Baked Donuts!

Donuts! That wonderful breakfast treat that is made full of awesome. Only...I'm horrible at frying. Really, really, terribad at frying things. I opted to put my money where my tummy is and purchase a donut pan because it was on sale at JoAnn's for $6.50. Bargain!

Donut Ingredients:

2 c. Cake Flour (Or, if you only ever have all purpose flour, you can substitute this with 1 3/4 c all purpose to 1/4 c cornstarch)

3/4 c white sugar

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 eggs

3/4 c milk

1 T butter

1 1/2 t vanilla

This is my favorite kind of recipe: a one-bowl recipe. Dump the dry ingredients in a large bowl and toss them around until well combined, and then add the wet and mix until well mixed. Super easy. It took just a few minutes from deciding I was making donuts until the batter was in the greased donut pan. The batter should fill each donut well about 3/4 of the way. I baked them at 325F for ten minutes, and got 12 pretty little donuts for my trouble.

Now you'll note above that one looks plain, one clearly has cinnamon-sugar on it, and the chocolate one is...well, covered in chocolate. :D The plain looking one actually has a glaze on it that I really didn't like, so I won't be giving you the recipe. My main complaint is it tastes way too much like powdered sugar, which I'm not a huge fan of at all. So no recipe or instructions there. XD

The chocolate glaze was quick and dirty: a few dark chocolate melties(about 1/4 cups worth) that I have from my experiment in making tagalongs that is never ever going to get blogged about at this rate(Braden is a couple weeks behind with photos, and the photo up top was somewhat obviously taken by my P.O.S. camera), about a tablespoon each of milk and butter. Heat the chocolate until melted, add butter and milk, stir vicariously. Dip your donuts.

Hopefully, the first savory dish will get posted soon, but that relies on Braden somehow conjuring some time before we leave this weekend for North Star Blues...so we'll see. :3

Chocolate Cake...in a Cup!

100% Unoriginal, but also 100% awesome for when I'm chilling by myself after a crap day at work when Braden is still at work. Cake in a cup is quick, easy, and way better when you add whipped cream, and caramel on top.

Ingredients:

4 T Flour

4T Sugar

2.5 T Cocoa

Pinch Salt

1/4 t Baking Soda

Dash Cinnamon

1 Egg

1 T Vanilla

3 T Milk

3T Applesauce

Combine the dry ingredients in a humorously large microwave safe mug. Add the wet ingredients. Incorporate thoroughly.

Microwave for 3 minutes on high.

Top with whipped cream and caramel sauce. [See Top Image :P]

There are definitely some variations that should be performed with this, I think. I'd like try it with some fruit, or perhaps less sugar. More cinnamon is another thing...the dash just didn't give it the Mexican Hot Chocolate vibe I was going for. But still. Respectfully delicious.

Pillow Cookies

The awesome thing about Pillow Cookies is that there's infinite combinations. Brownies with sugar cookie are traditional, but I wouldn't be a Tia if I didn't find a way to include chocolate chip cookies. I tried taking some photos of the brownie making process but you.do.not.want.to.see.them. They were horrible. I just don't have the skill that Braden does, so y'all know who to go all doe-eyed at over the food-photography on this site. These cookies were made to travel with us to Ninja Swing this weekend. So excited to dance all weekend long! ANYhow, these cookies are delicious, and messy, and decadent.

Brownies are ever so slightly adapted from the best cocoa brownies from smitten kitchen again.

Ingredients:

10T/1 and 1/4 sticks of Butter

1 and 1/4 cups White Sugar

3/4 cups cocoa powder

1/4 t salt

2T vanilla

2 cold eggs

1/2 cup flour

You'll notice that list doesn't include any leavening agents. That's right, these are dense, amazing, fudgey brownies that bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

I started this one out by melting the butter in a medium pot on the stove, and then adding the sugar, cocoa and salt in and mixing it together thoroughly. Once the butter-mix is thoroughly incorporated, I turned off the heat and set it aside. I took that opportunity to clean the dishes in the house, because you must let the batter so far cool...you don't want scrambled eggs in your brownies! I also prepped an 8x8 baking dish with buttered wax paper. Excessive? Not really...it helps you get the brownies out of the pan easier while also keeping them from sticking to the wax paper.

After it cooled, I added the vanilla, double what the recipe calls for because that's how I roll. Then, each egg, combining before continuing. When the batter looked shiny, I went ahead and tossed in the flour, and as any brownie maker knows, just barely incorporated the flour. Then it was into the baking dish, and into the oven for 30 minutes. I checked it at 25, it wasn't done, so I soldiered on for another five, based on the recommendation at smitten kitchen.

Once the brownies were out of the oven, I pulled them out of the pan using the wax paper to let them cool on the counter. I had half a dozen errands to run, so I went and picked up Braden, which is why all the sudden there will suddenly be pictures! zomigah. I also got back to find the brownies still weren't really "cool" and popped them in the freezer after covering them for the cookie prep process.

For the chocolate chip cookie, I used my slightly modded version of the Tollhouse recipe. This is a recipe I've been making on my own since late middle school, and don't actually look at the recipe anymore. Spot the difference if you can!

Nommy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup/2 sticks of Butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 brown sugar

2 T vanilla

1 T water

2 eggs

2 and 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Oven goes up to 375 for this one. Butter and the sugars, and the vanilla and water get creamed together first. Sample the batter. Add eggs one at a time, only this time I forgot and just plunked them in there together. Scrape the bowl, sample the batter. Add half the flour, the salt and the baking powder. Mix. Add the rest of the flour. Sample the batter. Add the chocolate chips. Clean the beaters. :3

Now that the batter is done, it's time to grab the brownies from the freezer. I cut them into relatively small squares: about 1"x1", not that I had a ruler handy. From there, I spooned up some batter, stuck a brownie bite in it, and turned it upside down and spread the batter over the bottom of the brownie.

When you've got a tray full, they go into that preheated 375 oven. I baked them for about eleven minutes, where the cookie dough looked done and delicious.

Ta da! Delicious, amazing, pillow cookies. The recipe makes about 20 or so cookies, though I always end up using the last bit of cookie dough to have regular cookies so that I don't die. Also, only about the brownies get used, leaving extra brownie bites to dust in powdered sugar or just nom on. As always, pictures © Braden Nesin. Some day, I'll get him to do some cooking again and photograph it throughout.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes seem like the optimal first post because this particular batch of cupcakes was made for our housewarming party. (Our house party that happened an entire year after we moved into the apartment, but hey, that's what happens.) I recently discovered the joys of baking with alcohol and had been searching recipes and happened upon Food in My Beard's excellent recipe. I made a few modifications for personal taste that I'll note here.

Frosting
1.5 sticks butter, room temperature
6 tablespoons Bailey's Carolan's Irish Cream (I find that Carolan's, at half the price of Bailey's, is exactly as delicious.)
4 cups confectioners' sugar

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
12 oz. Guinness at room temperature
4 T vanilla extract (I made the conscious decision to use almost three times as much vanilla as called for because vanilla is fantastic)
1 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
2 cup sugar
2.5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 tablespoons butter, melted

I'd say that I used about a cup of Jameson when I was dousing the cupcakes. The original write-up is not bad for the sake of directions, so there's the first Buttah! entry.