Candy Cane Chocolate Lollipops

I thought I would share how to make these lollipops. They are really easy to make. 

Take two candy canes (you could also use small candy canes) and place them on a pan with either a silicone mat or parchment paper. You want to do this other wise they will be really hard to get off your pan. Place a lollipop stick in the middle of the two candy canes. I found these cute lollipop sticks at Wal-mart that I thought would work great with these.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the candy canes in the oven for 3-4 minutes. You don't want to go too much longer other wise you will completely melt your candy canes. When they come out use toothpicks or if you are brave, your fingers, and push the edges together making sure they are around the stick. Let cool.

 Take White chocolate almond bark and melt in the microwave. I found this year crushed peppermint candy. I was so happy because, normally I crush my own and it makes a lot of noise and mess. Take some of the candy and stir it into the melted white chocolate.

You than pour the white chocolate mixture into the cooled candy cane heart. You can then sprinkle more candy cane pieces on top or not. You could even sprinkle something else on it if you wanted. 

 Once hardened, you can wrap them up and display them some how or give them away as gifts (That is what I am doing).  

Happy Baking!

Apple Fritter Bites

I found this recipe on Pinterest about a year ago. I made it for our Churches annual Christmas Devotional that we watch each year. It is always a great way to start off our Christmas Season. 

Last year I when I made them we didn't have quite enough so (as we are a family of 6) so I doubled the batch this time. We had plenty this time. 

You start off by combining all the dry ingredients.

1 heaping cup of ap flour

1/3  cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

dash salt

1-2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Add the wet ingredients 

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1Tablespoon butter, melted

1 egg

1/3 milk, more if needed. (we added just a little bit more)

 And now for the apples. You want a nice small pieces. This part was hard me as I am allergic to apples in the raw form. They just make my skin itch and itch. (I need to invest in some food safe gloves). Anyways you need at least 1 1/2 cups of diced apples.

Mix all the ingredients together and that is when you want to add the extra milk if you think it is too thick. Just a little at a time though.

Heat up some oil in a pan and cook your fritters till they are nice and golden brown. Depending on how big you make them will depend on how long they will take to cook. Mine took anywhere from a minute to two minutes. 

Then as soon as they get out of the oil coat them in a powederd sugar glaze. That way the glaze dries on the fritter. We also rolled some in a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Here is the original recipe -Apple Fritter Recipe. Serve with some yummy Hot Chocolate and you have a great breakfast or snack.

Happy Baking!

Helpful Tip

I thought I would share one of my little helps that I find useful in the kitchen. 

When a recipe calls for oreo crumbs and you can't find oreo crumbs in a box (they used to have them but I can't seem to find them anymore), or you don't want to sit there and scrape the inside out of the cookie. Get a Oreo Pie Crust. Break it up and there you go, you got your crumbs.

Blueberry Pancakes with Peach Syrup

It's still summer time and I found some blueberry bushes in our back yard so we have plenty of blueberries. They are sweet and juicy. So I made blueberry pancakes. To go with them I made a peach syrup. I can only eat cooked peaches as I have an oral allergy to certain fruits, but that is another story. 

The pancakes are my dad's recipe which I think was also my grandpa's recipe I just added the blueberries to them.

Pancakes

2 cups flour

1 Tablespoon Baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoon cooking oil

2 cups milk or buttermilk

2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon Juice

6 eggs, separated

blueberries

Mix together dry ingredients. Add the egg yolks right to dry mixture. Beat the egg whites until stiff, set aside. Add the oil, milk, and lemon juice. Stir thoroughly. Fold in egg whites. Place about 1/4 cup of pancake batter on a hot griddle. Add the blueberries. Cook till ready to flip and finish cooking on the other side.

Enjoy.

Peach Syrup

7 peaches, peeled, pit removed and chopped

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

Place the peaches in a sauce pan. Add the water, cornstarch, and sugar. Stir till combined. Cook on medium heat till bubbly about 5-8 mintues. Use a potato masher and mash the peaches. Cook a little longer.

