Giveaway Winner + Vanilla Gelato with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache Topping

Congratulations to Jennie over at The Messy Baker Blog for winning the Redwood Hill giveaway!

She is a lucky girl!  But, if you didn’t win, don’t worry… I will have more giveaways.

Okay, two really exciting things happened this week:

1.  The president of Micronesia visited my college on Sunday.

2. I got Homecoming Queen.  Funny story, though… they got two “Homecoming King” sashes, so I got to rep a king sash all night long.  Don’t care!

Anyway, before it gets too cold, I want to share one more freezing cold recipe with you.

I have eaten Gelato a few times, but this is the first time I had ever made it.  I could not believe how creamy it was.  So decadent and the chocolate peanut butter topping was also smooth and creamy, so there were some nice textures going on.

If you happen to get another unseasonably warm day, I suggest you make this Gelato.

Vanilla Gelato with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache Topping

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups vanilla Kefir (I’m obsessed with Kefir right now if you can’t tell)
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• ¼ cup creamer
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp oil

Directions:

1. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and Kefir in a medium saucepan. Whisk and heat over medium heat, frequently scraping the bottom, until the mixture begins to barely simmer around the edges.
2. Then, stirring constantly and scraping the sides and corners of the pan to prevent scorching, let the mixture simmer for 2.5 to 3 minutes to fully cook the cornstarch.
3. Scrape the hot mixture into the bowl and whisk until well blended
4. Set in the freezer to cool for about 10-15 min.
5. When cool, whisk in the frozen yogurt until you get a smooth consistency.
6. Pour the Gelato mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.
7. Once frozen, melt the peanut butter, chocolate chips, and oil in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave until melted, about 1 minute.  Whisk until blended and spread evenly on top of the Gelato.
8. Freeze again until the chocolate layer has hardened.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Funfetti Cake Balls

I’ve got probs.

First of all, I haven’t jumped on the pumpkin bandwagon and I’m still making summery, Funfetti-colored cake balls. I have already had: pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin coffee creamer, Starbucks pumpkin latte, store-bought pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin tea, but I have yet to bake pumpkin-flavored food.  (Actually, I did, but I forgot to take pictures so it doesn’t count.)

Second of all, I may have overdone it here with the triple flavor combo, but it worked.

So, yeah, I’ve got probs, but it’s okay because I made you cake balls.

These are just like regular cake balls, but instead of frosting, you use melted white chocolate and peanut butter.  Yum, yum, yum.

 White Chocolate Peanut Butter Funfetti Cake Balls

Ingredients

• 1 pre-made cake (Use a box mix or your own recipe)
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter, melted  (Preferably Peanut Butter & Co Peanut Butter!)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips, melted
• 1 (3 ounce) bar chocolate flavored almond bark

Directions

1. Crumble your pre-made cake in a bowl.
2. Mix in melted peanut butter and white chocolate.
3. Melt chocolate coating in a glass bowl in the microwave, or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
4. Use a small scoop to form balls of the chocolate cake mixture.
5. Dip the balls in chocolate using a toothpick or fork to hold them. Place on waxed paper to set.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

I just need to tell you guys that Brandy is awesome because without her, I would have never discovered these gems.

I made these cheesecake cookie bars for my family a couple of weeks ago and they were devoured in a day.  Mind you, my family consists of my mom and dad… that’s it.  We have dessert issues.

If you like cheesecake, you’ll like these.  If you like cookie dough, you’ll like these.  If you like them both, you’ll love these.

Also, to add to how happy these cheesecake bars make me, I’m just going to post some more things that are making me happy right now  (*Note: the only pictures that are mine are the cheesecake bar photos):

 

What are you loving right now??

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
From:  Brandy

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:

• 10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8″ square baking pan with parchment paper or foil allowing a little overhang and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack. Leave your oven on while you prepare the dough.

3. While the crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour on low speed, and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside. (*Note: This mixture is going to be dry…that’s okay. You’re going to crumble it on top of the cheesecake layer.)

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Pour the cheesecake batter into the prepared crust. Use your hands to form “clumps” of the cookie dough, smoosh it together and flatten it out.  Distribute the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps. Be sure to use all of the dough.

5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top feels dry and firm (the cookie dough) and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Move bars to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Chill in refrigerator overnight or for at least a couple hours.

6. Lift the bars out by the overhang and cut into squares for serving.

Simple Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I spend a lot of time trying to come up with new and creative recipes.

But ya know what, sometimes I just want a simple chocolate chip cookie.

That’s what these are.  Simple chocolate chip cookies in a pan.

