Gran(d)ola bars

I just finished finals, so what do I do the first day of freedom? Obviously rekindle my relationship with Gertrude that has been a bit frayed these last few weeks.  Since the holiday season is inevitably filled with cookies, fudge and candy, I decided to hold off on the peppermint bark, gingerbread men or peanut butter balls.  Instead I made homemade oatmeal date granola bars  Before you walk these off as rabbit food or cardboard, realize that  I do actually value taste, so I may have sprinkled a generous amount of dark chocolate chips to the granola bars. But dark chocolate is healthy, right??

Whenever I am on pinterest, specifically the "health and fitness" area, I always see these pins for not-so-appealing sounding recipes that say have captions of "OMG these were so good, I am never buying XXX store- bought again!!". What I think- "really? really? you are never going to buy store bought ice cream ever again since you discovered mashed up frozen banana 'ice cream'......... I don't think so".   Anyways, that is what I think MOST of the time.  But these granola bars were literally so good that I may not buy store bought granola bars ever again (ok, that is a lie- I may not WANT to thought!).

• 1 cup packed dates, pitted
• 1/4 cup honey 
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter 
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate 
• 1/2 cup dried bing cherries 
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1) This was the one step that Gertrude was actually involved in....lightly toasting the oats.  I was a bit doubtful that Gertrude has the ability to "toast", let alone lightly "toast" anything.  But, I decided to give it a try using parchment paper.... which ended up working like a charm. No charred oats in these bars! I toasted the oats for about 300 degrees for 15 minutes. 

2) Next, it was time to puree the dates.  This was probably (ok, definitely) the first time in my entire life that have ever bought dates.,,, so lets just say I was a bit ignorant about the anatomy of a date.  I put the dates in the food processor.... and nothing happened to the dates.  A bit annoyed that my trusty food processor was not processing, I took the dates out and started to cut them..... andddd then I realized that dates have pits.  Genius moment of the day.... I am on winter break after all.  After pitting, the dates processed beautifully. 

3) Next, warm honey and peanut butter in small pan.  I couldn't really mess this up.  

4) Mix the oats, dates, honey/Pb mix, almonds, 1/2 cup chocolate and cherries in a large bowl.  You will probably need to use some force to mix everything together. 

5) Transfer mixture into 8 by 8 pan (with parchment paper on the bottom) and pat down hard

6) Melt remaining dark chocolate (add a little bit of butter if needed) and spread on top 

7) Put in fridge to set 

8) enjoy!

The best part of these are that they taste as good as a dessert, but I still consider it a healthy snack. This means it is socially acceptable to eat "dessert" for breakfast before my workout.... which is awesome. 

P(y)ummmmmkin Muffins

I want to first apologize for my lame excuse of a creative title.  I was trying to think of some punpkin..... oh wait I mean PUMPKIN puns, but I could not find anything all that smashing :P Yesterday signaled T-7 days before thanksgiving and at this time, I came to the horrific realization that I have made it 89% of the way through pumpkin season (october 1-thanksgiving in my book) without baking a pumpkin dessert.  In this time, I have consumed probably 10 cans of pumpkin on my oatmeal or just by the spoonful (I am not quite sure how socially acceptable that is, but it is good!) but Gertrude has not turned out a warm, spicy, moist pumpkin-y baked good...... yet. My excuse to bake this time was to bring something for my Biochemistry project group to celebrate our successful analysis of the protein, Uracil phosphoribosyltransferase.  For those that are wondering (because I know so many are), Uracil phosphoribosyltransferase  is a protein that catalzyes the reaction that makes Uracil Monophoshate, UMP, the ugly stepsister of ATP/AMP.  So perhaps I should retitle this blog P(UMP)kin muffins........... or not. Anyways, here is what I did:


FILLING:
1 package (8 ounces) Cream Cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar

MUFFIN:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup pecans

STREUSEL
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
4 tbs cold butter, diced into pieces
1 tsp cinnamon


1. Blend together ingredients for filling in small bowl and set aside
2. Blend flour, spices, baking soda and salt in medium bowl
3. Beat together eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil
4.  Slowly combine dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture and beat until combined
5.  Mix in pecans, if desired
6.  Fill prepared muffin tins halfway with batter
7.  spoon as filling on top of batter (as much as desired)
8.  Fill muffin tins with remaining batter- I as able to make 12 very full muffins and about 6 smaller ones
9. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees
10.  Prepare streusel by using a food processor to make small crumbs
11.  Sprinkle with streusel immediately after they come out of oven
12.  Let cool and enjoy!