Either eat warm or let cool and enjoy.

Happy Baking!

Fresh Strawberry Pie

I love strawberry pie, but Fresh Strawberry pie is even better. 

This is the filling for the pie. It is chopped strawberries, sugar, corn starch, stawberry jello and a little red food coloring.

 The crust was a premade crust. After I made the filling I tossed the strawberries in with the filling and put it in the crust.

 Let it chill for a couple of hours and added the whipped cream around the edges.

 And there you have it a piece of Fresh Strawberry pie. It was very yummy and refreshing.

Recipe

1 refrigerated pie crust (baked) or you could make your own.

Filling

6 cups of strawberries

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup water 

1 box strawberry jell-o  (3 oz box)

red food coloring if you want it

In a small bowl crush enough berries to make 1 cup. Place the berries in a sauce pan and add the sugar, cornstarch, water, and jell-o. Cook until mixture is bubbly and thickens, stirring constantly. Add food coloring if you want. Let cool until completely cool.

Either cut or leave the remaing strawberries whole and mix with the cooled filling. Place in the precooked crust and place in the refrigerated till set. Add whipped cream and enjoy.

Happy Baking!

Strawberry Hearts

It is Strawberry Season!! I LOVE STRAWBERRIES!! It is one summer fruit that I can eat. There are so many yummy things you can make with strawberries. Chocolate and Strawberries go so well together. I saw somewhere chocolate hearts. 

First step cut strawberries open and take out the middle part. Take a toothpick and join the two halves together. Fill the strawberries with marshmallow fluff.

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Melt your chocolate and put all over the bottoms of the strawberries making sure the marshmallow fluff is covered up.

Once dry turn the berries over and coat the top of the strawberries in chocolate. Then drizzle with white chocolate, or red, or more chocolate, whatever you want.  Pretty quick and easy and so YUMMY.

Baked Oatmeal

Ok so I don't have a picture of this one. I made it the night before for breakfast. By the time I got home from work the next day it was gone. It was REALLY good. I found the recipe on Pinterest. So far most of the recipes I have made from there have been really good. You can find the recipe here. 

I did make some changes though. I left out the walnuts and used regular oats instead of gluten free. I added strawberries, blueberries and bananas. But you can add any fruit you would like. It is a keeper in my recipe book.

Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn

I love making Caramel Popcorn. This recipe is really good. It's a nice crispy caramel on the popcorn.

First off you need these items.

A popcorn popper. You can use microwave but use the natural unsalted type.

Popcorn.

Candy Thermometer 

Pot

Pan (9x13)

Tin Foil

Brown Sugar

Corn Syrup

Butter

Baking Soda 

Vanilla

First off you need to line your 9x13 pan with foil. It makes clean up a lot easier.

Pop your popcorn (1/3 cup to 1/2 cup unpopped). You will need about 8 cups. Carefully put popcorn in 9x13 pan so you don't get the kernels that didn't pop. Place in a preheated oven (300 degrees) to keep warm  till you get your caramel ready.

To make your caramel put 

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3 Tablespoons Corn Syrup

1/3 cup butter

Stir your mixture, over a medium, heat till it starts to bubble. Put in the candy thermometer and stop stirring it. Wait till it gets to 255 degrees. Take it off the heat and stir in  1/4 teaspoon vanilla and a 1/4 teaspoon baking soda.

As soon as you stir it in pour the caramel mixture over the popcorn. Stir till coated. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 13 minutes. Take out and stir. Bake for another 5 minutes.

 Lay out a couple of sheets of foil on your counter. When the popcorn comes out of the oven give it another stir and then pour on the foil to cool. Break it into pieces. Take Chocolate and White bark and melt it in the microwave.  You can use a spoon to drizzle it all over or place it in a small sandwich type bag and seal it up, cut off the corner and drizzle it on that way. Let the chocolate set up and then enjoy.

