the sides of my bowl after each stick of butter to make sure everything mixes well together.

Step 4: When all your butter is added into the bowl you may now add your clear vanilla extract and salt. Your mixture should now be coming together. Just remember to keep mixing and eventually it will turn out creamy and whipped. If it still doesn't begin to form pop it into the fridge for around 10 minutes then begin to mix again.

Give your SMBC a final mix with a wooden spoon or spatula to get it super smooth and silky. Don't let the thought of Swiss Meringue Buttercream scare you. As long as you follow these steps and tips I can guarantee you will be good to go! Feel free to send me a message if you ever encounter any issues while making this recipe.

** You can keep this at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 24 hours. After that it can stay in the fridge for up to 2 weeks**

Boston Cream Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:33 GMT

America the Great

For this Independence Day, I decided to make some delicious chewy Boston cream cookies. Because whats more American than 4th of July chocolate chip cookies? I decided to sandwich some Boston cream between my cookies, top them with some ganache, and add a patriotic sprinkle blend to create the perfect Boston cream cookie. Let me tell you, the consensus around my household was a resounding "oh my gosh this is really good!".

The Journey

So this week I had my niece, Lily, AND my 9 year old cousin Rebekah with me. The goal for the day was to entertain both girls while making these delicious Boston cream cookies for the blog and it went surprisingly well! I had Rebekah help me put together the cookie dough and had lily in her high chair in the kitchen with us eating snacks. My chocolate chip cookie recipe is a great easy recipe to make with your kids. It is simple and fun enough to allow your little ones to go wild with. Rebekah helped me measure everything and was in charge of putting everything into the bowl and turning the stand mixture on and off. This was really great because she had such a great time making something herself and she was so proud of her work. Once we were done with the dough we placed it in the fridge for a couple of hours. While we waited we went out to lunch with my brother and sister in law and shopped at Target. By the time we got back, the cookie dough was firm enough to scoop onto a baking sheet. I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for Lily, and Rebekah and I went back to work scooping the cookies and putting them into the oven. While the cookies were in the oven I decided to make the ganache so that it had enough time to thicken up to the consistency I wanted. My cousin was amazed that all it took was chocolate and heavy whipping cream to make ganache. Once again its something so simple that you can have your young kids help you out with! I let Rebekah measure out the ingredients and stir, stir, stir! My sister in law came over to "help us" eat the mound of cookies we had she also helped make the Boston cream filling while I was trying to clean the kitchen up. (Family is truly a great thing.)

Use my recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

AND

Use my recipe for Boston Cream

Ganache Tips

-Use quality chocolate for a better consistency and tasting ganache. I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips.

-If your ganache is not thick enough add more chocolate. If your ganache is too thick add more cream.

-Before using your ganache make sure it is cooled down to room temperature so that you don't melt the boston cream or the chocolate chips in your cookies.

Ganache Ingredients

1 part heavy whipping cream(1/2 cup)

1 part chocolate (1/2 cup)

Ganache Instructions

Step 1 : Use a microwave safe bowl and heat your heavy whipping cream for 60 seconds or until you see bubbles forming in your cream.

Step 2: Take your heated cream out of the microwave and add your chocolate to the warm bowl. Let this sit for a full minute before giving it a stir.

Step 3: Stir your cream and chocolate mixture until it begins to darken in color and thicken up. Set aside and begin to make your boston cream.

Assembly

-Start by taking one room temperature cookie and flipping it over so that the flat side is facing up.

-Using a Wilton 1M tip or whatever tip you prefer pipe your cream into rosettes on the flat side of your chocolate chip cookie.

-Sandwich together using another cookie and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

-Once your cookie sandwich is chilled dip your cookie into your ganache mixture. (You can dip only the top or you can dip half of the cookie).

-Place your favorite sprinkles on top of the ganache.

