Recipe: Soft Pretzels

This recipe is easy and simple, but for some reason it took me forever to make these pretzels, could have been because it was my first time making them. When I was a teenager, way back when, I use to work at a movie theater and one of our kiosks sold these kind of pretzels. The whole time I was making them I was thinking "oh this brings back memories". I was really hoping the taste would be similar, it wasn't - it was the same! I am so happy I found this recipe, I use to eat these all the time on lunch break, not very healthy I know, but ooooh so tasty. This pretzel tastes slightly sweet without any toppings or dip, so if you want to add savoury toppings or a salty dip to your pretzel I would cut out some of the sugar.

This is what the pretzels look like naked, I brushed melted butter on them and added cinnamon and sugar with cream cheese icing drizzled over top.

Ingredients:
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
.....
1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water

Directions:
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with whatever you like.

Enjoy!!!

Recipe: Cookie Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

This recipe is incredible and when I say incredible I mean I've already made it three times in the past two weeks, it's really just that good. I even made these once without eggs and they are still delicious, it you decide to skip the eggs as well make sure to replace them with a tablespoon of corn starch and a couple teaspoons of flour, just to thicken it up.

Ingredients: 

Cookie Part: 
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup softened butter

Cream Cheese Filling:
12 oz (1.5 bars) of cream cheese softened
1/2 cup pf white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Apple Filling:
2 large apples
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbs white sugar

Crumb Top:
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup all purpose flour

Top it Off:
Caramel drizzle (as much or as little as you want)

Directions:


Preheat the oven to 350 °F.

In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar snd butter until the mixture is somewhat crumbly.
Press the dough evenly into a 13 × 9-inch baking pan or a cookie sheet with edges. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a larger bowl, beat the cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, 1 at a time (beat after each addition). Next add the vanilla and mix until combined. Pour the cream cheese batter over the warm crust.

Peel the apples and chop them into 3/4-inch chunks. Mix the apple chunks with the cinnamon and white sugar. Spoon the apple chunks evenly over the cream cheese mixture.

In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, oats, butter and brown sugar for crumb topping. Sprinkle over the cream cheese mixture.

Bake 30 minutes, or until the filling is set. Reduce the temperature to 300°F for the last 5 minutes.

Last but not least drizzle with the caramel topping.

Enjoy!!!

Store Bought Recipe: Vanilla Oreos Wrapped in Chocolate Chip Cookies

I first saw this on pinspire (a complete copy of pinterest) and thought how incredibly easy and yummy these cookies looked. I didn't have a lot of time to make the cookie dough from scratch, so I used the store bought kind that was sitting in my fridge.

This recipe is so easy all you do is take your store bought cookie dough out of the package, place it in a bowl and add about a 1/4 cup of flour to it. The reason why you need to add the flour is so that the dough becomes a little stiffer and doesn't run off the oreo cookie. Next you take the dough and lovingly wrap it around the entire oreo cookie and place it in an ungreased pan. Once your pan is full place it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

These taste the best when the chocolate chip cookie part is still slightly "raw". Once you try this recipe you will want to make them over and over again, if you are on a diet or thinking of going on a diet you might want to skip this recipe.

Enjoy!!!

Recipe: Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this recipe in an issue of  "Today's Parent", I made these cupcakes for my daughter's second birthday a while back and she loved it, it was literally all over her face. 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 Cup boiling water

1 1/2 Cup all purpose flour 

1 Cup white sugar

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 Large bag of "Rolo" chocolate or something similar

Icing

3 tbsp Butter at room temperature

1 3/4 Cup icing sugar

1/4 Unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

1 tbsp Vanilla

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, whisk cocoa with boiling water until no lumps remain.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour with sugar, baking powder with salt.

Whisk oil into slightly cooled cocoa mixture, then whisk in eggs and vanilla. 

Stir in flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be very thick.

Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups. 

Bake until batter is barely set, approx 8-10 minutes.

Remove partially baked cupcakes and push pieces of  chocolate into the center. 

Bake for another 8-10 minutes, then set on cooling rack. 

For the icing beat butter in a large bowl.

Whisk icing sugar with cocoa to remove lumps. 

Beat into butter, alternating with milk. 

Beat in vanilla until icing is smooth. 

Enjoy!!!

Recipe: Cranberry Cheesecake Bars

After many recent experiments I have come to the conclusion that desserts are much better with cream cheese. It's funny to think that I use to despise cheesecake and thought cream cheese only belonged on bagels. Since this is my first post, I would like to present the recipe that made me fall in love with cream cheese desserts. I enthusiastically give you these cranberry cheesecake bars. 

Ingredients:

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups instant rolled oats

3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar (divided use)

1 cup (2 sticks or 16 Tablespoons) butter, at room temperature

8 ounces (1 large block) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons)

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil.

Combine flour, rolled oats, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and butter with a pastry blender, mixing until crumbly. Remove 1-1/2 cups of mixture and set aside for later use. Press remaining mixture into bottom of the prepared baking pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. 

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice, whipping until completely combined. Pour evenly over warm bottom layer crust.

Scoop whole berry cranberry sauce into a bowl, stirring gently with a fork to break up the jelly. Add 1 tablespoon brown sugar and cornstarch. Mix until combined. Drop cranberry mixture by spoonful over the cream cheese layer. Gently smooth with the back of a spoon to cover. Sprinkle top with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake 45 minutes, until top is golden brown. Cool bar cookies completely before cutting. Refrigerate before serving. Makes about 24 bars, depending on how you cut them.

Enjoy!!!