Festive Fruity Rice Krispies

Has anyone noticed how many things have celebrated a 100 year anniversary this year? Let’s see, there’s Oreo, that came out with a new cookie with a funfetti cream filling (I never was able to find those festive Oreos), and then those adorable pestering Girl Scouts celebrated 100 years of selling cookies (I believe they also came out with a new cookie. A lemon sandwich cookie possibly?). This past April was the 100^th anniversary of the loss of the Titanic (I absolutely love the history of the Titanic. It’s so tragic and fascinating. It’s one of the few events in history that I love to research on my own). Also, this coming August some pretty spectacular things will be celebrating one hundred years. For instance, on the 24^th of August, Alaska will be celebrating it’s 100^th year of establishment (Baked Alaska anyone?) and the 15^th marks Julia Child’s 100^th birthday.

Ya see? So many 100s that are being celebrated this year. So, why am I rambling on about that number? Well, it’s because this is my 100^th post! Yes! I finally made it to 100. I actually never thought I would get here. But I keep on baking and sharing, not to mention I’ve also fallen in love with some pretty amazing blogs that inspire me every day.

When I saw these Rice Krispie Treats, I KNEW that I had to make them. They were just so pretty and festive looking. I couldn’t resist. I didn’t even really bother looking at the ingredient list; I just saved them on foodgawker and continued to browse. Then one day I saw my post count slowly creeping up toward that 100 mark, and I thought I should do something special. Then those lovely, cake-like Rice Krispie Treats propped into my head.

I usually end up halving recipes because my family has this thing where they take one of something I make, and never touch it again. So I’m often left to finish off a dozen of (insert whatever here) before it does stale. So, my heart kind of sunk when I finally did take a peek at the ingredient list. It calls for ¼ cup of cake mix, that alone kind of put me off from the recipe because I didn’t want to buy cake mix just for ¼ cup, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy it for two tablespoons, no way! So, I improvised, and I think what I came up with is one of the best Rice Krispie Treats I’ve ever eaten. Not only that, but they look just as festive as the Cake Better version Naomi came up with.

Enjoy!

Festive Fruity Rice Krispie Treats
Inspired from Bakers Royal
Makes one 9x9 inch square pan

Rice Layer Ingredients
2 ½ cups (122 grams) mini marshmallows
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
½ tbsp. pure vanilla extract
3 cups (86 grams) Rice Krispie Cereal

Fruity Pebble Layer Ingredients
1 ¼ cup (61 grams) mini marshmallows
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 ½ cups (65 grams) Fruity Pebbles Cereal

Garnish
1 cup (180 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp. rainbow sprinkles

Directions
Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

To Make the Rice Layer: place the mini marshmallows and butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat. Stir occasionally until the mini marshmallows have completely melted. Stir in the vanilla. Stir in the Rice Krispie Cereal until combined and all of the cereal has been coated in the melty marshmallow. Pour all of the rice cereal mixture into the prepared pan. The mixture will be very sticky, so you may want to moisten or grease your hands to aid in spreading the sticky mixture out evenly.

To Make the Fruity Pebble Layer: place the mini marshmallows and butter in a sauce pan on medium-low heat. Pour in all of the Fruity Pebble Cereal and stir to combine. Once the marshmallow and cereal have been completely combined, pour the fruity mixture on top of the rice mixture. With your hands, spread the fruity cereal mixture evenly over the rice layer. Set the pan aside for at least 20 minutes before adding the garnishes.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water. Cut the Rice Krispie Treats into squares (or stars or circles…whatever floats your boat). Dip the tops of the treats into the melted chocolate. Sprinkle some of the rainbow sprinkles on top of the chocolate dipped treats. You can eat them now (with creamy melty chocolate to lick off your fingers) or you can wait about an hour for the chocolate to set.