 

Butterscotch Caramel Blondies

 Once upon a time, I did not actually bake ridiculous desserts.  Instead, I stuck with the generic chocolate chip cookies or vanilla cupcakes that I would find in my mom's cookbooks.  I mean this in no disrespect to chocolate chip cookies or vanilla cupcakes, but honestly, the chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes you can buy at the grocery store bakery are probably better than the ones you could make by yourself.... just sayin' (though if anyone wants to prove me wrong with tangible baked  I would be happy to consider). As I have matured as a baker, I have decided that making those recipes that you can't find at the counter of every grocery store is what makes baking more exciting and rewarding. The first recipe of this sorts that I ever embarked upon were caramel brownies, at the following link  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/caramel-brownies/.  I distinctly remember the day after a long run in high school that my good friend  and I decided to make this recipe..... we were so excited how good they were that we made them again, and again, and again.  While I only see her once or twice a year now, we still carry on the tradition.  While I think we have both betrayed the other a few times and made the brownies in our own separate lives, I try to keep my caramel brownies making to when I have my partner-in-crime.

             
The one thing about caramel brownies, is that there is some room for variation. While the original recipe calls for german chocolate cake mix, my friend and I definitely did an experiment where we tried three different types of chocolate cake mix at the same time and did a taste test.  The result: milk chocolate cake mix gives the best caramel brownies (it also has about .5 g less fat than the german chocolate cake mix.... so these caramel brownies are basically healthy).  But they were all delicious nonetheless.  As I was thinking about about what type of recipe I wanted to do for my last day of work (I have the best job ever :), I needed some foolproof recipe that could leave me a little room for experimentation.  The result of my brain storm sesh- butterscotch caramel brownies.  SO GOOD.   

Butterscotch Caramel Blondies

1 box french vanilla cake mix

1/3 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup softened butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbs maple syrup 

1 package butterscotch chips 

1/4 and 1 tbs evaporated milk 

11 ounces wrapped caramel 

1. Combine cake mix, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, brown sugar, syrup and butter in large bowl 

2.  Spread 2/3 of mix on greased 9 by 13 cake pan (batter will be thin) 

3. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 F

4. While it is baking, melt the 11 ounces of wrapped caramel with 1/4 cup and 1 tbs evaporated milk on medium heat. 

5. After 8-10 minutes, take the pan out and pour the melted caramel onto the brownies. 

6.  Spoon the remaining batter on top and sprinkle the butterscotch chips on. 

7. Bake for another 15-18 minutes

8. Let cool and enjoy!

  

No-bake Cookie Dough Truffle Bars

Happy Halloween Everyone! I am very happy to have the time to share this recipe with everyone, since I have been fairly swamped with necessary, productive activities the last few weeks.  Since my first round of midterms are over, I decided to bring some treats to work today.  Today also seemed like an appropriate day to get into the Halloween spirit.

As a child, Halloween (and all holidays for that matter) were at least month long ordeals.   Starting October 1, I would start thinking of costume ideas and planning out trick-or-treating routes to get ready for the big day.  Don't even get me started on Christmas.  The moment Halloween was over, I was scouring the toy catalogs to start making my list. As a college student, it is almost the opposite. There I was, thinking about all the notes I had to catch up on or the essays I had to write when I realized, "oh hey, Halloween is this Thursday...... wait it is Thursday right?? Or is it Wednesday?"  I obviously am on top of it .....NOT.  Aside from my daily concerns of overdosing on Vitamin A from the copious amounts of pumpkin and sweets potatoes I eat each day (pumpkin in oatmeal anyone?) I literally have put no thought into the holiday.  So, I thought, what better way to enter Halloween week than making a delicious Halloween treat?

After spending a while on Pinterest pursuing the various cute tombstone brownies, eye ball cake pops or spider cookies I could make, I simply couldn't find anything that would take a reasonable amount of time with relatively few ingredients.  So I ditched the  Halloween theme, and shortly after had a "brain blast" (what show, everyone???) of the easiest, most delicious (albeit calorically dense) dessert ever.

I realized that eggless cookie dough finds its way into many of my recipes, such as in http://cookingwithgertrude.blogspot.com/2013/06/cookie-dough-brownie-bombs-danger-danger.html, as do Oreo truffles, such as here:  http://cookingwithgertrude.blogspot.com/2012/12/tis-season-for-awesome-cupcakes.html. Why not put them together to form Cookie Dough Truffle Bars? No baking (ie, no dealing with pesky Gertrude) , 20 minute prep time, out-of-this world taste.... can't get much better than that.  Driving to the store I was redetermined to tie back in my halloween theme by using Halloween Oreos for the Oreo truffle layer.  My dreams were crushed when I learned that  Safeway apparently does not believe in virtue of Oreos with bright orange cream. So, in a last-ditch effort to tie some halloween-ness into my treats, I picked up some Candy-Corn M&Ms (which are really just candy corn colored M&Ms with white chocolate) to mix into the cookie dough and put on top.

