Happy Back to School!

At least I waited until the end of August to remind everyone it is back to school time.  It is simply not fair when companies start advertising back to school in JULY!  What’s up with that?  But here at Flour Child the reminder is as fun as it can possibly be given the circumstance – COOKIES!!!  I really like the cute pencil but I love the note paper (thinking these would be great for notes to Santa at Christmas and love notes at Valentines Day too).  I hope everyone going back to school – whether starting kindergarten or graduate school in university – has lots of success.  Wishing everyone an A+ year full of learning lots of new things.


P.S. leave a comment on your favorite thing to buy for back to school (I always had the best pencil case -- just ask my friend Suzanne;)

Chunky Monkey or Coco Loco Banana Bread

I think everyone has a favorite banana bread recipe.  I know I do – its from The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. I particularly love it because it has coconut in it and anything with coconut I just adore.  I adapted the recipe, ever so slightly, as it calls for pecans and I put in peanut butter chocolate chips instead.  You can adapt your fav banana bread to include coconut and chocolate chips instead of using the one below. I love these President Choice mini chips – they come in three flavors – fudge, caramel and peanut butter – each is yummy and could work in this recipe.

Recipe:

3 cups flour

1½ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp salt

¾ cup canola oil

1½ cups sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature, well beaten

1½ tsp vanilla

1½ cups mashed ripe bananas (approx. 4 depending on the size)

¾ cup sour cream

¾ cup sweetened shredded coconut

1 to 1½ cups of chocolate peanut butter or other chips for a nut free alternative

Instructions:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour a 1-=inch tube pan – this makes a big cake which is super if you are having people for brunch.  I have also make it as 3 medium sized loafs – I use one and freeze the others.

Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt – set aside.

In a large electric mixer bowl, beat together the oil and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, beat until well combined.  Add the bananas and sour cream and mix really well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 

Stir in (by hand) the coconut and peanut butter chips. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan (or pans).

Bake for 60-70 minutes (45-55 if using smaller pans), or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the bread comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Let cool for at least 1 hour before removing from the pan and serving.

--

I was not sure if the name should be coco loco (because of the coconut) OR chunky monkey (because of the whole banana and chocolate thing).  Let me know what you think!

Funky Town Disco Cookies

Not sure if you have seen Glee 3-D or not but these funky disco cookies are a great way to get down and celebrate any Saturday Night fever.

Want Some More S'mores?

They are called S’mores because once you eat one, you always want SOME MORE! 

Real s’mores are a campfire treat are made with a roasted marshmallow and piece of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers.

For me, s’mores bring back some of the best memories of summer nights at camp, the cottage and canoe trips in Algonquin park.

But, because we can’t always be campfire side, these cookies are a great substitute AND if you make them right, you may still have the gooey mess that is part of the s’more fun.

I got the recipe from Martha Stewart and made a (very) few modifications.

Ingredients

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats -- I use Quaker Oats

1 cup all-purpose flour -- I ALWAYS use Five Roses Flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour -- again with the Five Roses

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

15 large marshmallows, cut in half  horizontally

chocolate cut into 30 squares I used 2 boxes of these Hershey's 

Bliss chocolates (milk chocolate and caramel) -- each box 

contains 15 pieces and the recipe makes 30 cookies so I would say 

that is better than perfect.  But you can really use any of your 

favorite chocolate bars cut into 30 squares

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, pulse oats until finely ground. Add flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; pulse to combine. 

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pretty fluffy. Beat in egg, scraping down side of bowl. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture until just combined.

I use a small ice cream scooper to form the dough into 30 balls placed 1 inch apart, onto two baking sheets. Top each with a chocolate square. 

Bake just until lightly golden, 12 to 15 minutes.  I always put just one cookie sheet in at a time and rotate the sheet halfway through. 

Remove sheets from oven; heat broiler. 

Top each cookie with half a marshmallow. One sheet at a time, broil until marshmallows are lightly browned, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Put the light on in the oven and watch the marshmallows really carefully as they brown VERY quickly and can burn really easily.

Cool on wire racks.

Bet you will be wanting s'more than just one!  Happy Summer!

Where the Watermelons Grow

Remember the fun of making up lyrics to the song "Down By The Bay"?  Well, I made these watermelon cookies and kept singing the song, then I came up with my own verse and it goes like this:

Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow

Back to my home, I dare not go

For if I do, My mother would say...

Did you ever see a treat?

Looking so sweet.

Down by the bay.

The song reminds me of a summer camp sing-along and so do the cookies.

If you have your own verse, let me know in a comment or an email.  

Cake Pops -- Practice Makes Cute!

Me and Bakerella at her book signing in Toronto

So my inspiration behind this whole blog is Bakerella.  I have been reading her blog for years now – I love the way she writes and her totally creative way of decorating these candy covered crumbled cake more commonly known as cake pops.  And, now that Starbucks has them, they are quite commonly known.  But I can attest to the fact that Bakerella brought them to many peoples attention including mine – and I’m going to try to explain the various processes in making your very own cake pops (and of course, if I don’t mention it my husband, and Director of Marketing, will kill me, you can always contact me to order anything on this blog including cake pops.)

