Pumpkin Mornings

Nothing starts a Friday morning off much better than a slice of pumpkin bread covered in fudgey chocolate frosting and a home made pumpkin spice latte. Thank God it's finally fall, Thank God it's  Friday and Thank God for pumpkin!

 Earlier this week I stumbled upon the recipe for this pumpkin bread recipe on Lolly Jane's instagram account. I immediately ran out and bought a can of pumpkin puree because I could not wait to make this! It tuned out as delicious as it looked when I first laid eyes on it!

Of course, the recipe didn't call for a whole can of pumpkin so naturally I used the leftover and concocted my own version of the Pumpkin Spice Latte.

You'll need:

8 oz milk

1/8-1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

5 oz espresso coffee

2 tsp salted caramel syrup (optional)

Heat the milk, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and salted caramel syrup in a pan on the stove top until hot and bubbly. 

Pour over espresso (I used 2 tsp instant espresso powder mixed with 5oz boiling water)

Enjoy while hot!

Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Carbs

Who does a dual post about made-from-scratch bread machine rolls and fudgey-brownie cupcakes with peanut butter cream cheese frosting? That's right, I do. And I like to call myself Queen of the Carbohydrates.

I made these two delicious, carb-loaded items for a family dinner last week and even though it is the most random duo of recipes I had to share them both with you! If you're watching your waistline...you should still probably indulge in these!

These bread machine rolls are seriously the easiest scratch made rolls you'll ever stumble across and once you try them you will never go back to store bought again!

I have recently started a major love affair with my bread machine. I've always known home made bread is way better than anything you can buy in the stores but I've also always been a little intimidated by all the work it seems to take to make it..having the water at the right temperature, making sure to use just enough yeast...and bread flour? Well turns out once you get the hang of it, home made bread is really easy...plus its so yummy and impressive too!

They are soft, fluffy, sweet, tender and buttery..

I used this recipe and followed the instructions exactly...they turn out perfect every single time!

Now for dessert...

Because these are mini sized its a lot easier to eat like 10 and not even realize it.

Good or bad thing? Not sure...still investigating!

The method for making these little morsels are a little different than any brownies I've made. You make a little caramel-like sauce in the microwave and then turn it into brownie batter. You can totally taste the toffee-esque flavor this gives to the final product! Yum! 

I used this recipe but added cream cheese instead of regular butter in the frosting.

Coming from the carbo-queen herself...I suggest you give these little babies a try...soon!

XO

leftover bananas

Over ripe bananas are one of my favorite things. Banana bread is one of my favorite things...but with how fast bananas go bad...I can only make so many loaves of banana bread.

So I did what anybody would do...I surfed leftover banana recipes on Pinterest for a few hours!

I settled on Fudgy Banana Bars with Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Icing and Banana Oatmeal Muffins.

The first of which is a sweet decadent treat and the latter a better-for-you breakfast or snack which I thought balanced each other out nicely. I can eat the "healthy" snack and not feel so bad about indulging in the "dessert" afterwards. 

I took these to a little breakfast get together at a friends house, yeah you can eat dessert for breakfast...And they disappeared! Just happy I didn't end up taking many home. 

If you have any leftover bananas sitting on your counter top...make these!

enjoy! XO

Our Weekend

I love weekends like this last one. Nothin' but good food, the best family, and relaxation. 

Ahhh the good life!

Monday of course brings us back to a little reality so I am going to reminisce.....

I picked up a potted plant this weekend that I had ordered from a local landscaping company here in town...usually I just buy my flowers from the store and plant them myself but since I received a gift card from my hubby for Mother's Day this year I decided to put it to good use and treat myself to a fancy potted flower arrangement! It turned out so beautiful and I am going to enjoy every minute gazing at it for the next few months of summer! 

Saturday we smoked a brisket on our pellet smoker for eighteen hours! We spent some serious time researching what recipes and methods to use and ended up using a combination of a few..

this one,  this one and especially this one were the 3 that caught our eye and we ended up combining techniques and ingredients from all of them. For our first try it turned out pretty dang good...don't get me wrong, it's not BBQ competition ready by any means but we were pretty excited with how delicious it was and can't wait to try it again sometime...except for the waking-up-at-5am-on-a-Saturday-to-start-cooking part..but we value food over sleep around this house! This makes for killer leftover brisket sandwiches the rest of the week too!