What’s your go to chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Simple Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Adapted from:King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very soft
• 1 cup (7 1/2 ounces) packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 3/4 cups (11 5/8 ounces) All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Place the very soft butter in a medium-large mixing bowl. Add the sugars, salt, vanilla, and stir well.
3. Add the egg and stir until well blended.
4. Add the baking soda and flour, mixing until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Place dough in a well oiled 9×13 inch pan (smaller for thicker cookies) and spread out evenly.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the bottoms and edges are lightly browned.
7. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool.  Cut into squares and enjoy!

Cookie Dough Filled Chocolate Bread

What’s your favorite dessert?

Because, whatever it is, I guarantee this will be your new favorite.  I can’t tell you how good this bread is.  Honestly, it shouldn’t be called bread because it’s more like brownies and cookie dough.

The cookie dough part stays gooey because there’s no baking powder/soda or eggs.  The bread part is fudge-like.  Just try it…I promise you’ll like it.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

But really, what is your favorite dessert?

Cookie Dough Filled Chocolate Bread

Adapted from: Kavita’s Kitchen and Mrs. Regueiro’s Plate

Ingredients:

For the bread:

• ¾ cup flour
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• ¼ cup chocolate chips
• Dash of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ cup cocoa powder

For the cookie dough:

• ½ stick butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cream
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¾ cup flour
• Dash of salt
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
3. Add in sour cream and olive oil and stir them together.
4. Add in the rest of the liquids and fold in with the dry ingredients until it forms a smooth consistency.
5. Add in the chocolate chips.
6. Grease a bread pan and pour half of the in the mixture into it.
7. Prepare the cookie dough mixture. Cream together the sugar and the butters in the bowl of the stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
8. Mix in the heavy cream and vanilla, and combine.
9. Add the flour and salt and mix on low speed until incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.
10. Spread on top of the first half of the chocolate bread batter.
11. Top cookie dough with the other half of the bread batter.
12. Bake in the preheated oven for an 40-45 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out clean.

Extra Moist Chocolate Lava Cakes- Muffin Tin Chef Review

If you’re looking for quick, from-scratch, appropriately sized meals, then I highly recommend you get the cookbook Muffin Tin Chef.  Who knew that a muffin tin is the most versatile piece of cookware in our cabinets?

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Muffin Tin Chef, and to be honest, I put it aside for a while during the last busy weeks of my college semester.   When I moved back home and was finally able to read the book, I was kind of surprised at how much I liked it.

It really is clever how many dishes Matt Kadey was able to downsize into the size of a muffin tin.  I think I liked the book so much because:

1. Easy portion control.
2. Quick cooking time.
3. All from scratch.
4. Small batches.
5. Variety of desserts, dinners, lunches, breakfasts, appetizers, and snacks.
6. Easy to follow instructions.
7. Simple to make a 3-course meal quickly.
8. Well.. anything muffin tin sized is just cute.

So, if you don’t have this book, I suggest you buy it… even if it’s just solely to get the recipe for these chocolate lava cakes.  These are like flour-less cake, except for a minor addition of flour.  They taste so good though.. the gooey chocolate had me at hello.

Muffin Tin Chef- Extra Moist Chocolate  Lava Cakes

Found on page 122.

 

Rice Krispie Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

My friend’s uncle drives a cereal truck, so anytime he gets cereal, everyone I live with gets it, too.

This time, we got Rice Krispies, so I wanted to do something creative with them.  (Don’t worry, I’ve also made rice krispie treats twice now.)

I found a recipe for Rice Krispie Chocolate Chip Cookies, used it, and took it to another level.  They turned out really good.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they tasted like brownies covered with crunchy chocolate chip cookies.  Weird, huh? 😉  My brains not doing so well with descriptions right now, I think it’s because I just finished FINALS!! Yay!!!

What’s your favorite recipe for Rice Krispies?

Rice Krispie Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

Adapted from: Rice Krispies and  All Recipes

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup rice krispies
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Brownies:

• ½ cup oil
• ¾ cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. First, make the cookie dough.  In large electric mixer bowl, beat together margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well.
3. Mix  flour, baking soda and salt into butter mixture  until combined. Stir in rice krispies and chocolate chips. Set aside.
4. Then, make brownies.  In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, and sugar. Beat in eggs.
5. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually stir into the egg mixture until well blended.
6. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.  Drop cookie mixture evenly over the top of the brownie batter.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

No Bake Cake Balls

“In cooking (baking), as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection.” —Curnonsky

That quote was obviously written about cake balls.

I love making cake balls.  They are the easiest, but most delicious little creations ever.

