Tag Archives: Flour

Happy Mother’s Day! Plus a Chocolate Pound Cake

Posted on by

2

Hey there! I know it’s Sunday and I normally don’t post on Sundays…but I also know that today is Mother’s Day. And I think that certainly calls for a blog post. I have a couple things to share with you all today. One is a recipe, of course! And the other is short little video.

I saw this ad about a month ago, and it really touched me. Literally made me cry. I know, I’m a baby..crying during a commercial. But hear me out. Just watch it, I promise you it will touch you too. Here is it. Mother’s Day Ad.

I hope all you mothers out there had an awesome mothers day and everybody wished their mom’s a happy mothers day, and for those of you who have mothers that have passed, I hope you have remembered all the good memories you had with them.

I feel truly blessed to have my mother in my life. She has taught me so much that nobody else ever could have. She has taught me that women will always be right. She has taught me which boys to avoid and which ones are worth a shot. She has taught me what is right and what is wrong. She has taught me how to cook. She has taught me how to bake. She has taught me who to trust and who will have my back at the end of the day. She has taught me how to tell when a pizza is truly good.

She has taught me that sometimes you have to get your “south-sider” out to get your point across (sorry for those of you who don’t know what I mean by “south-sider”, maybe I’ll explain later). She is the one who sat through countless hours of teaching me how to drive, including the days of nauseating backing-around-the-corner. She is the one who I look up to as a role model and hope to become a fraction of a mother she is. I love her to infinity and beyond, and there is nobody who will ever be able to replace that. Love you mom!

So to bounce off of that, I made a chocolate pound cake that is perfect for Mother’s Day. I know that mother’s day is practically over now, but it’s great for showing your mother, grandmother, or any other special person in your life that you really love them! This is a rich, chocolatey, delicious cake that is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face. Enjoy!

Chocolate Loaf Cake

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1 1/4 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (6-ounce) container nonfat vanilla/plain yogurt

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan, set aside.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, water, and vanilla extract.
  4. Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time.
  5. Add half the flour mixture to the creamed butter-sugar mixture. Mix in the yogurt mixture, then add in the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until just combined and pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
  6. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn onto wire rack to finish cooling process. Enjoy and store leftovers in airtight container or cake stand with lid.

Random Fact of the Day: A lion’s roar can be heard five miles away

Related articles

Cookie Butter Cookies

Posted on by

2

I had a near death experience about a week ago. Maybe I’m exaggerating. But let’s face it, I like never exagerrate! My life is totally like Spider Man’s, where every day brings new challenges, deathly risks, and flying. Alright, maybe not the flying part. I don’t think Super Man can fly anyways…

But back to my near death experience. It was a lovely Sunday morning and I had just made a pizza dough (for the cinnamon pull apart bread) and I decided to let it rise for the necessary 2 hours in the turned off oven, covered with a towel. I set the timer for 2 hours and was feeling like I was on top of everything. So prepared, setting a timer and all. I then proceeded to make the biscuits that I posted last week. My mom happens to love biscuits, so I thought I’d make her happy by making some for her. I then preheated my oven to 425 degrees F. Still feeling awesome because I had preheated where it was timed perfectly for when I needed to put my biscuits in the oven. Something started to smell a little funny in the house. This was not a haha funny. This was a HOLY SMOKES I’M GONNA DIE funny (of course, the word funny didn’t come to my mind at the moment, though).

I kind of ignored it at first hoping my nose was just going crazy. Then as I was about to put the biscuits in the oven, I realized I had forgot that I had put the pizza dough in the oven to rise. With a towel on top.

I immediately freaked out threw my hand in the oven, realized it was FREAKING HOT, grabbed an oven mitt, and threw the pizza dough and towel out of the oven. This was all happening with my fake baby crying and fire alarms going off. Thank God my parents were not home! The towel was green to begin with, but came out an orange-ish brown color. The pizza dough became kind of like a bread. Funny enough, I actually tried the pizza dough and it was delicious! It tasted like it would be perfect for rolls. Hmm…maybe a good idea for the future. So as it turned out, my near-death experience turned into something kind of amusing and I figured out a new idea for the future with the pizza dough.

Now that you have heard my near death story, I’d say it is time for cookies. Better yet…cookies made with cookie butter! These babies are yummo to the max! If you love delicious things then I recommend that you make these. I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t like delicious things, therefore, I see these cookies in your future!! ;)

Cookie Butter Cookies

(makes about 3 dozen)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup cookie butter like Trader Joe’s Speculoos or Biscoff or you can make your own homemade version!

