Dessert: Cornflake Turtles

Another super easy recipe from Real Simple, that's actually really simple and tasty!

Ingredients:

• Pecans (recipe says 36)
• Small Caramels (12)
• Semisweet Chocolate, melted (2 ounces, although I usually use more)
• Cornflakes (1/4 cup)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. On parchment lined baking sheet (or spray with cooking oil) form 12 groupings of 3 pecans
3. Place a caramel on top of each grouping
4. Bake until caramels melt (7-9 min) and then let cool
5. Dividing equally, spoon the chocolate over each caramel cluster and sprinkle with cornflakes
6. Refrigerate until set (about 15 minutes)

Such a fun recipe and unique when it comes to taste. Enjoy!

Breakfast/Snack/Appetizer: Doughnuts!!

My latest obsession at the moment are making doughnuts. I found a recipe which I believe is actually on the cover of Family Circle magazine back in April. The only catch for this is that you'll have to buy a doughnut form pan (which usually you will need to buy two to make a full dozen, which most recipes make). The best thing about these is that they are baked and not deep fried. Below are the two recipes from Family Circle and one from Rachael Ray...

Vanilla Cake Doughnuts
Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
  
• 4 teaspoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Coat a 6-indentation doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray
   

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. In a small bowl whisk the buttermilk sugar, egg, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add milk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth
   

3. Spoon batter into a large resealable plastic bag and seal, cut corner and squeeze batter into prepared indents about 2/3 full. Smooth tops
   

4. Bake for 13 minutes or until doughnuts spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan for 3 minutes and then transfer to wire cooling rack

*makes 6

Chocolate Cake Doughnuts
Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
  
• 4 teaspoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Coat a 6-indentation doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray
   

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together. In a small bowl whisk the buttermilk sugar, egg, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add milk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth
   

3. Spoon batter into a large resealable plastic bag and seal, cut corner and squeeze batter into prepared indents about 2/3 full. Smooth tops
   

4. Bake for 13 minutes or until doughnuts spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan for 3 minutes and then transfer to wire cooling rack

*makes 6

Toppings for Cake Doughnuts
Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• sprinkles, toasted coconut, mini chips, cinnamon-sugar mixture
• 1 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  

Variations:

1. Powdered Doughnuts- place 1/4 cup confectioners sugar in a sifter and gently sift over cooled doughnuts. Flip doughnuts and cover

2. White-Frosted Doughnuts-in a small bowl combine 1 cup of the confectioners and 1 tablespoon of the milk. Stir until smooth. Dip cooled doughnuts into bowl and transfer to rack. Top with sprinkles, chips, or toasted coconut

3. Chocolate-Frosted Doughnuts-combine 1 cup of confectioners sugar, cocoa, and 2 tablespoons of milk. Stir until smooth. Dip cooled doughnuts into bowl and transfer to rack. Top with sprinkles, chips, or toasted coconut

4. Drizzle- create frosting or use leftover from white or chocolate frosting (from above). Spoon into plastic bag and cut corner of bag to drizzle over cooled doughnuts

5. Cinnamon-Sugar-Toss still warm doughnuts in cinnamon-sugar to coat

Banana Doughnuts & Banana Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/4 cup flour(can also be gluten free)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 3/4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 1 and 3/4 cups of mashed ripe bananas (about 4)
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup shortening, at room temp
• 2 and 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Coat doughnut pans with nonstick cooking spray
   

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon together. In a small bowl whisk the sugar, eggs, 1 and 1/4 cup mashed bananas, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and oil together. Stir the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until just combined
   

3. Spoon batter into the pans, about 3/4 full.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until doughnuts are golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on rack

5. Meanwhile, in food processor combine the shortening, confectioners' sugar, and the remaining banana, vanilla, cinnamon, and the lemon juice.

6. Glaze the doughnuts with the frosting
   

*makes 12

All three recipes are great!! Enjoy!

