Tag Archives: baking

Favorite Holiday Recipes

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Things have been quiet here because I’m wrapping up the first half my internship and grad school! I’ll have an update soon and get back to my blogging action. In the meantime, with the holidays in full swing I thought I’d share some of my all time favorite holiday recipes.

Cookies
Dried Cherry and Almond Cookies with vanilla icing
I like anything by Giada and these cookies are a hit. The dough isn’t too sweet on its own so the vanilla icing is key to making these cookies extra special.
Toasted Hazelnut-Almond and Chocolate Biscotti
Hazelnut and Chocolate….need I say more? My favorite way to eat biscotti is to dip them in a piping hot cup of coffee. Perfectly acceptable for breakfast.
Greek Walnut Sugar Cookies (Kourabiedes)
These cookies are very similar to Mexican wedding cookies. Walnuts are ground finely, mixed with flour and rolled into small balls. After baking they are tossed with powdered sugar. The recipe calls for orange flower water but orange juice works as well.
Florentines
This lacey, crispy Italian almond cookie is very addicting and impossible to just eat one.
White Chocolate Cherry Chunkies
I don’t even like white chocolate but these cookies are delicious. I like to swap pistachios in place of the macadamia nuts.
Gingerbread Men
Once I found this recipe a few years ago I was hooked. This is the only gingerbread cookie recipe I make.
Peppermint Bark Chocolate Chip Cookies
One of my favorite ways to make a standard chocolate chip cookie more festive. Peppermint bark adds a hint of cool peppermint flavor that goes well with the chocolate.

Cakes, Brownies and Bars
Candy Cane Brownie Bites
I imagine these would be fun to bring along to a party. The recipe calls for a boxed brownie mix and candy cane Hershey kisses. They are perfect for a last minute dessert or for those who don’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes
How cute are these cupcakes? I can’t help by smile when I look at these.
Red Velvet Cake Balls
Fun activity with kids. Make the cake balls ahead of time and then let kids help you decorate them with different types of chocolate and candies.
White Chocolate Cranberry Bars
For those who like white chocolate these are the ultimate bars.
Eggnog Breakfast Crumble Cake
I bet this would be a delicious Christmas morning treat!

Candies for Gifts
Turtle Graham Bars
I made these twice last year during Christmas. Easy and delicious, sweet and salty.
Buttercrunch Toffee
Making toffee may seem scary but all you need is a good candy thermometer and recipe-following skills.
Salted Chocolate Caramel Bark
The moment I saw this recipe on Pinterest I knew I had to add it to my holiday baking list. All you need is 5 ingredients.
Triple Chocolate Cookies n’ Cream Peppermint Bark
Another recipe I made last year- contains dark, milk, and white chocolate topped with peppermint oreos.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
Being the cookie dough lover that I am, I cannot wait to make these. I have a feeling these won’t last long once made.
Cranberry Walnut Biscotti
Dip these biscotti in melted chocolate, drop in a plastic bag and tie with a pretty bow for a yummy gift.

 

I’m looking forward to going home in 2 weeks and baking up a storm. What’s your favorite holiday cookie? I’d love more ideas!

Mini Chocolate Chip Cakes

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Saturday night I babysat two of my little cousins. Our fun night included making dinner, baking and watching the movie Soul Surfer. Moni & Pili love helping out in the kitchen. We sang along to the Justin Bieber station on Pandora while I made them “Asian noodles”. When I asked them what they wanted for dinner they told me Chinese food. I improvised by I taking a package of cooked wide spaghetti noodles, tossing it with a honey ginger sauce and sliced beef. (I would have loved to add veggies but I lost the argument). The sauce I used was very simple to make. I just combined olive oil, garlic, ginger, salt, honey, rice vinegar, water and cornstarch in sauce pan and cooked until it thickened up.

We had a silly photoshoot. 

 

For me, babysitting nights = treat nights. I have very fond memories of my aunts babysitting us when I was little. I loved it. They were teenagers when I was in elementary school so it was cool to hang out with them. They would bake cookies with us, let us say “bad” words, drink soda, smoke chocolate “cigarettes” and stay up late. Now that I’m living in Houston and surrounded by my younger cousins I try to return the favor to my aunts. I know I was very spoiled since I was the first born- I suppose that means I owe my aunts a lot of babysitting time!

Anyways…for dessert we made individual chocolate chip cakes. The batter was a basic vanilla cake with chocolate chips. We divided the batter into a cupcake pan but all of the chocolate chips sank to the bottom. When I flipped the cakes out of the pan I realized they looked better upside down. We ate the cakes with powdered sugar while they were still warm. We couldn’t wait :)

Mini Chocolate Chip Cakes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 8 oz chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Line 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
  3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
  4. Put butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until pale and fluffy.
  5. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla.
  6. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the milk.
  7. Stir in chocolate chips.
  8. Spoon batter into each muffin cup. (The cakes won’t rise like regular cupcakes so make sure you fill it up all the way).
  9. Bake until pale golden, about 20 minutes.
  10. Flip the cupcakes onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
  11. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

The girls bought me this flower plant. They are adorable.

Key Lime Cupcakes

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Can you believe it is already late August? I tend to prefer the fall, but I’m still sad to see the summer end. It’s such a laid back time of year. I know I’ve been spoiled with having most of the summer off. Besides a 5 week summer semester, I’ve pretty much been free to do my own thing. I’ve had lots of fun playing around in the kitchen, both baking and cooking. I haven’t been posting all of my kitchen creations because my camera battery died and I left my charger in Houston. But then the other day I remembered my dad has a fancy camera. Just in time to photograph these pretty, summery cupcakes.

Key Lime Cupcakes

I made these key lime cupcakes the other day to bring over to my friend’s pool. The cupcakes are tangy and sweet, light and refreshing. The cake is a basic white batter with freshly squeezed lime juice and lime zest. I chose to top the cupcakes with a glaze rather than a thick frosting to keep them lighter.

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 ½ tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 ¾ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 cupcake tins.

Step 1: Cream butter with sugar.

Step 2: Add eggs and beat until well combined.

Step 3: Zest one lime. Add zest and juice of said lime to the batter.

Step 4: Mix well. The batter will look curdled (this is normal).

Step 5: In a small bowl combine all of the dry ingredients.

Step 6: Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter in 3 additions. Make sure to scrape the bowl as you go.

Step 7: Divide the batter into 12 cupcake tins. (Tip: put the batter into a measuring cup with a spout and pour into cupcake tins. It will make this step so much easier.)

Step 8: Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Step 9: Let cool completely.

Lime Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp lime zest
1 tbsp lime juice

Mix all ingredients together until smooth.


Once cupcakes are cool, top each one with a tablespoon of glaze.

I also added green sprinkles for fun.