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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Easy Halloween Treat - Peanut Butter Oreo Brownies

Hey there everyone and welcome back to my blog! I hope you have been having a great weekend and are enjoying your Halloween celebrations. If you have a party to go this week, instead of bringing a bag of candy - try these easy treats out! With only a small handful of ingredients you can make an impressive dessert to bring to your Halloween party.



You will need the following ingredients and tools:

1 box of brownie mix, prepared as directed on the box (make sure it doesn't have any nuts or chocolate chunks - you want a smooth batter)
1 package of peanut butter Oreos
1 can of chocolate frosting
1 bag of reese's pieces and optional sprinkles (I just couldn't find any at my store..)
A mixing bowl and a muffin tray


Start off by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare your brownies according to the box directions. Work out any lumps as you will want to have a smooth batter.


Then, take a peanut butter Oreo and dip it in the brownie batter. May sure you cover the entire oreo in batter, and shake off any excess.


Place your Oreo brownies in a greased muffin tin and cook for ~12 minutes. Make sure you do not over cook them, because they can turn into hockey pucks pretty quickly!

Once cooked, run a knife around the edges of each Oreo brownie and gently pop them out of the muffin tin. Allow to cool completely before decorating with frosting. reese's pieces and sprinkles.


If you have any other easy Halloween recipes that you are using this year, share a link in the comments below! I hope you all have a great week and a safe and happy Halloween!






Sunday, October 20, 2013

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Happy Sunday Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the last weekend of semi-warm weather and are ready to really get into fall! I made these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins last weekend and they got rave reviews! Even my step dad requested me to make another batch soon! These muffins take a few more steps than just preparing a boxed mix, but I promise you it is SO worth it!

Warning!!! If you want to make these, make sure your prepare your filling way ahead of time since it will need to chill!



You will need:

  • For the filling:
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • For the muffins:
  • Dry:
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Wet:
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 can pumpkin puree 
  • 1¼ cups vegetable oil
  • For the topping:
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 5 tablespoons flour
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Start off by making the filling. As I mentioned you will want to do this way before hand since you need to chill it in the freezer for at least two hours. Mix your cream cheese and powdered sugar. Then, place the filling on a piece of saran wrap and shape it into a long log shape. I placed a piece of foil around the log to reinforce it. Place the log in the freezer for at least two hours. 


When you feel your filling has been chilling long enough, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place all of your dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix well. You are dealing with quite a few spices here so you want to make sure they are evenly distributed throughout.



In a separate bowl mix together your wet ingredients with a hand mixer. Then, combine your dry ingredients with your wet ingredients. I like to add a little bit at a time so it doesn't create too much of a mess. You will end up with a pretty thick batter, much like the consistency of pumpkin pie filling before you bake it.



Now, make your topping. Mix your sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Then cut in your butter. To learn how to cut butter into dry ingredients, see my previous blog on Pumpkin Scones!  Your topping should be a crumbly consistency. If your butter gets too warm, simply place the topping in the fridge for 20 minutes.


To assemble the muffins, place paper or foil cupcake/muffin liners in your muffin pan. Add your first layer of pumpkin muffin batter. I used one heaping tablespoon of batter to just cover the bottom. Then take your chilled filling and cut it up into 24 pieces. Add a piece of filling to each muffin cup.



Cover the filling with the rest of your batter. Sprinkle a small handful of toppings over each muffin.


Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.






I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we did at my house. I will definitely be making these again before everyone is "pumpkin-ed out"! Thanks again for checking in to read my blog. Leave your requests and questions below!!


                                        Sunday, October 13, 2013

                                        Requested: Chicken Puffs!

                                        Happy Sunday Everyone! 

                                        Today has been a good one, with beautiful weather, a WIN for the Eagles, and a day spent in the kitchen! Mom made ribs and chili earlier and I followed behind her with this throw-back recipe for Chicken Puffs. My mom used to make these all of the time, but I don't remember since I was so young. Luckily my dad put in a request for these so here they are! 


                                        You will need the following:

                                        2 cups of chopped, cooked chicken
                                        3 oz. cream cheese
                                        2 tablespoons melted butter
                                        1/4 tablespoon pepper
                                        1/2 tablespoon salt
                                        1 tablespoon chives
                                        1 can of crescent rolls
                                        some more melted butter.. for coating your puffs
                                        Bread crumbs

                                        This is honestly one of the easiest recipes ever, so I know why my mom made them all the time.

                                        Start off by using a hand mixer to combine the cream cheese and melted butter. Then mix in your chopped chicken, pepper, salt and chives. 



                                        Then take your crescent rolls and combine two individual rolls to make a rectangle. You will be able to make four rectangles from one can of dough. 




                                        Drop a large spoonful of your chicken mix onto the dough and bring up the corners to form a pouch. Just keep pinching where there are openings until the pouch is sealed. These do not need to look pretty so its super easy! 




                                        Take each puff and dip the top in melted butter and then roll the puff into bread crumbs. My mom used to use crushed up italian croutons for bread crumbs, but I used panko for some extra crunch. 




                                        Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 


                                        Eat them up! These are the definition of comfort food and great for a cool fall night. Thank you to my dad for requesting these! Everyone is happy to have them in the house!! Try making these yourselves with different chicken mixtures - BBQ or Buffalo Chicken maybe! 


                                        Please leave your recipe requests or cooking questions down below! Have a great week!!! 





                                        Monday, October 7, 2013

                                        Super Easy (and Impressive) Pumpkin Scones!!!

                                        Hey guys! Sorry I am a day late but I was having too good of a weekend! Here is a quick and easy recipe to make pumpkin scones! Impress your friends by making these - they'll be asking for more - seriously my coworkers have already put in a request for another batch!! 

                                        Preheat your oven to 425 degrees - hot hot hot! 


                                        Start by mixing your dry ingredients:

                                        -2 Cups of Flour 
                                        -7 tablespoons sugar
                                        -1 tbl baking powder
                                        -1/2 tsp salt
                                        -2 tsp pumpkin spice

                                        Mix these in a large bowl and "cut in" 6 tablespoons of butter. To learn how to "cut in" check out this video:

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RAONX3BZZU - Shout out to Betty!







                                        After you cut in the butter - just like Betty says! I did it with a fork - use what you have!



                                        Now mix your wet ingredients in a separate bowl:

                                        -1/2 Cup of pumpkin
                                        -1 egg
                                        -3 TBL half+half


                                        Tah-dah!


                                        Now, mix you wet ingredients into your dry. At some point you may need to use your hands, since this is a think dough that you want to put into a ball. Here's what your hands might look like
                                        (and yup thats me in my Sunday glory - there's worse things on Facebook..)


                                        Plop out your dough onto a lightly floured cutting board. 



                                        And roll it out into a circle or a rectangle.
                                        A circle will give you 8 large scones a rectangle will give you 16 mini scones. 



                                        Ok this is the tricky part. You want to cut three vertical cuts and one horizontal cut in the dough. Then, take each quadrant and cut a diagonal line to make triangles.
                                        If you make large ones, just cut it like a pizza! 


                                        Place your mini scones on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake for 14 minutes. 





                                        Quick note: Apparently pumpkin is going to be expensive this year due to the wet summer.
                                        Save what you don't use for another recipe! 



                                        All cooked!


                                        To make a simple icing, mix powdered sugar with a little bit of milk until you get a thick glaze - you only need a little milk in your powdered sugar. I just added some pumpkin spice to the left over glaze to make the stripy parts! Keep it simple! 


                                        Yum!


                                        Thank you all for checking in with my blog again! Check back next week for a request from my own DAD and even more pumpkin recipes! Have a great week!