Sunny Citrus Bars

Oh my goodness! It’s been so long since I’ve actually posted anything, and I’m sorry. But I’ve had so much going on. Last week was kind of stress-week because I was preparing for finals and all that stuff. Then on Sunday I was celebrating Mother’s Day with my wonderful mama and this past week has been my fault. You see it was my last week of high school and I’m now officially done with school! Thursday was my last day, and I was just being really lazy. It’s weird, I’ve never been this lazy, and usually I’m so diligent. And then Saturday was my graduation ceremony. That's right, I'm officially a graduate! :D

Anyways, backup to the part about Mother’s Day. I love my mom so much, and I probably don’t tell her nearly enough. Actually, I’m kind of snarky with my mom. I don’t mean to be, it just happens. But, on Mother’s Day, I made it a point to make it all about her. By the way, this is a picture of my mom, me and my little sister. I think this was taken when I was about six. My mom is such a pretty lady.

So, a few weeks ago, I received this wonderful cookbook from Monica over at Lick the Bowl Good. She has such fabulous recipes and her photos are so beautiful. And Sunday happened to be her first Mother’s Day with her little boy Hayden. He looks like such a sweet-hart and I bet it was a memorable Mother’s Day for Monica.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Monica and I decided to bake something from the cookbook “together”. My mom is in love with citrusy foods, so I automatically suggested we make the Sunny Citrus Bars on page 92. We both agreed that they looked wonderful, and decided to bake the bars for Mother’s Day. If you would like to see Monica’s opinion on the citrus bars, click here.

I absolutely loved these bars. The cookie/shortbread-like crust was a perfect contrast to the tangy/gooey topping. I was actually a little afraid to bake the crust because it requires cutting in the butter until the flour is coarse and crumbly. I have never understood these directions, until I made these bars. I kept rubbing in the butter until the flour looked like sand. It was a magical moment for me. I know that sounds a little silly, but it was seriously a huge accomplishment.

I didn’t have any trouble with the filling, but that’s because it was so straight forward. I love straight forward recipes like that. You know the ones that require one bowl and a whisk? Yeah, this is that kind of recipe. Because I didn’t really feel like measuring, I adjusted the recipe below to approximate what I used (i.e. instead of ¼ cup orange juice I have typed half and orange). The glaze that goes on top is also really delicious. It never fully hardened like most glazes do, but that’s was made it so addicting to eat.

I know Mother’s Day seems like forever ago, but I hope all you mothers out there felt appreciated and loved (like you should everyday) and all you sons/daughters treated your mom with the kindness, love, and respect your mother deserves.

Sunny Citrus Bars
Adapted from Baking Basics and Beyond by Pat Sinclair
Makes one 9x9 inch pan
Crust Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered sugar
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cubed

Filling Ingredients
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 2 lemons
Zest from one orange
Juice from ½ an orange
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Glaze
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp. orange juice
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x9 inch baking pan with tin foil, liberally grease the foil with cooking spray.
To make the crust: whisk together the flour and powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Rub the cold butter in with your fingers until the dough looks like coarse sand. Press evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the crust is a light golden color.
To make the filling: combine the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk in the eggs until the mixture becomes smooth. Stir in the juices, zests and butter. Pour the filling onto the hot crust and bake for about 12-15 minutes. The filling shouldn’t jiggle when you shake the pan, but it will still look a little wet. Let cool in the pan and drizzle the glaze on top once it has come to room temperature.

To make the glaze: stir together the powdered sugar and enough orange juice until the glaze has reached your desired consistency. Drizzle or spread the glaze on top of the cooled bars. Let the glaze set for a little while before slicing.    

Chocolate Crumb Donuts

Senior ditch day: it’s pretty awesome. But I feel kind of guilty. I’m usually a really diligent person who never EVER wants to miss school, even when I’m sick. Even when I go on vacation and I miss a day or two of school I get all nervous and anxious because I know that everything important will happen on the day that I’m gone. It’s true. It’s like when your friend misses school and nothing happens, and then you miss school and you have a million things to do for homework and you’ve missed a bazillion tests. Yeah, that sucks. Anyways, at my school the Monday after prom is Senior Ditch Day. Of course it’s not regulated. I found it quite easy to ditch my first two classes, but I did eventually come for my math and physics class because those are my major classes that I can’t afford to miss. Now what did I do on my day off? Got up at 6 to take my sister to school, sat around the house, went to two classes, and did some grocery shopping with my mom. Yeah, I’m a rebel. But I also made donuts. Delicious chocolate donuts with an awesome chocolate streusel.
With finals coming up in just two weeks, graduation just around the corner, and my AP Lit test coming up, I know that my baking will be limited, so I wanted to make something simple, and Senior Ditch Day was the perfect occasion because these were in the oven in about ten minutes and only took about six to cook, so you can reach chocolaty donut heaven in less than twenty minutes.