Breakfast Recipe: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

So this may not be the healthiest recipe for breakfast, but it sure is a sweet one! I had a craving for something peanut butter and chocolate tonight (I did run barely 14 miles today) so I did a search and came across a recipe (through Google). The site I reference I have never heard of but, Mr. Breakfast has to be a cool name for a recipe site (http://www.mrbreakfast.com/). I like breakfast all the time!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons margarine -- melted
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup (6-ounces) chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Line muffin tin (12)
2. In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter and margarine until well blended.
3. Mix in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Combine flour with baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add to peanut butter mixture along with milk and chocolate chips. Mix well.
5. Spoon into muffin cups.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in the center.

I hope all peanut butter fanatics enjoy!

Dessert Recipe: Buckeyes!!!

So most of you know about these. You don't have to be from Ohio to love them (ahemm, sorry Michigan fans). These are really easy to make, but take some "hands on" and refrigerator time.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of butter
• 36 oz. of creamy peanut butter (jars usually come in 18 oz)
  
• 3 lbs of powdered sugar
• 24 oz chocolate chips
• chunk of paraffin wax (My mom and I use the brand Gulf Wax, which comes in four sheets that total one pound. You really only need 1/4 of one sheet for each batch, maybe a little less)

Directions:
1. Mix butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar (I usually end up mixing with my hands). The batter should be smooth and stiff.
2. Roll in balls about teaspoon or tablespoon size (you can make them as big or as small as you want) and drop onto cookie sheet covered with wax paper. You can layer these as high as you want as long as you have wax paper in between each layer. Refrigerate until firm 3-5 hours or overnight.
3. Melt chocolate in double boiler with the wax (make sure the wax is fully melted). Using a toothpick dip each of the peanut butter balls into the chocolate until covered 3/4 of the way. Drop onto cookie sheet covered by wax paper. You can layer these the same way with wax paper in between. Refrigerate until set (3-5 hours).

**These are always a crowd pleaser!! If you are short on time you can always use the freezer to set these up.

Dessert Recipe: Fudgy Bonbons

This is the favorite cookie recipe of the holidays!! There's triple chocolate in these! (If you don't eat these freshly out of the oven, microwave them for 5 seconds and they taste all warm and gooey again)

Fudgy Bonbons:

• 1 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped nuts
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 60 milk chocolate kisses (unwrapped)
• 2 oz white chocolate
• 1 tsp shortening

Directions:
1. Preheat oven 350
2. In medium saucepan combine chocolate chips and butter
3. Cook and stir over very low heat until mixture is smooth
4. Add condensed milk (be careful not to scald), mix well
5. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off
6. In medium bowl, combine flour, nuts, chocolate mixture, and vanilla. Mix well
7. Shape dough around each chocolate kiss, covering completely and into ball shape
8. Place each ball one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet (best thing about this recipe is that you can fill a cookie sheet up and bake them all at once if you have a large cookie sheet)
9. Bake 6-8 minutes (cookies will be soft, but harden as they cool). Cool on wire rack
10. In small saucepan melt white chocolate and shortening. Drizzle over cookies.

**I added a picture of the ones I made for the cookie party last weekend (the white chocolate was not as drizzly as I wanted it to be)

Dessert Recipe: Chocolate No Bakes

One of the easiest, but a tricky desserts to make:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Oats
• 2/3 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
• 2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 cup Margarine
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1/3 cup Cocoa
• 2 tsps Vanilla

Directions:
In medium saucepan mix together on medium heat: margarine, milk, sugar and cocoa. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. Once at a rolling boil time for one minute and remove from heat. Add vanilla and peanut butter. Once smooth add oats. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Allow to set-up and cool.

Comments & Additions:
I have been making this recipe since I was a kid (my mom is a big influence and started my love of sweets and baking). Be patient when you are waiting for the mix to boil (do not turn up the heat, etc.) as I have had many many times scalded the mix and it tastes crunchy/burnt or removed from heat too early and you can taste/feel the sugar crystals.
You may want to add raisins when you add the oats (Nadia loves this!) or you can always use crunchy peanut butter. The possibilities are really endless.