a sweet & spicy cookie

Anyone else love those fancy Lindt Chocolate & Chili bars??

Yeah, me too.

I’ll be honest, I really like anything spicy. I like to eat food that makes my nose run and my face sweat. I especially love things with cayenne pepper or red chili flakes. I once was stupid enough to try the “Thai hot” level of hot at a Thai restaurant. Horrible, awful, terrible mistake, people.

But I saw one of those delicious, dreamy chocolate bars at Tar-jay the other day and thought about how awesome it would be to make a chocolate and chili cookie.

And thus was born the Sweet & Spicy Cookie… just in time for a sweet and spicy Valentine’s Day (yes, I know it is in 2 weeks but a girl needs to prepare accordingly).

Sweet & Spicy Cookies (makes 15-18 cookies)
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 – 1/2 cayenne pepper (more or less to spice preference, I went with more!)
1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 T molasses
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix well. In a separate mixing bowl combine melted chocolate, vanilla, molasses, milk, and egg (be sure to make sure the chocolate has cooled a bit so the egg doesn’t cook!). Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until you have a smooth, loose batter (like a cake batter). Heat the oven to 350* and on a well greased/butter baking sheet, drop large spoonfuls of the batter 3 inches apart from each other. Bake for 13 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to cool. Enjoy with a glass of milk to help the spice!

recipe shout out

I left my camera at my mom’s house in Virginia this weekend! Oh no! I’ll get it back over Christmas, rather than have her waste money sending it to me. But until then, I’m very glad I had a few posts written ahead of time with real pictures! When I run out, I’ll have to dig my point-and-shoot out of the depths of my closet… Until then, enjoy this recipe shout out!

I’d like to give a recipe shout out to Back to Her Root’s recent recipe for No Bake Butterfinger and Pretzel Cheesecake.

My friend Mary came over and I swung by the grocery store for the ingredients (including Texas shaped pretzels!) and gave it a try.

It was delicious, but apparently I’m illiterate as I misread a critical step and my filling was way more liquidy than it should have been. Also, my crust may have baked too long so it was pretty hard. It was delicious, but since it doesn’t stay together when not frozen, I’ve been slowly picking at the leftovers straight from the freezer and they’re divine. Make it (correctly) and love it!

a baking lovechild

Today I simply wish to show you one of my very favorite cookies made in my family. They are the lovechild of a Snickers bar and a chocolate chip cookie and I love them.

I suppose you could switch out Snickers for any other mini candy bar, but why would you?

Stuffed Snickers Cookies (makes 16-18 cookies)
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
16-18 mini Snickers bars, unwrapped and set aside
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla until creamy and smooth. Slowly beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. When fully incorporated, gradually add it into the butter mixture, mixing well to form a soft dough. Using your hands, pinch off a ping pong ball sized piece of dough and roll it completely around a mini Snickers bar. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat to use up all of the dough and Snickers bars. Space evenly with 2-3 inches between the cookies. Bake at 375* for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool upside down on a baking rack (trust me: put them upside down in case some Snickers caramel is dripping from the bottom and sticks to your counter). Allow to cool for a few minutes then devour!

special brownies

No, no. Not that kind of brownie. But these are so good they should be illegal.

Last night I went over to the apartment of my gentleman friend and baked him brownies from a brand new cookbook. Several weeks ago I was sent a copy of My Mama Made That, the new cookbook from the Hampton Roads Junior League. It is full of classic Virginia recipes from the region where I grew up and I was oh-so excited to pick a recipe to show y’all. Thanks to Suzi R for sending it my way!!!

This is a great cookbook if you are looking for some classic, indulgent Southern recipes. The seafood section looks especially delectable — being that I grew up in a water town — but the seafood is so expensive in Texas that I have yet to try any of the recipes.

I believe the exact words of my gentleman friend, upon trying the brownies, were “These are so wrong. This shouldn’t be allowed.”

These babies become double decker, gooey goodness. I had a picture of all the melting chocolate and caramel oozing, but my camera ate it. As did my tummy.

FYI: the recipe suggests a 9×13 baking dish, but we used one a bit smaller to have thicker brownies. Be like me.

Caramel Fudge Brownie Bars (makes 12 large brownies)
From the cookbook, My Mama Made That
1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
2/3 cup evaporated milk, separated
1 package soft caramels, unwrapped (14-oz)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, and 1/3 cup of the evaporated milk. Stir until the dough begins to stick together. Press 2/3 of the cake mixture into the bottom of a greased baking dish and bake for 6 minutes at 350*. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, combine the caramels and the remaining 1/3 cup evaporated milk until melted. When the first layer of brownies comes out of the oven after 6 minutes, pour the chocolate chips and caramel sauce onto the bottom layer. Then carefully spoon the remaining cake mix onto the top and swirl with a spoon. Continue to bake for 20-25 minutes or until the brownies test done. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Cut into bars.

homemade oreo cookies

My friend Emilie made these a couple of weekends back when I went to a cookout with her family. She has been making these cookies for a while and decided to experiment with a gluten-free variety for her cousin who is on a restricted diet. She was concerned they weren’t quite as crispy as real Oreos, but let me tell you: it is as if an Oreo met an Oatmeal Cream Pie and they had a love child.

