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Posts Tagged ‘Desserts’

Rice Krispy Treat Bark

Posted in Bar Desserts, Candy, Chocolate, Dessert, Peanut Butter, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2013 | 12 Comments »

rice kriispy treat bark on overtimecook

Today’s post is really good timing.

And no, I don’t mean that this is a fabulous last minute Purim treat if you’re still stuck on what to make for your Mishloach Manot (purim basket). Although it totally is a fabulous purim treat…etc.

The reason this post is very timely is that there was in an interesting discussion on Facebook recently regarding recipe sources and credits and things. And the question came up if there’s a possibility of complete coincidences in recipes.

The answer? Yes. How do I know? Because of this recipe. Before I explain, let me say that recipe attribution is a very important issue, and one I feel very passionate about. But sometimes, two people might just have similar ideas, independently. And the proof is in the bark.

Recently, I mentioned to my friend Carla that I made rice krispy treat bark. She was floored. “So did I!” I had just finished wrapping up my photo shoot, so I asked her for details. Turns out, our ideas weren’t exactly the same, but the idea was similar. Total coincidence. (Or, as I like to think of it, great dessert minds think alike!) Anyway, after you scroll down to look at my version of this fun treat, click here to see what Carla came up with.

Anyway, for a chocolate peanut butter snack that’s as addictive as you’ll ever find, try this. You can thank me later.

rice kriispy treat bark 1

Rice Krispy Treat Bark

Ingredients:

for the rice krispy treat layer:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

2 cups mini marshmallows

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 1/2 cups rice krispies

to assemble: 

10 ounces chocolate

Instructions:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a pot over medium heat, melt the margarine or butter. Add the marshmallows and stir until melted. Add the peanut butter and stir until melted and everything is combined.

Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the rice krispies. Stir well until combined and all of the rice krispies have been coated.

Pour the rice krispies mixture onto the prepared pan and spread into a very thin layer. Set aside to cool completely.

Once the rice krispies are completely hardened, assemble the bark. Break the rice krispie treats up into small pieces. Set aside.

Line a pan (about 9×13 inches, but that isn’t too specific) with parchment paper and set aside.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and pour onto the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the rice krispie treat pieces. Set aside until chocolate is hardened.

Once the chocolate has set, break the bark into pieces.

Enjoy!

rice krispy treat bark 2

Thanks for coming by people! Enjoy this completely addictive treat. Come back soon for more fun and delicious recipes! – Miriam PS: don’t forget to enter my giveaway! 

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Confetti Cookies

Posted in Cookies, Dessert, tagged , , , , , on October 4, 2012 | 7 Comments »

Why am I always writing blog posts at 2:30 in the morning? Oh, right. It’s because I’m always cooking until about then.

Anywho. Let’s talk Yankees. I know, there was a political debate of sorts last night (tonight? This gets so confusing.) but I wasn’t paying much attention because hello! The Yankees won the eastern division! Finally, right? Who’s ready for post season baseball? I know I am.

Wait. I think I meant to discuss cookies. Must be the hour, I guess. Well, let’s get to it. This post is in honor of my friend from work, R. She loved these cookies the first time I brought them to work, and has been talking about them ever since. I hadn’t written the recipe down at that point, so I couldn’t share it with her. She’s been begging me to make them again, so I could share the recipe. And I finally did.

What can I say about these cookies? Firstly, there’s the nostalgia aspect. Because everyone knows that sprinkles are one of the best parts of childhood. (That reminds me. I spoke to someone at work named sprinkle. When I mentioned that I love his name, he told me he got teased a lot in high school. I sympathized with him, but told him that I love baking, so his name is awesome. I wish I could say that helped, but then he told me that he graduated over fifty years ago, and that he’s over it.)

Did I just digress again? Let’s try talking about these cookies one more time. They’re soft and chewy, yet a tad crunchy. They remind me a bit of the bakery cookies we all grew up on. Did I mention how pretty they are?

Right. Make them. And now I’ll finally go to sleep. Whether or not I need it.