Happy Baking!

Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

I am not a big cake eater. Just a plain chocolate, yellow or white cake are just boring to me and I don't think they have much taste. I do however love cakes that have something with them. Like this one. Who wouldn't love a little cake with pineapple, cherry and brown sugar? 

To start off I sprayed  2 Jumbo muffin tin with non stick spray. I also heated the oven to 325. 

Brown sugar mixture.

4 tablespoons butter melted

2/3 cup brown sugar

Melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar. Divide between the muffin cavities.

Next take pineapple (there were 10 slices in a can so I made 10 cakes) and place on top of the brown sugar mixture. Then add a cherry to the middle of the pineapple.

Then make a yellow cake. You can even make your own from scratch if you like but I made mine from a box. I used the juice from the pineapple with the water for the cake mix. It gave it a little pineapple flavor. I then put the cake mix in the tins filling it up 3/4th  full.

Bake at 325 for about 20 or until done. Gently tip upside down on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet for any dripping. If stuck in the pan take a knife and gently run it around the edges.

Let the cake cool. You can either enjoy it that way or cut it in half and fill with whipped cream. 

Good thing about these things is that they freeze pretty well, so if you don't end up eating them all at one sitting you can freeze them and eat them at another time.

Happy Baking!

Lemon Meringue Pie

 I love Lemon Meringue Pie. This Recipe is a bunch of other recipes I have found over the years and put together in this pie. You can use a normal pie crust but we have some people in this family who don't like pie crust, so I opted for a graham cracker crust. 

Lemon Meringue Pie

Crust

10 graham crackers, crushed

3 Tablespoons butter, Melted and cooled

3 Tablespoons Sugar

Mix all together and press into a Pie pan. Set aside while making the filling.

Filling

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 salt

6 egg yolks (save the whites as you will be using them later.)

1 1/2 cups water

1 Tablespoon Lemon zest

1/2 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons Butter

In a saucepan put the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Mix the egg yolks with the water, pour in the sugar mixture. Cook on medium heat till thickened. Take off heat and  the lemon zest and Juice. Mix till combined. Stir in butter. Once butter is melted, pour into prepared crust.

Meringue topping

6 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

6 tablespoons Sugar

Place egg whites in a large Metal (clean of any grease) bowl. Mix till soft peaks form. Add cream of tarter an d mix till combined. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time. Mix until stiff peaks form. Top the pie with the meringue, sealing the edges, and place in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until top is golden brown.

Bread Starter

A little about this bread starter. I have been making bread with this starter for close to 18 years. Before that my late husband used it while he was in college. He got some from his mom who had hers for a while before that. It has been from North Carolina to Utah to Texas to California to Idaho to North Carolina again. Wisconsin and Tennessee and now back to North Carolina. We just kept it cool and fed and it keeps giving us lots of yummy bread. I have changed jars along the way and passed some on to friends. After my husband died I went through a period of do I want to keep up with this. This was his. I kept feeding it and making bread but never could I get rid of it. I now make at least 6 loaves at a time and freeze it. With 5 kids it doesn't last long. I can't seem to get rid of it. I will probably be making it until it dies on it's own. 

Some bread I made with the starter. I make all my bread things with this starter. Cinnamon rolls, Rolls, Monkey Bread, bread, etc.

I don't really have the Starter recipe of how to make it but I found one that sounds like what it is. 

I found it on here. Instead of of feeding it 1/2 cup of sugar I feed mine 3/4 cup sugar.

My Bread recipe is as follows.

1 cup starter
1/3  cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Warm water
1/2 cup oil
6 cups bread flour
(you can also use whole wheat flour as well. I like a 50/50 mix of flours. Makes for a good bread).
1 teaspoon salt

Put starter in a mixing bowl. Add Sugar and water. Add oil. Then add the flour and salt. Mix till dough is not sticky. (I use my Kitchen aid mixer with the dough hook, but you could use your hands if you want). Let rise and then punch down and divide into loaves. Rise again and then bake. 350 for about 40 to 45 minutes. (also depending on what you are making and how big your loaves are.)

