Mint Creme Brownie Cups

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Ruthanne

I get requests for my mint creme brownies a lot.  I could never open a bakery because I get really bored re-making desserts!  The latest request came from my friend Gabe.  I agreed to make them, but decided to try a new presentation.  These are a little more work- but turned out great.  These would be perfect bite-size treats for showers or luncheons- and since its so close to Halloween, you could even drizzle some orange candy melts on top for a Halloween party treat!

INGREDIENTS:

Brownie:

  • 1c. butter
  • 2c. sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 c. flour
  • 1/2c. cocoa
  • 1/2tsp. salt
  • 1c. milk

Mint creme:

  • 5 c. powdered sugar
  • 1/2 c. melted butter
  • 2 tsp. peppermint extract
  • green food coloring (to desired shade of green)

Chocolate glaze:

  • 6oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 6tsp. butter (do not substitute margarine here!)

DIRECTIONS:

Brownie:
  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Cream butter and sugar together. 
  • Beat in eggs, cocoa, vanilla and salt.
  • Add flour and milk (alternating them and mixing well in between)
  • Pipe batter evenly in mini cupcake liners in a mini cupcake tin
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
  • Cool.  

Mint creme:

  • Add melted butter to sugar and extract.
  • Mix well, using water to bring it to a thick but spreadable consistency.
  • Add food coloring to desired shade of green.
  • Pipe over cooled brownie cups and chill for a few minutes to harden up.
Chocolate glaze:
  • Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until completely melted and smooth.
  • Spoon over cooled mint creme
  • Chill until top layer is hard and drizzle with melted candy coating if desired
My thoughts: This is a fun variation on the Mint Creme Brownies– the taste is the same and its a perfect little bite of happiness– I just like about 10 perfect little bites of happiness, so I’d take a big piece of brownie over a cute little cup any day! 🙂

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Maple Cream Ginger Snaps

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Ruthanne

Tangy ginger cookies filled with sweet maple cream.  Cut them into fun fall shapes for your Halloween party!

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup dark molasses
  • 2 T. vinegar
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 2 t. ground ginger
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 1 t. ground cloves

Maple cream:

  • 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
  • 1/4 c. melted butter
  • 1 t. maple flavoring
  • Food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

  • Cream together butter and sugar.
  • Beat in egg, molasses and vinegar.
  • Blend in sifted dry ingredients.
  • Chill 2-3 hours (this is important– the dough is very easy to roll after chilling)
  • Roll 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thick on a floured counter or board (thinner is better!)
  • Cut dough into small, equally-sized cookies (if you want to make cookies with cute cut-outs on one side, I used Halloween Linzer Cookie Cutters)
  • Place on greased cookie sheets.
  • Bake at 375 degrees for about 7-10 minutes.  Check often- take out when cookies have risen and are easily removed from sheet.
  • To make maple cream, combine powdered sugar, melted butter and a little water until a thick frosting consistency is reached.
  • Add maple flavoring (you can add vanilla if you don’t like maple)
  • Divide cream into 2 bowls and color as desired with food coloring. (my maple flavoring added a brown tint to my filling, so I just experimented with coloring to reach the shade I wanted– use gels so that you don’t dilute it!)
  • Frost one cookie’s back and top with another cookie.  The filling will harden up and make these very easy to store and serve.
  • ENJOY!

My thoughts:  These are a really unique flavor.  I love them– ginger and maple– YUM!  The ginger cookies are my grandma’s recipe and they don’t rise much so I thought they’d be perfect for this type of cookie cutter.  Roll them thin though– thicker cookies don’t keep the inside cut-out shape as well.  I’ve never used a Linzer cookie cutter (I’ve no idea how its SUPPOSED to be used-  I will probably read the directions eventually!) but it worked just great with this cookie recipe and these make me smile 🙂

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Giant S’more!!

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Ruthanne

Ten different kinds of chocolate....

We are going to stray a bit from the usual into the bizarre in this post.  Typically I like to share fun, easy and unique dessert recipes with you- and this is all three of those things- plus a hint of Guiness Book of World Records.

Let me explain:  I help to lead COLLISION, the college-age group at our church and one of the things we do each month is a “Live Your Dream” night. Each person in our group has submitted a “dream” for something they have always wanted to do but never have and we try to (often very creatively!) fulfill the dream.  This weekend we made Ryan’s dream come true– a ten layer s’more with 10 different kinds of chocolate (a dream that I never even thought to have, but should have!)

