My dad instilled in me a great love for popcorn. He'll pass up sweets, cookies, cakes in favor of a big ol' bowl of salty, crunchy popcorn. Don't even mention microwave popcorn in his presence. It's just not done.
So, popcorn makes me happy. Popcorn with GOLD and CHOCOLATE makes me very happy. {I'm sure dad would prefer his plain, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.}
You'll also need popcorn. FRESHLY POPPED popcorn. We'll be adding butter and salt, so if you do use microwave popcorn... A. don't tell my dad, B. omit the butter and salt.
After you pop the popcorn and toss it with the melted butter and salt, you'll lay it out on cookie sheets.
Then you'll drizzle on melted chocolate....sigh.
{I tempered some bittersweet chocolate here (more on that in another post), but feel free to use chocolate candy melts or almond bark.}
Then, you add the gold. {I know, I know...there are 3 pictures of these buttons...they're just so PRETTY!!!}
Voila! Pot o' Gold Popcorn! Perfect for your leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day!!!
{The popcorn looks really pretty in little bowls or ramekins for a party, and is best served the same day it is made. It can be stored in baggies for 3-4 days; the popcorn will just lose a little of its crunch.}
Pot o' Gold Popcorn
ingredients:
10 cups freshly popped popcorn 2 TBSP salted butter, melted 3/4 tsp. coarse salt 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate (candy melts or almond bark) 2 oz. gold buttons (or yellow M&Ms)
instructions:
Toss the popcorn with the melted butter and salt. Spread onto 2 cookie sheets.
Melt or temper the chocolate (I used tempered chocolate here).
Drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn. Sprinkle on the gold buttons.
Let the popcorn sit until the chocolate has set. Gently break into chunks and pieces.
Again with the cheesiness. I know, I know...I can't help myself.
You DO (sham) rock, though, you know.
A couple of notes about these cookies...
ONE. The dough was tinted green just to make it a little more festive for St. Patrick's Day. To do this, you make your dough, then just knead in the color, kind of like you would do for fondant. Easy.
TWO. The little shamrock guitars are parts of two shapes put together. A shamrock (you knew that), and since I don't seem to have a guitar cutter, a cut off broom handle.
THREE. I'll show you the tutorial for the guitars below. For the other cookies, I had this "great" idea to make shamrocks from dots. In reality, they look more like flat leaf parsley or cilantro. On the bright side, if you ever need to make cilantro cookies, you'll know how.
To make the Shamrock Guitars, you will need:
sugar cookies put together to make a shamrock guitar, such as a shamrock and a broom handle,
royal icing tinted with AmeriColor Super Black, dark & light green using Leaf Green, and Bright White,
couplers and icing tips (#2 & #1)
disposable icing bags
squeeze bottles
toothpicks
With a #2 tip, outline the guitar center and neck in black icing. Reserve a bit of black piping consistency icing.
With another #2 tip, outline the shamrock shape in the darker green icing.
Thin the black and green icings with water a bit at a time, stirring gently with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup. Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit for several minutes.
Stir the icings gently with a silicone spatula, popping any large air bubbles that may have formed on the surface. Transfer to squeeze bottles.
Fill in (or flood) the black outline with the thinned icing, using a toothpick to guide to edges and pop large air bubbles.
Fill in the green outline with the thinned green icing.
Let the cookies dry for at least 1 hour.
With a #2 tip, add the bar below the center of the guitar in black.
With a #1 tip, add the strings and detail in white. If you find your strings are "breaking" as you pipe them, squeeze all of the icing out of the bag and into a bowl, stir in 1-2 DROPS of water, then put back in the pastry bag.
With a #2 tip, add the detailing to the guitar in light green.
Do you like cake for breakfast? Me, too. In case you're one of those people who feels guilty about eating cake for breakfast (are there people like that?), this cake is 100% guilt-free. It's a BISCUIT cake! See, totally breakfast food.
White Lily Flour is new to me, although I know I have heard of it. My grocery store doesn't carry it, but I was more than happy to do a little baking and test it out. {PS...I've also never owned a Mercedes and would be more that happy to test one of those out as well.}
Back to baking...White Lily sent me a few recipe booklets, some flour, a Cuisinart mixer (!), and a few other goodies that you'll see in a minute ('cause you might win them). I was totally inspired by one of their recipes, changed it up a bit here and there, and made this Maple Pecan Biscuit Cake.