Sunday we spent the entire day at the lake! The weather was to die for perfect and we all came home a little sunburned and a lot exhausted.

We ended the day with a little Father's Day dinner celebration and the most rich, decadent, delicious cheesecake that ever existed.

My husband and dad are always requesting cheesecake so I like to take the opportunity to try new recipes! This recipe for salted caramel cheesecake looked pretty irresistible! I swapped the oreo crust for an espresso brownie layer which was the best decision I've ever made by far. I just used a store bought brownie mix and added a little espresso powder to the mix. I baked the brownie layer for 15 minutes before pouring the cheesecake batter over the top and following the rest of the baking instructions. I am still having chocolate salted caramel dreams about this dessert!

Oreo Truffles

These little balls of deliciousness are the easiest, yummiest, little treat ever! Where ever I bring them, people always seem so amazed that I made them and that I didn't order them from some bakery or something...they look like a lot of hard work and taste even better! But they're only 3 simple ingredients and take less than an hour start to finish! Seriously, take these little gems to your next gathering and you are sure to become the most popular person at the party!

You start with one package of Oreo Cookies...you can use any variety! I used original for these pictures but I also made some using golden Oreos too....they were just gobbled up before I had the chance to snap any photos! Put that whole package of Oreos into the food processor and pulse until you get very fine crumbs. Then, dump all those crumbs (you may want to reserve like 1/4 a cup for a sprinkle of decoration on the finished truffle) into a bowl...I use my Kitchen Aid mixer. Add one 8oz block of room temp cream cheese and mix well. It will turn into a sort of dough...use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out equal sized portions, roll into balls and pop them onto a cookie sheet covered parchment paper. Stick them into the freezer for like 10-15 minutes while you melt the coating. I like to use CandiQuik or a similar product like Almond Bark or Candy Melts (Hobbly Lobby actually carries a ton of variety of the candy melts in different flavors and colors)...I have tried to use chocolate chips and they are just a little too temperamental for me. CandiQuik works great every time, it melts easy, hardens quickly, and even comes in a disposable, microwavable tray = no mess! You just coat each ball in the melted chocolate and put it right back on the same tray. Once all the truffles are coated, pop them back in the freezer for another 10-15 minutes and they're done! Sometimes I drizzle some melted CandiQuik of a different color on top to make them look pretty, or you can sprinkle some of the crumbs you set aside on top while they're still wet, that gives it a nice, finished look too!

Make sure you store these treats in the refridgerator! ;-)

Enjoy! XO

Flourless Chocolate Cake

We had some family in town over this past weekend and we all got together Saturday night for our standard dinner gathering. I am in charge of dessert pretty often, and my sister in law requested Flourless Chocolate Cake for this occasion. She sent me this recipe since it is one she has made before. I will say that it is fairly easy, and has only a few ingredients...the most "difficult" parts were trying not to deflate the eggs and chopping all that chocolate..which I may or may not have sampled.

The cake itself is moist, rich and decadent! I served it with some chocolate ganache glazed over the top like frosting (which you can find here), some vanilla bean mascarpone whipped cream and of course, fresh raspberries...YUM! It got rave reviews all around, it is such a classic, delicious dessert and I am thinking it will become my staple dessert when I want to impress people will a little faux fanciness.

This recipe is great if you're trying to stay away from gluten, we can pretend it's low carb too, right?..or if you just want to try something a little different! It is the absolute perfect combination between regular chocolate cake and gooey brownies & I can't wait for an excuse to make it again!

Meyer Lemon Cake with Strawberry Frosting

I absolutely LOVE when Meyer Lemons are in season & you can find big bags of them at the grocery store! Meyer lemons are tart like lemons, but sweet like oranges. Their zest is thicker and sweeter and their juice is perfectly tart. I love lemon flavored desserts so when I saw these the other day at the store I knew I had to pick up a bag and start lemon-infused baking! Plus, what says "spring" more than lemon? Okay I know it's only January but a girl can dream, right?

