just helen

Cake Batter Krispie Treats

I'll have to say that I don't usually try a recipe as soon as I find one, but I was baking things for the school play treat table and came across this recipe.  It sounded easy and yummy...and cute!  I found the recipe here.

Cake Batter Krispie Treats

3 Tablespoons butter

1 - 10 oz. bag miniature marshmallows

1/3 cup white cake mix - not prepared, just the dry mix

1 - 1.5 oz. container of sprinkles (Jimmies) - these are mixed colors, but you could use what ever kind you like

6 cups Rice Krispies

Put parchment paper inside a 9" x 13" pan; set aside.  Melt the butter in a 3 qt saucepan over medium heat; add marshmallows and stir, coating with the butter, until completely melted.  Add the cake mix, a spoonful at a time, mixing well.  Don't overheat.  Pour over the Krispies, and stir in about half the Jimmies; mix well.  Press into the pan, sprinkling the rest of the Jimmies over the top.  I butter my hands a little and then it won't stick on my hands as I press the treats into the pan. 

I wanted the Krispie Treats to be tall, so I pressed it into just half the pan...you could use a smaller pan, if you like.  When I'm doing something for a bake sale, I like to make the presentation nice.  Taste is important, but it's just as fun when I hear everyone talking about how cute something is.  Instead of cutting them into a square treat, I used a 2 1/8" round biscuit cutter, put them in a 2 1/2" unbleached baking cup and tied it up with some red and white baker's twine...too cute!

I like the round shape and the fact that these are cake batter (like cupcakes, get it?) in flavor, makes the baking cup papers quite appropriate.  Another side benefit of cutting these out like this?  There are the trimmings left behind for the cook (and her minions) to polish off!

These are really yummy.  I think I need to make more of these for the bake sale because these are apt to go fast - at the bake sale and before they ever get there!

Update:    I have officially died and gone to sprinkles heaven!

It's true...after I discovered the Cake Batter Krispie Treat recipe, I have been on the hunt for good deals on candy sprinkles so that I will always have them on hand.  Just this afternoon I found some pretty, springy sprinkles at the 99centsonly store - about 1.7 oz for just under a dollar.  Good deal, right?  I thought so, too...that is until Megan bought me a box of these...

Yep...a whole 10 pound box of the prettiest candy sprinkles EVER for just $15.99 for the whole box - Costco Business.  Aren't they beautiful?  I feel an urge to make some more Cake Batter Krispie Treats...and not share!

It could just be the beginning of a quest for desserts with sprinkles included.  Who needs a ticket for Mega Millions when you have a box of these!  I am the luckiest girl around!  Thanks, Megan!

Jell-O Cookies

Jello Cookies...Lemon, Orange, Lime and Raspberry.  Rolled in sugar and then sprinkled with more chunky, colored sugar before baking.  These are the sugariest of sugar cookies.  Tangy, sweet, soft and yummy.  Beautifully colorful and delightfully different from my usual favorites...anything with chocolate chips. 

I got the recipe from a friend at least 30 years ago.  I don't know why I haven't made them (for years!), I  just haven't.  The kids got all opinionated about what they wanted and I got busy, so I started making less of the seasonal sorts and stuck with the stand-bys.  Plus, there are all those others sweets that have been discovered/developed in the last few years and I started infusing them into the time used for making sweets.  But sometimes it's good to revisit those old favorites.

Jell-O Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 - 3oz. pkg of Jell-O ( I used raspberry, orange, lemon and lime flavors...but my very favorites are raspberry and lime)

Cream the above ingredients.  Add:

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the eggs and vanilla into the sugar mixture.  Add:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Mix well.  The dough will be fairly soft, but not sticky.  You don't need to refrigerate the dough before rolling.  I like to use a scoop to make my cookies more uniform in size. 

Pre-heat oven to 400°.  Roll dough into 1" to 1 1/4" balls and then roll in a bowl with about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in it, completely covering the exterior of the dough ball.  Place on the pan about 2" apart.  Using a flat-bottomed glass (or bowl) press the dough to about a 3/8" thickness. 

Sprinkle the top with colored, chunky sugar.  Mine all matched the different colors of dough, but you could contrast the colors if you like.  Take the bowl (or flat-bottomed glass) and very lightly tap the chunky sugar into the cookie.

