White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Im always super excited when my Cooking Light Magazine comes in the mail. I find that they have a lot of my favorite recipes with the fat and calorie count decreased by a fair amount. and they always have great ideas for all different kinds of food. and they are soooo good about revamping seasonal feasts (thanksgiving, easter, christmas, etc) into more calorie-friendly meals. it is really such a great utility to have if you are into cooking and baking, but dont like extra fat around your hips and thighs! (and who likes extra fat?)

anyhow, i found this great cookie recipe in the most recent edition (May 2007). this recipe originally called for dried strawberries in place of cranberries, but i thought the sour cranberry would offer the cookie a better kick, and i had just enough to create the batter, so i present you cookies that are deliciously wonderful and wont kill your summer get-fit plans!


Ingredients
(Yields: 2 dozen)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup regular oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup premium white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
Cooking spray

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer; beat at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes). Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until blended. Add strawberries and chips; beat at low speed just until blended.
3. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; cool on pan 1 minute. Remove cookies from pan; cool completely on wire racks.



NUTRITION PER COOKIE
CALORIES 98(30% from fat); FAT 3.3g (sat 2.1g,mono 0.6g,poly 0.2g); PROTEIN 1.2g; CHOLESTEROL 14mg; CALCIUM 11mg; SODIUM 73mg; FIBER 0.6g; IRON 0.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 16g

Cooking Light, MAY 2007

parfaits are sexy

desserts are sexy, really, sweets are way sexier than savory foods. afterall, they dont say chocolate is an aphrodisiac for nothing. anyhow, champagne is also sexy, which is perhaps why champagne flutes look sexy. long, lean, and bubbly. yum. now can you imagine how sexy desserts are in champagne flutes? yes. i found out with parfaits in champagne flutes. and they look so long and sleek. yum. and sexy.

i made some parfaits and placed them in long champagne flutes. parfaits are relatively easy to make. you just take fruits, cool whip, pudding, some cakey- substance, layer, and repeat to your own liking. i had blackberries, strawberries, and bananas on hand, so i used those fruits. then used my blueberry bundt cake recipe and substituted strawberries instead of the blueberries to keep the strawberry theme going. i made mini muffins that were almost perfect in size for my champagne flutes. then layered pudding and coolwhip. some had more cake than others, some had more berries than others. i like the easy variation and the vibrant colors of this dessert. the bright colors made me feel as if i were on vacation, hence the tropical-esque pictures. and its very simple and fun to make. definitely a relaxing way to relieve the workweek stress. i really cant wait until summer comes in full bloom.

oh speaking of summer weather, this dessert is bikini friendly. yes yes i know - how do i do it? sometimes i ask myself the same question. [the hubris is self-mocking.]

bon appetit!

low fat blueberry bundt cake

its kind of intense when i think about how its already may! 2007 has gone by so fast already. i attribute such warped sense of time to my happiness in life. as they say, time flies when youre having fun. and life really is a blast right now!

this last week i was definitely missing my oven, which explains the lack of exciting entries! it was not optimal for baking, as there was a lot of good events things that happened in the family. first off, id like to welcome l.'s (my sister who makes marvelous quiche) new daughter! baby a! is sooo adorable (she is so cute that her online alias will be a! not just a. but a!) and tiny and i just want to hug her. i havent been able to see her but she is on my desktop, phone, among many other highly visible locations. im obsessed! im so excited i will see her in 2 weeks! and my other sister p. got into her first-choice grad school! (ambiguity is to maintain the anonymity) also yesterday was my aunts birthday! another year wiser, of course. good things are happening in life!

thats why i thought i needed to mirror some good things in the oven! with spring in full bloom, evidenced by the fabulous farmer's market i went to today, i wanted to make something springy and colorful! after browsing on blogs endlessly, i finally decided on a blueberry muffins/cakes/cupcake! low fat blueberry bundt cakes! ok i dont think they are technically bundt cakes, but my new molds came, and i wanted to make use of them! besides, my friend s says i can put whatever i want into my bundt pans! (technically the silicon molds are savarin molds, but i havent yet been able to distinguish the 2. all i know is that they make pretty cake patterns!)

