Zucchini Bread

I love this bread. I love it a lot. If you've never had a zucchini bread before and you don't like zucchini, please don't be scared off. You wouldn't even know it was there if I didn't tell you, trust me. It just makes the bread moist and wonderful.

I got this recipe from my mother-in-law, and it is so, so, so delicious. It's great for breakfast. Or for desert. Or for eating between meals. Or for sneaking a piece when your husband's not home so that you don't have to cut him one to be equal.

Make it and you won't regret it.

Your ingredients: Eggs, Oil, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, Zucchini, Flour, Sugar, Vanilla, Brown Sugar, and Salt

First, puree your zucchini. You need about 2 cups pureed zucchini. I wound up only using 3 of those small ones, if it helps you. Man, get a food processor if you can. This is the first time I've made this bread since we trashed our crappy blender, and this food processor made this bread a whole lot quicker and less messy to make.

Then, whisk together your "wet" ingredients- eggs, oil, vanilla, zucchini, sugar, and brown sugar.

Add in your dry ingredients- mix it really well, don't let any pockets of flour hide out on you. I know it looks green. You're looking at this, saying- "How could this bread possibly be sweet??" Trust me. Please.

Then pour it into 2 loaf pans and pop it in the oven for about an hour.

Then eat this bread and thank me. And my mother-in-law. And the underappreciated zucchini.


Zucchini Bread
From my wonderful mother-in-law
Makes 2 loaves
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups pureed zucchini
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325°.

Puree zucchini in a food processor or blender. Mix together eggs, oil, brown sugar, white sugar, zucchini and vanilla.

Sift dry ingredients in and fold lightly into the batter. Pour into 2 loaf pans and bake for an hour, until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

You can also make muffins with this recipe- it makes 2 1/2 dozen, bake them for 15 minutes.

Cake Batter Chocolate Bark

So, one of my coworkers that I really like, who's moving (boooooo) asked me to bake something for her daughter's teachers.

"I'll pay you!" she said. Like she needed to pay me to bake.

So, after going through a couple of options, we decided on this recipe. I'd always wanted to try it and I though it would package up really cute.

Baking for other people is a little bit more stressful. I mean, I thought that it would be, but it's like, it has to be right. It has to be good.

And I think this turned out pretty well! So I thought I'd share it with you, in case you want to make it to give to someone special.

Ingredients: Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Sprinkles, and... yellow cake mix.

Let me just say, I felt like Charlie Bucket opening up this chocolate. I half-expected there to be a Golden Ticket inside. Godiva is fancy.

So, melt down your dark chocolate in a double boiler. Pour it into a foil-lined 9x13 and pop it in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Melt down your white chocolate in a double boiler. As soon as it's fully melted, whisk in 3 teaspoons of cake mix and take it off the heat for about 3 minutes, until it starts to thicken up. Take the dark chocolate layer out of the freezer and spread the white chocolate on top. Immediately cover with sprinkles. (Sorry, this has to be FAST, and that's why there are no pictures of it) Pop it back in the freezer for 20 more minutes.

Once it's set, you can break it into chunks! It looks very pretty. You have to keep it refrigerated, or the chocolate will melt.

And here's the finished product! I know, I'm not Martha Stewart but I thought it was pretty cute. The bark is actually inside a ziploc bag inside the paper bag, both to keep it insulated during transit and to keep it from making a mess inside the paper bag.

Good luck!

Cake Batter Chocolate Bark

From How Sweet it Is

6-7 oz. dark chocolate

12 oz. white chocolate

3 tsp. yellow cake mix

Colored sprinkles

Line a 9x13 pan with foil or parchment paper. Melt down dark chocolate in a double boiler and pour into the pan. Put the pan into the freezer for 20 minutes.

Melt down white chocolate in a double boiler. As soon as it's melted, whisk in the cake mix. Take off of heat and let sit for 3 minutes, until it thickens.

Pull the dark chocolate out of the freezer and immediately pour on the white chocolate mix. Top with sprinkles, put it back in the freezer for 20 more minutes. Once it's set, break into bark-y pieces. 

Keep refrigerated and enjoy!



Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Do you remember last week when I told you about my love affair with Oreos? Well, the only desert item that I love almost as much is cheesecake.

Delicious, creamy cheesecake.

Very soon I will share with you the recipe for Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes, the most wonderful thing ever invented.

But today I'm here to tell you about these Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. What could be better than putting my favorite fruit (besides watermelon of course) into cheesecake, and cutting it into bite-able bars?

Pretty much nothing.

