Doctored Cake Mix

1 box of cake mix
1 large box of pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup sour cream

Cook as a cake or cupcakes or whatever form you choose according to the cake mix directions on the box. It will be much more moist and taste less like a cake mix.

Pecan Pie

This is the recipe that I always use for pecan pie.  It was from my boss during my health department days.


~3/4 cup pecans
3 eggs, well beaten
1 c. dark corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
1 t. flour
1/4 c. melted butter

Combine ingredients(except pecans), mix well and pour into a pie shell.  Top with pecans(whole pecans look better).

Bake at 375 for 35 to 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Coconut syrup

Christie and I are on a coconut kick right now. My neighbor gave me this recipe for coconut syrup and brought me some over, it is delicious. Here is the recipe 2 cubes of butter 2 cups of sugar 1 cup buttermilk add to medium saucepan and heat on medium heat until boiling. Boil for 2-3 minutes then remove from heat. Add t teaspoon of baking soda and 2 t coconut extract.

Facebook Brownies

This recipe was making the rounds on Facebook.  I'm posting it here mainly so I can find it again easily rather than having to search through the Facebook archives for it.  I didn't make it as a mix.  I just mixed it all up at the same time.  It's a pretty thick batter, so if you sprinkle chocolate chips on top, they stay on top, unlike most box mixes where the chocolate (or, even better...mint) chips all sink to the bottom.  I did it in a pie pan, and it worked well in that.

Facebook Brownies

Never buy boxed brownie mix again! Follow the recipe below and make brownies for approximately .30 a mix! So simple, so easy. Not just frugal but cuts out the unknown ingredients.

1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Powder

Put mix in plastic bags or mason jars.

At baking time add:

2 Eggs
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Vanilla

Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes in an 8x8 or 9x9 pan.

It was a Pampered Chef rep who was circulating the recipe, so she recommended using the Pampered Chef brownie pan, which supposedly cooks faster.

Check after 12-15 minutes of baking and remove when brownies are done!

My favorite banana bread

1 1/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter
1/4 c applesauce
2 eggs
1/2 c plain yogurt
3-4 mashed ripe bananas
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 1/2 c flour
Chopped nuts(optional)

Cream butter, applesauce and sugar, add bananas, eggs, yogurt, vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients until just mixed.

Pour in greased pans and bake at 350. Time depends on pan size. I usually do 2 small pans and 1 medium sized pan. The small ones bake for 30-35 min, until done. The bigger pan bakes for about 40-45 min. If you did 1 big pan, it would take about an hour.

Cookies & Cream Popcorn

Recipe and photo from Sing For Your Supper.

• 1 bag popcorn, popped (Tender/Fluffy White variety)
• 6 oz white chocolate baking squares
• 10 Oreos, crushed

Place the popped popcorn and Oreos in a large bowl. Heat the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted and smooth.

Drizzle the white chocolate over the popcorn/Oreo mixture and stir to coat. Dump out on a large sheet of wax paper and spread into a single layer. Let cool and harden. Break into small pieces and serve.

My Variation
I made a double batch of the recipe as listed above, but when I sampled it I thought it was a little too sweet. So I popped an extra bag of popcorn and mixed it in. In my opinion, the extra touch of saltiness made it just right. So the ratio I ended up with was as follows:

• 3 bags of popcorn
• 12 oz white chocolate
• 20 Oreos

Peppermint Kiss Popcorn

I made this recipe up last night for a Girls Night Out treat.  It was so yummy!
1 bag Candycane Hershey Kisses
2 batches of air-popped popcorn (I think one batch makes 4 quarts)

Melt the Kisses in the microwave (or in a double boiler).  Put popcorn in a very large bowl or a brown paper grocery bag and pour the melted Kisses over the popcorn.  Mix (or shake the bag) to coat all of the popcorn.  Spread on a couple of cookie sheets to dry.

Ice Cream Sundae Pie

Preparation time: 45 minutes plus freezing
Yield: 8 generous servings

Ingredients

Crust:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Rocky Road Sauce:
1 package (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows or 24 large marshmallows, cut in fourths

3 pints vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Maraschino cherries
Chocolate sprinkles, optional


Directions

For crust, line a 9-inch pie plate with a 14-inch round of aluminum foil, extending foil beyond rim of pan. In a heavy saucepan, melt 3/4 cup chocolate pieces and butter, stirring constantly. Add cereal and vanilla, tossing to coat cereal completely. Press into bottom and up sides of prepared pie plate; chill until firm, 30 minutes or freeze 15 minutes.

For Rocky Road Sauce, melt chocolate in heavy saucepan; stir in sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and salt. Cool to room temperature; add marshmallows.

To assemble, soften half of ice cream. Remove chocolate crust from pie plate by gently lifting foil edges. Carefully peel foil from crust; replace crust in pie plate. Spoon slightly softened ice cream into crust; smooth top and spread with half of Rocky Road Sauce. Place pie in freezer 30 minutes or longer to allow ice cream and sauce to firm. Repeat with remaining ice cream and sauce. Freeze at least 30 minutes longer.

