Zucchini Bread

I'm really, really happy with the school year thus far. Cooking. . .in class? I LOVE it. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

Here's a quick little update of something we did the other day in class.

Zucchini Bread

I'm Sorry Key Lime Pie

So yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. When you like to bake the only way you know how to say sorry is to bake someone something right? I got in to a fight with someone and I apologized by making their favorite dessert. Key Lime Pie.

Here is my I'm sorry Key Lime Pie. Ignore the bite taken out of it. . .it t'was not my doing. He couldn't wait to try some so he took a bite and I stopped him and said NONONO I HAVEN'T TAKEN A PICTURE YET D=

He then proceeded to try to spit the bite back out onto the pie. I wasn't having any of that. >.>

This pie was really, really, reallllllly simple to make.

Premade crust, bottled key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and sour cream. 4 ingredients? That all you do is mix together in one bowl? You can't beat that.

So this is basically the recipe

1 graham cracker pie crust

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c sour cream

3/4 c key lime juice

Lime zest is optional. . .I didn't use it, because I used bottled key lime juice since I'm lazy and didn't want to squeeze all the limes

Combine the S.C.M, sour cream, and lime juice together in a bowl. Mix well.

Pour into graham cracker crust and bake at 350 F for about 8 minutes. Do not brown.

Chill. Serve. Eat. Enjoy. Tra la la.

I think I would totally make this again, but maybe not use key limes. I'm not a big lime fan. Boyfriend sure did like it though. He forgave me for the fight and now has to proceed to nuzzle and bear hug me after every bite. Silly boy.

Update

I. . . have not updated in a while holy cow. It's been kinda hectic lately. School ju

st started and I'm actually uber excited. Talking about food all day in my classes? Yes please.

I haven't really made much lately, especially since my camera is still in it's state and I have yet to buy another one.

Also since I cross stitch and I wanted to finish what I was doing before school started

(didn't happen)

But I did make two things recently. My roommate gave me some stuff to bake with and asked if I'd make caramels with it. So I did. . .

Here's the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chewy-Caramel/Detail.aspx

I don't think I boiled the mixture long enough, because they didn't harden to the right consistency. They tasted good, but weren't hard enough. =(

I also make homemade Reeses and had so much peanut butter mixture left over that I just made a giant one.

RIP Banana Marshmallow Cookies =(

I took the cookies I baked over to a friends house last night and on the drive back the plate decided it wanted to slide. Causing all of the cookies to crash to the floor of my car. Goodbye cookies. I hardly knew ye. =(

Banana Marshmallow Cookies

Today even though it was uber hot yet once again I had some baking to do. I bought some bananas a few days ago and they ripened up quite a bit faster than I wanted. Basically I needed to use them up FAST. So, I put them in a recipe that I found on cookie madness. Here's a link: Chocolate Marshmallow Banana Cookies.

They're a little messy when they're done, but they taste great. Banana, marshmallow, AND chocolate together? Yes please =)

A Lil Somethin' Extra

Okay so I absolutely ADORE Cookie Dough Bites. You know. . .those tiny chocolate covered pieces of fake cookie dough? They're so addicting. When I saw a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies, with Cookie Dough Bites in them I did a double take. Like. . .you can. . .you can do that? Really? And they don't cook? I MUST TRY.

Soooooo that's what I did.

Unfortunately for some reason my cookies kept coming out dark and not cooked in the middle. *sigh* I guess that's what I get for being stingy and using margarine. Or maybe I can blame it on the humidity and heat? Yeah? I like that idea. HOWEVER they still taste amazing and that's all that matters right?

I just used a basic chocolate chip cookie dough recipe and added the Cookie Dough Bites along with the chocolate chips. Simple stuff= yummy cookie.

Muffins That Taste Like Doughnuts? What?

The past few days I've been craving a homemade breakfast. I wanted something different than the traditional pancakes, or waffles, or omelette's, etc. So, I went a recipe searchin'. What did I find? Muffins that taste like doughnuts. . .I found it on the Tasty Kitchen website. Unfortunately I had to make a few alterations to the recipe, because I was being cool and started making stuff before I checked if I had all the ingredients for it.

The alterations I made were:

• Leaving the nutmeg out
• Using butter instead of milk
• Rolling them in a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon

I had used all my white sugar in the muffins themselves.

