Happy St Patricks Day!

Have a happy green day from The Baking Wives!

3 Generation Brownies

I've known these brownies since I was little. My grandma has always made them as well as my mom. My husband tasted them when we were first dating, 7 years ago, and fell in love with them. They are not light like your normal brownies, these babies are dense & chewy. The only difference between these brownies and the original recipe is the frosting. My mom always just bought chocolate frosting and I just can't do that. I decided on a really fudgey frosting for extra richness. So yum! You definitely get a sugar rush from these. 

Now I'm going to give you the recipe for the regular 9x13 dish, I half them sometimes because it's hard to finish a huge pan of brownies without feeling really bad. Haha. So if you have a mean conscience, like me, you can just half this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 unsweetened chocolate squares

2/3 C butter

2 C sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Melt chocolate and butter together in microwaveable bowl, it's best to melt chocolate for 30 seconds first, add the butter for another minute. Mix sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the chocolate and butter to wet ingredients, mix until just combined. Add dry ingredients. Grease a 9x13 pan with butter and dust with flour. I have found this to be the best way to get these brownies out after baking since they are so dense. Spread batter into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Once done let cool for 30 minutes and frost. Don't you worry, I'll give you my frosting recipe!

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients: 

3 1/2 oz milk chocolate chips

3 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

2 C powdered sugar

1/4 C milk

1/4 C butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Melt chocolate in double boiler over stove, or in a glass bowl over boiling water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. You could also put the chocolate in the microwave, checking every 30 seconds until fully melted. 

Pour the chocolate into mixing bowl of a mixer and add powdered sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth, I used the whisk attachment this last time and it made the frosting slightly fluffier which I liked. You can use either attachment. Since this frosting is slightly warm I always let it sit for 30 minutes while the brownies are cooling. Once set, you have 2 options. The first option is what I do, I flip the brownies onto a platter and then frost them. Your second option would be to frost in the pan and cut as you want a piece. Either way they taste awesome! Top with nuts and enjoy!

Grand America Hotel’s Bread Pudding Recipe

When I first tasted this dessert at The Grand for a work lunch, I was in heaven. I forgot what the conversation was about and could only think of how to recreate this amazing bread pudding. Luckily, Carrie, Director of Events, emailed me the recipe! EEEK! I couldn't wait to get baking! Well, actually, I could..I waited about 3 weeks. This is a no fail, delicious dessert. The rum sauce is what it's all about!

Okay, don't call your dietician after reading these ingredients. It's like a Paula Deen recipe on steroids.

Grand America Hotel’s Bread Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Cup Whole Eggs, Whisked

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 Cinnamon Stick

3 Cups Heavy Cream

1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract

12-16 oz Croissants

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs very well and set aside. Heat the cream with the sugar, cinnamon stick, and vanilla extract. Heat until hot, but not simmering. Whisk the eggs into the hot mixture, then strain and set aside. In a seperate bowl, break up the bread into small pieces. Pour the custard over the bread and mix very well. Let the bread soak in the custard for 10 minutes. Distribute into a 9x13 baking dish and cover with foil. Place the dish in a large pan filled with 1 inch of hot water. Bake for 60 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Rum Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Cup  Granulated Sugar

2/3 Cup  Dark Brown Sugar

2/3 Cup Apple Juice

¾ Cup Heavy Cream

1 ½ Tbsp. Meyers Rum

1 Cup Unsalted Butter

Directions:

Place sugar, brown sugar, apple juice, heavy cream, and rum in a sauce pan, stir to combine. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. With an immersion blender, blend in the butter. Continue blending the sauce about 4-5 minutes. Cool the sauce in an ice bath until reaching room temperature. Keep in refrigerator, covered until ready to serve.

What could taste bad with these ingredients?

For the eggs, I used large eggs, and it turned out to be 5 whole eggs whisked together to equal the cup.

The cinnamon and vanilla make the custard so warm and yummy tasting.

I didn't strain this custard, like the directions say. I just dumped it in, took out the cinnamon stick of course.

 I would lay on this pile of custard and croissants if I was a small person.Try not to break up the pieces to much when mixing, I did more of a folding method.

 I didn't blend the butter with an immersion blender, I just put two sticks in and heated up the mix and stirred until all the butter was melted. I am sure there is a reason for the blender, but 1) I don't have one and 2) melting and stirring was my next best choice. Also I used Bacardi Rum instead of Meyers- it was cheaper.

I split the batch up into 2 8x8 pans, one to take to a dinner party and one to leave home for Wes and I to devour late night. It took about 40 minutes for both to bake. Bake until a knife comes out clean.

