Chocolate - Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I had one of those days where I was so bored and didn't know what to do with myself, so ya know, I decided to make cookies! I am really into shortbread at the moment and I just bought some cocoa powder, which I never have on hand, so I thought chocolate shortbread would be fun. I had some left over chocolate chips and decided to add those in as well. I got the general recipe from My Baking Addiction's Mocha Shortbread Sandwich Cookies with Nutella, which sound amazing, but I didn't have the espresso granules, so I just went with straight chocolate flavor. I only made a half batch, the recipe below makes a full batch.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Shortbread
(adapted from My Baking Addiction)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugars and vanilla.

In a medium bowl whisk or sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Gradually mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture until fully incorporated. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with floured 2 - 3 inch cookie cutters, or cut your own rustic shapes. Place cookies 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 300 for 15-20 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.

I have to say, these are some great little shortbread cookies. They are not too sweet and have great chocolate flavor. They were really nice and buttery and had great texture. The chocolate chips didn't add much to the overall cookie, so you could really go with or without them.

I didn't refrigerate the dough as long as the recipe says, mostly because I was impatient and it was 8 o'clock at night. But I do feel that if I did it might have been easier to handle and maybe they wouldn't have spread as much in the oven. I wasn't expecting them to spread cause other shortbread's that I have made didn't, but I was wrong.

Chocolatey-Buttery Deliciousness

These are great little cookie with nice chocolate and buttery flavor and a nice crisp texture...I hope you try them out!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

-BellaRosa

Blueberry Lemon Mini-Muffins

For Glee Night (yes that's right...Glee is back!) I had my best bud Kay over with her sister and we made some fruit stacks of bananas, strawberries and blueberries covered in chocolate, and we had tons of blueberries left over. So I got excited cause I could make some blueberry muffins! I also had a lemon that was getting close to being past its prime, so I thought, "oh man, lemon and blueberry are delicious together!" I Googled recipes for "lemon blueberry muffins" and found a great sounding one from Food Network. But of course I had to make them mini...they are just so darn cute!


Blueberry Lemon Mini-Muffins
(original recipe here.)

1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed

Topping:
2 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffins tins.

In a large bowl cream together the sugar and butter. Stir in eggs and milk. Add vanilla and lemon juice. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the dry ingredients a little at a time until combined. Gently stir in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among the muffins tins. In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, butter and lemon zest with your fingers or a fork, and sprinkle over the top of each muffin. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pans then transfer to cooling racks.

Bubbling-Blueberries Batman!

I have to say, you are better off following my typed out recipe because I noticed a ton of typos in the Food Network's recipe. Tablespoon written in the direction instead of teaspoons or lemon zest instead of juice...it was annoying.

But these little nuggets of lemon and blueberry freshness are delicious! I ate 3 of them while taking the photos of them...they are quite yummy. I don't see the point of the topping. And of course due to typos from Food Network I put the zest in the batter instead of in the topping, so they were quite lemony and the brown sugar and butter just sort of caramelized and kinda ran off to the side of the muffins. So I don't think the topping is necessary.

These light mini-muffins are refreshing and delicious...you really should try them!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!!

-BellaRosa

Hubsie's Birthday - Caramel Apple Cupcakes

So I know I have said that I am not a cupcakes baker...but it was the Hubsie's birthday and I wanted to make him something special. In the latest Everyday with Rachael Ray they had a recipe for Caramel Apple Cupcakes. Now the name alone should make your mouth water, but then there was the picture of them...all caramelly and gooey and dripping in caramel. I had to make them for something!! And seeing that my husband's birthday is close to the first day of autumn, these sounded perfect.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes
(original from Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine)

1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Fuji apples (about 1 pound) peeled and shredded
1 1/2 cups chewy caramel candies
1 T heavy cream

1. Arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with baking liners. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth. Whisk in the oil and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture until just combined, stir in the apples. Spoon the batter into prepared pan until almost full. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool completely.

3. In a small, microwavable bowl, combine the caramel candies and cream. Microwave for 1 minute at medium power, then stir; repeat in 30-second intervals until melted and smooth. Let cool. Spread the frosting generously on the cooled cupcakes.

