Absinthe's Kitchen

Ingredients:

1.5 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup soft margarine or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium eggs
2 cups quick oats
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 cups mixed nuts
1.5 cups chocolate chips
2 cups dried berries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F (190 C).

In large bowl stir brown sugar and butter until well blended.

Stir in vanilla, cinnamon and eggs until light and fluffy.

Add oats, flour, baking soda and salt and mix until well blended.

Add chocolate chips, nuts and dried fruit.

Drop dough (tablespoonsize) on ungreased cookie sheet - about 2" apart. I just put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet to make clean up easy.

Bake ~ 9 - 11 minutes or until edges turn golden brown.

Leave on cookie sheet for a minute or two. Move to cookie rack to cool completely.

These are delicious when still slightly warm. Cookies will stay slightly soft.

Enjoy.

Note: It is up to you what mix of dried fruit, nuts and chocolate chips you use. Mix and match whatever you have in your kitchen: Raisins, dried berries, milk chocolate chips, semi sweet etc, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts... Find your own mix or work with what you have. :)

One of my favorite co-workers - Peggy - brought this in one day and was so nice to share the recipe with me.

Ingredients for the cobbler:

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
6 cups sliced fresh peaches or nectarines

Ingredients for the crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/3 cup milk

Ingredients for the cream topping:

8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk


Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).

Prepare cobbler crust: combine flour, sugar and baking powder in mixing bowl. Cut in butter and shortening until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk with fork, just until dough hold together. Set aside.

Combine 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, lemon peel and peaches in large saucepan and cook, stirring with wooden spoon, until mixture thickens and boils.

Pour into ungreased 8-inch square baking dish.

Drop equal sized spoonfuls of cobbler crust over peach mixture. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon sugar over dough.

Bake until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.

While the cobbler bakes, prepare cream topping.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Slowly blend in milk.

Serve cobbler warm with cream topping.

Enjoy!!



Tips: I use cinnamon instead of nutmeg for the cobbler mixture and added a bit of vanilla to the crust.

The cobbler has the tendency to boil over a bit. Always use a cookie sheet under the baking dish.

I am sure you have seen those fancy looking chocolate curls topping cakes and sometimes even coffees.

Well, they are pretty easy to make.

All you need is a block of baking chocolate, sharp knife with a plain edge or potato peeler.

Let the chocolate sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature.

Open the wrapping but leave the end of the block that you will touch covered. It will get messy otherwise.

Now with either the potato peeler or the sharp knife gently remove thin slices of the chocolate. Most of these slices will curl while others crumble a bit. Let them drop on a plate.

If the chocolate block gets too warm put it in the fridge for a short while.

Store the chocolate curls in the fridge until you need them.

This works best with white or milk chocolate.

Decorate a cake with the curls and slightly dust them with powered sugar or cocoa powder.

Looks great!

Pics of a cake I made for a baby shower a while back. And yes, it was a girl....

Cake: Vanilla Pound cake with Raspberry filling. I will post the recipe for the filling some other time.

Ingredients

4 sticks of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk or sour cream thinned with milk

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit



Directions:


Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. The butter should be soft. So either leave it out on the counter for a while, or if you forgot (like it happens to me occasionally) just nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds.





Now add eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each egg.
Add vanilla and mix some more.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) in a separate bowl. You can either measure the half cup of milk or use a sour cream/milk mixture. I use ~1/2 cup sour cream, depending on how much I have, and thin it with a little bit of milk.







Add the combined dry ingredients, alternating with the liquid, to the butter-eggs-sugar cream. Start and end with the dry ingredients.
When you are done, mix it for a little bit longer - until the batter has a creamy almost fluffy consistency.



Pour into prepared pan/form.

Bake for 1 hour to 1.25 hours depending on the pan. It will take less time to bake layers.

Let the cake cool. You can decorate it with frosting, fondant, icing, dust it with powdered sugar etc.

Source: www.cakecentral.com