Bake the cookies for 6 - 8 minutes.  Those 6 minutes are plenty long enough unless you like your cookies crisp!  Cool on a rack.  It takes about an hour, start to finish.  If you get one batch in and start rolling the next, it will go fast enough that you can start working on the next flavor/color before you finish the first.  Store in a air-tight container.

If you are feeling ambitious, you can shape these into more of an oval shape, then when you flatten them, they will look more like eggs.

Yummy!

Blueberries For Breakfast

Just a couple weeks ago, I discover Pinterest...yes, I know.  That's me, slow but sure!   I have a sneaking suspicion that this could become a serious addiction...but what a great way to go!  It seems that some brilliant person/team figured out the perfect way for me to identify and store all those great ideas that I come across on the Internet, and better still, make it easy for me to share with friends!

One of the first things I came across on Pinterest was a pinned recipe for Buttermilk-Blueberry Breakfast Cake.  The pictures looked quite delicious and I had just purchased 4 pints of fresh blueberries - perfect!  My problem is that, unlike Alexandra , I rarely buy or use buttermilk in my cooking.  If I do, I use it for one recipe and then the rest goes to waste.  But here's another great thing about Pinterest...someone commented right after I "repinned" the photo that they had made the recipe and used yogurt and milk instead of buttermilk.  I just so happened to have plain yogurt!

With all the ingredients gathered, including some fresh lemons for zest from my friend's tree (thanks, Jenn!) I whipped some of this blueberry yumminess.

Here is where I changed the recipe.  When I started paying attention to the original recipe's ingredients, I noticed that it called for 1/2 cup of buttermilk.  I was doubling the recipe, so I would need to double that as well.  However, my friend had said something about using milk and yogurt with lemon juice.  I wasn't sure about proportions, so I went online to see about substitutions for buttermilk.  About.com said that you could use yogurt, volume for volume (equal amounts) for buttermilk.  So that's what I did.

Here's the recipe, originally from Alexandra's Kitchen.

Buttermilk-Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Serves 6 to 8

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 tsp. lemon zest or more - zest from 1 large lemon

7/8 cup sugar* + 1 tablespoon sugar** 

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 cup plain yogurt)

*7/8 cup = 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons

**This tablespoon is for sprinkling on top (I used Tahitian Vanilla Sugar on top)

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.

2.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Meanqhile, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

3.  Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk (or plain yogurt.  The batter was very thick...almost too thick.  I thought it might have to do with using the yogurt instead of the buttermilk.  It work out okay in the end...just be aware that it might seem a little like mortar.)  Fold in the blueberries.

4.  Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray.  Spread batter into pan.  Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Check with a toothpick to see if done.  Alexandra said it might take as long as 10 minutes longer...mine took almost 15 more.  Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Since I needed to go out running errands and was just waiting for the breakfast cake to get out of the oven to leave, when I finally got to taste it, it was barely warm.  But it was delicious even at room temperature and just as good when it was cold later in the day!

This is a keeper.  Who knows...one day I might even try it with buttermilk to see the difference!

Caramel Apple Everything!

We are a very trendy people.  We all have favorite sweets, but there is a seemingly never-ending attempt to come up with something new.  We have but to watch Food Network, TLC and Bravo shows to know that there are some very innovative people out there coming up with some wild and crazy concoctions that I know I would never think of on my own.  But that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy what the ready-made world has to offer! 

One of the things I have noticed is the profusion of all things caramel apple this fall, even more so than usual.  I have a caramel apple candle that I get out every Halloween, which is the only time I allow myself to burn it, mostly because it's so sweet but also because I don't burn candles that much anymore.  Then I buy a caramel apple (or something with even more decadent ingredients surrounding it) when I go to Disneyland to see the park all lit up for Halloween...especially Jack at the Haunted Mansion.  I like the combination of apples and caramel any time of year, but the seasonal aspect of this is a treat, especially when I don't even need to get out of my car to imbibe.    Ergo McDonald's drive-thru for their Caramel Apple Sundae makes me happy.  This "portion controlled" treat - meaning not large - only set me back $1.49.

