Eat Some Mud!

I like to make my cakes, cookies, and candies look beautiful. Appearance is half the taste, right? Well, that’s just not true with this next recipe! Mississippi Mud Bars are the ugliest looking dessert around. They are actually supposed to look like a wonky, dirty hunk of mud! Except that the "mud" is actually an ooey-gooey decadent dessert.

If you want to cut up the mud bars and serve them to others, wait until the entire pan is completely cool. However, if you’re like me, the sight of these mud bars will make you grab a fork and dig in before the steam even settles. Don’t even try to count calories on this one!

Mississippi Mud Bars
Adapted from two recipes by Paula Deen

1 C. butter
1 C. milk
½ C. cocoa powder
½ C. water
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C. sugar
2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3 C. mini marshmallows
1 ½ C. white chocolate chips
¾ C. chocolate chips
**Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 15x11-inch jelly roll pan and line with parchment paper. Butter and flour the parchment paper.

2. In a sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and baking soda. Set aside.

4. Whisk the milk, cocoa, and water into the melted butter. Then whisk in eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking often. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

5. Pour chocolate mixture over dry mixture and whisk to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure there are no flour clumps. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

6. While cake is baking (with 10 minutes left), prepare the Chocolate Glaze.

7. After cake is done, immediately sprinkle marshmallows, white chips, and chocolate chips evenly on top of the hot cake. Pour warm **Chocolate Glaze in a zig-zag pattern over the cake. Let cool in pan completely before cutting into bars. (Or dig in with a fork right away.)

**Chocolate Glaze
½ C. butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
6 Tbsp. buttermilk (or milk with added lemon juice left at room temp for 10-20 min)
4 C. powdered sugar

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add cocoa and buttermilk, whisking until cocoa has completely dissolved. Gradually whisk in powdered sugar until smooth, about one cup at a time.

The Ultimate Mac & Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is probably the ultimate comfort food – steamy pasta, rich, creamy sauce filled with gooey cheese! I used to eat Kraft mac & cheese… only (“the blue box, please”). No generic brand was acceptable. And I would certainly never eat homemade mac & cheese because it tasted “gross.” Little did I know what I had been missing!

When Beechers cheese shop opened in Seattle, I was introduced to the most delectable mac & cheese I had ever tasted… it was way better than Kraft – hehe! As soon as I could afford it, I was trying out lots of different homemade mac & cheese recipes with the most divine cheeses I could find.

Far and away, this is the BEST homemade mac & cheese recipe that I have tried. It is only slightly adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. Admittedly, this is a complicated recipe, full of multi-tasking and intense preparation. The results are SO worth the effort. Use the best-quality cheeses you can find (I usually use about $20 worth of cheeses in this recipe) and you won’t be disappointed!

No offense to “the blue box,” but once you try this recipe for mac & cheese, you’ll never ask for the blue box again!


Macaroni & Cheese
Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe

Ingredients:
For the Sauce:
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
½ C. flour
5 ½ C. milk
2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
4 ½ C. sharp, white cheddar cheese
1 ½ C. gruyere cheese
½ C. parmesan cheese

1 pound pasta (macaroni or preferred pasta)

2 Tbsp. butter
6 slices of good-quality bread, slightly crusty


Directions:
1. Butter a large casserole dish (a 9x13 works great).
2. Prepare the breadcrumb topping: Heat 2 tablespoons of butter. Tear bread into ¼-inch pieces. Toss breadcrumbs in a bowl with melted butter. Set aside.
3. Grate all of the cheese for this recipe. Set aside.
4. Heat milk in microwave or on the stove (to use for sauce).
5. Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. It is best to cook the pasta and the sauce at the same time, although this requires careful attention and multitasking.
6. Make the sauce: In a large skillet, melt 6 Tbsp. butter over medium-low heat. When bubbly, add ½ C. flour. Whisk and cook for one minute, until lightly browned. *You can begin making the pasta now, too... just be prepared to multi-task!
7. Add the warmed milk slowly (about one cup at a time) until thick. Whisk after each addition, dissolving any clumps of flour. **This is the hard part... the sauce needs to be mixed just right to avoid clumping... keep the whisk moving to avoid burning!
8. Remove pan from heat. Add seasonings: salt, nutmeg, pepper, cayenne pepper. Add about 2/3 of the grated cheese.
9. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package (about 9 minutes in well-salted water). Drain the pasta in a strainer and rinse the pasta with cold water.
10. Pour the pasta into the cheese sauce.
11. Pour the pasta/sauce mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.
12. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, or until bubbling and browned on top.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (for the yeast to rise)

Well, it’s a new year and one of my resolutions is to work less (!) which means that I will have plenty of time to blog about yummy food! My goal is to blog at least once a week… so check back to make sure I am doing just that!

The origins of this entry date back to my childhood Christmas memories. Every year on Christmas morning, my dad would wake up early to cook us cinnamon rolls for breakfast. This was in addition to the mountains of candy Santa always seemed to leave for us – ha! A few years ago, my dad actually agreed to let me make the cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. I had found a good recipe and adapted it so that the cinnamon rolls were filled to the brim with sugary-goodness! They must have tasted okay because I have had the privilege of baking the cinnamon rolls each year since then!

The only difficult part about baking these cinnamon rolls is the wait time for the dough to rise… but the results are completely worth the wait!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Preparing the Dough
½ Tablespoon yeast
Dash of sugar
2 ½ C. warm water (110 degrees)
6 C. flour (about)
¼ C. brown sugar
½ Tablespoon salt
Olive oil

1. Using olive oil, oil a large bowl and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, combine yeast, dash of sugar, and warm water. Dissolve yeast in water. Let it stand for about 5 minutes (or until smelly).
3. Add 2 cups of the flour and mix well. Stir in the sugar and salt; mix. Then gradually add the remaining flour, one cup at a time, until dough begins to pull away from the bowl.
4. Transfer dough to a floured baking surface and knead for about 5 minutes.
5. Put the dough in the oiled bowl; turn dough to coat. Cover bowl with a damp cloth. Let dough rise 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until doubled.

Preparing the Cinnamon Rolls
½ C. butter, melted
Brown sugar (1 cup, or to taste)
Cinnamon (1 Tbsp, or to taste)
Raisins (optional – ½ cup or to taste)

1. Secure saran wrap (for easy clean-up) to cover a large work surface. Flour the saran well. Roll out the dough.
2. Brush the dough generously with the melted butter.
3. Sprinkle brown sugar generously on the entire surface of the dough. Next, sprinkle the cinnamon on the dough. Pat the surface of the dough well, to ensure that the sugar and cinnamon stick well.
4. Begin rolling the dough into one long log.


Baking the Cinnamon Rolls
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Butter a 9x13 cake pan. Line with parchment paper and butter the parchment paper as well.
3. Slice the log of cinnamon roll dough into 1 ½ inch rolls. Place each cinnamon roll in the prepared baking pan so that the spiral is facing up.
4. Let the prepared cinnamon rolls rise in the pan for 30 minutes.
5. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.