so according to wikipedia, a bundt cake is the "name used for a dessert caked cooked in a Bundt pan." it is actually trademarked by a Mr. H. David Dalquist in 1950. the story goes something like this. mr. dalquist wanted to create the optimal pan for bundkuchen, a popular German coffee cake. Older pans were made out of ceramic or heavy cast iron, which lacked in the ease of use department. As a result, Mr. Dalquist modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs by introducing folds in the outer edge, and fashioned the pan out of aluminum. Fast forward almost 60 years and we have silicone versions of these babies and recreated completely different recipes for these! im definitely on team innovation!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 cup 1% milk
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 packed cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup frozen blueberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon until well combined. Set aside.
3. In another medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer set at high speed, beat the milk, applesauce, brown sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla until frothy, about two minutes. Pour in the liquid mixture into the dry one. Using a spoon, mix just until moistened. Gently fold in the blueberries until the flour is incorporated. Do not overmix.
4. Divide the batter into molds. [for mini molds, fill only halfway] Bake until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the center, about 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool in the pan on a wire cake rim for 10 minutes before removing from cups. Serve warm or cool.

if you notice, the recipe is super low fat. i cut out a lot of the oil in this recipe and used unsweetened applesauce to get a similar texture and consistency. as a rule of thumb, usually 1 cup of oil can be substituted with 3/4-1 cup of unsweetened applesauce, which is what i did. i added 1.5 tbsp of canola oil because you should allow a small portion of the butter/oil to remain in the recipe for the sake of taste.

so when i made my mini bundt cakes, i put too much batter so they looked like awkward muffins. thats no fun! and since im big on creativity, i took the cute muffin tops and made parfaits with them! a layer of the cake, a layer of instant vanilla pudding, a layer of fruits, then repeat! then i topped it all with some fat free cool whip! they turned out REALLY delicious! the only problem is since im an amateur, the layers did not come out very pretty. nonetheless, they tasted really great! im so impressed! next time, to cut the calorie count, ill use sugar free jello! other than that, i think i decreased the fat grams as much as i could without sacrificing flavor. ta da!

looks pretty good doesnt it? it tasted pretty good!

after making 6 mini bundt cakes, i had a lot of leftover batter. i decided to whip out my yellow bundt cake mold and give it a whirl in the oven. i put it in the oven at a temperature a bit lower than for the mini bundt cakes (340F), and ran into the shower. 20 minutes later [i shower fast!], i went downstairs to take the cake out and let it sit for a few minutes. when it was almost cooled, i was able to fold it out of the mold perfectly! i was impressed! it looked so pretty!

im giving this cake to my little sister who is in college studying for finals! i will see her tonight and bring her the lovely cake!

bon appetite!!

new silicone baking molds

so as you can see, im pretty serious about this baking thing. im constantly on other food blogs trying to find exciting recipes then modifying them so that you can eat them and look pretty. yes yes i know youll thank me later. but you know its bad when i get complaints that i spend more time with my oven than real breathing human beings as of late. in my defense that was LAST month. im balancing things just fine now thankyouverymuch!

unfortunately, im not the best (cup)cake maker in town. its quite disappointing to me, actually. i still openly blame my oven (we are getting a kitchen remodel, which means new appliances come summer!) but i guess its completely my fault when i think measuring utensils are just cute as opposed to useful and highly underestimate the amount of baking powder so my cake is an unrisen mold of heated batter. or interchange baking powder and soda without even raising a brow. yes yes i have quite a ways to go to reaching my baking pinnacle. but im learning every step of the way!

so in an effort to boost my (cup)caking baking self-esteem, im going to buy some new toys for my kitchen! check them out!

heart shaped le creuset silicone molds! arent they just precious? they will be perfect when my newborn niece (i think today!) is old enough to eat chocolate baked goodies from her auntie!

dont be surprised if you get some heart shaped cupcakes on your doorsteps! theyll be from me!

i also some some savarin (pronounced [SAV-uh-rihn, sa-va-RAN ]) molds on sale, and i figured id try them out! i wasnt sure what savarin is, but my lovely friend mel told me that they are sort of like pound cake. ive never purchased anything on hsn before, but i figured i dont have much to lose because i know that its a reputable site. and they were on sale!

