S'more Bars

I've tried two different s'more bars recipes. Still trying to search for a recipe that was similar to the s'more bars that I had eaten during my high school tennis years. I have a recipe that I printed from the Hershey's website in 1997. 1997!!! I never actually got around to making these. The recipe is no longer available on their website, however you can find it through About.com Southern Food. If look for a s'mores bar recipe on the Hershey's website you'll find a recipe for S'more Cookie Bars. This recipe uses much more flour and marshmallow creme. It is define more like a cookie. The combination of the marshmallow creme and milk chocolate was too sweet for my taste. The 1997 version of the S'more Bars taste much more like real smores. The recipe has less flour and a little more butter which gives the graham crackers a nice crunch, plus it calls for miniature marshmallows. The milk chocolate is still a little too sweet for me. Next time, I am going to try Hershey's special dark. For the graham crackers, I used a rolling pin to crush them which worked well. You get a nice mix or crumbs with tiny pieces of graham crackers. I used 3 giant milk chocolate bars rather than 8 individual bars which worked just fine.

S'more Bars

3/4 C butter, softened

2/3 C granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 C graham cracker crumbs, crushed

1/2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

8 Hershey's milk chocolate bars

3 1/2 C miniature marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. In a larger bowl, beat the butter. Add the sugar; beat on medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, flour, and salt. Set aside 2 1/2 C of graham cracker crumb mixture. Press remaining into baking pan. Place candy bars on top, side by side, breaking to fit if necessary on top of the mixture. Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over chocolate bars. Crumble reserved graham cracker crumb mixture on top of the marshmallows. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Cool completely.

Summer Berry Crumble Bars

Feeling baking deprived, I also made Summer Berry Crumble Bars from the King Arthur Flour's Cookie Companion this morning. David likes them for breakfast...easy to pack for work. Over the 4th of July, my mom and I went to the Raleigh Farmer's Market and came back with a couple quarts of blueberries. They were terrific, nicely plump and sweet. I've been hooked on the blueberries since then. I love the crunchiness of the crust and topping. Who doesn't like streusel topping? I think blackberries or even an apple filling would be yummy. The recipe calls for sunflower seeds but but didn't have any on hand. I am not sure I would add the sunflower seeds even if I had some. Not so sure about the combination of the blueberries with sunflower seeds. The recipe also includes a glaze but skip this also. I think the glaze would make the bars too sweet for my taste and take away from the streusel topping. A warning, do not store them on the counter top or they will get soft. Keep them in the fridge.

Summer Berry Crumble Bars

Crust and Topping

2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1 C brown sugar

1 1/2 C rolled oats

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon or 1/4 tsp ground cardamon

1 C unsalted butter cut into chunks

3/4 C sunflower seeds (optional)

Filling

3 C fresh or frozen blueberries (no need to thaw)

1/4 C light brown sugar

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1/2 tsp cinnamon or 1/4 tsp ground cardamon

3 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

Glaze

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 to 3 tsp water

1 C confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 9 x 13-inch pan

Crust and topping: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Using a mixer or pastry blender, cut int eh butter until the mixture is crumbly. Transfer 2 C of crumbs to a bowl and combine with sunflower seeds if using them. Pat the remaining crumbs into the pan. Bake the crust for 15 minutes and remove from the oven.

Filling: While the crust is baking. In a large bowl, mix the berries with the brown sugar, lemon juice, zest, melted butter, cinnamon, and flour. Distribute the filling over the bake crust.

Sprinkle the reserved crumbs mixture over the filling and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and crumbs have browned.

Glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients. Drizzle the glaze over the bars while they are still warm. Cool completely before cutting.

King Arthur Flour's Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

It has been a busy month at work so I haven't had a lot of time to bake or felt like baking much on the weekends. I had to travel three weeks in row.....Providence (lovely city), Virginia Beach, and South Plainfield, NJ. My trips are typically short, fly or drive in the night before, work the next day and leave for home. These are the worse because you never get time to adjust. No travel in the near term, yeah!!