-Eat right away or keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

**These cookies are best served chilled with a glass of ice cold milk!**

Chewy Brownies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:32 GMT

Oh so easy (I hope!)

Make some brownies they said...it'll be easy they said. Whew! "They" were wrong. There are so many different types of brownies its crazy. There are soft brownies, chewy brownies, cakey brownies, blondie brownies, brownies with things inside, the possibilities are literally endless. When going about making a post this week for the blog the first thing that popped in my head were brownies. Ironic since im not really a fan of chocolate (except for certain chocolate chips cookies). But I can certainly appreciate the look of a chewy brownie! I literally can picture the soft chewy bite I would take if chocolate were my thing. So this week I am enlisting some taste testers on this end to help me bring my readers some true taste testing magic.

The Ascent

First, we start off with what kind of brownie to make. It seems that the consensus is (good thing for our good ole pal Chewbacca) the chewier the better! Now the next step in this great adventure is research, research, research. I am constantly looking at different recipes, tips, pictures, and first hand experiences that I have become very thorough. Once again, so many famous bakers, bloggers, and everyday bakers prefer so many different methods its baffling. I have good news though, from watching my mother bake brownies I have learned that a pfaltzgraff dish works great for yummy brownies. Not the good news you were hoping for? I know not everyone has this kind of dish, and if this is the case for you, glass or ceramic is your best bet (that's the good news!). This is important knowledge to have because the darker your dish the easier the edges will crust and with a chewy type of brownie this is not something we want.

Are you ready? Because here is where we start to experiment/bake!

Result

The brownies I made turned out great (according to my expert taste testers). That perfect crispy brownie top was achieved as well as a chewy center. They were VERY chocolaty but for a little less of a "slap in your face" chocolate effect I have decreased the chocolate chips in the post. If you LOVE chocolate then feel free to keep the 3/4 cup of chocolate chips the original recipe calls for.

Tips

-Add more brown sugar for chewier brownies. Brown sugar contains molasses as we all know, and therefore adds to more moisture, which is a good thing for chewy brownies.

-Adding an extra yolk also contributes to a chewier texture!

-I prefer to sift my dry ingredients because it makes for a smooth batter with no risk of those pesky dry clumps.

-Try to use an 8x8 ceramic dish to help evenly disperse heat throughout your brownies while cooking. This also helps the edges to not crust too much.

-Make sure to place parchment down THEN spray your pan. Leave some extra parchment hanging over your dish so you can easily take your brownies out and cut.

-This recipe calls for melting down your ingredients (butter and sugar) on your stovetop but you can always pop this into the microwave if you are short on time. I prefer to use the stovetop since it evenly melts and I can see whats happening.

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

5 TBS unsalted butter

2 large eggs PLUS 1 egg yolk

1 Tsp clear vanilla extract

3/4 cup (sifted) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup (sifted) all-purpose flour

1/8 Tsp baking soda

1 TBS cornstarch

1/4 Tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips (whatever flavor you prefer)

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line your 8x8 inch dish with parchment paper then spray the sides and bottom.

Step 2: Turn your stovetop on medium heat and grab a small saucepan. Add your butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix together until the butter is completely melted.

Step 3: Take your saucepan off the stovetop and pour into a heat safe bowl. Stir in your eggs, egg yolk, and extract. Once this is fully incorporated add in your oil and sifted cocoa powder.

Step 4: Carefully stir in your sifted flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt until fully incorporated. Slowly stir in your chocolate chips.

Step 5: Pour the batter into your lined and greased 8x8 pan. Place into the oven for 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of your brownies to test if they are done ( a few moist crumbs should still be left).

Step 6: Let the brownies sit on the counter in their dish and allow to completely cool before serving. When ready to serve simply grab the overlying parchment, pull the brownies out, cut, and eat.

