You're killing me, Smalls.

Unfortunately, this fall I have not been to a hayride and have not had the pleasure of sitting around a bonfire and making S'mores. That was not going to stop me from having S'mores, though! I saw this recipe on the Williams and Sonoma website, but before I had a chance to make them, I saw them on Annie's blog. That sealed the deal. I had to make these treats. I didn't have to use the oven, so it was nice to keep the kitchen a little cooler while we had our mini-heat wave in the middle of October. They were good, but I think in the future I will limit them to something fun to make with my cousins. Not a star dessert, but a fun concept and certainly tasty. It's hard to go wrong with grahams, chocolate, and a (flaming) mallow.

S'More Bars

from Williams and Sonoma

3 T unsalted butter, cut into chunks

6 whole graham crackers

3/4 c sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

1 1/3 c semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

1 c miniature marshmallows

2 whole graham crackers or 1 c mini-graham cracker shapes

Line an 8-inch square baking pan or dish with aluminum foil so that the foil hangs over the sides. Grease the foil with butter.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the 3 tablespoons butter. Using a pot holder, move the pan to a heatproof surface. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Put the 6 whole graham crackers into a zippered plastic bag. Press out all the air and seal the bag. Using a rolling pin, gently but firmly crush the cookies to make tiny crumbs. You should have 1 cup of crumbs. Add the crumbs to the melted butter and stir with a wooden spoon until blended. Scrape the crumbs into the baking pan.

Lay a piece of plastic wrap loosely over the crumbs. Place your hand on the plastic wrap and spread the crumbs to coat the bottom of the pan. Once the crumbs are in place, press down firmly to make a solid, even layer. Throw away the plastic wrap when you are finished flattening the crumbs.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the condensed milk and chocolate chips. Heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Using a pot holder, move the pan to a heatproof surface. Add the vanilla and salt and stir until blended. Pour the filling over the graham cracker crust and spread evenly with the spoon.

Scatter the marshmallows evenly over the chocolate filling and press them in gently. If using the 2 whole graham crackers, break them into little pieces. Stick the broken crackers or mini-cracker shapes into the filling among the marshmallows.

Cover and refrigerate the bars until they are firm, about 4 hours. To serve, lift the foil from the pan and set the smore square on a cutting board. Peel the foil away from the sides, and cut the square into rectangles with a sharp knife. Keep refrigerated until just before serving.

Makes 12 bar cookies.

A Cooking Light Brownie is a Small Brownie

But still a tasty brownie! The recipe says it makes 2o brownies, but that makes for a brownie that is approximately 1.5 square inches. I made the brownies in an 8x8 pan since I didn't have a 9x9, but that won't make the brownies all that much bigger. I really enjoyed them, but they were slightly over baked. I forgot to reset the timer on the microwave, so I lost track of the time. It is definitely time to get a kitchen timer. Who knew my oven wouldn't have a timer, light or window?

Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Brownies

from Cooking Light, September 2007

Cooking Spray

2 T instant coffee granules

1/4 c hot water

1/4 c butter

1/4 c semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/3 c sugar

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa

1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 t vanilla

2 large eggs

1/4 c toffee chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Coat bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Combine coffee granules and 1/4 c hot water, stirring until coffee granules dissolve. Combine butter and semisweet chocolate chips in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute or until butter melts; stir until chocolate is smooth.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine coffee mixture, butter mixture, vanilla extract, and eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add coffee mixture to flour mixture, stir just until combined (don't stir this one with a whisk- I made that mistake!). Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with toffee chips. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Serves 20 (yeah, right!)

A little piece of cupcake heaven

My mom is a Rachael Ray fan (she just can't help it) and was one of the first subscribers to her magazine. While Rachael's giggling and super annoying hand gestures make her show a little difficult to watch, I do like her magazine. After she gets her new issue, my mom loans me her old one and I write down the recipes I'm interested in trying. These cupcakes were one of them. I made them for a BBQ we had a few weeks ago and they were a hit. I will definitely add them to my "make again" list.

Chocolate Red-Wine Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing

from Every Day with Rachael Ray September 2007

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz chocolate, broken into pieces
1/2 c boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 c flour

1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 c medium- to full-bodied red wine, such as cannonau
Two 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
2 c confectioners' sugar
Red grapes, halved, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line 2 muffin pans with baking liners.

In a medium, heatproof bowl, combine the cocoa powder and chocolate pieces. Whisk in the boiling water until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is combined.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until blended. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined. Alternating, add the chocolate mixture and wine in batches, mixing well between each addition, until the batter is smooth. Divide among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan.

Lightly beat the mascarpone, then add the confectioners' sugar and beat until creamy. Remove the cooled cupcakes from the pan, spread each with icing and top with a grape half.

I recommend storing them in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving. The cupcake is a super light cake and the frosting runs a little, so letting it harden a little in the refrigerator makes the cake and icing hold up a little better. Definitely store leftovers in the refrigerator!

Another Dessert.

