Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

This is a quick post because I'm actually supposed to be making dinner and not perusing the internet for potential recipes. If you've noticed any sort of pattern in this blog so far, it's definitely peanut butter. Well, and sarcasm. Almost every recipe I post has something to do with peanut butter because it's easily the most coveted ingredient of any dish I make, take somewhere, or bookmark to make later.

I found this recipe today when I was looking for something easy, (and oven-less) to make. In my estimation, there's nothing you could possibly do to mess this up. It seems like a perfect recipe. As true as that may be, I haven't tried it yet.

This recipe is for chocolate peanut butter ice cream pie. It sounds amazing just typing it!
Here's the link: http://busycooks.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/chocpbicepie.htm

I haven't made it yet, but I will when I get an excuse to. So it's fair to say that yeah, I would bake that. I would bake the hell out of this pie.

Leave me some comments if you try it and let me know how it goes.

p.s. I already have the title ready for this blog's sequel, so it better be good!


Source: About.com 'Busy Cooks'
http://busycooks.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/chocpbicepie.htm
Posted by: Linda Larsen

Rice Krispie Pops

I have to admit that lately I've been struggling. Aside from the fact that 5 projects need to all be finished at once, I haven't been able to decide which recipe to post next. Being that it's summer, and 900 degrees in Philly, my options are clearly limited. The problem with summer in this house is that our landlord still thinks it's 1970, so my gas powered oven could literally (and has on occasion) heat the entire house. This makes baking difficult. Ask Bill McNamee, he walked into the kitchen the other day when I was mid-white chocolate raspberry cupcakes and he almost hyperventilated. That thing's like a furnace. It'll give you a sun tan.

So in order to avoid third degree burns on both my body and the baked goods, I decided I'd look for something you can make fast, and preferably not in the oven. The result was these fancy rice krispie pops. The best part about finding this recipe is that the post where I found it was also talking about the ridiculously warm weather. Sweaty people must think alike.

There's nothing like a good background to make your picture look better.
Those paper towel rolls were not involved in the making of this recipe.

I need to tell you up front that rice krispie treats to me are like muddy buddies to my mother. When we were growing up my Aunt Karen would make them for special occasions, and they always came out just the right shade of white. When my mom made them, they always came out...well, muddier. They tasted exactly the same, but we had fun ragging on mom and reminding her that Aunt Karen's always looked just like the box, and mom's always looked more like they were actually made with mud.

Rice krispie treats are delicate. You have to really pay attention, and not burn anything. Which is tough. The last few batches I've made have either been too dry, too krispie, too not-marshmellowy enough or on one occasion, a clear substitute for a door jam. But this time, I happened to get them just right. While the recipe I'm about to give you tells you to make them as pops, I went without the sticks. I dipped them in chocolate that's not appropriate for dipping because it doesn't dry (I would suggest the dipping chocolate they normally sell near strawberries at the grocery store, or the chocolate disks you can melt specifically for dipping and baking) and sprinkled them with rainbow sprinkles.

I would highly suggest these if you need something quick and if your kitchen gets as warm as mine.

Here's the link: http://kitchenkarate.blogspot.com/2010/07/unholy-heat-and-rice-krispie-pops.html

The author of Kitchen Karate (which is a pretty bad ass name for baking/cooking blog) isn't sure where he found the recipe, but if I were you I'd spend some time digging around his site. He also had a recipe for peanut butter cupcakes with krispie buttercream icing which I'm looking forward to making. If nothing else, this guy appreciates a good krispie recipe when he finds one.

Here's some pictures of my rice krispie non-pops:

Before the chocolate. You can see that I tried to use popsicle sticks as lollipop sticks.
I would't suggest that. It didn't work.

I melted the chocolate on this homemade double boiler.
The last 6 searches on my computer are:
 "how to make a double boiler"
"how to not burn yourself using a homemade double boiler"
and probably the best one:
"how can i take back this questionable decision i made to make a homemade double boiler?"

In reality, that double boiler method works extremely well. I've used it a few times now, and as long as you're careful with the steam, you'll be fine.

A close up of the end results.

If you have any other warm weather baking suggestions, send them my way! I've got a few recipes on deck, including the aforementioned white chocolate raspberry cupcakes I've made and the peanut butter cupcakes with krispie buttercream icing, but I welcome anything that's not going to make my kitchen into the fifth circle of hell.


Source: Kitchen Karate
"Unholy Heat and Rice Krispie Pops"
http://kitchenkarate.blogspot.com/2010/07/unholy-heat-and-rice-krispie-pops.html

There Will Be Cupcakes *Special Post

About a week ago I implored my scores of readers to keep on reading and pass the blog along to their friends so that when we passed 1,000 views I could post an awesome new cupcake that I'm almost positive we invented.  Well, the time has come my friends - we went over the four digit mark by about 30+ views, so I present to you... the 'There Will Be Blood' cupcakes.