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (all-purpose will work too)

milk, as needed

1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate pretzels

1/2 cup chocolate chips

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. Melt butter and cookie butter in a microwave-safe bowl in microwave in 30 second increments. When fully melted, mix butter and cookie butter until fully combined. Set aside and let cool.
  3. Place cooled cookie butter mixture in large mixer bowl and cream with sugars. Mix in vanilla extract and eggs. Add in flours, salt, and baking soda. If dough is crumbly, add milk until dough achieves desired consistency.
  4. Mix in chopped chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate chips.
  5. Scoop dough onto cookies sheets. Bake in preheated oven for 9-11 minutes or until set and slightly underdone. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to wire rack. Store in an air tight container. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: The huddle in football started due to a deaf player who used sign language to communicate. This way, the other team didn’t see the signals

Related articles

Week in Review (4/23-4/27)

Posted on by

0

Monday I shared with you guys a little vent session about babies and teens. I also shared some delicious buttery biscuits! You have GOT to make these biscuits. They are so, so, sooo yummy and extremely easy!!

Tuesday I took the ACT…for the third time. This one was required by our school, though. I promise I’m not some ACT-addicted freak.

Wednesday I shared a recipe that every single person on this planet universe should experience. Yes, homemade cookie butter is THAT DELICIOUS.


Friday I shared with you guys Brownie Explosion Ice Cream. Ice Cream. Chocolate. Brownies. Need I say more?

Random Fact of the Day: On the planet 51 Pegasi B, it rains Iron!

Related articles

A Baby and Buttery Biscuits

Posted on by

8

If you happened to have read my last week in review post, you might have caught how on Friday I got my baby for my child development class. It was weird how I became so emotionally connected to a doll. Borderline creepy.

I ended up having to take the baby to my soccer games this weekend. How lucky am I that not only did i have one, but TWO games! Thankfully my mom was able to take care of her for the second game.

You would not believe the looks I got from some people. I feel for teen moms now more than I ever thought I would. Sure, I think that raising a baby as a teen is far from ideal, but I don’t think giving teen moms looks of disapproval will make anything better. It’s not going to change what has happened and it sure will not make things easier. It’s hard enough raising a baby as a teen, criticism just adds to the struggle. Again, I’d like to emphasize the point that I am NOT encouraging teen pregnancies or teen sex or any of things of that matter. This topic is not normally something I would bring up on the blog, but this baby project really hit me hard. The looks that I got were hurtful (from people who did not take a close enough look) and it just kills me to imagine what it would be like for a teen with a real alive baby. As much as I hate to say it, I think the fact that the baby was African American did not help.

Alright, that’s enough of that.

Let’s make biscuits! I have made biscuits in the past, some flavored, some definitely not. This biscuit recipe is my FAVORITE to date! They don’t exactly look “perfect” but that’s just because you don’t have to do the whole rolling and flouring thang. Plus for me! Enjoy these delicious buttery biscuits with jam, butter, or pretty much anything!

Buttery Biscuits

(Makes 6 biscuits)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 stick butter, cold and cubed

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons (150 ml) milk (I used skim)

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Cut in cold butter, I used my hands. Pour in milk and use hands until fully incorporated, but be sure not to over mix. Mix until just combined.
  3. Drop dough onto cookie sheet and shape as desired. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Enjoy! Perfect with jam or butter.

Random Fact of the Day: In Romania around 1935, Mickey Mouse was banned because it was thought that he would scare children.

Related articles

Cheese and Garlic Drop Biscuits

Posted on by

2

So I’ve made biscuits before. They were pretty good. I definitely made a couple mistakes that I have learned from, but I decided to try a new biscuit recipe.

Drop biscuits seemed like the perfect thing for me. No flouring counters, no rolling, no fuss. So I started a recipe on my own happy little way and let me tell you….this recipe was crazy. It was messed up.

I can NOT stand it when I start a recipe to later realize that the ingredients and directions are all out of wack. There were ingredients listed that were never put in the directions. Ingredients in the directions that were never listed on the ingredients list.

The serving size was totally off! It said it served two…so I figured, okay I’ll double this to serve me, my mom and my dad. Woah, big mistake. We ended up getting 16 biscuits. Now I like biscuits, but 15 is where I draw the line (kidding…kinda).

Anyways, here is my version of the drop biscuits. I hope you like them! Oh yeah, one last thing! They had “grated butter” listed on there. I actually did do this, but it is not totally necessary. What I did was pop the butter in the freezer for about 15 minutes to get it to harden a bit, then I used a regular grater and grated it down. It looks pretty funky, if you look at the picture below!

Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits

(makes about 8 biscuits)

3/4 cup All-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (All-purpose will work fine as well)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold, grated butter (or you can just chop into very small pieces)

1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon parsley flakes

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

2/3 cup milk (I used skim)

2 Tablespoons melted butter, optional

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder.
  3. Add grated butter, cheese, thyme, parsley, red pepper flakes and mix until fine crumb. I used my hands here and just worked it out.
  4. Gradually add in milk until well combined, and the dough holds together. I used my hands here too. A mixer would work well, also.
  5. Drop dough by about the tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.
  6. Lightly brush the biscuits with melted butter and baked for another 5-6 minutes. Enjoy!
Random Fact of the Day: Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
Related articles