Carrot Cake COOKIES

I'm not sure how much this applies to all of you fellow university goers, however for me and my roommates, November is much worse than October. PAPER SEASON IS THE WORST TIME EVER. Seriously though, studying for midterms is not nearly as bad as having one month to write multiple term papers. It sucks. It also means I don't have time to go out, especially when going out involves drinking and being hungover.

But not being able to go out doesn't mean you can't take writing breaks and my favourite types of break is one that involves the creation of cookies. Someone posted this recipe on Facebook a while ago and all I was thinking was why aren't those in my mouth. So a few weeks ago, me and the roomies had a WILD Friday night and baked these bad boys.

We also decided not to make them sandwich cookies because thats just way too much cookie and not enough icing.

Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup grated carrots (about 3 large carrots)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting (*this is the recipe from the website I used for the cookies, however, I just threw some ingredients together and added more until it tasted good)

2 stick of butter, at room temp
16 oz cream cheese, at room temp
8 cups icing sugar
1 dash vanilla extract

dat icing

Directions

1. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture.

3. Mix in oats, carrots and walnuts. Chill dough for an hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into balls (this part is messy) and place on baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 10-13 minutes. Allow to cool before icing.

5. While your cookies bake, make the icing. Add more icing sugar if too liquidy, or add more milk or butter if too thick.

More photos of our crazy Friday night:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Upon returning from Peru I was craving two things: baking and peanut butter. Although I did do some baking in Peru I'm not going to lie I missed the ability to go to a grocery store and get random ingredients for really creative recipes. And peanut butter exists in Peru however its not nearly as popular and thus very expensive. Thus my longtime baking buddy Lia came over and we made some serious noms. 

These photos do not do these cookies justice. Perhaps this will make you understand how good these noms are:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp. flour

6 tbsp. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 stick butter, room temp.

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp. vanilla

2 tbsp. milk

2 cups chopped peanut butter cups or minis

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with baking spray.

2. In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter, peanut butter and sugars until fluffy. Add vanilla, egg and milk. Add the dry ingredients slowly until fully mixed. Add peanut butter cups.

3. Roll into balls and bake about 10 minutes. Let set for 10 min before transferring to cooling rack. 

Enjoy with some milk :)

Apple Pie Bars

It has been so long since I have posted, but to be fair, I am in Peru and before coming here I had exams. I've been cooking and baking still, just not posting cause I suck. But being in Peru has somewhat inspired me again because my new friends here love to bake and cook as well. And so, with the very limited ingredients you can find in a rural town in Peru, we've been fairly impressive chefs.

These bars we made just after exams I believe (in our old apartment, in the Tiffany kitchen still) and they were so yummy. They started my new love for skor bits, omg those things are heaven and need to be put in all the things! These bars were easy and were the kind of thing you bake and then eat half the pan with no regrets.

Ingredients 

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
1 cup SKOR chips (or more, do as you feel)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a glass 13”x9” baking dish.
2. Beat oil, sugar and eggs for about 2 minutes.
3. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and spices. Add to other bowl and beat until completely combined. Fold in apples.
4. Scrape batter into a pan and coat with skor chips. Bake for 45 min. Bars are best served warm.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

As you can tell we have a thing for brownies. And since we have vaginas, we also have a thing for cookie dough. Someone else decided these things should be combined, and as we have seen before, combining things with brownies has never gone wrong.

Thus, we have another epic-ly delicious, but not so epic-ly made (I made them alone while watching a crappy chick flick on Netflix) brownie recipe. So, eat your heart out and heavenly taste of the perfect brownies combined with raw cookie dough (no egg=no guilt!).

I got the idea from here, however I used the brownie recipe from Fry's cocoa powder because we at Ste. Famille have decided that no brownie recipe can compete.

Ingredients
Brownies:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cookie Dough:

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan on medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in Fry's Cocoa. Blend in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients and chopped nuts.
3. Pour batter into greased 13x9" pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes (do not let them burn!).

4. In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to combine the butter and both sugars. Add the milk and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour just until combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Let brownies cool completely before adding the cookie dough. I found it a bit tricky so I rolled the cookie dough out in sections on the counter, added the sections on top of the brownies, and pressed them together with my hands. Place pan in the fridge for at least an hour before cutting. Brownies can be stored either in the fridge or at room temperature.

Desperate Housewife Bars

What is a Desperate Housewife Bar? Long story short, they are the most delicious bar-shaped food in the history of humanity. They come from this adorbs little restaurant in my hometown called the Rocky Mountain Cafe. When I was home, my home friends and I decided it was necessary that we try to emulate the recipe!

So, we made something up using different recipes for the brownie base, raspberry cheesecake middle, and chocolate ganache layer. And it was a DELICIOUS success.

