0 Chocolate Lava Cakes

Ok, these are actually called chocolate molten cakes but whats the first thing you think when you hear molten, quick! Lava. Thats right. So guess what, I'm re-naming them. I found the recipe >HERE< and today is my parents' 24th wedding anniversary(congrats to them), so guess what? Thats right, the little heart ramekins are coming out again, see I knew they were a good buy.. And, it's not like theres tiny pie in them anymore, that went fast. Anyway..

Here they are:

Delicious right? Ok it's not the best picture, but they're really easy here is everything you'll need

First things first, melt down the chocolate and butter

50 sec in the microwave will do this: 

Go ahead and dump it in the mixer 

And get it good and mixed

Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla

and get it good and mixed

Now for the eggs you want 2 whole eggs and one egg yolk, you may need a separate bowl for this -I did. Then dump them in too

And get it good and mixed

Then add the flour

Mix again...

And it's done! Spoon or dump it into whatever you're going to be baking it in

I'm really loving these little jars, they're proving to be exceptionally handy, I strongly recommend them to anyone who has a kitchen.

Bake them for 13mins at 425F I baked them on the cookie sheet

Once they've had time to cool (10mins- or you can be like me and get side tracked by guitar hero for God knows how long before remembering you had some cake cooling..) run a knife along the edges to loosen them.

Then turn them out on a plate or however youre going to serve them, they can be served immediately or put up for later but remember to heat them before serving, they're best warm. 

Of course you'll need to taste test the least attractive one, if they all turned out pretty one will just have to take it for the team.. They're pretty amazing. OH, and if you're one of those people who's into eating cake batter -Great recipe right here.. if you're not, what is wrong with you? Also- you can sift some powdered sugar over them if you're serving them to guests or just want to make a prettier presentation. 

Happy Baking!

Enjoy! =]

0 π pie π

So initially today was going to be dedicated to tiny π pie π yeah, I know, the symbols are a bit much right? I like them, so deal. Anyway, last night our neighbor's brought over some lasagna so today I thought it would be nice to make them a pie, I made them a full size peach pie which we will et to but for now, tiny pie; the idea came from >HERE< I didn't use their recipes or anything but the tiny pie idea stemmed from stumbling across their page. What is cuter than a tiny version of commonplace every-day items? And what is better than pie? Here is the results of today's kitchen time =]

Since we all know holiday stuff goes on MAJOR sale the days following the holiday and the most recent one being valentines day.. I picked up the little heart dishes for 80¢ each.. I got 3. 

I cheated. Sorry. The pie crusts I made yesterday can be found >HERE< I was actually very happy with them. Anyway -->

The best/easiest way to get a pie crust into the pie plate is to roll it out into a circle and fold it in half then half again and unfold it in the pie plate. Go ahead and cut off the edges

I had a little fun with my photo editor.. 

Still playing with the editor.. Smooth out the filling so its not just a big glob, canned filling tends to be gobby. You can top it however you like, I cut some dough into strips and made a lattice on it. 

Now the fun part! Aren't these just adorable?

I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to get my base

Then smushed the sides on piece by piece 

For the tiny jars I ended up using the bottom as a stamp and cutting around it, in the picture it shows I left a bit of a margin around the circle.. I ended up cutting that off. It was easier just to piece the sides on a little chunk at a time

The apple filling was very much like slices of apple which were HUGE so instead of dumping it out and chopping it all up, I threw in some brown sugar and cinnamon and used a knife to stir it up

I think it worked out well.

A couple spoonfulls of filling is all you'll need in the tiny jars, one of mine bubbled over but more on that later

tiny lattice pie =]

giant lattice pie =]

Heart shaped pie <3 on the bottoms of these it says they're oven/microwave/dishwasher safe

Tiny pies =] see how the top one is all messy and gooy-like?

That means it needs to be eaten!

Om-nom-nom!

SOOO good!

One more of the tiny π pie π =] look how yummy!

Happy Baking!

Enjoy! =] 

0 Pie Crust

Yesterday I was going to make some pie crust so that today or tomorrow I could make some pie.. that didn't happen. So today I made pie crust and maybe tomorrow I'll make some form of pie =] 

Here is what all goes into basic pie crust:

Easy right? I mean its 3-4 ingredients that prettymuch everyone has on hand 24/7 right? Or am I crazy for assuming that? OK people who don't bake probably don't have flour or shortening just sitting in their cabinets, but I've never been one of those people. Anyway- my apologies, if you follow my blog you've probably learned that I don't actually own a measuring cup.. this cup holds about 2 C [ish] so the actual measurement for those of you hardcore to the T measure-ers out there is 1/2 C. I used 1/4 of my little ~2 C glass. 

We start off here, with the flour and a couple shakes of salt [I also don't have measuring spoons, sorry] in the mixer

This is the one time you DON'T soften the butter, yes I know we're using shortening, but I like butter flavored shortening.. so there. Actually if you keep it in the fridge great, if not, go ahead and throw it in the fridge for a while before making this, I'm not a big planner so I had it in the fridge for like 5mins.. yeah, I know big whoop right? Anyhoo- 

It will look all crumbly, thats good, its supposed to resemble crumbs before you add the water, I just added a little bit at a time until I liked the consistency, it should ball up for you

I was happy with it like this

Separate it into 2 equal[ish] sized balls

pull out ball #1 and put it on a sheet of plastic wrap [mine is on a cookie sheet]

And roll it out into a circle [ish] 

[here is the 2nd ball rolled out]

fold one edge of the plastic wrap over the circle, if you don't have that much excess it's fine an inch or two is sufficient. 

And, roll it up, you don't have to of course but I like to because it saves space and holds shape best this way. 

Here they are =] If you're planning on making your pie immediately I suggest putting these in the fridge for 4hrs prior to filling/baking. I plan on using one tomorrow so its in the fridge now and the other I'm saving for future use, it's in the freezer. 

Happy Baking!

Enjoy! =]