Great American Bake Sale 6-25-2011

A few months ago, I signed up to participate in a Louisville chapter of the Great American Bake Sale.  All proceeds go to the charity Share Our Strength which helps fight childhood hunger in America.  I was excited and nervous at the same time.  I joined just a random team, which included one other person, Eve.

Eve is a total creative genius when it comes to sugar cookies!  She's the brains behind Sugar Circus and man does she have talent!  She ships her cookies anywhere too, so if you're interested in some custom made cookies - drop her a line!

Anyway, we ended up raising almost $200 so I'd say it was a success!  So check out the goods...

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches, Oreo Stuffed Brownies, & Homemade Granola Bars!

Mini Nutella Pies - the poll winner from last Friday's poll!  Scroll down for a quick recipe =)

Used our CSA blueberries to make mini blueberry pies too!

Eve's awesome Angry Birds sugar cookies!  She also had Robots, Ice Cream Cones, True Blood, and UK & UofL cookies too!  She's got mad skills yo!

It was so great to meet Eve and her wonderful family!  I know Sugar Circus will do well because she's got some serious talent!

The bake sale was a great opportunity to support a great cause - and I'm definitely excited to get into more events like this!  Oh - and I actually already have.  Lauren over @ KeepItSweet is holding a blogger Bake Sale to Beat Cancer that's open until midnight Wednesday 6-29!  And I've got my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie up for bid - so if you're in the U.S. and want a little taste of what I've got going on in my kitchen, place a bid - and help us beat cancer!  And even if you don't like my cookies - there's tons of other blogger goodies up for sale too so definitely check it out =)

Mini Nutella Pies

Nutella
Mini Pie Crusts
Chopped Hazelnuts, optional

Okay, there's really not a very detailed recipe to this.  It could get crazy if you wanted to make your own pie crust, but sometimes a girl's gotta take some shortcuts! 

Preheat oven to 350F.  My crusts were ready to bake so there was no need to pre-bake them before filling.  Just check out the directions on the pie crust box before you continue.

Fill the pie crusts about 1/2 way with Nutella.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until crust is golden.  Top pies with chopped hazelnuts.

Quick Nutella fix, right?  Right!

Anyway, I know it's late, so I won't keep ya.  Be back tomorrow - hopefully at an earlier time!

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

Happy Friday!  I'm off this weekend so it's definitely a great Friday!  Andy and I are about to head out to dinner and have some drinks with some friends, but I thought I'd cap off the week with the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.

The chocolate chip cookie is one of those cookies that, once you find that perfect recipe, you don't switch it out.  One that you always make when you find yourself with that craving for chocolate chip cookies.  And everybody's perfect chocolate chip cookie is different.  I'm a soft and chewy gal.  Andy, he's pretty much a "I love every chocolate chip cookie known to man" kind of guy.  So, needless to say, this was a winner for both of us.  And for once, I made a cookie and had absolutely no leftovers to bring to work.  And I didn't feel guilty.  Is that bad?  Hehe.

What's your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe?

And don't forget to read until the end and vote in the poll (after the recipe!) for next week's dessert!  


Ingredients:
Adapted from Buns In My Oven's Recipe

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 stick of chilled butter (8 tablespoons) cut into small cubes
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 & 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, beat both sugars and butter cubes until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Add in egg, vanilla, and baking soda and beat for another minute or two.

Mix in flour and salt.  Beat on a low speed until just incorporated.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter onto parchment paper, making your cookies the desired size.  I did a nice heaping tablespoon full on each of my cookies and had the perfect "two-hand" cookie.  You know, the cookie you want to hold in both hands and just grin from ear to ear after each and every bite.  You know what I mean, right?  Right.

Bake in oven for about 16-18 minutes and then cool cookies on cooling rack.  The cookies will be soft and chewy, and gone in no time flat!  You might want to double the recipe if you're planning on feeding more than 2!  Hehe!

Well, the first poll I did went pretty well, so I've decided to do another one!  I have a couple different options so just pick your favorite and we'll see who wins next week! 

Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt

I first want to give Olga over at MangoTomato big props for posting a link to Veggie Belly's Photography post on her twitter page. I learned more from than 1 post than I did trying to skim my Nikon D40 reference book. So thank you! I know understand my manual settings a little bit more now thanks to you guys!

And also, I didn't win Battle Skewer over at Foodie Fights , but one of the judges, Greg from Sippity Sup (who happens to have a pretty informative and awesome blog himself!) commented in his write-up that he really liked my blog. Cool huh? Yeah, it's the little things that make me happy!

So anyway... while I was making this frozen yogurt, Andy and I had a conversation that went a little something like this:


Andy: What are you making?


Me: mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Andy: is that yogurt going in there?


Me: yeah.

Andy: then you're making frozen yogurt. that's not ice cream.

Me: oh who cares, it all tastes the same.

Andy: Umm no... no it doesn't. Frozen yogurt is not ice cream.

All my life I've never thought frozen yogurt tasted any different from ice cream. Am I alone in this? Either way, after making homemade frozen yogurt... I could definitely taste the difference.


Ingredients:
Adapted from Rocco Dispirito's Now Eat This! - "Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt"

4 tablespoons powdered gelatin
1 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
18 oz. plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
neon green food coloring
1 cup mini chocolate chips

In a large bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a small saucepan, cimbine the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the sugar and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir until dissolved and then pour the hot mixture in the bowl with the gelatin and milk. Whisk until the gelatin is completely dissolved (this part is crucial because you don't want little chunks of undissolved gelatin to be mixed throughout the final product. Not tasty, trust me).

Whisk the yogurt into the gelatin mixture. Whisk in peppermint extract and a few drops of the neon green food coloring until you've reached your desired color.

Using an ice cream maker, freeze the mixture according to the machine's directions. I had the mixture in mine for about 25-30 minutes for a nice creamy, solid texture. About 5 minutes before you're ready to stop the machine, add in the chocolate chips. Serve immediately.

After tasting homemade frozen yogurt, I can definitely tell a difference between it and ice cream. So yeah, as much as I hate to admit it... Andy was right about something. =) Enjoy!

P.S. Check out our CSA bundle this week - we got a boat load of stuff!!


Watermelon
1 lb. green beans
2 eggplants
1 lb. peaches
1 lb. plums
4 ears of corn
4 hot peppers
1 fresh baguette

I took some of your ideas from last week and will definitely have some posts coming up. So feel free to suggest some stuff for this weeks goodies... I've got a lot of fresh fruit, so they're just great for whatever ideas you guys have in store!