Yogurt Cheesecake Souffles

The other day I bought the cutest little ramekins and since then I've been dying to make some souffles. Enter Pinterest, endless inspiration of delicious desserts. I found this lovely recipe here at Baking Bites and didn't edit it too much (I just added some almond extract, everything else stayed the same). The final product was absolutely adorable and delicious! I spread some strawberry jam on top, but the fun of cheesecake is making it unique. Enjoy!

Yogurt "Cheesecake" Souffles

1 cup plain yogurt
3 large egg yolks
3 large egg whites, room temperature
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (I didn't have any on hand, so I used a pinch of salt instead. It's only to make whipping the egg whites easier.)
1/4 cup sugar
butter and sugar, for ramekins

Preheat the oven to 375F
Butter six 6-oz. ramekins. Pour a small amount of sugar into each and roll the ramekins to coat (like flouring a pan). Set on a baking sheet.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, egg yolks, flour salt, vanilla, and almond extract.
In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually stream in sugar and continue beating on medium-high speed until all sugar has been incorporated and egg whites have reached soft peaks.
Working in two or thee batches, gently fold egg whites into yolk mixture. This can be done with a whisk or with a spatula (I'm a fan of the spatula). Make sure all egg whites have been fully incorporated.
Divide mixture evenly into ramekins, using about 1/2 cup in each and leaving ramekins on the baking tray.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until evenly risen and lightly browned around the edges. Serve immediately.
Makes 6 (I actually halved the recipe when I made it, and it turned out great!)

Leche Merengada

If I had to capture my entire childhood in one food, this would probably be it. My summers were spent enjoying this lovely treat in cute little Spanish cafes with my grandfather or at the beach with my mother. When we'd leave Spain and I realized I couldn't eat it again for another year (America, why have you not discovered this treasure and made it available in my local grocery store??) I was pretty much devastated until the wonderful moment I discovered a recipe to make it myself! Leche merengada is a delicious Spanish dessert which can be enjoyed as a slushy drink or (my personal favorite) as ICE CREAM! That's right! And it's pretty easy to make (if you have an awesome ice cream maker) AND takes up a lot of milk (this is a good thing for me; what am I supposed to do with a gallon a week??). I've made this countless times and I don't think it's possible to get tired of it. Plus it won second place (out of 30 or so) in a ward dessert contest, so it's tried and true by more than myself. :) Anyway, sorry for the excessive use of parentheses and my ramblings. Here we go! The original recipe is found here.

Leche Merengada Ice Cream

- 4 cups whole raw milk (I use 2% because that's what I have on hand and it works just fine)

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1 whole lemon peel

- 1 stick whole cinnamon

- 3 egg whites

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1 pinch salt

- Ground cinnamon for garnish

Combine milk, 3/4 cup sugar, lemon peel, and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepot. Simmer milk until sugar dissolves; remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes or so, then strain. Refrigerate milk in a covered container for a few hours or until it's cold. If you're in a hurry, just pop it into the freezer to speed up the process. :)

When milk is ready, whisk egg whites and salt until foamy, then add 1/2 cup sugar in a stream; continue whisking until meringue forms a stiff peak. Fold meringue gently into milk. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Serve garnished with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon and enjoy!

Waffles and Buttermilk Syrup

Getting a waffle maker for Christmas results in an increase of waffles eaten. And Rachelle shared her amazing buttermilk syrup recipe with me, so now we can eat these delicious waffles with an even more delicious syrup! The waffle recipe I found here originally but I changed a few things and the syrup was on a recipe card Rachelle got from a work party. My recipe made 8 waffles (which freeze nicely if you have leftovers!) and the leftover syrup can be refrigerated and reheated, just make sure to heat until it is foamy and looks like the original end result. Enjoy!

Waffles
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup of all purpose flour)
- 1 3/4 cup milk (I used buttermilk. Just add 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice to milk and let sit for 5 minutes)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon-ish cinnamon

1. Preheat waffle iron
2. Beat eggs in a large bowl with hand mixer until fluffy
3. Beat in flour, milk, oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon just until smooth.
4. Spray preheated waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown. (You know how to cook waffles.) Serve hot

Now first of all, the trick to making buttermilk is adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar works too) to 1 cup of milk. This recipe can be halved or doubled or whatever to suit the quantity of buttermilk you're making. Moving on.

