Grandpa's Peanut Butter Fudge

The clock is ticking down and there's not much of 2011 left. I can't believe the end of the year is already here. It seems the time absolutely flew by. So before the inevitable weight loss resolution, let me share one final recipe for 2011- peanut butter fudge.

My dad has made a batch of this peanut butter fudge every year for as long as I can remember. Yet this was the first time that I decided to make it all on my own. As I read the recipe, I noticed for the first time a little note under the directions-- this had actually been my grandpa's recipe from when my dad was a child. Unfortunately, I never got to meet my grandfather on my dad's side; he died a few months before I was born. But even as a child, I loved hearing stories about him and loved seeing pictures of him. It made me feel closer to this man that I would never have the opportunity to know. When I found that note and asked Dad about it, he told me that his father had made several batches of this fudge every year. He would package it up and give it to all of the family friends at Christmastime, but would make sure there was enough for his own family as well.

It's little stories like that that always get me. It reminds me that just because someone is gone, they were real human beings who touched and moved lives. Now, when I taste this fudge, I like to think I've found some little part of my grandpa's memory that can live on with me.

What you need:
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 7 oz jar marshmallow cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, margarine, and milk in heavy 2 1/2 quart saucepan. Bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 5 minutes (this is important!) over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching.

Remove from heat; stir in peanut butter until melted. Attempt to not eat all of the peanut butter from the jar.

Add the marshmallow cream and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Cool to room temperature and then cut into squares.

Yum! This batch came out perfectly. The secret is in how long you let it boil. Make sure you boil the mix for five minutes and no less. If you don't cook it long enough, it won't set and you'll have a runny mess on your hands.

Good luck and happy baking!
Rosie

Source: Family Recipe

A Christmas Tradition: Painted Sugar Cookies

I can't remember a single year in my 20 Christmases or so that my family did not make painted sugar cookies. When my brother, sister and I were kids, my parents always made a double batch of the cookie dough early on in December and we would spend hours decorating the delicious cookies. One year my mom was hospitalized a couple of days before Christmas because she had a bad asthma attack. The doctors were not sure if she would get out in time for Christmas morning and, at the young age, I just didn't know what I would do if my mom was not there for our early morning rituals. Even then, we still managed to get these cookies made. We took boxes of them to the hospital, passing them out to the nurses and doctors that walked the halls. A Christmas miracle occurred and my mom was able to come home on Christmas Eve. There's just something about these cookies, perhaps just the memories, but they spread Christmas joy and a childish happiness.

Now that we are all grown, Christmas consists of watching my niece and nephew eagerly tear open their gifts before the family digs into a pancake breakfast. However, we still manage to get these cookies made every year and it's a tradition that is being spread to the next generation of our family. I hope you'll give these a try- they're fun for both children and adults!

What you need for the cookie dough:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cream of tartar

For the paint:
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon water
Food coloring

Mix powdered sugar, margarine, egg, vanilla and almond extract.

Stir in flour baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough into halves and roll each half thinly onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

To make the paint, mix 1 teaspoon of water with the egg yolk. Separate into however many colors you need. Add a couple drops and food coloring to each and begin painting! You can also use sprinkles and decorating sugars for extra pizazz.
Bake for about 6 or 7 minutes.

 I just love how these cookies turn out. I love watching the kids decorate them and then watch them change after baking in the oven.

I hope you'll try these cookies and maybe even make them a tradition in your own home.

Merry Christmas and happy baking!
Rosie

Source: Betty Crocker's Christmas Cookbook with loving modifications from years of baking these

Chocolate Praline Toffee Crisps and a Question

I've been trying to think of a way in which I could spice up this blog a little bit. (Spice up? Get it? XD) Having a baking blog is great and all, but there's a lot of baking blogs out there and I would love to find a way to offer you guys something unique and creative while still being helpful and interesting. If I could think of a way to integrate some of my other interests into this blog, that would be fabulous. Unfortunately, my hobbies are not exactly supportive of this plan. I love video games and actually have several video game inspired recipes I've been planning out, but I couldn't really make this blog center on that as there are already some great blogs with the same concept. My other interests include movies, fashion, make-up and reading but... Well, I just have no idea what to do with that. So if you have any suggestions on things you would like to see, I would be eternally grateful to know. Feel free to comment or shoot me a message!

But for now, onto the recipe! Today, in the search of more gift friendly treats, we're making chocolate praline toffee crisps. I'm warning you ahead of time; this recipe may be a bit wonky because it's from a Pampered Chef cookbook which means it was written for specific PC utensils and was a bit difficult to translate to what things I already had.

What you need:

12 whole graham crackers
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter (do not substitute with margarine)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange crackers in a single layer in a rimmed cookie sheet. I didn't have the particular PC brand sheet so the closest thing I had was too big. This proved to work fine though. Just make sure you can fit the crackers.

