Peppermint Bark Candy-Make simple Peppermint Bark

Tis the season to make and eat peppermint bark candy! This time of year I go crazy for peppermint, especially peppermint cany that I can make and give out. I always thought making candy from scratch was something was going to be difficult and complex, but not all candies are. This recipe for peppermint bark is so easy and only has 2 ingredients! Plus, it's so pretty and elegant, a great gift to give to anyone. So get ready to make some peppermint bark candy!

Peppermint Bark
1 (12 ounce) package white morsels
24 hard peppermint candies ( I use candy canes-1 box of 12)

Line baking sheet with wax paper.

Microwave morsels in medium, microwave safe bowl on medium-high power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10 to 20 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Place peppermint candies in heavy duty plastic bag. Crush candies using rolling pin or other heavy object. While holding strainer over melted morsels, pour crushed candy into strainer. Shake to release all small candy pieces; reserve larger candy pieces. Stir morsel peppermint mixture.

Spread mixture to desired thickness on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved candy pieces; press in lightly. Let stand for about 1 hour or until firm. Break into pieces. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

Note: For a more gourmet candy, melt dark chocolate morsels and spread on baking sheet first. Let cool just until it's to the point when the chocolates won't mix and then pour and spread the white chocolate-peppermint mixture on top and let cool.

Butter Cookies - Easy holiday Butter Cookies

These butter cookies are so easy and simple to make, plus they are so yummy! The holidays are upon us and it is a family tradition in my house to make Christmas cookies of all kinds and pass them out to friends, families, co-workers and they are even our dessert we take when we go to holiday parties. Every year we make the same cookies, plus some new ones and the ones that are good and turn out get added to the list of cookies we make year after year. Well let me tell you that this recipe for butter cookies will definitely be staying on the list indefinitely!

Butter Cookies
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup(1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg yolk

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

Combine butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and egg yolk in medium bowl; beat until well blended.  Add flour mixture; beat until well blended. Cover; refrigerate until firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough on lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness; cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Note: For a more holiday look, brush unbaked cookies with beaten egg white and sprinkle with colored sugar before baking. Also, since this recipe only makes 2 dozen cookies, I doubled it and they turned wonderful and delicious and got twice the cookies. For cookie cutters, I used round scalloped edge cutters for a more simple and understated cookie.

Blueberry Muffins - How to make the best blueberry muffins ever!

Blueberry muffins are one of my favorite sweets ever, especially when they are big and moist.  Coincidentally, blueberry muffins were also an item on my co-workers baked goods sign up sheet.  Well, for as long as I have been baking, it has been one of my goals in life to find a moist muffin recipe.  Eureka!  I have found a super moist and yummy blueberry muffin recipe, so good that you won't be able to eat just 2 blueberry muffins!

Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 2 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or defrosted frozen
1 Tbs flour
3 Tbs sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line muffin tin with paper liner and grease rims with butter (batter may overflow).
Cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with yogurt.
Mash 1/2 cup blueberries and mix in.
Toss remaining blueberries with 1 Tbs. flour and fold in by hand.
Fill muffin cups to top.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool for 30 minutes.

Note: When I made these, I used a combination of fresh and frozen blueberries.

The blueberry muffin batter.

The lovely cupcake liners from http://www.bakeitpretty.com/

The lovely and oh soooo yummy finished blueberry muffins.



Coconut Cream Pie - A farewell Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut cream pie is something that I have never made before, but I am always up for a challenge-well most of the time.  It is common knowledge at my workplace of almost a year now that I love to bake.  So upon discovering this, a co-worker of mine decided to start a sign up sheet for other employees in our department to put their name and baked good they would like me to bake.  On a list of about 7 items, I think I have baked 2 of those items. So this past March, one of my favorite supervisors-who is a fellow watcher of TLC's Cake boss-got promoted and transferred to a new location.  To celebrate him and wish him well, I made him one of his favorite desserts, though not his requested life size replica of our workplace.  He had told me a while back that he loved coconut cream pie and so is born the farewell surprise pie.

Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

3 cups half and half
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a medium saucepan, combine half and half, eggs, sugar, flour, and salt.  Bring to a boil over loww heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat, and stir in 3/4 cup of the coconut and the vanilla extract.  Pour into pie shell and chill 2 to 4 hours, or until firm.
Top with whipped topping, and with remaining 1/4 cup of coconut.

To toast coconut, spread it in an ungreased pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occassionally.

French Bread- Suggestions for using French Bread before it's no good

It's a frequent occurance in my house: we buy fresh french bread, have a few slices with butter and then it ends up in the garbage after a few days.  So the last time this was about to happen I decided to do something about it.  The first loaf or two (for some reason we had more than one loaf) I cut into cubes and made croutons.  You do this by cubing the bread and tossing the cubes either with melted butter or olive oil. Add some seasonings if you like (italian seasoning or ranch dressing dry mix or garlic powder or just some salt) or keep them plain. Either way homemade croutons are the best on a salad.  Then spread them on a sheet pan and baking until golden in a 400 degree oven. Watch them because it takes 10 minutes give or take.  With the other loaf (that was so hard I could have thrown it at someone and done damage) I cut it as best I could and tossed it in a food processor and voila! bread crumbs. Add some herbs if you like, keep in an air tight container and toss in the fridge for freshness. Enjoy all these different uses for french bread and never throw it away again!

Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

This chocolate fudge layer cake is a recipe that my sister asked me to make to aid in her job's publishing of a cookbook.  So to help my sister, I made this cake for my dad's birthday which was this past saturday, January 16th.  This is a good, moist, rich cake which I think should be named death by chocolate cake because I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake and this was definitely a lot of chocolate.

Best Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

1 package (2 layer size) chocolate cake mix

1 package (4 serving size) jell-o chocolate flavore instant pudding & pie filling

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

1 package baker's semi sweet baking chocolate, divided

1 tub (8 ounces) cool whip whipped topping, thawed

2 tablespoons planters sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.  Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping side of bowl frequently.  Beat on medium speed 2 minutes or until well blended.  Stir in 2 squares of the chocolate, chopped.  Spoon into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean.  Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire rack.  Loosen cake from sides of pan with spatula or knife.  Invert cakes onto rack; gently remove pans.  Cool completely on wire rack.

Place remaining 6 squares chocolate and whipped topping in medium microwaveable bowl.  Microwave on high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.  Stir until well blended and shiny.  Cool 5 minutes.  Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread 1/4 of the chocolate mixture over cake.  Place second cake layer on top; spread remaining chocolate mixture over top and sides of cake.  Garnish with almonds.

Note: If I make this cake again, I would melt the 2 pieces of chocolate put into the cake batter because they do not completely melt while baking. Also do not freak out like I did when melting the cool whip and chocolate.  The cool whip will completely melt into liquid and yes, there will be enough to fill and cover the entire cake.  Work quickly when covering the cake because the chocolate mixture will start to harden.  Had fun making this cake even though I dropped the container of sour cream on the floor causing it to bust and splatter everywhere.  In this situation, I just used the sour cream that didn't have any floor on it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes - A great recipe to make Red Velvet Cupcakes with Martha Stewart's Cream Cheese Frosting

It is an annual tradition that I make red velvet cupcakes for our favorite holiday party.  I usually use the Mccormick recipe for cupcakes and icing, but forever in a rush this year I used Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting recipe.  Gotta love Martha, you can always count on her to have a recipe for everything!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 bottle (1oz) red food color

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Mix sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla.  Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed just until blended.  Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool in pans 5 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool sompletely.  Spread with frosting.  Makes 30.

Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 pound (4 cups), confectioner's sugar, sifted

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in an airtight container; before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.