Tag Archives: baking

Travel/Food

Pumpkin pie recipe and review

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By: Nils Hilleson

full pumpkin pie on a white plate on a table with a red and white checkered tablecloth

This recipe will make a 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

Crust ingredients:

  • -1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (150 grams)
  • -1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • -10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
  • -2 to 4 tablespoons ice water, as needed

Pie ingredients:

  • -2 cups pumpkin purée
  • -3 eggs
  • -2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • -2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • -2 tablespoons molasses
  • -1 1/2 cups evaporated milk or heavy cream
  • -1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • -2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • -1/2 teaspoon salt

Steps:

Add flour, salt and butter into a bowl and mix by hand, squishing the butter and mixing it together. Add ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough just comes together (You can review a video online to see how the mixing is done).

Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gather it into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour- up to 2 days.

Roll dough big enough so that it slightly hangs off the edge of the pie pan and place it into the pie pan. Blind bake for 10-15 minutes.

Whisk all the pie ingredients in a bowl and fill the crust.

Bake the pie for 10 minutes at 450 degrees then about 35 minutes at 350 degrees or until set.

Let cool for about 20 to 30 minutes.

When I cooked this the crust came out very hard and chewy. I did cook it longer than it said because I was concerned that the pie wasn’t fully cooked but I fear I might’ve over cooked it. It could’ve also been that the dough hadn’t been mixed properly and I don’t know if either of those are actually what the issue was.

I still quite like the pie as it still tastes good but the crust is definitely a bit disappointing. If I cook this again someday I’ll have to be more cautious with it.

This was a fairly simple recipe but it made a lot of dishes and was a bit annoying to clean up. Overall, it tastes good, just a tad annoying.

The recipe for the crust and the pie are separate:

Travel/Food

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake recipe and review

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By: Nils Hilleson

pineapple upside down cake with cherry in center on white plate with a silver fork on it.

Ingredients:

  • -1/4 cup melted butter
  • -3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • -3 cans of 8 oz pineapple slices in juice
  • -12 stemless cherries
  • -1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix
  • -1 cup reserved pineapple juice (drained from the cans of pineapples)
  • -1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • -3 eggs

Equipment:

Non stick jumbo muffin cups (likely comes with 6 muffin holes, may need two for this recipe)

Yield:

This recipe makes 12 small cakes

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350°.

Spray 12 nonstick jumbo muffin cups with cooking spray.

In a small bowl mix the melted butter and brown sugar. Spoon around 1 tablespoonful to the bottom of each cup.

Place one pineapple slice in the bottom of each cup and put a cherry in the middle of the pineapple slice.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, 1 cup pineapple juice, the oil, and eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Add batter to each cup evenly.

Bake for 24 to 28 minutes until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Place cookie sheet over the muffin cups and flip them to remove the cakes.

My family and I really liked this recipe. We all thought the cakes turned out super good though we only ended up cooking six; luckily this recipe can be cut in half fairly easily to make only six cakes.

I had this for the first time at a restaurant a week or two ago and thought it was really good so I wanted to make it myself to have it again. I don’t usually try a lot of new foods so even if this, as a dessert, is definitely a bit different, it goes to show that trying new things can be fun sometimes.

The original recipe, from BettyCrocker.com, said to let them cool for 30 minutes but we didn’t do that because we ate a couple pretty quickly after they came out. Even though I only intended on making six we still ended up cooking the full recipe but it didn’t end up mattering much because I put a bit too much batter in all the cake. The recipe doesn’t say how much batter to put in and I’m not sure how much should be put in either, so if you end up making this I’d say put a little less than you would initially think and go from there.

Travel/Food

Recipe for gingerbread cookies

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By: Karl Salkowski

Image created with Copilot

Gingerbread cookies have been synonymous with the holiday season for centuries, but somehow, they have always left something to be desired. Often too dry, hard, or flavorless, gingerbread has never been my favorite, until I found this recipe. These cookies are soft, addicting, and they melt in your mouth. This recipe from “Sally’s Baking Addiction” completely changed my perspective on this staple holiday treat.

Ingredient List:

  • 10 Tbsp butter, room temperature
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ⅔ cup unsulphured molasses
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tsp vanilla
  • 3½ cups flour
  • 1 Tsp baking soda
  • ½ Tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
  • ½ Tsp ground allspice
  • ½ Tsp ground cloves

Instructions:

  1. Beat butter until creamy, then add brown sugar and molasses.
  2. Once thoroughly mixed add egg and vanilla, beat on high for 2 minutes.
  3. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
  4. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
  5. Chill for at least 3 hours.
  6. Roll out with flour, ¼ Inches thick onto a baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 9-10 minutes at 350º Fahrenheit.

