Apple Bread

I think this is a recipe I found in the French language Metro newspaper.

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or applesauce (we used applesauce)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup apples, peeled, cored and diced

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a big bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, mix together applesauce, sugar, brown sugar, egg, orange juice, vanilla and apples. Mix into the dry ingredients.
4. Pour batter into a greased 8 inch loaf pan.
5. Bake 30 to 40 min or until done (our needed almost an hour).

Verdict: This bread took forever to bake. It just didn’t want to be ready. Still, it was a very good bread. Normally, I’ve just had banana breads, but this apple bread had a nice taste to it, even if I thought it was a  little dense.

M&M Topped Brownies

I am not sure where I found this recipe.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup chocolate syrup
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• Chocolate frosting
• 1 cup M&Ms

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 13×9 inch pan and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add chocolate syrup, eggs and vanilla.
3. Add flour and chocolate chips.
4. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake 33 to 38 minutes or until baked through.
5. Let cool completely before frosting. Sprinkle M&Ms over frosting.

Verdict: This recipe was a bit of a disappointment. The brownies were a little dry and didn’t really have a lot of chocolate taste to them.

Vanilla Cupcakes

I’m not sure where I found this recipe originally.

• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine evaporated milk and vinegar. Set aside to thicken slightly.
3. Mix together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.
4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add half to the wet ingredients and mix. Add the evaporated milk to the batter then the rest of the dry ingredients.
5. Pour into muffin molds and bake 15-20 minutes.

Verdict: These were a little on the dry side, but still very good.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

I found this recipe on another food blog. We made one cake instead of cutting them up into mini cakes like the original recipe and we used store bought frosting instead of making the frosting in this recipe.

• 2 ounces bitter or semisweet chocolate, chopped (we used semi sweet)
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 tablespoons water
• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (we didn’t use because we use semi-salted butter)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Frosting
• 1 1/4 cup crushed Oreos
• 2/3 cup dark chocolate
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons warm water

1. In a double boiler, melt both chocolates along with the water. Stir until smooth and set aside to let cool to room temperature.
2. Mix together the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the sugar until fluffy. Add in the melted chocolate. Add the egg yolks, one at a time.
3. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt (if using).  Mix half of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture. Add the buttermilk and vanilla, then the rest of the dry ingredients.
4. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff.
5. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the cake batter. Then fold in the remaining egg whites.
6. Divide batter into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until done.
7. Mix together the frosting and the crushed up Ores (we also added some food colouring so that our vanilla frosting was pink).
8. Place the dark chocolate and heavy cream in a double boiler. Let melt 2-3 minutes without stirring. Slowly mix to combine. Add powdered sugar and keep mixing. Add water, one tablespoon at a time until a nice consistency is reached.
9. Frost the top of one cake with the icing, then place the other cake on top of it. Frost top and the sides of the layered cake. Drizzle with chocolate sauce

Verdict: Given all the work in making the cake, they didn’t taste as amazing as I would have hoped. There wasn’t that much of a chocolate flavor to the cake.

Cream-Filled Cupcakes

I found this recipe online, though I can’t seem to find where.

Cupcakes:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup shortening (we used vegetable oil instead)
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Pinch of salt (we didn’t use because we use salted butter)

1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add eggs, milk, vegetable oil, water and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
2. Fill paper lined muffin cups half full. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until cupcakes are cooked through. Remove from pans and let cook completely.
3. In another mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the cream (for Saint Patrick’s Day, we added some green food colouring to make the cream green!) Put the cream in a pastry bag. Press tip into cupcakes and fill. (This was our first attempt at creating filled cupcakes, so we may not have done this part as well as we could have.)

Verdict: These cupcakes were dense, but lacking a rich chocolate taste I want in chocolate cupcakes. They definitely were better with the cream (we had one batch made in a shamrock shaped mould that didn’t work, so I had tasted some of them without the cream), though the cream was definitely very very sweet.