 I'm sure someone else in the wonderful world of Pinterest has done this exact idea, but I am going to tell myself that this recipe was a unique Cooking-with-Gertrude Creation.  Want to recreate the magic? Here is what I did

No-bake Cookie Dough Truffle Bars

Oreo Layer 
8 oz. Oreos (I used 1 pack of mini-Oreos, but 20 normal Oreos is equivalent)
4 oz. Cream Cheese (I realized after that I should have used pumpkin cream cheese!  That would have been way been way more Halloween-y than my lame M&Ms ) 

1. Line 8 by 8 pan with aluminum foil  
2. Crush up Oreos using the method of your choice. I started with the old-fashioned fist crush and then put the cookies into the food processor to finish the job.  
3.  Soften cream cheese and mix into oreo crumbs to make a dough-like mixture.  
4. Pat mixture into bottom of pan
5. Put into fridge as you prepare the cookie dough 

Cookie Dough layer (adapted from  http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/03/raw-cookie-dough-thats-safe-to-eat.html) 

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 cup candy corn M&Ms  
1 cup chocolate chips 

1. Mix all ingredients together into a large bowl.  
2.  Pat about 1 inch cookie dough (or more or less, depending on your love for cookie dough) on top of Oreo layer. I had some extra cookie dough..... Too bad I can NEVER find any use for extra cookie dough :) just kidding. 


Chocolate Topping 

1 cup chocolate chips 
1 tbs shortening 

1. Melt chocolate and shortening at intervals of 30 sec until smooth
2. Pour over cookie dough layer
3.  Garnish with extra M&Ms 
4.  Place in fridge for about an hour to set before cutting 
5.  Enjoy!

Cookies with Gertrude

As of late, I have discovered something dangerous. Gertrude can make cookies...... really, really, really good cookies.  The whole 50 degrees lower + parchment paper+ high rack words wonders. 

I needed to bake some cookies for various people for random favors, so I needed a crowd pleaser that I could make a lot of in a relatively short amount of time.  I also didn't really feel like going to the grocery, so I had to make do with what I had.  Since I have oatmeal religiously for breakfast every morning, I have a huge can of it that I would happily donate 1.5 cups towards cookies.  Also, white chocolate chips happened to be a irresistibly cheap at the store, so I happened to have some of those on hand too.  So it was settled: oatmeal white chocolate chip cookies. 

I used the following recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/white-chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookies/  with a few modifications.  I unfortunately did not have pecans (remember I'm on a budget), but I had the exciting addition of 1 tsp cinnamon.... definitely a nice touch.  Anyways, the recipe was pretty straight forward so I had no kitchen fails. However,  I did learn a valuable lesson that can be expanded to all other aspects of life: trust the process.  Even though the cookies only looked half-baked when it is time to take them out, I needed to trust that they would harden up only slightly to be literally the most chewy, delicious cookies ever.  And they did.  Anyways,  10 of them are sitting in my freezer right now so I can take them to work.  Writing this blog is one way to distract myself.  

Fun with Fondant

Wow, it is good to be back.  I have been super busy studying for a big test I had to take this past wednesday, but now that it is over, I can relax for a whole week before school starts.  For me, relaxing means cooking awesome foods..... obviously.   My week of relaxation also perfectly corresponds with a cake auction at my dad's work that I plan to bake a cake for.  Since most of the cakes I make are just for birthdays, I don't ever feel that much pressure about making them look super professional (don't want to have people think they are store-bought, right??).  However, a cake auction seems like sort of a big deal for me, so I want to make the cook look super good (along with having it taste super good too).  This being said, I cannot deny that pretty much every cake I have ever looked at and been like "wow, this cake is decorated really nicely" is made with fondant.

For those of you who don't know, fondant is basically like frosting dough that you can mold and cut to put on cakes to give that "bakery" appearance.  I have heard that sometimes this good look of fondant compromises its taste.  Therefore, I did my research to find the best-tasting/easiest recipe I could possibly find.  A marshmallow fondant recipe I found looked the most promising, but I was still a little bit skeptical about it so I decided to practice it in a low- risk situation.  Every saturday I tutor kids so I decided to bring them cookies... since bringing them any cookies (not to mention decorated cookies) basically makes their days, I decided if my fondant turned into not-so-(fun)dant I would not feel too bad.  

This endeavor had an even greater risk of failure do to the fact that I decided to make cookies.... in Gertrude.  For those of you that don't remember, Gertrude decides to take all of her pent up anger out on cookies.  Challenge accepted. 

I used the following recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/?scale=15&ismetric=0 with a few modifications.  I quartered the recipe because I only needed about 15 servings rather than 60 servings.  After quartering the recipe, I added a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar just because :) Also, I reduced the over temperature to 350 instead of 400 in an attempt to make it more Gertrude-proof.  This precaution, along with my raising the oven rack and putting the dough on parchment paper, turned out the most successful cookies I have ever made (in Gertrude that is).  

