Chocolate Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful day!  I've been loving Pinterest lately, and I came across this great recipe for hot cross buns, and decided I had to make it.

I've only ever eaten hot cross buns once before, and I have to say, I wasn't at all impressed.  They were from the supermarket and were pretty gross.  I've also never baked anything with yeast before because I have an irrational fear of messing it up somehow.

But this recipe looked so good I decided it was worth it.  It was.  I am still terrified of baking with yeast though.

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients:

For the buns-
21 g instant dry yeast (this is 3 normal packets, or 2 1/2 packets of the organic yeast I bought since my grocery store was out of normal yeast)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
4 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened dried cranberry

For the glaze-
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp hot water

For the crosses-
1/4 cup melted white chocolate

Directions:
-Whisk the lukewarm milk, sugar and dry yeast in a small bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes. It should become frothy and increase in size (mine didn't do very much of either, but apparently it worked anyway).
-Put the dough hook on your mixer and add the flour and salt in the bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the melted butter, lightly beaten egg, frothy yeast mixture, cranberry, and chocolate chips.
-Turn the mixer on low and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place it in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in warm place for an hour or so, until the dough doubles in size.
-Line a large baking pan with parchment paper.
-Once the dough has risen, knock it down.  Divide the dough evenly into 15-18 balls and place them close together on the baking tray.
-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cover the hot cross buns with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for 20 minutes.
-Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. While the buns are baking, prepare your glaze.
For the glaze, dissolve the sugar in the hot water.
-Once the buns are cooked, remove them from the oven and quickly brush them with a few coats of the glaze.
-To make the crosses, melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts on medium, stirring in between. Put the chocolate into a small ziploc bag, snip off the end and pipe crosses across the chocolate chip buns.

Blueberry Lemon Banana Muffins

Once again, it's Crazy Cooking Challenge time!  This month, we had to find a blueberry muffin recipe and make it.  I love muffins, so this was a fun one.  I had a really hard time narrowing down the great recipes I found, but I finally settled on this one.

Ingredients:

For the Muffins:
-2 1/4 cup flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-2 large ripe bananas, mashed
-2 eggs
-2/3 brown sugar
-1/2 cup butter, melted
-1 tbsp vanilla
-1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
-1 1/2 cups of blueberries
-2 tbsp grated lemon zest, divided
-3 tbsp sugar

For the Streusel Topping:
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1/4 cup of flour
-1/4 cup of butter, cubed
-2 tsp ground cinnamon

yum, streusel topping-my daughter ate a bunch of it from the bowl

 Directions:

-Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

-Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and zest of 1 lemon together in a small bowl.
-Using an electric mixer, beat together the bananas, eggs, brown sugar, melted butter, lemon juice, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined then carefully add 1 cup of blueberries and gently mix together.
-Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Sprinkle the remaining blueberries evenly over the tops of each muffin, making sure to push them down a bit.

-Combine the streusel ingredients together in a bowl using a fork or hands. Mix until it is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over each muffin.
 -Bake for 27 minutes until a toothpick insterted in the center comes out clean.

Everyone in my family loved these muffins.  The original recipe didn't have a streusel topping, but streusel makes everything taste better, so I gave it one.  The muffins also turned out incredibly dense.  I'm not sure why, but I would have liked them a little fluffier.  They still tasted amazing, though.  The blueberries were juicy, and the lemon and banana balanced out the flavors.  The topping made it super satisfying.  My daughter ate 5 of the 12 muffins.  I will definitely be making these again, and soon!

Spaghetti Pie

This month's Crazy Cooking Challenge is spaghetti!  I love pasta, so I knew it was one I would really enjoy.  The only requirements were that we use spaghetti (not ziti or other pasta shapes), and red sauce.  I found a great recipe for Spaghetti Pie from That Skinny Chick Can Bake, and decided to make it.  I'm from New York and have never even heard of Spaghetti Pie, but it looks yummy!

Ingredients:
-8 oz (or 1/2 package) spaghetti noodles
-3 eggs
-1/4 to 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (I used a handful and didn't actually measure)
-8 oz sour cream
-1 package Gimme Lean ground beef style (or 1 pound of real ground beef)
-1/2 jar tomato sauce (I used Ragu)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella

Egg and Parmesan mixture

Directions:-Preheat oven to 350
-Cook and cool spaghetti noodles.  Heat Gimme Lean in about a tablespoon of oil until it is lightly browned and crumbly.