The cake part of this recipe is super easy, its the frosting made with fresh strawberry puree that can get a little tricky, but it's worth it. I adapted this recipe by swapping out a few ingredients from the red velvet cake I made last weekend. 

Cake

1/2 cup margarine

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice 

2 T Meyer lemon zest

*Make a paste with the above, then add:

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2-1/2 cups cake flour

1-2 drops yellow food coloring

*Mix until well combined

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two, 9" round cake  pans.

Bake cakes 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out nearly clean. Cool on wire racks.

 

Strawberry Puree

2 large strawberries

1/2 tsp water

*slice strawberries and puree w/ water in a blender, this should make approx. 1/4 cup*

 

Frosting

1/4 cup strawberry puree

3/4 cup milk

5 Tbsp flour

*whisk above ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring continuously until thick, let cool to room temperature*

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1-2 drops red food coloring

*cream together butter, sugar and food coloring, add cooled milk and flour mixture and beat on high until smooth and creamy*

 

Strawberry Topping (optional)

1/4 cup strawberry jam

1 Tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp milk

*whisk together until smooth & drizzle over the top of frosted cake*

 

 I cut each 9" round in half horizontally to make a thinner, 4 layer cake. Also, in the middle of the 2nd and 3rd layers on top of the frosting, I added super thin slices of strawberries. These are just my little touches, you can choose to do the same..or not :-)

Due to the fact that I definitely do not need a full sized layer cake in my house for me to eat, I sent this to work with Scott. I did try a slice...in case it sucked I didn't wanna send it as I have a reputation to uphold ;-) however I ate it so quickly I forgot to take a picture, which I am sad/mad about because the yellow cake with the pretty pink frosting and the bits of real strawberries peeking out of the middle was SO pretty! 

 

Enjoy this yummy, moist cake with the perfect amount of tartness from the lemons and sweetness from the strawberries; it's sure to give you spring fever!

 

 

 

 

Red Velvet Cake {Special Edition: Denver Broncos}

First and foremost please allow me to say....

  

GO BRONCOS!!!

In honor of my favorite football team, the Denver Broncos making it to WINNING the AFC championship and heading to the Super Bowl, I turned one of my favorite cake recipes into a special orange and blue edition to celebrate!

 This is still technically red velvet cake. It tastes the exact same, the food coloring is the only thing that has been changed. It's still moist, delicious and has a perfect hint of cocoa and almond flavoring which all add up to make this my favorite.cake.ever.

Here is my DISCLAIMER:

I've never, in any sense of the word, claimed to be a cake decorator. I am definitely NOT skilled in the area of making cakes look pretty, only in the area of making them taste good. So I can totally promise you that this will look taste magnificent.

This recipe is an old family favorite, from the cook book called The Feed Bag by Ann Galles and Karla Dundas whom I am lucky enough to call family. It is simple and never fails. My husband's grandma even has "famous" red cake recipe that she has made for ages and my mother in law said that this one is just as good...almost as good ;-)

 

 RECIPE

1/2 cup margarine 

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 T cocoa powder

1/4 cup red food coloring (yikes)

*make a paste with the above ingredients and then add:

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 T vanilla extract

1 T almond extract 

1 T white vinegar

2-1/2 cups cake flour

*mix well 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour two, 9" cake pans (I line the bottom of mine with parchment paper, it makes it sooo much easier to get the baked cakes out of the pans)

Bake cakes 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out nearly clean. Cool cakes on a wire rack while you make the frosting.

We've gotta have a chat about the frosting. Pretty much everybody thinks that red velvet cake should come with cream cheese frosting. I used to be one of those people; but let me just tell you that is incorrect. Yeah cream cheese frosting is delicious and I could eat it by the spoonful on dang near anything but the traditional icing on this cake shall not be tampered with, kapeesh?

 

For the frosting, heat 1 cup of milk in a sauce pan on low-medium heat. Whisk in 5 T of all purpose flour. Cook, stirring constantly until thick (you want this thicker than brownie batter). Let the mixture cool to room temp. Meanwhile, beat 1 cup of room temperature butter with 1 cup of granulated sugar until light and fluffy. 