Make sure to bake until the edges are crispy but the cookie is still uniform in color. This prevents the cookies from hardening up, giving them their soft texture instead. The spice profile of these cookies is very specific as well, using a whole tablespoon of ground ginger elevates them to another level. All of these factors combined make these cookies my go to holiday treat.

This recipe is a family favorite, having become a tradition each holiday season. I very much recommend this recipe, as it is a different take on this winter staple. I definitely prefer the texture and relaxed flavor to other recipes, making this my personal favorite. If I were to give this recipe a rating out of ten, I would give it a 10. It is one of my favorite recipes of all time and a must-try for any cookie enthusiast.

Travel/Food

Shortbread cookie recipe and review

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By: Nils Hilleson

Ingredients:

  • Two sticks of butter
  • 207 grams sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 320 grams flour
  • 1 egg white
  • Decorative sugar

Steps:

– Add butter, sugar and salt Into a stand mixer

– Beat at low speed until the ingredients are incorporated and smooth, around 3 minutes

– Add egg yolk and mix until combined

– Add all the flour into the bowl and mix at low speed, after roughly 30 seconds the dough will be in large clumps

– Remove dough from bowl and form into two 9 inch logs (doesn’t need to be exact)

– Wrap the logs separately in parchment paper and twist the ends closed

– Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

– Heat oven to 350, line baking sheet with parchment paper

– Brush the surface of the logs with egg white and apply a lot of decorative sugar

– Slice the logs into 1/2 inch cookies

– Lay the cookies on the baking sheet and space them 1/2 inch apart

– Bake until the cookies are golden at the bottom edges, or 18 to 22 minutes, rotate the baking sheet halfway though baking

– Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely

Cookies last for up to 3 days

Making these cookies was pretty simple since it’s mostly butter and flour but they taste really good, they’re very buttery and sweet just over all delicious.

I made one set with red decorative sugar and one with green decorative sugar. Getting the decorative sprinkles on the dough was a little tedious. Cutting the dough into cookies was also a little tedious but also didn’t take the longest. I think the red ones may have come out a little undercooked since they were a little chewy but still delicious.

I was able to make a lot of cookies with this recipe. Making these cookies was pretty simple so I’d be interested in making more cookie some time. Once the cookies cooled down they were pretty crunchy and had a good texture for a cookie.

Me and my family all really like the cookies. I took these cookies to Thanksgiving and the rest of my family liked them quite a bit.

I might have to make these again sometime.

This is a rewritten New York Times recipe

Travel/Food

Krumkake recipe and review

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By: Nils Hilleson

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 c sugar
  • 1 1/2 c flour
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 stick of butter melted
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon

Equipment:

  • Krumkake iron
  • Dowel

Steps:

  • Beat 4 eggs in a bowl
  • Add 1 cup sugar, mix
  • Add 1 1/2 c flour & 2 tbsp cornstarch, mix
  • Retrieve melted butter and add vanilla & cinnamon, mix
  • Add butter to bowl and whisk to combine.
  • Scoop out an acceptable amount of batter (about a teaspoon) and place on the iron
  • Wait for the iron light to turn off
  • Quickly retrieve the krumkake from the iron and roll it into a tube with the dowel
  • Let the krumkake cool until completely cool

This recipe makes around 30 krumkake

I really like krumkake, they taste sweet and vaguely cinnamon. My mom makes some every year around winter as a tradition. Krumkake is a Norwegian cookie.

Due to how many are made there plenty to give away to friends or family. They take awhile to make not because they’re hard to but just because of the fact you have to wait for them to cook for awhile, but it’s worth it since they’re so good.

Personally, I don’t normally do this, but since they’re tube shaped you can fill them with stuff like whipped cream. I find they can be a tad bit awkward to eat due to their shape.

Rolling the krumkake can be a little stressful since you have to do it quickly so they don’t harden before you can roll them properly.

This was based on my grandma’s recipe, but it really only had the ingredients, and directions on how to make the batter. I had to write out the rest of the steps.

Travel/Food

Brownie recipe review

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By: Norah Hoglund

Brownies are one of my favorite desserts. I love chocolate pastries and a good brownie is one of my favorite things ever. I have made many different recipes and today I am reviewing a recipe from Baker by Nature.

Link to the recipe: here

Review

This recipe made really good brownies all around. The top was crackly, just like it was advertised. They were very fudgy in the middle, but not undercooked. The edges were very crispy, which is good for the edge piece kind of people. I really enjoyed the chocolate chips that were mixed into the batter. They added a very nice texture to contrast the pastry texture. The chocolate flavor was strong, but it was still very sweet. As the brownies cooled, the edges got a bit more crispy. I personally prefer softer edges, but some people like them crispier. These brownies were really great overall and would go great with vanilla ice cream. I would rate them a 9/10 overall.

