Quintuple Brownies

I can't believe how long it took me to make these brownies. 5 CHOCOLATES! Cocoa powder, semisweet, dark, milk and white. The recipe called for semisweet and unsweetened. So maybe I went a little overboard with the chocolate but I just don't care.

So you make the brownies... easy enough. Then you wait for them to cool and make a white chocolate glaze to put on top. I have to be honest and say I'd leave it off. Maybe I screwed up picking the chocolates I did but I'm also not a super fan of white chocolate. Dare I say it? They are a little too sweet. Just a little...

Pumpkin (Chocolate Chip) Muffins

This recipe calls for raisins and nuts and you should know by now that I am not down with that. Of course I immediately thought chocolate chips. I wasn't sure if pumpkin and chocolate went together. I Googled it and found all sorts of pumpkin chocolate cheesecake type things so I figured it would be alright.

Oh boy... these were amazing! The pumpkin kept the muffin moist (sorry to those of you who disapprove of that word... moist, moist, moist). The pumpkin pie like spices and the chocolate paired really well. I loved this one!!

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

I am not a fan of Whoppers... the dry sawdust malt is not appealing to me. I didn't try them but Jeremy's verdict is that they are too soft for him but they do taste like Whoppers. So at least that's good.

Nothing exciting to report on this recipe. Well except for having a not-so-intelligent moment. The instructions are to coarsely chop the Whoppers. So I'm trying to chop them and they are rolling all over the place. Instead of putting them in a bag and whacking them into submission I stood there and cut up each one individually. At least I can say I am committed to this task!

Sweet Cream Biscuits

I woke up this morning and I wanted a bread product... that's kind of my thing. Bread and I are really great friends. I cracked open the book and found that I hadn't made the sweet cream biscuits yet. Easy recipe.

Flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Pour the heavy cream over, mix it up and give it a few quick kneads.

Pat down the dough to 1/2 inch high, cut out the biscuits and bake.

This made a good biscuit. I thought I would miss the butter but I really didn't. They received the Jeremy Seal of Approval as well.

Almost Fudge Gateau

Once I found this recipe I knew it was going to be great for Thanksgiving. Our good friend Joe is a choco-holic and since he was hosting it was a perfect fit.

You melt chocolate, sugar, butter and coffee in the double boiler. Let it sit and then stir in egg yolks and flour.

Now it's time to beat the egg whites. The machine does all the work while you stand over it and proclaim that they don't look right. Then you ask your boyfriend to come look at it and snap at him when he attempts to form an opinion.

Fold about 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter, decide they are definitely overbeaten and pout while your patient boyfriend tells you to just keep going. Bake it even though it doesn't look right to you because it could be amazing and if it's gross you just try again another time.

So you bake for about 35 minutes and it comes out looking pretty good. The top separated from the cake and broke a bit but once the cake cooled it sunk back down.

After it's completely cool you make the glaze... just melt chocolate, pour boiling heavy cream over it and mix in some corn syrup.

Turn the cake over, pour the glaze over the flat bottom and smooth. Let the glaze cool to room temperature.

Eat Thanksgiving dinner, wait all of 5 minutes and dig into the cake. It's ridiculously delicious! Oh sweet chocolate... you are amazing. You know who is also amazing? That boyfriend of yours... he's the best.

Whipped Cream

I wanted to make the whipped cream to put on the Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart. In the Playing Around section, Dorie mentions using brown sugar instead of confectioner's sugar and that sounded good so I went for it. Unfortunately I didn't use enough brown sugar for you to really taste it but the whipped cream was yummy and I know now to add more sugar.

I had a reason to use my piping bag and that's always fun. I didn't really have a plan but I think it came out ok.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart

If you read my previous post, Sweet Tart Dough, you'll see how to make the dough for this tart. After that it's super easy. Just mix all the ingredients together. Dorie suggests you put everything into the food processor for 2 minutes but if you read the dough post you know I don't have one. So, I whisked my little heart out and got a nice creamy batter.

It was amazing... so smooth and delicious. Jeremy is not a major pumpkin fan but he gave this one a really great review. He declared it the "best pumpkin pie/tart ever" (he posted that on Facebook so it has to be the truth) and that made me about as happy as a baker can be.

I topped it with whipped cream but you'll have to read the next post to see that picture.

