Sausage Balls

Category: Breads > Quick Breads > Sausage Balls

Sausage balls are great for breakfast, appetizers, or to serve at a party. They are made with Bisquick, ground sausage, and cheese. They are easy to make and you can freeze them and bake them up later when you want.



Recipe:

• 2-1/2 cups Bisquick
  
• 10 oz. Grated Cheese
  
• 1 (16 oz.) pack of Ground Sausage
  

Mix together Bisquick, sausage, and cheese thoroughly. It will take a while to mix everything together. The best way is with a mixer with a bread hook. When it is finished being mixed, the mixture should just look like ground meat. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll the mixture into 1" balls. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes until nicely browned on top. Make sure you don't under bake because of the sausage.

If you want to freeze for later use - Roll mixture unto balls. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and set in freezer for 1 hour to chill. Take chilled balls and store in a zip lock bag in freezer. When you are ready to use, take balls out and cook in oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Black Bottom Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Black Bottom Cake

A black bottom cake is based on a black bottom pie but it is different. A black bottom cake has a chocolate cake bottom and is topped with cream cheese which is mixed with chocolate chips. The cake is often topped with shaved chocolate. Black bottom cupcakes are popular.

When I first decided to try a black bottom cake, I expected that it would be a thin layer of chocolate with a top layer of cheese cake. However, when I followed the recipe, I found that there wasn't enough cheese cake to create a layer. Instead the cheese cake was meant to be marbled in with the chocolate.

Even though the cake was tasty, I do want to make modifications to the recipe to remake the cake in what I feel will be a better manner.



Recipe:
Cake:

• 1-1/2 cups Flour
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
  
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
  
• 1 cup Water
  
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
  
• 1 tbsp. Vinegar
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
  

Filling:

• 1 (8 oz.) pkg. Cream Cheese
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 1/3 cup Sugar
  
• 1/8 tsp. Salt
  
• 1 cup Chocolate Chips
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" x 13" pan. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Pour into pan.

Cream together cream cheese, egg, salt, sugar. Add the chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto top of batter in pan. Bake 30 minutes.

Baking Tips:

• You won't have enough cream cheese to cover the whole cake so you will probably want to drop it in a checkerboard pattern.
  
• I want to make this cake again, but I want to use a 9" round instead and double the amount of cream cheese filling which I hope will give me a clean layer of cheese cake on top.
  
• The chocolate cake will rise while baking.
  
• If you want your cheese cake to not be tinted with brown from the chocolate cake, once you drop it on the cake, do not smooth or move it around.
  
• The chocolate chips made the cake really rich. If you want, you can leave them out.
  
• You can top the cake with walnuts, powdered sugar, cream cream frosting, or shaved chocolate. I chose not to top the cake with anything and ate them more like brownies.
  

Beef Empanadas

Category: Pastry > Savory > Beef Empanadas

Empanadas are a Spanish and Portuguese stuff pastry. They can be sweet, filled for example with pumpkin, or savory, filled with meats.

I made some beef and corn empanadas that I only liked passably well. The dough is very hard and firm and holds the food inside well. However, I was looking for something a little more flaky. I also thought that the empanadas would have tasted better with a cheese sauce poured over them.



Recipe (Empanada Dough):

• 3 cups Flour
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup Cold Water
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 1 Egg White
  
• 1 Egg Yolk
  
• 1 tsp. Vinegar
  
• 3 tbsp. Shortening
  

In a bowl, beat the water, egg, egg white and vinegar together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together the 3 cups of flour and salt. Cut the shortening into the flour mix with a pastry blender. Make a well in the center of the flour mix and pour the liquid ingredients from the first bowl into the center. Mix the wet and dry ingredients with a fork until it becomes stiff. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it just until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Roll out dough and cut into 5" circles. Fill the dough with filling and fold over to make a semi-circle. Take a fork to crimp the edges together.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take the egg yolk and add a bit of water. Mix well to create an egg wash. Brush the egg wash on top of the sealed empanadas. Bake the empanadas for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Baking Tips:

• You don't want to over fill your empanadas or else it will be difficult to seal them.
  
• Your filling shouldn't be to liquidy or it will run out while you are trying to seal them.
  
• If filling with a meat, it should be cooked before you put it into the dough shell.
  
• I thought the dough would be good filled with eggs, cheese, and ham to make a breakfast empanada.
  

Choux Pastry and Cream Puffs

Category: Pastries > Cream Puffs

You might think that cream puffs would be hard to make because of the dough, but I was surprised how easy it was to make these. In fact, it is probably one of the easier doughs to make.



Recipe:

Dough-

• 1/2 cup Flour
  
• 1/2 tsp. Sugar
  
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 4 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
  
• 1/2 cup Water
  
• 2 large Eggs, lightly beaten
  

Egg Wash-

• 1 large Egg
  
• 1/8 tsp. Salt
  

Whipped Cream-

• 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
  
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
  
• 1 tbsp. Sugar
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Place butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and quickly add the flour mixture. Return to heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 2 minutes). Transfer dough to electric mixer and beat on low speed a minute or two to release the steam from the dough.