OH MAN! Every bite was just as I remembered when I first tasted this.You will LOVE this recipe! Happy Baking!

Blackberry Cobbler

So first off please don't mind my terrible pictures. Nasty yellow light is of the devil but once night time hits and you are too lazy to pull out your external flash, you get over it. Besides it's the taste that counts, right? On to the cobbler!

This cobbler is so yummy and even better, it's so simple! I was watching The Pioneer Woman the other day, don't you just love her?!, and she was making this. I then realized I had blackberries, and butter was calling my name. She makes it in this beautiful ceramic dish that feeds 8 people but since it's just Zack and I, I decided to halve the recipe and pull out my oh so pretty ramekins. I love my ramekins, lately I've been baking quick desserts in them and everything turns out so good. They also tend to make me feel slightly better about eating sweets since they are 1 serving. Ha!

Like I was saying, the recipe is so simple. Here's Ree Drummond's original recipe http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/08/the_great_cobbl/ in case you want to make a bigger batch, but I'll give you a quick rundown of my smaller version.

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C self rising flour

1/2 C milk

A couple blackberries per ramekin

Melt butter in microwavable dish. Mix together sugar, flour, and milk. Whisk in butter. Grease 2 ramekins and pour batter into each. Each ramekin turned out to have a 1/2 cup of batter in them. Perfection. Drop blackberries into batter filled dishes and sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake in the oven at 350° for 25 minutes. Check for doneness and let cool for 10 minutes. Top with whipped topping or ice cream and enjoy! 

Cranberry Orange Scones

I've been wanting to mix cranberry and orange together for so long but my husband was allergic to orange up until last year. It was a strange allergy and it all of a sudden disappeared! I looked all over for a scone recipe, I usually just do your basic scones but I wanted to add some whole wheat flour and the orange and cranberry. I decided to just wing it and I think they turned out pretty awesome!

Ingredients:

1 C all purpose flour

3/4 C whole wheat flour

3 T sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 orange zested

1/3 C butter

1 egg, beaten

6-8 T milk
1/2 C dried cranberries

Directions:

Heat oven to 400°

Mix flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and zest together. Cut in cold butter with pastry blender until it resembles fine crumbs. Fold in egg, I use a rubber spatula for this, and then add in milk 2 tablespoons at a time. I added some flax seed to my scones so they needed 2 extra tablespoons in the end, I used the full 8. You might not have to do so. Just get it to the point of being wet but not soaked. Mix in cranberries until combined.

Turn your dough onto a greased cookie sheet and form into 1/2 inch circle. I feel it's easiest to just do this all on the cookie sheet but you are more than welcome to flour your counter for this part. Cut into 8 equal pieces, mine were definitely not equal, haha. More rustic if you ask me. ;) 

Bake for 15-20 minutes. You don't want to over cook so just keep an eye on them. I check them with a knife every so often until it comes out clean and the bottom is golden. 

Last step? Well enjoy of course! :D

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I make these all the time now, well all the time being since November. You will LOVE these cookies!! Everytime I make them, they get me extra kudos from friends, or a nice foot rub from the hubby...yeah..they're that magical.

The recipe is from the side of a flour bag..I know- CRAZY! and SIMPLE

And they are perfect for packaging and giving away

De"lite"ful Blueberry Muffins

The past month or so I have been trying to eat as healthy as possible. It definitely is not easy, especially when you are wanting to bake constantly. The husband doesn't like me to make him eat all my sweets and I don't have any kids to pawn them off to so what to do? I figured the only thing to do was make some recipes lighter and healthier.

I had some blueberries that needed to be used so I took this muffin recipe and revised it slightly. It was already pretty healthy but I definitely didn't want to use fats and it called for fatty milk. Anyway, here it is, some yummy and filling blueberry muffins!

Recipe revised from: http://www.wholeliving.com/130491/blueberry-health-muffins

3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 C toasted wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 C brown sugar
3/4 C skim milk
1/4 C applesauce
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 C blueberries
1/4 C oats

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with Smart Balance cooking spray. In a bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Make a well in center of bowl and add wet ingredients. Gently mixed until combined. Fold in blueberries.
2. Divide batter among muffin cups, I use a 1/4 measuring cup. Sprinkle oats over muffins. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer muffins to cooling rack.

In addition I took the new recipe to caloriecount.about.com and these babies are only 142 calories per serving! Check it out http://caloriecount.about.com/healthy-revised-blueberry-muffins-recipe-r1297462!

Enjoy