Capuccino Brownies. They're fancy.

I made the most incredible brownies. Thankfully it only made an 8x8 pan or I would probably never come off the caffeine high. They have bittersweet chocolate, which I have never baked with and instant espresso. They taste absolutely heavenly. If there are any chocoholics out there please try these and if your not a chocoholic try these anway, then you will be a chocoholic. Simple as that. LOL. Hold on to your hats. They got three layers!!

This is your first ingredients pic. Thats the salt and vanilla up top. Woops.
yep, the butters up there too.

This is my 8 x 8 pan. I sprayed it with non stick spray, then fit it with some parchment as even as I could and sprayed it with bakers joy. The one with flour in it too.

This is my out of focus shot of the chopped up chocolate. To be added with butter, espresso mixture (espresso powder with 1/2 teaspoon water) over low heat until silky smooth. Add your next ingredients according to instructions. Annnddd.......

Pour that mixture into the parchment lined pan as evenly as you can. Then bake.

This is your ingredients for the next layer. The cream cheese layer. Sigh.
Now, all I did was beat together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, vanilla and CINNAMON. That ingredients right there sends these over the top to yummyland.
Then put this in the fridge for an hour after you have it spread an evenly as you could. Ahem.

Finally, the third layer. What the recipe calls the glaze. It turns into a beautiful shell like top.

Just microwave all the "glaze" ingredients at 30 min. intervals until smooth and pour over cream cheese layer.

Refrigerate for three hours and it will lose its glossiness and have a matte finish. Ahh. All is right with the world.

Cappucino Brownies

Brownie Layer:

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened) chopped

3/4 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder dissolved in 1/2 tablespoon boiling water

3/4 granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 large eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Cream Cheese layer:

4 oz. cream cheese softened

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

2 1/4 teaspoons instant espresso powder, dissolved in 1/2 tablespoon boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour and 8x8 inch pan, knocking out excess flour. (Or line the pan with parchment, this is recommened to get the brownies out of the pan). In a heavy 1 1/2 quart saucepan, melt chocolate with butter and espresso mixture over low heat stirring until smooth and remove pan from heat. Cool mixture to lukewarm and whisk in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, whisking well until mixture is glossy and smooth. Stir in flour and salt until combined and stir in nuts, if you are using them. Spread batter in pan and bake in the middle of oven for 22 to 25 minutes or until tester comes out with crumbs. Cool completely. Make your cream cheese layer: In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and beat until well combined. Spread this evenly over brownie layer. Chill for 1 hour. Make glaze: In a glass bowl place, chocolate, butter, cream and espresso mixture. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring until melted and smooth. If glaze is steaming hot, let cool a little bit. Pour glaze over cream cheese mixture very carefully. Chill brownies until cold (about 3 hours). When ready to cut simply lift parchment out of the pan. About 24 squares.

You cant have just one. Utter decadence. And yes, you deserve it.

Oh and yes yes-that is Fire King Jadeite (I'm pretty proud of it!).

Coffee!

As you all well know, (maybe you dont but I am here to say) I love coffee. Most all kinds. I love to taste all the different regional coffees at Starbucks as they get them in. My husbands parents were in Honduras for a few months and they brought me back this bag of coffee beans. I cant wait to try them. I think I will keep the little sack though, its cute.

Hamburger Stroganoff

I am so glad to be back to blogging after taking a small break. I missed catching up with you all. I am really enjoying reading how everyones holidays were. This recipe was really for my husband. When I first starting dating my husband his mom told me he loved her beef stroganoff. She made the stroganoff with the strips of meat, round steak or cube steak I think. I have tried to make that over the years and just never got the meat right. So I stick with this one. It tasted really great to all of us. It was a nice change from stew or soup for a cold weather meal. We had it with some crusty bread and it was a hit.

Here is your ingredients. Two bulbs went out in the kitchen so these pics are not super but you can still see what ya need to. The little red things in the front are beef boullion cubes since I didn't have a can of beef broth.

Here all you need to do is brown the ground meat with the mushrooms and onions. oh, and garlic.

Add your flour and it will thicken this mixture up a bit.

Then add your broth (or cubes with water, mixed according to jar directions), worcestershire, pepper and salt.

I added just sour cream since my family is not real big on horseradish. Now it will get really creamy.

This can also be served over different pasta such as small penne or even rice. Super good!

Hamburger Stroganoff
1 pound ground chuck
1 8 oz package of mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 14 oz. can beef broth
1 10.75 oz can cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup
2 tablespoons worcestershire
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of sour cream
2 teaspoons horseradish
1 12 ounce package wide egg noodles cooked according to package directions and kept warm

In a large skillet, combine ground chuck, mushrooms, onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat until beef if browned and crumbly, drain. Stir in flour, and cook stirring frequently for 2 min. Stir in broth, soup, worcestershire, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix sour cream and horseradish, add to beef mixture stirring to combine. Cook for 5 minutes or until heated through. Serve over cooked egg noodles. Garnish with parsley and more sour cream if desired. MMmm!
This is a great meal to make ahead and freeze.

