btw, a little something

I'm sure if anyone's read this blog yet they've noticed that little swag bucks widget thing. Swag bucks is a on-line prize thingey that from what I get, gives you a tool bar to work with, use as your main search engine (even if you just search for google) and gives you swag bucks as a reward. Sounds sorta stupid so far, eh? Well, fear not. These swag bucks you get can be put towards decent stuff, the best that i've found so far being a 5 dollar amazon (.com or .ca) gift card for 450. Which if you play it right, you can earn in a week or two. I've already got 2 of these gift cards, and I couldn't even do the big one which was signing up for netflix (i already have it) which nets you 1000 sbs, which is two 5$ cards. So, if you can handle adding one more step towards your search results, occasionally doing a survey, or signing up for something decent (i can't recommend netflix enough, it's awesome and I've been a paying customer for half a year now) sign up for swag bucks. Here, if you wanna be super nice you can use this link.

Delicious double whammy

So, I've been bad. Well, lazy really. I haven't written anything for the blog in a long while and I felt bad..bad enough to give not one but TWO awesome recipes. So without further adieu, I give you Rolo Brownies and Reese Peanut Butter mini cheesecakes.

Now, these brownies we're making, they're exceptional. They're the talk of bake sales, I've sold them in restaurants. They're ridiculously fudgy and the rolo's inside take on this brittle caramel chewyness the likes of which I had never seen before. The outer crust of these brownies are always a little overdone, but those are the pieces you save for ice cream sundaes.

                                                                                

2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cups melted and cooled butter

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

6 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/3 cup cocoa (sifted)

3/8 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt
2 packs Rolos (or mini rolos would be best)

Now home made brownies are so simple, other than the measuring this recipe doesn't take anytime (especially if you have a hand blender) Set your oven to 350, and either line your pan with parchment paper or rub it down with butter and shake some flour on it.

Mix your butter and sugars together, it'll look sorta sandy but that's all part of it. Now, make sure your butter is cooled, you're adding the eggs and vanilla in next and you don't want any scrambled eggs floating around in this. Work your eggs in slowly, you don't want to mix in too much air. This'll cause your brownies to rise and they won't be those dense chewy ones that you want. Blend in your dry ingredients a little at a time, i tend to fold because it's a little less messy. Fold in rolos and then pour that batter. If you like to lick the bowl, go for it, I almost prefer the batter to the brownie.

These suckers bake for around 40 minutes. I check with the tip of a knife in the middle. If it comes away clean, I'm good. Also, remember it'll keep cooking for awhile once you take it out of the oven.

Next up, Reeses Peanut Butter mini cheese cakes.

I've had a lot of people be wowed by these, and to be fair they look like a lot of work. Key word, look like. I can turn out a batch of these in about an hour, give or take. You gotta wait for some things to freeze, or to cool, or to heat, but you don't have to actively be there.

I'm gonna list the ingredients in order of preparation.

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

6pc. semisweet  baker's chocolate, melted

2 pks. cream cheese

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup and 1tbsp sugar

2 eggs

3 tbsps flour

2 cups graham cracker crust

4 tbsps butter

1/3 crushed peanuts ( I forgot to add these, but it's soo good. it makes the crust taste like a peanut butter cookie.)

1 bag dark chocolate chips

1/3 cup cream ( scalded)

Start off by mixing the peanut butter and sugar together. You'll need to get a flat tray, cutting board, whatever, and layer some plastic wrap over it. Roughly spread out your peanut butter mix and cover with more saran wrap. Use a rolling pin to flatten it out, you want it about 1 cm. thick. Throw it in the freezer.

Whenever I make cheese cake I try to remember to take out my cream cheese as early as possible. The worst is waiting for your mixer to work through rock hard cream cheese because you forgot. Even just 20 minutes on top of a warm oven can help. Speaking of ovens, preset yours to 375.

I melted my chocolate in a double boiler (a heat safe bowl sitting over a pot with boiling water, no touching!) and threw in about half a pack of philly into the mix.  This helps when it comes time to mix all that chocolate into the cream cheese, which you are now about to do. I tend to do this by hand because I soften my cream cheese first. Once all the chocolate is incorporated, add in the sugar. I personally don't put a ton of sugar in my cheese cake, and this one has so much going on.  After that add in your eggs and flour. Now you're good! The crust should be pretty self explanatory, I don't use melted butter I use soft butter and just knead it into the crumb.

Set up your trays with the cute little muffin cups, and add about a tbsp of crust to each. I used my

 pestle with a little saran wrap over it to press the crust down, but you could also use a small ladle or a shot glass. Hopefully you have a piping bag, coz this is gonna make it super easy. Fill that sucker and just carefully pipe cheese cake batter in up to half of the cup. Otherwise, use a spoon and be careful coz it's gonna get messy. These guys go in the oven for 15 minutes, but you'll know for certain. They'll be firm (not hard and not sticky) to the touch. Put 'em in the fridge to cool.

Now, take out your frozen peanut butter. You could be doing this days before you actually make these. The peanut butter lasts indefinitely in the freezer. Now comes the hardest part..cutting out the little circles. I don't have any cookie cutters. I know, I know, I'm a terrible baker.  If I'm ever a grandma the granchillins will have to deal with hand shaped cookies only. But you need to be fast with the peanut butter so I got inventive. I had to use a little shot measurer from a bartending kit the boyfriend got for christmas last year. Ahwell, any port in a storm. Make sure you dip this in powdered sugar, it'll help out in the long run. I found it easiest to press the shape in, but not all the way. After I reached under the plastic wrap and just popped out the circles. After that it's just a matter of putting 'em on top of your little cheese cakes.

I forgot to mention, while all this is going on you could have your cream heating for your ganache to go on top. I did it the other way first, with the chocolate in the bowl over the simmering water but murphy dictated that some of that water should get into my fancy dark chocolate and cause the entire thing to seize up. JOY! So instead, got some no name dark chocolate, and poured hot cream on it. Let this sit for a minute, then mix it up! From there carefully pour it over top, or drizzle, or whatever you wanna do! I like to give 'em a solid top, it helps with the layered appearance at the end.

Here's that tasty pic again, for posterity. And for giggles, here's the cute baby dove that was chilling on my balcony through all this.