Chocolate Crinkles

Chocolate crinkles are my favorite cookie and I was really craving them, so I decided to make some. I used the recipe in my Betty Crocker Cooky Book.

You have to chill the dough otherwise it is too sticky to roll into balls. I have ended up with chocolte dough covered hands because I was too eager to wait for the dough to chill enough. When in doubt, just make the dough the night before and let it chill overnight.

You then roll the balls in powdered sugar.

When the cookies bake, they melt from ball form into the typical cookie shape. This makes the powdered sugar split and crack like in the photo above.

As long as you don't overcook them, you're in for a world of yummy chocolaty goodness. Just be careful with the powdered sugar when you're eating them. I always find a trail of powdered sugar and crumbs when I try to eat them and walk around the house.

Mine Run Candy aka Honeycomb Candy

My mom showed me a recipe for this mine run candy which is a honeycomb candy like a violet crumble. Seeing it ripped from a magazine suggested to me that she tore it from a waiting room magazine, but I would probably do that too if I had seen it. The actual recipe can be found here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mine-run-candy

This is how the candy looks when it is poured out. I regret not getting a picture of it before, but a really neat reaction occurs when you add the baking soda and it starts puffing up like an awesome chemistry experiment. Without even trying it, that reaction made me want to make this again. Just a word of warning if you've never made any candy before: be careful, because you're getting sugar up to 300F and that stuff will hurt really bad to be careful not to touch it until it cools.

The hardest part is to break the large candy into smaller pieces. With all the air pockets, it is really easy to crumble.

As you can see, I had a lot of crumbs.

Then you dip those bad boys in chocolate. I recommend having extra chocolate, because I ran out.

Once dipped they need to dry and have the chocolate harden. Putting them in the fridge helps this process along.

Then, when they are all ready, you can take a bite into one and fall in love with this recipe. It takes great especially if you are a fan of honeycomb candy like I am. This is a really simple recipe to make and really tasty.

Giada's Strawberry Meringue Clouds

My mom was watching the food network and saw an episode of Giada De Laurentiis where she made strawberry meringue clouds. What caught my mom's attention was that she put freeze-dried strawberries into the meringue. You normally can't add anything wet like fresh fruit to a meringue, because they have to be bone dry for them to set correctly. My mom printed off the recipe and told me to give them a try and I did. The recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/strawberry-meringue-clouds-recipe.html

The strawberries had to be cut up into smaller pieces.

You just make a basic meringue and get it to the shiny stiff peak stage.

Then I added the strawberries,

a bit of lemon zest, and then folded those into the meringue.

They have to bake forever, so keep that in mind before you start.

Here's how they came out.

The strawberries gave it a unique flavor and twist to a traditional meringue. I'd like to try these again, but mix it up with different dried fruits now that I know that it can be done.

Duncan Hines Decadent Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

While I was in the grocery store, I ran across Duncan Hines Decadent cupcake mixes and decided to try one out. I went with the strawberry cheesecake flavor:

Inside the box is a cake mix, a frosting mix, and a piping bag.

It only makes twelve cupcakes, so it's easy to divide the batter and make each one even. Also, when you mix up the cake mix, you can see tiny bits of dehydrated strawberries, which I thought was an unique touch.

Look at how evenly those baked. I usually have tiny ones and monster ones, but they are all mostly the same size.

I didn't realize how blurry this next one was, but the frosting is easy to make up and has a cream cheese flavor. The plastic is strong enough to insert frosting into the cupcakes like it says to do in the instructions.

Then, once you have put frosting inside the cupcakes, you can make a fancy design on top if you want. I went with the classic swirl look.

Here's what it looks like when you take a bite. The frosting inside the cupcake keeps it moister than Ducan Hines already moist cake. You can't taste strawberry chunks from the dehydrated strawberry pieces since they are rehydrated and so small that they don't add texture, just flavor. 

I didn't get a cheesecake vibe from it, more of a strawberry cupcake with cream cheese frosting taste. I think this would be an great and easy idea for a jazzed up dessert for a small get together. Or, you can do what I did and eat all of them by yourself over the course of two days. Those were a good two days.