In Search Of: the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Part 58: Boiled Egg Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s been awhile since I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I was in the mood for something new. I found this recipe on another food blog.

• 1 cup butter, room temperature (we used semi-salted though the recipe originally called for non-salted)
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt (omitted)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the brown sugar.
3. Add in vanilla and chopped eggs (there will be bits of eggs in the batter, but as the original recipe says it’s nothing to worry about. They all get fully mixed up when you add the flour).
4. Add in salt (if using), baking soda and flour. Add in chocolate chips.
5. Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Verdict: We made just under 4 dozen cookies. This was a good recipe, but not one of the best ones that we found while going through all of the different chocolate chip cookie recipes. I found the cookies a little dryer than other recipes, which I think is due to the eggs been hard boiled.

Classic Fudge Brownies

I think I found this recipe online somewhere, but I can’t remember where.

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter (we used semi salted butter)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• Pinch of salt (we didn’t use because we use salted butter)
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Butter an 8 inch square baking pan.
2. In a saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over low hear. Let cool slightly.
3. In a medium bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add the melted chocolate and mix until smooth. Stir in the flour and salt (if using). Add the chopped nuts.
4. Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Verdict: This was a good but not great recipe. I’ve had brownies that had a richer taste, which is what I like in brownies. There wasn’t enough of a chocolate flavour to them.

Sugar Apple Pie

I found this recipe in the French language newspaper, Metro.

Crust:

• 50g flour
• 50g butter
• 25g sugar
• 25g ground almond

Filling

• 2 apples, peeled and thinly sliced (we used 3 pretty large apples, because we wanted a lot of apple filling)
• 75g butter, melted
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 eggs
• 200g brown sugar
• 2/5 cups whipped cream

1. Butter and flour the pie plate.
2. Mix together the ingredients for the crust. The mixture will be crumbly. Press into the bottom of the pie plate.
3. Preheat oven to 350F.
4. Braise the apples in a bit of butter and the juice from the half lemon. Spread the cooked apples across the crust.
5. Mix together the melted butter, eggs and brown sugar. Fold in the whipped cream. Pour over the apple mixture.
6. Bake for 40min.

Verdict: Just from looking at the recipe I was a little annoyed by it. I measure my ingredients in cups and teaspoons, so I needed to use a scale to get the quantities the recipe called for, which seemed ridiculous.

I’ve always found it odd that while I love almonds (whole almonds, almonds in chocolate) I do not like the taste of almond extract (the cookies I made with almond essence were one of my least favourite). I assumed that I would be okay with ground almonds, but I think they ended being the main reason I disliked the crust of this pie so much.

The filling itself was very good. I’m glad we added the extra apple, because I think there wouldn’t have been enough apple without it.

Snickerdoodles

I found this recipe in a Martha Stewart Cookbook.

• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt (if using, we did not because we use salted butter).
3. In another bowl, beat together the butter and 1 and 1/2 cup of the sugar. Mix in the eggs. Gradually add in the flour mixture.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the remaining sugar with the cinnamon.
5. Form the dough into 20 balls. Roll each one in the cinnamon mixture. Place ion baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake cookies, rotating sheets half way through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

Verdict: So the recipe didn’t mention anything about flattening the cookies when you put them on the baking sheet and I guess I thought they would expand in the oven. But they did not. I’ll know for next time: flatten snickerdoodles down!

I don’t think I will be making this recipe again. I found that the cookies didn’t have much of a taste. The only thing that gave them any taste was the cinnamon sugar coating.

Brown-Sugar Pound Cupcakes

This is a Martha Stewart recipe. (Though we just frosted ours instead of making the Brown Butter Glaze.)

• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (we didn’t use because we use salted butter)
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, if using.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk, in 3 additions.
4. Divide batter in the muffin cups (we made just under 3 dozen). Bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Verdict: These were some delicious and addictive cupcakes. They weren’t too dense and had just the right amount of sweetness to them. I thought they would taste a little like the batter of a chocolate chip cookie minus the chocolate chips parts, but they had a different taste to them that was just as good.