as you can see, they are almost sold out in the yellow color!

im so excited to receive my new silicone bakeware! ill keep you posted on how much i like these. i just like the idea of molds and shapes and colors. its so fun!

images courtesy of le creuset and hsn.com

low-fat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

happy weekend! i am so glad its finally the weekend! its a bit chilly in the house. but i think i have very poor blood circulation because i am always cold. however, today, with the faint scent of warm cookies fresh from the oven, my body is not shivering as much in this unseasonably cold april.

today, i remade some old favorites, including some chocolate cookies with chocolate/vanilla chips and a mini version of my sisters favorite low-cal low-fat strawberry pie.

doesnt everything look cuter mini sized?

the latest edition of my baking includes oat-meal chocolate chip cookies - low fat - and dare i say, still pretty tasty?

when i found my recipe of choice, i was aghast! 4 dozen cookies called for 1 cup of butter. now 1 cup of butter doesnt sound great, but doesnt sound like it will kill you. but when i realized that 1 cup of butter was not 1, but 2 T-W-O sticks of butter, i had a mini-heart attack. i could NOT let my baked goods kill my friends! in my mind, i quickly adjusted the recipe, deciding to substitute something in place of all the butter, for the sake of all my friends!

now baking low fat is no simple task, mind you. in addition to getting all the accurate proportions of everything, you need to know how much butter to cut out, with what substitute, and the same goes for the eggs. i used 2 tablespoons of apple sauce in place of 1 1/2 (ONE AND A HALF - no joke) sticks of butter. keeping a little bit of the butter is important to hold the cookie together and for the sake of taste. its a pretty impressive feat that we were able to cut out 75% of the butter. also, i used 1 egg and 1 egg's equivalent in egg whites, decreasing the total cholesterol in the cookies. instead of the full cup and a half of flour, i substituted some whole wheat flour in there. they turned out quite good actually. they were sweetened with the applesauce, so i could have gone a little less with the sugar, which is something ill watch for next time. but overall, cutting out about 1250 calories and 135 grams of fat in 4 dozen cookies is worth it! i may adjust the recipe a bit more, but again, i didnt have much time between thinking up the recipe in my head and executing. tough job, being a baker!

anyhow, heres the recipe. please feel free to play around with it and get back to me with your thoughts on this.

Ingredients
* 1/2 stick of butter (4 teaspoons), softened
* 2 tablespoons of applesauce
* 1 cup packed light brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 egg and 1 egg equivalent of egg substitute
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cups all-purpose white flour
* 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3 cups quick-cooking oats
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, apple sauce, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flours and baking soda; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

straight from the oven, the applesauce taste was stronger and it was more noticeable that something was different with the recipe. however, once i tried a cookie the morning after, it just tasted like a simple cookie. perhaps the temperature brings out the flavor of the applesauce more. so dont worry about your cookies if they taste a little different right out of the oven, once the cookies cool, your cookies taste pretty darn good!

this was definitely one of my worries when i made my low fat brownies, as i thought the brownies tasted too fruity. perhaps i will wait until the brownie cools down to try it next time. or ill try substituting yogurt instead of applesauce. i think applesauce is pretty good for less chocolatey baked goods such as banana bread, carrot cake (the low fat version also calls for crushed pineapples), and perhaps even cranberry white chocolate chip cookies!

bon appetit!

on a side note, i will make an increased effort to bake low-fat goodies for everyone. with the summer coming, i know it wouldnt hurt for us to eat a little healthier for bikini season!! think healthier, happier you!

chocolate cookies with chocolate-white chocolate chips!

amazing amazing chocolate cookies with chocolate/white chocolate swirled chips. absolutely ah- may - zing!! no joke. these babies are cream of the crop - little bites of chocolate heaven!

i made a fairly small batch because it was a recipe i created in my head - a chocolate variation of the best chocolate chip cookies ever. i wasnt completely sure the measurements i estimated would work out, but boy did it work out! far beyond anything i could imagine! really, YUM!!!!! wooooooooooohoooooooooooooo!

the best part about these cookies was the mixture of bittersweet chocolate and truffle chocolate. my aunt had a big bag of melted truffles that she got at costco (you know, the one in gold packaging), and personally, im not a big fan of truffles. so when she gave it to me to bake with, i took it, not really excited but i knew people like it, so it couldnt be too bad to mix with. little did i know what masterpieces i could make with the right amount of truffle chocolate and bittersweet chocolate! the chocolate ratio was 2/5 bittersweet and 3/5 sweet. it turned out specatcular!!!

