Instant Chocolate Fix and Over-Cooked or Under-Cooked Baked Goods

With as much baking and candy making I do you’d think I’d be tired of eating sweets by now…nope, no luck. In fact, it seems I crave sugar on a daily basis, even more so then before! So move aside caffeine addicts, there’s a TRUE chocoholic in the making! Well to be fair, it’s not just chocolate, but baked goods in general, bars and brownies being my biggest weakness. So much for trying to stick to a low-carb way of eating, sigh.

Any-who, with all the experimenting that I do with new recipes and different pan sizes, I sometimes have items that come out under-baked and once in a while over-baked…but that’s more because I get distracted. Honestly, not that I need more sweets in the house, but it seems such a shame to throw it all away! I don’t want to give it away, as really it’s a mess-up…so what to do?

FREEZE IT.

Oh my goodness, I’ve never tasted anything as good with ice cream as an UNDER-cooked frozen brownie! And over-cooked cookies? Delicious! Well, I don’t meant burnt, I just mean a couple minutes too long, as in not soft at all once they have cooled. Pop those slightly over-done cookies in the freezer and you’re set for whenever you need a quick treat.  And the under-cooked slabs of chocolate brownie?!? To die for! In fact, try feezing all of your brownies and eating them that way, I think it’s so much better then how you would normally have them, especially if you love chewy fudge brownies!

So now you have a treat in the freezer, ready for when you need a quick dessert fix And if it makes you feel better, you saved some valuable ingredients from getting tossed in the garbage!

Baking Tips for LAYERED Bars and Brownies

THE PRESIDENTIAL Turtle Brownies

When I first started by blog I wrote a post with some of my well-loved baking tips and tricks, though those were mostly geared towards baking cookies. Since then I have been obsessed with making bars and brownies, as they really are my preference, just so much more to sink my teeth into! Don’t get me wrong, a good cookie is still a good cookie, but my first love will always be those thick and dense dessert bars and brownies, and in actuality many bars (not brownies) are simply an adaptation of your favorite cookie recipes. If you are looking for a dessert that impresses the crowd, try a layered bar or an ultra-thick brownie recipe with these tips:

• My #1 tool in the kitchen is a high-temp rubber spatula, I’d be lost without it! I personally use Pampered Chef ones, the traditional white ones, but I know a couple other companies out there make similar rubber spatulas. You want to make sure that the rubber part is study, but still nice and flexible and that it can hold up to high temps. I don’t even think twice about leaving mine in a pot of boiling caramel as I know it can handle it.
• Parchment paper is my #2 weapon and is far superior to wax paper. In fact, I only use wax paper when I need a clean cutting surface or for storage purposes. I NEVER use it for baking, candy making, etc…I’ve had one too many horror stories using it and it burns so easily in the oven. Use Parchment paper to line your cookie sheets, brownies pans, cake pans, caramel pans, etc… I’ve never had it fail on me.
• Speaking of parchment paper, this is exactly how I get great bars and brownies every time! Whatever pan I am using, I make sure to line the bottom and 2 of the sides (so cut a piece long enough to go up the sides a little) with parchment paper, and the other 2 sides I use butter or or cooking spray. Once in a while I do the “grease and flour” non-stick method, but I find that it leaves a white flour residue on my brownies that isn’t always the most attractive, though it works just fine and does save money vs. buying parchment paper.

Low-Carb Tuna “Noodle” Cauliflower Casserole

low-carb Tuna "Noodle" Cauliflower Casserole

So I found some fresh cauliflower at a really good price last weekend and decided to make up one of my favorites, low-carb Tuna “Noodle” Casserole! It basically has all the same ingredients but replaces noodles with cauliflower instead. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed! Even my kids love this, though they still find it quite odd that they are eating cauliflower instead of noodles, lol. I adapted te below recipe from this Tuna Casserole recipe, found on recipezaar.com.

Again, frozen cauliflower can be used instead of fresh, but I really prefer to use fresh if possible. I just think the texture and flavor of fresh is so much better!

Tuna “Noodle” Cauliflower Casserole recipe:

• 1 small head of cauliflower-chopped
• 1 can cream of celery, mushroom, or chicken soup
• 1-2 stalks of celery finely diced
• 1/2 an onion finely diced
• 1/2 cup cream or mayonnaise ( I used Hellmann’s mayo)
• 1 cup cheddar cheese-shredded
• 1 10oz. can of tuna-drained
• salt and pepper to taste

• 1/3 cup cheddar cheese-shredded

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the chopped cauliflower until al dente-just tender. Drain well and then place the cauliflower in a large casserole dish.
• Combine everything else in the casserole dish along with the cauliflower and mix well. Top with remaining 1/3 cup cheddar cheese.
• Place casserole dish into oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until bubbling.
• Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Weekend Breakfast-Eggs Benedict and Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole

Eggs Benedict, Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole, and Bacon-YUM!

