Vanilla Bean and Milk Chocolate Budino

This Sunday the Baked group is making budino!  I had no idea what a budino was...and what do ya know...it's just good old pudding Italian style.  There is nothing like made from scratch pudding. 

Smooth, rich and creamy.  
The milk chocolate was a nice partner with the vanilla bean.  
Dollop with some freshly whipped cream and 

you got heaven in a glass.

To get the recipe click here.

Mangiare Bene!

 

 

I made the Lacy Panty Cakes last week, but was just too late to get included in the round up....so here they are!!

Salted Caramel Butter Bars

Buttery richness wrapped around caramel goodness.  These bars are delicious. 

With Paula Deen proportions of butter in this recipe, what is not to love about this easy and tasty recipe.  I did have to bake the bars longer than the recipe says and I still think I could have left them in 5 more minutes....but all in all
this is a keeper.

Salted Caramel Butter Bars
source:  http://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2012/2/21/salted-caramel-butter-bars.html

Servings: 16    
Ready in: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:
4 sticks (1 lb) salted butter, 
     at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
One 14-oz. bag caramel candies, 
     unwrapped
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugars. Using hand-held mixer on medium speed, beat 
together until creamy. Add vanilla and beat until combined. Sift the flour into the butter 
mixture and beat on low speed until a smooth soft dough forms.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Press one 
half of the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom crust. Place remaining dough in 
refrigerator.
3. Bake until firm and edges are pale golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes. 
While the bottom crust is baking and the remaining dough is chilling, make the caramel 
filling. Place the caramels in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the cream and vanilla, and
microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. If 
caramels are not completely melted, microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring 
after each interval, until smooth.
4. Pour the caramel filling over the crust. Sprinkle the salt over top. Remove remaining dough 
from refrigerator and crumble it evenly over the caramel. Return the pan to the oven and 
bake until the filling is bubbly and the crumbled shortbread topping is firm and lightly golden, 
about 25-30 minutes. Let cool before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

Lacy Panty Cakes with Whiskey Sauce: Baked Sunday Mornings

When I saw that the Baked Sunday Mornings group was doing this recipe I really wondered what the heck it was.  Little did I know that it was a recipe for delicious graham pancakes. Graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar were added to a pancake recipe.  I thought these pancakes were good but they lend themselves to dessert more than they do breakfast.  They were very very sweet! The whiskey sauce is easy and very delicious.  I have the leftover sauce saved in the fridge for ice cream topping an idea that one of the members of the group so beautifully displayed on their post.

I doubt I would make these again but I did enjoy these little 

graham whiskey treats! 

Please head on over to the Baked Sunday Morning site and check out what all the other bakers did with this challenge!

Next week we do Vanilla Bean and Milk Chocolate Budino....until then

Enjoy!

Momofuku Milk Bar's Compost Cookies

These cookies are as big as your head and filled with your favorite sweet and salty treats!  Crunchy on the edges and soft and chewy on the inside.  

These are just as good as I thought they would be. I love sweet and salty treats.  I used chocolate chips, chocolate covered grahams, Reese pieces, oatmeal, potato chips, pretzel sticks and ground coffee.  I was going to add coconut but I forgot it....it would have been good in there! 

So go out and get you some nice cold milk and make you up a batch!

Next time I think I will make them normal size cookies....and yes, there will be a next time!  These are soooo good!  Have fun with this one!

I got the recipe from the Food.com.  You can find it here

Enjoy

I

ABC: Boston Cream Pie (Cupcakes)

This month the Avid Bakers are baking Boston Cream Pie!  We are using the King Arthur Flour site as our reference.  Boston Cream Pie is not a pie at all, it is a lovely spongecake with pastry cream in the center and a rich chocolate ganache on top.  Whats not to like about that!  I really wanted to make cupcakes and I gave it my all and they taste really good however, I should have not used cupcake papers because the cake sticks to it and it is almost impossible to get off!  Leaves a big chocolate pastry cream mess...but a good chocolate pastry cream mess.  Haha!  Oh well, I know now.  You learn the hard way....right?

Please take a look at what the other bakers did here.

If you would like the recipe please click here.

Next month we will be baking No Knead Chocolate Cherry Pecan Bread.  Sounds yummy!

Enjoy!

Baked Sunday Mornings: Cheesy Focaccia with Caramelized Onions and Sautéed Spinach

What a nice change to bake something savory instead of sweet.  The baked group is baking out of the Baked Essentials cookbook this week with a recipe from the Cheese chapter.  Cheesy Focaccia.

Cheesy it was!  And quite tasty!

I am hoping it freezes well because nobody else here will touch it because it has spinach on it.....they just don't know what is good!!

Oh well, it tasted really good to me!

The recipe is here

Until next time

Enjoy!