Festive Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

Happy Fall, Y'all! We are in the middle of my favorite season. Leaves are changing, the air is getting colder, and I've been drinking hot cider for a good 3 weeks straight. A-mazing.

Fall brings another one of my favorite things - Halloween! Last weekend, Jake and I went to a Halloween party (check out my fab 80s costume). I wanted to bring something to the party, but was running short on time. I had an unopened bag of pretzel rods and some Wilton Milk Chocolate Candy Melts hanging around, so I decided chocolate dipped pretzels were the way to go. I decorated them with some festive sprinkles, and viola! Quick and delicious Halloween-themed deliciousness.

This weekend, Jake and I are headed to a pig roast. I picked up some large pretzels and decided to try dipping these instead of the rods. They look awesome, and taste even better than they look.

My sis-in-law and I on
Halloween this year!

Ingredients:

• Candy Melts (any flavor)
• pretzel (rods or large pretzels)
• assorted sprinkles, candies, chopped nuts, and/or coconut

How to:

• Melt chocolate as according to package.
• Dip pretzels.
• Lay pretzels on parchment-lined cookie sheet.
• Decorate with toppings.
• Let set and serve.

I just love these things. They're so easy to make, and you really can't go wrong with a sweet & salty combo. And depending on the occasion, you can totally decorate the pretzels to match your theme. I actually made chocolate-dipped pretzels as wedding favors back in May, and my wedding guests only had great things to say about them. 

Enjoy!

The Perfect Cupcake

Happy 1st birthday to Potions & Poppy Seeds! I can't believe it's been a whole year! And what a year it's been for my little blog - in just 12 short months we reached 15,000+ page views, and I get emails every day from Pinterest letting me know that people are happily pinning recipes and crafts from Potions & Poppy Seeds. So thank you, readers!

In honor of my baby's 1st birthday, I decided to make some cupcakes. This recipe is very simple, but very delicious. I will admit - in the past, I've been a huge fan of making cakes/brownies/etc. from a box, and this is one of my 1st REAL attempts at baking from scratch. Honestly, after eating these babies, I will never again make cupcakes from a box mix.

Ingredients:

Yellow Cupcake Batter:

• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk

Buttercream Icing:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk

How to:

To prepare batter:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with baking cups.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
• In a second large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture alternatively with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating 1 minute.
• Fill baking cups 2/3 full.
• Bake 18-20 min or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean. 
• Cool cupcakes in pan on cooling grid for 5 min. Remove from pan and cool completely.

To prepare icing:

• In a large bowl, beat shortening and butter with an electric mixer. Add vanilla.
• Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.
• When all the sugar has been mixed in, the icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
• Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

The batter recipe makes 24 cupcakes, and the icing recipe makes about 3 cups. The cupcake recipe yields really light cupcakes - the consistency of mine was somewhere between an angel food cake and normal cake from a box, which I really enjoyed. The icing is also quite light tasting (although it clearly is the farthest you can get from 'light' - just look at the recipe!). I'm calling this recipe The Perfect Cupcake, because my coworkers raved about these, and Jake ate 3 cupcakes in less than an hour. I dare you not to eat more than one!

So, happy birthday again to my blog! And a special thanks to all of you for sticking with me over the past year!

Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

So Jake and I bought a house in the burbs last year. At first I thought it was going to take some serious getting used to. Let me explain - Jake and I would frequent Cold Stone Creamery at LEAST once a week during the summer. There was one right down the street from us when we lived in the city. I'm pretty sure I've tried every single flavor this place has to offer. And I've mixed almost everything into my ice cream - which is one of the best things ever about Cold Stone. AMIRIGHT?? Clearly, dessert is a priority in my life. 

Lucky for my stomach, we happened to move to a place that is in VERY close proximity to a frozen yogurt place. This became my new obsession. Honestly, Jake and I ended up at this fantastic establishment twice a week. We had a problem - the amount of money we spent here is sad. There's really no other word for it. But dammit, that stuff is good.

Anyway, one of my fabulous bridesmaids bought me an ice cream maker that I can hook up to my KitchenAid mixer. Once I started using this fantastic appliance, I sort of forgot (I use the words 'sort of' very loosely) about my love affair with frozen yogurt. I was eating real, full-on-fat, creamy delicious ice cream again. I was hooked. Now, I'm constantly looking up new ice cream recipes to try. Jake suggested I try a chocolate ice cream recipe (he was always a sucker for the chocolate shakes at Cold Stone). Alas, I share with you my recipe for Triple Chocolate Ice Cream.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whipping cream, divided
• 2 squares (1 oz. each square) semisweet baking chocolate, cut into chunks
• 2 squares (1 oz. each square) unsweetened baking chocolate, cut into chunks
• 2 cups half & half
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 8 egg yolks
• 4 tsps vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups chopped milk chocolate (from ~4 bars of milk chocolate)

How to:

• In a small saucepan, place 1/2 cup whipping cream, semisweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate. Heat over medium-low heat until chocolate melts, stirring frequently. Remove from heat & set aside.
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat half & half until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine sugar and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• Place egg yolks in a mixer bowl. Whisk eggs while gradually adding adding in sugar mixture until well blended and slightly thickened. 
• While continually whisking, very gradually add in chocolate mixture and half & half. Mix until well blended.
• Return mixture to saucepan. While stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until small bubbles form around the edge and the mixture is steamy - do not boil.
• Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in remaining whipping cream, vanilla, and salt. Cover and chill thoroughly in fridge, at least 8 hours.
• Make ice cream in an ice cream maker, according to its directions, adding in the milk chocolate during the last 1-2 minutes of freeze time.

