Whoopie! Pie for Valentine's Day

Background pic from munchcast.com

Hi there! It's about one o'clock in the morning here, and after going through waaaay too many cans of Diet Sunkist and trying unsuccessfully to complete my continuous interactions assignment (well, it started to compete with a "Glee" rerun and this new pizza crust recipe I wanted to try), I'm finally calling in the towel for the night.

Weekends are kind of strange for me this year, I'm learning. While it's nice to sleep in and spend time with Josh, usually I knock out most of my homework on Saturday and Sunday (this is kind of a lame schedule during football season!). I actually look forward to taking my break during the week, you know, just by going to class. And I'm even more excited for Valentine's Day on Monday, even though I still haven't quite figured out Josh's gift yet! :-/

If you're still trying to figure out a good gift to give a loved one (or friend, child, coworker, etc.), this recipe I'm going to share with you is a fine choice. A lot of blogs are recommending these, and for good reason. I was curious and gave one of the recipes a try. What a pleasant surprise! The resulting whoopie pies don't taste the way I remembered (from my childhood), but they sure are good. They take only a few minutes to make and look very inviting (and a little nostalgic!) once prepared.

I used cake mix for my pies and enjoyed the taste considerably, especially with the cream cheese frosting (and especially when refrigerated). I used a recipe from www.grouprecipes.com. I will advise, however, that my pies took about half the time the recipe recommended to cook and spread out considerably on the pan. Also, the tops are sticky and will make your fingers red when you're eating them, so it's good to have napkins or wipes handy.

 

Red Velvet Whoopie! Pies

You need:

• 1 boxed cake mix (it can be any flavor, really. Mix and match! I just think red velvet will look great for Valentine's Day.)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oil

 Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In mixing bowl beat all ingredients on medium low speed until well combined.
 
3. Drop by 2 tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes, until puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack until completely cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

While the website I used above offers up a good icing recipe, I chose a recipe from www.thegirlwhoateeverything.blogspot.com instead, because I just LOVE a good cream cheese frosting with red velvet cake. This tastes an awful lot like a cheese cake, so make sure to add more powdered sugar and milk if this is a concern.

You need:
 
4 oz cream cheese, softened
4 tbs (½ stick) butter, softened
2 cups (8 ounces) powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla
splash of milk if needed 

Instructions:
1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla.

2. Add powdered sugar gradually, until mixture meets your preferred consistency.

3, Spoon on one half of the whoopie pie. Be generous! :) Place the other half on top. You can also choose to roll the edges of the pie in crushed pecans, white chocolate shavings, or colored sprinkles.

I hope all of you have a great Valentine's day and that you really enjoy the company you keep. And I'm going to end this with one of my favorite love songs by the amazing Little River Band, "Reminiscing." It's so old-fashioned and romantic. Also, I had to include a quick scene from "The Other Guys," one of Josh's favorite movies, because every time I think Little River Band, I think about the Prius "LRB" scene!

 Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg: now THAT's an odd couple!

Last-Minute Super Bowl Ideas

So, today's the big day. Today, two historic teams will meet on a neutral site and battle it out to decide who will ultimately win the coveted Lombardi trophy! It's also a great time to get together with family and friends, to drink and be merry, and of course, to eat good food.

Perhaps you're lazy, like me, and are planning to go to the store today, and you know, throw something together last minute. Good ideas include nachos and dip, stromboli bites, bacon-wrapped hotdogs, chicken wings, chili, or ahem, Papa John's (you know what my choice will be!). Well, here is a colorful, fun, and tasty snack/dessert that can be made in about five minutes: chocolate-covered pretzels!

Last post, I was talking about that savory combination of sweet and salty that is so delectable, but I kind of advised against the chocolate-bacon thing (at least, not semi-sweet chocolate. Read and check it out!) Consider this a tamer version of that, where you still get a rich, complicated flavor, but it's much more balanced out.

What I also like is, if you're trying to watch your weight or caloric intake, this snack is a pretty safe choice, as Super Bowl snacks go. About 20 mini Snyders pretzels equals 110 calories, and I believe about 9 Hershey's kisses equals 125 calories. These are a guilt-free option that might be low in nutrition but, yay!, they're also low in calories. They're also kind of addicting. Josh and I polished off our batch in about an hour.

Chocolate-covered pretzels are classic, and this recipe is just one of many takes on it. This recipe requires only three ingredients (yes, those are Hershey's kisses and M&Ms!)

Chocolate-Covered Pretzels
You Need:

1 bag Hershey's kisses
1 bag M&Ms
a loooot of pretzels (okay, I'm exaggerating. You probably need a bag. I think the checkerboard ones work best, but you can pick and choose!)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. On a greased cooking sheet, spread out all of your pretzels.
3. Place a kiss on top of each pretzel. Bake for 1-3 minutes, until kiss is slightly melted.
4. Take out of oven and place an M&M on top of the kiss. Cool in the refrigerator.

Some pretzel decorating ideas:

To really make your pretzels unique and interesting, you can sub the kisses for Hershey's Hugs (it looks like zebra-print a little), for another mini chocolate bar (I think a Reese's or 3 Musketeers would be fabulous!), white chocolate, or a caramel candy (it would taste something like a turtle then).

You can also use, for example, sprinkles or peanuts, instead of M&Ms on top. Or (I love this idea!) you can choose to customize the M&M colors to your team (I think WalMart now carries those custom colored M&Ms. It's a little easier to do Green Bay if you're not super picky about the shade of green; you can just pick the colors from a regular MM bag and eat all of the other colors. I'm kind of weird, and make it a personal mission to eat all of the orange M&Ms first. I know it sounds crazy; maybe it's the Tiger coming out in me (shameless Clemson plug! Go Tigers!)