Remember those Poké Ball Cupcakes I made?  Well, I somehow had a ton of frosting leftover, so the obvious choice was to make cake balls.  I had to make these quickly for a party, so I made these a little differently.  I just used the straight cake mix and frosting.  It was super sweet, so I suggest making these small!

My next cake ball challenge is layered cake balls from the Sugar Turntable.  Don’t these look good??

Picture from: The Sugar Turntable

What’s your favorite cake ball recipe??

No Bake Cake Balls


Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 oz) package cake mix of choice
• 2-4 cups frosting of choice
• 1 (3 ounce) bar chocolate flavored powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Directions:
• 1.  Mix cake mix and frosting. (Start with 2 cups and slowly add more until you reach desired consistency.)
• 2.  Place prepared balls in freezer for about an hour.
• 3.  Melt chocolate in microwave with vegetable oil.  
• 4.  Coat chilled balls in chocolate.  

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ball Bites

I’m taking a Digital Media class right now and loving it.  I’m learning so much.

We have to “make a blog” for an assignment.  Unfortunately, when someone asked “Do we have to make a new blog if we already have one?” my professor said yes.  So I have to create a new blog.  My idea is to make a blog that relates to this one and have a tab that sends you to my new one.  The only problem is that I have no idea what I could do that would relate to this.  Please give me ideas! 🙂

Today, we talked about keywords and I found the lesson really helpful for bloggers who use advertising on their sites, so I’m going to give you a few tips that I learned today.

1. Be general, yet very specific.  How helpful, right? Ha! What this means is that when using a label or keyword, use more than one and make one super broad and the other super specific.  That way, you’ll (to  put it how my professor put it) “stand out as the bright fish in the millions of fish caught in the net.” 
2. Use Google’s Keyword Tool.  Use your resources!  This is an easy tool that helps sort which keywords you should use and which ones you shouldn’t.
3. Use the keywords in the labels/keywords section and in the header, body, and even your URL.  Don’t just save the keywords for the keyword section.  Use them as much as possible!  
4. Realize how important keywords are.  Without keywords, your blog won’t get recognized.  You may have really good content, but no way to get recognized because your keywords aren’t very good.
5. Use keywords with a high CPC.  CPC is the cost per click.  The more clicks you get on your ads, the more money you make, so the CPC is something you should be checking out.  You can check that here and here. 
6. Use this site to analyze what keywords other websites are using.  Use the URL’s of big websites to see what they use to get recognized.

If you all have any ideas for a “sister” site to What Katie’s Baking, I’d absolutely love to hear them!


What other keyword tips do you have?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ball Bites
Adapted from: Joy the Baker

Ingredients: 


2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (i know we’re not baking them, it’s for flavor)
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Greek yogurt or applesauce or peanut butter
1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips, melted for dipping

1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment (or with a large bowl and a wooden spoon) cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about three minutes in the machine.  Beat in yogurt or applesauce or peanut butter along with the vanilla extract and stir to combine. (I used applesauce, but peanut butter would be so good!)
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Add all at once to the butter and sugar mixture and stir until incorporated.  Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Scoop large spoonfuls or ice cream scoops onto a  waxed paper lined cookie sheet.  Spear each dough ball with a cute plastic fork, Popsicle stick, or cut-up straw.  Place in the freezer overnight or until frozen, at least three hours.
4. When ready to dip the balls, melt chocolate chips in a small saucepan over a low flame or in the microwave.  Remove balls from the freezer and dip into warm chocolate.  Return to the lined cookie sheet and return to the freezer to harden.  Serve cold from the freezer.

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Thank goodness this no sweets week is coming to an end. 

I will admit that I thought it was going to be harder, especially since I’ve baked 3 times this week, but it actually hasn’t been that bad.  I’ve felt pretty good!  I’ve even been exercising this week, which lately I’ve not been able to motivate myself to do.  So… even though it probably won’t last, I’m not taking the motivation for granted.

Anyway, I made some cookies!  I’m a sucker for white chocolate, and these have white chocolate in them so I was disappointed that I had to pass them up.  Hopefully there will be some left for Sunday!  My neighbor came over and had one… and then came back again for another one, so I’m assuming they’re good!

Anywayyy…. I’m leaving tomorrow and I’ll be back Monday the 1st, but I’ll have some delicious guest posts for you in between. 

Do you guys go through spurts of motivation to work out? What do you do to push through the times when you aren’t motivated?

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from: Southern Living

****I cut the following recipe in half and got about 20 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked quick cooking oats
• 1 cup (12 ounces) white chocolate morsels
• 1 cup (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

• 1.  Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugars, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
• 2.  Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in oats, morsels, and pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets.
• 3.  Bake at 350° for 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.