Baking Obsession!

I have a friend........ with a baking obsession. I mean, i do too, but her blog is called baking obsession! They're really great recipes with twists for holidays (such as ed sheeran's twenty-second birthday) and just over all awesome stuff. She recently released the best chocolate chip cookie recipe i have ever eaten (I have eaten some pretty good choco chip cookies in my day).  check it out! here's the link!

Baking Obsession! 

I'm sorry that last post looked so weird. my computer's been acting funny.

M&M Cookies!

I'm sorry, but who doesn't like M&M's? Well, I guess I can't say that, because I don't like bacon. It's the most embarrassing thing ever. What foodie doesn't like bacon? I'm a disgrace. Back to M&M's. Color, candy and chocolate are now coming together with hot, buttery cookies. It's super simple. You just swap M&M's for chocolate chips. I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. You could use your favorite. But, I mean, I like this one best.

The Best M&M Cookies Ever!!!

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) butter, softened
• 2/3 brown sugar
• 1 large egg 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 medium (12.60) or 1 1/2 small bags of your favorite flavor of M&M's. 

Side Note:  Normally, I would use unsalted butter and salt, but all i had was salted butter. All you have to do is  omit the salt from the recipe.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease 2 cookie sheets with canola spray. In a medium-ish, smaller bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt (or see above side note). set aside. cream together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer (paddle attachment for stand-up mixers please!). add egg and vanilla, and then gradually add the flour mixture. when all is mixed, fold in the M&M's. To form the cookies, you could use a tablespoon, but I didn't want to. An ice cream scoop is way to big, but you can get special cookie scoops for like 2 bucks at the grocery store. anyway, I just wet my hands and rolled glops of dough into 1 inch balls. place on the sheet about two inches apart from each other.  Bake for 7-8 minutes. the cookies may feel a little mushy, but you just have to let them cool for about 5 minutes. then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely. 

Super Easy Popovers!

My mom suggested these when i was not (unfairly) allowed to make dessert for a dinner party. At first skeptical, i refused, but eventually went along with the plan. The recipe is from my mom's roomate in college. These things are so impossibly easy to make and so good to eat you have no reason not to make them. I'm serious, make them. 

they're buttery

and flaky

and delicious

Yum!!!!!!

Diane's Popovers

• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mlk

 preheat oven to 375 degrees Fareheit. grease a muffin pan. beat the eggs slightly with a fork in a large bowl. whisk in the melted butter. then add a third of the flour, and whisk, then add the a third of the salt, whisk and then put in a third of the milk, whisk. If it's lumpy in the beginning, it's okay, the lumps will work out in the end. repeat the process until you have a thin batter. divide batter evenly into the muffin pan. bake for 35-40 minutes. enjoy alone, of with butter and/or jam.

Percy Jackson (Jumbo) Cookies for 2!

I am seriously obsessed with percy jackson, I'm sorry. It might be an illness. So I found this recipe on baker girl's blog and tweeked it so it's perfect for percy jackson fans (I consider my self 1/6 ancient greek religiously). You could do 4 regular sized cookies, but I forgot :D.

If you haven't read Percy Jackson (so help me god), The reason they're Percy Jackson cookies is because they're blue. Why are they blue, might you ask? Well if you read the books (Like a sane person) you might know. Anyway, Percy's evil stepfather (smelly) Gabe told percy's mom sally that there is no blue food. Sally now goes out of her way to eat blue. Blue birthday cake, blue waffles and blue cookies.

Cookies

• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon beaten egg
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cinnamon
• 8 drops blue food coloring
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

mix together shortening and sugars. whisk in tablespoon of beaten egg and vanilla. mix in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. 

add food coloring

add chocolate chips

scoop into little balls with a spoon. bake for 12-15 minutes on a greased cookie sheet

let cool for 10 minutes. Then curl up with a percy Jackson book!

Cheese!!!!!!

I know, I know it's savory. But cheese is a product that must be given credit for it's divine trips in the world of flavor (english translation: I love it and I'm going to write about it).

The life of the party is not the people. It is not the music. It's the food. One of the most common party foods is cheese. Seems easy right? It is, as long as you follow these steps.

Step 1) select cheeses that people know, or taste like they know. Choose cheeses like blues, bries, goudas and cheddars. And if you are going to use cheddar, this my motto.

           "My motto with cheddar is the sharper, the better."
                                                                                     -RI Red

This means when using cheddar, go for sharp, extra sharp, or Cabot makes a seriously sharp (that's really good).

Step 2) If you can try a cheese at the grocery store, and tastes good, get it. Just make sure that your taste pallet corresponds with what most other people like, just in case your the person who likes things that not many other people like (If you like deep fried fish roe, than that's what I'm talking about).

This was a sample at Trader Joe's

Step 3) Keep cheese refrigerated at all times

  Step 4) Before serving your cheese, take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Your cheese won't taste good if it's cold. 

Step 5) serve cheese spread apart, so that knives don't cut different cheeses. 

Step 6) don't, under any circumstances, cut cheese up before hand. It dries the cheese out and looks really cheep. One time my aunt asked me to cut the cheese (ha ha) I was bringing into fun shapes for thanksgiving. I said no, because then there wouldn't be any good cheese left, just dried out milk mold.

Step 7) have a different knife for every cheese. This prevents weird flavors mingling together in a not so lovely way. With multiple knifes, you get the cheese you cut.

Step 8) Enjoy! For an even better cheese board, serve your cheeses with extra nosh like grapes, nuts and crackers.

Brownies

The brownie is a simple bake good. A chocolate square that can be gooey, cake, chewy, fudgy or any other way you could possibly want it. a good brownie will bring a smile to anyone. This brownie recipe is the simplest way I have ever heard of.

Materials

• a large pyrex (glass) bowl
• a whisk
• a wooden spoon
• a cup measure
• a teaspoon
• a pan or muffin tin (if using muffin tin, see special brownies for topping ideas)

Ingredients

• 4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate (i like bakers. it comes in a box of 8 squares. 1 square = 1 ounce)
• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 cup of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 3 eggs

Brownies

1. melt baking chocolate and butter in the microwave for 1 minute. stir until all the chocolate has melted (don't put it back in the microwave, chocolate might burn, just keep stirring. try to break apart the pieces.)
2. put all the rest of the ingredients in the bowl. whisk until combined.
3. pour into pan or tin
4. bake at 350 for a 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a couple crumbs on it (completely clean means brownies are completely dry).
5. See special brownies for topping ideas or enjoy!

Special Brownies

I love Chow.coms You're Doing it All Wrong videos. recently i found one with brownies. Kir Jensen was talking about how to make brownies amazing. she filled them with chocolate ganache. i like it. here's how, in a super easy way.

Materials

• a sauce pot
• a glass measuring cup with spout

Ingredients

• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 recipe brownies (muffin tin style)

Chocolate Ganache

1. pour heavy cream into sauce pot. bring to boil with out lid.
2. while the cream is boiling, pour chocolate chips into measuring cup so it about level with the 1 cup line. 
3. when cream has boiled, pour over chocolate chips. stir until there is no lumps.
4. with a napkin, press a dent in the center of each brownie with your fingers. fill with ganache
5. enjoy!