A Week of Baking

Despite starting back to school this week, (in a new district) I somehow managed to find time to bake Raspberry Blondies, Decorated Sugar Cookies, Dark Chocolate Browines, and Banana Bread.  I'd rate all attempts as successful, so I will share some recipes and ideas with you.

Raspberry Blondies

I found the recipe for these yummy blondies in the All You magazine (which I love for coupons, recipes, and crafty ideas).  I stole this picture from them as well, since all of the Blondies were eaten before I could get a picture ;-)  I found this recipe to be very simple (and yummy).  I had all of the ingredients except for the raspberries, which were on sale ;-)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup finely chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans, or mixed nuts

1 cup fresh raspberries

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with heavy-duty foil, leaving at least a 1-inch overhang on all sides.

2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar until moistened. Let cool slightly. Off heat, whisk in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in nuts.

3. Scrape batter into baking pan, smoothing top with a spatula. Scatter berries over batter. Bake until blondies are set in center, about 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

4. Grasping overhanging foil on opposite sides of pan, lift out blondies and place on cutting board. Cut into 16 squares and serve.

Note: Nutritional analysis is per blondie

All You Raspberry Blondies

Pinwheel Sugar Cookies

I first saw these cookies on one of my favorite blogs, Bake at 350.  She does amazing work, and someday, I hope that I will be as talented and creative as she is.  I saw these cookies about a month ago, and had been determined to try them every since.  Logistically, these are not that difficult, but you do have to get the timing down just right.  I only attempted to make six, but these are my best four. 

STEPS

1. I took the easy route with making the actual cookies and bought a tube of Pillsbury's Sugar Cookie Dough.  I rolled half of the tube out and made 6 circular cookies with a circle shaped cookie cutter.

2. Once the cookies had cooled, I lined them with white royal icing.  I then thinned the remainder of the icing with a tiny bit of water so that I could easily flood the inside of the circles. 

3. This pictures shows how runny the icing needs to be in order for it to properly flood.  Once the icing had thinned out, I poured it into a bottle.    

   

4.  I then used the bottle to flood the cookies (2 at a time) with the white icing.  With my two other colors (also watered down) I drew a 'bullseye' on top of the white flooding. 

5. At this point I became a tad bit frazzeled and missed taking a picture of the next step, but here is what you do---using a toothpick, you drag the lines from the center to the edge, from the edge to the center, and repeat until you have gone in a full circle.  Again, here is the finished product:

 To find the link to the instructions that I followed (far better than the ones I've posted here), please visit Bake at 350-Martha's Fireworks Cookies.

Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Brownies

Towards the middle of the week, I got a serious chocolate craving.  Dark chocolate is my chocolate of choice, so I chose to go with Betty Crocker's Dark Chocolate Brownies.  As much as I love making my sweet treats from scratch, I also very much appreciate a good "Box Mix".  They're fast, easy, and usually just as yummy :-) Like the Blondies before, these too disappeared before I could get a pictures.  Needless to say I was cured of my chocolate craving---for the moment....

Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those things I make almost every time I buy bananas.  I only like bananas when when they are partially green, so once they become fully ripe, they are no good to me---except for banana bread, which I love :-) I've always used the same recipe, and I'll never use anything different.  It was given to me by my mom several years ago, and I scratched it down on the piece of paper below.  I don't know why I never transferred it to something a little "neater", but I think I've come to like the "worn" look :-)  If you don't have a good banana bread recipe, you should definitely try this one. Its easy and delicious, and my husband would eat the entire loaf in one setting if I let him :-)

I have a very special cake to make this week, and I'll be sure to share some photos soon!  Thanks for reading :-)