Apple Chocolate Chip Cake

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal!  Sadly, this is also also the final SRC reveal for Group A. The Secret Recipe Club is coming to an end.  Started back in April 2011, SRC and has had a wonderful five and a half year run and connected hundreds of bloggers throughout the world with our love of food and support of our fellow bloggers. My first SRC post was in February 2013, and I've loved all the new bloggers I've met and recipes I've tried. I know we're all going to miss it.

My final secret blog assignment is Mother Would Know with the tag-line Home Cooking Beats Take-Out - which I whole-heartedly agree with.  Written by Laura, it's a great blog full of mouth-watering recipes and helpful kitchen tips.  While Laura has no 'real' cooking credentials, she began cooking in college, and she's got plenty of experience in the kitchen. She's always willing to offer help and advice - the kind of cooking questions you would love to ask your mother, but these answers come from a guaranteed 'no nagging zone' where you won't be asked about your love life or your job prospects.  So, like Laura says -'whether you already cook reasonably well, have a few simple meals you can prepare or just have the feeling that you had better learn how to cook before your take-out bill ruins your credit rating' - Mother Would Know is the place for you.  (for the record, my daughter uses my blog as her cookbook, and both my kids call me with their cooking questions, but not everyone can do that, so it's great that Laura offers such help)

I browsed through Laura's blog and find several recipes I definitely want to try. Sweet & Sour Brisket, Rhubarb, Apple, Pear Crisp, and Java Chip Ice Cream were just a few of them.

I wish more of the chocolate chips showed in this piece, but believe me,
they were there.  This cake has long since been devoured!

When I saw this apple cake recipe I knew I had to try it - just a touch of sweetness, studded with apple chunks and chocolate - why have I never thought to use chocolate chips in apple cake?  I also really want to try this Bundt Pan Apple Cake Laura mentions in the post, but first, the Apple Chocolate Chip Cake.

Apple Chocolate Chip Cake
from Mother Would Know

Ingredients:

• 4 cups peeled, chopped apples
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1-1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cut the apples and mix them with the sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl; let them stand for at least 15 minutes, giving the apple chunks time to absorb the sugar.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan and set it aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix (or whisk) together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. After the 15 minute 'rest' for the apple/sugar mixture, lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl and add the oil and eggs to the apples. (I used the glass measuring cup I measured my apples in to beat the eggs - using the whisk I mixed my flour with - and to measure the oil)
5. Add the dry ingredients to the apple, sugar, oil and egg mixture in 3 additions, mixing thoroughly after each addition. The batter will be very stiff. 
6. Fold in the chocolate chips and then spoon the batter into the greased baking pan. Even it out with the spatula or the back of the spoon.
7. Bake approximately 40-45 minutes, until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

The only thing I changed about this recipe was to cut down the sugar from 1-1/2 cups to 1 cup, and to mix the cinnamon in with the apples and sugar instead of whisking it with the flour.  That last part probably didn't make a huge difference, but I think cutting the sugar down worked out really well because this cake was still plenty sweet.

My husband and I just had to try it the same day I made it.  It smelled so good!  And it was really good that first evening, but this cake gets even better after sitting overnight.  It's dense and moist, and absolutely delicious.  I took it to church to share on Sabbath, and we barely made it home with another piece for each of us.  Everyone seemed to really like it.  I will definitely be making this one again.  And again.

An InLinkz Link-up

Blueberry Nectarine Sour Cream Popsicles

I made these popsicles a couple weeks ago when my grandson Jason was visiting.  The original recipe used just blueberries, but I had a very ripe nectarine that needed used, and I thought it would go quite well with the blueberries.  So I added it, and I doubled the sour cream and almond milk since I had added extra fruit.

I'd say they turned out pretty good.  The first thing Jason said when he tasted one was, "it tastes like ice cream!"  And they really do taste a bit like ice cream - ice cream with blueberries and chunks of nectarine mixed in.

