Saturday recipe round-up, week 8

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Ah, June. What do we here at Bakers Anonymous think of this month? Not much, to be honest. June is the herald of summer, our least favorite season. Unless you have primo air conditioning (like I currently do at my house), the desire to make baked goods is absolutely nowhere to be found. And while I love no-bake treats as much as the next person, sometimes you just want a chewy, fresh-baked cookie, you know?

These strawberry lemonade cupcakes from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen perfectly express the summertime sentiments without bringing all the nasty humidity into your house. I just love the bright colored frosting!

Cookie Madness brings us this sour cream chocolate and butterscotch chip cake that is actually more of a loaf than a real cake, and requires no extra rising time. And did you notice that delicious-looking glaze on top? I did.

More summer madness is brought to you by Krissy’s Creations: red velvet funnel cake! Let that one sink in again – red velvet funnel cake. Mmm. I can smell the carnivals and farm fairs already.

If you don’t want to fry anything, let these baked confetti donuts take center stage at your picnic table. All you need is a donut pan (why, why, why don’t I have one of those yet?) and a jar full of sprinkles. The Sweet Life even baked them straight into the batter!

I love oranges and I love white chocolate chips, but I don’t love creamsicles. They just taste super nasty to me. Perhaps these pretty orange creamsicle cookies from Six Sister’s Stuff will taste much better than their ice cream counterparts? Here’s hoping.

Those are our early summer treats! Enjoy your first few days of June, everyone. I’m off to watch Snow White and the Huntsman. Mmm, Chris Hemsworth. Now he’s a tasty cookie I’d enjoy in any weather. ;) – Niki

Mini Biscuit Pizzas

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Oh, Bakers Anonymous family, things are getting crazier than ever here. Remember late last year when I got it into my head that I would start doing dinner bakes? And then I promptly stopped doing them?

Yeah. I don’t really remember it either.

But that’s about to change! Starting this very day, every last week of the month, Bakers Anonymous will feature a different dinner bake. In my old, wizened age, I’ve realized that one cannot always eat brownies, cookies or cake, despite desperate attempts to do so.

I ate pizza instead.

Mini Biscuit Pizzas

Originally based on this recipe from Pillsbury.

Ingredients
1 tube of Pillsbury’s Grands! Flaky Biscuits (do NOT use the Homestyle butter biscuits)
1/2 to 1 C of pasta or pizza sauce (Prego’s chunky garden sauce with mushrooms and peppers)
1 bag of part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 package of sliced pepperoni (or any other toppings you want)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil.
2. Pop open the can of biscuits. There are eight to a container. I was able to place four to a sheet.
3. Spread out each biscuit using your hands or a rolling pin. Press into a five to six-inch circle, depending on how thin you want your crust and the desired size of your pizzas.
4. Spread tablespoons or more of the sauce on each pizza.
5. Top with as much cheese as you want.
6. Place your toppings on the pizza. I fit five pepperoni slices to each.
7. Bake in the oven for about seven minutes (my oven was very hot, so it baked faster. You might have to bake for longer, up to fifteen minutes).
8. Cool the pizzas slightly before removing from the pan.

Makes up to eight pizzas.

Saturday Recipe Round-up, Week 7

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My dear Bakers Anonymous family, this has been a week of PURE craziness, and I can’t even explain to you why. With grad school (and the BIG move to grad school only a few months away, I’m more stressed than ever. I’m not ready for such a big relocation (a few hours away from my family is a big deal to me!) and all of the projects I want to do just end up piling in the corner, calling out to me, “Niki! Niki, please work on us!”

This is not a positive note when it comes from my clients’ work. :-/

Anyway, next Monday is Memorial Day and I gathered up some delicious red, white and blue recipes for you to enjoy either on Monday or later, for the Fourth of July. Let’s work our way up to the complicated ones, eh?

Red, white and blue strawberries from The Sisters Cafe make for the perfect summer addition to any outdoor lunch or dinner. It’s just the right amount of sweet and healthy to balance out all the hot dogs and hamburgers.

Frankly, this next one from Love Stitched made me drool. M&M’s, pretzels and Oreos? This is the best cookie bark recipe I’ve ever seen!

Firework cookies made from french vanilla cake mix would have a great base that lends itself to any combination of mix-ins. The Cookin’ Cowgirl made these for a friend’s graduation, so feel free to use whatever colors you want.

If a cheesecake pie is more your style, try this centerpiece recipe, the star-spangled pie from Snackpicks.com. Made with just five easy ingredients and a pre-made crust, this pie can even be made the day OF your celebration.