Last weekend I decided to go all out and re-create a couple of my breakfast restaurant favorites (a combination of Perkin’s and Cracker Barrel) -Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole and Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce! The great thing about the Hash Brown casserole is that it can all be mixed together in bowl, now that’s my kind of cookin!

To do eggs benedict correctly, you have to poach the eggs. If you have never poached eggs before, it’s really quite simple. Just bring a small pot of water to a gentl boil, add in about 1 tablespoon of vinegar (this helps to keep the eggs whites together), then crack the egg right into the water. Make sure to do this right above the water, as this will keep the egg as intact as possible and prevent the hot water from spashing back onto you. Allow it to cook for a couple minutes, then use a slotted spoon to get it out of the water and lay it on a paper-towel lined plate, which will soak up some of the excess water. Then simply place the egg ontop of a toasted english muffin and ladle on some of the yummy Hollandaise Sauce! A lot of people also like to put a slice of Canadian Bacon on the english muffin with the poached egg, but we had bacon on the side instead.

As for the Hallandaise sauce, I skipped the blender and just whisked everything together really well in a small pot. Make sure the heat is really low, as you don’t want to cook the egg yolks too quickly, or they will get lumpy. I found the sauce to be good, but a little tempermental in the sense that it really has to be served as soon as it is done cooking. If you leave it on too long it gets too thick, but if this happens you can thin it down with a little cream or milk. Just make sure the english muffins are toasted and the eggs are ready to go before the sauce is completely done, so you can dish up right away

Bliss Candies WEEKEND ONLY Caramel Sampler!

Bliss Candies caramel sampler

Hi everyone!  Well, I finally took some time out the last 2 nights to create some new caramel flavors that I have been dying to try out!  They all turned out wonderful and will be added to our normal line-up soon!  We tested out 5 new flavors-Sweet & Spicy Ginger, Vanilla Hazelnut, Toasted Coconut, Orange Creamsicle, and Sea Salt.

The Caramel Sampler pack contains 20 pieces total, 4 of each flavor!  We will have these up until Monday, or until the sell out as we only have a few available.

Bliss Candies Cake Truffles & Caramels Review & GIVEAWAY!

Classically shaped Cake Truffles

Just wanted to sneak in a post real quick to let you know about our 2 latest product reviews, Cake Truffles, Caramels, and we also have a $15 GIVEAWAY with free shipping running until the end of this week!

Bliss Candies Safe-to-Eat Cookie Dough Review on BakingBites.com

Safe & Ready to Eat Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I have to say, I love being added to etsy treasuries and being mentioned on personal blogs, but just tonight we had the honor of being professionally review by Nicole, from BakingBites.com. I’ve been following her blog ever since I found it over a year ago, and it is just a wealth of information! Her reviews are not just on recipes, but also on commercial products, cool foodie finds, and lots of good snippets from other food blogs that she follows.

See what she has to say about our Safe & Ready to Eat Cookie dough, and it should be noted that ours is not meant to be baked. Of course I forgot to mention that to Nicole, so I’m sure the cookies came out quite interesting, LOL!

My Favorite “instant” Coffee & Thai Iced Coffee

My favorite instant coffee packets and sweetened condensed milk to make a Thai iced coffee at home

I have to admit, I like having a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, every morning. It’s not about the caffeine, as sometimes I drink decaf, but it’s more about the taste, smell, and really it’s just part of my morning “ritual”. Most of the time we have Hazelnut or Vanilla Hazelnut, sometimes it’s a smooth breakfast blend, whatever it is I don’t like it too strong, or black, YUCK! My cups of coffee aren’t nearly as sugary as they used to be when I first started drinking coffee, but I suppose many would say that I do prefer it on the sweet side. Hey, I bake and make candy as part of my living, it’s pretty obvious I like sweet things.

Though I love a fresh pot of coffee, as it smells so good, there are days when I am just too LAZY to make coffee, or wait for it. On those days, I reach for my favorite instant coffee. Now before you poo-poo at the idea, you have to realize that this is not your normal freeze-dried Folgers, no offense to those that like that sort of stuff. I’m talking about the 3-in-1 Asian instant coffee packs that you can only get from the Asian grocers or online. These have creamer and sugar already in them, as well as the delicious tasting coffee! We take these with us whenever we go on trips and often times my husband and I actually prefer these over American coffee.

