One Cheeky Chica: 2011

December 12, 2011

Gorilla Bread

Super Sweet!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 stick butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 package cream cheese
2 cans refridgereated biscuits

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

I sprayed my bundt pan with a baking cooking spray (PAM.)

1. Mix the white sugar and cinnamon.

2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together over low heat, stir well.

3. Cut the cream cheese into 16-20small squares. You will need one square per biscuit.

4. Once the biscuits are out of the tube, press them out a bit and sprinkle 1/2 tsp of cinnamon sugar mixture.

5. Place a cream cheese square inthe middle of the biscuit.

6. Wrap the dough around the cream cheese into a ball. Place half of the prepared biscuits into the pan.

7. Sprinkle more of the cinnamon sugar on top; then add 1/2 of the melted butter and brown sugar topping.

8. Layer remaining half of prepared biscuits on top; add remainder of cinnamon sugar then top with remainder of melted butter and brown sugar mixture.

9. Bake for 30 minutes.

10. Let cool for several minutes, then pop out of bundt pan.

December 06, 2011

Bella and the Mini-Pie's

Warm strawberry mini-pie with vanilla ice cream

I purchased my BELLA mini-pie maker online through Macy's. I can't pass up a sale so I bought the Cake Pop maker as well. I'll demo that at another time. My sweet tooth can only take so much sugary goodness at one time!!

The pie maker was very easy to use! Just plug in and wait for the appliance to heat up, when the light turns green (approx 10 minutes) you are good to go.

The products I used were pretty basic: (no product pics at this time)

pie crusts from the refridgerated section of your grocery store

any filling you would like - I used a strawberry pie filling.

flour, to keep the pastry shell from sticking to my hands, rolling pin and flat surface.

When I uncurled the pastry shell, i used my floured rolling pin to stretch it out a bit. The BELLA pie maker came with a round cut-out which made it very easy for me. The larger side was for the bottom, the smaller side was for the top. EASY!

Once I had my bottom rounds, I placed them in the heated pie maker. Don't burn yourself! BELLA also enclosed this handy-dandy pie mold that helps push the shell into the appliance. Again, EASY!

Once the shells are in place, I added my filling. MMMMM, strawberries! It askes for about 1/3 cup per pie.

I even got fancy with my second set, just for kicks!

I closed the top and let it go to town on my pies, about 12 minutes. Aint she pretty?

This is me peeking in at about 9-10 minutes.

YUM! YUM! YUM!

November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

GOOEY CAKE!!

We smoked the ham...

hot buttered rolls

deep-fried Turkey...

sweet potatos with marshmallows...

Who'd like a beer?.....

November 18, 2011

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into small squares

Filling:
16oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tsp
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
1 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into small squares
1 cup flour
10-15 soft caramel candies
1-2 tbsp heavy cream

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

To make crust:
Combine flour and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Add butter cubes and mix together well. I used my hands...
Press dough evenly into a 9x13 pan. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside.

To make the filling:
Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
In small bowl combine apples, cinnamon and 2 tsp of sugar. Fold mixture into cream cheese.
Pour batter into crust.

To make the topping:
Combine the oats, flour and brown sugar. Add butter into mixture until it is chrumbly.
Top the batter with an even layer of the topping.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until topping is a golden brown.

CARAMEL TOPPING:
Combine caramel candies with heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl. Heat/melt in 20-30 seconds increments so you don't burn it. Stir it really well!! Drizzle the caramel over the baked topping.

November 03, 2011

Halloween Cookies!

So I had to answer the call of the spooky season and bake some down right chilling cookies. LOL! This was actually more detailed than I expected though still yummy for this mummy's tummy. All I needed was a tub of cokie dough, yeah, a tub..... and I was off baking!

Needed:
tub (or tube) of cookie dough
flour - for my hands
Jolly Rancher candies
parchment paper

Preheat oven as per directions. I patted out a dough ball one at a time, then pressed them onto the parchmdent paper. NOTE: I did this ON the cookie sheet I found it much easier to just cut away the excess dough from the cookie and leaving the actual cookie ON the baking sheet. Trust me, it will you time and an aching back.... :-) I did some detailing by cleaning up the edges around the skull and in the eyes before they went into the oven.

Pull cookies out a few minutes before they are completely done. WARNING: The cookies puffed up and skulls looked like they had a bad case of water retention in the face. :-o When I pulled them from the oven I STILL had to cut the eyes out. Otherwise, they had closed up faster than a boxers eye on the end of Pacquiao's gloved fist.

For the candied coloered eyes: I used my coffee grinder and ground down a few of the cherry red Jolly Ranchers into a powder form. Once I had cut open the eyes, I spooned some of the powedered JR into each eye socket. Place sheet back into the oven to finish baking.

Let them sit on the parchment paper for a few minutes as the candied eyes will not have hardened as yet. Don't want to pop out any eyeballs do you??

I added some sprinkles afterwards though they just look dirty now. I still ate them. I used green apple Jolly Ranchers for the pumpkins eyes. :-)

Can't go wrong with all of this on hand!!

Purchased from Target...they get all my money :-/

making eyes....

creepy...... !!!!

not bad for my first (and only) bone-headed batch

they all have the POX!!!

October 14, 2011

A Lil Decorating...

Peachy Crunch Cake

I found this to be very sweet.... like somethings wrong with that! LOL! Not at all. This can be served warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

**Sidenote: I will always use a substitute when a recipe calls for peanuts/tree nuts or nut oils.
We are a peanut/tree nut free family.**

What you need:

1 large can of sliced peaches in syrup
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 stick butter, sliced into 12-16 pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granola or walnuts **FYI, I used granola**

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Layer ingrediants, in the order above, in a 13x9 dish. Make sure the cake mix is mixed well with the peach syrup for a clean bake.
3. Bake for approx 40-50 minutes.
4. Let cool a bit, the serve!