*Best to eat the day of, but will store in an airtight container for 3 days*

Easy Boston Cream

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:30 GMT

Listen Closely

O.K. so here's the deal, are you listening? This is literally (Chris Traeger voice) the easiest Boston cream filling you could ever make...ever! I found this recipe on Pinterest years ago and I have used it ever since in so many things.

Starting Small

Now, lets get into this Expedition (wink wink) I took in order to get to this holy grail. Before I even thought about baking, or a blog, or any of this I was (I'll admit) a Pinterestaholic. Whew! Feels good to get that off my chest. In my humble searches along this lovely site I found a recipe for Boston cream filling. I'm not sure about you but that sweet, silky, golden mixture seemed so hard to make and I never thought in my wildest dreams there would be a hack for it. Well I'm here to tell you ladies and gents I have found the EASIEST way to make it. This is a crowd favorite in my household for sure!

This no heat, no egg Boston cream is so good I sometimes just eat it by the spoonful. However if you are not as gluttonous as me you can use it to fill cakes, layer between trifles, or fill pastries. The great thing about this recipe is that you can change the consistency to your liking. If you prefer a thicker pudding like cream don't add as much milk. If you prefer the cream similar to the consistency of a curd add more milk. Simple as that

Result

This easy and yet tasty treat always turns out so thick and creamy, I'm obsessed! It is a nail it every. single. time. type of recipe.

Tips

-Keep adding milk until there is absolutely no grit left in your mixture.

-Eat every last drop and save this for no one!

Ok, so there are not many tips for this recipe since its so simple but you cant stop a girl from trying ;-)

Ingredients

1 package of Instant Vanilla Pudding (5.1 oz)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 TSP vanilla extract

3-5 TBS whole milk

Instructions

Step 1: Pour your heavy whipping cream into a bowl and mix with hand mixer until stiff peaks form (2-3 minutes). Add in vanilla extract.

Step 2: Slowly use your hand mixture to mix in the instant pudding powder. Once fully combined add 3 TBS of whole milk and combine until there is no grit and your mixture is creamy. If you need more milk slowly add until your desired consistency is reached. The goal here is for a smooth creamy texture!

**Store in an airtight container for up to a week for optimum freshness.**

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:26 GMT

Dog Adventures

Are you a dog lover like me? Although I am allergic I cant resist those sweet little furry faces and that playful demeanor. I got the idea to make some dog treats when I had an appointment to get my hair done. Doesn't make much sense? Well let me get to the best part! My stylist and his wife just got a sweet little french bulldog puppy about 3 months ago. Ironically french bulldogs are my favorite dog so I just had to make some yummy pup approved snacks for this little guy. Dog treats are a new venture for me. I have always wanted to make them, but since I don't own a dog the need has never arisen...until now.

Treat Time

I got this recipe from the lovely Rosanna Pansino's Youtube channel . She is honestly such a breath of fresh air! I was so unsure of myself when going about a dog treat recipe since I wanted this to be absolutely 100% safe for a puppy to consume. I made sure to research foods that were appropriate for dogs to consume and I used organic products in my recipe. Not to mention Rosanna had a great recipe to keep me on my feet. This was such a simple recipe that anyone could do it. I started by buying fresh ingredients from the grocery store that I didn't already have on hand. My next step was to make the dough. It was super easy...although I did hit a snag with my beaters. The dough for the biscuit was so thick that it ran up my mixer and clogged the beaters. This was one of those "you had to be there" moments, because at the time I actually thought it was hilarious. From this point on I thought it was safest to just mix with a spatula (next time i'm using my stand mixer!). The shapes were so fun! I love the dog bone cookie cutters from Wilton, they cut so easy and make the cutest little shapes for the biscuits.

Tips

-I suggest using a stand mixer if you have one! I used a hand mixer to start and the dough was so thick that it ran up the mixer and clogged the beaters.

-Try to use organic pup safe ingredients. I used organic eggs and flour in this recipe.

-Use any shape you like to cut these treats out and have fun with them!