So, I'll explain that.

A while ago spouse and I were at a mexican restaurant in an up and coming neighborhood in Philly. When I say up and coming I really just mean that everyone there had cut off jorts on and they were covered in tattoos. Generally, I think nothing in particular when I'm surrounded by these people - it just makes me feel significantly less cool. I'm okay with it. But in this restaurant, we were clearly sticking out a little - even though Kev had his best James Taylor tee on. (I suppose it would have been cooler if it was like an old Springsteen concert shirt? But that obviously just shows you how much I stuck out myself). When we wind up in places like these, we always do the same thing; we start scheming about grandiose situations. "Are these the same clouds that we saw yesterday?" "What if we became gentlemen farmers?" or on this particular occasion: "What if we had a cupcake truck?" At least that's how it started. But then it morphed into a whole new idea- if we had a bakery, what would be our hook? How would we make people notice our cupcakes? And then just like how we brushed aside the answer to the clouds question, we decided that the obvious answer was to make movie themed cupcakes.

Once that was decided, the ideas came fast and more ridiculous than the last. Forrest Gump cupcakes! Mrs. Doubtfire cupcakes with lemon meringue icing! Ghostbuster cupcakes that were filled with slime! They were all awesome. And as we sat there surrounded by hipsters in jorts, we created the "There Will Be Blood" cupcake.

Based on the movie "There Will Be Blood" starring Daniel Day-Lewis these cupcakes are vanilla with chocolate insides that make it look like there's oil in them there cupcakes when you cut them apart.

They're decorated to resemble Daniel Day-Lewis' character's mustache and that metaphorical milkshake from the great line "Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I'll end up drinking your milkshake".

Here's the video if you don't remember the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pik1hQsuJbA
^That line comes in around 11:33.

It's obviously a stretch, but an awesome one. We have a whole list in our brains of the kinds of cupcakes we'll make, but I had to start with this one. I always wanted to decorate a cupcake with a mustache.

I used a few different recipes to create the cupcakes. I'm going to give you the links and the recipes, along with my rag tag instructions to keep it all in one place. I used three websites all together.

For the chocolate oil insides I used the chocolate insides recipe from the Molten Chocolate Cupcake Recipe I posted last month.

The cupcakes recipe was from Tastykitchen.com: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/best-vanilla-cupcakes-ever/

The icing recipe was from The Girl Who Ate Everything: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/09/frosting-that-will-get-you-hugs-and.html


Chocolate "Oil" Insides Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

In a small saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium/high heat until it's hot but not boiling. Stir in the chocolate chips until they're melted and the texture is smooth. Put in the fridge for about an hour, stirring it every once and a while to make sure it thickens.


Cupcake Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/2 cups of All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 3 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 1 cup Canola Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Sour Cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line your cupcake pan with liners. The recipe said you'd get 24, I got 28.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Put aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thickened and the color becomes lighter. With the mixer still on, add in oil and vanilla. Beat until blended and then add the flour mixture alternating with sour cream.

4. Scoop batter into cupcake pans. **This is where I added a tablespoon of the chocolate mixture. I then added a little bit more batter on top of the chocolate. Bake at 350F for 18-23 minutes (mine were in for about 19) and let cool.

While the cupcakes were still in the oven, I tried a new icing recipe I found on the Girl Who Ate Everything blog. It was interesting because you have to cook the icing, but it promised that it would be the lightest, almost whipped creme like icing you've ever tried, and it would get you hugs. I started the icing early because it needs some serious time to cool. If you're looking for really whipped icing, this is definitely your recipe.

Whipped Vanilla Icing Recipe

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 Cup Butter
• 1 Cup Granulated White Sugar

1. In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and keep it over the heat stirring constantly until it thickens. Be super careful not to burn it! Remove it from the heat and let it cool to room temp. The mix has to be completely cool before you mix it with the rest.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy. Then add the milk/flour mixture and vanilla and beat it until it looks like whipped cream. Be sure to scrape the outsides of the bowl occasionally so that all of the icing gets incorporated. If it doesn't look like whipped cream at first, keep going.

I can't recommend this icing recipe enough, although since it's so warm I would move quickly when using it. It's not sweet, but paired with this cupcake recipe it's amazing.


So here they are, the "There Will Be Blood" cupcakes. They have a rough name sure, but these mustachioed and milkshaked cupcakes are keepers. If I ever had a bakery, these would be sitting right next to the dreamy Inception cupcakes. Or would they?

Check them out and let me know what you think!

Daniel Day-Lewis probably would approve this message.
But I didn't ask him.