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 12 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 30 Minutes (im pretty slow)
Yields: 36 small cookies

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/5 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) packages instant CHOCOLATE pudding mix
2 eggs
1.5 cups semisweet/white chocolate chips (you can use all white chocolate chips too)
1 square BAKER'S Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
1.5 square sweetened chocolate (i used truffle chocolate, but cut back on the sugar)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In your makeshift double boiler, melt the two types of chocolate together. Stir occassionally, and always keep an eye on it. Let it melt - this may take 5 minutes or so.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs. Blend in the flour mixture. Stir in your chocolate chips. (This is your basic chocolate chip cookie batter.) Mix in your melted chocolate. the result will be a dark chocolate batter. YUM!
4. Place small balls of batter onto your baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on oven.

look at these babies! you can see the chocolate swirls if you look closely enough. and again, they were nice and soft. yum =) i think if you used white chocolate chips, theyd be a success as well. the colors would contrast better, and white chocolate is sweeter, which makes it a yummy treat! bon appetit!

i apologize that my pictures arent the best. im trying! really! any photography tips would be greatly appreciated!!! and thank you for the comments! i really appreciate them!

5 minute low fat strawberry pie

i made a quick and easy pie for fun today, and it was amazing! i am so impressed by the taste that can come from mixing yogurt, berries, and cool whip. my friend, ai, taught me this recipe, and i made it a few weeks back, but i figured i should spin it up a little, especially with the wonderful strawberries that are available everywhere now! dont you love springtime? =)

INGREDIENTS
1 carton of cool whip (8 ounces)
1 carton of strawberry yogurt (6 ounces - i used fat free yoplait but any brand/flavor will work)
1 store-bought pie crust
5-6 juicy, red strawberries
1/2 cup of frozen blackberries.

DIRECTIONS
1. Blend strawberries, frozen blackberries, and yogurt together. Slowly stir in cool whip into the mixture. Blend until mostly smooth (not too liquidy). i used a blender for this, but you can do it by hand too.
2. Pour into pie crust and freeze for 4-5 hours. (i froze it overnight).

its amazing how the strawberries and blackberries can bring out the flavor of the yogurt. its a tiny bit tart (very similar to the tartness of pinkberry because of the yogurt), but fully flavorful from the summer fruits. i am very happy with the way this came out. its made from the natural goodness of the springtime, which is always good for the waistline!

in total, the yogurt and coolwhip plus fruits racked in 500 calories and 0 grams of fat. not too bad for dessert to be shared amongst 8 people. the crust will add (roughly) 110 calories per serving, but you are looking at 150 calories per person per piece. pretty good, dont you think? (you can always take out the crust to have a low cal, fat free dessert!)

bon appetit!

butterscotch chocolate chip cookies

my sister p was upstairs when she screamed, it smells so good c! are the cookies done yet?

while they had only been in the oven for a few minutes, the smell of these cookies spread throughout the house! as they were baking, these pseudo cookies (they were in the transition between batter and cookie) had a sweet smell to them that was warm and inviting. it was tempting your nose, making you aware of its soon-to-be edible form.

i wasnt sure what i wanted to bake that night. i had a long day at work, and i was super tired. nothing better to cure a rough day than baking 5 dozen happy cookies (and shoe shopping, which i did as well!). furthermore, my good buddy's birthday was the next day, so all the signs were pointing towards baking a HUGE amount of yummy cookies! i had a bag of butterscotch morsels that i wanted to do something about - they were just sitting there, taunting me of my nonexistent attempts to create the pumpkin butterscotch cookies my friend once made, which by the way were pumpkin heaven. anyhow, i decided to use my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe and put a butterscotch-y spin to it!

