Peach Cobbler Wontons

Sometimes you just want a bite of something. It's really hard to control myself when I have an entire cobbler sitting in front of me. Especially if it was my grandma's blackberry cobbler. She made the best. I can still smell it baking in her oven, all bubbly and golden. I don't know how she did it but her cobbler was amazing. I haven't been able to recreate it. I think it's better as a memory.

I really wanted peaches the other day. Someone made peach cobbler in the international lab at my culinary school and I managed to swipe a big ol' plate full. It was pretty tasty. Not really how I think a cobbler should be, however, I'm basing all my cobbler experience on only ever having my grandma's. I wanted to make peach cobbler at home. I knew though, if I did, I would do 1 of 2 things:

1) Eat the entire thing by myself
2) Eat one serving and never touch it again

So, I decided to be a little creative.

Mix together brown sugar and white sugar.

Start melting some butter.

Add some cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg (it's always better like that).

Stir in the melted butter

Add some flour. 

I added oatmeal too. You know, for extra health benefits. 

Dice 2 peaches and toss them with a tablespoon of sugar.

Add 1/2 pint of blueberries.

Also here for health reasons. 

Get your crumb topping ready! 

It should be moist but crumbly. 

Fill your muffin tin with wontons

Fill the wontons with the fruit.

About 1/8 cup per wonton.

Sprinkle on the delicious (& good for you - it's the oatmeal) crumb topping.

Bake.

 

They should come out golden and your kitchen should smell like cinnamon and sugar. 

SO GOOD!

Remember my predicament from above? Well I think I handled it pretty well. I ate two and took the rest to work. 

I may have had a third one once I got there... But it has fruit so it has to be healthy right??

I used Ina Garten's crumb topping. It's really easy. The only thing I did differently was add 1/2 cup Quaker Instant Oatmeal. 

For the filling:

2 peaches, diced - skin on

1/2 pint fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon sugar. 

Toss all ingredients together. 

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. 

You can also make this dessert sugar free by omitting the brown sugar and replacing all white sugar with Splenda. 

Chocolate Chip Kahlúa Cupcakes

It's been a while since my last post. I know. I've been starting my journey into culinary school and have been so utterly consumed with contribution margins and sauce making I haven't had hardly any time to devote to my first love, this blog. Classes started June 25 and it's already time for midterms! I can't believe it. How time flies when you're actually doing what you were meant to do all along. I've really been enjoying learning the basics of cooking. There's so much to know, I'm not sure how my brain has managed to retain it all. But it's been a great challenge and I couldn't ask for a better opportunity and a better time in my life to seize it. It's a real blessing. I just can't wait to get into baking!

I've been in a rather big baking funk lately. Mostly due to the fact that my theory class is shoving so much non-baking info into my head, I don't have time to think about anything else except grand cuisine and the 4 components of a stock. However, I've been browsing Pinterest in my very, very, very limited spare time, when I'm not sleeping, and I found a little cupcake recipe I just had to try. It only makes 2 cupcakes! Perfect for me, right? I think so. It's just me and my roommate, we don't need a whole dozen. 

Want, yes. Need, no. Want... 

So I thought I'd try it, see what happens. Doesn't hurt and I'm only out a few ingredients if it fails. The blog featuring this wonderful petite recipe is, How Sweet It Is. It's a vanilla cake that looks terrific in the pictures she post but I found it to be rather dry. Maybe I made in error in the assembly process, or baked them to long. Regardless, I didn't care for them. I did however, care to add my own twist to the recipe. I thought that worked out fabulously. But then again I used a lot of chocolate and that can never really go wrong. 

It's a really simple recipe and I am definitely going to keep it on file. It's a good base recipe, perfect for testing new recipes. I'm so glad it worked out with the chocolate. I always say chocolate makes everything better. Way, way better in this case. 

Chocolate Chip Kahlúa Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Kahlúa Buttercream 

Cupcake recipe adapted from: One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes For Two, How Sweet It Is

Yields 4 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1 whole egg

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 heaping teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tablespoon Kahlúa Coffee Liqueur

1/4 cup Ghirardelli 60% cocoa dark chocolate chips

For the buttercream:

3 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter

1 - 1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons Kahlúa Coffee Liqueur or until desired consistency 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

In a small mixing bowl beat together egg and sugar until just incorporated. Stir in the vanilla and butter. Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt stirring until it’s just combined. Lastly, add the Kahlúa and the chocolate chips. 

Fill cupcake liners 1/2 - 3/4 full. 

Bake 7-9 minutes. 

Cool in pan for 2-3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish. Let cool completely before frosting. 

Buttercream:

Beat the butter in a small mixing bowl until creamy. Slowly add confectioners sugar and cocoa.  Add Kahlúa gradually to achieve desired consistency. 

Oatmeal Banana Bread

Bad banana = yummy bread

Keeping up with the theme of things that go bad before I can use them I'd like to talk about this banana bread recipe I came across. I buy bananas mostly so I can make things with them. On their own I don't really like them. Therefore, I don't buy them often. My roommate had gotten some and I was in the kitchen making dinner one night and there they were sitting on the counter turning brown.