I followed the recipe for Triple Chocolate Ice Cream that's outlined in the little booklet that came with my ice cream maker. Of all the different types of ice cream I've experimented with, this was my most successful. I found that freezing the ice cream maker attachment and chilling the prepared mix for at least 24 hours and overnight, respectively, yielded the best consistency. When Jake tried this, he legit said to me "This tastes like real ice cream. You could serve this to people and they would have no idea you made it." Thanks? Haha, that's what I was going for!

Enjoy!

Cherry Almond Bars

Happy New Year's Eve! Have you made your resolutions yet for 2013? I haven't. Hopefully I come up with something before midnight tonight. Maybe it should be something along the lines of trying to eat better (considering the following recipe...), but isn't the whole "I WILL be healthier this year" a little overdone? I think so.

I made these Cherry Almond Bars as part of my Christmas cookie baking extravaganza this year. I had never made them before, and they turned out fabulously! I love all things containing almonds. So maybe that's why I'm partial to this particular dessert. But seriously, if you love chewy dessert squares or bars, these are definitely for you.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp almond exctract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups regular rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1 12 oz. jar of cherry preserves

How to:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil, extending the foil up over the sides of the dish. Grease the foil and set the pan aside.
• In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium/high speed for 30 seconds. 
• Add in brown sugar and baking powder, beating until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. 
• Beat in egg and almond extract until combined.
• Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in remaining flour, oats, and sliced almonds.
• Remove 1/2 cup of the dough and set it aside. Press the remaining dough evenly into the bottom of the greased foil-lined baking pan.
• Spread the preserves over the top of the pressed dough, and then crumble the reserved dough even over the preserves layer.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Cool in pan on a wire rack. 
• Using the edges of the foil, lift the cookies out of the pan.
• Cut into bars.

I hope you all enjoy these bars as much as I did! I gave most of these away (along with the million other cookies I made for Christmas) as gifts. But I'm glad I saved a few for myself.

Anyway, happy new year! Enjoy!

Cake Batter Truffles

Merry (early) Christmas! Jake and I are heading to a Christmas party tonight, and I figured I should bring a dessert of some sort. I found this recipe for easy cake batter truffles, and I thought it would festive of me to add red and green sprinkles to the batter. These are super easy to make, and don't involve turning on the oven at all. Win. 

Not to worry, even though these TASTE like cake batter, there are no raw eggs involved here, so these are perfectly safe to eat. And believe me, you'll be eating plenty.

Ingredients:

Truffle:

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup yellow cake mix
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3-4 Tbs milk
• 2 Tbs sprinkles or nonpareils

Truffle Coating:

• 16 oz. almond bark
• 4 Tbs yellow cake mix
• more sprinkles

How to:

• To prepare 'dough', cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Add in cake mix, flour, vanilla, and salt and mix thoroughly. 
• Add in 3 Tbs of milk to create dough. If necessary, add in another Tbs (4 Tbs worked perfectly for me).
• Mix in sprinkles by hand.
• Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with Parchment paper. Chill in fridge for 15 minutes.
• While dough balls are chilling, prepare truffle coating by melting almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals to make smooth.
• Once melted, quickly stir in yellow cake mix until completely incorporated.
• Using a fork, dip truffles into melted almond bark and shake off excess bark by tapping fork on side of bowl.
• Place coated truffle back on Parchment lined cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. 
• Refrigerate to set chocolate. Keep cool until ready to serve.

These were so easy to prepare! To keep the coating from smudging and looking messy, I found it helpful to actually 'scoop' the balls out of the almond bark with two forks, tap the forks against the bowl to get rid of the excess bark, and then transfer them to the parchment-lined cookie sheet. 

The original recipe can be found here. 

Merry Christmas!

Dutch Apple Pie

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! I have the PERFECT apple pie recipe for all of you who are looking for a fabulous dessert to bring to your Thanksgiving table. This recipe for Dutch Apple Pie is my absolute favorite. I found it last fall, when I was desperate to get rid of the remaining apples I had picked. No lie - I made this pie on 4 separate occasions last year, and I have made it twice this year already. It's that good!

Ingredients:

For filling:

• 1 pre-packaged pie crust, or your own
• 6 cups sliced apples
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

For topping:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

How to:

•  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• In a large bowl, combine all of the 'filling' ingredients. 
• Gently toss apples by turning them with a spatula until they are evenly coated.
• Pour coated apples into a 9 inch* prepared pie crust. 
• To make the topping, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl and mix.
• Cut in butter and use a pastry blender or your hands (which work fabulously, I might add) to create the crumble topping. 
• Sprinkle crumbles over apples.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes. 20 minutes into cooking, turn your oven down to 350 degrees and continue cooking at this temperature. This will prevent your crust from getting too brown.

