Treats

Snickers Marshmallow Treats

July 25, 2016

Snickers Marshmallow Treats. What can I say about these treats to end all treats? They don’t have actual pieces of Snickers in them or anything because that’s not the point of these, although that would’ve taken them to the next level if we’re being honest. Instead, they’re meant to taste just like a Snickers bar because we both know that sometimes plain marshmallow treats just aren’t enough. So a brown butter marshmallow treat base gets a thick caramel layer studded with peanuts and then topped off with melted chocolate. Go ahead and try to tell me that dreams don’t come true. I’ll call you a liar because these prove otherwise. These are what dreams are made of. The best of both worlds. Candy bar meets rice cereal treats.

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in last week’s giveaway, along with all of the past weeks this month! Last week brought us the best response from all of the giveaways so far! I got so many great ideas for cake flavors; I’m adding them to my must-make list. A huge congratulations to last week’s winner (you know who you are). I hope you get good use out of that grill pan. If I were you, I’d start grilling EVERYTHING in sight. Now it’s with sad news that I tell you, we’ve come to the end of the giveaways. You only have this one more chance to win (but honestly there will be more giveaways coming soon, the next one will be on Instagram to be precise). This week’s giveaway is another signed copy of my cookbook The Slider Effect, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, AND I’m happy to announce that you’ll also win a swanky Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer! It comes in a fancy red color, along with the whisk, paddle and dough hook attachment. If you’ve always wanted a stand mixer to make your life easier, now is your chance to win one! Start planning out all of the cookies and breads you’ll be making very soon. Have I mentioned how amazing a stand mixer is?! You’ll definitely want to win this one!

To enter, leave a comment below letting me know what your favorite meal has been at a restaurant. Tell me all of the details like what restaurant, what city and why you loved it so much. Really, I’m just wanting to create a good guide of restaurants around the country so I can write them down and visit them in my travels. Thanks for your help. I can’t wait to read all about them! As always, my mamma will be picking the winner at random. It’s one of her greatest pleasures in life, what can I say? I love reading all of your comments so feel free to elaborate as much or as little as you’d like. Remember, let’s keep things fair with only one entry per person, and if you win this prize (or won last prize), you can’t enter the following weeks or this week. Sorry but I want everyone to have a fair chance. You have until Friday night to enter! Good luck, I’m rooting for you!

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Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Shortcakes

June 3, 2016

I don’t want to talk about how I went down a nasty black hole yesterday watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills all day. I’m one season behind because Hulu hasn’t uploaded the latest season yet. Come on Hulu, get it together! In my defense though, I did spend the day shooting a few recipes, and had the show playing in the background so work did get done, I promise you that. I mean sure it was slower than usual because I kept stopping to watch, but it did get done and that’s what is important here. I also don’t want to talk about how I practically watched/did not watch the entire season in one day, including the three parts of the reunion. Someone help me, it’s a guilty pleasure and now that I’ve shared it with you I feel a lot better. I don’t want to talk about any of that because it’s not important. I do, however, want to talk about these Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Shortcakes. They deserve to be talked about. They’re important.

I think it’s time to take a break from the Classic Strawberry Shortcake we all know and love. I know it’s a difficult thing to do, but sometimes it’s absolutely necessary. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of strawberry shortcakes especially during summer. So much so that I think it’s a good idea to make a different variation every now and then in order to not get bored of it. With that being said, I wanted to create a shortcake with a twist. So chocolate shortcakes just made perfect sense. Nutella and banana and hazelnuts then were a must because as we all know, chocolate loves bananas and bananas love nutella. Now you have two shortcake flavors to make this summer. You’re winning the shortcake game, I promise.

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Zebra Cake Doughnuts

May 20, 2016

I’m not ashamed to admit that my biggest store-bought guilty pleasure is a Zebra Cake. The best part is that they usually come packaged in a pair so you have to eat both right away in one sitting. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then I suggest you stop everything you’re doing right this second, and look up zebra cakes because Little Debbie sure knows what she is doing. She doesn’t mess around. The cakes are sweet but not too sweet, which if you ask me is the perfect balance for any dessert. They’re octagonal pieces of soft yellow cake filled with a marshmallow creme center and then completely covered in a vanilla icing and finished off with their signature chocolate strips, giving them that classic zebra look. I think I loved them even more because I thought zebras in general were so fascinating. And even though I’m a grown up now, and still think that zebras are just as cool, I don’t think I’ll ever get over these little cakes. This isn’t a sponsored post or anything, I just really love them.

I wanted to create something that was reminiscent of my favorite treat, so I thought what better way to commemorate a classic than by turning it into a delicious doughnut? And because these are no joke when it comes to sugar, icing, and creme, I knew I had to “lighten” them up somehow, so I decided to bake the doughnuts instead of deep frying them. It was the only way to go. I’m not always one to automatically jump on baked doughnuts because I feel like if I’m going to have a doughnut, I should go all the way and have a really good doughnut, but somehow baking these is crucial because it gives them that classic taste and texture from the original. If you don’t have a baked doughnut pan but have been meaning to get one, this is the recipe to do. Now is the time, don’t want any longer. The great thing is that you’ll have it for life and then you’ll be able to make doughnuts all the time. Did you know I have a doughnut section on the blog? I do! It’s on the homepage so when you have a chance, browse through it, there’s sure to be a doughnut or two you’ll be dying to try out.