And I have the recipe.

I could eat about a million of these things. I think I had 3 or 4 at the cookout and lapsed into a food coma shortly after. They are seriously delicious!

Emilie’s Gluten Free Oreos (makes about 18 cookie sandwiches)
Basic g-f flour mix (makes 3 cups so you’ll have extra):
1 cup Brown rice flour

1 cup white rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca starch

Cookies:

1 1/4 cups basic mix g-f flour (see above)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 T butter, room temperature

2 eggs

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated. Then add the butter cut into pieces and mix until butter pieces are pea sized. Once butter is mixed in, add in the eggs and mix until well incorporated. Drop batter onto a buttered baking dish in small teaspoonfuls, leaving plenty of room for spreading. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 375*, watching closely to prevent burning.

Oreo filling:

1/2 stick butter, room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer (use the whip attachment at a fast speed to achieve a frosting consistency). When the frosting has come together, use a knife and frost the bottom of one cookie. Match it up with another cookie according to size and make a sandwich. Continue with all the cookies until you have a giant plate of cookies!
*Note: this recipe can be made with regular, all-purpose flour. The consistency of the batter will be a bit thicker and harder so you may have to roll the cookies and press them in your hands before baking them, but the rest of the steps are the same!

birthday cake

Happy birthday, An Epic Change! Today was the 1st birthday of my blog and I had some fun things planned to celebrate.

No birthday is complete without a birthday cake, and in my family that means one thing: German Chocolate Cake. This recipe is as old as sin and I’ve eaten this cake so many times in my life. Help yourself to a little cake and I hope y’all will stick around for whatever the next year of An Epic Change will bring.

Rereading what I wrote one year ago is so interesting to me — so much has changed since then, the name of the blog included! Who knew a year ago where this would have taken me? I had no idea, I just had things to say.

I’ve grown as a person, a writer, and a chef and I feel incredible for it. Having my readers means so much to me. I cannot express how much I truly love each and every one of y’all for the simple fact that you’re willing to spend a little time with me each week and read what I have to say. I get so emotional when I think of the people I’ve come to know, the opportunities I’ve gotten, and the mere fact that people care about what I have to say. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sticking with me!

Now let’s eat some cake.

There’s a new sheriff in town. I just bought this mixer with some of the money from winning a prize from my sponsor, Foodbuzz, and Wendy’s, for writing this post. I just found out on Monday and thought my blog deserved a birthday present. Again, I cannot believe where this blog has taken me!

German Chocolate Cake Icing
1 German chocolate cake, prepared as directed (I used boxed)
1 cup evaporated milk
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
Prepare German chocolate cake as directed on box, either in a 13×9 or 2 9 inch cake rounds. Set aside and allow to cool. In a sauce pan over medium heat, mix evaporated milk, butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent scalding. Stir in coconut and pecans and remove from heat. Allow to cool to room temperature and thicken more, about 2 hours. Spread over cake and enjoy!

tea time

Every once in a while, I like to pretend I live in an old, historic house in the country and I tie on my apron and flip through my cookbooks like I have an party to plan. This is totally normal, right?

Well this weekend when I was doing just that, I had the sudden urge to invite over a friend for tea and gossip. I guess that’s the Southern gal in me? But any good Southern girl knows that an afternoon tea with a friend is not complete without a baked good so I researched some ideas and got to work on some scones!

These are particularly easy for the baking-impaired as they require minimal measuring and ingredients. Also, they’re a very useful way to use up the giant box of pancake mix you purchased on a whim and then realized you’ll never finish by yourself… hypothetically…

You can make mini scones (like I did) or make 6 big ones. Once the dough is mixed, just form it into a disk on the baking sheet and cut it into triangle shapes like scones are known for. Super easy!

My friend Brett is a foodie, so I figured he was the best person to invite over for some catching up over tea and scones. I trust his food opinion and was humbled by his reaction to these scones — he was actually speechless for a few moments while taking the first bites! We concurred that they’re the love child of chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, and biscuits. What could be better??

Mini Mocha Scones (makes 12 mini or 6 regular scones)
3 1/2 cups baking mix (like Bisquick or similar)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup room temperature or cold coffee
2 T half-and-half or heavy cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a small bowl, combine coffee, cream, egg, and vanilla and whisk together well. In a large bowl, combine the baking mix, sugar, and chocolate chips. Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. This will make a very lumpy batter and don’t fret if you think it is too dry! You can work in the dry spots with your hands but don’t over work it. If it is still too wet, add in a bit of extra coffee, a tablespoon at a time, until it is just wet enough to stick together loosely. Form into 2 discs on a baking sheet and cut each disc into 6 triangles). Bake at 350* for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Allow to cool a few minutes before separating. Serve warm or at room temperature with butter or jam!

Now go round up your girlfriends and invite them over for scones this weekend!

life lessons: how to score blondie points

As a graduate student, it is inevitable that I will eventually have to take some classes I’m not particularly crazy about. Unfortunately, that happens to be this semester, my first semester. I sometimes feel stupid and out of my league and hardly every participate. So my participation this week will come in the form of sucking up: Brown Butter Blondies.