This was our prototype

For the brownie base, we used the Fry's Cocoa brownie recipe:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup cocoa, Fry's 
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Melt butter in a pot on the stove on a medium-high and then stir in the cocoa and sugar. Once all have dissolved together, remove from heat and add the other ingredients. Pour it all into a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish or baking pan, and set aside to make the cheesecake mixture.

We ended up not using the whole base mixture because we were worried it might be too tall, but I would say for next time we would dump it all in. 


For the raspberry cheesecake layer, we used this recipe:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


Mix all of that with an electric mixer until thoroughly blended, then pour on top of the brownie mix. Then, sprinkle fresh or frozen raspberries throughout the cheesecake layer. 

Bake this at 350 degrees F for about 30-45 minutes; you might just have to watch it and wait until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

While that is baking, make some chocolate ganache to top. We made some from this recipe, but doubled it:

1/2 cup whipping cream

3 oz chopped dark chocolate


Bring cream to a boil in a pot on the stove, and then pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl and let sit until everything is melted. 


When the cheesecake brownie part is fully cooled, top it with the ganache, and then place in the refrigerator until fully set. 

You're welcome.

Three Words: Caramel, Pecan, Chocolate

Before the holidays I made these amazing caramel chocolate pecan bars for a friend (they were very hard to part with) and when I got back home I wanted to make something similar for my holiday party with my friends. However one thing I found was the bars were a bit difficult to cut, so I made these little turtle tarts which were equally delicious. Both recipes are amazing and extremely sweet, the bars are probably easier to make however the tarts are so cute looking!

First, the bars:

Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup pecan halves
Topping:
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. To make the crust, combine flour, brown sugar, and butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9" x 13" baking pan.
2. Gently press pecans evenly over the top of the crust and set aside.
3. In a saucepan over medium heat combine butter and brown sugar. Stir constantly until mixture begins to boil, continue stirring to ensure it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. Allow to boil for 1 minute then immediately pour over crust and pecans.
4. Bake 18-20 minutes until caramel layer is bubbly. Don't overbake!
5. Once you take the bars out of the oven sprinkle with chocolate chips while they are still hot so the chocolate melts. Use a toothpick to swirl the chocolate over the crust.
6. Cool in fridge completely before cutting into bars.

mmm caramellll

Second, the tarts:

Ingredients

1 Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

One egg and the butter required for the mix

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

About 3 cups of caramels, unwrapped

1/3 cup whipping creme

1/2 cup pecan halves

Directions

1. Make dough according to package directions. Roll into 1 inch balls and press into the bottom of mini muffin cups. This is where this recipe gets time consuming, you need to make sure you don't use too much dough in each cup but make sure there is enough dough to go up on all the way on the sides.

2. Bake 8-9 min. When the tarts come out of the oven they will have completely filled the cups, the directions said to use the back of a wooden spoon (I used the back of a pen which I washed) to press the dough back down. Bake for another 2 minutes.

3. While the tarts are baking place caramels and cream in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Reduce heat to low (or remove from heat if you are afraid of it burning, you can always reheat if the caramel begins to harden).

4. Once tarts have finished baking place 3-4 chocolate chips in each. Fill each cup with caramel and top with a few pecans. Let tarts cool before removing from pans (I removed them before adding caramel so I could make more).

And there you have it, two amazing recipes combing three delicious ingredients.

Peppermint Kiss Cookies

I've been dreaming about these since I found the Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses at Shopper's. And since I had a vision, I kind of had to create my own recipe, as none of the others on the web seemed right. So, I used this base from the Hershey's website, and just replaced the chocolate kisses with Candy Cane.

They came out wonderfully, but if I were to make them again I might experiment with adding crushed candy cane to the dough, so if you do make them and are feeling adventurous, do that, and tell us how it goes!

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup softened butter
-3/4 cup white sugar
-3/4 cup brown sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 tbsp milk (i used almond milk)
-2 1/4 cup white flour
-1/3 cup cocoa powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup chocolate chips
-1 back unwrapped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses to top

Directions:
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
-Mix dough, roll into golf-ball sized balls, place on a baking sheet, and press down the center of each with your thumb, just a little bit.
-Bake for 10 minutes or so, and then immediately place kisses in the center of each cookie.
-If you want them to harden while keeping their shape, put they trays in the refrigerator to cool, but also eat one like 5 mins after they come out because the Kiss will be melty and AMAZING.

Caution: these are the best cookies you will ever make and you may eat like 3 of them. Plan to go for a run that day...

Christmas-M&M-Candy-Cane-Vanilla-Rice-Crispies-White-and-Dark-Chocolate Bark

I <3 bark.

Loosen your belt. Give up on your diet. Or give it all away (that's what I did)!