-The dough does not rise much so when rolling it out roll to your desired thickness of how you want your biscuit when its done.

Results

Little Hubert loved his new puppy biscuits. His owners even tried them out and gave the treats a thumbs up. (The treats are safe for pup owners to eat, however I wouldn't suggest eating a whole one since its not sweet like regular biscuits)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of organic flour

1 egg

1 Tsp baking powder

1 cup of water

1 cup of peanut butter

2 TBS of honey

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In your stand mixer combine your flour, egg, and baking powder. Mix together until fully combined.

Step 2: Next add water, peanut butter, and honey into your bowl. Combine until your dough starts to form, then shape into a ball.

Step 3: Sprinkle a small amount of flour onto a clean surface (cutting board, counter top). Place your ball of dough on top and begin to roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Use your cookie cutters to make fun shapes in your dough.

Step 4: Take your shapes and transfer them to a baking sheet. Place them in your oven for 18 minutes or until crisp.

Step 5: When your biscuits are all done, let them cool completely then your pup can enjoy!

Recipe: Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:24 GMT

If you read my previous blog about my cookie conundrums, success, and tips and tricks to get that perfect soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie then this next post is definitely for you!

Cookie Affirmation

I have been attempting cookie recipes for the longest time but I have never been able to find "the one" until just recently. My own father, who despite his overflowing support never really loves my cookies until he tried this recipe. He loves to make his own cookies and has been making them since before I was born. The cookie pride is strong with this one, and no one can ever make his cookies how he likes them. However, when he tried this recipe he said "Oh my gosh I love these cookies...I hate that I love these cookies". No lies here! That is the ultimate affirmation I needed that these cookies are amazing. Don't believe me? Make them yourself and see if i'm telling the truth!

Ingredients

2 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour (no need to sift)

1 Tsp baking soda

1 Tsp salt

2 sticks (1 cup) room temperature unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large room temperature eggs + 1 room temperature egg yolk

2 Tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semi sweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips (Feel free to add more if you like super chocolaty cookies)

Instructions

Step 1 : About an hour before starting the recipe take out your butter and eggs and let them sit at room temperature.

Step 2 : In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Step 3: Using your stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or regular bowl with an electric mixer; I personally prefer the stand mixer since its easier) cream together your butter, sugar, and brown sugar for a FULL 4 minutes. Incorporate your room temperature eggs and yolk in one at a time alternating with splashes of your vanilla extract. Combine fully.

Step 4 : Gradually add your dry ingredients you combined and set aside prior. Try not to add this in all at once because you don't want a huge cloud of flour puffing back at you. Once the dough is fully combined mix in your chocolate chips. Scrape the sides of your bowl as you go to ensure that everything is fully incorporated.

Step 5 : Cover your bowl of cookie dough in cling wrap and allow it to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Step 6 : Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grab your cookie sheets and lay down some parchment paper if you do not have a non stick sheet.

Step 7: Using a small scooper (around 2 TBS) begin to scoop out small balls of cookie dough (making sure to evenly space them around the sheet).

Step 8 : Bake one tray at a time at 350 for 10 minutes if you like very soft cookies OR 12 if you like them a tad well done. Remove them from the oven and let them cool on their cookie sheet.

**Makes around 36 cookies**

Tips for Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

183:812042081 (Amy Faries) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:22 GMT

I'm not sure about you but a warm chewy chocolate chip cookie is one of my favorite things this Earth has to offer. Just imagine your ideal cookie: just enough but not too many chocolate chips, a chewy texture, and most important of all tastes like the gods crafted this themselves. Am I wrong?....I'm not. Cookies like this are the kind that you drool over. You see them at county fairs served by the bucket, or on TV when the actor takes that ooey gooey first bite.

