White Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

The unofficial Hunger Games cookbook continues to be my guide on this warm Saturday. I finally had some time off this morning and prepared well enough to bake some cookies. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate but this idea of a dark cookie with some light sprinkled through out sounded motivating to me and I wanted to give it a go. 

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and started to mix my dry ingredients in a bowl. 1 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, 1 3/4 cup flour and, 1 tsp each of baking soda and baking powder were mixed together and set aside. 

I then creamed 2 sticks of butter with 1 cup of white sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 tsp of vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Once these ingredients were combined, I added 2 eggs to the batter (one at a time) and then stirred in the dry ingredients slowly. After the final batter was made, I mixed in 2 cups of white chocolate chips and that was it!

I scooped the dough into tablespoon sized balls onto parchment paper covered baking trays and baked them for 10 minutes. I let the cookies cool and that was it! 

Cookies are always fun and easy and I love making them like this. I haven't actually tried them yet but I'm hoping for good reviews and happy friends from thiem! 

Blackberry Cobbler

Today was one of those days I really just needed to bake. 

I got to the dessert section of the Hunger Games Unofficial cookbook and blackberry cobbler was one of the first desserts I flipped to. Cobblers are super easy to make well and light on the ingredient list. 

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees to start and got my 8x8 pan/dish. I started with the filling for the cobbler and dissolved 2tbsp of cornstarch in a 1/4 cup of water. I mixed in a 1/2 cup of sugar and 1tsp of cinnamon along with 2tbsp of lemon juice and 4 cups of blackberries. I made sure the blackberries were coated well, put them in a pot and brought it to a boil while stirring occasionally.

While this was coming to a boil I made the topping. I mixed 1 cup of flour with 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1tsp of baking powder, and 1tsp of salt. Then I cut in 6tbsp of butter until the mixture was bread crumb-y, then added 1tsp of vanilla extract and 1/4 cup of boiling water. 

I finished the blackberry mixture, poured it into my baking pan, then scooped spoonfuls of the topping into the pan. I baked it for 30 minutes and it came out wonderfully golden brown and bubbly. 

A great, easy dessert that was quick to make and the perfect way to relax and calm myself down after a stressful morning.  

Valentine's Day (Pizza) Roses

For Valentine's Day I decided that I was going to make myself roses, Pizza roses that is! I saw a video on facebook and googled some recipes until I found something that I thought could work. 

I bought two tubes of pilsbury thin crust pizza dough that comes in tubes to start. I rolled out one tube of dough and cut in into strips of 2in x 12in. I lightly sauced the strips with some extra pasta sauce I had in the cupboard and after some experimentation I figured out that this is the perfect length to fit about 8 pepperoni slices in a row slightly overlapping on one edge of the dough. After the row of pepperoni I sprinkled on shredded mozzarella cheese and folded the dough length wise to create a pocket for all the toppings. I started down one end of the strip and gently rolled it to create a pinwheel bun shape that fits perfectly in the muffin pan.

Each tube of dough makes about 6 roses which is why I bought two tubes to make a nice dozen. 20 minutes later in the oven and these roses were cooked to perfection. 

They turned out really great and cheesy and once I got the hang of it, they were super easy to make. I would totally do it again. Crowd pleaser for sure and good as a treat to share.    

ROC - Village Bakery and Cafe

I am a kayak, hear me roar!!

That's right, I have decide that I am a strong independent woman that can go out to eat by myself!.. If only I had the money.. and time... small steps. The first of which being going out to lunch by myself and getting some work done aka editing photos. 

LOCATION: 5 STATE ST, PITTSFORD, NY 14534

I've come to village bakery several times before, on some occasions alone, and I decided that today I would head over and get myself a Croque Monsieur which happens to be one of the must try Rochester dishes on Julia's List! (I think it'll be alright for me to hit some of these places on my own; my time in Rochester is limited and Julia is much too far away at school to accompany me.) 

The Croque Monsieur at Village Bakery was on the list specifically and it is Ham and Gruyere on brioche with the house made bechamel and I added a poached egg on top for an extra $1 because poached egg. 

I will say to start that I'm quite awful at multitasking when one of those tasks is eating food. As I said before, I decided that today I would try to get some editing done while I was out so I had my trusty laptop Norman and I was editing and retouching some photos while I had my sandwich to eat. Needless to say, this sandwich was left neglected for quite some time and by the time that I decided to take a break and give it some attention it was no longer piping hot, my bad.. just keep this in mind when I voice my opinion of the food. 

Sandwiches come with a side of cape cod kettle chips, and a pickle, both of which I enjoy, so great start. The sandwich itself also did not disappoint. The poached egg however, was not runny, though there is a good chance that it cooked a little through while it sat on my sandwich. I was a little disappointed in that but it was still close, so not awful. The bread was a wonderful crispness, the a ham on the inside was a little dry, but the gruyere and the bechamel were incredible. The sauce moistened the ham well overall and gave the sandwich an incredible taste. I did catch hints of vinegar, likely from the poached egg, which was a little off putting but mixed in with the rest of the sandwich it was alright. Overall, a good sandwich, though nothing to rave about and not something I would say is a must have in rochester. Maybe if I ate it while it was still hot it would have a better chance. At room temp, it was average.

Candy Cookie Dough Oreo Pie!

That name is just everything you need in a pie isn't it? 

It was my friend Ben's birthday yesterday and I decided I was going to make him something to celebrate! He sent me this super easy recipe last summer and I think half jokingly said he wanted it. I've known Ben for a year and while he loves junk food, he's been in a healthy kick since we met and on average days tries to eat healthy and work out. We still manage to find days where we both want a slice of pizza or some creme brulee and treat ourselves, but everything in moderation! 

This was one of those cheat days! It's his birthday, he should eat a little of what he wants! 

This 'pie' if you want to call it that we super easy. I had a screenshot of the recipe he found and I sort of put my own twist on it. First it says to start off with one of those pre-made pie crust. At the grocery store I found one of those oreo cookie crusts and figured, if I was going to make this, an oreo crust was the way to go! Basically I took the oreo crust, then took a whole tube of that pre-made sugar cookie dough and pressed it into the crust as best I could. In hindsight I should've pre-baked the crust with some egg white to bind the crust better because it crumbled quite a bit when I pushed the cookie dough on top. The I just topped it with bite sized chocolate. The recipe calls for a cup of m&ms, two packs of twix bars chopped, and 6 or 7 mini reese's peanut butter cups. I can honestly say I measured nothing. I took a few of each of these candies (and I bought the bite sized bag of baby mini twix to make things easier on myself) and just pushed them into the raw dough until I thought it looked like enough. (Honestly I probably could've added more.) I baked it for about 40 minutes until the cookie dough looked nice and brown and then I took it out of the oven and let it cool. I honestly and not a huge chocolate lover and I went to Ben's and gave him the whole pie and declined when he wanted to give me a piece. It was his pie and I'm happy not to eat it. He was so happy that I made it and some of his friends and his older brother were coming over to take him out to dinner that night so he promised to share with them and not eat the whole pie by himself after dinner. He send me a picture of the pie after the cut into it and he seemed to enjoy it a bunch but I'm sure I'll get more feedback the next time I see him. It was a super fun, easy, not in the least bit healthy for you kinda dessert which was perfect for a birthday like this.