Blueberry Nectarine Sour Cream Popsicles
adapted from marlameridith

Ingredients:

• 1 (very ripe) nectarine, diced
• 1 T sugar (more or less to taste)
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1-1/2 cups almond milk (I used Caramel, Almonds, and Cashews Nutchello)

Directions:

1. In large bowl, mix nectarine and sugar; mash slightly.  Let sit for a few minutes.  Add blueberries
2. Whisk sour cream and milk together until smooth. Add to nectarine/blueberry mix.
3. Pour into popsicle molds (I used my 2 oz. Tupperware molds) and freeze until solid.  Enjoy!

I didn't have enough popsicle molds to freeze all of the mixture at once, so I stored the mixture in the fridge and made up new popsicles whenever we ate some.  Then Jason decided he didn't really like the whole blueberries, so I added the rest of the mixture to my Ninja with a ripe banana and mixed that up really well - and we had some very purple popsicles to enjoy too.  The banana added a bit of sweetness, because I really didn't add much sugar to the original mix - just enough to draw a bit of juice from the nectarine - and let the sweetness of the Nutchello be enough.  Both options were really good.

I'm not sure why I never thought to use sour cream for popsicles before, but I am ready for some other versions now, like  maybe these Strawberry and Sour Cream Popsicles.  Mmmm, so many possibilities, and they're such a fun treat on a hot summer day.

Cherry Clafoutis

...or something like that.

Cherries were 98¢ per pound this week so I bought several pounds.  Jeffrey loves eating them, and I figured for that price I could also try out a cherry dessert I'd seen on Facebook a while back.  Of course, I couldn't find the exact recipe I was thinking of, so I turned to Pinterest.  This is what I found.

Cherry Clafoutis
from Kitchme

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup almonds, toasted
• 1 lb. fresh cherries, pitted and cut in half
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• zest of one lemon
• powdered sugar 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°.  Generously butter and flour a square baking dish.
2. Spread cherries evenly in the bottom of prepared baking dish.
3. In food processor, pulse almonds, flour, sugar, and salt until almonds are coarsely chopped.
4. In large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest.  Add in the melted butter and flour mixture and mix well.  Pour over cherries.
5. Bake in preheated oven 40-60 minutes, or until center is set and the top is golden brown.
6. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream.

I am definitely going to have to make this again.  We really liked it.  BUT, it didn't turn out exactly the way I was expecting.  It turned out very custardy and not at all cake-like, which I was expecting from the picture.  Of course, another recipe I found looked entirely custardy - and somehow the cherries all ended up on top of the custard.  How did they do that?  I do want to try dusting the buttered baking dish with granulated sugar as suggested in that recipe, instead of flour.  Like I said, I am going to have to make this again.

Mine took quite a bit longer to bake than the original recipe, and it seemed like there was just too much butter.  Some people may think there is no such thing, but... Looking back over the recipe now, I see that I did have too much butter.  The recipe called for 1/2 a stick of butter, and I read that as 1/2 cup - so I used a whole stick.  That's twice as much butter as I was supposed to use!  So, Next time I'll do it right and see how that works out.

Other than that, the only difference in my recipe was that I used whole almonds instead of sliced ones because that was what I had, and I figured they were going to get chopped up anyway.  Oh, the smell of toasted almonds!  I would suggest toasting your almonds before starting on pitting your cherries, otherwise it can be quite a mess.  Those cherries themselves can be quite a mess.  I wore plastic gloves to avoid staining my hands with the cherry juice - but trying to slip one glove off to go check and shake the almonds while they toasted was quite a feat, and I ended up splattering some cherry juice on my face and in my hair trying to get the glove back on - without getting cherry juice inside one of the gloves.  But, my hands did stay fairly clean, except for the thumb I was using to pop the pits out.  Of course my thumbnail would pop a hole in the glove!

Also, what size baking dish is 7x5"?  Yes, I know - 7 inches by 5 inches, but what kind of dish would that be?  I didn't know so just went with my square cake pan.  It looks like it fit just about perfectly.

The flavor of this was really good, even if I did mess it up a bit.  I'm already thinking of other fruit I could use.  Maybe peaches?  The peaches in the store have been really good this year.  Anybody else notice that?  Sometimes they're just really disappointing; either they don't ripen up, or they get all mealy and yucky.  But this year they're nice and sweet.  Anyway, back to the dessert - clafoutis - I'm not even sure how to pronounce it or why it's called that, but we are enjoying it, so that's all that matters.  Have you made one or have a recipe I should use?  Please share!

