Birthday Bakesplosion!-Rice Krispies AND Mini Cinnamon Bites

So...about that...baking hiatus...thing...

BEFORE YOU JUDGE, just, hear me out. I can explain. It's not what you think. 

Unless you are thinking that I spent three hours baking copious amounts of sugary, buttery, artery clogging sweets while simultaneously clogging my arteries by eating them as I baked. 

But here is the thing, it's my birthday this weekend. I'm turning the big TWO-OH. Twenty. Veinte. Er shi-no longer a teenager-sui.  And this year I am celebrating in New York! Woohoo! 

Okay fine, turning 20 is another one of those insignificant birthdays. Like turning 17, or like Kelly Roland from Destinys Child (sorry but not really). But the way I see it, my 20th birthday is essentially the pregame to my 21st, so why not do it Big. Why not live every day like it's our 21st? Because we would die of alcohol poisoning? Say wah? 

                                   

Once again, I will be staying with the Kamen in his apartment. And I wanted a way to outwardly thank him and his room mates for lending me a crash pad and for always supplying me with certain liquids, so that I don't get thirsty. Yeah. Hence the massive baking spree. Hence me making not one, but TWO awesome desserts. After all, I am baking for three boys. And again, the theme here is doing everything Big, capish? 

So cast your judgmental eyes away.  Just because I am turning 20 does not mean I am turning into a more responsible, mature adult who actually follows through on certain promises. SSShhhhh...

Dessert 1: RICE KRISPIES

                                   

Doesn't this just look..so..right?

Rice krispies are the best because they're so easy to make, and finally got me to use up all the marshmallows we had in the house. Only too bad because now I am just going to buy another box...and another box...and another...because these rice krispies are too yummy and too easy not to make. And since they don't require added sugar, they're just the right amount of sweet that doesn't make you feel sick. AKA you can eat this stuff forever. AKA I am a hippo. 

                               

And then melt it with butter, and it becomes even more...right.

                                 

                                 

Then proceeded to melt some chocolate 

And dump it on top, in keeping things RIGHT

Followed by sprinkles, in keeping things birthday themed

I did leave some of it chocolate-free, for the less-sweet-inclined (cough the Parents)

And after letting them sit, I cut them up into squares. Cute and YUM. 

Happy birthday to me indeed

Difficulty: 2 

Willingness to make again: 8 

Over-all: 9.5

Notes: 

1) The chocolate on top is pretty dang sweet. For non-birthday related occasions, I would stick to either a thinner layer of chocolate or just not having any. For a teeny pinch of added sweetness, just toss a itty bitty bit of sugar into the melted marshmallows. 

http://cookiejartreats.blogspot.com/2012/05/festive-fruity-rice-krispies.html 

Dessert 2: MINI-CINNAMON BITES 

Oh boy, oh boy, did I do something right. 

These mini cinnamon bites have restored my faith in my mini muffin pan, after the brownie mishap. And the base recipe for these mini muffins is awesome: they rose properly (I think I am getting better at estimating how much baking powder is necessary), slid off the pan easily, and even let me finally use some nutmeg. Which tasted delicious. 

Since I am still obsessed with my jelly, I decided do experiment by filling half of the mini muffins with a chunk of jelly.

I filled the bottom, plopped in some jelly, and then put more batter on top. Like a sandwich.

Post-baked, you can see the jelly peeping out

Cross-section: DEEEElicious! Jelly can do no wrong, my friends. 

So what makes these cinnamon bites isn't the actual muffin itself, but the glaze you make to go on top of it. 

Now, brace yourselves folks, this is one of those things that separates true bakers from the faint of heart:

No your eyes do not deceive you, that is indeed butter, sugar and cinnamon. 

Sometimes, you just got to do what you got to do.

Melted together to form a delicious, sweet glaze

Before 

(Feel free to note the Batman episode in the background) 

Dunk! 

Tada!

Here you can see my first batch, post baked, without the glaze 

And this is after taking a little swim

In my second batch I performed another experiment, being the scientist I am 

Where I dumped a whole bunch of jelly directly on top, for kicks and giggles

Which resulted in this. I still ate it. The end. 

Difficulty: 4 

Willingness to make again: 10 (SO GEWD)/ -10 (MY JEANS...!) 