I found these donuts on one of my favorite blogs. Darla is the genius behind Bakingdom. She creates all sorts of amazing cakes, cookies, pastries, and she’s a huge fan of Harry Potter, so she creates things like this, this, and this. Yeah. She’s amazing, and I love her blog (by the way, I hope to God that I don’t sound creepy because she most likely doesn’t know me at all).

So all creepiness aside when I read about these donuts and saw the pictures, I fell in love. For some reason I wasn’t totally expecting these donuts to have a chocolaty flavor (I tend to have a hard time deciphering chocolate notes in cake-like treats for some reason), but I was wrong. These donuts have an awesome chocolate flavor. I ate four in just one day. I couldn’t help myself, I just wanted more, more, more! They can also be glazed, but I got lazy and didn’t feel like making a glaze, but I bet it would be perfect on these. So next time you find yourself with twenty minutes to spare, preheat your oven and get to baking because these really won’t disappoint you.

Chocolate Crumb Donuts
Adapted from Bakingdom
Makes 6 donuts

Streusel Ingredients
¼ cup brown sugar
½ tbsp. sugar
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. cold unsalted butter

Donut Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup + 2 tbsp. milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions
To make the streusel: combine the sugars, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Rub the cold butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Put the mixture into the freezer while you make the donut batter.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Grease a donut pan with cooking spray.

To make the donuts: combine the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, egg, and melted butter. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry. Whisk or fold the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. The batter will be kinda sticky and want to form together (basically it will look like a giant chocolaty blob).

When the batter has come together fill a piping bag (I used a zip lock bag with a hole cut out of the corner). Pipe the batter into the donut molds of the donut pan. Retreive the chocolate crumb mixture from the fridge and add as much crumb as you would like to the tops of the donuts.

Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake for about 5 minutes. Let the donuts cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Swedish Mini Pancakes

I am tired. Oh so very very tired. As of this moment I’m running on about 45 minutes of sleep and have had to retype that sentence multiple times in order for it to make sense. I should probably go to bed, but I’m up and awake and ready to talk about mini pancakes!

I firmly believe that if you take something and make it small, it instantly becomes cuter and/or more desirable. Take puppies and kittens for example. And it also explains the crazy of cupcakes. Cupcakes are adorable because they come in cute little paper liners and are topped with a swirl of fluffy frosting and sprinkles on top.

The smell of hot pancakes fresh off the griddle. The lovely sight of melted butter drizzling down the sides. Pure maple syrup coating the hot butter pancakes. All of these are great for a morning breakfast, but sometimes eating a stack of four pancakes the size of your head (people do that right?) sounds a little more monstrous and waist-expanding. When you shrink the pancakes to about 2 inch diameter, eating 12 pancakes doesn’t seem too bad, am I right? And let me tell you there really was no guilt in eating 12 of these in one sitting.

These pancakes are traditionally served with Ligonberries, but because I’m not much of a fruit preserve kind of girl (grape jelly all the way people!) I ate these with of course grape jam, and plain. Yes, plain. I’m a food-ripper-aparter and I can’t really do that when they are drenched in sweet maple syrup. The only suggestion I have is to cut down on the amount of salt in this recipe because I found some of the little pancakes to be quite salty, but other than that, these were perfect!

Swedish Mini Pancakes
From Lick the Bowl Good
Makes about 2 dozen 2 inch mini pancakes
Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
¾ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions
Preheat a griddle or pan on medium-low heat.

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Beat together the wet ingredients. Fold the wet into the dry. Try not to over mix. It’s ok if there are a few small lumps of flour.

Spray the pan of choice with cooking spray. Spoon a tablespoon or two of batter onto the heated pan (you can fit multiple pancakes on each). I used a really, really small ladle the spoon my pancakes, but an actual tablespoon will work too. Once the edges are slightly dry looking and the bubbled have started to pop in the middle, flip the pancake. You may need to turn down the pan after the initial batch has been cooked.