And if you’ve got more than just a little time on your hands, make these tri-colored peppermint patties from Haniela’s Food & Photography. I made my own peppermint patties a few years ago and while they were one of the hardest things I ever “baked,” they were also one of the most delicious.

So there you have it! Enjoy your beautiful weekend folks. Here’s hoping there’s great weather wherever you are.

- Niki 

Cookie dough bites (gluten free!)

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You know those days that are all humid and gross and there’s nothing you can do to keep your hair straight and it just curls right back up even though you don’t like your hair like that?

Yeah. May has been kind of like that. Darn you, naturally curly hair.

With that in mind, when the weather is humid, not only do I get uber grumpy about my hair, but I also don’t want to bake anything. And I most CERTAINLY don’t want to cook anything that doesn’t require the sole use of a microwave.

God bless that invention.

So, among my many travelings on Pinterest (and with a little inspiration from my bestie, Kyle, who adores the movie theatre version of today’s treat), I came across this recipe for cookie dough bites. The only change I made to the recipe was replacing the regular flour with King Arthur gluten-free multi-purpose flour because I thought it would be a nice change from the usual. Unfortunately, my good intentions went awry. I recommend using regular flour in these treats.

Cookie dough bites

Ingredients:
1 C butter, softened
1.5 C packed light brown sugar (so apparently I put 1/4 C less than I was supposed to; oops)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 2 tsp, probably to make up for messing up on the sugar)
2 C flour
12 oz mini chocolate chips (1 bag)

Directions
1. Cream the butter and sugar together. It’s probably best if you remember to use all the sugar, unlike someone. *cough cough* me *cough cough*
2. Add in the vanilla extract, then the flour. First, mix in one cup, then stir in half of the chocolate chips. This will keep them from falling out to the bottom of the bowl. Then mix in the rest of the flour.
3. Roll into as big or small a ball as you want. I made mine about 1 tablespoon or less. These bites are rich! Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
4.  Melt the rest of the chocolate chips in the microwave. I heat for 30 seconds, stir up the chocolate chips, and then heat for another 30 seconds. I’ve burnt too much chocolate to not have the utmost control over my timing.
5. Drizzle the chocolate over the cookie dough balls. (Obviously I didn’t do a very good job, and some of my cookie dough balls ended being attached at the chocolate string.)

Makes five dozen, depending on what size you make them.
Store these in the fridge. They will get soft if you leave them out long enough.

Saturday Recipe Round-up, Week 6 (evening edition)

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Today was too lovely to stay at home watching TV and pretending to work like I usually do, so I went to my dad’s house (I call him Popsicle because I’m cool like that. You know, Pop-sicle? Cause he’s my pop? Yeah, moving on…) and went shopping for hours with my sister Brittany! She’s nineteen and we’re finally back to being the same size as the other. It was a lot of fun to be in the dressing room with her and pass dresses back and forth. If one dress didn’t look good on her, it did on me. It all works out in the end.

Except for jeans. Le sigh.

Anyway, hence the lateness of today’s recipe round-up. Usually I’m better about scheduling and writing, but this week was horrrrrrrriffic (thank you, after-commencement madness), so I took the evenings off to sit on the couch, cheer on the Phillies (love me some Hunter Pence, mmm mmm) and eat a lot of Dove chocolate.

It was so worth it.

We have a variety of delicious goodies for you today, starting with my personal favorite, a Coconut Cream Poke Cake from The Country Cook. Is there anything more perfect than a fluffy white cake filled with sweet coconut cream?

Even though I’m not a huge peanut butter fan, I think I could learn to love it with this Peanut Butter Fudge Cake from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. Aren’t Reese’s peanut butter cups magical? They can solve the world’s problems. Maybe all chocolate can. . . .

Speaking of solving problems, ever have a debate about what kind of toppings/fillings you should use in your baked treats? Never have an argument again with these Monster Cookie Bars from Bakers Royale. Very similar to those seven-layer bars of which everyone has her own version, these monster bars feature M&M’s, almonds and peanut butter cups.

If you’re craving something simple (and need about three dozen cookies), try these Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies from Krissy’s Creations. I’ve been meaning to try out browned butter in a recipe for some time now, and these cookies look like perfect medium!

I know I said the first one was my favorite, but this also counts! These Mini-Grasshopper Pies from Bakingdom look so adorable and are my long-awaited reason to purchase other liqueurs besides amaretto (I’m only slighted addicted to Disaronno). Also, I need to buy some tart pans. Or maybe I can use my lined cupcake pans? Hmm.

But that’s a thought for next week. Enjoy your Sunday, folks. It’s going to be another day of perfect weather in New Jersey.

- Niki