I always wondered why I could never achieve this super soft cookie that I see many bakers make. With many trials, many errors, and many pre-made cookie doughs (because I gave up a couple times) I have found a cookie recipe that makes me and my belly happy. But the most important thing is that I learned tools that can help me succeed with future recipes I may want to try out. Now, achieving the perfect cookie is no easy feat since there are thousands upon thousands of recipes claiming they are the best. But in order to get one step closer to the perfect cookie you need to focus on your ingredients. Some of your vital ingredients are fresh eggs (preferably room temp), quality butter (also room temp), and good chocolate (Ghirardelli is a favorite around here!).

Have you ever heard the saying "You get what you pay for"? That goes for baking as well. If you tend to buy inexpensive butter for example your food may not taste as well as if you bought a butter that costs a couple dollars more. I'm not saying your recipes taste bad with grocery brand butters (I have used them manyyyyy times in my baking), i'm saying you will notice the difference in taste if you buy a brand of butter that is good quality. Quality ingredients equals a quality recipe! However, if you don't have the time, patience, or lets face it the extra cash, traditional ingredients will work just fine as well. BUT, when you do have the means to step up your recipe you will for sure notice the difference....and it is a good one!!

TIPS

-Fresh Ingredients are a must! Make sure your dry ingredients, eggs and butter are as fresh as possible.

-The more brown sugar the better! If you really want soft and chewy cookies the more brown sugar you have in your recipe the better off you'll be. The brown sugar ensures that your cookies stay moist.

-Make sure your butter AND eggs are at room temperature. This will help to achieve a fluffy texture in your final product.

-Just a personal preference here but give Ghirardelli chocolate chips a try. They melt nicely and they make all your recipes taste wonderful.

-Cream your butter and sugar together for AT LEAST 4 minutes. Creaming for this amount of time will help get rid of the graininess of the sugar and will make your dough creamy and smooth.

-Chill your cookie dough for about 2 hours then bake away. This will help the cookies to hold their shape!

The recipe for these cookies will follow soon!

Meringue Kisses

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:20 GMT

Delicious Meringue Kisses

The thought of making meringues can sometimes be scary. You don't want your mixture to be gritty, you want to ensure your mixture whips up to a certain consistency, and you don't want your meringues to crack at the end after all your hard work.

Lets get realistic here, yes you may mess up a couple times in trying to perfect the meringue, but when you finally hit that "ah ha" moment the whole journey is well worth it! I am no meringue master by any means but I have found that "ah ha" moment myself and I would love to share with you how I got there and some important steps in order to achieve meringue bliss.

The first time I ever made meringues was a stressful time indeed. I wanted to make something pretty to top one of my cakes for Valentines Day but I wasn't sure what to make that would serve a dual purpose (tasty and beautiful). I also had my sassy niece who was having a very clingy day with auntie. So I grabbed her walker, set up her gate, and we had a party together in the kitchen. I researched so much information about meringues that I sort of psyched myself out with all the information.

When all was said and done I took a little information from each source I used and combined them all together. I started by washing and drying every item I was going to use. Everything was previously cleaned, but I wanted to ensure there was no leftover fat from all the buttercream I tend to make. I dried them all off then wiped them down with a paper towel just to be safe (I really wanted to make sure this would go well! I'm not neurotic I promise). I then grabbed all my ingredients and went to work. I stirred and stirred then I stirred some more until there was not even a thought of grit in this mixture. Let me tell you though, I now have the strongest arm in the south due to all this mixing! Next step, give this sweet baby some kisses because she sure needed them today. After baby kisses, I took my mixture and let my KitchenAid do some work. When the mixture appeared to look correct I stopped my mixer and took off the whisk attachment. I looked at my whisk way too long questioning if I got that stiff peak that a meringue mixture needs. I even looked up reference pictures and videos to ensure I had it just right. I decided this was correct and grabbed my piping bag. I used red food coloring and painted stripes on the inside of my piping bag (a tip from many Instagram bakers) then filled it with the meringue.

