Cakey Browies

Madaline and Ernie are headed out on a trip this weekend.  This is a shorter trip just to New Hampshire but will be a little different than some of their other excursions.  This time they are going to a campground with the specific purpose of being there with other Airstream owners from New England.  They belong to a group--a club of sorts just for Airstream people--and it just so happens that for this particular event, Ernie (and by extension, Madaline) is responsible for feeding almost 200 people who will be there, over five different meals.  After hearing them consult about what to serve, I offered my baking services to provide bar desserts--blondies, brownies and cookie bars--for one of the dinners they'll host.  So they took me up on my offer and I'm just about done making eighteen 9 x 13 inch pans of bars.  I've been freezing the whole (disposable) pans as I finish.  It's an impressive sight, I must say.

So for the next few Wednesdays I'll be bringing you the recipe for the various treats I made, starting with these Cakey Brownies.  And boy are these suckers cakey.  Thick and chocolatey, slightly denser than cake but not quite a fudgy bar, you probably want to pair these brownies with a big glass of milk or better, top them with ice cream.  They would certainly be amazing topped with a creamy milk chocolate frosting, but given the circumstance where these would be served (as well as the August heat under the tents on the campground, I kept these brownies naked and they shine all by their lonesome.  Loads of chocolate flavor without being too sweet, these brownies are a perfect snack or dessert (or possibly breakfast...who am I to judge?).

Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was not a combination I thought I'd be so in love with.  But they're wonderful.  A good chocolate flavor, but not overpowering, a perfect texture and oat goodness from the oatmeal and a sprinkling of coconut really come together in a soft, chewy cookie.  And I used coconut oil for the first time.  I think it really enhanced the coconut flavor in the cookies--in a subtle and good way.  Coconut is not one of my top flavors, but these cookies were a perfect chocolate/coconut combination and I think the oatmeal really helped cut the intensity of either flavor.  While Dave, Madaline and I enjoyed these cookies, Ernie was simply delighted by them.  I made several other things the weekend I made these and apparently everything else paled in comparison.

It's Foodie Pen Pal time again and I was tasked to send a package to Barbara at Summer Sensations. If you want to know more about Foodie Pen Pals or join in the fun of getting a package full of fun stuff from a fellow foodie and sending one of your own to another foodie, visit Lindsay's blog at The Lean Green Bean.  When I asked Barbara her favorite cookie flavor, she immediately responded coconut and chocolate chip.  I'd remembered seeing a recipe from Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod just a few days earlier and that sealed the deal on sending a sampling of these cookies tucked into Barbara's package.  I was the lucky recipient of a package from Donna, who is a blog reader from Annapolis, Maryland.  I had to chuckle when I opened the lovely package.

Homemade Seasoning Mixes

It never ceases to amaze me how simple it is to make at home some of the packaged mixes that you pick up a the grocery store.  When I posted the Bacon Ranch Broccoli Slaw last month, I got a few questions about the ranch seasoning mix in the photo, since it was in a mason jar and not a branded package.  So today we're looking at making a couple of my kitchen staples from the other kitchen staples in my pantry: ranch mix and taco seasoning.  These are two things I use all the time, seeing as Dave and I eat Mexican food all.the.time. and I like to use the ranch mix in different crock pot meals or even just stirred into a container of sour cream for an easy veggie dip.  These two versions replicate their store-bought counterparts and serve a couple of purposes.  You likely have all the ingredients in your pantry already, so it's going to be cheaper for you to make them at home than drop a buck or more for one serving of each of these (there's about a 1/4 cup of each mix in a store-bout packet).  And, if you know how to make it at home, there's no need to run to the store when you realize you have all the ingredients for a recipe...except the seasoning packet.  (You've been there.  I have, too.  It sucks.)  And finally, you can control the quality and freshness of the spices and herbs going in, which also lets you tailor it slightly to your taste.  Want a taco seasoning with more kick?  Use a spicy chili powder.  Done and done.

These recipes from Jamie at Self Reliance by Jamie got pinned ages ago, but I had a big jar of both mixes to use up, so I didn't make them until recently.  And on occasion I'll still use Penzey's Taco Seasoning because it's got a slightly different texture and season to it, these are my go to options when a recipe calls for a packet of the stuff.  It's cheaper, it's easy, it's likely fresher, and it's nice to know exactly what's in the packet (and what's not).  You can scale the ingredients to make bigger batches if you tend to use a lot of it.  Just store in an airtight container, label, and be the cook who made the entire dish, including the seasoning, from scratch!

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

I promised you I would do something delicious with those cookies.  And here it is.  Creamy, delicious homemade vanilla ice cream studded with chocolate cookies that would give any other cookies and cream ice cream a run for it's money.  I made this while Dave was away on a business trip.  It was the first day of a week-long trip.  I emailed him to tell him that while I made ice cream and it was freakin' awesome, there may not be any when he got home because I might need to eat it all (I was good--there was plenty left to share with him by the end of the week).  The custard for this ice cream cooked up beautifully and the ingredients were so simple.  This is the kind of recipe that convinces you to buy an ice cream maker if you don't already have one or to go hunting for the one you own but haven't used in ages.

When the World Peace Cookies failed on me, I knew the only thing they'd be good for was cookies and cream ice cream, but I was uninspired and couldn't bring myself to make it a priority.  And then Michelle at Brown Eyed Baker slapped me in the face with this gorgeous recipe and practically forced me to make it immediately if not sooner.  Seriously, I think she posted the recipe at the beginning of the week and by the end of the week I had this wonderful treat.  Rarely am I inspired by a recipe to make.it.right.now.  But resistance was futile.  And I had ingredients in my fridge and cookies in my freezer that called out to be crumbled into a delicious frozen dessert to counter the hot summer weather.  Although my ingredients were light cream and skim milk, I still used them and would you believe the results were still undeniably creamy and just as good as I imagine their heavy and whole counterparts would be?  Another slight change is that when I added the cookies, I took about 2-3 cookies and crushed them to finer crumbs rather than chunks.  I stirred these crumbs into the ice cream base before layering them in my container alternating with the bigger chunks.  I just love that speckled look of cookie crumbs taking over the lovely vanilla ice cream.  If you haven't made homemade ice cream yet, start with this recipe.  It's easy and the results are magical.  You'll never buy store-bought cookies and cream ice cream again.

World Peace Cookies

Confession: These cookies did not bring me peace.  In fact, they made me want to punch walls.  I don't know what I did, but I couldn't get this recipe to turn out right.  The dough was so crumbly, which I expected from a sable cookie, but this was pretty bad.  So of course when I cut them they just fell apart.  Which of course made them hideous (you know how I love pretty cookies--I hand selected the ones for the picture above.  Most were a crumbly mess.)  And to top it all off, as much as I love chocolate, these cookies were a fail in the taste department too.  The richness of the dark chocolate was completely voided by the dry texture from the cookie, even though they weren't overbaked.  I don't understand. This was just one of those kitchen debacles that has no reason other than it happened on a day that ended in "y."

Since this recipe is ubiquitous on the web, I'm not going to share were I got my version from.  I will tell you that I googled "world peace cookies" and this recipe matched at least 6 others on the web.  I just don't feel right crediting someone for my inability to get the same results even though I followed their directions exactly.  However, I do think I can salvage these into something else.  While I work on that, leave me a comment if you can tell what I did wrong or to share your experience with these cookies!