Shortly before serving, whip cream until stiff peaks form; add sugar and vanilla. Pipe around edge of pie and mound in center. Top with maraschino cherries; garnish with chocolate sprinkles if desired. Makes 8 servings.

NOTE: I don't think I've ever had this topped with whipped cream. That might actually be too much. You can also make this in a 9x13 pan, which makes it a more reasonable thickness and easier to cut 12 or 16 servings instead of 8. Just to make the calculation easier for you, there are 4 pints in a half gallon, so you use not quite a half gallon in the recipe, but if you do it in a 9x13, you might get away with just using the whole container without making it too thick. If you're feeling daring, try mint chocolate chip or another flavor besides vanilla.

Original recipe by Julie Baker, published in the Deseret News.

One Chocolate Chip Cookie

How to Make a Single Chocolate Chip Cookie - wikiHow

This is just the right amount to cook as a Skookie. Just undercook it slightly and serve with ice cream on top if you choose to make the Skookie.

1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 to 2 tablespoons chocolate chips
1 tablespoon water
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)
Pinch of salt
Pinch of baking soda
5 tablespoons flour

Preheat the oven to 350.

Measure all the ingredients in a small bowl. Mix and mash thoroughly with a fork. It's easier if the butter is slightly softened rather than using a hard-brick.

Add the mixture to the center of a pre-greased cookie sheet. To make it easier to bake evenly, smooth the mixture out as a thin layer.

Bake for 15-17 minutes. Bake for an additional 1-2 minutes if the cookie is too soft or gooey.

Let cool on a plate and enjoy. It's that simple!

Dough Boys

Hopefully summer will run late this year based on how long winter and spring seemed to hang on, so there's more time to cook with these.

Wrap a biscuit around a dough boy stick, cook over the fire, and fill with nutella, pudding, pie filling...

...fajitas, Phillies, bacon & eggs...

...in no particular order.

Waffle iron Brownies

Waffle cookies from a friend of Christie and mine from USU, Ken.

6 T cocoa
1/2 c margarine
2 eggs
3/4 c sugar
1 cup flour
1 t vanilla
Drop by spoonfuls into waffle iron. cook 1-2 minutes. Spray iron in between.

Icing, 4 oz cream cheese, 1/4 c butter 1 t vanilla, 1 lb powder sugar. Add cocoa to taste.

I haven't made these yet, but I want to.

Waffle Iron Brownies

Ingredients and Items Needed:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa pwder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 extra large eggs, well beaten
1 tablespoon water
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, optional
confectioner's sugar, optional
waffle iron
wooden skewer or toothpicks
covered tin to store brownies

Instructions:
Preheat waffle iron to medium setting. On most models the indicator light will go out when propoer temperature is reached. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat. Blend cocoa into butter with a wooden spoon. Stir in sugar, beaten eggs and water. Add flour and salt; beat well. If you choose to add nuts, do so now and mix thoroughly.

Into each section of the preheated waffle iron, drop one well-rounded teaspoon of batter. Close lid and bake about 1 1/2 minutes. The brownies are done if they do not stick to the top of the waffle iron. Use the tip of a wooden skewer to remove brownies easily. Let cool on racks. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar (recommended but optional).
Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

Alfajor

Ah, the heavenly alfajor. I've only made these a few times since coming home from Paraguay, but I should probably make them more often. They can be a little difficult to get just right, not all crispy and not crumbling to pieces. I haven't actually made this particular recipe I'm posting, but the ingredients look about right from other times I've made it. The main thing you need to look for is the corn starch. If you find an alfajor recipe with just flour and little to no corn starch, run away. Fast. The corn starch is what gives it the melt in your mouth consistency. The trick to knowing when they are done is similar to classic sugar cookies...they are done just a minute or two before you think they're done (not brown at all yet).

First, you need to make some dulce de leche. If you can find it already made, feel free to buy it, but I've had a hard time finding it in any stores. I've tried making it the classic way, which involves slowly boiling, stirring, and adding sugar to milk for several hours. The easy way is to take 3 or 4 cans of sweetened condensed milk, and throw them in a pressure cooker for half an hour. You probably only need one can for a batch of alfajores, but as long as you've got the pressure cooker running, throw a few extra cans in there. Take the labels off the cans before boiling them, and don't open the cans before cooking or until they are completely cooled after cooking. The pressure will keep the can from exploding, which can happen if it boils dry in an open pot, besides the fact that it cooks much quicker in the pressure cooker. Throw the extra, unopened cans in the pantry after they cool down and save them for later. It's great on graham crackers, on top of ice cream, to dip fruit in, and the list goes on.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
non-stick cooking spray
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

PREPARATION:

To prepare dough: Sift together flour, cornstarch and baking powder; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar and lemon zest on medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in whole egg, then egg yolk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. (The mixture will look somewhat curdled.)

Add sifted ingredients all at once. On low speed, beat just until dough comes together. Scrape out sticky dough onto plastic wrap, press into a disk, wrap tightly and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat a large cookie sheet with cooking spray, line with parchment, and then lightly spray the paper.

