Chocolate Jubilees

Chocolate Jubilees

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup shortening
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 tsp almond extract
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup baking cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 jar (16oz) maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
1 cup marshmallows

In a large bowl, cream butter, shortening, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extract. Combine flour, oats, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips, cherries, and marshmallows.

Roll into 1/2 in. balls and place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes until the edges are firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Makes 5 dozen

Recipe from Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies magazine

All-In-One Holiday (Bundt) Cake

Can I call myself a baker if I do not own a bundt pan?

Whenever I see that word bundt I think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and the husband's parents bring the Greek parents a bundt and they not only had no idea how to repeat the word Bundt but also had no clue what to do with it, so they stuck a plant in the center. Boon? Boon - t? Buoount? Whatever, find someplace for this thing.

Anyway.

I have a habit of rearranging stores when I am shopping. (Sorry to anyone who works in retail!) Target, I rearrange the heck of on a weekly basis. Bed Bath and Beyond - monthly. You know how it is -- walk in and decide you can't live unless you have the eggplant purse with matching scarf. Continue to the shoes, ooh. Those are cute, $20 throw em in the cart! Then onto books and movies, they're only 10-15 bucks, can't decide between 2 - get them both! Then on to home goods, a bundt pan! I need one! In the cart it goes.

Then I remember why I came to Target in the first place - prescription, shampoo, toilet paper, garbage bags. Ooh. Combined $20, maybe I should put something back. So the movies go back, right next to the hairspray. Do I really need these shoes. Sigh. Longing stare. I do! I really really do. Maybe next paycheck if I really want them. Sigh. Damn. Ok, they go back next to the candles. Next, the purse and scarf follow.

Then, standing amongst the pretty plates, I start to read the books and decide.. should I buy them here, or wait to get them used for $2 on amazon. Ok, I'll get one. And the other will go right next to this pretty silver platter. And the bundt pan. I really do need one. I get up to the register, decide it can wait, but don't want them to give me dirty looks for putting it in the checkout line, so I put it next to where the eggplant purse once was.

And that, good people, is Store Rearranging 101. Leave the store with exactly what you went for, nothing more. :)

Here's another thing. Remember my "gimme somma dat" cookbook I got for my birthday? About a month later I realized there's a whole blog movement around this book! It's called Tuesdays with Dorie. Last Monday I wanted to bake so I went thru the book, and picked out the All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake. Little did I know, I went to the TWD website afterwards and they are making the same thing. The dilemma I find myself in, is do I follow their rules of not posting the recipe? I'm not part of the club so I'm not bound by rules... so I'm gonna be a rebel... here it is!! Cue the Billy Idol music.

Oh yeah, and for obvious reasons, I made mine in a springform pan!

All-In-One Holiday (Bundt) Cake

Recipe by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

pinch of salt

1 tsp ground ginger

10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin puree

1 large apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped

1 cup cranberries, halved or coarsely chopped

1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and ginger, set aside.

Beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and add pumpkin and chopped apple, don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Still on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. With rubber spatula, stir in the cranberries and pecans. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the rubber spatula.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding, then cool to room temperature. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

I LOVE Frango Mints!!!

Before this week, I didn't know what a frango mint was. I was deprived.

But now I am enlightened and oh how glorious the world is, with the frango mints in it. I am also wickedly exhausted, having been going going going for I lost track of how many days in a row. That being said, I am short on words, but please enjoy this recipe!

Frango Mint Chip Cookies

Recipe adapted from cooks.com

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup grated Marshall Field's Frango Mints

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped nuts

12 Frango Mints, halved

Cream butter, shortening and sugars until light. Add eggs, vanilla, and grated Frango Mints. Beat until creamy and well blended. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together, add to the beaten egg mixture, blending carefully. Fold in chopped nuts. Use a melon baller to scoop dough, and place half a Frango mint into the middle of each ball. Place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 8-11 minutes. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and allow to cool on rack.

Pumpkin Muffins

Oh Sweet Sassy Molassey, Happy Day!!

After getting an insider tip (thanks S!) I finally found pumpkin! It was a trip filled with anticipation, after being told there was pumpkin there, I rushed to the Pig immediately! I'm not familiar with the grocery store, so, basket in hand, tried to dodge assorted slow people with carts, less they try to find pumpkin before me. It was like the don't run in the halls run/walk you did back in the days of school - Run quickly to the first aisle, slow down - read the sign - no, not here, run to the next aisle, slow down, read the sign..

For the record, I *tried* to act calm and collected and did not run over any sweet elderly people.

And there it was - the baking aisle! Oh no, there's 2 people down there, what if they're getting pumpkin! Say it ain't so. As they walk by, take a bit of a peek in their cart, nope, no pumpkin, phew. I can't believe what this has come to.

Then I found the pie fillings - apple, no, peach, no, blueberry, NO! Where's the pumpkin!! I crouched down low to read the tiny labels, and there it was pumpkin, right underneath a big empty space. In a last hopeful effort I get down low and reach - kinda like those orange juice commercials where they reach way into the orange groves for their carton of juice - and aha!!! 2 cans waaaay in the back! Success! HOORAY!!

I finally get to use my pumpkin pan, check out how cute this is!!





It was only $10, you can get one for yourself here!

Pumpkin Muffins

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Sift the above ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.

3 eggs at room temperature

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 tsp extract - I like to play with extracts. This time I used 1 tsp each of vanilla, maple, and orange. Feel free to use your favorites, or just use vanilla.

In a large bowl, mix these ingredients together until well combined. Slowly blend in the sifted ingredients until just mixed. Stir in one can of pumpkin.

Bake in a 325 degree oven. For the pumpkin muffins, 18-20 minutes. I also made mini loaves - those took 20-22 minutes, until your tester comes out clean.

I did sample - just one! Ok, two, they're small, and the rest are sitting, beckoning, in my kitchen. Any takers? Now.. to the treadmill!!