We're BAAAAACK!

So, it's been awhile.  We took a hiatus, a sabbatical...ok, not really.  We got busy.  Then the summer of 2012 was so miserable hot that the last thing either one of us wanted to do was bake.  Then I started working in in the big city and got even busier.  But this Momma Sweet Tooth could only hear her little sweet tooth-partner-in-crime beg to start blogging so many times before I HAD to give in!!  Baby Girl Sweet Tooth has much longer hair now and has gotten older...I don't know how that happened!  Since I haven't found a recipe to stop her from growing, I guess I'll join her in the kitchen and make some sweet memories with her!

Today's post is an easy one.  It is going to be a sure hit with the young and the young at heart as well.  This would be great fun for the kiddos to make during an over-nighter or as a sweet treat by the lake (they are called CATTAILS!)!  No baking involved with this yummy snack...we are easing our way back into the blogging world!  We hope you enjoy it, but more importantly, we hope you have fun in your kitchen with your little sweet tooth!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cattails

1 pkg milk chocolate chips

1 pkg peanut butter chips
1 pkg toffee chips

 2 tsp shortening 

(do NOT substitute with butter or margarine or spread or oil)

1 pkg (12 oz) thick pretzel rods

1.  Cover 2 cookie sheets with waxed paper.

2.  Combine 1/2 half of the chocolate chips with 1/2 of the peanut butter chips.

3.  Finely chop chip mixture in food processor or by hand. Add toffee chips to chopped chip mixture.

pulse, pulse, pulse

4.  Spread chopped choco-peanut butter-toffee mixture over one of the lined cookie sheets.

spreadin' the love...

5.  Add shortening to remaining chip mixture in a microwave-safe bowl.  Heat on MEDIUM for 1 minute & stir.  If the mix isn't melted, heat for additional 30 second intervals, stirring in between. Once your mixture is melty, smooth and delicious-looking, grab your pretzels!  It's time to dip!

smooth, creamy, dreamy, delicious...
you know you want to stick your finger in and taste it!

6.  Spoon choco-peanut butter mix over 3/4 of pretzel rod. 

the trick? DON'T COAT IT TOO THICK!  

(try not to eat it yet...)

7.  Stop, drop and roll...wait a minute, that's a fire drill.  That's okay!  That technique works well for our pretzels!

it's like a piggy, rollin' in the mud!

8.  Place your dipped and coated pretzels on the 2nd covered cookie sheet and chill in the fridge...if you can get them that far!

yummo!  And aren't they cute?

These simple little treats look like lake-side cattails when you are all finished!  

Just in time for summer break!

-from both of us at The Sweet Tooth

No Fire Campfire S'mores

I love chocolate (I think I might have mentioned that in the last blog), so do all my little Sweet Tooth kiddos... I proudly passed down the "chocolate love" gene to all of them.  But something that our taste buds love even more than your run-of-the-mill chocolate is Nutella.  You know, that dreamy, creamy better-than-peanut-butter-chocolate-hazelnut-put-it-on-anything-make-it-taste-phenomenal chocolate spread.  A friend in college introduced it to me on a humble piece of white bread and I thought for sure that there was gold on that slice.  At our house, we eat it on fruit, pretzels, toasted bagels, toast, waffles, bread, spoons, fingers...I think you understand our affection.  We bake it in our brownies, top our ice cream with it, heat it up in our fondue and slather our crepes with it before we roll them up with bananas and strawberries.  There really is no wrong way to eat it, just undiscovered ways.  


A friend of mine over at Everyday Mom's Meals inspired me to great snacking heights when she showcased Nutella as the chocolate component in a s'more...ummm HELLO!!!.  Why had I never thought of that?!  So, when my husband put up our tent in the backyard so the kids and I could do a little "camping", I thought I'd surprise the kids with some Nutella S'mores for a snack...I didn't get a picture of their faces while they were eating (it was dark and my hands were covered with Nutella!), but suffice it to say, I had three happy little mouths that evening!  


