Nutella Cookies

We just had our annual holiday party at work and I decided to make cookies.
Found the recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsps. vanilla
• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 1/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. Mix flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add in extracts, then Nutella.
3. Add flour mixture in parts.
4. Add milk.
5. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes (or overnight).
6. Pre-heat oven to 325F.
7. Take out the dough and roll into balls.
8. Lightly press down the dough balls on a greased pan.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are starting to set.

Enjoy.

Pumpkin Cake

Had enough of pumpkin? Haha

Ingredients:

• 3/4 stick butter (3/8 cup)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• Optional: walnuts with cinnamon and brown sugar. Like the mixture here.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Mix butter and sugar.
3. Blend in everything else including nut mixture.
4. Sprinkle some of the nut mixture on top if you want.
5. Pour into small pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

It is the season of pumpkins.
So here you go. I got this from the food network, but 2/3rd the recipe. I also put in whipping cream as opposed to sour cream. Also, as I was mixing I added differing amounts of the items to get a nice consistency.

Ingredients

• 2 graham cracker crusts
• 2-8oz cream cheese
• 1 1/3 cup pumpkin filling
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F 
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients.
4. Pour mixture into crust.
5. Bake for 2 hours.
6. Turn off oven and open door. Leave cheesecake in for 30 minutes.
7. Then leave outside of oven until completely cooled.
8. Place in fridge.

I also added some toffee to one of the cheesecakes. You can also add walnuts or pecans. Basically anything you want.

Enjoy. :-)

Pumpkin-Layered Toffee Cheesecake

I like pumpkin pie. I like cheesecake. Here you go:

I found the recipe here, but halved it and changed some stuff. 

Ingredients

• Gharam-Cracker crust
• 1-8 oz Cream Cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup toffee
• 7/8 cup pumpkin filling (12.5 oz)
• 3/8 cup of whipping cream (1/3 cup butter + 3/4 cup milk --> 1 cup whipping cream)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ginger
• 2 eggs
• Dash of salt

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F.
2. Blend cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix in 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1 egg, and 1/2 cup toffee. Pour into crust.
3. Mix remaining ingredients. Pour gently on top of cream cheese.
4. Bake for 2 hours and or until mostly set.
5. Turn off oven and open door. Leave pie in for 30 minutes.
6. Take out and leave outside for 1 hour.
7. Put in fridge for a few hours and serve!

Look at how beautiful those layers are! 

A little look into my kitchen..

So I had this idea of posting about the different items that I use in my kitchen. 

There are some that are pretty cool to have, and then there are some I couldn't do without! 

Cookie cutters are the most amazing little things. Especially with children. They go crazy over the different little shapes. They also have fun cooking with you. I tend to buy the random cookie cutters I find on sale. Hence the "holiday shapes." You can also use the cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into fun shapes.

Cookies cut into shapes are fun to ice and design in awesome ways. You can also sprinkle some colored sugar. Just make sure you sprinkle them as soon as they come out of the oven.

Hey! So what is exactly are these?! They are brownie/cake cutters.  The squiggly one helps you cut the brownies into awesome shapes. Where as the rod one helps you cut in a neat manner.

And now to the baking pans. 

My many baking pans.

Hey! Each one serves a very specific purpose.

Pan number 1:

Why worry about cutting your pie or cake into perfect little pieces when the pan can do it for you? 

Then serve your pie without having to worry about popping it out of the pan.

I like this type of pan because you can also use it to serve the pie or cake.

Ok, are these not the cutest little things you have ever seen?!

I have not attempted to bake with them, but they are perfect for Jello! 

So I have plenty more things to show you, but I will save that for later! 

Now tell me what are your favorite kitchen utensils?

S'mores Cheesecake

My co-worker came up to me one day and told me I should make a s'mores cheesecake. So I did.

:-)

Oh! And it is egg-less.

Ingredients

• 2 graham cracker crust
• 3 8-oz cream cheese packages
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch 
• 1tbsp + 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 pt. sour cream
• Chocolate Bar
• Marshmallow Fluff (opt out if you don't want eggs)
• Chocolate Syrup

Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, sour cream, vanilla.
2. I also broke up a chocolate bar and added it to the batter.
3. Pour into graham cracker crust.
4. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until is not so fluid.
5. Turn off heat and leave cheesecake in oven. Don't open the door.
6. Once the sides start to brown, take cheesecake out of the oven. Let it cool completely to room temperature. (this will reduce cracking)
7. I coated the cheesecake with a thin layer of chocolate. (To help the chocolate stick).
8. Break up two chocolate bars and sprinkled the top of the cheesecake. 
9. I then attempted to pipette the fluff but that didn't work out. So I just tried to add it in bits.
10. Cool cheesecake in fridge.

Enjoy!

Baklwa (Baklava) Recipe

A week or so was Eid, which is a Muslim holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is a month in which Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset.
So for Eid I decided to make baklava for my family.
This was the first time I made this recipe and was kind of scared, but it turned out to pretty good!

Ingredients:

• 1 package phyllo dough
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 lb. ground walnuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, melt as needed
• syrup

So I used a 9X13 glass pan. The width of the phyllo dough fit into the length of the pan. So what happened was you had to fold over some of the dough into the pan. This makes it a bit thicker. If you don't want it puffy like mine, use a bigger pan.

Directions

1. Thaw phyllo dough. It takes a couple of hours to really thaw.
2. Mix ground walnuts, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
3. Melt 1/4 cup butter.
4. Butter the pan before you start using it. Add a layer of dough. See how it hangs over the side? And add butter. I used this brush I have.

5. Fold over the other side of the dough.

6. Keep brushing with butter. Add 6 or so layers. Also, you will want to alternate which side you put the dough on. You want to put it all the way to the left onetime, then all the way to the right onetime. This way you cover all of the nut mixture. You also want to alternate between which side has the double of the dough. If you see above how I flipped over the extra piece onto the pan. You want to do it such that the extra piece is not always hanging off the same side (like in the above picture).

7. Next, add the nut mixture. You want about a 1/2 cm layer of the recipe. You will have some mixture leftover. 

8. Add rest of phyllo dough, as described above. Try to push it down as you keep adding layers. This helps it puff out a bit. 

9. Cut in whatever you would like (squares, diamonds).

10. Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until golden. Pour desired amount of syrup on top of it.

Yummm