Mint Chocolate Delights aka Chocolate Mint Cookies

Honey I’m home! Guess whose back?!

Sorry for the long hiatus After collage has started I’ve been a pretty busy girl. Not only are most of my days taken up by sleeping, studying, or going on my computer, but sadly my dorm does not have a kitchen. However it’s winter break and I decided to start off my break with two of my favorite combinations in the world! Mint and chocolate. I found this Nestle mint chocolate mints at Target and thinking of my favorite chocolate chocolate chip cookies from OVT I decided to combine them. I found this recipe on the back of the Nestle bag.

Delicious mint chocolate chips!

Dry mixture

Creamed butter.

Cookie dough! Yummmmy.

Ready to bake.

Done and cooling! I just took a bit to make sure they were ok!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels

Directions
1. PREHEAT oven to 325° F.
2. COMBINE flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. BAKE for 11 to 13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Grade: A+
So delicious!!!! You can never go wrong with peppermint and chocolate!

Apple Turnovers

So basically as I’m writing this I’m in my dorm in college. I made these the Friday right before I left for move in day. These were very simple and so easy to make!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cups water
4 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1 (17.25 ounce) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

Directions
1. Combine the lemon and 4 cups water in a large bowl. Place the sliced apples in the water to keep them from browning.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Drain water from apples, and place them into the hot skillet. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, and cinnamon, and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Stir together cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water. Pour into the skillet, and mix well. Cook for another minute, or until sauce has thickened. Remove from heat to cool slightly.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Unfold puff pastry sheets, and repair any cracks by pressing them back together. Trim each sheet into a square. Then cut each larger square into 4 smaller squares. Spoon apples onto the center of each squares. Fold over from corner to corner into a triangle shape, and press edges together to seal. Place turnovers on a baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch between them.
5. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until turnovers are puffed and lightly browned. Cool completely before glazing.
6. To make the glaze, mix together the confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Adjust the thickness by adding more sugar or milk if necessary. Drizzle glaze over the cooled turnovers.

Baked Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Some delicious red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that I made the Thursday before college move in day.

Eclairs

Let’s just while I made these eclairs, I learned how it felt like to be everyone else. As in not me, the baker extraordinaire. Let me explain, baking comes easy to come, I read a recipe, follow directions, and then ta-da! I mean I’m no expert in french baking but hey I want to say I’m a pretty decent baker….but not while making these darn eclairs. For the first time in the longest time I had to try THREE times to finally get the end result. First and second batch I used the Martha Stewart recipe and the first batch did not puff up at all. Second match turned brown and burned. And finally, third time’s a charm using Alton’s Brown recipe I achieved what I wanted. As for the pastry cream, I’ve had experience so this turned out well. Nevertheless these eclairs were delicious and I was so wiped and exhausted when I finished.

Pate a Choux from Food Network

Ingredients
1 cup water
3/4 stick butter (6 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon sugar plus 1/8 teaspoon salt (for sweet)
1 teaspoon salt (for savory)
5 3/4 ounces flour
1 cup eggs, about 4 large eggs and 2 whites

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Boil water, butter, and salt or sugar. Add flour and remove from heat. Work mixture together and return to heat. Continue working the mixture until all flour is incorporated and dough forms a ball. Transfer mixture into bowl of a standing mixer and let cool for 3 or 4 minutes. With mixer on stir or lowest speed add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before continuing. Once all eggs have been added and the mixture is smooth put dough into piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately into golfball-size shapes, 2 inches apart onto parchment lined sheet pans. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. Once they are removed from the oven pierce with a paring knife immediately to release steam.

Pastry Cream from Martha Stewart

Ingredients
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions
1. Prepare an ice bath; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine egg yolks, egg, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Add cornstarch and flour; whisk until smooth and pale yellow. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine milk and remaining 3/4 cup sugar. Stir over medium-high heat until milk begins to steam. Whisking constantly, add half the hot milk to the egg-yolk mixture. Stir until smooth; add combined mixture back to remaining hot milk in the pan. Bring mixture to a boil, whisking rapidly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Strain through a fine sieve into a medium bowl.
3. Place over ice bath and let stand, stirring frequently, until cool. Remove from ice bath, and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto surface until ready to use. If not using immediately, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Grade: A++
So delicious! I bought these to a get together at Chitpole and in minutes they were gone!

S’more Brownies

This recipe was inspired by my friend Olga’s roommate. Taken from Food Network.

Crust mixture.

Graham cracker crust.

Melted chocolate and butter.

Brownie batter.

Ready to bake brownies.

Brownies finished baking.

Melting marshmellows.

Yummy!

Ingredients
Crust:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch fine salt

Brownie:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
4 large cold eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour

Topping:
4 cups large marshmallows

Directions
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 by-8-inch square baking pan with foil so it hangs over the edges by about 1 inch.

For the crust: Lightly butter the foil with some of the melted butter. Stir the rest of the butter together with the crumbs, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Press the crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the brownie. Put the butter and chocolate in a medium microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave on 75 percent power for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave again until completely melted, about 2 minutes more. Alternatively, put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl on the pan without touching the water. Stir occasionally until melted. Stir the light brown and white sugars, vanilla and salt into the melted chocolate. Add the eggs and beat vigorously to make a thick and glossy batter. Add the flour and stir until just incorporated.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is crispy and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean, with a few crumbs, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and carefully position a rack about 6 inches from the broiler and preheat on low. Layer marshmallows across the top and toast under the broiler until golden, (keep an eye on it, it can go quick), about 2 minutes. Cool on a rack, gently removing the brownies from the pan using the aluminum flaps. Carefully separate any marshmallow from the foil and fold away. Cut into 12 (2-inch) squares.