Your ingredients: flour, sugar, powdered sugar, cream cheese, cornstarch, eggs, vanilla, an orange, and blueberries

First, put your blueberries in a small saucepan with the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the orange juice you squeezed from your orange. Turn on medium high heat until the mixture starts to bubble, then take it off the heat and set it aside.

For the crust, mix together your butter and 2 cups of flour. Add the powdered sugar and mix until it's crumbly-looking.

Press it into the bottom of a greased or foil-lined 9x13 and bake for 20 minutes.

For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar. Add a tablespoon of flour, then the eggs, then the vanilla, then the orange zest. Mix well.

When the crust comes out, pour the cheesecake mixture over the hot crust. Grab the bluberries and spoon them onto the cheesecake mixture. Use a knife or a spoon to swirl them in evenly. Bake for 20 more minutes.

And then you get this! Mmmmm, cheesecake. How I love you.

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

From Baked Bree

For the blueberries:

1 cup blueberries

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice

For the crust:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature and cut into chunks

For the cheesecake filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tsp. orange zest

1 tbsp. flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350°. Put the blueberries, cornstarch, sugar, and orange juice in a small saucepan on medium heat until the mixture starts to bubble. Take off the heat and set aside.

For the crust, mix together the flour, powdered sugar, and butter until its crumbly. Press into a greased or lined 9x13 and bake for 20 minutes, until it is a little brown around the edges.

For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and sugar. Add the flour, then the eggs, then the vanilla and orange zest. Mix well. Pour mixture over hot crust once it comes out of the oven.

Spoon the blueberries into the cheesecake mixture, use a knife or a spoon to swirl them around evenly. Bake for 20 more minutes, until the filling is set. Keep refrigerated. Enjoy!



Cinnamon....Pillows

Here's the deal. (Settle in, it's a story)

I've never tried anything involving dough before. It's too intimidating. But after a rash of recipe successes, and after finding an awesome new food blog, Baked Bree, I decided to give it a shot. Cinnamon rolls! They're delicious! They have icing! I could eat them for breakfast all week long!

That's what I thought to myself. But the thing is, right after I took my ingredients picture, I realized my milk was bad. So I substituted watered-down heavy cream, because everything I found said that was okay.

The thing is, I'm not sure that it was okay.

I first started to get worried when I rolled out my dough after letting it rise for 2 hours and it was still totally sticky and blob-y. Rolling it out and rolling it up was a nightmare. I started to panic, but for some reason kept taking pictures like everything was going fine.

It wasn't. I almost cried when they came out of the oven. Along with my determination to stick to the recipe EXACTLY (a rule which I had already broken with great trepidation), I also feel like a giant failure if my result does not look like the picture.

And this did NOT look like the picture, if you head over to Baked Bree you will agree with me. However, I've been convincing myself that I haven't failed this recipe, I've created a new one. Cinnamon Bread Pillows.

Look at this guy. He's totally sleep-able.

Tell your friends. And maybe the next time you see me, if you see me, you could tell me I'm not a failure.

 

Your Ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Powdered Sugar, Cinnamon, Yeast, Eggs, Cream Cheese, Milk, Butter, Brown Sugar, and Vanilla

First, put your yeast into the warm milk and let it dissolve. Let it sit for 5 minutes, it will start to foam.

In a mixer, mix together your butter, eggs, sugar and salt. I was super excited to use my dough hook attachment for the first time! Too bad it didn't turn out exactly... awesome.

Put in the milk/yeast mix, and then the flour, 2 cups at a time. Put in enough flour that it doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl.

Put your dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size

In a bowl, mix together your cinnamon glaze ingredients, mash them together with a fork until they're a paste.

Uh, roll out your dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle and hope that it looks a little better than this. Spread the cinnamon glaze over it, and then roll it up.

Cut it into 1 1/2 inch pieces and put them in a greased baking pan. If yours turn out pillow-style, you might need to use 2 pans. Or you can shove them all into 1 pan and see what happens. Who knows at this point. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To make the frosting (which I actually didn't fail at), cream together your butter and cream cheese. Add the salt, then the powdered sugar a little at a time, then the vanilla. Yum.

Did I lick the frosting spoon to make myself feel better? You bet I did.

And well... here it is. It's certainly not a roll, but you can definitely sleep on it. And have cinnamon dreams. Good luck.

Cinnamon...Pillows

Attempted from Baked Bree

Pillows:

1 package yeast

1 cup warm milk (microwave for about 50 seconds)

1/3 cup butter, softened

4-5 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

Cinnamon Glaze:

1 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 tbs. cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, softened and cut into chunks

1 tbsp flour

Icing:

8 tbs. butter

1/4 cup cream cheese

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

For the dough:

Let the yeast dissolve in the warm milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes, it will start to foam.

