Burgers & Fries

When I stumbled upon Bakerella's dessert burgers & fries, I knew I wanted to make them. Head over to Bakerella's page for detailed instructions on how to make them!

Mmmm.... nutella :)

Nutella Croissants
adapted from Vintage Victuals

1 tube Pillsbury crescent rolls (I used reduced fat, 8 to a can)

8 tablespoons of Nutella

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

Open the tube of crescent rolls, and unroll and separate your triangles of dough. Place 1 tablespoon full of Nutella at the base of each triangle.

Roll the dough into a crescent shape and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Oreo Cupcakes

Each and every time I go to Annie's blog, I get hungry. Her food always looks amazing! This oreo recipe really caught my eye - so when the husband and I had his family over for lunch Saturday, I knew I had to make them.

Oreo Cupcakes

Source: Annie's Eats, she adapted from Dinner with Danielle

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetend cocoa powder, sifted

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

For the frosting:

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp. whipping cream

3 tbsp. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

6 tbsp. Oreo cookie crumbs

For garnish:

24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the brown sugar and continue beating until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated, being careful not to overmix.

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.

To prepare the frosting, in the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the cookie crumbs with a spatula.
Scoop the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe frosting decoratively on top of the cupcakes. Garnish with Oreo cookie halves.

Rainbow Cake

I wanted to bring something fun to my parent's house for Superbowl, and when I saw this cake I knew I had to try it!

Get detailed directions at The Omnomicon Blog!

Double Quick Pumpkin Bars

This is another recipe I got from my church meeting called Apples of Gold. When I had this dessert, I immediately fell in love. It was amazing. They are the perfect way to begin autumn! I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I do!

Double Quick Pumpkin Bars

BARS:

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsps baking powder

2 tsps cinnamon

2 cups flour

FROSTING:

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

6 tbsps margarine, softened

1 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, cream oil, eggs and sugar. Add remaining cookie ingredients and mix well. Pour batter into an ungreased 15x10 ince jelly roll pan. (I don't have this size pan, so I used a 13x9x2 cake pan - which is why mine are more cake like)

Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes. (Mine took the whole 25 minutes, if not 1 or 2 more minutes). Cool completely and frost with cream cheese frosting.

To make frosting, cream together all frosting ingredients. Spread on colled, uncut cookies. After frosting has set, cut into equal size bars. Store any leftover bars, covered, in the refrigerator.

Variation: Add 1/2 cup choppd walnuts or raisins to the recipe.

Yield: 36 bars (Since mine was baked in a different pan, I had 24 pieces)

TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

I looove brownies. So, thanks to Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook for choosing this weeks recipe: French Chocolate Brownies.

Now, I have yet to come across a brownie that I enjoy more than the "box kind" brownie mix. This was a strange recipe for me - I had really high hopes for it. But I was disappointed. I thought it was dry and dense. It just didn't work for me. But others *raved* about it, I guess it's just personal preference.

So, head over to Tuesday's With Dorie to check out everyones work this week!

French Chocolate Brownies
- makes 16 brownies

-Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden (I omitted)

1 1/2 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum (I omitted)

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

I love chocolate. I love strawberries. There are very few things in this world better than a chocolate covered strawberry. I made these for V-day, too bad my husband doesn't like them!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Melt baker's chocolate squares in double boiler, dip strawberries, let cool on wax paper.

That's it. And boy are they good!!

Spiderweb Sweet Potato Flan

My husband is a major flan fan. I mean HUGE fan. So when I found this recipe I decided to make it for my hubby for Halloween. The recipe is VERY long, so rather than me type it... here is the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_17014,00.html

I don't like flan so I didn't try it... but my husband said it was WONDERFUL.

Hot Spiced Apples with Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

Well, this recipe is compliments of Rachel Ray, but I modified it greatly. My changes are in red.

Hot Spiced Apples with Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

2 Golden Delicious Apples, cored and chopped (I used Honeycrisp apples, since thats what I had)

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg (I omitted, because I couldn't find it!)

Pinch salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 to 3 tablespoons dark rum (I omitted)

1 pint dulce de leche ice cream (I used light cool whip to decrease ww points!)

In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Melt the butter in a meduim skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apple mixture and cook until apples are saucy and softened, about 5 minutes. Carefully add the rum and cook another minute.

Divide ice cream among 4 bowls and top with hot apples.

My way, WW: 5 points