Chocolate Ritz Cracker Treats

Wondering what these little buddies could be?  They are so simple...

You will need:
Ritz Crackers
Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chips for melting
1 tablespoon of shortening (there's probably a "healthier" option here but come on, we're talking about peanut butter dipped in chocolate)

Put peanut butter on a Ritz Cracker then cover it with another to make a sandwich. Repeat for as many as you would like to make. Melt the chocolate chips combined with shortening in the microwave. Dip the cracker sandwiches in the chocolate and let stand until chocolate is set. I put them in the fridge for a little while.  Serve and enjoy!

Happy Valentines Day. I'm contemplating a red velvet cake. We'll see how far that goes.

Merry Christmas 2011

As you may recall, every year I make my Christmas cookies and last year I tried to make ginger bread men as my fourth variety. Lesson learned. This year I decided to add truffles to the mix. Not my famous oreo balls but something a little different.

You will need:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2.5 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips + 1 cup semi sweeet bakers chocolate, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 package white chocolate melted, 1 package semi sweet chocolate melted for dipping

In a large bowl beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar until blended. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla until no streaks remain. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Shape into 1 inch balls and dip in the melted chocolate or vanilla. Sprinkle with crushed pecans, coconut flakes, or colored sprinkles to decorate. Refrigerate or freeze for 1 hour or until set.
I like to decorate with the opposite melted chocolate. I put melted white chocolate in a zip lock baggie and cut a small tip off of the corner. Squeeze over the truffles to create a pattern.

These looked very pretty on a holiday platter as my contribution to the party. I am told and also believe that they taste quite good, too.

Merry Christmas!

Griffin Wallace (right) with his friend Baxter Batson (left)

Would you like a hot apple pie with that?

I'm back! And I brought with me this delicious apple pie! I am so proud of this creation. This was my first ever pie and it turned out so pretty, and it tasted good too. I brought this to Thanksgiving where I was in charge of desserts. I made something else too, but it obviously isn't as important.

I'd like to thank Grandma Ople (?) and allrecipes.com for this one. I did make some modifications. I cheated on the crust and went store bought, same for the lattice work topping.
Here's what I did:

• 1 store bought 9 inch pie crust
• 1 box of frozen pastry, thawed and cut into strips using pizza cutter
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced - I actually got 1.5 pies out of this many apples

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
• Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. 

 

• Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. 
• Enjoy!

You can see why I say 1.5 pies, the second one was not very full but was very tasty

 For a first try, I think it looks pretty good.
 

Oreo Truffles with a Twist

A new twist on oreo balls. We're preparing for a baby shower this weekend, these will be the favors. Final photo to come along with all the other preparations and finished products.

These were pretty simple, we made oreo truffles and then put some white chocolate colored with a drop of blue food coloring in a ziplock baggie, cut off the corner and made fun designs.

Oreo Truffles

This is a hiatus from blogs about the kitchen remodel. Everything was finally functional so I wanted to take the opportunity to make our friend Pete a treat for his birthday since we had dinner club* tonight.

I had gotten the recipe from a fellow bowling league member but promptly lost the paper she wrote it down on. I had to turn to my go-to, allrecipes.com. Sure enough, it was there.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
• 1 (8 ounce) package PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
2. Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
3. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator. 

I did make a couple of modifications. Instead of using 1 package of the same type of Oreo I used half of a box of regulars and half of a box of mints. I cut the cream cheese in half and mixed in separate bowls. I used 8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate for the regular Oreos and I used 8 ounces of white chocolate for the mint Oreos. You could probably mix and match for whatever suits your fancy. To dip these I dropped them in a bowl and scoop them out with a fork. The toothpick method did not work. I also did not do the crushed Oreo garnish. And a tip I picked up from Barefoot Contessa - when melting chocolate in the microwave, only melt the chocolate part way and then stir it until it all becomes melted. This will keep the chocolate looking shiny once it dries instead of that frosty look.

These are rather sweet and rich for a treat but are pretty good! I gave some to Pete for his birthday and kept some in the freezer for a last minute get together. Easy!

*Dinner club is our weekly (at least we try to do weekly) get together with a group of friends. We rotate weeks, when it is your week you get to choose the place. Dinner club began with 4 members and has morphed over time. We also began with a rule that we couldn't go back to somewhere we had been and we couldn't choose a chain. We ran out of options quick so the rules have changed. We have been doing dinner club for 4 or 5 years now? I'd have to ask Katie she remembers everything. Many, if not most people who attend ski weekend have been dinner club members at some point in time.