Crockpot Tapioca Pudding

I've always liked tapioca pudding, but for some reason I haven't been able to make a tapioca pudding that I've been happy with.  I've tried the recipes on the packages (a couple times), and I tried making it in the crockpot one other time.  It just didn't turn out the way I thought it should. So, obviously, I haven't tried all that many times...

This time, I was going to make my husband his favorite chocolate pudding - there are only the two of us, and we don't go through a gallon of milk quite as quickly as we used to when the kids were living at home, so there was milk that needed to be used - but I really did not have time to stand over the stove and stir that pudding.   That's when I remembered the tapioca pudding my friend Brian made last month, and his turned out quite good, so I thought it was worth another try.  I definitely had time to throw the ingredients in the crockpot and stir it once in a while, in between all the other things I was trying to get done.

It turned out great!  This is the recipe - good flavor, good consistency, and so easy.

Crockpot Tapioca Pudding
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt 
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 6 cups milk
• 3/4 cup small pearl tapioca

Directions:

1. In 5-6 quart crockpot, beat eggs.  Add sugar, salt, and vanilla and mix well.  Mix in milk and tapioca.
2. Cover and cook on High for 3 hours (or Low for 6 hours), stirring occasionally.  (Every 1/2 hour for the first 1-1/2 hours and then every 15 minutes for the last)

I'm not sure what recipe I used the last time; this is just one I found when I searched online for one.  I took the recipe and incorporated some of the suggestions from the reviews - adding a bit of salt and some vanilla.  And that was it.  Super simple.  Oh, and the recipe is basically 1-1/2 times the original because I needed to use the milk, and it was a better amount for the size of my crockpot.

For me, I think the key to a good tapioca pudding is stirring it enough that the tapioca doesn't clump up in big clumps, while not stirring it so much that the tapioca breaks down completely.  So, start out stirring every half hour, but as soon as you notice the tapioca starting to clump, make sure you stir it more often - and even get a bit aggressive with it to break those clumps up.  Not too much because you still want those fun little clear balls that make tapioca pudding special.  Did that make sense?  I used a silicone scraper which seemed to work really well.

Also, this got quite thick.  I may cook it a little less next time to see if I can get it to be just a bit creamier.  I don't know that will work, but I think one of the reviewers on the original recipe mentioned it.  Stirring a bit more often toward the end will help with keeping an eye on it and knowing when it's at the right consistency.

Sourdough Chocolate Cake w/ Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

I've made bread and coffee cakes and pancakes with my sourdough starter, but until now I've never made a chocolate cake.  Did you know there was such a thing as a sourdough chocolate cake?  I had never even thought of such a thing until recently when I came across a recipe for one.  I'm not even sure where I saw that recipe so I just did a quick search to find one that sounded good.  And then I read the reviews and adjusted a few things.  Of course.

Let me just say that I love this cake!  It's dark and dense and not too sweet and may just be my favorite chocolate cake ever.  Just, so good.

Sourdough Chocolate Cake
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1 to 2 tsp. instant coffee powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Mix sourdough starter, buttermilk, and 1 cup flour together.  Let sit several hours or overnight, until bubbly.
2. When ready to mix and bake cake, preheat oven to 350°.  Generously grease 13x9" baking dish.
3. In large bowl, cream butter, oil, and sugar with electric mixer.  Add cocoa and instant coffee and mix well.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition then mix in yogurt and vanilla.
4. Add sourdough mixture and mix well.  Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together and then mix into batter.  Beat until smooth.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Cool before frosting. (see recipe below)

Enjoy!

 Since I was making this cake to take for a potluck, I also made a couple cupcakes so we could taste it.  I figured that would be better than taking a cake with a couple pieces already taken out.  Though, judging from some of the other desserts, it's a perfectly acceptable and expected practice to get into your dessert before bringing it to the potluck.   But the cupcakes were perfect.

There was still plenty of batter for the cake. This recipe makes a lot of batter; be sure to use a large bowl to mix it.  It will be full.

Some of the reviewers on the original recipe page mentioned a cream cheese frosting on this cake.  Since I added the instant coffee powder to the cake, I decided to add some to my frosting too.  It turned out really yummy.

Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting
from Perfectly Sprinkled

Ingredients:

• 4 T butter, softened
• 4 T cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp. instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 to 1-1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

1. Mix butter and cream cheese together and then add instant coffee.  Allow mixture to sit for several minutes and then mix again to incorporate coffee.  Stir in vanilla.
2. Add powdered sugar a bit at a time, mixing well until frosting reaches desired consistency.  Spread over cooled cake.

For best results, store this cake in the refrigerator.  I learned that from the reviews, too.  I don't know if it's because it tastes better, or if it's just to make it last longer because it will be harder to get into.  Either way, this cake will not last long.  It's just that good.

Pumpkin Cobbler

I pinned this recipe a while back and finally made it right before Thanksgiving.  It's kind of like a Hot Fudge Sundae Cake, only instead of chocolate it's made of pumpkin and spice.  Oh, this is amazing!  I was seriously tempted to make this instead of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.  It's that good.

I ended up making a pumpkin pie and those yummy Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars instead, but I just may have to make this next year.  And a time or two between now and then, of course.  It's really simple to make, using ingredients you probably already have on hand, and so good.

Pumpkin Cobbler
from Lauren's latest

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 T milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1-1/4 cups unbleached flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• topping:
  * 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  * 1/2 cup brown sugar
  * 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  * 1-1/2 cups very hot water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In a medium sized bowl, stir pumpkin, milk, melted butter and vanilla together.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and spices and stir into wet ingredients to create a thick batter. 
3. Pour into a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish with high sides.
4. In a separate bowl, stir sugar, brown sugar and pecans together. Spread evenly over the top of the batter. Pour hot water over the top.  Do not stir.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the middle is set. {Be sure to place on a baking sheet in case it bubbles over.} 
6. Cool 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

It looks like an ordinary cake when you pull it out of the oven, but just wait until you scoop some of it out of the baking dish!  Hiding under that cake is a rich, amazing syrup.

It's really good nice and hot straight out of the oven with some vanilla ice cream on top - and then some of the syrup spooned over the top.  It's also very, very good the next day - cold with some whipped cream on top.  I think it might be even better.

Be sure to let me know how you like it.

Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars

There are four groups in the Secret Recipe Club, and we each post once a month.  When there's an extra Monday in the month, we get an extra themed reveal, should we choose to participate. We have an extra Monday this month, and the theme is Holiday Treats.

I had the privilege of browsing Erin's blog Making Memories with your kids in search of some yummy treats.  Erin has made it especially easy to find her holiday treats, because she has a special holiday category with choices for holidays throughout the year.  With Thanksgiving this month, I went straight for the Thanksgiving page where I found these yummy looking Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars.  These absolutely adorable Turkey Cookies look like a lot of fun, too.  They definitely fit with the theme of Erin's blog, because it is full of kid-friendly meals, recipes, and crafts.  Erin and her two amazing kids have made some fun and yummy treats as well as some very cool crafts.  Quite simply, if you are looking for fun things to do with your kids, you will most definitely want to check out this blog!

Some other recipes I thought would be perfect for Thanksgiving were:

• Pumpkin Pie cookie bites
• Pumpkin Pound Cake
• German Chocolate Brownie Bites

But I went back to the Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars.  I have tried another recipe for pumpkin pie bars in the past, but it was never as good as I thought it should be.  I thought this one just might be what I was hoping that other recipe was, and it definitely was.  So good!

Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars
adapted from Making Memories with your kids

Ingredients:

• For the crumb layers:
  * 1-1/4 cups flour
  * 1-1/2 cups quick oats
  * 1/2 tsp. salt
  * 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  * 1/4 cup sugar
  * 1/2 cup brown sugar
  * 3/4 cup melted butter
  * 1 tsp. vanilla
• For the filling:
  * 2 eggs
  * 3/4 cup sugar
  * 1 tsp. cinnamon
  * 1/2 tsp. salt
  * 1/2 tsp. ginger
  * 1/4 tsp. cloves
  * 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
  * 1 (12 oz.)  can evaporated milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease an 11x7" pan; set aside.
2. Mix flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and sugars together.  Mix in melted butter and vanilla.
3. Press half of the crumb mixture into prepared pan; bake for 15 minutes.
4. While that bakes, prepare filling by beating eggs in a large bowl and then adding sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cloves.  Mix well and then stir in pumpkin; add evaporated milk and mix thoroughly.
5. Pour filling over partially baked crust and bake for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and crumble the rest of the crumb mixture over the top.  Return to the oven and bake an additional 25-35 minutes, until the top is nicely browned and center is set..
7. Cool at least 1 hour at room temperature and an additional hour in the refrigerator before serving.  Cut and serve with whipped cream, if desired.

