Chocolate Chip Pie

(courtesy of Paula’s Home Cooking)

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (softened)
1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Get Cooking!
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two nine-inch pie plates; set aside.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl. In the bowl with an electric mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Next, add one egg at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, and mix until fully combined. Fold in three cups of chocolate chips and if desired, walnuts. Divide the dough between the prepared pie plates and smooth the tops with a spatula.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until pies are golden and slightly firm to the touch, but still soft. Tip: If the pies begin to darken too much before they are baked through, cover with foil and continue baking. Let pies cool completely on a wire rack.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

(courtesy of Paula’s Home Cooking)

What you need
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cream cheese frosting:
1 pound cream cheese (softened)
2 sticks butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries for garnish

Get Cooking!
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two 12-cup muffin pans with cupcake papers.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a medium mixing bowl. In a large bowl, gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix them together until smooth and thoroughly combined.
Divide batter evenly among the cupcake tins (about 2/3 filled). Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, halfway through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add the sugar and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until frosting is very light and fluffy.
Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

Fresh Blueberry Syrup (for Blueberry drinks)

Blueberries are some kind of crazy good-for-you food. Like, super good. Fountain of youth good (don't quote me on that). But, once baked into a pie, their greatness gets cancelled out a bit, so, have blueberry juice. How freakin' refreshing would THAT be! Alton Brown (whose show "Good Eats" I have taken to DVRing, in case you hadn't noticed) didn't mention anything about the alcoholic applications of this, but I think it would make a wicked blueberry martini!

4 cups of blueberries
2 cups of water
7 oz of sugar
1 oz lime juice

1) Bring the blueberries and water just to a boil, then reduce the heat and let them simmer for 15 minutes
2) Drain them into a cheesecloth-lined collander that's sitting in a nice deep bowl, and let them cool for 15 minutes (so you don't burn yourself when it comes to step 3
3) Pick up the corners of your cheesecloth, and wring it out, getting as much of the juice out as you can
4) Return the juice to your original saucepan, add the sugar and lime juice, and bring to a boil for 2 mins till the sugar dissolves (give it a bit of a stir of course)
5) Pour it into a heat-proof glass jar that you have a lid for
6) Let cool for an hour
7) Store in fridge. Alton leads me to believe that this would keep from 6 months to forever)

To use: mix 1/4 cup of the blueberry syrup with 8 oz of carbonated or seltzer water, serve over ice.

You'll have to find your own blueberry martini recipe, but, I imagine it would just involve reducing the amount of seltzer water and adding vodka or something.

I'm SO going blueberry picking this summer and making this syrup. And my aunt's no-bake blueberry pie thats also somewhere on this blog.

Faux-range Julius

I love Orange Julius drinks, love 'em. Never thought to try and make one myself, but Alton Brown (gotta love 'im) has given me a recipe. So, I am putting here so I can easily find it again, and in case anyone else has a love for them too.

6 oz of frozen OJ (about 8 standard sized cubes*)
2 oz fresh OJ
zest from half an orange
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1T powdered sugar **

Place all that in your blender, blend, and serve immediately. Its no good after too long, and there is no reblending.


*best to make them in cube form so they blend easily
** must be powdered, because the cornstarch used as an anti-clumping agent will thicken up the drink and give it a nice frothy head