New Posts @ HungryHollyRuns!

I made Fried Rice for week 15 of my New 2 Me Cooking Challenge!

Then I baked some Basic Yellow Cupcakes w/ Easy Chocolate Buttercream!

The week after that I made Quick Tomato Soup for the 16th week of my New 2 Me Cooking Challenge!

And THIS weekend I made PB Chocolate Scone for Easter morning!

 

Also… I’d just like to take a minute…

I’d like to thank all the people who follow this blog and take the time to read and  “like” all the posts!

That being said, I’m wondering how to get you wonderful people over to the new blog!? Eventually I’m going to stop updating here, and I’d love for the “likes” and “follows” to happen over there! Ya know what I mean?

So… PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEEASE go over to HungryHollyRuns.wordpress.com and follow me! Or bookmark it!

 

No Machine! PB Cup Ice Cream

Here  in PA we’ve had a of a heat wave this past  week. I shouldn’t be complaining… but I really hate being too hot. Honestly, it’s been in the 90’s, but the heat index puts it around 100. Ugh.

So, because it’s been too hot (and because I needed an excuse to try) I decided to make some ice cream. I don’t have one of those fancy-smancy ice cream machines so (of course) I went in search of some recipes on the InterWebs.

Most of the recipes I saw could be broken down into 3 bases. One with Cool Whip, another with heavy cream, and the last base was heavy cream and some other stuff that needed to be cooked. Now… I was in no mood to cook anything, and I really wanted to do something really simple so I chose to use Cool Whip as my base.

Then I just had to choose what to put in it! So many options… eventually I decided I should make something Hubs would eat, as I’m more of a FroYo girl.

The flavor is pretty good, but I think it should be more chocolatly. Next time I’m going to add more melted baking chocolate.

The texture isn’t as creamy as store-bought ice cream, but I bet if I used the heavy cream as a base it would be. It’s also kind of sticky… maybe I used too much condensed milk?

Overall, the recipe is yummy and with a few minor tweeks it could be heavenly.

Check out the recipe & try it out for yourself!

 

Happy Sunday!

-Hey Waitress!!

Irish Car Bomb Truffles & Minty Fudge

Guinness cake before baking

Guinness cake after baking.

Bailey’s, Jameson’s Ganache

crumbled cake

getting all mixed together

all balled up

close up before the dipping

all done!

McCormick Minty Fudge

I had a lot of fun making these. Actually…

 

I had a lot of fun making the cake, and eating the edges.

Let me explain… This Guinness cake tastes delish. Perfect by itself, I think it would taste great with a very light frosting of some kind. Maybe a fluffy Bailey’s buttercream? It’s got a really great flavor, with just a hint of Guinness. And it’s super moist. Plus I added the green food color to make it a little more fun. The only downside is that the edges got a little too brown to be considered pretty. So I ate most of them.

I kind of made a booboo and forgot to write down the length of time I baked the cake for, but I think it was about 35 minutes. Be smart and peek in the oven window every so often before that, just to make sure. 😉

 

I had a lot of fun making sure the ganache tasted “right”. Who wouldn’t!?

Make sure the ganache is COLD before you try to whip it, if it’s still warm it won’t work. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea (that’s what the interwebs say, so it must be true). It took mine about 5 minutes to get as fluffy as I wanted it to be. Just give it time… be patient. This ganache is a little TOO chocolaty for me, the flavor really overpowered the Guinness cake. It’s really good, just a little to stong for such a light cake flavor.

 

Over all the ganache overpowered the cake crumbles. I used about 90% of the ganache I made. You can probably use less. I think it will depend on how crumbly/ cakey you want your truffles to be. Make sense? This was my first attempt at making truffles using cake so I was kind of winging it.

 

I didn’t have a particular amount of fun dipping these little guys into the chocolate. It’s a technique I still haven’t mastered. I started off using a spoon, but that was too messy. After the first few I realized that I had some lollipop sticks in the cupboard so I stuck the truffles on those, then dipped them. I used at least a whole bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips AND a little over a cup of white chocolate chips… you my use more or less, depending on how thick you like the chocolate covering, and how quick you get your cake balls/ truffles dipped. Ever notice how quickly white chocolate chips harden back up? I did. 😉

 

I also made some Minty Fudge this week using the McCormick recipe. The recipe online didn’t specify how much mint extract to use so I used a teaspoon of it. Then I added some mini chocolate chips to the top. You can never have too much chocolate, right?

 

Happy St. Paddy’s Day and Happy Baking!

-Hey Waitress!!

 

RECIPE HERE

 

Soo… I though I had posted this on St Paddy’s… (last Sunday) but apparently I only saved it as a draft.  Drat! Better late then never!

Truffle “Pops” 2 Ways & Bourbon Balls

the culmination of my efforts…

from the front…

close up!

letting the white chocolate set…

close up!

letting the chocolate “set”

before getting dipped… can’t really see the Ande’s & candy cane chunks.

some pb truffles letting the chocolate set

This weeks Sunday Bakery was Peanut Butter Truffles (inspired by last weeks cookies), Peppermint Cookie Dough Truffles (inspired by Big Bear’s Wife), AAAAND Bourbon Balls (because one can never dip too much stuff in chocolate or use booze too often).

 

First off… the “Pop” part of this experiment was because every time I try to make truffles I make a mess trying to dip them in the chocolate. Every. Single. Time. So I figured… make them “truffle pops” by sticking a lollipop stick into the bottom. Maybe it would save me from making a mess, and getting irritated. Not so much. Sadly… both the Peppermint Cookie Dough & the Peanut Butter truffles were too soft, the stick trick (haha check out THAT rhyme) just barely worked. Once either one got even a little close to room temperature the sticks started falling out or leaning awkwardly. That can be solved by serving chilled though. GENIUS!

 

I made both the truffle dough’s Saturday night (I have no life), and made the bourbon balls Sunday morning. I just put ‘em in the freezer while I dipped the truffles!

 

I dipped the chocolate covered peanut butter balls in larger sprinkles, while the Peppermint truffles & Bourbon Balls got their smaller sprinkles sprinkled on top.

 

As for the Bourbon balls… I made them with American Honey Wild Turkey, and dipped them in melted white chocolate. After being dipped in the chocolate you should leave them in the fridge for 24 hours to let the bourbon flavor come out before you eat them.

 

Now I have a plethora or truffles. On sticks. That I had to cut down because they wouldn’t fit in my “treat boxes”, and a blister to show for it. Fortunately Hubs got a job last week (YAAAAY!) so I have people to start gifting junk food to again. Double YAY!

 

One last thing- any of these three recipes would make a great host(ess) gift for a holiday party tucked into cute mugs or stuck in the holes in a colander.

 

Enjoy.

-Hey Waitress!!