*The key to this frosting is beating the living daylights out of it*

Add the cooled milk/flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and mix on high until light and fluffy. You do not want this frosting to be thin and grainy; if that's the case...turn it back on high and keep at it until it is smooth and creamy!

 

I cut each of my 9" cakes in half horizontally and make a thin, 4 layer cake. If this is out of your comfort zone, just skip it and make a 2-layer cake.

Obviously you can use your brain and figure out that I swapped the red food coloring for orange, and turned some of the frosting blue. I suppose you could do this with any combination of colors you want...just beware that the cocoa powder in the cake won't mix well with certain colors. 

Also, I suggest making this cake a day ahead of time, for some reason it just gets better over night :-)

 

 

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Swirl Bread

So, the swirl part of this bread is actually an accident. For whatever reason lately, I have had my head in the clouds. Total space case. I forgot to add the baking soda to the bread and didn't realize it until it had already been in the oven for 5 minutes. I dumped it all back into the bowl to stir in the baking soda but the chocolate chips had already begun melting. When I started to stir; viola! Chocolate swirl bread! Haha I was so mad at myself but when it came out of the oven it actually looked okay, and tasted delicious anyways. If you make this bread, it will just be regular old pumpkin chocolate chip bread; unless of course you take the bread out of the oven after it's been in there for 5 minutes and swirl it around with a knife :-)

This bread is moist and delicious and has wonderful pumpkin flavor. Would be yummy for Thanksgiving breakfast or even as a dessert! You can leave out the chocolate chips if you prefer something a little less sweet. Also, this makes A LOOOOOT of bread; three full sized loaves or lots of mini loaves. You can wrap a mini loaf up all cute and give them away as gifts. Hostess gift for Thanksgiving perhaps?!

I found this recipe here.

 

 

Ingredients

3 Cups Sugar

1 (15 ounce) Can Pumpkin Puree

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

2/3 Cup Water

4 Eggs

3 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Tablspoon Ground Cinnamon

1 Tablespoon Ground Nutmeg

2 Teaspoons Baking Soda

1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

1 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

This recipe filled two regular bread loaf pans plus one mini loaf pan.

Grease your pans.

 

Combine your sugar, pumpkin, oil, water and eggs.

Beat until smooth.

Blend in your flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.

Fold in your chocolate chips.

 

Pour the batter into your bread pans.

Bake one hour or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

 

Orange White Chocolate Cheesecake

This is my husbands requested birthday dessert. Every year. Actually whatever special occasion he can request a dessert; this is the one he picks. This is his favorite and a recipe that came from his mom; she makes it on most special occasions as well. She was nice enough to share the recipe with me, it actually originally came from an Easter special in the Casper Star Tribune. It's "orange" because it has orange extract in the topping and is garnished with mandarin oranges., but I've replaced the orange extract with vanilla extract before and served it with other fruit toppings or even fudge or caramel before. It's good any which way your serve it. It's thick, rich and creamy and has the perfect cream cheese flavor. I would recommend making it a day in advance because its like 50 times better once it's sat in the fridge overnight :-)

(Yield 12-16 servings)

Crust 

2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

6 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

Filling

4 packages (8 oz.) cream cheese

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

10 oz. white baking chocolate, melted

Topping

1 cup sour cream

3 Tbsp sugar

1/2- 1 tsp orange extract

2 cans mandarin oranges, drained

1. In a bowl, combine the first three ingredients and mix well. Press into the bottom and 1-1/2 inches up the sides of a greased 10 inch spring form pan. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes; cool completely.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and sour cream until blended. Add chocolate and pour into crust. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until center is nearly set. Cool to room temperature.

3. For the topping, combine sour cream, sugar and extract; spread over filling. Bake at 450 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes or until set.

4. Chill, uncovered, for 1 hour.

5. Arrange oranges on top of cheesecake.

6. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.

You cannot go wrong with this cheesecake. Every time I've ever made it, it's always a huge hit.