In an electric mixer, cream together your butter, sugar, salt and eggs. Add the yeast/milk, slowly add in the flour 2 cups at a time. The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl, you can use up to 5 cups of flour to get this result.

Put the dough in a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size.

For the cinnamon glaze:

In a small bowl, put your cinnamon glaze ingredients together- mash with a fork until it starts to form a thick paste.

Roll out your dough into a 16x21 rectangle. Spread the cinnamon glaze over the dough. Roll the dough until it forms a log. Cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces, then transfer to a greased baking pan. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise for another hour.

Cook at 400° for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

For the icing:

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, the salt, and then the vanilla until well-mixed.

Let the rolls cool completely before icing. Makes several...pillows.

Cinnamon Rolls...almost

This weekend, after drooling over various food blogs and their kitchen setups (I'm looking at you, Pioneer Woman, Joy the Baker, Baked Bree), I asked the Husband if, one day, I could have a nice kitchen. Could he promise that?

"We have a nice kitchen," he replied.

Exhibit A: Our kitchen

"No, we have a kitchen with exactly zero counter space, one tiny window that doesn't let in light, and no cool drawers to put my flour and sugar in," I said. "I want a big kitchen. A nice kitchen, with huge countertops, and lots of windows and big ol' drawers to put my baking supplies in."

"Oh," he said. "You want a big kitchen. With an island."

My husband defines a nice kitchen as a kitchen with an island.

Can you tell that my dough is rising?

Creamy Oreo Pie

I'm not sure if you know this about me. I love Oreos. With the kind of passion that is normally reserved for people.

I try to keep an open mind when bookmarking recipes to try, but if it has Oreos in it, or involves cheesecake in any way, it's most likely going in my "Save File." I even have a recipe saved for some crazy Oreo Brownies- just brownies, with an Oreo baked into the middle of them. Which, frankly, would sound disgusting to me if it were any other cookie besides an Oreo.

This pie is... it's indescribable. It's wonderful. And it's so incredibly easy, you'll hardly believe it.

You need this pie in your life.

Your ingredients- yes, this is all of them. Cream cheese, Oreos, butter, Cool Whip, and sugar.

First, crush up 26 of your Oreos. Funny story- look closely at this picture- do you see any blades? That's because there are none. When I turned on the food processor after taking this picture, nothing happened except a loud noise that sounded suspiciously like "Puuuuuuut iiiiin the blaaaaades, stuuuuuupid."

Then, melt your butter and mix it in with the crushed Oreos. Push it into the bottom of a 9 inch pie pan, this is your crust. Bake it for 5-7 minutes- not too long, just long enough. Don't burn it.

Put your crust in the fridge to cool and let's make the filling. Put the cream cheese and sugar into your mixer and beat until smooth and fluffy.

Chop up 9 more Oreos (you can do it by hand, they don't have to be perfect like the crust). Throw in 2 cups of the Cool Whip and mix until combined. (Also, technically you're supposed to this part by hand, but I was a little busy obnoxiously singing and dancing along with Billy Joel's "Big Shot" and I missed that instruction. Didn't affect the pie. I was embarrassed.)

Spoon the mixture into your pie crust and make it look smooth and pretty. You can decorate it like I did, or you can just leave it. Either way, please lick the mixing bowl that your filling was in. It's uh... important to get a sense of.... what your pie is like when it's finished and...

And I'm a total advocate of licking spoons and bowls whenever possible. Let's face it, it's good for your health. Your mental health, that is.

Refrigerate it for at least 2-3 hours, and then try not to eat it all in one sitting all by yourself. Good luck.

Creamy Oreo Pie

Slightly adapted from The Purple Foodie

39 Oreos

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups Cool Whip, thawed

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Finely crush 26 Oreos, then mix well with the melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 5-7 minutes, until set. Put the crust in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

In an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until fluffy and smooth. Coarsely chop 9 more Oreos, add them to the cream cheese and sugar. Add in the Cool Whip and stir until combined. Spoon mixture onto the crust.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.

Fresh Peach Cake

So, I don't know if you're an Ina Garten fan, but I certainly am. I have this awesome cookbook of hers called How Easy Is That? It's great and I'd totally recommend it. There's this quote I found in it this week that has really stuck with me.

"I've often said that there are two kinds of people in this world: cooks and bakers. Cooks love to toss things into a pan and see what happens. Bakers tend to be precise. You can't throw a handful of flour into a cake and see what happens; it needs to be lightened, placed carefully in a dry measuring cup, and leveled off with a spatula or knife."

