kim, Author at Lovin' From the Oven

Sir Kensington’s Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

October 28, 2013 by kim 2 Comments

I’ve heard of using mayonnaise in cakes, but have you ever tried them in cookies? Sir Kensington gave me the idea of doing so by sending over a recipe for chocolate chip walnut cookies, along with some gourmet mayonnaise and ketchup.

How cute is their packaging? They pretty much nailed it on the fonts, logo, and colors. I’m a sucker for a cute cartooned man with a monocle, mustache, and top hat.

Once I popped open the jar, I could immediately tell the difference in quality between Sir Kensington’s and commonly found mayonnaise. It was thick, creamy, and exceptionally smooth.

I’ve never baked mayonnaise into cookies, so I was anxious to see the results. I will admit that the dough was a bit crumbly for my taste. Since there were no eggs in the recipe, the mayo was responsible for holding the dough together.

After pressing the cookie dough with my hands into dough balls, I plopped them on the cookie sheet to bake. Since the dough was more crumbly and dry than my regular cookie dough, I knew the cookies wouldn’t be spreading very much. I baked them for 5 minutes as dough balls, but decided to press down on the tops just a bit with a spatula so they would flatten out.

That did the trick. The cookies didn’t spread or flatten at all on its own. You need to really help mold the dough into the shape that you want your cookie to be. This would probably be a great recipe for cutting shapes out of. I can even see myself using this recipe again and filling a metal cookie cutter with the dough prior to putting in the oven, which would create a fun shaped cookie that can hold its shape.

Since there are no eggs in the recipe, the cookie dough is safe to eat. I must warn you that the cookie dough did have a strong mayo taste even though I only used a tiny bit. However, after baking, the mayonnaise taste seems to just disappear from the cookie, leaving you with a light, crumbly, shortbread-like consistency.

You can find Sir Kensington’s products at Sur La Table, Safeway, and Whole Foods, just to name a few. Heck, you can even buy them online!

Sir Kensington’s Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

½ cup butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons Sir Kensington’s Classic Mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Directions

In a large bowl cream the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add mayonnaise and mix well. Add vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour and baking soda. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips and walnuts.
Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-9 minutes or until they begin to brown.

https://lovintheoven.com/sir-kensingtons-chocolate-chip-walnut-cookies/

I received product to review, but the opinions expressed are my own.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

October 26, 2013 by kim 1 Comment

Confession: I have been watching this YouTube video on repeat with tears streaming down my face. It’s a Crest commercial for Halloween treats gone wrong and it’s the reason why I love kids so much. They have nothing to hide and will tell you exactly how it is.

I’m sure the kids would enjoy these cupcakes much more than the vegetable treats in the video.

This recipe came from Panera‘s chefs and is inspired by their fall menu. Pumpkin and chocolate— what’s more Halloween than that?

Have you ever seen a more beautiful naked cupcake than this? They rose so high that I almost felt bad covering up the perfect dome. The higher the cupcake, the less frosting that you have to use. That makes it a little healthier, right?

I kept it simple and frosted the cupcakes with a ziploc bag. It was convenient since the frosting had to sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours prior to decorating.

Did I mention that this is pumpkin cheesecake frosting? Why didn’t I think of that?

These pictures don’t do the cupcakes justice. I wish you could reach through the screen and feel how moist the cake is. Alright I take that back… that sounds a little weird. There may be a bit of pumpkin in the cake batter, but you don’t really taste it. The dark cocoa that I used was more overpowering. The pumpkin flavor definitely comes through in the frosting, though.

I brought the cupcakes to work with me using a Chinet pan. Their pans always come in handy for me since I deliver baked goods a lot to my friends and coworkers. You can bring food with you anywhere (In my case, it was in the car, walking with luggage, through security, and on an airplane) and not have to worry about bringing the carrier back home.

I was able to celebrate fall and share the cupcakes with my crew. The first officer even said that it was one of the best cupcakes that she had ever tried! Who says you can’t have cupcakes for breakfast on an airplane?

I also used the pan to store the cupcakes in the refrigerator overnight and the pan kept it’s shape and didn’t sag. Sometimes, when you expose carriers to different temperatures, they begin to sag in the middle and lose its shape. This was not the case.

The lids latch on, so I didn’t have to worry about cupcakes flying out through the security line. It makes my life a whole lot easier when I’m not looking like a hot mess running through the airport.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 55 minutes

Yield: a dozen cupcakes

Serving Size: 12

443

16 g

Having a Halloween party? With real pumpkin in both the chocolate cake and the orange-colored cream cheese frosting, these lightened-up treats will steal the show.