Serve with jam, powdered sugar, butter and maple syrup, or just eat them plain. But make sure to eat them warm because nobody likes a cold pancake.

Peanut Butter Muffins

I know pretty much anyone who reads this will think I’m crazy, and some may even think “Blasphemy!” but I’m just going to come right out and say it. Muffins are better than cupcakes. There I said it. Please don’t come after me with torches and pitchforks.

Don’t get me wrong, I like cupcakes…but only sometimes. Actually, I would much rather eat a slice of cake than a cupcake. A slice of cake is much more satisfying that a little tiny cake with as much frosting on top to equal the cake that comes in the decorative paper liner. Now to some, that is heaven on Earth, but I feel sick just thinking about it. I just don’t have the tolerance for most frostings.

Muffins on the other hand are strong on their own. They don’t need an extra layer of sugar to make them stand out, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t need a little help either. Muffins are good plain, or with berries bursting in the middle or chocolate chips speckling the batter. They are best when there’s a sweet and crumbly streusel top, or with a thick and dense top, either way you spin it, a muffin top will always be the best part. And yes, cupcakes can be filled with marvelous things like sauces, curds, cookie doughs, and various other goodies as well, but it’s just not the same. Once all of those things come into play, there is just too much going on.

The humble muffin is the way to go.

The reason for all this muffin talk is because I haven’t made muffins in a really long time and I was just dying to get my hands on a delicious little muffin. I didn’t do much searching because I already had about 10 muffin recipes saved from Foodgawker. After much deliberation and internal arguments, I chose a peanut butter and chocolate chip muffin.

I love the taste of peanut butter. I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day! I’m kind of worried for my future adult self. Will I still be making a PB&J for lunch when I go to work? Gosh I hope so. The future seems bleak without that classic sandwich. I digress.

These muffins are really simple and easy to make. Plus, cleanup’s a breeze because you only need two bowls to make these, one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet. I halved the recipe, not knowing who else but me would eat these muffins. Turns out all but one was eaten within the day. So next time I will definitely make the whole batch, although I’m not sure how many it will yield because halving the recipe gave me 10 muffins. Maybe I just have a small scoop.

Peanut Butter Muffins
Adapted from Alida’s Kitchen
Makes about 10 muffins

Ingredients
½ cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. canola oil
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
½ cup + 2 tbsp. buttermilk
½ cup milk chocolate, chopped (or use chips)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Prepare a muffin pan by spraying cooking spray in the compartments or line them with paper liners. Set aside

In a medium bowl sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl whisk together the canola oil, brown sugar, peanut butter, vanilla, and egg. Whisk until well combined.

Fold in 1/3 of the dry ingredients followed by half of the buttermilk. Continue this until everything has been mixed together well. Fold in the milk chocolate pieces.

Use a medium or large scoop to portion the batter evenly into the prepared muffin pan. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool in the pan on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Take the muffins out of the pan and allow them to cool completely.

These muffins were best serves slightly warm.

Cake Slice Bakers - April 2012: Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake

This month, the Cake Slice Bakers and I made a Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake. I love cinnamon, I love pound cake, and I love streusel, so this cake already seemed like a winner in my book.

Tish Boyle, the author, describes this cake as being a “sure-fire bake sale hit” and I think it definitely is. The cake has a really tender crumb and it stays moist for days! Only after about a week after baking did the corners of this cake start to get a little stale.

The cake was lovely and moist, and had a wonderful yellow color. I don’t know why I’m obsessed with how yellow desserts are. I don’t even really like yellow unless it’s on the pastelish side. But when it comes to desserts, I’m all on the yellow bandwagon. So yes, this cake is lovely and yellow and super moist. Then there’s the brown sugar-cinnamon streusel that goes into this cake. The streusel inside the cake melted perfectly into the middle of the pound, but the top didn’t really stick or melt. But it did add a lovely crunch to the top.  