Next time you're camping in, give this recipe a try...you'll have a very happy sweet tooth!


NO FIRE CAMPFIRE S'MORES
- graham crackers, in squares
- Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread
-  large  marshmallows


1. Each person gets 2 graham cracker squares...one square gets the Nutella, the other one gets the marshmallow.

Graham cracker squares, loaded up and ready to go!

2. Place the crackers with the marshmallows in the microwave and heat for approximately 20 seconds per 4 marshmallows.  Keep an eye on them...they get poofy pretty quick!

Marshmallows after a few turns in the microwave.

3. Put the Nutella covered cracker on top of the marshmallow and squish down...make sure you have a napkin handy!!

No fire campfire S'mores...all ready for a trio of hungry kiddos!
(and me!)

I hope you get the chance to try these out - you will not be disappointed!  In fact, you'll sweet tooth will be begging for more!

-Momma Sweet Tooth

What? No Chocolate in the Cheesecake?

To me, chocolate says love.  Lots of love.  I love chocolate.  Give me chocolate and I know you love me.  But, it has come to my attention that not everyone is a fan.


My son, we'll call him Buddy Boy Sweet Tooth, is a sensitive soul.  Don't get me wrong, he can hit that baseball with the best of the almost 7-yr olds, but he worries about people.  He likes it when people are happy and thought of...which is why this dessert is showing up on the blog.  


Not wanting to be outdone by his sister's recipe tin, Buddy Boy Sweet Tooth took possession of my Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipe tin and looked high and low for a recipe that did not contain chocolate.  Why? you ask.  A good friend of mine here in Nebraska is not a big fan of chocolate, not that she doesn't necessarily like the taste of it, but chocolate doesn't seem to like her very well.  The meeting usually results in a headache and it bothered Buddy Boy that we hadn't made a dessert for the blog that didn't contain chocolate for her.  Of course, it helps that he's a fruit lover and it's full of fruit (he's a great kid, isn't he?!)...  So here is Buddy Boy Sweet Tooth's first official appearance on the Sweet Tooth blog, as guest baker, sharing with you a fruity cheesecake, as well as some big, fancy foody words he learned - look for them!  I hope this recipe gets you baking in the kitchen with one of your little bakers and you have as much fun as I did!




PHILLY BLUEBERRY STRAWBERRY SWIRL CHEESECAKE

Buddy Boy Sweet Tooth with ingredients,
Cream Cheese Recipe Tin and recipe inspirations.
(he couldn't decide between the 2, so we combined them)

RECIPE:

- 1 C graham cracker crumbs (or 1 sleeve of graham crackers that your little sweet tooth baker can crush himself!  See #2)
- 1 C + 3 Tbsp sugar, divided
- 3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
- 4 pkgs (8oz) cream cheese, softened 
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 C plain yogurt
- 4 eggs
- 1 C fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed)
- 1 C strawberry jam


1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, macerate your blueberries.  (There's one of those big words Buddy Boy learned...it just means, add sugar - we added 2 rounded tablespoons - and let sit until the natural sugars come out and make a syrup.  It's fun to say though!)
3. Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp of sugar and melted butter.  (For added fun, have your little baker crush a sleeve of graham crackers in a zipper baggie with a wooden rolling pin or large spoon.  There's some real fun to be had in smashing graham crackers to smithereens!)

Smash, smash, smash!

4. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom of a foil or parchment paper lined 13X9 inch baking pan.  Bake 10 minutes.

Pat, pat, pat!

5. Beat cream cheese, remaining 1 C sugar and the vanilla in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.  

Mix, mix, mix!

6. Add yogurt; mix well.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low speed after each egg just until blended.  Pour over crust.

7. Get the blueberries that have been hanging out and macerating while you've been crusting and creaming.  Get out your little food processor (or blender) and puree those juicy little berries.  

8. Mix a tablespoon of water with your strawberry jam and warm in a microwave (about 30 seconds).  This will make your jam easier to drop.


9. Drop spoonfuls of the pureed blueberries and strawberry jam over the batter.

Drop, drop, drop!

