Kitchen Mamma

Homemade Reese’s Peanut butter Cups

2011

Number of View: 519

My friend Rachel shared a little tidbit on her blog about homemade Reese’s Pieces. So at Target today I picked up some powdered sugar and decided to try it. It’s funny because when you research via the internet about making chocolate covered treats the most important thing is properly tempering the chocolate. Tempering? Wha? . . . The more I learned about this technique the more I found out I did pretty much everything wrong. So as I waited for my chocolate peanut butter cups to cool my heart started to sink ;(

All the things I did but shouldn’t have done.

1. Do not use chocolate chips. (I used nestle milk chocolate chips)

2. When melting your chocolate in the microwave do not use a bowl that retains heat. (I used a pyrex bowl that nearly burned me when I took it out of the microwave.)

3. Work slowly when melting your chocolate and stop frequently to stir. (zapped my chocolate for 30 seconds then one min took it out stirred and it was all melted, lol)

5. Use a plastic or rubber spatula to stir your chocolate. (I used a butter knife and a regular kitchen spoon)

4. Also another thing I noticed is that every single recipe to video used those little paper cups like mini cupcake liners. Which I don’t have and didn’t use at all.

I’m also very impatient so I stuck my peanut butter cups in the freezer to cool.

I was anxious to taste one of my chocolate peanut butter cups so I decided to ‘check’ on it after about 20mins. I thought to myself oh no my chocolate will probably never harden and if by some miracle it does I probably won’t be able to get it out of my mini muffin mold, but I had to take a look anyway.

Here’s what I ended up with.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Not bad for a first attempt. I have to work on the peanut butter chocolate ratio, but the peanut butter was yummy. The only thing I really noticed is that it melted really fast. My body temperature almost instantly melted the chocolate making it messy. I don’t know what that means. it isn’t tempered right? Is it because I had it in the freezer? I didn’t let it set long enough. I didn’t use the ‘right’ kind of chocolate or a combination of everything. lol Maybe next time I’ll do it right, but for now it’s eatable. The portion is small enough to pop in your mouth so it’s gone in one shot not much handling necessary.

If you want to do it the right way tempering chocolate seems to require a whole bunch of things I don’t have.

The ‘right’ kind of chocolate, which still remains a mystery to me.

A double boiler

A rubber spatula, (lol yeah I don’t have one of those)

A chocolate or candy thermometer

A bowl that doesn’t retain heat (if tempering in the microwave)

Filed Under: Blurbs, Kitchen Mamma

Cake Cookies with Sprinkles from V and Co.

2011

My Homemade Sushi Lunch

2011

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Number of View: 458

I collected all the essential items to make yummy sushi at home, Rice, Rice Seasoning, & Nori. All you need is your favorite topping or filler and you’re are ready to go.

Sushi Stuff

Today I made some very non traditional Spicy Tuna sushi. Spicy Tuna sushi usually uses raw fish, but I just used some can tuna. I found this flavored spicy mayo at Safeway and it screamed sushi, lol. This lunch was super easy and fast to make. I mixed my cooked rice a rice seasoning. Mixed the can Tuna with the spicy mayo and then worked on building my sushi. The building process is just a tiny Nori sheet and layer of rice topped with tuna and garnished with some furikake because I LOVE furikake. It’s not very pretty but it was definitely yummy. 1 cup of Rice 1 can of tuna and 1 pack of Nori made me 10 pieces of sushi.

Building

Tuna

All Done!

not so pretty

Filed Under: Kitchen Mamma, Thrifty Mamma

Cream Cheese Brownies

2010

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Number of View: 2818

Starbucks ain’t got nothing on me! Lol it’s amazing how easy it is to make those delicious cream cheese brownies that they serve at Starbucks. Lately when I have baked brownies they’ve been coming out dry and I really can’t figure it out. Maybe it has something to do with our gas oven? Some how the cream cheese layer in these brownies turned my usually dry brownies into decadent moist delicious squares from heaven. lol They are so easy to make too. I just used this recipe from Betty Crocker. You can use any brownies mix. I used Duncan Hines. I also ran out of sugar and used brown sugar instead. Just follow the directions on the box for the brownie mix.

This is a great dessert to bust out for the holidays to impress all your friends and family at the next party.

just like starbucks yummmm

Filling

4	oz cream cheese, softened (from 8 oz package)
1	egg
3	tablespoons sugar
1/4	teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350ºF (325ºF for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 9-inch square pan with shortening or cooking spray. In small bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Set aside.
Make brownie batter as directed on box. Spread 3/4 of brownie batter in pan. Spoon filling by tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie batter. Spoon remaining brownie batter over filling. Cut through mixture with knife several times for marbled design. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake 40 to 44 minutes or until toothpick inserted in brownie 1 inch from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours. For 16 brownies, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.