Sweet Tart Dough

Ahh Thanksgiving... now that I'm baking I was really excited for the holiday to come because I knew I would be able to make something like a pie or a cake. Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Pie go together like a wink and a smile (peanut butter and jelly, peas and carrots and all those kinds of things). I'm making a Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart so you start with the sweet tart dough. We don't yet have a food processor but I decided I could use our mini prep... I couldn't. Too much stuff, not enough room. I threw my hands in the air, declared Thanksgiving ruined and dissolved into a fit of tears. No I didn't.
I did however say it just wasn't going to work and figured I was running to the store to buy a pre-made pie crust on Thanksgiving morning. Jeremy stepped in and saved the day. With a bit of elbow grease and a reminder that people didn't always have food processors he was able to make the dough come together.

You press the dough into the pan and all the way up the sides and then freeze for at least a half hour.
Then you butter a piece of foil, press it into the dough and bake for 25 min.

Take it out and you have a nice yellow partially baked crust... let it cool all the way and then you can fill it.

Basic Marbled Loaf Cake

My favorite recipe of the day!

Make a basic loaf cake recipe and pick from either a few combinations Dorie provides or make your own. I went with marbling white chocolate and milk chocolate batters.

These pictures make me smile... yay baking!

Loaf looked great when it came out but it was hours before I could slice it open.

Yum! There's a nice chocolate flavor... though I can't say you can taste a distinct difference between the two sections. 

Chipster Topped Brownies

I am obsessed with using my double boiler now that I have one so I'm pretty sure I will be making brownies every weekend until I've hit them all. These seemed fun so I went for it.

Make the brownie part, pour into pan... easy enough.

Make the chocolate chip part, drop by spoonfuls and using a light touch and a spatula spread it over the brownie mix. Bonnie=bull in china shop. I don't possess a light touch. I gave up after 5 minutes of trying to coax the dough into the corners.

The brownies burned a bit at the corners, didn't cook quite enough in the middle and the cookie part was a little too done. Overall they seemed to be a good premise but I'm not sure I pulled it off.

Buttery Jam Cookies

Surprise, surprise... I asked Jeremy to pick the jam and we came home with blackberry. My co-workers don't seem to mind so it's alright with me.

 *Shout out to Dave for our new smoker (under the jam) .... after a conversation tonight it seems me, my oven, Jeremy and his smoker will be making beautiful music together soon.*

I didn't try them and either did Jeremy but they smelled good and the consistency seemed nice when I took them off the pan. Their faint purple color is pretty cute too!

Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

I am feeling like I want to get all the cookies out of the way.


I always seem to skip over these cookies because they are too easy and kind of boring. This weekend I realized I need to mix some plain and some fancy or I'm going to be left with all the boring crap and nothing exciting. So here they are... sugar cookies with decorating sugar on top. They are just what you expect them to be. Sugary, buttery, dependable.

Kids' Thumbprints

I decided last minute to make one more recipe today and I picked this one because it seemed fun. The dough came together fine, making the holes was the fun part but the baking kinda ruined the whole thing. The recipe calls for 15-18 min in the oven and my oven tends to need more time than Dorie's. Not this time.
After 15 minutes the first batch had a whole bunch of burned bottoms.

I baked the second batch for 12 minutes and those cookies were so much better.

After Jeremy tasted the burned ones and gave them the thumbs up I boiled the black raspberry jam. You see what I did there? Thumbprint cookies... thumbs up. Yup, I'm awesome.

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Aren't my new wrappers cute? I splurged (an extra 20 cents) to buy the papers with designs that stay during baking and I'm happy I did. They're special.

Wondering why no before picture? Well... see below. Three margaritas, guacamole, tacos and a failed nap made for an interesting afternoon. Happy Sunday!

Lemon Muffins

These muffins are supposed to have poppy seeds on them but I'm allergic so I left them off... not dying is another goal I have in life besides baking this whole cookbook.

These muffins were easy to put together, the consistency of the batter scared me but according to Jeremy they came out very moist. Score!

I am challenged when it comes to icing. I attempt to do a nice criss-cross pattern and then it starts to look horrible so I switch to coating the top.

Yup, my icing skills suck. At least the muffins are tasty (according to Jeremy as I am not a lemon fan so I'll skip the trying part of this one).

Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

This recipe was fun... rich shiny chocolate mix, cocoa powder, brown sugar and oatmeal give these cookies a super yummy flavor and texture.

It was easy to portion out the cookies because the dough was so slick.

Do you see the yum?