Place chilled dough on a well-floured surface; roll out with a floured rolling pin to an even 1/4-inch thickness or slightly thinner. Using a sharp 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut as many circles as possible, occasionally dipping the cutter in flour to prevent sticking. Arrange the circles 1 inch apart on cookie sheet.

Gather scraps of dough, roll them out, cut more circles, and add to the cookie sheet. If dough becomes overly soft and sticky, chill it briefly until it is workable. Refrigerate the filled cookie sheet for 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies about 10 minutes, until they have just set and are slightly puffed but not at all colored. Let cool for 1 or 2 minutes, then loosen cookies with a spatula.

Pipe or spoon about 1 tablespoon of dulce de leche onto the bottom (flat side) of a cooled cookie. Make a sandwich with another cookie. Press the cookies together gently to spread the filling to the edges. Roll the sticky rim in grated coconut. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

If you don't like coconut, don't roll it in coconut. Roll it in something else: Rice Crispies, crushed Oreos, chopped peanuts, or just leave the edges gooey.

Bossk Brownies and Deja Vu

We needed a FHE treat and Caleb was assigned the treat. He said he wanted to make something new and yummy. "Let's get out the Hershey cookbook, no where is the Star Wars cookbook" I was laughing picturing Caleb making all the things in the Hershey cookbook. He finally decided on Bossk Brownies in the Star Wars cookbook. It says under the title "Bossk, the bounty hunter never caught his quarry, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Perhaps he was distracted by these delicious brownies."

Here's the recipe:

2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white chocolate or butterscotch chips

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Don’t forget to USE THE FORCE! Pour into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake about 25 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean). Cool completely, cut and enjoy.

We didn't have any white chocolate chips or butterscotch so we used Andes mint chips.

Oreo & Fudge Ice Cream Cake

This ice cream cake from Kraft Foods is a surefire way to impress your friends. It really couldn't be easier to assemble, but when you pull it out of the freezer you will be serenaded with a chorus of "oohs" and "ahhs" and "wow, you actually made that?"

• 1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
• 1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed, divided
• 1 pkg. (3.9 oz) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
• 8 Oreo Cookies, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Pour fudge topping into medium bowl. Whisk in 1 cup Cool Whip. Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 min. Stir in chopped cookies.

Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches, side-by-side, on 24-inch-long piece of foil; top with half the Cool Whip mixture. Repeat layers. Top with remaining sandwiches. Frost top and sides with remaining Cool Whip. Bring up foil sides; double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet. Freeze 4 hours.

Gelato di Cioccolato (Chocolate Gelato)

Gelato differs from American ice cream in that it has lower butterfat and sugar content. It also has a more dense texture with more intense flavor. The author of this particular recipe notes that it isn't totally authentic because real gelato doesn't use whipping cream, but this is "the best way to re-create it at home with the kind of ice cream makers most people can afford to have in their own kitchens." For more detailed instructions with plenty of photos, definitely check out her original article.

• 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 2 3.5-oz high-quality chocolate bars (I used Lindt 50% Cocoa Bars)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup whipping cream
• Mix-in of your choice (optional)

Put the beaten egg yolks, sugar, and milk into a small saucepan, then turn the heat onto a relatively low setting. Cook this mixture, stirring regularly until it is slightly thickened and starts to coat the spoon and sides of the pan as you stir. Remove from heat.

As the milk/sugar/egg mixture is heating up, break up the chocolate bars into pieces and put the pieces in a microwave-safe dish. Melt slowly in the microwave on a medium power setting in 30 second intervals, stirring frequently, until the chocolate is melted.

Add the vanilla and whipping cream to the melted chocolate and mix it thoroughly. The chilled cream may cause some of the chocolate to solidify. If so, briefly return the mixture to the microwave to maintain a smooth texture. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the saucepan with the milk/sugar/egg and mix until well-blended.

Pour the mixture into a container and cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic actually touches the liquid. This will keep a skin from forming in the cooling process. Put the mixture in the refrigerator and cool it to at least room temperature, then freeze it according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Eat it straight out of the machine if you like it soft, or let it set in the freezer for a couple of hours if you want it more firm. Store the finished gelato in an air-tight container.

Fruit Pizza

This dessert always seems to be a hit. Here's my version:

Crust:
2 packages of sugar cookie dough (I like the Target or Pillsbury brand break and bake kind that comes in a flat rectangle-- it rolls out easier, but you could use the tube kind). Or you could go crazy and make your own cookie dough.

Let the dough soften out of the fridge for an hour or so. Roll it out flat on a cookie sheet and bake for ~15 minutes at 325 degrees until done.

Mix until smooth:
8 oz cream cheese
4 oz cool whip
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

After the crust is cool, spread the cream cheese mixture on the crust and top with fruit(berries, kiwi, mandarin oranges, etc.).

This is for the big cookie sheet size. You could easily do half and just put in on a pizza pan or a 9x13 pan.