Recipe

  • 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (43g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional (don’t use if you don’t like coffee)
  • 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter
  • 2 Tablespoons (28ml) oil canola, vegetable, or coconut will work
  • 1 and 1/3 cups (265g) granulated sugar divided
  • 2 large large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract optional, but recommended
  • 3/4 cup (128 grams) chocolate chips

instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) (175 degreed C). Line an 9×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spray lightly with non-stick baking spray and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, and espresso powder. Set aside until needed.
  3. In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, oil, and 1/3 cup of the sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until butter is completely melted. Remove from heat.
  4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla (if using) and remaining sugar. Whisk until well combined, about 30 seconds.
  5. Slowly, pour the warm butter mixture into the egg mixture, adding it very gradually (a little bit at a time) and whisking constantly until completely combined.
  6. Add in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips and, using a rubber spatula, slowly stir until just combined.
    • *Do not over mix! Stop stirring when you see the last trace of dry ingredients. Over mixing will give you cakey brownies.
  7. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
  8. Bake for 28 (to 30 minutes) or until the edges are firm and the top is shiny and slightly cracked.
  9. Place pan on a cooling rack and cool completely before slicing.
Travel/Food

Recipe review: Everything cookies (Family recipe)

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By: Austin Bailey-Zimmerman

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups QUICK oats
  • 1 bag chocolate chips
  • 1 bag white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup chopped pecans or sunflower seeds

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. Soften butter and in a medium mixing bowl, mix the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until combined.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together.
  4. Combine both bowls into one.
  5. Fold in the chocolate chips, raisins, and pecans/sunflower seeds.
  6. Roll batter into golf ball sized balls and set on a baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 8-10 mins or until golden brown.
  8. Take out and let cool.
  9. Enjoy!

Review:

Have you ever tried to find the perfect cookie to bake? For me, this recipe is it. My family and I made this recipe and decided to name these cookies “everything cookies” because they have everything you could think of for a cookie.

I associate these cookies with my mother because I have always made these cookies with my mom and older brother ever since I was a little kid. Whenever we would make everything cookies we would always have extra so we would share them with our neighbors, my grandma, and I would bring a bag to school and share with my friends at lunch. I think these cookies really made me feel connected to the people around me, especially my mom.

I have a lot of great memories making these cookies with my family. When we put them in the oven, the whole house would fill with the sweet warm smell of cookies and it would stay for the rest of the day. When we finally took the cookies out, we would always put on a movie or show and sit down in the living room with a glass of cold milk and the cookies still warm. They were always perfectly gooey on the inside, but golden around the edge.

Sometimes the ingredients change. Sometimes we add new things or take away something, but they always taste nostalgic. These have always been my favorite dessert, and maybe they’ll be yours too! Try these out! Enjoy!

Travel/Food

Review of copycat Crumbl red velvet white chocolate chip cookies

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By: Grace Wright

Recipe-

Ingredients

▢ 1 1/2 cup butter, softened

▢ 1/2 cup granulated sugar

▢ 1 1/2 cup brown sugar

▢ 2 egg

▢ 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

▢ 4 cups all purpose flour

▢ 1/2 cup cocoa powder

▢ 2 tsp baking soda

▢ 1 tsp salt

▢ red food coloring

▢ 2 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions-

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until light in color and creamy.

Add in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt), mix into the dough. Mix until completely combined. The dough will be soft.

Mix in the red food coloring (add until it looks like the desired color), then fold in the white chocolate chips.

Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to portion out the dough. Roll the dough and flatten them slightly. Arrange 6 cookies per cookie sheet. This will make 12 cookies.

Bake at 350° for 15-17 minutes – the cookies should spread slightly, crackle a little bit and the centers should not look shiny and wet anymore.

Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes on the pan before serving. Serve warm.

These cookies were pretty easy to make but there would be some modifications I would make. One, I would change when you add the food coloring. The dough is a thicker kind so when it said to add the food coloring last, I struggled. I couldn’t mix the coloring evenly throughout the dough, so it ended up streaky and not really red velvet. I would recommend adding the food coloring when you are mixing all the wet ingredients. This makes sure the food coloring mixes nicely and you can add some more in the middle of mixing the dry ingredients in if you want it more red.

I would also recommend mixing the chocolate chips by hand. Once again, because the dough is thicker my stand mixer struggled getting the mix evenly throughout the dough. This made some of my cookies to have no chocolate chips or some to have a lot.

Finally, I would recommend that if you don’t like huge cookies to make them smaller. I think they are good this big but for my family we just like smaller cookies so then you don’t have to break them apart if you don’t want that big of a cookie. My parents agreed that they would have enjoyed them more if they were smaller.

