Recipe: No-Bake Peanut Butter Truffles

Mine...don't look like this. Image found here.

I realized that in my parents' fridge, there must have been six partly-used tubs of icing. It makes sense: when you bake a cake or make cupcakes, you never use all of the icing in those Pillsbury containers (or if you do, your icing-to-cake ratio is way off). I was looking for different recipes that used icing, and I found this recipe on the Marsha's Baking Addiction blog. I like peanut butter, I like chocolate: I had to try these. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 3 cups icing/powdered sugar
• 16 oz. dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and salt, and beat until smooth and combined.
2. Add the icing sugar and beat on low until combined. The mixture will be crumbly, but you should be able to roll into balls.
3. Roll the dough mixture into 1-inch balls and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. You should have about 40-45 balls. Refrigerate until firm - about 1 hour. 
4. Add the dark chocolate to a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one, until melted and smooth. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
5. Repeat with the milk chocolate. 
6. Dip each peanut butter ball into the melted dark chocolate and place back onto the baking tray. Drizzle with the milk chocolate. Allow to set in the fridge before serving. 

Soo... I have no idea why this recipe came up when I Googled "recipes that use leftover icing." The only place icing is mentioned is what she refers to as "icing sugar," which is more commonly know as powdered or confectioners' sugar. BUT I didn't get that until I was part-way through the recipe. I thought, "Oh, I need three cups of icing. So that's about one-and-a-half tubs." I added half a tub, about one cup, of Pillsbury's Funfetti Bold Purple Vanilla Flavored Frosting, before realizing what she really meant by "icing." At least I caught myself before putting in three cups of frosting! Instead I added 2.5 cups of powdered sugar to salvage what I had already mixed together. I think that worked out okay, and maybe even better, because the mixture was not too crumbly!

Clearly I have a varied understanding of what "one inch balls" look like.

I DID use leftover icing as the chocolate dip on the truffles. I microwaved the containers until the frosting was liquid-y, and then I used a kabob stick and dipped the truffles into the melted chocolate frosting. 

I made poopy buttholes. Yum.

At first they didn't look great (as you can see in the above photo), but then I took a spoon and covered the naked bits with the rest of the chocolate icing.

Video found here.

In the end, they tasted just okay. The flavor seemed to be a little off; it could have been the additional purple icing (too much icing or the fact that the icing was kind of old). And because I didn't use plain chocolate to cover the balls, the truffles didn't have a nice, clean, smooth outside that would harden in the fridge. The icing on the outside remains soft, making these treats a little messy to eat. So, not the worst thing I've ever done (I think that honor goes to my unicorn cake mix cookies), but I probably won't be making these again. 

Strawberry-Enhanced Brownies

 

It's in two halves because my dad wanted some!

I wasn't sure what to call these, since I kind of made up the recipe. A friend of mine wanted me to a bring a dessert over, but I didn't have a lot of time. So I figured I'd make box brownies, but with a twist.

Image found here

I used the Betty Crocker "Supreme Chocolate Chunk" brownie mix. All you do is mix it with some water, oil, and an egg, and voilà! But I wanted to make them a little more special. I used Pillsbury's chocolate fudge icing on top, but I took it one step further...

Another friend of mine gave me this strawberry almond vanilla extra for Christmas. I had never heard of such a thing! She got it from the Spice Suite in Washington, D.C. I hadn't tried it yet, so I thought I'd put it in these brownies. I added one teaspoon; I know extracts can be really flavorful, so I figured a little would go a long way. And of course to give a clue about the strawberry flavor, I sliced some strawberries and put those on top. They make pretty decoration, too!

At first the strawberry flavor is strong, but as I was eating the brownie, the chocolate took over to the point that the strawberry was just a hint. So if you like a strawberry-chocolate combo, you would love these brownies!

Recipe: Easy Banana Bread

It sunk a little in the middle. Hmpf.

I was left to my own devices this morning while my dad went skiing with a friend, so I thought I'd bake them a sweet treat they could enjoy after their time on the slopes. I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. 

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
2. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and butter together in a bowl. Mix flour and baking soda together in a separate bowl; stir in the banana mixture until batter is just mixed. Stir salt into batter. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean, about 1 hour. 

My end piece had lots of chocolate chips in it!

As usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I only used two bananas; I added the salt into the dry mixture (maybe that's why the bread tasted a little salty?); I put in a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips because...who doesn't like chocolate? I also thought the last step of this recipe was very silly. Of course you're putting the batter into a preheated oven; do most people own two ovens, and even if they did, why would they put the batter in the one that wasn't preheated? And the fact that it says, "about one hour" as opposed to "55-60" minutes: recipes should be more precise! BUT, then again, does it matter if I'm not going to listen to them anyway?

I have made many different banana bread recipes. Here are a few others:

Dark Chocolate Chip Raspberry Banana Bread

Chai-Spiced Banana Bread

Banana Peanut Butter Bread

Strawberry Banana Bread