I was planning to follow Erin's recipe and make this in a 13x9" pan, but I ended up with my 4 glass 13x9"  pans full - 2 with turkey and 2 with rolls - so I had to come up with an alternative plan.  I cut the crust recipe in half and just used my regular pumpkin pie filling recipe - the recipe from the Libby's pumpkin can, but you can use your favorite pumpkin pie filling recipe.  I think it turned out great.

The crust and crumb layer on top are amazingly good.  The crunch, texture and flavor are absolutely perfect.  Once the dessert has been covered and refrigerated, it loses a bit of the original crunch - why do things have to do that? - but it's still really, really good.  I'd say this is an excellent alternative to pumpkin pie.  The crumb layers kick it up a notch, it can more easily be cut into smaller pieces and serve more people, and it's easy to make.  If you think you can't make a pie crust, this recipe is definitely one you should try.  I'm not sure I'll ever stop making pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, but I'm definitely thinking I'll be replacing one of the pies I usually make with a pan of these Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars from now on.
 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving filled with people you love and had some yummy treats of your own!

An InLinkz Link-up

Apple Dumplings

My mom used to make these, but I hadn't thought of them in ages, until someone recently posted a recipe for Apple Dumplings.  Their recipe wasn't quite the same thing, but it reminded me, so I asked mom to share the recipe.  First she had to find it, because it doesn't sound like she'd made them in a while.

Once I got the recipe, it took me a while to actually make it, but I finally made some of these last week.   Yep, they're just as good as I remember.  Tender apples rolled in crust and swimming in cinnamon sugar syrup.  What's not to love?

Apple Dumplings 

Ingredients:

• 8 to 10 apples, sliced (about 8 cups)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 sticks butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• for syrup:
  * 1-1/2 cups sugar
  * 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  * 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  * 1/2 stick butter
  * 2-1/2 cups boiling water

Directions:

1. Mix sliced apples with sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
2. For dough, mix as for pie crust - combine flour, baking powder, and salt in food processor; cut butter into smaller chunks and add to food processor; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal; add milk and pulse just until dough clumps together.  Do not over-mix. (can also be mixed by hand, but the food processor makes it so much easier)
3. On floured counter, divide dough into two pieces and roll each piece into a rectangle the thickness of a pie crust. Spread apples on dough and roll up, starting from the wide end.  Slice each roll into 10 slices and place in 13x9" pan.
4. Pour syrup over top and bake 15 minutes @375° F, then reduce heat to 350° F and bake an additional 45-55 minutes, until nicely browned. 

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Optionally for the syrup - there will most likely be liquid left in the bottom of your apple bowl, so use that.  It already has sugar in it, so you can reduce the sugar to 1 cup and also reduce your boiling water so the total liquid equals 2-1/2 cups.

While this is really good just the way it is, I am thinking of adding some lemon juice and lemon zest to the syrup next time I make it.  Not a lot, just enough to add a little touch of sharpness or zing.

Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream and some of the syrup drizzled on top.  Yum!

I'm pretty sure I need to make this more often!

Related articles

• Apple Butter Pie
• Recipe: Easy Apple Cobbler + A Discussion of Cobblers, Crisps & Crumbles
• Apple Danish

Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana & Peanut Butter Bites

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month was Not Enough Cinnamon.  Born and raised in Paris, Marie now lives in Sydney, Australia.  Her blog is full of unfussy recipes you can actually make, with simple ingredients you probably already have. I love that approach! Many of Marie's recipes also focus on health and using real, unprocessed ingredients.