Someone needs to stop me. I'm so bored waiting for the results of the bar so I can actually be a lawyer, I have been filling my hours trying to perfect my baking skills. The muffins were super great and the cookies were darn good as well, so my confidence this afternoon was pretty high. I'm not the best baker- I much prefer cooking- but today I decided to revisit my arch nemesis, cheesecake.

I saw Giada make these on her show Everyday Italian the other day and decided to try them. The initial plan was to include these with the muffins, but that's not going to happen. The recipe was ok I guess, but I cannot successfully make a cheesecake. There is something or someone in the universe that has decided I will not make a cheesecake that is not cracked, sunken in the middle, or otherwise ugly looking, underdone, or overdone.

This recipe appealed to me because they were bite sized and I could use my newish mini muffin pan. Yesssss. I also figured they would be less likely to fall in the middle if they were smaller. Turned out I was wrong, but you can't blame me for hoping. The water bath was a little bit of a disaster (some of the cheesecakes went for a pre and post baking swim), but the process seemed to go alright. After I pulled them out, a few of them fell, gosh darn it, but the rest looked alright.

Then I tried to pop the darn things out of the pan. They did not want to come out without a fight. The recipe only has you butter the sides, not the bottom, of the cups and as one might expect, the bottoms didn't want to come out. They were not the prettiest dessert, but the taste was good. I may just try the recipe as a whole cheesecake. That is, if I ever decide to make a cheesecake again.

Individual Orange and Chocolate Cheesecakes

from Giada De Laurentis

1/3 c finely crushed chocolate wafers

2 T butter, melted

1/4 c ricotta cheese

2 oz cream cheese

1/4 c sugar, plus 2 tablespoons

1 orange, zested

1 egg

Butter, for greasing

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the crushed chocolate wafers and the melted butter. Place a tightly packed teaspoon of the wafer mixture into each mini-muffin cup and press down firmly.

In a food processor combine the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, 1/4 cup of the sugar, half of the orange zest, and the egg. Blend until smooth. Lightly grease the sides of the mini muffin tin with butter. Fill the cups with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the cheesecake mixture. Place the mini muffin tin in a baking dish and pour enough hot water in the baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the mini muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes. Transfer the mini muffin tin to a wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Use a small knife to gently pop the cheesecakes out of the cups.

Just before serving, combine the remaining orange zest with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Top each individual cheesecake with about 1/4 teaspoon of the orange zest mixture and serve.

Makes 12 mini cheesecakes.

And the best wife in the world award goes to...

Me! This morning I woke up at 4:30 to make my world famous chocolate chip cookies for one of my husband's Physical Science classes. They actually all behaved during a fire drill so he wanted to try a little positive reinforcement. He was first going to do donuts, but then asked me to make some cookies.


Now, I don't mean to brag here (maybe I do), but it is generally accepted that I make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world (at least according to me, my husband, and a group of StuCo students from Farmington, MO who stayed with us a few days last semester). I cannot reveal the recipe, but let me say it is from my grandmother, Nestlé Tollhousé (anyone? anyone?).

While some say that it is the recipe that makes the cookie, I would have to completely disagree. The recipes don't usually vary all that much. One recipe is pretty much as good as the rest. And as we all learned from Monica Gellar and Phoebe Bouffet, the one on the back of the chocolate chips is pretty darn good.


What makes a good cookie is the technique, so rather than sharing a recipe, I will share my technique. I really do think these things make all the difference, but feel free to disagree! But remember, my cookies are the best. I now have another class of 15 year olds who agree (and asked for more!).



The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
According to Linda




1. Always start with softened butter. Not solid. Not melted. Softened. Leave on the counter for about 30 minutes or so. It usually does the trick. The finger should just depress, just like testing doneness on a steak.

2. Beat the heck out of the butter and sugar before adding the vanilla. And I mean beat them. We're talking beating the crap out of them. There is a point at which the butter and sugar look fluffy- this is when they are creamed. If you're not sure, keep beating them. There's no such thing as over beating it, at least not in my book.

3. Mix in the vanilla after the butter and sugar are fluffy. Mix really well after the vanilla and after each egg.

4. SLOWLY mix in the flour mixture. I mix it in about a spoonful at a time. It really doesn't take that long and it makes less of a mess. I'm not sure if it does anything for the cookies, but this is the only way I don't end up with a cloud of flour flying all over my kitchen.

5. At this point, follow the recipe. I check my cookies really often to make sure they don't cross that fine line between perfect and crispy. I also try to get a few pans that aren't all the way done so we have some super soft ones.

This is what I have learned about chocolate chip cookie making. As long as I am totally tooting my own horn, I would also like to add that a very popular DJ in Columbia, MO raved about my cookies on air when he had them at an event held by the bookstore I helped open with a friend (and closed, unfortunately) in Columbia. People came to the bookstore just to try the cookies! Too bad they didn't buy more books.

