Reese's Cup/Chocolate Chip Cookie

I think this recipe originally came from Modern Honey. What I love about it, as someone with nut allergies in the house, but also peanut butter lovers, I can bake a few off for a really awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe before I add in the peanut butter cups. The original recipe also called for 4 ounces of cookie dough, but I didn't feel like it got done enough inside. It was still pretty gooey. So, we did 3 ounces. I would probably bake a couple off at ten minutes, too, and see if you like that bake. It's really easy to overcook the bottoms. I would take them off the sheet as soon as you pull them out of the oven. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter, cold and cubed

• 1 cup Brown Sugar

• 1/2 cup Sugar

• 2 large Eggs

• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract 

• 3 cups Flour

• 1 teaspoon Cornstarch

• 3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1 cup Chocolate Chips, I also added in some mini chips, too. Double the recipe and do a cup of each. You won't be disappointed 

• 1 1/2 cup Peanut Butter Cups (chopped)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.

• Add in eggs and vanilla and mix for 1 minute longer.

• Fold in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips and a heaping 1 cup of peanut butter cups, reserving about 1/3 cup for the top of the cookies.

• Roll into 4 to 6-ounce balls. If making 4-ounce balls, you should end up with about 12-13 cookies or if you roll into 6-ounce balls, you should end up with 8-9 cookies.

• Place on a parchment paper lined, light-colored baking sheet. If you are NOT using light colored baking sheets, reduce the oven temperature to 390 degrees to ensure the bottom of the cookies don't become too brown. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Do not overbake as these cookies are supposed to be slightly soft in the center. As soon as you remove the baking sheet from the oven, carefully place the extra peanut butter cups on top of the cookies. Allow to set up for 10 minutes.

Best Bread Pudding

 From the Taste of Home Test Kitchen, this is super yummy. Always a big hit for a sweet breakfast treat. That caramel sauce is the bomb-diggity. I also use Texas Roadhouse rolls that I cut up. Note: get the half and half, it makes it. Don't try to make your own. It is different. Also, one times this recipe really is enough for two 13x9's custard wise. I only put a little of the custard mix in with the casserole after I've gotten the bread good and wet. I don't like bread pudding that is super soggy. The brown sugar is a nice touch sprinkled on. Make sure you whisk all that butter in to the brown sugar for the caramel sauce before you add the cream. Also, about 20 minutes for the caramel sauce to thicken on low. Don't try to thicken it beyond that. It will break. It is a sauce. 

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2-1/4 cups half-and-half cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 20 dinner rolls (1-1/4 pounds), cut into 1-inch cubes (18 cups)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• SAUCE:
• 1 cup butter, cubed
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup half-and-half cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk together the first 10 ingredients until blended. Gently stir in bread. Transfer to a greased 3-qt. or 13x9-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar; let stand until bread is softened, about 15 minutes. Bake until puffed and a knife inserted in center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, for sauce, melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar; stir until dissolved. Gradually stir in cream. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until thickened, 15-20 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add vanilla, sea salt and baking soda, stirring well. Serve sauce with warm bread pudding.

Kouign-Amann

I've been making these for a few years after going on a hunt for a mystery pastry that I ate at a French cafe a million years ago. These are delightfully both sweet and savory with hints of a salted caramel. Buttery, crunchy with that layered bready goodness. They are from a video from Chef John, but he just talks you through it and doesn't have the recipe transcribed, so I did my best.  

Ingredients for 12 Kouign-Amann:

For the dough:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon dry active yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more as needed

1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the seasoned sugar (mix, taste, and adjust):

2/3 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons of sea salt or kosher salt (less if you’re using a fine table salt)

For the rest:

8 ounces ice cold unsalted butter (2 sticks) for the pastry

1 tablespoon melted butter for the muffin pan

Put water, sugar and yeast in a bowl to proof for about 10 minutes. Once you're sure it's alive, then add a little bit of melted butter and most but not all of our flour and a pinch of salt. Then it makes a very sticky dough. Put the last ½ cup of flour of on your work surface and then fold and kneed your dough together until it feels right. Soft, slightly sticky, elastic dough. Then transfer to a buttered bowl and cover, let rising to double in size, about an hour and a half.

Make seasoned sugar. Set aside.

Prep muffin pan by coating with melted butter. Then coat the muffin pan with your seasoned sugar. Then knock out extra sugar into your bowl for later.

Transfer dough onto a floured surface and press it out into a rectangle shape. Then, using your rolling pan, roll it out to a ¼” to 1/8” thickness, making a large rectangle. Pulling on your corners as needed.

Then taking a very cold, even frozen stick of unsalted butter, grate that over the dough. Try, if possible, to leave an inch unbuttered around the edges. Then, after flouring your hands, gently, but firmly press that butter into the dough. Then fold the dough into thirds like a letter. Square up the edges the best you can.

Next, place on a parchment lined, flour sheet pan and cover in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take it out of the fridge and place on your lightly floured surface and roll again to your large rectangle shape to that ¼ to 1/8 inch thickness and repeat the butter fold step again.

Instead of chilling it again, at this point, we'll roll it back out to a rectangle and dust it with flour, folding it into thirds again. (Not adding any more butter now. ;) )

Then roll it back out and give it one more fold into thirds. We're creating a laminated dough if you hadn't figured that out.