I made a few changes, but nothing drastic. Instead of making it in a regular Bundt pan (I have one, but it’s Christmas themed), I halved the recipe and used a 9x5 inch loaf pan. I also omitted the orange zest, but after reading some of my fellow baker’s comments about the sweet orange note in the background, I wish I hadn’t. Next time I make this cake I will make sure to add the orange zest.

To check out how the other bakers did, click here.

Cinnamon Streusel Buttermilk Pound Cake

Adapted from The Cake Book
Makes one 9x5 inch loaf

Cinnamon Streusel Ingredients
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ tbsp. brown sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Pound Cake Ingredients
1 ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
Pinch of cardamom
7 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the streusel. Stir until blended and crumbly. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Slowly add in the sugar and beat on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Reduced the speed to medium and beat in the egg and egg yolk. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl now. Beat in the vanilla extract. Turn the speed down to low and gradually add in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Pour in half of the buttermilk. Add in another 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by the rest of the buttermilk. Beat in the last of the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat the batter on medium for about 30 seconds.

Scrape half of the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle on half of the streusel mixture (or you can sprinkle it all on and leave none for the top). Cover the streusel with the remaining batter. If you chose to have the streusel on top, sprinkle the rest on right now. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out relatively clean. Cook the cake in the pan on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Invert the cake onto a wire rack and then revert it onto its final resting plate.  

Gooey Lemon Brownies

I think I can control the weather. Well at least crappy weather. We had a pretty mild winter this year (last year?). The only really bad part was the icy cold winds. Then, one day I decided to get my hair cut really short because I was tired of how my hair just hung down on my head. You know what happened the next day? There was a blizzard. So because of my newly cropped do, the back of my neck was left unprotected from the harsh elements of the outside. Then when I went back to school from winter break, my anatomy classroom, which has always been freezing, felt even colder. The worst part was when I found out my new seat was right under the coldest vent in the classroom. I know it’s the coldest vent because my teacher did a test one day and it was blowing out 40 degree air into the room.

Spring has finally sprung and so far we’ve had a fairly decent one. Well at least for the month of March. Again, because the weather was so nice and I realized I actually like short hair, I decided to get it cut again. Not two days later, temperatures dropped from the lovely 70s to the 40s with nasty rainstorms. The weatherman predicts snow either today or tomorrow. So for the sake of nice weather, maybe I should just stop cutting my hair.

I know that wasn’t the most interesting thing to read, but I will reward you for your patience with brownies! And not just any brownies: lemon brownies! And they are super-duper delicious! I’m usually not one to grab for a citrusy type snack, but for some reason I was just craving something citrusy. Maybe it was the nice spring weather (before I cut my hair) or maybe it has to do with everyone blogging about grapefruit cakes and glazes, orange breads, and lemon sandwich cookies. Either way, I was hit by the spring bug and I wanted some lemony action. That’s when I found these babies.

They are not overly tart, but you can definitely taste the lemon in these bars. And the glaze that goes on top adds just enough lemon kick to make the bars complete. You may notice that these aren’t very tall, but that’s because there is absolutely no leavening in this recipe at all. Even though I usually like my bars with a little height, I don’t think I would have liked it for this particular recipe. The short and dense bar makes it extra chewy and delicious. Not only are they delicious, but they even remind me of spring. I think it has to do with the pretty yellow these turned out to be. Some lemon desserts are just too… bright. You know what I mean? These look delicate and refreshing.

Gooey Lemon Brownies

Adapted from Becky Bakes
Makes 9x9 inch pan

Ingredients
¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ tsp. salt
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
½ cup sweetened condensed milk
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
Juice from half a lemon
Zest from one whole lemon

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x9 inch baking dish with tin foil and liberally spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, egg, egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and fold until everything has been incorporated.  

Spread batter into the prepared pan. It may take some coaxing, but it will eventually spread out evenly. Place in the preheated oven and bake 16-18 minutes or until the top has lightly browned.

Let it cool in the pan for about five minutes while you prepare the glaze.

To make the glaze, whisk together ¾ cup powdered sugar, juice from half a lemon, and water by the teaspoon until you have reached your desired glaze consistency. Pour over the cooled lemon brownie. Slice and serve. These are perfect at room temperature, but if you want it heated just a tad, microwave it for 5 seconds.