As you can see from the pictures my meringue piping needs a little work but that's what makes them fun. The great thing about meringues is that you can pipe them into ANY shape you want! I chose a simple tear drop style since I thought this would look best on my cake. I popped these tiny kisses in the oven and watched as they cooked. When the time was up I made sure my meringues came off the parchment, then turned the oven off and propped it open for the rest of the cooling time. When they were all cooled I tried one, and I am happy to say they were incredibly perfect! I picked up Lily and we danced around the kitchen because w e were so happy about the beautiful meringues.

Tips:

For starters you need to make sure you have a clean bowl and whisk. If there is any grease or fat remnants still left over from the last time you used these items this will effect how your meringue will puff up.

Make sure there are no sugar crystals left in your mixture before you start with the whipping process. When you are using the double boiler method you will constantly whisk the mixture until any sign of grit from your sugar is gone. If you skip this step you will have meringues that taste fine but their texture will be quite gritty. That is the exact opposite texture you want in a fluffy meringue.

After your meringues are done baking and they no longer stick to the sheet, crack the oven door open a tad and leave them in there until the oven is completely cool. This will help to ensure that your meringues do not crack and keep their beautiful shape.

And that's it! Remember to have fun with it and try to experiment with shapes and sizes to see what you like best. When you get confident you can even make meringue pops!

New Paragraph

Whipped Lemon Curd

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 02:10:16 GMT

Whipped Lemon Curd

Oh the daunting lemon curd! Let me tell you something, when you are brand new...or even a couple years into the baking world the thought of lemon curd can be scary. This oh so delicious filling can curdle easily if distracted or taste a little off if you don't add the necessary ingredients. But I am here to tell you I have found (and slightly altered) the easiest Lemon curd recipe there is.

Recently, I have discovered the amazing "The Purple Cupcake". She has some delicious curds that you seriously need to check out immediately on her YouTube page ( https://youtu.be/Hwff0Q1LzDY ). I have taken her lemon curd recipe and tweaked it a small amount. Below I have posted her exact recipe with my small adjustments! Some items in this recipe are measured in Grams simply because it makes it easier to replicate over and over again with precise measurements

Tips

Some important tips to follow:

-DO NOT I REPEAT do not forget to constantly whisk this mixture. The arm workout will be well worth it later on I promise. This will help to ensure that your eggs do not begin to scramble because lets face it that would be an off putting curd.

- Save your egg whites to make some meringues later on!

- Its crucial to let the curd cool overnight before mixing in the heavy whipping cream so that the curd has time to set.

- You can fold in as much of the curd as you want into the whipped mixture depending on how much like lemon you want it to taste. Start with a little and work your way up.

Ingredients :

300 g sugar

Zest of 2 lemons (TPC adds 3 lemons but I feel like 2 is plenty and you don't have to go through the pesky straining process with less zest in your recipe)

1/3 C lemon juice

2 eggs

3 egg yolks

120 g unsalted butter

2 cups heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. Zest your 2 lemons and set aside in a small bowl.

2. Juice the 2 lemons that you just zested and if that does not amount to the 1/3 Cup that you need, use lemon juice from a squeeze bottle.

3. In a medium saucepan mix your sugar, zest, juice, 2 eggs, 3 egg yolks, and butter.

4. Put your saucepan over medium heat and whisk constantly. After the butter is fully melted you will notice the mixture will begin to thicken up.

5. Once the mixture thickens (The mixture should be able to coat the back of a spoon) remove from the heat.

6. Transfer to a glass container and let it cool down completely.

7. Cover and put it in the fridge overnight.

8. The next morning take your heavy whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form.

9. Fold in about 1/3- 1/2 cup of lemon curd depending on how lemony you want this filling to taste.

There you have it, an easy whipped lemon curd to fill your cakes, dip your fruits, or make a yummy trifle with! The possibilities are really endless with such an easy and tasty curd!

**The picture posted is the lemon curd without any heavy whipping cream**