Sweet Me Up: Desserts by miVi

And the only thing I can’t find is the point.

 I came across this while looking for a new chocolate glaze recipe. I found this, but oddly enough it gave me the option to go here.

The recipe is pretty straightforward but if you opt to change the recipe to the puzzle, be sure to take down the measurements… or don’t. I guess that might be half the fun… I guess.

Okay, call me simple but greasing and flouring cake pans tend to be hit or miss with me. I mean, how hard can it possibly be? Either way, each time I do get the significant layer of crumbs come off the bottom and sides of my cakes until I shallowed my pride and bought Wilton’s Cake Release.

No need to grease and flour your baking pan - Cake Release coats in one step. Simply spread Cake Release lightly on pan bottom and sides with a pastry brush and fill with batter. Cakes release every time, giving you the ideal surface for decorating. Now in convenient dispensing bottle. Certified Kosher. Each 8 oz. container is enough to prepare 17 pans. Especially great for use with any of the Wilton character or shaped pans, too!

I’m sure it’s just someone who took the time to mix oil and flour and bottle it but man do I love it! I’m usually bothered by that layer of crumbs but not anymore. Thanks for making a simple task idiotproof… I needed it.

A friend of mine passed this little ditty to me with a simple email “I saw this… and thought of you.”

Experiments in deliciousness: Bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze.

This whole thing started the other night when my husband and I were having a conversation about what foods could and could not be made better with the addition of bacon.

 Bless you woman and our shared love for bacon and bakin’!

(Thanks for the link Chris!)

The Chocolate Chip Cookie finds itself on the top of my list not because it’s highly addictive and delicious, but because with every lick of the beater, it takes me back to my childhood. My mother would bake her chocolate chip cookies, albeit not very often, and my sister and I would anticipate when she was done so we can each have a beater as though it was a lollipop from the fair. There we would sit contently cleaning off the excess batter she left on purpose just for us.

Thing is though, there are many different chocolate chip cookie recipes out there (and yes, call me a purist, but the pre-made cookie dough, although ideal for those girls’ nights in where you curse men and blame parents, does not even qualify as a #1 favourite). That said, the recipe I’ve worked off of for years is the Nestle Tollhouse original recipe. I’ve made my own adjustments which I will not share with you but hey, nothing sucks about the original!

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup butter; softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecans; chopped (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minute; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

The way I find my recipes on the Internet, I think of a dessert combination and google for recipe hoping someone else out there has thought of it and then I try to see what I can do to make it better/different. In this case, it was cheesecake in cookie form and I didn’t alter it one bit. It has a thicker and more edible consistency than cheesecake batter (which I do not recommend you eat) and is not as ridiculously sweet like cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup cream cheese; softened
• ½ cup butter; softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a large bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese. Gradually beat in sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and salt.
3. Whisk together baking powder and flour in a small bowl and, mixing on low speed, add to cream cheese mixture.
4. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchement-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edge just barely turns brown. Cool on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar as desired.

It truly surprised me the amount of restraint I didn’t use when preparing these cookies for the oven. There’s nothing like the aroma of cinnamon baking in the oven but I must admit I was in no hurry to put them there. Fun fact: it was this recipe that inspired me to think back to all my favourite cookie batters (also, it’s important to note that trying to think of a #5 was very difficult - so it’s not so much a “Top 5″ list but merely a “My 5″ list.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 ½ cup flour
• 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• Cinnamon sugar (½ cup sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon)
• Butter glaze (1 cup icing sugar, 2 tbsp. melted butter, 2 tbsp. hot water)

1. In mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, cinnamon. baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and blend well.
3. Cover and refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours).
4. Shape into 3/4-inch balls and roll in Cinnamon Sugar.
5. Bake at 350ºF for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with Butter Glaze.

Kudos to the cookie that almost taste the same pre-oven! The only thing that separates this batter from its cookie counterpart is a slight crumbling when that buttery dough hits your mouth… ahem, where was I?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• ½ cup icing sugar
• ½ cup corn starch
• 1 ½ cup flour
• ½ tsp. vanilla

1. Chop butter into chunks then process with icing sugar in a food processor with the blade until well creamed.
2. Add remaining ingredients and process until just mixed. (Optional: refrigerate the dough while you make another batch.)
3. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten using a fork then sprinkle with decorative sugar.
4. Bake at 350ºF for 10-12 minutes; watching carefully until edged are lightly browned.

What better way to solidify sweetened condensed milk so you can chew it than adding flaked coconut!

• 7 2/3 cups flaked coconut (3 pkg at 7 oz. each)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup canned cream of coconut (not coconut milk)
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• ¼ tsp. almond extract
• 1 egg
• 1 pkg. milk chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
2. Sprinkle 1 cup of the coconut over foil. Bake 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown; cool.
3. Mix toasted coconut, remaining coconut, flour and salt in a large bowl. Beat milk, cream of coconut, vanilla, almond extract and egg in medium bowl until well mixed. Pour milk over coconut mixture; stir until well mixed.
4. Drop mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown (the cookies will be soft in the center and set at edges). Immediately slide lining with cookies from cookie sheet to a wire rack to cool completely; about 30 minutes.
6. Heat chocolate chips and oil in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally until chips are melts. Either drizzle over cookies or dip half of cookie into the chocolate. Let stand about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.

This recipe was taken from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook.

There’s something somewhat sinful about eating cookie batter - like sneaking a peek at a Christmas present one day too soon. I try very hard not to eat too many of the things I baked (a sample bite here and there doesn’t hurt) and I almost NEVER taste-test the batter!

However, there are some cookies that I will indulge in before they hit the oven. Stay tuned for my top 5 favourite/addictive cookie batters.