While the dough cools, make the egg wash. Add 1 egg and salt into bowl and beat well. Set aside for later use.

Once the dough is lukewarm, start adding the 2 eggs and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste.

Spoon or pipe 12 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing a couple of inches apart. Glaze with the egg wash. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Back for another 30 to 40 minutes until the shells are a nice amber color and when split are dry inside. Turn the oven off and, with the oven door slightly ajar, let the shells dry out for a further 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

For whipped cream, in a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, whip the mixture until soft peaks form.

To Assemble, split the pastry shells in half and fill with the whipped cream. Dust with powdered sugar if you want.

Baking Tips:

• You don't have to fill the Choux Pastry with whipped cream. You can fill it with anything you would like. For example, chicken salad for a savory little sandwich snack.
  
• You can put the bowl you are mixing the whipped cream in inside a bigger bowl filled with ice water to help speed up the process.
  
• Make sure you don't over whip the whipping cream or else you will start to get butter.
  

Truffles

Category: Candy > Chocolate > Truffles

Chocolate truffles are very rich chocolate (ganache) in the shape of balls and covered with multiple different coatings. I chose to use cocoa powder, oreo crumbs, chocolate sprinkles, and mixed nuts. Cocoa powder is often popular because it resembles dirt to look like real truffles dug up from the ground.



Recipe:

• 3/4 Heavy Whipping Cream
  
• 2 tbsp. Butter
  
• 8 oz. Semi-Sweet Bakers Chocolate
  

Chop your chocolate and place it in a large bowl. Set aside. In a medium size pot, add your butter and melt it over medium heat. Add your cream and bring it just to a boil, stirring often. As soon as your cream starts to boil, pour it over your chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes and then stir with a spoon until you have a smooth consistency. Place the ganache in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Once the ganache is chilled, take out your materials you want to roll your truffles in and place them in individual bowls. Spoon out a small amount of ganache and roll it into a ball. Roll it in your covering. Place it on a baking sheet. Once you are done rolling and covering all your truffles, place back in the refrigerator to chill for at least another hour before serving.

Baking Tips:

• After you add the cream to the chocolate to melt, when you start stirring it, try not to lift the spoon out of the bowl. This way you will reduce the amount of air you get in the ganache.
  
• You can add flavoring to the cream, when you are heating it up, to create additional flavors to the chocolate. For example, rum, raspberry extract, orange extract.
  
• Other items you can use to cover the truffles with include Coconut, Chocolate Chips, Powder Sugar, Sugar or Sugar Sprinkles.
  

Chicken Pot Pie

Category: Pies > Savory > Chicken Pot Pie

A pot pie is a savory dish containing meat and vegetables inside pie crust. Some pot pies only have a top pie crust while others have both a bottom and top crust. The difference between just a meat pie and a pot pie is that a pot pie is more stew like, hence the "pot" part. The crust serves as a pot for the stew.

There are many types of pot pies - turkey, beef, chicken. They are all very tasty comfort foods. You can make and put pretty much anything into a pot pie to your taste.



Recipe:

• 1 pound Skinless Boneless Chicken, cooked and cut in cubes
  
• 1/2 Medium Onion
  
• 2 cups Mixed Vegetables
  
• 1/2 cup Celery
  
• 1 can Cream of Chicken
  
• 1 (14 oz) can Chicken Broth
  
• 1/4 tsp. Minced Garlic
  
• 1 Egg
  
• Salt and Pepper to taste
  

Crust:

• 1 cup Flour
  
• 2 tsp. Baking Powder
  
• 2 tbsp. Butter
  
• 1/8 tsp. Salt
  
• 1/3 cup Milk
  

For the crust: If you want a crust for both the bottom and the top, double the crust recipe. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt. Cut the cold butter into 4 pieces and use a pastry blender to mix into the flour mixture. Mix until the butter is about the size of peas. Add the milk and mix the mixture to form into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. If you doubled the recipe, split the dough in half. Roll out until about 1/8" thick. If you have a bottom crust, you can place it into your pan.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.

For filling: In a skillet, add chopped onions, mixed vegetables, chopped celery, and minced garlic. Add chicken broth just until covered. Put the rest of the chicken broth to the side. Shimmer for about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mixed the vegetables, chicken and cream of chicken. Add salt and pepper to flavor. Add the remaining chicken broth until you like the consistency of the mixture.

Pour mixture into the pan. Cover with the pie dough. Crimp the sides of the dough and score the middle of the pie dough with a knife. Beat the egg well in a small bowl and add a little water to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash over the top of the pie crust.

Put the pie into the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the top is a nice golden color and filling is bubbly. Cool l0 minutes before serving.

Lemon Parfaits

Category: Parfaits > Puddings

A parfait is a layered dessert placed in a clear tall glass. The layers can consist of items like cream, ice cream, gelatin, puddings, fruits, nuts, granola or yogurts. After making the lemon meringue pie, I had left over lemon pudding so I made some parfaits. These parfaits are layers of lemon pudding, cool whip, and topped with a cherry. Parfaits make easy and quick to make treats that are very eye appealing.