Rose Meringue Cookies

I made meringues for the first time since my Baked Alaska disaster last week,and was succesful. It was really a practice session for these beautiful cookies. If I couldn't make regular meringues, there was no way I could make roses. But I could, and I did! Look:

They turned out great, especially for my first time trying it! I first saw the idea at Haniela's Blog. I unfortunately didn't have the tip size I wanted on hand so the rose buds aren't quite what I was looking for but they still turned out well. I also tried to do an open rose, but the meringue wasn't stiff enough to hold the shape so they ended up looking a little flat. I'll try the recipie again sometime to see if I can improve. The closed roses weren't hard to do, they just took a little practice, and with the right tip they'll look much better than mine! Here's the recipie I used:

<3 Meringues <3

4 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon meringue powder
pinch of salt
1 t Vanilla extract
desired food coloring

Preheat oven to 180*

Directions:
1) Use a whisk to combine the egg whites, pinch of salt, sugar and meringue powder in a heat proof bowl.
2) Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water and whisk constantly, until sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch, about 6-8 minutes or so.
4) Remove the bowl from the double broiler and beat with mixer gradually from low to high until stiff peaks form. About 8-10 minutes.
5) Add the flavorings and mix for a minute or so to incorporate the extract. Then add the food coloring and beat till the meringue is no longer streaky
5) Make roses!
6) Bake in a 180* oven on a baking sheet for 2.5-3 hours, or until dried through. Baking times will vary depending on the size of the rose. Leave them in the oven to cool.

Now, if you want to make them look like roses you will need:
A piping bag
A wilton tip # 125 (I used a much smaller one, but would recommend this one!)
parchment paper cut into 1" squares
a flower nail (or you can use a meat themometer with a flat surface)

Wilton has a written tutorial available here that looks more like my roses, and Haniela has a video tutorial here with, I think, more realistic looking roses.

Give it a try if you want to try something new that looks pretty and tastes good too!

One last thing, that box they're in? It's a paper plate! I made it in less than 5 minutes when I realized I didn't have a cute way to give them to my friend, Heather, who I was meeting for dinner. I saw the idea at Sarah Hearts, she has a great video tutorial there. I made a few changes by rubber stamping hearts on the top of the plate before I started, and since I didn't have any washi tape I just used regular scoth tape and tied a ribbon around the box to make it a little fancier.

I was extreamly pleased with how it all turned out. It would make a fantastic Valentine, Mother's Day, or really any day present. Hopefully you'll give it a try!

Shared at Blue Cricket Design

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

It's that time of the year again, when everything turns pink or red, and love is in the air. Or hate, if you're one of those people... I'm talking about Valentines Day! Whether you love it, or hate it, it's a great baking time of the year! Great sweets in happy colors with hearts galore. I love it! To kick off Valentines Day bake-a-palooza I made these amazing Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies. I stumbled across them over at Two Peas and their Pod at Christmas time and have been waiting for Valentines to make them!

They're so pretty! And Red! Perfect for the holiday, and the best part? They're easy! They were inspired by the Red Velvet Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory, but my brother Ben (8) said they tasted more like a brownie (he also had some great ideas for making them into a brownie pie). Of course, the best part is the surprise in the middle, yum, cheesecake.

So if you want to make a treat that wows but doesn't take tons of effort, these are a definite winner.

<3 Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies <3

*I made 11 large cookies, but you could make smaller ones*

For the cookies:

1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:

4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the white chocolate drizzle:

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Directions:

1. To make cookies, in a large bowl combine cake mix and flour. Whisk until clumps disappear(at least most). In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

2. To make the cheesecake filling, using a mixer, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 11. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup of red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Only bake 3 cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

4. Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. Serve and enjoy!

Shared at Lady Behind the Curtain and at Creations by Kara and 733

Peanut Butter Chocolate Muffins

I've never been big on making muffins, but when I saw a recipie for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins at Annie Eats I knew I had to give it a try! I'm glad I did, they had a great peanut butter flavor that wasn't too strong (too much peanut butter weirds me out!), and it was nicely broken up by the chocolate chips. Another nice thing about this recipie is that it only uses 3/4 cups chocolate chips, so if you have extra chocolate chips laying around (does anyone ever actually have that problem?) you can use them up by making delicious muffins.