We spent our Saturday raking leaves at a camp for inner city kids- its a really cool ministry that has a TON of trees (and therefore a lot of leaves to rake this time of year).  As the day drew to a close, we cooked hotdogs over a bonfire and then made Ryan’s dream a reality:

INGREDIENTS:

  • Graham Crackers- lots of them (they break and you really need whole ones!)
  • 10 (+) kinds of chocolate.  We used: Hershey’s milk chocolate, dark chocolate, cookies and cream, milk chocolate cookies and cream, white chocolate, Mr. Goodbar, Krackel, mini snickers, milky way, dark milky way, 3 musketeers, and last (but definitely not least!) Twix.
  • Marshmallows- lots– and it helps to have lots of people toasting them all at the same time!

Team effort on toasting!

DIRECTIONS:

  •  Unwrap all your chocolate and set up 10 full sheets of graham crackers with chocolate on top (lots of it!)
  • Roast 2 marshmallows per layer
  • Assemble!  We put it together in two stacks and added them together for 11 layers at the very end- otherwise it will tip.
  • Tip it sideways on a couple of plates to serve it– people can just pull off what they want 🙂

Ready for some pictures???  Here you go:

Marshmallows roasted to perfection!

Eleven gooey layers of happiness!!!

Ryan's dream come true!

My thoughts:  This was SO much fun!  We laughed and stressed out about not having unwrapped chocolate in time for all the marshmallows and took a ton of pictures– and then ate AMAZING s’mores (mine had caramel oozing out of one of the layers—BEST s’more ever!!!!!!  Next time you go camping you simply HAVE to try this– your kids will love it!!!

Best S'more EVER!

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Caramel Pecan Cookies

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Ruthanne

Have you ever tried Duncan Hines Caramel Cake mix?  It is soooooo good!  As a general rule, I use Duncan Hines when I bake cakes by mix.  This is one of the BEST flavors out there.  A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for German Chocolate Cake cookies that use a cake mix for the cookies.  The cookies turned out so yummy that I decided to try a different cake flavor….caramel!  These caramel cookies are topped with chocolate and pecans– a perfect fall treat!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 box of Caramel cake mix
  • 1/3c. softened margarine
  • 1/2 box of cream cheese (4 oz.)
  • 1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (melted)
  • 1 egg
  • 24-30 chocolate stars or kisses
  • 24-30 pecan halves

DIRECTIONS:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream together margarine and cream cheese until smooth.
  • Add egg, stirring until smooth.
  • Blend in melted chocolate.
  • Add cake mix last and stir until combined.  Use your hands to knead mixture into a heavy cookie dough.
  • Make evenly- size small balls of dough (I use a Small Cookie Scoop) and place on cookie sheets.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and press chocolate (star or kiss) into center of cookie.  Return to oven for 1 minute.
  • Press pecan into softened chocolate on the top of each cookie.  Cool until chocolate is hardened.
  • ENJOY!!


My thoughts– easy easy easy and wonderful caramel yummy-ness!  you can’t go wrong with these cookies!

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NFL Cupcakes!

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Ruthanne

In honor of my FAVORITE team (yes, I own a cheesehead) and my friends’ favorite team (cheered for the Bengals today…sorry Colts!)  Here are some NFL inspired cupcakes.  There is nothing fancy about the cupcake or the frosting— just some fun coloring and decorating going on here.  Hope this inspires YOU to celebrate your team in sugar!!! (GO PACKERS!!!!!)

INGREDIENTS:

  • One box of white cake mix (with oil, water and eggs to make it according to the box)
  • 2 tubs of white frosting (or try my favorite buttercream recipe)
  • Food coloring
  • Decorations in team colors (I created toppers from Wiltons Candy Melts, or you could use team colored sprinkles)

DIRECTIONS:

  • Make cake mix according to box and divide batter.  Put 3/4 in one bowl and 1/4 in the other bowl.  Color with your two team colors (I use food coloring gels so they don’t change the consistency of my batter or frosting too much)
  • Spoon the larger amount into cupcake liners, filling each about half-way.
  • Spoon the smaller amount in circles on top and use a skewer or knife to swirl the colors together (FUN!!!)