Next, I rolled out the fondant using a ghetto rolling pin (aka a plastic cup.... gotta love college) and used a similarly ghetto cookie cutter (a wine glass) to cut out fondant circles.  I did not have any normal frosting to "glue" the fondant to the cookies, so I decided to just put the fondant onto the cookies straight out of the oven with the hopes it would melt on.  In retrospect, this could have gone horribly, since in a very parallel universe the fondant could have liquified, turning into not-so-(fun)dant. However, that surprisingly did not happen and I have nine beautiful, happy cookies to give to my students today.  Not to mention the fondant tasted pretty good too.  Needless to say, I am happy with this fondant experience and feel confident about buying an absurd amount of marshmallows to make this cake (that will be featured on my next blog) happen!

IN THE (cal)ZONE.....

So it looks like this week I am going pretty much all out with the whole-wheat bread products.  From England on Monday with my English muffins, I decided to take a little stroll across Europe to the land of alfredo, pesto and mozzarella... Italy (I don't know for sure if Calzones actually originated in italy, but one can guess).  Anyways, those three things I mentioned... Alfredo, pesto, and mozzarella... well, I decided they should all be included in this calzone.  Before you assume this is going to be another peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake bar recipe where your arteries close by simply looking at the pictures, think again.  This recipe is actually decently healthy.  Whole Wheat Crust, a lightened up Alfredo sauce and spinach make this a filling yet wholesome recipe.

STEP 1: I got to use my handy dandy bread machine! First, I mixed the following ingredients, in order, into a bread machine and let go on the dough cycle (takes about 1.5 hrs on mine)
1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups bread flour
2.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons yeast

STEP 2: While the dough was doing its thing, I prepared the goodness that was going to be stuffed into these calzones.  I used the following recipe from http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=163122 the alfredo sauce:

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
 

4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups skim milk
1 cup chicken broth
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Top-Rated Olive Oil at Amazon

Directions

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until golden brown.

In a small saucepan, stir together milk, chicken broth, flour, salt and pepper over low heat until smooth and thick. Stir in parmesan.  

I'm always I little skeptical of these "lighter Alfredo sauces" since I am usually faced with what I call the "Healthification dilemma".  I will explain: I often see recipes for items such as "skinny cookie dough bombs", "healthy donuts" or "low-fat nutella cheesecake". The "Healthification dilemma" arrises when I realize that in order for these recipes to taste at least remotely close to their calorie and fat laden originals, they have to have an amount of fat and sugar that I would consider to be "unhealthy" according to my maniac-runner health-freak standards.   Therefore, I am faced with the question: why don't I just enjoy the real thing in slightly smaller/less frequent amounts, rather than dealing with this recipe ridden with an identity crisis as it just tried so hard to be "heatlthy" but really is neither particularly nutritious nor delicious.

Alfredo sauce definitely is one of these major dilemna foods: would I rather have a delicious,rich, creamy, buttery plate of Fettucchine Alfredo once every month as a treat or a seriously watered down version every week? Usually I would go with the first, but after perfecting this sauce, I may go with the second.  The key to making a decently healthy (but not overly so, of course) Alfredo sauce: patience, my friend.  In the words of our beloved Dory: "just keep (stirring)"!  The sauce took a good 20-25 minutes of stirring to achieve the thickness that hallmarks a delicious Alfredo sauce.  In chemistry class, we use magnetic stir bars to keep stirring the solution constantly.  I would imagine that someone has invented a similar invention with culinary uses,which I would like to acquire.  Until that time though, I found the best solution was to plop a chair in front of the stove and just keep stirring!

STEP 3: I just happened to have about 2 tbs of pesto in my fridge, so I just basically smothered it all over the 8 or so chicken tenderloins I had thawed, added about 1/4 cup of chicken broth and cooked on medium heat until done.  Sorry I don't have an exact recipe for the chicken, but at this point I was just wingin' it and making do with what I had.

STEP 4: After the dough was done, I divided it up into 5 balls, flattened them out into 7 inch or so rounds and began to fill.  I chopped up some spinach to add into the calzones along with the Alfredo sauce, chicken and a sprinkle of light mozzarella cheese. I must admit, I got a bit greedy with the stuffing.  I have never really made calzones before but now I know: there is a very fine line between deliciousness and disaster. Though three of the calzones worked magnificently, the other two  couldn't really keep in the filling after I folded them in half and sealed them.  But I made it work.

After baking at 375 for 20 min, here is the result: As you can see, my greediness in overstuffing continued to backfire as a few sorta exploded in the oven.... however, parchment paper was my saving grace because Gertrude miraculously decided not to burn the oozing cheese.

They made an excellent dinner.... and lunch.... and dinner.  I am a little (Cal)zoned out now.  Ciao!!!