<3 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins <3

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2/3 cup brown sugar

6 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled

½ cup peanut butter

2 large eggs1 cup milk

¾ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Preheat your oven to 375°. Then line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Set this aside.

3) In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. 4) Add the flour mixture to the wet and stir until just combined.

5) Stir in the chocolate chips.

6) Divide the batter evenly between prepared muffin tins, filling each to the top.

7) Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

My Cup Runneth Over - I Made Meringue Cookies!

My first baking project for my blog was a success! Hurray! To understand my excitement, a background story: When I was in college I tried to make Baked Alaska. I'd had it before, helped my mom make it, and was (in my opinion) a competent baker. No problem, right? WRONG! I don't know what I did wrong with the meringue (I'm guessing several things) but it never got hard, so it didn't form a protective layer between the ovens heat and the ice cream. I'm sure you can imagine what a mess it made. A BIG one, if you can't. I decided to wait a while to try meringue again, and four years later I gave it a second whirl!

Voila!

Now that I know that I can make meringues I plan on making them prettier. Hopefully next week I'll have a creative meringue idea for you.

Before I got started I looked up some meringue tips, and learned some interesting things about meringue. Did you know there are three kinds? French, Swiss and Italian?

"There are 3 types of meringue, the one made most commonly at home is French meringue which is made by whisking sugar into beaten egg whites. Swiss meringue is made by beating egg whites and sugar together over a pan of hot water until the sugar has dissolved, then beating until the mixture reaches stiff peaks. Italian meringue is made by whisking a hot sugar syrup into beaten egg whites - it is the most difficult to make but is popular with bakers and caterers as it tends to hold its volume well." - From Nigella.com

Some tips I found and followed were:

1) Eggs - Should be fresh, but at least 3-4 days old
2) Separating eggs - It's easiest when they're cold, so do it then. Make sure there is NO YOLK in the egg whites, the meringues don't like it. After they're separated let the whites sit out till they're room temp, about half an hour.
3) Meringue will not work if there is any grease in the bowl so use a glass or stainless steel bowl and make sure it is clean and dry! (a couple places recommended spritzing it with lemon juice and then drying it out)

Once I had all the tips I gave it a whirl! I used Haniela's recipe:

<3 Meringues <3

4 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon meringue powder
pinch of salt
1 t Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180*

1) Use a whisk to combine the egg whites, pinch of salt, sugar and meringue powder in a heat proof bowl.
2) Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water). 3) Whisk constantly, until sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch, about 6-8 minutes or so.
4) Remove the bowl from the double broiler and beat with mixer gradually from low to high until stiff peaks form. About 8-10 minutes.
5) Add the flavorings and mix for a minute or so to incorporate the extract.
6) On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper drop spoonfuls of the meringue. They won't spread so they can be close to each other, but not touching.
7) Bake for 2.5-3 hours, or until dried through. Baking times will vary depending on the size of the meringue. Leave them in the oven to cool.
8) Enjoy!

6 out of 6 people who had these cookies thought they were good, I hope you do to!

Welcome to Blogging!

Welcome to my first blog! I am new to blogging and may take a while to get my 'feet under me,' but am excited to be trying something new! I have been baking since I was a kid but over the past two years have started doing it more and more. I've been branching out and trying new recipies and new techniques. I thought a blog might be a great way to organize my recipies and share my baking adventures with anyone out there who loves baking too.

That header will hopefully be temporary. I'm not particularly computer savy but am hoping to get better through the course of blogging. The pictures running down the left hand side are cut out cookies I made for my sisters wedding. Along the bottom a cake I made when my boyfriend got promoted, a cake I made for the fourth of July, and finally my mom's 50th Birthday cake.

Now I need to get baking, so I can get blogging!