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Banana Doughnuts with Salted Caramel

May 9, 2016

Let’s be honest, the last thing we want to think about at the start of the week is work. I mean sure, we have work that needs to get done, and to-do’s that need to get crossed off, but let’s put those out of our minds just for a second. We have way more important things to think about, like doughnuts for instance. Doughnuts make Mondays worth living and make Fridays appear closer than they really are. Whether you stop by your local shop on your way to work and pick up a doughnut or two for the drive, or if you make your own, doughnuts need to make a weekly appearance in your life. In all of our lives. Don’t you agree? Lucky for us all, these Banana Doughnuts rolled around in cinnamon sugar and served with salted caramel for dipping are here to save the day. It’s a good way to use up those ripe bananas on the counter that continue to call out your name. You can make banana bread any other day. Today is about these doughnuts with salted caramel.

You know what else is here to save the day? Sliders. Yeah, you read that right. Sliders. Speaking of tiny hamburgers (smooth unexpected transition there, Jonathan) did you know that I wrote a book all about sliders?! I did! And just in case you were living under a rock and missed my big announcement last week, my first cookbook The Slider Effect is now up for preorder! You can read all about it here in last week’s cookbook update post! If you preorder now, for a limited time, you’ll receive an exclusive e-book with 5 recipes not included in the book! All you have to do is forward your order confirmation or a screenshot of your confirmation to theslidereffect@gmail.com. The ebook has three slider recipes, one bun recipe and one sauce recipe. It’s a great preview of what’s to come from the actual book on June 28th! This is my very first cookbook, and so I’m very excited to share this ride with you all. Thank you for all of your support and for continuing to listen to me going on and on about it! These doughnuts though, am I right?! Woof.

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Neapolitan Marshmallow Treats

April 13, 2016

I used to eat rice cereal treats as a kid all the time. Literally all the time. My mamma would make them for my sisters and I on occasion and whenever she did, it was basically the greatest day ever. She also would make flan all the time, but I’m not a fan of flan so she’d make these for me whenever she’d make flan for my sisters. On another note, I also really loved neapolitan ice cream. Mainly because I was able to get chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream all at once. I wasn’t forced to pick just one flavor, which I really liked, because I was able to eat all three in one scoop. That my friends is what you call a kid’s dream come true. I’m just going to go on record and say that this is probably the best food invention ever invented. So with that being said, I recently teamed up with Delish Dish, Better Homes and Gardens’ blog to take one of their recipes and make it my own. When I was looking through the BHG site, scanning through all of their delicious recipes, these multi-layered cereal treats kept calling out to me. “Make me, make me,” they kept saying. And make them I did, with a few changes here and there to make them my own. Make sure to read below so that you can see how I did it! They’re super easy to make, so don’t worry too much about all of the layers and steps.

The way I look at it, these are the best of both worlds. You get the awesome flavors from the classic neapolitan ice cream but without the fear of melting ice cream and creating a mess. They’re perfect for kid’s parties and adult gatherings or dinner parties (aka for EVERYTHING in your life) because they’re a great recipe to make ahead of time. Whip these up the next time you’re in need of a show-stopping dessert that will for sure make your friends and family happy as clams. The added chocolate chips to the middle chocolate layer takes these over the edge, along with the dried cherries or dried strawberries (if you can find them) in the strawberry layer. Let’s fight those mid-week blues and celebrate one more day closer to the weekend by eating our weight in marshmallow treats. I think that’s the way to do it.

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Death By Chocolate Doughnuts

October 8, 2015

Clown, ninja, pirate, blue m&m, clown again, colonial man, and matador. Those were some of my Halloween costumes over the years, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve taken it more seriously. I’ve always been a big fan of Halloween ever since I was a kid going door to door with my mamma and sisters asking strangers for candy. It was the highlight of my year. We’d then go home and mom would check all of the candy before we were allowed to eat any, because that’s what mothers do. Then she’d torment us and hide our loot, and only allow us to pick and eat one candy a day after that. Talk about torture. That was until my middle sister got smart and found out where she hid the candy and we’d sneak in a few extra pieces a day. (Sorry mamma). Free candy aside though, it’s a great holiday. It marks the beginning of all of the great holidays at the end of the year; Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, and of course everything else in between. Halloween marks the start of all that though, and nothing screams autumn quite like October 31st does. Autumn is definitely my favorite season, despite the fact that we don’t have seasons at all here in Los Angeles. We do in spirit and that’s all that counts…or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

(P.S. Mini me from the vault!!) If you’ve visited my site before, you’ll know that when it comes to doughnuts I don’t mess around. I take them very seriously, and although I eat doughnuts all-year-round (like for real, all year round), I for some unknown reason really crave doughnuts in autumn. Is that weird? I’ve teamed up with Urban Outfitters to bring you these Death By Chocolate Doughnuts to help us all celebrate Halloween a little early this year. To get us in the Halloween spirit. They’re chocolate yeast doughnuts filled with strawberry jam and then because that isn’t enough, they’re also dipped in dark chocolate ganache and decorated with white chocolate to look like a spider web because it’s Halloween and things should be spooky and our desserts should be fun. They’re the perfect treat to make and eat all month long.

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