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 12 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
Yields: 72 servings (small cookies) i made close to 60 2" (in diameter) cookies

INGREDIENTS:
Cookie Base
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Butterscotch infusion
(1/2 stick) of butter (1/4 cups)
4 ounces (1/3 of the typical 12 oz. bag) butterscotch morsels

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In your makeshift double boiler, melt 1/2 bar (1/4 cup) of butter with 4 oz. of butterscotch. Stir occassionally, and always keep an eye on it. Let it melt - this may take 5 minutes or so.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Stir in your chocolate chips. (This will be your basic chocolate chip cookie batter.) Mix in your melted butterscotch. the result will be a light orange batter. if you want to do swirls, dont mix the butterscotch completely, just do it in loops.


the image of the left is what my batter looked like when i poured in the melted butterscotch. notice how pretty the color of the butterscotch is. its such a nice mix!






on the right is the batter all ready for the oven! it still looks a little damp from the butterscotch mix, but i rolled it a couple more times after that to fully merge the butterscotch into the batter.


4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

i played around with this recipe again when my friend jt came over. we had such a blast! she was teaching me all about oven chemistry and how oven temperature affects the way dough bakes. we decided the optimal temperature for these babies is 340-345. anything higher gives the cookie a good color but the insides are still soft. anything lower doesnt really do the cookies any good. yay for testing out temperature! its actually surprising how much heat affects the shape and color of cookies.

anyways, these babies are amazing right out of the oven a la mode. i topped a cookie with some chocolate ice cream. (i think it would have tasted better with vanilla, but i ran out.) regardless, it was super yummy! and they are so soft!

its amazing what pudding mix does to cookies! the ultimate test of the pudding mix theory is whether or not my sister, who lives in austria, will receive soft cookies or not. i was on the phone with her when i was taking these cookies out of the oven, and she asked me to send some over! shipping will take roughly a week, so ill keep you posted.

Bon appetit!

makeshift double boiler

i think its really important to be able to melt chocolate effectively so that you can infuse your baked goods evenly with the rich deliciousness of chocolate. my boss bought me a deck of chocolate recipes, and included was directions for a makeshift chocolate double boiler. i guess you can always use your microwave to melt chocolate, but i think this does a more thorough job. besides, cleaning up is a snap, and it makes your kitchen smell nice and chocolatey!

first, you put a bowl into a 1/3 full pot of water. make sure you dont use too much or too little water. just let your bowl float. be aware that your bowl will get heavier as the chocolate melts, so if you have too much water, it will leak into your bowl of chocolates. if you have too little, it wont float, which defeats the purpose of a double boiler (and it might get burnt more easily). also, please make sure the bowl can handle the heat. then drop your chocolates into the bowl. here i am melting chocolate chips.


watch as the chocolate slowly starts to melt. i added 1/4 cup of milk into the mixture, as i was making the chocolate layer for my pie. you can easily use this technique to melt bricks of chocolate and butter together for your brownie batter. or you can use it to melt butterscotch for butterscotch chocolate chip cookies. recipe forthcoming!


look at the dissolving chocolate! chocolate burns easily, so make sure you stir constantly as your chocolate turns into melted fabulousness!

afterwards, take out your bowl of melted chocolate and use as your recipe calls for. be careful, the bowl will definitely be hot!

dont you just loooove chocolate?

strawberry cake laced with chocolate!

hi all! for those of you not located in the area, weve been getting fabulous weather! that means that summer fruits are ablossoming, which means strawberries are making its way into my baked goods. last weekend, the strawberry cake was a rather big failure but this week, my cake looks fabulous! it looks great! im so excited!

i made a simple white cake and folded in strawberries (with a hint of sugar) into the mix. (i think my mistake last week was that i underestimated the amount of baking powder necessary, so it didnt rise) after the cake was done cooling, i cut it in half, added a layer of melted chocolate, frosting, and fresh strawberries. i capped the cake with the other half, and then frosted the cake with some fluffy white frosting, and beautified it (aesthetically and tastefully) with strawberries! ta-da!

STRAWBERRY FOLDED WHITE CAKE INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup butter
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/4 cup milk
* 5 or 6 mashed strawberries

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together 90% of the sugar and all the butter butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. In a blender, place 10% (what is left) of the sugar with the strawberries until strawberries are mashed into bits and pieces. It will be a little liquidy. Blend the strawberries into the cake mixture. Try to fold it into the mixture instead of mixing it to get the pretty strawberry ribbon effect.
(notice how its not a pink cake but there are pseudo-swirls of pinkness embedded into the white cake!)