Lots of caramel, small bits of apple...yum!  I told the young man at the counter to make it pretty because I was going to take pictures.  No pressure there!  Just what a young guy behind the counter at McDonald's wants to hear...some old lady telling him to make it look pretty!  The poor sundae started to melt while I got my camera out and started taking the pictures. 

I tried the Caramel Apple Frosty Parfait at Wendy's today, and it didn't hit the spot like the sundae McD's, but I will admit that their semi-crunchy topping was yummy...I would have liked to get more of the taste of the caramel.  It was $2.19.

What I needed from this was a nice thick layer of caramel in the middle of the Frosty part.  I also preferred the smaller bites of apple - with this I almost had to pick up the slices of apple to get to the rest of the dessert.

They don't have a drive-thru - I mean you have to work for it a little by getting out of your car and walking into the store - but the Caramel Apple Cupcake at Sprinkles is wonderful!  The caramel cream cheese frosting is to die for!  These can be had for a mere $3.50 each. 

Want to see the insides?

Come a little closer...

As much as I love Sprinkles cupcakes, they do have a flaw - the buttons (or letters or designs) are edible, but they DO NOT taste good...at all!  That would be my suggestion to the company, but somehow I know they won't be listening AND I don't have any better suggestions.  And I will admit that the buttons are really cute!

I have heard that there's a Caramel Apple Cheesecake at Marie Callender's.  I may have to make a special trip there, since the one that used to be close to our house closed.  Besides, it's the time of year for the "cheap" pies...not that they're cheap anymore - I am remembering way back when they used to be $5.00 for the pie and $.50 for the pie tin deposit.  Now they're $7.99 plus tin deposit!  Yikes!

There are still more caramel things that I want to try and make...like the caramel cream cheese frosting to use on just about anything!  Maybe this weekend will be kind to me.  If you have any favorites, I would love you to share!

You Never Know What You'll Find

 
I love a good recipe as much as the next person, but a good recipe, with a sprinkling of a good story is even better! Secret family recipes must be guarded and only shared when special occasions arise. However, some recipes find their way to you by unexpected means.

At our last ward party, there was a potluck of yummy salads, chips and desserts to go along with our grilled hot dogs. Since the kids were all down at the water or busy building their sandcastles,and I didn't feel anyone was watching my bad example, I decided to go ahead and have my dessert first. I did not make it far down the table before I ventured a taste of an interesting Chex mixture...I had found my treat! In a large stainless steel bowl, covered by foil, was a the most delicious, caramel sticky treat I've had in ages...sorry, Sprinkles - this was even yummier than that last German Chocolate cupcake I recently had, although totally different in type and texture. It was one of those types of "munchies" that was hard to stop eating!

"Who made this yummy stuff and is it a secret family recipe?" I asked. Anna confessed to bringing the addicting dessert, and smiled about the secret family recipe part.  She said, "When Kent (husband) was a teenager, he worked at a dry-cleaner. He was going through suit jacket pockets when he found this recipe. It sounded good, so he copied it down, took it home and his Dad has been making it ever since."  So, this is how I received the recipe, which I will now share with you!  Caution...this can be seriously addicting!

Sweet Chex Mix

1 - 17 oz. box of Chex cereal - I used Corn

2 cups sliced almonds

2 cups coconut

1 cup butter

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups corn syrup 1

 Tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix Chex, almonds and coconut in a large bowl.

2. Put butter, sugar and corn syrup into a large saucepan/pot.

3. Bring to a boil; boil for 4 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat; add baking soda and vanilla and stir for 1 minute. Adding the baking soda will make it bubble up, so make sure that you use a big enough pot.

5. Pour over dry mix; stir well, coating the dry ingredients well.

6. Spread on wax paper to cool down.

One tidbit or warning:  I was out of regular corn syrup, so I used Karo Lite...don't do that!  While the flavor was great, when I added the baking soda, it had a different consistency than when I usually make a caramel. When it started to cool, it got totally gummy...like GOO!  Upon further examination, I found the following ingredients on the list...corn syrup, water, cellulose gum, sodium hexametaphosphate, salt, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate (used to protect quality), citric acid, sucralose and vanilla -  this list is a heck of a lot longer than the regular bottle, so I'm going to try it again without the "lite" attached to the label.  It was still delicious, but I'm anxious to test the difference now.