There were so many yummy sounding recipes to choose from!  Some that caught my eye were:

• Healthy Peach BBQ Pulled Chicken
• Mexican Sweet Potato Gratin with Chicken
• Chicken Rollatini stuffed with Pesto and Philadelphia
• Coconut Berry Popsicles
• Honey Lemon Ginger Glazed Chicken

I'm pretty sure I will be trying several of those recipes!  But the second I saw this recipe for Chocolate Covered Frozen Peanut Butter & Banana Bites, I knew I had to try it.  To be honest, I wondered why I'd never thought of it.  You're wondering the same thing right now, aren't you?  Three perfect flavors together, frozen, in bite-sized pieces. What could be better? 

Frozen Chocolate Covered  Banana & Peanut Butter Bites
from Not Enough Cinnamon

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 10 oz dark chocolate
• coconut oil (optional)

Directions:

1. Slice bananas and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat.
2. Put peanut butter on half of the banana slices and place a second slice on top.  Place in freezer and freeze for at least 1 hour.
   
   
3. Break chocolate into pieces and put 2/3 of it in a double boiler or place a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan filled with simmering water. On low heat, stir chocolate until melted. (Or place chocolate into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on medium power for 30 seconds, stir, then repeat at 15 second intervals until the chocolate has melted.) Add the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate and keep stirring until it is fully melted. This is to allow the chocolate to have a glossy texture and to set correctly.
4. Remove bites from the freezer and dip them in melted chocolate. Working quickly, so bites don't begin thawing, dip one bite at a time in melted chocolate and roll it to cover all sides. Use one fork to remove bite from chocolate and a second fork to remove excess chocolate and arrange bite back on baking sheet. You may want to leave most of the bites in the freezer and work with a few at at time so they don't start getting mushy.
   Note: I have not worked with chocolate much, so I had some issues with this.  The frozen bites made my chocolate stiffen up so that I couldn't coat any more of them.  I added about a T of coconut oil, stirring that into the chocolate, over low heat, until it was smooth and shiny again, and then I could coat the rest.  Only use coconut oil as needed.
5. Once all the bites have been coated in chocolate, return them to the freezer and freeze for at least 3 hours.  Slide a butter knife under each of the bites to remove them from the baking sheet without losing any of the chocolate and store in a covered container in the freezer.  Enjoy!

Oh yum!  I pretty much always have frozen bananas in the freezer.  Yes, they're great for making a batch of banana muffins, but they're also the perfect snack on a hot day.  Add some peanut butter and chocolate, and it's even better!  The hardest thing is going to be not eating all these at once.

An InLinkz Link-up

ROLO Pretzel Delights

If you regularly buy ROLO Chewy Caramels in Milk Chocolate, you have probably seen this recipe.  I've only recently tried them, and they are really yummy - chocolate, caramel, what's not to love?  But, it was only after we'd finished the bag that I noticed the recipe on the back for these ROLO Pretzel Delights.  They sounded really yummy - chocolate, caramel, and crunchy, salty pretzels.  So I bought another bag just so I could try these.  Yep, they really are as good as they sound!  And so easy.

ROLO Pretzel Delights
from Hersheys.com

Ingredients:

• Small pretzels
• ROLO candies
• Pecan halves (or additional pretzels)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Place one pretzel for each treat desired on cookie sheet. Top each pretzel with one unwrapped ROLO.
3. Bake 3 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to soften, but not melt. Remove from oven; top with either a pecan half or an additional pretzel, pressing down slightly. Cool completely.

The recipe said to line the cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil, but I just placed my pretzels directly on my cookie sheet.  That seemed to work just fine.  I did half with pecan halves and half with additional pretzels, and I liked them both.  These are a really delicious and simple to make treat.

Friendship Cinnamon Rolls

I make cinnamon rolls quite often, but they're usually for the weekend. This week, however, I made them on Tuesday. They weren't my usual cinnamon rolls, though. Beth had brought home some Amish Friendship Bread starter, which she made bread with and divided into additional starter just like she was supposed to. But she failed to give any of those extra bags of starter to anyone, except me. The day came to add flour, sugar and milk to the starter, and I refused to do it for all of those extra bags, so we put them in the freezer for later.

