Smore Brownies! : )

Hey everyone! I woke up wanting to bake! I really wanted to make coffee cake, or pecan bars, but they both call for a ridiculous amount of brown sugar, and I have barley a 1/3 of a cup left! The bus doesn't run here on Sundays so I couldn't go to the store to pick and up so I looked at my baking shelf to she what I had. I had chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows, which equaled one thing, smore's! : )

I hunted online for a great smore brownie recipe and here is what I found:
http://foodietwoshoes.com/wordpress/2009/09/11/a-last-summer-treat/

I changed it up a bit to go with what I like, so with further ado here are some amazing smore brownies!

CRUST:

~ 6 whole graham crackers, broken into small pieces
~ 3 tablespoons sugar
~ 3 tablespoons butter, melted

BROWNIES:

~ 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
~ 1/ 3 cup dark chocolate chips (I used two dark chocolate bars)
~ 8 tablespoons butter, melted
~ 3 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)
~ 3 large eggs
~ 1 ¼ cups sugar
~ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
~ ½ teaspoon salt
~ 1 cup all-purpose flour

TOPPING:

~ Marshmallows (I used full sized ones)

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line your pan with parchment paper (allowing edges to extend over sides). First, melt the butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Then remove the bowl and put your graham crackers in a bag and squish them into crumbs. Add the crumbs, and the sugar to the melted butter bowl and then mix together until moist crumbs form. Press crumbs evenly onto the parchment paper in the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake crust until light golden brown, about eight minutes.

2) In a heatproof bowl melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave until smooth. Remove and stir in the cocoa powder until combined. Set aside to cool.

3) In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt, and strip until combined. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture until incorporated. Then stir in the flour until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread with a spatula to make an even layer. Bake until slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, about 40 minutes.

(Ready to go in the oven!)

(The messy dishes I washed while they were baking!)

While the brownies were baking, I washed up my dishes and looked over my new dorm kitchen. This one was bigger than my other one, and it had a lot of cute signs everywhere!

(Ahhh they are all so cute!)

(Before the marshmallows were toasted)

4) When they are finished baking, remove the pan from the oven, and preheat the oven to broil. Top the brownies with the marshmallows, making an even layer. Place the pan on the rack and make sure your are paying attention! I put them in for about 1 minute, and they caught on fire! I had to turn the oven off, fan them down, and blow on them to get the fire out! The whole time I was like plllllease fire alarm don't go off, PLEASE! x0 Haha so I'd say they only need about 30 seconds, perhaps, crack the door open and just watch them! As soon as the marshmallows have a nice brown crust, remove them from the oven. Let cool completely before attempting to remove from pan and cutting.

Tada! The finished result! (after I scrapped off the burnt marshmallows and parchment paper! x0 )

They were pretty awesome in my opinion! The slight burntness in some of the bites really made me think of a real campfire! I had a lot of fun making these, but I lost a few years of my life in fear of burning down my dorm! Watch the marshmallows! Xp

Love you all!!

Lizzie!

PS: Marshmallows make everyone happy. While I was baking about 4 boys came in going oooh I smelled these all the way from the 5th floor! Ahhh the power of baking! ; )

Homemade French Toast!

So the other day I decided I wanted some french toast! I tried to make it, and.. EPIC FAIL! X0 The bread fell apart in the pan and was frying, it was insane. x0 My mom decided to help me out and I watched her make French toast and now have a solid recipe for future tries!


(Picture from Google)


Ingredients:
~ Bread
~ 2 Eggs
~ 2 TB Milk
~ Quarter cap full of Vanilla
~ 10 shakes of Cinnamon
~ 2 shakes of Nutmeg
~ 1/3 cup oil
~ Syrup

Steps:
Mix the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a flat tray (like a pie plate), then dip the bread until it's covered in the mixture. Put a pan on Medium heat with the oil in the pan, wait for it to heat a while and then put the bread in and cook until brown. Then cover it with whatever you want from fruit to tasty syrup! Hurrah for french toast!! ^_^

Love,

Lizzie

Vanilla ice cream!

Gosh were have all the days gone?! I can't believe I graduated two weeks ago!

Since then, all I've really done is watched a lot of tv, spent time with my family, worked as an aide at summer preschool, and ate a lot of yummy food!

Speaking of food, I'm like OBSESSED with ice cream! I would eat it for every meal if I could. x0 So today, my mom asked if I wanted to try to make homemade ice cream, and I of course said "YES!!!" We decided to make plain ole vanilla to start off, and if we liked it we would try other flavors later. Not only did I like it, I LOOOOVED it! It was so thick and creamy, like a custard! It was delicious! I can't wait to make more ice cream, and hopefully bake some more stuff soon! : )

So if you just want to have some simple, but tasty vanilla ice cream here you go!!



Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups whole milk (we used half and half)

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

(Haha I hope I remembered that correctly!) x0

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, and milk. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until mixture is almost boiling. Reduce heat to low.
2. In medium bowl, slightly beat eggs. Slowly whisk half of the hot mixture into the eggs and pour back into saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat until slightly thick. Remove from heat and refrigerate for two hours.
3. When ready to freeze, stir in heavy cream and vanilla extract into the chilled custard mixture. Start ice cream maker and pour mixture through hole in lid. Freeze until you just can't wait any longer!

I had a nice big bowl of tasty ice cream, covered in chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, and half a peanut butter twix bar (my favorite!) : )

I love you all, and sorry I don't post haha I will try harder I swear!!

Loooove

Lizzie! ^_^