Sour cream on top

-Add spaghetti to a 9 inch pie plate (or a 1 1/2 quart oval dish-I have no pie plates).  In a small bowl, mix eggs and Parmesan together.  Pour over noodles and mix so noodles are coated.

Gimme Lean (or beef)

 -Add sour cream on top, followed by the Gimme Lean, the sauce, and finally, the mozzarella cheese.

sauce layer

-Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Cheesy

I did change a few things from the original recipe.  Firstly, I used vegetarian meat because I don't eat beef.  I also used 3 eggs instead of 2 because the spaghetti in the picture of the original recipe looked a little dry, and I was afraid the noodles would get crunchy, and then my kids would refuse to eat it.  It turned out really well. The pasta wasn't dry at all, and it was a totally new take on spaghetti for me.  My kids loved it, and my boyfriend thought it was so good, he ate half the casserole dish.  We will definitely be making this again.

Baked and bubbly-yum

Banana Chocolate Cake Pops

T begged me to  make cake pops for his birthday.  I planned on making cupcakes, but who am I to deny the birthday boy?  We went through the cabinets and he picked out banana cake mix.  I decided to use chocolate frosting with it, and they were super good.

I also noticed that the banana cake was more moist than the other cakes I've made for cake pops, so I only had to use 1/2 a container of frosting instead of most of the can.

Ingredients:
1 box banana cake mix, made according to package directions
1/2 can of chocolate fudge frosting
2 pounds milk chocolate candy melts
lollipop sticks

-crumble the cake and mix with frosting
-refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, then roll into balls
-dip end of lollipop stick in melted chocolate, then insert halfway through ball
-freeze balls 20-30 minutes
-dip in chocolate and serve when ready

Funfetti Fudge!

This month's Crazy Cooking Challenge was fudge.  I was really excited because I love to eat fudge but I've never tried making it before.  I searched Pintrest until I found a bunch of recipes.  Then I narrowed it down to the easy ones that my kids could help me make.

I settled on Funfetti flavored fudge, which I found here.  And it turned out awesome.  My not-quite 4-year-old had tons of fun stirring in the sprinkles, and eating the fudge.  It turned out really sweet though.  I thought it was great, and so did the kids, but none of the other adults who tried it could really eat much.  I guess I just have a huge sweet tooth.

Ingredients:

3/4 of can of  sweetened condensed milk
2 cups white chocolate chips (this is equal to 1 12 oz bag)
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
rainbow sprinkles

-Heat water in double boiler.  Add chocolate chips and condensed milk and stir until melted.  At this point, the mixture was really sticky.

-Stir in vanilla and almond extracts.  These made the mixture nice and smooth.

-Take off the heat and quickly stir in a handful of rainbow sprinkles.  Stir quickly until combined, so they don't melt.

-Pour into an 8x8 foil-lined pan.  Add more sprinkles on top.

-Cut into 1" cubes when set.

Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza and Roll-Ups

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know we did.  Ours was small, just me, the boyfriend, the kids, my parents and my sister  (since we are now finally back on speaking terms, which I'm grateful for).

My mom and I did all the cooking, as usual, while the boyfriend pretty much slept all day and my dad watched football.  It was hectic, but fun.

With Thanksgiving comes leftovers.  I usually hate leftovers, but there's something about all the flavors of Thanksgiving that I love.  So I try to be creative with them so it's not boring.

Last year, I made the most incredible roll ups with crescent roll dough.  This year, I had pre-baked pizza crusts that were going to expire, so that is what I used.  Although I really recommend making roll-ups if you've never tried them.  They are amazing and easy, and the entire family (even my picky children who wouldn't eat the actual Thanksgiving dinner) loved them.

Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza or Roll-Ups

1 pizza crust or package of crescent rolls
cranberry sauce
bite size pieces of turkey
gravy
leftover mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and/or any other leftover veggies on hand
shredded cheddar cheese

-If using crescent rolls, unroll the entire sheet and pinch together where the perforations are.  Preheat the oven according to package directions.
-Spread a layer of cranberry sauce all over the pizza crust or dough (if using crescent rolls, leave 1/2" around all sides so it doesn't squeeze out when you roll it up)
-Sprinkle turkey pieces on crust or dough.  Do the same with the other leftovers.  For mashed potatoes and stuffing, I take a piece of it in my hand and crumble it over the top so there's little clumps of potato, not a thick layer that covers the entire thing.
-Put some gravy on top, followed by cheddar cheese.
-If you're using pizza crust, you're done-just pop it in the oven and bakef until everything is hot.  If you're using crescent roll dough, take one long end and carefully roll the dough until you have a log.  Cut 1" thick slices and lay them on a baking sheet.  Bake according to package directions.