4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch. now the cake is done!

when the cake comes out of the oven, let it cool. mine came out slightly darker, which is why i adjusted the temperature in the above directions. i wasnt able to capture an appetizing pictures of the cake, but it was moist and fluffy! it tasted fantastic! it was sweet with a delicate berry taste infused into the bite. yum! after the cake was done, i melted some chocolate with my makeshift double boiler to melt the chocolate. its really a cool concept. (ill do another entry on the basics of melting chocolate.)

then i smeared the chocolate across the cake, frosted the baby with fluffy white frosting, and layered strawberries across it! mmmmm yum!



the chocolate mixed a bit with the frosting, so it doesnt look super sexy but it was yummy! and since its in the middle of the cake, and im yet a pro baker, its ok!

lastly, i put the other half of the cake over it, and frosted some more. this time i only used the fluffy white frosting because i didnt want the chocolate to overwhelm the strawberry taste. afterall, the strawberry is the show piece of the cake! the chocolate is only an appreciated afterthought to complement the taste. another layer of strawberries, and we'll call it a cake!

view from the top

layered strawberry goodness!

nutella brownies!

when my friend mel from socal visited last weekend, i wanted to create something really yummy and personal for her, especially given her long drive back. they perfect thing for her, i decided, would be strawberry cupcakes! she loves strawberries wild at jamba, so i figured i could make something great with the same fruit! and with strawberry season creeping in, i was delighted by such an idea! but low and behold, my strawberry cupcakes didnt rise. ugh! i was tremendously disappointed, to say the least. so in an effort to redeem the baker within me and not let mel leave empty-handed, i made some mini nutella brownies! and boy were they were scrumptious!

INGREDIENTS:
10 tbsp butter (5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/4 cup Nutella
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup natural cocoa powder

instead of cocoa powder i used hot chocolate mix with mini marshmallows, which is why the top of the mini brownies look like craters! its alright though, it gives my brownies character! they were so good right from the oven because the melted marshmallows were gooey! yummmmmmm!

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the over to 325 F. Grease the pan (I use Pam baking spray)
1. Combine the slightly melted butter, sugar, eggs, and Nutella. Mix well. Slowly pour your flour and cocoa powder into the mix.
2. Pour the batter into your pan and bake for about 30 minutes, depending on your oven.



anyways, they tasted delicious! im pretty surprised by how easy brownies are to make! mel says the hazelnut taste was a bit lacking because i ran short out of nutella mid-recipe. regardless, they were amazing! the hazelnut complemented the brownie perfectly! imagine a scoop of vanilla ice cream wedged between the brownies... heaven!

L's Special Quiche Lorraine (+ Zucchini)

hi all. due to the fact that i come from family that is highly attentive to the culinary wonders of the world, i will have occasional contributing editors who also share the love of baking. here is the first post by my fabulous sister, l. *golf claps all around!*

l. is a self-proclaimed 'chef extraordinaire'. she is addicted to better homes & garden, organic vegetables, and fresh cooking. she is trying to hone her cooking skills because her first baby girl will be born in late April! she vows that her daughter will never know what a fast food restaurant is. l. has lived for extensive periods of time in the US and Asia. she currently resides in vienna, austria with her husband. l.'s real job is a cosmetics entrepreneur.

her first contribution: special quiche lorraine (+zuccini). this is quite a delicacy! according to wikipedia, a quiche is a baked dish that is made primarily of eggs and milk or cream in a pastry crust. culinary beauties like this can NOT go unnoticed, or the human appreciation of food will simply falter. while i havent tasted this salty pie yet, rest assured, l's cooking is of utmost quality and freshness. it just looks so scrumptious!

L's Special Quiche Lorraine (+ Zucchini)

the whole baby!

Ingredients
Pastry for Single-Crust Pie (you can buy it pre-made or make it from a prepackaged pack)
5 slices bacon
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 beaten eggs
2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 slices of chopped ham
1/2 cup long sliced zucchini
3/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Splash of dried herbs

Directions

1. Prepare Pastry for Single-Crust Pie. Line the unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of heavy duty foil. Bake in a 450 degrees F oven for 8 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes more or until pastry is set and dry. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F. (Pie shell should still be hot when filling is added; do not partially bake pastry shell ahead of time.)

