Rainbow Rice Crispy Squares

I recently went to the States (the US that is) and bought some baking goods that I can’t get in Canada.  One of the things I brought back was Fruity Pebbles as I’ve been wanting to make rainbow Rice Crispy Squares for a while.  I used the standard Rice Crispy Squares recipe but swapped out half the Rice Crispies with Fruity Pebbles.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Rainbow Rice Crispy Squares

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

¼ cup butter

5 cups mini marshmallows

1 ½  teaspoons vanilla syrup

3 cups Rice Crispies cereal

3 cups Fruity Pebbles

Directions

1.       In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat.

2.       Stir in marshmallows until melted.

3.       Stir in vanilla.

4.       Take off the heat and add both cereals. Stir until well coated.

5.       Press into a pan, and cool before cutting.

Cooling...

Verdict: Did you know that Fruity Pebble taste like Fruit Loops?? I did not.  They gave the square a fruity flavor.  I brought them to a work meeting and gave them to a friend.  I’m pretty sure they liked them – can’t go wrong with rainbow Rice Crispy Squares!

Pretzel Banana Cookies

Long time no blog. I’ve been moving and vacationing.  In fact, I visited my friend in Toronto for whom I decided to bring homemade cookies for her birthday.  She is the only person I know whose favorite flavor is banana!  She’ll pick a banana flavored treat over anything, even chocolate!  I wanted to incorporate bananas in the cookies and I decided on banana chips for their crunch.  Plus, I’ve never seen cookies using banana chips. Hope these turn out!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Pretzel Banana Cookies

Inspired from Milk Bar.

Pretzel Crunch (make ahead of time)

Ingredients (I made double this recipe and snacked on the leftovers)

1 cup mini-pretzels

2 Tablespoon packed light brown sugar

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoon milk powder

½ Tablespoon malt powder

3 Tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

2. Crush pretzels to ¼ of original size and add to bowl.

3. Add sugars, milk powder, and malt powder and mix.

4. Add butter and toss.

5. Spread on baking pan lined with parchment or silicon mat.

6. Bake for 20 minutes

7. Bake apart into chunks.  Cool completely before adding to cookies.

Before baking

After baking

After breaking apart

Pretzel Banana Cookies

Makes 18 small-ish cookies.

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

½  egg

½ teaspoon vanilla syrup or ¼ teaspoon extract

¾ cup bread flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup pretzel crunch

½ cup crushed banana chips (put banana chips in a plastic bag, seal, and go over with a rolling pin)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and both sugars with a beater on medium high for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add egg and vanilla, and beat for 7-8 minutes. 

3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low just until dough comes together (1 minute).

4. Add pretzel crunch and crushed banana chips.  Fold in with a spatula.

5. Scoop dough using a small ice cream scoop and place on a baking sheet.  Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.  Do not bake un-chilled dough.

Crushing bananas

Scooping out dough for the fridge

To bake:

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

7. Place cookie dough rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat, 4 inches apart.

8. Bake for 7 minutes.  For bigger cookies, you’ll need to bake longer.  Cool on baking sheet before removing to a rack.

Verdict: These were surprisingly good.  I was a bit nervous about the pretzel-banana combination, but they worked well in the cookie.  My friend really liked them!  I really liked the pretzel crunch – a really addictive snack!

Kitchen Sink Cookies

I’m moving closer to work!  As I’m in the process of packing, I’m purging all the things I don’t need, which feels phenomenal!  In the kitchen, I have bits of left over baking ingredients that I thought I’d use up.  Result: Kitchen Sink Cookies!  A mash-up of leftovers.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Inspired and adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook. 

Makes 17.

Toasted Coconut Make ahead

Toast ¾ cup of shredded coconut by placing on a baking sheet and baking in oven at 350 degrees until golden.  Take the sheet out after the top is golden, stir to expose un-toasted bits, and place back in the oven.  Keep an eye on it because it will brown quickly.

Pretzel Crunch Make ahead

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups coarsely chopped pretzels

¼ cup milk powder

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup melted salted butter

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 275 degrees F.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon baking mat.

2.  In a medium bowl, mix chopped pretzels, milk powder and sugar.

3.  Add melted butter and toss to coat.

4.  Spread onto the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until toasted.  The sugar will turn golden and caramelize.

5.  Cool before adding to cookie batter.

Left: Toasted coconut; Right: Pretzel crunch

Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

½  egg

½ teaspoon vanilla syrup or ¼ teaspoon extract

¾ cup bread flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon coffee grounds (not instant, and not used coffee grounds!)

¾ cup butterscotch chips

¼ cup chocolate chips

Toasted coconut from above recipe

Pretzel crunch from above recipe

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, cream butter and both sugars with a beater on medium high for 2-3  minutes.

2.  Add egg and vanilla, and beat for 7-8 minutes. 

3.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low just until dough comes together (1 minute).

4.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Fold in with a spatula.

5.  Scoop dough using an “average sized” ice cream scoop ¾ full and place on a baking sheet.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Do not bake un-chilled dough.

To bake:

6.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

7.  Place cookie dough rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat, 4 inches apart.

8.  Bake for 10-11 minutes.  Cool on baking sheet before removing to a rack.

Bake after chilling in the fridge.

Verdict: These cookies were fantastic!  I loved the crunchy and caramelized components in the buttery cookie.  The coffee grounds give it an interesting flavor, too!  I brought them in to work and they were gone by lunchtime!

Baking Fails

My friend invited me to her tea party and I planned to bring a baked treat.  Well, I didn't end up bringing anything because I had a baking FAIL!  I told my friend what happened and she said that she never knew me to fail.  So I thought I'd post all my fails (or at least the ones I captured, because there's been a lot!).

Let's start with what I had planned to bring to the tea party.  It was supposed to be a malt blondie with ganache swirls.  These (below) are not blondies.  They were more like dense cakes with chocolate on top.  No swirls, not chewy, dry, and no malt flavor.  FAIL!  I froze them and sneak them into the boyfriend's lunchbox.

  

Next up, what was supposed to be a sourdough rye.  I was soooo excited about this bread because it used a sourdough starter.  Well, after the final rise of 8 hours, I was supposed to bake it, but I had to go to work, so I just put it in the fridge.  When I came home, it had deflated.  I baked it and as you can see below, it didn't rise.  Maybe if I brought it to room temperature before baking?  The bread tasted great, it was just a bit dense.

The day came when I wanted to make macarons.  For my Dad's birthday, I wanted to make something without butter, so I opted to make coffee macarons with ganache filling.  I was so confident that I would knock these out of the park (French macarons are hard and they have whole classes devoted to teaching the technique? Pshhh, I can totally do it the first time).  WRONG.  I think I babied the batter and didn't stir it enough because the batter was stiff and no feet formed.  The final product was pretty tasty (better than ones I've bought!) and my Dad seemed to like them, but it was still a FAIL. I'll definitely try again!

Finally, my most recent fail.  For Mother's day, I wanted to make my mom loaves of fluffy milk bread with swirls of red bean and taro paste.  Well, the loaves turned out dense and not at all fluffy. I realized the yeast was dead and I had overworked the dough.  FAIL! I still gave it to my mom though.

Fail on the left.  What it's supposed to look like on the right.

Hopefully, I'll have better luck next time!