0 White Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Thursday, March 31, 2011
 I made white chocolate covered pretzels, heres how they turned out:
I'm sure all of you are familiar with Flipz, I was at the grocery store with my mom the other day and she picked up a package of something similar in the produce section that they were selling for $3.99 (I think) and that was just outrageous, she was going to get them! I told her no, took them from her and put them back telling her I could make her the same thing (basically) without spending a penny, she agreed and we went home. Heres what I had on hand:
Who doesn't have a half eaten bag of pretzels floating around? You can use any melt-able chocolate be it semi-sweet chips or milk chocolate, dark chocolate, depends on your preference, I had some white chocolate chips in the cabinet just waiting to be used. 
Start by melting down your chocolate (glass bowl over boiling water)
Use a spoon to get it smooth and evenly melted, turn down the heat some, to keep it just melted but cut down on the heat since you'll be standing right by it 
Throw in your first victim, muahahaha
Drown it! 
Show a little mercy 
Using two spoons pinch it pick it up and shake off any excess coating
Lay them out on foil (plastic wrap or parchment paper would work just as well I'm sure, I just prefer foil). They will set after a few minutes but you can hurry them by putting them in the fridge, I stored them in the fridge but they would be fine on the counter or in the cabinet. They turned out really good and were gone within a couple hours. 

Happy Baking!
Enjoy! =]

0 Chicken Bacon Wraps

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
I made wraps for lunches, I can't afford to eat out every day and I don't have time to make lunch everyday so I made ~ 2 weeks worth of wraps and they're now in the freezer, they thaw by lunchtime. 
Here is a finished one:
Yummy right? I know =]
Here is what I used:
To start with I made a pile of wrap size foils to work on
I used wheat tortilla
Mmmm bacon =] I used pre-cooked bacon because I didn't feel like frying it up
Use any shredded cheese you like, I used Mexican
Spinach! Sans stems because I'm picky like that
Add Apple chunks, this is about 1/4 apple, I ended up using less as I went along
I also used pre-cooked chicken, the rotisserie kind from the deli, I ripped up the white meat
Wrap it on up
And wrap it on up =] throw them in the freezer and you're good to go 
Don't forget to clean up your mess =] These are extremely convenient and a much healthier and economical option than eating out all the time. If you take them out of the freezer at 8am they're perfectly thawed by around noon, the apples get a little mushy so heads-up for that but they taste fine and don't get brown or anything. I like them. 

Enjoy! =]

2 S'more Turnovers

Thursday, March 24, 2011
Today I made Smore Turnovers, I found the recipe >HERE< and I decided to make a few changes, first off of course I made my own puff pastry yesterday (and if you click on it you can too, or you can do what they did and buy the Pillsbury version from the store) and second I wanted to put the marshmallow on the inside of the turnovers, this was in effort to cut down on the sticky mess that the original recipe appears to create on the outside. More on that later.. Here is how they turned out:
Not the most attractive right? Thats because the marshmallows gave them a horribly disfigured shape. 
Here is what you need:
Notice the clear counter top? Yeah, thats a different area of the kitchen.. Also you will need egg wash
One egg and 1 T water mixed/whisked together
Roll out the puff pastry
Place a graham cracker and slice the puff pastry into an appropriately sized rectangle
Add the chocolate, I used the snack size Hershey's, which have 4 sections, yes, I ate the 4th section, of each one =]
Add Peanut butter
And fold over
Crimp the edges
Make slices so it can vent
Brush with egg wash
I only made one without marshmallow, the rest I used 1/2 marshmallow per turnover
Which left them fairly misshapen
Here they are ready to go in the oven, they bake for about 18min at 400F
This is at 15min
Here they are 4min later
As is customary in my kitchen I selected the least attractive of the bunch and sacrificed it to the kitchen gods
I chose this one.
I cut into it and had to do a double take..
Where did my marshmallow go? Is it gone? Where did it go?
So I poked another less attractive one...
Yes, its hollow too... huh...
So I ate it. No hint of marshmallow.. at all. I guess maybe their way was better this time. Though I will say I'm very happy that I made my own puff pastry, it was quite delicious and I will be using it in the future. Overall I liked the recipe, it was yummy despite the disappearing marshmallows. I recommend topping them with fluff as they suggested. The question of "How much does it make?" can be answered by how much puff pastry you have, if you follow the recipe in my post from yesterday you will make nine or so, I made nine. You can double the puff pastry for more. I really liked these and I hope you make them and enjoy them also =]

Happy Baking!
Enjoy! =]

0 Puff Pastry

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I found a few recipes I want to try that have been fast tracked to the top of my long list of stuff to make (since I started blogging friends have been sending me recipes along with the ones I've collected on my own thanks to StumbleUpon and whatnot) and these recipes require something called 'puff pastry' I'm pretty sure Pillsbury makes it and it can be found at the grocery store somewhere near frozen pie crusts but I have yet to wander down that aisle so I decided to make my own, after all, homemade equals better right? So I decided that it would be my mission yesterday to locate a recipe for this puff pastry stuff so I could make my own, I have Google to thank for >THIS< one that I decided to use and share with y'all. Here is what the end product turned out looking like:
Here is all you need(plus a shake or two of salt)
And while I'm going on about how homemade food is so superior to packaged store-bought things that the american public calls food, let me go ahead and share with you my amazing breakfast..
Yes, toaster waffles =]
Start by cutting up 12 T of cold butter (about a stick and a half)
Pour out 1 1/4 C flour and a couple shakes of salt
Use a pastry cutter (or if like me you don't have one, you can use a large knife) to cut the butter and flour together
I tried to smooth it out as I went
Also, use the knife or pastry cutter to try to keep the edges as square/rectangular as possible, this will help.
Continue cutting it in until its good and mixed adding in 3/8 C of cold water a little bit at a time
Then get out the rolling pin
It should smooth out fairly well for you but it wont have a doughy consistency, it's going to be crumbly for the first few turns.
Take your knife or pastry cutter and slide it under the top of the rectangle and fold it over, its going to be folded into thirds like a business letter
Turn it over. Mine was gooey and ucky on the bottom side. 
But roll it out and again use the knife to try to keep the edges together.
And again fold it into thirds
And roll it out
Its going to start to feel more and more doughy as you go along
It was really gooey on the bottom side so after a while I gave in and started flouring it to keep it together better
Remember to turn it each time you fold it so that you're always rolling opposite the folds, like this
When you think you're done fold the edges into the center
Then fold it in half, like this
Put it in plastic wrap and it should keep in the refrigerator for a couple days or so, if you freeze it of course it will keep for much longer, about a month or so. Tomorrow this is going to become part of an amazing chocolaty wonderfulness that I am not yet willing to disclose, so you'll have to just check back and see =]

Happy Baking!
Enjoy! =]