Over-all: 9.9 

Notes: 

1) Not sure why these did not brown out like in the picture, but they were definitely baked for just the right amount of time

2) I am going to use this base muffin recipe in all future muffin endeavors! It can easily be modified by adding chocolate chips, bananas, blueberries, etc. Oh boy...

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/breads/muffins-that-taste-like-donuts/ 

EDIT: OHMYGOD these tasted EVEN BETTER the next morning because all the glaze soaked in. KILL ME, bydrowningmeintheseminimuffins, NOW. 

                                   

                                   

In conclusion, I have made myself, and some boys very, very happy.

Embarking on NY adventures part 2 in T-minus 3 hours! Weeeeeeeeee!

TL;DR: IT IS MY BIRTHDAY and I am going to New York and I wish to not become a hippo.

Peanut Butter Jelly Cookies of Death x2: A Beautiful but Sinful Modification

Oh...My...God.

This is what rock bottom must feel like.

Like 9 cookies being engulfed alone, in your kitchen, at 11:30 pm.

I can't believe I just shared that. Please do not judge me. I already sort of hate myself.

Am I the only one who also finds this mouth watering as well? Yes, just me? Then I'll just take...that...and hideinacornertoeatitbymyself. CIAO~

Remember when I made those peanut butter fudge cookies of death that one time and practically morphed into a baby killer whale?

Well, as they always say: become a baby killer whale once, shame on you.
Become a baby killer whale twice.....jesus christ....WHYYYY did I not heed my own advice? *shoots self*

merp

Because, as I mentioned in that past post, I wanted to remake these cookies with jelly, that's why. And I finally did it.

                                       

And now I am going to sound like a bi-polar hypocrite. But o-my-GAWD what a beautiful idea. They tasted amazing. Phenomenal. SEN-sational. OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS. mMMMMMmm mmMMmm MMM. I die.

Zero regrets. Baking with jelly is the next. big. thing. people, you heard it here first. It is simply the best.

Just the right amount of sweet. Soft without being overly gooey. Delicious granola crunch. Warm gooey jelly. Perfect peanut butter flavoring.

Hey, hey, you....JELLY....right now?

Over-all: 9.9
Willingness to make again: ...... *
Notes:
1) Since I was low on oats, I used some of the Mom's healthy cereal to make up for it. BEST IMPROVISATION EVER. The cereal was delicious and added more crunch than the oats would have alone. 
2) AGAIN, did not put enough jelly on top. I keep forgetting that that shiz spreads like no other. GUHHH, should have learned the first time with the chocolate sauce. STUPID STUPID STUPID.

You can see from these two photos how unattractive the jelly looks post-baked, because I didn't add enough :( 

But the important thing is that it still tastes like a million angels singing in your mouth

* So, here's the thing. While I really do have no regrets on my epic consummation of love with these beautiful, sinfully glorious cookies, it did serve as a wake up call. I may have a problem. With sweets. And eating them at a rate that will shoot me straight into obesity with zero pit stops. And it's sad because now I just want to bake with jelly every day of my life. And then eat it for the rest of my life. But I think I am going to go on a baking hiatus for awhile. Because who am I kidding? "Sharing my sweets with my co workers and friends lalala I am so nice!" really translates into...well...eating 9 cookies straight out of the oven at 11:30 pm. Sigh.

Here you can see me a fatty little asian girl noming on cookie batter with chopsticks. Oh wait, that's me.

So from now on I am going to try to distract myself by finding extra bombdiggity savory recipes. These are more useful to me anyhow because I need basic sustenance to survive when I go back to school, not cookies and more cookies (sadface) (being a responsible adult sucks).

TL;DR: Jennifer the baker is currently on hiatus after a (orgasmic) unfortunate incident. Please leave a message while she drowns in her own tears, after the beep. 


*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP* 

Star Aligned Trifecta: Marshmallow Chocolate Pecan Cookie

It started with having no baking powder.

And then having to google cream of tartar and finding out I don't have that either.

[like, who the @#$* can say, "oh, the salt is right in that corner, behind my cream of tartar"]

the texture of this looked nothing like the picture online, making me very nervous. but god does this look good. 

liking to nom on raw dough is normal, right? especially raw dough...with...marshmallows???

Which resulted in me having to start from square one and finding an entirely new recipe. One that would let me utilize my 2 cups of flour and 1.4  cups of sugar.  By this point it is 11 pm, and I hadn't even had coffee all day. (SO. MANY. OBSTACLES.) 