The Nick of Time......

It was time. Holidays are over. Everyone needed to go back to school/work/college. There was a very good chance one of us wasnt going to make it out of here intact. Whew!

Lemon Blossoms/Flops

Happy Monday to all! Have you guys ever come across a recipe that is so easy that you feel like you cant mess it up? I have had this recipe for awhile and with all the down time around here after the holidays I thought I would try it. As you can see by the ingredients pic that it utilizes a cake mix and I just love recipes that do that. I guess I was trying to hurry I am not sure. I filled the little muffin pans too full. When they say only use a tablespoon of the batter in the muffin cups they really mean it. The first half of this batter came out of the muffin holes and left me with these mushroom looking mini-muffins. Sort of how my stomach looks over my jeans after this bountiful holiday. This really is an easy recipe and I must say that the taste (not the look) was very good and light.
Lemon Blossoms
1 box yellow cake mix
1 box instant lemon pudding
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Glaze
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
zest of one lemon
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp. water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin tins with non stick spray. Combine cake mix, pudding, eggs and oil and blend until smooth (batter will be thick). Drop NO MORE than 1 tbsp. batter into each muffin tin. Bake about 12 minutes. Turn onto a tea towel.
While muffins are baking, mix glaze. Sift powdered sugar, then add lemon zest, oil, lemon juice and water. Mix until smooth.
Dip the warm muffins in the glaze and set on a wire rack (make sure there is waxed paper under the rack). It takes at least an hour for the glaze to harden. Store in an airtight container. Makes 60 muffins.


Heres your ingredients. Simple. Simple.

Mix up your batter. It will be a little thicker than when you make a cake. I used a cookie scoop to put it in the muffin tins. Just make sure your scoop is only a tablespoon size.

Okay, now this is where I got a little frustrated. No, alot frustrated. There is no picture of me having to pull them out of the tin with my fingers. Nice.

This is your ingredients picture for the glaze.. Again, very easy.

Here is your glaze. It is very thin, but perfect for dunking that little muffin in.

This is the ugly batch. They are not supposed to be the size of a cookie across the top.

This was a little closer to what they were supposed to look like. They did taste good. Eh, tomorrow is another day!

You wont even think straight if you eat these!!

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is recovering nicely from the holidays. All the great food and relatives and too much of almost everything. I absolutely love the holidays but I also love to see them go away! Last night I was finally in the mood to cook just for pleasure again. We are such party animals that I found myself in my kitchen looking through recipes. I had printed this one awhile back when I first found it. There is an amazing blog that I have been following that has everything on it. It is called The Pioneer Woman Cooks. She is remodeling a guest house/lodge on her property and it is just ultra fabulous. I feel like I have been there with her and she has had a step by step on the process. Go check it out at http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. I found these cinnamon rolls on her site and I knew someday I would make them. I have tried tons and tons of cinnamon rolls and the were all basically the same. These are different. They are the best I have ever had.The thing that kills me on these is the frosting. Not that the dough isn't just delicious but....well, you just gotta try it. I made half of her recipe because hers made 7 pans!! I still ended up with 4, but let me tell you. Its really okay....LOL!

I really had fun making these. I know that sounds lame but they are so loaded down with the filling that I found myself smiling. This is after the dough is made, rolled out slathered with butter, sprinkled with sugar and a bunch of cinnamon. Lawdy Lawdy. I feel a little faint just reliving it.

Okay. My husband, daughter and I couldnt really contain ourselves after they came out of the oven. I let them cool a little then poured the icing on. The recipe calls for maple flavoring but its not our favorite. I just used vanilla but next time I WILL use the maple. Odd ingredient: brewed coffee. Seriously kids, this is to die for. I couldn't even get the pic fast enough before they were poppin' them out of the pan and into the mouth!

Pioneer Womans Cinnamon Rolls

1 quart of whole milk

1 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of sugar

2 packages dry yeast

8 plus 1 cup all purpose flour

1 heaping tsp baking powder

1 scant teaspoon baking soda

1 heaping teaspoon salt

3-4 cups melted butter

2 cups of sugar

generous sprinkling of cinnamon

Frosting: 1 bag of powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons maple flavoring, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup of brewed coffee, 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Mix the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat just before boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes or so. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but not hot. sprinkle both packages of yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

Add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together.(At this point you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it-overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it splurges out of the bowl just punch it down.)

Sprinkle surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangle shape. Drizzle 1 1/2 to 2 cups of melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling dough in a neat line toward you. Keep it relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam to the roll to seal it. Spread 1 tbsp. melted butter in seven round foil cake or pie pans. Then begin cutting rolls approximately 3/4 to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and dont skimp on the frosting!!

Merry Christmas To All!!

I wanted to take a minute this morning before the Christmas festivities begin and pass on some Christmas Cheer! I hope everyone has blessed holidays and get to enjoy the beauty of this season. I like to think of the new year as a great time to clean the slate and start off just the way you want to and to make this next year exactly the way you intended, however that may be. I hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year!!
Love,
Joan