Usually, I wouldn't think anything of it and just toss them out but I was feeling crafty that day. I have a pretty good banana bread recipe I've used for years but I wanted something different. I've been thinking of ways to make recipes a little healthier. Lately healthier has been just to add a tablespoon of ground flaxseed into everything but that wasn't going to cut it this time. So I started googling recipes for banana bread that gave it a little power punch of better for you. There were all sorts of recipes out there and more so than not they called for oatmeal. I'd never thought to do that so I decided to give it a whirl.

That loaf of bread weighed like 5 pounds. But it was really good!

Mix your dry ingredients together and make a whole in the center of it all. 

Like a little well.

Next for the wet ingredients.

Mix those all together. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the center of the dry.

Mix it all up! 

Magic! 

It's all ready. 

Oatmeal Banana Bread

(Recipe courtesy of: www.food.com )

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup oats (I used old-fashioned)

1 cup mashed banana

1/3 buttermilk (I didn't have any, I used 2%)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

cooking spray or butter (I used butter)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray or butter an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl

Combine banana, oil, milk, vanilla, and eggs in a small bowl or measuring cup

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened

Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Cool on a wire rack, in the pan, for about 15 minutes

Remove bread from the pan and cool thoroughly on the rack

Or cut into it and slab some butter on it. That's what I did. I mean who wants to eat cold banana bread? Not me. I want it nice and hot with all kinds of melty butter. And again, my apologies for not having any after pictures but I ate a slice then ate it all... There would have been only crumbs. 

Also, for those of you truly health conscious people out there, if you click on the link above to go to the website you get all sorts of fun nutritional facts. So you can pretend to calorie count as you cut yourself another slice. 

Coconut Truffles

One word: DIVINE! 

So let's get right into it.

One cup of sweetened flake coconut goes into one can of sweetened condensed milk.

One vanilla bean.

Split it open, all the way.

Take the back of you knife and scrape out all the little pods.

And I'm telling you, there is absolutely nothing better than this. 

Add all the vanilla to the coconut mixture.

You can see all the little bits of vanilla. 

So good!

Put it in a dish and pop it in the freezer.

Get some really good chocolate. 

I used a milk chocolate but dark chocolate would be fantastic.

Take the coconut mixture out of the freezer and roll it into balls.

About 1 inch will do. 

Then pop them back into the freezer.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. 

Now comes the fun part! 

And I didn't take pictures because it's a messy process. Messy = Fun

And it needs to go very quickly. The milk doesn't freeze completely so when you put it in the hot, melted chocolate it likes to get gooey. 

Just drop one of the coconut balls into the chocolate.

Make sure it's completely coated and then tap off the excess and drop onto some wax paper.

I used buttered foil. 

The chocolate will start to firm and trap all that yummy, sweetness inside.

I'm telling you, if you love coconut, you're going to love these! 

They are so simple and just absolutely divine.

You're going to want them all the time.

Coconut Truffles


1 cup sweetened flake coconut
12 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 vanilla bean
16 ounces melted, good quality, chocolate

Mix the coconut with the milk.

Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out all the vanilla pods.

Stir into the coconut and milk mixture.

Freeze mixture for about 30 minutes.

Take out of the freezer and roll into about 1 inch balls. Put back into the freezer.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

Take the coconut balls out of the freezer. Coat with the melted chocolate.

Tap off the excess chocolate and set on a piece of wax paper to cool and let the chocolate set.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Apparently, according to someone, being gluten free is the new "in" diet in Hollywood. I don't see how a diet that stems from an allergy can be twisted into a Hollywood fad, but what I do know is being gluten free isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's actually quite a healthy lifestyle. A lot of people find themselves living gluten free thanks to a little disease called, Celiac disease. It's a manageable disease however, if it goes untreated can lead to some pretty serious stuff. A friend of mine recently was diagnosed with Celiac disease so I've been researching a bit here and there.

On the upside of all this nasty gluten allergy stuff, there's really yummy cookies. I don't post cookies a lot but when I saw this recipe I had to try it. And since it's gluten free and really easy, I thought I'd share. I found it on Pinterest and well I love peanut butter so I decided to give it a go. This recipe is so super simple I might not make another cookie with flour ever again. Check out Joy the Baker's website for more goodies.

Here's how you make them. Like I said, ridiculously easy.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
(Recipe courtesy of Joy the Baker)

1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl cream together the peanut butter and sugar until combined, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes.

Roll into 1 inch balls then lightly flatten with your hands.

Place on a buttered cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.

Eat, love, eat some more...

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

I'm a little behind on this post. I'm sorry for that, all my pumpkin loving readers. Now it's almost Christmas! When I think of Christmas I don't think of pumpkin, but, I promised this one so here it is.
It's not my usual bake-by-picture blog. I made this very last minute the night I made it. So I apologize for that as well.

