Monday, October 25, 2010

A Dessert to Die for....

I will admit that I have a sweet tooth.  And I like to bake.  A dangerous combination.

Now, I don't consider myself a boastful person but I do know in what area I can confidently say I got me some skillz.  I have cupcakes down pat.  Cookies on the other hand... not so much.  Cookies were always kind of my nemesis; every time I tried my hand at the most basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, I failed.  Miserably.  They were never good enough.

And then, I decided to tackle them.  Me and the cookie.  We were going to have it out.  I have, quite successfully, man-handled the chocolate chip cookie and had a heart-to-heart with the maple-glazed pecan cookie.  I have, however, severed ties with the white-chocolate cranberry macadamia nut creation that didn't much resemble a cookie at all.  Gone are the days of waiting anxiously, gazing through the glass door of the oven, hoping they wouldn't turn out to be a gooey, greasy mess.  But I digress....

Cookies were but one baking hurdle.  Then came bars.  I grew up eating one particular sweet treat that I longed for as an adult and never had the recipe.  Lo and behold, as I meandered up and down the grocery store aisles one day, I was reunited with my childhood love, in sweet, delicious, dessert bar-form of course.  The Magic Cookie Bar.  It is as elusive as it sounds and even more delicious than you could imagine.  It's sweet and salty, gooey and crunchy.  And painfully easy to make.  Now, there are some recipes I keep secret; like my grandmother's shortbread cookie recipe.  That's under family recipe lock n' key.  The Magic Cookie Bar recipe, on the other hand, cannot, in good conscience, be kept a secret.  Some things are just too good to not be shared.


Eagle Brand's most famous and popular recipe, it was invented in the 1960s, originally named the "Hello Dolly".  A simple layered bar that takes 8 minutes to whip up and is in and out of the oven in 25 minutes, the Magic Cookie Bar is easy to make and always delicious.  Check it out in my "Recipes I Love" and let me know if you love it as much I do.  I dare you ;)

Now to tackle pie!

Pizza Party

My husband and I like to enjoy a good pizza now and then... the trick is finding a 'good' pizza.  We fell in love with pizza while on a trip with friends in Venice.  Of course, there are mixed feelings amongst us North Americans when it comes to traditional pizza; pizza the way it is supposed to be.  We, too often, are presented with a pie of sub par ingredients on a doughy wheel.  There are, of course, some people who prefer the Western-style pizza, but we, on the other hand, crave the thin, hand-tossed crust graced with fresh, local ingredients.

While in Taiwan, we revived my husband's family tradition of pizza night.  These nights were enjoyable but severely limited due to our lack of a real oven and quality ingredients.

So, last week, we invited some good friends over for a more laid-back dinner party; a pizza party, to be exact.  I took my first stab at making pizza dough from scratch and was thoroughly impressed to discover that it was not only easy, but delicious too!  (see "Recipes I Love" for a wonderfully simple pizza dough recipe).

The wives whipped together two pizzas; a classic pepperoni and bacon with a fresh tomato base for the men and something a little less traditional....



A medley of portabello and crimini mushrooms blanketed a basil-infused dough bestrewn with a light fig glaze and creamy goat cheese.  We fibbed a little with the husbands and called a straight "mushroom pizza" just to get them to try it.  And they loved it.  How could they not?  It was inventive and delicious.



So I encourage you, the next time you have a hankering for a pizza pie, to treat yourself to something really terrific and make your own.  It's easier than you think!