10. Cut through the batter several times with knife for marble effect.

Swirl, swirl, swirl!

11. Bake 45 min or until center is almost set; cool. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight (yeah, right, like anyone could wait that long!).  Garnish as desired with fresh strawberries or blueberries.  I've found that a fork works just as well as anything!

Be careful how often you swirl or your marble effect will disappear.
I added several more blobs and showed Buddy Boy how to make hearts.
Awww.

***************

Now, go on.  Call your friend...you know, the one who doesn't get along with the chocolate, and show them how much you love them with this dessert.  There's a lot of fruity love to go around in that pan!

Our friend, getting ready to enjoy some non-chocolate love!

-Mama Sweet Tooth & Guest Baker, Buddy Boy Sweet Tooth

My Own Oreos

Homemade Oreo goodness!

Oreos.  The very word brings to mind glasses of cold milk, crunchy-good cookies and splitting the cookies open to lick the cream  .I eat them in spite of the fact that I know I'll be found out, due to the tell-tale black crumbs left on my shirt (not to mention, in my teeth).  They are delicious and if they are in my cupboard, they aren't around for long.  And usually, Baby Girl Sweet Tooth is right there with me, munching away, sneaking them when she thinks I'm not looking! (She still doesn't believe I have eyes on the back of my head!) 


However...I don't like the care for the ingredient list, nor the vagueness of said list:  "High oleic canola oil, and/or palm oil, and/or canola oil, and/or soybean oil."  Really?  AND/OR??!!  Nabisco, do you really not know which kind of oil is going into my Oreo?  You would think that creating Oreos is an exact science and that they could be a little more specific, but no.  So I went a-huntin' for a homemade Oreo recipe and found a delightful one (that I only tweaked slightly) at http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/.  Baby Girl Sweet Tooth and I looked through the recipe, then through our cupboards, confirmed that we had the ingredients, and started in!  What was to follow was nothing short of a miracle for the both of us!  A lot of giggling ensued, as well as a lot of teaching, both of which are a big part of why we are baking our way through the summer...hope you enjoy the Oreos!


Homemade Oreos
Cookies:
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C Hershey's Unsweetend Cocoa
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
*1 C sugar
1/2 C + 2 T butter, room temperature (I used salted, sweet-cream butter)
1 large egg


*original recipe called for 1 1/2 C of sugar, but if you think about the cookie part of an Oreo, you realize that the cookie is not all that sweet.  If you are making these cookies without the sweet filling, feel free to add the extra 1/2 C of sugar

With our package of inspiration...can we replicate?

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar.

mixing, mixing, mixing...

3. Beat in the butter and egg.  Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Right side show what the dough will look like as it comes together.

4. Take rounded *teaspoons of batter, roll them into balls and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet (why parchment?   Cookies slide off without any problems at all and clean up is a cinch!), 2 inches apart.  If the dough gets too sticky, slightly moisten your hands. (*if you want to make them larger or smaller, use larger or smaller portions)

Little brother had a comment about what he thought this looked like,
but this is a food blog, so I will not repeat...

5. Dip the bottom of a glass into flour and flatten each dough ball.  The thinner your cookie, the crispier it should be.  The thicker your cookie, the chewier it will be. (Ours were thicker, therefore chewier...and still yummy...)

This is a very serious process...don't talk to me and stop taking my picture!

6. Bake for 9 minutes; after several minutes, move to a rack to cool.  The cookies will spread and puff a bit during baking.  After they come out of the oven and continue to cool, they will flatten.

Can you smell this goodness?
It doesn't look like a pre-packaged oreo, but it sure smells like one!

The Filling

While the first batch is baking, or while the cookies are cooling, gather the ingredients for the famous, often-licked-without-the-cookie filling.

1/4 C (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 C vegetable shortening

2 C sifted powdered sugar

3 tsp vanilla extract

1. Blend butter and shortening together.

2. Add powdered sugar (about 1/2 C at a time and be prepared for a powdered sugar dust storm as you mix!)

3.  Blend in vanilla extract and prepare to be transported to your Oreo happy place.

  

I AM NOT KIDDING - YOU MUST TRY THE FILLING, RIGHT NOW!

