Homemade Oreos

Sometime I get the urge to bake something and recently that urge lead to these homemade Oreos. So I grabbed my favorite little helper and got to work making these. The cookies were supposed to be thinner, but it was really hot that day and the oven was on in the kitchen so even though the dough had been refrigerated to firm up it was hard to slice thin wafers that would stay together. We had to use our hands to form them together.

I'd have to say the best part of making your own Oreos is that you get to control how much filling you get. The creme filling definitely my favorite part of an Oreo, and apparently it's also my niece's favorite part.  You can see that the cookies got a bit messy. That's because creme filling was disappearing from the bowl as I was assembling the cookies. I had to work fast!

If you make these cookies watch out for little creme filling monsters.

Super Mario Birthday Party- Cloud Jello

For a quick treat for my niece's Mario birthday party we whipped up some cloud jello. It's a quick and simple treat that fits the theme of the party nicely. 

Homemade Fudgesicles

This is a guest post by my wonderful sister. She's been pestering me to let her post something so here is her post on some homemade fudgesicles that she made recently. Having been part of the unofficial taste testing panel I give these my stamp of approval. This the popsicle mold used to make these fudgesicles.

Hi There!!!I am guest posting today and I am very excited!! Woot Woot!! I have never blogged before in my life.  So growing up, these were one of my favorite ice cream pops to eat. I am a chocoholic and love anything flavored with chocolate.Any who, as a mom, I try to make anything and everything possible from scratch.  I have made chocolate and vanilla ice cream at home and the results exceed anything store bought.  It's a win win situation when I can make something homemade,  the quality of the flavor can't compare and you know what is going into what you are making.  I first saw these on Brown Eyed Baker, one of my favorite blogs, and I couldn't wait to try them.   I substituted a couple of things because I used what I had in the kitchen.  It was daughter and kid sister approved, it doesn't get any better than that :).

Mario Birthday Party: Chocolate Mario Mustaches

When looking for ideas for my niece's Mario themed birthday party on Pinterest I saw chocolate mustaches. These fit the party theme so perfectly that we had to make them. The problem was we didn't have a mustache mold to make them. So the first thing I did was look online for a mustache mold. I chose this one from Amazon. It had good reviews and a good price at only $4.99.

These are so simple to make, but make a great addition to any Mario birthday party.

First, I made a double boiler using a sauce pan full of boiling water and a small bowl. I melted about 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chunks. Then, I cut some sticks that we had left over from making cake pops so that they would fit inside the mold. I poured the chocolate into each mustache in the mold and put it in the refrigerator to harden for a few hours. Once they had hardened we excitedly popped them out and had fun acting like we had fancy mustaches.

Homemade Bomb Pops

I picked up these popsicle molds a few weeks ago because of their fun shape. I was planning on using them as molds for regular popsicles, but today being the 4th of July I decided to use them to make homemade Bomb Pops. Most of my memories with Bomb Pops come from the ice cream truck. I was more attached to the ice creams shaped like characters with the little gumballs for the eyes, but on hot summer days sometimes nothing would cool you down quite like a Bomb Pop.

These are a healthier version of Bomb Pops. Instead of food coloring and syrups these popsicles are made of fruit, yogurt, milk, and agave. I changed things up a bit and made the red layer strawberry rather than raspberry or cherry.

You can use fresh or frozen fruit to make these popsicles. The original recipe actually called for frozen fruit, but I when it came time to build the red layer the only red fruit I had on hand was fresh strawberries. I pureed those as the recipe instructed and the popsicles turned out well. You can see in the picture where some of the blueberry drizzled into the yogurt mixture. This is where I pulled the popsicles stick out to pour in the yogurt mixture. The blueberry puree wasn't as frozen as I had thought it was so to be sure that you don't get any runny colors make sure that the purees have frozen completely before you remove the sticks to add the next layer.

Ooey Gooey Brownie Sundaes

When I made these brownies I was hit with inspiration to make a completely homemade brownie sundae. The great thing about homemade food is that you know where all the ingredients are coming from and everything tastes better. I made some modifications to the ice cream recipe and the fudge sauce recipe because we were out of some of the ingredients. For the ice cream I substituted an extra cup of heavy cream for the 1 cup of whole milk that the original recipe calls for. This made the ice cream extra rich. I also modified some of the steps because we didn't have any vanilla bean so I adapted the sections of the recipe that pertained to that. For the chocolate sauce, we didn't have any light corn syrup or golden syrup on hand so I used light agave nectar.

As you can see in the picture the sundae melted rather quickly (our AC wasn't working!), but I think that it adds to the deliciousness. If  you're like my niece you can add some sprinkles (jimmies!) on top. Though I'm not sure you want to use as many as she does...

Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies

On days when I'm craving a dessert I tend to make these brownies. I think these are the perfect brownie. They are rich and are so chewy that they are like a cross between a piece of fudge and a brownie. Recently I decided to incorporate these brownies with homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate fudge sauce to make a super rich brownie sundae.

When I find a recipe I like I tend to stick with it for a while, so this I haven't really tried any new ones. Do you tend to stick to the same recipes or are you more adventurous?

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies made their rounds on all the major food blogs a while ago, but I’ve posted them here anyway because they’re that good. I have a goal of finding the best recipes for certain foods and this, in my opinion, is the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are chewy, so if you like your cookies crispy you may not be a big fan, but for me they’re just the way I like a cookie.

There’s an unusual method for making these cookies “thick” as it says in the title of the recipe, and at first I found most of the instructions for how you’re meant to make the ball of dough a little confusing. Essentially, you take a ball of dough, separate it into two balls, and then stack the two balls on top of each other and press them back into one ball. It seems counterproductive, but it works. In addition, you can use either light or dark brown sugar with this recipe. I’ve tried the recipe with both and I slightly prefer the light brown sugar, but the dark brown sugar still makes great cookies.

Pudim flan (Portuguese caramel flan)

Welcome to my blog!

Being of Portuguese descent I thought that I should start out with a common Portuguese recipe. This flan features an ingredient that is well-attributed to the Portuguese, port wine. It is typically served during the holidays and other special occasions. Being that this is my first post Ithought that this was a pretty special occasion.You can serve this flan warm, cold, or room temperature depending on your preference.