Mashed Potatoes and Carrots

I think potatoes should be a food group unto themselves.  That is how much I love them.  So when I found out that the Crazy Cooking Challenge recipe for November was mashed potatoes, I was really excited.  I searched and searched for the perfect recipe.  I usually make roasted garlic mashed potatoes or loaded mashed potatoes, so I wanted something different.

Then I found it.  Mashed Potatoes and Carrots from Kitchen Parade's A Veggie Venture.  I remember mashing some carrots with a fork into my mashed potatoes as a kid, but I never even thought of making mashed potatoes and carrots as a dish unto itself.

Ingredients:
1 pound Yukon Gold Potatoes (but I had russets, so that's what I used)
1 pound carrots, scrubbed and peeled
1 Tbsp butter (I probably used closer to 2 or 3)
salt and pepper, to taste
Optional (because this is what I added that was extra)
2 heads garlic
2 small onions, chopped

-if using garlic, preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut off the top of the heads of garlic.  Place heads on a piece of foil and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for about 40 minutes, until garlic is soft.

It should look like this when it is done

-Peel potatoes and carrots.  Dice them into 1/2" cubes.  Place in a dutch oven or a big pot and add water to cover.  Turn heat on Medium-High.  When water comes to a boil, add salt and a little butter (it prevents the water from boiling over).  Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook 20-30 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are fork tender.

-If using onions, peel, cut in half, and dice into small pieces.  Add to a saute pan with some butter, and cook until golden.  Once cooked, add some salt.

Onions go from this....

...to this.

-While you're waiting for the potatoes to be done, take the roasted garlic out of it's skin.  You could just smush it all out, but I like to take out each clove.  Be careful if you do this, if the garlic is still hot you can burn your fingers!

There's my roasted garlic out of the skin

-Drain potatoes and carrots, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid (I forgot to do this and drained the whole thing).  Mash carrots and potatoes, using a hand mixer or a potato masher (I always use a potato masher-I think potatoes can get gluey with a mixer), adding reserved liquid and butter (I used about 1/4 cup of milk, since I didn't save the water).
-Season to taste with salt and pepper.

And voila! Mashed potatoes and carrots.

So here are my thoughts on this recipe.  It was really simple and it tastes great.  I had to add a ton of salt.  I added more than I normally would for 5 pounds of potatoes-it was really bland without it (and I hate pepper, so I never add it to anything).  I noticed it took less milk than regular mashed potatoes would, and I'm sure it would have been healthier if I remembered to just save the cooking water, but it was good with the milk.

It's my first challenge that I am participating in, so I don't know if I'm really allowed to add more to the recipe, so I'm sorry if changing it a little is a bad thing.  My family loves garlic, and we cook everything with it.  And I had a couple onions laying around, so I figured I'd add them too and it would be a healthy meal.  I will definitely be making this recipe again.  It is so simple and quick, and I'm pretty sure it's healthier than most of the recipes I make.





I'm also linking to

Snow Days and Soup

I always loved the first snow day of the year.  My sister and I would sleep in, only to realize the winter wonderland before us hours after we would have normally needed to be up.  Excited, we would pull on our snowsuits, gloves, hats, and boots, and our dad would take us out sledding.

We trudged down the snow-covered street to the hill at the elementary school.  It was the biggest perk of living two houses away from the school.  We would sled until our faces were red and our fingers were numb.

Once we entered our vestibule and stomped the snow off our boots, we opened the door to the house and were hit with the smell of potato soup. 

My mom has always cooked potato soup on snowy days.  I love anything potato.  As far as I'm concerned, potatoes should be in their own food group.

I always rushed into the kitchen, got my chair and dragged it to the stove, and helped.  My mom would have the chicken broth, onion, and potato chunks simmering on the stove.  It was my job to mash the potatoes when they were done.  Not all of them, just enough to make the soup a little creamy but still a little chunky.

My mom then ladled the soup into mugs, and I added a couple spoonfuls of Parmesan cheese into each mug, followed by a sprinkle of dried parsley.  The whole family sat at the kitchen table and ate soup for lunch while we talked about sledding and the snow.

My mom still makes me this soup on snowy days, even though I could (in theory) make it myself.  It tastes better when she does it.  I know it's a really simple recipe, but when I think of winter and snow days, I immediately think of my mom's potato soup.  It is everything good about winter.  So far only Princess shares my love of this soup, but I'm hoping the boys will eventually follow suit.