Image by bcmom via Flickr

When it came time to add to and separate my own starter, I didn't really feel like having additional bags of starter, and I didn't really want to pass them out. So, instead of adding milk, flour, and sugar to the starter I had, I just measured it out. The bread recipe calls for 1 cup starter, and I had about 2-1/2 cups, so I figured I could just divide that and make 2 batches. I made one recipe (2 loaves) of the traditional Amish Friendship Bread, and I made cinnamon rolls from the other half of the starter. I had a recipe that I had tried another time, but I didn't follow it exactly, so I'm posting my version.

Friendship Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

In large bowl, combine:

• 1 cup Amish Friendship starter
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups flour

Let sit at room temperature overnight or 10-12 hours. You'll know it's ready when it's all bubbly and has risen up the bowl. Stir down.

Combine:

• 3 t. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
• 1 t. salt

and add all at once to the larger bowl. Mix well, then add as much of 3 cups of flour you can mix in with a spoon. Turn dough out onto a well-floured counter and knead in enough additional flour that it is no longer sticky. Cover with a cloth and let rest for about 30 minutes.

Divide dough into two halves; roll each half out in a rectangle about 12x8-inch. Brush dough with soft butter.

For each half, combine:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 t. cinnamon

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over dough. Beginning at the wide side, roll up, and seal seam. Cut each roll into 10 slices. Place in greased 13x9 inch pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place till nearly double (about 30 minutes to an hour). Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until done.

FOR ICING: In a small mixing bowl stir together powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough milk to make a smooth icing of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over rolls. Serve warm or cool.

The original recipe also called for 1/2 t. baking soda and 1 t. baking powder, but it really doesn't need it. The only leavening is from the fermentation of the original starter. These rolls are a little more filling than my usual cinnamon rolls. I can only eat a couple at a time, so they've lasted all week. Beth and I have been enjoying them for breakfast. I guess I can forgive her for bringing home, and keeping, all that starter in the first place.

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Baked Caramel Corn

Shortly after I posted the recipe for Microwave Caramel Corn, I found this recipe in the Sunday paper - printed from Jollytime.

It's pretty similar, but instead of making it in the microwave, you bake it in the oven. Perfect if you don't have a microwave or if you're running low on paper grocery sacks like me.

Baked Caramel Corn

• 24 cups popped popcorn
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light or dark corn syrup
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Coat bottom and sides of large roasting pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. Place popped popcorn in roasting pan.
3. In a heavy pan, slowly melt butter; stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly; boil without stirring 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda and vanilla.
4. Gradually pour over popped popcorn, mixing well. Bake in preheated 250° oven 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven, and cool completely.
6. Break apart and store in tightly covered container.

I didn't measure the popcorn - just popped three batches of air pop (1/2 cup unpopped corn per batch) directly into the roaster pan. Since this recipe is basically double the microwave recipe, and I use two batches for that, I cut the butter, sugar, and corn syrup down - 1-1/2 sticks butter, 1-1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup plus 2 T. corn syrup - but if you like your popcorn more coated, just follow the original measurements. I also only used 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. The print recipe is the way I made it, and I think it's perfect.

This is a great alternative to the microwave recipe. It takes longer to make, but it makes more in one batch. It tastes good, too! This stuff just does not last very long.

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Caramel Corn

I figured out yesterday why I can't completely go to those reusable shopping bags. I need some paper grocery sacks, if only so I can make caramel corn.

Caramel Corn

Ingredients:

• 5-6 quarts popped corn (use air pop or as little oil as possible; not microwave popcorn)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Put popped corn into a paper grocery bag
2. Put brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt into a microwave-safe bowl and boil for 2 minutes. (begin timing after mixture begins to boil)
3. Take out of microwave and stir in 1/2 tsp. baking soda
4. Pour sugar mixture over popped corn in bag, shake well, microwave on high for 1-1/2 minutes; take out and shake well; return to microwave for another 1-1/2 minutes. Shake and microwave for another 1-1/2 minutes.
5. Pour caramel corn out of bag onto cookie sheets to cool; break it up as it cools

Enjoy!

I got this recipe from my mom. I'm not sure where she got it from, but it's much easier than the popcorn balls she used to make once in a while, and so good.

I use air pop popcorn - 2 poppings. This may be a little more popcorn than the original recipe calls for, but the popcorn gets coated nicely, and it's not too sweet.

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