Confetti Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk or non dairy sub
2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup colorful nonpareils sprinkles

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet(s) with parchment or lightly grease and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter/margarine or sugar until smooth.
Add the vanilla, egg and milk, beating well after each addition until fully combined.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt. With the mixer at a low speed, incorporate add the dry mixture into the mixer and beat until just combined. Gently stir in the sprinkles. Be careful not to over mix the sprinkles or the colors will bleed.
Use a small cookie scoop or a heaping teaspoon measuring spoon to drop rounds of cookie dough onto the prepared trays. Again, be careful not to handle the dough excessively to prevent bleeding.
Bake the cookies at 350 for 9 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by guys! Hope you love the cookies! -Miriam

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Mini Apple and Honey Tarts and a Rosh Hashanah Blog Party

Posted in Dessert, Giveaways, Holiday, Seasonal, Super-Easy, Traditional, tagged , , , , , on September 2, 2012 | 71 Comments »

Giveaway Closed!

It’s hard to believe that this entire party was conceptualized and came to this point in such a short time! About a week and a half ago, on Twitter, my friend Jessie (who happens to be one of my food photography heroes!) and I were talking about the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and how we should do something fun to celebrate the occasion on our blogs. I don’t think at that point that we imagined that it would be this big or popular, but here’s the scoop:

What: A Rosh Hashanah Blog Party

When: Right now!

Where: here, and a whole bunch of awesome blogs. Scroll down past the recipe for the list!

What else: Lots! Firstly, the event is hosted by myself and Jessie and sponsored by Kitchen Aid. We hope to have more Holiday Blog Parties in the future, so if you’re a Jewish blogger and interested in joining, email holidayblogparties@gmail.com. (You don’t have to be a food blogger to join, just willing to post a holiday themed recipe!)

To kick off the celebration, Levana Kirschenbaum is giving away a copy of her fabulous new book, The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen to three lucky winners. Limit one entry per reader per blog so click over to the other participating blogs below for your chance at additional entries! Giveaway ends 5 am eastern time on September 11th, 2012.
To Enter the Giveaway: Leave a comment on this post telling me what you will be cooking this year for Rosh Hashanah.
Prize is sponsored by Levana and available to readers from all blogs participating in the Rosh Hashanah Blog Party. Prize can only be shipped within the US.

If you want to learn more about Rosh Hashanah, click here to read about it on Aish.

______________________________________________________

Now, about the recipe that is special enough for a party like this… Well, for starters, my father tasted it and proclaimed that it’s the best dessert I ever made. Now, that would be an impressive statement at any time, but considering how many desserts I make, that’s extra impressive.

Wanna know what I didn’t tell him? That this was one of the easiest desserts I ever made. I had originally planned to make this just for Rosh Hashanah (after my initial test batch recently.) Then my family fought over the last crumb, and I knew this would be more than a once a year treat.

Mini Apples and Honey Tarts:

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons butter or margarine

3 Tablespoons honey

10 large puff pastry squares

2-3 apples, peeled and sliced very thin

optional raw or demerara sugar, for topping

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.

In a small pot, melt together the butter or margarine and honey. Set aside to cool slightly.

Brush a puff pastry square with the honey mixture, then top with thin slices of apple. Fold over the corners to form a square over the apples. Brush the entire top with more of the honey mixture. If desired, top it with sugar. Repeat with remaining squares.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve warm.

Enjoy.

Wait! There’s more! Here’s a list of Jewish bloggers celebrating with Rosh Hashanah themed recipes. You do not want to miss these. I am drooling just reading the list. Click on the links below to see the recipes, and tell them Miriam sent you! (Also, remember that you can enter to win the cookbook once per blog, so click on over to the following for more chances at winning!)

Challah and Bread:

Marlene of The Jewish Hostess made Apple Challah
Amanda of The Challah Blog made Pomegranate Challah
Shelly of The Kosher Home made Apple, Honey and Pomegranate Challah!
Sides, Salads and Starters:
Sarah of Food, Words, Photos made Tzimmes (Rosh Hashanah Carrots)
Tali of More Quiche, Please made Roasted Beets and Butternut Squash
Roberta and Lois of Kosher Eye made Simanim Salad
Chanie of Busy In Brooklyn made Pomegranate Coleslaw
Rivki of Life in the Married Lane made Super Salad
Hannah of Cooking Manager made Beets Marinated with Ginger and Garlic
Sina of The Kosher Spoon made Pomegranate, Almond and Raisin Couscous
Hindy of Confident Cook-Hesitant Baker made Warm Roasted Beets with Farro
Sarah of Kosher Street made Sweet Potato Apple Tzimmes
Main Dishes:
Jessie of Taste made Smoked Salmon
Samantha of The Little Ferraro Kitchen made Chicken with Dates
Michele of Kosher Treif Cooking made Coconut Chicken Strips with two dipping sauces
Melinda of Kitchen Tested made Key Lime Glazed Duck
Stephanie and Jessica of The Kosher Foodies made Chicken Braised in Pomegranate
Liz of The Lemon Bowl made Beef Brisket
Estee of Anyone Interested? made Easy Breazy 5 Minute Brisket
Desserts and Drinks:
Miriam of Overtime Cook made Mini Apples and Honey Tarts
Laura of Pragmatic Attic made Fresh Ginger Honey Cake
Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen made Honey Caramel Apple Galette
Amy of What Jew Wanna Eat made an Apple and Honey Cocktail
Nick of The Baking Process made Apple and Date Honey Squares
Lisa of The Monday Morning Cooking Club made Honey Chiffon Cake and Traditional Honey Cake
Leah of Cook Kosher made Pomegranate Ice Cream
Overwhelmed? I know I am! Rosh Hashanah menu planning just got a whole lot easier, huh? Thanks for partaking in our party folks, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway! -Miriam

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Homemade Iced Mochaccino

Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Drinks, Frozen Treats, tagged , , , , , on July 15, 2012 | 21 Comments »

Coffee is a very serious and important part of my life. Let me explain.

I like to say I am not a caffeine addict. And honestly, I believe that I am not. Sure, I have three cups of coffee every weekday morning, and I am grumpy like you-don’t-want-to-see if I don’t get my coffee. (And unproductive, but my manager reads this blog on occasion, so we aren’t going to talk about that at all.) Suffice it to say, I start my day off with coffee. Piping hot in the winter, and even the fall (I’ll have to remember to post that when (if?) the weather gets cold again. When the weather gets hot, and scalding hot drinks aren’t quite as desirable, I bring a huge cup of ice into work with me, and make my coffee cold.

On the weekends, or any day that I am not forced to part with my comfy bed at the unearthly hour of 6:30 in the morning? Totally don’t need the caffeine. Honestly, I don’t miss it at all. That means I am not addicted then, right?

Well, just because I don’t miss the caffeine on the weekends, doesn’t mean I don’t miss the coffee. And because I am not rushing out the door, I have time to play around, to pull out my blender, to really go crazy. 

And that’s how this Iced Mochaccino was born. Creamy, and rich, full of the coffee and chocolate goodness that we all know and love, there’s pretty much nothing not to love about this drink. Best of all? It’s totally adaptable, so, for example, make it with frozen yogurt, low-fat or fat-free ice cream, even sugar free stuff. It’s great any way you make it! And here’s the big secret: this decaf hating gal will, on occasion, make this delicious treat with decaf coffee. And it’s totally awesome.

Homemade Iced Mochaccino 

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, sweetened to taste

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 to 3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup ice cream

1 1/2 cups ice cubes

Instructions:

Combine coffee and cocoa powder together until smooth and combined.

Pour ice cream, ice cubes, coffee and 1/2 cup of milk into blender and blend until smooth and creamy. (Add additional 1/4 cup milk as needed to achieve a smooth texture.)

Enjoy!

How do you take your coffee?

Thanks for stopping by folks! I hope you enjoyed all of the awesome guest posts last week, and I am so excited to get posting some more fun recipes! So make sure to come back soon! -Miriam

Kosher Connection July Linkup:


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Engagement Cookies {How-To}

Posted in Cookies, Dessert, Party, Tutorial/How-To, tagged , , , , , , on May 16, 2012 | 15 Comments »

Thank you to all the awesome people who have commented, emailed, tweeted and otherwise complimented me on the treats I made for my sister’s engagement party. I put so many countless hours of work, about 20 pounds of flour, bags and bags of sugar of all varieties, and finally pulled it all off. I just showed you folks the various goodies I made for the party, but I saved the best for the last. The center of the middle table had these:

From a glance, they might simply look like wooden branches in really cool vases. But look close and you can see there are delicious little flowers sprouting from the branches.

