Mother's Day Goodies

For Mother's Day this year I decided to put together some cute little packages of goodies for my mom, Josh's step-mom, and his grandmother. I put together smaller packages for both of my sister-in-law's and one for Josh's mom, to go with the plant she requested. Everything went over really well, so I thought I would share some of the goodies with you guys. The packages were comprised of a box of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Red Velvet Truffles, and Sugar & Spice Pecans.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Amy Sedaris and Nestle Toll House; makes 5 dozen












2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups flour
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

• Beat butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll into small balls and flatten in palm of hand. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 9-11 minutes.
  

My notes: Amy Sedaris adds more chocolate chips and pecans, but I decided to omit the nuts since I was already using pecans in another way and I was making smaller cookies so I used just one bag of chips. Instead of rolling and flattening the dough I used my cookie scoop to drop about 1 tablespoon or so of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. This made the cookies a little smaller, and allowed me to get more out of single batch of dough.

Red Velvet Truffles
Recipe from Bakerella; Makes about 50















1 box red velvet cake mix, cooked as directed on box for a 13x9" cake
1 16 oz. can cream cheese frosting
12 squares semisweet chocolate, melted
Decorations, optional

• After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting.
• Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. Chill for several hours. You can speed this up by putting in the freezer, which I did.
• Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper lined baking sheet until firm.

My notes: I sprinkled each truffle with some red decorative sugar, to match the interior. Refrigerate after completed. I made these a little smaller than I probably should have, so I actually have cake balls in the freezer to make more truffles later. I made 50 truffles, and still have plenty extra, so the next time I make them I will definitely make the balls bigger, and I might make two 9" cakes and use just one for truffles. These truffles were the biggest hit of all though, so I will definitely make them again.

Sugar & Spice Pecans










You can see the recipe for Sugar & Spice Pecans I've made before here.











And that's what came out of my kitchen for Mother's Day!

Muffin or Cupcake? You Decide.

Last week I made these cupcakes (or is it muffins?) to serve with coffee on Friday while we had our friends Steve, Meri, and Cory over for a game of Scrabble. They are each a bit of a health nut, so I thought these would be the perfect sweets for the afternoon. The recipe is from the May 2007 issue of Everyday Food, and is one of the reader submitted recipes. I made a change or two, which I'll go over in my notes below. The changes made it seem a little more muffin-like than cupcake, but whatever you want to call it, they were delicious.

Ian's Sweet Zucchini Cupcakes
Recipe from Everyday Food & Ian Young; Makes 12












1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
1 zucchini (10 oz.), coarsely grated (1 1/2 cups)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cups of a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper or foil liners. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix in nuts.
• In another bowl, combine zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla; add to flour mixture, and mix just until combined (do not overmix).
• Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
• Coll in tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes; turn cupcakes out, right side up, and cool completely.

My notes: The magazine includes a recipe for cream cheese frosting, but we had them plain. I also substituted whole white wheat flour for half of the all-purpose. I think the whole wheat is probably what made it a little more muffin like, but it could have been the lack of frosting too. Either way I didn't miss the frosting and I thought they tasted delicious. I also used pecan bits, since I happened to have a bag in the pantry, instead of buying more nuts just for the recipe. I'm definitely gonna pull this recipe out again when my father-in-law has a plethora of zucchini ready to leave his garden.

Browniebabe of the Month 2!

Okay, I probably should have gotten this post up in the month of May, but I'm still under the entry deadline by a few days. This week wasn't all that pleasant, so at least I got to end it on a chocolaty note. For this round of Browniebabe of the Month hosted by Myriam at Once Upon A Tart I decided to use a little regional flavor. I've named these Tex-Mex Brownies. I combined the flavor of Mexican chocolate with the fruits of the Texas state tree- pecans. These brownies were also the first thing I've baked with the incredibly fragrant and delicious Mexican vanilla extract that my lovely in-laws brought back from their recent vacation.

Tex-Mex Brownies
Recipe from me, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe; Makes 16
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1 disc (3.15 oz.) Mexican Chocolate
5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon Mexican pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pecan topping

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan or glass dish. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on two sides. Set aside. Place butter and all chocolates in large heatproof bowl set over pan of simmering water; stir frequently until butter and chocolates have melted. Remove bowl from heat and let cool to room temperature.
• Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture until combined. Whisk in eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Gently fold in flour and salt.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until cake tester inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 50 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool completely. Apply pecan topping (see below) to brownies while the cool.
• Remove brownies from pan using parchment paper once brownies have cooled and topping has set. Cut and serve.

Sugar & Spice Pecan Topping

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans, whole, halves, or chopped

Melt butter in bowl in microwave. Stir in sugar and cinnamon and microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes. Stir pecans into mixture and microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring twice throughout cooking time. Remove from microwave and spread across brownies.