Now I must say that even though they did not taste like doughnuts(probably due to the fact that I made some major changes) they were still delicious. Especially if you let them sit for a while and soak up the cinnamon sugar buttery goodness. =)

I would totally make these again, but for next time maybe I'll actually have nutmeg, milk, and white sugar. Maybe.

Snickerdoodles

I made snickerdoodles for the first time today. I must say they are prettttty dang tasty. I would grab one and shove it in my mouth before even realizing what happened. Mmmm cinnamon and sugar. =)

Ignore the crappiness of the picture(remember my camera broke =( ). . . oh and the messy kitchen.

Before I made these I was deliberating between making these and making snickerdoodle cupcakes. I decided to start with cookies since they are basically like. . .classic and the fact that I've never made them before. I guess that maybe my next project will have to be snickerdoodle cupcakes.

The recipes that I used was:

1 cup(2 sticks) butter(okay I have a confession to make kids. . .I've been using margarine lately, because I'm a poor, poor college student and let's face it. . .60 cents for margarine compared to 2 something for butter. . .what're you going to choose?>.> <.< >.>)

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 Tb vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

2 3/4 c flour

In bowl combine flour and baking powder

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time stirring after each addition, add vanilla

Gradually add flour and baking powder mixture

Once combined, chill for about an hour or two

In a clean bowl mix about 1/2 c white sugar and 2 Tbs of cinnamon

When dough is chilled enough, roll into 1 inch balls and cover in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for about 8 mins

Cool on wire rack

Too Hot To Make Spreads

*grumble grumble* So I hadn't made anything for like a week and I was again getting that baker's itch again. Unfortunately I haven't had much time lately to bake anything for a few reasons.

• I just recently started my new job at Sam's Club(yeah yeah evil conglomerate company blah blah. I'll tell you a lil somethin' somethin', this evil conglomerate is paying me about 2 dollars more than my last job did. So I'm not going to complain =P) Anyways, not only have I started my new job and not had time to bake because of that, two other things happened recently.
• My boyfriend just moved into an apartment about 5 minutes away
• AND it's been waaaaaaaay too dang hot to bake.

That last one applies to today as well, BUT I just couldn't stand it anymore. I HAD to make SOMETHING.

So, I figured something easy. . .something simple would do. Wellll, I went ahead and made what Pioneer Woman calls "spreads". Which is basically a plain cookie dough that gets topped with a chocolate chip spread.

OH YEAH. Another thing that. . .how do I put this. . .made me a sad panda, is that my trusty(but crappy) camera of 2 years crapped out on me. I now cannot see the screen when I take pictures. It still takes pictures =D! I just can't see what they look like when I take them, or after I've taken them, until I put them on my computer. So, all my pictures from now on, until I get a new camera(which may be a while) are going to be guess work. UNLESS I can get my lovely roommate(if she's around) to do the photography for me. Which I should do anyways, because she actually loves photography XD

Okay anyways, here's a (crappy) picture of the spread cookies I made.

Personally I thought the cookie dough was a little. . .plain. I would put more chocolate on(or perhaps even in*shifty eye*) them. After I decided to try to make them pretty and be cool by putting a strawberry on them I actually ate the strawberry on one. Boy oh boy did that improve their taste by far! I suggest eating a strawberry on these. ;) You wont be disappointed.

If you would like the recipe here is a link: PW's "Spreads"

Apple Bars. Mmm mmmm good.

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. I went ahead and made those apple bars that I wanted. Much to my dismay, because it made the already sweltering apartment that much worse. >.>

Aren't those swirls so pretty? Wanna know what that is? Brown sugar, cinnamon swirls. Mmmmm cinnamon.

Silly me though. . .I used too big of a pan. So instead of apple bars I now have apple. . .crisp? I stuck them in the freezer. I'm hoping that they'll harden enough to be able to get them out of the pan in bars.

Even though I made a boo boo on the pan size they were still divine. I love this recipe so much.

Here's the recipe that I used(I think it'd be best to double it and use the size pan that I used in the picture):

• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped apple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch pan.(I used a 13X9 I think it is, to be honest I'm not quite sure XD)
Sift together flour, baking powder, and teaspoon of cinnamon. Then set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth(I used my stand mixer).
Stir in the egg and vanilla.
Blend in the flour mixture until just combined, then stir in the apples.
Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
In a cup or small bowl, stir together the 2 tsp cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons sugar; sprinkle over the top of the bars.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven the finished bars should spring back when lightly touched. Cool and cut into squares

Now this is optional, but I recommend it, because well. . .it just totally adds to the bars. I make a homemade glaze and cover the bars with it when they are still slightly warm.