Sources:
Molten Chocolate Cupcakes: Betty Crocker: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes: Tasty Kitchen: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/best-vanilla-cupcakes-ever/
Vanilla Icing: The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/09/frosting-that-will-get-you-hugs-and.html

Coming to terms, or Margarita Cupcakes

I've always been disappointed with myself because I don't like traditional margaritas. I love strawberry ones, I will partake in one of those any time, but something about traditional ones just turns me off. Or as my Dad says, makes me feel like I'm eating bathroom cleaner. He really has a way with words.

So I should have known that I would just love margarita cupcakes. Sometimes, my smarts even surprise me. This recipe was me coming to terms with this fault of mine.

The whole thing started because my sister Allyson was returning home from a trip to Mexico, and since she started galavanting across the border and back she's picked up an affinity for tequila. I am personally not a fan of it; it never ends well for me. You can put it right up there with Twisted Tea, gin, and shots of just about anything.

We had missed celebrating Allyson's birthday, and decided to celebrate when she got back into Philly about a month later. Baking with tequila sounds challenging at first (or the greatest way to mask a drinking problem), but I found a pretty great recipe and decided that even though I generally don't like margaritas, this would work and I would love them. Maybe I was inhaling too much powdered sugar.

The main ingredients.

The cupcakes turned out awesome. The batter tasted really good, it was accented with just enough lime juice and bits of lime zest. They made the whole house smell like Disney World.

The icing was probably the fluffiest icing I ever made, it's a great recipe. And I really liked it until I put the tequila and lime juice in. I have to mention that people actually liked these cupcakes (probably should have mentioned that earlier) -- it was me who didn't like them. Maybe because I poured the tequila in, I could taste it more than anything else... but people seemed to really enjoy them. I would suggest that if you don't like the margarita DRINK, these cupcakes are not for you. Even though they looked awesome.

See?

I used the icing gun to swirl around the icing for the tops of the cupcakes, and sprinkled more lime zest over the tops.

They look good right?

Here's the recipe if you want to give them a try: http://thefrostedcupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/05/margarita-cupcakes-for-cinco-de-mayo.html

^^That Frosted blog is awesome, by the way. I would highly suggest subscribing to it if you like this blog but wish that it was better maintained and more clever. That's the blog for you!

In other news, YeahI'dBakeThat is huge in Indonesia this month! I totally get that.

In other other news, we're quickly approaching four digit views, and to celebrate I've got a ONE OF A KIND cupcake coming your way. The parts themselves will be lifted from other recipes, but it's never been done before (that we know of). Once we break that viewing record, I'll bake them up and share them with the eagerly awaiting masses. If you want to see the recipe tell your friends to check out this blog already. Seriously, it's getting ridiculous.




Source: Margarita Cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo
Frosted! Gourmet Cupcakes, Cookies & Treats
http://thefrostedcupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/05/margarita-cupcakes-for-cinco-de-mayo.html

The Best Damn Banana Creme Pie

If you're anything like me, you spend a lot of time in the baking aisle at the grocery store. I am that annoying person who just stares at the shelves. I can't help it. Most of the time I'm looking for something but I never know what it is until I actually find it. One Saturday I stood in the baking aisle at an Acme in South Jersey for almost 25 minutes. I was looking at all of the graham cracker pie crusts because there's hidden recipes on the back of all the paper lids. Don't worry, I carefully put them all back in and I bet they went off to all their respective homes as happy pie crusts.

For me, grocery shopping is more like a fact finding mission than an easy trip to the store. If I'm making a particular recipe, it probably takes me two separate trips because chances are I started wandering down aisle 7 looking at cereal and I totally forgot about the eggs and butter. I always forget about the butter.

But anyway, the 25 minutes I spent in the baking aisle that one time resulted in the best damn banana creme pie I've ever tasted. Now, you're probably asking yourself (perhaps even out loud) "Danielle, why the profanity? This is a family blog" Well, inquisitive stranger, you've obviously never tried this recipe - it'll make you want to use profanity and maybe even join a motorcycle gang.

A lot of my surprise about this recipe came from the fact that I'd never had a piece of banana creme pie before. So, automatically, I was happy with it because it tasted good. I'm posting it today because it's actually 100 degrees in Philadelphia right now, and way too hot to put anything in the oven because we're actually living in an oven at the moment. This recipe is excellent for warm days because the thing spends more time in the refridgerator than anywhere else. The final product tastes amazing, as witnessed by the guests at our Christmas party this past year. Was it seasonally appropriate? No. Did it taste good? Hell yes.

So I urge you to try it if you need to make a dessert when it's hot out. It's only got 5 ingredients!

Here's the recipe: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-banana-cream-pie-51072.aspx

No photos on this post, it's too hot :)

Source: Kraft Foods' Easy Banana Creme Pie Recipe

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-banana-cream-pie-51072.aspx