I love the Levain chocolate chip cookies but finally decided it was time to make the King Arthur Flour's Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from The King Arthur Flour's Cookie Companion. These have the vinegar and corn syrup. I understand the corn syrup which adds a nice chewiness to the cookies but vinegar?? The vinegar actually works as a leavener to give the cookie a little lift. The recipe says to lightly grease the cookie sheet which is a no, no if you want your cookie not to spread. Nope, the cookies did not spread at all so the vinegar does the trick after all. The cookies have a nice chewiness with loads of chocolate (3 whooping cups of chocolate chips) which I think also helps the cookie hold its shape. The cookies are not too sweet either which is a plus. I like the fact that this is a one bowl recipe since you don't have to mix the dry ingredients separately.

So, this is my current order of favorite recipes: Levain, King Arthur's, Mrs. Fields, and Dorie Greenspan.

The Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

3/4 C softened unsalted butter

2/3 C dark brown sugar

2/3 C granulated sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tbsp cider vinegar or white vinegar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour

3 C semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper/

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, corn syrup, and vinegar, then beat in the eggs. Beat in the vanilla, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips. Drop by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheet. Bake the cookies or 10 minutes, until they're just set; the centers may still look underdone. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a baking rack.

* I baked the cookies at 350F for ~12 minutes with my Chicago Metallic baking sheet.

Double Peanut Butter Joy Cookies

Taking a break from chocolate chip cookies. I made another batch of the Levain cookies when my parents were here last weekend. This recipe is from one of those Favorite Brand Name Recipes cookbook that you find at the checkout aisle at the grocery store. "Butter Flavor Crisco American Cookie Celebration" is devoted to cookies made with Butter Flavor Crisco, Hershey's chips, Quaker Oats, and Jif Peanut Butter. I bought this cookbook for a whooping $0.25 at the Goodwill back in 1998. The cookies are fairly standard peanut butter cookies but with peanut butter chips and shortening rather than butter. They have a nice chewy texture because of the shortening and certainly doesn't spread. You can flatten these cookies but I chose not too. My taste tend towards the chewy rather than crispy cookies. Next time I am going to reduce the amount of peanut butter chips. The recipe calls for 2 cups of peanut butter chips. Too much, by the end I had more chips than batter left. I am going to try 1 1/2 cups of chips next time. As always, used my Chicago Metallic cookie sheet which meant I had to reduce the temperature to 325 F. I baked them for 10 minutes.

Double Peanut Butter Joy

1 C granulated sugar

1 C packed brown sugar (used light brown)

1 C Jif Creamy peanut butter

1/2 C Butter Flavor Crisco

2 eggs

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 C Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Preheat oven to 350F. At medium speed, beat the sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter and Crisco in a large bowl until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Shift the flour, soda, and salt. Add gradually to the creamed mixture. Mix until just blended. Stir in the peanut butter chips. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten and make crisscrosses with a fork if desired. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are moist. Cool on baking sheet for 8 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Mrs. Field's Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not sure if it was the weather, very storming out again, but I was in the mood to bake. Could be too that I was reading about Mrs. Field's recipes online today. I have a number of Mrs. Field's cookie recipes that I photocopied from her cookbook, Mrs. Field's Cookie Book way back when in high school. King Arthur's Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie was next on my list to try but afterall it is 9:00 pm on a Wednesday night. So, I opted to try Mrs. Field's recipe as it is super easy. For 2 1/2 cups of flour she only uses 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Another major difference is that the cookies are baked at 300F for 22-24 minutes. We are not talking jumbo cookies either. I used my trustworthy Chicago Metallic baking pan, however didn't lower the temperature to 275F. That just seems too low. Rather, I reduced the baking time to 17 minutes. The recipe also has a high ratio of brown sugar to white granulated sugar. Kind of reminds me of a blondie. I didn't have salted butter so I just increased the salt to 1 tsp. They don't spread that much. I used my cookie scooper so they were small. Kind of like a minature verison of the Levain cookies. Certainly not flat like the Dorie Greenspan recipe (disappointed with these the next day, definitely not as good the next day). Actually, they taste very similar to the Levain cookies. Slight crispy edge with a nice chewy middle. For now, the recipe ranking is as follows: Levain, Mrs. Field's, Dorie Greenspan.

