Recipe: Peanut Butter Cream Pie

Because I was asked for it :o)

you can see my chocolate drizzling got a little crazy...

PEANUT BUTTER CREAM PIE

Ingredients

3/4 cup Hot fudge ice cream topping, divided
1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1-1/4 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (3.4 oz. each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

Spoon 1/2 cup fudge topping onto bottom of crust. Freeze 10 min.

Beat peanut butter and milk in large bowl with whisk until well blended. Add dry pudding mixes; beat 2 min. (Mixture will be thick.) Stir in half the COOL WHIP; spread over chocolate layer.

Top with remaining COOL WHIP.

Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Drizzle with remaining fudge topping just before serving.

Recipe: Maple Pecan Sticky Buns

All I can say is: YUMMY!

Maple Pecan Sticky Buns

1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 loaves Pillsbury refrigerated French Bread dough
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Pour butter into bottom of 13 x 9 inch cake pan. Drizzle evenly with maple syrup. Sprinkle with broswn sugar, mix together, sprinkle with pecans, set aside.

2. Roll out dough (takes some work to get it started!), spread with softened butter, then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

3. Roll dough back up, slice into 8 pieces. Place pieces in prepared pan. Repeat with second bread dough. Cover and let sit one hour.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes, invert onto serving platter.

Warning: a sticky mess! But oh, so good!

Recipe: Focaccia

I stumbled upon this recipe about 8 years ago when I was bored one day and in the mood for baking. It comes from my good old red-and-white-checked Betty Crocker cookbook that I got from my grandmother when Tony and I got married. I changed it a bit by adding some garlic into the recipe, otherwise this is exactly the recipe from BC!


Focaccia
Italian flat bread

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 1 tablespoon dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
1-2 tablespoons (depending on preference) garlic powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 pkg regular or quick rise yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Mix 1 cup of the flour, the rosemary, sugar, salt, garlic powder, and yeast in large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons oil and the warm water. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour until dough is soft and leaves sides of bowl.

2. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead 5 to 8 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. Place dough in large bowl greased with shortening, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until almost double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

3. Grease 2 cookie sheets or 12-inch pizza pans wiht small amount of oil.

4. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a flattened 10-inch round on cookie sheet. Cover loosely and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until double.

5. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Gently make depressions about 2 inches apart in dough with fingers. Carefully brush with 2 tablespoons oil; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Last week at our Bible study, we were discussing having to hide foods inside other foods to get our husbands and kids to eat them. I said, "Like chocolate mayonnaise cake."

You see, Tony hates mayonnaise. And I mean HATES. So one day I whipped up a chocolate mayonnaise cake and gave him a piece. He ate it right up.

Then I told him it had mayonnaise in it.

So, back to the Bible study, the words had just left my mouth when everyone around the table had the same reaction: "WHAT kind of cake?"

Before the night was out, I was told I must make one of these cakes and bring it to Bible study the next week. Well, Bible study is tonight and I just finished making my cake. I thought I'd share the recipe with all you wonderful readers. :o)

CHOCOLATE MAYONNAISE CAKE

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1-2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mayonnaise
1-1/3 cups water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans*; set aside.

2. In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder; set aside.

3. In large bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in mayonnaise at low speed until blended. Alternately beat in flour mixture with water, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour into prepared pans.

4. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. On wire racks, cool 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.

Then comes the...

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE FROSTING!

Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Frost between layers and over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with extra powdered sugar.

The mayonnaise makes the cake super moist and delicious, and NO, it does not have any sort of mayonnaise-y taste. At all.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This bread is a huge hit at my house...and in fact, Tony called me from work today to tell me that he had taken some with him and shared it with some of his co-workers and it was a huge hit!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 8- or 9-inch loaf pans,

2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts. Pour into pans.

3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Recipe: Gingerbread Cookies--No Molasses!

I discovered late in life that I liked gingerbread. My mom doesn't like it so she never made it when I was growing up. Once I was grown, I decided to just try it once and see what I thought - I loved it. However, gingerbread is definitely one of those tastes that you either love or hate, and I found that my kids did NOT like it. They tried to explain to me what it was they didn't like, and though they couldn't find the right words, I knew what they meant: too much molasses flavor. But you can't make gingerbread cookies without molasses can you?

Oh, yes you can!

I found this recipe that substitutes butterscotch pudding mix for the molasses about 4 or 5 years ago and now even my kids love gingerbread cookies! We usually cut ours into the shape of angels instead of the traditional gingerbread boy shape. The first time I made these, I couldn't find my gingerbread boy cookie cutter and so used the angel one, and then it became it's own tradition!

Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies

makes 18-24 cookies, depending on size of your cookie cutter

Ingredients:

2 small box butterscotch pudding mix (cook & serve)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
decorations or icing

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream pudding mix, butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat egg in. Add dry ingredients and mix until blended. Roll out on floured board and cut with cookie cutters. Add candy buttons, cinnamon candy hearts or other decorations as desired.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes and cool on baking sheet 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Cookies may then be decorated with icing as desired.

Recipe: BBQ Baked Beans

Today's recipe is my dad's "famous" BBQ Baked Beans! Now normally, I do NOT like beans, but you just can't beat these.....mmmmm yummy!

Ingredients

2 large cans Van Camp's pork'n'beans
12 oz Hickory or Mesquite BBQ sauce (we use Kraft)
2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
2 strips bacon
1 med onion
1 lb dark brown sugar (this is about 1/2 a bag of C&H brown sugar)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop onion. Slice bacon across short side into 1/2 inch strips. Saute onion and bacon together until onions turn clear (bacon will NOT be crispy). Add Liquid Smoke, stir together. Turn off heat.

In large oven-safe pot or baking dish (I prefer to use a big pasta pot, this way you can reheat on stove-top easily later!), combine beans, BBQ sauce, and dark brown sugar. Stir in bacon/onion/Liquid Smoke mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 2 hours, stirring once about halfway through so beans don't stick to the bottom.

Beans in a pot can be easily reheated on stove-top later. I always make these the day before, cover over night, and then reheat on stove-top just in time for dinner!