I would say these are pretty close to the ones from Crumbl, but Crumbl’s have a better texture and are more flavorfull. Overall, I really liked making these cookies and they were tasty. I think most people can bake them with ease with just a few adjustments.

Here is the link to the recipe I used:

Travel/Food

S’mores cookie bar review

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By: Alice Rapacz

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • ¾ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg (room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (around 8 full sheets)
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 heaping cup marshmallow creme (fluff)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy (about 2 minutes).
  3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined. (It may look curdled but that is ok) scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
  4. In a separate medium bowl mix together the flour, graham cracker crumb, baking powder, and salt.
  5. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix on medium speed until combined.
  6. In your prepared baking pan, spread ⅔ of the cookie dough onto the bottom of the pan. The dough will be sticky so do your best to evenly spread the dough in a thin layer.
  7. Use a spatula to spread the marshmallow creme on top of the dough. It is very sticky so just do your best to spread it in an even layer.
  8. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the marshmallow creme in an even layer.
  9. Using the remaining cookie dough, mold it into flat pieces and layer on top of the chocolate chips. (There won’t be enough dough to cover the whole top in a single layer, some marshmallow and chocolate chips will be exposed.)
  10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
  11. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
  12. Lift the bars out of the pan and cut into squares
  13. Cover and store the leftover bars at rooms for up to 1 week.
  14. Lastly, Enjoy!

Review:

The process of making the bars was very straightforward and the recipe was easy to follow. Once the dough was made the only part that was kind of hard was the assembly, only because of how sticky the dough and marshmallow creme was. I used my hands to spread out the dough, which made it easier to make sure it was spread evenly to each corner. Using a rubber spatula to spread out the marshmallow creme was a lot easier than anything else because it didn’t stick to it as much. I found that placing a few dollops of the creme on the dough before spreading it out made it much easier.

The hardest part of the whole process was waiting. The combination of the baking time and cooling time felt like forever and the smell of sweet graham cracker filled the air.

These cookie bars were so good! The inside of the cookie was soft from the marshmallow and the actual cookie itself, and the outside had the perfect amount of crunch. The sweetness from the marshmallow complemented the bitterness from the chocolate. I wasn’t sure how the marshmallow creme would bake, I didn’t know if it would get hard like other marshmallows when they are cooked for a while, but they were still soft.

These bars were so good, I made them a second time. They were the perfect way to end the night and my family loved them. I think that these would be perfect for a summer night and definitely are a better version of the classic s’more.

Travel/Food

Recipe review: Brookies

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By: Austin Bailey-Zimmerman

Ingredients

Brownie Batter:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter melted
  • ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup packed light brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour

Cookie Dough:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder

Instructions:

  1. Line a 9×13 baking dish with parchment paper or grease it.
  2. Heat the oven to 350Fº.
  3. For the brownies, melt butter then stir in cocoa powder.
  4. Whisk in both sugar and the salt then add the eggs and vanilla and beat well (secret to glossy brownies is to beat the eggs and sugar very well.)
  5. Add the flour and mix until almost combined then fold in the chocolate chips
  6. Transfer the brownie batter to your prepared pan and spread into a thin layer then set aside.
  7. For the cookie dough, cream the butter, and sugars on high for 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy.
  8. Mix in the vanilla and egg.
  9. Add salt, baking soda and powder then mix until combined.
  10. Pour in the flour and mix until almost combined then fold in the chocolate chips.
  11. Drop spoonfuls onto the brownie batter. You don’t need full coverage, it will be nice to see the brownie batter peaking through after baking.
  12. Bake at 350Fº for 35-40 mins.
  13. Allow to cool before removing from the pan and cutting.
  14. Enjoy!

Review:

These brookies were absolutely amazing. The brownie was so rich and gooey, and the cookie was perfectly browned and sweet. The chocolate chips in both were melted and tied both of them together. There was the perfect ratio of cookie to brownie, so in every bite I got a little bit of both. I paired it with a cold cup of milk and it made my night.

The recipe was easy to follow, but took up a lot of time since you have to make two different mixtures. It was all very worth it though, and now I have lots to share.

The next day while I was hanging out with my friends, I shared the brookies with them and they tasted just as good cold or warmed up in the microwave. I also gave some to my brother and he said that they were great.

I got this recipe off of Preppy Kitchen (https://preppykitchen.com/brookies/#recipe) by John Kanell. The website was easy to navigate and the recipe was amazing. He did a great job with creating the perfect brookie recipe.

I had a great time making these, and the result was so worth the time spent! It was great to share with my friends and family. Try making these yourself! Enjoy!