Let me tell you, this little cake is going in my regular rotation for breakfast to serve when we have company. It serves 9, but once our little family of 3 was finished with it, there was less than half a pan left. Weird.
Would you like to try some White Lily flour for yourself? And maybe a few goodies to go with it?
Yes? Here's what one lucky person will win: 2 bags of White Lily flour, spatula, grocery list, grocery bag, 3 recipe booklets, pastry blender, dish towel, and a Cuisinart hand mixer...perfect when you don't want to use your countertop mixer.
for the cake: 1/2 cup salted butter, melted 1/2 cup real maple syrup 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1 & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 2 cups self-rising flour (I used White Lily) 1/4 cup Crisco, chilled 2/3 cup buttermilk
for the cream cheese drizzle: 3 oz. cream cheese 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup powdered sugar 1 TBSP milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8x8" baking pan.
Stir together the melted butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Place the flour in a medium bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut in the cold shortening until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Stir in the buttermilk, just until the dough comes together.
Dump the dough into the prepared pan. With floured hands, press the dough evenly into the pan.
Pour the butter/pecan mixture over the dough.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the dough has risen and is done. Remove to a cooling rack and let sit 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the cream cheese drizzle. Beat the cream cheese until soft. Beat in the sugar and vanilla. Add the milk and beat until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag or a baggie, cut off the tip and drizzle onto the warm cake. Serve warm.
{{psst...if you like cake for breakfast, you must also see this shirt...thanks, Meg!}}
If you did, may I suggest putting this on your list to make AS SOON AS Lent is over?!?
Did you know that Oreo is turning 100 years old? Did you know that to celebrate, Oreo is making Birthday Cake OREOS?!? Really. The filling looks like a funfetti cake and they taste like, well, Oreo mixed with cake. How can that be bad I ask you?
So, of course, we can't just EAT the Birthday Cake Oreos, we must BAKE with them.
If you can't find Birthday Cake Oreos (I found them at Target), feel free to use regular Oreos. I bet these will still be some of the best brownies you've ever eaten.
And, oh...don't feel obligated to top yours with Haagen-Dazs 5-Ingredient Vanilla Bean ice cream. But if you do, you won't be sorry. And hey...you still have months until bathing suit season.
Birthday Cake Oreo-Stuffed Brownies
1 cup dutch-process cocoa (such as Hershey's Dark) 1 tsp. coarse salt 1/2 tsp. baking powder 3/4 c. unsalted butter 2 cups sugar 1 TBSP vanilla 3 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork 1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour 20 Birthday Cake Oreos (or regular Oreos) 1 tsp. corn syrup 1 tsp. water sprinkles
Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x13" baking pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low, until melted. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Continue heating about 1-2 minutes, until hot.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the cocoa mixture, stirring until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla; stir until totally combined.
Add the flour and stir again until smooth.
Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. Top with 20 Oreos. Cover with the remaining batter; spread gently with an offset spatula.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the brownies are done, but the center still looks soft.
{The Oreos will make the brownies a little bumpy....that's ok.}
Set the pan on a wire cooling rack and let cool 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the corn syrup and water.
After 10 minutes, lightly brush the corn syrup mixture onto the cooled brownies. Scatter on the sprinkles. (Adding them before baking will cause the sprinkles to discolor and become misshapen.)
Let the brownies cool completely before cutting. (A bench scraper is the perfect tool for cutting brownies.)
I *almost* wish I would have taken a picture of the way I used to store my icing tips and couplers. *Almost.*
It wasn't pretty...I had the tips sorted by size and in snack-sized baggies. Then I had those and all of the couplers in a quart-size baggie. You know how baggies get ugly after they've been used (and opened and closed, and opened and closed, and shoved in a drawer) again and again? It's not pretty. And let's face it...cookie decorating should be cute.
The boxes are called Amac boxes...and they come in the prettiest colors, but I went with clear. I labeled the tops with a sharpie...I know, so fancy, right?
For the tips, I bought the size: 1-3/16" sq. x 2-7/16" h. For the couplers, I bought the 2-5/16" sq. x 6-3/16" h.
Now, when I reach for an icing tip, seeing these cute little boxes lined up in the drawer makes me happy.
