Monkey Bread

We had a much needed girls weekend this past weekend and it was a blast!!  Sunday morning we all needed a little pick me up so I made everyone monkey bread.  This is a recipe from a good family friend of ours, Pat.  It is so simple and so delicious with all that gooey cinnamon topping!


Ingredients:

3 tubes biscuits
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
12 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar


Steps:
Spray a bundt pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Cut up your biscuits into quarters and toss into a bag of the sugar and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon.  Shake them up to coat all the biscuits.  Place all the biscuits evenly around the pan.  Melt the butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and brown sugar until completely dissolved.  Boil 2 to 3 minutes.  Pour the melted mixture over the biscuits. 


Bake for 25 minutes.  Place a cookie sheet over the opening of the bundt pan.  Carefully flip the two over so the monkey bread falls onto the cookie sheet.  Enjoy!

Reese's Surprise Cheesecake

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!  Every year we go over to some friends' house to watch the game, and more importantly the commercials and halftime show!  This year I decided to make mini cheesecakes with a Reese's surprise at the bottom.  These are very simple and absolutely delicious!!


Ingredients:

12 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Jello No Bake Cheesecake Mix
1 1/2 C cold milk
Mini chocolate chips


Steps:
Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.  Place one unwrapped Reese's in each liner.  Mix up your cheesecake mix according to the instructions on the box.  Fill all your cupcake liners.  There is a bag of graham cracker crust mix in the Jello box.  You use that as a topping on each individual cheesecake.  Sprinkle graham cracker on top followed by mini chocolate chips.  Put in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. 


Have fun watching people's faces as they get to the surprise at the bottom.  Enjoy!

Sweet Bacon Green Beans

These.  Are.  Amazing!!  Whenever I make these I just keep going back up for more.  I can't help myself!  The sweetness of the brown sugar and the baconeyness of the bacon make the perfect combination.  I just made these for a potluck at church and they were all gone.  The perfect side for any potluck, holiday, or Tuesday night dinner!
 


Ingredients:

5 cans of green beans, drained (fresh, canned, or frozen will all work)
1 package of bacon
1/4 C butter
1/4 C brown sugar




Steps:
Fry your bacon however you do it best.  Don't get it too crispy though.  Chop it up into bite sized pieces.


Melt your butter and brown sugar in a medium saucepan until the brown sugar dissolves completely.  Add in the chopped up bacon and coat evenly. 


Pour mixture over your green beans and enjoy!

Frosted Sugar Cookies

I don't mean to brag, but these are amazing cookies!  Every time I make these people are asking where I bought them from (OMG!) and then I get to smile and say that I made them from scratch.  Such a confidence boost!  :)  These are very simple and the almond flavoring adds that little bit extra to make them great.  This recipe is for roll out cookies.  I will post one for drop cookies eventually.


Ingredients:
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 egg

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a stand mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and extracts.  In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to butter mixture slowly, mixing after each addition. 

Do not chill dough.  Divide into two balls.  On floured surface, roll each ball out about 1/8 inch thick.  Use cookie cutter to cut out shape.  Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet and bake 8-11 minutes or until lightly browned.  Frost with your favorite frosting once cooled. 


These ones are from Thanksgiving (I know that I'm late posting them) and I made them to look like pumpkin pie.  I love coming up with new and different designs for them!

Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These are so delicious!!  It's hard to eat only one.  My nephew has an egg allergy so there is an eggless option to these as well.  I entered these in the Iowa State Fair and got a lot of really useful feedback!  I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does.

 

Ingredients:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs (½ ripe banana for eggless option)

¾ cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20 second intervals, stirring between each, until mostly melted.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs (banana for eggless option), brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy.  Reduce speed to low, beat in melted chocolate.  Mix in flour mixture until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chunks.

Use cookie scoop to drop balls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in the centers.  Let cookies sit on cookie sheet for 10 minutes.  Transfer to cooling rack.

Enjoy!

 

Moscato Cake with Strawberry Frosting

I made this cake (in cupcake form) for the Iowa State Fair.  It was my first time entering anything and I had a lot of fun doing so!  I also entered my m&m cookies, frosted sugar cookies, and eggless double chocolate chunk cookies.  This is a delicious dessert and looks so elegant.

 

Cake Ingredients:

2 ¾ cups cake flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup moscato wine

5 egg whites

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Cake Steps:

Preheat the oven to 350F.  In a medium bowl, combine wine, eggs, and vanilla.  In a second medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.

Use an electric mixer to beat together 2 sticks of butter and sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy.  With the mixer on low speed, add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/3 of the wine mixture.  Alternate the flour and wine mixing until well combined.

Pour into greased cake pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until sides start to pull away from edge of pan.  Allow to cool before frosting.

 Frosting Ingredients:

3 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

½ teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons strawberry puree

Frosting Steps:

Beat butter in stand mixer until it is pale in color and fluffy.

Add in powdered sugar slowly.  Next, add the vanilla.  Mix in 3 tablespoons of strawberry puree.  (To make puree, place 1 cup of fresh washed, drained, and hulled strawberries into a food processor and blend until it is a liquid puree)

Homemade Pancakes

Since the weekdays are so busy all the time, I like to make an effort to make breakfast on the weekends.  What's two days a week, right?  I like making Bryce pancakes because they are so quick and easy.  These pancakes are thick but not too heavy.  Very delicious.  Go crazy and add chocolate chips, blueberries, anything else!






Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons melted butter






Steps:
Sift together dry ingredients.  Add the egg. 




Melt the butter and add it to the milk and vanilla. 




Whisk together the dry and wet ingredients. 


Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a greased hot skillet.  Once the top is covered in little bubbles flip the pancake.  Let the other side cook a little and your pancake is done. 


Makes 8-10 average sized pancakes. 
Enjoy!