If you have ever had an Iced coffee from a Thai restaurant, these instant packaets taste just like those, but hot and not quite as sweet. In fact, you can make your very own Thai iced coffee at home for a FRACTION of the price using these instant packets! The particular brand of 3-in-1 coffee we buy costs less then $4 a bag, and there are 20 servings in each bag. That works out to be a mere 0.20 cents per cup of coffee! Pretty darn tasty for 0.20 cents if you ask me

I LOVE Thai Iced Coffee’s from the restaurants, but they cost almost $4 EACH depending on where you go. I know to some that’s the standard price for a cup of good coffee, but I can’t afford to spend that much on my drinks, LOL. So here’s an easy way to make your very own iced coffee at home, for a FRACTION of the price! Once you start making these you’ll be hooked, so I’m warning you now!

Thai Iced Coffee recipe:

• 1 package of instant 3-in-1 Asian coffee, my favorite brand is pictured
• 1 coffee mug of hot water – about 3/4 of the water it normally calls for as the ice will melt and add more water at the end
• 1 tall glass filled 3/4 of the way with ice
• about 2 TBLS of sweetened condennsed milk-fat free or regular

Instructions:

• Mix up the contents of 1 instant coffee packet into the mug of hot water. Add in 1 TBLS of the condensed milk and taste. If it is not sweet enough then add a little more.
• Pour the drink over the ice and give it a quick stir. To avoid it from becoming too watered down I usually take out all of the ice once the beverage is cold.
• Drink and enjoy!

Bliss Candies August NIBBLER Sneak Peek!

It’s close to that time again, when our NIBBLER boxes go on sale! We’ve gotten great reviews and responses on our first NIBBLERS from July, so we are really looking forward to the August ones! The August theme is “Beat the Heat”, which will be a wonderful sample of our gourmet brownies and bars! All of these items do NOT need an icepack (so you save a bit on shipping) and it’s a great way to sample the bars as we don’t sell them in small quantities…at least not yet! So here is the line-up, 14 boxes total this time around, and they will go one sale August 24th and will be mailed out on August 3rd!

The box will contain:

• THE PRESIDENTIAL Gourmet Turtle Brownies
• GET OUTTA MY WAY Almond Toffee Cookie Bars
• Toasted Coconut and Almond Fudge Brownies
• Dark Chocolate Peppermint Patty Truffle Brownies
• MARSHMALLOW DREAMS AND PEANUT BUTTER KISSES Oatmeal Fluffernutter Cookie Bars
• Rich and Chewy Chocolate Brownie All Edges Bars
• Chewy Vanilla Caramels Individually Wrapped
  
• NOT SO PLAIN JANE Hint of Butterscotch Fudge Ripple Bars with Pecans
  

Bliss Candies August NIBBLER Sample Box contents-going on sale July 24th at blisscandies.etsy.com

Are you a Journal “junkie” ?? Great find for lefties too!!

Custom made journals by BookgirlsStudio on Etsy.com

I don’t know about you, but a pretty journal always inspires me to write something in it, anything! But it’s been a sad, sad journey for me as a left handed person…and if you’re a leftie as well then you know what I mean! Most traditionally bound journals are a problem because my left hand always bumps into the raised spine, which is so frustrating! I’d just about given up on journaling all together until I bumped into some sellers on Etsy who sell hand-bound journals. Well, not just any sellers, but the ones that do Coptic binds and other similar binds, as these methods allow the book to lay FLAT when opened, YAY!!! And when I say flat, I do mean FLAT!

After much searching I decided to go with the journals made by BookgirlsStudio, as she made both attractive and affordable journals.  On my first order (yes, I’ve put in multiple orders!) I purchased 2 of her in-stock journals,  which are great for your purse or backpack, etc…  She does gorgeous work and adds colorful little beads on the spine, which totally sell them, at least to me!  Remember, i love pretty journals

Just as advertised, the journal lays flat as I am writing and the binding is pretty tight.  The only drawback for me was that I wish they were a little bigger, as her standard size is 5.5 x 4.25 inches.   I’m also pretty picky about the designs I like and wish I could have picked out my own papers to be created into journals.  Well now, that’s the great thing about Etsy…since almost everything is handmade, requesting a custom order is a piece of cake!  so I contacted BookgirlsStudio and asked for 2 things…larger journals and to pick out my own paper.  NO PROBLEM.  So I went to the craft store, picked out 2 designs (since I couldn’t decide haha) and mailed the paper to her.  About a week later I recieved 2 pretty journals, just under  6 x 8 inches, which is the perfect size for me!!  PLUS she sent me a free gift, I couldn’t have been happier!!