Mrs. Field's Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 C white sugar
1 C salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300F. In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In large bowl, with an electric mixer, blend the sugars at medium speed. Add the butter adn mix to form a grainy paste. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, mix at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour mixture on low speed until just mixed. Do not overmix. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Baking for 22-24 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Chip Cookie

Continuing on with my chocolate chip cookie recipe experiment, I made "My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Dorie Greenspans Baking From My Home to Yours. The recipe only uses 2 cups of flour and higher ratio of granulated sugar to brown sugar. Thus, the cookie is definitely not your chunky type. I omitted the nuts which made them even less chunky. They are crisp on the edges with slightly soft chewy centers. I baked the first couple of batches at 350F for ~12 minutes, rotating mid-way through. Directions says to bake at 375F, but I used a heavy Chicago Metallic cookie sheet which recommends that you lower the baking temperature by 25F. The last couple of batches I baked at 325F for ~13-14 minutes. I liked the later batches better, not so brown around the edges. Not that the crisp edges aren't tasty but I prefer a more chewy cookie. Of the two recipes that I've tried, I like the Levain copycats. Next recipe on the list to try is the Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. The recipe has vinegar which should be interesting.

My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 sticks (8 oz) softened unsalted butter
1 C sugar
2/3 C light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate, chocolate chips, or chocolate chunks
1 C finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter for ~1 min until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for 2 mins. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat for one minute after each egg. Reduce mixer speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Spoon slightly round tablespoons of dough spaced 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheets. Bake one cook sheet at a time for ~10-12 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Rotate the sheet midway through. Let the cookies rest for one minute then transfer to a cooling rack.

One Heck of a Big Cookie

I've been craving chocolate chip cookies since this past weekend. My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came out to visit this weekend. We made the obligatory trek to DC to see monuments and museums. We also watched the Rolling Thunder parade through the city which was really cool. The Rolling Thunder come to town ever Memorial Day Weekend. The choices for inexpensive places to eat is limited near the Mall. However, the Ronald Reagan Building has a nice food court. After my lunch of lamb kabobs I shared a jumbo chocolate chip cookie with my sister. While the cookie was good, I thought my homemade cookies were better. I am on a chocolate cookie experiment. I usually rely on the Nestle Toll House recipe but thought I should try some others. My first recipe experiment is from the Vanilla Sugar blog via Slashfood. This is a recipe for the Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookie. Three cups of flour which is quite a lot for cookie recipe that only uses 2 cups of butter, and 1 1/2 cups of sugars. The cookie was great though, a slighly dense with a nice chewiness. I thought it might be too dense because of the high amount of flour but not at all. I used an ice cream scope and made 17 cookies. I chilled the dough between bakes. I baked the first batch at 375F for 8 mins then lowered the heat and baked them at 325F for additional 10 minutes. I baked the others at 325F for 18 minutes which turned out just fine.

Seven Layer Bars aka Magic Bars

David's going on a trip so I wanted to send some goodies with him. Since the trip was on short notice (today and he's leaving tomorrow), I decided to make something easy. I had all the ingredients on hand and he has never had seven layer bars before. These bring back good memories of high school tennis meets. My high school tennis team was not great by any means but we did know how to have fun. For a lot of meets, we use to bring baked goodies...caramel brownies, Special K bars, seven layer bars. Seven layer bars are super easy to make. The most involved task is grinding the graham crackers, otherwise it's one, two, three....

Seven Layer Bars
Preheat oven to 350 F
1) Melt 1/2 C butter or margerine in 9 x 13 inch pan in the oven.
2) Add 1 1/2 C crushed graham cracks
3) Sprinkle 1 C (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips over graham crackers
4) Sprinkle 1 C shredded coconut over chocolate chips
5) Sprinkel 1 C (6 oz) butterscotch chips over chocolate chips
6) Dribble 14 oz can of condensed milk to cover the pan
7) Sprinkle 1 C chopped nuts on top
Bake 25 mins.