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings. Crumble bacon finely; set aside. Cook sliced onion, zucchini, chopped ham in reserved drippings over medium heat until tender - a little brown is ok.

3. In a medium mixing bowl stir together the eggs, milk, and salt. Stir in the herbs, crumbled bacon, sliced onion, zucchini, and chopped ham. Toss together shredded cheese and flour. Add to egg mixture; mix well.

4. Pour egg mixture into the hot, baked pastry shell. Bake in the 325 degrees F oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. If necessary, cover edge of crust with foil to prevent overbrowning. Let stand 10 minutes.



recipe courtesy of lcc.

the BEST chocolate chip cookies

hi guys! thanks for all the encouragement! im so motivated to bake my little heart away this weekend! yay for ovens! i didnt get a chance to bake yesterday but i wanted to post my pictures of the BEST chocolate chip cookies EVER! no joke! its so good that i will post the recipes after the pictures! let me tell you again, the secret to soft cookies, which i adore, is pudding mix!!!! thats the way to go guy, no joke. my roomie from college diana introduced me to the great idea!

check these babies out!
look at all that melted chocolate gooey-ness! yum!


BEST chocolate chip cookies!

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 12 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
Yields: 72 servings

INGREDIENTS:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.



recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com

Chocolate Galore!

last night i was inspired to bake by my new deck of chocolate cards from my boss! i tried hard to give the cookies/brownies a gourmet feel with a makeshift double boiler to melt the chocolate and butter. it really worked because these babies were all infused with chocolate love! what i baked last night: low fat brownies, chocolate chocolate cookies, and chocolate oatmeal chocolate cookies.


the brownies were ok. they were my first attempt at low fat baking so i substituted 2/3 of the butter for applesauce. interesting idea, needs a little bit more tweaking. on a scale of 1-10, id give it a 6.5. i wanted to give it a higher score, but anythign higher would be an injustice to the real chocolate lovers of the world! the texture was fabulous, but the brownies had a little bit of an apple taste to it because of the apple sauce. my mom and aunt loved it though! they likened it to a chinese bread because of the reduced butter usage/apple sauce substitute. im goign to play around with this recipe some more so that it tastes as good as it looks!

chococlate chocolate cookies were not sweet enough. i loved the texture though, inside was almost cakey with a nice chewy outside. had there been more sugar, these cookies would have been a big hit. the neat part of these cookies is that i took chocolate chips and chopped them so that they werent big bites of chocolate, but rather well merged chocolate flakes with the chocolate cookie as the backdrop. texture was fabulous! the secret of soft cookies is pudding mix! it also gives it a nice shelled look! yum!

the chocolate oatmeal babies were awesome. after tasting the chocolate chooclate cookies i added more sugar into the mix and re-balled my cookies. these were fab! the chocolate was so well mixed into the cookie - it was such a delight to my tastebud!

so, when i organized the fruits of my mini baking extravaganza, this is what it looks like! not so shabby coming from a newbie baker/wannabe food blogger with her digital camera!

on a side note, the next time i will just do low fat or gourmet. its hard to do both at the same time when you are an amateur! also, better quality pictures next time! i promise! my battery was dying as i clicked away! in the lineup, thumbprint cookies and strawberry cupcakes!

happy afternooning!

Greetings!

ive spent a lot of time in my kitchen, especially with my handy oven, in efforts to create fun, yummy baked goods to send to friends. if you arent a recipient of such goods, please give me your address!

so after careful consideration, i've finally decided to start my own baking blog! it took me a while to come up with a name, but decided to go with .... *drumroll please*

iCANbake... get it?

because i literally CAN bake, and CAN is the first three letters of my name!

im not a digital camera powerhouse, but im working on it. and if the baking meets my standards, i will put the recipe online and boast about it incessantly. LOL. oh! im also a big fan of low fat cooking (yogurt/applesauce instead of oil/butter, egg whites, etc).

you will have to bear with me as i conquer the world one baked good at a time.