But actually, I caution you that this is the best candy cane bark, or bark of any kind really, that I have ever made. Makes amazing gifts, or a festive treat for all of your holiday parties. This recipe is also dead easy, and having already been to 3 holiday parties, I understand that ease is of necessity.

We got the recipe here, and it goes like this: 

Ingredients:

-1 pack (8 squares) semi-sweet baker's chocolate

-1 pack (8 squares) white baker's chocolate

-2 cups Vanilla Rice Crispies 

-6 candy canes

-1 pack christmas-coloured M&Ms

Directions:

-Melt semi-sweet chocolate in a double-boiler and line a baking pan with parchment or wax paper. When chocolate is fully melted (no lumps) pour it over the parchment, filling the baking sheet but leaving a couple inches from each edge. 

-Sprinkle a layer (approx. 2 cups) of any kind of Rice Crispies cereal (we used vanilla).

-Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler and spread it over the cereal layer. 

-Crush 6 candy canes and sprinkle the bits and your M&Ms over the white chocolate

-Place the baking sheet in the fridge to fully harden (about 2 hours), then break it either with your hands or a knife into the size of pieces you desire.

Watch yourselves, I'm serious, you will want to eat it ALL! Or you will eat too many M&Ms while making it and never want to see chocolate again in your life (for that day, at least). I may have done this...

Be back soon with more Christmas posts!

Apple Crumble

The best part of McGill is the internationalism. And by that I mean I have a lot of American friends who want to celebrate Thanksgiving in November (weirdos) and so I get to feast for the second time in two months! Yay!

This time we went less all out than before but still deliciousness ensued. I made apple crumble, one of my favourite desserts. Except this time instead of making the usual oats and cinnamon topping, I tried a shortbread crumble topping to make it less sweet. Why make it less sweet? Because that way you can put ice cream and caramel syrup on top! It was amazing.

Ingredients
For the apples:
6-7 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced evenly
3 tbsp. flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. lemon juice
For the topping:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
Vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place peeled and slice apples in large mixing bowl. Add flour, sugar  cinnamon and lemon juice. Mix until thoroughly coated.

2. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Place apple mixture in dish and set aside.
3. Mix the flour and sugar in another bowl. Add softened butter with a fork until you have crumbs. It shouldn't be dough but you should be able to squeeze it together with your hands and it will stick together.
4. Pour crumble mixture on top of apples. If there is not enough crumble it is easy to make more. I found the original recipe did not have enough so I added more (and tried to adjust the above ingredient list accordingly).
5. Bake for 30-40 min. Serve hot (rewarm in the oven if you need to) and add the ice cream and artistically poured caramel.

Enjoy :)

It's India Timeeeeee

When you google "India Time" two things come up, first the current time in India and second THE BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT IN NEWMARKET (my hometown). So when I'm here in Montreal, away from the wonderful place, I go into India Time withdrawal. Symptoms of India Time withdrawal are particularly intense whenever one walks by a Samosa sale on campus and indulges. So, last Friday, as we feasted on Samosas we decided to make our own India Time. It. Was. Awesome.

Dish 1: Garam Masala-ish thing that I honestly totally made up. But it worked. So hah. 

I used...

-2 tbsp vegetable oil

-1 onion

-1 15 oz. can chick peas

-1/4 c water

-2 tomatoes

-1/2 c frozen peas

-about 5 tbsp garam masala (but really all spices to taste)

-1 tbsp cumin 

-1 tbsp cayenne pepper (SO SPICY, just to warn you)

-2 tsp tumeric

-2 tsp ginger powder

-1 tbsp garlic

-1 tsp salt

-juice of 1 lemon

K, so basically, I heated the oil in a pan, and sautéed the onions. I added the garam masala, cumin, and cayenne, and stirred it in for about 2 minutes. After that I added chickpeas along with 1/4 cup of water, and then the tomatoes. I then added the peas and remaining spices, and brought it to a boil, then let it simmer. After about 5-10 minutes of cooking, I turned it way down and mixed in the lemon juice. It was delicious and SO SO spicy, just the way we like it (but actually for your own safety get the Brita on the table NOW, or if you're not vegan, milk for sure).

Next up: Potatoes!

Seeing as we didn't prepare I just took the vegetables I had on hand (potatoes, carrots and spinach) and googled a way to cook them Indian-style. The recipe I got really didn't make sense, anyone who has ever cooked potatoes before knows that stir-frying them doesn't exactly work so I modified it a bit. This recipe turned out yummy, not amazing, but still good.

Ingredients
About 1-2 cups of chopped and peeled carrots
2 big potatoes unpeeled and cubed
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons red chilli powder
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons coriander
1 cup vegetable broth (or more)

1 cup baby spinach

1. Heat the margarine in a wok or large pan at medium heat. Add cumin and ginger.

2. Add potatoes, carrots, broth and the rest of the spices. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Let simmer for about 15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. Make sure to keep checking there is enough liquid in the pan so nothing burns to the bottom.