And I thought, that is so true. That's why cooking stresses me out. Because I'm a baker. There is something relaxing about the preciseness that baking requires. The Husband is a cook. If a recipe calls specifically for a can of Hunts Tomatoes, he does not understand why buying store brand tomatoes instead is NOT OKAY with me.

What about you, are you a cook or a baker?

Either way, you should make this cake. It's yummy. Ina suggests serving it with vanilla ice cream for desert (uh, yum). But it can also double as a coffee cake for eating in the morning. (Which is good, because as usual, I took this picture at 7:32 AM and the cake was gone by 7:43 AM.)

First, the ingredients. (Which I actually got right this week!) Flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, sour cream, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and of course, peaches!

So, to make your batter, cream together your butter and 1 cup of the sugar until fluffy. Then add your eggs in, one at a time, then your sour cream, then your vanilla. Mix it until it's smooth.

Then, sift together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Turn the mixer on low and then add your dry ingredients until you get a batter that looks like this.

In a small bowl, mix together the last 1/2 cup of sugar and the cinnamon.

Spread half the batter into the pan. Then top it with half the peaches, and 2/3 of the cinnamon-sugar mix. Yum. (Ignore that big ol' splotch of batter. I started pouring the second layer before I said, "Hello, I should have taken a picture of the first layer, duh.")

Then, top that with the remaining batter, the rest of the peaches and the rest of the cinnamon sugar. I'm not going to lie, spreading that second layer of batter takes a lot of patience, but it is worth it.

Then pop it in and bake it! And out comes this- yum, yum, yum. I can't wait to try it with ice cream.

 Fresh Peach Cake

From Barefoot Contessa's How Easy Is That?

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 peaches, pitted and sliced (or you can use the equivalent amount of frozen peaches)

1 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a square 9-inch baking pan.

In an electric mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar for 3-5 minutes on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Turn on the mixer and add the eggs one at a time, then the sour cream, then the vanilla until smooth.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Turn the mixer on low and carefully add your dry ingredients until just mixed.

In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar.

Spread half of the batter into the pan. Top with half of the peaches and sprinkle on 2/3 of the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Spread the rest of the batter on top of the peaches, then top with the remaining peaches, then sprinkle on the remaining cinnamon-sugar.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Brown Butter Banana Strawberry Bread

Dear Joy the Baker, 

I saw this bread and I literally had to make it the next day. You know what the best part is? The only extra thing I had to buy was the bananas! Also, I would love for our blogs to be friends, or at least maybe your blog could be my blog's mentor.

Also, I think you're really awesome.

Love, Something Sweet

Surprise! Apparently I can't stop at baking just once during the week, it's now become a compulsion that I have to indulge mid-week as well! Lucky for you, because this bread is a gift from heaven. Or, a gift from Joy the Baker.

These pictures make me wish I could always bake in the daytime- natural light makes for such prettier photographs. Ah, well. Paying bills means I have to work instead of bake during the day.

Your ingredients- which apparently I can never get right for the photo. I realized I didn't need baking powder, and I should have put brown sugar in the picture instead of regular sugar. But just... imagine that it's correct.

First, grease up your loaf pan. (I'm sorry. You didn't need a picture of that. But the lighting was so nice I literally took pictures of everything. Be glad there's not pictures showing you how to open a box of brown sugar, or how to measure out a cup of flour.)

Next, whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.


In a seperate bowl, mix together your eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk (or yogurt, but I used buttermilk). Once it's combined, add your mashed banana.

 Then add in your strawberries- you can dice them up a little finer than me if you want, but my bread didn't suffer for my laziness.

Next, glop it all into your loaf pan and put your finely sliced strawberries on top. Then, put it in the oven and get ready for your kitchen to smell WONDERFUL for about an hour.

Then, take it out and feast, my friend. Feast.

Browned Butter Strawberry Banana Bread
Taken (with love and the utmost respect) from Joy the Baker
6 oz. butter (for me that was 1 1/2 sticks, if you're not weigh-er)
2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
3 medium bananas, mashed
1/2 cup diced strawberries, plus a few thin slices for topping

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

To brown butter, melt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. The butter will pop and foam as it melts. Once it stops doing that, it will start to brown. Stir it a little so it doesn't burn. Once it starts to smell nutty, take it off the heat and pour it into a small bowl to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a seperate medium bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk. Once they're combined, whisk in the mushed bananas. When your butter is cool, whisk it in too.

Dump the wet ingredients all at once into your flour mixture and fold together, getting all the flour pockets. Try not to overmix. Fold the strawberries in until just combined. Pour mixture into the loaf pan and top with your thin strawberry slices.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!