Hope you enjoy and Happy Baking!

Easy Turnovers

I decided to make Turnovers for a Christmas Eve party. They were a huge hit and I didn't come home with any left. I made them again on New Years Eve for breakfast the next morning. Again a huge hit.

I started out with puff pastry. You get it in the freezer section at your local grocery store. Bring it to room temperature.

Once you have it at room temperature unfold it and cut it into squares. I got 9 out of each sheet of puff pastry.

Then take your favorite pie filling (I used cherry, apple and blueberry), and put about a tablespoon of the filling on the center of a pastry square.

Fold over the edge to make a triangle shape. Take a fork and press the edges closed. Place the turnover on a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (makes clean up a lot easier). Brush the turnovers with an egg wash. One egg white with one teaspoon water mixed together. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400 for about 12-15 minutes. 

Then drizzle a powdered sugar glaze. There you have it yummy turnovers.

Powdered Sugar Glaze

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1 cup powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons Milk (more if needed)

1 teaspoon vanilla.

Mix all together till a dizzling consistency, adding more milk if needed.

Torch Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

We were having an Olympic type activity at church and I was to bring the dessert. I wanted to make something that looked like a torch. I had made torch cookies before but I wanted to make something different. So Torch Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.

I was trying to figure out how to bake these so they wouldn't end up tipping over in the oven. I took the muffin tin and covered it with tin foil. I did two layers so it would give it a little more stability. I then punched a hole over each section.

I placed the cone inside the hole and filled the cone up with the cake batter. I just used a white cake mix. Fill it to the line in the cone.

Bake the Cupcake cones for about 18 minutes. Then let cool.

Because I was making Torches I wanted the icing to look like flames. I placed orange food coloring on the inside of a decorating bag then put yellow frosting in the bag. I then piped stars all over the cupcakes to make them look like flames.

These were the finished product. Everybody loved them and they matched the theme we were going for.

Mississippi Mud Brownies

We love brownies in this house. I thought for a Sunday dinner dessert I would make these. They were SO good. I started out with a brownie mix. I followed the directions for the fudgy type brownies but if you like the cake type brownies go ahead an follow that recipe. I put the brownies in the pan and cooked them according to the instructions. I used a 9x13 inch pan.

When the brownies came out of the oven I immediately put almost a whole bag of mini marshmallows on top . You just want a nice single layer of marshmallows. I took a can and a half of chocolate frosting and melted it in the microwave. I then carefully poured it all over the top of the marshmallows.

 I then let them cool for an hour or so. You do want them to cool other wise you will just have a big mess. Cut them up and enjoy.

Neapolitan Cake

I made this cake a while back for a Church Pot luck dinner. It was very yummy. I started out with 3 cakes. Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla. You can either make it from scratch or make the cakes with a cake mix. With this one I used cake mixes. I prefer Duncan Hines cake mixes if I am going to be making something with a cake mix. I like the texture of it better than the other cake mixes. 

I started off with the chocolate layer first. I piped a ring of buttercream around the edge to keep the filling in. The filling for this layer was a fudge filling. You could either make your own or for time I used the ice cream topping fudge. Spread it smooth.

Next place the strawberry cake on the chocolate layer. I layered strawberries on this layer or if you wanted you could use a strawberry jelly and layer it just like the chocolate fudge layer.

I then placed the white layer on top and gave the cake a crumb coat of buttercream.

I then tinted the buttercream pink and brown. I placed tip 1M in a piping bag and starting with the chocolate layer I piped chocolate rosettes. I then piped pink rosettes then finished the cake off with white rosettes.

There you have it my version of the Neapolitan cake.