Glaze(these are kinda approximate, because I just kinda throw stuff together until it looks and tastes right):

4 tsp butter

1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar(enough to make the glaze thick)

1 tsp almond extract

Melt butter in a microwaveable bowl. Mix in powdered sugar. When the mixture is thick, mix in almond extract.
Spread on top of bars.
Indulge =)

Little Debbie Zebra Cakes

Even though I made that batch of Sugar Cookie Bars yesterday(which like I said. . .we haven't even put a eensy dent in them. . .at all) I wanted to bake again today. I have some apples laying around that I need to get rid of. Especially since they are the not so, how should I put this, tasty kind? Well I wanted to make these apple bars that are unbelievably hard to resist. Then I remembered our apartment gets wayyyy waaayyyy too hot when I bake(found that out the hard way yesterday while make the cookie bars).

Soooo I decided to go on a recipe hunt, which for me is an everyday thing, but still! I wanted to try to find a recipe for Little Debbie Zebra Cakes, you know. . .those little white cakes with zebra stripes on them? because let's face it. . .THEY'RE CRACK IN A BOX =D

I mean come on. . .who can resist the amazingness that is these little cakes?

By the way! Did you know they come in chocolate?!?! CHOCOLATE! =D=D

I knew they came in orange, because I've had those before, but chocolate? Dude sign me up!

Hmmm well I was just thinking that I could get a box cake(which I only use for experiments cause they're quick and cheap) to make little cakes, frost them, layer them, and then dip them in . . .I don't know saaaaay white Almond Bark. Then I would stripe them with chocolate. Think that'd be legit enough?

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna try it either way. It'd probably come out yummy even IF they didn't taste like the real thing. Who can go wrong with white cake, frosting, and chocolate?

All this looking around for Little Debbie Zebra Cakes makes me want to make an actual zebra cake though. They are so pretty with their vanilla and chocolate stripes. Maybe that's my next project?

Sugar Cookies? Hecks no! Sugar Cookie Bars!

Lately I've been having this urge to make sugar cookies, but I just haven't had the motivation to do all the waiting, rolling, and cutting. Yet I've been wanting to make SOMETHING. I've been having that baker's itch. You know. . .that feeling where you just have to make something. Well as I was looking around at recipes I've bookmarked, I ran into the sugar cookie bars recipe. Every time I see these somewhere on the internet I say to myself. . .I should make those. Well today my roommate finally convinced me(all it took was her saying "do it!") to make them. So that I did.

I used the recipe off of RecipeGirl, but added just a little touch of almond extract to the batter. I'm not partial to sugar cookies, because they are so bland so I like the added flavor.

So what's my verdict? I like the recipe, but they are unbelievably sweet. These are a treat you have to take in small doses. Like. . .one bite doses. One deliciously sweet bite.

The other problem I have is that. . .this makes a HUGE batch and. . .and. . .I don't have any one to eat them! All of my friends, or family are either

A. On diets or

B. Diabetic

So I'm not exactly sure what I should do with this massive batch of cookie bars. =(

Oh life, why do you plague me so. Pretty sure I want to invent baked goods that actually make people LOSE weight. Yeah. . .that's right LOSE weight. Wouldn't that be amazing? Eating cookies and cake and pie all day only to see the pounds shed off. *starry eyed*

Chocolate And An Overview

Okay so I have something I need to admit. . .it's not easy, but. . .here I go.

I. . .have an addiction to chocolate. There I said it. Aren't I supposed to feel better now? Admitting is the first step to recovery right? Right?! *sigh* I don't know that I want to recover from this problem though. Chocolate is just soooooooo good. Let me give you an example of my never ending love of chocolate:

These are chocolate chocolate chip cookies with milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and white chocolate drizzled on top.

Any more proof needed here?

Well just incase you need some more. . .here's a chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese

frosting in between the layers and what is the whole thing covered in? Chocolate Marshmallow

Fondant. Ohhhh yeah 8)

This cake was a grad cake for a friend of mine. It was the devil to make since I had never worked with any type of fondant before. Nor had I worked with Royal Icing. Let me tell you. . .piping writing with R.I. is a hard task to do. . .