Blonde Brownies

I was craving something sweet but not chocolate. In the past few weeks, all I've had for sweets has been chocolate ranging from thin mints, samoas to brownies and more brownies. Wanting to make something easy, I went for blonde brownies. I have tried severely recipes and finally stumbled on a winner from the King Arthur Flour website. The original recipe is actually entitled "Crazy Blonde Brownies" but I made them a little simpler with just white chocolate chips. The combination of chocolate chips, butterscotch, cinnamon, caramel, macadamia, or chips of your choice along with diced pecans or walnuts seem like too much for me. The white chocolate chips compliments the brownies nicely. For the brown sugar, since the recipe didn't specify light or dark, I used a combination of 1 cup each since I have ample light and brown sugar on hand. No, I did not use organic white whole wheat flour, just 1 3/4 cup of unbleached all purpose flour.

Blonde Brownies
1/2 cup butter or vegetable shortening
2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch pan and preheat your oven to 350°F. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the brown sugar, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat, pour the butter-sugar mixture into a medium-sized bowl, and allow it to cool to lukewarm. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla extract and salt. Whisk the flours and baking powder together, then add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, stirring to combine. Finally, fold in the chips and nuts. Spread the mixture evenly in the pan, and bake the brownies for 30 to 35 minutes, until they're light brown on the edges and top.

Holiday Baking

I am behind in posting as usually. Life was quite hectic this past December. I did not finish my last final until December 19th! I managed to do a couple of days worth of holiday baking in time before heading down to NC to spend the Christmas with the family. I wasn’t planning on going hog wild baking this year but ended up baking quite a bit just not as many different kinds of baked goods. Day 1 of baking, I made lemon bars, mint brownies, a modified version of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate chip cookie using Nestlé’s holiday morsels. Day 1 of baking was for my co-workers. Day 2 of baking for the family, I made two loaves of pumpkin bread, more lemon bars, fudge, a different version of mint brownies, and more the modified Toll House cookies. On Day 3 I wrapped up my holiday baking with a pumpkin pie for the family. The recipes for the lemon bars and mint brownies are below.


The lemon bars were a huge hit with my co-workers and dad (he is not a chocolate fan). This recipe is one that I clipped from the Washington Post’s annual Holiday cookie feature in their Wednesday food section. The lemon bars are sweet but not overly sweet with just the right amount of lemon tartness. The Post says the recipe was adapted from Cookies Unlimited” by Nick Malgieri. I have his A Baker’s Tour cookbook but not this cookie book. I need to add this one to my list of books to buy. For Day 1, I used bottled lemon juice. For Day 2, I used freshly squeezed lemon juice. The juice from two lemons is more than enough to equate to 6 tablespoons. Parchment paper sprayed with butter flavored cooking spray works like a charm. I used a handheld mixer instead of my Kitchen Aid, just shear laziness on my part. I sprinkled the confectioner’s sugar before cutting them into squares.

Ultimate Lemon Squares
8 oz softened unsalted butter plus some for the baking dish
½ C. confectioner’s sugar plus some for finishing
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C. flour
4 large eggs
2 C sugar
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
6 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Set an oven rack on the middle level. Lightly grease a 9 X 13 inch pan lined with oversized buttered parchment paper or aluminum foil.
In a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter. Add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and beat until light, ~1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and beat in the flour. Pat the dough evenly in the baking dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and baked through.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs just enough to break them up in a large bowl. Without over mixing, add the sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. As soon as the crust is baked, pour the lemon topping over the crust and return the baking dish to the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the topping is set and firm. Transfer the baking dish to a rack to cool completely. Lift the parchment paper to a cutting board, work surface, etc to cut the squares. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar just before serving.


The mint brownies I made for Day 1 baking is just a brownie recipe from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion jazzed up with some Guittard mint chips that I bought from The World Market. The thick brownies were nice and fudgy. I only use 1 cup of mint chips as I did not want overly minty brownies. One cup was just fine. I bought some peppermint extract which I am going to throw into the recipe next time. When you stir the flour into the melted chocolate/butter mixture, it looks awful. No worries, when you add the mixture to the egg mixture, it comes out beautifully. I really wanted to lick the bowl after the spread the batter into the baking pan.