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

That's right. All those delicious words come together in one cookie. I've been wanting to bake, despite the heat, so I browsed some starred posts I had in my Google Reader. I ultimately decided on these cookies that I found in Annie's blog (you should check it out- she has so many baked goods!).

They were absolutely delicious! I loved them. Matt tried one that was cooling from the first batch and came into the kitchen and said, "These cookies are the worst ever. You better not eat any. I'll go ahead and them all for you so you don't have to suffer." That's when I knew they were good! We gave some away, but I think Matt put down 2 dozen of these cookies over the course of the weekend. Such a cookie monster!

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

source Annie's Eats

3 eggs, well beaten

1 cup dried cranberries

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 ½ cup flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine eggs, dried cranberries and vanilla and let stand for 1 hour, covered with plastic wrap.Cream together butter and sugars. Add flour, salt, cinnamon and soda to sugar mixture. Mix well. Blend in egg-cranberry mixture and oatmeal. Dough will be stiff. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheet or roll in small balls and flatten slightly on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

I didn't end up cooking dinner tonight because I didn't get to the grocery store before 8:30 and they didn't have 3 of the key ingredients I needed for my planned dinner. So grilled cheese and soup it was. I did, however, do a little baking. I'm generally much more a cooker, but these days the desire to bake has been pulling my attention from the stove to the oven.

Tonight, I made these Chocolate Caramel Bars from May's Bon Appetit. I intended to make them a long time ago as a treat for my last law school class, but time got in the way. For the past few months, I have had the can of sweetened condensed milk looking at me and tonight was the night I popped that bad boy open.

I REALLY enjoyed these. Too much. I practically camped in front of the refrigerator waiting for the chocolate to set. As soon as they were ready, I cut them and ate one. Then I ate another. Very tasty. The caramel was perfect, which is good because I was a little nervous. I never quite got the caramel up to the suggested temperature, but I was worried about burning it, so I went with looks. Once it was super thick, I went ahead and pulled it off the heat. The caramel making made me appreciate my gas stove even more; the ability to change the heat so quickly and by such small increments made the candy making process a little more doable.

My husband also really liked these. He did, however, say they made him thirsty. They are a tad rich; I'm guessing that's what he meant. He also told me that I should name these Fancy Twix Bars. If the recipe were my own, dear, I'm still not sure that's what I'd name them, but they do taste quite a bit like Twix bars. It's the cookie, chocolate, caramel combo.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

Makes 20-24

Crust:

1 c all purpose flour

1/4 c packed golden brown sugar

2 t cornstarch

1/4 t salt

1/2 c chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 T ice water

1 large egg yolk

Toppings:

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c packed golden brown sugar

6 T unsalted butter, diced

2 T golden syrup or dark corn syrup (I used dark)

1 t vanilla extract

6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet- 61%- and that was definitely a good choice. The caramel is super sweet, so the bitter chocolate helped balance that)

3 T whipping cream

Flaked sea salt

For crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 11x7x2 inch metal baking pan (I used glass since I didn't have a metal one and I could find one at Target, Crate and Barrel, or Bed, Bath and Beyond). Blend first 4 ingredients in processor. Add butter. Using on/off turns, blend until a coarse meal forms. Add 1 T ice water and egg yolk. Blend until moist clumps form. Press dough onto bottom of pan (my dough was super sticky- this step was a bit of a challenge and I had trouble getting the dough evenly spread); pierce all over with fork. Bake until golden, piercing if crust bubbles, about 20 minutes. Cool completely.

For toppings: Whisk first 5 ingredients in medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves, butter melts, and mixture comes to boil. Attach candy thermometer to side of pan. Boil gently until caramel is thick and temperature registers 225 degrees F, whisking constantly, about 6 minutes. Pour caramel evenly over crust; cool 15 minutes to set.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate with cream in microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring occasionally. Spread chocolate over warm caramel; sprinkle with sea salt. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, at least 1 hour.

Cut lengthwise into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 5 or 6 slices. Transfer to platter (or tummy) and serve.

Store in refrigerator.

Diet Coke Cupcakes

Ok, so this recipe isn't really a recipe and it certainly isn't gourmet, but the whole concept absolutely blows my mind, so here it is. All you do is add a can of diet soda to a box cake mix. Then you bake. That's it. They turn out so moist and taste just like the full fat/calories version. My cupcakes were only 85 calories each! So I had two. You can frost them however you'd like, but I used whipped cream. It may have upped it to 100 calories, but that is a mighty tasty dessert for not a lot of calories.

I googled Diet Coke cupcakes to make sure all I had to do was add the soda, and I came across a ton of different combinations. Someone added Diet Cherry Coke to a vanilla cake, orange soda to a white cake, 7-up to a white cake, and a ton more. I used a yellow cake mix from Aldi's with a can of Diet Coke. Apparently you can use regular pop, but that would increase the calorie content, though someone on the Internet pointed out that it only adds a few calories more. If you have an aversion to diet sodas, regular should work fine. I will definitely add this to my "so weird, but so good" category in my brain. You should try it!