Ingredients

Frosting:

¼ cup butter, softened
8 ounces (1 cup) reduced-fat cream cheese
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
½ teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Cupcakes:

3 tablespoons butter, softened
1¼ cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
½ cup canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons pumpkin-pie spice
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup low-fat buttermilk
3 tablespoons canola oil

Directions

For the frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until blended, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until blended, 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape down the inside of the bowl; then add the pumpkin, pumpkin-pie spice, and vanilla extract and beat until blended, 2 minutes more. Spoon the frosting into a pastry bag or zip-top bag, seal the bag, and refrigerate the frosting until it is cold, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days. Makes about 3½ cups.
For the cupcakes, heat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until sandy in texture, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, pumpkin-pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk and oil in three additions, beating on low speed after each addition.
Fill the muffin cups with batter and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of one cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove them from the pan to cool completely on the rack.
Attach a tip to the pastry bag or snip off a corner from the zip-top bag, and squeeze the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Notes

Recipe from www.panerabread.com

https://lovintheoven.com/chocolate-pumpkin-cupcakes/

This is a sponsored post, but the opinions expressed are my own.

Bacon Chicken Pizza with Classico

October 24, 2013 by kim 1 Comment

Did you know that October is national pizza month? That’s right, folks… The ENTIRE month of October. Pizza is too good for just a day. It gets a whole month!

To me, bad pizza doesn’t exist. It’s really hard to make a “bad” pizza because it always tastes so good no matter what. How can you mess up bread, sauce, and cheese?

The modern pizza was first created in Naples, Italy. Italy’s still on my “countries to visit” list and I’m dying to try the pizza over there. If it’s anything like the bread and pastries in Paris, I’m sure I’ll gain an extra ten pounds whenever I get the chance to visit.

To help with my pizza making, Classico® sent over some sauce and materials for me to join in on my very own Elevate Pizza Night. My DF and I opted to use the Traditional Pizza Sauce because we’re boring like that. Just kidding! We prefer our flavors to come from the toppings. If you’ve got a good sauce, then you don’t have to do much work. This Traditional Pizza Sauce won the Best New Product Award in 2013 from Better Homes and Gardens.

The Creamy White Pizza Sauce won’t be available until Spring 2014, but you can always try out the other flavors meanwhile!

The Traditional Pizza Sauce was packed with flavor. It was also the perfect consistency for spreading on a pizza and staying in place after baking in the oven. It didn’t need any additional herbs or flavorings since it was great alone. I’m not gonna lie, I even ate a spoonful of sauce out of the jar. Totally guilty.

When putting the pizza together, I was torn on whether to put the cheese or the toppings first on top of the sauce. I asked my DF and his response was, “I’m Italian, so toppings and then cheese on top!” That’s the way I assembled the pizza, but I’m still debating on which method I like better.

Do you guys put the toppings or the cheese first?

This is the first time that I’ve used an Epicurean pizza cutter and let me tell you, it is AWESOME! There are no sharp edges to risk cutting fingers, so it’s safe around little ones. It will also cut a straight line that you can see right from the get go because of its long shape. It’s durable, stain resistant, NSF approved, and a “Green” product.

We are obviously meat lovers in this household, but the pizza would have been great with some added bell peppers and mushrooms. My DF doesn’t eat any of that, so sadly, I had to omit them.

You can find other delectable pizza recipes on Classico’s site. What’s your go-to pizza sauce?

Bacon Chicken Pizza with Classico

Ingredients

1 package pre-made pizza crust
drizzle of olive oil
1 chicken breast, cut into small pieces
6 strips bacon, chopped
1 jar of Classico traditional pizza sauce
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup shredded light mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Drizzle the olive oil on a pizza pan and spread evenly. Roll out the pizza dough on the pan and bake for 7 minutes.
Cook your bacon and chicken in the same pan on the stove until chicken is thoroughly cooked.
Remove the pizza crust from the oven and spread the jar of pizza sauce and minced garlic on top.
Evenly spread the chicken and bacon over the sauce. Put shredded cheese on top.
Return to the oven and bake for another ten minutes.

https://lovintheoven.com/bacon-chicken-pizza-classico/

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ve partnered with Classico and received product, coupons, and premium items as part of my participation. However, no payment was given or expected for posting about the program, and as always, the opinions expressed are my own.

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