Buttermilk Syrup
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (so add 1/2 tbsp lemon juice to 1/2 cup milk and let sit for 5 minutes)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon-ish cinnamon

1. Combine buttermilk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan and boil lightly for a few minutes.
2. Stir in vanilla, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. The mixture with expand and become foamy (be careful, it might want to spill over the side of the pan. Move if off the heat momentarily if this happens) and ready to serve ASAP.

Whole Wheat Raspberry Walnut Muffins

Happy 2014! To start the new year and healthy eating goals (don't those two just go together? I mean really) Rachelle and I decided to make some delicious but healthy muffins. Thank you, Pinterest, for yet another awesome recipe. The recipe I found was on Apt. 2B Baking Co., but I adapted it a bit changing the measurements from grams to cups (you're welcome) and adding some cinnamon and vanilla (I didn't measure how much I added, so I just guesstimated here.) The results were pretty much the best healthy muffins I've ever made. It made about 18 muffins (I used a weird assortment of muffin tins so it may be a few more) and I'm freezing the leftovers for a quick breakfast another day!

Whole Wheat Raspberry Walnut Muffins

2 3/4 cups flour (I did 1 1/4 cup wheat and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon-ish cinnamon
3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup olive oil
zest of half an orange
1 teaspoon-ish vanilla
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups or grease it, whichever you prefer.
1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, orange zest, eggs, milk, and olive oil until they are combined well.
3. Add them to the dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients until the batter is almost fully combined.
4. Add the frozen berries and walnuts. I chopped up the berries even though the recipe said not to and I was pretty happy with the results. It just depends if you want chunks of berries or an even raspberry awesome. For the future, I would probably add a bit more berries if I'm chopping them up.
5. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full and bake until the muffins are browned and a fork goes through cleanly, about 25 to 35 minutes (mine took 30 minutes-ish.)

Sugar Cookies

I received a large bucket of 101 cookie cutters at a white elephant gift exchange a few days ago (actually my dad did, but I kidnapped it), and since then I've been dying to make sugar cookies! Today while browsing Pinterest, I came upon a super easy looking recipe which made it official: time to try the cookie cutters! I enlisted the help of my siblings (being home for Christmas break is great!) and we embarked on an adventure of cookie baking! This is by far the best sugar cookie recipe I've found, and it's super easy and quick! I changed a few things, and seriously, this is a keeper!
Originally found at In Katrina's Kitchen

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter, softened

1 cup of granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Cream butter and sugar until smooth
3. Beat in vanilla and egg
4. In a separate bowl combine baking powder with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff, you might have to finish kneading it by hand. No big deal. :)
5. Don't chill the dough! This is the best part, I'm too impatient for chilling dough anyway.
Divide it into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side, trust me, they are more yummy.
6. Bake at 350 for 6-9 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until they're firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy the awesome! Sorry my picture is ghetto, it was getting late and they're delicious without frosting anyway. But seriously, these cookies are perfect for decorating because they hold their shape really well, but they're not the nasty powdery cookies. Thank you, Pinterest, for once again guiding me to an awesome recipe.

Cake Mix Cookies/Homemade Oreos

What do you do when a ward social activity is coming up and you don't have much time or energy to whip up a fancy dessert (thank you, Finals Week)? Here is a yummy and quick idea!
Take a box of cake mix (my personal favorite is anything chocolate), 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I am usually a huge fan of olive oil, but in this case it leaves too strong of a flavor) and mix together to form a dough. Roll into regular cookie size balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 4-10 minutes at 350 and there you have it! The trick is to not overbake or they harden really quickly. Just give them time to cool and they'll be done.
Bonus: HOMEMADE OREOS! This is the recipe I reach for when I have leftover frosting. Just spread a spoonful of frosting between two cookies for a fancy (but super easy) treat!

Mushroom Chicken and Rice

Busy Sundays filled with Relief Society meetings and ward choir call for a super easy recipe composed of ingredients already in my pantry. So after a Google search I decided to try this lovely dish found here on Campbell's website. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, although I added a bit of garlic salt to the chicken while it cooked.

Cream of Mushroom Chicken 

Heat 1 tbs (I didn't measure it, I just poured a bit into the pan. No big deal) of vegetable oil (olive oil is my fav!) in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes or until well browned on both sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet. 

Stir 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup of water in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet (I cut it up into little pieces before doing this.) Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

See? How easy is that?! It was super delicious too, definitely a great comfort food for a cold winter day. My roommates and I rated it at a 7 on a scale of 1-10. :) I served it over some white rice (which I cooked with a chicken bouillon cube in the water to give it a bit more flavor) with a side of green beans. Yummy, I'll definitely be making this again. Thank goodness for Google searches!