I actually saw the picture for this on Pinterest. It looked so yummy and different I had to make it. I clicked on the image and it led me to the cutest blog, The Cutting Edge of Ordinary. Lisa has so many great recipe ideas. I highly recommend visiting her site. I've "pinned" several recipes on my Pinterest food board. She was gracious enough to allow me to use one of her pictures for my post.

This Pumpkin Crunch Cake is great for dessert or brunch. I won't say breakfast. It does linger in the cake department. It's crumbly, crunchy topping resembles coffee cake. Buttery, spicy, creamy pumpkin is much deserving of a pie crust. I guess the crust is on top this time. It's so easy to make. The worst of it all is having it bake for an hour. The smell of cinnamon and butter fill the house. It's absolute torture.

Everyone at my house loved it. It was a huge success. I think it will be an addition to the table every year.

Photo courtesy of, The Cutting Edge of Ordinary

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

(Recipe from: The Cutting Edge of Ordinary, Pumpkin Crunch Cake)

15 oz can pumpkin; or 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
1-12 oz can evaporated milk 
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 box cake mix (I used spice cake, but yellow, butter or white would work too)
1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix the pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, and cinnamon.

Spread mixture evenly in a lightly greased 9 x 13 baking pan.

Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle the nuts over the top of the cake mix. Pour the melted butter evenly over the top of everything. Do not stir.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until top is browned. Let cool before serving. Refrigerate leftovers.

Honey Bun Cake

I've changed the words to the song, "I Can't Help My Self," by The Temptations. 

"Sugar pie, honey 'bun cake'

You know I love you

I can't help myself

I love you and nobody else."

Yup. That about sums up how I feel about this cake. 

My brother requested this for his birthday. My mom made it. I can't take credit for this one. But I ate it so, there's that. I was sleeping in while the baking was commencing. However, I awoke to the smell of brown sugar, cinnamon and cake drifting under my door. I went straight to the kitchen. The cake was in the oven looking all high and mighty. I got to make the glaze. A double batch since that's the way we do things in this house. Every cake gets a double batch of frosting. 

Now it might look like a thin layer of frosting but do not be deceived. I poked holes all over this baby so the glaze could seep into every inch of it. Sooo good!!!

Since I wasn't awake for picture documentation this is all I got. The recipe is super simple.

It comes to you courtesy of: Cooks.com

Honey Bun Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs

3/4 cup canola oil

2/3 cup water

1 cup sour cream

1 cup brown sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, water and sour cream. 

In a separate bowl mix brown sugar and cinnamon

Pour cake mix into greased 13x9 pan. 

Evenly spread all the cinnamon sugar mix over the cake batter and swirl in. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Glaze

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

4 tbsp milk

Combine all ingredients together and pour over the hot cake.

   

Also, remember those holes I poked in the cake and the double batch of glaze??

Totally worth it!

Cake Truffles

I had left over cake after I leveled my cupcakes and my cakes and I couldn't even think about throwing it out. So I made extra frosting and mixed it all together. OH EM GEE! It's fabulous just on its own. But, throw in some candy melt and a few accessories and it's just plain ridiculous. By todays cake rolled into a ball standards these are essentially, "cake-pops". I didn't put them on a stick however, and think they deserve an upgraded title. Truffle seemed appropriate. 

There isn't an exact recipe for this so I won't be adding one. I just threw some frosting into the cake. Fill free to play with the ratios to see what you like.  The standard is one cake to one batch of frosting. And, unless you wear gloves, be prepared to get your hands dirty. 

Break up cake and add some frosting. 

Mix it all togther.

YUM!

I put mine in the fridge for a few hours. 

Makes it a little easier to handle.

Chop, chop, chop!

I used candy coating but candy melts are fine too. 

Melt in a double boiler. 

I'm against using the microwave because I'm scared I'll burn it.

If you like the microwave feel free. 

You could also use the white chocolate if you wish.

Candy melts also come in an array of colors. 

After the cake mixture has chilled, roll them into balls. 

As big or little as you like. Mine are about 1 inch.

Then put them in the freezer. 

They need to be firm when you put them in the candy melt. 

Otherwise, they might fall apart. 

Then just coat them in the candy melt. 

Throw them in there, roll them around. 

I get mine out with a fork. 

Shake off any excess by tapping the fork against the bowl.

Put them on a baking sheet lined with non-stick foil to set.

Decorate however you wish. Or leave them plain. 

Make sure to add everything before the candy coating sets.

It sticks easier that way.

I used a variety of extra goodies on mine and I left some plain. 

White chocolate shavings.

Dark chocolate shavings.

Cocoa powder.

Cinnamon.

These are special ones. 

I coated them with ganache then put them in the freezer. 

Then rolled them in the candy coating. 

If you get ambitious, just do this very quickly. 

The ganache doesn't freeze completely and it can quickly turn very messy. 

But the end result...

SO WORTH IT!

How could you say no to that? 

You can even see the thin layer of ganache under the shell. 

I'm going to get one right now.