Brownies
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
12 tbsp unsalted butter
5 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
2 ½ C. sugar
1/3 C. light corn syrup
1 1/3 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
Optional add-ins: 1 ½ C. chopped walnuts or pecans, 1 ½ C. mini marshmallows, 1 C. melted caramel, 1 C. chocolate chips (my mint chips here)

Preheat the oven to 375F and grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla, salt, sugar, and corn syrup until light and fluffy. Takes a few minutes.
Stir the flour into the melted chocolate/butter mixture. Fold the mixture into the egg mixture, stirring to combine. Stir in optional add-ins.
Spread the battered into the greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes. Top should be crisp and toothpick inserted into the brownies should be coated with chocolate.


For Day 2 brownies, I used the same brownie base with a nice layer of minty green frosting followed by a chocolate layer. I’ve made these brownies before years and years ago in high school but unfortunately lost my recipe. This is the original recipe for the mint frosting and chocolate topping. I had to double the recipe since recipe is for a 9 x 9 inch pan of brownies. I used 3 drops of food coloring to get the nice minty green color. I found the mint frosting and chocolate topping recipe from http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/printrecipe?id=40783 via Google.

Mint Frosting
¼ C. softened butter
2 ½ C. confectioner’s sugar
1 ½ to 3 tbsp of milk
½ tsp peppermint extract
Green food coloring
Chocolate Topping
¾ C. semisweet chocolate chips
3 tbsp butter

Cream the butter and confectioner’s sugar. Add the milk 1 tbsp at a time, beating until it is smooth and spreadable. Beat in peppermint extract and food coloring. After the brownies have cooled completely, spread the mint green frosting over the brownies, chill for 1 hr.
Melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave until the chocolate melts. About 1 ½ minute on high in the microwave. Stir until smooth. Spread the chocolate over the frosted brownies. Chill for 45 minutes before serving.

All things Cinnamon

I am back! Well, at least for the time being until things get hectic again. It has been one ultra stressful semester. I am barely treading water at work and school. All the commuting back and forth is killing me and my poor Honda. It has been a while since I posted so I figured I better break my hiatus. I've been lazy about posting more than anything. Still baking, once a week or every other week.

I've been on a huge cinnamon kick since my trip to Pittsburgh in August. I picked up a couple of bags of Hershey's cinnamon chips (can't get them around here) and have been baking all sorts of goodies with cinnamon (not necessarily with cinnamon chips). Right now I am on a big cinnamon roll kick. I baked pecan sticky buns too but have more of a hankering for cinnamon rolls. I tried the Cinnamon Buns recipe from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. The recipe from BBA is better. The rolls were not too rich but not too bread like tasting either. Very satisfying. The dough is very similar to a recipe for sticky cinnamon rolls from Farm Journal's Homemade Breads. I have yet to try the recipe from the Farm Journal but will have to do so to compare. Both use shortening which I have never seen in a recipe for cinnamon rolls, but no worries the shortening obviously works since the rolls were terrific. I won't bother posting the BBA recipe here since it is all over the Internet. It was September's Daring Bakers Challenge (I haven't joined yet but may once the semester is over). Check out Pip in the City for the recipe. I will post the recipe from the Farm Journal when I try it. Maybe this weekend. The pics below are BBA cinnamon rolls. Yes, I like icing. I use ~2 C. powder sugar with about 4-5 tbsp of milk. Use more or less milk depending on the consistency you want for the icing.

Zucchini and Mint

It's been a long hiatus. July was an extremely busy month. Relatives over the 4th of July, visited parents twice, and tennis tournament another weekend. Plus, I finished my summer class! Now that I have a little down time before school starts, I've been cooking and baking a ton. As of late, I've been into summer vegetables and fruits. My mother gave me a huge bag of mint and a few very large zucchini so I've been working through these. With the mint, I made Vietnamese spring rolls (fresh, not fried), chicken street kebabs from Flatbreads and Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Cookbook snag off of Amazon), and two rounds of Tzatziki sauce. The recipe for the Tzatziki sauce is from the Washington Times compliments of David who saves the food section for me every week. I love this sauce! It's a little thicker than what you would get in Greek restaurant but still tastes great. You can buy the Greek yogurt from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods but go to TJs if there is one near you. The Trader Joe's brand is just as good and cheaper than the Paage brand that both TJs and Whole Foods carry. Recipe says you can serve immediately or marinate for several hours. It taste that much better if you marinate it.

