Pistacho Cake and Peanut Butter Munchies

I made the cookies and pistacho cake last weekend, but just getting around to posting the pictures.

The cookies were pretty time consuming. I halfed the recipe because I didn't want to make all those cookies. It was somewhat hard to work with only half the ingredients. For example, taking half the egg was a little non-traditional.

The result, however, was very good cookies and got great reviews by all those who tried them. The peanut butter on the inside was soft and the texture was perfect. I cooked them for exactly 8 minutes.


Here's some pictures of the best of the cookies.




















I also made the pistachio cake. Not having a bundt pan, I used the springform pan that we used earlier for the first recipe. (Remember that piece of equipment? (= ) It came out delicious, but also had a strange texture. It was wet and heavy...I'm guessing it was due to the sour cream. I called it the shrek cake because of the color and the texture. Pretty much everyone loved it.

Peanutbutter Munchies

Jess and I made the peanut butter munchies almost a month ago but just recently got the pictures up on the internet.

Mixing this recipe wasn't simple. The chocolate portion mixed up just fine and we didn't make the balls ahead of time. Next we mixed up the peanut butter and powdered sugar. We used Jess' mixer and turned the mixture into very small chunks. The mixture never got smooth and so it was hard to actually form balls out of the mixture.

Eventually we were able to form peanut butter balls and surround it with the chocolate mixture. The chocolate mixture was very very sticky(could have been because of our rice/tapioca flour mixture) and it became increasingly complicated to form the chocolate around the peanut butter. Finally we got things sorted out and ended up with a pan of cookies.



I used a fork to press down each cookie.

The end result tasted very good even if they didn't look the best.

Khabab's Lemon Bars

Hello everyone,

I made the lemon bars a few days ago and they turned out delicious. I found that it was pretty easy to make and they were very tasty. I ate them warm and I ate them cold, and either way they were good.

I took the left-overs (not many) to my co-workers and surveyed those that got a chance to have a piece of this deliciousness.

Everyone liked the texture, overall flavor, and lemon flavor. One person thought it was too "lemony" and too slimy.

I didn't add the powdered sugar on the top, and one of my co-workers recommended to add the powdered sugar. The crust was delicious!






I also made a quiche (after asking Megan 101 questions!) It turned out very good as well! Hit up Megan for the recipe if you are interested. It's very easy and great for dinner.











Still going to make those peanut butter chocolate cookies and pistachio cake! Will post those soon.

February: Lemon Bars

The February recipe is Lemon Bars.

I have made these bars in the past and they are so very tasty warm from the oven. Make sure the lemons that you buy have a good skin since you will be using it for the zest, you don't have to be to picky but you don't want a bad skin.


CRUST:

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (25 grams) confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

1 cup (140 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

FILLING:

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (approximately two large lemons)

1 tablespoons (5 grams) grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

2 tablespoons (25 grams) all purpose flour

TOPPING:

Confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

Lemon Zest - The yellow outer rind of the lemon that contains the fruit's flavor and perfume.

TIP: Always remove the zest first before halving and squeezing the lemon. Use a fine strainer to remove the seeds and pulp from the juice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Grease with butter (or use a cooking spray) a 8 x 8 inch (20 x 28 cm) pan.

FOR CRUST: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together. Press into the bottom of your greased pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.

FOR FILLING: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs until nice and smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Fold in the flour. Pour the filling over the shortbread crust and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is set. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

To serve: Cut into squares or triangles and dust with powdered sugar. These are best eaten the day they are made but can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Yield: 16 - 2 inch (5 cm) squares