You know how they saw money doesn’t grow on trees? Well here’s something super important to remember: sadly, neither do cookies. I would totally plant a forest of cookie trees if that were a possibility. Because cookie producing trees don’t exist, I am going to show you how to make these cookies yourself. They’re really pretty, and totally perfect for an engagement, wedding shower, or even a wedding.

Let’s start, shall we?

First, you are going to need a recipe of your favorite decorator’s sugar cookies. Here’s Mine. You’ll be needing a batch of royal icing too, which is on that link.

Here’s what else you will need:

  • Two different colors of food coloring (that look nice together)
  • Heart shaped cookie cutter (your choice of sizes, I used a fairly small one)
  • A drinking straw
  • 3 piping bags
  • 2 couplers
  • Wilton #2 tip
  • Wilton #1 tip
  • plastic squeeze bottle
  • ribbon
Here’s what you’ll need to do. First, roll out the dough and cut out lots of little hearts. Next, take the straw and poke a little hole in the corner of each heart.
Important: you will want to alternate between punching the hole on the right and left side of the hearts, so that all of the hearts of one color will be on the right, and all of the other color heart will have holes on the left.
Bake the cookies (with the little holes removed) according to the directions of the recipe and let them cool completely.
Read the direction on my clown cookie pop post on how to outline and flood the cookies, because I won’t be elaborating here.
Divide the icing into 3 parts: two large bowls and one small one. Color one of the large bowls a nice girly color, and the other a nice boyish color. Or chose the bride’s and the groom’s favorite color. Or yours. You do want to make sure the colors look nice together.
Outline the cookie like so: (make sure to pipe around the hole too!) Use a #2 tip for this.

Next, flood the cookie: (Here’s where you’ll use the handy-dandy squeeze bottle.)

Now do that a ton of times:

And then, when you feel like you are up to your ears in royal icing, make a whole ton more:

Or, you could be a little less insane than I was and do fewer than 120 cookies. Just a suggestion.

Let the cookies harden completely. I waited overnight. You should to, or you might risk the colors flooding like they did on my clown cookie pops.

Use the reserved white icing (or you can use the other color for this) to pipe the initials of the happy couple- one per color. If your cookie is small (like mine) use a #1 tip for this. If it’s big, you can go for a #2. Or try both and see which you like better.

Don’t make my mistake. After piping S onto 60 pink cookies, I moved over to the green side of the table and began to pipe…more S’s! I was about five in when I realized my mistake, and luckily they were all still wet enough to wipe off and re-pipe an E. All’s well that ends in cookies, right?

When you are done, if you aren’t totally sick of piping yet, or it’s only 2 am and you don’t have to be up for work until 6:30 am the next day, or you have more icing and don’t want it to go to waste, or all of the above, you can pipe an outline of white or the other color around the heart. Or you can pipe dots. Or some of each. Go crazy. Have fun.

Once the icing has completely hardened, tie one of each color together with a ribbon and tie a nice little bow.

Now display them at the party and pretend to be all humble about it while everyone gushes over your work.

Enjoy! I hope you like these. And I hope you come back soon, because I have some really delicious recipes to share with you guys. -Miriam

By the way, did you know that I am on Twitter? And on Facebook? And on Pinterest? And on Google+? Are you there too? Let’s connect!

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World’s Best Blueberry Crumb Muffins