Transfer back to your lightly floured parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill in your fridge for at least an hour.

Sprinkle a bunch of your seasoned sugar onto your work surface and then place your dough on top of that. Then more of that seasoned sugar onto the top of the dough before you roll it out. Keep adding sugar to both sides periodically as you are rolling out the dough.

Try to do this last rolling out quickly because the sugar and salt will start to pull moisture out of the dough.

You will continue to roll it out, adding your seasoned sugar, until you get a rectangle of about ¼ to 1/8 of an inch thick.

Using a pizza cutter, trim your edges to make that perfect rectangle. You will then cut that into 12 squares; so 3x4. Sprinkle again with the seasoned sugar mix. Then transfer to the pan.

Shape so that all four corners meet in the middle and press center into pan. Once they are all panned, then top with a little more sugar.

Let sit for 10 minutes before baking to give a little tiny proof.

Transfer to the center rack of a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until beautifully golden brown and puffed.

Very important: remove them from the pan to a cooling rack while they are still hot, or you won't be able to get them out. Cool at least 15 minutes before diving in.

Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato Casserole

 My kitchen manager, Paula, told me that this was her go to recipe for sweet potato casserole. Now, I am not a huge sweet potato girl but want to make them for the two people in the house who are, Aaron and Abby. This was super yummy. It was one of the things that I hit up for seconds on Thanksgiving dinner today. Bonus, I was able to use some of the leftover roasted sweet potatoes from Roadhouse, so I didn't have to cook them! 

Makes 4 Servings

INGREDIENTS

Crust Mixture:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans preferred)
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Sweet Potato Mixture:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/4 cup butter

PROCESS

1. Combine Crust Mixture in mixing bowl and put to one side.
2. Combine Sweet Potato Mixture ingredients in a mixing bowl in the order listed. Combine thoroughly.
3. Pour Sweet Potato Mixture into buttered baking dish.
4. Sprinkle Crust Mixture evenly onto surface of Sweet Potato Mixture.
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°. Allow to set for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Creamy Italian Sausage Soup

This came from the land of Facebook and was soooo good. Notes from it when I made it: I tripled it so that we would have extra for us and extra to share. It did fine. I only did a rough chop on the spinach. I like bigger pieces of spinach, and I thought it did well. That mirepoix (carrots, onions and celery) needs a lot more than five minutes. Just cook until your onions start to get translucent. I put the Ditalini in like the recipe says though I saw that some people kept it separate and stirred it in as they served it so it wouldn't suck up all the juice in the fridge. Which it totally did but was still amazing. I don't want it not to take on any of the yummy broth flavor. So, not a big deal to me. 

Ingredients:

1 lb Italian sausage (turkey or chicken sausage as a pork alternative)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, chopped

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup Ditalini pasta

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups fresh spinach, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

Cook the Sausage:

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the Italian sausage, breaking it into small crumbles, and cook until browned. Remove the sausage from the pot and set aside.

Sauté the Vegetables:

In the same pot, add diced onion, minced garlic, sliced carrots, and chopped celery. Sauté until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add Broth and Herbs:

Pour in the chicken broth, then stir in the oregano and basil. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Cook the Pasta:

Add the Ditalini pasta to the boiling broth. Cook for about 8 minutes, or until the pasta is tender but still firm.

Make it Creamy:

Lower the heat to medium. Stir in the cooked sausage, heavy cream, and grated Parmesan cheese. Simmer for 5 minutes, allowing the soup to thicken slightly.

Add Spinach:

Stir in the fresh spinach until it wilts into the soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve and Garnish with parsley if desired and parmesan.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Very simple and very creamy vanilla buttercream recipe. 

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 4 – 5 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• salt, to taste

1. With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add 4 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar, the heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Taste. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet. I always add 1/8 teaspoon.
2. Adjust if needed: You can control the consistency at this point—add up to 1/2 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or more heavy cream if frosting is too thick (add only 1 Tablespoon at a time, beat together, then taste and add more if desired).
3. Use immediately or cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. After freezing, thaw in the refrigerator then beat the frosting on medium speed for a few seconds so it’s creamy again. After thawing or refrigerating, beating in a splash of heavy cream or milk will help thin the frosting out again, if needed.

Carrot Cake

I am not generally a fan of carrot cake because of the cream cheese frosting. These cakes were delicious, especially with all the mix-ins and the walnuts. This was a request for Abby's 17th birthday and was found on All-recipes with the most positive reviews. Frosting was one brick of cream cheese softened with one stick of softened butter, a teaspoon or two of vanilla and then enough powdered sugar, added in slowly, until I like the consistency. 

Ingredients

• 6 cups grated carrots

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 cup raisins

• 4 eggs

• 1 ½ cups white sugar

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Combine grated carrots and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Let sit for 1 hour, then stir in raisins.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 10-inch round cake pans.

3. Beat eggs in a large bowl until light. Gradually beat in white sugar, oil, and vanilla. Stir in pineapple. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl, then stir into egg mixture until absorbed. Stir in carrot mixture and walnuts. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing cake layers from the pans; let cool completely.