Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Chocolate Peanut Butter Confetti



To prepare for the holidays, I decided to get my treats ready early and freeze them. My family and I are doing a cookie swap, and I wanted to make sure there was no stressing over what to bake for Christmas. I turned to the Company's Company cookbook series, and selected this square from Best Loved Treats. The recipe was called Butterscotch Confetti, but I altered it to resemble another square that I had tried before. FOr a colourful and tasty treat, try this out.

1 Cup Semi Sweet Chocolate (or 6 baking sqaures)
1/2 Cup Smooth Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup Butter

8oz package of multi-colored min marshmallows

Melt the first 3 ingredients. I accidentally used 1 cup of peanut butter--but it still worked! I melted these items in a saucepan at a low temperature. Remove from heat once everything is melted. When the pan is cool to the touch, add the marshmallows and stir evenly. Firmly press mixture into a 9 by 9 inch pan, and chill to set. Delicious!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Nice N' Easy Biscuits


Today I was making chile, and of course I needed something to dunk in there. Now, what goes good in chile? bread. What goes great in chile? Biscuits! So I just googled my way to a simple biscuit recipe, and was very pleased with the results. They were super easy and took practically no time to make. So you if you have time to make chile, then you got time to make these - yum!

Thank you Joy of Baking Website!

Recipe:
2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (12 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 grams) salt
1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 cup (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup (180 ml) milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Topping:
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon milk


Preheat oven
to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (use pastry blender, two knives, or fingertips). Add the milk and slightly beaten egg and stir until just combined. (The texture should be sticky, moist and lumpy.)

Place mixture on a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently until it comes together and is a smooth dough.

Roll out dough to 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thickness. Cut out biscuits with a lightly floured round cookie cutter. Place on prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with the beaten egg and milk mixture and bake for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the biscuit comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Serve warm with butter.

Makes about 12 3-inch (7.5 cm) biscuits.