It's sweet and creamy, and the oranges give it a nice tart bite. Its also yummy with other toppings. You could serve this plain in a "cheesecake bar" fashion along with an array of toppings and let people design their own masterpiece!

No more buying "no bake" cheesecake mix from a box...no more buying frozen cheesecakes...spend a little time and make this homemade and it's sure to please :-)

Wacky Cake and Peanut Butter Icing

So, ya know how I said that you'd rarely see something healthy on this blog? Well, I lied. Ever since I decided to make a few substitutions in that banana bread, I've been obsessed with trying to do the same with other foods. I know, I would say I was sorry, but if you try this recipe you won't make me apologize, I promise! This is called wacky cake because it's seriously crazy how easy it is...you don't even have to use a mixing bowl! What? Yeah- you mix everything together right in the pan! I have managed to make it even "wackier" by making some simple substitutions that attribute to about 200 less calories per slice!! (the original has 271 and the modified version has 107) And guess what? IT TASTES EXACTLY LIKE A REGULAR, FULL FAT, FULL OF SUGAR CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! I adapted it from this original recipe.

I've said it before, I will say it again; I have a dessert problem. Actually I probably have an addiction to dessert. The first step is admitting it, right?! Well recipes like this could be my saving grace! 

We started Insanity this week. We are on day 3 and: so far, so good. Something about working my butt off and sweating during a work out makes me not wanna load my body up with crap directly after; makes sense, right? So we're trying to make a few healthier choices here in the Kugler household. With a few exceptions- like tonight, which is my hubby's birthday; and he has requested buttermilk fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and white chocolate cheese cake for dessert. I'm not even going to ask how many calories are in that meal! Guilty pleasures are just that :-)

This recipe yields about 16 servings: I used an 8x8 *glass* pan.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup stevia blend 

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup warm water

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in the pan.

2. Whisk in wet ingredients (the vinegar will react with the baking soda and fizz, this is normal).

3. Bake and 350 for 20-25 minutes.

4. Let cool and frost with peanut butter icing (see below).

*In the original recipe, the author warns not to use a metal cake pan as some have noticed a slight metal taste of the cake due to the reaction of the vinegar and baking soda in the pan*

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1-2 Tbsp nonfat milk

1/2 cup stevia blend

1. Melt the peanut butter slightly in either a sauce pan or in the microwave (be careful not to burn it).

2. Remove from heat and stir in applesauce.

3. Pour over sugar and stir.

4. Add milk as needed to desired texture.

5. Frost cake!

 

 The cake has a spongy texture and is really moist. Unlike most cakes, I think this cake is better served warm. If you're not worried about calories, you could add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and that would be absolutely heavenly! If you want to double this recipe, it can easily be done!

Me and Griff shared a plate last night :-)

 

Enjoy!

Cookies and Cream Pudding Cake

Next to peanut butter and chocolate- cookies and cream is one of my favorite combinations! This is a poke cake, also one of my favorites! Poke cakes are so incredibly easy, can be varied in tons of different ways, and takes something from plain and simple to deep and delicious! This particular poke cake is filled with Oreo pudding, topped with cool whip and more crushed Oreos. It's even better the next day after it's sat in the fridge overnight. YUM!

1 chocolate cake (you can make one from a box or use a scratch recipe)

1 instant vanilla pudding mix

2 cups of cold milk

1 sleeve chocolate Oreos (crushed)

1 container cool whip

1. Bake chocolate cake according to package directions. Let cool for 2-5 minutes.

2. Poke holes alllllll over the cake. This will kind of massacre a perfectly good cake, but you're going to cover it with pudding and other deliciousness, so don't worry!

3. Mix instant pudding with 2 cups of cold milk. Add 1/2 of crushed Oreos to the pudding.

*DO NOT let pudding set up!*

4. Pour pudding while it is still runny all over the "poked" cake.

5. Stick the cake in the fridge, this is where the pudding will "set up".

5. After an hour or two, frost the cake with the cool whip.

6. Garnish with the remaining crushed Oreo.

7. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Like I said, this cake is better after it's been refrigerated for awhile. I suggest making this in advance, even a whole day in advance!

Enjoy!