Grade: A-
So wondefully gooey and crunchy and chocolate-y.

Tres Leches Cake

Two years ago, my friends and I started a tradition known as the “bakefeast”. It all started with the five of us (Nima, Safa, Roya, Devina, and I) who got together at Roya’s house to make lunch. I don’t remember exactly what everyone made but I do remember Safa and I were paired up for dessert and we made a delicious tiramisu. Although we’ve only had about four official bakefeasts in the past two years since we could never decide on a time, whose house we’d be using, or we’d argue about whether there would be a theme or not, I’m really glad we established this tradition. One thing I like about traditions is is getting the chance to do something that you love with your closest friends over and over again that only guys share. It’s funny how we started the first bakefeast at Roya’s house and ended the last on there, and I started and ended with this dessert. This time we had another addition to our group, Emily.

I decided to make a tres leches cake after being inspired by one of my most favorite websites, The Pioneer Woman. I made this cake junior year for Spanish and received and A+ from Senora Fortuna.

Egg yolk mixture.

Beatened eggwhites.

Cake batter.

Ready to bake.

Cooled cake.

Milk mixture consisting of evaporated condensed milk, sweetened condense milk, and heavy cream.

Pouring mixture over the cake.

Ready to eat!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 pint heavy cream, for whipping
3 tablespoons sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Separate eggs.
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla.
Pour egg yolk mixture over flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer on, pour in 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
Fold egg white mixture into other mixture very gently until just combined.
Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out surface.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.
Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small pitcher.
When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times.
Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.
Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes.
Whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable.
Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.

Grade: A+
So delicious and so sweet! The whip cream just tops it off. Yummy!

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Today my friends and I celebrated a very delicious dinner at Chef Chu’s in honor of Safa Taha Lele’s birthday. I always love get togethers especially with the Persian crew because they’re all very nice and funny. Everything was there, the delicious food, the laughing, the wonderful rain in the middle of summer, Nima’s singing in the car, and taking forever to decide what to order. However there was only a small detail missing from this celebration, the birthday boy who canceled on us last minute because his family had planned him something for his birthday. However, no worries, to be honest, all of us were not surprised that he canceled because its just so typical of Safa. Safa’s a pretty cool fellow,whose obsessed with Obama and Rihanna, I know a nice combination right? We had Biology AP together junior year and I’m pretty sure our friendship was the reason I did not pay attention 99% of the time in class but instead I drew cells in his notebook and grabbed his arm everyday. We were even in the same group for the PDP project!

So for my mini baking challenge I decided to make cupcakes and put patriotic sprinkles on them cuz Safa’s obsessed with Obama. For his grad present Roya and I got him an Obama dvd and poster. I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart and as usual the chocolate frosting from Hersheys.

Beating butter and sugar.

After stirring in dry ingredients and milk mixture.

Ready to bake.

Done and cooling.

Chocolate frosting.

All decorated and ready to eat!

Yellow Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside.
2.In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix.
3. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups (a 2-ounce or 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop is good for this).

Baker’s One Bowl Brownies

Only one more week until I heard off to the beginning of the rest of my life-college. Though part of me is extremely anxious, another part is very excited. I’m excited to get a chance to be independent, make new friends and hang out with my awesome orientation group, and lastly, to experience the college life. One time that will truly suck about college is the fact that I won’t be able to bake anymore since I’ll be living in the dorms which don’t have a kitchen. So I came up with a little challenge for myself, everyday until the 19th, I will bake something. It’s kind of like Julie & Julia where the main character, Julie Powell challenges herself to bake every recipe from Julia Child’s cookbook within one year. So today I made brownies using Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Squares which I think are extremely adorable because they are wrapped up in cute little individual wax paper. Recipe from Kraft Foods.

Melting the butter and chocolate.

Melted butter and chocolate.

Brownie batter.

Ready to bake.

Done and cooling.

Yummy!!

Ingredients
4 squares BAKER’S Unsweetened Chocolate
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil.

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and pecans; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles. Cut into squares. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Grade: A-
I have been searching for the perfect brownie recipe and sadly this wasn’t it. It was close though! My idea of the perfect brownie is one that tastes just like the kind of the box, but isn’t. The texture and look was there, just not the taste, it was a little bit too sweet for me. However, it was still a good brownie!

Banana Bread

When you have banana bread at home, you make banana bread! Duh. Last Saturday we went up to Berkeley to visit one of our favorites, Olga. After hearing about how terrible the desserts were at Cal I decided Olga needed a taste of home and made this bread and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Even though it was extremely hot, I had a great time! I have to admit one reason I love the city of Berkeley is because of the food especially the desserts! Yummy. We walked by two crepe stores and drove by an ice cream store with a line half way down the block. I don’t care where I live as long as there’s good food!

Recipe from the usual, All Recipes.

Banana bread batter.

Ready to bake.

All done and cooling.

Yummy.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Grade: B+
This was a pretty good banana bread but I’ve had better.

Pumpkin Bread

Today the girls and I went to the beach. After two attempts of encountering cloudy weather, first at ditch day and last time we went to the beach with Olga, finally it was a sunny and beautiful day! I enjoyed splashing in the water with Roya and Neesha and attempting to make use of self timer with Connie and Josephine as the three of us tried to take the most flattering photos of ourselves. The countdown to college is beginning and I’m trying to spend as much time as I can with my friends before we all split up.

I made this pumpkin bread after tasting a delicious sample from Starbucks.

Batter.

All done and cooling.

Ingredients (I 1/3 the recipe)
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7×3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Grade: A
Scumptious! The girls polished off all the bread while I ate the delicious mac and cheese that Neesha made. It’s a very simple easy recipe to make and other than the can pumpkin, I always have all the other ingredients on hand.