  • Bake according to package directions.
  • Remove from oven and cool– they are SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

  • While they are cooling make your toppers (if you decide to try these)
  • Use Wilton Candy Melts  (for the dark blue I had to look elsewhere- we have them in local specialty shops right now because of football season- or you might need to order online….)
  • I found candy molds in the shape of horseshoes (easy) and tried to find other NFL molds–don’t exist!  So for my beloved Packers I found a triangle mold and did what any enterprising girl would do— I used my (never been used before) tire pressure gauge to make happy little dots on my “cheese” toppers.  Thanks for the gauge dad!  I’m FINALLY using it 🙂  Not sure if you can use a pressure gauge AFTER its been run through the dish washer….?

Say Cheese!!!!Colts!

  • Also, make your frosting up.  Again- just color it with food color gels to the color of your favorite team!
  • When your cupcakes are cool, frost (I piped the frosting on with a decorator tip) and top with fun decorations!
  • Enjoy!!!! (GO PACKERS!)

My thoughts:  What football fan wouldn’t love these?  Plus its a mix– soooo easy!  Get your kids to help and you have one fun and yummy treat!

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Pumpkin Roll

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Ruthanne

 

This recipe is 100% mom.  She has made this pumpkin roll for years- usually at Christmas.  I hate (despise, loath) pumpkin in any edible form (I prefer them carved into jack-o-lanterns on the porch…).  So this recipe is for all the people who say mom’s pumpkin roll is the MOST amazing dessert ever– I will take your word for it- I didn’t even lick the spoon!

INGREDIENTS:

Roll:

  • 2/3 cups pumpkin
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/2tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. baking soda

Filling:

  • 8 oz. brick of Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 tsp. margarine

DIRECTIONS:

  • Grease a jelly roll pan.  Put wax paper on bottom and grease the wax paper.
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Mix together all of the roll ingredients, adding the flour, cinnamon and soda last.  Blend well.
  • Pour batter into pan over greased wax paper and spread evenly to all sides.  Tap pan on counter to settle batter and get air bubbles to top.
  • Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and immediately -with wax paper on- roll pumpkin cake up from short end of pan to short end of pan (you will probably burn your fingers a little- I usually do!) Roll this up in a clean towel to hold it tightly together.

  • Refrigerate for 1 hour.
  • While roll is chilling, make filling:
  • Cream together softened cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Add vanilla and margarine and mix until smooth and creamy.
  • After one hour, remove roll and unroll it carefully.
  • Spread filling over top of opened roll and then re-roll this up *removing the wax paper as you roll*

  • Place this back in the refrigerator for about 4-6 hours minimum.
  • Sprinkle with powdered sugar or decorate as desired.
  • Before serving, slice into beautiful spirals!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

My thoughts: Even though I’m not a fan of pumpkin, I AM a fan of desserts that make you say “wow” when you see them– this qualifies– I think its just so pretty and fun (and it is NOT hard to make!!!)   Now if I could just make it chocolate instead of pumpkin…hmmm….. 🙂

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German Chocolate Cookie Bites!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Ruthanne

What could be better than a big slice of german chocolate cake?  Why a german chocolate cookie stuffed full of that yummy coconut pecan icing of course!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 box of German Chocolate cake mix
  • 1/3c. softened margarine
  • 1/2 box of cream cheese (4 oz.)
  • 1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (melted)
  • 1 egg
  • German chocolate frosting (get a tub of it –or be fancy and use my favorite recipe for it!)

DIRECTIONS:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream together margarine and cream cheese until smooth.
  • Add egg, stirring until smooth.
  • Blend in melted chocolate.
  • Add cake mix last and stir until combined.  Use your hands to knead mixture into a heavy cookie dough.
  • Make evenly- size small balls of dough (I use a Small Cookie Scoop) and place on cookie sheets.

  • Gently press cookies into a flattened cookie shape (rather than a ball) as they will not spread out when they bake.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.
  • Remove cookies from oven and cool completely.
  • Spread frosting between two similarly -sized cookies and chill until serving.

My thoughts:  I love how the cookie part turned out.  I was really just experimenting with using a cake mix.  I’ve used a cake mix before with my Carrot Cake Cookies– but I knew they couldn’t be made the same (oatmeal in a german chocolate cake?!).  The cookies are dense and sooo chocolatey and rich.  They scoop wonderfully and don’t stick to the cookie sheet– perfect!  Look for them again soon– I want to try my hand at some caramel cookies with caramel cake mix!!!  Enjoy!

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Creepy Spider Cupcakes!

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Ruthanne

Make your kids smile with these friendly spiders on a frosting web.  The cupcakes are layered orange and purple- so much FUN!!!!