You can also use these tasty bites to surround another dessert, like a cake or pie (just set them on the serving dish around it) for a pop of color. There are so many different things you can do, which is why I'm recommending this as a dessert/snack not just for the Super Bowl, but for every day as well (I bet they'd be great to pack in lunch boxes!)

I absolutely love chocolate-covered... everything (except, apparently, bacon). I think this runs in the family, because my cousin is an extremely talented chocolate-covering artist (sorry Bridget, I don't know what to call it!). The things she makes are really pretty and creative, and I hope, hope, hope I can get her to come on here and show it off in the future! But anyway, here's another chocolate-covering idea for the Super Bowl (I got this idea from my Senior Prom, where we had a chocolate fountain.)

You can purchase dipping chocolate (or white chocolate or caramel) at the grocery store (you'll probably have to get a few packages), as well as an assortment of dippers. The dippers can be anything from the sweet (cheesecake cubes, brownie bits, rice krispy treats, marshmallows) to the salty (potato chips, pretzels) to healthier options (strawberries, pineapples, apples, graham crackers). Just set them all out (put the chocolate in the slow cooker, if you want, to keep it at an appropriate temperature the whole game) for a unique and interactive dessert! I really like this idea a lot. Go crazy! And may the best team win!

Maybe not this crazy. But seriously, you can purchase a chocolate fountain for around $30 dollars or rent one! Image from sakida.com.

Julie's Weird Experiments #1: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon

It's time for the first edition of:

I just want to start by saying: I'm so sorry for being MIA for the past few days! I was overloaded with classwork, so the baking and blogging was put on hold for a little while. Ah, what a week. I have a few ideas for future posts that will both increase post variety and enable me to post more often. I'm pretty excited about them!

Anyway, even though I was up to my ears in data diagnostics tools and technology acceptance models, I still found time to make (and devour!) some tasty treats. The recipes I'll unveil over the next few days are a) easy to make, b) good for transporting, c) can be eaten sans fork and plate, and most importantly, d) are dangerously good! As I mentioned before, I'm going to share a few recipes for the Super Bowl, and this next recipe (and also, Weird Experiment) is definitely something that will satisfy your favorite sports fans.

So this here is a chocolate chocolate chip cookie with bacon in it. To those of you who might be recoiling from this blog in horror, I'll try to explain...

For the past year or so, I've been noticing more and more blog entries dedicated to the unlikely duo that is chocolate and bacon. Chocolate-covered bacon is becoming more and more popular, with its own legion of devotees to the unusual flavor, and from food festivals to gourmet restaurants, the pairing is gaining in intrigue and trendiness. The idea is that you mix the sweet, rich smoothness of chocolate with the savory, salty crispness of bacon, and the result is a complex and unusual dessert. In theory, anyway. Despite being tempted to try out a few recipes here and there (hello, bacon brownies!), I finally decided to give it a shot myself. The results? Here's my honest opinion:

First off, the cookie is very aesthetically pleasing and like it came from a bakery or a package. It looks super chewy and just... yum. Josh was initially quite excited to try one until I hinted that there was a "surprise" inside (yeah, I'm a little jerk and I didn't tell him what I was making!). After cautiously taking a couple of bites, our consensus was that the cookie tasted pretty good, amazing in fact, but the bacon parts were a little too chewy. And then there was the matter of the meaty aftertaste. You just don't expect that with innocent-looking chocolate chip cookies. Of course, part of this reaction could stem from the fact that we're conditioned to eating our cookies with, you know, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, oatmeal, fruit bits, (begrudgingly) walnuts... My point is, perhaps the texture wasn't great, but perhaps the IDEA of the whole thing wasn't great (to us, anyway). To try to get more of a handle on it, I ate a few more cookies (I promise, it was just for that... for science!), but more than anything, I just really felt disappointed.

This isn't to say that all chocolate and bacon concoctions aren't good, or to even dissuade any of you to try it out! I think part of our problem is that a) I like my bacon slightly undercooked, so there's less crisp to it. I think, for this to work, and in retrospect, a really crunchy bacon will be more ideal, and b) I love extra dark cocoa powder, which is what I used. I think a sweeter cocoa powder and a milk chocolate will be more ideal to better counteract the bacon flavor.

So, you're probably wondering why I'm recommending a cookie that I openly admitted to not enjoying myself? Well, without the bacon, this cookie recipe is amazing. These chocolate chocolate chip cookies are some of the best cookies I've ever had, hands down. They look good, they're really moist and pack a lot of flavor. They're also great with milk (or, as our picture depicts, Coke Zero).

Basically, if you want to bake a real crowd-pleaser, these cookies may just be it (but I'll have a few more recipes later this week too!) Just, leave out the bacon, or if you're brave, make it really crispy.

Note: I retrieved this recipe from allrecipes.com. The website is amazing!

The Recipe:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon

You need:

6 slices maple-cured bacon, chopped

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup softened butter

2 eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

 Instructions:

1.	Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon slices on a paper towel-lined plate. Crumble.
3.	Beat the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer in a large bowl until fluffy and smooth. Stir in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the chocolate chips and bacon. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
4.	Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Let stand 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Good luck with your cookies, and may your Super Bowl experience be a good one! Also, if you have any weird experiment ideas, let me know. I had waaaay too much fun with this!