Tzatziki
2 cucumbers, seeded, peeled, and grated

Salt

2 C. Greek yogurt

2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp minced fresh mint

Place cucumber in a colander, sprinkle with salt and let drain for 20 minutes. In bowl, mix yogurt, garlic, and mint. Add drained cucumber to yogurt mixture, stir, marinate in the refrigerated for several hours or serve immediately. Season to taste with salt.

With the zucchini, I made a zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini bread, and zucchini corn bread. I was looking for something different to try with the zucchini. My main staples have been the zucchini chocolate cake and bread for years now (have both recipes since high school). The zucchini cornbread recipe is from Nicole at Baking Bites. Mine came out dark than hers but that is probably from the molasses, might have added too much. It still taste great though. I love the addition of molasses. Here is the recipe for the zucchini chocolate cake. I'll post the zucchini bread recipe another day. Making another batch!

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

2 1/2 C. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 C. butter

1 3/4 C. sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 C. zucchini, unpeeled, grated

1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp salt

1/2 C. vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 C. buttermilk

1 C. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 F. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric mixer on medium speed. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk into the creamed mixture. Stir in zucchini. Pour into greased 13 X 9 inch pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Baked for ~55 minutes or until inserted toothpick is clean. Cool completely pan on baking rack.

Cinnamon Puffs

I actually made these last weekend but haven't had a chance to post. Been extremely busy. Was in Halifax for work the week before and I am taking a distant-learning class. Been playing catch-up for my class. Lots of lecture watching!

I bought 3 bags of cinnamon mini chips from King Arthur Flour a couple months ago and since have been playing around with recipes. My favorite thing to do with them is to bake cinnamon chip bread with a crunchy topping. I am trying to duplicate the topping from my local Great Harvest Bread Company. Still experimenting. I am also experimenting with different muffin recipes. This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. The recipe doesn't call for cinnamon chips but I thought it would be a good compliment. I substituted buttermilk for the milk which I think produces a more tender muffin. The recipe uses nutmeg which I didn't care for, next time I using cinnamon. I used brown sugar and soft butter for the topping instead of sugar to get a strudel-like topping.

Cinnamon Puffs

Muffins (makes 12)

3 C. all-purpose flour

1 C. sugar

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg (I think cinnamon would be better)

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1 1/4 C. milk (used buttermilk)

5 1/3 tbsp (2/3 stick) butter, melted

1 C. cinnamon chips

Topping

1/4 C. sugar (used brown sugar)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, melted (used soft butter)

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat the eggs slight, then add milk and melted butter. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture well. Stir just until evenly moistened. Fold in the cinnamon chips. Fill lightly greased muffin cups about 3/4 full. For the topping, mix sugar, cinnamon, and belted butter until blended. Sprinkle topping over the batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Original instructions for topping are to bake the muffins. Mix the sugar and cinnamon. When they are cool to touch, dip the muffin in the melted butter then in the cinnamon sugar mixture until coated.

Book Bargain and Chocolate Loaf Cake

I scored a terrific book bargain during my trip in Orlando. I bought a copy of Home Baking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid at the Borders Outlet store near Walt Disney World for $7.99! I was so excited, I spent that evening combing through the book. I have already marked some of the recipes I want to try. What I love about the book is that most of the recipes are ethnic and there are a wide range of recipes from sweets to breads. The photos are also beautiful.

When I got home the next day I was dying to bake. I wanted to bake the Beirut Tahini Swirls (I have an unopened jar of tahini just wait to be used) but did not have enough time that evening. The swirls will have to wait! So, I settled for a chocolate loaf cake instead. This recipe is from Susan at Farmgirl Fare. It is entitled "Chocolate Cake Emergency". Very simple cake to make. I baked the cake in a Pampered Chef Stoneware Loaf pan which I find tends to take a longer baking time than a standard metallic pan. I had to bump up the baking time by 15 minutes. It is a terrific cake, very moist with a nice chocolaty taste that is not too overpowering. I doctored the recipe slightly and added a 1/4 C. of mini chocolate chips.