first up, a couple of questions answered!
we picked our first two strawberries today (the third one disappeared... skunk, bird, lizard, boy???) so not quite ready to make shortcake yet ;)
i bought the
happier than a bird... sign
here. so fun!
i bake when natalie is sleeping. most of the time, it takes all day long. i do a little during her first nap and a little more during her second nap. if she takes a third nap, score! if not, i wait until joe comes home to finish up. which stinks because then i have to clean up before i can make dinner. am i the only one who can't make dinner in a dirty kitchen?
the mystery stuff in the jars was cupcake! i found the idea
here. loooved it! so festive and delicious. you can read the detailed directions at
the tomkat studio, but basically i baked a few red, white, and blue cakes. cut out some circle shapes. stuck them in jars with frosting between each layer. added more frosting and sprinkles to the top. and wah-la! the real directions say you can use cupcake pans and just cut the cupcake in two. i say do not try that or else you may find yourself having to make a mad dash to wal-mart for circle shaped cookie cutters, more cake and frosting mix, candy quick, and sprinkles for decorating the oodles of cake pops you will have to make with the cupcakes that do not fit into the jars. i imagine that would be a real big bummer.
now onto treat tuesday business!
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i am not a cake person, but cookies and pie? love 'em! it should be no surprise then that this treat was close to the top of my list for treat tuesdays. in fact, it was in the number one spot, but got bumped to three due to ripe bananas and strawberries. it was worth the wait.
this is another little goody from
our best bites. have i mentioned how much i love that site? have you checked it out yet? you must. the recipes and photos will make you want to cook.
chocolate chip cookie pie. this dessert was rich. i gained three pounds the week i made this due to the fact that i had to eat a whole pie by myself. yes, i
had to. let's start with the fact that i made two pies; one following the recipe as is and the second one with allergy free substitutions. i was giddy with excitement to see how they compared.
to make this following the original recipe, you will need:
to make this using dairy and soy free ingredients, you will need:
you will also need a pie crust--homemade or store bought, whatever floats your boat. just make sure it's 9 in. and deep dish.
to get started, i set out all of the measured ingredients, so all i had to do was read the recipe, dump, and mix. i have read about doing this, but never really thought it would make that much of a difference. hello! it makes a HUGE difference and i will be doing this from now on. i encourage you to give it a try if you haven't--you will be a convert for sure!
i didn't have the choco. chips measured, because i was going to use the measuring cup with flour in it.
the next thing i did was beat the eggs for the original cookie pie. once they were foamy i poured them over the sugars, since those ingredients were going to be mixed soon anyway.
after that i beat the eggs for the allergy-free recipe. from here on i worked with this recipe until it was finished, because i didn't want to contaminate my allergy-free version. once my allergy free cookie dough was mixed, i poured it into a pie crust (pre-made, purchased at raley's, dairy and soy free!)
next i followed the directions and made the original cookie pie. this is a nestle recipe, by the way. poured that into a pie crust (same kind) and that's that. easy peesy lemon squeezy.
original recipe on the left; allergy free recipe on the right.
the pies baked up nicely. i needed to add 10 minutes of bake time to the allergy free pie.
we ate them that night with some homemade coconut vanilla ice cream. we had guests and i served them each a small slice of both pies so they could do a blind taste test, only i didn't make them wear a blind fold. that would have been funny though!
the results? they may surprise you. no one could tell which pie was which. the pies definitely had different tastes. the original pie was made with dark chocolate and one tester didn't like the dark chocolate, so he preferred the allergy free pie. ben also did not like the dark chocolate. it seemed like the only preference was based on the kind of chips i used. isn't that great?! i was excited to know this. and just think of the possibilities. peanut butter chips, toffee pieces, white chocolate and macadamia. i look forward to making cookie pie again and again!
what is your favorite kind of cookie?