*Note: I've also used a 9.5 inch pie pan instead of a 9 inch pie pan, and this recipe still turned out just fine. It seems most pre-packaged pie crusts are 9 inches. I'm not sure if my 9.5 inch pie pan is abnormal, or most pie pans generally are slightly larger than pre-packaged pie crusts.

I kid you not, this will be the best apple pie you've ever eaten. I don't like a lot of crust, which may be why I love this recipe so much. The crumble topping is amazing!

I followed this recipe exactly as it's written by Krissy (who happens to be a friend of mine!). Her suggestions are right on. You should also click through her blog - she has some really great recipes!

Spooky Halloween Brownies

Halloween is almost upon us! Which hopefully means you'll be attending at least one Halloween party this year. There's nothing better than dressing up, hanging out with great friends, and eating delicious Halloween treats (have I mentioned that I love fall?).

Last year, Jake's sister hosted their incredibly large family at her house for a Halloween party. Because this was a kid friendly party, I decided I'd bring some food that would appeal to them. This recipe for Spooky Brownies appealed to me - I knew the kids would love them.

I found this recipe in one of those Betty Crocker seasonal recipe books they have in the supermarket check out lanes (which I of course had to buy). Here's a link to the electronic version of that same recipe. I'd like to pretend that I made the brownies from scratch - but I didn't. Can't go wrong with brownies from a box, am I right?

Jake (Hulk Hogan) and I last year on Halloween!

Ingredients:

• your favorite brownie recipe and corresponding ingredients
• white frosting
• large marshmallows
• fruit roll-ups or fruit-by-the-foot
• mini M&Ms or cinnamon candies
• black decorating gel

How to:

• Prepare you favorite brownie recipe. Cool completely (~1.5 hours) and cut into squares.
• Split icing between two bowls.
• For ghosts:
  
• Melt one portion of the icing in the microwave for approx. 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
• Spoon melted icing over half of the marshmellows.
• Once the icing sets, decorate the ghost faces with black decorating gel.
• For monsters:
• Add some green food coloring to the remaining portion of icing and melt in the microwave for approx. 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
• Spoon melted icing over remaining half of the marshmallows as above and allow to set.
• For the eyes and ears, decorate with mini M&Ms or cinnamon candies.
• For the hair, cut fruit roll-ups or fruit-by-the-foot (I used a pizza cutter) and lay across tops of marshmallows.
• Decorate center of eyes and mouth with black decorating gel.

If you take a look at the original recipe, you can see good old Betty Crocker also made some spooky spider brownies. I didn't attempt the spiders, but they would also be a fun addition! 

The kids went crazy as soon as they set their eyes on these at the party. This recipe is certainly a kid crowd pleaser!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Mousse

It's no secret that, like any native New Englander, I love fall. It's that time of year, where pumpkin-flavored everything pops up in grocery stores and coffee shops. I'm not complaining - I LOVE all things pumpkin. Which is probably the main reason I love Thanksgiving so much. Aside from all the other amazing food I eat on Turkey Day. But I digress. 

I've been wanting to make pumpkin butter since I recently saw it at one of the stands at my local farmers market. I searched various blogs for it, and came across this recipe (I told you I loved SkinnyTaste). The author of SkinnyTaste mentioned she puts pumpkin butter on toast, adds it to her lattes - everything. I decided it would probably be delicious mixed with cool whip - and alas, my recipe for pumpkin mousse was born.

Ingredients:
For making pumpkin butter:

• 1 29oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup apple juice or cider (I used apple juice)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2-3 cinnamon sticks
• 1-2 tsps pumpkin pie spice

For making pumpkin mousse:

• 1 Tbsp pumpkin butter
• 1/2 cup reduced fat cool whip
• chopped walnuts, if desired

How to:
Recipe for pumpkin butter:

• Combine pumpkin, vanilla, juice, sugar, and spices in a large saucepan and mix well.
• Bring mixture to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes with frequent stirring, until thickened. 
• Cool pumpkin butter overnight in the refrigerator. This recipe yields enough pumpkin butter to fill a large mason jar  (approx. 3 3/4 cups).

Recipe for pumpkin mousse:

• Add approx. 1 Tbsp chilled pumpkin butter to reduced fat cool whip. Adjust amount of pumpkin butter to your taste.
• Top with chopped walnuts, if desired.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of me preparing the pumpkin butter. I boiled my mason jar to sanitize it and stored my pumpkin butter in that, once it was cooled. Per the suggestion of SkinnyTaste, I've also used my pumpkin butter as a spread on toast, have added a Tbsp to my morning coffee, have put some in my oatmeal (see picture below), and have also just eaten it right off the spoon. But I think mixing it with cool whip & eating is as a dessert is my favorite way to consume pumpkin butter. This low calorie dessert is a great addition to any fall meal, in my opinion! I wasn't kidding when I told you I have a pumpkin-problem.

Enjoy! Leave your comments & suggestions below.