Posted in Dessert, Muffins/Cupcakes, tagged , , on August 14, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Last summer I took my two nieces (then 2 and 4) blueberry picking. They had an amazing time, and amazingly learned to tell the difference between a blueberry that was ripe and one that wasn’t.
One problem: they enjoyed themselves so much that I didn’t have the heart to stop them once we had we had enough berries. So they kept picking until we finally drove off with about two thousand pounds of fresh blueberries. (Slight exaggeration. Slight.)
We got home and I came up with a great way to use up some of the surplus: “Who wants to bake blueberry muffins?”
And so we did. And even the blueberry-muffin-haters among us loved them. I made a triple recipe, thinking I’d freeze a bunch. That wasn’t necessary; they were gone in a day.
You might have a blueberry muffin recipe you love, but I promise you- you will NOT regret trying these amazing muffins! The delicious cinnamon-y topping gives them this irresistible appeal, and the amazing texture makes them absolutely unforgettable.
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com. Scroll down for non-dairy adaptation
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries or 1 cup frozen blueberries plus 1 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 stick butter or margarine, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin pan.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the first four ingredients. Pour the oil into a 1-cup measuring cup. Add the egg to the cup, then add milk until the top. ; Pour into flour mixture and stir to combine. Gently fold in the blueberries. (If using frozen, toss the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour to help keep the color from spreading too much.) The batter will be very thick, closer to a dough. Fill muffin cups right to the top.
Combine topping ingredients until they form coarse crumbs. Cover the tops of the muffins with crumbs. Bake for 20-24 minutes.
For non-dairy muffins: sub the milk with non-dairy whip topping, not soy milk, to preserve the richness and texture of the muffin.
Yields about 10 muffins, but I always double this recipe.

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Chewy Molasses Ginger Cookies

Posted in Cookies, Dessert, tagged , on August 11, 2011 | 6 Comments »

Just after I finished making a big batch of this dough, my heart sank. My family won’t like cookies with ginger and ohmygosh cloves. 

But the dough was ready, and I wasn’t going to throw it out. So I sat and shaped the cookies, all the while thinking about how nobody would eat them.

It’s a good thing I’m not a betting sort of woman, because I’d have lost big time. My little brother (notoriously unadventurous in the palate department) took one look at the cookies and said “Oh, yay! Snickerdoodles.” His mistake is understandable. They look a bit like snickerdoodles, with the crackly top and the sugar topping. But my tasters bit into the cookies, and far from the looks of horror I had expected, they were fighting over them-down to the last crumb!

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margerine

1 cup of sugar, plus more for rolling

1/2 cup of molasses

2 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

2 eggs

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the molasses, baking soda, salt and spices, scraping down the sides to incorporate everything evenly. Stir in the flour. Cover and refrigerate for an hour, to make the handling easier.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two cookie sheets. Shape the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (approximately a tablespoon.) Roll the ball in sugar to coat, then place carefully on baking sheet. Leave 2 inches between cookies to allow for spreading.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. The cookies may not look completely done, but take them out anyway, they set as they cool. Allow to cool four 10 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Adapted from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

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Peanut Butter Truffle Stuffed Oreos

Posted in Chocolate, Cookies, Dessert, No-Bake Dessert, Peanut Butter, Super-Easy, tagged , , , , on August 7, 2011 | 19 Comments »

These started out as truffles, and evolved into one of the most delicious, easiest desserts in the planet.


The truffle filling is a classic combination of two flavors any sane individual adores: chocolate and peanut butter. Stuff that decadent mixture in between two Oreos, roll it in some sprinkles, and voila! No bake, super easy and totally gorgeous.

The sprinkles are great too. I made them for a party to celebrate the birth of my new niece, hence the pink you see in the picture. You can do blue for a boy, colorful for a child’s party, or any other color/shape sprinkles that match your theme and or color scheme. If you don’t have a particular color that works, use plain white- it fits the Oreo look really nicely.

I love how the finished product has a homogenous look- kind of like you took an Oreo and made some improvements. Oh, wait. That’s exactly what we did here.

Ingredients:
20 Oreos, crushed into crumbs in the food processor (about 2 1/4 cups crushed)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
25 whole Oreos
(about) half a cup of sprinkles, white or color of your choice

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the Oreo crumbs, butter/margarine, and peanut butter.

Carefully, using a knife, open the Oreo. Scrape the filling intothe bowl, and set cookies carefully on the side. Repeat with remaining Oreos.

Mix Oreo filling into the rest of the mixture. I like to use my hands here to really incorporate all of the ingredients into a smooth dough.

Take a small amount of dough and roll it into a ball, roughly the size of a walnut. Sandwich between two cookies, then press down to force the filling just until the edge of the cookies. Roll the stuffed cookie in the sprinkles, then repeat with remaining cookies.

These cookies freeze nicely.

Yields 25 large, stuffed, delicious cookies.

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