These cupcakes are quite delicious...and rather messy as you can see in the above photo. They are jam packed with apple flavor though, and the caramel is soft and chewy. I found these were really simple to make even though it felt foreign to me to add the wet ingredients to the dry when I am used to do it the other way around.

Whats also exciting is that in making these past couple apple recipes I figured out how to use the shredder attachment on my food processor...it's amazing! My hand grater recently broke and I didn't even want to think about having to sit there and grate an apple over it, so I remembered I had that attachment for my processor and it is a godsend! Made super quick work of it and I can shred the apples right before having to add them to the recipe so I don't have to worry about them going brown on me. Its awesome! Its probably sad that I am just now finding out that, that attachment is awesome but I never used it before, or had a reason to.

One downside is I stored these in a cake pan with a lid...and well it seems the caramel just kinda melted off the cupcakes...so I don't know about that. The recipe said nothing about how to store them...maybe I should have refrigerated them? I have no idea. I just know I opened the lid and noticed caramel all over the bottom of the pan around each cupcake...they are still yummy though!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry...and celebrate someone's birthday!

-BellaRosa

Sour Cream Banana Muffins

I felt like baking today! It's was so nice out today and it made me want to do something productive. I helped out a friend (Just a Girl Baking) with some cupcakes yesterday, but I am more of a muffin-bakin' girl. I am seem to do better off making breads, muffins or doughs than cakes, so I wanted to bake! I decided to make some Sour Cream Banana Muffins, which are nice and moist and have a lovely light banana flavor.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins
Makes 12 regular size muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
1/4 granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 sour cream

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin or line with paper liners.
• Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In another bowl beat the bananas, sugar, egg and vanilla until combined. Stir in sour cream
• Stir the banana mixture into the flour until smooth and combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan.
• Bake for 10-15 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and top are light-golden brown. Let cool before serving. For best lasting flavor keep stored in an air-tight container or bag overnight.

They are really easy to make, and come together in cinch. I think they could use a little bit of walnuts are pecans in them, but I have a picky hubby that doesn't like nuts in food, so I have to go without them...*sigh* I also think it would be nice to put a little texture and sweetness on the top and maybe add some crystal sugar on top, but I don't really have that, but it would be a lovely addition. I love these banana muffins and I hope you try them and I hope you love them too!

*Note: I have also made these as mini-muffins and they only bake for about 7-8 minutes and are great from breakfast with tea or your coffee! Plus everything is just so darn cuter when it's mini size!

Happy Baking & Eat, Drink and Be Merry!!

-Bellarosa

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread couldn't be easier. And what's better than sugar, dough and butter...nothing! This is a great dessert or party food because its just pulls apart and everyone can take however much the want. And it's so delicious!

Here is the recipe I used, I have one other one and one for mini monkey breads, but the mini calls for making your own dough and this one just uses store bought biscuit dough in the tubes. And yes it uses a stick and half of butter. Get over it. It's butter. It's delicious and you won't be eating this all the time. :)

Monkey Bread

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cans (16 oz.) Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits (should be 8 in a tube)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350. Grease a fluted tube or bundt pan.

In a storage baggie combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Separate the biscuits so you have 16 biscuits. Quarter each biscuit and place in the baggie with the cinnamon sugar.

Toss to coat each biscuit piece with the cinnamon sugar.

Arrange the biscuit pieces in the greased bundt pan.

Melt the butter and add the brown sugar and combine. Pour over the top of the arranged biscuit pieces in the bundt pan. Bake for 28-32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy. Let stand for 10 minutes in pan. Turn out on to a serving dish (I like using a pie pan cause it's gets gooey and messy and the side on the pan help keep it all contained) and serve warm.

It will be ooey and it will be gooey...that means it's good! I love that fact that it is all pull-apart, I think that is so fun! You get a little messy and it just easy going and comfortable. It's a great warm, comfort dessert. I hope you try it and enjoy!
Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

P.S. Please don't judge my pictures...I am gonna have to work on the whole lighting thing *argh*

*Note: You could really add anything you want to this recipe. Adding rasians or nuts would be good or even dried cranberry. Maybe try chocolate chips and they could melt and make it all chocolatey!