Combine brown sugar, butter and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk. Boil sugar mixture 4 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in pecans.

Immediately pour sugar mixture over crackers and spread evenly.

Bake 10 to 14 minutes or until sugar mixture is bubbly and pecans are lightly toasted. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack. Cool completely.

In a small bowl, microwave semi-sweet chocolate chips on high 30 to 60 seconds or until smooth, stirring after each 20 second interval.

Place ziploc bag into a cup, tucking the excess over the rim. Pour chocolate into bag. Twist top of bag, secure with clip.

Trim corner to allow chocolate to through; drizzle over crisps. Repeat with white chocolate.

Let stand until the chocolate is firm. Cut into 24 squares and, if desired, cut the squares diagonally to form triangles. Store in an airtight container.

Though the finished product looked pretty enough, I wasn't crazy about the taste. I had several issues with this recipe. The graham crackers really didn't work out. They were too tough to cut through and they crumbled apart when I tried to cut the bars into triangles. I thought the topping was far too dry. I expected them to be a bit sticky like the filling in a pecan pie and was incredibly disappointed when that was not the case.

If you decide to try these, I highly suggest just making a crust and either not baking the bars at all or only baking them for a few minutes.

Good luck and happy baking!
Rosie

Source: Pampered Chef Festive Holiday Desserts

Amaretto Walnut Brownies

Guys, I'm about to share something with you that is so good, you won't even believe it.

Amaretto walnut brownies.

These brownies may be the richest, most delicious brownies I have ever tasted. They are nice and fudgy and the coffee and amaretto creates a really interesting taste.

What you need:
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup almond liqueur
1 cup butter
8 1 oz unsweetened chocolate squares
5 large eggs
3 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup Swiss mocha instant coffee mix
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Soak the chopped walnuts in liqueur for 4-6 hours. Drain, discarding the liqueur.

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter and chocolate in a heavy saucepan over low heat.

Beat eggs, sugar, and Swiss mocha coffee at medium high speed with an electric mixer for eight minutes. I know that's a weirdly long time but these brownies are so good it's worth it.

Gradually add chocolate mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Gradually add vanilla, flour, and salt, beating until blended.

Stir in walnuts. Pour into a lightly greased, foil lined 13x9 inch pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and cut into squares.

These brownies were a complete hit with my family. If I would have let them, my boyfriend and my dad would have eaten them as meals. Every time I turned around, they were sneaking one more! If you're looking for something easy to give to relatives or friends for the holiday season, these turn out really nicely and I'm sure anyone would be more than grateful to receive a tin of them.

Good luck and happy baking!
Rosie

Source: Southern Living Annual Recipes 1999

Grandma Rose's Banana Whipped Cream Roll

Pumpkin month is over which means I can FINALLY move on to other kinds of recipes. I'm really excited about the Christmas season. As a child, Christmas always meant fudge, divinity and painted sugar cookies. Even though I'm an adult now, those traditions still stand. Bad news for any diet but good news for my sweet tooth.

However, I made something a bit out of character for this time of month- a banana whipped cream roll.

This was my very first time making a cake roll, as you can probably tell. It didn't turn out to be the most beautiful roll ever, but it tasted pretty good. I'm going to warn you though, this is not a dessert to make if you're on a budget.

What you need for the sponge cake:
9 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon orange flavoring
Grated rind of 1 orange
1 cup potato starch
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the filling and whipped topping:
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 sliced bananas
Chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Thoroughly grease and line with parchment paper a 13x17 jelly roll pan. Separate your eggs.

Beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar. Very gradually, 1 tablespoon at a time, add 3/4 cup of sugar.

 Continue beating until thick and shiny. Set aside.

Beat egg yolks unti thick. Add remaining sugar, orange flavoring and rind. Continue beating until thick. Beat in the potato starch mixed with salt until the batter is smooth.

Fold part of egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Then, very carefully, fold this mixture into the remaining egg whites.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes.

I suggest checking at around 15 minutes as mine came out a bit dry.

Now comes the part where I tell you to do as I say and not as I do. The recipe said to turn out the cake onto sugar-sprinkled foil or waxed paper. However, I suggest turning it out onto a sugar sprinkled dish towel. Roll it up like a jelly roll. Using foil prevented the heat from escaped and really dried out the cake. Let cool completely before unrolling.

Whip cream until thick, adding sugar and vanilla. Combine 1 cup whipped cream with bananas.

Spread the filling on the sponge cake.

Carefully roll it back up.

Ice it with the remaining whipped cream. If you're feeling fancy you can put the cream in a star-tipped pastry bag and run the cream over the top and sides of the roll.

Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Voila!

Oolala! This cake is very visually appealing, if I do say so myself.

Well, until you see my less than perfect job at rolling it. This cake would have been absolutely perfect if it had not been so dry. So remember, keep an eye on a time and use a towel, not foil!

Good luck and happy baking!
Rosie

Source: Grandma Rose...