3. Add spinach for the last few minutes. Serve and enjoy.

So after this, we basically crawled to my room and went into an India food coma for a little while. This is an integral part of the India time experience.

Apologies... and Avocado!

So I know we've been particularly lazy of late, lending our time to such trivial matters as schoolwork (apparently add-drop week is no longer a grace period), getting our house in order (No, we didn't move; Yes, our dishwasher, shower and sink suspiciously broke over the summer... when no one was here), and celebrating not one, but TWO roommates' transitions into the terrifying twenties (a sobering event, made less so by the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol). All this to say... we're sorry, and promise to make provisioning you with those delicious and satisfying recipes you so deserve, our top priority.

As a reward for your patience, I will now disclose to you one of the weirdest but most AMAZING recipes I have ever had the pleasure to make, or TASTE. This was taken from Joy the Baker, and is perfect if you're looking to impress your friends (especially if it's your newly veganized roommate). 

Said Veganized Roommate, Cutting into her B-Day Cake!

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour

6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 Tsp salt

2 Tsp baking powder

2 Tsp baking soda

2 Cups granulated sugar

1/4 Cup vegetable oil

1/2 Cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado

2 Cups water

2 Tbps white vinegar 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds. Set aside.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients, except the sugar. Set that aside too.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado.

Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.

Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into the greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out completely clean.

Let cakes cool completely before frosting with avocado buttercream.

Yep, it's really there!

Avocado Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients

8 oz avocado meat, about 2 small to medium, very ripe avocados

2 Tsp lemon juice

1 pd powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 Tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

Peel and pit the soft avocados. It's important to use the ripest avocados you can get your hands on.

Place the avocado meat into a blender. Add the lemon juice and blend on medium speed, until slightly lightened in colour and smooth.

Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, continuing to blend. Add vanilla extract until combined. If not using it right away, store in the refrigerator. Don't worry. It won't turn brown!

Gooey Goodness 

Belated Father's Day

Hey there. Sorry we are so lazy in the summer (especially me) and never post even though we have like 20 new culinary adventures in photographs... This one is a lot late, but it's a good one, I promise.

My dad's favourite thing in the world, second only to peanut butter, is carrot cake. So on father's day, I figured I would be an amazing daughter and make him his fave dessert from his fave recipe that my mom has been making forever. So here ya goooo. Not posting the recipe because as I said I am lazy, and you can see it pretty well in the photo.

Well-used recipe card

MMMMM.

Strawberry Cheesecake

Caitlin and I have made this before but photos were not that great. This time when I made it we had amazing lighting and now we have drool-worthy photos of the most delicious Strawberry Cheesecake ever. I don't think I need to say much, the pictures speak for themselves.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm.

Ingredients
2 1/12 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 sticks butter
1 8 oz. pkg. light cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup light sour cream
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 egg, plus one yolk
2 cups fresh strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix the crumbs and brown sugar to make fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix well. Press firmly into a tart or spring form pan and set aside (I didn't actually have any of these pans and used a large pie pan which kind of turned out to be a big mess so I advise you get the right pan).

3. Blend the cream cheese with an electric blender or food processor until soft. Make sure you scrape down the sides to ensure there are no clumps. 

4. Add condensed milk, sour cream, eggs, and lemon juice and blend well. Pour into the pan and bake for 25 minutes.

5. No idea how to tell if a cheesecake is cooked so I just accept that time and temperature the recipe gives and hope for the best. Let the cheesecake cool before covering with foil and transferring to the fridge to chill for at least four hours.

6. Now the fun part: strawberries! The recipe said to use sour cream so the strawberries stick, so you can do that, I didn't, I just cut them thin and made a strawberry pyramid.

Eat it and make everyone around you your personal slave in exchange for slices of cheesecake heaven.

Adventures in Agave

As you have probably noticed, we like cookies. Unfortunately, cookies are obviously not the world's healthiest or lowest fat/calorie food, so we are constantly searching for ways to make them a little more wholesome.

I decided to try the latest natural sugar source craze, agave nectar, in hopes of making my cookies a little less refined-sugar-ridden. This stuff is great because it is all natural, a little lower calorie than sugar, and you need less of it because it's so sweet. These cookies still have a cup of butter in them though-- keep eating your veggies, etc. I grabbed a cookie recipe off the internet that seemed to be the going chocolate chip agave cookie one and made a few alterations to it.

1 cup agave nectar

1 cup softened butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour (Obvi I used whole wheat)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/12 cups carob chips (Because my father can't eat chocolate)

                       

Mix that, spoon onto greased cookie sheets, and bake at 350 C for 8 minutes or so, maybe 10.

So satisfying, and not altogether unhealthy! Yayyyy me.