Okay okay so now you know I love chocolate. I do have another obsession. I'm not sure if it counts though, because it has chocolate IN it. I love cookie dough. Raw cookie dough, cookie dough bites, cookie dough blizzards, cookie dough anything(as long as it's chocolate chip cookie dough of course). Mmmmmmm. I have an example of something crazy that I baked that has to deal with this.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes via Martha Stewart

Topped with Marshmallow Buttercream

Topped by a chocolate chip cookie

They were amazing =)

I paired these off with Mini Red Velvet Hi-Hats. Which were equally amazing. I even got asked for the recipe on these.

I don't want to leave you thinking that I never make anything that DOESN'T have chocolate in it so . . .here's one of my favorite cookies recipes I came across one day. It's from RecipeGirl and it's her Cinnamon Bun Cookies recipe. I absolutely LOVE them and they don't have one trace of chocolate in them.

I've made them on two different occasions

Here's a picture of the first time:

They tasted delicious, but didn't roll out the way I had hoped. I wanted pretty cookies! PRETTY ONES! So I made them a second time. . .

They were just as delicious(maybe even more so cause they were so much prettier) the second time. Okay maybe not the two in front. . .but the one in back has the pretty cinnamon swirl =) I basically have a hard time NOT eating all of these.

I think the cinnamon sugar combination is almost, not as good, just ALMOST as good as chocolate. I guess that's why most the stuff I make that doesn't have chocolate in it has cinnamon and sugar XD Example:

Monkey Bread via Baking Bites

I absolutely LOVE Monkey Bread and the recipe from Baking Bites is to die for. Yummy. =)

Cinnamon Rolls via Pioneer Woman(That's me standing in the background like the creeper that I am >.> <.< >.>)

These were amazing too. I halved the recipe and I still had like 4 pans of them. I made them, because it was the first morning since I moved in that my roommate and I were actually together in the apartment at the same time. They were deeeeeliiiiiiiciooooous. I loved them. They were even good the next day cold! Which is extraordinary in itself, because I hate leftovers. Yuck.

Cake Pokeballs?

So a few days ago we had a bonfire birthday party for one of my friends. Him and I are uber nerds and LOVE LOVE LOVE. . .okay well I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pokemon. He just likes it. Well he requested I make a Pokeball cake. (which when I look back at it. . . maybe it would have been the better route). I was thinking of just doing a double layer cake(he requested Red Velvet) and just frost it like a Pokeball, but that's waaaaaay to lame for me. I'm eccentric. The weirder the better. So I was thinking make two layers that are half spheres and assemble them together to make a ball. Unfortunately I don't have the right shaped bowls for that sort of thing. So what did I come up with????

POKEBALL CAKE BALLS =D

• Now. . .they aren't AMAZING.
• This is the first time I've made cake balls.
• This is the first time I've ever played with candy melts(which I really never want to do again)
• I also had a helper who didn't know what ROUND meant.
• But. . .for my first time doing this. . .I think they're pretty legit. . .right? Right? Just nod and smile. . .nod and smile.

To be honest I wish they would've come out better, but I did the best I could and he really liked them.

I set the balls on the counter and after he saw the picture he proceeded to tell me that his team wasn't complete, because EVERYONE knows your team consists of 6 Pokemon.

Thanks Ricky. . .thanks >.>

All in all I counted and I ended up making 40 COMPLETE Pokeball cake balls. 40! That doesn't included the other like 50 non completed half dipped cake balls still sitting in my freezer. *sigh* Next time I know not to make two box mixes.

Self reminder:

Stick with only one Kori. . . two is one too many. . .

First Day, Yay!

So for the past few months I've been surfing around and I was introduced to foodie blogs. It took me a while, but I finally decided to create one of my own.

A few things about me.

• I love to bake.
• I want to become a pastry chef.
• This upcoming year I'm going into a culinary program.
• After this year I hope to go to the Art Institute to take a Baking and Pastry Chef Degree program.
• I need a new camera. Mine just doesn't do it when I try to take pictures of stuff I bake. Makes them look crappy. *cries* Oh well. . .I'm over it.

I am by no means professional at all. Nope. No sir. Amateur right here and that's okay with me. Practice is what makes perfect right? And that's what this blog is about for me. Showing off my practice so that I can become better.