Cookie Dough and Candy

Last night at 9 pm I remembered that I needed to bring birthday treats to church.  I wasn't feeling especially inspired and wanted to do something super easy.  This idea from the Pioneer Woman came to me and I decided to run with it!

Take a tub of store bought cookie dough, and divide the dough into mini-muffin pans.  Cook in the oven for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.  Take it out just as it starts browning and press a candy into the center.  Wala!  That's it! I forgot to take photos before they were all eaten :-(.

Everyone at church loved it, and I was embarrassed by what a big deal everyone was making about it cause it was so dang easy!  I did 4 batches of 48 mini muffins in one hour.

Here are a few observations:

• I used chocolate chip, peanut butter and sugar cookie dough.
• The peanut butter worked the best.
• The sugar cookie dough didn't work at all - it came out totally flat and I threw them all away.
• For candy I used peanut butter cups, kisses, and rolos.
• You have to really push them all the way in the cookies or else the candy starts popping up.
• My non-stick pans worked way better than my normal aluminum pans, though the aluminum pans worked fin.....not sure why I have 3 different mini-muffin pans.
• I stuck them all in the fridge so the candy would harden so I could stack them.  Worked well.

Anyway, this is a super easy and tasty treat that you can make a huge quantity of really really easy!

Adapted from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/01/cookie_dough_and_candy_/ 

Homemade Pizza

My husband and I like making (and eating) homemade pizza. Our toddler LOVES pizza, a lot. I should almost be embarrassed at how much she loves it. With the dough recipe we use it is really good and easy to make. The best part is, one batch makes enough dough for multiple pizzas or loaves of bread and the dough lasts in the fridge for 2 weeks. Typically I make the dough and my husband makes the pizza. He has perfected the art of tossing the pizza as he makes the crust.

Due to her love of pizza, we made it for my daughter's birthday earlier this year. In fact, she got her own ham and pineapple pizza and ate it all week. We LOVE tomato pizza. You may be thinking that sounds gross but I think its my favorite type of homemade pizza. So good. We also love pepperoni, ham and pineapple. veggie (whatever veggies we have in the fridge), etc. 

This recipe comes from a cookbook I received for my bridal shower, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". We were also given a pizza stone and pizza peel, however, the book mentions cooking without a pizza stone. A friend of mine has used this dough and made pizza on a cookie sheet and she said it turned out great. This dough can actually be used for either bread or pizza, we use it for both and really like it. Hear I'll explain how to make pizza.

Pizza Dough
3 cups lukewarm water *not too hot so you don't ruin the yeast
1 1/2 tbs granulated yeast *I use closer to 2tbs
1 1/2 tbs kosher salt
6 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
cornmeal for pizza peal

**Herb Bread Variation: I do this more frequently for bread, but sometimes I add herbs for pizza dough as well. If you want to, follow the above directions and add 1 tsp dried thyme leaves (2tsp fresh) and 1/2tsp dried rosemary leaves (1tsp fresh) to the water mixture with the yeast and salt.

     Warm the water slightly, it should feel just warmer than body temperature. Add the yeast and the salt to the water in a 5quart resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic container or food grade bucket. Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve. Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon. No kneading is necessary. For those who make bread dough frequently this might seem very strange, but enjoy the fact that you don't have to worry about it. Stir until it's all mixed together, just a matter of minutes. Sometimes I use my hands sometimes I don't. Just get it all mixed together and don't worry about spreading it out in the container. I leave mine in a loose ball and it spreads out as it rises.
     Cover with a lid (not airtight) and allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top). This will take approximately 2 hours depending on the room's temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result although I've never had mine rise close to that long. Once it has risen put it in the fridge. My husband likes making pizza with room temperature freshly made dough, because then he can toss it. However, the book says fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with so for the first time it's best to refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours or overnight before using it.

Making the Pizza
Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven (put the pizza stone in before you start preheating the oven) to 550degrees or 500 if that's your oven's max. So this is really hot. If anything has spilled in your oven it will burn even more and there will be smoke. A lot of it. Even if there isn't anything burned in your oven the heat the cornmeal will make smoke, so don't be alarmed. We often are opening our deck door and fanning the smoke detector with our broom. Because of this we often cook it closer to 500degrees and its fine. 
Dust the top of the refrigerated dough chunk with flour and cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit-size) piece. Although you can actually make whatever size pizza you'd like. Just be sure you watch it cook so its not under or over cooked. Cut off the dough and put it in a ball. Roll it out with a rolling pin (or throw it in the air if you are my husband). 
Put the pizza on a pizza peel covered with cornmeal and quickly put whatever toppings, cheese, and sauce you want on the pizza. 
     Slide the pizza onto the stone and watch it carefully as it will cook quickly-around 8-10minutes. We always like to let our pizza cool for about 5minutes or a little more so we can actually eat it without burning our mouths. We cover our cooked pizza in parmesean cheese, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Yum! Enjoy!

*As mentioned above this recipe is taken from a book. The book is very detailed in its explanations of how to do everything, above are the instructions we end up using, although reading through all of the book's directions the first few times was very helpful.

Banana Crumb Muffins

We are fans of muffins in this house. My toddler gets excited, my husband can easily grab some to take for breakfast and it gives me another excuse to bake. These were really good and are a good recipe to use up any bananas that are going bad.

I know my picture isn't great-It tastes better than it looks. And since we don't eat them all as soon as they come out of the oven, they do taste great the next few days as well.

Banana Crumb Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease muffin cups or line with muffin papers. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. *I didn't use all of the topping and might make less next time.

original recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=banana%20muffins&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page