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

  • Make cake mix according to package.
  • Divide batter into two bowls and add food coloring to make two fun fall colors.  (if you want to make this recipe A LOT easier just make your batter one color.)
  • Layer each color twice in 24 cupcake liners in tins (or just pour it in if you’ve only got one color).
  • Bake according to package and cool.
  • While cupcakes are baking and cooling, spoon frosting into bowl and color.
  • Melt small amount of white candy melts, spoon into ziplock, clip corner and pipe small “eyes” on malted milk balls.  Add a small candy or nonpareil if you want.  Allow these to harden.


  • Frost cupcakes.
  • Melt about a cup of dark chocolate candy melts and spoon them into a ziplock.  Clip the corner and pipe a spiral on the top of each cupcake.  Use a knife or toothpick to pull from the center out through the spiral, making a web design.  If you need some visual aids click here.
  • Set one malted milk ball on the center of each cupcake.
  • Get ready for your guests to smile at these cute little spiders!

My thoughts:  I’m not going to lie…these are adorable, but they are some extra effort.  If you are planing a fun Halloween party and you have time to mess around with piping chocolate eyes you will love this recipe– but if you need something quick I’d hold off on this.  I would do this again in a second- it was fun and relaxing to decorate these and I love how cute they are– can’t wait to serve them!!!  Hope you have fun!!!! r-

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Inside-out Caramel Apples!

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Ruthanne

Celebrate fall with a unique twist on the caramel apple: soft creamy caramel and chocolate on the INSIDE of the apple! Happy October to YOU!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 12-16 medium apples
  • 1 to 2 cups of 7-up
  • 32 Kraft caramels (unwrapped)
  • 1 can (14oz.) of sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 c. margarine
  • 6 oz. Wilton Dark Candy Cocoa Melts

(note: these amounts will make more caramel sauce than you need – you can cut the ingredients in half, but then you will have 1/2 of a can of condensed milk left-??!!  I say put the extra caramel sauce over ice cream 🙂 your call….)

DIRECTIONS:

  • Cut top off of apple, scoop out core and seeds with a melon baller
  • Fill apple “cup” with 7-up and use a kitchen brush to coat edges and top  with 7-up (this will prevent browning).









  • Repeat process with all apples (re-use the 7-up if you want- just pour it from one cup to the next!)
  • Make caramel sauce by adding caramels, condensed milk and margarine to a saucepan and stirring over medium heat until completely melted and smooth.
  • Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments until smooth.
  • Spoon or pipe chocolate into apple cups, saving a little to drizzle on top.
  • Spoon or pipe caramel (cool a little 1st if you decide to pipe this!) into apple cups over chocolate.
  • Drizzle chocolate over top of caramel and serve warm and gooey- or chill and serve cold-mmmm!

My thoughts: No worries– I’m sure a “normal” caramel apple post is in my future– I just wanted something different from the expected.  These really are a beautiful dessert- serve them with a knife and a fork though- they are a wonderful gooey mess if you serve them warm!  Hope you enjoy these!  -r

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Fudge Brownies

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Ruthanne

These rich, thick brownies remind me of a dessert from an expensive coffee house.  The secret??? They use a mix!  Quick, easy and SO yummy- love ’em!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 boxes of Duncan Hines Fudge Brownie mix
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 c. water
  • 3/4c. vegetable oil
  • frosting (make your own or use a tub of ready-made for SUPER easy brownies)

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Combine together mixes, eggs, water and oil.
  • Mix until well blended (about 50-75 strokes)
  • Pour into a greased 9×13 cake pan
  • Bake 30-45 minutes (until center is set and sides are pulling away from pan a bit)
  • Cool
  • Frost
  • Cover with tin foil and freeze overnight (or longer)
  • Thaw about 8 hours before you need to serve.


My thoughts: This recipe is just about perfect- easy, inexpensive, can be make way ahead of an event and the results are WOW(!!) chocolate happiness!!!  This recipe came from my co-worker Lisa.  They are her mother-in-law Gloria’s specialty and she claims the freezing makes these into the wonderful consistency that people rave about.  This recipe really does come straight from the back of the Duncan Hines Box with just a few alterations- two boxes of mix, less oil and a longer cook time. (plus the freezer time, of course).  Give them a try for your next event that calls for a dessert!  Hope you love them as much as I do!  Thanks Lisa and Gloria 🙂

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