As far as I can figure it out so far there are 3 ways to make cake pops:

1.     - with a box cake mix and canned frosting

2.     - crumbled Oreo cookies

3.     - your favorite ultra moist cake which may or may not need some cream cheese icing to help it stick together (this is what I do and my favorite chocolate cake recipe does not need any icing as it is so moist)

I am going to describe the process with the assumption that you have baked a cake (box or not – there are no judgments here at Flour Child) and may or may not need frosting to help with moisture.  If you are using Oreo cookies you crumble the cookies in a food processor and, I hear, they stick together for a no bake solution.  No matter once you have your crumbs the process is the same.

Materials Needed to Cake Pop:

cake and maybe frosting

candy chocolate melts – for this project I used pink and chocolate

multi-coloured sprinkles

M&M’s – for this project I used the pink breast cancer M&M’s

lollipop sticks

2 or 3 empty egg cartons

styrofoam block

Bake your cake and crumble it with your hands or in a food processor.

Shape your cake pop – this tutorial is making a cupcake shaped cake pops but you could also make a simple ball and decorate it a kazillion different ways.  NOTE:  If your cake does not stick together easily, you may need to add some frosting to the crumbled cake.  Better to add the frosting a little at a time because you really don’t want the cake pop to be too heavy.


TIP:  You can shape the cake pops and freeze them for another time as a cake may make up to 50 cake pops and you may not need all of them.

TIP:  I bought this My Little Cupcake gizmo that shapes the crumbs into a little cupcake.  I like this a lot because it really helps with size – even if I’m not doing a cake pop that looks like a cupcake it sorta ensure a consistent size which is really important.  But, the other day I was cruising around the internet and saw that people were using meatball scoop makers to do the same thing. Then I was thinking of my ice cream scoops I use for making perfect size cookies (I have 2 different sizes) and I think that would work as well.  Size, well probably really weight, is really important when making cake pops because you don’t want them to be too heavy or you will end up with a lot of cake pops that fall off the stick (or as I call them VERY tasty rejects).  I used to have this happen all the time but I think practice and the gizmo really helps. 

Place your shaped cake pops on a wax papered cookie sheet in the refrigerator.

Place the chocolate candy melts in a double boiler to melt the chocolate.  You could also microwave the chocolate but I always burn chocolate this way so I use a double boiler.   For this project I worked first in the dark chocolate and then in the pink.

Once the chocolate is melted, let it cool slightly before dipping.  

TIP:  I usually work taking 3 or 4 cupcakes out of the refrigerator.

One at a time, dip the bottom of the cupcake in chocolate (dip just until the top of the cupcake), insert the lollipop stick about half way into the cupcake and place the cupcake in the egg carton lollipop stick up to dry.

TIP:  I usually put about the egg carton in the refrigerator to help the chocolate cool but you don’t have to as they air dry really quickly.

Melt the pink candy melts in the same way you did the chocolate ones and don’t forget to temper the chocolate for a few minutes before

Dip the cupcake tops into the tempered pink chocolate – you may wish to double dip to make the cupcake tops pop.

Sprinkle with multi-colour sprinkles.

Stick lollipop stick in a foil covered styrofoam block to allow the cake pop to dry completely.  I cover in foil so that the drips are easy to clean up.

I put these cupcake pops in floral Styrofoam covered in foil paper in a rectangular vase and think they look super cute.

Here are some other cupcake pops I’ve made and feel really proud of.

Halloween Cake Pops

Thanksgiving Cake Pops -- the face is a jelly belly

Pool Party Cake Pops -- anything with Teddy Grahams + Chocolate is YUMMY!

I think the key to successful cupcake pops is a lot of plannin and a little of practice.

Cupcake pops are always a fun party pleaser and they are super yummy.  Its moist cake on a stick – how could it not be great?  

Too Wet to Play? Make "Cat In the Hat" Cookies!

Do you remember Dr. Seuss' “The Cat In the Hat”?  It was one of my favorite books as a kid.  Well it was one of those days.  “The sun did not shine.  It was too wet to  play.  So I sat in the house, all this cold, cold wet day.” (OK so its mid-July and really really hot in Toronto but don't rain on my blog...) Here is the twist, I sat and decorated these cookies and here is how I did it.

Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Roll out the dough.  I got this cookie cutter from CheapCookieCutters.com.  The cookies are about 3.5” x 2” – so the cookies are a nice size to decorate and not too huge to eat.

Materials Needed for Decorating:

royal icing – Again, I’m really into the Ateco meringue powder

piping bags

gel colours -- I used red, black & white

 

1.  Outline the cookie and create the stripes in black.

2.  Fill in the white stripes.

3.  Fill in the red stripes.

Creating these cookies may keep you and your kids out of trouble with Thing One and Thing Two, and, I think they are really fun.