Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

Want to make your house smell divine....bake a loaf of this bread!

So good! So easy!

Click here for the recipe.

Belly up to the Bar

Chubby Hubby Bars

I have been quite obsessed with Pinterest lately...So many good ideas and good looking recipes.   That is where I found these bars and brownies.  My husband needed something to bring into work to share, I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to try these tempting recipes.  They were good!  The Chubby Hubby bars were really delicious with the nice caramel layer and the rich layer of chocolate....I loved the pretzles in the dough. It has a nice salty-sweet thing going on.  The Slutty Brownies were just over the top!  The recipe suggested that you serve them with ice cream....oh yeah!  That is exactly what needs to be done!!  They are like chocolate lava brownies....very decadent

and super easy!

If you want to see what interests me on Pinterest click here. 

Be forewarned, it is addictive!

Slutty Brownies

They were both very easy to put together. Just click the pictures for the recipe.  Try them sometime!

Enjoy!

Baked Sunday Mornings- Buckeyes

I was really excited when I saw that the Baked Sunday Mornings group was doing Buckeyes for their last offering of the year. Being a former Ohioan, I know all too well what Buckeyes are and how delicious they can be.  However, I have never made them!  Odd but true!  This recipe is very easy and extremely delicious.  The baked boys claim that they made the Buckeye less sweet....hmmm, with 3 cups of confectioners sugar, they still pack a sweet punch but with the addition of cream cheese and graham cracker crumbs these are a winner! I made mine with chunky peanut butter and they turned out really tasty.  I lost a few when I was dipping them in the chocolate, I guess I am not such a great dipper...that's okay, my hubby likes to eat the mistakes!   You can get the recipe and see what the rest of the Baked Sunday Mornings group did here.

Until next time....

Enjoy!

Christmas Cookie Lineup 2011

Christmas is upon us and every year I make a variety of cookies for friends and family.  I wanted to share them with you too!  Click on the pictures to get the recipes. 

Merry Christmas!!

Frosty Christmas Tree Cookies

These scrumptious treats are a soft perfectly spiced molasses cookie with sugar frosting.  These have been on my Christmas cookie tray every year for the past 30 years!! Needless to say, these are one of my personal favorites. 

They are just the thing to leave for old Santa when he makes

his rounds to your house. 

Enjoy!

Frosty Christmas Tree Cookies

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup molasses

Sugar Icing (recipe follows)

1. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, cloves onto waxed paper.
2. Beat butter, sugar, egg and molasses in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy-light.  Stir in flour mixture until well blended.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or foil; refrigerate several hours or overnight.
3. Roll out dough, 1/3 at a time, on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut out with large Christmas tree cutter.  Brush off excess flour; place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Gather up scraps for second rolling.
4. Bake in moderate oven (350) for 8 minutes, or until edges are browned.  Let cookies cool a few minutes on cookie sheets.  Remove to wire racks with spatula; cool completely.  Dip small clean brush into Sugar Icing and "paint" cookies.  Sprinkle with colored sugars.

Sugar Icing:  Combine 1 package (1 pound) 10X (confectioners) sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/3 cup water in medium size bowl; stir until smooth.  Add more water, a teaspoon at a time, until icing is spoonable and flows easily from a spoon.

Makes 2 cups

ABC-My Poor Little Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze

 I was so excited when I saw that the last challenge from Baking for All Occassions by Flo Braker was Eggnog Pound Cake.  I love eggnog! I love buttery pound cake.  The recipe looked very easy and it was.  I halved the recipe because I didn't want to make a big pound cake.  I had a small bundt pan so I thought I would use that.  I tried to bake it in 35 minutes but it was not nearly done.  So I put it in for 10 more minutes....still not done....(???) so I put it in for another 5 minutes.  Finally the tester came out clean.  I let it rest for 10 minutes then flipped it over to unmold.  Oh boy.....the cake fell apart into 4 big pieces.   So I patched it up the best I could and glazed the pitiful thing.  The upside is it tasted wonderful!  My cake was not dry at all...it was moist and had a nice buttery flavor.  I used spiced rum instead of regular dark rum and raisins instead of currants.  It was delicious!

 Moist and delicious!  The glaze gives it a nice crunchy exterior.  I will have to try this one again sometime and do it right!   If you want to see how this should have looked check out the other wonderful ABC bakers here. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed baking along with this group and loved this cookbook!  I will continue to explore new recipes and revisit the favorites that I baked this past year.   Next year we will be baking from a new cookbook called The Weekend Baker by Abigail Johnson Dodge...it looks like there are many wonderful recipes to challenge all of us...it should be fun!

Until Next Time.....

Kiss Pies

 cut round circles around the kiss (I used a cookie cutter)

 gather up the edges to the middle

 pinch closed

 brush with egg whites and sprinkle with sugar, bake

 make sure you pinch them closed really well...or you some will open :(

 dust with powdered sugar

So simple, so easy, sooo good!
Enjoy!!

Kiss Pies

recipe adapted from Picky Palate

1 refrigerated pie crust, thawed

14 Hershey Kisses of choice

1 egg white whisked with 1 Tbsp water

Powdered sugar for dusting

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll out pie dough onto a lightly floured counter top.  Place 10 kisses around the edges of pie dough, about 2 1/2 inches apart . Take a knife and cut a 2 1/2-3 inch circle around kiss.  Fold half of pie dough around top of dough and pinch edge around top of kiss. Now, fold up both sides of remaining dough up to the tip of the kiss pinching edge. Now press together edges and form criss cross as shown . Continue cutting dough around kisses until all dough is used up.  I got about 14 rounds cut when I re-rolled my scraps.

2.  Brush all little pies with an egg white wash then sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Bake for 20-28 minutes or until little pies are golden.  Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  Dust each with powdered sugar and serve.

about 14 little pies.

(I got 17 pies out of each round of pie dough)