Mom's Potato Soup
-2 cans chicken broth
-1 small onion, chopped
-4-6 russet potatoes (this really varies depending on the size of the potatoes, but I say more is better), cut into 1/2" cube
-Parmesan cheese, 2-3 spoonfuls per serving
-dried parsley, for garnish

-Add first 3 ingredints to 2qt saucepan and simmer about 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender.  Use a potato masher to mash about half the potatoes.
-Ladle soup into a mug or bowl and add Parmesan cheese and parsley. Serve and enjoy.

This post was written in response to this week's RemembeRED prompt from Write on Edge. Take me back…whether to a month ago or decades ago.  Share with me a special recipe, but don’t just list out ingredients.  Take me there…in 500 words or less.

Pumpkin Muffins and Chocolate Cherry Brownies and a Deco Phone Case

I've seen a number of awesome looking recipes on the link ups I've done over the past few weeks.  So I decided to try a few this weekend.  One was successful, one was not.  Both were easy 2-3 ingredient recipes, so I had T help me make them.

First up was pumpkin muffins.  They turned out well.  All we used was a box of spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.  Just mix it all together, put it in a cupcake pan, and bake according to the directions on the cake mix.  I made 12 muffins with this, even though the cake mix said it would make 24 cupcakes.  I also baked them 6 minutes longer than the box said, as the toothpick I initially inserted was not clean.

My only improvement for next time will be to use a bigger can of pumpkin.  I used a 16 oz can and the muffins are slightly drier than I would like.  I want them to be more like the ones from Dunkin Donuts, which are really mushy and pumpkin-y.

And I will be glazing them in the morning before breakfast.  Just mix together 2 tbsp. milk, 1 tbsp. melted butter, 1-2 tsp. vanilla extract, and a cup of powdered sugar.  You may have some left over depending on how much glaze you put on each muffin.

 Next we made chocolate cherry brownies.  They are not so good.  The only two ingredients are brownie mix and a can of cherry pie filling.  You also bake these according to brownie box directions.  They are very gooey, and not in a good, ooey-gooey way.  More like a gluey gooey.  They are edible, but I have some improvements so they taste good.

First, make the brownie mix according to the directions on the box, with the eggs and oil and water.  I always use the fudgy brownie directions instead of the cake like brownie directions.  Instead of cherry pie filling, use plain canned, jarred, or frozen cherries.  And it never hurts to add half a package of chocolate chips.  These taste much better.

You can see how gluey gooey these are, even in a picture

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I made an awesome Hello Kitty Deco phone case.  It is spectacular, and if anyone is interested, I can do a tutorial.  Or you can buy it from my Etsy shop, even though it is not listed yet since my digital camera is MIA and I am not comfortable listing items for sale with a cell phone camera.

The case is pink and covered in pink and blue faux pearls. I love it.

Coco-Lime Cheesecake- Savvy Homemade Monday

I know summer has officially ended this weekend, but I want to keep it alive with my awesome cheesecake bars.  I made these for my birthday party in July, and they were so awesome, I ate half the tray myself.  There is nothing more summery than coconut and lime.  I stole this recipe from Betty Crocker and tweaked it to make it better.

Ingredients
Crust layer
1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
2 Tbsp. flour
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
(or you can make your own sugar cookie dough if you have time.  Or use premade, refrigerated dough if you don't have enough time to mix the package mix)
Filling
2 packages cream cheese
16 oz cream of coconut (I found this in the aisle where the drink mixers are-they also sell it at the liquor store)
2 limes, juiced (or use 3 Tbsp. of the lime juice in the jar shaped like a lime)
4 packets of True Lime
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese
1 stick softened butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar (you can use up to 1 1/2 cups to taste)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 packets True Lime
(if you don't have time to make frosting, you can use canned cream cheese frosting, and just add True Lime to it)
Topping
1 1/4 cups toasted coconut
zest of 2 limes (you can use more if you want)

-Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir cookie base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press evenly in bottom of pan. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.

-Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in cream of coconut until well blended. Beat in lime juice, true lime, vanilla and 2 eggs until smooth. Spread over cookie base.


-Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until set and light golden brown on edges. Cool 30 minutes at room temperature. Refrigerate 1 hour to cool completely.

-Place cream cheese for frosting in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla and true lime, and stir to combine.

-Carefully spread frosting over filling. Sprinkle with coconut and lime peel. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Photo courtesy of Betty Crocker, since I ate mine before photographing them