If you don’t know how to brown butter, I suggest you grab a stick of butter and a sauté pan STAT. One of my favorite side dishes (typically served with my Mom’s Meatloaf) is brown butter noodles, so I’ve known the technique since I was practically an infant.

Drop the butter into a pan on medium high heat and stir constantly. It will get foamy and start to look like the head on beer (or at least that is how I think it looks) and then, as if by magic, after about 5-7 minutes, it will just turn brown. It starts out kind of slowly and then suddenly it is ALL brown and that is when you take it off the heat and dump it onto the mountain of brown sugar.

Important note: no matter how intoxicatingly salty sweet and caramely the browned butter smells (and it will), do NOT under any circumstances decide to lick the spoon with which you’ve been stirring the butter with. You will burn your tongue. Just sayin’.

Then I get another chance to use my hand mixer! Brown sugar + brown butter. I suggest you lick the beaters.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix it thoroughly. Fold in your (optional) chocolate chips. Pour it in a pan, bake it up, and revel in your cakey-fudgy blondies.

According to my prof, my classmates (who all had seconds), and my roommate, these were a total success. There were several audible moans. I’d say I scored some serious blondie points with my prof and classmates.

Brown Butter Blondies (makes about 16)
1 stick butter, browned
1 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 T vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional
In a sauté pan on medium-high heat, melt the butter stirring constantly until it turns brown and starts to smell like caramel (5-7 minutes). Once it has all turned brown, take off the heat immediately and pour over the brown sugar, mixing well. Add in the other ingredients, incorporating the flour slowly until it is a sticky cake batter consistency. Fold in chocolate chips if desired. Pour into a 9×13 pan and bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting (trust me on this one, too!)

an ode to cocoa puffs

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about my love for corn tortillas, despite the fact that there are “healthier” options available? Well I’m a firm believer in not making compromises and not apologizing, so here it is: I don’t apologize for loving Cocoa Puffs.

Generic, knock-off, HFCS-free Cocoa Spheres

At least I go for the all natural stuff, right? Right.

As a kid we didn’t have a ton of sugary cereals in the house, but my brother and I did like the occasional bowl of chocolate, sugar-coma inducing cereal for breakfast. And with the generic kind I got at a health food store, this comes with only 10g sugar in a serving. Not terrible.

And when you’re jonesing for chocolate (daily) these are a good way to have a substantial snack and satisfy your sweet tooth. They’re sweet but not too sweet, make you feel like a kid again, and turn the milk into chocolate milk as if by some crazy cereal alchemy magic. I tell you, a bowl of Cocoa Puffs (ahem, “Cocoa Spheres”) is a little bowl of heaven.

So next time you’re in the cereal aisle, don’t feel guilty for wanting the kids stuff. Every so often, there’s no harm in picking up a box of the classics, it is a fun way to shake things up for you AND kill a chocolate craving. Hint: this makes a wonderful mid-afternoon snack or dessert. Just sayin’.

Veg-Mex and bats

Since I now live in the land of amazing Tex-Mex food, and since all the grocery stores are filled with my old favorites from my time living in Mexico, I’ve been craving my absolute favorite Mexican dish: Chicken with Molé sauce.

See the obvious problem? Yes, the chicken. When I lived in Mexico, I wasn’t a vegetarian! At most Mexican restaurants there is a decent selection of vegetarian-friendly options. But never a dish with molé. So I made my own variation.

Tofu grilling with traditional spices: cayenne, chili powder, garlic, and lime juice

I cheated... store bought molé paste! (no ingredients on hand for the homemade stuff)

After following the instructions on the mole, let it simmer with the tofu.

Finished product! Serve with fresh lime wedges, tortilla, brown rice, goat cheese, and veg! Oh, and beer.

It was delicious! If you don’t know, molé is a sauce made from chocolate and chiles. Yes, that is right. And it is delicious. It is traditionally topped with queso blanco or queso Oaxaca, but the goat cheese was my personal twist. The saltiness and creaminess of the goat cheese went really well with the sweet and spice of the molé sauce. And always squeeze fresh lime juice over Mexican food. Trust me.

After my vegetarian twist, I headed out to the BatFest held on one of the bridges close to my apartment. Caitlin met me at my apartment and we took the bus to meet up with some of my new grad school classmates!

Blog lovin'

Austin (and apparently all of Texas) has a large population of bats and there are a ton that come out at the Congress Ave bridge at night, so we were hoping to see a giant swarm of them. Unfortunately they were not cooperating and we only saw them flying around solo. But I still thought they were cool!

And see why I’m in love with Austin?

View from the Congress Ave bridge (facing S 1st St)

After a short stint at the BatFest, we went to a couple bars looking for anything exciting. My classmates left early but Caitlin and I are wild party girls new in town and looking for a social life, so we stayed out and had a fun night together!

This morning I got my act together and met a friend at the gym then bought my books for class. This upcoming week is going to be crazy, I’m glad I had some fun this weekend!!