But somehow, admist all of this, a beautiful trifecta was born. Queue in chocolate truffle-chips, marshmallows and pecans. These three were destined to be best friends since the day my exhausted, slightly desperate brain decided to put them together in a bowl. What a beautiful, beautiful improvisation. (and I am being zero-amounts of sarcastic, good food just gets me that emotional) 

look how beautifully the marshmallows turned out

So here's the skinny: since my original idea of making strawberry shortcake cookies failed miserably, (edit: found out later I actually had baking powder THIS ENTIRE TIME. But no regrets, these cookies were Fate's calling to me, to bestow to the world the tastiest, and greatest of all sweets. I'm basically like a prophet of cookies, a cookie prophet, if you will)  I needed to make another type of cookie I could bring to work. 

I am baking specifically to celebrate IT Guy's last day at the office, but because I have so many friends  I want to share my baked goods with, cookies are the way to go.  I'll be like the Easter Bunny, hopping around Longwood with a basket of sweets that I shall distribute to the people I love. 

hoppity hop hop

So as I am trying to figure out what to make, I realize we still have a box of marshmallows in the pantry. I have been wanting to experiment baking with marshmallows for awhile, and so finally settled with a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe to serve as a base, which I would just tweek by adding marshmallows. I know, I am breaking all kinds of boundaries here, folks.

These cookies were really a gamble all the way through, , starting with my haphazardly measured sugar (guestimations ftw: I took into account how my family and I don't like overly sugared things) all the way to hand cutting individual truffles to act as 1 cup of chocolate chips. 

it kind of looks like I murdered someone...made of chocolate...sadface

artisan cookies right hurr 

Yeah, that actually happened. And I started with more flour than the chocolate chip cookie recipe had wanted, so I was afraid things might all be out of proportion. And it occurred to me a little too late that I actually had no idea what happens when you stick marshmallows in a 300 degree oven. Do they melt...or explode? Because given my past experiences, nothing would surprise me.

fresh out of the oven

So the entire time I am baking, I am already stressed out and uncertain, every  single step of the way. But I realized I just had to get through it and see what happens, because one) it was getting really late and I really wanted to watch the new Glee Project episode before I slept and two) my curiosity was getting the better of me.


Well, the cookies turned out bomb-tastic. Like, a bomb of delicious explosions all over your taste buds going KABLAM!!! Like, I want to die and eat these cookies forever.

The level of sweetness was just right, allowing the delicious truffle chocolate to subtly stand out more. I'll admit, the extra effort was worth it for those truffle-chips. And the marshmallows became just the right amount of gooey without making a mess or burning, adding a cool extra texture to the cookie. Both the truffles and marshmallows themselves are not sickeningly sweet . And I was super happy with the spread and shape of the cookies too, how delicious and homey they look!

It's to the point where I am confident that these cookies will have the ability to reincarnate Betty Crocker back to life following her tragic suicide over that shitfesteria that was my strawberry cobbler.

Difficulty: 5.5
Willingness to make again: 9
Over-all: 9.8 (actually 10, DING DING DING)
Notes:
1) the 15 minute bake time was perfect
2) if feeling up to it, can toast the pecans prior to adding them to the batter
3) as of now, these are my favorite cookies ever 

amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/01/chocolate-chip-cookies/


I find it interesting how often times the best outcomes don't come from religiously following recipes and trying extra hard. [Mom may or may not have been trying to tell me this exact thing a zillion in a half times, but I tend to be super original and mess up at least ten times before ever listening to my parents] 

may also be one of my most photogenic creations to date

So yeah, being a little bit creative and going with the flow of things can produce unexpectedly tasty results, as my tummy was able to discover tonight. Yums! Next time,  I'll just proceed with more confidence, and not automatically assume the worst outcomes just because I am improvising.

Oh, also, how is it that I managed to post TWO pictures of Dora the Explorer but not mention that today the Supreme Court ruled Obama's Affordable Care Act Constitutional. God, I am a horrible public health student...and person. On behalf of me and my homiechica Dora,  lo siento! 

#orgasm #iwouldsellmybabiesforthese #shamelesslynotsorry

Amongst a bajillion other things, Obamacare is going to let me stay under my parent's insurance post-graduation until I turn 26, woohoo! This means I have 6 more years of irresponsibly shoving all sweet things into my body with the knowledge that future heart bypass surgeries  will be covered by my parents.

Great,  so I'll just help myself to another cookie then...