Well it's a new year - welcome to 2011, all! Hope everyone had a fabulous New Years Eve! Mine, though not as originally planned, was great. Went to the spa with my best friend, then spent the rest of the night taking care of my sick Adam. He rarely gets ill, and to keep him from celebrating New Years Eve, he must have been really sick. So instead of going to our friends' house party, we spent it together on the couch, wrapped up in blankets, and sipping juice. I loved every minute of it - minus seeing him so uncomfortably sick, of course. But I wouldn't have wanted to spend it anywhere else. There was no question in my mind. However, I am starting to feel a little achey today. Oops. I may have contracted a bit of his sickness. Oh well, it was well worth it. Might need to take care of me now, hunny ;)
So thinking we were going to our friend's place, I prepared some snacks. They took a little longer then I had anticipated, keeping me up past midnight and waking me up before seven to accomplish (as I had to work during the day). I tackled 3 recipes - all something I've never really attempted before: truffles, toffee, and blondies. Amazingly, they all turned out. A few minor problems, but nothing to complain about.
Mint Oreo Cheesecake Truffles:
(adapted from Life's Ambrosia)
1 package of Oreos (30 of 'em) - I used the reduced calorie ones
8oz low fat Cream Cheese
1 teaspoon Mint Extract
2 1/2 cup semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
2 tablespoons unsalted Butter
Coloured Sugar
Remove the cream center from each and every Oreo and put into a bowl. Keep the cookie part and put in a food processor to crush into crumbs (or any other method to get the cookies crushed).
In the bowl with the cream centers, add the cream cheese, cookie crumbs and mint extract. Mix it all together until combined.
Roll into balls.
Melt the chocolate chips and the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly to avoid burning.
Once melted, remove from heat and dip the Oreo balls into the chocolate and place on a cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with coloured sugar and refrigerate until chocolate has hardened.
The hard chocolate exterior and soft cookie center is to die for. One of my best creations yet!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee:
(adapted from Pinch of Yum)
1/2 sleeve Salted Crackers (give or take a few)
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Butter
2 cups semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
Spoonfuls of Peanut Butter
Chopped candy (I used smarties, sprinkles, and walnuts) - couldn't find pretzel M&Ms :(
Preheat oven to 400F
Place crackers on a non stick baking pan leaving a little bit of space between each (very important that it's non stick. I sprayed cooking oil in a cake dish, and the toffee stuck to the bottom and separated from the rest of the candy quite a bit).
Melt the butter and the brown sugar in a small saucepan. Once it comes to a boil, without stirring, continue to boil for 3 minutes. Pour over crackers.
Place in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and dollop small spoonfuls of peanut butter evenly atop the toffee. Put back in the oven for 1 minute.
Spread the melted peanut butter to cover the toffee. Add chocolate chips, and return to the oven for another minute.
Spread the melted chocolate evenly and sprinkle the candy over top.
Put into the freezer for a couple hours, or until candy has completely hardened.
Break into pieces (or fight to cut with a knife and spatula to get it to unstick, in my case) and enjoy!
It's super sweet, but just as delicious :)
Chocolate Gingerbread Blondie Bites:
(adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures)
1 1/4 cups Butter
1 1/4 cups Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ground Flax Seed with 1/2 cold water (can use two eggs instead - I just ran out of eggs)
1 1/4 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/3 cup Molasses
5oz semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (original recipe asks for 10oz, but again I ran out)
2 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves (omitted because...you guessed it, I ran out haha)
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray baking pan with cooking spray, line with tin foil (leaving an over hang to easily remove the blondies when they're done) an spray again - don't forget the sides!
In a bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat in the egg yolk, and flax seed mixture. Stir in the vanilla and molasses and beat well (or mix really well by hand - it was really late and I didn't want to wake the rest of the house, so I did most of the mixing by hand. It can be done!)
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and the spices. Whisk until all is incorporated.
Add dry mixture to wet mixture. Stir well (or beat with a mixer).
Mix in the chocolate chips.
Put the batter into your prepared bake dish and bake for 30-35 minutes. (I let the batter rest overnight in the fridge, because it was far too late and I needed to get to bed, so I baked it closer to 40 minutes in the morning) However, I would recommend baking it right away, as even with cooking it longer, it was still slightly doughy in the middle - but still edible! Got my dad's stamp of approval, mind you, he'll eat anything I bake. But I think they still taste great :)
Let completely cool, around 2 hours
I left it in the fridge all day because I needed to get to work and didn't have time to wait 2 hours, then all night because I didn't end up bringing them to the New Years Eve party.
Haha, even with all my adaptations to this recipe, they still turned out wonderfully! (mostly)
All these goodies will not be left uneaten. My dad and Adam's relatives' New Years dinner will take care of that!
Happy New Year, everyone! May 2011 be better then the last! :)
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