(At this point, we switched from the hand mixer to a spoon, smearing all the ingredients together.)

"Mom!  It smells just like the filling!
 Hurry up and put the camera down and come smell it!"

Oreo Construction

-Once your cookies have cooled, put a blob of filling on the flat side of a cookie.  I won't say how much, because I don't know what size cookies you made.  Baby Girl Sweet Tooth made little ones because she wanted to eat a bunch.  I made bigger ones, because I wanted to feel full after one and not be tempted to eat all of them in one sitting...I made my goal.  They were gone in only 2 sittings...

Bottoms with blobs, tops ready to go!

-Find a cookie that matches in size and put it on top of your filling blob. Press down until that little dollop of goodness spreads out to the edges of the cookies.  Repeat with all the cookies.  And go ahead and try to do that without eating one first.  Go ahead, try it...bet ya can't!

Daddy Sweet Tooth, sharing the first two cookies with his Baby Girl.

Well, what are you waiting for?  Break out that glass of milk, grab your neighbor (we actually took a plate over to ours and got the big "THUMBS UP") and dunk some Oreos!  The flavors, the smell and the colors are all there but they will be all the sweeter, knowing you made them yourself...maybe even with your own little Sweet Tooth helper!

-the girls of the Sweet Tooth

Grab your neighbor...or grab your brother!

Ooey Gooey Goodness - Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Our first recipe for the summer was decided by what we had on hand!  This one is simple and yet magical...during the baking process, what started at the bottom rises to the top and what was once on the top slides down to the bottom, creating not just a pudding, but a yummy sauce to go with the cake!  Combine the pudding-like sauce with the cake, which bakes into a moist, crumbly layer with a crunchy topping, and you have all of the textures you could think of in this dessert.  Add your favorite tart fruit, such as sliced strawberries, and you have one fabulous combination, sure to please the palate of any age!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake - Recipe - 2007 The Hershey Company

1 1/4 C granulated sugar, divided

1 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C Hershey's Cocoa, divided

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1/2 C milk

1/3 C butter (or margarine), melted

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

1/2 C packed light brown sugar

1 1/4 C hot water

Whipped topping, strawberries, raspberries, or whatever other fruit you like with your chocolate!

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Baby Girl Sweet Tooth & the ingredients

CAKE

2. In a large bowl, stir together 3/4 C granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 C cocoa, baking powder and salt.

blending the dry ingredients

3. In a small bowl, blend together milk, butter and vanilla.  

mixing the wet ingredients
(in baking, it's the rule of thumb to mix dry and wet ingredients separately, then mix together!)

4. Pour in milk mixture; beat until smooth.

little brother watching the action!

5. Pour batter into an ungreased 9-inch square baking pan.

smooth and thick!

Lick away!  No raw eggs in this batter!  Woot!

TOPPING

6. In another bowl, stir together remaining 1/2 C sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 C cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter.

Understanding the difference between white sugar - which pours freely -
and brown sugar - which is more like damp sand - and must be packed.

7. Pour hot water over top. DO NOT STIR.

Looks like mud, smells like hot cocoa!

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. 

Little brother, once again checking the action!

Let stand 15 minutes, if you can!  The smell at this point is so amazing, you'll want to eat it right now.  If you do cut into it, just know that the pudding will be very liquid-y and not very pudding-y...this makes a great sauce, but you don't get the pudding thing going on! 

Spoon into dessert dishes (or if you're having one of those days, just dig in!), slather the cake with the sauce from the bottom of the pan and garnish with whipped topping and fruit.

Rich, delicious, thick, delicious, warm, delicious, tasty, delicious...
did I mention delicious?  Amen.

We hope you get a chance to try this yummy dessert...if you love pudding and cake, this is a win-win for you!

-the girls of the Sweet Tooth